Peacock Feathers Shawl

I've been working on it again. It's slow going right now, the last row I worked was 384 stitches across. I am ready to start on row 193 of 250. I wish I could work on it more than I do, this thing requires too much concentration to work on it while all of my kids are awake, so that seriously limits my lace knitting time.

Now, if only I could make someone get married this spring or have some occasion to dress up and wear this shawl to show it off..LOL

FO- Summer Swing Top

This is a birthday present for my niece, Morgan. She will be 1 next month. I love this pattern so much that I have plans on knitting one for DD and another one for my niece Laney, who will turn two in August. For Morgan's Summer Swing Top, I used Caron Simply Soft, it's a great soft yarn for baby projects.

WIP's

Here's a pic of some of my current wip's. the big multicolored thing is a pinwheel baby blanket, the purple is a Summer Swing Top(pattern from freepatterns.com), the small pink is the begining of another lopi tote, and the Grey is my peacock feathers shawl.

I also have a pair of gloves for me and a pair of socks for DH in the works. I might just frog those because I just dont give a rats ass about them anymore.

Turning 1

See that little cutie in my profile pic? That pic was taken when she was around 7 months old......Well, can you believe that she's 1? Her first birthday was on Saturday, February 18th. Happy Birthday Hannah!

Also, last week (on the 15th) was my 1 year knitting anniversary. I had wanted to learn how to knit ever since I was a child, but it looked intimidating. Once I picked up those needles, I felt really foolish for being scared of knitting, I caught on so quickly. I finally took the plunge and got a 'how -to-knit' book when I was pregnant with DD and about to pop, and I really needed something to keep my hands busy during the relentless hours of braxton hicks contractions.

also, in almost 2 weeks, it will be my birthday! I love birthdays! I will be 24 on March 3rd.

Sock Yarn

Here is my small stash of sock yarns. I don't know why, just felt like sharing...lol

River Rapids Socks

While technically this is the 3rd pair of adult socks I've completed, it's the first pair that are for me! I am in love. I adore these socks. I used Sockbug's River Rapids Socks pattern, and The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in the colorway Bucks Bar. (don't they look great with my jeans...LOL) I love showing off FO's :)

Stitch & Bitch

I'm sure most of you know by now, of the situation with Sew Fast, Sew Easy(SFSE) and Stitch & Bitch. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Here's a list of blogs/sites that explain the whole situation better than I can.

http://www.girlfromauntie.com/journal/index.php
http://www.freetostitchfreetobitch.org
http://www.thoughtbubbles.org/
http://deety.completelyfreehosting.com/ (scroll down)
http://craftster.org/blog/?p=111

On the thread at Craftster.org about this situation, I saw mention that someone wanted to continue the discussion about sfse and their bully tactics in private, in a place where sfse can't read. I took it upon myself to start a private message board group for this purpose. If you are interested in joining, you can email me at anjaknits@gmail.com . I'm sure you will understand that we want to prevent anyone from SFSE getting in and reading. So, as means to try to prevent that, I set the requirements that you have a 2 month posting history on either a knitting blog or knitting message board. When you email me, please include your blog address or the name of the board you post on and your username. I'm sure you understand that I am trying to make this a place where we can all speak our minds, without worry of sfse trying to shut us down. I will get everyone added as quickly as I can.

I love being not afraid to frog.

I was happily 1/2 through the gusset on DH's sock. It was looking a little small, so I decided to try it on my dainty little size 7 foot. Well, It was a struggle to get it over my heel. I took it off, pulled the needles out, and went froggin'. I picked a new pattern and started DH's socks all over again from scratch. Right now, I'm about an inch into the cuff ribbing.

Also, I am now working the foot of sock #2 of the Sock Bug River Rapids socks. Doing a lil' happy dance over here. I hope to have these socks finished in time to wear to a little get-togather I'm going to Thursday evening.

And here is a pic of the purple baby hat I knitted. It's dark purple, using the same yarn as the scarf I just finished. (see scarf HERE.)

I've been addicted to sock yarn lately. I just keep seeing so many beautiful, soft sock yarns in absolutely wonderful colors. In addition to the yarn for the socks I have going, plus the sock yarns mentioned in my last post, I went yarn shopping online this morning. I got some Regia Strato 5740 and 5747 from The Simply Socks Yarn Company, and then I went and bought some Knitpicks Sock Landacape yarn in Yukon. As soon as it all comes in I'll post a pic.

I also have plans to go through and organize my stash a little better sometime this week. I'll take pics of that too. I know I have a bunch of yarn in the 18-gal rubbermaid tote that needs to be wound into a ball, and I have some acrylic in there that I will probably give to a friend who crochets. She doesn't care about fiber content as much as I do.

StashBusters

I've decided that I need to do several Stash busting projects. I made a purple baby hat (pic comming sometime...lol), and I started a Pinwheel baby Blanket. I have a shitload of Sugar & Cream cotton and Lion Brand Cotton. Other than dishcloths I have no clue what to do with it. Most of it is multicolored. I also have a bunch of Knitpicks Wool of the Andes left over from Misc. Projects. I'm thinking of going on a hat making binge and give them away. I also have a small bunch of Sock yarns in my Stash. Lorna's laces, Cherry tree hill, knitpicks (simple stripes, essential(yuck) and palette) I do want to make a bunch of socks, but I'm making myself wait until I finish the socks I currently have going. I have some nicer acrylics in the Stash that I don't know what to do with, and (I hate to admit it) but I also have a few skeins of some crappy red hart acrylic in my stash leftover from before I learned to knit. For some strange, unknown reason when I crochet I don't mind fiber content.

That's just my Stash off the top of my head. I know I have some others in there that I am forgetting.

Current WIP's

This pic has 3 of my 4 current WIP's. The black is what I have so far for sock #1 in the pair I'm making for DH. I am slowly making progress on this, but the size 1 needles are not friends to my hands. I am almost done with the cuff ribbing for glove #2 in the pair I'm knitting for myself. And I am into the first pattern repeat on sock #2 in the pair I'm knitting for me. Those socks are the River Rapids patern from Sock Bug.

My Other WIP is the Peacock Feathers Shawl. Honestly, I haven't picked it up to work on for several days now. I have the desire to finish it, but not the motovation. I'm not sure why, but I just haven't been able to pick it up to finish it. It's frustrating seeing it laying on my desk, But I just can't do anything with it.

Free to Stitch 'n Bitch!!!!

I'm not very good at putting this whole injustice into words. So, I'm plugging a CafePress Shop that can do it better. Support Stitch 'n Bitch and support the Boobies at the same time! Click the link below.

http://www.cafepress.com/saynotosfse

DD's sweater is DONE!

WOOHOO! Another FO! Here are pics of DD wearing the sweater and one of just the sweater laying on the couch. I used the Caron Simply Soft that was left over from the baby blanket I knitted for one of my nieces for Christmas, and some light purple Simply soft that I have laying around. This brings me to 4 WIP's! I have a goal to keep my WIP's at 5 or less, and I'm there baby!

Lookie what DH did!!!

Look! Dh knitted the Urban Necessity Gloves from Magknits! Didn't he do a great job? He's the first person I taught to knit, and as a teacher I'm very proud of him. They look grey in the pic (hello, flash), but they're black. He used Patons Classic Merino Wool. I didn't have a pic here of these gloves, so I had DH take some pics at work and send them to me.

In this pic you can see the socks I knitted for my friend, Sarah. DD was having fun playing with an empty Wendy's bag.


And this dark, not-so-great pic is the scarf I finished last night. I was going to do a drop stitch pattern, but I wasn't happy with it. So I ended up keeping the loop stitch edge and the body of the scarf was done in garter stitch with huge needles. I used size US 19.

WIP's: I'm still working on my Peacock Feathers Shawl. Though, I am finding it extremely difficult to find the motivation to want to work on it. I'm working on glove #2 in the pair I'm knitting for me. I'm still working on my socks, I've done the heel and gusset (sock#1) and I'm now on the foot of the sock. I'm working on Dh's socks, I feel like I knit and knit on these, but get nowhere. Size 1 needles suck. And finally, I have finished the body of the baby sweater and I'm on sleeve #1 now. It looks like it will be too small for Morgan, so This sweater will be going to DD.

FO's, Frogs and New Toys

FO's: I finished the pair of socks I knitted for my best friend. She absolutely loves them. I also finished glove #1 in the pair I'm knitting for myself.

Frogs: I frogged the Fuzzy Feet I was working on and I also frogged the Irish Hiking Scarf. I started really hating them and I knew that I wouldn't actually want to work on them anymore, so they both got frogged.

that brings my WIP's to: my Peacock feathers shawl, my drop stitch scarf, my gloves, socks for me, socks for DH and a sweater that I think I'm going to give to my niece , Morgan, for her birthday. If it ends up too small for Morgan, than I will give it to DD. I'm down to 6 WIP's, and my New Years goal is to get down to 5 and have no more than 5 WIP's going at once.

New Toy: MY BALL WINDER CAME!!! I LOVE it. As soon as I could I wound a few scraps into nice, neat yarn cakes. I am no longer going to avoid buying pretty yarn just because it comes in hanks (I hated winding yarn by hand) Now, I just need to convince DH to buy me a swift for my birthday.

*^$@$^&&*&^#!@!#$&^*(

GRRRR........

Last night I was working on my Peacock Feathers Shawl, and about 1/2 way through the row I realized that I had screwed up. Looking back across the row, I found 3 mistakes. Back towards the beginning of the row. So I had to start un-Knitting this row, it's lace, so there's no way I was just going to frog. I HATE using lifelines. I am at a point with this shawl where this row is 372 stitches across. I was at the halfway point. I got 1/4 of the row un-knitted and got frustrated and gave up for the night. I'll tackle it again after I get the kids into bed tonight.

I have too many WIP's

I know, I always do. I counted them last night, and I have 9 projects going right now. granted, there is one that I'm planning on frogging because I don't like how it's turning out, but that's still a lot of projects. I've been itching to knit the Pinup Queen sweater from Stitch & Bitch, but DH and I made a deal that I need to finish off some of my projects before I will allow myself to buy the yarn for Pinup Queen. I'm also setting a limit for myself. I am going to finish off a bunch of my projects, and after that, I will only allow myself to have up to 5 WIP's going at once.

The projects I have going right now, are:
Peacock feathers Shawl - I am making it my primary project again starting this week, so hopefully I will have it finished before long.
Purple Drop Stitch(ish) scarf - I've got about 2 1/2 feet on this one right now. I really haven't been working on it much since it's been so unseasonably warm here lately.
Best friends Socks - Sarah's socks are almost finished. I need to do about 3 more inches on the foot and then I'll be able to start the toe decreases.
DH's Socks - I hate working on these. I have about 3 1/2 inches of the leg done on sock one. Black fingering weight yarn and size one needles. (ugh)
My Socks - I LOVE working on these, but the size 2 needles wear on my hands quickly. I have about 3 inches of the leg done on sock one.
Mittens for me - I started these last night using some Patons classic merino wool that I had in my stash. I have about 2 inches of the cuff of mitten one done.
Sweater for DD - I started this a few days ago to give myself a break form small needles. I am using some pink and some purple Caron Simply soft that was in my stash and size 7 needles. Not really using a pattern, but it's a raglan sweater.
Fuzzy Feet - I am almost done with foot one, using some Knitpicks Wool of the andes that was in my stash. This is the project that will be frogged. I'm just not happy with it and at the moment, I have no intention of trying again anytime soon. I have however, been toying with the idea of doing the knitting math to figure out how to make these small enough for my nieces (8 yrs, 1 1/2 yrs, 9 mos)
Irish Hiking Scarf - I published this post before adding this to the list. what can I say, it's early and I haven't been sleeping well. I haven't touched this scarf in quite a while. I love how it's turning out though. I'm using dark blue for the ribbing and doing the cables in gray. I only have a few inches done of it, but like I said, it hasn't been touched in quite a while.

SCORE!!!

In my post below, I mentioned that my sister gave me a $25 Gift Card to JoAnns. I have been wanting a ball winder for quite some time now. I was looking around for online coupon codes for JoAnns, and I found a 50% off one. I feel so sneaky, but that 50% off coupon code + $25 Gift card = a ball winder for me, for only $10!! The regular price for the ball winder was $50, so I only had to pay for Shipping and tax. Now, If only I could get a yarn Swift that cheap......Hey, I can dream, can't I?

YAY!!!!!! Christmas is OVER!!!

Ohh, man, I am so glad Christmas is over. I love the Holidays for my kids, but I have to admit, if it weren't for them, I wouldn't put up the decorations, or a tree AT ALL. I try to make it a great day for them. I love seeing how happy they get. But, Dammit, the Holidays are a HUGE PAIN IN MY ASS! I do sincerely hope everyone had a great Christmas, but I'm absolutely sure that I'm not the only one doing a happy dance now that it's over.

Everyone that I gave hand made gifts to, seemed to genuinely love them. One of the best things about being a crafter is seeing the smiles on peoples faces when they recieve their knitted gift. But I have to say, the absolute BEST responce I got was when my BIL opened up a tin of candy that I made for him. He really lit up at seeing all that chocolate! It made my day.



As for what I recieved, I LOVE! My Mom got me a set of Denise Interchangables (plus a few other non crafty things I asked for), my sister got me a gift card to JoAnns, and my best friend gave me a rolling knitting tote.