After some careful hinting, my brother did SO WELL at picking out a b-day gift!! Congrats, Dook. You're good. 
He also got me a gift certificate to Charlotte Yarn!! Woah! Super. So did Mom! The girls at the shop were so jealous.
Knitting
Crankin' out some knits
I finished another Baby Fruit Cap by Ann Norling for a work friend whose granddaughter was born in December. Yeah, December. I am perpetually behind. Well, it's better late than never, just like mom always says. I really do try. Really. Project started November/December 2007, hibernated for three months or so, then finished (in one day!!) in March 2008.
These damn things are so cute I can't stand it.
I cast on for the Hourglass Sweater last night. Hopefully it will not go the way of my Flair or my Somewhat Cowl... That is, I hope I actually finish this one.
I love the yarn so much! Love it. When mom gave it to me during my summer visit, I wasn't quite sure about it, but now I know I love it. What an awesome yarn. Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed. Go and get some.
The color was hard to photograph... It's like a brown/purple with some flecks of blue and brighter purple and black. Love it. MMMMMM, silk.
I was accosted yesterday at Charlotte Yarn by an online friend I've never met before! She grabbed my Juliet sweater right off my back and tried it on! Haha She's knitting one too. So good to meet you, CrimsonPurl!
Got so many compliments on the Juliet yesterday. Wheeeee! Love it.
Girl in Target: "Wow! that's a great top. Where did you find it??"
Me: "Oh, hmmph. I made this!" (Squeeel!)
Girl: "Wow! Are you serious? You should open up your own shop! How long did it take you to make it?"
Me: "Oh, hmmph. A couple of weeks."
Girl: "That's awesome. How long have you been knitting?"
Me: "A couple of years."
Girl: "Wow. I would totally buy that."
We talked about knitting and how it's easy to teach yourself, etc. I told her about Charlotte Yarn and encouraged her to got there and become addicted to knitting. I just might have convinced her. She loved the sweater. :) Made me feel so good! I skipped out of Target all the way to the car and tried not to spill my latte on the Juliet. Word.
It was a bowling ball!
...and it is PINK!
I am pumped about the new ball! I can easily say that I've been wanting it since well before Christmas--perhaps even the end of last summer. Can't say it will make me bowl any better (high score = 125) but at least I will have a pink ball of my own! :) Now we see why I was not allowed to touch the box...
P.S. I almost bowled a turkey on my B-day when we went. Strike, Strike (GASP), Spare. Boo. Next time.
Birthday Girl
I woke up to breakfast in bed. Wow! I did not expect it. :) B is so good to me. There's a really big box I've been dying to shake--it's sitting on the kitchen table toying with me and begging me to poke at it or something... B made me swear I wouldn't touch it and Phil has been babysitting me anytime I come near it.
A little catch-up on some knitting... I've taken a breather from the squares again. I need some in-betweeners every now and then (Knitting ADD? Yes.) I completed a wash rag (I just can't call them WARSH rags--sorry Ann and Kay) about a week ago and decided I needed another one since that one came out so nicely. I think B threw out my multi-colored one when we moved because I washed the car with it and he didn't deem it worthy of bringing back in the house. Whatever. It was nice and faded and USED and I miss it now. Life goes on, I guess. I'll use this one just as much!
More birthday stuff later. :) Oh god, what will the thirties bring?
Rainbow
I thought I would squeeze in a quick view of the yarn rainbow which resides in the house:
Back to knitting the squares for the mitered square afghan... I think there's about 28-40 more to do! I still haven't decided how big I'm going to make it. I thought I would go about 48 squares, but some say I should do three times what I already have. This will make it big enough to cover extra-cold feet, I suppose.
I have finished three new squares this week. Peek here for progress before the move. Thanks for looking!
P.S. Has anyone seen Roosevelt? I can't find him anywhere... ;)
Juliet
Juliet is finished!
Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece 4.75 skeins
Size Small
I loved working on this pattern. The only thing I changed about the pattern is the button placement. I think overlapping it a little made it fit better. Maybe I should have made the smaller size? As the project progressed, though, I was so AFRAID it would be too small when it was done. I was wrong.
I love the finished product! I wore it to dinner last night. : ) So happy I finally made a wearable knitted garment that's not an accessory!
Yummy! and a knitting update
Wow, it's really been a while.
Happy New Year! Well, we didn't get to see the ball drop this year, due to a bad call on my part to NOT get any cable hookup in the new place... But we did *narrowly* get in our greens, beans, and rice before midnight on New Year's Day. (funny story. I'll have to tell it one day.)
I love being back home. Work is fine, but the work space at home needs a little help. I've arranged it and rearranged it and I still am left with a bit of an empty but cluttered feeling. Hopefully some stroke of genius will hit me soon because this shit sucks. All of my supplies are tucked here and piled there in random but plotted spots, and it just is not working out. Still feels like we're not 100% moved in, even though everything is unpacked!
I've been working a LOOOOOOT. Working for a living, that is--not working on knitting or sewing projects. Hopefully that will change soon, too. When I was moving out of hell island in the stinky south, six days a week sounded like a piece of cake but when reality sets in, six days is one day too much. I can't get anything in my real life done. Things are going great at work, though, because I'm ...always...freakin'...there!
I've sewn some coasters since I've been in the new place. Coasters?? WTF. Nothing big. Nothing particularly good. In an attempt to take it all back, I've worked in a couple of quickie knitting patterns to keep me going. I'm about 98% finished with the fingerless mitts from Yarn Girls' newest book (I think the pattern's called Dori's a Genius--check it on Ravelry), and I've got a nice start on Juliet. To prove I'm really a trooper, here's evidence of knitting.
One fingerless mitt made of double-stranded Koigu on size 9s, and my Juliet progress is the backdrop. The other mitt is finished, all except for the quick side seam. I like this pattern, but I think next time--if there is a next time--I will make them on size 8s instead. I might try them on dpns, too.
I'm about five rows short of being finished with the bust. This garter stitch seems to be taking forever. I worked it about eight rows in and had to frog because I got lost with the increases in the sea of garter... So I would have been starting the body of the sweater tonight if I hadn't done that! Boo.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Alpaca! How could I leave out the alpaca?? Blue Sky Alpacas 100% Alpaca for only $5 a skein at purlsoho.com!!! Woweee! It came tonight! Woo hoo! I feel like I just robbed someone. So soft! Yummy, yummy.
Oh, how I love knitting! And the mail! And PURL!
Empty Needles Syndrome
I've got lots of yarn and lots of ideas. I'm usually a pretty resourceful person...
Why can't I decide what to start? Or in some cases, finish?
Any ideas? I might be tapped out for now. Guess I might go start another square for the MDK mitered square blanket. By my estimations, I should have been done a month ago! Silly me... Only 26 more to go... :)
Punkins and a Punkin-ish Hat
Happy Halloween was a bust at our house because we only had a few trick-or-treaters and I had to work, of COURSE! However, the pumpkin carving was great! We even made Phil do one! Can you believe he's never carved a pumpkin at age 23?? Guess I can't talk, I was almost 20 when I carved my first one. Mom and dad, what do you have against carving pumpkins?
Hooray for finished objects! I finished another Ann Norling Pattern #10 hat for baby Audrey! :) This one will be to match her Bebe Dress I just finished last week! I really love these hats. :) I didn't realize until now how quickly they knit up! I started this only a day and a half ago. Her other one is getting a little too small, I hear....
Here's the hat. We were playing around with the new Cannon and I can't get the color saturation thing to go back to normal.... It looks cool, anyway.
Turquoise saturation:
And one with the yellow saturation:
I officially have empty needles. Oh, wait... There's still that Knit and Tonic "Flair" I started over a year ago. Wonder if I should pick that one back up? It sure would be satisfying to actually FINISH a sweater... Maybe.
Odessa Hat!
Hmmm... Let's see... I think I tried making this hat about a year and a half ago or more for the knitting olympics... (Actually, February 12, 2006, to be exact!) I was not so successful back then. I tried with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, then with Jo Sharp DK Wool something or other. It was a little too complicated for me at the time, I guess. Even this time, it gave me a little bit of trouble--well, okay, a lot of trouble--but now it's DONE.
I would have used the suggested yarn, but you guessed it: Island in the Stinky South doesn't have it. I used Rowan Wool Cotton instead. It's a great yarn. I got dangerously close to not having enough yarn. I used US 4 and US 6 needles and only had to switch to DPNs for the last two rows. I could have left out about three rows before the decrease section. It's just a little bit too big.
Small head? Not usually... haha... This hat still makes me happy, see?
Don't ya just hate it when you're knitting something in the round...something with yarn-overs and SSK's...and then you realize once you're about five rows into the decreases that you've dropped your place-marker????? And then, you realize that putting SSK's and YO's back on the needles is not an easy task, especially when it's in the round and you don't know where you're starting point might be?? Yeah, that's what happened to me. Be careful, folks. Be very careful. I started Odessa some time last month and almost finished it in a matter of three days or so. Once I screwed it up so bad, I frogged .the.whole.thing. and re-wound the ball. It's been on the needles ever since. But not now. :) I'm done.
My Dog Loves Yarn
Why does Roosevelt love sniffing my yarn basket?
Is he thinking, "Ah, what a fine selection of beautiful cotton?", or is he thinking, "When the hell is she going to finish this blankie? and Will she let me sleep on it?", or is he thinking, "I'd really like to peeps on this, but I know she will get REALLY mad....."?
It's so funny to watch him go over to that corner and just sit and stare at the yarn. Sometimes he sniffs, sometimes he pokes it with his nose, and sometimes he just looks at it. It's refreshing to see a young man (or in this case, a young dog) with such an affinity for quality fibers. What a smart boy.
Although, there was this one time he thought he was going on a beach trip with B and me... We came home to find in-progress Odessa lying delicately placed next to the basket and one skein of Brown Sheep Cotton half-way across the room. Nothing was damaged. He was just expressing his disapproval of not being invited this time. Or was he trying to knit?
B told him he wouldn't be able to save him when it comes to yarn.
Needs more granny square
Why can't I crochet?? It truely seems simple enough, but my stitches are too tight, I don't know where to stick the hook (usually not a problem for me--haha) and it just NEVER turns out right when I try.
I want a granny square blankie! Not fair at all.
Things are fine in the stinky south. Not really--they never are really fine here. But there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. We're in the single digits, baby! Only eight months left. Not counting the chickens before they hatch, but I JUST MIGHT get out of here sooner. For now, I'll just continue to enjoy the FEW things about this place that I truely do like. Sunsets are the No. 1 thing. I love to take pics of the sun setting over the stinky mainland while I'm driving home from work! This particular sunset was one of the very best I've seen. Quite amazing.
One more thing. While visiting mom and dad, I confiscated some koigu to make my mom these cute little mits. They were super fast to make and very easy! I think they only took me about three days to complete. I've never officially worked with koigu until now, and I am in LOVE. Yummy.
Back to Work
It was a wonderful few days off--much needed stress relief. Alas, I must return to hell--oops, I meant work. My stash has doubled in the last week, and we managed to get my mom's house (somewhat) unpacked and mildly organized. It was a good week. (Minus the two rainy days I got when I returned to the Island in the Stinky South--I wanted to go to the damn beach, damnit!) Looking forward to my next day off, as always, and definitely looking forward to my next week off, which just so HAPPENS to be next month! Yeah.
