The end of May

Saturday when I tried to pick up some knitting I had found that all of the fiendish purling on the Bonsai Swing Top and the Borscht Greenjeans showed up in the base of my left forefinger - the one that does all the purl work for me. One of the pain causers:


I was worried about the socks though so I worked through my pain to do a few more rows of the Herringbone Rib sock pattern. Then decided it really wasn't working for the yarn. Here's how far I got:

So I looked in Ravelry for a men's sock pattern that would be interesting without putting me to sleep. Then I went to Knitty and did the same. I ended up going with one published through Knitty - Thuja, after all it was also knit for a dad. ;-) With about an hours worth of knitting I was able to get it to this point:


Saturday morning one of the first things I did (after making coffee!) was to ply the ounce of Spinner's Hill Corriedale-Fin-Ramboillet in grey that I had waiting. It then rested again and today I took it off the bobbin, gave it a nice hot soak and then let it air dry outside around the back of a chair. It ended up being about 128 yards somewhere between a lace and fingering weight. Pretty too!


I wandered around the back yard for a few minutes and took a few pictures:
Violas - love them!
Mystery flowers, can you tell me what they are?
This was just a small portion of what was left behind! Some garden snake is sporting some new skin.

I had forgotten to share some fiber I got from Shelia's trip to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. They are from Spinner's Hill - yup, same dyer as the grey above:
Corriedale-Finn-Rambouillet-Silk ~7.5 ozs, Teal
Corriedale-Finn-Rambouillet-Silk-Mohair ~7.9 ozs, Black Cherry

Works in Progress - of various kinds

I didn't take a picture of the Cormo I spun up. I still need to get it off of the niddy-noddy, then wash/dry it. Something for another day. ;-)

I worked on my second Wisteria Shur'tugal sock this weekend and made progress and frogged and am making progress again. What's up? I had started the sock, gotten the ribbing done and started the first pattern repeat and put the sock down. Picked it back up after a week or so and couldn't get a row to work out for me. Tried going back and just found it easier to frog and start over. Made HUGE amounts of progress after that. I think that was Friday night. Worked on the sock more on Saturday and it wasn't until that night that the problem cropped up again. I had the leg of the sock done, heel flap and turn done. It was the gusset decreases.

It's a 64 stitch sock. The goal is to get back to those 64 stitches while working the gusset. I actually remember getting to the point where I had 16 stitches of the sole on each of the needles and thinking it was time to switch to the smaller needles (working the sock on two circulars) but for some reason another part of my brain said no. It told me that I should have 8 stitches on each needle. So on I went. Then just a little bit further for the foot and then start the toe decreases. Well by this time its bed time so I put it down. That's what saved me. Rather than staying up and finishing the sock I put it down.

Sunday I get up and after plying the cormo pick up the sock to finally finish it all up. I'm looking at this rather skinny foot area and thinking it odd that I should compare it to the other sock but decide to do the decreases anyway. It was looking at the number of stitches that I 'should have' to the number that I 'did have' that stopped me. So instead of having a finished sock on Sunday, I spent the afternoon frogging back to that magical point that I clearly remembered.

I worked on it some more Monday night after work and this is where I am at now. Just about 12 rows before starting the toe work (there's prep before starting the decreases):

While at work on Monday I started the Herringbone Ribbed Sock that's in the Knitted Socks with Handpainted Yarn book. I got it as a free download from Knitting Daily. Mine are Dad's Sockin Herringbone Sox because the yarn is Plymouth's Sockin' Sox. I think they'll make a nice birthday/father's day gift. Just the ribbing started until I can finish up that other sock:

I also worked on a shop project the Bonsai Swing Top from the Mother-Daughter Knits book. The Berroco Bonsai is interesting to work with. It's a bamboo with a nylon wrap. Pointy needles are not something to use with this yarn! The Addi-Turbos are currently working but my hands hurt after a couple of hours so it won't fly off the needles I think. It should be pretty when done:
This is actually a sideways view of the project, it's worked sideways on the skirt of the top with short row shaping. It will be interesting to work the pattern!

I'm still just a few rows away from moving the arms off to holders while the body is worked on the Borscht Greenjeans cardigan for myself. I can't work at it while at work since its not shop yarn (same as the other two projects I'm working on) and really Monday was the only day I've had time for knitting there anyway. It's a nice uncomplicated knit so far I just need to find the time to work on it.


I took advantage of the nice weather today to take photos of other works in progress around our backyard - all the fruits in progress. Two apple trees, two cherry trees, the Asian pear, peach tree, blueberries, strawberries, grapes and tomatoes. There's other veggies started but I didn't photograph them. Here's the collage of them: