The Birds are After Me!

Well, one bird was, anyway. It flew straight at my face and scared the you know what out of me. I screeched and nearly fell off the step stool I had been standing on trying to get a look inside the bird house. Yes, it was my fault that the bird flew straight at my face. I had watched the bird house off and on for a few days and had concluded that the residents had flown the coop. I was nosey, though and wanted a look. I took a step stool and placed it on the uneven ground near the house and stepped up, tried to see inside, got closer and aaaiiieee it flew right out at me. I ducked, and wobbled but managed not to fall or twist anything out of whack when I landed. Of course, I could not have been lucky enough for that little stunt to go unnoticed..... a man walking down the street called out 'Are you OK?" Face red, heart still racing I responded in the affirmative, took my stool and slunk back into the house. DH just shook his head.

Thursday night Needle Exchange at the LYS was good. We all, of course, re-hashed the paint smell thing. After that was over we chatted about vacations, kids, yarn and spinning. Several of the regulars at the Needle Exchange had been persuaded to purchase drop spindles and fiber at MD Sheep and Wool Festival, so we've been spinning a bit at our Thursday night gatherings, in addition to knitting.
Nancy's Labyrinth sweater is still thin (remember, it's a strip of knitting with increases and decreases that zig and zag that will eventually make a sweater) but growing and the yarn is so yummy. It's alpaca, which I love, and the colors will be shades of browns and grays. Karen's shawl with the silver in the yarn is gorgeous. The pattern is cool, Jade Sapphire's Swirled Pearl Shawlette (click on additional patterns, and it's the bottom right pattern) and the silver shot through the deep blue not quite solid yarn is stunning. Angela is working on a beautiful linen wrap. I love linen and this yarn is a Claudia's handpainted yarn so the colors are great. Of course there were socks and sweaters and other things being worked on as well, but those are my favorite things going on right now.

I am still working on the sleeves for my cardigan and I knitted another hex on the shawl.

I haven knitted and frogged and knitted on my new project. I added the stitches for the square neck on the tank top in Wool in the Woods Dunluce, knitted a few rows and decided that the neck opening would be too wide. I ripped back to the join and cast on fewer stitches for the neck. I need to knit a few more rows before I can tell whether I have the right number this time. The close-up of the stitch pattern is pretty accurate for color. 

My new sock is being knitted in Jitterbug. I thought I would make a stockinette sock with this yarn but when I had a few inches of the toe knitted it seemed to cry out for a simple stitch pattern. I search for a little while and came up with this basket weave pattern. It's simple enough that I can still use this as my travel sock but I think it shows off the yarn nicely. What do you think?