It's a comin...

Fall.
It's coming.
There's just something in the air. It's a bit cooler and the light is starting to change. It also seems like the knitting is beginning in earnest on the Blogs again. Who wants to have a ton of wool in their lap when it's 80, but when it's 60? It's a good thing!

I also saw this today.

If you can't see, those are YELLOW leaves. It's the house across the street from us. Their tree is always the first one to turn and drop it's leaves.

And then I've started seeing more and more of this

Squirrel activity. :)

As for my activity, I'm working on the Super Secret Baby Knitting (TM). Other than that, I move along on the clown version of the Monkey socks. This suckers are loud. LOUD.


Have to say I'm glad I'd earmarked this for my Mom, because...well I don't like them. :)

Last, but certainly not least, Abby is teaching friends to knit! How adorable is that? She's been knitting since she was 5 and we have 2 girls next door 6 and 9 who thought it'd be fun to learn. I had nothing at all to do with it, which makes it even cooler. :) She came and asked me for extra needles and yarn. Here's what I saw later. The blue is Abby's ...the other girls took theirs home, so we'll see if it goes anywhere.

Isn't that cute? I gave them each some Sugar and Cream because they liked the colors. I doubt it will go any further, but it just reaffirms to me that Abby is becoming a Knitter! She's trying to infect, I mean teach, others!

Another Monkey and My Tools

I've started another pair of Monkeys. This pair is for my Mom and is made from Trekking XXL on 1's. I was at loose ends for a sock project and nothing was working out for my mediumweight STR, so I cast on these from memory. It's such a soothing, easy pattern. I love it.


Since I don't have a ton of knitting to show off, I figured I'd show you my knitting tools. This is the bag I keep them in. It was actually special ordered at GenCon, for you ultimate geeks, to hold my gaming dice. Well gaming has gone by the wayside, but it's perfect for my tools. I know there are also jewelry bags made in this same design.


I love it because it opens almost flat. It makes it very easy to find what I'm looking for and since it's quite big I can stash a ton in it. The material is soft and the whole thing can be shoved in a bag easily and won't snag any knitting.


Here all my tools of the trade; small notebook, 2 colors of post-its, measuring tape, Knit-Chek, mechanical pencil, orange pen, black pen, pink highlighter, major sharp Fiskar scissors, point protectors, various size types of stitch markers, row counter, 3 crochet hooks, 2 cable needles and a pattern marker.

What tools do you carry with your knitting? Do you have a favorite little trick, like hairbands for stitch markers? Are you a sucker for beaded stitch markers? I'd love to see and hear about your goodies!

Me and Stitches!

Thank you Cristina!
I love her blog. I'm not a huge crocheter (just know enough to know I don't know squat) and I love to see what she's whipped up. :)

Now it's my turn to tag five lovely bloggers!

The Woman Who Says Knit. It's all HER fault I started down this blogging road, though you could technically blame me for starting her on knitting..hmmm.. Anyway you should hop over there and check out her haul from Stitches!

Miss B of Knitters Uncensored Podcast, though I 'knew her when'. ;) This woman can SERIOUSLY knit the crap out of socks, let me tell you. Wollmeise or not!

Peggy of Chasing Bunny. I love to see her knits and her kidlets!

Julie of Samurai Knitter
I'm not sure if I look forward more to the release of the new Vogue Knittings for the patterns or her hilarious review.

Theresa of The Keyboard Biologist Knits
Even with a new baby she's inspiring!

Check out these blogs if you haven't already. It's always fun to meet new friends. :)


Stitches 07!

Fun. Absolute fun and just joy of being with friends while doing things you love.
I bought more than enough stuff!

One skein of silkie STR in a Midsummers Night, a blue colorway that I'm going to knit up for Mom's Christmas gift.

Enough Silky Wool to knit one of the Elsbeth Lavold sweaters from the Book 1 Vikings, Ljold for me.


Shi Biu sock yarn to make socks for my girls in the Orchid colorway. I really Love this stuff. If you are a STR fan, take a look, seriously.

The AMAZING new Cat Bordhi book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Worth every penny. I swear Cat's the current EZ. Her mind? It just works differently. :)

An entrelac bowl/bag pattern with leather maple leaves to put on it.

I took two great classes. Russian Continental Knitting, which unfortunately still hurts my wrist. It was taught by a wonderful Russian lady who made me laugh..alot. The Russian dry sense of humor really gets me.

I also took The Joy of Finishing. A great class with tons of little hints in it. Next year I hope to take something by Sally Melvile or Nancy Bush. We'll see!

I'll be getting some photos up in the next few days!

Disgust and Stitches..

No these things don't go together. I'm heading off to Stitches Midwest tomorrow for the weekend. When I return I will have yarny yummy goodness to share!

On to the DISGUST.

Did you hear that Johnson & Johnson is suing, yes SUING the Red Cross over use of the red cross. I am so disgusted and sickened by this.

I have emailed them and hope you do too.

Here are the relative links.
Article on Suit

where to contact J&J to let them know of your absolute disgust.

http://www.jnj.com/contact_us/index.htm

*uckers.

Pictures and a Huge Thank You.

Ok,

We've all heard about the 'Knitting Blogging Community', and yes those are air quotes. It's one of those things you think, Ya..it's nice. Knitters give to the Doctors without Borders for the Yarn Harlot. They give to the Heifer Project at Christmas for Wendy. They help out their own in need, like Annie Modesit.

But really, what would anyone do for me? And why would they want to? (Goodness that sounds selfish and it's NOT what I sit around and think about..plot about or something.) But you get the point.

So I go on vacation and am an idiot and loose my camera, my blogging camera. Am I broken hearted about the photos lost of the girls at the St. Louis Zoo? Sadden, but no, not heart broken. What comes to mind?

HOW AM I GOING TO BLOG MY KNITTING?!

It's all about priorities, you know.

Home I come and post to the blog, without pictures. And what happens?

KnitWit offers me a camera. Can you imagine? Here she is roughly 17 days away from moving and leaving for college, and what does she do? Offers to send me her old camera for a few balls of yarn. She's busy, ya'll. She's stressed. And she thought of me.

Damn, we knitters really are amazing folks. Seriously.

So in honor of KnitWit, here are mass amounts of photos of FOs. (The camera by the way, is amazing. I honestly think it's better than the one I had..)

In order of completion, we have the Solstice Slip socks from the Rockin Sock Club.



They fit really well. This was my first time using the Lightweight, and I might not every buy anything else now..



The pattern was fun and the garter stitch toes and heels were interesting to watch take shape. This is a toe up sock, by the way.


Then on the Texas trip, I was determined to make this


into some amazing socks. And guess what? I did! :)

This is Cookie A.'s Monkey pattern. It is the second time I've done it and I know not the last. Very fun pattern, but not too hard you can't memorize it and start to 'read' it as you go.


I did a slip stitch heel flap and adore the way it rainbowed. Very very very bright yummy amazing socks.


Just look at those colors. I'm seriously in love with this colorway, Sherbet from Socks That Rock.

Finally I had my little tirade through my house trying to locate DPNs. This is the result.




I do things by the seat of my pants, which is how I came up with it. I've seen enough of these online and in stores, so figured 'Eh. I can do that'. The fabric was left over from my youngest's nursery. I might have to make a straight one and a something for the circs.

I still need to figure out how I'm going to close it. I'm leaning towards a ribbon about 1 1/2 inches wide, tack it to the back and then use it to tie it closed.

Whew. Ok. There they are. The FOs. Only thing I didn't post is my progress on the Perfect Sweater. It's just SS arms, so not too exciting. Kinda looks like all the others I've posted.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your knitting! I know I will.

Blogiversary

Dude. One whole year as of Aug 3rd..tomorrow. Yay me. I 've acutally stuck with it, enjoyed it, met folks I like and been amazing at the enormity of knitters on line, yet how personal it is.

Thanks for sticking around to read and keeping me company. :)

Where it all began...

http://knotsinarow.blogspot.com/2006/08/all-cs-fault.html

An FO!

Yes, another FO I can't show you yet. :) I do 'crafty sewing', as in I have a sewing machine, have had a sewing machine..since I was 18 or something. No one I knew sewed, so I just winged it. Needless to say this has created some odd items. I taught myself to follow patterns and sewed the bedding for my 2 babies, a handful of Halloween costumes and more curtains than you could shake a stick at. But that's all. I enjoy sewing, but am not good at it or rather patient enough for it. Meticulous has never been a word applied to me.

ANYWAY,
I have some gorgeous fabric left over from my 2nd kids bedding..think Laura Ashely with huge cabbage roses on a butter cream background. I have 2 coordinating fabrics to go with it and well, the other day I couldn't find my damn #2 DPNs. (Ends up they were in my very cold WIP, Norwegian gloves.)

After digging through and ultimately cleaning out, my closet, so all was not lost, I decided to sew myself a DPN holder. It's adorable and works pretty well. I need to figure out exactly how I'm going to keep it closed..ribbon ..maybe an elastic with a button.. Inspiration has yet to hit me on that part. It's about 2 feet long, the pockets/needle channels are 6 inches deep and when it's folder over the DPNs, keeping them secure, it's around 10 inches wide.

So Yay me. :)

I've started a yummy cable sock from Sensational Socks with my Socks That Rock Lover's Leap. I started on 2s (yes that's why I was hunting them down.) but it was too loose. I ripped out around 3 inches, back to nothing. It really doesn't distress me anymore if I have to do that. I think that kinda shows how far you are in a craft/hobby/obsession. If you are willing to admit you've F'd it up and go back to do it right, then you're getting somewhere.

The sock has been restarted on 1s, but I'm taking a bit of a break. Why you ask? There has been Perfect Sweater knitting going on over here! Booooyah! Both sleeves are to the point of decreasing for the caps. I've been working on it for 4 nights or so and my wrists ache to prove it. There's something about knitting on 7s with Cascade 220 that just wears my wrists right out. Socks really don't weight much, do they? Plus I have both the sleeves on one long circ so there is a bit of bulk/weight involved. Thank goodness I'm taking a Finishing Class at Stitches.

Stitches!!! Yay!! Tapas Yay!! Girlfriend Trips!! YAyayaya!
I'm going to be so content but exhausted when we get back home!

I'm trying to mentally prepare for Stitches. You have to go in with a game plan to these types of things!! (sorry for the excess !!!! but damn I'm excited.) I went last year but didn't have any of my close friends with me, nor did I take classes. I took a chartered bus with my local knitting guild, so at least I was with other knitters. The drive back was fun to show off all your goodies.

The Dream List 07 so far is:

Socks That Rock, Collinette Jitterbug, Cider Moon, Cherry Tree Hill, Koigu and just about any other sock yarn I see. I figure by keeping to Sock yarn I can get the largest variety of goodies to take home.

And I don't have to drive! Whoot! More knitting time. :D

Hope all is going well with everyone.