Spreading My Wings
I am the kind of person who does not like change. My whole life I have had changed forced on me. First by my father who was in the Air Force so you know what's next. We moved every 2-4 years until I was 15 and he retired. I thought we would stay put, but nooooo he took a job in Arkansas and we moved from Texas. Then he lost the job in Arkansas and we moved back to Texas. I ended up going to three elementary, two middle and four high schools. So you can see why I am not huge on change. Thus explains the ruts that I find myself in. This includes my knitting.

Sue's sock pattern has become my sock rut. Don't get me wrong. I have enjoyed those socks to no end, but it's time to spread my wings. I have now, twice. I take baby steps. The red and purple socks were the first step. They are done and I like them. I will make a few stitch count changes, but other than that I like them. I am going to make another combination pair sometime this year. I think my next pair will be a solid color with a contrasting color for the toes and heels just like this pair. I think this is a great way to use up small bits of left of sock yarns. This is knit with Opal yarn on #1 dpns. The basic pattern for the cuff, heels and toes are Sue's pattern but the rest is just straight stockinette. I wanted to see if the color pattern would emerge if I didn't do any fancy stitch patterns. They turned pretty well.

So now I am feeling a bit more confident and have stepped off the cliff with my very first pattern that is from a book. A few of us at The Knitting Corner decided to knit a sock together every Thursday when we usually meet to trade stories and catch up on family news. I picked the pattern and I am not sure what I was thinking but I have to stick to it.

My yarn was bought at the Tess's booth at Maryland Sheep and Wool in 2007. I can't tell you anything about the yarn except it's a soft baby yellow and its very soft sock yarn. I loved it so much, I bought two skeins of it. I had no earthly idea what I was going to do with it until I thumbed through Sensational Knitted Socks and saw the Ribbed Lace pattern on page 50. I am very excited about how they are going along but it's like any other lace. I have to pay attention. Those darned YOs will get you into trouble every time! I have a glaring error at Rnd 24. I saw (K1, P4) 4 times. When in reality it said (K1, P1) 4 times. You will see the purls in another picture. I didn't discover this until I got to row 10 of the next set of 24. Considering I am using #1 dpns, I have chosen to let it go. I really do not desire to rip those puppies out and start all over. So the error stands. Now I have to decide whether or not to mess up, I mean create the design change again on the next row 24. Or maybe this one row will have the "design element" change and the other one will not. It will be like I know which sock is the right sock and the other will be the left (wrong) sock. Whatcha think??
Here is the larger picture of the row 24 error. I am just heart sick but it's a done deal.

Falling Behind
I have fallen behind in keeping up with this blog. I have been doing some knitting on five different projects and I actually got finished two. The Clapotis was a class at The Knitting Corner and despite a glaring error I found the other day, it's done! Whoohoo. It was easy once you got the hang of the repeats. It also gave me the chance to use my lovely knitting jewelry. I tried to make the Clapotis hat, but that did not go well and it was frogged.

I have two pairs of socks on the needles I have just been horribly distracted by one project that is a challenge despite the fact that it's only a four row repeat. I frogged one color and was gifted some lovely cotton yarn and then started all over. I have ripped out row after row after row and this project is about to go on the back burner as a UFO until I can regain some sanity over it. I want to finish this lace project so I can prove to myself I can do this. I am working up courage to try something more challenging. This is Lily Chin's Charlotte's Easy lace Shawl. Personally, I think it needs another name. Maybe the Easy part should be omitted? I trudge on.

I have finished another pair of socks that has been way too long as a WIP. I only needed to finish the toes on both socks, but kept dragging my feet. I finished them this past week and I am so glad they are done. That leaves me more room in my project basket to start another project. Duh! Another pair of socks...

These have been on the needles way too long too. I have made some progress on them over this last week but not near as much as I would like. I knit late last night on them and got up early this morning proud I had made progress only to discover I had done the gusset wrong and I have already tinked it back to start all over. This does not speak too well of my late night knitting jags. Tonight there will be no late night knitting. I will be watching the John Adams series and have to pay close attention. Either I will miss something on the show or I will screw up my knitting.

So as you can see, I really have made some progress on these. I am hoping to work on both the gussets today because it's looking like it's going to rain and that means no yard work for me.


This is yet another pair of socks that I started. They are on #1 dpns (I love using ones, can you tell?). The pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. They are the going to be the Ribbed Lace socks on page 50, if I ever get a good start. I whipped out the cuff but got side tracked by the shawl...

Don't gasp, they are not green. I bought this yarn at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Show last year and have not a clue with kind of yarn it is other than a pale baby yellow and it's extremely soft. I think I got it at Tess. I bought two skeins of it. I wanted the lace to show in these so I decided that a nice solid color would do well. I would make more progress on these if I hadn't started a non-knitting project...

I have wanted to strip this very old book shelf for over a year now and since the weather is getting warmer and warmer here, this is the time. When summer comes, I don't strip furniture too much because it's just too darned hot. So now is when I get hot on it. I am on a white furniture kick right now and this is going to be my first guinea pig. I have three other pieces that I want to strip and paint but I will start small first. This only needed to have a rough sanding so that the primer sticks to it. The other pieces are going to be more complicated.

So you can see why it's been nearly a month since I have posted. Thanks for being so patient. I have two new gadgets that I want to write about. One is knitting and the other is sort of knitting related. That will be next time. Thanks for stopping by!