My yarn room is still a mess

I keep finding more yarn. I'm off work until Jan. 3, so I should be able to make more progress. This room is part of out third floor, which has been in an uproar for about 2 1/2 years. It's along story! I've cleaned up the table by the window with the swift and ball winder on it, but it doesn't show in the photo. Many of the plastic drawers have space, but everything needs an inventory card so I can find it again.

Much of the extra yarn was in the house, but not in the inventories before the remodeling mess. Everything was so hard to access that no inventory updating was done. The computer spread sheet was kept up to date, but not the index cards with the yarn snippets. The cardboard boxes hold cone yarn. I need to clear the floor, so I can bring in one more table and two more knitting machines. The table you can see will hold one machine, which is hiding in the dormer.

I still need to bring sock yarn upstairs, after I install the knitting machine on that wooden table. There are shelves in the dormer which will hold the sock yarn boxes. Sock yarn does not have inventory cards, but it has always been kept together in one area of the house. (maybe someday).

Here are my latest socks. They are my own design, to be made available soon. The impetus was a SKA challenge to use left over sock yarn. The base yarn is Plymouth Happy Feet left from 3 skeins I originally had. I made a pair of fair isle socks for the yarn company called Rows of Hearts. I had 60 gm left over, not enough for a pair of socks by itself. The blue is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Jeans color and the brown/gray is the same yarn in Mineshaft color.

I started with a Barbara Walker pattern from her second Treasury, called Paving Stones. (I just called that treasury the "sockend" one). I'm calling the pattern Legacy. It reminded me of engraved paving stones seen in many places. It's alsdo a legacy from socks past. This pair will be given as a January birthday present.

W is for...

I got this from Claudia

Sandy issued a challenge:

* Go to your Sixth Picture Folder then pick your Sixth Picture.

* Pray that you remember the details.

* Tag 5 others.

Not being a meme-er, I'll go so far as doing the first and the second.

The owls are part of an extensive collection belonging to my brother in law living in Vancouver, WA. I spent some time with them around teaching at TKGA Portland last September.

W is for...weather vanes.

This is on a local garden center. I don't know if it really works.

The steam engine weather vane is on our garage. DH loves steam engines.

Knitting gifted
All the gifts made in the last 2 months have been given. Two pairs of socks were birthday presents. One Christmas stocking was given on Thanksgiving. Youngest daughter and husband were in town from Florida. They gave out Christmas gifts early, so I decided to reciprocate. This morning we went out for breakfast and gave out Josh's grey socks, the book "It Itches" by Franklin Habit, and a bag of potato soup mix. I'm still working on Vitor's socks 1 1/4 sock done. I might finish by Sunday night, the goal of one KAL I'm participating in. They'll be given next Sunday morning at breakfast.

New toy pictures.
My new laptop. It does what computers are supposed to do. The top is connected tot he bottom. It runs on Windows XP, which means that my business software runs like it did before.

My new serger. This will not be my everyday machine, but an extra that does the fancy stuff. It does a beautiful rolled hem and cover stitch. It does a chain stitch and chain and serge at the same time. There are 20 stitch variations, using up to 5 threads. It has 5 needle positions and 3 loopers. A LED display helps with the settings etc. I will have either a repaired machine or some toher simpler machine for everyday use.

Cute grandkid!
They were given the piano. He's started lessons from someone at church. This is in addition to the tuba and trumpet he already owns. (Yes, they're real! Small size, but not toys).I don't think he 's had lessons on the other instruments except from his father.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at his house. There were about 25 people, 2 turkeys, and loads of food. All the women and some men in the family are good cooks. I got to bring Diet Coke, as usual.

Yes, I've been knitting

V is for....Veils
One of my sewing customers sells embroidered wedding veils. She gets the embroidery from India and needs the combs and labels attached. Folded veil fabric is on the left. I trim the top and use the extra tulle to wrap the comb. Finished veil is on the right.

I had a problem with Josh's Christmas sock. I used up all the yarn. I knew that my local store had more yarn. Monday lunch time was devoted to this errand. The socks are now finished.

Vitor has a birthday coming up and his socks are started. I'm not working this Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll have more knitting time. These are his favorite colors. I hear that his bedroom has been painted green and orange.

We've been doing our part to boost the economy. In the last 2 weeks, we've bought a new refrigerator, a new laptop for the shop, and a new fancy serger machine. All of the above were working, but had serious problems. The serger has a broken gear, hopefully repairable, but I can't work without one. I've wanted this type of fancy machine for a long time. The refrigerator had a broken door hinge and was 20+ years old. Possibly repairable, but don't tempt fate on life expectancy. The computer works fine, but the screen is attached to the keyboard only by a couple of wires. I'll try to get some pictures soon.

Knitting along, U is for...

Christmas stocking
The Christmas stocking is finished. Here's the progress picture. The stitch pattern is from one of my Japanese books. The basic stocking is a pattern I've been using for family stockings for 35-40 years. This stocking is #26 in the series. Within a family the stocking colors alternate red, green, red, green. Each stocking is unique. The guys get stripes of some sort. The gals get something more pictorial. Since no 2 are alike, the series can go on as long as I'm able to knit. Here's the finished stocking.

U is for... undressed trees
The trees have been partying in their prettiest clothes, but now it's time to go to bed for the winter. They drop their clothes at their feet, or sometimes they are scattered further about. Soon they'll all be naked and asleep.

Excitement at work
A couple of months ago, the truck that empties the dumpster had an accident. It seems that when they raise the dumpster, the truck is put into neutral and the motor gunned. When the truck is in reverse instead, this happens. The hole was covered with plywood for quite a while, while insurance was worked out, bids were gotten, etc. One day work started. When all the damaged wall was removed, it looked like this.

There are 4 roof supports in the picture. I watched the wall be put back together. The original hole took 15 sheets of plywood to cover for the night. The building houses a car repair garage, so had to be secure overnight. Finally, the work was finished. The whole top of the all was repaired and tuck pointing was done. There's a new glass block window to the left.

Sweater progress
My Noro sweater body is finished, and the sleeves are started. I worked really hard to finish the socks by the Sunday deadline for gifting, so it grows slowly. The band has been redone. I misread the pattern and picked up too few stitches.

T is for..., Socks finished and other stuff

T is for....
Tailor's thimble, the only kind I use. As a seamstress, a thimble is used everyday at work. The picture is a little blurry, but you can see that there is a hole at the top. The side is used to push the needle through the fabric.

The leaves are so pretty this time of year, I have taken lots of pictures. Here are a few. I rarely see oak leaves that are red, usually they are brown.

Sewing
I've been sewing dresses for customers. There have been a lot of them recently. I like that! It brings in cash. One of my customers is a young violinist who need performance clothes suitable for a teenager. The dress with the blue skirt is new, but I've been storing the fabric in my shop for 2 years. It's taffeta with black velvet flowers. The top is stretch velvet.

I also altered a dress from a couple of years ago. It had gotten too short. I show before and after pictures. The skirt on this is silk duipioni. She needs dresses for less formal performances too. I showed a short dress with a ruffle last post. This one now has a bubble skirt. Finally, the camera was held straight. I have a leaning dress form, but this one isn't it!

Knitting
We have finished socks. LE's birthday socks are finished. They're a stealth project, because I hope to sell the pattern. but I can show enough to see that they're done! I show all the leftover red yarn. Really didn't think I'd make it. You can see the feet and the ribbing. Yes, the pattern is black.

I'm sewing, knitting and cooking - ABC along

In the past 2 weeks or so, I have filled my freezer with soups. I've made corn chowder, beef stew with barley, split pea soup, and hamburger soup with cabbage. I've also dusted off my bread maker and made 2 loaves. I know how to do it the old fashioned way, but the machine can cook while I'm at work!

Work has gotten much busier. I'm getting lots of dressmaking jobs. Luckily I can delegate much of the alterations work. This black dress is a homecoming dress. The top is knit fabric, actually I made a short knit dress and sewed the skirt and vest to it. The skirt is many layers of tulle, with one layer of knit with shiny dots in the sandwich. I'll try to get more pictures in the next week or so.

I have a lot of knitting on the needles right now, a lot for me that is! I finished one pair of Christmas gift socks. Yarn is Grundl Four seasons Cotton Stretch, and I used every inch.This is the 3rd pair of socks in the gift pile.

I'm working on socks for couple of birthdays this month. A granddaughter wants red and black. I'm using my new Japanese books for these. The red yarn is Regia 4 ply. There will be black on the cuffs. A daughter has a birthday this month also. I just stared socks for her. The pattern again is from a Japanese book. Yarn is Four Seasons sockenwolle.

Lastly, I'm knitting September Mystery Socks from a Ravelry group. I bought the yarn at the TKGA convention last month. The socks need to be orange for the challenge. I bought Yarn Place Chaussant, but the yardage is short. I used Oasis Yarns Aussi Sock for the toe. The picture shows the sock sole.

I also started a sweater that's been on my wish list since I bought the pattern about 5 years ago. This year I was able to buy the yarn. I bought 10 balls of Noro Silk Garden at Knitter's Fantasy in April, only to come home as find out that I needed 5 balls of a contrast color. August was the month for that purchase, and I started the sweater the end of September. The body is knit in one piece, show folded here. Each mitered square is knit separtely, picked up from the row below.

I also finally planted my mother's day rose bush. It came in a pot, so was relatively happy until I could figure out where to put it. I also planted some daffodils. I usually forget to plant bulbs in the fall.

S is for....my sock drawer. this drawer holds most of my hand knit socks. I seem to be addicted ot sock knitting and have some socks in another drawer. I really need 2 drawers in the summer when all the socks are clean at the same time.

R is for Ribbit

My DGD Ana has a birthday coming up in mid-September. Now that her feet have quit growing, the decision was made to knit her some socks. I have a tracing of her foot from a year or so ago, so figuring commenced. I checked books, I figured gauge, this was a problem. Ana is a short young woman with very small feet (size2) but what I was knitting just looked too small. There was another concern. She's turning 17, so she doesn't have childlike stick legs. Her legs have shape.

Last night, I caught up with her to have her try the sock on. It wouldn't go over her heel!! RIBBIT!! I measured her heel, her leg, and the ball of her foot. The foot length from the tracing is ok. I've redesigned the sock in my head. It will be bigger and better. I'm keeping the trellis and adding a rib edge that looks like a flower, followed by a yarnover braid from Folk Knitting in Estonia. The yarn is Brown Sheep Wildefoote in purple Splendor. Ana's favorite color is purple. The new pattern will be awesome! I wonder who I can sell it to.

Sewing Challenge
Today I spent most of the day enlarging a bridesmaid dress for a large young lady. She's at least 6 feet tall and her dress is now a size 28 plus 12 inches. The dress is long enough. The wedding is next Saurday. I need to see 3 of 4 bridesmaids Tuesday, so that I have time to hem their dresses and make whatever other alterations are still needed. Two dresses were made larger by adding a fabric strip on each side from underarm to hem. The other two dresses are another style and needed taking in. Never a dull moment.

O is for...

I wasn't thinking about Olympic knitting, which also fits. I was thinking about old sweaters. The black sweater is at least 35 years old. I remember where I bought the yarn. Would you be surprised to hear that it is knit of wool? The pattern is a gansey type sweater published in Woman's Day magazine. They used to show a collection of sweaters with pattern available by mail. The sweater has always been a little big on me, but also fit my DH. It's like the favorite boyfriend sweater, its big, but still gets worn a lot.

The green sweater is a little younger, but I don't remember when I knit it. It's a simple raglan, also of wool. Its actual color is a light olive.

Pre-Olympic knitting grumble
Last week I picked up a hibernating Christmas present. The pattern is Harvest Cable socks from the Sock Guy. I finally finished the 2" of ribbing and started the pattern. It didn't fit the number of stitches given. The numbers appear correct for the woman's version. A Ravelry check showed only female socks. A 14 stitch repeat does not fit in 80 stitches. Rrriiippp!! Start again with 84 stitches, which is 6 repeats of the pattern. At the start of the Olympics, I was 1/2 way down the foot and running out of yarn. Retreat! I'll find some comparable yarn for the heels and toes and pick it up again after closing ceremonies.

Olympic knitting
After frogging CB's sock, I started my Shy Sheep Vest. We have sheep!

We also have socks. The swatch was knit in Aussi Sock Spanish Fiesta color. The color length is similar, as are the colors. I have lots of Aussi Sock. The Panda Cotton I'm using for the real sock is short yardage. Cotton weighs more than wool. The sock toe in the picture no longer exists. The stitch count was right for the pattern, but came out too wide. I've restarted with smaller needles. 2.5mm was too big, now the sock is on 2.25mm. It's an easy lace pattern, where the colors don't fight the pattern. I'm calling it "The Road to the Olympics" because it's not smooth and straight, but zigzags, both the stitch pattern and the colors.

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.

WWKIP, Socks and other stuff

World Wide Knit in Public Day was also my daughter's wedding day. Yes I knit, when not busy celebrating. Pictures were taken of me knitting at the baseball game. The same purple blob was on the needles the whole trip, although I brought plenty of alternatives. Finally it was ready to wear on the airplane home. It was too big, but should shrink up when washed.

It seems better now, but I'm still not
completely happy with the sleeves.

Next project was the May Mystery Socks from Ravelry's Sock Knitters Anonymous Group. Small bits of stash yarn were suggested for the stranded bits. would have done better if I had more solids, or if I had know how much yarn I needed of each color. The charts also failed at the tip of the toe, because they contained too many decreases. I'm not sure I made the two feet identical, but they're close. The designer also gave a shorter version, which is also tempting. The leg portion of these is 10" long. I also should have changed back to smaller needles once the stranded portion was finished, but didn't have the smaller needles handy.


Flowers
I can finally show some of the flowers in my yard. We have too many of these day lilies! We have a few less common varieties too.





Sewing
Business is slow right now. I made a new skirt last week (no picture) and a cotton blouse/jacket. The fabric is too heavy for a blouse and should have more ease for a jacket, but I plan to wear it open. It's unlined and will coordinate with a skirt and couple of blouses. The pattern is the same one I used for my brown blouse earlier in the month. Again, I'm not happy with the sleeves. I may stick to short sleeves with this pattern. This version is center bottom.

M is for.....
Mess - I mentioned this last week, the deconstruction of a whole floor of our house for purposes of insulatiing the living area from the roof. Left to right you see a claw foot tub containing insulation, the back of the toilet, the back of the sink vanity and medicine cabinet. The gray stuff on the ceiling is inside vents for air circulation.

Mother's Day Quilt - sewn by DD the quilter. In 2006, she made quilts for all the mothers in the family. Yes, we have 6 children. She's #2, the whitish flower. For her younger sister with small children, (the yellow flower) she made the pieces button together for possible family expansion. Good thing, since WB is almost 1 yr. old now.

Mittens and mitts - you knew there had to be some knitting in here. The purple mitts are often worn inside the purple mittens. Those mittens are trimmed with Bernat Boa and are a set with a scarf and hat. The big blue mittens with gauntlets are from Anna Zilboorg's Magnificent Mittens book. They are lined with alpaca and trimmed with pearls. The pearls have not held up well. The finish has come off. The last pair is double knit fair isle. I forget the name of the mitten book.