Wombat Withdrawal

It's been awhile since I posted; I was excitedly preparing for a visit from my Aussie family. I finally met my darling grandson (aka "Wombat") for the first time and it was love at first sight! They were able to visit for three weeks, and the silence in my apartment has been deafening since their departure. The good news is that they arrived back home safe and sound and are, in fact, now off on a second trip. Little Wombat is already a seasoned world traveler! The toys I had knit for him were well received and went home with him. During the last few days of his visit he began calling me "Nan-Nan"; I can hardly wait for our first Skype session so I can hear it again (I hope!). Okay, I've been pitiful long enough. *LOL* Now, on to my current WIP: an entrelac beret! I'm knitting it from some yarn I bought at The Exchange Place during the Fall Folk Arts Festival last year. It's Lambs Pride, hand-dyed with daisy fleabane. The color is probably not a good one for me with my coloring, but I don't care. I love it, and plan to wear it. :-) Right now my only concern is that I still have a few rows left, and NOT MUCH YARN!! Keep your fingers crossed that I have enough to finish, because there is absolutely no hope of getting more! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

I'm Back

So sorry I've been away so long....my beloved little MeggieDog was very sick and passed away on February 24. She was nearly 16 years old, and I brought her home when she was 5 weeks old. So, you can imagine how lost I've been feeling.

I still miss her terribly, but am improving a bit at a time. In the past few days I've started a couple of very simple knitting projects that don't require a lot of attention just to get my hands (and hopefully my mind) active again.

I'd finished my first "Regular Guy Beanie", so now I've put another one on needles. I'm going to do this one in stripes. I'll try to get some photos up in the next few days. I've also started a simple cabled hot water bottle cover. I've just discovered the joys of sleeping with a hot water bottle at my feet on frosty nights. How the heck does that thing stay warm all night??

More later....have a great weekend, all!

Back In The Groove

As I was saying in my last post, I've been dragging a bit lately, not being very productive at anything, not even my knitting. I began to wonder if I'd started associating knitting with pain, since I'd used knitting to preserve my sanity last year while waiting for back surgery.

Thankfully, my productivity is a bit better now. The weather is still icky (flurrying right now, in fact....big fluffy lazy flakes), but I'm able to pick up my Diagonal Lace socks and knit contentedly on them while listening to an audiobook or a KnitPicks podcast.

Had I told you I can listen to KnitPicks podcasts through my TiVo? That's a pretty neat TiVo feature. I'm not sure how I ever managed to keep up with any television series before TiVo. I never seem to be able to watch broadcast television when it's actually broadcast anymore.

Back to my knitting....today it occurred to me that it might help to toss in a charity item, so today I'm casting on a knit hat to be donated to a local charity that provides blankets and warm clothing to homeless individuals in our community.

I'm going to use the "Regular Guy Beanie" pattern on Ravelry. I'll keep you posted.

Socks Are Addictive

Here's what I just finished for my friend's grandson:


The hat, not the Raggedy Andy. *LOL* It's the "Simple Baby Hat" by Alison Williams, available for FREE at Ravelry. *here comes a shameless Ravelry plug* If you're a knitter and you've not joined Ravelry, you should. They have lots of wonderful helpful folks in groups who share just about any interest you might have. Not only that, but there are TONS of patterns. Back to the hat. My friend's grandson is growing so quickly that I wanted to find something I could knit up in a hurry. Since he'll outgrow it in no time at all, I didn't want to spend weeks on it, y'know? So, using Ravelry's helpful pattern search engine, I found this nifty little pattern and knitted it up last night.

The proud grandma isn't sure the hat is big enough, so I told her that's no problem. I'll just knit up another one in a slightly larger size tonight.

Now, let's see....what do I have on the needles currently?

1. Mom's cushion cover. The boucle she chose makes me knit a few rows on the cover, then I grab up a sock or something else I'm knitting from more comforting yarn. The fabric formed from the boucle looks lovely....all soft and plushy. But it's devilish to work with. If we're choosing yarn for another project in the future, I'm going to steer her away from boucle, for sure!
2. Socks 101 - fourth pair. I've had this pair of socks on DPNs forever! I'm not sure when I started them. I keep them at the office to work on during lunch breaks, so it's taking a loooong time to finish them. I'm fairly sick of looking at them, so I might take them home this weekend and finish them just so I can move onto something else. I'm about 3 inches down the leg of the second sock, so it shouldn't take long to polish them off and get them out of my hair.
3. My first pair of two-at-a-time, toe-up Magic Loop socks. There's nothing fancy about these....just vanilla colored k3p1 ribbed socks. But, OH, how I've enjoyed working on them. These socks gave me not only my first experience with Magic Loop, but my first experience with toe-up socks and knitting socks two at a time as well. Such fun! I call these my "waiting room" socks. I've been spending a lot of time in doctors' waiting rooms lately, and these socks are so simple that I can work on them without having to watch a pattern. Perfect for the waiting room!
4. Wendy D. Johnson's Diagonal Lace Socks. I found these in her wonderful book, Socks from the Toe Up, but just learned that you can find the pattern online free. Just click HERE. You're welcome. I have a small error in them, just as I was finishing the first set of the lace pattern. I keep debating over whether or not to go back and fix it. The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to have to. It'll bug me if I don't. I'm knitting them from Knit Picks' yummy Stroll Tweed sock yarn in Ash. These are my "I'm tired...I need something to help me relax" socks. It's a simple pattern, and it makes me happy to watch the diagonal lace form in my hands. I'm a person of simple pleasures.

I think that's it. I guess that's enough, don't you? *LOL* Okay, lunch break's over, so I'd better get back to it.

Hat and Mittens

This is the hat and mittens set I knitted for myself from leftover yarn from my very first knitting project, the scarf I started in December 2007 and finished in January 2008. I knitted the hat and mittens in February 2009.

I'm making progress on Meggie's doggie sweater. I can hardly wait to see how it looks on her!