Friday, July 28, 2006

It's Friday...

...and still not a lot of progress. At least the weather is getting back to normal!

I'm posting pictures of my socks in progress, more to motivate me than anything else!
  • Rock 'n Weave - working down the foot of the second sock:


  • Calla Lily - halfway though the lace pattern on the legs. There is some interesting pooling happening, that looks better than these pictures show.

    Front:

    Back:

I didn't get a picture of the Kitty Pi bed, but since I haven't worked on it all week, there's not much to show.

And as my entry for Eye Candy Friday, here's a picture of the scene in our office complex courtyard:

Nice, isn't it? Our complex is a collection of 5 buildings with this wonderful little creek and pond in the center. If you look at the larger version of the picture, you can see some baby ducks just beyond the rock in the middle. Almost every year, we have a mama and her babies take up residence in the complex. Usually, we get to watch them grow into young adults before they get taken away to a wildlife preserve. However, this year someone took them away after just a couple of weeks, so this is one of the few pictures that I got.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Knit?

...not! The heat is just sapping my energy and I have no desire to knit, or do much of anything!

Still, a little progress is happening at lunch time. Thank goodness my office is air conditioned!
  • I'm working my way down the foot of the 2nd Rock 'n Weave sock (Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Rockin' Sock Club)
  • I've finished 6.5 pattern repeats on the Calla Lily socks (Sundara's Petals Collection Club)
  • I've moved the Kitty Pi bed from DPNs to a circular as directed in the pattern--it's about 9 inches around right now
No pictures for now..the Internet connection is being slow and I don't want to chance it.

More later in the week...

Friday, July 21, 2006

Friday again and very little to show...

Very little knitting (or other crafting, for that matter) has been accomplished this week.

One thing I have come to realize: I am a slow knitter. Whether that is because of the actual speed at which I knit, the speed at which I finish projects, or the fact that I get easily bored by repetitive projects, I'm just slow.
  • While others have finished their STR Rock 'n Weave socks, I have barely finished the second cuff and working on the foot part (finally!). And the new sock package is coming in a couple of days!
  • Others in the Petals Collection KAL have finished their Calla Lily socks, and I'm still on the 5th pattern repeat. (granted, I am doing two socks at one time, but still...)
Now, don't get me wrong. I love these socks and their patterns, and the yarns are absolutely yummy! I just haven't been able to get into knitting when I get home.

To see whether it was the socks or me, I started a Kitty Pi Bed with some yarn leftover from my felted bag. I got a good start on it, but...nope, it's me!

Of course, I'm also stalled on the secret present for my sister, so you'd think I'd understand that it wasn't the socks or knitting...nope,
it's me!

[sigh] I hope I can get back on track soon! My deadline for the secret project will be here before too long...

Monday, July 17, 2006

Best laid plans...

...fall apart in the heat! I did make it to the Hallmark ornament preview and did serious damage! And my dinner out was nice.

It was just too hot to mop my floors and do much more that a little cleanup. Since we don't have air conditioning in the house, I have to make do with fans and they just weren't enough! Ugh!

I did get some knitting done, but not as much as I'd hoped. I finished the ankle band for the second Rock 'n Weave sock and did a few more pattern repeats on the Petals Collection socks. Mostly, the cats and I just hung around being hot!

Coming into the nice air conditioned office this morning was great. However, I did have one surprise waiting for me:


Now, why a possom decided to sit outside my window I have no idea. Granted, the shelf outside the window is metal and probably felt cool in the mornng, but we're not exactly in a rural area. You can't tell from the picture, but there's a very small strip of landscaped area, then the parking lot, and then a very busy street. Anyway, s/he sat there for a good two hours. It wasn't until we decided to put some water out for it that s/he decided to move under a nice shady bush, far away from the humans!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Days are just flying by...

...here it is the middle of July already! I've been so busy at work that each day is over before I even have time to think about blogging. This also means that I'm tired when I get home, so not much progress on the socks or the sister present. I'm hoping to get something done this weekend, besides the other things I have planned.

Today, I'm off to the Hallmark ornament preview at my local Hallmark store. I look forward to this every year. I started buying Hallmark ornaments the year before my daughter was born. Wow, that's 29 years of Hallmark ornaments...no wonder my storage cabinets are so full!

Of course,
when my daughter arrived, I had to buy her one every year, too. As a result, she has a nice collection of 28 Hallmarks ornaments of her own. When she finally has her own place, she'll be all set for Christmas.

Tonight, I'm going out to dinner with my husband's parents and his sister and her husband. It will be strange since my husband won't be there! He's riding in the Seattle-to-Portland bicycle ride with my brother and his wife--this is (I think) the 13th year he's ridden; my brother has done it two years longer, and my sister-in-law has done it one year less.

Tomorrow is the boring stuff--cleaning house, grocery shopping, etc. And then more knitting and quilting. Hopefully, I'll have pictures on Monday showing lots of progress!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Blogger hiccup and weekend progress...

...for some reason Blogger decided that my June recap post needed to be posted three times! I've deleted the extra two copies now--that was weird!

This weekend, I worked on the second Rock 'n Weave sock. I'm still working on the cuff, at row 75 of 150. I like the linen stitch, but it's starting to get boring. No point in posting a picture, since it looks just like the last one! Gee, maybe I'll be close to finished by the time the next Rockin' Sock Club installment arrives in a couple of weeks!

I also worked on a birthday present for my sister. Since I'm not sure whether she reads this blog, I'm not posting any details on it yet. Suffice it to say that it's not a knitted or cross stitch project! It was so hot though, I couldn't work on it for long stretches of time. Still, I made progress!

As a treat for making progress, I started my Sundara Calla Lily socks! Since I'm having boredom problems with second socks, I decided that I would use the "two socks on two circulars" method for these socks. I've only made it through one pattern repeat, but I'm already glad I picked this method. Since it's a 6-row pattern, I like the idea that when I've finished all of the pattern repeats, I'm done with the pattern portion! Here's a picture of my progress, such as it is:



Wednesday, July 05, 2006

June Recap...

Finished a few things in June (yay!) and went back to square one on one.

Finished:
Back to square one:
  • Opal Tiger socks - they were too small. At least I figured it out before I got very far.
Started (and restarted, and restarted, AND RESTARTED!):
  • Cascade Fixation anklets - first they were too small. Then the needles were not slippery enough for the yarn (I was fighting the Clover bamboo needles with every row). THEN, the needles were too slippery and fell out of the sock at the drop of a hat (aluminum needles; yuck!). I now have them on Crystal Palace bamboo needles - not as sticky as the Clovers and not as slick as the aluminum...
Making progress:
  • Rock 'n Weave socks from the Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club. I finished one sock this weekend and started the next one:


Now that I've finished one Rock 'n Weave sock, I can give myself permission to start the Petals Collection sock that has been calling my name since I received the yarn - LOL!

Another Finished Object...

 ...yay! I finished the first yarn on my new Lendrum DT. I tried a 2-ply and it turned out OK. Using the plying head was not as smooth...