insert clever title here

I'm sorry it's been almost 3 weeks since my last update. Let's see, what's happened since my last update?

Well, on the 10th, my Cousin had her baby! It's a Girl! Baby Grace Ann was born on 10/10/08 at 12:53pm. Click here to see her online birth announcement. My cousin loved all of the little baby things I knit, and I can't wait to see baby Grace wearing them :)

I haven't done much in the way of knitting lately. I've been pretty unmotivated. I've worked a bit on sock #2 in the pair I'm knitting for my friend. That sock has suffered a little set back though. Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I found that sock WIP laying on my bed, needles missing and it had SEVERAL dropped stitches. Before this incident I was almost done with the gusset, now I need to frog it back to the heel flap and re-knit. I don't have a dog or cat to blame this on, so it had to be one of the kids. When the boys get home from school, they're all going to get a talking to about owning up to their actions. They should know by now that if they would have told me about it when it happened that it wouldn't be as big of a deal.

I've also been doing a row here and there on the mittens I'm knitting. for the pair I'm knitting for my mom, I'm about 3/4 of the way through mitten #2, and for the pair I'm knitting for my sister, I'm about 1/3 through mitten #2. If I were more motivated It wouldn't take long to finish both pairs, only a couple of evenings if the movie I put in isn't too interesting...lol.

It feels as though we only had about a week of Autumn weather. The past several days the temps have been dipping into the 20's at night and hovering in the 40's at mid-day. Oh well, this means that it's time to use the wonderful handknit socks I've made. The other day I wore a pair of commercially made socks and my feet were freezing all day. UGH! I'm sticking to my handknit ones from now on.

Once I get a bit more progress made on some of my projects, I'll update with some pictures. Until then, Stay warm!

Sick Knitting

For the past week, I've been suffering from a cold. Which is both good and bad. Bad in that I feel like crap and have no energy, and good in that since I had no energy to do housework, a good amount of knitting has gotten done. So, here's what I've been working on:

First, here we have a baby hat. My Cousin, Shelly, is pregnant with her second child, and is due to pop and second now. I had cast on-itis so I figured something cute and quick was just what was needed. The yarn is Vanna's Choice from Lion Brand in the color Dusty Green. The pattern is Cabled Baby Hats by Julie Hentz. The only thing I changed, was instead of having all of the cables twist the same direction, I alternated right twist and left twist cables.

On Saturday, October 4th (the day before I got sick) I went along with my Mom (btw-it was her 50th birthday! Happy birthday MOM!), my Aunt, and one of my sisters, went to Prairie Peddler Arts & Crafts Festival. I had a lot of fun, and ended up buying some fresh honey, some homemade soap, and the wool fiber pictured above. I've started spinning some already, but I'm still a beginner spinner and it shows. That doesn't stop me from having fun with it, though:)

Here we have Mom's Mittens that I'm knitting for her Christmas Gift. I think I've only done 3 or 4 rows since I lat posted about these, but progress is progress no matter how small. I love knitting these, but I can't be trying to watch anything interesting while working on them. The yarn is Knitpicks Essential in Grass and Black, and the pattern is NHM#7 from the book Selbuvotter.

More mittens! This is mitten #1 in the pair I'm knitting for my sister, Dawn. Another from the book Selbuvotter, this is pattern NHM#1. I am using Knitpicks Palette yarn in Blush and Ash.

And, Lastly, here we have sock#1 in the pair I'm knitting for Bleahy. Sock #2 has been started, but I'm still on the cuff.

Achieving Serenity

There were a few times while knitting this baby blanket that I completely lost all passion for knitting it, but I still loved the pattern so I kept on (in the long run, I did enjoy knitting this). I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment for finally finishing the Serenity Baby Blanket. I started this blanket back in July, and just finished it today, September 30th.
I LOVE the finished product, but I doubt that I'll knit this pattern again. I think I'm done knitting baby blankets for a LOOOOOONG time. Now that this is finished, maybe I wont feel guilty for working on Christmas gifts instead of baby gifts.

The intended recipient for Serenity is due to arrive in mid-October (and we don't know the gender), but the last time I saw the expecting mom she looked more than ready to pop (and completely adorable, picture a model skinny person with a beach ball shoved in her shirt). Adorable.

btw- I fully intend to post pics of the baby wrapped in Serenity after he or she is born :)

Troll Socks are finished!

I've been working on these socks sporadically since May, and I finally finished them last night.
The pattern is Diagonal Cross Rib Socks from the book 'Favorite Socks'. The pattern was easy enough for me to keep my mind on TV or conversations, but still there was enough to concentrate on so I didn't loose interest in knitting. The yarn is Regia Strato (now discontinued) in color 5740 - Troll.
These socks don't really photograph well, it's really hard to get a good picture that shows both the pattern and the yarn colors, but I think these do a decent job of capturing both. All I ask is that you ignore my pajama pants in the pics...LOL

Knitting by Candlelight

Remnants from Hurricane Ike came through Ohio on Sunday. We lost power Sunday afternoon, along with approx. 1.9 million other Ohioans. We were lucky though, we were without power for only 20 hours (just long enough for everything in our fridge and freezer to go bad), while the electric companies are saying some people could be without for a week. My Parents and both of my sisters are still without power, and one of my sisters and her family live just down the street from us. Local airports are reporting that the winds got up to 75 MPH in some areas. There are fallen trees and branches everywhere. 6 deaths have been reported so far. My kids are on their second day of no school due to power outages. My next door neighbors tree in their front yard split and 1/2 the tree fell, blocking our driveway and the street. It missed landing on DH's car by only a few feet. Click here to see some pics of the downed tree. Dh and I got the larger branches removed from our lawn yesterday, and today I'm going out there with the kids and we'll get the sticks, twigs and leaves taken care of.

However, in all that, I managed to get some knitting done. While the power was out, after the kids went to bed, I didn't have the distraction of TV or Internet, so Knitting by candlelight it was.
I had a lot of candles, so it wasn't too stressing on my eyes, and I made a decent amount of progress on Mom's Mittens. I know, I'm crazy for doing colorwork by candlelight, but it's the only WIP I have going that the pattern was not on my laptop, and no power= no laptop (the battery for my laptop is kaput), and I didn't want to start another WIP.

Time to get back to the cleanup. Fun....

ETA: almost 48 hours after power went out, my Mom just called me to say her power is back on!!!!!

yet another boring WIP update post...

I started working on some of those mittens I mentioned before. Please ignore the fact that these pics need to be fixed, I had to do a system restore and I haven't reinstalled any photo editors yet.
I am about half way done with mitten #1 in the pair for my Mom. The pattern is NHM#7 from the book 'Selbuvotter'. The yarn I'm using for this pair is Knitpicks Essential sock yarn in the colors Grass and Black.

Justice's Birthday Sweater is FINISHED!

Another FO! YAY! This sweater I knit for my Niece, Justice's 11th birthday. The pattern is February Lady Sweater. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease, and this sweater only took 2 1/2 balls! I knit the xxs size, and I'm still amazed it didn't take more yarn. I know, lace can be tricky like that though :)

I *might* be a little bit insane.....

I've decided that I will, after all, knit a few gifts for Christmas this year (despite my previous attitude of 'this year, Christmas can go fuck itself'). That's not the insane part, though. I've decided that a few really special people (6 including me) will receive some really special knit mittens or gloves. All the patterns I'm going to use are from the book 'Selbuvotter, Biography of a Knitting Tradition' by Terri Shea. I want to tell you who all of the mittens & gloves are going to be for, but some of the intended recipients might read this blog post.

So, 6 pairs of Selbu mittens/gloves by Christmas, plus all of the baby gift knitting and birthday gift knitting I need to do between now and then, 4 months..... That is the insane part. It's okay though. I throughly enjoy my insanity :)

Laney's Sweater, FINISHED!!!

I love that feeling of accomplishment a knitter gets every time she/he finishes a project. This sweater I knit for my niece, Laney, for her 4th birthday. It's the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan sweater from Lion Brand, and for it I used Lion Brand's Wool-ease yarn in the color seaspray. I knit the largest size for the pattern (4) and it took all but a few yards of 2 balls of the wool-ease. I didn't really enjoy knitting this one. Each and every time I picked up this project I just kept thinking of better construction methods that would provide the same result. Knitting the pattern as written, there's just WAY too many seams to sew.

The other birthday present I'm knitting is nearing completion too, it's the February Lady Sweater I'm knitting for my niece, Justice. I finished the body and am about 1/4 done with the first sleeve. I still have a week and a half to finish it, so I'm sure it'll be ready in time.

Thursday = kicks yesterdays ass

I have had nice, calm and rather productive day today! Well, so far I have, it's not quite noon yet, so I guess my day *could* still turn to shit, but let's hope that doesn't happen.

I wanted to pop on here and show off my progress on 2 of my WIP's. First up we have my Nanner socks. Say it with me "ooooooOOOOoooo PRETTY!!" The pattern was a limited time only thing from WendyKnits, and is no longer available. The yarn is BMFA STR lightweight in Socktopus. This is my reward project. I get to work on it ONLY after working on either the February Lady Sweater or the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan for at least an hour. This method has turned out to be really effective for me. While I haven't touched the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan for a while now, I have made a lot of Progress on the February Lady Sweater.
I've only got a few more inches (2-3) for the bottom of the body of the sweater, and then I need to do the sleeves. I've been primarily focusing on this sweater because it's a lot bigger and will take more work than the eyelet cardigan, so it'll take longer to finish.

Wednesday=FAIL

enough said.

add another to the pile....

Considering my last blog post, I shouldn't have done it. But I did. And I like it. It feels good. I've been working so hard on the 2 sweaters that still need to be finished for gifts next month, that I became bored of them. I didn't want to knit. I was sick of those sweaters. I NEEDED something else, something new. I'm sure you can guess what I did. I CO a new project. Socks. Not just any socks, but Nanner Socks (Ravelry link). My fingers needed some luscious sock yarn sliding through them. They were tired of the yarns I'm using for the sweaters, they were protesting, demanding better treatment. So, my Nanners are being knit with some STR lightweight (my absolute favorite sock yarn) in the Socktopus colorway (ooohhh.....pretty). I only have the toe of sock #1 done (toe up socks), so no pics yet. I'll post some when I get more knit.

I have WAY too many WIP's...

and I don't yet have pics of all of them.

I technically have 11 projects in varying states laying around the house, but honestly I think 3 of them have become UFO's and I don't know if I'm ready to admit it....lol Those 3 would be my half finished pair of Twisted Flower socks, my half finished pair of Earl Grey socks, and a dishcloth that I started one day at my desk because I was bored and haven't picked it up again. Some other projects have just been pushed aside for a little while because I have to concentrate on some projects with a deadline. Those temporarily on hold are Annemor #2, my Troll socks, my granny square blanket, and my Icarus shawl (which has been completely frogged and re-CO, no pic yet). For those not counting, we've mentioned 7 projects out of 11 thus far.

Now for those projects I'm actively working on.

First we have a baby blanket!!! My Cousin, Shelly, is due with her second child in October, and is waiting for delivery to know the sex of the baby. I'm using the Serenity Baby blanket pattern with Caron Simply Soft yarn in Grey Heather. A beautiful pattern in a gender neutral color, and still isn't a typical baby color.



And second we have an Eyelet Yoke cardigan that will be given to my Niece, Laney, for her 4th birthday next month. The pieces in the back are the body up to the armholes waiting on scrap yarn, and sleeve #1 is on the needle cable. after I knit sleeve #2 all pieces will be placed on one needle and worked together for the yoke. I'm using Lion Brand's Wool-Ease yarn in the color Seaspray.


Third, we have a big messy pile of crochet that will eventually be a blanket for my bed. See those long chain columns? those will be laced up when the blanket is finished, creating kind of a lacy cable look. I'm using Caron One Pound acrylic yarn....I despise knitting with the stuff, but when it comes to crochet afghans, it works beautifully.


WIP #4 has no picture because my camera decided to be a big monkey licker and crap out on me. The project is a February Lady Sweater that will be a birthday present for my Niece, Justice, next month. I can't believe that booger is turning 11. I am, again, using Lion Brand's Wool-Ease yarn, only this time I'm using color Dark Rose Heather.

There, now that I've posted about all of those projects here, maybe I'll be more accountable for them and they might actually get done.

I Love Yarn Mail!!!

My most recent KP order arrived today! I was sucked in by the book sale and the new fall colors :) The book I got is 'Spin to Knit' by Shannon Okey, and for yarns, I got Gloss lace weight in Pinot, and the balls top to bottom are Essential Kettle Dyed in Boureaux, Essential Kettle Dyed in Soot, and Essential in Lantana. I need to get some gifts off of my needles, and then I can start working with some of this yarn :) I'm going to go back to smooshing my new yarns now.

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!