Knitting Progress

Here is A2 modeling her new hat and mittens made with Peacock's lovely hand dyed yarn.

And here is a quick picture of the back of the Liv sweater. It isn't much to look at yet as the pattern appears only on the front and sleeves. I plan on finishing up at least one sock this weekend too, but time will tell.

Surprises abound!

Today a package arrived in the mail with a return address from Blue Moon Fibers Arts . Because I have a memory like a blender I immediately started wondering when and what I purchased. Upon opening the box this is what I found...

It's one skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in the colorway, Fire on the Mountain. OMG! It is gorgeous.

After several minutes of fondeling, smelling the yarn while giggling it dawned on me... this is from Jessalu. Holy moly, I carried it with me and showed everyone I saw this afternoon, whether they knit or not. It is so beautiful that I'm going to order more to accompany this. Thank you very much Jessalu!

There was more good news in the mail too. We received a notification letter that my youngest daughter was chosen via a lottery to attend the same school as her older sisters. It's a public school, however it is set up similar to a magnet school that specializes in sciences, music and art. If your child isn't selected via the kindergarten lottery then he/she goes on a really long waiting list for openings. Anyway, this is great news because not only is it a fabulous school, but if we don't move then all of my girls will be going to one place and I won't have to drive all over town and their vacations will be the same!

Happy Easter to everyone, I hope your weekend is wonderful!

Thank you Peacock!

Yesterday afternoon there was a knock on my door. When I opened it I discovered a package. It came from Peacock and it was my prize for the cactus/bucket story.
Inside the box was this delightful yarn and a postcard from Arizona.
She dyed the yarn herself and the colors are gorgeous. And get this, she actually said that if I didn't like it that I could send it back for something different... as if!
All other WIP's were pushed aside and I made a new hat yesterday.
There is enough yarn left for matching mittens too! The colors knitted up very pretty. I've never knitted with yarn wound on a center pull skein before either. Very nice! Definately putting a ball winder and swift on my wish list!
Thank you, Peacock!

STEEKS SUCK!

I hate steeks. Fair Isle knitting is fun and wonderful, but as God is my witness, I will never steek again... at least not using the method from the Philosopher's Wool book (okay, I admit that I'm just lousy at sewing, it isn't their fault). Oh heck, I'll probably do it again someday.
At first glance one might think this sweater looks near finished...




Okay, so the frogs are not sewn on yet, no big deal, that only takes a few minutes and some thread.








And upon looking at the inside it's obviously in need of reblocking, again a minor issue that is easily remedied.






So here's the problem... the sleeve seam on the left shows three things, the machine sewn steek, (reinforced courtesy of my Mom), the rough cut edge with leftover fair isle stitches/selvedge and the inside facing I added to cover the seam. The picture on the right shows the facing. However,

being the "clever" person that I am, I thought that cutting away the excess selvedge would make the seam less bulky and more comfortable to wear. And surely the stitches used to set the sleeve would hold and prevent the fair isle from unraveling. Well, I was wrong! All of the body stitches are coming apart at the seam now and I am at a loss as to how to fix it. I suppose another trip through the sewing machine with a zigzag stitch might hold it, but then one side will end up smaller than the other (I already made a mistake on this same side which required an additional machine stitch and resulted in a slightly slimmer side than the other).

Well crappola anyway. I'm putting this one aside for awhile and resuming sock knitting... again.

100th Post & I'm a Winner 2 times!

I win! Last month I entered a contest at Peacock's site. For her contest she had taken a picture of a cactus with black buckets on each of it's many arms/heads. Whomever guessed the correct reason for the buckets won a prize and the individual with the most creative answer also won a prize. Two of us answered and two of us won. Even with those odds I'm still thrilled to be able to say that I won. And get this, I'll get yarn! Knitters can never have too much yarn. I'm excited.

But wait, there's more! Several days ago I entered a contest over at Jessalu Knits to guess how many pairs of socks she could make with her sock yarn stash. I guessed 35 and the actual number was 43. However, all participants were put into a drawing and I won the random drawing. Two people were one pair off on their guesses and a drawing was held between those two. Scout won the drawing and from what I understand, Scout does quite well in contests. Anyway, I can't imagine having enough yarn to knit 43 whole pairs of socks, that is so cool and now I'll get a new skein of sock yarn!

I'll need to think up some kind of really cool contest and prize too. Contests are fun. Thank you Peacock and Jessalu!

Today we received a postcard from my 2nd or 3rd (?) cousin, Helena. Helena lives in Finland and the card's greeting is in Finnish. This is one of the many occasions that I wish I wasn't monolingual. Even my translation dictionary isn't helping this time. The message reads, "Puput tuovat tullessaan iloa paasiaistunnelmaan!" I'm pretty sure it's an Easter message based on the picture. Thank you Helena! Helena is a wonderful knitter and she has two beautiful children, Sonja and Jyrki. She has been here to visit our family, but we have never been to Finland. The airfare is quite expensive and there is that embarrassing language barrier. My Grandpa speaks Finnish, but he never taught any of us anything but cuss words and a few songs.

Back when my Mother-in-Law was alive she shopped... a lot. After arthritis settled in her back and she couldn't walk or drive far she still shopped, but via television and catalog. QVC's phone number was programmed on speed dial and the UPS truck stopped 3 or 4 times a week at her home. Because Brian's Dad worked her discussions with the ordering operators and the delivery people were some of the only company she'd have throughout the day (which probably prompted some of her ordering). ANYWAY, we have lots of Bradford Exchange collector's plates (mostly Star Trek and the 3 Stooges), Fenton glassware and other "treasures" we don't want to keep. Heck, even if we did there isn't enough room in our house. So I spent a good portion of the day photographing items to list on eBay. After the photography session I went out to eBay. According to recent sales the plates we have re-sell for approximately .99 to $4.99 each. The packaging would cost more than I'd make selling them. So now the question is what to do with them. I wonder if someday my daughters will go through all of my knitting paraphernalia and yarn and wonder what to do with the "useless junk". Ha!

Not much knitting progress today but the molding and trim for Ashley's room received their first coat of paint.