Waiting Game

It snowed about a foot on Friday. It didn't stop snowing until Saturday around noon. It almost hurts to look outside because everything is white. That in mind, it's the perfect weather for sitting and knitting. =) I finished my Shalom sweater yesterday. Now I'm just waiting for the buttons to arrive so I can attach them and wear it.

I decided the neck line is a bit too wide. When I tried it on it felt like it was going to slide off my shoulders a little. I'm going to see how it wears with buttons. If it's not much better I'm going to crochet around the neckline (like this) for some added stability.

Also on my last post I talked about working on a design idea for the Ravelympics. HOWEVER! My friend is getting married on the 26th and I need a shawl to wear. Does that seem like more of a challenge? Of course it does. I'm thinking I'm going to know the smallest size of the Aeolian Shawl in fingering weight yarn without the beads (Beads are annoying and time consuming.) I figure if I knit the smallest size it will give me a good chance of being done in time (I'll actually need to be finished on the 25th, not the 28th so it will be blocked and ready to go on Friday night) and the fingering weight (Probably on size 3 needles) will give me a decent sized shawl and not just a shawlette.

I have a black dress picked out with some blue accents, so I'm thinking I need some blue yarn! Of course nothing I have in the stash will fit my needs so unfortunately (HA!) I'll need to buy something to suit my purposes!

To the Finish Line!

I've been diligently working on my Shalom Cardigan. This morning I finished the first sleeve and I am currently ready to pick up stitches for the second. It is nearly impossible to get a good shot of this thing indoors, and it's cold outside so I wasn't exactly in the mood for an outside photo shoot...

In any case I will definitely be finished with it this weekend! I'm so excited! I love it already. I purchased some hand made wooden buttons on Etsy yesterday for the sweater. I think this will be my new favorite clothing item. =D


In other knitting related news, the Winter Knitting Olympics are coming up! I sort of decided to do this again. I participated in the Ravelympics last summer (I think it was last summer, anyway). This time I'm going to do something a little bit more challenging! I have a design in the works with the blue Malabrigo that I purchased from Eat.Sleep.Knit. I'll be attempting to finish that during the Winter Olympics. It actually shouldn't be too hard to finish in the time allotted, but that's only assuming I don't have to rip anything out!

Shalom!

So remember like ages ago I got some brown Casacde Ecologial wool? It started out as the Windowpane Coat, as a sleeve of an O.W.L.S. sweater, and then at a loss about what to do with it I had a survey.

After the survey nothing really happened with it. Until this past Sunday. I gave up on Velia for a while. She's in time out. I was knitting Velia because I wanted a heavier sweater that I could knit quickly and wear while it was still cold outside. So the answer to that is the Shalom Cardigan.

I cast on on Sunday and last night I finished the yolk. My gauge was a bit smaller so I did have to cast on some extra stitches and also change the increases, but I'm loving it so far. I'm fairly sure I want it to be long sleeved which I thought might be complicated to do but the whole thing is really simple and ingenious! Plus I love a good twisted rib.

I did a bit of a photo shoot today, but Photobucket wasn't cooperating and I only got one picture uploaded...

Hopefully this will go quickly and I'll have a finished product within the next week or so!

Last minute!

Ahhh, I almost didn't post this week! Well today was the end of a 50 hour work week! Tomorrow will be my first day off in a week and I'm planning on an all day date with my PJs and knitting needles.

So guys remember this?

After several hours of knitting... it still looks like this. Why, you ask? Because I ripped it out after much knitterly denial. I cast on way too few for the neck line. I'm about at the same spot again... however... I think the neck may still be too small. x.x There goes about 8 hours of my life that I'll never get back... lol!

So in addition to uselessly knitting on my sweater I've been agonizing over what yarn I wanted to buy with my $50 yarn credit from Eat.Sleep.Knit. I knew that I wanted enough sock yarn to make the Honeybee Cardigan [Ravel it!]. I saw this in person at Rhinebeck, Jesh knit one of the samples and is featured in the pattern. I've had my eye on it for a while, but when Cosmicpluto put up that part of her pattern proceeds would go to Haiti I knew it was the right time to buy it.

I also knew 2 things about the yarn I wanted. Well, I really wanted STR Medium weight, but that's a little too expensive for a sweater in my size! Anyhow, I knew that I wanted a color that would show off the unique stitch pattern, and I wanted something that wasn't a color that I had a ton of already. After much deliberation (much... I made a spread sheet, people) I came to rest on Malabrigo Sock in Ravelry Red. What I really wanted was the Tiziano Red, but it wasn't in stock and I didn't want to wait for it.. hehe.

And, since they give free shipping if you spend $75 or more I of course had to get something else! That was only going to be another $20 or so! So I got some Lorna's Laces in Beverly.

Super exciting!

Happy Sunday everyone!

One Week Mittens

It's been really cold here in Ohio and it's been snowing more or less for 2 weeks. Luckily we didn't get anymore snow yesterday or today and the sun has been out to melt it off the roads and parking lots. Anyhow, the point is that all of this cold weather calls for cold weather gear! Like new boots!

On Sunday my mom and I went to Cincinnati to the Ikea store to buy my brother a bed frame. We stayed for 3 hours and we bought a lot of other things. I love that store! When I move out we're furnishing our apartment with Ikea furniture! Another point of the trip was that I was still wearing flats with no socks around and I needed some boots. Some translated into 6 pairs, 5 dress and 1 warm pair. This boot is from Columbia and it was majorly on sale! Yes!

I also needed a pair of mittens! I've been wearing my Under the Tree Mitts, and they worked find until it started getting really cold and now I definitely need some mitts with tops! That's where the Snapdragon Flip Tops come in. After aforementioned snafus, I cranked these guys out in only 1 week and they are currently ready to go. Well, after I dunk 'em in some wash that is.

Specs:
Yarn: Buckeye Alpaca worsted, Natural from "Kalynda"
Needles: Size 6
Pattern: Snapdragon Flip Tops [Ravel it!] by Ysolda Teagues
Mods: I added an extra round of increases because I have big man hands
Thoughts: LOVE!!



Also I mentioned that I was going to order the Madeline Tosh yarn that the original mittens were made of. IT CAME TODAY! OMGOMGOMGOMG!

I love it. =) It's not quite as orange as I had hoped, but I still love it. I also ordered some of the Malabrigo Twist in "Azul Profundo", their Aran/Worsted weight plied yarn. I have plans for this. Very specific plans. We'll see if they work out.

*ETA: The Madeline Tosh photographs oranger than it is, it's really more of a yellowy golden color irl, still quite lovely and squishy, though.

And last but not least, I started a sweater from the Briar Rose yarn that I got at Rhinebeck. Hopefully this is a quick knit as well. I have so many things that I want to make... if only I could grow another set of arms!

I almost forgot! The Madeline Tosh/Mal came with a scratch off ticked from Eat.Sleep.Knit. (Where I ordered it, the only place that had the Madeline Tosh in "Gilded"!) and I WON A $50 CREDIT! WOO! I never win stuff like that so I am very, very excited about it. =)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

New Year

Okay so how bad is it that I'm almost breaking one of my resolutions already? I resolved to post at least once a week this year. Since the 1st was on a Friday I'm counting this as the first post in the first week.

I've been very absent in my online life lately. I really just blame it on one thing... I bought The Sims 3 the day after Christmas. I. Am. Addicted. It's a great knitting game, as long as you're not doing anything too complicated. I've knit 2 wash cloths (in a great bright blue for the BF they were supposed to be for Christmas, but we won't talk about that) and most of a mitten so far.

I seriously considered doing a Sims 3 blog, but I think that's just way too much work. There's all the screen captures, uploading and editing the photos, so The Sims are just for me, and I'm okay with that. =)

The mittens I'm knitting are Snap Dragon Flip Tops by (who else) Ysolda. It's a really great pattern, and I've actually probably knit the cuff at least 2.5 times by now because A) The yarn I used originally, I think I'm allergic to. That made me really sad because it's from the Hope Spinnery, which uses natural dyes and wind energy to spin the yarn. That was the yarn I chose exclusively for the mitten/hat set. B) I kept not paying attention the charts and having to tink back. Usually I can just get the jist of a chart and be on my way, but the cable charts don't go exactly how you'd think so I kept making little mistakes.

The yarn I'm using now is from a local Alpaca farm named Buckeye Alpaca and it's soft and lovely. The mittens are going to be super warm and I'm pretty happy with them. There's only one problem. The color. It's a natural brown color and it's lovely. However, I fell in love with the eye popping orangey yellow of Ysolda's originals. I'm actually considering making another pair with the exact yarn that she used... There's just something about the color of it that I absolutely love.

Anywho, one of my Christmas presents was a new camera (Yay!). It's a Nikon (YAY!). It's not like an SLR or anything but it has 12 megapixel resolution, where my other camera only has 7. So you can look forward (hopefully) to some new and improved photos!

One Month (and 2 days)

That's how long it's been since my last post! Holy geeze! It's not like I haven't been doing anything. I've started a couple of new projects. One of which is a scarf of my own design that I may actually write a pattern for. (I also worked on a pattern for the felted bag I tried, but more on that later) I have all of these design ideas flying around in my head but I don't actually get a lot of time to work them out with the sticks and string. That will probably change here in a couple of days, though when the holiday season is over.

Yeah, remember all of my "I started early and I'm finishing everything, I'm so relaxed..." blah blah blah last month? Well I was all of that. Until I decided (like last year) that I needed to make a bunch more Christmas presents last minute (Ala Yarn Harlot). *sigh*

I don't know what was up with the lack of blogging. I think I just don't really like to blog unless I have a picture or two for you all and so I kept putting it off and putting it off... although I was on a roll there for a while with all of those posts every 2 days.

Ah well, I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive. ;-)

I really would like to blog regularly. Maybe I'll make it my New Year's resolution...