Works in progress

I'm working on a few things, mainly trying to decide which scarf is going to be for my ISE6 pal. So far I have the scallop shell scarf from Ocean Knits, which I love, but it's going very slowly and I fear I won't get it finished in time:



Next is the Midwest Moonlight scarf in Seasilk Renaissance colorway. It's the easiest for me to do and I love Seasilk, but I'm so-so about the color. It's going quickly.



Here's another Seasilk colorway called Sangria. The project is Chrissy Gardiner's Feather Shawl. It makes me nervous, but I love the red, orange, and pink mix in the yarn.



Finally, I started an Evelyn Clark scarf last night called Sea Foam Lace in a soy silk lace yarn by Conjoined Creations. It's hard to see what this will look like from the picture, but I'm in love with the drape and feel of the fiber.



So, I have to decide which one to stick with. I'll finish them all, I just don't know which one to do for the exchange. Any opinions?

I'm doing 2 sock samples for StitchCraft (opening next week, by the way). Sock 1 is Louet fingering sock yarn in Crabapple Blossom colorway and the pattern is Mock My Socks Off, a pattern I got off the Internet (It's no longer free - it's being sold through an Etsy shop). The color doesn't look like I see it, but it really is the color of crabapple blossoms.



Finally, this is a sock Nicholette asked me to do as a sample for her shop and is Chrissy Gardiner's Autumn in Oregon sock. It's quite unusual and is challenging. I love how it looks though and am determined to do the sock. We started doing the sock in Regia Silk, but it was too dark for me, so I switched to a spring color and am using Baby Ull. So far I like the yarn a lot. I have no idea how it will wear. The picture (sorry, it's blurry) is the cuff of linked leaves, which are knit flat and then sewn together. I pick up stitches along the purled rows. I've picked up the stitches and now will distribute them among needles and I have to decide whether to use 2 needles or 3.

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When looking for one of the pattern names I'm using in the knitting room, I discovered another scarf I've been working on. Blogspot is scheduling an outage at 4, so I'll post it later.

Question #4 Spring Fling coffee swap

I had to miss last week's questions due to hand pain, but I'll give this week a go.

"Let's pretend for a minute we all live in the home of our dreams, have land, and don't have to work so time is unlimited! It's Spring planting season! What would you grow? A little veggie garden? A bed of bright spring blooms? Or is your thumb so far from green that the only thing you'd be planting is your tushy into a nice chair on the porch to get some knitting or crocheting done in the nice breeze?"

My thumb isn't very green, but my husband's is. I definitely would plan on a vegetable garden, there is nothing like fresh home-grown vegetables: corn, potatoes, green beans, radishes, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes (yum! home grown tomatoes), beets, lettuce and assorted salad greens, squash. What we don't have is an herb garden and I would love to have one of those. We have a problem with lack of sunny spots in our yard and available spots are kind of occupied by the dogs when they're outside. I've thought about using large window boxes on the fence. We do have a few herbs in pots, but I want an herb garden. We always plan a garden and I always knit. There's no future about this question - this is part of our life now. If only I didn't have to work!

Wollmeise arrival

The Wollmeise arrived this morning and I now have Amazonas, Lowenzahn, and Inglisch Rot. Of the 3 I had expected to like Inglisch Rot the least, but it's my favorite. The color in Wollmeise is spectacular and can only really be truly appreciated when seeing it in natural lighting. I can get an idea of what it's like from a photo, but I'm always surprised when I see the true skein of yarn.

I never got a picture of the Christmas batch from December. Here is Suzanne, Spice Market, and Gewitterhimmel:



Here's the collection to date, including Poison #5 and Rhubarber from last summer:



I'm liking the solid colors the most and feel I need more blue and red in the collection. The green of Lowenzahn is going to take some getting used to.

When I was looking for my older Wollmeise, I kept grabbing my Socks That Rock. It may not be as intense, but there are some similarities. It's also a local yarn and a bit easier to get! Here is STR in Rocktober and Puck's Mischief:




I have some works in progress, but I'll post them later tonight. Blogger is misbehaving!

April Showers face cloth swap

I received this beautiful face cloth from Angela in California on Monday and am just getting time to post it now. I love round face cloths - and it is definitely a face cloth - no dishes will be washed with this one!



Angela also included a small change/notion purse, a ball of beautiful yarn, and a Hula Girl pineapple-coconut pancake and waffle mix. Tomorrow is pancake day and I can't wait to try the mix!

Edited to say that those were some of the best pancakes I have ever had! They disappeared so fast! We have a little bit left the package and we'll make them on a day when it's just the two of us.



Thank you Angela! I loved everything!

Woolgirl Soc k Club #1 - spoiler

I knew the sock club packages were being sent today, I didn't know I'd get the package today! The contents of the wrapped package were almost too pretty to open.



Inside were 3 leaflets - 1 pattern, 1 leaflet about color inspiration, and 1 leaflet about a contest. I won't describe the rest of the contents because I don't want to ruin this any more for people who haven't gotten their packages yet.



I spent most of Sunday helping Nicholette at StitchCraft (yeah, website is up and running). She had people coming in all weekend to help check off box contents so she could enter the inventory in her computer. I helped with Cascade and Westminster. I had no idea Cascade carried so many different kinds of yarn. I had no idea Westminster carried Rowan, Nashua and Shepherd. I'm in love with Shepherd yarn - the colors are fabulous. Once the yarn is on the shelves for good, it's going to be a most colorful store. I love Nicholette's taste in color. I've always thought I was partial to earth-tone colors, but being exposed to so many colors, I think I just like them all. I think I've even found some yellow that could work for me!

I got to see the organic wallpaper, books, buttons, organic quilting thread, material, and needles. Nicholette shared more of her community-building ideas and I left feeling more excited about the store than ever! I really hope I'm not going to be disappointing swap pals, but the store doesn't open until May and I can't buy anything from there until then.

I'm wearing a splint at night now and going to see an occupational therapist 3 days a week. I'm going to be ordering a foot pedal to take the place of the space bar some time today. I sure hope my thumb heals soon. So much for amigurumi. Crochet hurts, knitting does not. Blogging does, so I'd better stop.

I'm off to look for 1 more thing for Dee, my dish cloth buddy for this month, and then I can mail her package.

Spring Fling Coffee & Yarn Swap Topic #2

Question #2
"Since some of us are beginning to see glimpses of Spring, while others are still getting snow, have you changed what projects you are working on? Have you put away the hats, scarfs and mittens, and brought out the cute tank top sweater projects and lacy wraps? Have you changed yarn to something lighter and cooler, not so heavy and bulky?"

This spring my knitting is being limited to a scarf for the International Scarf Exchange 6 swap and to a sock I'm knitting for a store demo. I knit a lot of socks and scarves and since these are small, portable projects I tend to knit them year around. If I was knitting a sweater, I'd probably knit with cotton or something suitable for warm weather like a short-sleeve sweater or lacy wrap.

Scored my Wollmeise!

I got 3 skeins because I was in the right place at the right time. A benefit of working evenings, I guess! I got Medium Indisch Rot in fluffy 80/20, Medium Amazonas superwash, and Lowenzahn light in superwash. I was able to redeem my gift certificate. What fun! An early birthday present!

Ouch!

Just returned from the doctor and I've got tendinitis in my thumb and probable carpal tunnel. My posts are going to be short and sweet for awhile. I still need to work and to knit a few things for people, so I'll be curbing posts for a little bit - I have to cut back somewhere.

Loopy Ewe Swap package

There was a knock on the door early this afternoon and when I went to answer it there was a BIG box outside the door. The box was my Loopy Ewe Swap package from my spoiler, Pam! As you will see, this was an amazing package. Be forewarned, this will be a long post! I'm also not sure the pictures can do justice in displaying, but here goes.

First, the socks! That's what I saw first. I know these are Wooly Boully socks, but I don't know the colorway. I do know that I love them.



Take a look at the pattern detail:

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They fit wonderfully!

Next in the box was something hard and wrapped very, very carefully. It was a cup, followed by a lid. I knew Pam had had these made for me and I was just so pleased with how they had turned out. It's just that there were more hard things to open and by the time I finally finished opening the carefully wrapped hard things, I had a full tea set: teapot, 2 cups, 2 plates, and a cream and sugar bowl! I was amazed. The set is just gorgeous. Here it is in its glory. Unfortunately, my camera can't capture the beauty, but hopefully you can get an idea of what the set looks like.

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Then I saw a skein of yarn, which was quickly followed by 4 more skeins of yarn! There's Unique Fiber Studio Alpaca Plus in color 600 (tans and lavenders), Miss Babs in Cool Triad (greens, blues, purple), Zen Yarn Garden in Apricot Kiwi, See Jayne Knit in Heaven on Earth colorway, and Socks That Rock in Rocktober colorway. I think I'm going to need my own storage bin!



I hadn't come to the bottom of the box yet! There was a green corduroy shoulder saddle bag with lots of zippered pockets and sections for needles, and a project bag with another bag for knitting accessories (filled with accessories). I got some stitch markers with my initials (M and G) and a button that says SSK, a gorgeous Hide and Sheep row counting bracelet, and finally a nice knitting notebook with pages for needle inventory, yarn and project notes.





Pam outdid herself. It was a package worth waiting for and I'm so touched. Pam has just opened her own online yarn store, Yarny Goodness, and that has been an overwhelming responsibility. That she was able to put this package together for me and to knit a pair of socks was amazing. Thank you so much, Pam! You were very generous and you really did put a lot of thought and hard work into getting this done for me.

April Fool

I fell for the Julia Roberts joined Ravelry on April 1. With all the silliness today I didn't catch on until I saw books on Fabio displayed in book queues of everyone's book collections and came to the conclusion that I couldn't believe very much of what I saw on Ravelry today! Yes, I am gullible!

Lyn and I got to have our anniversary celebration. We went out to eat at Thai Orchid and got dessert at Rose's Deli (Death by chocolate and Mocha torte). We left enough Thai food for leftovers on Monday.

Don't anyone in my family faint from shock, but I was rather caught up by the Davidson-Kansas college basketball game. I really don't like sports very much and look at big game days as a guilt-free way to shut myself up in my craft room and knit. I do like underdog stories though and my 2 brothers and father all graduated from Davidson. Curry played very well until I came downstairs and watched the last 12 minutes (meaning last 1-1/2 hours) of the game. Tim informed me he only scored when I wasn't watching, so it's All.my.fault. that Davidson didn't win the game. Sorry family.

I'm knitting a lot, but have started some swaps and can't say anything until recipients get what I'm knitting.

Oh, and my sister started a blog called Bringing it Down. She and her husband are getting rid of their swimming pool and are trying to redesign the space. Go read it and feel free to give advice!