Tour de Sox finish

I finished my 2nd Tour de Sox sock pair. I named them red jersey. This was a legal color according to to moderator, as it used to be a jersey color. I was a little short on jersey colors in my stash. The pattern is a 2x2 rib with a twist and the pattern is offset every 18 rows. I was happy to finish a full repeat of the pattern when I reached the length for the toe.

My brown ribbon sweater was worn to work earlier in the week. I had been told that it might grow, but didn't see any evidence by the end of the day.

Today was our knitting guild picnic. One member has a very nice home with lots of room and a swimming pool. She's a little way out in the country, but not hard to get to. Here's part of the group knitting on the deck.

We're slowly getting rid of bedroom furniture moved to the garage prior to remodeling. Three beds have gone to be slept on by grandchildren. Two dressers are claimed. The walls are finished and new electrical outlets and lights are installed, but woodwork still needs to be replaced and we have a little list of minor problems to be fixed. DH has notes he will place on each area we're unhappy with. We finally have mini-blinds in out bedroom. I refused to buy them until the window trim got painted. I didn't like the bedroom fishbowl look, but the blinds weren't going to be put up until the painting was done. I've become a fan of just in time purchases after so many things bought ahead were never installed. We took down traverse rods from the windows and are throwing away 2 unopened boxes of new traverse rods. His mom may have given them to us.

Some finished knitting and a birthday

The brown ribbon sweater is complete. The beading was done over 3 days, but it's finished now. You can't see it in the small picture, but there are beads around the neck and sleeves. The Yarn is Lion Brand Incredible, the pattern is Tiffany's Night Out.

I've also finished my Tour de Sox project. Yarn: Opal, needles US #1/2.25mm, design my own. I have explained the symbolism on previous posts.

I started a new Tour de Sox jersey, red this time. It will be much simpler, so it can be finished by the end of the week. It looked like this earlier today, but has 4" of leg now. The yarn is Aussi Sock from Oasis yarns.

The July mystery socks are finished through clue 3. The next and final clue comes out tomorrow.
These socks are also Opal, knit on US #0/2.0mm. The July challenge was microgauge, 10 st/inchin stockinette. These socks achieve this. I'm thinking that I'll finish the red socks before doing the legs on these. The deadline for July socks is August 31. They must be cast on before the end of July. The deadline, as I see it, for the Tour de Sox is Sunday, the end of the tour.

Our youngest grandson has turned one year old! A party was held! Our daughter's DH has done a lot of work to their back yard since we were there last. They're on a cul-de-sac, so they have a small front yard and a large back yard. A playground is the newest addition. Some of the buildings were in the family for a long time, but the swing set is new. Resident children are 1, 3, & 5.

I made WB a fleece hoodie. It's huge now, but he'll grow fast. It has little monkeys on it. His siblings loved the ones I made for them and his mom said it was a good gift. DD the quilter made him a fish quilt. The scales on the quilt are 3 dimensional. She did not design this one.

We were told that DS would come to the party as a zombie. It seems he crashed on his bike Saturday morning.He doesn't look too bad, but much of the damage is covered by clothing. This time it was equipment failure. He wasn't even racing, just riding with friends. His riding shoes clip into his pedals and the pedal part of the set up failed. The foot didn't stay put, affecting balance, and man meets road! Many scrapes and bruises, but nothing serious. He'll need a new helmet, but better that than a new head. He'll also be getting new pedals on this bike. A gift certificate to a bike store will help. He has other bikes. I don't know if he has another helmet.

One Yellow Jersey Sock is Finished

Knitting Progress

One Tour de Sox sock is finished. The second sock has 3 links of chain. Yes, I ran 2 of the patterns up into the ribbing area.

The brown sweater has one sleeve installed and part of the beading done. I took a couple of pictures of the neck beads, but they were blurry. I do have a picture of the bottom fringe.

I'll be working on the lavender mystery sock, so that I'll be ready for the next clue, due out tomorrow.

Flowers

We have some of the less common day lilies in flower now. It has rained so much, that the weeds have taken over. I worked on some of them today, clearing a space for my Mother's Day rose bush. Luckily, it was delivered in a nice pot. It took a while to decide where I wanted to put it. I'll see how clear I got the area in a couple of days. It may need more work before putting the rose in. The bush seems to be happy with all the rain. It has a couple of new blooms on it.

Nothing else exciting. Thursdays are my day off, so I ran errands most of the day, ending with the baseball game I wrote about. Today was sort of lazy. It rained again this morning, which made weed pulling easier. Housework, bike race watching (it was on TV), spending time with dog and DH made for a relaxing day.

Brown Sweater knitting is finished

Knitting News

The brown sweater now has 2 sleeves. No pictures today. Tomorrow it will go to work with me and hopefully get sewn together. It still needs edgings and beads.

The July Mystery sock has one sock with Clue #2 finished. The other is up to the heel gusset.

The Tour de Sox Yellow Jersey Sock is about 2" into the leg.

I was asked "which tutorial/technique did you use for the toe up heel flap? i haven't found just the right one yet! I designed a pair of socks for TKGA's Cast On in December 2004. I used the same method for this one. I figured it our myself. I also figured out the "Star Toe" reverse. that one was easier.

Mess Progress?

Dry wall has been installed. It is now all hung, I think. We still have some interesting areas of mess and the dry wall still needs more mudding and sanding. The toilet belongs next to the tub. The sink also was moved. The two color wall is because the original plaster was left behind the tub.

Stitch-n-Pitch

Tonight was Cleveland's Knitters at the baseball game night. Our Tribe won after 9 straight losses. Final score: Indians 13, Tampa Bay 2. This statue of Bob Feller is outside Gate C. He was a famous pitcher for our team in the 1950's.

ABC Along Updated and Sock progress

L is for....Library

It was brought to my attention that I missed blogging about the letter "L". I show a small portion of my knitting library. I think that the earliest acquisitions are Barbara Walker Treasuries. I also lucked into the Principles of Knitting just before it went out of print. I have some older books, but they were I got them later. The library also has a large number of magazines and a small crochet library.

N is for....New windows

The new windows and resulting "great ideas" have disrupted my knitting sanity. All my knitting storage is where I can't get at it. There are boxes of yarn on my back porch, under plastic. My drawers of yarn are in my dining room, with 6 feet of stuff between me and them. I can seen the drawers, but not reach them. Luckily, I have several projects which were packed for the California trip. I also can get at my sock yarn stash.

Sewing for me again

After making the teal jacket, I started a few pieces which coordinate. There's a really great print skirt, and out of the left over fabric, a matching blouse. I underlined the skirt, because the fabric is very light weight. It's some sort of rayon blend. I used polyester lining for the underlining. It worked very well.

I recently bought some solid fabrics which also will expand this wardrobe with more blouses.

Socks Update

The July Mystery sock clue #2 has been published. The pictures show progress as of yesterday. The longer sock does not show all of the clue, but I'm bringing the second sock up to that point. The stitch holders you wonder about? I made them yesterday from scrap leather and elastic. I once bought a leather stitch holder, but I lost it.

The Tour de Sox Yellow Jersey Socks have a heel. It was quite challenging, because I had to cable of the wrong side of the fabric. The pictures show the"Wheel" cable and what I'm calling the Hills and Valleys cable. The rib in between reminds me of tire tracks.

Holiday festivities

The remodeling mess is a little closer to being finished up. On Thursday, dry wall was delivered, through one of the new windows. It is now stacked on the floor of the third floor. In the second picture, you may see one of the workers who got to carry things up one more flight of stairs. The dumpster prevented delivery to third floor directly. Today men came to wrap the new windows in aluminum. This is a step toward the siding we hope to do next year. What is actually finished is most of the windows on the second floor. One window needs a new piece of trim on the inside, but the rest are ready for sanding and painting. I need to get blinds for the windows. I'm already tired of undressing in a fishbowl. Dressing is better, because of the natural light this time of year. Undressing is done in the dark with the lights on, showing everything if not done in the bathroom.

Thursday evening a large part of the family went to Blossom Music Center and sat on the lawn for a band concert. We got there early for picnic fun. The night ended with fireworks. Blossom is the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra, but the Blossom band played this night. There were many marches by Sousa, a tribute to Leroy Anderson and, of course, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture with cannons. This seems to be a must for outdoor performances this time of year.

Friday was the family picnic, held this year at our son's house. DD the quilter came from Erie, PA on her motorcycle. Yes, that's a Mohawk on her helmet! She brought a finished quilt. Her design will be in a magazine soon. The actual quilt was a Christmas gift for her sister the artist. It was off for photography over the holiday, so a picture was given in a large box. This was the first time that the recipient saw her quilt. she had to give it back because it's needed for a trunk show. She actually is afraid to use it and may hang it on the wall when she gets to keep it.


Sock knitting

July Mystery sock clue #1 is finished on two socks. Clue #2 comes out on 7/6.

I joined the Tour de Sox, which parallels the bicycle race Tour de France. Socks must be knit in the colors of the jerseys. You can use either winning jerseys or those of your declared country. I've designed a bicycle related sock and am knitting it in yellow Opal. This is the toe, which is supposed to resemble a bike gear.

The brown ribbon sweater has a body and one sleeve. This goes quickly, since it's knit mainly on 7 mm/US10.75 needles. The yarn is Lion Brand Incredible. I bought it on sale at Jo Ann Fabrics with coupons. I ended up with two different, but related colors and different dye lots. I'm alternating the colors and it's working well. I still need to tack down all the loose ends with needle and thread. I don't trust ribbon yarn to stay where I put it. The pattern calls for all edges to be trimmed and beads applied. I've knit this pattern before and wore it to two weddings.

Flowers

Our white rhododendron is in bloom.