FBL Update

So this is my 80% finished February Lady Sweater. I have both sleeves to do and I'm hoping to get them finished by next weekend. I would like to say by the end of the holiday weekend, but I'm not sure. Why should I pressure myself anyway.

I really like this pattern. It makes me pay attention a little bit, but it can be sort of mindless too. Unless I'm counting stitches. Jenny can't count and talk at the same time. Sorry :( Just not going to happen. I think I might make my mom an FBL after the holidays. I don't want to do the same pattern back to back. And let me just tell you how much I love knitting in the round. No seams to sew. Bind off and you're almost done. Much easier and better sense of accomplishment. I know some garments must be pieced together, but I think those should be few and far between. Now I am always looking for knit in the round patterns.

Speaking of which, what's up with the new IK? Gotta say I'm not very impressed. I have looked through it twice, and I can't say there are is anything in there I just have to make. Seamed or not. I saw some of the gallery pictures on the web before I got the issue, and was not blown away. But I just figured, there would be other things I would like. Not everything can be a gem.

Look, don't get me wrong I usually like and drool over IK. It just seems the last couple of issues have been eh. Especially when compared to some other mags I have paged through. Maybe they are just having a bad couple of months or something. It could be me too. I would never rule out that possibility. I'm just saying its something to think about. What do you think?

Well, until I get my sleeves finished, take care and have a great day.

TTFN!

Happy Belated Blogaversary to us!

It was the 23rd apparently. Guess I'm a little late on our blogaversary, huh? Suzy Girl and I have been going crazy at work lately, and didn't even get to knit at lunch last week. Darn work thing!

Even so, where did the month of August go? My goodness people, before you know it, there will be pictures of Christmas trees back up here again!

Still working on my Feb Lady Sweater and mittens. I am determined to finish FBL by September 30th. It's a contest thing. I don't need my mittens until at least December, so until I get sick of red, FBL it is! I'll have some WIP pics next time. I promise.

Until next time, please join us in having a piece of cake on our One Year Blogaversary, (Belatedly) Mmmm...chocolate.

TTFN!

Philly...love it or leave it

I think Philadelphia can be one of those places that you can either love or hate. Or in my case, sometimes want to leave. I was born and raised here, but I never wanted to stay here. I can't explain why, I just have never saw myself staying here forever. There are some things I am fiercely proud of, like my section of the city or where I went to high school. But there are also some things I could do without, like my immediate surrounding neighborhood, or the extra caution or wariness I must take when walking around. Signs of getting older? Maybe, but then I see some things in the city which are really pretty and tell me that I can be such an ass!

I took these on one of my lunch time walks at work.

Philadelphia really is changing, and I should be proud. Philly is trying to put in more green spaces, and there has been a building boom. Some of the space opposite these river paths, on the other side of the high way, is in the process of being developed. 5-10 years maybe, and then West Philly will be connected to the rest of center city. More pleasing to the eye, and easier for foot traffic.

I probably need to stop watching House Hunters International on HGTV, because this week I wanted to move to Cabo San Lucas, Belize, and or Europe. I think I just need a vacation :)

78 days as of today.

Have a good week everyone!

TTFN!

Promoting a yarn chick!

Hey friends!

Chrissy over at Chrissy's Random Life is having a contest for some beautiful natural dyed yarn that she did herself. She is having a contest to promote her yarn at http://www.yarnsprout.com/

Please go visit. Let her tempt you with her yarns :)

Reborn

In mid-July, the Bucks County Guild of Knitters and Crocheters (BCGKC) got together at Tamanend Park in Southampton to experiment with koolaid dyeing using the new Knit Picks sock blanks. We had a terrific time and some really interesting sock blanks were drying in the sun at the end of the afternoon. My friend and fellow BCGKC'er, Sunset Knitter has some great shots of the action on her blog so go take a quick look.

I was intending to go for a little more of a controlled pattern and color palette but I think the koolaid fumes took over. The results .... a bit colorful.


You never know how the blank will knit up (I kept thinking "clown barf") so I decided I'd get them cast on and see. I've not yet expanded my knitting horizons to include the two at a time toe-up method, so instead of being able to knit right from the blank, I had to wind my blank into two separate balls by hand.


I started the Lacy Mock Cable socks by Scarlettknits
I love the pattern!! It's a very simple repeat to memorize and the resulting mock cable is very pretty, but in this yarn ..... yuck!!!


I tried to like them, I really did. But I finally gave up and frogged them when I realized I was embarrassed every time I pulled them out to knit on the train. So last weekend in a fit of impulsiveness I threw both skeins in a solution of koolaid dye left over from my last dyeing adventure.


The resulting color is much prettier than they appear in these pictures. I really love it, much more me. I'm not a rainbow kind of girl. But.... there's always a but if I'm involved.... long story short, the dye didn't take up evenly in both skeins so I had to redunk one of the skeins and now they are ever so slightly different colors. So instead of knitting a pair of socks, I decided to look around for another project using fingering weight yarn. I was thinking maybe a neckwarmer and it just so happens the Fashionably Late KAL group I belong to has finished their clapotis and are moving on to smoke rings so I started knitting the Wavy Feathers Wimple by Caryll McConnell this weekend.




It's a fun pattern, very pretty and enjoyable to work on. I'm not sure how wearable it'll be when it's done, but then you know, I have no hesitation when it comes to frogging. Just ask Jenny Girl. In fact, there are a couple of other projects that are on my hit list.

Meet Winston!!

It's been a very busy and eventful summer here... both at work and on the home front. I'll get to the knitting later, but first, the most exciting news I have to share is to introduce you to the newest member of the family... Winston cat.

We adopted him from a local cat rescue group. We brought him home last Saturday and he's settling into the household routine rather well.
Sharing the sofa with DD#2 when she was home for a visit.


Bonding with DS. They have become best buddies... the two boys in the house.




And scoping out his favorite spots for relaxing, like the cool hard wood floor under the coffee table.

He's a delightful cat... very sweet and affectionate. Exactly my kind of cat. He's a Maine Coon mix (not purebred) but he has all the wonderful characteristics the breed is known for. A real big furball of love!

And just so you don't think I didn't do any knitting at all this summer....
next time I'll share the story of a good sock blank gone BAD!!!

Happy knitting!!

Mittens in August

Nothing says August like 90 degree weather that feels like 100, due to humidity, and knitting some mittens. Mittens you say? Yes, the mitten bug has bitten me. A few weeks ago, the Knitting Minds convened at lunch (that's me, Suzy Girl, and Cattywampus) and Cattywampus shared with us her book of mittens. I think they were Norwegian, but it's escaping me at the moment. They were beautiful, and I was sitting there like, "Wow. Gotta make me some of these."

Then the next week Sunset Knitter (formerly known as KnittingNovice) asked if we want anything from Knit picks. I said oh no not really, but I'll look anyway. The next thing I know I have the Tiffany mitten pattern in my hand and I'm asking Suzy, "What do you think about these colors?"

So I ordered and here is a closer look at what I chose:

The iris is the main color, with the asparagus as the tiffany window pattern. The flower band will be cream flowers on a turquoise background. The yarn is Knit picks merino style and I love it! The yarn is soft and squishy, and I really enjoy working with it. Like I just started my first sweater, and I am already planning another one with this yarn.

This is my lunch time project, and this is how far I have gotten:

Not bad, huh? I did have to frog the first try because I used the bigger needle size, since my hands are not exactly slender. However they made for man mittens. Frogged and am now using 2s. The mittens take a little concentration, and I knit English style, so the color stranding makes for slow going, but I enjoy it. See I did that hat and thought I was an expert. Ha! Wouldn't do a color stranded sweater yet, but mittens I think I can handle.

TTFN!

Slowly but surely

I have been slowly but surely working on my February Lady Sweater (FBL). Why slowly? Well this week I had some stuff going on at night. Watched the Green Mile over two nights. Too long to do it one sitting. What a great movie! No I never saw it before, and was quite surprised I waited so long. Mr. Jingles really kicked butt too!

Tuesday went to the Police concert with my hubby, JB. They looked good sounded great, but the only played about an 1 1/2 hours. What's up with that? They played, left the stage for 30 seconds, came back, played a few more songs, and the house lights came up. I didn't realize it was the end of the show. Usually you get a feel for these things. Not this concert. Glad I saw them, but certainly would not go again.

Watched another movie, Stargate Continuum. I really enjoyed it. I was a huge fan of the show, Stargate SG-1, and watch the spin off Atlantis. Being the sci-fi half geek I am, I was very sad to see SG-1 cancelled. But hey, we got two movies out of it. Anyway, I thought the movie was good, and there is an extra on there about filming in the Arctic, which was very interesting and informative. Maybe there will be a third movie.

So last night I finally got to put my FBL on waste yarn for a try on. First I must preface these pictures with the fact they were taken last night about 10:00 pm. Jenny Girl was beat and in her pj's.

Let me just tell you ,that it is not easy to take pictures of yourself, especially when your are trying not to get yourself in the photo. The bottom line is I am ready to move on the lace pattern and separation of sleeves. Yea! So some progress is being made. I can usually knit while I watch TV, but with movies or certain TV shows I just can't. Such as life.

Hope you all have a very lovely weekend! Oh and happy August. Yes, it's August already. Goodness.

TTFN!