Two pics of the Saturday Sky, and on Saturday, too!! These were taken at about 5:30 this afternoon, but Blogger wasn't letting me in so you get them now. I couldn't decide between these two, one is over the roof, and the other is away from the house.

























I apologize now about this, but I have to get on a soapbox for just a second. Feel free to stop reading anytime you wish, but I've got to get this out. MathMan, MissMonkeyToes and I had lunch with some friends today, friends that we really haven't seen since MMT was born. MissX, as I will call her, doesn't like children, at all. She has dogs, if it doesn't have four legs, she doesn't like it. Well, today at lunch, MMT wasn't in a great mood, I had woken her up from her nap, and it was past time for a second one as it was. MathMan takes her and walks her outside so I could finish my meal, and MissX decided to tell me how to raise my own daughter. It made me furious, but I didn't say anything for the sake of civility. When you successfully raise happy, well-adjusted, successful children, then I *may* ask for your advice on some component, but don't presume to tell me how to raise my child when you can't even keep your dog from jumping on me or begging right at my elbow. I don't think I'll be spending any friendly time with her anytime soon, I don't think I could hold my tongue a second time. /soapbox rant

Remember the Aran Braid socks?
Wanna see how they look now?
Pretty sad, huh? My mother and I have very similar foot sizes, so after I had gotten down to about halfway through the instep, I decided to slip them on to test the size. Despite the allover rib pattern, I couldn't get them over my heel. Mom came up to visit yesterday, and same thing, so it was off to the frog pond last night. MathMan did the honors/dirty deed for me while I fed MissMonkeyToes. So, I sent mom some patterns, and she happened to click another link and see Tulip Toes. She decided she wants straight stockinette with a small rib cuff at the top. So, off I go.

Saturday sky:Taken outside my parent's house during an evening walk with MissMonkeyToes.

I've been busy knitting away on the second Twiggy purse. I've been down at my parent's house for a few days. I had another trip to the dentist due to a toothache. Luckily I didn't need a root canal. Apparently I've been grinding my teeth when I sleep, an putting maor pressure on on of my molars. A little grinding down of my tooth and a nightguard later, and all is well.
What's this? Could it be my very first lace project ever? Why, it is! The yarn is the merino/silk handpainted I got from my laceswapr partner, and the pattern is Sarcelle. I'm loving working on this, but due to the squirmyness, yet neediness of MMT, I'm not able to do much more than a row or two at a time. I'm working on a size smaller needle than called. Getting to the LYS is a difficult thing for me to do, and when I went I grabbed the wrong size, so there it is. It's probably denser than it should be, but I like the way it's looking. I may throw in another set of repeats in the increase section to make it a bit wider, but otherwise I'm forseeing sticking to the pattern. (Sorry about the poor picture quality, MMT was asleep on one arm, so I was taking the picture with one hand.)

So, I've been thinking about the list of five. Lets take a look at where things stand right now:
1. socks - Aran braid socks for my mother
2. lace - Sarcelle
3. a sweater - Tubey
4. a gift project, or something else that's small, quick, or not for me or MathMan - Twiggy #2, Knucks
5. a simple, portable project, like a washcloth - River Rapids Sock
6. one afghan

First up, is an FO. Twiggy Tweed from the current Knitty. I used Shine Worsted from Knitpicks side is fraternal. . I'm not sure if I took a piccie of the yarn. I finished sewing in the lining last night. I'm pretty proud of it. I knew that I wouldn't have enough of one color to do the whole bag, so eachThen, I just knit up two strips in stockinette, crossed them, and mattress stitched the sides together to make them into tubes. I tried knitting back for the first time working on this purse, and I must say, I LOVE it! If it was as easy to purl back, I would use it all the time, but for ribbing and shaping, it just doesn't work.
Next up, is a few WIPs. First, some socks I'm making for my mother. She knows about them, so I don't feel so bad posting where she can see them. The yarn is Knitpicks Essential Tweed in Flint. The pattern is Aran Braid from Knitpicks. See a pattern here? I love Knitpicks! Living as far out in the boonies like I do, it's a great mail order option. Back to the socks - they're my first real kept cabling. I've practiced on some scrap yarn on a swatch, but never like this. The hardest part to me is that the needle I was using to cable was flimsy. I know all about cabling without a needle, but I don't feel up to that with this yarn. It's just too tight as is.
Last up is the first of a pair of Knucks from Knitty Summer 06. Yet again, Knitpicks yarn, this time, Merino Style. The pinkish color is right on, but the other one is actually a bit more towards the red end of the spectrum Purples are just a hard color to photograph. The embroidery on these is going to be a secret, just to be on the safe side in case she reads before she gets them.
Next, some laceweight I got just to even out the order. Better to knock the order up to 40 and get more yarn than to pay shipping, cause hey, it gets you more yarn!! I'm not sure what this is going to be, but I've got almost 1000 yards of it, and a few shawl patterns I've been eying, so we'll see what happens.
I made a trip down to Village Wools last week. I met Scout - she's much taller than I thought she would be, but just as nice. She talked me into getting a book, Spin to Knit. I went in to get some roving, and didn't know how to buy it. (I thought it would be in a "skein" type thing, not just pull some off and weigh it.) I felt bad, seeing her rant about how she hates it whe people come into the shop and ask a question they can get the answer to online. I really did research, I just didn't know how to buy the roving! Well, I got talked into a hi-lo spindle from Schadt, instead of the purple stained one that I almost nabbed. I also picked up some...something wool for learning on. It's something local (as in from this state) but I can't remember what it was. That's my first try at spinning there on the spindle, and I'm pretty proud of it! I also got some colored corriedale in green and lavender. And just cause I could, I got some alpaca roving when I was at the ranch the other day.
Now that this qualifies as the longest blog post ever, I'm off to sleep. And a note to myself and anyone who uses blogger - if you're gonna blog around a bunch of pictures, load them first. It's a pain to move them from the top when you've already got a large amount of text.

Edited to add - I have tried to make this post "lie" better with the text and the pictures, but I just can't do it this late at night. If you want to see text that is over a picture, just highlight it, you should be able to read it better. Sorry!!

Well, maybe just a bit. Smarties, my favorite!
Well, I give you with two Saturday Sky pics from yesterday:
This one was taken in my parents living room. I loved the way the clouds looked through the long, thin window high up on the wall. I missed a good picture of the mass ascension, plus, I was high above the valley and the balloons stayed close to the ground, so there wasn't much to see anyway.








The other picture was taken at dusk at my own house. The colors were just so purty-ful that I couldn't resist!


I have lots to report about my absence, I was massive busy. Lots of knitting and fiber related goodness coming up, so the next post will be picture heavy, just a warning!