WOYN Wednesday

So, What is On Your Needles today? I have my 2nd sleeve for my MrChinatownApplePants. I had to drop into Inua Wool to pick up some size9 dpns, cause the size7dpns didn't cut it on the 1st sleeve (which still needs to be frogged). Pattern calls for a size8, I only had dpns in size7 and thought they would work. Well, low and behold, my dpn guage is much tighter than my circular guage, so off to the frog pond for sleeve#1.

And can I tell you how evil Inua is? I go in their for a simple set of dpns and end up walking out with a new sock in my queue! I have been drooling over the Annetrelac Sock and the Six-Stitch Tessellated Faux Entrelac from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I plan to combine the patterns by using the Komi Star and the Pinstriping on the foot from the Faux Entrelac then using the entrelac from the Annetrelac. I am excited to start on this soon. It is not on the needles yet, but I believe I will be doing this one next. I am just curious how the Noro will mix with the Koigu, and would love someone to comment on how you feel they will wash up together.

And still on my needles are my CaboWabo toe-up Jaywalkers. As you can tell from my balls of yarn there was some frogging on these this weekend. I got to the finishing of the first heel and tried them on to find that they were about an inch and a half too long. Too narrow to gift to someone with larger feet, I decided to frog back and inch and a half past the increases for the heel (which left me with three inches of the sock left) and start again. Working all week, I am finally four rows away from re-starting that first heel.

I can't knit as much anymore as work has started here at the Dredge. I would wax poetically about how excited I am that Tourist Season has finally come and my focus is shifting to getting the property ready for 46,000 guest, but IT SNOWED AGAIN LAST NIGHT!!!! Can you believe it? Is this April 30th or April Fool's Day?

Oh, and tomorrow is the drawing for the Blogiversary giveaway. Tonight is the last chance to enter for the Options needle set. Good luck!

So much for a weekend bike ride.

DH and I were heading down to summer storage and were just about ready to go on our first bike ride of the season, when we looked out the window yesterday morning and saw this. More snow. Almost all of our snow was gone. The summer bikepaths were cleared off all the gravel, the weather was reaching into the high 50's, when BHAM! SNOW, SNOW, and more SNOW! Well, at the very least, I have more time this weekend to knit. Oh, and rip. But I will save the frog pond for Sunday.

My hair is GONE!

Okay, I went in today for what felt like a dramatic change in my life. I went from waist length hair to shoulder length. I haven't had hair this short in well over six years. And seriously, it needed to go!

I would be driving the work truck and go to turn my head to look for oncoming traffic and my hair would be trapped between my body and the seat. I would wake up at night with my DH sleeping on my hair. And I don't want to talk about the nasty rats that I pull from every orifice in the house: shower drains, vacuum cleaner, lint trap, uh. And my knitting. How often did I knit a pair of socks only to find a woven hair trailing a couple rows. Far too often!

Well, not any more. I told my stylist to cut it. Chop it off. Do it quick before I change my mind.

Here I am in Bonaire on the cruise with my hair down.

And here I am today, all short. All that friz, gone. All that weight pulling on my head, gone. All the split ends, all the stringy hair, all of it... ...gone.

And what goes great with an awesome haircut? Yeah, an awesome tube of lipstick. The salon is an Aveda retailer and they use the best Aveda shampoos and styling products. My hair smells as amazing as it looks, and I could not pass on the new Aveda shades. I love this one.

I can say that DH is not happy with my decision. He hasn't said a single thing about it, which means he is smart enough to keep his opinion to himself. I was really starting to hate my hair, so it was time for it to GO!

I just try not to think about the cost and how much yarn I could have bought.

Blogiversary give-away

And good things for YOU...

May 1st is my 1st Blogiversary and I've got some really special things to give to one lucky knitter!

1) Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Circular Knitting needles binder case

2) Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Nickel Plated Circular Knitting Needle Set

3) one hank KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in TidePool

4) 2 skeins Panda Cotton: 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, & 21% elastic nylon in Rosewater

Just place a comment in this posting with your name/blog address and I will random number generate a WINNER!!!!

Lucky Leaflings

Pattern: BMFA STR RSC
ha, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks that Rock, Rockin' Sock Club pattern for March: Leafling

Yarn: STR mediumweight Lucky
Needles: 40"circ size 2
Cast on: March24 Bind off: April 7
The pattern was completely new for me. I have never completed a "gusset and flap" heel and would have fallen in love with the extra squish and cushion had the socks not been far to large. I made the adult medium and the gusset is way, way too loose. I will have to make these gift socks for someone with very thick ankles. I was between Juneau and Seattle on a plane when I was knitting the gussets, and didnt try them on until I was way into the foot. Already too late for me. Some knitters will rip out anything if they dont like them. I just gift to someone else.

Here is more heel detail. The cushioning at the bottom of the heel is so nice! I also added some finishing detail because I didnt like how the design just hit a dead-end at the toe, so I tapered the design out to the toe a bit more. It isn't as shape on the detail as I would have liked, but I am happy still.

WOYN Wednes

Whats On Your Needles Wednesday?

Here are my Mitered Squares so far, some are under the purse, all nice and pressed and in the front is a pile of completed miters without washing or blocking. All in all, 15 miters done.

Here is where I do all my work at night: downstairs at the bar. DH likes to go down and have a puff on his pipe and we talk over our day and I get some knitting time in.

Most of my knitting gets done upstairs in my office. I figured since Ravelry is killing my blog, I will use actual true to life photos instead of the nice staged photos I like to see on Ravelry. This is my blog and I will do it any way I feel like.
And since the mood struck me as well: here is a shot for my MrGreenjeans sweater from the Dream in Color Classy in my favorite of their colorways Chinatown Apple. This sweater is a dream to work on. The yarn is heaven and the pattern is so easy.

"Loopy" or "Soprano", it's all up to Sheri

WoolPet's Sheep needle felting kit from the Madrona Fiber Retreat that I got to jump into during HighOhSilver's work trip. I finally completed him today. He doesn't have a name yet. If I get the Dream in Color Classy in Chinatown Apple during the restock at the Loopy Ewe, I will knit him some lovely red&white sockies and name him "Loopy".

If I do not get what I want during the re-stock, I will string him up by his fuzzy little testicles and name him "Soprano". {sheri, you hear that? You dont want this poor little sheepie hangin by his berries, do you?} There was so much extra wool, that if I can find an extra bell this weekend, I will knit him up a galfriend (and change out his lovely pink ribbon for a nice merino scarf). This project was so much fun! Unfortunately, I just kept putting it down because the legs were frustrating me. If I would have realized that after a couple trials I would have realized how easy he actually was and I would have been on on my way to completion long before today. Needless: I love him.

And speaking fondly of the Loopy Ewe, I got my Gypsyknits Sock it! in Appalacia in today's mail that I ordered on Thursday. This whole Groupie Sneak-Ups is financially painful. There is so much that I love, that I never got to see before because all those other leaches picking the best stuff up f a s t. I love this privilege of being made aware of the new yarn before everyone else. And I love this yarn. So did many others, it was only stocked for a couple hours. And honestly, I hate to admit it, but I bought it out of retail therapy as I was greatly upsetted over the frogging of my Deadly S(p)ins socks. I mailed them to someone who might actually appreciate them and then went to try to peek at the March shipment of the Rockin'Sock Club's March shipment. Only to find out there that the hint was "Lucky Charms" with all the colors of the rainbow and a picture of all the pastel marshmallows. I freaked! More pastels? AHHHHH! So I ran to Loopy and begged for something I would love: Appalachia. Yes, Appalachia is pastel green, but it is only one pastel. All by itself, and it sang to me. That, and the Mexican Sunflower was sold out. Leaches.

But if you want some greatness for yourself, Cinnamongirl93 is giving away some...

...Malabrigo on her blog. Yes, GIVING AWAY MALABRIGO. I'm not one to take advantage of a total looney, but this chickie is giving away paradise in hank format. Drop your name over there, mention me AfternoonMoon and I get another chance. And speaking of other chances... Here is my favorite flower given to me by HighOhSilver a couple weeks ago, just because I love, love, love the smell of the Stargazer Lily. They smell so amazing and the smell fragrances the whole house. The roses were a special treat, because DH's favorite flower is the rose.

Oh, and by the way, I got my RSC shipment and I am so LUCKY it wasn't pastels!