Little Fishies & A Contest

Contest Has Ended! A winner will be selected in the next day or two.

We're celebrating being debt free and I want to pass on the celebration to all my blogland friends. We made our final payment earlier this month so we are now free of debt. Yippy!

I'll go ahead and get the contest details out of the way now before finishing the rest of the post. I'm going to make this simple: Post about your favorite summertime activity.

I'll keep this contest open through the 12th of Aug. I'll close comments down when I end the contest and the winner will be announced on the 13th in a blog post. I will also email the winner. To qualify for the contest you must post your comment in this post only. I'm not going to hunt willy-nilly through out the blog so if you want to enter post here. I'll use a random number generator to determine the winner.

FYI: If you don't want to enter the contest but want to post a comment just let me know in the comment and I won't put your name down.

So you all are wondering what you win! I'm making it easy this time. The winner gets to decide which online shop they'd like to get a gift certificate too, ie WEBS, Amazon, TLE, Woolgirl, Sonny & Shear, your favorite etsy shop.....I think you get the point. The catch is it has to be one that is easy for me to purchase, preferably one that I can purchase online and have it shipped/emailed to you. If you live in the UK I'm not going to call your favorite LYS to buy a certificate unless of course you want to send me a calling card to pay for the call. Lets keep it simple. I'm doing this because it leaves the contest open for anyone who isn't in the US too. The monetary value of the certificate hasn't fully been determined but I can say that it will be at least $25 USD.

Now on to the regularly scheduled blog post.

Shawn was sent down to F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming for a few days so the girls and I have been hanging around the house. I think Zeus is missing Shawn the most. Poor dog keeps looking out the front window expecting Shawn to walk through the door at any minute.

Shawn's due to leave tomorrow morning so he should be back before the girls head to bed. He stated to me that picking Montana over Wyoming was a great choice. He said the housing there is horrible. Most of the housing here is new although some of the new housing is messed up because some moron decided to build them on swamp land. Hello idiots, draining the swap and filling it in with dirt is most likely going to backfire on you. When you build a house on land that was once swamp land chance are the land is going to sink and try to revert back to its swampiness and that's what's happening right now. My next door neighbor is one of the many people who are being moved out of houses that are sinking. Truth be told the only reason we picked Montana was because it kept use closer to the West coast where my family is without having to go broke living in California or dealing with all that Las Vegas, NV has to offer. Living in Las Vegas is enough to give me nightmares for a year. Going to Wyoming would have moved us even farther way so Montana won.

Now on to knitting and all that other good stuff you all came here for.

I'm totally addicted to knitting these little fishies (ravelry) (non ravelry).

I can't stop casting on even though I don't really have any real use for them. I've made three so far. They're to small for dishrags. Maybe I can use a little of that mesh stuff knit in with them to make scrubbies. Bree's been grabbing them from me as soon as I finish them so I have several little knitted fishies floating around the house. Well I guess since Bree likes them then they do have some value, plus they're cute.

I purchase these from Dawning Dreams Etsy shop.

A pretty jewel orifice hook for my spinning wheel and two cable needles. I absolute love the cable needles and contacted Dawn who was fabulous and made me a set of mini cable needles for knitting on smaller things like socks. Here's the mini needles.....aren't they cute!

I'm not big on cabling without a needle and truth be known I can knit cables twice as fast with a cable needle then without one. The orifice hook is a tad to thick for my wheel so it's become a pretty decoration in with my knitting tools and crochet hooks.

I also acquired some yummy Yarn Love fiber from Sonny & Shear. I don't know why I've never bought from them before but I was pleased....great selection and fast shipping. They've got a pretty nice selection of fibers from various dyers not to mention all the different sock yarns.

First up is Yarn Love Marianne.

The color is Cottage Garden and it's superwash merino.....mmmmmm, merino is so soft.

Then there's Yarn Love Scarlett O'Hara.

The color is Blackberry Jam and it's a superwash wool/bamboo/nylon blend.

I picked up the yarn to start a shawl for my mom.

It's Knit Picks Gloss Lace and the colorway is Port.

Then I started my moms shawl after I finished up a sample knit.

This is the beginning of the Whispering Pines Shawl (ravelry)(non ravelry) by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. I'd have to say that she has some of the most gorgeous lace patterns around. Not to mention well written.

I finished my moms Loopified socks.

It's the Halema uma u Socks (ravelry) that came in the 2008 TLE Anniversary kit. As far as I can tell this pattern hasn't been released for sale to the general public yet. The yarn used was also part of the kit and is Handmaiden Casbah, colorway Loopified. This yarn is yummy and I think after the weather cools down my mom is going to love them.

I also received some yummy BFL that I purchased from Perchance to Spin which is Perchance to Knits shop for all things spinning related.

It's 8 ounces of soft BFL in a pretty light green colorway called New Leaf Green. I really love spinning BFL.

I also bought some lovely orifice hooks for my wheel.

These work beautifully with my Ashford Traveller. Fiber Jewels was having a get two for the price of one deal that I couldn't pass up. I don't really have a need for two hooks since I only have one wheel but hey they were buy one get one free.

Project & notions bag made specially for me.

I swapped a skein of yarn for the project and notions bag. The project bag is the perfect size for socks and it has a cool little pocket on the inside of the bag.

I'll leave you with this shot.

My baby had her 3rd birthday on the 24th. I can't believe she's 3 already! Man does the time fly. I'm thinking about starting her in Preschool next year.....yikes, I'm gonna cry if I keep thinking about it.

Oh Look Tomatoes!

Happy crafting!

A Few Woolgirl Knits

I think it's safe to post about these now. It's been over a month since the boxes went out so I'm pretty sure most people including those outside the US have received their packages. I test knit the patterns for the June Woolgirl sock club package.

First up is the sock pattern, It's Raining Cats & Dogs Socks (Ravelry).

This is a club exclusive pattern so it's not available right now however I wouldn't be surprised if it's available within the year for sale to everyone. I loved knitting this sock. It has cables, these cute little paw prints, and to top it off it's knit with one of my favorite go to yarns, Dream in Color Smooshy the colorway is called Raining Cats and Dogs.

Then I worked the Raindrops shawl (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

I do believe the pattern edging was tweaked for the club but you can get the pattern for free from the designers website. It was a great knit and the pattern was easy to work and once again it was knit in Dream in Color Smooshy. One skein will gets you a smaller shawl. If you want a bigger one you'll definitely need a second skein of Smooshy. I managed to eek out 8 pattern repeats before starting the edging but I was cutting it pretty close on running out of yarn.

I have a few more knits but I can't post about them yet since they are hush hush. They are club patterns so I won't post them until after a reasonable amount of time has past after the boxes are sent off.

I'll be back in a few days to post about some of my WIPs, goodies, etc....oh and that blog contest that I want to start. More details in a few days.

Happy Crafting!

On the Mend

I woke up the other day (mind you, I started this post on the 9th of July) feeling great without a care in the world not knowing that later in the morning my back would starting screaming in pain for apparently no good reason. I suffered with it for one day, went to bed early and woke up the next morning in even more pain. So when you're in pain, what do you do? Why call your doc to see if you can get an appointment. The military treatment system being as suckish backed up as it is didn't have an appointment till mid Aug....uuuuhhh, nope not waiting for that appointment. Thankfully we can go downtown to be seen in one of the the walk in clinics, which incidentally are 500 times better and staffed with much more friendlier, helpful, caring people then a military hospital. Amazingly enough the clinic wasn't to busy and I was only in there for a little over an hour. Turns out I was having a severe muscle spasm and possible muscle strain.

Just as my back pain was easing up I came down with some kind of virus. You know the routine, fever, sore throat, body aches so bad you want someone to shoot you. Except this time I ended up with the most unbearable dizziness. I was fine if I laid down but with two kids at home that really isn't much of an option. I finally figured out I could stop the dizziness if I chewed a piece of gum. The dizziness went away a few days later. I think it was a combo of headcold/allergies.....as if the allergies aren't bad enough.

So now that I'm on the mend I can get back to my some what irregular blog posting. It's been a very long time since I last posted. I'm trying to figure out where in the world to start first. This post is probably going to bounce around a bit between FOs, WIPs and stash enhancements.

I finally acquired my first skein of Numma Numma.

I swapped with a fellow Ravely user. I love the colors. The colorway is called No Substitutions. Now to find a pattern and knit this up. Hahaha yeah right it'll probably sit in my stash for the next 6 months before I figure out what I want to knit.

I finished my Hearts and Flowers Socks (Ravelry).

This is one of the patterns out of WendyKnits toe up sock book. I have plans to start another sock from her book soon. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy, color Plum Paisley. I just can't get enough of this yarn. The only mod I made was to knit 4-5 rounds before starting the picot edging.

I started a pair of fingerless mitts for my mom.

The pattern is Merletto Mitts (Ravelry). I have no idea who dyed the yarn or what brand it is. I can tell you it's soft, it's definitely superwash and it's a tad heavier then fingering weight yarn, maybe sports weight. It was part of the winnings from one of the contests Woolgirl had on her blog.

I've acquired a good amount of fiber since my last post. I'm not going to post all the pics here but you can see them here on Flickr if you want.

I did acquire this lovely skein of BFL sock yarn from Zen Yarn Garden.

I placed an order when Roxanne opened up her new shopping cart and had a 10% coupon. I picked up 2 different fibers, BFL and Merino/Seacell. I'm currently spinning the Seacell right now. Anyway back to the sock yarn, this one is a new BFL sock yarn that ZYG is carrying called BFL4 Sock. It's absolutely delicious. I've been pondering what I want to make with this, socks or a cowl of some type.

I finished another pair of socks the other day.

These socks were a nightmare to get started. The yarn wasn't playing very well with any of the patterns I picked. I finally went with the Seeded Ribbing (Ravelry) pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks. The yarn is a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot that I acquired as a pick me up when we first moved here. Some of you may remember that we found out we weren't going to get our house for over a month and were stuck in TLF (TLF means Temporary Lodging Facility, it's a military hotel for families). It was one of my very first purchases from the yarn shop here in town. I really liked knitting with the Bearfoot yarn but from here on out I will be sticking with their semi solid colors.

Here's the latest skein of handspun.

It's approx 148 yards of thick and thin yarn that's between worsted and bulky. I spun this using the Yarn Love Marianne Dashwood roving I picked up from TLE. The colorway is Bayfield Apple. This picture was taken before it took a dip in the woolwash. It's currently hanging out to dry right now.

I'm working on a new pair of socks for my mom.

This is the Halema uma u Socks (Ravelry) pattern from the TLE Anniversary kit I purchased last year. The pattern will most likely be made available on TLE's site for sale in the future....most kit and club patterns are made available 6 months or so after the kit is sent out. Actually I found a Ravelry user who was destashing so I have two skeins of this yarn. I bought the second skein with my mom in mind since she commented on how much she really liked the color. The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah and the colorway is Loopified. I'm not following the pattern to a "T". I cast on more stitches for a less narrow toe and I've opted for an afterthought heel since I really liked the striping that I was getting. I didn't want to mess that up.

My "on the go" socks have a heel.

Yup, I know, exciting stuff! Plain stockinette socks with self striping yarn, can't get much more easier then that. I knit them in the car and when I have doctor/dentist appointments. No pattern required and I don't even have to look at them while I'm knitting. The yarn is Paton Kroy self striping that I picked up from Michaels. The skeins were completely messed up due to one of the them having a knot part way through so there was no way to make the stripes match. To keep my sanity I decided to knit not matching pair. I like them so that's all that matters.

I've also finished a few more test knits for Woolgirl and I have another one to start that the mailman just dropped off. I'll be able to show you two of the knits in my next post.

On the upside my tomatoes are doing wonderful. No red ones yet but we have a few that are getting really close. In the few days I was down from the virus the amount of tiny tomatoes I had tripled. I can't wait to get my first tomato...mmmmmm!

Bree says she can't wait too!

Stay tuned! I'm gearing up for a blog contest. We have some celebrating to do since we made our final payment and are now debt free!!! I'll post more about the contest in the next few weeks.

Happy Crafting!