Silk Stole & Saturday Sky

We've got a gorgeous early fall day today here in Midwestern USA. It's perfect for sitting out on the porch & knitting on my latest project while listening to podcasts.


I couldn't resist finding something to use this yarn for right away. It's Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Silk Lace, purchased at Knitorious with a coupon I received in my Stitch N Pitch goody bag.

The pattern is "Symmetry in Silk" by Eugen Beugler from the book Shawls and Scarves: The Best of Knitter's Magazine

The kitties are quite enjoying the weather too.

Saturday Sky Part 2

On Saturday I also went to the St. Louis Knitter's Guild Knit Out at Faust Park, in conjunction with the Folk Art Festival there.



The gals at Kirkwood Knittery donated yarn & needles for teaching anyone who stopped by the tent & wanted to learn how to knit. Unfortunately I ended up having to leave right about the same time that we got a big group of people all wanting to learn at the same time.



It was requested that we bring colorwork to display & share at the knitout, so I brought Fjellros out of hibernation. The needles felt enormous after a summer of doing mostly socks.

So Close

& yet so far away from finishing one more pair for Summer of Socks 2007.


After Kitchenering sock pairs 5 & 6 on my lunch hour earlier this week, I put the remainder of this week's knitting time into trying to finish my second sock for the Grasshopper Etsy yarn.



I ended up Friday night with about an inch of foot still left to knit, along with the toe. This picture is from first thing Saturday morning, showing Friday evening's progress.



Yesterday Lucy tried to help me take pictures of my completed Summer of Socks. Here's all the details:

Completed for Summer of Socks 2007 -- 6 full pairs & 3 single socks.
Top Row, completed sock pairs, from Left to Right:
Regia Bamboo -- first pair
Brown Sheep Wildfoote
Tofutsies
Regia 4 Fadig
Regia Bamboo -- second pair
Beth Brown (Etsy Indie Dyer) -- this pair has garter rib on the leg, all other socks plain vanilla stockinette pattern.

Bottom Row, single socks, from Left to Right:

Lime & Violet's "Spiceland" colorway -- cuff for second sock is complete.

Grasshopper (Etsy Indie Dyer) -- second sock ended up halfway through the foot section at the close of Summer of Socks. One more weekend's worth of knitting & this would have been a pair.

Dyeabolical (Etsy Indie Dyer) -- second sock not yet started.

All socks done on DPNs, top down, with size 00 used for cuffs & 0,1, or 2 for every other part of the socks. (Except for using size 000 needles to pick up stitches for the gussets.) All socks are using either 80 or 72 stitches around.

Belated Saturday Sky with Bonus Balloon

Last Saturday I managed to keep my blog in mind & catch a few nice cloud shots early in the day



Then life got busy, so they still had not been posted by late afternoon.



The universe was really playing tricks on me last Saturday, because I was suddenly confronted with a bunch of much, Much better Saturday Sky pictures, but then didn't end up having any time to post any of them at all.



This past weekend was the Forest Park Balloon Race in St. Louis. It's no where near as big as the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, but it's still quite a big deal around here.



We've been lucky in that even the years where we don't manage to get to Forest Park, we still get a balloon or two out our way. This year was no exception.





This last two pictures in particular almost looks as if we are in Albuquerque instead of Missouri. There's a site near us which is being turned into a new shopping center. (Hence the mound of dirt.) However, it isn't nearly as open as it appeared to the balloonists from the sky, so it took a while before they could figure out how to get their chase vehicle close enough to put the balloon away.

A Little Bit Behind

Like the Cardinals, I just can't seem to catch up. I feel as if I'm always just a bit behind. Here finally are pictures from last Friday night. (I couldn't let it go all the way to Friday again & be a full week late.)


I took my Cardinal red Stitch N Pitch socks back to the ball park one last time. It was an exciting game, but as some famous sports personality once said, it's bad luck to be behind at the end of the game. My kids were excited about the homeruns, though, & at least I got some knitting done.

Quick Summer of Socks Update

Summer of Socks 2007 officially finishes on the 21st of September. I must confess that I'll probably take a break from socks when it's done, as I already have several other fall knitting projects planned.

My 4 pairs of vacation socks are complete, along with 3 single socks done in hand-dyed yarn. There's a decent chance that I'll finish at least one more pair of socks for Summer of Socks this year, or perhaps even two pairs. However, there's no chance I'll catch up with any of the sock wizards who are in the leading Summer of Socks in totals right now.




I'm working on the toes of my second pair of Regia Bamboo socks, & am starting the gussets on my Cardinal Red Stitch N Pitch socks. We have tickets to tomorrow night's Cards/Cubs game, so the Cardinal socks will be going back to the ballpark for a second time.






I've been taking my summer sock knitting pretty much everywhere, to the point of getting teased about it by my friends. The portability & completely mindless stockinette of socks make for plenty of ability to hold up my end of a conversation while still knitting, though.

Showing Socks a Good Time

Otherwise known as Playing Catch-Up Part 2. The Saturday I refer to is not yesterday, but a week ago yesterday, as in the 25th of August

The Yarn Harlot has said that socks-in-progress need to be shown a good time, in order to make up for spending their lives tucked into shoes & not able to see much.

I took her advice to heart last Saturday evening:



I helped to chaperone a teenaged birthday party, & managed to get some knitting time in while I was at it. We sat on the patio at the City Museum & watching the kids run & climb around & just generally have a great time.




I also found a knitting related craft kit in the gift store there. Pretty cool! There were also Sock Monkeys, but I masterfully refrained from bringing one home with me.








The blue Regia socks, my last remnants of the Vacation 2007 Sock Madness, had their feet completed while sitting on the patio. (Neither sock could be jealous of the other one being the only one to get out to the City Museum, since they got equal knitting time while I was there.)

The toes got done this week, & I expect to Kitchener them sometime tomorrow.

Playing Catch-Up

I had at least two more blog entries that I planned to make during this past week, but between my kids being on my PC & me feeling a bit under the weather, I didn't manage to get around to it.

There's been some knitting going on, since that can still be done while sitting on the couch & not feeling well. I didn't make it to the Knitting Guild Meeting today, though, & have barely made a dent in the list of Labor Day Weekend To-Do Items.

The picture taking & posting to Flickr has also fallen way behind, so the "real" posts will wait until later this weekend.

Or, at least, I hope that's how it will work. However, I decided it was time to post a quick update just in case I don't end up near the PC for the rest of the weekend.

I hope everyone else is having a better weekend than I. The weather is certainly gorgeous here in the midwest, & I'm hoping somebody is getting to enjoy it, even if it isn't me.

Editted to add Saturday-Not-Exactly-Sky-Picture:



My cats definately are enjoying the cooler weather, especially since it's not too hot to soak up the sun while wearing a fur coat. This picture was taken yesterday, during the Saturday sunshine, but I didn't have a chance to do any picture uploading until Sunday/today.