BAA BAA BLACKSHEEP

Sock that isn't to be

2009-07-14T20:01:00.005-05:00

Not a baking post today. Knitting instead it seems. I started this sock Thursday (?) to knit while waiting in the Social Security Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles (no wait there, they helped me immediately!!) to change my name last Friday. The wait was long at Social Security so I got a really decent amount of it done and I haven't touched this since. Why? I'm just really not feeling it. Not feeling like stripes. Not feeling like socks. Not feeling like this sock in particular. Not feeling the colors together. Its a whole mess of things I think. Suffice it to say I'm pretty sure I'm frogging it and doing something else with these stripes of yarn. I have an idea of course but describing it never goes well. So we'll have to wait and see how it goes until I have pictures or give up on it again!

Abby and Penny enjoyed themselves while I was baking on Sunday. One enjoys being buried in covers. She'll snuggle herself under until you can't see a bulldog and are surprised to when you find one there. The other can't stand to be under the covers for even a second. She'll scream bloody murder. At least they make a good pair.

Baking on Monday

2009-07-13T19:45:00.004-05:00

Monday we join the bulldogs out in the 105F heat in order for a little slow outdoor baking.

Baked Bulldog

2 bulldogs older then 2
grassy plot
bit of a smallish hill

Take two bulldogs and let them outside on a very hot day. They will soon find a comfy spot for optimal baking. Remind them to stretch their legs if you want an even baking.

Some bulldogs, like this one, prefer to just bake without wiggling. Leads to overcooking less quickly and therefore longer stays out in the oven before mom says "No more baking bulldogs. Let's go. Inside."

Other bulldogs, like this one, prefer to even cooking method of changing position every minute or so. Must make sure all parts are covered. This leads to quicker panting, more tongue hanging out and less time in the sun, but if you can't sit still in the coolness of inside why would you be able to sit still outside? I've always wondered how sitting on the curly cue butt could possible be comfortable but he's never had a problem with it.

Baking on Sunday

2009-07-12T11:17:00.010-05:00

I love summer food. Light salads (without dressing for me-yuck, with for Chris), fresh fruits, sandwiches, roasted chicken, grilled veggies, and simple breads. Yum. When its 100F+ outside, eating heavily just isn't on the menu. Neither is a ton of cooking really. I like stuff to be easy. So each week I go to the grocer and buy a bunch of fruit and a careful selection of vegetables. Fruit can be anything, it will get eaten or thrown into something else. I have to be careful of the veggies. Not because we don't like certain things but because I need to know what they'll be used for. Otherwise they usually sit in the fridge and I've had to throw away too many things too many times. So now we plan ahead and I think about evening meals and how much work I want to do after work and what I'd like to bring in my lunch (tomato, cucumber, spinach...yum) each day. Each Sunday I make a fruit salad using a bunch of the fruit I bought. If its prepared and ready to go then Chris is more likely to actually take some to eat. Lately its been apples, berries, melon, and pears. This week we have cantaloupe, blueberries, blackberries, and grapes. Yum, Yum! And bananas, always there are bananas. Except last week they got away from us before we had a chance to eat them. I like them pre-ripe (green) best. In this house the only thing these are good for now is bread.

There is just over 3.5 cups in that bunch of bananas. Not quite enough for two loaves of bread but a lot more then enough for one loaf. So I made up a recipe for one that doesn't quite use all of it. If you search the internet for banana bread recipes there are a TON. All of them are probably yummy, but lots of them are really heavy on the fat and therefore dense and heavy and not so good for hot summer days. I like mine a little lighter. I'm sure if you look around on line you'll find a similar one to this too, because banana bread is so easy to design your own.

Summer Banana Bread

Ingredients
3 to 4 medium bananas (2.5 cups) well smashed
3/4 to 1 cup sugar (depends how sweet you want it)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (though truthfully I probably threw in two)
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
Milk Chocolate Chips or nuts or dried fruit (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Using a wooden spoon, mix baking soda into banana. Let sit for a minute or two. (The acid in the banana and the baking soda will react and help the bread to rise.) Mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle salt over the mixture and mix in. Mix in flour. I do a third at a time. Fold in chocolate chips or nuts if desired. Pour mixture into a well buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour and cool on a wire rack.

That left me with a cup of banana still. So I started searching for a recipe for ripe bananas that was just a little bit different. I turned to a blog I LOVE first. bread & honey. I've been following this blog for a while and have made many of her yummy recipes and every single one is absolutely delicious. I searched the tag banana and found a banana cookie recipe she had posted from Simply Recipes. I think why not? Sounds so good and they are good! You should totally try these. They've got a cake texture but taste like a banana muffin top and the chocolate and banana combo is excellent. I'm looking forward to trying some of her other banana recipes soon too, though I didn't buy bananas this week since we were going to have so many baked into breads.

Ooops...

2009-07-11T22:30:00.002-05:00

So when I was blocking the sunshine scarf I also blocked a present that I had knit in very early June. As you can see I was trying to disguise it just a little bit. The tragedy occurred when I was pulling on it to separate the lace I noticed a little issue.

Those two loops that are sitting there should be connected and not loose like that. Apparently I must have missed the loop when I was doing a k3tog. If this was for me I probably would have rigged it to stay the way its supposed to and called it done. Instead...

Fortunately its only a third of the present that needs re-knitting, but I knew I wouldn't be happy with it if I didn't do it the right way.

Ozzy says...

2009-07-10T19:54:00.001-05:00

Ozzy says please don't mind the small post today. His Mom was very very busy with changing her name in 6 million different places that you totally forget would even need to know you changed your name.

Reading (and Knitting)

2009-07-09T19:37:00.002-05:00

So I said I would talk about reading. Last weekend's reading (finished Monday) was this book, The Doctor's Wife by Elizabeth Brundage. This book is decent, not great. The cover says it is a psychological thriller. I really sort of missed that part. You could really easily follow what was going to happen and I think that takes some of the "psychological" part out of it. Also the pacing is very slow. It covers such topics as abortion, adultery, and religion, though frankly not in an unbiased sort of way. It really makes the anti-abortion, anti-adultery, pro-religion people seem like they are all psychopaths and fanatics. Which people on either side of those issues can say that simply isn't true. I think the characters really aren't deep and they aren't likeable at all, I couldn't relate to any of them at all, even the kids, but on the other hand I couldn't work up the desire to hate or despise any of them either. They are mostly just there because a story has to have characters. The plot is dated and not that original, or at least I've read pieces and parts of other books that sound quite a lot like this. Basically if you are really really pro-choice and you aren't turned off by adultery this book is a maybe read for you, but I can think of some others that I'd choose before this. I do think it is her first book so maybe future books will get some of her kinks out. I'd try her again. (The knitting here is Lavalette in Malabrigo Lace in Vetiver.)

Tuesday's reading (yes it only took a day) was Life of Pi by Yann Martel. READ THIS BOOK!!! I LOVED this book. Could not put it down. Seriously. Absolutely awesome, with just two cautions. The first is that section one of the book is somewhat slow moving and a bit tedious (for me this was the zoo parts that were more tedious, loved the religion parts). Suffer through that section though because its useful and section two, which started about 90 pages in, totally rocks. Well that actually brings me to my second caution, you sort of have to suspend disbelief. Take it all (every bit of the story) for what it is written as (fiction!) and the whole of it is really enjoyable and somewhat fun. Try to analyze too much or to try put into a real life perspective and it looses some of its magic to that disbelief. The good news is that if you reread section one after finishing the book you see the use of some of the lessons you get there. After section two is section three. I just want to say that this section rocks too. It humor wasn't lost on me and I appreciated it as a great ending. There is a reason this won the Man Booker Prize. I'm looking forward to reading this one again (probably a bit out loud to Chris) and finding the details I missed the first time around. (Knitting here is a socklet or maybe full sized sock I've cast on this evening because I have ~~some~~ many appointments tomorrow and socks will be easier then a shawl to stop in the middle of a row and toss in my bag.)

Please bear in mind with either of the two reviews above that your mileage may vary and you could love or hate these in an opposite way then me.

Wednesday and today I have been reading The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason. I'm about halfway through and I've holding my peace until I finish reading it.

Finally since I talked about my other knitting. The purple shawl is on pause. When I was gifted this awesome yarn there was a large skein and two very teeny skeins (of I think slightly thinner yarn?). I want to find and examine those two smaller balls before I decide to stop at the size it is or continue on using those other balls. The problem is that those were shoved in the closet in the craft room two weeks ago with everything else in the craft room so I could paint and redecorate. I have to finish painting so I can dig them out, but I got sick again after painting the first coat so its not done yet. This would be the reason I started the green one above. The color here is not that great, it was getting darkish in the room I'm in.

Don't pet the caterpillar!!

2009-07-08T07:30:00.004-05:00

Its been kind of nice so far this week. The finished project posts were all written on Sunday afternoon. I knew I wouldn't post them together but I thought I might as well write them while I was sitting their with pictures freshly in front of me. So the last two days I haven't really sat down much at all at the computer at night. I've been chilling with the dogs and reading. (Oh and knitting of course!)I'll discuss the reading bit tomorrow maybe. For now I'm distracted by this...

Megalopyge Opercularis

Its common name is Puss Caterpillar. It isn't as friendly as this fuzzy little guy looks. He's a little more then an inch long and a half inch wide. (No I didn't actually measure him...) He is a mean little dude too. I was sad to see several of them in our trees and on the fence. If you pick it up and/or touch it you'll discover that there are venomous spines tucked inside that silky looking hair. You'll also discover it the hard way because you don't have to rub or pet you only need to touch to get poisoned. The venom can cause extremely severe reactions, though not always severe there is basically always an awful (painful) reaction. Also they make large, extremely ugly moths when they grow up with the scary name "flannel" moth. I'm considering buying a small freezer for my stash but that would only help the unknit stuff. Hmmm... Let's talk about something else.

We have some of these. They worry me less.

This one is just a bumblebee. I haven't a clue the species, though it is pretty common for this area. We've seen a lot of these around as we have some really lovely flowering plants in the front garden. The one that he's on is a Lantana plant. These plants can really really grow too. You saw one in the yellow scarf picture. I think we have three and they are all about three feet across with the tallest buds about a foot up. They probably need a dead-heading because the berries that form when the buds die can be poisonous. Luckily no one around here eats them. Though its getting to the point we might not mind an armadillo chowing down on a few of them. Sorry don't have a picture of the armadillo. Ever since I hit him in the head with a can of green beans he doesn't stick around when I come around.

The neighbor's sunflowers are getting still taller. I think the highest (which is starting to fall over) is about 11 feet tall. The flower on the top of it is about 14 or 15 inches (9 or 10 inch center). This one is the next biggest and most of the day it faces our yard. Its about 8 inches across (4 or so inch center).

Brea Modification

2009-07-07T18:18:00.002-05:00

Pattern: Brea (my ravelry project)
Materials: 4.5 skeins Reynolds Whiskey in colorway 131. Held doubled.
Made for: me
Needle: US6 32" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 14 May 2009
Completion Date: 31 May 2009
Size: 10 round by 3 thick

I've always loved this pattern. I love the pretty petals and the flower formed from simple cables. So pretty. I've knit the bag before and I just knew I wouldn't use it, but its been in my mind to modify the pattern a bit so that I could knit it again in a way I might use. The original plan for the modification was to make a six sided pillow. The problem with that is the sheer size of such a pillow. Each of these is 10 inches. Can you imagine having a 10 inch six sided ball hanging around? Right. Little bit huge. One of these pillows is in my office at work to join my Trinity stitch pillow. They don't match in any way at all, but I think the combination is really cute anyway. The second and third pillow have been gifted to a friend for her birthday. She was going to be the recipient of the six sided pillow but I think she's happy with the two smaller pillows on her plain blue chairs in her office.

The mod I made is simple. I simply cast on enough stitches to make each side of the bag 6 sectioned instead of 4 sectioned to complete the flower motif. Simple as that. Then I just seamed the sides. I love how pretty the seam came out.

Pumpkin Spice

2009-07-06T07:17:00.001-05:00

This is another one of those boring posts where I flash a pair of plain socks and say "Look! Plain socks!" and no one really gets excited, but there you have it as they probably need to get posted. Also I went out to photograph these and its just about raining without raining and you totally get wet even though it isn't raining because there is SO much moisture in the air and I really really didn't want to put these on because Vesper yarn is more like sport weight and these are heavy and thick, but I forgot the blockers as I was trying to get out the door without the dogs following me and making me have to go catch them. The rain finally came this morning. Heavily pouring down, but sadly it went away quickly.

Pattern: My regular topdown socks only with a few less stitches and on bigger needles (my ravelry project)
Materials: .8 skein Knitterly Things Vesper Sock yarn in Pumpkin Spice. A present for me from Robyn.
Made for: me
Needle: US2.5 32" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 26 June 2009
Completion Date: 30 June 2009 (1 final project for June)
Size: 11m

And because I had a decent amount of yarn left I knit this cloth. I knit the pattern and then did the final garter border until I only had enough yarn to bind off left. I sort of wish it had been on bigger needles but they were the only ones on hand when I ran out of something to do.

Pattern: Free lace washcloth Pattern (my ravelry project)
Materials: .2 skein Knitterly Things Vesper Sock yarn in Pumpkin Spice. A present for me from Robyn.
Made for: me
Needle: US2.5 32" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 1 July 2009
Completion Date: 2 July 2009 (1 final project for June)
Size: 11m

Summer Sunshine*

2009-07-05T16:28:00.004-05:00

Pattern: Stolen from a scarf knit by Jocelyn of Knitting Linguist. She was kind enough to pass along the stitch. (my ravelry project)
Materials: 350 or so yards of Robyn's Nest Flock of Feathers Sock in the colorway YarnPig.
Made for: me
Needle: US6 32" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 16 May originally, frogged and restarted 5 June 2009
Completion Date: 12 June 2009 (I think...)
Size: 14x60 without fringe, 14x84 with Fringe

Notes: Jocelyn was kind enough to pass this stitch pattern along to me. I think I knit it up on smaller needles because my lace didn't open quite as much as hers. I'm really pleased with this bit of sunshine though. Its lovely and lightweight and it will make me quite happy when I go to wear a scarf again come October or November when the air at night is far cooler then the air of the day.

I really wanted a particular kind of fringing on this scarf. I wanted the same openness as the pattern and I love the pretty diamonds I've seen on other scarves so I cut up some of the remaining yarn I had and set about figuring out how to do this. I cut up a bunch of 36 inch long pieces to use as fringe. I folded two in half to attach as fringe for each three-quarter inch of the scarf width. Then I take two strands and tie them to two of the strands from the piece of fringe next to them. Repeating across and down gets a diamond pattern. I'm really pleased with it.

This is the scarf that I restarted three times. I frogged the first version because I couldn't figure out what needle I used. I had a vague remembrance of having changed the needle (so I could use it for the Brea mod - finished and a post is coming soon!). The needle I thought I used, the needle on the knitting, and the needle I indicated on my Ravelry page where not at all the same size. So I just decided to start over. So I recast on a BUNCH of stitches and knit what I thought was about a third of the skein, decided that I wasn't going to have enough yarn for the length I wanted, frogged, recast on again with about 2/3 the number of stitches. I got to the length I wanted just fine with about half left. Suppose the second cast on amount would have been fine as far as length.

In case you are missing things on Laci. Its the only picture I got on her where it looked decent. I think thats because she's still wearing her stupid outfit we put her in for the shawl photo. Really I think I need to work on her wardrobe some.

* This is ironic because its a cloudy rainy day today.

Fourth of July

2009-07-04T21:16:00.002-05:00

I forgot when I said yesterday that I would do the yellow scarf today that it was fourth of July and I needed to wish my country a Happy Birthday.

We had a nice relaxing day around here. Gus did a lot of this...

Look at those feet!!

Abby spent her time doing this...

I did this...

Most people that made suggestions seemed to suggest very similar shawls. I picked the Gaia Shoulder Hug. It was a difficult choice between all the suggestions but I'm really happy with how this is turning out.

Pretty Butterfly

2009-07-03T21:54:00.002-05:00

I was going to post the summer sunshine scarf tonight and it turns out that its 10PM and bedtime and I haven't gotten around to posting yet. So tomorrow because photos are done and everything. I just have to type it up. To hold you over, butterfly!

What to do?

2009-07-02T19:13:00.005-05:00

I started another shawl today. I was going to knit a fat Laminaria with some specific mods from this yarn below. Small problem though...

Its 500 or so yards of heavy fingerling to sport weight handspun. Totally gorgeous obviously. Spun for me by the wonderful Carla of More then One Way to Knit a Hat quite a while ago actually.

Also it was totally wrong with the pattern. Not so much anything wrong in particular just that it didn't look as gorgeous as I know it could. So my question as usual is do you have any suggestions for a lacy shawl with this yarn? I'm open to anything at all including pattern mods. I suppose it doesn't even have to be lacy or a shawl. Just looking for options.

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-01T19:29:00.002-05:00

To all my Canadian friends, Happy Canada Day!!!

Chris suggested that he would film me singing "Oh, Canada" but frankly you really really really don't want to hear that. I can sing along but it doesn't ever sound right when I sing alone. I give you a cupcake (knitted a while ago). This was a birthday present for my Mom right after I started knitting. Actually this was my first finished project. There were two. Its in her lovely china.

I've been thinking about the yellow scarf. I was going to go ahead and do a finished project post when I had the brilliant idea to add fringe. I'm going to see if I can figure that out later tonight. I'm excited but I don't really have a clue what I'm doing. I'd describe what I'd like to do to ask for advice but I just don't seem to have the words.

Chocolate

2009-06-30T05:30:00.002-05:00

Change of plans. Erica says this pattern I test knit has been released. Since the post was ready and I had no work to do to post it this morning...

Pattern: Toto's Tote from Erica at Dreams in Fiber (my ravelry project)
Materials: 198 yards Paton's Classic Wool Merino in a deep Chocolate. About a half yard each of two blue fabrics for lining.
Made for: me
Needle: US7 32" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: Knitting - 6 May 2009; Sewing - 16 May
Completion Date: Knitting - 7 May 2009; Sewing - 20 May
Size: Roughly 10w x 11h x 3d

Notes: I obviously didn't make any changes to the pattern since it was a test knit so seemingly this will be a boring section. It was a LOT of fun and super quick to knit.

Sewing up the lining only took a lot of time because I was making the tutorial for lining the bag. I think it could easily be adopted to work for other bags with similar shape too. It can be found here. This is a flickr set so don't worry about that popping up a PDF or something. The link can also be found in my sidebar now. Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions for clarification etc.

Oops. I did change one thing. I accidentally sewed the matching handle pieces together rather then then sewing an inner and an outer lining together. I didn't really notice it enough to care and its not affected how I feel about the bag. I really like it and I've already added it to my bag rotation and started carrying it around with me. I've been considering making another too, just because it was fun and I have another skein of this yarn.

Under the weather

2009-06-29T17:17:00.003-05:00

I was going to show off my finished (finally blocked!) yellow shawl, but today I am feeling a bit under the weather and don't feel like photographing it. So maybe tomorrow for that.

Ocean Gale

2009-06-28T18:51:00.003-05:00

There is a little of everything in this post...

Pattern: Gail by Nancy Bush (my ravelry project)
Materials: .81 skein of Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle. This is the very best photo of the color that I have. Very different from the cloud jungle that I used to knit Chris' Gentleman socks.

Made for: Me (maybe?)
Needle: US6 40" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 19 June 2009
Completion Date: 26 June 2009
Size: Scarf as opposed to shawl size. (Laci is very small...)

Notes: I only did 6 repeats instead of 7 because all of the Smooshy projects only had 6 repeats. I'm fairly certain that I could have gotten another repeat in. I'm not at all unhappy with this size though so I'm not going to worry about it. Otherwise I just followed the pattern as is until it was time to block it. I added a few extra points where I felt like it needed extra points. I really love this black and white of the design in the lace.

Now I need to discuss a small point on Laci's clothing. She's been dressed in basically underwear around the house. Chris has been experimenting with light or whatnot and he was responsible for her clothing. So she is hardly dressed at all. I needed clothes to take her outside and photograph the shawl. Well her stockings don't come off because he basically tore them when he put them on and it would be better not to adjust them and make them run. She's easier to dress if you can stick clothing over her head rather then removing her waist or worse her legs, so I slid her denim mini over her head. We needed a white shirt for her to model the shawl and really show it off. Well we couldn't find her white tee-shirt anywhere. So button down it was. So that leads to this outfit which is totally incongruent...

Also notice the sunflowers in the neighbors yard in front of her (tall things on the right). Those are the fastest growing sunflowers EVER. I swear they planted them as seedlings and three weeks later they were over 7 feet tall (now closer to 10). I've never seen them grow that fast and so Chris and I spent a couple of weeks speculating on what they really were because sunflowers don't grow THAT fast. Sure enough though they are sunflowers because they have those bright yellow flowers.

Speaking of crazy plants in the yard? The Hackberry trees (the source of our butterflies...) are covered in Hackberry gall psyllids. These are babies. They will come out into the world in September or October as a very very tiny bug that looks a bit like a cicada (locust). Annoying little buggers too. They make it difficult to let the dogs out at night because they want to get to the light.

Finally Abby enjoyed our playing outside to take photos of a shawl. We didn't stay out long. Too hot for her at over 100.

Flight of Fancy

2009-06-27T17:59:00.005-05:00

Pattern: Gentleman's Fancy Socks by Nancy Bush (my ravelry project)
Materials: 2 skeins Koigu KPPPM in New Mexico Wildflowers colorway I bought as a souvenir from my trip in February.
Made for: Me
Needle: US1.5 32" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 19 June 2009
Completion Date: 26 June 2009
Size: 11m

Notes: I think I probably changed the heel because the pattern wasn't available when I got there. Also I probably changed the toe for the same reason. There's a good chance I would knit these again. I love Nancy Bush patterns. I have several (all?) of her books. I think I'm getting tired of flashing socks up here and also tired of talking about them. I know Chris is tired of my knitting them. I'm considering that next month will be all about shawls or scarves and I'll skip the socks entirely? Maybe another set of washcloths for the car knitting? Who knows. I'm still working that out. In the mean time I have one more pair of socks that is about 2/3rds of the way through the first sock and just waiting for me to finish them. By the time those are done I guess I'll make a decision...

Oooo...Also I've been looking at cross-stitch projects. I totally love this by Lizzie Kate but I've not yet convinced myself to spend the $100 (including the shipping $$) it would cost to do it. I'm blaming Dee for this since she sent me over to the Spooky Stitches SAL and I saw it there. Maybe I should just finish some of the stuff in my cross-stitch stash (not very extensive...) before I jump in to buy something else...

Experiment (and a Thank you!)

2009-06-26T18:54:00.005-05:00

Someone suggested that I should try more difficult patterns to see if I was really knitting faster or if it was just that I was only knitting stocking stitch. So I decided that I needed to experiment with this idea. I should first say that I've had no more knitting time this week then any other week. Next week is another story because its a holiday week. Anyway, last Friday I cast on a pair of socks and a shawl. My usual knitting time for socks lately (stocking stitch socks) is four days. My shawl time usually a week or so. So how are those projects going eight days later?

The socks need only to have the second Kitchenered off. You can see the very small skeins of yarn I have left. They weigh just two grams. I actually thought I was going to run out and bought another skein (Koigu) from someone on Ravelry. That yarn isn't here yet, but apparently I'm not going to need it. I'll do a finished project post tomorrow and give you all the details.

The shawl is shown needing its bind off but I just finished that. I used nearly 8 grams of the yarn for the bind off. I was shocked about that. I have about the amount left of this yarn that I normally have done when I finish a pair of socks. More on this one maybe Sunday? I'm going to block it hopefully tonight. I'm going to try and block everything I haven't talked about yet this weekend. I need them to be finished!

So this is two skeins of sock yarn in eight days. I'm feeling that pattern might not matter in my knitting speed? Certainly the lace would be classified as at least an average difficulty pattern (according to Ravelry users who've done the pattern). And while the socks aren't incredibly complicated (I need something without a chart when I stop for trains...) they aren't just plain either.

Ok enough of that. I have a very cool new bag now. I was one of the winners of a recent contest on Cynthia's blog. She sent me one of her Green Couch tote bags. Oh my goodness isn't it just adorable? (See a close-up here.) I love it. Thank you so much Cynthia!!!

She also used this super cute tape on the package that has BIRDS!! I love it as much as the bag and I'm seriously considering cutting a little square to go in a frame for my craftroom...

More and More Stripes

2009-06-25T09:11:00.000-05:00

On a happy note (because of some posts from an old blog) this is blog post 800! On a boring note this is a post about more striped socks...

Pattern: More and More Stripes (my ravelry project) Same pattern as the hospital socks.
Materials: .9 skein ONline SuperSocke 100 Melange-Color 20568 (A prize from Robyn for a blog contest.)
Made for: Me
Needle: US1.5 40" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 14 June 2009
Completion Date: 18 June 2009
Size: 11m

These are just the same as the hospital socks, so not much to say here. I didn't bother to match up the stripes because there was an annoying number of knots in this skein so some stripes of the same color are shorter then others and I just figured it wasn't worth the trouble to try and match things up. Its not that far off until you look at the toes...

Two Small Projects with little words

2009-06-23T07:07:00.003-05:00

Water's Edge Cloth

Pattern: Wedding Washcloth (my ravelry project)
Materials: 1 Skein Yarn Chef Green Tea in the colorway Water's Edge.
Made for: me
Needle: US6 24" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 26 May 2009
Completion Date: 14 June 2009
Size: 10 x 10 after blocking
Notes: I just basically used the idea from the pattern and didn't really look at the pattern at all. Its soft and pretty though so I really like it.

:: :: :: :: ::

Kesäkämmekkäät

Pattern: Kesäkämmekkäät (my ravelry project)
Materials: .5 Skein Reynolds Whiskey
Made for: Laci
Needle: US4 24" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 12 June 2009
Completion Date: 12 June 2009
Size: Laci Sized
Notes: Thought these were cute and would look nice on Laci. Decided to knit them. I didn't make any changes.

Don't forget to sign up for the sock swap!!!

Single Sock Swap

2009-06-23T06:57:00.004-05:00

(This is another interruption to my finished objects parade, but its such good fun...)

Last October I participated in Robyn's single socks swap knitting a very cute sock for Bertha and receiving one for myself! This is the one I sent to Bertha. The pattern is Jenny Wren.

Well Robyn is hosting this swap again! Right now is the time to sign up if your interested. You don't even have to suffer from second sock syndrome. I don't but I do love receiving hand knit items so this is perfect! Here are the details pilfered from the Ravelry group...

Single Sock Swap :: Round 2!

Sign-ups: June 1st, 2009 until June 30th, 2009
Requirements:

You have two months to knit 1 full size adult sock in your pal’s size. It shouldn't take you that long, but its nice to have the window in case something else comes up...
The yarn cannot contain acrylic in it and must cost between US$15 and US$25 and the sock pattern must cost between US$5 and US$10. This amount does not include postage. You can spend more if you like but its up to you. [Note from Bea - I don't see any reason why the yarn can't be "bought" from your stash if you have nice yarn in the right colors for your pal. Just make sure it meets the $ requirements as far as value.]
Your pal will let you know what colors they absolutely love and what colors they totally hate.
You can send extra goodies in your package when you mail your swap to your pal if you’d like, but it’s not required.
Once finished you will mail the sock, the pattern (or a digital copy is always nice...), and the remaining yarn to your pal so they can knit their second sock.

This swap is for those who get Second Sock Syndrome or who just want to knit a sock for someone else and receive one back in the mail!

To sign up just email your information to Robyn: sockswap@robynsnest.ca after June 1st, 2009 and before June 30th, 2009.

Info to include in your email:

your name
mailing address
email address
your blog address
your ravelry id
your fave colors
your most hated colors
a list of any sock patterns you’ve been meaning to knit for yourself
a little something about yourself (Basically I said I'm 30, recently married, with two dogs and two cats. Easy peasy to fill that info in.)
Whether you are willing to ship internationally
The sock/shoe size you wear (as well as the length of the bottom of your foot, the circumference around your foot at the widest part as well as the measurement of your calf.)
Preferences for heel type, number of stitches you generally use for knitting socks, and any other information that you think your pal might find helpful.

Finally Robyn says: If you cannot commit yourself, please DON’T sign up then. This swap is not secret, and you are required to contact your pal within 72 hours of pal matches going out. If you have any questions for them at all, this is the time to ask them!

I do hope at least some of you decide to sign up! This swap was fun last time and a great way to get to know some other people.

PDF Ready for Download

2009-06-22T08:33:00.005-05:00

I've added the PDF to my Bamboo Socks Ravelry Page. Its now downloadable! YAY!

The only thing is that the pattern hasn't been test knit. If anyone decides to knit it please let me know if you find any errors or see anything fishy about it.

Small Wonder

2009-06-21T19:11:00.002-05:00

I have a bunch of finished projects to show from May and June. Stuff that was either blocking during my surgery and never got shown or stuff recently finished. My blocking boards came yesterday so I'll be able to finally block the stuff I haven't shown because I was waiting for those. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll have time to start that. In the mean time we have these that don't need blocking on the boards.

Pattern: Shalom (my ravelry project)
Materials: 1 skein Poppy Fields handspun by me
Made for: The Big Pink Pig
Needle: US7 32" Addi Turbo Circular
Start Date: 24 May 2009
Completion Date: 26 May 2009
Size: Just right for a Big Pink Pig

You know I knit this so long ago I can't even remember all the adjustments I made to the pattern. I used worsted instead of bulky. I'm pretty sure I didn't knit as many rows of garter to start off. Also I knit one less repeat for the yoke and for each repeat I knit fewer rows. I knit a lot less length for the body obviously as this pig isn't that tall. Also I think I knit few rows at the bottom garter stitch section.

Chris' New Ride

2009-06-20T12:58:00.011-05:00

Chris' lease expires in early August and we knew we didn't want to keep that car or get another like it. So he's spent the last several months looking for a new car that was as manly and cool as he wanted. And now, from the man who famously stated to anyone and everyone "I will never buy an American car," may I present the Camaro.

He wanted me to show a picture of the engine. Obviously I'm not as interested in that as him. Apparently these take like 6 months to get if you order them. Someone else ordered this one and the deal fell through so the dealer called Chris and we went over and snatched it up today. The dogs enjoyed inspecting it. Harnesses and leashes are just for show around here. Finally Abby is not running off when you aren't holding on to her. We've had a bit of trouble with that when she's being too crazy.

I'm editing to add some good dog photos from Chris. He loaded a bunch more photos onto my flickr account. Mostly I think so his Mom could see the car. Love this photo of Gus.

Abby on her fourth or fifth trip around the car. She was trying to figure out how to get in.

In the first shot at the top Gus is sitting in Chris' lap, Abby is walking by, and I am standing behind them all. This is Chris' view just a few seconds later. Also known as Gus sitting in his favorite seat.