Give a little, Get a little

In the giving department, here are the other squares I'm sending off to Annie for her memorial afghan. I just love trying out new stitch patterns, especially lace! So what better cause than a memorial afghan of love? Knit a few and try out some stitch patterns of your own, you know you wanna!!

In the getting department, LOOK what I got from my secret pal!!


She's from Vermont so she sent me an adorable little log cabin shaped tin of *REAL* Vermont Maple Syrup...YUM!! She sent another cute post card and some pretty, pretty Kroy sock yarn which just happens to be one of my favorite sock yarns!! (of course I need more sock yarn like I need to run naked thru downtown Ft. Lauderdale, hehe....now there's the scary visual of the day!)
And best of all, in the upper left of the pic is a hand made needle roll for my DPN's....she made it herself!! Isn't it lovely? And aren't I a lucky Secret Pal? Thank you so much SP, you are spoiling me and your sewing talent leaves me awestruck! I *love* everything!!

This is what I've been working on lately. Like so many others across blog land I've been bitten by the Kiri bug!!


I'm using Shine from Knitpicks and I just *love* it!! It's sooooo soft, easy to knit with and has great stitch definition! It's a sportweight cotton/modal blend and the modal gives the yarn a really pretty shimmer or shine I guess :)
It's the first yarn I've tried from Knitpick's new line and I'm very satisfied overall. It's a lovely yarn and you can't beat the price! I am enlarging the pattern a bit, I'm doing 16 repeats instead of the 12 suggested in the pattern and I plan to add pearl beads to the cast off edge. I'm anxious to finish cause the rows are sooooo long now and seem to take forever!! To be honest, Polly designed a great shawl (thanks Polly!!) but having knit both the shawls on which Kiri is based, Birch and Leaf Lace, I think I prefer casting on 300 stitches and decreasing (Birch) to casting on 3 stiches (Kiri and Leaf Lace) and having to increase to 300+ stitches! But I guess that's what makes the knitting world go round, variety!! I hope to post completed Kiri picks next week.


Now Pumpkin wants to know "what's for breakfast, Mom?" so we are out of here!

Have a great weekend full of smooth stitches and cool breezes!!!

It's a small, small world

Pumpkin and I want to extend our heartfelt thanks to this amazing community of bloggers who offered their support for my lil guy and for allowing me to vent my spleen a little....y'all ROCK!!

Now along those lines, one of my favorite knit bloggers, Kerstin of At My Knit's End and her family have just suffered an untimely and tragic loss. Kerstin's brother-in-law, John Glick, was killed along with 2 of his friends in a car wreck. John was married only last year and his widow, Becky, not only lost her husband but one of the other men killed was Becky's bandmate as well.

In a show of comfort and support, Annie of The Knitty Gritty has organized a fiberly memorial for John. She is calling for our wonderful community to rally round and knit a square or two to sew together a knitted memorial afghan that Becky can keep to surround herself in our good wishes and thoughts. If you'd like to participate hop on over to Annie's blog for the details. She will even send you yarn if you want to knit but have no appropriate materials!

Here's one of my 8 x 8 inch squares:

A couple of month's ago, I won a contest on Kerstin's blog and my prize was 3 skeins of Kureyon. When I heard about this tragic accident, I immediately envisioned this square. I wanted a heart to represent the love John's family had for him and the crysral beads are to represent a crystal tear for thier great loss. The heart in my square is made from a tiny remnant of the yarn Kerstin sent me as my prize. I didn't know at the time, why I wanted to save this tiny snip of yarn...I do now. It's a small, small knitting world, isn't it?

It's my blog, and I'll rant if I want to!

>>I'm very sorry to have to say this, but that is probably one of the ugliest cats I've ever seen. As a Maine Coon, Russian Blue, and Siamese man myself, I find the flat-faced breeds a little disconcerting. Anyway, happy birthday. <<

Today I found the above comment on my blog. This asshat *HAD* to say this. For what? The Good of Mankind? My well being? Pumpkin's? And this weenie had the audacity to do it *anonmyously*. What a he-man!!

Now clearly this man has an inordinately small penis and an even smaller intellect and his comment does not change my life in any way but I fear it is symptomatic of all that is bad on the internet....Why do some feel it is ok to drive by and snipe, saying things they would NEVER have the sack to say face to face?? Why is it ok to break internet appointments without a fair-thee-well, when if the same behavior was exhibited face to face, the offender would be unceremoniously kicked to the curb? Y do we toler8 puter speak? Has it become 2 hard 2 write the word your, and only ur is acceptable? Yikes!!

Many have told me, I write exactly as I sound so my "voice" comes across in posts, emails and IM's and by the same token, I never say or do or promise anything I wouldn't offer in a real time, face to face situation. I wonder how many can say the same or how many find courage in a monitor and keyboard?

And you Mr. Drive-By Snark and Run, I wonder just how disconcerting your visage is that you have to hide behind a machine?

Claudia, no chicken feathers here, just lots of repetition....give me patience :)

Back to knitting tomorrow but before I go, here's yet another adorable picture of the P-Man, cause I'm ornery that way, hehe.....

HELP ME PLEASE!!!

I'm putting out a cry for help!! As previously discussed, my present camera SUX so I'm in the market for a new one....I'm looking for something decent in the $150 - $200 price range (being a poor graduate student and all) and I'm drowning in a sea of too many possibilities! So if you're thrilled with YOUR camera PLEASE leave me your suggestion in my comments! You will have my undying gratitude :) TIA!!

So much catching up to do!!

I'm baaaaaack!! Well actually I never left but I haven't been posting much because I am using my faithful but less than state of the art laptop that up until today, was WAY too slow for any picture programs....can you say dial up and 128 megs of RAM?? Sloooooooooow.......but to be honest, this was a really great laptop in it's day so I decided to give it a facelift! I added some RAM and a little perseverance and voila! Pics galore to make up for lost time! and now I have a really good "spare" if my really expensive piece of shit wonderful Gateway decides to show it's self again!

So on to some KNITTING CONTENT WITH PICS!! First up I give you the long awaited Adrienne Vittadini Shaped Top! I started this on KIP day (June 11) and finished it on July 6th so just about one month. The pattern was a bit more "organic" than I would have liked....you were given ONE pattern repeat of the lace and fitting in the armhole decreases and simultaneous neck decreases while keeping the lace looking as it should was left up to me! So the *second* time I knit the lace, I got it :) Here she is (and I *LOVE* her!!)

Specs:
Adrienne Vittadini Spring 2005 Pattern Book

Rowan All Seasons Cotton in Ravish - just under 8 skeins

size #6 US Addi Natura Bamboo Circs ( I knit really loosely with cotton!)

Mods: aside from having to figure out the lace/decreases myself I added the picot bind off that was called for at the neck and the armholes to the hem and I like it A LOT!! The pattern called for a plain cast on which being stockinette, rolled unmercifully and I felt the Top was too dressy for a ribbing or a seed stitch hem. I think adding the picots to the hem really pulled it all together! To do this, I did a provisional cast on by crocheting *around* my needle to form temporary loops and knit into each loop. Once the peices were finished, I unzipped the provisional cast on, placed the live stitches on my needle and bound off using the matching picot bind off.

All in all, a fun knit and a (in my opinion) beautiful result! I'm very happy with the top and I hope the acrylic content of the ASC will keep it from stretching out so I can wear it for many *Summers of Lace* to come!

Now what else has Debi been up to in her blogging absence you ask? First up, I finished my socks for my Sockapal-2-za pal:

I hope she likes these sunny beaded socks and they make her smile all year long!

Next, I knit these Leaf Socks for a friend. She's a lover of the color sage so I used "Artic Moss" Naturespun Sport for the body and some Mountain Colors "Sagebrush" for the trim, heels and toes. I think she will *love* these socks!
The pattern is from the German Sock Knit-a-Long Yahoo Group.
I also used the Sagebrush Mountain Colors (one of my favorite yarns, btw!!) to make some socks for the charity Children in Common (CIC). I think these are just so cute and it warms my heart to know they will be keeping the feet of some sweet child warm when that child might have little else. I really *love* being able to use my beloved knitting in a charitable way....go ahead, make a few, the **FREE** pattern is right over there -------------->on my sidebar! You know you wanna!

Now I leave you with...what else? Cute Pumpkin pics!! When he lays near me on the couch he usually curls up so tight his flat, little face is mashed into the cushions, something like this:
And one second later, here he was:
Doesn't he look like he turned himself inside out? hehe....And don't you *need* to scratch that tummy?

Next week, two new WIP's and hopefully a new toy*

Happy knitting everyone!!

*please forgive the horrible quality of these pics, my camera :::cough, Gateway, cough:::is not very good at the close-ups and it was my first digital camera ie: I didn't know any better!) My birthday is in September so I think there's an early birthday prezzie in my immediate future! Stay tuned.....

addendum 7/16 4 pm: I took my camera outside after the rain stopped and re-shot all the pics....the quality is slightly better but still not very good so, if you visited earlier, your eyes are not playing tricks AND I'm still looking for a new camera :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY P-MAN!!

Today is Pumpkin's FIRST birthday!! Please send chicken :)

I couldn't ask for a sweeter, happier man in my life and my darling boy has made a very difficult time a little bit more bearable!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUMPKIN!!

For those who are about to ROCK.....

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!