The Socks are Finished

First, thanks for the compliments on the latest tee and for the comments & advice on sewing with the slippery stuff ! I'll give these tips a try...tacking or pinning the ends first should help the uneven start and Ann, I checked out the video on the neckline. Thanks alot ! That is really clear on how to make the band fit - where it needs to stretch more and where not so much. The link was bookmarked right away :-)



As I'd hoped, I worked on the 2nd sock in the car during our drive to Toronto. I had turned the heel and done the orange and the dark grey stripes. It's a pointy toe and needed to be decreased until only 2 stitches were on each needle - I wasn't taking a chance on dropping any stitches while the car was moving so I safely stopped just before the end and did the last couple of decreases once we arrived.

Pattern: Briggs & Little Fine Socks (As a New Brunswicker, I feel kinda happy that my first pair was from a New Brunswick company - supporting local business & all that)
Yarn: Opal Crazy # 1903
Needles: 2.75 mm



And, on me... my goodness, it's hard to take pictures of your own feet ! LOL!

BWOF 2009-04 (112)

I haven't quite got the hang of sewing knits yet, but it's a wearable tee.

The fabric is one of the remnants I bought & posted last week. It's a VERY slippery fabric ! I had a very hard time getting the seams started on the serger evenly. The top layer didn't 'catch' until the bottom layer was already about 3/8" started. I'll have to practice to figure it out.

I like this one a bit better than the boatneck tee from BWOF 2009-02. I made a straight 42 with no changes and I like the looser fit through the body. It's got raglan sleeves so I figured the narrow shoulders wouldn't really be much of an issue.

I wasn't sure how to do a forward shoulder adjustment on raglan sleeves. Now I have an idea how to do it on the next version.

The neck on the boatneck tee was just fold under and topstitch, this one has a separate neckline sewed on. It's really floppy, not sure what I did wrong.

Don't like the finished length of the sleeves. I DO like the bottom attached cuff although next time I'll probably make it a bit shorter. On this one, I'll just push the sleeves up. I wore it all day today. The wearability factor is very good - I did NOT spend the day tugging at it :-)

Oh, and I used a longer stitch (3.5 instead of 2) for the twin stitching on the hem, MUCH better !

Front view


Back


It's so nice to take pics outside now - spring's here !


Tomorrow morning we leave early for our trip to Toronto (about 5-1/2 hours). I'm going to bring my socks with me and maybe I'll get the second one done during the drive.

Dogs on Thursday

There's nowhere to sit in my house - The dogs have overrun the place !!!

Skippy, my fluffball Pom is at the bottom of the pic.
Alex, my Chi is just above him.

Next, we have Sophia Rachel and Lester Jerome (oh yes, their real names !)

Apparently, Alexandra and Skippy are very boring names or so we've been told by the owners of Miss Sophie and Lester. Their last dog was called Bertram Aloysius Dog - I kid you not. He was part Chihuahua, part Jack Russell and an absolute sweeheart.



Soph and Lester are Alex's full siblings from the previous litter, they're 7 months older than her.
They live in Toronto with their humans who happen to be on a 12 day cruise at the moment. We're babysitting - does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture? a cruise, ... or babysitting ? hmmm

Anyway, they have been with us now for 2 weeks and on Saturday we will all pile in the van to take them back home. I'm sure they will be glad to see their owners and I know our friends will be very happy to have them back home. We, on the other hand, are going to miss them !

Skippy & Alex

Depth perception is misleading. When Sophie's next to the laundry basket, the basket is taller.

Lester never looked up from his chewie - not once.

A Woman's Perogative

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. It was very quiet here at our place...but after a pretty busy week last week, it was just what we wanted.
For me, a bit of everything...cooking, knitting, sewing, shopping.

Cooking - So, what do you think of my Peach Ice Cream?
Not quite the expected 'peachy' color, you say ?

Well, as the title hints...I changed my mind :-)

THIS is Marjie's Apple Pie Ice Cream !

It's very good - I have only one problem with it. The darn stuff tastes like it needs a scoop of Vanilla to go with it. Whoever heard of apple pie 'without' vanilla ice cream ? LOL !!!

Sewing - On the sewing front, this weekend, I didn't actually finish anything, but I 'did' trace and cut out BWOF 2009-04 (#112). I just have to finish rethreading the serger and I can get started. Maybe it won't take too long and there will be a finished pic before Friday.

Knitting - The 2nd sock - I'm now on the last couple of decreases before I do the instep

Shopping - I went back to Fabricville - 'nuff said...MUST. SEW. LOTS. MORE (must also stop going to the fabric store !)

More Fabric = a Weekend Project

Like alot of people, I'm off work today for the long weekend. I've got a multitude of things I'd like to do, but at my speed of progress it certainly won't all get done.

The 2nd sock is coming along...not as quickly as the first, but last weekend I cheated and just knit for a WHOLE day ! That was a lot of progress on the 1st sock at one time ! This one is being knit in the car going to work in the morning - that's only about 1/2 hour at a time.

I'm about to try Marjie's Peach Ice Cream. The peaches are thawed and ready to start. Hopefully, it will turn out as good as Marjie's looks :-)

On the sewing front...I haven't done any since I finished the last tee (almost a month ago, Yikes!) Granted my weekends have been busy and there was a weekend away, but, still...

This morning I was out and it just so happens that Fabricville is at the other end of the mall where I went for my groceries - isn't that JUST so convenient ? LOL ! Anyway, yes I bought something.

They are just remnants and since I'm a card carrying member, remnants are buy 1, get 2 (you pay for the most expensive).

In this case, they were all larger than noted on the tags and the most expensive was the blue @ $3.21.

People, the total for what I measured to be 5 m of fabric was $3.68 !!!!!

The blue cotton and the plaid will be skirts and the knit print, a top.

I'm hoping to have one of these done this weekend.

Oh, and BTW, Diana, you'll be pleased to know that I plan another trip to Fabricville either later today or tomorrow ! I'm trying to only pick up fabric that will go with something I already own (the remnants from today qualify) and while I was in NB, I didn't have any info with me (measurements or swatches for color). Now, I've got all the info as well as 2 of the $15 off coupons I rec'd with my last purchase, which are only good until Sunday. BWOF 02-2009 has so many interesting things - I should be able to get fabric for 4 projects this weekend.

It's a Sock !

And it fits !

Thanks a bunch Mom, for teaching me to knit & read a pattern. Don't know why socks made me so nervous, I just had to 'read the pattern'.

Gotta go...have to cast on the mate.

No, pics til they're done...............

A catch-up post

I started this post on Monday when I got back, but boy, things got busy this week ! I spent a bit of time each day working on it. Here goes...


The party

Well, the party was a rousing success ! My aunt had a great time and spent 2 full hours greeting everyone in the receiving line. No breaks - one person suggested a break. Miss some of the party ? I don't think so ! He didn't suggest it again - LOL !

I heard by way of the grapevine that she was concerned not many people would attend - last count of the guestbook was 293. That doesn't count the ones who didn't sign and the ones who signed 'and family', so well over 300 people all of them cousins at one level or another. Even knowing my family is huge, it's a funny thing to walk into a reception hall and be related to every single person there.

Here she is with my Dad and one of my sisters - lookin' good for 100 years old, no ?


and with my younger brother - handsome guy, isn't he ?
hmmm, don't tell him I said so, I think it's against sibling rules LOL :-)


After the party some of us went back to my other sister's place (remember, there's 8 of us !)
We don't get together often, so when we can, we make the most of it. There were lots of silly faces in the pics that night, this one's not too bad. Only 5 of us in this one.




The shopping

As is my habit, there was a visit to Fabricville. And I bought.....N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

I think it's a first and DH had a hard time believing I came home empty-handed. Well, almost...

At Christmas, I bought a few balls of Koigu sock yarn but have not yet attempted a sock. This trip I stumbled upon a yarn store uptown and decided then and there that it was time to get started - of course that required all the supplies:

A pattern, a set of 2.75mm bamboo dpn's and a 100g ball of Opal in the Crazy pattern/colorway (OMG $18.99/ball !!!)



After a test swatch that told me I should probably be using 3mm needles, I cast on anyway. My foot is long (size 9) but narrow. It should fit. If not, I'll undo it and start again. At this price, I'm not giving them away - who knew the cost of sock yarn !!! And WHY do I make the first attempt with Opal yarn and not the much less expensive Koigu ?

This is where they are now were on Wednesday - the pattern is nothing like the display sock, but I'll keep going and see what happens. My first time with bamboo needles - they're great :-)




and THIS is where they were yesterday - just about 6" long. I took this pic right before I started the instructions for the heel




That was it for the trip, hmmm, what else ?

March Wrap-up - only the newsprint tee. Not much to require a wrap-up post, but if there is one completed object per month, that will be a very successful year for me.


BWOF - picked up the April issue today - the first time it was available before the 1st of the month. There a few things that caught my eye. Now that I've made one BWOF item, there are more to come.





I think that's it for now - I wouln't have missed my aunt's party for the world, but I'm GLAD to be back home.