Ta Da

*Apologies in advance for the crappy quality of photos. It's very dark and rainy today, and I'm not exactly a professional photographer. My poor little camera can only do so much, and I'm not too great with the photo editing either.*

So this is being written and posted much later than I had anticipated. Oh well, that's what happens when life gets in the way. This past Saturday, I finished knitting the FLS. Sunday, I sewed in the ends and attached the buttons. Ta da!
Sorry it's not a live action shot, but I didn't manage to get a pic of me wearing it, Sunday or Tuesday. Next time. I love it! It's so perfect and comfortable. To all you knitters out there reading - knit one, trust me, you'll love it.

I got around to finishing the first Upstream sock on Tuesday night at SnB. Fits perfectly. Just need to get around to the second one...
I know I said I would get it done by the end of last week, but I was distracted by this.
Stimulating, right? How could you not be distracted from a fun crazy colored sock when there is charcoal and white yarn to be had? (Note: that sentence was dripping with sarcasm, in case you hadn't noticed) Seriously though, I spent most of Sunday knitting a super secret project with the grey and white yarn, thus ignoring my sock. And if you could see the pattern, you'd understand my delight and fascination.

That's all of the super secret project that you will see for a while on this blog - due to the fact that the recipient of super secret project is a regular reader. Really wish I could show it to you because it makes me feel all clever and cool, but it's not fun to spoil the Christmas surprise. That's right, I just said Christmas. The holiday knitting has commenced here at Annie's House of Yarn and Pointy Sticks. Look out.**

It's not all gift knitting though. Because this week has been especially trying on the professional level, I treated myself to a happy knit. I cast on the Hidecote Garden Shawl, using my recently acquired Jojoland Melody yarn.
Isn't it so pretty? It makes me happy just looking at it. When I get a little farther, I'll pin it out to show you the stitch pattern. Click on the link above if you can't wait that long.

And in more recent yarn acquistion news, I got enough of this,
Valley Yarns "Northhampton" in Dark Green Heather, for a sweater. I think that having at least one sweater's worth of yarn in the stash at all times is important. And as reward for using my stash yarn for the FLS (I got the Cascade in 2006) I let myself order some yarn for me when I purchased Ellie's birthday present (no photo, but I got her enough Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Raspberry, to make her own FLS).
The color isn't really showing up very true here, but I love the greeny heathery-ness of this yarn. Now all I have to do is find the perfect pattern....

And now for the yarn I'm currently drooling over...
Fleece Artist Trail sock in "Hercules". O. M. G. This yarn, is so amazingly gorgeous and rich and deep in color, I can't even explain it to you. This is my first Fleece Artist yarn, I found it at Simply Sock Yarn Company, and had to have it. It was the first time I'd seen this line of yarn from them, it's 80% merino 20% nylon (which is what I like for my socks), previously I'd only seen 100% merino yarn which I hesitate to use for socks due to the wear and tear they are subjected to. The nylon gives that bit of strength to make them last longer. I had to unskein it to try to convey to you it's true beauty.

As for spinning news, there isn't much. I haven't been doing much spinning lately. I got most of the Wander done though. It's about 230 yards.
And you'll notice that ball of singles next to it, that's what was left over on one bobbin after plying. Guess I wasn't so even after all. I'm working up to trying to ply it, but my history of plying from a ball is not so good, and I am procrastinating, big time.

Alright, that's it. That's all I've got. Big weekend ahead - homecoming is tomorrow at work, ND plays Michigan, Liz and I are going to the Indians game tomorrow night, Mason's birthday party on Sunday afternoon, and THE game, Steelers-Browns, is Sunday night. I'm busting out my Roethlisburger jersey and Steeler socks for the occasion!

**Family members - if there is something you would like me to knit for you for this holiday season, please place requests now. These things take time. All unreasonable requests will be laughed at, and dirty looks will ensue.

As Promised

Wow, a second blog post in the same week! It's getting wild and crazy over here. But I promised photos in the last blog and I wanted to make good. So first up, the Wander Corriedale. More than half of it is plied at this point, and it's coming out great.
To stay with the fiber theme, here's the progress on the February Lady Sweater (FLS from this point on, I'm lazy)
And the lace detail.
The color isn't very true in either of the photos. Sorry about that. I'm also being lazy about my photo shoots today. And now for the other craft that I dabble in. The scrapbook pages. These are all of the recent OBX Family Vacation. Click them to make them bigger if you'd like.
And that's about it. There's more pages to do, and I'll get to them soon, I hope.

Bad Blogger Me

I am a bad blogger. I have been told by my brother - who is blogless. How dare I not post every 3 days? My only explanation is that I haven't had anything blogworthy lately. Not much knitting, not much to report about work.

Tommy came home last Wednesday night. Last weekend, I went down to States for the baseball game. It was a heartbreaker. Up 4-3 going into the bottom of the 7th, and the guys lost 5-4. It was very sad, and disappointing, but there's always next year - as any Cleveland sports fan knows.

On my way home on Saturday, I had a bit of car trouble. A new light started blinking. We all know how much I love to see an odd light on in my dashboard. It was the "Check Transaxle" light. So I called home from a rest area and was told to add transmission fluid. Okay. Mile and a half down the highway is the first exit. Okay. Four different gas stations. Okay. The Shell has transmission fluid. Okay.

And an hour and a half later, the fluid was finally added. I won't go into the details. It would take too long. I just have to say thank goodness for Steve at the tractor/riding lawn mower service station who came to my rescue.

Saturday was Mom's birthday, so we went out to dinner at Smoky Bones and then had ice cream cake. Had a cookout on Sunday and Tuesday nights so people could come over and spend some time with Tommy.

Yesterday, I went to the Riverfront Irish Fest with Bridget Chris and Kaylee. No pictures - I took my camera, but managed to forget my memory card. But it was good to get out for some Guinness and good music. Can't wait for Berea.

And now for the lackluster knitting content. I finally managed to finish plying up the "Mother of Pearl" roving. Here it is.270 yards of fingering weight-ish yarn. I haven't done the wraps/inch so I'm not entirely sure on the weight yet.

At some point in the last couple of weeks, I managed to finish spinning up the first 2 oz. of the "Wander" Corriedale roving. This is what it looks like.
I prepped the second half of the roving today, and now just need to wait until it's cool enough so I don't felt it while spinning.

And here's the only knitting progress I've got to show. I've passed the heels on the Noro socks.

See, no longer Hokie like. Alright, that's it. Just wanted to drop a note in case anyone was worried.