I hope everyone has been doing well since my last blog posting. I know it has been awhile. It probably always will be!! Our weather has been seeing a nice rainy spell with slightly cooler weather. That does seem to energize me but it all has to get directed at the housekeeping chores. After all the house must look good all the time for the 1 whole potential homebuyer that has come by in the last month. Boy the next time Bush says the economy is still strong I want to cram those words back down his throat.
But I have been getting some nice knitting in. I have been forcing myself to try and get 5 squares done a day on Audry. Today she topped out at the 700 mark. Woohoo!! Right now I am planning to do another 51 squares and I hope to god that is enough. I am so ready to put the finishing touches on her and add her to my finished projects list on Ravelry. I didn't get to go take her picture today any place special. Although she might have enjoyed my trip to the commissary or to get my hair cut. Anymore that is as exciting as my life gets.
Well-I have finally done something I have always said I would not do, but secretly really wanted to. Knit 2 socks @ a time on magic loop from the toe up.. Oh and with short row heels to boot. I was about to work on a pair of quicky ankle socks for Katie and I was going to use some fairly bright fair isle Opal sock yarn. So I knew they would just be stockinette. What better time would there be than this to try out the new technique. So cast on I did. And the force must have been with me cause the first few rows felt like I was wrangling an octopus. But since I already did 1 pair of toe up magic loop, one at a time socks I knew what I was seeing, just in duplicate. The turkish cast on I use already looks wonky for a few rows until you get going, but with 2 on the needle at the same time you really have to have faith. But it took no time at all to start to recognize the toe shape and to be able to feel like I had some control over the bus. And as soon as I could weave my starting ends in it was even less of a struggle to find the correct yarn to knit with next. So now I am almost done with both feet, the fair isle stripes match exactly and I feel so accomplished. I am pretty sure it even goes faster than doing it one at a time since you only have to readjust the stitches on the needle once for each round. Where before you adjusted it once each round for each sock. And the pushing the stitches around is half the time it takes to knit socks no matter how you do it, DPN's included. I will be hitting the heel probably on Friday and that is something that could make me change my mind about the whole thing. Can I knit both heels at the same time or will I have to take one sock off the needles and work the first, switch out and work the other, put them both back on the needles and finish? I will let you know next blog post.
This pair of socks are some I knit for Maddy. They are the toe up, short row heels, knit one at a time. This is the first time I used the new Lion Brand Sock Ease and I am very happy with the end result. I bought this skein for $6.99 when they got the first few skeins into Hobby Lobby. Since then they have raised the price to $9.99 but I think that is still a great price for a decent yarn available locally. Well at least when they are not sold out of the stuff. I really liked the colorway with the random narrow stripes going thru.
I have not gotten much more natural dyeing done lately. But I have a pattern for a sweater all ready which takes 8 colors and I plan on using all natural colors. But unfortunately I don't have enough of the right colors so I need to order more yarn and whip out a few more batches. I am also going to order indigo and give that a try the old fashioned way. I am not going to go into that right now but if you google it you will either get a chuckle or a big "Ewwwwwww" so lets leave it at that.
There is finally something for me to look forward to at the end of the summer. I had planned on going to the Nashville quilt expo this August, thinking we would be living in Tennessee by then. But when that looked doubtful I gave up thinking about going. But I found I had just enough frequent flyer miles to at least get there for free. So I threw caution to the wind and booked a flight. I got a room off another lady who has ended up not able to come, so I got her reduced early bird rate. So Aug 19th I will be Nashville bound and staying at the 1 hotel I have always wanted to stay at-The OpryLand Hotel. Although I will not be staying in a room with a garden/atrium view. But I sure can walk thru and enjoy it while I am there. I really am not going so much for the show but to meet up with 12 of my on-line friends. Some I have met before and enjoy very much but I will be meeting many of them for the first time face to face. I won't go out and do too much outside the hotel. Since we hope to be living near by very soon I will just focus on the show and my friends. But I bet I will still get in plenty of partying with my dear quilting friends.
This is Pokeweed. Doesn't usually grow in my garden but self seeded this year. The plant will get gorgeous dark berries that are absolutely no good for dyeing.
And here is a lovely Dahlia blossom, perfect for dyeing a nice pale straw color
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