WooHoo! Wee Tiny Sock Received

Yesterday I received a card with a beautifully knit wee tiny sock from Connecticut. She says it is her first WT sock as well. She did a fabulous job. I am glad she joined the swap to show off her work.

The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I have wanted some to make socks out of before but now that I see how it knits up I am definitely adding it to my "want to have in my sock yarn stash."

I hope you are seeing beautiful things in your world!

FLS and End of Month Update

I am making progress on my FLS. It is a slow go with 4 repeat lace across over 200 stitches each row. I am not complaining just not used to the larger project. To achieve quicker gratification I knit the wee tiny socks in the car during lunch. That gets me a finished project every couple of days.

My goal with the sweater is to finish one pattern repeat an evening. That is only four rows and I think I can commit to that while watching movies.

In my spare time this last weekend I made a couple sets of stitch markers with buttons and a charm. I am calling them Buttons with Bauble and plan to put a few sets up on Etsy by this weekend. If you are interested, please let me know if you have a particular charm and color combo, and I will make them, and put them on Etsy especially for you to purchase. They are really cute and are designed for sock knitting.


In other knitting news: I have completed one Wee Tiny Sock Swap (WTSS) and it is in the mail. I will be doing another one next week and then working on some to swap at the Sock Summit in August. They are really fun and fast to knit. I have expanded the pattern to larger needles and worsted weight to make mini stockings that I will be teaching in my Christmas in July class.


I have a secret project I am working on for my co-worker to take on her Disneyland getaway in May. If I can't go, I can live vicariously through the picture she is going to take with the secret project and a certain large-eared someone. It will be fun.

I hope everyone has lots of fun things filling their lives!

100 Days to Go

Only 100 days to what is being billed as the biggest Sock Knitting event in the universe. (I have no idea if the world has recognized this designation but the Ravelry group has). I think we are all still contemplating how many of us will be on the server when registration opens and if it will hold.

In preparation for this event, I have been learning how to knit wee tiny socks to swap at the event, designing and creating the wording for Moo Cards that I will order next month, and reviewing the other places (knit shops) and non-knit attractions I want to see in Portland.

I am done with one Wee Tiny Sock Swap which will be mailed to the recipient in DC today. It was fun putting together the package and getting to know her better. I hope she enjoys it. Once it is received I will post the picture of the package ingredients.

I hope you have fun adventures planned for this summer!

Another Discovery: On the Local GO Scene

I went to my first performance at The MAT (Manitou Art Theatre) Thursday night. It was quite the experience.

The new location of the theater is in the industrial section of southwest Colorado Springs, so the outside is very nondescript. It was a lovely evening and I had my glass of wine (that is included in the price of the ticket) on the concrete pad that is set up like a sidewalk cafe spot and watched the sunset over Pikes Peak. It was lovely.

The theater area inside is a very cozy, intimate setting. It is like being on the stage. I remember being at Center Stage in Baltimore years ago with the same impression.

The theater will hold 85 folks for a performance. The people who own and run the venue are lovely, friendly, passionate about the theater and the adventure they are offering the community. They are also the ones who put on the magical Women's Playwriting event I attended last Sunday. I think I will keep an eye on their schedule and plan to attend occasionally.

Note: graphic borrowed from The Mat website.

Discovery: Wee Tiny Socks!

I have discovered the wonderful world of wee tiny socks. It all came about on the Ravelry group that is discussing the upcoming Sock Summit in Portland this year.

This is the identifier that was suggested to participants to make so it easy for everyone to recognize their fellow sock knitters in transit to the event and while cruising around Portland in August.

What a great idea! And, to top it off, the group decided that it would be even more fun to knit enough of them to swap with other knitters, similar to the Olympic pin swap that is so popular. The group also suggested sliding a Moo Card into the socks that will be swapped. Another way to make more like-minded friends.

The first ones I have knit were done on the smallest size needles I owned at the beginning of the week - size 1. The pattern calls for size 0. These turned out so cute that I went out and bought the correct size needles and will be using those to participate in Wee Tiny Sock Swap that begins tomorrow with the receipt of my swap partner.

I really enjoyed creating the Frankensock in miniature. I have the materials to make myself a pair in my size but wanted to test the trimming technique sooner. I think it turned out really cute.

I hope you have discovered something fun this week!

Pedro's Big 6

Today is Pedro's sixth birthday. It is hard to imagine that he is now six. I can remember when he looked like this. This was his first bath when he was just a month old. Since his momma died when he was 23 days old, he did not learn right away how to clean himself up, so he started getting baths at a very early age. He has grown from a baby that fit in my hand to my large, handsome boy pictured below:

See, he does not fit under his scratching curl. He thinks he is hiding from me.

So, a BIG Happy Birthday to my favorite boy, Pedro.

Weekend Update: Snow, Church, Six Plays, and More Product for the Etsy Shop!

Wow! what a weekend. Friday brought us snow, lots of snow for some areas. It granted us a half day in the office then it was make our way carefully to home to work from there, because it was snowing so hard at the north end of town that we decided we would do better to go home and work, so we did around 1 p.m. The drive was slow and sloppy.


This was followed by enough sloppy weather Saturday to keep me indoors and working on updating my Etsy shop with new products, and some really good progress on the February Lady Sweater (FLS). All this while watching new and favorite movies and playing with Pedro when he was not napping.


Sunday saw some sun and melting here at the lower elevation of town. I went to church at the Church of the Wildwood in Green Mountain Falls on the invite of one of my regular students. It was a really nice service and friendly group of folks. The scenery was breathtaking, made more so with the snow frosting.

Then I went to the Six Women Playwriting Festival performance at the Louisa Performing Arts Center near the Broadmoor. These six - 10 minute plays were the award winners out of 200 submissions. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I hope everyone had lots of adventures on their weekend!

Knitting is Good for Your Health

It has finally been "studied" and, according to the Mayo Clinic, knitting is good for your health. The report I saw was on CBS News, click on this link to see it for yourself.

Now it is not only fun, but good for you. How many things can we say that about?



Happy Knitting!

Happy Easter

Easter morning started out with white rain and progressed until it looked like this by noon. It was a welcome sight to see so much slush because the we have had such a dry warm winter.

It was a good day for housecleaning and knitting. I did more of the former and a little of the latter.

Duckers had her family around and we needed to do the spring family portrait.

What was missing from my Sunday was my faithful sidekick, Pedro. He is spending the week at Camp Mouse with his grandparents because they are doing unit inspections this week that include fire alarm and sprinkler inspections. I thought he might not need the stress. I do miss him though.

I hope that everyone had a great Easter. I am glad to get some serious spring cleaning done and am ready to spend this week catching up on my knitting. I am starting the lace section of the FLS and am experimenting with a swatch sample of the newest rage, the K1b by Duvekot.

I have attempted the cast on about 8 times and still have not figured out what instructions are trying to get me to do. I looked for videos and have not found any yet. I am signed up for a class in May to master this technique so I can teach it later this year. I love the look of the fabric it creates. I hope everyone had a "Hoppy" Easter, ate lots of candy and had a great time.

Flower Class: Cabbage Roses

The second flower class, Cabbage Roses, went well. It is a fun knit with lots of possibilities for its use. At some point we decided that these will make fun hair barretts with a button sewn in the middle.

I will be creating some of those for my nieces to go for stocking stuffers this year. Will have some pics to show later when they are assembled.

Have a great weekend!

FLS Update: Yoke

I am making progress on the February Lady Sweater. And, so far, I like it.

I have to send out a thank you to A Knotted Yarn blog for her insightful hints that she shared from her knitting experience of the FLS.

I read through the pattern then read her hints and made the following adjustments before I cast on: decided to make the size smaller because it has been reported that this sweater "grows"; marked the right side of the garter yoke after the second row so I would not be guessing all the time; looked at the suggested video about the described M1 increases; reviewed the buttonhole on a sample swatch along with the M1s and reviewed her notes about where she decided to make the eyelet increases.

So far I am pleased with the look of this sweater, however not pleased with the buttonholes. I think I will be researching buttonhole techniques before I knit another one. I am not going to rip out what I have done so far to redo it, my plan is to clean them up with some crochet edge and camouflage the sloppy parts. I think I am to the eyelet increases and definitely to the place that this project has to stay at home. It has gotten to bulky to be portable without the fear of it creeping off the needles.

I hope everyone is enjoying the first hints of warmer weather.

April: Days to Celebrate!

Lucy Neatby's birthday on April 4th, I think that is big and she should be celebrating for at least the whole month. Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Of course, we had April Fool's Day, for me it came and went quickly with no ill pranks. It was followed quickly by National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. Now, there is a comfort sandwich I can get behind. I wonder when National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day is?

Hoppy bunnies will celebrate Easter on April 12th this year. That is the moving holiday discussed earlier in this blog. After that National Pecan Day will be on April 14th, followed by National Cheese Ball Day on April 17th and Garlic Day on the 19th. I think I see a pattern here.

Then we skip along through Earth Day on the 22nd and sharing that day is National Jelly Bean Day. Tree and shrubs are celebrated on the 24th - Arbor Day. It is also National Pig-in-a-Blanket Day.

Rounding out this month, that seems to be mostly about food, is National Pretzel Day on the 26th and National Shrimp Scampi Day.

The month is also known as National Kite and Frog Month.

I hope you find a way to celebrate the days of this first full month of Spring!

Note: Days brought to you by hoops&yoyo (Hallmark) since my apartment complex failed to deliver their monthly newsletter to my door.

Weekend Update

With the kid cardis completed and packaged for shipping, I decided it is time to start a project for me.

I am casting on the February Lady Sweater for my house project and I will be working on the Plain and Fancy Scarf pattern I got in Taos as my car project.

Around these items I will finish more samples for the shop and some small gift items I need to prep for upcoming birthdays. All in all, it has been a very productive year so far.


For the rest of my weekend I worked on seasonal clothing changeout and reduction. Then I took the folks to the Butte Opera House in Cripple Creek for the production of Arsenic and Old Lace staged by the Butte Players Community Theater.

Even though over the years the productions have become more professional with paid actors for the parts in the Thin Air Players, this group showed their mettle and hard work under the tutelage of the director, our favorite Mel Moser. I hope we see more of these kind of productions in conjuction with the season of "professional" productions.

Finished! Kid Cardis

Duckers is happily modeling the last kid cardi and kerchief, all finished and ready to head to the Midwest for Easter apparel.

These were a really fun knit, and got me all geared up to knit a sweater for myself.

The original cardi that got me started on kid sweaters is finished as well and ready to ship across the big pond to the niece in Germany, along with some other goodies for her birthday.

Duckers is going to get the first attempt at the Baby Surprise Jacket that I want to make. I borrowed the DVD that explains the construction of the BSJ from CatWithCats and it now makes so much more sense to me. (Thanks, Cat)

Once I make the first one, I may try to downsize it to actually fit Duckers. I think he will look so cute in a sweater come next winter.

Well, I am off to finish changing out my seasonal closet in anticipation of warmer weather. It has been a great day to stay home and get all these things done, as the blizzard winds shook the windows and the occasionally snowflake scurried by. Pedro napped between gusts and the occasional bout at the window to jump at the snowflakes. I wish I had video. Have a great rest of your weekend!