Progress.............

Not bad for the first week, I haven't been able to put this down, I hope I can keep up the momentum.

Yesterday we went for a drive after the storm blew through and I got a lot knit while Mr D took me sight-seeing.

Unfortunately this has put my other 2 projects on the back burner. More about those at a later date.
And of course one more pair of socks off the CSM.
Neapolitan Stripes in Twisted Fiber Arts Arial.  I love this yarn for the machine.

New Month, New Project....

I'm usually very quiet and slow about blogging, I leave all that to BossCat,  but I do read several faithfully.
If you haven't read  Celtic Cast On, you should check it out, she knits some very beautiful stuff.
I'm not one for KAL's because I always want to join in, but fail miserably at finishing them.  But this time is going to be different, Celtic Cast On is hosting one starting tomorrow Monday February 4th till March 25th.  They have voted on  Tanis's Fiber Arts  Business Casual Socks.

 And there are prizes.
 I saw this pattern a while ago and queued it up right away. 

So what a great opportunity to start and maybe stick with a KAL this time, after all I have 8 weeks.  I have chosen one of the many skeins of WCY I have squirreled away for myself......Campfire.  It's caked, I have new needles, I'm ready.

New Stripes

I've been playing around with stripes again.  These are so much more work than just dyeing skeins of yarn, but I love the result. 
I have it on good authority they should be in the shop tomorrow.

 

 

I guess I better go wind some more.

Socks........

What's better than socks?    More socks.
Since I got my CSM's  I can't get enough of cranking out socks.  My first intention was cranking out samples of some of our self-striping yarns, but it's actually been great for finally knitting up all the striped yarns in my stash.   I have belonged to a couple of yarn clubs in the past, but lets face it, you can only knit so fast, and my stash is getting out of hand.
I get a little bored with plain old stocknette stitch, so this takes care of that.

There were a few tears at first, there is quite a learning curve.  With the help of some rav friends and a lot of You Tube videos, I progressed.

 Once I got the hang of it there were socks for everybody.

 I'm sure there will be a few more now that I have my ribber running smoothly too.

Taking a break....

I've never been much for putting myself out there, and not much happens around here but just the normal day to day stuff.
Work, play, and just doing things that makes me happy. So I'll probably just be popping in from time to time with the odd post and pictures.

I know, I know........

I said I was going to wait till I retire, but the bug bit me.  I know I don't need another hobby but I couldn't help myself.  Unfortunately I hang out with a lot of enablers on Ravelry, and what can I say? And there was the local Fiberfest last weekend.  There was a group of ladies, just spinning away.

 It just happened before I could give it a second thought.
I bought my mom's wheel.

and today was a trip to the Fiber Garden in Jordan, and now there's no turning back.

And don't worry, there's still knitting and dyeing.  We have a few new Chromacolours in the shop.

I'm back to work this week so hopefully I won't be too tired and I'll be able to keep up the pace.

Update....

New Chromacolours are in the shop, and of course a few other things.

BossCat was feeling a little spring like with the Slinky Cat.

A very busy weekend.........

BossCat made it up to dye up some new stuff for the shop this week-end, and if all goes wells we should be updating the shop next weekend, but we'll announce it officially when we figure it out. I think there's one there I'm keeping for me, okay maybe two.

While her yarns were drying I got some Barn Cat ready for a test drive.  We've had several customers ask about our Chromacolours in sock weight, so were giving it a try. Some turned out okay and some did not, but I'm not giving in yet.

 Here are the first ones I knit up on my CSM, they don't match exactly, but I love them.

And on to my other finished project.  I've had this one done for a little while now and I think it's my favorite shawl so far.
Lattice Shawl by Rose Beck

It's a DK weight so it knits up pretty quick. I loved the yarn so much that I couldn't put it down.
This is knit in Top Cat DK in Leviathan.  I added a few extra rows on the second pattern just so I could use most of the last skein up. It's soft and warm and scrumptious.  Perfect for a cool spring evening.

Recuperating...

from a week off work and a little illness seems to do my knitting mojo wonders.  When your stuck on the couch with nothing but the TV or the computer my hands and mind just wanted to knit instead.
Sleeping in and staying up late really agrees with me.  I had several WIP's languishing around here and I was very surprised that I actually picked some up and finished them.
More socks of course....
Patons Stretch Socks for BossCat

Socks for Miss "P"...

and socks for I'm not sure yet, because the two of them have claimed ownership.

Follow the links for all the details on these wonderful yarns on my Ravelry pages.
I have one other project that I finished, but it deserves it's own page, so I'll hold on to it for another day.
I'm back to work in a couple of days so I don't want to waste this knitting time,  my needles are calling.

Happy Easter.......

In honour of this long weekend Wandering Cat Yarns is having a 15% off sale at the shop.  Just use the code HOPPY15 and it'll be deducted at check out.

You know where I'll be....making more socks.

My new obsession...

Several months ago I took a chance on an ebay auction and won.  I had no idea if I could get this to work but I just knew I had to give it a try. 

With some great advice from a friend in the know (the lady I bought my first CSM from) Mr "D" and I took this piece of history apart and started to clean it.

It was quite an experience and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.  We found brass rings under the surface rust, pretty shiny steel and remnants of gold stenciling.
We had no issues putting it back together because we took pictures of each step and of course Mr "D" knows machinery.
This is what we ended up with and "Winnie" is now purring like a well oiled sock machine.

I think these are my favorite parts, the patent dates.

March already....

Time is flying by way too fast, but don't get me wrong, I won't miss winter, even if it's been a good one.
I finished up my Honey Cowl this weekend.  I have to say I love this yarn. It's soft, and squishy and knits like butter.

Pattern:  Honey Cowl by Madeline Tosh
Yarn:  2 skeins of  Wandering Cat Twinkle Cat DK
Needles:  5mm
This was a nice easy relaxing knit, and not so big that I couldn't knit on our drives.
The silk just gives it that little something extra and the sparkle is not over powering.

I'm home for the rest of the week so I think I'll be in the studio whipping up some new colours, and maybe getting some socks finished.

Yup, it's me......

I haven't been much of a blogger lately, I leave that up to BossCat, she's the writer in the family.  It's usually just the same old same old.  Work, dye yarn and a little knitting occasionally.
So we have a little dyeing:

and we have a little knitting:

I promise, there will be more soon.

New Year............

New yarn!  Introducing Continental Cat.  This new base yarn is a 6 ply light fingering/heavy lace weight yarn of 100% Superwash Merino.   It's 6 beautiful plys with a smooth twist and the best part is there is 750 yards on each skein. That means you only need one skein for a perfect little shawl.
We've only put a few in the shop at the moment but we'll be dyeing up some more in semi-solid shades.  I think mine will be purple or maybe pink or maybe grey........

A big thank you...........

BossCat and I would like to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year. All the best in 2012.
We've enjoyed seeing all of your projects in 2011 and can't wait to see what you knit up in 2012.

We'll be offering a 15% discount on everything in the shop from now until midnight December 31st in appreciation of all our customers.  Just use the code YREND11 at the checkout.