Knitty Gritty Thoughts

I'm here!

First off - thank you SO much for the lovely birthday wishes - they made my day so wonderful and special!! =)

In the meantime, I made it ----barely!  I'm in Asheville!  Woohoo!  I'm so excited about SAFF I can't hardly contain myself.  I had a super long drive after work today, there was pouring down rain and insane drivers that turned a 4 hour or so drive into a almost 6 hour drive.  Eeek.  It was long and tiring and I am so glad to make it safe and sound!  Class starts tomorrow early but I just wanted to check-in.  Who else is going to SAFF?  If you're here let me know and let's try to meetup, I'm staying at the holiday inn where everyone else is staying. 

If you run into me come say hi - I felt like I should post something so you know what I look like.  This pic is pretty close (scroll down) 'cept I just dyed my hair a bit darker and cut some bangs.  The one thing people say when they meet me is whoa! you're tall!  I'm about 6 feet or so.  I'll probably be wrapped in ene and wearing jeans and a t and tennis shoes, hair pulled back.  Honestly I'm super shy but I don't bite and I'd love to meet you!

In the meantime - here's a pic of another new project.  I have such bad startitis lately!  It's a BSJ but I'll let you try to guess the yarn.  Any ideas???  It's very yummy and soft and hand-dyed - a total joy to knit! =)

Have a great night!

Happy Birthday to Me! =)

Elle wanted to say thank you for all the well wishes, and I appreciate them so much as well!  I wish I had something good to say, like she was feeling better but that isn't actually the case.  Went to the vet last night late for more tests and different meds after she stopped eating and this morning she seems to have turned around a bit food-wise, although she still can't walk well.  I bought her a new dog bed to keep downstairs since she can't climb stairs as well either.  Mom is still here, she's leaving tomorrow early and I have to say I am exhausted, we manage to fit so much into a day!  There's no rest for the weary however, I leave for SAFF on Thursday after work for the 4-hour drive.

Anyhow so I wanted to take a quick breather from the hub-bub and stop in and say a big- Happy Birthday to Me! =)  Woohoo!  The big 2--8!

Who's coming over?  I'm having ice cream cake! (mint chocolate chip of course!)

And I received the loveliest of presents from my family, a digital SLR that I have been wanting for ages, the Canon Rebel Xti.  I can't wait to play with the new toy and take lots of good knitting pictures! =) (Isn't it funny, that's the first thing I thought of!)  If you have any SLR tips or book recommendations let me know, I haven't the foggiest idea of how to use one to get the best results but I sure am going to learn! =)

Sad Doggie Day

So I'm having a bit of a bad day today.  My lab Elle has been limping and having trouble walking the past few days.  When it became clear she wasn't getting better I took her to the vet.  All I thought was that perhaps she had strained her muscles running too hard, the last thing I was expecting was that the vet thought she had torn her cruciate ligament in her knee and would need surgery.  She first needs to be sedated and x-rayed and have more exploratory stuff done.

I love my dogs and it breaks my heart to see her limping like this, barely able to walk.  It scares me a little too - this is pretty major surgery, especially for a dog her size.  Send happy thoughts our way will ya?  I'd appreciate it, I'm pretty bummed out and stressed about this.

Here's a pic when she was a pup - she was such a tiny little thing, runt of the litter actually.  Little did you know she would grown into a 90lb dog!  There's a more recent pic of her in my sidebar. 

And in other stressful news, my mother is coming to visit from CA at the last minute for the weekend to celebrate my birthday.  I haven't seen her in two years because we moved cross-country and it's a pretty long flight to head over.  I'm a little nervous.  I know things will go good, but somehow I always get stressed out when she comes out to visit, we have totally different personalities that sometimes don't mesh well.  Also - my house isn't clean, I need to buy groceries and I still have work to do.  Stress-stress-stress.  Sheesh I need to go do some yoga or something to mellow out! =)

Selbu Knitting Style

In between my zillions of other WIPs I suddenly decided to cast on for something new.  I had the yarn in my stash (Satakieli from Schoolhouse) since early this year just waiting for the moment to start these mittens.  I love learning new things, I've knitted stranded mittens before but never in the selbu style.  The pattern is NHM#7 from Terri's Selbuvotter Knitting Book.  I'm using these as a warm up before I tackle other colorwork projects this winter, I know I wanted to tackle a set of gloves and perhaps my first garment.

Ever wonder what a difference needle size can make even if it's very small?  I know I do - whenever a pattern calls for 2.25mm I always debate how much different it would turn out if I used a 2.5 instead.  Seems pretty close right???  Only .25 of a difference? 

I use the cuff on mittens as my swatch to measure gauge.  On the left is a 2.25 needle (called for in the pattern) and on the right is a 2.5 needle.  The difference is pretty significant yet subtle - about 1/2 inch.  I went with the 2.5, the smaller size made the cuff a bit too tight.  I think it would have turned out child-size instead, kinda like Tiennie's recent problem. =)

And I couldn't wait to share this with you - I am so very proud of this spinning I just finished!  The batts were a gift from Erica when I was visiting in Germany, to Rachel and I.  Rachel spun hers up months ago but I was waiting to get a little better before I tackled such a yummy present.  And I have to tell you - I am a TOTAL batt convert!  These were so yummy and well prepped they were a dream to spin.  I am now seriously contemplating the need for my own drum carder so I can make some myself - they are THAT yummy!  Erica has an etsy shop if you're interested - I have another set of batts from her waiting in my fiber drawer that she custom dyed for me.  Yum - O!

This turned out about a fingering -- dk weight and is next to the skin soft so I'm contemplating a cowl that I might design myself.  I have about 305 yds to play with.  What do you think?  Cables or lace for the cowl?   I can't decide.

And I had a lovely surprise waiting for me in my mailbox the other day! I had won a blogiversary contest from Kim-Chi and she sent me such yummy pressies!  Koigu and the cutest little Koala notions container and a pretty little zippered pouch.  I feel so lucky - it was a truly awesome package, thanks so much! =)

Ene is the name of the game

So I was MIA last week because I was traveling for work.  I have to laugh at myself, every time I pack for a trip I always take too much.  I call it kitchen sink-itis and watch out, it's catching!  I know at least a few weeks in advance when I'm going so I try to plan ahead, wash clothes, clean the house and start packing.  Inevitably however I end up waiting til the last minute, throwing stuff into the biggest rollie suitcase I have, willy-nilly and taking way to much.  I was working on some small project bag/sock bags before I left and I hadn't quite finished them and I was quite seriously considering taking my sewing machine with me, ha!  And then I was thinking well I really wanted to do some spinning so I better take my wheel too!  Before I knew it I had my entire car full and barely any room to put my dogs in back so I could drop them at the kennel.  It's a serious disease let me tell ya!

Anyhow so I did manage to finish the sock bags without taking my machine with me in case you were wondering, two of them are off to new homes but I made one extra and listed it in etsy for fun.  This is my first time posting anything there and I am new to it so please be gentle, I haven't spent that much time on it yet! =)  I can see where it would be a total time-suck getting everything customized.  Anyhow hopefully they are liked, I've had a lot of great feedback from people I've made them for in the past so I thought it would be fun to put it out there!

While I was away I had lots of hotel room knitting time and I finished ene.  My shoulder is still hurting unfortunately.  I really appreciate those of you who asked about it.  Right now I'm just trying to power through it.  I learned that letting it rest wasn't making it any better and infact I felt almost weaker than just trying to let it be.  So there you go - never underestimate the will of someone when they want to knit!

Of course you know how it is with a finished lace project- you have to block it right away!  Unfortunately I did not plan ahead far enough and bring blocking pins with the rest of my sink.  However I have a coworker who knits and she generously brought me her blocking wires to work so I could block it on my hotel bed.  See - never underestimate the power of someone who wants to block too!

So here we go - here's a shot of Ene blocking, I'll get a proper FO post up here soon.

Happy Monday!

Socktober is here!

October is my absolute favorite month - fall is (usually) finally here by now and I love the crisp cool weather, the changing of the leaves and the feel of warm wool knitting.  Plus it's my birthday too this month, so who doesn't love that? ;)

Socktober is one of my favorite knitalongs, socks in October just feel right and this year is no exception.  I have only one goal this month and that is to knit me a pair of socks that I can wear on Halloween.  I searched high and low for the perfect yarn and found Lovesticks hand-dyed self-striping yarn in Count Sockula.  Count Sockula people, don't you just love that name??! =)  It makes me smile everytime I say it!

This is a simple, plain vanilla sock pattern with a picot edge.  Rachel gave me the idea after I saw her gorgeous Lovesticks socks.  I've been wanting to do a picot edge for a long time, there's a great tutorial here.  And if you want to make your own pair, there's my plain vanilla sock pattern here.  I did a crochet CO with 64sts on 2.25mm needle, knit 4 rows before the picot and 4 after and joined the hem.  Very easy-peasy and fun.

Happy Socktober!  What kind of socks are you knitting? =)

Wollmeise Shop Open for business!

Have you heard?  Wollmeise has an online shop in English now open for business!  I probably should have mentioned this yesterday when I first heard thanks to Angelika, but if you're tired of waiting for it to be available locally you can start shopping here, I already got my order in, and it's going to be yummy! =)

A Retrospective

Thanks everyone for your awesome and totally overwhelming blog wishes!  You made my day!  =)  It was so nice to hear from everyone, sometimes when you get into the grind of creating and blogging you become so focused on the day to day that you miss the big picture.  And that is that I have indeed been doing this blog thing for 3 years, and it's definitely a commitment.  Those of us who have been blogging for any amount of time know how much effort and time is involved to take pictures, write up projects and join in the community.

Being around so long has definitely given me a different perspective.  When I first started, the knit blog-o sphere was so small there were only a few hundred active knitting blogs.  It was such a small community that is seemed like a small town, where everyone knew everyone else.  We didn't have all these fancy online retailers or all these beautiful indie yarn dyers.  Very few people spun, and no one took breathtaking photos like these.  There was no ravelry, no one had ever heard of blue moon and socks weren't popular yet.  Can you imagine?! =)

I remember my very first knitalong, Katie hosted it when she was pregnant with AJ, the bear-along.  I never did finish that bear! =)  Katie and Alisha and Cath and Erica and Lolly were some of my very first blog friends who are still around blogging today.

Along the way some other good blog friends have moved on, and I think it's wonderful the way this community has grown.  Nowadays I am constantly browsing to find new to me blogs as it keeps expanding.  It blows my mind that there are 15 THOUSAND people on ravelry with 15 THOUSAND more people in line, whoa!

Anyhow you came here for the winner right?  The random number generator told me it was ......

......Qutecowgirl!

Congrats!

I loved reading all of your answers and found myself adding more items to my list.  I want to learn how to dye, try steeking, improve my colorwork and improve on spinning this year.  I'm also want to organize my stash which means I'll be having a stash sale here shortly.

I guess you'll have to wait til next year to see how I do on my goals! =)

Meanwhile you may have noticed I've been a bit MIA on blogs and email lately.  I have a pinched nerve in my left arm that is making it really hard to sit at a computer, type or even knit, ouch!  I'm sure it has something to do with my stress level, they're building houses next door and behind my lot and the hammering starts at 6am right outside my bedroom window and usually culminates in the construction workers littering all over my lawn, big trucks blocking me in my driveway, throwing constructions debris in my back yard and the dogs barking wildly at them whenever they are let outside to stretch their legs.  *Sigh* we've all got a little house-fever.

So I tried to knit to make some progress on ene but it hurt too bad so it's on time out (Now's your chance Beth!  How is yours coming??=))

I tried to crochet on the ripple blanket and that was moderately better...

...it's getting so big and rippley!

And finally I moved on to sewing which seems to hurt the least right now so I started piecing my first quilt.  I'm a little nervous because I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'll figure it out.

Isn't the fabric lovely?  It's from purl, they do color toned fabric bundles.

And finally, today is a big milestone for me.  When I was a child I used to horseback ride.  I grew up around horses and competed in hunter/jumper dressage in junior high/early high school.  As I grew up I got away from it and it's been almost 12 years since I've been on a horse for more than a casual trail ride.

Today I'm going to my first lesson in more than a decade, and I'm so proud of myself for realizing that it would make me happy and going for it.  I love horses and I love riding so much, I'm so eager to start again.  Life is all about circles isn't it??  Here's to new/renewed experiences! =)  Wish me luck, hope I don't fall off! =)