A Delightful ball of energy

July 19th we all gathered at Borders for a extra Thursday night knit night (Tuesday nights are knit nights except when there is a special reason). We all were patenting waiting. Her plan landed late because of a storm in Atlanta. We got a little antsy, The Pattern Whisperer was trying to whisper a pattern, Joyous was busy contemplating knitting of course. Then they were stuck in traffic, proceeded with the usual yarn porn, aka show and tell aka the blessing of the yarn. Shared new books, patterns or tools acquired since last week, congratulated the ones that had finished objects and yes knitted. All waiting for the arrival of our special guest, our Sister from across the pond.

Then she appeared in front of us. There was Jo. So happy and bubbly, so excited even though some of us just met her for the first time, she hugged each one of us individually. I don' know where she got all her energy she was up for 20 some odd hours when we saw her. She was almost in tears because she had waited for so long to be with us. Our time together passed so quickly. Jo was able to spend the next two days with Angluna for 2 days on her world wind journey to Texas. She flew home on Sunday morning, we know she will come back to be with us again some day. I finished another square. This is just all simple seed stitch. Not very pretty but it used up some more yarn that was leftover.
This one is a diagonal stitch. This got a little wonkie it kept growing and growing even when I was decreasing. I did slack off for a bit and didn't knit squares for a while. I am making an effort to knit 10 rows a night.

And this is the progress I have made on Tim's sock, only 10 more inches to go before I can add 2 inches of ribbing. He's really happy with the way it's turning out. I am impressed with myself on the way it's turning out. Next sock yarn for him will be out of a different yarn. I have several skeins of sock yarn and want to start knitting socks for me but Nope... have to finish these for him.

This is the 3rd hexagon for the BaSalt tank I am going to knit half of one to put in at the bottom of #1. We will see if it turns out the way I want.

I am still working on finishing the shrug for Rene, I am not sure if it is turning out the way I want, one sure way is to finish it and then I will see.

Tomorrow is knit night, the highlight of the day.

Waiting for a Sister

The Sisters of the Wool are excitedly awaiting a visit from one of our Sisters that usually does not make it on Tuesday nights. We are having a very special second meeting this week to welcome one of our Sisters from far far away. Travel safely Jo. We will all get to meet you soon.

It's here!!! It's here!!!! It's here!!!!

My invitation to Ravelry is finally here!!!!!!! To find me on Ravelry look for KnitstressMary

I caught Smudge in the bathroom window, with the sunlight streaming in, he just looked so regal, so Smudgley, upon his throne of books. That is one of his many thrones. Now onto Knitting!!!! First the update on the DH's socks. Foot is done heel is turned and now onto the leg. He would like these up over his calf so I am not 100% how long I have to make it but the good thing about toe up I can keep trying them on. The back of the sock will have the same cable design, I am going to be adding stitches to the sides to that it will allow for his bigger calves. first now not sure how many stitches, but again toe up will help so I can check them once a day. He is thrilled with them so far, he loves it that it fits so well. I am pretty amazed at how well it's fitting.

Next update my Basalt Tank, I kind of frelled up on the second hexagons, some of the knitting was on the wrong side but it's going to be like that.

Also this week I am working on fixing my niece's shrug. I need to add about 3 or 4 inches to both sides of the shrug. I also am working on a square for charity. I will take more photos of things this week

I am only 205 people away from my Ravelry invite. I should have it by knit night. I did want to mention that I ordered yarn from someone new to me Cider Moon I ordered on the 12th and by the 14th it's in my freezer. I saw the right purple for the Baby Surprise Sweater that I am going to be knitting for a firend. I haven't even gotten the pattern yet but I have the yarn. So with service like that I have to put them on my list of people I will use.

Ravelry wait time

Found you!
You signed up on May 28, 2007
You are #5738 on the list.
205 people are ahead of you in line.
10559 people are behind you in line.
33% of the list has been invited so far

DH's First socks

I promised the DH a pair of socks after I was satisfied with making a pair that fit me. Well I finally learned and now the DH is getting a pair of red white and blue socks. When I found a pattern called the Boyfriend socks pattern The pattern was designed by a lovely person called the Slipped Stitch. Well... it was a knitting disaster for at least 3 days,the socks had to go into time out. it was just coming out way big. The stitch count was fine while I was increasing, but as soon as I started the pattern it grew by a quarter of an inch. It was quite vexing. I had to finally go down to size 1 needles, and medium size and finally it was coming out right. Well except for now, I just noticed an error I made in the pattern. Now do I leave it as it and call it a pattern alteration or do I frog again??? I will decide that later. At least I have a safety line in where the toe decreases stop. I also thought I would try doing things in 3 so I started with the increases on the 3rd stitch and not the second as I typically do, by the 6th time of increasing the sock started looking too boxie so I did the increases on the second stitch.

Tomorrow is knit night and I am going to take Rene's shrug with me because I have to add at least 3 inches to it maybe even 4. I have a few questions for my Sisters in Wool.



Still no invitation to Ravelry, but I had an email from them yesterday, there are about 1000 people in front of me so I guesstimate somewhere within two weeks I should be getting my invitation.


I have been experimenting with doing a rag rolled effect in the bathroom. I think I like this We will see how it looks on a whole wall.

And presenting the new floor in the guest bedroom. It's beautiful, it took DH and a friend about six hours to do. Our bathroom is done except for the shower rod and a new liner. I think we will need a new shower curtain in the hall bath. I will see when we have finished painting.

And now back to Knitting

First I knot it's been a while but when you work full time, work on remodeling the house part time there is little time left for knitting let alone blogging. We will start this episode with a cat and his modern day mouse. Smudge looked too sweet so of course I had to take advantage of the moment. But with no further adieu .....

My Baudelaire's! SKOŃCZONE!!! I used a pattern called Baudelaire.

The pattern is created by the very talented Cookie A and can be found in the Summer 2006 issue of Knitty.

I used one skein of Madeline Tosh Sock yarn in a colorway called Martha Stuart. Sorry everyone I am told the color is no longer available, there is one that is close called Robin's Nest. This was my first socks done with a Magic 8 cast on and knit on 2 Knit picks circulars size 2 and knit toe up. Thank you my Sisters of the Wool and the Pattern Whisperer for helping me when I got lost. The first one I knit in the large size, the second I knit in the medium size, I like the fit on the medium better. I have to learn when to stop knitting the foot so that I can start working the gusset. Remember to use safety lines. I will make these again but not next. the next set of socks are for the DH.

Now this next little pretty is the Very Berry T- Shirt found on Mag knits Look in the March 2007 issue to find it. This one is the one I made for my niece Bella. The yarn is The color is called Cotton Candy. I made and identical one for my other niece Jada out of a color called Sherbet. I had hoped her mom would send a photo of her in it but nothing yet. Bella's mom better take a picture of her in it.

Lastly my first real piece with cables. Called the Shell Tank, from the book Knitting Nature.
I made it out of Rowan's cotton knitting yarn. I can see in the photo that I did not have the same dye lot, oh well.

I have a plan for knitting. I get bored easily with one project. So I will have 3 projects on needles all the time. One will be socks. One can never have enough socks, one will be a new project and one will be a UFO.

If anyone has any patterns for toe up socks, women's or men's... can you please leave me the info I did not realize it was this difficult to find patterns that are toe up. We start phase 2 of the remodel tomorrow. Oh joy!!! This one involves the guest bedroom, the hallway and the hall bath.

I will try to blog again no later than a week from today. Enjoy and leave me comments.

End of SP10

The end of SP10 "Lucy" revealed herself to me. She is a wonderful person. Her name is Lora, she is brilliant, and extremely creative. She is also very caring. When she read about the "tornado knitting" she was so concerned that she had to email me to ask if I was ok.

She read my blog several times to find things out about me. She went through my wish list.

She's brilliant, she somehow figured out I like pirates, and sewed me this lovely pr irate bag and made me these awesome stitch markers.

I was speechless when I saw them, they are just perfect. Now all I need is one of these Yarn

and I am all set for Knit Night.

Lora, has a cute little shop on Etsy, so go forth to her store and buy her stuff! Lora's Keyhole

I'll have one more post before we start on phase 2 of the house remodel. Hall bath, guest bedroom and hall way. The computer room/husband cave is scheduled for August. Be safe and dry everyone.

Oh by the way the DFW area did not break a record for the most consecutive days it's rained. We have had rain every day for 10 days straight. We would have been tied at 11. It rained so hard on Tuesday there was at least 8 inches of water on the road that we had to go take to go home on. Thank the Goddess I married a man who's name is, Take the Scenic Route.