Thankful

Itty Bitty Hats

I save the left overs from socks. In the back of my mind I thought that some day I would turn all those tiny balls of sock yarn into a blanket or something. Not long ago that thought came to the front of my mind and got bitch slapped by my common sense. Long ago I swore off projects made up of little squares due to the mind numbing number of ends that leaves to weave in.

About this same time, some dear friends had their second child arrive almost 4 weeks early. A new purpose was born, and bit by bit my sock remnants are becoming sweet wee hats.

New Socks

I've been pretty consistent with the sock knitting, both for myself and the hubby. Evidently I've been less consistent about blogging the results. This pair has taken a while to finish as I was distracted by shawls and baby blankies and other shiny things. I have already cast on my next pair, and hopefully will do a netter job of posting pics when I finish them.

2 of 6

I'm 2 for 2! This is the second installment of the Mean Girls Yarn Club, Episode 2. The colorway is called Totally Wicked, and I have chosen the Sockhead Hat pattern. Not exactly a pointy witch hat, but it should bring nice color to a gray northwest winter.

Dynamic Duo Mitts

I got these done before vacation, but there was no time to photograph them. My step-daughter is a trumpet player in her high school marching band. These should help keep her warm and let her play at those chilly football games.

Aloha

There was a plane ride, there was knitting. Now there is much fun and sun but not much knitting. Luckily I have another plane ride coming up...

Bitter Hoar

She is finished! And just in time for the next shipment to arrive.

Circle of Life Shawl

Finished!

I love this shawl, but it is hard to get a good picture of it. So here is my best effort so far.

1 of 6.

This is the first installment of the Mean Girls Yarn Club, Episode 2. The colorway is called Hoar Frost, and I've chosen the Bitterrooot pattern. My Bitter Hoar will have icy looking beads, but should keep me nice and warm come winter. My plan is to actually choose a pattern and knit with all the club yarn this year. My track record is crap. We will see when the dust settles how many projects get completed, but I'm hopeful.

Who's Driving?

New Blankie

A friend just found out that the baby due in November is a girl! Clearly my next stop was the yarn store. Ok, maybe not quite the next stop, but I didn't waste much time. This is my favorite combination of Pagewood Farm's Denali sock yarn (in Orange Spice) and La's Ondas pattern. This is my 4th one in 3 years. Don't bother me, I'm counting...

New Lace

Of course it looks like crap now, and is terrible to photograph, but
this is going to be lovely when finished. It is the Circle of Life
Shawl. I picked up the pattern on the LYS Tour last weekend, and
pulled the yarn out of my stash. Love Love Love!

Is This A Problem?

How did this happen? Did I get suddenly stressed out between socks?I
can tell you that I cast on the second sock as soon as I finished the
first one. There was no lag time. Same yarn, same needles, same
knitter, same day. Yet the second cuff is totally lacking the lovely
stripes I got the first time. WTF? These are hubby socks and he may
not care. I would frog and do-over if they were for me. Sigh.

My Sweater Issue

I just bought yarn for a sweater. This may not really be an issue, but it got me thinking about how many times I've done this compared to how many finished sweaters I have in the closet. The answers respectively are 8 and 1. Also, the one finished sweater is too big and I can't really wear it. In the spirit of full disclosure, and in a hope that said disclosure will inspire me to actually finish a wearable sweater, here is my list...

1. Peace Fleece - Lena's Grasshopper color way. I did knit all the pieces of the Everyday Cardigan, but when I started sewing it up I realized that the shape wasn't good for me and the sleeves were too tight at the cuff and huge at the shoulder. My plan is to frog this and choose a different pattern.
2. Dream in Color Classy - Wisterious color way. I started the February Lady Sweater out of this and I intend to finish it. I put it down last summer when the weather was heading into triple digits. Since last summer I have lost 25 pounds and I am sure I will have to frog this and start over with a smaller size.
3. Knit Picks Vest Kit. It was on sale. In my defense, it is a stranded knitting project and I want to use it as my practice project for honing my stranded technique and as my first ever adventure in steeking.
4. Kauni - I don't remember what color it is, but it's in shades of wines and violets. I haven't picked a pattern for it yet, but it will be stranded and I'm a little intimidated. The yarn was on sale last May during the LYS Tour. Every so often I pull it out just to smell it. What?
5. Philosopher's Wool Kit - OMG this is so awesome! My MIL has a friend who had decided that she had too many hobbies and needed to cut back. Quilting won out over knitting so she was giving everything away. Most of it went to charity, but she had some stuff she thought would bring in some money at the Rotary auction. I got a call asking if I knew what this Philosopher's Wool thing was and did I want it? I may have actually danced right there on the phone. My MIL said she would rather give it to me and know it was well appreciated than have someone bid $5.00 on it in the silent auction. SCORE! Again, I'm totally excited, but intimidated by the scope of this project.
6. Kathmandu Aran - a wine colored tweed. This is the new stuff and it will become Tribeca as soon as I get the rest of it and do a swatch.
7. Lavendar cotton - I don't remember what brand it is let alone a color way. I received half this yarn at a guild holiday party a couple years ago, and traded another member for the other half. I haven't picked a pattern for this yet.
8. Ok, the one I finished is a top down v-neck cardi out of an organic cotton. The problem is that I made it too big. And then I lost a bunch of weight. Now it is like a tent on me, and I don't like it. I love the yarn and the pattern and the buttons and everything, so I am going to have to remake it in a smaller size. The down side is that I don't have any of those other sweaters to wear. Until I finish one of these other things I'm going to leave the much loved but unwearable sweater in the closet.

So that's my sweater saga. Hopefully soon I'll have some progress and success to report. Wish me luck!

Lunch Break Shopping

This book actually arrived on my Kindle iPhone app last night at midnight. I know this because I waited to see if my pre-order would do that. Since it did, I felt obligated to take a look, and before I knew it I was up to chapter 4 and it was way past my bedtime! Today I was thinking that should I ever meet Rachael Herron in person I would like her to sign a copy of her book, and that's really hard with a Kindle version. So I went in search of the real thing in the wild. Also, there may be a contest...

Knitters Rock!

Money raised for Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross.

Vacation!

Vacation was excellent! It was really great to be able to spend a week with the people I most enjoy spending time with. I played games, read a book, and knit most of a sock. The best part was the laughing. I laughed every day. There truly is no better way to recharge your batteries.