Remember how I was so happy that I got a skein of really pretty yarn in the 5 minutes it was available for purchase and then I found out that maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to gloat because I didn’t actually get it after all? Well, my new favorite people are Kpixies and Julia. Shortly after my big disappointment I got another email telling me that if I still wanted the yarn, Julia would be dyeing more and I could have it. So I got it after all. Here it is with the felt ball cat toys Alicia made (I really will let the cats play with them, but they look so nice in my wood bowl for now).

That is the bowl I originally got to hold my yarn stash. Ah, the innocence of a new knitter. Like that could hold an entire yarn stash. I’ve since graduated to a wicker bowl about twice that size and a gigantic wicker basket and there might be a few skeins under the bed, but that’s all. Really. Except for the ones in the little basket next to my knitting chair. And I think I saw a bag with a few random balls in the guest house. But that’s it, I swear!

Anyway, back to my new skein of Vesper and Kpixies. Because I was so happy with the service and they happened to have it on sale, I also bought Knitting Vintage Socks, because just look at this Flickr group. Those are some nice looking socks! I think I will use the Vesper to make a pair of simple ribbed socks, there are a few different ribbed socks in that book that I like.

Also, speaking of socks, I’ve been knitting my second Jaywalker sock and I don’t remember the foot on the first one taking so long. I knit for 2 hours last night and I don’t think the foot got any bigger. Of course I was catching up on a few episodes of 24 (season 2) that I had on the Tivo and I got so hooked by the suspensefulness of the show that I made mistakes a couple of times and had to un-knit a couple needles worth of stitches. But still, I think there is some weird phenomenon with the second sock, it seems to take twice as long as the first. Once I turned the heel on the first one it seems like it just flew to the toe. Am I the only one having this experience?

Little tiny penguin lives, that is. Although the article keeps referring to knitters as little old ladies making snowflake sweaters and tea cosies, which I found a bit patronizing and annoying.

A pattern is available here. Aww!

I’m finally starting to feel better, I had a case of bronchitis that apparently decided to take up residence in my upper respitory system and liked it so much in there that it started re-decorating and moving around the furniture and decided it just wasn’t going to budge, no matter what kind of earth-moving coughs I threw at it. Well, three different kinds of cough medicine and some strong antibiotics have finally started the eviction process and those nasty bacteria are relunctantly making their way out of my body. Good riddance is all I can say.

I didn’t do much while this was happening. For some reason, all I wanted to do was read and knit socks. One sock finished:

That’s an Embossed Leaves sock from Interweave Knits. I’ve only made one other pair of socks, so I was quite impressed with myself for making this one. I’ll start the second one shortly. To guard against second sock syndrome I started on a pair of Jaywalker socks, which I mentioned below. I finished one of those too, but haven’t taken a picture yet. Maybe this weekend.

I also took a couple pictures of some of my birthday loot:

My lovely sister-in-law read about my love of pink cafe au lait bowls and sent me these two from Williams-Sonoma. They are so cute! I will have to make some hot chocolate this weekend and use them. So now I have the beginning of a collection! That means I have an excuse to check eBay regularly, right?

Speaking of collections, I received this cute little tea-for-one set from my mom and my sister:

More blue and white! It arrived just in time, as I’ve been drinking copious amounts of lemon-ginger tea and peppermint tea these last couple weeks. A friend also gifted me with some lovely tea bags and that cute jar of lemon curd. I have more to share later this weekend. That little photo shoot just wore me out. Tomorrow is Sweet Pea Day, so I will be enjoying fresh air and sunshine, both of which I’ve seen very little of these past weeks. I’m so happy about that! Hooray for Spring! And good health!

Last weekend I whipped up a bed for the cats, so they will quit taking over our bed. I used Wendy’s pattern and Lion Brand Landscapes yarn. I read somewhere that it was great for felting. Well, I don’t know that it felted so much as shrunk up and got fuzzy, which is close, but not quite the same. I washed it twice, and that’s the best I could do. So it’s a little floppier than I had hoped, and the colors aren’t as pretty as they were in the ball, they got kind of muddy and the bright yellow flecks stand out more than I would like. Gigi is quite happy about the whole thing, but Dune isn’t too sure yet.

It was fun and easy and quick, so I may try again with some different yarn. You can’t have too many cat beds, can you?

I’ve figured out something about the way I work, and the way I learn. When I decide to try something new, I go to the library and check out every book I can find on the subject. If possible, I might take a class or have someone show me how to do it. I learned to cook first by taking every cooking class offered in high school. Then I read cookbooks. I followed recipes carefully, step-by-step. For awhile I was crazy about soup. I whipped up all sorts of soup recipes, curried cream of chicken, fresh pea soup, chicken stock from scratch, creamy cilantro soup. And then I started to see how soups work. If you want a creamy soup, cook some sort of starch with the stock and then puree it, put the vegetables that take longer to cook in the soup first and add the others later. I learned how some seasonings work together and how much of a particular herb to use. It wasn’t until I followed recipe after recipe and really understood how the ingrediants worked together and what techniques were used that I felt brave enough to discard the cookbooks and do my own thing.

I went through the same process with bookbinding, reading every book I could find on the subject and following the instructions exactly as written. I took a class, saw the tools and watched what other people did. Then I made books in all sorts of different dimensions using different materials and combining techniques.

I think I’m finally reaching that point with knitting. I knit my first project without a pattern this past weekend (except for the odd garter stitch scarf, of course). It was just an experiment, and it didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it to, and really, it’s just a couple of rectangles sewn together, but I learned and now I have a little more confidence with my knitting ability. I now know a little more about felting and intarsia and creating a chart to knit from. I also have a nifty little bag just for my sock projects!
 
I knit the polka dots a little more long than wide, because I knew it would shrink more in length than width, but I should have done one less row, they’re a little more egg-shaped than I wanted. Polka eggs instead of polka dots! I decided to try some blocks of color for the other side, because I wanted to try something different, and frankly, the polka eggs were a pain in the bum.I love the way it felted, it’s so soft and fuzzy and it’s a nice size for toting around little projects. So there you have it, a felted bag from scratch!

Here she is:

Lady Eleanor on Porch with Cute Car in background.

Lady Eleanor artistically draped on porch railing.

Lady Eleanor with sun streaming through oak tree.

I would like to do this again in a more subdued palatte, but I think the silk garden was a good yarn choice. It’s certainly eye-catching in these colors, and I’ve gotten a lot of compliments. She will be living at my desk at work for the afternoons when the tempurature suddenly drops 15 degrees. And she really does go with everything, even my new $15 bright pink corduroy pants from the outlet mall.