So I am a junkie. I adore my Blackberry.

I can take pix and send them instantly anywhere, including Flickr, LJ, and Twitter. I can follow Twitter. I can avoid texting costs by using the browser built-in, that has a fixed price. I get my email all day, as well as phone calls. It talks to my Outlook--if only I can figure out how.

I can find the local cheapest gas. I can see local movie times. I can post here. I can Plurk. I can use funky ringtones for free. I can trade 'em with my friends. I can take videos and pix. I can even play Bricks--which I avoid furiously, as I hate the thing!

It adds $30./month to the cell phones account, but we have realized that we no longer need the land lines, which takes away $45 in monthly costs.

I can trade tunes with my iTunes. I can read, play music, play video games, journal, take notes...it's a one-man [sic] band [sic sic sick!] I have a gig of memory in it.

I have a Bluetooth earpiece which I loathe, thanks to CA's new hands-free while driving law. I have a tiny keyboard that actually is easy to use, which I love. I have lotsa pix of the Pooter for the backgrounds, which I ADORE.

Crackberry. the addiction for the Modern Geek.

............................
And if you respond to this, I will probably read your reply on the 'Berry.

Here is the yarn that was originally knit into a sock for Dee. The sock did not fit, so it got frogged, giving me the chance to play with a new pattern and a new skill--modular knitting.

Father's Day socks for Himself--a pattern free from Schaefer Yarns, called "Heather For My Man Socks." Always makes me feel great about the world!

Another original design by Moi.

This was created to cover the plunging neckline of an otherwise-wonderful nursing tank top. I started by trying to make a triangular scarf, but found that the scarf was not becoming wide enough quickly enough as it gained length down my back. So I added the extra YO to increase width more quickly. It was quick, easy, and has been incredibly useful ever since. Gauge was not an issue; I was more concerned with getting a silky, soft, draping fabric for summer wear. The thicker blurb lying on it in the photo is a fabric flower pin I bought to match it.
This project would be great for using up extra sock yarn!

Gauge is about 5 st/inch in the model.
Sample was knitted in Lion Cotton solid, worsted weight, with US 7 needles.

Yarn: Whatever you like
Needles: To match yarn and to make fabric drape as you like

Abbreviations:
KFB = knit one stitch, front and back, to make one more stitich.
YO = Yarn over, knit-style.
Row 1: CO one stitch.
Row 2: KFB—2 stitches
Row 3: K1, KFB—3 stitches.
Rows 4-7: Continue to knit to last stitch, then knit that stitch as KFB until you have a total of 7 stitches in your row.

Row 8: K3, YO, K all to end. 8 stitches.
Rows 9-39: K3, YO, K to end. 39 stitches at end of Row 39.
Row 40: K3, YO, K14, YO, K to end. 41 stitches.
Row 41 to end: Repeat row 40. In effect, you are adding 1 stitch per row on rows 2 through 7 by using KFB on one stitch. With rows 8 and onwards, you are adding 1 stitch per row by using a Yarn Over. With Rows 40 and onwards, you are adding 2 stitches per row by using 2 Yarn Overs.

You could keep adding extra YO’s at routine intervals from here onward, but, trust me, your scarf will assume a really weird shape….

Knit until you get a width you like for your neckerchief.

Pooter's first pair by Mommy:



And a pair for me from the same skein of Tofutsies. And a TON left over...

Apart from my son himself, I mean? My son's first hand-knitted sock.

I finished the Sock o' the Month for April in my knit-along:



And then found I had enough yarn left over to do (belatedly) the March tube sock project for my Pooter:



I have to tell you, the half-finished first sock is really adorable. The pattern was a free download from a Ravelry designer in Germany and comes from right here.

On Rav, you can find the pattern in English right here.

And I am celebrating my debut as a designer, having gotten a pattern for an Ipod holder posted on Ravelry (not really hard to do, but, hey, I am so NOT a designer!):



It is so good to have more in my life than eat, sleep, work, mind the (wonderful) toddler... Early motherhood and being the Primary Breadwinner do tend to make one risk losing one's creative side...

Ipod Gym Sock Pattern

By GemmaDW

This is meant to hold an Ipod around your neck while at the gym. My Ipod is a video model, and I wanted the length of the sock to extend at least 1" past the top of the Ipod.

YARN: approx 50 yards of fingering weight yarn. I used Steinbach Wolle Aktiv Effekt
left over from a pair of socks..

CO 64 stitches. Do K2P2 for as long as you want sock to be—as I said, I went to an inch past the length of my Ipod.

Do I-cord bind-off on bottom edge of Ipod sock (i.e. short edge), then continue I-cord as edging by picking up one stitch from edge of sock as you knit your way along the long side, towards the top of the sock.

When you reach the edge of the top of the sock, stop picking up stitches from Ipod sock and just continue in I-cord until you have a cord long enough to hang the Ipod sock around your neck comfortably. Then continue I-cord, but now return to picking up stitches along the remaining long edge to join the cord to the sock as I-cord edging again.

In other words, you should now have the short, bottom edge of the sock bound off in I-cord, the long side done in I-cord edging, an I-cord neck strap, and are now joining that strap to the remaining long edge of the sock. The short (top) edge of the Ipod sock is open, of course. All the I-cord is in a continuous piece that goes around the short edge, up a long edge, into the neck strap, and then down the last long edge.

When you reach the bottom edge of the sock, bind off the I-cord and weave in the ends.

To lear how to do I-cord, I-cord edging, and I-cord bind-off, go here:

http://community.knitpicks.com/page/page/list?q=I-cord

http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/stitches/icord.htm

Current Mood: jubilant

First sweater is now done and has even been worn!

I actually finished this at a stitch'n'bitch last Thursday evening, so I popped it right off the needles and tried it on, to great applause, as I think I may be the only one at that group to ever complete a pullover, altho' Michelle has done one heckuva cardi from Vogue. All in leftover yarns, true to the pattern except for colors, and also I had to shorten the length a bit. I wore it the next day and then slept in it unexpectedly, when I became suddenly wretchedly ill with a 48-hour bug that I got from poor Pooter, who manifested his version while I was at the knitting club. We are both better, and the Tubey has survived its first trip through washer and drier. The joys of acrylic/wool blends of yarn. HOORAH!!! I am now a REAL KNITTER!! Well, okay, I've been one for a long time now, actually. I have always resisted the idea that you had to knit a sweater of some sort to qualify for reality as a "knitter". True, the beginners who complete a sweater really ARE knitters; the project will teach you what you need to know, surely. But some of us do arrive at knitterliness by more circuitous routes. And now? Finishing socks and a carrying bag for my ipod and a crocheted shrug and....I cast-on for a warm vest this afternoon. One inch down, 14 to go...

And great name! Please tell us a bit about yourself...