More starting - less finishing

Not much to report around here. I've gotten some work done on my Sockotta socks. I keep forgetting to pick up my spindle when I actually am at my house, which hasn't been as much as I'd like - but Boo has been hanging out at his uncles house, school is out, and the BBE's place is so nice and close to my job, so I've been getting a few rounds done on my socks during my walks the last couple of days. I used to just churn the socks out - be able to get a pair done in less than a week. These days, I relegate socks to my purse project, and something to work on where I can't really spindle, so they end up taking months!

Anyway - I started another one of what I call my "No Gauge Swatch" sweaters.... I'm just going to give a quick sneak peak on this. I tried to take some pics of the start of the front (or back - whichever) of the sweater - but all the "draping-provocatively-on-flowers" just look like a bunch of knitting crumpled up on some foliage - a bit too crap to post to my blog if you know what I mean. (Does anyone else find it funny that blogger's spell check did not know the word blog?). Here are a couple of pictures that did make the grade. I should post pics of the Original NGS sweater at some point shouldn't I? That one was done when I wasn't really blogging - around Christmas time, out of some handspun that I dyed and looked awful in the roving. Spun up, it sure was pretty! I didn't have enough of the dyed stuff, so I combined it with some yummy chocolate brown Falkland Island roving that I've had for years. The sweater came out nicely - but a tiny bit scratchy for next-to-skin wear, and the neckline (which I love) doesn't really lend itself to wearing it with a shirt underneath - hence this cotton/rayon version.

I like this close up shot a lot. The stitch is just a very basic 3 color garter stitch. I've been wanting to try for a while. Basically you just knit one row in color A, the next row in color b, and then the third row in color C. Every row you knit back the next color is waiting for you just one row down, so there's no real issue with twisting the yarns up the side of your work. Damn - why didn't I get a pic of that? Next time, I promise. It's a great stitch for scarves - being entirely reversible, very small loopy bits running up the sides of the work, and with the added bonus that if you're using 3 colors you don't need too much of any one color for the project!

This is a DK weight cotton/rayon blend that I picked up at John Lewis on Oxford street in London many years ago. One strand of grey, one a dark blue, and the other a teal. It took me quite a long time to decide on the colors that I wanted to use - but am happy with this combination.

I also wanted to show you more pics of the cable plyed yarn - before it was cable plyed - remember, I thought I'd lost my camera and had to use the BBE's to get any pics up at all? I still can't believe that I left my camera on top of my car and drove off... Classic doofus manouever! The new camera will be here on Saturday (happy dance!!) I'm so looking forward to my new toy!

Anyway - here are the 2ply bobbins before being replyed. Not the greatest pics - no real good light - but I wasn't about to wait! You can almost see that the bobbin on the right has a purpley tinge to it - that's the stuff that I just recently spun. The bobbin on the left was spindle spun some time ago - just hanging around on a label roll until I had something to do with it. Handy that!

Oh, and speaking of new toys - I'm still looking at 4-6 weeks before my little Skipper arrives - I keep looking at her picture and trying to figure out what kind of a personality she's going to have. Maddening really.

Well - I have to head out - tomorrow is Boo's Sweet 16 - whadda guy! I'm still kind of reeling that my youngest is getting so big. He's getting ready to start work with my brother in a couple of weeks on a construction site - his first real job!! We'll see how that works out. My brother has said that he's expecting to have to fire him a couple of times before he gets the idea that showing up is mandatory. LOL

And one last one before I go... Boo took this of me knitting on the NGS top last night. I just kind o f like how my hands look all blurry - too fast for the camera shutter - though he probably had it on a slower setting.

I sure hope everyone is doing well on their projects, and some of you actually feel like you're getting something accomplished - I sure don't!

Have fun!