A green weekend

green weekend
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

A: Alpaca/wool yarn from Desired Haven Farm arrived today. Nice prize! The color's Seaweed.

B: Vilai socks for Cookie A knitalong. Three days to do half a sock is a piece of cake. Or maybe a cookie. Heh heh. I call the color Minty Fresh.

C: Fast drying latex paint. I don't know how fast it'll dry here in soggy Georgia. It's the base coat for the wheel portion of my Kiwi. The color's Spring Green.

Today we crochet

I've been enjoying the daily email I get from CRAFT magazine. There are all sorts of interesting things to see, even if they aren't all things I'd care to try. Today they featured a colorful crocheted Hawaiian Flowers pattern from Sarah London. Her color combinations are delightful. This particular pattern gave me an idea for another project. It involves yarn and a bunch of Hawaiian fabric pieces. It was one of those eBay things where I just had to buy them and they've been sitting in a basket for ten years.

Sarah is featuring a new pattern every month. The instructions are clearly explained and well photographed. I liked what I saw so much that I've added her blog to my Bloglines feeds.

The second idea I got was to crochet her Wool Eater blanket. I've been contemplating something of a blanket nature from all the scraps I've got around here. I couldn't face another generic granny square. The Wool Eater is in the same spirit, but looks nothing like a granny square. I've got a failed project that has enough yarn in it to make a really solid start on this.

I'm not allowing myself to hunt it down yet. I must finish my Vilai socks first. I'm about 30% done since yesterday's multiple laps in the frog pond.

I hate it when that happens

I was about to start the heel on my second minty fresh Cookie A sock, when I spotted a frakking mistake. I should've known better. Cookie's patterns knit up smoothly and I had a few problems getting the count right. I've got six days to get them done. Fortunately it goes a whole lot faster when I do the pattern correctly. D'oh!

Winner Winner Handspun Dinner

Last week was nothing to write about, so I didn't. I was contemplating my next move tonight. Should I test the design for painting the spinning wheel? Should I try a new version of my fat quarter project bag? Should I sit and knit the second Cookie A sock? None of them called to me, so I started clicking around on the Web. I checked out the latest post at Phat Fiber's blog and I spotted my name! I won this handspun yarn. It comes from Desired Haven Farm.

Thank you Jessie. Thank you Misty. This is a positive way to start the week.

Taste the rainbow now

Minty Fresh Cookies

vilai1
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

This is one pattern repeat of Cookie A's Vilai socks. I like them very much. The yarn is some Knit Picks silk/wool blend that I dyed with some leftover dye. It's totally one of a kind and I call the color minty fresh. I also like it very much.

Ma Cobb had a little sheep

I combined two patterns to make myself laugh. It's a Jayne hat on a little Pommel sheep. The sheep pattern's an official English translation of the original German.

Labyrinth Sock detail

labdet
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

The design shows up a whole lot better in person. Someday I'll get a camera with more megapixels and learn how to take better pictures.

I don't know if I'll be able to enter this in the contest, as I got the stitch design from a stitch dictionary. I suspect that's not quite original enough. I did write it up and converted it to a PDF file. If it won't work as a contest entry, I'll upload the instructions and supply a link in case anyone is interested in giving them a try.
ETA:Stitch dictionary patterns are okay. Yay! I finished the second one and I'm going to send the pair in. PDF's on hold for now.

It's second sock week. I'm finishing this sock's sibling and then the Summer Sock's sibling.

Back to Socks

ssox1
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

Current projects:

• Cookie A socks: I'm doing both of this month's socks in the Ravelry KAL. This one is the first half of the Summer Sox. Flash or no flash, I cannot get the color right. It's a little on the gray side of a basic blue.
  
• Labyrinth socks: I'm designing a pair of socks for a contest, just for the heck of it.
  
• Spinning wheel: I've repaired it. I haven't used it a whole lot since the repair, but it looks like it'll stay fixed. I joined the Kiwi Spinners on Ravelry and was inspired by how they painted their wheels. The wheel portion of the Kiwi is made of MDF and isn't all that pretty. I'm working on a design that'll involve painting and stenciling. It also may involve taking the wheel off of the rest of the mechanism. I'm going to avoid that if I possibly can.
  
• Project bags: I'm working on a new design that can be made with two fat quarters. I have many fat quarters (pieces of fabric that are about 22" x 18"). A bunch came from Pacific Fabrics on Fat Quarter Fridays. I wanna go back to Seattle. ::getting train of thought back on track::I also want to make a special one for an upcoming swap.
  

Time out with cross stitch

celticxs
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

This is from a kit I brought back from Ireland several years ago. It's from the Book of Kells. The original had 14 count fabric. I switched to 18 count so it would fit in a box top. I should've gotten out a magnifier, but nooooooo. I had to struggle along with just my reading glasses. I think it came out pretty well, though.

I am still resisting knitting in general, and socks specifically. I got the replacement part for my spinning wheel, so that may be what I get into next. I've got all the stuff for making mini pinatas, so maybe I'll resist fixing the spinning wheel. Of course, it requires cooking up a pot of paste for papier mache. Cooking? I don't want to.

Maybe I'll knit socks after all. After a nap.