a semi-productive day

well, i did repeat #8 while watching Everwood tonight. i really love that show. still no pictures. i had lots of sun this afternoon, but the picture looked washed out. is it the fiber content or the color itself difficult to capture? hopefully it will look okay in the FO picture.

was going to finish a felted purse today, but cannot for the life of me find the pattern. hmmmmm.

but i went to the post office. one of my school books sold on half.com, i sent a little somethin' somethin' to my SP, did an RAK to someone very deserving, and also sent out a swap. i love how knitty is enriching my life. it feels so great to give to others. i just love reading the SP thread. granted i do enjoy getting gifts, but it is so fun to see what everyone else gets and also the RAK...what a grand idea! it's fun to brighten others' day.

sorry, no pictures...

but clapotis now has 7 repeats. i doubt i will do 12. that may be too long!! we will see. pics soon, i promise. i will work on Mariah more too!

Clapotis is so much fun!

after dropping down and fixing a ridiculous amount of stitches on Mariah, it is a pleasure to do so on Clapotis. this picture is pretty dark, but with flash it was washed out. when it is complete, i promise to go stand outside in the snow and have someone snap a pic. cuz this is my birthday present to myself as the color goes perfectly with a dress i will wear if i go out for a nice dinner LOL hoping that i do. got lots of plans! it's the big 2-1!! yay! february 7th. not much time to go til i am legal! here she is after five repeats of the straightaway:

now wish me luck as i am off to call brandon, that boy i have been talking about on the boards and boring my friends to tears with, i'm sure LOL i don't care the outcome, i insist. i just wanna get it outta my mind

Clapotis!

I finally sat down and finished the scarf out of Gedifra Gigante. I now have an actual matching set, all of my own creation. no patterns! go me go :) i love the color combo of natural and burnt orange. don't mind the pjs i am wearing at noon. LOL

And since I finished that, I am rewarding myself with Clapotis! yay! It is in a pretty purple. It's Red Heart. I know some of you are staring slack jawed at that fact right now. This is Red Heart Plush. It's 80 acrylic and 20 nylon. i'm liking the feel of it, and it should be warm! so very soft and i love the color. i have two skeins, so we'll see how long it becomes. will just do about half with the first skein since i know i have a slightly larger gauage than called for.



I am also happy to be using a boye circ, as i needed a break from the denises. these have very nice points!

that is it for now. it was so nice today to just knit. i only worked a four-hour night shift, so i knit the first two sections of Clapotis alllll day :) hence the pjs at lunch time LOL

Mariah is growing!

Ah. i have prevailed. repeat one done. still pondering how to get enough stitches in before i run out of room since, like most everyone, i am shorting the sleeves compared to the pattern. currently at 74 stitches, need 98, 10 inches down, 10 more to go...no matter what i try i cannot get this in focus, but you can see it is longer:

Even though i have too many things started, and i am running out of Denise cables, i really really want to start on Clapotis so i can have a lovely wrap to wear over my pjs when i am shivering at the computer. so i am now promising myself that if i finish my lovely burnt orange wool scarf in gedifra gigante on size 13 needles, i can start Clapotis. also, if i finish the scarf and tie in the ends on my mittens, i will finally have a matched set of hat, mittens and scarf. and i need a new pair of mittens.

currently on needles:
Gedifra Gigante scarf
Mariah
Fancy Fur scarf
custom raglan
crochet scarf

not on needles, but need finishing:
sock #2
covered with color mitten #2
front piece of colorwaves poncho
green sweater which i think will be frogged (only front is done)

you can see all those things on my website if you want. i wasn't going to link each thing. so yeah. why not start clapotis? the mitten and sock are good for travel, so i think i will do them when i head back to school. work on mariah and clapotis first, then the poncho. then the raglan. oh wait. must do raglan first as it occupies the 40" cable which would be good for the poncho. oh boy. someone wanna knit some of this for me??

SP HITS! plus Mariah and Raglan

My SP is so awesome!! She sent me a set of CPY bamboo dpns #0 and asked what color sock yarn I want...I especially like colors like #5412 and #5414 here. Anything bright and 'tropical/mixed drink looking' hehe

Mariah...my goodness. i had trouble getting this one off the ground. see this?



Yeah. seems when i need to 'continue with pattern from Chart A' I forgot the two side cables. so i had to ladder down four stitches on each side to fix it. I then proceeded to twist one the wrong way. It will stay that way forever now. i then also noticed one stitch of ribbing was knit instead of purled on the right side...drop down 8 million rows to fix that. And this is my progress for one day:



Not too shabby. Needles to say, the Mariah sleeve is not tv knitting, so i worked on my raglan while i watched 7th Heaven and Everwood.

Guess that is all for today. more Mariah work tomorrow I hope :) I am enjoying it, despite my little 'setbacks'.

So much done and more to go....

Here is the finished sock. the foot is a bit long, so i will make the second then redo this one to match. at least i now know how to do short row heels

a scarf i whipped up while chatting with monkee from lion boucle and fun fur. it is a really pretty turquoise color:

I finally cast on for Mariah! I am loving the color. it's cascade 220 in a light charcoal gray

And the moment you all have been waiting for, my new hair!!







I am totally loving the new 'do. i finally feel like myself again. only 20 more pounds to go and even if it takes forever or i don't get there, i'm lovin the me i am.

interesting keywords

a list of keywords people have used in google searches to find my sites:
Red Heart Light and Lofty
Herrschner's Knitting Yarn
reverse stockinette stitch
casual cot'n yarn crochet pattern
AngelKnits....to which google asks: "Did you mean Angel Knits no. they knew they wanted me and I am one word, not two LOL yay! that means that people knew they wanted me but couldn't remember the address. this blog came up in the #1 spot and my website was #4. so cool.

thanks for giving me this idea monkee. i love reading my site stats.

as if i needed more projects...

at least i'm not buying any more yarn! But...i have wanted to make myself a shawl, and was digging in my stash to see if i could get by, and i have two skeins of Red Heart Plush which is super soft on the skein. i will knit up a swatch..but it is 80 acrylic and 20 nylon, so it may be nice...and it is enough to make a Clapotis!! i may just have to do that...wich i had something for Cozy, but this will do because the pattern really looks fun

i also got the fibertrends felted ballet slippers pattern i swapped for...and i have lamb's pride on hand...so that is also on my list. i have a lot of 'winter knitting' to do...as in, things to wear when it is cold and i doubt i will finish it all to wear this season, even though in chicago it could be cold enough to wear the stuff until like april LOL we will see. trying to get things done, keep trying to write lists in order...but then i get bored with one thing LOL i will keep ya'll posted. sock progress later tonight?

Pixie hat, chevron socks and more!

First FO of the year, why did it take 14 days into the new year to have one?? Here is my Pixie Hat from Knit Wit in Cascade 220 Quatro #9439 Aruba.

Next up, Elann's free Chevron Sock Pattern. I loved Josie's socks, so I had to make them myself! Thanks again for your help Josie :) These are in Plymouth Sockotta. Sorry it's a bit blurry. I am going to go work on more before work and maybe have a better picture tonight!

In other news, I now have a button! Please use it to link to me (save on your own server!):

I just got a KnitPicks catalog in the mail yesterday, and loved reading it, as did my mom. We are going to place an order later in the week. They have the coolest looking sock yarn, and only $3.69! Will also get a sock book. My mom actually wants to make socks, which is great because she's only done scarves and a felted bag, so i cannot wait to introduce her to dpns. We are going to Michael's tomorrow with our 50% off coupons for some Clover dpns.. I also want to buy their 'Color Your Own" sock yarn to try some Kool Aid

one button at a time...

wow! do you see what i see??? a button in the side bar! i have conquered blogger HAHAHA next up: a whole slew of buttons! yay! started with SP3 will add reKAL and other blogs i read. stay tuned! gotta go wrack my brain for the HTML code to not outline the buttons if they are linked..hmmmm

let the gifting commence!

Secret Pals have been announced! yippee! and i had some changes for my survey my secret gifter got about me LOL cuz i filled it out a month ago.

here they are: I mentioned i don't want to do socks. well, that has changed LOL i love the regia cotton surf colors, and any other fun stripes. i would like something with a wool blend better, i just like how the cotton looks stripe-wise. if i got sock yarn though, i really need just a generic top down sock pattern that works well with the self stripings....help! wear a size 10-11 (US) shoe. i love BRIGHT colors for socks! i alrady own bamboo dpn's in sizes 1-6. all i could hope for are size 0 (Crystal Palace bamboo are my fave!!)

that was it LOL

i already have a bunch of ideas to give to my secret giftee! this is so exciting

movin' on up!

I have now finished the bottom ribbing, and two rows of the main body. yay!

what's wrong with this next picture?

as i pulled the yarn, i found a second white thread! i thought that maybe there would be a second end right away, as they had run out of white and added a new strand and overlapped the ends. that little blob i pulled out is how far the second strand went. now i need to carefully pull it out and see if it is just an extra piece or if i will have to weave it in grrrrrr

that's it on the knitting front. i took my pixie hat with me again to class today but did not work on it at all. read a book instead hehe

a sweater in design!

Okay, since I was pretty bummed about my sock, I wanted to work on something else. So instead of picking up one of my numerous WIP's, I am starting a new one LOL I was chatting with glittrgirl and bensmumma, and realized I could finally use some yarn I had in my stash (Soho side-by-side...two thin strands together, one black and one white) by using my new book, Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy book of Sweater Patterns. Fantastic! Here is my swatch. My camera doesn't have macro-focus, so it's a tiny bit blurry, but you can get the idea. and excuse the chipped nail polish :)

I get five stitches to the inch on size US7 needles. I am making a raglan, v-neck, with 2X2 ribbing at edges and up sides/under sleeves and a ribbed neck band. I cannot wait, I can totally picture the finished garment. Wish me luck!

no more socks...

hmmm. no more socks right now. i ripped that periwinkle one out. was depressing me. fabric too stiff..have a different pattern to try for worsted while i am still in search of the perfet pattern for my plymouth sockota that will fit my large feet. any men's patterns out there???

NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE ROCKS!!!! i played with my sock while i watched that movie. laughed so freakin' hard. you gotta see it!!

that's it for today. bed time. gotta work early tomorrow

it's a sock!

yay for my first sock! lookin great. two more inches until i start the heel flap. just simple stockinette from the book Knit Socks!



Lamb's Pride worsted in Periwinkle. will have contrasting heel and toe

monkee nuts!

yup, ms monkeemaven is one crazy gal! i'm glad to have her as a friend hehe always makes me laugh. you nut. other people should come chat with us! we're always there alone. mis-be-havin' hehehe

yay for trackback!

yay! now i can post to the knitty gallery and have it go back to the correct entry. how come i didn't htink of this sooner??

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

some updates

okay, i updated my website to archive my 2004 FO's. I also realized why i may not be getting many comments here. i enabled it so that anyone can leave comments, instead of blogspot users. sorry about that!

just needed to comment somewhere on my knitting restlessness. i finished Wavy, and couldn't wait to get started on something new. so i started crocheting a scarf for my friend's march birthday. then on my new year's car ride, started crocheting a belt. saturday i cast on the Pixie Hat from Knit Wit, and worked on it today. but now i am also casting on for a pair of socks (my first! can't wait to own wool socks!!) yet i still have a second mitten to make, a front of a poncho and sleeves for a sweater LOL plus two scarves currently on the needles. eek. i love finishing things so why don't i sit down and make that happen??

anyway, off now to finish my journal writing, then start my sock. at least that'll be an easy project to take with to school tomorrow.