FO, Kool Aid and Blue Fingers.......

First, the FO. The Garterlac Baby Blanket. I ended up making it 8 base triangles wide and 7 side triangles long. I couldn't find my size 8 Dpn's or my 7's, So, I got out my size J crochet hook and crocheted 3 rows of double crochet boarder around the blanket. I used Bernat CottonTots yarn, with the body in color 'Wonder Dreams' and the border in 'Pretty in Pink'. This blanket was an idea stolen from Twinsanity, based on the Garterlac Dishcloth by Criminy Jickets.

The past few days, I've been playing with using Kool-Aid to dye yarn. This pic was dyed with Strawberry Kool Aid, and the one below was dyed with Berry Blue. I used a yarn from my stash that I just didn't like the way it looked. It's Patons Classic Merino Wool (which I love) in the Natural Marl colorway (which I don't love). It took the dye beautifully.

The Berry Blue yarn is still outside drying, as I just dyed it about an hour ago...LOL If you look down at the last pic, you can see where I was a dumbass and forgot to put my gloves on.....my fingers take the dye beautifully as well...LOL My right hand has more blue on it, but I'm right handed and couldn't get a pic of my right hand using my left hand, so I said fuck it and just took a pic of my left hand.

WIP's and Yarn Porn

This first pic is a spinning project I've been working on for the past few days. It's the same Olive Green and Grape Corriedale roving from Hello Yarn that I've been playing with, plyed with some Gold colored sewing thread that I had laying around. My tension was much more even while spinning this yarn, it's mostly a fingering weight and a little thicker when I wasn't paying attention...lol It's only approx. 65 yards long...so I don't know what I'll be doing with it. I'd like to spin enough yarn for a whole project...but I don't have the patience to do that on a drop spindle. I'm becoming more and more obsessed with needing a spinning wheel. I know it'll be a really long time until I can get one.....but that fact doesn't stop the drooling over the pretty wheels I keep seeing.

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This is Monica from Knitty. I am knitting this for my Niece's birthday coming up this summer. I am done with the front, just need to make the back. I'm using Brown Sheep's Cotton Fleece yarn in Prosperous Plum and Blush. My Niece is turning 3 years old and she wears a size 2 now. I'm getting a gauge of 5.5 sts/in when the pattern calls for 5 sts/in, so I'm just following the directions for a size 4 in the pattern, Hoping for an outcome close to a size 3. So far, it's working. So let's cross our fingers that it fits my niece properly.
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...and here's more yarn porn! From L to R: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight sock yarns in Socktopus and Little Bunny Foo Foo, then South West trading Company's Tofutsies sock yarn in the Tenderfoot colorway. The Little Bunny Foo Foo I've posted before, but it was a crappy pic, and Socks that Rock are pretty soft wonderful beautiful yarns so it deserves another pic. :)
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I am also still working on the Twisted flower socks, and the Garterlac baby blanket. Both are coming along very nicely, but not as quickly as I wish they would..lol.


I also have a wonderful announcement! I'M GETTING A NEW NIECE!!! My Sister, Dawn, announced her pregnancy at Christmas, and last week she found out it's another GIRL!!!! I get to put a pink border around the garterlac baby blanket I'm making for her, and I can get some more gender specific colors to do more baby knitting with!!! I LOVE baby knitting!

my first yarns

This first pic is actually my first 2 lengths of handspun yarn. The green is twice as long as the purple, so when playing with plying them together, when I got to the end of the purple, I folded the green in half and started plying it back up the purple. It's about a yard long and very thick & thin, but I think it's pretty :)



This is what's on my spindle now. I'm alternating lengths of the green and purple roving, and it varies between lace and sport weight (just an estimate..TOTALLY eyeballing it here). When I park & draft, I get a fairly consistent thickness, but when I try to draft while the spindle is spinning, it gets thicker. but still, I think I'm doing pretty great for a newbie spinner :)

Now I just need to convince DH or someone to buy me a spinning wheel....hey, my 8th wedding anniversary is coming up (May 14th) so maybe it'll be pretty easy to talk DH into buying one for me..hehehehehe

look what I got in the mail today.....

Beautiful, isn't it?

This is corriedale roving (olive green and grape) from Hello Yarn, with a Louet drop spindle. I can't wait to sit down and start playing with them!!!! Hopefully my first attempt at spinning yarn wont be a disaster. Wish me luck!

Projects......

These are the two main WIP's I have right now. The others are slowly making their way to the UFO pile.
First, to the left you can see what I have done so far on the Garterlac baby blanket I've been working on. I'm planning on doing two more tiers, so that it will be 8 base triangles wide and 8 base triangles long. Then, I will do either a pink, blue or white attached i-cord border. My sister has a U/S this Friday (4-20), and hopefully baby will cooperate and show the world if I'm getting a new niece or a new nephew.

And here we have a progress pic of the Twisted Flower sock I'm making. I decided to change the heel flap of the sock. Instead of the pretty leaf design, I went with a more durable slip stitch heel flap. I am about 10(ish) rows into the gusset now, and I'm in love with this sock. I know I say that about every sock I knit, but I love knitting socks so it's bound to happen....LOL I just LOVE watching the pattern come together, and even though I've knit A LOT of socks, turning a heel is still magic to me :) And, dude, Kitchener stitch, It's freaking amazing!!

I am also anxiously awaiting the arrival of Favorite Socks. I placed my order Monday (i think) and this morning I got the shipment notification email!!! I've wanted this book since before it was released, and I, finally, was able to get it. Now, If I could justify getting all the other books on my amazon wish list...lol

wip- Twisted Flower Socks

So, after I finished up my Entrelac socks, I started knitting Cookie A's Twisted Flower Sock pattern. I am about 10 rows away from finishing the leg of the sock. At first, I really did almost want to jab my eyes out with my DPN's, but then I remembered what kept me sane back when I knit my Starsky sweater. Color Coded Charts. I grabbed the kids' colored pencils and went through and color coded most of the symbols in the charts. It really has been a HUGE help, and the knitting has been going MUCH smoother and quicker.

I am using Knitpicks Essential sock yarn in the color Pine (bad pic, I know, I had to mess with the lighting to see the cables better). I have a few solid color sock yarns in my stash, and I couldn't decide which one to use. So, I held up a few of my favorites and let the kids pick which one they liked.

I really need to get on a 'finish up my WIP's' kick...lol On the needles, I still have the Garterlac baby blanket, st st regia socks, Shetland Tea Shawl, and a throw I'm knitting using the Kerry Blue Shawl pattern. These have all been OTN for how many months now?...LOL

ENTRELAC SOCKS FINISHED!!!!!!

YEAH!!!! This pattern has caused me some trouble, I had to add an extra tier in the foot, and then I had difficulties getting the sock over my heel. So to solve that I started my leg increases early. Then, I didn't feel like doing extra leg increases for the sock to fit over my large calves, so I decided to end the sock at a regular crew length. I am SOOOOO glad to finally have finished this pair of socks. In the first pic, one sock looks bigger than the other. This is because one sock had just come off my foot (and had been stretched) and the other had just come off the needles. So, now I guess I can say that my entrelac socks were based on the Entrelac socks from the Spring 2007 Interweave issue. Since I barely followed the pattern.

okay, so now the details. Entrelac socks based on the Entrelac socks pattern by Eunny Jang in the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits I used Knitpicks Gloss yarn in Burgundy and Serengeti, using only one hank of each. I did enjoy knitting these, and I think I might make another pair to pattern specs when I've lost some more weight.