may i introduce to you...

the last couple of christmas' i have made hats for everyone in the girl house.  even the big guy, though he is a guy and technically doesn't live here.  last years hat was the vermonter, which was a very quick knit, considering i am the slowest knitter on the planet.

as i was wondering if i should continue with the hats for christmas tradition, the best sister ever made it quite clear she was expecting a hat for christmas.

that being said, i decided  it was going to be a slouchy hat.  i had been wanting a slouchy hat for awhile.  i had already started searching ravelry, favorite-ing quite a few slouchy hat patterns.  in the end, the pattern i chose for us came to me through a classic elite yarn email.  it was the fresco simple slouchy hat.   i saw it and knew it was the one.

hat for the best sister ever.  colorway, sea green

fresco refers to the classic elite yarn used.  i am not one for using the suggested yarn on a pattern, but i had also received an email from Webs which listed discontinued fresco yarn colors at 50% off.  the least i could do was take a peek.  plus, the yarn was a blend of wool, baby alpaca and angora.  so yummy.   there were three color ways listed i was willing to gamble on, a different color for each of us.  so i made the purchase, hoped the yarn would would be wonderful and arrive before christmas.

which it did, just barely.  and it was all shades of wonderful. soft and warm.  the colors were much richer than the online color swatches.  i loved it and i knew the girls would.  now i just needed to knit it up perfectly.  no pressure.

while knitting,  i was concerned others would not be as enamoured with a slouchy hat as i was.  or maybe they wouldn't like the yarn, or the color i had chosen for them.  so i just continued knitting.

hat for my sweet friend.  colorway, fern

though i missed the christmas deadline, i knitted all through christmas weekend.  my sweet friend kept asking what i was knitting.  i kept giving her vague answers.  and then the first hat was done.  this one was for the best sister ever.  and she loved it.  she thought it was the perfect hat.  she wears it all the time.  it is warm and she loved the color.  and she loves bragging to all that her sister knit it for her.  relief.

on to hat number two.  this one was for my sweet friend.  it happened to be the same colorway pictured on the pattern.  which is an ideal color for her.   it is beautiful.  though she is not prone to hats, she does wear this one.  she loves the color and rocks the style.  it looks great on her.  relief again.

my hat.  colorway, mallard blue

now on to the third hat, mine.  other than a technical challenge mentioned in an earlier blog, this hat is a dream.  i love the color.  it is a mixture of both blue and green, like the duck it is named after.  it is rich and jewel like.  and it slouches just the way i wanted it to.  i love it.

for the moment i am glad to be done with the hats. but even more, i am thankful for our silly little tradition.  i get to knit a bit of love for those i love while keeping heads warm during the cold winters. as well as bringing much joy and delight.  and that, after all, is the most important thing.

my kingdom for 5 1/2 inches....

i was in the midst of knitting my christmas hat (full explanation in upcoming post).  this was the last  of three hats i was knitting of this pattern and yarn (see above (...) ).

i kept wondering why the hat was looking like a tube and why the yarn wasn't being consumed as it had in the previous two hats .  i needed to knit 5 1/2 inches and then start the decreases for the crown.  just as i got to 5 1/2 inches i realized i hadn't done the increase round right after the 1 inch of 2x2 ribbing,  5 1/2 inches ago. which is why the hat looked like a tube and not as much yarn was being used.

holy knitting blunders, batman!

so i frogged back to the ribbing, picked up the frogged stitches with a size 0 needle.  un-knit for a few rows to make sure no stitches were dropped and everything was where it was supposed to be.  and then i knit on.                                                         

by the end of the day i had knit 2+ inches.  the hat no longer looked like a tube and the right amount of yarn was being used.

yup, that is how we roll here...

i'm dreaming of a...

since relocation, i have been looking for a job non-stop. seriously non-stop.  so a week or so before christmas, when i was totally stressed about lack of funds for holiday celebrating, i realized i had time to knit.  like, time to knit actual christmas presents without having to stay up all night.  and since the people i was knitting for worked during the day, i could knit all day on their presents and they would never know!  wow! a novel concept.

the goal was to use yarn from my stash.  everyone in the girl house needed items to keep their hands warm.  i knew i had some rowan cocoon in the loveliest shade of gray (#803-scree) that i could use for fingerless mitts for my favorite sister. i looked through ravelry for a pattern and found joelene wiggins' "cabled fingerless mitts" pattern and decided to give it a whirl.  it is a lovely pattern that was a easy, quick knit.  and i mean quick.  as the slowest knitter on the planet, when i can knit a pair of mitts in three days, that is a quick knit.

i did do some mods though. i made the mitt longer as a whole, cuff was a total of 3 inches long;  added an extra cable repeat so the mitt hand would be longer;  added 2-3 rows of ribbing to cover the fingers more; did extra rows on the thumb, and switched cables on the hands so they weren't the same.  they came out wonderfully.  the yarn is warm and soft with just the right amount of bulk to hold the pattern but still comfortable to wear.

my sweet friend saw what i was knitting for her aunt and fell in love with them. in fact she wanted to wear  them all the time.  the original plan was to make her  mittens out of a frog tree sport weight alpaca that i had in my stash, and use sock pixies - pixie warmers pattern.  but it just wasn't calling my name.  i started it and it seemed so airy and light i felt it wouldn't keep the hands as warm as the cocoon would.

and though i am not fond of making the same pattern twice, i knew she loved the pattern and the yarn.  so i scraped some money together and bought another skein of cocoon.  this time in a beautiful teal (#813-seascape).  and they are stunning.  i love the color and so did she.

thankfully both girls love their mitts and wear them all the time.  which brings me to the big guy.  who walked in the door two days before christmas and announced he could really use a black beanie.  seriously!?  you couldn't have let me know sooner?

so i dive into my stash.  first off, i don't have any black yarn so i go for some misti alpaca baby suri alpaca and silk in a dark gray.  i tried it with a couple of simple rib patterns but it wasn't calling my name. so using some christmas money i bought a hank of malabrigo twist, but not in black.  after a bit of thought, i decided to exchange it for a hank of black since black was what he wanted, instead of a colorway i wanted to knit with.

the pattern was elizabeth heath-heckmans, "the boy hat".  a wonderful pattern;   another quick and easy knit.  the only thing was it came out a bit short.  since the big guy isn't living in the girl house, i was unable to measure the hat on his head while it was being knitted.  and though i measured the big guys head numerous ways to ensure i would get the beanie length correct, it was much shorter than i anticipated.  a case of should have trusted the pattern instructions.  he likes and wears it, but it does need to be longer.

after the holiday celebrations, i decided i needed a pair of fingerless mitts.  i had long lusted over the maine morning mitts in claire parks "book of yarn".  my plan was to use some rowan cashsoft aran in a very delicate pink.  got the right gauge and off i went.  for a little while.  after knitting with the bulky yarn and seeing how soft and wonderful it was, i wanted something like it.  so i frogged what i knit, added a cashsoft dk in a very delicate lavender to the mix, got the right gauge and off i went.  i was in love.  i was concerned they would be a little stiff since two strands of yarn were being used and hoped they would soften up with wear/use.  they were and they did.  i love them.  i wear them all the time.  i did not bind off in pattern so i have a ridge at the top.  i sort of like it, though in the future i will probably bind off in pattern.

it was nice to knit things in time for holiday gift giving.  the recipients really appreciated it.  still could use a job though!

(oh, and btw, i only have one sister. just in case you thought i was playing favorites!)

in the still of the night...

i should not be allowed to make knitting decisions between midnight and 6am. though they are usually technically sound, they keep me awake way to late.

this morning's decision was frogging the hat from hell, yes the r2d2 hat. the big guys christmas present. the one that was supposed to take two-ish days to knit.

i thought of taking pictures of how the hat looked...which was cute, a bit pinched due to the strands on the inside being a bit tight, they were neat, but tight. i also thought of taking pictures of the piles of tangled, frogged blue and gray yarn, but it was very late, or early depending on your perspective, so i will leave it to your imagination on how tangled and twisted the yarn looked; sort of a combination of that weird octopus creature that pulled frodo out of moria and davy jones' beard, only in blue and gray.

sigh. so i am starting over. this time instead of strand knitting i will knit stripes and embellish once the hat is done. don't worry, i will keep you posted...

and a happy new year to you!...

a few weeks before christmas, the big guy requested an r2d2 beanie. he even provided a picture.

no problem; i looked it up on ravelry; got a copy of the pattern and bought the yarn. still no problem. hats are relatively simple and i figured this would not be a difficult knit. until i really analyzed the pattern.

the pattern calls for knitting the hat in stripes and then going over the incidentals with a duplicate stitch. or, following the chart and eliminating some of the duplicate stitching. i assumed the duplicate stitching is like embroidery, which didn't thrill me since i felt it would weigh down the knit. this left working off or reading the chart, which i don't do. so since i don't work off or read charts, i decided to transcribe the chart to written form.

what was i thinking?!

i have spent the majority of this afternoon transcribing this pattern to a form i could follow. there was a short time i thought poking my eye with a sharp stick would be easier.

but it is done. now for a head clearing walk before i actually start knitting. i will keep you posted.

can i have a little more...

this is a picture of my sweet friend's scarf. i have been working on this for quite awhile, one could say since before christmas of '08. want to know why?....because 299 stitches need to be picked up on each long side of the scarf. yes, 299 stitches, or a multiple of 4 + 3.

i have gotten to a point in my knitting life where i finally feel pretty confident in picking up stitches and having them look nice, but 299, or a multiple of 4+3, is a bit much for me. in fact, on the long side that is finished, i picked up quite a few less than 299, though it was a multiple of 4 + 3. i made up for it on the unfinished side where i picked up 319, also a multiple of 4 + 3.

and see that little tail of yarn in the center? the one that looks like the end a ball of yarn? it is. and i don't have another ball. no, i don't. the pattern called for two balls of the light pink and one ball of the dark pink so that is what i purchased. since i followed the directions i trusted i would have enough yarn to finish the pattern. and i continued to trust up to the time i realized i barely had enough yarn to finish row 4 of the 6 row pattern that would finish this scarf and i would have to do something else for the last two rows. can i hear you say, "grrrrr". yeah, that's it.

running out of yarn would not be such a big thing if the yarn hadn't been purchased in new york city over two and a half years ago. my hopes of finding that same color yarn dipped even farther when i looked on the blue sky alpaca website and found the color listed in the discontinued colors. i almost panicked. so i took a deep breath, clicked the "where to find our yarns" button and started dialing. the neighborhood LYS does not carry blue sky yarns so i called a couple of not so local LYS' who will be getting back to me. i then decided to try a yarn store a bridge away. i had only been there once but remembered feeling their yarn sort of took over the store. the was yarn everywhere, in all different weights and colorways. so i called. not only did the woman who answered the phone know what color i was looking for, she said they had one ball in stock and if they didn't, she thought she had one at home, but since she was with a customer, she would need to call me back. which she did, within minutes. they have the colorway, may not be the same dye lot, but for two rows, i am not going to be very choosy. i would just like to finish the scarf.

so tomorrow i am off to berkeley for one ball of yarn. and the adventure continues...

right now, i am just grateful.

16 tons...

so i am not the fastest knitter. in fact i consider myself to be one of the slowest knitters on the planet. but this evening i even impressed myself.

the LYS in the town north of mine has a 30% off sale every 3rd thursday of the month. novembers yarn sale was bulky/chunky yarn. though i have enough stash to build a mountain, i thought it may not be a bad idea to have some bulky/chunky yarn for last minute gifts. so i drove up and checked out the sale. i ended up buying three skeins/hanks/balls of yarn, one brown sheep burly spun in ruby red; one rowan cocoon in a lovely grey and one misty alpaca chunky in a hot pink. i figured three gifts for around $30 was not bad.

i had originally purchased the burly spun to knit a unisex scarf for a work holiday party. then realized the holiday party was in three days which was pushing it for knitting a scarf, at least for me. onto ravelry i went to see what kind of projects were knitted out of burly spun. considering how bulky the yarn is, i was surprised at the variety of patterns available. after finding a few i liked, i narrowed it down to one that caught my eye, not only because of the name, "speedy cable cowl pattern" but because of the pattern. it had cables and for some reason, this yarn screamed cables to me. knitters who knit this pattern said it took them all of two hours. so i figured it would take me all of two evenings.

but no. once i cast on and got going, it took me all of two hours, perhaps a smidge more. i couldn't believe it! really. i mean the pattern is all of 18 rows so it shouldn't be such a shock, but i was still pretty surprised i was actually able to finish it in one sitting.

and it turned out ok, i like the way it looks. plus it fits over my head so hopefully it will fit over other peoples heads. this was my first experience with bulky/super bulky wool and it was great to be able to make something lovely in such a short amount of time. and i didn't use the whole ball; i still have enough to make another present if needed.

so on the whole, i am pretty impressed.

...i walk the line

i am beginning to find my rhythm in the new house. though there are still boxes to be unpacked and there is the daily question of "...have you seen", "...did you check the box in the ...", i am to the point where i can unpack a bit and leave time for knitting, or walking or sewing, or baking.

so when i felt the call to walk on saturday morning, i decided to explore the path across the street that leads to the open space on the hill. and from the hill i could see this...














so i kept walking and walked through these,





walked down this,

looped about and saw this from the another hill. and for you east bay-er's, yes that is mt. diablo in the distance.

not a bad walk for the new neighborhood.

on the knitting front, i have finished one of two socks for soldiers. i am 1.5 inches into 13 inches of 2x2 rib for sock two. i am totally cheating on the xmas knitting. the plan is to finish up my sweet friends ruffle scarf (translation, i have to pick up a total of 594 stitches! yuck!) and to finish up the big guy's second sock. hopefully the plan will work and both of these will be under the tree on christmas morning.

and then there is the new year's resolution to learn to knit 2 socks at a time on a circular needle so it doesn't take me so bloody long to knit socks for soldiers!#! already have the book on the christmas list.

going around in circles

i did not get bit by the spring cleaning bug this past spring. usually i do the annual airing out the house after winter, but not this year. i am making up for it now though. i can not walk into a room in our house without cleaning, weeding out and rearranging things. my family, who does not understand my obsession with a clean house, is nervous. they never know what will greet them when they open a cupboard. oh well.

i also have been reading. granted i am re-reading the hp series, but i am mid-way into book six and cannot put it down. i know what happens. i mean, seriously. but i am gripped none the less and find myself reading a few pages in between chores.

and my sweet friend's fall musical is weeks away from opening. since i am head of makeup, there are workshops to conduct and rehearsals to attend; not to mention the costume sewing.

all of these things i truly enjoy doing. the downside is i have little time for knitting. coupled with the fact i am knitting mostly socks. i love knitting socks but not when it is the only thing i am knitting. so when i came across this rug designed by vyvyan at fishbone designs i went through my sugar 'n cream stash and cast on. but i long for a new shawl but don't want to cast on until i have finished a project, but there are so many other things going on and not enough time to knit and holiday knitting to start. and on and on and on...

if i were a dog trying to lay down, this going around in circles would be fine, but as a knitter it is not fun. sigh. at lease socks are portable!

amazing

so this is my 100th post.

it is amazing to me that i have been babbling about knitting and various other things for 100 posts. and that there are people who read these babblings, for which i am forever grateful. i have been inspired, challenged, encouraged and well fed by some amazing cyber friends.

i always thought i would have a celebratory contest for my 100th post but the planning of it is just beyond me at the moment. perhaps by the time i am done babbling on this post, something fun and quirky will arise.

but until then, i think i will babble about what started this blog in the first place, sticks and string...

so i was very sick a few weeks ago. like fevers of over 102 and lying in bed doing nothing for 5 days straight. i was so sick, it hurt my head to knit. and at the time i was in the middle of knitting a garter stitch potholder that will be felted, which is knitting at its easiest. as soon as i could pick up needles again, i finished it. it is knit out of some blue paton's merino and a green cascade 220 i had in my stash. of course i did not want to knit 3 potholders out of the same colors so i purchased another skein of cascade 220 in an deep aqua blue that would complement my two stash yarns. (yes, the yarns in the picture are the same, the color is different because of the lighting, booklyn tweed i am not.) this project got derailed for a bit when my cp size 10 straights began to split at the tip. very annoying. i had already done the sandpaper and wax paper thing to no avail. plus, the needles are a bit short for the amount of yarn that needs to be on them. i thought brittany needles would be the perfect solution. of course the LYS has every size but 10 and none of the other yarn stores in the area carry brittany's. grrr. after much hemming, hawing and gnashing of teeth, i traded the cp needles in for another non-splitting, longer pair of cp's and i am off and knitting once again.

once the potholder was done, i went straight to the cute husband's socks and finished the first one, finally. this is out of lorna lace's shepard sock chocolate stripe colorway. can i tell you how much i love this yarn. i love this yarn. i love the feel of it, the way it stripes, how easy it is to work with, even in a darkened theatre. i cast on the second sock immediately and knit on it whenever i can.

the next item to be finished was the lace capelet out of ry cashsoft baby dk, colorway 502, sweet. it turned out pretty well. when i asked my sweet friend to try it on for size, she did not want to take it off because it was warm and soft. which i took as a good sign. i immediately frogged the boring ruffle scarf also being knit out of cashsoft colorway 517, donkey, to start the second lace capelet. these are for two very dear friends who i usually give the same type of present to. i found the pattern on ravelry and it is quite easy. my personal challenge with it was keeping the correct number of stitches consistent. for some reason, whenever i did the yarn over rows i would either lose a stitch or add a stitch. it was maddening. i frogged the finished capelet down to practically the beginning to correct this, just to have it happen again! i finally decided it was one stitch. it really wasn't going to make that big of difference. and, of course, it all turned out ok in the end.

still on the needles is my sweet friends short ruffle scarf. as you can see, i have picked up the stitches on the short end and added the ruffle, but the long ends has 297 stitches to be picked up which is a daunting task to me. plus, i was expecting the ruffle to be more ruffle-y. since i will also be making this scarf for me, i may experiment with repeating the ruffle pattern. and if i have enough yarn in which to do so. but i need the needles so i better get on with finishing this one.

there are babies. i had never made anything baby so i decided to do hats. the first one was for baby alison, a beautiful and amiable baby at work (i work at the local ymca where there are plenty of staff babies around). much to my sweet friend's chagrin, i decided to knit up the sprout hat pattern by leigh spencer which i found on mag knits. it called for mission falls cotton, which i had never worked with before. i really liked it. i chose colorways 206-peony and 404-indigo. the yarn was easy to work with and lovely when knit up; it complemented the moss stitch well. unfortunately i did not get a picture of the hat before i gave it to baby alison, so here are all the ingredients, you will need to imagine what it looked like. fyi, peony was the dominant color, indigo the accent; picture it in your mind.......ok next.

the second baby hat was for rachael and ryan's baby. they live in the city (s.f.) where the coldest part of the year is coming up, summer, so hat's for a baby are totally appropriate. while doing an east bay yarn store crawl, i mentioned baby hats to the person behind the counter at k2tog. she suggested crystal palace puffin, a bulky polyester fleece ribbon yarn. one ball makes a hat, and she provided the pattern. what more could i ask for? the colorway is dotty circus. and though i was a bit skeptical about the polyester once i started to knit it i was quite pleased. this yarn is so soft and will be so nice for a baby head. and it looks really sweet knit up. can't wait to finish it and give to baby callum.

in the way of yarn, this past januray cheryl had a comment contest on her blog. by lucky circumstance i won a couple of skeins of yarn from it. some beautiful crimson kilcarra in which to make a tudora; and some homespun yarn from craftspun. the original thought was to try my hand at dyeing and dye the homespun, which i would have then shared on the blog. but i am now leaning towards keeping it undyed. it is really lovely but i am not sure what to make. and to be the non-metric american, how long is 250 grams? so i shall see.

and though i have been trying to knit from my stash, temptation is strong, so very strong. so i confess i have been collecting sock yarns. i figure they are relatively inexpensive and one skein equals a pair of socks so it is not like going overboard...is it?

the first sock yarn purchase was via the grey's anatomy knitters group on ravelry. sknitches had a "seriously" colorway. if you are a watcher of grey's anatomy you know the various ways this word gets used. the colorway had sold out but sknitches was willing to dye a special batch for group members if they pre-ordered and pre-paid. score! had to have one! and i love it! seriously. i am hoping to score another one for my sweet friend. she would like legwarmers. we will see what happens.

the second sock yarn purchase was from sockpixie. this woman owned a lovely little yarn store in petaluma, the town above mine. if my LYS was not within walking distance of my home, i would have become a regular in her shop. she offered wonderful classes and beautiful yarns. then her husband was transferred to boston so her yarn store closed. she kept in touch through her blog which morphed into sockpixie, which offered sock patterns, and eventually sock yarn. she and her daughter dye a different colorway selection in various types of sock yarns each week so when the yarn is gone it's gone. this colorway came from the week she was inspired by famous women and named her sock yarn colorways after them. this specific colorway is colette, a writer i met in college, became enamoured with and have read over and over again. so, of course, had to have it; love it; can't wait to knit it up.

whew! i think that is the latest. and i am sorry to say, something quirky is still beyond my reach. perhaps at blog number 150! so stay tuned. many thanks to all of you who amaze and inspire me. it's a lot of fun.

(it is a bit sad that life is so busy this post took three weeks to put together! yeesh!)

how time flies!

wow, time is flying by! it is already february and i am still futzing about with christmas presents.

i realized the garter stitch ruffle scarf out of rowan cashsoft was b-o-r-i-n-g! and if i was bored knitting it, the recipient would more than likely be bored wearing it. plus, in order to match the vision of this scarf in my mind's eye, the scarf needed to be a bit thinner and have more ruffle. the plan was to make two of these type of scarves which would give me an opportunity to fiddle with the pattern. but i was so bored with the scarf and the knitting of it, i decided it would look better in a verigated, fun yarn instead of a solid color yarn. plus i found this great lace capelet pattern on ravelry and wanted to see how it would look in the second cashsoft colorway.


and it looks pretty good. i really like how it is coming out. apart from the fact i got about 20 rows from the end and realized i had dropped a few stitches about 5 inches down and had missed a couple of yarn overs which are essential to the pattern so i had to frog it practically to the beginning. thankfully it is a real quick knit so i wasn't to concerned. and once i get it off the needles, i think it will stretch to fit nicely. i haven't frogged the boring ruffle scarf yet because i want to see how the capelet turns out. when i get closer to the end of the capelet, i will frog and straighten the scarf yarn.


i also started blossom out of elsebeths lavold silky wool, colorway #56. this is for my mom. since i purchased the yarn moments before christmas, the thought was to have it done by valentine's day. ha! so it is currently languishing on my needles. plus, i am being a little to cautious about the repeats, which i have to figure out on my own, instead of having the pattern tell me exactly what to do. aughhh! once i figure it out i am sure everything will be fine and i will chuckle at my doubt. but until then...


i have also been knitting my cute husbands sock. i am on the foot. and though this has taken me quite a while to knit i feel like i have learned alot about sock knitting or about how i knit socks. so i bring it with me everywhere just in case i get a moment to knit a few rows.

the last challenge i have is to not buy any new yarn. ha! stitches west is coming in a couple of weeks and i am trying to save all my pennies for their marketplace, which i hear is overwhelming, but then i look at sockpixie's new sock colorways and i am so very tempted. it is so hard to keep the finger from clicking "add to basket"! maybe i'll just frog the scarf.

maybe next year

a funny thing happened this past holiday season. the moment christmas was over, everyone told me what they would like me to knit for them. my cute husband wanted a hat; the big guy wanted a scarf and my sweet friend wanted leg warmers. i smiled, nodded my head and thought, where were these suggestions in november?

and instead of telling them better luck next year, i dove into my stash. and then i looked for patterns.

i found my cute husband's hat pattern on ravelry by cheryl niamath of fetching's fame. in honor of the movie, the life aquatic with steven zassou, and jacques cousteau, she designed the zassou hat. this was to be knitted from a worsted weight yarn. but since i was knitting from my stash and had GOBS of misti alpaca suri silk in hematite, colorway 404, i used two strands of this along with a strand of frog tree sportweight alpaca in teal, color 64. the hat is a snap and came out pretty well. the only challenge was in a moment of confusion i cast on 122 stitches instead of the 112 the pattern called for so the decreases were a little wonky. since the hat it a 1x1 rib, i did not notice the mistake until i realized my decreases were a little off. but it all worked out and he loves it, brags about it and wears it.

for the big guy's scarf i thought i would knit him the purl scarf from last minute knitted gifts. it is a mixture of three weights of yarn, knitter's choice in a 1x1 rib. so once again working with the misti alpaca and leftover frog tree, i added cascade yarns baby alpaca chunky, in turquoise colorway #560, to match the feather in his fedora, and off i went. except the 1x1 rib did not do justice to the yarns, so i adapted the pattern from the misti alpaca ruffle scarf. i added a repeat and fringed the end instead of ruffled the end. and it came out well and he likes it much more than i thought he would and actually wears it.

my sweet friend's legwarmers on the other hand are going to take some time. since she is a dancer, she wants them up to the knee or above and with a band that goes around the foot, a la mac and me's yoga socks. berroco just released a sock book featuring their new sock yarns which had a pattern much like this, but i am not sure i feel like spending $17 for a book of 9 sock patterns. so i will keep searching. she knitted a pair of legwarmers as a christmas present for her best friend out of ggh aspen. it was a quick and dirty knit so i may try and adapt that somehow.

in the meantime, here is a picture of my second jo sharp urban beanie out of her silkroad ultra. this past fall i decided i really did want a hat that matched the surgery shawl/poncho i knit last winter. what a geek. i do love it though. it keeps my head nice and toasty, cozy warm.

maybe next year they will actually answer when i ask them if they would like anything knitted for christmas. there is always hope!

and by the by, i made my sweet friend crepes as a thank you for being the semi-willing hat model.

all the time

though my latest blogs have been filled with baking, i am knitting. i mean, christmas is coming up, of course i am knitting! though i tried to start early on all projects, and i have even completed some of i still feel waaaaay behind the eight ball.

with that being said, here is what i am working on...

two ruffled scarves out of ry cashsoft in the donkey and foxglove colorway. it is a pattern that i am sort of adapting to what i would like it to be, long with ruffles. i also chose to just knit simple garter stitch for the scarf, but with a much larger needle than called for. which makes the ruffle and scarf drape well. so far so good. having it be simple garter stitch makes it very simple, quick and mindless for me.

misti alpaca ruffle scarf in the ember melange colorway. technically i have not started on this yet but it is such a simple scarf if i just devote a couple of days to it, it will be done.

non-stop knitting of nubbins for ta-ta's dishcloths by vyvan neel at knitting in a happy camper. i am making these out of every sugar 'n cream colorway i have. they are quick, cute, quirky and fun.

mac and me's shorty ruffle scarf. i got the pattern and yarn for both my sweet friend and myself from purl soho in nyc last spring. another garter stitch quick knit with picked up stitches to knit a lacy ruffle along the four edges with a different colorway. i am trying to finish my sweet friends for christmas. mine i will do after the holiday knitting.

blossom shawl from mag knits for mom out of elsebeth lavolds silky wool in claret. can't wait to start this, the yarn is really yummy!

and as soon as i can get WIP's and camera in one place at the same time, there will be pictures! until then, take a look at tudora on knitty.com designed by fellow blogger cheryl. it is really quite beautiful. congrats cheryl.

christmas blooming

i am home sick today and instead of resting i am taking pictures for my blog! oh brother! but all seven of the african violets are blooming at the same time and i could not let this kodak moment slip by. they seem so content on the kitchen window sill even though it is quite cold outside, by northern california standards anyway.

now i will go rest...and knit the red mohair scarf that will not be finished by tomorrows gift exchange. think it would be tacky if i gave it away on the needles with promises that it would be finished soon?!

it's outta here!

so, the gray baby alpaca scarf is done and gone! finished it in time for the holiday luncheon last friday. whew! here it is modeled by the big guy. the person who picked it out during the white elephant exchange liked it so much she didn't take it off!

so now i am once again cramming to finish a scarf for a thursday holiday breakfast. i don't think i will finish it in time. so i may have to attend with a non-knitted cutesy gift from my traditional gift stash and start a knitted gift stash for future use. we'll see how it goes.

they are done!

just finished the felting wash for the evening bags. they look terrific! pics and specifics to come!

time is flying

whew! it has been a while since the last post! who knew!? time has been zooming by. thankfully i have been able to just kept knitting.

i am up to my eyeballs in holiday knitting. the first of two felted clutches is done and i am halfway through the second. the base for both of them is two different colors of cascade 220 held together with a third yarn as an accent/texture. the finished clutch is brown and maroon with collinette prism in autumn as an accent; the other clutch is brown and green with crystal palace musique in heath as an accent. the clutch itself is a very fast knit. if i spent some quality time on the second clutch i could have it done in a few hours. which would be a good thing since i am real excited about seeing how these will turn out felted.

another project is a gray scarf. this is for a holiday gift exchange i have in mid-december. the scarf could be for a male or female, so it presented a challenge in choosing the pattern and yarn. i decided on a gray cascade chunky baby alpaca (i have this thing for chunky alpaca, not sure what that is about!) for the yarn and the men's cashmere rib scarf pattern from last minute knitted gifts for the pattern. i thought it a lovely pattern. plus it is a totally easy-peasy knit. so easy in fact i am making the same thing up in ry cashsoft dk in a milk in coffee colored brown for another friend. it is fun working the same pattern up in two totally different yarns. the gray chunky scarf is going to be long and thin while the brown cashsoft will be long and wide, depending on how long i feel like knitting. i think i may fringe both of these scarfs, which i have never done before. at the moment, the pattern and yarn seems to be calling for it. so i'll see what happens when i am done with them.

then there is the feathery light stole from exquisite little knits out of a beautiful eggplant colored misty alpaca/silk dk weight yarn. absolutely luscious! can't wait to see how that turns out. the color suits a dear friend quite well.

and there is the fetching fingerless gloves courtesy of knitty.com and jo sharp silkroad dk tweed in emporio. i absolutely love this yarn and have made other projects with it in various other colors, but this color has proven to be a challenge. i find i can only work on it during the day or under very good light. i also don't do the dpn thing. so i am figuring out how to knit this up with two circular needles. so far so good. this is another project that could be finished very quickly if i just spent some quality time with it. but alas, since these are for me they have taken back burner status. but soon, very soon.

and last but not least, there are the socks. the first sock is very close to being done, but not quite there yet. i just keep it in the rotation and slowly knit away at it, knowing it will be done soon!

plus i got an opportunity to work at the LYS a couple of sunday's a month. just enough to pay for the yarn addiction! but with a regular 40 hr job and a family with two teenagers, my time does tend to get sucked up. i wouldn't change a thing, though. i am having to much fun!

2 months and counting

unbelievable but true, christmas is only two months away.

i have had round 1 of my x-mas gift stash for awhile now. i bought it with my first paycheck from the LYS which was very exciting. love being able to fund my knitting addiction and support the LYS.

what you see in the picture is two felted evening bags, three pairs of socks and a stole. the felted bags will be two colors of cascade 220 held together, joined by a third "textured" yarn, something colinette i think. i am midway through the first bag and it looks great! and such a quick and easy knit!

the socks...there is no way i will finish three pairs of socks by x-mas but i can dream! i got the regia yarn on-line quite a while ago so have no idea what it will be like on the needle.

and the stole...i am taking another stab at the feathery lace stole from exquisite little knits. this time with misti alpaca dk 4 ply in this gorgeous aubergine color. heaven.

and this is just for friends! who knows what i am going to knit the fam!