Stitch Witchery

Daybreak

2011-12-23T22:15:00.000-08:00

I am so happy with this! There is something extra magical about finishing a project using handspun yarn. The pattern is Daybreak, and the fiber came from Tactile Fiber Arts. I used 2 oz. each of the Pomegranate and Concord Grape colorways, and spun them to about fingering weight. I love the way the colors worked together, and I expect to get a lot of wear out of this one.

Insanity

2011-10-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

I have fallen completely down the rabbit hole. Luckily my sock leftovers stash is pretty deep, and so is the random unlabeled wool in the spinning stash. I should be fine, but this may take a while.

Ready To Roll!

2011-07-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

I am so happy that these are done! I'll be wearing them on Saturday at Sock Summit.

Double Heelix

2011-07-08T11:25:00.001-07:00

As soon as I saw this pattern, I knew I had to knit these socks! I was intrigued by the heel out construction. The beginning is a bit fiddly, but fun. I added some extra decreases to fit my foot, and substituted my usual toe.

Another Baby = Another Blankie

2011-06-17T16:56:00.001-07:00

I think I started this back in late February or early March. I then set it aside to work on other things because I had plenty of time before the baby was due. That is no longer true, so now I'm working on this and only this until it is finished. By my calculations I have 35 rounds left to go. It sounds like a walk in the park doesn't it? I'm currently working on 576 stitches and it continues to grow. I'm sure I'll finish before the baby is born... I hope!

When Life Hands You Lemons...

2011-02-15T20:27:00.001-08:00

Frog a sweater. There are some things going on right now over which I have no control, but which are causing a fair amount of stress. Naturally I turned to knitting, but was having a hard time settling on anything. I want something new and shiny, but nothing suits. Then today I realized that what I really need is to have total control of something. I need to boss around my knitting! There's only so much bossing needed for socks, a hat or scarf, they aren't very satisfying that way. Then I remembered the sweater I've been ignoring for several years.

I knit all the pieces, but once seamed, it didn't fit. As an extra bonus it looked like crap on me. This is the perfect project to boss around. I've started taking out the seams in order to rip this bad boy out, reclaim the lovely yarn and knit this sucker into a sweater that doesn't suck! Wish me luck.

Thankful

2010-11-25T15:49:00.000-08:00

Itty Bitty Hats

2010-11-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

I save the left overs from socks. In the back of my mind I thought that some day I would turn all those tiny balls of sock yarn into a blanket or something. Not long ago that thought came to the front of my mind and got bitch slapped by my common sense. Long ago I swore off projects made up of little squares due to the mind numbing number of ends that leaves to weave in.

About this same time, some dear friends had their second child arrive almost 4 weeks early. A new purpose was born, and bit by bit my sock remnants are becoming sweet wee hats.

New Socks

2010-10-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty consistent with the sock knitting, both for myself and the hubby. Evidently I've been less consistent about blogging the results. This pair has taken a while to finish as I was distracted by shawls and baby blankies and other shiny things. I have already cast on my next pair, and hopefully will do a netter job of posting pics when I finish them.

2 of 6

2010-10-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

I'm 2 for 2! This is the second installment of the Mean Girls Yarn Club, Episode 2. The colorway is called Totally Wicked, and I have chosen the Sockhead Hat pattern. Not exactly a pointy witch hat, but it should bring nice color to a gray northwest winter.

Dynamic Duo Mitts

2010-10-10T15:53:00.001-07:00

I got these done before vacation, but there was no time to photograph them. My step-daughter is a trumpet player in her high school marching band. These should help keep her warm and let her play at those chilly football games.

Aloha

2010-10-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

There was a plane ride, there was knitting. Now there is much fun and sun but not much knitting. Luckily I have another plane ride coming up...

Bitter Hoar

2010-09-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

She is finished! And just in time for the next shipment to arrive.

Circle of Life Shawl

2010-08-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

Finished!

I love this shawl, but it is hard to get a good picture of it. So here is my best effort so far.

1 of 6.

2010-08-20T15:49:00.000-07:00

This is the first installment of the Mean Girls Yarn Club, Episode 2. The colorway is called Hoar Frost, and I've chosen the Bitterrooot pattern. My Bitter Hoar will have icy looking beads, but should keep me nice and warm come winter. My plan is to actually choose a pattern and knit with all the club yarn this year. My track record is crap. We will see when the dust settles how many projects get completed, but I'm hopeful.

Who's Driving?

2010-08-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

New Blankie

2010-07-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

A friend just found out that the baby due in November is a girl! Clearly my next stop was the yarn store. Ok, maybe not quite the next stop, but I didn't waste much time. This is my favorite combination of Pagewood Farm's Denali sock yarn (in Orange Spice) and La's Ondas pattern. This is my 4th one in 3 years. Don't bother me, I'm counting...

New Lace

2010-05-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

Of course it looks like crap now, and is terrible to photograph, but
this is going to be lovely when finished. It is the Circle of Life
Shawl. I picked up the pattern on the LYS Tour last weekend, and
pulled the yarn out of my stash. Love Love Love!

Is This A Problem?

2010-04-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

How did this happen? Did I get suddenly stressed out between socks?I
can tell you that I cast on the second sock as soon as I finished the
first one. There was no lag time. Same yarn, same needles, same
knitter, same day. Yet the second cuff is totally lacking the lovely
stripes I got the first time. WTF? These are hubby socks and he may
not care. I would frog and do-over if they were for me. Sigh.

My Sweater Issue

2010-03-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

I just bought yarn for a sweater. This may not really be an issue, but it got me thinking about how many times I've done this compared to how many finished sweaters I have in the closet. The answers respectively are 8 and 1. Also, the one finished sweater is too big and I can't really wear it. In the spirit of full disclosure, and in a hope that said disclosure will inspire me to actually finish a wearable sweater, here is my list...

Peace Fleece - Lena's Grasshopper color way. I did knit all the pieces of the Everyday Cardigan, but when I started sewing it up I realized that the shape wasn't good for me and the sleeves were too tight at the cuff and huge at the shoulder. My plan is to frog this and choose a different pattern.
Dream in Color Classy - Wisterious color way. I started the February Lady Sweater out of this and I intend to finish it. I put it down last summer when the weather was heading into triple digits. Since last summer I have lost 25 pounds and I am sure I will have to frog this and start over with a smaller size.
Knit Picks Vest Kit. It was on sale. In my defense, it is a stranded knitting project and I want to use it as my practice project for honing my stranded technique and as my first ever adventure in steeking.
Kauni - I don't remember what color it is, but it's in shades of wines and violets. I haven't picked a pattern for it yet, but it will be stranded and I'm a little intimidated. The yarn was on sale last May during the LYS Tour. Every so often I pull it out just to smell it. What?
Philosopher's Wool Kit - OMG this is so awesome! My MIL has a friend who had decided that she had too many hobbies and needed to cut back. Quilting won out over knitting so she was giving everything away. Most of it went to charity, but she had some stuff she thought would bring in some money at the Rotary auction. I got a call asking if I knew what this Philosopher's Wool thing was and did I want it? I may have actually danced right there on the phone. My MIL said she would rather give it to me and know it was well appreciated than have someone bid $5.00 on it in the silent auction. SCORE! Again, I'm totally excited, but intimidated by the scope of this project.
Kathmandu Aran - a wine colored tweed. This is the new stuff and it will become Tribeca as soon as I get the rest of it and do a swatch.
Lavendar cotton - I don't remember what brand it is let alone a color way. I received half this yarn at a guild holiday party a couple years ago, and traded another member for the other half. I haven't picked a pattern for this yet.
Ok, the one I finished is a top down v-neck cardi out of an organic cotton. The problem is that I made it too big. And then I lost a bunch of weight. Now it is like a tent on me, and I don't like it. I love the yarn and the pattern and the buttons and everything, so I am going to have to remake it in a smaller size. The down side is that I don't have any of those other sweaters to wear. Until I finish one of these other things I'm going to leave the much loved but unwearable sweater in the closet.

So that's my sweater saga. Hopefully soon I'll have some progress and success to report. Wish me luck!

Lunch Break Shopping

2010-03-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

This book actually arrived on my Kindle iPhone app last night at midnight. I know this because I waited to see if my pre-order would do that. Since it did, I felt obligated to take a look, and before I knew it I was up to chapter 4 and it was way past my bedtime! Today I was thinking that should I ever meet Rachael Herron in person I would like her to sign a copy of her book, and that's really hard with a Kindle version. So I went in search of the real thing in the wild. Also, there may be a contest...

Knitters Rock!

2010-01-23T13:04:00.001-08:00

Money raised for Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross.

Vacation!

2010-01-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

Vacation was excellent! It was really great to be able to spend a week with the people I most enjoy spending time with. I played games, read a book, and knit most of a sock. The best part was the laughing. I laughed every day. There truly is no better way to recharge your batteries.

Friday Dilemma

2009-08-28T09:50:00.001-07:00

I really want to work on my sock, but I don't want that big stack of
work to deal with on Monday...

Aeolian

2009-08-17T10:52:00.001-07:00

This is a lovely pattern! It took about a month to knit the
shoulderette version. I have a friend who is battling cancer for the
second time, and I wanted to make her something pretty. The bamboo crochet thread worked well, and the beads give it a nice sparkle.

Sweater Love!

2009-08-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

I finished this sweater back in June. I wanted a cotton cardi, no
fuss, no muss. The organic cotton yarn was nice to knit with and I
love the buttons. I will knit this pattern again, but will go down a
size next time.

Another Perfect Match

2009-03-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

New socks for me. My standard recipe made with Austermann Step. I don't have the ball band handy so I'm not sure of the colorway. The yarn is lovely to knit with and feels great on my feet.

Next up, more socks. I've started a new one with a colorway called Clown Pants. Should be fun.

Spring Forward

2009-03-08T09:42:00.001-07:00

I don't think that means what you think it means...

Good Morning From Cama Beach!

2009-03-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

This is the view from the front porch of our cabin. Not a bad way to
start the day. I've got a cup of tea and a sock in need of a toe.
Happy Saturday!

Mine All Mine!

2009-02-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

Meet my new car. I fell in love with the Smart car years ago in
Europe. Now I have one of my very own. I love it!

A Tourist In My Own City

2009-01-24T16:17:00.001-08:00

The View From 520 Feet

2009-01-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

Needles at the Needle

2009-01-24T16:12:00.001-08:00

Baby Blanket

2009-01-16T15:52:00.000-08:00

I love this pattern. This is the third one I've made so far. All the
details are the same as before, but this colorway is called Ireland.
The baby shower is tomorrow so I don't think it will be done by then,
but should be finished before the baby arrives.

The Perfect Start

2009-01-09T17:54:00.000-08:00

Let the weekend begin!

Let There Be Rest!

2009-01-09T13:56:00.000-08:00

This week has been an exhausting and emotional one. The short story is that my hubby ended up spending five days in the hospital with blood clot issues. He's home now and doing well, but it was not the way we wanted to start the new year. Having him home the last two nights has been better, both for quantity and quality of sleep. This weekend the big plan is to rest! We have no plans. I plan to sleep in as late as I want both days. I'm not sure I'm interested in anything that involves getting dressed in anything other than jammies, or leaving the house. Perhaps that will change, but perhaps not.

Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T12:47:00.000-08:00

My toes will be warm and cozy to ring in 2009.

Blessings to you all!

Day 9

2008-12-26T15:51:00.000-08:00

Seriously? The weather reports all said 40 and rain today. Liars.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T08:14:00.001-08:00

A white Christmas is a rare thing for the Seattle area.

Deep Peace Of Winter

2008-12-21T14:44:00.001-08:00

That's 7 inches of snow and it's still coming down. We did have some wind last night, but not enough to be a problem. Mostly it left a bunch of tree bits on top of the snow. We've got another inch so far today so we are back to pretty snow.

At this hectic time of year I hope everyone is able to connect in some way with the deep peace of winter.

Solstice Blessings!

Snow day!

2008-12-18T10:13:00.001-08:00

It may not look like much here, but I'm home for the day. I've got
hot chocolate, knitting and a large DVD collection. I think I'm set!

Snow!

2008-12-14T17:41:00.001-08:00

This is what walking in a winter wonderland looked like last night.

Dear America,

2008-11-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

Thank you!

That is all.

I have nothing to say.

2008-10-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, perhaps I should say that I have very little to say.

Illness has eaten my year. I had the flu in February/March, I had a gallstone attack in June and had surgery to remove the offending organ in July. I've missed 17 days of work due to illness this year. Done now!

Family drama can bite me. That's all I have to say about that.

Election year politics... Well, let's just say that after watching the first 5 minutes of the debate last night I had to go get my spindle. If I let my whole brain pay attention to that I would still be sitting on my couch in a puddle of my own drool.

Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket.

Is it January yet?

I need a weekend...

2008-06-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

To recover from my weekend. I had a great time at Black Sheep, but I'm now exhausted. Last year I registered a little late and didn't get in my first choice classes. This year I over booked and got everything. Oops! All the classes were fantastic, but it meant that I had less time to hang out with my mom and enjoying the rest of the show.

I did have a chance to meet quite a few of my fellow Raveler's and play a little Bingo. That was fun, I'm looking forward to playing again next year and having more time. Also, perhaps if I'm not in class all day I'll remember to take my camera out of my suitcase... maybe.

Tomorrow may suck.

2008-05-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today I went walking on my lunch break. I've not done any excersize to speak of since the gym I was a member of closed in January. A friend from that gym called me last week and we made a deal that this week we would start walking together. Neither of us had been doing anything on our own, so together it is. We walked for 30 minutes at a fairly good pace and by the end I was hot, sweaty and my feet were starting to hurt. Tomorrow, better shoes!

The Harlot is coming!

2008-04-21T18:48:00.001-07:00

My new toy!

2008-04-07T16:08:00.001-07:00

I don't actually know anyone named John Appleseed, that's not my iPhone. But aside from that mine is just like it. I have wanted one of these for a really long time and now it is mine. All Mine!

Still here...

2008-04-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

That pretty much sums things up.

My quiet corner of blogland

2008-01-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

I have been knitting. I have been spinning. I have not been blogging. I finished baby blanket number 1 and have started number 2. I am completely loving knitting this pattern.

I have also started my Everyday Cardigan. In fact, I've been switching back and forth between sweater and blankies to break up the endless miles of stockinette. I'm knitting this out of Peace Fleece and the colorway is called Anna's Grasshopper. I got gauge with size US9 needles, so it is going pretty fast. I love the color and I will wear this sweater, but the knitting is not exciting.

I don't have pictures of anything because it's been really dark and gloomy here. Today it's actually sunny out. Cold, but sunny. Right now it's 29F. Hopefully I'll be able to get some decent pics of the sweater and blankies. Although I won't post pics of the blankies here until after they have been delivered to the appropriate baby showers. There are some progress shots of blankie 1 in my Ravelry notebook.

Feather and Fan Finished!

2007-12-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

Finally!

This shawl is so warm and cozy I want to wear it all the time. I want to get a pin for it before I wear it to work so I don't have to worry about it falling on the floor. I forsee it getting a lot of wear this winter!

A weekend of accomplishments

2007-11-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

What a rare and wondrous thing! I feel like a lot got done this weekend and I don't feel exhausted. Friday night was Yarn Yoga and I worked on both the feather and fan shawl and the store sample stole that have both been on the needles for way too long. I was pretty tired, so I ended up leaving a little early and heading home.

Saturday we had hubby's family over for a work day. After the water fiasco in January we had cleaned out most of the garage, but there was still a bunch of stuff that needed to go. Most of it was donation stuff rather than garbage stuff. Two loads of stuff went down the road to the Value Village! The extra coffee table finally made it's way to his brother's house! The car once again resides in the garage! My half of the garage is still too full to park my car in there, but that's OK with me for now. We have to figure out what to do with the three bicycles that are in there before both cars will fit.

Sunday I sorted my stash. A while ago I decided I needed to get a grip on the scope of the problem. I moved almost all of my stash and UFOs to the spare room. Saturday night and Sunday were spent sorting and organizing. I'm not finished, but it's much better. And I have much to donate at guild next week. When I was mostly done for the day I showed my hubby how much work I'd done. He looked at me sideways and told me that I could get kicked out of the club for showing him the whole stash. :-)

Also on Sunday I finished the store sample stole! It's taken me 6 months and was mostly an endurance contest, but it is finally done. It's in the car and ready to be delivered to the store tonight after work. There are no pictures. We've hit the season of little light and most of it bad for photos. Also on the finished list are 3 cotton wash cloths that were done but for the weaving in of ends. I did that too.

I did cast on a Koolhaas hat, but it doesn't qualify as a new project. It's the second half of a UFO. The first half was to spin the llama yarn for a friend. Now turning the yarn into a hat is part 2. Still waiting to see if the fuzziness of the yarn works with the pattern. I've also picked up a pair of socks that have been languishing at the bottom of my bag, so progress continues. I plan to continue to work on UFOs for a while. I have plenty to keep me busy at least until January. We'll see if I continue the ban on new projects after the new year. On that note, I feel a disturbance in the force. ROE may make it out of the 'I still hate you' pile before long. :-)

Success!

2007-10-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

Here we have the Scalloped Wrap! I finished the knitting, grafting, washing, blocking and crawled into bed at 1am. This morning she was ready to rock. I tried to get pictures of this with me as the model, but they all looked like ass, so here we have the lovely office chair!

If I can get better lighting and pics I'll post them. I may even show you my new shoes. Happy Samhain! <;-)

Can't blog, knitting...

2007-10-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

The first half of the Scalloped Wrap is done. I'm 15 out of 27 repeats into the second half. I pinned out the first half to check how big it would be. I think it'll do, but if I have the time I may add a couple more after I get the second half complete. We have a pretty full weekend of non-knitting activities, so this looks like it's going to come down to the wire. Gotta go work now so I can knit this afternoon. I hope my phone is quiet today. :-)

Scalloped Wrap

2007-10-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

The scalloped Wrap is coming right along. And I was able to get pictures of it. And I was able to get those pics from my camera to my computer. Truly the technology goddess was smiling on me yesterday. Of course, the penalty for all that was my total inability to open any excel files for the last 30 minutes of my day, but who wants to do any work then anyway?

I am currently working on my 23rd pattern repeat. This is made in 2 pieces then grafted together. I'll finish the 27 repeats the pattern calls for and do the other half. At that point I need to give it a bit of a blocking to see if it's really going to be long enough. I have concerns at this point, but it's impossible to tell what the final result will be without at least pinning it out a bit.

20 days until I want to wear this, I'm feeling good about my progress.

Wanted: more time.

2007-09-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

My ravelry invite came last week. In fact it came the same day as the Harlot visited Seattle. Me and my Jayne hat made her blog! So today I've been playing around on Ravelry. My ID is Visionsister, let's be friends! I've done some things from memory, but have realized that I'm going to have to sit down at home and devote some time to sorting out my stuff so I can list it. Crazy! It's the new crack.

I have officially given up on the idea that I'm going to be able to wear my mystery stole any time soon. I still love the project, but the charts require a level of concentration that I don't have available just now. Since I have sort of set a precedent of wearing something hand knit for Samhain I was in a bit of a pickle. Until yesterday. I accidentally fell in to Village Yarn & Tea and bought yarn. And a pattern. And beads. oops! It's a lace wrap with a simple pattern that shouldn't take too long to memorize. I'm using Misti Alpaca lace in a berry sorbet kind of color. It's 2-ply and each ply is a different shade of berry. I'm loving it so far. Luckily the beads are only on the border. You knit 2 halves and graft them together in the middle. That being the case, I'm knitting both halves at the same time. I did the beaded bit last night and have almost finished the first lace repeat today. I have 5 weeks to finish. Think I'll make it?

Slip Slidin' Away

2007-09-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

The summer has really just slipped by me. Again. It's been busy and crazy and fun, but I am ready for things to slow down to a more sane pace. So catching up then...

GenCon was wonderful. Four full days of geeky bliss! I hope we can go again next year, I'd like to actually sign up for a game or two next time. There was knitting on the plane, but that was it. I'm still trying to finish the socks I started at Stitch 'n Pitch.

MS3 is still in the same place it was before we left. Collecting dust most likely. I would like to finish it by the end of October, it would be great to wear it for Samhain. I'm starting to get the knitting jones pretty strong. They keep promising the weather is going to cool down, but it's 80 degrees again today. The internal clock is certainly telling me it's time for fall, I was having a fantasy about beef barley soup earlier.

Some friends of ours introduced us to Guild Wars. I never got into online pc games, but I asked about it while strolling around GenCon and next thing I knew we were completely sucked in. I'm really enjoying the game and the ability to hook up online with friends for a couple hours of adventure. The down side is that our evenings at home are now spent with the game and not the knitting. That's going to make it trickier to finish anything. Ever. Like I need anything else to get in my way there.

Once again I have too many books out of the library, too many projects on the needles, and too many things I'd like to do in my free time. Clearly I need more time. Can anyone spare an extra couple of... months?

Oh yeah, and I just checked and there are only 642 people left ahead of me on the Ravelry waiting list. I'm sure that'll help!

This and That

2007-08-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

No pictures today because as usual I am lame. I have more MS3 pics, but haven't had the time to deal with the fact that my computer and my camera don't like each other. So, that will have to wait. I have not yet received socks from my Sockapalooza pal. I mailed the Sangria Monkeys on the 2nd and they have safely arrived in California with Cpurl.

Tomorrow we fly to Indianapolis for GenCon, the four biggest days in gaming (or so their website says) for a geek filled vacation. Tonight I will be packing and deciding what knitting will be going with. I'll have to decide if MS3 is worth packing along to knit on the plane, or if it's better to stick to socks the whole time. Such a dilemma!

Mystery Stole 3

2007-07-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am another one who has fallen down this rabbit hole. And what's more, I've taken my mom with me. She's in town this week for tonight's Stitch & Pitch game. We had a nice chance to sit and compare our work on this project so far.

First there was this.

Which quickly turned into this.

Right after that dried and I was happy with the guage, this happened.

It didn't take long to finish the first clue. I'm loving the beads and the look of this as it grows. It's fun to see how the chart pictures become real in the knitting. I'm currently working on clue 4 and I have progress pics of clues 2 & 3. If I can manage to get my camera and my computer to play well together, I'll post those soon.

ETA: If there's a way to reply to comments, I don't know what it is. I'm using size US 3 addi lace needles.

Sockapalooza Socks Finished!

2007-07-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

I hope my sock pal likes these, I sure do! It's a good thing that my pal's feet are smaller than mine, or I'd be tempted to keep these.

Specs: Monkey socks, no mods. Fleece Artist yarn in the Sangria colorway. US 1/2.5mm addi lace needles (magic loop).

I loved knitting these so much that as soon as they were finished I cast on a pair for myself! Also Fleece Artist but in the Renaissance colorway. This stuff is like crack, must... get... more...

And then it was June...

2007-06-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a month since my last post. Let's see... My birthday was great. It was nice to see friends and family and celebrate another year. I didn't do much on my day but sit around and spin and knit. Quite frankly that was just what I needed. It was nice. Thanks to those who sent birthday wishes, much appreciated.

June has been just as busy as the last couple months have been. Some friends got married, it was a lovely event. The Hubby had his wisdom teeth out and was doing a really good bruised chipmonk impression for a couple days. His advice is to do that when you are young. You just don't heal as quickly at 42. Father's Day was nice, much hanging out with the Dads occured. All good things.

This last weekend was the highlight for me. I went to
Black Sheep! My mom and I met in Eugene and had a great time wandering through all the vendors and seeing the animals. I'd love to show you the pictorial of all we did, but the truth is that my camera never left my bag. I had plans, lots of plans to take a ton of pictures, but it just never happened. All I have is a couple crappy shots I took with my camera phone. Alas, I am a bad blogger.

There is still hope for me though. I do have some loot! And if I can get my you-know-what together I'll post pics of my stash enhancement. It was fun shopping with mom. We each had a set amount of cash to spend. We made our first pass through and saw everything that was there. Then we went and had lunch and pondered what really called out to us. After lunch we hunted down the things that we couldn't pass up. We didn't realize until we got back to the hotel that mom had purchased all fiber and I had got the all yarn direction.

We spent Saturday night watching the Mariner's game in the hotel and each of us bouncing from project to project with a bad case of crafty ADD. The whole experience was a little overwhelming. There was so much to see there's just no way to take it all in. I got a little knitting and a little spinning done, but not much. I had a great time and am looking forward to going again next year. I'll be sure to get my registration in super early next year!

Happy Birthday to me!

2007-05-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Well, my actual birthday isn't until the 31st, but I usually have the birthday bash on Memorial Day weekend. This year has been pretty low key. There will be karaoke on Saturday night and a BBQ on Monday, but I have been too busy and tired to put much effort into big plans this year. I don't even know what I'm going to do as my special treat for myself on Thursday. Perhaps a pedicure, I've been wanting one for a while now and haven't found the time. Last year I did the whole spa package and it was nice, but again with the meh this year.

The knitting has been pretty slow. I haven't found a gauge I'm happy with for the Jayne hats so they've been put on hold. I think I'll need to go back to bigger needles and try doubling the yarn. The sockapalooza socks haven't seen much action because I haven't memorized the pattern and haven't had much uninterrupted knitting time with the brain cells to work on them. Hopefully this weekend will provide some time for those. The pattern for the cotton wrap store sample is totally easy and now memorized, so that's been getting the most consistant work. The yarn is still splitty, the pattern is almost boring at this point and I'm just about to join the second of 5 skeins, so you can predict the boredom factor kicking in there...

It's my birthday and I feel a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Lame. At least the lawn is mowed.

Time keeps on slippin'...

2007-05-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

Well I see it's been over a month since I posted anything here. Where does the time go? Partly it's been a matter of work life being really busy. Since I mostly get my blogging done at work, there just hasn't been time for that. I have knit (some) I have finished a thing or two, but I have no pictures.

The biggest news is that I finally (yesterday evening) finished pair #6 of what should have been holiday socks. The pair that became "your effing socks" when discussing them with the hubby. There's a long story that I don't really feel like telling just now, and probably don't have the time anyway. Bottom line? They are done, they fit beautifully, he wore them around the house last night, then I said "give them back, I have to take them to guild tomorrow to prove I finished them and didn't just stick them in the closet of doom." He was bummed, but said he's wear them tomorrow and that was ok. He's a good one!

What next? I'm working on a store sample for Ben Franklin so I need to keep that moving. I'm also trying to pick up and finish some things that have sat too long on the needles. I do have to start one pair of socks for my Sockapalooza 4 pal and I have to make 3 Jayne hats before we go to GenCon in August. But I think that will be all the new stuff this summer. Mostly I want to finish things right now. I'd like to clear the slate a little so I can turn my attention to some spinning projects I've been waiting on until I had more time... heh!

Happy Little Hats

2007-04-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the happy little hats I finished last weekend. This weekend I have another finished hat and have started a fifth one. I've got plenty of yarn left, we'll see how long the happy little hats keep coming.

If you are interested in making happy little hats for Dulaan, (or anyone else) here is what I am doing.

Using US 8 needles and LB Homespun yarn, cast on 80 stitches. Join without twisting, knit and knit and knit until you have about 7 inches. For me that's about from wrist to fingertips, so it's an easy measurement. Decrease 8 stitches per round - K8 K2tog around, then K7 K2tog... you know how that goes. Thread the tail through those last 8 stitches, pull it tight and weave in the ends. Badaboom, happy little hat.

With 80 stitches on size 8 and my knitting, these hats fit me. I, however, have kind of a pin head for a grown up, so I'm hoping that they'll work for a variety of noggin sizes. The roll of the brim also allows for some variability in the size. I'm completely content to knit these for a while, though I hear the call of socks and lace in the distance, so we'll see how long this lasts, eh? At least I will have my 5 for sure.

I am a Dorkfish.

2007-04-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

I think that I'll blame it all on pms. It was a weird weekend for me. Friday before I left work my boss and I were having a conversation in which I cried. Not that he's a bad guy, he's not. In fact I like him quite a bit. But we were talking about the state of the office and what we'd both like to see happen in the upcoming months and I brought up some stuff that had been frustrating for me... tears. Saturday the Hubby and I ran some errands because he couldn't sit in the house all day. I totally could have, but I went with him anyway. My contact lens was funky and hurt my eye all day. Sunday I did not leave the house, nor did I leave my jammies. Sunday evening I cried again. Actually, while sitting on the couch knitting and watching episode after episode of Clean Sweep and What Not to Wear, I had several tearful moments. At that point I decided I must be hormonal. Today, as if all that weren't clue enough, I have the dropsies. Does anyone else get this? I spilled my lunch on my sweater and my pants. Classy! Then I knocked a full cup of tea off my desk onto the floor. Sweet! I didn't really want that tea anyway... I took pictures of the 3 hats for Dulaan I made over the weekend, but I can't get my camera to talk to the computer and be able to use the mouse or the keyboard work at the same time. I was planning to work on our taxes tonight, but perhaps it's better I don't touch anything.

Sock Randomness for Wednesday

2007-03-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

Two posts in the same week? Weird. I turned in the store model socks without pics. Perhaps I'll stalk them with the camera once they are on dispay.

The "Hubby socks that would not end" have met an unfortunate fate. I did not have enough yarn to get all the way to the toe, and toe-less socks are right out. So last night with a heavy sigh they got frogged. Back to square one. A do-over with bigger needles is coming, but I just couldn't get them started last night.

Another pair may be destined for the frog pond. Here are my Rockin' Sock Club socks so far. As lovely as they look, they are a bit on the roomy size for my feet. I did the toes on US 1 and the foot on US 0 needles, I may have to go smaller. I'm going to continue for another inch or two so I can get a better feel for the fit over the ball of my foot.

Monday night I went to the Eastside Knitter's Guild meeting. I enjoyed it, I joined. Ryan was there talking about Dulaan. It gave me ideas about what to do with some yarn I recently cleaned out of the garage and was planning to donate somewhere. I'll be perusing the suggested patterns section to find some inspiration. Maybe since I'm having sock trauma, some quick and easy charity hat knitting is just the thing.

Monday Monday!

2007-03-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

I finished something! Ok, it's the model socks for the store and they seem to have gone MIA before I could get a picture. I thought I put them in my bag so I could drop them off on my way home from work, but clearly they escaped. Perhaps tomorrow I'll capture them and get a mug shot for you.

Spring cleaning mode has hit me hard. My house of chaos is probably the biggest reason. This experience has really brought home the fact that we have entirely too much crap. Trying to get things organized and back to a working order is exhausting. There has been a lot of sorting and culling and parting with things. Not just of things that were damaged, but of all the rest of the stuff too. It feels good to let go of stuff that hasn't seen the light of day in years and has just been getting in the way. The major accomplishments of the weekend were moving my knitting stuff up to the dresser in the spare room so I can get to my dresser, and hubby parked his car in the garage for the first time ever! I have a big basket of clothes I'll never wear again to take to the donation station, the garbage and recycling cans are ready for pick up day!

Happy spring!

Eureka!

2007-03-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, I finally found the USB cable for my camera! And we have a bathroom upstairs again! I am loving the new tile... ain't it pretty? At this point I think the contractor is all done with our house. Tomorrow the people come to run a gas line into the laundry area for the new dryer, and the new washer and dryer will be delivered on the 10th. I'm not sure we have enough clean clothes to get us all the way to the 10th, so I may have to do one more laundry run to my friend's house this weekend. Normalcy is returning at long last.

This is for Carole. This is what the cherry tree in my front yard looked like this morning. It really illustrates what March is to me. The last gasp of winter doing battle with the first blush of spring. I apologize for the quality, I don't have a steady hand when trying to take a picture over my head. :-)

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...

2007-02-13T14:33:00.000-08:00

It was going to be so clever with pictures and everything. But even though I have my camera and took pictures, I have no idea where the cable is to connect camera to computer and upload said pics. Crap. So allow me to try the thousand word version since the picture deal isn't going to happen...

Something old:

I finished the Austerman Step socks for my sister-in-law. The were pair 5 of 6 (for those of you keeping score at home) of the holiday sock-o-rama. This weekend I had an overwhelming urge to finish some stuff. The socks were top of the list. I'm sure that this need to finish was really inspired by my house which is still in a state of total chaos, but whatever, I finished the socks!

Something new:

I started new socks. These are for me and are in Trekking XXL color #131. Very bright and springy, don't you wish I had a picture? Me too! So far I've got a little over an inch of 2x2 ribbing, but it's the beginning of happy socks all for me! Also in the new category we have a spinning wheel! I am now the proud owner of a Lendrum folding wheel and I love it. I have signed up for a spinning class starting the 27th, but have already made yarn. I have also knit said yarn into little wrist cuff things. They aren't much since I only had a little over 50 yards of yarn, but they are all mine!

Something borrowed:

I went to the library and checked out Wendy Knits and EZ'a Knitter's Almanac. So far I've mostly flipped through to look at pictures, but I'm sure I'll enjoy reading them as well.

Something blue:

I am really enjoying working on my Trekking sweater. I'd love to show you the pictures, but alas, I'm lame. Take 8 balls of trekking sock yarn in shades of blue, pair them up and switch color pairs every 10 rows. I'm loving the look and can't wait to have more than 6 inches to look at.

As for the inspiration for the title, we will be celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary this weekend and I'm totally looking forward to a couple days away with the hubby. I'll even bring his socks (6 of 6) to work on while we're gone. :-)

The comforts of home

2007-01-31T11:44:00.000-08:00

I have had cause to think quite a bit about house and home and comfort. I recently went on a bit of a binge with the online shopping. I couldn't figure out why I suddenly felt compelled to buy all that stuff. When I really thought about it, it was a comfort thing. My house is still all topsy-turvy trying to recover from "the incident". Not a single room in the house was really usable for a couple of weeks. In short, my home was not providing me with the comfort I needed. Naturally I turned to my knitting for the comfort I was lacking. No such luck. I was sick of socks. I didn't have the concentration required to knit lace. I had swatched for the sweater I was really excited about, but until I washed the swatch to make sure the gauge was in fact good, I couldn't work the sweater. Unfortunately we don't have working laundry at the house right now and I kept forgetting to take the stupid swatch to the laundromat. Without home and knitting comfort, I turned to shopping. I finally ordered some Rockin' sock yarn. I ordered three books from Knit Picks. And I subscribed to IK at long last. Several times I was able to back down from the ledge and finally asked myself, "what are you doing?" The answer was looking for comfort. Once I realized what the issue was I was able to take other steps to make things better. I moved a bunch of stuff that had been stacked up in our bedroom up to the spare bedroom that won't require any construction. My personal sanctuary was restored to some semblance of order and the compulsion to comfort shop has relaxed. Whew!

Last Saturday I ventured down to Tacoma to check out the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. It was lovely and next year I may actually attend classes. I got my book signed by Stephanie! Then I went to the market. It was lovely wandering around the booths looking at all the wonderful fibery goodness and being wrapped in the loving comfort and wool fumes. Several things happened at the market. I was fondling some fiber when a woman behind me started explaining the properties of some yarn. I knew that voice, I just couldn't remember from where. I moved around so I could see her face and she was really familiar, but I still couldn't put my finger on it. She looked at me and said, "welcome back!" That startled me because I hadn't been there before. Eventually the epiphany hit. This was the woman who taught my mom and me to spin! What a wonderful small world. Next I met Teyani, and had a nice conversation about spinning.

It was a really great day that ended up like this... I joined Knitters Anonymous. I bought a new spindle and some fiber. I have been spinning a little bit each evening when I get home, and I am in love! Hopefully this dose of comfort shopping will hold me over until my house is back in order. If not I have set my sights on a spinning wheel asap, so perhaps that motivation will keep me from getting out of control in the internet...

We'll see!

Let's recap...

2007-01-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

So 2007 hasn't started out the way I had envisioned. Our year end trip to California was great. We spent 5 action packed days at Disneyland and California Adventure. Then a couple days in the Pasadena area including the Rose Parade. The down side is that with the long hours and lack of sleep, the dry climate and the air quality, we all came home with a cough and sniffle. We got home late Monday night to find one of the trees in our yard laying over into our neighbor's driveway. Luckily nothing was damaged when it fell. We had 2 evenings to do our laundry and clean up the disaster we left when we rushed out of town before my parents arrived to stay for a week. It was great to see them and my mom very generously shared her cold with me. So back in bed I went over the weekend feeling like total snot-headed crap. I even missed the rescheduled Christmas gathering with the in-laws due to my yuckiness.

Monday things got really interesting. A load of laundry was started before everyone left the house for the day (not an unusual occurance). Upon arriving home we discovered that the washer had malfunctioned and pumped large quantities of water into my entire house. The laundry room is upstairs in our house and directly over the garage. The hallway was soaked and the water was making it's way into the other three rooms up there. It was practically raining in the garage and the furnace was completely filled with water. Water made it's way down the stairs to the hardwood in the diningroom and through the walls/floor/ceiling to the family room below and rained onto the leather sofa below (missing a large stash of sock yarn by inches!) What a mess!

We have spent the last week in a hotel while our house was full of drying equipment. I just got word that the new furnace is in and the blowers and dehumidifiers have been removed. The carpets are getting cleaned tomorrow and the insurance adjuster is coming Thurday. I'm sure it will be a long process of putting everything back together, but I'm so excited to sleep in my own bed tonight!

What about the knitting, you ask? I worked on hubby's socks on the plane to and from California, but since I've not felt well and the light in the hotel room sucked, I've done very little. I did buy a sweater kit and did a little swatching for that, but I'm not jumping in on that quite yet. In my cold medicated state while my mom was here I managed to somehow end up with the wrong number of heel stitches on the other pair of gift socks I was madly trying to finish, so that didn't happen. I will finish them and they will get to the intended recipient, but I just didn't have it in me last week. I am very ready to get back to the normal routines of our life. We haven't really had that since before Thanksgiving.

Think happy thoughts for us, and I hope 2007 gets better very soon!

Down to the wire

2006-12-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

At 5:00 last night I finished grafting the toes on a pair of socks that were to be delivered at dinner at 6:30. Both pairs were very well received last night and I have it on good authority that one pair at least was worn to work today. That right there is the joy of giving hand made gifts.

So now I have one more pair that needs finishing (I'm working on the heel flap) before Monday and I'm home free. The hubby already knows he's getting socks in January and I'll work in them on the plane to California.

Since I'm not entirely sure where my camera is at this moment, I have no pictures today. I'm madly trying to get everything done at work so I can leave for a week and not have a disaster when I return.

Wish me luck, I'll let you know in January how things turned out...

18 days until vacation!

2006-12-07T16:27:00.000-08:00

That's right in 18 days, we leave for Disneyland! That also means in 18 days I will have not only finished but washed, blocked, wrapped and delivered all the socks. I tried to take a bunch of pictures yesterday so I could show you all the progress, but alas the afternoon light was fading and they are pretty much crap. Today I spent the few moments I had between phone calls and assorted whatnot knitting on said socks instead of photographing them.

I've decided to wait until they are all done to graft the toes so I don't have to relearn how to do that 6 times. I'm sure by the time I'm done I'll have it down, but it's not something I've used often enough to just do it. I now have 2 pair waiting for closure, and I'm doing the toe decreases on another. I have started the heel flap on the next pair, am about an inch shy of the heel flap starting on one more. That's five for those of you keeping score at home. The sixth pair is for my hubby, and I've already told him that he may not get his socks until we get back from vacation. That will give me something to take on the plane, now that I think about it...

Socks are afoot

2006-11-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

My holiday knitting is well underway. I think I have now picked out yarn I like and that is machine washable for all those I plan to gift with hand knit socks this year. This was more challenging than you might think. It started with just a couple people and I went and bought sock yard to get started. Before I'd even started those I decided that I really wasn't feeling the love for the colors I'd purchased. Back to the drawing board, and the yarn store. I found new yarn I liked and jumped in. After knitting a good distace on both pair I realized that one wasn't superwash. I'm not going to give hand wash only socks to someone as a gift unless I know that caring for hand wash items is totally cool with them. The second pair got frogged when I realized I had misjudged the size of the foot in question. Oops! Do-over part 2.

I now believe that I have picked yarn for all my recipients (now up to 6) that I like and have accurate shoe size information on all of them. That brings us to the progress!

Here we have my various stages of progress. The pair waiting for toe grafting is Trekking XXL color 135. The pair just past the heel is Sockotta color 5618. The pair just started is Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock color 50 amish. The socks to be started later is Austermann Step color 6. All using the basic Harlot recipe and size 0 (2mm) addis. I have the rest of the sock yarn at home, this is just what I have in my bag at the moment.

I started the Lorna's socks last night. For the first time ever I knit in the car! Dramamine rocks, I just wish I had thought to try that years ago.

Catching up.

2006-11-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a week! Here's the highlights...

Friday night the hubby and I bought a new car. His van had started having issues precisely when the warranty expired. Now we are the proud owners of a 2007 Prius with all the goodies except leather seats. He had the pleasure this morning of filling the tank for $20 with over 400 miles on the tank. Brilliant!

Saturday afternoon we went to a holiday open house where I purchased more candles. That evening was a Halloween gathering with friends. Very low key this year, not many costumes and not as many people as last year. Good times were had.

Sunday was big geek day. Characters were created, background stories were invented, dice were rolled and in the end much turkey was consumed. Mmmm autumn feasting!

Monday night the hubby and I had a meeting with a Real Estate investor to learn more about what she does and how we can get into that as well. I'm excited about things taking off in that direction.

Tuesday evening I spent in Ritual for Samhain. It was a lovely time spent in communion with the ancestors. I honored my aunt who passed in the spring and wore my Diamond Shawl for the occasion. Standing there swinging my arms back and forth I felt like I had wings. A friend commented that the way it moved, the shape and the color reminded her of a Luna Moth.

Wednesday I took the day off from work to attend the Women's Financial Conference. I snoozed and snuggled in bed longer than I should have and didn't hit the road quite as early as I had planned. Traffic wasn't too bad getting into Seattle and I made it there before things got started. There were some great speakers and much information. I will certainly attend again next time they are in town.

That brings us back to today. You may have noticed that I didn't mention much knitting in the last week. There wasn't much. I had a pair of socks to work on yesterday, but found that the speakers were so engaging that I took notes more than I knit. The countdown is on for all the holiday knitting I thought would be great fun and no problem last month before the van crapped out and life got crazy busy. We'll see if I can get it all done!

FO: Irish Diamond Shawl

2006-10-24T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here it is in all it's glory!

This is the last picture I took of it before the final product, here it's just past the 650 stitch per row mark. I had every intention of taking pictures of it before and during the blocking process, but evidently my brain fell out between here and there, so then there's this...

I didn't swatch this and when blocked out it came to more like 60" square than the 52" mentioned in the book. It's a good thing I'm tall! ;-)

Irish Diamond Shawl from Folk Shawls. US 7 addi turbos, Zephyr yarn in the Blueberry color. I used about 1 1/2 of the 2 4oz balls I started with which would be about 1900 yards-ish.

Accomplishment!

2006-10-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

The Diamond shawl has been cast off! I finished the knitting last night while my hubby went for a walk without me and I sat on the couch determined to finish. Unfortunately the only place big enough to block it is our king size bed, so that didn't happen last night, and won't happen tonight either. Satuday I plan to soak it and pin it out as soon as the bed is no longer required for sleeping. Pictures to follow.

I have a new outfit to go with the shawl, I'm totally jazzed. I'll be the best dressed Witch at the party! I'm sure pictures of that will be posted as well.

I've started one pair of holiday socks and am really loving them. I'll start another pair soon and perhaps get pics up as well. Hard to say since they are gifts and the intended recipients may actually stop by here occasionally.

Chugging along

2006-10-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been much news to report, I guess. I'm trying to get the Diamond shawl finished. I'm down to the last 37 rows, but since I'm up over 650 stitches per row now, it just takes time. I haven't really worked on much else in the last couple weeks because I feel like I'm so close to the end of this one that I just keep at it.

I did do a little work on some socks I'm planning as holiday gifts. So far though, I'm just not feeling the love with the socks. In fact, I even frogged the socks I was making for myself with the sock yarn I got as a birthday gift. Perhaps once I get the Diamond done I'll be able to get into socks. For now it's really all about getting through purling 650+ stitches.

Pictures!

2006-09-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

It turns out that some of the pics I took recently weren't as bad as I thought they were. I managed to get one of each of my projects that didn't totally suck.

This is the Irish Diamond shawl. The yarn is Zephyr in the blueberry color, on US # 7 addi turbos. I love this yarn and I'm really looking forward to finishing this so I can see it all blocked out. The down side of this project is that it gets bigger with every pattern row. I'm currently up to ~400 stitches per row and it seems to take forever to make progress on it now. I hope to have this done by the end of October.

Here we have Box Lace. The color is more a cranberry than the bright red that comes through here. The yarn is Cashwool by Baruffa, a superfine merino. Size 7 Denise needles. I'm hoping to have this done for the holidays.

Here we have the Icarus shawl. Like the Diamond this is in Zephyr, the Mushroom color. Also like the Diamond it grows with every other row. Size US # 3 addi turbo needles. I don't have a deadline for this project, I just couldn't resist it any longer. This pic doesn't really show the color very well, but it's a cool almost cream almost gray that really does resemble a fresh mushroom.

Finally we have Feather & Fan in unspun icelandic wool on US # 8 addi turbos. I love this project. I have no deadline on this one either, but it's my go-to piece when the lace and tiny stitches of any of the others get to be too much. Now that the weather is turning colder I can't wait to finish this warm and cozy wonder. It has that comforting raw wool smell that makes me want to curl up with it in front of a fire and hibernate for the winter.

The Rose of England is back on the needles with the bellybutton cast on. I'm using the Cashwool by Baruffa and US # 2 addis. For those who asked I am using the magic loop method, at least in the beginning. Me and dpns don't get along, so I use it whenever I can. I will probably switch to a smaller circ. when I get done with chart A since it gets a little funky when you have 5 repeats per round and the slipping your round marker and such.

I should know better.

2006-09-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Friday night was Yarn Yoga night at LYS. I started out working on Diamond until I finished with the pattern repeat I was in the middle of. I was feeling so good about how that was going that I pulled out ROE to do a round on that. Evidently I can't chat and count at the same time. I got to the end of the round and had an extra stitch (crap!) and for all my going back and recounting and rechecking I couldn't find the error. So I tucked it away and decided to figure it out at home when I had quiet to concentrate. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate any error, and figured it must have happened on the previous pattern round. No problem, I thought, I'll just tink back until I know I'm good and continue on. WRONG! Tinking multiple YOs and coming out with the correct stitch count isn't happening for me. Then I rememebered that bit about slipping your beginning of round marker and gave it all up. Frogged the whole thing. On the bright side this gives me the chance to play with the belly button caston I've been eyeballing.

We had a pretty full weekend so I didn't get back to ROE, but maybe tonight. I did pick up the Feather & Fan shawl and got some good progress done on that one. I told the hubby what I liked about that project is that I haven't screwed it up yet! He made all the right condolence noises and made me soup. What a guy!

Insanity or Ambition?

2006-09-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help it, I cast on for the Icarus shawl yesterday. For those of you scoring at home, that makes #5 in the shawls on the needles category. I haven't decided for myself on the insane vs. ambitious issue, so I'll let you make your own call on that.

I was sad to discover last night that my Dad's talent with a camera was not passed on to me genetically. I have some learning to do with my new camera. I tried to take pics of my other WIPs last night, but alas, they mostly looked like crap. So now that I've learned a thing or two about that I'll try again soon.

I know you've all been on the edge of your seat wondering if the Diamond shawl and I have made up. We had a long heart-to-heart last night. We got the issue resolved, and it promised to never do that again. We'll see. :-)

Sigh.

2006-09-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Diamond shawl and I aren't speaking to each other right now. The last two days I feel like I've spent more time tinking that thing than making forward progress. I was almost done with one lace repeat when I dropped 3 stitches and couldn't for all my effort recover them correctly. So I chucked the whole thing on the table and decided to let it sit there today to "think about what it had done".

I'm also considering frogging the ROE and starting over. I read the instructions for the belly button cast on, and it makes such a beautiful center, I may have to try it. Since I'm still debating that and I was too tired and got home late last night I didn't do anything with ROE. I didn't want to continue forward if I'm just going to start over, and I didn't want to start over if I didn't have time to get some good progress done on the new start. So I did a couple rows on the Box Lace shawl and went to bed.

Hopefully tonight I'll have time to get some laundry and knitting done. I hope to have pictures of the other shawls I'm working on up soon. Maybe I'll even feel up to getting the Diamond shawl out of time out. Maybe...

Rose of England pic

2006-09-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here is the progress so far on ROE!

This is what I got accomplished Sunday afternoon and evening. I would have liked to work on it last night, but spent the evening fighting with my new camera and laptop. Evidently they don't want to play well together. Luckily things went more smoothly today at the office.

Domovoi Shawl pictures!

2006-09-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

I have figured out how to upload pictures! So here they are...

This is the finished, blocked and ready to deliver product. The pattern is from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle. The yarn is Misti Alpaca Lace in Black.

Here it is blocked out in my hallway, the only place long enough for the 102" finished length.

And here are a couple shots of the detail...

Rose of England

2006-09-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

I have joined the Rose of England KAL. I had planned to do this project, but a little down the road. But I couldn't resist, so here we go. Never mind the three shawls and a pair of socks I already have on the needles, nevermind that I plan to start Icarus as well. And don't forget about Balmoral that I had planned to do before ROE, but plans have clearly changed.

I have a digital camera! New camera, new blog, new projects. What more could a girl want? Pictures coming soon!

Hello World!

2006-09-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Because don't you have to start all new ventures that way?