**Sorry about the bad picture I will post better ones soon**


Pattern: Angelica by Glampyre.
Yarn: Hip Knits silk in "dapple grey".
Needles: Size 6 & 8 Denise needles (36in).
Started: December 27, 2005
Finished: January 26,2006

What to say about this knit? I LOVE IT!! The silk, the pattern, the knitalong!

The fit is fantastic & the silk was really lovely to work with. This is definitely one of those sweaters I will knit again in a different yarn for a different look & feel!

For my next knit I'm going to work on Badcaul as my next sock project. I am simply in love with all of Amelia's sock patterns. I love that they are toe up & magic loop. It will let me stretch my "sock knitting" legs a little!

For now I must pack for our weekend trip to j-ville for a big time birthday bash Saturday night!

Have a lovely weekend!!

Last night I had two really weird dreams. In the first I'm in the shower fully clothed with the water running and the curtain is clear so you can see out into the bathroom. There is a TV where the mirror should be and they seem to be reporting on Paris Hilton. In the corner there is an old woman wearing clown make-up and licking a lightbulb. Suddenly I turn & look back in the shower and standing there with Pauly Shore.
Then I wake up.

Hmmmmmm....what on earth could that mean? Is it because I ate ice cream at 11:00 last night? I mean I haven't thought of Pauly Shore since we watched his movie "Pauly Shore is Dead" a couple of years ago.

My second dream is very self explanatory. I'm sitting in a cafe having coffee with Gil Grissom ( William Petersen from CSI). We are seated next to the window and standing outside looking in is Bobby Goren ( Vincent D'Onofrio from Law & Order: Criminal Intent).

Thats it, that is the whole dream. So, why is that so self explanatory? Because I have recently been watching a TON of CSI while knitting. I love crime dramas & unfortunately I have seen just about every episode of every law & order series there is so, I turned to CSI. It's been great as I have 5 seasons of episodes to catch up on.

I suppose subconsciously I must really miss Goren & all his antics. I wish they were making more new episodes with him...

SO, I'm not so weird right? I mean we all have odd dreams don't we?

During all my CSI watching last night I managed to finish Angelica!! All I have left to do is seam up the sleeves! I will have pictures tonight!

In the meantime, any thoughts on my weirdo dreams?

We have had some serously dreary & dreadful weather here in Altanta for the past 4 days. Finally today the sun is out and it's lovely.

The weather has really affected my mood. It's so hard to be motivated just do go out in the cold & get soaking wet no matter what you try to do to stay dry.

Translation, although we stayed in almost all weekend I accomplished NOTHING! I didn't pick up any knitting til last night when I finished the body of angelica.

That was my first glimmer of hope for a better day. The bust decreases had me a little worried as it looked TINY but it fits like a glove.

Unfortunately bad weather= bad pictures. This progress shot is from last Thursday (our last day of sun). I'm excited about starting the sleeves (which I usually hate). I am really inspired by all the finished angelicas at the Knitalong.

It seems I'm not the only one who wants to be a better sock knitter in '06. Chrissy is hosting the sock-a-month along and Lynda is hosting the Count your socks along.

Of course I joined both. It's so great to see so many yarns and patterns being worked! It gives me so many great ideas!

This morning I stumbled across Lolly's new idea for a "createalong". It's called "Project Spectrum". The idea being that you take inspiration from the colors around you and create something in those colors. It doesn't have to be just about knitting. I have been planning on doing some dying as well as more sewing and embroidery. Hopefully this idea will serve as a jumping off point for some amazing creations! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

With that said I am off to enjoy lunch in the sun!

Pattern: Jaywalkers
Yarn: Knit picks sock garden merino in "geranium"
Needles: Two US size 1 24 in. circs (Susan bates I believe)
Started: December 6,2005
Finished: January 18,2006

I love these socks!! The pattern is wonderful. I can see why there are so many jaywalker devotees in the blogosphere. I will definitely make another pair of these. I also really liked the knit picks yarn. Aside from the fact that the color is so difficult to photograph it was really nice to work with.

I can now safely say that I am a sock knitting convert! Now I just need to decide what pattern to knit up next!

I have worked on Angelica a bit as well. I am just at the hip shaping & should have pics (and possibly a finished bodice) tonight! She is shaping up wonderfully! There are some really lovely finished ones in the KAL. I love all the color and yarn choices. This sweater looks great in anything!

As evidenced by this blog I am passionate about knitting. It consumes my days and nights. I can often be found day dreaming about yarn, knitting or patterns at work or in traffic. It even happens while talking to friends on the phone. It may seem to some folks that all I do is knit but.. that's not true at all.

Believe it or not there is room for other hobbies in my life. One of them is thrift store shopping. I know that might seem weird but in our household one man's trash is another man's treasure. Most often when we need something it's off to the thrift store to find it. Isaac & I have so much fun exploring and we love finding deals.

Here are a few of my favorite thrift store finds (click the thumbnail for a bigger picture):

Those items are all gems to me!

Some of you may have realized that I also love to cook & bake. It seems so similar to knitting in my mind. You can be creative and make things up as you go along, there are a few simple rules to know and live by and it's soothing (to me at least). Sometimes when I'm frustrated with something I'm knitting I put it aside and go bake something.

So, I leave you with this:



My Grandma Myrick's banana nut bread recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
4 ripe bananas
3 eggs
2 cups wheat flour (or any flour of your choosing)
2/3 cup milk
3 tsp cold water
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts

Cream the sugar and oil and add eggs and bananas. In a separate bowl sift together the dry ingredients then add them to the banana mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add milk, water, vanilla and nuts. Mix & pour evenly into 2 ungreased bread pans and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Enjoy!!

Isaac's birthday was yesterday & it was a smashing success (if I do say so myself). Thanks so much for all the well wishes on the Dr. Who scarf. I actually finished it on Sunday (it took an hour just to weave in all the ends from the color changes though). The finished length is a little over 10 feet with the fringe.

All in all it wasn't a bad knit. VERY MONOTONOUS, but well worth it to make Isaac so happy. The fact that the knit picks wool of the andes is so cheap made it really economical as well. Now all I need to do is find him a red british phone booth for the perfect picture.

Isaac loves it! He wore it to work today even though it was 65 degrees outside!!

Edited to add this picture:

Here are a couple of highlights from the evening:


Isaac's birthday cake. It was homemade Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. It was YUMMY!!!


Isaac enjoying his cake and his scarf.

I put a ton of new photos up on my flickr including lots of "scarf in progress" pictures and more birthday pictures.

Since I finished his scarf on Sunday I had some time to knit on my second jaywalker:



These pictures were taken in my car since the sunlight was so lovely. It is the best representation of the color I've been able to get. It is Knit picks sock garden in geranium.



I'm really loving sock knitting. This one is going so much faster than the first one. Maybe I am just getting the hang of the magic loop method or now I have more confidence. Either way I think I am addicted. I actually moved all my stuff to a bigger purse so I could carry my sock with me & knit whenever the opportunity arises. It's great when you are stuck in line at the bank or post office. It's actually calming just to know it's there....

Yeah, as far as other WIP's. Cherie is on hold & I haven't worked much on Angelica since last week. Here is an updated picture of my progress so far:



I'm going to work more on it this weekend. It's a fast knit by all accounts so hopefully I will have it finished soon!

Off to scavenge a piece of that yummy cake!!

Thanks so much for all the compliments on my jaywalker! It really makes a girl feel loved!

It's funny if you had asked me six months ago I would have told you that I could never knit a sock. I had spent plenty of time fondling lovely handpainted sock yarns at my LYS and ogling intricate patterns but it all seemed so foreign. The tiny little needles and barely there yarn. It was intimidating. I mean the first project I ever gave up on was a baby sweater on size 3 needles. How on earth could I work with size 1's?

To my surprise it wasn't that bad. You might even say it was good, enjoyable even, FUN.

Even after the first mistake and then the second. It was actually a lovely experience(with the frogging part excluded of course). I can see why there are knitters who knit nothing but socks(and those sort of knitters who knit socks so fast and beautifully it has me in awe). I hope to be one of those sock knitters some day!

I had some encouragement along the way. Thanks for that!

So on to the second sock right.... WRONG! I must finish Isaac's Dr. Who scarf before his birthday on the 10th. So I am eyeball high in garter stitch & worsted weight right now.

Who would have thought I would be pining for the day I could pick up sock yarn & size one needles again?

but it was my first FO in 2006!



It's amazing that I finished it at all between furious scrabble matches, the blues brothers, mussuman curry & too much beer! But, at exactly 1:40am on January 1st 2006 I finished my first sock!!

*insert applause here*