Craziness

OK..... now I don't want anyone to hate me for saying this, and I don't mean to offend anyone who participated in this, but I think this is crazy. I am usually all for "all things knitted" but knitting sweaters for trees????? I just don't get it . The Area Arts Council in our small town decided the trees downtown needed a little color, and asked area knitters to knit tree cozies. When I first read about this I thought it was absolutely insane to spend time knitting a sweater for a tree when there are so many worthy causes we can knit for. A couple days later they posted another article saying that the winning tree cozy knitter would win $1000 to be donate to a local charity of their choosing, (I wasn't the only one thinking it was nuts, and the letters to the editor in the paper supported that) That made it seem like a more worthwhile reason to knit tree sweaters. Some were pretty simple, most knit with size 35 needles, some were just ugly,and some were just down right cute. I had to take the kids to the Library yesterday, so I decided to check it out. I did like the snowman cozy, but I won't be knitting one.

I think the real reason they did this was to distract from the ugliness that is happening the next block down. This was in today's paper. They are leveling a mall to build a hotel. I am glad my kids are older now so I don't have to listen to them whine about the play ground in the mall being gone. We spent many a hour at that play ground in the winter, when the weather was too bad to play in the park or in the back yard. It is sad to see it gone.

Not much to show in the way of knitting. I did finish my Woolly Boully Neapolitan socks. I love, love, love this yarn. And I love these socks. As I said in a previous post, so does the eldest daughter. I may have to purchase another hank of this so she can have a pair also. We will just have to see.

And I started another pair of the Triple Twist pattern. I neglected to include the heel flap set up in the original pattern, so if you purchased one, please note the errata in the links area on the side bar. I am knitting this pair with a short row heel, still trying to find a short row heel method I like, still haven't found it. The yarn is a 100% superwash merino I dyed about 2 years ago. They are a pretty quick knit, and I am trying to finish my 52 pair for the 52 pair plunge. I have 43 so far and need to knit 9 more pair before the end of March to meet the goal of 52 pair in 52 weeks. Those are some pink socks, and I am not really a pink person, or anyway I never have been a pink person, but I kinda like these.

Well, that is all I have for today. Have a great week!! I am going to go knit.... and not a tree sweater : - )

Snow Day......

Woo hoo!!!! I got to sleep in today. That is, until my son could wait no longer to wake me up so he could go to a friend's house. We had a pretty nice snow yesterday. Today, a little freezing rain, and I think more of a winter mix is moving in later today. I love snow : ) Have I mentioned that before?

Look what the mail man brought.... a wonderful package. I had entered a contest at The Spirit Trail and I was the fortunate winner of some hand dyed, in the colors I chose, 2 ply cashmere. It is so yummy. The colors are beautiful and it is so soft. Now to find a pattern as beautiful as the yarn that requires 500 yds. Thank you so much Jennifer It is so lovely. I just keep looking at it and touching it. I can't wait to knit with it.

I finished the pair of Wollmeise Socks I was knitting for Karen. They are not knit in Wollmeise but in Great Adirondack Soxie in the Beach House colorway. Her feet are shorter than mine, so the socks are stretched somewhat taut on my blockers. I knit the foot plain as I was worried about yardage. The Soxie is a 360 yd hank, and causes a little anxiety. This hank felt so much different from the first socks I knit with this yarn. The first hank was very similar to Cherry Tree Hill, this one, not so much. But still a pleasure to work with. I am pretty sure I would have run out of yarn if I had continued the pattern down the foot.

And I have made a little progress on the Neapolitan socks. This is a nice yarn to work with. I am anxious to see how it washes and wears. It is so soft. I love the way the colors worked up on the heel turn, almost makes me wish I had done a short row heel.

And earlier this week came the Louet Gems fingering wt from The Yarn Grove, they were having a Valentine's Day Sale last week: ) I think I will design a pair of men's socks with this yarn. The color is Linen Grey.

Well that is all for this week. I hope everyone has a great weekend filled with knitting and family fun!!

Instant Gratification....

... That is what you get when you knit baby socks. I had enough left over Cherry Tree Hill in the Tide Pool colorway to knit up a pair of newborn socks. If only I had a wee one to model them. These will either be put aside for a baby shower or donated to the local Pegnancy Care Center. I knit a 1 x 1 rib under the cuff so they would be more likely to stay on. I sent a copy of the pattern to Cindy to try out, she has a new granddaughter, so she can give them a test run. I have a pair of sage green cable socks, (more boyish) in the works too.

Remember the "Navajo" Pagewood Farms, Glacier Bay 3 ply yarn, I shared last week from The Yarn Grove ... I wound it and started a pair of socks. It is a dream to knit with. Tightly spun, no splitting, and feels a lot like Jitterbug. My eldest is reluctantly modeling them for me, (she doesn't like the color). This one is a tad tight over my heel, but fits her perfect. So I am knitting the second one on a size bigger needle for the leg and then will frog this one and reknit it to fit my foot. I decided to see how it would knit up with a slightly thinner yarn too. So, I modified the stitch count a bit and cast on in the Woolly Boully Meanie "Neopolitan" color. The eldest does like these, but so do I, unfortunate for her. This yarn is so soft and is as light as air almost. It also has a nice tight spin. Notice that little bit of snow on the pine. The sun is shining now and you would never have imagined that this is what it looked like a few minutes ago That foggy look is snow coming down. It has been doing this all day, snow storms with near white out conditions, and then sunshine. Since it was 62 degrees here yesterday I don't imagine any of this will stick around, but the roads will be a frozen mess tomorrow since it is supposed to get rather cold tonight.

And of course blogger has not fixed the spell check yet, so again, my apologies.

Have a great week!!!

Whoo Hoo ....

...a two hour delay this morning. I am not a morning person. I never have been, and working night shift for several years has not helped to change that. So this morining when DH got out of the shower and told me there was a 2 hour delay, it was music to my ears. If I could sleep until 8:30 every morning, I would be a happy camper. It is like an ice rink in our neighborhood, in some places it even loooks like someone has driven a Zamboni over the road. The kids were "skating" up and down the sidewalk this morning while waiting for the bus. That always makes me nervous. I am so worried one of them will slide out into the road.

Look what I got yesterday. I ordered it from Sonny and Shear Today is the last day of the 1 st year anniversary sale, so you still have time to order. Everything is 25% off, just use the code OneYear. The yarn is from PigeonRoof Studios and the color is Delight. I have not wound it yet, but on the hank it reminds me of Koigu. I wish I had thought to take a picture before I opened everything, the packaging was to nice.

I finished a pair of socks yesterday too. The Lace -agons are officially finished. They are knit in Cherry Trre Hill Supersock in the Tide Pool color. The pattern and yarn are available at The Loopy Ewe. It is a pretty quick knit also.

And I have been working a little on the Dream in Colors "Into the Mystic" socks. This yarn is reallly nice to work with. Also from The Loopy Ewe. And The Loopy Ewe just got in some Paca Peds sock yarn. I have not tried this yarn yet, but the colors are gorgeous, and I think I am going to have to order some very soon.

And, lest you think I have abandoned the mission of knitting mates for all the singletons, esp with all this new yarn joining the stash, I am happy to let you know, I cast on for the second sock of a pair that has been long neglected. Maybe I will be able to finish it this week.

Well, I must slide back over to the doctors office. As much as I like sleeping in, it kind of messed up the routine. The office only draws blood from 7:30 to 11 in the morning and with the girl child not getting on the bus until a little after 10 this morning, I managed to get to the office at 11:01 and the lab girl was already gone. So back I go.

Have a great week everyone. OH, and of course the spell check is still not working : (

Adding to the Collection

The Yarn Grove had a wonderful Superbowl Sunday sale this past weekend. Each quarter they had different yarns, accessories and patterns on sale. It was hard to make a decision each quarter, not knowing what was going to be coming up in the next quarter. So in the first quarter I purchased this J. Knits Superwash Me Sock in the Connecticut colorway. I love this color combination.

Also in the first quarter I purchased a hank of Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in the Indian Summer colorway. I love how this yarn knits up, it is soft and smooshy, and I love this color.

I sat out in the second and third quarters. I loaded up my shopping cart and then emptied it again. I was on a budget and was really hoping to acquire some of the new Pagewod Farms sock yarn. Finally in the fourth quarter it popped up on the sale page. Then the hardest part was deciding on a color. I chose the Navajo. This stuff has a wonderful, tight spin. And since I have already broke my commitment to finish all socks before starting new ones, I am going to have to wind this.... and of course, knit with it. And I am happy to say, my sock yarn collection is no longer lacking in blues.

And here are some of the socks that I have started. I can't believe how quickly I caved in. .... who am I trying to kid, I am surprised I lasted as long as I did. Anyway, I realized I have not knit a pair of socks for Karen in a while, so I started a pair for her in my Wollmeise pattern (it is a free download from The Loopy Ewe.) I am knitting these in some Great Adirondack Soxie, in the Beach House color. She knows I am knitting them for her, so it is OK to show and tell. Twice in the past week she has told me she is not a "green" person, so I was worried about giving these to her. I am further along now, but I had to tell her about them so I would know if I needed to knit them longer to fit my foot : ) She said she likes the color so these are for her.

And then Cindy started my Furrows sock pattern in some Trekking and I really liked how it was knitting up in a self striping yarn, so I started another pair of those in some Meilenweit Multiringel. I omitted the ribbed cuff on these and started with a short garter stitch cuff which forms a nice little scalloped top. These are now the take along socks. The pattern is easy to remember and it is a quick knit. I got quite a bit done on these today waiting for the kids at the allergists.

And the Dream in Colors Smooshy in the Into the Mystic color is becoming this sock. I am on the gusset decreases of this sock now.

Well I think that is it for this week. I am going to go sit with the DH and watch a little TV and knit. Have a great week end everyone.

Oh, and Blogger still doesn't have the spell check working, so ..... sorry !!!

Disappointment With the Weather "people"...

For the past two days, the weather"people" and their fancy radar and doppler equiptment, have been telling us to prepare for the winter storm of the season. The "storm" was supposed to blow in around late afternoon yesterday and continue through today. At 5, they changed the time of the pending "winter blast" to 7 PM, at 7, it was changed to 10 PM. I love snow, so I was very excited about all the winter weather advisories and the promise of 8 inches of snow. I didn't even care about the threat of the sleet we may get before the snow. As much as I love the snow, I don't care for the ice. I gave up waiting for the arrival of the white, fluffy stuff around 1 AM and went to bed. Imagine my surprise when I got up this morning and DH said, "why are you up, there is no school today?" You would have thought I was the one having a snow day. I went to the front door to take a look out side ........ NOTHING. Why is school cancelled?... where is my promised, biggest snow of the season? This is what it looked like. How sad is that? We did have a little ice. DH said the roads were clear all the way to work. Two weeks ago, the kids should have had a snow day because of the ice, or at least a 2 hour delay, but they didn't. Instead all the buses were late, and the kids were standing at the bus stops forever waiting. I don't understand the weathermen/women and their faulty radar, and I don't understand the requirements for snow days. I am happy to have the kids home though.

Now this, brightened my day. I got a package from Jessi. It had the beautiful prize yarn I won from her blog contest. I have not knit with either of these yarns. The Yarn Pirate is Butternut and the Lime & Violet is Spooky Pooky. There goes my resolve to finish all the singletons. I am a comfort knitter. I am going to wind some new yarn and knit something else to ease the disappointment of not being able to go play in the snow.

I finished the Ballband Bag. It is felted and blocked and dry. I need to give it a light shave as it is a little fuzzier than I prefer. It needs a button too. I will have to search in the button drawer, but I am pretty sure I don't have anything that will work with this. I searched and searched for something to use to block this. When I made the first couple, we had some PC game boxes that were the perfect size for this bag. DH threw them away when he was cleaning out the closet. The girl child just did a report on the Manatee, and these books were the perfect size. I put them is some plastic bags....and into the bag they went. No Library books were damaged in the process.

Well Blogger is being a stinker. It has taken forever to get pictures to upload and the spell check won't work. And trust me, I need Spell Check. So, I apologize.

I am going to go wind some yarn now. Have a geat weekend!!!!