Done!

Ok, So at last I've finished the Victorian Lace Socks. I tried to get a good picture, but again, I failed. Same sock, 2 different looks. The color is really somewhere bewtween these 2 pics. Nice pattern, we'll see how they wear before I make another pair.

Kind of fun making the sock blockers from coat hangers. I made them from some hangers I had at home, but after I bent the hangers, I found they were on the small side. Well, for blocking socks, I guess the size isn't as important, besides, I knew these were on the smaller size as far a coat hangers go. I had bought them cheap for another craft project. I might try these again with "normal hanger"(whatever that means).

Didn't get nearly as much done on my other projects, I spent most of the weekend making the drapes for the window ( I forgot to get before pictures, so the impact of the after isn't as transforming as could be. I did take on another small project which did cut into my knitting time anyway. I am making this sweater/shrug for DD1 in a heavier varigated yarn I bought a long time ago. The color seemed like it would work with a skirt I am sewing for her, and wanted a little something for her to keep warm in the mornings - It's the middle of summer, and she's not warm enough during our walk to school in the mornings. What did Mark Twain say....somelike" the coldest winter I ever saw was summer in San Francisco...". Well, we're not exactly in S.F., but pretty dare close ( at least close enough for the morning fog before it burns off). When she's tried it on a few times, she's said it's really warm. Because it really only covers her arms, I'm hoping it's not too warm for her. If this works out, I'll make her another in Navy that she can wear at school this year. She goes to a private school, where uniforms are required. Although they aren't very strict rules (or so we hope), they do limit her tops to Blue,Green and Khaki, and bottoms to Blue and Khaki. Last year she seem to often be cold in the mornings, and lot of the day while in the classroom.

Well, obviously DD2 is something of a ham. She sure loves to get her picture taken. Whenever I have the camer out, she wants her picture taken. I don't always, but I do try to do it more often. I am terrible about taking pictures of the girls, and want to get better. I don't have lots of pictures of myself as a kid to show my daugthers, and almost nothing of my husband. It's fun to show them pictures of them as smaller kids and babies, and tell them the story about what we were doing when we took the picture. Someday I'll actuaaly get the pictures into a photo album...someday. For now, I just continue to collect them. With smiles like this, no need to worry about cloudy days. She knows how to bring the sunshine.

Nothing Says Loving...

like a good cat cleaning. I wish the picture was a little better, but I think you get the idea. This is Nutmeg cleaning DH. He often does this, to make sure his Man-pet is clean. I love how the claws dig in a little to hold him better. Maybe if the cat had opposable thumbs, he could just hold him by the ears ike the rest of us.....

Knit-On!!

Mittens On My Mind

This is where I stand.....somewhere after the fringed and braided cuff, but befor the real knitting begins. I had an idea when I first strated this mitten, of how it should look, but now I am beyond that and then some.

I've been surfing aound, looking for something (not sure what), but found these techniques and couldn't help but try thrm out. Pretty cool, if not a little confusing at first. Strings everywhere. I need to think about this some and plot out a new path.

Monday, Monday.

Well, I had such a great weekend as far as knitting goes. I was able to finish clue 2 on the Galvastan KAL. I am only working on this at work, so this week, I will tackle clue 3. When I had strated this before, I only got halfway through clue 2, so I'm already further then that ( I feel ahead of the game). I was able to complete this last Friday night as I expected, and hurried to put the stitches back on the needles before losing too many stitches. I like how this looks, and the stitch definition is nice. You can see the design well.

I also finished clue 3 of the Mystery Shawl. It's looking good. I didn't measure this when I had it stretched out for the picture, but the size to my untrained eye was OK, so I will push on to clue 4. I am anxious to finish this, as the next mystery shawl starts this weekend (first clue issued 7/28). I don't think this will be completely done, but a good jump this week, will make next week easier, as the first clue is usually small and done quickly with lots of time before the next clue.


I wasn't able to start into the Mystery Stole yet, but that will come in time. I have a small side project that needs attention first. Corbin must have shoe for the faire, so I want to knit up a pair of these ( the green ones in the middle). Corbin likes to kick his booties off, so we need a pair of booties that tie on. I will try the pattern out and see how well it knits up. There are a few other styles I would like to make, but want to make sure they fit, and the pattern isn't too complicated. I have some dk green New Zealand Wool I bought a couple of years ago, that would be great. I will also need to dig out the shift my girls used as babies(it won't matter if it's a boy using it, as it would be the same for either sex). I had a simple tie on cap I used for DD1, but I don't think I have that anymore, so I will see if I can't sew one up real quick to cove his tender head....we'll see.

Eureka!

I found my knitting bug again. I was kind of languishing in the puddle of UFOs, but after calming down, catching my breath, I was able to start swimming again. I have picked up my Mystery Shawl# project again, after stalling out when I ran out of balled yarn. I am better thewn half way through clue 3, and am excited to be knitting again. I hope to finish clue 3 this weekend, and will post a pic ASAP! The next shawl starts July 28th, and I've signed up for it...although I don't know if I'll be working at it the same time as everyone esle. I may have to start this one late.


I am working on the Galvaston Shawl when it gets slow at work. I had started this once before, but wasn't happy with how it was looking, so I ripped and started again with the old stand by wool (my Thrift shop speacial). It is looking pretty OK. I posted Clue 1, and now I'm almost done with Clue 2. I should be able to post a pic by Saturday.

I haven't given up on the mittens yet, I am just thinking about the technique needed. I had started them the other day with a braided cast-on, but wasn't happy with how that was working. I know it has something to do with my technique of knitting with the 2 colors together. I strated it again with more stitches to try and make it bigger, but still wasn't happy. I've casted on a third time, and there it sits. I am contemplating wether I really want the multi-colored cuff as I invisioned, or just the one color.......hmmmm. Thinking. I have plenty to keep busy with for now anyway, with the 2 shawls I am currently working on. I haven't even started the Mystery Stole. I want to jump in, but hesitate while I work on the shawls. The moderator is posting a larger clue today (clue 4), to last the 2 weeks until the 5th clue comes out. As Harry Potter comes out tomorrow, she wanted to give everyone a little extra time to read the book and get caught up alittle beofe proceeding. I want to take advantage of this time to jump start the stole....I just need to figure out what yarn to use.

So much to do, so little time.

J+R=Love

Raquel drew this picture of Jacob and her playing together. I love how she has them holding hands. And I think she really captured the true essence of Jacob...and Raquel. That ponytail Hairdo is her. Very cute! She started to write his name at the top before she realized she forgot how.....

So I was trying to clean up all my woolcarding mess from this last weekend, and where I thought I had all of the scraps from that Stash Lot, I found I missed another 1/2 dozen pieces still in the bag. Ugh. I had already spun up the batts created, and even plyed one of the bobbins of singles created. In fact, as I was spinning up the last of it last night, I was thinking about dying one of the bobbins full in maybe a magenta color, something to co-ordinate with the other bobbin. I decided to stay up late plying so I could maybe dye tonight. This morning I found a small skein I can use instead. It was a sample of yarn dyed in the locks then spun up to see how the color blends when the purple dye split. It looks like it will work real well with the other piece. I hope to look at this a little more later and maybe get a jump on it.

Tonight is DH Birthday, so going out to dinner is in order. I'm not usre yet what he'll feel like, but I'm sure anything will be more fun then me having to cook! I also want to try and go to the movies this weekend as part of his birthday celebration. There are a few movies out we want to see, so I'm sure we'll find something. I'm leaning towards go to see Harry Potter. I was thinking we would go see it in IMAX, but not sure if it's offered in our area. We'll have to see what we can do.

Happy Birthday, Tiger. 'Sure do Love you!

And Another Week Begins

I had a little fun this weekend, blending up some smalll pieces into one larger batt. I'm not even sure why I bid on this from ebay. Where was my mind? Anyway, I got out my carder and just started feeding this through. It really was a mish-mash of scrapes, and I thought this was a clever idea to combine them all into one, so I would have enough to do something with.
Not the best picture, but you kind of get the idea. It blended into a mauveish-grayish piece. It had one small piece with lots of colorful nubs in it, which got dispersed all over, so now there are bits and pieces of yellow/green/orange nubs throughout. It's not a strong enough anyone color over all, so I'm not exactly sure what to do...I think I'll try making some mittens with this stuff.

This is the monthly style for the KAL group. I want to try knitting these, but split the mitten in half, colorwise. i.e. the right half this stuff, the left half another color....only, I have to think of what color would work with this. The resulting wool is a little scratchy, so I hesitate to use it against the skin for a scarf, might work good as socks...but I still come back to the mittens. Maybe I should just make the mittens in a single color....I'll have to look at this some more.

Smile

Here's my baby, building forts in the living room... Just over her shoulder you can see the sample I was trying to photograph. That is clue 1 from the Galvastan Shawl KAL I joined. I had tried a few times to start this, but couldn't get into it (not that I didn't understand the directions, my brain just wasn't into it. Now I've finished clue 1,and am working on clue 2...hope to have photos to show soon.

This is worked in double strand of a lace weight cream colored wool I found on the internet. It's too fine to use single strand, but works well double...in fact, most of the shawls I've been working on have been made with this, as A) I have lots! B) It's wool, and light colored, so I can dye it a different color when done, and C) I have lots! I found these 2 spools of the stuff for roughly $20, and I've already knitted 3 shawls from it, and only slightly dented the masses. I think I orginally bought for doilies, as I was going through a doily stage at the time I found it, but this is a little too fuzzy for doilies(the stitch difinition would be lost), but it works great for shawls.

One last shot of my crazy girls. DD1 had spent the day at a party with a friend,abd came home to share with DD2 her treasures. I love you girls!!!
Happy Knitting :oP

Happy Birthday

No, not mine. Happy Birthday America. A whopping 231 yrs. Wow, the big 2-3-1.

We had a relatively quite 4th, stayed at home with the family, played in the water, cooked a little, and knitted. I didn't finish anything really, mostly playing with a bunny buddie. I've seen some cute bunnies on the internet, and thoought maybe I could come up with something on my own. I have the 2 legs and body done. I will try to start the arms later today when I get home. It's quite fasinating to try and construct the body. I have a picture in my mind, and now I'm just trying to eek that image out my fingertips to my needles.

I have hit a stumbling block on the fingerless gloves I was working on for the mittenskal for June. I have one done (I will post pictures later today when I get home), but I'm not sure I like how the fingers are. Now I know what your thinking..."what fingers? This is FINGER-LESS. As in NO fingers. Well the palm covering comes down to about the first knuckle. When you use your hand, the finger bridges inside the mitten, pull pull on the outer fabric and I don't like how that looks. It puts dimple where I don't think they belong. Short of leaving them out, I'm not sure there's anything that an be done. I am currently about half way done with the second one, maybe'll try it out w/o the bridges, to see how it feels/wears. If they seem fine without, I may go back and remove.

The wool I'm using for them is some millends from Sheep Studio. It was a small clump in the bag of mixed roving. I love the burgandy colr, and alway thought it would make beauty fingerless gloves for my friend(don't know why she alway came to mind in regards to this wool. She really favors greens, not burgnady). Which now makes me think again about those dimples, if I really don't like them, it ultimately doesn't matter if I give them away....right?

Progress on the Mystery Shawl 3 has stalled. I was doing good for the first 3-1/2 weeks of the project, keeping up and all. Then something happened...ran out of balled yarn or some small crisis, and came to a skidding halt. I haven't been real interested in finishing. I want to get back at it, maybe I just need to push myself a little to get it done. From the finsihed pics I've seen, may need a little extra repeats somewhere to enlarge slightly, but I haven't decided where yet. This one also has a beaded edge option...which could be a nice technique to try. I've always kind of steered away from beading, not wanting to get to involved in that(I have enough small objects - toys, scattered around my house to where I don't need more).


I was trying to get back into the sock knitting, so I revisited the Six-Sock KAL, and started the sock for June - a Lace Victorian design. I am using Lisa Souza, laces weight in Buttercup, double strand. It is such a soft yellow. I don't care much for the color, but it was a great thirt store find, and this sock called for such a delicate yarn. I had started it with some denim blue handspun, but it just looked bulky. I found this stuff in my stash, and thought it would be a better match for the project. I have the first one done, and about half way thru the second. I hope to finish these up here soon. This is a small enough project that I can often work on while walking home....in the heat...along busy streets....UGH!

I want to work on a "Red Scarf Project", and rolling several idea thru my head for this. Needs to be unisex, and red. Hmmmm. I can feel an idea coming on, but still planning while trying to finish up a few on these current projects.

Happy Knitting