Happy Halloween!

I know, I know....this post is a wee bit late. This evening was quite busy.

Kaity went as a witch.




I was rather surprised to see that she wanted to go as a witch. Normally she picks out something Princessy. Next year I'm going to make her costume. It's so much easier to customize to her size. I should have my sewing machine set up by that time.

Here's her pumpkin.




We used a glow stick because it was way to windy to try to keep a candle lit. When I asked why the pic was blurry I was told "Doesn't that look cool!" Who am I to argue.

I finished the Cabled Baby blankie tonight.




I kept it on the smaller side so it can be used in a car seat or stroller. I'll give it a bath tomorrow and probably ship it out here in the next week or so. The blanket unblocked is coming out about 25" wide x 28" long. I'll remeasure after it's been blocked tomorrow. I used almost 2 skeins of Cascade 220 superwash. I love this yarn and would use it again.

Well I'm outta here. I need to hop on over to Ravelry and try to find a dog sweater pattern for Zeus. I may just have to wing it since he's small and skinny.

Monday Updates

I haven't been doing a lot of knitting here lately. So much for Socktoberfest, all I've managed to do is knit one pair of socks the whole month.

I did finish up the sleeves on Bree's Kimono.




Look at all those pieces. Now I need to block it and seam all the pieces together. Oh joyous fun! I'll do that some time this week, unless the "Seaming Fairy" comes to visit and takes care of it for me.

I also worked on the Cabled Baby Blanket.




Everyone all at the same time "Ooooooh, aaaaaaah". The photos aren't overwhelmingly fascinating but the blanket is coming along nicely and is pretty cute! I need to get it finished, so this will be what I'm knitting on until it's finished. That makes for boring blogging so I probably won't post much until it's finished. I don't think it's going to take long if I'm knitting on it exclusively.

I've also decided to join The Sock Stash Elimination Campaign. While organizing all my stash, I decided that my sock yarn stash was getting a little crazy. Before I seen this out on Nell's blog, I'd already decided that my sock yarn stash needs to be culled down a little bit. The link helped me commit.

Check this neat little thing out.




And another shot.




My mom sent this to me quite some time ago. Its a small swift of some kind. She had gotten it from a lady that she was taking care of. The only thing it says is that it's made in Sweden. I wanted to show you all but it ended up being put away and I forgot about it. Shawn found it in a box this weekend.

I'm off to find some breakfast so I'll be ready to hop on the bike when Kaity leaves for school. I'm trying to squeeze in exercise time any chance I get.

Happy Knitting!

Forest Canopy, She is a Blockin'

This is photos of The Forest Canopy Shawl that I finished while we were staying in TLF.

I think it came out great. There was one small error that I found when I blocked the shawl.

There it is on the right side column of yarn overs....one yarn over went AWOL. Don't ask me how in the world I ended up missing a yarn over. It appears as if it got lost some how. Either way it's the only mistake and I love, love, love the shawl. It's so warm even though it is so holey.

I've been fairly busy these past few days. I'll have more updates and hopefully some good shots of the shawl by the end of the weekend.

On payday I'm finally going to order some of the worsted weight Malabrigo that everyone's been telling me I must try. I getting this color to make a scarf and hat for myself. I'm making the Koolhaas out of Interweave Knits Holiday 07 issue, pg 32.....though I know most of you have the mag and know exactly what I'm talking about. Who else out there total drools over Jared's designs (ok and a wee bit over Jared too)? I haven't decided on a scarf yet.  I may just go with a simple ribbing. Shoot I may go with something cabley. I'm craving cables and green yarn.

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A Knitters Meetup and the Loot

***Warning: long post with lots of pictures!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with a fellow knitter, Debbie who also lives here in Montana. Oh it was so wonderful to sit down and discuss knitting with another knitter. Sorry no pics, I was so excited to be meeting up with Debbie that I forgot the camera....bad bad blogger!

We met up at Barnes & Noble since Shawn would probably kill me if I came home with more yarn, not because I'd be coming home with more yarn but because it's getting close to Christmas time so the extra money needs to be set aside these next few paydays for Christmas shopping. I did come home with a few things though.




I picked up the Holiday 07 issue of Interweave Knits. There are several super cute things I would love to make out of there, specially that Ski Sweater....Yum! I even love the colors they used. I think I may be able to sub it with a Knit Picks yarn.....must do more research. I need to try my hand at a smaller colorwork knitting project before I dive into a sweater. I also picked up another Debbie Bliss baby book. Who can resist all those cute photos? The other thing is a book mark for me. I've vowed to start reading every night before I go to bed. It's been months since I picked up a book that wasn't full of knitting patterns.

I have the back and two front pieces done on the Baby Kimono for Bree.

I have the sleeves started but still have several inches and a lot of increases to do before I'm done. It shouldn't take long.

So I am knitting, but I haven't started a new pair of socks yet. I'm still bouncing back and forth between some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock and my Smooshy sock. Plus I really need to finish up a few projects before I start another one. The biggest project to finish is the Cabled Baby blanket.

Bree has a new place to play.

We had bounced around the idea of getting a big baby gate so that Bree could have the living room to play in. The gate was going to cost well over $100....ouch! We came across this play yard. We were sold after seeing the price ($49 with free shipping) and the reviews which were mostly excellent.

This play yard gives her tons of room plus it's much safer for her to play here because it is 100% baby proof. There is no way I could get my living room completely baby proof. The bonus is that Bree loves her new spot and will sit in there with her toys and play for quite some time.

The yarn room is set up.

Shot #1:

Drawers one and two are being used for my sock yarn. The third drawer is holding all my worsted weight wool and the fourth drawer is holding my single balls of yarn and my lace weight yarn.

Shot #2:

I now have plenty of room for my yarn. Up above the books is where my swift and ball winder sit. The shelf under the books is all my cotton yarns. I need to run out to Michaels so I can browse through their baskets. I want to get one to hold all the dishcloth cotton. Next to the shelf I have a small 4 drawer bin that use to sit next to my chair. That may move out to sit next to my chair when I get the last of the boxes unpacked. Next to that is a 6 drawer bin that holds my color cards, acrylic yarns, etc.

Well I'm outta here for now. It's almost time for Bree to get up and I have a few things to get done.

No Knitting, but a Question!

Somehow I managed to not knit one single stitch Sunday. Admittedly it was mostly due to the fact Bree was not feeling quite like herself and was a tad clingy. I don't know about you all but there is no way that I could knit with my 15 month old daughter sitting in my lap. She seems to be doing fine now but I'm still going to make an appointment with the doc. She's almost out of Prevacid plus I want to meet the pediatrician.

My only knitting content to this post is that I set up the yarn closet today....Yippy! So I have full access to my yarn and books. Woohoo Baby!

I'm blogging because I have a question to ask you all. It's non-knitting related. I'll get to the question in a second, I need to give a little background first.

So anyway, I was standing in the kitchen, listening to my iPod Mini, while getting the roast ready for the crockpot, dancing....badly I might add....I can't dance! Period! See I feel close enough to you all to admit that I can't dance. I got to thinking about the music I listen to and thought I'd ask you all this, Do you listen to just one type of music, ie Country, Oldies, R&B, Heavy Metal, etc or do you have an eclectic taste in music?

Yes, I have an iPod Mini....I have that exact green Mini in the link. The damn thing is like the energizer bunny, it keeps going and going. I've had it for around 3 years now and it's still going strong. Shoot it's a collectors item now. I'm holding out for the new iPod Nano (in Red) but haven't upgraded because the Mini is still working great. *sigh* If only I was a little less sensible.

My iPod has over 400 songs on it right now. Now most people who've looked at my playlist think I'm absolutely crazy.....which is fine with me! Who am I to quibble with someone over my craziness. I know I'm crazy, wait do crazy people know and admit they are crazy?...something to ponder.

I have Elvis, AC/DC, Metallic, Rascal Flatts, Dolly Pardon, The Temptations, Steve Miller Band, Ozzy and so on and so on. I also set my iPod to shuffle and let it go so I'll be listening to heavy metal one minute and country the next. Am I the only one who does this?

I have to ask, does anyone else smile when they hear "Don't Worry Be Happy"? I get completely relaxed and the stress just melts away when I listen to Enya. She has such a beautiful voice.

There are songs that bring back memories. Anytime I hear oldies I think of my dad and the complaints that were emitted from mine and my siblings mouths every time we rode in the car with dad....he always changed the channel! Classic country like Conway Twitty and George Jones make me think of my grandparent. My Grandpa loved The Corvette Song by George Jones.

I'm a child of the 80's so I have flashbacks of my childhood every time I here songs by The Bangles, Bon Jovi, Quiet Riot, Madonna, Whitesnake, etc. Ah, the memories of childhood. Though I think I'd rather forget about the clothes I wore. Ack, what was I thinking! Plus I think that all the hairspray I put in my hair may have made the hole in the ozone bigger.

"Have a lovely day", says the crazy person sitting behind the computer at 1:30am listening to Everyday by Buddy Holly after listening to Maria Maria by Santana, when she should be in bed sleeping.....6:15 am is going to be here real soon!

New Knitting Pattern

I somewhat blocked and took photos of the Granite Dishcloth.




I think they came out fine. If you want the pattern it's in the free pattern section here on the blog.

I finished the updated Playground Mitten last night watching Transformers...yes, Shawn bought the Target exclusive transforming DVD case.

Right now the mitt is being blocked. I think I solved the curling issue. It occurred to me that even with a looser bind off that stockinette will probably still curl. I changed that small portion of the mitt to k1, p1 ribbing for a few rows before the bind off and voila no curling. Ain't I smart one!

October's installment of the Booty Club by Yarn Pirate.....Killer Bees and yes it really is that bright in person.....I love it!

I'm sure that it's safe to post this. I've seen posts all over blogland now. I've yet to figure out how to put up a spoiler alert. If someone knows how to do it could you please pass on the knowledge to me....pretty please!

This time around we received size US1 and US2 needles....they are pink! They say that they are 24" circs but they are much longer then that. I think the cable is 24" not including the needle length. I'll be able to Magic Loop with them.

If everything goes right I should be able to block my Forest Canopy Shawl on Monday. The poor things been done for weeks but I haven't had the time or resources to block it. So hopefully I'll have some updated pics by the end of the week. No promises because the weather changes frequently. Like today, we had sun this morning and it's been gorgeous up until about 10 minutes ago when it started getting overcast.

Once again I'm off to go feed the masses. I've given up on talking them out of eating, so I'm off to cook them chicken. Happy Knitting Everyone!

Bad Mittens, No Biscuit!

Yesterday I finished up the first Playground Mitten but it's not playing nice so the second one has been put into timeout.




When I bound off the 12 stitches on the palm I think it was done to tightly because it's curling. I need to fix that. Plus I think the little flap covering the hole is to short and it doesn't lay flat....need to fix that too. I also need to knit about 2-3 more rounds in the thumb. The thumb actually fits snuggly but I want to leave a tad bit of wiggle room. Other then that the mitten came out great. Opinions on how to fix the palm and flap are always welcome....throw them my way if you want.

So while the mitten was sitting in timeout, I went back to the Baby Kimono.




I finished up the back last night and should be able to cast on the front pieces later this afternoon after I get a few boxes unpacked. The two front pieces are worked together at the same time and I'm going to work the sleeves that way too. For some reason the pattern has the front pieces being worked together but not the sleeves. It's a typical sleeve pattern that gives you the pattern then tells you to make two. Guess that was too much work to throw in those few extra words. So I'm taking the initiative and making them both at the same time. No point in having mismatched sleeves.

I'm still undecided on what sock pattern I'm going to knit next. I'm feeling like cables right now so chances are it will be a cabled sock out of SKS. I'll probably use my DIC smooshy sock that I got from Sheri a few weeks back. The Twisted Flower sock that I started before the move is going to be ripped. I'll reknit it later. It's sat on the needles for two long, plus it was a tad snug. I need to figure out a way around that because it looked like crud when I tried knitting it on the next needle size up. I may have to use a different yarn, something a tad thicker then the Louet Gems and use the Gems for something else.

I also worked on the Cabled baby blanket but I didn't take a pic because there's not that much change from the last pic other then several more rows of pattern. I finally hit the end of the first ball of Cascade 220 superwash. I thought that thing was going to last forever. Out of the first ball of yarn I managed to get the 15 rows of garter stitch border and 11 pattern repeats for a grand total of about 12 inches of baby blanket. The blanket, unblocked is about 25 inches wide. I threw a swatch in with Bree's clothes yesterday when I was doing the laundry and it washed and dried beautifully. I dry all of Bree's stuff on low.

I'm outta here for now. For some reason the kids seem to think they need lunch. There's no school for Kaity for today and tomorrow so she's home too. Guess I'd better go feed them!