Progress Update on my sock-a-month-for-a-year goal...

I started with these in January....















Here's where I experimented with nylon reinforcement thread, which really worked out well given how my son insists on dancing around the house while wearing these.

Then after that, it's kind of a blur, but these came next








There's another pair I sneaked in during the month of March, but I can't find the picture right now.... SO....that brings me to a grand total of 7 and it's only the end of May, so I'm feeling like I'm in good shape for making my goal. How's everybody else doing????


Yours in too much sock yarn (but luckily they always wear out, so can one every really have too much of the stuff?)
Claire

I need to vent...

I've been RIPPING my house apart today, and it wasn't about Spring Cleaning. It was about not being able to find the Altoids tin box containing about a bajillion pretty glass bead place markers that I've spent years accumulating.... yes, while others in my family spent the day outside frolicking in the sunshine, I was NOT getting a lot of knitting done. NOT as in NONE. I have this sort of sick feeling because I kind of, sort of, maybe remember tossing an old almost empty box of Altoids away a few weeks ago when I was cleaning out a bag - but wouldn't it have occurred to me to check inside???? I'm going to choose to believe that memory is more imagination caused by panic and worry than fact, and that one of these days I WILL come across that box.

What I did manage to find in my hunt was an embarrassing number of project on needles. (I was just saying to Rita at the shop yesterday that I can never find the right needle size when starting a new project.) Well it's pretty much because they're all holding projects I just don't want to work on anymore. For a variety of reasons: can't handle the wool on hot days; can't remember where I am in the pattern and don't want to think about it right now; can't imagine what ever possessed me to want to do the project in the first place...reasons like that.

So for those of you out there feeling bad about those unfinished projects you just can't seem to finish, don't feel bad. I've got more. Waaaaayyyyyyyyyy more. There are the 2 Lucy bags, at least 4 socks (mostly all still in the bloody ribbing part), that cute little Ella Rae bag Rita did in turquoise, the sideways sweater that I just know Shirani is working on right now and I might as well forget ever catching up to her, a triangle lace shawl, a peasant shawl, a tank top in silk, my lizard ridge afghan, George's mitered square blanket that is never-going-to-happen-so-I-should-just-recycle-the-yarn, that really funky cotton noro sleeveless cardigan, a floral intarsia bag I started for a class 2 years ago, a noro ribbed scarf that can justifiably wait till fall. I feel like there's something big I'm overlooking but this will at least give you a sense of just how deep of a hole I'm in.

And having said all that, I did come across a small supply of those little plastic markers which will do in a pinch because I've just cast on for another lace design!!!

Yours in way too much yarn-on-the-needles,
Claire

The Fair Isle bag

I'm on a roll....




Here's the completed Annie Meadows Bag, done in Debbie Bliss Cathay yarn.

The first series of classes for this bag is just about finished and a new session will be starting July 16th (Wednesday's 11-1) for anyone interested in giving two-stranded knitting a try - no prior experience required, just a knowledge of both knit and purl stitches and a willingness to try something a little outside the box!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

The Chatelaine Table Runner

It dried overnight...

it never ceases to amaze me - that

something which starts out looking like this



and this,

turns into

something like


this






and

this,



with just the help of some water and a few pins, and of course the patience to leave the thing alone until it's thoroughly dry!

I LOVE LACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yours in crochet cotton yarn,

Claire

It's midnight

and I've just finished pinning out the lace table runner. I had to tell someone!! It's soaking wet (love that Citris Soak) and it's grown quite a bit. Let's see...went from 16x23 to 19x38. A nice size for my small gateleg table. I'm way tooooo tired for mental math, but as I'd hoped, it's grown in length not width even though it's garter based. Did you know the earliest British lace was always knit? The stockinette (or as the Brits call it "stocking") stitch was an after thought in knitting's evolutionary timeline.

SO, I have the fan BLASTING in the guestroom where the runner is pinned out on the carpet and if the fiber gods are smiling it will be dry by morning!

I'll post pictures tomorrow - or actually later today...

Yours in lacy slumber,
Claire

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Beading for the Relay for Life

Th Cultured Purl is putting together a team for this summer's Relay for Life and the girls have been busy making bracelets which will help raise funds for the American Cancer Society. Here's a shot of Rita stringing some beads together: they've already made a bunch and the orders just keep coming in. The bracelets are made from colored crystals representing various cancers. If you're interested in walking for the Cultured Purl team, give Sue & Shirani a call.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

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Sent with my Treo 755p smartphone & Chattermail