What Have I Been Up To?

The weather has been fine - warm and summer like - even though we've been through a few storms . . . So I've been knitting!

Here's a little hat designed by Jen. It's so cute and easy! It's destined for a former co-worker who has moved away who has a baby due at the end of the summer! Hope she likes it!



Here's the May offering from the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club. I love love love the colors!

And here's the completed Smoke Ring - I'm very pleased with the way this turned out!

And here's the beginning of the Print O' The Wave Shawl. I'm enjoying the pattern!



I'll be back this weekend with my Questionnaire for the Hush Hush Handspun Hootenany Swap!

Another Winner!

It was a beautiful morning on Lake George for the Milford Lester Memorial Race. The rowers started at Million Dollar Beach and rowed 6 miles around one of the islands barely visible in the photo. The race took about an hour, leaving me with knitting time!


As you can see, Mark won another medal! He came in second in his class. He was beat by his coach, so that's not too shabby! We all spent some time in a rustic pub having drinks, lunch and awards after the race. A good time was had by all! No more races until the fall - just practice, practice, practice.


Now onto some knitting. This is a smoke ring that I've been knitting out of the handspun fiber I bought at Rhinebeck. It's actually a burgundy color, not the purple that it looks in the photo. This poor yarn has been through the ringer. I first started out making the Sarcelle shawl, which is a lovely pattern. However, I soon realized that I did not have enough yarn. So off to the frog pond it went. I pulled out my saved patterns folder and decided to knit the smoke ring. I spent a whole afternoon on this, completing 2 repeats of the pattern before realizing that something was wrong. The lace just didn't look right. So I looked at the knitting, back to the chart, back to the knitting, back to the chart. And then it clicked. The pattern had a mistake in it. So back to the frog pond it went. One more time I started the smoke ring and finally hit the nail on the head! Although this has been a crazy project, I do feel confident enough as a knitter to be able to look at the knitting and the pattern and figure out the problem!

Now here is my spinning. I've been working on this for awhile. This is Romney wool from a work friend. She owns a small flock of Romney sheep and finally brought me in a pound of her fiber! It has become a beautiful lace weight singles yarn. I'm planning to make a modified version of the Print of the Wave Stole. It's going to be my summer lace project!

And The Winner Is . . . .

Congratulations go to : Brianna!


Your comment was the one chosen by Random.org: Number 11


I'll contact you by email for your address! Thanks to everyone for entering!

Crochet and Knit Giveaway!

I ran across a great new site called Crochet and Knit Giveaways. I keep spinning up more yarn than I can use, so I thought I'd join in the fun. Check out the site for more contests! Here's my entry!


Giveaway Item(s): One skein of handspun Corriedale and Colonial in the "Sorbet" colorway by Perchance to Knit.


How the winner will be chosen: Random.org Generator


Giveaway Begins: May 9


Giveaway Ends: May 14 at Midnight EDT


Winner will be notified on/by: May 15 by email - please add your email address to your comment!


Rules: No duplicate entries/comments. No spamming. Giveaway is open to everyone. Winner MUST respond within five days, otherwise they forfeit their winnings, and a new winner will be announced.


How to Enter:Leave a comment on this post letting me know what pattern you would like to knit with my handspun! Don't forget to leave me your email address!



Find other Crochet and Knit Giveaways to enter!

Back Home Again

Ahhhhh, Key West! We've gone and returned and enjoyed every minute! Here we are relaxing with a few drinks on the back porch of the house my in-laws rent for the month of April. It's located on a golf course, so the porch looks out on the 16th hole. You really need the screen to protect from stray golf balls . . .


Mark did a little cooking - Bourbon Shrimp under preparation here. We did a little ocean walking, some shopping and some dining out. Lots of reading time at the pool too. The water was so warm that Mark and I went back over at night for more swimming - what a treat!


Here's the view from the back porch. And the weather was perfect - 80's every day and rain only at night. It was a wonderful treat!

Here are my finished Felted Clogs. What a fun project. I'll definitely make more.

And spinning! This is roving from Perchance to Knit and it's very springy (both in feel and color) merino. I'm planning to ply it together with some cream roving I purchased at Rhinebeck. Probably for socks. She also sells her hand dyed yarn through the Loopy Ewe and I'm using her yarn for my Chevron Scarf. She has a great sense of color.


This is the sock I knit with my first Hill Country Yarn Sock Club yarn. The yarn came with a pattern but I decided to knit my own basic sock and do a little mosaic knitting for the leg. The yarn is simply luscious and I have really enjoyed knitting with it. The socks are very comfortable!


I finally completed my Monkey Socks! I love them! I am really pleased with the way they turned out. The pattern is beautiful.

I mentioned recently that I've got a little of the lace bug this Spring. I decided to go ahead and start the Sarcelle Shawl. I purchased the pattern sometime last year, but just haven't gotten around to casting on. I'm using the yarn I spun from my Rhinebeck haul. I think it will be pretty. This will definitely be fun to block!

And finally, I couldn't leave Key West without at least one yarn purchase! I scoped out a new yarn store before our trip. My mother-in-law and I went on a shopping excursion in town and we found it! Knit Wits is a lovely small shop with some fun yarns. The employees were very friendly and welcoming. I purchased this great skein of Colinette Jitterbug yarn. I love the color and I've never knit with any Colinette yarn before!

What The Heck Is That?

What the heck is this??? The Rowing Cat has a project due on Thursday. Her class is reading The Hobbit this semester. They have to create one of the characters using a potato (a potato!) They have to set up a scene in a shoe box. So off to AC Moore we went today. She was having quite a lot of fun putting this together this afternoon. However, my dining room table still looks like this . . . Notice the white roving being used for Thorin's beard . . . !

I finished the spring colors roving! I split it in half and plied one with a white Kidsilk Haze and one half with some Moda Dea. The Moda Dea is fluffy, fluffy, fluffy. I think I'll be crocheting a small baby blanket with it. The other half will become a baby hat for the same little new one! I really had fun spinning this up and really like how different the two skeins feel!

The Laptop Has Returned!

Hi guys! Our laptop has returned from the black hole known as the Geek Squad! The Rowing Cat had a small accident involving water and the keyboard . . . Luckily we only had to replace the keyboard on the laptop and all is well again. We do have an old laptop as a backup, but it's incredible how slow the 5 year old one feels! I still remember the days of punch cards, so I shouldn't complain. Our kids don't know how good they have it.

My finger has improved to the point of being able to knit again - Yay! I think knitting will probably be the best physical therapy and that it will feel normal again much quicker than the doctor has indicated.

My sister-in-law and I had the fun experience of taking a class with Annie Modesitt a few weeks ago! She is a riot and had us all laughing on a Sunday morning - no mean feat! We spent the morning learning her combination method of knitting. It was an interesting exercise for me. I'm not sure that I'll use it, but it's always good to have another arsenal to pull out of your bag. She also taught us how to cable without a cable needle. Now, this is something that I've always wanted to try, but didn't quite get it from looking at pictures. She made us come up in groups and watch her do it. It's a great trick! I wanted to remember how to do it so I cast on the next day for my next pair of "bus" socks and incorporated the technique. Not too bad!


Here are my beautiful Monkey socks! I'm still totally in love with this yarn and they are turning out great! I got the yarn in the Magic Ball Swap over on Ravelry - check it out - it was loads of fun! This pattern is so easy to knit (shhhhh . . . don't let the muggles know!) so I'm looking forward to trying more of Cookie A's patterns.


There has also been some spinning going on. My LYS is beginning to carry roving so I naturally
had to encourage this by buying some. It's Louet roving and is spinnng up wonderfully. It's pencil roving so it needs no pre-drafting. I have an entire pound of this, so I think I'm going to make an Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi Shawl from it. It will be for the Rowing Cat because she picked out the color. She has really turned into a shawl wearer. And she looks so natural with the way she drapes a shawl over her shoulders. I did tell you that she confiscated my last Clapotis the instant it was off the needles?



Here is the February fiber from Spunky Eclectic! It is a beautifully soft and springy fiber in beautiful spring colors. I'm thinking of plying it with some grey Kidsilk Haze from the stash to make some very decadent sock yarn.


And here's my Rhinebeck fiber all spun up ready to be turned into the Sarcelle Shawl. I've been feeling drawn to lace knitting recently. I pulled out my Faux Russian Stole and just threw it on a chair in the living room so that I'd pick it up if I was a little cold. What was I waiting for? I love the soft feel of the yarn and love looking at the intricate pattern. So it's on to my next lace shawl when the Monkey Socks are finished!


I went a little crazy and signed up for the Hill Country Sock Yarn club - I should be getting my first shipment this week. I can't wait!

Thanks to all who participated in my contest! The package has been sent to Nora in Australia!

And The Winner Is . . .

Thanks so much to all who entered the contest! I really appreciated every single comment supporting my recovery! Life is good!

I put all of the names in a bowl . . .



And asked the Rowing Cat to help out . . .


And the winner is . . . the lovely Nora!



(Notice the Clapotis in the background - My finger is on the mend and I am back to knitting. I finished this Clapotis that has been languishing on my needles since the summer. The Rowing Cat promptly commandeered it for her own. Oh well. Can't complain I guess!)

My sister-in-law and I are off to see Annie Modesitt tomorrow! Woo Hoo! Hopefully I'll get some pictures for later in the week!

How About a Little Contest?

It has been one year since my mammogram and breast cancer diagnosis. So to celebrate one year down, I thought I'd have a little contest!

Just go to the Click to Give Free Mammograms site and then leave me a comment. I'll do a random drawing on Feb 29 for the winner!

What can you win? How about a luscious skein of Sasquatch Sock yarn dyed by the lovely Miss Violet? It's a skein of superwash wool in the colorway "Dream Date"!

Better Late Than Never!

Holly Jo tagged me for this a while back!

4 Jobs I've Held:

Bus Girl
Federal Funds Coordinator
Admin. Asst to the Mayor
Financial Aid Counselor

4 Movies I Watch Over and Over

Waking Ned Devine
Lord of the Rings
Local Hero
Amelie

4 Places I Have Been

Paris
The Abacos, Bahamas
Kalispell, Montana
Milan

4 Places I Have Lived

Saratoga Springs, NY
Marblehead, MA
Jupiter, FL
East Sandwich, Cape Cod, MA

4 TV Shows I Watch

Lost
Torchwood
Rome
Tudors

4 People Who Email Me Regularly

My daughter
My mother
My father-in-law
Friends from high school

4 Favorite Foods

Veal Cutlets with Tomato Sauce
Escarole Soup
Risotto
Clams and Linguini

4 Places I Would Rather Be:

Cape Cod
Bahamas
Ireland
Sweden

4 Things I'm Looking Forward to

Key West in April
My daughter's college graduation ( a ways away, but I'm still looking forward to it!)
Getting to the 5 year mark (1 down, 4 to go)
Summer on Lake George

4 People to Tag

Ramona

Anne

Anne

Ellen



Still no knitting - but some spinning! I have one more color to make this trio from Spunky Eclectic's Party Dress. I split the roving into the three separate colors and will try 3 plying them together now that I have enough bobbins! The colors are much brighter than this picture shows - neon even!

Oh No!

Well, here is a picture of thee culprit. I had nothing to do with it. Seriously. This wool sock, my latest from my andspun, sent me careening down a small flight of wood stairs and right into a broken finger! Can you believe it??? So now I'm splinted up and no knitting for a week or so :-( Sheesh!



A little Gore Mountain interlude - the Rowing Cat all suited up and ready to go! She is actually doing very well. I just hope she appreciates the VERY EXPENSIVE new boots and helmet ;-)



Now, I know I can't knit with this finger, but I experimented and found that I can still spin! So I should be able to get through lots of fiber this week! This is one of my Rhinebeck purchases - it's plying up beautifully - it's destined to become a shawl.



I joined the Magic Ball swap on Ravelry and this weekend my ball arrived! It's a beautiful skein of yarn hand dyed by Lucy of Mind's Eye Knits! It is abslutely gorgeous. My partner sent me the pattern for Monkey socks and I cast on right away (prior to the finger debacle . . .) I don't know why I haven't tried any of Cookie A's patterns before - it is a breeze! The socks are going to be fabulous - when I get to finish them that is . . . ;-)



The ball was jam packed with goodies with a Boston theme from candy to stitch markers to "sea glass" picked out by my partner's 5 year old daughter! It was so much fun to unwrap - the Rowing Cat had to help each step of the way! Mark just watched and shook his head in disbelief! My partner should get her ball today - hope she likes it!

They're Off!!!

THEY ARE OFF!!! Finally the braces are off! It's been a long long road, but all worth it!

Some spinning,
some knitting,
and more knitting
and one FO! Well, almost - it still needs a button . . . ;-)


I've had fun this week! I have a Knitting calendar on my desk and two students ( I work at a college) asked if I was a knitter this week! And then one of the security guards surprised me by asking what I was knitting on at lunch. He said his grandmother was a knitter. And today, a Director of one of the other offices stopped me at lunch to say that she had no idea I was a knitter! So we talked yarn and patterns for a bit. And then I got an email today from my friend Jen letting me know that she knit a hat out of some of my handspun yarn. What a treat! I've never had anyone else knit anything from my yarn! What a wonderful feeling!

A Little of This, A Little of That

Here's a little fibery goodness to start the day. Two bobbins full of Spunky Eclectic fiber. The November edition of the fiber club. It's called Pie for Everyone and is Falkland wool. It spun up beautifully. I find that I really enjoy spinning pure wool - probably because the fibers stick together so well!

Here is it all plied up and ready to go.

And washed and skeined! This is going to be my next bus knitting project. Socks, of course! Toe up with a short row heel this time I think. I haven't decided on the cuff pattern yet but I think I'll just do the foot in plain stockinette. I just put all of my hand knit socks in the wash this afternoon and realized that many of them are beginning to wear out. So lots more socks need to be in my future!

And more fibery goodness - Wool, alpaca and silk called Rasberries and Chocolate. I purchased this at Rhinebeck and just started to spin it. It's destined to become a summer shawl. My other Rhinebeck purchase, if you remember, was some beautiful angora rabbit and wool blend in black and white. When I pulled it out last month to pre-draft I started wheezing and sneezing. Of course I'm TOTALLY allergic to rabbits! What made me think this would be any different???? So today I sent off the fiber to its new home with Holly Jo! It will become something beautiful in Alaska now!



I couldn't resist a little last bit of Christmas! These were taken at the house of one of my mother-in-law's neighbors. Can you believe it???? The house is full of these dolls. All of the tables are arranged in themes. This is the second year we've gone over to see and there are more dolls this year!



And here is the Rowing Cat's Gingerbread House for 2007!


The steaks are coming off of the grill, so I'll wrap up here. I'll post later in the week - the Rowing Cat and I have tickets to see Spamalot!