Current works in progress

A vanilla sock. Right now I'm thinking it may turn into a Christmas gift, but that could change. I started it last week but haven't really worked on it til this past weekend. Made with some vinca sock yarn (I think). I wanted this to be my work project, but so far almost everything I bring to the office to work on during breaks and stuff ... yeah, it doesn't happen.


The Float Stole. Slowly and bit by bit it's progressing. I'm starting row 14.


I love the little row of YO's. I think they look so sweet just sitting there waiting for the rest of the pattern so it can be shown off to it's best advantage. :-)



I did complete a mitten. I'm making a pair for DS for the coming winter. I'm making them with extra long cuffs and using a pattern "guide" thingy from a book someone was kind enough to loan me. I made the finger part of the mitten too long even though I had ripped it back significantly. The thumb gusset is perfect. I will rip the finger part *again.*


I have to admit though, I haven't been feeling much like knitting. I'm in the mood for reading. I requested the first book of the Stephanie Plum series from the library. Some of the women in my moms group have been tearing through them.

We have also been doing a little bit of geocaching. DS thinks the best part of geocaching has been finding the raspberries in the woods. We found one this weekend that was the start of a multicache. We haven't run across one of those before. I had no writing utensils or camera with me so we had to just put it back. DS said he wanted to find "treasures that had toys in them." :-) So you know where his mind was at.

FO ~ On the Metro socks

From Wendyknits "Socks from the toe up" book



I have to say that I'm so so glad to be done with them. Nothing wrong with the pattern. All errors on my part. But I did get frustrated with these socks. And with that's had been going on IRL it took me a while to complete the second sock. I can tell I was much more tense during the first sock.


I put no cuff on these socks. The reason: I wanted to just be done with that first sock. I seen a pair of socks in CookieA's book and they looked pretty fabulous without a cuff. I kind of like how the top kind of rolls. It has this ruffly look to it as well.

So onto the next project. I'm not sure what I'm gonna start next though. I do know I want to spend some time on my stole. Otherwise that poor thing is never gonna get done. I'm on row 11 I think.

FO ~ Fetching fingerless mitts

Fetching fingerless mitts. Actually I finished this a couple weeks ago.
I made these for my niece for her graduation. I figured these would be good as she walks across the college campus and studying.


I used knitpicks Andean silk yarn in the Merlin colorway. I loved the squishyness of this stuff.


I did an accidental modification on this. I used smaller needles. I realized something was amiss when I had plenty of yarn leftover when I finished the second mitt.

What is this?

This is my "lock box"


Inside?


Why it's my float stole! Yes, I started it up again this weekend.


I've pulled out all the stops on this one. I have point protectors, a row counter and whenever I'm not working on this it's going to go back into the lock box. Since I've taken this photo I've completed 4 full rows.

Mel Hunt, the designer of this lovely pattern has her blog here.

FO ~ Gossip Gloves

Pattern can be found here. Nice, eh?

I don't remember how I came across this pattern. I was probably googling fingerless mitts.

I seen this pattern and went "ah ha!" This pattern would be perfect for the handspun I've had just kind of sitting around and waiting for a pattern.


I think the only thing I would add to this pattern is maybe do a thumb gusset. I'm not sure how I would go about deciphering where in the pattern it would go so I will have to research that. I really do love fingerless mitts. This is the first pair for myself though. All the others have been gifts. The fiber is "bluebell" colonial top from Ashland Bay company.

Yes, this is *that* blog entry ...

You know, the first one after not blogging for like a month.

So here is a couple of daisy's from the garden.


Once again, life is busy, but thanks to having a day off from work and basically unplugging from the Internet I feel like I'm starting to catch up on things and starting to feel balance again.

Work is still crazy, but I'm getting used to that. It will still be a while before things settle back down into a routine.

I've finished some things and started some things. I will post them all separately.

This past weekend we went strawberry picking. I got my canning fix and out of one bucket of strawberries I got 12 - 8 ounce jars and 6 pints of strawberry jam. It is very yummy if I do say so myself.


I have also collected a new hobby. I am now a geocacher. Last Monday I got my new handheld GPS. It took me a while to figure it out. But once I did, everything else seems to be just falling into place. We got this one because it has all the maps you could want. Some GPSs make you buy the maps and the cheap ends up expensive. And since I figured I'd want this to OTR directions as well, this one seemed like the perfect one. I'm very happy with it.


So far we have found three geocaches. We even discovered a cemetery that we didn't know existed. It's somewhere around 100 years old but someone is still taking care of it. There were little flags next to some of the tombstones. I'd love to go back there and stay longer but the flying bugs were bad even with having repellent on.

My baby tomatoes seem to be doing great.

They are about 3 weeks old and are just getting their second set of true leaves. The are looking pretty healthy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


I know at some point they are going to be too big for my little bookshelf green house. I may make a light stand out of PVC so I can adjust the lights once these guys are in bigger pots. I'm debating on whether to bring the bigger bookshelf greenhouse up from the garage. I've have to rearrange some stuff in the living room if I do. Then I suppose I'd have a good excuse to start even more plants.

Bad knitting week and some garden babble

Earlier this week I had a mishap with my sock and I couldn't fix the error. I frogged it.

A couple days ago, after six hours of work (not consecutive, of course) I had a misshap with my stole. Not my fault. But I was in the middle of a row in the project and the stole got flipped and a needle pulled out. No way of fixing it.

So that's been frogged.

What is up with the week?

And the stole is the first project where I have really felt the pain of having to rip something back. I was just starting to see the pattern and I'm just so excited to have this piece done so I can wear it.

The sock I started over again last night but I didn't get too far into it. The good news about the sock is that I've learned how to use Judy's magic cast on. I went to the knitty.com article and learned it. I tried watching the Cat Bordhi video on youtube. But honestly, all the talk about the vine, the sideways clock and the funny voices didn't do anything to help me learn this technique. Plus it was slow moving. I think I would have understood it better if it flowed faster. But that's me.

Well, I'm not sure how much knitting I'm gonna get accomplished this next week. I get to start showing the new people at work the ropes and routine of putting the paper out. I also intend to start getting more exercise in so the knitting is going to be put a bit further down on the list for a while.

Meanwhile, my garden seems to be doing good. DH mentioned how I used to be so proud of my garden and how I used to take all kinds of photos, which is true. I haven't taken much photos this year. This year I've got all these baby Jacob's Ladder popping up.

Since having a child and always having to mind what he's doing outside (and not running out into the street) I've been kind of lax on the photo taking and garden care. Gardening was my first passion. But the last four years I haven't been able to concentrate on it.

The green houses around here have not too much of a selection this year. I haven't gone to the higher end green houses yet. But I'm sure they are pricier. This coming fall/spring I intend to give it yet one more shot on starting plants indoors. Seeing Chrissy's success at the indoor stuff has just spurned me on. I certainly have the space. I have the lighting. It's no longer freezing in our house during the winter. I have no excuse. DH has even encouraged me and reminded me that I have two greenhouses, lol. The only thing I have to lose is the investment of time and the money I put into buying the seeds.