Attacking the stitch count discrepancy

I made my way to the point where it is time to begin the slipstitch heel on my Spring Forward Socks. As the pattern is written for doublepoints, and as I am using the two at a time technique, I had some adjustments to do to the stitch count on the front and heel portions.

The pattern is 66 stitches in total around, and as written, it calls for 30 stitches on the heel and 36 stitches for the front. While working on the first sock, I was able to transfer 2 stitches from the end of the first side but when I got to the second side to transfer the last stitch to the other side, I was in the middle of the cable with no access. I sort of knew this was going to happen and I was prepared with two extra circular needles to start transferring and having both ends to work from.

What helped was using stitch markers. I had one from the beginning marking the first side to be knitted.
Have you ever seen such a jumbled mess. Each time I transferred a side, I either had one of each side facing forward, or the working yarn was on the wrong side. I kept at it though. Persistant, I am.

After about 45 minutes and many shifts, including using stitch holders as well, I finally got all the stitches transferred and the working yarn on the correct side of both socks, and I again used stitch markers near the top to indicate the heel side.

This all took place in the 3 plain rows of the pattern, but I am sure I screwed something up, but hey, this is the part that will be where the ankle breaks or inside the shoe and who will know????? to be continued.........

Fun Weekend

This weekend, my Eldest, Amanda, visited from NYC before her next semester of grad school began. She is so frustrated with the program because the other students are idiots (in her words). When she started class on Monday night, she told them she was in Colorado for the weekend and they asked, "Is Colorado upstate or in Manhatten???" These are grad students for goodness sake. She did bring home to wear the neck scarf/cowl I made for her from handspun from Creatively Dyed. My gauge was a little off so it came out bigger and with less body than it should have had so I sent it to her with the buttons close to the neck and she really likes it this way. I hadn't gotten a good photo of it before I sent it off so here it is now. The pattern is from Peaceful Knitter

and is available on Ravelry as well.

While she was here, her best friend from High School and earlier came over with Elijah who is a strapping 6 months old. Such a happy little boy.Amanda is so good with kids both from her career as a Child Life Specialist in a Children's Hospital and from her nature. She loved holding and playing with a healthy baby because she sees only the very sick children. She will be so good with her own whenever that might be.

Isn't Amanda's sweater dress cute. I cannot take credit for it....Target can. I could make one but won't because it is a bunch of knitting and I am sure she only paid about $24.99 for it!

A Very Happy and Hopeful Day

Today at 1 pm, I am going to pickup a Welcome Package and forms to fill out for my new career in the Financial Services industry. It will be as a part-time assistant at first, but I will have the opportunity and requirement to study for and pass the Series 7 exam within 4 months. It has been a long time since I have been in school, but I am smart enough and as long as the math involved is not Calculus, I am sure I can handle it.

I can't begin to tell you all how grateful I am to the woman who is brave and bold enough to take on a 58 year old woman with no personal experience in the field.

The only down side, is that I cannot leave my other part time position, which I absolutely loathe, for the time being and will be working 6 days a week for most of these 4 months of training. That won't leave too much time for my crafts, but they definitely will serve as relaxation. I will post as often as I am able to keep everyone informed of my progress. Who needs sleep anyway??

OMG!!! I did it!!!

It was less than a week ago that I posted about wanting a spinning wheel and the wheel that I wanted was a Sonata...... Well, as things turned out....I answered a Ravelry posting for someone who was selling a Walnut Minstrel Wheel which is also from Kromski. This is a photo from the web, but from everything I have seen, it is even more beautiful than this. I will certainly show you when it arrives.

It is not quite as portable as the Sonata because it doesn't fold down into its own carrying case, but it is beautiful and will do all the same things. It is fairly lightweight and should ride in the front seat of the car for spin-ins and it is three legged, which I like for stability. I paid for it on paypal with some Holiday gift money, and I hope I get it in a week or so. I will certain post its arrival.

What did arrive today is some luscious soft alpaca fiber from Iron Needles which I won in her Blogiversary contest. I couldn't capture the creamy tan well with the artificial light, but it is much lovlier than this picture.

She entered mine as well, but her number didn't come up. :-( She has been a faithful reader of my blog since almost the beginning and we even met up once (she lives about 1 1/2 hours north of me.) I encourage everyone to check out her blog because it has been so inspiring to me in this blog journey.

When my wheel arrives, when I get it set up...this will be first fiber I spin with it. It is about 2 7/8 oz of the softest alpaca I have ever felt.

Caring for Orchids

I have had several comments on how to care for my orchids and to make them bloom. Here is a copy of an email back to the first inquiry from Peaceful Knitter who asked first.

I keep a gallon jug of premixed orchid food and water and that is the only liquid I use on it. When you water it, drain the standing liquid in the pot or tray on the second day. Water again when completely dry.

It needs bright but not intensely hot direct sunlight.

After all the blooms drop, feel the stem that is left and where there are bumps, cut the stem back above the 3rd or 4th bump from the bottom of the stem. It will be dormant for several months and then suddenly, another stem will emerge from the top or second bump from the top. My mom has good luck cutting the stem completely off at the bottom. You may notice that a new leaf forms and shortly after that an old leaf drops and a new flower stem begins.

Good luck with it. It is actually pretty easy if you let it just do its thing.