Saturday, March 25, 2006

What I've been up to...

No good as usual!!
First here is a pic of the Sockapalooza socks...Gull Wing Socks Do you like them pal? That's if you figured out if they are for you! I'm about halfway through the foot so hopefully done early next week.

I've been doing some Amazon purchases for my dyeing experiments this summer...Dye Books Wild Color is really great. A thorough break down of plants, mordants and what to expect. The Dyer's Companion is basically the dyer's version of Knitter's Companion, a nice handy reference guide. I'd recommend both.

I also went by Yarn Studio last week. No yarn purchases, I have enough projects lined up. I did, however, take the time to peruse their pattern books...Image hosting by Photobucket I've been wanting the Mission Falls, In Living Colour, book for a while and it just snowballed from there. I picked up mostly some purse patterns for this summer's projects. Summer in Memphis is like a sauna to say the least. So I thought some smaller projects were in order. I couldn't resist the cable sock pattern. I also couldn't resist the fair Isle hat pattern to expand my skills. I've been itching to try more since learning how to do the felted slippers.

Garden update- Image hosting by Photobucket So now you get a rough idea of the size of the garden. If you read my plans from my earlier post, you'll see that my ideas are still laughable and that's why all dye plants are going in containers. THERE'S NO ROOM!!! If anyone has had any experience growing indigo, woad, or cotton in a container I'd love to hear from you! So today, hubby and I are adding more dirt and peat to finish prepping and the I finally get to plant in about 3 days. Yipee!!!Image hosting by Photobucket

Monday, March 20, 2006

Too many projects, too little time

The cat's away again, he's off to San Diego this week. So now is as good a time as any to organize all my projects and perfect my wide eyed innocent look, while declaiming, "No, honestly, we really did move that yarn from Virginia Beach. It's not new." Man, I really need to go to confession this Lent.

Ok so the current project list...
1. Finish gull wing socks for Sockapalooza-u finished heel on 2nd sock, currently turning.
2. Finish jaywalkers- on 2nd leg
3. Hat & Booties for navy friends' new baby
4. Felted slippers- for sister in law's birthday
5. Felted slippers for another friend
6. Baby blanket for navy friends (different from others)
7. My sweater
8. Panta
9. Purse for oldest daughter
10. Crayon box jacket and ruffles scarf to be worked on in between so as not to be UFOs
11. Start clapotis
12. Helen's lace shawl

OK that's just knitting. Now let's move on to gardening...
1. Lay more dirt (I really hate clay) on garden.
2. Plant lettuce & radishes.
3. After April 15th I'm going to be nuts, well more than I am now.
4. Plant carrots, zucchini, beans, cucumbers, corn, marigolds, tomatoes (all 9 plants I ordered from Burpee), and pepper plants in veggie garden
5. Plant morning glories and assorted flowers around mailbox
6. Plant herbs in containers (Basil, thyme, and oregano, I think)
7. Plant cotton, indigo, and beets in containers for late summer dyeing. (Yes, Tanya, Mary and Pattie will be the recipients of the cotton if it grows! As y'all know, spinning ain't my thing!)
Ok your job, dear readers, is to keep pestering me on my projects. Keep me current and honest!! If that Sockapalooza sock is not done by next Monday-shame me into it!

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Who is my SP????

Hello Elspeth!!! It's great to meet you! Thanks for all the great stuff! I really enjoyed having you as a secret pal. My SP is also from California, she's in Oakland, but I'm not ready to give out her name just yet. BTW 2 of my good friends also have their MLSs. One is a navy wife like me and the other is working for Library of Congress. Here I stole your meme for fun...

the books you've read, the ones you might read, ***the ones of which you saw the movie, %the ones on your bookshelf, and (the ones you've never even heard of):

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
***To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
%Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell {well on my oldest daughter's-required for next year}
%Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
%***The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
%Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen {again daughter's bookshelf, good luck to her}
***1984 - George Orwell
***Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
(One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini)
%The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
(Neuromancer - William Gibson)
(Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson)
(The Secret History – Donna Tartt)
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
***%The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
(Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides)
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
%***The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath {this one is shameful since I'm a Smith grad}
Dune - Frank Herbert

So what's good that I missed? As you can tell I'm a voracious reader. I tried to read Woman on the Edge of Time for Knit the Classics and I just despised it. I'm not into the Oprah book club type books. You know what I mean, the ones of major struggle in a life of depression, drugs, rape, incest, violence, etc. Not that I'm into Polyanna books either. I like good suspense, mystery, historical relevance (fiction or romance), biographies...that sort of thing.

Well, knitting this weekend. Sockapalooza's gull wing socks are going well. The second sock's leg is almost done. When I finish that I need to pop out a quick baby hat and matching socks for a good friend and another pair of felted slippers from Knit One, Felt Too for my other sister in law for her birthday. Then I might get briefly back on the jaywalkers before I start a baby blanket for another friend. Remember my post from January 20th, overcommitted knitter??? I've done well on that list but of course have added more to it. So that will be another post. TTFN!!

Monday, March 13, 2006

Too long between updates

Sorry, I do really try to keep this updated at least once a week.

Sockapalooza...well the gull wing socks are a better choice for my sock pal. I finished the first one and have completed the cuff of the second. I LOVE the pattern!!

My "Golden" Shawl pictures are finally here. Love my Charlotte's Web!! Here she is blocking...Image hosting by Photobucket
Image hosting by Photobucket

Here she is swinging in the breeze...Image hosting by Photobucket
Image hosting by Photobucket


Here is a nice close up...Image hosting by Photobucket


For those who want the yarn info, well I honestly don't know the order but the five skein numbers are P107B,P84330, P132, P13182, and I've lost the last number but I will update this post when I find it.

Spring is here in west Tennessee. The crocuses are almost over, daffodils are blooming, tulips will soon. Here are my hyacinths...Image hosting by Photobucket. Hubby spent the weekend rototilling the garden so hopefully I'll be planting radishes and lettuce in about a week to ten days.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

AAAARRRGGHH!!

I HATE my jaywalkers. The first sock went so easy. I put down the second with about an inch of the leg pattern to go due to the knitting Olympics. Now every time I pick it up it's mistake city. I ended up frogging about an inch after finding a mistake at the beginning of a needle(K1M1 in same stitch)that I couldn't for the life of me fix. So rather than cut it to little yarn ribbons in frustration, I have put it aside in favor of my Sockapalooza project.

Ikept the Regia 4 ply denim but changed patterns. Seems like everyone in Sockapalooza is doing Embossed Leaves Socks from Interweave Knits winter 2005. So I've switched to Gullwings from Socks, Socks, Socks. I've got the cuff done and am on the leg pattern on the first sock. I'm really loving it.

This has been going around on Knitter's Review. You are Mercerized Cotton
You are Mercerized Cotton.
You are always very crisp and neat. You are very playful and are happiest while outdoors in the sunshine. You are sometimes accused of splitting hairs, but in the end people find you pretty easy to live with.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla