fastnacht socks?

here they are... a long overdue Christmas gift for the love of my life.

Pattern: Manly Socks by Hannah Six
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock
Colorway: 149
Needle: US2 (my new sox stix by lantern moon :-) )
Recipient: the hubby!


He requested them to be longer than the last 2 pairs. I had very little yarn left. I think it's going to be kept in a safe place for the inevitable darning. I was calling them fasnacht socks because all day they only had the end of the toe left to do... I teased him that I was going to leave them that way like a donut!

I'm not really crazy about this yarn. I didn't rewind the skein and maybe that would have helped but it was really sticky in pulling it out and I spend LOTS of time undoing little knots.

Now I need to cast on something for next week at school when I'll be proctoring exams and watching my homeroom for hours.... Something mindless because Lord knows I'll be interrupted enough!

stripey socks

for babies are such a quick knit! And yes I did make 2... feet come in pairs after all, s should socks!

Pattern:Pitter Patter socks by Jacqueline ZIegler
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK
Colors: jade and hollyberry
Needle: US5

These go with the gnome baby hat below.... for the same baby...

Next on to teacher gifts!

Tonight I started to ply some samoyed chiengora... it's really soft :D

happy wednesday

I missed ten on tuesday by an hour or so.. oh well.

I took another picture of my bottle socks but both filled with their respective bottles. I have to say, I used one today at work and it was fantastic. I set my ice cold drink down on the piano sans worries of leaving water marks AND it kept my drink cold all afternoon (and we don't have AC at school)

One week in, 35 to go.... I have to admit, I'm envious of my friends that are retiring this year. Although I get much more accomplished when I'm working. It forces me to stick to a schedule and I'm much more productive. I picked the winter repertoire tonight for the chorus concert. The theme is snow. I'm going to try to make snowflakes to hang from the gym ceiling. And I'll make a power point of all snow slides... guess it doesn't hurt to start collecting now. Why wait until the last minute?


DD took a piano lesson today. She had a 2 year hiatus, in which time her original teacher moved. She's really showing an interest now though and I don't feel as if we're pushing her but that she wants to do it. She'll be a busy girl this year, which I think will be great for her. Piano, brownies and gymnastics. Maybe it's what we all need in order to keep some sanity in this house.

I CO for a baby kimono tonight in recycled cotton yarn. Then I realized I didn't get enough. I'll have to stop at ACMoore tmrw on the way home to pick up one more skein. What a shame! Guess I should go print out a coupon now!

I finished washing up Shasta tonight and took a small hunk and flicked it. My what a lovely fleece. I wish I had more time to spin and knit, but that's life.

I'm busy picking out my next sock pattern as well. I'm leaning toward Pomatomus, another Cookie A sock. Although I just bought the book 2 at a time socks with a 40% off coupon at Michael's so maybe I'll choose one from the book and try my hand at knitting 2 at a time. (I wish my knitpicks order would get here already!)

I have some sock yarn coming from ebay as well as some purewool (both worsted and sock weight) - remember sockyarn stash doesn't count - so I'm thinking it's gonna be a sock Christmas (mom, don't tell anyone!) Especially if I get this 2 at the same time thing going! I'm also thinking I should be spinning sockweight. This romney cross would probably wear really well!

whew

with 14 inches of yarn left, I finished these in time to put them in ravelympics:

Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A.
Yarn: Color Me simply sporty (I think...it was an unlabeled ebay purchase)
Color: tropical or darn close to it!
Needle: US2
Size: EU41
Recipient: ME!

Well I finished all the new projects I had signed up for and 50% of my WIPs. Plus I spun 3 skeins (although 2 were sample skeins, 1 was 252 yards of single ply worsted targhee)

I'm off to take care of my neglected family now...ravelympics is about over!

more booties

Pattern: Grandma's Favorite Booties by Doreen L. Marquart
from the 2008 Knit pattern a day calendar May 26/27
Yarn: Lion Brand Jamie Baby
Colorway: Sherbet print 239
Needle: US4
Recipient: Dunham baby

I think there's an error in either the pattern or my brain. Everyone elses on ravelry looks fine but mine came out with the sides and top in opposite stockinette (one purl one knit side) and I'm thinking it just needs a row 20 of purl before you start instep shaping.... oh well, they're still kind of cute!

Not much else accomplished. I started and ripped Saartje's booties twice. I'm going to try them in the round next.

I'm finishing my first monkey sock...I'll never get everything done!

la tour de France fleece

silly me... what do I know about bike riding, except that I used to do it all the time in my youth. Well I've actually spent quite a bit of time watching the tour while spinning myself... not on 2 wheels though only on one and only using 1 foot. And here's what I have to show for it so far:

2 bobbins(started the third) of single ply BFL. I admit to cheating a bit on this, as it had been started before the race, but it's mostly what I'll be spinning this month.






and 408 yard of navajo plied Finn. This was taking up a bobbin and seeing that I only had one bobbin, I decided to practice navajo plying. (took me forever to do all 400 yards) It's my first attempt at this type of ply so it's not too bad. I'll probably dye this and make socks for myself :-)

I did a bit of spindle spinning early (as in 2 AM) Monday to try to finish off the Licoln fleece that I have. There's only about a pound left and I'd like to get it all spun. Have no clue what it will become... and also return P's Ashford spindle. I prefer the top whorl to the bottom whorl, but want to finish all this yarn the same.


Monday, we went to the DaVinci Science Center DD has been bugging me to go for months. Finally I found a place where I wasn't the only dalfujensia in the family :-) (I'm not sure I spelled that correctly.. I'll ask DH in the morning). It's like a please touch museum of all things science. DS2 wasn't impressed but found some things that he was attracted to. I'm sure we'll be back to visit again, especially since it's only about 15 minutes from home! Afterwards we went to the nearby Perkins for a late lunch (we were all starving). As we were almost ready to leave an older woman came up to me to remark how beautiful our children were. And how patient we were as parents (you talkin' 'bout me?????) Actually the kids were having a good day. And were in a particulary snuggly mimos mood. Anyway, that really warmed the cockles of my heart, so thanks ma'am!

Guess I need to think of something for Tuesday! The in-laws leave for home Wednesday evening. I don't know if we're all going to the airport or just DH... probably the latter. It's such a long trip to drag the kids on, plus the van is still in the shop.

Speaking of..... the shop called today. Apparently it's all related to the alternator. When the alternator goes wacky, so does the computer and all the misbehavior is related. I had DH mention to the mechanic about DS2 thinking that the cassette player was piggybank last summer. (Oddly enough a woman called in to car talk about this very thing last week) Carlos, the mechanic, said "oh.... that's not good" meaning that it could also be related. So we may be shopping in the junk yards for a new radio/tape/CD component to install (click and clack's suggestion as well) Maybe it's unrelated, but for a while the radio would turn itself on and off depending on how the coins were in the tape deck. I retrieved quite a number of them, but some are impossible to reach and I'm sure have worked their way in even farther. He was an equal opportunity depositor... any denomination worked as long as it was a coin! Even pesos, bridge and chucky cheese tokens. That's my boy... an investor!

OK... now for some knitting news. I've started Lizard Ridge square 12 with my new LM needles. I think that they are cursed. I've had to rip back 3 times now and each time I was on the last wave repeat..... it's ok, I'm method with this one. no rush to finish!

But these are finished:

Pattern: Charade by Sandra Park
Yarn: ColorMe
Color: Regal
Needle: KnitPicks Harmony dpns US2 (3 mm)
For: ME!!

Love the stitch pattern. Wish that this yarn didn't flash but oh well.... this is a great stitch pattern for a guys sock as well and super easy to memorize. I'll probably make DH a pair in a solid (black, blue, brown, or tan... you know a boring color) But they will definitely be on my feet as soon as the weather cools a bit. (I wore them to spin last night hehehe) I'm really loving the sock thing right now. It's become my new obsession (pushed dishcloths right out of the running... but they'll be back) I have a few skeins of sock yarn to use... then I have an excuse to buy more :-D


In nature news, we have 4 painted lady chrysalis now. One fell off the little paper that it was suppose to attach to and is laying at the bottom of the butterfly garden. Hope that doesn't damage the metamorphosis process. I tried to take pictures but they don't do them justice. They're kind of a brown with these shiny gold dots on them. and only about an inch long, much smaller than the black swallowtail that we did last summer. I think about 10 days we'll have butterflies. I learned when we were at the butterfly house that black swallowtails will not voluntarily feed when in captivity. You need to uncurl the proboscis onto the nectar.... which explains why our guy was not interested at all in the watermelon pieces we gave him. Had I known... at any rate he was released in plently of time to eat and mate (which after all is what they're supposed to do) I'm excited for the kids to see the process again. DD will be studying about growth this year as one of the units of inquiry and they concentrate on butterflies.


Well I'm off to spin some more before retiring...

happy crafting

las medias

here they are, long awaited and returned, together finally.... and some happy feet as well.

Pattern: George's Socks by PiaCusick
Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Stretch
Color: 61 Olive Green
Needle: US2 KnitPicks Harmony sock needles




and lizard ridge block 11 that has been done for a long time now

Mom called yesterday to tell me that my cousin Kim succumbed to ovarian cancer... that C word seems rampant lately, or maybe I'm more sensitized to it. A friend just had a lumpectomy to removed a tumor in her breast this past week as well.

I forgot to mention that I cut my hair. I was under the misconception that locks of love didn't accept dyed hair. Otherwise I may have gone a couple more inches to donate it. Well there's always next year. As you can see there isn't much purple left in it now anyway...it's barely noticeable and when you can see it, it's more blue than purple!

:-(

my puter is still in the shop.... and it looks as though it won't be finished for a while... my nephew needs a smaller torx driver and may have to order it. argh
I did finish the socks for DH... of course I left the first one at the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, so he still only has one sock. Hopefully Jason will remember to give him it on Sunday (if he didn't lose it carrying it around all day last Saturday)

I started a new sock for me last night at the Board meeting... now that was entertainment!

hope to have a real post soon

copycat

1. for Carole..., 2. Iranian mini-pizza, 3. Lower Trenton Morrisville Bridge, 4. Purple Rose, 5. Harrison Ford - Actor, 6. coffee art, 7. my private island, 8. tiramisu, 9. Opera singer, 10. Of The Earth And Sea And Oceans Free, 11. Crunchy, 12. crafty mini folder



I saw this on CurlyPops and sew-funky's blogs and thought it was so interesing so decided it would make a good Saturday post

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker

Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (mine came up empty as did my blog name so I used crafty instead

Created with fd's flicker toys. Even if you don't make your own mosaic... go check out all the toys there. It's a good way to spend a couple of hours ;-)


We spent the HOT afternoon at the pool. DD met several of her school friends there and DS1 a few of his. Refreshing and hopefully will wear them out for an early bedtime.

I started seaming the Linus project blanket today... and finished the first of DH's father's day socks (not that he'll be wearing them anytime soon LOL)

socks 2

Well I finished the second pair of socks Saturday evening.

Pattern: Yarn Harlot's Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules
Yarn: Plymouth Sockotta
Color: 6669 Fair Isle
Needles: US2 DPNS

Note to self: when using self patterning fair isle yarn, DO NOT do ribbing... it loses all the effect. At least the toe and the bottom of the foot look good! At least they're comfy and I do like the colors.

I've been putting my stuff into ravelry and looking at other people's which has been sucking up computer time like crazy. That site is completely amazing though. I really do *heart* ravelry

I have a picture of my poncho that I took for ravelry. It's nowhere near finished, but almost halfway. It will eventually be a long rectangle that I'll sew the one end to the opposite side. Clear as mud? Then hopefully pick up stitches around the neck to make a mock turtle. That's my plan at least. Remember, I'm making this one up as I go.

DD and I were home sick today... fever and aches... nothing serious, but enough to put a damper on work. I kept DS2 home from daycare as well. I got a burst of energy at about 12:30 and made banana muffins and dyed up some laceweight wool....then I petered out. Thankfully DH went to collect DS1 from school.

Oh and the mailman has been very good to me of late :-) My love2knit dishcloth exchange package came today. Opening day is the 15th so you'll see it then. Also got some yummy wool that I bought from ebay.

I'll post pics of the wool and muffins tmrw. I'm packing lunches, cleaning up the kitchen and going to bed.

happy crafting

They're a pair!

Pattern: Yarn Harlot's sock formula from Knitting Rules
Yarn: Plymouth Sockotta (this color in fact!)
Color: 5612 Bold Stripe
Needle: Size 2 bamboo dpns

The only change I made was to use 60 stitches instead of 64, since the only thin parts of my body are below my knees!

This is 8 lovely, yummy, soft, fluffy ounces of light fawn fiber from an alpaca named Franchesca who resides at Bay Springs Farm in Cape May NJ. This is what DD's friend convinced her mom to buy me while they were on vacation at the beach... I think I'll make her some mittens from it. Now I just have to figure out how to clean it! It's super soft though... really, really soft, like a cloud!

I'm plugging away on the Lucy Bag... and before I go to bed, I'll have finished the Monthly Dishcloth KAL.. and I'm happy to say that my prediction of the picture pattern was right on :-)

My SIL comes in one week... If I'm going to do that möbius scarf for her I better figure out the cast on, cuz I have a feeling it will take every free minute of time to finish it in one week.

Happy Crafting

Happy Birthday L!

We were at the beach for a few days. I wanted to post before we left but ran out of time! So much to put in one post now! Today is DS1's b'day. He's 5, but according to him. "not until I get my cake and open my presents" Where did the time go??? He has gymnastic camp at Parkettes in the mornings this week, so I guess we'll celebrate at dinnertime.

DD is at morning art camp at the Crayola factory. She loves it. You'd think that with 2 out of the house for he morning, we'd get something done, but at least one hour of the time they're gone is spent commuting back from the camps and running little errands.

So today I stopped (OK, 'twas a bit of a detour) at Kraemer's yarn store. They're having a sale. At least 25% off patterns and yarn that isn't made by them. Some yarn is even discounted deeper! It was definately a S.E.X. for me! I got 19 skeins of Plymouth Fantasy (pics at a later date) for $3 each, 5 skeins of Noro Kureyon for 6.37 each (to start Knitty's Lizard Ridge) one skein of Cherry Tree Hill and one skein of Plymouth Sockotta and lastly a skein of Mauch Chunky, to ensure that there will be enough to complete the Lucy Bag. I'll post more pics later... kind of spread them out, so to speak.












While at the shore, I stopped at Island Knits, LBI NJ and bought this:

Well it wasn't in this state when purchased. But I did buy the yarn and needles there! I took with me to the shore: 2 drop spindles, some roving (ashland bay merino, rambouillet, and stuff I made at the Mannings), King Tut cotton, Mauch Chunky, my KP Options set, Bamboo dpns in sizes 8, 9 and 10, Knitting Rules (by the yarn Harlot) and Magical Knitting vol 1 by Cat Bordhi, and the pattern for the Lucy Bag. I didn't have the right size needles to start the Lucy Bag (needed 10.5 dpns to start) and didn't get the Möbius CO... so knitting was out. Finally, on our last day of the trip, I convinced DH to let me pop into the yarn store while the kids were asleep in the van. I came out with this and proceeded to swatch and make Stephanie's socks from her book, well start them. This is the first one...not yet finished. That was after I spun all of the Rambouillet on my Greensleeves drop spindle and wrapped it on the niddy noddy I had in my bag. Here it is in a mini skein approx. 250 yard fingering weight.

The weather at the beach was COLD. Most of the time we spent in sweatshirts, except DS1 of course. He was in the surf as much as possible. We went miniature golfing, rode one of those quadcycles with 2 bench seats and a baby basket in the front. Looked like a surry without the fringe on top! Sat. night we went to Fantasy Island. The kids loved that. Both DD and DS1 as well as DH helped out the magician in his show. We'll go back later in the summer when hopefully the weather will be warm enough to lounge on the beach in a proper bathing suit instead of jeans and a sweatshirt!

Some FOs to share:
Dad's LTK felted moccasins

Pattern: Little Turtle Knits Felted Moccasins
Yarn: Paton's Classic Merino
Color: Denim Marl and Blue Storm
Needle: Size 10.5 KPO
Modifications: I had to make the slipper longer than the largest ssize on the pattern, so I knit a 4"x4" swatch, felted it and did the math to fit dad's feet. Happy to say that they do!

Mrs. Reynold's change purse

Pattern: Jean's Felted Coin Purse
Yarn: Peace Fleece
Color: Blueberry Borscht
Button: From stash (dd's choice)
Needle: Size 10 KPO
Modifications: I didn't felt as much as I normally would. We wanted to fit the packaging for the Barnes and Noble gift card inside the little purse.

And the remaining chakalaka baskets. I can honestly say that I'm happy to be finished with these for a bit! The one on the left is the S&C colorway called Sun Kissed... I love it! On the right we have P&C Butter cream (I think? It was one of the cones on special - probably still is LOL)

DSes gave their daycare workers a big basket filled with LOTS of different candy bars, peanuts, sesame seeds, snack crackers. All tied up in cellophane with curled ribbons. Hope they enjoy eating it all!