War of WIPs Call to Arms 2011

It's finished! Hurray!!!

 I'm so glad to have it done. It turned out better than I thought it would too. (Yeah, I know. I brag about my knitting way too much.)

For those who may not know. This sweater was donated unfinished to our local Knit Wits charity knitting/crochet group. The lower front, back, and cuff on one sleeve were done, but there was not enough yarn to finish the whole project. I added the stripes in the yoke and contrasting sleeve so it could still be a sweater.

I have 6 more unfinished donations to do. Urg.

If you care to join the War of WIP's 2011, please do so.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Insert Wolf Whistle Here

Just a quick post before I head out today. This fiiiine looking young fellow dropped by around dinner time yesterday.

Takin' a little stroll across the yard.

Stopping for a bite to eat. I guess Thimble Berry bush is a delicacy.

Just a reminder, the horizontal cross bar on the fence is 4 feet high.

Small as moose guys go, but still, darn big! He snorted a bit at me, so I kept my distance and used the telephoto lense.

Life at the Parkarosa is never dull.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Herringbone Donut Necklace-Check!

Another fair entry is finished. I worked on this on the camping trip.

I made the Herringbone chain using a tutorial by Perlen4U.de called Schnelle Herringbone Kette.  I found it via the blog Beads For Brains. Its a PDF file and written in German, but the graphics are very very good so no words are needed. It goes so well with the donut, doncha think?

 I love this donut. I should make another one. The pattern, Donut Herringbone, is by Vyolina.

The pattern is written in French and is 4 pages, so make sure you look for the other three cuz the above link goes to page one.

 The necklace is 19 inches long  and has a simple Vermeil clasp.

Now, to make a necklace to hang that wavy twisty triangle pendant on.

Live long and prosper. \\//

War of WIPs Call to Arms

I really didn't think I'd be able to address this until after the fair, but I was wrong. I actually worked on one of the aged WIPs yesterday. I took it with me to Knit Wits and worked on it during the meeting, between fielding fair entries and knitting questions.

I got all the seams sewn. Now I just have to put the neckband on and it will be done. I will probably do that this weekend. I was putting this thing off because I was dreading sewing the yoke to the body. Lack in confidence that I could make it look good. Turned out to be easy peasy. Silly me!

If you care to join the War of WIP's 2011, please do so.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Loop de Loop

I got the necklace using the beads from my sister-in-laws mothers sweater done while we were camping.

It's 19 inches long.

It's tubular netting stitch embellished with fringe loops at each intersection.

 The loops gradually get longer the closer to the center they are.

The size 11 gold glass seed beads and 4mm plastic pearls are from the sweater. I added the white seed beads from my stash for contrast.

The camp ground we stayed in had some interesting places to use as backgrounds for my photos.

 It's ready for the fair.

The original sweater.

The camping trip was great. I'll write more about that tomorrow.

Live long and prosper. \\//

It's That Time of Year

We had our planning meeting for the 2011 North Idaho Fair this week. I am so EXCITED now!!! It's fair time. Woo hoo!

North Idaho Fair

We are going computer for entries this year. Our building will have wifi and 2 computers for entering the info for all entries. This will be so much better than writing it all down, sending it to the office, and having some one there type it all in. We can stop the mistakes right from the start, rather than finding them two days later.

Another good thing is I got my daughter Ruth on the payroll as a department clerk. She does the work anyway. Might as well get paid. So now I will have 2 clerks, which is fantastic. So, technically, I can say now my daughter finally has a job. It only lasts a month, but that's okay. It's something.

You won't be hearing from me for a few days. We're going on our annual Park family camping trip to Priest Lake. Try to keep out of trouble while I'm gone, okay? I do not want to have to bail you out of jail when I get back.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Flirty Fir Harvest Dew

The Flirty Fir socks are done.

Flirty Fir Socks

Pattern: Harvest Dew by Rose Hiver Designs.

Yarn: Summit Sock by Impulse of Delight
Color: Flirtatious Fir
Content: 80% Merino wool/20% Nylon

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 2.

Size: Ladies Medium (size 8.5 shoe)

Cast on: June 21, 2011
Bound off: July 23, 2011

Comments:  I absolutely love the yarn I used for these socks. I love the color combination in it, the way it pooled, and the way it feels.

The pattern was very fun to knit, and fairly easy to do too. I'd recommend it for anybody who wants to knit socks.

 Leg showing stitch pattern detail.

My excellent gusset corner and bit of the heel pattern. I'd not done this heel before. I like it.

The toe detail.

 On my feet so you can see how the stitch pattern decreases to the toe.

All in all, I love love love them! I'm going to enter them in the fair this year.

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I didn't want my needles to get a chance to cool off ( hee hee), so as soon as I was done with the socks, I cast on another project. Well, actually, it's the continuation of a past project.

I've decided to make the second Rainbow For My Hands mitt and enter the pair in the fair. It's next month, so I gotta get busy.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Expensive But Oh So Worth It

Hanging out in foreign bead forums and blogs exposes me to beads and beading supplies that are not available in my own  country, which, considering it's the USA kind of irks me. Why aren't our bead shops keeping up with the new stuff? Anyway, I've been waiting awhile for these to come into the US and now, finally, they have. Not locally though. I had to order them online. They arrived yesterday and oh man! They are AWESOME!!!

Peacock daggers-matte Caribbean Seas.

Tye Dye daggers in beige.

Peacock daggers in matte red and black.

Peacock Triangle daggers in matte green and light blue.

Tye dye daggers in  matte black and vitrail.

They are 5x16mm in size. They are expensive too, as daggers go. Prices ranged between 34 and 37 cents each. Colors and patterns are limited here in the US. For instance, no one has purple, or the checkered or square patterned ones yet. But it's a start. If you find yourself feeling the need for some dagger bling:

The matte silver and brown ones were purchased at Beads Gone Wild.

The rest were purchased at Beaded Impressions (via Amazon.com)

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Call To Arms

Just found out about this.

If you have projects that have been waiting around way too long to be finished, then this event is for you. Revelations of a Delusional Knitter is hosting it.

"Make a list of your intended conquests - WIPs that have been hanging around, how long they have been hanging around (if you can remember) and vow to finish them before the end of 2011! "

I'm joining. I've got a few WIPs nagging me to get done, some waiting as much as a few years for me to get off my tush. The really sad thing is it wouldn't take a whole lot of time to finish them. These are the ones I'm thinking of:

The mate to the above Blackberry Rick Sock is the first thing that came to my mind. I started these in March of 2010. The first sock went fine, but the second one not so good. I got frustrated with how awful it looked, and tossed it in a corner for an attitude adjustment.

Next is the red and white sweater for Knit Wits (February 2011). I need to sew it together. I got it all blocked in May. I took pics but never got around to posting. Usually I enjoy the finishing part of a project. For some reason, I've been dragging my feet on this one.

There's the lap afghans I need to sew together for Knit Wits too. I took this project on early in 2010. It should have been done a long time ago. I've figured out how I want to do it, I just have to sit down and --- DO IT!

Does anyone remember this one? Geez, I started it in July 2008. Molly the felted Moose.

And then there's that last pair of Entrelac mitts pattern that I was working on and got side tracked.

I have a couple non-knitted projects that really need to get done too. Like the felt applique Christmas stocking. It would be nice to have it done for Christmas.

And the Star Donut necklace. The donut is done. The necklace to hang it on is not. I started it but I don't like what I've got. I need to frog it and do something else.

Last, but not least, it sure would be nice to finally finish the counted cross stitch snowmen. I've had this one simmering for 6 years now.

Officially, I can't work on any of these until after the North Idaho Fair next month. But I'm going to commit myself to finishing them before the end of the year, in addition to the other stuff I'm working on. I can do it, I just have to apply myself.

If you, too, are interested in joining the 2011 War of WIPs, there's more info and sign-ups here:

2011 War of WIP's Call To Arms

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday July 20, 2011

It's WIP Wednesday. I guess I could have saved Mondays post for today, but what is the fun in that? How about a knitting WIP? My Chevron sweater back is coming along nicely.

The fabric has a wonderful drape to it. I attribute that to it being garter stitch, as well as the yarns qualities.

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I have some good news to share. You know that twisted triangle pendant I made last week? Well, I hadn't linked to it because the place where I found the pattern made it hard, if almost impossible, to link to. Thanks to a fellow Yahoo group Seadbeaderster member, I now have access to a pdf link of the pattern and it's translated to English! (Not in Russian like the original.) So, if you wanna try the Wavy Twisted Triangle Pendant, click the link.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

ETA July 22, 2011:

I've found a link to the Russian pattern that works:  Russian Wavy Triangle