Reveling on Ravelry in the Rains

We have been suffering the deluge in North Texas lately. Last night and this morning were quite unbelievable. You hear torrents hit the shingles and seconds later the gutters are overflowing. But please don't misunderstand, I love the rain. And in our area, you are thankful for every drop that falls since we look forward to summers with months and months of no rain and water rationing. This was tonight's sunset from the front steps.

My invitation to Ravelry finally arrived last week and only now have I had time to check it out. Oh my my my my, it is the ultimate Black Hole. Once you start playing with it, you go on and on and on until you realize hours have passed and you haven't finished your work for the evening and the animals aren't fed and the dishes aren't washed and you haven't wound those two skeins of yarn you will need for knitting tonight with the Sisters of the Wool. Not to mention you haven't knitted a stitch and it is past time for bed. And you are worried that you are about to exceed your free photo limit at Flickr! Never mind, it is wonderful. It references and cross references everything that interests you. It will inspire and organize and with luck help to sort out the stash. I hope all of you are in soon. Many thanks to the Freckled Girl and Casey for their genius idea and hard work. Oh, and photogenic Bob for all his help (their really, really cute Boston Terrier).
Just so you know I've been knitting for a long time, here is an old photo taken at the French Market in New Orleans when we lived on Bourbon Street. I am wearing a sweater, one of ten I knitted in different yarns to the same simple pattern and lived in quite happily. I did them in wool and chenille. Will have to dig through old albums to find other versions of The Sweater. It was around this time that I convinced the local needlepoint shop, the Quarter Stitch on Jackson Square, to order yarns for me. I taught Jill, the owner, how to knit and thus began one of the most delightful yarn shops around. I hope she is still there since Katrina, but the shop quickly became more knitting than needlepoint.

And here, keeping them me honest, we have two more UFOs from my collection Hall of Shame. The socks are in Fleece Artist and I love them and I just got busy with other things and never got around to finishing them. BTW, Nancy at ColorSongYarns carries 150gr skeins of their sock merino which lets me knit without worrying about running out, which I usually do with my size 10 feet. Nancy is thinking about dropping this larger skein to make room for other yarns, so if this is something which interests you, let her know. And then we have the almost finished Sunburst Sling Bag from Jill Vosburg, Just One More Row. It needs a lining cut and to be seamed, can't seam until I cut the lining, Catch 22. I already have the lining fabric and even the strap is already almost knitted, but I can't finish that until I cut the lining and seam the bag. Oh, well. Soon, soon.
I've decided to begin with some Art Pron, which will be flashed from time to time. From a collection of odd little paintings (and some not so little) by my old and dear friend Elizabeth Taggart, the Irish painter, which you might enjoy. This is The Topiary Hat. Elizabeth has a show up now at the Molesworth Gallery in Dublin. Check it out! They sold out her show last year. We go back about 37 years. Cheers to you Lizzie, wish I were there.

Last but not least, speaking of very old friends from New Orleans, I received an e-mail tonight from my friend K, who with husband W, their 3 Persians and I Love Lucy, the Irish Wolfhound, fled New Orleans to stay with us for the months after Katrina. Consumate Southerners, they went back home, sold their house in the French Quarter and moved to the mountains of Vermont, of all places. This is what she wrote...

"BEAR! A real BEAR! Was just circling the house. Our own Bear (Pooh the Persian) was sitting in the window looking out intently when we looked out and a BEAR's ass was just walking past the bedroom window. Then we looked out the wide sliding glass door going out onto the deck and the bear was standing on the deck! I yelled and jumped up and down and pretended to be bigger than he was (It was a BIG BLACK BEAR) and he ran away. Whoosh! Things occasionally get exciting in Vermont after all! XOX"

Ah, it's the little things that make life exciting!

Keeping them honest!

For those of you out there (you know who you are) who keep sniggering about the alleged number of my UFOs, which are really WIPs, with this post, we begin flashing said objects with a status report. When they are all up (several postings for sure), we will count them and find out if I qualify for the Guinness Book of Records.

Cowlneck tunic in Noro Blossom, my own design. It's actually sewn together and only lacks having it's ends embedded.
Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. STR Heavyweight in Amber and Moss Agate on size 7 needles. Wonderful fun project, 2/3 knitted.
Ilga Leja's Lady of the Forest Shawl in a silk/wool from Lotus Blossom. Needs its front edges frogged and reknitted. Ilga wrote me quite kindly with some ideas for fixing it. I cannot recommend more highly her beautiful designs.
Ruana knit in Noro yarns, all it lacks is a few more ends worked in and stitched down.
Wave pattern moebius from Mountain Colors, knit in MC Alpaca...1/3 done. It is my second one and I LOVE the first. And for those who know of my aversion to blue, that's teal.

I have a terrible tendency to finish 99%, then dive into the next project. More soon.

Summer goals and a contest heads up

Ali's having a contest. You can go to her blog and read all about it. She wants to know where you first read about her contest and a list of your summer knitting goals . It would be nice if I knew what mine were, but this will make me put them into words and on paper and perhaps I will actually accomplish them.

The plans in my head were a summer of socks, a pair every couple of weeks. I've got gorgeous yarns (Sock Hop Handspun, STR, Wollmeise, Jitterbug, Koigu, etc.), lots of patterns I want to do, most of them CookieA's, but there's a couple of Jeanie Townsend's in there, plus Sock Club from STR. There is a wonderful cotton/rayon nubby tunic that I almost finished last year, missing a couple of inches on the sleeves, a Fiddlesticks lace shawl in Sari Silk that lacks less than two rows, a ruana in Noro that only needs a billion ends worked in, a Sunburst Sari Silk purse that just needs the lining cut, a Clapotis in EL Silky Tweed that's half knitted, five or six pair of socks in various stages of knitting. It would really feel good to finish up a lot of UFOs before fall, clearing out the famous UFO chair.

So here is the famous chair, home to many, but not all, UFOs
Here is one of the unfinished socks, Ann Budd's pattern in Elann Esprit, and I love it. It's mate is missing an inch and a toe.
And here are several pairs at different points of completion. The STR Twin Rib socks on the right are actually finished and worn. We have STR, Koigu and Fleece Artist represented here.
And this beauty is a CookieA Baudelaire done in STR midweight, Rare Gems colorway. There are actually two of these at the same point. I ran out of yarn as usual (what fun to have size 10, high arched, long heeled feet) and had to scramble to find something with which to finish them that didn't look too awful. Darling G from our Sisters of the Wool offered up the remainders of a Rare Gem she had knitted up in order to finish, it's rustier, but should work fine. These will be done soon.

So head on over to Ali's, make your list, and good luck to you.