So many hobbies!

I'm a little obsessed

 

This is all I've been doing.  Now that the end's in sight, I can't seem to put them down.  I'm in the middle of a long rib and there'll be a short rib and then the bind off.  Between knitting on breaks at work and Knit Night tomorrow, I think I'll have these puppies done by bedtime.  Although, I have a lot of yarn left so I might make them even taller.  Depends on my mood and if my finger holds out.  These Harmony Wood needles are very pointy and my index finger is rather sore.  Still, I'm pretty much sold on these needles and I don't think I'll use anything else.  Anyway, I love how the broken rib is knitting up.  It's fun to see the pattern forming, which is the point, really.  That's why I switched from a regular 2x2 rib in the first place:  2x2 was boring.

The end is near

 

On the socks, anyway.  These are my Vineyard socks (my colorway) and finally, after about 9 months, I finished the heels on these guys and started up the leg.  I got bored doing a 2x2 rib and decided to try a broken rib instead.  I like the look.  This is pretty much what I did all weekend.

These two are finally ready for the heels but they'll have to wait until the Vineyard socks are done.  I don't know if I mentioned it, but I joined Joy in the New Year over at Tallgrass Prairie Studio.  It's an Along to finish off UFOs.  I've got the link in my side bar and I'd like very much to add a button but I can't for the life of me figure out how to add the button.  Typepad's directions are completely useless.  If anyone knows the magic trick, please share!

I found the recipe for the gingerbread cake.  You can find it here.
 

New colorways

The first of my new colorways, this one is Chocolate Hearts. 

This one is called Grasshopper.  I'm still tweaking it.  The next batch, the brown will be darker and there'll be more green.  

My latest attempt at kettle dyeing which, again, failed to work the way I wanted.  The dye hit too fast which I think means the acidity was too high.   Next time, less white vinegar.  I'm looking for a 14-16 quart pot as my dyeing pot.  And next time, I'll try with something other than Superwash Merino.  Since the scales that allow wool to felt are removed or coated in Superwash, the fibers have nothing to grab onto and tend to drift apart which makes it hard for the dye to move around in the dye pot.  

Last Saturday I rediscovered that if you spend 3 or 4 hours waiting for car repairs, you can get quite a bit of knitting done (the bonus is I now have heat which is fairly important with winter coming).  I've got about 10 rounds to go on my Socks that Rock socks and I start the heels.  Sadly, I have more car repairs to wait for this weekend so more progress will be made (the seal is bad around my windshield - I'm tired of scraping frost on the INSIDE of my car). 

Oh, I remembered two additions to my UFO list: two single socks that have been waiting for a couple of years for their mates to be knitted:

The sock on the right demonstrates why I don't like knitting socks cuff-down.  I was afraid of running out of yarn so I didn't make the leg as long as I would have liked (I ended up with extra yarn) and the toe looks retarded and needs to be ripped back so I can reknit it properly and Kitchner it closed.  The sock on the left was the first thing I knitted with my handspun (I think).  Clearly I suffer greatly from SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) which is why I'll be knitting both socks at once from now on. 
 
 

Shawl update

 

It's time to move to a longer cable.  I'm making the color changes generally when I feel like it.  I have a lot more brown than I do pink so there'll be just one more strip of pink and the rest will be the Corriedale. 

The plan was to pick up my new sewing machine tonight after work but the bus was late and the shop, which is on the other side of town, closed at 6:00.  By the time I got to my car, there wasn't enough time to get to the store, buy the machine and then learn how to use it.  Plan B is to buy it Saturday afternoon after canning my brains out.  Val wants to see the quilt finished so I may have to take it out of time out and finish it.  The new machine will do free-motion quilting so I'll have to find the time to learn to do that.

I've committed to selling at the Fiber Expo in October - I mailed my deposit yesterday.  Between now and then, I have a lot of spindle boxes to make and fiber to dye.  I've been encouraged to try and get a patent on my spindle box design.  The thought never occurred to me before and I find the idea of owning a patent on my design rather exciting.  Not to mention, incredibly cool.  Now I just have to wade through the government-speak on the patent office website.  Scary!

Have a good weekend, everyone.  Hopefully, I'll have good things to show you Sunday night.

The quilt is in time out

It's annoying me and I'm trying to decide what to do with it so, it's in time out.  Both my sister and Maggie suggested I just sew it together as is without the white sashing.  Sis thinks by leaving just the black it'll be like some Amish quilts.  I'm undecided so I'm punishing the quilt until it stops annoying me.  It's petty but I can live with that.

 

Hey, I figured it out!  I'm kinda proud of myself on this one.  I started with the directions for the Wool Peddler's Shawl and tweaked them to get the triple column of yarn overs.  The goal is a warm winter shawl I can toss on the end of the bed or back of the couch and grab when I feel a chill.  I'm waffling on the contrast yarn:  the Merino/Seacell or the ball in the upper corner of the pic above.  It's a Merino/silk yarn I spun a year or so ago.  It's soft and wonderful and... I'm starting to think it needs to be something wrapped around my neck.  Maybe.  Never mind, it's back to the Mer/Seacell for the shawl.

Happy weekend people.  Hey, Maggie, give Clio a kiss for me.

Shawl that Jazz

 

It's done!  Yay!  I loved knitting this shawl.  The only change I'd make is I wouldn't decrease as much on the border so it was more ruffley.  Other than that, it was a breeze to knit and I love how the border/edging looks like it's knit at an angle to the body of the shawl:

  

I even like how the yarn pooled in the body:

 

This is a very easy knit.  I recommend it for anyone's first shawl.  For me, it was a nice mindless knit; a project I can just chug along on while watching TV or at Wednesday Knitting.

In other news, I have a zucchini!

 

Actually, there are two that you can see in this picture.  The big one is about 1.5 inches long.  Isn't it cute!  I've also got buds on my tomatoes and my green beans.  Soon, my pretties, I'll have fresh veggies three steps from my front door!  What could be better?!

Shawl progress

 

I finished the body of the shawl this morning (woke up early, couldn't go back to sleep).  I think you can see from the picture how the short rows shape the shawl.  The yarn tail is at the bottom point of the shawl.  I've started working on the border/ruffle which involved making two stitches in the space between each short row.  That's a lot of stitches.  I'm a little obsessed with this shawl because it's so fun to knit - and I'm very happy with how the yarn turned out - so I expect to get a good bit of the border done this weekend... after the canning and freezing of the cherries.

My birthday is in a month and I've started planning my week-long birthday celebration.  One of my coworkers, Monika, said she didn't get the whole 7-day celebration thing.  Personally, I don't know why more people don't do it, too.  It's a perfect excuse to do and buy fun things for yourself.  None of them need to be expensive (although they certainly can be) just special or out of the ordinary.  For example:  going to Borders, buying yourself a paperback and a fancy cup of coffee and giving yourself permission to sit for an afternoon and read.  Or going to the grocery store and buying a pineapple or a papaya or some other item that you normally don't buy because they're too expensive.  It's basically giving yourself permission to treat yourself.  You do know that you deserve it, right? 

I saw my first parade in years on Saturday.  Naturally, I didn't have my camera with me.  Apparently, it's tradition for the people in the parade to toss candy to the kids.  Let me tell you, those kids were vicious!  I felt a strong need to keep my limbs close to my body at all times.  The coolest part of the parade were the antique bicycles.  They had a number of bikes where the front wheel is huge and the back wheel very small, like this one. 

I'm working on my never-leave-the-house-without-it kit that hopefully will assure that I am never without a camera again.  I'm buying this camera which is supposed to take very good pictures while at the same time being very compact.  Everything will go into this messenger bag (the black one) that will hang on a hook by the front door so I can grab it on my way out.  So far, the contents of the bag are as follows:  camera, journal, an assortment of pens, double-stick tape, yearly calendar, thumb drive, either a knitting or spinning project, iPod, earbuds, and my wallet.  That's all I've come up with so far but I'm sure that list will be edited at some point.  I've been thinking for a while that I needed a bag like this with a standard kit.  Too many times I've been out and about and ticked off that I didn't have my camera or my journal or my thumb drive.  I'm hoping this will help me be more creative, too, since I'll be able to jot down any ideas that come to me.

 

I picked these up while on my vacation.  The town near our cottage has a very nice quilt store and these 1/2 yard cuts of fabric will become spindle boxes.  I should be able to get two boxes out of each cut.  My favorite is the one on the right.

Cherries are next on the calender for picking and that'll happen next weekend:  sour cherries for canning and sweet cherries for freezing.  My grandma used to can sour cherries and they were divine either blended into ice cream for cherry shakes or just poured over the top for a sundae.  Yummy!

Vacations and projects rock!

Man I love spending time with my family.  I had such a good time up north.  It was relaxing, I had time to work on several projects, spent time with my nephews and sister... it was all good.  Our cottage is on a lake so I got to see the lake in all her glory.  And, naturally, I forgot my camera.  I decided I need to put together a bag that I grab whenever I walk out the door that has some essentials that I don't want to leave the house without:  camera, journal, thumb drive, pens, double-stick tape, iPod, ear buds, calendar.  This means I'm going to need to buy a small camera that is easy to tuck into a pocket.  I'll give you an update later on how that's going.

 

I started Shawl that Jazz on Wednesday and I haven't been able to put it down.  I've got about 10 inches of it knit already.  The yarn I dyed myself the week before and I'm almost done with the first skein.  If it looks like I'm not going to have enough to knit the border, I plan on dying a third skein in just brown and black.  I'm really enjoying this pattern.  It's pretty clever.  She uses short rows to shape the shawl and once the body is completed, you pick up those inactive stiches and knit the border.  It's pretty cool.

When I was able to put the shawl down, I did some bead embroidery for the first time in months and months.  I was able to complete the beading on one piece that I'd been stalled on since the last time I beaded:

 

Sorry about the glare; I waited too long to take the picture and had to use the flash.  Eventually, this will be sewn to a backing, some kind of fringe will be attached and a cord and the necklace will be sold (hopefully) on Etsy.  I also started a new piece that's not complete yet:

 

The cabochon at the top is turquoise from China (I love ebay!) and the bottom piece is a piece of shell I picked up off the beach on Sanibel Island.  My mom wondered why I'd pick up broken shells but these pieces are too beautiful not to save.  This picture is really crappy.  I'll post it again once I've finished the beading.

Gotta go to bed.  I'll tell you more later.

A new home for my knitting

 

I asked the lovely and talented Val to make me one of her great box bags for my current sock-in-progress.  I absolutely love the citrus fabric!  The little zippered pouch was a special surprise for being her 10th customer on Etsy.  Thanks, Val!  Do you want a box bag of your very own?  Go here to get one.  She has lots of cute fabric and if you don't see something you like, email her and she'll send you a photo of the fabric she has in stock.  Did I mention I LOVE that citrus fabric?