Fairy Dress and more...

Isn't this gorgeous? I found it while perusing a copy of Creative Knitting at the local Borders. I'm thinking of it in a cotton with defined stripe changes rather than the flowing changes pictured here. It looks pretty straight forward in the knitting..... I would have liked it in the Crystal Palace new aran weight Mochi Plus, but I think I'm cured of that particular yarn.... (see below).I received this wonderful gift of yarn from an on-line knitter, Barbara P. Thanks so much....yummy stuff comin' from this gift! It's time to go back to school soon, so I've started some projects for my granddaughters. This is the youngest's new dress. She'll only wear sleeveless sun dresses (regardless of the weather) and if we're lucky we can get a pair of leggings underneath them. I didn't want to knit a whole dress, so I thought this would be cute.


And these are the ruined socks. I think I'll split the down the front of the leg so my granddaughter can put them on as house socks.....or I'll send them on to the rez for the same purpose.

I sent an e-mail to the company and the answer was to send me two balls of my choice of any of their yarns and "We do our best to avoid this kind of misunderstanding with the care instructions on the Mini Mochi label that say to machine wash gentle cycle with cool water and mild soap and to dry flat."

My response was. "I still don't think superwash should full like this. I know you feel giving your washing instructions should absolve you from the mismanagement of the socks on the knitter's part, but it really doesn't. I've knit over 70 pairs of socks. All from superwash sock yarns from various companies. This is the only yarn that has fulled to a point of uselessness. That is not what superwash is. I don't know where the failure in the manufacturing occurred, but I do know that there wasn't enough QC on your end. And we won't even go into the amount of knots in the yarn." I requested two balls of Panda Silk, color 4002.

I am so angry!

My Diagon Alley Rainbow socks fulled. They fulled alot. From a Large Woman's size to a Medium Child's size.

Crystal Palace's Mini Mochi Sock Yarn Fulls!!!!! Oh, it's marketed as superwash merino but it isn't. It fulled. Alot. I'm so upset. I loved those socks and was counting the days till it cooled down enough I could wear them. Now I can't get them on my feet.

Diagon Alley Rainbows

Pattern: If You Know Where to Go
Yarn: Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, Color 101, 2 skeins
Needles: US2
Modifications: Dawn Brocco's Afterthought heel and Round Toe used so the color patterning wouldn't be disrupted
The yarn was a bit splitty and I had to cut and fix the color repetitions due to a knot in one skein
Ravelry

Diagon Alley Rainbows

Pattern: If You Know Where to Go modified for an afterthought heel so as to not disrubt the wonderful color
Yarn: Crystal Place Mini Mochi, Colorway 101 Not a yarn for a brand new knitter. Single ply, splitty and not necessarily evenly spun. I would hesitate to say "thick and thin", but it does have it's thicker moments.

Tomorrow is Lost Sock Memorial Day!

Had an appointment with the nutritionist yesterday. She reviewed my diet, exercise plan, the whole shebang. Felt that I was doing fantastically, and really had no suggestions except to keep on keeping on. It was good news! She did say I could add more fats to my diet and decrease the protein. That is a nice addition. I had an ounce of cheddar cheese last night....the first since mid February! Yum! If anyone is interested in the secret of my success in loosing 30 lbs in a little less than 3 months, it's religious use of the Wii Fit (at least an hour of aerobic exercise a day), a diet of between 1200-1400 calories broken down to around 35-55% carbs, 20-25% proteins, and 20-30% fats, 80 ounces of water a day and LiveStrong.com. I can't say enough good things about LiveStrong. It's an easy way to keep track of what you want to eat and what you've eaten every day, helping to keep things on an even keel. Track exercise, too, to get a complete picture of how you're doing.

Also saw the eye doctor yesterday. I'd had an incident last week with one of my eyes seeing a ring of distortion in my vision for a few minutes. Kinda sounded like the symptoms of a detached retina to me, but the doctor said it was an "Ocular Migraine." Nothing to worry about and because I didn't have a possible accompanying headache, no big deal. So, it was a good day, all in all!

Socks and More Socks

The Confetti Socks Redux are finished, washed and blocked. Two strands of sock yarn, one white, one hand dyed. Nice warm thick socks, great for Crocks or Burkes. No particular pattern, just a vanilla sock with some YOs in the legs.These are a pair of socks I've been waiting for quite awhile to CO. The Yarn is Crystal Palace's Mini Mochi, colorway 101. It's a single ply sock yarn (merino and nylon). The dyeing process is what makes it so pretty. The pattern is Dreams in Fiber's If You Know Where to Go. For those that are Harry Potter aficionados, you'll know that refers to where the entrance to the Wizarding World's best shopping spot, Diagon Alley is. As the pattern author says: Diagon Alley can be described as a twisted cobbled street located somewhere in the middle of London. It is also the place to go if a Witch or a Wizard needs to get a little shopping done. The only problem is, no one is able to get there unless “yeh know where to go”, as Hagrid so elegantly states in J.K. Rowling’s book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Inspired by the brick wall entrance found in the back of the Leaky Cauldron, and the endless maze of cobblestone alleys and brick buildings, this textured pattern develops as one knits and is also rather hidden (especially in this particular colorway) to those who do not know that it is there.

Although this stitch pattern is more futzy and contains way to many purls than I generally commit myself to, it's very pretty. I think I can survive it!

I want to share an internet delight I've recently found: Pandora Radio. I've so enjoyed setting up my commercial free radio stations and listening to whatever kind of music strikes my fancy, including some that are impossible to find on CD, such as Hooked on Classics and Hooked on Swing. My friend, Joansie, much prefers Slacker Radio. Check them both out and start enjoying some good music while you're surfing!

My daughter gave me her Pocket PC. It's neat! I can write down, say a stitch pattern, and take it with me in my knitting. Once I pick up some memory, I can download the pattern as a Word document and take it with. It also has internet capability, but have no idea what I need to do to get it working. It's a discontinued 2002 model and I have no documentation, so it'll be a job finding out what I can and can't do with it.

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Check out Helen! You go, Girlfriend!

The USPS...is it really 2 days?