Ornette-FINISHED!!!

I really enjoyed the process of test knitting these socks. And now you guys can knit them as well! The Ornette pattern is available to purchase now on Cookie A's website. I just kitchenered the toe of sock#2 last night, and got pics first thing this morning of the FO. I am already thinking about knitting another pair. Since these socks are mirror images there was absolutely NO second sock syndrome, and the cables are complex enough to keep me interested without being too complicated at the same time. The yarn I used was BMFA's STR lightweight in Rose Quartz, and if you are planning on making Ornette, you'll either need to use a yarn with more yardage than the STR, or buy 2 skeins. Since I only had 1 skein, the legs of my socks are pretty short.

Pinwheel

I finished Talia's Baby Pinwheel Sweater!!! It took less than a week to knit, and it was just the project I needed to get my sock mojo back! Now, it gets to go sit in a box until August...lol :) I needed to use a machine washable yarn for this, so I choose Lion Brand's Wool-Ease yarn in the color Rose Heather. I really enjoyed this quick knit, I think I will definitely have to knit another one in the future.

Now that I have this off the needles, I'm going to focus on finishing my Ornette socks and then I'll allow myself to CO the other birthday sweater (Justice's sweater is already started (Starsky Jr.) and sitting in my knitting bag, I need to start on Laney's) and the baby blanket for my cousin.

sinus meds are fun.....

Forgive me if this is short and makes no fucking sense at all, I'm on the good antihistamines that make me a little stoned, but at least I can breathe! :) Also, there's no pics today, I need to recharge the batteries for my camera.

I got a little tired of only working with fingering weight yarn, so I decided on Thursday (the 12th) that I needed a worsted weight project. So, I CO for a sweater for my niece Talia's birthday present. I know, her birthday isn't until the end of August, but it still needed to be done, and I was smart enough to choose a pattern that she will be able to wear for years. I'm knitting a Pinwheel Sweater for her, only making it a solid color instead of striped. I'm using Lion Brand's Wool-ease yarn in Rose heather. It's turning out to be a really quick knit, I'm only a few inches away from finishing the second sleeve, and then all that's left is weaving in the ends.

Ornette is close to being completely finished. I am working the foot of sock #2 (almost to the toe), but it's going pretty slowly right now because of the much needed break from fingering weight yarn. Troll is coming along at a similar pace, only I'm working the heel of sock #2 of that pair.

Once I get some of this stuff off the needles, I need to CO for more birthday presents (My Niece's Justice and Laney have birthdays coming soon, too) and a baby blanket for my cousin (due in October). Unless I have a drastic change of heart, I'm not knitting for anyone's Christmas gifts this year, so that's freed up a lot of ME knitting time :) it's been rather refreshing.

Ornette, Half Finished

I finished the right sock of Ornette!!! It has been a really fun pattern to knit, and with this pair, there is no chance of Second Sock Syndrome, as the Left sock is a mirror image and the stitches are different! I plan on casting on for the Left sock tonight.

TROLL!!!!!! In the dungeon!

I am working on another pair of socks. I haven't really had the urge to work on anything else but socks lately. The latest pair to be cast on is the Diagonal Cross-Rib socks pattern from IK's Favorite socks book. The yarn I'm using is discontinued Regia Strato in color # 5740, otherwise known as Troll. I took a lot of pics of my sock in progress, but in the end it came down to either choosing either a pic that showed the color off well or one that showed the stitch pattern well......I choose one that showed off the yarn colors.

Last week I finally finished a pair of socks that were intended to be a Mothers Day Present for my Mom. I cast on for those on May 3rd, and worked my ass off on them, but I only made it to just past the gusset on sock #2 by Mothers Day. So I took my time working on them and finished them on May 20th. I totally forgot to get a pic of them finished, too. It was the Anniversary Socks pattern , again from IK's Favorite socks book, and I used KP gloss sock yarn in Parsley.

How's test knitting Ornette going? Well, I'm working the right sock, and it's going really well. I've worked the foot and now I'm just waiting for the last part of the pattern to be given to us test knitters so I can knit the toe and get started on the left sock. When that happens I'll post another pic of the finished Right sock. I really have loved this process of test knitting, and I can't say enough how wonderful this pattern is. I already have plans to knit another pair using something from my stash with more yardage so I can make the leg portion longer than I can with the STR. Did you ever think you'd ever see me post about wanting to make a sock cuff/leg longer ? LOL :)

BTW- I just counted, and Ornette and Troll are my 6th and 7th pairs of socks in 2008. Not too bad...

A New Picture

There was a break in the rain but it was still cloudy so the pic doesn't have the best lighting. I also need you to ignore my pasty pale skin :)

Enjoy ogling the pretty cables!

I Love this Sock

Test knitting for Cookie A's new sock, Ornette, has started, and I'm one of the lucky test knitters!
I'm starting with the Right sock (Right and Left socks are mirror images) and we've been asked to pause at 3 inches, which is where I am. Problem is that I love working on it so I want to keep working on it. But I'm being a good little girl......lol. So, to keep myself in line, I cast on a pair of socks to give to my mom for mothers day. I hope I can get them finished by Sunday. I'll post about them soon. Back to Ornette, I'm using STR lightweight in Rose Quartz, and I'm using 2.5mm dpn's.

The pattern for Ornette will be released in June 2008.

Holy Bleeding Monkeys, Batman!!!

A pair of socks in 10 days......damn that was fast! I knit up a pair of no-purl Monkey socks using STR lightweight in Tlingit. I love the pattern and I love the yarn so I couldn't keep my hands off of them. I finished the socks yesterday, and this morning I got them photographed. After I was happy with the pictures I got, it was time to put the Monkey's in a bath. I knew some dye would rinse out in the water, as it had been bleeding on my hands while knitting (I love this yarn so much that I SOOOOO did NOT care).
I was surprised, though, by the color that the water turned. I was expecting a muddy grey because of the amount of black in the yarn, What I got was a really pretty shade of pink. The pic was taken when the socks had been soaking for about 10 minutes, but the water didn't get any darker/more dye than this.
The socks are still drying, but they still look as good as they did before the bath.

Do you know how hard it is to take a decent picture of the back of your own head?

I knit a snood. I've always liked the way they looked in movies, and I've wanted one since I started going to Ren Fest 10 or so years ago. So, when I saw this pattern, I had to knit one.
The pattern is Snood Deux by Twisted Stitches. I'll need to use a few bobby pins to keep it in place when I wear it, but I still LOVE it :) I had it on earlier today, and I tried several times to get an okay pic of it (hence today's post title), but I failed my in quest, miserably so. Oh well, when I get someone willing, I'll have them take a picture of it on for me. The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn, but I didn't have any in my stash that was a color I wanted to use for a snood, so I combined 2 strands of lace weight for the substitute. I used leftovers of Jaggerspun Zephyr in Charcoal, and Knitpicks Shadow in Vineyard Heather.

I finally got off my ass.....

and I finished my Phineas socks! Well, depending on how you look at it you might as well say I got on my ass to finish them because I knit sitting down....LOL
This morning I sat down and finally knit the toe of sock #2 for Phineas. These socks were really easy, good, mindless knitting. They would have been a really quick knit if I hadn't gotten sidetracked with other wip's and a little thing called life...lol! The pattern is written to knit these socks toe up and magic loop. When I started these I wasn't in the mood for that particular sock construction method, so I knit these cuff down on DPN's instead.

The yarn I used is Knitpicks Essential sock yarn in the color African Violet. Ever since KP re-did the Essential line (a long, long, time ago), I've been loving this sock yarn. The old Essential was really rough and splitty, but the current essential is a million times softer, and isn't nearly as splitty (I haven't had any splitting problems, but have read that a few others in blogland have).

Right now, I'm trying to get as many of my WIP's off the needles as possible, because I don't want them distracting me in a few weeks. I'm going to be participating in something I'm really excited about. Cookie A is coming out with a new pattern, and told readers of her blog that she was looking for test knitters. I volunteered, and was one of the 24 that were picked! If you're wondering about the sock we'll be test knitting, go to Cookie's blog, and it's the purple sock pictured in her April 1st post. When we get started, I'll post progress pics on here (don't worry, Cookie said we could post about it on our blogs, I'm not breaking any rules).

I love baby knitting

I love to knit baby things. They go so quickly :) I've started knitting some little things for my Cousin, Shelly. She's pregnant with her second baby. I've been itching for another baby to knit for and she and her DH were more than happy to oblige....LOL! Shelly mentioned to me the other day that she wanted something handmade with love for her baby (and she went on talking about maybe making a quilt for the baby), and I started grinning. I've already started. well, at that point I just had some yarn bought for a baby sweater and had Serenity (ravelry link) picked out to knit for the baby. Anyway, this past Saturday, I was sitting around with the kids and I wanted a small project to work on because I'm kind of sick of looking at all of my other WIP's. So I looked through my stash for inspiration. I saw my skein of Lime & Violet Sasquatch Superwash in Buster Keaton sitting on top. I thought it would look great as a baby bootie & hat set. So, I wound the yarn into a ball, and cast on for Saartje's booties and a few hours later I had this:

hehehehehe....aren't they cute? I'm still trying to decide on a hat pattern though. I need something gender neutral because they aren't going to be finding out the sex of the baby. (pattern suggestions, anyone???)

Flurp

I couldn't think of a title for this post, so I asked my 6 year old what I should use. He said 'Flurp', so there it is. :)
I bought a book that can only be described as beautiful. The book is 'Selbuvotter :Biography of a Knitting Tradition' by Terri Shea. (btw- i ordered it from knitpicks and it was, I think, the quickest I've ever received an order from them. I placed the order Wednesday morning and my package arrived Friday morning) Looking through the patterns in it, I just had to run to my stash, pull out some fingering weight yarn, and CO something, any of the patterns would have done. I decided to start with Annemor #2, one of the child sized patterns in the book. They're intended for my DD, Hannah, even though she probably wont be able to wear them until next winter, as it's already the end of March and I doubt we'll have very many more mitten wearing cold days (if any). I'm already itching to buy some new yarn and start a pair of mittens for me.


There's also a small chance that I *may* be getting a spinning wheel. A friend of DH's has unfortunately fallen on hard times, and his wife has a spinning wheel that they're talking about selling. I told DH to tell them that if they do decide to sell it, I would LOVE to buy it from them. I don't have any details about the wheel, DH didn't think to ask about it, but I don't really care, because at this point, I want a spinning wheel SOOOOO badly that I don't care what it is, I just want one.....LOL

My Purple Greenjeans is DONE!

I finished my Mr. Greenjeans! I had to shorten the sleeves, and I added some buttons, but those are the only pattern changes I made. I used WEBS Valley Yarns Northampton in the color Amethyst. This sweater took about 3 weeks to knit.

Other than finishing this sweater, I've started a cardigan for my niece Morgan's upcoming birthday (march 25th), and I bought some yarn to knit my niece Justice a Starsky Jr for her upcoming birthday (in august). I have two more nieces with summer birthdays that I need to plan gifts for as well. One will be turning 4, the other turning 1. Any pattern suggestions?

Where the F%$# have I been?

Long time no post....nice to see you again....yadda yadda yadda....LMAO

Here at home I have been going on a HUGE organizing and purging crap kick. I'm just sick and tired of looking at the clutter and we really don't need this much CRAP sitting around the house. Soooo, I've been busy getting rid of old kids toys that no longer get played with, old baby, kid and grown-up clothes that don't fit anyone anymore and general odds and ends that I'm just sick of looking at. I'm slowly feeling better about the clutter levels around here, but I still feel like I don't even want to sort through it anymore, I just want to throw it all away. But, I can't do that. There are some important documents that need salvaged and I really do want to keep the coming home outfits that each of my kids wore on their trip home from the hospital after being born. Once I get those things out, I'm just going to chuck the rest.

Even with all the lugging of boxes and sorting of crap, I have been working on some yarn projects. I started 2 new projects that have been my primary focus and I still don't have Phineas or Earl Grey done....oops. oh well, they'll get done eventually. My 2 new wip's are a Granny Square baby blanket I'm crocheting for my cousin who's pregnant, and a Mr. Greenjeans sweater for me.
This first pic is the baby blanket. I'm using a crappy, frustrating, snaggy yarn, but it's soft, squishy, warm and machine washable. It's Joann Sensations Rainbow Boucle yarn that self stripes in shades of red. It was on sale for $5 and it's over 800 yards so I took a gamble on it. I wont be buying anymore of it (but I did buy a ball that shades from black to grey when I bought the red ball so I have another ball to use up, maybe I'll use the black/grey ball for a boarder on the red) This blanket is working up pretty quickly, I've only been working on it for 2 days now and it's big enough to cover my legs (but not my feet) when I have my footrest up. Granted, I'm only 5'2", but still, it covers my legs....LOL

This is my Mr. Greenjeans. I'm using WEBS Valley Yarns Northampton in the Amethyst color. I'm really pleased with this yarn so far. It's not the softest yarn, but it's not scratchy and totally wearable against your skin. It has great stitch definition, It's just a fantastic all purpose wool yarn. As for the sweater, it's a really simple top down raglan sweater (and if you've been reading my blog long, you've seen I really like doing the top down raglans) with cables. I'm finished with the body and I'm several inches into sleeve #1. Still left to go is the rest of sleeve #1, Sleeve #2, and then the button band/collar.

damn...I'm out of things to write about on here, so I guess it's back to de-cluttering the house.

More Socks!

So, I still haven't started sock #2 for the Earl Grey socks I'm making for DH. I'm seriously suffering from second sock syndrome with that pair. It's just that pair, too. Since starting Earl Grey, I've started and finished the Carolina socks, and I'm about 2.5 inches into sock #2 for a pair of Phineas Socks that I started. Granted, I think this is partly (ok, maybe mostly) due to the fact that my feet are tiny compared to DH's , so socks for me take a lot less time to knit. Plus, I'm kind of an instant gratification whore and socks for me give me that FO high a lot quicker. Anyway.... the socks pictured are what I have done on Phineas right now. While dragging the chair outside, I accidentally dropped the socks in the snow. Oh well, they may be wet right now, but at least the snow is pretty.

Down to 1.....

This morning I finished the Carolina socks! This means that I am down to one WIP, The Earl Grey socks for DH that I had originally wanted to finish before yesterday. Yesterday was DH's birthday, and I only have sock #1 completely finished. I'm working on sock #2, but I'm not very far into it yet. Maybe the socks will end up being DH's Valentines gift instead.

Anyway, back to Carolina. It was a fun pattern, very good for mindless TV knitting. I will definitely be knitting this again, maybe eliminating the purl row from the repeats. I'm just not a fan of purling in the round. I used Yarn Lust's Merino/Tencel blend yarn and size 2.75mm dpn's. I LOVE how the yarn pooled into pseudo-stripes. I really want to get my hands on more of the yarn from Yarn Lust.

Only 2.....

Wow....I have ONLY 2 wip's OTN right now! This feels weird. This is new. I normally have 5 or 6 WIP's going at any one time...having so few is going to take some getting used to. This feels weird, and yet I still don't have the urge to cast on any new projects right now. This is very weird...lol

First, we have the Earl Grey socks I'm knitting for DH's birthday gift. I had gotten caught up in finishing Adamas, so these socks got conveniently 'forgotten' about for a few days.....oops. Now I'm back to working on them and I'm only on sock #1, but I only have another inch to knit in pattern before I start the toe. I tried this sock on DH's foot last night, and it was SOOOO pretty. The cables were beautiful and it looked like a really good fit (so far...lol)

And here we have the beginnings of some really pretty socks for me. The pattern is 'Carolina, Last Queen of Naples' by Monkey-Toes. The pattern is beautiful, easy, and fun to work. The yarn, however, is just WOW. It's from Yarn Lust on etsy, and it's her Merino/Tencel 50/50 blend in the Melancholy colorway. Absolutely stunning shades of Green, Pink, and Blue. I HIGHLY recommend this seller, she was really nice and I had the yarn in my hands 2 days after placing my order. Plus, there were some extra goodies in my package that were MUCH appreciated. I will definitely be buying from her again.

Ribbit.....Ribbit.....

I've decided that my Icarus Shawl is going to go off to the frog pond. I was moving papers around last night, and my post-it that I was using to keep track of how many pattern repeats I had done and what row I was on got lost. I could very easily figure out what row I was on by looking at my stitches and comparing what I see to the chart, but I still have no idea how many pattern repeats I have done. Plus, I did have a bit of a mistake several inches ago (that I was going to fudge with a darning needle and yarn before blocking) but If I frog, then all of these little problems go away. I wasn't completely happy with it, so that makes it easier to frog. I'll probably start on another Icarus soon.

That was F&*#@!$ Quick!

So....6 hours later and it's completely dry! My lace weight Peacock Feathers shawl took twice as long to dry, that's why I was worried that Adamas wouldn't be dry before bedtime tonight.

SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!! I love it! This is one of my most favorite projects that I've knit. I think, though, that may have more to do with the absolutely gorgeous yarn than with the pattern.

Screw Waiting....

I decided to go ahead and use the pins. This morning I put Adamas in a nice bath, and then put an old comforter on my bed and pinned out the shawl. I have a fan on it in hopes that Adamas is dry before DH and I want to go to bed tonight.