An old English major CAN do math...

I had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating a friend's birthday - which turned into a mini-LYS crawl with trips to Yarns Ewenique in Fort Worth (back to the scene of the Nephew's visit) where I was able to buy some new Addi Turbo's in Size 1 - 24" for my sock knitting along with a skein of the new ToFUTsies sock yarn from Southwest Trading Company - I think it's the 3 Feet Short colorway.

It's so soft in the skein - and pretty - but a little weird since it has this in it:



After lunch and wine tasting, we headed to Simpatico in Bedford where I bought the yarn that I had wanted to buy the last time. It's Classic Elite's Wool BamBoo - 50% wool, 50% bamboo - to make the Beads of Earth scarf from Scarf Style. I had bought a Rowan wool/silk combination to do this with, but after my friend Becky's results (basically, a beaded tube), I wanted to try something a little different.



Today, I spent the day with an old friend and was able to finish this up:


I had wanted to do the Misti Alpaca Ribs and Ruffles scarf for myself - but didn't like the skinny version - so I did a little adding, a little multiplication, a little division and subtraction - and came up with Casting on 108 stitches - reducing that to 56 and then reducing that to 27 to get to the stitch pattern and have it come out right. I love the width - and 2 skeins made it just perfect!

Now, I'm working on a sock using the Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Multiringel yarn in lovely shades of blue and am beginning to strand the beads for the gray Beads of Earth scarf (using gunmetal colored beads).



Of course, the pup and cat are griping at me for not having an empty lap for them to hop into - it is always covered up with yarn and sticks...sometimes they just gripe and jump up and lay on it anyway. This was them this weekend - Barton the cat giving me the evil eye and Sabine the pup giving me the sad "you never pay attention to me" look.

Another week of knitting

It has been a needle-clickin' week so far...and I'm hoping to get some more done before the weekend's over.

Last weekend, I cast on and finished two scarves - one for my Mom's birthday (Misti Alpaca Scarf (again, done with the Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande)



And one for me - I call it my Oscar the Grouch scarf - it's chartreuse Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn with some Online eyelash yarn carried along - just boring garter stitch, but I love the scarf.


I also took some of the leftover Ultra Alpaca yarn from the reversible cable scarf and played with another iPod sock pattern - liked this one much better. It is tighter and more stable for protecting the iPod. I gave it to Lori so she could have one that matches her scarf. I think she was happy with it - she kept petting it. :)

A Nephew's Request

About this time last year, I found this Morehouse Farms Critter kit on the web for a Gecko Scarf.

The nephew is crazy about Geckos - he has a live one - his room is decorated in geckos (that I painted, thankyouverymuch) and he just happened to be in the room when I saw it online...BIG MISTAKE.

I never heard the end of "I want that gecko scarf!" They only sold the pattern in kit form - and well, the nephew and pure wool just don't coexist well. So he and I composed a letter to Morehouse Farms asking for the scarf pattern to be posted. They said that it would be later in the year.

Now, the nephew has the memory of an elephant - and while I thought, "Oh, this will pass..." - every time he came to my house, we'd have to go check the site for the individual gecko pattern...

FINALLY, on his July visit, we did our traditional "check" of the website - and Viola! There was the pattern - for which he ran and grabbed my credit card and said, "GET IT!!!" HA!

Once it came in, he'd always ask "Are you working on it???" To which I told him the truth - Not yet. In December, he asked, "Will I get it for Christmas?" To which I told him the truth - I don't think so.

Never to be deterred, he said, "That's ok - my birthday is in February." I realized that I was knitting all of these things for people who had no clue that I was doing it for them - and here was this kid I love to death who WANTS me to make something for him.

So in December, when I took him to see the Hatsheput (Egyptian Pharoah) exhibit at The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, I took advantage of both having him with me and being just down the street from Yarns Ewenique to have him go with me to pick out yarns and colors for his scarf.

Thankfully, Yarns Ewenique doesn't freak out at a 9 year old being in the store and they helped him pick out the yarn (and helped enable me with some new sock yarn). After some steering him away from the good stuff (i.e., too expensive to make a kid's scarf out of), the nephew picked out Black and Maroon Encore Worsted Weight Yarn. He also picked out some Copper Rowan Lurex Shimmer for me to use. (He had wanted it all done in this and thankfully understood that it would be better as an accent...)

The funniest part of the whole trip was that while I was checking out, I hear the nephew say, "This is like the world's smallest hat!" - which caused me and the saleslady to look around just to see said nephew walking around the store with the rolled up version of THIS on his head. I think we both just about peed our pants!

Anyway - the birthday is February 3rd - and I have officially finished this thing - well, except for figuring out what to do about the eyes (suggestions???) - it will either get rave reviews from his classmates - or get him beat up...either way, I know he'll be happy 'cause his Aunt Liz made this especially for him. It is HUGE and probably as tall as he is - (I'd use DK weight next time and not the Worsted) - but it's so cool!

Ta Da!!!



(Eye suggestions, anyone???) Thinking of finding buttons that are cool - the recipe calls for felted ones.

And a Closeup of those feet - which are adorable - and definitely took me out of my comfort zone of knitting...

I've joined the masses....

I recently got an iPod - which I just love!!

I'm downloading podcasts right and left - so far my favorites are VH-1's Best Night/Week Ever series and, for knitterly things, Lime & Violet.

So, last night while watching somthing TiVo'd, I knit this little iPod sock using the leftovers from my Regia socks.

I think I'd knit it tighter next time - but this was a good start.

Christmas Knitting Report

I wish I had taken pictures of everyone with their knitted gifts while I was in California - but I didn't.

Everyone seemed to love their gifts - especially the baby blankie for Lily. She looked so cute wrapped up in it - and Adrine says that she's gotten a gazillion compliments on it so far!

This makes me happy happy!!

Six Strange Things About Me

Ok...Lise tagged me and is making me actually think about the strange things that I do....

So here goes...

1. I have a terrible fear of tripping/falling down. I have done more damage to this crazy hip of mine by NOT falling down than if I'd actually let myself fall.

2. I own a bajillion pair of sunglasses - very few of which I actually wear to cover my eyes. I use them as a hair band to keep the hair out of my eyes. (I also have the little divots in the top of my head where the nose pieces rest because I've been doing this for so long.)

3. I will often decide which stall to use in the ladies room based on the number of times I've been at the establishment. (First visit to a store? First stall. Third visit? Third stall.) I do, however, make exceptions in order to avoid nastiness.

4. I have a hard time eating anything "Dry". I've often claimed to be part raccoon since I need to dip my food into something else to keep it moist. Ranch, sour cream, honey mustard, ketchup - whatever - as long as it makes it easier for me to chew. (But it can't be soggy - so I can't be all raccoon!)

5. I hate cleaning - and have been blessed with a husband who doesn't mind doing it. (I do, however, get a weird sense of satisfaction from taking a really dirty, greasy pan and soaping it up and having it come clean. It's almost cathartic.)

and

6. I have a weird fascination with Q-tips - just in that I must have the cleanest ears west of the Mississippi and East of Apple Valley, California. (I'll not rat you out, you Cali girl...you can do that yourself!)

Christmas Knitting

So these are the things I'm taking to California for gifts...

A woven ribbon scarf - well, two of them - one in this mauve-y pink color and another in a more Rainbow colorway.

A Little "A" washcloth along with the rippled baby blankie for Armen & Aylin's baby, Andrew. He's such a doll.

A Misti Alpaca Scarf (made with the Alpaca Baby Grande) for my dear Iren.

Then the Rainbow Stroller Blankie for Lily - Armen & Adrine's new baby daughter who is just more precious than words!