Merry Christmas!

I have had a fiber-filled Christmas so far! Last night I opened presents with my mom and I got some GREAT stuff.

As y'all know, my mom doesn't knit. But our friend M does, and mom always goes to her to find out what I want fiber-wise. My mom always gets the perfect gifts. So this year, in addition to my many MANY Christmas ornaments this year (she picks them up for me when she travels), she also bought me a Swift and Ball Winder!!! YAY! I used to use M's, and as "payment" I'd always wind a couple balls of her yarn, too. Now that I have a set, I told her she'd have to wind her own! She replied that now I have a set, she can just send it home with me. LOLOLOL

From M I got some ADORABLE Christmas ornaments of snowmen wearing knitted garments, a bunch of other knitting related things like the Spinner's Companion. And she gave me a skein of Cherry Tree Hill's Melange. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Oh, and a sheep windchime! He's ADORABLE.

But the big news...I finished my mother's Christmas present in time. I can't tell you how much I was sweating that. LOL. I knit her a Lady Eleanor in Noro. I started it Halloween weekend and finished it at 3:30 p.m. Christmas Eve. She loved it. I had a mental breakdown at one point and thought "What if she doesn't like it?" But then the brain kicked back in and I realized how stupid that was. LOLOL. First of all, she bought the yarn! And she knew I was going to make that for her, but I had told her that she wasn't getting hers until I finished mine. And mine is a LONG WAY from being finished. LONG LONG WAY. And because all my knitting buddies were sworn to secrecy, she had no idea I had even STARTED it, much less was going to finish by Christmas. When I told both her and our friend M that bit about her not liking it, they both gave me identical stares that very clearly said "Oh, no! She's finally snapped."

So last night I gave her a "gift certificate" to take her shopping for silk, as she wants to line it. I also gave her the last ball of yarn for the fringe, and then she opened the box. She was stunned. Absolutely stunned. And another friend of mine makes jewelry, and I had 'commissioned' her to make a shawl pin and she came up with a really pretty one in hammered copper that's PERFECT. I'm hoping to have pictures next week or the week after depending on how it goes.

So that's been my Christmas so far. All in all a good one, if a bit bittersweet as it's the first without my grandmother.

Off to dad's now to make pierogi. Hope your holidays are fun, festive, and filled with the company of those you love. Stay safe.

The Guppy
aka the Fish with Sticks

She's on Probation...

I took Eleanor out in public for the first time in a number of weeks. And after a shaky start and a little gentle scolding, she started behaving quite nicely. So she can now come out and play, but she's on probation for a bit. I'll see how she does at this Wednesday SnB.

In the meantime I've started another sock. I'm using Lorna's Laces sock yarn for the first time. How yummy is THAT? Mmm. LOVE the feel of it while knitting and love the feel of the sock itself. I'm using the color "Jeans." I also bought some Koigu sock yarn in a really pretty kelly green. I haven't used Koigu yet, but I'm loving the LL so much, I think it's going to have to wait for a bit.

I'm a bit puzzled. I saw a sock that you could wear with flip-flops. And I thought that would be PERFECT if I end up going to India next year with my family. But I can't remember where I saw the pattern! IT seems to me it was a sock done in colors similar to LL's "Sherbet" a kind of pale yellow and peachy orange, etc. I remember thinking it would be good to try, and I KNEW I'd remember where I saw it. (Stop laughing!) And now I can't find anything I like quite as much.

So that's all for now. Pictures soon, hopefully. I have a number of them from the Stitch 'N Pitch and I want to take some progress pics.

The Guppy

aka The Fish with Sticks

She's Grounded!

I've discovered something...I can't knit my Lady Eleanor in public. Really. I just can't. Every time I try, disaster strikes.

Two weeks ago I was sitting with my Saturday Night Crafty group over at my mother's house (they were her friends first. *grin*) when what do I see? A HOLE in my ELEANOR!!! It's ok, I think. I should be able to fix it, I say. it seems when joining one rectangle to the next I dropped the stitch.

Now, y'all know I'm not afraid in any way shape or form of ripping back, but just the thought of trying to rip back Silk Garden without it felting to itself or breaking made me ill. And in looking at it I realized that to get back to the mistake I'd have to rip back the row I started and the two rows of entrelac already done. I can't. Really. It's just too painful.

So I made a mad dash to A Mano Yarn and threw myself on the mercy of Shannita. She had the same instinctive response to ripping back. No. Way. So she took the dropped stitch, worked it up to where it should have been and then tacked it down in the back. And I went home to keep working.

Well, I had to rip out the same two rectangles FIVE TIMES. At that point I realized that the Gods were telling me that in order to move forward I needed to go back and fix. And it was at that point I realized (no laughing now, promise?) that since I had only just started a row of entrelac that I had to rip the two rectangles (for the 6th time), the turning triangle, and two rectangles on the previous row in order to fix that dropped stitch. Half an hour and I was done.

Ok. Obviously Eleanor was a little peeved, but I've patched her wounds. I've been spending quality time with her every day. She's been going with me just about everywhere. We're good, right?

Wrong.

Once again, I'm at a friend's house knitting. Once again, I find a gap. This time it was because on one of the previous rows I forgot to drop the first stitch of the rectangle row so I don't have a good edge to pick up the stitches. That's ok. I can fake it! Takes me three tries, but I get it.

And once again...the next rectangle I'm doing...I've ripped it out three times so far.

Eleanor looks beautiful and everything seems fine now, so I'm not sure what her current issues are with me. Maybe she's jealous of the time I've been spending with Mr. Sock. But really, it was for her own good! I've only been spending time with Mr. Sock because I've been at places that were too dirty or crowded for me to let Eleanor out to play.

So I think she's just pouting.

And because of that she gets a time out. She needs to sit there for a bit and think about what she's done. When she decides to adjust her attitude and behave, then she can come out and play with people again. Until then...she stays home.

The Guppy

aka The Fish with Sticks

My How You've Grown!

I'm pretty much working on Eleanor to the exclusion of all else. I did about an inch of a toe-up sock last week, as I had some family stuff going on and portability was key.

First up, here's the Lady...



Shameless Plug: And let me just say 100% of the credit for me getting this far goes to Shannita at A Mano Yarn Center. I took her Lady Eleanor class and she talked us through this pattern literally step by step and stitch by stitch. By the end of the class I felt like an Entrelac pro! I love this shop. It's fun, and the people are so incredibly nice and helpful (and did I mention fun?). /Plug

And here are some "old" pictures of my toe-up sock from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I'm using the pattern for the short-row toe and the beaded rib for the body of the sock.



The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

All Eleanor, All The Time!

That's pretty much it. LOL. I've been working on nothing else BUT my Lady Eleanor and it's coming along quite nicely. I'm well into the third ball and it's gorgeous. In fact, I'm already making plans for a scarf version. And maybe a purse.

As a bit of a treat, here's a comic a friend of mine forwarded. Click on the image for a full-sized view...



And for those interested, Little Dee can be found daily at Comics.com.

The Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

The Lady So Far...

This picture was taken when I was about 1 1/2 balls into my Lady Eleanor. I'm LOVING this pattern, and the colors are gorgeous and perfect. I've just started my third ball of Noro. I'll have to take some more pictures this weekend in the sun, because here the colors are off.



Isn't she pretty? Or am I just biased? LOL.

And in the meantime, I also FINALLY casting on my Amazing Lace project. About time, too. LOL. I'm 8 rows into a 10 row repeat and I can't see the pattern. LOL. I'm sure it's because I haven't gone far enough in yet, and also that it's not blocked, but still...now I'm wondering if I'm doing it right. I'll probably take it to class tomorrow if I can get my tired butt up in the morning.

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Catching up...Again

I know. I know. I am a bad knit blogger. Here I posted those dramatic pictures and the abridged version of the story and then disappeared. How rude of me! LOL.

To be fair, between the new car (LOVE it), my co-worker being a Twinkie, and a number of large, involved projects at work as well as some family stuff, I have had NO time to post.

One of the reasons I was dragging my feet just a bit was I had taken some new photos and wanted to post them, but I haven't had a chance to resize and upload them. So this will have to just be picture free! Sorry!

What I'm working on...

I have a secret project I'm working on for a friend's birthday. It was last week, so I'm late, but I was informed that if it is handmade, then it's good for several "events." So I'm taking her at her word. LOL.

I'm taking a 3-week class at A Mano Yarn on the Lady Eleanor wrap from the Scarf Style book. I'm using Noro's Silk Garden in 226. I. Love. It. Entrelac is SOOOOO much simpler than it looks! Once I figured out what it was doing, that was it! I'm hooked! I'm about 1 1/2 skeins in and it looks AMAZING. Of course, I wouldn't be me if I hadn't started it and then ripped it back. LOL. I got about 1 skein in using a 10 needle and decided I thought it was too tight. So I cast on again using a 10.5 and am liking it a lot better.

Still working on a new pair of socks...

Still trying to perfect an iPod sock...

Still working on last year's "Christmas" shawl...

And remind me next time to tell you all about the Alpaca farm in Oregon I went to.

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks