Just stuff to show...

I finished my squares for Comforting Jef. Christine put out the call in February for blue squares to make a blanket for her brother Jef who is dealing with a tumor in his brain. Given that my sister Robin, and my best friend Julie, both died from cancer I couldn't resist the offer to provide a small effort of comfort in the way only knitting can. She was also planning on making a second blanket for Mike, Vicki's brother, who was in a devastating car accident about three weeks ago. For all my aches and pains, bizarre symptoms and daily ups and downs in terms of my own health issues I am continually thankful for my life and never want to take things forgranted. Everything being relative I am very lucky. Knitting the squares was kind of fun. I had to experiment with different patterns to get the right measurements and I perused my copy of Vogue's Stitchionary to find something fun to do. I ended up with two patterns that would work within the 8 x 8 inch requirements. The light blue square is gulls and garter and the dark blue is alternating diagonals. I love the way they look. I ended up making two of the dark blue in the diagonals because I could not get the light blue to work out to 8 x 8 within the pattern. I used Cascade 220, which I have never used before. It isn't bad to work with, haven't figured out what it might compare with in terms of other yarns I have used before.

I put them in the mail today, via Express Post so they should get to Christine before the Friday deadline. It is kind of neat to know that something I knit will be part of a larger project that will give warmth and comfort to someone in need. On a separate note (given my finishing issues!) I do not envy Christine having to sew those suckers together! Behold the joy! I finished My So Called Scarf and sewed in the ends! I have one red project finished for Project Spectrum. I am still hoping to make more progress on Stornoway (or as Steph told me at the Stitch 'n Bitch at Lettuce Knits last week Storeaway!) and as you will see below I have started my red socks. I love the scarf; have to make a couple more. Nick has claimed it for his own - his favourite colour is red. He wanted to model the scarf (this is the safest photo!) for you.... The pattern on the scarf is just so nice. It looks so good and I really love the final result! Finally, I have started my Oriel socks from Sensational Knitted Socks. These socks are huge for me for a couple of reasons. This is my first toe up sock - I LOVE IT!! It is funny how sometimes I won't attempt something because I am thinking there is no way I can do it and then when I try it, it is not so hard. I think my cognitive process is so F---ED sometimes and I get caught up in the terminology. I do have to start these new things in the morning because nighttime for difficult stuff is a huge no no for me. The toe up was so simple and I am excited at the possibilities this holds; particularly for those lovely varigated socks where I am left guessing at how much yarn I will need for the foot and always end up with a little ball of yarn (there is one funky pair of socks in that leftover stuff let me tell you!) The other cool thing I have done with this sock is switch to medal dpn's. Again, I always use wood for socks, mostly Addi's for sweaters (I love LOVE love Addi Turbos) and I decided to use the medal dpn's because the stickiness I usually love when knitting socks on wood just wasn't working here. The medal dpn's have been fantastic. I think I am going use the medals more often. The picture may not show the pattern at it's best, but it is looking pretty good. Probably would have helped if I wasn't curling my foot back but it was so freaking cold today - beautiful sunny day; it looked so warm!

Nick offered to model for me but his feet are totally wide and I am hoping to give these to my mom, whose feet are smaller than mine so he was so not an option. I have to get going on these because I want to get them done by early next week (maybe even this weekend). My competing passion these days is the thought of sowing some seeds, planning more changes to our garden and land and generally dreaming of greener things. Have to get going on putting some veggie and flower seeds going so again, ha ha, I will have to manage my time. Woo hoo! Maybe they could start a 36 hour day and a 10 day week - there might be hope for me then!