Gah!

I MUST have this book.








http://www.loopknittingshop.com/product/6507/Loops_10

Has anyone seen it for sale in the US yet?


Love,

Lady who can't live without silly little things like this book.

Change is good.

These words rarely ever come out of my mouth.

Change is my LEAST favorite thing. Good or bad, change scares me.

After several years of eating the same things, getting into routines of eating crappy food and always in a hurry, I decided I need to change. I'm not the one who does all the cooking in our house. This will not be an easy task.

Breakfast seemed like a good place to start.

My son has been on a lifting program with a buddy, and asked for a smoothie type blender for protein shakes. So I ordered a Ninja.

I've been drinking green smoothies for breakfast for nine days now and the difference is already measurable; in my energy level, weight and pants size.

Next on my list is to get my husband involved. I can't do this alone, and he needs to do it as bad as I do.

On to knitting stuff!

I finished these super fun socks.

This yarn was a dream to work with and the colors are so vibrant and saturated.

This Araucania yarn has been in my stash for several years. My daughter did a geography report on Chile and my Mom purchased this yarn for her to display with her tri-fold board.

This Campside pattern has been in my queue for months and I was dying to get this started.

It's 100% Alpaca and very, very itchy on my skin.

Some of my favorite stitch markers from my knitting buddy.

Sadly I frogged this project last night. The yarn has too much light/dark contrast resulting in the stitch pattern getting lost. I will definitely try it again with a semi-solid/tonal yarn.

I have seven skeins of this yarn (770yds.) and need to make something that will not touch my neck. I will need to make mittens with it or chose a different shawl pattern to gift or sell.



This skein of self striping yarn that I dyed a couple weeks ago has been calling me from the bookshelf across the room. Shouting to me, really.

I wasn't a fan of the fawn color at first, but its growing on me.

Even looks a little Holiday-ish! (And Oooooh, glitter polish!)

Looking forward to seeing everyone's projects this week!

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's KCCO today.

Later!

Melissa

Not much action

I've dyed more than I've knitted since my last post.

I've finished the first of these yummy socks. Yep, pasty white Minnesota-grown legs, and Hey! nice bunion!

Our tree is finally up! It is a big one, lots of work to get assembled and decorated, but it puts me in the spirit every year. Its very sparkly & twinkly in the evenings.

I dyed some yarn this past weekend, all for myself. A couple skeins of self-striping, one tonal/variegated, and two sock blanks.

So lots & lots of skeins to play with in the coming weeks. YAY!

Looking for ward to seeing everyone's posts of Holiday progress today!

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's KCCO.

Later!

Melissa

Fall socks update

Working residents in the Midwest are accustomed to the concept of  "dark when you leave for work, dark when you get home from work".

Thus I have resorted to taking all of my knitting photos over the weekends when I am home during daylight hours. Merp.

I finished these self striping sock on SSYC's Poste yarn. I knit them on size 1 circulars in my preferred size of 56sts with an afterthought heel.

Although not exactly perfect. I love them.

I started these cotton socks some time over a year ago and in a bit of a FINISH SOMETHING! moment, I knit the second sock. They were knit on size 2 circulars in Cascade Ultra Pima Paints, which is one of my favorite yarns to knit with.

My Christmas cactus has bloomed without any effort. I didn't have to move it to the cooler basement or back off on watering it. Squee!

I haven't worked on this shawl AT ALL. I'm thinking about frogging it. The longer I stare at it, the less I like it.

I am looking so forward to the Thanksgiving holiday. My son is flying to Phoenix for the week to visit family, and my daughter is come home for a week to hang with us. Days full of coffee, cooking, cocktails, cards, and tamale making!

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's KCCO this morning!

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!

Melissa

Fun Fall Socks

Good Morning!

After FINALLY getting the Autumn Knitting Bug I started these socks.

The yarn was a gift from my Mom about a year ago. I believe it is SSYC's House brand.

They seem to be working up quickly even though I'm knitting them two at a time.

Althoug I don't actually READ much, I do listen to several audio books per month. I have a lengthy commute back & forth to work, so get most of my listening in while driving.

I shamelessly bought a skein of yarn from SSYC last week, JUST so I could get this bag. Awesome!

Did I mention how much I LOVE AUTUMN?

When a 5 year old boy calls and asks you to make him a pumpkin hat...

You make him a pumpkin hat.

And then you make his Dad a hat too.

Boy do my countertops make photographs look barfy. Ew. This hat is much more fun than it appears in this picture. The orange is the same yarn as in the photo above.

Sheesh.

A slight bit of progress was made on this Ashburn shawl.

I though this would make a lovely Holiday item to wear. The colors are a bit bold for me to wear, so this may turn out to be a gift or something for sale.

The middle section of the shawl is a textured pattern in the light green color. I'm loving it.

I'm excited to have a bit of a date tonight with Big Daddy tonight. He has the day off for Veteran's Day. We plan to go see Spectre (the new James Bond movie) as soon as I get home from work. YAY!

Looking forward to seeing everyone's project progress today. Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's KCCO.

Have a great week!

Melissa

Pushing through.

There's a point to this, so bear with me. And there's pretty pictures at the end. I promise!

The last week or so have been difficult at my day job. My Controller has been on vacation for 8 days and our FT receptionist is on maternity leave. That means I'm responsible for my work, her work, all while covering the phones of a very busy car dealership. After several days of 12-13 hours of work and a 35 mile commute I was just about done. Just done. Ready to walk.

Last Thursday one of our regular customers came in for a car wash. On the surface he seems to struggle with every move he makes. Arm braces, hip brace, and leg braces help his limbs to be rigid enough for walking and DRIVING!

I was texting with my husband while at the reception desk, whining about my day when Craig walked in. I found someone to run his car through the wash and he stood by me for a chat that lasted about 1-15 minutes.

Upon his departure I mentally leapt OUT of my pity-pot and decided to push through these next few days of being very, very short staffed. If Craig can get out of bed every day, gear up with his numerous physical disablilities, I can suck it up for a few more days at work.

So lets talk about knitting!

A few weeks ago I dyed these.

I've had a heck of a time deciding whether I should make a shawl out of ALL of them, or make socks out of EACH of them.

They definitely have a jewel-tone/holiday-ish feel to them and the longer I looked at them the more I wanted a colorwork shawl for the holidays.

I bought a five-pack of patterns from Melanie Berg. This is the beginning of Ashburn.

I had to take these photos last Sunday. (I was keenly aware that I would not be home again during daylight ours until after work on Thursday. Yuk.)

This little secret garden on the West side of our house holds two chars for me to choose from: one IN the herb garden itself, and one up on the porch for when the bugs get too hungry.

Color B is introduced several times in this first third of the pattern.

I also blocked the Dangling Conversation shawl I finished last week, but need some daylight to photograph it properly.


Regular followers will remember Victor and I had an anniversary last week (#22 yikes!)

All skeins are $22 or less with free shipping.

Stop by for the sale. I would love to earn your business!

Hooking up with Nicole & KCCO, and  Ginny's Yarn Along.

Later!

Melissa

Anniversary Sale!

My husband and I celebrated our 22nd Wedding Anniversary yesterday.

Aren't we cute? (young, innocent, vibrant, blah, blah, blah....)

In celebration of that, I'm having a SALE. You will find all of my Etsy listings at $22 or less and FREE SHIPPING (US residents only).

All items are ready to ship. Get on those Holiday projects NOW!

Happy Weekend!

Melissa