Uli's Creative Corner

Well, not quite yet.  I still have one more day at work and then I'm outta here.  There's one more load of laundry to do and some tidying up to do (so I return to a clean house - I hate coming home and having to tidy up).  We have to gather up some clothes and throw them in a suitcase.  I can't forget my needles and yarn and my little box of knitting accessories - what's in my little box? There are little scissors, a blunt tapestry needle, a measuring tape, some 2.5 mm DPNs, a crochet hook, a cable needle and some stitch markers.  I found this box at the grocery store the other day.  They called it a plastic pencil case.  It has an attached flip open lid.  It's perfect for storing the little knitting accessories that might otherwise easily get lost.

I was excited to read Brenda's about her visit to the Neverending Yarn.  She picked up some goodies.  I look forward to checking out the sale bin of Peace Fleece, a yarn I've never seen before but have heard so much about.  Obviously, I'm hoping to pick up a few skeins of Opal and Brenda mentioned that they carry Koigu and that they didn't just have KPPM but also some Kersti.  At $15 CDN a skein for Kersti, I won't be able to afford a whole lot of it - definitely not enough for a sweater in my size but I can at least feel and fondle to see what everyone is talking about for myself and maybe pick up one or two skeins - just so I can say I have some.  I think I need to go in with a yarn budget so I don't go totally crazy.  I'm always a little more easy going on vacation so the wallet comes out just too easily.

Not much in knitting news last night.  I've been working on a little sock - one of the socks for my niece.  I got some great tips from my friends in blogland about 8-year old shoe sizes and that was helpful.  So I've gone ahead and casted on just to see.  I turned the heel on the first sock.  Then I will make a secon sock from the same skein - to test to see if I can manage a kid's sock and then a toddler sock out of one skein.  I might run out of yarn but it won't be a great big loss if I do.  If I finish those while we're gone, those would be the earliest I've ever finished a Christmas gift.

The only other thing is that I worked almost one square on the Magical Mitered Vest.  The more I b-i-t-c-h about it, the more determined I become to make it go away and it will only go away - out of my knitting basket - if I finish the darn thing.  It may still follow me on vacation.

We're leaving first thing tomorrow.  I'll be back on Tuesday some time. 

The cotton socks are done........... can you believe it.  I just plugged, plugged, plugged along.  I like them quite a lot.  Now with self patterning yarn like that, the mission to find that perfect pattern match can be so all consuming.  I go with the crowd..... I try and make sure that the pattern match is as exact as I can get it on both socks.  In all honesty, I actually don't care that much.  This is one of those situations where I do what I think I should do but if I don't get the perfect match, it doesn't upset me.  I'm a perfectionist in so many areas of my life, this isn't one of them.  Having said that, I was tickled pink having got an exact, exact pattern match on the cotton Opal socks.  I didn't think I could get an exact match.  The pattern repeat seemed a bit elusive to me.  But I did it.  Here's a shot of the socks.

The picture isn't that clear, but oh no..... can you see?  The pattern match is perfect all the way down the leg, on the heel, the instep and part of the foot but then look closely.  Just after the heel, on the left sock there are two stripes in close space to each other while on the right side there are 4 red stripes.  There were no knots in the yarn, no breaks, no nothing.  So my perfectly matched socks that started out being the perfect match, match no longer.  Does it bother me?  No, not really.  Not enough to try and do something about it.  But how come that happened?  It's like the sock with the 4 red stripes had some more yarn injected in the middle as the pattern just goes back to normal after that.

Erika liked the socks, too:

Look Mommy, I put them on myself!!!

So now my Addi Bamboo DPNs are ready for my trip pair of socks. 2 more sleeps, as Erika would say.

My last weight training class was last night.  It was a better class than before because 2 ladies didn't show so there were only 4 of us, giving the instructor more of a chance to help us individually.  As well, the gym wasn't busy last night so we had easier access to all the equipment.

The socks for my secret sock sister are going in the mail tonight.  I have the envelope packed up, sealed and ready to go.

Tonight, I'm going to do a last couple of loads of laundry and then we'll start putting a few things together.  It sounds like I'm getting ready for a great big journey, packing 2 days ahead of time.  But.... since travelling with a toddler, one can never be prepared enough.  As well, tomorrow night is my WW night so I won't be home until later in the evening giving us less time to get ready.  We want to get up our normal wake-up time in the morning and have the car packed the night before and just go and hit the road.

Probably not a lot of new knitting happening until I sit in that car on Friday morning......

It's Tuesday.... the week is moving along.  The knitting is going slowly.  Somehow, I managed to knit the whole leg of my 2nd cotton Opal sock yesterday.  A needle here, a needle there, and all of a sudden I'm ready to knit the heel flap.  That's where I left off - a couple of rows into the heel flap.  I do love this yarn.  I'm not sure how it will stand up to the wear of being a sock but I like the feel of it on my foot and I like the fit of this sock.  So can I finish sock #2 today?  Probably not but I'd like to finish it before we leave.  I'd like to cast on a new sock using some of my Fleece Artist Merino sock yarn.  This colour combo that I have is in oranges/yellows and reds.  I'm really looking forward to working with it.  A pair of socks is probably knitting enough to take along for a 5 day trip but I think I've decided that I'll also take along the car sweater.  Erika will be happy if I work on it.  The yarn seems to work really well in the hot weather as it's a nice, cool cotton.  It's also fairly simple except for the fact that I have to switch colours every now and then.  I did come to the conclusion that I wouldn't start anything new - except for a pair of socks.  Anything else that comes with me has to come from the current WIPs.

We went to pick some blackberries last night.  Not too many are ripe yet but we found a few.  Erika really seems to enjoy the process of finding the berries that are nice and black.  We had a nice little walk outside.  It was a very nice evening.  Not too hot and nice and pleasant.

When I finally did sit down last night I pulled out the Magical Mitered Vest for a bit.  I finished one square and I did about 1/2 of a second square.  I have about 4 squares left to go to finish the first half of the vest - it is seamed center back and that's the only seam except for a shoulder seam.  I can't seem to get motivated for this one though but I know I will like it when it's finished so I will perservere.

To finish off today, I would like to point your path over to My Knitting Life.  Mary Beth knit an awesome little top for her daughter which she displays with lovely pictures on her blog.  I left a comment and didn't proof read it and as my mind was probably already racing away from what I was typing as I was leaving a comment, I never noticed that I typed that the sweater looked awful on her daughter.  I bet you I was trying to type awesome!!!  I'm so glad Mary Beth has a sense of humour because that was certainly not what I intended to say/type.  So now, I'll try and remember to scan my comments for any obvious, glaring typos before I hit that "Post" button.  Sorry Mary Beth............ thanks for having a sense of humour about it.

Back to numbers and figures.

How fast does a weekend fly by?  This fast.  And all of a sudden I was consumed with this urge to have everything neat and tidy all the time and the floors swept and the shirts ironed and all the laundry done.......... that takes a lot of time out of a weekend.  Not that I don't regularly keep things neat and tidy and clean...... but when that bug hits, I do it much, much more than usual.  And that cuts into the knitting and relaxing time big time.  This is the kind of weekend it was.  I think I feel this way because we will be going away at the end of the week and I have our super neat freak neighbour (no kids ie. house is always spotless) coming in on a daily basis to feed and water the kitties.  I don't want her to think I'm a total slob and I know that I won't have time to clean it all on Thursday night before we leave so I'm trying to keep it all under control this week.  It feels like we had a busy, busy weekend.  Actually, I think we did.  Evenings this week will be spent starting to get ready for our little getaway.  We like to hit the road first thing in the morning and then we hit a breakfast place after about 1.5 hours of driving and just before we start heading into the mountains.  That way, usually Erika is still so sleepy that she'll sleep until we get breakfast and then the second leg of the trip is only another 2.5 hours of driving.  Breaks it up nicely.  Can you imagine all that knitting time for me.... I don't drive Evan's car (this is because he drives a manual transmission and even though I learned how to drive his car, I never got a chance to practice and now I don't think I can remember).  So he gets to drive and I get to knit and we all get to listen to the Wiggles and various other kids' entertainers.

I heard from Brenda that the yarn store I am planning on visiting is worth the visit as she just stopped by there last week.  She advised me to leave Evan and Erika at the hotel.  Brenda..... I can't wait to hear more.

The weekend is over and what do I have to show for in terms of knitting progress?  The back of the car sweater is finished.  There's no picture because it's the same striped sequence I showed you the other day.  Just now, the piece is a lot longer.  And I finished it late last night.  After 10 pm.... not a good time of night for me.  I had to figure out to cast of the middle 24 stitches.  No problem:  Total stitches minus 24, divided by 2 gives you the number of shoulder stitches to knit before you cast of your center 24 stitches.  Easy, peasy.  Well, not if you make that calculation based on the # of cast on stitches, forgetting that you increased 10 stitches after the ribbing.  And I'm sure you know how much fun it is to pick out and frog cast off stitches.  Well, I stood strong and I fixed it all up.  At least I counted the stitches on the secon shoulder to see that they were equal.  Otherwise I would have had a really off center neckline.

I knit during a visit at my inlaws on Saturday.  This was one of those "surprise - can you come over for dinner tonight" visits.  I hate them.  I'm very much into knowing things ahead of time and planning for them.  I guess that doesn't make me a very spontaneous kind of a girl.  But what had to be done had to be done and we had a fun evening.  Erika was the center of attention, especially when she dropped all her clothes right in the back yard.... why, we don't know but she had fun.  I got a chance to finish knitting sock 1 in my Opal cotton.  I like this yarn and I love the fit of the sock.  I also really enjoyed working with my Addi Turbo double pointed bamboo needles (I think they're a bamboo - well, they're not steel).  They make an awesome DPN sock needle.  Here is a picture:

I also made a little bit of progress on the cross stitch.  The picture I will show you is awful.  I took it just at dusk and I couldn't get the white of the fabric balanced with the lighting at all.  But it will show the general idea.  I'm getting close to being halfway done.  I would like to get it done by the end of the first week of August so that I have a bit of time to figure out how to frame it.

I almost sat down to start sewing up Erika's 2nd summer dress.  At the rate I'm going she won't wear that this year but I think it's big enough that she'll still fit it next year.  I pulled out the neck facing pieces and didn't see my interfacing readily out on the table and that was enough to disuade me from starting.  All I really wanted to do was sit and knit.  So I did a little bit of that instead.

I'm thinking of my take-along projects now.  Definitely a pair of socks but I'd also like to take something else.  I should probably work on the body of the Phil'Onde... miles and miles of stocking stitch would be a good take along project.  That's the responsible and reasonable choice.  I was thinking along the lines of taking my Magical Mitered Vest but I talked myself out of it because the ribbon yarn is wound on cardboard centers so it's not squishable.  Takes lots of room..... what else can I do to keep talking myself out of that vest.  It looks very pretty knitted up.  Cables and Lace isn't simple enough.  But it's not so hard that I couldn't work on it.  I just don't want to lose the cable needle.  Start somethig new?  Well, wouldn't that be a fun idea.   The neckdown jacket will stay at home because it's getting fairly bulky.  I don't think I'll want it resting on my lap in the hot summer weather I think we'll be having.  What do you think I should take along besides socks?  It can be something from my WIP list or from my stash list.

Off I go.......... have an awesome Monday.

My blog was feeling naked without me being lazy with the digi cam this week and so I took a late night, poorly lighted shot of the back of the car sweater. 

It really is a navy background.  A very, very dark navy background.  I love how the primary coloured stripes just pop out on this one.  The wide stripe at the bottom is where the cars will go.  They are all embroidered using duplicate stitch.  Yikes.  That will be a lot of work but I studied the pattern to see if it was worthwhile doing them as an intarsia knit and the detail was just too complicated.  Even though it will take some time, I think the duplicate stitch is the better route.  Given that Erika gets mad at me when she notices that I'm knitting on something other than her car sweater, I think it will be a quick knit.  I'm more than halfway up the back.  I think another blue, yellow, red and then finishing off with a green stripe will do it.  Actually, I'm hoping to get the right length right in the middle of a navy stripe so that when I put the shoulders together 1/2 stripe of the front will butt up against 1/2 stripe of the back and make it look like that was really well planned.

Just the tips of my secret socks left.  Then it's back to my Opal Cotton socks as far as socks go as they are started and on the needles.

As expected, I was up a bit at WW.  One pound.............. I'll just work it back off again next week.  It was so hot, that it's hard not to retain water.

Well, it's Friday and it's a hot one.  I think this weekend will be good.  I have to get some stuff organized for our trip next week because there's never enough time to get it done in the evenings during the week. 

Have a great weekend.

Problem solved, we're leaving home on Friday.  I can go and check out the yarn store if all goes well and we get an extra day's vacation out of it.  Any experiences with water slides and little ones.  I've been looking at a waterslide park that's around where we'll be staying and since we have some extra time with the extra day I thought it would be fun.  Erika loves little water slides and they say that they have slides for the little ones.  Hmmm.... wonder if it's worth checking out.  It wouldn't be too expensive because they have a 2 for 1 coupon on their web site and Erika would get in for free still.  Mental note............ need to buy a second bathing suit for Erika.

Krispy Kremes..... yikes.  It's weigh in day.  I know I'm up.  I ate well and did everything right, most of the time but it's just one of those weeks.  I won't stress over it and I didn't stress over it until there was a flat of doughnuts in our office this morning.  I couldn't resist.  I didn't resist.  I ate one.  I didn't enjoy it.  And now I'm frustrated about that impulse to have one, especially when I didn't even enjoy it.

We went to the mall last night so I can't report on a whole lot of knitting.  My secret sock is steadily growing and I'm not past the instep decreases.  I'd like to finish it by tomorrow.  My mind has been all on socks lately.  I've been thinking about lots of different socks and sock patterns but I always come back to the conclusion that for me, socks need to be basic.  I like a simple pattern but I just as much like just the standard basic sock.  I have a feeling that our vacation will bring more socks.  Easy to pack, easy to knit on.....  I was planning on taking something else than socks but I can't make up my mind on what to bring.  It should be simple.  If I finished the sleeve for Phil'Onde, I could use those needles and cast on for the front and then I have miles of stocking stitch in front of me.  That would be easy.  I'll have to think about it.

The little time I had time to knit last night I picked up the neckdown cardigan and just did a few rows.  It seems that this aggravates my wrists a bit.  It feels like a tight knit as I'm quite down on the needle size compared to the suggested needle size to get gauge and it's starting to get heavy as it grows.  But when it's off the needles, I think it will be just a great fitting, comfy cardigan.

There is one more summer project I would like to pick up some yarn for.  I know it won't be for this year.  It's a cute little tank from the Phildar Pitchoun Spring 2004 magazine and it's made in Phildar Rivage, a nice ribbon yarn.  I think it would be great for Erika for next summer.  It's got a split ribbing at the bottom and then the two pieces of ribbing are joined and a nice big cable runs up the front.

Other than that............... I'm all into looking at the fall stuff that's coming out and there are nice things showing up on various blogs.

It's almost Friday.

When I go travel I like to check out other yarn stores, quilt shops, crafts stores etc.  I know Evan shakes his head at me......... why?  Can't you get all the same stuff at home?  That's not the point.... the point is checking out new places and seeing what treasures might hide in a little store you've never been to before.  Yes, often, I look around and I say: "Oh, nothing different than at home" and I don't buy anything.  Other times, I take a new little store as my justification to pick up just that yarn for that project I had been eyeing for a while anyways.  And then sometimes, there's something you've just never seen before, tucked away in the corner that you just have to have.  We don't travel too much and often to small places so I don't always get my wish.  Our little trip this summer is to the Okanagan where I've been countless number of times - I used to live there.  But this year, we're staying in Vernon.  I've only been through Vernon but never really stopped for any length of time.  It's close to where my girlfriend and her husband own a golf course and so we'll be combining a visit there with a little stay.  Some time ago, I discovered a store called The Neverending Yarn.  It's in Vernon and of all things they appear to carry Opal sock yarn.  That's not an easy find up here in Canada, especially not locally.  I like Opal sock yarn.  Yes, I can always mail-order it but I wanted the experience of browsing around and seeing some of the colours in real life.  We're travelling up on Saturday (not this week but next week).  I assumed the store would be open on Saturdays but I e-mailed to ask because it is a long weekend after all and unfortunately, I was informed that they aren't open on Saturdays during the summer months.  I was so disappointed.  I was just looking forward to doing one thing that's just for me on this vacation and that's now not going to happen.  I swear sometimes Evan deserves a medal because when I told him about it, his solution was to take an extra day off, drive up on Friday and just book an extra night in the hotel.  We haven't made that decision yet.  Can I justify spending an extra $100 on an extra night in a hotel just to go spend some more money at a little yarn store that I really don't know very much about, except that it carries Opal yarn.  I could mail order it for goodness sake.  What should I do?  I know I'd love the extra day added to our trip because it's already so short.  But it feels awfully selfish to take and extra day off, spend money on an extra night's hotel accommodation and change all of our plans just so I can visit a yarn store.

Last night I had another weight training class.  It was okay.  I didn't learn too many new things.  Our instructor is a bit odd.  From an educational sense, I would say she doesn't have very good classroom management skills (even though we're not a classroom full of kids).  But there are a few things I didn't know before so all is not lost.  I was feeling very tired though so I was glad when the 1.5 hours were over.

Every time Erika sees me knit on something but her car sweater she has a bit of a fit.  And when I do work on her car sweater, she's very excited.  Even though there is no armhole shaping (straight drop shoulders), I'm almost at the point on the back where the pattern suggests placing a marker to indicate the sleeve opening.  I think this will be finished quickly.  Erika is pushing me to finish quickly and I'm enjoying the yarn and the bright colours.  The pain will come when I have to embroider all the cars.

My secret sock is coming along.  I've turned the heel on sock #2.  Speaking of socks, I will be making the same pattern for myself using some Fleece Artist sock yarn in some bright shades of red, yellow and orange.  I already wound the skein.  I think those might be my travel project.  Those and the socks for the little ones.  Thanks for all the sizing suggestions for my 8-year old niece.  I've got a pretty good idea now of the size I'll be trying to make.  I was looking through my sock stash and although there are quite a few skeins of sock yarn in there, I could easily imagine having it grow some more.  

I keep thinking it's Thursday already.  That's sad..... but at least I have one more day before WW.  Although I'm doing pretty well with my food this week, it's not a good week weight wise - but fortunately I think it's all water retention.  I'm more worried about our trip and all the restaurant meals I'll be forced to eat.  I find eating out the toughest when it comes to staying on a healthy course. 

A while ago I set a goal of knitting up two balls of yarn on my MIL cardigan each week.... well, I said that on a cool and cloudy day.  It's hot.  I can't stand the feeling of that yarn in my hands and on my lap right now.  So that goal is out the window until it gets a bit cooler again.

I figure I have about 3 more balls to knit up to get to the right length on my neck down cardigan.  I hope that it will fit nicely because I love how it's turning out.

Look at this cute poncho from the Naturally Kid's Connection.  It's the third one from the left in the top row of patterns.  I like the version using Naturally Lollipop (scroll down the page).  I've seen that yarn at my LYS and have been really, really attracted to it for some kid's garments and I think this might be my excuse to buy some.  Maybe to make those Christmas ponchos I was talking about.

Have a great day.  Remember, it's Wednesday!!! (Maybe I'm not the only one out there who has trouble figuring out what day of the week it is today)

It's lazy post day here at Uli's Needlework World....  I thought I'd plug in the post from last week that never got posted because our internet was down.  Nothing much new happened in my knitting life or my life in general yesterday.

I came home and worked on the cross stitch a bit and discovered that I was working on a little bird and I had mis-read one of the symbols so my little bird is now orange and blue instead of dark blue and light blue.  I'm not fixing it.... I think the little birdie looks pretty good as it is.

Erika had a huge fit last night because she discovered I wasn't working on her car sweater.  Instead, I was working on my neck down cardigan.  How dare I?  So I worked on the car sweater for a little while and I'm almost done 1/2 the back.  Pretty non-exciting evening.

So here's last week's "lost post".

It was a hot day yesterday.  I usually don’t mind the heat.  It doesn’t bother me to sleep in but last night I found it tough to go to sleep.  Part of that was that I had another knitting while drifting off episode.  Evan took Erika up to bed and I just put my head down on the couch and next thing I knew it was 10 minutes after 10.  My Mom and Dad’s name was on the call display.  I didn’t even hear the phone ring.  So when I did go up to bed, the edge was taken off my tiredness and I found it really hard to go to sleep.  So as a result, I overslept this morning and ended up rushing around all morning.  But it’s my Friday….. 2 days off and all to myself!!!!

Partially I was so tired last night because I think my muscles were tired.  Yes, pump, baby, pump……….. up those muscles that is.  In the “olden days” – that’s pre-marriage, pre-baby, pre-career, while I was in graduate school I was totally into fitness.  I went to an aerobics class almost every day.  I wasn’t skinny but I sure was fit.  I started getting into weight training as well and took some courses and had a pretty good routine going.  After marriage and more so after Erika, I have never been able to get back to exactly that stage and I probably never will again and that’s okay with me.  I’m not at that point in my life any longer where I can devote at least 1.5 and up to 2 hours to hanging out at a gym on a daily basis.  But I still want to be healthy and I want to keep up my healthy routines.  Before Erika was born, Evan and I walked together and we walked and we walked and we walked.  I was in good shape and was still walking on our regular walks almost up to the day I delivered.  That was about where my fitness ended.  I have tried on and off but I haven’t managed to make a routine stick.  So this spring I decided that I would at least refresh my weight training know-how by taking another course so I’m taking a Women on Weights course through our local Parks & Rec Centre.  It’s fun.  I know most of the stuff but I am learning some new exercises and it’s helping me put a bit of a program together that I think I can stick with.  Last night was our second class and it was fun.  I can feel my arms, chest and back today because that’s what we focused on.  She just threw so many exercises at us that I’ll be hard pressed to remember them all when I go back to the gym.  It’s good for me though.  It gets me off the couch.  It reduces my knitting time – but it gets me off the couch.

I was thinking about “getting in the groove” with your knitting yesterday.  I found my groove when I was working on a little, very simple lace pattern.  For the first few pattern repeats, I was counting it all out………… Knit 13 stitches, Knit 2 together, Yarn Over, repeat three time, Knit 26 stitches etc. etc…. can’t lose count, can you…. What will happen if you lose count – disaster could strike?  That’s when it’s so important to learn to understand your knitting.  To look at how the pattern develops.  To watch and to think and to learn and soon to find that groove where counting doesn’t matter because you now know how the pattern (especially lace patterns) grows under your hands.  When you watch carefully, it’s possible and counting won’t be so much of an issue.  This is what happened with my little lace pattern.  All of a sudden I wasn’t counting any more but I was able to see where the next K2 together was to be placed and what row I was on.  It’s a logical pattern so there’s a logical progression.  When you get to that point, that’s when you hit that groove – when you don’t need the pattern any longer and when you don’t need to count any longer (except for once in a while).  It’s all good when that happens.

Since I’ve been sleeping while knitting there aren’t many other knitting news.  I’m making a little progress on my neck down cardigan.  It’s the easy knit I pick up when I’m tired and I’d like to have it finished next.

Our internet is down so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post this.  I wrote it up in Word so I wouldn’t have to worry about it later.  Hopefully you’ll see this later today because if you don’t, it means that our internet was down all day.

Have a wonderful summer day.

Well, the weekend is over again and I have no knitting pics.  Why, I'm not sure.  I do have lots of projects on the go and I have been making a little bit of progress.  But if you've seen one progress shot of my top down cardigan, you'll have seen them all because I'm only a few more inches further down the body than I was with the last picture. And my secret sock........ well, I can't show you that but the first one is done and the second one in progress and I'm loving it.  Very nice pattern.  I already wound another skein of sock yarn so I could make myself a pair using the same pattern.  And right now, Erika's car sweater which I finally got started on is just a piece of stocking stitche in a dark navy with a few primary coloured stripes and it was too dark to capture that last night.  Yes, I did start the car sweater and Erika is very, very excited.  I'm working it with Estelle Young Touch DK, a mercerized DK cotton with quite a nice feel to it.  I like the knitted fabric.  It's got some body to it and isn't all floppy.  I think it will be a sweater that will be very wearable and Erika is already planning to wear it to the park, to Oma and Opa's house, to daycare, to visit her friends......

So because there are no knitting pictures I've got some Erika pictures I'll share with you.  We planted a sunflower on Friday night and Erika has to water it and watch it grow.  It's her job.

And we have a model shot of her in her summer dress:

I'm prejudiced, but doesn't it look cute on her?

And look at all those hair clips...... my car, truck and train loving daughter can turn around and be all girly every once in a while.

Now, why does my title have anything to do with sock yarn?  I visited a yarn store on Saturday I had never been to.  A cute, tiny little shop with some nice yarns.  I only shop with having a project in mind.  I saw some nice yarns and I could have bought a skein there and a skein there but that wouldn't go with my rule of only buying it if I know what I'm going to make with it.  Along comes sock yarn.  It seems so innocent, sitting there on the shelf, calling out my name.  It doesn't seem bad to pick up just a couple of balls of sock yarn.  You know what you'll make with it - a sock, of course.  So it's permissable to buy some.  It helps feed that yarn craving.  It's easily stashed.  It's fun to go to your stash to look for just the right sock yarn to feed your mood when you're in sock knitting mood.  So 4 innocent little skeins of sock yarn jumped into my hands.  2 lovely skeins to make some socks for my nieces.  I don't know if they'd ever wear a hand made sock.  I'm thinking they might wear them around home to keep their toes warm in the winter - that's what I often wear my socks for.  And then two skeins of Lang JaWoll Cotton Jacquard sock yarn in a nice mellow red shade.  Lovely stuff.  For myself of course.  Then there was another colour of that JaWoll in a very fall like burnt orange shade with some browns and blacks thrown in.  I regret not buying those skeins as well.  But if I had given in to that, I might have as well bought yarn for a bigger project.  The loveliness of sock yarn sure adds up in the end as well but it is a nice little substitute to get that quick yarn satisfaction.  It was a nice little shop and I'll be back.  Everyone was so nice and friendly. 

Here comes my question to you Moms (or anyone else who might know) out there:  I don't really want to ask anyone of my niece's shoe size.  When I make some surprises I like them to be a surprise for everyone.  My niece will be 8 in November and I want to make her that pair of socks for Christmas.  She is a tall, skinny little girl.  I know shoe sizes are hard but does anyone have any idea what range of shoe size and 8 year old might be fitting into?  For my little niece I can compare to Erika.  I know the little one has feet that are bigger than Erika's by at least one shoe size so I need to just make hers a bit bigger than for Erika.  So if you have any suggestions on size, I'd love to hear them.  Do you think I'll be able to make a little toddler pair and an 8 year old pair out of 2 50 g balls of sock yarn.  I think I should be able to given how much I usually have left when I make a pair of adult socks for myself.  I hope, I hope.......

Speaking of socks, Erika has been begging me to make socks for her bears and babies.  I guess I'll be making a few more minis.  She is very intent that her baby and her bears need their own knitted socks.  I've never even made a pair for Erika.  I started the Cloverleaf sock from the Six Sock knitalong but I didn't enjoy the yarn I was using and I ended up just not finishing it.

And speaking of gifts, I don't want to get into a gift knitting frenzie this year for Christmas but it's just not my nature to not get excited about some gift knitting.  So I'm thinking everything I make will be fairly small and I'm only thinking socks. The ones for my nieces and maybe a pair for my SIL.  The only thing I'd love to do is make ponchos for all the girls (Erika and my two nieces).  That's it.......... stop me before I go crazy on gift ideas.  I have so many lovely fall/winter projects already planned for myself that I don't need the added pressure of gift knitting.  I will try and get the socks out of the way in the next couple of months so that they'll be done.  I'll have to think about the ponchos carefully.  Will they wear them is my big question?

Hope your week is good and brings you lots of enjoyable knitting time.

It's Friday and I had a great day yesterday.  I worked my butt off but it felt so good to see the house take some shape again.  Dishes, dusting, washing floors, some more dusting, dealing with tons of toys, washing play quilts..... the list is long but I stopped about 3 pm and felt I really had accomplished something.  Then it was off to the mailbox to pick up my goodies from Elann and then I got my hands on my Baby Alpaca.  Look:

It is so soft and so lovely and I'm so in love.  How long can I hold off until I at least swatch it.

I also had a good weigh-in at WW.  I was pleasantly surprised at a 1.6 lb loss for this past week.  It feels so good to be back on the losing track.  I hope I can keep this motivation up for a long while longer and I hope my body doesn't decide to plateau on me too soon. 

All the cleaning didn't lead to too much knitting but I have almost finished sock #1 for my secret sock sister.  Wish I could show it off because I really like it.  I was also plugging along on the Magical Mitered Vest and I'm working on the back squares of the first piece now - it is knitted in two pieces and will have a seam in the center back. 

I also made a bit of progress on the neckdown jacket.  I haven't shown any progress on this one yet.  I find top-down's so tough to photograph and whichever way you turn it it doesn't look like that great of a picture but here's a little sneak preview:

In my eagerness to get a quick shot, I didn't even notice the dark threads of waste yarn that my sleeves are resting on.  I could have at least hidden those.  But here it is.  I'm enjoying this project a whole lot.  It will probably be my next "big" finish.

Enjoy your Friday and your weekend if I don't return to post again.  We'll see how it goes.  Tomorrow is haircut day for Erika and myself and then we'll visit with Oma and Opa for lunch and on Sunday we're going to a picnic hosted by the German Club (my parents are members of that).  We've never been but my Mom tells me that they have lots of fun and games for the kids and even though my mother would never ask me to come, I know she has wanted to show off her granddaughter to all her friends for a long time now.  I'm sure we'll have some fun.  The weater forecast doesn't sound too promising for Sunday but let's keep our fingers crossed for some nice weather.

Enjoy life........... that's what we're meant to do.