Ready for cast on ~

Now I've wound all this lovely yarn, I'm ready to cast on socks for the daughter that rocks (although both daughters rock, only one has posted that fact on the front of my blog).

The colors are such fun, and this yarn is oh-so-soft, a mix of alpaca, wool and silk... ahhhhh, can't wait to cast on!

I'll keep you posted... now, do the stripes alternate by each foot ~ as in the left foot starts with a green toe, the right foot with a purple toe?

Braces off ~

Big day yesterday, as the "daughter that rocks" had her braces off. Very cool, indeed.

Also cool, is that I was able to begin knitting the leg of the alpaca/silk socks while waiting for her at the orthodontist office. I'm using the pattern from my Box of Socks and it is looking good so far!

This yarn continues to amaze me with its softness and peaceful colors ~ I love this yarn! Daughter is pretty amazing too!

From the balcony ~

While I was beginning the knitting on the ribbing of my barfly sweater, I heard some shouts and saw some arms waving. This is the darling site I spied from my balcony.

The girls with Ladybird and Doc.... a lovely site to ponder while knitting a sweater!

Just desserts ~

Today we had another fund raiser for the Youth Group Mission Trip (this is our third, counting the tie dye). A spaghetti lunch and a dessert auction.


We baked and baked, plus the girls made their famous caramel corn. My sister also baked and baked - fresh strawberry pie, and Oreo cupcakes - yum!

The dessert auction made almost $300 and the total lunch and dessert made over $1,200!

Oh, deer ~

While driving home from work, this is what I saw walking toward me, down the hill.

A mama and her two babies, and they still had spots! I was proud of the drivers who all stopped until the deer all were safely off the roadway.

Ready for ribs ~

I measured the length of my Barfly sweater today, while the sun was shining. I was hoping that the knit knit knit part of the body could now become the ribbing. I took the stitches off the circular needle and put them on waste yarn so I could try on the sweater. There are still circular needles in each of the sleeves... (cute, eh?)

It does appear long enough, and ready for the rib stitches to begin ~ very exciting!

I still love this yarn, the softness and heathery greens. I'm getting excited to finish it ~ just in time for summer weather!

Tea with Claudia ~

The yarn I'm using for my Birthday socks is Tropicana, by Claudia Hand Painted Yarns that I bought at Sock Summit. I love the colors and the yarn is soft with a great twist. When Webs had a sale on this yarn, I couldn't help myself.


I bought two colorways.


Cotton Candy (above) in pinks, peaches, yellows and greens.... oh so lovely...



Circus Dancer (above) in oranges, blues, greens and all bright happy colors... oh so fun.... not sure which one I'll cast on first....they are both so beautiful!~~

Next socks ~

My daughter has been having a run of bad luck with the socks I've knit for her. She wears them so much that she's wearing out the heels of several pair. I've darned a few of them, and have one more pair to darn. She says she's "down to her last pair" with no holes (except for the new Harry Potter socks) so I need to cast on another pair for her.

She's picked out these colors for that next pair.

Alpaca, wool and silk yarn, on sale at Webs.... so soft and beautiful... They will be such fun to knit!

~

Fine time for heels ~

I have been waiting to find time to turn the heels on my lovely alpaca-silk socks. I cast on this socks during the Sock Summit, although I'd purchased the yarn the year before. The yarn is lovely, and I've wanted to turn the heels for weeks, but couldn't find the time to sit with my Queen Kahuna book to knit the no-fail heel.


Today I did - once the car wash preparations were complete (and successful) I had the afternoon of Father's Day to finish turning the heels.


It feels so good to be on the next step of these socks!
~~

Father's Day ~

After the car wash, we had a lovely lunch to celebrate Father's Day and the successful car wash.

A yummy meal and great family, plus we were warm and dry!

~

Car Wash Fun ~

We had a blast working at the church youth group car wash today, in the spritzing rain ~ saved us the step of drying the newly clean cars!!!

The cars should be dry by next week with the weather we've been having!

The kids were great - hard workers and super fun! The youth group made $588.00 for their mission trip to fix hurricane damaged homes in Texas this summer. Now that the car wash was successful, I can concentrate on knitting again!
~

Son of Beast ~

The JitteryKnitter has started a new project for a lucky nephew. You may remember a previous project of hers that we lovingly called, "The Beast" that was made of...dare I say it... acrylic yarn.... well, she has another nephew starting graduate school, so she's decided to knit him a blanket out of all her scraps of "not so bad acrylic" and she's knitting it (wait for it) in the round....yup, double thickness, twice-as-many-stitches......on (take a breath) size 9 needles (not even 10s.....)


Of course I had to intervene, for the sanity of all of us... after getting the tangles out of most of the yarn, and checking out the few inches she has already knit, I realized what a BIG project this will be...


it is good that we have all summer....I'm thinking about a stripe theme....
~~~

Back to Birthday Socks ~

I am glad to be working on my Birthday Socks (2009) again, as I need to turn the heel on my alpaca socks...so that will take some concentration and checking with my Queen Kahuna instructions...so I have my Birthday Socks in the car as my "mindless knitting" project while waiting in line, or car trips... the yarn is the amazing Tropicana Claudia Handpaints that I scored at the Sock Summit. Also, this yarn is currently on sale at Webs....SCORE!!!


Even if JitteryKnitter does not LOVE this color, I think it is such a happy and wonderful color, plus the yarn is so soft and the twist is great. Double thumbs up for Claudia Handpaints!



Hurrah!
~~~~

Knit in Public ~

Today is world wide knit in public. Since today was also the first day in a long time that it wasn't raining here, I spent the day in the garden.

At 6:00 PM I figured I'd taken advantage of the great weather in the garden, and rewarded myself by celebrating, "world wide knit outside day"...by knitting on the Barfly sweater, which is at the slogging point of around-the-middle-stockinette....

Knitting outside ~ that works for me!!!
~~~~

Tie Dye Adventure ~

We had a blast tie dying 100 T-shirts and a few wee onesies this past weekend. Our church youth group is making them for a fundraiser to help fund the kids going to Texas to work on homes that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. I brought home about 30 of the dyed shirts to wash out, and found a treasure of pattern and color as I unfolded each one while rinsing out the extra dye.

I had such fun hanging them on our clothes line and enjoying the beauty of them!

Plus the rain held off long enough to take these pictures!!!

~~~

Time to block ~

I've finished the Multnomah Shawl for my mum, and it turned out to be very lovely. It was a fun knit, and not difficult at all. I ran out of yarn before the ripple "4 rows 10 times" was complete, but I think it is still big enough to be warm enough for my mum. She did request a shawl specifically for warmth.

I should be getting my blocking boards on Sunday, so perhaps I'll get to block it soon.

It really turned out sweet!

~~~

Vim for next year?

The news flash that Tom Izzo may leave Michigan State's basketball coaching job for Cleveland has me very distressed....

Say it isn't so!!!!!

Slogging Stockinette ~

This is the toughest part of any project ~ the slogging of the stockinette, round and round, no cables, no decreases, no increases, no purling, no pattern... just knit knit knit knit knit knit until it seems that one is being hypnotised into a stupor....


That is where I am on the barfly sweater.....I guess I am making progress.....sort of.... (I must be, right?)
~~~~

New iPhone and camera ~

Today was a super exciting day, as I finally bought an iPhone. While waiting at the Apple Store, I pulled up all my knitting blogs (like this one :) ) on the iPads that we were all playing with, and even went on Ravelry. Very cool computers that interface with knitting!

Since my oldest daughter is better at technology than I am, she immediately wanted to try out the camera so that I'd have a "perfect" screen wallpaper for my new iPhone. So she took a basket of my yarn out to the chicken coup and had a photo shoot.

Of course, Shadow had to get into the fun as well...

~~~~~