I am so consistent

So I am participating in the Self Imposed Sock Club (http://www.ravelry.com/groups/self-imposed-sock-club) over at Ravelry. The idea us you kit up 12 socks-yarn and pattern and each month you randomly grab one of your sock kits.

Great idea-I do have a pile and a half of the sock stuff sitting around. When I started putting together my kits this morning I found this:

Granted a small, but consistent, selection of my sock yarns. Green & blue. The rainbow one on top is the only exception.

Next in the Queue

So the queue feature in Ravelry might make it a bit too easy to imagine project after project...but once I finish Little Sis' mystery monkey sweater, and my Purple Thursday socks this is my next contender:

Brandywine Shawl

The Brandywine Shawl is by Romi Hill. I love the idea of some lace and a lot of garter - semi-mindless is good right now. Also she is donating $5 for every pattern purchased to Haiti relief. 

This past August The Husband spent a week in Haiti covering a local effort to bring Haitian college kids tot he US to finish their degrees. The entire college system was destroyed in the earthquake. The cause couldn't be better.



The Husband's Article on Haiti

Added: I must try this:

Beaded Bind Off

Knitting Socks

Must be the extreme cold this winter that is making me obsess over socks. I have joined the "Self Impossed Sock Club" Group over at Ravelry. The idea is you bag up patterns and yarn - one per month, then every month graba  bog and knit.

Course I have no bags, patterns or yarn yet, but I am trying to finish a few things first. Mainly my garter rib socks.

Some good links to techniques. This one lets you cast on (for top down) without the bump where you join the round.

Afterthought Heel

This is my first stab at an afterthought heel. I forgot to bring waste yarn with me while out today so I bought some cheapo embroidery floss to use. Even the afterthought was an afterthought.

The front side is a garter stitch rib. I am working it toe up- increasing until I had 12 stitches on each needle.

Yarn: Sock Ease by Lionbrand
Needle size: 0

Owlet is done

I still need to block it and weave in the yarn ends-if only I could get it off big-Sis for ten minutes!

Miralda Done!

I finished last night, while watching Emma on PBS (sorry Superbowl - Jane Austin won).  Normally this kind of project would have been full of fits and starts, but since we've been snowed in for almost a week now I've had plenty of time to finish. 

The latest round was this past Saturday. Snow Friday, rain, then snow all day Saturday. We got 6 inches or so. Our total for this year is about 33 inches.

 Poor big - sis is ready to go back to school. We had a late opening last Thursday, but between the snow and the teacher workday after exams she's not been to class for a full day since Wednesday before last. She spent most of yesterday frantically making worksheets for herself, and getting the husband to create selling lists for her.

Little-sis is thrilled with all the time off, and would spend the rest of the year playing quite happily at home if given the choice.

 

Miralda

 

We've been snowed in since Saturday - 13 inches this time. The last winter with this kind of snow was 2000, but this time we've had two big ones. No that I am not totally fond of the short people, but it is proving to be a lot of time entertaining kiddos.

Yesterday we made marshmallows. Today I hope we can get out to the bookstore for a bit. Big - sis and I are reading our way through the Sisters Grim series. I had checked out books 3 - 5 before the storm, but t we're almost done. Right now we're both reading the fifth-tough to share.

Anyway, this is the yarn I got from the fiber festival at Montpelier back in October. It is the Classic Merino Lace from Knitting Notions in Green Apple. It is my favorite green.  I had bought a pattern to use with it, Lacewing, but on second look it is way more complicated than I thought. I've not done a huge amount of lace.

So instead I am doing Miralda from Knitted Lace of  Estonia. The thing I love about this pattern is that you cast on a bazillion stitches, then reduce each row making the triangle shape - also making it go faster. I had to pull out yesterday when the center diamond section got off by a good five stitches. Thus, the photos.

I am having one bit of a puzzle - the pattern uses a three-cross stitch that I cannot find described anywhere in the book - I am sure I can't find it. I did find it described on Things Soo Likes. 

Her description:

The cross is worked over 2 rows. On the first row you slip the first stitch purlwise, knit the next tow stitches together and then pass the slipped stitch over (so 3 stitches become 2). On the return row you insert a YO between the two stitches (so the 2 stitches become 3 again).

If this weather keeps up I should finish this week.

 

Sometimes you just gotta have it

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

The husband and I got a day out a few weekends back and we ended up doing the thrift stores. I know, exciting lives.

This is my new favorite thing. It is a lamp for a child’s room.

Aren’t they great? They are painted wood. The center part can be wound up and then they spin and play music.

I am revamping the guest room. Right now it is where the kids play stuff is. The plan is to turn it back into a fully dedicated guest room and do it in red and white. I have an old red and white quilt from my mom’s family, and this lamp will work perfectly.

This makes me so happy!

Happy Spring…Achoo!

Monday, March 26th, 2007

I truely have not meant to ignore this lonely blog the past few days. We’ve been in Williamsburg heping the parental units get their house ready for sale. They are moving up here near us. (Yay!)

The husband has now tiled their kitchen and master bath, hung new lights, plumed things…all sorts of general handyman things.
Moi? What have I been doing? My KoolAid sweater is almost done…I lost one ball of the purple yarn has disappeared, so I am having to improvise a bit.
I have also done some shopping for fabric for the girl’s spring wardrobe. I need to get cracking on this too, they have outgrown most of the rest of their clothes.

We now resume our regularly scheduled program

Monday, March 19th, 2007

Today was soooo much calmer. Kids survived school. I survived school. Thanks for all the lovely comments…I will catch up on responding, promise!
And this evening I got an hour to work on:

Sorry for the grainy photo…The camera doesn’t work so well indoors.
I started this while we were in Florida. This is a better shot of all the colors:

It is a bunch of Knit Picks yarn I over-dyed with koolaid. I was almost done, but the sleeves were getting tedious. I figure I have a few weeks left where I can use a lightweight sweater, so I might as well crank it out. It now has half a sleeve and a neck.
In the vien of sprint cleaning I am trying to finish a few things.