Time Out
by Vickie
I swear I have been meaning to post but my lap top has been playing games with me lately so I finally caved and bought a desk top. What is the most frustrating part is that not everything will transfer from XP to Vista. So some things will be on one and the rest on the other. I have not posted because my photos of what I have been doing are on an external hard drive until the desk top arrives. I can't download anything but I sure have been busy taking pictures of what I have been working on. The upside to not hanging out on the computer is that I am getting more knitting done and I am pleased about that for sure. Just as soon as I can get the new computer set up, I will be back on to blog. So for now I will just keep knitting and taking pictures of everything! I think I got an email from Dell that things are moving right along so hopefully it won't be too much longer! Thanks to those who stop by and keeping trying. I will have something up here soon, I hope!!

All Things Brown
by Vickie


I have been afraid of something in the knitting world for a few years now and I think that I have finally begun to conquer my fear. I signed up for neck down sweater class. I tried to knit a sweater a few years ago and I really didn't like the yarn I chose so I frogged it. I took that yarn and started a prayer shawl that is someplace in my stash storage area. I really will finish the shawl but I am thinking it won't be any time soon. What I really should do is put the whole thing on scarp yarn and put that needle back into the mix.

The main thing that I have been pouring myself into is the neck down sweater. Those of you who have already got the sweater thing figured out please bear with me. I have had this silly phobia about knitting a sweater for years and now I am trying to meet that fear head first. Here is where I have gotten so far. I missed the first class which was the first Thursday after Labor Day and now I am a week behind the rest of the group. I have to say, I have made good progress and it's been pretty easy so far. It's mindless knitting but that's okay with me for the first sweater that I will finish. I am hoping that this sweater will be the one I can build on and do more intricate things with later. I would love to embellish the bottom and the sleeves later down the road.

This picture was taken a few minutes ago in the morning sun so the color that looks like orange is from the sun. The pattern is from Knitting Pure & Simple. It's the Neckdown Cardigan for Women #9725. I found out from the instructor that if I had any questions I could go here and check out to see if anyone had asked the question that I have. I did check out the site, but what I mostly checking out are all the varations that others had done with the basic sweater pattern. I got some great ideas and I think I might have knit a few more of these for myself.

I picked Classic Worsted Tapestry yarn adn the color is 7012. I think the name of the yarn is Capers. It was not an expensive yarn and I really didn't want it to be in case I frogged it. I really didn't want to spend a lot on this sweater after what happened to the last one. The next sweater yarn is already in my mind. I can't remember the name of it but know exactly where it is in the shop. They had better not rearrange before I get the name of the yarn!

I also finished all the gift bags for the dinner group of friends. I have not however even made adent in the scarves I want to put in each bag. I may be changing my mind about what I put in the bags if I run out of time. We'll see...

So I finished the unnamed unseen Christmas gift. It's completely done! I felted it on this past Friday and then it spent the weekend in front of the pan packed with plastic shopping bags. I turned it inside out and gave it some fan time and it dry as a bone. I can't show you yet, but I will as soon as Christmas is over. The intended reads my blog...so no peaky.

On the Move
DH and I were lucky enough to get some time off from our jobs at the same time. So we decided to head out of dodge and go someplace where we could do little or nothing. I brought some of the UFOs that I talked about in the last post so that I could honor my goal of getting something finished and soon. I really did make some good progress on a project that I can't show you and can't talk about. The person that will be getting this project for a gift at Christmas reads my blog every now and then, and I really didn't want to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. But I can give you a quickie look...
Okay, there is the unnamed project and it's in the van traveling down interstate 64. I am using size 13 Addi turbos and Eco Wool. That's all I can say. I promise later to show the finished project.

DH and I have found a little town in VA that we really like. We have been there once before about four years ago. Boy has it changed. What I love best about this little town is that it fit so well into a plan to do this thing I wanted to do all the month of August (this is a Ravelry link). I am thrilled I squeezed in this activity before the time was up. My friend Jennifer gave up her bag since she couldn't go. I made good use of the bag. Here is where I ended up...

On the Lamb was a stop on "Get Your Knits on Route 64". The funny part was we planned to go to Staunton before I even knew there was a yarn store or that it was on the list of shops to visit. I truly thought that I would hit The Knitting Sisters and some of the places in Richmond, but it never worked out that way.

DH and I thought a nice walk to the shop would be just great on such a lovely weekend. Boy were we ever wrong. The walk to the shop from downtown Staunton was way longer than we thought. Four blisters later we got to the shop and it was closed. They would have normally been open but the owner had a death in his family and opened a little late. He was nice enough to leave a sign on the door, but my blisters didn't really care. This is the front of the shop. It's an older two story home. What I really loved, was the really huge clump of lavender as you go up the stone steps. I was thinking how they could harvest that and make money off of the lavender by making small bags for people to buy.

I enjoyed the shop and came home with some wonderful yarns. Since I had the bag I got %15 off of some yarns that I wouldn't ordinarily buy. I am hoping that I can find the right projects for them.

Here they are and yes, they are all lace. I really love the lace shawls and scarves so that was my motivation for buying these yarns.

This is Malabrigo and the colorway is China 1. The picture doesn't seem to give credit to it's true color. It's more of a deep red or maroon than anything else.

The middle photo is Malabrio again and the colorway is Mariposa 125. The yellow is Malabrigo and the colorway is Butter 61. I did buy one more Malabrigo lace skein but I gifted that to my friend Jennifer for letting me take her bag. It was a great exchange. I am not usually one to follow a yarn brand trend just because everyone makes a fuss about it. This was a nice variegated lace that caught my eye. I never paid attention to the brand until later. I had never heard of this brand of yarn before. I usually don't buy anything with Mohair but this isn't as fuzzy as other Mohair I have knit with. It's so soft and since I am into yellow all of a sudden I couldn't help myself...

This is Wagtail Yarns from Childers, Queensland, Australia. it is 100% Fine Kid Mohair. It is a 4 ply yarn and there is 100 grams or 410 yards. The colorway is Lemon 150.004. This is another skein of Wagtail. The colorway is Midnight Red 320 900. It's a burgundy color. So that is my haul from On The Lamb. I am glad I found them. Now when we go again in October I will have someplace to go and sit and knit for a bit.

I think I might be done with stash enhancement! Well until the next time...