"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

3/31/11

Day 4: Whatever Happened to...?




Whatever happened to your __________?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

There are a lot of different aspects to look at when looking back at a knitting project and it can make for interesting blogging, as much of the time we blog about items recently , new and freshly completed. It is not so often that we look back at what has happened to these items after they have been around for a while.

How has one of your past knits lived up to wear. Maybe an item has become lost. Maybe you spent weeks knitting your giant-footed dad a pair of socks in bright pink and green stripes which he then ‘lost’. If you have knit items to donate to a good cause, you could reflect on the ways in which you hope that item is still doing good for it’s owner or the cause it was made to support.

I've made a lot of things in my 43 years of knitting. A great deal of it was given away as gifts, or to charity. I can count on one hand the number of people who received the gifts from me that ever actually wore or used them. I occasionally have that question come to mind, "What ever did happen to...?".

In 1997 I knit beautiful cotton dishcloths for each of my inlaws for Christmas. I never saw  them being used after the brightly wrapped packages were opened. Actually, I never saw any of them ever again. One year I knit hats for all the nephews and nieces for Christmas. I never saw them again either. I don't knit gifts like that for family anymore.

The project I find myself wondering about the most lately, though, is my very first fairisle sweater. I made it in the early 80's for one of my sisters. It was from a pattern published in a womans magazine that my mother gave me. It was one of 3 or 4 sweaters that the very popular Princes Diana wore and the magazine got permission to publish the patterns for them. The sweater featured a South American theme in the design of llamas and geometrical shapes and whatnot. I don't remember it as well as I wish I could. I didn't take a picture of it when it was done either. I regret that. I remember making it in shades of blue and aqua. I remember it took many many hours to knit it. I remember it turned out very well and I was quite proud of it. I wish I knew what happened to it. I never heard. I don't even know if she ever got it. It disappeared into the ether.

I'm very picky about who I knit gifts for now. It's kind of pointless to knit something that the receiver doesn't want. It definitely is a waste of my time. I make sure the receiver of the gift is actually someone who will want what I've knitted. For instance, I knit for my son-in-law. He loves the socks I've knit for him. He wears them all the time. I've even had to mend some so he could keep wearing them. Last year I made a sweater for him. My daughter tells me he wears it. I'm so happy, and relieved, to hear it. Knitting for Frank gives me a lot of joy.

So, if you happen to be reading this, and you are one of the people I knitted a gift for, and you actually used it, please let me know.

Live long and prosper. \\//


3/30/11

Day 3: Tidy Mind, Tidy Stitches



Tidy Mind, Tidy Stitches- How do you keep your yarn wrangling organized? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organization exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organized at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organized, blog about an aspect of that organization process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organized stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Bwuahahahahahahaaahahhaahaha...! (gasp) The idea of me having my yarn stash organized is hilarious! It's not. There are only 2 yarns that are organized in my stash. My sock yarn, which I keep in 5 large plastic boxes stacked on a shelf in the room I laughingly call my knitting studio/store room,

5th box not pictured


and the yarn I bring home from Knitwits for the charity knitting-which I keep in a box in the dining room. The rest of it is in boxes and bags wherever I could stash them so they'd be out of the way.

Sterilite 18868006 35-Quart Latch Box See-Through with White Lid and Peacock Latches, Clear, 6-PackThe sock yarn is organized by accident. After a couple years of it all lying around the house in small piles where it could easily be touched and admired (there was a lot less of it then), I decided to keep it in the plastic boxes to protect it from the creepy crawlys, dust, and light because I have a serious penchant for hand painted indie sock yarns, which are rather expensive-thus worthy of extra care. I started with 2 boxes. I just recently purchased a 5th box.

Bankers Box 0070308 Stor/file storage box, lift-off lid, letter/legal, 12x10x15, white, 4/ctThe yarn I bring home from Knitwits is yarn that has been donated to the group specifically for us to use for our charity knitting (or crochet). I keep it separate from the rest of my yarn for that reason. I take it's purpose seriously. I would never use it for a personal project. Frankly, I don't need to. I've got a yarn shops worth of yarn that I own for personal knitting. There is only one cardboard file box that I use to store the Knitwits yarn. I keep it confined to the size of that box. I take the yarn back to the group meetings if there are leftovers, or I've decided I'm not going to use it after all. That way someone else in the group can use it.

Boye NeedleMaster 200 Interchangeable Needle SetMy needles are fairly well organized. That's because I keep them in their cases when I'm not using them. It took several years, but I finally learned that if I put them in their case, I can find them when I need them. What a concept, eh?

I own mostly circular needles. I stopped using straights a long time ago. I have a few that I keep in a vase in the above mentioned knitting/storage room. I gave the rest, along with all my double pointed ones, to my knitting daughter. They are her problem now.

For my circulars I have two cases. Obviously, I keep my Boye Needlemaster needles in their case. The rest I keep in a circular needle case made by Ellen's Originals. Unfortunately, they are no longer in business, which is a shame because their cases and totes were wonderful. They were a popular purchase in my shop. I wonder what happened to them? Anyway, Herrschners has a quilted one that is very similar in design.

My needle case is made of upholstery material in a leopard print. (I just happen to have a knitting tote that matches it, also from Ellen's Originals.) with clear plastic pockets for the needles. I have Addi Turbo needles, with the occasional Inox, Boye, or Susan Bates As you can see in the picture I've taken of it, it is stuffed to bulging. Any more needles bought and I will need another case. I'm already stretching the velcro closure to the max.



Live long and prosper. \\//

3/29/11

Day 2: Skill + 1UP



  
Skill + 1UP- Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks? In looking over my knitting AND beading this past year I find I have indeed learned new skills in both.

In knitting, as regular readers know, I've learned Entrelac, and I'm luvin' it.


 I'm thoroughly hooked on it. I see myself knitting several Entrelac projects over the next few months. I'd thought about learning Entrelac for years. I don't know why it took so long for me to try it. It turned out to be fairly simple.

Besides Entrelac, I've learned something else too. The reality of learning something new is far easier then how one imagines it will be.

In beading I learned how to make hollow beaded beads in peyote.


 In all honesty, I didn't know it could be done until I took on the Italian beading project. When I saw the list of materials needed and didn't see any wooden beads to be covered, I admit I was puzzled. I'm so glad I took the class. I found the whole experience fun and educational. Even exhilarating.

Live long and prosper. \\//

3/28/11

Day One: A Tale of Two Yarns



Last year I participated in Knitting And Crochet Blog Week. I'm doing the same this year too. It starts today. The topic is:

A Tale of Two Yarns- Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

First of all, these are my opinions. I don't expect anyone else to feel the same as me.

I'm starting with the loathe. Cotton.


Lily Sugar'n Cream Lily Sugar n Cream Stripes Worsted Weight Yarn I  can't stand knitting with cotton. I will knit with it if necessary, but I don't like it. There is no elasticity in cotton. No stretch and bounce. Worst of all, it hurts my hands because of that lack of give. I have to take frequent breaks when knitting with cotton to avoid damaging my hands. It's terrible at holding on to dye too. Who hasn't noticed if you wash your favorite cotton sweater it fades?

I've always felt this way about cotton yarn. Even when I was heavily into machine knitting. It was very difficult to get cotton yarn through the machine. If the tension dial wasn't set just right, and the stitch size too small I would bend or even break needles. If it was too loose, I was dropping stitches right and left.

I know it's nice and cool to wear in the summer, and earth friendly too. I don't care. I loathe knitting with it. For the most part, if I want a cotton sweater, I won't hesitate to go buy one ready made.


Now the love. Dinosaur Yarn.


Berroco Vintage
 Also known as Acrylic, say what you want to about it, I love it. I know, it's not natural or even earth friendly being that it's a form of plastic made from petroleum products (oil) that have to be processed quite a bit to be turned into yarn, but I love it.

Acrylics have been and continue to be improved. They are closer to the feel and quality of wool now than ever. Good quality acrylics are less expensive than natural fibers, soft, warm, stain proof, moth proof, shrink proof, machine wash and dryable, durable, colorfast, non-allergenic, don't pill much, easy to work with, come in all kinds of textures and weights from the finest of lace to the chunkiest of chunks. It comes in a host of vibrant colors, many not achievable in wool, and seem to last forever. It also has all the wonderful elasticity of wool.

I do agree that it won't keep you warm if it's wet like wool will but I rarely get wet when I'm wearing a sweater anyway. I'm not saying I don't like wool either. I love wool. Everyone sings the praises of wool though. Hardly anyone sings the praises of todays Dinosaur yarns. So many people remember the acrylics of the past that were scratchy, squeaky, and even somewhat stiff. They aren't like that any more. Some rival even the best cashmere in softness. It's time to dump that preconceived notion from our brains.


Live long and prosper. \\//

3/27/11

One Stitch at a Time

Since last Wednesday I've been plugging away on my knitting projects, one stitch at a time. I'm making slow, but steady progress, for the most part.

On Thursday I talked to Andrea about teaching a class on how to make Entrelac fingerless mitts for her. She was concerned that the fact my mitts are made with a yarn and color she doesn't carry would cause problems. That's easy to fix. Knit some using yarn from her shop. So she and I picked out a yarn together, I've set aside my own mitt project for now, and I started a mitt for display purposes in her shop to advertise the class. I'm also writing up my own pattern, since what I've got is quite different from the original pattern I started knitting. I've worked on this project the most since starting it.


We decided to go with Ty-Dy Socks from Knit One Crochet Two yarns since she has plenty of it in stock. I really really like this yarn. It is so nice to work with. I like the way the colors are knitting up too.

I also got back to working on the mint colored socks I've started for a gift for someone.


It's an interesting stitch pattern. I don't think I can memorize it though. It's 32 rows long and 32 stitches wide. Aww, but I love a challenge!

On Saturday we had the most awesome spring weather of the year. It was sunny, warm, and the air even smelled like spring. Sweet Hubby went for a 35 mile bike ride. Sweet Daughter decided to go for a long walk. I was home alone. So I took advantage of the opportunity. I dragged St Brigid out to the deck and sat and worked on her for a couple hours while soaking up some of those warm sunrays. It was heavenly. I got a few  more rows done.


Doesn't look like much for a couple hours worth of work, does it? This is going to be a time consuming project. I'm working off of 5 different stitch pattern charts on each row. Three of the charts are 24 rows long. You can see some of the cables are starting to show. I think, after a couple pattern repeats, it'll get easier.

I have to say working with Alpaca is a dream. My hands are luvin' it!

Today, after such a glorious Saturday, I woke up to an inch of new snow on the ground and it was coming down like crazy. All I could do was laugh. Mother Earth can be so cruel.

Live long and prosper. \\//



3/24/11

Tommy Dresses Up

I had to take some pictures of Tommy modeling some of his sweaters today. The folks with the chihuahua want to see what kind of dog sweaters I make. He was quite willing to pose for treats. Here's a few of the results. I made all these sweaters when I still had my shop, between 2002 and 2006.

This first one was made with Patons Canadiana Colors-a wonderful marled/variegated 100% acrylic that was discontinued right after I discovered it. (sigh)


Such a handsome boy. He's sporting his grey and brown variegated 100% acrylic sweater with brown trim. Both yarns are Patons Canadiana.


Hey! Gotta treat for me?


This is Tommy's dark charcoal grey heathered sweater made with Leader, which I think was a Phildar yarn, if I remember correctly. It's no longer available, which is a shame because it was a very nice yarn.

Ha ha! She said a funny!



I make this look good!



After taking the pictures I sat down to knit in the sun until the shade creeped across the deck to where I was sitting. Tommy settled down to snooze in the sun for a bit. He used a pile of pine needles for a pillow.


Shortly after I took that last picture a pack of coyotes showed up across the street and erupted into a storm of bone chilling, hair raising howling and yelping, which scared the bejeezers out of me, so I grabbed Tommy and went back in the house, where it's safe.  shudder!

It was supposed to be miserable and rainy all day, but we got nice weather instead. Hey! I could go for a whole week of that.

Live long and prosper. \\//


3/23/11

WIP Wednesday March 23, 2011


I have finished the first Entrelac mitt. Well, almost finished. I haven't woven in the ends or blocked it yet, but I did talk my awesome daughter into modeling it for me.


 Looking good! I'm happy with it.


 Happy enough to cast on the second one right away.


I wonder if I can figure out how to reverse the thumb so it will be a mirror image of the first mitt? Hmmm.... (enter sound of squeaky gears turning inside head here)


If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

~~~~~~~~~~

When I was at Yarnies this morning, a couple came in with the cutest long haired chihuahua. They were looking for someone to knit a sweater for said chihuahua. I've volunteered. It's so tiny it won't take much time at all. And it's a girl. I think I'd enjoy knitting for a girl doggy for a change.

We had sunshine today. It was 54F degrees out. I actually got to sit out on the deck in the sunshine and knit. It was wonderful. The weather is supposed to return to cold and wet tomorrow. I sure enjoyed the sun while it lasted.

Live long and prosper. \\//

3/20/11

Sunday Ramblings

Has it been 4 days since I posted here? Goodness! But I've been a busy little bee. Never a dull moment here at the Parkarosa.

Saturday was the annual Log Cabin Spinners Spin In. Though I'm no longer a member of the group, I still go to the Spin In every year because it's a lot of fun. This year I took my Navajo spindle. I had this silly idea I'd sit and spin instead of knit. Ha! I couldn't even remember how to get started. Thankfully, Jean, the gal who taught me to begin with (and gave me the spindle) was there and gave me a refresher lesson.

As usual, there was a market of vendors there. I succumbed to some Mountain Colors yarn.



I am a little disappointed though. My favorite vendors were not there. I was hoping to hand over some of my sweet hubbies hard earned money to them.

I did knit for awhile after I had enough spinning. I worked on the Entrelac mitt, which got a LOT of attention! Apparently folks don't see Entrelac very often, if at all. I got to answer lots of questions, and demo a couple times too.

I am sort of up to the beginning of the top ribbing.


I say 'sort of' because, again, I'm not happy with it. Something is wrong with the way I did the thumb, so I'm gonna frog it back and redo it. I checked out the notes written by others on Ravelry who have knit this pattern. Problems with the thumb, amongst other things, is common for this pattern. I think I may know what is wrong now. I'm going to try a couple of the solutions I found. I hope I can make it work.

For the past few days my daughter, Ruth, has been helping me with a project. Several months ago I brought home 3 boxes of  afghan squares that were donated to Knitwits and given to me to assemble into afghans. The first thing needed to be done was all the squares needed to be blocked. That's what we've been working on.


The row of piles in the back are blocked. The two piles in front are the next batches to get blocked. There is another pile not shown in the pic too, but I haven't dragged it out of the box just yet. Ruth is going to help sew them into afghans too. I was feeling just too overwhelmed every time I looked at it. Having her help has been a good inspiration for me to get the task done.

Weather report for the last week? Snow, followed by drowning rain, bits of sun, scourings of hail, blasts of wind, and more snow. I think spring may be around the corner. We're getting the really weird 5 minute weather days again.

Live long and prosper. \\//

3/16/11

WIP Wednesday March 16, 2011



Featuring a new and an 'old' project today. First is the focal bead for the Italian bead class. I've received the last installment of the class and here's what I've done with it so far.


I've just realized I photographed it upside down. We're looking at the bottom on the top. Oh whatever! Anyway, I was working on the embellishment part last night and stopped 3 crystals short of having it done because I ran out. I've found the second package of crystals and will probably finish it tonight. I need to make one more of the beaded beads, attach the angel inside the above container, and then I can make the necklace with these various parts.

A loved one's birthday is coming up in a few weeks so I've started a pair of socks.


This is the cuff, which I really like a lot. The yarn is a mint/grey combo that I bought from Knitivity when he was having one of his Blog Reader specials. You should check him out. He has interesting yarns. The pattern is TTL mystery sock from a knitalong that was held some time ago. There are pics on Ravelry, so it's not a mystery what it will look like for me.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

~~~~~~~~~~~

All that hope for a sunny day warm enough to sit out on the deck this week has been dashed. Now the predictions are for rain, rain, and more rain, and temps in the 40F's. Phooey!

Kitchen ant update: Yesterday, after not seeing any ants in the kitchen for a couple days, I picked up one of my orchid pots near the kitchen sink and found a whole colony of the little buggers living under it. They've been hiding there since I put out the bait. I grabbed a can of Raid ant spray and put them out of my misery. I refreshed the bait too. Now I'm finding female Carpenter Ants in the house. ARRGH!!! Time to put bait in other places besides the kitchen counter now. The war is on! I shall not be defeated.

Live long and prosper.\\//

3/13/11

Planets in Space - Take 2

Yesterday I finished the second version of Planets in Space, the necklace I made with my first polymer clay cabochon/cane project. 


I incorporated the moon, 3mm Swarovski crystals, and star beads plus I added some AB black teardrops that I found when I rummaged around in the stash. I also found some 5-petaled flower beads to use as spacers on the ends of the peyote tubes.


And I even had enough of the peyote tubes to make a matching bracelet.


I am infinitely happier with this one than I was the previous one.

 ~~~~~~~~~~

I heard right away from the winner of my little contest. So it is officially done.

The Entrelac mitt is coming along fine. My method for making it smaller is working out fantastic. It fits so much better now. I'm one tier of squares before the thumb. The thumb is supposed to be done flat then seamed. I am anticipating doing it, figuring out how to do it in the round, frogging it, and doing it over my way (the thumb, that is). We'll see how it goes.

Last night we attended a party for my nephew Tyler. He has joined the army and will be shipping out for boot camp later this week. This was our opportunity to say good bye, good luck, keep yerself out of trouble, etc. I took the mitt with me to work on during conversations. I got a lot of compliments on it. Entrelac is fascinating to look at as well as do.

We got a lot of rain the last few days. I was beginning to wonder if I should get the kayak out of storage.It cleared up though and the sun is shining today. Rumor has it the next few days are going to be warm and sunny. As in, 50F degrees and warmer. I am so hoping that happens. If it does, I just may sit out on the deck in the sunshine and knit. Woot!

I am so sick of winter and it's drab color. I want spring with its bright green leaves. I think we are going to get an early one. There isn't nearly as much snow right now as there was this time last year. Hurray! The Parkarosa Bird buffet has been extremely busy with customers of late. The cats were finding it entertaining to sit on the windowsills and watch them.

Well, I need to sign off soon. Sweet Hubby is champing at the bit. On Friday our satellite dish signal went down. We're getting no signal at all. I've set up an appointment for the repair guy to come out on Monday. However Sweet Hubby went out and did a little investigating and figured out what was wrong (water got in and rusted out a wire connection). He wants to go into Coeur d'Alene to buy parts. If he can fix it, that'll save us the $95 to have repair guy come out.

Live long and prosper. \\//

3/8/11

The Winner!

Okay, I tossed everyones name in one of Sweet Hubbies hats.


Awesome Daughter is still in bed, so I got Sweet Hubby to draw the winning name.

Congratulations go to Marguerite!


(Yes, Marguerite. I cracked up laughing, after saying "Oh My God!", to which Sweet Hubby responded "Don't blame me!")

Email your address to me and I'll drop it in tomorrow's mail.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I frogged the Enterlac mitt and started it over. It was way too big for me. (Awesome Daughter was starting to refer to it as my Entrelac leg warmer.) I have calculated how to make it smaller and have cast on again using a size smaller needle. We'll see how it goes. Everyone around me is shocked that I frogged it. I don't quite understand that. If I'm not happy with something I'm knitting, I have to fix it. What is the big deal? Besides, I don't have nearly enough of that yarn to make leg warmers.

Just before I went to bed last night I found 2 itty bitty ants in the kitchen (which promptly got squished and flushed down the sink drain). There were none this morning. I am pleased.

Live long and prosper. \\//

3/7/11

Terro

I'm not one for endorsing products like a raving lunatic, but I'm devoting todays post to an ant killer. Last spring ants invaded my kitchen. I had 3 kinds of ants. Big black carpenter ants, medium sized black ants, and itty bitty sugar ants. Ever since, I've been buying ant bait and putting it around the kitchen. I got rid of the middle sized ants with the Grants Ants bait. But I still had the other ants. So I tried Raid bait. That got rid of the Carpenter ants. But until this last weekend, nothing I tried could get rid of those itty bitty sugar ants. I didn't want to resort to calling an exterminator, or worse yet, putting a giant poison filled tent around my house and moving out for a couple weeks. So I asked friends and acquaintances for advice, and tried everything they suggested.

In the meantime the tiny little pests were getting worse. I couldn't stand it. I'd scoop out a spoonful of sugar from the sugar bowl and drop it into my coffee, and there'd be 3 ants swimming around screaming for help. I would have probably developed quite a reputation as a lifeguard in the ant world, except every one I rescued got sucked down into the garbage disposal immediately after.

One friend suggested I get some Borax because ants love it. Borax is something we used to add to our laundry to help the detergent work better back in the day. I remember having to use it years and years ago, but not in a long time. I looked in all the different grocery stores trying to find some. Do you think anyone around here carries Borax? Fat chance. I was beginning to doubt it was still being made.

Last Friday I popped into our local little hardware store to see what other kinds of ant bait I might try (sigh) and found some called Terro. It has Borax in it. Oddly (insert Twilight Zone Music here) they had Borax too. I decided to try the Terro first. If it didn't work, then I'd break down and buy that huge box of Borax (enough for my decendents to kill off ants for centuries).



 Terro is a liquid bait. You put a couple drops of it on a piece of cardboard, aluminum foil, or whatever, and leave it on the kitchen counters, or wherever else ants are hangin' out. The ants are supposed to haul off bits of it to the nest where everybody eats it and dies.

BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!

According to the box, I was gonna have to put drops out every day for 2 weeks before I'd see results. So yesterday I dutifully put 5 small pieces of baited cardboard out on the kitchen counter near the sugar canister, and the sugar bowl next to the coffee maker, and by the sink. In no time the ants were all over that bait! They were practically fighting over it.

This morning I got up and there is not one single ant of any size anywhere in my house. They are all gone, in less than 24 hours! I didn't have to throw a life jacket into my coffee this morning. It was wonderful! I am going to keep putting bait out for a few more days just to make sure they stay gone.

You got ants? Get some Terro! My goodness that stuff works good!

I wish there was something like that for pine beetles.

Live long and prosper. \\//

3/5/11

I've Gone and Done It

Okay, so I decided to post the 'Captain Picard Would Wear These' sock pattern. You can find it on the Beadknitter Patterns blog. Please let me know what you think of them in the comments.



Live long and prosper. \\//

3/3/11

Ruminating

Don't have anything specific to write about. Just want to put ideas down in 'black and white' to sort out the thoughts in the head.

We have sunshine this morning. The weatherman says it will rain later today, then sunny tomorrow. Yay! It's going to be in the 40F's for the highs. Almost shorts weather! Ha ha! Sweet Hubby has gone into training, so the sunshine is welcome!

Sweet Hubby has been talking all our married life about going on a bike ride across the country. I have encouraged him to work toward that goal. Lets get it over with before he's too old, is what I'm thinking. So, last weekend I talked him into registering to join a bike ride that will be local, and not quite as far. Called the WaCanId Ride, it's 350 miles done in 5 days. The route will take him on the Selkirk loop through bits of Washington, Canada, and Idaho. He needs to start out crawling before he does a country wide marathon. He also needs to know if he's actually going to like doing this type of thing before he commits to a 3-month bike ride. The ride is in September, so he's got time to get in shape. And he needs to be IN shape. He'll be biking with young guys, doing 50 to 80 miles a day. Don't wanna be left in their dust!

Now, if I could find someone to go with him, like his brother, or one of our nephews. I'd feel a lot better about it all.

Lots of birds at the Parkarosa bird buffet this week. Mostly the usual Chickadees, Nuthatches, Flickers, Finches, and Magpies. My daughter has seen a female Black Headed Grosbeak a couple times. No males though, yet. For the first time since winter started I've heard the call of the Towhee's. Mating season has begun.

Last night I sat down and wrote up the pattern for my Star Trek socks. I'm thinking about posting it up this coming weekend. I won't call them Star Trek socks because I think the Star Trek name is trademarked. I could get in trouble for that. However, I want it to be obvious what they are. So I've come up with an idea. How about "Captain Picard Would Wear These Socks"? (Yes, I know Captain Janeway would probably wear them too, but that is beside the point.) Kind of a long title, but catchy.

The other problem with the pattern is that the gold metallic yarn I used has been discontinued by the company that sells it, Patons. Something I didnt' know when I bought the yarn. I have done no research into a suitable substitute. I'm not wanting to either. A part of me says "not my problem". There are tons and tons of patterns out there written for yarns no longer made. At the same time, I hate it when a brand new pattern comes out with a discontinued yarn used in it. What to do, what to do...?

Went to Knitwits yesterday. I was hoping to find more of the winter white yarn to finish the sweater I'm working on. No such luck. Couldn't even find something close, so I've come up with a wacky idea involving a beautiful shade of wine red. (I wanted black, but there weren't any that had more than one skein available) It will be kind of funky, but I also think it will be pretty, and I won't have to frog the sleeve that is finished.

I worked some on the enterlac project last night. Got a couple more rounds of squares done. I did have to frog a row earlier in the day. The row I knitted the day before, to be precise. It was all wrong. Suddenly I had no edge to pick up sts on, but I'd only done 4 squares. There's 6 squares in a round. I knew I needed to be picking something up. Where did it go? Thanks to my daughter, we figured out what I'd done wrong. Apparently I wasn't paying attention when I was at Rathdrum Knitalong on Tuesday (chatting and all that) and accidentally turned and went the wrong direction for four squares. Making that mistake, and figuring out what was wrong caused a lightbulb to click on in my head and suddenly knitting Entrelac in the round is a piece of cake.

By the way, I'm making fingerless mitts, not socks.

Live long and prosper. \\//

3/2/11

WIP Wednesday March 2, 2011

It's WIP Wednesday!



I have Entrelac!


I'm actually enjoying it. I thought it would be mercilessly fiddly, but it's quite interesting.

I've added to the stocking. Santa is pretty much done.


Here's some detail.


Next, the tree!

Don't forget to check out my contest.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper.\\//