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?

MEGAupdate!

monkee has been complaining that I have only updated 3 times in the past six months. maybe because i was busy gradumutating and other fun things. did you know I'm getting married? ;-)

anywho. time for the mega update. with actual knitting content. oh. that reminds me. forgot to take two pictures. hang on.

*muzak plays*

...

back!
okay then. here goes.

Last night was an amazing time! tons of people, great yarn sales, good snacks, time to knit, meeting new people and chatting with old. so so much fun. my first ever experience of any sort of knitting group thingie. yeah.

It started with me travelling to the next train station over to meet up with Tucker to drag her into the city. i informed her of all the local LYS' and which were must-visits. also the location of the nearest Hobby Lobby for all her crafty needs. we are debating starting our own local knit group, even just in our houses and maybe just once a month. but just something we could do! because we had a blast the rest of the night!



and the back row is Kristen (purrl); and oh boy...i forgot her ID. was there with her hubby (?) and they were both a stitch to be around!!; next up is the darling April the Okie! she stated we needed a photo to prove to monkee we were in the same room at the same time. heh. bottom row is me, of course, and the lovely Tucker!

Kristen helped organize our Knitty meet-up there. we also met Celtic Coyote and her friend who doesn't post often. There were also regular Friday peoples hanging out and knitting, and then extra people since Stitches Midwest was going on this weekend. It was SO very cool to put faces to names!

not only was everything 20% off, there were yarns for $1. some were frou-frou Berocco and other things, but there were some cute balls of wool that Tucker and I were eyeing. But then Kristen walked up, "you girls ready?" and she dumps the most stunning colours of yarn in, and goes back and grabs more. we got first dibs because we were right in front of the rack, and then other people caught on to our excitement and flocked. so very cool!! and a while later, She walked by with a basket of other yarn that i had been looking at and said it was going in the $1 bin as well. i pounced again. i haven't bought yarn in months and months. just been gifted and swapped. and i couldn't very well leave it there for $1 each, could I???



lookit the bag o yarn i brought home! bigger than the knitting bag i took with!

what's inside?

YAK YARN!

Karabella Superyak. 50 yak, 50 merino and it is SO.SOFT. four skeins, 125 yds each. beautiful deep colour.

but see?

innerestin.

see this too?


mmmm. Lorna's Laces Dove. 80 wool, 20 cotton.


oh the green! it was so lovely I snatched up all i could. 165 yds each.


true view of the blue here....denim.

but look at them together!

so very nice! the pink is greatly varied, compared to the other two. they will go so well together. i'm thinking simple top-down raglan, striped. maybe slightly belled sleeves. according to Ann Budd i have more than enough yarn for a raglan for me. SO exciting! will do it top-down to use as much yarn as possible. yippee!

see???

amazing!

craptastic pics to follow!

nifty how this:


turns into this:


Matt wasn't too enthused. i said look, mister. you said we could knit flowers. it'll look really neat once it is finished (when i get wire and leaves and accents for his!) and i think it's great to have something to keep, especially for the parents and wedding party (and us!) as well.

today i also went to B&N and got the new issues of VK and IK. so many wonderful things! most especially the first pattern in VK. fair isle and cabeled long sweater coat. i want i want! thankfully i had already "read" IK online, since it was plastic wrapped with a little booklet gift. it's just scarves though. whoop-d-doo.

i also finished knitting Trellis during the knit party, but forgot pics. will seam, then find buttons and knit the collar. go me go! i love baby knits!

so hopefully this satisfies wee little monkee, off at camp for the weekend!

leavin' on a jet plane

so...now the Amazing Lace has a pit stop, and the five people on the participants list above me will (hopefully) stop in to say hi.

unfortunately, i haven't updated lately, har har. that is because i have literally been too busy to knit. at all. i squeezed in maybe 10 rows yesterday, but the purl rows seem to kill my hand. so i have to stop for a few minutes after every wrong side row. it's quite beautiful though. i love me some Zephyr. mmmmm.

and i have one "wedge" done on my lorna's laces Helen's lace shawl. and once i get a swift i can wind the knit picks alpaca cloud for my other shawl. my summer of lace is turning into no knitting.

but now on Friday i am leaving for Leeds, England with my church group. we're gonna hook up with a church there, and run VBS for a week, and also do some construction. plus some site-seeing in London and Edinburgh. maybe i will even meet a Knitty-head or two, but it's not looking too likely. i am plotting taking knitting on the plane. it seems i should have no trouble leaving the US with knitting in my carryon, but might have trouble coming back. i'm taking size 1 bamboo dpns (which almost break in use! therefore, how could they hurt someone??) and some Denise. i might even finish the baby sweater during the week, which'd rock. but if i stash the needles with my pens and stuff, and bring nothing else knitting....and have nothing near the needles that'd show up on x-ray, i might could possibly get my knitting for the ride home. i mean, it's 8 hours of straight knitting time. c'mon! on the way there i may try and sleep a bit to ward off the time change. we shall see.

okay then! welcome! hopefully updates upon my return.

how many words....

are this picture worth?

(not so) RAK

here's my goodies, at long last.

VAL! she sent me handspun handdyed yarn! in yummy greens. i saw the roving on her blog and when i commented on it, she said it was mine! awww. used the crappy camera. it didn't focus on the yarn. grrr. but it's nice stuff.



and then Yorkie and i did a swap. because i needed more spotted dick. yup.



Yorkie Bar! mmmM!!!! and other brand jaffa cakes, and blue can HobNobs (fabbo, they are!) and a sweet coffe mug. yay Brits!!

supposedly i'm getting a totally random giftie from MJ....sadly, it has yet to arrive

(almost) instant gratification

yay!!! I had forgotten how much i dearly loved quilting. although bending over the sewing machine makes my back ache.


start with a pile 'o t-shirts.


chop 'em up, and buy nifty cotton batting and some border material (with gratuitous cello shot for Laura)


sew 'em up nice and straight


and add your border. voila! a quilt top.

Now waiting for the backing material which is a gift from a really super friend who wants to de-stash.

so much lace...so little....no wait, i HAVE time!

so now that i have gradumatated, i have plenty o time to knit. so lace seems like a good thing. i can concentrate on it instead of homework. so i now introduce my three teammates. they have not come to me free of error and worry. instead, they are mainly messes. but i am intent on fixing them all!


First up is the project dubbed "Lace Insanity." I'm test knitting this for my good friend Ana, and, as you can see, it has its own set of worries. Fit was a problem, but not too much had to be frogged, and all 200 stitches were easily returned to the Addi. It should be a happier design overall, once lost time is caught up. Brown Sheep Cotton Fine is quite delightful to work with, because the small wool content makes the cotton easy on my hands. Otherwise I don't use cotton.


Next we have the (ironically named) Helen's Lace. MMMMMMMM first time using any sort of silk. cannot wait to start in on it. using the free pattern that comes on the label, as it should be easy enough to follow while living in the KnittyChat this summer.


Lastly, the bane of my existence. I am clutching the iron grip of fuzzy alpaca yarn stuck in the evil evil nupps of Madli's Shawl. The end border of the shawl will not frog, and i have already wasted yarn by starting over. That shawl was horrid. It looked oh so pretty, and yet...ARGH. now my Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud is going to become a much greater thing...Shaped Triangle from Gathering of Lace. This is the pinnacle of my summer lace experience!

of course, it's not as much lace as monkee has on her plate, but i can try!

Oh, the irony!

yup yup. first time for many things. i got to meet a knitty! yay!

Marcy (mittenfarce) and i went out for yummy Thai food, mmmmm. then we headed to Loopy where we met Purrl behind the counter.

here we are!


the lady working had us hold props..Marcy's is some bamboo yarn and the latest Knit.1, which she bought to knit hubby some shorts, heh (the magazine, not the yarn!) i'm holding a felted bowl they had on the counter as my goodies were already wrapped up.

speaking of goodies...i went hog wild and bought me some Helen's Lace in "Black Purl" mmmm, mmm. pardon the crappy pic as the day is gray...yeargh! Plus a 40-inch size 0 addi. mmmm, socks...



and on my train trip in and out i did this, evidence of "you get what you pay for"


Moda Dea Sassy Stripes. Colours darker than photo suggests. but whaddya expect for cheap yarn. at least they're soft enough.

i wore my socks from Ariel today, to keep me nice and toasty throughout the day. happy times!

a sockapaloooza thrill!

so...friday was a fabulous mail day. a card from my monkee, and a padded envelope. my mom's like, oh, those must be your socks! I just said they probably were, then headed up stairs. maybe ten minutes later, i finally glanced at the return address. guess who!

if the return address didn't give it away, the signature blue tissue certainly did...



they fit like a dream!





i love love love them. Pattern is Elfine's Socks (PDF) and are in Knit Picks' Essential sock yarn in Grass. oh so machine washably yummy!

even if they aren't machine washable purple sheepies...

Knitting Burnout

i am so tired of things that do not fit. my olympic sweater wasn't the best fitting sweater i have made. my latest tank top sucks as well. my jaywalkers? don't fit over my ankles. so they are banished. i think i will go start my test knitting (heh. here i am complaining about published patterns not working, and i'm gonna go knit something not even completed by the designer yet. teehee. but i love the designer. so off i go!!)