These are the finished socks from the kit I bought at the.knitter.com in purple. They were a ton of fun to knit, and I got lots of comments when I wore them to work. Notice I did not say compliments, although I got a few of those too. My co-workers think I'm crazy, and are only slowly getting used to the outrageous things I wear on my feet. I have to express myself, my uniform is a boring dark green polo shirt, with khaki pants or shorts.

I'm almost finished with this pair, in Regia cotton. I did a lace rib pattern on the cuffs, and am adding some 2x2 rib ontop of that to pull them in a little tighter. The cotton doesn't have much memory.


A little more got done on Hawaii, it's not as even as I'd like but it gets better with each row. This is my really my first foray into the fair isle type knitting so each stitch is a learning experience. I'm almost ready to change colors again.


I joined the Stitching Blogger's ring a while back, and have only now noticed the link to the Stitchers Friday Five. So here goes:

1. How many have you framed on the wall?
Many. Probably about thirty.

2. How many do you have finished in other ways?
1 bellpull, a few ornaments, and about 6 standups or pillows

3. What was the most expenisve finishing?
Celtic Christmas, she cost over $200 because I fell in love with a very costly frame

4. Have you finished anything yourself?
Ornaments, I can just about manage to sew a straight line and a few of the smaller framed pieces I've put into ready made frames

5. Describe your favourite finished piece
I have to pick just one? Ok, then. The Heart's Content English Elegance. It's a large sampler type stitched entirely over one. I finished it in 1993 after I took a class with Maureen Appleton at SOCS. I had it framed last year.

I have at least 8 things waiting to be framed, I'm going to be making a trip to my framing goddess in June and dropping them off. She frames them and then mails them back to me.

Part two of Mini Mystery E is complete:


Here's the whole bellpull to date:


There's one more part to go, and then I'll need to pick out some hardware. I've also signed up for Mini Mystery F. Ruby is the gemstone theme. I wonder what G and H will be? I like these little projects, they make me feel like I'm accomplishing something. Work on the large Mystery is progressing slowly, and it doesn't look or feel like I'm really getting anywhere. I haven't touched Common Ground in over a month, I'm really trying to catch up on the Mystery, a losing battle. I may just give in and start alternating between the two.

Well, after having to start over about 42 times, I finally got a few rows of Hawaii done. I started off by using the wrong color to cast on, then somehow I managed to screw up the amount of yarn needed for a long tail cast on (this time in the "correct" color), then I twisted the join and didn't notice, then I lost my place in the chart on the first two color row and had to rip out several rows to fix it. If I didn't absolutely adore this sweater, it would be wadded up in a heap at the back of the closet with foot prints from a good stomping!

Finally though, I managed to produce this:


I'm using both hands to strand, which is much easier than the only other FI type sweater that I've made where I dropped one yarn and picked up the other about 42 million times.

Yesterday was Day Knitter's. Heather and Carol brought photos, and textiles from their recent Peru trip. They had a blast. They said the Peruvians were literally selling them the clothes off their backs. Carol brought back a sack of finger puppets to share with everyone. I got a llama:


Oh, yeah... This came in the mail yesterday:

Thanks Wendy for adding the baseball tees to the selection, I love it. Lucy is just gorgeous in silk-screening. Want one of your own? Wendy's Cafe-Press Store It was a very good mail day, my yarn order from Elann arrived, a scale I ordered from Ebay, and a couple of craft magazines. I'm not sure how I feel about the new Knitter's, the entrelac sweater made of sock yarn is very clever, and might go on my list of possibles, I liked the entrelac socks and the Lily of the Valley Shawl is gorgeous, but most of the rest of the designs didn't do anything for me.

Zedd saw us with the camera and immediately hopped up on Dave's lap. He's not shy at all.

Finished the Patons Fresco shell (tank top) yesterday. It's made with yarn that I traded for out of the Great Stash Reduction box. Fresco is a machine washable ribbon type yarn, and I think I need to throw it in the machine and then damp block it, because the garter edgings are curling up just a little bit. Can't believe I actually finished some warm weather knitting in time to wear it. I guess I have it a little easier in that respect since it feels like it's always summer in Texas.


Now I'm working on finishing my purple Sock Kit from theknitter.com because I need a pair of the size four circs so I can start Dale Hawaii. I've seen on a few blogs where the Dale Svale is hard to work with, and from the swatches I made, I can see where that is going to be true. It splits like crazy, but the finished product should be well worth the hassle. Wish me luck!

I've also made a small amount of progress on Mystery Six


Then I succumbed to temptation at Elann and bought enough yarn to make sweaters out of ONline Linie 78 - Vega in Gothic Grape and Austermann Tropicana in Purple Splendor, and two skeins of ONline Linie 42 - Plush in Casbah to make a scarf.

The Tropicana comes with a pattern for a really pretty summer weight lacy long sleeved top, that I think I want to make, but I could change my mind when I see it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the Vega yet, but I just had to have it. I'm a sucker for purple.

I've also finished several more blankets for the Critter Knit-a-thon, two more and I'll have twelve cat sized blankets to send in. That will be it for me, I'm just getting tired of making squares and I think sixteen blankets isn't too shabby.

You know what chaps my ass? {rant mode on} People have been picking on Wendy because she won't give them photocopies of a poncho pattern, and because she blogs about knitting with "expensive" yarns.

I think she was way too nice, "Bite me" is tame compared to what I would have said.

Whose business is it what kind of yarn anyone knits with? Some people like Red Heart, some people like Rowan. You buy what you can afford that makes you happy. If champagne tastes go with a beer budget, then some choices need to be made. Buy the cheap yarn and get the instant gratification, or save up some money until you can afford the quality yarn. It isn't Wendy's responsibility to hand out free yarn to the poor, nor to stop knitting Starmore kits, nor to keep her stash of Colinette under wraps just because there are some dumbasses who think it's ok to chastise her for having enough free cash to afford some of the finer things. It also isn't her responsibility to send out copies of a copyrighted pattern just because some folks are too cheap or too poor to buy the kit. Get a grip, it's a friggin' poncho, there are about seven million poncho patterns available, even some for free. Google is a very useful tool, that everyone should learn how to use. {rant mode off} Well, I'm feeling much better!

In other news, I've belonged to The Book Barn almost since it's creation seven or more years ago. We are a pretty diverse bunch with the common thread being a love of reading * One of the other members, Bonnie, raises minature horses, on a small farm in Missouri: Sundancer Farms. She has kindly given me permission to post some photos** of her newest baby "Sundancers Standing Ovation". Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?

*This list is very high traffic, and very off-topic

**These photos belong to and are (c) copyright 2004 by Bonnie Streich/ Sundancer Farms, please don't borrow them without permission..

Just Finished: Naked Once More - Elizabeth Peters

I haven't posted in the last week, not because of lack of time but because I discovered www.RealArcade.com What a great time waster.

Tuesday was knitting guild night. It was our last sweater class, I wasn't quite finished, my sleeves still needed caps. Doing them both in the round on two circs made them fly by but I stalled out on the part where I had to start working them back and forth. I finished that up yesterday, and sewed in the sleeves.

Just a very basic wool crewneck, but it's the first sweater I've done in the round. I enjoyed the class, it was taught by Mary Lyle, who teaches classes in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I learned several different techniques that I think will help me in the future.

Zedd is patiently waiting for me to put the sweater in the closet so he can sleep on it.


There are a couple of things that I want to start, including the Dale sweater, but I think I'm going to be good and finish the tank top I'm making out of Paton's Fresco, and the Regia cotton socks first. Maybe I'll just swatch for the Dale sweater, how much trouble can I get into with just a swatch?

Last Read: Making Minty Malone - Isabel Wolff
Hanging by a Thread - Monica Ferris