Pursuit of Fiber

Are you still looking at this page?

2008-07-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hey folks

I have moved to www.pursuitoffiber.com/blog. My feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/PursuitOfFiber.

Blogging break

2008-06-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

I am taking a week off of posting. I will be back after the long 4th weekend. I will be messing around with the blog and website to make it more user friendly.

Please make sure your RSS feed is routed through http://feeds.feedburner.com/PursuitOfFiber. If you have the feedburner feed for POF, then when I make changes and switch software and finally come to a place where I am happy you will not have lost me. The blog will still be on my website Pursuitofiber.com, but I am changing how I publish and how the archives are managed. If I can't use it easily then how can I think that you the readers enjoy using and reading the blog.

No worries. I am still knitting and maybe we will have a Finished Object Week when I get back to show you the wonders that have happened here in chez POF.

WIP Wednesday - airy

2008-06-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

I have been airing out the WIPs by knitting them in the outdoors. All of them have progressed.

I fell in love with this pattern, the Bubble Pullover from Knitting Nature, before I ever bought the book. I was just looking for the right yarn and the right occassion. Now I understand the middle of summer is not the most ideal time to be knitting a 100% wool sweater but considering I still wear sweaters for most of the summer it is not too much of a hardship.

First came copious swatching. I really wanted to have a more fitted sweater than the original. The smallest size gave you a 46" bust. I wanted something a little big but not that big. So the first swatch (red) was knit with the original stitch count on smaller needles. It was still too big. It would have given me a 43" bust. I wanted smaller so I crunched some math and cast on with the needles to get gauge and less stitches.

It worked and the sweater will be a 40" bust. Now I am sure you are sick of the bubbles so let me distract you with socks.

My swap socks are past the heel and I no longer am worrying if they will fit. They are a bit snug on my feet so they should fit just right on hers. I love the way this pattern turned out.

BILs socks are coming along nicely. I got to the last toe increase on Friday and got to where you see now while watching Get Smart. I loved the movie. It gave me answers to my fav show as a kid. Now I am not that old but I used to stay up late when visiting the grandparents and watch Nick at Nite.

Lastly the Firebrick Mittens are on to there second mitt. I am so excited. Now if I can keep the momentum up, ya'll will see the pattern soon.

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-06-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

Purelife by Rowan
5.5 sts/inch on US 5s
100% Organic Cotton
131 yards. Color: 984
Purelife on Ravelry

This yarn had such a lovely color that it drew me in while I was knitting with it. I loved that it had this subtle variation in color similar to a kettle dyed yarn. It was really hard to see it in the yellow but I was knitting outside and the sunshine brought out the differences.

Now I might have loved the color but I was not too keen on the knitting experience. The swatch is only 4" by 3 1/2" and in that short time span of knitting it, my hands started to hurt. Not badly but enough to make me wonder if I would enjoy an entire outfit out of this yarn. It was also a bit hard to not split the plies. I never thought I would say that about a yarn but it would start to unwind a bit on the needle and so by the time I was to knit into the stitch the plies would be spread out. It was definitely a mindful knit. Also any variation in your stitches will not block out.

I wish I could keep the colors and have a bit less rough of a yarn. I know that this has great ecological value because it is organic but organic does not need to mean hard and crunchy. Another yarn I used this month was organic and nice on the hands, so I know it can be done.

The resulting material is nice, soft & plump all that you would expect in summery fabric.

WIP Wednesday

2008-06-18T16:02:00.000-07:00

I was good this week. I paid attention to all my WIPs but of course got more done on the largest and newest one.

The Firebrick mitten in its smallest size is doing well but I cam getting distracted by shiny knits. I need to get the thumb on by this weekend. My goal was today but Churchable got sick with food poisoning last night and he did not get to sleep till 4AM and since I was the nurse maid to my hubby I stayed up and helped him when needed and started the Buffy series over on Hulu.com.

I have decided to take my time with this WIP since it is a swap that does not end till the end of August and I want to keep my partner in my thoughts and prayers till then. If I finish too early, I fear I will not be so mindful of the purpose of the swap.

The BIL Christmas sock has gotten a wee bit of attention since I was standing around talking with Churchable's co-workers & knitting after their meeting to find out the fate of their jobs. He was kept! Yeah!

Lastly this is my current obsession. I cast on at the neck on Saturday after cleaning my studio and swatching. After I woke up today, I cast off the hem. The hem is not supposed to be a shirt tail hem but I just loved the one in Sahara (which has moved to a new house to live) and really wanted to incorporate it into this pattern.

Now which pattern have I start, why the Labyrinth pattern by Wendy. I am doing this one along with the Sexy Knitters Club also. I guess I could say this is also part of the Knit anything by Wendy until the book arrives KAL. I am really looking forward to her new book. I don't normally pre-order books but I had to with hers.

2008 Summer Knitting Goals

2008-06-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

The image is from a site that has demotivators.

Ali over on Skeins Her Way is having a contest to keep your knitting on track this summer. I thought I would jump in since I seem to be aimlessly drifting lately.

Finish the Firebrick Mittens (ravelry) & get them ready to sale the pattern.
Finish BILs socks
Finish Prayer Sock Swap II socks
Finish Labyrinth with the Sexy Knitters Club
Frog & Re-cast on Churchable's Mariners socks in LL sock
Start Sanford's ski hat in yarn provided by him
Start Bubble Pullover from Norah's Knitting Nature in Malabrigo
Start one more Christmas gift. Most likely Bud's in knitpicks lace
Start Tomato by Wendy in knitpicks shine
Start & Finish my Mom's Christmas present in Knitpicks comfy
Start & Finish my Dad's Christmas present in LL Worsted
Start & Finish Urchin in Noro Transitions
Start & Finish Christmas Fiddle Faddle for our tree in random stash bits
Start & Finish RPMs for Churchable in STR Mediumweight

A little game to know me better

2008-06-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Pick a number between 1 - 20. Remember that number. It will be important at the end.

YES/NO GAME RULES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

You can only say yes or no. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages you and asks!

Over 18? Yes
Danced in front of your mirror naked? No
Ever told a lie? Yes
Been arrested? No
Kissed a picture? No
Fallen asleep at work/school? Yes
Held an actual snake? Yes
Have YOU Ever run a red light? No
Ever drink and drive?No
Been suspended from school? No
Ever been fired from a job? No
Totaled a car/motorbike in an accident? Yes
Sang karaoke? No
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? No
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Yes
Ever laughed until you wet yourself? No
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? No
Kissed in the rain? No
Sang in the shower? No
Sat on a rooftop? Yes
Thought about your past with regret? Yes
Been pushed in the pool with your clothes on? Yes
Shaved your head? No
Blacked out from drinking? Yes
Had a gym membership? Yes
Been in a band? No
Shot a gun? Yes
Liked someone with nobody else knowing about it? No
Played strip poker? No
Been to a strip joint? No
Donated Blood? No
Liked someone you shouldn't? Yes
Have a tattoo? No
Have or had any piercings besides ears? No
Made out with a complete stranger? No
Caught someone cheating on you? No
Skinny dipped? No
Regret any of your ex's? No
Been to a rodeo? Yes
Been to a NASCAR race? No
Been in Love? Yes

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago today I was home from college working two summer jobs and going to lots and lots of doctors appointments while they tried to figure out why I was having the problems I was. Needless to say they just told me that I needed to not get so stressed out. They had no real answer after having more blood drawn than I cared to have in such a short time period and CAT scans, MRIs, EEG, EKGs. I kind of lost all confidence in traditional medicine after that. I finally found the answers via a chiropractor and naturopathic doctor 3-5 years ago. I also had my first visit to the ER from a drug the stupid DRs put me on and they tried to pass it off as a food allergy. This visit made my problems worse and the main reason why I can't use things made from none natural materials. Just a taste of what I went through. Imagine having hives all the time and never knowing what it was. When I went to the ER I was so itchy from hives that I could not walk without pain or use my hands and arms. I felt like a walking skeleton. I also lost my will to work out that summer because of drug side effects. I was able to kick the last bits of anorexia out of my system without medical assistance. Needless to say this was a dark period of life for me.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

Blog
Knit
Do laundry
Pray my husband still has a job on Wednesday because of company wide cuts
Swatch for a proposal due on Friday

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Fake Cheesy puff stuff, berries, Kinder eggs, salt & vinegar potato chips

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I would pay off our house. Buy Churchable a new truck & pay to have the classic car fixed to specs. Donate to many worthy causes and lastly invest it. I am a simple girl. I could buy yarn with that but then I would for sure have more than I could knit in my lifetime.

5. Places I have lived:

Ok sit back and let me mark the places. Born Houston, Texas (lived in several apartments but since I had the memory of a pea I don't remember how many). At 3 moved to Oklahoma city, Oklahoma (lived there 1 1/2 years because the oil companies were doing poorly so my dad lost his job). At 5 moved back to Houston, Texas (lived in one house while my dad worked his dream job of working with his father). At 12 moved to Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia (my dad got hired the day Operation Desert Storm started). At 15 went to boarding school in Kandern, Germany (loved the freedom of living away from mom & dad). At 16 changed schools to one in Dublin, New Hampshire (can I count all the moves between rooms while I was living there, that would be 5 rooms & 7 roommates in 2 years. Gah that was not me for all those moves. The RA was annoying and moved people around all the time). At 18 went to college in Columbia, South Carolina (lived there for 4 years but had 1 dorm room & 3 roommates in 2 1/2 years, 1 duplex with 1 roommate for 1/2 year & a house with 2 roommates for a year). Summer of 1998, my parents moved to Udhailyah, Saudi Arabia while I was home. Summer of 1999, I lived in Jerusalem, Israel for summer studies. Summer of 2000, I lived in several cities in central Turkey for my Intercultural studies Internship (I was in a different city every week out of 2 months). At 22 I moved out to the west coast where I had wanted to move since I was 17 to Portland, OR (I attended art school for 3 years). I had 3 apartments (Tigard, West Linn & Multnomah Village and 3 roommates, which is a much healthier rate. During this time, my parents again moved while I was home on break to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. At 25 I moved to Longview, WA to be closer to my fiance Churchable. After the wedding I moved in with him and so far have not made plans to move again.

6. Jobs I’ve had:

Summer school assistant (1997, 1998), Assistant Librarian (1998), Circulation Librarian (1999-2001), Receptionist (2002), Stock Room Clerk (2004), Designer (2007-present)

7. Peeps I want to know more about:

Those of you who I asked to pick a number. Do you remember your number? If it is 17 (the number of roommates I had from 1994-2004) then consider yourself tagged for one or both of these memes.

FO Friday - the hubba-hubba edition

2008-06-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

I will apologize in advance if the pictures are a bit blurry. Churchable was in the middle of dinner prep and only took the time to snap a few. My face was blurry in many so that is why it is missing.

Pattern: Notorious by Annie Modesitt in Romantic Hand Knits Raveled here
Yarn: Berroco Comfort in Olive (2 skeins) for the body & Berroco Comfort DK held double in white (1 skein) for the sleeves
Needles: Knit picks Harmony Interchangeables US 9 on the body, US 8, 9, & 10 on the sleeves

Mods: Wow this one got the mods up the wazzu. I did not start to mess with the construction till the underbust area. I did shorten from hip to waist by 1 inch and waist to underbust by 6". Since I really liked the idea of the I-cord at the front, I continued it around the back so that I could also run the cording around the back for extra support. I added HBD (aka short rows) to the front so that my girls would have room especially since I had seen some projects on ravelry where the underbust cut the boobs in half. After the HBD, I knit in the round for 1" to what I called the underarms. The back was knit in stockinette to match the front of the garment (picture below). I did all the decreases the same and the height from underarms in the pattern. The front was knit and ripped twice because the first time I knit it and added a sleeve. I tried it on at this point to see if anything was a miss. It was. I would have to be an H cup and try to channel a medieval bar wench who did not mind showing everything. So I messed around to figure out what the fix was. I realized that I needed to remove 18 stitches from the front to achieve proper coverage. So I removed those 18 stitches by decreasing on every row at both ends. The sleeves were also a bit strange they turned out narrower than the picture. I added 2 rows before each short row set and 2 rows before the bind off for a total of 6 rows. I still did not have flutter sleeves but I had run out of yarn so I had to live with the results. I used cording for the underbust and the center rueshing.

Facts to remember: Double check that your center stitches are marked properly before you start the HBD instead of an inch after you have finished them. Also that the sleeves might not always turn out the way the picture says they should. If I made this again (which I doubt because who needs this much sexiness in another garment) I would knit the 35" like I did for the lower half and switch to the 25" for the bust area. Both the front and the back were a bit loose at the size written.

Things I Love: How sexy I look. This was knit with the Sexy Knitters Club KAL so I think I got the results everyone was looking for.

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-06-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Matsuri by Noro
5 sts/inch on US 7s
87% Cotton, 13% Wool
159 yards. Color: 3
Matsuri on Ravelry

The Noro Matsuri is a unique yarn. It is a cabled construction similar to finger weaving done by children out of sewing thread weight yarns. The wool strand gets slubby in places but I think that is the joy of this yarn. As a cotton yarn, this is very easy on the hands. I barely noticed the cotton at all. I got a half stitch per inch more than what was recommended on the info included about it. I loved the color I got. It was multi-dimensional. Most likely from the wool and cotton mixed together. My sample seems to have come from the same stripe so I was not able to get the feel of the color change within this yarn. I do wish this yarn came as a single color because it would be such a nice dimensional color. I did not notice much of a change when I washed and blocked my swatch.

I think my color came from Colorway 2 not 3 because I have not seen the turquoise color in 3.

WIP Wednesday - a bit late

2008-06-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

Man o Man has time marched on. I promised you my mojo eater ideas. So here they are:

1. All my projects are boring to me. Too much stockinette stitch and ribbing.

2. The crud came knocking this weekend. The unknown beginnings were messing with me.

3. There is a new knitter in the house. My boy is knitting me a love scarf, since we all know I don't do scarves.

Which one do you think it is? I will let you know what I think later in the week.

Now on to the WIPs. They have not gotten much play this week. I did knit on all of them a bit each. I even forgot when gathering them up today what was on the needles.

BILs sock is coming along nicely. I forced myself on Thursday to finish the cuff and BO and CO for the second sock so that I felt like I had made some progress.

The pink sock and I are spending a bit of time together but not too much or else the pink might rub off on me. I am enjoying the process of praying for my swap partner while I knit. I just hope this one does not have as much angst as the last prayer sock.

I pulled out the Firebrick mitten last night since my test knitters are done with their first mittens and I am still trying to get past the thumb divide. It should be a bit easier now. This mitten hung out and watched "So you think you can dance?" last night. They really grooved with Twitchington.

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-06-05T14:40:00.001-07:00

Since I have not received this months yarn offerings, I thought I would show my hang test for the swatches. Not much changed but the white fingering weight yarn that I talked about 2 weeks ago. It grew by 1/4" in length.

I think that these yarns did not change much because they were not large enough swatches to get an accurate showing of what the weight of the yarn plus gravity would do to the overall look of the yarn.

If you are curious which yarns are which, I put notes on the photo in flickr so click on the pic and it will lead you to the answer.

After a month of staring at these yarns, I am in love with the white fingering and the dark grey fluffy ribbon.

RIP Wednesday

2008-06-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have those weeks were nothing gets done? Well it seems like that was last week. I have either had no time for knitting or no desire to knit. The mojo is gone. Here is how last week went:

Thursday - 12 hours of errands in Portland so maybe a row or two waiting in line

Friday - Helped churchable get ready for his weekend away and um.... went to bed early

Saturday - straightened up the patio after churchable had power washed it the day before and sat and enjoyed the backyard

Sunday - church (I started a sock) and churchable came home early so we trimmed the giant tree in the yard

Monday - um .... have no clue other than maybe lots of ripping of barely started projects out on the patio till it started to rain.
Tuesday - well I emailed with test knitters and my tech editor and finally got to sit and knit at night.

Projects started and RIPped:

Pair of shorts to sleep in out of Berroco Comfort - too small and I did not feel like adjusting the pattern. (maybe I will write my own pattern)

Mitten thumb tips for the firebricks - I was not there yet on my second pair so I just did a faux thumb to figure it out.

Several swatches that did not work out just right for my desire and so they have been frogged.

Basically I have zip to show you. I will show you that sock that I started on sunday. It is turning out nicely. It is for the second version of the sock swap that I participated in this fall.

Also along with this no knitting, I have had little desire to do much. I don't want to eat, I don't want to knit, I don't want to clean, I don't want to leave the house, I don't want to check ravelry, I just want to get outside and exercise. I have not been hyper obsessed with working out since 1997-1999. So I guess it is about time that I get my butt in gear. Maybe I can fit into those shorts that I frogged (haha I think those legs were twigs and I have never even in my days of anorexia been twig like in the legs). I have been walking about 10-12 miles a week and this week I started the couch to 5k program. I was amazed at what I did yesterday, which was my first day of the program but I think I will stick with it. Churchable, the runner in the family, is cheering me on to do good. He was impressed with my form and pace and is encouraging me not to push myself too hard but not to give up too early.

Don't worries there are designs running around in my brain. I just need to have the time to figure out yarns and exact patterning. I might not want to knit but designs are always pouring out my my brain. There are a few that won't leave me alone.

close ups of the loot in my flickr account so click and view

I also need to thank my Monkey sock swap pal for my package. I wore my monkey socks on my run last night and I have been using the bag that came with it since this weekend. I was so spoiled by this package. It made me feel special. It is why I love swaps. Thanks Rebecca for organizing this swap and to Kary for sending such a lovely package and pair of socks.

If my mojo has not returned by next week I will finger the culprit. I think someone has been stealing it for their own uses but it is too early to tell.

FO Friday - 3 for the price of one

2008-05-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

My hair behaving just right

Pattern: A Better Bucket (PDF) by Amy Swenson Raveled here
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted 92 grams (199 yards) Burgundy
Needles: US 8 (5.0mm) Harmony Interchangeable
Mods: Used solaris' mod for a larger brim and hat so that I could fit all my hair under it. I also knit the crown an inch shorter because it looked a bit too long.
Facts to remember: This is a super simple hat. I tried the provisional cast on to another needle instead of waste yarn, but the cable kept getting in the way. Also I waited a whole week to sew on the ribbon and button. I should realize that avoiding finishing can take longer than the finishing.
Things I Love: Everything. The yarn is cozy, the flair is just right, the button allows me to put any flower in it or leave it empty, the color looks great on me.

Close-up of the button with flower

Ohhh look another plain black hat for Matt

Pattern: A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend by Stephanie Nicole Raveled here
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted 53 grams (115 yards) Black
Needles: US 7 (4.5mm) Harmony Interchangeable
Mods: I knit this exactly like the previous hat except to the full outer length since the first hat was a little bit short.
Facts to remember: That a guys head is longer than you think
Things I Love: The yarn of course.
Reaction of the recipient: Well hopefully just as good as the first hat went over.

Argh me matey

Looking all Airy

Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood Raveled here
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted 64 grams (139 yards) Tortuga
Needles: US 8 (5.0mm) Harmony Interchangeable
Mods: I knit the man's size on US 8s and the pattern was exactly the measurements of the pattern.
Facts to remember: I need to remember that there can be hazards in a photo shoot. Click on the final photo for all the details.
Things I Love: I loved this so much more than the glazed carrot Koolhaas (scroll down)
Reaction of the recipient: We will see when he gets it.

Click to find out why this is here

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-05-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Filosophy by Trendsetter
4 sts/inch on US 8s
55% Cotton, 45% Polyamide
110 yards Color: 103

The final ribbon yarn of the month is Filosophy. This is an interesting yarn made up of a mess nylon ribbon and a matte cotton ribbon that are connected as one yarn. The ribbon did not snag while on the needles. It smoothly knit. It felt a bit like suede yarn because of the drag factor across my wooden needles. It created a pleasant stockinette texture but not my cup of tea. It created too thick and dense of a material for my liking. This yarn was the most off in proposed gauge to the gauge that I attained. I got a full inch more per stitch at 5 sts/inch.

WIP Wednesday

2008-05-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

I only have one active thing on the needles. They are BILs socks for Christmas. I am almost done with one sock and then will get onto the second one. I hope to cast on for Labyrinth later this weekend. Churchable is gone all weekend so I should have lots of time to knit while he is gone.

I am also working on a really cool pattern idea. I woke up at 4:30 AM and could not get any sleep. I had finalized the stitch pattern by the time Churchable left for work.

Churchable has currently been working on another project. The final untouched portion of the house has been ripped out.

Coffee Swap package

2008-05-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

I got my Spring Fling Coffee Swap. My pal was Helen from the UK. I got lots of cool snacks from the UK that I have never had a chance to taste or see in my many trips there. There is some lovely green yarn that I don't know what I will do with it. The bag was handmade by my pal.

The coffee is awesome. I have been having trouble drinking coffee lately. I just discovered today that I am having trouble drinking flavored coffees. I get instantly sick after having a mug. I started the day off by heading over to Tully's and got some Madison Blend. Today was the first was the first day that I have had more than half a mug without getting sick. I had an entire pot.

The coffees are Monsooned Malabar & Kenya AA. Kenya AA is one of my favorite coffees. It was the first bean that I was able to drink black.

FO Friday - What is real here?

2008-05-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Beet by Norah Gaughan Raveled here
Yarn: Berroco Comfort DK - Lovage 2761-61yds, Rabe 2754 -50yds, Teaberry 2730-29yds,

Beetroot 2760-25yds

Needles: US 4 (3.5mm) & US 6 (4.0mm) knit pick's harmony interchangables.

Mods: I did not do anything different unless you consider threading pipe cleaners through the stems of the leaves.

Facts to remember: That the pattern might suggest something not possible like stuffing the body of the beet with stuffing and a squeaker after finishing the body. I placed the squeaker in the beet after the straight knitting portion. It might have been nice to have a casing that leads from the stems up the leaf so that pipe cleaners can be threaded through so that they have the stiffness of an actual beet with leaves.

Things I Love: How little yarn this takes. The fun photos that i can take with this piece and what pictures will be taken by our zany friends when they get this gift.

Reaction of the recipient: This is to be determined. We are giving this as a baby present to our wedding photographer and his wife who is a chef. The baby is due in June so we might have to wait till the baby is born.

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-05-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Manipur by Karabella Yarns
7.5 sts/inch on US 3s
100% silk
190 yards color: 150

Being not a big ribbon yarn fan, I expected to dislike these yarns this month. This yarn surprised me. I loved the feel as it flowed through my hands as I knit on it. This is definitely a yarn that would create lovely texture within a stockinette fabric. It is not difficult to knit with. The ribbon bits do not get snagged by the needle. My gauge was almost spot on the recommendation at 7.6 sts/inch. In hand it has a crunchy feel that is delightful. The patterns to support this yarn are all lace stoles. Since I did not have more, I was not able to try out what it would look like in lace. I think this yarn might enter my stash as a single skein to be swatched with further.

WIP Wednesday - a bit late

2008-05-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

This week has been hard. I have barely knit. Maybe a few stolen stitches here and there, but not many since I got back from our anniversary weekend. I have finished a WIP from last week but mostly I have only touched a few things so I will just show you what has changed since last week.

These socks have progressed since last week simply because they were plan stockinette stitch and that was something easy to pick up and put down when I had the chance.

This is the last of my popcorn knits. I really wanted to work on it over the weekend but it was so hot. Malabrigo might be yummy and all but it feels yucky in 90 degree temps without air conditioning. I hope to have this finished soon. I should since we have alot of driving this weekend when we go to visit our friend in Bend.

Lastly I have gathered my yarn for the Labyrinth pattern which is one of the Sexy Knitters Club patterns this time around. I am so excited. We have moved to ravelry and I was asked to be an administrator. It is super exciting but right now in the transition period as we set up the new group site there is a bit more to be done.

FO Friday - The End of the endpaper

2008-05-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang Raveled here
Yarn: Knit picks Gloss in (3/4th skein) Woodland Sage & (2/3rds skein) Serengeti
Needles: US 3 (3.25mm) knit pick's harmony fixed circular for the body & US 2 (2.75mm) knit pick's harmony fixed circular for the ribbing. One bottom ribbing was done in US 0 (2.0mm).

Mods: I used a different tubular cast-on because I could not figure out the suggested one. Otherwise I think I knit these according to the pattern. There was not much to mess with.

Facts to remember: That I need to remember which hand has what color. I knit my color work with the main color in my right and the contrasting color in the left so that I can knit faster. I have done this since my first project. I did not know this was not standard. I did noticed that there is one row at the palm of one mitten which was knit with the strands switched. Most likely me knitting in the car in the dark. Also if increases are made at the edges, a lifted bar increase or a L-rink looks better. One mitt used lifted bar increases and the other I could not remember what I used since it had been 5 months since I did the first mitt, so I used a backwards loop M1. The backwards loop M1 is messier looking than the other mitt.

Things I Love: They fit like a dream. The silk /wool blend which is not too warm or heavy but allows me to do a lot with them on. If I fold the top ribbing inside, I can knit without snagging the mitts. Which is perfect because I knit these so that I would have mitts to wear in the house when it was cold. I like to keep the heat down because we have central air and when I am designing all day I tend to sit in one spot. I find it a bit silly to heat the whole house when I am only using a small corner.

Bobbie: Do you recognize your sweater?

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-05-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

Bamboo splash by Wisdom yarns
5.5 sts/inch on US 6s
100% Bamboo
87 yards. Color 106

This is a machine created variegated yarn. You can tell by the regularity in the pooling. I love bamboo and hoped that I would like this yarn. It was a disappointment. It was too heavy. The gauge I got on US 6s was a bit smaller than the stated gauge and as you can see I ran out of yarn before my swatch was done. I got a gauge of 5.75 sts/inch. Maybe at this gauge it will not drag too much. The recommended patterns for this yarn are cabled sweaters. I could see that the stitch definition would definitely show with the smooth thick yarn.

WIP Wednesday - a big day

2008-05-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

Today is churchable & I's 3rd Anniversary today.
This is a WIP that I hope to have for my whole life.
I love you sweetheart and here is to many more years!

I have been busy making upgrades to the blog and making things work again. We found the archives so those should work again and a google search box will soon be living on the blog sidebar so that you can find useful stuff within the blog.

I also have been getting submissions ready for Interweave. See they are all done and packed up to go early.

Now to my actually knitting WIPs, I don't have many far along because I have really been into popcorn knits. I am getting really high off all the FOs that are flying off the needles. You will see them soon.

First up the Beet that made turtlegirl be interested.

I am pretty sure I am in love with this pattern, I just can't seem to take it every where since there are several balls of yarn to use.

Next up:

This is the second sock for my BIL. He asked for Camo socks last year and loved them so I decided I would make them again. Well basically I will keep making them till he is sick and tired of camo socks.

Lastly

I have been working on a Firebrick Mitten.

I am doing this so that I can answer questions for my test knitters if they ask one where I can't remember what I did and I don't say in the pattern.

We have moved

2008-05-11T17:13:00.001-07:00

Welcome folks,

Pursuit of Fiber the blog has officially moved to its new place on my website. I am checking to see if the RSS is working. There is a little rerouting issue that will take you from the website to blogger and then back to the blog. That is being sorted out.

If you experience any problems please let me know in the comments. And yes I know the comments are missing. I am on top of that one. One way or the other comments will come through. Right now we are back to the blogger comments.

The construction might be a bit busy for the time being but hopefully Matt will be done soon. All hail the great Matt, which reminds me I owe him another hat. So I am off to knit the mighty web designer a hat.

FO Friday - Monkeying around

2008-05-10T00:23:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Monkey socks by Cookie A Raveled here
Yarn: Butternut Woolens Super Sock Yarn (this yarn is being discontinued so no extra facts)
Needles: US 2 (2.75mm) knitpicks harmony fixed circular

Mods: I knit a short row heel with the pattern flowing down into the heel. Since I took my FO pics this week, I was unable to get my heel in the picture. I also allowed the pattern to descend into the toe a bit more. I really had fun working the decreases in the toe along with the pattern.

Facts to remember: You might "know" the pattern but do you really. I somehow forgot half the pattern and made the repeat about half as many rows. I kept wondering why the pattern was flowing so fast and stiffly. Then I figured it out and groaned as I ripped out 2 repeats of the first sock. My DPN gauge and magic loop gauge are just a bit off, enough that one sock pooled and the other barber poled. Also I need to remember there is a too tight sock gauge. I first tried this on US 1 (2.5mm) needles and was confused at the cardboard texture. I think it did not help that I was knitting a woolie wool in Houston as the weather begins to heat up. The yarn was more enjoyable to knit once I was back in the NW.

Things I Love: Doing a simple easy pattern that allows me to design while knitting and that flew off my needles when I neglected it so much.

Reaction of the recipient: I don't know yet, but these and a whole mess of packages are being shipped out on Monday.

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-05-10T00:12:00.000-07:00

This months yarn tasting is ribbon yarns. At the end of the month, I will be putting up a drag report. All the swatches are hanging on my bulletin board in the studio to determine if they will grow from the gravity.

Tiziana by GGH yarns
4.25 sts/inch on US 7s
75% rayon, 15% silk, 10% nylon
132 yards. color: 006

This ribbon yarn was pleasant to touch. I loved the texture created, but it is not a yarn to sit back and zone out with while knitting. The looseness of the ribbon weave causes the needles to poke through and pick up the stitch in the wrong place. I definitely think this will jazz up a plain stockinette pattern by adding texture. All the patterns, I have seen have been lace. These are the patterns GGH decided would best display the yarn. I would like to say that was a poor use of a lovely lofty yarn. Part of me feels that this could be a great lightweight yarn for worsted weight garments. I might even go up to a US 8 needle since the 7 gave me about .5 stitch more per inch. This is something I could see designing with. I just am not sure if it will survive the season with such poor pattern choices.

WIP Wednesday - UFOs

2008-05-07T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well I have not had too much time to knit away but I have been plugging along on my endpaper mitts. I really want to finish these since I want to wear them. The pattern is so easy to follow and understand.

I hope to be finished with these by next week. Then I can cast on for some new projects. Hopefully my skirt and a giant Beet.

I hope your week is going well, I am plugging along on some swatches. I think it is interesting that I don't mind knitting a project with tiny stitches if I am making progress but a large square swatch makes me want to hurt myself. The pains of designing.

Weekend & Contest winnings

2008-05-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend started out with a trip down the river to get our first CSA farm share of the year. I was so excited. I had missed having a farm share last year. This farm also seemed to meet my expectations of a CSA. If you click on the photo, you will see what we received. Somehow the salad mix and braising greens snuck out of the bag and did not make it home. No worries. I think we will be able to finish off all this food this week.

Meal Plan:

1. French Toast (made with Irish Soda Bread & fresh eggs) & Potato Pancakes (from the PPP).
2. Beet Risotto with Fish
3. Bok Choi Gratin with Chicken

I had also planned to make Mac & Cheese with the Braising Greens but since they escaped, I will have to make other plans.

Saturday morning's plan was to wake up at 5AM to head to Whidbey Island for Earthdog Trials. We woke up an entire hour and a half late and so Lexi was unable to be signed up to compete but we went to go figure out if she would be good at it. It was a successful trip. We did not stay for the Ratting for Rating class because churchable had to be at work at 5AM on Sunday.

I took the above photo on the ride there. Lexi and Frankie were all twined up together. This one got me since Lexi was being used as a pillow.

We came home and had a tiring evening since churchable lost his cellphone. He went back to find it but it was gone. Some teen girl had taken it and refused to answer our calls until she had used it all evening. The funny child thought that by erasing the call history that we would not know who she called or how much she had used it. Thank goodness for unlimited nights & weekends and unlimited texting. I think what caused her to return the phone was my threat of turning off the phone. Oh well at least it is back and unharmed. I had given it up as lost by the time she called to say she would return it.

Sunday was spent dealing with the girl in the morning, but by the afternoon I was hanging out with my good buddy Kat. We went down to Portland to visit a store and then out for an early dinner. It was all for my birthday. It is great to have friends that remember and make things special without being too much.

Now I know you guys probably don't care about the weirdness that is my life of yarn, doxies, bunnies and a loving husband. So on to the prizes,

WHO WON!

the winners were emailed earlier today since I have been a bit tired from the overly busy weekend.

I have six winners since we bumped my comments to be the most comments left in the history of my blog.

Winners of Alisa
Christine
Knittin' Diva

Butternut Woolen (this yarn is discontinued - story here)
Amy

Malabrigo merino worsted Black
Alisa

Mystery Laceweight
Erin

A cone of Fingering weight yarn for the comment buster.
The winning comment was left at 8:18PM by Turtlegirl, but.....
she did not leave it on the contest post so that meant I passed the prize on to the next person.
And that was at 10:27PM by........
Sharon of Stitch Jones.

Thank you all for participating. I had 52 entries with bonus points over that to a total of 73 random numbers too choose from.

Alisa is live!

2008-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to be able to present my baby Alisa to you. She has come along way from an idea that I created for a secret pal way back in SP10. She is now a full fledged pattern ready to be knit by all.

Purchasing locations: Ravelry & Website

Remember all proceeds go to ravelry for the first two weeks that Alisa is on sale. After that time, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to ravelry, because I don't know if I would have been as prepared and ready to do this if it was not for the designer groups on ravelry.

I would love to thank my hard working test knitters Erica & Knittymuggins. They helped with so much it is amazing. Erica made sure the largest sizes was decent for all. Knittymuggins made sure that the beginners were not lost.

Don't forget you have another 12 hours till midnight to enter the contest. I will post the winners either Sunday night or Monday morning. I am busy with Earthdog trials this weekend.

FO Friday - Catrack Cowl

2008-05-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

So the design juices have been flowing and last Wednesday I could not sleep so I cast on a new thing. Let me introduce the Cattrack Cowl. Perfect mix of yarn and pattern.

Many of you might be watching the cowl craze sweep the internet. Back in November, I knit a giant swatch that have been wearing all the time. I love it so much that I put away all the scarfs. I thought it was high time I bring another cowl into my collection. I will be sharing it with ya'll as soon as the test knitters finish with it.

This cowl is knit using the twined knitting technique. My husband saw it as I neared completion and felt that it looked like Cat tracks up on the mountains. We love winter sports but don't always have time to go up to the mountains and enjoy the snow. Now I have a reminder of the trails that we enjoy.

Now you probably wonder what happens to those pictures that don't make the cut, I mess with them to have fun. See don't you like the cool funkiness of it all.

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-05-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

4-4.25sts/inch on US 9s
30% Cotton, 30% viscose, 20% Angora, 20% Polyamide
102 yds, Color: CS 127

This yarn is super cozy. I for sure would not want an entire stockinette sweater out of this yarn. It is super cozy and warm. It is a little itchy on my sensitive skin. It would be a good candidate for an airy cardigan. I just don't feel what this could be but I love that it worked up nicely to the recommended gauge. If you want to mess around with the super warm Angora, this yarn is a good choice at aprox $7 a skein.

WIP Wednesday

2008-04-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Many of you are probably here to find out about Alisa. Sadly, I feel I need to delay release. The three smallest sizes work, but the largest two sizes are having problems. My test knitter Erica is on it. So I guess this is a WIP. Erica talks about it over on her blog. The new date is only a few days away. Since a few of you probably will wait to purchase when the contest ends, the new release date is Saturday May 3rd. So sorry everyone. I want this pattern to fit everyone right so please be patient.

My monkeys are flying along. These socks are turning out to be more of a winter weight pair of socks than summer socks. Since my pal lives in the Northern half of the US, I hope that it is all ok.

I just received another present. I won a blog contest and I was allowed to choose from a list of books. Since I missed the Yarn Harlot's visit to town, I requested her new book. Churchable and I will enjoy reading it.

Have a great day and I hope your week has been good. Our little pocket of Washington has been enjoying clear sunny skies.

What a birthday it was?!

2008-04-29T12:00:00.001-07:00

The weather decided to be good almost all weekend. Sunday was a bit overcast and had the usual drip drip of the Northwest. As you can see from Saturday's post, the weather was nice enough on Friday to allow me to get pics without grimacing in cold pain. Actually it was rather pleasant during the photo shoot and when I did go out into the surf, it did not seem cold. Oh no, I am acclimating to this coast's idea of what beach water should feel like. Saturday was spent with family and walking along the beach. I got my husband and Bud (the little sil of Arwen fame) to go with me into a yarn store, even though all they wanted to do was head back to the beach and dive into the surf (tis not my idea of a fun activity but they are native washingtonians).

Sunday was spent saying our goodbyes and heading home. We stopped at Ecola park (my favorite park on the coast), which is just at the northern end of Cannon Beach and went for a short hike before the skies opened up and left us wanting our car and something dry and warm.

Upon arriving home, I found tons of comments for my contest and the Schrodinger Cube Bag in my mail slot. The observant among you might have noticed the yarn in the bag. I'll wait while you scroll up and see if you see it.........................................

................ What!?? you did not see it. Fine I guess I will have to show you. I got it monday morning, not with the bag. That would have been nice but I don't know Jen that well. I just love her box bags. This brings me to the total of 3. Oh and one more thing before I share about the yarn. If you are my monkey pal and don't have a bag for me (not that you to), but she has a monkey cube on her site. Now run not walk over there and see it. Isn't it lovely and classy? Ok I will stop being pushy with the bags, I still want to buy them for myself and not make her always be out of stock.

Now the yarn is sock yarn. Well what else would it be. I don't have friends that are so generous that they would give me a sweaters worth of nice yarn. No but my walking buddy whom I taught to knit, got me a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I gave away my only skein in my blogiversary so I was waiting on a cool color to show up at our LYS. My friend got me this wild one called Firestorm. I think there is almost every color in it. so lovely. What Huh you want to see it? Oh right why else would you read me. Ok yarn Prn for ya'll to enjoy. Hmmm.... just a moment, I seem to have not uploaded it to the web.

Ahhh there much better. Now don't forget to enter the contest if you haven't yet.

Dude, what are you doing inside?

2008-04-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Mr. Bun feels that once the month of April appears, we should be hanging out outside without a stupid doxie around to herd him into heart racing palpitations. No fear Mr. Bun, I think we can work out something if you are willing to wear a leash.

Tis strange to be answering a question about May flowers and April showers and what I would be doing on when the April showers are showering, since I am sitting outside in the sun blogging. Glorious sun! Here we have april showers every month of the year. It is the rare occasion that it does not rain in the Northwet.

A better question for me would be, what do you do when the sun shines. Well I will answer both. We know Mr. Buns opinion on the matter. How about mine?

April Showers make me curl up and knit. Now that we have a wood stove in the living room, I can be found with a kettle boiling on the stove and a fire within. Tis my fav, but then I have always loved the cool weather. I like sweaters and woolie things. I prefer to ask churchable to set up the fire the night before, but sometimes he is busy or the day was not expected to be so chill. On those days, I hop across the doxie intimidating grass (tis hard when you are only a foot tall and the grass grows like a weed and needs to be mowed the day after it was mowed) and fetch wood from the shed.

Now this year has been odd and we have not had many warm days yet. Two years ago when Care Bear was visiting from Michigan, it was so hot we both got burnt from hanging out in the backyard. I love to go outside and dink around in the dirt and clean up. I am not much for gardening when the weather is unpleasant. Call me a fair weather gardener and I will take it with pride. I think this year I will be pulling my laptop and knitting out to the hammock under the tree to chill all day long. Now if only I could figure out a resting place for my glass of iced coffee; I would be completely happy.

Happy Birthday too meeee!! A contest

2008-04-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

ETA: pics of prize yarn and details about comment moderation.

So today is my 29th birthday for the first time. No silliness here about 29th for the 29th time or anything like that. I am almost ready to release Alisa.

I thought I would share a few pics here on anticipation of the release. I hope that you are not too overwhelmed. We did take 84 pictures and still need to do another photo shoot since churchable did not get a great picture of the whole sweater so that people would get a good impression of the overall look.

Don't worry I don't have that many photos to show ya'll. Just enough to wet your love of this simple summer sweater.

At this moment Alisa has been perfected through bust size 38". The two largest sizes need the shoulder shaping reworked so hopefully they will be all nice and ready for the 30th.

Now this last photo, tis rather good. It was on flickr for a matter of minutes and already had several views. I took it because I wanted to show that it is long enough to be worn as a beach cover-up.

So it is my birthday today and that means I want to have a contest. There are several prizes. Everyone should find something they like. If you prefer not to win one of the prizes, let me know and I will take you off that list.

Contest:

leave a comment with your name and your email in the email spot (I will be the only person to see that part) and if you participate in the posting bit then leave the link in the post for extra points.
tell me what makes you happy. Pictures are great. I would love if you blogged about it or you could post a pic in flickr and leave a comment in the description about why this makes you happy. You don't have to post outside the comments about your happy thing but you will get added to the drawing a second time if you do post about it.
tell others about the contest. Yes this is just my way of getting more people here. I want to see my blog feed have 100 or more subscribers. I have between 75 & 80 right now. This will also get you another spot in the drawing.

Now you are all wondering about the prizes. Well since Alisa is coming out now, I will be giving out a free pattern to 2 lucky people. Details about Alisa here and ravelry. The other prizes are yarn.

Butternut Woolen sock yarn (local blogger and dyer)

Black Malabrigo Merino Worsted

This is the mystery laceweight yarn. I don't know what it is. My stash has an unhealthy amount of unmarked laceweight and I don't knit lace. I am sure this was recent addition to the stash, say last 5 years. For those of you who would like a better description, here is a close up pic.

I took this picture without the flash because it has a shiny fiber in it that washes out easily.

So read that folks, 5 prizes to be won. Any questions about Alisa, can be directed below and I will have a blog post up later with answers to those questions. If I get enough entries there might be more goodies appearing. I have been blessed lately by yarn and other goodies.

Thanks and have a great day. Oh and you have a week to enter the contest. Next Saturday at 11:59 PM PST is the end.

PS: those of you posting to the contest. This blog has moderated comments so you only need to press publish once, a notice will be sent to me and I will agree to publish. All multiple comments have been left unpublished. Typically I get comments up within 24 hours or less. Anything left on a Tuesday goes unverified till Wednesday since I take a day where I don't turn on the computer all day so that I can focus on designing and other important facts.

PSS: Thanks for all the interest and participation. IF we keep this up, I will have a post with the most comments ever and the highest commented month.

FO Friday - the simple but great

2008-04-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Pattern: A Hat fit for a Boyfriend by Stephanie Nicole Raveled here
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted 1/2 skein (100g/216 yds) in Black. (100% merino wool)
Needles: US 7 (4.5mm) Knitpick's Interchangeables.

Mods: This pattern was super easy it was so hard to change anything. The pattern as written finishes at the tip of the ears. In it there is a suggested mod if the ears are to be covered. It said to knit for an extra inch. Since the recipient has almost the same size head as mine, I felt that it only needed an extra 1/2" to be long enough.

Facts to remember: Malabrigo hats are so cozy you don't want to give them to the owners because they are just so perfect.

Things I Love: What is there not to love about malabrigo and a simple but perfect hat pattern?

Reaction of the recipient: He loved it even though I should have gone for the whole extra 1" to the pattern. When he came by yesterday, he was wearing it. Just so you know this hat maybe for a boyfriend but it was knit for a friend. Actually the friend who worked up my website.

Aren't these decreases great?

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-04-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Invernal by Aslantrends
4.75 sts/inch on US 7s
50% Angora Rabbit, 25% Merino, 25% Nylon
295 yards, Color 162

This swatch is so subtle. I think it is like my grumpy bunny. It wins you over with its soft fuzzy nature even though you suspect it might grouch at you for knitting something unexpected from it. The swatch worked up smaller than recommended. It was supposed to be 4.5 sts/inch. Of course the likelihood of knitting this up into a stockinette garment is slim. I would roast especially here in the mild mannered NW. Of course if I lived in the lakes region of the US, I would most likely have wanted a fully angora sweater. It would have made me super toasty and I would survive the huge snow drifts that occurred this year. The yarn is fuzzy and soft on my face, neck, and other sensitive bits. As of yet, I don't know about the wear and pill factor.

This is a yarn I would for sure use. Something lacy but simple to allow the yarn to shine.

Does the Spring time make me feel like diggin in?

2008-04-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

This weeks topic for the coffee swap is about how green is our thumb.

Well I might have been interested in getting out and growing things in years past before I started blogging and designing knitting garments. Now I hope my yard does not die from neglect. The houseplants have been weeding out which of them survives on once a week watering. The gerber daisies seem to have survived the winter (they can be seen sprouting next to the Endpaper mitts in the earlier post.) My roses seem to be doing better with the neglect.

I would love to do more, but with the whole discussion and plans to build an addition to the house. Things have stalled because most of my usable garden space will be under the addition. We have enough yard to move it all to new locations but as of yet we don't know the exact footprint set in stone.

For now I get my veggies from a local farm through a CSA share. It starts the first weekend in May. I am excited to see what we get. This year has been so cold that it might be good or it might be a bit sparse.

Now if I really had all the time in the world and the perfect house, would I still choose to sit and knit and ignore the landscaping. Hmmm.... would I also not live in the Northwet? My biggest challenge with gardening here is that it is not always nice. I do get out on rainless warm day and trim up the plants. My biggest complaint is the weeds. They make me want to give up and just knit.

WIP Wednesday - the 2nd part

2008-04-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

Last week you saw the start of this little monkey sock. Well it flew off the needles just as fast as everyone says they should. Yes I cast-on Tuesday last week but had to rip what I had done twice. I seem to have forgotten the pattern in the 6 1/2 months since I finished the last pair of monkeys. Well all is well now and the first sock was done on DPNs since my 2.75mm circulars were back in Washington. Now that I am home, I switched the second sock onto my 2.75mm circular. I guess this is the test of a gauge change from one knitting method to another.

As you probably notice, the last few WIP posts have been taken outside. It is all in compliance with PS3: Earth. Greens, Browns & Metallics rule the day. Don't you love the green flowers on my tree. They are so funky. I have no clue what they are. If anyone knows I would love an answer.

The Endpaper Mitts have been pulled out again. I told myself I had to finish a UFO before I could start my skirt. I really want to cast-on for it. I have 3 balls of yarn wound and my friend is planning on knitting it with me. This weekend may show a new pair of mitts to wear at the coast.

Don't forget to check back on Saturday for my contest. I have decided that there are many levels to enter yourself and each level gets you another chance at winning. There will be 3 prizes. Something for every kind of knitter.

Yarn Blessings

2008-04-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

When you come home to this much yarn on your front door and in your suitcase, is your trip a success? I picked up a few yarns while I was away. Some are for gifts, some are for swatching, some are for me. There is some stainless steel yarn hiding out in there waiting for me to start a project that will probably bore me to tears but a Kush Kush scarf is so fun to play with I can't resist. I also had a few orders and a few prizes and a sock club package arrive.

It is an over abundance of yarn. And I keep winning stuff. The prize I got while away was from the plucky knitter. She specially dyed yarn for me from a contest winning. It is the moss green in the lower right hand corner of the photo. Just yesterday I discovered that I had won prizes from Malabrigo March. I get to have the coveted Malabrigo sock yarn that is not yet available. What did I do to deserve all this? and yet another prize was slapped on my full plater last night as I was checking blogs one last time. I won a book from our local knitting blog from area newspaper. Part of me does not want to enter anything else but just maybe something will come my way again.

Look for a contest this weekend as I start some festivities. What festivities pray tell are these? Well if you have not been reading closely then you will have to wait and see. I do know there will be some sort of participation and these prizes will be good. I have been blessed with a bit of yarn lately.

FO Friday - another long awaited item

2008-04-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

The sock decided since it had traveled this far across the country that it would stop for a dip. It was enjoying the warmth compared to its birthplace up in the cold wet pacific northwest. Here in Texas it is pleasant and warm. It makes a wool sock feel that it is not needed so it can have a life of leisure.

This life of leisure means sunning itself beside the pool. It made sure to drink enough water so as not to dehydrate its wool parts. It thinks, "people should treat me with respect and love me for who I am, I am a wool/silk sock with bold-jewel tones and a complicated lace pattern."

This big headed sock saunters over to the pool again. This time it wants to do a fancy dive into the pool, but wait it sees a sign that warns of head damage if a dive is done. The sock shakes its wee little head and climbs back on its pool chair. As it is taking a swig of its lemon spiked water, some evil person grabs it and sets it next to a bunch of stuff to be stuffed in a box for a long trip to ......

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A Raveled here
Yarn: Great Adirondack Yarn Co Silky Sock 1 skein 100g/ 360 yds (70% wool, 20 % silk, 10 % nylon)
Needles: Knitpicks circular US 1 (2.25 mm) & Us 1.5 (2.50mm)

Mods: I knew I needed to shrink these socks from a US 9 woman's foot to a US 2.5 foot. The method to my madness was to take a yarn that knit up in a micro gauge and just knit the pattern as written. I knit the lace rib portion in a US 1.5 and the sole of the sock in US 1. It turned out perfectly and it fits over my foot a bit snuggly so it will fit perfectly.

Facts to remember: Check your gauge and don't get so high and mighty. I thought I could shrink it by using this skinny yarn and US 0 (2.00mm). That for sure turned out too tight at a whopping 5" circumference it was a no go. My second attempt came up preschooler sized. The third attempt fit but it was a snug fit. I was not prepared to send someone a sock that needed to be tugged heavily on especially one with a small child. At this point I knew that whatever I did next it would fit. So my fourth attempt came out just perfect.

Things I Love: The yarn frogged like a dream, which must mean it will wear beautifully. It never saw signs of distress after all those repeated froggings. The colors pooled just right. A perfect sock in my mind.

Reaction of the recipient: All that is left is to find out my pals response. She should be receiving them soon.

Thursday - Yarn Tastings

2008-04-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Seduce by Berroco
5sts/inch on US 7s
47% Rayon, 25% Linen, 17% Silk, 11% Nylon
100 yards, Color: 4448

I wanted to love this yarn. It was so slinky and slippery. It is stated to be a worsted weight yarn. I am not too thrilled at how open the swatch is in stockinette. If I had my yarn I would have swatched a lace pattern. I think a lace stole or shawl would be lovely in this yarn. It is just not a garment yarn for me. Norah designed a garment in this yarn. It is lovely and looks great on all body shapes. I just don't know if this is something I would knit at this gauge.

For all you lace lovers, go search out this yarn for drapy lovely shawls that will glisten in the firelight. It blocks beautifully.

WIP Wednesday - brought to you by the word : Earth

2008-04-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

Alisa is chugging along. Not too fast but at least I am making progress and I still have a week and a half before my must be done or panic date. There will be preview pictures of Alisa posted on my birthday April 26th. I am sure I will be done before next week starts since I will be at a retreat all weekend and what do you do at a retreat but listen to people talk and knit while listening. It is such a nice relaxing activity. Can you get a sense of the beauty that Alisa will be? Knittymuggins who just finished testing it, fell in love with it when she tried it on. I can't wait to show ya'll the perfect spring top. Ok well maybe not perfect but comfy and cool top.

I seem to have a new sock sitting here in the dirt. Might it mean that I am done with a certain troublesome sock?!?! Well you will have to wait till Friday to check out the FOs that have climbed off my needles. The new sock is being a bit shy. First it made me think that it would knit up nicely on 2.5mm sock needles. Well maybe a st st sock, but not a fancy monkey in need of flexibility to do its monkey antics. So I switched it up to a 2.75mm DPN set. Hopefully this size works out better. Right now the lovely wool of Butternut woolens is not so nice here in the heat of Houston. I kind of need the cool Washington weather to knit on these. For a moment I thought I had grabbed some strange acrylic sock yarn to knit with, which I knew was false but man does the humidity get me here. I feel sorry for Texas knitters.

I was an odd duck as a child. Aren't we all.

2008-04-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Orata tagged me for: 7 random things about me.

The rules are:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

My seven random facts:

1. I am allergic to petroleum products. Those of you who actually take time to read my swap info when it gets posted may realize this, because I keep rewording it to make it more explicit and exact so that my pals are not disappointed that I can't use the items they send me. I can't use anything that does not tell me the source of glycerin, lanolin (yes this can be fake), mineral oil, and parafin. I have decided that I got this allergy because my family line has always worked in the oil fields. I can trace back the ancestors that worked in Pennsylvania on the first discovered oil fields in the US. Now almost 150 years later, the toxins have built up and I have to watch everything I use. Foods, medicines, bath products, cleaning products, etc contain one of these ingredients on a normal basis. Sometimes I can find products that state that it is not made with petroleum but rather vegetable or animal based. Those are rare. As oil prices climb higher it might become more common, but who knows.

2.I love to listen to music, who doesn't, but I can't tell you a musicians name to save my life. My husband thought it was so funny that the first two years we were together, he would ask me “Who sings this?” I never was right and every time it was the Beatles. Yes I don't “know” the Beatles music. Occasionally he will catch me humming a song and go ah ha I knew you knew. I will look at him puzzles and ask know what. “Don't you know you are humming a Beatles tune?” “Really what song?” This can continue for hours till he realizes I really don't have a clue.

In High School I was always baffled by the people who said you should not listen to certain songs because the lyrics have bad values. I would ask for an example and scratch my head because the song had a rocking beat. I was always on the look out for the best sounding song. It was all about the beat and the mix of beat plus sound. It was no surprise that European Techno was my ticket to happiness. Words mean nothing to me in a song. It is all about the overall sound.

3. I spent the first 3 years of high school on 3 different continents. Asia, Europe and North
America. I tried to angle for a 4th for my final year of high school, but my parents felt that I had moved enough.

4. I used to wear a hoop skirt, petticoats, and pantaloons under my dress every Sunday when I went to church as a child. I even still have the hoop skirt under the bed in my studio. My nickname was Anne of Green Gables.

5. All my dresses up until I was 12 years old, were made by my grandmother. She used to take me to Saks Fifth Avenue and let me try on dresses, then we would go to the fabric store and pick out the fabric that fit with the style of my favorite dress. I had a new handmade dress for every easter and Christmas. The Christmas dress was always velvet.

6. When asked “Where is your wife from?” my husband tells people “I don't know. Texas?”

7. I have chronic finishitis. I can't leave UFOs around. It is an affront to my person. The only reason one happens to be around is because I have deadlines but as soon as I have a little free time that UFO comes back to be a WIP.

I’m tagging:
1. Knittymuggins
2. Robin
3. Indigo mouse
4. Hilary
5. Rebecca
6. Turtlegirl
7. Heide

When did you start your addiction?

2008-04-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

Of course we all have addictions. Some are legal and some are not so legal. If you are reading this blog, you probably have a thing for needles and yarn. Maybe you also like a little FO every once and a while. If you're me you might have a huge thing for FO. I can't get enough of them and the cool thing is that I can get at least one a week unless I am struggling with something like the Big Green Monster.

Now I feel a little dirty after writing all that, but I have another addiction. I started a bit younger than most. I have to blame the start of this addiction on my mother. She would cringe every time I would tell people at the age 5 that “I loved coffee” and people would look at her like she was crazy for giving me this adult beverage. Ok so it was not straight coffee it was as my husband likes his coffee, a little coffee with my milk. My mother allowed me to heat up milk in the microwave (a new to us and came with the house appliance) and then place an exact number of instant coffee crystals in my coffee. The number of crystals was based on my age. So when I tell you that I loved the taste of coffee and that I am very picky, you understand that I learned to discern the taste of milk with and without and I loved the special little taste that coffee added. I also loved things made with coffee.

It was another 5 years later at the age of 10 that I tasted real full blooded coffee. I was being watched by a friend of the family who did not have kids. That evening there was an adult function which I attended with my parents since I was practically a mini adult from the years of being an only child and only grandchild. I got to help this friend get ready. She asked me if I would like to make the coffee. I said ok and started to get out what I considered “coffee stuff.” After she finished laughing at my choice of items, she taught me how to set up Mr. Coffee. Her way quite intrigued me. She used ground coffee but she added ground cinnamon (my favorite breakfast cereal additive, yes odd, but remember only grandchild here). After it finished brewing, she let me have a taste and let me have it black, then with a little sugar, and then with cream added. Of course I needed all those things because of my little milk with coffee habit.

But by the time I reached 15 and had moved out of the house (ok moved to boarding school), I had developed a full blown coffee habit. I got myself down to black Kenya AA coffee. The stuff was heaven in a mug. I loved it and my 2 pot a day habit (listen don't judge me it was only a 4-cup coffee maker). Maybe a bit much because at the age of 18 my body started rejecting caffeine. This was totally not fair because chocolate had also become off limits to me. Chocolate made me lose my lunch (even the smell of it) and Coffee made me have convolution. Upon graduation from high school, I cut out the coffee and learned to love tea. Let me tell you, I thought tea was vial. Most disgusting stuff ever. The only stuff in the college cafe that I could bear to drink was the mint tea. After a year of drinking mint tea I loved the cool menthol taste. I stayed off coffee for a total of two years.

During that time I loved my mint, but I had discovered Chai tea. Yes yes that means tea in another language but Chai had this almost coffee flavor that I loved. It lead me back into coffee. It did not help that if a guy wanted to hang out with you but not “ask you out”, they would ask if you wanted to go for coffee. Now this coffee house things was new to me. They had all these strange words on the reader board. I tried them all. At first I picked and chose what sounded interesting, pretty soon I get started with the first item and worked my way down. I was back to my old love of milk and coffee. The latte was picked for the nice coffee flavor and its cheap price tag and giant mug. I could sip at it all night and not get another.
As graduation drew near, I looked for a place to attend art school. I wanted to knit for a living but first I wanted a degree in art. Where else did I land but in the Pacific Northwest, the land o Starbucks. I started heading to Starbuck because my fav store was not out here. I stuck to drinking Chai lattes since I did not really care for the taste of 4buck's house coffee. Luck would not allow me to continue drinking my Chai's and coffee because my convolutions came back. Stupid things. At this point I switched to herbal chai (without a speck of caffeine) and Steamers. I never felt deprived but my coffee maker felt deprived.

My return back to coffee was 3 years ago. I probably drink on an irregular basis the same amount of coffee that I did back when I was in High School. I don't have an every day habit, because I don't need the caffeine but I love the taste and nothing can chase that love away. I hope I have kicked the convolutions in the teeth. Every allergist I have visited has told me there is no part of coffee that could cause me those problems nor do I have an allergy any more.

I know I have become spoiled living in the abundant land of coffee where on every corner. Even out in the sparsely populated areas, you can find a coffee shack (for the uninformed, this is a trailer like building that is permanently placed in the middle of a parking lot so that you just drive up and get what you need.) I realize this every time, I leave the NW, because I miss being able to decide I want coffee instead of having to hunt for coffee. I know there are 4bucks in every state in the Union but I don't go there. It is not anything thing against big business or any such thing. I just don't like the burnt coffee I can taste every time I get a glass.

Currently I am in the fifth largest city in the US, in the land of my birth, but I think the only coffee place I have seen has been Starbucks. Any one know a good coffee place in Houston?

FO Friday - 3 snacks for the price of one.

2008-04-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Fiona Baby Sundress (pdf) by Staci Perry Raveled here
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease 1.7 skeins (100grams / 207yards) 50% Cotton /50% Acrylic
Needles: Crystal Palace US 7

Mods: I did not do a CC or the i-cord straps. Plus I forgot my cable needle and had to improvise.

Facts to remember: Check that there is enough ribbon to make all 4 straps the same color. Yes I only have two of the cute lime wedge ribbon straps. I had enough for 3 but not 4.

I hate Cotton-ease. I don't know about the rest of you but it taxes my hands like no other and it is not that it is made of cotton. Alisa that I am knitting up right now is made from Cotlin which is definitely not forgiving. It has to be something about the acrylic. I am hoping that the Comfy that I ordered from Knitpicks will be better on my hands. I already picked out a pattern for it to try it out.

Things I Love: I loved the annoying pleats they totally make this dress. I would love to make this again for another kid if I find a better yarn.

Reaction of the recipient: Well she is about 6 months old and was crawling in the opposite direction so I am going to say undecided. Her mother loved it and gave me a hug. This is the second baby gift I have given them since the first was wool and the mom was a bit scared to wash it so never used it.

Since I still had extras of this yarn and I did not want it hanging around, I looked on ravelry for a pattern and came up with this quicky.

Pattern: Basketweave Headband by Carissa Browning Raveled here
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease 1/3 skein for both (100grams / 207yards) 50% Cotton /50% Acrylic
Needles: Crystal Palace US 7 DPNs

Mods: None I did not have enough time to come up with any mods.

Facts to remember: That I knit these because they were so fast

Things I Love: These were fast. I had 2 done in less than 24 hours and that included sleeping for 10 and going to church and well let's just say very little actually needle time.

Reaction of the recipient: I gave one to the mother who the baby dress went to and the other is for my Coffee Swap partner. It is one of the Spring Handmade things.

There you have it. I jumped into PS3: Earth with both feet and finished 3 projects in less than one week. We will see how much further I will get.

Thursday - yarn tasting

2008-04-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Tsumugi Silk Combo (A-111) by Habu
5 st/ inch on US 7s
100% silk
156 yards, color: HA1

I was really hoping to love this yarn. I love Habu yarns. You don't see many here on this blog because I primarily weave with them and have not done much recently. This yarn made me swoon in the small little skein but upon casting on it was tight and uncomfortable. I thought oh it just has sizing on it. Wait till it washes up, it will be breathtaking. Nope not a bit. I could knit a shape with it and then mold it about a frame work. I think this yarn will do better in the weaving world with its cousin A-1 Tsumugi Silk. I have a few skeins of A-1 and hoped for better results. Well maybe A-1 will need to come out of hiding but A-111 was sadly lacking in what I look for in a knitting yarn. It had everything I hope for in a weaving yarn.

WIP Wednesday

2008-04-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

I have now cast-on for Alisa. I need one that matches the pattern now that it has become a fully polished pattern. My prototype sadly is not exactly like the Alisa. I am loving the knitting. It is going so smoothly and I can't wait to wear it. I am pushing for a finish while I am in Texas. Maybe I can get some shots on the beach to add to the pattern pages. The colors kind of go with this segment of PS3: Earth. The linen color is a browny white so Brown it is.

The second sock is chugging along. The goal is to be done on Friday or before so I guess my needles need to click along for the next two days.

Well I am in the midst of packing, I already packed for my retreat weekend. I drop that off last night at my meeting. Once I leave for Texas, I don't come back home till after David even though I leave Texas a good 12 hours earlier. I am headed to a retreat with a group of women that I lead. I am not the only knitter but I am a bit of an oddity because I don't care if people see me knitting. I have had so many women ask if they can sit with me and knit because they don't feel weird since someone else is doing it.

I have several bloggers that I will get to meet up with while I am in Texas. Plans are finalizing because I don't want to fill my time with knitter meet-ups all the time, but I would love to. Now what knitting to pack to impress the other knitter's. What kind of knitting impresses another knitter? What kind of knitting impresses you? Do you even care?

Look for a new weekly post tomorrow.

A big thanks & coffee swap topic 2

2008-04-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

Since some of us is beginning to see glimpse of Spring, while others are still getting snow have you change what projects are working on?

Since I am a beginning designer, I don't always work in the season. I have to work with wool when it is hot and cottons and silks when it is cold.

Have you put away the hats, scarfs and mittens, and brought out the cute tank top sweater projects and lacy wraps?

I have put away my heavy scarfs and hats, but still have fingerless mitts and a wool ear band to wear when I go walking in the morning. My tank tops are still being worn over or under long sleeve shirts.

Have you change yarn to something more lighter and cooler, not so heavy and bulky?

I do have one project waiting in the wings for myself. I am knitting the skirt from the Spring 2008 Interweave Knits in a silk linen blend.

The socks are ones that I received from a secret swap partner from a group on ravelry. You knit someone a pair of socks as a symbol of the prayers your have said on their behalf. Many of you know I have been struggling with one particular pair of socks, the pomatomus socks that I am knitting are for this swap. I am officially late. I just reached the heel of the second sock so I hope to be done soon.

My partner was sitandspin over on ravelry. I don't think she has a blog but she was a wonderful partner. I had a blast getting to know her this swap. She also included this in my package.

The small yarn balls are leftovers from my socks. The large skein of Tempted is the same brand as my socks. I love the feel of my socks. I got the package Saturday morning as I was walking out the door for a local political convention and I put them on immediately and wore them for the next 3 days. So comfy and smooth on my feet. The blue yarn is silk yarn that my partner spun for me. It is so pretty I don't yet know what to do with it. Maybe make a little something special.

FO Friday - Arwen is finally done

2008-04-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

Look at those rain drops just hanging out.

So Bud came for 2 days of her Spring Break and I roped her into posing in her Cardigan for Arwen / Christmas present 07 / Big Green Monster. I know a few of your have heard me harrumphing about this project and that I was super frustrated because I am so much faster than 3 1/2 months for a sweater. Well I love the results but I really hate knitting those reversible cables. Some people hate twisted ribbing but I have found I love twisted ribbing because it requires less hand movement and I can speed through a project. That alone proves that every pattern has someone who really really loves it while some hate it with a passion.

The elfen godess allowing the rain to kiss her

Pattern: Cardigan for Arwen by Kate Gilbert Interweave Knits Winter 2006 also on KG's site
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Worsted 13 skeins (100% Superwash Merino Wool) 50 grams/110 yds
Needles: Knitpicks Harmony US 8

Mods: I lengthened the sweater to 23". I knit the back and BO but the once the fronts had reached the shoulder BO, I unpicked the back BO and did a 3 needle BO. I liked that result so much better. I then knit the sleeves and seamed everything up. Lastly I did the hood all in one piece and then grafted the top together. I wish I had seen this mod because I might have done it instead for an easier fit, but Kate Gilbert does have a new version on her website which she added somethings like sleeve mods and length and has fitting tips.

Facts to remember: I hate reversible cables but love the look. I remember reading an article by Lily Chin about 7 years ago on reversible cables and I thought the idea was genius. I wanted to do all cable projects in reversible cables. Well loving the idea and actually doing them is two different stories. I now have done them and I still love the idea but not sure if I ever want to do them again. I still am intrigued by the Inside Outside socks from the STR 2007 sock club.

I also need to remember that I might know that the measurement is right and will fit the person but they might like some ease in the sleeve. My SIL is a 13" bicep circumference and it is a bit snug. It is great with a tank on but anything with sleeves creates arm bumps. This is also something I need to be better about in my patterns. I think I add enough ease to the sleeves and at times they are just right. (I also suspect that CYC bicep measurements are a bit slim)

Things I Love: The cables, the hood, the length and well how cute she looks in the sweater I decided to knit her Thanksgiving of 2006 because what would any teenager who loved the Lord of the Rings, taught herself elvish (reading, writing and speaking) and has several movie replicas of Arwen want, but this cardigan.

Reaction of the recipient: She loved it and it fit perfectly after a good blocking. Thank goodness for gauge swatches that don't lie. Yes you read that. I did a swatch and it did not lie.

The rain was being annoying and would not stop till like 10 minutes after we left.

Yada Yada Sock Kit Swap

2008-04-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

Yada Yada Sock Kit Swap
Originally uploaded by rchrispy

I received this lovely little package yesterday from my pal who does not have a blog but does have a ravelry presence.

The swap was within the Christian Book Club Group on Ravelry and was a book swap plus items to create a sock (yarn and pattern).

My pal also included handmade cards, stitch markers and two samples of coffee.

WIP Wednesday

2008-04-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the dust here on the blog. My husband launched my website early. It reroutes you back to the blog from the blog button, but I want it to live over on the website. Those of you on RSS will not have to worry, feedburner will get you to the right place. I did find out that I need to get rid of my widgets or create my own versions of the widgets for my sidebar. So there will be a bit of changes going on here in the web world.

PS. If you live in Houston, TX and want to meet up this month, let me know.

Would ya look at that!! I have a sock done. Does anyone know which sock this is and why I am so happy to be 1 sock down and one to go? If you can't say off the top of your head check back a few weeks or even into February.

Since Spring is here and PS3 has switched elements to Earth, I cast on a nice Spring Green Baby Sundress for my pastor's wife who has been afraid to use my other present because it was wool. This one is Cotton-Ease from my stash. Ugh. Oh well I have heard good things about the new Knitpick's Comfy. I need to try it out and it might become my baby present yarn choice.

What's in your pantry? coffee or a bun?

2008-03-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hey Coffee Pals,

We were asked today to go visit each others blogs and tell something about someone who liked the same roasts as us. Well I could not stop at one since I found some lovely ladies.

I started out by opening everyones blog into a tab and reading them. Well I started at the end of the alphabet and moved forward.

I was a bit shocked by all the Starbuck lovers. I can't stand the taste of the coffee. Oh well to each his own. Though I secretly hoped for starbuck loving pal because it is easy to find here in the land o starbuck.

Vicki P amazed me with her Kauni sweaters. I love her photo collage of cutting the steeks.

Christy T has the cutest crocheted stuffed animals I have seen.

Chan has a funny picture of all her dogs pileing up on one person. My dogs try this but only when someone is on the floor.

Thanks my lovely hostess for encouraging us to look at a few more blogs. I loved it and I added a couple blogs to my already large blog roll.

Did we miss the official FO?

2008-03-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

No you did not miss the FO posting of Wicked. She has been done and worn 4 days this week since she was finished. Basically she was worn every day that she was not drying from being blocked. I just had a minor problem with lighting. Monday was beautiful, but the weather went down hill from there. I was happily snuggled up on the couch this week with my knitting and a roaring fire. Today was the first time that all the necessary factors happened together - good weather, a photographer and a model. I tried that self-timer thing. Not so good especially with a tripod that slips with every second that it is left alone.

Pattern: Wicked , worsted-weight version by Zephyr Style
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted 3 skeins (100g/216 yds) in Burgundy. (100% merino wool)
Needles: Knitpicks Harmony US 8

Mods: Well not many, but a few for fit. I knit the size 32-35" for my 39" bust. Yes that massive amount of negative ease looks fabulous on me. I have tried many different formulas over the past year and this one works the best. It also explains why all my guesses of what size I was when I started knitting sweaters worked out. I added short rows to accommodate my DD friends on my front side and wrote a tutorial. I switched skeins of yarn every round. If I had wanted less pooling, I should have switched between all 4 of the skeins that I used. I knit in the optional waist and hip shaping plus added the pocket. Because my hips are wider than the patterns recommendation, I did an extra set of increases to get to the next size hip circumference. I also did not stitch down the sides of the pocket because I felt the opening was a bit small for my liking.

Facts to remember: My hips like as much negative ease as my bust so I should not have added the extra hip increases. Also my seed stitch gauge is so much off from my ribbing or stockinette gauge that I need to remember to go down a needle size or two to maintain an even gauge. My seed stitch flares and might as well have been another set of hip increases.

Things I Love: I love the feel of the Malabrigo; I am so happy I chose this yarn for this sweater. I love the pocket. I was a little unsure about if it would add visual weight to my tummy. Not so, it snuggles in nicely and does not distract and adds some nice visual interest plus it distracts the viewers of where skeins 1 & 2 ended and skeins 3 & 4 started. I never want to take off this sweater. It has been worn with jeans and a t-shirt and then dressed up the next night for a fundraiser dinner where I dressed up. This wicked is definitely better behaved than my drunken brawling mohair wicked.

Bunny capers

2008-03-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

WIP Wednesday

2008-03-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Since I finished wicked on Saturday, I needed something to work on Easter while visiting friends. I finished up the first endpaper mitts pretty quickly. I thought I had a lot further to go on this one. I was amazed to work on it so little and finish up one mitt. I might have gotten further that day, but I forgot that Ham gives me severe migraines and had some for Easter dinner.

Since I still had a little over 1 skein of malabrigo left from knitting my wicked sweater, I decided to make something else for Malabrigo March. I finally decided on A Better Bucket since I really like to wear them all year round. This should be a yummy snuggly hat that keeps the rain out of my face.

The other little start there is my swap sock. I had to rip it out at the beginning of March for the second time. I really did not want to think about it for a while so I placed it in time out. Today I decided that I needed to get it done since the swap ends at the end of the month. My pal gave me a bit more time since this thing was frustrating me too much after knitting it twice.

I have been working on getting my next pattern out to my test knitters so these pitiful attempts are all I have to show you. Once next month starts I will be knitting my final sample of Alisa (rav link), the pattern I will be releasing at the end of the month. You will get to see the pattern as it develops. I will be donating the first couple of months of proceeds to ravelry and then later a portion of the proceeds will go to ravelry.

Wicked is done: a bust dart tutorial

2008-03-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Edited: to add PDF download link.

Short Row Bust Dart Tutorial:

Top Down:

The top down method of construction is the easiest to figure out short row placement. Now since you are knitting top down, you will have been trying the garment on as you go. After separating the sleeves off, check to ensure the exact spot of the fullest part of your bust. All of us have a different height of bust. This height should not change often but will change as you age and as your bras lose their elasticity.

Make sure that you have 2 markers on the garment, one at each side seam.

Knit to the apex of your bust, which tends to be 2 inches from the underarm join.

Try on the garment so that you can place 2 more stitch markers (preferably locking stitch markers). Mark the apex of each bust wearing the bra you will most often wear with the garment.
Take off the garment and check that the bust markers are equally spaced from the side seams. A=_____ stitches
Now measure your torso length from shoulder to waist on your back and front.
Subtract your back length from the front length. This number will be the depth of your short rows B=_____ inches
Multiple your depth difference by the number of rows per inch in your gauge. C=_____ rows
Divide by 2 to find out the number of short row sets. D=______ sets
Now take A and divide it by D + 1. E=_______ stitches between short rows turning points

I have learned that starting out with the smallest number of stitches between the Wrap & Turn (W&T) and proceeding to the largest number of stitches between the W&T, causes you to have a seamless pick up of the wraps. So you would pick up the wraps as you knit or purl past them to the next W&T point. Make sure when picking up the wraps that you put them in order with the stitch in front of the wrap before you knit or purl them together.

To the left is a wrapped stitch before I start picking it up and knitting together with its wrap.

To the right is the wrapped stitch picked up and placed in the right order, the wrap behind the knit stitch.

To the left: The second stitch from the left is a picked up and knit wrapped stitch. You can just barely.

To the right: This is how your short rows will look, after you have done all of them a wedge will have formed.

Example:
I have a gauge of 18.5 st by 28 rows = 4” square.

A= 24 stitches (between side and bust on each side)
B=2” (this was the measurement when you subtract the back from the front length)
C= 14 rows (2 x 7 stitches per inch)
D= 7 sets (14/ 2 equals the set numbers)
E= 3 stitches (24/ 7+1 equals the number of stitches between each wrap)

So you would knit past the second bust point marker to E (ie 3 sts), W&T on the next stitch. Purl across to E stitches past the first and second bust point marker. (you never do a W&T between the bust point markers), W&T. Knit to wrap, pick up the wrap, knit E-1 so that you are E times n (n being the short row number) (ie 6sts), W&T. Purl to wrap, pick up the wrap, purl E-1 so that you are E times n (n being the short row number) (ie 6sts), W& T. Knit to wrap, pick up the wrap, knit E-1 so that you are E times n (n being short row number) (ie 9sts), W&T. Purl to wrap, pick up wrap, purl E-1 so that you are E times n (n being short row number) (ie 9sts), W&T. Continue repeating the last two rows until you have reached E times D (21 stitches from the bust point marker). End with a purl side. Knit around picking up each wrap as you reach it. That would be a total of two wraps upon your return to knitting in the round.

Short Row Bust Dart Tutorial (PDF link)

If you are curious about why you should use short row bust darts and if you might need other kinds of bust darts, there is another tutorial about the need for bust darts plus more information and how to links on short rows.

Let me know how this works for you or if any of the math does not make sense.

Monkey Sock Swap 4 Questionnaire

2008-03-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

FYI This swap is an invitation only swap.

The Measurements

Shoe size: US 7 ½ W and 38 EUR

Foot length in inches: 9 inches

Circumference: 8 ¾ inches

Yarn Preferences

What are your favorite colors? Brown, Orange, Reds (rust and burgundy), blues (antique blues and dark blues, not much on the baby blues), and greens ( I love most any green) Fall and Forest colors are faves.

What color clashes with your wardrobe? Pink, mauve, and purple (plum and burgundy are ok)

Do you prefer solids or variegated yarns? I like semi-solids and variegateds that are in very similar colors

What are your favorite brand sock yarns? STR, Chickchick studios, and Zen String. I have knit with Opal, Lorna’s Laces, Sockotta, Wildefoot, and Koigu. ( I don’t enjoy knitting with these, but I don’t mind wearing this yarn. In reference to Opal, I hate it with a passion. I am sorry if it is your fav or old stand by.)

Is there a new sock yarn you really would like to try? Louet Gems solid color, but I would prefer indie yarn dyers: Scout, Wollmeise, Yarn Pirate, and See Jayne Knit . Pretty much I would love to try new dyers as long is it is not a Koigu like base. I like knitting garments with Koigu but not socks.

Cookie A. Patterns

List the patterns you do not have but would like to receive: Stricken, Flicker Sock, Mingus Sock Django,

Allergies

Do you have any allergies that your pal needs to know about? (animals, fiber, sensitivity to smoke etc.) To petroleum products, so anything with glycerin, or mineral oils. Those are the most common names for petroleum products. I have no problem with plastic bags and such, just liquids and semi solids that they place in foods or body products.

Will you knitting be exposed to animals? 2 dogs and 1 bunny that likes to snip cords with his teeth.

Will you knitting be exposed to cigarette smoke? No

Shipping

What country do you live in? USA

Are you willing to ship outside your country? I would preder the US but if needed I can have an international swap partner.

Spring Fling Coffee & Yarn Swap Questionaire

2008-03-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

I am participating in the Spring Fling Coffee & Yarn Swap. There is still time to join before the 25th of the month.

Coffee

1. What is your preference? Whole beans or ground? Whole Bean

2. What kind of coffees do you enjoy? A rich, bold roast; a light, fresh one, or something in between? Leaded or non? Leaded with a mellow smooth notes. I love rich flavor but it has to be smooth.

3. If you were headed out right now to buy some coffee for the house, what would you be picking up? I would hop on a plane to Florida and buy some Barnie's White Christmas. Yeah for a popular flavor being available year round now.

4. Do you drink for caffeine, pleasure, or both? I drink for pleasure. I can have as little or as much as I want and not have side effects if I go without.

5. Do you enjoy flavored coffees? How about add-ins or flavored creamers? I love flavored coffees. I have little flavor tabs to add to my coffee which I have used since I was 14. I typically use liquid flavored creamers.

6. A large, lovely mug or a small, dainty cup? I have a set of 6 starbuck's city mugs that I use regularly and some double walled Bodum 12 oz glasses.

7. Describe your perfect cup - not JUST the coffee, but how you'd enjoy it! I normally grab a mug in the morning or afternoon just before I curl up in my knitting spot. My coffee maker keeps the coffee warm for 2 hours. So I drink about 2 mugs oh coffee with creamer and a nice cookie or slice of bread.

8. You're sitting down to enjoy a nice cup in the local coffee shop, knitting bag in hand, iPod all tuned up - or maybe you're there with a few friends for knit night! What treat do you pick up to enjoy with your coffee? A sweet, rich brownie, or something more healthy? How about a salty treat? What goes best with that great cup and company? Just the mug of coffee since I am talking most of the time. If I do get something, I love a nice cheesy bagel or not too sweet scone.

Yarn

1. Do you knit or crochet? I knit mostly but I do know how to crochet.

2. What are your favorite types of yarns to work with? I like knitting with DK and Worsted weight for sweaters and Sport and Fingering for socks.

3. What do you have on the needles (or hook!) right now? Well it is always fluctuating since I am a fast knitter. Check it out on Wednesdays I post my WIPs on my blog.

4. What are your favorite colors in yarns? Fall colors. What about those that you'd never find in your stash? Pinks and true purples

5. What sort of needles or hooks do you enjoy using? My favorite needles currently are the Knitpicks Harmony Needles. Any you just detest? I don't like metal especially in DPN form.

6. Are there any particular notions you absolute do NOT need? Some of us swap a lot - are you sure that you have enough tape measures to last your lifetime? Enough stitch markers to mark every stitch of a 10 foot wide afghan? I don't need tape measures or scissors.

7. You walk into the yarn shop and have exactly and only enough money to purchase 2 skeins of yarn in their 2 for 20 special they have going..The choices are a soft, thick cotton/viscose blend in your favorite colors, slightly variegated..a beautiful sock yarn that's just squishy and sproingy in your hands.. a soft, worsted weight wool like malabrigo.. and a lovely bamboo blend with colors to just die for. Which do you walk out the door with? I would probably walk out with the soft, worsted weight wool like malabrigo.

Spring

1. We're starting sign-ups on the first day of Spring - is it already truly Spring-like where you are? Some days and some not. The Northwet has its moments of indecision.

2. What's your favorite spring flower? Do you have one? I love Gerber daisys. My front walk is lined with them.

3. What do you most look forward to about springtime? A little bit warmer weather and not wearing hats inside my house.

4. They've predicted a gorgeous day tomorrow - Sunny and about 65 with a nice breeze - how do you spend your day? Hopefully sitting out in my backyard knitting. It is a bit cold for iced coffee and too warm for hot coffee so I will just be drinking a bottle of water.

5. The day after, it's going to be cooler and pouring down rain - does that impact your mood? How do you spend that day? what helps cheer you up? I will spend the day in my knitting spot with a nice mug of coffee or tea depending on my mood. Knitting and watching sci-fi shows.

Odds n Ends

1. Do you collect anything BESIDES yarn and needles? Frogs – classy frogs.

2. Are you allergic to anything? Yes lots of things. To petroleum products mostly, so anything with glycerin, or mineral oils. Those are the most common names for petroleum products. I have no problem with plastic bags and such, just liquids and semi solids that they place in foods or body products.

3. Do you have pets? 2 dogs and a house bunny.

4. Is this your first swap, or are you an old pro? What are the last 2 swaps you participated in? I just finished the No Humdrum mitten swap and Blogging by Mail. I am finishing up one more swap.

5. List 3 of your favorite blogs - craft related or not - and tell us why you love them.

Non Dairy Diary – I love her art work. I would love a banner on my blog of her artwork.

Green Apple, a knitting blog – I enjoy seeing all that she knits.

Socks-for-Mum – A great blogger that I met during one of my swaps.

WIP Wednesday - finally something new

2008-03-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

FYI: I will be traveling to Houston, TX place of my birth for a visit in April. Leave a comment if you want to meet up while I am there.

Monday I found myself in an unusual situation. Nothing on the needles. Ok I know a few of you can go peek at my project list on ravelry and say that I do have stuff on the needles but I beg to differ. The socks that I have been knitting are just yarn with sticks sitting in a bag, since I am waiting on a better moment to contemplate the third take. The Endpaper mitts (not an immediate need) and churchable's socks (too many stitches per inch) are on a break.

Well with all these facts facing me I decided to finally join my own KAL. Yes I cast on for my second wicked sweater. This time I am taking all the tid bits of information that I have learned over the past year. 1) Knit for my upper bust measurement instead of my full bust since I am over a B cup. 2) Work short rows so that there is room for the girls and the front of my sweater is the same length all the way around when worn. 3) Incorporate waist shaping to emphasis my hourglass shape. 4) Having enough confidence to use a non-solid colored yarn.

A close up of the lovely shade of Malabrigo in Burgundy that I am using. I love the subtle shading and the lovely hand that this produces. I have 4 skeins to incorporate into a lovely comfy sweater with a pocket. I hope to be finished by Saturday. Fly fingers fly.

FO Friday: FO block gone

2008-03-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

I have 2 FOs to show you today. Hopefully I can add the Big Green Monster to this pile before the weekend ends. My goal is Sunday night when bud gets on the plane back to SpoVegas.

In order of completion,

Pattern: Firebrick mittens (ravelry link)
Yarn: Mountain Colors 4/8's Wool Colorway: Ruby River 1/2 skein (100% wool) and Dale of Norway/Dalegarn Baby Ull color: Black 1/2 skein (100% superwash wool)
Needles: US 2 1/2 (3.00mm) Knitpicks Harmony Fixed Circular
Mods: Well since I created these, they are a mod. I am in love with my mittens and sad that I will be sending them on tomorrow morning to their mitten swap partner. I do know that I will soon have another pair for myself since I think I have enough left to make myself a pair with the leftovers. Once I got this pattern hammered out, it took me a little less than a week, but this was my fastest design time from start to finish (a week and a half). I am finishing up the pattern and sending off the stuff to the test knitters to look over and work on. One of them has to finish up another test knit for me so we will wait to see this pattern in full production but I am thinking it will be for sale in June.

Click the pic to read the importance of the flowers

Pattern: Koolhaas Hat (project page) by Jared Flood
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted Colorway: Glazed Carrot 1/2 skein (100% HandspuMerino)
Needles: US 6 Knitpicks Harmony Interchangeables Magic Looped
Mods: None. I did knit this in the large. In the picture, it is a bit short but I blocked it and today it was the perfect fit. I love the yarn before blocking but fell in love after blocking.

I leave you with the Bun approving the Carrots.

Wrangling a bunny is not as easy as you would think. He was more interested in the unfamiliar surroundings than his favorite snack. Silly Wrabbit.

PS3: Fire - Things to warm your soul

2008-03-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

My soul has been warmed by a few things this week. My set back this week which Indigo mouse thought I should have called RIP Wednesday instead of WIP Wednesday was bolstered by a rather good next few days.

Mittens:

My mittens were frogged along with my socks on Wednesday but I created the pattern and marched on to a spectacular finish (ok it was only one mitten but I am claiming all the victories I can these days). This mitten is lovely and I am smitten with its beauty. I hope to release the pattern in a few months or so after it goes through tech editors and test knitters. So look for it.

I also hung out with Churchable and my best friend Kayleen. We wandered around Portland, going to the Saturday market, lunch in China town, a walk through the Chinese garden and a trip to Uwajimaya. While at Uwajimaya, I stopped in the bookstore and looked at the knitting books. I was stunned and it took a bit of time to figure out what books to buy. One of the books I did get, I wish that there had been a second book to buy for my mitten swap partner.

There are other pics from the book on my flickr list.

The book above part of the Heart Warming Life Series. ISBN 978-4-529-04510-0. It has twined knitting and fair isle. As soon as I got home, I looked up the mitten book to purchase. It will be arriving in a month so mine will be mailed with the package, but this book is so beautiful.

Swaps:

Click on the picture to see exactly all that is there.

This week I received my BBM: Little things package from Megan of Megan's Cookin. She sent a lovely package. This swap was supposed to represent the small good things that can be offered and that we keep the shipping down. She sent me 14 items. All very much appreciated.

I also received one of the 2 ATCs that I am to be getting from this round of PS3 ATC swaps.

liquid flame trying to crystallize

The new improved steam iron in a bottle

I also did the two above for my swap partners. I had fun with my puns and pens.

Contests:

Well I am not having a contest, but 2 other bloggers are and I am going to share with ya'll. One ends tonight at 10 PM EST and the other by the end of the month.

Up first is the contest at Beautiful Thing's blog, she is celebrating one year of blogging. Very cool. She asks that you do a simple things and answer her questions.

name : Chrispy
flickr id : pursuitoffiber
ravelry username: RChrispy
your vote for your favorite of my 2007 FOs: I love your A-line tank it looks lovely on you.
link to or description of your favorite of your own FOs (knitted or otherwise - anything you made): wow well I am going to have to go with the one I wear the most. Some people are in love with their most recent FOs. I would be but recently those have been a bit slim. So I am going with my Rusted Root.

The second contest is over at Knitting in Pink. She wants us to list our 3 favorite things about where we live.

1. A new working fireplace.

2. A big backyard for the dogs to run around in.

3. Close to the biggest city park with a lake to walk around and exercise the dogs at

WIP Wednesday - a sad day

2008-03-05T18:25:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to blog today. I was going to babble on about my mittens and socks that had progressed so far over the weekend.

Tuesday afternoon found me frogging my mitten back to the yarn. I love the pattern. I have named the pattern. People who don't knit have been asking me if the pattern would be good for a beginner to learn. Such high praise for mittens not yet sent. I Rippit because I was not happy with the decreases and the detailing was roughly thrown in. I needed to refine the pattern so I did. I wrote up the Firebrick mittens last night in a fit of Insomnia.

Then this morning, I received a call from my friend to tell me about my the socks that I had sent her way yet again for her daughter to try on fit but were really snug. Well yeah, but my pal really would rather be a bit smaller than snugger. So I frogged that yarn all the way back to two small balls. Good thing the yarn frogs repeatedly like a dream. If you intend to knit and frog alot and want a fancy yarn then silky sock is your yarn. I am shelving the socks until after I finish the mittens

No-More-Humdrum Mittens Have Arrived!!

2008-03-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

Wow time flies. I feel like it was just yesterday when I ripped into my package from my pal Margaret. Instead it is Tuesday and I should be at Knit Night, but thanking my lovely pal is so more important. Thanks so much Margaret! This was an absolutely lovely package and I can't wait to use the yarn. I have been wearing the mittens almost every day since.

These are the lovely mittens. They fit so great and Churchable had a ton of fun photographing them so hop over to my flickr account and check them out.

Wicked sweater KAL

2008-02-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

I am leading a Knit along (ravelry link) on Ravelry for the Wicked sweater. A few of you know that I made this sweater. Mine was a wicked drunken disorderly sweater which I don't wear very often because of fit and a few other factors, so I have been looking at yarns and thoughts of what I wanted to knit it in. In February, I decided to blow my Christmas money on Malabrigo. Hmmmm.... so yummy. And since some projects are refusing to leave the needles, I had not gotten to casting on for this project. Now we are on the cusp of Malabrigo March, which is being sponsored by the Malabrigo Junkies on ravelry. Come join me if you are interested in knitting this sweater. Some people are even talking about casting on for this in laceweight malabrigo.

Marabrigo March is where the Malabrigo Junkies will try to send Malabrigo up the yarn popularity rankings in Ravelry during the month of March. There will be prizes awarded for most Malabrigo projects cast on, most creative photo involving Malabrigo, best use of color, etc. All this information can be found on the Junkies group page.

KAL thread here.
Pattern is available for purchase here.
Malabrigo Junkies group here.
Malabrigo website here.
Places to buy Malabrigo on the web are listed on orata's blog. I encourage you to buy from your LYS if they have it for sale. I am sure that the online stores will be running low this month because of the focus on Malabrigo.

WIP Wednesday: Stupid cold bug...

2008-02-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

I went away for President's weekend and I came back with a wicked bad cold. My throat was so sore that I lost my voice and then my nose ran so much that I used an entire box of Kleenex in one day.

Thankfully the weekend was fun and I have decided that next year I will be leading this same game again because it was a blast to run and I think I picked the right time to do the game. I GMed Robo Rally a really cool board game where you control a robot that has lasers and is trying to run a race through a course with moving parts. In addition to having a good time, I met another knit blogger. She is the one in green.

Well I am back and feeling a bit better. I still have the lingering bit of it all, but no more fever or heavy symptoms. I did knit during this time. I knit on what I now have titled the Big Green Monster. Arwen is almost done. It just needs a hood. I tried to get out of knitting the hood, but when asked what 16 year old would opt for a plain cardi. I knew I was delusional when I asked.

Now I have been working away at my swap sock which keeps causing me problems. The first sock was done and I am down to the heel of the second one. A friend's 3 year old wanted to try on the pretty sock so I let her and it was almost too tight on her. So I passed the sock to a friend with a child of similar size to the sock recipient. She could get her foot down the leg but not through the heel turn. So I will be ripping the first sock back to the heel turn. I have a bit more time than I thought with these socks. I thought they were due on the 15th of March but I have till the end of March.

Sadly these are all the WIPs that I have going right now and they are making me a bit crazy.

I have been taking a lot of PS3 pictures. I have compiled them into a slide show for you. If the java messes up for you here is the flickr slide link

WIP Wednesday - Served up on a plate

2008-02-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

RSS Readers: Let me know if the RSS flickr pics are bugging you. I edited my RSS and can't decide.

I have been craving glazed carrots recently. I am not really a fan of cooked carrots but it is project spectrum right now and thought I would try to appease the masses. So, I gathered the supplies - honey and carrots. I started to mix up a batch of yarny goodness, ..............

a nice mix of Malabrigo and the Koolhaas hat.

I have not started but I really wanted a new hat and have really fallen for all the hats made from Malabrigo that I have seen.

Next up on the block of food is the lovely but fishy pomatomus, it really needed a nice classy wine to be a stand up entry.

This week things worked out a bit better for me. I whipped through the leg and am one repeat from the start of the toe. I really love this yarn. It is a really nice and I want to make myself a pair of socks from it.

Lastly I have been laboring away at this exquisite Christmas present.

I just wish it would go a bit faster. I am definitely making progress. I think if I keep knitting it while I watch TV, I will be finished sooner than later.

That's all the knits for now. I have been creating designs this week. Lots of creating more details and swatching. I am really falling in love with some of these designs.

WIP Wednesday - PS3 Style

2008-02-06T18:57:00.000-08:00

This sock has been chugging along. Although, what you saw last week is not what is now in the picture. I was knitting it on US 0 so as to shrink the pattern to my pals foot size, but I shrunk it a bit too much. Yes in deed I made her have midget feet. She does have small feet but this was insane. I frogged once after one full repeat, then knit half the lace repeat and measured the lace part to check that going up to a US 1 (2.25) was making it just big enough. To my shock, the sock had not gotten any bigger with the needle change. So I stuck the needles through a needle gauge and well I seem to have picked up the US 0s again. Rip went the sock and I started over with the right needles. Making sure to put those too small needles into their case before picking up the stitches and double checking the needle size of the needle that I was picking up the stitches with. Yes I was a bit paranoid but you would be too if you had made my mistake. So now I am half a repeat beyond where I was before ripping the first time. It is definitely going to fit this time and I think the colors will cause her to love them. Just so you know 2 of the PS3 colors are in the sock.

I started gathering supplies for my PS3 ATC Swap. I have been missing my inks since I finished art school. I pulled them out laid them out on my bed to sit and contemplate what to do about them all. I love small work in pen & ink. It holds a preciousness that can't really be expressed. Now all I have to do before I can start is to cut the paper to size. I can't wait.

Several people on ravelry started talking about a PS3 diet (ravelry link). Trying to incorporate foods that reflect each element. This element is, of course, fire and the suggestion was to make baked goods from scratch. Since I make bread every week, I knew this would not be too hard. I love fresh bread. In November, I decided that I needed to start making sourdough. The starter has stayed alive since then even with our crazy schedule. I think I only had to actually feed it once. All the rest of the times, it has been fed because we had used it.

I passed this gourd as I was cleaning up a bit of the house so that I could set up my loom and realized this gourd would be a great PS3 pic. Don't you love how it looks like it just got pulled off the vine with all the dirt clinging to it still?

This last one might not fit with the PS3 fire theme, but I am excited that I have noticeable progress. I think it was barely 3 inches last time. This time I am sure it is at least twice that. I am so happy that it is growing. I don't know if I don't like the reversible cables or if it is the yarn. Only another project will allow me to decide.

I shall leave you with Mr. Bun. He has been hanging out around the desktop computer. I think he is contemplating hijacking my blog and writing about his experience in this house.

PS3: Fire - yarn aquisition

2008-02-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

I took this lovely skein of yarn for a walk this morning. I saw this bright picnic table in the distance and felt it was the perfect back drop to the firey orange. I am thinking of coming up with a one skein firey project to make this into. Part of my plan is to create a project per segment of Project Spectrum.

This bit of malabrigo was acquired in an avalanche of malabrigo that I stumbled into and spent my Christmas money on. My buddy and I hung out in Portland on Saturday. Since we were snagging the max at Lloyd center to head downtown, I convinced her to make a stop at Twisted. It was great. She was so great and started pulling yarn out that she liked to show me and she was stunned at how nice the yarns feel and how pretty they are in the skein. I think I smell a new knitter.

The new yarn that arrived is below in the slide show:

So far I have not really decided what I want to do. My Pomatomus sock for a secret pal is in the fire arena but I don't know if it counts since I won't show the colors till late March.

The only other thing to arrive this weekend was a nice present from my mitten swap pal. She sent me wristies to keep my cold hands a bit warmer while I am knitting and doing computer work.

FO Friday - by a nose

2008-02-01T23:59:00.000-08:00

This was hard. I needed this finished object and I worked for it. Man it is not good to be without an actually finished object for this long. Hopefully this new month will be better. So here is my new years project started 31 days and 12 hours before its finish right before midnight on the 1st of day of Project Sprectrum 3. Those of you who visit the blog might have noticed a color change. Do you like it? It is to celebrate PS3 starting. This month and next are Fire: red, orange and pink. Those who know me well. Know I love orange. I even have an orange bedroom. Pumpkin to be exact. The only squashy thing other than pumpkin pie that churchable cares to partake in.

Pattern: Twisted Flower by Cookie A (ravelry project link)
Yarn: ChickChick Studio Toes in the grass 1 skein 100 grams = 460 yds (60% superwash merino, 30% Bamboo, 10% Nylon) Colorway: Olive Oil [Gifted to me by my SP11 pal]
Needles: Knitpicks US 1 (2.50 mm) circulars until Mr Bun cut the cable then DPNs.
Mods: I love these socks. They are stunning. They are show stoppers. They make my day. I loved the flow of the pattern. It was super easy to memorize. The first sock, I needed to check every once in a while. The second sock only needed a glance at the cable on the foot, the rest was smooth sailing. I knit this exactly to specs with only one tiny mod. I kept the purl stitches all the way to the toe. On one toe I grafted in st st and the other in reverse st st. Can you tell which one in the very first photo? If so is one better than the other? If not I will go change to the st st because it oddly feels better.

Must knit not blog

2008-01-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

Excuse me while I knit like a crazed person that hasn't knit in a while. I have been too busy with a lot of things. The picture is of a sock that I started for a swap that I am participating in over on ravelry. It is Pomatomus by Cookie A done in Silky Sock. It glows. I am sorry that you can't see a color pic but my pal knows who I am since she is the hostess. I seem to keep getting the hostess in the small swaps I have been doing.

Ok I am off. Wish my hands speed so I have stuff to show you.

WIP Wednesday - on the road again

2008-01-23T19:18:00.000-08:00

Do you ever find yourself saying something and a song pops into your mind because it has been playing in the background influencing the statements you say? Well one song in particular has been playing a bit too much in my mind. I keep coming up with odd sayings that relate to a video on youtube that churchable has been replaying for everyone who gets a second and can sit on the couch and watch it on the TV. Now I make comments about making a "tribute to the best chocolate milkshake in the world" since we were out of one ingredient so I got creative. And then while driving to Oly this evening, I stated to myself that I really like "hard rocking music me amigos". Of course when I tend to drive alone my music is way louder than when churchable is with me and it is totally European techno pop music with a bit or goth-influenced pop-rock-metal. Churchable on the other hand is firmly in the classic girl vocal alternative music and talk radio. When we enter Seattle airwaves space, we fight over who gets to listen to what station. I always vote for C89.5, but then it is the only station like it anywhere I have ever been.

This week I have felt productive, but I think these pictures will show you that I have not been productive with the knitting. I have been productive in getting food into the freezer so that I can knit more and cook less. I have also been productive in getting a pattern reworked and sent to my new tech editor and talking to my test knitter about specifics. Yeah me!

So hopefully I will get a bit more knit this week. I really want to finish something this week. Probably not done by FO Friday but hey maybe by Monday. So here is the current status:

The twisted flower socks have been plugging along pretty fast since they travel everywhere with me and now that they are on DPNs since Mr. Bun ate the cable on the circular, I don't feel bad doing one DPN worth of stitches. The above photo was something that I had been thinking about since the color is called Olive Oil. I thought I should put them on a bottle of oil to show them off.

Arwen has been plugging along. I finished seaming it before I allowed myself to cast-on the Zeebee hat that I made for Churchable. I hope the sleeve stretches a bit after blocking. I know my arms are bigger than Bud's but this seems a bit too small. I know I read all the reviews on this and decided against adding more short rows to make them larger but oh well. Bud has skinny arms. She is only 16.

I have picked the yarn for my mittens for the No More Humdrum mitten swap. The red is amazing. It is a beautiful Mountain colors colorway and then the black is one that I used way back when I first started knitting a pair of stain glass mittens. I plan on creating my own pattern. I have an idea and I will be releasing it out into the world once it is done.

In other news, the Spring Interweave Preview is up. I am so in love. I think the Spring issue is going to keep being my favorite issue each year. I also think I will keep making skirts each spring. Now to figure out a yarn.

Weekend Review - the missing FO

2008-01-22T15:01:00.000-08:00

Churchable is trying to fix the silver brick, which is what he did while I knit a hat.

Since churchable was going skiing and I had slipped two balls of yarn in his stocking for Christmas destine to be a ski hat, I knew I had to whip up a hat super quick. After knitting a bit on Arwen, I put her aside and start knitting the Short Row Hat (pdf), but got frustrated when I got lost in the design. Please forgive me but I wanted a quick pattern that could be on his head in a day. So by friday afternoon, I had ripped out that puppy and cast on for a Zeebee.

Pattern: Zeebee by Schmeebot
Yarn: Jo-Ann Debbie Mumm Traditions 1 skein (75% Acrylic, 23% Wool, 2% Other)Color 08
Needles: US 5 DPNs
Mods: I cast on 39 st and each eighth of the pattern was 26 rows wide. This was a fun pattern. Churchable liked if but felt it was not as warm as his other hat so I will have to knit this at a tighter gauge. I have one more skein of this yarn.

Rain and what a flatland girl does to escape.

2008-01-22T11:57:00.000-08:00

If you are here to know if you won, it is at the end.

I won an award this weekend from my good online buddy knittymuggins.

Here’s how it works:

Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about Blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times!

1. Knittymuggins. I am sending this back to you because your emails and our friendship make me check on your blog even when you aren't in my RSS feed just in case I missed something.

2. Robin of Yarn Crawl. I love to see what she produces even with all the classes she is taking.

3. Stitchywitch from Green Apple. Her pieces are amazing and I think I could sit on her couch and watch all her shows with her since I seem to already be doing that.

4. Cindy of Knit for Joy! She is a great friend and a hard worker. You don't get to see a lot of her knits because she is a test knitter for a few people. Yeah PDX bloggers.

5. Carebear of MidWest Fiber Arts. Carebear is my online name for my best friend from Art School. She visits about once a year and we have a blast doing things new and different.

6. Non dairy Dairy. I love this cute little blog that shows adorable drawings. I try to read this blog as soon as it appears on my RSS feed. I even use the occasional desktop wallpaper.

7. Jess of Will Travel for Food. She is the wife of churchable's hiking buddy. We love to go visit them and enjoy great food and good adventuring. She does not blog very often.

8. Rebecca of Socks-for-mum. Such a sweet woman a lovely projects and I am vicariously living through her photography classes.

9. Adrienne of Magic Pixie Knitter. This women is an amazing crocheter. I really love the stuff she has done. And she made my day when she pm'ed me on ravelry saying she was sad to miss my trip to Florida. Next time my dear I will make sure to alert you.

10. Lastly, the ladies of Crossroads Knits. They have great pieces and I love the camaraderie.

I bet by now you are wondering about my title. Well,

Churchable wanted to go skiing since he had not gone all season, which is a bit unusual for him. Last season he skied so much that he decided to do turns all year (where you ski every month for a year). He would have done it but June shot itself by making him sick the day he was supposed to drive to Mt Shasta to hike up and then ski down. So this year it looks like he and Cueball (one of his ski buddies) will be trying to do turns all year.

I told churchable that I wanted to come but I did not want to ski. I wanted to go use my new snowshoes which I had gotten with my birthday money. I know I went snowshoeing in December but not in my shoes. I had such a blast taking pictures all over the place.

I saw great piles of snow and the peace and serenity was lovely. You wouldn't even know that across the street was a big Ski Resort. The Nordic center was lovely and busy but there is so much space you don't even notice all the people.

Occasionally I would come around and find unexpected bits of color. I enjoyed myself immensely and took way too many photos.

My two winners are PDX bloggers. Wow girls you get to chose between the two skeins. Who ever responds first gets their choice. Melissa of Days of Tea & Knitting and Meghan of the Daft Drafter. Thanks for everyone who commented especially the lurkers and the new readers. Only about half to third of you who read this blog entered the contest but of course I know not everyone is a sock knitter. I knit more sweaters regularly than socks so I understand. Next time, I will put something out there for you non-sock knitters.

WIP Wednesday - Home at Last

2008-01-16T22:11:00.002-08:00

We are back home tonight. Yeah. I am tired of traveling and being on the move. I think I have been gone a part of each week since the beginning of December. Why me?

You came here for the weekly report so let me see. My knitting has been a bit slow, but I parked my butt on the couch today because I intend to not let the last Christmas gift drag out until February. You hear that Bud. I will be done. Ok so here is the belated present.

It is getting a little big for my photo space. I had to shove some yarn out of the way just to get the whole thing in. Well I finished the left side and grafted the cuff cable. That was a bit harder than I thought. Now I have the right side and the hood left plus the seaming. I plan on seaming tomorrow so that I get it done in bits rather than getting annoyed at it all at once.

Anyone interested in a little bit of Cable close-ups. I am a bit in love with cables right now.

This here is me playing with ghetto lighting which I read about over on Socks for Mum. She is taking a lighting class. I really love the look, but I think my camera focuses a bit better with the flash.

Lastly we have my Twisted Flower which I am knitting for SockDown! I am in love. The pattern flows so smoothly that my second sock does not even need the patten to be carried around.

My endpaper mitts are stalling because I need to finish the present and the socks they call my name, but my hands moan about being cold. So I need to knit faster so that I can finish things and have some mitts to wear while knitting indoors.

Weekend Wrap-up - Seattle Addition

2008-01-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

Edited to add: Don't forget I will be in Seattle for till Wednesday

The sun was shining but the air was brisk and clear yesterday. It was so lovely. Unfortunately we stayed within the confines of our friend's house working on this.

The weekend has been a bit busier with a long wedding and a missed trip to the store on Friday night. So we have not gotten as far as we would have liked. We had hoped to be putting the grout in tonight but alas we just put in the plumbing last night. I got to use the propane torch to connect the brass fittings together. It was alot of fun. Today was spent getting the wall board fitted and connected to the wall. Now it looks like this.

On the knitting front, my socks are flying because I have only had time to knit while standing in line or for short bits. I really need to sit down and work on the cardigan. I have been hooked up with both my swap patterns that I will be knitting for in the next couple of months. Don't forget that you have another week to post a comment to get into the yarn contest.

I have missed posting FOs the last month or so. So let me share with you my small bit of delving into the dark side:

Pattern: Boteh Scarf by Kathy Merrick (ravelry link) from the Spring 2007 Interweave Crochet
Yarn:Ellie's Ewe Hues MemenToes (100% superwash merino) 490 yds in 100gram skein in Clover & Honey
Crochet Hook: G hook
Mods: I did 26 repeats instead of 16 repeats of the main motif. I also did not do the border because I felt that it was too thick of a border.

Blogiversary

2008-01-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

I seem to have missed my anniversary to knit blogging by a full week. I noticed that I missed it when I went searching for my first post while in Spo Vegas. Instead I thought I would celebrate my one year and one week anniversary. And to celebrate I have some yarn to give away. I seem to have amassed a large collection of sock yarn this year. So I will be sharing some with all of you.

These yarns are ones that can be found at my LYS - La Favorites. I decided that I would start going to the knit groups as much as I could this year so that I would have more in person contact with knitters. I went to my first meeting on Tuesday it was great.

Leave a comment and you will be entered into the prize box. I will be drawing names on MLK day and sending it out after I get the winner's address.

WIP Wednesday - the present edition

2008-01-09T18:57:00.000-08:00

So this here elegant bottle of wine was a present and so was the yarn and the pattern, yes I seem to be in need of sock blockers. That would be a nice present. Hint Hint. Ok back to the WIPS. If you don't recognize the sock pattern, it is Twisted Flower by the wonderful Cookie A. I cast on these lovely socks on New Years to start the new year off with something new. I knit 2" of the sock that day and put it aside till I finished my nephews socks and hat plus got Bud's Cardigan for Arwen in a submissive state.

Here is the difficult little knit. The cables have been very disagreeable. I seem to keep ripping out the same section multiple times. At least I have learned to ladder down instead of unknit the whole 20 rows or so that are giving me grief. I lengthened this sweater so that it reaches her preferred length. I measured and the arms will fit her fine. I am kind of avoiding this one but it needs to be done by MLK day or I am sunk. I promised her Christmas present by then. I keep finding better things to do with my time like start a business and do a sudo business plan. Yes I dream large and do weird things when I avoid something. Ok well there is one last WIP lurking in my bag.

It is my endpaper mitts. I can't wait to be done with them so that I can wear them in my very cold house to knit with. Maybe I should finish these first before anything else so that my fingers don't freeze. Fat chance of that the sock has me a bit obsessed.

So the future has much in store there is another Cookie A sock chomping at the DPNs to be cast on. If I don't do that soon, I might be missing a few DPNs. I also want to work through the pile of stuff on my work bench.

Don't forget you Seattle knitters. I will be in your area starting Friday and staying till most likely Wednesday. Leave me a comment or PM me on Ravelry (RChrispy).

Lastly I just made the decision today to not participate in the current Sexy Knitters Club KAL. The patterns just don't work for me and I don't have the time to fix them for my body. It seems weird that I started last year with them and this year I part ways. I just have a bit much on my plate plus I hope to have some surprises for everyone in the late Spring. I will be participating in Project Spectrum started by Lolly.

Back to recover and then we leave again

2008-01-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

I left you last as we headed to Spo Vegas. I was supposed to drive since churchable got off work that morning at 7 AM. I was none too sure of the path we had chosen since every time I turned on the TV or radio the announcers were going on about the severe weather warning in the Columbia Gorge due to icy conditions. I finally decided that I would drive through Seattle even though it would take us a bit longer. I was glad since only the pass was snowy and the rest of the way was clear.

We celebrated Christmas with churchable's family. Everyone was there and had been there for a few days when we arrived. I knit most of the gifts. Two of the gifts were not done. One was the Cardigan for Arwen for Bud (churchable's little sister) and a hat from left over yarn for Frog Boy. Frog Boy's hat was finished before they left. So let me proceed with a run down of my Christmas knitting.

Pattern: Surplice Lace Top by Gayle Bunn
Recipient: Si - my sister-in-law
Yarn: Knit Picks Cotlin 7 skeins (70% cotton, 30% linen) yds in 50gram balls in Island Coral
Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) circular for the garter stitch edging and US 5 (3.75 mm) circular for rest of the sweater
Completion: September 19th (started first weekend in August)
Mods: I knit this in a smaller size so as to fit Si. The finished garment came out at 32" bust. I had to redo the sleeves since they did not fit. I knit them in the second largest size and they were perfect.
Reaction: She loved it. This picture above is of her right before she left for the airport to fly to Calit. It was a perfect fit in bust and length. I am so happy.

Pattern: my own

Recipient: my brother in law (he needs an online name or I will start calling him BIL)
Yarn: Zen String Serindipity Sport 1 1/4 skeins (100% superwash merino) 241 yds in 113gram skein in Ben
Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm) circular for the sole of the foot and US 2 1/2 (3.0 mm) circular for the ribbing
Completion: December 30th (started sometime in the middle of November)
Mods: I needed to create something that did not stripe but pooled more so I got thin stripes and then messed them up with a slip stitch rib pattern.
Reaction: He loved them. They fit great and he is wear testing them to let me know if the purl bumps bother him.

Pattern: my own

Recipient: Dog Boy - 2 yr old nephew
Yarn: Zen String Serindipity Sport 1/3 skein (100% superwash merino) 241 yds in 113gram skein in Ben
Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm) circular
Completion: January 2nd (started these right after I finished the first adult sock)
Mods: I did a toe up tube sock so that he could wear these socks for longer.
Reaction: So cute. I loved them. We put them on for pictures and then took them off again. He started crying because he wanted to wear the socks. He wore them all the next day too. I think this guy will be getting more hand knit items in his future.

Pattern: my own
Recipient: Frog Boy
Yarn: Zen String Serindipity Sport 1/2 skein (100% superwash merino) 241 yds in 113gram skein in Ben
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) DPNs
Completion: started and finished on January 4th
Mods: I made a simple rolled brim hat in a small adult size with a I-cord knot on top
Reaction: He tolerated trying it on and having his picture taken but did not like it because he already had a camo hat. Oh well you can't win them all.

Pattern: Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood

Recipient: Dog Boy
Yarn: Plymouth Indiecita Alpaca 4-ply Worsted 3/4 skein (100% alpaca) 102 yds in a 50gram ball in brown (discontinued)
Needles:
Completion: December 5th (I started it on December 1st)
Mods: CO 80sts. Knit 3 repeats high and did crown decreasing as written. I think it will fit will. It can stretch to about a 23" head and his should be much smaller.
Reaction: He was not as thrilled with this one. He really wanted to wear his brother's hat since it matched his socks. He recognized this while I was knitting his brother's hat.

Now there was nothing for my father-in-law that was knit since I did not think he would use socks, gloves, hats or a scarf that I knit him. When I told him this he replied in the affirmative that this was correct but that he would wear a sweater. So after a short pointed Q & A session I figured out that he would be interested in a button down cardigan in a soft but not too soft wool. So I jumped on Ravelry (what would we have done with out it) and looked up Brooklyn Tweed's project page and picked a few things and then paged through the men's cardigan patterns. After few hundred, I narrowed it down to 6 patterns. It was time to get the Car Man's opinion. He really like 3 of them, which are Blue Garter's EZ Aran Fishtrap Cardigan (ravelry link), Brooklyn Tweed's Jarrett, and Brooklyn Tweed's Saddle Shoulder Aran Cardigan . So we start the adventure in creating the Car Man a cardigan - maybe it will go with his car style. We will be making all the choices together. I did inform him that this cardigan would take me two years to make because I did not want to burn out and he is a tall man.

The Christmas report is done and that brings me to telling you that I will be leaving again on Thursday. Churchable has a college buddy getting married this weekend and we are finally going to fulfill a wedding promise to one of his college roommates. We plan on spending a good part of the weekend and next week remodeling his college roommate's bathtub and surround. If you are in Seattle I will be just on the other side of I-5 listening to the buzz of traffic from the Weaving Works. If you want to meet for coffee or to knit I am always game.

Then it is off to Spo Vegas again for churchable's annual camp in the snow with your friends and shoot black powder guns at each other in the cold cold wilds of Washington. I plan on spending the time with a girlfriend up there doing girlie stuff and staying very warm.

No-More-Humdrum Mittens Swap 2 Questionaire

2008-01-05T23:30:00.000-08:00

How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? I have been knitting for over ten years. I learned to knit from an old Pakistani grandmother while I was home in Saudi Arabia on Christmas break. My mom had known that I was interested in knitting and so she found someone for me. My mom was so good to always find someone to teach me handicrafts that she did not know. That is how I learned tatting and crochet. I think I only had 2 lessons because after that it all made sense and I have been teaching myself since then. My first official project was a colorwork hat and mitts that I thought I could do since the pattern stated beginner. Because I did not know better, on that first colorwork project, I held each color in a different hand.

Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I would consider myself between intermediate and advanced.

What are your favorite colors? I love orange, red, browns and greens of all shades.

Any you dislike? I hate pink (all shades). I have issues with non red based purple. I prefer wine, burgundy and deep eggplant colors if you add any purple.

Do you like Latvian type patterns? I don't have any that I have done. Actually I don't have any mitten knitting books. I mostly have sock and sweater books.

Do you desire mittens for yourself, your "special someone else" or your child? Myself
What is the measurement from your wrist to the tip of your longest finger? 7 ½ inches
What is the circumference of your hand at it's widest point? 7 1/8 inches not including my thumb. 8 ¼ inches including my thumb.

What other things do you enjoy knitting? I knit mostly adult size sweaters.
What sort of needles do you enjoy working with? (straights vs circs, bamboo vs aluminum) I prefer wood or bamboo needles. Right now I am in love with the Knitpick's Harmony needles. For small circumferences I have liked knitting with DPNs but recently I have been knitting everything magic loop. It allows me to knit socks so much faster. I still enjoy knitting with DPNs.

What’s one project you’ve not yet tried but are dying to make? Deep V Argyle Vest by Eunny Jang. I really want to do this for the steeking and I would so live in this sweater most of the winter.

What’s one yarn you’ve not yet tried but are dying to work with? I really love indie yarn dyers. Right now I have a soft spot for all yarns that are not sock weight. I have amassed a large collection of sock yarn but if you want to get me sock yarn. I am dying to try Louet Gems solid color, Scout, Wollmeise, Yarn Pirate, and See Jayne Knit

What other hobbies do you have? Do you spin? Sew? Garden? Cook? Hobbies. Since knitting was my hobby and is now more of a job, my other interests are starting to pop up again. I have a spinning wheel but it is at a fellow bloggers house. I just don't have time to spend doing it daily to get back in the groove. I sew a lot. I am trying to sew more clothing for myself. I draft most of my own sewing patterns so that they fit me perfectly. I like gardening, but last year was just not the year for my green thumb. I think I had more of a brown thumb. This year might be better. I started forcing bulbs right before Christmas, they are going very well. I am also currently looking for the perfect bit of greenery for my almost no light but very moist bathroom. I killed the cactus that I bought as an experiment. Now cooking was/is my other great love. I used to have a food blog before I started blogging about my fiber arts. 2007 kind of zapped my desire to cook. Hopefully it comes back this year. Last year was just not the year for me to focus on my normal things.

Besides yarn, do you collect anything? Yarn, Fabric and Cookbooks? Do those count? If not I have a small grouping of classy lizards and frogs.

What kind of goodies do you enjoy? Sweets? Salty? Anything you hate or are allergic to? I really like salty things and peanuty things. I am allergic to a lot of chocolates and other things because if they are made in the US they usual contain glycerin or paraffin wax. I can tell instantly upon bitting into the chocolate if it will make me sick.

Do you have any kids? Pets? I currently have no kids. We have 2 dogs – Frankie: a lab/pug mix and Lexi: a pure dapple doxie and a rabbit called Mr. Bun.

What is your favorite part of Winter? The snow. I love going on winter hikes in the snow.

What is your least favorite part of Winter? Driving in the snow or having a hard time warming up.

WIP Wednesday

2008-01-02T18:43:00.001-08:00

ocean weathered wood, fresh from the rain.
Originally uploaded by rchrispy

It is a fresh year and I have a few WIPs going but they have been packed up in readyment for churchable's family Christmas. We are heading to Spo Vegas for the weekend.

We are leaving after I see my GYN who has been rescheduled every month from late August to now. I refused to change this appointment. I was tired of moving it. It is a pain to move things around that whenever you call to change it is always a month out.

I know you would like some WIPs instead of a nice log, but think of it as a beautiful inspiration. To appease you, I will post a list of my WIPs.

1 Cardigan to be gifted this weekend but I think it will not be done till MLK weekend when we go back to Spo Vegas.

1 Twisted Flower sock in yarn gifted me by my pal from SP11, which was cast on to welcome in the new year. I am knitting it for the Ravelry: SockDown KAL.

1 Endpaper mitts in KP gloss

a little tube sock for my nephew to match his father. I should be done tonight.

Ok I am off to finish packing and knit the little tube sock. Hopefully there is something good on TV or at least on the TV websites or I will hop over to Netflix and try out the watch on their system some movie that only I want to watch. Churchable always tells me what movie that arrive on my account that he wants to watch. It normally is not a problem but I do prefer to have something to watch especially when I can't turn on the TV.

Best of 2007

2007-12-31T16:33:00.000-08:00

1. Sahara, 2. Blue Moon Sock Candy Socks, 3. Brooklyn Cap, 4. FIngerless Mitts, 5. Second Hat for Memo, 6. Memo hat, 7. One Skein Wonder, 8. Sheldon the Turtle, 9. Indigo Ripple Skirt, 10. Baby Moccasins, 11. Dog Sweater, 12. Fingerless Mitts, 13. Wicked, 14. Eiffel, 15. Dog Swreater, 16. Rusted Root, 17. EZ Baby Suprise Jacket & Driving Moccasins, 18. Baby Argyle Vest, 19. Dave's orange socks, 20. Fifi, 21. EZ February baby sweater, 22. Baby booties, 23. Sweater with Cables from Rebecca, 24. Coquette Lace Tube Top, 25. entralec socks, 26. tree jacket, 27. Surplice Lace Top, 28. Baby socks, 29. Monkey Socks for Swap, 30. Black basic skirt, 31. Placemats for churchable's cousin, 32. Pillows for a friend, 33. Care Bears Halloween present, 34. Dog Boy's Koolhaas, 35. Boteh Scarf, 36. Scherherazade's Slippers

1. Camo socks for BIL 2. Scarf for Judy 3. Gee's socks and scarf 4. Juliet

I thought since it has almost been a year of me blogging about knitting and no longer blogging about food. I would participate in Knit Lit's Best of 2007.

1. your best FO of the year

I think that my best finished object of 2007 was Rusted Root. I figured out all the little bits of shaping details and I wear it all year long unless it is hotter than 75 degrees.

2. best FO of the year made by a blog you link to

Wow there are so many that I love and that inspire me. I read over 500+ blogs. I will list the blogs that have created multiple FOs that I admire: Feather and Fan, Heidi's Knitbits, Confessions of a Sociopathic Knitter, Flint Knits, Sknitty, Neither Hip Nor Funky, Schrodinger Knits (especially her new project bags - awesome), Eleven Stitches (loved her eleven single socks from this summer), Turtlegirl, and Elliphantom Knits

3. best yarn you tried

Well I branched out this year from my love of Cotton Fleece, Habu (yes I knew about this since 2001 as a weaver and I have a separate Habu stash), and Opal (what was I thinking with that) to fall in love with high end Indie yarn. I loved Blue Moon Fiber Arts Yarn so much that I pursued an opportunity to work for Tina. I love all the yarn that I got to work with especially Sock Candy and Twisted!. I also finally too the leap and ordered from Knitpicks and several Etsy suppliers. I tried koigu and hated but then decided to knit a garment instead of socks and fell in love with it knit at a really large non lacy gauge. But my current yarns as crack are Cotton Fleece (haha I knew this was to stay) and Calmer (oh I wish my budget was different than it is).
4. best new book/mag/pattern of 2007

Wow I gained so many this year in an effort to better myself in knitting and to research design ideas. The books that have changed my perspective on knitting are The Knitter's Book of Yarn (if you are afraid to knit a garment in something other than the recommended yarn, get this book it will help you understand how to substitute yarns), No sheep for You (such a lovely book, I want to make so much in it), Big Girl Knits (Everyone should have this book even if the bust measurements are bigger than theirs because this explains how to work with what you have and modify a garment to fit your unique form), Knitting Lingerie Style (knitting patterns designed in the same way as handsewn garments. Wow), New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One (Just as I was wondering if you could mess with the standard sock structure, I saw an ad for this book so awesome)

As for magazines, I love anything by Interweave - Knits, Crochet, Piecework, Spin-off, and the special Felt issue. I also love the things that come in Knitty.com.

5. best new knitting technique or gadget you tried in 2007

I have become a Knit picks Harmony Options convert. I love them. I also am addicted to Schrodinger Cubes. I learned how to seam up my garments professionally this year. That was a goal and oh do things look beautiful when done right.

6. top 5 inspirations--what five things inspired you the most over the past year?

Yarn, Nature, Needs, Texture, and my dreams

7. designer who most amazed & inspired you throughout the year

Kat Coyle, Norah Gaughan, Cookie A, and so many other. I can't even begin to list them. I have absorbed so much information this year I don't know if I can actually understand it all and use it properly.

8. knitting resolutions for 2008--what's next for you and your blog?

Well this time last year, I might have knit 2 sweaters a year. This year I participated in the Sexy Knitters Club and knit 11 adult size sweaters (7 with the Sexy Knitters), 3 baby sweaters, and 2 dog sweaters. I also learned how to love sock knitting and completed 6 pairs of socks (one pair seems to be missing from the pics above). I learned so much and right before that I had discovered knitting blogs and started expanding my knowledge of how to knit better. I also went from dreaming of designing to designing 4 items this year. One will be out later on the blog, in the spring for free and the others will be available through Blue Moon. I started my blog to encourage myself to pursuit my dream of being a fiber artist. I wanted to put my art degree to work. I did that.

So my goals for me:
Become a better designer and knitter.

Goals for my blog:
Make it more user friendly and try to post more often so I don't have monster posts.
(any suggestions welcome)

December was too short

2007-12-31T14:50:00.000-08:00

Man this month flew. I last left you as I was jumping on a plane to the overly warm state of Florida. I had a great time with my relatives celebrating my grandmother's 88th birthday.

I gave her the September Sockdown (ravelry) Mystery sock that I knit in Sept/Oct and finished on the plane to Florida.

She is doing well considering her Alzheimer's. You can tell in her birthday pic that she is not sure that the cake is for her. The progression of the disease bummed me out since it had been 2 years since I had been there. Most of the time she was scared of me and would not leave her room when I was left at the apartment to make sure she did not escape (this happened several times while I was there but not left alone with her).

I got to meet my swap partner Lori (aka 1KnuttyKnitter) from SP11. I was spoiling her this round. It was alot of fun to meet her and see a LYS.

During that time I missed my husband and my doggies. There was a doxie to keep me company. Bam Bam is the same age as Fred (the one we lost last December) but definitely heavier than Lexi. I would probably guess that he is twice the weight of our little Anorexic puppy (I promise I feed her she just does not like to eat unless starving - ie left outside all day).

Upon my arrival home, we got a house guest. He and his dog Maggie were no trouble, but Frankie our mild mannered dog felt threatened maybe it was because Maggie was the tallest dog that has been in our house long term.

After this we made our way up to Union, WA to spend the end of the week with my parents and then bring them back for Christmas at our house. On our way up, I got to meet Ranee of Arabian Knits. We met so she could swap a package with me (sorry no pics the yarn was eaten by the stash as soon as I arrived home). She was so sweet. I think there will be many more meetings with her and hopefully her family.

In Union we spend the days hiking and exploring the Olympic Pennisula. My favorite day was went we went hiking on the Dungeness Spit near Sequim.

after

before

Christmas at home was uneventful. Churchable had to work both Christmas eve night and Christmas night. We were blessed by the gifts we recieved. Churchable even finished my Christmas "project" present.

To view the slideshow of adventure click here.

The highlight of my parents trip here our house was when we went Snow shoeing up at Mt St Helens. We have never seen the snow so low. Mostly the snow is higher up and we can use two of the sno parks but this time we could not reach the sno parks because of all the snow. We stopped at a sno park that is normally snow free most of the year. It was a beautiful 2 1/2 mile hike.

sorry that it is sideways. I can't get it to rotate.

I also received my SP11 reveal package from Robyn of Sweet Little Domestic Life.

She sent me a book that she was published in and a calorimetry that she had knit for me and some yarn. It was a cute sweet package which arrived on the last postal day before Christmas.

WIP/FO Wednesday

2007-12-05T19:14:00.000-08:00

Hey guys

I leave for the airport. I get to leave this little bit of land that has been toying with the idea of becoming one with the ocean for another that likes to be pock marked with lakes because the swamps want to envade. I am headed to Florida. 80 degree weather sounds so nice of course by the time I leave I will be done with it all. I only like to visit the south. Even though I am from the SE US I just can't take it for too long. I even tried not to go to college there but well the best school to attend for what I wanted to focus on in undergrad was in South Carolina. I was glad that I got to go elsewhere for summers.

Ok now you are still probably wondering about the bunny up above. We got the little guy (he is smaller than our 8 lb doxie) in October but we thought that it was temporary. Well we found out that the little guy would be staying with us at Thanksgiving. So let me formally introduce Mr. Bun our mini rex rabbit. He is starting to get along with the dogs but Lexi the doxie thinks that it is her job to keep him in his cage or to lick him into submission.

Ok now for some knitting.

I am a bit late so I will link you to Ravelry. I have been doing other projects but they are packed in one bag or another.

Also hopefully I got it in the mail on time, but I sent in some submissions to Interweave Knits. Not all of them were patterns so we will see. I don't know how much I will be able to say if I get something in but I will definetely let you know if it gets published.

Have a great week. I will see ya'll next week. Some of you I will see in O-town. Yeah I get to hang out with knitters.

FO Friday

2007-11-30T15:31:00.000-08:00

Well now I seem to have some FOs waiting to be shown off.

First up my submission that will be just under the wire for the Sexy Knitters Club - Tree Jacket.

Click for more photos or go to Ravelry for more details

Pattern: Tree Jacket by Zephyr Style
Yarn: Andean Silk by Knit Picks (55% Super Fine Alpaca, 23% Silk, 22% Merino Wool; 96 yards/50 gram ball) - 10 balls I used every last bit
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony Options US 7 (4.50mm)
Mods: I made the neck 2" longer, which in hind sight I should not have done. I knit the sleeves flat per the recommended option. I realized that A) I was going to run out of yarn B) the sleeves would be too big and too long if I knit exactly to the directions. So I knit a shorter no shaping section and decreased on both sides of the seam line 6 times instead of the 5 times. I also knit the cuff shorter. All in all I have a great fitting sweater that did not even need short rows.

Currently at the moment, I need to redo the BO. It was a bit snug. Hopefully I have enough to allow for a better BO.

More info at Ravelry

Pattern: Entrelec socks by Eunny Jang in IK Spring 2007
Yarn: Koigu Premium Merino (100% merino; 170 yd [155 m]/50 g): 1 skein of 2151-99 blue grey and 1 skein of p113-173 blue multicolored
Needles: Crystal Palace US 1 (2.25mm) DPNs
Mods: I started the larger squares earlier. I used a Russian BO which looked really nice on the mainly grey sock.

Cheers. Now I am off to host a lovely Harvest Dinner at our church. Hopefully my food cooks a bit faster.

WIP Wednesday - What no projects?

2007-11-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

Hey folks,

I have found myself in a weird place in time. I have many bags filled with projects wanting to be knit but no active projects. Let me tell you the knits are just flying off the needles in this house. I seem to not be able to keep needles full. I might have some unbloggable knitting soon since I really really want to get in some submissions for IK or maybe some other mags.

In exciting news, I fixed that internet crashing (well sort of) and now am happily blogging from this beauty that is snuggled up to my now finished sock.

I got a laptop. Now laptops are not new to me. This sexy little one is the lightest one yet. Back in high school (now my true nerd comes out) I had my dad's first computer which was a 36 lb "laptop". Ok maybe not that lapish but it was portable. man was it slow. It would be about 25 years old today if I had not begged for it to visit the dumpster before I left boarding school. Since my "laptop" had met the hard metal of the NH rural dumpster (ie I graduated), I got a new little IBM laptop. This computer had its issues. He got nicked named Wacky. He never could keep his programing and I was always beating him into submission by reinstalling and then giving up and handing him off to my even geekier friends. Then as I neared closer to graduation of college, Dad bought me another computer that was much more behaved. This one was a first edition Sony Viao. Wow how I loved that computer. I learned so many things on him. Frog (that was his name) was always getting me to reinstall his operating system under false pretense so that I would lose everything (ie 1000s of downloaded songs and well that was all I still miss). Now we have this here beauty of modern man, a Dell. Yes frog is in a corner crying. He is afraid that I will be sending him off to Free Geek.

So in addition to finishing up a few knits, We have been getting the house holiday ready. We being cheap (there is a new computer in the house and everything) went to the National Forest and cut our own Christmas tree for $5. Yes you hear me right. 5 smackers for a tree. You do have to look for the right one and then cut it down. It was so much fun. And yes it is legal. This year has been so cool. We are creating awesome traditions that we will be able to enjoy for years to come.

There are 2 more photos on my flickr page if you click through.

We did discover some new hiking places that are super close to our house and are awesome. We can go there all year round since it is also a Sno Park. yeah snowshoeing and cross country skiing.

Lastly, I will be in the balmy state of Florida in Orlando the home of Disney, Outlet mall madness but most importantly my family. I will be there December 6th - 13th to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. I hope for a fleeting minute that she realizes what is going on; she has alzheimer's. Anyone who would like to meet up with me. Leave a message. I would love to show off whatever holiday knit I decided would keep me from going crazy in the plane.

Now I am off to play with my new toy.

Weekend Wrap-up

2007-11-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

Finally I have time when my computer is willing to be online. Yes I have a wee computer problem were my computer has an allergic reaction of too much time on the internet and shuts down. A solution will be coming later this week. This is probably why the "Big Silver" is working normally, it is scared of the sexy young thing that is winging its way here from Dell. I had about given up on this hunk of metal that I built my first new years with churchable, so I logged on to find myself a laptop with my specs at a decent price on Thanksgiving evening.

I have been busy. I have been documenting my time with photos but whenever I log on and sit down to edit photos and upload photos, things crash and so thus I have bided my time.

I attended the PDX blogger Holiday Knit-a-thon. It was really fun to meet everyone and catch up with other. Here is a photo to prove I was there. We met at Gino's which is owned by one of our members. Thanks again Deb.

I knit on my Tree Jacket while I was there. I am knitting it along with the Sexy Knitters Club. I had gotten to the end of the garter stitch section that day. Someone took a photo of me with it on and the neck around my face, but so far no one is fessing up. Since then I have taken pics for WIP Wednesday, which had a computer crash while I was uploading pics and editing them. And I finished it on Saturday night at church. It is currently blocking its little heart out. This is were I was on Wednesday.

We also held a yarn swap at the knit-a-thon. I got 4 skeins of yarn. Only 3 are shown below because, the other one was a simple skein of TOFUtsies that I took pity on and brought home.

Interlacements Peru

Handspun by Bobbi

I also have been working on socks for my Brother-in-law and his two boys for Christmas.

I also purchased my first skein of Malabrigo. I love the color. I hope ya'll like this sexy yarn photo. If you would like more, click on the pic and there are more on flickr.

My monkey pal flaked on me. Amazingly the angels jumped on it and the packages pummeled my front door the week of Thanksgiving.

I received a little monkey name Hoodwinked, which I thought was so aptly named since I missed out on getting a proper package. The socks were a lovely color of Koigu but they did not fit me, they fit churchable.

The last bits that I have to show you are my FOs for the week. I actually spent quite a bit of time in front of my sewing machine.

First up: A simple black A-line skirt

This is a simple skirt that I drafted from my measurements with a invisible side zipper and a faced waist. I don't know what the fabric is but it did not melt at the almost cotton heat setting. Most of my fabric stash is unmarked except that each box has a color grouping.

Second: Reversible Place mats

These are to be given to the bride and groom of the wedding we attended in Arizona. The reason we went on a big road trip to Utah and beyond. They were going to be folding a 1,000 cranes for their wedding, so I gathered inspiration from this. The fabric is quilting cotton from the local quilt store. Simple no pattern place mats.

Boxed and ready to go

Spread out. The other side of all the place mats is the color of the napkin.

Third: Pillows for a friend

Click on the photo to read the details.

What's cookin?

2007-11-17T00:05:00.000-08:00

Click on the picture to find out what each item is.

What happens to a knitter's WIPs when she has no time to pay attention to them because work knitting comes first. I have been busy with work and friends for the last 6 weeks. It is nice to have a little bit of a break. These are my current projects. I think I have lost it.

A FO and a package

2007-11-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Just popping my head up to share my recent non-work related FO. I actually made Juliet along with the Sexy Knitters Club. I had some super bulky hiding in the stash and decided it needed to go to a better place (aka become useful in a sweater). When I get a chance I will be posting my details on Ravelry. Right now all I have time to is to knit for work.

On Thursday I received this awesome package from my secret pal. If you want to read what I wrote, click on the pic and it will take you too the image with text.

A Quick Run down of my recent activities

2007-10-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

I have been back for a little bit but really busy and really overwhelmed with life. I got back on Columbus Day. Yes, we did not get to have that day. We had a great 10 days full of extreme drive times and beautiful scenery and great camping sites. I will post more later.

The highlights are above. My current business is 3 fold: One best friend moved in with Churchable and I the day we came back from vacation (our office became her bedroom and stronghold so the computer moved out and we lost our internet for a day), Another best friend (Care Bear) is visiting, and I have to write another pattern and help test knitters with the other two that I wrote before vacation. So I will try to keep everyone updated or at least drag out the pretty pics from vacation since churchable stole my camera. Oh well I was content to knit while he snapped pics and drove the whole trip. Ok maybe not at the same time but those were the main activities. He took 400 odd photos.

A few of my FOs from the trip are in the photos, enjoy!

Go to my flickr page and I added descriptions to the most recent pics.

OFFF, yarn, and stuff.

2007-09-27T00:44:00.000-07:00

Well folks, see that nice lovely pie. Churchable made it for me, on tuesday. I am aware that it is now officially Thursday. I will eat some of it before I collapse in bed tonight. I have decided to call that little pie, my "I have reached and made my first deadline" pie.

Yes folks. I am done. I can start blogging about everything I am knitting. Well ok almost everything. It is the season for Christmas knitting.

Larissa of Stitchmarker

Well in addition to trying to finish my designs on time, I went to OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival in Canby, OR). I had a great time. My fellow PDX bloggers have done a better job at posting about what they have done and what we did. Check out Cindy's post. I was her car mate on this trip. (there are more pictures that I just dumped into flickr so click on the pic of Larissa and look around)

click on the pic and it will take you to a slideshow of the yarn.

I was good this month and saved my yarn allowance till the end of the month. I got several hanks of sock yarn. I really wanted semi-solid colors. I got so many.

Well in addition to all this I got my first SP package for SP11. It was awesome. I would love to gush more but me tired. I added the link to the slide show of the stuff. I must say that the yarn is Bamboo. So great.

Now I must apologize for being such a lame blogger, but I am tired. I have been pushing myself this week to finish not just because of my deadline but because I am leaving on vacation bright and early tomorrow. We are headed south through California to Arizona for a family wedding. I hope it turns out well. Our RSVP got lost and they just found out we were coming on Tuesday. From there we are headed North to the National Parks of the area. We will be camping and hiking in the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park to name a few. We will be coming home via Salt Lake and Boise. If you know of good yarn shops, let me know in the comments.

Don't expect me to poke my head up before the 8th of October. I will be adding comments as I get them when I have computer access. Have a great first week of Socktober.

WIP Wednesday - the insomniac edition

2007-09-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

Well one of the wonderful side effects of coming down off the hormones is that I am an insomniac one week out of the month. Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't do work knitting because i am trying to calm and relaxed as I knit so that I will fall asleep.

I would like to say that the finishitis is still going strong. I finished the sweater. Si your present is done. Ha ok now I must knit the other sweater, the hat, and the pair of socks that I have in the queue for Christmas. Actually my finisitis is so strong it won't let me cast on more projects, except for the baby presents that are for babies that were born earlier this month. I really want to cast something on but I have to finish my work project and my monkey swap socks. Well of the things that I just mentioned only one of them can be blogged about so. Let me flash what I have done on my second monkey sock.

Today when I received my new knit picks harmony needles. I had to cast on with my new sharp non-bendy size 0 DPNs. I grabbed the sock yarn I bought for a specific baby that was supposed to be born around a football game played in these colors. In this house they are rival colors, but as Anna says our colors are clown colored.

I am proud of myself. I learned 2 new techniques with these wee little socks. I did Judy's Magic Cast-on and EZ sewn bind-off. Man why have I not been doing this. They were both so easy. I also think I have got my short row heel down perfectly. This little guy should qualify for SockDown a KAL on Ravelry.

Next up are the projects that are lining up on my desk and grabbing needles. They are impatient little buggers. They started fighting over the new needles as soon as I laid them down. Bad Yarn. You will have your turn.

Here they are in no particular order, Give me your opinion on what I should start:

Knitpick's Gloss with Knitpick's fixed Harmony needles for Endless Paper Mitts

Mystery Sock(not a ravelry link) for SockDown a KAL on Ravelry for Sock Knitters Anonymous lead by our own Fyberduck.

Brother-in-law Camo socks for Christmas. Pattern unknown. Just has to be non-fancy. He is a basic sort of guy, but he asked for camo socks. Pray these socks pool. Stripes would be bad.

Ribbon Yarn. About 1 lb. Unknown source. This will be the RCC that was part of last Sexy Knitter's Club. It should be done but well I have a job knitting.

Finishitis Interuptus

2007-09-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

I have been knitting away full steam ahead as I race my deadlines down. Amazing instead of fall startitis, I have caught finishitis. Wow that is just amazing. I have been seaming things together perfectly. Happy as a clam, I grab a sleeve to seam it on before doing the side seams.

..........................................................................

I stare in horror.

The sleeve is too small. I followed the pattern. I scratch my head and stare. Then I realize that I knit it on smaller needles to make the size small fit my even smaller sister-in-law Si. Drat. I need to make another set of sleeves.

In happier news, I finished a monkey sock for the monkey sock swap 3.

In case, you think this blog has been drained of all color, I have included a lovely pic of Lexi the Slut puppy.

Slut puppy? Yes see the diaper on the butt. The little miss has become a women and though the fact that most of my carpets are red or red brown, I don't want women making stains on them. So thus the slut pup has come of age and has discovered that she is even more flexible and will sure make the boys wild with her ability to do multiple weird angled moves.

oops was that Wednesday

2007-09-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, Did we miss something? Sorry guys this blog owner is a little busy right now. I will try to post this weekend. Love ya'll hope to have some great stuff for you. Go check out Knitty right now. I am sure that will keep you busy while I try to finish up some work things.

This is just not my week

2007-09-07T17:23:00.001-07:00

Well my last post stated that I was going to hang with my fam. It was a really great day with a weird ending.

I had been taking photos like the ones above and really feeling like I was doing well artistically with them. We hung out in Astoria, visiting the Column, eating fish n chips from a tug shack, playing on the beach, eating ice cream and visiting the sea lions. I got so excited about seeing the sea lions that I went to grab my camera and it was gone. I shook everything out of my knitting bag because churchable is always accusing me of not looking with a fine tooth comb. Well this time I was not going to mess around so I looked well but it still was not there. I looked under all the seats. Still nothing. My heart sunk lower in my chest. What is a blogger without her camera? I had a crappy old digital which I had used before this one, but I did not want to get a new one so soon after getting this one for my birthday this year.

Churchable grilled my on where I had remembered using it and seeing it when digging around in the abomination that my bag has turned into lately. Drat on the nice pockets ripping out because it was cheaply made.

I clearly remember taking the second picture as my last one. That meant we had to go all the way back to the beach. I totally doubted that anyone would report it missing or let allow leave a bright green camera case lying in the sand. The color alone would lore people to it.

We drove back to Long beach from Astoria as fast as is acceptable and prayed the whole way there that we could find it. The whole time thinking we would have to deal with the lose. I thinking how we could afford it and churchable trying to train is brain not to guilt trip me into eternity for losing such an expensive item.

As soon as we arrived, we raced across the sands to the drift wood that I had spread my blanket next to. Off to the side we noticed a car stuck in the same exact location as the car that caused me to be distracted when picking up my blanket and stuff. Well it was not next to the drift wood nor was a close to the drift wood. My heart sunk even lower. I was feeling pretty crappy. The interesting thing was that my little piece of the beach was not disturbed by more than two sets of footprints. Mine and Churchable's. Hmmm. There was another set that came almost to the spot but not too close.

So we spread out to look at all the locations that I had been between getting up and getting in the car. Still nothing.

As a last resort, we asked the couple that was stuck in the sand and the group trying to pull them out. Miracles of Miracles, the lady in the car had gone to get driftwood to stick under the tires and had picked up my camera. If they had gotten unstuck, which they didn't and had to call a tow truck, we would have never seen my camera.

This is the lovely savior of my camera. Called her blessed people.

Now that my camera is back safe and sound, it will be receiving a tattoo with my name and number. No how no way is this thing going to be unmarked again. For the time being it is labeled with that printed tape stuff. Churchable will be getting out the dremel tool next week.

We interupt these programs for a visit

2007-09-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

This here is dog boy. His family is here visiting unexpectedly from California. We will be back to normal knitting goodness this weekend. Hope you all are doing well.

Thanks for your concern over number 7. He is feeling better today albeit shorter.

Damn Dog

2007-09-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

Does this look like an innocent sweet face? Ha.... don't let it fool you people.

Today was turning out to be a great day. I had finally kicked my butt into gear and was trucking my way through my work project. I was loving it. I took a less than five minute break to let the dogs in from a bathroom break and check my email. Seconds later, I hear a crack. My first thoughts were great she got another thing of churchable's. So I headed into her favorite space were she destroys razors, soccer balls and basically anything plastic. She never seems to destroy my stuff just Frankie's and Churchable's. Not today.

Look below and you will see what damage she has wrought. At least the yarn is safe. I would hate to have to call Tina and explain that my dog ate her yarn. I doubt I would last if all my projects had that result.

That my friends is my only size 7 US Circular in the house. I have DPNs but who wants to knit a sweater on DPNs. I might be desperate. The yarn store is already closed for the day. I hope she has 7s in stock tomorrow or I will be driving to Portland or Vancouver. We will see. The first solution is to have churchable whittle them down and then sand them smooth. It only matters that the needle size is a 7 not the tip. What would you do before shooting the dog?

Let me explain also that I spent most of the day with her. She went walking in the morning, she sat with me at the computer all day and she even shared my knitting chair all afternoon. Every once and a while I would pat her head or scratch an ear. No gratitude.

FO Friday - clean sheets and a happy husband

2007-08-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

Tube Top of Blueness
Pattern: Coquette Lace Tube Top by Stephanie Japel in Fitted Knits
Yarn: Knit picks Cotlin color - Desert Turquoise 3 1/2 skeins
Needles: Clover US 4 Circular and Crystal Palace US 6 Circular
Thoughts: Great quick knit. I did major negative ease on this garment so that it would fit smoothly and stay up. I don't think I will put ribbons or a strap onto the garment but that might change after a day of wear. I included 2 inches depth of short rows over the bust so that I had more ease.

So the FO picture location was chosen by churchable and he had a great time taking these pics.

This week has been great and I have been getting stuff done around the house and keeping on top of my work.

FYI - It is taking me longer to post comments because I am starting to get comment spam. I don't know if I can put any more hoops to jump through and they are not leaving them in the anonymous section. I also want the ability to leave comments to be easy for you the reader. I know what bugs me when I try to leave comments on a blog and so I try to make it better for all. But hey I guess I am popular enough to get spam comments now.

WIP Wednesday

2007-08-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

It is that same bad time again where I drag out my WIPs and show you how far I am.

I was kind of productive last week which means I did not work on my design projects as much, but hey I just turned one in today. Two more to go. Yeah.

We have a few members missing from this illustrious blog. One is finished and one is hiding in the WIP basket (he realizes that I am bored with him - I guess I will have to find a time when I need something mindless to do and I can knit the little bugger.)

So that leaves us with our little monkey, how she grows.

The monkey pattern is fairly easy. It actually is part of the pattern that I am knitting for Si, my sil. It is super simple and is very intuitive. The monkey has been walking around town with me while I run errands and wait in lines. It grew the longest when I went to the Performing Arts Center in Portland with churchable last week. I got to the heel and started working on something else since I had not decided what heel to do. I did a short row heel since my pal has never gotten the opportunity to try out this heel on her feet. Personally it is my favorite of the standard heels, but that could change when I start messing around with Cat Bordhi's new structures.

If you want to see the progress I have made with Si's Christmas present, you will have to hop over to my ravelry project page. I really am glad that I am done with the lace portion of it and I am excited to be doing plain st st. I am onto the smaller pieces and have a sleeve and the top portion to finish. This project is going fairly smoothly.

The last project on the needles that is of interest to my dear readers is the Entrelec sock. I don't spend much time on this beauty. I just lost the motivation when they turned out not to be knee-high length. But I am still working on them.

That is it for now. Look forward to a FO post and new projects jumping on the needles. There are several sock yarns jockeying for time, which one will get first dips (Hint: I have a skein of each type of STR. Will I give in to the wiles of the Silkie or go for a buffer sock?)