S is for shhhhhhhhhhh

Like a few other letters, I couldn't wait for S! (still can't wait for Z!!!!) Okay, here goes!

Shhhearing! This is a print made by my hubby's Aunt as part of her final grade in Art School. It is a lithograph she made from a pen/ink drawing she made of her husband shearing their sheep. They still raise sheep in Maine and little do they know when I move back home what I'll be asking for! :)



The other Shhhoes!! Tiny ones! I live vicariously through these! Some of these I would never wear myself, but I love to collect them.


My two favorites are the Calla Lily one-the one that started it all and the Sewing Sandal.



Cow shoe and tiny purse; and baby shoes to represent my kids! Mules, a few with Jewels :)





Boots from various trips I've made and more shoes that I would never wear IRL but I just think they are cute! LOL!


Almost all of these are gifts from friends and relatives. I showed you my most favorite ones..I guess I am just a sneaker/clog type of gal as some of these would never grace my feet LOL!

Hoping for knitting content tomorrow. I am working on a secret knit and cannot show you yet!! Toe up socks..well soon! Have a nice week everyone! :)

Yarrn PrOn Frrrriday

It's the last Friday of Socktoberfest! Sock Yarn Pr0n that is!



Upper and lower left: ScoutJ'sSocktoberfest Colorway
Middle left: My dyeing experiment that wouldn't stop running
Right: Handspun sock yarn courtesy of my KSKS Pal!


This is the The Castagna Colorway in the new line of Colinette Jitterbug Sock Yarn! I love the colors in this, they show up even better in the picture...or is it my weird lighting in the house?? ;)


Another view, it is so soft and very similar to the STR yarns. Not available in the US yet. A lovely swap surprise from my UK pal! Thank you again!

R is for.....

Rhododendron, which according to my Webster's New World Dictionary-any various trees or shrubs, mainly evergreen, with showy flowers.



The big shot, this believe it or not started out as a 5 gallon shrub in a pail, now about 8 years later it has taken up almost the entire pine garden in the front yard. I have no green thumb, plants die on me (we won't talk about the ivy I got at work...hrmpf!) so my trick for this plant.
Absolutely.....NOTHING, I don't weed it, trim it, fertilize it, or anything but look at it. That's why I get lovely blooms as these.....and that's why I'll always leave it alone ;)

This is my favorite, I just may make this into cards..hey, that may be a good gift idea ;) (psst.. anyone know how to do that? I don't want to do them on my printer)

I took these pictures this past Spring as I was very proud and just in case I needed an R.

Stay tuned...more frantic knitting and sewing going on this week. Deadlines...man...deadlines..I prosper, get in the groove, and just produce more with deadlines....why?????

FO's...

My first hat in memory of Alex! This and others will be donated to the hospital where he was born. I just love knitting the Umbilical Cord Hats. Another one on the needles.






From the Monthly Dishcloth KAL--yeah, I joined, its neat, gives me a break and I needed some new ones ok! Still haven't made a ballband yet, though..hmmm..


My first try at Illusion Knitting. Not to bad, but lots of ends to weave in. I can just imagine a scarf LOL! (not!)


Just in time for Halloween! I like the harvest ones that are brown though the best!





But my favorite FO of the weekend!! My cupboard, cabinet, whatever... Designed by myself and my Father-in-law. (well he did most of the designing after I gave him the measurements!)
Hand made by him and my son this summer (kept that teenage boy outta trouble ;) )


Stain job courtesy of me! Thus the reason for no big FO's the last few weeks! I so wanted this to be yarn storage, but needed much more for...well as you can see storage, storage not yarn storage. So many appliances, so little counter space. Sigh... I have outgrown my house, but no bigger one in the near future. The cat is a little PO'd at me though! I ..um..had to remove the round table in front of the window that her basket sat on so she could look out the window...looks like I'm going to the pet store for a little get outta the cathouse gift...geesh...

Lusciousness Friday!

Hi all! Yay for Friday!!!!! ETA to spell Luscious correctly, duh!

This weeks lovely Yarn Pr0n, Courtesy of Lang Yarns. SilkDream a 50/50 Merino/Silk blend and it is yummy beyond belief!! I've seen it knit in a cabled scarf and it is so soft and shows the cables perfectly..so um..guess what these will be! Looks like it could be chocolate covered cherries with whipped cream on top.



Just the most squishiest yarn!



Don't you like my sundae on some Lantern Moons? My first pair, for use with scarves..albeit small scarves. :)

Ok, now the challenge....I just love this yarn, a close second to Lamb's Pride! I really wanted a wine colorway. No luck in the USA...online that is. I got the red and choc. from Jimmy Beans Wool..fast service but sadly no wine colored for me! So if you were to happen to find at least 2 skeins if not more of the wine colorway, um..er..and wanna swap, I'm all ears!!

Enjoy and don't drool too much! ;) LOL

Happy Hump Day!

Oh and like I am so glad it is over...3 hrs of overtime!!! My mind..my mind...is fried let alone my aching self! (the only plus...didn't have to cook dinner, takeout yay, German fresh food takeout!! me likey that very much!) All I wanna do is sit here at the computer and drool over everyone else's knitting....

But I do have something to show you!

My very first toe ups!! Poor dear has been frogged a bit...yes, not in a few days though!! I dropped a couple of stitches and I can be a bit AR about my side increases with the magic cast on (from www.knitty.com) The yarn has held up beautifully with the repeated frogging (lost count after 4 times! Yes, these are the toes I started when I visited Turtlegirl) Told ya I had knitting ADD...no, seriously I had some other stuff to finish first. There is some interesting pooling action going on there too! But I do like it, and so far it isn't working against the pattern (well I don't think it is, if you do, just humor me tonite and agree, OK! LOL!) I'll start the second one and see how it goes. They kind of look a bit big on the sides, but I think they'll be fine as I don't like tight socks..if they are too big...well, you know I am the Queen of Frogging!! (I really need a crown now!, with like a big F or Frog on it!!!)
Ok, I better go now, getting a bit slap happy! I love my job, I really do, I help out lots of sick people and today was very rewarding in that aspect! But these long days kinda burn you out..no good for anything once you get home..my yarn and fabric is calling my name...I must ignore...(I can't hear you........)

Oh, and before I go, Soapy and I are doing a swap of handmade things by us! She gets sewing and I get!!!

Yeppers, she knits in her sleep LOL! She's been working on them for a bit, in between her designing (which I think she designed the teal ones!) and million other socks she knits! The bottom anklets will be perfect house socks and she spun the yarn herself (and did all that prep work that spinners do) oh and knit them ;) She'll be getting her goodies very soon too! Thanks again! I'm really signing off now, before I say something even funnier or weirder! ahhhh Friday..2 days away!!! Hugs! Me

Q is for.....

Quilts!!! Picture heavy post!

I used to do quite a bit of quilting before the knitting bug bit me really bad. I still sew, but seriously need to finish a few up. I have made about 5 or 6 more, but sadly (or luckily for you, I cannot find the pictures!) Please visit the flickr page for each to read the history on these here!









I made this wall hanging for my SIL. She loves boots and lives in the West. It didn't fit in the mosaic, so here it is!


This was a quilt made..gosh..in the works for over 20+ years. All the tiny hexagons were hand-stitched together by my husband's Grandmother so long ago. They are bits of fabrics she could collect from clothing, feed sacks, and who know what else. When she passed on, the squares were given to my Mother-in-law. She asked me to put them together. I gulped and said..o..k..and 2 years later, Christmas 2004 it was done. The blocks are called Grandmother's Flower Garden. And yes, it took me 2 years. Every block was HAND stitched together and since I only had so many blocks to work with, I did the best I could. There were days and weeks I didn't want to look at them..but finally I did it. Then the task of finding a backing fabric and hand quilting it. Every, single hexagon you see there...was hand quilted. YIKES! The easiest part....The binding. Found the fabric in like 5 minutes....sewing it on was no problem.

Thanks for stopping by!! Knitting content tomorrow...and yes..um..I frogged again Saturday nite..I have become the Queen of Frogging every other day..so watch out Monday..please no frogging!

Friday, The Yarn Pr0n Kind

Today's post is courtesy of Doc! Doc is a Radiologist that I taught to knit around April/May, just before she left for CA! She had been wanting to for a while, and I gave her a birthday gift of yarn and scarf needles, but after a long day on our feet and brains hurting, never got to "knit"! So one day, she had some time and I proceeded to show her casting on and garter stitch. Flash ahead to after a weekend, the scarf was as tall as her and it was time to bind off...so I showed her.

In the meantime, she had been buying yarn and cicular needles all weekend. The next project she wanted to do was a hat on circulars for her hubby in Iraq. She was looking for a blue wool yarn for him, um..so I did what any enabler would do, I gave her a skein of LP Bulky. I was amazed as most new knitters don't go directly to circs and dpns...but what the heck, I showed her how to cast on, join in the round and purl. A day later, the hat was done, so we proceeded to bind off. She found LP on ebay and I guess the rest is history..she loves LP as much as I do! So after destashing a bit of different yarns and a few needles and a new needle case, off she went to CA. The girl moved in an area with 3, count them 3 LYS's, one 10 minutes away!! Lucky her! But, being a Doc, never enough time to visit....until this week when she sent me a thank you gift of.....


Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky! Man this stuff is so soft!!


Ahhh!!!




I love picture taking in the wild LOL! So, what do I do with 200 yds of this?? Any ideas?? No to a scarf already..not cold enough here for that, plus thanks to my SP6, I got a few already and I don't want to felt it..I like pawing it!

BTW, Doc is going to sign up for "SOCK" classes at her LYS too!

My DD saw me armed with camera and skeins of yarn yesterday afternoon, (I like to get a head on my yarn pics while I can before I get home and it is dark!) Oh, you going outside for your yarn pr0n mom?? It's almost Friday right?? hehe!

Thank you for your nice comments this week regarding Frogging Tuesday and Thursday! May it not be repeated for a long while!!!

Double URGH!

And if it happens a third time this week...I'm out!!

Maybe this is a week to sew as the needles, yarn and me are so not working out. I thought I'd work on my oldest UFO Scoop du Jour as I look at my first toe-up socks, 3 purses to be done, um..tons of other stuff. But no, I wanted to work on this for some mindless knitting...a rest so to speak after the lace frogging. (don't worry, only 1/2 frogged!)

So, here I go merrily away knitting on my left front. I get the the armhole shaping and it is going swimmingly, I'm on Knitty chat last nite having a great time and making tremendous progress. Tune into today during lunch....I'm at the neckline decreases/shaping. I No pics as I'm at work, oh well. Never mind that before I found this out I had frogged back about 15 rows due to my interpretation error of decreasing every row at the neckline (K row, K2tog, P row, P2tog)2 times!! Here I am inches away from binding off when... look at it..hmmm the neckline is supposed to be curved, thus the "scoop" neckline....hmm...why is that jagged looking bind off there. It was "key word-was" supposed to be a left front...well suffice it to say, it is back to 14" and ready for the first set of armhole decrease...AGAIN!!

Will I knit more when I get home, do I dare....things come in threes you know ;) Is it because I am sitting here waiting for a plumber to call to fix a leak in my hot water heater?? Could that be the "3rd" thing..can you see why I don't want to knit more on my toe up socks?? Other socks are calling my name, scarves, purses, dishcloths...will their call be answered??? Am I just a square thing, sock, hat, scarf, and purse knitter? Will I ever "get" a sweater done...can I do it?? And by all means the question--will it fit!!! I have like 4 other sweaters to do. It is not the pattern, that is awesome...it is me. I feel this way sewing clothing for myself, thus, I don't do it. I sew square and sometimes rounded things. :(

Good thing YPF is tomorrow. I need to cuddle with my skein about to be exploited tomorrow...I need some fiber love....

ETA Then I arrive home and this is waiting for me!! My own Ballband washcloth, and I didn't have to knit it. (well I need to knit some..yarn is awaiting!) Thanks String Bean

URGH!!

Well, Pink scarf #3 was not meant to be!! I HAVE to mail tomorrow and as you can see....



See that blue arrow to the left...um..see any difference in the fabric?

Well, have you figured it out?


Yes folks!! I knit at least 6 or so inches on the wrong side!!! This scarf has R and W side and it would be fine twirled around on your neck showing either side, but it's not supposed to be both R and W on one side! You see my needle just above the idiot mistake where it was frogged, put on a stitch holder and promptly placed in a bag with the other skein and pattern. In time out! I will finish it soon, just need a break! Sniff...it is so soft too!! Maybe I need to find someone locally to give it to.

Blogstalking-the Kitty point of view!

Hi, My name is Sapphire and I'm a lucky cat! As you can see on the left, I love to sleep in my basket (that formally held yarn), no making she who tolerates me knit kitty pi for me, nope, I like this better!






Ooops! I got caught under the bed, won't show you what I really see out there. Scary thought that teenage boy's room!








Yikes, see them wolves there! (ignore the Green Day posters!) My view of the world as I sleep with my Mom! Every night, that's where you'll find me...unless I get hungry...then I scratch at the door of the parents!




Ahhh, on the lap of my master surveying it all!! I am most happiest here when he pays attention and pets me and talks to me. (and sometimes keeps me captive cause no one else will talk to him!) But we won't talk of how he makes me dance to entertain the others...just miff's me off it does! He thinks of me as his personal kitty cat dancer..hrmphf!




From my previous vantage point, see my other places to hang! Love that rocking chair, no one else gets to sit in it, I mean how can a kitty go wrong! My own chair and cool scratching post (although I do admit to being caught scratching Mom's new couch..eek, if she catches me again, it could get bad!)





See, all I wanna do is have fun! Who needs toys when you have a box!

Socktoberfest Socks

1st pair is done! Yay! Onward to my toe ups now!

Cascade Fixation Effects in pink, used US 3 dpns-sock 1, 2 circs.-sock 2.(was helping to teach a 2 circ. sock class) I must say, using my 2 addi circs is the best with this yarn. The bamboo is really grabby and slows me down a bit I think. Mainly due to my "tight" knitting...loose, I try to be a little more looser!! This is my best fitting ankle sock to date! (3rd time is the charm!) Excuse the wonky toe on your right, DD was modeling and I didn't check the socks first, and HA they are big for her, so I guess she won't be stealing them!! ;)

So, off I go to work on my toe-ups, and other stuff! Although I am quite beat from staining my new cabinet (son and FIL built it this summer for me)twice today (1 coat of wood conditioner, then found out the stain was too dark, off to store, back with stain/poly mix, then coat 1. Tomorrow, sanding and coat 2..)

Blogstalking assignment finished tomorrow, ABC along pics later in the week...and who knows what else!!

Have a great week!

Lamb's Pride Friday the 1st!

OOPS! I mean Yarn Pr0n Friday hehehee!!Well, some of you know my obsessions with the below brand yarns. I, well, love this yarn! I like how it is not plied (feel like I am knitting straight off the lamb LOL!) and the colors it comes in. As for felting, so far only a few things done, and it does take a bit longer...but I still love it. However, you haven't seen many products of said yarn love. Why?? Well I asked that myself last nite...I hoard it, like they were never going to make anymore. (well I don't have that much ;)! Maybe because it was the summer and it is hot to work with...hmmmm

Lamb's Pride Worsted and Bulky, my 2 favorite Brown Sheep wools...well so far.




This is Deep Charcoal Bulky and about to be swatched for the Boogie Vest ! I love this color!




This is Worsted in Wild Oak, another favorite. I previously used it on my Hobo Chic Bag, remember this is the color I ran out of during the Knitting Olympics. I had to stop myself from ordering a huge cone of this from here, which has some good deals and 2nd's also. Great service too!

OHHHH! isn't this a gorgeous shot!

These pictures are provided for you by me,but courtesy of Turtlegirl76's knowledge in all things flickr (and I'm sure more things than that ;)!! Enjoy! Happy Friday!

P is for

Projects in Pink...um...projects in progress...um...no wait Pink Projects in Progress! Ok, so I'm a little slap happy right now!! :)

2 Scarves done for Think Pink. The left one is the Purl Scarf from LMKG in Lion Brand Jiffy. The right scarf is just 200 stitches cast on lengthwise and garter stitch using 3 balls of Joanne's Sensations Dolcetto a wool/cotton blend.

Below is my CF ankle sock, would like to finish tonite!! They'll be my first pair of Socktoberfest socks!

And the last one to show...you hoo....Sandra does this look sorta familiar?? It's the scarf she designed for her daughter Franciska and my first lace type project. Which, let me tell you..um..er..don't think I'll be making too many lacey type projects. This poor thing has been tinked/frogged a bit....but I am perservering. No lifelines, but I am ensuring the stitch count after each YO row is correct..well now I am LOL!! :)

I need to have this scarf and the others out by Tuesday so wish me luck!

See you tomorrow for YPF! :)

Socktoberfest 2006

Lolly asked us to share our sock history, so here goes mine:

When did you start making socks? Jan/Feb 06
Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? Mainly by myself, various online tutorials and my friends online and at Knitty. or in a class? I finally got to take a socks on 2 circular class in March.
What was your first pair? Plain ole stockinette socks pictured to your left ;) in Lion Brand Magic Stripes in Lumberjack. Done in Magic Loop as I couldn't figure out the dpns and hadn't taken the 2 circ. class yet.
How have they "held up" over time? Really well!! Hardly any pilling, and that is on the inside.
What would you have done differently? Paid more attention to the markers when doing the first gusset decreases and toe decreases (I do have 1 wonky toe on this!
What yarns have you particularly enjoyed? hmm...of all the yarns I have used so far...All Things Heather Golden Pear sportweight. You can see below as the start of the Anastasia Socks my first toe ups! I knit my first Thuja's in Lion Brand Woolease...eeek, not fun at all. I have quite a few other yarns in the queue to try though! :)
Do you like to crochet your socks? No
or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method? All three, depending on the pattern or needle size needed. I do plan on 2 socks on 2 circs when I get an easy pair on the needles though...
Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?) Well, since I've only made flaps so far, flaps LOL! I do plan on trying short rows this month, so I'll let you know!
How many pairs have you made? 8 total with 2 on the needles and sooooo many more in the queue!!!


Anastasia Socks

Cascade Fixation Ankle socks


Karen's Sugar-Free Diabetes Walk Socks - should be fast as it is worsted weight, however, my first cabled socks.


Pink Ribbons - The Cure colorway by Sunshine YarnsThe top 3 are my main goals. These would be an added bonus.


Thuja -These would be another added bonus...worsted weight also, Volcano colorway by Sunshine Yarns

I hope to knit a few pairs, but I will see how it goes, the Anastasia's will be a big challenge as a lace pattern and toe up. Socktoberfest is not a competition, it is about knitting the socks, why we like to do so...should be why we love to buy the yarn too!! um..er..we won't talk about that.

Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post! You all really helped me in many ways!! Take care! Off to knit...um..scarves oops I mean socks ;)