More socks!

I finally got around to knitting up the "Socks the Rock" yarn that I got from Toni Neal of The Fold at the Fleece Fair in 2005! Everyone on my sock list has been talking about how wonderful this sock yarn is, so I had to try it. It's pretty nice. I love the colors.

I've finally become a true sock knitter. I can knit a sock totally without a pattern now. If I ever get stranded on a deserted island, I'll be able to make socks. What a relief that must be for everyone stranded with me.

Well, one sock down. I'd better start the other one before SSS hits.

I'm also getting ready to start my Fair Isle birthday sweater now that all the yarn has arrived and the opinions have been weighed and the colors finally decided. More adventures ahead! STEEKS!

Mom's Dachshund Sweater is finished!

I finally finished the Dachshund Sweater this week. I ordered the last ball of yarn in my order to Knitpicks for my birthday sweater yarn. I just needed about 4 more rows of stockinette to complete the last sleeve ... and now, at last, it's done. I whipstitched the shoulders and sleeves together but I tried the more elegant mattress stitch on the sides. It's amazing how the stitching disappears! This weekend we're planning to go to Jenny Wiley State Park with Mom and Dad and I'll give it to her then. It's a very late birthday present since her birthday was in March!









I took all my birthday sweater yarn to the Guild Bylaws meeting yesterday and got some input about the colors. The general concensus was that the mustardy color could/should be replaced with the carrot orange. The surprise decision, though, was that everyone firmly felt that the light blue was too light (the first color on the far left of the swatch) and didn't fit in at all. So, I'm going to review all the colors again -- and how they are placed with other colors -- and probably end up ordering 2 skeins of a different blue and a second skein of carrot orange. This sweater better be good!!

Do we see a theme developing?

In the continuing theme of wooly footwear, I've started on self-striping socks from Knitpicks. Kate has been begging me for them; she loves the green color. But considering the way she treats her clothes, I don't think hand knit socks are for her. This time I'm going out on a limb and just winging the pattern. It's a simple 2K 2P rib and I adopted a heel flap from another sock pattern.

I got the yarn in for my birthday sweater. Kathryn gave me a gift certificate to KnitPicks for my birthday and it's taken me a year to pick out the yarn and a pattern I like. The pattern is a Fair Isle cardigan from Philosopher's Wool and looks like this (in their wool and colors). Picking out the colors has been a SO DIFFICULT. I dropped their orange and purple colors and put in greens and blue-greens. The only color I'm really concerned about is the brassy gold color. Somehow it just sticks out like a sore thumb. On the other hand, looking at this picture, it looks like the sea green is the culprit. With the Fair Isle pattern, though, they aren't really supposed to blend together so much as provide attractive contrasting patterns. On the other hand, I'd hate to spend hours and weeks working on a sweater that turned out to be hideous. HELP!

Yesterday we celebrated my DH's birthday. He's so exhausted from the neverending conflicts of litigation that he didn't really enjoy it. We were going to a baseball game but then he didn't really feel well enough -- then we were going to go out to dinner -- and, finally, I ended up cooking steaks at home so he could relax in front of the T.V. with the girls. Kate made him a Red Velvet cake and Ally wrapped all the presents (nothing really exciting but several small thoughtful gifts). We usually don't bother to put the right number of candles on a grown up's cake, but we thought it would be funny since it's his 49th. It took us so long to light all the candles (with all three of us working at it) that we ended up having to pick a lot of blue wax out of our cake. I assured everyone that it wouldn't hurt them if they ate some. I hope I'm right!

By the way, Andy had his summer haircut a couple of weeks ago. So, an Andy before and after should be presented:









Before: Regal Rabbit; After: Bare Bunny

Making Lemonade

Well, in lieu of going to England, I've been busy knitting and spinning. I spun some silk very finely from a silk cap (each cocoon is a layer in the cap) and then plied it with a very fine strand of Andy's angora fur. It feels lovely, but I still need some more twist in it. Next time I'll use the electric spinner. I think it also needs a better color. I wonder how it would look dyed? Ah, an experiment ...

I've also been at work on my favorite type of project: felting. I had heard about a great pattern from Patternworks for felted clogs, so I tried it. Here is the unfelted slipper next to my pink clog slipper. To the left is a close up of the unfelted slipper.

Next is the felted slipper beside my pink slipper for comparison. What a change! And, last, is the felted slipper on its own. Where is the mate, you say? I was so anxious to see what it would look like that I threw the first slipper into the wash before I made the second one. It didn't occur to me until later that they might not felt the same if they aren't treated exactly the same. So, they may not turn out to be matching slippers at all!

Some finished projects

I finished my entry for Ashford's Shrek II contest. The challenge was to make something with wool from the runaway sheep, Shrek II. I bought 2 ounces of raw wool, but I didn't end up with a lot of usable yarn, so I decided to make Shrek's wool a "design feature" in a larger work. I made a pillow and the white sheep on it is made from Shrek's wool.

I also finished my Fair Isle socks. These were really fun to make. I love Fair Isle and the self striping yarn makes changing colors unnecessary ... so you just have to worry about two balls of yarn instead of a dozen.

Miracle of miracles, I can actually wear them. I thought the Fair Isle around my calves would be too tight, but they fit!

Finishing these knitting projects is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy world. The combination of Jeff's work demands and Ally's broken leg made us cancel our summer vacation to England -- for the second year in a row. After all the time I spent making all the reservations, it was very disheartening to cancel all of them.

Then, this afternoon, Jeff blew a tire on his way to his after-Sunday-mass meeting. He didn't have time to deal with it, so he limped the car into his office parking lot and called me to deal with it. Now, at 11:30 p.m., I have to go to his office and pick him up -- since he doesn't have a car.

The girls and I recently saw the movie "Click" and I think Jeff would be very hurt to know how strongly the girls identify him with the father in the movie who loves his family, but always puts his job first.