the new and the old..

 I unexpectedly had 3 days off in a row this week. At first I was depressed for loosing a shift but then I decided to turn it into a mini vacation. The first day I did all my laundry and cleaned the kitchen. Then later in the day I went to a lovely yarn shop with my knitting friend and sat and knit the evening away with a big group of ladies all working on something beautiful and interesting. This took place at Four Purls Yarn shop in Winter Haven Florida. I love that little shop. Of course I was surrounded by so much yarn!! This rich red cotton yarn by Cascade decided it wanted to go home with me. It's the Ultrapima fine. I'm actually going to make a hat with it.

 Yes another picture of rain. This was the day of tropical storm Issac taken in between the bands of rain. We just got rain and a little wind in this area. 
At the knitting group I started a new project, one of two I started this week. I was going to make another Andrea's Shawl but started to not like working on the edging forever and just happened to see the Holden Shawlette on ravelry and decided to make that instead. Lately I just feel like knitting with out having to worry too much about intricate patterns and so I frogged Andrea's shawl and I'm using the yarn for the Holden Shawlette. This is the shawl that inspired me to change my mind. (Ravelry link) So not much progress yet on this...

 A look at the pile of projects I'm working on today. I need to sew up the seams on my penguin socks and get them finished and finish a crochet scarf (one of 3 that I'm working on) and if I finish all that I will knit a little on the Holden shawlette and...

 work on these socks that I also started from the sock flat. These are actually my take along project.

 I forgot about day two of my mini vacation. I spent the day at Epcot with my daughter and grandson.. he makes an awesome viking.. hehe .. kind of reminds me of skyrim. I did take my socks along with me and knit while waiting in the lines.
And that leaves today.. the third day. I set that aside for working on projects and blogging, which I'm going to do right now. (^_^)

and I knit on...

 I know it has been over a week.. I have working and struggling with my car and of course working on projects. It is still rainy season here in Florida so we are seeing this just about every day usually in the form off a heavy down pour. This was so bad we had to pull over to the side off the road for a few minutes.

 I did manage to finish another ruffle scarf while waiting for rides to and from work for a few days.  The yarn I used for this one is Red Heart Sashay. As I was knitting I didn't open the mesh all the way and the scarf looked small. So I spent a minute or two and pulled all the mesh open and it grew quite a bit. I just started another one with the same yarn and I'm pulling the mesh open after I knit each row. I'm using these as my mindless knitting projects just to keep my hands busy when I can't work on my other projects and will give these away as Christmas presents.
Getting back to my car.... I was driving home from work and talking to my dad telling him how the car was running pretty good now and then..... there was this banging under the hood like something had broken of or gotten loose. I was almost home and made it there ok. The battery light turned on also. It was the alternator belt that had broken off . This was Friday and I couldn't get someone to come and fix it until Monday. Well I was scheduled for work Monday and the mechanic was supposed to be there around 9am. He didn't show up until 11am the time I was supposed to be at work and was nice enough to give me a ride. I gave him $5 for gas... and got a warning for being late. >.< and it seems that's how things have been going lately. As life is making me have more anxiety I have been doing a lot of anxiety knitting..

 These are now finished except for sewing them up and embroidering the eyes on and now I am going to cast on my next pair of socks.

 I purchased this sock flat a few years ago and I finally found a pattern I think will work with it. I decided to wind them into balls and knit from the balls rather then carrying around the knit blanks and pulling the yarn out from there. I'm also hoping that some of the crimp with smooth out. These socks will be knit from the top up two are a time on my favorite needles. They are the 47" fixed circular needles from Knitpicks.com. I love the cable which is soft and the smooth sharp metal needles. My size 2 broke while I was making my penguin socks . The cable pulled out and I called them and with out a question they sent me out a new one.. (^_^)

what I'm doing today...

 This week I purchased this pretty BFL hand painted roving from the Three Waters Farm on Etsy.com. There were so many pretty colors I think it took me a week to decide on these colors. I want to spin this thin and then ply it. Not sure if I will Navajo ply or not, I'm just enjoying spinning the singles right now.   Later tonight is my knitting group and I will work on all of my wips and hopefully get something close to finish.

If you look closely there is a tiny little red arrow on this picture pointing to a join. I saw this on pinterest. You actually braid the yarns together and end up not adding thickness to the yarn and seems to be more durable than a russian join. Here is the link. I think I will use this for all my non wool yarns. I was also practicing some Tunisian crochet stitches. I really like the texture of the stitches.

summer storms..

 The daily summer storm.. they seem to be getting more violent lately.
 This past week I started a few projects, finished one and still knitting others. Oh my.
first is another ruffle scarf. For this one I'm using Red Heart Sashay. The mesh is a little smaller than on my other scarf but it has a lighter feel. These will probably end up as Christmas gifts. They are on the list of mindless knitting although picking up the little mesh loops is a little tedious. Sometimes I just need to do something with my hands and not my brain.. hehe

 The creativity bug hit me this week and it hasn't been around for a while. Hopefully this will end up as something nice. Even though it is still really hot here, I feel fall in the air.  
Below is what I was doing as I watched the Olympics the other evening. The penguin socks are a couple inches away from the toe and I started another Andrea's shawl. I chose Berroco Ultra Alpaca fine in winter white for the main color of the lace and then a self striping yarn for the body of the shawl.

 And.... Yay I finished something!! This ruffle scarf was knit with Premier Starbella Yarn. The mesh is nice and large and makes a big ruffle although it seems a little dense in the core of the scarf when finished.