BEST OF 2004 (lots of photos)



I finished 80 small projects in 2004. Socks were the most popular at 36 pair followed by hats (14), scarves (9), four pairs of mittens and four pairs of gloves. I finished 4 spinning projects and did some miscellaneous knitting - hearts, stars, flowers and one knitted bird. I finished one Aran baby sweater and did a little work on my Starmore sweater in progress. I knit one washcloth (the flower IK washcloth) and a small blanket to be felted for Jack the cat. I also knit some felted boots.



My favorite hat - self-designed













Favorite Mittens - Helgi's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia













My favorite socks are these Turkish socks.











My favorite gloves are the Liidia's gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia









Another favorite pair of socks - the New England Socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road







And another favorite hat - self-designed







HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well I managed to screw up my post from today and it disappeared. Anyway, HERE is a list of 40 charities taking money for the relief work as a result of the earthquake/tsunami. I chose Oxfam America so I could donate quickly online.

Oops - I forgot to remind everyone that Stranded Color Knitting will remain on sale for $8.99 only through the end of the month. Then the price returns to $9.99 a booklet. Thank you to all of you who've purchased it and helped rabbit rescue.



I was originally thinking I would take off the rest of this week and next week from blogging but I want to do a Best and Worst of 2004 blog entry so that will happen some time next week. Also, I may lug a camera along to Santa Fe now that we have snow to try take some holiday photos to show here.



Peaches is quite impatient for Santa to arrive with her holiday bananas. She wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas!

I whipped up another quick scarf in black Cascade 220 and the remnants of several skeins of Mosaic FX railroad yarn. This one is for myself to wear on Christmas eve in Santa Fe. I think it is quite festive - you can't really see but I did a K2TOG, YO design.

I showed this photo last year but it bears repeating. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I will return after the New Year.

Thanks for all the emails and comments here. I'll respond to them this week as I'm catching up a bit.









Here is a quick scarf I knit last night for Joelle while watching a movie. I don't have a pattern and actually just knit from either end randomly but it ended up as a sort of a welt stitch. I used bright turqoise Cascade 220 (my scanner can't handle turqoise for some reason) and some railroad yarn. It is certainly nice to finish a gift so quickly. Next I have to get to work on some hats for Lisa's homeless veteran project.

COMFORT KNITTING









I always knit socks when I'm sick or stressed or down. There is something about having a new pair of soft wool socks to look forward to that makes me feel better. These are the 2 Socks, 2 Ways from Socks, Socks, Socks in Peruvian Highland wool.



I am terribly behind in pretty much everything as a result of sleeping all week. I'll update the blog when I have a new FO to show but I'm not sure it will be next week. I do know that I have to feel better so I can go to River of Lights this Sunday at the Botanic Garden and the Santa Fe farolito week on Christmas eve. Have a wonderful holiday!

Hi all! I'm still dragging with the flu but I hope to have a finished FO to show you later this week. First though I have to attempt to clean the house and consider at least starting my Christmas cards. I am terribly behind on everything this month. I am off for another nap but check back at the end of this week for some photos.

I bought myself some more Bernat Aero needles. I only know of two sources, both in Canada, - Beehive Wool and Yarn Forward. I now have 2 sets of dpns in size 0-8 (US) and next I'll start collecting more circulars as I'm worried I won't be able to find them at all soon. The dpns come in packs of 4 but they're only $2.50 US.









If you are planning to knit some stars, do check yesterday's comments as Bea had a good idea for a different double decrease. Susan knit a 5 point and 6 point star which you can see on her blog. I think they'd be nifty with some beads added.



I have the flu which is bad timing since DH's big birthday party is this weekend. I'm off to make some garlic and cayenne soup which should be able to cure anything.

SUPER STARS



I like knitting stars but wanted to improve the pattern used for yesterday's hat topper to use stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch and to pair the double decreases. I think these are a bit nicer - the small one was done in Regia and size 0 (US) needles and the other two are sport weight yarn and size 4 (US) needles.

Here are my pithy instructions. These are a fun holiday ornament or gift adornment that can be knit up in minutes. Stars are also terrific as a pom pom substitute for a child's cap.

((NOTE: Pattern has been updated to reflect some errors
Susan found. Sorry about that!))

Materials: Small amount of yarn and straight needles in a matching needle size

Right Side Double Decrease (RSD): Slip one knitwise, K2TOG, PSSO

Wrong Side Double Decrease (WSD): P2TOG, return decreased stitch to left needle, pass second stitch on left needle over the decreased stitch, return stitch to right needle

CO 55 stitches.

Row 1 (Wrong Side): P4, *WSD, P8, repeat from * to last 7 stitches, WSD, P4. (45 stitches remain)
Row 2 (Right Side): K3, *RSD, K6, repeat from * to last 6 stitches, RSD, K3. (35 stitches remain)
Row 3: P2, *WSD, P4, repeat from *, end WSD, P2. (25 stitches remain)
Row 4: K1, *RSD, K2, repeat from *, end RSD, K1. (15 stitches remain)
Row 5: WSD, repeat across row. (5 stitches remain)

Cut yarn and leaving a 10" tail, draw through remaining 5 stitches and pull tight. Sew side seam.


ABBREVIATIONS

K - knit
P - purl
St - stitch
Sl - slip
DPN - double-pointed needle
RS - right side
WS - wrong side
K2TOG - knit two stitches together
SSK - slip 1, slip 1, knit two together
PSSO - slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over
REP - repeat

Here's a Christmas baby hat done in Nature Spun sport weight and 4.0 mm dpns. The pattern is from the baby pattern link I gave yesterday and the star is from an old Knitting Digest pattern. There are a few small errors in the pattern (P2TOG decreases instead of K2TOG ).



Now I'm off to tackle mountains of laundry.

I've been knitting for so long that I thought I'd discovered every possible way I can screw up but this is a new one for me.









I checked Last-Minute Knitted Gifts out from the library and decided to do the Airy Scarf. (I'm doing the lace pattern every 4 rows.) I had some handspun laceweight mohair I bought at Taos Wool Festival but imagine my surprise when I noticed how biased the knitted fabric is. It is coming directly off the needles that way. I only thought you could get a bias from a single ply yarn and this is a two-ply. Hmmm. Anyway, we'll call it a "design feature."



Here are some miscellaneous links of interest.



Scroll down HERE for some of the best free baby knitting patterns on the web. I simply have to make the adorable Christmas tree hat!



HERE's an article on sending baked goods to loved ones in the military from the Albuquerque Journal.



DH is one of those delayed gratification people and I need my rewards instantly. Here's an interesting article in Psychology Today about how people like me can break bad habits.



HERE's a reference on shopping and helping your favorite charities at the same time (scroll down on the page). The ones listed are all new to me but I have used Gear that Gives, the store connected to the Animal Rescue/Breast Cancer/Child Hunger Site.



I use tofu for everything these days. I put it in cookies, puddings, pies, spreads, etc., but HERE's a fascinating article that say they're even using it to help mend broken bones.



I've saved the best link for last. I love making gingerbread houses and this web site is serious about their gingerbread. Grab a cup of tea and check out all the wonderful houses (and castles and schools and villages) in the photo gallery.

Theresa asked for a pattern in the comments for the thick roll-top socks I showed last week. Theresa, I used two strands worsted weight yarn and size 7 dpns and cast on 36 stitches. From there you can use either THIS pattern or THIS one (they both use 36 stitches) and simply omit the top ribbing. Just knit stockinette stitch the whole way and you'll naturally get a roll top sock.



Did I manage to finish the holiday knitting project to show you? No. Did I manage to start not one but two new knitting projects? Yes. Am I planning to use at least one of these new projects for holiday gifts even though I vowed to myself NOT to do any holiday knitting this year? You betcha.



Today's photos show two less than successful projects. This boring blah yarn started out as a beautiful brown merino top with blue and gold accents. Unfortunately it turned out to be nothing special after spinning it up. Still it is quite soft and I have enough to knit a quick hat for the mission.









Now for the really unsuccessful project. You may need to protect your eyes somehow. Here is the attempt at the Fair Isle mittens from Folk Mittens. I once read that Kaffe Fassett said that if you have a color scheme that isn't working, you should add more colors. I think this is proof that this isn't always the case. This would be a better color scheme with fewer colors.









I read in a Nancy Shroyer book on choosing Fair Isle colors to choose three color schemes. First you have your background colors, then the first group of contrast colors, then the second group of contrast colors. I actually did this but still I have this abomination.



I do promise to show you better color knitting projects the rest of this week. There should be some serious knitting time tonight with a 2 hour tv show about Rameses the Great (we just happen to be studying him in our Teaching Company Egyptian Pharoah's class) and another 2 hour show on Ben Franklin. (Yes, I did break down and turn back on the tv satellite service. I just couldn't survive any longer without the Food Network.)

Before today's main event I have two quick updates. First, there are still 30 angora rabbits patiently waiting for adoption (indoor or outdoor homes) in Colorado from the great 187 rabbit confiscation of October by the state. If you are interested in adopting one or more, contact Cindy Hardy, 719-836-4380, of Park County Animal Control. (Park County is in the center of the state.) There's also going to be a related angora-spinning demo at a weaving and spinning shop in Hot Sulfur Springs to help find homes for the rest of the rabbits.



There are two new reviews of Stranded Color Knitting online - a short one at knitting.about.com HERE and a really nice one on Katherine's wonderful blog. Merci Katherine!



You've seen Wanda's beautiful knitting here before. She sent me these photos of children's Dale of Norway sweaters she's recently knit.



This is the wrecker sweater knit for her nephew. What little boy wouldn't love this sweater? Aren't the colors gorgeous?









And here's the Dale St. Moritz sweater she made for her daughter. I really really wish I had one of these for myself. Isn't it breathtaking?

Here is the Tasseled Ski Cap from the first VK Caps & Hats book done in Peruvian Highland Wool. You can see the ladder in the center from where I went from one dpn to the next but that should block out. I hope. I really have to stop using my Pony Pearl dpns because I notice more tension problems with them than with my favorite metal Bernat Aero dpns.

These colors look great in full sunlight and hideous in artificial lighting. Go figure. Anyway, it is a nice warm hat to send to the mission.

Judy emailed me about working in the ends on her Dale sweater. First I determine which side of the end of the row the yarn tails are coming from and separate the ends accordingly.

Next I thread each end on a tapestry needle and work each yarn tail

in reverse duplicate stitch ACROSS the end of the row to the other

side. This helps strengthen the end of the row and can eliminate

the pattern jog you usually see at the end of the row. (It also helps if you do not carry the unused yarns up too many rows.) I generally do 3-4 reverse duplicate stitches then cut the yarn.



It would be impossible to see on the above hat so here is a photo of reverse duplicate stitch from Stranded Color Knitting.









I'm aware of only 3 sources that discuss doing reverse duplicate stitch on the yarn ends. You can check out Janet Szabo's excellent The "I Hate To Finish Sweaters" Guide to Finishing Sweaters, Stranded Color Knitting (ordering info to your right), or the Spring 2003 issue of Cast On, "On Your Way to the Masters: Those Pesky Yarn Tails" by Arenda Holladay. I put a tutorial on working in yarn ends with photos up on my blog on March 15, 2004.



Tomorrow I'll have photos of two lovely Dale of Norway children's sweaters knit by the talented Wanda and by Sunday I should have a fun Christmas knitting project to display here.



I'm not sure what is next but both Michelle and Stephanie are doing projects that I'm considering. Michelle is finished up a beautiful pair of Sanquhar gloves and I have some wonderful patterns Lisa sent me so I certainly could do another pair. Stephanie just knit a wonderful pair of Maimu's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia and I'm working my way through all the designs in that book so that is also a possibility.

Here's the photo of Peaches that won the CO HRS calendar contest. Our big brown bunny girl is Miss June.







Although Peaches looks like she was smelling the wildflowers, she was actually just about to eat them. I learned rabbits love to eat flowers several years ago after I put a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers on the coffee table and woke up to a vase of stumps.



The photo above is also one of the 12 I used for the Cafepress Peaches calendar. I think the calendar turned out well and DH took my copy to work. DH reports all the foster care kids he works with adore stories about Peaches and can't put down the calendar. If you want your very own 2005 Peaches calendar (all proceeds go to rabbit rescue), go HERE.



For the socks shown yesterday I used two strands of stash worsted weight yarn, size 7 dpns, and 36 stitches. I was too lazy to do ribbing and they are definitely too thick to fit into shoes. I do the heel on half the stitches so it was 18 stitches wide and 18 rows long. To turn the heel, I knit across the row until there were 7 stitches left, did a K2TOG, then turned back and purled until there were 7 stitches left on the heel, did a P2TOG and so on. One of my little sock secrets is that I NEVER knit an additional stitch after the decreases while turning a heel. I have very narrow feet and heels and this makes them fit a lot better. I also occasionally decrease more than the pattern asks for in the gusset to fit my narrow feet.

Wow - Blogger is acting very strange! Anyway, I hope you all had a great week. We had a terrific Thanksgiving weekend. Peaches feasted on bananas for her own bunny celebration. I started work on a six color hat I may or may not have ready to show tomorrow. DH is home due to snow and I never get as much work done when he's here.



Here is a simple pair of thick roll-cuff socks done in two strands of worsted weight yarn and size 7 dpns.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!













Here are my turkey mittens from last year at this time. The pattern was from the A Year of Mittens pattern booklet (Patternworks may still have it) and I believe I used Country Garden DK yarn.



I'm off for the holidays and hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'll be back next Sunday and I hope to actually have something knitted to show you.

The Bishop's Wife (1947 version) is on television, a roaring fire is going in the wood stove, and it looks like snow is on the way. I am cooking up a storm and planning my Thanksgiving feast. Yesterday we were at Ta Lin International Market on Central in Abq. They have even more foods in stock than last time I went. Their British foods section is quite large and I'm planning a terrific Christmas gift basket for my Brit friend Diane. I even found Sticky Toffee Pudding - my father sent me some a few Christmases back and it was the best non-chocolate dessert I've ever tasted. I purchased lots of imported Italian tomato products and some frozen falafel.



Here's one dish that is going to be on our vegetarian Thanksgiving table. It is a terrific pot luck item and is quite pretty to boot.





PARTY FIESTA SALAD



Serves 6



16 ounces frozen green beans -- thawed

2 cups frozen corn -- thawed

1 cup minced roasted red peppers

2 cloves garlic -- minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (use 1 tsp dried in a pinch)

1/4 cup minced black olives

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice



Mix all ingredients together in serving dish. Serve at room temperature. This dish can be made in advance and refrigerated, covered.

Lately I've noticed when I knit two-handed I knit much faster Continental, maybe twice as fast. I knit English/American (aka, throwing the yarn) when I knit plain stockinette or lace or textured stuff. I am planning to do a plain sock project Continental to see if I notice a speed difference.



The other thing I'm noticing is HOW I knit with 2 colors. I know there are people who knit with 2 colors by looking at the stitches on the needle and determining what colors to knit by where they are in the row. I go by the numbers pure and simple. I'll look at the chart once, determine I should be knitting 3 black, 2 white, 4 black, 1 white, etc., and then just count 3,2,4,1, on and on throughout the row. I'll occasionally look down at the row to make sure I haven't screwed up but too much looking at the knitting slows me down. Once I get in the rhythm I'm not doing as much mental counting - I think at some point the fingers take over and remember how many to knit of each color on a row. Things get even faster when I memorize a chart pattern and no longer have to consult the chart.



I was asked by Kathryn in the comments about how I manage to finish so many projects. I am definitely a production knitter. I really love looking at piles of items I've finished and I usually only do small projects which helps. Knowing I need to show a picture of something on this blog also helps me knit faster.



I have the luxury to knit A LOT, maybe 4-6 hours a day during the week (weekends much less). Knitting with 2 colors is fastest for me because I find it so much more interesting than other types of knitting.



I knit while playing Scrabble or Jeopardy with DH. I knit while watching tv - in fact I feel weird if I'm watching tv and not knitting. I knit while surfing the web. My best knitting time is while listening to tapes by the Teaching Company. DH and I sit on the floor next to Peaches the rabbit and the cats come in with us and we all hang out together. Listening to the tapes is perfect knitting time actually.



Here's some of the stuff that went to the Albuquerque Rescue Mission this week. I included my Level II and III sweaters and was incredibly happy to get rid of them. I considered including Ringblomst (Dale of Norway sweater) since I never wear it but I changed my mind. I hope to fill another box full of goodies for them by the end of the year.

Ahhhh. Is there anything more pleasant than spending a sunny afternoon knitting with lots of colors of Shetland wool on small needles? I don't think so.

ANGORA RABBITS NEED HOMES



The state of Colorado confiscated 187 rabbits, most of them Angoras with a few Satins, and are desperate for help. They found homes for all but 57 of the rabbits. If you can take in an angora rabbit or if you know of a fiber person who may be able to take one or two, please contact the head of the Colorado House Rabbit Society, Nancy La Roche ASAP, at co-hrs@comcast.net . This is all I know currently but I do believe their network of volunteers can transport some rabbits outside the state. Thanks!



Anne surprised me with this lovely wool mohair blend. The color is a brighter turquoise than it is scanning. For some reason my scanner can't handle turquoise! It was such a thoughtful and generous gift and will become some socks some day. Thanks Anne! I've also included a photo of some handspun I made with it on my new Woolly Designs production spindle.

Here they are hot off the needles before blocking. I used 56 stitches and size 4 dpns and Nature Spun sport weight wool. The patterns are from Anna Zilboorg's Fancy Feet.

I'll show you the completed Turkish socks tomorrow. I didn't get much knitting done this weekend - it snowed both days and DH has been hanging around more than usual, challenging me to many games of Scrabble.



I have some links for you. HERE and HERE you can find two excellent articles on how to help the homeless and both mention the need for warm knitted accessories in winter. If you find yourself with extra handknit items, consider looking HERE or HERE to locate a homeless shelter near you. It appears most shelters are church-based and receive little or no government funding. This kind of knitting is perfect for me - because the knitted items won't be sold I can knit someone else's pattern instead of designing my own stuff. Plus I don't have to worry about sizing or colors and can just enjoy knitting projects that interest me.



Chery has managed to finish yet another beautiful Dale sweater. It seems like it was only a day ago she finished her last one. Wow! And Sue has completed her first stranded color knitting project - a beautiful pair of Norwegian mittens. I only wish my first stranded color knitting project looked so good!



I added two new reviews of Stranded Color Knitting to the booklet's main page at http://home.earthlink.net/~nanetteblanchard/id6.html .



HERE's a link for a beautiful pattern for pink ribbon breast cancer awareness socks. These may go in the queue as I have some pink sock yarn in the stash.



And perhaps it is all our snow but THIS Christmas baking site just turns me on completely.

After knitting for what seemed like forever, here are Liidia's Gloves from Nancy Bush's Folk Knitting in Estonia. I used some vintage Nylamb yarn (a baby fingering weight yarn that was discontinued years ago) and size 0 dpns. I liked how you do the double wick decreases (i.e., decrease every row) with a different color yarn each row. I'll have to remember that because I like how it looks. I used a different 2-strand cast on for these instead of her braid cast on.

These gloves are going to be added to a pile of stuff to donate to the homeless shelter but first I hope to finish a pair of 6 color socks from Anna Zilboorg's Fancy Feet to include in the box. Tune in on Sunday to see if I manage to finish them in time.

I was going to show you what I do to choose the colors of a project in proper proportion but that will have to wait. I recently realized I'd planned to finish Liidia's gloves by tomorrow and I'm only on the first finger of the second glove. Yikes!



I know I don't NEED to finish these gloves by tomorrow but sometimes I think my deadlines spur me on. Otherwise this house would be full of incomplete and unfinished projects. I hope to finish them and show them here by late tomorrow evening. Here's a close-up of the glove cuff. I think the mint green section was an unsuccessful color choice but it doesn't look as noticeable when you see the complete glove.

Last weekend I managed to finally organize my yarn. I took it out of the Rubbermaid containers and displayed it in some wire shelving units. It is nice to have the yarn out where I can see it all and I feel less of a need to buy more yarn seeing it all displayed. The wire units came in black and white and were quite inexpensive at Target.



(Right after purchasing them I found out that Target has decided not to allow the Salvation Army bell-ringers in front of their store this season as a result of many other charities wanting the some privilege. While I've read that Target donates quite generously to community charities, the newspaper reports are saying this decision may net a loss of 9 million in donations for the Salvation Army this holiday season and this report says the trend may be toward the disappearance of the bell-ringers completely. sigh )



Today's photo shows Jack the cat playing with a feather. For some reason he always looks possessed in these photos.

This week I need to choose the colors for the Fair Isle mittens. Fair Isle color selection is truly an art and I've seen some really awful combos and some that take my breath away. In the past I've taken the easy way out by using all similar colors like the blues and greens in my nautical tam above or tone-on-tone (all shades of the same color) or I've simply recreated the colors used in the original pattern.

I have a good selection of Shetland colors so I could certainly do something in all bright colors or all jewel tones or all pastels. But I have quite a bit of bright red Shetland so I've decided that will be the main color. I'm going to include both pastels, brights, and tweeds for my color combination to further challenge myself.

We'll see how successful I am. Sometimes I wish I could just throw all the colors of yarn up in the air and just use whatever colors fall near my feet.

I hope to finish Liidia's gloves this week. They fit pretty well but they're not for me. They're going (along with some hand-knit socks and mittens) to the Albuquerque Rescue Mission. They have a Clothing Room where they give away items for the homeless and near-homeless and I figure I'm prolific enough to keep them supplied with wool accessories this winter. Plus I can still knit whatever projects I want to knit and not worry about sizing or colors or anything. It is also a good excuse not to do any holiday gift knitting this year! The Colorado HRS shelter's gift shop already has plenty of handknit stuff of mine to sell and all they need now is for me to spin angora for them.



We just started two new Teaching Company classes. After much indecision I finally ordered Pharoahs of Ancient Egypt and Thomas Jefferson: American Visionary. I recommend them both. So far we've learned that men & women wore eye makeup in ancient Egypt for the same reason that football players wear black under their eyes - as protection from the sun's glare. We also learned that no one other than his immediate family members ever heard Jefferson laugh or tell a joke in his life. Interesting, eh?



Peaches apparently got hold of the credit card and ordered this from Amazon. I highly recommend the book to other rabbit people - she turns into a happy tooth-grinding blob of fur or contentedly flops over on her side after her daily massage. If I don't massage her long enough she hops over and keeps nudging my hand to continue. How cute!

Margene told me about Haloscan and I managed to install some new comments in about 2 seconds. Thanks so much! Margene, I believe Lisa made the Anu's Christmas Gloves so maybe she has some words of wisdom. I like the gloves but haven't figured what to do about those really long floats in the pattern.



Siow Chin, I bet your Wensleydale hat will be beautiful. It is such a lustrous and shiny yarn.



Chery, I think I'd do better if people weren't always begging me to knit them things. I do think I enjoy knitting more if I'm just knitting, without a particular recipient in mind. And I completely agree with you about Squawkbox comments.



Sandrine, your Leaf Socks are what inspired me to make my own pair. Everyone go check out her Leaf Socks HERE and HERE.



Jessica, one thing I've noticed about Folk Mittens is the gauge. Lots of the patterns use thick yarn with smaller-than-usual needles (probably for warmth) and I rarely get her gauge. On the other hand, I almost always get Nancy Bush's gauge. Anyway, they're both great books!



Cassie, you're absolutely right about working on projects that are fun rather than obligations. And I love your feather and fan socks!



Beth, I do hope to start knitting only for my enjoyment. I get so sick of easy and/or boring projects.



Valentina, I can't wait to see your Tongue River socks. I have the book but haven't started a pair yet. I'm hoping you will inspire me!



I'll be back on Sunday. I'm off to order a copy of Scarf Style because of Lisa.

Here are the gloves in progress. I'm using Nylamb in green, white, and red. (Yes, I do have Christmas on the brain.) The red you see here is where the thumb will go. I'm almost done with my first finger. These do seem to be taking forever but I remind myself that the second knitted item always goes a LOT faster than the first.

I removed my Squawkbox comments and will answer all those I haven't responded to yet here tomorrow. I am waiting for Blogger support to look at my HTML and tell me where I went wrong. Until the new comments show up, you may contact me at my email address at nanetteblanchard@NOSPAMearthlink.net . Remove the NOSPAM from the email address before sending.

I've been trying all day to post but Blogger wouldn't cooperate. I suspect my problems are related to trying to add Blogger's comments. I'm sick of Squawkbox as I don't always see all the comments that are made.



Tomorrow I'll try again with the comments and I'll also post a progress photo of Liidia's glove so you can see the colors I chose.

Here is the latest kit from Redbird Knits Sock of the Month kit. Isn't the cabled pattern beautiful?









Even better - the yarn that came with the kit is this terrific Wensleydale Longwool spun in Yorkshire, England. I love the color but it is less elastic than other wools. Since I'm such a tight knitter, I prefer a more elastic yarn for cables. I may instead use the Wensleydale for plain socks and substitute some of my Regia for the cabled socks.

I've been guilty all year of knitting things I really don't want to knit. I knit gifts or to make things someone else requests or to fill up my sock drawer or to help out a charity. But I rarely knit exactly what I want so I'm devoting the rest of 2004 to knitting only what I want. I'm only knitting projects that I find interesting and I don't care if I have a purpose for the project once I'm done. So far I've finished almost 70 projects (33 pairs of socks so far this year) for the year so I can now officially slack off the production line.



I'm currently working on Liidia's Gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia but they aren't speed knitting. The cuff alone on the first glove took me almost 3 days of knitting. I also plan to start the Fair Isle mittens from Folk Mittens once I choose some colors from my Shetland stash.



Two new projects isn't enough though. I chose the mint green Nylamb yarn below to do the wonderful Leaf Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks. Do I have someone to give these items to when I finish? No. Do I need more handknit mittens or gloves or socks? Far from it. I don't care. I just want to knit these items and that's what it is all about.

I'm going to imitate a literary blog I read and jot down a list of oddities for my Halloween entry.



Oddest Item in the Refrigerator: I recently cleaned it out but the oddest thing currently is probably soy lecithin granules. I used it many moons ago for making my own Wonderslim/prune puree/baking fat substitute.



Oddest Habit: I like to rescue insects and put them outside or out of harm's way. This includes black widows and centipedes but I use a broom for them.



Oddest Food: I really like fluffernutters (peanut and marshmallow fluff sandwiches) but rarely eat them out of embarrassment. But that's nothing - I have a British friend who adores plain cold tofu topped with grape jelly.



Oddest Movie I've Seen: Liquid Sky - I guarantee anyone else unfortunate enough to have seen this movie about aliens seeking heroin would agree with me.



Oddest Place I've Been: I was just there yesterday. Madrid, New Mexico -described as a place "where old carnies go to die." Quite funky and worth a trip, especially on a day where the locals are having a "parade."



Oddest Thing in My House: I display lots of photos of dead pets which drives my friends nuts.



Oddest Web Site I've Been To: I could probably answer this differently on a daily basis but just today I was checking out a web site on how to paint light bulbs.



Oddest Web Site I check regularly: http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com



Oddest Accomplishment: In college some of my poems were put to music and sung by the glee club.



Oddest Book I've Read: Fiction: That's a tough one but I guess it would be Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.

Nonfiction: I used to have a fruit cookbook that was illustrated with drawings of naked people for no particular reason.



Oddest Halloween Costume: In grad. school I was Pat Benatar one year.



Oddest Party Trick: I can touch my thumb to my wrist (same hand) as I'm double jointed.





HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

QUARTER POUNDER SOCKS



By my calculations, each of these thick socks for DH weight at least 4 ounces. I haven't finished the second one because I need to spin more of the Romney. The color looks darker here - they're really a lovely cornflower blue.









Congratulations Red Sox! DH is on cloud nine.

I purchased another Tracy Eichheim spindle, the hearts production spindle seen HERE. On the sheet that came with the spindle it states, "DOGS chew on spindles! One lady came home to find her dog had opened her backpack and totally destroyed her spindle. I have repaired several spindle stems with teeth marks. Be warned!"



So it seems I'm not the only one with unruly spindle-eating pets. Here's a photo of Peaches & Jack the cat where they both look like they're up to no good.

GETTING ORGANIZED



Yesterday evening I organized my overflowing recipe file and today I plan to organize my knitting/spinning stuff. All through the week I have a container in the living room where I put my needles and balls of yarn after I finish a project. At least once a week I put all the needles back in their circular solutions containers and all the yarn back in the Rubbermaid containers in Peaches' room.



I also need to write down my various completed projects in my knitting notebook. I'm about a month behind on that but I can use my blog archives to quickly get the info. I'll post my totals for the year once I finish. I also use my knitting notebook for project notes, a list of knitted items I send off to friends or charity, and fun quotes or ideas. Once I was watching figure skating on tv and a coach had on such a beautiful sweater (probably a Dale). I used my knitting notebook to jot down the details and I included a sketch.



I keep a small index card file for spinning. I put a small sample of each yarn spun on the index card along with all the pertinent details - date, whether spindle or wheel spun, where I got the fiber, what I plan to do with the yarn, etc. This index card file is also nostalgic with yarns from pets now in heaven and a sample of my very first handspun yarn in 1996.

I finished my experiments with my Romney. Surprisingly I could find absolutely no difference in the yarn plyed on the wheel and the yarn plyed with a spindle. None. I'm waiting until next week to look at the difference between the same fiber wheel spun and spindle spun.

I now have enough Romney spun to finish a pair of socks by Thursday to show you. This Romney isn't as elastic as I'd like so I'm just knitting some plain ribbed socks with it instead of something cabled.

I think these socks are seriously ugly. I think there is too much yellow in the multi-colored yarn not to mention the pooling. They are uglier in person because there is even less contrast between the two yarns. I really really really hate multicolored yarns so please slap me if I ever buy any again.









I'd normally quit knitting on a project I found ugly but I couldn't come up with anything else simple enough to work on during the ALCS. Now we have the World Series and I just know if I start a project with a complicated chart the minute I look away Manny Ramirez will start doing somersaults in the outfield or Curt Schilling will start hemorrhaging. So the rest of the week I'm going to be spinning my pretty blue Romney and then making a pair of socks with them for the last project of Socktober. After that I plan to work for a long time with size 0 dpns and my wonderful stash of Shetland wool.



Go check out Chery's gorgeous Dale of Norway sweater! It seems like she can turn out one of these babies in about a month. Also check out a new knitting blog with some delicious-sounding cake recipes and the world's cutest knit hat model.



Apparently Peaches isn't the only bad house rabbit in the blog world this week. Go check out what Miss Baxter did to a perfectly innocent computer mouse.

I've been trying to be a fair and balanced blogger. I know that knitters have all sorts of viewpoints and beliefs and I've attempted to keep this blog neutral and unbiased. However, I can no longer hold my tongue. Frankly, I'm about to burst.



GO RED SOX!!!









These were quickly whipped up on size 4 dpns with 48 stitches and Nature Spun sport weight to look like socks on the Red Sox logo. I duplicate stitched a B on the heel.

I can't understand why my spinning is so much more even when I use the wheel. I prefer spindles and use them more often so I don't understand why the wheel makes such a difference. I'll be using a wheel and will notice all sorts of unevenness while spinning but the yarn always ends up looking better. I'm beginning to think it is the plying, not the actual spinning. I've been considering asking Santa for THIS or THIS (if Santa is feeling more extravagant) which may make a difference.



It looks like there are many more hours of baseball in my life this next week so I'm going to do an experiment. I'm going to spin some of my Romney on the wheel and on a spindle. Then I'm going to ply the singles both ways - with a wheel and with a spindle. If my hunch is correct the spindle spun, wheel plyed yarn will be the nicest.



Speaking of spindles, look at what one very large brown rodent-like creature with big ears did to the shaft of one of my Bosworth spindles. She's now grounded for the rest of her life. Fortunately it still spins fine although I estimate the shaft is now about 1/2" shorter as a result.

Baseball seems to be taking over my life lately. I normally don't even watch much but something about the Red Sox and Yankees together makes for some seriously exciting and tense baseball. DH the lifelong Red Sox fan has even been having trouble sleeping after all these 4-5 hour extra-inning games every night.



While I've seen some really nice colorwork using one solid color and one multi-colored yarn the autumn socks are unfortunately not turning out that nice. I've decided to keep on knitting them though because they are mostly mindless and a good accompaniment to all this baseball. I'm not knitting as fast as I normally do because I keep putting them down to stare at some new amazing development on the field - police in riot gear, injured bleeding pitchers, bitter disputes with umpires, and really long games hinging on the very last pitch on a full count in the last inning. Susan thinks the Red Sox are trying to kill her from all this stress.



In lieu of a knitting FO photo this week, here are the Halloween socks I knit last year. The pattern is from Blackberry Ridge although I used an orange from the stash rather than the gold they sent. I charted out the BOO! on top and had to sew the long floats in after I finished the socks.