MONKEYS AND MUGGLES...........

Monkey socks from the Knitty.com archives were so much fun to knit. Sockotta cotton/wool blend on size 2 needles were perfect knitting this week with the temps in the 90's. Funky socks to go with my Birkenstocks and Jeans this fall! But......I just got the Interweave's Favorite Socks book and they are just calling my needles to get to work! If you get a chance to peruse this book, you too will fall in love! The prologue makes it sound as if they will be publishing other books in the future with favorite Interweave Knits patterns.

Yes, I am a Potterphile. I admit that I have anxiously awaited each and every book with baited breath and have shared these books with my 2 kids and hubby over the years. It is always a hoot to see who finishes first. Darling Daughter went to Borders at midnight on the release date to get her copy. As her husband is a muggle and does not share the Pottermania, he did not understand why little children were dressed up in pillowcases with pointy ears and long noses (house elfs)! Lyndsay finished in less than 24 hours. I bought my copy a few days later and hubby read every night after I went to sleep - of course he was way too cool to let me think that he was gobbling up every word and staying up until 2:30 am reading! I on the other hand read as much as I could every day but ended up on the couch yesterday after trying to lift a 300 pound patient - put my back into spasms that made some of the torture in The Deathly Hallows seem pleasant. So my hot pad, Harry Potter, and I laid on the couch all day. Kudos to J.K. Rowling for making the last book the best with great twists and turns and the answers to most of the character questions we had all been wondering about! As soon as Darling Son reads it (he is coming home from college today for a few weeks), I will put it away with all of the kids favorite books from childhood to read to my grandbabies someday!

Eye candy from the garden! Lilies are in bloom everywhere and I just had to share a few of them with you!

Some are miniature lilies and some have ruffled edges - they are just gorgeous and add some gorgeous colors to the garden!

TOO MANY PROJECTS ON THE NEEDLES

A finished pair of Thuja socks - Knitpicks closeout sock yarn on size 2 needles. I have a family member with ENORMOUS FEET! These will be his Christmas pair of socks - They are so long that they did not fit on my sock forms! Oh well at least this year he won't have to cramp his feet into the socks that I made him and smile like they fit! I was so worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish them properly but.............






I had enough left over for a sweet pair of baby socks - size 6 months! Another thing to add to the baby stash and they are soooooo soft! I have lots of sock yarn leftovers and I am going to turn them all into baby socks! I just can't bring myself to throw out perfectly good yarn - no matter how small the quantity. I am finding myself with loads of half skeins of yarn that is running over my stash - so baby socks should fix that - Maybe?





A preview of the Dale of Norway sweater for me. I have wanted to make this sweater for years but could not justify spending the crazy amount of money on Svale yarn. I found Svale on sale for $3.49 a skein and my credit card was out before I knew it!

Monkey socks in the making! From Knitty.com these socks were just calling my name!

In other news, the backyard walkway projects are coming along nicely. The new grass we planted is coming in and hubby has been so busy with work that we are kind of at a standstill. I wanted to post some pictures but it is raining cats and dogs outside - so another post on another day!

I am working 3 eight hour shifts a week and it is going well. No vertigo but the headaches are coming more often. I just have to take it easy and follow my treatment plan to the letter! But being back to work and doing the job that I love has done my heart and spirit a world of good!

A SWEATER FOR ME!!!!

YES!!!! Nothing to add to the baby trousseau this week . Instead it is a sweater for me! I know it is hard to believe but I actually made a sweater that is not a present for someone else or to add to the growing baby sweater collection!

Knitting Pure and Simple's Neckdown Wrap Cardigan #263 was a breeze! Size 8 needles with a gorgeous worsted weight home spun yarn. I bought this yarn several years ago at The Maine Organic Farmers Association Fair. I just could not bring myself to knit it because it is so beautiful and soft. I have just lovingly stroked it every time I would peruse my stash.

I tried desperately to make this into a Dale of Norway sweater but it was not to be. I had to break my own heart and send it back to the frog pond. This yarn demanded simple lines and straight knitting to show off the gorgeous multi-colors that had been spun into it. (It looks so much better on me but noone was home to take a picture - the hanger will have to do!)

Hubby is disappointed - he had coveted this yarn since I bought it and hoped it would end up in his handmade sweater collection but alas it is mine - all mine!!!!!!

CLEARING OUT THE WIP BASKET

Here is my newly cleaned out WIP basket. Knitting that has frustrated me or just doesn't suit the yarn gets thrust into this poor basket on our fireplace hearth never to see the light of day again! But yesterday - it got a good cleaning and I was amazed at how many UFOs I found that just needed a few more rows or a matching mitten to be completed! I had forgotten so many of these projects that I had a hard time remembering which pattern I had used - so some knitting projects were finished with a little flair of their own!




Baby socks, Baby hats, and baby mittens all got their finishing touches!

Yesterday, I worked for a few hours at the hospital and got a really bad vibe about the mood of the hospital. A Medivac helicopter flew in to take out a patient - this happens often but there was something different about the buzz in the hospital. Not knowing what was going on, I left the hospital after my short shift and got into my car just as the helicopter was taking off. In the car, the radio was running nonstop news bulletins about a shooting in our little vacation town. HORROR. Most major roads had been closed and several people had been killed. The freakin psycopath shooter was on the loose and the SWAT teams had been called in to search for him. I decided to head home and wait it out. Frequent news bulletins and my UFO basket kept me busy for the day - Hubby came home safely and early due to the fact that he could not drive around town due to the search. We watched movies and locked the house securely - wondering how in the world this could have ever happened in our quiet little town which has welcomed thousands of people to enjoy the 4th of July to play in the mountains and lakes all around us. I am always in total awe of the things that people do-------- the thought of harming another human being is just not a thought process I could ever put together. There is so much of it in the world and it just makes me so sad. This morning, the killer is still on the loose and the whole town is in shock. Off to work I go with thoughts and prayers for the families who lost loved ones yesterday. I will never understand the taking of a human life - I hope I never do.