Regia Stretch socks

These are the very simple toe up socks I finished a few weeks ago. They are hybrid socks meaning they are knit to fit both Ginger's short wide foot as well as my own. While this makes for less than perfect socks, I like the colorway and refuse to hand them over lock, stock and barrel. 

M.O.M. (make one mitten)

my first mitten. I named it M.O.M. (Make ONE Mitten) because I have entered into the category "gloves and mittens" in the Midsouth State Fair, but have never made a mitten or a glove in my life. So last night after I dropped William at theatre for another performance of The Full Monty, I CO for this mitten. Knit in Fisherman's wool it's an Aran cabled cuff knit on 12 stitches then bound off and stitches are picked up for the mitten. The cable in introduced on the back portion of the mitten. The thumb was knit with scrap yarn then picked out and stitches picked up. I'll make it's mate and be done with that category. I will knit another mitten, but will make the gauge somewhat smaller. We have mild winters here, but not every one does.
 

Fun on the Tramp

Here are the boys and a friend doing dangerous stuff and having a blast. I'm just praying it doesn't end in injury. I don't know if William could continue the play if he's in a cast!

Retired!

Thanks to EOD and too many changes at my job, I am officially retired from social work as of Tuesday. It's been a long and interesting ride. I've enjoyed so many of my co-workers both in Memphis and in OK, but look forward to some simpler times ahead. Today I have absolutely NOTHING on my schedule except hosting DASNI chat at 2 pm CST. The Tahki "Leaf" sweater pattern from the Vogue Spring 2006 advertisement has finally worked out and I'm continuing on the 6th pattern repeat. William's best friend slept over last night and Max is hoping to finally get his birthday present computer up and runnning. I've been on Aricept for a week. Life is pretty good. 

FIRST paycheck!!! The FULL Monty

William and Ashtia ("Vicki" in The Full Monty) This is William's first ever paycheck. Thanks again to Irene Crist and Dave Landis for giving him a chance! Remember, The Full Monty runs through September 10th at Playhouse on the Square. www.playhouseonthesquare.org box office (901) 726-4656 performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8pm and Sundays 2 pm. See you there! 

Take-off on Tempting 2

Here is the poor little TT2. I CO for this months ago in a hasty effort to play with the pattern while I was waiting for my KnitPicks order to arrive. It's knit in Caron Simply Soft and I've added sleeves from the Drop Stitch Cardigan (IK Fall 2005) and am modifying the neck to be a deep-v suitable for wearing a camisole underneath. I've ripped the neck out twice so far. Hopefully the 3rd time's the charm. 

Some FO's

I'm not certain if I posted these socks before, but they bear repating. I can't remember the sock yarn though, sorry! I'm sure it's from my latest raid of sock yarn on 85% discount from the LYS. These were knit for my darling Ginger who has rather short wide feet. She loves them. I finished another pair and wanted to take a picture, but they're on her feet at the moment and she is at work. The poncho is from IK Fall 2005 staff projects "Ponchos" and is the Brioche Stitch. It took just slightly over 1 skein of LB Fisherman's wool and was terribly easy once I got the stitch figured out. I am gifting it to my SIL for holiday, but need to send a little bird to ask if she'd even use it. Otherwise it will find another home. The slippers are the "Fuzzy Feet" from knitty.com and I've made a few other pairs (see last blog entried from last Fall?). This pair is for my mother's birthday. I did not take a before felting picture because, honestly, I was mortified at my knitting. I do not have 10 1/2 DPNs. I couldn't remember if I knit the previous ones on 10's or 11's. I opted for the 11's and made them per the pattern, adjusting for my mother's 11 inch long foot. The resulting "sock" (pre-felting) was literally gigantic. It was probably just shy of 20" long? And for her skinny foot, I feared it would never shrink in diameter. Into the washing machine set on hot wash/cold rinse and FAST agitation. After 14 minutes there was little felting. I set it to wash again, went to bed and just hoped for the best. I woke to these. Granted, the doubled yarn on the cuff prevented the cuff I'd hoped for, but at least these will fit her feet. Their final felted length is 11 and they are indeed rather slender in the foot. Whew!

Denise Shops!

If you are a member of KnittingParents, you know about our darling Denise, who graciously spends her very own vacation time shopping for those of us lucky enough to have a little cash tucked aside for Brown Sheep yarn enhancement. Here is this year's shipment. The hardest part of all of this is deciding what you want. My list was literally 21 lines long, but my cash was not.

The green and cream are Nature Spun sport for the cropped cardigan in Knitter's book of sweater patterns.
The brown Lamb's Pride is to go with the Bling I got on deep discount at the LYS sale and will eventually become Tubey from knitty.com.

Denise shops 2

Because blogger limits the space for photos on each post (I am toying with switching to google pages, but don't know if I have the brain cells for that) here are pictures of the rest of my stash enhancement. The cotton fleece is for the Tahki Leaf sweater free pattern in Vogue spring knit magazine. And the nature's spectrum, which I thought I would love and am not as happy with the feel of it as I'd hoped (but when it's knit and washed I'm sure it will be dreamy), is for the dropped stitch cardigan pattern from IK Fall 2005. I'm CO for the Tahki Leaf Sweater today! It's going to be my vacation knit. I think I will try to add a bit of waist shaping, but not sure I can figure it out.
 

A pigeon in the chimney

Our &*$*#@%!!! neighbors have $%#@!! pigeons who land on our roof and this one flew or fell down one of our chimneys. It was 3 days of "there's a funny noise in the basement" before I finally got brave enough to force William into the basement to figure it out. I had previously sent the cats on reconnaissance without success. So after a hysterical phone call to Ginger and some incredible guts (William) and freaking out (moi), we got this part of the boiler vent removed and here's what we found. After some more guts/freaking the bird was removed, calmed and returned to said neighbors. However, the grandma answered the door and she speaks no English (that's another rant) so they got their %#@! bird and we lost a perfectly good t-shirt in the process. If it's any consolation one of our cats caught and played with another of their pigeons several days later. That bird has been in our backyard for 3 days without moving much. Yesterday I picked it up and launched it across the fence, where I heard it land. I wish they kept them in an enclosure :( 

The world's slowest kitchen remodel?

Here is Ginger, not very flattering, but it was hot and she was up there measuring and nailing up the crown molding. The molding is barely noticible in this shot. Yesterday she put down the floor molding. I wood-puttied the gaps and one of these days I'll sand and paint everything. Right now I'm just too busy getting William to and from The Full Monty. 

Coke Kitty, or "look at MY Coke Rewards!"

This is simply too good to pass up. After a recent grocery shop, one of our cats (Galadriel) decided she loved diet Coke cartons. And the fun ensued. She crawled in, out, around, through and over all 3 cartons. Max, pictured here, laughed himself silly until we all came running to see what the fuss was. I'll share. I hope the video link works! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWkN1TX_S2I