Not much to report...

I'm on my second sock and will do photos when they're finished. I also started a shawl on a whim with a pattern from Vogue Knitting by Iris Schreier...I had some Fiesta Heaven waiting for the right project and I think this was the right project. That should not take long to finish either and I'll post a photo.

That's about it for now....we're spending a week in the mountains of VA soon and I hope to get plenty of knitting done!

Slump...phase 2

Well, I'm not exactly on hiatus from knitting, but I haven't done much lately. Knitted a bucket hat using Little Turtle Knits' pattern for a friend's baby out of Sugar and Cream. I keep forgetting the hat each time I see the baby though! I also started my mom's double wide branching out. Besides that I've turned the heel and knitted the gusset of my sock. It fits so far.

For the lack of knitting, I've done too much yarn and book shopping. I got Big Girl Knits, which I love though I don't have any immediate plans to knit any of the patterns. And I just got a bunch of yarn from Mystical Creations on ebay....sort of went into a bidding frenzy. But its pretty. Who knows what it'll eventually be.

Unfortunately I can't post photos because my regular computer died. New one on the way....

That's all folks...

Yikes! Gotta update!

Ah, not much new on the knitting front. I'm about to finish the Smock Jacket, have a pair of socks in progress, and I need to get knitting on my double-wide Branching Out. Yes, mom, I will get it done by the time you come to visit! LOL Branching Out is a really fun pattern to knit and I'm getting excited to get started.

The socks I'm doing are the result of one evenings sudden urge to dye some wool. I used the same Aldi Mixade as for the yarn in my previous post, but the colors came out completely different. The blue is brighter and has more green in it...the purple got darker. Very weird. It was different yarn, which is my only guess as to why its so different. I also realized that I really have very few socks (and a very odd assortment of items in my "sock" drawer) so that's why I chose to dye sock yarn and start a pair for myself. I'm using the pattern in "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" by Ann Budd. So far I have one never ending cuff....I swear its been 3 1/2 inches for about a week.

Ah, well, I have a new Frasier DVD coming from Netflix today...hopefully I can get in some knitting time!

More backlog...

I wanted to quickly share this photo of a quick project I did at the beginning of January. This was a gift for my mom's group post-holiday party where we played that game where you pick numbers and steal, swap, trade gifts. I know there are several names for this but none of them ever seem to stick in my mind.






This is Paton's Classic Merino Wool dyed with unsweetened drink mix packets purchased at Aldi. One of the rules of our gift swap was that items needed to be either handmade, inexpensive (under $10) or second hand. This fit all three of the options, as I also gave the needles pictured. Those were mine, bought from the Target dollar spot when they were $.25. I found them too rough so I sanded them down, whitewashed the shafts and painted the ends. The yarn was bought on sale for about $4 and the Aldi drink mixes are 12 packets for $.69. I think I used 4 packets, 2 each of the berry and grape flavors.


I like how it turned out! Enjoy!

That's all for now. Coming soon, my re-evaluated knitting queue...

Slump (or what I did over my winter vacation)

I'm in a bit of a knitting slump lately. I think its because of too much travel and getting used to a new schedule when I've been home. Not that I've done no knitting, but I've done no inspiring knitting.


Here is what I knit on my vacation last week.





In the hustle and bustle of getting packed and ready for our vacation I didn't plan any particular knitting project for the trip and just gathered the stuff to make a dishcloth as we were heading out the door at 4am. I finished this tonight as I hadn't completed the last 3 rows before it was my turn to drive on our way home.


The yarn is Sugar and Cream cotton that looked a lot nicer in the ball than it does knitted into a dishcloth. I love purple and green together but this just didn't knit up nicely. But its good enough to wash dishes and wipe counters.


I also have almost completed my ds's Gryffindor scarf. I didn't have it done in time for his birthday. Of course apparently I didn't do a good enough job of hiding this project because he asked me "What about the scarf you're knitting me? Is it done?" Ah yes, he just turned 11.


I have a very lengthy list of knitting projects, most of which I have the yarn for already, in a prioritized list. This will probably keep me busy for the entire year, if not longer. But now that I look at the list I know I have to change it. I need a project I can get excited about right now and there isn't much at the top of my list that I'm excited about knitting. At least my #1 item is now finished!


That's all for now.

Happy New Year!

The holidays are, thankfully, behind us. Not that I had horribly bad holidays (if you don't count the 7 hours in the car on December 30th, all driven by me, accompanied by the sounds of intermittent vomiting from the passenger seat....or the couple of days prior to that when I regaled all the occupants of my mom's house with a similar soundtrack...or when the kids were doing it....oh, okay, the holidays weren't great...) but they had their challenges and normal life is looking pretty good. We will complete the undecorating tomorrow.


Did I manage to finish the holiday knitting you ask? (assuming there is a you once again...I suspect there may not be). Ummm....well....no. I knitted feverishly on the Irish Hiking Scarf over the two day drive to PA, as well as on Christmas Day itself but it just wasn't happening. So I went and bought some beads and my sweet sil had to settle for a bracelet instead. As far as I know she has no knowledge of the Irish Hiking Scarf that might have been....and Pam, if you ever come across my blog while surfing the net, sorry. I comfort myself by thinking that you might have possibly not liked it. On the other hand, I'm in love with it and its going to be my scarf for next season. Why next season you ask? I'll get to that, if not today, in a later post.


Now for the lovely knitterly pictures and the run down of my holiday haul (I did make out darned well, if I say so myself). First is the photo of my mom in her Clapotis, moments after opening it. Yes, mom, I dare! LOL I do truly regret not getting a better photo of the clapotis. I had planned on making mom allow me a photo session later in the week, but as it happened I just wasn't up to photography most of the week.






Now for my husband's best gift to me-







Yes! A swift, a swift, a swift! Works great and I'm thrilled. I've used it several times already. The yarn on the swift in the above photo is a skein I just bought on ebay from Mystical Creation Yarn. Its a sport weight cotton and I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Maybe another WLD Shapely Tank or Tshirt.


Ah, well the little critter is up from her nap, so off I must go. Dinner to be made, etc, etc, etc.... More to come.......

To tired to attempt decent writing

Ah, I've gotta get to bed. But first I must give myself a pat on the back for finishing the Fairway Fair Isle. This baby is washed, blocked and tasseled. And here it is-





Lovely, isn't it? Good thing I have absolutely no use for a golf club cover or I'd claim it for myself. I can't even thing of anything I could possibly use this for, besides maybe a really freaky long sleeved oven mitt. I just hope it fits the club. This is my first ever fair isle project and it was a little puckered before blocking, so I was astounded at how nice it came out after washing.


I gave my dh his partially completed mouse ears scarf on Sunday. The initial reaction was "What is it? Christmas Trees?" I'll forgive him...I think perhaps his colorblindness effects his illusion perception a little. He claims now that he can see the mouse ears perfectly well and that he loves it and wants to wear it with his Goofy sweatshirt, because it matches.





That's the sweatshirt right there in the middle of the second photo. Um, yeah. Poor guy. I wish the world had more colors and I marry a guy who can't even see all the ones we have. That's kinda sad. I'm also making a note to myself not to trust his opinion on any future dyeing projects...you see, even after 15 years together I tend to forget his disability and ask things like "how do these colors look together?"


Oh, I did get some Wool of the Andes that does coordinate with the Goofy sweatshirt. I'm debating whether to do another illusion scarf, attempt intarsia, or come up with something else in 2 colors with a Disney-esque motif. Gotta keep my color challenged sweetie in high theme park fashion for our trip next month. Just in case its cold, you know? Florida is unpredictable in January.


This will most likely be my last posting for the year... so if there really is anyone out there reading this Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Merry Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, Happy last 11 days of the year. I wish you all the festivities, excitement and bounty of the season if you so choose to partake. I'm off to cross one more thing off my list of stuff to do....


I'm sure there will be plenty to post when I return from my holiday travels.