I have been home sick for the last two days. With all the knitting time I've managed to finish two small things! Woohoo! The socks are knit from some Opal I bought years ago. I knit the first sock on bamboo DP's and hated them so bad I put the sock away. I knit the second one with my favorite metal needles and it went much better. Makes me wonder why I waited so long! I'm not sure if I'll keep these or give them away. The scarf is Argosy from Knitty. I loved this pattern! In my cold medicine fogged brain, I decided thatMike, one of my dobes would make a cute model. He didn't understand why I was humiliating him but he was good natured about it!. The scarf will be put away as a Christmas present, I think.

Well, I have been hard at work. I have been working diligently on my shawl. I almost have clue 4 done and hopefully will have it done tonight. the shawl is the giant grey blob in the fist picture, You really can't tell what it really looks like yet from the picture. When It is all done, I promise to post a picture. Then I have a pair of socks for my daughter beside the shawl.
The second picture is of the completed pair of tube socks that was originally intended for my son, but I made them to small and they ended up being my 2 year olds. Oops. I promise him a pair of socks and I have some yarn on the way. hopefully to arive by the beginning of next week.

Happy knitting
Pam in Iowa
Mom to Autumn 7, Hunter 4 1/2, Trinity 2
http://knittingmomofaSIDchild.blogspot.com

Spinning Weekend

Yippee, the kitchen is finally finished. Now I can start to work on my fiber UFO's. This weekend I'm going to a spinners getaway. My Mom's going to bring DH's scarf (yes, she's a spinner too) and that is first priority. Once I get that out of the way, I can work on my berry colored wool for my sweater. I'm going to take some other stuff also, but after that scarf I don't know how much more knitting I'll be up for.

Karen in northern MI

What Makes a UFO? (update) And Answers

Okay, due-dates help, right? So, the due-date for the "what makes a UFO" contest is now officially 3/3/2007. On 3/4/2007 I'll check over all the entries, put names in a hat, and have someone here (a cat, if need be) draw one. Prize: one lovely blank knitting journal.

Re the Oregon tote, well, okay, it's the Tote Around ... and you can see it here: http://www.knitkit.com/ToteAround.htm. But the pattern is published/written in Oregon, so it's an Oregonian Tote ;-)

The rich colors in my sitting room are actually due to (a) the husband wanting any color other than white in the house and (b) him mis-hearing me when I said "salmon would be nice" -- he thought I said cinnamon! It worked out well, though, with cinnamon walls and a salmon ceiling (aka coral). The gold sofa was my idea ... it brings out the gold highlights in some of the art on the walls. The other choice was blue, but I wanted the room to be warm. For more crazy sofa ideas, I can recommend FunkySofa.

Other colors: my office is lemon with my peach wedding robe (kimono worn over a summer frock) on the wall (no I'm not Asian, I'm just creative); the "belle aire" blue in the bedroom; and the dusky lavender in the hall. The kids picked Barbie Purple and Mountain Blueberry (can you tell, one girl and one boy) for their rooms. The kitchen is wood-paneled, white pine.

AND THE WINNER IS.....

Yep, Amelia has won the mug shot contest :) She posted a pic of herself with some spinning FO's and out of five of you that did so, she's the one.

So...Amelia...you can choose either yarn or spinning fiber for your prize and then either send me a photo of a colorway you particularly love or want or NEED or three of your favorite colors for me to use in your custom dyed yarn or fiber.

In other news, I'm in a serious UFO slump >:(

I was trying to get sick the other day (which I evaded by slamming Airborne and Vit C), and I couldn't focus on much so I putzed most of the day away by hand-washing a fleece. My silly scarf-vest is sitting on the coffee table staring at me but I can't seem to get into knitting right now at all! And I'm having the Big New Project Itch because I washed the darned fleece! I did it in a super slow, putzing fashion which I blogged about on my Yarn Tales blog and most people are horrified that I would do it that way but pffft on them...it's fun for me!

I'm way more into spinning these days and it does go like that sometimes but usually results in me wanting to start new projects. I am NOT going to do that! Well, not until I finish at least ONE FREAKING UFO!!!!! Will it be the mitten? The shop ripple scarf? The scarf vest? I know it won't be the remaining Yukon Sock or the Mesilla tee...hahaha!!

I'm actually thinking of ripping out the Mesilla tee, which is almost finished but I dunno...man, that's tough for me. It doesn't help that all my handspun is sitting out in a basket winking at me like a two-dollar hooker all the time, and one of my favorite skeins is sitting in front of the basket on a shelf wanting to be Mrs. Beeton knitty.com cuffs.

I did finish my Dad's other Christmas sock a couple weeks ago...did I even mention that? I know I updated my list :) He loves those things, Mom says he wears them everyday. They're worsted weight Bernat Aspen and LB Wool-Ease (mostly acrylic with some wool) Hmmmm...I know what to make him for Christmas next year, eh?

At my shop's fiber group Saturday, my Mom said she doesn't have UFO's because if something is sitting there not finished she just rips it out so it doesn't make her feel guilty! I was flabbergasted!!! Are you KIDDING me Mom???? She does have one UFO she can't tear out and it's a reversible cable scarf in angora/merino. That's it. I couldn't believe it. Wow...you think I'd have picked up some of that devil-may-care gene, wouldn't you?

I have finished a couple spinning UFO's so that's not all bad, right? I plied up a huge skein of some over-dyed alpaca (it was light brown and I over-dyed parts dark green - photo shows the unwashed skein) BUT there were some singles left on one bobbin and I found a little bit of fiber left over in a bag soooo...I'm going to finish spinning that to go with. I suppose that's just a half-a*$%ed FO. I did ply a little store sample of some romney/mohair off a spindle yesterday. That counts!

And then I spindle-spun some baby doll southdown and jacob roving ~ just a teeny little one ounce maybe ball I got from a friend to try...of course, there's no more to be had so I spun this pretty fine. I really love these colors together...it's a blue/dark grey/white. I thought about plying it with something else but I don't know...why shouldn't it join my collection of teeny sample skeins wanting to be something? I really want to see how this feels anyway plied with itself. I wish it had just been the southdown on it's own. I have almost-lace-weight ~ I spun it with a long draw, which took me forever to get down on a spindle but I really love doing it with the right fiber. Not sure how much it will poof but it'll probably be fingering weight when it's plied :)

That spindle is one of my very favorites ~ pretty light and it spins forEVER...I got it on Ebay because a lady's dh was giving it all up since he was allergic to the sawdust from exotic woods. Bummer, because that guy is an amazing spindle makin man! It's zebrawood.

Ok...enough rambling. Enough avoiding UFO knitting, or dyeing, or finishing the laundry or vacuuming the floor or cleaning out the rabbits' area of the garage cuz BABY, IT'S GONNA BE 33 TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RUFO ...

And then there's the rediscovered UFO. Really! Wow. Long story, lots of coincidence along the way ...

Coincidence #1 -- I was reviewing old journal entries and noticed alot of references to a "lost" project, spinning shetland locks from the lock into singles, to preserve the color variation in the locks (white to brown) in the yarn.

Coincidence #2 -- my computer has been SLOOOOOW. Did I say slow? slow. slow. slow. IE7, a few other software upgrades -- all had it on its knees.

Coincidence #3 -- the kids' computer died. And DH's old computer turned out to be dead on the table too, once it was dragged out and plugged in.

So, I got a new computer. But, as with all things new, I was short one converter-cable. Wait, I thought, I might have this. So I went through three boxes of the about 10 boxes I still have left to unpack (but, since I've run out of storage space, I've left them packed. All nik-naks, really, or extras, so it doesn't hurt) hunting for old cables/converters.

No cable-converter. But an old spindling project! Yes, you guessed it, the locks-into-singles project can now be resurrected. I started this way back when I was first learning to spin -- it might be 2 ounces total -- so it won't be the hat I originally thought, but it would be a cool part of a hat.

And the bonus find were my skeins of undyed Optim yarn -- yay!!! why they weren't packed with the other yarns, I'll never know. But now I have them again. Yay!!!

No, I haven't fully resurrected the UFO -- I've been working hard to get my new computer set up! And I have cleared the old one of all software except a web browser, in preparation for handing it over to the kids; it's behaving alot better, too, in its reduced state. Now I'm itching to reorganize my office ... I know what I want to do, it's a small matter of turning everything off, unattaching printers, power supplies, etc., and shoving boxes around under tables, tables around, & etc. What fun! Then maybe a treat, some time with that RUFO!

Spiral Rose Pillow Finished

Here's a FINISHED OBJECT -- the spiral pillow in candy apple colored Cotton Fleece, to which I decided to add a knitted rose. Pillow and rose are all my design... should I start an afgan to match? (Is this a group to encourage finishing old projects, or enabling the start of new ones???).

I don't know if I'm too late for this or not, here's a picture of me. I was going to get one of my children to get a shot of me knitting or spinning, but that didn't happen, so I've pulled this one off our family portrait from just before Christmas and filled in my favorite color in the background.

Now, onto my definition of a knitting UFO ... when two of the following conditions are met:

another project is begun

the project is not touched for two weeks, and other projects are

the project is taken out of the main knitting bag to make room for something else

a problem/design decision causes the project to be put on hold

More yarn, or different needles are needed but haven't been ordered/purchased

My spiral shawl hasn't been touched lately (I told you the transition-to-border would do that!), but someone on one of my yahoogroups this morning asked whether or not a pi shawl with feather and fan in the last section had to have a border, and a light bulb went off in my head -- maybe inside of knitting on a sideways border I could end this baby by increasing and doing several inches of a lace pattern that scallops! I'll have to see what the old pros on the EZasPi group have to say about the idea, but I'm sensing a design idea change...

I've spun the singles and done half of the plying for the remaining yarn I need for my handspun sweater. I also took the red skein of Lambs Pride bulky that my 22-month old son kept stealing and petting and turned it into a hat for him. He seemed to like it, but still wants to make off with my yarn and needles!

That's it for now... knit on!

- Melissa