The best thing about knitting

I love this guy....met him at the Orange County Fair. I love his hair!

Something my friend Toby said the other day stuck me and has stayed with me. We were at a end-of-session class party, standing in Ellen's New Orleans-style back yard.  I was saying something to Toby's nice husband about a knitters' obsession and she turned to him and said, in that sweet, observant Toby way: You know, the best thing about knitting is buying yarn, and I said, You're right! and  (inwardly said YES).  We are never so happy about a project as before it starts, at the buying-yarn phase. Well, maybe when we see the end result in the headlights, we're excited, too, because we are almost there. Why is that?  The newness of it all?  The possibility of perfection? 

Love the new way I store my favorite yarn

Top shelf: Wollmeise. Bottom shelf: other skeins I love.

And I love IKEA, too. Check out this new tall Hemnes cabinet from IKEA. We redid our bedroom and of course while most things left the room--nightstands and a desk, etc etc, my favorite yarn stayed. Here's it's new home. I just love it.

Socks!

I'm back in a sock phase. Funny, especially seeing how it's August, and warm/hot. Soon enough it will be sock weather. I've knit socks before--mostly as gifts--but last winter when my feet were cold and I slept with socks knit from Malabrigo sock yarn, I swooned. So soft I hardly noticed anything on my tootsies, but I did notice they kept warm.

Here are two WIPs:  The top one is Spring Forward (you'll find the pattern on knitty.com). The pattern is so easy and moving so fast.  I used Wollmeise 80/20 in Fruehling. I'm not a green person, but I adore this green. It's just gorgeous and my feet will no doubt dance about when I wear these happy, healing socks.

The bottom one is just a plain vanilla sock pattern, and I wanted something plain in hopes that the yarn (Wollmeise Am Kalten Polar, 80/20) would pool, and it did. Isn't it wild?

Pattern: Spring Forward   Name of project: "Or in this case, fall back."

Pattern: Plain Vanilla Socks  Project name: "Break the Knitters Block Socks"

Orange County Fair winner

It's corny, I know, but I always like these Blue Ribbons from the fair. Here's the shawl that won this year....a Fountain Pen Shawl...my second. Every writer needs her muse. If you're on Ravelry, you can read more about it by going to my page: Inkmama. If you've made a Fountain Pen shawl, send me the link so I can peek...

Floral felted bags

As I was leaving Christopher II this morning, where the lovely Sylvie makes my hands look presentable (I'm hard on my hands, with knitting and beading and gardening and garage saling), Robert stopped me. "My wife would love that purse," he said. It's the first time a man ever stopped me over one of my knit items, and I loved it: he was thinking of his wife and her passions. He wanted to take a photo.

It took a prize at the Orange County Fair last summer. I make them to order. $595, with half down as a deposit. Various other colors can be chosen, too, to truly make it one of a kind.








Here's a larger satchel, which was the division winner at the OC fair a few years ago:

I make these to order, too, but the price is hefty, I admit: $1900.00 You wouldn't believe the work that goes into creating this satchel.

More Beaded Beauties

More Beauties...everything is for sale. I'm in the process of posting these on Etsy. If you're interested in anything you see, please let me know. Everything is priced well, and is on sale.

Mercato dei fiori shawl

It's done...yippee....! I love the colors and design. It just came out a little...small. It's definitely shawlette (or scarf) size, but that's okay: I don't really wear shawls, anyway--I just like to knit them and submit them to the Orange County Fair. This pattern I found confusing, but others weren't confused so I blame me. I always like a lot of written instructions and this one had little. I blocked it but I need to again, to get it to lay flat.

So here it is, my new shawlette. Meet "Flamenco"...