Knittin' and Lovin' It

The Blahs

The blog blahs are still happening here. It's been 2 weeks since my last post and truthfully I don't have a lot to blog about. I've knit a couple of projects for Madelinetosh and have more on my needles for both Madelinetosh and Woolgirl. I should be able to show some of those to you all soon. I'm a few inches from finishing up Kaity's socks (she wants longer legs this time) and I started the A-Line Childs Coat (Rav)(non Rav) for Kaity.....sorry no pics yet. I'm using Valley Yarns Berkshire in Red.

Here's a shot of my extremely exciting FO.

It's a water bottle holder (Rav)(non Rav) for Kaity's water bottle. The water bottle holder on her backpack left little to be desired. The holder was not built to hold the weight of her type of bottle so I did what any self respecting knitter would do, I made her one. I used a cheapo carabiner clip to attach the holder to the backpack.

Here's my yummy 7 Deadly S(p)ins shipment.

It's enough Luxe yarn from The Unique Sheep for a gorgeous shawl. I have no idea when I'll start it but it is pretty and soft so I don't mind looking at it and petting it for now.

I can show you a couple of socks I knit for Woolgirl.

These were from the August Woolgirl sock club shipment so I think it's more then safe to post about them on the blog. The top pattern is Dog Days of Summer and the bottom one is Garter Snake Socks.

The weather has been really abnormal here. It's the end of Sept and we are seeing summer temps here. High 70s to low 80s are not the norm for here at this time of year or at least that's what I've been told. It was a lot cooler then this last year. Kaity has been wearing shorts to school. It's a tad chilly in the morning but it doesn't take long for it to warm up after the sun rises.

And that sums up my exciting post today. Hopefully the next post will have a little more excitement to it.

Crazy Weather

It's that time of year again! Time for hot one day, freezing the next. We had a few cold days but now we're back in the 80's again. Thankfully the weather doesn't seem to be bothering the tomatoes. I've gotten another 14 tomatoes since the last post with several more ripening on the vine.

And for today's public safety announcement: Recall Information. If you're living here in the US, I highly recommend that you subscribe to US Consumer Product Safety Commissions Recall RSS feed. The link to their RSS feed is located in the left hand column. That's right folks, bloglines and google reader aren't just for knitting blogs....just kidding I know some of you subscribe to other types of feeds. I have several news feeds in my bloglines blogroll too. This feed is very valuable for getting information on the latest product recalls. For other recalls go to the Recalls website. They have email subscriptions for FDA, USDA, & NHTSA. Plus you can check out the latest recalls or search through all the recalls. I believe in being informed.

Now on to knitting, well at least what I can show you.

Yes folks it seems that I'm still on a dishcloth kick. The pattern used was the Multidirectional Diagonal Dishcloth (Rav)(non Rav). Yes, mine is upside down. I liked the wrong side of the dishcloth better.

And here's proof that I'm still on a dishcloth kick....more cotton!

Sugar 'n Cream was on sale at my local JoAnn's. We went in looking for iron on patches to fix the holes on Kaity's old jeans and I managed to walk away with 7 skeins of the super size Sugar 'n Cream....Yes I got the patches too! So Kaity has colorful jeans to play in after school and I have more dishcloth cotton to make dishcloths....as if there was ever a fear of me running out of cotton yarn.

My TLE sock club shipment came in the other day and boy did it not disappoint. I love the yarn, and I'm in mad love with the pattern and the goody we received was super cool. You can go check it out here in my flickr photos.

Bree has found a new fascination in playing dress up. Right now it seems to be scarves.

Bree has been playing with a fun fur scarf that my aunt made Kaity awhile back. Unfortunately the scarf is way to long for her and she trips on it at least a half dozen times a day. I decided to suck it up and knit her a Bree sized scarf. Anyone who knows me, knows that I detest knitting with fun fur. It's just one huge pain in the butt. The last time I knit with fun fur was to make some hats for kids going through chemo. It sheds, it's hard to see the stitches and it's just generally annoying to knit with but when you see a face like the one above it makes it all worthwhile.

I started another pair of socks for Kaity. She keeps begging me for socks so I figure the next few pair I knit should be for her.

These are toe up, two at a time using the rest of the Berroco Sox I had leftover from another pair I knit her awhile back. These will probably be plain stockinette socks. The toes look odd. I think I may have knit two increase rows in the socks. I didn't feel like ripping them out in the car so the messed up row stayed.

Here's a teaser shot of the project I'm working on for Madelinetosh.

I'll post the details when I can. I'm over halfway through with this so it shouldn't be long before you get an update.

I bought a Nostepinne from an etsy dealer, Ghstworks.

There are times when I just don't feel like dragging out the ball winder so having the Nostepinne will come in handy. How geeky is it that when I opened it up and was holding it the first thing I thought of was "hey I bought myself a wand." Yup, that's what I though, my Harry Potter geekiness is showing.

I had some gift certificates, so naturally I spent them on books.

I'd say that 80% of my knitting library has been paid for by gift certificates I've earned. The only book I'm not so hot about is the Knitting Circles Around Socks. I wasn't overly thrilled with it. If you want my copy of the book let me know in the comments. It'll be yours for $12 plus the cost of whatever shipping method you pick. First to ask for it, gets it.

Once again I've managed to write another long post. I've falling into the blog blahs. I'm far behind on blog reading. There is no way I'm getting caught up on all that reading so I've wiped the slate clean and will start with new posts....sorry everyone.

I'll return next time with pictures from another 7 Deadly S(p)ins shipment. I'm hoping to see it some time this week. I've been faithfully ignoring the spoilers but am not sure how much longer I can hold out. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be waiting for me when I get back from the dentist.

Yup, I'm going to the dentist again. The good news is I'm almost done with all the work. I have to get a crown put on a back tooth but my dentist is waiting for my insurance to rollover in Feb of next year so I won't have to pay as much. So right now that tooth is a wee bit sensitive to the cold. The good news is that most of my tooth sensitivity went away when I started using a Philips Sonicare toothbrush. They are a little pricey but soooo worth the money.

Happy Crafting!

I'm Still Here......

I think! Or did those darn aliens get me again? I swear it's a pain trying to keep up with things. One of these days I might become a little more organized...I doubt it but there is always hope. The good news is the tomatoes are doing fabulously. Here's a shot of some of the tomatoes I've gotten off my plants.

Beautiful aren't they? This isn't counting the several we've already eaten and the 5 or 6 tomatoes we've given to our neighbors. They'll be getting about half of what's in the pic. We've figured out what we've done wrong and will fix it so hopefully next years crop of tomatoes will be bigger. I'm going to try for a total of 3 plants. We're also shooting for some green beans too.

I found another yarn shop, Old MacDonalds Craft Barn. It a little bit outside of town but it's only about 11 miles or so from the base. They're only open on Saturdays but that's fine since weekend shopping works best for me. Plus I was told that they are able to open the shop up through the week if there's something you need to buy. Super nice people with a nice selection of yarn. The shop is small but they do carry Cascade 220, Brown Sheep, Plymouth, and Fiber Trend patterns....just to name a few. I'll definitely be going back.

Here's what I picked up from Old MacDonalds Craft Barn.

3 Skeins of Plymouth Galway Paint and a skein of Lang Jawoll Aktion sock yarn. Kaity picked up the Galway Paint for a new scarf & hat. It'll match her snow suit. The Lang sock yarn is soft and with the Aktion line it looks like Lang Jawoll has taken out the acrylic. The label says it's 75% wool and 25% nylon.

I knit another dishcloth. I'm on a dishcloth kick right now.

The pattern is the Double Diamond Circular Facecloth (Rav)(non Rav) from the Dishcloth Boutique. I used the Sugar N' Cream Stripes yarn I got from my TLE swap pal Janice. I wasn't trying to make it match up it just worked out that way.

The Twisted Flower socks (Rav)(non Rav)are finished.

I love these socks. I have about 36 grams left from the skeins of DIC Smooshy which is more then enough to make Bree a pair of socks.

I started another pair of socks for Kaity.

I'm knitting these two at a time, toe up using Knit Picks Essential sock yarn. The colorway is called Princess Multi. These will be like the last pair of socks, just simple ribbing on the cuff and a picot bind off since Kaity thinks it gives the socks a girlie appearance. As if the purple/pink yarn wasn't girly enough!

I've finished a test knit for Woolgirl but won't be able to show it for awhile since it's for an upcoming sock club shipment. I'll probably start swatching for Kaity's coat and I've been contemplating make a shrug for myself out of the Malabrigo worsted I bought from Woolgirl awhile back.

I knit Scoop for Bree.

I think it came out pretty good but Bree doesn't seem to like it. Oh well, I'll see if Kaity likes it. You win some you lose some. If Kaity doesn't want it it will probably become a dog toy. I can always open it up and put a squeaker in it for Zeus.

I picked up a couple skeins of Red Heart for the Special Olympic scarf project.

Red Heart Classic isn't my most favorite thing to knit with but it's for a great cause so I'm going to suck it up and knit with it.*** They are asking for scarves made out of two specific colors of Red Heart yarn. If you're interested head on over to the website for more info.

***No I am not a yarn snob and yes I use acrylic but I prefer Carons Simply soft or one of the other softer acrylics. Red Heart is scratchy. That being said I do prefer wool and will use it the most.

I trade Wollmeise sock yarn colors with another Ravelry user.

I saw this color (Sultan) some time back and fell in love. When I found the chance to swap I jumped on it and trade my Lowenzahn for the Sultan colorway. I think it's 80/20 Twin but not sure. Any Wollmeise experts want to clue me in on how to tell the difference between Fluffy, 80/20 Twin, & Superwash? I have Superwash and 80/20 Twin and the only difference I can tell is that one has a little more yardage then the other.

I think that just about sums up everything that's happened since my last post. I have my sock club shipment from TLE which if the USPS is being nice to me will be here before the weekend. I'm really excited to see what's in this shipment.