It's been a long time!

So today I finished a pair of socks and thought "wow, I haven't posted in a long time". I call these the WW socks because I only knit on them while at Weight Watchers meetings. They are a thicker weight yarn than usual which meant I didn't have to go to meetings for 5 years just to finish them. Now I need to figure out what the next WW project will be.

Anyway, the pattern is my own concoction of other people's ideas. The toe is Judy's Magic Cast-On and the heel is Fleegle's. Both of those are linked on the side bar. The stitch pattern is stolen from Froot Loop Socks on Knitty. The cuff is my own, I combined a standard 1x1 rib while continuing the mini cables where they existed in the pattern. And then the bind-off is the new Jeny's Suprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off which I'll add to the side bar when I'm done with this post.




I'm still working on the Evenstar shawl that I posted way back in March. I'm at exactly the half way point in the border repeats. They are knit perpendicular to the rest of the shawl and are a bit slow for me. Only because I keep getting myself distracted. Yesterday I finished one repeat in 25 minutes and another one took me 2 hours... guess which one I was actually concentrating on? The full pattern is now available for sale on Susan Pandorf's website, plus you can see what a finished one looks like. I decided not to use the beads. They were taking a really long time and my bead selection was not adding anything to the beauty of the shawl. I've seen others that just look stunning, mine didn't have the same pizazz (right side has beads, left doesn't). I'll find another use for them eventually.



I'm also working on an Odelia sweater out of Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Merlot Heather. The color is much richer than it looks on my screen here. I wanted a sweater that would still work for me if I continue to lose weight and I wanted a color that can act as a neutral, so I can throw it on over almost anything. Maybe even the air conditioned office if I get it done.



I also have a pair of socks I'm working on randomly. They are from Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up. I'm using yarn that is leftover from my Enchanted Wood shawl finished in February. I'm a lot further than this but don't have current pictures. I am actually finished with one and starting the gusset on the second sock.


Oh, and I bought new shoes today. I needed brown dressy sandals for work.


finally an obligatory silly kitty picture.

Evenstar Clue 1 finished (spoiler pic)

Evenstar is a circular shawl designed by Susan Pandorf. This is a mystery shawl, meaning that we get "clues" or pieces of the pattern at regular intervals. With this one, we get a new clue every other Friday. The sign-ups for this particular mystery are now closed, but the complete pattern will be made available for sale after the mystery is done, sometime in May.

Evenstar marked the kick-off of Susan's Fellowship of the Rings series. That series subscription has just recently become available and this post has swatch pictures of the upcoming projects.

Anyway, here is a picture of what it looked like at the completion of Clue 1. Since we are a week into Clue 2, I'm hoping that this isn't a surprise spoiler to anyone who is participating.


P.S. The Enchanted Wood shawl from the last post was also a mystery pattern. For that shawl, the clues came every week and I didn't post anything until the very end.

Accomplishments

I know, I don't post very often, but here's a couple things....

First off, I finished another shawl. This was a kit and knit-a-long from The Unique Sheep called The Enchanted Wood. The beads were supplied by Ellen from Earth Faire. It was a great experience. I need to take some other pictures that do the yarn color justice but you can see the beautiful pattern.




Friday, I wore it to the office. This isn't the best picture but it's proof that I did. My manager said it was nice to see me actually wearing what I wore instead of carrying it around in a bag. (also you can't tell but another new accomplishment, that's my new office, it has an actual door, this is a huge deal at work to be out of a cubicle)



And last but definitely not least, I've been working to lose weight since Halloween. The picture on the left is actually the picture that got me started. Today I passed a major milestone and a friend asked for a pic. When losing weight slow and steady, it's hard to see sometimes, but putting these side by side shows a difference I'm proud of!

New Paint Color

Ok, yes, I'm posting two entries just a couple minutes apart but they are two different things.

Been painting son's bathroom this week, it's been pink and he had asked me to re-paint and picked out a nice taupe color. For the record, I hate painting, with a passion, and this experience did not change my opinion, it reinforced it. But below are pictures of the pre-paint color and a post-paint color. I think it's an improvement
Old Color


New Color