collaborator

Crafty Girl came to me and said, Look mom, what I did! Do you want to take some pictures?

She had cut the tops off some fresh strawberries, and arranged everything on a cutting board like this:



How could I resist?

Guess what came next?

Thanks ever so much to the local farmer who grew the berries. We enjoyed them tremendously.

progress report

My cat Emma is making sure the stash is being guarded. I appreciate her concern.



Here are the finished socks that were a graduation gift. For size 10 men's,
3 skeins (or about 350 yards) sportweight sock yarn, size 3 needles, 56 stitches. No particular printed pattern was used, but any basic sock pattern will do.

Yesterday, my daughter and I were invited over to my friend Anna's house; us moms are good friends, our girls are good friends, and Anna is a fabulous knitter, --- what could be better? I brought my (borrowed) spinning wheel and got some spinning done. I am sorry I can't for the life of me remember what kind of wool it is. All I know it is not Jacob wool, rather someone carded some white and brown fleece together.

The commissioned lace shawl is making progress too. I keep plugging away at it.

I am done with 6 out of the 8 suggested pattern repeats, but something tells me that even when it's blocked it will never be big enough to fit around a real person. I have already decided to do at least 10 repeats, if not more. Thanks to the yarn goddesses who are providing me with the yarn, yardage is not an issue. I think I will be fine with 2 hanks of "Marshmallow".

The fir cone lace pattern is supereasy as far as lace patterns go. I am loving this!

Thank you so much to everyone that responded to my last post! I love seeing where everyone is from.

Jody and Amanda, I'll post the pattern for the teacher's shawl soon. I'll have to actually write it down....so often, I take a basic pattern and then I gauge by how much yarn I have or the look of the yarn, what I want to do with it. While I have an idea in mind, I hardly ever plan these things ahead of time, most things "grow" out of my needles...

twothousand!!

I just checked and found out that the counter went over the 2000 mark!!
Thank you for coming to visit my blog. I appreciate it a lot.

I know I have people from Ireland, Spain, Germany, Israel, as well as all over the US looking at "knitting &".

Why don't you leave me a note and let me know where you are all from?

Have a great weekend, everyone.

solstice knitting

This week marks the end of the school year for us, and since my daughter is finishing 4th grade with a beloved teacher, I decided to make a shawl as a year-end gift.


This teacher is a vibrant and spirited woman, and when I asked my daughter in a moment of doubt if the colors in the shawl are too bright, she said, "Are you kidding? They are just right for her." So I went ahead with it, and of course there was some last minute knitting involved, on the longest day of the year yesterday....and blocking overnight....and I ran into the back yarn in pajamas this morning to get these pictures done before we packed up the shawl.



The yarn is a hand dyed worsted weight from New Zealand, one hank of about 475 yards made this shawl on size 9 needles. I have made this shawl at least a dozen times with several variations. Garter stitch gives it bounce and heft, but I've made in stockinette stitch too, with color and yarn changes throughout.

We're having a little ice cream party in the yard this afternoon at 3:30, so if you are in the neighborhood, stop in! I'll be the one finishing up a pair socks for a graduation gift...

Happy Birthday, sis!

Today is my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday, Doris! Alles Gute zum Geburtstag. Of course I called her earlier, she was enjoying her traditional strawberry cake (oh the advantages of having a birthday in June!). The whole family was gathered including our parents and her in-laws, her husband and her two sons. It's times like these I get very homesick and wish I could be there with them....

Here are some flowers for you, Doris. I know you like flowers, and pictures, too. :)


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Yesterday, I finally finished this little sweater. I had started it in January, and it was about time I finished it and added it to all the other ones our charity knitting group made. These will go to Guideposts.
The pattern I used is from Cabin Fever, the yarn is Encore worsted.

Also this week I am working on these socks. They are a graduation present for a young man who will be going to Cornell University in the fall and who is an extraordinary percussionist. As it turns out, he plays and practices in stocking feet a lot, running and gliding from one intrument to another....so making him socks was kind of the obvious choice, don't you think?

I love the yarn I found, which unfortunately will no longer be available in the US. It is a Swedish yarn distributed by Idena. It seems much much softer than other similar self-striping yarns. This is a sport weight, and I am using size 3 needles. Since the socks need to fit a size 10 men's, the choice of a bigger yarn than usual will help me get them done in time.

To get a break from all that plain stockinette stitch, I decided this morning to start this shawl from the book Wrap Style. An Evelyn Clark pattern called Shetland Triangle (how's that for self-explanatory?). The stitch is a pretty simple fir cone lace,

and it will work up fairly quickly in this sportweight alpaca/merino yarn from Decadent Fibers.

Please note my new needles!!! I love the new addi lace needles. All I can say is, What took them so long?? How did we ever live without these??

The sharp tip makes all the typical lace knitting maneuvers soooo much easier. I would even contemplate these for other knitting projects.

This shawl is a commission, but I know that I will have to make myself one, too, one of these days....

told you!

One door closes, another opens. Well, one door opened today, it was the mail man dropping two packages on my front porch.

I got an official rejection letter from Eunny Jang, the new editor of Interweave Press.
Please understand I am not being sarcastic. In fact, I would like everyone to know that in all my dealings with Interweave Press, everyone has always been very courteous and professional. When I had my shop, they were a great press to deal with. Great books and magazines, along with great service.

The rejection package I received today contained my two submissions, all materials I had sent to them, and a very nice letter encouraging me to try again in the future.

At the same time, I received a package of complimentary yarn from Lorna's Laces, for a submission for a book by Donna Druchunas. Now I get to wind some Swirl yarn, and start swatching...

What are you all working on?

a rose is a rose is a rose

I am doing some un-bloggable knitting these days. Meaning, certain submission guidelines do not permit me to talk about what I am doing. Once I have been rejected, I'll be able to write about it. :)

Photography to the rescue! The roses are blooming in my yard, and here's a glimpse of some of them.