Punkin's World

The Long, Hard Winter

2010-03-09T08:42:00.010-05:00

It's been such a long time since I've posted. I really got alot of knitting done this winter and was happy that I was able to make my first shawl. It's beautiful! I also made a hat for my son which is a tad big.and FINALLY made a Clapotis.

The Clapotis is supposed to be for me but little girl wants to steal it.....

It snowed and snowed and snowed here. The front of the house looked like this.

In fact, it looked like that for a very long time. The snow came and didn't melt! We have had snow on the ground ever since the first blizzard back on December 19th! After about a week of 'spring like' temperatures, it is STILL there only it looks like this.

There are still places that there are MOUNTAINS of piled up snow, such as parking lots. That will all melt this weekend because we're expecting a deluge of rain. Well, at least it won't be white.

I also spun some lovely yak that is just about ready to be plied but I'm not sure if I want a three ply or a two ply. I'm thinking about what to do with it. I need a project that is worthy of this fiber. In the meantime, I MAY knit a pair of socks. I finished Cauchy awhile ago but I wanted to take a break from socks. If I do knit a pair they will be toe up. After making the shawl, I really like that I don't have to cast on many stitches and can be up and running right away. :)

Baby girl wants a Weasley sweater and I'm thinking of starting that this weekend in the rain storm now that my taxes are done and I can clear out my office today. I am home sick with DD who is also sick so I will clean the office instead of resting up....that's the life of a mommy, right? No rest for the weary.

In the meantime, off to shop online for a cheapie pot so that I can dye yarn in it.

Off to the Podium?

2010-02-20T11:29:00.005-05:00

Ta-da! I finished knitting Kiri last night and blocked her this morning. If I learned anything from this project it's to bind off looser. I didn't get nice pretty points on the edges and I was TRYING to do it as loosely as possible. Also, it grows and grows and grows. I could barely photograph this! It has a six foot wingspan. Imagine, all that out of 1.5 skeins of sock yarn.

Nice stitch detail, the color is gorgeous and it took me so long to pin it all out that it's almost dry! I can't wait to try her on!

Knitting Update - The Blunder Edition

2010-02-16T10:18:00.010-05:00

Being we were celebrating the clearing off of the junk on the kitchen table, I decided that today I would assemble the pieces of my Shawl Collar Sweater. Remember it? I started it in October of 2008, had a fight with the directions, put it in the bag for a year, just took it out to finish and ...it was all set to be seamed up. I knit the lovely collar on it last Saturday, all those short rows, big needles, went relatively fast. I was SO HAPPY that it was done. All I had to do was seam the shoulders, sides and sleeves, block and go. YAY!

Today, being I'm off for a week, I took it out to do a bit of seaming in daylight. I beautifully finished one shoulder and sleeve cap seam. Loved it.

Then, when I turned around to do the other side.....

Egad, all those stitches are sorta curved into the collar instead of going straight up the front. Who knit that??!! Furthermore, how on earth could I do that and not notice??? I picked up the stitches and vaguely remember carefully marking it all out and STILL I messed up.

To the pond the collar goes...this is all going back in the bag until I finish my lovely shawl. SIGH.

Olympic Knitting - Kiri Shawl Update

2010-02-14T17:04:00.004-05:00

Hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Enough with the celebration, gotta get back to knitting...
Here's what it looks like now. It's growing and I have 201 sts on the needle! OH BOY!

Olympic Knitting

2010-02-13T20:18:00.003-05:00

Quick post, I'm knitting Kiri, a shawl, STR Lightweight in the lovely colorway Rosebud. Here's how it looked after last night's openning ceremonies.

Gotta go, commercial break over!

Snow, Snow and More Snow

2010-02-11T17:39:00.009-05:00

We were able to not get snow last Saturday but we were hit by latest blizzard and received a bunch of snow. I don't know what the official amount was but it was certainly more than a foot. It was up to my knees in the backyard and it's partially fluffy and partially wet.

The kids were ecstatic to have a snowday and didn't care too much that it was cutting into their Memorial Day vacation. That would be the one where I was planning on taking extra time and doing Ocean City, Maryland....In fact, they had TWO snowdays. Plus, they're getting so big...sigh...my babies aren't babies any longer. Today she told me that she doesn't like Hello Kitty as much because it's 'baby-ish'. :(

I love the way the snow looks agains the blue sky and I couldn't resist using the macro lens.

There may be more snow on Monday! I hope we get 10 feet.

On the knitting front, I finished this pair of socks way back when. I know I used size 2 needles, Socks that Rock Midsummer's Night in lightweight and it's a Schurch pattern but I can't remember which one. I absolutely adore this colorway and may make him another pair from the leftovers. I'll remember or look in my notebook and then put it on Ravelry.

He picked out the yarn at Rhinebeck but I happened to have some in my stash so I got something else instead, one of the Raven ones, then, I knit these for him. I love, love, love them! They look good with anything.

Last week, I decided on my Ravelympics project: Kiri Shawl. It's a challenge for me because I haven't done too much lace knitting and I have never made a shawl. I was drawn to pink for some reason, a color I rarely wear. I bought 3 skeins of STR lightweight in Rosebud. Much to my dismay, one of them had a knot in it. I HATE that. You pay all this money for yarn and then they give you the dregs?

Any ol' way, I wound up two balls and will swatch tonight with size 7 needles to see how it goes. To pass the time in the meanwhile, I decided to knit a Clapotis. I am one of the few people who actually haven't knit one. It's a really fun pattern, very interesting and very easy. Piece of cake, in fact but the end result is very nice. I'm trying to stay away from socks and stay away from green so I chose Navy Blue for a change of pace. I'm about a third of the way done and will put it down to knit the Kiri and pick it back up if I finish Kiri in time, which I do expect to, of course. I will use lifelines, just in case. No need to have to rip and rip if I .... darest I say it? Make a mistake.

On the UFO front, thankfully, I have very few of these, I picked up the Shawl Collar Sweater. It is just about finished, just sewing it together now. Stupid directions. I will have pictures of it and the Clapotis next time. Then, I'll have a blocking party. Shawl Collar Sweater, Pink-a-Boo blanket, Clapotis and Kiri. YAY!

Super Bowl Knitting?

2010-02-07T18:23:00.007-05:00

I handpun some of this gorgeous fiber way back when, Navajo plied it into a nice stripey yarn and knit a stocking hat for DD. She loves it so much that she even wears it around the house. This is from Moonlightbaker's Etsy shop and the colorway is "Candied Hearts". Very suitable for Valentine's Day Knitting.

After that was done, (after being prodded) I picked up the Shawl Collar Sweater, a Martin Storey pattern that has been annoying me and has been in hibernation for many moons. I was 99% done and had to frog the front because of the bad directions. The back is knit to a certain length but the front is knit to a certain number of rows. Dumb. I nailed stitch gauge but not row gauge (does anyone really check their row gauge consistently?) and...well, you know what happened. So, the sweater stayed in a bag on the floor, in the corner of a room since October 2008.

Being it's cold, DH said, "What about my nice sweater?" And so, last night, I finished the front. This morning, I knit the collar and all I need to do now is sew up the sleeves and side seams and find a button and we're ready to go. YAY! Pictures soon!

In the meantime, Elizzabetty came over last night for tea and knitting. She's working on her second Clapotis, you know the pattern that everyone in the world has knit except me. She says that I should knit it. My next project is going to be my Knitting Olympics project, the Kiri Shawl. In fact, I ordered 3 skeins of STR Lightweight in Rosebud just for the occassion, tracked it via the USPS as it crossed the country and ripped open the package on Friday night. I ten stuck my head in the plastic bag to breathe in the yarn fumes. All the while, thinking how much I love that smell, I was itching to start something new. Alas, I had to wait for the Olympics...a full week away.

So...a nice easy warm up project is in order. A pair of socks? Nah, taking a break from sock knitting. Not up to working on Heartland Lace shawl being I'm going to be doing chart knitting very soon for the Kiri shawl (which appears to be much easier). So, Elizzabetty jumped up and down, "Knit a Clapotis!!! A Clapotis!" Ok, ok...but out of what yarn? I don't have 900 yards of anything in my stash! (Amazing, but true. I really try to buy what I intend to use!) I have some beautiful Llama but only 550 or so. Hmmn...I thought about doing it on tiny needles with two skeins, alternating, of Dream in Color Smooshy. In Vino Veritas and Gothic Rose. Here they are entwined. I think that that would look REALLY SUPER COOL!

I even wound them into balls and then changed my mind. Not for long though, they could be knit together into something else. The colors are close enough to mix them up and acheive something. In fact, some of Gothic Rose appears in In Vino Veritas. They're both beautiful.

But no, fingering weight, big project, 4 days...

Off to get milk and eggs and fill the gas tank this afternoon so I stopped into one of the two LYSs that I frequent, Infinite Yarns in Farmingdale. I am so pleased (and fortunate) to have this store relatively nearby. They have been increasing the stockpile of yarns, they carry stuff that isn't readily available elsewhere and the selection keeps growning! They have tons of books, a nice knitting nook where people where gathered knitting around a table. And, on the table were some delicious chocolate chip cookies...and other delectable goodies. I must get there for knit nite sometime (Friday, 7PM!) but it's so hard when one has a family to take care of. We'll see.

So, after tossing my head and looking all over, i was thinking about how nice the Clapotis would look in Debbie Bliss Rialto. It's one of my favorite yarns and it knits up beautifully. However, I am trying to keep to my yarn diet (and fell off the wagon earlier in the week with the STR Rosebud.) So, I was a good Punkin and got 4 skeins of Cascade 220 Heather in Navy.

Ok, off to start this. Stay tuned. Snowstorm headed this way, maybe I'll be knitting more than originally planned.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-09T20:11:00.010-05:00

Well, 2010 is well underway. This is the year that everyone is calling a 'Fresh Start". Let's not miss 2009 at all. The economy is so bad but I'm thankful for what I have, my health, my family and we're both working.

I've really been neglecting my blog, my photography, even my knitting to some degree. I have spun a bunch though! Over the past few months, I have actually some FOs...

Two pairs of socks are done. (I actually made three but .. more on that later.)

This is Charlene's Bluebell Rib. An easy pattern, good TV Knitting. Very nice in STR Goody Goody Lightweight. I made them during some of the world series.

Next up, we have Cauchy, a beautiful unisex pattern by none other than Cookie A., available in Sock Innovation. I love these and they fit me but I made them for hubby who loves them, too....sadly. I also knit a pair of socks for my son in a powder blue STR but I can't seem to find them! AND, they've never been documented in Ravelry. I've been neglecting that as well; however, I'm going to try and get back into shape and update things that need updating.

Speaking of getting back into shape, I'm weight watching and doing quite well. I even joined the Weight Watcher group on Ravelry. It's been nearly three months and I have lost 14 lbs. I'm thrilled! More knitting and spinning, less eating. This is part of the reason that I've been neglecting things. I have been spending the mornings on the treadmill and not on the computer or at the wheel...Also, I was getting up before 6 but since around Thanksgiving time, I've been utterly exhausted. This year has been a rough year at work, I've been working my tail off and put in a lot of time during the last 6 weeks of the year. Only now do I actually feel recovered from the end of the year work. So, I'm trying to go back to getting out of bed at 5:45 and getting on the treadmill and getting knitting and spinning in before work!

I've decided that my knitting olympics project is going to be Kiri, a shawl. I just haven't chosen what to knit it out of. I have 486 yds of Reynolds Soft Sea Wool in a nice Cherry Red color in my stash and I am wondering if that is enough. I would like to have hand spun something suitable; however, I haven't spun anything or enough of anything that would be lace or fingering weight other than the beautiful camel that I have been working with. I also have some Yak/Merino on the bobbin but I don't know if this is Yak worthy. That fiber is just special to me for some reason and I am not sure that I want it to be a shawl. Mostly because of the color. It doesn't look like it would make an interesting shawl. I want an ecru, cherry blossom or maybe a Dream in Color Smooshy color. I am afraid to use DIC Smooshy because it grows and I could wind up with a gown. Also, it's nearly torch time, I MUST decide!!!! I think that the Reynolds isn't enough. Other users of fingering yarn for this used about 600 yards. What to do other than buy yarn?

More later...off to the Blue Moon website...sigh...

Been Awhile

2009-11-01T07:25:00.008-05:00

I know, I know, I've really been neglecting my blog. But now that winter will be settling in, days are shorter and I should be on my treadmill, I will be knitting and spinning up a storm. I bought three new skeins of STR lightweight at Rhinebeck and I am on the foot of sock number one. I'm knitting bluebell rib from Charlene Schurch out of "Goody Goody" on size 2 needles for DD whose feet grow daily. I picked an easy rib pattern because of this as well as it'll have alot of stretch. Before long, she'll be up to grown up sizes. This is a 54 st sock! I couldn't resist having her pose on a blocker amongst the fall things being it's November 1.

I have been spinning away and I have completed a grab bag skein for my spinning guild holiday grab bag. (can't show you that one but it came out loverly!) I also got tons of fiber to spin so I'll be busy. I'm spinning some powder blue merino and white bamboo now and it's beautiful. That came from Creatively Dyed.

On the knitting front, I finally finished two UFOs. The pinkaboo blanket and the infamous remind-me-never-to-knit-in-black socks! No pinkaboo picture yet because it has to be blocked for a few weeks now...but, here's the black socks in my pumpkin studio.

I still have hubby's sweater to finish up though, the one that was supposed to be his Rhinebeck sweater for last year. It's oversized and he lost a bit of weight so I'm going to have to make larger than expected seams whenst I do finish this. I didn't like the way the pattern was written. I never seem to get row gauge. The back of the pattern had me knit a certain number of inches and the front referenced rows after the armhole decreases. My pieces didn't line up and now I have to redo the front to make it match the back. Frustrating....

My Knitpicks Harmony needles are the bestest provided that they don't come in anything smaller than a 2. I've consistently had the problem of the join breaking. On one of my 1.5's, the join came off the second time I used the needle and it came off on BOTH ends. I have to call them again. This is also frustrating to me. I'm being converted over to wood and can't have this happen all the time.

I'm still in Rhinebeck glee and can't wait until next year. Only 49 more weeks! I would love to go to MD S&W but that's not going to happen this year. DS is making his Communion that very day so we'll be home. Looks like I'm not going to get to another festival until Rhinebeck 2010. How dreadful.....

Well, time to get things in order for tomorrow and watch the World Series.

Rhinebeck!

2009-10-18T14:04:00.012-04:00

After much ado about nothing regarding yesterday's weather, we set out on our trip to Rhinebeck. This year, we left later in the morning and arrived at 1:30. It would've been 1:30; however, DS got carsick. He has such horrible motion sickness and as soon as we got off the exit and went on 9 and 9G, the elevation changed and that did him in. Poor kid. I didn't want to miss Rhinebeck and I didn't want him to be sick but it stinks that it happened less than 3 miles from the fairgrounds. We didn't use Dramamine this time because I didn't want him to be a zombie all day. Now, we know better. Some Dramamine is better than none, I guess. I'll use a tiny dose next car trip and see what happens.

We saw pumpkins in their native habitat.

Anyway, it wasn't as crowded as last year and everyone seemed to be overdressed in coats as opposed to knitted sweaters. The weather was supposed to be rainy, raw and terrible which may've held down the crowds but instead it was about 48-50 all day. Cute sheep, nice leaves.

A Shepard in period attire. I asked him if I could take his picture because he was 'so cute'. He said, "couldn't you say handsome instead?" LOL!

Here's the kids at the end of a long day. Below, the one remaining roving hand dyed by Elizzabetty of Moose Manor Handpaints. You can't tell from the picture but it's called "Chameleon" because it changes color depending on the lighting. It reminds me of the inside of a dark red jellybean, not quite clear but highlights of red.

I saw this big basked of giant bobbins so I took an out of focus picture of it. It was the end of the day and the lighting was bad, sorry. Aren't they interesting? I also tried a Canadian Production Wheel at the The Merlin Tree and the double drive spoiled me. I'd love to have one of them.... Of course, hubby said, "When I spin and we start fighting over your wheel, you can buy that one". Sigh......maybe next year I will put it on my Christmas list and Santa can bring it. We'll see. They're expensive (although not as much as a Lendrum Saxony) and I have a wheel so....

As for the haul, I bought three STR Lightweight, one for each member of my immediate family. Meet Joe Brown, Goody Goody and Raven something. Interesting how even the names suit the person... I'm thinking of making DD Leyburn but I have so many UFOs strewn about. All I do is spin now and I haven't been knitting all that much!

I picked up some gorgeous merino/bamboo from Creatively Dyed, some solid merino (purple and a peachy pink) from a small booth that I forgot the name of. I remember she was in the Catskills though and only had solid roving...and I also got some merino/yak from her which made me very excited. The woman had her mom helping her who didn't really know all that much about this stuff but she was very adorable and helpful. She wrote "Moreno" on my receipt. As in Rita. Gotta love it. I got a bag of yarn from the yarn fairy from Holiday Yarns, too! It's gorgeous sock yarn that I haven't tried yet but has been on my list for quite sometime. (Still, nothing beats Cherry Tree Hill supersock, the ultimate favorite...)

Guess I'll be making socks this winter. When I'm going full tilt, I can knit a pair a week so we'll see how it goes. (On 1.5's or 2's, not on zeros). Half the problem is picking out the pattern and I have yet to make a toe up sock!!!

I did finish the baby blanket (no photo yet and no photo of the haul from Rhinebeck but they're coming) I was working on and I'm going to try and block it tonight or during the week. I also spun 8 oz and made a two ply yarn out of some truly beautiful fiber I got from Copper Moose.

I'm attempting my first shawl out of this stuff so we'll see what happens. I spun it very thinly. Maybe too thinly. (Oh yeah, can never be too thin or too rich applies to people and fiber, right?) It was the most beautiful stuff ever to spin...ahhhhh...Then, I switched to BFL and it felt like ...Brillo.

I'm now spinning my naturally dyed fiber from Dye Day. I finished the black walnut BFL and I'm moving onto the marigold merino. See how I'm all over the place? I think it's because I've been working on some harder patterns and spinning more. I spin when I'm tired because it can be mindless whereas working from a chart and knitting a shawl requires me to use the gray matter.

I have been working on a simple pair of black ribbed socks for DH for like .. months. I'm up to the gussett and I'm going to finish the gusset today because I'm making time for it. Then, I can spin or knit the feet tonight.

Life has just been crazy!

Hope you like my pictures and I will try and post again soon!

Eye Candy Friday - Night Photography Edition

2009-09-25T07:52:00.002-04:00

Sunset at the Wantagh Park Gazebo, Wantagh, NY.

Dye Day, Smithtown Heritage Fair

2009-09-20T19:25:00.008-04:00

Helloooooooo!!

Gee, it's been awhile. The end of the summer went by so quickly and I was all caught up in the mayhem that goes along with getting the kids back to school and setting the new schedule. My treadmill misses me.

I have done only a minimal amount of knitting on the Secret Sock. Shh!! So much for that.

I have been working on the dreaded black sock alot and I'm about ready to start the heel. I'd best hurry it up because with the daylight getting shorter, it's harder and harder to knit in black. Next thing I knit will most certainly be a LIGHT COLOR. Like this...

Isn't it beautiful? That's a skinny single spun out of that luscious 50% camel down 50% merino we got from Copper Moose. Ah, it's beautiful. Not that easy to spin, it's like spinning dust. The fiber is short and the merino does little to hold it together. I hope I'm putting in enough twist. I only had that with me today and I started a second bobbin. I may put this down and ply this to see how it holds up. I would cry if it fell apart.

Last weekend, we had a dyeing workshop at my Spinning Guild. We dyed yarn the pioneer girl way! Open firepits, dyepots, natural dye. It was a blast. I was imagining witch's cauldrons but it wasn't quite like that. The Guild dyed a ton (ok, a few pounds) of Romney and I brought some of my own fiber to throw in the pots. Here's my BFL black walnut.

It felted a teeny tiny bit but I think that that will be fine when I spin it. I may be spinning this next. We used pokeberries, onionskins, marigolds, black walnuts, tansy, St. John's Wort, goldenrod and some cranberries. It was fun!

Here's our Romney drying on the racks.

A pot of black walnuts about to be cooked up.Onion skins (L) and , if my memory serves me correctly, Hibiscus (R).

I stuck my 4oz of combed top merino in the marigold pot and I'm almost regretting not using the black walnut for that. The black walnut was fabulous! However, I'm happy with the yellow.

Today, we had another event, the Smithtown Heritage Society Fair where we spinners demonstrated and had a great time! I was getting a bit hungry and will bring or make snacks there next year. It was nice to spend a beautiful day under the old trees on the grounds and I was happy to see many children very interested in spinning!

Here's my best boy testing out a drop spindle. Ah, the drum carding demonstration, just lovely. That's a fake sheep, guys!

We all had a great time and discussed our shopping and travel strategy for Rhinebeck. Only 27 more days, you know!

Eye Candy Friday - Hurricane Bill

2009-08-28T12:18:00.004-04:00

This was taken at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY. The waves washed up past the boardwalk, flooding the golf course. Made for no beach and good surfing!

Eye Candy Friday

2009-08-21T17:31:00.005-04:00

Hosta
Nice flowers. We're not going to have too many more opportunities to photograph flowers!

Next purchase: Tripod because I can't find mine!

During the Week Update

2009-08-20T19:36:00.005-04:00

Well, alot has been happening. I'm off from work today, Friday as well as Monday and Tuesday. I was able to head down to the beach today with the kids but I didn't bring my camera. I will over the weekend because we're supposed to have some large swells here on Long Island due to the effects of Hurricane Bill. Today, we were there at low tide. The beach and the parking lot REEKED. The little baby clams were exposed and there were some little baby jellyfish and there were some crabs. There were even some pieces of crabs that were unfortunate enough to have gotten dropped by a seagull. Stinky. In the water, it didn't stink. Waves were breaking far off the shore and we had to walk way out to get to them. Kids loved it. I remember being that age and thinking how cool I was to go in the water with my dad. OK, I was 10 or so before I swam as well as they do now. They're out there IN the waves. Scares me a bit but I am fortunate that they're both becoming good swimmers.

Last night was Spinning Guild meeting. We just spun....and spun. My bobbin broke. :( The little washer came out of the end of it causing it to rattle around and not work correctly. I looked all over for it at home but I think I must've lost it there. Drat. I also was able to pick up some nice lightly smokey gray llama as well as some chocolate llama. Undyed and scrumptious.

Today, Elizzabetty came by with my camel merino. It's BEAUTIFUL and the pictures on the website do not do it justice. As soon as I can stop fondling it, I will photograph it. In the meantime, here are some other pictures to tide you over.

Elizzabetty has been yarn dyeing so I was able to get another 400 and something yards of nice sock yarn. I am nearly decided on the pattern...but it's a secret. We'll refer to it as the pattern Whose-Name-Must-Not-Be-Mentioned so she has no idea what it is. Remember when that Kennedy kid was accused of raping that girl and America watched the Blue Dot on TV? Tee hee hee. This will be fun. She has to be surprised.

Here's the yarn.

Comon, you knew it was green, right? Lovely and subtle color changes.

Have a holly jolly Christmas! A spruce tree and some Christmas crochet potholders!

Some of the several that I have made so far. These are kinda a pain to crochet. They are double thick and the scalloped border is worked through two thicknesses. It takes awhile to get used to and I can't go fast. Putting that border on takes nearly as long as it does to crochet the two sides! It takes a matter of minutes, I crochet fast. I can make these in about 35-40 minutes if I'm on task and going at cruising speed. Most of it is the border. Cute pattern though. I love the peach one.

That's about it. Time for me to head out in my front yard, grab some coffee and watch the sunset.

Eye Candy Friday

2009-08-14T09:44:00.005-04:00

These Tiffen filters STINK. See the flare in the center under the sun? I guess it's worth it to spit for better filters and better lenses.

Gotta play with my camera more.

Gotta knit and crochet more. Today: Angel Dishcloth and Placemats.

Getting to Know You, Beloved Crochet Hooks.

2009-08-11T08:08:00.008-04:00

Let's face it, my crochet needles have missed me. They've been lying in the basket, at the bottom, screaming for attention. I looked at them the other day. I saw my "Hero" brand size F hook. It was the first one that I got. I remember I was with my mom and my father's stepmother and I was really young, say 5 or so. I learned to crochet with that hook from my mother's mother. Odd that I would start with something so small. I moved up from chain stitch to a doll hat, then a potholder or two. I finished my first couch sized afghan before I turned 10.

Today, I turn a bigger number than that and I'm a pro at crocheting.

So, being I have the Etsy store going in full swing, I've decided to crochet some things for it. I fooled with a few purse patterns and then some Tawashi. These things are so darn cute that I see what the addiction is. You can see them in the Etsy shop window. I'm going to see if I can make up my own patterns for more of them. I've also been making some Christmas ornaments, hot pads and place mats. This leaves very little time for knitting and spinning which I'm starting to miss. Why oh why do I have to work a real job? :( I spun the other night but it's still on the bobbin. More coming!

I've also been playing with my new macro lens and I'm loving it. I'm able to take gorgeous pictures up close and I'm able to do nice portraits. I haven't tried it out on landscapes yet but that's coming this week. I'm just tickled pink!

It's a long story but Amazon pulled through and gave me a nice credit after they messed up my order for this lens so I bought two bead books. Eventually, they'll get here. The shipping from Amazon has been very, very slow lately. They used to use UPS and now they use USPS, which is slow. I don't know why this is..... So, we'll see what I can do with beads. Probably nothing, I'll just look at the pictures.

Well, off to work, let me leave you with a picture from my new lens. My new prep bowls from the pampered chef used to make a pot of sauce.

The end result!

Eye Candy Friday - Macro Lens Edition

2009-08-07T08:00:00.004-04:00

Tiny White Flower I Forgot the Name Of....

I finally got a macro lens and I'm learning how to use it. More on this when I give massive Weekend Update.

Sunday Night...

2009-07-26T20:53:00.003-04:00

I spent nearly the entire weekend straightening up my house and working on my Etsy shop. You wouldn't know it by looking at either of them. I picked up my crocheting needles and worked on cosmetic bags to put in the shop. They seem to be attracting some attention. They're actually very nice and I'm making some more as well as some other bags.

I have also been working on a crocheted teddy bear. He's big, about 24", and has jointed arms and legs. The joints aren't here and neither are the eyes so I have mutilated parts strewn about for now. Pictures coming of the parts as well as of the finished product.

I have been spinning up a storm as well and I'm quite pleased with the results. My spinning has taken new leaps lately. Practice does make perfect. I have been spinning more than I can use so I put some homespun in the shop as well.

We're also ripping up the bathroom, a project that we started Christmas Eve 2007. Today, the walls got painted and the floor is going down. Hmmn....husband is toiling away at this. I'm going to have to photograph him and put it on Facebook.

For now, no pictures! I'm holding out for my new lens. It should be here this week, finally. I ordered it on July 19th!

Eye Candy Friday

2009-07-24T08:34:00.002-04:00

Beach Clouds

Tobay Beach, Massapequa, NY

Playing Catch Up

2009-07-23T07:03:00.010-04:00

Well hello there, remember me?

Sorry that I've been away so long but I've been watching the kids and spinning and spinning and spinning as well as working on my fledgling Etsy shop. Below are two new listings. Both are spun from Colonial Wool which I enjoyed spinning very much. I was not expecting it to be as soft as it was and I will definitely buy some again. It's lovely and the colors were scrumptious! These are all Navajo plied, my latest craze. I love round yarn. I am finally so pleased with my spinning that I can barely contain myself. Looks like the kind you buy in the store, doesn't it?

This week, I'm on vacation and have been doing things with the kids. The weather has been so-so here but we did get a nice stretch to hit the beach. Here's some cool clouds.

Awesome clouds, hah?

I have a nice ocean shot but my computer seems to have misplaced it....:( I'll find it and make it eye candy some Friday. Oh wait, tomorrow is Friday already! Sheesh! Time flies. One more day off and it's back to the rockpile!

They also built a spray park, a great idea. See that 'brick' wall? It's plastic. Patterned, molded to look like brick. Amazing what they can do with soda bottles these days. The spray park is a great idea because the kids can go there after the beach and get rid of all the sand. It's private so it's generally not overly crowded. I love Tobay Beach.

My babies are growing up. Missy is going to lose her second bottom tooth any day and my son has his four front ones in. He's entered the beaver stage but doesn't really look as bad as some kids do.

We also went to the see the movie Ice Age 3 in 3D. It was my first time seeing a 'real 3d' movie and it was AWESOME. The glasses weren't those stupid funky colored ones that you cut out off of the back of a cereal box. They were like cheap plastic sunglasses. I didn't get a headache and they fit over my regular glasses. Stuff popped right off the screen at us. It was so cool! I really only liked the effects, lame storyline. Like, beating a dead horse. It's the issue I have with most sequels, hard to top the original. My son was in heaven and leaned over and said to me, 'Mom, how do you like it so far? This is awesome!'. I was happy mostly because he was concerned about me, that's a good thing. If I ever let him get married, I'm sure he'll make a good husband.

On the knitting front, I decided I didn't like my toe up socks and ripped them out. I also have been working on a black pair for hubby for like, eons... I have been turning the bulk of my attention to spinning and haven't been knitting! I must've spun 30 miles of yarn this month.

I've also been playing with photoshop and I'm running low on disk space on my computer. This is not good considering that I just (FINALLY) bought a macro lens. I am very excited over the lens and can't wait to receive it. I bought it online, natch. It should be here in about a week. Hasn't shipped yet. Pooh.

Stay tuned for macro lens pictures. The bugs, raindrops and other things are waiting!

Skeptical....no pix Sunday.

2009-07-12T08:38:00.006-04:00

It's been awhile. I've been de-cluttering my office and have made good headway. With the kids home for the summer and only in camp for the first 3 weeks, I need a place to comfortably telecommute. The place is normally the sun room but they'll be in there with the babysitter. Sigh...

I've opened an Etsy shop in the hopes of further decluttering. It gives me something to do with all the things that I make. It's just fledgling and I have decided that I simply must buy a macro lens. I want one anyway but now I simply must buy one. Another game show toy?

The Tour de Fleece. I haven't officially enrolled yet I have been spinning. I spun about 6 oz of llama and now I've moved onto the most beautiful steel gray bamboo. I have 8 oz and if this comes out nice and soft it'll be a scarf for hubby should he behave himself and become deserving of such a present. It's the first time that I have spun bamboo and I'm liking it although I think that I like the tencel better. Merino/Tencel is very slippery and produces a very nice yarn. Merino/Bamboo feels 'starchy'. It's slightly sticky which makes it easier to spin. I like it very much though. I have knit with merino/bamboo only once and made a very nice pair of socks. Hmmn...

OK, now, onto something that I've been reluctant to blog about. The other day, while cruising the web, I came across Sensa - the Sprinkle Diet. Maybe you have seen this on TV. I read all that I could find and have seen mostly good reviews. For the price of shipping and handling, ($4.95) you get a two month supply of Sensa, a DVD and a brochure. What, you haven't heard of this stuff? It was around years ago (version I) with a different name, Sprinkle Skinny or something like that. If you don't want to read everything, here's the skinny (pun intended). Sensa is powdery crystal formula, it kinda looks like sugar or salt but is a little lighter in weight. You need not change your eating habits, you need no exercise, you need not go on a restrictive diet. You need to use common sense; however, and not, "well, I'm using this stuff, I can eat whatever I want". Just do whatever it is your doing that is keeping you the same weight when you're trying to lose some. You just sprinkle Sensa on everything you eat, completely covering the food, not overly densely, just sprinkle, like you're using a lot of salt. (the DVD show this) It comes in two types, "SALT" and "SWEET". You sprinkle salt on just about everything you eat and sweet is for goodies. It works by smell. You sprinkle it on your food, take a whiff, eat and your brain thinks your full WAY sooner than before. That's it. I can't smell anything with the salt one and the sweet smells like berries, faintly. It's made of food products, no msg or salt or anything like that. After 30 days, you switch off to "Month 2" because your brain and your nose get smart and need new smells to be tricked. You sprinkle on food, it doesn't work on liquids.

Bull bunky, how could this work? This is yet another scam. I am skeptical!

I figured, for $4.95, it's worth it being I spend thousands of dollars to be skinny.

Well, today is day 4. I am 6 lbs lighter. I am the lightest I have been in over TWO YEARS. I have not been trying at all. I just ate what I normally eat and I feel full. I do put less on my plate and then take more if I want it because I don't want to waste my sprinkles on food if I'm not going to eat it. I am still skeptical....but when you read about it, there seems to be some scientific basis behind this.

I had ice cream everyday....with chocolate sauce. I had bananas, nectarines, ham and egg on English muffin, steak and cheese sandwiches, salmon, corn on the cob. Last night, I had skirt steak (all that fat, usually makes me heavier the next day for sure.) with melted cheese on a hamburger roll. I even had extra steak. I had green beans and couldn't eat any more. No corn on the cob, couldn't squeeze it in. I did squeeze in a scoop of ice cream though. I have not eaten after dinner because it feels like I have consumed MASSIVE quantities of food. Every night is Thanksgiving.

No gas, no bloating, no ill effects. The only thing that I've noticed is that I'm a little bit thirsty and have been drinking more water which is probably a good thing.

You can read about Sensa on http://www.trysensa.com/ and then buy some if you want. They do sign you up for autoship if you don't cancel after 30 days. Enter code ROCKETXL if you order more and you'll get a discount.

Remember, it's not a magic pill. You can't pig out. Just eat what you normall eat and see what happens....?

Eye Candy Friday

2009-07-10T19:20:00.004-04:00

Sunset at the Marjorie Post Park, Massapequa, NY.

Busy....Catch You Up Soon...

2009-07-06T20:06:00.006-04:00

Been busy, setting up Etsy shop, spinning and making believe I'm doing the Tour de Fleece, Family visiting, and...camping.

Happy Belated Fourth of July.

Smell the campfire?

Eye Candy Friday - Caladium

2009-06-26T14:48:00.003-04:00

ONE of my Caladiums finally sprouted...wear are the other 17 plants that I planted?

Natural BFL

2009-06-21T12:05:00.003-04:00

I spun this last night, plied this morning, washed and whacked, hung to dry. It's perfect.

Eye Candy Friday - Handspun!

2009-06-19T07:27:00.005-04:00

We interupt this post to let you know that we have been unable to photograph nature in its finest due to the massive drenching downpours we have been having. It has rained and rained and rained pretty much every single day since Memorial Day weekend. Therefore, today's eye candy will be handspun fiber.

I am becoming the spin master and ready to tackle new obstacles, to boldy go where no fiber has gone before! To spin and spin and spin things that have yet to be spun! What's on the frontier? Dog hair, dryer lint, paper from my shredder...

Ahem...

I spun my Candied Hearts, a bit over 6 oz, washed, whacked and nearly dry now.

I attempted to preserve most of the colors and have only a limited amount of barbershop pole which, it appears, I did to a degree. The skein isn't perfect but it's really nice. It is perfectly balanced and hangs in a nice relaxed loop. I had a little trouble with this fiber. There were a few places where there was some matting. I need one of those thimble sized flickers that could just comb out those spots. I was tugging and tugging and couldn't draft at times. Part of it was the matting and part of it was me. I'm getting very spoiled spinning commercially prepared merino / tencel top which is like spinning pure silky hair. It's icy slippery but gorgeous. I have spun about 4 oz so far so I have 8 to go.

Speaking of 8 oz. I bought some alpaca/llama/some wool at the Guild meeting the other night. It is lovely and stripey and burning a hole, calling to me from it's plastic bag, "spin me, please spin me". If I send the kids to school and do nothing except spin....it could be on the bobbins tonight. The issue is that I have only 6 bobbins and I have other stuff on some of them now. Hmmn...I'm spinning the unloved Rose Quartz, the Deep Sea merino / tencel and a I want to start a third project? What about cleaning and organizing my fiber, stash, library, needles and office? Plus, I have an ark to build.

Best get the kids up and off to school. Stay tuned for an update!

Toe-Up?

2009-06-13T21:11:00.008-04:00

A few weeks back, maybe longer, I bought Socks From the Toe Up so I could, you know, look at the pictures. I haven't knit a sock toe up yet. I actually tried to do two at a time, Magic Loop, toe up but the dog attacked it and I haven't gone back. :(

I am really enjoying the pictures in this book! I decided to tackle my nemesis, a toe up sock. While I was tackling, I tackled Judy's Magic Cast On. I must admit, dealing with the magic cast on is much nicer than dealing with waste yarn and unzipping. It wasn't overly difficult to figure out, I think once I got the hang of it I thought it was ingenious. It's also alot easier than casting on two socks at once, 70 sts each, all those strings hanging, one circular. This was cake compared to starting a top down sock.

So, first, I picked a "wild" handpaint, STR Minestone.

The colors are pretty. I don't really like the name for this colorway. It reminds me of snow covered evergreens with pine cones not a mine. Winter Pines or something like that would be nicer than MINESTONE. But alas, I don't get to name yarn.

ANYWAY...

Then, I attempted the cast on. This took awhile. I practiced it a few times so I would feel confident.

Here's the top view.

And here's the back or the bottom view.

It looked like it was right and like it would work. After you do this, you just flip it over and start magic looping.

Here's the tip of the toe after a few rows of increases. I do have a small hole where the tail is. Hmmn... Nothing that I can't snug up when I weave in the yarn. I also have small ones where the M1's are but I didn't know if twisting them would be uncomfortable or ugly so I did them the normal way.

See, you can't see any holes from the side.

Then, I stuck it on my foot to see how it would look....

Of course, this is as far as I'll get. I don't know how to knit toe up socks! I'll just make one long foot - clown feet!

Stay tuned to see what transpires...pattern details and progress coming soon to a blog near you.....

Eye Candy Friday - One Night Stand Edition

2009-06-11T10:00:00.010-04:00

It has not been a good week. I haven't been to my office in days. I am off today yet again and will return on Monday. In fact, I actually miss my desk and my work computer a little...

DS came down sick on Sunday afternoon and tested positive for strep, one of several illnesses currently taking out the elementary school. Fortunately, the Boobette is still looking healthy. He was home, with a 104.5 at times, three consecutive days which were exhausting for me. I sent him to school on Thursday and he went back up to 102 so he's home again today.

After a few days of feeling 'weird' and hearing things that weren't there (no, not the voices, I heard the phone ringing, my blackberry dinging plus crackling, crunchy sounds) I got an earache. Wednesday night, it really started to hurt so I saw the doctor on Thursday morning and she confirmed that it's an ear infection. This was done ever so professionally, she looked in my ear, jumped back and said, "EW!!!" Oh, yeah, she gave me antibiotics, too.

Being home, I called up my pal, Elizzabetty, who is also home. She came over so I could swipe her handpainted yarn. You can read all about it on her blog. I liked the colors very much and suggested that it be turned into 'One Day Beret' which I was sure that I could knit in one day...or one night. So, we had tea, played show and tell which took like an hour because I haven't seen her in six weeks, and knitted. She has this house in Vermont that she tends to every now and again and then she returns back to civilization. Any way, she's been up there playing, taking pictures, floating about town, looking for a job, mowing the back 40 and handpainting yarn.

She made this one and I stole it, thinking it would look superb in a hat.

I told her that I would knit the hat, quickly, but first I had to finish my Blueberry Scarf. You remember the scarf from the other day? The one that I had to rip back 36"? Well, I reknit it and I was up to the point of where I was before discovering The Mistake exactly when she arrived. It was the homestretch on the scarf that I had the pleasure of knitting...twice!

I took the yarn anyway and put it on my To Do list, just behind this scarf.

I knit another foot last night, wove in the ends and voila, another FO. It's about 65" long.

Ah, my first handspun FO. I'm very proud of this scarf.

Anyway, I got back to playing with Blue Iris.....

Then, I wound the yarn into a ball.

Then, around 9:45 last night, I casted on and knit for a bit. I got all the way to the brim and decided it was time for bed. That was just after David Letterman's monologue.

This morning, I got up and finished the hat. It was great! No pooling!

(I know, I hardly ever show you a picture of myself , I'm like Wilson.)

The hat took me just about four hours to knit so it was certainly a One Day Beret. However, being we crossed over midnight, It was really a one night stand. I knit it last night, we woke up together and I still loved it so I finished the ribbing and I'm done with it. I know nothing about blocking hats except people do it on balloons. I hate balloons so I'll give this to Elizzabetty and let her do that.

Maybe next time, I'll tell you about balloons. I have some good stories about them.

I must get back to tending to sonny boy and spinning something else.

Curses! Curses! The F Word!

2009-06-09T07:59:00.006-04:00

Well, I have been knitting along happily on my delicious blueberry handspun scarf. In fact, it's nearly done! This is a piece of cake pattern and I love the drape and the feel and I keep checking it out and trying it on and cuddling it.

I expected to be done with this tonight; however, if you look carefully at the purl rows, you'll see what I saw.

About dead center....UGH!!!

The Mistake is conveniently located oh, about a yard back.

So, I had to do the F word. Frog it.

What did you think this post was going to be about?

There's Something About It

2009-06-06T15:15:00.005-04:00

Some things make me very happy. I really like when I bake fresh bread. I love the way it stinks up the whole entire house.

There's something about it that separates it from store bought.

Well, the same is true for yarn. I am finding it soooooooo incredibly satisfying to be knitting with yarn that I made from fluff. Maybe I should buy my own sheep! Back to knitting....details on Rav soon.

Eye Candy Friday - More Spinning

2009-06-05T09:22:00.003-04:00

It's raining and it's 58 degrees today. I'm off because we have off 8 Fridays over the summer and this is one of mine which means it'll rain. It seems to me that we're in some kind of awful weather pattern and it's cold and rainy. The good side is, I've only turned on the AC once so far and it's June. My budgeted bill says, "Balance in your favor: $172.33". So, if I don't leave things on, I should be good. I make a conscious effort to go green, honest. I recycle as much as I can, I do not ever ever litter, I buy energy efficient appliances. The only thing I don't have is a hybrid car. We drive a minivan and an Equinox. I love them both dearly. The Equinox wasn't available as a hybrid when I bought mine but I would consider buying one when this one needs to be replaced. We'll see. Also, I don't have solar panels but did look into getting them. It's expensive and you can only make electricity when the sun shines. You can't store it up. Considering that we've seen the sun exactly three days in the past 3 weeks...well, use your imagination.

So, I'm home. I'm recuperating from a long week that I made harder than I should've. Work is really slow right now and I'm using the time to get my desk in order, clear out my every overflowing e-mail box, clean up and organize my files. (The soft copies, not the physical ones). I'm also taking some days off. There are several school events conveniently scheduled during the day so that working people can attend them. I have the good fortune of being able to telecommute as well as being located about a half mile from the school. Some of the events are an hour and I can run over and make them. Some are all day. Like Field Day. Field Day was supposed to be today but being it's 58 degrees and pouring, it's next Thursday. There's also Kindergarten picnic, 1st Grade Picnic, Kindergarten Moving Up, a smattering of birthday parties that my kids want to go to and scouts.

The other thing I've been noticing is exactly where my money goes. In the past it was, "I just don't know where it goes" but now I do. Check out the checks I wrote the past few days:
Spring Pictures - proceeds to PTA. $36 for each kid.
Teacher gifts: $5 each kid
Next year cub scouts fee: $80
Next year girl scout fee: $12 (What's up with this? So cheap, no? The boys do alot more though)
Lunch card refil: $20 each kid for 10 lunches and 'snack' each.

That's nearly $200. How am I supposed to buy things for me? Say, a bunch of bobbins and some more fiber?

The childcare credit is simply too small.

Maybe I'll write Obama and ask for an increase in that, an increase in Flexible Spending and Childcare pre-tax accounts (right now they're $5k each) and the implementation of the "Working Mommy" pre-tax account.

Working Mommy eligible expenses would be those things that working mommies need:

1. Housekeeping service not to exceed $60 a session or 10 sessions a year. These are to be used when you're in a bind, say, when you're planning Thanksgiving at your house and have to work the day before and the bathroom looks like the battlefield at Normandy. (Tomorrow is D-Day, btw.)

2. Errand runner. Not to exceed $500 a year. This is someone who is hired to do small errands that make working mommies insane because they can't ever get to them even though they take only a few minutes. i.e.: going to the car wash, DMV, returning library books, going to the post office, food shopping, picking up the Chinese Food order and prescriptions.

3. Quarterly Spa Treatment. No description necessary.

4. $100 towards a weekend retreat with hubby, say, in the Poconos.

5. 20 sessions per child - tutor for the kids. We actually have this at our library. High school kids tutor the younger ones and I am considering signing my son up for it. I think it's free. He is more likely to work with someone other than me.

Instead, we have what we call, "Mental Health Days". Those are days that we take off to recover, relax and clean our house in peace.

OK, now that I'm settled a bit, enjoying my Mental Health Day, let's talk about my yarn. I have selected the pattern for the blueberries and will keep it a secret until I'm well enough along to show you it. (Just in case I change my mind or something....even though I won't. I want it to be a surprise. I am highly recommending that anyone wanting a nice silky soft and smooth yarn visit Opalessence's website and e-mail her inquiring about this. According to the show schedule, she will not be at Rhinebeck, darnit. I am so regretting not buying a case of the 70 Merino/30 Tencel at MDS&W. The blueberry yarn is so luscious that even DH was caught fondling it. But alas, I'm in Love, It's all spun up... (yes, reference to the King here.) and now, today's eye candy.

Eye Candy Friday - Candied Hearts!

I'm trying something new......This is Candied Hearts, 100% Merino from moonlightbaker's shop on Etsy. The roving I bought was 6 oz and change and handpainted and beautiful. I am ATTEMPTING to spin across the top and preserve the solid colors because I'm not really overly fond of the barbershop pole one gets from making 2 ply yarn out of handpaint. So, I'll spin a single and do my Navajo plying which I'm beginning to really truly like! The yarn comes out so nice and round. So, let's just say that I need a little more practice in doing this. It's not easy to make it as even and doesn't feel like a natural motion. It's going slowly for me because I'm trying to be careful. It seemed like the red portion was ENDLESS. This is going to be a scarf for my little Boobette as these are some of her most favorite colors and I'm hoping to get about 250 yards but we'll see. I'm using the 6:1 ratio. Right now, I only have 6:1 and 8:1 because I cracked the whorl. I am going to try and repair that today. I have a feeling this is going to be a skinny lacy scarf..don't know yet.

Don't know if you're keeping track but I have yet to knit out of anything that I've spun. Nothing, not a stitch. Not even a swatch. I've been spinning for nine months and just collect the skeins. It's as if, I don't want to knit with them, just take them out and play with them.

Do you see why I need more mental health days?

It's Blueberry Season

2009-06-04T12:54:00.006-04:00

Blueberry season means blueberry yarn!

I have finished spinning 8oz of Blueberry Merino/Tencel that will be knitted into a nice scarf very soon. (VERY soon) I washed it around 11 PM last night and hung it on my kitchen cabinet knobs to dry. That wasn't going over too well with DH so I used a tree in the backyard for a bit.

Except for a small piece of about 30 yards, all of it is really consistent. It is well balanced and hangs in a nice loop, as it should. The 30 yards was from when I first started and I decided that that was a bit too fine so I went a wee bit thicker. I'm really, really happy with the finished 338 yards of this. I just don't understand why the yardage is so skimpy when it's homespun. I didn't measure WPI yet but this is probably a normal light worsted sized yarn. It's SOOOOOOOO soft and silky. I wish it would dry already though!

I'm in spinning bliss right now. Now, let's whip out the new strawberry colored fiber and......

Because it's June, June, June June!

2009-06-02T20:56:00.012-04:00

Ah, June. Father's Day, weddings, graduations, last day of school, beaches requiring beach passes, coughing up money for summer camp, trees filled with leaves, the Belmont Stakes, the OFFICIAL start to summer, D-Day and the longest day of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. It's also...Blueberry season!

(Comon, you must like this segue, I mean, it is so good, they could've used it on the news! Ernie Anastos would be proud of me.)

Blueberries in the garden and blueberries on the wheel. I was telling you about that deliciously scrumptious blueberry merino/tencel blend that I got at MDS&W and here it is, spun into singles. It's so blueberry like that you can nearly smell the freshness.

(Note: No, I don't have a Woolee Winder. I'm anal about trying to balance out the yarn lately and try to get it on the bobbin all nice and pretty manually.)

Go ahead, breathe it in. My singles are really nice and even but I think that bobbin #1 (the one on the right) was a wee bit thinner. When I ply, I'll Navajo ply and switch among the three and hopefully will produce a nicely balanced yarn....hopefully. Actually, I'm really happy with my spinning lately. This looks much better than the earlier attempts, right?

Here's a photo of my Rose Quartz fiber, also Merino/Tencel.

Isn't it pretty? The yarn it produced was nearly solid silver with little to no rose highlights and that was a bummer for me. I bought a full pound of this stuff. I haven't washed it yet so the twist isn't set and it looks a little sloppy. It'll be fine.
I was thinking of knitting a tank top out of it. I have plenty of time because before I do that, have to lose weight, of course. I mean, I wouldn't want to run out of yarn......

As for knitting, I started another pair of BLACK socks, seeded ribbing pattern. It's really hard to knit with black yarn and after I finish this pair, it'll be something light or multi colored. Maybe a nice dense pair out of some STR or other handpainted yarn I have. No photos yet.

Ok, now let me tell you about my kids. Those of you not into funny things kids say can stop reading because spinning is done.

Last night, I made pizza. Homemade dough, sauce (ok, I bought the mozzarella, that's really hard to make at home.) I made it on my new pampered chef bar pan and even put the cornmeal on the bottom. It looked beautiful and made a nice crust.

"Mmmn.. Mom, this rich cheesy pizza is really good" (he reads that off the lunch menu..)

"Actually, Mom...this is as good as the kind they give us at school".

I guess I'll have to try a little harder next time. That goes for spinning and pizza.

Amityville Historical Society Fair and Spinning

2009-05-30T16:37:00.012-04:00

Today was the day that a few of us got together to spin at the Amityville Fair. It was a lovely day, low 70s, light breeze, dry, ah! Spinning al fresco was so nice and it was the first time that I did it! I brought my wheel and some beautiful soft and squishy Opalescence fiber that I picked up in Maryland. I am regretting not taking home more of this stuff. It's silky and soft and spins so nicely. I am spinning it relatively thin and plan on Navajo plying it. I have fallen in love with Navajo plying. It's beautiful, it's like crocheting and you get a smooth, round yarn. I thought that one would feel the bumps of the chain stitches but that isn't the case.

Many of the spinners brought wheels and spindles, some brought knitting and some had lunch of Burgers and Fries from Five Guys. I was good and actually passed on the food, saving up my calories for the evening meal so I could sleep on it and make quality fat.

The Bagpipes played songs that I never heard played on bagpipes before.

There was face painting, all proceeds being donated back to the Historical Society.

There were old cars. I'm glad they had these REALLY old cars. Last time I went to the street fair in Massapequa the cars were...well, from my pre-teen years and I was feeling really old. Some of these were nearly 100 years old.

There were old buildings. Actually, there are many old buildings in Amityville. Yes, yes, I know all about that "horror house" and it's really a very nice part of the town. That house looks different nowadays though - This isn't it. This is an old school building.

And there was this....

UGH!

See the chip on the small whorl? I'm kinda upset by that. I'll have to buy a new flyer. I have the piece that broke off and I will attempt to glue it back on but I'm not sure it's going to work all that well. That has to be totally smooth or one risks ruining their drive band. I don't know how this happened, being I transported my wheel in it's padded bag. I took it out and it was CHIPPED. Drat.

I am spinning the most deliciously smooth and soft fiber which you can almost see on the bobbin. It's purple and it's 70 Merino / 30 Tencel but it's the softest I 've fondled yet. The supplier was "Opalessence" and I picked it up at MDS&W and I'm in love. It was inexpensive and the BESTEST. No Etsy shop, not on Ravelry..nothing. I found her webpage so you can check it out. I'll be buying more of this, for sure! Very reasonably priced, too!

My DH was such a doll today, taking the kiddies all around the fair so that I could park myself and spin. It was a nice day all around. Later, when we were hanging in the backyard, I had to photograph this. Maybe summer is coming after all?

Eye Candy Friday - Spring Lily Sprouting

2009-05-29T07:21:00.006-04:00

It's raining and it's only 55 degrees. Sigh...this spring has been nothing but rain. At least the flowers like it...baby Lily sprouting up through the ground.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-26T09:25:00.010-04:00

Memorial Day Weekend - that means family camping trip. I keep telling myself, "I love camping, ah, the great outdoors". Is it all worth it?

A week before the trip, I start packing. Two of our nice LL Bean sleeping bags were ruined this past winter when a bottle of bleach leaked, ate through a shelf and dripped onto them. The bleach ate through the bags, through the zippers and destroyed them. Ok, so that's $150 to replace....mere headache. I did 200 loads of wash, washed up the camp knives, forks and cooking stuff. Oh, did I mention my dishwasher picked this week to die? Well, it did. I replaced it and the new one is coming on June 4. Until then, we eat on paper plates. I simply refuse to do dishes. Then came a full day of packing, shopping for food, exhaustion and trying to get out of here by Friday afternoon. Around 2pm or so on Friday, I noticed that the windshield cracked. Sigh.... The Glass Man said to leave it alone and take it camping and we'll fix it on Monday. Then, we're all ready to leave and hubby, who was expecting a 3pm dismissal found out that he had to work until 5. Ho hum. 5 turned into 6:30 because of overtime and an unexpected trip to another branch of the bank. Now we're up to bad headache and the kids are itching to leave. He gets home and we can't find the adaptor to the gas grill. We can go camping but we can't cook. Trip to Sports Authority only to learn that he has the right parts. It's now 7:30pm. Van gets packed up. Not sure I could make it 130 miles away before 11PM. We tell the kids we're leaving in the morning. They cry. Headache intensifies, I fall asleep. I get up at 5, rouse the kids, head upstate.

At this place, electric and water are shared between sites. The people next to us were very nice but must've not ever gone camping before. Who sets their tent up practically on top of the water?

If you look closely, you can see the front of that box is the electricity and the back is the spigot, the rock is all wet as is the bottom of their tent. Their table was located where my screen room is (the right of the picture). They set up all the way at the edge of their site and I felt a bit squished. Actually, initially, they were in my site. I had them move their table to give me access to the water and electricity. They weren't too happy but understood. They had miles and miles between their tent and the tent on the other side. Ok, fine......I guess. I could hear someone snoring and it had to be them.

The weather cooperated, it was sunny and in the mid-70s which meant the first swim of the year in the heated spray pool and in the frigid built in pool. Kids do not care. They're happy as long as there is a playground, a pool and a tent. They love to see Yogi and Cindy, too.

Seeing my babies glow and my DH interacting with them, quality family time, that's what it's all about. It's worth it to spend 18 hrs packing and unpacking for these Kodak Moments........right?

Here's my dear hubby and baby girl. That's our tent in the background.

Being it's the unofficial beginning of summer, it is time to start working on a pair of socks. Here we have a pair for DH, in man boring black, Knitpicks Essentials, size 2.25mm, 64 sts casted on, pattern is Seeded Ribbing. Let's see how dark my thigh gets by Labor Day weekend.

I leave you with this pretty picture as I head over to Ravelry to see if I can do a Summer of Socks KAL or something!

Eye Candy Friday - Pansies

2009-05-22T11:04:00.002-04:00

Pansies

Eye Candy Friday - Sunset

2009-05-15T07:14:00.001-04:00

Sunset at Cedar Creek Park, Wantagh, NY

Merino Blend Fiber and Spinning

2009-05-09T14:09:00.008-04:00

So, I'm spinning up a storm. My Lendrum is becoming very fit, as are my ankles. I wonder if there is any aerobic benefit from this? I suppose there could be some extra calories burned because treadling is certainly more taxing than being a couch potato.

I replenished my fiber supply in Maryland as well as through Woodland Woolworks. I figured, what the hay, I had to pay for shipping on the fast flyer I got so I matters well get some fiber to play with. I give thee, Fiber Bouquet:

On the left, we have Rose Merino 70% and Tussah Silk 30%. I was inspired to knit with something silky after playing with all the silk things at the Guild meeting last month. It was quite interesting learning about silk and silkworms! My DD actually picked out both colors because she wants silky soft scarves to wrap herself in. On the right is my latest fetish, Lilac Merino 70% and tencel 30%. I must say that I very much like that blend. It's easy to spin and is NEARLY, but not quite, as soft as the silk. I bought a full pound of the former and 1/2 pound of the later. I wanted a pound of raspberry merino tencel but they were sold out. I was so miffed being DD loves that color best.

I've also spun up 1.7 bobbins worth of mixed berry. Here's an old picture of the fiber. It's rambouillet and I'm going to attempt to Navajo ply it nice and neatly. I just have this inkling that bobbin 2 is a little fatter than bobbin one but we'll see. I am so thrilled that I am going to actually have a 3 ply yarn!

In other knitting news, I still haven't started a sock, toe up or top down! I'm taking a break from sock knitting although I will probably cast on one very soon. I want to finish up husband's sweater that has been 'almost done' for about 6 months. ... uh... since October. That may be what he wears to Rhinebeck this year if it's cold and if he stops losing weight. DD wants a Weasley sweater so that will be summer sweater project and DS wants more socks. He loves wearing handknit wool socks and hasn't stopped wearing his even though it's MAY. He loves the color yellow but I explained to him that we can do black, green, tan, brown or almost any shade of blue because boys really don't wear yellow socks. So, he'll have to pick out the next color!

In weather news, it's warming up, I guess. They said 77 and sunny but it's 60 and overcast today. My barometer is way down in the 'stormy' category so I'm not trusting it to get nice out. We're going to eat an early dinner and we may take the kids down to the beach tonight to go for a walk and let them play on the playground a bit after dinner. Or, maybe we'll just go to the park for a bit. They need to get out of the house more because with it being the end of the school year and them getting tired of all this homework and being cooped up indoors, they're getting a bit stir crazy.

It's also that time of year when I start going through the camping gear, getting ready for a camping trip. It doesn't look good for the Adirondacks this summer but I'm thinking about a fall foliage trip this year! Also, planning a few short trips, things to do with the kids. They want to go to the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and Atlantis Marine World. I can do that. So, we'll see how things go. Stay tuned for pictures of my socks over NYC taken from the top of the Empire State Building!

Happy knitting and spinning!

Eye Candy Friday - Let the Sun Shine In!

2009-05-08T07:21:00.003-04:00

Eye Candy Friday - The Rain is Gone!

Navajo Plying

2009-05-07T10:51:00.011-04:00

I have been spinning. I have been spinning on my new fast flyer. (love the grammer, I have been reading too many Kindergarten books!)

Let's discuss plying. You spin singles and you have to either ply them together with other singles or ply them back on themselves. Using a single to knit is usually not the desired route. A single will untwist, possible produce a fabric that is biased and not behave as a plied yarn will. Now, after carefully weighing out half of my fiber in one fluff and another half in another fluff, I still am not a machine. I will never be able to spin two singles that are the same by weight and by length. It just won't happen and I hate winding up with 23 yards on a bobbin that I refuse to part with yet can't really use other than to tie the skein together. Toss it? Give it to the kids? Get a cat and let it play with it? Learn to Navajo ply? So, I decided to practice Navajo plying.

For the past three nights, I've been spinning some black (or very, very dark brown, can't tell because the sun hasn't come out all this time so we live in the dark here in NY...) Shetland wool. From roving, not from top so it wasn't as smooth as it could be. It had little fuzzballs in it here and there but very little vegetable matter and no Shetland Sheep poop. I spun this on my fast flyer on the middle whorl, I guess that would be 15:1. I then attempted Navajo plying but didn't do it right. I got decent yarn but with many coils. I'm not sure, but I think that I would've done better had I went back to the slow flyer and did this slowly. The loop closed up way too quickly and I was nearly finger chaining at some points instead of big loop chaining. I used my right hand to do it and shouldn't have done that because I got coils.

Coils are loose spots in the yarn. Ugh...

It's sloppy.

It's sloppy but it is truly three ply yarn!

Today, I watched a very good tutorial which demonstrated Navajo plying. I highly recommend you watch this before and after you try Navajo plying. It's great! I was just pulling up a loop and trying to do everything with my RIGHT hand and had major tension issues which caused an unbalanced skein. I will do it correctly next time! I was always under the impression that I would feel the bumps of the chain in the finished yarn. I couldn't feel a thing. My yarn was nice and smooth. I was imagining irregularly spaced little knots and that wasn't the case at all. Hmmnn...

I have one bobbin of Mixed Berry Merino all spun and resting on the bobbin for several days and may Navajo ply it tonight. No sense in filling up the bobbin because it won't all fit on the bobbin when I ply. Another advantage of Navajo plying: barbershop pole yarn is reduced. For the most part, color changes will happen nicer than they would if two or more singles were plyed together.

In other news, when I'm not spinning and I'm letting the house go to pot, I'm knitting this beautiful baby afghan. I love it! Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece rocks!

Back to the grindstone!

Maryland Sheep and Wool - Part Deux - The Haul

2009-05-04T11:36:00.009-04:00

OK, now onto the fun part of the festival - What I bought!

10 oz of 100% Merino in this Eggplant mix. Soft and lovely. I was running out of money and didn't want to go over my budget so I only got 10 oz. I was tempted to buy the rest of what was in that beachball they had.....This came from Shadyside Farms.
Here we have 8 oz of Blueberry, 70% Merino/30% Tencel GORGEOUS and must be felt to be appreciated. It nearly feels like mink! Sorry, no website. You can e-mail opal@pa.net for inquiries. To die for! Next to it is Shelridge Farms soft touch ultra in a nice...you got it, green!

That's a Kromski niddy noddy that I could use to make smaller skeins.

Here's a 1.5 lb bag of not fully made roving, more like messy batts. 70 sw merino/30 tencel in powder blue, gray flannel and cream. This was from Autumn House Farms and I used my coupon to buy it. An excellent purchase and good price. It just needs tidying up.

I also bought a nicely made cherrywood diz which is also a gauge so I can measure WPIs when spinning. Plus, I bought two Christmas tree ornaments of little sheep handcrafted from real wool and some felt. Very cute. The kids confiscated that out of my loot.

Not shown is a gift for Elizzabetty who couldn't be at the festival this year. I can't give it away just yet because she hasn't seen it yet. I know she'll like it though!

I also recently picked up some more roving, ALSO merino/tencel and some merino/tussah top. It's VERY PRETTY and requires that I practice more with the fast flyer that I got last week.
(not pictured.)

Yes, I finally sprung for the Lendrum fast flyer for my wheel and I'm very excited. So now I have 6 ratios to play with 6,8,10,12,15,17 to 1. If I ever add the 'very fast flyer' that will give me 26, 30, 36, 44 to 1. I could spin any kind of yarn I wanted if I add that one. For now, I'll stick with what I have. It's harder to spin with the fast flyer and I'm not that good at it....yet. It's a pain if it breaks because it's harder to neatly join when the single is so skinny to begin with. HOWEVER, spinning finer with more twist is easier than spinning finer with less twist. Sometimes, my yarn would fall apart because I didn't twist enough. Now, I'm getting the hang of how fast to go and how much twist to add. When I first tried the fast flyer, I got little pigtails, too much twist, now it's better. That was after only one session so we'll see how it goes later today. Luckily, I have some practice fiber that was gifted to me so I can play. I may even make a 3 ply yarn soon! There are 10 ratios on the Lendrum, it's portable, spins smoothly, relatively inexpensive compared to other wheels with these options. In fact, if I ever wanted to add the quill head, that would give me two more ( 6, 25 and 37 to 1!) What more can one ask for?

Speaking of wheels, I did see some really lovely wheels and did get a chance to try the Ladybug! I must say, I thought that I would hate the fact that it's plastic. It's not at all bendable plastic, it's like a cast piece. Hard like a rock yet lighter than wood. It spun smooth like glass. If I had to chose today, I think I would still choose the Lendrum for a few reasons. I'm really a wood person. I saw beautiful handcrafted carved and decorated saxony wheels and pined for a 7,000 square foot Victorian to put them in. However, let's face reality. The Lendrum costs a tiny bit less than the Ladybug and it can fold up to be put away or for travel. The Lendrum is wood. The Lendrum felt more comfy to me (familiarity?) and the Ladybug made me feel like I was wearing scuba gear. PADDLES, huge. Made my feet feel so big! It was so peculiar! I did like the red and I did like the fact that there is a ladybug on all of them. Nothing cuter than that. No buyer's remorse for me.

I wanted to try the Kromski but the lady that was on it wasn't budging and I didn't have alot of time to spend there. Maybe, someday, I'll add a saxony wheel to my collection but it will probably be something used off e-bay and for my daughter to play with when she gets bigger provided she doesn't buy a loom first! :)

Well, time to make banana bread with the bananas that all ripened on the counter while I was away.

I leave you with a picture and a thought:

Picture: Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2009 - Crowd Shot

Thought: How many weeks until Rhinebeck?

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, the Good, Bad and Ugly

2009-05-03T19:01:00.008-04:00

I'm back from a rainy weekend in Maryland. We drove down on Friday evening and it was a pretty good trip. It's 230 miles from our house to the hotel we were staying at in Baltimore, which was wonderful, btw. More on lodging later. Saturday morning, we got up early, had the complimentary hotel breakfast buffet and headed out to the festival. The weather was drizzly and a comfy temperature, mid to upper 60's. Traffic wasn't terrible although the last 1/4 mile took awhile and the parking lot was filling quickly. We arrived at 9:30. This was good.

As soon as we walked in, I knew that I wasn't going to like it as much as Rhinebeck. I know, I know, it's just 'different'. Rhinebeck takes place in the fall. The air was crisp, the sky was blue, the leaves were in full color. Maryland was cold, wet, early spring. But that wasn't it. The parking lot had grass that was up to my knees. It was difficult to ~~wade~~ walk through it when it was wet. Plow the field, dagnamit! This was BAD. Wet ankles and sneakers!

Anyway, that was my first impression. I was keeping an open mind.

Then, there were many, many tents. I didn't really shop in them. I missed the handout of the map so I had no idea where any of the vendors I wanted to see would be. That wasted some time as I walked around looking for whatever it was that I wanted to find. This was BAD.

I bought a pound and a half bag of SW Merino / Tencel (my latest fetish for spinning) in light blue and gray flannel. I have no idea what I am going to do with it but the color was pretty and I had a coupon knocking nearly $6 off the price. You know I can't resist a good price.

After that, I showed the kids some sheep. A little sheep smiled at me.

The kits watched sheep shearing, in awe.

This sheep wanted to come out and play!

This little guy had such a cute haircut.

There were tons of spinning wheels for me to play with and pile and piles of wool and bad lighting just about everywhere, as you can tell. This was all good.

Both kids got to try a loom. Missy paid attention while DS tried it first. This was also good.

She LOVED it.

Naturally, she walked away wanting to buy it.

Now, the ugly.

My daughter, who has allergies and was on her meds, really reacted to the hay. At least, I think it was the hay. Sheep haven't bothered her before. Her eyes really swelled up. I had to get her out of there. She had to go to the bathroom. I knew the bathroom scene was bad. I wasn't expecting this bad. First stop, mens and women's rooms. The women just 'took over' the men's room. There were two LONG lines for the rooms. Now, how many people attend this thing and other fairs they have whenever? Alot. How many stalls? There were 2 in the men's room. The whole family stood on line for 45 minutes...2 stalls. A few urinals but that did no one any good. There were some portapotties out by the field and there was another bathroom with an equally long line by the main hall. After that, plus DD's eyes, I knew we couldn't stay much longer. It was not raining so we watched some sheepdogs but DD was out of it. There was no place to wash hands and although I brought wipes and antibacterial, I didn't want them eating with sheep poop everywhere. This was all bad. Inadequate facilities!! BAD.

So, we left at about 2:30 and headed down to my cousin's house in Annandale, VA, stopping for lunch along the way. Seeing family and eating, always good!

I went all the way to Maryland, I bought some stuff and got to see my cousins. It was a GOOD weekend, there were some BAD things and there were some UGLY things.

Stay tuned tomorrow for photos of my haul and more sheep. Oh, and I have to update you on the Pinkaboo Blanket!

Eye Candy Friday

2009-05-01T05:27:00.002-04:00

"The Meadow" at Garvies Museum, Glen Cove, NY.

Baby Blanket Update

2009-04-26T07:29:00.006-04:00

Where has the time gone? I haven't posted anything in a week and I've been working on things full steam ahead! Spinning has been going well. I was able to spin the autumn covered roving into a nice thin yarn.

Now that I'm spinning more evenly and have some better control over thickness, I purchased a fast flyer. It didn't arrive yet. This is all plied and washed and ready to go but it hasn't been to its photoshoot yet.

As a matter of fact, neither has the baby blanket, which is going swimmingly as well! I am probably at the halfway point or just a little further and it is beautiful.

In other news, I do have some nice pictures for you to see. Spring has finally sprung here, at least for a few days. It's not even spring, it's summer. We went to the North Shore of Long Island yesterday for a cub scout trip to Garvies Museum. It was 86 degrees there but barely got over 73 down here on the south shore due to the sea breeze. I took a few nice shots.

The boys, accompanied by my DD as honorary sibling, went on a nature walk through the woods and then down to the beach. There, they learned about the glacier, the ice age, and how the boulders got there. They also learned about how the Native Americans used the clay deposits to make pottery. DS was able to find a nice vein of clay and proceeded to dig in it.

I was proud of him for making his sister get into the act and get equally dirty. It was fun though. It was really the second nice day of spring, slightly hazy on the water but all in all a good day. It's early in the morning and I'm in shorts and a tank top. The temperature is supposed to go pretty high today as well. Two more days of this and we'll probably be back to autumn again...we'll see.

Well, off to start the day, tons of errands to do!

Eye Candy Friday - Spring Tease

2009-04-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

It was "warm" on Thursday. Well, just a bit over 50 but at least the sun was shining. The spring nippy breeze was blowing. It's just a tease, I tell you. We'll be cold again. I was able to take a few shots of some flowers that survived the hard freeze the other night.

Being I saw my cardiologist (heart is still beating, thanks for asking...) and my heart is bleeding for spring, today's picture is appropriate!

Bleeding Hearts

Actually, I'm Low on Roving...

2009-04-14T07:51:00.012-04:00

~~I cleared up my fiber mess!~~

My husband did some house cleaning the past few days and now we have useable space. It seems that the house is alot bigger and alot neater without so much clutter. However, I've been spinning alot and I'm actually a bit low on fiber. I do have that gorgeous Deep Sea green merino tencel to spin. Hmmn...Let me think about it. I also have dark green merino top, Evergreen Grove. Tomorrow is the Guild meeting and I need to bring something to work on and don't feel like it being knitting so it's going to be one of those. Decisions Decisions!

I'm knitting away on the Pinkaboo blanket. Still sick and still coughing. My son is better, nearly, but baby girl has a sinus infection. They had a lovely Easter. There was traditional egg coloring..

We bought this kit that makes 'marble' eggs. Kinda weird, the one on the right is shiny and marble like. The one on the left (green, I made that one!) didn't come out right. I didn't 'swirl it in the oil' first. Remind me not to use this for yarn ... ever..

Someone double dipped. She got an Easter Basket from the Bunny and some money from the Tooth Fairy in the same night. They saved on air fare, joining forces in these sad economic times. Or maybe the Bunny rode on the fairy's wings?

And no, we didn't start off with DD in a white shirt.

The little egg coloring project and excitement over Easter made them even smile and get close like they like each other. They'll love this picture in about 30 years. It's one of the first shots where I am starting to think that they look a bit alike.

Speaking of 'in 30 years'. DD announced that she is going to grow up and have a 'nice husband and 6 daughters' and live around the corner from her brother who will have a 'nice wife and 11 children'. She thinks it will be neat if they all could "get together". Yes, I thought. Counting their spouses, they have enough for two baseball teams and two coaches......

For "Easter Monday" we went to the preserve for a walk.... in the 46 degree "APRIL" weather. The kids were supposed to look for 'Signs of Spring' while I looked for 'Signs of a Blizzard'. Here's two that they saw.

There were actually three geese together here. I made it look by two, being this is a G-rated blog.

Things are actually growing near the edge of the lake. Amazing that the FREEZE we had the other night didn't kill all the vegetation.

As you can see, nothing is really growing yet and most of the trees don't even have their buds. It's like we are living in Alaska... no sun, gray sky, nothing growing. Still dark, still dismal.

When will it be spring?

Eye Candy Friday - Is it Spring YET????

2009-04-10T06:07:00.003-04:00

Crocus Blooming, several weeks later than they should have because it STILL isn't spring!

There's Snow Cone on the Pumpkin!

2009-04-09T08:29:00.010-04:00

Good morning, world!

Do you like today's title? We're going to talk about the weather and colors of the season.

It's sunny and freezing here today. Ok, nearly freezing, it WAS below freezing overnight but right now it's about 35. Warming up to, say, 40. I want to plant things but the ground is really cold yet! My hands are frost bitten, too. However, I've been spinning. This roving made a 4oz,
2 ply, 125 yard skein of "Snow Cone", 50% Merino/ 50% Tencel. I like this blend very much.

I plied, washed dried and photograped it. I must say, I was quite pleased with the result. I took these pictures in the early morning light; hence, the shawdowing. It's weird, there were so many colors in the roving and it's almost tweed - like spun up.

I bought 20oz of Merino/Tencel top in a solid color, "Deep Sea" (ok, it's close to green but not really, more teal like) on Etsy and can't wait for it to come. I want to knit this up to see how I like the blend but let me tell you right now, it's totally awesome. It has a bit of a sheen and it's ULTRA soft. It feels silky, like a blouse made out of wool and rayon. I guess, wool and rayon is really what it is. Tencel is quite similar to rayon in the way that it feels. This skein (not wound on the niddy noddy so well so you can't really tell) is very well balanced. It is relatively even in thickness throughout but hangs perfectly in a nice loop. It has great elasticity and spring and bounce. I want to knit it into SOMETHING, maybe a very skinny scarf for my daughter? Maybe I'll get some more in a solid contrasting color and alternate them to make stripes? We'll see. It may be hard to match up.

The only thing I'm a bit miffed about is that I'm only getting 125 yards out of 4oz and the yarn is somewhat thin. I didn't do the wpi thing so I couldn't tell you for sure. (I'll try and check that out later).

Anyway, last night I spun 2oz of REALLY pretty roving on a different ratio on my wheel so I could make hairlike yarn. Nearly laceweight.

Let's see how much I get out of this...

Yes, I know, it's pumpkin and autumn! It's supposed to be spring! Well, the other night, the sky looked all gray and had puffy clouds and it rained and you know what it felt like? Thanksgiving. Yesterday, it snowed! So, autumn it is. Besides, autumn is my favorite season, followed by winter, spring and summer. I actually enjoy snow! This year, it's been so utterly cold though I may be bumping winter to number 3. I like them all, actually, but I hate being hot in the summer.

Time to break out the laptop for telecommuting. Stay tuned for pumpkin yarn update!

The Gods or just the Fiber Napper?

2009-04-07T18:32:00.004-04:00

Hmmn...I must be losing my mind. After suffering with sinus pain for a few days, I took some Claritin-D. I was coughing and sneezing and very, very congested on Saturday. In fact, I stayed on the couch with my lovely alpaca and spun and spun. Today is Tuesday and I'm finally feeling better. Maybe there is a reason why they keep it behind the counter other than the kids use it to get high.

So, I broke open some 50/50 Merino Tencel in the "Snow Cone" colorway that I bought on Etsy from Moonlightbaker. I wasn't thrilled with the colors but they were different. After all, something to brighten things up after tan and tan and tan would be a change of pace. It was on sale, it was over 4 oz and I wanted desperately to spin Tencel after fondling it at the last guild meeting. I hope mine is as soft as that. I divided it in half (by weight...to the gram) and was nearly done spinning the first half but I misplaced 7 grams of fiber. Or...was it 'napped? The Fiber Napper is out there, still at large. You can read all about this infamous person in the Long Island Knitters group on Ravelry if you like. Hmmn...

Thinking that maybe I didn't lose it but rather spun it onto bobbin number one, I proceeded with spinning onto bobbin number two. I weighed them and sure enough, bobbin number two is 7 grams heavier but the fiber is no where to be found...they sorta look the same. I just have visions of plying and running out of fiber on one well before the other. Ticks me off.

Snow Cone looks nice and shiny and very blue/purple. I was thinking more red. We'll see how this plies. Pictures next time!

Additionally, a few days ago, my Pampered Chef Bar Pan cracked. I was heartbroken. Luckily, Pampered Chef is going to replace it. I miss it desperately and can't wait until the new one arrives.

Tonight, I used my 9x9 vanilla Pampered Chef pan to make luscious crab cakes and you know what I saw? A hairline fracture. Sheesh! Only a matter of time before that cracks all the way through. Dagnamit.

So, the God took my pans, the Gods made me sick and the Fiber Napper took 7 grams of my Snow Cone.

Moral of the story? Keep your receipts, always please the Gods and for God's sake, hide your fiber! You never know when it could be 'napped!

Oooh La La Alpaca!

2009-04-06T14:32:00.008-04:00

I was jumping for joy last night over my latest homespun yarn. I started with 10 oz of roving and now I have soft luscious yarn. I spun, I plied and I plied...and I plied. Honestly, it was endless. I was taking my time and being careful but I do think that I'll be much better off with the plying head. I made small hanks. This is right after plying but before they had their bath. They total about 320 yards.

Then, I washed them. They actually were quite dirty, there was even some alpaca silt in the basin, sandy like.

(Yes, if you're thinking it, I did count the number of treadles. I wanted this to come out good!)

Here they are drying on a Shamwow. (They make good towels for yarn! Dried in no time!)

Then, the moment of truth. When I held them up, they each hung open in a perfect loop. Nice and balanced! Yeah!!! NO Twisting to the left or to the right. It was great!

A close up of the wet yarn. (Hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. Also, if you actually read this far, you probably are.)

They were barely wet when I hung them off the handles of all my kitchen cabinets and then, the next morning, I had beautiful yarn in my kitchen.

Et voila, the finished product. The yarn bloomed beautifully and it enjoyed being beaten against my countertop a few times. I love it! It softened up so nicely and will make something nice and toasty. A shawly scarfy thing, for sure!

Another dreary, rainy day here on Long Island so the pictures aren't all that great but you can see how nice an even they are and all four are very much alike.

Oooh la la, Alpaca!

Oooooh....Ahhhh... Alpaca!

2009-04-05T10:00:00.014-04:00

I bought 10 oz of alpaca/dorsett at the February Guild meeting and I've been trying to spin it up for two months! It's been on the wheel, staring at me night after night as I worked on other projects. Last night, I finished the spinning and started the plying and made one 100 yard hank.

This isn't ultra luxurious but it is nice. I'm thinking shawly scarfy thing but we'll see how it is after I wash it and thwack it on the countertop a few times.

Alpaca is nice but you have to be careful not to overspin, or so I'm told, otherwise it can get coarse. I tend to underspin and it did break on me a bit. It'll be interesting to see how I do when I go back to merino! I was quite happy with how nice this came out and I'm generally hard on myself. I am pleased that I am making useable yarn but I still want to get better. I also want to learn different plying methods and be able to spin even more thinly so I can make 3 ply yarn.

I'll get it.

Nice to see from whence I came a mere six months ago....

This was some undyed Corriedale that I killed, thick, thin, messy...but, hey, we have to learn on something. The important thing is that I've learned alot and I'm thanking all the nice people I've met at the Guild! Imagine where I'll be in a year!

Now, off to cleaning and working on something else I can't do...a toe up sock.

Oh, and I may even get outside a bit today. Spring supposedly has come to Long Island and it's going to be '60' today. I'll believe it when I see it. It's only 49 now and it's after 10 in the morning.

Sock Innovation

2009-03-31T20:23:00.009-04:00

I finally got my new book, Sock Innovation, by Cookie A. I was happy with the patterns but not totally thrilled. :( The book is well laid out and there is alot of information on designing socks that I haven't seen anywhere else; however, the patterns are similar. Many of them use cables, most will look nicest in solid colors and all are top down. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited over this book! Maybe that's my problem, the months of anticipation and then I get it and it's a little teeny bit of a letdown. Hmmmn...we'll see. I haven't decided what I'm going to make next. I love her patterns though and will make a few of them!

I promised a better picture of my mis-matched Embossed Leaves, one with FLOWERS...SPRING!! Here it is.

The crocuses have finally bloomed!

I need to get out there this weekend, with my camera and go on a spring picture taking stroll through the woods!

Off to knit more PinkaBoo!

Embossed Leaves

2009-03-29T05:31:00.006-04:00

Good Morning...or is it? It's 5:25 AM and another dark and stormy day in New York. I think we're going from winter blizzards to April showers. I prefer when we have a long drawn out spring. Some years, it seems, we go from winter to summer in like, a week. Others, it's drawn out. At this point, I'm thinking it's never going to be summer.

Many, many things have been happening. We have a new addition on the block! I am making her a blanket that I have been calling pinkaboo after the cotton fleece color. I've only done a few rows so nothing new to report there. I also bought a gift...actually, a few. Ok, ok, more than a few. This is a very, very special baby.

In order to get crackin' on the blanket, I had to get my March KAL off the needles. Embossed Leaves. I made them out of Knitpicks Kettle Dyed Ivy. I was very excited about this yarn, until last night.

Now, as I said, it's a dark and dismal day and these will certainly be photographed outside if the sun ever returns but...look closely...they don't match!

The sock on the right is more olive and the one on the left is more emerald. Yes, same dyelot and yes, I pulled the yarn from the same direction on each ball. I like the effect of the kettle dye, it's a solid but it's not! These will be gifted, they're a little short for me in the leg and in the toe. Besides, I have ALOT of socks. Into the Christmas gift basket. I will wash them and hope that they even up a bit but I'm nearly certain that they won't.

This was the pair of socks that was just never meant to be. Everything that could go wrong, did. I started knitting them together, two at a time, magic loop. When I got to the first row of pattern, I realized that one sock had 64 sts and the other had 66. I ripped one out and did just one at a time after that. I broke yet another Knitpicks Options Harmony needle. Wood ain't no good when the needles are this small. They flex a little and I was doing k2tog and SNAP! This month, I burned a hole in my left thumb that you could fit a pencil eraser in. Serious delay. Then, I couldn't find the pattern, then, I couldn't find my stitch markers, then, I left them at work one night. Yesterday it was, "I need to finish these TODAY" and I knitted from a few rows into the gusset decreases through the toe. On round 2 of the toe, I pulled and guess what happened? Another needle broke, this time, the join. I am glad that I anticipated this and bought THREE needles but I can't keep spending 18 dollars in needles. I may have to go back to metal for the skinny ones. I'll call Knitpicks on Monday. They need to make these with a carbon filler. Or, out of ebony.

On the spinning front, I am nearly finished spinning my 90 alpaca / 10 Dorsett in camel. I have two massively filled bobbins and a few ounces left to spin out of the 10 oz that I bought. I must knit this into something useful as I am thinking it's going to make a fine skein or two of yarn. I bought some more roving that was on sale. It HAPPENED to be green and it was like 30% off so I snatched it up. I also bought a merino with some tencel mixed in. I am really working on how much twist to put into the yarn to have it hang properly. I see other people's skeins and they have no pigtails and mine do. However, spinning takes time and I did take a few weeks off after the burn injury so no need to be hard on myself. I'll save that lovely merino for a bit on work with something that costs less.

My next sock project is going to be a toe up. I think..I still haven't done that. I don't think that I am going to like it but I must try it. When knitting top down, I think the heel comes out better. I do like that you can use up ALL of your yarn but I'm not sure that I'll know when to stop the foot!

Let's try and make more posts for April...! Hopefully, I can get out to the park or the beach and share some nice photos of flowers and things that are springy with all of you.

It's Nearly April!

2009-03-22T18:54:00.015-04:00

It's nearly April and I haven't blogged. I must pay more attention to this!
I've been swamped at home, at work and at knitting and spinning.

My burn injuries really caused a delay with Embossed Leaves. Work has been busy and I'm exhausted all the time. I can't do this change of clock thing at all! I have been doing some more spinning and a little bit of knitting and I even started a baby blanket today!

Weekend UPDATE!

I've been spinning my alpaca/dorsett on my Lendrum and I'm amazed at how much my spinning is improving. It really does take awhile and I have a long way to go but I am happy with my progress lately. I feel like I made a step, jumped to a new level. We'll see how I feel after I ply this...and actually knit a shawly/scarfy thing (pattern tbd) out of it.

I've been knitting Embossed Leaves for a few March KALs and I'm hoping that I am able to finish it up. I think that I will but we'll see. Burning a hole in my thumb slowed me down major big time. I have sock 1 down and I'm about 1/3 of the way through sock 2.

Here's a peak at what I've done so far. Thi is nice, Knitpicks Essentials, Kettle Dyed Yarn - Ivy. Works well with the pattern.

My friend is adopting a baby girl (yay!) and I'm making a baby blanket. I just started it today. Nothing really to discuss or even see yet! Let's call it the PinkaBoo Blanket. It's made out of Cotton Fleece Pink A Boo!

I am liking the Cotton Fleece yarn now that I'm using wooden needles. The yarn didn't work too well with my metal ones....hmmmn...

In other news, Spring sprung...with yet more snow here on Long Island. See the flakes? They were big giant fat ones and it snowed long and hard and even stuck a bit to the grass. Like, a squall went through. It was weird because it was about 40 degrees and snowing HARD. All snow, too, none of that rain smoosh mixed in.

For now, I leave you with this picture of my little boy, who turned seven on 3/13 (Friday, the thirteenth!) who is asking, "Is it spring? Do we get a snow day?"

What a Week!

2009-02-28T12:43:00.007-05:00

As some of you know, I have been knitting in the Solid Sock KAL on Ravelry. I started my peach pair of Milanese Lace on February 2nd all set with the intention of finishing within a week.

It's been a rough month. I did work on them and they're finished today, 26 days later; however, not without a war wound. These socks just weren't meant to be.

First, a broken needle.

Then, I couldn't find the matching wooly nylon which I had to use on sock 2 being I used it on sock 1.

Then, the directions being wrong for the lovely eye of partridge heel I wanted to do.

Then, I accidentally put a twistie in the microwave. Did you ever read that metal in the microwave causes a fire? Well, it's true. I burned a nice hole in my left thumb the size of a pencil eraser. Major delay of game.

Then, we were fooling with the furn-a-kit hutch; changing it into a coffee table. Great idea until we had a small mishap and DH put his end in first and it gouged a piece of my left index finger out. Yep...1" long and 1/4" wide. That'll probably leave a nice scar.

Thing I learned this month: NuSkin really works!

Then..finally, I was on the foot of sock 2....then the toe this morning...and voila!

That's my lovely sock and a nice close-up of the pattern. I love them. Let's see if they grow when I wash them.

Hoping for better things in March. Color is GREEN!

Can I knit Green Socks or what??

Eye Candy Friday

2009-02-20T07:59:00.000-05:00

Lonely path at the Wantagh Park.

February Break Update

2009-02-19T13:55:00.009-05:00

It's been a busy week. I'm trying to spin, knit, get the house in order, do my taxes and amuse the kids. Tuesday, we went to the park for a bit. Somehow, I smashed my UV Filter. Always use one! You never know when that can happen and it protects the lens. Do the math, a replacement filter is like $10. I have no idea how it happened and didn't even notice it until I got home! I thought the lens was dirty and that's why I got a diagonal ghost image on my pictures.

See:

The line starts at the lower left, just above the railing and goes all the way up. Also, in the bottom center. Pooh. Lens was fine, thankfully. The next day, we went to Best Buy to visit the TV I want to buy and to get a new filter.

Today, I took them to the Long Island Children's museum. I almost always enjoy going there but like to do so when it's not crowded. I was there only 12 minutes after the place openned and it was filled to the gills. Lots of interesting exhibits though.

Girl in a bubble.

Self portrait (yes, I focus with hand underneath, I was shielding lens from the track lighting)

Some dried up thing...no flowers yet, when will it be spring?

Milanese Lace Sock

2009-02-16T08:06:00.007-05:00

Happy President's Day!

Without further ado, Milanese Lace Sock #1 is done.

Here's a close up of the heel. I've used Wooly Nylon as a reinforcing thread and it was a perfect match. Good Stuff!

The pictures are a little dark, sorry about that. I'll take some good ones when both socks are complete. Busy today trying to clear out my office and balance my check book from 1997 to the present on Quicken so I can work on my taxes.

Back to the shredder.....

Eye Candy Friday

2009-02-06T20:23:00.005-05:00

Delicious Pumpkin Bread....

Hello February!

2009-02-03T19:18:00.005-05:00

Another month. It's the dead of winter here on Long Island. It snows a bit nearly every day, 2 inches here, 2 inches there. There have not been many warm days and I think we have snow on the ground from around Christmastime, believe it or not. Ugly bits of dirty icy old snow were covered today with a blanket of new snow. It was springlike yesterday and yet today we got another winter storm today and about 4" of snow. I would much rather have 30" of snow than all these itty bitty 'storms' because I only want to shovel once. Hello February.

Yesterday was Groundhog Day. Puxatawney Phil said six more weeks of winter but what's-his-face in Staten Island said spring is just around the corner. What kind of drugs was he on? Once the weather pattern is in place, it stays that way for the entire season pretty much. I predict spring will be late and I'm nearly regretting not digging up my Dahlias. Best to start shopping for bulbs now.

Anyway, I was able to knock out a third pair of socks for January. (well, technically, I finished them on February 1st.) Ok, I knocked out the first pair of socks for February. I finished a pair of Ridged Squares for my Dear Son. He wanted green socks and he got them.

Here's a close-up of the Eye of Partridge heel and the nice gussets. Much nicer than some of my earlier pairs. I used exactly 49 grams of yarn so I can easily make him another pair. The leg on this is on the longish side and they're a bit big for him so I'll be fine as long as it isn't a yarn eating pattern.

For the February KAL for Solid Socks, I'm working on Milanese Lace in a none green color. See if you can guess what it is. Hint: They're not red either! Pictures next time!

Until next time, happy knitting!

My Moment of Need

2009-01-31T14:05:00.004-05:00

I often wonder what would happen if, say, I fell down the stairs and was alone in the house. Or, say, if I choked. I asked a doctor once and he said that you could do the Heimlich on yourself over the back of chair. I filed that info in the back of my mind. It's been years since I've choked as I think that I've learned to eat with more human bites. I remember choking all the time as a kid.

My son doesn't like jelly. He eats plain peanut butter on white bread, which I've never tried. Well, today, being I had the munchies, I took a glob of peanut butter and slopped it onto some Arnold Brick Oven White. I don't know why I did this, I really don't like white bread at all. I bit into it and...maybe it was (and maybe it wasn't?) a human bite. Guess what happened? It got stuck. I wasn't choking but I needed the Roto Rooter man to clear out my esophagus. I thought about Hugh Laurie and "House" and things going down my throat and the close up of what my esophagus might've looked like. It was clearly stuck. Visions of a snake swallowing a whole baby pig flashed through my mind as I reached for the milk. Milk. Better than water? Should I have reached for Crisco? Olive Oil? I drank it and none of the cold stuff hit my tummy. It took a good minute.

It was truly, my moment of need.

The children were in another room arguing over Speed Racer on TV. They didn't help me.

Well, neither have my Ravelry friends. Yet. I'm sure they will.

I am up to the heel flap in my Ridged Squares sock and want to make the Eye of Partridge with German Chain Selvage and there is a mistake in row 4 of the pattern. I posted it in the SKS forum, it's been 43 minutes and no one has extended a hand ..yet.

Here's what I posted:

I’ve checked the errata on the website and there isn’t anything posted for this particular heel flap. I want to do the Eye of Partridge with German Chain Selvage from page 67 of MSKS. I have an even number of sts in my heel flap.

Row 4: K1, #K1, sl 1 wyib, rep from # to last 2 sts, sl 1 wyib, sl 1 wyif.

That doesn’t work out for an even number of stitches, now, does it.
What’s it supposed to be?

Then, I have to tell you about my Knitpicks order. I am starting to think they aren't paying attention to me. I recently broke a Harmony wooden needle, size 1, 2.25. It cracked lengthwise. I called them, they sent a metal one. I just ordered a bunch of stuff that I didn't need and attached a note to the order about the needle. Well, they messed up again.

In my moment of need. I'll try calling them in a few minutes, after a glass of milk.

I won't be eating peanut butter any time soon.

Baby Girl Spinning

2009-01-29T12:12:00.006-05:00

Well, I spun up my Evergreen Grove and I think it may be my first sock worthy yarn. It's somewhat evenly spun, it's 4.5 oz and it's fingering weight and I have more fiber in case I need to make more yarn.

I am still really learning when is enough twist and when is too much twist. I don't think that I did the best plying job on this yarn. It didn't hang perfectly straight. I was close and it "S" twisted so I have to re-read and see if that is too much plying spin or too much singles spin. I think it's the former. There are spots that have a few pigtails....

My five year old, however, is doing much better than me! She needed a little help plying and she also used a fiber that was easy to spin but she did a great job! She was 'getting tired' treadling so I finished plying this for her. This kid has the patience of a saint and I am very proud of her work here and at piano and school.

This is her very first skein. It took her a few weeks and she kept improving but she spun this. I helped her with plying. She was having a bit of trouble with coordinating the flow of two pieces of yarn and keeping the tension together but so what. After all, she's only 5! Plus, I like hers better than mine. No pigtails here, just a fine job!

OK, time to clean the house.

Another Knitted Pair of Socks is Done!

2009-01-25T08:34:00.007-05:00

Tout Fini!

Ta Da! I finished Trekking 126 last night. I wish I could find my sock blockers and take a nice picture. Maybe if I spend more time cleaning and less time knitting, I'd be able to do exactly that. For now, here's a crappy picture of them.

These were knit on size 1, 2.25mm, two at once magic loop over 68 stitches and took two weeks. (I worked on some other stuff during this time plus I spun a bit). I like them very much but should've gone with 60 sts as I originally intended.

They match up pretty well, one of them was kitchenered at the color change so there are some 'sprinkles' on the tip of my toe.

Apparently, I wasn't paying as close attention when I divided this up as I have ball of yarn left and one scrap of yarn left instead of two balls! Luckily, I had enough on the smaller ball to finish the pair so I didn't have to hunt through the 13 color changes to find the right spot to knit the toe.

They're simply, delicious!

Spinning and Knitting Updates

2009-01-24T14:24:00.011-05:00

You wait days, weeks, sometimes longer. You track it online. It's "processing". You sing "Anticipation" and think of the old Carly Simon Ketchup commercial. You imagine the vinegar delicious smell. Ah, the glorious beauty of getting a nice package in the mail, opening the envelope and being knocked over with yarn fumes. A smell and a sight to enlighten any dark winter's day.

That's exactly what happened to me a few days ago when my order (finally) arrived. Fresh yarn, Socks that Rock Lightweight.

L to R: Jinglebell Rock, Muckity Muck, Gingerbread Dudette, Autumn and Beryl.

Top, L-R, Jinglebell Rock, Beryl

Bottom: Muckity Muck, Gingerbread Dudette, Autumn

Truly delicious, don't you think? I have wanted Beryl for a long time, you know how I love green...she may become Embossed Leaves. Autumn is beautiful. Gingerbread Dudette is nicer than I ever imagined. I like Muckity Muck, too. It's a color that is different for me, orangey things are usually my least favorite unless they're fall colors. This is orange rust and it's grown on me lately. Jinglebell Rock may become another sock from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn. I love that book!

To keep me busy, I started Ridged Squares in Fortissima Socka, size 2 needles, CO 50 sts for my little boy. I think this may be my last pair on 2's other than for hubby with STR. They're just not the same as 1.5's to me. Hmmn...Either that or I have to use thicker yarn to be happy. I'll see how my handspun knits up.

Yes, you heard me right. I finally am able to spin well enough to spin skinny enough to make yarn that could be used for socks. Now, I want the plying head and the fast flyer but we'll see. I was treadling ALOT on this. Felt like eons and felt like MILES on the bobbin. But, look at the result.

I started making my own green yarn. Here we have 4 1/2 oz of BFL that I started spinning on Wednesday night's guild meeting. I finished bobbin 2 last night and plyed this afternoon. It's a nearly solid and the name of the color is Evergreen Grove. I don't know how to match colors very well and I don't really like the barbershop pole effect but this is a nearly solid so it's fine here.

This photo was taken moments after it was spun. I believe it is DEFINITELY sock worthy! I wrapped it a few times and it's 19-20 wpi. I used a control card while spinning and spun my yarn nicely, carefully, slowly and evenly. This is 2 ply, I don't know how to do 3 ply.

This is my best yet and I am ecstatic. I don't want to ruin it so I am going to let it on the bobbin for a few days to set the twist a bit before I skein it and wash and hang it. Tee hee, I'm giddy! If you like it, see if you can get some from Jen on Etsy. I was happy with the dye job, she got a 10! It came all nice and pretty in a braid but there were some small spots where it wasn't combed as nicely as it could've been so I had to pick out a few fuzz balls. No big deal at all. Besides, it's green. Here it is, side by side with Socks that Rock Lightweight. You can appreciate the thinness here. Nice, hah?

Wednesday night's guild meeting was really fun! I got to spin some yarn, chat with everyone and eat alot of cookies! I also had a delicious slice of sour cream coffee cake that someone made and they were nice enough to print out the recipe for us. Now I can make it myself at home! I also was able to get some homegrown roving. I bought 10 oz of ......guess what color?

scroll down to see...

almost there!

I just love green so much!

Ta Da!

Tricked you, didn't I? Isn't this lovely? It is 90% Alpaca and 10% Dorsett. Nice and warm and lucious. I think it would make a nice scarf. We'll see. Nothing too overly expensive, a soft yarn in a fiber I haven't spun yet and in a neutral color that will go with anything. Course, I could spin it in silkwork thinness and knit lace but I'm not that crazy...yet.

Now that I'm well stocked, I am praying for 3 or 4 feet of snow to shut down Long Island for awhile so I could finish a few pairs of socks! Alas, all we get here has been very cold weather and small snowstorms. Nothing major yet. We'll see, I think we're in for a long, hard winter this year. Just enough for a little Oreo Cookie Eyed Snowman.

Snowman, January 2009

Trekking Through the Heel

2009-01-19T08:44:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I couldn't decide what to do with my Trekking 126 socks. I thought that the best bet would be to do a forethought heel; however, with so many different changes in the yarn (13 different patterns) I didn't want to trash that much yarn. You see, in order to do a forethought heel, you first find the color that you are working on (the last color of the leg) from the opposite end of the ball. You then do a provisional cast on for half the stitches (which will become your instep) and you use the back of the ankle for the back of the heel. It's really quite simple and I don't know why more people don't do it. You then knit...a toe. Yep, a toe. Right there in the heel is a toe. The stripes form a bulls eye and are in the same order as your stripes. I used it for my Mudslide Socks. ravel them here I didn't believe that I'd have enough stitches in the ankle so I added some, thus messing up the stripes a TEENY bit. Next time I do it, it'll be perfect.

Ok, so, forethought heel was out because I'd trash yards and yards of yarn.

Next up, I considered short row. That's tons of wrapping, twisting, picking up the wrap. I did that in my Chevvy Sock. ravel them here. Mustang Sally, a gorgeous colorway indeed, is much more forgiving when it comes to striping. She's not a WILD MULTI!

Then, while googling on the computer when I should've been cleaning the house, I came across this heel. Priscilla Wild's No Muss No Fuss Short Row Heel. Ingenious! This was a spectacular heel. No counting, no markers, no heel flap counting the rows, no wrapping stitches. You know what else? It can be used toe up or top down. I tried it. I knew I might not get the results I'd get with a forethought heel but I wouldn't mess up the stripes as badly as I would with a heel flap heel. Check it out.

See that. Nice, hah? And, it fits great, not bulky, doesn't bulge. It's like custom made!

There is a small hole where I rejoined to work in the round. I clipped out a small piece of the brown to realign my socks with each other so that I would end the same at the toe. I'll have to stitch that closed.

Here's the front view. See, you get stripes around the bottom of the heel. Lovely. Easy. It is only a short time knitting and boom, you're onto the foot of your sock. You'll sail right through the heel while watching TV. Hardly even have to think.

Because I have been making socks for the kids, I can get two pairs out of a skein. I am going to start knitting them toe up and it was advantageous for me to learn this heel. Now, just gotta try a toe up pattern and I'll be on my way. That's on my list of new techniques and will be at the top very soon.

Ok, I think you're sold. Now, what's the catch, you ask? Of course, there isn't any gusset, so you're knitting the foot for a long, long time! That's not really a disadvantage, I like knitting the foot, some people might get bored with miles of feet to do as some hubbies have size 13 feet! There isn't a heel flap and it isn't reinforced. I like heel stitch and I like eye of partridge. ravel them here for a close-up of the eye of partridge heel. The thickness is comfortable and it's also a place where I wear out my socks. I wear out my shoes there, too. Yes, I put holes right through the backs of my shoes because of the bone in my ankle. So, I prefer heel flap socks if they're for me. Make that, heel flap socks, reinforced with woolly nylon. I think that the heel flap looks prettier but that's a matter of personal preference. A nice solid ribbed sock with a decorative Eye of Partridge heel is truly a sight to behold as far as socks go. My teal Shibui is destined for that heel.

It's late morning, a day off, 22 degrees out (I guess we're having a heat wave?) and for once, it's NOT snowing. I don't think that I'll have enough time to finish these today as there is housework to be done, I must clear out my office, get on the treadmill, do the wii fit, go food shopping. I also plan on spinning for awhile today or tonight. I have to empty some bobbins so I can start spinning something on or before Wednesday's guild meeting. I get so excited over spinning and I haven't had a chance to spin in a few weeks. My baby girl DD has been hogging my wheel. She's the best spinner in the house...she's five.....

She did that entire bobbin by herself. I just assist when it breaks or she needs help drafting. She has made two bobbins of this and today we may ply it together. It's really even, too!

I've shown her how to do the knit stitch and how to crochet a chain. She prefers spinning over knitting and doesn't really want to learn to crochet just yet. She is fascinated by the orifice hook, for some reason.

Yes, she's a fiber head! She smells yarn, she cuddles yarn and she is in her glory in a yarn shop. That picture on the right was taken when we were visiting the Saratoga Needle Arts yarn shop this past August. You can see her expressions of glee, as well as her mosquito bites...LOL.

She walked into that store and said, "Mom, is it OK if I sniff the yarn?"

Trekking 126 - Update

2009-01-18T12:20:00.004-05:00

I love to think of ice cream. These ice cream socks are simply delicious; however, I just put them down for a rest and haven't picked them up. Here's how they looked on January 15, 2008.

That's how they look today.

Two reasons why they're resting, how to do the forethought heel. I know HOW to do it, I'm just not sure of the colors I want to use. I am not 100% certain that I want to trash yards and yards of yarn to make the heels match. I have my spreadsheet and need to sit and figure how many color changes I have to backtrack to make them the proper way. With 13 different colors in the striping, it'd be lots and lots of yards set aside to make them match. Alternative would be to get some Trekking undyed and make the heel and the toe out of that. Perhaps, even saving some chocolate for the very center of the heel and the very center of the tip of the toe. Or, maybe the tree colors that are in the cuff to give it a nice balanced effect. In any event, they will sit until Elizzabetty goes to Webs and is in the Trekking aisle and brings me home some Trekking undyed. That could be awhile so I have plenty of time to think about it. I will photograph this as there aren't very many tutorials on the web for forethought heel and it's really not difficult at all. I like the heel flap better for looks and for wear but the forethought heel works great for stripes!

My son has been asking me to knit him another pair of socks. He absolutely adores the Seeded Ribbing socks that I made him and he wants Ridged Squares and he wants them to be green...dark green. I have no problem knitting with dark green yarn and lo and behold, I have a nice selection of it. This morning, I took some green Fortissima Sock yarn out of my basket and started them for him. I want to finish them in a few days so he could wear them next week. He could surely use them, we're having a very harsh winter thus far and I expect it to get worse before it gets better. Ridged Squares is a nice easy pattern and they should zip along. Each sock has 50 sts in the cuff and I'm doing them two at a time, magic looping. 100 sts in each round. Cake! Pictures will be posted soon.

I am not feeling all that great today and my head is exploding. Hmmn...I also want to get to my spinning, clear out a few bobbins so that I can be working on something at the next guild meeting. I think that I'm going to get some more bobbins or maybe even the plying head with a gift card that I got for Christmas.....

Stay tuned for an update!

Trekking through Trekking 126

2009-01-12T11:10:00.007-05:00

It's been a few days since the infamous and carefully plotted ball winding experience with my Trekking 126 and I am journeying onward through this piece of cake stockinette stitch sock.

Monday, I was all set to walk out the door of the house when I noticed there was a flood in the downstairs bathroom. After yelling at DS for leaving the water running, I quickly realized that it wasn't coming from the faucet. I shut off the water, took the kids to school and e-mailed work with the news of the broken pipe. I then changed out of my work clothes and into my sweatshirt and sweatpants plumber clothes and mopped up the floor in the bathroom and the basement. It miraculously dripped right into my laundry basket of freshly washed...and folded clothes. It saturated them and proceeded to run out of the bottom of the basket wetting everything else in sight....and out of sight.

Without further ado, I went under the sink and discovered the blowout.

I had to go to the plumbing supply store, buy a new hose, found out they don't take credit cards and I had 73 cents in cash in my wallet, go to 7-11's ATM, go back to the store, buy the hose, replace it and then eat 'brunch' and sign onto my computer to work the remainder of the day. It was interesting. I had to set aside my clean princess act and do a home repair....

As for the sock, here's what it looks like as of the that day....

I will photograph it today as I have more than doubled that and I'm preparing to do Charlene's Forethought Heel, which is truly ingenious.

Stay tuned for another picture as well as some; hopefully, snow pictures as the Arctic air mass and moderate low pressure move into our area.

Baby, it's cold outside! Maybe the first time for single digits here in years!

The Trials and Tribulations of Trekking 126

2009-01-11T15:07:00.008-05:00

I couldn't decide what to make next. Now that I'm out of my Knitting Rut that started in November, I wanted to cast on for a new pair of socks today. I really considered making a pair for Ricky; however, the dead of winter made me long for happy colors. Ice Cream makes me happy so why not knit with Ice Cream Colors?

Without further ado, I whipped Trekking 126 out of my stash. I think wound it forwards and backwards, counting and documenting the strange repeats of the colors in an attempt to figure out where to start so that I could match my socks.....First off, my ball was shy 2 grams.
Don't they think that we check this from time to time? Cheapskates.

Then, I realized that maybe I didn't cut it in the right spot. One ball is considerably larger than the other. I was counting the tan caramel color as the point of my repeat but they seem so far apart after I put them side by side.

Hmmn...

There are 109 color changes in my ball. I set up a spreadsheet, counted the times that the caramel tan repeated and divided my ball in half............I think.............

Let's see what happens....

News at 11.

Chevvy Sock is Done!

2009-01-10T22:16:00.005-05:00

I only had a little bit to go this morning but it was slow at the end. Torture, in fact. I kept being interupted with other things going on around me and couldn't get it together for awhile. As I said before, this looks easier than it is. There is alot of moving the sts back and forth and if you screw up (or drop a stitch 800 rows, like I did...twice...) it's hard to find your place. I got new glasses today and can actually see what I'm doing. Let's break out the size 0 needles, yeah!

Sally and I came to an agreement at the end and here she is in her radiant beauty.

A nice close up of all the pretty colors. I love this yarn. The colorway is simple gorgeous and may be one of my favorites for STR. (I like Rose Quartz alot, too).

I love this pattern and will make it again.

I love red socks.

I love green socks more but I do love red socks.

Angels and Devils

2009-01-08T09:49:00.015-05:00

Being I'm knitting and spinning so much, I can always use a nice stash enhancement, can't I? My stash has actually dwindled a bit. I haven't bought anything since Rhinebeck and I saved up for Rhinebeck and I will save up for Rhinebeck 2009...so I don't really have ALL that much...., right?

Elizzabetty becomes very dangerous when driving by Webs and I become very dangerous when she's driving by Webs and has her cell phone and I'm in the middle of wanting some yarn. I get the call,

"Hi, It's me. I'm in Webs." Go ahead, dangle the carrot, she's supposed to be my friend.

Having caught me home in a rare moment when the kids were both occupied and I could actually think, I was able to chat with her. I tried to resist but the brain and the lips weren't working together. The little angel on one shoulder said, "You will be stunned when you get that credit card bill from Christmas". And the little devil on the other should said, "Don't listen to her! What does she know? You only live once". I shouldn't get anything. However, I moved my lips and out came....

"Oh good, I need yarn".

Now, there is only one thing that makes her more happy than buying yarn for herself. It isn't only the yarn she likes. It's the chase, the hunt, stalking, waiting in the woods like a hunter with her orange vest on... "I'm in the warehouse, I have some Kangaroo Dyer right in front of me". "I want Midnight". (I hear footsteps, slow at first and then a prance as she lept onto the bins). "I have it in my hand". (POUNCE.....The Capture!) I hope she didn't knock anyone over.

"You know what I really want? I want to try that Shibui stuff. It looks alot like my beloved Cherry Tree Hill and it comes in two small balls so I could wind two and make two socks at once".

That one took a longer time to stalk. Can you believe that she couldn't find it and had to ask the salesperson for help? Doesn't she know where every single item is in that place yet? Naturally, I chose green for that. (It's gorgeous.)

Then, the Berocco aisle. I want to try new sock yarn just to convince myself about how much I love Cherry Tree Hill, the Kangaroo Dyer, and even Socks that Rock and maybe even Shibui but let's not jump the gun...

I chose a red one for that. It looks like ... azaleas.

Then, being I can't buy any more yarn until I pass GO and collect $200 with this year's first paycheck, I tell her 'That's it'. The little devil on my shoulder said, "Ok, we'll be on http://www.bluemoonfiberarts.com/ later today anyway" and the little angel fell off with heart failure.

She bought a few small trinkets for herself and went to the register to pay only to be checked out by the Kangaroo Dyer herself. Wow. I wish I could be there and meet The Kangaroo Dyer. I love that yarn.

The next night, my yarn was en route to the Homeland, Long Island...in the back of her Subaru all nice and comfy. She arrived at 8PM or so and we had tea and petted the new yarn.

Left to right, Shibui, Berocco and Kangaroo Dyer's Midnight which may be in the bullpen for socks for Ricky after I finish up Chevvy. The leg is done and it's onto the heel which is almost all of the foot anyway. Maybe I can finish this tonight if I stay up late.I like them very much. I was thinking that they're somewhat shapeless and it'd be nice to add a tiny bit of shaping at the back of the leg, at the bottom of the calf would be good. Just a slight taper so reduce the bagginess that may happen at the ankle. If I make these again, I will either go down a needle size or use less stitches. This is just a wee bit big. I am very excited over these.

Mustang Sally is so beautiful. Speaking of STR...you know I got some of that, too. SHH!! It's a secret. I have to smuggle that into the house and hide it from hubby. Stay tuned and I'll show you a picture when it comes! Can't ever tell, sometimes it comes right away and sometimes it takes weeks.

As for Elizzabetty...it won't be long now. I am working on getting her to buy a nice wheel so we can spin and drink tea. She won't be able to resist much longer. I will send her a devil and an angel.

Ride, Sally, Ride!

2009-01-03T15:22:00.005-05:00

Busy knitting...here's a sneak peak.There's a teeny weeny hole near the cuff there...I may've missed picking up the wrapped stitch. The markers tell me where to do things on the second sock, which should be started tonight.

This pattern is NOT easy but can be done if you're paying attention. The sts used are cake, the construction is just so different than the norm! Parts of the sock are worked back and forth in rows. The chevrons are set up with short rows, the heel and then the gusset shaping is odd. I wasn't sure that I had that right initially but it worked out just fine. The toe decreases are kind of a pain and time consuming if you're magic looping. Throughout the sock, you rearrange the stitches. My "foot" portion was only a few rows. If you're working on this and saying, "Hmmn...I'm supposed to start the toe now? So soon? The whole ball of my foot is hanging out". Well, that's the way it is. The toe is like 40 rows. Mine started at the purple bow! I think that I might've been able to go down a needle size to a 1.25 size 1 although the fit is very good with the 1.5.

I love the color. I love the pattern and I can't wait to make another pair in a wild multi! Maybe Hard Rock!

I'm Making Chevvy Socks!

2009-01-02T08:38:00.006-05:00

I casted on yesterday for two knitalongs on Ravelry. I had to use red yarn and if it was somewhat solid, I could count it towards another group. For the longest time I had the lovely Mustang Sally sitting in my stash. Just couldn't think of the best pattern for her. She was just there, every once in awhile, I'd take her out to play with her and then carefully set her back down. I was saving her for the perfect pattern.

Not sure if she was the BEST choice but definitely an interesting choice. I just received the book, Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn from Amazon. I love this book. The lessons on color and handpainted yarn are enough reason to buy this. You'll learn alot about why you shouldn't use some multis in some patterns. (Remember my 'lost leaves'?)

Anyway, the cover photo is Chevvy. These socks are gorgeous but they don't follow basic sock construction. I'd label this a good intermediate or more likely, advanced project. This is not something for the beginner. The socks are knit on 2 circulars (or magic loop, if you prefer, as I do). You need to do short rows in the leg, use a stitch holder for the heel, rearrange the stitches from time to time and knit the toe first one side then the other. Cannot be knit two at a time because of the short rows so I have to count the rows manually. Very, very different and clever pattern. The book suggests handpainted yarn, not a nearly solid / muted multi as I chose. However, that doesn't mean it won't work. Many Jaywalkers are done in nearly solid and they look spiffy so why not try this in the lovely Mustang Sally? I knit the leg last night.

I would've been further along; however, I had to fool with the gauge. The cuff uses 64 sts and I started with a size 2 needle, against my better judgement. My Jaywalkers are a bit big and I usually make lace or ribbed socks. Other than the Jays, no stockinette stitch socks for me. I wanted to be sure I'd have enough room. I had to go down to a 1.5 and I bet that I could go even smaller and be ok with it. Watch your gauge if you decide to make this pattern. The pattern is sized for two sizes and I'm making the smaller one, on smaller needles (It calls for a 3 and Fiesta Yarns Babyboom which maybe a little thicker than STR Lightweight). 64 sts in the cuff and each round of Chevvies is 78 stitches. It takes awhile to go all! (Luckily I knit continental and can do this pretty quickly.)

It is a dark winter's day here but I will certainly photograph these much better when they're done! I'll go outside to do it. I like them so much, maybe I'll hire a model. ;)

I am so excited over these socks. Sadly, the house is a mess and I'll not be working on them too much today but I hope to have a picture with today's progress by tonight.

Maybe I'll make them in Hard Rock, too! They're so cool, aren't they?

A New Year, A New Pair!

2009-01-01T11:53:00.006-05:00

Happy New Year!

It's a new year and I've finished the first pair for 2009, Butterfly Bows!

This is the first pair of 2009 socks that I've completed and I'm very happy with them. They're intentionally big for my daughter and I love that I made a right and a left. The pattern goes in the opposite direction.

I used my beloved yarn, Cherry Tree Hill, magic looped them one at a time, Knitpicks Options size 1 2.25mm, 54 sts casted on.

Scrumptious!

Butterfly Bows Socks and Reflections

2008-12-30T06:17:00.007-05:00

I finished one of the Butterfly Bows socks yesterday. I usually knit two together, magic loop, but this ball was wound up already and I was too lazy to separate. Also, it was a solid color, it's CTH so there's tons of yardage and they're kid socks. No chance that I'll run out of yarn.

Awful lighting makes for awful picture. They're deliberately big, you can see that from the picture at least. There's plenty of length and width and ankle room in these for her to grow. She can wear them this year but they'll fit better next. You can sort of make out the butterflies. This is a cute pattern and I've seen it in variegated yarn, too. It works. Only things that I knit in variegated yarn look ugly. It's in the book Socks, Socks, Socks but I've seen a free version on the web here. The free version doesn't have a chart and isn't as detailed but this isn't a difficult pattern. It's quite cute and DD loves it. She was running around with one sock on yesterday.

I promise, better pictures when I'm done. I think I'm coming out of my knitting rut and I am going to whip out the Shawl Collar Sweater and finish that up, too!

Ok, so time to reflect on my resolutions for 2009.

1. Eat better, exercise more, lose weight. This is usually number one but I have been a good girl lately. Let's say, exercise at least three times a week with some form of aerobic plus yoga or strength. I must keep this up.

2. Take out my sewing machine more often and attempt to make some clothes for the kids. Even if its summer clothes. It would help the budget and I would learn a new craft.

3. Although I'm generally organized, I'd like to improve on that. Organize my craft stuff, my paperwork, keep the house neater.

4. Part with some JUNK that has found its way into my house and doesn't want to leave. Clear it out, I won't miss it.

5. Keep learning to spin, it's fun!

Slipped Stitch Ribbed Socks

2008-12-26T07:42:00.008-05:00

I'd like to start off this post by wishing everyone the very best of the season and hopes that we have a great 2009. Pray for peace and for a more stabilized economy this coming year.

Next up, actual knitting! We're all spun out, time for a post of some nice new socks that I made for my little girl. I finally finished the slipped stitch ribbed sock. Ravel it for the details. I was very happy with the way they came out; they're just a wee bit small. The little girl has grown about six inches in 10 months and I did have to buy her new shoes, new sneakers and new clothes. These are snug around her ankle now so next pair will need to be bigger. I bet I can't get two pairs out of one ball of yarn much longer. She needs to go to a 50-56 st sock in order to get them on her little feet.The colors are awesome! I made them out of a STR mill end that I got at the Fold booth at Rhinebeck. These are all her favorite colors, Dora and Neopolitan ice cream all mixed up with a little blue. No attempt was made to match the striping, obviously. I deliberately used this pattern to break it up. Straight stockinette would've worked, too.

The toes are different but they're really cute!

As for this pattern, eh, so-so. It wasn't that fun to knit (as you can tell, these took me two months!) and I'm not so thrilled with the fabric. It's somewhat dense because of all the slipped stitches (maybe why they came out so tight?). I really liked the pair that I made my son, the Seeded Ribbing, much better. I made them slightly larger, anticipating growth as I made them this past summer. You can see them on the Ravelry page for this pattern. (Notice I told you that the other day as well as today, you can see that I'm still happy about that. I don't know if they chose my picture because they came out nice or the photography was nice but I think it may be a little bit of both! I sure hope so! DH, who is discovering that hand knitted socks are a wonderful thing, truly liked this pair and wants some for himself. I have some woodsy brown Lang Jawoll that I can make him a pair out of but I have my eye on the Merino Lace from Favorite Socks. The picture in the book doesn't do it justice. I was checking out a few on Ravelry and they're beautiful!

Alas, while I'm in get things finished mode, I'd like to finish up the Shawl Collar Sweater which has suffered a major setback. I was sailing along until the stupid instructions had me knit "20 rows less than on back" for the front and it just didn't work for me. I finished the front, seamed the shoulders and guess what? The front was about 1.5" longer than the back. So, finally, I got up the mo-jo to take out the seam and rip out out down to a point where I can fix that, along with the decreases for the collar. What a pain in the @(!&%@. Of course, it's now sitting on the needles and every night he says, "So, how's my sweater? I could've used it today, it is wintertime".

I'm adding some craft books to my library, I'll show you to them next time. I got a gift card for Christmas so I used it. I also think I'm going to order a camera bag with my other AmEx gift card, or maybe save it and use it towards a lens....we'll see. Gotta wait until things turn around a bit.

Have you seen mortgage rates? Hmmnn...maybe refi the house at 4.3%, pull out enough money for an alpaca farm....get the bag and the lens...some fiber...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T19:12:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas to all!

More Spinning or "What am I gonna do with this yarn?"

2008-12-20T06:48:00.015-05:00

Ok, time to oogle!

So, I've been practicing spinning out of some gifted mystery fiber. It's probably BFL although we can't be sure because it wasn't labelled. It foofs up when it's underspun and BFL does that so I'm guessing that that is what it is.

I'm having less trouble with the wheel since the last guild meeting. When I was plying up the undyed Corriedale, I needed Lance Armstrong thigh strength when the bobbin was getting full. I have learned more about proper tension and I'm getting much better at spinning evenly. I was able to make these two skeins of lemon lime somewhat heavy worsted weight (I didn't check the WPI yet) yarn.

The bottom one isn't as nice as the first one but it's still very good. They're both spun much more evenly than anything else I've done prior to this and the twist will set much better when they've had their bath. I also made some autumn/pumpkin colored yarn in a light bulky weight that I didn't show you yet but I had some left over.

I also had a bit lemon lime left over on one bobbin so I decided to ply them together. This isn't at all beautiful; however, it was a lesson for me. I could easily see how the yarn was twisting together and work on my plying skills. This was only a few yards, a sample for me. Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's a strange color combo.

Maybe one more skein out of mystery fiber and I'll be ready to tackle some of the nicer stuff I bought....like these:

That's BFL for the Evergreen Grove (I bought two of the Evergreen Grove) and Mixed berry Rambouillet. The lovely one on the bottom was irresistible to me. It's merino and it is lovely! I am saving that one. This give me a chance to try different fibers. By the time I spin and use what I have, I'll be ready to tackle that one and it'll be fall. Gorgeous. I actually love all of them. Not shown is 8oz of solid Louet Corriedale. I will show you that next time along with my current knitting projects which aren't going anywhere because all I do is spin and do exercise on the wii fit nowadays. Also, not shown is two skeins of autumn colored mystery fiber that is the color of the one in the mixed skein above. It's very pretty!

Now, in other news, remember that pair of Seeded Ribbing socks I made for my little boy? Well, I got an e-mail on Ravelry that they'd like to use my picture for the pattern page! I didn't get 'top booking' but if you ravel Charlene's Seeded Ribbing socks, you'll see my socks! On my little boy's feet! I made them! (Both, the feet and the socks.) I was ... honored! So, if you're looking for me and want my autograph or something, I'll be the one in the Jackie-O sunglasses and poofy scarf at Rhinebeck 2009. I'll also be carrying around 30lbs of fiber like some people I saw this year. It'll be really fun to go to Rhinebeck as a spinner. Only 10 more months!

A Few of My Favorite Things...

2008-12-18T09:21:00.010-05:00

I really enjoy blogging. I really enjoy Facebook. I really enjoy Yahoo groups. Is this why I have no time?

My computer is taking over my life and sometimes its overwhelming. Check mail, pay bills, play on Ravelry, update projects, see what my 51 intimate friends are all doing on Facebook, read more e-mail, play in Yahoo Groups, oh yeah....and blog.

I have to give it a rest every once in awhile.

However, it is time for an update. I finished my Variation on a Theme Koolhaas hat for hubby.

It took me awhile to knit this. The pattern doesn't go all that fast, it's cables, my left twist is wrong but the pattern that I made is perfectly acceptable so I left it as is. I made this out of Cascade 220 wool in typical man color, gray. The fit is perfect. I started on 11/5 and I finished 12/14. What's wrong with me? Sheesh, way too long for a little tiny hat.

I've been playing with my spinning wheel and I'm producing usable yarn now. More photos coming but here's a sneak peak:

This is some two ply plain undyed Corriedale.

There are some uneven spots, which is to be expected, but I've really gotten ALOT better since I first tried this. I have some more to show you as well as some lovely fiber that I bought (guess which color?) I am currently spinning up some lemon lime worsted weight. Not a particular favorite color of mine but DD loves it. It appears to be quite good and even so I'm thinking about making her a scarf out of it. A scarf is boring to knit but I'll have enough of this stuff for a scarf and hat and I can use the scarf for the gauge and actually use this stuff up. It's coming out...even.

Last night was spinning and I had so much fun although I ate too many sweets at the little party.

Time to do some work but stay tuned for an update on my projects!

Jumping on the Bandwagon...

2008-12-13T14:19:00.010-05:00

I haven't been posting all that much. I've been playing on Facebook, playing with my spinning wheel, sleeping for a change, playing Wii Fit in the mornings, playing on the treadmill, attending cub scout meetings, attending parent teacher conferences, and wrapping it up for the end of the year at work. I haven't even been knitting all that much but will be picking it up full force now that the holidays are rapidly approaching and rapidly going away. Time just flies.

Alright, I will follow the flock and post this as well before it gets old and stale like the socks I'm working on for 11 months....

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I use wrapping paper almost exclusively.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Artificial. I love everything about real except the mess. We had real for a few years here and there growing up and they were memorable. I feel bad that a tree should be sacrificed though....

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Usually the weekend after New Year's. It's big and in the way and I really want it down sometimes.

5. Do you like eggnog? I love egg nog! Whipped in the blender with a little bit of vanilla ice cream. Then, float some more vanilla ice cream on top. Then, a bit of rum and topped off with nutmeg. YUM!!! Now, that's Christmas!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? One year I got a real wooden cradle. I wish I still had that! I also remember really wanting and getting the game Quick Shot.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My father in law. Oddly, because he could use alot of things. Next year, I'll knit him some socks.

8. Easiest person to buy for? My mother in law. She likes all the things that I like and I guess that's why Mr. Right married me!

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I haven't put it out because its about 40 years old and belonged to my parents, who are deceased. I am afraid the kids will play with it.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail...exclusively.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Once my mother gave me a really nice black shirt with gold trim. I hated it because it was polyester and drove my skin crazy.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Movie...I like the original Christmas Carol alot. The 1938 one. I like that story alot, too. I also like The Santa Clause. I always make it a point to watch the ones from my childhood but I wouldn't define them as "Movies". My favorites are Rudolph and The Grinch.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I try to start in September and in 2009 I will start in August. I'm glad that I waited a bit this year because things really dropped in price as gas went down. Also, many of the stores had big incentives.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
No, never.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Favorite? Favorite what? Food? Cookie? Lasagna for Christmas is nostalgic for me. I like that alot. I also like Chocolate cookies with a little confectioner's sugar on them. Particularly the little cookie cutter trees. And, those chocolate stars, with the little dots on them. They come in a big box.

16. Lights on the tree? Hell no, we use candles. Of course I put lights on the tree! There are people that don't do that??? I don't like when they flash and I've been skipping the garland, makes me think of Saturday Night Fever, chrome things from the 70's and beauty salons.

17. Favorite Christmas song? I have two. First is Nat King Cole, "The Christmas Song" and second is the best singer ever to walk, Judy Garland, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Ones that make me think of being a child at Christmas time are anything by Nat, Frank, Dean and Bing and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home. I really like to be in my house, with my tree, and I really prefer to host Christmas.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Comon, can't everyone do that? I can even name the Seven Dwarves and know Rudolph's Girlfriend's name! These are important pop culture and holiday facts!

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
My mother used to give us Christmas PJs every year and we were allowed to open that on Christmas Eve so we'd look gorgeous for the pictures. I don't do that with my kids. We open Christmas morning here. They look like ragamuffins in the pictures.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
I detest buying Christmas presents, honestly. I don't mind making them throughout the year though. Honest, I like Christmas alot but I hate the shopping. I really don't even want gifts. I hate the hassle and just like the time of year and the way evergreen smells and spending time with family and friends. I hate being solicited via e-mail, 4700 catalogs a day, people trying to spray me with perfume in the store, crowds, lousy parking. Yeech!

22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like my Lenox ornaments. I have ones for first Christmas with my husband, one for each child and one of the Grinch. I love them very much and they're creamy ivory with Christmas trim gold and red and green.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year?
I already got it - a Lendrum Spinning Wheel. Just need the bag....

24. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Angel, DD puts that up on top every year because she's the peanut; the youngest gets to do that.
25. Favorite Christmas dinner?
Again with the favorites.....I like having Italian food for Christmas, especially lasagna. I like stuffed mushrooms. For Christmas Eve, I like doing the fish thing. For several years, I have been spending Christmas with my husband's family and they're not Italian and don't do that. Now that we have limited family nearby, I may get my way and do the fish thing. Maybe we'll make something really good...shrimp stuffed with crabmeat, anyone?

Tomorrow, I may have a knitting and spinning update for you so stay tuned! For now, enjoy some holiday eye candy.

First Snowfall ~12/07/2008~

Just Keep Spinning, Spinning, Spinning!

2008-12-05T15:00:00.009-05:00

Spindles. Aren't they pretty? That's our first attempt at spinning. Even Boobette is getting into the act. She's a fiberholic in training.

When we go to the yarn shop, she smells the yarn. It's hilarious. She is fascinated by the wheel and wants to learn to spin so badly.

We're working on that, she treadles way too fast....

If you have't guessed, I haven't been knitting. :(

I have been spinning! :)

I received my Lendrum DT the other day and was able to set it up myself in just a few seconds. I have been practicing on some undyed Corriedale.

That thick one near the loopy thing (technical terms, I know) is the last one and it'll tighten right up when I continue. I'm trying to get it onto the bobbin nice and evenly but it's tough. I'm just a little too short for this and it's hard to see around and over the top!

I may be more comfy with a little higher chair, must experiment to see what works. I love how it matches the decor of my house.

It spins like a dream, so nice and smooth and quiet! Ah...bliss...

It's December! Meaningless Post.

2008-12-02T07:08:00.004-05:00

And, I have no finished objects. I have been knitting three things for eons and they're not DONE...

I have been lost in spin land. I even purchased a wheel for a Christmas present for me. I spin and spin and try to get better and better. There are pictures coming but they need to be uploaded.

I've been Christmas shopping...rough year, what to buy the kiddies? Nothing with little parts all over the house. I have so much stuff!

Swamped here...coming up for air from spin land, drowing in fiber and UFOs...

Talk soon....just wanted you to know that better posts are planned and to wish you a happy December!

Spinning Away - Opus I

2008-11-22T16:25:00.003-05:00

I am still so excited that I can hardly contain mysef. I spun and spun and then all of a sudden...I could do it. It's coming out nice and even, I can control the flow, my bobbin is happy. The top one is the second bobbin, much more even than the bottom. I had issues with starting and stopping and the flyer going backwards on that one but it's ok. All in good time, my dear, all in good time...
Here's Opus I. It's not as ratty as that picture, that's just because I didn't tie it as nicely as I could have. It's about 112 yards and I still have some yarn on bobbin 2 that I can ply onto itself for another 20 or 30 yards. I am tickled pink. I mean..yellow. I mean, full of GLEE!Here it is upclose. Nice? I then gave it a bath and hung it to dry with a little weight to set the twist.

Ok, ok, let's take one more look at the bobbin, nice and close. <glowing like a new mommy>

Must see if my BFF is up in VT today and feels like stopping at Webs on her way home to select some more roving for me. I'm going through withdrawal now.

Gotta go and check on my yarn! Happy knitting and happy spinning.

I Went, I Saw, I Spun!

2008-11-20T11:20:00.010-05:00

Last night I had the pleasure of joining the Spinning Study Group of Long Island. The meetings are held at the Brush Barn, a historical site in Smithtown, NY. This is an old building set in the middle of a populated suburban town. It took me 10 minutes of driving back and forth on the busy main drag to find where to turn into the driveway. It's located well off the street behind an old tavern. This is not close to my home but it is only 4 or 5 miles from my job so attending these meetings will be a snap as they start at 6:30. Some members were already there and settled when I arrived at 6:40. (I was so excited I could barely contain myself.)

I had a great time! I was able to rent a wheel and meet some really lovely people who helped me get started. I only had a few moments to snap a few pictures because I was so excited that I was spinning away on a wheel! Hurray! This is the wheel I was fortunate enough to rent. It's an Ashford Traditional, single treadle. There were five new members and they had five wheels rented out. Wow! Must be growing even more in popularity. I guess I will have to go wheel shopping. Little DD was so excited when she saw the wheel. She knew what it was from Rhinebeck and Sleeping Beauty. I told her that I just borrowed it to try out, that it wasn't mine to keep. I told her that they're expensive and I couldn't buy one for a few months. She said that that isn't a problem, "Why don't you just ask Santa Claus to bring you one? You could put it on your Christmas List, even though it would be silly for a grown up to get a present you could try." She was so sincere and so cute! Naturally, she wants to spin, too. Back in the olden days they probably did learn to spin young. I'll have to research this....(what did we do before we had Google?) Click here for more info and you'll know all you wanted to know about being a Spinster.

Here's some of the other wheels. There were wheels of all types there but it seems the wheel of choice was the upright double treadle. After doing this a bit, I think that I would prefer to have a double but I'll try one out before I buy anything.

I was also lucky enough to sit between two expert spinners who were able to help me get started and before I knew it, I was well on my way. I spun this entire bobbin at the meeting.

It was so exciting. (I think it was number four on my list of most exciting things. Birth of children are tied for number 1 followed closely by knitting my first sock and then this....sad, isn't it? Ok, maybe number 5. Marrying DH has to be in there, too.) During the break, I was able to have a chat with my friend, ChristineA. She wasn't spinning. She was knitting. She was knitting a hat. She was knitting Koolhaas by Jared Flood. I laughed and pulled mine out of the bag. We were knitting the same hat! Being we were in the light instead of the cave where I usually knit, we saw that I am not following the pattern correctly. My hat swirls instead of having honeycombs but it is still very nice. Hmmnn...I am not cabling without the needle correctly. Being I'm on the last repeat, I will not be taking this out. However, I plan on knitting it again correctly. Remember how many times I don't practice what I preach? Do not knit tired or inthe dark. Maybe I'll do this hat again...maybe even use my own handspun!

This morning, I wound it up into a ball so I could admire its thick and thinness. Sometimes, I was doing that intentionally. I was experimenting and practicing.

I have some more roving at home and I will attempt to try this again today on my own if I feel better.

Anyway, I haven't been feeling all that well for a few days now and the lack of heat in this place on a 32 degree night gave me a chill that I just can't shake. I was up coughing and have that burning bronchial feeling so I thought it best to stay home. I need to be rested up and better for another busy weekend as well as a trip to the city on Monday to attend a reunion party with former co-workers.

I am running to the store to purchase a chicken and soup greens so that I can make a nice big pot of soup. All of us are under the weather a bit so now is a good time for this.

Happy knitting and happy spinning to all!

Eye Candy Friday - Fall Edition

2008-11-14T08:29:00.005-05:00

Just some nice leave pictures for today!

Still knitting......!

November Knitting Rut

2008-11-03T06:46:00.007-05:00

I'm in a rut.

Can't knit when in a rut.

What happened, you ask? Well, sometimes, there is just too much on my plate. I had to clean the house. Now I have the upstairs in a somewhat acceptable order, bathroom is clean, everyone's clothes are put away, rooms are mostly tidy. Downstairs kitchen is today's project, being I have the day off from work. I would love for my house to look like a model house. I have neighbors that have houses like that. Why do I have so much clutter? Where do they put their toys?

Yesterday, I spent the day balancing my checkbook. What happened, you ask? Well, back in November of 2007, I was off. I neglected to get around to balancing it for ... uh...awhile. I found the error, which was due to a store transaction that I logged correctly that the cashier messed up. I then proceeded to go through a year's worth of statements and bring everything up to date. Amazing. To the penny. Thank you, Quicken.

So, upstairs and finances somewhat in order, I sat down to knit. I remembered that I had a knitting accident the other day while working on my slipped stitch rib sock. The Harmony US 1.5 snapped. Knitpicks is sending me another, along with a new cable which also broke (40") and a new metal DPN, also size 1.5 which has a broken tip. Good customer service, no!? Being a sport, I picked up two skeins of that Kettle Dyed Essentials in Ivy, green of course. I can't wait. It's on its way.

I decided to make DH a hat, being he placed his order for one. He wants Jared Flood's Koolhaas. This is a gorgeous hat and is suitable for a male or female. So, I'm going to make him one. I wanted to use my lucious STR Woobu....one of my Rhinebeck souvenirs....

However, it won't work. The yarn is just too skinny to get the right gauge, the hat will be too lose and airy. I think I'll use Cascade 220. While I'm out today, I will pick some up.

So, I can't work on my little sockie until my needle arrives. Although, I do have a 1.5 needle in metal, I'm afraid that I knit tighter with it and the gauge won't match. So, I'll wait. Also, I messed up the front of the shawl collar pullover, so I have to ripit, ripit, ripit and reknit it. I can do that today while the kids are out of the house. Stupid directions counts rows instead of gauge so my front and back aren't the same. I have to fix the entire collar shaping on the front to match the back. Tix me off. I'm home today and I'm telecommuting tomorrow so I can stay up late and at least get that done if I can psyche myself up for it. So, sock and sweater are on hiatus. That's the cause of the rut.

For the same reason that I can't clean my kitchen, I can't finish my projects. Can you say procrastination?

Time to start the hat...yeah, that's what I need. Another thing to do!

Eye Candy Friday - Halloween Edition

2008-10-31T10:40:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween!!!

Makings of a Busy Weekend

2008-10-26T07:22:00.022-04:00

I am so sad that I haven't had all that much time to work on my slipped stitch rib sock. This weekend is flying by and has been somewhat of a blur.

Friday afternoon, I left work at 2 to do a lumbar MRI. It took a long time before it was my turn, I think that I waited about 50 minutes. Much to my dismay, it was a closed machine. I keep my eyes closed so as to trick my brain into not knowing that it was inside a tube with the diameter of a ziti. I daydreamed. I had headphones on. I listened to banging and clanking. This was my fourth MRI but only my first time in the ziti. I think. The first one was in 1999 and I only vaguely remember it. This was my first MRI of my lumbar area and I felt the scan. It was weird. My lower back felt nice and warm at times. Very, very odd feeling. Oh well, lovely pictures. Modern technology, they give them to you on a CD nowadays. No sense in printing them out on film. They looked pretty good to me, much better than I thought they would but then again, what do I know? This Thanksgiving, I will not be taking the turkey out of the oven because that's how I think I got hurt in the first place.

After that, I went to the Halloween party with my kids and DH, who was a chaperone. This was as the school and was pure chaos. Kindergartners, first graders and second graders, loud DJ, candy, popcorn, cotton candy, a craft, games...you get the picture?

A nice picture of my DH in a rare moment of 'glow' as he gazed lovingly at our fine children. Here they are, wax teeth for him, real ones for the princess.

It was fun for them (not for us) and they were dirty and tired afterwards. Glad I don't have to deal with that for yet another year.

I finally got my account straightened out with Google. I now have 9MB of space available and I can show you my latest projects.

I am attempting to learn to spin. I shouldn't have gotten the merino, it's tougher to spin but the color just grabbed me. I kept making a bit of a mess. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to spin and then wind it up all down the shaft or keep it at the top. I tried both ways. Here's some predrafted fiber and how I started out.

After awhile, I was able to get it somewhat even.

My family's feet and my new yarn.

This piece came out great, looked almost store-bought! Finally, after only ~~an eternity~~ a few hours, I had a small ball of yarn that one may actually be able to knit with.

I was very inspired by the Tsock Tsarina. I was lucky to actually get a chance to meet her at Rhinebeck and she was happily spinning yarn with the width of dust on a spindle. She's my idol! Plus, just like me, she loves itty bitty stitches. In fact, she loves even itty bittier stitches than I do. She spins beautifully. I noticed from her blog that she picked up a few more spindles. I got my Bosworth at Rhinebeck.

One other thing I picked up was a hank of Creatively Dyed sock yarn in beautiful autumn colors. It has tons of yardage and I am thinking about making a pair of matching socks for DD and I. Just lovely and it seems that alot of people picked that up at Rhinebeck, too! I am seeing it all over the blogs. Hmmmnnn....

The sun is coming up now, it's Sunday. Today on the agenda: French Toast making for the family, church, Ragamuffin Parade at noon and maybe a trip to the preserve to take some fall pictures of the great outdoors. Stay tuned to some shots of trees, flowers, geese, spinning and my slipped stitch rib sock!

Happy Weekend!

Eye Candy Friday, Rhinebeck, Zigzag Sock

2008-10-24T07:43:00.021-04:00

Picture time!

First up, let's look at some more Rhinebeck pictures.
Just pictures of the crowd, walking around. I see Harry Potter stripes there in the foreground, nearly matches the beautiful trees.

STR, LSS in "Bleck" whatever a bleck is....its lavender and I will photograph it again. I couldn't stop pettng it so I had to take it home with me.

My son coming down the slide in his Weasley sweater.

This was taken on the peaceful wagon ride, pulled by those two lovely horses from last times post. Time to remove the polarizing filter, I'm afraid. I got them to stop and pose for me so I will show you another picture of the lovely horses.

Ah fall, time for celosia. Love the colors.

There was a big turtle or tortise. I don't know which one is which.

This nice lady was playing with that beautiful wheel. Notice the carving work, a work of art! This can be viewed at Golding's website. I got to try it, too and made a small mess. It was only my second time spinning on a wheel. She gave me a quicky lesson so I could proceed to ruin the fiber.

My babies having hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. They even got their picture taken with a sheep! My daughter loves sheep, my son was a bit leary...
Check out this picture, yarn spun from dog fur! No sheep for you!
A rare photo of me, my daughter and my son wearing sweaters all made by me. Mine is the hooded Danbury from Lion Brand's website made out of Cascade. It's a little big, so I have the sleeves rolled up. I steamed blocked it. The other person is my friend with her son. She gets to live up there and can be at Rhinebeck in half an hour. She's lucky. PLUS, she will soon be a knitter.

Now, regular pictures. I finished my Zigzag sock last night and will update Ravelry tomorrow morning.

Here's the sneak peak.

And finally, a boring picture but you can see ...

The First Frost has arrived! It was in the upper 30's last night!

Stay tuned for the next sock project in which I use this mill end....Dora colors...to be loved my little girl.

Rhinebeck - Part II - The One Where She Spins

2008-10-20T06:50:00.007-04:00

I didn't set out with the intention of really buying anything other than some STR. You know from previous posts that I'm not totally into the yarn itself but I love the colors. Don't get me wrong, it's a pleasure to knit with and the colors are absolutely awesome but it's a bit on the thickish size and I want 10 more yards per hank so I can make man socks without sweating it out. I hate that feeling of, "OMG, These will be peddie socks for my husband".

However, next year's New Year's Resolution will be to be able to spin yarn on a wheel and do a good job of it. Entirely do-able, being I have what, 14 months? I'm almost brave enough to actually sew alone but not quite yet, this is yarn so it will be a piece of cake. Let's talk about spinning...

I tried on a really pretty wheel at Rhinebeck. I have done it only one time before and this time was a little bit harder, actually. I think the first time that I tried it, the lady was helping me draft and the roving was somewhat predrafted to begin with. All I had to do was peddle slowly and feed, drafting only a teeny-bit for evenness. I was able to do it and created lovely bumpy yarn. This time, harder still. The wheel keeps going and it was hard to keep up with it, peddle, draft, feed the yarn in the little hole, all these things happening at once. There was no doubt in my mind that I would get it, just that I needed time to get the right coordination thing going and learn to draft smoothly. So, I got a drop spindle.

Sunday morning, I got up and took apart this nicely braided pile of roving and sat down to try out my spindle. It took me a long time to get it started. I cheated and used a scrap piece of yarn to slip knot it around the shaft instead of trying to spin my own. I don't think that it makes much of a difference, actually. You can't really use the very end of the yarn anyway. After about 40 minutes, I got it. I watched a few videos on youtube that were very helpful. I spun and spun and spun. And, after like the ... the entire day, I had enough to actually wind into a ball. I have no idea how much you can spin before you HAVE to wind it off but I was getting very excited and wanted to see how even it was. The very beginning was coming out nicely and then when I got to the end, I saw the unevenness. That's ok, this is just practice and I'm not at all hard on myself. After all, the day before, I couldn't do it at all. It was actually knittable yarn! I started another ball last night with the intent of actually using it for a small swatch, to keep forever, maybe hang it on my Christmas tree with my first sock....

Pictures are coming tomorrow. I am out of space on my Google account and cannot post pictures until my space limit is raised. I just bought 10GBs but it takes 24 hours.

Next post, more Rhinebeck pictures, pictures of my spindle and homespun plus more ponderings.

Rhinebeck - Part One

2008-10-19T08:19:00.007-04:00

Ah, Draft Horses, fall colors and.....some of my haul from Rhinebeck.

Yes, I'm back! Yesterday, I roused the kids and the husband at 4:45AM, "comon, let's go!" and we got in the car and left the house at 6:10 AM. One stop on the road around 8AM (when it happened to be 34 degrees and I was freezing, woolies and all!) and we arrived at precisely 9AM. The parking lot was somewhat full already and the gates were only open for a few moments. I grabbed my Stop N Shop tote and bag, woke the kids and hustled off to The Fold to raid the STR.

Needless to say, it was a mob scene. I ran into Christine A., who was behaving and not buying all that much. Shortly afterwards, Elizzabetty, arrived and she was trying to be good like Christine. Behind her are the mill ends, tons of them. They were gone when we went back later in the day. I was lucky to get three of them. I also got two skeins of Soft Touch Ultra in "Straw" which I think I'm going to adore. One other skein of some autumn colored sock yarn and then a moment of weakness. I bought a Bosworth Spindle and some lovely purple roving. I was able to spin some yarn on it this morning. I plan on getting a wheel, maybe in early 2009, we'll see how things go. It was really fun to do and I would show you but I just exceeded my Picassa photo limit. Pictures coming next time!

I was able to see my friend, Marina, who is lucky enough to live in upstate New York only a half hour from Rhinebeck but she doesn't knit, .... yet. We'll get her going soon enough. She brought her adorable little boy who my kids loved playing with. (Pictures next time.)

Everyone was sporting their Ravelry buttons and wandering around with bags of roving, fleece and yarn. There was a petting zoo and I even saw a kangaroo with a little joey in her pouch. He briefly popped his head out to see things.

Off to Rhinebeck!!

2008-10-17T15:04:00.002-04:00

No picture today, packing up the entire family and our woolies and we're off to see the Sheepies in Rhinebeck.

Look for me, I'll be with Elizzabetty sporting out Ravelry buttons. Mine says PunkinPie!

YAY!!

Roadtrip!

I give thee..Zigzag Sock #1

2008-10-14T06:55:00.008-04:00

Yes, I know that I usually knit two at once but this time, I didn't. I was winding up a ball of my beloved Cherry Tree Hill one morning before work and it and I were having issues. Firstly, the ball jumped off the winder. I usually don't believe my son when he says, "It happened all by itself" but that's exactly what happened. The ball jumped off the winder and the swift moved swiftly and all of the yarn in progress was instantly a mess. After untangling that, I tried again and successfully got a ball, sort of. So, I put it in a box under my desk and rewound it up and then had a similar tangling problem. The third time was a charm. I wasn't going to tempt fate and try to wind two small balls and I was already late for work.

So, I started this sock on Thursday night at knit nite. I finished it on Sunday, not really working on it all that much, this pattern was much easier than it looked and went quite fast. Easier than Embossed Leaves but not easier than Waving Lace.

Sorry about the bad pictures, I will take nicer ones in daylight for Ravelry. The inside fluorescent lighting doesn't do justice to this lovely yarn and lovely sock.

I loved the way the picked up stitches came out. I also love the star toe. I didn't put the needle through the loops and pull, I used Kitchener stitch.

I'm not sure if I like it better than the standard toe or not. It's easier to do and looks kind of nice but I can feel it when I walk.

Time to get the kids up and ready for school, stay tuned for sock #2.

Four more days until Rhinebeck!!! It's supposed to rain, dagnamit....

Knit Night Projects

2008-10-11T11:08:00.010-04:00

This past Thursday, we had a little celebration for one of our knitters, Cat. There were cookies and goodies and there was ...booze. That's Annette in the white sweater. She doesn't like to be in pictures so I'm careful to amputate her face when I photograph her. Her new haircut looks super spiffy and she's really pretty, honest! You'll just have to take my word for it. She's like Wilson on Home Improvement to my blog.

Yummy food, and yummy yarn. you can see my teal Cherry Tree Hill in the foreground. Yes, I frogged the Bavarian Sock and started anew with ZigZag Sock from the same book. First let me show you some of the other stuff...

Remember Lars and his Lobster Pot sweater? Well, as fast as you can say entrelac, he frogged it and knit it up into this:

It is really very impressive, look, it's circles and it morphs into squares! See it? It's soft and ultra nifty!

Erica and Lisa are displaying Erica's crocheted baby blanket.

Still a WIP but coming along very nicely.

As for me, I started a new sock out of my lovely Teal CTH....here you have one leg of ZigZag just about done.

I'll have to restock my Cherry Tree Hill supply, only six more days until Rhinebeck!

It's weekend, going back to cooking! Roast Pork and homemade Russia

n Black Bread are on the menu today. I'm getting in touch with my Slavic Side, I suppose.