Sock Mania

At the knitting guild meeting on Tuesday, we were informed that the Hook N Needle, our only lys, was going to have sock yarn on sale this week. They had 3 baskets of marked down sock yarn which I couldn't resist. The 100 gm skeins were $5.00 and the 50 gm skeins were $3.50.

Shortly after I arrived home the Sundara sock yarn was delivered by the mail man. Mom chose the green for socks to go with a sweater she has.


Sock Haul:

8 skeins ONline Supersocke Fun (1 each for mom and me)
2 skeins Regia 4fadig Jacquard Color
2 skeins Regia Multi Effekt Color
2 skeins Opal Regenwald
3 skeins Socka 50
6 skeins Sundara Sock Yarn

It's taken me few days to get my knitting rhythm with the River stole. I would get a few rows completed and realize something was off, rip and re-knit. Things are on track now and this is will be my at home knitting project. The planned finish date is the end of June. The River Lace II chart is the main body of the stole and repeats 28 times over 16 rows. I need to knit at least 1 repeat per day.

The Rachel cardigan is as mindless as the socks. The sweater is a modified drop shoulder and I'm almost ready to work the armholes for the back. Temperatures have started hitting the 90's and this will make a nice cardigan to wear in the evening if the temp gets a little cooler.

Batting 1.000

That's my nephew Jaylon's batting average. Going into the championship game next week, he has hit the ball and gotten on base in all of his at bats. This is his first year playing baseball and he's having a ball. We're having a ball watching him and all the other teams.

Jaylon is 6 and plays in the 5 to 6 year old league. They play 2 innings per game and the entire team bats around in each inning. The league is "coach pitch" so each player gets a maximum of 7 pitches. I'm proud to say that most of his hits have been on the second or third pitch.

They were getting whipped in the first 1 1/2 innings and the opposing team was using most of their 7 pitches. That gave me plenty of time to finish this:


Noro Y-404 aka Gisha
Specs:

Yarn: Noro Gisha
Needles: 5.5 mm Holz & Stein Ebony circular
Size: Large
Modifications: Used 5.5 mm needles instead of 6.0 or 6.5 to reduce size of eyelets. Made a sleeveless shell instead of short sleeves. This was due to a major yarn shortage. I paid $20.00 for a bag of ten at the LYS a couple of years ago and just couldn't justify spending $11.00 for 1 skein in order to complete the sleeves. The sleeves and neckline are trimmed with crab stitch aka reverse single crochet.

They rallied in the bottom of the 2nd and came back from a 9 - 3 deficit to win by a score of 10 - 9.

After a brief hiatus, I present to you the second round. The daylilies are in bloom.

Ho, ho, ho!

It's just wrong! I've almost completed one sleeve of Rachel and already I'm beginning to covet the sweater. The ribbed laciness is so feminine.



The building blitz is on. In preparation, I've been graphing the placement of the storage cases, yarn, equipment and accessories. The process of organizing the different hobbies has been very revealing. More to the point, the process has been embarassingly revealing. I have to confess that I am stone, cold "Hobby Ho".

Molly

It's so-o-o-o cute. I've got two more of these to make and the nieces have unknowingly given me the go ahead.


Molly
Specs:

Yarn: FFF Moira Multi, 3 1/2 skeins for body, Sirdar Country Style DK , 1 and
several yards of a 2nd skein, knitted doubled for ribbing .
Needles: 8 US for body and 7 US for ribbing.
Size: I used the size 3-4 pattern. Moira is a chunky weight yarn and the actual
size of the bolero is closer to size 4-5.
Modifications: I didn't short-row the ribbing on the body. The short-rows made the
ribbing around the neck wider creating more of a stand-up color look.
Started: 5/9/2006 Completed: 5/13/2006

Knitting the bolero was a welcome break. Just the right easy and quick knit to get me past the knitting speed bump. I've started on a white lacey jacket in Berroco Linet from the stash. The pattern is Rachel from their website. Mom was supposed to make this but after weeks of watching it sit in her knitting bag I knew it wasn't going to happen.

I've been mapping out the craft room. I'm trying to plan the placements so it won't be so much confusion when the time comes to move in. Yesterday I went through a trunk of counted cross stitch and realized that I have always had "startitis". One of the unfinished projects is a Sixteenth Century Old World Map. Even though it has a few stains on it, so did several other pieces, I'm going to finish it. This is one of the oldest FO's of any kind that I have and a really late Xmas present.

They Framed Me (Almost)

It's interesting to note the things you can knit for children. Not just the things you can knit, but the colors you can use. When I saw the Moira Multi in the shop it screamed my nieces names. I got out my bag of completed Level II swatches, took most of the wool yarns that were still in the house to storage and brought back some nice cotton yarn for warm weather knitting.

Well the past few days have been a little cooler and I still haven't dug out the Master Knitting instructions. I worked on the blacks socks but one solitary neon green skein was peaking at me. It was the skein of yarn I bought to trim one of the boleros. Major de-focusing in ensued and there's a little bolero to show for it. I thought it would be cute for my 3-year old niece to wear on cool summer nights but it's more like a jacket for the little one. I'm putting in the Xmas pile and for the first time I have a head start on the holidays.

With all the talk of running out of yarn on the last 2 projects, I must have jinxed myself. I ran out of yarn on the second sleeve cuff. I still haven't gotten around to re-casting on (re-caston, re-cast-on) the sleeve for Gisha. Me thinks it's going to be a sleeveless shell.


Molly - Debbie Bliss Junior Knits
Today I came home to 2 wonderful surprises.
1: The orange Asiatic lilies that I've been watching for a week bloomed while I was at work today.


2: They started the framing. The room sticking out in the photo is the craft room. I'm excited to have a place to play!


And last but not least, delicate and petite Stella d'Oro lilies.

A Rose is a Rose

Our roses have been around for years. They aren't pretty bushes lovingly doted on and pruned. Most of the time they look spindly and almost dead until the buds open.



Hidden Places

Last week was a stash reduction failure. I ordered the Sundara sock yarn and Saturday I bought sale yarn in three different colors to make boleros for the nieces. It's funny that I can resist purchasing yarn for myself when I'm in the LYS, but the moment I see yarn that I like for the kids all my resistance breaks down.

Saturday I also bought a set of German knitting libraries and a sale copy of Knitting Languages. A couple of weeks ago I purchased Omas Strickgeheimnisse another German knitting library which came with translation sheet and unfortunately the set didn't. Today at lunch I translated some of the symbols from one of the volumes until I got stuck on the last symbol, "R".

This weekend I'll start back on the TKGA Master Knitting Level II and work on designing a vest with stitch patterns from these books. I like the look of the twisted stitches and I've completed more than half of the other requirements. My only fear has been the designing part which I failed miserably on the Promise of Spring cardigan. I realize that unless I overcome that fear I'll always be stuck depending on someone else's designs.

An Evening at the Circus

Last night I saw Cirque du Soleil's Delirium at the Colonial Center. The show definitely lives up to its' name. Delirium is a music and dance oriented show that is drastically different from previous Cirque shows. While I enjoyed isolated parts of the show, I'm glad it wasn't the first live show Cirque I'd seen. Something seems to have been lost in the transformation to the arena-type show which is the basis for their future development.

I finally started one of the sleeves for Gisha. I figured that since I only have 2 skeins of yarn left I'd at least see if 1 skein will make a sleeve. In preparation for the soon to come failure, I went ahead and did the 3-needle bind off on the shoulders.


(Pay no attention to lp's in the background. Yes, I have a turntable and still play them.)

I usually block and leave the stitches on holders. If the sleeves don't pan out, I'm even closer to the finish line. Which leaves me with the next dilemma. I haven't a clue as to what to make next.

The flower show continues and looks like it will continue on through the May. Some of the daylilies are beginning to bud and should start flowering soon. Luckily most of the plants are out of the construction zone.

Mom brought the amaryllis back from a trip to Houma, LA a few years back. They remind me of candy canes, candystripers; I was one very briefly, and peppermint balls.



Mmm peppermint