I will be moving to:         www.knitnspin.net      So, join me there for knitting news and more!!

Took them up to Branson, MO for a couple of days and had fun at Silver Dollar City .

Even though we had a lot of rain this month so far, we caught a break on the night of the 4th, and were able to set off fireworks as per our yearly tradition down here.

I even managed to get a pair of mittens made for one of my munchkins. I made them from my own handspun yarn I made a couple of months ago. I found the pattern on the Knitting Central site.

I hope you all had a fun Independence Day, too and that your summer is going great!

 This is a whole cloth quilt from Christian Lane Quilters. It will be a Queen size quilt when finished. Hopefully, I’ll be finished with it by September, as that’s when my folks’ 30th Anniversary will be

I am going to have to cut out my knitting for a few months and solely concentrate on this project to get it done on time. But don’t worry! I’ll post about techniques and new knitting patterns while I’m on my knitting hiatus.

Wow! These were so fun to make! It only took me 3 weeks to make these socks and they have 12″ cuffs on them!

I used TOFUtsies yarn from SWTC that was given to me by Dawn. I think this is my new favorite yarn now

Pattern is Hedera by Cookie A.

First off, there’s Knit Pick’s new Sock Blanks , they are really inventive. They are a solid machine knit piece of fabric that is double stranded. You dye it the way you want and presto! You knit your socks from this and they turn out so neat!

And if you’re giving your socks away as a lot of sock knitters do, here’s a great gift label by Teresa Murphy you can download, cut out and tie onto the package when you gift wrap your socks.

So, there’s the newest little things in the world of socks, enjoy!

1. Do you knit or crochet? Both.

2. How long have you been knitting and/or crocheting? 22 and 23 respectfully.

3. What’s your favorite yarn to work with? Wool.  

4.  What’s your favorite needles/hooks? Susan Bates.

5.  Do you spin? If so, spindle or spinning wheel? Yes, spinning wheel.

6.  What’s your favorite fiber to spin? Blue-faced Leicester.

7.  What’s your favorite project to make? Socks.

8.  What’s the hardest project you’ve ever made? Heirloom lace booties.

9.  What’s the project you’ve had the most fun making? Hedera Socks.

10.  What’s the ugliest project you’ve ever made?  My first sweater.

Here’s a picure: 

It was made of Lion Brand Homespun acrylic yarn. It didn’t fit very good, in fact, I had to wear a tank top under it because I had no clue as to how to make a collar and it was weirdly shaped, the whole sweater, not just the collar. This was the first and last time I ever wore this sweater.

The cuff is done in a Vandyke stitch. A simple diamond lace design.

This is an afterthought heel, only I used an old weave stitch and then due to the reduction every other row, it’s staggered, making it look like a lace stitch.

Update 6/7/08:

Gave Carol the Iris socks for her birthday and she was tickled!

Look at my 3-ply BFL hand spun yarn!!!

I spun the singles so thin I had to use 3 plies to make fingering weight. I definitely will make a pair of socks from this. There’s 6 oz. of it and with it being 3-ply, I hope to get enough to make short socks of some kind. I was thinking of dying them scarlet, in honor of Proverbs 31. The part where it says her family doesn’t fear the cold for they are clothed in scarlet.

They are fun and easy and quicker than socks (if you’re the impatient type)!

Here’s a whole bunch of patterns to peruse at your leisure.

In researching mittens I found some very complicated and some extremelyeasy. The easiest and most popular I found were the Fetching fingerless mittens.

Mittens can be made from any yarn you have from fingering to worsted and even a nice wool blend yarn.

Now if you’re like me, you like to have a few different projects going, not because of attention deficit disorder, but because you’re not always able to work on your lace shawl or Aran sweater or that baby afghan with all those cables.  You need something else to work on when waiting at appointments or when you get just a little window of time and don’t want to just sit and do nothing at all. And that’s why mittens are so great and can be a nice change from socks for these easy-to-knit-anywhere type projects.

I recently spun some sport weight Merino yarn and now I know just what to do with it.. make mittens!

So what other winter projects are you going to work up during the swealtering months ahead?

Happy Knitting!!

 I tried Navajo Plying first…but it wasn’t exactly a success:

I plan on practicing more with this turning-a-single-into-a-3-ply-yarn-thing.

What’s on the needles: My own design socks. After they are completed, I’ll know the pattern works, and I can show them off with confidence. Also, my Snowflake socks are going… going…slowly, but still going

Spinning: Natural (not dyed) Superwash Merino Top from CopperPot on Etsy.

Book Recommendation: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet