Sadly, the new porch doesn't help my photography skills

And it's very grey out right now - big thunderstorms coming through.
So I've finished the second round of feather stalks and now it's rounds of feather "faces" until I hit the right length. This pattern isn't hard to knit, but because of all the incorporated increases, it has been complicated to write up. Hoping to make it available in early June. The bead colors don't show up very well here, but they look quite nice. I'm hoping it will photograph better on - Bittersweet and Ferns certainly did.

Happy long weekend

For everyone who had a long weekend. Ours was rainy, but nice. We didn't do much.
Our new deck is done, and I finally washed our siding, so now one part of our house looks kind of nice. Of course, the downside to doing something to improve one part of the house means the rest of it looks all the cr*ppier by comparison, but life's a process, isn't it?
We also saw a brown thrasher out in our back yard hopping around attacking a pretty good size snake. Then tonight we realized what was going on, he or she was defending the nest. We have babies hanging out in our back yard. Cool! Yes, I used a zoom.
Did some knitting too - working on my latest free form fair isle and got back to the Peacock Capelet too. Peacock is now so large that doing 3 rows in 30 minutes is an accomplishment, so no pictures of that.

New things around the house

Okay, so I had that really loud space dyed Bare - hot pink, red, orange, brown and gold. Beautiful, but god-awful gaudy. What to do with 400 yards of it? The world's ugliest socks? A horrid hat? Mittens?
Tired of thinking small, I've embarked on a slip over - it's going to have a placket neck with clasps and vines going up on either side. I love the way the bright colors shine against the grey and black. And the kitty foot is cute, too.

And look, our porch is gone - for now at least. I should have a new and improved place to take bad snaps of my work by the long weekend.
I scraped and spray painted the metal tables and my index finger is still all tingly

I'm back

And for all my fussing about what to bring for knitting, I did very little while I was away.
I do have some things to take pictures of tho' - not the least of which is our completely destroyed deck which is being redone this week. I'll see if I can't get my act together and post some pictures tonight.

Happy Mother's Day

I was told that for Mother's Day "Mom, I"m going to be nice to you and not sing all day." He did not keep that promise.

Anyhow, I took the excellent advice I got on a good use for my Imagination - a scarf! I think it will take 3 skeins not 2, but it's very pretty yarn. Much better use for it than socks. I kind of based it on a Cheryl Ober shawl.

And this is the house our son designed for us to all live in together. Note the whirlpool and 100 inch plasma TV in the bedroom (which we will all share).

Rosa picture

Kauni

So in my travels I've gotten interested in the Kauni thing. I saw the Yarn Harlot's a year or so back and thought "oh that's cool" but didn't really get the yarn component.
So, what about his in Effektgarn EL? I'm not sure if that isn't too monochromatic. I also like the EB. Might wear better on me.
But I'd like to see it/touch it before committing. Has anyone used it? Stories?

Proof that my child takes better pictures than I do

Not that you needed any.
Just a couple of thoughts:
It's hard to do homework when someone chews on your hand.

It's a toss up who is actually the boss of our house, the child or the cat.



Oh yeah, look, some knitting too. I'm thinking something with floral and leaf motifs - rose garden sort of thing. Maybe with a placket.
Gotta go wash the kitchen floor. The glamor!
PS - I got a nice suggestion about a way to use the Imagination - I like the idea of a lacy shawl or scarf, something simpler. I think I'll try that, sounds like a great idea for plane knitting. That plus Audible books for the Ipod, I'm almost looking forward to flying . . . .

Eh, crap

I feel stuck.
All of the sudden, I've hit the wall. I'm tried of beads. I mean, I love them, it's fun, but suddenly I want to do something else. Something with color. Something that really sings - dark shy gray and bright colors, like the stuff I dyed eariler this spring. Maybe I need to design a fair isle.
(Maybe I shouldn't have left the caps off 3 tubes of beads that the little one then dumped on the floor and had to sort them out - he helped, though. Totally my own fault, I'm a big girl and I certainly wasn't mad, but sort of a buzz-kill. Like when your lace yarn gets super tangled and even once you get it sorted you feel like "go away you dumb thing". Good thing I'm so spiteful to my own knitting, I sound a little scary, don't I?)
I got some really nice fingering weight Imagination hand painted intending to make socks (mermaid and looking glass). But it's sort of too fine and too nice. I want to do something that will show it off more than just socks that will go on my feet. Maybe mittens instead?
Maybe I need to put that Imagination away and do some color swatching.
Oh, wait, I know what's up.
I'm going away in a couple weeks and I'm having travel knitting anxiety. I need something portable, yet interesting. I'm not sure beading into knitting will work on the go.

Peacock capelet is coming along

This one uses a whole lot more colors than ever before, in the hopes of making it actually look like a peacock tail.
I had hoped to get outside for some pictures in natural light, but we had a big thunderstorm so nix on that. Soon maybe.
The real proof will be seeing it on someone.