Come Along, My Pretties

One of my all time favorite blogs is this one: http://lisaboyer.blogspot.com/. The site is called That Dorky Homemade Look. Lisa Boyer is a wonderful quilter, teacher, and designer. She blogs almost every day! That alone makes me jealous - I'm simply not that dedicated to blogging, although I probably should be, considering the amount of time I spend on the computer each day. Quite often Lisa will take us along on her errands from her home on Kauai. I'm going to unashamedly steal her idea and take you along with me on a typical day off (usually a Tuesday).

Grab your bag and off we go.

Sorry, I didn't take you with me for the first part of the day...just a regular doctor's appointment - boring for all of you. Next, we stopped at home so I could grab my knitting bag...Carson needed to tell me a secret so close your ears.

Ah...it seems Briscoe and Gilligan weren't talking to one another and Carson wants to know if I can get them talking...nope, Briscoe only tolerates that cat! Just ignore them, Carson.

Okay, let's roll! Wait, look there, it seems that spring really IS coming to the Ozarks. Look at those tiny daffodils just peeking out of the ground.

Okay, off to the knitting shop. Lisa (a different Lisa) is the owner of One City Market...she is a master at choosing yarns that will entice and enthrall her customers. The shop is an old, 2 story white house. Sorry, I was so excited to get there that I forgot to take a picture. The kitchen houses the dyeing area, the upstairs rooms (2 of them) are classrooms and storage. Downstairs, the rooms are dedicated to different fibers (cotton, wool and alpaca, sock yarns). I LOVE this shop. Here's Lisa. And my friend, Terri, on the right.

"Hey, girls, these are my friends...we came to sit and knit for a while." Every room has places to sit and knit or gab...those lovely old metal gliders and deck chairs from the 50's. I've rarely gone to the shop that there aren't people there knitting or chatting...And Lisa is so knowledgable about her craft...it's rare for her not to know the answer to any question I've had about knitting.

Well, I think it's time to head home...John might take us all out for dinner. Woot! No cooking for him tonight. (You did know that John does almost all the cooking in our household, didn't you. He is a wonder - and he's mine!)

Hopefully, I can blog more tomorrow. Thanks for tagging along with me today...I always love company.

How about that link?????

http://cinnamongirl93.blogspot.com/

Sorry, I had some kind of blogger/bloggee mishap....this link should work.

And, thanks for your comments..I love seeing them.

First Day of Spring

Today is the first day of spring, just in case you haven;t figured it out from your local news or other blogs or the beautiful sun shiny day out there. Happy Spring, everyone!

I read several blogs each day. Some are quilting blogs, some knitting blogs, some cooking blogs. Occasionally one comes upon a blog that is hosting a contest. Such is the case of today's blog:

Do me a huge favor - click on this link and go to her blog and make a comment and reference that you came from my blog...not only will you get a chance to win some terrific malabrago yarn, so will I! PLEASE!!! (Can you see my sad, puppydog eyes blinking innocently at you???)

Now, I can't let today end without the following announcement: Happy Anniversary to John and Jill Knotwell! John brought Jill into this family 4 years ago today and Jill agreed to take on not only John but his parents as well! What a couple! We are immensely proud of both of you and are so thrilled to publicly herald your wedding anniverary! Happy , Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary!

I took this simple test today to find out what flavor of ice cream I would be...seems as though I am vanilla. I kinda wish I were a more exotic flavor - like chocolate or peppermint or mint chocolate chip. But today I will be content with being vanilla - conforting, calm, non-threatening vanilla - French Vanilla!

The rain has finally stopped for a while. It's still overcast but no more dripping from the sky. They say we will see sunshine tomorrow and warmer temperatures but we should expect more rain by Friday. Thank goodness I use a clothes dryer inside and don't hang mine out to dry outside!

Finished!

Sock Pattern #1 in Sock Madness 2 is complete! Here they are. Done in Lorna's Laces colorway Mineshaft and knit on size 1 needles. Yep, Lisa, you nailed it right away. It's a bit difficult to see the laddering but see where it looks like there are holes in the sock? That's the laddering. Let me tell you, it's a bit unnerving to deliberatly let a stitch drop off the needle and watch it slide back 6 rows and then discover that you don't have to chase it and weave it back up! It makes you stop and freeze for a second: kinda like a Zombie! Then you just keep on knitting.

How about Dancing with the Stars last night? Those men are something else, aren't they? I was quite surprised at Steve Guttenberg...he's not half bad! And that Mario! Cristian is yum, too. Hopefully, the women will give them a run for their money tonight. Stay tuned, folks...this will be an interesting season.

Rain, rain, go away...DO NOT come again some other day (for a while, please). It's rained for the last 24 hours and we have almost 5 inches of rain so far...probably another 5 inches before it ends sometime tomorrow morning. The roads are awash and many roads are no longer drivable. The ground is so soaked from the 2 previous ice storms and snows that it is impossible for it to soak up any more.

I'm off to knit some more on a sweater that I'm working on...tonight was supposed to be a class for that same sweater but I don't have my homework done yet and the roads are so nasty that I don't relish a 30 mile drive there and back for the class...will have to try to catch up before the next Sock Madness pattern is released.

More later...

Thriller Zombie Progress Report

I'm taking a short break from knitting on my Sock Madness 2 socks...the sock for round 1 is called Zombie and is pretty scary. It's a relatively easy pattern repeat, until you get to the 6th and 12th row where you deliberately drop stitches to make them ladder down 6 rows!!!!! No wonder they told us to use scary yarn! Here is a picture of sock # 1 where I am getting ready to pick up the gusset stitches and decrease.

I finished that sock last night and have already begun the 2nd sock...almost ready to work the heel flap on that one. Am still convinced I will make it into round 2 - only about 15 people in my division so far have finished their 2 socks and they are taking 40 in each division...I think I can probably finish this puppy by tomorrow nite. Keep good thoughts for me...I'm off to knit some more.

Engines Revving

Ok...today is the day. Sock Madness 2 officially starts somewhere between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. today. I'm still trying to decided which yarn to use. Think 'scary', like Michael Jackson's Thriller kind of scary. Here are my choices.

The first one is called "Fire", the second one is called "Mineshaft". I'm kind of leaning toward the Mineshaft but it probably really depends on the pattern. If it's an intricate pattern, the Fire would show it off better. If not, then Mineshaft would work. What do you think?

More tomorrow (I hope).

Start Your Engines!

Sock Madness 2 officially starts on Thursday. I just now finished the first sock (only the first, haven't even cast on the 2nd of the pair) for Sock Knitting Pentathalon and already I need to switch gears for SM2! Laying aside the sock for SKP isn't difficult - I have 2 months to finish the pair. But SM2 is timed! Only 40 of the 50 folks in each division will go on to the 2nd round. Wonder what the chances are that I make it to round 2? It took me 10 days to knit the first sock in SKP...hmmmmm....hmmmmmm....I'm seriously dead before I start on SM2! The specs came out today (1 skein fingering weight yarn in a solid or semi-solid color. ) They say we should think 'scary' with regard to the color. Heck, I'm scared already and haven't even looked at the colors! The designer chimed in with a hint to get out Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and have it playing while we are knitting. Hmmm....I've got a Lorna's laces yarn called "Mineshaft" - that ought to do the trick. Dark and gloomy and spooky yarn...just the thing to start a competition in early spring!

On to something very fun! I am involved in a small group that wanted to do a quilted postcard exchange. Fortunately, there are only 10 of us and we have 6 weeks to get them done. I've got tons of the basic postcard parts ready cause I used to teach a class at my Local Quilt Shop on quilted postcards. It's a great way to use up lone blocks, too. So I think instead of knitting today, I shall work on quilted postcards for that swap. And John just called and wants me to meet him for Mexican food! YUM!!!

Have a great day, will get more pictures up soon.

I Suspect I Need an Intervention

Good grief! It's been over a week since I posted...sorry about that!

It's come to my attention, by several peope whose opinion I used to revere - that I may need an intervention. I signed up for 2 more Sock Competitions! One is called Sock Knitting Pentathalon and involves 5 different patterns, each revealed every 2 months, to commemorate the Summer Olympics in Beijing this year. I don't know how many folks signed up for it but there seems to be a ton of them, from all over the world. The 2nd competition, called Sock Madness 2, will begin in less than 2 weeks. There are 200 folks from all over the world who got into that one - me included. There will be 7-9 rounds and once the pattern is revealed, only those who complete the socks and post them by the end of the round will go on to the next one. I'm guessing there will be enough time for the socks to actually be completed by more than one or two folks each round.

For the Pentathalon, the patterns are free to the competitors. Each pattern is different with different yarn requirements. The first one is called Jacobean and incorporates magic loop cast on, toe-up, and short row heel, all of which I've never done. So this is definitely going to be a learning experience for me. I like this pattern, it's a bit intuitive so once I got to the pattern part itself, it seems to be going a bit faster. Once I get to the heel, I'm sure I'll slow down a bit. Fortunately, I have 2 months to get this pair done before the next pattern is revealed. Here is a picture of my progress so far.

Yes, there is a chart involved! (Thank you, Lisa at One City Market for teaching me about charts for the lace scarf class - no, I haven't finished it yet - I've got socks to knit!) Just one year ago, I would have quit before I started once I saw there was a chart. Now I know that I can use the chart as written, or translate it into words if I don't want to use it as a chart. I'm comfortable using this chart cause it's a simple repeat and the design is very intuitive ( I learned that word at One City Market, too). Thanks to Lisa, and Terri, and Peggy at OCM, I am becoming much more adventurous in my choice of knitting project.

While I think I am merely educating and stretching my own limits, my friends feel I need that intervention. I think I just need to quit my job and then I'll have more time to knit!

Thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to leave a comment...I love hearing from you all!