Snowy New England

With many, many thanks to Jessica, I present the completed pair of New England Socks. (Appreciate these photos - I braved single digit temperatures to get pictures with real sunlight!)

The fit is wonderful and the yarn - I can't rave enough about the yarn. Cherry Tree Hill Supersock - it comes in tons of great, saturated solids that you can't find elsewhere. The twist is tight, it holds up great and it's super soft. Just raves here.

After finishing this single sock, I'm down to these two to finish.

Water in Two Forms

Sunday was another big storm for us. It came down in freezing rain, and snow all day. Another 4" was piled on top of what we already had. Lucky for us, we had no where to go and just had to stay toasty warm inside and enjoy watching from the window. Unfortunately, the turkeys had no such warm place to be.

They were out eating the berries again. Hunger doesn't stop for the weather! Oh, and thanks to Bella, I learned that a group of turkeys are collectively called a rafter. Who came up with this stuff??

On Saturday, even though air temperatures were in the 30's, hubby went scuba diving down in Rhode Island. He wanted to try out his new underwater camera and I have to say, he got some great shots. My favorite is this one, but for me this is a close one for winner also. He's so cute. He has a drysuit, so he doesn't get wet at all which really helps after he gets out of the water. He takes off his suit, and he's in dry clothes. The buddy he went diving with had a wetsuit and had to come out of the water soaked and strip down to get into dry clothes. Brrrrr.

Speaking of brrrr, the weather when I headed into work this morning was not making me happy.

The wind was horrible. I had my scarf wrapped around my head and neck and the only thing peeking out were my eyes. Brutal. I am ready for Spring!

The dogs, however, loved being out in the snow.

I took these last night after the snow kind of let up a little. Poor Ace - he is in way over his head! I went around the yard and stomped a path for them. With the freezing rain we got, the top of the snow is really hard - almost painful - to walk through. I busted through with my shins and they are sore! They are calling for another storm on Friday. I can't wait.

All that inclement weather did help my knitting progress though.....

Hopefully if it dries some FO shots tomorrow. We also did a ton of reorganizing in the spare bedrooms. Lots of trash generated along with a bag full of clothes to give to charity. Stuff went up into the attic and we weeded out lots that we just didn't need anymore. It was great.

Beginnings and Middles

I feel stuck in the middle with these New England Socks. They travel with me to work every day, and sit by the sofa at night just waiting for some attention. The first beautiful sock comes with me in the knitting bag to remind me of my goal. It has been slow and steady with this one. Knitting time the past few months has just been very sparse. Happily, I did make some progress last night. We have passed the gusset and are deep in the throws of foot knitting!

The color makes me happy just looking at it. Officially halfway done (three diamond repeats done, three to go!), my desire to just sit down and finish is strong. With the weather forecast that we are having, I think Mother Nature is helping out to keep me housebound. (from the National Weather Service)

A SHORT DURATION BUT HIGH IMPACT SNOWFALL WILL AFFECT MASSACHUSETTS... ESPECIALLY AREAS ALONG AND SOUTH OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE...THURSDAY AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 TO 12 INCHES ARE LIKELY...WITH MOST OF THE SNOW FALLING IN A 6 HOUR PERIOD.

Us - we are south of the Massachusetts Turnpike. Lucky! The snow is supposed to start around noon time and come down at over an inch an hour for a while. We get a break tomorrow and Saturday, but a really big storm is winding in for Saturday night and Sunday. I'm thinking Sunday may be a perfect stay in my PJ's all day kind of day. I can't remember the last one of those I had! We are doing a lot of re-organizing in the house, and we really need a day to just concentrate and get it done. Fingers crossed we get a whopper of a storm.

The yoke sweater (I will come up with a more creative name) got some knitting time the other night. The fabric that the Kimmet Croft yarn is creating is just wonderful. With the angora content (it's a 75% merino, 25% angora) it has a little bit of a halo, but not bad at all. It will bloom wonderfully when it's finally done and soaking.

I am done with about three-quarters of the waist decreases, then it will be tried on for fit and I'll knit the straight waist section. It's a mish mash of patterns - the Sugarplum pullover, Mrs. Zimmerman's famous EPS system, as well as the Yoke Sweater pattern from the ever Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. With all that conglomeration, hopefully it will come out fitting well!

I used a tubular cast on as I'm not sure what I'm doing with the hem yet. I would love to do a contrasting trim hem, but I'm not sure about my yarn amounts. Now, I don't have to worry - I can wait and do it at the end! (the green is a nice contrast though, huh?) My yoke plans are still a little up in the air, but I have come up with a few designs I like. Colors and final patterns are still in the works.

I'm off to get as much work done as I can before the first flakes fly!

Starting Over

The Cable Down sweater is no more. I only had about 10 rounds done, and I couldn't resist the lure of the yoke. So, I frogged and set out looking for a pattern. Basically, a simple yoke sweater with stranded colorwork at the yoke and bottoms of the sleeves with contrasting trim. Simple, right? Well, my search for patterns turned up a couple that are usable. EZ's percentage system is pretty failproof and is a great basic pattern. Also, the yoke sweater from the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns is another nice template to work off of. I'm probably going to combine them for my own little formula.

As far as a colorwork pattern, I don't really need to worry about that until I get to the yoke, and I have a whole body to knit, so I'm still looking. I'm not sure if I want to do something simple with one standout color, a la Adrian, or something with more colors, like many of the ones shown here. I did find a few colors that I liked together. A bit retro maybe, but definitely my "fall color" taste.

The brown is a rich, chocolate brown and the orange is Trekking (I'd use it doubled). Originally I had just thought of using the Trekking by itself as a simple pattern at the yoke. Then, my sister liked the multicolored yokes so much I did some stash diving. I have the most of the brown, so I may do cuffs/trim in that. We'll see what kind of yoke pattern I can come up with. For now, I'm happily knitting away around and around....

This weekend was also my mom's birthday. We had a great time doing our new favorite pastime - Wii bowling!

The whole family played and we had a blast. Bowling is my favorite Wii activity so far - I really stink at Tennis and some of the other games, but hubby is nice enough to play along with me and get plenty of experience points by kicking my butt. Practice will help, I know. After playing a bunch on the Wii, all the boys crashed.

My sister, the cake maker in the family, made my mom a special "top only" cake. She, like me, loves the top part of an unfrosted cake - the part that unfortunately usually sticks to the foil or other covering. At least this time the cake didn't stick.

Just most of the writing! By all accounts it tasted just as good though. Happy Birthday Mom!

Even though it was her birthday, mom brought me a little giftie.

One can never have too many of these box bags, can we? It is a perfect size for socks or a starting sweater. It will be going with me to Boston this weekend for sure!

I did work a bit more on the New England socks - the heel flap is in progress! I can't wait to wear these. Especially now that it is really handknit sock season! We got a few inches of snow last night along with a bunch of freezing rain on top of it. A mess. But, now it's at least pretty out!

Finally Friday

It feels like it was a long week. Even though I had Monday off, for some reason that didn't really help. We had a brief warm snap on Tuesday, but then we plunged right back into winter. It's supposed to be in the upper 20's tomorrow. Toasty.

I have managed to squeeze in some knitting time. The Cable Down Raglan is on the needles and about 10 rows into the pattern. I am using my new KnitPicks Options needles and really loving them. My only problem - a bit of knitters uncertainty. You see, for a while now I have been craving a stranded yoke sweater. Lately, it seems like beautiful ones are popping up everywhere.

The simplicity of a mostly stockinette sweater combined with some pretty shaping (a la Hourglass sweater) and a colorful yoke - how could it get better? Then, the other day Lolly posted her finished Aftur. Sigh. How can a knitter resist? Then, I saw Whitney post progress on her Bohus in progress. The beige and light blue contrasting trim. Geez. I was in trouble. Looking at the yarn I was using for the Cable Down - it was almost the same color. Light blue - I have that in the stash. Now the quandry. Do I continue with the Cable Down, or send it to a meeting with the ball winder and start thinking about a yoke pattern? I only have 1200 yards of the beige and it is a DK weight - I'm getting about 22 sts/4" right now on my size 7 needles. Resources are plentiful for finding a pattern. I just have to get some time to look. Many a single ball of colorful yarn exists in my stash, so I'm sure I can find some compatible skeins. What to do?

Knit on my sock. Slowly (oh so slowly!) the second New England sock is coming along.

While not a mindless knit, once you are into the pattern, it is pretty intuitive. The size 0 needles (thanks Jess!) are a first for me. They have been sitting unused until now. All in all, they really don't feel that different then 1's (what's .25mm?). Having to knit only one is quite a load off though. Kristy put it perfectly when she said that this swap provided "The excitement of knitting a first sock with the ease of knitting a second". Brilliant.

And, to help with spending some of that holiday cash, I saw today on Kathy's blog (of WEBS fame) that they now carry Kureyon Sock Yarn! It is now on pre-order as it hasn't actually arrived yet, but look at those colors! Speaking of colors, they are also going to be carrying the Kauni Multicolor yarn that is responsible for such fantastic color changes seen here, here, here and here. Some of this will be coming home with me soon I'm sure! I feel a road trip coming on!

Reunion

We had a great time at the agility trial this weekend. Ace got to see his sister, Gracie for the first time since she left.

L to R: Zeke, Ace and Gracie

She has really caught up size-wise. Little runt no more! She is within a few pounds of Ace (who recently tipped the scales at 19 lbs!) They had such a great time playing, running and doing tons of wrestling. A friend of ours also had her Aussie puppy at the trial, so he joined in the fun too!

Ace is the odd man out being the only black tri in a sea of blue merles! Lots of play time made for some exhausted puppies. It was great!

Tucker did well also - two Excellent Jumpers qualifying rounds. It took us a day to get back in the groove, but there were some very hard courses.

After picking up some books at the library the other day, I did want to recommend two that I thought had some wonderful content and information. Both have gone onto my holiday list!

Vegetables Every Day is like an encyclopedia of veggies. How to pick them, store them, cook them (recipes included) all arranged in alphabetical order. A wonderful resource.

Greens Glorious Greens focuses on the leafy greens that are plentiful in spring and fall. I know I had a very hard time coming up with new ways to use Swiss Chard and Kale or even what to do with Mustard Greens. This book has tons of recipes and also gives tips on growing greens. I highly recommend both!

Knitting continues on the second New England sock. I'm about halfway down the leg. Progress is very slow. It's a bit frustrating as I'm really enjoying knitting on it when I can steal a little bit of time when Ace is asleep.

Since I can't seem to finish much knitting these days, take a look at Steph's Deep V Sweater and Lolly's Aftur. Both are in my queue. I love the fact that Lolly used thrift store yarn! What a great way to get all those colors!

Adoration

Our early Thanksgiving celebration down in Maryland was wonderful. Having the family together is always nice - we don't get to do it nearly often enough. Ace did wonderful on the long drive down. He was happy chewing on the rawhide in his crate. Tucker, Ace and I went to a nearby agility trial on Saturday. Aside from the fact I forgot my coat and it was a chilly 40 degrees out, we had a great time. The courses were fun, and I got to expose Ace to all the noises, sights and smells of a trial. Tucker did super duper great. A first and two third places for the four runs I did. One of the third place ribbons was for a qualifying run for next years Nationals. He loves running in the cold, brisk weather. It gives him a great spark of energy! We have a three day trial this upcoming weekend indoors. The "Thanksgiving Cluster" as it is known is always a huge social occasion in the agility world here in New England. There is both breed shows as well as agility, and plenty of shopping opportunities! It's one of my favorite trials of the year.

Both of my cousins, age 4 and 6 fell in love with Ace (how could you not?). Especially S - when she was awake, she was playing with him. Running around pulling one of his tug toys that he would chase. Both of them were pretty worn out by the end of the weekend. At dinner on Saturday, she presented me with a book she made for Ace. Per her instructions, I was to read it to him every day to remind him of her and the fun time they had.

My favorite page is the back. His little nub tail! She is so creative I just can't get over it.

I did manage to do a little knitting (very little!). I have done about 10 rows of the mate for the first New England sock. The pattern is really nice. Just enough challenge to keep me interested, but once you are into it, easy to follow along.

Knitting progress of all kinds has really crept to a halt since Ace's arrival. I know it's only a temporary setback, but a little frustrating all the same. There are so many things I want to knit! Yesterday, Rachel posted about her fabulous new FO. Wow. Cables and a fitted shape. Am I ever smitten. I had seen the pattern for the Cable Down Raglan when I got the Spring 2007 IK. I liked it and bookmarked it (along with about 10 other things) but didn't really think again about it. When I saw that she only used about 800 yards for it, a lightbulb went off.

This is some Kimmet Croft Softie (website has gone kaplunkt since I got it) - a merino/angora mix that is super soft and blooms nicely. The gauge for a swatch I got was 21/4" - spot on for the Cable Down Raglan! I have 1200 yards, so it should be plenty. Now I just have to find the time to cast on!

Afflicted

Seems like after doing the Single Sock Swap, and seeing many other very happy single sockkers, I seem to have been infected. After making my single sock for the swap, it felt a little liberating. While waiting for my single sock to come, I started a simple top down stockinette sock from the much coveted Sock Hop Yarn. The colorway is Crazy Love and I fell Crazy in Love with it for sure. Soft, springy and the colors....

It made perfect plane knitting and I got the entire leg done on the flight out to Arizona. I should also mention that this ENTIRE sock was knit Continental style!! I am normally an English knitter - I carry the yarn in my right hand, but when I do stranded colorwork, I knit with both hands. A plain stockinette sock I thought was a great place to practice some left handed carrying. Now, I am much more comfortable with it and my gauge is a bit looser as well. I am kind of disappointed I didn't do it toe up. There is quite a bit of yarn left - I bet I could have made them knee socks! I do have something in mind for the leftovers though....

I did make good progress on it this weekend. (I'm getting much better at juggling the puppy/knitting balance...)

So, with my single sock received, and my first sock hop sock done, what is a girl to do? So, in a leap to the dark side I cast on for the second New England sock. Leaving the Sock Hop Sock alone for now. Yes, a single sock resides with me now. And I don't feel a lick of angst or guilt.

While I was taking up Continental knitting and watching hundreds of dogs do agility, hubby was quite busy as well. My van is now a fully fashioned doggie mobile.

The pups now ride in style! There is plenty of room for my big ol' zero gravity chair as well as water and anything else I may need for a weekend of trialing. He did such a great job. The platform is really sturdy, and it is in two pieces so I can remove it easily if I want. Otis especially likes traveling in a crate much more so than riding loose. He has so far willingly jumped into the crate in the van versus me chasing him around the house to get him into it! Much less stressful!

That wasn't the end of it. Hubby has a great love of doing projects or getting things to surprise me while I'm gone. One year he built me a garden, one year he put in a brick front walkway. He not only built the platform for the van, but we got this!

A new kitchen table! It's huge! A large, square, maple barstool height with eight different color microsuede seats on the stools. Love it. We had looked at this one eons ago, but it just wasn't a good fit at the time. I still can't believe we have it! I spent quite a bit of time at it this weekend. The stools are super comfy and perfect for doing some knitting while sipping my new favorite weekend morning brew.

Mount Hagen Instant Organic Decaf Coffee! I found this while wandering around the Sprouts store that was down the street from the hotel in Scottsdale. I got it then as we had no coffee maker. Before we left I went and got another jar so I could take it home. It makes quite a great cuppa joe.

Since I haven't put any puppy pictures up in a while, I figured I was due - Ace turned 12 weeks old on Sunday and is growing like crazy.

He can now jump into the van by himself and is doing very well with his training. We started puppy kindergarten class last week and will also be doing breed handling to practice when he goes into the show ring. Tucker and Otis seem to have adjusted - Otis has even started playing with him! A little rough, but they seem to have become buddies.

We are all headed down to Maryland later this week for our annual "Faux Thanksgiving". Since nobody likes to drive on Thanksgiving weekend, we celebrate it the weekend before! Plus, it coincides with the Sugarloaf Craft Festival and I've also entered Tucker in one day of agility trials in the area. Busy Busy!

Pretty in Pink

I was going to post about my trip to Arizona, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Much more important things came up to be posted about today! My Single Sock Swap package came!

It was sitting on the counter when I got home from the airport on Monday. The contents - perfect! The funniest thing is, when I opened it and found out who my pal was, I was so excited. Jessica and I have been blog buddies for quite a while now. Coming from her, this sock is all the more special!

I'll give the details of the sock after, but the rest of the package contained some dark chocolate squares, a skein of very sunny, soft, happy yarn from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm and a great big sheepy toy for the dogs! It's hilarious - around it's collar it says "Sheep on the Lamb". Very cute.

The sock. I can't say enough about this sock. The yarn - one of my all time favorites. Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in a great Hot Pink. It is the same yarn and color I used for the Turkish Stockings. Jessica was worried about giving me a yarn and color I've already used, but like I said - the yarn is pretty much my all time favorite and I think it does the pattern well. The pattern - she picked a winner. The New England Socks by Nancy Bush from Knitting on the Road. I have had this sock in my queue for a very long time. Turns out she checked out my queue on Ravelry and saw these as #1 on my list! The fit - couldn't be better!

They are incredible. I love how she tied them up with the rest of the yarn. A neat little bundle of sock joy.

She also included really great notes as to any modifications she made so I can duplicate the pattern in the second sock. I can't wait to start! Thank you Jessica!!