I thought I missed it!

I looked at the calendar today and thought my blogiversary slipped by, but no.....it is still coming up on the 16th. That will make two years in the blogging world, two years writing about knitting, of Ravelry, two years of spinning and two years of friends, family and new readers who have shared this adventure with me. It is still a week (give or take a day or two) away, so help me celebrate by reading through the archives and let me know what you still want to hear about.

There have been a few postings by other bloggers that blogs are "so yesterday" and no longer relevant, but how else can I track my life chronologically with words and photos and share it with you at the same time. How else can I focus on the good stuff (mostly) in my life, and have a perfect escape from the stress and anxieties of life? Are you reading blogs as regularly, are you posting in your own with the same frequency? Leave me a comment between now and the 17th and share a few thoughts on the matter. A prize awaits ( undecided at the moment) for a random poster or two. Thanks in advance for sharing in my world!

Thursday Catchup

I cannot believe this week and that it is already Thursday. What that means for me (but not most people) is that my weekend is here again. Working parttime is bad for the budget, but I love the 3 days off each week. My only problem is that I have one extra day to get into trouble. I couldn't help myself....the Koigu was on sale last Friday when I went to knitting group at Colorful Yarns. My purchase qualified for a green bag by being over ??? dollars. I just cannot reveal in public the amount of my purchases for my own protection!!! ;-) The green bag can be used in the future for one of the Green Bag Sales where everything I can stuff into it is off a certain percentage. I just hope they don't have one too soon!

Nice group and a variety of ages and abilities. And something is on sale every week! The book wasn't on sale, but I couldn't resist this one:

There are lots of gift ideas for socks, hats and accessories that are unique. I really want to try the beaded socks from the front cover.

The other rabbit hole I fell down this week was JulieSpins shop update last Sunday. I knew in advance and planned my morning accordingly. Julie's yarns and rovings are so sought after that you have to sign in to Etsy and be ready to commit. If you dawdle, your choice disappears into someone else's shopping basket. I didn't dawdle.....but I did control myself and limited my purchase to only one:

This is Targhee wool fiber in the color Bouquet. I have never spun Targhee before but it is rumoured to be like buttah! I am trying to get away from spinning my favorite colors of blue teal and green and this roving grabbed my mouse finger right away.

Progress on the socks: I am working on the heel flap now and had to look up the formula for the heel turn on a 48 stitch pattern. Thank you Charlene Schurch!

What I am finding that the sock on the left has much thicker spinning at the heel than the one on the right, and I may actually have to do a few extra rows before turning the heel. My spinning is not perfect, but who will notice???

Last but not least is the Ishbel Shawl. I finished all the lace and now casting off. I definitely will make this pattern again since once I got the hang of it, it went along smoothly. As you can see, I am using much larger needles for the cast off (10.5) so that blocking this edge with its point will not be a problem. I think the side edges are a bit tight now and I worry about stretching it out.

It sure doesn't look like much in its green blobby state. Stay tuned.

A Very Happy Mother's Day

The sun was barely out, the rain was sporadic, but a good time was had by all.      

When I checked into facebook early this morning (NO, I am not stalking my kids!), I spotted this:

For a girl who has been in NYC for 4 years, this is one of her first Star encounters and a very current one at that!  For those of you who don't watch American Idol, Allison Iraheta is the redhead who is a cross between Kelly Clarkson and Janis Joplin and only 17 years old!    Looks like she is a good sport to ham it up with Amanda and Preston in Times Square.   

I opened Amanda's  card and gift which were very sweet.   As her card said, "She is not too old to make arts and crafts gifts for her mommy!"   This is for my desk at work and it will go with me tomorrow.   She also phoned in addition to sending the weirdest e-card from Jib Jab!   I would link it here, but I don't know how.    

As for my other daughter, Alison, I did speak with her yesterday, and it gives me such pleasure to hear that she is adjusting to working two jobs and enjoying them, for the most part.   I expect to hear from her again today, later.   ....edited to add: Alison called after work and let me know that she painted me a picture and it will be on the way soon....to be continued.    I am the luckiest Mom in the world with the best kids!

After delivering a huge geranium to my Mom, we went out to lunch at Buca di Beppo, which is always good, if you like garlic....and we do!  This is the gift we each received: a nail file and nail polish.  Notice the color name:  Mamma's Marinara!!

I have begun working on my Ishbel shawl and here are the first photos.   Hard to believe that I spun such fine two-ply yarn, but it is working out nicely in this project so far.   I am using size 6 needles and will do the larger size.   I could always alter the number of lace repeats if necessary, but I have a while till I have to make that decision.

The rest of my day will be spent with my Insurance books, since I go that two day class this week and take the test on Friday.    I hope I can stay awake through all of it, because it is pretty dry and boring.   Here I go...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hat from Homespun

This is a really sweet hat I spun and knit! The gray is merino, purchased at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder this fall.

I used the Navajo ply on the fly technique and it sooooooo soft. The white stripes, my own creative addition to the pattern, is Brown Sheep wool combed top which is from my very first spindle spinning. Actually, the original spinning was so bad (thick and thin) that I re-drafted it to achieve some fairly consistantly even yarn.
This hat was a gift for my hairdresser, Lee, who is so atypical of male hairdressers: married, 4 kids and plays ice hockey! He loved the hat and showed it off to all his clients when they came in. My buttons were busting with good feelings at this..... and considering what I have been going through lately, it was so nice to be appreciated for my skills and talents.

Lethargic

I am not in the mood for much these days. News of the economy and my personal state of affairs are dragging me down. I am not really happy with a few of the projects I finished and am reconsidering them as gift items. Not a problem with the projects themselves, but maybe my choices of yarn. As it turns out, I sent them anyway, and the giftees will have to deal with them.

The top one is bamboo, which would have made a better scarf than a cowl. I love the buttons I found, though. The second one is from my first hand-spun. The fiber is from Creatively Dyed and it is Sea Wool purchased while at Rhinebeck this fall.

I did add the buttons to my BSJ and made some thumbless mittens on a string to finish off the gift ensemble. I changed my mind about doing booties, since the baby will be born in January and will be in footed onsies for the most part. Come on baby boy Johnson.....I am now ready for you!

On Black Friday( the day after Thanksgiving), I went over to Joann's to see if I could get into some trouble and to get buttons for several projects. I ended up with sock yarn for 4 pairs of socks in mid weight for a total of about $30. The yarn is Patons Kroy socks, jacquards in four different colors. Not that there was any fear of running out of socks to knit, but now I have built my stash even further. I started a pair in the summer moss color

with my new book: 2-at-a-time SOCKS by Melissa Morgan Oakes which I purchased from Knitpicks to conquer the technique. It works! I am now working my way down to the toes and it is going well now. At first it was a bit fiddly, until I got the hang of it, and I can see both socks progressing very well. I used my basic plain pattern and had to adapt the technique to my 56 stitch pattern, but it wasn't too difficult since I have made enough socks now to understand the basic architecture of socks. My only major frustration is that the sequence of stripes on the two balls are wound opposite from each other. When doing two socks at once, I only found this out after several inches had been knit on each. Next time, I will rewind both balls before knitting so this doesn't happen again. I let it go this time.......

Now I will have unmatched but coordinated socks. Not ideal but these socks will be for me.