And we're back!

Its been a busy summer. Our entire family (both mine and hubbo's sides) has come to visit. (Here's a picture of Little Bit with her Daddy's side of the family - FOUR generations!) Little Bit has learned to crawl and stand and eat people food. Work projects have been completed, giant personnel changes have occurred, new people have been hired. Knitting has occurred in fits and starts as I have struggled to balance all the things pulling at me.

In the good news arena, I seem to have magically inherited a free flickr pro account. It occurred at about the same time I transferred my pictures from Yahoo photos... apparently, when you have an SBC/Cingular/AT&T/Yahoo account, you get free flickr... (except that we haven't gotten our internet from SBC since we moved October 2004). I'm excited though as that means I get unlimited uploads and storage... no more blogging without pictures! :)

Currently, on the needles:

Isabella - I ditched the picot edge for a seed stitch border... still feminine, but more my style. I'll change the sleeve edging to seed stitch as well to match. I also cast on in the round. I am doing the decreases one stitch from the edge instead of two as the pattern calls for, so I removed one stitch from each end to compensate. I've got about 4.5 inches done. I'm hoping to be done with this before the end of September, when it will still be warm enough to wear :)

Monkey socks - I started this very popular pattern a few weeks ago, modified it to use my 4 DPNs, but somewhere along the way I messed up the pattern and decided to just frog the whole thing and start over. It will be better in its second life, I know. and I'll be using the 5 needles as called for... less to keep up with.

I plan to cast on for a new pair of picky pants for Little Bit, a shopping bag, and the second leg of my Leg Warmers. Must get back to knitting while LB sleeps :)

Socks - here I come!

I've done it! I've purchased my first ever sock yarn (from Fearless Fiber) in the delightfully fresh Meadow colorway. I've also decided to use DPNs instead of the two circulars method as I have much less of a laddering problem with DPNs than with the two circulars. I have not a clue why, but, it works for me, I guess. I have won an auction on ebay and my dpns should be in the mail soon. So now I'm stalking the post lady... please please bring me my new gifts!

In other news, Isabella was frogged. I wasn't happy with the eyelets, I was dreading the joining together, the hemming, the short row shoulders, all of it. I'm currently attempting to re-roll my yarn from its ramen noodle state - any suggestions on how to keep freshly frogged yarn from tangling all up during the frogging to just like new status? This is my second frog and I have made a HUGE mess. So huge, my husband wonders why I'm wasting so much time on unravelling... can't I just buy new yarn? Well, not really, plus, there is something calming about untangling yarn. But not so calming that I'm not interesting in hearing how others avoid this problem :)

Well, I'm signing off for the weekend. I have a baseball game to attend, new bedroom and livingroom furniture to purchase, fresh tomatoes (homegrown!) to eat, a baby to chase around and some grandparents to entertain. All in all, it should be a fun, not-so-relaxing weekend ahead. Enjoy yours!

Kate updates

As promised, here is a pic of my latest project. :) I'm halfway through round 10 and I only had to cast on once. I tend to cast on too tightly, and I just wasn't able to wiggle the needles through after my first round of increases. Not to worry, I cast on again, and it was even better.

The jury is out as to whether I like this yarn or not. I find it rather splitty and it seems to lose its twistyness as I knit. I don't know whether that's the yarn or my knitting, but that's how it is. I'm hoping to have enough left over to do a few diaper covers for the wee one, or maybe even a wrist warmer or two :)

Isabella is still steadily being worked on. I finished with the first ball and am rolling my second. I've got a few inches to add and then I'm on to the shaping of the back. Yeah for progress!

Enjoy spring!

Updates with pics

It's Tuesday, time for an update!

As promised, a few pics of WIP from last week:
Isabella:The first few rows... I think this was 3 rows past the turning row. Luckily, I've gotten all the way to just past the first eyelet row... yeah for progress and napping babies!

Leg warmers:


Not a whole lot to the pattern, really, just 1x1 ribbing for 24 inches. The trick will be figuring out at what point I've finished a round as I failed to place a marker when I joined... any tricks on doing that from experienced knitters? Does it really matter anyway? I've finished 19 of the 24 inches required... I'm trying to get in a few rounds every day (its a great way to stave off boredom while I should be working :)

And last, but not least, my beautiful baby girl who is a wonderful, but effective anti-knitting device. But she wears handmade clothes so well! (she is wearing a dress that was crocheted by her Mammy)Well, that's it for now... more on Thursday :)