Angels and Devils

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.

Odds and Ends

Well, I've chosen Baby Fern from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch for this lovely dark green yarn. So far, I only have one repeat done but it is going smoothly and not worth showing you a picture until there is a bit more meat.

Being I spent this weekend rearranging my house to make more room for my ever increasing stash tidy up a bit, there wasn't much knitting. The flowers are blooming, the birds are twittering, the days are getting longer and the stash has been enhanced:



Valley Yarns Huntington, which bears a striking resemblance to Cascade Heritage, in green and red. To the right, Louet Gems in Champagne.


I am very excited over the Huntington yarn. It's nice, it's thin, a teeny bit splitty and screams for nice intricate patterns. Not overly expensive either! The colors are gorgeous in person, it's a darkening sky here today...

I haven't worked with Louet yet but I'm looking forward to it. I am considering making those into Waving Lace socks.



Next up, a member of everyone's top ten list of favorite sock yarn: STR:




l to r: STR - Downpour, Hard Rock, Mustang Sally

Ah, STR, a pleasure to work with... I want to be able to complain about the pooling. Mustang Sally isn't as solid as I wanted. She is my second choice for Waving Lace.

The Palindrome scarf is well on its way to being a grown up scarf. This pattern eats yarn though. Each ball makes about 10" of scarf so this is an expensive endeavor. I am using Plymouth Royal Silk Merino and it's absolutely lovely gorgeous and yummily delicious.


Nothing new with my Dragon Scarf, the yarn broke and I have yet to reattach. Wow, I currently have three WIPs. That's alot!

Just so you don't think that I only photograph wool, here's a picture of Saturday's sky, with telephone lines. Too bad I wasn't down by the water or in the park for this sunset. It was spectacular.



I am home from work today, enjoying my aloneness.

Time to knit!

My 100th Post - Monkeys, Pink Monkeys

This is my 100th Post and I'm going to show you a project that I started this morning.


Monkey Socks. Pink Monkey Socks. Lorna's Laces, color=Peach.

I know, it looks pink but I wanted PEACH. I know I spent $450 on a camera so I could show you stitch detail you'd think it'd get the colors right. Well, that's the color it is. It's supposed to be PEACH. I ordered PEACH and the yarn came marked PEACH and that's exactly what it looks like in person. IT"S PINK!

I like this yarn....but not alot. It feels and acts alot like Fortissima and costs a little more. I was expecting it to be more tightly wound. I must say, it does a very nice job of behaving itself, not like Tofutsies. It isn't splitty, it is nice and soft and even smells delicious not like sheep poop and vinegar. It's just all over nice and I will use it again...and again. BUT, It's not my beloved Cherry Tree Hill. I am totally in awe at CTH. I wanted to make this pair out of Burgundy CTH which is in my stash but alas, it's not wound. Don't get me wrong, I love STR, too. The one thing that makes me like CTH a teeny tad better than STR is the weight. I use STR lightweight and it's not skinny enough. I am weird and like to have tons of repeats and itty bitty stitches and STR doesn't do that. If I use my size zeroes it becomes too dense. They're still heavy. I'm thinking about trying laceweight to make socks out of. The colors are truly awesome though. CTH has nice colors too.

OK, you twisted my arm, I'll show you. Time to flash some of my stash.

I picked up some of this Sockittome stuff. I haven't used it yet but the sample that they had in the store was very nice AND, it was 20% off....

Earth, Birches, Wild Cherry

Below, we have some CTH that was 50% off....

Burgundy, Purples, Blues, Wild Cherry. I think that's what the middle ones are called. I will look again later.

One more CTH, Teal Green, making friends with some Wildfoote.

Not being able to resist a sale, I picked up another ball of Tofutsies in a tan/earthy color.

Not liking that lime color, I will give this one more go. It's splitty and it's nice at the same time. I did like the lime green socks more after I was done. They're nice lightweight summer socks but working with this stuff is the pits. The Wildfoote was also on sale but I think that I paid too much for it. It looks like pumpkin pie, nice fall color. My sister in law will like that color very much and I am thinking that Bluebell Rib from Sensational knitted socks may be nice for her.

Well, that's it for now. Back to the Monkey socks and the Iris Afghan that really hasn't grown much because I've been addicted to completing more socks lately.

In the Bullpen

I try to be creative with the titles of my posts and I think that their obscurity sometimes leads to my lack of hits. It being the World Series and all, I'm trying to keep with the season. (I.E. Socks on the Pumpkin. Comon! Wasn't that cute?) I just wonder how many people out there read this regularly and just continue to lurk. Well, for my loyal readers, I have a bunch of nice pictures for you to see today. Oh well, I'm at fault, too. I read all about people's lives and their knitting and I almost never leave a comment.

Here's my little girl enjoying playing in the yarn a bit. She can't wait to learn to knit and I think that she will be very good at it someday.









She loves sniffing the yarn and winding it up. Sometimes, she doesn't like the vinegar smell if it is too strong but for the most part, she loves to sniff yarn, just like me. She really liked the Kangaroo Yarn from Webs. You can really see the nice subtle shading as she is sporting it around her neck.

Next up..look how nicely the spindle socks are coming along. Last night, I separated them to do the heel flaps with reinforcing thread and I kept going on sock A because I wanted to see if 210 yards was going to cut it. I have 11 grams left...down to the ball of the foot. I bought this yarn in Saratoga and don't feel like driving nearly 500 miles round trip for another skein. I will have to stay up late and finish sock A or at least see if I am going to need another ball and then call them tomorrow. 2 grams makes one "spindle" and I have enough for four spindles left so I MIGHT make it, barely.
















Up in the top left, that's Socks that Rock, "Lucy in the Sky"next to Webs Valley Yarn, the one that's been dyed by a Kangaroo..."Cherries". Ok, "Kangaroo Dyer". It might be a person who not only dyes sock yarn but dyes kangaroos. But anyway, I was torn between Cherries and Pine Cone....and Spruce and Twilight....So, Elizzabetty got me some Cherries on her latest escape to the North Country. Isn't that great? I will pay her back with a surprise next week. It's no fun if she knows what it is so don't tell her. I will get her just what she needs....a puppy! A big giant one with big giant paws that is cute when it's little and then grows into 200 lbs! :)

Shhh!! Don't tell her. Let's hope she is too busy to read this between now and the time that I pick it up from the breeder.


Meanwhile, back to my socks...

I want to make red socks next. And, next might be soon. I'm between that Old Rose from Cherry Tree Hill (not pictured here), Cherries and Ruby Slippers. Here's Cherries on the top and Ruby Slippers on the bottom. I also don't know what pattern I'm going to use yet....possibly a lace sock, possibly Monkeys, possibly another one from More Sensational Knitted Socks which is rapidly becoming my favorite book.


















Lastly, another shot, L to R: STR: Lucy in the Sky and Ruby Slippers, Valley Yarns: Cherries. That nice green one on the bottom is Lorna's Laces "Douglas Fir" a gorgeous green.

What to do? Who's in the bullpen???

I know, finish the spindle socks.

Off to knit them now...only one sock project at a time and I still have to unknit and fix the Jaywalker toes. We could see three FOs this week being it is a short work week for me....

New Picture Friday

Last night was Thursday, knit night. I was exhausted but I still went to yack with the ladies and sit around the big table and see what everyone was knitting. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera. We had a few scarves, Annette and her pretty pink shawl were there, and alot of socks. Elizzabetty showed up with my present! There it is! Isn't she lovely? Interesting colors. I'm thinking about what I could do with this. Hmmn..

I worked on my Baa Baa Brown Sheep Iris Afghan for awhile..ripped it out a few times and finally have the pattern and the cast on number of stitches correct.

Here's what it looked like after this morning's knitting. It's grown a bit. It now has 168 sts in a row so doing 10 rows in the morning before work is entirely possible. At this rate, I'll make it in time for Thanksgiving for the baby that's due on Christmas Day. I think he's going to be a big boy and I have been working on this pretty diligently, let's hope I keep it up. I have also been carefully checking my work so as not to have an error 12 rows down that requires surgery. The pattern is easy enough that fixing this wouldn't be difficult but still...

I've decided that my first sewing project is going to be a nice shower curtain. It's easy and I think that I can handle that. Not ready to start it yet. Maybe the first week of November when I'm off two days in a row. It should take me about 48 hours to figure out how to do this, another 40 to measure twice and 2 hrs to cut once. It's a good beginner project and besides, it will replace the one that I got from the dollar store that I didn't think would last as long as it did. I'm thinking about keeping it very simply, tiny dots for the pattern. I'll get daring with bigger prints when I become more experienced.

I am thinking of making the waving lace socks from Favorite Socks next. This would be after I finish the spindle scoks. Not sure of which color I'll use. Maybe a socks that rock semi-solid that I haven't shown you yet. Something RED! I think I want red socks, good for the upcoming holly-days!

Still can't really see the pattern of the Baa Baa Brown Sheep Iris Afghan. That stinks. Maybe if you double click and make it big. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, a good day for outdoor yarn photography.

In other news...

Tomorrow, I am thinking of taking the kids out to make them very tired. Pumpkin picking and maybe up to the Teddy Roosevelt preserve to look at some fall foliage over the Long Island Sound. Hmmn...we'll see. They have karate in the morning and DH is teaching a few violin lessons so we'll have to wait and see what happens. The weather is supposed to improve. Anything would be an improvement over tonight's downpours. I was driving home and now the song, "Catch a Wave" has new meaning for me. One car to my left splashed me so hard it was a good 3 seconds before I could see anything. The road was closed out up ahead but fortunately, that was a few exits past me.

It's still very, very warm here in New York. today, it was in the low 70s with alot of humidity which made it feel like 80 to me. The moisture in the air is very unseasonable in these parts. We usually get those clear, crisp, fresh air open the windows days. No dice.

I got a nice new washer as part of my 'game show activity' thinking that it would hold down the cost of my electric bill. I just don't get it and I'm beginning to think that I should add the nice new matching dryer to my collection of game show toys. I just got my bill from 8/20 - 10/20 and compared to last year, I used more electricity. Isn't that odd? Considering that we were away the week of 8/20, there was no AC running or anything else for that matter. Plus, it was freezing here the end of the summer so I would say we used less AC. I was expecting that we'd use less electricity. I just don't get it. Must be the gremlins. I used considerably more than last year and that was considerably more than the year before. I also replaced my expensive flood lights with fluorescents! What gives, LIPA??? How am I going to buy fabric and yarn with this bill? I did get $50 off though, a rebate for my new washer.

Zoey the doggie is going to obedience school and now is starting to behave. She's moved up to tolerable. She knows DOWN and OFF and SIT and LEAVE IT. She doesn't know how to lie down on her belly or stay. She keeps inching forward.

The baby guppies have grown and now are incorporated into the rest of the tank. Unfortunately, their mother has passed on. You would too had you had as many kids as she did. She was black. The one that was hitting on her also had a black tail. Oddly, one of the baby boys has a red and blue tail. It's also a different style. I don't know what happens in my fishtank when I'm at work. They get into all sorts of trouble. You know what? There isn't even a red and blue tailed male in my tank. What may've happened was that he didn't come from the same batch of babies. His mommy may've been the blonde who was new. She was having more fun when she was at the pet shop with the red and blue tailed strapping young men....

Well, husband is home now. Time to knit!