Swooning

I've started another quilt.  This one has brought me new skills.  I cannot believe I ever feared flying geese! They are so easy!  The blocks are large (24") and take time to prep and piece each one.  I hand selected the fabrics, they are from a few different collections.  I had a specific vision for this quilt.  It will be blacks, whites, and grays with some blues and teals.  I'm really loving my blocks so far! I finally invested in a Bloc Loc ruler, which should be in the mail today.  I have 4 more blocks prepped, and I plan on piecing them tonight and tomorrow.  The pattern has 9 blocks, but I think I will make 12, and make thicker sashing and borders so it will fit my king sized bed.  I've never been more excited about a quilt!

Lovin' the Lucky Socks

I absolutely love knitting socks.  Sometimes I forget how much I love knitting them.  Before last month, I hadn't knit a sock in over two years.  I picked up one or two that I've had on the needles for a while, but just didn't feel the love.

Part of me feels like it's the yarn.  And let me tell you--I absolutely love this yarn.  Unfortunately it is only available locally (although I'm trying to get her on etsy).  Part of it is the pattern.  I have always written my own patterns.  Sometimes they work out....sometimes they don't.  That's the thing I love about socks.  It's kind of hard to mess them up.  You could hate a pattern; but the socks are still wearable.  If the socks are not wearable for you, they may fit someone else.  And if you don't even like to wear hand knit socks, there is nothing more satisfying than finishing beautiful socks.

These aren't finished yet...but they will be soon.  I started them this evening and I don't think I'll be able to put them down until they are on my feet.

Pattern will be available soon!

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.

I Love Knitting Sweaters...

I'm so close to being done with my sweater for NaKniSweMo. Just a few more rows at the top and the button band. I just went shopping for my buttons at lunch today and I'm so happy with what I found. I wanted to make the button band a little bigger than the last of these sweaters and if I want it much bigger the new buttons probably won't work. We'll just have to see. I am very pleased with this sweater though..... I miss knitting sweaters and I'm going to have to get back in the groove.

My honey wants a sweater vest, so that may be my next project....

NaKniSweMo Progress

Both sleeves are done, have more than 10" of the body done. It's going good. Now if only I didn't have to work and I could just knit all day....

Oh well...there is always my lunch hour.

I *heart* Colorwork

Okay, so it's a little blurry, but it was taken from my phone....

Back at the end of August, my honey took me on vacation to Florida. While in Florida I couldn't help but to visit a few yarn shops. I bought some really nice yarn. My honey also bought some really nice yarn...but not FOR me. For me to knit something for HIM. I don't have the label from the yarn with me, so I cannot tell you that much about it, except that it has camel, silk, cashmere, among other very nice fibers in it. While it is a lovely yarn, the color work was a little slow going even though it only took me a couple hours here and there to finish.

NaKniSweMo

I've joined the NaKniSweMo KAL on Ravelry along with my good friend Jennie. I haven't been knitting a lot lately..not very much at all actually. I moved in with my boyfriend at the end of October and I'm still transitioning. My knitting stuff is everywhere because I didn't prepare very well for the move and my knitting stuff was all over my apartment. It's all between about ten different boxes and bins and finding enough needles to actually start my sweater for the NaKniSweMo KAL was tough enough. Thankfully the yarn I chose for the sweater was already residing at my boyfriend's house... As for the pattern, well, I couldn't find my notes on the sweater anywhere. I've decided to reknit my Wine Sweater...So I took out the original sweater, sat down, and recreated it on paper. I did a pretty good job-jotting down the pattern in about an hour. Now to test out my ability to analyze my sweater and knit another from my improvised pattern. Once I've knit the sweater, I will sit down and write it up with different sizes and all and after a test knit, make it available on Ravelry.

So, back to the KAL info. I'm knitting the sweater, once again, with Cascade 220. This time I am using the Heathers in the color Dune. I cast on Monday night and knit about 5" of the first sleeve. I'm proud to say that I finished the first sleeve last night and will be (hopefully) casting on for the second sleeve tonight. If that goes just as fast as the first, then I could have this sweater done in little more time than the first time (granted it was in college, but I knit the sweater in less than a week)...it's a really easy knit. I'm so glad to have my sweater mojo back. I miss knitting sweaters. I love knitting sweaters. I think if I do finish this one pretty quick, I will probably knit another one.

Knitting and Friends

I met a good friend from my old job the other day for knitting and chatting. I taught her to knit last year and she's been doing great. She is knitting her first sweater and was having a little bit of trouble with knitting on cap sleeves. Let's just say I think she's conquered the wrap-and-turn concept. The sweater looks wonderful. She, of course, notices all her mistakes (we all do, don't we?) but it's still fantastic! I worked a little on my Clappy scarf from forever ago, maybe I will actually finish it before the fall. I am nearly complete with it; I've been knitting it for so long maybe I just don't WANT to finish it...? I cast on in the new yarn for the sweater I am designing. I'm so disappointed that I didn't have enough of the Interlacements yarn I was designing the sweater for. I bought that yarn years ago...and there is no way I could ever find anything to match it. The sweater would be beautiful in Dream in Color also, but I just don't have the funds to get any right now. Maybe I can convince the boyfriend to buy me some....after making saddles maybe he will oblige. We shall see.

I have jury duty this next week. I am not excited about it. I am going to try and take in some needles and yarn, but I'm not sure how well that will go over. Need to go to the bookstore just in case....

So, I'm not sure if I told you that my mom is getting married....two weeks from tomorrow. I am so happy for her! She deserves happiness and a man that loves her and worships her. I found the perfect dress for her wedding. Tonight, I am taking Olivia (my boyfriend's daughter) with me shoe shopping. This girl seriously loves shoes and I'm more than happy to have a shopping partner.

I was supposed to get my hair done last night as well. I didn't because my stylist's son got sick and she had to go. I haven't gotten my hair cut or colored in four months. I didn't want to spend the money while I didn't have a job. Now I just have to, especially for the wedding.

So, that's all I got. Not very exciting.

Rocking It

Since I haven't taken pictures of my progress on the Rocketry sweater, I will show you pics from the very beginning of the sweater:

Isn't it gorgeous? I just love the colors...I put them in a different order than the pattern called for and I changed a couple other things in the pattern. I was surprised that I was even able to somewhat follow the pattern. It is extremely cute and I get compliments from everyone that sees it. And check out my new(ish) harmony interchangeable needles. They are NICE.

Stuck

There is much going on in my head and not much going on with the needles.

The sweater in which I am designing is still ongoing....while I know the direction I am going in, the motivation to knit the sleeves has waned to the point of no knitting...or knitting two rows and stopping. There is a reason I like to knit the sleeves first and this is why...no knitting gets done when they are done last. This one included, my last sweater progressed the same way. The body went reasonably quick, even designing as I went...the sleeves took 7 months (most of that time the project slept in a basket, forgotten or purposely forgotten).

I have been contemplating spinning, a lot. Along with the purchase of several braids of roving recently there is a fiber fest next weekend. Although I can swear that I won't buy a lot of fiber...I know the chances of me buying more fiber than I need are really high (cause I don't really need any). I just finished spinning a yarn in which, while intended to put a lot of twist in, too much twist was put on the yarn. Not even a good soaking will relax it and I don't know what to do at this point. The color is lovely and right now it just seems a waste to let it sit there, all twisted up. Help?

Along with my thoughts of spinning....a whole lot of llama fiber is on my mind. While in college, a friend of mine who wanted to borrow a very expensive book and knew of my fiberish creations mentioned that his grandpa owned llamas....and that when they were sheared the fiber was bagged and.......thrown...in...the...barn. WHAT?!? Um, give me some, PLEASE!! So, he brought me three garbage bags full-one brown/black, one white, and one mixed in exchange for said expensive book. I held on to the bags for about two years (not knowing how long it had been in the barn and fearing for infestation). When I determined that there was no infestation I took the bags with me to the Fiber Event one year and dropped them off with Wooly Knob to be processed. It took over 15 months to get it back, but I finally did get it back last summer. Since then, the gorgeous wonderfully soft llama has been sitting in a box in my closet. The three distinct colors are so gorgeously natural and would be perfect alone or used for colorwork. The only problem? I must actually spin it first.

Humpff....the only problem with wanting to spin the llama is the Fiber Event next weekend. I want so badly to spin so many rovings and fibers that I currently have and I also want so badly to purchase more... The obsession with finishing things unfinished and spinning current fiber stash has put such a halt on my motivation to do anything at all. Sad, I know.

What's a girl to do? Housework. I really need to do some housework. When I get home from work this evening, I won't turn on the television, I won't bother opening the laptop. I am heading straight for my closet and sorting out clothes...starting a donation pile (which will be huge, FYI). I entertain the idea that I will wear this or that at some point and I know deep down that I never will...and well, it's time to just let go. My hobbies and thus hobby supplies are more important than that Bob Marley tee mom bought me on vacation which the image came off in the first washing (sorry mom!) and countless other articles of clothing that I will NEVER WEAR AGAIN.

Just talking about it makes me feel like I've accomplished something. When the house is in order, I may even knit or spin something.

-OH! Did I mention that I found a box of blank yarn for dying too? It's amazing the things you let slip your mind...ah, dying, I've missed you.

Performing Surgery

I love to design sweaters. There is absolutely nothing that gives that feeling of accomplishment like working on and finishing a sweater that you've designed yourself. The only problem with me is....I can't work from patterns. I never follow them. I have issues when it comes to reading directions and sometimes I feel a lot like Stephanie; like I want to shoot my foot off rather than keep making the mistakes I am making.

Okay, here is the deal. Normally, when I design a sweater, I pick up needles and yarn, and just knit. I knit what my heart desires. Sure, there MAY be a sketch but there usually isn't a write up. I have gotten a lot of requests for certain patterns of mine and since I find it so difficult to write up a pattern after I've knit a piece I decided to write up the pattern (charts, etc.) before hand. The only problem with this is I CANNOT FOLLOW A PATTERN. Even though it is MY pattern, I cannot seem to follow it. I tend to do my own thing, and the only problem with that is figuring out what the hell I did after I've done it. So, instead of trying to figure out what I've done, I've been doing a bit of surgery. First I wanted to change a design element, without ripping-accomplished! Then, last night I realized that I crossed a cable the wrong way (on all three cables) so I wanted to fix it without ripping (and this was like 8 rows down with other crossovers in the mix)-accomplished! Finally, after fixing the cables, I realized that I screwed up something else in the cables (I should have learned to read the pattern I wrote by now) so I fixed two of the six mistakes this morning and hope to finish the other four at lunch and finally be able to make some more progress.....AND learn to read the charts I've made.

Did I mention that I love designing sweaters?

Things

I have been sick for well over a week. Not sick, sick. Just sick. Sick of things for one, yes, just things. One thing I AM happy about, though, is that I got the yarn I ordered last week:

The color isn't really actual in either of these. I did the best I could. It's Madelinetosh Worsted in Olivia. I love it. Unfortunately, I cannot start knitting with it yet. I have yet to make much progress on my in-design-AND-knitting-phase sweater...having had to change some of the design elements without ripping. I did a reasonable job doing so, it just took me a week to actually want to do it. So, now I am back to the point where I can knit away. And at some point I am actually going to do that.

I missed knit night last night. I'm not too happy about it, but sometimes you just have to take care of things. Things for me would be my personal life that is hanging on by a very thin and breakable thread. I'm doing what I can.

There will also be a mystery project I am going to start working on either tonight or tomorrow. I'm excited and yet scared of starting this mystery project. It means knitting when it might all be pointless. Taking time, money, and effort when it could all be for not. But, I am going to do it, if for nothing else than, to save my sanity. It will be worked on in tough times. It will be worked on instead of having nights like last night. And I'm hoping it doesn't get knit as fast as it seems it would for all the reasons I have to actually knit it. I will hopefully be able to post some progress on it, and maybe a small picture or two.

Monday, Monday

It was a tough weekend for me. I managed to get some knitting down on Clappy, but I have no pictures for you. I am convinced some one who shall not be named stole the part of my camera battery charger that the battery slides into. But no matter what, he that shall not be named will not admit to it.

I spun this weekend. I am exciting about this. I had started to spin this roving from Hello Yarn back in the summer (I think) but never got very far. I picked it up yesterday and spun the rest of it. I am thinking I am going to ply it with this fiber from Poppy Flower Fibers. I am going to spend the evening getting started on the second roving. I predrafted it last night. I think it will work out great. Whether or not I will actually ply it together will depend on the feeling I get when they are both spun up and sitting next to each other.

Knit night is tonight and I'm thinking about taking my wheel, as long as it's not precipitating. So, I should make some progress.

Making Progress

It sure is nice to have a company phone. I lost my phone Wednesday. By Thursday morning I had a new one. The only thing missing is my personal phone numbers, but I'm working on that.

Jennie came over last night to hang out and knit. I got several more repeats done on Clappy. She's coming along nice and while I'm happy with it, I do wish I would have made it wider. I should have plenty of yarn left over to make a nice hat and possibly some mitts, though, so I can't complain ;-)

I went stash diving last night and found some good stuff. While I am finishing up my scarf I am seriously pondering my next project. It's not that I don't already have other projects on the needles (like an old sweater, a million socks....) but I need something new, something fresh. Shuffling through skeins of sock yarn, sweaters-worth of worsted yarns, even a long jacket's worth of some fingering yarn. I just don't know what direction to turn; I want to knit something I haven't before. Something complicated and easy. I don't want to knit a shawl (although looking at the Kauni I have in the stash makes me want to make a lacy wrap, but not right now. I'm just at a loss. I love knitting the basics: hats, scarves, mitts, sweaters, socks....but I want something different.

Perhaps I will do some spinning...

What are you knitting that's different?

I am Lost Without You

O Phone, Phone! wherefore art thou Phone?

I lost my cell phone. Lost. Gone. Never to be seen again. Unless the snow melts and I miraculously find it (doubtful). I got to work yesterday morning and didn't have it on me. I thought maybe I just left it at home so I didn't bother looking in the parking lot for it. When I got home and couldn't find it, I was kicking myself. I had people call it, I stood outside my house and listened, hoping I would hear it vibrate (yes, it was on vibrate), no chance! It's gone. I have to come to terms with that. I have lost all my personal phone numbers. Oh, did I mention this was a company phone? Yeah, not fun. So, the company is working on getting me a loaner phone until I can get me one of those new Blackberry's with DC that the boytoy was going to get me. I'm still hoping that he will get it for me...but I'm thinking I'm going to be getting it for myself.

Oh well; such is life. Things happen.

On a lighter note, there has been more knitting. I am coming along on Clappy and by the end of the evening I should be at least, if not more, half way done with her. A friend is coming over this evening to knit. I'm excited as this will be only the second time we will have met. She's sweet and I hope we form a solid friendship.

I've also been talking about designing another sweater. I have at least five or six sweater's worth of yarn in the stash (and I'm talking the good stuff). I am going to come up with a design and then choose which yarn to use.

Edited to add: I just got a replacement phone....but I have no personal contacts :(

If You're Happy and You Know It...

I'm way past this point, but I don't have a more current picture...yet. I'm enjoying the simplicity of the pattern and really loving the outcome. I wish I had made the scarf a little wider, I think I will have a lot of yarn left over. But in the case that I do, I will make a matching hat. And if I make it to a yarn shop, maybe I can find worsted or chunky yarn to match for some mittens.

I've also pulled out an old sock to knit on. No pics of that yet either, but I'm thinking that I'm going to work hard and finish them up. It'd be really nice to have a new pair of socks for the first time in forever.

I went to knit night last night and had a really great time; though there were few in attendance. I have missed knit night. Before last week, I hadn't been there in over four months. I've been missing out for sure. Luckily my local knit night is held at a Panera Bread (yummy teas and coffee drinks) and it's every Monday. It's awesome.

On Cloud 9 (and other projects)

I finished this sweater back in October. I just never got pictures taken. These two pictures aren't very good and you can't really see the sweater all that great but at least I can prove to you that I did it. The yarn is Dream in Color Classy in Black Parade.


I also started on Clapotis (Clappy). I'm further now than I am in the picture. I'm using lace weight on size 4 needles. I'm going more for a scarf effect rather than a wrap. This is the yarn the Jennie gave me and it is beautiful.





I knit this scarf a long time ago. It's silk garden in two contrasting colors. 4 skeins to make this simple entrelac scarf. It's very warm. I just wanted to show it off.




I've also done a little bit of spinning. This is just 38 yards of a bulky weight yarn. 50% merino 50% baby llama. It's very soft and the llama gave it a nice halo. It was just an experiment. I am going to (eventually) spin enough yarn for a matching hat, scarf, and mitten set. Hopefully I will get a jump on that this weekend if I don't spend too much time with Clappy.

I told you so

I told you I have been knitting; I even took photos to prove it:

"Keep me Warm, Please" hat--Noro Iro

"Scarves and Stripes"--Universal Inc. Deluxe Worsted LP in Sea + Sand.

Hump Day

I just love this sweater, so I thought I'd just post a pic of it. I have been knitting recently. I have half a scarf done but I've run out of yarn. I knew that ultimately I would need another ball....but still haven't purchased it. I started another pair of mitts (I need to stock up on these. My family likes to give them away to various people that express their *likes* of them on the street, in a store, etc.) so I figured I would just knit up a stock. I might as well go purchase the yarn I need for the scarf while I'm thinking about it.

Yeah....

....So obviously I suck. I never took pictures of my new sweater and my camera is still dead and still not charging...

A little knitting here and there; some mitts, a couple hats, thinking about my man's sweater vest, got an order for some mitts this morning. I need to get going on some stuff.

Short post-I hope to take some pictures soon, but no promises.