KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

And June will be over and my dear co-worker will be gone. Boo-hoo... In time - what a surprise for a change - I finished the Malabrigo scarf for her. I think it is lovely and very soft, and I hope she will like it and it'll keep her warm during the cold NY/NJ winters:

My last post was last week - what happened in the meantime? Too much work, not enough time to blog...

I am working on table decorations for the Atlanta Knitting Guild meeting in July. We have a potluck every July (and December), and the board members where asked to come up with two table decorations for the upcoming potluck, which will be raffled off at the end of the meeting. I was thinking about what to do. Since we just had Barbara Walker here last month, I decided to make a few swatches with cotton yarn, which can be used as coasters. Of course, I had to buy red, white and blue cotton (Fourth of July, hello?). I will attach them to little wooden sticks, so they can be used as flags for the table decorations, and then afterwards can be detached and used as coasters. Anyways - here is the first set of four coasters:

Do you wonder if I have nothing better to do? I do wonder sometimes. Monday night at the knitting group, the gals made fun of me. Somebody asked where I find the time to knit all the things I knit, plus having a full time job and a hubby and dogs, etc. And I forgot who said it - see I am a forgiving person :-) - that I am not really human. When I get home (they theorize), hubby plunks me into a recharger like a cell phone. Yeah - I wish. Then there is the scary thought of being a Stepford Wife. But then again, I would not be so behind with cleaning, etc. Somehow knitting is so-o-o-o much more appealing than household chores. And I go to bed early. Ask hubby - I am of no use after 10pm (ok, after 9pm really)...

I also started a new sock - with Opal Bamboo. Phyllis did not like the colors and gave me the yarn. Thank you Phyllis! I love the colors - they remind me of the jungle, and it has bamboo in it. :-)

I started a toe-up sock with the encroachment technique that Jen showed me a couple of weeks ago. I had to wing the toe because I forgot the instructions at home, but it turned out alright. The heel went much better. And yes, this is a blurry picture - I think the camera was not awake yesterday morning... But you can see how smooth and neat the short rows are:

I'll take a better picture when it's done. The pattern is from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. I think it is called Bluebells.

Also on the needles since Sunday afternoon at Knitch - the so-called Haley Scarf. Haley's mom is the store manager over at Knitch and therefore Haley spends a lot of time at the store. Every time I go there, she has another little interesting project going. She knows tons about yarn and where to find it in the store, what Addi Lace needles they have in stock, etc. She's a very cute little knitting wizard, especially considering her 11 years - much more knowledge than I had at 11. You go, Haley, and become a famous knitter!

So, back to the scarf - when I was there the week before, Haley knitted up the pattern in a very rich greenish blue, and Steve - I mean Famous Steve - and I loved the pattern. It's very simple. The combination of Rowan Silk Kid Haze and some regular wool does the trick:

For the garter stitch bars, you decrease your silk kid haze stitches to just a third. (I have 62 stitches including two edge stitches.) So on the first row of the garter stitch row you knit three stitches together and on the first row of the ruching row you increase into each stitch by knit one, yarn over, knit one.

And, last but not least - I have such creative knitting friends. I need to show off something Doug brought to the SNB meeting last Friday. The Ogre Hat - we decided that Doug couldn't call it a Baby (Premie) Shrek Hat because of trademark issues. He just made the pattern up as he went. You need to write it up, Doug - but who am I to say that... I still have at least four patterns that need to make it from my brain and notes into a workable pattern. But isn't this the cutest little hat?

And, yes, this is a decadent group. We have wine and cake at some of our meetings. Sometimes we have wine and cheese, and sometimes we have wine and hummus, and sometimes wine and ... Enough already... it's too early to think about booze - haven't had coffee yet.