Morning walk

This is the scene in July heading down the street to the river trail. I am so lucky to live so close that I can walk to the river trail in just a few minutes. And the walk is so beautiful and lush this time of year.

For about the last two weeks we've had daytime temperatures in the 80s and 90s and I am loving it! I can walk out at 6:30 in the morning in short-sleeved t-shirt.

A beautiful house with lovely landscaping. The trees are full, the flowers are bright, and the roses are climbing right up the side of the house.
And heading back home through the lush, summer streets. I try to make the most of it now and go out twice a day because I know in a few short months, not only will it not look so lush, the temperature will be about 45 degrees cooler. I hope it stays in the 90s for as long as possible. It makes the evening temps in the 70s which is so lovely.

Its getting interesting

The summer sweater is taking shape, the arm-holes and beginnings of sleeves have been constructed. I am so impressed by this pattern and am loving knitting it in the round without adding sleeves.

You just bind off some stitches to make the beginning of an armhole and then cast on a few more the next round to begin the sleeve cap, so easy! I can't wait to see how the collar part is constructed. I am so impressed by this design and want to hug the designer. Here is a close up of the sleeve.

Stay cool today!

A little bit

I have a little bit of the scarf done.

I took this photo w/o flash so the true colors would show but its a little fuzzy so its hard to see the stitch pattern. A later photo will show that. But see how many pretty colors are in the yarn?! And can you tell how fuzzy the mohair makes it?

I forgot to set my alarm so I woke up a half hour late - thanks to Charlie the dog who groaned in his sleep at a good time. Later, I poured chunky, sour milk over my cereal even though the carton said 'use by 7/30'. Its not 7/30 yet, is it? It must be Monday.

YAY!

The mail lady finally brought my July scarf club kit, it arrived yesterday. I was on my way out to walk the dog and I squealed so loud at the mailbox that I could be heard from inside the house. (I haven't been looking too forward to getting this.;-)

This month we have a skein of Nashua Handknits Geologie - 37% Acrylic, 33% Mohair, and 30% Wool - 50 g/142 yards - worsted weight.

The colorway is NGE6261 (how boring, I would call it Tidepool) which is a mix of deep purple, ocean blue, moss green, and a dark amber. The plies are mixed colors due to the fiber blend which makes a very interesting color blend.

The pattern is a variation on the feather and fan stitch using #8 needles. This one looks like it will be more of a warm, cozy scarf. And it has a nice 10 row repeat, just right for a little daily knitting in short blocks of time.

I voted

In honor of the first-ever Sock Summit being held right here in our own beautiful state in Portland, August 6 - 9th, Ravelry is holding a contest for dyers of hand-dyed sock yarn. I voted for a skein in each category, including but not limited to Kettle-dyed, primary, random striping, and others. There are some gorgeous yarns in a variety of colors all skillfully hand-dyed by very talented dyers. This beautiful skein is dyed by the people at Frog Creek Fibers who can be found at http://www.frogcreekfibers.etsy.com/.

It sounds like Sock Summit is the brain child of Stephanie Pearl-McFee and Tina from another Oregon celebrity, Blue Moon Fiber Arts. This is such a huge event that registration for classes crashed the server and once it was back up and running, it sold out pretty much right away. Registration for classes has been closed for awhile but anyone can attend the Marketplace at the convention center where many yarn vendors and others from all over the world (there is a vendor from Britain) will be selling their wares. I plan on going up to Portland on Saturday morning just to check out the Marketplace. After looking at the yarns in the contest on Ravelry, I can't wait to see them in person! My other new favorite, Three Irish Girls, will be there.

The mailbox is still empty so I've been working on my summer sweater and as par for the course, I've made a pretty big error. I was supposed to begin the body increase at 7 inches up but knit all the way until 12 inches before I realized. I do not want to pull out all the tedious stockinette so I've done a quick and dirty increase at 12 and will still go ahead and begin the arm-holes just past 14 and see how it goes. Knitting in the round makes these 'design-element' changes a little more flexible, I hope.

Who is Somerset. . . ?

. . . and why is she so crafty?

I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday looking for the book Visual Chronicles (it seems there is no underline feature on my toolbar - so imagine those italics are actually underlined) by Linda Woods and Karen Dinino. This is a book about creative journaling about which I heard a review by Lime and Violet (of the podcast of the same name.) This book is older, (as was the podcast I heard the review on) published in 2006 and is now out of print - I know, already?

So I did not get to look at the book but instead saw these magazines about paper-crafting, inspired living, and artful blogging. They looked very intriguing so, while I'm waiting for yarn-y goodness to be delivered to my mailbox, I will look through these magazines and get inspired.

Waiting for the mail

I'm waiting, not very patiently, for my July scarf of the month. Its the 21st of the month and it will be a challenge to finish a scarf by the end of the month if I don't receive it soon.

I'm also waiting to get my first sock club shipment. That one I know won't ship until the end of the month so I don't have the expectation and that helps me be a little more patient. I'm just excited to get yarn in the mail!

I'm excited too to have a small project to work on in between the endless stockinette stitch body of the summer sweater. I think it helps it go more quickly when you can break it up into smaller chunks.

I better go check the mailbox, I think Charity Kitty left a present for the mail lady as a bribe.

10 is a magic number

Conner is 10 today.

The cheerful, enthusiastic, agreeable boy who loves football, maps, cooking . . . a million different divergent things. A child that I feel I can completely understand because he seems to share my brain, the way I think.

He is a Cancer just like me, born eight days after my own birthday. Sunny and sometimes a little disorganized slow on the uptake, we make up for it by happily going along with other people's ideas, without complaint.

He loves life and is ready for anything.

Happy Birthday to my big boy.

Summer sweater

I'm working (slowly) on a t-shirt style sweater for the summer made out of Knit Pick's Shine Sport (60% Pima cotton, 40% modal).

I thought this might be a quick knit but I figured that without figuring in summer itself. Every night is so full of activity, there is no time for sitting and knitting. And there is no lunch-time knitting this week as I am taxi-service for my knit-wear model's Orchestra camp.

The sweater is patterned after the Pleat-front top in Knitsimple's spring/summer 09 issue. I'm adding an edging at the bottom hem for interest and to make it a bit longer. I like this pattern since it can be knit in the round. I haven't had much luck so far with sweaters that have to be knit in pieces and seamed up. I am hoping this will go as well as the Olympic Challenge project I completed last summer - same type of knit-in-the-round t-shirt pattern and in the same yarn.

Maybe it will be done before summer is.

Charity kitty and a cup of coffee help me blog early in the morning.

June's scarf

June's scarf is finished, washed, blocked, and ends woven in. My knit-wear model shows it off. Its a very nice design and a pretty color but its not a warm, soft and cozy scarf. The silk yarn is a little stiff but its perfect to show off the design.

I enjoyed knitting this scarf, it was a good project to work on a little at a time. Good summer knitting.

Now I'm ready for this month's scarf challenge, I can't wait to see what it is.

Charity Kitty relaxes in her pool. Its going to be hot today.

Lunch-time knitting

Now that the weather is warm enough to sit outside during the day, my favorite thing to do for lunch is go to the park and knit. I pick a park near the river so I can see water and people enjoying themselves, I sit on a park bench, and get out my knitting. Its peaceful and yet, I feel like I'm part of the fun that everyone is having.

I can watch the rafters walking through the park with their boats, launch them, and head down river. I can watch the little kids splashing on the edge of the water. I can usually catch a game of frisbee or watch other lunch-time people reading and eating. Its nice to be part of it all and yet seperate and doing your own thing. I get a little knitting done and I get some outside time to balance out the rest of my day inside a building.

The only bad part about it is that I wish lunch-time was longer and that I didn't have to go back to work.

Multi-crafting

I was inspired by Nicole and Jenny from the Stash and Burn podcast to pull out my sewing machine. These are knitters who are expanding their interest to include sewing and other crafts. Listening to them always fills me with creativity.

They talked about sewing on their last podcast and recommended a few easy patterns, one of them being 'The 5 minute skirt'. I thought that sounded like somethig I could accomplish so I went to the fabric store and purchased some fabric and sat down with my sewing machine. It took longer for me to get my machine threaded properly than it did to complete the skirt, although it was still much longer than five mintues! But, I made myself a garment and I'm so proud!

Fresh off that accomplishment, I was lured to the fabric store again and I picked up a pattern for little-girl sundresses. A customer at the fabric store answered a sizing question for me and told me it would be easy. She even offered that I call her if I had any questions while I was at it, so I came home to begin with confidence. I was actually able to figure out how to use the pattern and I made a sundress for each of the girls.

They turned out well and are so cute on them. I bought fabric to make each of them a '5 minute skirt' as well. Next step is to measure them for their skirt pattern.

Sewing feels a little more like work to me than knitting but the sense of accomplishment when a piece is finished is enormous. I am inspired to keep going for more challenging projects and really expand my, and the girl's, wardrobe.

Wednesday night knitting group

I went to my Wednesday night knitting group last night for the first time in about a year. It was nice to see all the old knitting friends again and meet a few new ones. The place the group meets now is a comfortable, used book store with a coffee counter. Its an inviting place and its nice to be able to order a cup of tea. There is a big room upstairs with a long table which the knitters gather around. Customers come upstairs to see more books and I ran into an old friend who I hadn't seen in years this way. She was surprised to see a group of knitters chatting away as she came upstairs but we were happy to connect.

I meant to take a picture of the group but I forgot so I found this copy of an old painting of a group of knitters on-line to use as a graphic.

Even though knitting can be a solitary endeavor, its nice to be part of a group like this to get inspired in your craft and have a social outlet. I'm quiet so I don't converse much but I love to listen to people's conversations and get ideas for new projects. Several people had made the French Market bag and I was able to look at one up close. They were so cute, I think I'd like to make one or more. It would be a great gift - everyone can use them for grocery bags or to carry all sorts of things.

I'm glad to be able to be back with the group and hopefully will be able to attend every other week now.

Three Irish Girls

I came across this yarn company in an on-line advertisement and I've never seen such beautiful photo marketing of yarn as they do. (See their photo to the left) Three Irish Girls is a fairly new (within the year) on-line, hand-dyed yarn company. They have clubs - stash clubs and sock clubs. And a web site full of drop-dead, knock-down beautiful photos of yarn in just amazing colorways! There is a blog - Yarnista - that tells the story of their beginnings, I've just read a bit so far.

I fell so in love with their yarn that I had to join the sock club. I've never joined a sock club before, but I've wanted to. Most sock clubs I find are too expensive to pay all at once but don't have an option for monthly memebership - this one does. You also get to choose from two color options each month and they send you little goodies in between the yarn. I'm so excited!

I've gone from never-joined-anything to joining two different yarn clubs in two months. It must be that I'm getting old - 40 is only two days away.

Scarf of the month

In June I joined Patternworks 'Scarf of the month club'. Its the first 'joiner' thing I've done and I'm excited for the challenge. I am going to try to finish each monthly project before the next one arrives.

This club sends you a scarf pattern and a different type of yarn to make the pattern each month. It sounds like the pattern and yarn will stay seasonal so cooler fiber and smaller designs for the summer. June's selection was Nashua's Creative Focus Silk, a 100% silk yarn in a sea-foam green. The pattern is a 22 row lace repeat in a diamond pattern that repeats about 14 times to make the scarf. This will be a very decorative scarf.

The end of school and beginning of summer have been very busy on the kid and job front but I'm hoping that I have settled into a summer schedule now that will allow me more time for blog posts. I LOVE the warm weather and all the light. Morning walks and lunch-time park sitting are in the plans for the forseeable future!