WIP(s) this week

This week I'm working on a pair of Fetching mitts and vanilla socks for gifts this year.

Last night I finished the first mitt and need to knit the thumb gusset. I'm using Berroco Vintage worsted weight yarn. It's a gorgeous deep blue color. And it fits my hand super nice. I swear, I have made so many pairs of Fetching and I don't have a pair for myself. I am seriously contemplating keeping these. The recipient won't know what she's missing, right?

The vanilla socks are being made in the same Berroco Vintage worsted weight yarn. I really, really like this yarn. So far I've knit the first sock all the way through the heel flap. I still have to pick up the gusset stitches. Since I do that with a crochet hook I usually wait until I'm sitting at home with no interruptions. The yarn I'm using for the socks is a really pretty teal blue with hints of green. In natural light it looks almost like jewel tones.

I've also been spinning a bit each night. It's fiber from Forbidden Woolery that I purchased back in July. Like I wrote in an earlier entry I really missed spinning. I forgot how much spinning relaxes me.

So, a little bit of progress on both fiber fronts.

The gales of November

A radar shot for my area today. We have hurricane strength winds going. Last night was pretty bad as well. The compared the winds yesterday to those similar to the winds that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald. For my area, this ship is a big deal. The cities observe the day in remembrance.

I think it's been a while since the winds have whipped up so furiously. I heard them last night but did my best to ignore them. We have a neighbor who has some large, beautiful pine trees in his yard and when the wind blows I always worry that they are gonna come tumbling down on our house.

Yesterday evening the family drove to "the point" to see if the waves were going. If the wind is blowing in the right direction you can get something like this

This is a picture that was taken over in Duluth, probably last year. I will admit, it's not my photo but I don't know who to give proper credit too. This is where ships come in on Duluth's side. As you can see the waves were washing over the sea walls.

Last night the wind was blowing in the wrong way so no big waves. My umbrella did rip however. I guess that's what you get for buying a $4 umbrella.

Schools were closed today across the bridge and my coworkers told me that the wind was pretty strong on the high bridge.

I'm not ready to admit that the pretty side of fall is now over and we have to start preparing for winter. Time to bring out the scarves, hats and mittens.

Spinning wheel, how I have missed you

I spent about an hour and a half tonite spinning. I haven't touched my spinning wheel since July. It felt good spinning again.

The last few weeks or since the change in the weather I've been really getting back into knitting. And podcasts -- whoo boy! I am so far behind on podcasts. Over the summer I pretty much stopped listening. But once the weather changed and I got the knitting out again and started planning what to make for gifts I got all knit-geeky, so to speak. I forgot how much calmer all this stuff makes me feel.

So now I've got my wheel sitting back out in the living room so I can listen to tv programs while I spin. I've been getting most of my knitting time in during the morning before work. Then late evenings.

FO ~ Washcloth (gift)

Standard discloth cotton yarn
U.S. size 5 needle

Pattern is "baby fern stitch" pattern. It can be found here.

Yarn color is lemon and lime, I think. I love the long color repeats on it. The pattern itself if a fairly quick knit. I think each repeat took me 15 minutes. I made this to give to my son's teacher at Christmas time. I would definitely make this pattern again but in a solid color. As pretty as those colorways are on the ball I dislike the short color changes and those tend to hide the pattern when you are making lacey dishcloths.

FO ~ Socks (a gift)

Yarn: Berroco Vintage sock yarn, worsted weight.
U.S. size 3 circular needles

I made these for my niece. I found a cable pattern in a book and used it for just the cuff. I would have brought the pattern down to the foot but I couldn't find a way to transition the cables down and not mess up the pattern. I really do like this sock yarn. The price is right for it as well. The socks are come out toasty and are perfect for walking on wood floors.

Redefined and starting fresh

I can't really decide on a good title for this blog entry. I'm not really starting over and I'm not deleting anything. I am who I am and that's about it.

I really did not want to lose all my entries over the last two-plus years so I researched and discovered I can change the blog address. Perfect. Then I gave the blog a bit of a face lift and updated some of my links.

Tonite I took a picture of my knitting bag. As of ten minutes ago it was empty. I have now filled it with two more knitting projects and I'm pretty excited. One is a pair of fingerless mitts, the other is a pair of worsted weight socks.

I got two finished projects this weekend which I will post in separate entries. I have new ideas for my knitting life and I have gotten interested in more things over the summer that I'm sure will be brought into the blog. In short, I'm quite excited about starting a new chapter.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself ~ Emerson

In the grand scheme of things does it really matter?

Okay, so that title may not make a whole lot of sense. But let me explain a bit.

About a year ago my heart went out of blogging. I thought "I don't care, I'm not embarrassed, I'm gonna keep on keeping on. I did nothing wrong.

And I think I did a good job of that in the beginning. The time spans between posts are getting longer and longer. I had seen other people abandon their blogs and I was determined that I wasn't going to do that.

However as life as gotten more complicated and I wasn't knitting much over the summer I fell away from blogging.

Well, part of it *is* because I haven't been knitting a lot, but another part of it is because in a way I feel like I'm wearing a scarlet letter -- choose any letter -- because of something out of my control I've been labeled. Do I deserve it? No, none of us do. And no matter how nice I am on other places on the web I feel people are going to make assumptions about me right off the bat.

Now I would be a fool to think that I'm *so important* that everyone in the knitting community knows what this even about or who I am. In reality I'm sure I'm a very tiny blip on the radar of the knitting community.

But then it's hard to believe that when I see how people are coming onto my blog. Sometimes in waves I get hits.

When I first started knitting I scoured the blogosphere. I was constantly on the search for patterns, how-to's, and all kind of ideas to help me on this adventure I was on. I wanted to still leave my mark on the knitting community and in a way I have.

Until the last couple years I never knew how nasty the online community can be. It doesn't matter what online group you are a part of either. But I have also learned that it blows over and then the next month there is some sort of other drama that is taking up people's time.

I could remove certain blog entries from here. Other people's links would be dead, but I would still be out there and I want people to know other people's side of the story.

So what do I do now? Do I just end the blog or do I start a new blog. Fresh start and all that.

I'm gonna have to stew on it for a little bit but I think I know my answer.