Queen of the Lilies

This year I hit the lily jackpot. Look at what's blooming across the front of the house. I wish this was smell-o-vision because they smell divine.

Squee!

I went to Walmart yesterday morning for no good reason and look what I found. New shoes! Red and yellow plaid new shoes. Very comfy.

Knitting Bag Meme (picture heavy)

Julie over at Samurai Knitter is packing up to move, so she put all her knitting tools in one bag, photographed it, and challenged others to do the same. I decided it was just too scary to put all my needles, etc. in one bag (aside from the fact that I don't think there's a bag big enough and I don't want to see how much money I've spent over the years) so I just slowly unloaded my main knitting bag which I just packed for Friday Night Knitting Club and took pictures. Here we go!

This is my flamingo bag from Bonaire, my favorite Caribbean island. It sometimes leaves sequins in my wake but I love it. It's pretty roomy for big projects and easy to carry around. Not a travel bag, by any means.

The first item to pop out of the bag is my finished Ripple Shawl. I love it. I love the shiny Sterling gray and Ebony black, and the silky feel of the Micro Spun yarn. It'll be great on cool summer nights and will warm my shoulders in winter.

Next we have the zip bag with the Reef Socks. I'm loving this pattern; it's fun and easy to memorize. One more repeat of the pattern and I'm onto the heel flap.

Here's the Khaki Cardi (#241) still not to the place to separate out the sleeve stitches because I was focused on finishing the shawl. But I counted the back stitches and I need 14 more until something new happens in the pattern. That's 14 more rows. I can do that.

The books I ordered from Interweave Press' overstock sale came this week so I packed them up to share with the ladies tonight. I have to make the bird hat on the cover of Folk Hats and there are a number of sock patterns that caught my eye. I've been wanting a Knitting Companion since I started back to knitting and couldn't resist the price. I'm sure all will be treaured additions to my library.

In a little clear-plastic-fronted case from my DD I keep all my "tools." No fancy snips or Leatherman, like Julie has, just a collection of things that have become handy to have around when I'm working with yarn. I can't bear get rid of my first training sock. DD sat patiently beside me and guided me through every stitch of the way. Note my new Sony Walkman mp3 player on the right. It's crammed with 5 books on cd from the library. It's my new favorite toy.

A few months ago Dusty came to FNKC with a tiny witch on a broomstick stitch marker for each of us. I was fascinated by the idea of figuring out what I'd choose as my signature marker so I went on a search. As you can see from the picture, I had a bit of trouble making up my mind. The red bead is from my DD and the long star & heart are part of my gift from audreym when I won her drawing, but the rest are of my own making. There are bees (for my initial), other bugs (I like bugs), fish (for my love of the ocean and diving), and hummingbirds (for my love of Durwood). I love each and every one of them.

That's what's in my bag. What's in yours?

In The Home Stretch

I've got about 6 more rows of the Ebony to go and then the Ripple Shawl will be finished. I love this Lion Brand Micro Spun; it's soft and warm. Nice to crochet with and the shawl will be great to have next winter.

More Circle Sock

Last night at FNKC (Friday Night Knitting Club) I dilligently worked on my Ripple Shawl first, getting almost through the last skein of Sterling, but then I couldn't resist working on my Circle Sock. I'm through the first pattern repeat and into the second. I'm liking this pattern.

*****

P.S. DD, I left the picture big so you can see what the yarn's doing. I love it!

I'm So Excited...

to start these socks!

Remember this that I got from my DD last Christmas?

Well, I turned it into this the other night,

and now I'm doing this with it.
Ooh, it's going to make the coolest socks

Sox!

My Mardi Gras Ankle Sox are done. Woohoo! I finished the second sock last night and, if I do say so myself, did a bang-up job with the Kitchenering. It gets easier every time. I used Cascade Fixation yarn, a mix of cotton and elastic, and I'm looking forward to wearing them to work tomorrow. (I hope no one notices that my socks sort of match.)

Don't Spend an Entire Day Knitting or Crocheting

It makes your hands hurt the next day. That's me today. I was not in the mood to do anything yesterday so I sat and watched the second LOTR movie and then listened to my latest book on cd from the library. I have rediscovered the joys of free books at the library. It's foolish to spend my money on books I don't absolutely adore and can't live without, isn't it? I even found some books for Durwood. He's really ripping through them. One of these days he's going to have to get his own library card and go get his own books.

Next Sunday I'm going to a baby shower for DD's high school friend. I got the sweater, hat & booties all done. They're so cute. One of these days I might have a grandbaby to drape in handmade stuff. But I'm in no hurry, kids and kids-in-law, no hurry at all. Way too young to be a granny.

The reason for the dedication to yarn-crafting is I have 3 projects and I wanted to see some major progress on them. Plus I was feeling sluggish.

Here's the Khaki cardi about 10 rows from slipping the sleeve stitches onto waste yarn and then continuing on down the body of the sweater. I still like it and I still don't like purling, but I think I'm getting a bit quicker at it. Or maybe I'm just blocking it out.

The Mardi Gras Ankle Sox #2 is zooming right along. In about another inch it'll be time to decrease for the toe and then I'll have my first pair of Fixation anklets in no time. I'm really looking foward to the next sock project. Wait 'til you see!


I'm finding work on the Ripple Shawl goes so easy that I don't even realize I'm doing it. Hurts both hands though. I've got one more skein of Sterling and then the other Ebony skein to go and I'll be done. Not long now!

It was so busy at the dive shop this past week that I only was able to knit a half a Sudoku square so I didn't even take its picture. You can imagine half a terra cotta square. Sheesh. It's good that I was busier at work though. Very good.

Gotta run. Chef Durwood just announced supper's ready. He's a great cook and an all-around swell guy.

Exactly How Big are a Newborn's Feet?

There must be some debate about that pressing question because I followed the directions for making booties to match the Quickie Baby Sweater and, well, it would have to be Bigfoot's baby for them to fit. I only made one, so if anyone knows a one-footed baby with an enormous foot, let me know. The matching hat pattern that I found on Ravelry looks more like a hat than a baby bonnet and it uses size US 7 needles instead of the US 101/2 called for in the sweater pattern, but still uses worsted weight yarn, so I figured what's good for the hat is good for the booties. And I was right. I knit them, crocheted a chain tie, and got them finished last night. Aren't they cute?

Now I just have to crochet a chain to tie the sweater with. I'm still not sure about buttons or not. Maybe after the tie is on it I'll get a brainstorm.

Help Out Neatnik's School

One of the blogs I read daily is trek casts on. She knits excellent socks. She has put out a call for Box Tops for Education for her daughter, Neatnik's school. I thought maybe one of you might like to collect too. There'll be prizes. Might even be yarn!

Progress Report--week #27

Hope everyone had a fun 4th. Durwood and I hung out at home, doing as little as possible. It was an excellent holiday! Our lilies are blooming and so is Dad's rosebush. So pretty, and the pink lily smells like heaven. I harvested my first 6 blueberries of 2009 today; they didn't even make it into the house before I scarfed them down. Dee-licious.

My projects have been doing well. I can tell it's getting busier at work because I only managed to finish the 5th blue square and knit 1 terra cotta square, and I even had to finish that one at home.

I've been cooking on the baby items for the shower coming up in a couple weeks. I finished the first bootie but it's ginormous, like for a Bigfoot baby, so I'm not making a mate for it. Maybe I'll make booties with smaller needles. I shifted focus to the hat which I finished this morning. It's very cute and will look darling on Kelly's baby, won't it?


I knitted on my Khaki Cardi at Knit Night Friday night. Don't know how many rows I added since I'm not counting rows, I'm increasing until there are 106 stitches between the markers for the back. I wish I could take it off the needles and stretch it out but I'm afraid I'd screw it up so I'm leaving it on there. I'll be glad when it's time to split off the sleeve stitches and then the body will stay the same. All this increasing is a bit of a pain, not that increasing is hard but each row is longer than the last one. It's a bit disheartening.


I'm chugging along on the crocheted Ripple Shawl. Finished the first skein of Sterling and I'm 6 rows into the second. I'm getting about 15 rows per skein so I think things are going well.





Hmm, have I knitted on anything else? Oh yeah, the Mardi Gras Ankle Sox. I've turned the heel, picked up the gusset stitches, and started decreasing down toward the foot. I realized when I took its picture this morning that it looks like I'm knitting a small jockstrap, but I assure you I'm not.

Accessories

Even babies need accessories these days. I finished the sweater in no time, then cast on a bootie. I got as far as the instep and it just didn't make sense. Either there was something wrong with the pattern or something wrong with the way I was knitting it. Never willing to cast initial blame on the pattern, I looked at my work from every which way and, well, just got too frustrated. This is how the bootie looks right now. I was very frustrated.


I'll be taking it to Patti's Yarn Shop with me after work to see if two or four heads are really better than one--and to debate buttons vs. a yarn or ribbon tie on the sweater.



Then I decided to move onto knitting the hat. Things are going much more smoothly in the hat department, even if it's on smaller needles. I do think I didn't quite understand the pattern stitch when I made the yoke of the sweater because it looks so much different on the hat, but I'm sure not frogging the whole thing to make holes where there are none. Who, besides me, is going to notice the difference? Certainly not the baby.