A Little Progress

It's been a little busy here. I've made some progress on my projects and made a couple of stash enhancements. I also finished my sample knits for Woolgirl. I'll show you them when I can.

First up, the first purchase from TLE.



I bought this a few days before the Wollmeise sneak up. I didn't really think I'd get any Wollmeise so this was my consolation order. I've been wanting some of the Trekking Hand Art and Heather of All Things Heather is dying yarn again and I couldn't pass up the gorgeous Apricot colorway.

Now the Wollmeise sneak up which was the last one I'm ever going to participate in. They are just too intense and way too crazy. It sold out in a record breaking 5 minutes this time. I have 3 skeins....I'm happy!



I bought Campari Orange (skein in front) and Wilder Mohn (skein in back). Both are extremely gorgeous. I also picked up the Loopy Lace toe up sock pattern. I really like Wendy's patterns and will probably pick up more now that I've figured out how to knit toe up socks. I bought some BRS Bergamot Mint Knitters Hand Soap which smells great, leaves my hands smooth and doesn't dry them out. I have a problem with soap drying my hands out and causing red rashes....very painful! I'll be buying more of this soap soon.

Now on to the knitting. The drool fest is over for now, I promise!

I finished Kaity's toe up sock.



I found a short row heel technique that I like. It's the Next Step Diagonal short row heel from the Sock Wizard program. They' make the software for Macs and PCs. I finished off the sock with a k3, p2 ribbed cuff and did a cute little picot bind off. Now I need to cast on the second sock.

Last night I finished the first Reims Stocking watching Are We Done Yet?...cute and funny movie!



I cut out 10sts and knit the cuff a little shorter. I really like this pattern and will more then likely use this one again.

And for my final knit project, I give you a Bear in many pieces.



I just finished knitting all the pieces for Bree's Bear. I'm planning on seaming and stuffing it this afternoon while she is taking a nap.

Now it's time to put my wee monkey down for a nap and attack laundry mountain. Yup, it's that time again. There's only a few loads today because I scaled part of the mountain yesterday.

Happy Crafting! I think that should encompass everyone, knitters, crocheters, quilters, etc. You all will probably see more then yarn on the blog soon. It's time to dig out the sewing machine. It's been neglected for too long.

I'm going to start working on some pjs for Kaity, plus I have a small quilt to finish and a blankie to make for Bree. This will be the first time making clothing so there might be a bit of cursing. I promise not to throw the scissors....that's dangerous!

Time for a Post

I figured it was about time I posted again if to do nothing more then let you all know that I'm still alive. It's been several days since my last post.

I received shipment #1 of my TLE sock club. Click here if you want to see it. I almost didn't post this out in my Flickr account because I didn't want to be a spoiler but then I got to thinking and realized that if you want something to remain a surprise, Flickr is the last place you should be visiting.

I started another sock for myself. I'm selfish right now in the sock knitting department.

This one is the Reims Stocking pattern and the yarn is Zen Yarn Garden. You can visit their etsy site or their website to purchase the pattern.

This post is going to be short. Bree woke up screaming at 1:30am and didn't go back to sleep until 4:30am so I've been up all night long. I did get to enjoy a little chatting in the Loopy Groupie forum out on Ravelry and managed to score 2 skeins of Wollmeise this morning in the sneak up. The yarn was gone in like 5 minutes....crazy! These two skeins are the last and final bit of Wollmeise for me. The sneak ups are just too intense.

I'm going to go wake up my tired little kiddo and hope she isn't to crabby today. The poor baby has to be tired! I know I am!

I'll leave you with this shot of Bree trying to drag her stuffed lamb around....this thing is bigger then she is.

Hope you all have a great day....Happy Knitting!!!

I've Gone Toe Up...

Well socks that is. I've finally tried toe up socks.



These are for Kaity but I have another sock on the needles that is a sample for Woolgirl that is also being knit toe up. It's not that hard. I thought it would be tough but it turned out it wasn't that bad after all. I'm using Berroco Sox which in my opinion feels a lot like Opal. At about $10-12 for a 100g ball it's a great buy. I'll have to see how it wears but it is a wool/nylon sock yarn so I'd imagine it will wear fine.

Speaking of samples, here's the last one I knit for Woolgirl.



It's Paca Ped H-T, color Carribean Chocolate. I really enjoyed knitting with this yarn. The colors were yummy, it held up to more then one frogging, and it wasn't splitty. The brown and blues are a little more deeper then what they show in my picture. We were lacking in sunshine when I knit this sock. Go check out Jen's post for a more accurate pic. Jen's adding the yarn to her shop this Sunday (9 March).

I received my first Seven Deadly S(p)ins shipment today...woot! Click Here if you want to see it. I love this shipment and will probably cast on really soon.

mmmmmm, Malabrigo!

Watch out, here comes a yarn overloaded post. Thought I'd give a warning for anyone who's trying to resist temptation. Both packages are from Woolgirl with the exception of one skein of Berroco Sox which I bought from an ebay seller.

Package from Woolgirl.



Jen packages everything so prettily.

Here's the goodies:



3 hanks of Malabrigo lace, color Lettuce for the Bee Fields shawl pattern and a hank of Dream in Color Smooshy, color Lunar Zazzle. Jen also added a sample of Soak and a tin of Ginger Peach lip balm. I also ordered a skein of the Madelinetosh sock yarn in Umoja color which will be coming in here in the next week or so.

The Malabrigo lace can be summed up in one word "Yum". This stuff is fabulously soft and am having a hard time holding off on casting on the Bee Fields shawl.

I finished the Rattlesnake Creek socks this morning.

The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck. I bought it from an LYS in Idaho when I first started knitting socks. This was one of the first yarns I bought that started my stash.

Here's a more detailed shot.

I really enjoyed knitting these socks but the pattern threw me for a loop at first because the pattern repeat chart is one that is set to read like it's for a flat knit. All you have to do is ignore the numbering on the left hand side of the chart and knit from left to right. The written instructions however are wrong. They're written as if the pattern was knit flat. So if you do not knit from charts you're going to have a problem. I've contacted the designer about these issues.

Oh look, more yarn.

The Knittery Merino/Cashmere sock yarn, color Wonder, Dashing Dachs superwash merino, color Apple Snap, Zen Yarn Garden Merino/Nylon, color Dark Blush, and one skein of Berroco Sox, color #1476. All but the Berroco Sox came from Woolgirl.

I have a new sample knit I'm getting ready to start. As always I'll post pics when I can.

Need Some Sun!

When oh when are we ever going to see some sunshine. I hate cloudy, ugly days. They make for poor picture taking. Guess I'm going to have to break down and make/buy a light tent for photo taking.

I started the Rattlesnake Creek socks the other day. I finished one sock last night and have started the second one.



This is a shot of the first sock I took the other day and it isn't all that great due to lack of natural light. The second sock is almost to this point. I may be cutting it kinda close with these socks. The leftover ball weighs about 8 grams more then the first sock. There isn't going to be much yarn leftover.

Kaity turned 7 yesterday. It's amazing how fast the time flies.



We decided to let her open the gifts we bought her instead of making her wait until her party which isn't until next week.

Yesterday we took Kaity out to spend some of her birthday money. She bought a sidewalk chalk rake and sidewalk super brush & paint by Crayola and I managed to find yarn.



The two skeins of Bernat Softee Baby were bought to make the bear out of this booklet. I'm going to make one for Bree and one for my nephew. The two skeins of Patons Decor are to make some more fingerless mitts for my mom. We also went to Ben Franklin Crafts to check out their yarn selection. It isn't too bad. It is going to be my new place for buying dishcloth cotton. They have a very nice selection of Sugar N Cream to include the stripe yarns and twists. The two skeins of red Bernat Handicrafter are for Kaity. She wants me to make a blanket for her beanie babies. It's the Holiday Sparkle stuff so it has the metallic stripe in it. Guess the beanies need a blankie with some bling.

We bought another play yard to give the girls more room to play and added more plastic balls to the ball house.



As you can see they have lots more play room. Happy kiddos = happy mommy!

And since I haven't post a pic of the goofy mutts in awhile.



I took this one of zeus while I was playing with him. He loves to growl and bark at me. He's so scary for a 7 pound poodle....well he thinks he's scary.

Anyone else have a dog that lays like this?



Shadow loves to sleep with all her paws sticking out. How in the world could that possibly be comfy.

I want to make A Good Stripe Dress from the Spring 08 Interweave Knits mag. It calls for Louet Euroflax Sport...yeah right, don't think so. I'm not willing to spend $95 to make a dress for my daughter. I'm thinking of subbing the Euroflax with Knit Picks Shine Sport making the cost about $37.

Feelin' Better

My knee is starting to feel better. It isn't tender anymore and it's only swelling now if I'm on my feet for too long. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things but it's slow going when I constantly have to take breaks. Still no spinning. I'm giving my knee a little more time before I start peddling.

I do have a few things to show you. I received these in the mail on Saturday.



I had a $25 credit at TLE so I decided to pick up the red canvas bag (sold out again) and Little Loopy.

Isn't Little Loopy cute!! I still have the bag but Bree stole Little Loopy away from me and renamed him Pie. She calls all lambs "Pie". It's short for Lambie Pie which is what we called the first lamb we gave her. She's fascinated with his movable arms and legs. So the next time I order I'll have to buy a new Little Loopy for myself.

I finished Kaity's mittens.



I didn't have much left to knit to finish them but always found other things to knit. Next time I'm going use a provisional cast on to make things easier.

I just looked at the list of my WIPs on Ravelry and noticed that I only have 5 projects. It's been awhile since I had so few WIPs.

I also finished the Cross-Stitch Block socks.



I'm still waiting for sunshine to get a better shot. Kaity fell in love with this colorway so I'm going to order a skein this payday to make her some socks for her birthday. It will be a late birthday gift but she knows about it and I'm going to let her pick out a pattern.

I'm starting another pair of socks for myself using some blue & Green Cherry Tree Hill potluck supersock (flickr link) that I bought from The Yarn Shoppe way long ago before I had a stash. Actually this yarn was the start of my sock yarn stash. The pattern I'm using is Rattlesnake Creek Socks (Rav link)(pdf link).

Knitting, No Spinning

I haven't been able to spin these last few days. Some how I managed to mess up my knee. I can hardly put pressure on it or bend it so pushing the peddle on my wheel is out of the question. I may need to go to the doc if it doesn't start feeling better in the next few days.

Since all I could do was sit on my butt these last few days I managed to finish my Cable Rib Socks from Favorite Socks.



The yarn is Knit Picks Felici, color Arugala. These were a quick knit. It took me a few days per sock. The Felici is really soft and pleasant to work with. I didn't find any knots. If you like to match up stripes on your socks when using self striping yarn you may go a little crazy with this yarn. It's tough to figure out the patten repeat. I tried to match them up but decided it wasn't worth the loss of my sanity.

I also started the second Cross-Stitch Block sock using the Madelinetosh sock yarn, color Umoja.

Jen sent the sock back so I could finish the pair. I'm working on the gusset decreases right now. After these socks are finished I'll get a good pic of them when the sun is out and shinning.

Yarn in the mail. I received this from Jen Saturday.



Smooshy sock, color: Blue Lagoon.....I'm addicted to this stuff. The other skein is IN-SYNC sock yarn from Zen Yarn Garden, color Island Ruby.

I have another skein of yarn from Jen to knit a sample. I'm very much looking forward to starting and probably will either tonight or tomorrow.

Now it's time for me to get Bree some lunch so I can get her down for a nap. She's extremely fussy today.