Edited to add one other version. Please feel free to leave any comments.
Voila! the finished Monkey Socks.
i used the leftover yarn from my socks to make some for the little guy. sorry about the photo, three year old boys are not known for sitting still to pose for pictures of their new socks. still, i like his socks better than mine in that the color didn't pool at all and overall it's a nicer effect. i didn't use a pattern, 2x rib and make it all up as i went along. they won't fit for long, but they're cute for now.
sorry for the dismal photo. we're about to get another 18" of snow and the sky is all grey and nasty. Overall, i like it. I like the shape of the sweater. I like the yarn. It didn't really do anything with the leaf pattern, so i just didn't do anymore after the bottom hem. You can't tell anyway. All that's left to do is weave in ends, find a button for the neck flap, fix the dropped stitch that I just found and give it a litte wash. and then wear it. i think i'll wear this one.
It's been hard to pay attention though, because I've been watching this:
I know I'll catch a lot of crap for it, but I remember watching it as a kid and I was so enthralled by Jan Michael Vincent. I read the books a few years ago and tried to score the videos off of ebay, but they were going for hundreds of dollars. Now the dvds are on Netflix. And I'll tell you, whatever i saw in JMV when I was 8 - it's still there.
A little while ago I posted pictures of a sage green WIP baby bolero from One Skein, and I guess it never got it's finished photo taken. Too late now as it's off to it's new home and it's still nearly two months until this baby plans to arrive. I brought my knitting to the baby shower and quickly whipped up the coordinating hat (see above) out of Blue Sky Cotton. I just guessed on the # of stitches to cast on, and guessed on the decreases and really I don't think the baby will mind that I've never figured out how to do the jogless join neatly and thus gave up on it halfway through her hat.
The other baby project on the needles are these booties in leftover sock yarn. Based on the ubiquitous booty pattern, I changed the garter stitch rows because I prefer a smoother knit. This one isn't complete yet, there are still a few ends to weave in and really with this varigated yarn it's hard to get a feel for the actual booty - all you see is COLOR!!! The second booty is started, the sole is complete but I somehow lost a couple of my #2 dpns during my last travels. I did have Susan Bates metal dpns but think that I'll replace those with bamboo just as soon as I can get to the yarn store.
Here are some pics from our big Valentine's Day storm. Above and below: midday during the meat of the storm.
Having a quick treat.
Progress is being made on the Laceleaf Pullover. My main goal for today was the grafting. I'm not afraid of a little kitchener stitch, but this was 102 stitches of kitchener - which is frankly quite a lot. It took me the better part of two hours to get it all done, with breaks and everything and it looks pretty good. This yarn hides it well. I experimented with two different routines, and for this yarn I like slipping the stitch and then priming the next before pulling the yarn all the way through. it just looked more natural that way.
here's a shot of the photo area coming together. we're putting together an area to take pics of the bikes and parts and so forth - but this requires much gear. most of it pricey. so it's coming together slowly but surely. the second light showed up today. that in conjunction with adjusting the white levels on the camera itself should help us get much better photos. the next step is figuring out how to hang the 14' roll of background paper so that we can shoot entire bikes.
I've seen countless other corner of my home posts and really enjoyed seeing these intimate spaces. so here are a few corners of my home. Above, our miniscule entryway. The mirror is by artist Kate Pond. The story goes that she made that to commemorate my husband's favorite word when he was two or three years old. It lived in the UK for the longest time and a few years ago we dragged it back. It made the security guards chuckle at the x-ray machine.
a pile of outerwear in our spare room. See the half-life print Burton snowboard pants? Special edition - close up of the dots that you'd see if you look at a color print page.
A corner piled with books everywhere. Not enough room to keep them all on a shelf.
knitting in progress. bad news, my stitch number is off so I have to frog back a couple of increase rows and get back on track.
Because of the sheer number of babies coming this spring, I've quickly begun to work up another baby bolero from One Skein. You see I brought in all these baby color skeins of the Blue Sky Cotton which are enough for a bolero but one skein is not enough for the kimono in Mason-Dixon knitting. So I cast on this lovely mint green and it's coming along nicely. I think I'll trim it in the main color, and then make a cute striped hat in green and blue. Then I'll take the 1.5 skeins of Blue Sky Organic cotton and knit a kimono.
I love it. Can't wait to cast on. And doesn't my camera have nice macro skills?
So I ended up using a light pink Blue Sky Cotton to edge the bolero. The color isn't exactly the 'right' color, but in natural light I think it looks pretty good. After a gentle wash this seemed to come together pretty well. I'm sure all the super picky knitters are sitting out there tisk-tisking the stitches that I picked up along the front...one side is pretty good, the other not so good. i'm trying to decide if I want to do a second one of these or if i want to do the kimono from Mason Dixon or other. baby showers are coming up in a months time, so i do have some time to think about what would be best.
we needed a new dishcloth, so here you go. from Mason Dixon. they look so wonderful when they're freshly knitted...
...and not quite so beautiful when they've been in heavy rotation. i hope to do another one tonight.
this is the little baby bolero from One Skein. knitted in an 'i forget' cotton from the stash. something pretty luxurious, it was deeply discounted from a retail price of $20 a skein when i bought it over the summer.
here is the back. it's curling, so you can't see the cute little detail at the back of the neck. and i really like the colors. especially for a baby girl. there's the palest of tawny pinks with the blues and tans and i think it would be great for a springtime little girl who doesn't want to wear pink all the time.
i'm frustrated because of several things. first, is this going to be wearable for a little baby? See the photo above for scale. The sleeves are huge. the whole thing is pretty wide. will this just end up being a fugly handknit? the second thing is that I'm nearly out of yarn and there is still a bit of edging to do. and that makes me not want to finish it. and so this is just sitting around on the dining room table, waiting for me to not feel weird about it. 
check out the cool rainbow that we had this afternoon. note the lack of snow. this was right before a thunderstorm hit, a lot of rain and wind and a bit of hail too. wish it would just snow.
Our little family trip to PA gave me the time I needed to cast on, and finish, the second sock of the pair. They're done. and you know what? I like sock knitting. they go pretty fast, even on tiny needles. it doesn't take a lot of room and I will definitely wear my finished project. these are going to look great in my beat up red Dansko clogs. and as soon as I pick up some more sock yarn i'll start another pair.
I brought one of my soakers to hopefully catch the eye of any other cloth diaper using mamas who might need wool care. it was a great conversation piece, everyone loved it as it's a beautiful cover from Curly Purly in hand dyed BFL wool. Due to freaky timing, it's never been worn, so it's still in mint condition and very attractive. I sold a little bit of baby care, a bunch of Wonder Lanolin to expecting mamas - but mostly soap.
Here you see the 'may-i-take-your-money-please' apron that i made last week. I used the tutorial posted at Creative Little Daisy . Which was super easy to follow. My patchwork is a bit more simple and i made it almost 2" shorter in length - but it's a great tutorial and I'm stoked to have the apron to wear for crafting, or maybe, possibly, more craft shows in the future.
As I said when I posted about the first one, these were my first cables and my first sock-like things. The second went really fast. Two days I think. One for the cuff and heel and the second marathon session finished the inseam and toes and so forth. I'm thinking about doing a pair for my mom for christmas in some sort of superwash wool. I have some in the stash, not in any good colors. But not like my mom would really know that the colors weren't that good...
So what is this mess? It's a mid-stage of handmade liquid soap. Not too many soap makers bother with liquid soap. Unlike making bar soap, which is sort of a 'fix-it-and-forget-it' operation, liquid soap requires several steps and none of which are particularly fast.
Here's a quick peak at the paperwhites. Coming right along.
