How does she get those wonderful toys?

You would think that having an incurable knitting jones would be enough, but wouldn't cha know it, I just keep getting sidetracked. As you can see from my last post, I have a yarn ball winder and swift. I got them both at a reasonable price from P&S Yarns. Before that, I ordered one on-line but my order got screwed up some how (through no fault of my own), so I took that as a sign to just go out and see what I could find. Luckily I did because I got them both cheaper than what I would have paid online (plus no shipping charges to worry about). I'm so glad I have it because it beats my normal method of holding the hank spread over my thigh and shin and slowly unwinding the yarn back and forth into a ball. What would we do without our knitting gadgets?

The thrill was gone about a couple of weeks afterwards. I ran out of hanks to wind and I'm on a yarn diet, woe is me )-:. So I was hangin out with my Sit 'N Knit group for WWKIP day and there was needles and yarn flying everywhere. I'm knitting my socks, minding my own business ,when an enabler pulls out her drop spindle and starts spinning like water. I'm not going to name this yarn craftster (Shizknitz), but the rest of us were in awe. We herded over to her like yarn snobs to quivuit. She made it look so easy. Then she goes on to validate her spining by saying that she was on a yarn diet herself but technically roving is not yarn. Spinning yarn is not the same thing as buying yarn, right? Duh, why didn't I think of that! I don't think I need to tell you what happened next.
On the right are my first failed attempts.
On the left is my second try. I think I'm getting the hang of it a little, but we'll see how the swatch comes out.
Now I can't wait for the Spin Out this weekend coming up. I'm sure I'll be able to go around picking everyones brain. Yeaaaahhhhhh!

I have another toy that doesn't have anything to do with knitting but I don't want to unveil it just yet. I bought it on sale at an unbelievable price and it's been sitting in it's box unopened for the past 3 months. I aint even gonna lie, I'm scared. I'm afraid that when I open it, It'll open a window to the craft of no return. I'll be hooked and then I'll have to buy all the doo-dads and thinga-ma-jigs that go along with it. Once I make some progress (open the box), I'll let you know what it is, although I'm sure you can figure it out anyway.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here's some FO's & WIP's

Here are some pictures of my Jams' snake. The specs are in my previous post.






Here's a pair of socks that I finished. I started out making them for my friend Ty but I think I may have subconsciously made them too small. He wears around a 9 in men and I wear an 8 in womens. I didn't realize they were too small until something told me to try them on after I finished the gusset and started working on the foot. Amazingly, they fit so I knew the gauge fairies must have played an awful trick on me. I knit them from the cuff down, two at a time using the magic loop method. By the way, I love this method and I may use it for all my socks in the future. So here are Ty's socks which became my socks.


Yup, I'm trying to be like Del in my pic, but mine are missing that little bit of "zen" she has in hers. Anywho, look at the socks. Aren't they cute.I used LB Magic Stripes that I had in my stash. I didn't feel like going through all the hooplah of matching the stripes up. I think the mismatch stripes gives them character.

Here are the new socks I started for Ty. And it must be fate because I asked my sistah friend Necia if she knew of any non-stockinette men sock pattern. She suggested Thuja and dontcha know that I had the exact yarn called for in the pattern. It was one of the first hanks that I wound on my ball winder. The knitting gods must be pleased. So here's Thuja in progress.

My knitting buddy Yarnhippie and I are working on a knit a long. We both are knitting a remixed pattern originated from the Buttonhole bag. This is our first experience with felting so I'm anxious to see how it turns out. Of course, mine is mostly green using Lamb's Pride Bulky. The bottom of the bag is a long rectangle done in garter stitch. Plus we added a bunch of rows and stitches because we want it to be big. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't carry around no stinkin' small bag. So here's the base.

And here is the base with the stitches picked up for the sides and working in the round. It was a mutha picking up all those stitches around but I survived. My Denise's played a big role in that also.

We're increasing on each end of the front and back pieces every other rowfor a little bit then working in the round Thank goodness this yarn is kinda quick to knit up being that it's bulky and all.

And last, but not least. Despite the fact that my days are pretty busy, I found time to make these. Yes, they're made out of skewers and yes I can't wait to try them out. They're not finished. There's still a lot I have to do. I sanded them down so I just need to add the wood sealer and glue on the green foam ends. Hopefully by my next post, I'll have around 5 sets of these babies made and I don't even like staight needles. I'm a circ's fa sure.

As always, Happy Knitting!

Post Script....

Not too shabby for a newbie, huh?