FOs and pictures - what you gonna do

Well, I have stuff to show off. But first, this last weekend, we went up to my mom's. I brought Star Trek scrabble and Abe, Isaac, mom, and I played. Jim was on dictionary duty. Mom won, I placed second. It was a fun game. We all play pretty nice, less cut throat. Especially since I don't know when the last time Isaac played was, if ever. Before that we played Boggle. Jim has gotten better. He had at least 8 by the time we quit.
For dinner we went to Cafe Akatori, a Greek restaurant in Bellingham. Delicious. Mom and I split the lamb shanks at rare to medium-rare. It came with potatoes and rice. Both also very good. For an appetizer, we had some cheese thing and fried zucchini. The cheese thing had brandy and the waitress put it on fire when she brought it. I didn't like the first bite, but every bite got much better until I wanted more by the last bite.
I finally took a bunch of picture and uploaded them and now I can load them to Blogger in Firefox, so pictures coming from now on.















Here are the Rogue Roses socks from the second Socks that Rock kit. I love it. I usually not a pink fan, but this color with the weird green is awesome. I wish the picture were better.



















I also made this kerchief from the remaining sock yarn following the stitch pattern from the socks. It turned out okay. I definitely plan to try to make more of these from the other socks kits.














Here is the Spring purse pattern from the 2008 LYS tour. I finished it just in time to take it on our LYS Tour 2009. I needle felted mushrooms instead of the flowers that the pattern used in the store. I got a bone button the looks really great with it at Weaving Works. The needle felting was fun. I plan to needle felt a fern around one of the edges from the back onto the front.


















Here is some yarn I spun. I bought the roving at Weaving Works. It was a blast to spin up. It was soft and luscious. The color actually looks better than the picture shows. It is a three ply using the Navajo ply, which is really the only one I use because I am lazy and the only one I know how to do, really. It is, I think, an aran weight. I have no idea what I am going to make out of it. Perhaps I will use it as an accent on an empire waste sweater. Or a cowl.


















Here is the skull skirt I made. I love it. It is a skitch longer the I wanted. I used a zig zag stitch to sew the stripes of black and patterned pieces together. There is so much sewing in this skirt that I used at least one complete spool of thread and blunted a sewing machine needle. Impressive. There is a second layer of white muslin on the inside. I used one of my existing skirts to cut out a pattern using the cardboard type roll of paper I have. It was pretty easy, actually. I got the courage after I bought the Sew What: Skirts book. Before actually making a skirt in the book.
















Here is the mushroom skirt I made. I bought the fabric a long time ago (a month or so) to make this skirt but kept chickening out. But I recently bought more fabric to make a couple dresses so I figured I better just make this skirt already. This one is from the Sew What: Skirts book. I really like it. It is a simple skirt with two pleats in the back and two in the front. I need to find a ribbon to put around the top where the pleats start. That is part of the pattern, but it would look really cute. I just haven't been able to find any that match yet. It is weird 60s/70s colors.


















I also finally finished the Plug n' Play shawl that I started at the Fall Fiber Arts Retreat in Calgary. It is not shawl sized, but it makes a great head shawl. I actually like it a lot like that. I haven't blocked it yet because I really don't have a place to do it. It is too big to do on the ironing board, which is what I usually use. And I can't use the bed because it has a memory foam cover. But it even looks pretty good as a head shawl without the blocking. Very retro. Abe said I looked like Audrey Hepburn. The someone else who I hadn't heard of.



















Yesterday I finished the butterfly bag that I got from Let it Rain Yarn during the LYS Tour 2008. That shop is closed now. I used some beads I think I got from the Queen of Beads socks, the first kit from Rockin' Sock Club 2009. It is super cute and I got a great fabric to line it with. Plenty left over, so I get to use it in the quilt I am starting.














It has birds and flowers. I can't believe how good they look together. Like they were made for eachother. I need to put a zipper in, but I am not sure how and I would have to find one. It is about 6.5 inches and I don't think zippers come in that length.














Here is some yarn I got on the LYS Tour 2009 at Bad Woman Yarns. Not sure what I am going to do withit, but I love the colors. Their pattern was a crochet shawl, but I wasn't a big fan. I was thinking of making another shrug like last years from the pattern I got on the tour at a shop in Edmonds just north of here. Cute shop and really close to the Edmond's Farmers Market.

















I got this lace weight yarn on sale at the Queen Anne Hilltop yarn store. Beautiful shop, but so hard to get to. We drove around the block like 5 times looking for a spot. This skein was only 6.50. pretty sweet. Plus I got 5% off because I had been there before and I am on their mailing list or something. They had two great patterns, a button scarf (knit) and some crocheted mittens.














I got this Manos yarn at Beach Basket Yarn and Gifts in Birch Bay, which is much farther north than I thought. I thought it was the north side of Bellingham, but it is farther north than Ferndale. It is just so cute. Green and brown and the like. Their pattern was a nice cowl out of mohair boucle, but it was $40 a skein so screw that. I might try to get the skein later.














And finally, here is the skein I got from Fiber Gallery. First skein I bought on the tour this year. Now I have two or three skeins of this. I should probably use one... It is just so soft and luscious.
I had also started working on the Stochastic Blanket again. I may need to get some longer needles. I am knitting it from the center and increasing out. Trying to use up all my left over skeins of Lionbrand Homespun.
As for the quilt, I am pretty close to the right number of squares. I need to save some cool cloth for strips on the back. I think I am going to use a ti-dyed square in the middle of the back and mitered stripes around it. I hope I am not being too ambitious.
Uh, I think I am out...