Aren't these the cutest? My friend Norma knit them for me as a surprise when she came down for lunch at work today. I can't believe how much I like them. They are so comfy and they go with the theme of colors I am doing these days.  

Every July, a group of us at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine at Peoria get to display our projects in the Lobby Case, pondering the question Is it Art or Craft? 

The top two scarves are mine from Trendsetter Aura. One skein and oh so cool. My booga bag and far right is a sweater I designed myself using a vneck t-shirt I liked. It is amazing what gauge can do for you. I credit Judy Chan at Mosaic Yarn Studio in Des Plaines for this knowledge one summer. My friend Julie and I traveled many weekends up there to soak up Judy's mentoring.  

Norma sewed the tote bag here and on the next picture. We have her dubbed her Norma Bradley (not her real name). Norma keeps me in great totes for my yarn and purses. Our friend, not a knitter, but a great needle artist did the framed piece.  

Jan's eyecatching vest gets a comment wherever she wears it. This an adaptation from multiple yarns from Needleworks in Champaign IL and 25 Gorgeous Sweaters for the Beginner Knitter. 

Over half way done. When asked today at work, if I had lots of goodies in progress, I said yes and they occupy my mind all the time. This is an addiction! But that is what happens when you have the pleasure of spending most of a holiday weekend knitting! In between, cleaning and eating, I knitted my way through the weekend. Now, that is living!. Amongst the cleaning, I came across yet another tub of yarn, crosstitch kits, one completed sweater for a young child awaiting to grow into it and a sweater in progress for an unamed child. At the time I started it I just wanted to knit it, and so it sits awaiting me. Maybe cleaning isn't such a good thing? 

The red, white and blue scarf died a slow death. The Dazzlelash did not take kindly to being cast on by itself. Or maybe it was PMS, but anyway, it will be saved for another time. So this morning I decided to cast on for another scarf. This one with a strand of Dazzlelash and a strand of Jewel FX. Casted on 24 sts on size 15 needles was way more than I wanted, so I tried just the Jewel FX by itself on 10 1/2 and then finally settled back on the original one strand of each on size 11 straight needles (not what I usually use) and 15 sts. I like it. So the red and white will be finding a mate at a later date. 

Happy 4th of July!!! 

Happy 4th of July! This is a good day to eat, knit and watch great old movies like Midway and From Here to Eternity. I love the 4th, but that means it is almost mid Summer and once again I am still knitting on my summer sweaters. I have got to get a handle on it. I want to be ahead of schedule for Fall. As soon as I get these couple done, oh okay, at least 3, then I am onto Fall/Winter!!

In honor of the day, I think I will knit on the red, white and blue scarf that I bought yarn for just yesterday. Hopefully, picture tommorrow on what it looks like.

The best part of the 4th?? Tomorrow, is an extra day off of work, I love it when that happens.

Wait, wait I wasn't finished, but obviously my computer was, I wanted to show you my all time favorite! This was given to be by Norma after her trip to Gulf Shores. This is me. This will be me, sitting on a beach (hopefully) knitting in my bikini not giving a rats patoot as to who sees me, just enjoying my knitting, the sun and the blue water! So now it is 6:00 almost and time for me to be getting ready for work and I am not done with all I wanted to do! I need to win the Lotto, and guess what I played the big one this week and didn't win and I am playing again on Friday, wish me luck Norma!! 

I have been up since 5:00 a.m. I fell asleep on the couch around 9:00 last night (way to early for me, trust me) So this morning I started with the first of all the things I was going to do last night. Check the blogs I normally read and try to figure out what to put on mine. So in the course of reading blogs, someone else posted pics of their reading collection (http://sharonstuff.typepad.com/knitknacks/) and the thought hit me. My knitting/yarn collection of figs and such. I actually had a couple when I started, but my good friend Norma really gets me the greatest ones. My equally good friend Jan and Kristy gave me the non-knitting related ones, one holding a dog (signifying friendship) and the other holding a book much like a teacher would. I always wanted to be a teacher and love bringing new info to knitters.  

This is my basket find from the NQA show in Peoria yesterday. If it gets dirty, all I have to do is take it outside, hose it down and reshape it. Now, the big decision is what yarn do I put in it. Do I put a project and yarn? Do I put leftovers in it? Why did I buy this basket? The colors and some day I am going to decorate with it.  

Today, I went with my knitting buddies to the NQA Quilt Show in Peoria. What a great show! Just looking at all the quilts while I was there made me want to go home and pull the fabric out, lube the sewing machine and sew one up. BUT--by the end of the show, the feeling was lost and I was ready to knit again.

While we were walking through the quilts, over to the side sat a lady, knitting on a dishcloth. When Norma gave her the thumbs up, she said she had spent the whole day before sitting at her station and she figured she could knit up at least a dish cloth today while she sat at her post. Norma wondered if I had my knitting with me? But of course, I said, it is very rare that in my bag that I don't have at least a sock to knit on, just in case. The other thing I always have with me is my Palm. Where would I be without it? Last week, I bought some cool software, eKnit-Kards for my Palm. I have loaded and still am working my way through it all, hopefully will get to start entering some things this weekend.

One of the neat things, besides the database you ean enter books, needles, magazines etc into is the info screens, such as Kitchener Stitch, decreases, increases, yarn yardage estimator and more. Now, I don't have to carry that reference book along with me every time I go out of town. I just will pop the Palm out and use it. I love technology!

A couple of other things caught my eye today as we walked the vendors. One was a great basket (picture tomorrow) for only $35. A couple of vendors also had some scarf yarn, but the biggest hoot today, was the vendor who was selling Hand Crocheted Scarves for $30, yes $30 and they were crocheted out of Lionbrand Homespun. Amazing! I had to make sure at least of my friends saw this too, cause I just could not believe my eyes. Just imagine if they had knitted one out of some really cool yarn?!

 

And here they are up close and personal. Notice how I positioned them so you can't tell that the toes are different? (Chuckles) 

The Tiger Sox from Opal that took me three years to complete. I first started them for my friend, Maria shown here modeling them, after she and her husband took me tubing on the Illinois River one Summer. Patient she has been! In spite of the fact that the toes are different, she is so appreciative. 

My Epihany Socks. I started these Tiger Opal Socks for my friend Maria, three years ago, after she and her husband started taking me tubing on the Illinois one summer. And here she is modeling them. Even though I could not for life or money get the toes to be the same. 

Yippee Skippee! I made it. I am now an official knitblogger. Now, I will break the news gently to my knitting friends. They will be able to keep up with what I am doing (as if they don't already).

And I had an epiphany on Sunday night. I have been trying how best to organize my knitting projects. And my latest idea is to work on one at a time. Knit it to completion and then work on the next one in line. I know, I know, I won't just be working on one, there will be several, because one needs a truly idiot type knitting project that can be thrown down at will. But, I will consentrate on one really hard at a time.

That in mind, I am currently working on the mate to the Opal Tiger sock for my tubing buddy, Maria. I started these sox about two years ago. When I started them, I told her it would be a while, and now, I just plain have to get the mate done before this year's boating season is done. Hopefully, by weekend it will be done and I can move onto the mate of my Mexico vacation sock.... more on that saga when I get to it.

The other color I love after Carribean Blue! 

I am having a real case of starting new things. I was going to call it startitest, but I am not sure that is a word. I have all these projects that I want to be working on while I am working on something else. Most of them are all tied to wanting to wear or take them to Stitches Midwest in August.

Then this wild hair, rears it's ugly head. The said hair is designing a couple of my own patterns that are swirling around in my head. I am so tired of looking for the perfect pattern for what I want, that I figure I am a smart and semi-knowledgeable knitter and I ought to be able to do this, thanks to Judy Chan from Mosaic Yarn Studio in Des Plaines, IL. Judy taught me and my original knitting buddy, Julie, how to knit almost anything to fit. I have used that class that took about a half of year of traveling to Chicago from Central IL, more than any class I have ever had.

But that is another day for this blog as will be a listing of all of those projects that are swirling around in my head. I need to retire, but that is not for about 20 years! More than that I need to win the lotto, but first, as my good friend, Norma would say, have I bought the ticket? I guess we all know the answer to that. Back to knitting--- and dreaming.