More distraction tactics...

Here are more pictures to distract you from the lack of knitting progress!


The roses are from my front garden!



This is the first ear of corn from my garden! There are 5 more coming soon! What a feast!! (for perspective, look at the size of the cob compared to the size of the plastic holders on each side!) Despite its small size, this was the very best corn on the cob I have EVER tasted!

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Here (above and below) is why I haven't gotten a lot of knitting done lately. We are making some changes in the church I attend, and needed to move the kid's Sunday School rooms to the basement - which hasn't been used for decades!! I am helping, with 3 other friends, to do the pre-kindergarten (green), and the 1st thru 3rd grade rooms (yellow).

It has been a lot of fun, and a learning experience too! I love how the rooms have turned out. We are almost done - one more coat of paint on the floor of the yellow room. and the trim around the chalk boards in both rooms.

I'm almost inspired to get back to work on my own home!

To distract you from the lack of knitting pictures...

(I really have been knitting, but there are no pictures to show for it...The pinwheel is slowly growing, and I've decided that I will do the I cord loopy edge. I decided to go on with the Baudelaire sock, and have now made another critical error, so it looks like I'll be ripping back about 10 rows or so.) 

decision time...

I have been stalled out on the Baudelaire socks for a few weeks (working on the other projects...) because I am undecided about how to deal with a mistake.

After finishing the heel, I made a mistake on the first 2 rows of the pattern on the back of the ankle, and have ended up with 2 large YO holes. I know that I need to rip back and fix them...but the thought of ripping back is disheartening - hence the 'time out' for the socks.

pinwheel

Here is an update for the pinwheel. I'm in the garter stitch section...wishing that I was finished!

I've been thinking about making a change to the pattern. Instead of the loopy edge that is called for, I'm thinking about a ruffle edge. Not too sure How it would turn out, but I've been thinking about it for a week or two. 

done (3rd post)

:-)
I really like the construction of this pattern - at least for the gusset and heel. I'll have to decide about the toe as I wear it and see how it feels. 

done (2nd post)

The lighting isn't ideal, but the colors show up best in this picture. 

done!

(Since it won't let me upload anymore pictures to this post, I'll try uploading the others through picasa too...)

sock!

This is how the sock looked yesterday afternoon. (I've since knit about another inch!)

I decided to live dangerously and not put in a lifeline, and almost came to regret it! After finishing the heel and joining back in the round, I had a large gap. After knitting a few rounds I decided that it had to be fixed - that was scary! I had to rescue a stitch that tried to run away from me (it had escaped down about 4 or 5 rows!)

In the end, all is well now. There is still a small gap, but I'm hoping that it will not be too bad.

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I went to the county fair last night. It was lots of fun. After looking at the various knitted items that won ribbons, I am REALLY wondering why I didn't enter the baby sweater that I knit! 

heel? not today!

Well, I am now ready to turn the heel on the sock!

I decided that after the kind of day I had, trying to turn the heel of a fair isle sock was just inviting a disaster, so I decided that the heel could wait for another day or two.

I really wish that the colors would come through a little better in the pictures. It really is so pretty! From the top to the heel the colors are lt blue / white & pink fair isle / pink / white & lt pink fair isle / darker pink / white & pink / lavender / lt pink / white & dark pink / then back to the blue again.

It really is amazing how it is turning out. I am very surprised, but happy because it is almost exactly as I was imagining it would look!

It will be a snug fit getting it on and off, but once it is on it fits me very well! It isn't too tight at all.

So, the plan is to add a lifeline tomorrow, then try and turn the heel. I have done a bit of fair isle purling on swatches, but this is different! It actually matters how it turns out! Yikes! 

sock progress

Here is the progress so far on the sock! It is knitting up SO FAST. I am now 4 rows away from beginning the gusset, I'll be learning as I go - has anyone ever used lifelines in a sock? I do when I knit lace, but never really thought about doing it for a sock!

The colors don't really show up as well as I'd hoped. I didn't get the pictures taken while the sun was still shining. I really like how the light colors are working with the blue. 

grrr

(So, I tried to post this last night, and the computer lost it somewhere...)

There was a 'tragedy' last night.
I sat down to knit on the socks and was missing one of the dpn's! It is NOWHERE to be found! I looked through the entire house, I called starbucks, I looked in the car.

It is not a total tragedy, as I can switch to using only 4 needles instead of 5, and will still be able to knit...but I am frustrated!



Here is a bit of color to distract us! It is a closeup of the hydrangeas in my yard.

crazy?...

Have I gone crazy?! As if I didn't have enough projects on the needles already, I started another last night.
I thought almost obsessively about this on Friday at work. I don't know what came over me! I have never done any fair isle knitting (other than small swatches). The idea came to me at work - a fair isle sock, with one dark solid color and one light colored self striping yarn:

The pattern is "Waves and Rivulets Sock" from The Tongue River Farm Sock Collection by Katherine Misegades (courtesy of my dear friend Leslie) The yarn is: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Blue Flannel and Treking XXL Color 133 - shades of pinks, lt blue, lt purple and white.

My sock in progress is sitting over the example page in the book. I am frankly amazed at how quickly these are knitting up! I started last night at about 9:30 (ok - so I stayed up until 12:30!) I am a bit worried about the fit - I think that they might be a bit snug - I've compared them to another sock and it is close (but not very stretchy!)