Yeah, I kinda took a year off from blogging. I just decided recently that I want to start blogging again, so I’m going to. What have I been up to in the past year? Well, Mike and I have been busy starting our life together, working on remodeling our condo, no, it’s not done yet. We adopted 3 amazing cats, Stuart, Oliver and little Nigel. Yes, I will post photos soon. I’ve been knitting, not as much as I used to, I’ve developed arthritis in my thumbs and tendonitis in my elbow. Yes, I will post photos of that soon as well. I still make coffee and I’ve been teaching a lot of yoga lately. So what have all my readers been up to in the past year?
I decided to participate in the Ravelympics, Ravelry’s version of Olympic competition. The goal is to start and finish a project between the opening ceremonies and the end of the Olympics. I am participating in the Sock Put (really, what else did you think I would do). I decided to make a pair of socks for Mike. He picked out the yarn a while back. It is Lane Cervinia Forever Jacquard. I am making them cuff down using the magic loop. Here is my progress so far:
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I am pleased that I have as much done as I do. I am competing for Team Indiana. Hopefully, I will be able to keep up the pace. I won’t get too much done this afternoon, I am headed off to the State Fair. Mmmmm…Grilled Cheese, I can hardly wait!!!
I have been wanting to write this post for so long, I just didn’t think the time was right, or I couldn’t find the right words. I think I am finally ready to let everyone know what is going on with me this Summer and why I haven’t been posting very often. I am in the process of getting divorced. Carl and I were together for 20 years and our parting was absolutely as amicable as these things can be. I wish nothing but happiness and peace in his future. He has had as much stress this Summer as one person could possibly handle and I hate it that I was a part of that, but sometimes in life we don’t get to choose the timing of these type of things. I am in a new relationship with the most wonderful man. His name is Mike and we are in the process of building our new life together. I am so very happy and many of my health issues have resolved themselves (I am sleeping now!!!). We are in the process of remodeling our new condo and that takes up much of my free time. But I have been able to squeeze in some knitting and I actually have photos to share with you.
Here is the first finished Hemp Lace sock.
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And the first finished Tofutsies sock.
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Their mates have all been started, but not really enough progress to show you on those. As I said in my last post, I have a horrible case of startitis. My Four Seasons Afghan is underway.
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I also purchased the rest of the yarn for the other squares. You may notice there is one bright red square, I’m not too sure about it. I may have to do something else.
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What I have been working on the most lately is the new Argosy Baby Blanket for my friend’s Jason and Beth. I am using the Blue Sky Organic Cotton yarn. Cotton is sprayed heavily with pesticides during the growing process, so I like that this yarn is organic since is going to be wrapping up such a precious package. I have been knitting on it almost exclusively. I am almost halfway done.
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Filed under: Knitting
And I’m still knitting, but not much. Ridiculously busy these days. I did finish one of the hemp lace socks and one of the Tofutsies. Photos to come some time in the near future. I also ordered all of the colors for the Four Seasons Afghan. I have a horrible case of startitis, I decided I’m going to make a Argosy baby blanket for my friends Jason and Beth’s new arrival due at Thanksgiving. I’m going to use Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton. I’m also going to make socks for my sister and sister in law for Christmas, I’m trying to plan ahead to avoid panic knitting in November. Hope all of my readers haven’t given up on me completely and hope everyone is doing well.
Filed under: Knitting
I have been doing some sock knitting since I posted last. I finished the Tempted Socks. They were knit with Tempted yarn in the Paris colorway on Harmony Knitpicks double circular needles size 0 (2.0 mm). Here is a photo of the final product.
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The two socks are fraternal twins as the color pooling didn’t match on the two socks at all. I’m totally okay with that. Yesterday, I started working again on the hemp lace socks. Here is a photo of that sock in progress.
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I don’t know what it is about this sock. When I’m knitting on it, I kinda like it. I really like the pattern and then when I put it down, it is the last thing in the world I want to knit on. Weird. I also started what I call my “purse sock”, just a plain stockinette sock that I can work on anywhere. I am using the Tofusties yarn that has crab and shrimp shells mixed in. They are naturally antibacterial. It is also not a hot sticky wool yarn, perfect for knitting out and about in the summertime. I forgot to take a photo, sorry. The colors are very bright and sunny and are striping very nicely, pattern would probably get lost in all that color anyways. My main distraction lately has been swatching for my Four Seasons Throw. I made this before using Manos del Uruguay. This time I want to make it using a washable yarn for more practicality. I started with two skeins of Knitpicks Swish Superwash Merino. The blocks are knitting up smaller, so I am going to add 4 blocks to the overall throw. Here is what it looks like so far.
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The yarn is very soft and so nice to knit with. Now I just have to choose 14 more colors.
Life is really busy lately. My days seem full from beginning to end. I’m not really complaining, I just don’t understand how the days go by so quickly. I was able to finish the Father’s Day sock before leaving to see my Dad. Here are the completed pair and I didn’t even have to Kitchner stitch the toe together in the car.
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I worked on the second Tempted Paris sock on the drive over and back instead. Here is sock #2. Not my best photo, but I am done with the heel, and am working on the leg.
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So to celebrate my productiveness (is that even a word?), I’ve been on a little yarn buying binge lately. One of the LYS was having a summer sale, so I picked up a few things.
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Sorry about the bright orange backdrop, I’ll try to get something a little more neutral next time. I also ordered some Numma Numma and some sock blockers from The Loopy Ewe.
I’m going to take a small break from the SoS to make the boys some catnip mice, their 3rd Adoption day birthday is next Monday. Happy Adoption Day Simon and Oscar!!!
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Filed under: Knitting
Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and the beginning of the Summer of Socks. I’ve decided that I am going to work on finishing up all of my current projects before starting anything new for the SoS. First up are the socks I’m working on for my Dad. These are a Father’s day present, I had to work last Sunday, so I am planning on going to celebrate with him tomorrow. I am working in the foot of sock 2, and am fairly confident I can get them finished today. I hope! Next up will be the Tempted yarn Paris socks and then the dreaded hemp socks, remember them? I barely do. They have been languishing in the bottom of my knitting bag for a long time now. I really want to be done with them. Not that I’m very good lately, but I will try to keep you more up to date with my SoS progress. And by the way, all I can think about lately is knitting afghans. Weird when it’s so hot outside, isn’t it?!? Enjoy the longest day of the year!
Filed under: Knitting
Starting on June 21st is the Summer of Socks 2008. I pretty much live the Summer of Socks all year round. I currently have 3 pair on the needles. The first priority is my Regia Father’s Day Socks. Here is the first one completed.
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I’ve started the second one, but it is not big enough yet to show you any progress. I’m not actually going to get to celebrate Father’s Day with my Dad for a couple of weekends, so I have time.
I also wanted to show you my Tempted Yarns Paris Socks. One is done and the other one is midway through the foot.
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You can really see the color pooling in that photo. Again, I like it, but I know a lot of people don’t dig it.
So for the Summer of Socks I’ve been trying to decide what to do. Last Summer I concentrated on learning new sock techniques. I did color work, learned about two circulars, lots of pattern work. I’m thinking this year I may do some karma knitting and work on socks to give away to charity. Are you participating in the Summer of Socks? What are you going to work on if you are? I’d love to hear your ideas.
I know it has been a long time since my last post. I have been going through some serious personal upheaval lately. Please bear with me while I deal with my issues. I have been doing some knitting so I thought I would share a quick update with you. I finished the first Tempted sock. I really liked the way the colors pooled. I don’t think everyone would. I will have pictures soon. I’m pretty sure that they are grey and blue. I also decided to start some socks for my Dad for Father’s Day. I’m using some Regia that I got from the Loopy Ewe. I’m using a garter rib pattern. I quickly realized that the 2 skeins that I had were not going to be enough yarn, so I emailed the Loopy Ewe to see if I could get some more. Sheri totally took care of me and the socks will be able to be finished in time for Father’s day. I LOVE the Loopy Ewe so much, it is by far the best online store I have ever dealt with and I will only buy my sock yarn from them in the future. A special thank you to all my friends and family who have been so supportive in the past couple of weeks. It means more to me than I can ever express in words. I will get through this transitional time and the future is so bright. I love you all!
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was trying to “go green”. This has been a far more challenging project than I could have ever imagined. Almost all of the products that I use for skin care/beauty have Parabens in them, which has been found in breast cancer tumors. So just trying to become Paraben free has involved much research and trips to many different stores. Some good sources of Paraben free skin care include Whole Foods (formerly Wild Oats). They care a limited amount of skin care/beauty items and I think they are all pretty much Paraben free. L’Occitaine is another wonderful line that doesn’t add a lot of extra chemicals to their products. Origins also is a great source. Just reading the labels on products has been quite the eye opener.
Onto knitting, I finished the Coffee Shop Socks. I simply can not convey how much I enjoyed knitting with the Numma Numma Baby Boo yarn. It was a joy to knit with so soft and silky. I will be ordering more when it comes back in stock at The Loopy Ewe. Here is the finished product.
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I used Wendy Knits Frog Warts pattern and knit them on my Harmony Size 0 double circulars. I really liked everything about this project.
I started my Tempted Socks. When I started out I was going to use the Bavarian Rock Star Sock Pattern. I quickly realized that this was way too complicated to be a traveling sock pattern and it just really didn’t look very good on such darkly colored socks. I started again with just a garter rib pattern and then realized that the colorwork is the star of these socks and they should be just plain. Here is the first one so far.
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Here is a close up of the colors. I still have not decided if the dark is navy or black. Too close to tell in my opinion.<a href=”http://
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They are moving along quite quickly.
I was glad Kristie won DWTS last night. I think I picked her at the very beginning to win. I don’t know who is going to take home the Idol tonight. If you’d ask me before last night’s show, I would have said David C. for sure, but the format of that show really played into David A.’s strength’s. Big ballad singers have the edge on those kinds of shows. I really don’t know who is going to win.
I have some quick photos of the boys because their fans have been clamoring for them. Here is Simon checking out my photos of the Tempted Socks.
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And Oscar being shy?
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I have a new music alert for you all. The artist’s name is Duffy and the CD is called Rockferry. We are carrying the CD at the coffeeshop and we had a free download of her video “Mercy”. I really like the CD. Our information compared her to Amy Winehouse, I don’t really agree with that, no one is as dark as Amy Winehouse. It sounds very retro, like 60’s soul. If you like female pop singers, check it out.
And finally, thank you so much for all of your kind words and deeds regarding DHC’s brother. It meant so much to both me and Carl. We are very fortunate to have such kind and thoughtful friends.
Everyone have a fun and safe race weekend.
