We had some late rain for the year today, hopefully that will help everything stay greener longer. I don't think that this Sundara Sock yarn will have any trouble with that. This colorway is evergreen over lime. Even though I have a few pairs of socks in the queue I'm already thinking that the next yarn I want to try is Sock that Rock by Blue Moon.
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These socks should be very easy and very fast. Cast on 64 stitches of Lorna's Laces Sock in 'pin stripe', Size 1 aluminum double pointed needles. Knit 6 rows, yarn over knit two together for the seventh row, knit 6 more rows and then knit the live stitches onto the cast one edge. I'm planning an hourglass heal. The color looks good although I thought (wanted) the stripes bigger. The wool is very soft and fine.
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When you have trouble thinking of color combinations I've heard advice to 'look to nature.' These flowers are the most unlikely combination of red, pink, brown and yellow. I had to search for a while to figure out what this plant is called. The benefits of a print catalog is you can look at many pictures quickly to find what you are looking for. On the internet it is a different story. To find this I started with gladiolus because for the longest time I thought it was a hardy gladiolus but when I really looked at it tonight I noticed it is symetical all the way around not just one one axis like a gladiolus is/are. I looked at about 5 bulb company web sites before thinking maybe this is a Crocosmia. So I searched and searched for a Crocosmia that looked like this. No luck. Then I came across Tritonias that kinda of looked like these. I finally saw a fuzzy picture of a flower with the same center pattern on www.bulbsdirect.com.au which led me to Sparaxis tricolor or Harlequin flower. Finally a name for this! These flowers grow with very little care in my clay soil. At the end of the bloom i eventually cut off the dead leaves and flowers but that's it. I also came across a site that sells bulbs for warm places like So. Cal. www.easytogrowbulbs.com. One of the things that don't grow well here are Tulips. Most of the big catalogs specialize in bulbs that require a cold period that we don't get here. So to grow tulips you have to store them in the fridge for a couple of months and then plant them. Forget about reblooming next year unless you want to dig up, clean and store them in your fridge again. This fall I will try to add something to my garden that is more suited to our climate.
]]>Birch: Finished Knitting at three skeins and in the progress of a flexible handsewn bind off. There were/are 299 stitches. On average I can bind off about 20 stiches per sitting, it's so much more time consuming that the regular way i bind off.
Lorna's Laces Pin Stripe Sock yarn: Started socks in plain stockinette stitch with a picotte cuff. I'm wondering what the stripes will look like.
Bracelets: Still at the drawing board on this one.
Garden: Growing Pumpkins and Basil.
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I am working on making a bunch of bracelets with the beads I made in the last days before my new job started. The clasps are giving trouble plus I don't have quite enough of the silver beads in the pic for the whole bracelet. Some solution will have to come to me hopefully without having to buy a bunch of silver at Rio Grande or Fire Mountain Gems. I want the bracelets to be strong and solid, but the clasp is tending to break it up too much. Maybe I'll make the bead part of the clasp. The other thing I want in the bracelet is one where the boring part doesn't end up on the top part of the wrist while I am wearing it.
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Finished. Whew. The particulars? Koigu KPPM, Color 415, kinda scotch thistle heather, Size 2 needles. Pattern: Retro Rib from Interweave Knits Favorite Socks. These have been sent to the Icy North for my sister. Hand wash only!
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Last year on my time between jobs I reused the fabric that I had used the year before to remake XY's crib bumpers into a quilt. Crib bumpers I found were not really needed. First XY slept in the room with us or his small bassinet, then all the books say take out everything so your child doesn't climp out etc. So the bumpers sat in the room taking up space until I ripped them apart and used the fabric to make a quilt about the length and and a little wider than the width of the crib. The middle has three white panels that alternate with black panels. The whole quilt is bordered with the black panels. I machine quilted lots of lines very close to each other leaving a retangle unquilted in the middle of each center panel. The outside borders are heavily quilted all over.
Current knitting progress is slow, a 10 or so rows of Birch and a few inches of the retro-rib socks. I'm back in the working force so time will be limited again. Plus the little guy is sick going on day 6, fever , ear infection plus upper molars coming in.
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I found this photo in my album. It's of two knitted projects I made when I was 11. This is the earliest photo I have of anything I have knitted. This photo was developed in Oct 1979, but I seem to remember that I made these in the summer when my sister was home from college. The green one is a belt with a D ring (garter stich) and the red object is a very ineffective potholder in a basket weave pattern. I remember knitting these but not the kind of yarn. Obviously this photo was taken with a point and shoot camera with no marcro. it was probably 110 film and I probably only took one picture because film and developing weren't cheap for an 11 year old.
]]>We are lucky to have three local yarn stores in Encinitas/Solana Beach. Black Sheep, Common Threads and Knitting by the Beach.
St Tropez in the Encinitas Lumberyard is a great place to go before or after shopping. ~900 block of Hwy101 (Closer to Black Sheep than Common Threads)
This is my favorite bakery/bistro in Encinitas. I lived in Santa Cruz for 7 years and I was spoiled there with high quality bakeries…Gail’s, Rebecca’s, Kelly’s, Beckmans, The Buttery and Emily’s. Ok, I digress, back to St Tropez. The have excellent croissants ($2.10), flaky not dry and not too buttery. The almond croissants ($2.45) are just above average and sometimes way too dry. Other tasty treats are the Custard Brioche and strawberry éclair (these tend to sell out early in the day). Hungrier for something more substantial? For breakfast they have egg and omelet dishes (~$7). Since I’m not an egg eater I can’t comment on those dishes but I do know that my husband has ordered the ratatouille omelet more than once and that the rosemary roasted potatoes are excellent. Sometimes I get a grilled panini. I like the Monaco or the St Tropez panini. These are big enough to share and come with a small salad. They have a full menu of salads. I particularly like the goat cheese salad. Finally the best thing about St Tropez is the large patio for people watching, paper reading and or course knitting. St Tropez does not serve espresso due to limitations in their lease by Starbucks. If you like Starbucks though, it's is next door.
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For my extended day of beadmaking yesterday I experimented with some reduction frits. The results are neat in person and hard to photograph. These are some of the roundest beads I have made. I did have one problem yesterday that I have not encountered before. My 'bead release' was too thin and 3 of my beads refuse to come off the mandrels. Must remember not to use that container again.
From Left to Right:
1) Dark Turquoise with Iris Gold Reduction Frit pulled into stinger. At he end I turned up the propane to get the mirror finish, which is hard to see in the photo.
2) Dark Ivory Base with Iris Gold Reduction Frit pulled into stinger.
3) Black Base rolled in sterling silver foil then Iris Violet frit. Dots of gold pink and silvered Ivory Stringer. Encased in clear. (I think most of this combo is from Passing the Flame.)
4) Dark Turquoise base rolled in Iris Violet frit. Silvered Ivory Stringer. Encased and squished flat
5) Dark Turquoise base with Silver Green frit pulled into Stringer
In person, the colors of bead 4 are the best but the composition isn't so great.
]]>Making an effort to finish Birch.
Staining and sealing IKEA kids table and chairs.
Completing Taxes
Looking for new furniture: Couch x1? x2?
Getting ready to go back to work tomorrow.
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These are a mass of my buttons and beads. Some are in my etsy shop and some are for some unknown (at the moment) projects. I enjoy seeing all these collected in one place because they were made at all different times and were never in one place at one time until now. My favorite is the yellow heart with green dots. It was not easy to get those dots to be as good as they are! I've been working hard to make a batch of new beads for bracelets. I need about two more days to make enough. This is the exact amount of time I have before my new jobs starts. Yup, that's right I'll be back at the bench again. This is the 5th company I've worked for since grad school, about 10 years. I only left one company by my choice to join a startup and the rest reorganized or went bust. This time around I had many companies to talk to about positions for my particular specialty. Is it the economy or a coincidence? ]]>
I don't know what possessed me to pick this project from Knitty. It took forever! Size 0 needles, lots of stitches, cables, knits, purls and on and on. I knit the cuff 1 repeat shorter than specified in the pattern and knit three repeats for the foot. I did do the cabled heel which was a big challenge, especially for the first sock. I purchased the Lorna's Laces Sock wool in Feb 2007 and finally finished this project in the last days of Feb 2008. For some months I didn't knit much on these socks, but with laid off time winding down I wanted to get these done and off my list so I put a concerted effort into these.
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My contribution to
2008 - Project Spectrum Elements
FEBRUARY / MARCH - FIRE - orange, red, pink
I really like the theme of Lolly's Project Spectrum this year. Separating the segments into the primary elements was a great idea. The unusual color combination of red with coral of these beads appeals to me and seems to fit the idea of Fire. The combination with the silver really cools the fire. The heat from the color of the beads and the coolness of the silver are so different that they make the red hotter and the silver cooler. If I had made this bracelet with a different metal, copper or gold, the effect would have been quite different.
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