On the Needles - 7/5/13

I hope everyone had a safe and joyous 4th of July!!!  We are enjoying spending lots of quality time with our children and grandchildren this week.  And in the spirit of the season, I finished up my bright RED socks!!!  With a white t-shirt and blue jeans, I was well prepared for celebrating the 4th!  Well, at least I would have been if it had been cold enough to wear socks LOL!!!

These are  my second finished pair of socks.  They were done with Hibiscus Serenity Sock yarn, and I used the Toe-up, Two at a Time, Magic Loop method.  My only complaint is that they are a tad large on me.  I'm hoping they draw up a little when I wash them.  But they are really soft and comfortable - I'm going to enjoy wearing them this winter :*D
More pictures of my new socks ... (you can see how they are a little baggy around the heel on this picture)

Isn't it funny how they look like three different colors in each of these pictures?   The true colors are closer to the bottom picture.  I learned quite a few new techniques doing this project - stitch wrapping and the special magic cast on, for instance.
Now that this pair of socks is done, I'm thinking I'll take a little break from socks and work on a couple of other yarn projects.  I'm really excited about doing Dreambird, and today I went with a friend to visit the Knaughty Knitter in Murfreesboro - my very first visit to a knit shop ever!  It was amazing!  So many wonderful yarns and in every possible color!  Reminded me very much of my first trip to a quilt shop LOL!!!
Here is a picture of a Dreambird shawl - not mine of course!!! But you can get the idea of what it looks like...




And here are the yarns I chose for my Dreambird....

The yarn on the left is solid black Heritage fingering yarn and there is a lot of it there, perhaps about twice as much as the fancy Noro skein on the right.  The Noro is a rougher texture yarn, also a fingering weight.  It has the nice long color changes that are needed for this pattern.  As you can see from the picture below, there are lots of these color variations - I'm hoping to get some lovely feather colors for my Dreambird with this!

The Knaughty Knitter is hosting a Knit Along (KAL) on the 16th for anyone working on Dreambird, so I plan to go with some friends and take part in that.  I had planned to make this shawl during the KAL with Justquiltin and Patchwork Times, but I've decided it will be a good idea for me to go ahead and start it with this local knit shop and have the opportunity to get assistance face-to-face if needed.  Perhaps I'll get good enough that I could start a second one with Judy & Denise!
In the meantime, while I'm waiting for the KAL, I'm going to start my Cream and Sugar Cowl.  Mine will be all black, which will mean I can wear it with anything...

Picture taken from Ravelry website - Cowl made by nevernotknitting

If you have something taking shape on your needles, be sure to share it with us at Judy's Patchwork Times!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Cleaning up the Stash!

I have had a lot going on this past week, plus dealing with recovering from a sinus infection, so you haven't seen much of me here. I've been very busy though!

Here are my final blocks for the YELLOW Rainbow Scrap Challenge in June...

Hatchett blocks and resulting HST's

On the Needles, my Hibiscus Serenity socks have taken flight!  We traveled to Kentucky yesterday for a family gathering to honor my husband's father on his birthday.  Three hours there, and three hours back, so I took my knitting with me since I can knit in the car without getting carsick - Oh happy day!!!  The socks started out like this at the beginning of the trip....

All the increases were done in preparation for the heels and I had worked one heel.  On the trip, I finished up the second heel and got quite a bit done on the stockinette stitch for the leg on both socks - whoohoo!!!

I'm liking this method of Two-at-a-time, Toe-up, Magic Loop.  I would have made a stupid mistake and shorted the second heel if I had not had the first one on the needles to compare to.  And of course both socks will be the same length without worrying about counting rows or careful measuring.  You can click HERE to see the post where I show the pattern I'm using.

I really like this heel treatment called "Eye of the Partridge"!

I will be traveling all this week too - visiting with my sweet baby girl and granddaughter in Savannah TN for a few days and then in Murfreesboro for the TVQA Spring Seminar, where I am scheduled to take 4 classes in 3 days - I'm tired already just typing that!!!  But I figure I should be finished with these socks by the end of that trip and hopefully will be able to share a finish on next week's On the Needles!

In preparation for my classes, I have had to do quite a bit of unexpected work.  Pre-washing all the fabrics for the classes!!!  Why would I do that, you might ask?  I have been seeing a natural medicine practitioner to figure out some of my health issues, and we have determined that chemicals in my system are playing a huge part in my health woes.  That's really not surprising, is it?  Not in today's world.  But unfortunately, we have pinpointed the most likely culprit as overexposure to the chemicals in fabric.  Yikes!!!!  Since giving up quilting is not an option, I am now faced with having to rid my considerable stash of all those chemicals before I get to play with them :(  This is a lot of work my friends!!!!

I have to admit, I had been kinda wondering if this could be the problem for a while now, but I kept ignoring that warming voice because, well, for one thing, I am lazy!!!  Okay, that's probably the biggest reason :*D  But, the other reason is that I really don't like working with washed fabric that much.  I love the bright colors and sharp look of a crisp new piece of fabric!  I can't ever seem to get it as "sharp" and wrinkle free after washing.

See the wrinkles on the blue fabric on the right?  That's been ironed twice!!!

I'm using Best Press to put some starchiness back into it because it is supposedly chemical free.....

I'm not sure of that because I couldn't find the exact ingredients online, but that's what I'm told.  Not that I believe everything I'm told, but .... anyway.... you get the idea :*)  It helps, but I miss my crisp new fabrics!!!

I've decided on a plan of action.  All new fabrics will be washed before they go into the stash - period.  I plan to wash and dry them, then simply fold and put them on the stash shelves - I'll iron when I'm ready to use it.  Because I HATE ironing!  For my existing stash, I'll take a color at a time and wash them as I have time.  However, with FOUR classes coming up this week, I have a lot of fabric to get chemical free, fast!  One class project uses 30 different fabrics, and another uses mostly scraps - a ton of scraps!

I tried using a mesh lingerie bag to wash the smaller pieces, hoping to eliminate some of those dreaded strings....

..... but as you can see, that didn't work out so well...

These scraps....

Became this mess to untangle!!!

Here are some more pictures of my Washing the Stash Adventure for your viewing pleasure.... =^..^=

Stacks lined up by color family and waiting their turn to be washed....

Stacks of fabric for next week's classes to be ironed - YUK!!!

A huge basket of black scraps to be ironed for one class...

I'm using my Sizzix cutter to cut the strips for the class that calls for 30 fabrics, so all those have to be done before I leave on my trip.  The fabrics for the other classes are washed and will get ironed and cut while I'm at my daughter's house.  

So, I still have a lot of work to do today before I can get on the road.  I will probably not have a chance to blog between now and my return, so I will wish you all a wonderful week, filled with all that you love most!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=