Visit

A smile crosses my face as this post is composed.

Bugg went to college mid-August and this week we needed a visit. She was as happy to see me as I was to see her.

Worry wasn't the reason for the visit, desire to hug that little girl who's been such a central part of my life was.

We shopped a little, ate a little and I hung out in her dorm while she went for a test. It seems I was invisible to her roommate and

her roommate's friends. It reminds me of the time when she was younger and I drove the carpool - they forget, for a moment, that you are there. It was nice.

I still miss her, so much, but we have 2 visits coming up in October and she will be home at Thanksgiving - which is just one more thing that I will be thankful for.

Heart of a hat

The Mirasol line has totally captured my heart. No wonder that this hat - hearts and all - would fly off of my needles. Of course, it is for Bugg.

Size 9 needles gave me gauge, had I to do it over again, size 10 (which is what is called for) may have been my choice as the hat is a tad snug.

The pattern is the Isla hat out of Book One and is knit with Mirasol's Sulka.

I considered adding tassels or braids to the ear flaps, but decided it was good for now - we'll see how Bugg likes it.

There is a thicker sock on my needles right now and I'm pretty certain I can finish them this week. They will be mom's birthday gift and she is sure to love them.

WHAT???? another finished project?

Seriously, the socks make with the yarn from hell are finished. If it were a do-over, the Silk Garden Sock Yarn would have been a pass. Luckily, my skein did not have knots, but there were numerous thick slubby pieces which were just knit into the pattern as usual.

The end result is more pleasing than anticipated and I expect to be even happier once these stiff socks are washed. Turtlegirl assures me that they will soften up.

BIG HUGE apologies for putting Becky's heart in danger with my last post title. Although snow is eminent, we have at least another good month (I hope).

One more thing - Marco....whoever you are...I'm not looking for an Italian boy (or any boy for that matter). One good husband is all I can handle!


See it on Ravelry

The snow, it is a 'comin'

Just a quick post to chronicle my preparedness for the cold weather.

Diamond Headband from Never Knit Your Man a Sweater....

Size 6 and 7 needles (24" circs)

Knit in one evening, but it did take a couple of days to drive to JoAnn's and get a piece of fleece to line it. Did you know that JoAnn will sell fabric by the inch?

A Nikon Coolpix S550 came to live with us this week. I love my D40x, but the size makes it impractical at times. The tiny Coolpix is a lot easier to suspend in the air with one hand and snap a photo which is badly necessary since Bugg ran off and joined college.

Drudging through the rain

Rain, rain go away...there are certainly a lot of people harboring this same thought these days. It rained the majority of the weekend and the cold has set in for today - a certain predictor to our upcoming season change. Oh, how I dread the snow and cold weather which is just around the corner.

Scarf Style has been in my library for awhile and there is yarn here intended for 4 or 5 projects in that book. With the impending weather inevitable, it was time to do something to prepare.

Vintage Velvet has been intriguing and this knit up quickly in 10 days. True, other projects are on my needles so you could knit this up faster with dedication. This scarf is so soft - make one and you will be pleased.

After Velvet was off the needles, the nagging idea returned to frog half of a mohair sweater for another scarf.

Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Mohair was appealing as a sweater years ago. Thank goodness I snapped to my senses after knitting the back and quit production. Horror stories are out there about frogging mohair -- they are all true, but this task is not impossible and success prevailed. Hopefully, this will be more fun to knit the second time around.

Happily, the alpaca is finished. 655 yards of yummy alpaca made my day. As usual, it does not have a project, but that will change sometime soon. I can't keep my hands off of it.

A gift of Briar Rose BFL arrived last month and it is now being spun up. I'm pretty sure I haven't spun BFL before. The memory would have stuck with me. This fiber is incredible - soft and buttery. Chris' color job just adds to the beauty. How lucky am I?

An update on Bugg seems to be in order - she is doing well and is so happy at school. She is in the right place and has adjusted. We did receive a call for money last week (heh heh, it took a month!). I miss her a lot, but she has been calling and shares with us - I am thankful for that. She will be playing tennis at the end of the month and asked me to come down...the car is gassed up and my clothes are packed!

My spinning regimen

This button pretty much says it allSince seeing Mamma Mia (the movie)...ok, I've seen it twice so far...I've been hooked. Purchasing the soundtrack was a natural next move and it really is very good. I digress.

In my quest to become a better spinner, practice is at the top of the list. I try to spin at least 20 minutes a day and it is thoroughly enjoyable. Recently, I've added the Mamma Mia! soundtrack to my daily spinning. Spinning through the entire CD is a dream with most songs being upbeat and easy to work into my rhythm. This means spinning is getting more than 20 minutes, but practice makes perfect and there will be more handspun yarn to share proving it.

Do you have a spinning or knitting regimen?

Need more yarn

...so the 2-at-a-time socks are finished. The pattern is Berry Season (these are named Blue- Berry Season) and were knit from 2 skeins of Mirasol Hacho on size 4 needles.

It was such a relief to finish a pair of socks that another pair was cast-on. These are 'what the ?' socks. Knit from Noro Silk Garden Sock, the finished product looks nothing like the original skein...see?

Mitizi and I laughed a lot at the sock coming off the skein. It was being knit on the ferry and a couple of people commented that the sock looked nothing like the yarn and asked if it really did come from that skein. Hee hee -typical Noro.

With some successful knitting under my belt, we descended upon the WI Sheep and Wool Festival. There were many stash enhancement opportunities which need to be added to my Ravelry stash. Here are a couple of teasers:

Briar Rose Charity - with buttons! This is destined to become a jacket I've been thinking about for the last month.

some wonderful yarn for a gift Bugg will love - fiber escapes me...let's call this Softee Softee.

and a little something for Georgia - this silk and wool roving from Creatively Dyed. Absolutely yummy!

You are wondering if this is all, right? ummm, no. There are other things that just followed me home but it is safer to just add them to my Rav stash in case my honey is reading.

Books?

I've been going through my enormous collection of books and have a list of de-stash to post soon. Keep an eye out, I will put the list here and on Ravelry as well.

Just WIP's

Gosh! I am tired of knitting the same old thing!

There are 258 stitches on these needles and I broke down and ordered a longer cable from Knit Picks. My hands ache after working on this for too long and I'm hoping that longer cable will do the trick.

Usually, another project is on needles when I'm working on something this intricate and demanding.

Grape Cable Lace was finished (did I show you photos?) hmmm. Not quite sure and feeling too lazy to go check. This is my own design that went out in a scarf to my exchange pal, Becky, last year. The photos taken of the original did not do it justice and this yarn (Valley Farms Lenox) does show off the detail better.

...anyway, a new project was necessary and nothing jumped out at me. After a couple of days spinning my wheels, something evil possessed me to knit socks 2-at-a-time. This is a new technique to me which did not cause initial problems. Frustration has set in because my longer cable is in the Philosopher's wool cardigan and using a somewhat shorter cable with the socks causes a little disruption. The worse thing is that my hands hurt with this project, too.

The yarn is lovely! It is Mirasol Hacho and was sent to me by Ivy whom I 'met' on Ravelry. This book has a few patterns that call to me but I think I will knit them separately next time.

Yes, this post is scatterbrained - this is how my life feels right now. There was a finished project here to share, though.

Thanks so much for the kind comments on my last post (and the others). My niece tried to model the shrug again when we visited last weekend...she is so funny!

chaos

We managed to leave Bugg at college (gulp)! I won't humor you by saying these last few weeks have been easy, but it isn't something that can't be managed. There are lots of bare feelings and I know it will ease soon. Her experience is going very well. She was prepared and recruitment week has been rewarding for her.

A knitting detour struck me. This was unlike my usual detours of quilting, spinning, weaving, needlework and I was engulfed! Have you heard of or read Stephenie Meyer's books beginning with Twilight? Stephenie's writing style draws me in and makes me feel like anything is possible. with 400-500 pages each, it seems like the books would be a major commitment. I've read the first two and they've sucked (excuse the pun) me totally in. Who couldn't love Edward? Anyway, I quit knitting for a few days and can't wait to pick up books 3 and 4 from Bugg this weekend. The first two books were left for my dad to read with a note "WARNING!! Reading these books will make you want to become a vampire." Enough said.

These nifty little socks are made from Colinette Jitterbug in Raspberry. They really didn't take long to make (especially if you discount the time spent on diversions). Knit on size 1 needles, this yarn is a dream. Not needing any major pattern concentration, they were knit from the basic pattern on the Colinette label. I needed a little something to hold interest and added the 'alphabet pattern' for the leg. Essentially, I knit 26 stitches and purled one repeating throughout the leg.

The first half of alpaca was drying as Bugg and I headed out with her car loaded down. It was dry upon my return and is absolutely incredible. So, so soft. 315 yards of fingering weight and there is still another half to spin! Great yardage!

One whole week without spinning - my acquired skilz are bound to suffer.

Last but not least, a few days were spent with my folks and my niece was cooperative for photos in here Bolero aka Chocolate Covered Cherry.

She is pretty big for a 4 year old, but I managed to make it large enough for her to wear for awhile.

Yooo hooo, Mitzi...

During our knitnite last week, Mitzi clued me in on these new Dansko's. Mine are well worn and I NEEDED these...seriously.

They are so me!

Grey Leopard....grrrrrr!

Oh, they will make their official debut at our Wooly Over-the-water-trip aka Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival on Sept. 5.

nature, knitting and spinning

The gardens are bursting with blooms and the colors are enticing.






For some inexplicable reason there are lilacs blooming. I should do some research and discover exactly why they are blooming, but there isn't time right now.



Toad has been living in this flower pot all summer. I did catch him in the cat's water bowl (inside the garage) one morning. For the most part he stays inside the pot only peeking his head out when the watering occurs.

A bunny showed up outside the porch and we were lucky to find him before the dogs or cat did. A couple of bunnies have already fallen prey to Cat this season, but this little bunny was scooped up into a box and relocated to a safe area in the weeds.

The second sleeve has been complete and measurable progress will slow. 256 stitches are on the needles for the body of this sweater and a row will take quite awhile to get through. Once the facing is complete, I should be able to gauge how much time a row/repeat will take and then calculate how much time I need to spend knitting this to complete in time for Christmas...Mom will be so surprised!
What is on my wheel?
Creamy soft alpaca. So soft it feels like butter running through my fingers. The 8 ounces ball has been divided into 2 ounce portions. One is complete and I hope to get the second finished and plied before leaving Friday for Kentucky.

the cool kids

Today is the last day of drivers education for Favorite Youngest Son.

He is 15 years old, wears a size 15 shoe, and is 6' 6.5" tall.

I dropped him off and all of the cool kids were standing around near our car (maybe 8' away). He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek before getting out.

I think I know who the really cool kid is

diversion

Lots of spinning and knitting have been happening around here.

My only daughter is going to be driven 6 1/2 hours away and left at college in two weekends...this flurry of activity is my diversion.

The little hat sparked my desire to do more colorwork so mom's Philosopher's Wool sweater fixin's was dug out.

This is the first sleeve and I will be claiming small victories in knitting this sweater as it may be awhile before the entire thing can be finished. My hope is by Christmas....this Christmas (2008).

The pattern is Fractured Diamonds and it is fun so far. I love the way the inside of the sleeve looks.

There is also a new skein of handspun Corridale.

Lisa held a giveaway months and months ago which led to me winning a hunk of Watermelon pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms (the pink below)

Once the spinning began, it was apparent that I would want tons of yardage so a quick order was sent to Crown Mountain and this green arrived quite quickly in the mail. Some of the green is still on my wheel and should be finished this week. My FYS named the finished yarn 'Lollipop'

...As if that wasn't enough?

90% Merino, 10% tencil which I call Dominatrix Barbie. The roving came from a fiber day Lisa and I had with Coby at her workshop. You can find it in Coby's Etsy shop, colorway: Guts

Note: Coby's shop is empty today, but keep checking back, she always restocks quickly