It's about time

to update again. This is day #6 of the MonthlyDishcloths mid-May kal. Hopefully it's over tomorrow. The cloth is getting kinda longish rather than squarish.This is how woefully far I am on the Lenore socks. I finally got all the decreases done today in the gusset so now the foot. And toe. I feel as if I will never finish. I don't know why I am not motivated to keep at this one any more. But I will finish. Because the next installment of the BMFA sock club is on its way to my mailbox.
Now a couple of gratuitous shots of pets. Sorry the dog is blurry. I moved and then he moved.
And one of the cats...SiSi...who thinks she is queen
Tomorrow afternoon My 13 yo dd and I will be driving over to my older dd's house to petsit the dog and cat through Sunday while she and her husband go to Chicago for their 2nd anniversary. Hoping much knitting will be done. That is all.

A rose by any other name...

are the Rogue Roses written by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for the last Rockin Sock Club installment of 2009. The new shipment is due to be shipped later this month and I am happy this is the second pair this year that I finished before the new one arrived. Yay me! I'm ready!

Unispired

to write anything and so there are lots of pictures to show. Back at the end of March I placed an order for The Loopy Ewe. These are some of the things that came. In order from the top are Enchanted Knoll Farm Esmaralda, Monkeypal Hand-Dyed Yarns Cuppa Joe, and Dye Dreams Comfy Sox Charcoal. I also orderded Loopy Ewe Sticky Notes and a Stitch Saver which is just a short crochet hook to pull any dropped stitches back up to where they belong.
As an added bonus, because with your sixth order you become a Loopy Groupie and get a nice surprise. It is a Loopy bag filled with a lovely sock pattern, a skein of sock yarn(ATH Yarns California Sunset), a calendar and a little baggie with some chocolate kisses. They are really quick to fill and ship out your order and nices surprises to boot!
And if you didn't notice the doggie butt in the picture above, here is the complete picture. His favorite spot is curled up on my loveseat. Luckily it's leather and easy to clean.
I finished up the Holidazed Socks from the November 2008 installment of the Socks That Rock sock club.
Also finished up the April KAL for MonthlyDishcloths yahoo group--Illusion Egg Hunt.
Here is Ranger looking intently at something over the baby gate.
Sarah needed some low strength reading glasses.
I also placed and order from KnitPicks--I have been trying the magic loop method of knitting socks and really liked it so ordered plenty of longer small needles. I always have two or three socks on the needles.

I also ordered a Nantucket bag. It's really made for a tool bag, but it has lots of pockets for knitting stuff and as you can see I have already filled it up.We needed a new vacuum so I bought this Dyson. It was on sale and I got an extra discount as well so I got a good deal. And it works great.
These are the Show-Off Stranded socks that I have finished up recently. Went pretty quickly and I love how they look.
Another dishcloth for MonthlyDishcloths -- the mid-April KAL -- April showers
This is where I am with the latest socks that I am working on -- Cloning Anemone Rib socks from the 2008 Socks That Rock sock club, September installment. These are the last ones from 2008 and then I can work on the latest ones from this year.
I think I am caught up for now. Hopefully I won't be as long till the next post.

It's been a month

since I've updated the blog...so this post has lots of pictures. Here is my 13 yo with the "baby" of the family...a 75 lb one year old golden retriever. He loves to play as you can see.This is the Pot O Gold dishcloth from the MonthlyDishcloths March KAL. I used Sugar 'n Cream in yellow and 3.75 mm Knitpicks Harmony Options needles.
February 17th was Sarah's birthday but we couldn't schedule a party for her friends until March 14. A good friend made her cake as part of her gift. Tigger is cute, isn't he? He was also delicious!
This is the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock January sock club kit. Queen of Beads designed by Sivia Harding. A beautiful pattern and yarn--My Blue Heaven with blue beads, knitted on KnitPicks Harmony 2.25 mm circular needles. The beads were strung before knitting which was different for me since I have always added beads with a crochet hook on the stitch.
Here is a close up shot (blurry though)
Here is the baby tired out after a good run and workout in the back yard.
I ordered some Dream in Color Smooshy from The Loopy Ewe and it came within a week! Great service. The top is Night Watch and the bottom skein is Midnight Derby. These will most likely become socks at some future date.
Here is the "queen" of the house, Si Si. Doesn't she look innocent? She wants to be in my lap and petted.
Here is the regal pose...please ignore the dust and hair...with 4 animals in the house, it's hard to keep it cleaned up.
Here is Si Si poking her head behind the curtain and blinds to look for the birds she hears.
Ranger is so cute. He is at present contained by baby gates until he figures out that he could probably just hop over them.
This is a bad shot of the Diagonal Lace socks by Wendy Johnson. These were a free pattern offered on her blog in celebration of the release of her latest sock pattern book, Socks From the Toe Up.
Windmill dishcloth - MonthlyDishcloths mid-March KAL
March installment of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock sock club
Into the gusset of the Holidazed socks from the November installment of the 2008 STR club.
I think I may be caught up for now. Hope I don't wait so long next time. TTFN! as Tigger says.

Very little

is what I have finished on the Queen of Beads socks. I was using the wrong chart and had to frog about 12 rows (actually tinked so I wouldn't have to start from scratch). So this is all the progress as of last night. I was too tired to stay at it long enough to start making mistakes again.And this is the Queen of our house. She is perched on top of two pillows at the head of our bed. These two pillows are actually mine. (of course)

A good week

Sarah and I came home on Tuesday (which was her 13th birthday by the way) to see two packages sitting on our front porch. This was in one of them...it's mine...a new Flip video camera which holds 60 minutes of video that you can directly upload to the computer (and I'm sure, lots of other cool things)and this, which is Sarah's new camera...a Kodak Easy Share Z1285. It's pretty great too. I love that they arrived right on her birthday!
I finished this dishcloth on Saturday. It is the mid February KAL from MonthlyDishcloths. It's called the Circle Cloth...kinda cute but I'm not sure I will use it.
Then we had the family birthday dinner for Sarah at a place called Paradise Cafe in the nearby town of Paris, Ky. This is the cake she picked out. She didn't want to blow out a bunch of candles so we got a one and a three for thirteen.
And here she is opening cards, of course with money and checks and gift cards in them. That's my brother, John, to the left of the picture and Sarah's brother-in-law, Bryan, to the right.
Then when we got home last night, I finished up these socks which have been lingering since the middle of October. Turned out kinda cute if I do say so myself. These are the Second Anniversary Sock Kit from The Loopy Ewe. The pattern is called Halema`uma`u Socks. The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah in a special colorway called "Loopified".

That's the update for this week!

In love...

with socks. This is going to be the Queen of Beads socks by Sivia Harding. I have already strung the beads on each end of the skein. It's read to go when I finish the socks pictured below.
These are the Halema`uma`u Socks that I started quite some time ago and set aside. Not sure why. Anyway, I'm working on these again because I really want to cast on those beaded socks. The two pictures below are just plain vanilla socks that I made for my niece and nephew. They are made using Wool Ease worsted for some nice thick and warm winter socks. They both asked for a pair of new socks and picked out the color they wanted. I just cast on 48 stitches and made the cuff 2 x 2 rib. The needles were KnitPicks Harmony Options 3.25 mm.

That's all I got for now.

Crazy

and I must be to agree to knit black socks for my nephew. This was an earlier shot when the sun (yeah, can you believe it?!) was out. I am actually working on the toes at this moment. If they aren't finished tonight then for sure tomorrow.
Finished this dishcloth yesterday. It's from the MonthlyDishcloths yahoo group. Called Kiss Me. I used Sugar 'n Cream pink rose yarn and 3.75mm needles.
This is the second Central Park Hoodie I have knitted. Finished it up a week ago. Used KnitPicks Swish in Dublin.
This is my beautiful daughter modeling it, since it was made for her. We picked out buttons yesterday and I got them sewed on last night. Now if it gets cold again she will have a very warm sweater to wear.
Finished up these socks this week also. This is the Lacunae pattern from Knitspot. I used Socks That Rock lightweight in the Romancing the Stone colorway. Loved this pattern and you can't get this colorway any more. It's been marinating in my stash for a while waiting for the right pattern.

I think that catches me up. I was just too lazy to post more often. We were out for almost 2 solid weeks with the snow/ice/snow storms we have been having. You can see the pictures here on my Flickr album.

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