Did I mention there are FO's?

When it's rainy and the apartment is super dark you do silly things with pillow cases.
Somewhat cowl turned into a not really cowl and new shoes to complete the outfit. Modeled shots to come when weather permits.

Christmas sock production or how to turn your hobby into a second job. But you can't really blame family for taking a liking to knitted socks, you know. Status -black pair complete, brown pair down to heel flap of 2nd sock, green pair only has pattern picked out. (Lacey Pillars in Smooshy black parade, Classic socks, in Shibui in rust, Euphorbia to make elfine socks)


A new dessert, Chocolate Meringue Tart from cook book Chocolate Epiphany. Oh yes it is that good because there is an indecent amount of butter and heavy cream in there.

I swear I was knitting the whole time

I'd like to blame my husband addiction to the Phillies fan message board for not posting recently (the Phillies didn't clinch the division title until yesterday and there is only one computer in the house) but the truth is that I've been cranky. So cranky I was didn't even feel like communicating even in an electronic way.

Fortunately the hormones are at a much more even keel today and Christine of Too Much Yarn give me a nice little push by awarding my blog an Arte y Pico. Thanks Christine my fellow sock yarn addict, you've made my day!
Here are the rules:
1. Link to the site that give you the Arte y Pico.
2. Pick 5 blogs that you feel have interesting material, creativity, content and link to them.
3. Leave comments on these blogs so that they know they have been awarded.
4. Link to the Arte y Pico blog.
5. Show these rules.
Time to pay it forward as they say and post my own award winning blog pics.
Ysolda is not only a talented young designer, but often inspires me with her photographs of items around her house or places she's visited. I want to be her when I grow up.

Emily of the Family Trunk Project is designing garments inspired by members of her family. Not only are the designs lovely, reading about the history that goes along with each one is just as enjoyable. For another excellent read check about the "interview" she did with Ysolda here.

A new to me blog is Ashley of doggedknits who's forays into quilting might just inspire me to use up some of the huge box of cotton from my grandmother's stash. She also has that talent of taking beautiful picture of everything that I'm in awe of.

Glenna of Knitting to stay sane has mad skillz in the colorwork that make me say "I'm not worthy". Her Garnet Venezia still makes me drool a bit when looking at her project page. Not to mention she has some lovely designs that will be knit someday!

Not a knitting blog but one that I find very enjoyable is Farmgirlfare. Full of recipes, cute pictures of farm animals and gardening stories/advice, Susan is living my personal dream of living on her own farm. Don't know where she finds the time but she also has a gardening blog and a bread baking blog. Yummmm

Come on Baby and Kiss that Frog

It’s obvious that I have a thing for frogs. It’s not clear when the “obsession” started but it does predispose me to liking certain things. Liking things like these; Kiss that Frog mittens! I have to thank one of my Ravelry friends, shamroxann for queuing them. They showed up on my friend activity and they immediately became something that must be knitted NOW! (Isn’t the friend activity view the best thing ever)

No modifications other than having to sub a fingering yarn for worsted since I’m “loose knitter” from having kissed the blog frog too much. Both yarns are Hazel knit’s Artisan sock, main color Baroness and contrast color Euphorbia.

Shamroxann queued these this week Bunny and Frog mittens. hee heee

The most ironic yarn I own

OK here's a little story for you because it's funny, not haa haa funny more like ewwww funny.
1.Knitter finds somewhat cowl pattern and falls in love with it. Orders alpaca silk kit and some extra yarn from kpixie.
2. Knitter knits body of sweater, decides neckline should be higher, frogs and reknits, repeat.
3. Knitter throws half completed sweater in corner to hide it from site.
4. Knitter decides week before Xmas that everyone must have knitted gift! No time to order so some of the alpaca silk is used for grandma's scarf. Thinks this will probably bite her in the a** at some point but there are no other options.
5. Early summer knitter decides to frog or complete every half finished project hidden in corners of rooms. After trying on the somewhat cowl she decided the raglan line needs to be shorter and rips back again.
6. Things go smoothly but knitter runs out of yarn before sweater is done. Decides to go order from yarn garden because they also have tempting sublime yarns. Places order for sublime extra fine merino and some alpaca silk. It is mid July.
7. Yarn store emails saying, "Sorry the sublime is out of stock but we think it will be in next week." Knitter decides this is acceptable and does not cancel the order.
8. Time passes and fickle knitter moves on to other projects not thinking about somewhat cowl which is hidden under a pile of magazines.
9. A month later a box from yarn garden appears on stoop and knitter remembers order. Thinks "Cool I can finish that sweater now" but when the box is open there is only sublime yarn.
10. Knitter looks on receipt and sees that she has not been charged for alpaca silk. She figures the sublime took longer than expected to arrive at the yarn store and they just forgot. She chuckles to herself that she was greedy to get the sublime yarn and this is what happens.
11. Labor day the knitter decides to order that alpaca silk from webs since she is buying lots of other yarn.
12. Today knitter comes home to find an inexplicable package of alpaca silk from yarn garden on the porch. Isn't it ironic, don't you think? :)


The all American socks are all done, now if it would just get cool!

So what did you knit during your vacation?

It's the last day of vacation (sniff sniff) and it has been very enjoyable. Not only is my shower sparking white, but knitting output has been fabulous. Really that's all I want in a vacation a chance to knit while watching movies and one big massive cleaning day to make me feel all virtuous. Throw in being able to make cookies in the middle of the day and you've got gold. Mmmm........ chocolate chip.

Between baking cookies and riding roller coasters here is what's come off my needles recently.
The all American sock is well on it's way to becoming a pair. Yarn is Pigeon Roof Studio's fingering in color Bohemian. Since Pigeon Roof Studio sells her skeins in smaller sizes I knit these toe up. It turned out that there was plenty of yarn for a plain knit in round sock like this.



Next is the mitten pattern that made me take the color work plunge, Kiss that frog mittens. The designer has much tighter tension then I do, so instead of worsted these are knit in Hazel Knit's Artisan sock. In person you'd be able to see that my floats aren't always long enough and other tension problems. My inner 5 old is happy and wants me to start on the left one right away.

Top






























Bottom hee hee frog (Color better in this shot, background is Baroness, Frog Euphorbia.)

Finally something that is not part of a pair; a hat for myself. Some preblock shots of the Bousta beret knit in Sublime Angora Merino color 0044. Love love love this beret so much that it's inspired me to knit some of Ysolda's beret patterns that have been on the back burner for awhile. Right now Gretel might be the first one in the queue. To bad I was "good" and didn't buy that teal Ultra Alpaca at Yarn Love up in the Hershey area. A great store, but if you want to visit mapquest it since it's a bit tricky to find.

Hershey Gardens FO Edition

Even though it was gray and a bit rainy DH and I had a very enjoyable time exploring Hershey Gardens. I'm really impressed with their children's section which had lots of whimsical things for kids mixed with very beautiful and elegant plantings. The overall impression was that it was a fun area that wasn't the least bit dumbed down. Who ever designed it gets a big gold star.
Knowing that we would be visiting the gardens I'd gotten off my butt and finished sewing buttons on the tangled yoke and blocking Liesl earlier in the week. Both sweaters were then ready for their long awaited FO shots. My DH was kind enough to be my photographer again and caught some of the best sweater shots when I was unawares. Tangled yoke photos were taken in the children's garden, mostly in the butterfly house.





















It might have been gray but my vamperic eyes still thought it was too bright.





Evidently classifying butterflies is hard enough that you have to mutter to yourself.





















And a nice back shot. The tangled yoke was knit in Rowan felted tweed, color gilt. Size 34 shown on model with 36" bust. The sweater actually blocked out to almost 35." You probably don't remember that I was grousing about the sleeve width way back here. My modification was to cast on 47 stitches and then increase half haphazardly until the sleeve was the prescribed 73 stitches right before it was joined to the sweater body. The rest of the sweater is modification free.

Liesl and I had a lot of problems during knitting (all the knitters fault) but the finished product was worth it. The specifics of the sweater; yarn Sundara aran silky merino in Charcoal over blue lagoon, size 38 on 36" bust.
















You can see that using this yarn makes a smaller sized sweater which was fine for my tastes but might not be for you.























Instead of buttons Liesl is closed with a rhinestone pin from my collection. (Think the pin was a ebay purchase years ago)

Vacation knitting

Knitting and vacations go together like peas and carrots.... for example your DH says he wants to go to see the Reading Phillies play a minor league baseball game. No problem, you bring a plain knit in the round sock and suddenly it doesn't matter that the pitchers pitch as many balls as strikes.
DH got some action knitting shots...

then provided little loopy with a good seat. We all thought it was funny that the starting pitcher's last name was Bastardo. (Many bad jokes were made)





















After the R-Phils were victorious we enjoyed a very good fireworks display.

The next day we went to Hershey park and rode all the roller coasters until we couldn't stand up straight. The lines were pretty good but the sock came in handy on the newest coaster with an hour wait. As you can see it's much bigger now.

On the last day in the area we went to Hershey gardens, which were so interesting that the sock did not come out of the bag. The gardens did provide a lovely backdrop for some of my finished knits which will appear on the blog soon. Here's a little teaser.