Knitty Gritty Thoughts

Of Socks and Mail

I guess it's a good thing I blogged so much last week, I feel like I don't have much to say this week.  Busy, busy at work, taxes (ugh!) and I've been spring cleaning and organizing like no tomorrow.  Clean cupboards make me happy, what can I say?? =)

I was once again part of Lynne's lovely special swap and paired up with Debby which was a real treat.  Debby is a real sweetheart and I enjoyed getting to know her better.

She sent me such a lovely package - the theme was spa treats which is one of my weaknesses.  I love beauty products that promise, better, prettier, shinier, well, anything!  My bathroom is covered in them (well, was, hence the spring cleaning.) =)

I received a lovely package that really made my day, beautiful bath bubbles, lotions, pedicure treats and a candle to enjoy while I do it all.  One of the neatest little tools ever was the cuticle oil stick she sent me from bath and body works.  That thing is amazing, it's not pictured because it's sitting on my desk and hasn't left my side since it arrived! =)  There was yummy, yummy yarn as well.  I am so, so excited to try out the new alpaca sox (and I'm anxious to see if mine will pool like grumperina's in the ball.)  and don't forget the yummy merino too - it's so soft!  Thank you so much Debby for being a wonderful swap pal!

In other news I've been doing some plain sock knitting this week but the yarn isn't so plain.  Since I'm on a roll with short-row heels I thought I would finally bite the bullet and try toe-up socks one more time ( I haven't done them since my Badcaul ones)

The yarn is Wollmeise in poison nr 5 (strong) and it's quite decadent to knit with.  I wanted to use up every little inch of this valuable yarn so I searched high and low for a pattern that would work.  It had to be toe-up and it had to be knee highs (knee highs in this would be ultra-decadent! =)  I finally found it in Star's awesome pattern, the Anne Diamond Socks.  Ahh perfection in a pattern! =)  I'm looking forward to starting the upper leg this weekend.

Speaking of which I'm going to busy this weekend.  Mama-e is having one of her dye workshops sorta close to me (2hrs away) and I decided to go for it.  I'm always interested in learning new things or new and better ways to do the things I already do and I'm interested in chatting with someone who I've admired her yarn for a long time.  Should be fun, I'm really excited.  If you live in the area there's still room I think, come join us! =)

Have a great weekend all!

Mermaid Mitts and More

I have a huge pile of stuff to blog about in my craft room so I thought I would grab a few things off the top of the pile and dive right in - the first thing I thought I would share is something I DIDN'T knit actually.

I had been wanting to knit mermaid gloves  for ages but could never find the time so Angelika and I did a trade, I sent her the yarn to knit these (beautiful Koigu from Rhea), and she knit them, and in exchange I'm hand dyeing some lace yarn for her.  Hmm.... I think I may have gotten the better end of the deal, I better send her some extra goodies too! =)

Aren't they gorgeous??? She even matched up the pattern to the thumb gusset and made me pretty little fingers too. The little fingers make me happy, hehe! ;)

Hmm so what else?  There has been spinning, I've been trying to spin some shop samples so first off are some Sheepy Battlets spun up (this skein is a belated Christmas gift too, so it's quite nice to take care of two things on my to-do list at once! =))  These are quite wooly and natural feeling, I've never had a fiber tell me how they wanted to be spun before but these clearly were shouting at me that they wanted to be spun with a backwards draw, preferably long!  Once I listened, the spinning went quite smoothly and I'm looking forward to spinning up more.

After that I started spinning up a Hearts Afire battlet sample, this is only 1 ounce but went quite fast on my new spinning wheel (Hubby bought me a Schacht Matchless DT for Christmas, aren't I lucky???)! =) (Leah you are such an enabler!!! ;))  I just love my new wheel, I'm still getting used to it.   The first thing I did after taking it out of the box was switching it to Scotch from Double Drive, since I'm more familiar with it from my Lendrum.

It's a long story but there was actually a big mix-up from Schacht, they messed up my order and told me my new wheel wouldn't be here for weeks (if ever) after I had to already wait 2 months.  Well, it was important that it arrived before Christmas so we did some major scrambling to get 1 here.  Paradise was quite helpful and rushed me the only wheel they had, it was still new but had been taken out of it's box to demo.  Well two days later a wheel from Schacht shows up on my door!  I now have two of these wheels at my house!  I obviously can't afford to keep two, and the other is still in it's box from paradise fibers.  Anyone looking for one?   They're quite hard to find right now due to the fact that Schacht is focusing on the new ladybug and they're out of stock just about everywhere.  Paradise is offering the person who buys it a $100 fiber credit (!)  anyhow email me if you'd like more info. =)  Oh and please spread the word too - if it sells due to you referring someone I will quite happily send you battlets from my store, or a free project bag or... something! =)

But...back to spinning...the hearts afire is quite similar to the candy-cane battlets (red/white) just slightly different proportions of each.  This screams Valentine's day and hearts to me, so I spun up the sample in a DK-weight single on the new matchless with the regular whorl and a short, slightly lazy forward draw.  I prepped the battlet by unrolling it and tearing strips off, I pre-drafted slightly to try and keep both colors together when I spun.  It was very fun and easy to spin and I had a great time! =)

Ok enough of the spinning and on to sewing! =)  I've had a few people email me about the European style bread-basket pattern, so i thought we'd have a mini bread-basket sew-along.  I'll post a supply list here tomorrow so you can have the weekend to pick up a few things and then we'll start on Monday and it will last a few days.  Are you in??? =) (And let me say to the non-sewers that it's quite easy, fast and only involves straight lines.   If you're on the fence about it, give it a try! =))

Mini Me & Chh..changes

PS - big news at the bottom, don't scroll too fast and miss it! =)

Thank you so much for all the support on my CC getting hijacked and thousands of dollars racked up in charges on that thing before I found out and put a stop to it.  Want to know what they were buying with it?  Diamond doggy collars, little chihuahua outfits and dog purses.  YEP - weird huh?  I think it was a front for something - I found their website and it looked a wee bit shady.  I also have to say it concerns we when many of my online buddies have said something similar has happened to them in the past month or so, I'm no conspiracy theorist...but...deja vu much?

In the meantime, I finished the knitting, but haven't yet seamed/picked out buttons for a EZ February baby sweater.  I changed the numbers up a bit to get a smaller sweater with the knit picks merino in mint/ US7 needles to make it more 3 month baby sized rather than toddler sized.  I'll share the numbers with you once it's all finished.  I even started a matching baby hat to make it a set that I'm making up as I go along and I can share that too if you're interested.

I finished some more spinning - the color is seafoam from pigeon roof studios I'm very happy with the way it turned out, it's very "sproingy" and pretty even.  I can feel my skills getting better!

I've been remiss in posting about a lovely contest package that Sasha sent me.  I have to tell you, opening each and every little bit of this wonderfully put together, thoughtful present was a treat, an absolute treat.  She sent beautiful magazines, crafty in nature as well as landscaping magazines so I can plan all the plants I'm putting into my new house.  Also included was the cutest lady bug/four leaf clover fabric and yummy numi tea and candies.  I have always wanted to try the flowering tea but hadn't gotten around to it - how she knew that I have no idea, but it was greatly appreciated!  Sasha is a wonderful talent at thrifting and always has the best finds so she shared some of the vintage sewing patterns, crochet and knitting pamphlets with me.  What a treat, I feel so cool now that I have these fun old school patterns to try.  Thank you so much Sasha for such a wonderful, thoughtful package!!  Also, go over to her blog and see her latest vintage find, a neat japanese knitting machine, how cool is that???

I have been so very lucky this month - I won a contest over on Kendra's/Doublepointed blog.  The prize?  Yummy beautiful cotton sock yarn - perfect for this hot hot summer we're having.  I've never tried sock yarn like this before so I'm excited to wrap it up in a ball and try it out!  Thank you so much!

You have to go see how cute her dog Morgen is, as she said, she must have sensed my dogs Grizzly and Elle because she did not want to let that little piece of paper go!  Awe what a cutie!

AND - in big news for me besides being in transition, moving from one state to another, I've been in transition in my job as well.  I'm in a weird point in my career right now where I could go two completely different directions and I feel like whatever decision I make right now is going to change my life direction forever.  Scary, yes?  I'm curious if any of you have been in the same position, and how you came to the decision that was right for you?  Please share.

Also, in other transition stuff I have way to much vacation - so much that I've over-accrued and am losing vacation time because I can't use it fast enough.  Therefore at the end of july I'm taking two or three weeks off of work.  I haven't taken that much time off, well - ever and I have big plans.  I'd like to go to Europe on a trip for 7-10 days because I haven't ever been, probably in a group tour since I'll be traveling alone.  Do you have any good recommendations where I should go, what I should do with myself for 3 weeks?   What would YOU do if you suddenly had that much time to yourself and no hubby to spend it with??  I plan on spending atleast a week cleaning/unpacking boxes and getting some good crafty time in as well.

Thar she grows!

I ordered some more Rowan Pure Wool DK from Elann after Erica and Amandasan clued me in that Elann had gotten their order in stock (and at 40% off!).  I did check there before ordering the first time but they must not have got it up on the site yet.  It's a good deal for this wool, and allowed me to expand my color palette a bit.  Done you just love those new colors together, even on their own?  I think they would be perfect for a baby blankie. 

Now we're up to 21 total balls, but I hope not to use them all!  Each ripple (2 rows) takes up 20 grams of yarn.  So I can get two full ripples out of each 50gram ball.  Now I just need to figure out how tall I want to make it.

I've done nothing but ripple for the past week, knitting needles have been put in standby as I enjoy stacking up the little spots of color.  When I hit a spot I don't like, I crochet furiously to add a few more color ripples to balance it out.

It's all a little game of balance- too much color, too little color.  I hope looking at it from an overview once it's all done it will be fine and look properly intertwined.

In other news, I received the loveliest of packages from Vanessa, I had sent her some fiber when she was interested in trying out some of the brown fiber from that cheap fiber bonanza a few months back.  I told her she didn't need to send me anything, but she insisted.  What a sweetie!  She sent me some lovely fiber that is just ready to be hand-dyed, and I can't wait to try it out with my dye kit from Hello Yarn.  Also enclosed was an amazing tissue holder that she not only knit up but spun the yarn herself, WOW!  A beautiful hand made pin cushion was also enclosed that made it's way onto my sewing table immediately.  And the piece de la resistance?!- She spun some of the fiber I sent her, and sent it back to me to knit with! What a truly amazing and special present, this is my first skein of handspun and I have to admit I carried it around with me all day when it arrived, petting it and setting it on my desk so I could imagine what it will become!  Thank you so much Vanessa for such a wonderful and thoughtful package!


~~NEED FEEDBACK, please read below~~
You may have noticed I haven't been around as much lately, it's been really hectic.  I've been spending my weekends driving up to North Carolina to go house hunting.  My weekends are my errand/cleaning/relaxing time, so it's so hard when I haven't been getting any of that.  I'm feeling tired and also hubby came home last week too and while I'm excited - well, there goes my crafting time! ;)

Anyhow, I took him up to N.C. to look at my top 5 houses I had found the previous weekend and here's the good news, WE HAVE FOUND OUR DREAM HOUSE, yea!

Now here's the kinda bad news...(isn't there always something going wrong when you try to buy/find a house?)

It's perfect- it's the size we were looking for, has a lot of nice features and is on 2 acres which is exactly what we wanted.  I need space, and I like some land to spread out and give the dogs a place to run.  However the very same thing that is so very good can be where it goes bad.  We would be living so far out that the standard internet like cable or DSL would be unavailable and we could only get satellite internet.

Now, the issue is that I work from home and telecommute into work.  I'd love some honest feedback if any of you have tried satellite - is it good?  Is it fast enough?  Have you had connection issues?  I'm very concerned that we end up buying the house and then find out later that the connection isn't working out, then where would I be with work?

Any advice/suggestions very much appreciated, thanks!

Have a great week!

WooHoo!

You know that old saying, "It's better to give than receive??"  I truly believe that, I love giving presents, finding things that I know they would enjoy and enjoying their happiness.  However in the case of this secret swap, I may have to make an exception. 

My secret swap package arrived yesterday and my pal was the lovely and talented Lynne (who is also the hostess)!

The theme was hearts and roses, and if you know me I'm not too much of a red/hearts sort of gal.  She did such an amazing job picking out wonderful things that were just up my alley, including a gorgeous heart sock pattern, yummy treats and a neat heart shaped baking dish, fun kitchen towels and "Knitting over the Edge" which is a book I have been wanting for so long.  But wait, there's more!  2 YUMMY skeins of malabrigo which is so amazingly soft AND a gorgeous bag that she sewed herself!!!  The whole package/experience of secret swap was wonderful and I just love everything, she gets me to a "T"!  Thank you so much Lynne!  PS - if you're curious, my package to Lynne is up on her blog right now, I had such a great time putting it together!

So yesterday I took a half day off work for some much needed "me time."  I went and got a pedicure and got my hair cut/colored.  I love my hairdresser, she is so talented.  We had a little bit of fun curling my hair kinda fancy/fun and I really liked it so I thought I'd put a picture up for posterity.  It was kinda late at night and bad lighting but I think you get the idea.  I may have to curl my hair more often!

Anyhow, the knee sock and I are taking it on the road.  I'm picking hubby up at the airport tonight and then we drive down to Jacksonville to fly to Seattle for the long weekend.  I have a preapproval letter in my hand, appts with realtors and some houses to see.  If all goes well who knows - I may be moving coasts.  Cross your knitting needles for me that it goes well, please? 

I'll be back middle of next week- until then, Happy Knitting!

"Ketchup" Post

This is my "ketchup" post so to speak, just to "catch-up" on a few things I've been meaning to do.

First off, a few people had requested to see the "unmentionable side" of the mitered blanket.  Warning - if you don't want to see this, shade your eyes now.  You may also want to remove small children from the room! =)

It's not that bad really, I used judicious amounts of this stuff on all the ends because I have a deep-seated fear that they may spring free at any moment.  I may put a lining on the back at some point, haven't decided yet.

I also was RAOK'D by Sarah!  She sent me such a lovely package and must have known I have a weakness for not only yarn, but bath products.  The philosophy smells soooo good, thank you so much!

AND I received the loveliest of packages from my blog buddy Joanna.  She is amazingly talented and made the earrings and the pouches herself.  I had actually been eyeing them on her blog when she posted about them and receiving one in the mail is like a dream come true, thank you so much!

And in other news, Miss Leah is the winner of the knit.1 magazine contest.  I really, truly appreciate all of your wonderful comments, positve thoughts and jokes headed my way.  And ya know, when my heating went out yesterday, I re-read them all when I needed a little pick me up.  Here's hoping we don't have to replace the whole thing and it's just a small part.  Ah, the joys of home ownership!  I am woman, hear me roar, I can handle ANYTHING!!! =) hehe.

AND if you've made it this far you deserve a pic of rogue.  Just last night I picked up the sts for the hood and seamed the shoulders together.  I tried it on this morning and I'm happy to say my gauge is on track and the darn thing actually fits.  Which is a relief, really, considering the FIRST time I tried to knit it.

Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

I'm a winner!

I feel really lucky lately, last week I won a contest on Amanda's blog of Zhinka Dinka Doo for a great book of quilts from better homes and gardens.  The pictures are beautiful and inspirational and just the thing I needed with my newfound interest in making a quilt of my very own.  Thank you Amanda!  This past weekend I cleaned out my "closet 'o shame" of all my UFO's.  It was quite crazy how many older things I had started but never finished because I didn't know the technique or I got distracted.  In part of my late summer cleaning I will be posting them all here and getting the list manageable, frogging what I know won't work or finishing what does.  As part of that I picked this koigu sock back up again to finish the second of the pair.  If I don't finish this one, this will be my first "second sock syndrome" and I'm trying to keep up a record.  What good is a sock if you only have one?  It's like only having one sleeve. 

I also finished up the other set of the Opal socks and put them in the mail.  AND - I finished up the test knitting for Catherine and I don't know if I'm supposed to keep it a secret so I won't post pictures here.  However, the pattern is very very cute and you all are going to want a copy when it comes out! =)
The past weekend was also hubby's birthday and I don't know what I was thinking but I got him one of those "video rocker" things.  He loves it --- my living room not so much! =)
**Links I'm loving:
Kim Hargreaves new collection is out
PurlSoho has a blog: The Purl Bee
New Zephry Style tops are out
Cat Bordhi was on knitty gritty last night (making the cashmere cowl I finished here)

The mystery...continued

For some reason, I am really stuck on knitting this mystery stole.  I can barely let it out of hands, and once a new clue is in, I feel Iike I'm at the races... "and she's off!"  To be fair I don't forget about all the other stuff I need to do, I'll do a row here and there while I clean or make dinner, but it's rarely far away.  I managed to finish clue 2 (both sides) today and I pinned it out a bit so you could see the pattern emerging.  I love the color and the yarn (zephyr) dearly and it's really coming along.  The only bummer is how long the charts are.  They come out every week and so far it's been 50 rows a week (x2) because we need to knit both sides, over 99 stitches....so...let me see, that's 9900 stitches a week!  With the new clue that means I'm up to 19,800.  No wonder my hands hurt!  Thank you all for the wonderful words of advice for my hands.  I'm trying to take it easy, and wear splints and it seems to help.  As much as I hate to say it, I think I need to slow down on the knitting as well.  Now that the clue is done I'm doing a little basic stockinette in round this week and that's it! =)

Last week I won a contest on Caitlyn's blog in celebration of her new etsy shop and she sent me a beautiful tissue holder.  Thank you Caitlyn, I just love it! =)  I also did a swap with Trek for a lovely sock bag.  It arrived today and I immediately put it to use on my bike.  I try to ride atleast 3-4 days a week and usually read a magazine, but I figured why not knit?  The bag is perfect, and holds my yarn just right so I can knit and ride to my hearts content.  After a nice bike ride I head into the living room to do a portion of my favorite exercise video by Denise Austin.  The last workout is a excersise ball workout that I just love, it really strengthens my core and back and helps with those long hours at a desk.
Have a great week!

Bugs 'r' Us

Happy Belated 4th to you all!  I hope you had lots of fun eating all sorts of yummy food and watching fireworks.  I watched the Boston Pops show and wow! the finale keeps getting bigger and bigger every year.  I never know how they're going to top the next. =)

Yesterday was my day off work, I had to work monday but it's pretty quiet.  No one is in the office, including my boss, so I am the "go-to" person for tech stuff this week.  It feels pretty good to be the one picked for it.  The weekend was hectic, I was bit by some sort of poisonous bug and/or spider which steadily got worse until I finally had to drag myself to emergency room on Sat.  It's not like I was dying or anything, I would have gone to urgent care if there was one near me open for the holiday, but it certainly couldn't wait so off we went.  I brought knitting but they didn't keep me waiting too long.  2 Big prescriptions later and I pretty much slept it off the whole weekend.  I did do some yardwork (managed to get bit again!! but luckily already had medicine) lots of cleaning, a wee bit of sewing and my mom's best friend passed away (god rest her soul) suddenly so it was an odd sort of weekend.  Monday I worked and Tuesday was off, and we had a nice bbq at home, watched some movies, bought some fireworks but never lit them and now here I am, back at work Wednesday feeling a little worse for wear.

But!  I received some lovely packages last week I really wanted to share.  First, was the big knitting tote bag and lovely DPN case from Katie's shop!  The handicraft on these are amazing, all the little details and well-made bags, emphasis on the well!  I had been looking for a dpn case for a long time and had been eyeing Katie's shop, she worked with me to pick out a nice combo and I am so happy!  Thank you Katie!

Also in the mailbag was my order from Purl, 2 skeins of Louet Sales Euroflax in Neptune for a version of the bubbly curtain from Mason Dixon Knitting for my kitchen.  Also in there was a pretty "Etui Doo-Dad bag" in Salmon with neptune =) blue zips.  I've been eyeing one of those bags for years now, and finally splurged.  I'm happy to say it matches my new bag and case quite well and they make a lovely little set!

My FO for the day is a little experiment in Mobeius Knitting.  I had finally ordered the longer cables for my Denise's to try it out (I ordered directly from them, I recommend it, cheaper and faster!)  I ordered the kit from Colorsong Yarn and it's a single skein of cashmere yarn in any colorway (I chose Paris Vision)

The cashmere moebius cowl is very pretty, the yarn is soft.  I can't say I have found a way yet that I would wear it, perhaps around my waist like the model?  You can find the pattern here for free, but you have to own one of Cat's books for the cast on.   

Here, there, everywhere

Well, I'm still here in GA.  If things had all worked out I'd be in Az right now but unfortunately things changed (got cancelled) and I'll be staying in georgia for the summer, trying not to melt!  I'm bummed, honestly.  I have a travel bug and like to get out and go places.  We're still going to try to take a few days off and fly back to california to visit the husband's family, he hasn't seen them for a long time.

Getting a wonderful package in the mail yesterday from Catherine really brightened my day.  I had sent her some leftover habu yarn to try out for fun, and sweetheart that she is, she sent me a little something!  I've already dove into the tea and put the postcard on my pinboard by my desk.   Check out her beautiful 'mama llama' stitch markers!  These are the nicest stitch markers I have used, they are so well made, there's no little places to snag on your yarn or needle.  She's a real proprietress now, KPIXIE sells her stuff, you should go check it out!  I feel so lucky to have a wonderful set in my knitting bag now, thank you Cath!

I haven't been knitting much, I've been more in a finishing phase (*gah!* that word!)  I normally hate finishing but I have a bug to finish everything and clean out all my WIP's.  My oldest WIP is "Ginger" from Rowan/Kim Hargreaves knit in Rowan Summer Tweed.  The pattern leaves a lot of direction to the imagination, you're increasing over a certain number of stitches on one side in a set of rows, and on the other decreasing 1, then increasing more over another certain set of rows, not the same as the other side!  PHEW!  It was so confusing I had a mind melt and stuck it in the depths of my closet for almost a year.  I found it the other day and finally forced myself to sit down and chart the neckline, or should I say backline? =)  Once I had it charted, it flew.  I had it done in two evenings and blocking the next.  Now I wonder what I was doing procrastinating that long!  The seams are sewn and I'm waiting to sew in the ends on the shoulder line until I try it on again to make sure they don't look wonky (which I have a feeling they will!)  I really should have grafted rather than sewed them, now I have a big piece of fabric that seems bulky for the drapiness of this top.  I guess we'll see how it goes.