So many hobbies!

I've been cheating on my socks

 

I spent most of the week working on the heels of these bad boys and finally finished Friday night.  These are easily the wildest socks I've every had.  Saturday night, though, I started cheating on my socks with these:

 

Sorry for the over exposure.  I ordered size 2 (3.0mm) and size (3.25mm) 47" cable needles from Knitpicks for these socks.  The yarn, which is the Cormo/silk I spun last weekend, ranges from sport weight to worsted weight so I know my size 1's weren't going to cut it.  I started with the size 2's but switched to the 3's which work much better.  These are destined to be house socks.  The yarn is so soft.  They're going to be awesome socks and I couldn't wait until my other pair were done before I started these.  Normally, I only have one project on the needles at a time.  I made an exception for these guys.  (I really don't get startitis.   If you have 5 different projects on your needles at one time, it'll take forever to get anything finished.  That would drive me nuts.  In this case, the white socks I'll be taking to work for my work knitting and the wild socks will stay home for my night knitting.)

Lastly, I have a little video of Galen.  The background noise is the Car Talk guys on NPR:

 

It was a fiber weekend!

 

I started 6 oz. of 85% Cormo/15% silk (top bulky skein) Friday night and plied it this morning.  This skein is destined to be a wonderful pair of house socks.  I have cold floors.  The blue skein is from 100% wool I bought at Maryland last year.  The singles have been sitting around since last June waiting to be plied.  No plans for this skein.  And finally, the bright, shiny skein on the left is about 350 yards of lace-weight yarn that I finished spindle plying Thursday.  I'm leaning toward a shawl or a scarf with this one.

Saturday was my Guild's Fiber Fair and even though I really shouldn't have, I went shopping.  I came home with another 6 oz. ball of the Cormo/silk and 8 oz. of lovely pale gray roving that's a blend of Corriedale/CVM, angora and alpaca.  Nice!

Our warm streak last week, which melted most of the snow on the ground, is gone.  It's now cold and snowing and we're supposed to get freezing rain/sleet.  <sigh>  I was hoping to enjoy the lack of snow and mess for a while before we got dumped on again.  No such luck.  In about two hours, we got about 4 inches of snow.  The drive to work tomorrow is going to be very interesting.

Done

 

This is two ounces of Merino/silk/angora, spun and plied on my Golding drop spindles.  I did pretty good spinning the singles.  Only that little bit is left unplied.  Not bad.  (Note the obnoxious cat sneaking a chew on one of my plying spindles.  The brat!  I don't know why he's drawn to it but it's got tiny teeth marks on it.  And cat spit.)

Do you think she feels the pea?

 

I don't get it!

Can someone please explain to me the obsession with adding bacon to everything?  Check out this recipe?  Candied Bacon Chocolate-Chip Cookies?!?!  Or, hey, how about Bacon Jam.  What?!  <tries not to hurl>  I've tried chocolate with bacon bits.  It's not that good.  Really!  It was a serious waste of good chocolate.  I just don't get it!!

Nibbled by a goat

 

The Handmaiden Casbah socks are done.  Finally.  I started them October 2nd and finally finished them this past Saturday.  Well, I wove in the ends Saturday.  The fabric is tight and thick and will be very cozy on my feet.

 

I cast on for these in the airport on my way down to Florida.  I've made pretty good headway.  The kittens, on occasion, give me a bit of knitting peace so between the week in Florida and the past week, I'm about an inch and a half from starting the heels.  They're going much faster than I expected them to.

 

A little more shell art.  This is a Sunray Venus my parents found on the beach.  I pretty good find.  I'm partial to anything sun-like so once I find a place, this guy will hang on the wall.

 

My spinning guild meeting was this past Saturday.  One of my fellow guild members often brings in orphaned baby goats or sheep.  This little girl is a three day old angora goat.  For some reason, she nibbled everyone's chins and necks (she wasn't hungry, we tried that).  Little, tiny nips with her teeth, but not enough to hurt.  It tickled instead.  (The picture was taken by my friend Amy with her iPhone and a special photo app.)

The back is done

 

Not quite as exciting as the front but there you have it. 

The blue/green socks are done but for the bind off.  I "finished" them late last night so it was too dark to take a picture.  I'll have a picture by the end of the weekend when they've been bound off.

Last night, after a trip to the dentist, I decided to have dinner at Panera.  There was a mistake.  There's nothing quite like being a sober adult and drooling soup on yourself in public.  It was a special moment for me.

The top is finished

 

The top is finished.  It looks much better with the dark border; much more balanced.  Now I have to quilt the darn thing.  Oof!  I just looked at some pictures of expert quilting.  Oh, boy.  I have a very steep learning curve to deal with.  Better start practicing.

Good thing I brought extra projects

Because all I worked on last week were these:

 

Knitted from this yarn:

 

which looks much better in person.  Anyway, I think they're beautiful.  It's a pity they're just going to get shoved into a pair of shoes.

Now that I think about it, I did work on this:

 

When we're on Sanibel Island, the third best shelling in the world, we inevitably turn to shell art.  The local shell stores have different sized mirrors and wooden boxes to cover with shells and my mom always brings her HOT glue gun down with her.   You should see the mirror my sister was working on.  It's not finished so I don't have any pictures.

It was great to get away but by the end of the week, I was ready to go home and eager to get back to my kittens, although not ready to go back to work.  I'm now eagerly awaiting my sister's help clean sweeping my condo.  I have WAY too much stuff and not enough room to put anything.  After the end of March, though, I'll have much less stuff and much more storage thanks to IKEA.  Until then, I just have to wait.  Bummer.

So beautiful here!

I've made it out to the beach the last three mornings in time to see the sun rise.  Every morning it's different and always beautiful.

It was windy today which meant the waves were beautiful.  Hey, can anyone tell me why on some days there's two low tides and on some days there's only one? 

I was able to get a cat fix today.  This is Miss Wildflower.  She lives at one of the stores in town.  When I first saw here, she was sleeping on a pile of pet beds for sale in the store.  I guess she was doing her part to prove the beds were pet approved.  (I miss my babies!  No one has laid on my face or stepped on delicate body parts in days!)

It's into Fort Myers tomorrow for some shopping and lunch at our favorite restaurant:  Sweet Tomatoes.  My sister and I make the trip every year to visit the bookstore, Sweet Tomatoes and craft stores.  This year we're adding a quilt store.  Could be dangerous.