Hello, Friday!

Hello, Friday!

The week is ending on a very good note (especially since it began on Thursday night!)

While I have not seen any butterflies at all in the last week or so (like the beauty above from last year’s visit to Ohio Pyle) I have seen some curious (and brave!) bees in the flower beds in the past couple of days! It seems they sleep on flowers! There is your fun fact for the day!

Mr. or Ms. Bee was still there in the morning when I had Sherman out. I was happy to see they made it safely through the night! I guess I won’t be tearing out these flowers anytime soon – I did not know I was running a Bee Hostel! LOL
Insects aside, my list is looking very good with only the Tomatillo Salsa left to finish, which will be done shortly!

Hopefully today I will find some time to get the body done on my Sigla! I only have about three inches to go and I can begin the sleeves!

Now how about a few (sadly very few this week) Friday Links:

Kelbourne Woolens is doing a very interesting series on swatching.

That is all I have for today. Have a fantastic weekend and see you back here on Monday!

P.S. Are any of you thinking of participating in NaBloPoMo? It is curious that I have heard (nor read) nothing about it at all. But, I am in… are you?

Sweaters on the Brain

Sweaters on the Brain

I began to have a bit of a panic attack regarding Rock the Lobster, I could have sworn I had more yarn. I was certain I had 3 skeins, yet where was #3??

I knew I had leftover yarn from my Stopover that I could use in Sigla, but where was it and is there enough?

Cue the yarn search music please…

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This searching made it clear that some Stash Management is in order which I have added to my list of things to do and I am happy to report all “missing” yarns were found!

I finished swatching for the Parley Cardigan and those swatches (yes, plural – I was not getting gauge) are done!

I also finished spinning up a very rare fiber – Whitefaced Woodland from Sheepspot. While I liked the fiber incredibly, I am not so sure about the colorway, which I am surprised about – it is the first time I have been unhappy with the colors from Sasha. I tried my best to achieve maximum barber-pole effect because the colors were so similar in so many long stretches. I achieved the effect, but I am still not certain I am happy with the results. Perhaps I should have tried to spin it in a more gradient fashion, like some smart people have done. I ended up with about 140 yds of a DK weight 3-ply yarn, and about 70 yds of a 2-ply sport weight. And, I still have about 50 grams of the orange left to spin up.

On a more pleasant note, I finished up the Honey Cowl and I love it! I will try to get some better photos to share, but today the light for photos is non-existent – it is a blustery, rainy fall day.

Last year I knit Stopover in 5 short days, can I beat that record with her more modern cousin, Sigla…we shall see, but I am sure as heck going to try!

Let’s get to some Friday Links:

That is all I have for this week! I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I will see you back here on Monday!

Knitting Ennui

Knitting Ennui

I have it bad.

Dissatisfaction? Yep.

Discontent from a lack of interest? Bingo.

I have got ennui in spades.

I am going to attempt to reverse this trend with Thing One, pictured above.

Joy? Oh, yes!

Enthusiasm? Absolutely!

I am so excited about this Honey of a cowl that I want it done yesterday and really I have plans to wear this on Sunday!

The knitting clock is ticking!!

Now, on to the Friday Linkage!

Mary Jane Mucklestone is getting top billing today. Are you wondering why? This might just be Thing Two. Remember the frenzy that was the Bang Out a Sweater Phenomenon? Well, meet Sigla. I am looking at colors right now. Who’s in with me for Bang Out a Sweater, Part Deaux?

That is all I have for the week. I hope your weekend is FANTASTIC! Stay warm and I will see you back here on Monday!

Vacation Reflections

Vacation Reflections

Most of the time a short week is a good thing – but a short week after a vacation was perhaps not the smartest idea. My list barely has a dent in it! (However, laundry is almost done and yogurt is made!)

I had what I thought was a brilliant idea to get one of Steve’s socks for length so I could perhaps finish sock numero uno yesterday. That might have worked if he cut his toes off. Seriously, I thought about suggesting it for more than half a second! Today will find me ripping back the toe and knitting another inch (really, I am knitting WAY more than an inch and hoping they will be just a bit too big!!) Promising him and his size 14 feet a pair of hand knit socks was perhaps the most epic disaster of my knitting life. Really. I will persevere and finish these suckers, however painful it is. And trust me, it is plenty painful! I am trying to avoid the urge to put these socks in Knitting Time Out.

Rather I am going to focus on the beauty that is the Frankfort, Michigan beach.

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Instead of feeling bogged down like these poor benches, buried up to their necks in sand!

How about a double dose of Friday Links?? There has been plenty of good stuff over the past couple of weeks:

That is all I have this week. Tonight, there will be a Grand Traverse Distillery Manhattan or two to usher in FriYAY and Steve is taking a half a day – so while it is technically not a “long weekend” it will be starting a wee bit early! The weather is calling for a backyard bonfire too!

I hope your weekend is fantastic, see you back here on Monday!

Hullo, Friday!

Hullo, Friday!

It has been a full week here in my house – although, my list still has a couple of things still lingering on it, but I will not be overly stressed if I do not get them all done.

I did indeed get the second Triticum front completed, I hope to cast on the first sleeve sometime this weekend. Seems like the perfect thing to do while watching the Michigan Game!

Plus, there were a few moments spent spinning this week. I am working on getting my Shetland from the Sheepspot Fiber Club finished. I was unsure of what I would do with this, but Ysolda provided a fantastic idea and gave me a problem at the same time! What did I have that would go well with this purple yarn?? I did some stash diving and found some “sport weight options” – imagine that! At first I thought that this Top of the Lamb might work. It looks nice in color but, as you can see in the black and white image, there is not enough difference in the hues of the two colors. Therefore, not a good choice. But, luckily I also have some Rauma Strikke-garn that works well as far as color theory goes. I will know for sure when I swatch and see how they play together.

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Next week will be another full week, but I am going to spend some time today making some lists for our upcoming vacation. It is much easier to pack from a list; don’t you agree? If not, I tend to forget lots of things!

The Friday Links today have lots of good things, and not all of them are fiber related:

Today is “Read an eBook Day” – I mean, is anything even remotely more important than that?? (Psst, there is a contest involved too with a great prize…)

Finally, this is totally off track, however Steve is sending me Links of Torture – Pumpkin comes to Williams Sonoma – yeah, I reallllly want, but do I need… that is the question!!

That is all I have today – have a fantastic weekend and I will see you back here on Monday!!

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