First FO of 2010

I finished up Joe's seed stitch socks made of merino / bamboo blend. They are shorter
than I wanted but he said they are fine. I did have enough yarn to make them longer,
but who knew?

I really love the yarn, and the pattern. They are blocking.


Have about 14.5 " of the vest done - need to get to 17.5" before split for arm holes.
Having fun with this little project.


Ruth finished up her mitred mittens - very nice - love the colors!


Martha sent along some pictures of her new kitchen counter:




Joe put together this little kitchenette for me to use till ours gets done.
Since we wont have cupboards till March/April, he said I needed something
besides boxes. Thank goodness he is handy!


Moved the table back in the dining room for the time being.
Makes it much nicer!




Joe is taking a much deserved break. He could not walk last Sunday night
due to working all weekend so we all realized he needs downtime on
Sunday -- well we all knew that - it was convincing him that was the
problem.


I think I will start some socks to have a small brainless thing going.
Have a great week!

not socks

but the vest I'm knitting is totally brainless. Malabrigo yarn in Parrot colorway.
Love love love it. Soft yarn and continually changing colors are keeping my
interest. I have about 6 inches done so far. Have started a little waist
shaping.


Knit on Joe's socks a little bit this week, but not much. I need to get those done
so he can wear them.


The kitchen is coming along good, but slow. There is only so much Joe can do
after working all day. This week he worked a lot on electrical stuff. This weekend
he and carpenter Dave put in the sophets and worked on plumbing.





Joe ordered the two dining room windows yesterday, so they
will be here soon. Since we raised the floor, the windows
will need to be raised also.



Finally ordered the cabinets yesterday and they will take 7-8 weeks.
Our little kitchen had really evolved into something nice since
we started planning it over the holidays.

This is the mess we are living in while the two rooms need to be
completely empty. The table is a mess cause we just ate lunch,
usually it is not half that awful.







Martha is remodeling her kitchen also. Looks like she is getting new tile
countertops. Very nice!!!!!








Ruth has been doing a variety of knitting:


Ruth's description:
Attached are photos of all my half done knitting. I included my EZ
mitered mitten with my design changes. One mitten down, one to go.
Brown Sheep Lanaloft yarn. The sock is Zauerball Schoppel Wolle. The
pattern is the Embossed Leaves Pattern (Mona Schmidt) from _Favorite
Socks_. The other color work mitten is the Chevron Love mitten from
Knitterly Things using the natural neutral colors. Last of all is my
swatch for the EZ green sweater. I am using the second batch of the
Briggs & Little Fir Green single ply wool. Hopefully I sill get some of
these projects done soon. I think it will be the EZ mitten.

It is all very lovely, I have personally fondled each and every project
she has going! (I know you're jealous !)

Wishing you a nice, knitfull, warm week.

Boring!

Boring post today. Not much knitting going on as seems to be the theme lately.
At Elizabeth Zimmerman class on Saturday, the group decided to knit the EZ
Green Sweater this is all the rage now. Ruth has a little head start as she has yarn
and swatches already. My yarn, Cascade 220, should be arriving from Spirit Work
this week. I have knit a little on Joe's 2nd sock - curising down the foot.
These socks are not very tall on his leg, but he said he liked them anyway:




I started a vest today. I couldn't help myself. I have been wanting to make
a vest with the Malabrigo worsted yarn I got at Webs when Ruth, Martha
and I went there almost two years ago now. The colors are very vibrant,
and this picture does not show that. But it is a nice "big" brainless project.
It will be just a plain vest, with maybe a twist in the center prior to starting
the "v" neck. The yarn is too busy for a pattern.



We have been busy trying to build a kitchen.

Here is a picture of where the sink used to be. No sink or stove all weekend, and it
may be till next weekend before that issue is resolved. Notice the floor
is now raised. The kitchen used to stop at the end of the hole in the floor
but not it will come out to about where the table is starting.


And we have the makings of a small vacuum/broom closet.


Wish me luck trying to get some knitting in this week.

Cold

It's cold...brrrr
With the kitchen all tore up, it is even colder in our house. Joe and Joey made good
progress this week.








This construction is hard on the "little kids". I have to make sure all of the nails are
picked up......ugh!



I did manage to finish Joe's first sock, and have a small start on the 2nd one.\



Martha made these cute booties for EmmaLouise's voice teacher. They
are made out of Lopi.




Notice the bottoms she put on after felting:



Pattern is from Fall Knitters magazine.

She just finished up her first pair of alpaca socks. Very nice!






Ruth started a pair of socks, but said not picture worthy yet. I am jealous of all
the knitting time these girls have! ha ha ha ha

Did you read Clara Parkes Knitters Review this week?
http://www.knittersreview.com/article_yarn.asp?article=/review/profile/100107_a.asp

She is reviewing some new yarns by the Stitch N Bitch girl.
I have mixed feelings about the review....as the yarn is sold at JoAnn's. hmmmm
after all of the hype about supporting the local yarn shops....

1. Should we be offended?
2. Should we be greatful that she supports all yarns?

What is your opinion my knitting friends?

Stay warm dear blog readers....happy knitting....

Befuddled / Perplexed / Astonished ???????

So, remember way back when...I knit some fantastic Jaywalker Socks from some merino/tencel yarn that I had purchased from Ellen's half pint farm? I HAND washed the socks ONE TIME, and layed them flat to dry, and they BOTH got holes in the heels? I emailed Ellen and she sent me a whole skein of replacement yarn. In the meantime, I had decided it was a fluke occurrance, so knit up another pair of merino/tencel yarn from Ellen. I absolutely love the color way, and the socks. It as a k6, seed 3 pattern. Anyway, I have washed these socks a few times by hand,
and always lay flat to dry. Just in case, when I knit them, I reinforced the heel. Anyway, this week after I put them on, there was a fuzz ball in the heel that I pulled out. Put the socks on and got cold feel, looked down and PRESTO: another hole, right past where I knit using reinforcement. You can see the purple reinforcement yarn.



Dear blog readers, what is your opinion? What am I doing wrong? I will not be contacting Ellen again -who would believe me? I purchased more merino/tencel from her this year, and will have to make something besides socks I guess. (But a not so funny thing happened, the little tags fell away from my sock yarns, so I'm not exactly sure which is Ellen's yarn....)

I have not knit nearly as much as I wanted to while on vacation this week.
I am about 1 inch away from toe decreasing for Joe's 1st sock. I did knit a little
on the shawl, but not much.


We are just starting major construction here at our house - a new kitchen - yea,
and revamping the dining area. That will not leave much time for knitting, but it
will be worth it. Ruth asked me to take progress pictures.

Here is what we have now:






Ruth finished up a pair of Holidazed Socks by Anne Hanson in Socks that Rock
yarn. She loves this yarn a lot - I have never used it. Very nice colors!




Notice the stripes? Totally by accident she tells me!
How cool is that !


Martha made Emmalouise a pair of French Press Slippers.






Very snowy in Western NY today...brrrrrr.





Back to work tomorrow...ugh!