Losing my Socks that Rock virginity

Whoops, so much for my G-rating. Well, the Opal Kid's Socks are on hiatus ... I realized too late that I would not have enough Fleece Artist left for 2 socks, so now I will finally cast on my Socks That Rock in Fairgrounds:



I was loving the colour changes and the smoothness of the hand while winding the skein, so I think knitting this up will be sweet. These will be Jaywalkers for me, and then when they are done I can stripe them with the leftover Fleece Artist for some pretty crazy colour action in Claire's socks. Also I have cast on in some lovely tweedy Naturally Tussock DK for DH's polo-collar pullover. It will be reams of stockinette, but that's about what my addled brain can handle right now.

Off to Newfoundland for two weeks of visiting the in-laws. I hope this year Claire will be old enough to start to appreciate what a beautiful place it is. It ain't Disney World, but there are some pretty neat things happening. I'm hoping to take her to places like the Salmonier Nature Park and maybe on a whale watching boat tour. Meanwhile, challenges for me include 2 weeks with the in-laws ... perfectly lovely people of course, but living in anyone else's house has never been my forte; 2 weeks without a piano; and staying OP with Weight Watchers. I have now had nearly 3 fantastic weeks on this plan and I am loving it, and I've lost 6 pounds already, so let's see if I can keep things going. The good news is that my in-laws, besides being lovely people, are very health-conscious and always have good choices in the house.

Random cuteness for your enjoyment, dear reader.

Who is that masked monkey?

















Here we see the Arctic fox in repose.

FINALLY an FO...

The Fleece Artist socks are DONE!
Pattern: Eleanor from Socktopia
Yarn: Fleece Artist Nova SocksNeedles: 2 2.75mm circs
Completion date: July 8, 2007

With the leftover yarn, I've started a pair of Opal Kid's Socks for Claire. This will be my first official Summer of Socks 2007 project. I realize I'll never keep up with the likes of Wendy, but I'm involved with a couple of other projects now (non-knitting ... details to come) so I'm happy just to be able to participate.

Another little project

It only took about 3 hours today to construct this very simple purse, again from KwikSew 2320. It has a zipper opening and a simple cord as a strap. Fun times!

I'm baaaack!

I actually can hardly believe it. After nearly three months of fighting the evil sinus infection, I am back on track again, eating healthy, running, working, and crafting. Grateful doesn't begin to describe it! I only hope that I can keep things moving, and not overdo it as I'm so tempted to do. I did restart the C25K running plan yesterday and it felt good. Also I have joined Weight Watchers online ... I learned so much from Sonoma but I think I need to incorporate that into a slightly more flexible plan.

Knitting is progressing glacially, but sewing seems to be going a bit faster. Some recent little projects:






Placemats ... very fast except for handsewing on the 24 little buttons. I considered getting a button foot for this, but the effort involved just to obtain it was just about equal to sewing on the buttons by hand ... maybe next time.














Some tarted-up tea towels. This is my first attempt at hand embroidery, ever. Good thing it was intentionally simplistic!! "Clixby" is a nickname for our daughter, and "Pekka" for our cat. Yes, our cat has a nickname. Don't ask. Both this project and the previous one were from Sew Simple magazine volume 1.












A small change pouch for my husband. The pattern was KwikSew 2320, a learn-to-sew pattern with fantastic instructions. My first ever zipper! My next two projects will be the purse and drawstring bag from this pattern set.

This weekend we had a visit from my brother and SIL ... just lovely. Then yesterday we made a trek out to a local festival that was going on over the long weekend. Claire got to ride a couple of midway attractions and had her face painted:















ROWRR!!!