Knitty Gritty Thoughts

Boy are my arms tired!

Well what can I say, I labored on Labor Day which isn't a great surprise to me - give me a long weekend and I mange to fill it with 3 days of work.  Give me a regular sized weekend and I manage to fritter away the time and have no idea what I managed to accomplish when it was over.

I mowed the lawn and managed to find a king-sized red ant hill that I mowed straight over.  Then the red ants proceeded to crawl all over me and bite me, and yes I have the scars to prove it - *sigh*.  I rototilled using a big heavy-duty real full sized tiller.  I pulled out old plants, bought new ones and put them in.  I hung drapes and purchased the fancy double-rods which I really like to spruce up my bedroom.  Likewise I bought new bedding (600 TC sheets!) to make my room more of a retreat.  I finished the smoke ring and blocked it although I have yet to figure out how to wear it and pulled out the ripple.  It was busy, but fun.

There are three things I absolutely hate to do - guess what they are?  Put together furniture, hang drapery rods and put up pictures.  I also think it's my hubby's job but since he's not around, guess who gets to be the boy?  Me!

I have to say though I was quite proud of myself for tackling those projects, I even hung robe hooks and hand-towel rings.  All in all a very productive weekend.  How was yours??

I have to say with this cooler weather I suddenly have the attention span of a gnat.  I keep flitting from one idea to another, the rest of the trip?  Yep I'll be posting about it, don't think I forgot, but I can't force myself to talk about it anymore right now, I need a break so I can talk about knitting!  And knitalongs!

Have you joined Fall Fingerless Mitts yet?  I know it's still hot out there and the last thing on your mind is warm hands but the seasons are changing quickly.  I like to be a good hostess so I'm having giveaways for each month of the knitalong.  There will be a spinning involved giveaway as well but this month it's two skeins of Koigu for Eunny's Endpaper Mitts and VERY luxurious lantern moon sox sticks in ebony.  Ebony, people!  Pure luxury I tell 'ya~ go sign up and join us and you could win! =)

I also promised to reveal my fingerless mitt project th is year.  I do have a couple of designs in the works, and Rachel read my mind when she said handspun yarn is perfect for fingerless mitts.  She's knitting a pair, I may write up a quick pattern for the group as well.  Great minds think alike! =)

My first project will be the orchid lace mitts from Anne at knitspot knit in fearless fibers lace weight merino in this color.  Very, very happy with Deb's awesome customer service - the yarn arrived super fast and I already wound it.  May cast on tonight if I can stop rippling!

I also won a very cool contest over at rohan knitter and she sent me the most lovely package!  Everything she picked out was perfect, a beautiful handknit dishcloth, burts bees (!) and fun little treats like soak wool wash and tea!  There was also these really cute little notebooks and stickers from martha stewart that I just loved and I'd never seen anything like it.
Thanks so much!

PS - don't be surprised if you see me blogging all the time all of a sudden - the bug has bitten, trying not to fight it!

New Knitalong! Come Join!

I love me a good knitalong, just like Tiennie of course, and out of nowhere I decided I wanted to start a knitalong this fall, it's called Fingerless Mitts for Fall.  Can't you almost just feel fall in the air?  That nice cool breeze, that twinge of change?  Well we all know how much I love my fingerless mitts, right?  Every year like clockwork I make a new pair, and I wear them everywhere, outside working in the yard, walking my dogs on those brisk evenings, and especially working on the computer everyday.  They keep my hands so cozy!

Well I decided to spread the fingerless mitt love by starting a knitalong for it!  It will run from the 1st of Sept to the end of November and is for fingerless mitts of anykind (knit, crocheted, sewn, whatever floats your boat!)

Head on over to the blog here and sign-up!  (Sorry it's still so blah, just started it today and am still working on getting pics and links up, does anyone feel inspired to make a button?? =))

Have a great day, and spread the word!

This was my pair from last year,
this year I've already gotten the pattern and yarn picked out, but it's a surprise! =)

Christmas Comes Early

First order of business, the random number generator picked Phyllis as the winner of the Cork.  Congrats Phyllis, it's on the way to you shortly!

Remember the christmas stocking?  I was a little afraid of the short-row heel and put it away for awhile.  Earlier this week I pulled it back out, turned the darn heel kept on going down the leg and did it all again at the toe and finished the thing!  It was a pretty major victory, this is the first time I really "got" what was going on with this type of heel and didn't have to move the post-it every row as I followed along.  I also now "get" the wraps/no-wraps question that Erica asked me.  I feel so "in the know" to know that the style of the stocking is no-wraps, which I actually prefer.  I hate those pesky wraps! ;)  I also feel pretty proud that I didn't have to sew up any holes which was pretty monumental.

Anyhow, the name was duplicate stitched on AKA swiss darning.  This was my first time doing it and I found it pretty easy, the trick is not to pull the yarn too hard, otherwise you'll get the background color showing out...I used this tutorial.  Now I just need to make a trip to the fabric store to find a lining, put it in and it's done!  (Well now I need to start on mine!)

Annie's Woolens Christmas Moose Stocking
In Plymouth galway (#16, #17, #8)
US 8 16" Addi Needle/US 8 DPNS

Too Many to Title

I'm working this weekend.  There, I've said it.

It's a bummer really but it is the biggest weekend of the year for working, we're doing a major server move/integration this weekend.  I hate sitting around the house waiting for people to call or IM questions.  As I'm waiting I've been joining as well.  I've been on a joining spree lately, after not joining knitalongs for a while now.  Over the course of the weekend I joined: Zimmermania, Grey's Anatomy Knitalong, Twist & Knit AND Socktoberfest, wow!  Of course I couldn't resist joining Socktoberfest, I did it last year and my birthday is in October as well and it's really a lot of fun.  I honestly don't know what my bday in October has to do with the greatness of Socktoberfest but it really does make it more fun!

In the meantime I finished up the Bea Ellis' hat that I was knitting along with Cath and Jenn.  It turned out pretty good and amazingly it fits.  It was knit on size US3/5 needles.  The only change I would make to the instructions is making sure you do a provisional cast-on for the liner to knit up later, sewing it on afterwards was just wonky and that is exactly what I did for my next one.  Yep, I ordered the Venten hat kit in gray and black.  Only a little bit knitted up so not much to show.

I also am "waving along" on the print o the wave stole I'm knitting with Erica and Angelika.  Just made it to repeat 24 as of last night and now to 26 and am starting to freak out about yarn.  Does anyone know a rule of thumb of how much yarn the edging should take on a stole that goes all the way around.  Wouldn't it be approx equal to the total amount used for the body of the stole???

I'm curious because I'm fearful of running out.  According to my calculations I have 8oz of yarn that equals 1120 yards of fine fingering weight.  8oz converted to grams is equal to 227grams.  According to my handy dandy scale I have 150 grams of yarn LEFT so far.  Soooo 227-150 = 77grams I've used for 24 repeats.  Therefore 77/24 = ~3.21grams a repeat.  Soo if I wanted to knit to 100 grams I would get 7 more repeats out of it.  (well to be exact 7.165) therefore I should make it to my new goal of 30 repeats and have plenty of yarn.  Right?  Does that make sense to anyone besides me? =)

I also ordered a cute little knowknits pouch in camo that just arrived that I'm using for the stole.  I really like it, it's quite handy.  Well I guess that's it for now, I just got my tea swap pal and said hi and had my pal said hi as well.  Hi Pal!  Happy knitting!