I whipped out a one hour crochet beanie for Tyler yesterday. Last week preparing for school we found that all of his beanies were too small for his newly grown head & mop of hair. It’s time to start hats again!
Those are the stages we go through when he thinks he is giving you his attention. Then you have to remind him ‘eyes on me, Tyler’ and we continue;
And then it all falls apart again;
I finished the Sahara sweater on Saturday and am very pleased with how it turned out. I dropped it off at Knit & Pearl in SB so it’s there as an example for the class I’m teaching next month. Once I get it back I will try to get some pictures with it on. I love how the Cotton Fleece feels all fitted like this.
Julie did put it on for me, it’s just gorgeous on!
It is nice to have it finished. It’s going to be a very wearable sweater in our climate & I am so pleased with my bead choice!
Overall I would put this pattern at an intermediate/almost advanced pattern. It takes a lot of attention to detail even though it’s mostly stockinette there are still more advanced techniques like the shaping, the short row shaping, the provisional cast on at the back of the neck, the placing of beads, etc.
Did you know that the white plume on top of the brown/grey ash plume is actually frozen ash & smoke particulates in the air? Just thought I would share. I love the plume, hate the fire & ash. I would just like to wake up one morning & not have the newly washed car all covered in ash again.
That’s all.
It’s possible that Bloglines has fixed the problem with my feed not showing up since the middle of July.
If you haven’t been here since then you have a lot of reading & COMMENTING to do ;o)
I finished Tyler’s Tiger socks last Saturday & here they are
Skacel Trampoline in Tiger 1 ball, size 2 knitpicks classic 32″ circs, 48 sts
And since he has Tiger socks now he must have Brown Bear socks. We spent a good half hour in Knit & Pearl last Friday trying to find just the right brown in a yarn that would work for socks. We ended up with Cotton Fleece in Truffle
Now, this yarn on size 2 needles is pretty stiff. Although I know from experience that it softens a lot & has more strech once it’s been washed. He’s pleased!
Other than those two demanded projects I have been solely working on the Sahara sweater for my class that starts in less than a month! Aaah! I must finish it this week, preferably in the next 3 days or so. I only have the sleeves left to do. The collar is 1/2 done and the body is complete, here are some teaser pics.
A lot of gaping holes huh? The beads at the bottom are the shirt tail hem.
The second this one is complete I will be finishing the Joy Cardigan from Rowan 41 and then moving right on into the Trapeze Jacket from StitchDiva, designed by Jordana Paige. I love her patterns & this one is ridiculously cute. Here’s a fuzzy pic of the pattern so no copyrights are infringed upon.
I have a few ideas for this one. I have some cashmere from Colourmart that would make a fantastic short sleeved version. I also have more Cotton Fleece that I could use for a long sleeved version, I already swatched it. I love the shape & rib pattern of this feminine being!
So, there you have it. If you’ve missed my other posts due to Bloglines retardedness please go back to my archives from July 16th until now. And comment will yah?
I am working with my host & with bloglines to figure out why it hasn’t been updating. It’s not on my host’s end, or so they say. Bloglines has the info they need to ‘reset the blog feed’ so let’s see if it gets done. I am not so happy about it but that is a high tech life I suppose.
You don’t need to do anything with my feed on bloglines. Unsubscribing & then resubscribing doesn’t do anything. If there is anything that eventually needs to be done I will post here & hope most of you come here off bloglines to get the message. Pass the word too if you know anyone that thinks I am on vacation like Tukats did ;o)
Yes, there are stalkers here just waiting for the whole ‘Sadie’s 10th Bday Party’ post since Tracy posted about it yesterday.
Y’all will just have to hold your horses! I will be surprised if my internet service let’s this get posted. It’s been off & on all day long. I will have some yarn pics, some knitting updates here and the bday post will be over on the Family blog soon enough.
Ick is the only way to describe today’s weather/environmental/fire/air quality conditions.
The Zaca Fire is kicking our butts.
We awoke to a red sun, orange cloud filled sky. And a ton of ash. On my clean, de-ashed car. Here is the hood, the orange ball reflected is the sun at 8:30am.
Oh, did I mention it was snowing ash? I mean, floating all around, falling on everything, snowing ash.
And of course the flowers & plants couldn’t get away from it.
Martha Washington Geranium
Geranium leaves
By this afternoon it was piled up like snow drifts along the edges of the driveway & brick work. And you can’t just rinse it off with water, it becomes a stick-to-everything liquid. So, it takes a lot of soap & a lot of rinsing to get the car clean.
The day stayed orange. Tracy took some great pics of the sunset. She has one posted from our knit group at Java Station tonight.
Two days ago I had my camera with me while we were playing at the playground. Here are a few pics of the smoke plume. The fire is approx 20 miles away, as the crow flies, over the Santa Ynez mountain range.
It did flatten out after a while once the wind picked up. The layers in the plume were amazing!
I have a whole flickr set that you are more than welcome to look at and share.
Needless to say, we are all very thankful here for the hard work & determination the firefighters have shown. As a former firefighter, I know the battles of fighting wildfires and this is a huge one! I know the exertion, the frustration, the rush, the toil, the labor and I appreciate every single second that they are putting themselves on the line for us. Thank them if you get a chance!
You know the times in your knit life that it seems like you are just going around & around, back & forth and yet nothing looks different? That has been this last week. Nothing flying off the needles in days around these parts. It’s the long haul knits that are on the needles at the moment.
The Joy Cardigan is coming along nicely. The back is finished, the left front is about 2″ away from being done. Then on to the right side and the 2 sleeves. I am hoping for a finish by this time next week. 
I have been working on the Sahara sweater using Cotton Fleece. It goes rather quickly. The instructions are written concisely but very understandable. I will be teaching an advanced sweater class at Knit & Pearl in the fall using this sweater pattern. I think it’s a good intermediate to advanced sweater to learn things like provisional cast on, directional increasing and decreasing, wrap & turn short rows, how to measure a garment to fit you precisely, a deep neckline worked in the round and I am adding beading to my cuffs, neckline and hemline instead of using the Tilli Tomas yarns that come prestrung. I do have a picture to post but it’s just a big red blob so I won’t bore you.
I spent some time this afternoon making jewelry and a set of stitch markers. The stitch markers are a gift and the earrings are for Tracy just because I like making her stuff. The necklace is also for her if she likes it. If not, it will go into my gift closet for future giftees.
These are the green star stitch markers in their little tub ready to be shipped off to their recipient. I would post better pics but I want it to be a little bit of a surprise for her.
I made my mom some socks for her birthday in June. Monkeys using Lorna’s Laces in Watercolor from The Loopy Ewe.
She loved them so much she entered them in their county fair.
They took the blue ribbon. 
It’s on it’s way here & now maybe she’ll wear the socks. That is what they are supposed to be for, after all.
Thanks to my Pop for sending me the pictures.
I really do think this whole thing is so funny! They are just a pair of Monkey socks, everyone & their mother has knit them. Mine weren’t even without mistakes, they were a quick knit gift for my mom. Well she says I shouldn’t be so modest, I just chuckle.
I had a credit at the Loopy Ewe from being a loopy groupie (I won’t tell you how much you have to spend to become one of those, it’s more than I want to admit). I decided that with that $25 I wanted to get something expensive. Something that I wouldn’t normally buy.
Behold the loveliness of Schaefer Andrea in Greenjeans
100% cultivated silk in a generous 1093 yd
It’s fantastic! Enough to do a whole shawl like the Hanami by Melanie Gibbons. Gorgeous!
I havent’ knit one stitch yet today. I have spent about 6 hours on Ravelry though. Trying to get my stash totally listed. I still have to do pictures of each yarn though. A lot of yarns I have pictures for already I just have to go back through all 451 yarns (you read that right, I have 451 different yarns in my stash) and add the photos. Big task.
I won’t even talk about the projects task. Most projects I finished in the past I didn’t photograph. Now, I have to dig through our closets, email all recipients of gifts and ask for photos. No biggy. It will just take me the next year to get it all in there. It’s a fun project to undertake though. The resource that Ravelry is is nearly unbelievable (and rather overwhelming to say the least) and it’s still in it’s Beta phase. Soon, it will be whole & new & so useful it’ll take months to see it all!
My knitting/crocheting goals for the weekend are to first, get caught up on clues 5 & 6 of the Mystery Stole. Second, I would like to finish the back of the Joy cardigan from Rowan 41. I only have 3 inches left until I switch from the lace pattern to the solid crochet pattern. Then it will go even faster!