Ernie Sox

How do ya like my knitting basket?

Bought him the other day while we were at the grocery store.

You know I'll do anything to postpone serious grocery shopping.

Anyhoo, I've made

Concentrated Progress 

Cookie A's Sock Club Ernie Sox

For Hubby, of course.

Oh! Thought I'd show you the inside of the heels

that are worked with a slip stitch

that seems to

reinforce the heel somewhat

*  *  *  *

In the couple of hours since I took these pics

the heel turns are completed

and, I'm just beginning the gusset section before reaching the foot.

-  -  -

I'm hoping to finish this pair before too many days pass.

It's a fairly easy eight row repeat with 

every other heel row decreases.

K1, ssk, K to within last three sts, K2tog, K1

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Temp reached LOVERLY ! ! ! ! 68 degrees today.

hugs

♥

Is it Spring, yet

Came across this Springtime Gal while 'organizing' my Stuff

It's a little bag I entered into the Hoffman Fabric Challenge, something like four years ago.

She's such a cutie.  

She's out where I can see her now

she put's a smile on my face.

hugs

I re-worked my sweater from last year

You may remember this sweater last May

Gemini

May 2012

I was not happy with it 

So Hubby and I frogged it, re-skeined the yarn and set it back in my Yarn Stash

The first of January this year

we wound the yarn into cakes

and

I cast on the Gemini once again

I would work on it, and then put it aside while I thought about my next step

During the last couple months this Gemini

was close at hand and foremost in my

knitting queue

This past week I worked on the sleeves, modifying the pattern to obtain a smaller arm circumference

Working with the pattern as I had co and knit it

I'm pleased with the sleeves 

I am happy with this version

I wore it today before giving it a 'soak' and blocking it out to dry

and found that 

this lovely Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton yarn sweater keeps me warm !

This version is definitely sticking around

It's a comfy style that I'll be wearing with or without a top under it.

Next time I knit Gemini,

and there will be a next time.

 I'll be using a wool blend yarn

Thanks for taking time to see what I'm crafting

I'll reply to each of your comments In the Comments

hugs

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Cookie A Ernie Sox

I love Cookie A sock designs! ! 

As a member of her sock club I receive two

patterns every other month.

Oh, yes, and a very lovely, lovely skein of yarn.

However, I decided her pattern Ernie would be handsome in this 'oatmeal' color

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi

80/20 wool/nylon

and that Hubby would be the recipient.

My gosh, he hasn't had a new pair of hand-knit sox added to his sock drawer in, what?, months?

It really a nice pattern to knit, 

just a short repeat for this 

vertical leaf and rib design.

Going cuff down this time 'round

and will do a heel something other than

my most recent method of afterthought heels.

Love me a change up.

hugs

Look What Debbie's Quilting

Lucky me, she has ask me to join in the fun

This is the queen-sized quilt that she designed and 

is creating for a special, newly wed, co-worker.

Completely made with scraps from both our Fabric Stashes.

The blocks were from the "Two-Bucks-A-Block" deal from Miss Millie's Quilt Shop several years ago.

We still have a ways to go.  

However, this center of the quilt is already quilted.  

Next comes the two side panels.

We have a great time when we have these sew days.

More laughing than sewing.  

Only made one mis-cut this time, 

okay, okay, maybe it was two mis-cut strips.

Today's Sew Day 

Cancelled Due to Snow 

! ! ! ! ! 

hugs

♥♥♥♥♥

Six inches of wet snow on the ground

what else can a gal do !!!!

Why, she can whip up a batch of Cheesy Biscuits, right?

Served with home-made soup, yum.

Love these Snow Days ! ! ! 

Daughter Debbie sent me this recipe, 

so all the credit goes to her. 

 Especially since she brought over the cheddar chunks, cayenne pepper and sour cream yesterday when she came over for our Quilting Day.

Red Lobster's Cheese Biscuit recipe 

done in a loaf pan.

 3 cups flour

 1 Tablespoon baking powder

 1 teaspoon salt

 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

4 ounces cheddar cheese, cut into 1/4 inch cubes

1 1/4 cups milk

3/4 cup sour cream

3 Tablespoons of butter, melted

1 egg, lightly beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9×5 loaf pan with oil.

In a bowl, whisk together the first 5 ingredients.

Carefully stir in cheese cubes until covered in flour mixture, this will help prevent your cheese sinking to the bottom of your loaf of bread.

In a different bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.

Fold the wet mixture into the flour and cheese mixture, stir until just combined, do not over stir.

Spread the mixture into the loaf pan.

Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Let cool 10 minutes and then remove from pan.

Allow to cool for one hour before slicing and serving.

hugs

Flower Pots

Just putting the finishing touches on this tumblerblock practice piece.

Think it'll turn out to be a wallhanging for a Friend.

The flowers and the tumbler blocks 

are cut from Accquilt GO! dies.

The flowers 'n stems are appliquéd using

an iron-on fusible.

Accents are watercolor pencils

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apparently, the design wall will have to be put up again so I can get some decent shots.

Oh, well

hugs

Quilted

This topper came from my stack of

'sandwiched' projects.

Picked it out and stitched away

in a few minutes 

a tabletopper was finished!

Ohhhhhhh, there are lots of projects remaining.

hugs

we're still waiting for snow this weekend

♥

Wow! I knit a pair of sox ! ! !

These were knit with yarn I've had in my Stash for ages.

It's Malabrigo Fingering Weight in the Azules colorway.

This pattern:  Business Casual designed by

TanisFiberArts

works beautifully with this tonal blue.

The pattern is mesmerizing,

my gaze follows the crisscrossing lines of this design.

I modified the pattern by beginning the toe decrease way before my usual 2.25" before end of foot.

This pair is finished off with a standing ribbed pattern, just for the fun of it.

The question for the day is

whether or not we'll get snow before sundown.

hugs

and, thanks, we did have a great lunch yesterday.  Ate at Lutz's BBQ, had their white meat only Chicken Sandwich

and, don't forget the bbq sauce.

yum

♥

A finish ! !

There have been a couple of comments regarding my blog posting.

Or, should I say, Lack of Posting.

Here's something I've been working on 

and now is finished!!

Reversible Staghorn Cable Scarf

Dream in Color 

Merino wool and Cashmere

Basalt colorway

hugs

out the door to lunch out with Hubby

♥

The Day After

Twinings Earl Grey or Irish Breakfast

Tazo Organic Chai or Green Ginger

Care to join  me in a cup of tea?

Temp is a mild 29 degrees F with a bit of wind.

Not such a bad day, I'd say.

Still a lovely day to be inside tending to 

our pots of soups on the stove top.

And utmost, our handwork.

Embroidery, wool felt appliqué, 

crocheting, spinning,

KNITTING,

or reading a good book,

your choice. 

But, do, join me in a cup of tea 

I L♥VE your company and conversation.

I'll pot the kettle on.

I braved the cold

to measure the driveway snow.

It's okay, it's a dry snow!

Keep your feet warm.

hugs

♥

Snow? Is this what I think it is????

Today is the day of our first really, truly winter weather ! ! !

Including a bit of lightening this morning. 

 

Us?

We have a great view of whatever activity there is out there.

Most exciting?

One car couldn't make it up the hill

and promptly got stuck turning around.

Two good samaritans in a pickup truck, stopped, got out and proceeded to pushing the car to the center of the street.

Between the driver and the advice of those two samaritans

they got it headed in the right direction and on down the hill.

Not much traffic today aside from the snowplow and the mailman.

Us?

Besides having front row seats of the street activities,

we've had a steaming bowl of soup.

Turkey stock, veggies and pasta!

Now I'm ready for a cuppa Earl Grey and some knitting.

Happy Winter ! ! ! 

hugs

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

Gemini Re-visited

Progress has been made on Gemini

I've tried it on as it was to the point of dividing for the sleeves

Seems my measurement was correct

So, began knitting in the round for the body portion

Tried it on again this morning and the fit couldn't be better at this point.

Just need to knit to the correct length to add border.

Then it's on to the sleeves.

Not certain what length right now,

but certainly longer than the original Gemini.

#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Made a quick project bag

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Daughter (the older) asked for a remote control/miscellaneous organizer.

We decided to make it the same size as her end table with enough length to corral her remotes, etc.

For a quick change she can just use the other side!

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Gemini Re-Visited may be hogging all the knitting time lately

but, Staghorn Reversible Cable Scarf is getting a bit of attention.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our weather has been all of the place

Temps in the Seventies of a couple of days,

then two inches of (much needed) rain in one day

Now we are expecting single digit overnight temp.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

What have you been up to?????

hugs

♥ ♥ ♥

Divine!

This Devine skein of baby Alpaca/silk

arrived today from knitspot's Fall in Fall Color 

January club shipment !

It's the softest yarn I've every held in my hands.

MissBabs  

hand-dyed yarns and fibers

Alpacacita

2-ply lace yarn

70% baby aplaca

30% cultivated silk

This is destine to become a lovely light-as-a-cloud stole designed by

Anne Hanson/knitspot.

I'll be posting photos once it gets on my needle.

hugs

♥

Cables

Reversible Cables

It's a goal of mine for this year.

Remember this?

Miles and miles of cables.

Hours of time spent knitting and counting

to creating cable stitches.

Viewable from the front side ONLY ! ! ! 

I'm blocking and thinking, 

"What's the sense in knitting this many cable stitches

only to have a 'right side' and a 'wrong side' ???  

This is freakin' crazy.  

Why spend ALL THIS TIME to have only half a scarf ???"

Of course, this conversation with Myself didn't happen 'til I was finished knitting this Christmas gift and already blocking it .  .  .

 on the day before Christmas.

That's the precise moment I vowed to 

never knit a one-side-only cable scarf,

or cardi fronts, for that matter.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It came to mind that 

Lily Chin is known for her technique of REVERSIBLE CABLES.

In two shakes of a lamb's tail I grabbed my %-off coupon, Hubby's Gift Card and before ya knew it

we were at Barnes & Noble having a Starbuck's Tall Decaf,  this book on the table before me.

From the moment it came through our frontdoor it's been open to one page and then another.

What a time I'm having exploring all the possibilities.

Right now it's at my knitting chair opened to 

Lily's reversible staghorn cable tutorial.

Here's a snap of her example:

and the beginning of her tutorial for my own sample:

I cast on the recommended number of stitches and knit up my own sample.

It looks pretty darn good.

This Staghorn Reversible Cable Scarf is my first attempt using this newly-learned technique. 

front side

back side

I'll be posting a few pics along the way to show my progress.

The yarn is a merino/cashmere blend that's soooo soft.

Perfect for a scarf to wrap 'round and 'round your neck to

keep the cold weather away.

This is being knit as a gift, there's no rush to get it finished.

I'll be taking my leisure to enjoy the knit along the way.

*   *   *   *

Thanks for coming by to spend a few moments with me. Love havin' ya ! ! !

hugs

♥

One-Sleeve-On, One-Sleeve-Off

Am knitting a baby sweater for our Friends' first grandson.  

He's due this month ! ! ! 

So, here I am knitting a

Little Baby Sweater by Purl Soho

One skein of

Lorna's Laces Yarn

in the colorway:  Bow Tie

It's a FAST KNIT

Sweater Sox Sweater Sox Sweater Sos Sweater Sox Sweater Sox Sweater Sox Sweater Sox Sweater Sox Sweater 

At the same time, I'm working on a pair of socks.

It's the Hazel Knits Mystery Sock Knit-Along

The sock is designed by Adrienne Fong

I'm joining the knitters 

in

  Hazel Knits Artisans Rav Group

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,

oh, baby, it's cold out side

hugs

♥