Progress

I never posted Jenna's Socks!!
Cookie A's Monkey Socks
They should be in the mail in about week :)
I love how they turned out. If they weren't too long for my feet I might have just kept them for my self :P


This next pair was in a knitting war. I only managed to get 1.5 of the socks finished before the "Assassination Socks" arrived in the mail. Here is what one finished sock looked like. I turned a purchased yarn (Malabrigo Sock yarn) into a striped yarn... The Theme. This pattern is called Ampersand

And I have 3 other pair of socks on the needles in varying construction

Summer!

Parallel Twist

Miss Marple

Now if I could just make up my mind on what pattern to pick out for my Dunkle Kirsch Wollmeise yarn for a cardigan. I would be set then!

As a side note:
We did survive the tornadoes. They all scooted east of us before landing anywhere. We were quite happy about that, but sad for all the damage it brought to the neighboring towns. thankfully there were no deaths.

12 in 2011

I have bagged up 12 yarny projects in hopes of getting them done this year. I especially want to get 2 cardigans for myself finished. One out of tan and navy cotton that I just traded some Noro Kureyon for. The other will be out of my Dunkle Kirsch Wollmeise. I have some beautiful vintage buttons for the Dunkle Kirsch cardi, I'll figure out buttons later on the cotton cardi later (maybe red ones). It looks like 6 pairs of socks. Colorwork, mosaic, and a Wizard of Oz themed pattern! A couple baby things for charity. Mittens, and a couple small shawls. Fun stuff! I know this is VERY ambitious. Only 3-4 are very important to me at the moment, and some of the patterns may change. The challenge is to use what you have on hand. Last year I failed in the regard and ended up getting very little done at all in comparison to years before. Maybe I should shouldn't plan at all.

Sewing wise I have 2 quilt tops that need finishing cut out, and another cut. Of course they all need sewn as well. A little girl dress needs a zipper and hemming. A wool coat needs finished. I need to finish a summer dress even though Summer's over LOL. Make 2 pair of jeans, and several blouses for myself. For some reason I always put those needs aside. And its starting to show in the closet!

So I am going to try and get 12 sewing projects done this year as well!

I guess this makes a kind of New Years resolution....
I hate those haha

Pins and needles

Tomorrow is the big day according the the DC# I got in my email from the Loopy Ewe. My favorite "local yarn store". ;) They really aren't local like in town. but the shipping is fast enough that they might as well be. :) The have a HUGE selection of yarns. I even got some Wollmeise from them once! I love that stuff!!! And now I have enough of that color (Dunkle Kirsch) to make myself a cardigan. if only I could make up my mind on the pattern.

So tomorrow is the big day is the for my sock kit light. I can wait to see what's in it. May next year I will win the lotto and get in on the sock kit club :D

March week 1

A few pictures of what is going on in my knitting and swappy world this week.


This is what I chose out of the Robin's Nest Traveling Box Swap. It was 10lbs! at least when Phillip brought it home today. Now after adding my bunch of goodies it STILL weighs 9.75 lbs! I really really wanted the Noro but it had alpaca in it. Sad frowns to the allergy.

Picture is a little flashy, but the colors are pretty true. These are the first batch of my sock rovings that will be going into my Etsy store in the next couple of days. The next batch is drying right now :) The sheen that you are seeing is the the nylon that is found in the sock yarn. Depending on how you spin will affect the amount of shimmer you get in your yarn. It's really a cool thing.

And this is the newest shawl pattern I have going. I actually have 3 or 4 on the needle. 2 are Mystery Knit Alongs where I get 1 clue a month. But this one I am knitting for the Malabrigo March event. Pattern is Damson by Ysolde Teague, yarn is Malabrigo Sock in Rayon Verte

My Roll is Done!

Yes my knitting neede roll is finished finally. It's the one I started a while back and got sidetracked. I started off with a so called "pattern" and ended ip doing my own thing. It was one of those word patterns. I couldn't understand what they were saying and kept leaving things out because none of made sense to me LOL. But it's really cute. Another mistake I made in the beginning was cutting out double the pieces. So I cut out more in the opposite materials. In a few days I will have another one in paisley :D


There are 15 pockets for circular needles. It looks great I think :)

Knitting gifts for the boys is done!

I finished JUST before midnight last night with Derek's. Which made me done! He gets a "gator"/cowl/neck warmer. Deven and Logan get the scarves. I think I already posted pictures. If not I will go ahead and do it again ;)

Derek's Neck Warmer. It's a tube you pull over your head. He'll love it. Especially since the yarn color name is Blackwatch. Picture is a little dim.


Deven's Irish Hiking scarf. Done in a color changing yarn. I loved the way the cables worked. Very fast pattern. Another 1/2 a skein and it would be truly the perfect length for his tall self. ;)


Logan's My So Called Scarf. Took FOREVER! Or at least felt that way LOL. Same yarn as Deven's just green. It's a 2 row repeat that I began to hate after 1 skein of the yarn. :( I quit after 1.5 skeins of yarn. This pattern makes a long scarf!

Traveling Scarf sections

I have been participating in 3 Traveling Scarves, and knitting sections as they come to me. we are about to wind up this swap and hopefully the 1st of my 3 scarves will be here soon.
Here are a few of the sections I have recently been working on

Something New

I made 4 sets of 5 stitch markers. They are made of porcelain chips. Each stitch marker is different. I think they are cute. It looks like they will fit knitting needles US 10-6.0mm. I haven't listed them yet on Etsy, but I think I will :)

Busy Busy

I dyed 6 rovings and 12 yarn hanks this week! Most of it was sold, traded or bartered before it ever made it to Esty. I'm happy and it was a TON of fun! Here it is...


It's on it's way to places from Texas to Canada :D So this week I have more rovings to do and list.

Project wise I have finished Phillip, Derek and Deven's hats. I'm working on Logan's now. This is just the 1st 1/2. The other 1/2 will be shades of green and a bit tan. Same yarn as Phillip 1 side of hat.... Let me find a picture....

Here it is!

I wonder if dad would wear one of these things? (In blues) Or would he rather a new Texas A&M baseball cap? :)

I'm learning to knit 2 socks at the same time. That is super cool! It feels like it takes longer, but really it's not, because by the time I am done. I will have 2 socks to wave around instead of 1!!!
These are for Day of the Dead competition. I will probably lose because I decided to try and learn this at the last second and had a few problems ;) But that's ok :) I will be using this method from now on socks. I really wish I had know about it a LOOONG time ago hahaha

The project I started for Shirly is creeeeeping along. I have a hard time with charts that don't have full written out words for back up. So I have set it aside untill after the holidays. Maybe I can get it done intime for her birthday. If not maybe Christmas next year :D

Mom's Christmas yarn finally came in as did her replacement yarn for her Bday. To bad bday is almost tomorrow and project is huge. I had to replace the yarn because it was 70% alpaca/30% silk It was beautiful and sooooo soft. I got it on sale years ago. It screamed MOM. I just didn't know what to do with it until this year LOL. This year is when I found out I was allergic to Alpaca. I can knit with if fine (suuuure) it's when fibers start to float and land on my face... My face welts up where the fibers land cry. So last week I was wandering the internet and found some 50% Merino 50% silk Angel Wings by Fly Designs in Teal Lake And got it on SALE!! So Mom you will get a super nice Bday/Christmas present next year.

I guess that's it for now

I've been dyeing fiber for my etsy shop. The green is a consignment! It's a semi-solid. Much like the blue Deven did that has since sold. He is very proud of that btw :) I have since spent quite a while re-skeining the yarn to give a better representation of the colors. Below is a picture of a couple. I'm not a fan of orange, but the October challenge for my Etsy Team is Fall colorsm and I really LOVE how this came out.


This scarf is a donation for the Special Olympics coming up. The goal is 5000 scarves for the athletes. I'm going to try and have 5 made and mailed by the deadline. I don't knit & crochet as fast as I used to, and I still want to get the boys' things made for Christmas finished.

This was just finished getting spun up. Its the Corriedale Logan dyed for me with koolaid and I steamed. I need to take it off the bobbinand set the twist. It looks like it's about sock/fingering to DK weight as a single ply. It may bloom bigger. We'll see. But I spun it to ply so it's tight.! We'll see. It came out nice though


Here is one of those Christmas presents I was talking about. A reversible hat for the boys. This is one side. I still need to finish the decreases and close the top, so I can start the new color at the brim. When it's done I'll have 2 more to go.

What's happening today?

For starters I used the air horn to get the boys up this morning haha
Really.... I did! They hate it too. They told me it was "totally unnecessary"
I figure if they would have gotten up on time I wouldn't have had to use it :)

After two months, we got the call to come pick up the plates to the new car today.

My first handspun yarn is hanging in the shower setting it's twist.

I've reskeined 3 hanks of yarn for my Esty 2 more to go. Then I need to take pictures so I can list them for sale. Then I want to reskein some of the ones that are for sale and redo pictures. I think with the new way, they are prettier, and give a better representation of the yarn. I have one listing up that is the new way. It just needs a couple more pictures.

Anona gave me some beautiful wool roving she dyed. I would like to get prepped and start spinning on. Many shades of purple.

I've let the 3 white guineas out of the brooding area, and now they are hiding from me! I can't find them. They are "hopefully" under the truck or in a bush. I can't hear their trill.

We lost one of the newest chicks. It drowned in the last rainstorm. Grandma was right when she said they were so dumb they could drown in a tsp of water. haha. It was pretty windy and may have gotten separated from Goldie (momma hen) . She has 2 chicks left.

I finished a sock at lunch. The boys dyed the yarn for me with kool aid when we first moved here. I need to start the mate to it soon. It's really neat looking. But I won't ever do the pattern again as I am doing it now. I am in a knitting challenge where you use microgauge. 10 stitches or more per inch. That is killing me & my hands (we won't tell Phillip ;)). I have been able to keep gauge. Yay. Normal gauge doesn't bother me, but this micro gauge UGH! The way around it is to knit is short stints.

A while back I started a project for Aunt Shirley. Perfect yarn/perfect pattern. Hah! the yarn was pooling in a way that you couldn't see the pattern at all. So that got frogged. I found a new pattern. Hopefully it will turn out better. (crosses fingers). I'm not saying what it is yet. But it is in Summer 2006 Interweave Knits You'll just have to guess ;)

Time to go do the boring stuff like laundry and make sure Derek loaded the dishwasher. So I can do the fun stuff