knit, spin.. sweat..0.0

Yes I do still knit hahah. I have been knitting a row here and there on all my projects. I'm now on chart C on my Ishbel shawl.




















When I get tired of knitting I spin a little. I love this roving. It's so smooth and soft 60 % merino and 20% tussah silk and I love the colorsway. I purchases this roving from Yarn Hollow on Etsy.com a while ago.
And of course a picture of my socks.. I'm inching my way up the leg. Now to manage the heat in Florida.. It seems everywhere I go there is some kind of problem with the air conditioning... The air in my car broke.. at DSW they adjusted the air 2 degrees warmer and at home I have to keep my air on 81 to keep the bills down.. not that it helped at all.

success.. woo hoo..

There are now 2 heals completed... I guess a good night sleep and a day off did the trick. I just wasn't reading the pattern correctly and once I did all fit into place just right. I was knitting only to the end of the 4 stitches that remained instead of knitting to the end of the needle. Once I got that part straight in my head all was well. Shew... now that the heals are all complete I just have to work up the leg until the yarn is all gone.. (^_^).

rippppppp

Ok.. I have done exactly as this pattern says for my short row heal.. and I get what looks like a pointed finger and not a heal at all.. I have ripped out 3 times and tried to work the heal 3 different ways including picking up and extra stitch turning and slip stitching.. all with the same result.. sigh.. I guess now I have to rip the entire heal part out and look for a different heal.. any suggestions?( don't mind my crinckly pattern.. I drag it with me everywhere)

knit faster..omy

Wow.. I saw this yesterday on youtube and still can't believe someone can knit this fast..!!



Here is my progress on my socks as of a couple of days ago. I'm halfway through the heal gusset and on my way to knitting the heal..I also finished a small ball of singles yesterday on my turkish spindle and was trying to navajo ply. I need to practice with some other yarn first I think. I love the singles too much to use it as my first navajo plied yarn.

treasures..!!

Michaels craft store is cleaning up their beat up and ripped books.. but man I don't mind a little rip here and there if a $30.00 book is now $2.00. I found these goodies in a big pile of beat up ripped up books.. I guess they are cleaning up all the merchandise for new items that are coming in.. I think each store is different so there might be other books reduced in other stores. I was able to find the encylopedia of knitting which is basically just what it says. It has a lot of basic knitting info and techniques. It also has a little section with patterns. Next is 50 fabulous knit stitches. I have a couple other stitch dictionaries but this one actually has some stitch patterns that I don't already have. Last is The Knitter's Book of Yarn. It has a lot of info on fibers and yarns and their uses. I can't wait to get some time to sit and read it. This book also includes some lovely patterns including some shawls. (^_^)

Abby

The reason I haven't been posting very much lately is because I have shown pictures of everything I'm working on and they really don't look much different from the last picture. I have made a little progress but not much in the last week. Today is my day off and I did all my house cleaning and laundry and bathed the dog etc. It's that kind of a day and now I have a few minutes to sit. I'm hoping to finish one small skein of singles that I'm spinning and then try some navajo plying for the first time and of course squeeze in a few rows on my socks. I'm up to the gusset part now and I'm increasing every other row making my way slowly to the heal. And I really mean slowly...I have also started to make my Christmas knitting list and trying to keep it small and do-able.
Time is rushing by so fast.. little Abby is growing so big already. I'm glad she likes the summer dresses that I knit for her. Although I don't get to see her, she reminds me so much of her mom when she was that age.. (^_^)

wips for the week.

Yes there is a little progress on my socks.. not much but a little. I have been knitting a row here and a row there when ever I get a minute. I had off a couple of days ago and worked on my Ishbel shawl by Ysolda. I stopped at the completion of chart A. I would like to make the lace portion a little bigger so I have to make sure I have enough yardage and how many repeats of each chart I need to complete. Today I checked out Letsknit2gether. Cat visited a yarn shop in N.J. that my son has visited a few times. She has also announced a give away if you leave a comment on that episode. Just to let you know .. I love knitting my socks toe up 2 at time magic loop method. (^_^)

all about shawls

Wow I haven't posted in 8 days. I really don't have anything new to show as far as progress on my wips so I'll show some past projects. Yes the shawls.. This is a little selection of shawls that I have made recently and not so recently. The shawl on the bottom of the pile is just a garter stitch shawl with a crochet edging. The next shawl I consider my first successful knit lace shawl which is a diamond pattern rectangle. The brownish shawl was the first lace shawl I knit that was semi successful.. there are a few mistakes that I just couldn't fix but wanted to complete it and mohair is just about impossible to rip out. The next shawl in the pile is my latest shawl which you have been seeing over that last 2 months. The colorful shawl it the zetor scarf knit with noro kuyeron sock yarn. I love it.. I love the colors and it just about goes with everything... and the last shawl is a shawl crocheted with 100% cotton. I have to say that my favorite shawls are the lightest ones and the shawls with lots of yarn overs. (^_^)

relaxing

Yay a day off.. I had one on Tuesday but I did so much that day I needed a day off from my day off. Today I watched The Duchess of Devonshire which I totally enjoy if just for the costumes but the history was also well done. I also ripped out 16 rows of my socks because I missed up one pattern row some time in the last few days and just noticed it. Now I can knit on again and all is fixed. It's a relaxing rainy day in Florida and I plan on relaxing for the whole day. I work this whole weekend and I want to make sure I'm rested up in case it gets hectic with all the tourests here right now. Happy 4th of July.!!