My summer knitting goals

I'm entering Ali's contest, just in the nick of time!

I've got another Baby Surprise Jacket on the needles, and hope to have that done in the next week. I've also got half of an entrelac sock done, and hope to have the full pair done sometime in June.

Bigger projects for the summer:
* Skirt out of the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I've swatched, but haven't cast on.
* baby blankets for the two babes that are baking at the moment and due this fall
* Something — another skirt? — out of the bag of Noro Silk Garden that I got from Little Knits
* start on Christmas knitting, so that I don't do it all in November again
* and of course, socks and more socks for me, for the fall!

I owe a bunch of pretty photos — the entrelac sock is so pretty I can't stop looking at it! Hopefully this weekend.

too hot to knit

Ok, it was too hot to knit yesterday evening so I skipped knit nite. I stayed home and moaned about how hot it was... I watched Phoebe lying on the cool floor instead of sleeping in her favourite chair. But the heat didn't stop her from draping her long-haired-12lb-hot body over my lap for her daily 15 mins of love.

It was so hot that I couldn't work on my gift knitting. When it cooled down a little, I finished Louet Gems sock 1. The yarn is thinner than usual so my gauge is a little tighter but it still fits my foot.


I opened a lot of windows to keep the house cool and Ricky was going nuts running from window to window and sniffing at all the good smells.

"Open windows make me giddy" - Ricky

it's hot

Man, the weather's been really warm. Not warm enough to stop me from knitting but it's prompted me to get out into the garden. Yesterday, I pruned 3 pieris japonicas, 3 rhodos, 2 junipers, staked up 2 peonies, did a bunch of weeding, overseeded the bare patches in the lawn, and watered the newly seeded lawn. And today, I'm going to switch my closet over to my summer wardrobe - goodbye sweaters and hello shorts!

As for knitting, I have been working on the gift. I just finished the stockinette portion and I've moved onto the lace section. Yay! And I've been scoping out my next project. The dark brown silk that I mentioned in a previous post sold out before I could order it. So I'm going to start the lace nightie instead. After much consultation with the hubby, I ordered 2 cones of blue violet silk laceweight from Colourmart. I've asked for the lace to be plied together to make dk weight yarn (they do this free of charge). I can't wait for it to arrive!

And since I don't have any knitting pictures, I'll distract you with a cat picture:

"I love summer and sleeping in the sunshine" - Ricky

resistance is futile

"You will be assimilated" - the Borg

Hubby came in Friday night after wrangling with the lawn. On his way to the washroom to wash his hands, he told me that while he was winding up the extension cord, he thought that it would be easier if he had a niddy noddy. Hahahahahahahahaha! What's even funnier is that I don't even own a niddy noddy. Just maybe mentioned it once or twice when I was winding up yarn for dyeing.

All my sample knitting has been washed and blocked. I knit one stockinette sample on 3.5mm needles and another on 4mm to complete the set. I'll put everything in the mail tomorrow morning. Yay - another FO! (If you're counting, that's 2 in the last week)

I moved my gift knitting project to my new Addi lace turbos. Wow! Those tips are great. I am looking forward to sssk and k3tog with the inelastic hemp. I'll bet it goes well. I've got 3 more inches of stockinette (in fingering weight yarn) before I can start the lace section.

I had a little nap this afternoon - with Ricky, who crawled under the quilt when I pulled it over my legs. Ricky just loves being under quilts. Hubby said that when he put a hand on my hip to wake me, Ricky squawked a complaint from under the quilt whereas I didn't move a muscle. He is such a special cat!

samples anyone?

I'm motoring along on my sample knitting. I will finish the second sock tonite. I've got lots of yarn leftover so I'm going to knit a few plain stockinette samples using different sized needles. The deadline is looming but I'm confident that everything will be washed/blocked/dried before they have to go in the mail. Then I can get back to the regularly scheduled program of gift knitting and sock knitting for myself.


I am fighting a bad case of startitis. I have 4 socks otn and 3 of them are suffering from SSS. But I want to start other socks, I want to knit with my bambu, I want to make this sweater (already have the pattern; don't have any dk yarn in the stash so I've been shopping; can't decide between dark brown 100% smooth silk, lilac 100% slubby silk, or tea rose cashmere/silk - all from ColourMart), I want to make this nightie (using the bambu?)... I am such a bad girl.

So does anyone in Canada with a subscription to IK have their Summer 2007 issue yet? Mine isn't here and no one else at knit nite has their's either. I called customer service today and they said that subscribers should get their issue about a week before it hits the newstands. If that's the case, then mine is almost 3 weeks late. Maybe I should just buy it at my lys instead of renewing my subscription.

Phoebe is quite disgusted with all this talk about 'tocks (or maybe she's unhappy that I'm playing the same Josh Groban song over and over and over again). However, she doesn't feel it's right to let Ricky have the last 'tock.

"Impressive, eh?" - Phoebe

"Yeah, but can you do this?" - Ricky

(I thought their 3am fights were bad enough but now they're taking over the blog. Yeesh.)

woo hoo!

Lookit what I finished yesterday night:



Pattern: Cropped Raglan Sweater; free from the Lion Brand website; 44" finished chest size
Yarn: 4 skeins of Lion Brand "new" Cotton-Ease in Charcoal
Needles: 4.5mm and 5mm Addi Turbos
Mods: None

Today, I'm working on the sample knitting for Trish. I knit the lace and cable samples last week and I'm turning the heel on the second sock tonite. I should have everything finished, washed, and blocked in time for the Victoria Fibre Festival and Knit-Out (the Harlot's going to be there!).

There is a lot of cat 'tock being flashed today. Chris started by exposing Mayhem's 'tocks. Then Wendy showed off Lucy's 'tocks. Ricky didn't want to be left out...

"Me and my 'tocks kick ass!" - Ricky


"I'm keeping my derriere to myself" - Princess Phoebe

mostly painless

I usually hate picking up sts for neck/button bands because I never get the pick up ratio right. I seriously thought about knitting a garter stitch edging on the raglan cardi. But I knew that it wouldn't look good so I sucked it up and decided to follow the pattern. In my experience, it usually takes me 3 tries to pick up the right number of sts but this time I got 99 sts (picking up 3 out of every 4 rows) on my first pass which is only 7 from the 106 that I needed. So when I worked the first row on the band, I just picked up the missing 7 sts.


I was hoping the cardi would be finished today but I didn't get any knitting done yesterday afternoon/evening. We went over to my co-blogger's place because our respective hubbies were going on a fundraising bike ride. Cops for Cancer hosted a recovery ride and for $10, you got a police escort - no stopping for traffic lights. While the big boys were having fun, I got to play with Gladys' little boys and eat strawberries.

My friend, Ronnie received her package of goodies so I can blog about my secret quilting project. I sent her a small thank you package in exchange for the lovely shawl and fingerless gloves. Her poor koi pond is undergoing some serious repairs so she really needed a little pick-me-up. The parcel contained some Knit Picks goodies along with a quilted wallhanging.

Pattern: Dresden Plate by Patchworks Studio

Size: approx. 25" x 25"

I had lots of fun making this wallhanging. It was relatively quick and simple. You use a double sided fusible to stick the black "leading" to the background fabric (koi). I used a small zig-zag stitch to sew the edges down. I just love that koi fabric. I should get some more for my stash before it's all gone.

Just so I'm not the only one suffering, I have this song stuck in my head.

cardi almost done

The raglan cardi is almost done! I used EZ's sewn bind off for the bottom hem because the standard bind off was causing the ribbing to flare. I may use this bind off for my toe up socks. All that's left to do is knit the ribbing on the two sleeves and knit the 2 front bands.

I haven't done any other knitting this weekend. I've been lazy - napping, reading my new books, etc. But my list of chores have caught up to me and I'm trying to get stuff done in between knitting on my cardi.

Lots of FOs

It feels like forever since I've been reunited with my camera cable, and been able to upload photos to the blog! It turns out that one of the boys (probably Geoff) grabbed the cable and hid it under the endtable beside the couch. It would still be there if Tony hadn't noticed that there was a USB cable in the wrong place.

But I can't stay mad at these kids.



So I've got a bunch of FOs to report.

First, some April socks in my birthday yarn -- the Tofutsies socks in the Tidal Wave pattern. (Thanks, Dotty, for the gorgeous yarn!)

Then there was a pair of cashmere anklets for my sister-in-law.


Next up, my May socks. A pair of plain toe-up stockinette socks in Online Summer, a cotton blend. Love the colours in this one. It went to my neighbour's daughter for her birthday.


Then a pair in Regia Surf for my mom, for mother's day. This was my first experiment with the cuff-down picot top. It's a great technique. I've "unvented" a provisional cast-on with the Turkish cast-on and those ultra-flexible Knitpicks needles.


And finally, another pair of anklets for me: Regia bamboo, one skein only with just a few yards left over.
The interesting thing about this pair was the eye of partridge heel. On the Socknitters list, someone had mentioned that you should always slip-as-if-to-purl unless otherwise directed, so that's what I did with the first sock (on the right). I wasn't happy with the look of that heel, so on the second one, I did a slip-as-if-to-knit, and got a much nicer pattern and texture.

And it wasn't all socks around here. I finished my Noro Kureyon bag, and felted it. Before and after photos below.
See that wee scrap of yellow yarn coming down from the handle? That's all I have left from the six balls of Kureyon that went into this bag.

Knitpicks has new needles!

Hey Dotty, did you catch the new sock needles that Knitpicks has just announced? They're now in your favourite sizes, and with the ultra-pointy tips!

It's a long weekend, so I'm hoping to do a real blog entry sometime in the next couple of days. It's been a long week around here already -- Andrew had full-body hives on Thursday and Friday, caused by a virus, not by his allergies.

But knitting has been happening, and pictures were taken. Soon, I promise!

summer knitting goals

Ali has a neat contest running. Follow the link to find out how to enter. And if you enter, don't forget to mention that you heard about it here.

Here are my summer knitting goals:
- reknit the Bonita shirt that I started last year. It got frogged when I realized, it was going to be way way too big for me.
- do something exciting with the bambu 7 yarn that I bought at the fibrefest
- finish knitting the indigo ripples skirt
- I have 4 socks otn. Three are suffering from SSS. I would like to finish all of them so that I can wear them in the fall.

I think that's all I can handle for this summer since I've got a ton of quilting to accomplish, too.

it's here!

My KTE package arrived this morning! Many thanks to Ann of Yellow House Treasures. I love everything! Despite all the setbacks (yarn that she ordered for me was discontinued and the mailed parcel was returned to her), the box finally arrived safe and sound. I think the postal service got the hint when Ann threatened to drive it out herself.

I was going to take pictures of everything as I was unwrapping but the camera battery died after I took the first picture of the outside of the box. I said to heck with it and proceeded to rip open all the carefully wrapped goodies.

Ann included a lovely card and a postcard with a map of Wisconsin on the front. She also included a sheet of "cats and yarn" stickers. Very cute!


In the treat department, there is a lovely bar of lavender soap from the Alchemic Dragon. It smells heavenly. Plus a half pound (!) box of assorted chocolates from Vande Walle's Candies that are locally made in her home town. If hubby doesn't get home soon, there might not be any left. On the other hand, I don't really have to share my chocolates with him, do I?




As for the yarn, Ann sent enough yarn for not one but TWO pairs of socks. On the left is Koigu and on the right is some very-hard-to-find-in-Canada Trekking XXL.

Ann figured out that I am a quilter and she sent me the latest Quiltmaker magazine (featuring a sleeping kitty pattern pictured on the cover), 2 cat FQs, and 5 Aunt Gracie's 30s repro FQs (in my favourite colour purple) to add to my respective collections.

I was definitely spoiled! And I have a new friend, too. It was a great exchange and I hear rumours that there will be a KTE2.

Off to fondle my new sock yarn, eat more chocolates, and read my new quilting magazine.

knit split

I had a glorious afternoon of knitting while working at the quilt store yesterday. I was able to knit down to where I had to split off the sleeves.


I tried it on and it fits! An added bonus. So far this has been a great knit. I still love the yarn. The yardage is great, too - I just joined the 3rd skein.

Onto some quilting news... I donated a quilt to The Quilt last year and it's up for auction now. The picture's lousy - you can't see the ginko leaves in the border. Last year, you could click on the image and see a larger version but they don't have that this year. My friend's quilt already has a bid on it. So go take a look and bid on something that you like. The money goes to a very good cause.

Ricky finally has a diagnosis - bacterial gastritis. The closest human equivalent is an ulcer. I picked up 2 more meds on Mon - a liquid and some antacid pills. The new liquid must taste awful because he puts up a lot of resistance and he starts drooling massive amounts of saliva. I don't know how much of it is getting into him. I put in a call to the vet to see if the medication comes in another form that is easier to administer. Hopefully, I'll hear from him today. We fed Ricky the antacid pill yesterday night and it wasn't as traumatic as I thought it would be. Ricky has been very good about taking his medication. He doesn't run away when I grab the bottle of antibiotics out of the fridge. He doesn't run away when hubby wraps him up in a towel. And we haven't suffered any clawing injuries. And he seems fine after each dose whereas I'm pretty sure I'm scarred for life. I can't wait for this to be over.

quilt FOs and one sock

I was a busy bee yesterday night.

I finished knitting the first Indigo Moon sample sock. I achieved a personal best for knitting a sock - Sat afternoon to Mon night.

After sewing down the picot cuff and weaving in the ends, I sewed down the last 12" of binding on my Night Weave quilt. I took it outside this morning for an artistic photo.

It was still early in the evening so I headed into the sewing room and made up the signature blocks for 3 retirement quilts. One quilt will have japanese themed fabrics, the other quilt will be black and white, and the third quilt will contain floral fabrics. We are using the friendship star block.

And since I was outside with the camera, I took some pictures of the garden: 'Nora Barlow' columbine, allium, ginko biloba, and 'Peppermint' double impatien.

skwishy sock

There has been sock knitting. This is the sample sock that I'm knitting for Trish. It is such a speedy knit! I started this Sat afternoon and I'm ready to turn the heel. No knitting progress to report on anything else.

I finished my stained glass wall hanging. I was hoping to finish it last Thurs at sit'n stitch but I ran out of thread and I forgot to bring extra. Doh! I'll post pictures when it arrives at the recipient's home.

We went over to my parents' place for supper yesterday night to celebrate Mother's Day. I took advantage of the floor space and basted my niece's queen sized quilt. I still don't know what quilting pattern I'll use. I gotta get crackin' if I want to finish this by mid June.

Ricky is recovering. He's still coughing but only if he meows too much/too loudly and sometimes when he grooms. His appetite is right back to where it was before - eating all his food and then stealing Phoebe's. Sigh...

fibrefest loot

*yawn*

Well, it was lots of fun. I went with Grete (pronounced Greta) and we went a little crazy. The first booth I saw was Hamels Fabrics which set my quilting heart a-flutter. I zoomed over there and Grete ditched me to look at yarn. She came back awhile later and said, "you're still here!". My relationship with fabric runs deeper than my relationship with yarn. Fabric always trumps yarn. We decided to split up and meet for lunch at 1pm. I bought some co-ordinating FQs and 2 other FQs that I need for another project.



I eventually stumbled over to Fun Knits and found the Addi Turbo lace circs that I've been looking for. I also bought 2 mini sock blocker kits. Aren't they adorable? Fun Knits has the Regia Canadiana line of sock yarn but they're still out of the Vancouver colour.


Gladys - Since you had to miss out, I bought one of these for you. Which colour do you want?

One of my favourite dyers had a booth - Trish of Indigo Moon. She didn't have any fingering weight sock yarn. I did get some yarn although, I didn't pay for it. And no, I didn't steal it. I'm going to do some sample knitting for her. I told her about the socks that I knit for Sivia out of her yarn. Trish is a weaver and not a knitter so she doesn't have any knitting samples to show off her yarn. I'm knitting her a pair of simple socks and I'll knit a small lace sample with the leftover yarn.


I wandered around some more. Pinched and squeezed a lot of yarn - cashmere, angora, and buffalo to name a few. I found this great skein of suri alpaca at the Dovecote booth and when I pulled it out of the bin, the tag said "not for sale". ARGH! It was soooo soft and it was a lovely grey-blue. I was going to buy it regardless of the price but it wasn't for sale. I asked about it and was told that I could contact them after the show to place an order.

I eventually strolled into the Homespun Haven booth where I found some hand dyed Bambu 7 100% bamboo. The yarn should be renamed "Bambu Heaven". I didn't buy anything during my first visit. But after lunch, I zoomed in there and bought all the indigo bambu (5 skeins; approx. 600g/2800yds) and one skein of blue/purple bambu (approx. 120g/550yds). Several booths had bambu 7 (Jane Stafford Textiles and Fibres Plus) but Homespun Haven was the only one that sold hand dyed bambu. I have no idea what to make with the yarn. Suggestions?

Now that my wallet was tired and empty, I went looking for Grete and found her at the Jane Stafford booth buying her second batch of Euroflax linen (hey - it was on sale). I had to laugh. I think she bought a total of 9 skeins. She also bought 10 skeins of black shetland/alpaca from Shepherd's Cottage Wool. The yarn's not black-black but more of a dark-brown-black. It really depends on the lighting. I can't wait to see what she makes with it.

You're probably wondering what the damage is and who won the contest... I spent a whopping $130.82! What can I say - there was fabric. And the winner is - KnitNZu. Congrats and thanks to everyone for playing.

some knitting content

I picked up the 4.5mm Addis at knit nite and cast on the raglan cardi. I got the ribbing knit before I left 3bf. I've knit for a few hours today and I'm almost at the end of the first ball of yarn. I really like this cotton-ease. I showed it to hubby and asked if he would like me to knit him a "sweater curse" sweater and he wants to see it washed first. Smart man.

The indigo ripples skirt has stalled. I can't seem to get my hands on the needles that I want to buy (3mm Addi Lace) so I'm going to see if I can borrow one from my co-blogger. Keep your fingers crossed.


And on the stash enhancement front, a little box from KP arrived. On the left is some Palette yarn. I plan on using the brown and pink for Eunny's Endpaper mitts. It will be my first attempt at real fair isle. I will use the rest of the pink for either fingerless mitts or maybe socks. The other yarn is for my co-blogger. She ordered some Essential sock yarn and some Wool of the Andes. She'll be making socks with her yarn.

I was a bad girl this week and I placed a large sock yarn order. I'm getting the not-available-until-lateJune/earlyJuly Regia Kaffe Fassett sock yarn. I ordered every Landscape colour. It's going to be my birthday present from my sister and my Mom. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. KF started out designing knitwear but I know him as a quilter and I buy his quilting books and fabrics. But now he's got sock yarn!!! He's the perfect man (SHHHH! Don't tell hubby).

I am contemplating a fabric order. I found this cute fabric where the cats are knitting! I may need to order a whole pile of it. I am such a bad girl for even looking at fabric. I won't order any until the weekend since I need to see how much money I spend at the Fibrefest.

Ricky is doing better today. He is fighting tooth and nail when we try to feed him the antibiotics. His appetite is still so-so. I think he may have a sore throat or mouth. He'll eat the canned food ok but seems to be having problems with the dry kibble. He had quite the coughing fit after eating part of his supper. At least, he didn't spend the whole day under our bed. Ricky had a normal day of sleeping on a quilt on the family room sofa, lying on the window sill in the laundry room, and sleeping in our bedroom window. I just hope his appetite perks up.

a leetle contest

Inspired by Purling Pirate's blog contest (she had us guess how many skeins of yarn she would buy for herself at the MDS&W - neither of us won), I think it would be fun to have a contest here. I am going to Fibrefest on Fri (similar to MDS&W but way way smaller) and I'll be doing a leetle shopping. Leave a comment on this post before midnight Fri May 11th with your guess as to how much money (don't forget it's CDN and not USD) I'm going to spend. The winner will be the person closest to the total without going over.

I'll be picking up my knitting needles tonite so there should be some knitting content to post soon.

Kimberly received my KTE goodies and she likes what she got. Phew! I still haven't received mine. There was a slight hiccup and the parcel was returned to the sender. But it's on it's way and I should receive it soon.

BTW, Ricky's back home and we're force feeding him liquid antibiotics. Not Fun. His purr was kinda growly when he got home but now it's fine. We'll find out the lab results later this week.

ETA: I have changed the cut-off date for the contest to midnight Fri May 11th to give everyone an extra day to get their guesses in. Good luck!

back in business

Hubby finished hammering at 10:30pm yesterday night (only did my window but he finished the other window tonite) so this morning I spent some time putting everything back. While I was at it, I threw out a bunch of junk and put several items aside for charity. I spent the rest of the day working on the stained glass wall hanging. I can't show the front because it's a surprise. I hope to get the rest of the zig-zagging done by the end of tomorrow.

Still no knitting... I didn't pick up the Addis that I need to continue. And my lys is closed tomorrow. Sigh...

Lion Brand's website is back up. Here's the cardigan that I'll knit with the cotton-ease that I bought.

I took Ricky to the vet today and he's going back tomorrow for a visit with a specialist. They're going to stick a scope in him and look around/take samples. I was told not to feed him after 6pm so I gave him extra food for supper. He's going to miss 2 meals and he'll be one cranky cat by the time I drop him off at the vet tomorrow morning. As a matter of fact, he's already howling for his 9:30 meal and it's only 9pm. It's gonna be a loooong night.

messes

So the first mess of the weekend came when I woke up to the sound of Ricky retching at 6:15am on Sat. Before I could protect the carpet, he vomited. It was big and messy and I had to drag out the carpet cleaning machine. I never did get back to sleep although hubby did. I waited til a decent hour before I called the vet for another appt. First thing tomorrow morning, I'm dragging Ricky back there.

The second mess is in the 'workshop'. It was the previous owners' workshop but a few years after we bought the house, we finally renovated it ourselves. However, we ran out steam and never quite got the window casings and trim done... until now. (I will not go into the details about why we're doing it now but it's related to hubby buying his 3rd bicycle) Anyways, I had to move a bunch of stuff away from both windows. I can't get to the deep freeze or the second fridge. I moved my ironing board and everything underneath it from below the second window. This is what my quilting corner looks like right now.

I told him yesterday when we bought all the wood that I needed my quilting space back by Mon morning as I have something I need to quilt. Yesterday, it took hubby 2 hours to cut 4 pieces of wood for the other window (which is only half done). He hasn't started working on my window yet. It's almost 7:30pm on Sunday. I am not holding my breath.

There was some stash enhancement yesterday. I've been lusting after the Knit Cropped Raglan Sweater from the Lion Brand website after I saw it in one of their newsletters (sorry, I don't have the link anywhere and the Lion website seems to be down). I've been searching for a worsted weight cotton for the last few weeks. There aren't many worsted weight cottons - most cotton yarn seems to be dk weight. I finally decided on Lion Brand cotton-ease in charcoal. It's not 100% cotton which is fine by me - I think the acrylic helps the garment retain it's shape and adds drape. I swatched so I know what size to make. I just need to pick up some 4.5mm Addi Turbos first.

I hear hammering - there may be some hope yet!

blech

My eyes hurt, my butt hurts, and I've been eating junk food all day long. I mentioned in a previous post that I started reading the Benni Harper mystery series by Earlene Fowler. I borrowed books 1-4 last week and finished reading the 4th one on Tues. I went to my local used book store (specializing in mysteries) and bought the next 5 in the series yesterday (that's all they had) and I just finished reading the last book this evening. Talk about a marathon! I also bought my own copies of books 2-4 in the series. There's 4 more books that I haven't read plus I would like to get my hands on book 1. But for now, I think I'll take a break from reading and get back to reality.

There has been no knitting for the last 36 hours or so but there is knitting content. A lovely package from England arrived for me this week. It's the swallowtail shawl that Ronnie (my Wee Tiny Sock recipient) sent me! Isn't it lovely? I wore it to knit nite and received many compliments. She also snuck a pair of handwarmers (based on the pomatomus socks) into the envelope. They're so delicate and warm. Thanks a million, Ronnie!

joost invite

Not related to knitting, but I've got a bunch of Joost invites to give away. Joost is a tv-via-the-internet thing that's kinda fun, but you can only get in if you get an invited.

So leave a comment with how you found our blog, and your email address (substitute at for @ if you like) and I'll send them out after I get back from dinner tonight!

I don't know how many regular readers we have, but I figured this might bring them out!

(Edited to add on May 7: I'm not able to send out invites from my work computer, so I'll be sending them out tonight when I get home. Hi to all our new readers!)

Ricky's back home

If you don't want to hear about my cat woes, skip to the pictures below for some knitting related content.

I had to make an emergency trip to the vet on Monday morning. Ricky hadn't been eating well which is a sign that something's wrong. He usually eats all his food and tries to steal Phoebe's while she's having a drink of water. Plus he was passing some nasty gas. But Monday morning's litterbox contents made me drag him to the vet. He's stayed overnight where he was fed a different food and he was watched closely. The vet thinks the venison didn't agree with Ricky and that there's nothing else wrong with him. I just picked him up and I have different prescription food for him now - duck, duck liver, and rice.

Onto some knitting related blogging... I am a quilter so I like to do my own "utility" sewing (i.e. I'd rather make it myself than buy it). I've been searching for the perfect sock project bag that I could make quickly and scale easily to suit my needs. My first one had a zipper and I gave it to my co-blogger for her birthday. I hate sewing zippers so I will never make another one like it. I made a second one with a square bottom (so that it would stand up on its own) and a drawstring closure and gave that to her as well. It was a little time consuming to make. I made a third one using a spring clasp closure but the clasp is really hard to sew in. Plus it makes the bag top-heavy so it's a little tippy when open. I found this bag tutorial a few weeks ago. I liked the construction of the casing for the drawstring plus it's reversible but I didn't like the method for attaching the bottom. I made a prototype without the square bottom and the bag's ok but it doesn't stand up when it's open. So this morning, I took the bag bottom technique that I liked from #2, used the casing from #4 and voila. I'm not sure about it just yet but from a construction point of view, it's my favourite.

I've been knitting on my Louet Gems sock a fair bit. I thought about doing something lacy on the leg but I think the marl is too distracting. So it's just plain stockinette for these socks. I know I said that I wouldn't do anymore plain stockinette socks but it was the best option for this yarn.

I haven't done much other knitting. I've been distracted by a small stained glass quilt project plus I've been reading the Benni Harper mystery series by Earlene Fowler. I've got one more book to read and then I'll have to track down the other 8. All 12 are available as one lot on eBay but the current bid is way out of my price range.