Knittin' and Lovin' It

Overdue again!

Once again I'm here working on a blog post that is way overdue. Believe it or not I actually started this post on the 13th of Dec. It's been crazy here between Bree getting sick (her first ever stomach flu), then me, then getting ready for the holidays topped off with crappy weather that kept me from getting pictures taken. I know, I know excuses, excuses. We've been going through the warm, cold, warm, freeze your snot cold, warm, colder then the North Pole, warm, cold that seems to be what they call winter around here. Either stay warm or stay cold dang it!

Let see, where in the world to start. There is so much to post about I'm not sure where to start. How bout the dishcloths I finished up?

I managed to knit all 24 cloths this year for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL. I now have plenty of dishcloths to use when we get to Germany. Truthfully I have way more then I really need. Note to self: must remember to call my Granny to see if she wants some.

I finished my Slip-Stitch Cable Socks (ravelry).

This is one of the patterns out of The Little Box of Socks. These were knit using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted yarn in the black purl colorway. They are super comfy and squishy. I think I might make another pair again in the future.

My Nutkin socks (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

I knit these for the Sonny and Shear Nutkin KAL on Ravelry. The yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan sock in the Sailors Delight colorway. I did deviate from the pattern for the cuff, heel and toe. I worked a picot cuff, my favorite short row heel from the Sock Wizard software and a standard toe.

New pair of worsted weight socks for Kaity.

These are made with leftover Dream in Color Classy from the sweaters I made both of the girls. Her cheapo acrylic socks that I knit her like 3 years ago have finally died. They developed a huge hole in them and judging by the way Kaity acted you would have swore the world was ending.To stave off the end of the world I made her this pair of socks. They've been deemed worthy of wearing and of course request from more socks have ensued.

I finished my moms Whispering Pines shawl (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

Now all I need to do is find the time to get it blocked out so I can send it on to my mom. I used 3 skeins of Knit Picks Gloss lace weight yarn. Once again I have to say that Anne Hanson is an absolute lace genius! I've yet to find a Knitspot pattern I haven't loved.

I finally got a picture of Kaity's finished Luna Trail Pullover (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

The sleeves are a little long and I wished I would have knit another inch of two in the body of the sweater but she loves it.

I've received my a few goodies in the mail. The only thing I'm getting in now is stuff that I signed up for before we found out we were moving. I'll provide links so there isn't much of a possibility of someones surprise being spoiled. I've received Oriental Poppies which is part of a Woolgirl club and my final shipment from the first round of the Lord of the Rings sock club.

I've finally started destashing some of my yarn stash. It's listed on Ravelry and the Destash! blog too. I've had success there selling some stuff.

Right now I'm working on a test knit for Woolgirl and am trying to finish up some older projects (I'm down to two projects on the needles....gasp!). As soon as I finish up the current test knit I'm going to start working on Shawn's sweater. I really want to get that finished before his 80th birthday. ;~)

Happy Crafting!

A Little Knitting

Dear architects,

Could you please rethink the design of homes and take note that my coat closet size bathroom does not need a heater vent. Nor does my bathroom sized walk in closet for that matter. My clothes could care less if they are hot or cold and I really hate it when I'm taking a shower and the heater/AC kicks on and pushes the shower curtain in....very annoying! Isn't it sad that my walk in closet is almost 3 times bigger then the tiny little room they claim is a master bathroom?

Thanks,

Luvs2knit

I would love to know what the architect was smokin' when he designed this house? There is tons of storage space but the fool couldn't give an extra 2-3 feet in the bathroom? Seriously!

Still no news on what's going on with our orders. Some people are saying that my arthritis is going to stop us from going to Germany. Others are saying it's not going to be a problem. Gotta love it when you can't get a definitive answer. We did find out that if we go to Germany our car insurance is going to shoot through the roof. It's going to be alike $138 per month and that doesn't include renters insurance. I guess you have to have higher coverage over there. It'll be off set by some of the bills we wont have over there. It'll all work out in the end but the price did make choke on my coffee.

I've been making progress on the knitting front and have managed to start a few projects but haven't finished anything major. Although the way I'm going I'll be finished with Kaity's sweater in no time at all.

First up is Kaity's sweater.

The pattern is Luna Trail Pullover (ravelry)(non ravelry) and the yarn is Dream in Color Classy, Punky Fucshia. I absolutely love knitting with Classy but hate, hate, hate winding it up. The yarn is so squishy and springy that it doesn't wind very well....at least not for me. I've wound 4 skeins of this yarn so far and every single one of them has given me fits. That being said it won't stop me from using it again.

New socks for me, yippy!

Oh wait just about every pair of socks are knit for myself. Oh how selfish I am! These are the Mallow Sock pattern (ravelry)(non ravelry). The yarn is Frog Creek Fibers Ebullient in the Raspberries and Chocolate colorway. The yarn is soft and has a nice tight, twist. It's going on my list of yarns I'll buy again. I'd like to try some of their other base yarns.

New on the go socks.

My basic toe up sock pattern with a turkish cast one. I'll probably knit a short row heel and a stockinette leg and to change things up a little I think I'm going to knit a picot cuff. Easy socks, perfect for car knitting.

The 1 Sept Monthly Dishcloth KAL cloth.

Basic ABC cloth done in Red Peaches and Creme. I haven't found the link for this pattern so no link for this one.

Some yummy String Theory Caper sock now lives in my stash.

I placed an order from TLE a few weeks ago to order the Namaste small clutch to match my Laguna bag. I wanted something for quick trips to the store. Since I was ordering I decided to go for free shipping. I couldn't have my Namaste bag all alone in the box now could I. I ordered a skein of String Theory Caper sock in the Black Cherry colorway and a couple of sock patterns.

Look at what Shawn came home with for me.

A drying rack for my socks. He noticed that hanging up all the socks on hangers was a pain in the butt so one night while he was out at Wally World he found this and picked it up. The drying rack is huge. I'm around 5' 8" give or take a smidge and the rack is up to my shoulders. It has all but a few pair of socks on there and without Bree's sweater I could probably have fit ever pair of handknit socks that I have for Kaity and I.

We're on our way to Oregon to visit with my family. I started this post at home but am finishing it up here in Spokane, WA. We're staying the night at Fairchild AFB. TLF (military hotel for families) is a lot nicer here. Big rooms and just way nicer all around. Wished we would have had this much room when we were stuck in TLF in Montana for over a month. We're getting the visiting in now just in case we do go to Germany because chances are once I get over there we won't be able to visit with family. The plane tickets are just to much money. Not to mention passports and visas. As it is it looks like we're going to have to shell out over $400 on passports to be able to travel around while we are there. If we don't pay for the passports we won't be able to leave the country. Well if I'm going to be stuck over there I'm damn sure going to travel to other countries. The government pays for traveling passports for the girls and I to get to Germany but that is all they are good for. Sucks I know! If they're going to send us over there the least they could do is give us full fledged passports to travel with.

I'll be back for another post after we get home from our trip. Till then...Happy Crafting!

Stunning Lack of Progress

Ok, so maybe I have been making progress on some things. Of course those things must remain secret for awhile yet. I finished one test knit for Woolgirl about 2 weeks ago which I've absolutely fell in love with and I'm working on another one right now that is really cool. Sorry I can't show them to you but I can show you the ones I knit up for Woolgirl and Miss Babs for Sock Summit.

The first knit was a sock.

It's a new entrelac sock pattern called Choix Entrelac Sock which should have been available for purchase at Sock Summit in Miss Babs booth. If I remember correctly Woolgirl has announced on her blog that she will be getting this pattern in her shop. I really want to make a pair for myself. It's just enough entrelac to add interest without doing the whole cuff entrelac and making it impossible to get on your foot. I found it easier to work the entrelac portion on my trusty dpns then moved to my circular needle after I finished.

The second knit was a caplet.

The pattern is In the Garden (ravelry)(non ravelry). This is knit in the round from the top down and was a very pleasant knit. I used Miss Babs yummy sock and the color is Merlot.

I have managed to finish a few small things and I have two pair of socks that aren't far from being finished. I really need to kick it in gear and work Shawn's sweater. I'm planning that as one of the projects I work on while he's gone in Sept and Oct for schooling.

Thank You cloth (ravelry)(non ravelry)

This one was the 1 Aug KAL cloth for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL.

"Have no clue what it's name is so there is no link" dishcloth

This was the 16 Aug KAL cloth for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL. I've been trying to knit all the cloths for this year. So far, so good I've stuck with it. If I've made it this far I'll make it to the end.

Rapunzel's Braid Socks (ravelry)

This pattern is actually a top down sock pattern but I'm working it toe up because I prefer working toe up pattern for socks I'm knitting two at a time. I worked a short row heel and I've left the cabled pattern off the back of the leg because it was making the sock too small for my foot and going up a needle size made the cables look sloppy. I'm really enjoying these socks which I could attribute to the cables or the sock yarn which is Zen Yarn Garden's Serenity sock. Deliciously soft squishy sock yarn. It's a merino/cashmere/nylon blend. This colorway is from the Woolgirl sock club. I picked it up from someone who was destashing it.

My "on the go socks" are just about finished.

Just a few more inches on the leg before starting the ribbing. The yarn is Opal Brasil, color 5001. I picked it up cheap from someone destashing it quite some time back. It's been sitting in my stash just waiting to be knit. This colorway is such a happy color. The stripes are so bright and cheery.

The Whispering Pines Shawl (ravelry)(non ravelry) is moving right along.

The color is off since I took this picture indoors. I've been working on my moms shawl and have managed to get part way through section C of the pattern. This is a very enjoyable knit and so far I've managed to remain mistake free (knock on wood) which is rather shocking. Normally by now I've had to rip back several rows because of a mistake. I've knit several patterns from Knitspot and have yet to find one I didn't like. Her patterns are so well written.

I picked up some JulieSpins MCN 560 from a Ravelry destasher.

I can see why people go "gaa gaa" over her yarn. It is very nice and the colors are beautiful. This is 560 yards of light fingering weight yarn in the Iris colorway. I'm not sure if this will be socks or if I'll make a shawl or scarf out of it. I haven't made up my mind yet so it'll just let it marinate in my stash for now.

I received some Zen Yarn Garden Bamboolicious in a Ravelry trade.

Someone was looking for Koigu for a blanket so I swapped some of mine for the bamboolicious. The colorway is Dublin Bay which I'm pretty sure is the colorway ZYG dyed for the shop Dublin Bay Knitting Company.

I have a spinning project on the wheel right now.

This is the start of some very delicious merino silk roving from the August shipment of the Artwalk Fiber Club from Zen Yarn Garden. You can see the roving here. I've been trying to spin for at least 30 minutes every day but there have been a few days where I haven't been able to spin. My goal is to Navajo ply this. I'll be re-upping this club in Nov and if all goes well I'll go for the 8oz option for more fiber.

I finally got my hands on some Pony Bead lacing for my wheel. I've had a heck of a time finding it from a place that has a reasonable shipping charge. This stuff is nowhere to be found here in town. Michaels & JoAnn's both carry the flat lacing which is not what I wanted. Everyone keeps telling me to go to Hobby Lobby. Well my nearest Hobby Lobby is in Billings which is like a 4 hour drive so that's out. I absolutely hate buying a $3 item and then being told I have to pay $6 to ship said item. I picked mine up from this ebay seller. The 5 yard hanks for $2.49 are the tubed lacing with the connectors. They shipped the stuff out first class mail and I had it in a few days. Just thought I'd share this store with anyone who may be having a hard time finding this stuff. No affiliation, just a happy buyer.

I'll leave you all with this shot of Bree enjoying her big birthday gift.

I had to wait till the first of Aug to order it so it's a little late for her b-day but she didn't seem to mind. It's the Naturally Playful Big Folding Slide by Step 2. I picked mine up through Amazon and got free shipping. I could have picked the slide up cheaper at a few other places but once they started tacking on the shipping costs and over sized fee it was crazy and way more then what Amazon wanted. One place wanted like $90 for the slide but then they wanted to charge me another $60 for shipping. It's not that heavy nor was the box that big. All the hassle was worth it to see her go down the slide continuously for like 45 minutes. This will definitely come in handy this winter when it's too cold to go outside to play.

Well that sums up our irregularly scheduled blog post. I'll be back soon, hopefully with some FO's to show you all.

Happy Crafting!

Oh So Sunny!

The weather here has turned off nice although it's definitely getting a little to warm for me to hang around outside. We went through almost 2 weeks of thunderstorms and cloudy days so great to finally have some sunshine again. Thanks to this lovely weather my tomato plants are doing well and I now have tiny little green tomatoes.

Thankfully summer here in Montana is normally mild with low humidity. I can handle the higher temps but throw in the humidity and it makes you feel like you're melting. I spent 2 years in Biloxi, MS and the summers there are miserable but I sooooo miss the food!

As most of you probably remember, I've posted a few times on some of the things we've done as a family to be a little more "green". We're still chugging right along and sticking with the things we started. We were extremely happy to see that the plastic recycling has been started back up again here in town. My guilt level increased with each plastic bottle, container, and bowl I had to throw away in the trash.

I've also kept my eye out for new products to try. It's not that 7th Generations products aren't great but if I can find one that works just as good, is environmentally friendly, keeps the tons of chemicals off my kids, and saves me money then it's a great bonus. I noticed that Arm & Hammer makes a "green" line called Essentials which includes laundry soap. Now price wise for me (remember that I shop in a military commissary so prices are probably cheaper for me) the 7th Generations soap runs a little over $7 per 32 wash load bottle....kinda pricey I know but it worked, is environmentally friendly and the skin irritation we were experiencing with the other soaps have disappeared**. At 5-6 loads per week the bottle lasted me over a month so no to bad when you think about it. The Arm & Hammer is $5 per 78 load bottle. The only thing different is that Arm & Hammer doesn't say it's HE safe. Several years ago we replaced our dead top loading washer with an HE front loader. I didn't realize until after I washed 2 loads that the soap wasn't deemed HE safe. It suds a tiny amount which was the same amount of suds I've gotten with all the supposed HE safe soaps. The clothes came out clean and soap free. So even though it's not claiming to be HE safe I'm going to keep using it. Course these results could vary between the various brands of HE washers. I'm not an HE washer expert but it does work in my Kenmore HE machine.

** We've tried various regular laundry soaps to include different types of free and clear soap and the skin irritation was still there. We didn't notice the decrease until we swapped to the plant based soaps.

I've been up to a bit of knitting and spinning since my last post. You know me, just trying to stay busy so I don't go insane.

First up is the baby blanket I knit for my cousin who was due this month.

She had the baby several weeks ago. A healthy 8lb, 3oz (if I remember the ozs correctly I know he was 8lbs) baby boy. Very adorable I might add. So needless to say they haven't gotten the blanket yet. I have to wait till payday to send it off to them. I used the concept from the Grandma's Favorite cloth pattern. I knit until I thought the stripe was wide enough and then swapped colors. It took 1 ball of each color with the exception of the off white which took 2. I used Peaches & Creme worsted cotton but any yarn will work. The blanket is measuring in at 32"x32".

I've finally kicked it in to gear on Shawn's cabled hoodie (ravelry)(non ravelry).

Ignore the pink yarn on the bottom. It's just waist yarn. I used a provisional cast on so I could make sure the bottom of the hoodie was stretchy enough. I'm using Cascade 220 Heathers. I went with the XXL size since my gauge is slightly tighter because I'm using a thinner yarn then the pattern was written for. If Shawn I did my math right this should come out at about 50 inch finished chest size which would make it the same size as Shawn's favorite pullover hoodie. I want to finish this up so I can start a sweater for myself. I refuse to make something for myself until I finish this. If I don't, it will keep being thrown to the side and Shawn will never get his sweater. It ended up getting set aside awhile back to work on some test knits and I never picked it back up. I want to make sure he has it by this winter.

Another dishcloth. This one is from the 1 Jun Monthly Dishcloth KAL.

I used the dark blue cotton I originally had set aside for this cloth for baby E's baby blanket. I'm working on the mid June KAL cloth right now. I don't care for the way it's turning out in the variegated yarn so I'm going to swap to one of the striping yarns.

I finished a Jane Austen dress for Bree.

The pattern is in the second Mason Dixon Knitting book. Cute pattern but I needed to adjust it because the armhole depth was way to small. I don't know many toddlers who have toothpicks for arms. I used 2 skeins for Rowan Cotton Glace. Obviously the dress isn't finished since there is no fabric sewn on to make the skirt portion. This payday I'll pick out some fabric to match. I'm in the process of making several of these type of dresses for the kiddos. They are a lot faster then a dress that is all knit.

I received my Wizard of Oz Over the Rainbow sock club kit.

I only signed up for 4 of the kits. I wished I could have signed up for all of them but it just wasn't in the budget. Woolgirl puts together such wonderful kits. The yarn was dyed by Zenstring and is even more gorgeous in person.

I also received my Lord of the Strings sock club shipment.

This time it's the gradiance yarn and a cabled pattern. Once again, another great shipment from The Unique Sheep. I think I'm going to sign up for next years club when it rolls around. The stitch markers were an extra goody this time and I love them.

I've also been spinning.

I finished up the purple BFL and the superwash merino dyed by Yarn Pirate. The two skeins on the left are spun from the Yarn Pirate merino Pretty Pirate colorway and the two purple skeins are BFL.

Here's the 2ozs of superwash merino roving dyed by Yarn Love I've spun so far.

I'm going to (hopefully) spin the other 2 ozs at a similar consistency and then try my hand at plying the two together. I'm really starting to get the hang of it. Merino is a dream to spin. It's a tad slippery but I think I've gotten the hang of it now.

I can post this now since my swap pal has received her package.

This is progress shot of the scarf I knit for her. Stupid me, I forgot to take a picture before I sent her package off. The pattern is Boing! by Anne Hanson (ravelry)(non ravelry) and the yarn is Jade Sapphire Silk Cashmere in the color Hydrangea. It's a lovely yarn to work with....very soft! It knits up beautifully and it blocked out without a problem. I really wished I would have taken a picture of this in better light.

I also finished up a test knit for Woolgirl and hope to show it off here soon actually I have two to show off. It should be safe to post in a few weeks. The packages have gone out but not everyone has received their packages yet.

I think I've pretty much covered everything for now. I'll be back soon with updates on my current sock projects and most likely some spinning.

Happy Crafting!

Coffee, Bikes, and Knitting...

sounds like a pretty good combo to me. It's no secret that I love Starbucks coffee. Hubby and I are both addicted and normally get a coffee several times a week. We have a gold rewards card and try very hard not to think about the obscene amounts of money we spend on coffee. I figure it's better then the pack a day smoking habit we both had and it's way cheaper. Cigarettes are getting friggin' pricey and the prices on base aren't much cheaper then in town....I think they're almost up to $6 per pack....ouch! Boy am I glad I quit! But I get sidetracked...back to what I was talking about. I generally get either an iced caramel mocha or a caramel frapp, both of them come in plastic cups which I was more then happy to recycle. The problem comes in is that the company that use to recycle plastics around here stopped because they were taking a loss so we no longer have a place to recycle plastics which of course made me feel guilty every time I bought a iced drink because I knew I was going to be throwing the plastic away in the trash when I was done.

Shawn the Wonder Hubby brought home this beauty! It's the new Venti reusable cold cup from Starbucks. From what I understand these babies flew off the shelves quickly. Thankfully there will be no need for me to feel guilty anymore! Plus I get 10 cents off for using a reusable cup. The cup is double wall insulated so it keeps the drink cold a lot longer and the cup doesn't sweat so no more wet hands from holding a sweating cup. So I have a Venti cup, hubby has a Grande cup and all is right in the land of Luvs2knit.

I also got a bike.

The doctor wants me to exercise more and bike riding is definitely good exercise. The thing that sold me on this bike is the way the frame dips down making it a lot easier for me to get on and off the bike. We bought it from the House of Wall so the bike is getting a tune up at the local bike shop since frankly I don't trust the people who put the bikes together at Wally World. My luck is I'd get on the bike and break an arm because some moron forgot to put a bolt in where it should be.

I did receive some yummy goodies from Woolgirl the other day.

I picked up a Knit Kit, some Unique Sheep Pima Petite to make myself a tank top, and a skein of DIC Smooshy to round out the box and get free shipping. For some reason two of the skeins of cotton look different but all four skeins are the same color. Crappy weather = crappy pictures. Ah, spring in Montana! The Knit Kit is bigger then I was expecting but I love it. It's in my knitting bag now.

This is the yarn I'll be using to make my cousins baby blanket.

She's due next month so I really need to get my butt in gear and get started on this blanket. The yarn is Plymouth Encore worsted and its actually a lighter green the the picture. I picked this up from WEBS on sale for like $3.75 per skein. I'm going to be using the Angle Wings Baby Blanket pattern from the May 09 issue of Creative Knitting. I was going to start it the other day but I keep getting distracted by my Glynis socks. I can't help it....how can you put down cashmere laced sock yarn. The stuff is more addictive then crack....not that I've used crack....lol.

Speaking of my Glynis Socks (ravelry).

Here's my progress so far. I've finished on sock and have cast on the second one. It's a very easy pattern but the beginning of the round shifts so I opted to knit them one at a time instead of two at a time to make things easier on myself. I'm lazy, I can't help it!

I also finished the lacy cardi for Kaity and she loves it. The pattern is called Bounce Lace Cardigan (ravelry). I don't have a picture yet since she grabbed it as soon as it was washed and it's now sitting in the bottom of her dirty clothes basket. I'll catch a picture of her in it after laundry day. I'm sure it'll be one of the first things she'll grab when laundry is done.

I finished the test knit for Woolgirl but it's going to be awhile yet before I can show that one to you guys. I'm also working on my swap pals project which I need to spend a good afternoon or two on to get it finished up. I'm planning to send the box out next payday if everything goes well.

I'm making pretty good progress on my "on the go" socks.

They now have heels. I'll going with a plain stockinette leg for these and will put a couple inches of ribbing at the top before I bind off. I'll be done with these in the next few weeks.

I think that sums up everything that's been going on around here. Not overly exciting but at least I'm getting some knitting done. Even with all the crappy weather we've been having my tomato plants are doing great! They spent over a week in the garage thanks to the heavy amounts of snow we got. The final total on the three day storm was 25.4 inches of snow. The snow is gone and has been replaced with rain. Dear Mother Nature, could we please dry out just a tad before you hit us with more rain? All the snow and rain has the falls here in town flowing really well. Wonder what the falls look like at Ryan Dam?

Happy Crafting!

Snow! Seriously!!

It's snowing here and not just a little bit but a whole lot. Yesterday we broke the record with 8.1 inches of snow and it still continued to snow after midnight so who knows what we are up to now. All I know it this is what my back yard looks like.
**Edited to add: Just found out that as of noon today we've received another 9.9 inches of snow. All total the records say we've received 19 inches of snow over the last 2 days.....sheesh!

It's insane! To make matters worse, it's still snowing and it's not the nice light & fluffy type of snow it's that wet, heavy snow. Kaity was almost 2 hours late for school because it took Shawn forever to clear the driveway and the sad part is he was using a friends snow blower. He's already stated that he'll be buying a snow blower! This is the second time this year we've had to use one to get our car out of our garage. December was a bad month for snow too. I'm so ready for the warm to come back. The only thing good about the snow is that it'll push back fire season. The wetter it stays the longer it staves off the fires.

Well enough about my crappy weather. On to the good stuff that you all are here for.

I received my second LOTR sock club shipment.

We received The Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes. The colorway is Prince of the Wood Elves. I've already knit up the pattern.

This is the first sock club sock yarn and pattern that I've used in awhile. One side of the sock has a lacy leaf pattern and the other side has a bow and arrow pattern. I just fell in love with the pattern and yarn color. I'm not a big tinsel sock yarn lover and normally avoid sock yarns that have tinsel in them but I just couldn't pass this one up. I'll be making this pattern again with some other socks yarn. I'm thinking maybe some Dream in Color Smooshy.

I received my last shipment of the Yarntini Happy Hour sock club which included my self striping bonus skein.

The final shipment was a semi sold called Honeytini and is gorgeous! I decided to go with the Appletini self striping. I'd love to get a few more skeins of self striping. I'm still on my self striping sock yarn kick.

Picked up a skein of Trekking Handart from TLE awhile back.

I needed to order some more soap so I threw in a skein of yarn to justify the shipping. It's a fairly mute color and not normally what I buy but I like it. Wonder if it's because the name of the colorway is Ireland. Who knows!

I also got a skein of Cascade Heritage Handpaint when I needed to order some needles a week or so later.

Gotta get something to go with the needles....right? I know it's not as if I really needed another skein of sock yarn but hey I'm on a sock kick again and have knit several pair so I need to replace the yarn I've used.

I also received some new books. I'll spare you all the pictures. I picked up: The Eclectic Sole, Toe up Techniques, Sock Innovations and Socks from the Toe Up.

I finished the April mid-month cloth for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL group.

It was a pretty simple cloth. I used Peaches & Creme, color Faded Denim.

I do have one sock project going right now but will start one for the Makin' Cookies KAL that starts 1 May.

These are just a simple pair of socks using some self striping Regia sock yarn I bought from someone who was destashing it on Ravelry. I'll probably use a simple ribbing on the leg after the heel turn. It's my "to go" project so I only work on them when I'm out and about.

I'm also working on a little lacy cardi for Kaity to wear over her shirts.

She has a cotton one that was bought for her almost two years ago by my mom. The poor kiddo is growing out of it so she needs a new one. I'm using a acrylic yarn for this one for easy washability but will probably make her another one for winter wear later this year.

I'm also working on a project for my TLE swap pal but for obvious reason I can't post about it until she's received her box. I should be getting a new test knit from Woolgirl in the next day or two also. It's for one of the club packages so it'll be awhile before I can post that one. I think I pretty much covered everything.

Happy Crafting!

Fasten Your Seatbelts.....

we're in for a long trip post. Go grab your favorite beverage and I'd grab a snack if you're starting to get hungry because this is going to be a long post. I've got my trusty Mac and a ice cold diet cherry pepsi so I think I'm all set for the post. Now to figure out where to begin.

For starters, we found out that the "we're no longer picking up plastics for recycling" was a misquote so I'm very happy. They are still picking up plastics but they are asking us to separate the #1 & #2 plastics into separate bags. No biggie I can do that! I'd be much happier if they picked up some of the other numbered plastics too but beggars can't be choosy so we take what we can get.

On another note, I'm having second thoughts about selling my wheel. Frankly I think trying to sell it right now isn't going to be a good decision. Everyone is buckling down on their spending and cash isn't as readily available. This isn't the reason I've decided to hold off on selling it though. I'm feeling like I didn't give it my "all" and didn't give spinning a chance. So I'm setting at least 15-20 minutes every afternoon for spinning. This will start this Monday (9 March). If by later this summer I haven't found a love for spinning, I will find my Precious a new home.

On a second note, Kaity is taking piano lessons now and is taking to it like a duck to water. She didn't feel like playing baseball so she asked if she could take piano lesson we said sure and she has done really well. She's actually sticking with the practicing every day too. I'm a proud Mama.We even managed to snag a full size Yamaha keyboard from ShopKo for like $79. It retailed everywhere else for almost $200. Don't have a clue why ShopKo had them marked down. Their loss is our gain.

I finished some dishcloths for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL. I'm trying to knit all the cloths for the whole year.

For the 16 Feb KAL there was the Circle Cloth (ravelry)(non ravelry).

You may remember that I knit this the first time in two colors and ended up cutting the dishcloth short because I got sick of the color changing. This time I used only one color and I have to say I enjoyed knitting it a lot more. It does make a very thick squishy cloth. I bet that this would make a great pattern for knit bathmat....hmmmm, must think about that for a few. I might try it.

For the 1 Mar KAL there was the Pot O' Gold Dishcloth (ravelry)(non ravelry).

Cute pattern. I used yellow instead of gold since I had in my stash and I think Shawn would kill me if I bought anymore cotton yarn. I have at least a metric ton. Some of it is from my pure lack of self control. I can't walk past the stuff at Michaels, Joanns or Walmart without through a few skeins in the cart. I can partially blame the enabling of Sue too. ;~)

What else have I been working on? Oh, I finished my sisters scarf a day or so after posting about the progress here on the blog. The Malabrigo was so yummy I couldn't put it down!

It's already happily keeping her neck warm although I don't think it's as cold in Idaho as it's getting here. The yarn is Malabrigo worsted, Oceanos and the pattern is My So Called Scarf (ravelry)(non ravelry).

I'm making great progress on my Baudelaire socks (raverly)(non ravelry).

I'm knitting these for the Makin' Cookies KAL (it's a ravelry link). The heels are turned but I still have several repeats before I can knit the ribbing and bind off. I'm confident that I'll be done with these before the end of March. I'm thinking about increasing the stitches to make sure the legs are big enough. I'm afraid they might turn out to tight. Guess I should try them on to see.

Since I finished my Stripey stripey socks I needed a new on the go project so I started another pair of socks.

Please meet my newest project, Rainbow Toe Ups. Their just a very basic toe up sock using Regia Bamboo, color 1062 that I purchase from the LYS here in town. I'm knitting a stockinette foot, short row heel and I'll probably use k3, p2 ribbing on the leg. I'm actually about 2 inches from starting the heels now. Plain socks work up so quickly.

Lets see, what else.....give me a minute to back track through my photos. Oh, here we go....Kaity's Silly Socks.

Every year the school does holds a sock hop after school with a Dr. Seuss theme. The kids are encouraged to wear silly socks so Kaity and I threw these together. Well actually I threw them together she just came up with the idea. She thought it would be silly if her socks wore socks. I knit 4 mini sock and attached one to each side of a pair of commercial socks and then knit a few rows with some fun fur....shudder! I hate fun fur....see I told you I loved my kids. ;~)

These are a couple of the socks I knit for Woolgirl here recently.

They are samples of a new cotton sock yarn she's getting in by Kollage. It's called Luscious. The rusty colored sock is Mona (ravelry)(non ravelry) and the peach one is a basic cuff down sock with a picot edge, k2, p2 ribbing and a slip stitch heel. I really enjoyed knitting with this sock yarn. I was afraid that the cotton would bother my hands but it didn't. The yarn doesn't feel very springy when you are holding the skein but it has some very nice bounce once it's knit up. I had problems with it being splitty and coming untwisted when working the cast on but after a few rows knit I didn't have any problems at all. I'll be buying some to make summer socks for the kiddo and I. I really miss my handknit socks in the summer so this will be nice to have to make some I can wear.

Alrighty! I finally made it through the WIPs and FOs. Now on to the goodies I've obtained since the last post. I destashed some yarn I wasn't using so of course I needed to replace said yarn with new yarn right. Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

First up is the second installment of the Yarntini Happy Hour Sock Club.

It's called Blackberry Kiss and is just as yummy as the first shipment. I have one more shipment coming later this month with my bonus skein of self striping Appletini.

Some Crystal Palace Panda Silk.

I picked this up from a Ravelry destash. I'm not sure what I'm going to make with this. I may go ahead and knit it into socks. Who knows!

Some Regia Kaffe Fassett sock yarn, color #4453.

I picked this one up from another Ravelry destash. I've been wanting this color but kept putting off buying it. It was reasonably priced so I picked it up. Plus I'm still going through a self striping sock yarn obsession.

Next up, I finally snagged some Sweetgeorgia sock yarn.

This is the superwash sport and the color is Berry. The exchange rates were in my favor and I had money burning a hole in my PayPal account. She had some very tempting colors.

Some Cascade Heritage Handpainted sock yarn.

I picked this up from 2 Old Divas ebay site. It was on sale for $10 so I picked it up. I'm a sucker for sales. The colorway is Cherry Berry. I know I know, I need more sock yarn like I need another hole in my head.

The piece de resistance, Zen Yarn Garden Cashmere DK.

The colorway is called Truffle. This is for me and only me. It's soon to become a yummy cowl. I can't think of anything better to keep me warm then a yummy cashmere cowl. Now if only I could afford a whole cashmere sweater.

Zeus really enjoyed the sun we had the other day.

This happens to be one content little doggie. If there's sun shining you can bet you'll find him soaking up the warmth. I don't blame him during the winter the sun tends to disappear a lot. We're back to snow, cold and cloudy here. Bree and I enjoyed the morning sun shinning through the living room window too.

Our living room Arctic Rec Room (well it's not really the living room but it's the room we use as the living room) has huge windows on one wall. It's actually several smaller windows put together but all total they are like 7 ft wide...needless to say our living room is almost like a sunroom.

I'm done! Finally!! I just finished up my Woolgirl test knit today so that will be on it's way to her very soon. I have a new test knit coming in from Madelinetosh soon. When I have enough progress I'll share a little with you. I'm hoping to have my Baudelaire socks finished soon so I can pick up my cable lace socks again. They got tossed to the side for the Bauds.

Happy Crafting!

Wow! Time Flies....

when you have sick kids and a house that has gone to pot while taking care of them. Not to say that Shawn doesn't do his part but he works 10hrs a day (sometimes more) so I can only expect him to help so much. I've been playing catch up and haven't had the time or inclination to post out here on the blog. I have been Plurking more so if you're on Plurk let me know and I can add you as a friend. Here's the link to my Plurk page. It's a lot easier to send out a quick plurk then to sit down for a blog post. Both girls are fine now although Bree didn't get as sick as Kaity did....no big surprise there. I'm been feeling run down and yuck so I think I'm trying to get what they had.

It doesn't help that this has been keeping me distracted, my new LG Voyager Titanium came in the other day.

I was finally eligible for an upgrade. Well actually I still had almost two months to go but the fab people at Verizon were kind enough to waive it and let me get the phone. Out of the 3 or 4 different cell phone companies we've used over the years Verizon has to have some of the best customer service. Which in this day and age is hard to find. Course that's a whole "customer service rant" blog post all in itself. Back to the blog post at hand.

Needless to say after this long of an absence from the blog I have a lot to post about. I actually had to pull up the post to see just exactly what I had blogged about.

First up is Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock, color: Vera.

This was a ravelry trade with Somebunnyslove. Gotta love Ravelry.

Next is the first installment of the Yarntini Happy Hour Sock Club.

The colorway is Mint Chocolatini (variegated sock). The picture doesn't do the colors justice. There was no sun for several days so I had to make do. I haven't decided what I want to make with it so it's marinating in my stash right now. I will be getting a bonus skein of self striping in the Appletini colorway in March with my final shipment. I'm on a self striping yarn kick right now.

My 6th shipment from the 7 Deadly S(p)ins club came in.

We got a beaded fingerless mitt pattern by Sivia Harding, The Unique Sheep House Blend (silk, alpaca, merino blend) colorway is Envy, matching beads, pen, crochet hook, and goats milk lotion. The House Blend yarn is very pettable. I'm contemplating making something for myself with it, maybe a cowl?

Some more yarnie goodness.

I finally managed to catch a Twisted Fiber Art update. I went out to the site to check out some info and low and behold I found an update in progress. I decided to check it out and there is was, my holy grail of yarns, Arial in the colorway Warlock. For once I had money in my PayPal account. The pink skein is a some Lion Brand sock-ease that I bought from a Ravelry destash. I figured the colors were right up Kaitys alley.

Now on to some knitting, first is one complete Cabley Lace sock.

The pattern is Karen's Socks (Ravelry)(non Ravelry). It's a great pattern. I've made a few mods, I'm knitting mine toe up with a short row heel. I've found myself knitting more and more socks toe up. I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock that I won from Knittech's blog contest awhile back. I had originally picked out a beaded sock pattern but it didn't work out. The sock turned out to small. I liked the pattern but I will have to use a slightly thicker sock yarn for it then LL.

Another project I'm working on is the Inner Truth Scarf (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

This one is for a KAL being sponsored by Crystal Palace Yarns. They sent me the yarn for free and I'm going to knit the scarf in the pattern and then send it back to CPY to have it photoed. They're going to send it back to me when they're done. It sounded like fun so I decided to join in. The yarn is CPY Bunny Hop which is extremely soft and nice to work with. The colorway is Strawberry-Lime, #0432. I wasn't sure how well the cables would show up in the variegated yarn but they seem to be plenty strong enough that they aren't being hidden.

I got another haircut.

This one is a tad shorter then the last one and I like it a lot more. Note to self: trying to take a pic of yourself could lend to chubby looking cheeks. Sheesh. You'd never guess from that pic that I've lost almost 10 pounds. 8.5 pounds to be exact. I'm really missing bread right now but we'll soon be adding whole wheat & whole grain bread back here in the next few weeks.

Wow....ok I think that sums it up for now. That was a long post. I have a few goodies that should be in here in the next day or two and I should have some more progress to show in my next update.

Happy Crafting!

It Never Lasts!

The warm up in the weather was just to good to be true. Actually it was unseasonably warm here with some days hitting into the mid 60's (Fahrenheit that is). That all changed this morning. When Kaity left for school it was 42F outside and in less then 2 hours the temp was registering in the 20s. Sheesh! It appears as if we are going back to the subzero temps again. Anyone wanna remind me why we didn't take those orders to Las Vegas? Their temps are in the 60's for the next 5 days. Oh, I remember now, it was the crime, crowds, traffic, etc. OK maybe I'll keep dealing with the cold.

For those of you wondering, my root canal went great with very little pain afterward. The pain was from the 500 million times I was stuck with the Novocaine needle. Ok, ok, it was more like 6 or so and the dentist was really nice. I still need to get my crown put on but my dentist couldn't get me in until the beginning of next month. I may still have to have one more root canal on a smaller tooth but at least now I know what to expect.

I have done a wee bit of knitting since my last post.

First up is my hat. At least my head will be warm now that the temps are dropping.

My goofy assistant helped model the hat although my head is bigger then hers so the hats a tad to big. The pattern is the Classic World War II Watch Cap (Ravelry)(non Ravelry). The yarn is Tosh worsted and it took about 3/4 of a skein.

Don't you just love those decreases! I still have about 1 full skein and maybe a total of about 1/2 a skein left over between the cowl and the hat. I don't have any plans as of yet for the last skein but I was thinking maybe a nice pair of boot socks. I'm going to let it marinate in my stash for a wee bit.

Dishcloth #2 for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL.

The picture isn't all that great but that's what you get for trying to take a picture when the natural light stinks. There will be a total of 24 cloths by the end of the year. The group knits two cloths each month. It's about the only KAL I can actually stick with. Most are to long and lose my attention quickly.

The stripey-stripey socks are making progress.

They now have heels. I have no idea how long I'll make the cuffs on this pair. I'll knit until I'm tired of them and then start a new pair. I only work on these when I'm in the car which is probably why I haven't gotten tired of them yet.

I've started Shawn's cabled hoodie but I haven't made a whole lot of progress on it. 240+ stitches in garter stitch in the round is slow going. Plus I've set it aside to finish up the test knit I was working on. I'll pick it back up in the next few days.

That pretty much sums up everything here. It's been a little dull. I think it has to do with the diet Shawn and I are on. Basically the first 9 days are a vegetarian type diet and then you slowly add meats and other things back into your diet. There are no really "no-nos" with this diet after you finish all the phases, what it's teaching you is to make proper choices like instead of grabbing a bag of chips for a snack get a piece of fruit or a yogurt and that exercising is important. Not to mention helping you drop the weight. This diet has made me realize a few things: (a) I am not cut out to be a vegetarian. I Like Meat!!! I really really miss meat!!!, (b) I can live without Starbucks but don't want to, and (c) I really miss chocolate but can live without (shock, gasp, I know who would have thought it). 4 More days and I get a reward of a Grande Caramel Frapp from Sbux. I will succeed! I shall be like The Little Engine That Could, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

It appears that we are trying to come down with a head cold. Kaity started it with a stuffed nose and a sore throat and has moved on to a cough. Bree and I are starting to feel yuck too. I'll be back soon with another post. Hopefully I'll have more to update on the hoodie and I know I have some club packages coming in so the post will probably be full of goodies.

Happy Crafting!

It's A Heat Wave

Wow things have really warmed up here. Mid 40's may sound cool to some people but to me it sounds like a heat wave after the bitter cold we had last month. I am going to try to enjoy the warmth while it lasts. You never know when the cold and snow will be back, not that the snow is completely gone. It's piled up so high in some spots (from snowplows, blowers and shoveling) that I swear it'll be there till July. There are some seriously huge mounds of snow out there in some of the parking lots.

We managed to get the root canal issue straightened up and it looks like everything is going to be alright and it's scheduled for this Friday. I was a little worried I was going to have to do the unthinkable and put a skein or two of Wollmeise out on eBay. Do you know that Wollmeise generally goes for around $100 a skein....totally crazy, I know! I don't know about you but I'm not going to pay that much for wool/nylon sock yarn no matter how pretty it is. For $100 it better be special yarn like qiviet. Shoot I wouldn't pay the $50 for a skein of Sweet Georgia yarn (this was the lowest price I found it for after she stopped dyeing yarn) even though I really wanted to try it. I still haven't gotten any of that come to think of it. Oh well! Anyway, I got side tracked, back to what I was saying: thankfully the Wollmeise is safe, the insurance is going to pay for 60%, and we have enough to cover our portion so life is good. Wish me luck!

I have been doing a little knitting. As if there is ever a day when I don't knit! Although I haven't finished any super exciting things.

The first dishcloth of 2009 for Monthly Dishcloth KAL.

 

I'm trying to knit every cloth this year. It's a twice a month KAL with a small handful of rows each day so it shouldn't be to hard.

My socks are making good progress.

 

They are just a basic toe up sock. I've found that casting on two at time socks is much less fiddly when you go toe up. The yarn is Red Hearts sock yarn Heart & Sole.

I finished my Urban Necessity Gloves (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

 

I really like this glove pattern. It's a quick knit and the fingers were really easy. They're a tad fiddly to work on 6 inch dpns but not impossible. Kinda makes me wish I would have bought the short little glove dpns I saw when I first started knitting. I think they were about 4 inches long. My gauge is a little tighter then the pattern states instead of the 21sts per 4 inches I'm knitting them at 24sts per 4 inches but even with the gauge issues I'm still only knitting the Medium and it's turned out perfect.

I still haven't started the swatches for Shawn's hoodie but I have plans to get those started soon, which is why I added it to my Ravelry projects page. I've also started a hat for Kaity with the yarn from the hat I frogged. The pattern was just way to slow and tedious. Kaity wants a new hat and with the way I was going I would have been lucky to finish for next winter. So I'm going to knit a watch cap for her using both yarns. I'll post a pic when I have more to show.

I'm also working on a test knit for Woolgirl but obviously I can't show that so you'll have to settle for my one and only pitiful yarn acquisition.

 

It's a skein of Opal Brasil, color 5001. I've been wanting this one for quite some time and I found someone destashing on Ravelry before I went to the dentist and found out about my tooth issues. Luckily for me I still have my 7 Deadly S(p)ins club and Yarntini coming in this month, my first Lord of the Rings sock club and Yarntini next month and my final Deadly S(p)ins shipment and Yarntini in March. I'm in no fear of running out of yarn. Thank goodness for the stash. :~)

I've decided to do more charity knitting/crocheting this year. I've picked to knit/crochet Snuggles for my local animal shelter and I want to help a local animal adoption program raise money by making things they can sell. They don't have a shelter, all animals stay in a foster home until they are adopted. They get donated blankies, animal toys, bandannas, and I even seen some potholders that they sell. It doesn't have to be pet related it just needs to be something that will likely sell. They use this money for medical treatment for the animals. The Snuggles aren't an issue. I have plenty of patterns to pick from and tons of acrylic in my stash and a local wally world to acquire more if I run out. My issue right now is trying to decided what to make that the animal adoption program can sell. I was thinking maybe some dishrags. Does anyone have any ideas?

Happy Crafting!