A Pinwheel for Valentine...

The other day, I made the big mistake of reading the news! To say that I felt worried would be an understatement. Instead of panicking, I grabbed some lovely yarn, and knit something that I knew would make me smile instantly: a sweater for my sweet Valentine, my droopy-eared chihuhua girl.

I had this ball and a half left of Artful Yarns Heavenly. It was bulky and stripy, in other words, a perfect match for a quick pinwheel sweater. I read the pattern on Elann, quickly cast on and absorbed myself in the peacefulness of the circular knitting...

I did not even have to make any alterations. I placed the leg holes at the appropriate place for Valentine, and stopped the knitting as soon as I judged the sweater was long enough. I seamed the sweater under the belly, and crocheted a row of slip stitches along the armholes!

It took only a few hours, and after that, I felt utterly relaxed and seeing Valentine proudly parading the sweater brought the inevitable smile to my face. After I covered her with kisses, I truly felt that the world had to be the most perfect place...

This Week's Colorways...

The SockPixie colorways are here. They are using the same impressionist technique as last week, but this time with a little added twist: each colorway comes with its own skein of contrast color so that you may knit the cuff, heel, and toe wit it, or stripe, or chevron, or knit my Bird of a Feather pattern!
The colorways have a fun spirit, there is even a Dalmation color!
Have fun with these new colorways...

Impressionist Colorways

Here are the new SockPixie colors for this week. My inspiration this week was the art of the impressionists. I was so obsessed with getting the right look,that I worked on a very different way to dye the yarn to get it to have this soft almost random color impression. Each color touch is nop more than 3 stitches. I just love the effect, and best of all there is no pooling!
Here is a knit sample.



I have been so busy that posting to the blog as been really hard, but I have been knitting a lot, and have a lot to share with you in coming posts.

I hope that you enjoy my impressionists!

SockPixie Van Gogh Colorways

This week SockPixie was inspired by Van Gogh's paintings. I loved the sun in them, and their marvelous blues. They capture the lights of France, and bring me home a little.
I hope you enjoy them.

Which One, which One....

I will be on Jury duty tomorrow. I have never been called upon to serve as a juror, neither in France nor here in the US. I am actually excited about it, as this should be an interesting, and educational experience for me. But before I go, I have a serious problem to solve. Some of you may be wondering whether I am trying to reconcile my experience of the inquisitorial French legal system, with the adversarial American justice system, in order to go to court tomorrow with an open mind, leaving behind this cultural bias. Well, yes I have been thinking about the differences between the 2 legal systems, but there is another pressing question on my mind. What should I bring with me to court? Knitting or Needlepoint, that is the question!




As far as knitting goes, I am one sleeve away from being done with the sweater for R.. Father's day is dangerously close and the sweater though completely inappropriate for the weather would be a really nice present. I could be done by the end of tomorrow, but it is really hot, and I don't know how well air conditioned the courthouse is, the sweater is very bulky and heavy at this point (it does have to cover my 6 foot 3 husband!). Knitting the sleeve is pretty much thoughtless.



As far as needlepoint goes, I am deep in the middle of the Kimono. The project is very portable, and weather friendly. I have even bought a non scissors yarn cutter. I could make quite a lot of progress on it. On the downside, I can't give that to my husband for father's day, though he has been very appreciative of the piece, which means I still have to either knit the sweater or find another present.

I hate having to make these kinds of decisions. I could take both with me, but then again, the courthouse security might find it odd that I am carrying so many bags. And furthermore I would only be postponing the decision. I can just see myself in the waiting room, talking to myself and begging my projects to help me decide! I might have to just use the very old but proven scientific method of "pic et pic et colegram, bour et bour et ratatam, am, stram, gram." (iny, miny,miny, mo)

So here we go, pic et pic et colegram, bour et bour et ratatam, am, stram, gram... Knitt... I'll just do it again to be sure! Pic et pic et colegram, bour et bour et ratatam, am, stram, gram... Needlepoint! It has been SCIENTIFICALLY decided that I will take my needlepoint!!

The Colors of Life

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments about Miche. I am feeling a little better today, and have been focusing a lot on my work. I got absorbed in creating my colorways for this week, and creating them gave me a lot of joy. I researched antique carpets, embroidery, and tapestries, and feasted on the colors and designs.
All these beautiful works of art became my inspiration for this week's SockPixie colorways, and I hope that you will enjoy them.



Tapestries, and needlework made a big come back in my life this week. I pulled a needlepoint canvas that I had started years ago out of a storage box, and started working on it again, and as it always worked in the past, needlepointing did its magic on me. I find that when I needlepoint, I delight in the colors, in the shapes that appear, and I loose myself in the creative stitchery.
So here is a picture of the needlepoint in question. It represents my favorite street in San Francisco, Lombard Street. (The needlepoint is actually finished, but I do not have a picture of the finished project yet.I have even started a new one, a kimono this time, and I will share that with you later.)

Today, the most beautiful thing happened.My Passion Flower plant, bloomed. Life is marvelous...

My Little Miche

I need to take a moment and stop to reflect on the last few days. Family matters kept me busy over the last 2 weeks. Finally as things were settling down, our little world was shaken again. It is so hard to express my sadness at the loss of our little cat Miche. Miche passed away last night in our oldest daughter's arms with all of us around him. We will miss you Miche. Thank you for all the love you gave us. You will remain in our hearts forever.