Mission Accomplished

The yard is thoroughly and completely wacked! What a relief! It was a hard-working weekend.

To reward ourselves today, we took ourselves on a hike we've been talking about doing for years. You see, this is the view from our house:

Isn't that pretty mountain? For as long as we've lived here we've said that we'd climb to the top of that mountain one of these days. So today, on a whim, before we could talk ourselves out of it, we hopped in the car, with the dogs and set out to hike to the top. And what a fabulous hike it was! It's about a 2,000 foot elevation gain (top of the mountain is 2,730 ft), in a pretty short distance (I would guess no more than 3 or 4 miles), so it was a fairly steep climb. From the top there were gorgeous views of all of Sonoma Valley. We couldn't spot our house from there, but I guess that's not so surprising. Here's the view back toward our house (which is somewhere along the top of that ridge):

A happy Jasmine. She loves to hike and her energy always amazes me.

So those are my major weekend accomplishments. Oh, and I finished one waving lace sock and got started on another. They're taking me forever, but I feel like I'm on a bit more of a roll now so hopefully this second sock will go more quickly.

I am NOT a Slacker

I've been a blog slacker lately, I know. But I have a pretty good excuse. Taking up much of my time these days...is weed-wacking season. Oh how I love to wack those weeds! Our yard consists of a little more than 2 acres of weeds that need to be wacked once a year. It is a very big job, and I love the challenge, though I will probably feel differently about it after another week or so of this. Everyone thinks we should get a riding mower, or some other heavy duty yard maintenance equipment. Believe me, we have tried a lot of different tools, and the weed wacker has turned out to be the right one for the job. The yard is fairly rocky, and not level and the grass gets to be more than 5 feet high in places, so everything else we've tried has failed, but I do love my trusty, industrial strength weedwacker. It makes me feel powerful, and destructive and all in a good way. Somehow the weedwacking has come to be my responsibility and I love the challenge. I usually try to wait until we're fairly certain that we've had the last rain of the season, and til most of the grass is good and dead, dry. But my goal this year is to complete this job by the first weekend in June. So far I've only put in an hour or two at a time, usually after work, but I'm going to have to put in some longer shifts at this if I'm going to meet my goal.

Here's my progress so far. It is less than 1/4 of the yard, but still it feels like an accomplishment.

As for knitting, I'm working on a waving lace sock from Favorite Socks, I'll post pictures of that when I've completed one. And I'm slowly making progress on the Kimono shawl. I'm taking a very relaxed approach to both projects. No manic knitting for me right now. There's just too much else to do this time of year.

Simple Stripey Socks

I finished my plain ol' 64 stitch striped stocks in Knitpicks Simple Stripes. Boring boring boring. But I have to say it was nice to have an easy peasy project to carry around with me. And they're really very comfy, and the colors are quite cheery. So no complaints.

And now I'm almost to the end of my sock yarn stash. I've got one pair's worth of J.Knits left and that big tangled mess of Shaeffer Anne (which I hate to even count at this point since who knows if I'll ever conquer the untangling trauma. But fortunately next week I'm heading to Monterey for a few days and there is a lovely yarn store in Pacific Grove where I will surely find some very nice sock yarn to take home as a souvenir.

And here's the start of my Kimono Shawl (from Folk Shawls):

I am LOVING this pattern. LOVE it. It's a 10 stitch repeat so it's easy to memorize and it seems to move along quickly. I'm a little concerned that it may come out bigger than intended, but I guess a lovely large shawl is not such a bad thing.

Happy Mothers Day to all!

Winding Down

I got in a yarn winding mood on Friday and really went crazy with it. My friend Katy brought me two huge skeins of this lovely lavender laceweight alpaca from Argentina, and two big skeins of laceweight wool too. So I went to work on all that beautiful Argentine yarn, along with some skeins of sock yarn. Thank goodness for the yarn swift and ball winder. I do love cranking that baby up and winding away. It is so satisfying to watch them both spin and the little yarn cake magically appearing on the ball winder.

So here's my successfully completed yarn cakes. Aren't they beautiful! The top two are J.Knits sock yarn in the Boston colorway, and everything else is from the Buenos Aires laceweight yarn collection. Look at all the lavender! Lordy that's going to make a lot of shawls. I immediately started a Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls in the lavender alpaca. It's wonderfully soft and pleasantly fuzzy.

My one failure of the day, and yes, it's a big one, is my Shaeffer Anne. For some reason it became hopelessly tangled on the yarn swift. I am so disappointed! It's going to take me the rest of my life to untangle this mess. I've been patiently working on it, little by little, but at times I am tempted to toss the whole thing. I bought it at Stitches West and it wasn't cheap, and I've been looking forward to trying this yarn so I think I will persist in my efforts to untangle. It is indeed trying my patience though. Just look at the mess!

Sock Monkey Love

I'm a big fan of sock monkeys. My great aunt made one for me when I was little, and I still have it and display it proudly along with my brother's sock monkey of the same era. And I've made a few for the children of friends and family. I even dressed as a sock monkey for halloween one year. God that was hillarious! So you can imagine my delight when I got a surprise package in the mail today from my friend Donna and this is what was inside:It's a fabulous sock monkey quilted bag! How cute is that! Here's the back side:

Here is a closer up of the fabrics. I can't get over how cute it is!

Years ago I made sock monkeys for each of Donna's two boys and they both seemed to love them. So much so that when I went to visit a year or two later they showed me how they had made stick on mustaches for the monkeys, which I thought was super clever and adorable. Sock monkeys in disguise. Kids just crack me up!

Here are my childhood sock monkeys, circa 1974ish:

Nerveracking

So, you know when you're knitting on a project and you start to seriously worry about running out of yarn? Well that was me in a big way earlier today. But all is well. I managed to bind off with tiny bit of yarn to spare.

Here's a closer look at all the leftover yarn:

And here's the shawl blocking:

Pattern: Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark, from Fibertrends

Yarn: Zephyr Wool/Silk laceweight in Ice Blue from Sarah's Yarns, just 2 ounces (630 yards) For the record, that's less than $6 for the yarn!

Needles: Knitpicks Options size 6

Size: I knit the smaller size. It blocked to about 70" x 35"

This is my second Leaf Lace Shawl and I do love the pattern. It's a great beginner lace pattern. The instructions are excellent, very clear and thorough. This one is a gift for a friend.

I'm looking forward to my next lace project. Still deciding which one. First I may do some quick and easy stuff - more baby hats, socks, etc. for that instant gratification.

A Regular Tuesday Evening

I'm moving along on my leaf lace shawl. I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to worry about whether I'll have enough yarn to finish it. Pretty sure I will though. I think I will finish this repeat and then move on to the edging lace pattern. And hopefully it'll block out to a decent size. I think it currently has as many repeats as the one I made for myself, so that seems alright. I wouldn't mind if it were a little bigger, but I'm not going to push it since I'm already cutting it pretty close on the yarn. I only ordered 2 ounces (630 yards) of this yarn. Cheap cheap. I'm very pleased with it though!



And here's the scene at home this evening. Good dogs . . . and singing husband . . .
...and me happily knitting my lace. All is well.

Room Redo & a Simple Sock

I've been awfully quiet here lately. I've got lots of non-knitting stuff going on these days and it's consuming a lot of my time and attention. It's all good though.

We finally finished painting our office room. The wallpaper removal and subsequent wall repair turned out to be a bigger project than we anticipated, but now that it's all done I am ver pleased. We painted the walls a color called "Provence Yellow" and the trim is a cheery teal/turquoise called "Surf Blue", plus a few brownish accents, a color called monkey king or something like that.

Here's the before picture:

I'm pleased with the end result. We still need to get rid of some of the furniture that was in that room and add some decorative touches, but so far it is a huge improvement.

And on the knitting front, I've been working away on my leaf lace shawl. For some reason every row seems to take me much longer than it ought to. But I'm not in any hurry, so that's okay too. And I started a basic sock in some knitpicks simple stripes that I've had for ages and was not too thrilled with the colors, but lately it feels like just the thing - happy and bright colors, easy peasy knitting to carry around with me.

I see that our local knitting guild is putting on a "Sock Symposium" next month. I'm thinking maybe I'll make an effort to go to this event. I joined the knitting guild recently thinking it would be good for me to meet some other knitters and go to some of their "Knit at Nights". But I still haven't worked up the nerve to attend any of those meetings. I am so lame! I'd like to connect with some other real life knitters, but I just hate going to stuff where I don't know anybody. I'm painfully shy. But this sock symposium sounds like it might be a structured enough event that I may just be brave enough to make an appearance. Anyway, it's a whole month away.

And last weekend's movie roundup... we watched "Children of Men", which was a little bit disturbing, but very engaging and thought-provoking. My husband was more troubled by the movie's depressing depiction of the future and I think was left feeling troubled by the film. "Happy Feet" - we almost shut it down after the first 20 minutes or so because it just seemed so sappy. But then we kinda got into it and really enjoyed it more than we expected. Those South American penguins were a crack-up. We also watched a very charming documentary called "My Date with Drew", about a 27 year old guy in LA who has had a crush on Drew Barrymore since he was a kid and he wants very much to meet her so he makes a film about his impressive attempts to get a date with her. It's really a pretty sweet and funny movie.

Tonight's my favorite TV night of the week - The Daily Show, The Office, Grey's Anatomy. Oh how I love Thursdays! Plus, I don't work on Fridays so this is the beginning of big weekend fun. Have a fabulous weekend!

Tidal Wave

Pattern: Tidal Wave Socks - free pattern from Southwest Trading Company

Yarn: Tofutsies - color #730, Light Foot

Needles: Size 0 Addi Turbos - 40" magic loop

Thoughts: This was a fun, easy pattern. I love the yarn. It is so soft and luscious. Next time I will add a couple more pattern repeats for a longer leg. These are not for me, but I will definitely use this sock yarn again. This color may not be ideal for my scary white/pink legs.

Leaf Lace 2

I finished my Tidal Wave Tofutsies socks... will post pictures later. And I started another lace project. Oh how I love thee lace.


It's Evelyn Clark's Leaf Lace Shawl in Zephyr Wool Silk, in Ice Blue, ordered from Sarah's Yarns (a great deal by the way).

It's for my friend Bette. I am so pleased to be working on another lace shawl. I have loads of laceweight yarn now, and a list of other lace shawls I'm dying to start. I'm doing this one again because Bette loved the one I made for myself, and because I only ordered 630 yards of yarn. I hope it's enough. Others on my list are the Arctic Diamonds Stole from the Winter, 2006 Interweave Knits, the Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls. Maybe the Bird's Nest Shawl from the same book. There are so many fabulous lace patterns out there! I'm open to suggestions too, so if you've got ones you love, leave a comment!

Oh, a couple quick movie reviews . . .we watched "Volver" last night. It was wonderful! Last weekend we watched the new James Bond movie - "Casino Royale". Hated it! I seriously do not get how that managed a PG-13 rating. I thought the violence was pretty awful. But I'm a little sensitive that way. Up next . . . "Children of Men" and "Happy Feet".

Happy Easter to all!

Selling Sonoma County

Last weekend my good friend Jean and her daughter Kirsten came for a visit.

Kirsten wanted to take a look at Sonoma State University. (I can't believe she's old enough to go off to college already!) I would love for her to go to school there because that would mean I'd see more of Jean, and she'd probably even move here. So we spent Saturday morning touring the campus, and in the afternoon we did some touring around Sonoma, trying to impress Kirsten with some of the local charm. First we went to this fabulous sculpture garden/gallery where there were tons of beautiful, fun and creative sculptures, and a very sweet bulldog who looked a little like one of those frogs we dissected in high school biology when he rolled over onto his back. Next we did a stroll around the square in Sonoma. I do love that town. Check out this fella we came across in front of one of the shops:

Alas, I think Kirsten is still leaning toward University of Nevada, Reno. Whatever! It was still a great opportunity to see my friends and show off our hometown.

My knitting has been pretty limited lately. I've got some other stuff to occupy my mind at the moment. But my current fast and easy project is baby hats. So here's the latest - simple simple simple. Just a little leftover Knitpicks Crayon knit on size 6 circulars (magic loop) into a 64 stitch roll brim hat with a little top knot. It's soooooo soft. I don't know if it's sized appropriately for an actual live baby, but knitting it up amused me to no end and I think it looks pretty cute on teddy.

Tidal Wave Sock

I found this pattern on the Southwest Trading Company webste, and decided to give it a try in my pink Tofutsies sock yarn. And ooh, boy am I loving it! I am using my size 0 Addi Turbos (magic loop). This is my first time using the addi's, and they are wonderful. I also find the magic loop to be easier with a 40" circular than with the 32" knitpicks circular. This yarn is fabulously soft and seems perfect for spring/summer weight socks.
On Friday mornings I go to the local elementary school to volunteer in a couple of classrooms. This is such a fun thing for me. This morning in the first grade class, we're doing paper mache. How fun is that?! Of course it might be messy too but I'm prepared for that.

Last weekend we completed our wallpaper stripping project in the office. Ugh, what a big job it turned out to be! That stuff was welll-adhered. The wall will now take a little repair work and then we can paint the whole room. Hurray!

Halfway there:

Finished! (Don't I look relieved?)

Book Meme

Here's an interesting meme that's going around. I took it from here.

Look at the list of books below:
*Bold the ones you’ve read,
*Italicize the ones you want to read
*Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) - I loved this book!
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
9. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) -another of my all time favorites
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

There are so many great books still to be read. And I gotta say, I sure don't read much now that I'm knitting all the time. But I am fortunate that my husband reads to me most evenings while I knit. And I do listen to the Craftlit Podcast too, which is a wonderful way to get your books in along with a little education and some entertaining knitting chat too.

Daylight Savings Happiness

I have a tiny FO. It's a baby hat, plain ol' roll brim, 64 stitch, stockinette, in Knitpicks Crayon. So soft and so quick. A satisfying little knit. I want to make another one right away. I've got a little orange crayon leftover from something. I also want to make one of these peapod baby sweaters. It's just too cute not to knit!

I am so pleased with the switch to spring weather and daylight savings time. I LOVE having daylight time after work to go for a walk, dine outdoors, and just enjoy the view a little bit. Here's a couple scenes from our walk "around the block" the other day. A walk around our block is about a 3 mile loop which involves a pretty good elevation gain. But it's a lovely, quiet walk with lots of nature to be spotted everywhere.

I love outdoor dining season! This is our first outdoor meal of the season. Look at how happy Pete looks!

Sock Catch Up

I have a couple sock pictures to offer today. First, the Dublin Bay socks in J.Knits, North Carolina Colorway. I never did post a finished picture of these. I love this yarn. Not so wild about the pattern - only because it's just got too much stockinette for my liking. It is, however a good pattern for a busy yarn.


Next is my waterfall rib socks in Trekking color 110. It is one of the great stitch patterns in Sensational Knitted Socks. I'm down to the foot on the second sock so I should finish it up in the next day or two.

I am having some trouble deciding what to work on next. Maybe some baby stuff. I have the Itty Bitty Hats book and there are so many sweet hats in there. And that'd be quick and satisfying. Then maybe another lace shawl. I have lots of great laceweight yarn now. I better get busy working it up!

It is so beautiful and springy today, so here's a couple pics from around the yard.

I love camelia blooming season!

Here is my tiny peach tree. It is about 2 feet tall, planted last winter. It's supposed to be a dwarf, but I'm hoping it'll get to be substantially bigger than it is!

And now I must get to work on a little wallpaper removal project. Ugh!