Knitty Gritty Thoughts

Just Hooking Around

Phew - it's been a rough month or so. Lots of busy busy things going on - Abby is teething with her first tooth so sleep has gone out the window. On top of that we had the time change so now I work an hour earlier. I start work at about 5:30am to get enough hours in before Abby wakes up. Couple that with working during every (non-existant) nap, my husband was traveling for 2 weeks for work. We had lots of family visiting (and showing around). He also has started back to his master's classes again full time at school plus working full time. So, it's busy, super super busy and I'm exhausted. I've had very little free time for myself.

In the few minutes I had, I've been working on my potholder swap project. I chose the gorgeous African Flower Mandala (free!) pattern and coupled it with Tahki Cotton Classic and my favorite hamanaka crochet hook. This was such an enjoyable pattern.

I had a bit of a rough start. I messed up on the instructions and ended up with 5 flower petals instead of 6 so I had to redo quite a few....

The colors are so bright and cheerful! It's like a big ray of sunshine! The potholders have been shipped off and I'm eagerly awaiting the swap and to see which ones they send in return. You can see my ravelry details here (with more photos). In the meantime I'm working on a new project...

The very simple and cute garter yoke cardi in peace fleece. I was totally inspired by this gorgeous version and this one. Can't decide on the button color! What do you think?

Happy Wednesday!

Potholder Swap 2010

I managed to sneak in some speedy crocheting in my free time so I could make the deadline for the 2010 Potholder Swap! (Rav link) This is such a fun and inspiring swap!  I've loved checking out all the different patterns and friends creations (check out Heather's finished ones here!)

Pattern: Tried to look pretty potholder 
(FREE! and so cute! - I modified the pattern from a 8 star to a 7 star)
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic
Hook: 3.25mm hanimaka
Labels: Courtesy of Joanna!

These were so fun to crochet and I love all the color combinations!
Happy Crocheting!

May Day Mission Complete!

Well hello there - that was kind of a long break wasn't it?  Life has been busy, a lot of things came up in my personal life that I had to take care of.  Anyhow I'm still decluttering but I felt like talking about knitting today so you get a brief synopsis of what I've been working on.  Don't get your hopes up, it's rather brief, I'm still not in a chatty mood but I did want to share my little rays of knitting sunshine! =)

First up - I finished my may day socks, hurray!  It feels so good to be done early (they were due May 1st)!  Now I can find fun little treats to put in the bag and weave in those ends.  They've already been blocked but sadly you can't see the pattern well  because I can't use my sock blockers.  My pals foot is waaay smaller than mine.  But you get the idea.

The dream in color smooshy may have redeemed itself to me, the yardage on that skein is insane and it's very soft to knit with too!

Embossed Leaves Socks
All the rav details here

Here's my little WIP roundup and 1 FO too  - all of these projects are so enjoyable to me, I'm having a hard time choosing which one to focus on first! =)  Clicky for big.

1 - Butterfly jacket from the current wool gathering knit with 2 skeins of berrocco ultra alpaca.  I love this knit, the garter stitch and simple shaping have taken on a meditative quality while knitting and I love the cute retro shape!  Plus I always love when I manage to find something that few people are knitting, it adds to the fun! =)  Rav dets here.

2 -Tiramisu baby blanket - super easy crochet pattern, if I only could manage not to lose my hook every 5 seconds!  I'm off to buy another so I can finish it off.  Rav dets here.

3 - Glee has been resurrected!  The last time I talked about her I threw her in a corner due to concerns about fit, dye lot issues (well it really should be "year lot" issues.  The two skeins were from different years of shearings and are 100% natural colored prime alpaca.  One year is darker than the other.  If I had planned ahead I really should have alternated skeins but on second glance it's not as bad as I thought it was.  I'm planning on putting back in the needles I yanked out and give it one more try.  Rav dets here.

4 - Cabled Rangoli Hat - very cute and helps with hat hair syndrome, who doesn't like that?  I was SO inspired by Miss Nasseknits version - check out her photo here!  This may be a hat I will actually wear!  Ravelry dets here.

Anyhow 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! =))

Shoppe Update and European Style Bread Basket

Hi There - how was your thanksgiving??  Mine was very nice, I got to spend the day with hubby's family and we had quite a smörgåsbord of treats and food.  Yummy!  Among other things, I was responsible for bringing the bread and of course you know I couldn't just stick it on a plain old tray, it had to be handmade.

I took my inspiration from the bread baskets I saw on my travels in Europe this summer (speaking of which, I don't think I ever finished talking about that - oopsie! =))  In Austria particularly they had these wonderful quilted breadbaskets that served to keep the bread warm and had a nice presentation as well.  They do breakfast a bit differently over there than they do in the states.  Bread is a big staple, and not usually slices of bread, but big rolls or biscuits.  They are usually covered in either meat and cheese or fresh preserves and butter slathered on thick.  Mmmm - I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Anyhow - so I had a few thanksgiving themed panels from the local quilt shop - slapped those together with heavy-duty interfacing, batting, etc and quilted the sides.  It was so easy I had it done in only an hour.  The hardest part was putting on the binding, I didn't have a lot of colors around so I had to make do with what I had. 

The piece is sewn flat and then tied up in the corners, easy - peasy and done!  What a wonderful way to present bread!  I know this is kind of a slap-dash approach, anyone interested in making your own?  I could do a tutorial.  It's reversible too - so you can change which side shows. 

In other news, I received a lovely special swap package from Kim - this poor little package has really been around the block so to speak, we thought it had gone missing, and my faith in the US postal service may have been renewed when it showed up on my doorstep.  There was lovely wine (!she really knows how to swap! =)), biscotti, beautiful hand-dyed merino lace yarn and a lovely notebook, all wonderful things that fit me to a t!  I have such a thing for little notebooks and yummy yarn! =)  I had a hard time taking a picture, I've already eaten the biscotti and put my feet up and had a glass of wine so I had to run around the house putting it all back together to photo it!  That is the most wonderful type of swap, thanks so much Kim! =)

And in other news I just did a shop update!  There are new peri-twinkle battlets as well as a new color, bluebells in both BFL (a wonderful fiber for both beginners and experts alike) and Cormo wool top.  The Cormo is very special to me, I got to meet the sheep that produced this wonderful fiber.  The farm itself has won many awards for it's fleece and it was an absolute treat to work with.  There's also a few project/sock bags as well.  I'm so happy that people really like their sock/project bags, they are wonderful to carry around with you, you can hang them from your wrist and walk and knit at the same time and they also stand upright when you're ready to sit and knit for a bit.  These also have the built in pockets and holders for your needles to keep you organized.

OK - enough talk about that, happy friday all! =) 

I'm Here, I'm Here!

Well hello there, long time no chat! =)  I'll update ya'll on the home sitch at the bottom but first I want to talk about knitting! =)  Suprise, suprise, huh?

First off, I finished the knee socks - they still rock.  However, I DO NOT rock the knee socks.  I tried, really I did, but these things make my legs look like big barrels.  And everytime I walk, they start to fall down.  The woven in elastic at the cuff helped a bit but I just didn't add enough negative ease, shame on me!  I may try to shrink them in the wash however if that doesn't work out it's doubtful that these will ever see the light of day.  I will however sleep in them because they would be oh so cozy in the wintertime.

STR Knee Socks in "Midsummers Night" (2 skeins) with contrasting heels and toes in "love in idleness"(1 skein)
Needle Size - 2.5mm magic loop
Pattern - Generic Knee sock pattern, very easy to follow.
Time to Knit - 2 months or so.  Good, easy stockinette, throw 'em in your purse project.
Interested in more info?  All posts about the knee socks here.

Contrasting heels and toes, yum.

I also purchased the often written-about new selbu knitting book, and immediately ordered satakieli from Schoolhouse Press to make the mittens pictured above (that's cream and brown in case you can't tell.)  I keep wavering back and forth between mittens or gloves, mittens or gloves.  Which would you do?  The book itself is lovely, filled with lots of patterns and impeccably charted.  My only wish is that some of the pics were in color.

I also had a lovely swap with Miss Rfg, to introduce her to the world of swaps!  She sent me the loveliest of packages, yummy koigu, chai, chocolate a lovely zippered pouch which has instantly become my project accessory bag for the ripple blanket, it holds all my extra crochet hooks!  And don't forget the yummy fabric, wow!  Aren't those colors gorgeous?!?  Thank you so much for a lovely swap!  PS - if you're interested in seeing what I sent her, go check it out.  I made another Shim+Sons Inspired bag, similar to the one I made Amanda and I love them both very much, it was hard to mail them off to their new homes!  Oh!  And go read about her post office snafu - it's rather funny! =)

These pics are for Stacia (she knows what I mean! =)) Who has patiently awaited another ripple update.  It's growing and I still love it, however I have almost ran out of yarn.  I have 5 balls left of the main colors but need to add some more contrasting colors in so I'm waiting to see what colors I want to pick and if elann will get anymore.  Check out all those ends, can you believe it?  I haven't woven a single one in yet.

Anyhow so home-wise/life-wise, let me update you in bullet points since I've already typed waaay too long. =)

• My house is closing next Monday
• No, I do not have a house to live in yet or really know where I am going
• I think I'm moving in with one of my SIL's (Hubby's family is amazingly supportive)
• Still don't know where I'm buying a house yet, it keeps changing every minute
• I've seen so many houses I feel like I can't remember what any of them look like
• All of my stuff is moved out of my home, however I have a blowup mattress and a lawn chair.  Guess where I'm typing this from?  Living the high life, huh? =)
• My grandma went into ER for emergency surgery, she is very weak and not doing well.  This makes me very sad as we are very close.

I think that's it.  I'll keep you all updated and try not to be such a stranger as things wind down! =)

Special Swap Pal!

Special Swap strikes again!  Once again Lynne has hosted such a lovely exchange and my pal was the wonderful and talented Amanda. If you haven't checked out her blog yet (and who hasn't?) head over there post-haste, she is a very talented knitter and spinner. =)

The theme this time was travels and she sent me on a luxurious trip to France, which is a place I have always wanted to take to go.  The package was glorious- a lovely bag (we all know how much I love bags!) filled with all sorts of yummy treats.  The very first thing I saw was the french sewing book that has been on my must-read list forever!  It's filled with all sorts of fun sewing projects and is very inspirational, I highly recommend it.   There was lovely french blue zephyr (!) with the gorgeous lily of the valley stole pattern to go with it.  Yummy soap and delicious treats barely made it into the picture before they were pressed into service.

Just when I thought there couldn't possibly be anything else I pulled out the amazing fabric with french sayings on it and matching trim that I can't wait to whip it up into more bags.  She really sent me on such a lovely trip and sent me such a thoughtful package.  It made my day!

Thank you so much for the wonderful package Amanda!  PS, if you're interested in seeing what I sent her which includes one of my favorite bags I've ever made, you can check it out here. 

Life-wise things are still hectic.  Hubby left a few days ago so it's been lonely.  When he heads out I have a tendency to eat a lot of comfort food.  What is your comfort food?  Mine is dinner for breakfast, I love splurging calorie-wise on breakfast burritos filled with eggs, bacon, potatoes, cheese and fresh salsa (is that weird?). 

I didn't have too much time to dwell on it as I had to go on a last minute business trip for two weeks.  Yep the next two weeks I am living out of a hotel, working long hours (because that's what work trips really are for) and getting some knitting time in when I have it.  In fact I'm typing this in the hotel right now.  The good news is that I'm meeting with a realtor up here to go house hunting and I'm really excited from what I've seen from the listings so far.

I've finished the rockin' knee socks, pics to follow shortly.  Next post, promise! =)  I had to pick two projects to take with me on this trip so I grabbed a new sock which I'll tell you about soon (the yarn is very exciting!) and the Rona shawl.  I'm halfway through it row-wise but probably only 1/4 of the way done knitting wise.  Don't you just hate when the rows get longer and longer?

Tea & Me & Hats

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the stole, you know how to make a girl smile! I've been wearing it out and about and it's warm and cozy.  Just perfect as the temperature starts dipping lower.  So...what's next?  Cath sent me some lovely Mama Llama yarn in the colorway, "Rivers" but I call it Ireland, gorgeous shades of greens.  It's perfect for a diamond fantasy scarf by Sivia Harding.  If you didn't know Catherine has just started hand-dying yarn, go check out her etsy shop.  The colors are so rich and gorgeous.  In between projects I started and finished a few hats.  First was a small pink one in debbie bliss baby cashmerino for an acquintance in the FRG that I put together a small package before.  Baby hats are so quick and easy, this one was 80 stitches at 6 sts an inch gauge.  The next was for a friend, her baby boy is just about 3 months old and his first halloween is coming up so I made up a quick pumpkin hat pattern.  This was knit in just a few hours, made up off the top of my head and knit in bernat chunky.  She tried it on last night and it was sooo cute! (Ok, so the pic is kinda ugly.  I debated about posting it here, since the lights all wrong but ah well.  You gotta put it all out there.)  Try picturing it with a little baby head in there.

I received a lovely package from my Tea Swap 2 Pal who is in Korea, how exciting!  That is the farthest place I've ever received a package from, and how fun to get to try local treats, I love stuff like this.

The package was wonderful, it contains all sorts of yummy tea, including both loose leaf and bagged (wow!) and a really, really neat tea infuser/containter that I can't wait to try.  There was also wonderful korean pancake snacks that I haven't tried yet, I'm waiting for the perfect time to sit and relax for a few minutes and drink a cuppa tea.  And who can forget the yarn?  It's the perfect sky blue color in 5 ply wool that is quite soft and pretty.  I can't wait to find the perfect pattern for it, I'm thinking cabled scarf.

Thank you so much tea pal, I really enjoyed my package!

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!

Tea Swap Package!

I have to admit I've been stalking my mailbox lately, looking forward to the tea swap package that was heading my way. 
It arrived over the weekend, and everything was  so pretty!  First, take a look at the label, she drew  such cute little pictures on the box!  It was so pretty I coudn't  bear to rip it so I had to open it from the other end.

Inside I found lots of yummy loose-leaf tea, I couldn't wait to try some!  There was also rich dark chocolate and ginger treats I've never seen before.  To top it all off there was a great ball of Regia sock yarn in a wonderful blue and grey color.  I'm very excited, I've been wanting to try that yarn for a long time.

Thanks Tea Swap Pal!
P.S...Who are you?  I didn't see a name or blog on the package and I'd love to send you a thank you note!  Thank you for making this swap so much fun!

P.P.S. The winner of the contest is coming soon, thanks for all the awesome comments!