Hangin' in there
I haven't had time to post lately because I have gone nuts over these preemie hats that I have publicly pledged to knit over the next year. At the rate I am going, I will have them done well before my self imposed deadline. When I started I really didn't realize how quickly they would go. I also didn't realize how much satisfaction I would get from doing them. I think it's the fact they go so quickly so I know they will not languish on the UFO list. That fact alone brings me joy!

So here is what I have been up so since my last post. I have over 12 hats done and there is always a new one of the dpns.
First...



This is the Preemie Twinkle Hat. It's made with Pylmouth Yarn, Dreambaby D.K. This pattern can be found here. It's very easy and any beginner who can knit in the round can make this hat. It's pretty small. I think this one is done with #5 dpns.
Second is...

This hat was made with Bella Stripes from Universal Handknitting Yarns. The pattern is called Shadow Stripes Hat. I did this one on #5 dpns. It take a little longer than the basic hat pattern but well worth it. I will make it in different yarns and colors to see how they all compare.

Third is..Large Preemie Diamond Lace Hat. I did this one on #5 dpns and was really surprised at how large it was. I am still wondering it this will fit a preemie. I need to find someone with a baby so I can try it on them. I used the 80 stitches the pattern called for but after researching where I got the idea from, this person used 48 stitches and #3 dpns. I don't currently have #3s so I used #5s. Hopefully Santa will bring me the #3s for Christmas.

I wanted to show how many hats I got from one skein of the Bella Stripes. Most were done with #4 and #5 dpns. The yarn was priced at $5.99. It was more expensive than the other yarns I have been using, but I just loved the stripes and I had to have it.

So when there's a time lapse when I post, it's only because I am knitting my little fingers to the bone. Ha!

Wee Thoughts
I am just in love with the current knitting project that is #1 on my list for '08. I am feeling so good about this project! I really have not done charity knitting and I sure don't down load too many free patterns to do on my own. I am a pretty conservative knitter. My colors are usually earth tones because I feel most comfortable surround by them. I am a fall and winter season person. I have always been like that and it's hard to break out of the color comfort zone.

I have two sons so soft girly colors were no where to be found in my home. Now I am having to look at things that I think will fit little girls as well as little boys. I hate to pigeon hole things into pink and blue, but when babies are so small and hooked up to all kinds of tubes and monitors, it's pretty hard to tell what sex they are. So maybe the pink and blue thing are okay.

This is the first pattern I down loaded from the internet after seeing it here. I found this site to be a huge resource for Preemie patterns, not to mention the color choices she uses. She is very creative and such a giving person. I have been this blog for a few years now and love it. She posts very often two or three times a week. My inspiration to do 100 Preemie hats came from her and she gets all the credit! Boy will she be a bit surprised that I have written my blog entry for today about her, since we don't really know each other and I didn't ask permission to do so.

Here is the Preemie Eyelet Cap done Vickie style (that means, not reading how many row repeats I should have done)
Just looking at these, you have no earthly idea how small they really are so check out this next shot. I did use #4dpns and #5dpns, mostly because I don't own any #3 dpns. So until Santa comes, I work with what I have! I used the tape dispenser because hubby was working on Christmas packages and it was handy. These guys are pretty small aren't they. Can you imagine how small the head it that these little hats would warm up?

Ready for Eight
I am a planner. I try to be organized with things so that I can get them done. I am not obsessed but I am committed. I am a list maker. If you could see my desk, you would see tons of little pieces of papers that have lists on them. If I know that I am under the gun of a deadline, I make a list. I don't really put things in the order I want to achieve them but I need to see them so that I can get them done. I am not getting any younger and things do get forgotten.

I have observed a lot of knitters who have lots of WIP and UFOs. I decided that I didn't want to be that kind of a knitter. So I have "the list" for knitting. Frankly, it started out as a joke and now has evolved into something more important. As a newer knitter, I knew there were lots of things that I wanted to learn. I would get side tracked and miss a chance to take a class that contained something that I wanted to learn. So to avoid that happening, I made a list. Of course there will be things that aren't on the list that will get done but for the most part, I stick to the list. I know that this method is too rigid and not flexible for others but this works for me.

When I cross something off the list, I usually end up adding something else to it because of fellow bloggers. You folks have inspired me to challenge myself to do more complicated things. So I have made the list for 2008 with that in mind.

Here is the list for 2008 as of today. I know it will get longer as the year goes by because of classes at my favorite LYS and because of things I will see on the net.

2008 List
1. Knit 100 baby hats (this is inspired by Wool Windings who has knit some pretty wonderful things for the Preemie Project) I admire those who knit for charity. Since I don't knit a lot for charity I thought this would be a pretty simple goal for the year. I figure that I will have to knit about 8-10 a month. They are so small that you can get 4-5 little hats depending on what size needle you use. I have already started on my goal.


I had no idea just how small these guys would be until I knit my very first one this weekend. I got so into it, that I knit 5 already and have #6 on the needles. It was so quick and they are just so cute. Looking at this picture, it's hard to explain the size, so...
I used this tape dispenser to illustrate just how small some of the hats are. The one behind the tape was knit of #5 dpns. I was shocked. The rest of the lot was knit was #4 dpns. I don't own any 3s but put them on my list for Santa.

I will talk about the hats in more detail in a later post. I just had to show just how small the hats are, so doing 100 in a year shouldn't be too much of a drain. I want to challenge all of you to think about doing at least one or two charity knitting items.

Christmas Came Early
I was tickled pink when hubby handed me the mail last night on his way in the door from work. He handed me a nice white envelope. What was inside? Christmas from MOM. I wasted no time today in making her perceived wish for me to have a very Merry Christmas by spending her money; and spend I did.

I have exhausted my sock stash except for three skeins of a cotton blend that I am not sure I really like that much now that I have knit one pair with that brand. I love the wool and wool blends so that means technically, I am out of sock yarn. Now what's a girl to do??? Shop of course. With checkbook in hand, I helped to support my most favorite LYS. I have been lusting after some sock yarn there for some time now but sometimes my appetite for yarn far exceeds my cash flow. So I knit from the stash until I get the cash. My mom's envelope pushed me over the edge! Yeehaw!

I have never knit with either of these two yarns, so I am very excited to have them in the fold.I took this under the light of a living room lamp so it's a bit darker than most photos, but you get the jest. It's Austermann Step. Other knitters at my Thursday group have used this before and say it's a dream to knit with because it's soft. So, I am excited about knitting with this. My friend Susan J said that it really does make stripes like the picture shows on the label, and I am counting on that! Then Susan S brought out some new yarns that I missed out on the first time she had them, and this time I was ready! This is the second helping of sock yarn purchased today with such JOY! It's Araucania. It's a hand dyed yarn from Chile by Araucania Yarns. I am not a huge fan of pinks but this was muted enough I could handle it. It's 100 grams and boy I can't wait to get into this stuff. Has anyone else made socks with it yet?

Then I was lucky enough to have been in the shop on Monday when Susan S got a nice big shipment of cool things and I have bought two already. I was in the shop looking to buy my niece some crocheting supplies for Christmas and bought one of these for her crochet supplies so they can sit neatly near to where she is crocheting. I loved it so much, that I also bought one for me. This is a little organizer that is made from clear plastic. It stands up with a metal stand and is just small enough to hold a pair of in progress socks. Both sides of the stand have three little pockets where you can put little (non-sharp) items in. I am lovin' this! I posed my new yarn next to it so you would have an idea just how small it is. The proper name is Handy Caddy. This would make a great gift for a knitter if you want to spend less than $20 for a gift. I am sure my niece will love it!

And Baby Makes Three

Recently I was talking about how I would have one project almost finished and lusting mentally about the next project in line. The week of Thanksgiving was no different. I still have my Guinea Hen socks on the needles and now have moved on to another project.

When a LYS was changing owners this past summer, I took a drive over there and took a peek. I am pretty loyal to my favorite yarn shop but every now and then I do stray. So I made some purchases and socked them away for another day. Since both my sons are in the Army, I bought some camoflouge yarn. I thought a beanie or watch cap would be cool. NOT. Or so I was so politely told by my son one morning while he was eating.

I asked him if I made a beanie of the yarn, would he wear it. Nope, no way, no how. Well! Ungrateful so-n-so. Then he sweetly looked up at me with a mouth full of food and said that he did know of something that I could knit for him...a baby afghan. Okay, is there something he needed to tell me? Was this his foot in the door of what was going to be a very awkward conversation? Ugh! Thankfully, no. My son explained how a co-worker was going to have a baby and an afghan would be a lovely gift. We talked about how my endeavor was going to be financed. He agreed he would pay and I would provide the labor (pun intended).

So, that's all I needed to sort of justify my trip the day before Thanksgiving to the yarn shop. I looked at what was there, and of course loved everything. Ruth helped me decide and this is what we came up with.
I can't remember if I have ever used this brand of yarn before, but it's such a delight to knit with. It's soft and doesn't split like my sock yarn does. I bought 6 skeins to make a rather large afghan. I think the pattern said that it would cover a playpen. It's been a while since I have seen a playpen, but aren't they huge? Here is a close up of part of the blanket. It's mindless knitting and I am sure happy about it! I have been toting this project with me to work and to the shop for about six days now. I got the pattern free with the purchase of the yarn. The best part is, I can down size the number of repeats and make a scarf, or I can increase them and make a really large blanket. So it was well worth the purchase of the yarn to have a pattern that I can use time and time again. Hopefully in the next few weeks, it will be done. I have almost finished three of the six skeins. So I am well on my way to being done. The baby is a girl and is due in Feb of '08. Now about those socks...

Guinea Hen Socks
I haven't posted in a while because I have been knitting. I seem to be obsessed by socks lately. I had made great progress on my latest socks but hit a snag last night. I have run out of the reinforcement yarn I have been using for the heels and toes. So I guess I will have to stop by The Knitting Corner today on my way home from work and get some more yarn. I was so in the zone last night and then I got almost to the end of one toe and...nothing.

As you can see the pattern that I had talked about in my last post has changed. The swirl got less and less as I went down towards the toe. The pattern became more stripped like I had though it would. I love how they have turned out but totally frustrated that I have run out of the reinforcement yarn. Here is another view of the socks.

Not only have I made good progress on my socks, but I knit one plain square for the Breast Cancer Afghan for The Knitting Corner. I am trying right now to knit the pattern square. I have made some progress on that square and hopefully will finish it over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Then...I have no idea what I will do next. I have an on going shawl and will show that later. I am looking forward to the yarn sales at the shops. After I recover from the 5,000 calorie dinner the shopping will begin!
Safe travels to all who are hitting the traffic today both in the air and on the interstates and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sock it to me baby...more socks
I am on a roll with knitting my basic Sue sock pattern. I love this pattern. The more I knit it, the better I get. I have even mastered the Kitchener stitch to close my toes. I have had a mental block doing this, but finally after umpteen tries, I finally got it. Of course I am saying the sequence out loud every time I do it, but who cares. The dogs don't pay me any attention so I just keep right on going.

Here is what I was mentally casting on as I was finishing the last pair of socks. I still have an orphan to finish from another pair, but I will tackle that after the next two projects. Here are the latest socks.

This is Tofutsies yarn. I have never knit with it before. So far it's been pretty good to knit until I drop a stitch. I find it a bit splitty when trying to pick up a dropped stitch. I keep a steel crochet hook next to me when knitting socks. I love how soft it is and the way the pattern is spiraling down the sock. One sock has a wider pattern to the swirl than the other. I am not sure if that is my tension or what. I am using #1 dpns. and 72 stitches. I do love superwash wool socks better so we'll see how this goes.

First there was one...

and now there are two.

I had the whole day off yesterday due to circumstances beyond my control (Hubby's pick-up developed some problem and I lost the use of my wheels so he could go to work). So I had a mental list of things that I needed to accomplish and getting my socks done was #1. Now just because it's #1 doesn't mean that it got done first. I vaccumed, I clean two bathrooms, washed dishes (do they multiply in the middle of the night if you don't wash them right before you go to bed?), stripped the bed, did three loads of laundry, cleaned out the cranky cat's litter box, took out the trash and finally finished my socks. What is that old saying, "A man's work is done with the setting sun, but a woman's work is NEVER done." Well that completely explains my day. I knew I wasn't going to be home all weekend so Friday was the clean the house day.

Since I was so excited about finishing another pair of socks, I cast on a new pair. Does anyone else do that. As they are physically finishing one project, mentally they are starting another? Well I went through the list of projects I want to do. Sure does seem like it's a never ending list; just like cleaning house. Whew!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

For the past two years I have been lucky enough to have time to go to The Knitting Corner to help knit a prayer shawl for breast cancer patients who are going through chemo treatments. Last year is was crowded and this year was no different. While I did not get any pictures of the women who came last weekend to knit on the shawls, I did take a quickie picture of the one that I brought home to finish. I haven't had a chance to post lately because I have been busy knitting the prayer shawl to take back to the shop. When I take it back I will volunteer to take another one that someone else didn't get a chance to finish. I enjoy the simpleness of the pattern. I can do it while I watch TV at night and not have to check a chart of do much counting.The shawl is the same color every year and the yarn is Encore. It's knitted on size 11 needles. I use the Addi Turbo circulars. It's three skeins and a very fast mindless knit. The end result is wonderful. Ruth (at the shop) takes the finished shawls and puts fringe on them and then they are given out. Last year we all collectively knitted 13 shawls. I know there was talk of beating last years total. I sure hope we do.

Not only am I knitting the shawl for the shop, but I bought a pattern with the pink ribbon pattern to return to have it made into an afghan. I haven't done a pattern square since I did the three for Jef. I have until Nov 30 but I want to get the squares done and out of here so I don't forget. I wanted to do the ribbon so here is my pattern and the yarn I got for my $5. I get to keep the pattern so I will have it for another time. I will post the finished squares when I get them done.

Not only have I been working on the two breast cancer projects, but I have been trying to finish another pair of socks. Since my On-Line socks had to wait for another skein of yarn, I HAD to start another pair of socks. So I past the heels on both and am working on the gussets. I knit both socks at the same time using dpns. I go back and forth to each sock and I find that my gauge stays pretty consistent. Knitting one sock at a time is okay but I really want a pair when I am done. I am using Trekking XXL yarn. I have never used this brand before, but I have to say, I love this yarn. It's been easy to use and the stripping is nice too. I didn't try to match the strips on this pair but they have turned out nicely anyway.

So, I think that about catches things up for what I am working on. I have a nice list of projects that I want to get to but I always seems to get sidetracked. I really am in sock mode and as long as I have sock yarn, I think I will keep going. I want to have Sue teach me how to make a pair of sock that are just for my feet. I have a nice sock book and I will pick something for there to get me started. I would love a pair of lace socks.

Well, that's it for me for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Knit/Crochet Out 2007
I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Knit/Crochet Out Day at the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market. There was huge tent, lots of tables for vendors, beginner knitters, charity knitting and displays of proud knitting. The weather went from over cast and sticky to sunny and sticky, but it did not deter the determined knitters and crocheters, thankfully. I thought it was a good turn out although I think more would have come if they could have worn their efforts instead of having to lay them on a table because of the heat.

I went as a spectator but ended up sitting with Susan and Lee from The Knitting Corner. I did get a chance to wander around and snap a few pics. Here they are.


Here is something that I just love! It's a lamb purse that is felted. I saw it before it was felted and frankly, it looks wonderful either way. I think I would make this, but make it a pillow instead of a purse. I doubt seriously I would carry this, but it would make a nice child's gift either as the purse or a little pillow. So I am opting for the pillow.

This is an adorable Hedgehog that I have decided I have to make. I was lucky enough to win 7 skeins of some novelty yarn that would make a cute copy. I will post about my progress later when I have time to get it started. I did buy the yarn for the tummy and the pattern after leaving the Knit/Crochet Out. I only have one little nephew but who knows, I could become a grandmother and have to have a cute little something to use as a bribe!

I thought this was such a clever idea. Susan (the shop owner of The Knitting Corner) made this for one of her grandsons.

This was the table that The Knitting Corner dedicated to the project they are undertaking next Saturday and Sunday at the shop. The shop will supply the yarn (Encore) and some size 11 needles to knit shawls for breast cancer patients that are undergoing Chemo treatment. Along with the shawls, there will be patterns available to purchase to knit a square for an (there could be enough to do more than one) afghan to be raffled off. You have lots of time to get your patterns! So those of you who read this from another part of the world, give a quick peak at their site where more information will be available. I know that Lee and Sue have been hard at work creating patterns for everyone to purchase. I went both days last year to knit on the shawls but was too chicken to create at square. So I guess there must have been enough people like me that they are doing patterns for those of us who are a bit nervous about creating something from scratch. I am totally thrilled. Please order some patterns and send in your squares for such a worthy heart felt project!

This Cheryl (I have no idea how to spell her name correctly) and she knits some really great things. I met her in passing at The Knitting Corner and then at the Tidewater Knitting Guild. I love it when she brings her finished projects to show at the meetings. She brought something to model at the Knit/Crochet Out Day and I think it's my favorite thing that I have seen of her knitting.
This is a jacket that is a huge circle that is by Berraco. I totally admire this jacket and all the time it took to make it. Maybe some day I will take this on, but for now....socks.

Swizzle socks
I am trying to learn on my own, how to get my socks to match where it's self striping. I haven't done well with my first effort. I am still waiting to finish the second sock. The new skein is on order. So to entertain myself, I started another pair of socks with Swizzle. I think that these being my fourth pair of socks, I have come to the conclusion that I like the wool better for several reasons.

First, I love how they are cushy. Second, they seem to bounce back (the super wash wool brands) right after being cooked in the dryer. Sadly, I don't feel the same way about the cotton blends that I have used. I have done two with a cotton blend and now two with wool. I know there are some of you who are far more experienced at socks than I am but wool gets my vote. I don't wear socks in the summer because I go bare footed as often as I can. In the winter the only place I wear shoes is when I leave the house. I wear socks in the house the way others would wear slippers. I am just not a shoe person.

I have made great progress on my Swizzle socks, except for closing up the toes. I will get Sue to show me again how to close them up. There seems to be a disconnect between the written word and my brain. I think I am more visual when it comes to knitting. I need to see someone do it. I guess that old saying, "Monkey see, monkey do" comes into play here.


I tried my best to get the stripes to match but someplace down towards the toe, it got out of sink. I have no idea why but what the heck. I am still learning. The next pair of sock that I will be starting don't need to be matched so they will be a breeze...I hope.


I have not been working on the Scheherazade shawl, because it takes more concentration than I have at the moment. Hopefully I can work on it without hurting anyone in the house soon. I have given thought to changing from a lace yarn to a cotton yarn. Someone in our group did that and it's lovely in the cotton. You can actually see your errors and the pattern looks more pronounced. Right now all I really have the patience for is socks. I have already split the yarn into two balls so that I can do both socks at the same time. There are no other projects in the back of my head yet, but just give me time!

Hats off to Me!
Well, it's about time. I have had the darnest time getting my knitting to turn out correctly. I have ripped out so many things in the last few weeks, I am beginning to wonder if I am better at that than the actual knitting itself. So I am ticked pink, blue, black, white, yellow, and green to say...I finally got something to turn out and get done!! It only took three tries, but it's done, done, done!

This was my first attempt. After sitting proudly and admiring my handy work, I found a whole series of errors. I forgot to do one YO in the pattern from the beginning of the pattern row. So all of the other sections looked good except for one. So I frogged it and started it all over. I did not knit a swatch, because I was using 4 dpns and figured that it would okay. It looked too small to me and so when I started on version #2 I upped my needle size to 5s. Then I started looking at it and it was huge. The hat was so huge, my 23 yr. old son tried it on for me. Of course I was not permitted to take a picture. But take my word for it; it was huge!

I really liked the way it looked and decided that since it's too big for the nephew, I would just donate it. I still had about 1 1/3 balls left. So I worked on version #3 and got it correct. I did go back to the 4s and they were a much better choice. The hat, thankfully, is too small for the #2 son. I know he will be relieved that he doesn't have to try on another dorky little kid's hat again. He'll get over it!!

This is what I was trying to make. It will fit a two or three year old, I think. This is the book I got the hat pattern from. And now the REAL results! Here are the efforts up close... Truly, I did not understand how just one needle size would make something so much larger than what I expected. Okay, I hear all of you out there saying, "Daffy girl the key word is GAUGE!"

Lesson learned....

Diversion
After ranting and raving about knitting my current lace project, I have to have a diversion. I have been making more progress on that than my lace. I need it to keep from hurting any innocent by-stander at my house. The dogs run for cover when I pull out the lace and my husband hits the garage.

When I whip out my sock, every knows there will be peace throughout the land of the crabby lace knitter. For some reason, the sock pattern that I learned from Sue has soothed the savage beast in me until I can gather myself to calmly try the lace project again. So I am making wonderful progress on my sock but the lace, not so much. I will wear socks before the lace so...I tend to work more on the sock lately than anything else.
I finished the first sock only to my shock and horror that I can't make the strips match. I have unraveled and rewound the ball a million times to find the correct stripping sequence and can't find it. There is one section in the skein that has a very small color varation that I can't find. I even had hubby take a look with me and he said he didn't see it either. He is an art and color driven person, so I trust his judgement. Here is what I mean...


Can you see the very top of the sock. Well those two very tiny bands of color are the half way point of the sock. So I should have started the sock at the next set that looks just like it after the little blip of green. I can not find that color sequence again, except for those two places right there. The second sock should have been started between the two little skimpy bands of purple and blue. So I called TKC and they are looking for another skein of this yarn so I can knit the other sock to match this one. Then I will have two pairs of matched socks eventually. I really wasn't shooting for that, but what the hey! It's been a learning experience about splitting the ball in half and looking for color varations. I have never tried to match strips before. So I have learned a lesson and will be more careful next time I am thinking about matching strips. I think maybe I should look at the skein BEFORE I get a bright idea. Duh! So here is the finished effort. The second one will either be on hold for a while or there will not be a matched set because Susan can not find my another skein. Oh well, at least I will have another pair of wonderful socks to walk around the house in during the winter.

I have also been trying to work on a little hat for my nephew when I am not having tantrums about the lace. It looked like this earlier today... Then I got near the end and discovered I had read the decreasing directions incorrectly and ripped the whole thing out. I will try to work on it again later next week. I need to get larger needles. I think my gauge was really out of whack and it was just looking way too small for Zach's head. So it was another lesson. I did like how it was starting to look. It's a quick knit so I wasn't too upset that I ripped it out. So on to the next thing.... Okay, I have made some progress until late this afternoon. I thought I was going full guns on this and then the count wasn't coming out correctly. I have ripped out until I just had to walk away. I thought maybe I would make some progress on it but I can't seem to get past a certain row. So it might have to wait for Sue's eagle eye to tell me what I am doing wrong. So now let's recap. I have one sock and have to stop that so Susan can order me another skein, I ripped out the hat I had been working on after the sock problem, and now have ripped out at least 6-8 rows of the lace I managed to get done this past weekend. So what I need to do now is just go to bed and pull the covers up over my head and think about crocheting something....NOT.

Keeping Secrets
I have been keeping this knitting project under my hat and at the rate that I am going, it just might stay there. The Knitting Corner has got an on going "class" using a past project as a kind of get together of knitters who are interested in polishing their skills as serious lace knitters. I thought I was until I got started.

As I have reported here, I am a new chart reader. I am getting the hang of it, but it's slow and tedious. I find myself yelling at anyone or anything that breaks my concentration. I have to have total silence. The funny thing is, there are about nine women who all gather at the round table of ambious kintters every other Friday, and I flat can't knit there. Okay, I said it. I am thinking of knitting this project in the privacy of my own palace. I will have to knit socks or something else there.

Why can't I concentrate? The project isn't really that hard. When I get to end of 99 stitches, I yell and scream when I have 101. Cripe! Now I have to go back and look at what I have just sweat bullets over and try to find those extra stitches. I spend more time doing that than I do the actual knitting of the row itself. I huff and puff and complain the whole time. Four letter words are involved in the privacy of home.

Why am I torturing myself like this? Why? Why does anyone so frustrated keep knitting same row only to pick it out and knit it again? Because I am a knitter and can't take defeat!!! I will do this. Good thing that Sue told us in the beginning that this is a self-paced project. HA! Got that right. It might be months at the rate I am going to get this done, but I WILL FINISH IT!!! Now, let me go and rip out that sweater I started eons ago and really don't like. I know when to say when-okay maybe not.

In the Spirit of Socks
Since Wendy is working on doing a ton of socks this summer I thought I could eek out at least one pair. At the rate I am going, it will only be one pair. I had visions of new socks dancing in my head while buying 6 different kinds of sock yarn from May until now. Mind you, I didn't have a new teaching job when all of this wreckless spending was going on, but one can never have too much sock yarn.

So here is my part-time effort so far. I bought this yarn at the MSand W this past May when I rode on the Knitting Guild's bus with my serious talking buddy Susan. We had a great time especially since it was her first time at the show. I just loved all their colors. While some were not my taste, they all looked wonderful. I know it's German and can be washed in the washing machine, but other than that...nothing. I don't really care either since it can be thrown into the washing machine.


I have been using my friend Sue's faithful sock pattern from when I took her class at The Knitting Corner. I have used this pattern twice and this will be my third attempt. I love how they are simple for a beginner sock make like myself. It gives me courage and the confidence I need to move on to other patterns. Right now, I really don't have time for anything too complicated, but later....ha!

So here is my first sock using this yarn. It's soft and I love the colors. They are fallish colors and muted like I like. I am now a loud color person. I have bought a really red blouse for my new teaching job, but that's it for my adventure in colors other than, tan, taupe, beige, gold, etc. I am not a huge fan of blue but this isn't true blue so I am okay with it so far. I think these will go well with jeans. I wear a lot of jeans on my days off. Three of the four part-time jobs I have, I have to wear a uniform, so jeans are so welcomed when I get to put them on. I think I was born in them.
Here is a better view. I don't suffer from one sockitis, so there will be two eventually... I forgot to split the ball into two small balls so my strips could match. Oh well, maybe next pair.

I wanted to show that I do use the little carrier, whose name totally escapes me at this very Senior moment. It's really too small to carry a lot in, but then I guess it wasn't designed for that anyway. So it does get used!

I have started another class/knit along at The Knitting Corner, but I will write about that later. I have been bitten by the lace bug again.

Heads Above the Rest
Last year I was a member of the Southeastern Virginia Spinning Guild. While I was a member they did this really neat thing that challenged me. I was a new spinner and not real confident about my spinning, but I did enjoy it.

So the challenge was to bring one pound of roving. Everyone put their roving in a bag and we piled them in the middle of the floor. Each bag had a number and we drew a number. What ever number you had, was the bag you took home. I entered some Top Comb Silk Merino blend that was purchased my very first year attending the wool lover's Mecca, Maryland Sheep & Wool. I had no earthly idea what Top Comb was but it was yellow and I had to have it. I am a fall color person who gets teased about all the dark colors I wear. So I wanted to brighten things up a bit. You know, get out of my color comfort zone. So I bought the yellow.

After a few months everyone brought back their skein of yarn. There was another drawing of the numbers and we had to take home someone else's spun yarn. We were to either knit a hat, scarf or gloves, etc. I knitted my person a scarf. I dropped my membership in the spinning guild and and forgot all about the finished project that was supposed to be mine. I knew the person who finished it but never saw her again. Recently in the last few weeks I gave her a call and asked her if she still had the porject. She said yes but was in the process of moving. She would find it after they moved and send it to me. She did and here is what she crocheted for me. The gals at The Knitting Corner let me use the styro head to model the hat and scarf.

So here is the finished project that Deb made for me. I want to thank her for not giving it away before I could call her and find out what happened to it. I appreciate all the work that went into it and thought it deserved a place on the blog for it's 15 minutes of fame.
Here is the side view. Thanks Deb, you did a fine job.