LYS haul

On Tuesday, I made a trip to my LYS. It was specifically to get this pattern by Knitting Pure and Simple that I had ordered.



This will be for me in a combo of natural Fisherman's wool, and rust wool from Ireland. I'm so excited to get this started....but first I'm making myself finish my purse. It's getting there (and would've been done already if I didn't decide on adding an extra repeat of the pattern.) This is my goal for tonight's knitting (and if I don't fall asleep on the couch again as is my habit, it should be accomplished.)

While at my LYS I might've picked up a skein or two of Berrocco Ultra Alpaca.




And maybe a skein or two of Casecade 220....



And....they started carrying Schaefer Anne sock yarn! Gotta try that out....



And.....some sheepy note cards (made by a local artist who made them from a painting that used to hang in the LYS.)



That's my purchases. Now...off to knit!

Eight down, Twenty to go

Time to show off some socks!

These are new CIC socks that were made with my dyed wool.



40 sts, sz. 4 dpns, 200 yds wool worsted weight, + a bit for the toes.

The pattern is from the 2007 Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar for Aug. 14, 2007. (Written by Laura Anderson of siriusknitting.com. It's always fun when you recognize a designer's name. She's on one of the groups that I'm on.)

Actually, I didn't really use the pattern per se, just her idea. That is...using a variegated yarn, pick out a color you want to show off (in my case, yellow). Then, whenever you get to that color, purl until the color changes.



In fact, maybe next time I'll reference the pattern more. I have a sneaking suspicion that there's an easier way to handle the color changes in the gusset than what I did.

Quite fun, although it definitely used up more yarn that I thought--a full skein.

Magic 28 is coming along...




I've been in a blah knitting mood. Can't quite decide what to do.....

That was solved when I saw this pattern for the Fashion Cable Knit Bag. The pattern was actually written poorly. I had to flip between 3 pages to complete one row. After retyping it, it went much better. (If I could remember what C5F and T5F stood for, that would help. :)

It's been started a couple of times, but I think this is a keeper.

Better?

Nothing like getting a new-to-me monitor to make me realize that it's time for a color change.

(Sorry, I'm really not as color-challenged as I appear.)

Time for some knitting

Guess what came to our house today?



That's right, it's that time of year again. The kids were off to school, and I was home alone. (No, I did NOT embarrass my kids by taking this picture. It's a generic one found on the 'net.)

You may think that I spent the day knitting and spinning, doing all sorts of creative stuff.

The truth is....I vacuumed and went to the dump. Oh, and a load of laundry was done.

In fact, I don't think I've knitted at all.

Hmm...something is wrong with this picture. Don't worry...I'll take of this matter promptly.

In the meantime, I'll show you a couple of pictures.

First, the CIC socks that have been finished. The knots of yarn were un-knotted (some cutting was involved), but there was enough yarn for a complete pair.



They're certainly colorful--but I like them this way.

Also, the Jaywalker socks have been completed and are modeled by DD#2 (my legs would a much lighter shade--not quite pasty white, but close.)



These are actually a late birthday present. I've knitted the equivalent of 7 socks for this pair. (Yes, really. I knitted another pattern about 5 times before finally ripping them out and starting over. When it doesn't work, it doesn't work.)

Now...it's time for dinner....and maybe some knitting....

Example #2

Continuing the last post about a subconscious color theme, remember my Clapotis?



I had taken it with me to Hawaii, and finished it while there.

Well, I had taken other projects to work on also, one of which was making a new newborn size for my WHW soaker wrap pattern. It got completely knitted in Hawaii (I cast off in the Honolulu airport, but it was still in Hawaii, so it counts.) The pattern has been altered, and should be available soon.



The sad thing is that I actually worked on the soaker wrap for awhile before thinking,

"hey....these colors are very similar.....

very, very similar....

hey! this is the exact same colorway!"



(You must be wondering how I get through the day.) (Sometimes I wonder, too.)

I had bought the two yarns during different years that I visited the MD Sheep and Wool Festival. They are both made from Morehouse Merino yarn, but the Clapotis used laceweight, while the soaker wrap used worsted.

I guess when I like something, I REALLY like something!

Amost an exact match

Ever find yourself following a color theme subconsciously?

For example, when every shirt you buy ends up being blue even when you're trying not to?

DD#2 and I have been clothes shopping, and I'm not sure what color her shirts are, except I know that we've been chanting "no more green" everytime we're in the shirt section. We may find in our effort to buy "no more green" that we have, in fact, bought everything in yellow.

I've been doing that in my knitting the last couple of days. I didn't actually realize this until I took the pictures, and then "wham-o"--how more obvious can it be?

I made another dishcloth, from cotton yarn bought almost a year ago.



In the meantime, I dyed up some wool yarn for use in CIC knitting.



It became apparent as I wound it up.



They're almost an exact match!

Thursday thoughts

Last time I blogged I added a WIPs picture in my sidebar of Jaywalker socks, and today I provide the picture to prove it.



I'm using Sheepjies yarn, size 1 dpns, and 84 sts (the number of sts in a small sweater with thick yarn, which I could be knitting in the time it takes to make a pair of socks, but I'm trying not to think about that.) It's a very easy pattern to memorize and it's going quickly.


Remember the knitting needles that got lost (shortly after the reading glasses got found)?

Guess where I found them?

Outside. On the deck. Where it rains. And the suns beats down on them. And it's cold and dark at night.



(I figure I picked them up when I momentarily found them, then took them outside with a armful of stuff for a picture-taking session, then promptly forgot them.)

Poor needles.

It's a good thing that they aren't wood. Or bamboo. Or metal. Or plastic.

I forget the brand, but they have this coating that protects them from the elements. They're inside now, all safe and sound, ready and willing to use when I next call on them.

Spinning been going.....normally, I guess?

It's normal to have bumps and thin spots and w...a....y overtwists throughout the first bobbin, right?



And that the second bobbin looks slightly better, but still is nothing to write home about, right?



And that when I ply them together it can best be described as having lots of character, right?



What a lovely lumpy, bumpy hat this will make!

Big box

A month or two ago I received an email (from a yahoo group that I belong to, not just a random email) advertising a raffle for a spinning wheel. Each ticket cost $2, so I figured, "why not?" and bought one.

Time went by, then all of a sudden I got an email saying that I had won.

After contemplating that email for awhile....
Is it a scam? But I did buy a ticket.
All those scam emails look real. But this address matched the one from before.
And they had a website. And they didn't ask for my credit card ("just to verify") or my password (ditto), I decided it was real.

And got R....E....A.....L.....L.....Y excited.

I've been wanting a wheel for a couple of years now, but couldn't quite justify it.

Then, not only did I get it for $2, but I didn't have to pay for shipping....and it came in a BIG box.



Everything was extremely well packed.



(The packing peanuts helped fill up a beanbag chair.)



They also sent me a festival t-shirt, an instruction book, and 2 bags of fiber. How nice is that?

Several more days went by as I put it together piece-by-piece. (It had been taken apart for easier shipping, but pictures had been taken to make my life easier. )

Ta-da!



Here is me in my new t shirt, not even trying to look like I'm spinning since I don't yet know what I'm doing. (I may not know what I'm doing, but I AM barefoot, so that's a start, right?)



I figure I'll try a bit every day and hopefully soon I'll get something that is recognizable as yarn. (At least to me.)

In case you want to see a knitting picture, Here's a dishcloth that I'm made for me!

Time for a color change

It's August, so time for a Project Spectrum color change.

I totally ignored the June/July colors of red, black, and metallic, but I hope to do better these two months.

The blog colors have been changed to help remember the current colors of:

Brown

Orange

Purple


(I know I told you that I'd change the colors to something less garish.... The brown and orange have been changed, even though they may look the same to you. Whether or not they are less garish, you can be the judge.)

Think I'll have any problem with purple?

No scissors shall be used on this yarn.

I'll try better on this post to come up with some words. Will they be words that go with the picture? We shall see.... (It's Sat. afternoon and I've been cleaning, so don't hold your breath.)

I'm floundering a bit in my knitting. I've decided to start a winter pullover hoodie from Knitting Pure and Simple # 244. I did my gauge swatch already, and got exactly 4 sts per inch on the first try. What's my hold up?

I don't have the pattern yet. I ordered it from my LYS, so in the meantime I'm at a loss at what to do. I've considered starting it, and just guessing at the # of sts around. Anyone try this before?

The chances that I get the exact number are about 100,000 to one, which will make me have to adjust the pattern the rest of the way through. Besides, if I'm buying the pattern, I should actually wait until it gets here, shouldn't I?

(I just looked at the pattern notes and it's knitted from the top down, so scratch that idea. I guess I'll just have to wait.)

In the meantime, I'm working on socks.

These are for the CIC group using 32 stitches, size 5 needles, and a pattern from Mosaic Knitting by Barbara Walker.



The yarn came from a neighbor who went to a yard sale and thought "Yarn--I know just who to get that for!" and she did. (Yarn propaganda has progressed from my family onto my close friends who know to look for wool at yard sales!)

I enjoyed them so much that I started a second pair. These are hard to see, but they are black, purple, and red. I'm knitting them both at the same time to make sure I don't run out of yarn on one and not the either.



This also follows my normal rule of "never cut the yarn even though I'm using both ends".

Of course, it results in a knot like this:



Back to usual. No scissors shall be used on this yarn.

DC trip

Took a trip to DC this week where we went to the Air and Space Museum.



Then we went to to Botanical Gardens where we saw real flowers






and fake ones. These ones were made of glass.




These metal flowers had spices inside them that could be smelled.



(Whatever words went with these pictures got completely lost in my brain while waiting for them to load. Sorry.)