Insert creative title here

Shelly

2011-12-10T15:39:00.005-07:00

Hi all. Don't be mad... I've been gone for almost a year. So much has happened since the last post, but almost none of it crafting. It is, however, that time of the year again. And I thought my first post back here would be in style with a free pattern for you all. This is a cowl that I made for my Grandmother. It's made of alpaca local to my home back in Ohio. I wanted something simple and warm, but with just a bit of femininity and this cowl fits the bill. I was not originally planning on adding a border to this, however the 2 sts of garter on each side did not keep the edges from curling (you forget these kinds of things when you've been away for a while ;]). The perfect solution was a crocheted shell border.

This cowl is knit length wise, grafted together, and then the border is crocheted on. This one had a fairly small circumference (but then again my Grandma is about 98 lbs). But it fits me fine, it's close to the neck. Knit it longer for a looser fit, or you could even do a mobius if you knit it long enough and then add a twist before grafting. It's up to you.

In any case, enjoy. =)

Pattern Specs:

Yarn: Buckeye Alpaca Worsted

Needles: Size 7 & Crochet hook size H/5mm

Gauge: 5.5 sts per inch

Notions:

Tapestry needle
Smooth scrap yarn (such as cotton)

Get the Pattern: Ravel it! Not on Ravelry? Get it here.

Overhaul

2011-02-28T20:00:00.001-07:00

Hey all. Another month has gone by. It's amazing how much faster time goes when you're an adult. When you're a kid you just want time to hurry up, and when you're adult you just want it to slow down a little so you can catch up with it. Oh well, we always want what we don't have, right?

I'm sorry for my absence. The truth is that my life went topsy turvy a little bit. I ended my 4.5 year relationship just a couple of weeks ago. For more than one reason, but mostly because we're not right for each other anymore (this is where the distinction between loving someone and being in love with someone comes in). It was amicable and a mutual decision and I am doing well. Some days better than others. It is both harder and easier than I thought it would be. I will soon be moving in with some good friends so I think it will make things easier. For now, I have another three months to spend in my empty apartment. I think it will be good, albeit lonely, for me to be by myself for a while.

In light of all this my crafting mojo is in recession again, otherwise I'm sure the January sweater would be finished by now. I only have the back, button bands, and collar to knit.

I can't promise I'll be back soon, but I will be back.

TTFN.

January

2011-01-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

It's almost the end of January, can you believe it? You know, January is usually a time for reflection throughout the blogosphere. For crafters they go over projects from the previous year and think about what they've learned, and in general there is reflection about the previous year and the events therein. Some big changes happened for me last year, the biggest that I moved to Arizona, half way across the country. I also lost my craft mojo for a while , but as I'm sure you noticed, it's been back for a while. I think it's just hard to knit when it's 110* outside.

And, lucky for you, that's about all I have for reflection. I'm more about the future, or at least living in the moment.

Now for the real reason that I started writing today, my January sweater. It is not, as the name may imply, finished, but I have gotten a big portion of it done. I'm very pleased with the progress, especially since it involved cabling pretty much every right side row. It's based on the September sweater tutorial [Ravel it!]. I've already made some big changes, but those are partially because of the significant size difference. The cable patterns that I'm using are different from the original sweater as well. The main cable (the encased cable) has a different number of knits/purls so that it flowed better with the 2x2 ribbing. I also used a braided cable pattern from The Complete Book of Traditional Aran Knitting by Shelagh Hollingworth. First printed in 1982 this version is probably from 1989. I picked it up for $6 at a Half Price Books. It has some great cable patterns in it as well as some great traditional aran sweaters.

I almost have the top half finished. =)

This is the Briar Rose yarn I got a Rhinebeck that was a different failed project a while back (almost a year ago exactly, huh). The color is really difficult to photograph, it always comes out too red. With a little tweaking I got this picture to be more or less the right color.

Also this month I finished a pair of worsted weight socks for my dad and I started Volna by Grumperina. I knew as soon as I saw the pattern I wanted to knit it, and when my dad came to town earlier this month giving us a reason to drive to San Diego (also to visit my Aunt & Uncle where I turned my Aunt into a budding knitter and yarn snob ;-] ) I needed a more portable project. I'm making it out of Noro Kirameki in, incidently, the same colorway as Grumperina, although I didn't do it on purpose per-se. It just happened to match the Noro slouchy hat that I made!

Anyhow, that's all for now, folks. =)

Scrappy Make-Up Bag

2011-01-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

I made this following Anna's tutorial. It was so easy! Sewing is awesome! I made this in an hour and a half! EEE! I love the way it turned out. I may have forced my boyfriend to look at it several times telling him intelligent things like "You can put stuff in it!"

Inside of this one is some bronzing face powder, a bronzer stick, and some lip gloss for my step sister. I think she'll like it a lot.

I don't know why it looks all neony here. It's not neon, promise.

The bottom is great because it really does help it stand up! It also has a nice body to it from the batting (I used fusible fleece because it's what I have). It's made with some quilting cotton, although the polka dot fabric is corduroy which is why the fuzzies were sticking to it.

It's more like this!

I fully intend to make another one (Or 1,000,000).

Thanks for the great tutorial Anna!

A Tale of Two (Slouchy) Hats

2011-01-03T12:00:00.009-07:00

There once was a spinner who made some great yarn.

That spinner had a great boyfriend who really loved said yarn and told her "I want you to make me something out of this."

The spinner (also a knitter) said "Okay, what do you want?"

The boyfriend said "I don't know, a hat?"

The spinner said "But that will take a long time and I spent a lot of time making the yarn so there was a lot of yardage so I could make something interesting!"

The boyfriend said "Pleeeeease?"

And so the spinner agreed, although they didn't agree on a time frame or anything. So, in secret she knit (And knit and knit!). Keeping it a secret was no mean feat! For the boyfriend and the spinner dwell in the same place. And when she finished the requested object she almost burst at the seams, for this was exactly perfect. She wanted to give it to her boyfriend immediately, but soon the green eyed monster reared its head.

Alas, being one to keep her promises, she wrapped the hat and put it under their tiny Christmas tree to be opened on Christmas and received with much glee! On Christmas morning the boyfriend was glad to have the hat that he requested not so long ago.

He smiled and thanked the spinner, and in return she said, "Finally! Now I can make one for myself!" And she did. And they both were really happy. The end.

Pattern Specs:
Yarn: Hat 1- Handspun BFL Hat 2-Noro Silk Garden Sock (Seen also here)
Needles: Sizes 3 & 4 (Size 3 for the ribbing)
Pattern: Felicity by Wanett Clyde [Rav only], the sock yarn version [Rav only] Mods by Bluebutton
Mods: I knit about 2" of ribbing instead of a rolled brim. I used larger needles than the sock yarn version. I started the increases sooner, and I increased less with more rows inbetween the increases. 1st increase: *k12, m1*, to the last one which was *k18, m1*. I knit 4 or 5 rows inbetween increases. I also knit straight for a few rows before the decreases which I started out with at *k8, k2tog*.
Thoughts: I really like the end results! If I were to make another hat, I think I would start the increases sooner, as now it kind of just folds in the back instead of slouching. I would also do more rows inbetween the increases to make up for the length. I would maybe also try some less slouchy decreases, just for fun.

Lex

2010-12-31T12:50:00.001-07:00

***Please see the erratum before starting the pattern.

Finally a pattern to share with you all! I knit these fingerless mitts for my brother. Initially, they were meant to be convertible mittens for my step dad but they ended up being too small. I started them the week my family was out here so my younger brother saw me making them. After I decided they were too small he asked if he could have them. How can you say no to that when he's not wanted me to knit him anything before? =) My BF took all of the pictures and I love all of them, especially this one:

Lex is a pattern for fingerless mitts, with some cable detail. These were knit with guys in mind so this is great for a gift for any guy, but they'd be great for a quick knit with some leftover Mal for yourself or anything. Since these are fairly simple they'd look great in a range of yarns, kettle dyed, variegated, self striping, and solid. As long as it's soft enough for next to skin contact it would probably be great for these mitts!

The instructions are for a Women's L/Men's M. Since the ribbing is a 10 st repeat I'd suggest sizing with smaller needles, or a different yarn/needle combination. These are knit with Cascade 220 which I found to be a light worsted weight. For a Women's S you could probably use a DK weight, and for a Women's M I'd recommend going down a needle size. Upsizing should be easier as this is knit at a fairly sturdy gauge, just use a larger needle.

Pattern Specs:

Yarn: I used Cascade 220 Superwash, but any worsted should do
Needles: Size 5
Gauge: 5.5 sts per inch

Notions:
Tapestry needle
Scrap yarn
Stitch markers
Cable needle (optional)

Get the Pattern: Ravel it! Not on Ravlery? Get it here.

***Erratum: You will need to decrease the 2 stitches you cast on after putting the thumb on waste yarn before starting the ribbing around the top.
More Pictures!

I hope you enjoy, and please don't hesitates to contact me if you have any trouble. =)

Hump Day!

2010-12-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

Oooh, it's hump day! And 3 days to Christmas! I am actually very excited even though I ill be far from home. I even am planning an extravagant menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. (Not Christmas dinner, though because we are going to a friend's house and we are all bringing appetizers/snacky things). We're having Steak au Poivre, Potatoes Gratin, and some kind of salad that I haven't decided on for Christmas Eve dinner, with some kind of appetizer to snack on while I cook. Christmas breakfast will be a parmesan frittata with roasted tomatoes and probably some kind of fruit salad.

In the mean time I wanted to share with you my sewing FO! I have a few knitting ones, but I need to draft the patterns before they will be ready to share!

The table runner I just kind of winged. I made it 1/3 the width of the table and made the ends pointed like that. The buttons were my mom's idea. She also wanted tassels but I didn't think that was a good idea so I didn't add them... if she really wants them she can do it herself (she knows more about sewing than I do anyway! lol).

I didn't get a very good shot of it, but I backed everything in a blue denim. This is supposed to be summery and I thought denim suited it very well! After making the table runner there was a ton of fabric left over so I made a coaster set based on the one I saw on Anna's blog (blog post here). I just kind of winged these too, going from memory of her blog post. I think everything turned out really well! It's definitely not perfect, but it's at least not embarrassing. ;-)

And a parting shot of our adorable little Christmas tree (it's fiber optic, not that you can see that in the daylight!):

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Can you believe it's less than a week to Christmas?

2010-12-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

It's so crazy to think that Christmas is 6 days away. Tomorrow I'll be mailing out several Christmas gifts, although not all of them. Luckily my dad is coming out in January and we'll be exchanging gifts then. This week I'll be working (in secret) on BF's gifts and afterwards on my dad's.

Last weekend the BF and I drove up to South Mountain in part for a photo shoot and I got some great shots of my FOs. I'll start out with one that's long overdue, my Whisper Cardigan finished back in... October! Talk about lag.

Specs:
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in "Oceanos" generously gifted by Sara
Needles: Sizes 4, 6, and 7
Pattern: Whisper [Ravel it!] by Hannah Fettig
Mods: I used a smaller needle on the arms & body. I also knit the sleeves shorter and added ribbing to them to eliminate curling. I put ribbing along the bottom but not quite enough. I have enough yarn, I probably just should have continued knitting until I ran out but I was ready to be done!
Thoughts: Easy pattern, interesting construction.

As you can see in the last photo there I was also modeling the scarf I made for my aunt. The last time you saw it it looked like this...

However I wasn't overly fond of that patterns and I really feel that there shouldn't be a "wrong side" to scarves since you're going to be seeing both sides, so I ripped it out and started Reversible Lace Ladders (Which I knit once before, also as a gift! Last time it was a worsted weight yarn, though). It's a remarkably quick and easy knit, perfect for a gift. And it wasn't too much of a struggle to knit it long enough, which is saying something because I have knitting ADD. This time I added fringe for extra length!

Specs:
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Heritage Solids (fingering weight)
Needles: Size 5
Pattern: Reversible Lace Ladders [Ravel it!] by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer
Mods: I added fringe, but that's it!
Thoughts: As I said earlier it's easy and quite quick to knit. Even with the fringe I didn't use an entire skein of yarn and this scarf is as tall as I am (5' 7" w/o the fringe). Highly recommended!

I have some more FOs to show you. One is even a sewing FO! Hopefully I can talk about ti sooner rather than later, but my internet connection continues to be spotty. I'm actually kind of amazed that it's stayed connected while I've been writing this.

Until next time!

Patch it up

2010-12-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here is the second part of my little tutorial, this is how I've dealt with the holes left on the thumbs of mittens when you pick up the stitches (this is the thumb gusset version of a mitten).

So, when you start your thumb you will want to leave a fairly long tail so you will be able to do this. It's basically a duplicate stitch over the open space.

Thread the tail end of the yarn from the thumb through a tapestry needle. Starting with the needle/yarn on the inside of the mitten, pull the needle through the space under the last "ladder leg" before the hole. (If you pull columns of stitches apart the yarn in between looks like a ladder)

Skipping the row above where you just brought your needle through (you'll notice that the stitches directly above are a little loose) go under the left leg of the stitch on the right and the right leg of the stitch on the left, pull through.

Finally go back through the space that you came out of originally and pull through.

Ta da! You created a stitch to fill the space.

Weave over to the other side of the thumb and repeat (I usually just go through a couple of the purl bumps to get to where I'm going so there's not a float there).

I hope this is clear! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Also note that this isn't really a seamless solution, however if you are making the mittens for a nonknitting friend or if you don't mind it, it's a good solution. I'm sure with a little finagling you could get it to look more seamless.

Incidentally these mittens are for a nonknitter, my step dad. I'm certain he won't notice anything out of place. I started these on Saturday and I finished the first on Sunday. I have the cuff and most of the gusset knitted on the 2nd, although I did most of that yesterday. Today I was playing some Mario Galaxy. I got a hankering for some Mario after playing Mario Party at a friend's house on Sunday.

I also finished a pair of fingerless mitts for my little brother. I have yet to take photos because they were blocking Saturday night and Sunday I was out. The sun is setting close to 5:30p and I don't get off of work until 5 so there's not a lot of daylight for photos. They will have to wait until the weekend.

Until then!

Keeping the round round

2010-12-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

This year my gifts of choice are fingerless mitts and convertible mittens. While I've been knitting them up, I've developed a couple of tricks that I'd like to share with you all. I think in the end there might be a couple of patterns up as well (but not until after Christmas, much more Christmas crafting to go!).

I have 2 tips to share with you all. The first one is how to fix that kind of step you get after casting off in the round. You can see it here:

This happens because technically you don't knit in the round, you knit in a spiral so the stitch you're making is always going to be 1 stitch higher than the next stitch. This is why there are steps on your stripes on hats and mittens and the like.

My solution for this is basically inspired by the sewn bind off. I don't know if this tip is out there somewhere else, but I put together some photos anyway.

So, after you finish binding off (I always do it in the rib pattern even though it's a pain in the butt) pull the yarn through the last loop to finish. Thread your tapestry needle and go through the first little bump from the first stitch you bound off

Pull through. Next step is to go back to the last stitch you bound off and go through one of the legs of the stitch (this will be the stitch that was passed over the last one). I usually go through the inside leg.

Pull tight (you'll almost be pulling the first bound off stitch through the last bound off stitch).

Weave in ends as normal et voila!

Simple, but it works.

My next tutorial will be my method for the gaps around the base of the thumb where you pick up the stitches. Don't worry, I've already taken the photos so it should happen sooner rather than later. ;-)

Giving Thanks

2010-11-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

I know this post is a little late, but I had my mom and younger brother with me here in AZ all week. We had such a great time! And I was thankful for them spending Thanksgiving with me. =)

While they were here we took a mini trip up to Sedona/Flagstaff/The Grand Canyon. Where you best believe it was COLD!

Sedona wasn't so cold. It was, however, gorgeous.

This one isn't anything special, but I thought it was neat! Pointy cactus!

It was snowing up at the Grand Canyon...

So cold! I think it was around 20 degrees!

Now we're going to play spot the hand knits...

Photo 1 is my mom, my little brother (Aka Beaker), and me. I am wearing my Icing Swirl Beret, my mom is wearing Emerald, and the very ~~first~~ second hat that I made (which I ended up giving to her because it looks so cute on her), and my brother is wearing the handspun hat that I made for my BF. Now, this had was made specifically for him. I bought a subtle stripes kit from CosyMakes and he picked out the order of the stripey yarn and everything. I would complain about him not wearing it in Ohio, but I didn't think much of it. Come to find out (!) he said the hat was too small for him! It made me so mad... lol. So, now it's mine, I suppose.

Photo 2 is BF and I. In this picture you can see my Snapdragon Mittens (made with Alpaca... I was the only one with warm hands!). BF is wearing his Christmas present from 2 years ago. I see that I never blogged about the finished hat so I just have this Rav Link with a picture of the unfinished hat. I really have to say that this yarn (merino/alpaca- Plymouth Suri Merino) has held up really, really well. BF wore this had a lot (he likes that the top is pointy- I wanted to make the length shorter so it wouldn't do that and he wouldn't let me). It's also super soft and quite warm. I would definitely reccommend this yarn to anyone for hats, mittens, cowls, or scarves. Love it!

The last pic is just a cute one of the BF. Oh, you can see the crocheted fingerless mitts that I got from a friend for Christmas last year. Yes, hand knits really do come in handy! (ha)

So I am sitting here, drinking my coffee (spiked with cinnamon) and eating leftover pecan pie for breakfast (NOM!) being thankful for great friends and family.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving (or Thursday, for any non-americans).

More projects than pictures

2010-11-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hello there, blog. I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner. I really had a post planned out for the second week of November. My internet at home is decidedly not working. I keep getting a "good" signal but it only has local access. It's really, really frustrating. I'm currently at work. No matter, though. Last time I had working internets I uploaded a couple of project photos.

Sorry no knitting, though. It was my second sewing project (since I've made it, I've had 2 more classes, neither of which has resulted in finished products. As soon as I get my own sewing machine, I will be able to complete them!)

Actually, I can't share pictures with you. =( Work says that Photobucket is restricted and I'm not allowed to look at it (in the break room where we're allowed to use the internet for whatever, no less).

Sigh.

It's November!

2010-11-07T11:45:00.001-07:00

Can it really be November already? It's amazing how time can fly. Working full time and living for the weekends makes the work week seem long, but then all of a sudden another month has escaped. Where did it go? Did I do anything worthwhile? That's something we've been pondering over here in AZ. Did I do anything worthwhile? My life here is amazingly ordinary. It has been for a while and I don't much mind it, but it drives the BF crazy to go to work, come home, eat dinner, piddle around for a couple of hours, and do it all over again. He's in search of something, but he doesn't know what it is. It's mildly frustrating for me because I don't know what he wants (as he doesn't, either) so it's hard to help him feel anything but restless.

Mainly our remedies have been trying to do different things. Today we're going to South Mountain. You can drive straight up to the top and there's a great view of the city. The weather is starting to be mild, but the highs have still been in the mid 80s, Friday the high was 90*. Current temp, at 11:08am is 79*. It's odd. Yesterday I went swimming, and in Ohio it was snowing.

I'm not sure if I'm kosher with the lack of seasons here. It's something I've always said I wouldn't really like and it turns out that I'm pretty much right. While I enjoy that I am currently ( on November 7th) sitting here in pajama pants and a tank top with all of my windows open I still miss the fall. I miss the cool, crisp air. I miss the leaves changing, making driving from country to city beautiful with their reds, yellows, oranges, and browns.

I will also be missing the first snow. The way it blankets the ground and quiets even the city streets, making everything pristine (at least until the snow plow comes). I am certain, however, that I will not miss the first blizzard of the season, my car being covered with ice, or -15* mornings.

The BF made a trip over to Portland recently. He had a friend from Ohio that moved over there, and he had some extra vacation time so he spent 5 days there. He said it was beautiful. He got to visit Multnomah Falls. For which I am supremely jealous. Of course in my mind Multnomah is synonymous with the shawlette by Hello Knitty.

And it's GREEN! I also miss things being green. Oh, there are some green things out here (bushes, palm tress [LOVE the palm trees!]) but they aren't GREEN green.

He also saw Haystack Rock on the west coast. (I don't know that I've ever set foot in the Pacific before)

Beautiful, no? Also I was jealous of his trip to Portland because it's a knitterific city, home to the likes of PDXKnitterati's Michele and Marnie Maclean, as well as knitting events like the Sock Summit. The BF said he was lots of people knitting in public in Oregon as well.

If you've been reading my blog for a while then you'll probably remember my considering Portland nearly 2 years ago (Oh my goodness, was it really 2 years ago??).

Portland's back in the mix. Why? Why not. AZ is pretty OK, but I'm not sure it's the place for me (Someone at work said they'd like to see Sarah Palin as president in 2012......). We'll see.

Sewing sewing sewing...

2010-10-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

My sewing class was this past Monday! I had a really good time and I enjoyed the sewing process. I think this is something that I will really come to enjoy. We made a small bag for our first project. Truthfully, I think that our second project, a pillow, would have been an easier first project but it was kind of nice to just dive right in. This project included inserting a zipper, using fusible interfacing & fusible fleece, quilting, and sewing on a curve. All in all I think my little bag turned out pretty well, even if it's not perfect (Really not perfect!).

The color is truest in the top photo. I don't know why my camera has such a hard time capturing colors correctly. *sigh*

I must confess the ribbon isn't really supposed to be there. I accidentally cut the zipper fabric to 11" instead of 12" (my brain must have skipped a beat) so I needed some extra length, hence the ribbon.

The next class isn't until the 18th. I can't wait!

Nessie

2010-09-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

I have another FO to share with you! This one was knitted over the weekend, with one flipper and the finishing done last night. I'd like to introduce Nessie, the Lochness Monster! I don't know if I've mentioned this on my blog, but I have mentioned it here and there; I signed up for a sewing class at a local sewing shop. I'm so excited about it! I've wanted to learn how to sew for years, I've always been interested in making my own clothes. So, what finally tipped my hand? Groupon. If you're not familiar with it, Groupon has different specials every day. They have deals like buy a $40 gift card to a restaurant for $20. This is what they had for the Bernina Connection in Scottsdale, AZ. The groupon
was for any of the classes offered at the Bernina Connection, so I decided to go all in and take the beginner's series, Sew Fundamental. I actually signed up in about the middle of August, and the class was supposed to start on September 13th. However, probably b/c of the groupon, the class was full up and they had to add another class starting on October 4th. That's the one that I made it into. So I've been impatiently waiting for the past 6 or so weeks for this class to start. You may have noticed that I've added many sewing blogs to my blog roll over there. I particularly love Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing and QuirkyPrettyCute. They both have fantastic tips that I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of. So, the class is finally here (even though fall refuses to start)! It starts in 6 days! I am pumped!

Okay, so you're thinking "What does that have to do with Nessie!?" One of the class materials that I need is a pin cushion. I didn't want just anything as a pin cushion and I knew that I'd rather make one than buy one. This was a perfect opportunity to use Amigurumi Knits! This book is amazing. Even if you don't have any kids to knit for, I'd recommend it. The details on the animals are amazing, so well thought out and executed. Even the increases and decreases are perfect. At least go have a look at the book. If you don't fall in love with at least a couple of the creatures in it then, well, I don't know how much hope there is for you.

I made this with malabrigo leftover from my Vine Yoke Cardigan (In Simply Taupe) and Clapotis scarf (in Stone Chat) projects. I decided to use size 3 needles because I wanted it to be night and tight, and also smaller than it was supposed to be. Picking up stitches was a pain in my butt! But that was probably mostly because of the tight gauge. I also added some weight to Nessie by putting some decorative rocks in her tummy. I figure if I'm going to be pulling pins in and out of it, I want it to have a bit of stability.

Doesn't she have the cutest flippers??

Also, I got a request from Amy to see a picture of my spinning wheel. I'm lazy, so I'm just going to recycle pictures I took of it back in October after I bought it at Rhinebeck (Sigh, Rhinebeck!)

My wheel is a Kromski Sonata, and I love it! It's a traveling wheel, so it folds up and has its own case.

A Spinning FO

2010-09-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

Last night was very productive. I finished plying the Yamdrok BFL & I also finished the ribbing on my Whisper Cardigan.

Candice identified my method for diving the fiber as Fractal Spinning. I was doing it unintentionally! I really like how the yarn turned out. =)

I also managed to spin it quite thin. All in all I'm very proud of this yarn! I also have to say that my camera didn't capture the shade of blue properly, it's much more saturated/bold than the way it looks in the pictures.

Like I said I also finished the ribbing on my Whisper.

(Please ignore my foot) I tried it on and I'm really liking the way it looks! However, I had to modify the sleeves because I have thick upper arms and I did way less decreases than called for. This caused me to knit more stitched across the back of the sweater making it wider than it's supposed to be. What all of that means is that the collar flips back on the top of the sweater. It's really not a big deal, I'll probably tack it down with some yarn so I don't have to worry about it, though. I didn't do this on my Ribbed Lace Bolero, and it annoys me to fiddle with the collar while I'm wearing it. (Also this is the one knitted item that I made that I wear often! It's great over tanks at work)

Yamdrok

2010-09-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

I've been spinning my BFL all week, and really enjoying it. I told you I was trying to spin thin and I'm achieving that goal. It's nice to get back into crafting. Maybe it's the time of year? It's getting down into the 70s at night, so it's not quite as hot all the time (it's still been in the 100s all week during the day). My original plan for the fiber was to navajo ply it, but then I decided that the yarn would be too heavy if I did that, so I amended my plan while spinning the first half.

Since my original plan was navajo plying, I wanted long color repeats so I broke up the fiber by color blocks.

Think a block of blue, a block of gold, and a block of the inbetween colors. I then divided that in half and the halves by thirds. It worked pretty well. Most of the reason that I decided not to do a navajo ply was because I didn't want long sections of the inbetween colors. So, with the second half, I'm dividing the fiber like I normally do, into strips (in half, and then the halves into thirds [usually I just divide it in halves twice but in an effort to spin a thinner single I divided the halves into thirds-it's working!]). So the theory is that one ply will have long color repeats and the other will have shorter ones, so hopefully each of the colors on the 2nd ply will show up during 1 color repeat of the first. Who knows if that's actually how it will work.

I've also been knitting. I've got 2 inches of the ribbing done on the Whisper cardigan [Ravlink]. I really love the construction. I've been thinking up a shrug to make with the Madeline Tosh Light that I bought a while ago, and I may use a similar method. I want to do some crochet lace on the back in a panel (I've seen a lot of cardigans with a lace panel on the back and I really like them) so if I did some kind of decrease while knitting across the back I might be able to crochet the lace straight onto it instead of seaming it together. I'm not sure. It will be interesting since crochet isn't my main craft.

Anyhow, Happy Sunday! I hope you've enjoyed yours as much as I've enjoyed mine. =)

Bet you weren't expecting another one so soon!

2010-09-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

So Sunday I happened to feel like spinning, so I did. I'd already spun about half of the Merino/Tencel that Sara gave me back when I first got it. I finished it Sunday night. I decided before I began that I wanted it to be in singles so I could get the most yardage out of it I could. It's once again not as thin as I'd like it to be, but I really like the way it turned out.

It soft and shiny, as you'd expect from something blended with tencel. The dye job made a heathered teal/gray which I wasn't exactly sure about at first but it's definitely growing on me. =) If I had to guess at the weight (which I am abysmally bad at) I'd say it's fingering-sport weight. I'd also approximate around 260 yds, if my calculations are correct.

I would really like to spin more thinly so I broke out the BFL that I bought at Rhinebeck (the Yamdrok electric blue/gold from Into the Whirled). I changed how I prepped the fiber and it's pretty smooth sailing. I always kind of felt like it was cheating to tear the fiber into really thin strips to spin a thin yarn, but it's really not. I guess I was the only one holding me back from my fibery dreams... lol! I tore the fiber in half and then divided it into threes. I'm also doing the color repeats differently... I'll explain more later with pictures, hopefully.

Knitting!

2010-09-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

I meant to update with pictures a while ago but I guess life (and Fable II and Anne Bishop) go in the way. Last weekend the BF and I went to Flagstaff, AZ for a mini vacation. It was really nice. We saw a meteor crater

We went to an arboretum and saw the San Francisco Peaks.

On the drive home we went through Sedona and saw plent of Red Rock. We plan on going back to see the Red Rock Park.

It was about a 2.5- 3 hour drive to Flagstaff. The meteor crater was another 45 minutes from Flagstaff so that was quite a drive! I did get a lot of knitting done. I finished the sleeves/back of the Whisper Cardigan I started with the yarn I got from the Sara at the Knottygnome Knits.

I also started Pomatomus, which I've been wanting to knit for a while. I wanted an excuse to use the Koliage square needles that I bought. So far I like them a lot. It make sense that the square needles are easier to hold on to since they sit in the bend of your ring/middle fingers (at least that's where mine sit).

The yarn is ShiBui. It was a birthday gift from a dear friend. =) The color is a bit off in both of the knitting photos. For some reason my camera has a hard time capturing color. The socks are a bit more plummy and less burgundy. ShiBui is a wonderful yarn. it's smooshy and has an amazing twist. I will definitely be using it again.

Two things

2010-08-04T19:44:00.001-07:00

First order of business is that I totally meant to link Sarah's design in my last post so I'm going to do it here and now. Sara's blog is The Knottygnome Knits where she knits and spins and makes all sorts of awesome things at break neck speeds. The shawl is called Walden [Ravlink] and it a crochet pattern. There are some great photos of the shawl there. You can also get to her knit patterns through her blog. She sells most of them thorugh Ravelry a hat and mitt set are available at Knit Picks. She also has a couple of free patterns thrown in there.

Okay so this I think is a post about blogger prowess because I also want to talk about the Pavlova that I made on Saturday. First of all, it was omgdelish. Second of all, I almost went into a sugar coma after I ate it. It all began with this post from chef Loise Mellor. I was reading her post and thinking about how I've seen Ina Garden make Pavlova on The Barefoot Contessa a few times. It always looks so delicious. Light, ethereal, baked meringue crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle, smothered in berries, whipped cream, and raspberry sauce. I also clicked her link to Have the Cake a shared effort of bloggers who make the same recipe every month. Which this month it was, of course, Pavlova. This is where I saw Dawn's "Eggy Pavlova" which, as odd as the name sounds (I like her idea of "Swan's Egg" better but that may just be me) was an awesome idea. She made lemon curd to go in the pavlova (the yellow yolk to the egg white of the meringue Pavlova). This to me was not only a tasty solution put a perfect match with the Pavlova since the Pavlova uses 4 egg whites and the lemon curd uses 4 egg yolks.

So, I bought the ingredients and charged ahead with Lousie's Pavlova base (minus the almond extract and almonds) and Dawn's lemon curd. I also made some home made whipped cream and garnished with raspberries. It was the most time I've spent on a dessert in a very long time. Probably since baking for Christmas.

The results were not only pretty but delicious. This came after a delectable dinner of marinated grilled chicken, grilled veggies, and home made grilled flat bread. It was a truly great summer meal.

When it comes I wanna wail... MAAAAIIIIILLLL!

2010-07-31T16:02:00.004-07:00

I got awesome things in the mail today!! First off, I got a package in the mail from Sarah over at Knotty Gnome Knits I entered her birthday contest and won. How awesome is she to give things to other people on her birthday? ^_~

My package included some specially dyed merino/tencel fiber which is GORGEOUS.

Some Malabrigo lace, and who doesn't love Malabrigo?

And- SURPRISE!- she made me an apron. How adorable is that?? This is me wearing it in my kitchen. I put it on almost immediately. I'm making pavlova for dessert tonight (more on that later) inspired by Louise over at Satisfied.

As you can see from the first picture there is also a hand crocheted shawl in the package. It's in Malabrigo Sock "Stone Chat" it is Sarah's original pattern, Walden. I didn't take a close up of it because she took some great photos of it already that can be seen here. It's lovely and if it wasn't like 80% humidity outside I might be wearing it around the house... hehe. And last but not least, a bar of organic chocolate- always a welcome addition!

Also in the mail something almost as fun but not quite, a package from the Loopy Ewe. I saw on Sheri's blog that there was some new Madeline Tosh in the store and it looked so awesome in the pictures that I had to snag some for myself. I bought 2 skeins in "Victorian Gothic" to make a shrug to wear at the office. I have to say I really love the little touches in the package, likeza handwritten note from Sheri and some small samples of other yarns. Very nice, Loopy Ewe! =)

I also bought some square needles just to try out. I hope they live up to what they say they are!

Whew! That was a lot of stuff. Today is a good day. =)

Knitting?!

2010-07-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

I told you if I thought of it I'd share some actual knitting. This is aabout 40% of a lace scarf I'm making for someone special (no one who reads this blog, I'm sure).

When I finish it it'll be mailed to Ohio to enjoy use in colder weather.

It's odd, here in AZ hibernation time is summer because most people don't want to be outside, while in OH it's the winter. People being indoors means germs are easily spread and I've managed to capture some of them. I'm not especially ill, but I do indeed sound like a man rather than a woman and it's a little disconcerting.

Any matter, I hope there's more knitting content to share with you sooner rather than later.

Ciao.

Reading reading reading reading....

2010-07-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

I know I've been rather silent but it's mostly because I haven't done a whole lot of knitting lately. It's quite hot as I'm sure you can imagine so I've been hiding inside and reading. Reading reading reading. In the past 2.5 weeks I've read 5 books, mostly the Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop. These are not short books, they're around 500 pages each. So like I said I've just been hibernating and reading. Also, these books are addicting. It's like I can't stop reading them. I keep thinking "Okay I'll stop at the next break" "Okay I'll stop at the next chapter" but it just keeps going. Addicting! Like reading crack or something. Anyway, feast your eyes on my reading prowess (haha)...

Despite how it may look, none of them are trashy romance-y novels. They're all really good, although Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, and The Queen of Darkness have some very dark aspects in them, they're not really for the faint of heart.

Sebastian is the first book of the Ephemera series and I read it right after Daughter of the Blood. Actually I didn't even realize at first that it was by the same author because they'd both been in my Amazon wish list so long. It's funny how you can see an author write almost the same main characters in different series. It's good as well and I have the second one, Belladonna sitting at home for me. But for now I think I need to read something different, so I'm working on Santa Olivia by Jaqueline Carey, one of my favorite authors. I also purchased Naamah's Kiss finally, now that it's out on paperback. That will be a good read, although I'm not sure how long it will take since it's around 900 pages. (Much like the debut of the Kushiel Series, Kushiel's Dart)

I have been knitting a bit and if I get around to photographing I'll be posting it here, but we'll see.

TTFN. =)

Food Blogger? (A Recipe for peanut butter pancakes)

2010-06-13T11:47:00.008-07:00

No, not quite. But I have been cooking a hell of a lot more than I've been doing anything fiber related. The last thing I knit was that snail, and I haven't really touched the needles since. I just haven't felt like it. I guess I shouldn't really feel bad. It is my hobby after all. It's not like anyone else is counting on me to do it.

In addition to cooking I've been reading a heck of a lot. This week I finished Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips and I reread Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. I'm working on rereading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's a really amazing book, but so very sad at the end. The first time I read it (the summer before the movie came out - I'd never even heard of it before a friend let me borrow it) I remember thinking it would be a good reread because you'd probably pick up on a lot more during the second read than the first. It's a bit of a confusing book due to the time travel. It's a little odd to think about. I prefer to think of all time existing at once which is why the conundrums in the book are possible, but it's still a bit mind boggling.

Okay, so now for the real reason for this post. Peanut butter pancakes. I whipped these up this morning. I put bananas in a few and none in the others. I didn't actually like the slices of banana in the pancakes, but I think sliced bananas would make an excellent topping. They were a huge hit both ways with the boyfriend, who is a peanut butter addict. =)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour (you can use all purpose flour if you don't have it, or 1/2 all purpose, 1/2 whole wheat)
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c. sugar
1 egg
3/4 c. sour cream or plain yogurt
1 c. milk
1/4 c. peanut butter (I used freshly ground peanut butter, there's a station for that at my local grocery)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
In a small bowl whisk together the egg, sour cream, milk, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla until combined.

In a large bowl mix together the remaining ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter will be thick, but if it's too thick you can add a bit of milk.

Preheat a skillet to medium heat. Spray the skillet w/ spray oil or melt a bit of butter into the bottom. I would use maybe 1/2 c. batter per pancake. The pancakes are very filling so you'll eat a little less than you'd think.

Cook on the 1st side until you see bubbles and then flip and cook the other side for another couple of minutes.

Serve with pure maple syrup and sliced bananas. You could also garnish them with some whipped cream and cinnamon if you wanted to be really decadent!

Serves approx 4 people.

Focaccia

2010-06-01T10:00:00.003-07:00

Yesterday I also made Focaccia bread for dinner. After reading about The Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge/book on Pinch My Salt for months, I finally broke down and bought the book before the move. I made sure to put it in an easily accessible bag so I wouldn't have to dig for it once I got here. Peter talks about the importance of good flour in the book and I ended up buying three different types, all King Arthur brand. I originally bought all purpose flour because I thought that was what I needed for focaccia, but it calls for bread flour so on my second trip to the grocery I picked up that and also some white whole wheat for some wheat bread later on! I'm so excited to have a kitchen again where I get to make the meals. It's so absolutely satisfying to eat a great meal you'd made from scratch.

I kind of started in the middle of the book, but that's okay. I'm also not saying that I'm doing the challenge per se, just that I was inspired by all the magnificent breads that she was making. I was jealous! So, focaccia. It's a bit of a process to make, but it's not difficult. I made the dough on Sunday night and left it in the refrigerator over night, as per the instructions in the book.

Pre-proof w/ toppings.

I am so excited to be making focaccia! It takes me straight back to Italy, because more often than not, this is the type of 'pizza' that you will see there. It's everywhere. It's a great to-go snack or meal and the toppings range from potatoes to olives to tomatoes or whatever. I decided to go all out for this pizza style foccacia, and my toppings are sun dried tomatoes, fresh roasted garlic, caramelized onions, capers (only on one, as the boyfriend doesn't like them), and feta cheese. All of these toppings except for the feta are the pre-proof variety, meaning that they go on the focaccia right after it comes out of the refrigerator, before it rises. The feta goes on right before baking.

Pre-bake, w/ Feta

***Okay, so I was writing this post before I baked the focaccia. I took pictures of it, added the feta cheese, preheated the oven and put it in there. I was smelling something burning but I thought it might just be the parchment paper on the sides (I trimmed them, but apparently not enough). So, what actually happened was that the bottom of the focaccia were burned. I mean like black. Not the "Okay, so it's a little dark" burned. BURNED. My day and a half of prep as well as roasting the garlic, caramelizing the onions, and making the herb oil was done! The bread wasn't even finished! I ended up taking it out and doubling the pan to give it some protection and putting it in the oven one at a time.

THEN I went to go take a swig of my red wine and, you guessed it, I spilled it on the brand new table cloth and 2 of the brand new placemats. ARGH!

THEN... when I was putting the first focaccia on the countertop so I could finish baking the second, I DROPPED IT ON THE FLOOR.

All of these things happened in the space of about 10 minutes and I said a few very choice words. We had salad and the non-floor focaccia for dinner. I had to cut off the burnt bottom.

The focaccia would have been EXCELLENT if not for the burning. It was tender and the crust would have been crisp. *sigh*

So, there is no photo of the finished focaccia because it pissed me off.

I think I figured out the problem was that the pans were touching the sides of the oven because I had them on the same rack (the middle rack). This happened last night when I was roasting sweet potatoes for my sweet potato enchiladas too. *sigh* At least now I know. The oven runs a little hot, and never EVER let the pans touch the sides of the oven. Got it. Tomorrow I will try again to roast vegetables. If this is also thwarted, I will be contacting the rental office about fixing or replacing the oven (it's ancient).

The Move

2010-05-31T13:35:00.005-07:00

Hi all! Today, finally, I don't have a million things that I need to get done, so I thought I'd go ahead and do a little recounting of our journey, along with some photos that I managed to capture. Most of them are from the window of the moving truck, because we didn't make many stops and none of them were for scenic purposes.

I have to say that I was dreading the 4 day drive across the country, I'm not one for long road trips. It actually ended up being okay, though. In part because my boyfriend did absolutely all of the driving. Seriously. I only drove the truck when we picked it up on Monday. He felt bad because he sprained his ankle and wasn't able to help me load the truck, so he did all of the driving.

We split the move up into 4 days, so we wouldn't be driving all day every day. We also visited some Ravelry friends in Tulsa, OK. It was so amazing to meet them! The lovely and generous Kat allowed us to stay in her home over night. She is possibly one of the sweetest people I've ever met! Her kids and husband were awesome and in general they were a joy to be around. I also got to meet Calista as well at their weekly knit meeting (It was purely coincidental that we happened to be staying there on Wednesday which is when they meet. It was awesome to meet some local knitters!) Silly me, I left my camera in the car, but Kat managed to get some great pictures which I will now steal:

This is Calista and Me, as well as her Dread Bump Wesley (Baby bump!) and some friends. See that snail? I made that in on the drive to Tulsa for her. It's from the Amigurumi Knits book.

Kat took a couple of pictures of it before he went to his new home. He's made with acrylic and cotton so as to be easy to clean if the baby gets anything on him. It's an adorable pattern, but so fiddly! I grafted about 130 stitches, 90 for the shell and 40 for the snail body. Gah! You can't argue with the adorable results, though.

So, day 1 we drove to St. Louis, MO.

St Louis Arch.*

Day 2 to Tulsa, OK. Day 3 was our longest day. We drove from Tulsa, OK to Holbrook, AZ. It ended up being about 15 hours of driving. Ugh! We went through 2 time zones, so even though we left around 8 AM, we got to Holbrook around 9 PM.

Wind energy in OK.*

The flat, flat panhandle of TX.*

Cool plateau in NM.

We drove through a rain/hail storm in NM on a mountain. It was scary!*

The end of the storm. The sky looked so cool!*

Day 4 we finally made it to Tempe, AZ. We got the keys to our apartment. We arrived around 1 PM, just in time for the hottest part of the day, so we ended up going out to lunch and doing some shopping before we unloaded anything.

Mountain in AZ.*

More mountains!

Cacti!*

We spend the weekend unloading the truck, unpacking a bit, and furniture shopping. Every night I've gone to bed exhausted. Today is the first day I haven't had a million things to do and it's kind of weird.

Once we get our couch delivered and have the apartment set up to our satisfaction then I will take some pictures and post them. I think it will be a great living space. The apartment is a little long, but that's okay. It has 2 balconies as well as a garage and a washer/dryer. We are very pleased with it.

And since I think that's about enough information to pack into one post, I'm going to leave it at that. =)

*These pictures were taken with my Droid phone because either I didn't have my camera, or I was sending them via picture message.

Checking in!

2010-05-29T20:14:00.001-07:00

Hi all, I am safely in Arizona, in my new apartment. I'm exhausted from the move and from moving and unpacking so I won't be saying much now.

Just Hello from Arizona! =)

Moving Day

2010-05-25T04:39:00.002-07:00

It all comes down to today. It's moving day. I'm leaving in just an hour or two. I am excited and I was never nervous. Today, though, I'm a little sad to be leaving all of my family behind. I wasn't sad, not to begin with. Today my mom was sad and that broke my heart a little.

The truck is packed, in large part by me. My boyfriend conveniently sprained his ankle on Saturday. He should be able to help me by Friday, but probably not with the heavy stuff, so we'll see how that goes.

I still need to gather some odds 'n' ends, like this computer...

I feel a little disjointed, so I won't say much else besides...

See you in AZ!

PIllows

2010-05-13T06:42:00.004-07:00

Hi all sorry for the missed post last week! As you can imagine, things are kind of hectic getting ready to move, and aside from that on Sunday blogging didn't even cross my mind. I spent most of the day working on this:

What is this you say? Why the front of a throw pillow, of course! I decided to make a few throw pillows for my apartment, because it's something that I thought would be fun and easy and actually useful in Arizona since it doesn't involve garments. Actually, I see a lot of home-knits in my future.

It's based on this pattern, but I've obviously made a lot of changes. The big one in the middle is basically following the pattern but the rest is not. I did few rounds of the circle and made the corners a bit smaller. Putting it together was a night mare. It took at least 4 tries. Some parts were too scrunched up, others were stretched, there wasn't room for the last piece, there was too much room for the right piece. Finally I found the correct temperature porridge, though.

This is the first of 3 different pillows I intend to make, all based on one color theme that I intend to explain a little more when I have a bit more time. I actually have to get ready for work in a bit. This is also evidence that I caught more of the crochet bug. I'm more enamored with it that I thought I could be. It's just as easy if not more so than knitting. It lends itself to change more easily, and it's so much quicker.

Last post someone asked where I was moving to in AZ. I'll be moving to Tempe. It's the half way point between Phoenix and Chandler, where the call center will be located. We found a (hopefully) great apartment that I'm really excited about. The only way it will be bad is if the apartment is in some way dilapidated.

More more more! When? I don't know. Maybe when we're in Arizona. Most likely on the 24th, the day before we move and the BF has to work but I don't. We'll see.

Ciao.

Yarn!

2010-04-29T08:02:00.004-07:00

Still no knitting, but I do have lots of spinning and some BIG news to share with you!

I finished the falkland from Cosy on Sunday. I have to say that I LOVE it, even though it's not as even a weight as I had hoped. It's on average, a worsted-aran weight. I can't stop petting it!

Soaked and thwacked to finish!

Next up is the silk yarn I bought back in September. It was a little graduation gift for myself. It's from Gnomespun, and the color is "Demeter", although I tend to think of earthier colors when I think of Demeter as she's the chaste earth goddess. Although she did preside over the harvest too, so you can think of this as her golden waves of grain. This is 2oz of tussah silk top. It was super easy and fast to spin. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. But it's shiny and nice enough to look at right now. =)

This is a picture of it before the twist is set, you can see some of the kinks in it. I left it as singles to get the most possible yardage out of it. I'll get a better picture of it once the twist is set.

I promised BIG news, didn't I? Okay, well, I think I mentioned before that my company is opening a new call center in Arizona and that I applied to go. Well, they pulled me aside on Monday and told me that I was one of the few that they had chosen to reloacte! EEE! In just 4 short weeks I will be living in Arizona. They certainly are not giving us much moving time, they want our last day here to be May 26th, and our first day there to be June 1st. That's a mere 5 days to drive across the country. However, I requested the 24th-26th off so I'll actually have 9 days to get moved.

This will be the longest road trip I've ever taken and I'll be going through a lot of states that I've never been to before. It's exiting and scary. I've already called a few places about apartments and I think I've found one that I really want. It's 1050 sq. ft. for $725/mo, with a balcony and a washer and dryer in the unit. None of the utilities are included so that's kind of a down, but it would be great to have all that space!

Until next time.

Not a Stitch!

2010-04-24T08:56:00.004-07:00

I haven't knit ANYTHING this week. I know, crazyness, right? I talked before a little bit about my phases, and this week it's not been knitting. I did, however, tuck 2 and a half novels under my belt as well as a skein and a half of yarn.

A few weeks ago I signed up for Cosy's Falkland Fiber Club. I've never been in any kind of club before because they're usually to expensive. However this club only lasts for 3 months and so it was at a reasonable price. Plus the faulkland isn't treated with chemicals and it is dyed with organic dyes, who wouldn't love that? Anyway, I got the first shipment in the mail on Monday. It's a riot of color, if you think about it, chocolate brown, acid green, deep purple, with some dots of red, lighter yellowy green, black, and some of the white still peeking through. I was enamoured with it an I wanted to spin it right away! However I still had some fiber on my wheel from the last time I spun, so that needed to get out of the way first!

This is the fiber that I won at Sticks 'n' Stitches back in January. It is a merino/tencel blend from a local dyer whom you can find on Etsy as the Yarn Chef. The colorway is "Mauve Maven" and it's really lovely. I'm not usually a huge fan of the softer colors, but I love this. It also has a really great sheen and I can tell that the final project will have amazing drape. This yarn is, on average a chunky weight, but it's thick/thin so it varies.

After that I divided the falkland in half and fluffed it up before spinning. I finished the first half this morning, and prepped the second half. I usually half the entire length of roving long ways so that all of the colors are in both sets of singles, however, I didn't really want the colors to match up in any way for this yarn so I tore it in half length wise.

The 2nd half of the fiber, prepped for spinning.

The 1st half of the fiber on the bobbin.

My goal for this yarn was to come up with a lighter weight yarn that was more even than thick/thin. I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it. It's a little thick/thin, but mostly even. The falkland is lovely to work with. It's soft and it drafts quite easily. I can't wait to have the finished product! I'll either finish it on my day off tomorrow or on Thursday, hopefully.

Happy Weekend!

Sharing

2010-04-18T07:11:00.002-07:00

I was talking about the flowers that I was enjoying the other day and I wanted to share them with you.

Happy Sunday!

Is it summer yet?

2010-04-15T17:25:00.003-07:00

I actually am not overly fond of summer, at least not in Ohio. It's terribly humid here and I hate sweating. My car used to not have any air conditioner so I would take a shower, get ready for work, and by the time I got to work I would almost need another shower. Humidity makes warm weather so heavy. It's miserable.

But, in the spring time, it is a welcome change. Today it was 80* F here. It was lovely. And after reading this post by Emily, I was inspire to have some quiet time of my own. I did some laundry today and hung it out on the line, and while it was drying I sat in the sun and finished another book in the lilac perfumed air. In books often times there is air that is "thick with the perfume of" such and such a flower. I don't know that I really have experienced that until today. There was a lilac bush behind the deck and a few yards away near the drive way, as well as a gorgeous and heady scented blooming tree in the yard. It was very pleasant. Very relaxing.

Yes, another book. The past week or two I've been on another reading kick and I haven't been knitting nearly as much. I tend to go through phases, spinning, reading, knitting... crocheting they can last a month or a week or maybe just a few days, but in that phase there is little else that I'd like to do.

Since I graduated I've been reading "trashy" books. Not necessarily romance novels, but novels that would definitely not be considered literature. I'm hooked on the Anita Blake vampire hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I was thinking, while reading the last book, that while I like reading her books, they are a little tiring. They are non-stop action. There is very little down time, time for the reader, or even the main character, to catch their breath. Not only within the single book, but within the series. It is a lot of action and events that happen in a relatively short amount of time. I do feel a little guilty about that so I started reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. It's actually quite enjoyable, though it promises to be a long read.

What books are your favorites?

Ow!

2010-04-08T19:12:00.008-07:00

The crochet bug bit me! I know, weird, right? After hanging out on a forum at Ravelry for a bit we were talking about crochet and I wanted to do a differed sort of creating for a bit! I made two projects in the past couple of days. One:

(Technically 2, if you count the flower as a separate project since it's a separate pattern)

Specs:

Pattern: Baby Flapper Hat by Melissa Wen [Ravel it!] And Little Double Blossom Crochet Flower[Rav only!] by Jane Dominguez
Yarn: Plymouth Cotton Fantasy Naturale Solid
Hook: 5.5mm
Mods:
-1 fewer round of dec
-crocheted to 5.5” before doing the border
-Did the shell stitch w/ dc instead of tc and only slip stitched/chained 3 instead of 4 to make up for the dc.
-Used a different flower! I used the little double blossom crochet flower.
Thoughts: Cute! Easy! Fun!

I didn't make this for anyone in particular. I bought that cotton for a separate reason (actually it was supposed to be the pink in my log cabin blanket but it's thicker than the Cotton Fleece I'm using so I didn't like the contrast) and it's been staring me in the face for a while (What in the heck else could I do with bright pink cotton than make a child/baby hat? It did actually end up toddler sized since I used a larger crochet hook.

My second project is this little basket! I had some handspun that I had no idea what to do with, since it wasn't very much. I knew it was thick enough to go with the 5.5mm hook and so I whipped this little basket up!

Little Basket!

Specs:
Yarn: Handspun wool/silk noils dk-heavy worsted, less than 2 oz
Hook: Size 5.5mm
Pattern: Little Basket! by Me. Ravel it! Not on Ravelry? Find it here.

This project took about an hour, and I'm pretty pleased with it. I basically used all of the stuff that I learned how to do making the hat. Crocheting is so much quicker than knitting! Although it does use up so much more yarn! I am not a converted crafter, but I do think that some things just lend themselves to crochet. I will not hesitate to pick up the hook again for a satisfying little project or maybe some pretty edging on a knitted projcet. =)

The enemy is Red!

2010-04-03T10:52:00.003-07:00

Remember that Honeybee Cardigan that I wanted to make out of my Mal sock? I started it a while ago and now I've finally gotten a half way decent photo of it! Why do you think Red is so difficult to photograph? I had to stand above it and take the picture, then crop out the mess (my room is never tidy) so it's a little on the small side, but I think I am making pretty good progress. Especially considering that I've been casting on new projects a lot! Some others have fallen to the way side (Like Brompton, the thought of the separate button bands on size 3 needles has me stalled, and I'm not even there yet!). Any how, here's the progress shot!

Off to work! People need to file glass claims, donchyaknow?

Yarn!

2010-04-01T18:20:00.003-07:00

So it's been a little while since I've actually posted something. I've been fairly busy! Last Saturday was my Birthday and I had several celebrations. A friend even came down from Cleveland, although that wasn't exactly for my birthday. We hung out and went to the Franklin Park Conservatory as well as the Columbus Art Museum (which is being renovated and so has a very small collection at the moment!). We even went to Jeni's... twice. It was a good time. I also went out to eat with a good friend who gifted me an Eggplant Monroe Namaste bag, a matching Buddy Case, a Catalina Bag, and 2 skeins of Shibui sock in a gorgeous purple! Far more than I deserve. ;-)

Both the Conservatory and the Museum had some Chihuly art on display. I used to think that most of his stuff was too similar, but no more! It's gorgeous and it looks incredibly and painstakingly time consuming.

(These pictures were taken with my Droid phone so please excuse the quality!)

This one is in the Koi pond.

This one is from the museum, the glass was this gorgeous gold color and see through so the layers were two fold as you could see them through the opening and the sides of the creations.

This also at the museum the bottom looked like it was glowing, it was reflecting the spotlight.

Yay, glasswork!

Okay, so I named this post "Yarn!" didn't I? I was clearing off a memory card so I could give it to a friend (you know who you are!) and I found some pictures that I took of my handspun. It was actually used to make a hat for the same friend! I need to get a FO picture of it because I LOVE the way it turned out!

It's definitely the most satisfied I've been with a yarn that I've made. It was just the right amount of bounce from plying. It's BFL. I lurve BFL.

Oh! One last thing! I wanted to mention that the knitting in my last post is indeed a log cabin blanket. It's a bit bigger since that photo. Perhaps there will be some progress photos in my near future because I have a couple of new projects started!

New Endeavors...

2010-03-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

2010-03-15T10:32:00.005-07:00

Ahhhh! I missed last week! Where did last week go, anyway? This week is going to be a doozy, Safelite is doing their add campaign so call volume will be way up. I can more or less expect back to back for 5 hours instead of back to back for maybe 2 hours with 1-5 minutes inbetween calls for the other 3. *sigh*

In other news I have tons of knitting to show you! But absolutely no pictures. It's been grey and rainy here. At least it's not snowing!

Last night I had a random etsy splurge on some vintage buttons. After hearing Hello Knitty rave about the vintage buttons at greenrayprod yet again.

(photos from greenraypod)

Fan Dance "Eight metal buttons from the Victorian period, 1870-1890. A large braided metal rim surrounds a dyed red center, over which is placed a large multicolored stamped ornament of a fan." I love them! The red back makes them perfect for the Honeybee Cardigan that I plan on making out of my Malabrigo Sock in "Ravelry Red".

Four mother of peal buttons from 1900-1920. Love love love!

Have a lovely week!

Olympian!

2010-03-04T09:36:00.005-07:00

As I'm sure most of you are aware, there was some furious knitting going on all over the world the past few weeks for the Knitting Olympics, found in different degrees on The Yarn Harlot's Blog and Ravelry. I happened to be one of the, although I feel like I could have set the bar a little higher, given the Yarn Harlot's long and dangerous tiny-needle-colorwork-sweater journey. I knit my Aeolian Shawl for the wedding that I went to on the 26th, finishing it at the last possible minute. I was beading and knitting like a fool on the last day, finally binding off around midnight. I breathed a big sigh of relief and gave the thing a bath so it could be pinned out and displayed proudly the next night.

Well.. when I took it upstairs to pin it out I remember thinking "Hmm, that's strange, I didn't think that I left that long of a tail." Well, folks. Infact, I did not. I, however, discovered this:

Horror of horrors! My tired self did not secure that last stitch and it became unraveled! Well there was hardly a lot that I could do at midnight so I pinned it out, making sure to pin the last bound off stitch so it wouldn't unravel any further. The next day before I went to the wedding (After an icy mishap on the road I was already running late) I decided to do a sewn bind off on the rest of the stitches, and even though the edge was considerably messier it got the job done and I'm certain no one noticed the difference.

So, Without further ado, I give you the Aeolian Shawl:

I even have an action shot:

(That's the side with the original bind off)

Specs:
Yarn: Silky Sock by Squoosh Fibers in "Depth" (Really lovely stuff!)
Needles: Size 6 and a very tiny crochet hook for beading
Beads: 50(?) grams of size 6 seed beads in aquamarine
Pattern: Aeolian Shawl [Ravel it!] By Elizabeth Freeman
Mods: I used a bigger needle size and did a slightly different bind off. I also only did 1 strand of yarn for the bind off instead of doubled because A) I was worried about having enough yarn (I had 2 grams left over!) and B) It would have been complicated/taken more time to unwind the ball and bind off with 2 strands
Thoughts: Lovely pattern, fun to knit, although a bit complicated and fiddly. The Agave chart gave me a run for my money when the BOLDED "/" and "\" meant k3tog and sssk (double decreases) instead of k2tog and ssk (single decreases). Ravelry forums to the rescue. ;-)

I also entered myself in another event, Aerial Unwind. For frogging projects. I frogged my Damson. *sigh* Even though I just loved the way it came out, I never wear it. And I love the yarn (Malabrigo Sock in "Rayon Vert") too much to never wear it. So rrrrip it was!

Bye Damson! Hello possibilities!

I also started frogging my Hey, Teach! Because the fit is wonky and since I've gained a bit of weight I can't wear it anymore. Rrrrip!

I realized...

2010-02-26T22:00:00.003-07:00

...that I haven't posted this week! I kept thinking about the Shalom sweater post and how it was "Just on Tuesday" but that was over a week ago! Alright, so on that same snow day I got the BF to take some FO pictures of my Vine Yoke Cardigan that I finished way back when.

Vine Yoke Cardigan

Specs:
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in "Simply Taupe"
Needles: Size 9
Pattern: Vine Yoke Cardigan [Ravel it!] by Ysolda Teagues
Mods: My gauge was smaller so I followed the directions for one size larger. If I were to do that again in this same yarn, then I would cast on the number of stitches for 2 sizes larger but follow the directions for 1 size larger, so the sweater would be longer. It blocked to be a lot longer than it was on the needles but i would still like it to be longer than it is.
Thoughts: Really great pattern, as usual. I love the side to side construction, although that does make it a bit difficult to add elements for a custom fit. As you can see the Malabrigo has held up pretty well in this loose gauge sweater. There has been pilling, but you'll have that with almost any wool sweater, especially a fine wool like merino. I love the color of this sweater and I wore it fairly often when it was a little warmer out. Now the half sleeves aren't long enough and they bunch up under my winter coat.

Shalom!

2010-02-16T13:47:00.005-07:00

It's been snowing like crazy here and we've gotten at least 10" in the past day or so. Soooo the BF and I took a snow day today. It's irresponsible and I'll be getting an occurrence at job #2 but it feels so right! ;-) I'm getting pretty burnt out on the 2 job thing and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be doing it.

Anywho, I took advantage of the both of us being together in the daylight and had the BF take some FO pictures of my Shalom! Complete with Buttons!

Specs:
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Needles: US Size 10
Pattern: Shalom Cardigan [Ravel it!] by Meghan McFarlane
Mods: Lots...

Different Gauge so I had to account for that. I cast on 97 sts for the neckline and I changed the increases to: 1st round of increases [kfb, k1, kfb] all the way around on the WS. 2nd round of increases [kfb, k2] all the way around on the WS. 3rd round of increades [kfb, k6] all the way around. If they didn't line up exactly so the ribbing ended on a ktbl I used a m1 at the end of the round.
I also ended up thinking that the neck line was too big/it felt like it was sliding off my shoulders so I crocheted a chain around the neckline for some added stability.
After the last tier of the yoke I knit 3 rows of garter and then 3 rows of stockinette before splitting for the sleeves. Sleeves go as follows: 42 sts on each front and 40 sts on waste yarn for the sleeves. I cast on 10 sts after putting the 40 sleeve stitches on waste yarn for the under arms.*
I did short row shaping for the bust.**
I added button holes on every 14th garter ridge. (I would put them closer together it I knit this again.)
For the long sleeves I did 14 rows of twisted rib for the cuffs and then bound off knit wise to give it a ridge similar to the yoke.
I slipped the stitches on the garter button band as follows: slip the last st of the row p wise with yarn in front. Knit this stitch on the next row.

Thoughts: Lovely pattern, ingenious really. I would definitely recommend it!

Things I would do differently if I knit it again:
1) I would cast on fewer stitches, which would mean I would need more increases so for the 3rd tier I would probably do [kfb, k5] all the way around.
2) Knit 2 more rows of garter stitch at the neckline (I only did 6 before the 1st increase)
3) For the ribbing on the sleeves I would purl one round, knit one round before the ribbing and then maybe knit one round, purl one round, and bind off to make it match the yoke a more.
4) Make the button bands maybe 1 stitch bigger so the button holes would have 3 stitches to the end of the row instead of 2.

*When I went to knit the sleeves I picked up a total of 14 stitches for the underarms. 2 before the 10 cast on stitches and 2 after.
**For the Short row shaping I did the same shaping on both of the fronts:
1) Knit 40 sts, wrap and turn
2) All even rows purl to last 6 sts, knit 5 sts, bring yarn to the front, slip last st
3) Knit 38 sts, wrap and turn
5) Knit 36 sts, wrap and turn
7) Knit to button band, picking up wrapped stitches

For the left front you have to wrap on the purl side. You pick up these wraps and then ptbl to get rid of the holes.

Aaaand...

2010-02-14T07:30:00.002-07:00

... we're off!

*This was yesterday morning and I am 2 Yucca repeats past this and ready to start the next chart.

.

Things

2010-02-11T16:16:00.006-07:00

I love Etsy. It is an awesome website and I love finding what I need on it. If I'm going to spend my money on something I would much rather spend a little more on something hand made from a single person than something a little cheaper that comes from a factory. Case and point, the wooden buttons I purchased for my Shalom sweater. They are gorgeous.

Spalted Maple. Hand cut and sanded, finished with tung oil. (Only 2 out of the 7 because the other 5 are on my sweater!)

Spalted wood again, hand cut, sanded and finished with tung oil.

They feel so smooth and lovely and I LOVE how they look like little packages. They are light weight and perfect for knitted items as they won't weigh them down. Not only do I love them, but they came with a lovely personal thank you note from the maker. I bought them from A Remark You Made and I would definitely recommend her shop.

Another Etsy purchase I made was to buy a blue sock yarn for my Aeolian Shawl. I mentioned this earlier as my Knitting Olympic project. It starts tomorrow! I knew I wanted something with a silk content, but I wasn't sure what brand of yarn I wanted. When I read about Squoosh FiberArts over on The Knitty Vritti I decided to check it out and I found a delicious merino silk sock blend in "Depth". In the picture on the shop it looked almost teal, but when it arrived it wasn't teal at all.

However I love this color even more than the color in the photo. I immediately balled it up so it's all ready to cast on tomorrow! It will be a race against the clock to finish the shawl in time. ;-)

My last Etsy treasure is from the Yarn Chef. This actually isn't a purchase, I won it in the raffle at Sticks and Stitches that I went to back in January. I got to choose between some of her yarn and her fiber and I chose this lovely merino/tencel blend in "Mauve Maven".

She's actually a local dyer and works out of Columbus, OH which I love. Just look at the shiny! (Also I just polished up my wheel so it's looking pretty spiffy as well. ;-])

And there's just one last thing I wanted to share...

omgsnow.

Waiting Game

2010-02-07T09:47:00.002-07:00

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!

2010-02-04T15:10:00.004-07:00

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!

2010-01-28T14:46:00.003-07:00

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!

2010-01-23T19:41:00.003-07:00

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

2010-01-14T15:08:00.006-07:00

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

2010-01-08T10:46:00.005-07:00

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)

2009-12-23T08:12:00.005-07:00

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...

Handspun Swirl

2009-11-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I decided to do some selfish knitting. There are some bigger projects that I really want to start but I'm waiting to finish a couple of other things first. So I decided to have a little self love with some of my very own handspun and yet another Ysolda pattern.

Specs:
Yarn: My own handspun
Needles: Size 10.5
Pattern: Icing Swirl Hat [Ravel it!]by Ysolda Teagues
Mods: I used a larger needle size and I only did 4 rows of the brim because I ran out of yarn!
Thoughts: I absolutely love it!

Frankie

2009-11-19T14:46:00.003-07:00

Frankie socks are finished! I worked on them today while watching my DVR'd shows (Heroes, Glee, and ANTM... it would have been Eastwick too but it wasn't on last night). I had to fudge the toe on the 2nd sock because I changed it from the pattern directions and I (very smartly) didn't write it down. It's at times like those when being able to read your knitting comes in handy!

Today has been amazing, by the way. My boyfriend finally got a day job (Working at Safelite as well, actually) and he's at training today so I had the house to myself. I knit and watched TV today. I also had a photo shoot (that you will see the results of shortly) and an amazing hot shower (After which I immediately put on a sweatshirt and socks because I was cold before and if you put that stuff on right afterwards you stay toasty warm and retain all the heat from the shower [Parentheses seem to be my friend today]).

I have dinner in process, I'm just waiting to get it in the oven. What's on the menu? Pre marinated turkey tenderloin, roasted sweet potatoes with some butter and brown sugar, twice baked cheesy garlic potatoes, salad, and an apple cobbler for dessert made with local apples. After I finish this (or in the middle, depending on how long this takes) I'll go get everything but the potatoes in the oven and in an hour or so dinner will be ready.

So, without further ado, I give you, Frankie Socks:

Specs:
Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Manly, Yes! But I like it too!
Needles: Size 2
Pattern: Francie Socks [Ravel it!] by Rebekkah Kerner
Mods:

I used size 2 needles and a heavier yarn.
I only did 1.5 repeats of the leg chart
I did fewer rows on the heel flap (due to different row gauge). This, however, ended up affecting the rest of the sock because I couldn't pick up the right amount of stitches for the gusset and I ended up use a KFB to increase so the ribbing flowed (I did this on the 2nd knit stitch, the little bump from the KFB looks like a purl stitch so it's a really easy and practically seamless ribbing increase).
I changed the toe. Because of the row gauge difference, the socks were long enough before the travelling ribs met in the middle. So, I just kept that up and in the column of 8 knit stitches (I started toe decreases after a knit increase) I decreased in a similar manner. After that, I got rid of all of the remaining purl stitches and then did a final round of decreases, leaving me with 20 sts that I grafted.

Thoughts: I really loved this pattern and I am seriously considering making myself a pair of these socks in the near future. The pattern is interesting and just challenging enough so that it's not boring, but it makes for pretty good TV knitting. However, as you can see in the photo of the foot the left leaning increase, assuming I did it correctly leaves holes along the bottom. I am hoping that this works itself out a little with blocking, though. They're currently drying.

The pattern is very well thought out and involves a lot of detail so it's pretty easy to modify. It is a pattern that you have to pay for but I think it's worth the money. I love the results and I'm a little sad that these are going to be a Christmas present.
For: My dad!

As you can see in the toe shots above I hade a little oopsie when it came to grafting the toes. On the first sock I did it the wrong direction! I figure I'll pick it all out and fix it sometime before I gift them, or maybe not, it makes them extra unique, right? The thing is that I can't figure out which way I like better, although neither of them are particularly appealing.

Something else great about these socks....

The leftovers! That's about 1.4 oz for anyone who's not impressed with 38 grams. ;-) I'll keep it around until after Christmas but it may become a smaller version of a toy from Amigurumi Knits, an awesome, awesome book I got from Knit Picks.

Till next time!

Only 4 months late

2009-11-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, so these socks I actually finished at the end of July for WIPs wrestling (they were the only things I finished in July.. sheesh). But I haven't gotten around to taking a FO picture for.. well.. only God knows why, really. Anyhow I've been wearing them whenever my feet get chilly and I just love them. I love the color and they're very warm. And not only were they finished 4 months ago, but they were actually cast on in March. How's that for a delay!

Leyburn Socks:

Specs:
Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Burgandy
Needles: Size 2
Pattern: Leyburn Socks [Ravel it!]
Mods: I started out with 10 sts at the toe and I increased more to accomodate the width of my foot, the extra stitched were on the bottom of the foot and not included in the quilted pattern. Because of the extra stitches I had to fiddle a little with making the pattern work after the heel, but it all ended up okay.
Thoughts:

The toe is too pointy or the foot is too long, one of the two (that's not really the pattern's fault)
The ankle is too wide, I'm pretty sure that this is because the pattern stated that the quilted/lattice pattern was not very stretchy so I wanted it to be a little bit big. The extra stitches I had from the foot accomplished that and now I wish I'd decrease a little after the heel.
My sewn bind-off wasn't tight enough. I was worried about making the bind off too tight so I didn't, and the extra loose bind off coupled with the too wide ankle make for a sock that's a little to stretchy
All in all, I love the yarn and I really do like the pattern, I just wish that I'd been a little bit smarter about it. These are quite lovely to wear, though so I will keep doing just that. ;-)

Also, the day of the photo shoot I was finishing up my mom's hat and I noticed that the yarn was almost the exact same color as my socks. Check it out:

I certainly do have a color palate.

Can you hear those distant Sleigh Bells?

2009-11-15T14:59:00.002-07:00

Okay, so, you can't say you didn't know it was coming. It happens at the same time every year. The holiday most knitters love and dread simultaneously: Christmas. I hope that everyone has at least started your Christmas knitting, unless, of course, you want to stay up all night Christmas eve weaving in ends and blocking gifts on the floor vents (Not that I've done that... *cough*). I mentioned earlier that I've got one Christmas gift finished already.

And I do!

Specs:
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Sock DK (they're OSU colors!)
Needles: Size 3
Pattern: No pattern, I just cast on 54 sts, knit some ribbing, stockinette cuff, reinforced heel flap with a Round Heel courtesy of Heels By Number (I followed the 52 st directions). Knit a foot long enough for 12.5 US Mens' and make a toe.
For: My step father. He requested a pair last year and well it took a little while but I got 'em!

My second project isn't finished yet, but I took an in Progress pic:

These are for my dad in the STR Mediumweight I bought at Rhinebeck. I love the way these are turning out. You can find the pattern here. I've loved these socks ever since I saw the Yarn Harlot's. The shaping on the foot is just so attractive and the pattern is really cleverly written, I would reccomend it to anyone. I'll probably be making myself a pair of these as well... eventually. And that's saying something considering how much I dislike knitting ribbing. I'm finished with the gusset on my 2nd sock and on to the foot. It'll be finished by the end of the week. Thursday probably (Thursdays are one of my days off).

Oh, and also, do you see the bit of mulch in the upper left hand corner of that photo? The finished Francie (Or Frankie as I like to think of them) sock ended up being left behind after the photo shoot and spent 3 lonely days hanging out with the mulch. I freaked when I found it, but it wasn't damaged by weather or bleached by the sun. Yay STR!

I'm also making a shawl for my grandmother. No worries, not complicated lace. Just some warm garter stitch. It's Wool Weaver's Mini Shawl. I'm knitting it with Knit Picks Gloss Heavy Worsted in Oregano. I'm ~80% done. I have less than half of a 1 of the 2 skeins left so that may be finished by the end of the week also.

Tone it down

2009-11-12T18:47:00.005-07:00

Since there have been so many pictures on my blog lately I thought maybe I would give you all an update on how I've been doing in a more non-knitterly sense.

I graduated, as you may or may not know, on the 31st of August. After graduation I was inbetween jobs for about a month before I started at Safelite Solutions. Safelite takes glass claims for a whole slew of insurance companies so I spend my evenings 3pm-8pm MTW, FSat on the phones filing claims for people with glass damage. It's really not a bad job, the people there are generally great and the pay is decent although it could be better (Couldn't it always?).

I'm also working 10AM-2PM at the Downtown Endoscopy Center for my mom. They needed help in the office and so since I had helped out with the patients before and I was on the payroll. I mostly scan patient charts into the computer.

Neither jobs are incredibly stimulating (especially the scanning), but I can't complain about either of them, because at least I have a job. I also really like pretty much everyone that I work with.

At night I come home and watch my shows and knit or spin, lately mostly knitting Christmas presents. I finished one and am over halfway finished with 2 others. (Hehe, don't tell me you didn't know Christmas was coming! Jealous? =P)

I spend time with my friends and my boyfriend.

All in all it's not a bad life, and yet I am unsatisfied. I live with my mom and have two jobs that don't have anything to do with any college degree, let alone the one I spent 4 years earning. At the same time I don't have a lot of drive for any particular profession. Just perhaps one that I enjoy and that earns me a decent paycheck at the end of the week.

I've also probably gained about 8-10 lbs since I've graduated. Most of that was becoming sedentary but a good amount of it is that I stopped watching what I ate and paying attention to when I was eating for boredom and when I was eating for hunger.

I joined a gym and try to go a few times a week, and I do, but not as much as I should and I don't exercise as hard as I should.

I'm inbetween.

Hopefully something shifts for the better soon.

In more knitterly news, I do have some actual FO pictures to show you. I've also sewn buttons on the Vine Yoke Cardigan and it's ready for a more specific FO photo.

With Love,
Abby

Rhinebeck Part 3: The people

2009-11-01T11:00:00.004-07:00

PEOPLE!!

Me, my Vine Yoke Cardigan, and a Llama

My friend Jenna, aka Jinxgirl

Okay, not people. Just delicious lamb ravioli and sauteed spinach (Mmm, Rhinebeck food!)

The Fab MrKnitterotica.

Ktb38 and her awesome entrelac Sauerball Stole/Scarf.

HoneyChild and the infamous Cake.

The lovely Jesh.

Cyd, Pixisis, and Cake.

Knitting content eventually!

Lots of love!

Rhinebeck Part 2: The Fiber

2009-10-25T16:56:00.004-07:00

Okay, so I'm posting part two. I know. You're shocked.

I'll give you a minute to get over it.

...

Alright. Now, I picked up some really lovely fiber at Rhinebeck. I mean like.. well... a lot of it.

This is 4 oz of a BFL cross sheep. I can't remember the other sheep and the bag is downstairs so I'll have to get back to you on what kind it is exactly.

As you can see this is a Merino/Cashmere/Angora blend. I'm really excited to spin this up. It should turn out just lovely.

One of two BFL tops that I bought. I just love the colors in it. I can't wait to see how it spins up.

This is approximately 4 oz of bleached camel down. The lady at the stand said they were more like 1/10th of a pound than an ounce because her scale only weighs in ounces. I was pleased because they were only $2.50 a bag. =)

This is 8 oz of correidale. I can't remember the name of the place I got it from, but it's on the tag... also downstairs.

Some of the fiber I got I've already spun into yarn.

This is blue correidale from the same place I got the white from.

And this is the 2nd BFL top that I bought, also from Into the Whirled.

I know, I know, you're asking yourself, how in the world did she spin all of that yarn so quickly? She doesn't own a spinning wheel.

Well, my friends. My largest and favorite purchase at Rhinebeck was a spinning wheel! My very own wheel. =D I love it. It's a Kromski Sonata and it's gorgeous...

A not very good angle on the flyer.

The orifice.

The attached lazy kate with the leftovers of the BFL top.

The double treadle

And of course, the wheel.

As you may notice there's some fiber fuzzies on the wheel. I've spun almost a pound of fiber in the last week and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. Luckily I had Ktb38 (A Rav Friend) to help me get used to the wheel. She has the same one. I just love it. It's acutally a travel wheel. The top part with the flyer comes off and it folds in half and goes in its own carrying case.

Stay tuned for Part 3: The People...

Rhinebeck Part One: The Yarn

2009-10-22T13:21:00.004-07:00

So I went to Rhinebeck, NY this weekend for the Sheep and wool festival. I can only say that it was an amazing time. Not only were there tons of amazing vendors and products, there were a ton of like minded people who were extremely friendly. I met so many people, those I knew only online, and those that I'd never met before at all. Everyone was nice (with the exception of one of the people at one of the booths, but I digress...) and I had such an amazing time. I have tons of pictures to share with you all. Since today was my day off I wanted to make a point to take some pictures of the haul to share with you all, I also have several pictures of the people that I hung out with, mostly people from the VLT in the CPaAG on Ravelry.

Since I did get a lot of fiber as well as yarn (and OMGSOMETHINGELSEAWESOME) I'm going to stick to yarn for this post.

I give you... Yarn Pr0n:

Two 750 yd skeins of worsted weight yarn from Briar Rose.

Blue Moon had a booth and I got some much coveted Socks That Rock. I got it in both Mediumweight:

And Lightweight:

The Mediumweight will be a pair of socks for my dad for Christmas (I think this pattern [Ravel it!] would be great. I'm not sure about the lightweight, though. It was really interesting, they had several colorways that were black with the purple in the skein and another color, one had a goldish color another was just purple and I think one other had blue in it.

Gorgeous Alpaca Laceweight from Burgis Brook Alpaca farm. The tweedy look comes from silk nepps.

This lovely yarn is from Hope Spinnery. The actual color of it is a little softer than in this picture. It's probably my favorite skein, though. It was dyed using all natural dyes and it was spun using wind energy. It's smooshy and wonderful. I adore it. I'm planning on using it for the Snap Dragon Tam and Mittens, but we'll see if there's enough for both as it is a little lighter weight than the pattern calls for. I do have about 40 extra yards and that should be plenty, but we'll see.

Last but not least we have the yak yarn! It's from Bijou Bison Spinnery. At the Ravelry party on Saturday night we got coupons in the goodie bags for buy one get one on all the yarn in their booth, which is amazing. This sock yarn was $65/skein and so out of my price range earlier in the day. I just couldn't pass up the buy one get one, though. They had many lovely choices but the sock samples are what got me. This yarn knits up beautifully and I can't wait to play with it. ;-)

As you can see in the photo, the brown yarn is fluffier than the white yarn. The lady at the booth told me that the cream colored yarn was the first one that they spun and so it was spun fairly tightly (It is sock yarn after all) but the second they wanted a big squooshier and so that's what they got. They're both awesome.

Okay, so that concludes the yarn portion of our program. Stay tuned for the fiber and people portions!

Hello!

2009-10-15T11:18:00.001-07:00

Hello dear, neglected blog! I have not forgotten you, however 10-12 hour work days leave little time for blogging, especially when on your days off you're out doing things all day! Anywho, I stopped in for two reasons. Well three, if you count how freaking excited I am! So I wanted to show you this:

And also... I LEAVE FOR RHINEBECK TOMORROW! I CAN'T WAIT! EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

What? FOs?

2009-09-23T16:00:00.005-07:00

Oh yeah, remember how I said I'd have plenty of time for FO posts last week? I guess not. Oh well.

I started training for my new job on Monday. It's at a Safelite call center and I've learned lots of things like glass can be tinted 6 different shades (Green, Blue, Gray, Bronze, Privacy, and Clear. Clear isn't used anymore so your windshield is probably green, blue, or gray) and what all the specific types of glass on a car are plus a bunch of other stuff. Today we sat in on some CSR's phone calls. All in all I think I'm going to like this job. =)

Also I've been sick since Monday. I got a cold, runny nose and a fever. I was inbetween jobs for 3 weeks and I get a cold on my first day of work! Yuck! Luckily I was still able to go to work and I'm almost over it. Tonight I made a big pot of vegetable soup and it was really good and made me feel much better. =)

This FO was a gift for my mother for her birthday and it's based on a wash cloth pattern.

Specs:
Yarn: Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic
Needles: US Size 6
Pattern: Oak Leaf Cloth By Marilyn Wallace (Ravel it!)
Mods: I cast on more stitches (I can't remember the specific amount) and knit it longer for a towel. For the top I decreased at the end of each row until there were only 11 stitches left and then I knit straight until the strap was long enough. I made a 3 stitch button hole knit 2 more rows and then bound off.
Thoughts: It's a cute pattern, but it was only written in line by line format which I didn't like. I ended up charting it for myself from the picture, so it is slightly different than the pattern.

Answers

2009-09-14T18:13:00.002-07:00

I got asked 2 questions in the comments on my last post.

1) Did you get your hair cut?

Yes! I got it chopped off. It's a lot shorter, and I love it. I also got new glasses. ;-)

2) Isuemorris said:

I'm having trouble getting started can you help me? CO, knit 6 rows then pick up 6 st. Row 2 or the garter st section needs 15 sts. What did I miss? I only have 9.

Well Sue, I'm not sure where you're getting the 15 sts from, as you should only have 9 sts after the cast on. The next RS row you k3 (yo, k1) 3 times, k3, which gives you 12 sts, and the next row you increase another 2 sts giving you 15, but the pattern never says anything about 15 sts specifically. So whatever it is you did was correct and perhaps you're just reading the pattern incorrectly.

I have 2 more Fos to share with you (Well technically 3, but the 3rd is from the end of July! Man, I really should get on that one). I think I will have plenty of time to show you them this week. =)

Damson

2009-09-10T07:36:00.003-07:00

As soon as I saw Damson(Ravel It!) on Ysolda's blog, I knew I wanted to make it. When I realized I had a skein of Malabrigo Sock (the yarn called for in the pattern) lying around I knew it was meant to be. I also knew that I had to buy Whimsical Little Knits 2. This pattern was fun and easy, even if it did take like 2 hours to bind off.

Specs:
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Rayon Vert
Pattern: Damson by Ysolda Teagues
Thoughts: Quick, easy knit. A great alternate use of sock yarn!
Mods: None

Garter Stitch Handspun Mitts

2009-09-03T17:56:00.005-07:00

So here's FO #1. I knit these up in about a day for my boyfriend's birthday.

Stats:
Yarn: Cosy Spins 2-ply falkland wool about 1/2 of the skein
Pattern: There wasn't actually a pattern, so I'll just give you some notes:
I provisionally cast on 24 sts with size 10 needles and knit until the rectangle fit around my hand. I also put in 2 sets of short rows for hand shaping. After I finished, I grafted the cast on edge and the live stitches, switched to a sewn bindoff for the thumb hole, and grafted the top of the mitt. Et voila, handspun mitts.

You know I love him because I gave a present made out of my only handspun! Luckily I think there's enough for a hat for me.

Another FO soon! I took some shots yesterday but they were pretty washed out so I'm going to try and get a couple that capture the color better.

Fresh Start

2009-09-02T16:27:00.005-07:00

So, here I am. It's the first day of me being completely moved out of my apartment that I lived in for 2 years. My BF says he won't miss it, but I will. I liked our little apartment. I liked being on my own, most of the time. Well I wasn't completely alone, was I? The BF was there.

Moving out sucked. We packed most of the apartment in one night. We also had to do the dished that night. I went a little nuts while it was happening. Last week I was here at my mom's 2 days in a row, painting the room we're in now. It looks really nice. Two of the walls are an off white, and the other two are a lovely shade of green, like sage without the gray. Saturday my mom and brother helped us move the majority of stuff out of the apartment. It's amazing how much stuff one can accumulate. Monday and Tuesday were spent packing the rest of the stuff and cleaning. Oh, and painting some more.

Lesson: Never paint an apartment. Even if you're going to live there for 2 years.

Sunday, you ask? I graduated. Yep. College graduate here, writing this. Writing a blog. I don't have any career type jobs line up right now. I start another part time job curtosy of one of my good friends on Monday. For now I get to enjoy being done for a while. I opted to go to graduation for a couple of reasons, because it would be a small graduation ceremony comparatively speaking (there were 8000 at Spring graduation) so it didn't take as long, I didn't turn in the form 2 weeks ahead of time saying I wanted my diploma mailed to me, and because, well, why not? It was a memory making moment. I enjoyed it for the most part. The ceremony was 2.5 hours long, just as they said it would be. So, finally, 2 hours into the ceremony it's time for me to walk across the stage (they don't call your name you just get to walk). I approach the place where they're handing out diplomas. Tell them my name. And...

It's not there.

Nope.

Not.

Long story short they had marked it to be mailed (remember how I said I didn't turn that paper in?) and it was in a different building. So after graduation (where I didn't get the thing I went for) I drove to another building and tried to be nice to the very nice people who did give me my diploma.

Today was supposed to be my "do nothing" day. I was going to relax, watch a movie, knit, swim in the pool, and generally be lazy. I did all of those things, however I also spent 2-3 hours driving around town. Why, you ask? My step brother rolled his car. He was going too fast on a back road and hit the loose gravel on the side trying to avoid the oncoming cars, over corrected, and rolled twice. He's fine, and I'm pretty sure the car is still drivable. I had to go out to pick him up with my step father and then we drove to the insurance agent and then to 2 rental places, neither of which had cars. I am very glad that he didn't get hurt.

So all in all you can see I've had a pretty busy week or two. I'm glad that it's over. My new life is starting. It should be interesting. And though I've been busy, I have not been too busy to knit...

Vine Yoke Cardigan (Ravel it!)

FOs coming up soon...

So much to say so little time

2009-08-21T20:36:00.003-07:00

So guess what. I'm finished with classes! I still have finals this coming week, but after that I'm done. Free. Done. Out into the wide world of no-classes-but-that-means-no-christmas-spring-or-summer-breaks-ness. Have I found a job? Not exactly. I am, however working on a possible business endeavor that I think you all will find VERY interesting. I will be happy to share it with you... once I actually know what's going on.

In other news, I did purchase a car. I was a few days after that post, actually. I bought a 2008 Kia Rio for $10,600. My first car payment is due on September 14th. Just one more way I'm leaping into the world of true adulthood! Well, almost. I am going to be moving back in with my mother on the 29th. My lease is up and since the BF and I don't have jobs, we need an inbetween place. That's going to be my mom's house for.. well... however long I need to stay there. It looks pretty much like this:

I love it! It's cute, small, gets good gas mileage (25 MPG City), and has a 4 star safety rating. Not to mention I got the loan by myself without a cosigner! I was pretty happy about that. =)

Anywho, I've been knitting away at a couple of projects. I have a pair of fingerless mitts I made for the BF's birthday, as well as a pair for me (That aren't actually finished yet). I also am on the bind off of Damson (Ravel It!), the first pattern in Ysolda's Whimsical Little Knits 2. I have to say I'm pretty smitten with the first two patterns already. Not to mention her new Vine Yoke Cardigan in the Fall 2009 Twist Collective. For some reason I am drawn to almost all of her designs. I think she's a brilliant designer.

Hopefully there will be some photo laden FO posts in my future, Once I'm done test taking, moving, painting, and graduating.

New Car Smell

2009-07-29T10:05:00.002-07:00

Hi guys. =)

I've had a crazy couple of weeks, between school and extracurricular things that I've been up to I haven't had a lot of will to sit down and write a blog entry.

Sunday night my car stopped working. I went to start it and it only made a clicking noise. So, instead of having it go to the shop (again) we're going to scrap it and I'm getting another car. I've been car shopping the past couple of days. It's been an interesting experience.

There's been a little knitting, but, honestly, I haven't really been in the mood. I'm in another funk. I'm hoping it will lift soon, or at least after I graduate (August 30th). I'm almost finished with the Leyburn socks. Another good hour or two and they'll be all done. =)

Oh, and I finally caved and bought a Sims game. I bought Sims 2 for $10 including shipping from Amazon (used). I actually wanted Sims 3 but I wasn't going to pay $50 for it, and I figured Sims 2 would be cheap because Sims 3 came out a couple of months ago. =)

And the winner is...

2009-07-19T07:30:00.002-07:00

According to the random number generator, the winner is comment number 8, also known as Miss ZaftigWendy! She's won her choice of:

Hill Country Sweet feet 100% merino in "Blueberry Wine". A lovely yarn, I didn't like how it was working up so I thought this would be a good alternative for it! =) (Colors are darker than the photo shows!)

Or, if those colors don't suit her taste, I'm offering one of the following: 1 or more skeins of yarn from Knit Picks totalling up to $10 or a $10 gift card, if she chooses to put it towards a larger order.

Now that that is said, I'd like to thank everyone for your opinions! I threw Oblique in there, without having given her too much thought. However, she was the most popular choice among the commenters (Mariah was a close second)! I was only considering the Ecowool for that sweater until Cyd gave me some pause with a really good point:

"I love that one Oblique, I think I have to queueueue that one myself, heh. I think it would be lovely in either of the yarns, depending on which would go best with whatever you'd wear underneath, since it would show through."

I think the Malabrigo is a better neutral, being a lovely beigy color it would go with pretty much anything. However I know that Malabrigo will pill like crazy! Oblique is a nicer sweater, one that I could wear to work which would make one made out of Malabrigo a high maintenance sweater! And Malabrigo looks great cabled, making it a good candidate for Mariah, and Mariah would be more of an at home, weekend sort of sweater so if it pilled then it wouldn't matter as much.

So I think my decisions are:

Oblique in the Ecowool and Mariah in the Malabrigo.

But who knows what the future will bring. ;-)

Thanks for playing!!

Checking In

2009-07-12T13:50:00.005-07:00

So I mentioned photo updates, didn't I? I've been a neglectful blogger as of late, posting sparsely. But at least I've had some interesting photos, right? Right? Right. Haha.

Anyway, as far as TdF goes, I've been spinning every day, but not posting pictures to show my progress as much as I should. I spun up a silk sample from Zebisis Designs that I just love. I got it in my Phat Fiber sample box in march. It's gawgus.

I chain plied it!! I was so excited to find out you can do that on a spindle! Go me! =D

I've also been wrestling WIPs, but not as much as I've been spinning. I got through most of the foot on my 2nd Leyburn sock yesterday.

Okay now that I've proven that I've been working on the competitions I want to share with you that I started an amigurumi project. It's actually really easy and I did most of it in one sitting, but it's not finished and I have no idea when it might be. It's a little snow dragon (Ravlink). So cute.

In other news, I was looking through some cardigan patterns since I have 2 sweaters worth of yarn (Cascade Ecological wool and Malabrigo). It was sparked by the fall Knit Simple that I was browsing at work. I liked several cardigans in it and since I'm on a yarn diet until Rhinebeck (Which is going well- I haven't bought any yarn, well, except for a swap but that doesn't count!) I was trying to decide if my yarn would work with it.

Then I was thinking aobut what I really wanted to make with the yarn as I've had several different ideas (If you've been reading for a while then you know that I am a fickle, fickle knitter). The Cascade was originally for the Windowpane Coat, but that was frogged. Then I knit a sleeve of the OWLS sweater (cardigan version for me!) and decided against that. For the Malabrigo I was thinking of maybe that Cabely sweater from Vogue, or something else heavily cabled and came up with Mariah unofficially but now I'm rethinking that again.

The cardigans I really liked in the Knit Simple are the 2nd and 3rd in the 9 to 5 categor y o n the website (There's no Rav links for these yet...!!). I was like Hey, I could make the 3rd sweater out of the Cascade, or better yet the Mal! Or wait, the 2nd would look awesome in the Malabrigo. But Malabrigo pills.. Hmmm...

Anyhow after much searching I am still largely undecided, so I was hoping that you, my dear readers, would have a bit of input. Here are some of the sweaters that I've been contemplating. So for the input, lets make this interesting. How about a contest? I'm going to post my choices and I'd like your opinion on which ones I should go for and what yarn. You can give a thorough reason or just state your choices, whatever I'll be glad of the input. =)

Factors:
Malabrigo Worsted 8-10 skeins "Simply Taupe"

Cascade Ecological Wool 3 skeins (~1300 yds) "8087"

Sweaters/My Combos:

1) Shalom(Ravlink)/Ecowool- I'd put long sleeves on it

2) Oblique(Ravlink)/Ecowool

2) Urban Aran Cardigan(Ravlink)/Either

3)Brompton(Ravlink)/Ecowool

4)Mariah(Ravlink)/Malabrigo

5 & 6) The Knit Simple Sweaters(2nd and 3rd)/Either yarn:

Okay.. that's a lot of sweaters. And yes I know some of them will involve math because of the yarn differences, but I'm okay with that.

The prize! I don't know what it is yet. It's going to involve yummy yarn, though. That I'm sure of. =)

You have until Saturday July 18th to leave a comment and be entered!

Grab some coffee

2009-07-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Because this is going to be a big one! First of all, I just returned from my vacation yesterday. It was amazing, I had a great time. I really loved getting to spend quality time with my family, especially since I don't see them nearly as often as I'd like. There were quite a few bonding moments. For example the Pub Crawl in Key West. Haha. Yes, a Pub Crawl. I went with my BF and my Step brother.

Did I survive? Yes and no. The actual crawl was pretty tame, we went to 5 bars in 2.5 hours and had a smallish cocktail at each. Feeling a little jipped and not nearly as drunk as we'd like to be, we headed to a little cowboy bar that had 2 for $5 margaritas and $1 beers. Here I proceeded to imbibe 2 more beers, and well, I was feeling mighty fine on my way back to the boat. We all were. Then we had lunch with the fam where the BF, step brother, and I all had another beer. I also had a huge plate of fries and chicken fingers. Afterward I went back to the cabin and slept for about 3 hours.

Upon waking up, I payed homage to the porcelain goddess. Several times. I was sick all night and throwing up bile, which is something that I've not experienced before. It was not a good night.

Usually I know my limits quite well and I stop before I get there. Unfortunately I did not on that particular day. I'm thinking there were several attributing factors to the entire night of sickness.
1) It was hot and I was sweating and so the alcohol was only contributing to dehydration.
2) I had a big plate of greasy food.
3) Instead of having a big glass of water with lunch I had another beer.

The last one was the biggest mistake, I think. I didn't drink much the rest of the trip, as you can well imagine. ;-)

The other shore excursions went much better. The 3rd day of the cruise we were at Grand Cayman. We did some snorkeling around the barrier reef. It was really amazing. The water is amazingly clear and we saw lots of fish and other sea life. I, for example saw Rainbow Parrot Fish, Blue Parrot Fish, Needle Fish, Brain Coral, Yellow Tube Sponge, Lettuce Coral (I think), Common Sea Fan, Blue Tang (I saw a school of these guys), Beaugregory (I think, it was yellow on the bottom and blue on top), Bluestriped Grunt, Yellowhead Wrasse, etc etc. I saw a couple of Sting Rays at the reef before we even got to "Sting Ray City" (Really just a spot in the ocean not like a sectioned off area, the sting rays are wild), where we got to touch the Rays! They feel like wet mushrooms. It was way cool. There was an enormous ray who bumped into people (Making them scream, which was quite funny. They're very tame, so there's no real dangers unless you go flailing around and impale yourself on the stingy spike on their tail.).

Going from left to right, top row first: 1) A needle fish I saw from the boat, 2) Frisbee the sting ray with no tail 3) A crew member smooching a ray 4) Sally, the GIANT and OLD ray

When we went to the “Sting Ray City” the crew had some food for the sting rays and they came right over. For hundreds of years the fishermen at Grand Cayman would fish on the deep side of the reef and then come back to the safety of the sound to clean the fish. They would dump the entrails and other unwanted bits over the side. The rays eventually learned to associate the sound of a boat anchoring with free food and come racing over.

The next day we went to Jamaica, which was beautiful. Our excursion was climbing Dunn River Falls followed by a beach party with all you can eat/drink food and drink (included in the excursion price). The drinks were Red Stripe, Rum Punch, and Mojitos (Made with pineapple, which I thought were interesting). The food included sweet fry bread, potato wedges, Jamaican rice, jerk chicken, sausage in a yummy bbq sauce, and pasta. It was all very good. We had a good time climbing the falls, even though you are constantly harangued by people trying to sell trinkets. I couldn’t walk 5 feet on the beach without being accosted. As annoying as that is, it only speaks to the poverty level there that the citizens have to make a living that way. But they are quite insistent, and sometimes even quite rude.

The BF and I actually took a lovely picture at the beach party:

And Finally I'll show you a picture of our cruise ship, the Freedom.

Lovely time, I'd recommend taking a cruise to anyone. It's pretty economical, as the food is included (I ate like 4 meals a day, and gained probably about 5 pounds- the food was great), and there's plenty of entertainment on the ship. However, if you're not a people person, this may not be for you as you are on an enclosed space with about 35oo guests and a large staff.

And now for the knitting portion of this entry! I've joined two contests on Ravelry. The first of which is WIPs Wrestling. I'm on the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Team: Team Team. The purpose of this is to finish as many WIPs as you can in the month of July. My estimate is fairly modest, I'm going to try and finish my Leyburns and also the Parker Cardigan. I hadn't worked on it at all since the last time I showed it to you. I took it with me on the cruise and worked on it a bit. I'm now up to the arm hole shaping on the back piece. I think the other pieces should be a breeze in comparison.

The other contest I entered is the Tour de Fleece. This started yesterday, and spinners everywhere are spinning while the Tour de France is going, which especially difficult challenges on the days were the riders are doing the most difficult stages of the race, the mountains. My goal is simply to spin every day, since I've been neglecting my spinning for a while. I might try and spin a whole batt in one day, maybe. We'll see how that goes.

I believe this post has gone on long enough, so I'll get going and hopefully I'll have some photo updates on the contests soon!

Under the Tree Mitts

2009-06-27T05:12:00.000-07:00

Today, dear readers, I will embark on a mission... Okay, not really. I'm flying to Florida today and tomorrow I'm boarding a cruise ship! So exciting!! =D

Okay, now for the knitting. First of all, I just want to say that I LOVE THESE MITTS!! They are quite possibly one of my all time favorite FOs. I don't know what it is exactly, the gray Malabrigo, the cute owl cable, or that they fit perfectly, or something else. I just love them (lets just say to the point where my boyfriend thinks I'm a little obsessed). Too bad it's too warm out to wear them! Oh well, I guess I'll just be prepared when the cold weather rolls around!

The first time I tried to knit these I used the suggested size 6 needles. However since I have wide man-hands, this didn't work out overly well and I ended up ripping and starting on a size 7. Ahh, much better. since my hands are so wide I ended up doing a round of increases after the ribbing as well. I increased 4 because I figured that would be enough so that the ribbing at the top wouldn't be a problem. However I forgot about the column of knit stitches going up the sides of the hand which put the second column at a purl part of the ribbing, interrupting it. It ended up being not so bad, so I didn't do anything tricksy to fix it.

I ripped back quite a few times on these mitts. Just a couple rows at a time, for the increases and I did the cabling wrong once or twice. Mainly just on the first mitt. I did the second mitt (mostly) from memory, using the first one as a guide.

Under the Tree Mitts:

Specs:
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, "Frost Gray"
Pattern: Under the Tree by Erqsome
Mods:

I used a size 7 needle
I did 4 pfb on the second purl round after the ribbing
I used reverse stockinette on the palm instead of regular
I tweaked the tree branch cabling different to make up for the extra stitches I added
I used 2 x 2 ribbing on the thumb
I used a sewn bind off

Thoughts: It's a really adorable pattern and I am in love with it! It's super easy and it was a quick knit. I started 6/19 and finished 6/22. Lovely. =)

Ishbel Revisited

2009-06-25T15:04:00.003-07:00

As I noted in my previous post, I finished my second Ishbel with time to spare. It's a really graet pattern, and when you're not doing the shawl version it doesn't take much time to knit at all.

Unlike my first Ishbel, this one ended up a fairly large size. I used Colinette Jitterbug, which I wasn't completely sure about once I started. The color is absolutely gorgeous, I really love it. However, the yarn is super springy and very dense at 320 yds in 100 g (Normal sock yarn has 400+ yards in 100 g). Using a springy yarn like that, the lace doesn't open as fully as with other yarns. To correct this I ended up blocking the scarf within an inch of its life, using all 64 of my rust proof t-pins. It ended up being a shawlette size, when I was done and so far it's stayed about that size.

It's only outing was to see Ysolda, its designer. It's going to have to be put away for the summer, though. It's way too warm for it. I was thinking about taking it on the cruise with me (Squee!! I leave on Saturday!!) but I'm not sure that I have anything to wear it with.

In the past week I've completed 2 more projects. Just small ones, the sooper seekrit one that I can't reveal right now and also the Under the Tree Mitts (Ravlink) by fellow Raveller and CPaAGer Erqsome, but those are for another post (FYI I'm in love with them).

Ishbel Revisited:

Stats:
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug, "Salty Dog"
Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teagues
Mods: None, actually
Thoughts: I love this pattern, the lace is really adorable and it's a fast knit. I'd recommend it to anyone. I've heard a few say that the lace isn't easy, but I disagree. The decreases all line up so it's easy to see if you've made a mistake and you're following 8 row charts, with 4 of them being return rows (all purl). It's quick and easy. I love it!

Quick and Easy Marinara

2009-06-24T16:58:00.007-07:00

Since I've lived with my boyfriend I've spoiled him with my cooking. In fact, he misses it when I'm done. One of the things that I've completely ruined for him is jarred spaghetti sauce.

This is my most recent version of my marinara sauce and I think it's the best. The combination of canned sauce and canned diced tomatoes gives it a 'cooked all day' texture. It's my favorite yet. =)

The camera flash made the steam look like smoke.

Marinara Sauce:

Ingredients:
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can of plain tomato sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 c. white wine
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
1 small carrot or 2-3 baby carrots, diced
1 tsp Italian seasoning (Dried herbs, usually includes rosemary, thyme, oregano, and basil, feel free to substitute fresh, although if you use basil you'll want to stir it in near the end)
A few dashes of hot sauce *Optional
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Put 1/2 of the can of diced tomatoes into a food processor or blender and puree. Set aside. (If you don't want a chunky sauce, you can puree the entire can or just get all sauce at the grocery store, although the latter won't give you the same texture)

Heat a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat. Once it's warmed, add the garlic, onion, and carrots. Saute until the onions are translucent and the garlic is fragrant.

Add the white wine and simmer until it's reduced by about half. Add the 8 oz can of tomato sauce, pureed tomatoes, the rest of the 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, and the hot sauce (I like to add the hot sauce because it gives the marinara a tangy zing, you could also use a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes or nothing at all if you don't like spice).

Let the sauce simmer for at least 10 minutes, longer if you like. I usually start a pot of water boiling when I add the white wine and let the sauce cook until the pasta is done, and then dinner is done all at once! Ta da! Delicious sauce you could never get from a jar!

Trials and Tribulations

2009-06-18T15:32:00.005-07:00

It's been an interesting week. The beach was wonderful. I miss being able to go there and just sit and read, hopping into the (really cold) ocean to relieve the heat and then laying out to sun bathe/air dry. I don't miss being in a 5 bedroom house with 9 people and arguing with my mother. The vacation ended up being just as stressful as it was relaxing, which was sad all the way around.

We actually made good time on our return trip, making it from NC to OH in 13.5 hours, including the time we sat down to lunch.

I also have to admit to reading all 4 of the Twilight books in about a week. I finished the 4th this morning, and I started the 1st last Wednesday. Obviously I was smitten with them. The 4th book, however was my least favorite. The middle section (not narrated by Bella) was my least favorite. It actually kind of made me sick. But the part before and after that was fine.

I'm on Team Edward, BTW. ;-)

On vacation, I finished my 2nd Ishbel. If you'll remember Ysolda was in Columbus yesterday so I was knitting it on a deadline. I got to meet her at Wonderknit and she was so nice! I didn't stay too long, however because it must have been like 90* in the shop and I was sweating in a very unladylike manner.

I got a signed copy of Whimsical Little Knits, and Ysolda was kind enough to pose for a picture with me. =) She also had all of her samples out, and it was cool to be able to see them in person.

That's my Ishbel pinned around me. I took it off soon after. Hot hot hot!

In other news, I tried to knit a sock. Why is this news? Well because I've had a couple of failed attempts. Firstly, I tried to knit Traffic Island Socks (Ravlink), an original design from someone on the CPaAG group boards on Ravelry. I was trying to do a toe-up version because I wanted the decreases to point down the foot like the Jaywalkers (Ravlink only!) do. It was all going very well, I was using my Claudia Handpainted and size 1.5needles the fabric was great and then I started into the pattern and (like I had feared) the yarn was pooling rather than striping. *sigh* Nice try but no cigar.

Then I started Vinnland (Ravlink) (Why is it all the socks I want to knit are toe up?). I've attempted the short row toe 2.5 times. The first time I wrapped the stitches instead of doing the weird yarn over thing, and then I did the yarn over thing but I was getting HUGE holes (I didn't actually do the yarn over thing right.. I don't think it's explained very well). I was picking up bars left and right and k2toging and it didn't look nice at all, so I'm on my third try, but still pretty frustrated with it.

So, finally, I started another sock-like project. It's super seekrit and I cannot reveal what it is until the recipient gets it. I will say that I'm using a sample from my March Phat Fiber box, and I'm not sure if I like it or not.

Oh, one last trial. I half way got laid off today. I say 'half way' because I'm not going into work for the next 2 weeks or the rest of this week, but I'm getting paid for them. I'm also going to be working at the office the week of July 6th.

Confused? Me too. I'm going to apply for another job, and hopefully that pans out.

My summer quarter starts on Monday. It should be interesting. Then I graduate. The BF graduated last week!

This all means that very soon I have to enter the real world *sigh*.

Handspun Goodness

2009-06-08T11:17:00.003-07:00

The last you saw of my first finished skein of handspun was rather unceremonious, so I'm going to give it some more attention now. I bought a Subtle Stripes Kit from Cosymakes for the BF. Ever since Cosy was here back in November, the BF had admired her SOAR hat. He loved the colors in it and wanted one for himself. I told him that she had spun the yarn herself and in order for me to make one for him, I'd have to learn to spin, at the time I couldn't.

So the stars aligned (Okay, well, I learned to spin and Cosy started making kits for her SOAR hat) and I purchased a kit. Basically the kit comes with one 2 oz braid of one type of roving, and four 1/2 oz bundles of different colors (explained better at Cosy's blog on the SOAR hat link). You spin the 2 oz on one bobbin (or cop, if it's a spindle), and the for 1/2 oz bundles onto another bobbin and then ply them together.

Cosy suggest either doing a sequence of 4 or 8 (diving the bundles in half).

Now, my wont was to spin the fiber a heavy worsted weight and evenly, with a hot to cold striping pattern. The BF was having none of this. He wanted his hat to be unique and funky, and I certainly think that was the result. I spun the singles thick and thin, the 2 oz color had a lot of slubs, while the striping portion had only a few.

For the colors I let the BF choose the sequence, ultimately he decided to split the green color in half and from top to bottom have it green-blue-green-red/orange-brown/yellow/white. I had a decent amount of the 2 oz left over after plying so I andean plied it and kept it in case I needed extra yarn to finish the hat.

The BF, just to be difficult, decided that he wanted to wear it with the purl side out. It does look pretty cool with the purl side out, the slubs stick out more.

I didn't use a pattern. I started this had top down so I didn't have to do a gauge swatch, although I did have to restart. I started knitting it on US size 10.5 needles, but the fabric was very dense and I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish it at that gauge. So I switched to size 11 needles and went on my merry way.

I cast on 4 sts, and kfb the first row and I did spiral increases, *k1, m1* the first round, *k2, m1* the second, etc until it was the right size. I did switch back to 10.5 needles for the ribbing at the bottom of the hat, though.

I also did need the extra bit of yarn I made by plying the base back on itself. You can tell the bottom of the hat is a pretty silvery gray.

All in all I'm very pleased with the whole process, I think it took just over a week! Ahh, just in time for summer. ;-)

Peeektures!!

2009-06-06T12:36:00.004-07:00

Why hello there.

I've been away for a while, but never fear I've been keeping up with my fiber arts. This is going to be a picture heavy post. I had a photo shoot out infront of my apartment a few minutes ago. I'm in my PJs (I've been out and about today.. buying new shoes, acutally but I changed back into my PJs... I have a paper to write. D=).

First, a skein of my finished handspun. This is a merino/silk batt from Mad Angel Creations.

It's more thick and thin than I'd like, but I still love it. It's soft and shiny and squooshy. =D

My new spinning project:

A merino/baby alpaca batt from Port Fiber. The colorway is "Sunset". Lovely. =)

So I wrote not too long ago about hating almost everything I was knitting.. so I started a couple of new projects! (And ripped out a couple of old...)

Another Ishbel (Ravlink)! This is my Colinette Jitterbug that I bought a couple of months ago. I don't know how I like the yarn yet. It's really sproingy and even though it's merino it's not as soft as it could be because of how tightly it's spun. I imagine that is why it's good sock yarn. However I just love the color (Salty Dog!) and I wanted to make something a bit more glamorous with it.

Another reason I started another Ishbel is because Ysolda is coming to Columbus! I'm so excited! She's going to be at Wonderknit on June 17th. Yay!

I started a Parker Cardigan (Ravlink) with the yarn I originally bought for Decimal.

I really like the texture!

Finally, Alhambra (Ravlink). I'm not certain that it's a good match for the Malabrigo lace, though (Color: Sealing Wax it's more orangey rather than pinky in person).

Ahh, it's the end of the quarter! I have a paper to write (I really need to start that.. it's due on Monday...) and a final on Monday, and then I'm flying out to North Carolina! My mom and fam already left for NC on Thursday but I had to stay due to school work, but I get to join them on Monday night! I'm so excited! I'm going to be knitting and reading on the beach for several days.

The perfect answer to a busy quarter.

TTFN.

Long, Long Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away..

2009-05-24T05:44:00.006-07:00

Er, wait. That's the wrong star movie.

Friday night I went to see Star Trek for the second time. If you haven't seen it at all, I highly recommend that you do. It's a seriously awesome movie. You don't even have to know anything about Star Trek to appreciate it, but you will appreciate it a little more if you do (Plus there are hot guys in it). I went to see it with fellow blogger, Candice. We had a very nice friend-date. Haha.

I keep meaning to update this blog but I am hesitant to do so without decent pictures. But, alas, I'm too lazy to take pictures. There seems to be a dilemma here.

Anyhow, last week a Subtle Stripes Kit from CozyMakes arrived in my mail. I immediately dropped all of my other spinning to start this. Since I was spinning it for the BF he got to dictate how the yarn was spun and the order of the stripes. So he wanted a think/thin funky yarn. It ended up so, and it's pretty bulky. Here is a crappy flash photo from the other night, the yarn deserves more pomp and circumstance as my first skein of finished yarn, but I was anxious to start knitting it and it was night time...

It's a long weekend! Thank goodness! I have some reading to do, as always. Only 2 more weeks in the quarter, which I am grateful for. =)

And now I'm going to leave you with a picture of my contest winner (Heather, AKA Zuzusunshine) from a few weeks ago. She happened to be the 2nd person drawn and she was visiting from Cleveland for a yarn crawl. It was fate.
This is how she's going to wear it; nija style.

This isn't Heather, This is Jesse (aka 1stitchatatime) who stood there with the bag of yarn on his head in the wind! Ooo, amazing!

INDECISIVE!!

2009-05-13T17:15:00.008-07:00

Okay, ya'll I'm thisclose to frogging all of my projects and restarting. thisclose

Seriously. It's like.. I don't even know! I coveted Decimal from the first time I saw it, so when I got the extra money I bought enough Shine Sport to make Decimal. Then I started it and while I like it, I don't know if I still want it. It's a lovely turquoise, but will the design flatter me?

I glanced through the Ravelry project gallery and someone else used it to make the Parker Cardigan (Ravlink), which I really like so I may end up doing that instead. Who knows? I think it may be a more flattering design. But I'm beginning to wonder if I really want a turquoise sweater?? Maybe I'll cast it on, knit 3/4s of it and then decide to rip it out.

Or maybe I'll make it into a giant wrap??

I've knit the better part of a skein's worth of Sugar Rush (Grey that really looks silver) into a Lace Ribbon scarf, and I really like it. However I don't know if maybe it's too thin ( I cast on 3 repeats instead of 5 because I have less yarn)? The Sugar Cane based yarn has a lot of drape, like bamboo, and doesn't promise to hold its shape. It may be too thin for my tastes. Rrrrip? Maybe.

The Mother of Pearl Scarf (Ravlink) by Grumperina that I want to cast on as soon as I saw it, I ran out to buy the yarn for (Panda Silk DK), knit about 10" and haven't touched it since. Is it going to be long enough? I didn't buy the right amount of yarn, but I eliminated one of the middle sections, but I'm using a smaller needle. Who knows? Maybe it would make a divine Lace Ribbon scarf and I could put the Sugar Rush to a different use. Rrrrip?? Maybe!

The Man Socks (ravlink only) that I made I'm quite sure I made the ankle too long. My plan was, previously, to just rip out from the cast on edge and steal a bit of yarn from there and redo the blue ribbing. But I'm not overly fond of the heel. I haven't worked on it in weeks, so I feel no connection to it or the work that I have previously invested in it. Rrrrrrrip?! Maybe!!

You'll note this behavoir started back with the Windowpane Coat (HA, looking back I see that I had another idea for it as well!). Turned Owls (Ravlink) sleeve (Ravlink). I am also considering Rrrrrripping this out! Do I want it to be Owley? I want a cardigan and the gauge is different so I have to make changes.

I also have enough Malabrigo for a sweater and I want to make Vihervaara -huppari / GreenGable -hoodie (Ravlink only) from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008. It requires a bunch of math too! But I want it!

What is my problem??

(Also it seems for reasons beyond my control I can't get the bulk of the post to show up normal sized? rrrr )

Neglect

2009-05-07T14:56:00.004-07:00

I've been neglecting my knitting lately, in favor of a different fiber pursuit.

Ever since this batt arrived on my door ('North Sea' from Mad Angel Creations), I haven't been able to put down my spindles! Knitting has taken a back seat and I've been spindling my little heart out (also dreaming about it). This batt is merino (blue) with silk and noils (white). It's beautiful. It reminds me of a satellite picture of the earth. By the way, I want to give Mad Angel Creations mad props for getting this to me so quickly. I ordered it on Tuesday and it arrived on Thursday. That's two (or three, depending on how you look at it) days, people!

I've already spun enough to fill my light weight spindle. I had to rewind it on a chop stick, the transfer process didn't go too well.

Paula also sent me a .2 oz sample of her Electric Blue silk top with noils. Awesome! It spun fine and I got ~30 yds of fingeringish weight yarn out of it. It's way yummy.

Also, since I seem to be strictly nonmonogamous in my fiber pursuits, I've been working on the correidale that the lovely Jesh sent me with my spindle (from her Etsy shop).

I'm starting Clockwork Orange today, and this week I finished Brideshead Revisited and Turn of the Screw. I'll be ready for this quarter to end!

Radio Silence

2009-05-02T14:54:00.004-07:00

I know you've probably been wondering about my contest since Michele declined the prize. However it was resolved last Saturday.

I've been extremely busy this week, the reading load was pretty heavy.

Look out for a more substantial post later in the week.

<3

Drumroll please...

2009-04-25T06:20:00.003-07:00

So I entered everyone's name into an excel spread sheet, organized by Blog Post and date commented. The numbers went from 1 to 38 and the number that the random number generator picked is... 32!!

Congratulations, number 32, better known as PDXKnitterati or Michele! You've won my Ishbel along with a skein of Malabrigo Worsted in Pearl Ten:

Why yes, this picture is recycled, just doing my part for the Earth.

Thanks to everyone who participated, I wish I had more prizes to hand out to you, but alas, I am a poor college student. ;-)

Ohio is finally having some nice weather and I hope wherever you are, you're getting some too (Good weather, get your minds out of the gutter!!).

Things I'm thinking

2009-04-24T10:41:00.006-07:00

Asking my LYS to order a whole bag of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed (I get to buy it at whole sale, being an employee. =D) in 'Jewel' for this cardigan (sorry NonRavelryers, it's a Ravelry download only).
Knitting a lovely, long, cabled cardi out of the mmMalabrigo that I've ordered (A whole bag, 10 skeins!). Yes, I know it pills. I'm going to knit it on size 7s to combat that some. I have a sweater shaver, also. (I like this one [Sorry, another Ravlink], but it's in a Vogue Knitting I don't have... the shop may have a copy but I haven't checked)
Ripping out Hey, Teach! (Ravlink here) And knitting Wicked with it like I had originally planned (With more wear it's only stretched and with me losing weight, it's soon to become far too large!). I know... It's only been done for a week or two and I feel bad about wanting to kill it already, but you gotta do what you gotta do!
Taking Summer classes instead of Autumn ones and finishing a bit early (I found out they offer 500 level courses for English during the summer).
What in the HELL am I going to do after I graduate?!?
It's your last chance to enter my contest! You have until Midnight tonight, to make a comment on any of the blog entries between 4/16/09 and 4/24/09, one entry per comment (Only one comment per entry will count). And tomorrow I'll be drawing and contacting a winner! Exciting!!

Campanula Lace Mitts

2009-04-19T06:31:00.004-07:00

I finished my Campanula Mitts after Knitters' Night Out at Heavenly Creations last week. I actually started these last fall, after receiving the yarn in a swap package from the lovely Catherine at Mama Llama Yarn.

Campanula Mitts (Ravlink):

(This last one is just for fun, it was washed out so I played with it a bit and got this)

Specs:
Yarn: Noro Silver Thaw Colorway "1"
Needles: Size 7
Pattern: Campanula Mitts by Sara Morris
Thoughts: It was a nicely written pattern, easy to follow with a nice end result.
Mods: Well there are a few, and since I didn't write anything down (other than the number of stitches I cast on) the two mitts didn't end up exactly the same. That's okay, though you can't really tell when I'm wearing them. I had a larger gauge so I only cast on 30 stitches, and I did fewer gusset increases. I think I did fewer lace repeats also.

So, I finished Campanula Mitts, Hey, Teach!, and Ishbel all in one week. I went a little crazy casting on some new projects, although not all of them have succeeded. I'm working on Decimal (which I technically cast on during spring break, but I didn't get much further than the ribbing on the sleeve).

I also cast on some Man Socks, with some Fortissima and some Brown Sheep fingering. They're going well. The Man Socks (Ravlink) don't have a pattern, I just started in 1X1 rib and transitioned into 3X1 rib. Hopefully I'll have enough yarn for size 13 feet. I only have one ball of the main color (tan). I think I may have made the leg too long, but we'll see. They might have really long blue toes. ;-)

Man Socks

Don't forget about my contest! Comments here count too. ;-) I thought, though, I'd pose a question for those who knit socks (so you don't just have to leave an "Oh, I like ****!" comment ;-]) What kind of heel do you prefer? Why?

Hey, You!

2009-04-17T06:37:00.009-07:00

I finished my Hey, Teach! last week.

I did a photo shoot with the BF yesterday. He did a pretty good job.

I need to find another button for it.

In this one I was just straightening out my sleeves and he snapped the pic. It's actually one of my favorites. =)

I'm adding this one because it's the BF's favorite. It was a "C'mon take the dang picture and stop screwing around!" face. ;-)

Specs:
Yarn: Knit Picks Mainline in Adobo ~10 skeins (~820 yds)
Needle: Size 8
Pattern: Hey, Teach! By Hélène Rush (Free pattern from Knitty.com)
Thoughts: Easy to follow pattern. It fits pretty well, although the bottom of the sweater is bigger than I'd like. I assume that's because I'm fairly busty. My bust is ~43" while my waist is ~36". It's supposed to be a little flowy, there's not a lot of waist shaping except some decreases right before the ribbing.
Mods: A lot.

I knit a garter eyelet hem instead of a ribbed hem (Knit one row [WS], k2tog yo one row, knit one row).
I knit twisted rib at the waist because I thought it would hold its shape a little better (I don't like how the knit stitches look in regular 1X1 rib, all stretched out).
I knit 3/4 length sleeves, according to these instructions.
I knit the button band with the fronts instead of picking up stitches afterward. I should have planned the button holes a bit better, though. As you can see I didn't get one at the very top. I'm planning on going back to the store where I got the buttons and getting a smaller version of the same button to put there (I think they have smaller of the same style, hopefully).

Sweater back story here, here, here, here, and here.

One last thing, if you haven't heard about my contest you can read about it here. Don't forget comments on this post count, too!

Blogaversary

2009-04-16T12:57:00.003-07:00

As you can see by the ticker on my side bar, ~~in about a week it will be my blogaversary~~ it was my blogaversary a couple of days ago!

So, in the blogging tradition, I'm going to offer a contest with a sweet prize.

You see, I finished my Ishbel the other day. It's beautiful. I love it. Unfortunately it ended up being a little small. Well, small for me anyhow. This was for several reasons.

I used a smaller needle size

I didn't realize the scarf size was written for fingering weight, not lace weight

I have a thick neck. No, really. I almost never buy commercial necklaces because I know they'll fit like chokers. A 20" chain hits me where an 18" chain hits most people.

So it's lovely and gorgeous and I don't want to reknit any of it (Malabrigo doesn't like to be frogged, anyhow). So, I thought it was perfect that I was in need of a blog contest prize.

The prize is, then, my lovely, gorgeous, soft, mmMalabrigo Ishbel*. I will also be including a skein of mmmMalabrigo worsted in Pearl Ten so you can make yourself a matching accessory (Maybe a beret or fingerless gloves?).

Heeeere's Ishbel!:

Stats:
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace (Merino Wool) in Pearl Ten, about 2/3 of the skein
Needle: Size 5 24" circ
Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teagues from the collection Whimsical Little Knits
Thoughts: This was an easy pattern to follow. I find that Ysolda is always thorough in her instructions and pattern lay out/charts and this was no different.
Mods: A couple. I used a smaller needle and to compensate for that I increased to the shawl proportions on the stockinette triangle and followed the lace instructions for the scarf version.

So what's the contest?

Leave a comment on this post (With a way to contact you, your blogger account is fine), and any posts between now and next Friday, April 24th. Next Saturday, April 25th, I will number the comments and use a random number generator to pick the winner!

Another gratuitous picture of the prize with, I think, the best representation of the color:

Good luck everyone! ;-)

*Just for clarification, it is scarf sized, not shawl sized.

Spinning up samples!

2009-04-07T09:23:00.006-07:00

In March I bought the Phat Fiber Sample Box (You can read more on the Phat Fiber blog).

I got many goodies, including an adorable stitch marker with fresh water pearls (Seen here on my Leyburn Sock), a couple of cute patterns, some yummy yarn samples and some great fiber samples.

I was really looking forward to the fiber samples so I could spend some time with different types of wool and fibers without spending a ton of money. I picked the fibers I liked the least to begin with.

But, as it turns out, I ended up liking the way the fiber spun up. The light green was especially a surprise because I didn't like the roving very much at all. It was fun and I also learned a bit about what certain styles of dyeing will look like when they're spun up. I still have a few samples to spin up (including a 100% silk sample- yum!) so look forward to that too. ;-)

Sooo, Going from left to right we have:

"Sprout"- Hand Painted BFL wool from cloudlover
Thoughts: I'd have liked to ply this but I started spinning it at a worsted weight and I didn't want to end up with a very small amount of super bulky yarn. The wool spun up nicely and I'm quite fond of the finished sample.

"Irish Moss" merino top from natchwoolie (Get it, naturally? They use all natural dyes)
Thoughts: I love the color and the feel of the wool/yarn, but I found the thin strip of top a little difficult to draft, comparatively speaking. Other than that I really like the fiber.

Unidentified cotton candy-y sample. I lost the tag. =( I wasn't fond of the colors, but the wool spun up really nice and soft.

On the spindle:
"Leprechaun" Tweed Roving, Local Coopworth wool blended with multicolored rayon thrums, overdyed from Wild Hare
Thoughts: It's interesting, a little scratchy. I'm planning on doing a 2-ply. We'll see where that leads us. ;-)

And finally, the Correidale wool that Jesh sent me with my spindle. It's going well, but I have a feeling it will take a loooong time to finish!

Beer Braised Chicken

2009-04-05T16:54:00.002-07:00

Tonight's dinner:
Beer braised chicken
Twice baked garlic potatoes
Roasted rosemary carrots and green beans

It was quite tastey, so I thought I'd share the chicken with you.

Beer Braised Chicken

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 12 oz bottle of darker beer
1 large or small cloves of garlic, cut in half
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Heat a medium sized pan to medium high.

Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken, sear on both sides in the pan and remove from pan.

Deglaze the pan with the bottle of beer, scraping the bottom to get off the browned bits. Add the garlic and the bay leaf.

Bring the liquid to a boil.

Once boiling, reduce to a simmer (medium low to low heat) and add the chicken back in.

Simmer until the chicken is cooked through. (10-15 minutes)

Enjoy!

FO, Chur Relic Purse

2009-04-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

So, it's finally time to dedicate a post to the finished Chur Relic Purse.

I knit this for a history project, my Western Civ class to be exact. It's a replica of a Relic Purse from the (still standing) Cathedral in Chur, Switzerland. These purses were used to hold the relics of saints, and the one I replicated was originally made of a silk wool blend at 7 sts/centimeter.

I've written in detail about the project here, here, and here.

As far as the project aspect, it went over very well and I got a very good grade in the class. The professor even used it in an example, giving a presentation to his coleagues about doing projects/historical reinactments instead of written papers in classes.

There was a lot of time invested into this project and I'm proud of how it turned out. I learned a few things from it, I became proficient in 2 handed knitting and the Magic Loop method of knitting.

So, without further ado, here's the FO:

Draw string detail:

Red/blue motif:

Tan/red motif:

Tassel detail:

Specs:
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Pimento, Pool, Doe, Cream, and Ivy
Needle size: 1
Pattern: Not so much a pattern as a chart and written description from Richard Rutt's a History of Handknitting
Thoughts: A very time consuming project, even with just this modified version.
Notes: My original plan was to do an exact replica, but I soon found out that it would take far to long to complete in a mere 6 or 7 weeks. So, I ended up making it literally half the size of the original, at least in terms of stitches. Obviously I didn't knit it at 7 sts/inch. I recharted the chart in the book so I could see it properly, I also had to chart the arrow design myself.

I cast on 168 sts and went from there. I tried to keep my tension as even as possible, but it was difficult especially when you have to switch needles.

Around the top, I put a yo, k2tog to make room for the draw string. The draw string is a braid of all the colors, tied with an overhand knot at the end. The tassels are all of the colors as well, wrapped with either red, white, or blue yarn.

How it differs from the original:

Larger Gauge
100% wool instead of silk/wool blend
The tan color (Doe) is actually more of a beige color and the cream color is actually supposed to be white. (I don't think knit picks had any white when I was ordering.
Only 2 sets of motifs total (This includes 2 shields and 2 of the decorative separators) instead of 4. Note: this means 2 shields per side instead of 4.
Also only 3 blocks of motifs instead of 5 (The original had 3 tan/red blocks and 2 blue/red blocks).
Tassels and draw string are all colors instead of only red, white, and blue (A mistake which I didn't realize until I was almost finished making tassels). Also fewer tassels due to the smaller nature.
The drawstring isn't threaded the same (I couldn't figure it out, exactly).
Also, there is more variation of the motifs than shown here, obviously because whomever made this didn't have a chart to follow and was doing on the fly.

Photoless

2009-04-03T09:06:00.003-07:00

I haven't had a chance to take any photos. It's been a busy week, and today it's raining. It is supposed to be nice tomorrow, however and I'll try and take some pics then.

I was really hoping to knock a bunch of projects off of my WIP list over spring break last week, because I knew that I wouldn't have a lot of extra time this quarter (I don't). But, that didn't happen. I didn't finish anything. I wanted to finish Ishbel, Hey, Teach!, and the Campanula mitts that have been sitting around since like November.

But you all know the story with Hey, Teach! (Ravlink here). And it's currently sitting around, waiting for me to reknit the lace part of one of the fronts (after picking apart the seams and ripping it out, of course). Even though it's going to be a chore, I'm going to try and finish it this weekend because I really want to wear it. We'll see, though because I'm going to try and read a novel this weekend (We'll see how that goes).

I'm onto the edging of Ishbel (Ravlink here), however I made a mistake on it so I need to tink back about half a row so it's sitting in time out for now too.

I cast on for the Leyburn socks (Ravlink here) last weekend in Cleveland with my Mountain Colors Barefoot (Ravlink here). It's a semi-solid and so far I like it, although I think the Leyburn socks lend themselves better to variegated yarns. The yarn is soft and fuzzy and I think will be wonderful when it starts to get cold again.

I barely thought twice about the Campanula Mitts (Ravlink here). I do plan on finishing them, though... eventually.

I'm trying to knock these projects off my list before I start anything else (well, except for the Leyburns).

Last week (with my birthday monies) I *did* purchase a set of Harmony Interchangeables along with some Shine Sport(in a gorgeous turquoise) for Decimal (Ravlink here), and I cast on the sleeve. However, I made a mistake in the lace already so there hasn't been more than a few rows knit on it.

In other news, I'll be reading approx. 2 novels/week for school. =/ (That doesn't leave a lot of extra time for knitting)

Happy Birthday

2009-03-27T09:08:00.003-07:00

to me! I'm 22 today. It's a wholly unexciting age, but that's where I am. If you think about it, there are very few exciting birthdays after 21 (For America, I think in other countries it would end around 18 or the whatever the age of adulthood is). Think about it; You turn 10 and hit double digits, 13 you're a teenager, 16 you can drive, 17 you can see rated R movies by yourself, 18 you're a legal adult, 20 you're no longer a teenager, and finally 21 you can legally drink in the US. All interesting birthdays, but 22? Now you're just getting older.

Ah well, C'est la vie. ;-)

My plan was to finish Hey, Teach! for my birthday today. It would have happened, too, had I not rushed through the front Wednesday night. Last night I seamed up the sleeves, used a 3 needle bindoff on the shoulders, seamed up the right side, and on the left side realized... I did 2 fewer rows of ribbing at the waist than the rest of the sweater.

Drats.

I seamed it the rest of the side, telling myself that it was hard to tell and it wouldn't make a difference. No way I was going to rip all of that back and reknit the top of the front! But then I tried it on. *sigh* It's shorter and you can definitely tell. It throws off the whole front, the lace isn't aligned and it's noticeably shorter.

So much for having a new sweater to wear on my birthday. =( Oh well. I may finish it tonight. I'm not too miffed at it. I did spend about 2 hours seaming last night, though.

I know I've been away for a while. Much has happened since then. Much yarn acquirement, and a lovely weekend spent with a fellow raveler in Cleveland. That, however deserves its own post and will have to wait for another day.

I will tell you that there's only 2 pictures from my weekend in Cleveland because the BF had my camera down in New Orleans. He's doing an alternative spring break and volunteering at a halfway house of sorts for people with AIDS.

I may or may not be dyeing some cashmere/silk this weekend. Fun fun and lots of pictures to come in the following week.

A picture's worth 1000 words.

2009-03-17T10:37:00.002-07:00

Hey, Teach!

Ishbel

Forest of Pearls

Success!

2009-03-12T13:44:00.004-07:00

Success! I finished the Chur Relic Purse.

I gave the presentation.

I impressed muggles.

Alas, I have no pictures.

The teacher is giving a speech thingie to his colleagues about doing projects/historical reenactments in class and I told him that he could use my bag as an example. Woo! Unfortunately it means I won't have any FO pics until next Thursay (3/19) Sorry. =(

In other news, my spindle class is on Saturday! I'm so excited! I even ordered more fiber. It's falkland dyed by Poppy Flower Fibers

Photo from her Etsy shop. It's much more purple in person. I love it! I'm excited to be able to spin it!

I'M FINALLY DONE KNITTING THAT PURSE. That means I can knit other things.

Sort of.

Once I finish my two 8-10 page papers. I'm going to try and finish one tonight. It's due tomorrow and I have like over half of it done. The other one is due Monday.

New lust:

This is Decimal from the new Knitty. I want to knit it. Now. But I shall not. I'm going to finish some things first, and maybe wait until after I get some Birthday monies (My Birthday is the 27th. =]).

I'm also contemplating new lace, as I purchased 700 yds of 85% silk/15% cashmere laceweight. It was $20, including shipping! It's from Jag's Funky Fibers. Jag recycles sweaters and sells the resulting yarn. It's a lot lighter than I'd prefer so I'm going to dye it over spring break, probably with some grape kool-aid to make a nice semi-solid. It will be gorgeous. I'm excited.

I have a few prospects for this. Aeolian shawlette from the new Knitty is one of them. It's PRETTY!

Although I also have Victorian Lace Today to ponder. I spent some quality time with it between classes today.

*sigh*

All of this must wait until I finish my papers, though.

Ta.