Knitting Content

I have been knitting so here's a catch-up post.

The ZigBagZ bag portion is finished


Originally I bought enough of the pink yarn to make the handle but once I saw the bag I knew the handles needed to be the blueberry color. Except I didn't have enough and except the Shop didn't have anymore in this color. This blueberry must be an old color because I had trouble finding it but I did snag 2 skeins on ebay and am waiting for delivery to finish. Next is felting - have to admit I'm worried about the felting process; I only have a 50% success rate with felting - lots of reasons but still I'll really be unhappy if this project doesn't turn out.

This was my second attempt at stranded knitting and I'm in love. I've already started another stranded project - more of that in another post.

This Lang Jawoll yarn has been in my stash for many years. Approximately 2002 I knit most of the first sock but ran out of yarn at the toe. My then very small sock yarn stash yielded nothing that would work with this yarn the whole thing went into my UFO cabinet. Last month I was searching through the cupboard for a certain needle size (you know how that goes!) and came across this project again; now I have a large basket of sock yarn scraps and knew immediately what scraps would work. Opal yarn had a Rainforest group with a yarn called Chameleon - matched wonderfully.


Finished the first sock, knit the second sock but this skein had more than enough yarn to finish the whole sock and enough extra that I could have gone back and finished the first toe too. I liked the green toe



so both sock have green toes now. So let see, this pair of socks only took me six years to knit. In the time between the first and second sock my tension has tightened considerably - first sock was knit on size 0, I had to go up to a size 2 to match the gauge. Interesting what three or four dozen pairs of socks will do to your knitting technique.

Also finished a pair of my vanilla pattern socks out of Cherry Tree Hills Supersock Merino in Spring Frost.



This is the yarn that I knit my one Monkey Sock out of only to find the sock was way to skinny to get anyone's foot into - dove into the Frog Pond.

My current sock is Primavera in Trekking (XXL) in color 108



and yes, I seem to only get the full scallop on one side. I must be doing one M1 wrong. Not sure if I want to fix it now and change mid sock, rip back and start over (this is my least favorite choice) or continue and just learn that I need to work on my M1L and M1R in the future. Probably the last option.

So that's what I've been knitting the last couple of weeks. There has been some spinning but I'll save that for another day.

Hat and Mitts

Last year I made a pair of Maine Morning Mitts for Jessie out of Apricot Malabrigo Merino Worsted as a Hanukkah/Christmas present. I didn't get them to her until the middle of January by which time I made Anne Hanson's Hot Waffle's Hat from the left over yarn. I figured since I was so late getting this present to her, Jessie should get the matching hat too.

You've heard the saying about the cobbler's children going barefoot; well try and get photos of something when you work with Photographers. I never took pictures of the Hat and Mitts before I wrapped them and gave them to Jessie; she reads this Blog and I wanted to keep the present secret. Since she works at a Photo Studio Jessie said she'd get someone to take a picture - I finally can post pics of Jessie wearing her presents. Thanks to Ashley for taking the pictures.







The yarn was a dream to work with. And I highly recommend both patterns.

Way behind...

I'm having trouble catching-up with my life after vacation - nothing big, just everyday stuff.
Be back shortly.

R&R in Idyllwild

The Photographer and I took off a week and headed to Idyllwild for some R&R. We rented a cabin and had high hopes for a restful week of reading, nature photography and, of course, knitting.



Pay attention to the woodburning stove - it plays a central party during our stay.

There was lots of sitting in the woods even if it was a bit nippy.


Beautiful foliage


It was full Spring there; everything was in bloom. Lilac

Manzanita, which I've never seen in bloom before,


And I finally outside the market we found a Dogwood in bloom.

It was beautiful with the sunlight reflecting off the flowers.

Lots of wildlife. Must have been twenty rabbits living under the brush around our cabin.


Blue Jays came onto the porch railing to eat the crackers we put out.

They were such an amazing blue; around San Diego we only have Western Scrub Jays that don't have the same bright plumage.

Red Headed Woodpeckers nesting in a tree just off our back deck. I was surprised to see that they actually do make perfectly round holes in the tree. The Photographer sat out there for close to an hour waiting for the Mother Bird to come out and go back in so he could capture the images.








Lots of rock climbers in town. Can you believe they climb here!

Sorry, I don't know which mountain this is.

We walked around Fulmore Lake; really pretty early in the morning.


Then we come to this crazy guy!!!

I'm am not a bird watcher; I have no idea if he's even a true Woodpecker, all I know is that this one likes to do his jack-hammer pecking on the top of our cabin's stove pipe. If you put a large metal trash can on your head and then someone used a percussion hammer on the outside that's what it was like from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. every morning. He gave us an encore around sunset each evening. The noise came down the chimney pipe and was broadcast via the cast-iron woodburning stove like a huge speaker. So forget the "rest" part of R&R. We were told that this particular woodpecker has been harrasing the whole neighborhood rat-a-tat-tatting on everyone's metal chimneys. Crazy Bird!

We finally gave up and left the cabin in the woods a couple days early to go home and sleep in the city where it's quiet.

As we decended in altitude we saw the fog rolling in. It was like watching the tide come in; ebb and flow just like a large body of water.


Except for Mr. Crazy Bird we had a good time.

Knitting content next post.

All photos by The Photographer