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

Dangling Conversation

Work these past few weeks have been difficult. Intense, tons of paperwork, and support staff that are just not really helping. As I start this Wednesday morning laying awake in bed at 3:30 AM I can't help but dread my third 12-hour day in a row.

Knitting helps me escape it a bit, but even these past few days have been challenging in that respect. I wanted to finish up this little shawl, but just couldn't push myself to finish it up last night.

This is a very flexible Mindy Ross pattern, Dangling Conversation. The only modifications I made were toward the light colored end of the shawl. Only to use up all of the yarn.

The yarn is a gradient from Two Black Sheep. The colorway is called "Life is a box of...". I ordered it on sale from Etsy a few months ago.  It was fun to knit with. Not a long skein, so the color traveled quickly.

I'm hoping to block it tonight and wear it Friday as the weather is changing here in the Midwest.

I took a few pics in the front yard last night. The light was drawing me out the front door.

We have a Burning Bush that has begun to change. I love, love, love this color.

We have Hydrangeas at many stages...wierd. Some have bloomed, dried, and wilted while two others are still blooming with buds. They're so confused!

And my trusty hrebs are still hanging on, refusing to give in to a few hard frosts.

I'm off to the shower. Hoping to link up with Ginny & Nicole later this morning.

Happy Humpday!

Melissa

Summertide finished!

I completed the SummertideMKAL. I really like it. I even wore it to work on Monday.

The size is perfect for me to wear to the office. I will be browsing Etsy for a simple shawl pin soon, though. It kept slipping off my shoulder. Any suggestions?

I'm not quite sure everything lines up properly, or if its the way I blocked the shawl. Regardless, the little kitty-wompus-ness between Clues 2 & 3 is not noticed while being worn.

While I love the color and depth of color in the yarn, I find myself disliking another large-scale yarn producer that I have had great fondness for in the past..

I spent the extra money to buy this Madelinetosh at my LYS instead of purchasing online. I'm a huge proponent of buying local and supporting small businesses (One of my favorite things about being a knitter).

This was one of THREE knots that were in the two skeins I purchased for this project. I discussed this with the Shop Owner, and have come to a resolution, but find myself one step closer to just dying my own yarn for all my projects. The bigger yarn producers get, the crappier their products become. Cutting corners to make profits is a poor choice.

 

I started a pair of Opal socks (I know, shocking) for my son last night, then had a little bit of a family crisis to work on so I didn't get any pics taken. I will hopefully have some progress to report on soon!

 

Linking up for Yarn Along and KCCO today.

 

Happy Hump Day!

 

Melissa