Almost there...

Knitting for that holiday at the end of the year is almost complete. I'm busting through the small stuff like a fiend and have only to re-knit one dead-to-me WIP (which I'm pretty happy to do) and the Man's sweater. He actually liked the one I picked out and he just has to show up at my LYS to pick out the color. Yay. I finished my first felted project last week. It's the Strawberry Clutch by Kate Gilbert from an old KnitScene. Knit it up on size 13 needles with the yarn doubled and it's a speedy fun knit. I duplicate stitched the "seeds" on afterward which was the most time-sucking part of the whole thing. I think it would be great for learning intarsia. Oh, and the recipient is my eldest niece who apparently loves all things girly.
As sporadic as my posting has been lately it will be getting even more so (at least for the next month) since I started a class at UW which meets four days a week at the uber-early hour of 830. It's nice to participate in something besides earning my keep and I'm really enjoying the subject matter - British lit. from 18th century to present. However, the class is 4 weeks long and we cover 4 novels so there is a lot of pressure to be on task and show up every day. 3 classes down, 14 to go.

King County Fair

There were incredibly large pigs.
Super cute black sheep.
Angora goats (pretty).
And somewhere in King County, lots of naked sheep.

This weekend we drove down to Enumclaw for the King County Fair. It's much more low-key and relaxing than the huuuge Puyallup fair we went to last year. It's comprised of lots of 4-H and FFA livestock and pets as well as some nice ladies who tried to school me on spinning and knitting. :) When I started spouting the lingo they seemed a little confused - evidently I don't actually look like a knitter.

Episode Five

Episode 5 of the podcast should be up and running and show up in iTunes soon. It accidentally got named episode 4 but it really truly is 5. Really.

Forbes Forest

I think I finished this last week. It's Forbes Forest from Scarf Style and I knit it up in Knitpicks Merino Style. The color is Moss. This is yet another Christmas knit that's going in the 'done' pile. It will make it's way to Kansas some time in December along with some knit toys and things for that branch of the family. My list of things to knit before THAT holiday comes along is getting shorter and the items are much smaller and less tedious (but more fiddly) than the scarves and scarves I've been doing. Add to that the use of new-to-me yarns (Smooshy & Sea Silk) and I'm a happy girl.

Seattle has finally decided to participate in this thing called Summer that I've been hearing so much about. I bought sandals. I eat popsicles and watermelon and drink lemonade. I sometimes wake to birds singing. It's rather nice and I hope it stays this way for at least a little while. A couple more months would be lovely. On the other hand, our black cat is constantly shedding and it's all I can do to keep from taking the vacuum attachment to her dandery hide to keep fur off... everything.

Rainbow Goodness

This has been finished for a few weeks, the weather has been lovely so I've been trying to spend as much time as possible outside. The purchase of a backyard umbrella and a table to read at under the shade has proved to me that summer really does happen in Seattle, if belatedly. It's two skeins of Noro Sock yarn in one of the soon-to-be defunct colorways. S185, mebbe? Its the Woodland Shawl from Thrifty Knitter's website. I followed the the directions but instead of knitting one short piece I knit two pieces and grafted them together for a nice lengthy scarf. It is true that Noro is a bit rough when working with it but I threw it in the wash with some Eucalan (that's a wool wash) and it softened up considerably. I've been knitting a lot now that my first trimester is over and I actually have energy. Christmas knitting is in full swing as my due date is now December 10 and I have a feeling that there won't be much time for knitting right around Christmas. Just a guess. So hopefully more posting and more pictures and more...stuff will be happening around here and I'll actually share it.