April 6, 11:53 pm

i need to put up some pics - here's a preview of what i'm playing with for the NY sock.
it's being knit with DKPS DK-PandaSilk colors and i've since modified the chart.

i was working on lovely new Lofty Wool in color Rose Musk and a lace sock, but ran out just before the start of the toe. It's an "aran" weight, so many wouldn't call it a sock yarn, but i love fast and warm winter socks, and the yarn has nylon too so would be durable.

the knitting

I've not been blogging a lot - i guess b/c i've been busy knitting.
the photo above is 2 colors of Mini-Mochi, Violet & Fern.

this is a toddler knee sock with Intense Rainbow mini-mochi.
this is strawberry lime rainbow and fern. i enjoyed this one so much (the strawberry-lime has some gorgeous colors) that i am doing a 2nd one [LOL, unusual for me]
here's a closeup of the leg - again 2 colors MM
this is my DH's foot modeling Man's mini-mochi sock made with neptune and tapestry.
this is my swirling cables hat, made with 2 colors of Kaya.
this is my "inauguration bag" - made with 2 colors of Kaya - peace love nature.
closeup of the inauguration bag
another shot of the bag

the lace sleeve i didn't keep. this is mini-mochi Flame. i found no hassle in frogging the lace if one is gentle and it didn't even take a lot of patience. the only part i lost was my "knitted cast on" - that was very hard to frog.
closeup of the MM leg in Neptune and Tapestry
another closeup

toddler knee sock in autumn MM


final babay sweater in flame mini-mochi. front and back has matched lace
at hems then i made lace trim for neck and sleeves
baby sweater 2nd view
newest fun design a Peace Sock
twined face/baby cloths
my inner truth scarf design, just knit in 2 strands of DK PS by DebiW
more views of the scarf - gorgeous knitting!
inner truth closeup
from a knitter on Rav, and i'm so sorry - i've lost her name!

the knitting

treasures

on ebay, or etsy, look for PacificMeditationBeads
where i just found some special things. this is a "foundation chakra meditation bead set" - and i'm eager for it to come live with me.
this 2nd one is special for al, with energies that will bless and facilitate his life
and work - he has an amazingly loving and tough job, working with learning-disabled adults. the stones are amethyst, canadian jade [nephrite], carnelian, rhodonite and quartz. Alixe, the owner, designer, is really intuitively tuned into the gems and has some designs that are very unique and all with high quality stones. some of the items are just out of this world gorgeous and the pics are amazing too.

this is a picture of remus, now cremated, and mantra, not long after we first adopted her. she's almost a year now, but has stayed tiny from the illness the first 4+ months of her life and malnutrition. she's such a scorpio kitty - amazing at finding any food i leave out and able to sweettalk all the others into giving her their food.
we miss remus
this is Nadia, about 10 mo now and one of my newer designs. she's such a princess! what a photogenic baby! the hat is in puffin and in a new color called pink print, which i adore. puffin is amazingly soft and wonderful and totally turned my head around about yarn composition. the giant ruffle was deliberately made to provide sun-shade
this is a slightly older picture of Remus and one of the twins.
either Shasta or Shiva. we kind of think it's shasta as she has that lipstick pink nose... and you can see she's sooooooooooo tiny teeny. under 2 mos.

L

who'da thunk it?

i have turned into a "newsie" - a news junkie.
this election did that - and i am still watching misc. love the change.gov site and the misc obama messages on you tube. now have found news from Taiwan, england, canada, australia, germany... so i felt like i understood that the $ mess was global.
there's even a site that releases the novel laureate speeches!

this is picture is a gift from my secret santa!
here's the link.... cat tea for one

i'm about to embark on a stricter diet, so if i succeed in a couple of months may get myself a Portmeiron tea set, or more china cups/pot/saucer to match my one antique rose. i tried having
tea from that all day yesterday and it was wonderful!

the family update

r the twins. Shasta and Shiva. this is them last fall, so i need another together pic. that's shasta looking up. she's very pretty and loves the camera. who knew redheaded cats were so lovely? al rescues. he was out running and they came out from behind a big rock - pristine and clean and obviously just abandoned. so he came home and got the carrier and our family grew.
the ruler of the house. very regal shot. remus is now 17 and is "hospice kitty" with tyroid meds 2x daily and on cat-morphine 2x daily and eating so little it's frightening. he purrs so loudly the vet can't hear his heartbeat with a stethoscope. and he's very loving. lucky us that we were given sam- his almost clone!
sam and mantra looking out the window.

susie. she is a food nazi as in eats everything. she was abused and abandoned and a bad vet tore her ear, and she refuses to be groomed or loved and is also overweight.... but still sweet too.

baby sam. he climbed into this basket on his own. do cats KNOW they are being photogenic? he is very sweet as well as very "opinionated" - cliimbs up on my shoulder and purrs in my ear!
al demonstrating perfect posture in full lotus in our Zendo [meditation hall]

baby Sam is growing up and we call him Bug=eyes sometimes.
lol, he's a flamepoint siamese male, who is rather "opinionated" per the vet... kindly came to live with us as Remus is now 17 and is becoming "hospice kitty"

tax refund toy for indoor cats, aka cat castle. with so many cats we needed this, if nothing else to keep them out of my knitting!

mantra. very sweet calico. who is a thief. if any food is ever left on the kitchen counter, even if she won't eat it - like brussel sprouts - she goes up to knock it down onto rug and do a taste test. i have to massively over-feed her to stop the thieverie... and she's still skinny! al drove to work and saw an abandoned kitty on the railroad tracks and she broke his heart... so i spent hours driving to find her.

Miracle "mira" who lived in a liquor store when she was a kitten and then escaped and got in my car the day i lost my wallet and the wallet was returned intact [less $60 in cash but all the cc and id was still there]

amazing yarn

this is lovely, if i do say so myself! new colorway of Puffin - called pink print- gorgeous colors!! and it is the most amazingly soft yarn - so nice for babies! the big ruffle will provide shade for the wee one's face in the sun... the cables add texture and fun.
am going to do a boys version with rib and no ruffle.
you can see the puffin colors HERE- puffin colors

the pattern will be posted for free at this link free Puffin patterns shortly - where you can find other pretty free patterns too.... the fringed slippers are really trendy now!

i like to keep an eye also on this page What'sNew

from the garden

new pics.
the geranium is actually 3 small plants i repotted into one large pot to bring in for the winter. it's in our nice south window - on the ex-massage table that is now a cat&plant sun table.
the potatoes are special... we grew them all! you can see all-blue purple peruvian, all red (you have to look closely at the pink-flesh) and red-skin. these are the ones that were damaged in digging so we're eating them first.
the blues are actually health-positive in 2 respects - lower GI than white potatoes, and the blue color is the same compound that colors blueberries and is an excellent anti-oxidant. have forgotten about the health benefits of the all=red. anyway, they're better for us than the high-GI pure white potatoes, but then red-skin and yukon gold are also healthier than a plain baked potato...
am on south beach right now, so can't taste this batch. tempting! so at least i can oooh-dee-aah and share.

L

modern DAZE

Pics are of a design i called
"Bunny OP", and the model was knit by Jeane F.





The yarn is Crystal Palace Bunny Hop,













and it's part angora











and sooooooooo soft and nice!!

It also is fun for color work as there's a wee bit of something stretchy, just enough to make colorwork relaxing

Hey, my topic is something i've wanted to blog about for awhile.
frankly, i don't know if we are weird and atypical, or are part ofa growing change in how things are done

1. we do not get tv - that is no cable at all. no channels - nothing. we cancelled cabled about

4-5 yrs ago when BASIC went up to $40 and that included so many CRAP channels i didn't

want and few of those i did want. obviously this is personal, but i kept telling them, i want

to be able to buy WHAT i want - history channel, discovery, TLC, PBS, sci-fi, but not to

pay for golf or espn or qvc.

anyway, that's a savings of $490 a year including tax x 5 yrs so 2500 we used to pay down debt.

[we have one working credit card and one small loan to pay off and then the mortgage!]

2. what we do for TV-type entertainment is to use NETFLIX. we use the 3 or 4 or 5 at-a-time

package, which lets me download for instant tv if i want, and keeps the sci-fi and etc coming in

for al. right now he's watching

Hawaii Five-O

Star Trek Deep Space 9

Babylon 5

Mash

and then misc comedies and/or movies we want to see together

[Tour de France is coming up so am getting back special shows to learn more about it]

**** netflix has some programs you can download*** it gives you 1 hr at a time, so they download fairly quickly, if you're not impatient, and then you click for the next part.

3. we have a 1-month trail of Blockbuster again. note the AGAIN. they offered us a deal. we had

them previously, and compared with NETFLIX and we found that they were inferior. DVD"S were

generally dirty and scratched. if i went to local store he said - buy a dvd cleaner! he had almost nothing

for me to swap, and when i checked something out, i returned on time but was billed a late fee! and

that took time to prove and i still had a charge they wouldn't drop.

blockbuster hasn't improved for us in terms of what we want to see.

4. www.getmiro.com

this is FREE commercial tv. downloaded to your computer. that's right

i get

CBS news, ABC news, NBC news, CNN update news, SKY news from great britain, NINE news

now from Australia, global news from canada, global health news from canada, german news, exercize

shows, cooking from Ming Tsai, gardening shows, meditation shows.... you name it! i especiaally love all the Hubble space telescope photos and there are several NASA/JPL shows

Democracy Now news, and lots of interesting stuff. some down load easily and are 1 min clips - others take longer, like NBC news - and are 25-40 min shows. they are mostly - note mostly - commercial free.

right now CNN has annoying stuff i have to fast forward through.

oh yes, i get weather!

the worst of it is that i see the news often a day later, and that it's all "hurry up and wait". the

best of it is that it downloads while i sleep and doesn't interfere with email and etc.

5. i have just started buying "Amazon unboxed" shows. these are my silly "reality tv" programs.

like TOP CHEF which i can't get anywhere else, and there's a new one that is models over 35,

and Bones, and etc.

a few freebies, but mostly you pay either $1.29-1.99 an episode, or if you know you are interested,

you can buy the whole season. again it's "hurry up and wait" as they download to the computer

.... reality check.

we do NOT have dial up. we are on broadband, the lowest/cheapest/slowest - at only 256 k so i have

to wait, but for now that's fine. i have tons of dvd's and vhs i can watch while waiting....

and it's fun to be able to sit at computer and knit and have the ability to answer an email if

one comes.

............................

so.

[blogger is down so am writing this on email and then will upload]

L

Cat eats Asparagus!

Well, i tried really hard. I sat on the kitchen floor with the camera and tried to get Mantra to look at me... especially as she went after a pile of 8 or 10 asparagus stalks [i ate the tips] with such gusto!

we didn't know she loved vegetables until she stole al's dinner! i had cooked him some broccoli and carrots and she went up on the counter and started eating it, even though it was up on toaster.

so later, out of curiousity - since i couldn't give it to him, i let her have the bowl of broccoli - which was at least 3/4 cup - she ate it all over about 1/2 hr.
dh thinks it's b/c of the butter spray, but i think that wouldn't keep her eating it for over 1/2 hr!

so last night, she was really acting interested in my asparagus... so for fun, i ate the tip, and gave her a stem, which she ate and wanted more !! i think the butter spray is so minimal that it can't explain the extent to which she's chowing down.
asked the vet [she was just spayed and we had to get stitch out] and she says no problem and it keeps her entertained too...

LOL... i am cooking brussel sprouts and gave her a couple of raw leaves to see her reaction.
nope. will test later after they cook and get butter spray.

.......................
on the needles, :modern twining" - with a novel stitch called "magic garter" that i published 3-4-5? years ago in Stranded.
making these cotton chenille cloths from crystal palace yarn. this yarn is like knitting velvet!!

wedding sanity savers

OK, so that's not what she called them! Panda Cotton in Red cinnamon, and Crystal Palace bamboo dpns too!
But anyway, Kala just got married - congrats! and in the last runup to the wedding, with all the
jitters, the socks helped her stay sane!
there are some lovely pics on her blog VeganCraftastic of the wonderful hand-done invitations - flower petals!, and a fantastic dress, and a smashing calla lily arrangement. must have looked long and hard to get those artistic
blossoms!!

Kala is hosting a Vegan KAL VeganKAL, and that's where these pretty red cinnamon Panda Cotton socks were posted....













another note- Kala designed a gorgeous! man's sock "Trail Mix" for Maizy yarn, and this pattern will soon be going up on the site at Free Sock Patterns


this is a luscious design - i think my dh would love them too!

blessings, :L

excitement

The picture on the left shows a mom & baby set of Crazy-Eight socks, cute, hmmm?

I just had a design accepted to be in an upcoming book on Sox by Lark books. These are the yarn colors i'll be using all are yummy Panda Wool from Crystal Palace Yarns. I've now got until mid july to knit 2 socks... hope the weather stays on the cook side.
aaack!


in other knits, just finishing up a wonderful Maizy Crazy-Eights model, in which i've outlined the exact color combo. will get a pic soon.
and am working on some sweet baby things, and some sock designs using the wonderful
new DK-Panda Silk.
blessings, :L

may 8 fun knits

The pictures below are of "Violets" Crazy-8 kit (using Panda Wool), and the baby sock. This one is a newborn size.
i want to finish up the bazy sock - another ultramarine band, and another green's band and then the violets toe.
then i will do the violets heel on the adult sock. am probably going to work out two more infant sizes - a 0-3 month, and a 3-6 month.

Below it is the new Panda Soy, colorway Pink Print and the bobble and lace design will be called "Heffalump"... you do remember Piglet and Pooh's adventure? Well,
since a Heffalump wasn't as scarey as it seemed and it was a GOOD adventure... it is only deserving of it's own sock.


other news... weather continues to warm. lovely garden asparagus, lettuce about ready to be cut for first crop. potatoes starting to come up [and al's going to plant 6 purple potatoes i got at last week's farmer's market].
my heirloom tomatoes aren't here yet.

my 3rd major batch of bananas is drying, and one batch of mushrooms is complete.
now i have to finish these two crazy-8 socks, and get back to a new Panda Silk DK sock and the two panda soy, so Susan can have them for TNNA.

exciting news.
1. was just asked for some designs for a new book to come!
2. we have the cd's for friendly socks 1 about ready to rlease. and i've taken more photos
for friendly socks 3.
blessings, :L

OTN

What do i have OTN: "on the needles"?
I am doing another version of the sock in these exciting new kits!!

These are pics of the NEW Crystal Palace kits called "Crazy8".
This one is Panda Wool, and is my own knit.
This is a picture of Samantha's model in Panda Cotton.
And this is a picture of Beth's knit model also using Panda Wool.

The plan is to make kits with Panda Cotton, Panda Wool, Maizy, and later Panda Soy!!

The kits will include 5 Crystal Palace DPN plus and 1 full skein of the MC, and enough of 4-5 coordinated colors wound off to make ANY woman's size, and a man's small-to-medium size!!

And i promise it is fun fun fun!!

i can't show you

i've just sent off 2 baby sets [each hat and socks] and an adult's hat, for models to be in an upcoming book called "tops & toes".
no pics allowed.
i can tell you that one set was done with Crystal Palace Bamboozle, one set was done with Crystal Palace Panda Silk, and one was done with Crystal Palace Aran.
and some of these used more than one color.

L

grateful domestic goddess

Today is one of those days I feel so lucky, just blessed with abundance.

I went outside and put in 6 broccoli plants in my pots... bought them last month, but have been nurturing them under a tree, sheltered until the frosts were nearly gone.
now they're by my big wine cask flower pots, where they will get lots of morning sun but be shaded after about 2 pm [broccoli likes cool weather]. the thing is that last year and the year before, our broccoli plants gave us both a spring crop and a later fall crop, by my keeping them in a shady spot and well-nurtured through the hot summer.

we have baby magpies - mom and dad are feeding the kids under our willow tree.
this is the 2nd year! and they're pretty and lucky too

and the asparagus is coming up, and so are my potatoes i've been worried about!
[remember we put in not only typical yukon gold and red "new" potatoes, but i also bought "all blue" and "all red" from . farmer's market had some purple potatoes yesterday - 6 seed potatoes for $1, so will put them in too!

the food dryer is doing well. finished a tray of sliced mushrooms and have them in the baggie for 24 hr test [if any moisture droplets are observed, they need to dry more. if not, they're done]. and there are 4 trays of bananas going too. have already dried about 13 trays of bananas. i tend to watch for the sales and stock up.

froze some celery leaves, and bought a lot of sale red and yellow peppers to chop and freeze. still debating if i will blanch or just freeze.

making a 5 qt bean soup, and this one is a "sweet and sour" and tastes pretty interesting. used some jarred red peppers [not hot] in a vinegar base, and dumped in the liquid too; then added a little sesame oil. it works for chinese "hot and sour soup" so why not try?? al was surprised at the sound, but said it tasted good!

and finally, had both bread makers going at once, so got a 1.5 and a 2 # loaf.
one is on the ugly side, but i bet it tastes good.
need to take that butter out of the frig and go sample!

blessings, :L

frugal fingers

Hi
i need to take some pics.

pear tree is in bloom, and i'm harvesting rhubarb and stewing it and freezing.

am also cooking a new recipe i've invented for curried bean soup,

and having fun with sale bananas, drying them to put up. trying the lemon wash again to see if it helps the color... mostly hasn't been successful in terms of a color-change, and increases goop factor. silly me. my hands and the drying racks wash...

also need to pick asparagus.

hmmm will go do that and take pics!
blessings, :L

april? how did THAT happen

well gee.
i guess it's true about time - flying - i mean.
the pictures: Mantra, our new adopted kitten, and Mantra again with Remus, the 15-yr old flamepoint siamese. and then a knitted wrister, testing a new yarn with details soon, and a baby washcloth, in Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille, the new dotty circus colorway.

other things i can't share: 2 sets of hat and baby socks for an upcoming book "Tops & Toes" to be released by House of White Birches. they're pretty efficient, but still Jan 09 is more likely than anytime '08 if i had to guess.
and mystery items for another book, but i got the "don't call us, we'll call you" postcard, so not sure if i'm in or not.

other items are playing with new Panda Soy for the upcoming TNNA and a Panda Wool kit that's yummers!
will post pics soon.

blessings, :L

what's going on here

Welll, here's something Al just made for me - with wee gnome statues and gemstone jewel tree. i'd made several of these for gifts and didn't have one of my own, so it was special when a lost friend gave it to me.

i'm in wanting spring mode.
first, my seedlings of spinach, lettuce, spinach-mustard [a cross] and collards are outside, as well as some plants i had to winter over. we're having day=time temps now in low 50's but still cold snaps at night. so i have a plastic blanket for the planter

in the house, today i started 3 more pots of a chinese "watermelon radish" - white on the outside and pink inside, as well as lettuce and spinach i think.

and i'm knitting away on a soaker for Nadia... Susan's newest grandchild, using Crystal Palace Merino-5.

not much other news,
blessings, :L
ps contest at CPYsocks&more



blessings, :L






Hi folks

feb 12 - valentine's gifts & indoor gardening

Hi folks - these pictures show you what keeps me sane in ice and snow...
indoor gardening
and specifically blooming plants.
i have a hyacinth, pot of 3 bulbs, in lilac color with lovely odor! hyacinths will easily go out into spring garden and then bloom outside for me in 2009 spring.
then there's the double stalk amaryllis - don't know what color it will be yet. you can almost measure the daily growth on these guys! they'll need me to tie to the bamboo sticks soon.
i've been "forcing" bulbs for many years now, and it never fails to make the grey days not so grey to see flowers in the house! just an hour in the autumn and you'll have months of joy. i keep trying to rebloom the amaryllis and there's where i fail. rarely have luck. so this year will really do the weekly fertilizer regimen - put them outside under a tree [we have very hot and dry summers here] and water weekly. cut off green in about aug-sept and put in dormant area... bring into house with gentle watering in early nov.

what's even more wonderful is that Al enjoys them too.
i also started some cat grass today, and planted lettuce in those tiny peat pots. i have a new inside humidity chamber - 6 foot rack with plastic cover, so this may help as our area is typically 5-15% humidity. i've had roses DRY as in potpourri dried blossoms while still in the vase!!
there are some plants that need more moisture that i want to grow - so am curious to see how it will do.

anyway - my spring fix.
blessings, :L
laura

Jan 28, 2:23 am

Hello.

i'm up late {ok, not late for me}, as i've been working - both on knit design and on posting new sock knits onto the Socks&More blog for Crystal Palace yarns. this is a real labour of love for me-
as i not only get to drool over socks that i really do need in my own sock drawer! but also to see what's going on.

some blogs are just sheer inspiration - photos galore and amazing knits. have some to post soon
that will blow you away!
[and don't forget that you only have a couple more days to win some panda silk!]

what's happening here? well first SNOW and more SNOW and more.... white stuff abounds. and the birds are emptying the feeders almost as fast as we fill them.

we've only lived here for 9 yrs, so are not exactly "old-timers" but i can say it's the coldest and whitest winter so far. it seems we've had a snowfall nearly every 2 days since early november, AND instead of the normal "here and gone"- it stays and stays and the roads are rutted ice.
some days i can't get warm! finally figured i had a bug when 2 layers of pants and shirts and socks and hats didn't work, lol.
but we are keeping the thermostat down, to 67 as the high daily, and 64 at bedtime-part of energy conservation, along with the good lightbulbs, and doing laundry only after 8 pm, when it's not "peak energy" time. LOL, do you think cancelling cable and having just my computer for news and weather and etc also counts??

pics - wonder what i can show you? The pictures:
this first one is of baby boy panda silk socks. I couldn't resist alternating the colors between the two socks - which is also a good lesson in what the eye sees. The proportions, row size and etc, are identical - all i did was reverse the colors, but that's not what it appears to be, is it? this pattern will soon be posted as a "freebie" at www.straw.com.

this 2nd picture is a baby hat knit with 2 colors of Crystal Palace Puffin. This is a yarn that i find wholly amazing. it is made up of strips of a soft flannel like material and is a lot lot lot of fun to knit. totally relaxing and enjoyable and softer than one would ever guess.
The striped hat here is ALSO Crystal Palace Puffin, with the fun Lime and the dotty colorways you can see at Crystal Palace Yarns and this pattern will be up shortly i think also.
I have to confess that this cabled sock is a joy... it's a lot of fun to knit and is soo gorgeous and wonderful to touch. It is of course the new Panda Silk yarn, and you can see the sheen and the detail. I'm doing the leg at about 8.5-8.75 spi [36 st/10 cm] and the heel and foot at 9.5 spi [38 st/10 cm]. Frankly, i do this quite often as it is easy to change needles and i see no need for the leg of a sock to be knit as firmly as are the heel and foot. To be honest, this is partly because i still have a bias against going any smaller than #1.5 us needles, and have even taught myself to NOT ONLY knit very very tightly on #2 to avoid using smaller needles, but also to monitor and change my gauge with #2 as needed. guess it's a "control" issue, and that means i control my own knitting, not even the needles dictating! LOL

now the final picture is the beginning of a baby girl jacket, with our elderly flamepoint Siamese, Remus, modelling (it's just the circ put across his back - but that is a gorgeous fur coat!). the cats insist on helping me take pictures so i thought i'd try having them model, LOL. i have a tiny doll hat i want to photo on wee Shasta - one of the twins we adopted this summer, and will share if she will do it. poor thing is in heat and has to visit
the doctor next week to get relief from her hormonal attacks [we were smart and had the male fixed first].

so, that's all for tonight/this morning.

i'm slowly feeling better, but miss mother soo much, more than i expected as we varied in our
closeness, and her loss makes me miss daddy even more too.
something small but significant that touches my Taurean earth/material side is realizing that i have little special things that belonged to mother, daddy, and both of their parents as well as their grandparents! - this includes a wooden box from shop class, a necklace from china, and a silver candy dish from a grateful sunday school class. funny how these material "trinkets" (not really the right word) can engender such warmth and presence.

blessings, :L, laura

jan 21 '08

the pictures today are of a very fun pattern i designed and called "bubbles". it's a free pattern you can find at Crystal Palace Yarns.
i used Bamboozle which you can see here, bamboozle yarn cards & free pattern links,

Bamboozle was one of the CPY yarn's just featured on the GREAT WALL OF YARN at Tnna in long beach, CA.

i need to redo this sock, maybe with ribbing.... hope you see it's done with 2 different yarns - a solid and a multi-colored.

i've been quiet, so here to chat a bit.

the memorial for Debra Chinn went well, according to Elliott and i do hope to see pics of the nice poster from SWTC soon.
the memorial for my mother was lovely too, and my cousin jonathan, who's a genetics professor in GA, flew out w/ his wife. my mom spoke with her elder sister Ellie a couple of times in her last weeks. [which is good b/c they'd been estranged for many years]
... i am still rocky. it is so weird to find that i am impacted so strongly, and of course being without mother is a reminder that daddy is gone, so the impact seems twice as strong. i can't cook without thinking of mother... and reading/thinking reminds me of daddy and all the support i had as the novel "woman with brains" in the family, instead of "barefoot and pregnant" or typical military wife
with g'dad being career officer, dad career officer and west pointer, brother west pointer and career military although reserves for last umptiump years.

other things arise. mother was from the old south. that means she was prejudiced to her last breath unfortunately, down to which nurse she blamed if her oxygen didn't work. she also came from $, lost somewhat in depression, but still grew up with a cook, Etta [black] and a maid [Annie i think]...
mother was a great cook and taught me how, but couldn't clean at all. and i remember
staying with a friend the summer before grad school and being surprised to learn that one was supposed to flip the mattresses !! who knew?
so i'm afraid i'm a crappy housekeeper too. worse being educated i think - as i have soooooooooooo many things i'd rather do than clean. i'm NOT saying that our house is dirty - i do clean, but i also do other things first... like knit and read and knit and read.

....
we have snow again, and it's very very cold. i am findingmyself ready to look online and at gardening catalogs.
purple peruvian potatoes are on my planting list for this year. we normally plant potatoes on
St. Patrick's day - which mother said ensured good luck for the year.
i've eaten blue potato chips, and just have to try cooking a blue potato - none of my local stores carry them, so this is a must. we love the red potatoes most, with yukon gold 2nd - they taste so buttery.

it is quite the joke that i'm talking about potatoes as i'm on the 3rd day of SBD phase II and potatoes are not allowed - well sweet potatoes, and had one for dinner. the trick w/ sweet potatoes is to cook extra long and the whole thing becomes so sweet and delicious. then eat with
just a little spray butter.

blessings, :L

Debra Chinn and a Knitter's Legacy

Never doubt that Knitter's ARE a community.

Something wonderful I have to share with you is this tribute to Debra Chinn:

“ In our 7 years, so many knitters have touched our lives and helped us on this journey. Debra was one such friend. She created this stunning shawl , called Simple Elegance, for us when we were first starting out and it was a gift that we have never forgotten. Debra Chinn and Simple Elegance will always be part of the history of our SWTC.”
Jonelle Raffino,
SWTC918 S Park Ln 102, Tempe, AZ 85281

Jonelle and her colleagues put together a large poster which they have sent overnight to the Chinn family, for her memorial this saturday.

Isn't this wonderful news? !

So touching!

Debra Chinn, In Memoriam of a Knitter Extraordinaire

You may have seen Deb's posts on various lists. She was a highly talented lace knitter , and even designed and knit one of the very first designs in Soy Silk for SWTC, who are sending something in memoriam to her family.

However, like many of us she became enamoured with socks [and sock yarn and stash enhancement!] , and knit them for herself, her two sons Elliot and Logan,
and husband Dan.
Being a practical person [nurse by training] Debs made sure that the socks were knit firmly enough NOT to wear out quickly! That means a tight knit on the heel and foot, no gusset holes
[detailed instructions in the 2006 sock album] and also means a slightly longer heel for good fit.

I won't tell you the actual shoe size of one son, but it is sufficiently large with both guys and Dad over 6' tall that you don't want to be reknitting those socks a lot!! i tried for years to get Debs to write a "bigfoot" sock pattern but she never would. maybe this is only funny to me and only funny "once".
you can see many of Debra's socks and other knits here Just Socks

she was so often thinking of other's and making gifts like this one.

i will miss Debra so much!

and plan to post more pics here.


................................
my own double sadness is that in this time i've also just lost my own mother, Anne Williams Andersson, age 79, southern belle to the end. she wanted some special chocolates for her birthday and Christmas - but you know, they weren't to eat herself! she wanted them to "entertain" - to be able to offer something to the nurses and the hospice folks....
what a people person!

blessings, :L

new knitting show and tell

well, i hope you will like this new design as much as i do!
it's a parent/baby set of cabled earflap hats. the first - adult- hat is done ... wolf 'ssays it looks like a warrior's hat. so maybe this is a hat for Eowyn.
the two baby earflaps are done and i'm ready now to construct the hat. it will not be a clone, so there's no chance of boredom here!

the yarn is crystal palace Iceland which is soooo
soft and very yarny and fun to knit.

if you write me, i can tell you when the free pattern will be available.

blessings, :L

on the nightstand

well,that's not really true.
but i do read, both magazines and books, as well as listen to audio books and mp3 talks.
lately am listening to
1.more of stephen hawking. amazing how i could have a phd in chemistry/biochem/biophys and there's this stuff that i didn't know... one gets too specialized.

2. odd trip to bookstore the other day, and on the sale shelf was a book by Cory dotorow, eastern standard tribe. i opened it, skimmed a little and was fascinated and bought it.
the idea is that an increasingly electronic world means that a lonely person in arizona who finds friends in pa has to alter the waking/sleeping times to be with friends online. and this alienates one from one's own time zone...

well, we knitters have tribes. i really don't have "local" or physical friends with
the love of fibre/color/knitting that i do - and my friends are online.
i talk a lot with someone in ohio, someone in ca and someone in holland.
my bed time is midday for holland, but the ca time zone matches mine on left coast.
in contrast, our family back east are 3 hrs different so it's already noon for them at 8 am here, or at our dinner time, they're much later.
haven't read anything in it yet. but wanted to tell you.

............ knitting.
a neat hat using merino-5 in colorway birchbark. will have photos tomorrow i hope
esp if i stop talking and go knit.

oh, we're up to south carolina in editting Friendly Socks book 3 -"50 socks - 50 states"!!

blessings, :L.
laura

too much fun

well, i'm not sure i know how it all started...
but i think it's susan's fault. she joined facebook and invited me. so i joined.
and poked around and started having fun.
first, it's quick and easy, like email, to explore and do silly stuff.

i invited many of my friends... and met some new ones. found my nephew, Sean. found 6 !! other women named "laura andersson" and started a group for us. [well only 3 of the laura's have answered so far. they're all gorgeous and i'm a relative old 'fart' in comparison. oddly, 3 are in Finland and one in Denmark [i thought i was Swedish and Norwegian] and there is one in Ohio.

i started 2 or 3 groups and joined a couple of groups, and uploaded a lot of sock pics.

and
1. i have an aquarium with fish
2. i have a garden with a pink flamingo and a gnome
3. i have gingerbread cookies
4. i have a christmas tree and am starting to decorate it
5. i've been sent a holiday countdown clock
6. i've been sent hot potatoes
7. i have been visited by aliens
8. i have a baby dinosaur, but don't know what she looks like
9. i have a chick that will hatch soon
10 i have some growing plants
11 i have some mystery eggs
12 i have joined some causes...
13 there's a new game, mastermind, that i signed up for and issued a couple challenges.

too much fun.
so i am not going to go there today - monday, as my fingers need to knit!

speaking of knitting. i just finished a sweet baby sock and am having an argument
with myself about making the mate. since i want them to be a gift, i guess i'd better stop fussing.

blessings, :L

monday-er-tuesday

i just finished this sock design. it's the new panda silk, using 2 colors, solid pink and pink tonal. am calling the design "pink ribbons". if you look closely, i did fun vertical stripes on the leg.

they are really not hard to do and i love the look!

you do have to go up 1/2-1 whole size in needles to be sure not to be to tight for the leg, and i also added 3 st for ease.

i am showing you the sock with the cuff up or folded down - which do you like better?

isn't the cat funny? he had to help. the kittens are really growing fast!

back to my knitting!

blessings, :L, laura

ps don't forget the panda silk contest at socks&more

stash sharing

hi,

took some pics today to share with you.

these are 3 of the new colorways for Maizy {i have another 2 working in a design i will photo shortly}. Also, here are two gorgeous skeins of panda silk i'm about to start.

also these cute baby slippers in Puffin, are in the current issue of STRANDED,

the newsletter at http://www.bonniefranz.com/. I also have a Polish Wedding hat - as the theme for the issue was about knitting in Poland.

The hat is done with some wonderful ribbon yarns, and i had a ball playing with them. Shame metallics are so tricky to photo!

i used to worry about it until there were a couple of 'Knitters' and 'Vogue

Knitting' issues that used a lot of metallics and even the top of the line high priced fashion photographer couldn't get a metallic to come across in the pics.

blessings, :L, laura

panda silk

i wanted to share what i'm working on



have done a lot more now... more of the ribbon leg, so the cuff folds over, and am on the heel, almost ready to turn it.

the yarn is wonderful to work with!

more pretty pics to show you tomorrow.

blessings, :L, laura

Panda Silk

Fist, is to announce a Contest!
Midnight 9-30-07, at Socks and More

What's it about ?
well, more details are there but essentially if you post a comment on the blog

You will be entered into a contest to win 2 sk of the soon arriving Panda Silk!
We will have multiple prizes.

Then, here's some show and tell, of a Panda Silk Sock i've named "Delicious".

Can you guess what my kittens like to do when i get out the camera? LOL

I've just finished two toddler socks with doubling the Panda Silk to be sport-wt
and using #3 us, and that was a lot of fun too! I liked the speed and the yarn retained it's soft luxury and it's wonderful stitch definition and hand.

blessings, :L, laura

sad

The Arctic ice cap is melting faster than scientists had expected and willshrink 40 percent by 2050 in most regions, with grim consequences for polarbears, walruses and other marine animals, according to government researchers.

polar bears

blessings, :L, laura

mini-socks

the mini socks here are made with puffin- which is a yarn i adore from Crystal Palace yarns

these are sized for a new-born, and slightly older.




The set of mini-socks here are of new Panda Cotton colorways,
dotty pinto and dotty circus.















My dh loves the pinto pony - on left - it has a nice menswear look that would be great with khakis. and i love them both - the hand is incredible!

am working on 4 more colorways and a panda silk to show you!
blessings, :L, laura

New Book & Ravelry

Well the photos are of a new book that i'm in, called "knit noel". And my set of cabled scarves are the first pattern in the book! ... which is the page right above to show you....

and am now in ravelry and having fun playing, as well as working with my pics and flickr.

new knits to show you and some i can't.

finished article, and 2 knit sets for www.bonniefranz.com upcoming issue, and have another on the needles. and am testing the marvy! new colors of panda cotton.

will do some photos and come back

blessings, :L

ps we have an ongoing contest on sockathon - so you ought to join us for the next one.

pps we're going to have a contest soon on http://socksandmorewithcpy.blogspot.com to

win 2 skeins of the new panda silk!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Lunar Eclipse coming soon!

There's a lot of info about it. For those of us on the left coast, it's going to be special to see.

lol, i am usually still up knitting, so i can go out and look.

apparently the moon will turn that beautiful pinky color.

here's what i found out from NASA eclipse
As the Moon penetrates deeper, a startling metamorphosis occurs. Around 2:52 am PDT (0952 UT), the color of the Moon changes from moondust-gray to sunset-red. This is totality,

and it it lasts for 90 minutes. more eclipse details

blessings, :L, laura

Contest!!!

Well, so here's the deal:

for members of the Sockathon yahoo group, there is a contest. By 9-1 midnight pdt, submit pics of the socks you're working on socks otn for prizes. Some slack there as if you've "just" finished them...

1st, 2nd, and possibly 3rd prize are for yarn from Crystal Palace, but we have other prizes too!

and... we are allowing up to 3 photo entries a person - so come join the group and show me your socks!

blessings, :L, laura

ps you are welcome to come join us

argh. reading my own blog

Well, i see i already showed you these pics of my pretty Merino-5 sock !! ahem. need to make

that folder for pics used.

AND take more pics.

blessings, :L, laura

finished some adorable things for upcoming Stranded newsletter but can't show you. And have another wonder on needles i can't share - for potential publication... i have so much yarn i want to use it's just making me nutz!!

i get startitis, and then have to back off.

have you seen this one? 2 colors of TAOS from CPY, and writing up pattern now.

Merino-5 new design coming & Perseid meteor shower

This is a new sock design that's going up shortly for the new superwash Merino-5 yarn by CPY Merino 5. I have to share that my friend Bianca in Holland did a test knit for me, and really deserves co-author credit. She has a good eye for glitches - i'd finished the sock and the directions but was flummoxed about one detail. Nice to have another brain looking!

The key is that this yarn is superb!! It is magnificently soft, and has a wonderful hand - showing details just sooooo well!. Even more surprising to me was when i used a different colorway for another project - changed my mind and frogged several times and the yarn looked like new! Now that's a treat!

The annual meteor shower is coming soon. I do plan to go out and watch. There are details here new scientist including how to see the meteor shower if there is moonlight.

this link has more meteor pics and is where i found the picture above astronomy photos taken by the "Colorado astrophotographer Gary Emerson... who captured the fury of the great 1966 Leonid meteor storm, the most spectacular storm of the 20th Century."

the sock picture is of my 2nd sock in the new sock book by Shannon Okey "just socks".

This sock used a yarn by lion brand that surprised me with it's softness. It's one of the new microfibers, and i must have knit and frogged 5 or 6 times trying to learn to handle the yarn. I gave my leftovers to Jeane F, who made herself a pair of socks. Jeane says they wash and wear very well, but that she'd knit to a tighter gauge.

life news? the kittens are exploring more. and have discovered yarn. I am now having to strictly stop knitting and put all away when they approach. no cat is allowed to play with yarn, or be played with if they are investigating my knitting.

worked for other cats. cross fingers - but right now with deadlines! it's not what i need. good thing that they're cats, and babies too as they sleep a lot!

blessings, :L, laura

what are you watching?

we found the original Mission Impossible dvd's on netflix. and right now are in season 1. so far, phelps [gumsmoke's brother] has only been there once, to help with a rescue plane. the head guy briggs, reminds me of one of the head da's in law and order- the one before fred thompson.

what's amazing is if you do a little mind-bending re clothing, the

episodes are still good. of course they are also scarey consipiracy theory stuff, as you can just SEE Mr. President watching these as a kid and deciding it was the "right" way to do things.
"as usual, mr. briggs, if any of your imf force is caught or killed, the secretary will disavow all knowledge of you."

then there's Star Trek deep space nine which i love. Avery Brooks is an amazingly caring and tender actor esp as a father. all the characters are funny too. AND i'd never seen it during the time it was on.

[i'm a rare bird who never cared for jean luc... my theory is that the women who find him sexy do not have dads, brothers, grandfathers in the military so are impressed with the uniform. this is in contradiction to whosis in NCIS whom i do like]

we're also going through episodes of The Closer, Bones, Numbers, Criminal Minds, Law n Order, Law n OrderCI. they're great for my knitting! i can listen and/or watch and then run it back if i had to look down and miss something.

so here are some knitting pics. first a ruffle i need to finish... knit in Crystal Palace Bamboozle.

Bamboozle is the yarn i'd use if i were knitting socks for diabetic friends, or wanted a sports wt yarn with a nice hand and no wool. for me, it will replace Fixation.

then there's this lovely sock in the new Merino -5 - don't you love the heel back?

blessings, :L

Knitting for Causes

Hello.
it's wed 8-8-07, or the Day of the Blue Lunar Hand on the Mayan calendar.







The Panda is because the sock design i'm working on uses Panda Wool
[lol, no Virgina it's not Panda FUR but wool and bamboo! GREEN yarn, LOL].
Am also sharing buttons. One is to my own blog

KnitnPurlfor Peace ... where we will knit for those we love - on any cause you love - i'm doing hats/socks/scarves for the Tibetan Nun Project [www.tnp.org] and collecting as it'll take a while to get enough maroon things for 600 nuns!

and one is to Campanula for the Cure which i've just joined.

This project is to knit socks and support a Cancer walk...and if you go to the link there is a smashing Campanula sock pattern and of course prizes too.

I will donate some myself - knitting mags, markers, maybe yarn if the sticky fingered gnomes in the house will let it go!

Oh, on Ravelry, there are 2482 people ahead of me, and 13103 people behind.

That's moving quickly!

blessings, :L