Knittin' and Lovin' It

Is It Really Fall?

This is going to be a long post so head into the kitchen and grab yourself a drink and a snack.....................

Ready? OK, here we go!

Remember that snow I posted about? Well we haven't seen any more of that but the weather has been what I consider freakishly warm for this time of year. It's suppose to hit into the 70's for Tues & Wed....crazy, I know! The good news is that Friday is looking good for the trick or treaters. Last year it was freezing and the wind was blowing really bad.....not much of a shock if you've ever been in/lived in Great Falls. The wind is a pretty common occurrence here.

We have a new addition to the luvs2knit family.

We purchased a 16 gallon aquarium for a steal at PetCo a few weeks back. It's all set up now and is happily housing 3 guppies (all male), 4 different mollies, and 2 cory catfish. The picture was taken before the guppies and cory catfish were added. The girls love watching the fish swim around. Bree has taken to sitting in her rocking chair in front of the tank.

I aquired a few things during the last sale at Woolgirl.

I needed to get a skein of sports weight yarn for Kaity's inner mittens so why not throw in a little extra to round out the order. I picked up the purple Unique Sheep Foot Prints sock yarn for Kaity's mittens, Union Center Knits WhatKnot Sport weight sock yarn, and the Journey Cable Socks pattern.

I've been very busy on the knitting front. Those of you on Ravelry may have already seen some of my finished projects. I've been working on finishing up old WIPs. I'm actually down to three WIPs and one of those will be finished this evening.

Reverse Miter Dishcloth (Ravelry)(non Ravelry)

It's a fun and easy pattern so if you're looking for something simple and you're tired of working the Grandma's Favorite cloth I recomend you try this one.

Breast Cancer Awareness Illusion Cloth (Ravelry)(non Ravelry)

I love illusion patterns. They're easy but cool looking. I used left over cotton for this cloth. I'm not sure if the yarn is Peaches & Creme or Sugar N' Cream truthfully, I can't tell the difference between the two.

Errant Socks (Ravelry)

These are from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. I started these for my mom using some Kraemer Sterling Silk and Silver sock yarn I picked up from WEBS awhile back. If you love cables on your socks then you might want to give this pattern a try. I highly recommend enlarging the charts and color coding them for easy reading.

Elegant & East Cable Mittens for the Family (Ravelry)

The pattern can be found in the book 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. This seems to be my "go to" pattern for mittens. Both pair were knit for Kaity. The purple ones are made using The Unique Sheep Foot Prints sock yarn I purchased from Woolgirl and are inner mittens so I left the cable off. The multi colored ones were made with half a skein of Plymouth Galway Paint. Kaity's already worn them several times and has deemed them perfect. I made them a little on the big side so she should get plenty of wear out of them.

Woven Headband (Ravelry) (non Ravelry)

This is one of those old WIPs that I was tired of seeing in the draw. It's getting colder now so I figured Kaity would have a use for it if I finished it up. The yarn used is Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb which was a gift from a friend. The yarn has a surprising amount of bounce when knit up although it doesn't feel like that in the skein.

Bamboo Toe Up Socks

The pattern was generated using Sock Wizard for Mac....yes I'm too lazy to do the math myself! I knit these socks for Kaity using some Regia Bamboo sock yarn that my mom sent me quite a few months ago. I knit them toe up, turkish cast on, two at a time, magic loop, with a k3, p2 ribbing on the leg and I used EZ's sewn cast off.

I finally spent a couple of hours and seamed my Rogue (Ravelry) (non Ravelry).

There isn't much seaming involved with this sweater but yet it sat in the bag for months waiting to be finished.

Cable Comfort Throw (Ravelry) (non Ravelry)

I finally finished and it only took me 13 months. Course it would have went a lot faster had I stuck with knitting it instead of casting on new projects. Once I set my mind too it it didn't take long at all. I used approx 7.5 skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick.

Wow, that was a long post.

I'll be back in a few days (hopefully) with a new, shorter post. I should be done with Kaity's coat by then. I also received a new test knit from Madelinetosh that I'll be starting.

Happy Crafting!

Snow, Seriously!

We've seen snow here already. For 3-4 days it felt as if we completely skipped fall and went straight to winter here in my neck of the woods. Really cold, below freezing temps at night and the occasional snow flurry. This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning.

I think the official total for the 12th of Oct was 6.5 inches of snow. Serious burrrrr! Kaity had a blast playing in the snow. Unfortunately Bree didn't get a chance to play in it this time. I need to buy her a pair of snow mittens and snow boots. The snow showed up before I got a chance to pick them up. It warmed up Monday so the snow is now gone. We're now seeing warmer more Fall like temps.

I've been staying busy with my knitting. I'm waiting on new yarn for a test knit so I've been working on my own stuff.

Kaity informed me the other day that she needed new mittens.

The purple mittens I made for her last year are to small. Now I can't have her walking around with mittens that are to small now can I. So off to the yarn room I went to dig out some yarn for a new pair of mittens. Last year I knit a mitten inside the mitten but that turned out to be a pain in the rear end so this year I'm knitting a separate inner mitten that she can wear under these mittens on really cold days. The outer mittens are being made out of some Plymouth Galway Paint that I picked up from Old MacDonalds Craft Barn. The pattern is the Elegant and Easy Cabled Mittens pattern (Rav) from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. This pattern has become my favorite basic mitten pattern. I haven't decided on the yarn for the inner mittens yet. I'm thinking about picking up a skein of LL Shepherd Sport to knit the inner mittens out of. That seemed to work well for the mittens I made last year.

I'm making great progress on Kaity's bamboo socks.

This is a shot of them from a few days ago. I've actually turned the heels and am working on the legs now. I've been mostly working on these when I'm in the car. The Regia bamboo is nice to work with although if you aren't careful you can split it but it's not horribly splitty. I'm curious to see how well they wear. Kaity is rather hard on her socks but I haven't seen any holes in the socks she currently has.

I'm working on a new dishcloth.

This is the Reverse Miter Dischloth (Rav)(non Rav). This is a super easy pattern if you want to make a quick and easy dishcloth and it makes it easy to use up those leftover cotton scraps. I'm using some Sugar N' Cream that I picked up on sale at JoAnn's awhile back. I do believe that the color is called sunkissed. Nice and cheerful to help brighten those dreary sunless days that seem to happen all to frequently here in the winter.

Kaity's coat is knitting up nicely. Sorry no pics. I think they'd be kind of boring anyway since everything is in pieces. I've finished the second front piece and one sleeve. I've started sleeve number two. By my count I have sleeve number two to finish, the hood, two pockets, seaming it all together and the i-cord trim. All in all the bulk of the coat is complete. I should have it done in less then two weeks if I keep working on it.

Next up in the queue is a baby blanket for my cousin who is due in Dec (if I remember correctly) which means I should get started on this soon if I want to finish it before wee one shows up. Some socks for my mom are in order since she is sorely lacking in the handknit socks department. Being the good daughter I am I'll knit her some more. Who doesn't need more handknit socks? Finally hubby needs a helmet liner/ski mask. I want to make something warm for him to wear while he's out shoveling snow. It can get pretty cold here in the wintertime specially when the wind is ripping through here. 29 degrees F doesn't feel to bad ** unless the wind is blowing at 30+ miles per hour.

** Some may say I'm crazy for making that statement.  :~)

I hope to be back soon with some finished projects to show off.

Happy Crafting!

Fall, Finally!

It appears that Fall has finally made it to this part of Montana. The days are getting cooler and the nights are getting colder. They are forecasting that Friday and Sunday are days we could see some snow....burrrrr! The great news is that the winter woolies will soon be worn again and I'm feeling the urge to block and seam my Rogues sleeves. Yes, it's still in storage, no I haven't finished it yet.

Unfortunately with the return of Fall my tomato plants are not longer producing, so the 5 tomatoes sitting on my counter are the last of the yummy deliciousness until next year. It's almost enough to make me want to cry.

I've finally caught up on CSI Miami and am now watching the current season as it plays on CBS. Of course this means I need a new show to watch. In comes my mom talking about NCIS and a USA marathon of the show to get me hooked. So now my Netflix queue is full of NCIS disks and I now have 6 seasons to keep me busy. Season 7 is currently playing on CBS right now.

I've done a little knitting and have a bit to show you all this week. Some of it's test/sample knits that I can now show you and others are mine. I'll just apologize in advance for all the not so great pictures. Most of them were taken during cloudy, nasty days.

I can show you the big blue test knit that I was working on for Madelinetosh.

It's Tribeca (Rav)(non Rav) knit using Tosh Worsted. Easy pattern with moss stitchy goodness (yes I'm crazy, I like Moss St) and soft, squishy yarn, what more you you ask for? If you want to see a better picture, head over to Amy's blog post for a peak. If you're interested in the pattern or the yarn you can find them at Woolgirl. The yarn is soft and has a nice twist and the colors are beautiful. I'll be getting some of this yarn in the near future.

A pair of Dimpled Socks (Rav)(non Rav) for Madelinetosh.

I knit these using Madelinetosh's sock yarn. The color is Oxblood and it's yummy but a little difficult to take pictures of when it's cloudy out. Follow one of the links above the pic to see what the sock pattern looks like. The pattern has been out for awhile but I worked them with a few tweaks in the pattern.

A sample knit for Woolgirl.

The yarn is Madelinetosh sock and the color is Fig. I do believe that this yarn is the September shipment for the Magnolia Society yarn club. The pattern is Interlocking Leaves (Rav)(non Rav) from Knitty. I really liked this sock pattern and will be making a pair for myself in the near future.

Kaity's A-Line Coat (Rav)(non Rav) in all it's "in pieces" glory.

I've been working on this in between sample knits. When my hands need a break from small needles I pick this coat up to work on. I need to get it finished since it's starting to cool off now. The big piece is the back and then I have one front piece finished and although it doesn't look like it, I'm about halfway through the other front piece. The pattern isn't bad but it could have been a little better written. I'm not big on patterns that leave out details like diagrams to save on space. I'm one of those people who think that diagrams with measurements on it are helpful. Maybe I'm just crazy and am expecting to much. The pattern is one page, front only. Why couldn't they have given just a tad more detail and used a second page?

A pair of socks for Kaity.

I knit these with the leftover Berroco Sox. They are plain jane socks knit toe up, two at a time, magic loop. I think I prefer making Kaity's socks two at a time, toe up. I always end up making one sock smaller then the other when I don't knit them at the same time which drives me crazy everytime I see them! There is still enough yarn left to knit a pair of socks for Bree. Note these socks do not come close to matching. I knit from the inside and outside of the ball so the striping is reversed.

I started another pair of socks for Kaity.

These are being knit with some Regia bamboo sock yarn my mom bought for Kaity quite some time ago. Look Ma, I'm finally knitting those socks.  ;~)

I'm one of those people that lets sock yarn marinate in the stash for awhile before knitting with it. They're the same as the last few I made, two at a time, toe up. Since I'm currently not in any need for new socks (I have like 16 pair) Kaity is the lucky recipient. As if she's sitting there complaining about new handknit socks. She does a happy dance each time I toss a new pair of socks at her. She's even happier now that it's getting cold enough to wear them.

Finally a teaser shot.

This is one of the projects I'm currently working on for Madelinetosh. I'll post more about it when I can.

The girls are all geared up for Halloween. We managed to catch both costumes on sale this year. There are some good things about them putting the stuff up early. It means that they start marking down the stuff earlier too. Shoot I even made out like a bandit buying the candy the other day at ShopKo. I picked up the big bags that are normally around $7 something each for the lovely price of 2 bags for $8. Can't argue with those kind of savings.

The other good news is that we've completed just about all of the Christmas shopping for both of the girls. Most of it's sitting on Layaway at K-Mart. It'll stay there until it has to be picked up in early Dec. We still have a few small things to get but for the most part we're done. Shawn's gift will most likely be a Palm. He really wants a new one.

I'll leave you with a shot of my little monkey.

Happy Crafting Everyone!