Stash enhancement, sewing and some knitting content....

Seems like I disappeared from the face of the blogging world. I was quite busy working on this:

Yes, I totally made her wear her knee pads, I tried to figure out how to put her helmet on with her hat as well. DD, picked this out for herself from the sewing pattern books about 3 months ago, the stuff they have in the stores is never anything that she wants to be. I had a very difficult time finding the black and white check. All the fabrics were purchased and cut out about 3 weeks ago. So what do I do? I procrastinate until the day before it needs to be done and stay up all night to finish it. It had lots of pieces and took longer to assemble than I thought it was going to. Whoops. Here she is with Ninja DS, he likes store bought costumes, luckily. They are on their way to a Halloween party. She is taller than he is with her skates on.

So I couldn't resist and I ordered from the Loopy Ewe. What I was really after was the Pretty as a Peacock Shawl by Jae Koscierzynski, I have been stalking this pattern on Ravelry since the first time I saw it. The gal finally made a pattern and is selling it. Quite nice. The Loopy Ewe was one of a few places selling it online and well, since I already had $10 worth in the cart, I needed to get just $65 more and I'd be in the free shipping... spend and save, right!? So just a few dollars later and this is what I had....

Resembling Koigu, quite a bit is Shibui Knits Sock. It is 100% Superwash Merino. Soft and springy!Seaoast Handpainted Yarn in Jewels. This yarn is a super soft 60% Merino wool, 30% bamboo and 10% Nylon. Soft.
The most expensive of my spend and save plan was this Schaefer Heather. The colorway is called Storm at Sea. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Mmmmm. It is wonderfully soft 55% Merino 30% silk and 15% Nylon. It has a nice sheen to it. It is safe to say this is ANOTHER ball of Schaefer Sock yarn that will NEVER become a pair of socks. This color is almost exactly the same as this... and this ... the only difference is there is less gray. I guess I must like that color scheme...

I dorked out and in ALL my picture taking I forgot to photograph my Embossed Leaves Maizy socks. Sock #1 has already turned the heel and is working up the ankle, slowly. I've got a lot of other time consuming stuff going on that keeps me from having a lot of time to knit, unfortunately. I think the book fair can plan itself, right!? Knitting, is WAY more important.

Busy, busy, busy!!!!

Yikes, I have been a busy bee. Little time for knitting, I am experiencing some knitting DT's. But all the sewing I have been doing is kind of making up for it. Alas, Halloween draws nearer and as it does I become an insane, costume-sewing machine. Somehow I got into this thing of sewing my DD's costume every year. Each year she picks some bizarre costume and I am forced to make it. It started when she was almost 2, DS went as Mike Wazowski (Monster's Inc) so she went as Boo, that costume wasn't too bad, a big fleece shirt and some fleece leggings (to be warm of course) 2 pony tails and it was good to go. The next year, was Snow white (not too hard, just kind of a lot of pieces), followed by the Little Mermaid (got some awesome scaly looking, shiny, green material for the tail) then last year's Princess Leia (with hand sewn fake buns). This year? A roller skating 50's style car hop, of course! It only has about a thousand pieces to sew together, yet manages to be a fairly skimpy (not inappropriate age wise, but rather, weather wise) outfit. Short sleeves, short skirt... Well, she'll have hat on, so at least her head will be warm! Then of course, I am making my Halloween costume, which needs to be completed by Wednesday night, for our Halloween Costume Bunco. No stress, no stress.

Well, in the midst of all this sewing goodness, we had a little soccer tournament in which my team ROCKED!!! Yes they did! Won 2 games (1-0, 2-0), tied 1 (1-1)and went into the championship game against a team that spanked us last time we played them (like 4 to 0, ouch!). We unfortunately lost, but the girls played so well, the other team only scored 1 point and it was a total fluke point, because the girl kicked it out of my goalie's hands (boo, bad call on the ref's part). Which put us in second place for the final standings!! It was excellent, but tiring. Not that I had to play any of the 4 games, but I pace up and down the side lines and yell at the top of my lungs. I pretty much felt like I lived at those soccer fields this weekend. I am lucky to have such a great team of girls!

Bag of lies is finished!

It is beautiful, but sadly, it is RIDICULOUSLY short. I have tried contacting Deanna, of Deanna's vintage styles. But she doesn't respond. So if you happen to come across an attractive package of beaded scarves at a knit show and think you'd like to have it, and the package says "Deanna's Vintage styels, email VintageStyles@AOL.com fax 1.313.640.8683" on the label. Turn away! Don't buy it! It will be ridiculously short with significantly less yardage than the package says and you will never get a response from the seller when you contact her! Turn away, RUN away, and make sure you take your friend, entranced as she is with the beads, along with you and tell everyone you know! Heck you can even start now! She is an older woman, short and heavy set, blondish brown hair and glasses. She has a rough voice. Now you will know her when you see her!

Here it is, in all its tiny, finished glory: I have included the girls in the lower photo so you can see just how short this is! It barely goes past the boobs!

I totally forgot to post some things! I got my swap stitch markers in the mail on Thursday! They are SO cute! I love the giant eyelashes on the star. I did not mean to ignore my fantastic partner, Brenda Flowers. Thank you Brenda!

Also in the mail, I got my latest installment of the the Shawl club kits. This is the Diamonds and Flowers Shawl, by Earth Heart Designs. The yarn is Heather wool, columbine blue, which is quite purpley I never listed my 2 prior kids in the stash on Ravelry, because I was not sure what brand the yarn is. I have asked and it is Jagger Spun, Heather.

Also I FINALLY got the new correct, Sock Pixie yarn. Here is it on the left next to its ugly stepsister Badlydyedlot on the right. The color is Poppy. The new skein is super gorgeous and it feels fantastic, I am looking forward to knitting with it. Thank you Sock Pixie!

Kaffe Fasset Chevron socks are finished. I finished them up last night after I got home at 10:30pm. I was a little wired up from drinking a caffeinated Diet Coke (and my husband was snoring like a 3 foot chain saw) so I watched a couple of my recorded CSI (and CSI NY) episodes and finished the sock up. They are a perfect match and I am as pleased as punch about that.

The "bag of lies" scarf as I have referred to it, is now 1/2 way finished, I reached the half way point on Wednesday night. Sorry no pics, it didn't occur to me for some reason to take a picture of it as I was working on it. It is quite short and (blogless) Melissa has suggest it become an ascot *smirk*! Teenuh finally received the new sock Pixie yarn and she took pictures of it! It looks SO yummy great! I can hardly wait to get my paws on it!!! Forget this weekend Tennuh, I'm coming over now!

A Bag of LIES!

I have been sold a bag of lies. I have never met something so "easy" that was so damn hard to do! Working on the beaded scarf kit, I decide to use my yardage meter to neatly divide the skein of ribbon yarn in two. First I wound the entire skein onto a bobbin while measuring it. What the hell!? The card says 200 yds. My meter says more like 145 yds!? I'm thinking, the meter must be goofy, so I carefully measure out about 20 yds with a tape and then run it through, and surprise, surprise the meter is working properly. So I wind the yarn back across onto a second cardboard bobbin I cut out. OMG! The fucking skein is still 55 yds short of what the label says!?? How can that be?? What a rip off!! It is a good thing I am not making something big that I bought skeins based on the amount of yardage I need. Jesus. I am still pissed though.

Now that I am all mad about that. I go on to "easily stringing the pre-strung beads onto the yarn." Ugh!!! It was a fucking nightmare. Just to do 1/2 of the skein of yarn with the 6 strands of beads, I swear that the frigging string untied no less than 12 times and broke no less than 20 times!!! It was a nightmare. The string (or even the yarn!) would break and beads would to FLYING off of the string and onto the couch, the floor, the secret place where all lost things go.... Btw, if you have to remove every bead that won't slide easily over the bump, I think you would not have any beads left. But the really bad ones could not easily be removed by "untying and removing the bad bad." No, no, no, no, no! You have to nearly dump the entire lot of beads on the ground, so instead I got out my pliers and began CRUSHING the beads off the string. Crunch, pop! *bead shrapnel flew through the air....* Then I got up, picked up all the loose beads and corraled them inside of a plastic box. . So I have all the beads in the box and DUH! I tip the friggin' thing over and spend the next 35 minutes or so picking up the beads!! This project has been SO frustrating. And I am realizing that I get to do that ALL over again when I made the other half!!!

Here is my progress at present. Sliding the beads along the length of the skein is a pretty big pain in the butt. I think it might be a better plan to slide 2 strings of beads onto the terminal end of the yarn so that you didn't have to slide all the ends beads along 70 yds of yarn. At least it looks good, right?

Oakland TKCGA show.

Yeah, so it isn't Stitches, but you can go up and do it in half a day and get some stuff and have a good time. I went up with my best pal Teenuh, her MIL (in town visiting) and my mom. We parked for free out on the street. Strolled into the lobby about half an hour before opening, busted out our coupons and bought our tickets, only to be pleasantly surprised with GOODY bags!! Woo Hoo! They were apparently the goody bags for the people who preregistered for classes, which they had left over and were giving them out to all the early arrivals. We got a big bag from Red Heart that had an assortment of balls inside, (there was only 1 of these inside, but my mom gave me hers, citing that she would never use it.)There (and she traded me another ball not pictured for her matching ball of this washable wool) as well as a fabulous large black tote from Lion Brand Yarn that had 3 balls of hot pink Wool Ease and a pair of lion size 6 plastic needles inside, as well as a coordinating scarf pattern. Sweet! Everyone loves free, even if it isn't your favorite yarn on Earth, damnit! It's free!

So then we waited a bit, met some friendly ladies out in the lobby. Finally we got to go inside. The Village Knitting and Spinning Store was there from Solvang, CA they have the BEST selection of knitting books (never cheap!) with hard to find American selections as well as some really awesome German books. Of course I am such an idiot, I always buy books early on then have to carry them around until my shoulder feels as it will fall off. Well, actually my Mom came along and she bought them for me for Christmas so I had to carry them all day, but can't use them until after Christmas. We meandered around and I picked up some fabulous yarns.... Zephyr wool silk from Terylynn Needle arts
A beaded scarf kit, with Interlacements yarn and beads.
Then my very last purchase was this Silk Crack, as I have been referring to it. It is a soft, shiny beautiful, ultrafine silk yarn. It cost me an arm and a leg and some of my dignity, but I got it anyway. It is too marvelous for words, in my favorite peacock colors!! I could just sleep with this in my hands... Now this is something like 5,400+ yds. But I plan on holding 3 strands together at a time to accomplish what it is I want to accomplish, effectively cutting my yardage to 1/3 of that to 1,800 yards. Yippee. The booth people had made a beautiful sock out of this, with a size 000 needle, not in my future plans at all!!!

Still Alive.
Still knitting. I finished sock 1 of my Regia Designer Line Kaffe Fasset socks. They look quite nice. If I had made them a tad bit smaller they wouldn't have fit my feet. Whew! Close call on that. Sorry I haven't had time to take a picture yet. I just turned the heel on the second sock. So now I am in the home stretch. The good news is, they are a PERFECT match! Yahoo! This weekend it sounds like we will be rounding up quite the posse to go to the Oakland TKGA market place on Sunday. It is no where NEAR the size of Stitches, but it is always fun to shop a bunch of corralled yarn stores and feel like you can spend money... because I would NEVER walk into my LYS (any one of the 10 located around here) and dish out the dollars like I do at a yarn show... I know, sad case. I always feel like the thing I am looking at that I am liking, I will most certainly NEVER see it again so I had better buy it RIGHT now or regret it for the rest of my knitting life. Yeah, so the drama.

I am almost done with those socks, so I need to pick my next project. I am beginning to feel slightly panicked at not knowing what to knit next. Maybe some socks with that Panda Cotton picked up a couple of weeks ago. I am feeling slightly commitmentphobic about starting anything big that will take too long to finish because I just don't have a lot of time between soccer, Tae Kwon Do, and all the things I keep suckering myself into doing at the school. Anyone want to peel any box tops for me? We had a Bunco-tastic time on Tuesday with a theme bunco. It was hysterical fun. Looks like we are going to need to pick up at least 2 more players next year when we renew our year, anyone want to join?

Well, it took long enough, but DD's Tender Heart Shawl is finally finished. Helen's Halfpint Farms Sock (superwash and tencel) 540 yds. purchased at Stitches West. I had about 6 feet of yarn left over when I was finished. It is worked from the top center out. With columns of hearts running outward and garter stitch columns in between. The finished size is much larger than I thought it was going to be (my guess was 35"x15"), 52" wide by 23" long and I didn't even do a hard block, I did a pretty soft block. I am always thrown off by how much lacy things grow when they are blocked. It is going to be pretty big for her, but at least she can wear it for a while without out growing it, she can wear it until she gets tired of it, or refuses to wear hearts or bright colors anymore. Which probably will be sooner than I would hope. *sob, sob*The bright pictures show the actual color, the darker, salmon colored pictures are just my camera not cooperating and my photoshop isn't working so I couldn't correct the color! This is definitely some of the brightest yarn I have ever seen. Once I finally got my pattern worked out this was very easy to make. In theory I think this shawl could be cranked out in like a week if you worked at it industriously and didn't goof off at the beginning hoping the pattern was right and then dawdle at the end trying to figure out what kind of edging you were putting on the bottom. I spent a week approaching the end and trying to decide if I should put a chevron type edge, or a lacy edge, or a rounded edge, or fringe, and finally when I thought I had decided I notice that I hardly had any yarn left and the only edge I could do was the one that matched the rest of the edging with the yo's and the garter stitch rows. If I had paid any attention sooner, I wouldn't have wasted the time thinking about it! BTW, DD is already in bed and she didn't see it when it was blocking, so she doesn't even know it is done yet. I suppose I'll let you know what she thinks of it later on.... Cross your fingers!

Too busy to knit!??!!

I didn't knit a stitch all weekend! Friday after school was Rehersal for BIL's wedding. It was long and ran over and the 7:30 rehersal dinner at Uncle Chongs (EVIL!!) Chinese Restaurant didn't start serving food until freakin' 8:45 at which point a bowl of warmish dishwater soup was served to the crew of 100 people waiting. 20 minutes later the next dish came out. We had early soccer games on Saturday (9am game time + arriving early to warm up + field set up = 8:15 am field arrival time = leaving the house at 8 am = getting up at 6:45 and getting the kids up by 7:20 am) so needlesss to say by the time the 3rd dish came out (9:15pm) I had convinced the kids to eat their fill of what was there and was packing up to leave. We drove back home from Union City, brushed the kids teeth and tucked them in a meer 2.5 hours after bedtime.

Get up early. Game on. Both teams played exciting action filled games. I had the grandparents RUSH DD home and get her in the shower while I reminded the team about photo day and packed up the game gear. I get home, shower fast, get dressed fast (well okay I took 10 minutes to put on my panty hose, but it isn't easy with the socks over my hands and I only had 2 pairs and couldn't afford to rip them and have to put on another pair). 20 minutes after arriving at home, I have showered, dressed and styled my hair, I pack up DD and take her to Blush at the mall for a makeover, where they try to tell me I got bumped out of my appointment for not prepaying the day before when I called in for the fucking appointment!? Why the hell do they have appointments if they don't honor them and they don't tell you when you call the day before for an appointment that you have to prepay that day or lose your spot? So when I almost explode, standing there in my panty hose and dress and heels with my make-up compact in my hand and my jewelry in a bag in my hand that I am trying to put on, because they are telling me I no longer have and appointment for DD, they cower away a little bit staring up at the very angry now 6 foot tall (remember those heels) big gal glaring at her with laser beams coming out her eyes and then they take her to a vanity and fix her up . They fix up DD in about 20 minutes (updo, make-up, nails, the works, they are quick). And we are merrily on our way to meet DS and DH (Who upon picking up his Tux on Thurs tries it on, only to have me spot a tiny 4 inch tear in the back of the jacket and has had to go there on Sat to pick up new tux because obviously we didn't have enough to worry about). As a last minute thought, that turned out to be a good plan because we didn't eat again until 6 pm, a quick drive through McD's drive through, back home, eat, finish getting the kids dressed, jump in the car and GO!

We drive up to the church in Union City, arrive 10 minutes prior to when we were supposed to be there (can you believe that I got the NOTORIOUS DH to an event on time!?) and then wait. It felt a lot better to be waiting there, on time, than at home! Amazingly the wedding starts on time. DD proudly acts as flower girl and DS does an excellent and very serious job of being Ring Bearer. We finish with a thousand pics. DD, BIL, MIL, SIL, DH, DS, and me etc. ( I am of course the Amazon in the picture....) Then off to reception. It was very nice. It just took the wedding planners SO long to finally let people dance on the dance floor (reception let in at 7 pm, they didn't start the open dancing until about 9:30) that they had just started and I insisted that the kids and I catch a ride home with my Mom and Dad who were also in attendance. DH didn't like that. He was all mad, like a petulant child that I made the kids leave. DS had actually asked to go home. He was tired. He had gotten up early and played all 4 quarters in an hour long soccer game. As well as performing his very serious duty of Ring Bearer (the priest told him to guard the rings and coins (this was a Filippino wedding) with his life, so he was all worried and took it VERY seriously). So I was obliging to take him home and his sister as well, because as luck would have it, we also had to take out team pictures for Soccer on Sunday morning. We had an early time slot to boot! So we left at 9:50 and DH stayed until 11:15 when they turned on the lights and told everyone to go home... So

Sunday we got up early and got our team pics taken (9:30 am) and stayed at the opening day activities for too long. Grandma and Grandpa picked up the kids at lunch and took them out to play at a park. We spent the day at Sports Authority and Tuesday Morning after dropping off the Tuxes at Men's Warehouse. I think DH wanted to do more, but my Asthma was very bad and it was quite restricting in my ability to get around. So I spent more of my Sunday sitting on a bench in Sports Authority than one should have to. I have a husband who quite enjoys shopping... We took the kids to Armadillo Willy's for Dinner and got back after bed time, it was a relief to get home on Sunday night (9:15 pm), and get the kids in bed, until I realized I should have made some flyers for the Home and School Club and set to work on that until about 1:30 am. Now they are printed and distributed and I no longer have to worry about them. So I should finally have at least a little bit of time to get some knitting done.

I am down to the last repeat of the Tenderheart Shawl. So only about 20 rows to go. Just as I am nearing the home stretch, it occurs to me that I should probably put some nice lace edge on it, instead of the 3 row wide garter stitch I was going to finish it in (like the rest of the shawl). Now I can't decide. Boogers. That is all I have to say, and every time my precious daughter catches me knitting my KF sock, she glares and at and says, "Well, where is MY shawl, huh? When are you going to finish or are you just going to keep making socks for YOURSELF!?" Man, being guilt tripped by a child. Yeah, so what if I started this months ago and it is taking me ages to finish something pretty small and everything else I do is done is 2 months or less. What's the problem? Sheesh, slave driver.

MS3 Finished and blocked.

I finished MS3 yesterday afternoon and had just enough time to block it before soccer practice. I probably could have taken more care in blocking the wing end but I was running out of time. It looks wonderful. It is airy and soft and light. I love the design. Here are some photos before it was blocked. Sad and crinkly the feather section looks like lumps and the beads only show on the wrong side. The edged curl under and you can't see the beads at all. Blocked, you can see every fabulous detail. The edge is uncurled and the feathers are open, every bead is visible. Two thumbs up for Melanie of Pink Lemon Twist. This was really fun and I am looking forward already to next years project.

Guess who cut in line in the queue, ah, if you guessed that luscious Kaffe Fassett Yarn, you are right. I have already cast on for a Chevron sock, with a 10 st repeat. Right now it looks kind of big over 60 sts on a 3.00 mm needle. Still dragging along on the Tenderheart shawl. With DD angrily yelling at me any time she sees me working on anything else. What a slave driver. All missing photos have been added in to the previous posts as well.

Photoshop disc located...

Phew after a daunting search through this messed up computer room of squalor I share with my pack rat husband I have FINALLY found my Photoshop CS disc. I am adding pics to previous posts that were missing their pictures. This whole new computer thing has been a lot of trouble. I don't know how some people can upgrade every 6 months or less. It took me nearly a month just to get everything running. Now maybe I can actually get some knitting done and have some genuine knitting content on my page....

By the way, the Sock Pixie lady is super awesome. Because we were so disappointed in the way the yarn looked, Teenuh (who placed the order) complained about the total lack of red in the red colorways. So the Sock Pixie gal is replacing them for us. That is great. I am excited to get my new RED poppies skein.

Still no pictures.

Heart break city, I can't find my damn Photoshop cd. Now I have fancy pants yarn to post pics of too. Today Teenuh and I went with Cynthia to a Cat Bordhi book signing at Purlessence. She was out promoting her new book about unconventional socks, New Pathways For Sock Knitters. About all I can say, she was unlike any other author I have met. She was quiet and didn't really have much to say.

That said, Purlessence did have some sock yarn on sale to celebrate this book signing. So I purchased some Crystal Palace Maizy, 2 skeins in Nightshade and 1 skein in Bittersweet, this is destined to become socks, with the solid Bittersweet on heels and toes. Not on sale, but undeniably NEEDED was Regia's Designer Line, Kaffe Fasset Landscape in Caribbean colorway, which is MUCH more blue than it looks in that picture.

Also joining my stash are 2 skeins of Sock Pixie. The first skein, Poppy, is a red - brown skein that really disappointed me. The color of yarn on the ordering page is a BRIGHT firey red easing into maroons and brown. In actuality there is no bright red, not any kind of actual red at all, only maroons blending into browns. Teenuh, also ordered a red, Ladybug, which had no brightness to the red either. Hers was a very muddied maroon mixing into just a tiny bit of distinct purple the rest was a muddy blend between the purple and maroon. The second skein I bought, did not disappoint. It was Stormy Seas and was every bit as stormy and sea-y as in the order page picture. It is exactly this kind of thing that reinforces my behavior to only buy things that come in shades of blue - green and occasional purples.... Ah, the yarn is spongy and soft and is dye stench free. Each skein comes wrapped in an individual cello bag, which I found a little bizarre, ever heard of this thing called environment? I would order this yarn again, but defintely nothing in red.... probably some Lake, or Peacock or Emerald sea....

Still plugging away on MS3, I have 20 rows to go until the end. I am going to try and finish it by this weekend, so I can get it blocked. My least favorite part. From what I have seen of other peoples shawls (well except the one woman who hung it on her dummy upside down!?), the wing thrown across the shoulder looks FABULOUS. I am excited to see mine finished.

Umm. Anyone seen my Photoshop CS disc?

Big blog backup....
All caused by a new computer. I got a new computer on Sunday. So I couldn't download my pics until it was set up, but first I had to take hours saving stuff from my old computer. 15 cds worth of mp3's. 10 cd's of photos... Documents etc... All removed from the old computer. Then the new computer was installed, new flat panel lcd monitor set up. Computer turned on. Set up took ages. It wasn't done until Monday evening. Loading drivers for all my usb gadgets, printers, camera's mp3 players, etc. So, Monday night the computer hibernates. Tuesday morning, it is in a coma. Won't turn back on. We punch every button, push every key. FINALLY, about 30 minutes later it wakes up. Tuesday I check my email. install most of my versions of Sims 2 and feel good to go. check my email , turn off the computer, and go to bed. Wednesday morning. NEW COMPUTER DOESN'T WORK!! Dead as a doorknob and utterly useless. A giant paper weight. We spend 2 hours trying to get it booted up so I can at least remove all of my data from it. But NO, it won't cooperate. So we end up returning it to the store with all my passwords and logins and bookmarks and document files saved on the damned hard drive that we can't get into. New computer came home on Wednesday afternoon and has for the last 24 hours performed perfectly.

I have all my programs installed now except one. Photoshop. As soon as I find my disc, I can download and upload photos. The blog should be back on track. Today's thrilling action? Washimg more of the wool and working on Mystery Stole 3 clue 6. Busy weekends and the beginning of soccer season has already cut into my knitting time!!

Wash, Fluff, spin.
(pictures to come to this post as soon as I find my Photoshop...)
Well, I am mostly doing Washing and fluffing and pretty much the only spinning yet is in the spin cycle on the wash.... Processing a whole fleece from a Cormo -X I got from Merry Meadow's farm. This somewhat tedious process has made me sure as sure can be that I don't want to buy another fleece without holding it in my hands first. Because, Boy Howdy, this fleece was friggin' filthy. This naughty sheep must have rolled in the mud, just days before shearing time. Or maybe the moral of the story is, buy washed fleeces instead...
The drum carding is going well. My lovely assistant DD was helping me to crank the handle, but she got mad when I asked her to crank a little slower a few too many times. She wants to crank it like she is reeling in line on a sail boat in the America's cup or something. So, needless to say, the first batch was full of noils from the overly vigorous carding it received, following batts were significantly smoother. So far 3 batts. I don't have a scale to weigh them on. But I am guessing at this rate, I'll get probably 20+ batts of this size from the fleece.

On wings and other things.

Well, I have stared at the wing for 2 days now. Waiting for clue 6. I don't like the transition from clue 4 to clue 5. An error was announced on the beading schema where there are 2 more rows than there should have been between beads. I noticed this, but thought it must have been part of the transition plan. Turns out it wasn't. I am trying to get over it. Looking at what I have now... I am guessing I may complete the wing then will probably decide that I hate it and will rip back and duplicate the left side. I am really liking the feather pattern for the wing though. I think I might flip it and do 2 sides and join it together or Do a magic toe type center and knit out from a center line. Although I believe that Melanie is attempting to design a 2 winged shawl at this point.

I finished DS's socks. I was nearly done by the time I left Boba knits on Sunday. Somehow the ankle on sock 2 didn't come out perfectly matched (it was in fact, horribly unmatched, being 2 WHOLE color stripes off from sock 1) . Later that evening when I reached the top and was about to cast off I decided I couldn't stand the imperfection and I ripped back to the beginning of the heel. To my surprise I discovered that I had actually goofed on the heel and had pulled in 4 stitches from needle 1 resulting in 4 more rows than necessary. Upon reknitting I found that I was now 1 gray row off from a perfect match to sock 1. Sock 2 has 2 rows of light gray (left sock) and sock 1 has 1 row(right sock). So I ripped back again and reknit. It still came up with 2 rows. I tried one more time (you see where this obsessive compulsive thing becomes a problem...) came up again with 2 light gray rows and finally threw in the towel. It will just have to be 2 stripes of light gray. I reknit the sock up to the top counting rows, and gee what a surprise, I am 1 row shorter at the top on the dark gray stripe. I tried adding another row, but somehow, 1 row to my twisted mind made the sock appear longer... I know, how could 1 tiny row on size 2 needles make any difference. I decided since it was already mismatched, just go for broke and have the top off by 1 row too right? Well, here they are in all of their imperfect glory....

Clue5 finished!

Today we had a mini reunion (6 families) with my Las Madres playgroup. We haven't seen most of the kids in 1.5 - 2 years. It was really amazing how much the children had grown and changed and how little all the moms and dads had changed (although we all seemed to have done a fine job of growing at least a little fatter, myself, of course included.) It was really great to be reunited with old friends again, it makes you realize how much you miss them! Time was spent at the park, chatting and taking pictures, so not much knitting was done. Though I did manage to finish clue 5 today...

I am not sure about this whole "wing" thing. The last time people were so excited about wings was when they added them to maxi pads, now 6,000+ knitters can't stop talking about them. My view on the wings : I thought the point of this Mystery Stole exercise was to trust the designer. To blindly and faithfully follow a pattern that would result in something satisfactorily beautiful. So I have proceeded to make this wing. Looking at it as it is, it seems, suspiciously odd. More like the one winged Swan Prince of Hans Christian Anderson's The Wild Swans story than the Swans of Swan lake. I will however work the entire thing and upon completion of clue number 7, decide whether said wing stays or goes. Perhaps this wing will be SO magnificent and SO spectacular, I will want to rip off the front end of the shawl and attach a wing to the other side! Or maybe I will knit clues 5, 6 and 7, have some sort of epiphany and tear the damn wing off and repeat clues 1-4 to kitchener stitch it together, fortunately I am right handed so I am able to do this! We'll see what the future brings. or maybe I'll just hate it and give it away to someone else. That always works good. (Teachers at christmas? Mothers in Law? Friends who don't knit? Small people I know with really bad taste?) Well, I apologize that I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I'll try to do that in the next day or so. It is worth mentioning that both Teenuh and I have chosen the side of EVIL!!! in choosing the color of Odile instead of Odette. Although the fact of the matter is many of the knitters (older or not) knitting this project picked on the side of white, simply because they could see the stitches better (without having to bring in high powered lights and a 100x's magnification lens) than they could with black and I have nothing white in my entire stash.