summer camp!!!!!

this week, I had the pleasure of joining the loopy ewe's summer knitting camp for the third year. The challenge for the first project is to use one skein of something you've never used before, up to 375 yards on anything you'd like. I've made the commitment to myself to make this about christmas presents, so, my irish girls adorn sock in birch will be some christmas gifted socks.

I also had a bit of a falling off the no yarn buying wagon, (it WAS on sale). I'm such a sucker for a gradient yarn, and when it comes in green........add a sale, it was all over!

Not the best pic, but it's black trillium pebble sock in the pine gradient. Don't know what it's going to be yet, just know I had to have it.

I've pretty much finished the bee sweater (pics next week). The only thing that's left is to sew down the picot edge and cover the steeks with seam binding. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Next week., not sure what's up. Camp doesn't officially start until june 1, so I'll have to find an interim project. I have some things in mind....stay tuned.

just squeaking in

the majority of the queen bee sweater is complete. Yesterday, on a nice rainy sunday,  I sewed and steeked the front and sleeves and sewed up the sides of the sleeves. Then, because I had just a bit of the brown left, I decided to add a little more length to the sleeves and make them they way they should be.

I still have one sleve to finish, and the bias tape to put on, and then I'll sew and cut the armhole steeks. The most scary part, if you ask me, because the armholes don't have any extra steek stitches to work with, just the "real" sweater.
The finishing will be picking up the edges with the green.

So, still a lot of work to do, but getting closer. I may end up putting it away for a bit, in favor of camp loopy (shopping starts this week), and hopefully, landscapers. (they're supposed to start this week too!)

I'm pretty excited about camp, this will be my third year, and I'm hoping to use it to make some christmas presents in advance.I  know Sheri will come up with all sorts of fun, she usually does!

bee progress and off to summer camp!

The weather's been great here, so the knitting has kind of taken a back seat to the other obsession, gardening.
This week we spent most of it obsessing over the inspection for the other house and then fixing all the little things we needed to do.
I did, however, make some progress on the bee sweater.

Still think I'm going to run out of the brown yarn, though. Good news is, there's someone on Ravelry that has some for sale (gotta love ravelry).
Speaking of Rav, I also succumbed to my desire to do clockwork. I caved and bought the pattern after seeing a gorgeous combination done by someone else of off white and grey. I'm thinking it can be a camp loopy project..

Camp Loopy is about to begin. It usually starts in june, but the purchasing window might just start this week. I've done this for 2 years now, this will be my third, and I have to say, it's a blast. You never know what the "rules" will be, and that makes it kind of fun too. I'm eagerly anticipating the annoucement.

Can't promise too much knitting this week. The weather is still super nice and the old house is still demanding attention. I'll keep working on the bees when I can, and dreaming of camp!

Doggies will be baking out in the kennel (they LOVE to bake)!

queen bee sweater.....

so, the sleeves are done and the body is cast on.
There wasn't too much knitting this week. The weather was nice and there were other priorities to be done.

Here's the body so far.....

I'm a little frustrated because I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of the brown yarn. This isn't the first time this has happened from this designer. She seems to have a bit of an issue with estimating yardage. I shoulda known. I'm going to go as far as I can, and then plead on ravelry to see if anyone has a partial skein. These are huge, over 500 yds, and expensive, and I won't need a whole one.
Don't you have a hard time working on something that you know is probably doomed?
just sayin'

Camp loopy will be coming up soon, and I'm starting to look for patterns that will work and be fun. I've singled out a couple of fun shawls. That leftie is on the top of my list. And my sister could use another pair of gloves for christmas. It's going to depend what the "rules" are for each month, but I'm thinking of using this opportunity for gift knitting.

I can't promise there will be much knitting over the next week. It is planting season ya know, even though my landscapers are stalled now until the 14th of may. Still plenty to be done.
I'll be plugging away at the bee sweater.

VKL, some fo's, and a new project.....

ok, I know I was mia last week.......

Last saturday, we boogied up to vogue knitting live to do some shopping. A good time was had by all.......I really didn't buy much,  just some needles I needed. There's something about having to move your stash to make your realize just how much you have......We did have a good time there, though, and I saw some really cute things I'll be coming back for. The first was black trillium fiber's gradient kit....I'm a sucker for a good gradient kit and she had a really cute little shawl/scarf made up.

Next was leftie. SOMEONE kept trying to talk me into getting one of the kits that were made up there to make this cutie....I couldn't make up my mind, but I'm SURE there's something in that giant stash that will work pretty well......

We also ran into a designer who was wearing the COOLEST circular sweater. I love circular sweaters, but can never seem to find one that has just the right stuff. This one did, good butt covering qualities, enough circle to cover "things", a very interesting construction with cables around the circle. It had it all. As soon as the pattern is available, I'm ON it.

I have to keep in mind that camp loopy starts soon, so most of these would make great camp projects.

I did finish a little something too......my snowflake doubleknit scarf.

 

And started something else.....queen bee sweater.

It's much further along now, since it's been raining all week. The sleeves are almost done.

I AM worried about running out of yarn on the body, but, onward!

 

not sure what next week will bring.....depends on the weather and the landscapers.

If it's crummy and the landscapers don't show up, I'll probably have a whole sweater done. If it's  nice, I'm going outside to play. Right now, it's raining buckets.....welcome to spring.

 

thistle and vogue

well, made some progress on thistle this week. I finished the body of it, sewed it up and whacked the center out with my sharp scizzors. It always scares me to cut my knitting, ya know......
Now I just have to finish the ends and sew them down.

This weekend, I'll be off to vogue knitting live. I got my shopping wristband on friday, so I'm ready to go......they'll be a full report next week.

That's all the knitting news for now, and really, no pics. Too much gardening happening here while the weather is good.

I know.....

I was kinda MIA last week. It was just to rainy and depressing, and nothing really got done.
I was still missing the yarn for thistle, and I was just working on this little double knit scarf....

I like the colors, and I think I'm getting the whole double knit thing pretty well......

By the end of the week, the yarn for thistle arrived.....Just in time for a total DOWNPOUR of rain, like, 2 inches in one day. Good day to knit. I've only got about 3 more rows on the edge and then it's on to steeking.

 

I'll probably wait until it rains again to finish this. Most of my time now is taken up with gardening when the weater permits.

 

We did take time yesterday to go get our new tables from Bassett. Love the tables, not sure how we lived without them.....

 

As you can see, the knitting fits right in.

 

Coming up..... April 6th (or thereabouts), I'll be headed off for a bit of shopping at vogue knitting live in seattle, with some enabling company, of course.....you KNOW who you are!

I'm looking forward to what will be a well deserved break from moving dirt.