Knittin' and Lovin' It

Oh the Fun!

I figured that a post is way overdue. Not that it's really a shock that it's be awhile since my last post. I haven't done a green post in quite some time either but never fear not we are still working on becoming more earth friendly. The recycling is still going strong and we try to help out anyway that we can. I have tried the fabric softener and colorsafe beach by 7th Generation and loved them so they've been added to my laundry regimen. I didn't care for the vinegar as a fabric softener. It worked OK but not as well a commercial liquid fabric softener. The 7th Generation fabric softener is much more comparable with other fabric softeners on the market.

We are also working on becoming a more healthier family. We are trying to cut some of the red meat out of our diet and increasing our exercise to become more healthy and to lose weight. We've swapped out ground beef for ground turkey. It tastes great and has less fat in it. We are trying to eat more vegetarian meals too although you'll never see us give up meat we are always willing to try new things. Thanks to Knit-R-Done I have some great Veggie meal ideas to try on my family. We've also discovered some of the veggie products from Morning Star Farm. Their website has some recipes I'd like to try too.

I don't think I mentioned that we finally got a Wii. We also bought Wii Fit and love it. It makes exercise a lot more fun. We normally play a few games together on the weekend as a family. Our favorite is bowling in the Wii Sports game. We rented Mario Cart for this weekend and I can definitely see buying that one soon. We never laughed so much watching Kaity try to drive the cart. She had a case of the giggles the whole time we were playing. So worth the money!

Now on to the knitting since this is after all a knitting blog. It's going to be another long post so if you want to go grab a snack and something to drink go for it. I'll be here when you get back, promise! Alright, are you ready? OK, here we go.

I knit a scarf for the Special Olympics Scarf Project.

Click on the link above and it will take you to the page with all the details. You have to use to specific colors of Red Heart Classic yarn which I will openly admit is not my most favorite yarn on the face of the planet but it's for a great cause so I dealt with it. I have enough yarn to make another scarf so I probably will. The pattern is Meandering Stripes (Ravelry) from the book Knitting New Scarves. I'll most likely make this one again with wooly type yarn. Bet it would be yummy in Malabrigo. Hmmmmmm, must go buy to color coordinating skeins.

I started a new pair of socks for Kaity.

These are in my "to go" knitting bag. I take them when we are going to be in the car or if I have a doc/dentist appointment. I haven't been anywhere so there hasn't been much progress on these socks. I'm using Knit Picks Essential sock yarn, colorway Fruit Punch. It never fails, if you don't take something with you to a doc/dentist appointment you will inevitably be stuck there with nothing to do for 45 minutes because the doc/dentist is running behind. I made the mistake of not taking my knitting when I went to pick up meds from the pharmacy one day. I figured on running in and getting out in less then 10 minutes. I ended up waiting for almost an hour before someone finally got my prescription filled. It took them an hour to slap a label on a box, print up the info sheet, throw it in the bag and check my ID. Yup, gotta love military pharmacies. Oh well, at least I don't have to pay a copay when I use them.

Moms Errant (Ravelry) socks now have heels.

These have been put aside because I keep casting on other small projects. I hope to have them done and in the mail before the end of the month. A lot of that is going to depend on how much longer it takes me to finish up the current test knit I'm working on.

Kaity's coat is getting close to being done.

Please ignore the rag muffin look. I took the picture right after she got out of the shower and hadn't gotten a chance to brush her hair. I have to attach the hood and work the icord on the body. We've decided that we don't like the pockets and will leave them off since Kaity doesn't use them anyway. She says that she has mittens to keep her hands warm. Guess I'll use the leftover yarn to make her some thrummed mittens. I still need to find some cute buttons too.

A teaser.

This is the current project I'm working on for Madelinetosh. It's Tosh Worsted and that's about all I can tell you guys at the moment. I will post about it when I get the go ahead.

I received some yarny goodness in the mail the other day.

TLE was having a Halloween sale so I picked up a few things. I bought Cassidy by ChicKnits. I haven't decided what yarn I want to use to make this one but I've been thinking about splurging on myself so I may pick up some DIC Classy or Tosh Worsted, maybe some Malabrigo if it isn't to thick. I need to look at the pattern details a little better. I also picked up some Noro Silk Garden Sock and some Araucania Aysen. I only picked up one skein of Aysen since I can't really see this yarn being used for socks. I'm thinking about a pair of mittens or fingerless mitts. I haven't decided which one yet.

Knit some coffee cup cozies.

 

I needed something to replace the cardboard thingies that they use on the to go cups from Starbucks. I'm now totally hooked on the Peppermint Mocha Twists....yummmmmy! Anyways back to the post, I hate the cardboard thingies and wanted something better. The green/brown/white one is yarn from a kit I purchase from Woolgirl (the yarn is dyed by The Unique Sheep)((the kit can be found here)) and the purple ones are made from leftover Cascade 220. The pattern that came with the kit wouldn't work for me because of my gauge. I got 5sts per inch instead of the 4sts the pattern called for so I threw together my own pattern that has a cable on both sides. I'm going to be offering this pattern up as a freebie here on the blog. I hope to have the pattern posted here within the week. I'll post about it when it's up. There is enough yarn left over from my kit to make a second cozy.

Started a dishcloth.

It's the Circle Cloth (Ravelry)(non Ravelry). It's pretty cool and I love how the colors are working together. The only drawback is weaving in all the ends but it's not enough of a drawback to keep me from making it.

Started a cowl for Kaity.

She had her hair cut into a cute bob but now her neck is exposed and I think this is going to work better for her then her scarves. The pattern is Darkside Cowl (Ravelry). I'm using Plymouth Galway Paint which matches her mittens. After this I'll make her a hat to go with the cowl and mittens.

I got my final TLE Sock Club Shipment in today. I really love this one. You can see a picture and description out in my flickr photostream. I don't want to post and spoil it for anyone. I'll post it out in Ravelry some time next week. As much as I loved this club I will not be throwing my name into the lottery next year. I'm taking a break. I have tons of sock yarn and I already signed up for The Lord of the Rings sock club with The Unique Sheep. Plus this leaves one less name for competition so hopefully my slot will go to someone who didn't make it in last year.

OK, I think I got everything in on this post. I'll be back soon to show you a few of the test knits I've done for Woolgirl. It's safe to post about them so post I will. I also have a skein of Malabrigo sock and a pattern coming in. It should have been here today but for some reason it decided to take a trip to Boise, ID first. Hopefully it will be here on Monday since Tuesday is a no mail holiday (Veteran's Day) here in the US.

Happy Crafting!

Snow's Not Right!

Anyone else agree with me when I say "there shouldn't be snow on the ground in June!"

It snowed last night. I'm not sure what the official total is but there was about 2 inches in my yard around 6am. As you can see in the pic, it's starting to melt and will probably be gone before the end of the day. We're suppose to get more rain later this afternoon and the possibility of snow again tonight. Sheesh! Life is never dull here in Montana. To top it all off we lost power some time last night/early this morning and when the power came back on at the butt crack of dawn it scared the crap out of all of us. When our power comes back on it sets off all the smoke detectors in the house. We have one in almost every room and they are all wired together. It's a lot of racket when they go off. The only one who wasn't woke up was Bree. How she slept through that I'll never know!

I'm so glad I was watching the weather or my poor babies would have been snowed on and more then likely killed.

These are our two tomato plants. They're in the garage right now where it's nice and warm. It seems that the military got something right with the garages in these houses. Even in the coldest part of winter our garage never dropped below 45-50 F.

As you can see one of the tomato plants has some flowers on it. There are several more on there now. I took this pic about a week ago and it looks like the second plant is going to have a few flowers soon.

My June Art Walk Sock Club (a Zen Yarn Garden Club) came in the other day. Here's the link since there are some that probably haven't gotten theirs yet. The colors are gorgeous! Now I need to find a pattern to show off the colors.

Shawn brought home a gift card and coffee cup for my birthday.

It didn't take me long to spend the money. I picked up Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning. It looks to be a good book and I'll soon be trying my hand at more spinning.

I've started a new dishrag.

This one is the Woven Basket Stitch Dishcloth. The pattern is easy enough to do but it's kinda fiddly and you have to use a bigger needle then you'd normally use for dishcloths because the pattern is tight. I'm using US8's instead of the US 6 & 7's I normally use. I added a garter stitch border because I'm not big on dishcloths without some kind of border. I'm crazy, I know. Yarn is Peaches & Creme Fiesta Ombre.

I've also made good progress on Kaity's skirt.

**Edited: Thanks KT for the non Ravelry link for your skirtsicle pattern.

I'm using the Skirtsicle (Rav Link)(non Rav link) pattern. The pattern use to be available through MagKnits but since MagKnits has died a very ungraceful death the designer edited the pattern and is now offering it for sale. I'm using Peaches & Creme Pink Lemonad

I have one Woolgirl test knit completed and in the mail and I'm about halfway done with the second test knit for her. I won't be able to show either of these for awhile since they are for future club/kit shipments. The third test knit is for Madelinetosh and it is on hold right now due to some pattern issues which are to be expected with a new pattern. When I get some better weather I'll give you all a teaser of this third test knit.

Lotta Yarn, Not Much Knitting!

There hasn't been a whole lot of knitting going on, though there seems to be a lot of stuff coming in. That's shouldn't be shocking to anyone though.

The only knitting I've done since my last post.


I started a bag. The pattern is Everlasting Bagstopper from Summer 07 Knitty. I'm making a few mods. I've change the top of the bag so I can knit the straps instead of sewing on straps and I think I'm going to leave off the cinch strap. I'm using a cone of Peaches & Creme, color Flair.

Now on to the acquisitions! First up is some SWTC Twize that I purchased from WEBS.


It was on sale. I haven't 100% decided on a pattern but most likely it will become a dress for Bree.

Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock, color Poppy.


I won this from Knittech's blog contest! I think I may have just the pattern for this.

Oh look, cute toddler.


Thought you might need distraction from the yarn. Did it work?

My order from Woolgirl.


I missed out on the Yarntini fingering weight yarn but there was still some sports weight left. The Mimosa was calling my name. The colors remind me of the Popsicles I use to eat when I was a kid. Who am I kidding, I still eat them. As always, Jen include some goodies, a Soak sample and the most yummiest smelling bath salts.

My Knit Picks order came in too.


It's just a few skeins of Comfy to swatch and test. I wanted to see how it knit up, washed, etc. What better way then to knit a bunch of swatches. Fun, fun, fun.

I promise this is all of the yarn torture for awhile. I have to pay for my sock/yarn clubs this month so that kills most of my yarn budget. The only thing I'm ordering this payday is some Cascade 220 for Shawn's sweater and it's going  to be a boring Charcoal Grey. I tried to talk him into pink and purple but he said no way. I am thrilled that he picked a yummy cabley sweater though.

My order from Dog Lover's Yarn is still floating in the mail but I'm not worried since it's coming in from Canada. I know that mail generally takes a little longer when it has to go through customs.

I just got an email from Hide and Sheep stating that they were mailing out my stitch markers. I didn't realize that they had opened up their own website in conjunction with their etsy site until a few days ago. Your items are customizable when you purchase from their website whereas the stuff on etsy is already pre-made so you get what is listed. They don't seem to be listing as much stuff on Etsy. I can't say enough good things about their stuff.

The One Where.....

Trish actually has an FO to report. I finished my moms socks and I managed to get a very nice photo.

Isn't it amazing what happens when you brave the sunshine and take your photos outdoors. You can actually see the cables in the close up shot. I need to get a new table set for our porch/patio whatever you want to call it. The coolers will have to do for now. The good news is we are getting two more trees in our backyard some time between now and late May. Everyone in my housing area is getting 2-3 trees. They are staggering them around so that we will have a bit of privacy in our backyard. Right now it is so open and I hate it.

The Lang Jawoll yarn isn't too bad to work with. I didn't have any major problems with splitting. I think the yarn split maybe once or twice but that was from me not paying attention. It won't replace my favorite basic yarns like Trekking, Regia, Berroco Sox or Opal but it's a nice addition since it comes in a ton of different colors and is only $7 per 50 gram skein. The only thing I don't understand is the acrylic. Why put it in the yarn since it's such a small amount (7% acrylic). I'm not yarn snobbing here, I'm truly curious if there was a reason for it since it has nylon in it and the wool is superwash.

So far this year I've knit 9 pair of adult socks and 6 pair of baby/toddler/child socks. Not to bad considering it's only mid-April. I think I have another sock project ready to go involving some medium weight Socks that Rock, color Tidepool and this pattern. I'll start them this evening after the girls are in bed.

Here's what I bought from Woolgirl's Anniversary Sale.


Gypsy Girl Creations Sport weight: Color Spring Garden, Lobster Pot Socks pattern, and a pattern to make a cute hat/mitten set.

I bought some SWTC Twize from WEBS. I went with color 322 to make a dress for Bree. I have a pattern in mind but need to swatch to see if it will work. I picked up 4 skeins for a total of 484 yard. I shouldn't have any problems finding a pattern if the one I have in mind doesn't work. The box from WEBS and the skeins from Knit Picks have shipped. It looks like they are both going to be here some time next week. I also bought this yummy skein of yarn from Dog Lover's Yarn which is on it's way to me as I type. Will someone please go buy Raspberry Ice, Motherlode, and Butterscotch because they are tempting me.

I'll leave you all with a pic of Bree with her brand new baby doll.


Happy Knitting!

Forest Canopy, She is a Blockin'

This is photos of The Forest Canopy Shawl that I finished while we were staying in TLF.

I think it came out great. There was one small error that I found when I blocked the shawl.

There it is on the right side column of yarn overs....one yarn over went AWOL. Don't ask me how in the world I ended up missing a yarn over. It appears as if it got lost some how. Either way it's the only mistake and I love, love, love the shawl. It's so warm even though it is so holey.

I've been fairly busy these past few days. I'll have more updates and hopefully some good shots of the shawl by the end of the weekend.

On payday I'm finally going to order some of the worsted weight Malabrigo that everyone's been telling me I must try. I getting this color to make a scarf and hat for myself. I'm making the Koolhaas out of Interweave Knits Holiday 07 issue, pg 32.....though I know most of you have the mag and know exactly what I'm talking about. Who else out there total drools over Jared's designs (ok and a wee bit over Jared too)? I haven't decided on a scarf yet.  I may just go with a simple ribbing. Shoot I may go with something cabley. I'm craving cables and green yarn.

Blogged with Flock

New Knitting Pattern

I somewhat blocked and took photos of the Granite Dishcloth.



I think they came out fine. If you want the pattern it's in the free pattern section here on the blog.

I finished the updated Playground Mitten last night watching Transformers...yes, Shawn bought the Target exclusive transforming DVD case.

Right now the mitt is being blocked. I think I solved the curling issue. It occurred to me that even with a looser bind off that stockinette will probably still curl. I changed that small portion of the mitt to k1, p1 ribbing for a few rows before the bind off and voila no curling. Ain't I smart one!

October's installment of the Booty Club by Yarn Pirate.....Killer Bees and yes it really is that bright in person.....I love it!

I'm sure that it's safe to post this. I've seen posts all over blogland now. I've yet to figure out how to put up a spoiler alert. If someone knows how to do it could you please pass on the knowledge to me....pretty please!

This time around we received size US1 and US2 needles....they are pink! They say that they are 24" circs but they are much longer then that. I think the cable is 24" not including the needle length. I'll be able to Magic Loop with them.

If everything goes right I should be able to block my Forest Canopy Shawl on Monday. The poor things been done for weeks but I haven't had the time or resources to block it. So hopefully I'll have some updated pics by the end of the week. No promises because the weather changes frequently. Like today, we had sun this morning and it's been gorgeous up until about 10 minutes ago when it started getting overcast.

Once again I'm off to go feed the masses. I've given up on talking them out of eating, so I'm off to cook them chicken. Happy Knitting Everyone!

Summer of Socks 2007

I've been searching far and wide for a pattern that grabs my interest that will go with the sock yarn I have for the first pair of socks for the Summer of Socks KAL.  You wouldn't think that would be too difficult with the amount of sock yarn that I have.  It took me two nights of hem-hawing over what I wanted to do.  So I've decided on one of Momma Monkey's patterns, Elenore...see what they look like here and get the pattern here.  I'm going to be using this.  I'm using my one and only skein of STR.

Since no post is complete with out a pic:

Look she really does smile!

Patterns, Patterns Everywhere

I'm taking a break from my regularly scheduled knitting to show you all the cutie patterns I picked up last week.


The two Plymouth patterns were purchase from The Naked Sheep....great little place to find patterns.  They offer free shipping in the US on all orders, which is awesome in my book, I love the free shipping.  :~) 
The sundress pattern is for Kaity and the cardi pattern is for Bree.  Plus we just found out a few weeks ago that my cousin and hubby are expecting their first little one toward the end of the year....squee, two babies to knit for.  Damn I need to save up some money for more yarn.  Oh more yarn purchases.....Expand your stash, I'm stickin' with it.  Anyone use any of the Debbie Bliss yarns?  I know they are a tad pricey but are they worth the extra money?

These patterns were bought from an ebay seller Oregon Trail Yarn.  

This isn't my first purchase from her.  Go check her out.  She's an excellent seller and she has some great items at good prices.  I bought that little jumper patter on the end for Bree, which is 1T-4T so it'll be good for a bit.  The hoodie sweater in the middle will be good for both the girls because it runs from 2T clear through ages 10-12.  Then the pattern on the left hand side is for my hubby.  Yup I'm going to make my man a sweater.  Since I have a ring on my finger I don't have to worry about the sweater curse.  :~)   It's just a simple Henley but it has Shawn written all over it.  He doesn't quite get the $20-30 socks but he rolls with it.  I thought I'd make a sweater for him to show him how much I appreciate the fact that he puts up with my obsession.  He's been hinting about wanting a sweater so I'd better make him one.  :~)
I should be seeing the yarn I purchased for some of these things here this week too.   I bought the yarn for the sundress from Discontinued Name Brand Yarns.  I think I've seen them selling stuff out on ebay too but can't remember the seller name they go by.   They said my order shipped UPS so I should be seeing that soon.  The yarn was $1.99 a ball there instead of $4.99....can't beat that.  Plus they gave me a pattern free with each color of yarn I bought so I have 2 other patterns I wanted coming in.  :~)  I also bought some of the Cotlin yarn from Knit Picks.  I'm going to see how it feels and if it works and feels good I'm going to use it to make the little Jumper for Bree.  I'll share everything when it comes in. 
Well I'm outta here ya'll!  I'm back to my regularly scheduled knitting.