Beading and Knitting and Friends Oh My!

Ok, now how cute is this? The picture above is my friend Shannon and her husband, Chad, at her grandparent's 50th Wedding Anniversary party last weekend. Note his hand placement. What do you think he is hiding??

Ta da! It's the beaded motif I fixed for her. Hard to see in the pic, but it doesn't matter about that. I just love the way he did that. Cracks me up!!


I still am not finished with Renee's wallet. I've got the pockets sewn into place and although the picture doesn't show it, I finished the leaf vine too. I finally got smart and rather than line the pockets with pellon and a satin-y material, I used ultrasuede which eliminated me having to 'hem' the lining. So much easier and faster too.

The inside flap and the liner aren't in place yet, but that will have to wait because I'm personally challenging myself by taking a sock knitting class (thanks Jackie). Oh boy.

I have done some knitting in the past. Felted Bags (simply so I would have a place to put these large beaded flowers I was making at the time - I'll have to post some pics of those someday), a sweater that never got finished and a few pretty shawls. But other than that, I've never adventured into something like this.

I was really overwhelmed in the class. Right off the bat, I found out I cast on differently than everyone else in the world (apparently). So here I am learning to cast on while everyone else in the class is zipping along getting their 60 stitches on the needle. Great, not looking too good here.

A lot of chatter going on, which is normally a good thing, but I needed to concentrate on every little thing I was doing, and I kept getting distracted. I swear I had to re-count my cast on stitches 20 times! And those needles - jeepers I felt like I had Shrek hands. Considering I work with a needle and thread everyday, I was surprised at how clutzy I felt with these tiny little needles.

I got home after 2 hours of class and had less than a 1/2" finished, but at least I could see the ribbing pattern forming. I knitted away yesterday morning before work for about an hour and then after work some more and then......yikes. Not sure where I went wrong, but it was way wrong. After attempting to un-knit I finally gave up and just ripped the whole thing out. I wasn't even sure if I would remember how to get it started again, but I was so disgusted that I knew I had to at least try. I didn't want to go back to class on Monday and ask the instructor to figure out my mess, it just didn't seem fair. And after all, I'm challenging myself here, right? And I'll need to know how to start for the second sock in the pair, right? So I made the decision to start fresh.

After two attempts, I finally got it cast on and after about 3 hours of time, this is what I have to show for it:

But I really like doing it and now that I can (almost) do it without every ounce of my brain cells burning up, I'm confident that I will get my homework done. I'm not even going to think about the heel part...........