COLOR ON COLOR UPDATE

This has turned into so much more involved project than I first imagined. I think that my skills are fairly advance, but this may be beyond me. After finishing the faire isle section I decided to block it to make it easier to knit together and to weave in the ends. I had no idea that this would be so tricky. I am going to have to steam it into place by degree. The picture is of the second pinning and it still needs another. Currently I am working on the 211 stitch garter stitch section that ends in a 30 i-cord fringe. Those are knit on a size one using a single strand of the yarn. I think that I must have been on crack when I thought that this would be fun.


The Knitty Yorick scarf was fun, quick and has real potential. I still want to embroider them like the sugar skulls. Think that white on white might be an interesting proposition with some beads or maybe sequins added for sparkle.

A VERY LUCKY/BUSY GIRL

Another wonderful package from my SP. Her intuitions are very good. The Wegman book is so much fun and a real asset to my collection. My lack of talent with a camera dooes't do the yarn that came in the package justice. One is a lovely blue/grey/brown fiber and the others have brown with hints of purple/blue/camel/black and they are all very lovely and while I don't have a set idea for them think that at least one may become part of a multidirectional project I am contemplating. Such fun things to consider much more than what is going on in my real life at the moment.

Knitting is such a lovely way to escape the pressures of real life and recharge the batteries. And recharge is just what I have been doing for the past two days. I did get my daughter out for a while and listened to her hurt and anger. Divorce, as I well know is probably one of life's cruelest experiences. It hurts as a parent when you can no longer fix things for your children. Of course I haven't been able to do that for years, but one can always hope. My escape has been to do some spinning of the roving I dyed and on the Crosspatch that I got at Fiber Fest. Also worked on the Color on Color scarf which requires too much concentration, so did the Yorick from Knitty for some comic relief. Love the way it came out and may do another--very quick one and one-half evenings--and embroider it like the Mexican calaveras. Blogger is not cooperating and will have to upload the pictures later.

IN COLD BLOOD is still waiting for me to finish it so that I can participate in the book group tomorrow morning. It is a masterpiece, albeit a dark one and is an attention grabber, but tonight I would rather be sated with mindless TV.

CAMP

The sharp, clear before picture and the fuzzy, out of focus after one. What fun! Three nights and two and a half days spent knitting with a very lively group of women.

I learned tons both about knitting and way to many other topics to even think about listing. It was glorious to spend the weekend in the mountains knitting away like a crazy woman. The days were long--up at seven a.m. a couple of quick rows, breakfast, knitting until noon, lunch, knitting until 5:30 and dinner and then a night cap of knitting until the wee hours of the morning fortified by typical camp cuisine and way too much junk food. Ginger, the camp leader and knitter extraordinaire was fantastic. I am always in awe of people with that much patience and that skilled in dealing with others.

This camp is an annual event and I can hardly wait until next year!

COLOR ON COLOR

Started this last night at Unraveled in Monrovia. It's not a class but a knit along and was very fun. They are very friendly out there and such lovely hostesses! Tasty snacks were set out for all to enjoy. I had been going to call my knitting niece to see if she would join me, the owner of the shop is a friend of hers, but decided not to as I was sure that she would never spend the money to do this project. Who shows up but Ansley! I am doing the scarf in a million Paternayan colors and she is doing hers in other fiber and fewer colors. There are a zillion sections and I finished six last night and have the thread for several more. I also joined the online group to aleast be warned of the pitfalls. It seems like this is going to be a fun way to spend a Monday night. I wonder how many weeks it will take to finish?

SPINFEST

-The first results of the merino/silk that I dyed a couple of weeks ago are in -- a grand total of seven ounces. Still have eight more to spin and sixteen more to dye. I am loving the swatch though. At first I was going to Navajo ply the singles primarily for the experience and to make a heavier yarn, but since I decided to use this to make the sweater in Iris Schreier's Modular Knits did a two-ply. I am going to make the sweater with longer sleeves than shown--my arms are no longer, if they ever were, fit to see the light of day. I am anxious to get started on this project but have to finish a few already on the needles before I allow myself this pleasure.

The gray is the merino/silk that I started at the dye retreat. I still have quite a bit of that left to spin as well. Unfortunately my photographic skills don't show this off to it's best advantage. It has the lovliest sheen to it along with a hint of blue and a hint of brown. I don't have a vision for this yet, but am sure that something will come up that will show it's true beauty.

Tonight is the first knit along at Unraveled in Monrovia. We are doing a scarf in Scarf STYLE that is done using the Paternayan needlepoint yarns. It has some interesting techniques that should be fun to do and a nice way to end the weekend.

TREASURES

After the dreariest of days spent trying to reconstruct some vital docs lost when the computer crashed and a trip to the Emergency Room with my daughter (she and the baby are fine--sigh of relief!) I found the loveliest of blue packages in my mailbox. My Secret Pal is the best and I am off to put on the jammies, brew a cup of tea and curl up with my treasures wearing the loveliest (and I am a major expert on these things) of bracelets. Thanks again, SP for such a wonderful suprise.