Cable Cars, Windmills and Socks

We hit the big city for a night. Barely over 24 hours, but a little getaway felt nice. I gave the stole a rest (knitting lace in the car with a chart and beads seemed a little akward) and started this--

Isn't this yarn beautiful? I got it at Ancient Pathways, and it is dyed locally for them. The color is "Pink Pepper." I am knitting Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks, and I made it through the heel flap of sock #1, as you can see.

Pretty, no?

We had dinner and Friday lunch in North Beach, but

Maurice and I ate breakfast at the Cliff House and saw the ocean, and then went to Holland, oops I mean to Queen Wilhelmina Gardens in Golden Gate Park.

Then he persuaded me to go to Imagiknit (what a guy). There I came across some Koigu (another chevron?) and some Claudia Handpainted Linen that I had been eyeing for awhile that was on sale. Oh, and some Noro Daria, since I am enjoying the Corded bag I made from it before and it isn't that easy to find.

I made him fight the traffic for the trip back downtown to Artfibers, and they had changed the way they sold the yarn without really explaining it anywhere. Most of the yarns were on cones, but you could wind off any number of balls worth that you needed. I needlessly searched for colors available in balls or partial cones that I liked, and once I was told I could wind from the cones, I had to go back and decide what I wanted all over again. Then I had to wind 1000 yards of Tsuki from the cone and that took FOREVER. I also got some red silk for something fun. (Note Red! Black! Project Spectrum) They didn't seem to have as much yarn there as they usually have. Maybe it was my imagination.

I love going to San Francisco. Next week will be spent with the family at a cabin up at the lake. I'm hoping for a little "down time" and relaxation and family fun. Wish me luck.

A mystery, some monkeys, and seeing red

It's hot. Ugly hot. Right now the car said 114 degrees, which means it's probably 110. Really.

The good news is I finally cast on for the mystery stole. I'm a week late, since the second clue came out today. But it is looking pretty already! I'm hoping the mystery "theme" isn't anything too strange, but so far the charts look nice. Here is the progress of day 1 -

I am keeping my little beads in my new cute monkey tin I got at Borders. I LOVE the pencil tins from Paperchase. This one has monkeys, which are popular around here at the moment. My stripey one holds my dpns. I would buy others, I can't resist them.

Yesterday I was waiting to pick up Emily from summer school and decided that instead of sitting in the parking lot and turning into a broiled knitter, I would seek shelter and air conditioning at Ancient Pathways. I consulted Meg, the owner, about my bead choices (which led me to Bead Artistry, which led me to choose three new colors of beads, which led me to choose pearl-like beads, but that is another story) and found out that she is trying to raise $$ to fund her trip to London in October to a yarn show. She was selling some of her handspun, and I figured I could sacrifice and get some just to show my support ;-). Isn't is nice? I think it is destined to become something felted.

Now folks take note -- it is red! I have officially found something red to knit for Project Spectrum! Isn't it nice that if you are patient, things have a way of falling into place?

Jitterbugs for June

Socks are done! A little late, but not too bad. I had a little yarn left over, not too much, but a little. I have read about the "not-so-generous" yardage of the Jitterbug, but it was enough for a standard plain pair of Cindy socks.

These socks are being counted toward the Project Spectrum, since I'm not really planning any red, black, or metallic projects for anytime soon. There is a smidge of red in them. And, since we are discussing red, there is not a whole lot of red sock yarn out there. I have looked, and would have purchased some if I had been successful.

I now have NOTHING on the needles. NO WIPS! (Okay, I'm sort of not counting the ancient few things only I know about, shhh) I am about to embark on the MS3. I am stuck deciding on the beads, but I will make a decision and cast on tomorrow. I am also going to start a new sock, either a Cookie A. pattern or a Favorite Socks pattern. I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Knittin' along

I'm a joiner. I get caught up in the excitement and can't help myself.

First came Project Spectrum. I'm sort of having an off couple of months. I will try harder, I promise.

Then came Sock a Month. I'm doing quite well with that, thank you. This month's feature is the Jitterbug sock, not the sexiest sock ever but it'll do. One down, one to go. This will be the 6th pair of the year, plus I have one lone sock waiting for a match when I have nothing else to do.

Next up came Summer of Socks. Yes, I realize that overlaps the sock a month thing, but I like socks and I like summer, so it seemed natural. Plus, I really want to sink my teeth into the Cookie A. pattern, and summer seems like the time. I'm thinking July.

Then came the Mystery Stole3. Me and 2500 of my closest knitting buds are going to do this lace project. The trick is that I get to finish the Shetland Triangle first so I don't have too many things On The Needles. I'm doing fine with the Shetland. The pattern lines up so it is easy to see as you go that you are going correctly. I am on repeat 6 of 8. I may do more repeats, yarn permitting, as it seems to be very small. If I run out of yarn I will just have a small lace thing. Not a problem, but admittedly, a shawl-sized object would be more useful. It will stretch out in the blocking I know, but it still seems small, doesn't it?

I don't know which color beads to use for the MS3. Here are the contenders. I will swatch with each I'm thinking, and see what excites me.

Here is a photo of the Chevron Scarf. Yes, I joined the Chevron Scarf Knit a Long, in case you were wondering. The Flickr group photos are so much fun I could look at them all day. I love color, and these are great!

I'm out of Knit A Longs for the moment. I'm sure if I tried at all I could find several more, but I am trying really hard to actually do the projects for the groups I join.

This weekend we are going to SF to a Giants game, so I'm already trying to figure out what to knit in the car. Lace? Sock? Hmmm...Isn't is funny how the car ride is the part you look forward to?

Saturday Update

I finished the Noro Chervron scarf. Hooray. I need to block it now, and then I will post photos. Somehow Noro is interesting to me yet I always encounter something that irritates me along the way - this time the abrupt knot/color change I encountered, breaking the subtle long flowing color changes that were occurring. I don't know how much it will show to someone that doesn't know it is there. Last time for my entrelac scarf in Silk Garden, it was the one "block" of yellow that didn't repeat even though the other colors repeated several times. Odd.





The Jitterbug socks are going fine, I decided that I was bored with completely plain, so I made an Eye of Partridge heel, just for the heck of it. I am really liking the Magic Loop (still only 1 at a time), this time it is size 1's and KnitPicks circulars, 32" or so, and it works just fine (thanks Pat for the hint). The yarn feels like STR, although I am aware the yardage is not as ample. I always have plenty left over so I don't think there is a big issue.





Please note: There is red in this sock, so I can count it toward the Project Spectrum color scheme that I really stink at.

Next up on my long list of WIP's is the Shetland Triangle. I know, I was making Ene's scarf last time I mentioned this lace project, but let's just say I changed my mind. So far so good here, although I'm not very far. It is the "at home" project, and I have not been "at home" much this past week, so not much progress.










I am, however, feeling the lace mood strike, so much so that I signed up for Mystery Stole 3. I wasn't around for 1 or 2, but here goes nothin'. We will be given "clues" and eventually have a stole knitted. No hint as for the theme, except it would look best in black or white and has beads, and wouldn't be great for a bride. Hmmm....I wonder what that means? Halloween? Anyway, it calls for 1200 yards of laceweight, and I have three skeins of this which would be more than enough, and be a good way of using it up. So I will give it a shot. I figure since over 1800 people have signed up for this KAL I can always ask someone if I get stuck.





Now that my little Grace is 6, birthday season is done around here for a little while. Happy Birthday Grace!



















Happy Father's Day Dad! Happy Father's Day Maurice!

It's Still May!!

And the socks are done! Yay me!

But first, here is why the knitting/blogging is slow this month --

Two graduations. The first, my firstborn graduating from eighth grade--

Here she is with two classmates (one of whom is her BFF Karley) at the pre-graduation brunch. Each graduate was given a very nice silver cross and a cute cookie that looked just like themselves!

Cute!

After the ceremony we lunched and gifted the new highschool bound teenager-

That was Saturday. Today was Grace's turn. My kindergartener graduated. My little baby girl is almost 6 and in first grade. Yikes.

It is almost impossible not to tear up in the presence of all this cuteness--

Grace is the one in blue in the front row. When they sat down Grace flashed the entire congregation. I'm so proud.

Here she is with her teacher.

Grace and Brianna -- who happens to be Emily's BFF's sister.

In Knitting news, (you thought I forgot, didn't you?) the socks for May were finished after graduation today, but before dance class.

These were my Magic Loop socks. Love the loop. Used Tofutsies, the same kind of yarn tried once before, but abandoned after they pooled incredibly and horribly. I gave it another shot, and the first socks looks very nice, doesn't it?

The second sock started going all crazy like and looks more like tiger stripes or something. Not good. I have two more balls of this yarn and I'm not so excited about it. I would have to say they are the least exciting and satisfying socks I have knit. The yarn feels good, if that is any consolation.

This ball of yarn was originally meant for Project Spectrum several months ago. I get distracted easily.

Next month (three hours from now) the colors turn to black, red, and metallic. Not my colors, more Nolamom's cup o'tea. I will try to make a token project to show I can get with the program.

Tomorrow is also the last day of school. Hooray! Only "non-graduating" Alex has to go to school tomorrow. He's so excited.

Hooray for summer!

Socks for April

It is hot here. Not exactly wool sock weather, more like 98 degrees on a Saturday in April. Crazy. A stomach bug caught Grace, so the poor kid has been feverish and sick when it is hot. When she is sick she likes to be up close to Mom, so I have been living with 98 degrees and a 102 degree heating pad snuggled up to me. Fun.



She is better this Sunday afternoon, thank God, and while I'm sleep deprived and every towel in the house is being laundered, the pink socks are done.



The official view --

and the view on the feet (standing on Alex's new carpet).

I really like these socks. The pattern was fun to knit, and breaking a needle just taught me a lesson that pointier needles really make the k2tog work a lot easier. This is a Nancy Bush pattern, and like a lot of her socks in Vintage Socks, they don't have kitchener stitch on the toe. You just decrease until there are 9 stitches left and poof, pull through and finish. It kind of makes a little swirl on the toe. A peppermint colored swirl.

As I may have mentioned before, this is Sophie's Toes Lipstick sock yarn, on #1 needles. I got the yarn on Etsy.com and I enjoyed knitting with it.


I pulled out my Magic Loop instructions, and think I may need a longer circular needle. May socks may have to be on two circulars, or maybe I'll do something completely different. Don't know yet.

I will probably go back to my cables. I have punished them appropriately, not having touched them since they betrayed me. I'll give them another chance, it's only fair to accept my part of the blame.

The laptop goes away tomorrow. I will try to "visit" someone's computer and sneak in a peek or two at the blog while mine gets all its keys in order.

Pink socks

What a crazy week. Our family is back to normal size, but this time of year gets crazy with the start of cherry season. I become a produce widow, or temporary single parent, while Maurice is busy selling and shipping cherries all over the world. It hasn't officially started yet, but it seems like every night someone has some activity that keeps us hopping.

Last night it was my turn to take Alex to two basketball games. When I got there my pink sock looked like this --

and by the end of the game it was at the last repeat before the toe. Yes, I did watch my kid play basketball, I was practicing my "knitting with out looking" skill. Okay, yes, I did have to look down to do the k2tog and left cross 2's. But I did get a lot done. Hooray!

This morning was blissfully peaceful. Birds chirping outside, and with my two girls keeping Carey company overnight, very quiet. I finished the toe! I like how this sock fits. The pattern is interesting to knit, this is the first time I have done a sock which has the decreases in three spots on the toe. I don't feel it when I walk on them but with one of the decreases on the bottom of the foot, I thought I would. No worries!

I need to hurry on the second sock because I am already looking forward to the next sock I knit. I think I'm going to try the magic loop thing. I haven't done that before, but I like the idea of doing both socks at the same time. I also want to do my Cookie A. sock patterns I got at Stitches. We'll see what I decide to do for my May socks.

I was thinking this morning how much I like my tin I hold my double pointed needles in. It is a pencil tin from Paperchase that I got at Borders. It is the perfect size to hold about half of my dpn collection. I wish I could find other more in other patterns. I saw one on the internet that had pirates but it was only available in England, and not here. sad.

I Love Green!

After putting it off way too long, I got with the program today and finished up a few things. One thing I was dreading, hemming Grace's flowergirl dress (wedding Saturday), and one thing I wasn't exactly dreading, but more like waiting for the appropriate time to drag out the sewing machine.

Today was the day. Out came the machine and the raw purse materials--

I was going to use the small light green polka dot fabric for the lining, but spotted the wild green squares in my fabric stash and decided to go with it for the lining.

Looks pretty good, huh?

I made my usual zipper pocket on one side, but this time I made two large pouches on the other side to hold my cell phone and perhaps a sock-in-progress. I added the magnetic closure and handles and very stiff interfacing between the lining and bag body to give it some substance.

Then I made a "rope" of many lengths of Squiggle and sewed it to the top. I had to then pull out the fuzzy bits and fluff a little, but then I was done.

The base of the purse was two colors of Cascade 220 held together using the Noni Bobble Bag pattern. The handles I purchased at Hancock Fabrics.

I'm so happy to have finished! I was getting really tired of lugging my gigantic brown leather bag around but didn't want to buy another bag when I knew this one was waiting for me.

The cable pillow project has been neglected today in favor of the sewing machine, but I am finished with one pattern repeat. The pattern calls for four, but I may do more if it doesn't end up a square.

Edit: I deleted the photos and then reloaded them. Blogger is so irritating at times! If you can't see the photos, let me know.

The End of the Blues

I'm trying to participate in Project Spectrum, where you create (knit), concentrating on certain colors for a period of two months. February and March were supposed to be blue, gray, and white.

I am not a blue lover. Sorry, I know most people like blue, I think blue is boring. Gray is even more boring. White is okay, I guess, but it is mostly an accent. This family doesn't do very well having white around. (Need an example? Grace tripped and dropped a purple berry smoothie on the carpet we were contemplating replacing. Now we've decided (ahem!) and the carpet guy comes Thursday)

I made Grace blue mittens. I made a gray scarf. Then came the middle of February and with it thoughts of pink and red and valentines. I love pink. Then came March and thoughts turned to green. I love green. Am deep in the middle of creating a really green felted bag. I'm almost done with the green and purple socks. Whoops, I was supposed to be doing blue and gray. (I know Tracy you are going to remind me of the gray/black/white sock yarn I bought. Just can't make myself do it.)

Anyway, thankfully April is just around the corner, and with it comes Pink, Green, and Yellow. Now those are some colors I can wrap my brain around. I have two skeins of new pink sock yarn and one of green. I could do an entire post about my green shoe collection. I could completely make up for being such a loser the first two months!

I'm also supposed to be doing a pair of socks every month. I've sort of been concentrating on Clapotis (which is going well) and ignoring my socks that I started in early March. Whoops. I need to make the deadline (or what? I don't know) so now I am knitting like a crazy woman. I actually always knit that way, but now I have a challenge. Yesterday I was on the ribbing, and by this afternoon, I had finished the gusset decreases. Hooray! The light is at the end of the tunnel! Doctor waiting rooms are good for something.

I am safely on the road to finishing the sock, and the blue thing I have completely abandoned. Not too bad. I'll post finished photos soon.

Half a Pair of Monkeys

It is very hard to get a photo of your own foot!

I finished the first Monkey sock this morning. I really enjoyed this pattern, and I think it looks lovely in this yarn. Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Color Douglas Fir, Size #1 needles.

Project Spectrum Project #2 halfway done.

I want to wear these to Stitches. Cookie A., the designer, is going to have a booth there, and I'm so excited!

I just have to hurry and do the second one.

I have been spending some time working on finding patterns that I want to make so that I can look for yarn with a purpose at the Stitches Market. I got the new Interweave Knits today and I have been cruising the old magazines and books on my shelf for inspiration. I did see a very nice cardigan pattern in the new No Sheep for You book. I have my eye on that book! It had some very nice patterns in it.

Decisions have never been easy for me, and I have a feeling I am going to be very overwhelmed by all the choices I will see, but I'm trying to go in with a game plan.

Project Spectrum Begins!

I had waiting time at the hair stylist yesterday. I knit a quick scarf while I was "processing."

It was a fun yarn that changes as you knit. It was three different yarns, a mohair fuzzy type, a wool thick/thin, and a nylon nubby type. I chose gray since it would fit into the Project Spectrum assignment. I like it and it will go with a black sweater nicely, but I'm not really crazy about it. The yarn comes in other colors too. (I think I would like them better). I'm too lazy at the moment to find the ball band, but when I get a moment, I will post the name of the yarn. It was very inexpensive, and one ball made the scarf. I knitted it on the diagonal. Here is the quick pattern:

Cast on 15.
Row 1:Knit1, yo, knit to three stitches before the end of the row, k2tog, k1.
Row 2: Knit entire row, knitting into back loop of the yo.
Repeat row 1 and 2.

That's it!

Close up of the yarn:
















On another note, here is a photo of Grace in the Watermelon Cardigan. It is big, but will fit her next year, I'm sure. She wore it to church last Sun. Don't you just love the smile?

Say Goodbye to the Ugly Monkey

I love the Monkey Sock Pattern. Cookie A. designed it, and it is a very easy and attractive lace sock pattern.

Unfortunately, the Tofutsies yarn looks HORRIBLE when made into this pattern. The colors pool in very unattractive ways. I tried to go with it. I can wear a wacky sock. Then, when I got to the heel flap, and it started striping, it looked good. If I had a pattern with a different gauge, maybe the colors would stripe like that and wouldn't look like blobs of color.

So the Monkey has to go. Shame, too, since the knitting part was going splendidly. Very splendidly, in fact, or I wouldn't have let the ugliness go on so long.

I'm not going to give up on this pattern, though. I am going to use a plain yarn, in this nice blue in honor of Project Spectrum. I had this yarn in my stash, and I think it will do nicely.

All this monkey business will have to wait until the Anemoi mittens are done. Or at least until they are more underway. I am still working out the kinks on the needle size. I have started over, AGAIN, and am now using size 3 needles.

I am working on patience to weather the latest knitting crisis. I am hopeful the Super Bowl will yield much knitting time, in between commercials and guacamole, and Monday will bring photos of knitting progress.

It is still January

I know. I can't get away with anything around here. I went to Knitter's Haven and came home with two very innocent skeins of yarn. I just swore I wouldn't buy any more. (I seem to have a slight problem that some may call addiction, but bear with me while I rationalize It).

It is not February. That is next week. I just bought some gray/blue/white items to get a running start with Project Spectrum. And one is sock yarn. Doesn't count. The other was way cheaper than Prism Stuff that is like $60 a skein, this was $9. And it was black and white and gray. Very practical. I was very saintly to only buy these two little items. I usually am much worse. Ask Mom.

Now, I must admit to doing a little slipping at the fabric store. The heart fabric was so hard to resist, and it was already in packs of little squares. So cute. I can't resist a heart. I LOVE Valentines' Day. I also had a coupon. Work with me here a little, a coupon cannot be ignored, it is savings after all. I got a book on scarves, hats, and gloves, since that is what I have been doing a lot of lately, and everyone around me seems to want to make a hat. It is like research.

I also had a little fun at Starbucks. They have the cutest stuff for Valentines Day. I got the chocolate with pink mug yesterday, and spent the rest of the day debating with myself whether I should have gotten the pink with chocolate. So today I did. And the pink teacup too.

Look what I got in the mail today!

I got all the classes I signed up for originally, which is good. I also got a list of HOMEWORK I have to do. Yikes!