Livin' La Needle Loca

...presenting, Stranded Hearts socks [ Ravelry ]: Well, I'm not very far with them yet, but I already like the pattern a whole lot more than the other one! Last night I decided to give the socks a rest for a bit and work on one of my scarves. I pulled out Argosy [ Ravelry ] and put a good hour into it. I've finished the first skein of yarn and started knitting from the second one. I love the way the scarf is looking, but I find that the K2tog and SSK rows in this yarn are hard on the hands—it doesn't have a lot of give. The other scarf getting some attention is the Corrugator Scarf [ Ravelry ]. I'm working on that at Knit Night because the pattern is simple and it's easy to figure out where I am when I get distracted by conversations! I know I need to get back to my other WIPs, but there's only so much time in a day!

...but in our knitter. Roguish Roses...frogged forever. Well, not the picot hem because that turned out well. But life is too short to knit something you don't like and isn't fun. This was a frustrating pattern for me and I just hated the way the socks looked! I'd rather spend my knitting time making something I'll love. I know, I know...I should push through this and conquer this pattern. However, I don't have that much crafting time and there are so many other things that I'd love to do! So, Roguish Roses are marked IDJ (It's dead, Jim). The picot cuffs will be the basis for a new pair of socks because I do love the Bleeding Hearts colorway. I'm thinking the Show-Off Stranded Socks might be nice... Aside from the failed socks, I actually had a decent weekend. The husband spent Saturday biking and gardening, leaving me to have plenty of time to spin. I spun all of the Watermelon Rind Falkland top into two bobbins--one mostly melon and one mostly gre...

...the Husband! He's been busy...he keeps the garden growing and I have plenty of things to photograph. This is the current state of his seedlings: Yeah, he has just a few of them! Our cherry tree is finally setting cherries...well, make that one cherry so far: And the apple tree is in various stages of blossoming: And, of course, we have flowers. Here are nasturtiums... penstemon... and alstromeria. I just love flowers...as if you couldn't tell! Up this weekend: continue knitting my Rogue Rose socks. Both socks are finally to the same point so I can start knitting them two at a time. I want to get some spinning in...I still have the Andromeda singles to ply and I have pre-drafted the Watermelon Rind top and it's ready to spin! Oh, yeah...do a few mundane things like vacuum, clean the kitchen, and go grocery shopping.! HA!

...I tell ya, this Rogue Roses pattern is way more of a challenge than I wanted! It finally occurred to me why I was having such a problem with this pattern: it travels around the leg. I always have problems with patterns that travel (Hydrangea socks [ Ravelry ], anyone?). I have no idea why... I have frogged Sock B again and I've restarted the pattern repeats. This time its looking OK. Sock A is temporarily on hold until I can get Sock B to the same point, and then I'll go back to knitting them both at the same time. Here's what Sock A looks like right now: What I'd rather be doing instead of frogging these socks over and over again is spinning. And I want to spin this: This is Watermelon Rind 1 Falkland top from the Yarn Wench. I love the combination of colors and it really does remind me of watermelon. I really want to see what I can do with this one! I have been playing a little bit in Picnik again. Here's a sky picture from Tuesday that I modified using the ...

...I love the way the little lamb turned out! (larger individual pictures in my Flickr photostream .) I spent a good deal of Saturday finishing the lamb. It took me four attempts at a different dress pattern before I gave up and used the same one I used for the Siamese kitties. I was having gauge issues and decided I didn't need to fuss with that...this lamb needed to be done! Since the lamb is for a one-year-old, I embroidered the eyes and sewed the dress onto the lamb, avoiding all buttons. I knotted all ends and used the quilter's trick of burying the knots on the inside of the work. I really wanted a longer needle, but I couldn't find my doll-maker's needles anywhere. (I have cleverly organized them into oblivion!) I wish I could tell you whether the birthday girl liked the lamb, but the gifts weren't opened at the party...there were a lot of guests and a lot of gifts. It would have taken forever. :-) By the time we got home after the party on Sunday, it was 5...

...this would be more of an anti-Eye Candy Friday. Look at what happened last night: These are my size 5 (US) Harmony straight needles. This happened right in the middle of knitting the Fuzzy Lamb's head. Fortunately, I had another size 5 needle so I could finish it, but the broken tip made me sad. Now I get to call KnitPicks about getting a replacement. Rats! On the plus side, I did finish knitting all of the Fuzzy Lamb components and did most of the seaming. That's the tail off to the left...it's just too cute! I need to stuff the lamb, close everything up, and attach everything. I also need to finish knitting the dress. I'm using a lavender yarn that is very soft and washable: I've started the dress using the pattern instructions, which has you knit the front and back separately and then seam them together. I think I'm going to start over and knit it in the round, Seaming is not my favorite thing to do! Up this weekend: Finish the Lamb in time for the birt...

...finished all our taxes and e-Filed everything. Yay!! I'm been dividing my knitting time between the Fuzzy Lamb toy [ Ravelry ] and my Rogue Roses socks. The toy is progressing nicely...the pattern is well-written and it's an easy knit. I finished the two arms and will knit the head and ears tonight. You can see from this picture that the yarn has some sheen to it as well as a little fuzziness—it is very soft! Now I have to decide which dress to knit for this little gem. The Rogue Roses socks [ Ravelry ] are not progressing quite as nicely. Sock B is OK, but I ended up having to frog all the way back to the hem on Sock A. Somewhere I lost a stitch and I couldn't see where I dropped it. It was in one of the pattern panels because my stitch count was off by one (which is interesting because I have been carefully counting the panel stitches...who know what happened) . Anyway, I spent time last night getting Sock A to a place where I could start the leg pattern again. Maybe...