Roy G. Biv

I did a bit of playing around with colored pencils to try and decide how color placement should be on the Kauni cardigan. These are my options:



That might be a bit hard to see, but I have three options based on how the yarn is wound. Actually, mathmatically there are more, but I want the colors to develop in the same order. I have three "cakes" and a wee one that I am not counting (more as a continuation of the the smallest cake instead). So I numbered them 1,2,3. Those are the numbers you see in the picture. I think right now my favorite is the first one, starting with balls 1 and 2. I'm not a huge orange fan, although I like it enough, I don't think I want it at the bottom of the sweater. Purple and green is my absolute favorite color combination, so I guess my choice was easy.

I got the idea from Naomi - she said go and look at Melinda's color study for the sweater. She's also making the same sweater - it's nice to be able to check in on the two of them to check progress!

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows

Yes, we have sunshine. No lollipops, but look at this!




This is a wonderful shetland wool from Estonia, to make Ruth's Kauni cardigan. Naomi has made a wonderful new Danish friend (Ruth)and she graciously offered to ship Naomi another order so that I and a few others can also make this. I am so excited! I'll be going over to Naomi's house to knit on Saturday for a bit, so I will be trying to finish a few things around here today so that I can swatch and get started tomorrow. Check out Naomi's blog to see how her sweater is coming along. Thank you so much Naomi!!

After work last night, I went over to Amy's to knit and watch Grey's. We have some really yummy edamame, this great iced tea she got in London (marzipan, who knew it would be so good as an iced tea?)and raspberry turnovers. Check out her hearth she just tiled. Very cool in person and fits her decorating style just right.

People have heard me talk about our cat Wasabi. We got her at the King County animal shelter about 1 1/2 years ago. We do let her outside, but only with extreme supervision, and for the most part she is very good about coming when we call her. (I trained her with dried salmon kitty treats.)She is a smoke colored kitty - her undercoat is very light grey, with a black top coat. Her toes have these cool light colored tufts between them, so I like to fluff them up and make them look like claws. Makes her look tough. (She's not).

We have a new sock yarn at the shop from Skacel/Zitron called "Freestyle". Not quite sure how I'm liking it. The stripes aren't consistent, actually very random. I wish there was some more blue in it too - I think the blue is mostly going to show up in the toe and the cuff of the sock. I chose to make this as a toe up sock 1) because there is only 165 yards in this puppy, and 2) I wanted the practice. I thought about a pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, but it's too busy for that.
Here's the photo:
Have a great day!

Got it

Okay, I am now able to download pictures off of my new camera, and there are no worries whether I will overwrite or change anything for Doug's camera on the computer. We both now have Canon cameras, and I wasn't sure if it was okay to load the software or not. I called this morning, and computers are smarter that I give them credit for. It will be fine.

That said, here is the garter stitch jacket (Fleece Artist) that I recently did for the shop: I know it's a little wonky on the hanger, but you can get the basic idea of what it looks like.




More finished goodies: My trekking 100 socks are done

as well as this mystery item.(see green below) It seems Doug had a pair of jeans that needed to be washed, so I took the opportunity to quickly knit up one of the new Noni Adventure bags. I made the small one (called for 3 skeins Cascade 220, but I hardly used the third one). Started it Friday night, and felted sometime on Saturday. Yes, I did do other things besides knit, but it really was very quick to do. It's drying right now, and then I'll put in the zipper and find some cool hardware for the straps. I'm planning on making the huge one too as an overnight bag, I hear you can practically fit your whole family in it! (Just kidding - I think!)

Still walking, walking, walking. I did 6 miles today, was shooting for 4, but the trail markers aren't always as good as they should be. That's okay, the temperature was just right out, with even a sprinkle or two, so I didn't really mind the extra distance.

More soon!

Where in the world?

I thought I'd try one of those quiz thingies I see other people posting - huh - London. I've really never had a hankering to visit there.. who knew? I am hoping the four of us can go to Europe next summer though!

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique soul like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

Other places I really would like to visit someday.. Colorado, the NE in fall, North Carolina (hopefully this summer?), Nova Scotia and PEI. Mexico is somewhere in there too, Patrick is pretty fluent so he could help us middle through. Love to go back to Hawaii again.

Why North Carolina? Doug's mom Donnie was from Woodleaf, NC. She came to Seattle in her late teens to stay with an Aunt and Uncle for the summer, met her future husband, and ended up moving back out here. They ended up being married for I think 55 or 56 years: 6 kids, 16 grandchildren. Donnie would take the kids on the train from Seattle to NC every few years to visit. There is an extended family back there still, and the huge house is still in the family (although I'm not sure it's in a condition to stay there!). Anyway, longer story short, Donnie died of cancer this past Oct. 29 so we thought it might be a nice vacation to do. I've never been on a train before either (except a Seattle-Portland run when I was young) so could be interesting too. Right now we are waiting to see what the kids schedules will be like for summer, as we definitely want them to go (they want to go too).

Sara is waiting to hear from some internships that she applied to - she won't hear until end of May. Otherwise, she has a job on campus in a lab, doing lab stuff. (Actually, the studies sound interesting). Patrick may have an easier schedule... he will either look for a job in construction or stay at the grocery store stocking those shelves.

What else is going on? Well, I haven't offically signed up for the Avon 3-day walk, but I have been training for it. I guess I did mention that before, but amazing for me, I am sticking with it. Today I'll walk 4 miles, tomorrow 5.

On the knitting front, I did finish my trekking 100 socks. I have a picture in my camera, but I have to make sure that since I have the same brand as my husband but a different model that I don't mess something up by loading the software. I haven't had enough downtime with taxes, etc. to read the booklet yet. So I just take some pictures for future use!

I also finished a baby sweater (size 1-2) for the shop. I used the Nashua Ecologie Cotton in the grey color and did the rope sweater from Miss Bea's Seaside. Cute, fun quick knit. I'd do it again, but would like to try the Rowan denim to have the shrinkage and the color fade. Alas and alack, we don't carry that right now, so I subsituted.

Tonight's spinning at VYT(6-9). If you're around, bring your wheel or drop spindle, or just hang out with some fun people. Thursday nights are usually pretty fun anyways!

What should it be?

I haven't just been knitting shop items and socks that rock, I started spinning almost exactly two years ago. I still consider myself a rank beginner, 'specially when I hang around with some of the people I do at work. We have a spinning group at work that meets the second Thursday of each month, so that has been a lot of great learning and inspiration.

Anyway, the latest item off the wheel is this:


It started out as pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms - specifically their superwash merino in the "I've got you babe" colorway. I purchased it at Oregon Flock and Fiber festival last fall. When I was done spinning and plying, I thought I had fingering weight, but after soaking and drying it had definitely "bloomed". Now I'm thinking it's more DK weight. The original intention for this was going to be socks, but now I'm considering Evelyn's lace leaf shawl.

What do you think?

Not MIA!

Okay, I think posts will start to be a bit more regular now - I bought a camera for myself from Amazon and it's here! I'll need a few days to figure out getting it set up on the computer, but it's cute and lovely and I can take it along with me. Yippee!

So what have I been up to? Doug and I have been doing massive weed patrol in the yard, and still have two piles of branches to cut up and get rid of. Better yet, my STR monsoon socks are done! (pictures not from my new camera yet, alas...) Alot of people doing these have been having trouble with fit. They were worked toe up, with a short row heel and then a 5/1/5 cable on the leg so there wasn't a whole lot of give there. The yarn is their midweight, but I ended up doing the toes on 00's, the foot and heel on 0's and the leg on 1's. Of course I did these on Addi turbos (my favorite needles) so the leg was really a 2.5mm.


The foot did that weird swirly-stripe that STR can do, and then the leg was a more consistent stripe - hard to see with the ribs and the cables though.

The other thing I've been working on a lot is training for the Avon 3-day walk. This will take place September 7-9. I am not a person who works out. At all. I did play soccer in high school, but that was really a long time ago. Right now I walk 3-4 miles 4 times a week and do a crosstrain twice a week (I chose yoga). I was so very very sore the first week or two, but now I'm getting better at it!

More soon - time to get ready for work!