I finished my Wingspan

Well, hello there!

Yet another week has passed. Have you done some fibery things?

I haven't had much time to knit this week but I did get my Wingspan finished. I had be happy with just 7 wedges as I didn't really want to be playing yarn chicken with this project. Next time I'll make sure I have enough yardage before I start. I'll see about getting better photos this weekend during daylight but for now, this'll have to do.

I won a contest on a blog last week. It was such a nice surprise. The mail carrier delivered this pretty package...

inside was this cute, very useful "wallet".

it holds everything you could possibly need "when you're in a pikle".

I'll be stashing it under the seat in my car for any such opportunities that may arise while I'm out and about.

It's blazing (83f) hot hereabouts and LittleDog can attest to it...

His tongue's been out like this since I got home. There's such a nice breeze that I hate to close up the house and turn on the a/c though, and we're cheap like that, LOL Too bad these dogs have to wear hair coats all the time. I'm sure we'll have to crank up the a/c this weekend as Sunday is supposed to be 91f. I believe if it gets there my feet will explode. ugh

Have a great week everyone. Don't forget to check out the Fiber Arts Friday peeps at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

I'll leave you with a photo from last week's market experience.

Who spun all this yarn?

I had no idea how much handspun yarn I had created in the past few months. When I got it all out of the plastic shoe boxes for a trip to Eastern Market this weekend it was surprising. I'd already shipped some to my friend Shine (of yarn bowl/pottery button fame) awhile back and she has sold a couple of skeins for me at her booth.

Tomorrow I'm heading over to The D to help her with what will probably be the biggest weekend of the season at the market. Sunday is Flower Day so it'll be crazy busy and the weather is supposed to be beautiful. I'm excited!

Here's the handspun stash...

Hopefully I'll make a few dollars to help pay for my new laptop.  If not, no biggie, it'll be a fun weekend anyway.

There has been progress made on Wingspan...

loving it now that I'm about half way and can see better what it will look like. It's still a whole lot of garter stitch though.

I've been on staycation all week so the dogs have been enjoying their extra time to be outside. It's been nice and sunny and today wasn't so hot that you couldn't stand the sun...if you were a dog. LittleDog spent most of the day laying in the patch of sun in the back room.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. Be sure to leave a comment so I'll know you visited. If you'd like to see what some other creative folks are up to, hop over to Wisdom Begins In Wonder and check out the other participants in Fiber Arts Friday.

Have a great week!

We interrupt the regularly scheduled fibery stuff...

to figure out how to post from my super-duper new laptop. Whoo these keys are little! Guess I'll have to switch over to the desktop so I can show you some pretty stuff and maybe even LittleDog will show his face. Even though he appears to be asleep he's probably just pretending. As soon as I turn on my camera he'll jump up and try to run away. I'll give it a try though...

And from the uber-slow desktop where my photos are stashed...

I finally got around to blocking my Moebius cowl. I made it way last fall and wore it the winter but never got around to blocking it.  I'm thinking it will look much better on my neck post blocking. It's knit with some of my first handspun.

I am still struggling with the toe-up sock. I'm hoping to run into a nice lady at the yarn shop that can give me some assistance next week during staycation. If I can tear myself away from the i17 long enough.

Know anyone that needs an Ashford Traditional? I'm seriously thinking about parting with mine to help pay for the new Dell.

It's alpaca shearing weekend at Via Verde Farm on Saturday so you know where I'll be...hanging with my peeps getting some spinning done. Let's hope the weather holds up.

So the LittleDog was really asleep I guess. When the camera started up he didn't even flinch.

He has, however, now moved to the other side of the chair.

Don't you love the carpet? I think it's from the 1950s, ugh.

Have a great week and be sure to hop over to Wisdom Begins In Wonder and check out all the other creative fiber peeps over there.

Ripping the Riff...

I've spent several hours debating the ripping of this Riff sock. I've waffled back and forth as to whether it should be done while hanging with my knitting/spinning peeps.

There are good reasons for doing so and there are good reasons why I shouldn't.

My first thought was that it would be a good lesson for those who haven't been knitting long to see that you actually can rip back and fix errors without great consequence. It would also illustrate that by ripping back you learn to relax a bit about your knitting and appreciate the process rather than just focusing on the project.

While I enjoy all the different lessons to be learned from knitting and the challenge of knitting something that I haven't knit before, I've made no secret of the fact that I don't like knitting socks from the toe-up.

Now that this sock has beat me into submission I must admit that I'm enjoying the mechanics of the sock. I'm glad it is teaching me a lesson...having an open mind going into a project will make it easier to accomplish. My resistance to changing my sock mechanics has gotten me into a bit of trouble with the Riff.

I know the parts of a cuff-down sock by heart and my mind doesn't want to let that go. Perhaps by knitting and re-knitting this sock I'll learn to be more flexible, thereby, opening up a new place in my mind where the two techniques can co-exist.  One can only hope, right?

What lesson has your knitting taught you, beyond creating a product?

Totally.Incorrect.Mechanics...

 it's a Frankensock...

then I rip...

didn't even hurt and since I did it in private I spared all my knitting peeps the trauma.

I feel so much better. Thanks for living through it with me.

Hope your knitting is teaching you valuable lessons.

Smooches from LittleDog..

Don't forget to check out the creative peeps that participate in Fiber Arts Friday over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

FAF 4-27-12

Welcome to another edition of my Fiber Arts Friday posts.  Hopefully you will find something pretty or inspirational (in a fibery way) while you're here.

If nothing else...staying to the end will usually get you a look at a cute LittleDog.

Thank you for coming and please be sure to leave a comment. Then feel free to hop over to Wisdom Begins In Wonder where my friend Andrea hosts the Fiber Arts Friday blog circus. You'll see what folks from all around the fiber arts world have been working on.

Today I have a little progress on the Wingspan Shawl for the knit along that I'm half-ass-ed-ly participating in...

Now that I've got it on a longer cable and can see it laying flat I'm beginning to like it more. I've been spending most of my on-the-go knitting time working on this since it takes only a small amount of brain power...knit to the marker and turn around, then knit back...how easy is that?

Speed is picking up on the Riff sock for Yarn Hollow. I had been stalled for a couple of weeks several days trying to figure out the directions for starting the heel flap. Since I don't normally knit toe-up socks I was in knitting wilderness. I studied and studied the directions then Sunday morning while I was eating my breakfast it dawned on me what I was supposed to do about the decreases...

There is heel flap action going on and I'm crossing my fingers that the fancy stitches are in the right configuration when they meet up with the front of the sock in a few rows.  If they're not you'll hear some screaming from my neighborhood.

In case you are curious about the nifty new project bag in that first pic this arrived yesterday from Knit Picks. I chose the small size tote and I believe I'm in love...

Now that you've managed to get through all that knitting stuff, here is your LittleDog reward for today...

This is his  I'm a handsome guy  pose. He's wishing you a super-fun-fibery weekend.

While I'm thinking of it...isn't this the cutest thing you ever saw?

See you next Friday! In the meantime you can find me on Ravelry, FB or Twitter.

A little Wingspan progress and a new-er "do"

Welcome, thanks for coming. If you read my blog last week and were distressed at my calling those socks Ugly...fear not, I did not give them that name...that was Paula. I actually love them because they are such a loud combination of colors...and, I have a shirt that perfectly matches the salmon color stripe. Thanks for all your nice comments on them.

This week I've been fighting the urge to start a new pair of socks. I promised myself I wouldn't start another pair until I get Rita's second sample sock done. I've been stalled on it for a couple of weeks because I laid it down and couldn't figure out how to start the heel flap. It's a toe up sock...have I mentioned that I'm not a big fan of the toe-up sock technique? meh, I could do without it myself but for the sake of showing off Rita's super-fabulous yarn I'll persevere.

I finally resorted to a trip down to A Grand Skein on Tuesday night.  Before Susan got there I spent about 30 minutes reading and re-reading the directions for the heel flap.  I believe I finally got a grasp on what I was supposed to do next, looked in my bag and realized that my 5th dpn was at home on the table beside my LittleDog's favorite chair. gah! At least I know where I left off now and can do the heel flap when I have a few minutes of quiet time.

I did get a few more rows done on the Wingspan shawl that Vivian is hosting the KAL for on Ravelry. There are some really pretty ones being posted there.

Last night I went over to a friend's house and she gave my sad haircut a tune-up. Yowza!

It's shorty-short, just the way I like it. Thanks so much to Kat, I got a gazillion compliments at work today. You rock lady!

If you'd like to see what some other creative peeps are up to these days hop on over to Wisdom Begins in Wonder and Andrea will introduce you to a nice gathering of folks that are doing some awesome things with fiber.

Have a great week! See ya next Fiber Arts Friday.

The Ugly Sock is finished

After many days of knitting,

all the while wondering why I purchased this yarn in the first place,

I have a finished pair of socks

There was only that little bit of a yarn ball left. I don't believe I've ever used that much of a ball of sock yarn before.  This is just my plain o sock but since it was very fine sock yarn I cast on 84 sts and knit with Size 0 needles.  That was a lot of stitches! Glad their done and it's still cool enough to wear them to work tomorrow. Emily claims they're bullet-proof but whatever!

What do you think of the new Instragram photos? (#1 & #2) I think they make my socks look better.

I've been distracted by a little upholstery project

and I still need to get my pants sewn together. Work is still crazy busy and I run out of energy the minute I walk across my threshold. Maybe I'll get something done this weekend...

Have a great one for yourself. Thank you so much for stopping in to see what's going on here. You'll find lots of creative folks over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder too.

LittleDog could not escape the Instagram experimentation this week either...

Toodles!