DAY TRIPPER SOCKS

I've noticed lately that some bloggers treat their current sock project like family, taking them along on various travel adventures. I am referring to recent posts by the Mason-Dixon gals and the Yarn Harlot, in which their socks in progress were prominently featured. So, not wanting my take along sock to feel snubbed I snapped a few photos of them during our day trip to this quaint little town last Friday. Just a little background info for you, Gentle Knitters. The jail no longer houses any prisoners. Instead, it's a popular tourist attraction which details the events of the Mollie McGuires Trial. It was a very interesting tour, my second time around, and some portions of it are "down right creepy", according to my son.
No socks were harmed during this tour.

I think this is one heck of a slip knot. Shall we cast on!

A friend of knitting.

Spending some quality time with my socks while waiting for Mike and Shaun to finish their second tour go around. My new friend got a little too familiar with me, as you can see, so I had to sock it to him! Very bad pun. Yes, I know.

So, there you have it. I have done my duty as a Sock Mom. The sock is a half inch away from being a FO, and joining it's sibling socks. Someday, if you, Gentle Knitter, are interested, I might post a family photo of my knitted socks. Including all the little socks in waiting in my 2 sock yarn drawers!

Take a sock to lunch this week!

AND THE KNITTING CONTINUES....

My favorite thing is to sit on my back porch and lazily knit away at the one project or another. Of course, this means I am neglecting my duties as a Domestic Goddess! There's always something that either needs doing or I THINK needs tending to around our house, or, at this time of year, outside work. I have several outside painting projects that I have on hold until I'm confident that we won't get rain. The garden desparately needs weeding. I have seeds and flowers to plant. Laundry to put away. Cards and Secret Pal 10 packages to send. My summertime reading collection keeps growing while I've yet to finish the Kite Runner. So it goes...


I finished one of the 3 House Warming Ballband Dishcloths for my co-worker last night and and have a good start with the second. I think the third will be a Log Cabin type dishcloth using yellow and black, white and maybe a little green.

Lord Almighty! Almost finished with the never-ending Bobble Block for our Knitting Ministry's Aran Afghan. Then on to the last two Blocks. Several Gentle Readers have asked that I post a photo of the afghan when it is all done and I certainly will do so, given you can tolerate my continued rants about bobbles. Yep. The next block has bobble stitches also, but the design is not nearly as bobbly as this one! Thanks for the interest!

My poor Nurse Babe is slogging along at what seems to be a snail's pace. I decided to knit on the white "sneaker" portion of her leg rather than knit separate shoes for her, as the patterns in the book do. Just too extraneous for me right now, as I want my time to be spent embroidering details. I really should give this poor girl a face, shouldn't I?

Almost finished with my 2 toe up socks on one long circular needle too! I'm itching to start a new pair on the spare zeros that I got on our NYC trip, but I'm resisting.....so far! My son's been eying them since I cast on, so I'm thinking Christmas stocking. SSSSH!

Since I knit on the back porch all summer while my son and his friends swim, I like to surround myself with shabby chic-ness! Our family likes to "rescue" the discarded and sad refuse of our local community.

Like this. Old worn fabric and paint. What a great chair, one of a pair, actually! I see new life in her! ( PSSST! See the concrete? Next painting project!)

Why, with a little spray paint, and fabric from the stash.....

Meet my 2 not so new but not too shabby club chairs! Not perfectly upholstered but good enough to last the season. I first covered the cushions with a white vinyl shower curtain from the $ Store and protected the wood against water. The fabric has little cherries all over with a light blue and white background.The big, red buttons secure the material around the chairs and came from my button collection. Thanks Patty! I think some were from your Gram's stash.

Knitters welcome anytime!

That's not all ......
I also was motivated to clean out all the yarn from this cabinet in my family room and stock it with my sewing supplies. Been bit with the organizing bug so I am working it as long as it lasts!
Just don't open my door to my Yarn Room! That room needs a serious make0ver!

KNITTING WITH OTHERS IN MIND

As always, I am knitting for those that play an important part of my life. My Knitting priorities are constantly shifted, depending upon what major event is looming in the horizon. As much as I want to complete my husband's long awaited sweater, I have it resting in Knitting Limbo due to the need to make some progress on the following projects and their deadlines.
This is Aran Afghan square number 2 out of the 4 I am committed to knit for my Church's Christmas Bazaar in November. I think everyone else is finished with their squares, so when I am finished I will sew all the squares together.and maybe hand off to another member to finish the whole thing with a border. Bobbles galore! it seems it's taken forever to get this far, and the square is not yet 12 inches. I am knitting on this sucker today and tomorrow with the intention of presenting it finished to our Tuesday night Knitting Ministry Group. Ta-Da! Done. Finito. You betcha!
I bought 14 pairs of this yarn in a variety of colors 2 years ago at Hancock on sale for 75 cents a skein and donated it to our group. We're knitting scarves for the Bazaar and several of the ladies have completed scarves already. This is my first and not much progress made, as you can see. Back porch knitting basket project. Soon.

One of our lovely Church Ladies is recovering from surgery, so I dug this Lion Brand Homespun Prairie yarn deeply from out of my stash and cast on for a comfort shawl with the old standby "knit 2, yarn over, knit across row" pattern. When I got bored another group member picked it up and continued knitting the pattern, and after going through several knitting hands, it returned to me. I'm adding the 3rd skein of Homespun and will keep knitting till I pass it on to another member Tuesday night. I think 3 skeins should do it, don't you? The lady is a petite woman. Makes the best rice pudding too! Ask me how I know....

Mason-Dixon Ballband in the works for my co-worker Sandy, who bought a new house one year ago. Was promised some new cloths to match yellow, black and white wallpaper in her kitchen. No comment. But, I am honoring my promise. Believe 3 cloths will make a nice set.

One of our Nurses Aides, Kelly, is graduating from nursing school at the end of this month. She had admired the Babes I knitted last year and wanted to commission one from me as she liked them so much. I'm gifting her with a RN Babe and must get this finished ASAP(!) as she will be leaving for a new job after graduation!

Now, as for personal knitting...

I had ordered a few weeks ago this gorgeous yarn, called Sea Monkey, from Lacey, of Random Stitches (sidebar), who has a shop on Etsey called The Fuzzy Peach. Beautiful hand dyed sock yarn, which is a weakness of mine. Note the brown and blue color, a color acquisition trend carried over from previous posts. A pair of stitch markers were complementary with the order and Lacey so graciously added several more complementary pairs to my order as PayPal was being so temperamental! I was so satisfied with this yarn and it sits by the ball winder, calling to me! I've got a bit of the cuff left to go on my pair of 2 Toe Ups on 1 Long Circular Needle Socks, but I did buy a spare needle on my NYC trip......
No! I must stick to the Knitting Agenda! I must!

Check back with me next week to see if I remained unwavering in my commitments! It's like Weight Watchers for Knitters, without the scale! Will I stick to the program goal or will I have gained additional Knitting Project Poundage?

No 35 Bonus Knitting Points for the week either!

KNIT IN THE CITY!

My lovely Knitting Amiga, Nan, recently celebrated her (?) birthday-no one really knows just how old she really is, by the way-
Her gorgeous daughter Shally, gifted her with a limo day in NYC, so, Nan, sweet and giving soul that she is, invited us to come along!


What a fantasy knitting adventure!


Our driver, John, arrived at my home at 7 a.m. sharp....

That's John, Jeanie, my darling son, Shaun, me, Nan, and our pal Eileen from Kraemer's Yarn Shop. Shaun went off to school and away we went!

New York City, here we come!

We wasted no time during our luxerious ride in to the city. Jeanie is knitting a Koigu shawl that is giving her trouble (Anyone have any tips on how to survive these horribly written Koigu shawl patterns? Like, can we say Errata Page?) If you look closely you can see a really pretty ivory ruffled shawl covering her lap. She knit that simple shawl eons ago.

Eileen is knitting a baby blanket and Nan is working on a cute skirt for one of her 4 year old nieces. I brought my 2 toe up socks on one long circular needle to work on. Slow going, BUT, I am about halfway done on the cuff, so soon.
Our driver let us out near 31st and Madison Ave. and we searched for a deli that served bagels, cream cheese, onion(thin) and lox. Success! We found one run by some Indian gentleman and everything was fresh and deeeeelicious!
While there I saw this really cute top that I'd like to adapt for myself. I just know that I could knit this concept with the help of one of Barbara Walker's treasury books. Knitting and fabric-two of my favorite things!

Our next stop was School Products. Nice shop, nice owner, great prices on cones of different fibers; merino, silk, cashmere, yak. Naturally, I sought out angora and was happy! here the girls display some of their fabulous finds for the camera.

We then arrived at this building with a walk up to Yarn Connection. Very small shop, limited yarn stock and dispite reviews touting it as a great sourse for Rowan, not so good. I did find a nice assortment of cute buttons for baby things and bought several skeins of brightly colored Cascade Luna cotton (Peruvian) yarn for baby hats. The owner threw in for free a crocheted flower pattern I had intended to purchase, which was very nice of her. She was very pleasant to us.


Nothing is better than gracefully exiting your limo in front of String!
Oh, how dissappointed onlookers must have been to discover that the limo held a bunch of middle aged nobodies! No bother! We spent about an hour at String and Nan bought a little. Some very nice custom knit sweaters were on displayed in the shop and nan left with a few pattterns that had some great design features that gave the sweaters a really nice finish. The store is very high end, great interior lighting and the yarns are displayed nicely. The shop person Ivette, has her own blog at Knotology, so go visit. She was very nice to us even though we mostly looked, oohed and aaahed! Jeanie bought koigu, in amounts that she does not wish to discuss.

Next stop PurlSoho. Cute, very small, staff very friendly, customers chatty and willing to share their latest knitting project or yarn quest with you. Lots of yarn, prices were decent, small Koigu collection. Jeanie showed some restraint.
Eileen bought a cute child's sock kit and a few other skeins of yarn. The weather was beautiful!

We also stopped at Knit New York and The Point Knit Cafe, both which had a little eatery with tables attached to them. At Knit New York Nan bought Noro Transitions Yarn, which has some angora sections blended with the striped colorway, so she can knit a turtle neck sweater for herself. Someday. I scored a nice Tahki sweater pattern book from the sale bin at Point Knit Cafe for 4 bucks. The shop people were nice there.
I had read that the NYC chapter of Stitch N Bitch meets at Knit New York on Tuesday nights, but it must get really crowded because it's small and narrow in the store.

We skipped seaport yarns because no one answered the phone despite numerous attempts.

we picked up our most generous benefactor, Shally, and made dinner plans.

Nan gave Shally a pretty capelet she had knit with something Noro. maybe Silk Garden? Now I want one! Finally, after we had all been happily fed and watered at Cara Mia on 9th Ave., it was time for us Knitting Amigas to say "goodbye" to the city and the knitting limo life.

Thanks Shally and Nan for a perfect day!

The following day I unpacked my NYC purchases and marveled that I managed to come home under yarn shopping budget! Disappointed though I was that there was no decent sock yarn to be found at any of the shops we visited. Don't they knit socks in NYC?

I have the urge to crochet these as butons and hat embellishments.
Extra pair of 40 inch o for more 2 toe up socks and a great sweater book. sized up to 52 inches.
There's those colors again!
Sometimes i see knitted hats in every color with buttons on them!
It's all over but for happy memories of a beautiful day in the city with beloved friends!

ROBIN EGG BLUE

I've been slowly falling in love with this color combination that seemed to be everywhere the past year.

Robin Egg Blue. This subliminal influence compelled me toward the purchase of cheap, but lovely TLC Essentials Acrylic yarn by Red Heart last week.
As you can see, there's a pattern of color developing in things I have recently acquired, with no relationship to my home's decor.

So how will this infusion of nature's palate blend with my eclectic tastes? Don't really know, nor care! Just gotta knit these suckers into mitered squares!

Blame it on the Mason-Dixon Knitting Fever, and those lovely gals Kay and Ann!

Here's the start of my mitered square knitting journey.

And, it wasn't too long before the needles had produced this!

I'm partial to the four row two color stripey pattern on the upper left.
Also like the simple variegated square and imagine future ones will knit up slightly different each time. Want to try using my colors in different thicker stripe combinations for the square in the upper right corner.

Very, very easy.

The purse was acquired this year from AC Moore during my attempt to shrug off winter. Notice the color. This mitered square bug must have laid dormant for a while before emerging. Just was waiting for the right colors, I suppose.

Not found in my stash.

Of course, you understand completely!

I have a plan.

The squares measure six inches each, so, by my calculations,
36 (six across and six down) squares without a border will give me a 36 inch square blanket. Baby size. Considering I am just doing random designs along with the 4 row stripey pattern , I am having fun playing with the 4 colors. I am going to combine 6 different color design patterns into 9 groups of 4 squares. Picture a Nine Patch Quilt gone wild. But, in a good way.

And, if you, Gentle Knitter, feel like you, too, are susceptible to this bug, follow this link to the directions so kindly posted by these great gals of knitting!

Pick your own colors and color combos.

Consider donating your finished blanket to a worthy cause of your choosing.

Did I hear someone say "Baby Shower"?

How about a much needed and certainly would be appreciated larger blanket for Christmas At Sea?

Believe me, the fun factor and sheer mindless knitting with endless color design possibilities is gonna hook you!

I'll gladly post whatever photos of the creations my Gentle Knitters send to me.

Happiness is only one square away!

Just have to brag about my knitting student Hollie. After taking just one basic lesson she decided PAAAASHAAAW with those puny dishcloths and her resolve to knit bigger and better evolved into this gorgeous baby blanket using Caron Perfect Match Baby Rainbow.

It does a knitting instructor proud! You keep knitting, Ya Hear! It's in your blood!
Have a fabulous knitting week!

I LOVE SURPRISES!

My very own Secret Pal 10 person surprised me with a delightful package of goodies on Friday! I was so excited I couldn't unwrap fast enough! Look at the adorable soap she made just for me! Vanilla-Lavender. YUM! I'm squeaky clean!

So, I poured myself a cup of 3/4 decaf-1/4 regular coffee into the ol' X File mug and snapped a photo to share with everyone.


My Pal knows me well. Yes, I do knit those dishcloths for others and keep precious few for myself, so her sweet little dishcloth is most welcome in my kitchen! See the chocolate bunny on the left? One word. Gone!The chocolate covered strawberries are in the freezer for later attacks!
Love the watermelony tin and teensie book. And, oh how I love buttons!
Best of all was the warm note she included in my package!
Thanks so very much, Dear Secret Pal! This is such fun!

Which reminds me! Must get MY package to My Pal out in the mail TODAY!

MOTHER'S DAY BLISS!

Hope you lovely knitters had a wonderful Mother's Day! I was fortunate to spend the day relaxing, knitting and giving our porch furniture a bit of a painting re-do. My family assumed all household duties for the day, so I was a domestic goddess for the day, doing what I wanted to do! Which meant I was able to get quite a bit of knitting done on my latest project. (please don't ask me about Mike's sweater-it's resting.)



Maybe it was the wine, but I kept hearing strains of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" repeating softly in my brain....


This is the Diamond Pillow from Debbie Bliss's Home made spectacular by including angora for the little diamonds a la Yarnstorm. I've been wanting to play around with this pattern for some time, ever since I first spotted this pattern on Jane's popular blog, so I finally decided to take the needles in hand and have at it! I just love experimenting and am pleased with how the colors are combining to create a soft and soothing cushion.

I knit the background in a neutral Rowan Cashsoft DK and the angora/merino blend is from Gedifra; baby pink, rose and teal. Both yarns are a little bit of heaven to knit with and I am now a big fan of all things Rowan.

I had a surprise. My Secret Pal 10 person sent me a lovely card for Mother's Day and it was just the pick-me-up needed on Friday! It's so nice to have such kind thoughts coming my way from a stranger, yet a kindred spirit too! I am soooo curious as to her identity and she dropped some hints that she is from my area and that WE MAY HAVE MET! Gosh! Wouldn't that be something? I mean, if if I can have a random encounter with the Purse Ho at MS&W, then who knows what can happen next!

Oh, mustn't forget to tell you, Gentle Knitter,

I've been tagged by Lacey, over at Random Stitches.
I love being tagged. I feel like I'm getting my 15 minutes of fame! But, this one feels like real work, folks!
The rules of the game are that I must reveal 7 random facts about myself. I then need to tag 7 others & list their names on my blog. For this I am sure some will curse me and my knitting will go all to hell!
I also have to leave those I tagged a note in their blog comments letting them know they have been tagged & to direct them to read my blog for the rules of the game.

7 Random Facts About Mrs. B. -Ho-Hum!

1. When I was born I was named Lois initially, but my name was changed to Linda before I was Baptised. I have no idea why this occurred.
2. I truly and madly adore the Law & Order franchise. All of them. I was crushed when Trial By Jury was cancelled. If it weren't for my family I'd watch it 24/7.
3. My dream is to be invited by the producer of L&O to play the Judge that gets to say " Bail set at $100,000" , or "Remand until trial". And bang the gavel. Every week the Bail judge is someone different, so why not me?
4.I once stood shoulder to shoulder next to John McEnroe at outside of Carnegie Hall in NYC. He looked casually into my eyes, and because I feared he'd flashback to one of his tennis match meltdowns, I looked away! I remember he had very nice skin and his hair was sprinkled nicely with bits of gray.
5. I prefer Pepsi to Coke.
6. I can write backwards in cursive.
7. My favorite movie is "It's a Wonderful Life", and I recite dialogue during the movie. The weeping starts as the movie begins....

That's it for me. Now for my victims...I mean knitting colleagues!
I decided to pick alphabetically from the Monthly Dishcloth Group Blog List. I tried to pick people I wasn't familiar with and hopefully they'll see some fun in all of this!

I'm tagging
1.http://asiknit.blogspot.com/
2.http://brieza.livejournal.com/
3.http://craftyncer.typepad.com/cats_crafty_corner/
4.http://www.knitrookie.blogspot.com/
5.http://ewekeepmeinstitches.blogspot.com/
6.http://www.freakknitter.com/
7.http://foothillsofthegreatsmokymountains.blogspot.com/


I'm looking forward to reading every ones seven little factoids!

Have a great knitting week!

MARYLAND SHEEP AND WOOL FESTIVAL MEMORIES!

With much anticipation we hit the road at 6 am and set out in our new mini van to drive the 170 miles to the sheep show. WOW! Was the line on the highway off the Fairgrounds Road long! A preview of just how crowded the fairground parking lot field was.

We were very prepared for the festival sun so the Amigas took a moment to model for the camera their sun bonnets.


That's me in my lovely sage straw hat. See what real ladies look like at 51.

Since this was a festival that showcased sheep and wool, I snapped a picture of some livestock so you, Gentle Knitter, will get the flavor of the festival.



And here are the Amigas immersing themselves into the spirit of the festival as they wait on an extremely loooooooooong line to purchase their Socks That Rock yarn from Blue Moon. We were lucky to get some, as it was pretty much picked through by the time we got there at 10 am!

They did leave a few skeins for me......

This was interesting and totally unexpected:
We were waiting on the looooooong line at Blue Moon just to look and I glanced over at this gal who had a nice assortment of STR in her arms and after saying something I hoped would sound witty ( it wasn't, I'm sure) I gasped! Looks soooo familiar. Could it be? Is this my Monthly Dishcloth Group 2006 Exchange pal person Jen? The Purse Ho???!!! All the way from the other side of the continent???

So I asked if it were indeed her, and a frightened look came over her face for a nano second. Her Amiga spoke for her and admitted it was her!!!

I was AMAZED! She was somewhat relieved that I wasn't some psycho. I mean, what if it wasn't her. One doesn't normally go up to someone in public and ask them if they are a Purse Ho, now do they?

So, the fabulous Purse Ho and I had a photo snapped together with our cameras, and we parted ways. But it was a nice chance encounter. The Amigas were awed at the Karma of it all.

Check out her blog to see what she bought....

I was fascinated by this group of ladies who were Team Knitting a blanket that they are donating to Afghans For Afghans. They graciously consented to a photo for my blog.

We spent Saturday and Sunday at the festival, but left a little early when we ran out of yarn bucks! It would have been totally masochistic to continue going to the vendors if we couldn't buy. The 3 Amigas just don't do that!
So we did miss seeing a few of the vendors, but hey! Next year!

It took me until today to recover from the walking and driving....
So I dumped my goodies on my bed today and couldn't believe I spent $$$ with so little to show for it. Or maybe it just seems like it because of a Post Festival Letdown?

Old book, possibly out of print, good price, great knitting tips covering just about EVERYTHING!

Roving from Peace Fleece. I had seen a gal somewhere knitting with just roving and I wanted to try that too.

These are all the patterns that I want to knit and should help to reduce the stash that my husbands says I will never knit. HA!

I limited myself to just one skein of Koigu KPPM for my collection. Besides, Jeanie and Nan didn't leave any left for anyone else. Like the sheepy BFL ornament?

Nan bought this skein of Hemp for me. It will be a shawl.

I was indulgent. I have always wanted to own a pair of Mango Moon needles but couldn't justify buying them when I have so many needles already. I'm glad I did succumb because they knit beautifully!


TA-DA! Socks That Rock. One skein is going to my Secret pal 10 person because she really loves to knit socks and I think she will really like This yarn.

Grab shopping bag full of yarn for $40 at Wool in the Woods. Thinking of mitered squares something. Any suggestions, anyone? Did I get a good deal?

Rayon/cotton yarn for a shawl.

Claudia for socks. Jeanie thought these reminded her of watermelon, so I'll sew black beads on them!

I started knitting with the roving. Peel, draft, knit. Wonder what it will be?

Back to my regular knitting life.

Another pregnancy, another baby gift.