One of these Socks...

is just wrong - well half wrong... Presenting Caledonian Mist.
















If you click on either photo, a larger version will come up. The top and left versions are correct. If you can't tell, the 'bad' version had me leaving out 1/2 the pattern, and actually the gusset is wrong too. So this week's project will be to unravel the wrong foot back to the gusset and correct my biggie boo-boo.

Other knitting - for the break times at work - MacGregor's Garden. I'm now in the part where Peter Rabbit's ears are knit in. The kit was purchased from Woolen Rabbit with the design from Pandosu.

I love the yarn - it is so very soft and the color shifts are beautiful. The little jade stitch marker is one I made. It seems to fit right in, doesn't it.

Pandosu's directions give a wonderful hint for the wrap and turn rows in the toe (and I'm guessing the heel). If you lift the wraps up and over the stitch before knitting the 3 as one, it looks so good. I've done other socks with the wrap and turn rows and they never looked like this. The lifting of wraps is now a permanent part of my knitting technique notebook!


Now, while I'm not knitting all the time, I've picked up some other WIP's and started working on them. My plan is to stitch on a graphed page then rotate to another project. I'll be spending more time on each project, but I think there will be more progress each time. Also fewer rotations before completion.
Presenting the first in the rotation: Queen of Roses by The Silver Lining.
Marc's designs are so beautiful and realistic. I'm stitching this one over one on 28 ct evenweave. The bottom of the leaf is the bottom of the page and the line on the right edge of the rose is the other page edge.

For those not knowing much about cross stitch, this is counted and 28 ct means 28 threads per inch. One over one means one strand of floss stitched over 1 thread of fabric. Next time I'll put a dime on the fabric so the scale can be seen.

My next project will be Wisteria, also by Marc at The Silver Lining. It will be stitched on 22 ct black fabric. I'm even nuts enough to consider his Lilac design on black for a companion piece.

Other stitching projects to appear will be Dragon's Eye, my own adaptation of a photo my daughter took; Purple Perfection, a purple iris from TSL; The Holly and The Ivy; Fire and Ice; 'Shroomhilda; a few hardanger projects and some embroidered placemats and napkins with a story. There are probably a few others that will appear as I dig through all my projects and get them sorted and put up. I also have a design in progress of some iris I had in Arkansas.

To do all the sorting, I'm going to have to acquire the parts to assemble new shelving for a closet in an upstairs bedroom. First to come will be the supports for the back and the brackets. Then I'll get the shelves and the plastic containers to store the projects in. I also have some large ziploc bags of wool and some bins of other fibers to be put up and worked on.

One of the blogs I read has a Flower Friday - showing photos of flowers on Fridays. Well, this is actually Monday morning, but I'll post one now and I'll try to post each Friday. My first will be one of my favorites - bleeding heart - the old fashioned kind which blooms in the spring. The purple flowers are a 'weed' called vetch (I think). Weeds are misplaced flowers, right. I had a lot of misplaced plants in that garden.

Lace vs Cables

A few weeks ago Abby asked me if I prefer lace or cables. That question has stuck with me a bit. I'm actually doing both with Mystic Light (shown on last entry) which is a lace shawl with a cable top edge and a braid down the middle.

I failed to resist temptation and started Magic Carpet Ride from Sunflower Designs. I've absolutely fallen in love with the texture - one side is smooth and the other heavily textured. I've taken some ehh photos to try to show what I mean.

This is the right side. The beads look set into windows formed by the knit, purl on the wrong side rows. The texture is smooth but attractive.

The next photo shows the same view but without flash so it looks very green. The knitting in all photos is on very white 25 lb ink jet paper - which appears blue even though it's not. I think the photo shows the "windows" a bit more.

The beads do look more inset in this photo. By the way the yarn is Whisper laceweight merino in Tupelo Honey colorway from Woolen Rabbit. The link takes you to Kim's photo of the yarn and shows the coloring so much better than my photos. The color shifts are so subtle and so real if you have ever seen the Tupelo Honey. Tupelo is a type of gum tree that is native to the south. In addition to a wonderful flavor in honey, the wood was used to make bread bowls. Those are oval bowls used to knead bread years ago. I had one that went walkabout when I moved to TN.

Back to topic. Here's the photo I took of the 'wrong' side. The texture is heavy and the beads are more pronounced.
I'm going to be using this scalloped ribbing when I start Moroccan Days sometime in the future. I decided the loopy beaded fringe on that is a bit much of a temptation to the cat, and since I'm basically a klutz, a sure thing for a disaster.
So I believe what I love about the knitting is the textures available through the combination of stitches and, in this case, beads. I love Aran patterns, the cables, the lattice, even the bobbles.

Color work such as Fair Isle, intarsia and such is also interesting, being so much a visual person much of my life. Wendy of wendyknits.net is currently working on a sweater originally designed as a fair isle style. She's using Kauni yarn and started the skeins in 2 places. The results are amazing! Check out her photos but look quickly - this lady knits with blazing needle speed.

I'm going to tempt fate now and do the next row on Magic Carpet. The tempting is that PK is out and wound up. The row is beaded. Nuff said.

Photos as promised

But I didn't promise anything about quality. It's cloudy and raining so outside is not a choice for a photo shoot.
First of all - Mystic Light. This is a companion piece to Mystic Water - still in progress. ML started this past week with clue 1. Since it is knit in sock yarn, it goes a bit faster - or seems like it. The colorway is Sugar Maple from Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome.
















The yarn at left is Tupelo Honey, a laceweight Merino from Kim at The Woolen Rabbit. I doubt any photo will do this justice. It has a kazillion colors in the green, gold, beige range It's like each stitch will be a different color - very subtle but there.

This will be used to knit up Magic Carpet Ride by Susan at Sunflower Designs. The link goes to her blog so take a few minutes and look around. She has a wonderful way with words and some yummy photos.

Since Clue 2 of ML comes out Wednesday, I have some time to get back to Mystic Waters. I'm still on chart E with 4 to go, but I only have maybe 4 rows to finish before that chart hits the trashcan.

Now I'm off to get some longer size 5 needles for Mystic Light. The ones I have now just won't hold all the stitches if it's cramped already.

Warning!!!

Do NOT visit the following with any beverage near you, your computer, or your mouth.

http://fleeglesblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/trenna-tragedy.html#links

I about hurt myself laughing!

Enjoy!

I'm with my knitting group

so no photos - but we're having a lot of fun! The conversations run all over the board -- and I've been laughing so much I can't even knit. None of the topics will be repeated here - what goes on in the group - stays with the group. Just like the Las Vegas ads.

I don't think I'm the oldest tonight - but close.

I'm still knitting on Mystic Waters. I'll take another photo when this chart is finished. I've also ordered the kit for Magic Carpet Ride and it will be shipped tomorrow. I can hardly wait and I'll be taking photos of the beads and yarn when it arrives.

Typical spring here - warm then down in the 30's (last night was 30) then up near 60 today. The allergies are running rampant for everyone. I still love seeing the flowers every day - and listening to all the birds.

My funny for today (in my viewpoint) was when I watched a CNN video about the kitten with the I Heart on it. The sound was on and PK went nuts looking for that kitten. Maybe you had to be there but it was funny.

So will probably be back this weekend with photos.

Another one bites the dust

Another chart from Mystic Waters is done. Chart D has hit the trash bin. I'll be setting up on chart E in a little bit. My magnets are not strong enough to hold the shawl in a stretched-out pose, but I'm into the icicle center part.

Other knitting - well I'm working on a Caledonian Mist Sock from Pink Lemon Twist. She's actually issuing two patterns, one simple and one complex, at a time. I didn't do well with the previous Knitty pattern - boy did I lose my place and hosed the whole thing. So it was frogged and I started over with Caledonian Mist.
The other pattern in this pair is called Scarborough Fair. It's gorgeous with twisted patterns on it. I do have yarn for it too!
Tonight is my knitting group get-together. This group of women consists of some amazing ladies. Their stories and what they have going on in their lives are so impressive. I have a huge amount of respect for each of them. So far, no gents have joined in - but I'm still hoping. I know men knit and this group and location are so accepting of everyone.

Adding a final two photos. One shows the state of some of the Bradford Pears here at the condos. The other shows PK watching the birds and anything else that moves. What it doesn't show is how her tail is lashing back and forth. She's showing her moodiness today. Wanting to have her ears rubbed but when you reach, she's fluffed up and batting at you.

















For some reason all today's photos have a very blue cast to them. It's cloudy out and storms are expected late tonight and into tomorrow. That might have something to do with it. The color in Mystic Water seems very close. The sock is a deep teal green. Bradford Pear blossoms are a clear white. The cat is a cinnamon and gray tabby - so maybe that's why she is blue as well. Hopefully better photos next time.

Life after Strep Throat

Somehow I got strep throat. I believe it was a person in front of me at a check out line who coughed and hacked without covering his mouth. This one took me almost two full weeks to get over. So now I'm mean and ornery and ready to do an entry again.

I have been spending a lot of time knitting so I'm here on Mystic Waters. You can now see my new chart holder. Chart D has 4 pages. I went to Schoolbox Supplies (think this is right but can't remember the whole name) and got a 16x20 magnetic/dry erase board and a roll of magnetic strips that I cut into 5 pieces. Also they had highlighter tape (that pink line on the chart). So now the board can hold all 4 pages at one time. After this chart, there are 5 more - but the last one is finishing, I think.

My Tuesday project - to take to our knitting group at a local coffee shop - is Celtic Tote. It now looks like this:
I'm in the process of outlining the cables. I'm doing a lazy daisy stitch rather than the outline. To me, it is neater and will stand up to the felting. This is just the first side. I still have the other side and the edging/bottom to do plus the handles and button tab. I'm also going to line this - so will finish the knitting and do the felting then look for the lining material. My lining will have at least 2 pockets. That's the plan as I have it right now - of course subject to change or whim.

Another project that has now been added to my "to do" list is called Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights from A Few Stitches Short. I have the pattern now and will spin the yarn. I had purchased a beautiful dark blue merino which had 20% tussah silk blended in. The tussah is a light honey color. The MD/AN uses 5,000 beads which may be a color to match the tussah or a silver lined clear color. First I'll have to finish the third bobbin of Blue Suede Shoes then ply that to have enough bobbins for MD/AN's yarn. The small, insignificant glitch in this plan is PK. She is now a devout fiber stalker. She will find my wool anywhere, at any altitude, and attack it. She slobbers all over it! The beautiful roving is now shredded in small pieces and bits. She, of course, declares her innocence of this and all other accusations of crimes committed.

"Tell me, is this the face of someone who would do such acts?"

Please note she is perched on a towel pulled off the couch.

'Nuff said.