There Must be Socks

 I was commenting on someone's blog the other day about how I could never not have socks on the needles.  The author of the blog was confessing a severe state of anxiety because for the first time in a while she didn't a have any socks in progress. I always have a pair or two in a small bag ready to pick up as I head out the door.

Sakki by Plymouth, a Merino, Mohair and Nylon blend

 I don't even consider these plain ribbed socks a project.

Handspun from my 2011 MDSW Jacob fleece purchase

They are a happy chore that fills a need I can't explain. In another life, I must have had some mighty cold feet.

Christmas in August

 When the phone rang early in the morning and I saw it was from Daddio my heart sank. Something must be wrong.

Instead of the catastrophe that I was expecting, he was in a dither because he couldn't find his Christmas material. He has a giant box and he keeps it under the table that he sits at all day. Guess where it was? Yup. Under the table right where he sits all day. Crisis averted. He is now spending his day making all kinds of holiday doo dads.

 

 Meanwhile out in the garden it is still summer. The pumpkins are all doing their pumpkin thing.

I am not happy to see that someone is enjoying my pumpkins as much as I do. This better not become a habit.

 These giant sunflowers are growing in a pot. We did not plant them. We planted carrots in the pot. We got teeny tiny carrots and humungous flowers. Odd.

 These small sunflowers we did plant. They seem very happy to be out in the blazing sun. Me, not so much. I'm ready for fall.

 The mystery squash turned out to be butternut. There are quite a few of them out there. Why-I have no idea.

 The figs are worrying me to death. By this time we are usually making jelly. The tree did have some damage during Superstorm Sandy so I am crossing my fingers it will recover in time for next year's crop. She is getting a major pruning this winter. She didn't get her usual haircut this year because I was too busy cleaning up the mess the storm left behind and forgot. I hope this didn't ruin this year's harvest.

 Daddio's little front garden is lovely. There are not a lot of blooms this year but what is out there is doing its best. The butterflies and hummingbirds are very happy and I'm happy to say that Daddio is very happy watching them.

Another UFO Sighting

Since this was the summer of getting out old projects and finishing them, I decided to tackle that horrific crocheted afghan that has been decorating my living room for years.

 On a regular basis the cats take out a ball or two and throw it around the living room for the fun of it.

 I was really enjoying this project until I had my gall bladder out. It seems I decided to work on it while I was hopped up on pain killers. As a result I ended up with those ugly red and yellow hexies. They were not in the master plan which was for something a little more understated.

 Aside from the hideous color scheme, I am enjoying working on it again because instead of making and joining one boring hexie at a time, I am making piles of them up until the joining row so the whole thing seems to be going faster. There is still a long way to go but now at least I can see an end in sight. Thank goodness because I am really getting tired of dusting this thing.

A Natural

Although all my weaving time has been devoted to my new Wolf Pup, the Ashford rigid heddle has still been in business all summer.

The Mister just finished his first little woven thingy. He has graduated from potholders into the big time. I'll be fighting him for the Wolf Pup soon-not. In case you are wondering, it's a little blankie for his kitty to sleep on. Don't ask.

Just look at those nice edges. I can't even begin to tell you how awful my first project was so I'll show you.

I told you so. Oh, my....it's a wonder I had the nerve to keep on with this.

On the Loom

 Unlike knitting and spinning, I don't have a weaving stash. I have precious little yarn that would work on a loom. After cutting off the last project, I was very sad. I hate seeing the loom sitting empty. It's just not right. While digging through what I do have, I realized I still had enough of the project cotton to make another table runner if I switched the colors around.

 So I did. Twice.

 Twice because the first time I put the yarn on the warping board I started the threads in the wrong place. I had to take it all off and rewind it.

 Since there was mercifully no tangling it all went pretty fast.

 That is when I discovered my bread basket that I had doing nothing but taking up space in the kitchen made a good tool tray. You use a lot of stuff when you are warping a loom.

Not wanting any more surprises, I used the trick of putting the lease sticks in while it was all on the warping pegs again and had The Mister help me move it to the loom so there would be no twisting. Twisting the cross is scary and my brain can't fix it. It's a death sentence to the warp and I did NOT want to rewind this all again. Perle cotton gets very knotty if you handle it too much as I found out the hard way.

Since all this was happening a dinner time, once again I held the food hostage until The Mister helped me wind it on. I stopped here for the night because it was a very good dinner and me and my full tummy are going to have a lay down in front of the telly. I'll finish all the rest tomorrow.

Off the Loom

 The back of the loom was telling me I was done with this project. I was out of yarn.

The problem was that I didn't want to be done. I wanted it to last at least until I could save up enough money to buy more yarn for something else but I couldn't deny it anymore. I was really done.

As much as I hated doing it, I had to cut it off the loom. I felt like I was giving my baby its first haircut. I was a nervous wreck.

The directions had you cut a few strands and then knot the fringe. I liked doing it this way. I had been cutting everything off and then knotting the fringe in my lap. This works much better to keep that edge tight and straight.

It wasn't as easy on the other end. I had to untie all the knots first which was a pain. On my next one, I am going to hemstitch instead.

Here is the finished table runner before it had a bath. I know, that twill on the right side is pretty bad.

Here is one of the reasons. I missed a weft thread completely. I am going to have to figure out how to fix this and then see what I can do about straightening out that crooked twill. Even though this is a pretty big boo boo, I am happy that (so far) it is the only one I have found and that I made that boo boo at the very beginning when I was just getting a feel for using the itty bitty perle cotton. I've still got an awful lot to learn about this weaving thing-but I have to say I really, really love it.

Like the Wind

 Something else I have been doing in bed at night is to try teach myself how to knit Irish Cottage style. Every summer when I was a teacher, I had to teach myself something new. Juggling, ice skating, spinning all came about in the dead of summer. This year it has been weaving on the 4 harness loom and learning this new way of playing with the sticks and string. If you have never seen anyone knit this way, go over to Youtube right now and check it out. It's crazy looking.

 You wrap the yarn around the fingers of the hand you are holding your free needle in and move the yarn back and forth with your finger...

 ...and then you hold the free needle like a pencil as you push and pull the fabric with your free first finger and thumb-or something like that.

Unlike most things in knitting, it is much harder than it looks. I haven't done a very good job of figuring it out but I'm not giving up just yet. There's a bunch of You Tube videos that walk you through it and I've still got a few to go. Maybe one of them can show me the way. So far, here's my favorite. Many, many, many years ago I taught myself to knit continental style by accident using a book that was teaching the English method so I am not sure if there is much hope. These old fingers don't seem to want to learn this new trick.