Get Along Little Doggie...

I've moved... sort of!

Well I'm in the process of moving.

I may come back, probably not, but I don't want to rush in to soon, but maybe I should, well here I go!

Please visit me at : http://dipladyknits.wordpress.com

See you soon,

Shanda

Taxes?

I told my sweet husband that while he was on duty tonight I would work on taxes... BORING! I think they can wait another night or two. It's hard to work all day and then come home and work more on taxes! Yuck!!!

I started a project that I can't wait to finish, not because I don't like knitting it and I want to be done with it, but because I LOVE knitting it and can't wait to see what it will look like completed. Here is a sneak peak close up...

The red socks (now aka the Valentine Socks) are completed and ready for shipping. They originally started out as two socks at one time on one circular needle. Small cables on the sides and then I decided I didn't like them...

ok, I hated them so off the needles they came and now they look like this...

I used the Cable Twist Sock pattern (very nice pattern - simple to follow and they look great) I used an EOP heel and did the pattern on the top only. I did continue with the rib done the front of the sock without the cable twist part. I'll be using this pattern again for sure.

Time to get knitting, before the night is over!

Sunny Weekend

As we come to the end of January I realize that I'm not finished with my Red Scarf. I've decided to give it to someone for Valentine's Day and that will give me a bit longer to procrastinate working on it! (It's a little over half way done.)

Good news, Friday I finished the red socks that were to be a Christmas present, and now they will be a beautiful Valentine's Day present. I'll post pictures later, I can't get my giant foot in them and they look awesome on, so I will have my little footed friend model them on Monday.

Did I ever show you these little cuties... I made two pairs for my niece Riley this past Christmas. One pair in aqua and these, and her feet barely fit in them. Guess I was a poor judge of 2 year old feet... what do I know, I have 2 dogs! Well she did manage to get them on and run around in them, they should fit for about another week!

Now a new pair of socks... these will be for mom! Here's a little peak...

I love this pattern. The pattern is called Scale Skin Socks I saw them on several other blogs I was reading and decided I must have them, BUT... to get the pattern I must join the Six Sox Knitalong. I have been reading stuff that has been posted by the group, and enjoying the pictures of all the completed socks, they give me so many ideas! I only wish I could knit faster. I said this to someone the other day, and she just smiled and said "Slow down and enjoy the moments you do get to knit". I'll try to keep that in mind.

I must now go and enjoy my iced latte and knitting in the sunshine, yes, that's right I said SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I close my eyes I can pretend it's above 40 degrees F and it's summer.

Here we go again

(This Blog is dedicated to my poor snowed in mom! - wish you could see what I've been knitting.) OK... like I said "Here we go again"... they (the weatherpeople) are saying we are to get really super cold weather and snow! Yeah!!! I love snow! (sorry mom) When we get snow it doesn't last long, so that's why I love snow. When mom gets snow it lasts until Spring. We don't have to dig out our driveways, so it's pretty and it makes me smile. (much nicer than boring old rain!) We had one of many wind storms last Friday night and lost power for the night. I think we might be due for more super winds too! That's the beauty of knitting... you can knit even when the power is out... candlelight knitting is very relaxing. The only thing that makes it difficult is how many blankets you are wrapped up in to keep warm while knitting. Since I've not posted much lately so I thought I would post a few pictures of things that I've recently finished. Fetching fingerless gloves out of oh-so-soft and warm di.ve' Autunno 100% fine merino wool made in Italy. I made these a little longer in the arm and added one more repeat of the cable on the fingers to make them come down a little longer than the other 2 pairs I made.

Below is my second Calorimetry out of the same yarn as above just a different color. I love this yarn... I love this yarn... I love this yarn! 98 yards of heaven in a ball. I changed the pattern very little with this one. I used size 6 needles instead to make it a little tighter and smaller. I'm not much of a hat wearer, but here at the beach it gets really windy and my ears get so cold. So this is a great alternative to a hat! I think I need to make one more to match the fingerless gloves shown above!

This is my first pair of Fetching fingerless gloves and my first Calorimetry. It's hard to tell in this picture, but they do match, and they look great with jeans. Taos yarn.

I'll try to post again tomorrow night. Stay warm and pray for snow (for me - not mom)!

New Year Knitting

2007 is coming in loud and clear here at the beach today! Lots of rain and wind. Yesterday, the last day of the year was pretty nice, and I got a fair amount of knitting done. Going into 2007 I'm Actively working on 3 projects:

I'm working on socks for Larry (my mom's husband). I call them Seahawk Socks, because of the color, and Larry likes the Seattle Seahawks. The yarn is wonderful, it's Fly yarn, Monarch Butterfly 3-ply colorway is called Blue Grass, I think. They feel wonderful and are 100% merino washable wool. The pattern I started out to use I decided I didn't like and I changed to use the leg pattern from the Thuja socks , this pair of socks is from the cuff down. I cast on 64 and I'm using size 1 circular needles. The first picture shows the true color much better than the second picture.

Yes, I have started the second sock and hope to be done with this pair to get them into the mail sometime in the next week.

Project number 2 is my first scarf ever. It's for the Red Scarf Project. I'm using the Cable Embrace Scarf pattern. So far so good, I've only completed 2 pattern repeats and in this picture you can see how it's going so far. I'm not 100% sold on this scarf yet. I may change patterns, who knows. I'm using Lamb's Pride worsted in Red Baron, and size 8 needles. I know it's a hand wash yarn, but I just happen to have this beautiful color of red and wanted to use it because it feels so nice.

Project number 3 is a small project bag. I love my Go Bag in lime green and I've seen a couple of round tote type bags knitted and felted. So I am loosely using the beginning of a pattern I found in my Weekend Knitting book (page 54 Checkers Tote). I'm using up scrapes of yarn from other projects. This is a very low priority project and pictures will follow... someday!

Next on my To Do's:

Mom's sock yarn is begging me to come and get it! I've promised to start on them as soon as Larry's socks are completed they are next. (Poor brown RPM socks almost completed and sitting quietly in my lime green Go Bag.) The yarn for my mom's sock is beautiful and I can't wait to get started. This will be my first pair of adult socks knit on dpn's.

I've been collecting lots of patterns for socks and I'm looking forward to making many this year! I have a couple of sweater patterns, and I just might even finish up that Bobble Bag! Oh, and Cassie (my Jack Russell) wants a new sweater too!

So I guess I better getting knitting!

HAPPY KNITTING NEW YEAR!!!

I'm Back!

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth! I, like most everyone else, have been very busy. Yes, there has been some knitting too! I will post pictures later this week. My sweetie and I went to Oregon to the Spirit Mountain Casino, not far from Lincoln City. It was actually for a workshop for my job, but we called it a faux honeymoon! We were there for 4 days - it seemed like forever!!! It's in the middle of nothing and I'm not big into the Casino scene. That was the first week of October. We did do a little shopping in Lincoln City, but the yarn store I wanted to visit was closed by the time we got there. Guess we will have to go again someday. Mr. Sweetie started a new job the week after we got back from Oregon, and I'm happy to say he loves his new job. I'm very happy for him, and for me - because when he is happy and busy, I am happy too! (now I just have to figure out what the heck he is talking about when he talks about work, and all this computer, IT stuff - some of it I just smile and nod and act like I understand, and keep on knitting.) They sent him to New Jersey for a week of training his second week on the job. And WOW... did I get to knit a lot!!! (Maybe they could send him somewhere again after the holiday's!!) Tis the season for dips! And I've had to divide my time between knitting and dip production. I've scaled back on the number of dips that I am making to sell this season. And I'm doing special requests for friends and family only. I haven't even looked at my Blue Zephyr Dip web site. Shame on me, but my heart isn't in it this year. I did spend all weekend getting organized for the Christmas Bazaar, and it helped to get me back in the swing of things... but I want to KNIT!!! Enough said! I'll post pictures of my new projects and give more details later.

Second Posting - Sock Homework -Class #2

Yes, I did get my homework done before we took our little trip! Here we have the heel flap completed and I can't wait for the next class!!! I really like the way the Eye of Partridge looks. (These socks are on size 1 needles) And because I love socks so much now, and I'm not happy unless I have at least 5 or 6 projects going... I've started the RPM socks. (These socks are on size 0 needles)

New purchases from the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival Saturday. Yes, I picked up a T-Shirt, my supply is low!

• Blue Moon - Colorway: Nodding Violet - 100% Superwash Merino - Lightweight
• Blue Moon - Colorway: Lucy - 100% Superwash Merino - Lightweight
• Sleeping Dragon Yarns - Hand Painted 100% Merino wool - Colorway: Mallard (400 yards!!)
• FLY - Lace Wing Sock 100% Machine washable Merino Wool - Colorway: Old Country
• FLY - Lace Wing Sock 100% Machine washable Merino Wool - Colorway: Chocolate
• Katia - mississippi 3 print - Made in Spain - 60% cotton & 40% acrylic (very soft faded blue and purple color no. 201) This yarn was on sale and I wanted to see what I could do with it! (you can hardly see it in the picture behind the Chocolate yarn).
• oh and 2 Trekking XXL for the Girlfriend Shrug - Purple, green, yellow, white and blue. (not pictured above)

I'm off now!

-

Field Trip

Early Saturday morning 6:00am (early for me!) I jump in my red Honda Element and I'm off for the first stop on my journey to the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival in Canby, OR.

First stop, pick up Julie, then we are off to Patty 's house, change car's (so Julie and I can knit on our way there - 3 hours!) None of us have ever been to anything like this and we are very excited. All we can think about is sock yarn, and more yarn. (Little do we know what awaits us!) One quick stop at Starbucks somewhere along I-5 in the fog. (we almost get lost trying to get out of there - we were in search of McDonald's for Julie's breakfast, but Burger King will have to do - remember I said it was very foggy!) Back on the road and the fog is lifting and the sun is shining bright!!! Here it is the middle of September and it feels like summer! We are all still Happy Campers! Time for one or two quick pictures before we run in! Directions for the Clackamas County Fairgrounds are excellent and we arrive just before 10:00am. It opened at 9:00am and Julie is a little worried all the yarn might be gone! We quickly park and rush to get across the street to see all the yarn that awaits us! But wait... what is this... Llama's greet us on the way in. Now we see the yarn... but we don't want to buy anything to soon... we may find more yummy yarn, so on we go. Now we are noticing that we are not seeing much yarn... lots of fleeces, and spinning stuff... WE DON'T SPIN!!!! (yet!!)

We investigated every booth and saw lots of cool stuff (I didn't know what a lot of it was, but it looked very cool). We did find Blue Moon Fiber Arts (a very crowded area and I think I should have stayed in there longer and picked up a sock pattern I had my eye on!) Loved the cute little top knitted with shades of blue Bamboo yarn! Loved everything actually. One skein left of Lucy in Lightweight!!! It's mine now! I also picked up Nodding Violet, Lightweight. These were very difficult decisions to make, I loved another colorway: Olive Garden - I think, Julie picked it up and a couple of other very yummy sock yarns.

Lines were long in a few vendor booths, and even longer at the bathrooms, but they were very, very long for the food! I skipped it, and opted for more browsing.

We meet a few very nice people that told us about Magic Loop - knitting two socks at the same time on one very long circular needle. Of course I just walk up and start asking questions, how else will I learn the secrets of all this knitting stuff! I have soooo much to learn and I love to ask people questions. I'll have to google this technique some day soon.

Just before 2:00pm we have spent our limits and looked at most everything twice! Happy with our purchases we head for the car and off to get ice cream! Well, we were in search of Coconut Bliss Non-Dairy Ice Cream - I got this awesome coffee flavor. The ice cream is only available in Oregon and if you can get your hands on it - do so! (Yes, I ate the whole pint - remember I said it was a 3 hour drive!)

Back to Washington - this is a quick shot as you cross I-5 back into Washington, Mt. Hood in the distance. Did I mention the really nice thing about yarn shopping in Oregon is NO TAXES!!!

I picked up a new little project that I think will knit up very quickly and I couldn't wait to get started on it. Here I am just getting started on my Girlfriend Shrug. It's going to be a Christmas present, so I'm not going to say anymore about this for now. (You can check out more of Wendy's cool stuff on her blog... knit and tonic.)

We made one other quick stop at a yarn store in Vancouver, WA and I can't remember the name. Very nice store and very nice people. No purchases for me, I'm staying on my budget... and I have some wonderful yarn coming in from The Yarn Corner later!!!

It was a wonderful day, good yarn, good friends, good weather (85 + degrees) and I was good and tired when I got home just before 8:00pm!

So now I say Good Night, and I'll have more pictures later!