Score!

As I've mentioned, I've been reading through the Cat Who series and trying to collect the books. Well, I managed to score the entire series in on Ebay for less than $20 including shipping!! All but one are hardback. 2 of the short story collections were missing, but I already had those. I am thrilled to bits. I'm still on Post Office since I've had almost no time to read this last week. And when I do sit down to read, I invariably fall asleep. This should keep me busy for months!

Finally, progress on the Drops Tube Socks.

Although I've got to come up with a new name since they are no longer tube socks. I did, in the end, decide to put in a short row heel. I'm also only going to put the pattern on the top side of the foot so the sole is nice and smooth.

Jaywalkers in Jack.

I'm so thrilled with how this yarn is knitting up. I fell in love with it when I dyed it and am even more smitten by it knitted up. And this pattern is great. I can see why so many people have knit these.

I spent my weekend dyeing. Here's 5 skeins of Patons Classic Merino Wool, originally Winter White, dyed up for the Mr. Greenjeans sweater.

I had some issues with this yarn. Originally it was too bright.

So I overdyed it with a small amount of black and brown dye. Now it's perfect.

I also dyed up the last of my sock yarn for my friend's shop.

From left to right: Americana, After the Rain, and Shire. I'm going to have to dye up another Shire for myself, love those colors!

Should I be scared?

Clear out of the blue the other day, my dear husband asked me if I would knit him a sweater. Be still my heart! I of course jumped at the chance, showing him sweaters I'd knit for me so he could pick a yarn he liked. He picked Wool Ease, which is good. I don't expect he'll wear the sweater much so I don't want to spend a ton on materials. He wants plain black, plain sweater. This makes it super easy for me since I can machine knit most of it and have it for him in time to wear this fall. And I'm safe, right? No sweater curse when he's your husband, right??

Through my job, I know a lady who owns the only yarn shop in miles. It's a cute little shop in Brickerville. We got to talking this week and I mentioned I'm dyeing sock yarns and making knitting bags to sell on Etsy. She asked if I'd be willing to make some stuff up for her to sell at her shop. She's along a tourist route and often has people looking for local crafts. I was thrilled and jumped at the chance. I'm going to her shop for the Harvest Festival in a few weeks and hoped to have a bunch of yarn and bags to take with for her. Unfortunately, KnitPicks is sold out of the base yarn I use until the end of October! I was crushed. I have a few skeins left and am going to dye those for her, but it's super disappointing not to be able to do a larger batch right off the bat. I spent some time looking online trying to find a similar base, but came up empty. I found coned yarn that was close, but I don't have adequate facilities to measure skeins for consistent yardage. I don't feel my system of counting wraps on the skein winder is not accurate enough. Plus, pre-skeined yarn is just so much easier to work with. I did have good luck finding fabric for the bags, though. We went to my favorite fabric store, Martin's Fabric Barn, and found a line of marbled fabrics that look perfect. I can't wait to get started on them.

V-neck Cardigan

The weather turned delightfully cool yesterday and I was inspired to finish the V-neck Cardigan. I picked up stitches all around the front opening and knit a garter stitch band.The pattern called for knitting a ribbed band separately and then sewing it on. And although I've come to terms with seaming my knitting, it certainly isn't my favorite activity and I avoid it whenever possible. I designed the pattern myself with the help of the Knitware software. It is knit from Lion Brand Wool Ease in Oxford Grey. I think I used 5 or 6 skeins. I'm not sure since the yarn was salvaged from another project that didn't work out. The buttons are from Jo-Ann Fabrics.I love the purple color against the grey sweater. I may have to stitch the buttonholes closed just a bit. 3 stitch holes didn't seem quite big enough so I went with 4 stitch buttonholes which are just a hair too big. The fit is just about perfect except for the bottom.The pattern called for decreasing a number of stitches before starting the ribbing. In hindsight, I should have left those stitches in. However, I steamed the bottom ribbing and that seemed to relax the acrylic content enough so I can at least button all the buttons and it looks pretty good. This was a super quick and easy pattern, especially since the majority was machine knit. I will probably make this pattern again.

I've been splitting my evenings between reading the Cat Who books (I'm up to The Cat Who Played Post Office), knitting on the summer shell (which is now destined to be a fall vest) and punching on the ghost picture. I cast on a belt last night from some of the New Zealand wool I hand dyed. This should go quickly. 7 stitches in garter stitch. I'm going to felt it slightly when it's done for durability.

The new Knitty is out. I've totally fallen in love with Mr. Greenjeans. I'm not sure what it is about this little cardigan that I love so much. I think it's all the cabling. She even incorporated the cables into the sleeve ribbing. Awesome. I've got so many projects in queue, but I may just have to knit this one next. At the moment I don't have yarn in my stash that would work, though, and am flat broke so I can't buy new yarn. So it will have to wait at least for awhile.

A little bit of everything

It's been a busy 2 weeks since I last posted. The week before Labor Day weekend I spent every spare minute sewing. I made nine knitting bags for a huge Etsy shop update. I also dyed up some more sock yarn in "almost solid" colors (inspired by a prior week's feature on Knitter's Review). There's still a ton of stuff left so hop on by and have a look.

We ended up dealing with some health drama over Labor Day weekend requiring a trip to the Emergency room. Why is it we have to have trouble that could normally be handled by a physician on a holiday weekend when none are open? Everything is getting back to normal now, thank goodness.

Our heat wave continues. It's been in the upper 80's with humidity levels suitable for growing tropical plants. The library's annual book sale was yesterday and it was the hottest one I could remember. As always, it was a fun day. My family staff's the bake sale portion and we had a huge spread this year. So many donations of delicious food! They had fewer books this year, but better quality and selection of books. The librarian did a good job of culling out the "junk". I got a bag full of books.Managed to snag 4 of the "Cat Who" books I was missing. Renee found me 3 James Bond books! Also found a vampire book, one of James Herriot's books, a Roddy Doyle and an Agatha Christie. Not a bad score for only $14!

On the craft front, here's what I've been up to...

I finally got around to machine knitting a bag from the wool mom & dad brought me from New Zealand. This yarn was gorgeous, but pretty scratchy, so I figured it would be perfect for a felted bag.I was right. It machine knit pretty quickly. Although the yarn had a lot of "grab" and managed to jump the needles several times. I restarted the bag 3 times (so much fun casting on 100 stitches 3 times) before I realized I'd have to run the carriage slowly to prevent the dropped stitches. But it was worth the hassles in the end. I need to stitch the lining in yet.The bag has plenty of structure on it's own, but I decided to line it to keep the fuzzies from transferring to whatever I carry inside. As soon as the humidity drops and I can stand to have wool in my lap I'll get it stitched.

I've started a new punchneedle project.A cute little ghost for Halloween. I started punching the background in grey variegated floss but quickly realized I'm not going to have nearly enough thread to do the whole background that way. So I've switched to a combination of variegated and solid floss combined. I'm using granny's Pretty Punch this time. It's certainly more comfortable to hold than the cheap Dimensions punch I used for the first picture. But my loops are not as consistent on the front side. I got a bunch of supplies this week...wool floss, a kit, a pattern book and some issues of Create and Decorate. I have plenty of ideas now. Now I just need more time!

The Summer V-Neck vest is coming along nicely.I've put a lot of time into this as I'd like to have it to wear over a shirt for fall. I finished the back and have started the cabled section on the front. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love cabling! Such a simple process creates such a cool effect. I'm glad I changed the pattern to have left and right slanting cables rather than them both going in the same direction.

And on a final note. I'm such a lemming. Wendy has been talking about how happy she's been with the Wen cleansing conditioner. I was intrigued. I'm a hair care junky, although I have reigned it in a lot the last few years. But I still love to try new stuff in search of great hair. So I finally broke down and ordered a bottle of Wen Fig. I've been using it for a few days now and am absolutely thrilled so far. The product is a non-foaming cleanser that is supposed to replace your shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, deep conditioner, detangler. Out of the bottle it looks and feels just like conditioner. The directions call for you to use a ton of the stuff. I used about 1/3 of what they call for. You apply it to your wet hair, massage it in and let it sit for several minutes before rinsing. It feels tingly on the scalp and smells fantastic. I must say, I am completely sold so far. My hair is soft and clean and manageable. I have not put a drop of anything else in my hair, no leave in conditioner, no styling gel, nothing. It's fantastic. I generally can't go a day without at least wetting my hair down to make it look presentable. Even after yesterday's full day outside in the sun and breeze, my hair looks great this morning. I brushed it out when I got up and it looks perfectly presentable. I'm thoroughly impressed. It's early days yet, so we'll see how it preforms in the long run. But so far, Wen sure looks like a keeper.

Summer is back with a vengeance this weekend. It was cool and rainy last weekend and it felt like fall might be right around the corner. But today the thermometer outside my window reads 96 degrees. Ugh! And the humidity is just downright oppressive. Luckily, the air conditioner is doing it's job to keep it bearable and it's supposed to be only in the 80's tomorrow.

Not much to blog about. Just a few FOs to share.

Mrs BeetonGlorious! I absolutely love these.
I can't wait for fall to get here to wear these. The yarn is from Elann. Super Kydd in Ice Blue is the whisper soft mohair and Peruvian Quechua in Dusky Lavender is an alpaca tencel blend. I ended up getting blue 11/0 beads for the top cuff and used the purple 8/0 for the bottom cuff. You can barely see the beads in the picture, but they are a great subtle accent and definitely worth the effort to do the beading. Some people leave the beads off, but i think they make the cuffs so much more elegant. I did not enjoy knitting with the mohair at all, but once past that point, these were a super easy and fast project to knit.

Here's my first finished punchneedle embroidery project finished.
I'm very pleased with the results. This is a super easy craft and the results are impressive. But I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Probably frame it. I've just found that DMC makes a wool floss (this was done with standard DMC cotton embroidery floss). I've got to get my hands on the wool. I think it will give an even more folk feel to the designs.

I used up the last of my soap supplies making 2 batches of soapOn the right a batch of lavender with my own dried lavender adorning the tops and on the left a highly experimental batch of almond soap made with the leftovers of all the oils I had. I weighed the oils and plugged it into a soap calculator to determine how much lye to use. The bars are really quite nice at this stage. I'm going to let them cure for a few weeks before giving them a try. I just placed an order for more oils. I've been having a dickens of a time finding oils at a decent price around here lately. I decided to try this place since their prices seem good and they were recommended on a podcast I just listened to. I'll let you know how I make out.

I've resisted the urge to cast on another pair of socks. I'm going to make a concerted effort to get some of my WIPs finished up. Of the 2 tanks I intended to knit for this summer, I'm still not even finished with the back of the first one! I've gotten a few inches on the Montery Bay Scarf, but still have a very long way to go on it. And the cardigan needs only to have the front band picked up and knit. The tank will probably win out for this weekend since it's cotton and will be cool knitting.

The skin of my teeth

Talk about cutting it close. This is how much yarn was left as I completed the Opal footies42 inches. I had actually dyed up one of the tiny skeins of Treadsoft I had to more or less match in case I ran out. But I didn't need it after all. The socks have been dubbed Low Rider

They sit delightfully low, not even reaching my ankle bone. I think they'll be perfect with my clogs. I really dig the short row heels.

No holes on the second sock. I think I did one too many rows on the heel of the first, resulting in holes at the corners. The short row heel went way faster than the standard heel/gusset. I may just be converted. They also seem to be fitting a bit better too. I struggle with getting my heels to not be baggy. I'm sure there's an adjustment to eliminate the bagginess, but I haven't run across it yet.

All of the yarns I had dyed for Etsy have sold! I'm so happy other people are liking what I've dyed. It's hard to let some of them go because I love the colors so much myself. But I know I can always dye more. This weekend I dyed up the last of the undyed yarn I have (more is on the way). Here they are pre-reskiening.
Blue JeanBats in the belfryPoodle SkirtThis brings up a question. In my journeys on the Internet, it looks as if most dyers do reskein their yarns. But some leave them as dyed (the famous Socks That Rock are not reskeined). I'm just wondering what you all prefer. Reskeining is a pain, but I think it gives a better picture of how the colors will blend and show up when used. "As dyed" gives a great view of the individual colors, but I just don't find it quite as appealing for some reason. Thoughts? I think I'm going to list this batch as is and see how they sell. These should be up on Etsy by the end of the week.

I was very busy this weekend. Not only did I finish the footies and dye yarn. I also made these fab-o Halloween candle holders.Canned a whack more tomatoes. Finished another Cat Who book. Started another Cat Who book. Got started on the punchneedle.I know it doesn't look like much now, but it's coming along nicely. I'm finding it very hard on the eyes. I'm trying to get a feel and rhythm going so I don't have to look as hard, but it's pretty detail oriented so pretty close attention is required. It's a lot of fun and goes pretty quickly. I don't see this becoming a top of the heap craft for me, but certainly one I'll keep in my repertoire.

The latest additions to stash & library

Well, it's that time of year again. Dog days of summer. A year ago this week, we had temps pushing 100. This year, it's not been quite that bad, temps sitting firmly in the upper 80s low 90s, but the humidity is so high, it feels like a sauna. But with the heat of August comes the knowledge that fall is not far off and on the heels of that...the holidays! The girls over at Stash & Burn reminded us this week, it's not too early to start thinking about Christmas knitting. Indeed. I've started giving it some thought and do have a few things in mind to make for gifts this year. Most of my family is sensitive to wool, so I have to be a little careful of my choices. Meanwhile, I've got plenty of projects to keep me going. No progress pictures of the WIPs today. The only one with noticeable progress is the 2nd footie sock. I'm getting very near the end of the yarn, so I must soon be done, I hope! I've knit some on the Montego Bay scarf, but have a long way to go. The other socks, cardigan and vest are all collecting dust at the moment.

I've been reading a lot this summer. Mostly audiobooks and mostly Lillian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who..." books. My mom and sister have enjoyed her books for some time, I'm so late at getting on the bandwagon. They are delightful little tales of a man and his two Siamese cats. There's always a little mystery to be solved, but mostly it's lighthearted, life in a small town stories. When I found this book, I had to have it.I love companion books. Especially for a series such as this one with tons of recurring characters. Haven't even had the chance to crack the cover on this one yet, but hopefully tomorrow night. After Doctor Who, of course! Are you tuning in for season 3? Friday nights on SciFi. New time this week...8:00!

I purchased new yarn for the Huck Lace shawl...Absolutely gorgeous Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Iris. Imagine a fluffy soft kitten and you'll have an approximation of just how soft this yarn is. And the color is amazing. I'm so glad I went with this color. I had such a hard time deciding. I think this heathery solid will work much better for the Huck Lace than the variegated yarn did. This yarn is fine, really fine. I'm a bit nervous about knitting with it since I've only just adapted to fingering weight and this is for sure a lace weight. But I feel I've grown a lot as a knitter this last year and am a lot more adventurous to try new things.

Mrs Beeton, also newly arrived and waiting in the wings.These are both Elann yarns. Super Kydd in Ice Blue and Peruvian Quechua (an alpaca tencel blend) in Dusky Lavender. The lavender is much more blue than purple so I'm not sure the beads I had picked out are going to work. I'm making a trip to the craft store this weekend and will see if I can't find something that matches a bit better. I did also purchase a ball of the Quechua in Parchment figuring I might do a hand dye for a 2nd pair of Mrs Beetons, if I like the first pair enough.

Reason for the craft store jaunt this weekend...Punchneedle embroidery supplies so I can make ANYTHING from this book! Grannie's needles seem to be working pretty good in my little test last weekend. I don't have proper fabric or a proper hoop, so that's my mission this weekend. I can't wait to give this a proper go.

Oh yeah. I'll be doing that and canning more tomatoes! And look...I found a food mill! Life is good.

Weekend update

New yarns are up on my Etsy store. "Bushel of Tomatoes" (tomatoes are EVERYWHERE right now!)and "Dragonfly"This is the new Treadsoft yarn I got recently. The yarn seems to me to be much finer than the KP Gloss I was using. I have that small ball of the Treadsoft I'm keeping to try for myself. But just by feel alone, I think I prefer the Gloss. If only Gloss were superwash, it would be perfect. The search for perfect dyeable yarn continues.

Yesterday, in addition to dyeing yarn, I put up a batch of tomatoes. They are coming in so slowly this year. Which in a way is good since I can do them in smaller batches and not have to spend whole days working at canning. I froze the batch of sauce I made earlier this week. These I canned. I'm in the market for a good food mill which should greatly speed up the sauce making process.

On tap for today,
sorting through Granny K's craft box. I've been wanting to learn punchneedle embroidery since first seeing it at the Lancaster quilt show a few years ago. Mom got grannie's sewing and craft stuff after she died. When we were going through the boxes we found her "Pretty Punch" supplies, which mom graciously let me have. I'm hoping to find needles and instructions so I can finally learn this craft. If it looks promising, I'm going to get a book or 2 of folk art designs from Amazon. Because, I just NEED another hobby! Yeah right. Have you SEEN my Ravelry queue? I think it's up to 12 now (oops, no I just looked. 17). That's not including the 5 WIPs in my knitting basket. And the fabric waiting to become sock bags. I better get busy!

OOTP movie review

OOTP was excellent. I actually saw it twice this weekend. And I enjoyed it even more the second time around. They stuck pretty close to the book. The changes that were made didn't take away from the story at all, just helped it to consolidate things and get the movie length down some. As with GOF and I'm sure as will be with movies 6 & 7, there's just no way to get all of JKR's rich detail into a 2-3 hour movie. But there was lots of great subtle stuff. Like in one scene when Umbridge has caught Harry trying to use her fire to access the floo network and you see boxes and boxes of confiscated Weasley Skiving Snackboxes lined along the wall. And when the DA meets for the very first time in the Hog's Head, we see a goat by the bar with the bartender. I'm pretty sure that wasn't in book 5, but it's definitely in book 7. Fred & George's departure was great. The ending duel was outstanding. One of the few things that didn't live up to my expectations was the house on Grimauld Place. In my head, it was always a single house, the movie had it as a row-home. The inside was much as I pictured it would be, but I just always pictured a dilapidated old house on the outside too. Can't wait for the DVD! I'm hoping they have deleted scenes for some of the stuff that was rushed through.

I finished the first footie sock I'm making with the leftover Opal Cotton yarn. I decided to try a short row heel again and it turned out really well. I watched the videos on Knitting Help over and over to make sure I was picking up the wraps correctly and I think that really helped. I've still got a hole at each end of the short rows, but I think I know what I did wrong and hope to correct it on the 2nd sock.

Tonight...I'm canning tomatoes. The kitchen smells great. I've only got a small batch, but I should get 4-5 pints out of it. This batch I'll just freeze. I'm hoping to have enough to do up in jars by the weekend. And it's supposed to be good and hot the rest of the week, so it's a good possibility.

Quilt show report

Mom and I were off to Quilt Odyssey yesterday. Another fabulous show this year. The most amazing quilt on display was a reversible quilt. The front was white the back was black. The design was machine quilted with colored thread on both sides. It won best in show. When they get pictures up on their website, I'll be sure to link it. The vendor mall was great this year. Lots of variety. I was very good, though and bought only a few things.As I explained to mom, just like sock yarn, fat quarters don't count. Buy as many as you want. The one in the center is destined to be another project bag. I also picked up a new Jim Shore Heartwood Creak figure. One stand was full of them, but I restrained myself. Lunch was at Isaac's and then we went shopping at the Hershey Outlets. The day was lovely and warm and we got home just before a thunderstorm rolled in.

In knitting news, I frogged the Huck Lace shawl. I finished the first whole repeat of the huck lace pattern and the more I looked at it, the more I was convinced it wasn't right. So I ripped it out and rewound the yarn and decided to cast on Montego Bay. This pattern is super easy and moving along pretty quickly. I think the scarf will be lovely.
I haven't given up on the Huck Lace shawl, but think I will end up knitting it in a different yarn. The more pictures I see of shawls that other people have done, the more I like it in a solid color. I'm looking at the Alpaca Cloud from Knit Picks. Should make a soft, warm shawl and be pretty inexpensive too.

Look at what the mailman brought me today!
Back issues of Yarn Magazine, straight from Australia and the new Vogue Knitting (it's another one of theirs with 2 different covers, so don't be fooled if you see a different cover on the newsstand). Alas, I won't be able to read them today as I'm off to see OOTP.