Knittin' and Lovin' It

FO's and Yummy Goodies!

Things have been pretty busy here. I try to stay busy since it keeps me out of trouble. It's almost time for the kiddo to go back to school....woohoo! I'm ready to have a little peace and quiet here in the house. The girls normally play well together but when they're around each other for to long they fight a lot. Kaity has a bad habit of bossing Bree and that just pisses Bree off.

I finished my "on the go" socks.

These are a basic toe up sock using a turkish cast on. The yarn is Paton's Kroy self striping sock yarn and they don't match because there was a knot in on of the skeins that reversed the pattern. I really hate yarn companies that do that. It's cheap sock yarn so I'm not over mad about it. Non matchy matchy socks don't bother me so it's all good.

I also finished my On-Hold socks (ravelry).

The yarn is Madelinetosh sock, color: Cherry. The picture is so so. It's hit or miss with the sun around here. We've been getting thunderstorms in the afternoons and although most of the storms pass us by without so much as a drop of rain we still get all the lovely cloud cover.

I have a few more skeins of handspun to show off.

First up is a skein of yummy purple yarn.

I used Zen Yarn Garden Merino/Seacell roving. This stuff is seriously sooooooooft. Very smooth and a little slick to spin but wasn't to bad once I got the hang of it. I'm definitely going to be buying more of this fiber type...yum. This one will soon become a cowl for me.

Next up is the last two skein I finished.

The one on the left is BFL roving from Zen Yarn Garden and the colors remind me of candied caramel apples. If I figured this correct I have around 278 yards of sport weight yarn though there are a few spots through out that are a little bit thicker or thinner then sport weight. I'm going to try for a pair of socks out of this.

The skein on the right is superwash merino from Yarn Pirate in the Rosie colorway. I purchased mine at TLE but they're out of stock right now. I know Yarn Pirate also sells her roving through her etsy shop but she hasn't stocked the shop yet. This one is a thick and thin worsted/bulky yarn. Kaity has already claimed this one as her own. She's requested a cowl out of it. She's also a converted scarf user. All she asks for are cowls after the one I made her last year.

My Pearl-barred Scallop Scarf (ravelry)(non ravelry).

It doesn't look like much but when the pattern is blocked out it's a really pretty lacy scarf. I'm making this for a friend. I wasn't going to post about it since the friend in question reads the blog but then it dawned on me (yes my brain works slowly most of the time) that said friend doesn't know he/she will be receiving this so I can post all the pics I want. I have about 20 inches of scarf so far. The yarn is Malabrigo sock, color Impressionist Sky. I have the pattern memorized so I've been zipping right along on this one. Fingers crossed that friend will like it.

I also started two pair of socks but haven't taken any progress photos. I'll try to get pics for the next blog post.

I managed to snag this yummy JulieSpins fiber from someone who was destashing it.

It's Merino/Seacell in pretty pinks. Normally I'm not much of a pink person but I really liked the way this one looked. I've heard her sock yarn is super yummy but I'm just not in to stalking sites for yarn anymore. If I can't buying it without fighting other people for it, I don't want it.

I did some destashing so I could restash. I know that for some this makes sense and others think that I'm insane. It makes me happy and it's not hurting anyone so who cares. It's my only habit since I quit smoking. It's either stash or smoke. I think I'll stick with stashing since it's much healthier. If you have a snarky comment about my stash keep it to yourself because you will get no response from me. I ignore people who spread stupid.

I ordered The Loopy Ewe's 3rd anniversary kit.

I'm a sucker for coffee mugs and I really liked this Lorna's Laces colorway so I bought it. I'm actually sipping coffee from the mug as I type this.

I purchase this yarn from Eat.Sleep.Knit.

This is a really nice shop. I've been branching out and looking for other online shops to buy from. Not because I'm unhappy with the ones I shop from but because I want some yarn variety other then sock yarn plus I'm always looking for shops that carry roving. I'll definitely be going back to this shop. The cool thing is you get these lotto scratch cards that you can win things from like store credit, kits, yarn, etc. The two purple skeins are Malabrigo Silky Merino, colorway Blackberry, which will soon become a moebius cowl (ravelry)(non ravelry). The other skein is Yarn Love Anne Shirley in the Summer Sangria colorway which will most likely become a cowl and a pair of fingerless mitts if I have enough leftover.

I picked up this skein of yarn from Sonny and Shear.

It picked it up with a 40% off coupon that came off of already clearance yarn prices. It is such a bright cheery colorway though I have no idea what I'll make with it. I have a few patterns that I think will work quite nicely.

My August shipment from LOTR sock club. The club was renamed to Lord of the Strings but I just don't care for the name and just can't use it. It sounds goofy.....well maybe that's just my craziness coming out again. This of course did not stop me from joining in on round 2 of the club.

Picked up some Arucania Nature Wool Multi.

It was on sale at WEBS so I picked it up to knit Mara (ravelry)(non ravelry - this is a direct pdf link). I want one of my own and although I'd love to knit one it Tosh worsted I can't really afford 3-4 skeins right now. I do have plans to make one in Tosh worsted later on but I want one now because winter is going to be here before I know it and I need something warm to snuggle under.

I just finished a test knit for Woolgirl. I have a few samples that I'll post about next time. I have one I can show you here in a few more weeks and one that I'm going to be starting here in the next few days when I get it in the mail.

I'm holding out on starting another spinning project since my Spin Art Fiber club (from Zen Yarn Garden) has shipped. The fiber club is closed but will reopen in 3 months. I really want to start that when it gets here. I need to buy a few more bobbins for my wheel. I've come to the stunning revelation that 4 bobbins are not enough. I'm hoping to upgrade to the sliding hook flyer for my Traveller soon. I don't mind stopping to move my yarn since it gives me a change to stretch and give my legs a break.

I think that covers everything for now.

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!

On the Mend

I woke up the other day (mind you, I started this post on the 9th of July) feeling great without a care in the world not knowing that later in the morning my back would starting screaming in pain for apparently no good reason. I suffered with it for one day, went to bed early and woke up the next morning in even more pain. So when you're in pain, what do you do? Why call your doc to see if you can get an appointment. The military treatment system being as suckish backed up as it is didn't have an appointment till mid Aug....uuuuhhh, nope not waiting for that appointment. Thankfully we can go downtown to be seen in one of the the walk in clinics, which incidentally are 500 times better and staffed with much more friendlier, helpful, caring people then a military hospital. Amazingly enough the clinic wasn't to busy and I was only in there for a little over an hour. Turns out I was having a severe muscle spasm and possible muscle strain.

Just as my back pain was easing up I came down with some kind of virus. You know the routine, fever, sore throat, body aches so bad you want someone to shoot you. Except this time I ended up with the most unbearable dizziness. I was fine if I laid down but with two kids at home that really isn't much of an option. I finally figured out I could stop the dizziness if I chewed a piece of gum. The dizziness went away a few days later. I think it was a combo of headcold/allergies.....as if the allergies aren't bad enough.

So now that I'm on the mend I can get back to my some what irregular blog posting. It's been a very long time since I last posted. I'm trying to figure out where in the world to start first. This post is probably going to bounce around a bit between FOs, WIPs and stash enhancements.

I finally acquired my first skein of Numma Numma.

I swapped with a fellow Ravely user. I love the colors. The colorway is called No Substitutions. Now to find a pattern and knit this up. Hahaha yeah right it'll probably sit in my stash for the next 6 months before I figure out what I want to knit.

I finished my Hearts and Flowers Socks (Ravelry).

This is one of the patterns out of WendyKnits toe up sock book. I have plans to start another sock from her book soon. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy, color Plum Paisley. I just can't get enough of this yarn. The only mod I made was to knit 4-5 rounds before starting the picot edging.

I started a pair of fingerless mitts for my mom.

The pattern is Merletto Mitts (Ravelry). I have no idea who dyed the yarn or what brand it is. I can tell you it's soft, it's definitely superwash and it's a tad heavier then fingering weight yarn, maybe sports weight. It was part of the winnings from one of the contests Woolgirl had on her blog.

I've acquired a good amount of fiber since my last post. I'm not going to post all the pics here but you can see them here on Flickr if you want.

I did acquire this lovely skein of BFL sock yarn from Zen Yarn Garden.

I placed an order when Roxanne opened up her new shopping cart and had a 10% coupon. I picked up 2 different fibers, BFL and Merino/Seacell. I'm currently spinning the Seacell right now. Anyway back to the sock yarn, this one is a new BFL sock yarn that ZYG is carrying called BFL4 Sock. It's absolutely delicious. I've been pondering what I want to make with this, socks or a cowl of some type.

I finished another pair of socks the other day.

These socks were a nightmare to get started. The yarn wasn't playing very well with any of the patterns I picked. I finally went with the Seeded Ribbing (Ravelry) pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks. The yarn is a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot that I acquired as a pick me up when we first moved here. Some of you may remember that we found out we weren't going to get our house for over a month and were stuck in TLF (TLF means Temporary Lodging Facility, it's a military hotel for families). It was one of my very first purchases from the yarn shop here in town. I really liked knitting with the Bearfoot yarn but from here on out I will be sticking with their semi solid colors.

Here's the latest skein of handspun.

It's approx 148 yards of thick and thin yarn that's between worsted and bulky. I spun this using the Yarn Love Marianne Dashwood roving I picked up from TLE. The colorway is Bayfield Apple. This picture was taken before it took a dip in the woolwash. It's currently hanging out to dry right now.

I'm working on a new pair of socks for my mom.

This is the Halema uma u Socks (Ravelry) pattern from the TLE Anniversary kit I purchased last year. The pattern will most likely be made available on TLE's site for sale in the future....most kit and club patterns are made available 6 months or so after the kit is sent out. Actually I found a Ravelry user who was destashing so I have two skeins of this yarn. I bought the second skein with my mom in mind since she commented on how much she really liked the color. The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah and the colorway is Loopified. I'm not following the pattern to a "T". I cast on more stitches for a less narrow toe and I've opted for an afterthought heel since I really liked the striping that I was getting. I didn't want to mess that up.

My "on the go" socks have a heel.

Yup, I know, exciting stuff! Plain stockinette socks with self striping yarn, can't get much more easier then that. I knit them in the car and when I have doctor/dentist appointments. No pattern required and I don't even have to look at them while I'm knitting. The yarn is Paton Kroy self striping that I picked up from Michaels. The skeins were completely messed up due to one of the them having a knot part way through so there was no way to make the stripes match. To keep my sanity I decided to knit not matching pair. I like them so that's all that matters.

I've also finished a few more test knits for Woolgirl and I have another one to start that the mailman just dropped off. I'll be able to show you two of the knits in my next post.

On the upside my tomatoes are doing wonderful. No red ones yet but we have a few that are getting really close. In the few days I was down from the virus the amount of tiny tomatoes I had tripled. I can't wait to get my first tomato...mmmmmm!

Bree says she can't wait too!

Stay tuned! I'm gearing up for a blog contest. We have some celebrating to do since we made our final payment and are now debt free!!! I'll post more about the contest in the next few weeks.

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!

Almost Summer!

I'm trying to get back in to a more normal posting schedule. I'm still not posting as much as I'd like but I'll get back to more regular posts eventually. I'd be happy with once or twice a week.

I do believe that we're finally on our way to summer. It's been warm and it looks like there will be no more snow *knock on wood* 

I received my Mother's Day contest winnings from Woolgirl.

It was stuffed full of wonderful yummy bits of leftover yarn, two different full skeins of sock yarn, stickers, dpns, chocolate (had to throw those in the fridge....they were all melty), sticky notepads, and the cutest handcrafted cards. I was having a bad day when this came in. I didn't sleep very well the night before so I was super tired and all worn down. I mugged Shawn as soon as he walked through the door holding the box.

I finished a pair of socks.

The pattern is Gracious (ravelry)(non ravelry) and the yarn is Miss Babs Yummy Sock in the colorway Suede Rose. I really enjoyed this pattern and the yarn has a tight twist, is soft and was really nice to work with. This is my second pattern by Terry Ross. I really like her sock patterns. They're well written and nice to knit. The Tangled Faeries pattern I used to knit my last TLE swap pal was a Terry Ross pattern. I do have plans to knit another one of her patterns in the future.

I've cast on and frogged the baby blanket twice now. I was originally going to use some solid colored Plymouth Encore but have now decided to use Peaches & Creme. Here's the colors I'm going to use now:

I'm going for a simple garter stitch striped blanket. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the ombre colorway yet. I haven't made up my mind yet. Decisions decisions! I'll get that cast on some time today.

The tomato plants are doing great now that the weather warmed up.

They did unbelievably well for the two weeks they spent in the garage but they really took off after the weather warmed up and they've had a chance to be in the sun all day. We're seeing blooms on all three plants....some are opening up and others are still closed. Hopefully this year will be another good tomato year. This year we planted them in organic soil designed for container growing. It cost us a bit more but I think it's going to help.

We bought them during Home Depots Earth Day sale which happened shortly before we got the 25+ inches of snow. Boy did that snowfall make me really glad we container plant our veggies. Home Depot had a deal where you bought one plant got one free so we picked up 3 tomato plants, 1 spring onion plant, and 2 salad mix. I'll be going back this payday to pick up some strawberry plants. I don't know if we'll see any strawberries but the girls really want to plant some so who am I to argue. For now I'll keep buying the strawberries from the grocery store.

That pretty much sums up what I've been up to. I should have my first Wizard of Oz kit from Woolgirl next week and I'm going to be casting on some new socks in the next few days. I'm going with the Hearts & Flowers socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up and I need to pick out a new yarn for my "on the go" socks. I've decided that Noro silk garden sock does not make a very good sock yarn. I'll see if I can't use it for something else but it's definitely not going to be socks! Ugh! And to think, I have a second skein sitting in my stash. Sheesh!

I'm planning to place an order through TLE for some roving. I did a little spinning the other day and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I have a $25 credit so I might as well use it. I'll try to post about my spinning in the next few days.

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!

Gotta Have Some Bling!

I have some very shiny bling now. Thanks to the root canal I had a few months ago I needed to get a crown. The dentist and I decided to go with a gold crown since it's the back molar where there is a big chance of chipping it if I went with porcelain. Thankfully there was no numbing needed and my dentist appointment went quickly and painlessly. I love my dentist!! I still have several more crowns but only one more that needs to be taken care of fairly quickly. The other 3 are to re-enforce the teeth that have had a lot of work done to them in the past. The Sonicare toothbrush seems to be doing the job....it was definitely money well spent.

So anyway, you all are wondering what I've been up to (knitting wise) since my last post. Well the answer is a lot of things.

I finished the mid March Monthly Dishcloth KAL cloth.

The pattern is windmill dishcloth (ravelry)(non ravelry). I used Peaches & Creme yarn in the Aqua Mist ombre colorway. Exciting isn't it! OK, so dishcloths aren't very exciting but they are great fillers when you are working on big projects.

Oh look, a boring progress shot of my toe up bamboo socks.

I wasn't going to bore you all with this photo but I took it to update my Ravelry notebook so I figured I might as well subject you to it too. Actually there is another 2 inches or so on the cuff thanks to my dentist appointment. I always take my socks with me since there is the wait time plus it helps pass the time when they need to numb my mouth up for work....much better then boring magazines. I'm working a k2, p2 ribbing....boring yes but it doesn't require me to drag around a pattern. I have my basic toe up pattern memorized.

Oh boy! Here's an exciting one for you guys.

I finished the Bee Fields Shawl (ravelry)(non ravelry). It only took me a year to do it but it's done!!! Well almost done. I still need to give it a good soak and blocking. I'm going to try to get that done tomorrow morning after the kiddo heads out the door for school. There are a few minor errors in the shawl (my knitting errors not pattern errors) but all in all it came out great. I can't wait to see it after it's all blocked out.

I picked up some yarn from ebay from KimiK.

It's 440 yards of multi colored sock yarn (100% Merino non superwash) with 110 yards of coordinating kettle dyed yarn for the heels and toes. I liked the colors and the price was right.

I received my final Seven Deadly S(p)ins club shipment. Go here if you want to see it. I probably won't make the pattern so I need to find something else to use the yarn on. I loved the yarn and colors!

Well at least this time the post is shorter. I'll leave you all with Bree playing peekaboo!

She decided to sneak a peek out the window while I was taking some photos of projects and stash. She kept saying "peekie boo" and giggling!

Happy Crafting!

Better Watchin'

Our LCD TV now has a new home.

We bought a wall mount and got it up on the wall before Bree killed it. She has tried using it as a drum on more then one occasion. I'm figuring that LCDs do not like being smacked, so up on the wall the TV went. It was surprisingly easy. Now to get my cable company to add more HD channels. We are still contemplating going back to satellite. I still need to get the pictures back on the wall that were taken down and the speakers need to be rearranged a little.

I've knocked out a few FOs since my last post. I'm on a sock knitting kick again. Sock knitting seems to hit me in spurts. For awhile there it was taking me months to finish up a pair. My last pair took me 4 days. I know I can't believe it either. I knit them two at a time so that may have helped. Plus it was loaded with cables making each row different. I move through patterned socks faster.

First finished pair of socks are Baudelaire (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

I used ZYG Bling sock yarn. The colorway is Cherry Swirl. I love sparkly yarn and Roxeanne has such pretty colorways. These took a little less then a month but there was a few weeks that I didn't work on them because I was working on a test knit.

Next is the Lacy Cable socks.

The pattern is Karen's Socks (Ravelry)(non Ravelry). The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock, colorway Poppy. I really liked this pattern and look forward to trying more sock patterns by this designer. The sock pattern is a top down pattern but I reversed it and knit them toe up, two at a time. These took about 3 weeks to knit but I put the second sock to the side so I could start my Baudelaires. I didn't pick them back up again until the Bauds were finished.

The final FO (that I can show you that is) is my Absinthe socks (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

These are the socks that took me 4 days to knit. I did shorten the leg by two pattern repeats. So that would have added another day to my knitting time. They were knit two at a time. There are some errors in the leg chart which hasn't been fixed on Knitty (as of 19 Mar) yet but have been noted by the designer and some knitters in the Knitty Socks Ravelry group. I messed up the cable on the foot but it wasn't to noticable and didn't bother me enough to rip out over 20 some odd rows so it stayed. I used ShiBui Knits sock yarn, colorway #7495 Wasabi. Shibui has a nasty habit of pooling. If you're not a fan of pooling then this yarn is probably not for you. I love pooling so I'm happy with the socks.

My rainbow bamboo socks now have heels. I'll spare you the pic since it would be rather boring. I also finished a test knit for Woolgirl but since it's from one of the club kits I can't show you until everyone has gotten their packages.

I started another pair of socks.

The pattern is Baby Cable Rib (Ravelry) from Sensational Knitted Socks and the yarn is Paca Peds HT, colorway is Tye Dye. I love they way it's striping.....no the yarn is not a self striping yarn.

Even the back is striping nicely. Hopefully it stays this way when I work the leg. I'm knitting a short row heel since I don't want the gussets of a heel flap to mess with my striping.

I do have a sample knit going for Madelinetosh right now with another one on the way. I should have a teaser pic in my next post along with a few goodies.

I got this absolutely adorable bunny in from Woolgirl as a thank you for test knitting for her.

It's so cute and the girls love it. Course they loved it even more when they found out it had M&Ms in them. Bree calls them bunny M's. They are stored in a bunny and there's only one M on the candy so why bother with the second M.....toddler logic hard at work.

I also bought some Rowan Cotton Glace from a UK ebay store.

I'll be using this to make a dress for Kaity. I'm making some half knit/half sewn dresses this year since they are much faster to make. Wow, is Rowan a lot cheaper to buy in the UK and have it shipped here. I paid like $3.50 per skein after the currency conversion. Then shipping was only a few dollars more. Way cheaper then the almost $8 per skein plus shipping it would have cost me here in the states.

I'll leave you with Bree and her new pony.

Wee monkey is so short she has a hard time scooting around on most of the ride on toys out there. We found this one out a Target which is rated up to 36 months so it's a tad smaller and shorter then some of the other ones. She loves it!

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!