huge foot

This huge foot belongs to my 9 1/2 year old daughter and is a size 8 women's. The sock is a regia india color cotton wool blend, and the pattern is from the blue blog. 1 down, 1 to go.

Some body took the suck out of my Monday

First let me acknowledge that I am responsible for this Monday sucking. AT the age of 43 I am experiencing the simultaneous joys of trying to wean my last child and perimenapause. And I forgot to take the magic pill that wards off the f***ing hot flashes yeasterday, so I had pathetic night sweats and early morning sweats.

Now what made me happy is the arrival of my yarn from dye-o-rama swap mate Kerry (aka Seraphina). You can hardly tell from my pic how gorgeous this yarn is. It has various shades of green with some little bits of gold and red. Yummy! and there were treats! Can't wait to start to knit it.

The second thing that made my day was a card from a woman who was struck by an aging and out of it driver who ran a red light. I was a witness but couldn't stay to talk to the police because I had to pick up a kid at school, so I called the police and let them know what I saw. The card was lovely, thanking me for taking the time to make sure the police got accurate info. Hope you all have great Mondays!

swatch this

Again, fuzzy but the colors are close to accurate. I like it even better swatched, tomorrow I felt!

No longer dyeing impaired

Well, I feel vindicated. It wasn't entirely my fault that my first results sucked. This time I used 1/4 the amount of wilton food paste dye that the instructions recommended. The sky blue shade developed some seriously purple areas, but I am overall okay with the results. I will swatch it up tonight to see what it looks like knitted up. At least I won't go blind knitting it up!

felted fug

Okay, now its felted. I think it might be tolerable as a felted object especially if the stripes are thinner. Who am I kidding? I should just admit defeat.

Not for the faint of heart

First- a disclaimer this writer takes no responsibility for any ill effects of viewing this swatch. If you are of a delicate nature, you should avert your eyes.

Last night after the debacle, I decided that the only think to do was to find some way of using this awful yarn. I woke up at 5:30 am and began to swatch. It wasn't bad at first, then I turned on the lamp, ugh. I remain somewhat hopeful, maybe it will look alright felted????

the ugliest yarn ever

Well, today is a day of my life I will never get back. Serena if your are reading my blog I promise that this is not for you! Eleni (holyknitbatman.blogspot.com) and I spent the day dying and ignoring our children. Her yarn is lovely but I will let her publish it. The first part of the clusterf**k was that the yarn was pathologically tangled and took HOURS yes HOURS to untagle before it was dyed. For people who want to ensure that this never happens to their undyed yarn

1. don't assume wilton leaf green is the color of any actual leaf.
2. don't assume that creamy peach is actually a light color
3. by all means don't keep rinsing the f****r until it starts to felt.

This is my community service for the blog. I am now going to buy wine and drink it.

upload gods

Okay So I was so happy to be done that I took the photo without weaving all the ends. But they are done and have been worn, and I like them despite the fraternal heel problem. Now that the upload gods have smiled upon me I will tempt fate and try to add another photo. This one is kind of hard to "read" but this is my son napping on the couch with his legs at a 90% angle. Doesn't look comfortable to be but he slept this way for two hours.

Now onto my next project, I am bravely going into my ufo's and trying to finish them. I restarted the leaf sweater from Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop after a years inactivity. I am using a bulky alpaca and rowan kidsilk haze for my friend Heidi. The yarn is so gorgeous that when I was knitting in Barnes and Noble people were asking to touch it.

New socks and meme

So I can't upload my new pics right now, but here are the meme answers for the dyeorama swap. The third try at uplaoding photos was not the charm, I'll try again later.



Specific to this swap:
Your favorite colors?
Green (like spring leaves), blue(all shades), rich brown
Preferred yarn weight (Fingering, Sport, DK, maybe even Worsted)?
Fingering
Do you prefer solid or multicolored yarn?
Multi
If your buddy is able to do so, would you like a variegated, self-striping, or self-patterning yarn?
Self-striping or variagated
Would you be interested in a wool blend sock yarn (nylon, tencel, silk, acrylic, alpaca, etc.)?
Sure, as long as its mostly natural
Imagine the perfect colorway. What would you name it?
Spring
What was the biggest appeal to you for joining this dye-along?
The chance to experiment with dye, which I wanted to do anyway!
General yarn/fiber questions:
Have you dyed yarn/fiber before?
No, but I did textile design in College, long time ago
If so, what's your favorite dye and method?
Do you spin?
Nope, I am pretty sure I don't need another fiber related hobby!
Have you knit socks before?
Yes, in fact I have been accused of being sock obsessed
Do you use sock yarn for just socks or in other patterns too?
Yes, especially when knitting teacher gifts
What are some of your favorite yarns?
Opal, Regia, Vesper
What yarn do you totally covet?
Kidsilk haze, I love it so much I almost hate to knit up!
Favorite patterns?
Jaywalker, Lucy Neatby for heals and toes
Any pattern you would love to make if money and time were no object?
Lace but I would need to be granted a wish of peace and quiet because lace shawls require a lot of counting which is not my best thing.
Favorite kind of needles (brand, materials, straights or circs, etc)?
addi turbos hands down!
If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be?
That's like asking me to pick my favorite child!
Nothing to do with knitting/yarn/fiber in any way but seemed kinda fun:
Do you have a favorite candy or mail-able snack?
good and plenty, gummy peaches
What's your favorite animal?
cats
Do you have pets? What are their species/names/ages?
Not now, but had two lovely cats who died at ages 15 and 18 respectively. Soon I will let the children talk me into finding another!
If you were a color what color would you be?
green for sure
Describe your favorite shirt (yours or someone else's)..
my husband's fleece shirt that is like a security blanket
What is your most inspiring image, flower, or object in nature?
the sum and substance hosta poking through the ground
Tell me the best quote you've ever heard or read.
Dorothy Parker used to answer the doorbell and the phone by saying, "What fresh hell is this?"
Do you have a wishlist?
nope
Anything else you'd like to share with the group today? nope

Blue heron

So the mystery bird is a blue heron. Still not sure why it was at the bus stop. Knitting progress. 1 regia sock done, the other is at the heel. The body of the socks matches exactly, but I screwed up the pattern match on the heel. I am trying to decide if that will bug me, cause I really hate to rip anything knit on 00 dpns, it's a total pain to pick up the stitches. I don't have a shot of the dueling heels, so how about a gratuitously cute kid photo? This is my 2 year old at his favorite place, Flamig Farm in Simsbury Ct. Don't worry, he's not really driving. We went on Saturday, and I got spit on by the llama. The little man had loved telling everyone about the llama spitting on mommy, so my hub bought a plastic llama to encourage the retelling of the story. Like I could forget llama spit/

WIP

Here is the latest WIP. I wanted to show off my nifty garter stitch short row heel. I used Lucy Neatby's book but somehow find her directions hard for me to follow. I have to think very hard and ya'll know I don't like that. I do like the way the heel looks, and the garter stitch feels really cushy.

My other big news is that I got my swap mate for dy-o-rama and am so exited to get started. She didn't express any color prefferences so I get to wing it. I will be lurking on her blog to see if I can get any feel for her colors. I can say she seems to be a multi-talented craftster. I can't wait to get started. I got my yarn from www.wool2dye4.com and Shiela delivers great customer service. The first shipment contained the wrong yarn, but it was pretty. She sent out the right yarn tout suite. If my spelling sucks its because my pop up blocker is f***ing with me, suffice to say I was not an english major.