Olympic Gold

When I joined the Knitting Olympics I didn't have much of a plan. I had some black yarn that I had purchased at our Spinning Guild's most recent Stash Swap/Sale. It was beautiful. Knitpicks Andean Silk in Pitch. I had 1300 yards and I wanted a cardigan. Understand that I am of the school that believes that black goes with EVERYTHING. I have one black cardigan. A crappy thing that is very thin and doesn't fit well from a retail store. I have worn that thing all over the place. I love a black cardigan. I thought, 1300 yards should be plenty to knit a cardigan right? Right. Even for a "lady" of my size.

Then I got the beautiful yarn home and started looking at patterns. Nothing too fancy because it is in black, it would be hard to see, nothing too plain either because it would be boring to work on.

I considered the February Lady Sweater for which I would have ample yardage but I already have one on the needles. (As a matter of fact I wanted to finish it before the Olympics but time got away from me.)

I dug and dug and dug. I wanted something long-sleeved. I wanted pretty. Not too plain. I had a needle size picked out (I even swatched!) there just wasn't anything. (I also kinda didn't want to buy a pattern since money has been a bit pinched lately as we awaited our new vehicle.)

Finally I settled on Hey Teach! The sleeves were all wrong and as it turned out, my gauge was off. That meant (ugh!!!) math.

I forged ahead. Then I went to my parents to help with their fish fry and ended up staying an extra 2 days. I didn't bring it with me. I had to wait to cast on. I didn't cast on until....Tuesday, February 16! My time was even shorter.

I ended up bored of dark-colored yarn and I struggled to stay focused. I battled with myself.
Self, if you knit 5 more rows you can knit one round of your cute knitting bag, self, if you knit 10 more rows, you can spin for five minutes. And I set a timer for the 5 minutes. It was torture. Every other project called out to me, especially once I reached the sleeves. They were modified to be plain stockinette sleeves, long sleeves. A majorly boring pain to knit but you know what?

It was all worth it.

I love my new cardigan. I love it so much that I took about 10 pictures of it in the snow and then forced my (ever so cooperative) hubby to take many, many pictures of me in it.


I have spared you all from the awful ones. Ansel Adams he is not.

Here it is, my beautiful Olympic sweater, pictured here on Saturday February 27. That's right, I finished a day early. Now, I shall proudly put up my Gold Medal in the sidebar for all to see.

The Stats:
The Pattern: Hey Teach from Knitty
The Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk in Pitch about 1100 yards or so.
The Needles: Size 7
The Size: Due to my strange gauge issues, since I am a 48" bust, I ended up knitting a 43" bust size
The Notes: GOLD!
I picture this as my go-to sweater for the coming forever.

Love it, envy it. (haha)

These photos were taken at my parents house where I was doing this:

Knitting by the fire. Ah yes, bliss.

It is Finished

As of 9:00 am, the sweater is finished. I have gold medaled in my first Olympics! Well, okay, my first knitting Olympics. I'm very excited but I will post pictures later.

In the meantime, good night and happy knitting.

Addictive Handspun

I can't stop knitting handspun.
I need to get back to my Olympic sweater but:

Tah DAH!

Isn't it cute?! It's so perfect to fit right in my purse and carry my travelling sock. Now I may need to make more and/or write the pattern because it's so cute, I can't stand it! The bag literally hadn't had the ends woven in longer than 2 minutes when I stuffed an in-progress sock into it and it is now awaiting me leaving the house so I can put it in my purse.

*sigh* Okay, back to the Olympic sweater. Then Crochet Night.

Olympic Knitting

I've been stalking the Yarn Harlot's blog and watching for the Knitting Olympics. Finally, the time came and I signed myself up.
Then came the real issue. I had some yarn, that I had already swatched, that I wanted to knit up into a sweater. A pretty black Cardigan.
The yarn was Andean Silk from Knitpicks that I had picked up at our last Fiber Swap for our spinning guild. Someone had purchased it to knit into a sweater for their mother and it wasn't working out so they decided to sell the yarn. I couldn't stop petting it and holding it and I finally decided that I couldn't live without it.
The trouble was, I hadn't found a pattern that would fit me that used the amount of yarn I had, that also used the size needles I had.
Finally, I remembered something way back in my subconscious and I looked up Hey, Teach! I decided that I would knit it up with this beautiful yarn.
I cast on and knit my way up the back. (After a little math because the gauge I was getting was close but not the same as what was called for. I am actually knitting a size smaller than what I would normally choose.)
Today, I blocked the back. Here it is, preblocking.

I was feeling pretty good about my progress until I realized how little time is left and how much is left to be knit.
The good news? I'm knitting the fronts at the same time:

I'm already into the lace pattern. Really, this wouldn't be so much, but I'm altering the sleeves. I want full length, not lace sleeves. Meaning, I have a long way to go yet, in a not very long time.

And, last night, I was having an issue with the dark yarn. I needed some color so, I found this little ball of handspun. In color: Girly Girl, purchased at a friend's etsy shop. Hand over the Wool. It's very pretty but not super soft. It's rambouillet I believe, wouldn't you know it, I can't find the tag right now.

I started with a pattern in 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders for a little knitting bag and completely changed the pattern to something totally different, different stitch, different shape, etc.
To something that is now all mine.

It takes some convincing to not knit on this instead of the sweater, but the sweater must be finished. The Gold is on the line.

Unplugged

I've been trying to write my poor little blog more often and of course, this week I have completely disappeared. I honestly didn't mean to. I went down to my parents last week on Thursday evening to help with the Fish Fry at their church on Friday. Yeah, busy, busy day. 2200 pounds of fish and we ran out at 6:00 pm. Anyway, then I decided to stay a bit longer to get to visit with my grandpa on his 85th Birthday which was on Sunday. Yes, he is a Valentine's Day baby. His name is Valentine as a matter of fact. Val if you know him, he actually hates his name.

Anyway, I had a blast with my mom and the animals and then my brother came out one day and we had some outside winter fun. I usually do nothing outside in the winter so it was a blast. Made me not hate the snow quite as much.

Here's the parental's dog out in the snow. (Actually after I was gone mom said he would go outside, then come in and look all over for me. When I wasn't there anymore, he would go lay in his kennel to sleep.)


My dad on the snowmobile. Making faces at the camera. Of course.


Apparently the snowmobile wasn't enough because my brother brought out the 4-wheeler as well. It was hard work driving it though.

hee hee, obviously.


Look at how the snow flips up too!


And of course, the sunrise behind the trees because I just couldn't resist.

Otherwise, all I've been doing is Olympics Sweater, all the time. More on that later.

Weather whether we like it or not.

So lately, we've had some REALLY interesting weather here. Its been snow, ice, snow, ice, snow, snow, snow. Today (surprise, surprise) we're getting snow. This means that I've been cold pretty much all the time until I get into bed. It also means that I'm pretty sick of it.
So, I started a pair of handwarmers. Fingerless mitts, whatever you want to call them.
Unfortunately, the weather will not cooperate with the idea of taking pictures of these works-in-progress. You will have to just wait and see I guess. I can tell you, it's very pretty purple yarn and it is very, very soft.

In other news, I was given about 30 boxes of easter egg dye so today, I'm dyeing some yarn. Just enough for one pair of socks...for now. I can't wait to show you that too!

Well, I'm off to get some things done. Like check my yarn in the microwave. Ever wonder what people think of us?

Today's Goal: Get caught up.

Yesterday was a kind of crazy day so I didn't get a whole lot of knitting in. I did manage to finish a Crochet project during crochet night but it needs desperately to be washed and blocked before it's ready for its blog debut.
Mostly I knit on my Lace Knee high socks. I still love them and so, it's going fast but right now, it just looks like a slightly longer leg than what you saw before. Oh well.
Today I plan to cast on my Rocky Butte Socks. I'm trying out some new (to me) yarn for my Rocky Butte socks and I am curious to see how it will turn out. I'm keeping it a secret until I know.
My other goal for today is to get my Ravelry projects page updated because it is getting ridiculous. I got a bit behind when we moved and it has only gotten steadily worse. Now I'm not sure I recognize most things on there so I've got to do something.
Well, I'm off to take pictures of knitting and yarn now.

The Bliss of Handspun

About a month ago we had a little spinning gathering, not affiliated with a guild, just so some ladies from knit night could learn to spin. Well, we all got bitten by the spinning bug and a "long-term loan" wheel came home with me. It's also up for sale and I have to say, it's not going home with someone else. It's mine, all mine.

Anyway, then for my birthday, my hubby asked what I would like. I said: ROVING! immediately so I went online and purchased a couple of rovings for myself (from him).

I ended up purchasing 3 from Forest Fiber Works. (ugh! Fair warning, do not click that link unless you want to buy. Some gorgeous stuff there!) They were all somewhat green but different. When they arrived, I LOVE love loved two and the other, I was kinda meh about. I decided, since I was still getting acclimated to the wheel, to spin the one I was meh about. I have to say: "WOWEEEEE" It turned out so different than I imaged and absolutely beautiful. I actually got Sock yarn, which is what I was going for so I was in heaven.

I got about 490 yards out of it and I decided that it should be something special. It is:

This is what I was knitting in front of the fireplace at the mansion yesterday. The pattern is Lace Knee-Highs (Ravelry link) and I'm so excited I just can't stop knitting.

Hopefully I can get them done before the excitement wears off.

I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting, so hopefully you will be hearing from me more often. (Although probably not tomorrow since I have to leave the house early and won't get home until after Crochet Night)

Shamed into Action

This weekend I had the joy of attending another spinning guild's retreat. Well, I was just there for one afternoon but still, it was a complete joy.

It was at a local mansion called Linden Hills and it was such a wonderful thing to sit next to the fireplace in a wingback chair in the music room knitting. It was a wonderful experience.

Anyway, that brings me to my current post. I was asked about my blog and reminded by friends that I haven't posted in a long time. I was shamed into posting. At least I have a picture to post. I took this picture a few weeks ago actually when there was actual light. Maybe one of these days I will get some light again so I can take some new pictures.

May I introduce you to Sedona (Ravelry link):

The lovely designer of this pattern was diagnosed with Cancer and as a support/prayer/whatever thing, several of us are knitting her two favorite patterns Sedona and Manhattan. I chose Sedona and have been knitting away on this lovely pattern since. It's actually quite addicting.

Well, I've been shamed into posting so...there you go.

I need to get back into the habit of posting regularly so who knows, maybe you'll hear from me soon!

Will you die of shock?

Can you imagine! 2 posts in 2 days. You might all die of shock. If the frequency of posting isn't enough for you...

actual pictures?! Wow. This is my lovely Little Ruff from 101 One-Skein Wonders. (It's actually pictured on the upper right corner of the cover if you click the link)
So, the stats. Here we go.


Specs:
The Yarn: Bamboo and (I think) Merino blend roving purchased from Kashaknits.etsy.com that I spun into yarn. I was still really just learning to spin so it's pretty thick and thin and overspun but still very pretty.
The Needles: Size US 8 DPNs
The Pattern: Little Ruff from 101 One-Skein Wonders, as I mentioned
The Recipient: Me.
The Button: A wooden 1" button I had leftover from another project.
Notes: I did go up a needle size from the pattern with this because of the thick and thin yarn. It turned out beautifully though with a lovely shine from the bamboo.

It feels pretty good to actually finish something once in awhile. Even though it's been languishing.
Now let's talk about what is still on the needles, shall we? I got some lovely Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Sock Weight yarn from JoAnn Fabrics awhile back and it settled nicely into the stash. Then I remembered that in 2 weeks we are having our extended family's Christmas Celebration and we have a game with dice that we play to do a little gift exchange. I thought...wouldn't it be fun if there was a nice pair of handknit socks in there?

Yeah, crazy I know. I'm only a few weeks to Christmas and I'm pretty behind on that but I added in these socks anyway.

I'm knitting them into Monkeys and I think they're turning out pretty cute so far. I can make it. (I think)

If I don't have time to post tomorrow, a very Happy Thanksgiving to my friends here in America.

Still Knitting after all this time.

Wow, how sad is it that my Little Ruff of Handspun sat for that many months in want of only a button. It was even Blocked already for crying out loud. Well, I found it in the basket this morning and felt sorry for it and as long as I had my sewing kit out anyway, it got its little button. Maybe someday we will have a decent day and I can take pictures.
It gets dark so early now and it has been grey for far too long. I feel like a sponge. When there is sun I want to soak it up!
Lately I've been focusing on Christmas knitting and organizing things here at our new home. It's been quite an adventure. We have more space but figuring out how to organize our mountains of junk in that space is always the trick. Plus things have been a bit weird because hubby's computer refuses to acknowledge the internet here. That means we have been fiddling with that but sharing the computer as well. Which means he has been underfoot a great deal in my office.
Things are slowly starting to settle in and hopefully the family turmoil will settle down for a bit too.
I'll try to get more info posted more often. Maybe even with some pictures once in awhile.

Resuscitating

So, hi. Please don't die little Blog. I still love you. My life has just been a whole barrel full of crazy pie right now.
As a matter of fact, I have actually been doing some knitting. Not a whole lot but some. Enough to keep me from going crazy through the craziness. I'll show you pictures later. Meanwhile, I'm here. I promise.

Tempted

So over on Ravelry in our St. Cloud Knitters Group, they have been talking about the sales over at Crafts Direct and they mentioned the amazing sale on Cascade 220. I resisted for awhile, I really tried. I've been trying to knit up some stash yarn for awhile. I need to use some of my great stuff up before buying more. But then something happened...
Knit night happened. One of the lovely ladies in our group (Hi Jenna!) said she was going to knit a February Lady Sweater from her purchase of this wonderful yarn. Now, I should mention that I've been looking for the perfect yarn to knit this pattern for awhile. Pretty much since I first heard about the pattern. It suggests that you use a shaded solid and I've been looking for the perfect thing that wasn't too expensive. Still, I resisted though. But when I saw her lovely sweater on the needles at knit night, something snapped.

I ran over to Crafts Direct on the Friday before our camping trip. I actually cast on this baby in front of the campfire on Saturday.

I have to say it's been a very fun knit and very fast as well. I'm so excited to have a beautiful sweater before it gets cold again! Apparently, I'm a sheep. At least I didn't get the same color.

No fiber content

Why is it that I'm finding myself lacking in things to say here?
Work may be busy and of course the care and feeding of one of those husband things does take up time but I do find the time for a few rows of knitting now and again. I especially would like something warm to wrap up in when it gets cold again. Something that will be happening very, very soon if the other night is any indication.
Saturday night we went to the drive-in with another couple. It was fun. We bring lawn chairs and sit outside. Last weekend, we should have brought sleeping bags! It was so cold, I thought I was never going to feel my nose and toes again. Luckily it was two kids movies so it was over early and away we went. I actually managed to regain feeling in my appendages before we got home.
I think that's part of the reason why I'm not feeling the greatest this week.
I also may not have mentioned this before but hubby and I are moving. We fortuitously found a new place, when we weren't looking and it's bigger, nicer and near friends. We are busy, busy packing and getting ready to vacate our teeny apartment which I am finding myself somewhat sentimentally attached to. Oh well, life is all about change.
Okay, I'm back to the knitting. More on that later.

Lately, I've been feeling like I don't have anything new or interesting to share. I've been so busy with life stuff that I haven't picked up my needles or hook nearly often enough. I did promise that I would share what I was doing down at my mom's house so, as promised, here we go.

Last year at the after Thanksgiving sale, JoAnn fabrics had flannel on sale for ridiculously cheap. I had a pattern for Pajamas. I had made the pants before and liked them but mom and I got to talking about how you never seem to have enough warm pajamas in the Long Minnesota Winter. We each bought enough flannel for 2 pairs of pajamas and we finally got around to working on them. Here they are:

4 pairs of pajamas, no waiting. They have a sort of scrubs-type top, with a v-neck and long sleeves. The pants have an elastic waist and pockets. They are so nice and comfortable it's unbelievable. Plus, it was cold enough while I was there that I did wear them to bed one night.

For those not interested in sewing projects I present them with my current sock-in-progress.
And also Smokey the cat for those who are also not interested in knitting, although if you aren't interested in yarn, why are you here?

More about the sock when the pair is done. Meanwhile, I'll be waiting for the weather to get chilly again so I can use these bad boys!

Lucky Day

I seem to be getting worse and worse at this blogging thing. Life just keeps getting in the way, I guess. I have a finished object that I've been wanting to share though so I've got to get a move on! Here we go.

Presenting the Shamrock Doily.

The specs:
The Pattern: Shamrock Doilies from Crochet World Magazine, February 2009
The Yarn: Aunt Lydia's Crochet Cotton (Size 10) in Frosty Green, 1 ball.
The Hook: Size 7 Steel Crochet Hook (1.65mm)
The Recipient: I was curious about the way this pattern worked so I wanted to make it, unsure of what I would do with the finished object. Now a friend has purchased a new table and is looking for something to decorate it. Guess where this is going?
Notes: This doily is crocheted very interestingly. Each individual outside doily is made separately and they are connected on the last round of each. I found this technique very interesting and sturdier than I thought it would end up being. I loved this pattern and would probably crochet it again but not right away, as I am sick of sagey green yarn.
The pattern also called for 2 balls of cotton and I did not even use up the first, I still have a good amount left so I'm not sure why it called for so much.
To add a personal touch to it, I made one shamrock a four-leaf shamrock and just like a real one, you have to look for it.
This picture turned out horrible but I had to find some way to show it off, so here you go:

The one four-leaf shamrock.

Next time, I'll share what I was doing down at my parent's house for over a week.

Ouch!

I may have fallen down a little bit at Crochet Night last night.
So, last night I headed out for Crochet Night and I got to Crafts Direct early. Which is par for the course really, I hate being late so I always try to be early. I went in and started looking around at crochet books and then I happened by the magazines and I picked up the latest issue of Creative Knitting and flipped through it.
Of course you know how dangerous that is. I decided that I definitely needed to buy the magazine. Especially for one pattern called the Sunshine Cardigan. I looked a little closer at it
and realized that it called for a NaturallyCaron.com yarn called Country.
I thought, hmm, I think Crafts Direct carries that yarn and so I headed over to the aisle where I thought it was. Of course it was right there. It was on sale too. Only $3.98/skein.

I can't guarantee it but I may have picked out a gorgeous green and whipped enough skeins into my basket faster than you could blink.


It has been rumored that a gauge swatch has been knit too but I have no proof of that either.
I mean, I never knit sweaters with the actual yarn that the pattern calls for.

No, this does not mean that I have forgotten all the other projects awaiting my attention. I have been working on some stuff, I promise.

Books, books and more books

I didn't mean to disappear for so long. I've been crazy busy lately and having fun but not getting a whole lot of knitting done. Instead I've been out buying books.
Remember how I told you that I finally picked up the new book by Wendy Knits? That's true and there was another book I was totally pining after too. The new Cookie A. Book. I thought about getting it at our last knit night at Barnes and Noble but I had seen it at Crafts Direct so I decided to get it there. I have the passport card and I had already earned a $10.00 credit and I wanted to use it on something fun. Plus, since I teach Crochet classes there, I get a discount. With the $10.00 credit and the discount it was easy to buy a second book. The two together totalled what I was going to spend on just the one book so I did. Another sock book of course.

This is another one I had been looking to buy for awhile. The 25 Favorite Socks from Interweave Knits book.

Then the other day hubby and I were running errands and we decided to stop by the mall and the used book store. We had a few books to sell and we wanted to look around.
I hit the mother load!

Here is a book I had been looking at. Less than half the price it is new and it looks pretty much brand new. The spine isn't even creased. I have the other one and had been thinking about getting this one as I've heard several people say they really liked it.

So far, I've found several things I would knit in it. Plus, I always seem to have a few single skeins lying around so it's great to have inspiration for knitting something with them.

As if that were not enough, I also found a book I had been longing for. This baby is really expensive if you can even find it in the stores and I got it at the USED book store for uber cheap. I love it!

I checked it out of the library once but that small amount of time just isn't enough to actually get through all the edgings you would like to try. Now it's mine, all mine.

Okay, I'm off to knit. We'll discuss my broken dpn another day. Yes, another one.

Nanners are off the Needles

Awhile back I went through this phase where I started a whole bunch of new things. The issue with this of course is that it feels like nothing ever gets finished because you knit on this or that, here or there and end up with something worked on and some other thing worked on and still another thing worked on but nothing finished. Then I tend to go back and get frustrated and maybe frog a few things but ultimately at least finish a few things. So, finally I managed to finish another thing to talk about.

Hey, remember awhile back when I dyed some yarn? Then I started knitting the Nanners pattern? Well, I finally have a completed pair of socks.

It doesn't seem to matter what I do, the photos of this yarn just aren't as nice as real life. Plus the colors look much more garish than they do in real life.

The pattern, which is written by the lovely Wendy Johnson was written toe-up but I chose to knit it from the top down because I didn't want to have to do a short-row heel. I don't think they fit my feet quite as well and I personally don't think they look quite as nice. Of course, this was before I purchased Wendy's new book and found that there is a way to knit a traditional heel flap heel from the toe up.
But, it did allow me to put a lovely picot edge on the top of the sock rather than the ribbing it called for.

So, I suppose I had better give you...

The specs:
The Yarn: Kroy Sock, in whitecap. Dyed by me with Easter Egg dye. 2 skeins
The Needles: Bamboo DPNs size US2
The Pattern: Nanners, as mentioned (and linked in Ravelry) above.
The Recipient: Me.
Notes: Like I said, I knit these from the top-down rather than toe-up as the pattern is written and I knit a picot edge instead of ribbing.

Oh, I also used DPNs instead of the two circular needles the pattern calls for.

The results: Love them! If it weren't so warm and humid outside I would definitely have these babies on my feet 24/7.

Crochet Project

The other day I mentioned my crochet project and said that I would post a picture of it but then I wandered away and forgot all about it.

Okay, that isn't true. I wasn't feeling well so I basically laid in bed feeling like crud. I didn't forget though and so, I bring you, the long awaited Crochet project.


Oh, I'm sorry. You can't tell what it is? Okay, does this help?

Here it is pictured next to my beautiful Camelbak water bottle. Now, I went to a sporting goods store to buy this bad boy and I spent a good deal more than I would usually pay for a water bottle with the intention that it would last much longer and I would use it all the time. Especially as I try to be a healthier person and drink more water.

Well, I do use it all the time and I absolutely love it. But... (you knew that was coming, didn't you?)

I like my water cold. I pour refrigerated water from my Brita pitcher into the bottle. Often with ice but the issue is that the ice melts pretty much IMMEDIATELY. I hate that. Then the water is warm right away.

What does this have to do with my crochet project?

Aha! It's a water bottle cover. I'm hoping it will keep the bottle from sweating everywhere as well as keeping the ice from melting in 5 minutes.

We will have to wait and see if it actually works. I see that they now sell the stainless steel ones though and insulated stainless steel ones so we will have to check that out if it doesn't work as well as I hope.

In Which I 'fess up.

Anyone who isn't a first-time reader of this blog will probably realize that I'm not always entirely forthcoming with my list of projects. That's because I tend to pick up something and set it aside willy nilly, without actually finishing it.

I do eventually go back and finish most things although there is the occasional frogging incident. But today I decided that I should mention a couple of things that I have been working on.

Firstly, I finally purchased a copy of Wendy Johnson's new book. Socks from the Toe Up. I love it and I especially love that there is a heel that can be done toe up that looks just like a traditional top down heel. That's what really holds me back from knitting toe-up socks so I am anxious to try it. I went stash diving and came up with some lovely chocolate colored yarn to knit a pair of socks to try out this heel. I know these will be wonderful staples when they are finished but I'm already a little sick of knitting plain old brown socks so I'm telling myself that they are chocolate colored to make them more interesting to knit. So far it seems to be working although being bored with the color before the first heel is turned does not bode well.

Here's the first one though. It's coming along and will soon be ready for the heel turn.

A friend (some say an extremely good friend to do this) was going out of town so she loaned me her beautiful spinning wheel while she was gone for a good month. I of course spun up everything I could get my greedy little hands on, including some beautiful fiber she had dyed. This is a lovely sock blend that contains some bamboo. Since I spun this very first on the wheel and there is some definite learning curve, it's not perfect. Thick and thin in some places and mostly pretty overspun. I still think it's beautiful and I wanted to use it for something but it wasn't a very big skein because it was only half of the 4 ounces of fiber so I looked through the ever useful book 101 One-Skein Wonders. I found a pattern called the Little Ruff which is a beautiful ruffled neck warmer. I think it will look very nice this fall and not just warm my neck but be a very nice accessory so I cast on almost immediately.

As you can see, I'm nearly finished. It's quite addicting to knit your own handspun. Entirely too much fun. I still have the other half of the 4 ounces that came out to be closer to sock weight so eventually I'll try to find some use for that as well. (Possibly with that beautiful One-Skein Wonders book.)

Today though? Today is Tuesday which for me means Crochet. Maybe we'll talk about that tomorrow.

My "death" socks

Today I'm having a kind of irritating day. Dealing with other people and laundry facilities is just one of the "joys" of apartment living. But I promised a picture of the socks I received that "killed" me in the Sock Wars. I got this little box and inside were two little packages of tissue paper and a card. I have put the card somewhere. I'm not exactly sure where right now. The socks got opened first just because I wanted to make sure that this box was what I thought it was.

It was. Here is all of what was inside. A really cool nail file, a room spray and a little lotion from Bath and Body works and an absolutely gorgeous pair of socks.


Closeup? Okay. Here you go:

They are the Barcelona Pattern from the Sock Wars and I think they are absolutely gorgeous. I'm very, very happy with them. They fit very well too.

Don't worry, I'm taking comfort (stupid laundry debacle) with the card I received in the mail yesterday.


Yes, that is hard-pressed to not cheer me up!

Maybe tomorrow I will find the time to show you what I'm knitting. This is a knitting blog after all isn't it?!

Have I made you wait long enough?

So, I finally received the Socks in Progress and took what is possibly the world's worst picture of it before I mailed them off to the next knitter. It's just the yarn and it does absolutely no justice to the colors at all.

It's actually quite pretty, blues and greens kind of. I'm so sad that the picture didn't turn out. I usually take one with flash and one without to make sure it comes out okay and I didn't this time and of course it's already mailed.

Of course before I could get to work on it, I managed to get "killed" off with some beautiful socks so I will have to have a picture of those for tomorrow.

Sock Wars

So, Friday May 15 the patterns were posted. My team, Team St. Cloud Knitters had planned to meet up that evening. We met at Panera Bread. By that time, I was at the heel turn. (I had cleared my afternoon so I was basically able to knit all afternoon.) Also, side note. That was the first time I've ever been to Panera Bread and I LOVED it!

My plan was to finish the socks and have them mailed by Monday. I was finished and here's what got mailed out:

A sock wars card, some Werther's chocolate and the socks. They are the Air Raid pattern and knit of Reynold's Soft Sea Wool. I think they turned out very well and were very hard to send away.
Once I got them mailed I had to wait for the Socks in Progress or SIPs. Since I had to wait, now you get to wait. I'll tell you about them later.

In Absentia

Hi all. I'm so sorry that I've been MIA. I swear I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, just been SUPER busy. I've been working a lot and had very little knitting time. Plus, I may have a slight addiction to World of Warcraft. shhhh.
Then last weekend was my brother's wedding which my mom and I did all the food for. Eeep that was a lot of work. Fun but a lot of work.

So, I'm off to knit some socks. Then tomorrow, I'll try to remember to talk about Sock Wars.

Speaking of Finishing

I seem to be on a roll now that I finished those two pairs of socks. I think it just kinda broke my stall and on Tuesday at Crochet Night I managed to finish this:

It's the doily I've been crocheting out of the Bamboo Crochet thread I found.


I think it turned out really really well and I have it blocking now. So, here we go.

The specs:
The Yarn: Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Crochet Thread (Size 10)
The Hook: Steel Size 7 hook (1.65mm)
The Pattern: Peacock Pride from Leisure Arts book Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies
The Recipient: I'm thinking I will give it to my mom for Mother's Day but I'm not sure yet.
Notes: The Bamboo thread behaved really well and despite the fact that at some points I could see the individual strands, I didn't really have any problem with splitting. I would DEFINITELY use it again and I think that I would love to try it in some bold colors although they pretty much just carry pastels right now.

Well, I'm off to find something else to finish. Probably not in time to post tomorrow though.

Yarning

Lately I've been setting aside the knitting to do a little spinning. I had this wonderful tweedy sort of fiber from the friend who gave me the spindle (which I stupidly didn't take a picture of while it was still fiber) and I spun it up and navajo-plied it giving me this:

It's about 36 yards of a pretty darn even worsted weight and I love it a lot. It isn't really enough to do much but it's something and it makes me pretty happy.

Well, this same lovely friend was going away for awhile to get married and go on a honeymoon so she loaned me her wheel. Yeah, I know, this is a GREAT friend!

While I was over at her place picking it up, I bought a little more fiber since I don't have a lot of it and I kinda needed something to play with. A beautiful coil of yellowy roving. So pretty. I have a picture of the roving somewhere but I don't know where. So I'll just show you what I made with it.

I split the roving down the middle before doing anything and then I spun half of the first half on one bobbin and half of the second half on the second bobbin and plied it. It was a bit thicker than I expected. Somewhere between a sport-weight and a worsted weight with just a few extremely thin sort of overspun bits. (Its more difficult than you think to get used to a wheel.)

I got this beautiful yarn. I think it looks pretty good but I might be biased. It's about 100 yards so it's something that I could maybe do a little something with it. Plus, I still have the other half to finish spinning.


I may have actually cast on something with it but I'm pleading the fifth.

Finishing

This weekend was busy but I did manage to get a whole bunch done.
On Saturday I had to attend the bridal shower for my soon-to-be Sister-in-law. I still managed to finish a pair of socks:

These are the socks for our family friend Judy. They are knit out of a new to me yarn. Plymouth Sockin' Sox.

The specs:
The Yarn: Plymouth Sockin' Sox 60% Superwash Wool, 25% Bamboo, 15% Nylon, Color: 006
The Needles: US Size 2 dpns
The Pattern: Basic Sock Recipe
The Size: Ladies Size 7
The Recipient: Family Friend Judy E.
Notes: I knit these socks fairly short so her feet won't get too warm since she is always overwarm. Plus, she has pretty short feet so the feet of the sock are fairly short too.

Then, since we have been so busy lately, we decided to just spend Sunday at home.
I found a nice long marathon on the Sci Fi channel of all 3 parts of Stephen King's Rose Red so I watched that and knit.

It worked GREAT! Don't look at the scary part, knit.
I managed to finish these Monkey Socks. They are another gift pair.


These are intended for a friend of ours in California so they will get shipped off shortly.

The specs:
The Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Soy in color 2102 Hazelnuts. 49% Bamboo, 33% Soy, 18% Elastic Nylon
The Needles: US Size 2 dpns
The Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. On Knitty.com
The Size: Ladies Size 8ish
The Recipient: Friend in California Sneha
Notes: Since these are for someone in California, I didn't want them to be knit of wool because they would be too warm. I think this yarn worked out well. The color is absolutely beautiful. The only issue I had was that it tended to be a little splitty. I think the act of knitting it tended to untwist it. It still worked very well though.

I had been feeling like I wasn't able to finish anything lately and I think it was (gasp) because I had started so many pairs of socks at the start of the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon 2009 that I was working a little on this one and a little on that one and wasn't actually getting anywhere on any of them. Finishing these two pairs makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere so maybe that will help. But, now I'm all prepped for Sock Wars so I'll be starting those soon.