the kitchen window...

I have a lovely new house, with a lovely little window to look out as I wash the dishes (by hand, couldn't afford the dishwasher), but this morning I was distraught by the power pole that is right at the edge of the yard, where it meets the treeline. I don't won't to block out the greenery, but I wanted to obscure the powerpole as much as possible. Well, now I am knitting the Pom Pom Awning by Kat Coyle, from Greetings from Knit Cafe book-but entirely in mohair and on larger needles, to give the halo appearance but still not block out the out-of-doors. Right now it would be hiding the suprise snow that is happening, by the way!

new house and soap socks

I finally found a house! No more sleeping on couches or floors, no more feeling out of sorts as bathe in someone elses' shower, or put my soymilk in their refrigerator. With that being said, I haven't made too much progress on any of my knitting projects. Wait, scratch that. I joined the two toe sections on my second toe sock, and completed about an inch of knitting-and knit a couple of these funny little soap socks. It is not an entirely original idea, but the yarn and needles were available while I was at work teaching residents how to knit garter stitch-if you'd like the pattern, here it is:



Mission Falls 1824 Cotton
size 4 or 5 dpns, set of 4 (I used both, one stretches out a bit more when wet)
4 stitch markers
darning needle to sew in the ends


CO 26 stitches using long tail method (for sewing up opening later) Join
*K4, pm, K9,pm; repeat once from *. You shouldn't need to place last marker-this is where the tail hangs down.
K three rounds, slipping markers as you come to them
next round: K to marker, make one stitch, slip marker, repeat at every marker.
next round: K to newly made stitch, slip this stitch, repeat at every marker.
next round: K all stitches
next round: *P4,slip corner stitch before marker,P9,slip corner stitch; repeat from *
Repeat last two rows 22 more times, 12 garter ridges total.
this creates the slipped edge stitch that gives the sock rigid corners, and alternating purl and knit rows creates the garter stitch when knitting in the round
go back to knitting every round, mainting the slipped stitches every other round for 6 more rounds.
next round:{K1,K2tog,YO} to last two stitches, K2
K 2 rounds even, then BO. Sew up opening at bottom using CO tail, and sew in any ends left from color changes and BO
make an i-cord 8 inches long and run through eyelet row, or purchase cord/ribbon.

Hannah Hats, for Debbie and I

I took a break from the Koolhaas hat, and whipped out two ponytail hats for Debbie and I~found the free pattern on Ravelry, and half the fun is picking out the buttons, knowing that they are the only stimulating addition to the straightforward design (seriously simple knitting) Debbie is the black, I am the blue/green


I also managed about four rows on the Malabrigo scarf while trail cruising yesterday, and another pattern repeat on Koolhaas while sitting at a road-construction-stop on Highway 101 today. Nothing jaw-dropping, procrastaknitting as usual...........


BUT I did just get home today and found a lovely little package with a lovely little cone of natural color Mission Falls 1824 Cotton yarn (a whopping $5.14 on eBay), and tomorrow I plan to take it down to Diva Yarn and wind it into skeins that I can dye, hopefully tomorrow. Lots of plans for yarn tomorrow, probably won't be a lot of knitting

one more picture!!

it had to be shared-pink boots -AND- bunny ears!!!

technicolor tights

wouldn't you know! they fit like a glove, look fabulous with the pink cowgirl boots, and apparently inspire spontaneous {jiggy-butt} dances-Rhapsody is by far my happiest customer!

no mas...

the tights are no longer in my posession, relinquished to the little one just last night. hopefully I will see her wearing them, and soon.

ode to odessa

three days from start to finish
not one dropped stitch
or ripped back row


lovely colors
swirling and stairstepping
around, and up and down


happiness
of a fibery sort

Pic of Odessa, 6 months

Here it tis, as promised~ the Odessa hat, before decreasing for the top round. I checked out some other ravelers comments on this hat, and most seem to agree that it is more of a beanie than a winter hat because if you decrease as indicated you end up with a tiny hat. The pattern says knit to 5 1/2 inches, then begin decreases-I think I will go to 7 inches before decreasing, in order to cover my inarguably ginormous dome piece.
And by the way, today marks six months without smoking (cigarettes, not that there was anything else ;))

Odessa and the tights

so the tights are pretty much done, the top for the second time. The short row shaping eluded me until the end, so I had to rip out the top and start over. They did NOT make it into the gift bag on the birthday girls' day, but she'll have plenty of time to wear them since I don't think the winter is going to be over anytime soon. Yesterday I really started knitting the Odessa hat, using the Fancy Image yarn that I bought last week-and it is a lovely piece indeed. I brought my camera to Olympia, but not the USB cables, so I can't take a picture of the work in progress... maybe tomorrow