just in time for Halloween

The socks are done - 2 days early...I'm planning to wear them to work on Friday.

sorry for the crappy photography. I'm really happy with myself for letting them be different from each other. I even gave them a different type of cuff. It was difficult to do though...for my overly organized brain.

Even the trees in the neighbor's yard are ready...

Everyone have a safe and Happy Halloween!

caught me

Hello! How are you? Whatchu been doin the last week or so?

I've been knitting and trying to stay dry...I am so tired of rain and wind and dreariness.

I have a nice Halloween sock done and have a good start on the second one that I cast on Thursday night...fastest socks ever. Yes, I intentionally made them not match and I put a different cuff on each one...kinda fits in with the Halloween concept I think. It was a struggle doing it though as I am incredibly a matchy kinda personality. I'm being strong though and making myself do them as individual creations, hah!

Started the first one just a week ago yesterday while I was hanging out at City Knitting. Gotta hurry so I can actually wear em on Halloween. The yarn is Austermann Step with Aloe. I love this yarn, it feels fabulous on your feet.

I think this afternoon I'll bake up some peanut butter cookies
just to have the smell in the house. This time of year I love to smell cookies baking or soup simmering.

Last weekend I was making a big pot of Chicken n Chorizo Stoup ala Rachel Ray, for which I had to brown some sliced chorizo in olive oil before adding the soupy part and The Saint caught me...

I'm a bit short for turning chorizo in the big pot on the stove so needed a little help. I didn't realize he was getting so sneaky with the camera til I downloaded to post this morning. snarky laugh here - thanks Honey!

I've been listening to loads of podcasts the past few weeks. If you like listening while you're knitting or sewing they're some pretty interesting folks out there. Here's a list of a few of my faves...you should check 'em out.

Hoxton Handmade
Craftsanity
MustStashYo
Stash & Burn

Gotta do some dishes then I'm off to City Knitting for a while, perhaps the yarny atmosphere will lift the gloom for a little while. You all have a great week. Thanks for stoppin by.

Boomer says hey!

Staycation #2

The best part of vacation for me is the total lack of structure to my days...on Wednesday I had pie for lunch, just pie, made by my Mom - it was great!
So, I'm on my second staycation of 2009...it's Friday and I'm sad that the week has flown by. There were so many things I wanted to get done. Alas, I have chosen to relax as much as possible and have not accomplished much of what I intended. This afternoon I'm heading over to City Knitting to hang out for a bit. It'll be a good day.

A week ago my to-do list consisted of the following:

1) Clean up the yard for winter - meh, it's cold and it's supposed to be rainy, yesterday it was cold and the day before it was raining, maybe I'll get to that next week

2) Stow-away the deck furniture - see excuses above

3) Make tabouli before the parsley freezes- check

4) Haircut - check - my new "do" w/bling - ready to go out to the Dems Fall Gala with The Saint.
Create a design wall for my sewing room - check
Start with a 4'x8' sheet of rigid foam insulation, cover with flannel and hang on the wall. Thanks to The Saint and his handy tool skills I can put the blocks in different configurations and see how they look...
Now that the blocks are up on the wall instead of in a pile I see that I need more colors other than blue, hahaha.

I also finished a Summer Sox with the Mini Mochi that my friend Deb got me.It's very pretty don't you think? I also got started on a new sweater for Boomer. I think he'll look pretty tough with a skullie on his back, hehehe.
So I'm off...hope you all have a great weekend!

anti-social knitter

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!! I'm sick of rain and don't want to be out in the cold, getting wet so when I got home from work tonight I decided it was a good jammie night.

Instead of hanging out at my fav yarn shop - City Knitting - with my yarny peeps I'm hangin out at home, surrounded by dogs, knitting on my sock...a sock, I must say, that is bee-yu-ti-ful!

The Saint is occupying his fav spot on the sofa in the other room - watching a baseball game and probably a movie or two - all twirling around on the channels in perpetual motion. Why do men do that? It's so confusing...just when I get into listening to what's on he changes the channel. When I complain about the channel changing he says "you're knitting, what do you care what's on?" gah! I use my ears to "watch" what's on, it's good for the imagination.

Tonight he was kind enough to take a couple of photos for me so I could illustrate to someone on Ravelry how I hold my needles when I'm knitting with little needles. I find it fascinating how everyone holds their needles and yarn differently. Here's the pics...

Little Sean Allen is enjoying his new hat and booties. His Dad says he'll be needing a larger pair of booties in an hot minute though. I guess I'd better get busy with a larger pair, baby feet grow so very fast!

ArtPrize was a huge success here in GR. Our town got lots of good national press and we're all better cultured around here now. I saw so many memorable things and can't wait til next year when they do it all over again. A couple more pieces for your enjoyment...

101 Ways to Humiliate a Man by Saul Gray-Hildebrand

Norman Mooney's Wind Seed


Have a great weekend everybody! Thanks for stopping in - be sure and say hey!

an ensemble for Sean

I finished a little baby hat today and it is so darn cute I can hardly stand it, even if I did knit it myself...
imagine a month old, red-haired boy in this.

I think I'll be making a few more of these. The hat is an adaptation of a pattern I found on Ravelry called Child's Ear Hat with Tassels by Louise Venables.

Instead of knitting it flat as directed I knit in the round, Magic-Loop style and Kitchener'd the top closed. Worked perfectly, looks very nice and no seams to sew! Of course I added the 3 row stripe so it would tie-in with the little booties I had already made. I hope his Momma likes them...