It’s been pretty gray and rainy and chilly here for the last few days.  It has happened rarely since we moved here last fall, so I’m still enjoying it.  We’re about ready for some warmer weather though.  Davey is ready to storm the waterpark which opens Memorial Day. It better start warming up soon!

So at the moment he is engaged with, yep, superheroes and I thought it might be a good time to write my blog.

I have three primary knitting projects going on at the moment.   It worries me a little that I am now categorizing my projects.  I actually have a 4th which should be grouped in the primary category, but it’s going to be hot pink, and that did not go with my “Shades of Green” title.

First I’m working on a very “cabley” hat.  My friend Susan gave me the yarn.  It’s the cool Shelter yarn by Jared Flood (his pattern as well).  It’s not really soft but it feels really good.  Kinda rustic, and every once in awhile I come across just a small piece of grass in the yarn.  I love that.

Next, I am working on Wendy Johnson’s Mystery Shawl KAL.  So far so great!  This pattern is not difficult (so far *knock on wood*) especially if you use stitch markers to mark each of the 12 stitch repeats. I’m knitting this with some “On Your Toes” bamboo, but it feels warmer than bamboo usually feels to me.

Finally I started a new pair of socks (I’m on a mission to knit up my sock yarn!).  They are just plain stockinette but the yarn is this very fun self-striping yarn from KnitPicks called “Green Veggies”.  I love it!  It shifts from one really pretty shade of green to the next.

So there’s the “primary” projects.  Davey has now shifted to playing with his tub of farm animals.  He just asked me to take his splint off for awhile as it was itching him.  So we’re resting.

I’ve got plans to try a new recipe tonight.  I was looking through my notebook of recipes that I’ve collected, and I found one that I’ve never made but always wanted to.  It’s a Rachael Ray recipe called “You Won’t be Single for Long Vodka Cream Pasta”.  So that’s the plan for tonight.  We’ll see how it goes.  Maybe Davey will like it.

At the beginning of this year, I bought one of those little stitch pattern of the day calendars.  Vogue stitches maybe?  I can’t remember for sure.  But each day is a different knitting stitch or fair isle pattern.  There are so many beautiful ones.

I have all this yarn that I am bound and determined to knit up.  So I decided that I would try to take some of these stitches and figure out a pattern to use on some of my yarn.

I liked this stitch pattern called the Eyelet Rib.

I decided to take a basic fingerless mitt pattern and incorporate this stitch pattern.  It worked pretty well.  I used Cascade 220 Heather yarn and size 7 needles.  I ended up with a pattern stitch that looks quite abit larger in gauge then the swatch from the calendar.  I am not sure I do the rib justice, but I think they turned out ok.

I finished the fingerless mitts this morning.  I wanted to photograph the mitts, so I could put them on ravelry and blog about them.  So I went outside with Davey, my camera and the mitts.

I was hoping he could help me.  I know he is just 3 and 1/2, but he is pretty good at wielding the camera and can come up with some random neat shots.  He’d also tried on the mitts earlier, so I even thought he could model them for me.

He was having none of it.  He was too busy “fishing”.

This is kind of another story in itself.  Two Christmases ago, I was playing around with knitting some ornaments.  This is an ornament that I never finished.  Somehow it got mixed up with Davey’s toys, and this semi finished ornament is something he often plays with. (It’s just a semi-stuffed knitted sphere.)

So anyway, I was on my own as far as the photography went.

It just wasn’t working.

Here the mitts just looked kinda blob-like.

Then I tried holding the camera down low and “shooting” from the hip.  Not so good either.

I wasn’t too happy with the photos.

Then David came home and saved the day.

ahhhh much better.

I’ve written up this pattern.  I’m not sure I’d knit these again.  I think I might try them with a finer smoother yarn to get more of the look from the stitch calendar, but I guess there is no reason that I have to duplicate the look.

If I am going to write the pattern though, I’d better do it fast.  I’ve written it down by hand.  But there’s a problem.  For some reason, I felt no need to write the pattern in any even vaguely linear fashion.  I don’t understand why I did it this way.  I mean it makes sense to me.  Today.  In a week?  I kinda doubt it.

Last year – on June 1st, I decided to knit my way through The Joy of Sox.    On November 8th,  I started the tenth pattern- these Make-Up Socks.  But then knitting a few Christmas gifts distracted me, and I was slow to get going again on my project.

In the last couple of weeks I decided I was ready to get going again. For one thing, I enjoy seeing Davey’s feet in the pictures.  If I wait too long his feet will be bigger than mine!

So last night I finished sock pattern #10 –  Make-up Socks.

They were a challenge.  I have blogged about them quite abit.  They were always fun but pretty slow going at times.

However, I learned to knit a pair of socks on 2 circulars.  I enjoyed the 2 circulars very much.  I am happy though to go back to my dpns for the next pair.

I had to do lots and lots of small cables.  I really learned how to “read” cables much better.  Also, those little leaves where you increased 1 stitch to 5, knit it several rounds and then decreased back to 1 stitch were so cool.  I look forward to using them in another pattern.  I can see knitting a really pretty hat with them climbing up the sides.

I was glad to have my “photographer” and “photography assistant” helping me again!

ok no more flitting – only focus.

I am ready to finish this sock.

And I have turned the corner.  I am on the homestretch (pretty much). (I am not thrilled with my heel.  I have some trouble when it comes time to pick up and knit the wraps.  Oh well – more practice.)

In other news, we are waiting for a dinosaur to hatch.

My sister and family sent Davey a “dinosaur egg”.  It is supposed to “hatch” after about 24 hours in water.  There is a green reptilian scale kind of peeking out now.  It’s freaking me out a little.  Davey is fascinated and keeps checking on his dinosaur.

I’ve been a flitty knitter lately.  That is I flit from project to project.  That’s a nice way of putting it.  I could say that I am lacking the “stick-with-its”.  Or I could argue back that I’m knitting and it’s my beloved hobby so I should knit whatever the heck I want.

I do have these arguments with myself.

But I did finish a second pair of “Jiffy Mitts“.  These are a fun simple knit, and they are a good way to try to bust through some of my yarn.  I used most of the rest of my “Murderous Honey” yarn.

I also had some Page Wood Farms Denali yarn which needed to be used up.   I decided to knit another Perseverance Shawl.  I made one last summer before we left Arkadelphia.

It’s a great pattern to stick in my purse and to pull out whenever I get the chance to knit on it.  I wore the finished one a lot this past winter.  Those shawlettes are great to wrap around your neck and are nice and warm.

And finally.  Here’s where I need the Perseverance.  I’ve been working on these diligently for the last 4 evenings.  Here’s how far I am.

Not very far.  But they are fun to knit.  Besides that I need the practice with the 2 circular needles.  I don’t have problems with “ladders” when I knit on dpns, but I have got some ladder problems with these circulars.  So I am working on giving firm tugs between needles and trying to figure out how to eliminate those ladders.  Part of the problem is that the first stitch is often a purl and to me that makes it harder to avoid the ladder thing.

But these are wonderful socks and a joy to knit.

(That may be stretching things just a tad.  I do really like them but more importantly I decided that I was not going to whine about how freaking slow they are.)

oops.

I guess I don’t necessarily really see this as a problem yet.  I like to have multiple projects going.  However, I may be getting carried away.

I am working on several pairs of socks.

First there are the Joy of Sox socks.  These really have put a kink in my progress on knitting my way through this book.  I need to sit down and just get them done, but they are so so so so slow going.  I enjoy them.  It’s a great pattern, but so slow.  I’ve mentioned this before.  And then there is the additional thing that I have to acknowledge.  I’ve not yet even finished the First sock.

The other day I started a pair of socks which just have a very short anklet type of cuff.  It was incredible how fast I got to the heel!  They have a lace pattern, so I thought they’d be good practice for my lace improvement.

Then I have 3 very lonely completed socks.

I completed the first one sometime last year before we left Arkansas.  I don’t understand why I have not finished it.   The pattern is called “Spring Forward“, and it is such a fun pattern.

I finished the following sock sometime last fall.  It is a rather plain sock that is going to be for David.  The pattern is not bad.  There’s no reason not to finish this sock.

And finally, I finished this sock a week or so ago.  I love this tofutsi sock yarn. The striping was very fun.  I am using a simple rib pattern from a Nancy Bush sock pattern book that I received from my sister for Christmas.  Great patterns in this book!

So.  I can only hope that I won’t cast on any additional socks until these are all finished.  Or at least one pair of them.