Monday, February 28, 2011

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Slippery Slopes


Size: One size fits most (fits my small head, and if made a little longer, fits my man's much larger head).
Yarn:  Any worsted weight.  I used a local woman's hand dyed worsted weight (100% superwash merino, 220 yards)
Needles:  US size 7-16" circular and US size 7 DPNs
Other Materials: Stitch markers, tapestry needle
Price: $5.00 US

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Friday, February 11, 2011

New Tools

A few weeks ago, Jill at Starstruck Cat Studio showed me some cute little tools she was looking at bringing into the shop.  After seeing them, I just had to have some for myself.  KaratStix makes these awesome tools out of bamboo that are hand colored and so beautiful.  

 One side of the sock needle gauge has metric needle sizes
 The other side has US sizes.
WIP tool with cutsie sheep.

The sock is about 2" in length, which makes it small and portable-much more portable than my old metal 4x6" gauge.  I LOVE them.  There are other goodies too.  Check out her etsy page or come to Starstruck Cat Design.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

My Kittehs

I remember when I got Hazel.  She was so cute and so sweet and all she wanted to do was snuggle on my chest and chew on my hair.  I miss my kitteh.  
Hazi @ 7ish weeks
Hazi is now my big sweet mature cat.  She enjoys laying on the clean towels while I shower and get ready in the morning and all day while no one is home.  She has changed a lot over the last year and a half....but I wouldn't trade her for anything (sorry mom!).
Hazi - full grown
Then, late this summer, we got another kitteh. Her name is Indi. She is cute and sweet too....but really playful. She wears me out and keeps me on my toes.
Indi @ 10 weeks
As much as I miss the kitten Hazi was...I cannot wait until Indi is full grown and a bit more mature...


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Sock Saturday Project

Last week, I got together with my friend Maryann. She's a local woman and fantastic dyer of yarns. She dyed the yarn for my cowl pattern (rav link). We are collaborating for the first Sock Saturday at Starstruck Cat Studio on a special yarn and I designed the sock pattern.

Maryann knit the single-stranded blanks on her flat bed knitting machine with sport weight yarn. She then dyed all 14 of them a light shade of pink, tonal.

We took six+ shades of red and maroon and painted them. Flowers, hearts, stars, swirls, zigzags, dots, and love bugs adorn the blank.


Here is all 14 of them drying. They share the same large designs, but they are all unique.

I began knitting the sock, unraveling as I went. I made the leg longer than I normally would have, but I just loved how the colors are knitting up and there is plenty of yarn to make two long and/or big socks.

I finished the first sock before I was half way through the blank, which is fine. I don't want my socks to be the same or opposites of each other. Fraternal socks are awesome socks!


One of my non-knitter guy friends called them "bacon socks." Men, always thinking about food.

I love ten row lace patterns. I think they make the time and the rows fly by. I absolutely adore the lacy hearts on this sock. I couldn't find a stitch pattern that I liked, so I had to improvise my own. It took me a few tries to get the hearts to look the way I wanted. I LOVE the way this sock turned out.

I'm so excited to release the pattern on Saturday. It will be available on Ravelry on Saturday evening as well.