A Tale of Two Projects

    Do you remember that Hubs took me to the LYS the other day, and I bought some Malabrigo sock yarn? Maybe I forgot to tell you about it, but he did. I know! It surprised me too! Well, it's been sitting there, calling to me. Last night I broke out my swift and wound it up. Then I went through my pattern book shelf, and picked out this book: Nature's Wrapture, Contemporary Knitted Shawls, by Sheryl Thies.


    There is a pattern in there that I really loved. I even started to make it once upon a time. I recently found it, partly finished. I had needed the needle for something else, and put it on a large stitch holder. Nice, except I don't remember exactly WHICH size needle I was using.....

    This is the pattern called Sandy Beach. I really enjoyed working on it, it was fun. It seems a shame to just leave it there on the stitch holder. Then I had a thought! Since it's plenty long enough, I think I'll cast it off as it is, sew the ends together, and make it into what some people call a cowl. To me it isn't a cowl unless you can pull it up over your head and still have some around your neck. Either way, it'll be pretty.


    This morning, I cast on the same project again, in the new sock yarn. I've only been working on it a few hours, here at home and at Bonny's while I was visiting.

    It's so pretty! I love watching the colors change! The colorway is 870 Candombe, in Malabrigo sock yarn. If I want to make this longer, I may have to go back and see if there is any more of this colorway!
   

Something I forgot yesterday

    I totally forgot to mention something else yesterday. I got new glasses. To most people it's like "So what?" and I know that, but I thought they were the coolest things since sliced bread. See, they have no hinges at the temples! I've shown them to everyone I know and not one person was impressed. I was disappointed, to say the least...

    And as for knitting news, Spectra is off the needles! Yup, she's all done. I ended up not doing as many wedges as the pattern called for, I think I was one shy. I just wasn't convinced that I had enough of the black for one more wedge. At some point I will block her and take photos.

Catching up.... Again.....

   I just looked at the date of my last post, and I can't believe it's been two whole weeks since then. I've tried. Every few days I will log in and just sit here, and nothing comes out. So I log out.


    That's what happens when there's lots going on and I can't say anything about any of it. There are however, a few things going on that I *can* talk about. For instance, we are getting the pool redone. It happened suddenly, after Hubs told me that it's too much work getting it ready to swim in, this year being the most work ever. Things were leaking in the pump house that had never leaked before.


    Then we happened to run into his childhood best friend, they were raised together and are like brothers. He is a contractor, and he's doing pools now as well. He has agreed to do ours for us. Trust has a lot to do with it, and he trusts Gary. The best news for me, is I am finally getting steps in my pool!


   So far we have drained out as much water as we can, and picked out and ordered the bullnose blocks for the edge. Gary will come and measure for the new liner.


    On the knitting front, I am currently in the last few wedges of Spectra by Stephen West. I'm trying to gauge if I have enough black left to do another wedge as well as the end bit. It's going to be close.


    I love this pattern so much that I already have the yarn for two more all set up. Well, either that, or a sock yarn shawl. I can't decide which. One of them I was planning on using the solid color for the wedges and the variegated for the border. Just to switch things up a little. The photo below is actually from when I got to the 70th wedge.

    Hubs is back on his Harley riding. He had some issues with an exhaust system. He ordered a new one, and ended up cancelling that order, then ordering another one somewhere else. It finally came and one of the pipes didn't have a baffle in it. So he had to call, and they had to send him a baffle. Believe me, there was much more drama than I have implied here. Hubs was really upset because he missed the whole week of perfect riding weather. But here she is with her new pipes.

    Like I said there have been lots of things going on. I hope to keep you updated on the pool, with progress photos, as well as whatever knitting o crocheting I decide to do.

Promised Photo

    Here it is, the photo of my Spectra progress. I did another couple repeats last night!

    I can now easier see the color changes. I hope you can too!

Owen and knitting progress

    This morning, Owen was in his jumpy thing when I got there. About 20 minutes after Daddy left for work, I noticed that he was getting tired and not jumping as much. He would stop, and his head would start to fall forward, then he would open his eyes and start jumping again. He wouldn't give in. Eventually, though, he did give in. My question is this: Am I evil for taking photos *before* I took him out of it?

    The good news is that I was able to get him out of it, still asleep. He did start to jump again when I touched him to pick him up, but I shushed him and cuddled him, and he didn't wake up.


    As for kitting progress, there is some! I am currently finishing the 25th wedge (pattern repeat) . The color has changed again too. It turns out that the first color was a purplish pink, then came orange, now it's a bright pink.


    I don't have a new photo of my progress. I will take one tomorrow and post it. Promise.

A Color Change..... I think....

    I have knitted now, 12 or 13 of these pattern repeats. I do believe that today at Bonny's I noticed the color was finally changing. When I compare the current wedge to the first one, the newer one is definitely orange, while the original one is pink.

    I will have you know that I went outside to take this photo. I stood on my burning hot, rock slab stoop, burning the heck outta my poor feets. And the stupid thing keeps curling up. But I do believe you can see the color changing.


    If I make another one of these, I will definitely use a yarn that has shorter color sequences. This yarn is not very satisfying in that department. YET.


    I decided that in every tenth wedge I was going to place a marker, to aid in the counting. After all, I'm supposed to make 85 of these fracking wedges, and it's much easier to count by 10's. So that's the white thing you see in that one wedge. It's like a little plastic safety pin. I have white ones and black ones.

I'm Knitting!!

   That's right, I am temporarily out of my funk. When I was picking up the living room last week, I found a pattern that I had bought a couple of years ago, the last time we went to Rhinebeck. It has been calling to me to make it. I gave in today.


    It's Spectra by Stephen West. I am using black Malabrigo sock yarn and Painted Desert yarn, color way Eruption. I have 5 sections done so far, only 80 more to go!!

 
    The Painted Desert color way changes are really long, so I have to promise you another photo when you can actually see more than one color, although if you really look, you can see at the bottom of the photo it's a little more purple and at the top it's a little more pink. Either way, I will take more photos as the colors change.


    I would like to mention that the needle shown in the photo is one of the vintage nylon ones I got at the flea market slash craft fair. It really looks like it should glow in the dark, doesn't it? It doesn't. I tried it today while I was at Bonny's house. I was a bit disappointed.


    Those of you with keen eyes may have noticed that the wedge yarn is the same one as the Pi Shawl I've been working on for - like - ever. I bought an extra ball last time I was at Out of the Loop yarn shop, in case I needed more. I think all crocheters think that way, since crochet uses so much more yarn and we have learned to buy way more than we really need. Especially for knitting!