FO, FO, SO

I finished my Angee socks, finally. This is a fun pattern, quick and easy. There were apparently a couple of mistakes in the pattern that I didn't know about, but they were minor, not really affecting the overall look of the pattern. Here they are, in different views:



I like these socks. They're nice and warm and cushy. Specs: Pattern: Angee from Sock Innovation, by Cookie A. Yarn: Wollmeise Twin, Herzblut. Needles, 2.25 mm. Modifications: none.

Next up was, as discussed in my last post, Kieler Sprotte from Socken Aus Aller Welt, by Stephanie van der Linden. After all the navel gazing and stash rearranging evidenced in my last two blog posts, I settled on three Wollmeise colors: Ebenholz (an ebony brown), Terra de Siena (a deep red/orange), and Honigtopfchen (honey pot). I decided to use three colors after seeing a black/teal/chartreuse combo and really liking it. The problem was that I loved the yarns too much to use them yet. I only have one each of the teal and the chartreuse, and I wasn't emotionally ready to use them yet. I know. I'm strange, but I know there are other people out there like me.

I rejiggered the pattern a little to accommodate using the extra color, and this is what I came up with :


Here it is with the flash:


I like the concept, but not the reality. As I said on Ravelry, it's That '70s Sock. It feels great, and I know I would love to wear them, but the color combo just isn't working for me, so it became a F(rogged) Object.

After that, I delved into the stash again and pulled out the following two yarns:


Wollmeise Twin in Schwarz (black) and Sundara sock yarn in Viola. The Sundara is really a much deeper violet than the picture suggests. I can't get my camera to register the deep purples at all. I've cast on, but I'm still on the all black cuff, so there's nothing interesting to show. Since I'm only using two colors, I'm going to stick to the original pattern. Someday I'll go back to my variation, just with different colors.

I'm tempted to write about politics, particularly the Specter situation, but I have a lot to do around here.

Coming soon -- pretty yarn pictures!

Coming after that -- Maryland Sheep and Wool!

Change of Plans?

In my last post, I presented a bunch of choices I'm considering for the Kieler Sprotte socks I plan to start when I finish the Angee socks. Allow me to present to you the combination I will use, if I am brave enough to use some of these almost-too-good-to-use colors:


That's the new Wollmeise color, Neptun, on the left. The problem is that I only have one skein of the Neptun (and the Frosch, on the right), and I may love them too much to use yet. We'll see. I think the colors really pop together :)

This, of course, is predicated on my actually finishing the Angee socks. There's been little knitting time and I foresee little more until at least mid-week next week. The good news is that I've only got about 3/4 of the foot left to go.

Here are some more lovelies:


That's a skein of Poison No. 5 I got in a swap, next to Petit Poison lace, yum. I've been waiting a long time for Petit Poison lace to be available, and I lucked out being around for the last update.

From lovelies to yummies:



This was Sr. Jr.'s celebratory cherry pie. It was really good. He was a happy boy.

In addition to the good report card, he got an overall grade of 96 on his science project, so he continues to be really happy. (He was so stressed out about that project and the oral presentation, so I was happy he did well.)

So that's the quick pre-weekend update. It will be a typical spring weekend, with baseball games, birthday parties, and bike races. Have a good weekend!

Moving Slowly

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I'm sorry. Every time I think I'm going to have a nice, slow week to get a lot done, Mother Nature laughs at me and throws a million things into my schedule, just to keep me humble. Not that these are all bad things by any means, but they keep me from making much knitting progress. Add to mix that it's allergy season, and the meds make me too drowsy to knit much at night, and you get a cranky Loren.

In the not-so-much-knitting news is that I've finished one of my Angee socks and turned the heel on the second.


And a better picture of the pattern:


When I'm done with these, I'm going to work on Kieler Sprotte from Stephanie van der Linden's book Socken aus aller Welt:


Yes, it's all in German. Between the charts, the German to English translations on the Wollmeise bags, the Knitting Languages book I have, and the help of the German members of the Ravelry KAL, I think I can muddle through. All I have to do is pick some color combos. What do you all think of the following choices?

Schwarz and Bugga (Tomato Frog):


Schwarz and Eidos (too lazy to look up the name of the green):


Ebenholz and Single Malt:


Schwarz and Frosch:


Schwarz and Safran:


Ebenholz and Safran:


Or Ebenholz and Terra de Siena:


It's a bad day for taking pictures. Vote in the comments, please!

This afternoon and tomorrow are going to be baking days. I promised Sr. Jr. that I would bake him a cherry pie if he got all As on his report card this quarter. With pie for incentive, he not only got all As, but a bunch of Os (for outstanding) for effort and behavior, including ALL Os from Mr. P, the notoriously hard-ass Science teacher :) I'll make the pie crust this afternoon and then finish off the pie tomorrow. I also need to replenish my stock of scones. So today, baking, not so much knitting. (Yes, I'll post pictures of the pie for all you hungry readers.)

Fishing and Golfing and Surf, Oh My

In case anyone was wondering about my absence, we took a Spring Break trip to Florida, back to Anna Maria Island, where Mr. T grew up. We rented a condo about 50 yards from the beach. The first two days we were there were rather chilly and extremely windy. Since going to the beach was out of the question, the boys went golfing:


Reports say that all the boys played well and had fun.

The next day, the boys and I braved the chill and went to the beach while Mr. T did some work, had a conference call, the usual.


I huddled in my beach chair while the boys played in the water, completely oblivious to the cold and wind.

Interestingly, the Kindle works wonderfully, even out in bright sun, but there's a trick to using it at the beach. If you hit the next page button while the screen is in full sun, the new page will look all wonky. However, if you just hold the Kindle so that the the screen is shaded, the new page comes out perfectly:


It's especially easy to do if you have a cover for the Kindle, because you can use that to shade the screen. (The book I was reading is The 19th Wife, about polygamy in the Mormon tradition in its original incarnation and as it exists today in the Mormon offshoot communities. It was very good.)

After his work was done, Mr. T joined us at the beach with a borrowed skim board, and tried to teach the boys how to use it. Sr. Jr. tried , but fell and scraped up his knee. Jr. Jr. tried too, and Mr. T got these great action shots:




Ever since last year's vacation, the boys have been begging Mr. T to take them fishing again. Last year, they fished off a pier. This year, Mr. T booked a fishing afternoon with an old friend of his, so the boys actually got to go out on a boat into the bay to do some *real* fishing. Again, boy heaven. Fish were caught. Here's Jr. Jr., already indulging in the fisherman's "this big" hand gestures:


Since I wasn't there, I'm just going to post the adorable pictures and let your imaginations fill in the details:








While the boys were fishing, I had a little time to work on my Angee sock. Before we left, I had already turned the heel, and in the course of the week, I managed to finish the first sock and start the second. I don't have pictures of the finished sock yet, but you can see the pattern very well in these pictures:



The reason I got dragged on this trip, instead of having a nice Mommy vacation like I did last year, is that last week was Mr. T's and my 15th anniversary :) We dropped the kids off at my MILs and went off to spend the day and night together, sans children. While my MIL fed the children every sort of sweet she could be talked into and took them to Steak and Shake for dinner, Mr. T and I went down to St. Armand's Circle to wander about and do a little shopping. Afterward, we went to dinner at the Beach Bistro, a beautiful little restaurant on Anna Maria. The restaurant looks out over the Gulf, so dinner is accompanied by beautiful sunset views, and occasionally, playful porpoises. The food is amazing, too, good enough to rival any of the best restaurants here in DC.

Here are some of our views from dinner, as the sun set:




And here we are, after dinner on the beach:


I put this in for Sharon, who wonders why I never show my face :) Actually, I HATE seeing pictures of myself. I hope it's just that I'm completely unphotogenic and not that I'm hideously ugly, but I usually gag whenever I see a photo of myself. But here you go --


We spent one final day at the beach, then went to dinner at my MILs, where the boys cracked open a coconut,


and chased little lizards:


We've all been well fed, and some of the more stubborn members of the family got a little sunburned. Here's a portrait of the goofball family:

Please Stand By

We are back from vacation, but the boys are home again tomorrow ("teacher work day"), plus I have to pick up the cat from the vet, do the laundry, get us some food, stop at the post office... So I don't know when I'll have time to put up a proper post. But there are lots of great pictures forthcoming...

Spring Love

It's a gorgeous day! When Mr. T got back from his bike ride, I asked him to take some pics of me wearing Ishbel. I love love love this little scarf. I put it on with just a plain white t-shirt and it looked amazing. Perfect for a Spring day. It was a joy to knit, and it will be a pleasure to wear. After we took the pics, I commented that we needed to go out and do something, because I looked so cute. Mr. T, on the other hand, had plans to take the boys to a bike race and to baseball practice, so I shall sit here and enjoy some quiet knitting time.

So, I present to you... Ishbel.





Specs: Pattern: Ishbel, by Ysolda Teague. Yarn: Yarn Chef's Buttercream. Color: Afternoon Delight. Modifications: None. The pattern was a pure joy to knit. I can definitely see myself making another one.

Enjoy your weekend... I'll see you in a week or so, post-Easter.