Knitting: Continued DISCOVERY sock progress

I'm still knitting away on the discovery sock. As I finished the pod last week, I opted to start the 2nd pod instead of finishing the leg on sock #1. It's going well, although I haven't committed to it this weekend. I haven't felt the knitting bug much however I did have some fiber adventures.

I went to Dublin on Saturday to pick up my "new" macbook. Purchased from Cath since she upgraded to pro. And since I was in Dublin, I stopped off to visit Temptations. I chatted with Karen a bit. Picked up month #2 for the BOM Afghan and purchased a skein of Malabrigo Twist in Grape. It's super pretty.

I now have 3 skeins of the twist in different colors. GK2 pal, Brandy made really super pretty and squishy cabled fingerless mitts. I decided these would be great gifts for my non-knitting but supportive friends. So I know have 3 colors that I believe they will each like, Olive, Rust/Olive and the Purple. I searched Ravelry last week for a pattern, but didn't see anything that jumped out at me, so I'm designing my own. I'm writing as I go. It's turning out really nice. The yarn is fantastic to use and I love the cabled diamond I chose for the central motif. Not sure if I will make these identical or, swap the cables out as I go. Providing on the feedback, I may go ahead and list on Ravelry.

Great thing is, with my new macbook, I can design anywhere. I'm not restricted to being home on my IMac. I have some great software and am so amped to get some of these ideas out, anywhere I go!

So the mitts are in progress. The Discovery sock is in progress... and I'm being very good to not pick up any other projects, nor cast on any additional projects until I'm done with the first pair of mitts and/or these discovery socks. I hoped to have the green socks done in time for St. Pats, but it won't happen. No biggie, they should be done before end of the month.

So I should have knit on Friday but didn't. Didn't knit most of Saturday, but had a lovely catch up time with Cath at Starbucks on Sat. night. I did knit a few rounds on the sock while there. I've finished all the increases and just need to knit to the leg lines and put the lifelines in and finish up the heel. Not much further at all.

Have the sock class tomorrow and will cut open for the leg and start a pattern. I'm going away from my original thought of designing a cable, due to lack of time. But I will definitely do it sometime in the future.

Not ready to start another work week, but we do what we must. Here comes Monday... bring it on!

Knitting: The finish line is looming

So, I'm 60% done on my BIG Cables sweater! I'm very excited. I wanted to be done and blocked by today, but things happen. I thought I would get more knitting done on Saturday, however life being what it is, things change... and not for the bad.

Cath and I met up at the Merc yesterday, they were having a superbowl Sock yarn sale, so 25% off.... I bought some Ella Rae, Lace Merino. I've been looking at this particular color skein for a couple months now, but it's a little pricey, so I'm super glad I resisted the previous urge to buy. So, huge, savings on that. What a steal.

Then we decided to stop off at Wonderknits. I've been wanting to try some of the frog tree brand alpaca. Lindsey bought some while back and I've been curious ever since. So, I bought red, grey and black for possibly another buckeye hat in either stripes or color stranding/fair isle. We also stopped off at this little consignment store, and I bought a cute little cardigan for Addison and a super cute Baby Gap outfit (complete w/little shoes) for Ashley's baby girl, McKenna. She's not here yet, but they have a name picked out already. The outfit is 3-6 month, so since it's a pants outfit, it should be perfect for fall.

Then we finally made it to Zen Cha. I was a little bummed because they were only serving a brunch menu (completely unsafe for diabetics). Everything was sweet and I really wanted dumplings. But, I ended up with the Arabian Spice waffles which were amazing. The waffles had walnuts mixed in the batter and were topped with Orange slices and this Cardamom Orange spicey syrup... oh my heaven! YUM! I have a pic, but haven't downloaded (call me lazy). Cath got these fruity pancakes that looked amazing and I had a little taste and they were!

We knit for awhile and had great tea as well. Then went on to World Market. I suggested because I thought they might have something Cath was looking for. One of those little burners for your tea pot to keep it warm. Sadly, no. But we did buy more tea and I bought a cute teapot/mug set. Oh and some candles. So very fun impromptu shopping spree. Then we went to Cup O'Joes for more chatting and knitting. Audra was finally able to join us from work and we hung for awhile.

Cath eventually got back to Dumplings so we decided on chinese for dinner and headed back up North to Hunan House. Food was amazing! I got the Hunan Combination, my favorite oh and of course Fried Dumplings. It was so tasty. Then back to home. I did some more knitting, played with the pups oh and made some of my new tea.

I forgot to mention, Zen Cha had my fave loose tea in stock, the Lavender tea. So that is what I made last night. It was yum. This morning, I tried the World Market Pomegranite White tea I bought. It was very nice and refreshing and I bet would make a great iced tea.

I did more knitting this morning, too. I have 60 rows finished, so 60% of the front piece done, just 40 more rows to go. I think I will be able to finish this today... think, think, think. :)

Oh and I also bought the new issues of Vogue Knitting and Knitscene yesterday. Wasn't crazy about the knitscene, but I'm liking a few items from Vogue.

SO here's a pic of the progress. I guess I better get to it and get it done!



More pics to come.