almost there!

Matt will be picking me up in 15 minutes. All i have left is buttons and weaving ends. so here's the prelim shots for you. so far i LOVE it. the sleeves are long enough, and the sweater is actually a good length as well. we should have light enough for me to have time to finish these things. but yay for me wearing my Christmas sweater! all the details will come with final pics, but i cast on dec 6 and finished today, dec 23. yay!

Catching Up

so after all those entries in a row, i seemindly took a break. because i was knitting furiously.

First off, last Friday Deborah (she's weirdly Canadian!) was in town on business, so Matt and I took her out to Giordano's for traditional Chicago style deep dish pizza. but really, her boss paid for dinner. yay! that was way cool. Of course i got a pic




she made me nifty stitch markers out of string and ribbon! way cute. two sizes. already been using them on my current sweater.






Here's the back and the fronts blocking:










Last year, i knit that fair isle vest in two weeks to wear for Thanksgiving. So on December 6th, I decided to knit a sweater to wear Christmas. hahahaha. i am SO NUTS. but right now i'm working on sleeve #2 while these pieces block, and i bought buttons at HL today (nice wood ones) and using my favorite yarn (220) currently i am frogging the bottom of it as i go (Mariah) directly into this sleeve. my mom found that amusing.

time to get knittin!

yay for more FOs!

real fast:


Before and afters of Fuzzy Feet made out of leftover 220 from my vest last Thanksgiving (the vest i made in two weeks to wear! dare i attempt something new for Christmas when today is the 6th??)
Could stand a bit more felting, maybe. but my feet will be nice and warm. a great pattern, Theresa!











Attending an ornmanet exchange tomorrow. whipped this Crane up today:
red with gold dots. fast, easy, and cute. one pic of true colour, then without flash to try and show you the shape better.







Frogged Mariah today. Will maybe cast on tomorrow...hmmmmmmm

snow day!

seee?








and then i got further than i thought on my sweater:






so that's it. yes, three days of updates in a row. whatever will Ana do with me?

more bloggage!

yes, that's right. two days in a row.

we stopped in the little thrift store tonight. wandered into the back room where i don't always go since it is usually just toys.
and got this:




for $5. yeah. a steal. especially when i got it home and cleaned it and it looks pretty much brand new. love it.

but what's inside?







YES. green sock yarn. KP former "Color Your Own" now just the Bare Fingering Weight. 100 grams, decided on 5 packs of lemon-lime kool-aid. simmer, 30 minutes later clear water gave me that. now it's cooling so i can rinse (splashed some vinegar in with the cooking. will probably do another vinegar rinse just to be safe). Then it will become Cablenet. My other skein i will try and handpaint a bit in shades of red/pink to make Pomatomus and the failed Jaywalkers of LL shepard sock will become Falling Leaves. Yet I don't like knitting socks, hehe. But Pam has given me confidence these will fit my big ol feet.

Now to get some sleep so i can get up and see if schools are closed, hehe.

is this thing on?

yeah, yeah. i know i've been remiss in blogging. But life gets busy, y'know?

so without further ado, here's the sweater:




and here's Hush-Hush:




pausing on Hush-Hush in order to wear this sweater for Christmas. Problem is, I don't do ribbing. It always looks wonky and I don't like to do it. So any sugesstions for the bottom and cuffs? I'm not getting "Knitting Beyond the Edge" until Christmas, and I LOVE that book. Too bad I want to wear this before then, har har.

I also knit a man's beanie and gifted it to a friend, and crocheted two potholders. After this sweater, Hush-Hush and flowers need to be rushed! And y'all have to tell me how many flowers I'm getting since I only received two (Laura) and i know Ana and Ceci have a few.

That's all for now! hopefully more sooner than later.

pumkin carve!

Did this last night....at first had been debating something knitting-related, but instead I just grabbed a knife and had at it. I started with the cat tail, and my 8th grade "soon-to-be step-cousin by marriage" (haha) knew exactly what I was doing. Then we were deciding what to do with the cat I cut out, so I trimmed the back down, and stuck it to my pumpkin with toothpicks. Then I felt it wasn't done, so added a mouse. 'twas fun!

snowy video

apparently youtube doesn't like me. so here it is from photobucket.

just an update!

i finished dishcloth #2, but don't have a pic. it's more boring than the first one since i switched the colours, but hey, at least we now own 2 washcloths for our first home :) dork, i know.

the other day, we found this on our porch, and he then started going up the wall and disappeared around the corner:



cool, huh? made me think of gail and abe. yup.

my friend Matt gave me these books that his mom was clearing out from her 2nd cousin's stuff after she passed away. hold your breath:







uh. yeah. are you as excited as i am??? Barabara Walker 1 AND 2?? yes. and she also has dresses that are knit (possibly 40s era) and some yarn AND some spinning books to show me!! I am so thankful for this gift and will value it for many many years.

i was bad and cast on for a sweater for me:



just your generic top down raglan in my $1 LL Dove yarn =) so pretty, and soooo soft. Matt was like...did you finish those 9 things you had in your basket? haha. is he learning? or should i be worried...uh-oh...now he'll keep tab on my WIPs for the rest of my life *gulp* yeah, i need to knit my flowers too. But i should be having regular Sunday knit times with my pal Tucker :) that should help my production.

today it snowed!! i am attempting to load a video to make monkee scream and Laura be happy :)

let's see if it works:

no need to turn the sound up. there is none, except for the fact that i accidentally left the radio on while filming and now i cannot delete the sound.

I've caught the fever.

Yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby and Michael's with my coupons and bought some Sugar 'n' Cream. Within five hours of coming home, I not only knit an entire dishcloth, I ate dinner, read some of my book, made my workout plan, surfed the web. Heh. No wonder Ana calls me a fast knitter.




Yeah. These cloths have been on my mind for a while now. And I don't even like knitting cotton. But they called to me! And alas, with a 40% and a 50% off coupon, I knew it was time. Just cast on for the second one, alternating the colours. I will still have leftovers, I believe. I already have my eyes set on a green/blue/white/yellow combo. mmmm. those leftovers will work well with these, methinks!

In the mail today, I received the first part of my payment from that shawl I knit:


I cannot wait to knit the short-row fair isle sweater in here! The 1824 wool to do so is also coming as my payment.

Scarf I'm crocheting to offset the skarfs:



Yay for updating with actual knitting! Time to go work on this dishcloth before Matt picks me up for dinner :)

All in a day's work.

soooo...last year sometime...(last year? two years? when was it, monkee?) I received a spindle and some roving from Joeli. Then when she moved to the UK she gifted me the rest of it. it's wool for sure, and it kinda seems to be merino, from reading various descriptions of it.

i used small pics so i don't make Barbie's dial-up cry. Photobucket makes thumbnails for you! yay! (Trevor...it also makes them open in new window.) [click pics for big]

Roving:



first yarn balls from way back:



what i pulled off the spindle in order to use it:



so i settled in...i dunno what made me wanna pick it up, but i did. probably just to procrastinate. heh.

and i did this, yesterday:



wanna see closer?



i then tried my first hand at plying:



in ball form:



yarn on feet!! for Missy!



and finally, all skeined up!



Today, after being responsible, and doing things from my to-do list, i picked it up again. figured i was on a roll, may as well keep it up (not like i don't have wedding things to do, including wedding knitting, but alas)



not exactly entirely even, but i like it. Keep bugging Ana for advice, teehee. yay for enablers!!

that's about it for now.

img test

yay lace!

just some quick pics:







pinned to bro's extra-long twin bed. ceiling fan on medium. will dry quickly. details to follow with finished modeled pic.

ETA: time for a fast knit for myself. so i go to my knitting basket, wanting to find my top-down raglan in kool aid recycled yarn. and uh...it's not in there. but guess what....NINE things on the needles. NINE. oh. my. goodness. i did not even know i was that bad. seriously. and...they are pretty much all scarves. what??
-ruffles from Scarf Style
-scarf in bulky superwash wool of one giant cable
-skinny scarf in Tar-jay yarn
-gluffy scarf in Big Lots yarn
-lion brand fancy fur scarf
-lace scarf in KP's gossamer
-branching out sample
-pair of Sassy Stripes socks
-lorna's lace helen's lace shawl (only NICE WIP in there)

also:
-yarn for shaped triangle shawl
-valerie handspun
-nono kitty sample handdyed
-lorna's laces shepard sock failed jaywalkers
-mohairy branching out that needs to ripped out

dear goodness. someone help me! it's like an endless Mary Poppins bag. i think i might could sell all the frou-frou scarves i already have made, and finish these others, and make some money at a craft fair in november. whaddya think?

lookit!!

bear with me, y'all. brand-new camera means a breaking in time for usage. uh, that was an interesting sentence. anywho....take a gander at the ColorAccent Mode:



i was just playing around. got it too much into one shade of red, instead of close shades as well. then the flowers would look even better.

in the mail on Friday, I got my Knit Picks Gloss colour card that Pam (trillian42) graciously sent me so I could order yarn for a special project. and she also included some stitch markers she made for me!!



again, pardon the new camera...these are purple beads, but i am still getting the hang of things.

the lace border! called "wheel" it's currently halfway done. will be soooooo happy to get this thing done and in the mail.



so purty, eh!! time to turn the corner. shall see how it goes.

oh yeah. it's a Canon PowerShot S3 IS. is Ana jealous? teehee. maybe she can give me some camera hints.

more pics when my huge KP order arrives. shame on me! i ordered new needles without having tried the ones i do have....

cutest thing i've ever knit

yeah. an update, pretty recently after the last one, and with actual knitting content. a rarity these days, i know. i promise i've been knitting. a bit.

first up: the cutest thing i've ever knit. Knitty's Trellis. i wanted to shoot the dang pattern. it stank. you need to mirror cables. you must. but the twisty thing was not a cable, so on my swatch i got the back twists mirrored. but it was not to be on the actual back of the sweater. i gave up. then the way the left twist wa sin the pattern wouldn't work. only the right twist that Ana taught me. i don't understand why.

(UMMMM....okay. lately my photos suck. but they look fine until they get here...i have always, always made my photos 400 pixels wide. yet these are blurry. at first i thought it was just the sweater. but nope. the lazy is hazy too. why, why? with a good camera and just uploading full photos....argh)


awww, how cute! i love wee-sized things!



but what takes the cake is the buttons:

Knit on Denise size 7 in Lane Borgosesia 100% Lana Vergine. completely machine washable wool. it is so soft once you wash it. mmm. Ana generously donated this yarn. she said it was some odd stuff she picked up one time..strangely enough i've used this yarn before, but in a chunky weight from my LYS' bargain bin. go figure.

next up, what has been soaking up my time: modified Rose Trellis shawl outta Zephyr. mmmmmmm. Ana commissioned me to knit this for her grandmother to wear to a wedding. must get crackin! around half-way done with body, then needs a border. eeeep!!



great thinking went into this next photo, including my chin, the self-timer, and 10 seconds of a balancing act. it's a neat effect though. like looking out through semi-shut eyes. hmmm



and a better shot of the first flower i made:


two more white are done, a dark pink on the needles...i'm thinking a January 31st deadline for my wonderful friends to knit me flowers is good. see what i get. see what more i need and knit like crazy!!

is that enough of an update to satisfy monkee?