I'm making these socks using swizzle sock yarn and the book 'Sensational Knitted Socks'. I'm using size 1 needles with a gauge of about 18 sts = 2 inches in stockingnet.

Here is an abbreviated version of my pattern (mostly in case I loose my notes before I make the second sock). I cast on 66 and followed the 'ridged feather' pattern for the leg (I didn't make a cuff). After about 5 inches I made the heel on 33 of the stitches (with a height of 34 rows). I followed the knit 1/slip 1 pattern for the heel. For the heel turning I decreased until I had 19 heel stitches. I picked up 17 stitches for the gusset (per side plus the 2 to avoid any holes). I decreased back to 66 for the instep. I continued the foot for about 8 3/4 inches when I shaped the toe (dec 4 every other row to 34, then every row to 18). I didn't use smaller needles for the toe section because I don't have any smaller needles with me.

I decided to make galleries separate from the notebooks, that way I can have galleries (such as photos all my finished knitting projects) which are independent of any individual notebook. I had to change my database a bit and it took me a little longer to get the administration pages going than I was expecting but now that I am fueled by my heart shaped valentines day chocolate things are moving right along.

I've had a request for rss feeds so I'll be working on them next. After that I want to add the ability for people to make comments on my my notebook entries (moderated by me of course :)). I still need to do some data validation of forms and such. And by then it will be time for me to spend two weeks trying to find a design I like - although if you've all switched to rss that seems less important. Also I found a few javascript text editors that would allow me to have some fancier formatting in my notebook entries without having to type all the html myself, so I want to try those out.

I dug out one of my old USB drives tonight to test one of those email clients that you run from a drive and carry with you to various computers. At some point I decided it would be a good idea to install the password protection that was available from the manufacturer's website but of course that was many, many, many days ago and I have long since forgotten the password. Fortunately, the software allowed you to leave a hint which in turn allowed me to remember that the password was based on the word 'ubiquity'. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember how I had modified the word to turn it into a password. I like replacing letters with numbers and sometimes I insert random special characters into my passwords so I was trying all the combinations I could think of and I finally gave up to look for a hack online so that I could format the dumb thing and start over but I wasn't finding much immediate help in that area so I decided to work on other things for a while. Well I was sort of distractedly looking for something on my desk and listening to Mollie do her best to play the part of the starving kitty when I absentmindedly typed in a password and it totally worked! I don't even know what it was, suffice it to say that I immediately chose a new password :). Let this be a lesson to you all, chocolate and absentmindedness are the keys to password cracking.

Well, its a standard blue afghan made out of two strands of Jo-Ann's Rainbow Boucle held together. I tried to match up the color changes but as I crocheted the first half they were getting more separate and now the two strands seem to be keeping together a little better. I started this project just because I had these enormous balls of boucle (and when I say enormous I mean bigger than my head, bigger than Mollie even) and crocheting is a great way to use up yarn. Especially with a size K hook :). Here is a photo of my progress so far.

Well this turned out to be a much more time consuming project than I was expecting, although I started before I learned to cable without a cable needle so maybe that will help. I'm making this top with Lion Brand's microspun. Since I started it I've gotten a little worried that it's going to be too heavy but at this point I'm so close to finishing that I'll probably finish and then maybe make straps of some kind if I need too. Of course I'll be waiting to finish until it gets a little warmer outside. Here is a photo:

The gauge I decided on was: 24 stitches to 4 inches in stockingnet. I decided to start with 63 stitches instead of 72 (this is one less repeat in the edging and cuff sections. The pebble stitch section worked out fine (all you need is an even number of stitches). For the gusset chart I left out the decreases in the first row, then I repeated the middle column on each side only once instead of twice. I would have liked it if the glove had a little more shaping and was less cylindrical but overall I'm happy. Also, since I am using larger needles than the pattern calls for I also left off the last 2 rows of the cuff, the last 4 rows of the pebble stitch and the last 4 rows of the hand.