Knittin' and Lovin' It

Very Little Progress

There are some seriously crazy people in this world. I love watching how things sell on ebay. The trends and everything and from time to time I get a good buy. We all remember the SweetGeorgia frenzy when she stopped dying. I saw skeins of SweetGeorgia going for like $60-70 for enough yarn to make one pair of socks. I wanted to try it but not bad enough to pay that much money after all it's just yarn no matter how pretty it is. Come to think of it I never did get any to try it.

Anyway back to what I was going to say, now the yarn to fight over is Wollmeise. Check this auction out on ebay. This one skein of yarn went for a grand total of $81 plus shipping. Crazy right? Figured you guys would agree with me. The laughable thing is I have this exact same type of yarn and color in my stash. This isn't the first time this user has sold Wollmeise. They sold two skeins back in April for $43 & $46. Yes, I was curious enough to scroll through the feedback. I'm nosey what can I say.

I remember when everyone was fighting over Duets socks yarn and now I can head over to TLE and buy it any time I want to. Yarn Pirate was another one. Anyone remember what other yarns have been fought over before Wollmeise came along.

I have very little progress to show you right now. The Phenomena socks are ready for the heels to be worked and I've added a few rows to Kaity's dress. Neither are far enough along to show you a pic. I do have one knitting pic to show you.

It's a teaser of the sample I'm knitting for Madelinetosh. Once I've gotten the go ahead, I'll post the whole thing here and point you in the right direction if you're interested.

Can I distract you with yarn?

I placed a small order with Knit Picks at the beginning of the month. Yes it takes that long for the stuff to get here. The funny thing is my stuff goes from Ohio to Utah. Yes that's right it has to go right past me so that it can be turned over to the USPS in Salt Lake City who takes foooooooorever to get the box to me. Talk about a horrible waste of gas. No wonder shipping prices have gone up.

Anyway I digress....I picked up a Yarn Harlot book and 4 skeins of KP Essential which will become socks for the girls. The other skien of yarn is Yarn Pirate bamboo/merino/nylon sock yarn which of course I did not pick up from Knit Picks. I got it for a really good deal from a Ravelry user who was destashing. I love bamboo sock yarns and the price was great.

Can I distract you with some more yarn?


This is the Colinette Jitterbug I picked up from a Ravelry user who was destashing. The color is Raspberry....yum! I love these colors. These socks will definitely be a simple toe up ribbed sock since the yardage is on the short side. This is a skein with the old put up not that the new yardage is much better. I wonder how long I can get the cuffs on these? I'll split the yarn into two separate yarn cakes and knit both socks toe up at the same time.

How bout cute princesses?


The girls were playing dress up the other day and I couldn't resist getting a photo of them. Every now and then they play together without fighting.

Cute dog distraction?

Zeus finally got a haircut! He looks so much better with his new do. Shadow the shaggy mutt is next. The hair is so long on the top of her head it's covering her eyes.

How bout one last distraction?

Just in case the dog, kid and yarn distractions didn't work I figured a shot of the tomato plants might help. They are getting huge.

Both plants are loaded with various sizes of green tomatoes. Most of the tomatoes are about the size of a golf ball while the rest are around the size of a grape. Plus there are tons of flowers so more are on the way. I can't wait to pick some. I love tomatoes!

Hopefully all the distractions helped! The next post will have more knitting in it then this one, I promise.

My wee toddler has decided that she no longer needs a nap through the middle of the day. No more quiet time for mommy! It really was a sad day in the Luvs2knit household. I've had 3 hours of quiet every day for over a year now.


Yes folks this cute faced turkey has decided for herself that naps aren't needed and that she's a big girl now. Course we still have the potty training to go through and the transition to a toddler bed. She still sleeps in her crib but I'm sure that one will end soon too. The potty training is slotted to begin next payday....course it's up to Bree to cooperate.

I knew this day was coming I just didn't think it would be here so quickly. We have a week to go before her 2nd birthday. My baby is growing up! Shawn ordered her a Wall-E cupcake set up from Wal*Mart last night. I'll take pics next week when he picks it up. We went with cupcakes so we could keep what we want and then Shawn can take the rest of them to work for the guys to devour in 5.2 seconds flat.

Happy Crafting!

30's Not So Bad

Today is my 30th birthday and guess what, 30 feels the same as 29! Well at least it does for me. We aren't doing much of anything today. I have the house to myself right now since Bree is napping and Shawn took Kaity to a birthday party. Although Shawn should be back soon with my Carmel Frappuccino from Starbucks....yummmmmm! Yes it's fully loaded. I can't bring myself to try the skinny drinks. Since I only get Starbucks a few times a month it's not to horrible. I made the mistake of looking up the nutritional information one day....yikes!

Most of my knitting has been test/sample knits. But I did make a washcloth for Bree.

I want to make a stack of them for cleaning Bree up after she's done eating. Bree's feeding herself and she doesn't always hit the spoon on the mark the first time around. I'm using Cottontots since it's really soft and one of my favorite cottons to work with.

I did get some yummy stuff for my birthday. First up is some Plassard Dune yarn from my friend Colleen.

I haven't decided what to knit with it yet. I'm still on the hunt for the right pattern.

This came in the mail yesterday from my mom.

She's sneaky! She went on to Amazon and browsed through my wishlist and got me The Opinionated Knitter. I've been wanting this one for awhile.

My birthday gift to myself.

I placed a small order through Woolgirl for a few things that caught my eye. The yummy berry colored yarn is by J Irby Designs and I couldn't pass up the coffee cozy kit put together by The Unique Sheep. I love the colors. Jen included a cute little sheep notepad and sample of wool wash.

I was really touched when Shawn brought this home from Kaity's teacher.

She put these together for the parents who helped her out in the classroom throughout the year. I'm not sure if I want to hang these outside with the way the wind blows around here. I may transplant them to a bigger pot and place them on one of the porches. I wonder how well these would do here in the house? I'll figure something out.

Here in a few days I'll post about the skirt I'm making for Kaity. I started it last night so there isn't much to show yet. Plus I must spread out the blog fodder or I'm going to run out. Plus I have a baby blanket to knit so I'll be talking about the pattern and yarn possibilities.

Happy Crafting!

No Snappy Title

I couldn't come up with a snappy title today. Have you ever been cooking, clean, driving down the road, etc and have a fantastic idea for a blog post? My brain is alway in overdrive. It's a wonder I'm not always crashing into walls. Everything seems to pop into my mind while I'm in the shower. We use to have only one bathroom and I was forever writing stuff on the shower walls with Kaity's Crayola tub crayons. I miss the crayons!

My yarn came in from Dog Lover's Yarn.


Yum! It's soft and the colors are gorgeous! Thanks Susan. This one will be knit very soon. Hop on over and check out Susan's shop and blog. I've been reading her blog for some time now and it's always a joy.

I received a wee giftie from my friend Jen the other day.


She sent me The Little Box of Socks. This box rocks! I love how they did the patterns.


Each one has it's own card. Yes, they are all new patterns. There are 20 different sock patterns in this little box and the sizes for each pattern range from children to mens. All the patterns are sized for womens feet but there are a few that do not have men or children sizes.

I got a treat at Barnes and Noble today.


The Knitter's Book of Yarn...I've been wanting this one since it came out. It has all sorts of good info and there are some patterns that I really want to knit.

I think the next book I'm going to get is Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I really want to see all the fuss is over this book. There are tons of people raving about it. I'm always up for a new sock pattern book.

Rogue is coming along nicely. I'm getting ready to divide for the front and back. Hopefully I'll have a progress pic the next I post. My Everlasting Bagstopper is at about the halfway mark. I managed to put several more rows on it today while we were out shopping.

The only other thing I've been working on are my Secret Knitting projects and for obvious reasons I can't post about them.

I'm off to bath the youngest monkey. I have no idea where this kid picks up her dirt but no sooner do I get her clean then she gets dirty again.

Happy Crafting!

Goodies

My Knit Picks box finally got her yesterday. Shawn and I went into town to find new computer desks and came home to find it sitting on the porch. WooHoo!


I got 2 skeins of Felici: Arugala, 2 skeins of Essential: Blue Violet Multi, a WPI tool, 2.5mm 40" Circ for knitting 2 at a time, Knitting on the Road and 2-at-a-time Socks. As soon as I finish my Marie Antoinette socks I'll be starting a pair from one of these two books.

I also picked up 4 more cones of Peaches & Creme the other day.


I can't help it. It's a sickness. The colors are starting to disappear so I snagged 4 more cones yesterday. I think I have enough now.

I've also been knitting. I finished the 2nd panel in my Cable Comfort Throw.


Still have 4 more panels to go. I decided to add one more panel to make the throw a little larger. I'm going to look for a thinner yarn to seam all the panels together. I think the Thick & Quick yarn is way to thick to make for easy seaming.

I also started the Celtic Knot Stole but since I've only finished 5 whole rows I didn't figure it was far enough along to post a pic.

Why is it that I always seem to have troubles when ordering things. I placed the order for my wheel the other day. It shipped out that same afternoon...woot! Now the problem, someone decided to add a double treadle kit to my order making the price go up $100. So needless to say I was charged $100 more then I should have. I don't need a double treadle kit, my wheel comes with a double treadle standard the kit if for older wheels that the owner wants to upgrade....sigh! So I called customer service and they fixed it right away. They are issuing me the credit and all I need to do is refuse the one box and have UPS send it back. But I need to figure out which of the three boxes needs to go back without opening them! What a PITA!

So now I have to stalk the UPS website to make sure that the delivery date doesn't change so I can catch the UPS delivery person before they drop the boxes and run. If not I'll have to schedule a pick up and have the delivery person come back.

Anyone else out there have an UPS delivery person who drops the boxes on the door step, rings the doorbell and then runs as fast as they can to their truck like someones standing in the doorway with a double barrel shotgun? I have one of those, unless of course they need a signature then they give a few extra seconds before they leave a slip and run for the truck. I miss our delivery lady in Idaho *sniff, sniff*

Today I leave you with Kaity.


We bought her a new snow suit. Not that she's using it right now, it's like 47 degrees outside. We bought the next size up so she can wear it next year.

Yarn, Socks, & More

Looks like todays post is going to be another long picture filled post.

I went to the LYS to pay on my layaway. Look what jumped into my hand.


Brown Sheep Lambs Pride worsted. They had the brown I was looking for and I decided to get purple for Kaity's new mittens. There were a few more skeins of yarn that wanted to jump into my hands but I resisted and told them to stay and someone would give them a good home. The shop has been moved around and reorganized which made for a much more pleasant shopping experience.

I also found some cute fleece at Wal-Mart.


I'm going to use this for backing to make Bree a blankie. She loves Tigger, who is not always easy to find on clothing and fabric.

While we were over in the craft section at wally world I noticed they had tons of Peaches & Creme on the cone. Not just the 2-3 colors they normally keep but lots more colors....colors I'd love to get. I've never seen that much variety from Wal-Mart. I'm not sure if it was a screw up in ordering or if they've decided to keep that much in stock but I hope it last till next payday. If so I'll pick up a few cones.

I received this book in the mail yesterday.


It's Miss Bea's Rainy Day. I've already queue several things for Bree. I think I'm going to start with the Thinking Dress first. I bought this from a fellow Ravelry user who was destashing some of her books.

Next up, I received my order from WEBS in the mail yesterday.


I used what was left of my gift card to purchase yarn to make Shawn some hats and a helmet liner. The yarn I purchased is Valley Yarns Northampton, colors: Dark Navy, Dark Grey, and Black. I want to see how it compares to Cascade 220 since Northampton is $4.99 for 247 yards and the cheapest I can get Cascade 220 is $6.50. I also bought the Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie pattern (not pictured).

I received my order from The Loopy Ewe in the mail yesterday.


I bought a skein of Dream in Color, color Ruby River. I'm going to use it to make Marie Antoinette. Gorgeous socks, yummy yarn, should be a great combo.

Also in my TLE order was one of the little sheep they are selling. I decided to get the black one this time. He's sitting up on my monitor now.

How can you pass up something that cute?

I started a pair of socks for Bree last night.


Tiny feet make for a quick knit. I need to finish up the heel and foot on the second sock, which won't take long.

I'm expecting my box from JoAnn's today. Surprise surprise it actually shipped. Come to find out (from the third person I talked too) that there was an item I ordered that was out of stock. The lady deleted the out of stock item and what do ya know, it shipped. Why couldn't one of the first two people I talked to have done that? There's an hour and a half of my life I can't get back wasted being on hold.

I'm also expecting a few things small things to come in soon that will go into posts as they come in.

Updates

I have a lot of things to talk about today.

First up, I received two books in the mail.


The first one is 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. I've already found tons of things to add to my queue. The second book is my prize from the Fall Cable KAL, Cables Vol 1: The Basics. The Cables book is awesome. I do believe that Janet Szabo is a cable genius. If you love Cabley Goodness go check out her site.

I made a pair of socks for Kaity.


Simple sock pattern (my own). I used Opal 6 ply, color 1712. These were a really fast knit (3 days). I still have 100g of the 150g ball. I'm going to make a pair for Bree here in the next few days.

Last night I started a pair of wrist warmers for my mom.


I'm using Irish Hiking Wrist Warmers pattern. These are knit flat and seamed up when your finished. I doubt these will take me very long to make. I'm already halfway through the first wrister. I'm using Knit Picks Andean Silk, color Chocolate. I really like this yarn and I'd definitely splurge on some for a sweater.

I've also finished a few dishcloths but I'm not going to post them out here. If you're on Ravelry and want to see them they're in my notebook. My user name is luvs2knit.

Today we're going to head into town to finish up some shopping. I'm making a stop at the yarn shop and may find something. I'm looking for some Lambs Pride worsted but can't remember if they carry it or not.

Goodies and an FO

Goodies seem to be coming in left and right here. Ok, maybe that's a tad over exaggerated.

My order of Malabrigo from Woolgirl



This is going to become a hat, scarf, and maybe some fingerless mitts....for me of course. Jen has some great stuff....go check it out, buy yarn, go now. OK....had to throw in a little enabling there! Did I mention she has Malabrigo lace.....yum! I also joined The Seven Deadly S(p)ins yarn club to top it all off. I linked to Jen's blog entry if anyone is interested the info is there.

I also ordered a few books: Best of Interweave Knits, The Yarn Girls Guide to Knits for Older Kids, and two books that are knits for girls and their dolls.



My book club was doing the buy 2 books get a 3rd free plus free shipping. The two doll/girl sweater books were a package deal. Now hows a girl suppose to pass that up?

I also finished Bree's Kimono Jacket.

It's a tad long in the arms but other then that it fits great. I'm not sure if I like the ties. I may pick up some snaps to sew on and then stick some buttons over them for decoration. I'll have to see what I can dig up while I'm at Michaels.

I got the new Interweave Knits, Winter 2007 issue and I'm not overly thrilled over most of the projects. Maybe that's because I was totally blown away with the Holiday issue....I don't think there were many who weren't. In the Winter issue, I like the Tilting Cable socks, Henley Perfected, and Redefined Aran Jacket. I'm going to have to let it marinate to see if I like any of the others.

I'm hoping to score some Patons Classic Wool tomorrow at Michaels. It's suppose to be on sale 2 for $7 which makes it affordable for me to make either the Central Park Hoodie or Twisted. I'm really leaning towards Twisted. Both sweaters take about the same amount of yarn so I'm just going to buy 9 or 10 balls and go from there. So wish me luck on finding enough yarn with the same dye lot in a color I like.

A Knitters Meetup and the Loot

***Warning: long post with lots of pictures!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with a fellow knitter, Debbie who also lives here in Montana. Oh it was so wonderful to sit down and discuss knitting with another knitter. Sorry no pics, I was so excited to be meeting up with Debbie that I forgot the camera....bad bad blogger!

We met up at Barnes & Noble since Shawn would probably kill me if I came home with more yarn, not because I'd be coming home with more yarn but because it's getting close to Christmas time so the extra money needs to be set aside these next few paydays for Christmas shopping. I did come home with a few things though.



I picked up the Holiday 07 issue of Interweave Knits. There are several super cute things I would love to make out of there, specially that Ski Sweater....Yum! I even love the colors they used. I think I may be able to sub it with a Knit Picks yarn.....must do more research. I need to try my hand at a smaller colorwork knitting project before I dive into a sweater. I also picked up another Debbie Bliss baby book. Who can resist all those cute photos? The other thing is a book mark for me. I've vowed to start reading every night before I go to bed. It's been months since I picked up a book that wasn't full of knitting patterns.

I have the back and two front pieces done on the Baby Kimono for Bree.

I have the sleeves started but still have several inches and a lot of increases to do before I'm done. It shouldn't take long.

So I am knitting, but I haven't started a new pair of socks yet. I'm still bouncing back and forth between some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock and my Smooshy sock. Plus I really need to finish up a few projects before I start another one. The biggest project to finish is the Cabled Baby blanket.

Bree has a new place to play.

We had bounced around the idea of getting a big baby gate so that Bree could have the living room to play in. The gate was going to cost well over $100....ouch! We came across this play yard. We were sold after seeing the price ($49 with free shipping) and the reviews which were mostly excellent.

This play yard gives her tons of room plus it's much safer for her to play here because it is 100% baby proof. There is no way I could get my living room completely baby proof. The bonus is that Bree loves her new spot and will sit in there with her toys and play for quite some time.

The yarn room is set up.

Shot #1:

Drawers one and two are being used for my sock yarn. The third drawer is holding all my worsted weight wool and the fourth drawer is holding my single balls of yarn and my lace weight yarn.

Shot #2:

I now have plenty of room for my yarn. Up above the books is where my swift and ball winder sit. The shelf under the books is all my cotton yarns. I need to run out to Michaels so I can browse through their baskets. I want to get one to hold all the dishcloth cotton. Next to the shelf I have a small 4 drawer bin that use to sit next to my chair. That may move out to sit next to my chair when I get the last of the boxes unpacked. Next to that is a 6 drawer bin that holds my color cards, acrylic yarns, etc.

Well I'm outta here for now. It's almost time for Bree to get up and I have a few things to get done.

Some Updates

I have an update on my Simple Socks and some goodies I got in the mail yesterday.

First up, the goodies:



I got More Sensational Knitted Socks and Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. More SKS didn't disappoint.  I can't believe I waited this long to get the book.  I will admit that I bought LMKG for the Chevron Scarf pattern but ended up liking several things. 

Next up, Simple Socks:



I'm about halfway done with the gusset.  These socks will be my submission to the TLE Q3 Challenge (if I can finish them on time).  I had originally started the Twisted Flower Socks for my challenge.  This move has kept me pretty busy.  Add in that the yarn needed to finish the second sock is packed away in my stash.  Also throw in that we've all managed to pick up a head cold and it's really messed up Bree's schedule.
Since everything is hectic I've decided that my challenge is just to finish a pair of socks.  :~)

Whatta Monday!

Since I decided to do no cleaning and laundry yesterday I now have to do it today....darn that maid, she never seems to clean like she's suppose to.  :~)  So that's what I've been up to.  I also spent some time winding the yarn I got in from Sue so I can finish my mom's gift and naturally when I finished winding the yarn I had to knit on the gift.  There's definitely and end in sight.  I hope to be finishing it up by this weekend.
I also got a book I won off ebay.  It's called Knitting for Babies and Kids.  I paid like $6.50 for it...pretty good deal if you ask me.  I noticed out at Amazon it's been review and has complaints about errors in the patterns, but that's not much of a worry because I've yet to get a book that doesn't have errors in the patterns.  :~)  There are some really cute patterns in there so I'll deal with the errors....besides isn't having errors in patterns part of the knitting adventure? or is that headache?
I was reading out on Tricotine's blog about a book that she bought.  Well naturally I have to go check out said book.  It's called Bearfoot Knits.....there are some cute kid patterns that come in this one so it's now being added to my wish list.  I may try to get that one on the first of June.  :~)

Well I'm off to swap the laundry out and throw on and other row before Kaity gets home.