New Knitter In The Fam!

This weekend, I taught my niece to knit. Thank goodness she's smart and a fast study! I'm not a very good teacher. I thought it might keep her occupied on the long flight to Alaska. I've since found out that it's a non-knitting flight. What airline from Hades did they take anyway? Oh well, I'm sure she and her swatch will have a great summer-freaky airline rules excepting.

I have this on ebay. And also
the grape flavored yarn. I hate to see them go, so if they don't that will be okay. I'm just afraid if I keep tham around here, I'll start another pair of socks. (sigh)

Distraction

Minor distraction. Okay, make that merino distraction:
I really, really, really like this yarn. It's the dye-your-own lace weight from KnitPicks. I dyed it with koolaid. I keep burying my nose in it. Smells fruity.

Oh, and the pattern is from Lavish Lace. It's Crest O' The Wave. It's easy to remember because the pattern row never, ever, ever changes. I know, exciting isn't it?

They don't think so either: Notice how impressed they both are.

New Socks?

Not yet, but very soon. I'm still okay with the odd striping. It got on my nerves a little on the heels, and I'm sure the toes are going to bug me too, but I still like it. Maybe next time I'll suck it up and rewind the balls to stripe the same way. Maybe.

Now I can start picking the pattern for my next pair. That might be a little premature, huh? But I do already have the yarn. Some of that yummy koolaid-dyed stuff. I also still have that diamond pattern sock that would like a mate. I might consider working on it a little before starting a whole new pair.

Almost A Pair

Well, maybe not almost, but I've turned the heel on one sock and started the heel flap on the other. For me, that's pretty close to done. There could be enough progerss to warrant pictures tomorrow. For now, back to my socks.

Oh, and since May is almost done too, that means I might be able to order that black sock yarn from Knit Picks sometime next month. I hope.

Put Down That Knitting!

Nothing like a morning dose of sass from your three-year old. But who would't put down the knitting for this:

And some of these:

And this guy who we didn't visit very long because the Tot said he was sad and missed his family and wanted to go home. I thought he looked sad too:

There was more cool stuff to look at than I had energy for! My little hatchling had a great time too:

Yep. Giant egg. Fun.

We'll definitely be going back soon. There were some exhibits that were being repaired or remodeled and we didn't get to see everything anyway. There was too much!

Irresistible

I have all these other little things that need a little finshing. Socks that need thier mates. Scarves that need just one more ball of yarn. Plenty to keep me occupied, right? I couldn't help it though. Really. I kept this stuff in the house too long and it got to me.

It may have been the book that talked me into it, but I think it was the yarn. This was the koolaid dyed merino lace-weight. I just HAD to see how it looked knitted up. I haven't knitted lace in a while, so it kind of feels strange, but I like the way it's turning out. So far. Six rows in. Blame it on the wool.

And I wouldn't want my socks to feel neglected.

I decided I kind of like the opposite stripes.

WHAAAAA!

It's Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival time and I want to go! I will most likely be retired before I ever get to go, so I'll have to be content to whine about it.

I think it's also fund-raising season for many charities.
Claudia's got a cool thing going. My place of employment participates in several. Currently, we're centered on Med Camps of Louisiana, an organization that sponsors summer camps for special needs children. And we're going to be wrapping up our Relay For Life campaign in a couple of weeks. ***WARNING: Shameless promotion follows*** Our last 'big' fund-raiser for the Relay is our garage sale on Saturday. We've had lots of items donated for this (some nice stuff too and I think it'll turn out pretty well even if it rains. If anybody semi-local is interested we're going to be located at Community Trust Bank on Main Street in Farmerville, LA. We'd appreciate it!

Now for the knitty stuff. There ain't much. I did this last week:

That's 880 yards of laceweight merino hand-dyed by me. With koolaid. It's actually not that pale a blue, maybe a little more tourquoise-ish. But very nice I think. And it goes great with my new book. Lavish Lace by Carol Rasmussen and Cheryl Potter. Beautiful. I already practiced on this:

It should make up for the empty, sheep-festival-less place in my summer. (sigh)

Save The Wool!

I have knitting progress, freshly dyed merino, and a new pattern book. I even have pictures of the knitting. Decent ones with good color and everything. What I haven't had is phone service at my house since Sunday. Mice. If they eat through a phone line, how safe would you reckon the wool is?