Revealing Thank You

I received my final package from my SP9 pal, Pamela! She has been so generous, 'm really speechless type-less. I just had to nominate her for best SP.
And now, the haul.

This book is awesome. I actually don't have it because a woman in my office, who's a new knitter, asked to borrow it and I'm an enabler...or a pusher, I haven't decided.


Paper products galore! A narrow journal, perfect for the knitting bag, much needed nail files, a Cinderella journal that I'm sure Elah will claim, so cool Tinker Bell clips that will make great book marks an a pad of sticky notes.


Two balls of Sorbé (I'm percolating some ideas for this unique yarn), some size 2 wooden needles (perfect for socks!), a skein of some On Line sock yarn (may be destined for my daughter's teacher) and, what every knitter needs, a portable, wooden massage roller (perfect for shoulders) in a super cute bag.

Pamela, seriously, thank you so much. I decided a while ago that this would be my last SP for the tim being and this was a perfect way to go out. I have truly enjoyed being spoiled by you.

Huh...

Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything -- anything -- be more ridiculous? And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in.
-Sam Harris, author (1967- )

Cloche deux Bois

Here's Elah's hat again; this time with the proper model.


And I couldn't resist making one for myself.


Pattern: Cloche du Bois
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky
Colors: Oatmeal (hat), Oatmeal overdyed with Cherry Kool-Aid (flower)
Needles: US10 1/2, bamboo; straights, circs and DPN
Time to complete: A couple of hours
Modifications: I used a different yarn and made a different size so my cast on number was different but other than that, none.

Cloche du Bois

I made this hat this weekend for Elah. She wasn't around so Ron kindly modeled for me.

Pattern: Cloche du Bois
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky (hat). Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora (flower)
Colors: Oatmeal overdyed with Cherry Kool-Aid (hat), 18 (flower)
Needles: US10 1/2, bamboo; straights, circs and DPN
Time to complete: A couple of hours
Modifications: I used a different yarn and made a different size so my cast on number was different but other than that, none.

Socks!

Remember this awesome yarn from my Secret Pal? Well, I used it to knit up a Mata Hari sock. The yarn is a dream to knit with and I can't wait to get the second sock done. The pattern is simple enough to help me get all zen but interesting enough to not be boring. Thank you again, Secret Pal, I love it!


Sorry for the poor photo quality; we've been starved for natural light lately.

I've also been working on a pair of house socks for Elah. Her slippers are uncomfortable so I thought a pair of quick socks knit up in Cascade 220 would be the perfect replacement. It's also nice to be working on something that knits up so quickly.


Yes, my 6 year old has ginormous feet.

Recipe For A Kool Night

1. Gather your ingredients.


2. Find a good helper


3. Watch your helper ham it up for the camera.


4. Watch that your helper doesn't help herself to the camera when you're not looking (though she does take a decent yarn shot).



5. Wash, rinse...


6. Repeat



The yarn, the Kool-Aid and some size 11 needles were a Solstice gift to Elah this (last) year. She picked the colors for our Kool-Aid dyeing; we used 2 packets of Strawberry, 2 packets of grape and, for the turquoise, one packet of arctic green apple and one packet of berry blue. We followed the tutorial on Knitty, microwave method. Elah plans to knit a hat.

Happy (late) Solstice!

Hand Sewn, or why I knit

See that stitching? That's why I don't sew. Oh, and also because I hate it. I envy people who love to sew and can create beautiful garments in an afternoon (you should see the gems my friend Marianne makes) but I can't stand it.



What's that? Yes, it's another finished holiday knit! This is the Child's Rainbow Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. This scarf is for my step-mom.


There's no natural light at 3am.

Pattern: Child's Rainbow Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Noro Kureyon
Colors: 2 balls of 102, 1 ball each of 194 & 148
Needles: US9, bamboo
Time to complete: About a week or so
Modifications: I cast on 47 stitches instead of 23 and used 4 ball of yarn instead of 2. I don't know how long it is, I just knit until I ran out of yarn.



This is why I love my landlord. Another reason is that when he came to change the batteries in all the smoke detectors (!), he brought his son, Diego, so I could see the sweater I'd made on a real live by. The first picture isn't the best of the boys but the sweater looks great...







And last but not least I had to show you the stitch markers I purchased for my Yarn Aboard pal. Mostly because I want to keep them but if I show them to you then I'll have to send them. They're from a Girl Gone Mod over at Ewe Hoo!



I lied about the last comment before. It's finally snowing! Not dusting, light sprinkle, doesn't want to stick around snow but honest to goodness winter time in Vermont snow. I'm excited now but it'll wear off as soon as I have to go dig my car out. Scout knows what I'm talkin' about.

Yarn Aboard!

Leif Erikson is here! The Yarn Aboard package made it's way to my house and it was filled with goodies from Manda.



Leif started in Louisiana and has travelled as far as Iceland.



Can you imagine how excited I was when I opened the box to find this?



Here we have super yummy peppermint bark (already gone), homemade stitch markers, needle holders, a black sheep tape measure, two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Somerset, a whopping skein of Trekking XXL in color 134 and last, but not least, a reindeer with peppermint candies for my daughter.



You need a close up of these beautiful handmade stitch markers from Manda.



I am so amazed by this thoughtful package. Elah was so excited that there was something in one of my secret pal packages for her; she's been sleeping with the reindeer and refusing to eat the candy because she wants to save it. Manda also sent me the lovely red card you see in the previous post and a picture of a building in Dallas. Thank you.

I have almost everything I want to put into the box for the next recipient. Next stop - Brooklyn!

SP Thank You

As I mentioned in my previous post, I received a package from my SP and the Yarn Aboard package on the same day. These are the two cards I found in the packages; the blue one is from my SP.

I've always been lucky with the SPs I've been paired with and this round is no exception. I don't know much about her, except that she's in Florida (hey, I'll be there in Feb/March!), and that she is extremely generous and thoughtful.


Here you see two yarns, Butterfly mercerized cotton and Katia Sevilla, two tree ornaments (my daughter was thrilled), a snowman notepad, snowman playing cards, letter E post-it notes, and a mystery pink bag.


Look, Knitting Nature! I am super excited about this book and think I'll make the mittens first. She also sent some cute note cards, a patter for those two yarns in the previous picture, and, mystery revealed, the pink bag is for storing needles.

I love everything in this package! I'm excited about the yarn and pattern she sent me as it's something I would not choose for myself; in my experience those are some of the best projects. A special thank you to my SP for yet another thoughtful, beautiful package and a thank you too to her ten year old boy who packaged it up for me.

Happy to Christmas to those who are celebrating. I'm piking Elah up from her dad's at one and we're driving to upstate NY to visit my dad, brother and sister. We'll have our holiday celebration with my mom, step-mom, sister (again) and cousin on January 6th. The nice thing about doing it late is that I have time to finish my knitting.

Awesome!

Today is awesome! I just went to my post office because I haven't checked mt mail in a couple of days. Imagine my excitement when I found that there were three packages awaiting me. I received a package from my Secret Pal, one from Yarn Aboard and one from my father and stepmother in Idaho. I'll be taking some pictures later and posting all about it. Needles to say I spent most of my morning at work opening presents.

Colorwork

So, as you may know I joined my first KAL. I started with the Norwegian mitten pattern from EZ's Knitter's Almanac, using Knit Picks Telemark. The first mitten is OK but there were some things I learned along the way and some changes I wanted to make. I rewrote the pattern a little so that the thumb come from the side of the mitten rather than the palm and changed my color scheme. Don't get me wrong, I liked the old colors but my cousin is a HUGE LSU fan and I think he'd rather have a completely different color scheme rather than one that was kinda like LSU's.

The old mitten (the color is most accurate in the cuff picture):




The new mitten:





Holiday knitting would go much faster if I'd stop miking myself socks... I just cast on for Monkey.

Rainbow Brite

Remember when I started these? Well, a desire to ignore my holiday knitting and watching Reba burn though a pair of awesome socks made me want to pick them up again.



Pattern: Standard toe up, short row sock.
Yarn: Regia Nation, 2 skeins (I still have one left for Elah's socks)
Color: Fun
Source: Somewhere on the interwebs
Needles: USo Addi Turbo, US1 Inox Grey, US3 Addi Turbo
Time to complete: 3 months



A note about the needle sizes used: I knit two socks at once on a long US1 circ then did the ribbing, one sock at a time, on two US0 circs. I used the US3 for my cast off.

A note about toe up: I used the Turkish toe up found at misocrafty. She also has some other great sock knitting resources.

I love these socks and I am totally wearing them to work tomorrow. Soon I'll have some info about the colorwork KAL I joined and my lack of holiday knitting progress.

You Will Be Mine

I saw these over at Cara's and I am in love. These are my favorites:
Mr Mummy
Jo Ninja
Judo Sensei
Lover Boy
The Zombie
Sid
Monkey King
Ronin
Scarface
Safety Boy
Cave Boy
Samurai
Witchy Woman

Like I need more kitsch but it can't be helped.

Happy Birthday to Me

Your Birthdate: November 30

You have the type of personality that people either love or hate.
You're opinionated, dramatic, intense, and very outspoken.
And some people can't get enough of you - they're totally addicted.
Others, well, they wish you were a little more reserved.

Your strength: Your flair

Your weakness: If you think it, you say it

Your power color: Scarlet red

Your power symbol: Inverted triangle

Your power month: March
What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

I woke up this morning and found this on the computer. That Grayson sure is sweet. Note that he used the ESPN font; he cannot leave sports alone for even two minutes.

Huh?

Tis makes me so confused. I found these ladies sprites on myspace, I don't know what to do with this new found knowledge. I might have to reexamine how I make fun of renaissance fairs.

This Sucks

Thank You, Part Deux

How effing awesome is that? I got another package from my Secret Pal (so soon after the first!). This one was so fun because everything was individually wrapped, it was like Christmas time. The clouds even parted for a few brief moments so I could photograph everything.


Here's what we've got: A lovely card Honestly, the hand written notes might be my favorite part), Gloves In A Bottle (which I've already used multiple time this weekend), a Burt's Bees Tips & Toes kit, Lovely blank note cards, a felted hot pad pattern (yes, SP, I do like to felt!), a Clover yarn cutter pendant, a skein of Lamb's Pride Burly Spun (in my favorite color),
Vogue Knitting's Stichionary 2 (now I have all 3, see below)
and some black and orange tea lights. I love knitting books, some might say it's unhealthy, I say that when I die every knitter in town will love me because they'll all go straight to the library. I am so excited about the Stitchionary, I've poured over a few time already.

This package was so fun! (I've got to lay off the exclamation points) The felted hot pad pattern calls for the burly spun but I might want to use this skein as the starting point for that jacked from Vogue Knitting (winter 04/05) I've been wanting to make ...

What's Up?

Here's a little knitting update for you. I can't stop buying books.

I also have two more on the way, Magnificent Mittens and Sweater Workshop. Seriously, my books are starting to compete for space with my yarn. I don't know what to do, I feel like I'm torn between my two favorite children...

I've also been trying to practice my color work (with a color in each hand) since I've never done it before and I want to make Grayson a pair of Komi mittens for Solstice. The following examples are with Telemark. First I made a felted java jacket (the second picture has the most accurate color).



And for a swatch I made a mini-thumbless-mitten.


I like the yarn (not the color combo) but I might want to use a yarn that's a little finer. My gauge was 6 sts/1 in and I'd like it to be at least 8.

I also made this hat (wool/angora) for Elah earlier in the fall. It made from yarn by a local hand spinner. I actually saw her today at the big local craft fair and while I didn't buy any yarn I did buy a spectacular green Tara (pics soon).


Finally a picture of the stalled Print O' The Wave stole. Catherine's birthday is in February so I think that's when she'll get the stole. I think I'll make her a pair of Fetching for Solstice. The yarn is Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor.