Sorry, I'm Boring lately!

I'm too boring for Blogging. Lately, nothing I'm knitting is worth it. Two out of three projects look the same as the last time they were photographed. Ink Spot, started the second side which looks the same as the first. Milkweed project is about three quarters done but looks like unblocked lace does. The un-named Knitty project, I'm on "that island" knitters dread.

I did knit up a sample for the shop in an Organic Cotton.


This is the eloomanator Diagonal Knit Dishcloth.
and a close-up.

It was a quick knit and fun to watch the pattern emerge.

And I knit up some of my homespun,

This if from All Spun Up, sorry I can't find the colorway name. Lovely fiber!

And used it to start Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf Pattern

This scarf is done now but needs to be blocked to open it up. Again a quick and enjoyable project. And a great pattern to display long color runs.

I dyed some BFL superwash fingering weight yarn a light Turquoise.

It was kettle dyed and came out a very faint semi-solid. It's destined to be Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle.

That's it for my knitting. The garden has had some spectacular spring blooms.

The Graham Thomas Climbing Rose was severely cut back this year - guess it like it because it's out done itself with roses!

The Asiatic Lillies have kept blooming through rain or shine.



And the Jacarandas in the neighborhood have bloomed in all their glory.

(Yes, they're beautiful trees but you want to view them at someone elses house. Messy and sticky debris!)

The Photographer and I went to the Ocean Beach Farmer's Market a couple weeks ago. O.B. never got the message that the Summer of Love is over.

Annie say, "Hey."

It was a Kureyon Weekend

The four day Holiday Weekend is over; we both took off Thursday. Daughter #1 was over for dinner Friday, #2 Daughter was here on Sunday. We ate, we watched The Music Man, listened to March Music and had a very nice, quiet celebration - except for the time Friday when the helicopters were circling because some kids set the canyon on fire playing with fireworks. (Small fire that was quickly put out - Thank-you Fire Dept!)

My personal celebration was lots of time spent gardening, spinning and knitting. I finished the Primavera Socks. Made from Trekking XXL, color 108


Earlier in the week I finished the Tile Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks made from Louet Gems Sportweight.


These are the first socks I've made in a yarn heavier than fingering weight. I love the socks but living in Southern California I don't know when I'll have occasion to wear them. Maybe I'd better stick to lighter weight yarns in the future.

Started the Ziggy Socks from Knitty.


I'm using Kureyon Sock yarn; sorry but I hate this yarn. As singles, it's all twisty on itself making it impossible to use for a stranded project! This is going to be ripped out. The pattern is fine except for one thing - this toe-up sock starts with Judy's Magical cast-on (this was my first attempt using this particular cast-on) Did I do something wrong, there's a row of garter stitch at the cast-on site (you can just see it in the photo?) I ripped it out twice but always ended up with those garter rows right at the tip of the toe. I like this cast-on method but I suspect I'm doing something backwards. Anyone have some pointers to help me?

Last Tuesday was my day to do the Spinning Demo at the San Diego County Fair.


Members of our spinning class covered this Demonstration over the run of the Fair. I was there on Kids Day so I must have been ask many times, "Where did Sleeping Beauty hurt her finger?" Since I was spinning on an Ashford Traditional there was no spindle to show them. We've discussed next time having an old wheel there that has a spindle, at least on Kids Day.

That Wheel was a single pedal which I'm not use to; by the end of my Demo hour my whole treadling leg hurt. Don't know what I did wrong but I'm sticking to double treadle wheels! I can spin for hours on either of mine with no aches or pains, thank goodness.

Last weekend I dyed this Superwash Merino Roving.


I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 mins and then let it sit to cool to room temperature.

Spinning this is so cool ; I love the way the singles are changing color.


Ravelry let me to Bobby's Blanket. The Hexagon pattern/recipe is posted here. I used some left over Kureyon to give it a try. (6 inch double point for size reference)


I enjoyed making these two hexagons but it's very hard on my hands. I probably won't be making more with worsted weight but I'm wondering if it would be easier with fingering weight? Maybe a use for that Kureyon Sock Yarn?

Under "Small World": Sunday I was reading Laurie's blog Issues with Knitting
where she talks about buying a bag of Kureyon to make Sandy's Sweater in Big Girl Knitting. Well I bought a pile of Kureyon #213 two weeks ago


to make the same sweater. And I too haven't decided on the solid to go with #213. I'd like to use a green but haven't found a green worsted weight I think works with this Kureyon colorway. Hmm, are sweater patterns contagious?

Finally, Annie's poodle foot is growing out. And she's doing fine - never would know she'd been so sick. We're really watching what she eats and
No Table Scraps!

SOS 2008 - Beginning

It was HOT!! here over the weekend! Record breaking Hot! Summer started with a big smack in the face here in Southern California!

I spent most of the weekend on the couch in front of the fan, drinking lots of ice tea, reading and knitting my Tile Sock.


Yeah, you read that right, Sock, as in singular. Summer of Socks 2008 started and this is what I have to show for it. Not a pair of socks which is the intent of the group but I felt I should make an initial post to show I'm participating again this year. I have three other second socks in progress; if you knit one sock in Springtime and the second sock in the Summer do you qualify for a half entry in the cumulative count?

Socks are my traveling and meeting projects; when a pattern needs more attention than I can give in a meeting, I'll start another sock to become the traveling project. Right now I have four socks in progress, usually it's only two; one in a traveling bag and one in the car. I live in fear of getting stuck in traffic, finishing my socks and having to sit there with nothing to do. I don't wait well without knitting to keep me distracted.

My spinning wheel is downstairs in the coolest part of the house so I spent the warmest part of the afternoon down there finishing my Orangecicle batts. This yarn came out very nice


6 ounces/250 yards - enough for a scarf?

Last post I left out this yarn I finish last week.


The fiber, Super Wash Merino Roving, was dyed in a black bag in the sun. The heat build-up in the black plastic sets the dye; no further heat processing is needed. I soaked the fiber in clear water then drained it, layed it out in the bag, sprayed the top side with white vinegar and blobed (does the past tense of "blob" have one B or two?) on five different colors of red, pink and magenta. Tightly closed the bag, left it in the sun for five hours, then went out turned it all over, sprayed vinegar on top, closed up the bag and gave the fiber a very light downward press to help distribute the dye. Left the bag in the sun the rest of that day and three or four hours the next day. Then rinsed and rinsed and rinsed - red is a hard color to rinse clear. Good thing it was superwash or it would have felted with all that rinsing.

I just left the bag outside overnight; afraid it would cause too much mixing if I moved it. Have to say that I would only do this with Super Wash; I'd be afraid of felting with the heat changes during the day. Anyone tried this with plain wool? Did it felt?

My next experiment in sun dyeing will be with blues.

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.

ZigBagZ - my attempt at stranded knitting

I entertained myself for several hours on Ravelry just looking at what people had made with Noro Yarns. That's where I found the ZigBagZ pattern (Ravelry Link). I've only attempted one other stranded pattern with limited success. The hat was wearable but knit so loosely and was such a pain to knit with all the untangling of yarn. It's taken me a year to try it again.

This time around I forced myself to learn to knit continental so I could knit two handed. Took me most of the weekend but I got enough confidence to start the Zbag.


This is the checkerboard bottom of the bag.

And a look at the inside of the bottom


Then the zigzag pattern on the side


It seems like I'm ripping back half of my knitting to correct pattern mistakes. You'd think I could count to two - Knit 2 with color A, Knit 2 with color B. Seems easy enough but every row I seem to throw in a Knit 4 with one color or another. I get so mad at myself.

Other than my problem counting to two I'm really enjoying this knitting.



I'm using Noro Kureyon color 213A for the contrast and it's fun to watch as the colors change. The Main fuchsia color is Cascade 220 color 9470 and the dark blue/purple is 220 (and I can't tell you the color as I can't find the ballband)

Yarn Harlot had a link to Shelly Kang that completed a large afghan with sockyarn. Seemed worth noting since it's all mitered squares and this is the project that inspired me to try out mitered squares from sockyarn. She's finished and it way bigger than anything I'll ever make!

April 5th The Photographer and I visited Balboa Park's International Houses for the Tartan Days celebration. Lots of music and kilts!


Wish I'd brought my camera as there were lots of hand-knit, knee-high socks around.