And Now....Back to our regularly scheduled program!

Hey folks!
I'm sorry for the delay.....LOTS going on in the past couple of months, but thanks to few prodding friends, I'm still trucking on with the socks. (correction: KNITTING on!)

Guess what!!!!  I made it to stitch 100,000! I even decided to mark it with a stitch marker, see!

Now you may wonder what I've been up to, I sometimes wonder that myself! Perhaps this will partly explain where I have been. You see....I have a new man in my life! Well.....actually more of a boy.
Andre Vincent Whipple VonSchwamp (don't ask) was born on Feb 10, 2013, and came home to live with me around the 3rd of April! 

 Andre is a German Angora rabbit, and yes....he has be wrapped around his little paw. 

I've been learning a LOT about bunnies and angoras, thanks to my new friend Vicky of Bunny Gold. She currently has over 50 of these precious friends at her home and has been coaching me along the way.

I was introduced to Vicky at a local yarn shop, and when she found out I was a spinner, she was insistent that every spinner should have a bunny companion.

I've been thinking about a pet, and while I dearly love all pets, I don't consider myself a cat person, and I don't have the right lifestyle to have a dog. 

Andre is the perfect companion! 

 Here he is a few days after his first shearing:

 That's right....I said shearing. True...there are some Angoras that can be plucked or brushed...but the German Angora was developed over years to be shorn, Much like a sheep. Except that he needs a haircut every 90 days!  Now it will take a full 12 months for Andre to reach full size, right now he's about 3lbs.  At full size he could be up to 13lbs!  That's a lot of bun!  But the really cool thing is that he'll be able to produce about 4lbs of angora fiber a year!  That's a lot of such a little guy.

Well, I could go on an on about him, but this is supposed to be about knitting.  Vicky had a booth at Vogue Knitting Live in Bellevue, Washington and she asked me to design a sweater using the DK weight 50/50 Merino Angora yarn.  What do you think?

I will tell you that after this photo, I re-worked the collar, I ripped it out and did more rows on a smaller size needle and it looked much better.  I'll see if I can get Vicky to send me an updated photo.

I will be putting up the pattern on Ravelry in June, and I will try to put a link to it here on the blog.

The sweater is a top down construction, (NO SEAMS!) and even though it is very textured, you don't need a cable needle to make this sweater!  The stitch design is all twisted stitches.

Yes....I'm getting back to the socks!



I was invited to participate in a fund raiser on Vashon Island to help raise funds for the Vashon Senior Center.  This wonderful facility is a very busy and active place on the island, but as is true with almost any non-profit, they work on a tight budget to do as much as possible for the community. One of the ways that they do this is by providing meals to some of the seniors, however...they can't prepare the hot meals in the kitchen! So they have to bring them in.  Well the LOAFERS (a local knitting guild) decided to have a fund raiser and do a marathon knitting day.  It was called....Stitchin for a Kitchen!  Isn't that GREAT! (I'm hoping that Myra or someone might put a link for the event on here)  Here is the link to their website. Now I do believe that we were successful in raising enough money for the oven, but it's going to take about $50, 000 to re-do the entire kitchen. So I'm sure they would welcome your tax-deductible contribution. (There's address at the bottom of their website.)  They told me to tell, you just to put "kitchen" in the memo of the check should you decide to help them out.


The following day......I was invited to make a couple of appearances on the island with the socks.

First at the Pharmacy:

And then over to the Island Quilter, and this is really  a WONDERFUL quilt shop!
I think they have over 3,000 bolts of amazing quilting fabrics, and they always have such beautiful displays of quilts.

And at 4:48, just about closing time.....the 100,000th stitch was reached!

So....this means that all the "foot" stitches are now completed, and it's time to move on to the increases for the instep gusset!  Stay tuned folks! And thanks for sticking around!