Saturday

Neuroknitter reporting from Sunny Eugene, OR where the Black Sheep Gathering is taking place.

Of course our first stop was BMFA!

We perused, touched, sniffed the yarn and parted with lots of our pennies...more on that later after surprise goodies have been sent and received!!! ;)

As if there wasn't enough yarn at BSG, we took a stroll to the LYS a few blocks away: Soft Horizons Fibre. Lovely store! Lovely garden! No money spent!

Stopped for some refueling. Not a Star....cks! Oh Yay! Yum!

Linda finished her shawl over coffee above!

Who is that starlette with the blingy hat winding her yummy Bambu yarn from BMFA??? I hope your Saturday was as good as ours!!!

NK, signing off! Have a good night!

In the pink!

Hello Kitties all in a row (Thanks Jen!!),

Summertime toes,

and Sherbet hose!!
What does your garden grow?

Specs:
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Yarn: STR Sherbet (medium wt)
Needles: Addi lace 1
Mods: Picot cuff, short row heel, mini gusset, and anatomical toes ala PGR!!
Fit: It's all I can do to take them off!!! Perfecto!!! And did you check out the perfect striping of the STR!!!

I am off to Black Sheep Gathering today!! Yip Skip!!! Have a great weekend!!

Happy knitting!!!

Lavender Fields Forever

This is dedicated to you L-B!!

Imagine all the lavender wands you could make! Mercy!!

Picture credits go to my sister Laurie who is on sabbatical in Europe and was in Sault, France when she took these lovely photos!!

...Lattes, Lavender and knitting..."heavenly" sums it up correctly, Rani!

Oh! And what do we have here...two toes...and anatomical, too

Hmmmmm......

Paris....France, that is!

A knitting bee in Paris!!! How cool is that?

No, I didn't hop a jet for a weekend abroad...I wish!! My sister is on a Sabbatical and touring Europe. She gave me permission to post this pic she took of knitters in Paris!!!

What's in your garden?

These pictures were actually taken in my mom's garden! She is an awesome gardener. Sadly, I did not inherit her green thumb...I opted to marry a wonderful landscape contractor dude instead...that would be Mr. NK!

Right now the Impatiens are engulfing one finished Sherbet STR Monkey sock

And a lovely Monsoon sock accessorizes an amazing Hosta that is just beginning to bloom.

Sorry for the anemic color in this photo!

Ebergie asked about the color of the Monsoon yarn: It is gray. I find it hard to photograph, and I am not a photoshop maven...yet...sometimes it shows up more purply-blue...but it is a lovely gray in real life!

Rani asked about the "groovy bumpy edge": Thanks Rani! I'm glad you like that cuff! It's my fave! It's a picot edge. My preference is to cast on, knit 6 rounds, YO-K2tog around, knit 6 rounds, pick up stitches around the cast on edge, bring the edges together with the knit side facing toward you, and K1 picked up stitch with one original stitch around (kind of like a 3 needle bind off, only you don't bind off!).

For those wondering what I'm doing with those safety pins holding the live stitches on my toes...I never kitchener my toes until both socks are knit and fit correctly...Welcome to my world! :)

If I were a finger...

I saw this over at Sivia's.

You Are a Ring Finger

You are romantic, expressive, and hopeful. You see the best in everything. You are very artistic, and you see the world as your canvas. You are also drawn to the written word. Inventive and unique, you are often away in your own inner world. You get along well with: The Pinky Stay away from: The Index Finger

What Finger Are You?

Surprise visitors

Look what Mr. NK found in the Peony patch!

He was sooo happy!

We have some monkey progress...And check out my Monsoons....

Happy weekend everyone!

Knit on!!

Knitters Rule!

Hey, did y'all see what's up at Claudia's blog? She has almost reached her goal of $20,000 for the NMSS!!! Her new goal is $30,000 by June 25th! She's confident. I'm confident.

And Anne's booster club is out of control.

Go read Claudia's post here. Knitters were third, that would be 3rd, as a group in raising funds for the NMSS!! Worldwide. WORLD-frickin-WIDE.

Knitters rule.

Now go do something positive with that power!

I know you can.

Finished Dreidel Socks

We have completion!! Yay!!

Check out how that Zigzag pattern blocks out on the feet!

Check out the perfect striping on the legs...The glory that is STR!

The inside edge of my picot

Specs:

Pattern: My own using the Lacy Zigzag chart from the perpetual knitting calendar
Yarn: STR Dreidel Lightweight

Needles: 3.0 mm on the leg; 2.25 mm for the heel; 2.5 mm for the foot/toe

Other than my usual: Anatomical toe ala PGR

Fit: Amazingly, wonderfully awesome!! I am thrilled with how these socks turned out!

Did you see what Anne is doing over at Knitspot...go on over....she's hosting a booster campaign for Claudia...show them some support if you're so inclined! BTW, Claudia has less than $4,000 to raise to reach her goal of $20,000 for the National MS Society!! These women rock!!!

The First Saturday of Summer

I was up early and cast on with my Monsoon (STR sockclub from February...yes, I'm way behind). After much thought, I decided to knit a non-club pattern.

Then, Mr. NK and I went to the local cafe for breakfast...we sat outside, ate, drank an endless cup of coffee...and I cast on for yet another pair of socks!

We walked up to the local Saturday Market where we found these beauties...

I sat under nature's canopy...

and knit on my Monsoons...

While Mr. NK contemplated his wooden kayak...

A perfect summer's day!

Hanukkah in May!

SIP post!! Yippy skippy! I started these STR Dreidel socks quite awhile ago! I finished the first one last week, and almost completed the second one over the long weekend...go figure the time difference!

A sassy picot cuff!

STR Dreidel (lightweight) in Lacy Zigzag pattern

Jordin was on Fire!

I think she pulled it off! I was afraid at first, as Simon was a wee bit critical...then she pulled out the Martina McBride song and I knew she was back in the game and playing to win it all!

And then...then...I remembered the last song...probably a mushy piece...it had never been heard before so Blake didn't know who or what to imitate...But my girl Jordin...she nailed it, and she did "wipe the floor with him". Thank you Simon!

So, stop reading this silly blog and get to dialing!

1-866-43657-02; 04; 06

Fetal position

Who could've predicted it, except for maybe the Vegas troglodytes.

Melinda went home. It is very hard to type while in the fetal position with my thumb in my mouth. Y'all know how I've felt about Melinda. She was one of my girls. She was the best. It was her and Jordin all the way. I'm too stunned to type much more.

Jordin was safe, yay. Blake the poser will be in the finals...unfrickinbelievable.

My husband won't let me vote next year and support such a travesty. No worries. I'm not sure I even want to watch AI next year unless the voting is totally revamped.

Hell has frozen over. We are definitely in Sanjaya's universe, and it is not pretty.

Knitters against MS!

Hello Dear Readers!

Well, it's that time of year again....the sun is out, the sky is blue, for some of us our knitting is put aside for outdoorsy pursuits. You know what else it's time for??? Come on...I know you know!

It's time to support Claudia on her annual MS 150 bike ride!

That's right. Two days. 150 miles. All for multiple sclerosis!

You might remember that MS is close to the knitterly hearts of us here at weheartyarn. I am a research scientist in an MS research laboratory in Portland, OR. We are working very hard to find a cure for this debilitating disease. We have friends with MS. We have friends whose children have MS. We know other knitters with MS.

MS is an unauthorized attack on the central nervous system by cells in the body that normally protect us. MS affects over 500,000 people in the U.S. MS causes a range of chronic and progressive symptoms, including fatigue, numbness and paralysis.

It's time to wipe out MS. Now.

Please, follow the link in the side bar to Claudia's Knitters Against MS page, read why she is riding, and please consider donating as you can. Last year Claudia and her team raised almost $18,000 dollars, this year she is aiming for $20,000!!

Please, help Claudia ride for those who no longer can.

We heart you Claudia!

Thank you in advance, for making this her most successful ride yet!!!

Growing Pains

Dear Readers,
I'm glad you found us! I hope the web-ride to get here wasn't too bad!

We have been transferring domain names here at WHY...who knew it would cause such chaos!

For the time being, you can get to us directly by using our http://www.weheartyarn.blogspot.com URL.

Hopefully our domain name, weheartyarn.com, will be able to communicate again with Blogger directly. Soon, very soon we hope!

We are so sorry for the inconvenience, but so appreciate your loyalty!!

ETA: We are back in business here at WHY!!! woot!!! Brinkster mended us! You can now reach us via www.weheartyarn.com AND weheartyarn.com

Now, back to regularly scheduled knitting!!! :)

What are Saturdays for?

A little bit of knitting...I finished up my Popsicle socks!

Specs:
Pattern: Toe up, short row heel, Feather and Fan cuff
Yarn: Spunky Eclectic Super Nova 'Popsicle', 1 skein
Needles: 2.5 mm for the foot, 3 mm for the cuff
Stitches: 64 stitches, increasing to 72 for the cuff
Fit: ooohlala!! I heart them!

...A little napping...my two favorite guys were tuckered out after the Kentucky Derby!

And on our way out to dinner, we came across something neither one of us had ever seen before...A vulture...I would've rather captured a photo of the hawks and eagles that periodically hang out...but I had never seen one of these critters before...

I hope your Saturday was all that you wanted it to be and then some!

And since I'm posting about Saturday on Wednesday, I'll throw in my AI commentary...fair to midland, partly cloudy. I predict Blake is going home...Nobody was particularly stellar, I think they're getting tired. Jordin and Melinda have a steady history of good/great/masterful performances so I think we'll be seeing them in the finals. Lakisha will be off next week. Just a prediction...

ETA post results show: Well, WG, it looks like I'm buying coffee!! So, Lakisha went home tonight. I'm not surprised, but I guess my wishful thinking didn't serve me well in my ability to predict...Next week: bye-bye Blake!

Hail and Popsicles

It's May in PDX. Time for a hail storm, I guess.

Luckily I have one toasty popsicle completed, with the second well underway!

Happy Knitting!!

And then there were four

Yeh baby...Jordin is safe...and they didn't do any of that pregnant-pause messing around with her stuff!! Yay!!!

My girls Melinda and Lakisha were also safe!!! Double Yay!

Blake was safe.

Although I was hoping that it would be Chris and Phil leaving us tonight, I found myself a wee bit, just a weeeeeee bit mind you...sorry to see them leave. Phil had been doing really well the last few weeks and opened up Bon Jovi night with a bang! Chris had been so-so, but last night was he brought it home and I liked him...last night! It's good to leave on a high note...

If you can't sing it once, why bother with it twice..you know what I'm saying, right?!

Good bye Chris and Phil...best wishes! Let the games begin!!

Gibson (who would be the cat, not Mr. NK) was so excited that Jordin was safe he rolled around in his kitty litter. 'nuf said.

Knitting content in the next post! Stay tuned...at least one, maybe two finished Spunky Super Nova popsicle socks for your viewing pleasure!

ETA 5/4/07: For those inquiring minds (Hi Courtney!!), Bon Jovi was hot!!! That guy just doesn't seem to age or lose his hair, does he! The song they performed on AI is being released to country stations and you can see the video of it here!