It is interesting how time seems to go by so much quicker when you are extremely busy.  When you are living in a routine, life seems to tick away one second at a time.  I am thinking that a nice happy medium would be nicer rather than either of those two extremes.  I am on the time vacuum side where it seems like time is being sucked in quickly and not being spat back out.  Nice thing about really busy is that it seems like the weekends get here quickly (smile).
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Hey, exciting news!!!    In the Fall issue of Knitty,  my friend Beth at Crafty Canines Stuck on Socks is linked there to share an article she wrote on making an easy lazy kate.  How cool….check it out!    Huge Congrats, Beth!!!
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I apologize for the lack of pictures this week….I don’t have time to think up something to take a picture.  I haven’t had time to buy anything yummy to share or much time to get knitting done, sooooo…..  I think an entry is so much more interesting when there are pictures.  Since I don’t have pictures, I am giving a shout out to Pam the Yarn Goddess as she always shares pics of her latest additions of THE best indie dyer sock yarn on her blog.  Check it out.
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I have spent the past week testing new items that will be released into the big computer in the sky for my company and they will be released after midnight tonight AND tomorrow night.  Now, the tomorrow night was a nasty surprise.  It actually isn’t that bad as I can get in, test, and hopefully say everything is just peachy.   Catching up on sleep this weekend will be another story.   Well, nothing worth having is easy.  Hopefully, the new changes will help make some peoples’ jobs easier.
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TTFN

Hello!  My job takes spellls where it takes up a lot of my time and others it quiets down to a dull roar.  Since last Thursday, I have been managing a testing lab and have not had much extra time at all.  I worked till Midnight last Friday and last night as well.  The good thing about working then (if there is such a thing) is that I got to do it at home on my couch with the puppies all around me wanting a pat here and there.  Bad thing is there has not been a lot of knitting. 

I did get to knit quite a bit on my second Hand Paint Highlight sock.  I have three stitches left to decrease on the gusset and I will be on the home stretch.  Woo hoo!  One down soon and 2.5 more to go….I already have another sock down to the gusset part as well.  

Jan went to a felting workshop at the Appalachian Center for Crafts and she came back energized and so excited about her weekend.  I can’t wait to see what she did.

 Here locally we have a spinning group that meets the second Saturday of each month and spin, eat, talk and just have fun.  Sometimes someone brings something to sell as well.  In October, they will be having a ‘dye day’ and I actually am going to get to go.  Woo hoo!   I go to the St. Jude’s Dog Showcase every year and have for the last six years to compete in agility as well as visit the vendors and other dog-related venues there.  I love to watch flyball!  I won’t be going because the pulled hamstring has not healed yet.  I did start physical therapy last week and that is working wonders.  It no longer hurts to just walk.  I can feel a twinge here and there and know that I have to fully heal before I can haul off and run again or I will have to wait even longer for the danged thing to heal.  I really don’t have time for this, but it is helping me to slow down and train more distance work with Gracie and Jake and more groundwork and basics with Missy.

Sorry, no pictures today.  I miss getting to post and promise to have pictures and more to talk about later this week.  Testing here at work ends tomorrow (maybe today)  Double Woo Hoo!

Last night was week 2 of a 3 week sock knitting class.  This is the most intense class because the students are exploring the myster of the heel/gusset contruction while using 2 circ needles.  I celebrated with each student when they got all their gusset stitches picked up and everything was back in the round again.  Two of the students actually left with having finished their gusset decreases.  Next week is the two and the introduction of accomplished sock knitters into the knitting world…..look out sock yarn!

A week ago or so, I wrote about having four different ’one’ socks in my knitting bag.  I set a goal of getting the mates to those four one socks done so that I would end up with four pairs.  That goal was the end of September.  I can tell you now that I won’t make that goal.  I have tried, but sometimes life just gets in the way and you adjust.  It is like going on a trip, if you don’t have a map, you either won’t get there or it will take you longer.  When you set goals, it is sometimes necessary to adjust them as well.  There are just more important things (gasp) than knitting and that is what has happened to my time this week, something more important.  My knitting time is relegated now to red light knitting…you know you knit when the light is red and it one of htose lights that lasts for darned ever!   You would be amazed how much you get done, but it is not enough time to get my 4 sock goal by the end of the month though.

Wool.  I went to SAFF last year and this was my first ‘real’ fiber festival.  It was great!  I got a little carried away at first and purchased 8 lbs of fiber at the first booth.  I purchased a total of 12 pounds that day, but 8 was at the first place I went, LOL.  I don’t regret my first purchase though as I got some really great fiber.  One of the items that I purchased that is included in this first 8 pounds is 2 pounds of 100% mohair in colorway-Pumpkin.  I have never spun mohair and need to do some research to decide what the best thing to do with it is……I have been told that 2 pounds will make enough yarn for a sweater!
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With tihs post, I am not trying to tell you anything or send a subliminal message that there will be pitter patter of little feet (except for the dogs),.  I don’t have children and have no plans on having any.  Even though I won’t be having any children, I have been drawn to children/baby clothes lately.  They are a great way to learn a new technique and so quick and easily completed.  Talk about instant gratification!  I found this cute sweater pattern the other day and am searching for some self-striping yarn as I think it would be more interesting knit with stripes. 
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Too cute!   
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Majacraft Alpaca Review.  I wrote about my Majacraft Alpaca the other day and thought you might like to see her.  This is a very simple, yet beautiful wheel—my very first.  When I was choosing my wheel, there was no place near here that sold wheels so that I could test drive them prior to making the leap and purchasing one.  I did a lot of research (like I do for anything else I guess) and asked lots of questions.  I ended up deciding on the Majacraft Suzie and the Alpaca is what I really wanted.  I really liked how she looked versus the regular Susie Pro.  The Susie Pro and the Alpaca are virtually the same wheel with a few differences….kind of like options on a new car.  The Alpaca has a wooden know up near the top where you tighten to keep the maidenhead in place, the Susie Pro has a metal bolt/screw thing that requires a wrench to tighten or loosen.  The Alpaca’s footmen rods are covered with wood where the Susie Pro’s are metal.  The one other difference is that there is an Alpaca burned into the wood on the front of the shaft of this wheel.  Both wheels are very pretty and wonderful to spin on.  If you have not tried one, you should treat yourself, even if it is just try test drive one.  They can spin very fast or slow, there are different whorls to allow for different speeds. 
 Majacraft Alpaca       
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Woolee Winder for Alpaca Review.  I will start out by saying I L-O-V-E my WW and would not want to spin without it.  I also have an Ashford Espinner and a WW for it as well.  WW are wonderful inventions and I think the man that invented it is a genius.  With that being said, the WW is a little tricky with the Majacraft due to the crossover design for the brake band.  This is something that I wish I had known early on, but have figured out over time.  I am hoping to save someone some time and aggravation by sharing this information now.  With the crossover design on the brake band, the band puts a drag on the WW bobbin and causes the wool to want to be sucked in onto the bobbin quicker than you want it too.  The flip side is that it sometimes does not want to suck in the wool onto the bobbin at all.  I have four WW bobbins and have tape marked on two of them.  When I spun with any of the bobbins, I periodically had to stop when the flyer/bobbin would get really slow and run my fingers over the brake band (not sure why) and that would speed up the flyer/bobbin and  I could spin a little longer.  The two bobbins I had marked with tape really gave me fits and made me think about spinning without my WW if you can believe that.  It was that bad.   I checked with Nathan at WW and he suggested using a braided fishing line.  I went and got some of that and used it, but was not wild about it.  I had purchased my Alpaca from Tracey at Woolly Designs and contacted him to get his advice on what to do and he suggested changing the actual brake band and using a fine, thin cotton thread or yarn.  So, the two best solutions I have found and that really work are:    use a cake of wax (like you use to wax your thread when beading) and rub that wax over the original Majacraft green brake band.  This works great.  The other option is that I replaced my brake band on one of my wheels to a thin cotton yarn and it works great as well….plus that it is purple (luv me some purple).  Before finding these solutions, I had talked with Nathan and said I wanted to trade those two problem bobbins out.  Using the wax or different brake band material eliminated any issues and I now no longer have problem bobbins.  Whew. 

I don’t have a lot today and thought I would share some pictures from a recent photo shoot of a few of my dogs.  (Remember, you can click the picture to make it bigger if you want to see it better)
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First though, last night’s new sock class.  I had six students and we quickly got into the how’s and why’s of sock knitting.  Everyone picked it up really quickly and it was a pretty quiet group….they were very studious and serious about their sock knitting and everyone did a nice job.  I can’t wait to see what everyone brings in next week for the gusset class.  Everyone had different yarn and it is always fun to see a sock done differently.  I swear socks are like potato chips….You can’t make just one or two or three… I do have a few pictures from my little flower garden.  Earlier this year, I planted a new-to-me annual called a Penta and boy has it grown.  It is quite pretty and I plan on planting that again next year, but more than one next time around.   
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Penta first planted     
Penta now             
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Last year I planted Gerber Daisies and I enjoyed their joyful color all summer long as they bloomed off and on continuously.  I planted some again this year.  My favorite was a BIG plant that offered deep red blooms this summer.  I also had another that offered blooms in slightly different shades of color all from the same plant.  Interesting. 
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Gerber 
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Now for the dog pictures.  Nora took the pictures and I met her through dog agility.  Nora is one of the genuinely nice people that would bring you soup if you were sick.  She is one of those people that truly lives by the Golden Rule and her character is such that she challenges you to do what is right just by leading by example.  Boy, she sets the bar high.  At any rate, she takes really nice pictures and she just got a new lens and wanted more dogs to practice on.  I told her “boy, can I fix you up!”  So, I took Lacey, Missy, Sprite and Luc to her house for a photo op (doesn’t that sound fancy?  LOL).  Luc has been before, but Luc is Nora’s favorite so I it is a prerequisite that Luc gets to go when we go to Aunt Nora’s house.  I am going to share a few pictures, but have many more.  If you live near Nashville and are interested in setting up a chance to get a photo package of your dog made, let me know.  You will love your pictures, I do!
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I work at the LYS tomorrow (yippee, I get a color/fiber fix).  Have a great weekend!

The sun is out bright and shiny, the temperature is perfect, the dogs are sunning on the deck….it is a Technicolor Day. 
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  Luc & Jake

My Mom calls them technicolor days when the colors are bright and too right and beautiful outside.  It’s nice to remember those technicolor days during times when it is really dreary and cold outside.  It has been so blasted hot and dry here, but this week we got two inches of rain in one day.  Amazing what one days’ rain will do for you.
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I have been working a lot with dog food deliveries and work-work so I have not had much time to work on those socks to meet my goal I set at the end of the month.  I did manage  to talk to the ortho doc so I am going to start therapy for  my hamstring hopefully in a few days.  Bad news is that I won’t be ready to run for the Nashville trial and I won’t be able to pull to get my money back.  Good news is that I should be ready to run again somewhere in the six weeks range.
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On the sock front, I am working on the 2nd handpaint highlight sock and have about 3″ of the 6″ cuff done so I am trucking along. 
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I have a new sock class starting tonight and believe there will be five new sock knitters joining me.  What fun.  I always love adding new compulsive sock knitters to the fold.  The last few classes that I have taught have been amazingly good and all of the students were in love with knitting socks.  Yah, the more sock yarn we buy, the more can sell, which means the more kinds we get to buy to sell.  Make sense? 
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On the spinning front, I have been thinking of purchasing a used Schacht Matchless DT, but the deal fell through.  I even thought about trading my Majacraft Alpaca.  When I bought  my Rose, I thought I would spin with both wheels, but I have not.  I actually have not had a lot of time to spin.  So, even though this deal did not work out, I am thinking I will sell one of my Majacraft wheels and send it to a good home that will love it and appreciate it as it should be.  The Majacrafts are amazing wheels and  I am lucky to have purchased one as my first wheel…and my second too, LOL.  Anyone out there with a Schacht that would like to offer great reasons to own one? 

Not too long ago, I announced the winner of a contest held here on my blog.  I have a rescue Pap that decided to stay and live with us and he needed a name.  The contest was to suggest a name for him.  The winning name won either sock yarn or fiber. 

 Then Ace, now introducing:

 Mr. William Wiggles 

 If you would like to see what she won, click on this –> Marguerite  and go see what she has to say about her buddy William Wiggles.

Thanks to everyone for participating, I was having a tough time coming up with a name and this was a fun way to choose.

I signed up for a three month-sock club through Simply Socks Yarn Company and have received two of the three months sock yarns.  The first month was dyed by Sleeping Dragon and the second by Spunky Eclectic.  I liked the first yarn, but was not wild about the colors.  I really liked everything about the second month’s sock yarn and was really happy with it. This leads to what I did with the first month’s yarn selection.  It was really nice yarn, but the color was just not my cup of tea.  The good thing is that what may not be my cup of tea may be someone else’s.  The beauty of the world wide web and the online knitting community is that we are more connected and find things and learn so much from the connectivity.  I posted about my unlove for the color of the shipment and Pam the Knitter read my blog and said that she really liked that colorway.  She offered to trade yarn with me for something in her stash.  That was so much fun.  I added one of my patterns and shipped the hank of yarn to her.  In return, she search in her vast (vaster than mine, friends, sheesh) and found a hank of sock yarn that challenged my normal color box choices.   I received the yarn Pam chose for me and boy did she nail what I like down to the T!    I just love, love, love this yarn and am so very happy with the trade.  The sad thing is that photorgraphs truly do not do this yarn justice.  This yarn is listed as having grape, lime, turquoise in it, but you just see a hint of grape and all those colors together make the bestest brown you ever saw.  It was raining this morning and so very humid outside.  I took one picture outside so you could ‘kind of’ see the color, but my camera lens kept fogging.  I took another picture inside under an Ott light hoping you could see the beauty of this yarn.  By the way, the yarn is can be seen online HERE.   
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My pics:   
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That leads to trading, selling and purchasing used or preowned fiber/fiber equipment.  There is a lot to be said for trading or purchasing preowned.  I purchased a preowned Ashford espinner and used it quite a while and was very happy with it.  I ended up selling it and purchased a used Majacraft Rose which I dearly love.  The trade of yarn I made above gave both me and someone else a yarn that we loved and everyone was happy.  I think that, for the most part, the fiber community members are honest and tell-it-like-it-is.  For those that are not, I rely on the Karma rule to apply to those folks and don’t dwell on it too much as I feel they will ‘get theirs” in the end.   It is a wonderful feel to get something you really, really like and that was a deal to top it of….kind of like a Cherry on Top!

Startitis   v

1. A state of beginning a project, possibly multiple projects
2. Where one begins a project and wants to start another project before aforesaid project is complete
3. Constant perpetual motion

Okay, I have to admit today’s word was Not in the dictionary.  Obviously, whoever wrote the dictionary does not knit!  So, as we all know this really is a word, I filled in the blanks.  The real question is:  Is Startitis a verb or a noun???   If that is all we have to worry about…..  On to knitting.  What’s in your knitting bag?  If you are like me, you have multiple bags.  I even have more than one sock knitting bag.  For the purposes of this post though, I am writing about my current sock project bag.  I have four, yep four, different one socks completed that need a mate.  My goal over the next two weeks (is that too ambitious???) is to get the mates to those socks knocked out and completed.  Okay, maybe two weeks is a little ambitious.  I am going to set a goal of 09-30-07 as a goal to have the mates finished and I feel this is a doable goal.  So, do you think I will make it?  If not, when do you think I will??? These are the mateless socks languishing in my bag:
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Handpaint Highlights    Comfort Zone Sock.Boot Sock - Lorna’s Laces
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  Long and Short of It - Beaded Rib Sock (Cotton Panda)
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Sock Designing.  All of these socks are my designs—one is already published and three are new designs not yet published, but will be in the future.  With the exception of the Lorna’s Laces boot sock, all of the socks are a different version of a rib pattern.  I find myself constantly fascinated with the properties of the rib and how well it lends itself to socks and they fit oh-so-well on your foot.  Recently, a new sock knitting student socks wondered if the completed sock from the pattern would fit her foot so she tried my finished sock on and her immediate comment was “well, everything about this sock fits.”   Music to a sock knitters ears!!!    I would love to hear that every time.   For those of you that have not jumped off yet and designed a pattern, there are a lot of steps in the process which means you often knit and undo and redo and change a pattern several times before it becomes published.  Quite often, you will not hear “everything about this sock fits” and you have to go back to the drawing board and regroup.  When you finally do get everything tweaked and it does fit, it is always reason for celebration and know you don’t have to reknit/rework the blasted thing again.  It is so worth designing though because you solidify ideas running around in your brain and end up with something new and wonderful.  One aspect of designing I enjoy is seeing other people knit my designs.  I went to a friend’s house and walked by a cabinet that had a SIP (sock in progress) in a basket.  I asked if the was the “Sweater Sock” and received an affirmative answer.   My patterns usually have a ‘reason’ for being.  The Sweater Sock is written for the many different varieties of self striping or self patterning yarn out there.  The yarn does the work and the pattern quietly in the background offers an architecture that lends itself to a nice fitting sock (a 5×1 rib pattern).  Hand Paint Highlights is written for hand painted yarn and really pulls out the beauty of each yarn.  It is interesting how different each HP sock looks when using a different HP yarn.  The other patterns have reasons too, they are like potato chips and you can’t just make one.  I often don’t like to make something more than once, but can actually say that I have knit a few of my designs multiple times. You might think you cannot design, but if you make a sock and change several things and end up using just a minority of the original pattern, you are customizing the sock to your liking.  You can design a sock…..take the different points about a sock you like such as a particular cuff and use a new stitch pattern, your favorite heel and toe and then combine your favorite things into one sock and there you go!  The part that is more challenging is documenting what you did in a manner that other people can follow it and understand it….then you have the part where you dress up the pattern and make it look pretty and make sure there are no typos.  Design your own sock first and worry about all that until later.  You can do it if you really want to…..you probably already have, but just did not label it as such. 
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Agility.  There was an agility trial this weekend and I have a pulled/torn hamstring.  I thought I could send my dog out and do a lot of distance work and just run slowly and be able to do it.  Ha.  Never hire me as a doctor!  The first run was a standard run (all the equipment) with Jake and the very first step I took was excruciating.  I ended up tiptoe hobbling around the course on that leg and running with the other leg.  I did get around the course and Jake did some amazing distance work…I was so proud of him.  When I am 100% again, I will have a lot more confidence in distance when at a trial.  I ran/hobbled with Gracie in her Open standard run and we got through the whole course…she was amazing….she came out of the tunnel and immediately climbed on the dog walk with me standing halfway up from the dog walk (less steps) and she took the teeter like a champ as though she has been doing it all her life.  We ran (I hobbled) down the last straightway to the finish line and could see a big Q looming in our future and as she jumped over the last obstacle (a triple), the top bar teetered and fell off.  Awww, robbed on the last obstacle.  Anyway, she was amazing and had a really nice run other than that..and I forgot to mention that did 12 weave poles..slowly, but she did them.  Yah.   Diane tried to run Jake for Jumpers as I knew there was no way I could run a Jumpers course.  Jake took the tunnel, came out and looked at her and gave her this look like “WHERE’S MY MOM!?”  He sat down and gave her the dew claw, so that was the end of that.  I have a call into the ortho doc’s office and am going to explain the importance of agility and how many hundreds of hours and how much $$$ and effort I put into this all year long just so I can trial during trial season.  I need this to be treated more aggressively and want to be better by my next trial (end of September!).  I don’t have time to be sick or hurt!  Things to do, places to see…..