Anniversary

Today is our 19th anniversary - and look what was waiting for me when I came home from work! What a guy!

Socks, Roving and Tea Swap

Here is a photo of my almost completed Fearless Fiber sock! The colorway is magnificent and the camera doesn't do it justice. The yarn is very comfortable - I am going to love wearing these. Of course, I have to finish the second sock . . . ;-)
Here is the wonderful roving I got from Spunky Eclectic in the colorway "Chocolate Covered Cherry"! I can't wait to see how this spins up - it really does look good enough to eat right now!



This is some merino silk roving I bought on Ebay. It is a lovely mauve/green color. This should be beautiful spun as well!


The Rowing Cat and I went shopping for my Tea Swap partner today! What fun! We got tea, two balls of beautiful yarn, some fun yarn themed note cards, candy (of course), a storybook on Saratoga and a few other small items! This is the first time I've done a swap and am pretty excited! I'm sure I'll continue to do lots more!

And, of course, a BIG HELLO to my Tea Swap partner!

Au Pair Wedding and Spinning

Our friend Maria recently got married to her long time boyfriend, Rickard! Maria is from Sweden and was an aupair for Sophia when we lived on Cape Cod! She looks beautiful in the photos! Much different from the teenager who lived with us!




On the spinning front, here are some photos of the superwashed merino I am spinning. I'm not sure what this will become yet. Maybe a scarf paired with some soft Rowan Kidsilk Haze? Because I'm new to spinning, and have not taken any lessons, I taped a recent Knitty Gritty show on spinning. I was able to watch the technique of drafting. I still don't have that down well. I've been splitting the roving into pieces that will spin to the size I want rather than drafting from the whole. I think I need to find a spinning class to really get the technique down. Maybe it is easier using a spinning wheel? I can just see a nice wheel in the corner of the living room. Not sure that Mark would be up for that . . .




I'll post some updated sock pictures tomorrow as well as pictures of new roving that I ordered . . . I know, I'm addicted! I did a quick 20 minute tutorial for my friend Jane on the Magic Loop method for socks - I think I've created another convert!

Another rowing morning tomorrow for the Rowing Cat . . . ;-)

Volleyball!!!

The official volleyball season has started!! First game today!

And, of course, progress on my sock! Soon I will be ready to turn the heel! This will be short today because I started a new job today! Yay! But I am TIRED!

The Rowing Cat and I send out a BIG HELLO to MONTANA! Hi Anne!

A Night Out and Other Things!

The ladies of the pharmacy went out for a night on the town this weekend! Bailey's for dinner and the Grotto for music later (Lynn's suggestion!) The excuse was Mary Helen's birthday, but who really needs an excuse??



Next on the weekend agenda was the Skidmore 5000 held on Fish Creek. Here you can see the enthusiasm being exhibited by the Rowing Cat . . . But Mark had fun. He would have done better had his forearms not cramped up . . . On to the Head of the Charles.



Here is a sample of my spinning this weekend. It is some beautiful superwashed merino and is spinning up beautifully. It just feels sooooo soft!

Irish Hiking Scarf

My Irish Hiking Scarf is coming along! That I'm knitting this scarf is totally a product of blogging. Nadine's Knitting Basket Blog is on my list of daily blogs to read. She mentioned that she recently joined the Irish Hiking Scarf Knitalong hosted by Hello Yarn. I took a look at the pattern and fell in love with it. I had some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk in a beautiful burgundy color in my stash. I thought I would give it a try! The yarn is a dream to work with - very soft. The scarf is going to be one of my favorites this fall and winter.

Today I was reading the Hello Yarn blog and saw that she had visited Saratoga this weekend on the way to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival! She stopped by Mrs. London's for a delicious French lunch! Isn't the blogsphere fun???

The Felting is Done

The felting of the Booga Bag is done for now. I may try it again in my Mom's machine one more time. I have a front loader and it just doesn't work that well for felting. But, I've got the bag drying to see how it looks as is.

The cat on my bag before felting!

The felted bag drying!

The homework watch has begun. The backpack is chock full of books and the work is very diligently being done . . . Ah school . . . now where's my cup of tea?

Knitting Bag

Guido at the It's A Purl Man podcast asks what our knitting bags look like and what we carry around. Well here is mine! It's the free bag from Simply Knitting magazine. It's very roomy and can hold multiple projects. Inside I carry the little knitting case, also from Simply Knitting. This holds my beautiful French scissors (a present from my Dad), two measuring tapes because you just never know, a little pad of post-it notes, a pencil or pen as the case may be. If you look real close, I also have a darning needle stuck into the scissors case. I have my current sock on the needles, the Irish Hiking scarf from Hello Yarn on the needles, 2 extra pair of circular needles, gum and carmels. That's just about everything I need with plenty of room to hold more!

Knitting Progress!

The Booga Bag is making progress! I've cast off the actual bag and am working on the I cord. Maybe into the washing machine tomorrow? We have to go back to the warehouse tomorrow to continue to clean out our large space and move the stuff to the smaller unit. We successfully threw out lots and lots of junk. Where does it all come from and why do we keep it all? Well, moving into the smaller storage space will keep the extra belongings down to a minimum!

I also cast on my next pair of socks with the beautiful Fearless Fibers yarn! It is a beautiful purple, blue, aqua mix and I think I'm going to really like them. As you can see they are being knit using the Magic Loop technique. It is one of my favorites - I do not do well using double points and using the Magic Loop means that I never have to double point again! The technique is ingenious and, I think, easy to use.

It was a beautiful morning for rowing on Saratoga Lake! Of course, the RowingCat did not think so as I woke her up at 6:30 . . . But, one cup of hot chocolate later, she was ready to go (almost). She's taking a series of 6 weekly lessons from the Saratoga Rowing Center. It will be COLD by the time the last lesson rolls around!

Here's a picture of the new Saratoga Rowing Association Boathouse:


And next a photo of the RowingCat coming in for a landing!

And finally, a picture of progress on my handspun Booga Bag. I'm thinking of casting on for another pair of socks today too!

Here is a closeup of Clapotis done in the wonderful Lorna's Laces colorway Black Pearl. I loved this pattern! I had some issues with all of the markers required but then solved that with a great tip. If you purl the stitched to be dropped, you don't have to use markers! Your fingers can almost feel where you are in the pattern. I loved that and the fact that this could easily be knit while concentrating on a tv show! The weather is just beginning to get cold enough to pull it out of the closet! 

Mail Delivery

I received my package of yarn from KnitPicks today! 3 skeins of sock yarn and 2 of laceweight alpaca! When I opened the package the sock yarn looked suspiciously familiar . . . I went into the stash and pulled out two skeins of the SAME YARN! I guess I like that Cape Cod colorway!

School starts tomorrow!

A Crafty Day

The crafty girls spent the day sculpting pipe cleaner Neopets figures. What better for a rainy afternoon before the start of school?

I decided to go ahead and cast on for the Booga Bag with my spun yarn!

The Water Treatment

I finished spinning the yarn I bought from Spunky Eclectic in the Sangria colorway. It's my first attempt at spinning. How exciting! I used the water treatment described in Spinning the Old Way by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts. I'll be winding this up to make a Booga Bag from Black Sheep Bags. I can't wait - I think it will felt up great!

We're still in shock today with the news about Steve Irwin. The Rowingcat (RC) daughter is pretty torn up about it. But she has her first Volleyball practice tomorrow!

Here's the yarn before the water bath.



Here's the yarn after the bath, spin drying and hanging for final drying.

Socks!

Here is a picture of my latest completed socks! The pattern is Elphine's Socks by Anna Bell. The yarn is an EBay purchase from Germany. Where else could I find these colors? They just happen to be PERFECT school spirit colors to be worn at every volleyball game this year!

I enjoyed working the pattern, although I did make some mistakes, or maybe I mean "changes" . . . You'll notice the stripes on the left sock are a tad larger than the ones on the right . . . That comes from starting on size 2 needles and discovering that the heel is too large and switching to size 1 for the rest of the leg and all of the second sock . . . But who will ever know??