I'm supposed to be vacuuming...but

So, I went shopping the other day with my (wonderful!!) Mother-in-Law (no really, she's awesome!) and I espied this sweater...



It was too big...




But it was sooooooooo pretty and on sale for 25$! It was kinda coppery and shiny and I just couldn't resist! So, I checked the seams to make sure they weren't the kind that are cut (they weren't) and made sure to get the largest size I could (3x!) and took that baby home! You shoulda seen the look on my husband's face when I told him what I was going to do with it :) I immediately... started snipping the seams! That's right folks, I'm reclaiming some yarn! As I got into the sweater, I found that it was doubled, approximately fingering weight yarn. DOUBLE YARDAGE!! Buuuuut also, kind of a pain since I'd have to separate it out...I got this much out of the back alone!



with all this still to process!



There were more interesting bits the farther in I got. Like, in addition to the doubled yarn, I found that it was knit with two separate sources so, I had to frog two rows and wind that, then frog two more rows and wind that separately. It's the opposite of knitting from two skeins...
There was also a casualty,

Maybe you can't see it here (really hard to photograph the thumb of your dominant hand-seriously) but my thumb reacted poorly (read: swoll swilled swelled up) after being shoved into the tiny scissors I had to use to get the very tight seams apart- did I mention that this took several hours? The yarn is also really twisty and the waistband not only includes a strand of elastic (so I'm pulling apart three individual threads) but was also cut separately which means more knots aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand in short, with ice on my thumb and 300 grams of yarn to untwist and wind into cakes--to only be 1/3 of the way done mind you-- this project has become a beast! Figures...I should have vacuumed.

Inspiration...

...comes from the strangest places.

I had been in a little knitting funk but I knew that I was getting my newest sock kit from Blue Moon and had very high hopes...lucky for me I wasn't disappointed!

Again, not normally my colors but again...

that's more than OK! So much so that I immediately cast on and did this!

Thanks again, Tina!

So, whatcha been doin?

It's hot here. Really. Frickin. Hot. Like hundreds of degrees hot. That means that I'm having a little trouble with the knitting mojo. So then, I decided to inspire myself with a trip to the local Joann's (hush, I support my LYS to the degree that I effectively pay rent to some of them :) to fetch some lovely cotton-y goodness. Here's what I bought...

Here's what I made, a little washcloth action...

Actually the pattern is nice enough that I think I'll try to make it into a little summer shirt for HRH, creatively seaming the sides and adding some straps at the top shouldn't be too hard, right?

Anyway, I also dabbled in some littler wool projects...

(So, yeah, that's root beer, swear!)

And then there's my Shetland Shorty...I know I've remarked before about how difficult it is to photograph yourself...believe me I tried to get a good angle but this is as close as I can get, unless I wait until Hubby gets home and then I'm even later with the posting and so, you get this :)

You know what the turning point was for this pattern? Taking out the markers. Simple as that. I was so concerned with counting the number of stitches between the markers so as to not mess up (which turned out to be impossible with the shifting stitches) that I was making it all too hard. I just took out the markers and winged it (wung it? wanged it?). Since the pattern doesn't look right if you miss a stitch, I knew on the WS whether or not I had messed up and at that point it was easy to rectify the count without frogging or tinking. I only had one visible mistake and you'd have to be pretty focused to find it. See, it's right there...

That's HRH modeling the Shorty when it was without a left sleeve. She's all the way in the back closet trying to get away from me and the camera :)

ahhh, Joy

So that thing that was winging it's way here, she arrived...

And I love her...

I had never used a spinning wheel before...

But I could really get used to this...

I bought my Ashford "Joy" from The Woolery. The price was right, the carrying case was cheaper than anywhere else and I got free shipping, a free niddy-noddy, free maintainance kit and free book. Really, though, she had me at hello :)

So, there's this thing...

Have you ever had something sent to you via UPS that had the tracker thingy? I have a special something winging it's way here and I've checked this tracker thing like, twenty times a day. It's taking the slow boat so there are lots of stops along the way and I get so excited when it's updated and there's a new departure/arrival city...it is taking entirely too long. I'll be happy to tell you what it is...unless you want to guess?!?! I bet my mom knows what it is :)

So, I'm taking a break from socks and Summer of Socks '08 as a whole. I can because I am the boss of me and, well, I'm sick of knitting socks...so there tbbbbth! First I needed a quickie, so I knit up some of these crazy cute little Dust Bunnies (from Mochimochi) just to satisfy the yen that had built up...
I did the ears differently and also the tails...but they're still Dust Bunnies :)
They're made from my hand spun yarn (second ever try at it :)...
...and then I restarted my relationship with the Shorty. I only had to apologize for an hour or so, and buy it something nice, and then there was the chocolate and some wine but other than that, it was a fairly easy reentry considering the yelling that went on after the 5th frogging...

Socks!!!

So, I joined Summer of Socks (on the Ravelry) as I have said and so lately that's all I've been doing. I have to say that the most difficult part of this (other than the band aid I have to wear on my pointer finger on my left hand since that's the finger I push the needle down with) is staying monogamous to one project. But so far, I have a pair and a half for two weeks worth of work! I wanted to try new stuff during this time so I started my first pair of socks on two circs...

They are the Rain forest Jasper colorway in Blue Moon Fiber Arts sock yarn, Socks that Rock lightweight in the Serendipity pattern (the same one that was used in the January Sock Club kit)...
I did start on two circs but I had to separate them and move to magic loop (my current favorite). I have up to this point been a dpn die hard but that magic loop thing is really working for me!! This next pair is Petroglyph in STR lightweight. The patten is Monkey but I called them Wonkey because it's the Monkey pattern done toe up without modifications so the m's are w's get it?

Yeah, OK I'll try to get out more :)