Gifts form a friend

The interesting thing about the internet and blogging is that you get to 'meet' such interesting people from all over the world that you would never know otherwise. Such is the case with my friend Vivian in California.

Vivian is quite the knitter and an interesting person however one of the most interesting things about Vivian is the love and admiration she has for her mom, Lena. Her mom is also a knitter who has a passion for knitting for CIC.

Lena has some recent surgery right before her birthday so Vivian reached out into cyber world and asked if we could send a card to her mom. I decided to sent a card plus some yarn. It worked out better just to send an order from knitpicks directly to Lena once I figured out what it would end up costing to mail from CT to CA. The yarn and card arrived and I knew Lena would be happily knitting some wonderful vests for CIC.

Imagine my suprise to get a package that contained this
and these

Everything lovely made by Lena. I'll donate the vests in her name to CIC and throw in a couple pair of socks too. Isn't she just a treasure of a person. Vivian you are so lucky.

No more single socks around here

In going thru my stash looking for something I found some knitpicks yarn and decided to whip up a pair of cic socks. Being the year of "greedy" knitting aka knitting for me or knitting projects that are of interest to me, I haven't been doing a lot of charity knitting. Oh well, maybe later this year.
Socks for D1 in Lana Grassa Meilenweit Multieffekt #3122. She liked the ones I made for myself.
These are for me. Fortissima 9503. Very fuzzy, grabby yarn that didn't come out of the ball well and knotted a lot. Soft yarn and wears well so I'd use it again.
Finishing this stuff left me with just a clementine shawlette in progress so onto the needles jumped this yummy yarn; won in a contest at Redheaded Ramblings. It's an alpaca/merino wool blend. Very soft. Seems like once I started knitting with alpaca I just can't stop. The pattern shows sequeins laced into the scarf. I don't think I'll be adding the sequeins. And I'll leave you with a picture of D2 out for a paddle in her kayak around the pond yesterday. It was a really nice, bright, sunny day perfect for being outside. I of course was inside working.

2007 finished objects 21 and 22

I finished this pair on Sunday. It's been busy around here. Everyone is ill. D2 and D3 both have really bad colds. I spent Saturday over at D1's to try to give her a break. She's got so funky URI which won't go away. Her hubby has a URI with an ear infection that actually burst the ear drum while he was sleeping. My 4 yr old grandson W has pneumonia. He had a fever all day Thursday which spiked to 105 after his nap. Quite frightening. He seems to be on the mend.
Finished this on Monday. More cic socks with knitpicks yarn
Almost done with these which I think will be my favorite pair of socks ever. LOVE THIS COLORWAYS!!!!

Woke up to this yesterday. I love to sit out there in the summer and sip coffee. No coffee sipping today unless it's ice coffee. This is perfect snowman snow. W called yesterday to ask if I was going outside to play. He was sad because he couldn't go outside. I think he just wanted to make sure that I wasn't having fun without him. lol

Lots of knitting .... little finishing

This yarn is taking soooooo much time away from my knitting. Why? It's scratchy and smells like farm animal. Really bad farm animal.

I've washed it several times. It bloomed well. The scratch was still there along with the smell.

I soaked it overnight in conditioner and air dried it outside for 2 days. Still scratchy and smelly.

I actually woke up this morning and the first friggin thing that popped into my head was "What the hell am I going to do with that yarn?" How sick is that? I can't possibly make socks out of it. If you are an orphan the least someone could do is give you nice soft socks to wear. You've got enough on your plate without having itchy stinky socks.

Suggestions on something new I can try? Anyone want to give it a new home?


Somewhere along the line I did manage to finish this pair of socks. I've got 2 adult socks and one more cic pair on the needles. I seamed most of the second sweater with the longer arms and I think it'll work out well. Will be frogging the first one back to the body and redoing the top.

And I finished some stuff too

These are two pair of socks done for CIC from some knitpicks wool of the andes.
And these are a pair of socks that will be put away until next christmas. The yarn is Opal Rodeo and yes I actually set out to make these match. The colors were so strong that I wanted to match the purples.
And last but not least I started a sweater for CIC. I don't have access to the pattern info right now but I'll make sure I add it as this progresses along.

$55.72 so far in 2007

Very odd weather today so the pics aren't really showing the colors correctly. Two more pair of cic socks.
And 28 balls of knitpicks wool of the andes. So $55.72 spent on yarn so far this year.

Socks everywhere

The thing I love about sock knitting is it's instant finished projects! No weeks of knitting. No sewing seams. Great for a lazy knitter like me. This is the first pair of socks for CIC. Teal and green knit picks worsted weight yarn.
And another pair of socks for me. Regia brasil in shades of blue. Fluted bannister pattern on these.
I did a pair of socks for N last month but couldn't give them to him because I didn't have the pair for W finished. N and W slept over Friday night so of course W saw his sock in progress. "I just need to finish this second one for you and then you'll be able to wear them," I explained. To which the little man chimed in, "Well you'd better get to work now." I did as I was told and finished them Sunday morning.

Cute story from the sleep over. W is almost 4 and is very interested in knitting. He saw a package of unopened double points.

W "Could these be for me?"
Me "Well when you get a little older I can teach you to knit and then yes they could be your needles."
W "You can teach me to knit just like you knit."
Me "Yes and when you get very good at it you can make socks for me."
W "No you can make your own socks."

Second story: W pushed his brother and ended up with a time out in the corner. After about a minutes he asked to come out. "You can come out and say sorry to N for pushing." The minute N saw his brother coming towards him he ran off. "Gram, I can't say sorry to my brother because he's running away. He must think I'm going to hurt him again." "Why would he think that?" "Because I do it all the time. He's smart."

This years goal was to lose 30 lbs and make 150 pr of socks

Well, no one has mistaken me for a Swedish super model so obviously the sock knitting has gone much better.
These are the 150 pr of socks for CIC all finished, paired, and laid out on my back deck for a quick picture before the rain.
Next step is to box them up and pop them in the mail on Tuesday. These were so much fun to make ..... don't think I'll be saying the same thing about losing the rest of the weight.

On the needles, off the needles

Ok, still on high alert over here waiting for my new granddaughter. She just doesn't seem to want to come out and be spoiled to death. I don't know what people who don't knit do to pass time. So while I'm passing time I've been working on these .... hubby's sock .... shawl to repeat 4 out of 14.

I'm going to say right now that while I know I can knit lace I'm coming to the conclusion that I am not a lace knitter. Too much concentration needed althought I'm learning a lot from the project. These are for a project I shouldn't be casting on until I've finished a couple things but I know I'll never be able to resist. We have balls of Knitpicks crayon and some train buttons so you know already it's going to be something for the little men.
I completed these on Sunday. They are socks for hubby Lana Grossa #6538. First time I've ever used this yarn and I have to say it's very nice. Gotta see how it washes and dries before I give it a thumbs up. Just to note that I don't make matching socks. I feel that life is too short to worry about matching your socks.
And I finished these Saturday. Some more CIC socks just waiting for the ends to be tucked safely away.

Waiting on the girl.....

My oldest daughter is due any day and we thought for sure my first granddaughter was going to make her appearance Friday. Well, she had other plans and decided not to come out and meet us yet. I had my grandsons Friday and Saturday so not much knitting. I think my granddaughter must hear her soon to be big brothers screaming and she's afraid. I've done my best to reassure her .... offering cookies, candy, staying up past bedtime at Gram's house but she isn't buying any of it.

I had a pretty productive week. Finished 5 more pair of socks for CIC. Did some work on my shawl. Finished the heel flap, turned the heel, did the gusset decreases and started working on the foot of my hubby's sock.
I was pretty pleased with this week's work .... these two could care less. This is a rare picture of Charlie and Joey. Joey is the tiger and Charlie is the brat! He's the annoying little brother to my other two cats. At age 2 he just wants to play and at age 16 Joey just wants to be left alone.

How many socks?

This is my first and last try at koolaid dying yarn. I had some while yarn that I wanted to use for socks but white yarn and little kids don't really mix so I dyed them. My fingers were more red than the socks and I can't say I was wowed with the results.
And this is my collection of socks for CIC. Wanna take a guess how many?
No I'm not addicted to sock knitting. I can stop any time. Really I can. Yup any time.

PR3 show 3 and socks

Blogger is having issues so I can't load the pic of my pile-o-socks. Maybe tomorrow.

To all the people of the United States: People in Ohio do not dress like Angela. I am origionally from Ohio and I know this for a fact. If you go to Ohio you will not see anyone wearing an outfit that gathers at the top of the thigh unless it's orange and a part of a pumpkin Halloween costume.

I loved last night's show because they were designing for dogs. Yes, little tiny dogs. They were adorable! Each designer selected a dog and designed an outfit for their model and their dog.

Michael's design was once again one of my favorites. He really is talanted and should get some more camera time.

Keith did a good job but decided not to design anything for the dog. Not only that but he took credit for sewing the dog's collar when all he really did was sew a piece of fabric to a bracelet taken from the Macy's wall. What a liar he is!

Vincent's dog was hysterical. He spent the entire time walking the runway trying to take off the little hat Vincent made for him. Vincent's outfit was ok but the dog was priceless.

Alison's outfit was very nice. So was Uli's. Either could have won but Uli pulled it out for using 2 very different and bold patterns.

Jeffrey designed something that looked like actual clothing someone might wear.

The bottom two were Katherine and Angela. As the judges were tearing apart Angela's outfit you couldn't help but laugh because Angela was wearing almost the exact same skirt. But in the end Katherine went home. Hated to see Katherine go and Angela stay.

I'm going to admit that high fashion escapes my understanding. Here's why:
Bradley: Simple blue skirt with a top that looked like an inflated yellow/gold balloon. The side view was beyond words but the judges loved it. LOVED IT! At least the dog only had to wear a simple collar so the other dogs didn't point and laugh.

Laura: Simple skirt and jacket with fur that looked like brown seaweed at the cuffs and collar. The poor dog was dressed the same. I felt bad for the poor dog because it's not like she's got a chance at a spread in Elle magazine. Plus Laura didn't really even like the dog. Cutiest dog and she didn't like her.

The best part of the show was a commercial with Jay from season 1. They gave Jay a car and he used it to drive to Bryant Park with a mannequin. He wanted to show the mannequin the park where he would be showing his collection in September. They sat a while, chatted, and took a ride on the merry-go-round. It was hysterical. I'm back to loving Jay.

You call this pumpkin?

I'm a great fan of knitpicks yarn. It's a decent quality for a decent price. I use it a lot for my charity knitting projects and socks for my grandsons (why use something expensive for little feet that grow at an amazing rate?). Usually I'm pretty happy with the colors but this pumpkin reminds me of something you'd find in a bady's diaper. I tried fern on the pair in the upper left hand corner but really can't say I'm wowed with the combination. What color do you think would best match?


Project Runway3 tonight.

CIC socks

The bitch turned on the AC yesterday!!! And already has it on today. Gonna be another scorcher in CT. Over the weekend I did a little toddler sock knitting. Still need to get rid of the ends on most of the pile but at least they are done and will be able to join the rest of their sock buddies in the box shortly.
I wanted to show you the difference between a mistake and a variation on a pattern. The sock on the left has a mistake (knit 3 rows, purl 1 row instead of knit 2 rows, purl 2 rows). I didn't see it until after the sock was finished and I was attaching it to it's sock life partner. I can only hope that the toddler who will be wearing this sock will not be shunned by the rest of the toddlers for second rate socks.

The sock on the right has an unintended pattern variation. Note how the second block which should be k2,p2 for 2 rows is k2,p2 for 3 rows. Now you may be asking, "Diane why isn't that a mistake?" A good question. It's not a mistake because I saw it before casting on the sock's life partner and therefore was able to do the same variance on the second sock. Almost like it was a plan.