Remnants...

So Cupcakefaerie said that in my last post, I was like the "Miss Marianne... of Knitting"!-lol! Hmmmm...I guess it was kinda like "Romper Room"! Actually, I felt more like I was being Dorothy waking up from being in the land of Oz, "And you were there, and you were there..."!

But, like Miss Mary Ann who would never seem to see *me*, I don't want to be like her and not name my work knitting buddies and have them feel left out!-lol! So, pardon me for a second:

"Romper, bomper, stomper, boo.
Tell me, tell me, tell me do.
Magic mirror, tell me today.
Did all my friends have fun at play?"

...I see Calafia, Neri and Yarnkabobs, cuz they were there, too!

And why not share a bit of yarny goodness while I'm at it?...How about some Stitches West acquisitions...?

PurlescenceYarns had an after-SW "Show off your purchases" gathering at their shop on Saturday; I got the lovely shawl pattern shown in the background of this photo. The large skein is a laceweight merino/silk from A Verb for Keeping Warm. Below is the bit of spun and plyed G-Rocks and on the needles is my second Count Cluckula Leyburn! Yes, I'm still working on them!

As I posted last time, I stopped by Miss Babs. I couldn't resist this pattern and these mini-skeins to use to make my new baby-cousin-in-process a hat. She is due to arrive in June!

Addictive, this G-Rocks colorway is! I started a second spindle-full!

And just finished plying it this afternoon!

So far, I'm sure the purchases look fairly harmless, huh? Well, they would've been but I for my big BMFA purchase at the end! A few other Miss Babs made it home with me, too, along with miscellaneous accessories-mostly shawl clasps/pins. Yeah, I'm bad. Very bad...

The Leyburn Edition...

It's the LEYBURN EDITION!!!

But first, I have to ask you other eBloggers: when you add pics to your post, are you only seeing the coding rather than the pic in your draft post? I have to ask cuz I used to get a view of the pic, and I would cut and paste them around; now I'm getting the coding for the pic and I can't tell which it is (when I load more than one pic) without first previewing. Highly inconvenient for someone like me! So either I accidentally changed a setting, or Blogger has changed how we view our drafts!

And now, on to the post...So I finally finished my first pair of Leyburns, done in lightweight, cuff-down. I will confess to you that these do not match. At all. The cuffs on the second are a good 3/4" shorter than the first!

I think that what happened is when I was at Purlescence, I was so close to working on the heel flap, that I assumed I was up to that point and just forged through without double-checking it to my first sock! Either that, or when I checked the two, I hadn't aligned them properly.

Admittedly, I did notice half-way into the foot and even considered tearing back. But when I tried them on together, I decided they weren't that obviously different in length. So I plugged on. I ended up with a different number of stitches at the end and shaped the toe a tad differently, too. What can I say? I can be that way. Alot.




So I am happy to report that I also started my second pair of Leyburn! This pair is using medium weight (I assume all of you know these are both Socks that Rock, but I suppose I should say so...after all, *someone* may read this who doesn't know these are all about Socks that Rock since they are both being knit as part of our massive Ravelry Socks that Rawk Leyburn KAL...)Socks that Rock in the Count Cluckula colorway that I immediately fell in love with when it was first released!

I brought it to the zoo on Monday so that I could take a picture of it in the sunlight. The colors got a bit too bleached out by the daylight, but what the heck...



And progress-to-date, since I just took this pic this evening! Nartian can attest to the fact that these were further along this morning. I realized that perhaps the "norwegian heel" I was trying out was a bit too short and the gusset a bit too small. So I tore the puppy back. Torn back after a beautifully gorgeous heel turn that I was so proud of! And a lovely heel flap so nicely attached, too-now gone! But it goes to show that I'm not always so bad and lazy in the frogging department. I'm just a selective frogger is all...



ETA: so I just looked at my post and see that the pictures I took of the Count Cluckula look quite similar in color!-lol! Go figure! OK, so they look much like that, I guess. Actually, I would say a tad darker, but maybe Nartian will comment on that, since she sees them in person often! ;)

A New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009 has begun and, as always, I never make resolutions. But in a way, an incidental resolution occurred since I was at a local "beauty" store yesterday, taking advantage of their 25% off coupon that expired yesterday. I ended up with a bag full of face products so I resolved that I would do my best to follow my aestheticians recommendations and USE this stuff DAILY, as prescribed!-lol! I'm really feeling my age cuz I have now moved up to serums for "aging skin", whiteners and other such treatments! Suffice to say I spent waaaay more than I intended-but saved a goodly amount! So what I saved in yarn, I spent in face product! But, as we used to say when I sold Mary Kay, 'good looks begin with good skin' ...or something along those lines!

Though my gift knitting continues, I started on the Leyburn STR KAL because I could no longer resist the gorgeous skein of Seal Rock that was calling out to me! If you want in on this, pop over to the Rav Socks That Rawk! group! The thread is stickied to the top, so you can't miss it! The Socks that Rawk group is a great group and I tend to prefer it over the "Rockin' Sock Club" group someone started over at Rav. It may be just cuz Nartian, Irish Girlie and I are all on the Socks that Rawk group more than the other. Or maybe cuz TurtleGirl is such an awesome Mod that we love! Anyways, there is no deadline to join the KAL and what is fun is we are all knitting the pattern using different colorways of STR! (YAY, STR!!!)



OH...and the cowl I started for my bro's gf is done! I named it "Southwestern Flair". I picked this CP yarn called "Kaya" because it looked like a yarn she'd like (she likes red); since it stripes, I thought the texture looked kinda southwestern (and she is from Albequerque), so I went with it! Her style is kinda mod and the reds she tends to go for are more true tomatoe red, so I hope she likes this anyway!-lol!

If anyone cares, I will write up this pattern and post later. Easy peasy but I would have probably made it a bit smaller than it ended up.

I hope that 2009 has started off well for all of you! I think that with the completion of one project yesterday and only starting the Leyburns, I am doing pretty well. And I'll be working on the dark age spots!-lol! ;)