Crazy Weather

It's that time of year again! Time for hot one day, freezing the next. We had a few cold days but now we're back in the 80's again. Thankfully the weather doesn't seem to be bothering the tomatoes. I've gotten another 14 tomatoes since the last post with several more ripening on the vine.

And for today's public safety announcement: Recall Information. If you're living here in the US, I highly recommend that you subscribe to US Consumer Product Safety Commissions Recall RSS feed. The link to their RSS feed is located in the left hand column. That's right folks, bloglines and google reader aren't just for knitting blogs....just kidding I know some of you subscribe to other types of feeds. I have several news feeds in my bloglines blogroll too. This feed is very valuable for getting information on the latest product recalls. For other recalls go to the Recalls website. They have email subscriptions for FDA, USDA, & NHTSA. Plus you can check out the latest recalls or search through all the recalls. I believe in being informed.

Now on to knitting, well at least what I can show you.

Yes folks it seems that I'm still on a dishcloth kick. The pattern used was the Multidirectional Diagonal Dishcloth (Rav)(non Rav). Yes, mine is upside down. I liked the wrong side of the dishcloth better.

And here's proof that I'm still on a dishcloth kick....more cotton!

Sugar 'n Cream was on sale at my local JoAnn's. We went in looking for iron on patches to fix the holes on Kaity's old jeans and I managed to walk away with 7 skeins of the super size Sugar 'n Cream....Yes I got the patches too! So Kaity has colorful jeans to play in after school and I have more dishcloth cotton to make dishcloths....as if there was ever a fear of me running out of cotton yarn.

My TLE sock club shipment came in the other day and boy did it not disappoint. I love the yarn, and I'm in mad love with the pattern and the goody we received was super cool. You can go check it out here in my flickr photos.

Bree has found a new fascination in playing dress up. Right now it seems to be scarves.

Bree has been playing with a fun fur scarf that my aunt made Kaity awhile back. Unfortunately the scarf is way to long for her and she trips on it at least a half dozen times a day. I decided to suck it up and knit her a Bree sized scarf. Anyone who knows me, knows that I detest knitting with fun fur. It's just one huge pain in the butt. The last time I knit with fun fur was to make some hats for kids going through chemo. It sheds, it's hard to see the stitches and it's just generally annoying to knit with but when you see a face like the one above it makes it all worthwhile.

I started another pair of socks for Kaity. She keeps begging me for socks so I figure the next few pair I knit should be for her.

These are toe up, two at a time using the rest of the Berroco Sox I had leftover from another pair I knit her awhile back. These will probably be plain stockinette socks. The toes look odd. I think I may have knit two increase rows in the socks. I didn't feel like ripping them out in the car so the messed up row stayed.

Here's a teaser shot of the project I'm working on for Madelinetosh.

I'll post the details when I can. I'm over halfway through with this so it shouldn't be long before you get an update.

I bought a Nostepinne from an etsy dealer, Ghstworks.

There are times when I just don't feel like dragging out the ball winder so having the Nostepinne will come in handy. How geeky is it that when I opened it up and was holding it the first thing I thought of was "hey I bought myself a wand." Yup, that's what I though, my Harry Potter geekiness is showing.

I had some gift certificates, so naturally I spent them on books.

I'd say that 80% of my knitting library has been paid for by gift certificates I've earned. The only book I'm not so hot about is the Knitting Circles Around Socks. I wasn't overly thrilled with it. If you want my copy of the book let me know in the comments. It'll be yours for $12 plus the cost of whatever shipping method you pick. First to ask for it, gets it.

Once again I've managed to write another long post. I've falling into the blog blahs. I'm far behind on blog reading. There is no way I'm getting caught up on all that reading so I've wiped the slate clean and will start with new posts....sorry everyone.

I'll return next time with pictures from another 7 Deadly S(p)ins shipment. I'm hoping to see it some time this week. I've been faithfully ignoring the spoilers but am not sure how much longer I can hold out. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be waiting for me when I get back from the dentist.

Yup, I'm going to the dentist again. The good news is I'm almost done with all the work. I have to get a crown put on a back tooth but my dentist is waiting for my insurance to rollover in Feb of next year so I won't have to pay as much. So right now that tooth is a wee bit sensitive to the cold. The good news is that most of my tooth sensitivity went away when I started using a Philips Sonicare toothbrush. They are a little pricey but soooo worth the money.

Happy Crafting!

Some Progress

There has been a lot of knitting going on it's just most of it is stuff I can't show you yet.

First up is the progress on Kaity's skirtsicle (Rav)(non Rav).

Isn't it amazing how much the pattern changed when I increase the stitch. Less the 50 stitches increased and it went into this cool spiral pattern. The upper half probably won't be seen much unless Kaity tucks in her shirt....which she never does. I have about 5-6 inches left to knit before it's finished. This time I remembered to turn the skirt around so that it's right side up for the picture. I also tucked in the waist band though I haven't sewn it down yet. I'll do that after I bind off.

Cute toddler distraction.

I need to throw in something to distract you all from noticing I haven't a lot of knitting progress to report. Hopefully it worked.

I can finally show you the socks I knit for my TLE swap pal Kristen aka Woolology on Ravelry.

Thankfully the socks fit her feet wonderfully and she loved them. It was so much fun spoiling her. The pattern is Tangled Faeries (Rav)(non Rav). I loved knitting this pattern so much that I'll be making a pair in the near future for myself. I did modify the pattern a tad. I used my own favorite short row heel and toe and I knit them both at the same time. The yarn used was ShibuiKnits sock (Rav)(non Rav), color Sky. The color is off in the picture. It's much more blue. The Loopy Ewe photo is much more accurate. I really liked knitting with this yarn. I have one skein left that will probably become socks for one of the girls. I bought a third skein to be safe. You never know when something can go horribly wrong.

I have made decent progress on the soap sack.

This goes with my sheep washcloth and is using the yarn (pima petite from The Unique Sheep) and pattern that came with my 7 Deadly S(p)ins club shipment. Woolgirl is going to be carrying this yarn in her shop soon and I can't wait. Its so soft and perfect for making spa gifts with.

Oh look cute puppy. Ok, ok shaggy puppy. He's going to the groomers soon!

I need to throw in a distraction every now and then.

I picked up some cotton yarn the other day at Michaels.

The Sugar N' Cream was on sale for $1 each but it had been picked through and there were only a few skeins left. Most of them were white and off white. So the three in the photo was all I got but I picked up a couple skeins of cottontots for Bree's facecloths. If anyone has unloved leftover cottontots that they don't want/need let me know. I'm more then happy to give it a new home and turn it into washcloths for my messy toddler.

Finally, this is my new favorite knitting gadget.

I bought a row counter from Muddy Paws Knit Knacks. It was really hard to pick just one since there are so many gorgeous counters to pick from. This has got to be the best row counter I've bought. It stays on your knitting so you don't have to worry about losing it and you don't have to worry about it fitting your wrist like the bracelets. Plus Darcie (the shop owner) is really great to deal with.....very nice! To top it all off Darcie sends the row counter in a little cloth pouch so you have a place to store your counter when not in use. I see a few more of these in my future. Plus I think they'd make great gifts for swap pals, knitterly friends, etc.

Well that's it for now. In a few days I'll be posting about some of the samples I knit awhile back and show you a teaser pic of what I'm working on right now.

Spin Me Right Round....

Did you all hear me squeal with joy this afternoon? No, well I'm surprised. Shawn brought home my new ball winder.



There are absolutely no regrets on this purchase. Shawn put the ball winder on layaway for me when he took Kaity Christmas shopping for me at our LYS. It's made by Nancy's Knit Knacks.

I actually had to force myself not to play with the ball winder all day and get some housework completed. Now that's willpower.

I finished the first Garter Rib Sock.



I'm going to dub these my "Can't Get Lost in Fog" Socks, though I think Garter Rib socks is probably easier to say. They are super bright but I love them.

Tomorrow we're heading down to Helena to do a little Costco shopping. Shoot, who am I kidding, we'll be doing more then just a little shopping at Costco. I'm betting it will be between $200-250. If it's less then that I'll be surprised. Since that's a decent drive I'll be able to get some knitting done. Not sure what I'll take. I may start Kaity's mittens or a hat for Shawn.

I've decided to pick a New Years Resolution I can probably keep. I'm going with learning how to spin. Colleen sent me the stuff to get me started for my birthday and I think it's about time that I use it and get this whole spinning thing figured out. I found out there is a spinning guild hear and they are suppose to be offering a free drop spindle class in Feb. If I can't figure it out on my own I'm going to head over to this class. I'm determined so I'll figure it out....I'm stubborn like that.

Now I'll leave you with this pic.



Mess, what mess mama....there's no mess here.

Genius Idea

Look what my hubby the wonder genius came up with last night.  OK, OK, maybe I'm a tad bias since I'm married to him but hey I thought it was pretty cool.
Check out my new yarn holder.




I have no idea if someone has already tried this or not.  I've never seen anyone use the spindle that holds the writable CDs/DVDs, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't been tried.  We have tons of these stupid things around the house.  Shawn's going to use the Dremel and smooth out a whole in the center of the clear plastic lid that goes over the CD spindle (not in picture).  This won't hold really big yarn cakes but it's great for the small ones that collapse within a few minutes after you start knitting.

Just thought I'd share this with you all.

New Knitting Goodie

I picked this up from an etsy seller.  The seller name is Hide and Sheep....cute name.  :~)




This row counter bracelet has a toggle on it so it closes and won't slip off your wrist.  My wrist is about 7" around and it fits my wrist with plenty of wiggle room for the beads.  I also love their needle hugger stitch markers which come in a large range of sizes and colors.  Hide and Sheep has great customer service and fast shipping.