Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Giving praise where praise is due

Or sometimes threats make good things happen!

Hopefully this will be my last blog conversation regarding the evil minions Gateway. Now I hate to jinx anything but after another million phone calls, threats to involve the South Dakota DA, much crying and follicular ripping I finally unearthed the ONE Tech who actually knows what he's doing! YAY!! My new BFF Dustin found a hidden virus that was booting up the computer rather than allowing the hard drive to do it thus wreaking all sorts of havoc. He also unearthed (and repaired!) a battery glitch and....dare I say it? It's been smooth sailing! YAY x2!! Now I'm praying I haven't taunted the computer gods and life can move forward once and for all!!

Moving on to actual knitting content there's been a pitiful showing, truth be told. For the first time in a really long time I really haven't felt like knitting so much and I'm not sure why. I have noticed a similar ennui on many blogs, so at least I have good company :)

I've barely touched the Forest Path Stole but I do have an FO!

What else? Socks!!
Here's my first pair with the new
Panda Cotton from Crystal Palace --- I LOVE IT!!



Specs:

Essence of
Elfine footies - Just over one skein of the Panda Cotton, Fern Colorway

US #1 (2.25 mm) Aero DPNs

Knit toe up with a
Turkish Cast On

And check out that bee-you-tee-full
tubular bind off, baybee!!


Mods: I converted Anna's original Elfine to footies and added a yo short row heel.
I really love the Panda Cotton - it's very soft and kinda squishy. It's comprised of 4 elastic strands so it can be a bit splitty but not horribly so. It stood up well to being frogged a few times (until I found the right pattern) The yarn *seems* a bit thicker than most fingering weight yarns but once knit and stretched a bit, it was quite fine and fit comfortably into shoes.
I will most certainly being using it again and I definitely recommend it!

Now some pretty knitting accoutrements.....

I love wearing shawls/stoles but don't like wadding them up in a knot and hate fussing with them to keep them in place so I went looking for some shawl pins and look at the beauties I found!!



These are hand made by the very sweet and talented Chris who sells her lovely wares here. Chris' original designs are stunning, functional and won't snag your beautiful knits! Plus Chris is very helpful and accommodating in helping you get exactly the knitting bling you dream of :)

Now P-Man does a little Vogue, and strikes a pose!


What a stud muffin!
Now if that doesn't cure the ennui, nothin' will!
Have a great week!

26 comments:

La Cabeza Grande said...

Love what you've done with the modified Elfin! Those look so very comfy and cute. Thanks for the info on the Panda yarn, too.

Fingers crossed on the "G" word :o)

alltangledup said...

p-man is as usual gorgeous. the socks are really cute.

I haven't felt the ennui yet but since starting the FPS stole, I dare not start another big project. This stole is going to take a while for me to feel comfortable with.

Anonymous said...

Love the socks - and the P-man! And you're very sweet!

Carole Knits said...

I love your new footies - so bright and spring like!

Alison said...

Love the footies. I've been thinking about trying the Panda Cotton since VA tends to be a little warm in the summer.

I've had a bit of knitting ennui lately, too. I'll knit a bit every couple of days. Cross-stitch has caught my fancy lately, but socks are a bit more portable, so they do go with me when I'm out and about. FPS has been on hold all this week.

Pretty pins and P-man is gorgeous as always.

Nana Sadie said...

Ohhh...pretty pretty bling! I love Chris' gorgeous wares and have been very happy with mine! She does great work!
P-Man, the Stud-Muffin, is always scrumptious, and while those colors are not actually "me" they are terrific in those ankle socks! Looking good.

You know, I wouldn't have said I had knitting ennui, but somehow I walked off and left my knitting at HOME today! Arrrgh!
(((hugs)))

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I got to have some of those footies!!!

Beth said...

OK then, just because you said so, I won't dismiss the Panda cotton just because it's cotton. ;)

Jes said...

The sock-lets are very cute!

I too have a bit of the ennui. I think it's the improving weather that makes me want to be outside and doing other things than knitting. Could be that spring fever is going around. =)

Marguerite said...

A hidden virus? That sounds scary. Gave you've recovered and hopefully become immune.

I admit to knitting ennui. But then I'm working on three! unfinished sleeves. Not interesting knitting or blogging material. Gotta get through them. I'm slapping my hands every time I'm tempted to cast on something new.

Angie said...

Great to hear from you and the hopefully good news all around. The Elfine's are gorgeous, must have some and the info on the Panda Cotton is oh-so helpful.
P-man looks good as well.

Siercia said...

Great socks! Now I wanna make me some!

I hope your computer woes truly are behind you.

Anonymous said...

Love the footies! I have been wondering about Panda. Everyone is saying good things about it.

I have neverused the Turkish cast on. Nice tutorial for it; I'll give it a try. I use Judy's Magic Cast-On which gives a similar result.

Anonymous said...

Loving those footies! I am always obsessed with cotton this time of year and I'm glad to hear what you think of the Panda cotton. P-man is a stud muffin as usual!

Olga said...

Since I was feeling your pain over Gateway and I live in SD I went and found an employee of that evil empire and kicked his butt for you. No need to thank me....;)
And my knitting-blogging-living mojo is on hiatus too. bummer.

Kimberly said...

Those socks are really cute-I'm a big fan of cotton-with two kids to knit for, I've learned to love it. Hi, P-man!

Anonymous said...

Hope your computer problems are solved. We just bought our third Gateway and we've loved them all.

WandaWoman said...

*fingers crossed* that this is the end of your computer woes. The socks look great. Chris makes beautiful shawl pins and is so friendly and helpful. I went through a phase of ordering pins every month and finally had to limit myself to every few months, b/c really I can't even knit that many shawls in that time frame.

Unknown said...

I love those socks. The colors are the bomb diggity!

P.S. You little word verification is currently spelling a cuss word. Since I always cuss when trying to complete that one little step... I find this amusing.

Carol said...

Spring is officially here! ;) Dare I say about time they figured it out? {P-Man}

Monika said...

Cutest cat EVER! ;o)

Leslie said...

Isn't that hilarious? I found Chris through her husband, Robert, who made the swift I purchased on Ebay! He puts one of her cards in the package with each swift! It's a lovely little swift - folds flat, is a table top model(no clamping) and is under $30!.

So, I ordered a shawl pin from her over the weekend and expect it today or tomorrow - great minds I see :)

Hugz to the pman - he is SUCH a studmuffin!

Crystal Palace Yarns said...

Great looking footies! And so glad to see you like our new Panda Cotton (though I wonder if we should have named it something else to indicate that it has MORE bamboo in it than cotton!?)

I'm off to link our Blog to your Blog right now!

Knit On!

Susan at Crystal Palace Yarns

gail said...

great footie socks!!! I'll have to try that yarn. When making footies, I begin from the cuff and do a provisional caston, a picot fold and then knit the cuff lining together with the cuff stitches. This makes a neat and firm little cuff. Nevertheless, my daughter still won't wear them--they aren's the cotton white ones that EVERYONE wears. Sigh. I hope there are some happy and appreciative feet for your footies.

Anonymous said...

ohhhhhhhhhhh, definitely putting those socks on my list! Excited to try the tubular bo too :)

jennhx said...

Very nice work! I just bought some Panda Cotton recently, so I'm glad to hear it knits up well (and beautifully as evidenced by your pics!). I was a bit worried about how small the skeins look, but since I have two full skeins I think that should be fine.

Cheers,
Jennifer