Where did the month of February go? I have no idea, I must have pulled a Rip Van Winkle and slept right through it.

I know for certain that there has been lots of house cleaning and a little bit of knitting going on. I made a quick pair of socks for the DD in her favorite colors. Much to my satisfaction they are a perfect match. This is

Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Multiringel color 5121. It used well under a ball to make this pair, her feet are a size 1 childrens.

This is the second ball of most precious yarn I have used from my stash. It is the Claudia Handpainted Yarns Silk Lace (20/2 ) in Ocean Depth. It turned out very nicely. The color with the pattern looks just beautiful. It is very light weight, shiny and silky. I LOVE the Laminaria pattern from Knitty. This is a terrific pattern, well written and easy to follow and it turns out wonderfully. I give it two thumbs up.


Now, after nearly a year of silence, I can finally show you a pair of socks I made in April 2008. I did a sample knit for Cookie A.'s fantastic book, Sock Innovation. The sock is titled Eunice. The book will be avialable on April 1st. This sock is Cabled with a lacy pattern in the center of the cross. This pair was made from KPM. It was modeled here by Melissa as her feet were the closest size to the socks. Sample knitting is fun, you just can't tell anyone about i!

Now on the needles, a pair of snaily felted baby booties. Super cute but you'll have to wait to see them!

Um, yeah. I can blog.
I have been kind of busy. So, we had my DD's birthday, Thanksgiving, ms DS's birthday, my DH's birthday ( a big party for his 40th), my Mom and Dad's anniversary, Christmas, then New years, then back to school. My DS got a severe ankle sprain playing at school and spent 3 weeks on Crutches, went to get his foot looked at again and got Strep throat. Now his foot seems to be bothering him still, so back to the Doctor! I have been busy teaching Art Vistas and running kids around! This year is already flying by and I am still trying to adapt to writing 2009 on things. Damn!

I have been busy and lazy to boot. I have so many finished things to show you! Well, okay, no so many, but a few! Here is my mom on Christmas Day, the joyful recipient of the small pair of top down Froot Loops that just happened to end up being her size. One might think she trimmed to balls to make them her size...

Whatever happened to that Heartland shawl? Well here it is!It came out wonderfully. Made of lovely Handmaiden Seasilk in the Glacier color way. I blocked it out at 4:30am December 23 ( I knew I would need to be wrapping on December 24 so I stayed up all knit to finish it, weave in ends and block it.) Here it is pictured pinned to the floor at 5 am... Where, you may ask, are the pictures taken of the happy recipient, my MIL? Well, I will tell you, there are none! Why, you may ask. because it is the last goddamned knitted thing SHE is getting from me. She opened the bag, took it out, partially unfolded it, said "oh, thanks Ang, it is pretty." then folded it back up and stuffed in in the bag. Didn't throw it on, or spread it out. NOTHING! SO off the list!

On the more selfish side of knitting, I made a pair of Winter Twilight Mitts (interweave free pattern). The black yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and the colored yarn is a skein of

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch in colorway 504. All of that perfect color is just from one skein without cutting to change the transitions (well the first one anyway). It was just perfect. There was a LOT of drama involved in making them, which I will spare you here, (you can read about it on Ravelry if you are that desperate to know) and just show off. The second mitten had to be cut and matched because the transition to that last dark color was not fast enough to match the first mitt. It still is not exact but fairly close, as I had to rip back about 15 rows, cut the yarn and splice it to ease the transition in because a world with out nearly perfectly matching mitts is not a world I am prepared to live in. Notice there are no 2 handed shots as I am unable to hold the camera and photograph my own two hands. I really love these!

What is on the needles now? A pair of vanilla toeup socks for DD made from this: I seem to have love affair with the Lana Grossa. Progress at this point is to the bottom of the arch of her foot. I was thinking of making them tall socks, I will have to see how long I can make them before I run out of yarn. Of course, I have to account for matching those stripes!

Also currently on the needles is a Laminaria knitted with this Claudia Silk 10/2 in the colorway Ocean Depth. This skein is a very dark and intense version of it. Janet commented that it wakes you up! I really LOVE this pattern, it is written nicely and knits up quickly, with the random happenstance that sometimes I can't seem to count to nine. I have tried for about a year to find another skein in a similar depth and shade of color but all of the other Ocean Depths that I have found have been a far lighter tint that looks very faded. Out of despair for never locating another ball, I just decided to bite the bullet and use it. Teenuh is so proud that I have used TWO different balls of my MOST PRECIOUS stash to make things. And in return I am just glad Teenuh is alive!

Oh, also I have been busy because.....
I got a new puppy! Her name is Marley, she is now 4 months old, but in this pic is about 3 and a half months old. She is, quite hysterically, half Chihuahua (mom) and half Golden Retriever (dad). Picture the physics on that. She looks much like a Lab pup, but she has a longish looking body and the stumpiest legs you have ever seen! They are so short and fat. She is naughty and cute and fun. I am working at training her, it is hard work as there are 3 other people in the house who work hard at untraining her. She is nearly housebroken and has already learned sit and down and NO! What fun!

I have finished my Flaming Froot Loops Socks and lo and behold, they fit!! There is definitely something to be said for toe-up socks. Kristi's pattern is super, I highly recommend it. Just don't be a dork like me and choose shorter balls of yarn because all of those passed over stitches and mini-cables eat up that yarn... What worked for lace socks, clearly does not work for texture. Always a lesson to be learned.

Progress on my Heartland Shawl is slow and infrequent. It is now about 10 inches long. I finally got a copy of Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush and there are quite a few projects in there I would like to get started on... I am trying to tell myself not to start anything new until the old is finished.

Speaking of old, can I say that I LOVE Sugarmomma? She saved my ass swapping me a desperately needed ball of Cascade Sierra Quatro and it has arrived! So soon the monkey will have ears and a tail. Perhaps I will find the time over Thanksgiving to finish her up.

So many other projects I am desperate to start. Where do I begin? I am having trouble focusing this week... I, like Teenuh, am suffering from Twilightitis. With hot young vampires on the brain I have very little time to think about anything else....

I am having a serious commitment issue.

I can usually start a project and stick with it until I have finished. But lately I have serious starteritis! Sock monkey #3 DD's monkey is as finished as she can be. She has no ears and no tail but that will have to sit until the wonderful woman who is trading yarn with me sends me her skein of that darn Cascade Sierra Quatro that I need!

So in the mean time I have knit 2 rows on my Heartland shawl and have started a new set of Froot Loop Socks (which will heretofor be known as Flaming Froot Loops). Now I am eyeballing starting yet another shawl. I was also walking around with a blanket pattern in my hand, not 5 minutes ago.

So I need to nip this little problem in the bud by first admitting I have a problem.

Or by knitting faster....

Today I hate everyone. I am fed up with working with other people and I am tired. I also didn't get in my quota of knitting time, so I have withdrawls as well. I am so done with this whole book fair thing! This will be my last call on it, I think.

So Froot Loops are finished and both are stupid small. I hate top down. Toe-up or bust from now on! They look great, they are just about 1.5 inches too short. I love the color and pattern and yarn and everything but the damn size!! I finished with about 1yard of yarn left. Stupid yarn!


Here they are. They just need some feet to wear them.... Gratuitous close-up of stitch pattern with weird color change from flash! The bright orange-red-green is the true color of the yarn. I think I might make another pair, in a more solid color for better stitch definition becasue the pattern is so cute. They WILL be toe-up of course!

Zoinks!

I have totally bailed on blogging lately. I have been busy with soccer and school stuff. Walkathons and book fairs and junk like that. Today is Halloween, the most wonderful time of the year!! DS, DD and DN had a jolly good parade at school wearing their cute costumes. Pumpkins were carved. We went to a party tonight and I baked a delicious cake! As well as made a couple of nifty brains for dinner. Duh, I forgot to take a picture of them after cooking covered with bloody ketchup. Damn. It was quite the party, Judy found it to be eye popping... We had a fantastic time and got home about 12:30 am, which sucked for getting to the soccer field at 9:30 on Saturday.

On the knitting front: I struggled for a while with a pattern called Gail. Which is not very well written so after 6 failed attempts at it, I have decided not to make it and am instead using my precious Handmaiden Sea Silk for Evelyn Clark' s Heartland Lace Shawl. It is going much better. The numbers actually add up, which is always a good thing. Sorry tarded out again and didn't take a picture.

Finally, after months of putting it off, I have begun my pair of Froot Loop socks, with 1 done and the second about 1/3 done, but a word to Kristie. My sock is TOO SMALL because I ran out of yarn at the toe, this is why I knit toe ups and not top downs! ARGH! Someone with size 8 feet will be the lucky recipient of this pair of socks. Damn socks.

The knitting of the pink monkey, drones on forever. I haven't worked on it in a couple of weeks. I get a very dirty look from DD everytime she sees me knitting anything other than her monkey. I will go hide my guilty face and work on my sock.

Every once in a blue moon someone does something more amazingly special than even I have done (Yes, it is rare but true)... To commemorate such a momentous occasion a special name must be given.. perhaps we should call it the "Lost Keys Incident" or "Damn yYou Are Lucky" or "Why You Shouldn't Talk on a Cell Phone" or maybe just "The Duh Incident." Regardless, Lisa forget the "Gigi", you have earned yourself a new name....
I dub thee Spehshul Leesuh.......