Knittin' and Lovin' It

No Snappy Titles Left

I think I've used up all my snappy titles. After several years of blogging I'm all tapped out. Actually I think maybe I just need a vacation. I keep saying my motivation is hanging out on a warm beach sipping mojitos and enjoying a good book so maybe I should join my motivation. I does sound like a great idea! Nothing better then your toes in the sand, reading a good book and sipping on a cold drink.

Not a whole lot going on here in the Luvs2knit household. Same junk just a different day. The base is undergoing a huge inspection so I've pretty much been stuck at home since Shawn is working late hours and weekends. If all goes well this weekend will be ours although they haven't announced if they'll get Presidents Day off or not. It's getting kinda boring sitting around the house and no I don't want to scrub the house from top to bottom just to keep the boredom at bay. Between you and me, I'd rather be bored....just sayin.

Let see if I can play a little catch up here. My mom now has her shawl and loves it to pieces. I've been working on a few test knits for Woolgirl and I have some yarn coming in to knit samples for Miss Babs for Stitches West.

Might as well get started on posting FO's and new goodies that I've received in the mail.

First up is the beaded socks (ravelry).

I ended up making these for my mom. The yarn is Huntington sock yarn from WEBS. It's very soft, super cheap, and I loved knitting with it. I see more of this yarn in the future.

Shawn's Iain cabled hoodie (ravelry)(you can find the pattern through various stores online)

The picture isn't all that great. We had a lot of days with little to no sunshine so an indoor photo was all I could get at the time. All I need to do now is knit the sleeves and hood. Shouldn't take much longer. 

I broke my no yarn till after we move rule to pick up a few skeins of yarn since my last post.

First up is JulieSpins MCN355 in the Ginger Cat and Emerald colorways.

I found two people on Ravelry who were destashing these colorways so I had to give them a new home. I can't get enough of this yarn. It's so squishy and soft plus JulieSpins colorways are gooooooorgeous!

My Ruby Slippers Oz Sock Club package came in. You can see it here if you want. This is one of the patterns I test knit for Woolgirl not that long ago.

Next up are two skeins of JulieSpins M420S which is her superwash merino sock yarn.

These were from her Unclub that she does out on her Ravelry group. The top color is called Golden Glow and the bottom is Beach Plum. I absolutely loooooove these colors. I'm using the yellow one right now to knit the Butterfly Garden Socks (ravelry)(non ravelry).

Then I picked up some Fearless Fibers Merino Cashmere Nylon sock yarn.

I like Fearless Fibers sock yarn so I wanted to give this MCN base a try. The color way is called Feel the Love and is absolutely gorgeous.

Skein of String Theory Caper sock that I picked up from The Loopy Ewe.

This is the Isle colorway. OK, I have to admit it appears I've got a merino/cashmere sock yarn addiction now.

I have in my possession a skein of the new Mountain Colors Crazyfoot sock yarn.

Mountain Colors was having a contest on their blog and I won along with I think 49 other people.....woot! The colorway is Wild Raspberry. As soon as I finish up my sample knits this will be hopping on the needles. I just need to figure out which pattern I want to use. 

Finally this yummy squishy yarn ended up on my doorstep.

It's Dream in Color Classy in the Deep Sea Flower colorway to knit Cassidy (Ravelry)(non Ravelry) for the TLE 2010 Q1 Sweater Challenge. Thankfully the challenge is going on till July so I have plenty of time to get it finished. This is my "woohoo we got our income tax refund reward".

I have a box full of goodies coming in from Woolgirl's "closing the shop" sale. She posted out on Ravelry that's she closing down the online/store portion of the business and is going to concentrate on kits and clubs. Everything is 35 percent off. I'm sadden to see her close the shop but it's for her health which is more important then yarn.

Now it's time to go wake sleeping beauty (who is snoring on the couch, quite loudly I might add) and go to bed. Course it's very possible that sleeping beauty won't wake up and will sleep on the couch for the night. I swear when Shawn falls asleep on the couch in the evening time it's almost impossible to get him to move.

Happy Crafting!

Little Fishies & A Contest

Contest Has Ended! A winner will be selected in the next day or two.

We're celebrating being debt free and I want to pass on the celebration to all my blogland friends. We made our final payment earlier this month so we are now free of debt. Yippy!

I'll go ahead and get the contest details out of the way now before finishing the rest of the post. I'm going to make this simple: Post about your favorite summertime activity.

I'll keep this contest open through the 12th of Aug. I'll close comments down when I end the contest and the winner will be announced on the 13th in a blog post. I will also email the winner. To qualify for the contest you must post your comment in this post only. I'm not going to hunt willy-nilly through out the blog so if you want to enter post here. I'll use a random number generator to determine the winner.

FYI: If you don't want to enter the contest but want to post a comment just let me know in the comment and I won't put your name down.

So you all are wondering what you win! I'm making it easy this time. The winner gets to decide which online shop they'd like to get a gift certificate too, ie WEBS, Amazon, TLE, Woolgirl, Sonny & Shear, your favorite etsy shop.....I think you get the point. The catch is it has to be one that is easy for me to purchase, preferably one that I can purchase online and have it shipped/emailed to you. If you live in the UK I'm not going to call your favorite LYS to buy a certificate unless of course you want to send me a calling card to pay for the call. Lets keep it simple. I'm doing this because it leaves the contest open for anyone who isn't in the US too. The monetary value of the certificate hasn't fully been determined but I can say that it will be at least $25 USD.

Now on to the regularly scheduled blog post.

Shawn was sent down to F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming for a few days so the girls and I have been hanging around the house. I think Zeus is missing Shawn the most. Poor dog keeps looking out the front window expecting Shawn to walk through the door at any minute.

Shawn's due to leave tomorrow morning so he should be back before the girls head to bed. He stated to me that picking Montana over Wyoming was a great choice. He said the housing there is horrible. Most of the housing here is new although some of the new housing is messed up because some moron decided to build them on swamp land. Hello idiots, draining the swap and filling it in with dirt is most likely going to backfire on you. When you build a house on land that was once swamp land chance are the land is going to sink and try to revert back to its swampiness and that's what's happening right now. My next door neighbor is one of the many people who are being moved out of houses that are sinking. Truth be told the only reason we picked Montana was because it kept use closer to the West coast where my family is without having to go broke living in California or dealing with all that Las Vegas, NV has to offer. Living in Las Vegas is enough to give me nightmares for a year. Going to Wyoming would have moved us even farther way so Montana won.

Now on to knitting and all that other good stuff you all came here for.

I'm totally addicted to knitting these little fishies (ravelry) (non ravelry).

I can't stop casting on even though I don't really have any real use for them. I've made three so far. They're to small for dishrags. Maybe I can use a little of that mesh stuff knit in with them to make scrubbies. Bree's been grabbing them from me as soon as I finish them so I have several little knitted fishies floating around the house. Well I guess since Bree likes them then they do have some value, plus they're cute.

I purchase these from Dawning Dreams Etsy shop.

A pretty jewel orifice hook for my spinning wheel and two cable needles. I absolute love the cable needles and contacted Dawn who was fabulous and made me a set of mini cable needles for knitting on smaller things like socks. Here's the mini needles.....aren't they cute!

I'm not big on cabling without a needle and truth be known I can knit cables twice as fast with a cable needle then without one. The orifice hook is a tad to thick for my wheel so it's become a pretty decoration in with my knitting tools and crochet hooks.

I also acquired some yummy Yarn Love fiber from Sonny & Shear. I don't know why I've never bought from them before but I was pleased....great selection and fast shipping. They've got a pretty nice selection of fibers from various dyers not to mention all the different sock yarns.

First up is Yarn Love Marianne.

The color is Cottage Garden and it's superwash merino.....mmmmmm, merino is so soft.

Then there's Yarn Love Scarlett O'Hara.

The color is Blackberry Jam and it's a superwash wool/bamboo/nylon blend.

I picked up the yarn to start a shawl for my mom.

It's Knit Picks Gloss Lace and the colorway is Port.

Then I started my moms shawl after I finished up a sample knit.

This is the beginning of the Whispering Pines Shawl (ravelry)(non ravelry) by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. I'd have to say that she has some of the most gorgeous lace patterns around. Not to mention well written.

I finished my moms Loopified socks.

It's the Halema uma u Socks (ravelry) that came in the 2008 TLE Anniversary kit. As far as I can tell this pattern hasn't been released for sale to the general public yet. The yarn used was also part of the kit and is Handmaiden Casbah, colorway Loopified. This yarn is yummy and I think after the weather cools down my mom is going to love them.

I also received some yummy BFL that I purchased from Perchance to Spin which is Perchance to Knits shop for all things spinning related.

It's 8 ounces of soft BFL in a pretty light green colorway called New Leaf Green. I really love spinning BFL.

I also bought some lovely orifice hooks for my wheel.

These work beautifully with my Ashford Traveller. Fiber Jewels was having a get two for the price of one deal that I couldn't pass up. I don't really have a need for two hooks since I only have one wheel but hey they were buy one get one free.

Project & notions bag made specially for me.

I swapped a skein of yarn for the project and notions bag. The project bag is the perfect size for socks and it has a cool little pocket on the inside of the bag.

I'll leave you with this shot.

My baby had her 3rd birthday on the 24th. I can't believe she's 3 already! Man does the time fly. I'm thinking about starting her in Preschool next year.....yikes, I'm gonna cry if I keep thinking about it.

Oh Look Tomatoes!

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!

Still Freezin'

The weather here is still suckish. Since the weather here is hovering around subzero temps (when you factor in the wind chill it goes below zero) I'm contemplating a trip to The Bahamas. Check out their weather. I don't think you can get much better then that! Anyone else want to join me?

Today's post is a goodie post. I've received a few things in the mail since my last knitting post.

I wanted to see for myself what the Noro Kureyon sock is like.

I have some of the Silk Garden Sock and it's pretty nice but I wanted to see what the Noro Sock is like. Since the only way to find out if you are going to like a yarn is to buy some and try it I've been keeping an eye out on the Ravelry Destash board for some. This is colorway S185. It's definitely rougher then any sock yarn I've ever used but I'll give it a try. I can handle scratch specially if it softens up a little bit and is warm. Plus Noro's colors are gorgeous.

I bought the new Socks a la Carte sock book.



I have a half a bazillion bonus points with my book club so I used some to get this book and it cost me less then $10 with shipping. The book actually came in when it was still a pre-order from Amazon and SWTC. Guess the book club decided to get a head start on things.

It's a unique book and I only have two complaints. The first one is that they used a red yarn to knit the sample socks so some of the sock patterns don't show up as well. Hello, everyone knows that red is one of the most difficult colors to photograph. The second is that after you build up the sock the way you want it you have to go to three different pages for the instructions. This can be a little annoying. I generally make a copy of the pattern so I can make notes, changes, etc so it's not a deal breaker for me but I have a scanner/copier/printer so making a copy isn't a problem for me. All in all I think it's a pretty good book and the fact that it helps you customize your sock is awesome.

Two knit coffee mugs.

Shawn picked these up from me today. How can a knitter pass up knit coffee cups? They are fairly lightweight so they don't kill my hands to hold them when they are full of coffee.

Some yummy Twisted Fiber Art Kabam!

I got this from someone who was destashing on Ravelry. The colorway is Saucy. The colors are gorgeous and it's a self striping so I'm happy now. Although I still want to get my hands on some of the Warlock colorway. Kabam! is a merino/bamboo/nylon blend. I really like the merino/bamboo blends. I missed this last update but there's always hope that I'll catch the next one.

A sock project bag.

Don't you just love all the funky fun colors? During this time of year anything bright and cheering is welcomed. I picked this bag up from Annie Purl who was wonderful to deal with. She sent me a message to let me know that she'd dropped the package off at the PO. It's a great project bag and the perfect size to hold my current "to go" sock project. Plus if Santa is kind and brings me my new knitting bag I requested it will fit in there wonderfully.

Some very yummy holiday Madelinetosh sock yarn.

I picked this up when Madelinetosh did her holiday update on etsy. The colorway is Grinch. I love the colors and am looking forward to knitting with it.

Wollmeise, who can pass up Wollmeise!

I swapped with a Ravelry user for this color, Tiefer See which is gorgeous mix of blues and greens. She was looking for the Sultan colorway and I had fell out of love with it so we swapped and everyone's happy!

Christmas Sock Monkey (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

It's now complete and ready to be loved by Kaity. I'm thinking about making it a hat and scarf. We wouldn't want the poor monkey to get cold now would we. Plus Kaity is going to ask for them anyway. It might get a little cardi too.

Christmas Bucket O' Balls (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

This one is made for Bree. I was going to make her a monkey but decided she'd have more fun with these toy instead. I used several different colors of Red Heart Classic from my stash. It's not my most favorite yarn to knit with but I wanted something durable.

Now I leave you with cute toddler!

I had a doctors appointment the other day and since the wicked freezing cold weather is still here it calls for warm stuff. I found the hat/mitten set on sale at Kmart....isn't it so cute? It's a tad big but that's OK Bree didn't seem to mind.

Happy Crafting!

Is It Really Fall?

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

Ready? OK, here we go!

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

We have a new addition to the luvs2knit family.

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

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

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

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

Reverse Miter Dishcloth (Ravelry)(non Ravelry)

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

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

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

Errant Socks (Ravelry)

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

Elegant & East Cable Mittens for the Family (Ravelry)

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

Woven Headband (Ravelry) (non Ravelry)

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

Bamboo Toe Up Socks

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

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

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

Cable Comfort Throw (Ravelry) (non Ravelry)

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

Wow, that was a long post.

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

Happy Crafting!

Drowing in Sock Yarn

Hello, my name is Trish and I'm addicted to sock yarn. There's enough yarn to knit 96 pair of adult size socks and there are 14 single skeins that were purchased to make socks for Kaity and Bree.


I'm sure that some of you think I'm crazy while others will completely understand me. I love my stash and in no way feel guilty about it. My family does not starve because of my stash. None of my stash has ever been purchased on a credit card. I'm lucky enough to have a monthly stash budget that I can use as I see fit. I also feel that I'm generous with my stash and am always willing to pass some on to a friend in need or to brighten someones day. If ever I need money my stash will be there to sell. I see it as an investment while others see it as hording.

There are so many fabulous indie dyers out there that I can't help but add to my stash. Of course I'm stashing faster then I'm knitting but I'm OK with that. There's enough yarn here I could bury Bree in it.

Now on to knitting. I haven't been doing much since my last post. My sinuses have been killing me to the point that my head hurt so badly yesterday that I crawled into bed at 8pm when the girls went to bed.

I finished the third panel to my Cable Comfort Throw.

I was about halfway through the third panel when I put it up so it didn't take long to finish it. I've started the fourth panel. There's still a fifth panel and all the seaming before it's completed.

I finished the dishcloth.

For the life of me I can not get this stupid blue to photograph correctly. I give up. Go to Lily's website to see the true color. The color is Swimming Pool and the pattern is Squidge Cloth. It's going to be my new "go to" dishcloth pattern.

I started a pair of fingerless mitts for my mom.

I'm using the 220 Fingerless Mitts (rav link) and Patons Decor. My fingers were discolored when I finished knitting so I need to do a color test before knitting the second mitt. I want to make sure these mitts aren't going to bleed all over everything.

I also finished the other baby sock and they will go out in the mail tomorrow to warm some baby tootsies. I'm just about through the Beehive section of my Bee Fields shawl. I'll take some pics when we have sunshine again.

I'll leave you all with a pic of Bree rockin' her cabled dress I made her. She loves it and the Cascade 220 Superwash is very durable!

This was taken awhile back at Kaity's b-day party. I'd post a pic from Kaity's b-day but all of them have other peoples kids in them and I will not post without permission.

The Stash

**Warning: This is a picture laden post.  Dial-up users beware!**

My helper:


She has a thing for boxes....goofy cat.

First:



Mostly acrylic.  Some are leftovers from various projects.

Second:



Wool!  My Lorna's Lace worsted, Manos, and Cascade.  I'm really hoping to buy some Malabrigo from Wool Girl after we are all settled in our new home.

Third:



Misc. mix of yarns, cotton and lace weight.  There's also a cone of Zephyr wool/silk lace that's missing from the picture.  I found it after the pic was taken.

Fourth:



Fun Fur....*shudder*.  I'm not a big fan of the stuff.  It's leftovers from the hats I made for Mini.  I'm keeping it because Kaity likes the stuff.

Fifth:



Various skeins of Knit Picks yarns.  I wanted to try each yarn line so when I'd order needles I get a few different skeins to try.

Sixth:



Some Hempathy and Bella Colour I found sitting in a box on top of my storage drawers.

Seventh:



Dishcloth cotton.  Most of it is leftovers from some of the dishcloths I've made. 

Eight:

Lots-O-Sock Yarn.  This all the yarn that comes in a ball, ie Trekking, Opal, Regia....you get the idea.  There are some skeins of Knit Picks that are hiding under the pile.  By this time I was getting tired of taking pictures so I wasn't going to split this one up plus it's going to be part of a contest I'll be having for my blogiversary but that isn't until December so you all will have to wait.  :~)

Ninth:

Big Pile-O-Sock Yarn.  12 pair of socks for me and 6 pair for the girls.  This is one of three photos of the biggest share of my stash.  I had to split it up in to three separate photos.  I keep all the hanks together in on drawer.

Tenth:



Medium Pile-O-Sock Yarn.  17 pair of socks for me and 1 pair of socks for the girls.

Eleventh:

Small Pile-O-Sock Yarn.  8 pairs of socks for me, well actually 7 since the blue/yellow hank of Cider Moon is Kaity's, and 1 lace shawl.  The Schaefer Anne is being reserved for a lace shawl. after I've gotten settled in.

All this took 1 large box, 1 medium box and 2 small boxes and a grand total of 45 minutes to pack.  I'm tired.   :~)