One Crazy Halloween Sock!

Here's the crazy Halloween sock. I took one picture with flash and one without so hopefully the true colors will come through. This is the kit in the previous post that I had hoped to get one done by Halloween. I did indeed do that. They sure are wild and crazy!

Happy Halloween !!!!!

I hope all of you have a day full of sweets and treats!

Halloween Treat

I'm a little behind in my knitting but I finally started my Halloween Sock kit from Wool Girl. When I received this package it was such a treat! I felt like a little kid again. The pattern is called "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown", and it uses yarn from White Oak Studio called TV Yarn. I love knitting with this yarn. It feels nice on the hand and flows off the needle. There is even enough yarn to do an optional orange toe. Also included in the kit was the cute little Charlie Brown bag to store the socks in while knitting them. If you look REAL close, you will also see a little tiny pumpkin stitch marker sitting on top of the ghost character. There WAS one more element to the package, but sorry, I ate it all before I took the photo. It was truly a wonderful Trick or Treat for me the day this kit arrived!
Now, I just have to think of a costume that has only one foot, since I won't have a pair by Halloween! lol

A Pair With a Week to Spare!

I finished my second sock from the Rockin Sock Club. This pair of socks was fun to knit and because they were anklets, they worked up fairly fast. At least they seemed to work up faster! My next kit should be shipped next week, so I'm ready. Meanwhile, I started a Halloween sock from Woolgirl. More about that in the next post.

Another project finished!

The day before I went to NY, I went to Bainbridge Island and took a Fair Isle class at Churchmouse Yarns. I know some things about Fair Isle, but it bothers me that my stitches aren't even in the colorwork, and I"m trying hard to eliminate puckering. So, I take a class whenever I see a good instructor is offering one. I am amazed at how I pick up one little tip from each instructor. My work is getting better, but I'm still not "there". This hat is a design by Karen Alfke, who is a great instructor and has designed many patterns. She is so knowledgable! It is made of Jamieson's DK. I have never used this yarn before so that was a new experience too. It is quite scratchy, but I understand that is softens up with laundering and wear. I personally wouldn't be able to wear it next to my skin. It is the ORIGINAL Fair Isle yarn so "real" Fair Isle knitters use it. Anyway, it was a good color lesson. I would change things a bit next time because you can see that my design doesn't stand out clearly. I'm told that Fair Isle designs have and X & O pattern. Mine is there, but it doesn't stand out clearly. I think a color change would correct that.

What's a trip without a purchase?

I really didn't have much time to visit needlework stores while in New York City, but I wanted to bring SOMETHING home to remember my trip. I decided a needlepoint canvas would be more memorable than yarn. I called a couple shops and Annie & Co assured me they had several canvases that were NY scenes. This was a lovely shop with a very friendly and helpful staff. The downstairs part is the yarn portion and the upstairs portion is all needlepoint. There were lots of canavases, samples and threads. Since I had called ahead, she had pulled some NY scenes for me to look at. This is one by Raymond Crawford and I felt it depicted the most memorable parts of my trip. I will start working on it and show my progress on the blog, one step at a time. This is a small piece (about 6x6) so I plan to have it inset into a pillow. Annie & Co is definitely worth a trip if you are a needlepointer and in the Manhattan area.

I LOVE NY!!!!

Wow, what a vacation we had! No, I didn't get to a yarn shop, but I did go to a needlepoint store and bought a great little canvas which is a montage of NY. I'll post a picture soon. What a great city! So much to see and do and......EAT. I must say, they know how to cook in Manhattan, including the best pizza I've ever tasted. This photo is from the "The Top of the Rock" (Rockefeller Building) and provided beautiful 360 degree views of Manhattan. I was amazed that they were able to keep Central Park intact in the middle of this hustling bustling city. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved New York. I thought, it would be "just another city" but I was definitely wrong. The cultural diversity, the architecture, the food, the people, and the friendliness! Yes, the friendliness! I was prepared for rude people, but we found the New Yorkers friendly, helpful and willing to offer help without us even asking. It became a game to listen when we were on a street corner for a light change. We always heard someone speaking a foreign language and they weren't tourists. I loved it! I'll post a few more pictures in the coming days.