An artful day...

My grand-daughter Jasmine and I spent some time together seeing some beautiful things around town today. There was beautiful yarn out at City Knitting and the new mural on the side of The Grand Rapids Children's Museum is awesome!

I got some great shots of the mural and Jasmine.






It was a truly fun day for us both.





















Isn't she beautiful?




















The ice cream was good too, LOL





































ETA: rearranged photos do accomodate new format.

One of these dogs has some organizational skills...

When I came home for lunch today this is what I found in the living room...

a nice neat row of dog toys.

I'll bet it was this one...he's fittin in real well, LOL

Have a great weekend!

All Knitting All The Time

I can take a little pain but I can't take not knitting a-n-y-m-o-r-e!!!

Thanks for coming by for a minute or two, hope you find something interesting.

I finished the Spring Forward socks that I was knitting in the Panopticon yarn that Rena brought me from Loopy Yarns in Chicago...I love how they fit and the toe looks so neat and tidy


The Spring Forward lace pattern is so easy to memorize.


It also helped me make both socks exactly the same length.
(that's a first! LOL)








As soon as these were done I cast on two - yes, TWO, new socks.
One for me, in Yarn Love - Belgian Chocolat.

When finished they'll be the Cookie A's Summer Sox that I'm doing for a KAL on Ravelry.

and one for a niece in Panda Soy This will be a pair of Coquette from the book 2-At-A-Time Socks
click on the pics to make em bigger

First of two pair of Coquette, the other will be in the pink/green Panda Soy for another niece. This yarn can be a challenge...splitty and frustrating...but the way it slides through your fingers and the soft and springy feel of the fabric it creates is worth the aggravation. It's a bit difficult for me to k3tog...I'm learning that if I would just knit a bit looser it would be less difficult, uh, right.


Looks like I'm on a brown kick? Totally a coincidence that I would be working with two different yarns in a similar color. really

And while I've been knitting Boomer and Sam have been mixing it up...

A Fiber Fun Day

We made the trip to the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan. It was a beautiful day, but hot as hell. The vendor buildings were crowded as expected but there were not as many folks hanging outside as I've seen in years past. I'm sure the hot sun at high noon was the main reason for that.


Val, Christine, Kim and I walked around the fairgrounds and felt a lot of yarn.

We saw lots of folks wearing City Knitting shirts, and it was interesting to me that most of them were folks I did not recognize. Those shirts are definitely eye catchers...


A couple of things I realized in the course of the day, one is that I love the brightly colored yarn as opposed to the muted shades, another is that these curly haired sheep appeal to me,

and I love the little horns on the sheep...


I packed a picnic lunch of hummus & tabouli sandwiches, grapes, melon and rice krispie treats that we enjoyed on a blanket in a partially shady spot we found. It was yummy and a nice break from the walking around. The Allegan Co Fair Grounds is such a nice spot for an event, they've done a great job of making it park like and pretty with flowers and shrubbery and I always love the "chicken gate". I'm sad that I didn't think to take a picture of that big ol chicken.

I had intentions of making it a photo heavy trip and somehow I just got into the yarn and talking with Kim and enjoying the animals so the camera, once again, became an afterthought. Hopefully there are enough photos for you to get an idea of what a good time we had. And did I mention that I had some yarn sneak into my bag today? hehehe

Claudia's Handpainted in Watermelon, Yarn Hollow in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Fleece Artist in Tulip. I also picked up a pattern from Briar Rose Fibers for the Summer Wave Tank.

It was a great day doing something with fiber that didn't give me an arm ache. I did get the heel turned last night on the Spring Forward socks and it felt so good to be working those little needles again...now this morning, that dreaded ache was back but I'm pushin on through it. Guess I'll just have to see the masseuse a few weeks in a row to get it fixed, darn!

Thank you all so much for expressing your concern for my arm pain. I'm sure if I would just STOP KNITTING it would get better. I just can't do it. I've tried distracting myself with the quilting and the reading and nothing compares, nothing...

easing back to the needles

Some pretty flowers for you...thank you for stopping by today. I really appreciate you being here and being part of my world.

I've been dabbling in the knitting a little the past couple days...it feels sooo good! A co-worker and his wife are expecting a baby boy the middle of September (I'm pulling for the 13th, hehehe). I ran across a pattern on Ravelry for some Chuck's and had to make them.

click on photo to biggie size it

Aren't they adorable! I've been running across all kinds of knitted baby stuff lately. So, in turn, I'm keeping my eye out for people I know who are gonna have a baby in the near future. Sometimes you just have to knit some small stuff. It's so cuuute!

I've been treasure hunting. I picked up a torso yesterday - new, still in the box...it'll be a nice addition to the sewing room. After some adjustment, she'll be the same size as me! Handy for modeling sweaters or scarves.

I seem to be on a roll finding 1960s Singer 237s. Today I found one on CraigsList for $5. You know I had to grab it! The Saint even cruised over and picked it up for me since he was already out and about.

Oo, let me go snap a photo...I'll be right beck...(think Young Frankenstein, LOL)

Here she is...maybe I'll call her Sophie, or Soph for short...she's beautiful, good cord, original foot pedal and original motor. Her case is a bit stinky but maybe a bit of spray or charcoal will help...

certainly worth a try to keep the original case with her. I'm only sad that I didn't find this one before I found Paige, (the first one)...I could have saved a few bucks! Eh, whatever.

The Saint's been gone a few days to delegate meetings/golfing and he brought me a souvenir...

a huge AFLAC duck! If you squeeze it's wing it sounds like that duck on tv...can anybody say CraigsList, LOL It is way too big to be hangin around here!

Thanks to all of you for your concern and good thoughts for my arm. Laying off the knitting a few days seems to have helped.

Boomer says hey and he'd love for all of you to come give him pets and squeezes. And Max and Sam say don't forget about them...

Have a great day!

alternatives to knitting when your arm hurts...

A couple of weeks ago I picked up my newly refurbished Singer 237 from Smith-Owen Sewing...Brian, the sewing machine guy there, is awesome! and this machine rocks! I bought it off craigslist a while back for $20.

It sews a perfectly straight stitches and there is no electronic brain to do whatever it damn well pleases whenever it takes a notion. I really don't like the new electronic machines - at all. Don't know why I bought my 9940 but it is now relegated to the travel case. It won't come out again unless I take another quilt class somewhere away from home and have to have a machine that I can actually pick-up and carry, LOL. This one is definitely not "portable" at about 30 lbs.

A few more quilt blocks came off her today. Have I mentioned that I love this machine? It is awesome. The blocks are slowly stacking up and I'm getting a good vision of what I want to do about putting them all together. As my arm is getting better by the day I'm hopeful that by the middle of next week I should be able to be rockin the socks again. It's really killing me not to work on them but I know if I get back to it too soon I'll just be hurting again like I was last week. meh

Here're the latest blocks...

I especially like the tree and the flower in the pot. Foundation piecing is my favorite method since it helps you make nice straight lines and good corners without a bunch of fuss. You can click on the pics if you want to make them bigger.

It's really hot and humid here today and they say it's gonna be worse tomorrow...guess I'll have to break out the a/c. In the meantime, thanks a bunch for stopping in to check out my stuff.

Boomer's asleep on his pedestal but I'm sure he's wishing you all a great day...

Boomer's Tongue

Taking pictures of Boomer out on the deck on a sunny day didn't work out so well...

but I finally found the secret to getting this little dog to smile nice for you...


holding a Skinny Cow behind the camera, hehehe

I'm hoping that he's entertaining you sufficiently so you don't notice that there's no sock knitting going on here...my arm is on fire, I can't knit small so I'm back to knitting just a few minutes at night on my ZigBagZ...that's it - there, over his right shoulder...I'm making slow progress but I'll have to give my arm a few more days rest before I can sock-it again...

Thanks to all of you who faithfully follow my blog. I really do appreciate your stopping by and leaving comments. I'm off to Rena's to watch some crappy tv and do a little big needle knitting.

Have a great evening!

xxxooo