One Crazy Fiber Lady

My new favorite knitting spot.

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Location:Lansdowne St,Boston,United States

Wow another week has flown by.  This one brought the return of BASEBALL!   We’ll ignore for the moment that my team isn’t doing so very well so far.  Season is still young, there’s plenty of time to panic. I just had a spinning playdate with Tami so its time for the weekly update.

On the Needles

1.  Hermione’s Deathly Hallow Socks - The first sock is done, but this isn’t news as it was at this time last week.  I’ve dawdled with the knitting this week, but am catching up now.  I finished the foot on the second sock onFriday while getting a pedicure

2.  Mawata Lilies Shawlette - Finished! I totally enjoyed working straight from the mawata’s and will definitely do more with silk.

3.  Featherweight Cardigan –  The finishing of one object marks the point where I can start something new.  Next up is a second featherweight cardigan in Malabrigo Lace.

I started this on Friday night and put the sleeve stitches on the waste yarn yesterday afternoon before the Seder. The colorway is Vermillion.  I love it.  I made this sweater once before, but it came out too big, so I gave it to mom.  Since then, the designer has added additional sizes to the pattern, including smaller ones.  Yay!

On the Fiber Front

First up, I owe a picture of the finished yarn from last week.

I dug out the never-ending bag of CVM roving that I’ve been spinning on and off for years now on the Vermont Wheel.  I actually weighed the bag and there’s 1.5 lbs left to spin.  I’m going to try and do a little every day.  I have a good beginning on the next bobbin’s worth:

At today’s playdate, I started new fiber on the Schacht.  This is Targhee from Zarzuela in Redwood.  I’ve split the fiber lengthwise into strips about the width of my index finger.

Other spinning – I filled another spindle on the Charkha with the Shetland, and managed to add a little more of the silk to the Bosworth spindle.  Not interesting enough to take another picture of either.

Other Stuff

Dad took the twins to Toys R Us yesterday afternoon before the family showed up for the Seder.  He came home with this:

Just what we needed, a 14′ trampoline for the backyard.  That’s Kat jumping with a friend of hers a little while ago.  It was a family affair in assembly.

Craft on!

Wow am I tired today.  There must be something in the air this weekend because I’ve been pretty draggy.  Though I think today is a result of yesterday’s driving two states away for a baby shower.  It was excellent, and I don’t like showers   I’m glad I went but am paying for it today, which started somewhat early as the CPW moved along to its new home this morning.  Getting right into it:

On the needles:

1.  Hermione’s Everyday Socks -  Stick a fork in these babies, they are done!  I finished them up on Monday.

This is the first time that I did this stitch pattern and I have to say that I really liked it.  I think it works very well with handpainted yarns and was easy enough for my fuzzy brain to hold onto, though I did have issues seeing the stitches in low lighting conditions, like Panera.

2.  Mawata Lilies Shawlette – is still in progress.  It doesn’t look much different than the picture from last week.  I managed a few more repeats of the edging lace and have at least made it past the halfway point.  Each repeat is taking less time as I’ve mostly memorized the pattern, well after the third or so repeat of each sitting.  The first one or two are slower.  But, progress is being made and I’ll probably be working on it tonight when Game of Thrones Season 2 starts!

3.  Hermione’s Deathly Hallows Socks – I started these Tuesday morning on the train and bound off the first one late this morning.  As part of their homework, the kids need to read for at least 20 minutes each day.  Due to personality conflicts, Alexander usually winds up reading with me and while he reads to me, I work on the current sock project.

The yarn is Forbidden Woolery Lush in the Deathly Hallows colorway.  The pattern is, surprise surprise, the Hermione’s Everyday Socks pattern.  Figured the names of the two went well together.  I’ll start the second sock tomorrow morning.  Probably.

Mods on this sock:  working toe up instead of cuff down, plain foot and a 2×2 rib.  What can I say, I’m particular with my socks.

On the fiber front

I’ve actually made some progress this week.

1.  I finished spinning the singles of the Blackforest Cake Merino (been mistakenly calling it BFL) on Thursday night.  I n-plied it on the Schacht today.

It came out to be some 468 yrds of n-plied at 4.2 oz.  I think it’ll make some lovely socks.

2.  Friday night I plied the Merino/Bamboo/Nylon blend from River’s Arts.  It is 528yds of 2ply and somehow I forgot to take a picture of it off the bobbins and I’m too tired/lazy to do it now.  Maybe during the week

3. Tussah Silk – this is still ongoing. I managed to finish off another length of silk that i had batched up oodles of ages ago to facilitate this project. no clue how much silk it amounts to, but it worked through 3 different colors. I wouldn’t expect rapid progress on this project, but you knew that already

4.  Charkha Shetland – this one was idle this week.  Oh well, can’t work on everything

This brings up the big question, what to spin on the wheels next?  I think I’m going to dig out the never-ending bag of processed CVM that has been ongoing on the Vermont wheel for ages.  I usually fill up 3 bobbins, wind off and repeat.  I have some 9 cakes of wound singles sitting downstairs and yet, the prepared fleece bag doesn’t look any emptier.  Maybe if I work on it somewhat regularly I can make progress.  Finally.  Now to find where I stashed it.  I think I’ll alternate this week with this and the charkha before pulling out something else for the Schacht

That’s about all for this week.

Craft on!

This week was a glorious one, weather wise at least.  I can’t remember the last time it was almost 80F in March.  No complaints here.  As I posted earlier in the week, the trees are doing their spring thing already.  The cherry trees and magnolias are in full bloom around, as well as the forsythia.  I love spring.  Due to some non-fiber related events, my production was down this week.  I had one less day of commuting into the city as I had to work from home on Wednesday for teacher conferences.  Friday night, I went out with a bunch of other mommies for a girls night out.  Much fun indeed.  So while there is progress, it isn’t as much as previous updates.

On the needles:

1.  Hermione’s Everyday Socks – I finished the first sock on Tuesday and was able to cast on for the second one.  Because socks are my primary commuting knitting, this project is the one hurt by the additional day at home.

2.  Mawata Lilies Shawlette – Also progressing.  I’m just shy of the halfway point on the edging lace.  This project was hurt by the additional nights out of the house and reduced knitting time at home.

That’s it on the knitting.

On the Fiber Front

1.  Still need to ply those two bobbins of the merino blend spun up on the Matchless.

2.  Mis-estimated last week the amount of blackforest cake bfl remaining to be spun on the Vermont Wheel.  I weighed it after I posted and had a little over 2 oz left to be spun.  Okay.  Well, I’ve tried to do a little wheel time with this over the last week, at least 20 min a night, with a couple of nights off for good behavior, I still have about an oz left.  Its all good.  In the end I’m going to have two bobbins of rather fine singles that I want to n-ply.

3.  Tussah Silk – This is an oldie but a goodie project.  I tripped on a Bosworth Spindle bag tucked in the corner of my supply drawer.  Turned out to be my very first Bosworth spindle and 4oz of dyed tussah sliver that I bought at my very first MDSW back in 2003.  I was newly pregnant, attending the festival because I was either going to be VERY pregnant for Rhinebeck or have very tiny babies as my due day was within 2 weeks of the festival.  As it turned out, the babies were 2 weeks old (a week out of the hospital) and Alex’s brit milah was that weekend.  So anyway, I’d purchased this silk in MD way back with some project in mind that has long since escaped me.  I’ve been spending a little time with this spindle over the last couple of days.

This is the third spindle’s worth of spun fiber.  There were cakes wound off on the ball winder in the bag.  Still don’t know what I’m doing with it when its done, but I’m enjoying the process.

4.  Shetland ITW Fiber – There’s another project in the works here that I started back in January when I got a monthly fiber fix from Cris.  I showed the first skein back here.  I’m trying to spend more time with this in active rotation, both in an attempt to finish something someday on the bucket list, as well as to gain proficiency with the charkha.

You may notice that the charkha has changed a tad since the last time I showed it.  That’s because it isn’t the same charkha.  I need to admit to a little purchase not terribly long ago and this family portrait is in order:

I have a little Bosworth problem.  Back to front:  Journey Wheel, Attaché Charkha and Book Charkha.  The attaché was posted on the housecleaning pages and after a little hesitation on my part, I bought it to complete the set.  Though I don’t think I’m going to keep the set unbroken for very long.  I’ll probably sell the book charkha soon, if not at MDSW where Sheila has offered to sell it for me.  Look at all that yummy cherry!  That would also count for my Misc News department

On the family front

I’m tired today.  We had two nights of sleepover playmates and last night resulted in quite a bit of musical beds.  Kat and her friend R started the night sleeping in the den, while Alex climbed into bed with me.  About 11:00pm Kat showed up in tears, she’d had a bad dream and couldn’t go back to sleep.  She climbed into bed with me, trapping me in between the monkeys.  They are getting too big for the three of us to sleep comfortably in my queen sized bed!  So after she fell asleep and I’d gotten hit once more than I cared for, I grabbed a pillow and headed for Kat’s empty bed where I went to sleep.  Around 2am, R came upstairs, jumped on Kat’s bed to say that she couldn’t sleep downstairs alone!  She wound up sleeping on the floor of Kat’s room after an hour of futzing around, calling her sleeping parents feeling homesick and other wise keeping me awake.  I finally fell back to sleep a little after 3:30 and was awakened at 8 by R again.  Sigh.  So very sleepy now.  I’m just hoping to make it to a decent bed time tonight.

Craft on!

Wow do I have a lot to report on this week.  Let’s just jump into it…

On the Needles:

1.  Stripe Study Shawl - FINISHED! – I finished this up on Thursday night at SnB, which was very convenient as it was cold in Panera.  Love this shawl, though by the end of it, I did get a tad tired of the endless garter stitch.  Didn’t really appreciate the blue from the Misti Alpaca coming off on my hands.

All the project stats are available via the link above, which points to Ravelry.  What I really liked about this project is that it used up two skeins of sock yarn from stash!  YAY me

2.  I’ll Name Them George Socks - FINISHED! – I finished these bad boys on Wednesday night after signing the monkeys up for summer camp.  Paid for it in full as there was a discount for paying it off by the end of March.  That was a quick tax refund

These socks are loved and yes, they have been worn already.  I wore them Friday when I participated in a parents night out with a couple of other parents from the ‘hood.  We all took our kids to this party/gym location where they were fed and entertained from 6-9pm for $40 for my kids.  The grown ups went to a local restaurant where we indulged in adult beverages, food and conversation.  I can happily report that this is a monthly occurrence at this gym and oh yes we are participating!  Anyway, this is the third pair (and 5 skein) towards the Year of the Sock Yarn.

3.  Basic Socks – started – I cast on new socks Thursday morning during the commute.

• Pattern:  Hermione’s Everyday Sock
• Yarn:  River’s Edge Fiber Arts Extreme Sock Yarn
• Mods:  Reduced overall stitch count to 52 as I have wee skinny feet.

These require a bit more concentration, but that’s okay as I’ve been knitting them while listening to either audiobooks (giving those another try) or podcasts.

4. Mawata Lilies Shawlette – I picked mawata’s with the goal of knitting without spinning them first:

Aren’t they pretty?!  So I started the pattern yesterday.  The body is stockinette with a garter edges.  I finished it early this afternoon:

and started the lacy edging.  I totally love this process!  I’ve got another set in a different color way and will probably knit some mitts from those.  This is going to be the home/snb project as I can’t imagine commuting with the sticky, fly-away silk.  I’m definitely doing more with unspun silk in the future.

On the fiber front

1.  I finished spinning the merino blend on the Schacht (weeeee, I can go back to saying that now as I only have one that I’m using!  Now I just need to pull out the electric and ply it up.

2.  I went back to an older project in process on the Russo Vermont Wheel.  The fiber is from ITW and is 64′s merino top in Blackforest Cake.

I’ve still got probably an once or so of the fiber left to spin.  I’m planning on n-plying it.  And as usual, it is spinning up rather fine, but what else is new.

Other Stuff

I have a very productive week at work as well.  I’m now responsible for being the primary developer on a re-write of core functionality for the entitlements and access system.  While that’s pretty cool, the not so cool part is that there are no current specifications of what needs to be done, not all the current source code is available to review and there are a bajillion versions of everything being used.  Oh yeah, this will be a challenge.

Haven’t shown a shot of Serendipity in a long time.  Here she is sitting only spinning stool next to the Russo wheel.

Well that’s all for now,

Craft on!

Once again it is Sunday evening.  And once again, a very busy week that started with Kat having a fever and has now ended with Alex suffering a terrible headache and vomiting this evening.  He’s now sleeping, though I fear he’s inherited his mother’s problem with migraines.   I’m calling the pediatrician tomorrow.

On the Needles

It must be getting boring to see updates on the same two projects week in and week out.  Though I guess it is encouraging to me that there is actually progress to report each week!  I think I’ve finally discovered the secret to finishing stuff, its to actually focus on it!  To wit:

1.  Stripe Study Shawl:   Oh so close on this one.  In the last week I finished the final contrast stripe and have moved to working on the last stripe in the main color.   I just measured and I have 2.25″ of the 4″ called for in the pattern.  It is sloooooow going as there are lots of stitches on the needles!    I started schlepping it with me on the train in the hopes I could knock the project out this week.  No such luck, but getting there.  I took it to SnB on Thursday to find that the dye was transferring to my hands by the end of the night. I was smurfy

2.  I’ll Name them George Socks:  I finished the first sock and started the second.  I didn’t get as far as I could have since Stripe Study retook train knitting time.  PATH time was for the socks, still there was progress.  Oh and there was one day where I took the bus this week as the trains were futzed up in the morning.  That was always good sock knitting time.

That’s it for the knitting.  I’m starting to think of the next project for when Stripe Study is done.  There are a couple of possibilities.  Ok, a couple is a bit of an understatement considering my Rav queue is 9 pages long.  The top contenders though are either another shawl (Hitchhiker) also in Woolmisery, or a shawl from unspun mawata silk.  Or maybe one of the lightweight sweaters that would be perfect for the coming spring weather.

On the Fiber Front

I finished the first bobbin of Mountain Mist in Strawberries and have made serious progress on the second.  Probably another hour or so to go.  A few mornings this past week, I spent some time with the wheel before going to work.  Boy was that an awesome way to start the day.  I’m going to have to do it more often!

Other Stuff

There’s been assorted acquisitions this week.  My tax refund was direct deposited into my account this week, which was good!  I met up with Dorre at Purl Soho on Tuesday.  That was my first trip to see their new store.  Yes, I know it isn’t so very new.  I picked up some yarn for a cowl and a sashiko kit.

Time to get the monkey girl ready for bed and finish up the laundry before sitting down for a crafty evening.

Craft on!

It looks like I can just about commit to posting once a week.. and it appears that Sunday is that day.  Kat is in her room chilling before bedtime, Alex is off taking a shower, and I finally have some down time.  Its been a long interesting day but we’ll get to that in a bit.  Here’s the update:

On the needles

1.  Stripe Study Shawl is definitely moving along.  I had some good quality knit time yesterday and finished contrast stripe 11 of 12.  As of  a few minutes ago when I put it down, I was halfway through the last contrast stripe.  Almost done with this project.  Still need to do a load of the dark color garter stitch.  Hopefully this will be done by my next update.  It should be.

Will be nice to see it finished and spread out in all its glory.  I have to admit, I’m liking the Woolmisery and bought another skein off someone on Ravelry.  Nice that the price for the yarn has returned to earth.

2.  I’ll Name Them George Socks – The yarn is the ITW club yarn for February and is just awesome to work with.

It’s my standard recipe plain old vanilla sock over 56st, toe up, short row heel on US0.  The socks have been my purse knitting, being worked on primarily on the train and at work while reading.  I finished my coding project on Tuesday last week and moved to a research project that has me reading tech books.  The socks let me focus on the tedious stuff while making excellent progress.  I should have finished this sock during the week and honestly, can’t remember why I haven’t, but the train has been crowded on the way home and I didn’t get as much knitting done as I’d like.  Oh well.  It will probably get wrapped up tomorrow and then I’ll start its mate.

That’s it for the knitting.  I’ve been pretty darned good about keeping the WIPs under control, though the biggest part of it is resisting the urge to cast on something new.

On the Fiber Front

I haven’t done much spinning this week, though I have done some, on a new wheel at that!  Hold on, the wheeling and dealing hasn’t stopped. As you know, the Sidekick was boxed up and shipped out this past Monday.  Her new owner loves her already  Go figure that after scrounging for a box to ship her in, I found the original Schacht box in the basement this morning.  Ugh.  Anyway, I’ve also gotten a deposit on the CPW and she should be heading to her new home this weekend.  Neither is news…

So, I’ve been eyeing a Matchless, yes I know I have one.  But since the left foot injury to balance out the right ankle injury, I’ve found that my feet don’t really like a single treadle wheel.  But I loved the matchless.  I toyed with shipping her back to Schacht to convert, but decided to buy something else instead.  I saw posted on Ravelry an almost brand new Double Treadle (DT 072111 2) for sale in NYC.  After a bit of back and forth, I sent a deposit via PayPal to indicate my sincerity.  Kat and I drove into Manhattan this morning and picked the wheel up on the Upper West Side.  I got the new wheel home and sat her next to her older ST sister:

You can see the patina that my ST has developed (her bday was 5/2007).

There weren’t two Matchless wheels in this house for very long.  A dear friend, and SnB buddy, who was looking for a wheel to take places (has a S-R 24″) came over to “try it out”.  He he he.  I’ve never tried out a wheel that was for sale and not taken it home.  Didn’t happen this time either.  The ST is no longer her mine.  I’ll miss her, but know that she’s gone to a good home where she’ll get plenty of usage.  Too much competition around here!  I also look forward to seeing how the patina develops on the DT.

So what am I spinning on the new girl?  Well, I was scanning one of my favorite forums on Ravelry when I spotted a leap day sale (10%) for a fiber dyer I hadn’t spotted before.  I surfed over to her Etsy store and had to order a couple of braids.  They were shipped quickly and arrived just in time yesterday, err Friday.  Working from home is making me lose track of the days.

This fiber is the Mountain Mist fiber (60% Superwash Merino / 30% Bamboo / 10% Nylon) in the Strawberries colorway.  The braid is so squoooshy that you just can’t tell from looking at it, but just invites in person.  I broke the 4oz length in half.  I then split each lengthwise into smaller sections..

It is almost spinning itself..

I do love me good fiber on a good wheel..Just about done with the first 2oz.

Yup, happy girl here.  Tired as the day started early with a trip to Manhattan to get the wheel.  Then Tami came over to try the Matchless.. This was followed by a birthday party that Kat went to out in Fairfield.  Alex and I went with another family with one kid at the party to a restaurant.  Didn’t get home from the party until 6pm.  Alex still needed to do the rest of his reading homework, baths, teeth, bed.. you get the picture. So, I’m torn between spinning and maybe, just maybe, finishing contrast stripe 12.  I’ll probably knit and save the spinning for another night.  or…. maybe I can squeeze in 5 min or so before work.  Yeah.  I like that idea.

Reading

Beyond the boring (and inspiring) tech books on SOA and WS-Security, I’ve finally settled on a fictional book to keep my reading interest:  The Lion.  I’ve always been a Nelson DeMille fan and I’ve had this book for ages. Its just that he puts out books so slowly that I tend to hoard a new one. Yay me, just hope I don’t flounder for two weeks when I finish this one!

Garage Sale

I finally got around to photographing the various knitting bags / purses that I don’t use and would love to find a new home.  I posted them on Ravelry here, here and here

Well that’s it for this week.

Craft on!

I’m going to try something new for a bit, a weekly update of what I’ve been up to (spinning, knitting, gadgets, reading, etc).  I’d like to try for a once of week sort of thing and see if I can maintain that at the very least.  I might be able to handle a routine better than the hit or miss approach I’ve used to this point.  Or not

On the Needles:

I finished the socks that I started right before the cruise.  I dubbed them Explorer Sock as the bulk of the knitting was done on the Explorer of the Seas.  They are my basic sock pattern, this time using US1 over 52 stitches but cuff down for a refreshing change to the recent toe-upness.

The yarn is handspun from ITW fiber, May-June 2010 SAL Starcrossed – BFL that is a true 3 ply that I spun on the CPW seemingly forever   Well maybe not forever as it did get finished and now continues life as a pair of socks.  Quite happy with the results.

Also on the needles is a new project I started, continuing the year of the sock, or at least another attempt at staying on top of the sock yarn monster that has formed here.  This one is actually utilizing two different skeins of sock yarn!

Stripe Study Shawl – the blue/black yarn is Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock while the red/orange/yellow is Wollemeise 100% in Campari Orange that I bought years ago before Wollemeise because the fad yarn du jour.  Its been marinating in stash, and I’m quite happy with how the two yarns are playing together.  I managed a couple more stripes on this last night, so this picture is outdated already.

Nothing else active on the needles, but there’s a possibility that a pair of socks will be started to keep as purse knitting for when I want to read as I can’t count to twenty AND read at the same time.  Not to mention, this GOREGOUS yarn just arrived as part of the ITW club and I.MUST.USE.IT (or hold it and pet it and name it George).

On the Spinning Front:

There’s nothing currently active on most of the wheels.  The Vermont Wheel has some yummy ITW fiber – 64′s Merino in Blackforest Cake colorway that has been marinating for a while.  I’m planning on n-plying it and have about a 1/3 of the fiber spun already.

The other spinning is this fiber:

It is Forbidden Woolery fiber – Falkland wool in Chinese Fireball colorway.  I’m spinning it on a new wheel that arrived on Thursday.

My new Spinolution Queen Bee!

I’d been intrigued by the SpinOlution wheels for a while but hadn’t tried one nor pulled the trigger when looking for a travel wheel.  I happened on a sale posting on Ravelry that I just couldn’t ignore.  It was for a gently used Bee with SEVEN bobbins and travel bag for an amount that I couldn’t help but pay.  Anyone reading here for a while knows that I’ve been on a grail quest for the perfect travel wheel.  While I’m not yet convinced that Bee might be what the others haven’t been, there are definitely some serious factors in her favor, including the widest range of ratios right out of the box, including the smooth treadling middle 18:1 that matches my Vermont Wheel.  Nice.  And I don’t have to pump like I’m trying to win the Tour de France to achieve that.  Set up is literally 2 minutes from bag to spinning, which blows my Sidekick and her suitecase right out of my trunk.  If only she were a tad lighter weight-wise, but that also makes for a solid spinner.  Might just have to go to the gym   I spun up 2oz of the fiber on Friday night at my normal weight and am quite pleased with it so far.  I’ll probably be posting more as I work with the wheel more.

Other Stuff (gadgets / books / etc)

No other gadget acquisition, though I’ve been shuffling around the reading gadgets.  I admit it here and now, I have a bit of a gadget problem and eReaders in particular.  I’m coming to the conclusion that my favorite device to read on is my Kindle 3G.  I thought I’d like a touch screen, figuring that just tapping the screen while knitting would be easier and quicker, so I bought a Kindle Touch.

I like the thing, the problem is that not only the finger tap turned pages, but so did the sock I was knitting on, as did the yarn tail, or the floppy needle tip when knitting a sock on two circs.  The Kindle Touch 3G is not for me.  Any takers before it goes on Craigslist? (Edited to add:  Just returned from BestBuy where I returned it.  Turns out I was still within the return policy so back it went. Much easier that way.)

What have I been reading?  I just finished reading A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3).  OMG.  The first two books of the series were good, but this one?  Blew my socks off.  I’d highly recommend the series.  Now the big problem, do I move along to the next book or take a break, extend the life of the series and read something else or not.  I think I can wait a bit, process what happened and finish up one of the other books I’ve had going   Yup, multi books along with the multi projects.  What can I say, at least I’m consistent.

Watching Hoarders has led me to re-examine what I’ve been up to.  No, its nowhere near like one of those houses around here as things to leave, somewhat regularly but there is a bit of clutter in my life.   I’m cleaning up a bit of the clutter now.  To that end, the CPW will be moving to a new home (no offers please as I already have a pending sale for it), I’m selling on Rav a couple knitting bags that I don’t use, and somewhere I’ll be listing a couple of Coach bags that fall into that same category.  I might create a page around here to list stuff that needs to move along.

Craft on!

In order to keep up with the steading incoming supply of sock yarn, I decided that I need to knit at least one pair a month.  Towards that end I have two pairs of socks that are complete.  The first is a the last FO for 2011:

These socks are Cherry Tree Hill Supersock.  I’m pretty sure this is my first completed pair out of that yarn.  I’ve purchased other skeins, but I don’t recall actually finishing anything before.  These are pretty nifty.  I actually finished these guys on New Years Eve, shortly before midnight.  That made my total production for 2011 higher than it has been in a long time.

I just finished these socks this evening.

I would have finished these earlier, except I futzed up the second sock.  For some odd reason, while I had no problem increasing the toe to 56st for the first sock, I couldn’t quite manage that on its mate.  Took me to having finished the heel to realize it though.  I ripped it out and started again.  The yarn is Pakokku sock yarn from ITW in Minotaur color way. I picked this up at NYSW this yearn and really liked it.  The base is a fine multi-plied yarn which reminds me of Lorna’s.

Finally, another FO to show off, but not knitting this time.  Most know that I’ve been working on a iOS version of my KnitCounter app.  I submitted it to the Apple App Store on 1/2 and it was approved.  It is available for $.99 (just like the droid version)

It is available here.  I’m quite proud of it and would welcome comments and suggestions!

Now to decide which yarn is next.  Will be important as on Friday we’re off on our annual family vacation on the Explorer of the Seas.  The trip is very similar to this one, but one day longer and with one stop different.  We’re going to St. Martin instead of Dominican Republic this time and the islands are in a different order.  Labadee, Haiti is our first stop.

Craft on!

I know it has been a long time since my last post. And no, my prolonged silence does not indicate that I’ve been job hunting again! I am quite happy at my new job. While I won’t go into all the reasons why I could be lured into interviewing by the recruiter in this very public of fora, if you should really want to know, email me or leave a comment.  Suffice it to say, the things I didn’t like are no longer a problem.  I hit the one month mark today.  Yay!  I’m still loving it.

However, the learning a new company and new gig has me somewhat, well quite exhausted by the end of the day.  When the kids go to sleep, I’m ready to call it a day, which is why you haven’t seen a post from me in a bit.  It also means that the development work that I had started on the iOS port of KnitCounter is once again on hold.  I’m still plodding through the books, but not writing anything yet.  Soon.  Be patient grasshopper.

I am knitting though!  And I have lots to show progress-wise since my last posting.  Right before leaving the last job, I needed a bus project.  Enter another pair of basic socks.  This is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock that I got from Deb when we went to visit her towards the end of October.

I had even made some decent progress before ending that job.  I vaguely recall finishing the first sock and then the knitting sat and sat in my bag untouched.  I’ve been reading on the train/path (yes shorter commute!) and had other portable projects steal this one’s thunder.

Having finished the boy’s DriveThru, it was time to make the girl one.  Since she kvetched that the last one made from 220 was itchy, it also meant a trip to the yarn store for something “softer” for my princess.  She picked ack-rylic.  Decent ack-rylic, but still ack-rylic all the same.  It was Patons Canadiana at least, and not something terrible.  Glad I took her to a real yarn store and not a big-box. Goodness only knows what she’d pick there!  Anyway, here’s her finished DriveThru:

Drive Thru

• Size:  10
• Yarn: Patons Canadiana
• Needles: US7 & 8
• Started: November 12 2011
• Completed: December 4 2011

The kid is happy.  And mommy is happy that the kid wish list is now complete!  I can go back to knitting for me

I have a couple more that are finished in name only.  One is waiting on a picture of the finished item:

The yarn is some Jade Sapphire 2ply Cashmere lace weight that I tried to knit a number of items out of but the original color just made me ill working with it.  It was a clown-barf inspired bright pinks and greens.  Don’t know what I was thinking when I bought it but it was cashmere in the 50% bin at the yarn store.  Leann was awesome enough to overdye it and make it useable and gorgeous!  It is now a finished cowl that I’ve been wearing daily since the weather got cold.  Thanks Leann!

The other is waiting for a trip to the washing machine to felt.  I’ll give the project deets when all is done.

It will end life as a felted hat for Alexander’s teacher.

Finally, I just need to show this!  It made me smile when I saw the request to follow my twitter feed…

So say we all!

Craft on