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.

wip update

 The penguin socks are slowly coming along. Both heals are turned and and I'm a few inches away from the toe. Right now I'm just knitting in the round... the easy part. These socks are unusual because of the seam on the leg only. After I finish knitting I will have to sew up the seams and embroider the eyes. In the photo right below is my Ginkgo shawl. This is the first time I knit a shawl with my hand spun yarn. There wasn't a lot of yardage so this is more of a shawlette. I added beads to  the last three repeats of the lace pattern and as of a few minutes ago completed the lace chart and the beading.  I have one row to finish with a larger needle and then the bind off. I hope to finish this tonight because I have plans to start another little shawl asap. Last year some time I had knit the Andrea's shawl. I bought a special yarn just to knit the shawl and I really liked the color. Well to make a long story short.. the color I loved never ended up being in the shawl and I still have half a ball left with the color I love still sitting there. I purchased a pretty natural color skein of Berrocos Ultra Alpaca ( in the photo below) to knit another Andrea's shawl in the color that I love. The first Andrea's shawl has been gifted away to someone that loves it and I know she will use it. Can't wait to start. I was thinking of knitting this for the Ravelympics, but I know that I have never completed a shawl no matter what size in less than a month. So I will start knitting this maybe later tonight.. (^_^)

More photos of my daughters new apartment. She is in the midst of repainting her kitchen table. It used to be all black. I think it looks beautiful in red!!

Bad timing..

 A friend at work is having a baby. Like everything else...the timing is off. For those that know me my old car broke down again and hasn't been running for over 2 weeks. I missed a couple more days of work which I can't afford because I couldn't get a ride. It ended up being the ECU (engine computer) which has actually been the cause of a lot of the problems lately. It burned out the fuel pump and few other things that all had to be replaced. The ECU for my car has been discontinued so I had to find it on ebay . I'm happy that it works. There are a few more things that need to be fixed like a leaky ac hose and I need a new front tire. The hose had to be ordered and I need to try and find a tire sometime during the week. At least I can get to work. That left not much money for a baby shower gift. I purchased a few balls of yarn in the nursery colors.. not really the yarn that I would have liked to get but it's soft and washable. I hope she likes it.

 My daughter Brooke just moved back to Syracuse and was able to rent a nice apartment in an old victoria house. So pretty. Little Abby is getting so big!!

projects of the day..

 Most of the time when you purchase inexpensive costume jewelry they kind of get funky pretty fast. Especially down here in Florida with the humidity and heat. Anyway I bought this really cute feather necklace and the chain got to the point where it is just plain ugly and I wont wear the necklace anymore and I just loved it with a couple of shirts that I have. Soooooo I decided to make a new chain.. a crochet chain with gold thread. I really didn't know if it would work or not and if it didn't look good I was going to make earrings instead. But as you can see it worked just fine and I have my pretty necklace back. The closure is just a crochet loop with a gold button and every place that I ended and cut the thread I made a half hitch knot around the chain and clipped the thread and added a little tiny dot of fray check.

 The last few days I have actually make some progress on these socks. Maybe the reason is my car is still not working and I have been waiting for rides to and from work which equals extra knitting time.

 Last night I started on the lace edging of my Gingko shawl and I just happened to have these pretty glass beads that I'm going to add closer to the bottom edge. I like using bead on the bottom of shawls, especially little ones as they add a little more drape and weight not to mention that they are pretty too.

so many wips!!

 Someone was thinking of me. My sister was working in a furniture store in NY and they were getting rid of this duvet set. She thought of me and now I have this lovely duvet in my room. Since then she has been promoted to manager of a store in NJ. (^_^)

 Ok here are all of the projects I am working on right now. First is the Ginkgo shoulderette shawl. I started this shawl just to have some thing easy to knit on my break at work and in the car. The yarn is some of my hand spun from my stash. I have fourteen more rows and then I start the lace edging. Second are the Pop-out Penguin socks. I'm knitting both flat until I finish the intarsia and then I will knit them both at the same time using magic loop technique. The second sock is at the point where I start knitting the flippers. Once I finish the heals these will be a take a long project and will basically be straight knitting from  that point on.  

 Third. This project has been hanging around for while. I really love it and even though the yarn isn't the best, it's very soft and the subtle color change is really nice. Once I finish one of the other projects I will work on this again.

 Fourth. This was supposed to be a quickie carry along project. I do carry it around and work a few rows now and again. The yarn is odd to knit with and I have to knit English style which to me is tedious and slow, but I will continue to work on it here and there. So this is my here and there project that will eventually get finished and become a gift. There is a lot to keep me busy and soon a friend at work is going to have a baby shower so time to start looking at a few things to whip up. Florida is pretty hot and people usually do not use many knitted items. Time to get knitting until next time have a wonderful 4th of July. (^_^)