Okay, I can’t believe this, but I finished Kris’s pirate socks in one week! Why is this so amazing? Because there is something special at the top of the socks:
Check it out - that’s Fair Isle. (Okay, okay - technically it’s stranded colorwork) But the point is - I did it! I made it work! And there is enough give that he can get them over his heels!

And check out the detail on the skull! (Guess who found the macro function on her camera!).

One last shot - actually on hubby’s feet:
And now I just have to decide what I am going to make with my new Socks That Rock. The pattern that came with the mailing is cute, but not really me, so I’m debating what to do instead. At this point, I’m considering Broadripple, Crusoe, Falling Leaves, and Pomatomus.

Speaking of cameras, hubby finally broke down and bought a digital SLR last night. He’s been talking about it for several years, but watching Kir’s husband Lionel using his last Friday at Kennywood*, he just couldn’t stand it any longer. So, he bought a Nikon D70S, which even I can tell is a lovely piece of machinery. He’s going to be playing with it for a while. He might even do a little yarnography to try a few things. =) Once he’s got some stuff posted, I’ll put up some links.

*Regarding Kennywood - we had an amazing (although decidedly damp) day, and we have a bunch of pictures. At the moment, though, they are on Kris’s laptop and I haven’t had a chance to upload them. I will - I promise.

First of all, thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers for Kirsten and her family. She’s an amazing woman, and I cannot believe how strong she has been dealing with the loss of Alex. I will actually see her this weekend - she’s the one who planned the Kennywood trip almost 2 years ago. I know she really wanted Alex to be a part of the trip, so it’s going to be something of a bittersweet day.

So, if you look at my progress bars, you’ll notice some changes (because I know you all sit with bated breath waiting to see what I have been working on, right?). I finished up take 3 of the Happy Valley socks and wore them all day on Wednesday (they cam off the needled and went straight onto my feet). I don’t have any new pictures, but they pretty much look like they did here, only with about 10 rounds of ribbing at the top.

I also finished the second quilt! Which is good, since it is going to PA with me, um, tonight. (Mom and I are consolidating and shipping our gifts to California together) I used the same pattern as on Renee’s quilt, only arranging the squares a little differently. I’m really happy with how it came out. I hope Beth and Mike (the parents-to-be) like it as well.

Baby will also be getting the now-ubiquitous One Skein Baby Bolero made from KnitPicks Shine Worsted, this one in “Reef”. I am seriously loving this yarn, and trying to decide on a project for ME made from it. I have until sometime in June before I can order yarn, though, so I definitely have time to decide.

And since I finished a couple of deadline projects, I of course had to start another one! I cast on last night for what I am calling Kris’s Pirate Socks. These are being made from Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in “Black Purl”, which I bought because I thought he would appreciate the Pirates of the Caribbean “Black Pearl” reference. I decided that I didn’t want to make them just out of that single yarn, though, so I came up with an idea. The toes and heels will be done in KnitPicks Essential in “Black”, as will the ribbing at the top. The rest of the sock will be in the Black Purl, with the exception of an inch or two below the ribbing, where I am going to attempt to do a band of Fair Isle skulls like the ones on this hat. The skulls will be done in Patons Kroy Sock in Muslin, and the background will be the LL. These are going to be either super-cool socks, or a total diaster. So far, I’ve done the toes (short-row on 2 circs, natch), and about 10 rounds of the foot in the LL. I’ll take them with me this weekend, although I’m going to be driving tonight, so I won’t be doing much knitting.

Well, I need to go pack and do some cleaning around here (which also means I am not entirely sure I will get to Annapolis for the knitting meetup today, although I hope to - I love that bunch!). Have a great weekend! I should have Kennywood pictures when I get back!

See this beautiful little boy? His name is Alex. Today would have been his first birthday, but he died on December 8 of last year. His mother Kirsten is my dearest friend in the world, and my heart breaks every day at the thought that this wonderful little guy was taken from her.

Alex was in the home of his day-care provider when he suffered the injuries that claimed his life. That woman was charged and arrested and will be tried for felony child abuse resulting in death. His mother has set up a blog to keep people informed of the status of the case - Justice for Alex.

So, if you could, take a moment today to say a little prayer for Alex and his family. It’s going to be a hard day for them. Thanks.

There’s a BLOG here! I’ve been a neglectful blogger, I know. In my defense… um… yeah, I got nothing.

I have been working on the 2nd baby quilt and the last Baby Bolero, both of which need to be done before we leave for Pittsburgh this coming Thursday (Yay!! Kennywood!!!).
I got the strips for the blocks cut out Thursday night, after accidentally cutting the binding/border/backing fabric (the ladybug print) in 2-1/2″ strips instead of 3″. So, I made a frantic trip to JoAnn Fabrics yesterday, where they thankfully had some more of it. So, I should be okay on that. The body of the Baby Bolero is done, and the sleeves are started. So, I just need to finish them, sew them on, and pick up and knit the border. Not too bad, I hope.

In other knitting news, remember my Jaywalkers? Or perhaps you remember the second incarnation, after the first ones were too tight? They acrually made it to having the heels turned before it finally hit me - as much as I like the way that the Jaywalker pattern looks, I just don’t enjoy knitting it. So… I frogged ‘em. A week ago Friday, I started over again with a provisional cast-on and a short-row toe, and got both toes done while watching King Kong (the Peter Jackson version - I liked it a lot!). Then, in the car on the way to and from PA for Mother’s Day weekend, I decided to play with a stitch pattern for the tops of the feet. It’s a diamons pattern, and then I threw in some eyelets. The other night, I attacked the heels, which I decided to play with a little. I generally do a short-row toe, but this time around I also decided to do it in garter stitch, just for fun. So, as of today, here they are (Please ignore the blinding whiteness of my legs) :

I am trying to decide if they are long enough to start the ribbing (which, knowing my patience for ribbing, will be less than an inch long). I think I am about there. Once the bolero and quilt are done, I’ll finish these up. Then I can start on Kris’s Pirates of the Carribbean socks, which is totally what I am going to call the ones I am making out of the Lorna’s Laces Black Purl.

Maybe once those are done, I can finally start playing with my Socks That Rock, escpecially since package # 2 came in the mail today, and I haven’t even started on the yarn from the first package.

So, wanna see the new color? I’ll put it as a link in case any other Club folks want to avoid it until their package arrives, but it is called Fairgrounds. Pics here and here.

Let’s see… any other news? Oh, yes. Kris decided (brace yourselves, folks) that he wants to learn to spin! So, Tuesday evening, we went down to Springwater Fiber Workshop and he picked up his very own drop spindle and some bright blue Corridale roving. We haven’t actually started the learning just yet, but he’s kind of excited about it. Like, I’m thinking he may have his own wheel someday. Of course, he’s hoping to build it himself. He’s in the garage at the moment, doing some woodworking, and he did find plans for a number of spinning wheels and suchlike, so it might happen at some point. I’d love to see him be able to get to a point where he can make and sell them someday. I think that would make him very happy.

Anyway, while we were in Alexandria, we decided to find someplace for dinner. We checked our GPS gadget to see what restaurants were closest, and we saw a name we couldn’t resist - Bilbo Baggins Restaurant. We are such geeks, we just couldn’t pass that up. Happily, we loved the place! It’s not very big, but the service was incredibly friendly, and the food was AMAZING. We are already talking about going there for dinner on our anniversary.

Finished the binding this morning! Thank you for all your kind words on the color combination, but I can’t take full credit. I actually picked the colors based on the linens Jen and Eric picked out for Renee’s room, as seen at Baby Depot. The fabrics for the other quilt are totally based around the ladybug print, because I never did find out how Beth and Mike decorated the room for their baby. I’ll be starting the cutting on that one when we get back from a trip to PA to see Kris’s mom and my folks this weekend. Luckily, it’s a simple pattern, so I can get it done fairly quickly. (And yes, the other quilt will also be a bow-tie pattern. I’ve made 4 quilts in my life, and all of them were bow-tie quilts for babies.)

Incidentally, the pattern is from the book I used to learn to quilt: Quilting for Beginners. It’s a great book for the basics of quilting. Eventually, I really am going to move beyond my little bow-tie quilts. Honest.

At least, I am per chacha. =)

So - the “Favorite LYS Meme”:

1)What’s your favorite LYS? : Stitch DC (Capitol Hill) (Interstingly, the same as Jen’s)

2)What about it do you like most?: Easy access via Metro, very friendly staff, nice variety of yarns, and super-close to both Banana Cafe and Marty’s (I have a friend who bartends at Marty’s)

3)What is your 2nd favorite?: Knit Happens (Alexandria)

4)What would you improve about it to make it a tie with your first?: Hmm… probably if it were a little closer to the Metro, because I hate driving in DC. Plus, I really don’t like having to pay for parking in Alexandria. Yarn-selection-wise, and staff-wise, though, it’s right up there with Stitch DC.

5)What’s the last thing your bought at your #1 LYS?: Um… I think the last time I was there was with Jen and Stephy, but I don’t think I bought anything (!) So, I think the last thing I actually bought would be the Blue Sky Alpaca Hand Dyed and Allhemp6 that I got during the Super Bowl Sale.

6)Who’s Next?: Let’s see… how about my darling SP’s, and my Partner-in-Crime for SP7. So, bylt, CBear, Domestic Overlord… let’s hear it!

In other news, I finished piecing quilt #1. The back and the binding will be the same dark purple fabric as the border. I’m really happy with how it came out. I figure I’ll probably baste it tonight, and then finish it up tomorrow or Friday (hopefully). We are planning to go up to Pennsylvania this weekend, so I’m going to bring the last Baby Bolero with me, and then I can do the other quilt when I get back. I am hoping to have both done before we go to PA for Memorial Day weekend. That way, I can give Renee her bolero and quilt, and give the ones for Baby Suto to my aunt, who will be going out to California to see all of them once Baby Suto is born.

For my first experience at the famous MDS&W, I think I managed to behave myself pretty well. =) We got there a little bit too late to snag any of the Koigu Mill Ends or the Socks That Rock, which was a bummer, but there was certainly plenty of other great stuff to keep us occupied.

My first purchase was at The Fold. I picked up some Blue Moon Fiber Arts Merino/Tencel roving in “Dutch Canyon”, which is just gorgeous. This picture doesn’t really show the shine on this stuff (it’s stupid and rainy here today), but this one shows it pretty well.

I also picked up some Gypsy Girl Tussah Silk roving, which I bought for 2 reasons - I wanted to play with silk (duh!) and I just loved the color: King Neptune. (Again, not the best picture in the world. I’ll have to take more when I actually start working with it.)

For most of the rest of the day, we just wandered around petting things and drooling. We met up with the too-adorable-for-words alerievay for lunch, and had a great time gabbing with her while munching on some very yummy food. Valerie and I had gyros, Jen had a fabulous looking lamb stew in a bread bowl, and hubby had lamb barbecue and a lamb kebab. And although we skipped the deep-fried Twinkies (despite being strangely tempted), hubby and I did each (*blush*) have one of the amazing HUGE chocolate eclairs from the same stand.

Toward the end of the day, Jen found a really pretty drop spindle, since she had already gotten some amazing bright pink and blue roving (also from The Fold) and did not in fact own a spindle to actually spin it. I found the Spinning Studio booth, who had some silk hankies. Since I’ve been wanting to try spinning them, I had to pick some up. As you can see, I started playing with it a little last night on my Babe spindle. The only thing that I now regret is not picking up another spindle. The Babe is working fine, but the shaft is a little rough and wants to catch on the silk, which is a little annoying. Clearly, I am going to be on the lookout for a new spindle. =)

My final purchase was some lovely roving from the Opalessence booth. It’s green from a distance, but when you get closer, it actually has a lot of other colors running through it. I can’t wait to see how this spins up.

The only bad thing about the day was that I got a little sunburned on my back. Nothing horrible, just enough to be a little itchy today. I really had a lot of fun, and I think Kris even enjoyed himself. I know he certainly got some great pictures. I’ve got a slideshow of them over on Photobucket, or the full album is here.

Oh, and I almost forgot - Saturday was the official debut of my Prosperous Plum Tank! And the matching bolero! So, a modeled shot of the tank here. It’s not perfect, but I’ll see about getting a better one later, along with a decent one of the bolero.

That’s right. I’m cheating on my yarn. With what, you might ask? This:

Yes, I am quilting. I made a couple of baby ones as gifts during a brief foray into quilting about 6 or 7 years ago. (I still have the fabric that was supposed to become a quilt for Kris and I here somewhere) One of the recipients of those quilts was my cousin Jen’s little boy Josh. Well, today, Josh became a big brother. His baby sister Renee Nicole was born this morning. (She’s the one getting the purple Baby Bolero.) His mom asked me way back when if I would be willing to make another quilt, since Josh still uses his. Of course I told her that I would. I just sort of hadn’t gotten to it yet. Heh. Oops. So, the purple and green fabric is for her quilt.

The other fabric is for the other baby about to make an appearance - my other cousin Beth is due to have her baby girl in a month. (The yet-undone fourth Baby Bolero is for her.) So, I’ll be cutting and sewing for the next couple of weeks. At some point, I really need to make one for Beth’s almost-four-year-old son Joey. I crocheted him a couple of blankets, but I’d like him to have a quilt, too. Maybe that will be the plan for Christmas.

Thank you all for your kind comments on the Prosperous Plum tank. The bolero is coming along nicely. I’m hoping to finish it tonight or tomorrow, and get it assembled and blocked on Friday. Pictures soon - I promise!

First of all, an apology to Joanna - I promised her pics of the finished (Yay!) Prosperous Plum tank yesterday. Unfortunately, I was taking care of a sick hubby all day and didn’t have a chance to take any.

He’s fine now - Kris and Jen and I went sailing with our friends Mary and Dave (and their oh-too-cute Beagle, Pooky) on Saturday, and hubby was in charge of the grill. Unfortunately, he was handling raw meat and didn’t wash his hands, which he then used to eat. So… food poisoning! Thankfully minor, but he felt like crap until last night. On the upside, he managed not to get motion sick, thanks to the ginger root pills he took on the advice of the Mythbusters. Seriously - he was once sick for 3 days after riding the Spider at an amusement park, and he was completely fine on the boat. Amazing stuff. I think he’s going to see if it helps when we go to Kennywood over Memorial Day weekend with some friends. (And yes, I know he could take Dramamine, but it really makes him spacey, and he hates it.)

OK, OK, I know why you are here - pictures! First of all, here is the Tammy Shrug in Cotton Tape. I still need to do some sort of edging to stabilize it a bit, but I’ve worn it like this. I really enjoyed working with the yarn, and have been trying reeeeally hard not to order any from elann, since they have it for cheap, and it is discontinued. I don’t have any specific patterns in mind for it, so I don’t need it. If I come up with something, I might break down and order it on my next YFC free day. (I am bound and determined to behave until then. I will NOT be forced to admit that yarn is stonger than me.) If anyone has any pattern rec’s, feel free to pass them along, of course. =)

Next, the moment you have all been waiting for (Just let me keep deluding myself, ok?) - the completed Prosperous Plum Tank! Again, let me rave for a moment about this pattern - well-written and lots of fun to knit. Very flattering fit (provided I remember not to wear some obnoxiously colored bra under it. Lace - duh) I promise - modeled shots will follow at some point when I am not here by myself. Or possibly this weekend at MDS&W, where I am planning to wear it.

On that note, I wasn’t sure if the weather was going to allow me to wear a tank top, and I really didn’t want to cover it with a jacket or (my usual fallback) a denim shirt. So, I looked at the Cotton Fleece I had left (bought 6, used less than 3 on the tank), and I thought… I remembered the edging on the Knit Picks Leaf-Edged Bolero, and I thought… and I considered the Baby Boleros I have been making, and I thought some more… the result of all that thinking? The lovely pile there on the left - my very own bolero. I used the basic proportions of the One Skein Baby Bolero, sized up to fit not-baby-sized me, and including some design elements of the tank. The cable/lace pattern runs up the edges of the fronts (A la the Leaf Edged Bolero) and then down the back (like on the tank), and the sleeves will have the same picot hem as the tank. I am trying to get this done so that I can wear both of them on Saturday. If the bolero turns out ok, I might even put the pattern up here eventually.

While I was taking pictures on the back deck this morning, I decided to share a “dumb dog” story. A couple of weeks ago, we went to let the dogs in the house, and we couldn’t find Meeko (seen here looking terribly innocent). She is our escape artist, and has dug under the fence on one or two occasions. She also likes to hide under the back deck, which was where we checked first. Eventually, we did locate her under the porch, but we couldn’t get her to come out. Meeko has seizures, which are mostly controlled by medication. Once or twice a year, she will still have one. What we think happened was that she went under the porch and proceeded to have a seizure, and twisted around just enough to get herself stuck. The result?
Kris had to use the circular saw (set to a blade depth of exactly the thickness of the boards- don’t worry) to cut a hole in the porch and extricate her. Why two holes? We guessed wrong the first time on where she was. So… we’ll be replacing those boards at some point. *sigh*

And in the spirit of equal airtime - Ginger and Lola lounging in the grass. I assume Ginger is trying to see if she can pick up any more bits of nature with her unbelievably velcro-esque fur.

Oh, and for those of you hoping for fishie pics, I keep telling Kris that there is a demand, but I can’t get him to put in the webcan just yet. Maybe eventually.

ETA: Does anyone else wish Blogger had a “Preview” capability for posts? I’ve edited this thing about 5 times to get the pictures to lay out nicely. Grr.