Sailing on Boston Harbor ...

The department I work for at M.I.T. gave a luncheon for the staff while sailing on a Boston Harbor tour boat. It was one of the few really beautiful days we've had so far this Summer. Here are a few pictures that I took ...

[BTW, I had my sock knitting with me ... just in case.
And guess what ... I never opened my bag, LOL!]

I'm still here knitting ...

It's the Pinwheel Sweater for Jayden that I'm working on. So there's no rest for the wicked knitter ... and too early in the morning to get my mind into writing. That's because ... [no offense]

I'd rather be knitting!

Look what I got in the mail today ...

Do you know where this might have come from? Oh ya .... you guessed it. Cynthia from Two Wooden Sticks in Canada and I bet the Maple Syrup was the give away too. No? Then it was the yummy sock yarn then because we all know that Cynthia is one of the 'Sock Knitting Obsessed'. Or maybe the "sock knitting bag" from Jen's at Cafe Crafty. [She has an Etsy Store, if you want one too, BTW!] You've seen it right? And Cynthia has been waving them on her blogspot and of course I was drooling over 'em. Well Cynthia must have know that I was dyeing to carry my 'socks-in-progress' in style ... and this bag fits the bill. Don't you just love the retro colors!?


Speaking of colors ... can you believe this sock yarn? It's Fleece Artist Sock Yarn from Nova Scotia, Canada. A lovely 100% Washable Merino Wool. Oh Cindy, you are too good to me!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I guess she thinks I need encouraging huh?
LOL, this will do it too!






And I'm finished with...

the socks for my Grandson, Nicky. Well I do hope they fit him. They fit me, but he's a growing 12 year old boy and you know they don't stand still for long.






Thanks to Cynthia's encouragement [calculating enabling ways], I've really added a lot to my sock yarn stash lately. And with really good stuff at that. And guess what ... I'm now cleared to start a new pair. What timing!!
I guess I don't even need to go digging into the stash right now... I've got Sock Candy right in front of me!

Rock & Weave is on my feet!

Once I got to the toe and grafting, I was finally able to use my darning egg ... something I purchased and has been proven to be an invaluable tool for socks!

So now I have my first pair of STR from the Blue Moon Sock Club!

I love the color and the feel of the yarn, altho it's a little thicker than what I'm use to for sock yarn. The color is SO ME!!!




BTW, notice that they didn't pool the same way in both socks. You would think that was strange ... but the yarn came to me with two ends tyed together in the middle of the skein ... and obviously they didn't match up . That's okay tho, I like to be different these days!






















I'm finished and I love them! But see that flap at the bottom of the cuff? You can see it in the 3rd picture from the bottom. I had to tack that down on both sides as you can see in the next picture.

NOW, I love 'em!

Ugly Flower Alert ...

Have you EVER seen such an ugly flower? Have you ever seen this plant before? I planted this "Star Flower", early in the Spring because I thought it might be interesting. Well it's certainly lived up to that! It's not only interesting it's Uuuuuggggglly!! So ugly, only the StitchingNUT could love it right?

Well it is dam ugly alright.
And it seems to be right at home in my garden ...

How Normal Are You?

This is the results for Rhonda the Stitchingnut ... are you surprised?

You Are 50% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

Thanks for the link to this test Mafia. Somehow I've always suspected that I wasn't as normal as everyone else thought I was. Or have I only been fooling myself? But then, I've been trying very hard to let my freak get out now & again so maybe a few of you have caught on. Did you?

Okay ... now let me go find my freak for today!!

Yarn has come in ...

My order from KnitPicks for the yarn stash to make the Pinwheel sweater has come in. It's for baby Jayden and I think the colors are suited to her. The order of color is from right to left. I'm not sure about the Avacodo & Violet tho. Should I switch their places and put the Avacado next to the Cherry Blossom? I'm still thinking on that one, but my fingers are itching to begin.




And while I'm finishing up on the 2 pairs of socks that I have on the needles right now, notice I bought another pattern book. What!!
Another book? When does it end?!!

So here's an
update on my garden flowers also:








BTW, the weather man says it's going to rain next week ... ALL WEEK!!
Ye gads, for once I hope he's wrong.

All about mememememememe...

Okay, I feel funny about doing this, but Two Wooden Sticks talked me into it [well not me personally but she said to on her blog] ... so I left one word for her too.

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me — it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so that I may leave a word about you.

I hesitate because I'm almost afraid of what I'll find out about myself, LOL.

Can you believe it?

I joined a Knit Along!! It's with the very talented Anny Purls and the knit along is called Pinwheel Sweater Along . The pattern we're using is from Elann.com, and it's the PINWHEEL SWEATERS FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN by Shelley Mackie.

Only I've purchased my yarn from KnitPicks ... Wool of the Andes. I'll post a picture as soon as I get my order in. But the sweater isn't for me. I hope to start my sweater on July 1st and will put it away for Christmas ... maybe ... unless I can't hold out that long to see it on. It's for my newest in the family ... the precious ... the adorable ... the first of my great-grand children ... Jayden the beautiful!

Now isn't she just the perfect little girl
for me to knit a sweater for?

Back on track ....

Working on my Rock & Weave sock. Its coming along slow but sure. The reason it's slow is because I've been working on other things also. Especially my grandson, Nick's socks. I'm at the half way mark on them ... and that's only knitting while commuting.

Anway, back to the Rock & Weave from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I haven't been traveling with them because they are on DPN's, but I just received something that will take care of the problem of traveling with double points in my handbag. The Yarn Harlot talked about it on her April posting ... it's a metal holder thingy ... a metal tube with a slot that runs the length of it, and your needles slide in and the sock hangs out the bottom ... then you put the cap on and everything stays in place. It came from Woolworks Ltd. at Jeremiah's Antiques. They told me that it's a replica of an antique needle holder. If you're interested in one also, email woolworks@snet.net to place an order. I paid $19.50 including the shipping and I think it's a bargain.

The Yarn Harlot showed another one recently in wood ... but in NO WAY am I going to carry around a chunk of wood in my handbag. I would think the wood would be more for decoration sitting at home and/or for when you want to keep your sock safe from little hands or paws. But that's about it! I have enough heavy stuff in my handbag thank you [including the kitchen sink].



Notice how nicely the metal case works!




So now I'm trying to decide on the buttons. When I went for my walk last Sunday to Pickering Wharf I looked at buttons for the Rock & Weave. They didn't have enough of the metal buttons that I originally wanted so I looked over others and found the perfect buttons for these socks ... BUT they cost $7.90 each!! That would be $31.60 for buttons for a pair of socks. I DON't THink So! I'd rather spend the money on yarn porn ... soooooo ... I've picked out these seashell buttons that I had in my button stash. What do you think? Good enough? Here's a picture of the buttons facing both ways on the cuff. Which way looks best? Well I've got time to decide before both socks are done. And if you don't like the shells ... well ...








Added note:
We've got a winner ...

The majority of you seem to like the 2nd picture ... and I do too.

So I won't have to look some place else for silver!

Depression treatened to set in until ...

I sat down to knit ...

But I sure couldn't be out under the trees like I had hoped. It rained all day Saturday. Again! Look at the lichen growing on the cherry tree. And oh my poor, poor peonies. They barely saw any sun at all this year and they were getting so tall and beautiful before the rains came again.





The Hibiscus on the patio, was in bloom in spite of four days of rain. So I had to go out in the rain to take this picture and enjoy the beauty of it before I got soaked to the skin and return to my inside knitting.


It was cloudy and cool to start out with on Sunday morning but .... what's that I see?

The SuN? ThAt shining YelloW bAll in the sky?

... Yup the sun was shining and by afternoon I was able to take a walk. No sitting outside to knit tho ... but I did walk to a yarn shop. There was a cool breeze off the water, but at least there was SUN. I can be happy again.

I can sit and knit and enjoy the weather at the same time. BUT not at home ....

I have to go to WORK!

Rain, rain, rain gO aWaY !

Away, away, away! Yes, we need fresh water to drink and our plants need it too. BuT thiS is tO mucH WaTer. Not only that, it's RIDICULOUS !! We could drown in it. Our gardens can drown too. It rained this past weekend. Not heavy. But it was gray & misty ... dreary. No sun. Now i's PoUriNg AGAIN! The weather man shows more rain right up through this Saturday .... 90% rain on Saturday. I want to sit outside and then it rAiNs aGaIn. WHERE's the SuN? Who's hogging it all? I want the SUNshiNe for awhile in New England ... plaaaa--leeeasssse!

Okay, enough ranting ... I have knitting to do.
And pictures of knitting tHiNgS too ...

I started this yesterday before Blogger went down ... and it's STILL raining!!

First, I want to show off my new markers from Rabbitch. Scroll down and find her link on the left of where she sells her markers. I found out about her from Two Wooden Sticks and yes they are beautiful markers. Much prettier than the way they look in the picture. I think I took a dozen pictures before I got one good enough to show you.


I finally did it ... joined a sock club!

The Blue Moon Fiber Arts 2006 Rockin' Sock Club.

Here's the first shipment ... which came while I was on vacation and I just started the cuff yesterday on this "Rock and Weave" sock. I'm following the pattern they sent. Mainly because the idea of me joining was to try out different styles of socks as well as new yarns. So I'm learning as I go. This sock has a Linen Weave pattern at the ankle. I like it .... cute!


Here's a close up of the Weave (right side)


and here's a picture of the back (wrong side).
What surprised me ... is that I like the wrong side as much as the right side. What do you think? The right side is flat and the wrong side is more bumpy. But I like the way the color flows and the texture is nice too.


Opps, that's the right side again ... here's the back side. Yup, I think I like the wrong side just as much as the right side of the Linen Stitch. And I still like the way the colors fall too.

Is that called 'pooling'? Where the colors fall where they want and not where you dictate them to?


Then last but not least ... I'm still working on the socks for Nicky. One third of the way done, but getting there. I only work on it while traveling on the train or waiting in an office or at MIT's SnB on Thursdays. It's simple knitting to me now and easy to travel with.

Did you notice the book? Well you "know you knit to much" when you start reading murder mysteries about knitting, LOL ... or any book that "you hear has a character in it that knits" as the Yarn Harlot says. And guess what ... I only read in bed ... otherwise ...

I'm knitting!

What a difference a few days make!

And since these pictures were taken a couple of days ago, the Peonies are now blooming also. I'm going to cut a few to put on the back table to smell while I knit this weekend. I'll just have to pray for sunshine. We've had a lot of rain lately. In case you're wondering ... I do have some knitting items to show you. Well really ... things I've received in the mail that pretain to knitting. But I didn't like the way the pictures came out, so I'll retake them & post tomorrow. Time is slipping away ... I better get busy at work.

Lot's still to do before the wicked can rest.