Friday, December 12, 2008

The Letter C

I've jumped on the 10-things-you-like-that-start-with-the-letter-"*". You get assigned the letter. I got "C" from CRMA, so here goes:

1. Cats. I love cats. I'd better after all, I have 4. They are endlessly amusing, comforting, and annoying.
2. Cheese. Especially melted, or on crackers. Yum (and I'm lactose intolerant!).
3. Cashmere. Soft, warm, light weight, expensive. I have a fantasy about someday being able to afford to knit a cashmere sweater. The closest I've come, to date, is 2 oz. of cashmere top to spin that I bought at Rhinebeck.
4. Chocolate. I have had a lifetime love-hate relationship with chocolate, mainly love.
5. Coffee. I don't drink a lot of coffee, but one good cup of coffee in the morning sets me up for the day. Coffee ice cream is also good anytime and gives you a lot of options for toppings.
6. Christmas. The sense of anticipation, family gatherings, Christmas lights, the planning and consulting that goes on. It's all fun!
7. Cookies. You do get a sense of pattern here? If it's sweet and starts with a 'C', I like it.
8. Clean. On the rare occasion that I get a room, or my whole apartment clean, I revel in the sensation of accomplishment.
9. Cowls. I have been collecting knitting patterns for cowls. They keep you warm, they are comfortable, and they don't take forever to complete.
10. Cameras. Especially digital cameras that let you take lots of pictures and then download them, print them, e-mail them, and edit them. A whole new world of remembering has opened up.

My "C"s.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I've been having fun

I've wrenched myself away from Ravelry temporarily and have been reading blogs again. I 've come to the realization that while Ravelry is a great way to immerse yourself in knitting or crocheting, blogs let you share more of what's going on.


So, what's been happening? Well, I continue to be unemployed, which has allowed me to spend a lot of time looking at knitting on Ravelry, do a fair amount of knitting of my own, and fall into a more natural sleep cycle for me. Unfortunately, since I'm a nightowl, I tend to wake up late in the day and go to bed around dawn. This can sometimes limit my activities, since the rest of the world is on a more 'do stuff during the day' schedule. Banks and the Post Office, especially.


So, if Blogger will allow me to post some pictures, here are a few...


This is a sock that I test knit. The yarn, from Fearless Fibers, was the first skein that I ever bought online. I only had to knit one sock for the test knit, and haven't yet knit the 2nd sock, but I will. I enjoy wearing handknit socks too much to have only one sock to wear.




Now this pair of socks was knit from a KnitPicks sock blank dyed by FiberJewels as part of a Ravelry swap. I knit them up as an entry in the "Sock Put" category in the Ravelympics. The nice thing about knitting both socks at the same time from a sock blank is that the color changes will match.



This is 'Ziggy' from Knitty.com. The pattern was also one of the five that I knit up for the Sock Pentathlon on Ravelry. I told you that I spend a lot of time on Ravelry. I love joining groups, especially for knitting challenges and for swaps. It's a weakness. For this pattern, I didn't use the Noro sock yarn recommended, since I didn't have any, but drew from my rather large stash of Lamb's Pride Sport. I changed colors for the ankle because I thought the turquoise and pink was getting a little too day-glo on its own.




Here is my version of the Noro Striped Scarf. It was a great deal of fun to knit, and, as you can see, I love bright colors. I call this my gypsy scarf.