A stripe and a speckle

I've been spending time learning a new accounting program, Free Agent, and I'm absurdly in love with it. I'm always looking for ways to work smarter, especially with our finances. We have an accountant but this is so perfect for our day to day stuff, tracking our mileage, etc. He's going to *love* us in December and I'm going to love not paying him a ton extra because I organized everything to death. High 5! But omg. Spending so much time in front of the computer kills me. I have zero patience for that sort of stuff.

Ashleigh & I got together earlier this week for our official FRIENDSHIP DAY 2013! We get together a few times a month for work, schedule out new patterns, hire stitchers, design awesome things, go over new ideas, etc. This day was PURELY friendship based. No work chat, just knitting! buying bat tshirts & crazy printed leggings! eating strange raw snacks! drinking giant iced teas! having a grand old time! It was a well earned break for both of us.

She knit a toe of a sock while we had coffee, I seriously was freaking out. I want her to love knitting socks like I do, it's so selfish of me. ha! ;) I want a real life friend who will obsess over sock yarn and knit with me, I love my internet friends naturally but there is something so satisfying about curling up in a coffee shop & knitting with your BFF. While she was knitting her sock, I finished up my first striped sock. And! I knit it completely Continental!

I was two rows into an after thought heel when my Signature Needle snapped off from the cord, dropping all the stitches. O M G. I literally sat there stunned. I emailed customer service, stuck Ashleigh into my car and we went to our local yarn store right before they closed.

JoAnn who owns the shop is seriously one of my most favorite people ever. She's just super patient and knowledgeable. They were out of Addi's so she suggested HiYa (ninja!) Sharps, I tried them and HEY! Not bad! I only finished the socks heel so I don't have enough experience with them to review them but for $9 in a sock knitting emergency they made me happy! Signature is on backorder for size 1's and I got different gauge with the HiYa's so I'm going to wait to cast on for the second sock, which is kind of a bummer because I was very much enjoying the yarn AND the needles. I found Continental knitting was a BREEZE with those crazy sharp points, I did notice I knit a little tighter but nothing drastic.

In the meantime I did two things:

First, I'm trying these needles. They shipped yesterday. Handmade in the US, interchangeable tips and cords, sturdy! I only bought one pair rather than the set, it's sadly out of my budget and I'd hate to spend that much money if I didn't like the needles. I went with a 1.5 and a 39 inch cord. I *love* knitting on 1.5's. Its my favorite size needle for socks. I'm excited for them to arrive!

Second, I cast on for a new pair of socks! How could I not? I needed something to knit while playing Adventure Time monopoly with Chop. Also: CAKEWALK YARNNNNNNN. I seriously love Rose so much. So many speckles! I love how the yarn is knitting up and if you are a sock knitter, try a pair of worsted weight socks. COZY X A MILLION. I'm already thinking about a second pair. I keep finding excuses to try it on because I love how squishy it feels.

Here are a few things I can't stop thinking about:

This line of fabric.

This cat! It's a stupid tumblr link that leads to no where! I'd love to know what breed he is!

Such a pretty quilt!

I want to add him to my life list!

Sewing space! It reminds me how much I miss working on a long term patchwork project. seriously.

My goal this week is to clean my sewing space, aka our dining room. It's like a fabric explosion and it's driving me NUTS. I want to get it super clean and organized so I can sew a ton this fall without stressing that I'm going to be crushed to death under a precariously perched pile of scraps.

Who wants to come help me? I pay in wasabi peas and awkward 90's music sing-a-longs!