What is the date????

As a person working in an accounting office of a retail store, I am always amazed at how time flies! "Time to do payroll AGAIN"? "Month end reports THIS weekend?"......"I last blogged WHEN?"!!!!

A lot has happened since I last was here. I received a shipment from my new friend Joyce http://www.elliebelly.com/ two wonderful skeins of her hand dyed yarn in the Judea coloway and a bump of top to play with! All tied up in the bag with a piece of her hand dyed ribbon!!! Take a moment and go see her site! Her artwork is as amazing as her fibers! You haven't gone yet? !!

I've completed several pairs of socks for the 52Pair Plunge II on Ravelry. This past week I did a sock from two different pairs as I'm taking the train to work and there are just some days there is NO way I can follow a pattern no matter how simple the repeat is!!! The yellow/green/blue is more vibrant than it appears here! The brown one is alpaca and I can't wait to finish the second one this week!! Those are NOT going to be up for sale!!!

On the business side of things, I've been working with my sister trying to promote the yarn and fiber at her 'job'. I put it in quotes because she has to slave away playing with fiber...processing it and helping to dye and sell while looking out at the sheep in the pastures! Don't you feel sorry for her??? LOL!

Ok....I'll try to get on more this week....now back to work!!!

Time Flies!

Wow! So much time has passed since my last post! 20 days to be exact!!!
So much has happened in that time....so much hasn't!!!

Several pairs of socks done for the 52 Pair Plunge II!
Neither the Knitting at Night Voyager Stole nor the Goddessknits KAL Mystery Shawl have grown by even one stitch. I started taking the train to work and back and knit for a good hour on socks. When I get home I try and get more knitting done but by then it's 7:30pm or 8:30pm depending on my schedule and after getting dinner done etc. I'm not left with a lot of energy and certainly no patience for lace!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Here is Pair #3... a great pair of socks we call "Abraham's Not a Chance Sox".
At World Wide Knit in Public Day I was gifted with this skein of 100% ORANGE wool. I was being good and saying no to more yarn...my stash takes up a whole room...REALLY! But Abraham insisted. So I said yes and as I was making these for him he said he would NEVER wear them in public. When I suggested I give them to someone else he started to whine that I had already given them to him!!

This is a pair I made from some Alpaca/Wool blend that I found hiding in my stash! I made another pair last year and my sister submitted them in the New York Sheep & Wool show but they didn't place as they were in the wool catagory not "other fiber". My other two pair won a Third Place and a Fifth Place ribbon!! This was pair #3 for the 52 Pair Plunge.

I'm short a pair and don't have the picture for the pair I'm working on now out of 100% Bamboo yarn....love it!!! So soft with a great drape. I've received mixed reaction on how good it wears as a sock. We'll see!!!!

Also, this past week we were lucky enough to meet a new fiber friend from Ravelry! Joyce posted on our Stitch and Beach group to ask if there was a place to knit while she was here in Long Beach for a conference. Abraham and I offered to pick her up and take her with us and we haven't stopped talking about how funny and warm she is! Not to mention talented! Her website is full of wonderful art she's created: hand painted yarns and ribbons and silk, wonderful collage multi-media art and jewelry....an amazing assortment of wonderous fun! As we were looking at her site last nite we were making a list of what we could get for Christmas gifts for those nearest and dearest to us!!! We felt like we made a lifelong friend! go see her site http://www.elliebelly.com/ and do some shopping! http://www.joycevance.typepad.com/ is her blog site.

Let's see.....I know there is more.....I'll have to add more later. Lunch hour is over!!!

A day late and a sock....and a bit short!

Okay...so it's going to be a weekly posting! I started last Saturday with the KAL (knit along) 52 Pair Plunge on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/ which is 1 pair of socks every week for a year! Well.....it's now Sunday and I'm at work sneaking in rounds on Sock #1 of Pair #1 of Week #1 on the first day of WEEK #2!!!!!! AHHH!!

I'm making it out of Flat Feet sock yarn http://www.conjoinedcreations.com/that is a machine knit flat of yarn that is then hand dyed. You actually knit unraveling the piece! Such fun and the mystery of how the pattern will work up is fun too! The sock pattern I'm using is Gentleman's Sock in Railway Stitch from KNITTING VINTAGE SOCKS. The pattern was a bit challanging and especially so when you factor in the time crunch! The patterns in this wonderful book are (as it says!) vintage patterns re-written for today's knitters! I've changed the pattern slightly by not continuing the pattern down the top of the foot as my feet are sensitive (diabetic neuropothy) and I figured it would work up faster! I have 3 socks to knit this week!!

I started riding the train to work as it's getting too expensive to drive the 30 miles each way to work with my 'cheapie' gas station now getting $4.45 for regular! My car requires high test...although I've been cheating and giving her the mid range! Shhhhh! The train gives me about and hour each way to knit undisturbed...well, most of the time!! Can't knit on the connecting bus runs due to the bumping but I'll work on that!

Other knitting news....our friend Mattie owns Picture This Framing and Art Gallery, a wonderful happy place where she (duh!) does picture framing but also hosts wonderful art shows promoting usually unknown artists. She's been after Abraham and I for years to bring our work in. I finally did and most of it sold!!! So, I've been working on getting more scarves done and a few other fun things! It was exciting last nite to go to an opening and watch people look at my work and tell me how much they liked it!! I even may have a gig next year demo-ing spinning/knitting at a local tourist attraction! One of the people in attendance books the 'talent'! Exciting isn't it!!

Well, as usual I'm posting this at work. So, better actually get some done!! Being a Sunday it's very slow today, giving me time to knit and say hello to all of you!! Thanks for the comments you've left!!! Amazing how many of you are reading this!!! Have a great week and do something that makes you smile!

A whole week already?

Wow! A whole week has flown by and I'm back at work blogging. Sensing a pattern here?

So, I had three days off with the Memorial Day holiday. So I swore I would do nothing but fiber related projects for all three days!! Except for one outing for groceries and one outing to take a friend to our favorite Chinese buffet (Hi Sharone!).mmmm sushi! ..that's what I did....I knit and spun for 3 whole days!

Then back to work and home to knit some more! I worked on the test swatch for the Goddess Knits mystery stole KAL that I thought started on the 1st but actually starts on the 14th!

I also worked on the Voyager Stole KAL that I'm doing with Casey of Knitting At Night podcast fame. Love the podcast and I'm going slow on the KAL but enjoying it!

I also started and finished a last minute gift scarf for a co-worker and finished up a few other small things I had in the final stages... a sock....a scarf...a hat....of course found many others that I need to finish! When did I start all these projects??? LOL! I also did a few hours of spinning. I'm so out of practice I'm back to beginner status!

Tonite my bestest bud Margie will be over to do some fiber-ing and in the morning we will be taking her to our favorite Indian buffet (sensing a pattern here?) for brunch and back home for more knitting and spinning! Well back to work so I can afford more yarn!

Finished socks, more projects to start!

Here is the finished pair of socks! Got up at 5:45am with a NEED to get the toe done on sock #2!
Done by 6:30 with plenty of time to photograph them and get ready for work!
I'm now at work trying to get paperwork out of the way so I can work on my Voyager lace stole that others in my KAL group are 1/2 done with!!! I'm on row 2 of the first of 40 repeats!! AHHHHH!
My 52 Pair Plunge sock KAL and my Mystery shawl KAL start on June 1! Sorry...for those that don't know....KAL is Knit a long--online people knit same project. Mystery KAL's are where once a week (usually) a part of the pattern or chart are revealed. No one knows the final outcome. You have to KAL to find out what the finished project looks like! I've always wanted to do each of these and had to click on JOIN for each one!!!! The 52 pair plunge is one pair of socks per week for a year!!! Wish me luck!!!! Also this past week I finally put some of my finished work in our friends picture framing/art gallery and I sold some things!!! I even bartered a scarf before I left for some art for Abraham and I from an artist who brought in her goods while I was there for an upcoming show! I'll find out everyone's links and post them here later! Well, have to get back to work! Talk to you all later!

Ok...I'm a yarn geek

Happily admitting here that I am a yarn geek! I was taking pictures of the sock in progress to show Margie and I noticed how the pattern was working up with the Royale Hare http://www.royalehare.com/ Freestone Firecracker colorway. Isn't it wonderful?!

Knitting at Work

First there was KIP (knitting in public) now there is officially (at least in my little world) KAW (knitting at Work).

It was on my lunch hour so I'm not feeling the least bit guilty!! This is the Voyager Lace Stole KAL (knit along) I'm doing through (?with?) Casey- one of the most down to earth knitting podcasts out there!

http://knittingatnight.libsyn.com/

or found on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/groups/knitting-at-night

I had started this a day early as a matter of fact and had to rip it back (take out finished knitting) to the garter stitch rows! No tv while knitting lace for the first time in a long time!!