One Week In......

WooHoo! I just finished row 92 last night. It's starting to get big. I had to have my 6 year old, Andrew, help me hold a side down so I could get a decent pic. That's his finger in the upper right corner. 92 rows down, 158 to go. (plus crochet border)

I started it

The Kit for the Peacock Feathers Shawl arrived yesterday. 24 Hours later, I'm ready to start row57. So far, so good. Especially considering I'm busy chasing my 3 kids around all day. I am absolutely in love with the yarn that came with the kit, It is SOOOO soft. I was fondling it last night and DH looked at me and told me to stop loving on the yarn...lol The Pattern for this shawl is very well written/charted, and easy to follow. I already have plans to order the Lacy Lattice Stole kit when all of my holiday knitting is done and I get another chance to splurge.

I also recently splurged and bought some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn, and some Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Bulky, from Kaleidoscope yarns. I am definitely going to order from them again. I put in the order this past Thursday (11/17) and it arrived yesterday (11/21). Fast shipping is always a MAJOR plus with me.

As for an update on my Holiday Projects, I am several rows into the second sock for my best friend, I am now 2/3 done with the pink baby blanket for my niece Morgan, and I am just over 1/4 done with the afghan for my niece Laney(this one is crocheted so it'll go REALLY fast). I haven't worked on the Irish Hiking scarf (for BIL) lately, and everyone else's knitted/crocheted gifts are done!

hehehehehe........ the spell check on this thing wanted to replace BIL with the word bile. I shouldn't find that this funny, should I? LMAO

I Finished DD's sweater and Hat

Finished, Finally! I tried it on Hannah earlier this morning before her nap, and it fits perfectly. This is the great thing about making clothing, you get a custom, perfect fit!
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Here's the hat I made to match the sweater. I used the Umbilical Cord Pattern from Stitch & Bitch.

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I also finished my second rectangle for the blanket that the Sybermoms Craft Forum is putting togather, and I'm making a HUGE push to get as much finished as I can of my holiday knitting/crocheting, before my Peacock Feathers Shawl pattern and Yarn come. This way, I wont feel bad for working on nothing but the shawl for a few weeks.

Wish me luck!

This morning I was thinking about what I am going to wear to the Christmas Party that the company DH works for holds every year. I have a full length black skirt that I will be wearing with a dark pink, almost reddish color 3/4 sleeve top. That got me thinking about dressy jackets, and I decided that I want a beautiful shawl to wear. I searched online and couldn't find any ready-made shawls to buy, that I liked. So, I decided to look at some patterns. I saw the Peacock Feathers Shawl on Fiddlesticksknitting.com. I fell in LOVE. I ordered the kit with the Charcoal color yarn. I can't wait for it to get here so I can get started. I am going to work my ass off on it to try to get it finished in time. Wish me a WHOLE LOT of luck, the Christmas party is December 9th. I know it's a longshot, but I sure as hell am going to try.

Picture overload!

The Finished sock for my best friends Christmas present. 1 down, 1 to go.
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This is what I have done so far on my socks.
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The slow going sock for DH (sorry for the crappy pic)
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Working the first sleeve for DD's sweater
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What I have so far for the baby blanket for my niece.
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This is the start of a crocheted blanket for another niece. I'm making it in strips and will sew them togather when finished.
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I frogged and restarted the Irish Hiking scarf for my BIL's Christmas gift. This time I'm making the cables grey and the rest is the same dark blue I was using before.

Despite being sick, I've made some progress

Overall, I'm feeling a lot better, now I am only suffering with congestion from hell.

Last night, I finished sock #1 in the pair for my best friends Christmas present. I'll add a pic later. I am really happy with it, and surprised that I like it as much as I do. She picked out the pattern (well, she looked through my Knit Socks! book, and said she loved this pattern), when I saw the pic of them in the book, I felt kind of "meh" about them. Now I actually like them. But I'm pretty sure that it's just because I've made one.

I finished the body of the sweater I'm making for DD, and I am about 1/2 done with the first sleeve. I knitted a few rows of DH's sock, and I've done another pattern repeat of the baby blanket I'm knitting for my niece. I'm beginning to wonder if I will be able to finish it before Christmas. I might have to crochet a blanket really quickly for her Christmas present and give this knitted one to her for her birthday. She will be 1 in March. I finished the first rectangle for my donation to the Sybermoms Craft forum blanket, I am planning on crocheting a few more, not sure how many though.

I haven't touched my socks, the shedir or the hat for DD. I frogged and re started the Irish Hiking scarf for BIL. It was looking really boring so I started it again making the cables grey and the rest dark blue.

Later I will add some pics of my WIP's.

blech.........Ramblings of a sick woman

yucky, crappy, blech, they all describe how I've been feeling this week. I don't know if my oldest brought home this cold from school or if my husband brought it home from work, but either way, this fucking sucks! I haven't been getting much knitting done, I've been in a fog. I just want to go to sleep for a week. But, no matter how I feel, I'm a SAHM so while DH is at work, I have to force myself to be in 'Mom' mode. I just want to take a nap. This sucks. This really sucks. I hate being sick. At least I usually only get a cold once a year, so hopefully this is it for me this year. I want to knit, but I don't have the energy to get more than a row or two done before I say "fuck this' and lay on the floor to keep DD happy. Once on the floor, though, she makes her way to me and proceeds to poke and prod at me, and eventually pulls my hair out. At least I have someone to do that for me....lmao.

What I'm working on

This pic is 8 of 9 projects I have going right now. The purple thing in the top left corner is the beginnings of a 7" x 9" crocheted rectangle for a blanket that Sybermoms Craft forum members are putting together. The purple/white/blue/green thing next to it is a raglan sweater I'm knitting for Hannah, using Bernat Cotton Tots. The Green sock at the top is sock #1 in the pair I'm knitting for my best friends Christmas present. I'm using the shadow Box pattern from Knit Socks! The project to the right of that sock is another hat for Hannah. I'm trying to make this one a little more difficult for her to pull off of her head. The pink under the hat is a baby blanket for my niece's Christmas present. I have been making progress on it, but it's slow going. The black in the middle is what I have so far of the socks I'm knitting for DH. These socks are the Classy Slip-Up pattern from Knit Socks! The Blue/purple on the left of DH's sock, is my very first attempt of knitting a sock on 2 circs. These socks are for me. I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport yarn in Bucks Bar and the River Rapids Socks pattern from Sock Bug. And finally, the dark pink at the bottom is the beginnings of a Shedir(found in the Knitty special breast cancer awareness .pdf.) I Don't have anyone in mind to give this to, I just fell in love with the hat and I've been wanting to knit it for quite a while. The one project I have going that is not pictured is an Irish Hiking Scarf that I am knitting for BIL's Christmas present. It isn't pictured because I left it upstairs in my room and I don't feel like waiting for Hannah to wake up to go get it.

Hats for the Brats

My kids aren't really brats, (well, at least not ALL the time..lol) but the title sounded cute. This past week I knit up 2 hats, one for each of my boys. The green hat I 'winged it', I saw a hat with a similar stitch pattern in a store a while ago, I let my 4 year old pick the colors, I decided on the striping as I went, and above is what we got. For the blue hat I followed a pattern in Stitch & Bitch, leaving off the devil horns/cat ears. I used Knitpicks Wool of the Andes for both hats, The green hat is Grass and Snickerdoodle, and the blue hat is Stream.

Needle Addiction

It would seem that my addiction has moved from yarn to needles. I went to hobby lobby earlier today and Just for the hell of it bought a set of size 4 Dpn's and a set of size 5's. I then went to my LYS and picked up two sets of size 3 circs (16" and 24") and a 16" size 7 circ. Then, I was just reading my email and I saw a free shipping code from JoAnn.com so I just used it buying size 2 circs (16" and 24") and a 24" size 7 circ.

8 sets of Knitting needles. 1 Day. I have problems.

Finished mom's socks!

You can see some laddering on the right sock, but hopefully blocking will take care of that. But the knitting of mom's socks is FINISHED!!! Yippie!

I have two other pairs of socks in the works, Dh's and a pair for my best friend. Dh's are going to be slow going, and I need to loosen up on my tension because I have two small cuts on my right index finger from tightly holding and sliding the fingering weight yarn. Oops. I also still have the baby blanket (metal needles are not friends to my hands), a scarf for BIL, and hats for the kids working right now.

I MUST be insane.

Seriously. I MUST be insane. What was I thinking when I decided to knit DH a pair of black socks with fingering weight sock yarn and size 1 needles? If nothing else, this is a refresher course in why I hate working with really dark colors. It's damn near impossible to see your stitches clearly! Especially, with these damn tiny needles.

However, I am starting to love this pattern. It's the Classy Slip-Up pattern in Betsy McCarthy's Knit Socks! book. I am using Knitpicks (of course) Essential yarn.


And, below, VOILA! Hannah's sweater is finished! Woo-Hoo!! I love how it turned out. The buttons are wood, handpainted DragonFly buttons that I found at JoAnn's, And I don't want to, but I'll admit to using cheap-o acrylic yarn. It's Carron, so at least it's a lot softer than that Red Heart stuff.

What I'm working on

Okay, here's what I've currently got in the works. The top pink is a baby blanket for my niece Morgan's Christmas Present. I'm using the Baby Fern Stitch dishcloth pattern from The Dishcloth Boutique. I haven't made much progress on it since my last current projects post. What can I say, I've been getting lazy about this blanket and I'm hoping that by posting about it again, I might feel the need to work on it more. You see that dark blue thing you can't see the detail of? Well, that's the beginings of an Irish Hiking Scarf that will be a Christmas present for my BIL, Ricky. It looks great, however that deep blue color just dosen't photograph very well. The project on dpn's with the self striping yarn is sock #2 in the pair I'm knitting for my Mom's Christmas present. And, finally, the cream colored sweater on the bottom, is a top down cardigan I'm knitting for Hannah. I need to finish the body and then I am planning on crocheting the button bands on. I can't decide on the buttons, though. I have these really pretty dragonfly buttons, and I have some round purple shell buttons. Both would be beautiful with this cream yarn.

I need ideas

I have found myself, yet again, dreaming of opening up my very own LYS. This is something I have been dreaming about doing for about a year now. Realistically, I wont start doing this until my youngest is in school full time, so I've got a few more years of planning and dreaming ahead of me. But, in the meantime, I'm having a blast researching (yes, I'm a geek) and planning. So, my fellow yarn addicts, what do you love the most about your LYS? What would you love to see in a LYS? What is your dream knitting environment? Any ideas for a store name? Come on, I need INPUT people!...lmao

Hannah's Hat

I wanted a quick project to do this past weekend, and I need to knit winter hats for each of the kids, so I knit up this hat for Hannah. It's a basic hat. The yarn I used is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes. The main purple color is Violet, and I used the Asparagus and Rain scraps from my moms booga, with some snickerdoodle, for the stripes.

Finished Booga

The Pic is a little dark, but here's the finished Booga Bag I made for my Mom. It's going to be her Birthday present. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Last night I started a pair of socks for myself. I'm using a basic sock pattern and some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport yarn in Bucks Bar. I am absolutely in love with this yarn. It is so soft and the colors are really beautiful.

Waiting to dry

I know I promised this one would be done a while ago, but I kept putting it off. Then I said 'fuck it' and waited to felt it until my moms booga was ready to be felted So I could do both at the same time.

The Sophie Bag for my sister, Dawn, Is FINISHED! Well, almost, it's still wet. It usually takes 2-3 days of hanging around for my felted bags to dry completely. I will be giving this bag to Dawn for her Christmas present.

Below is a pic of the Booga I made for my mom. It too is drying. This was an experement in making the booga larger. The pattern calls for CO 34 and K34 rows, and the sides are done in the round for 64 rows. I just picked a 'magic number', 20, and did a CO 54, K54 rows and the sides were 84 rows. I think it's a great size. Now I need to wait for it to dry so I can put the strap on it.

One Sock down...several to go

I finished one of the socks in the pair I'm making for my mom's Christmas present. I love this sock. I want to keep it for myself, so It's a good thing my mom's feet are bigger than mine & the sock is too big for me.

As far as socks go, I have the other one of this pair to knit, I need to finish the pair for my friend Sarah, I need to finish the blue baby socks, I want to knit a pair of socks for my niece's Justice, Laney & Morgan, and I also want to knit pairs of socks for Dh and I.

Booga for my Mom

The knitting for the bag part of the Booga I'm making for my mom is finished. All that's left is to knit the I-cord for the strap and felt them. My mom loved the booga I made for myself, but wanted one bigger. Un-felted, it almost completely covers the top of the 18 gal storage tub I keep my yarn stash in. My almost 6 year old ds can sit down inside it and have just his head poking out of the top. I can't wait to see this felted.

So Many Projects, So Little Time (and yarn & money)

I need to disconnect my internet connection or something. Whenever I get bored, I look through free patterns. I keep seeing so many beautiful things, and I NEED, I mean really NEED, to make them. OnTheEdge on Sybermoms posted this link, I MUST make this dress for my dd. Then, I looked and Alisage on Sybermoms posted that the Fall Knitty was up. I need to make the Arisaig & the Josephine. Not to mention all of the beautiful things in the archives section I want to make. I found Sock Bug this morning while looking for some more sock patterns. I AM IN LOVE.


I need to get a job to support my habbit.