A Knitted Frenzy

And then there were 5....

Well, if I had one of those fancy photo software programs, I'd be able to draw arrows pointing to my dogs and make them talk through comic strip bubbles.

In the foreground, my Sam is on the right.  In the background, Jessie is in the middle.  The others are my mom's dogs.  Queen Mama dog in the background on the left, the Hunter on the right and the Princess is on the left in the foreground.  Sam, the Queen and the Hunter are all related.  Jessie and the Princess are from completely different lines.

Despite their differences, cookies speak their language.

You want me to pay how much?

I thought that maybe since Christmas is over and the rush of knitting 8 hours at a time is gone, I might work on one of my other projects - FOR ME!

This is a test pattern I'm working on for Karen.  I started working on it waaaaayy before Christmas.  But I had gauge issues.  I knit rather loosely so finding needles that worked were tricky.  Then Christmas hit and all hell broke loose.  So I've picked up again to finish once and for all. 

But then I remembered my severe lack of math capabilities.  @ 6sts/inch, CO 80 sts makes for a tiny sweater (well, tinier than me).  So I've changed yarns altogether and upped my needle size. 

The yarn you see here is Elsebeth Lavold's Angora.  It's blue and it's gorgeous.  I've completed 3 inches of the ribbing so far.  It knits up rather nicely.  However...  I have 6 hanks @ 91yds each... 540+yds.  Hmm.  I think I need more yarn.

Do you know how hard it is to find EL's Alpaca without paying an arm and a leg for it?  I bought the 6 hanks in New York City @ Seaport Yarn (who now, btw, has an online shop) for $7.75 each.  I probably could've called SY up to find out if they had any more.  But I didn't.  I hunted and hunted via Google.  I found two hanks at Loop @ $4.80 per hank (clearance sale!) but sadly, I was contacted this morning and there's really only one hank.  Cancel.  (I can't justify shipping charges on one hank of yarn, even on clearance.)

SO back to google.  WEBS has it... for $10 per hank.  No thanks.  I ended up at the Yarn Barn.  Never been there before.  Nice selection of yarns.  And the angora was reasonably priced.   Did I mention that I have a reallllly hard time paying too much for anything.  I love sale racks.  The Rack is my favorite store.  I will spend hours of my Saturday to pay much much less than retail.  I rarely return anything I got a killer of a deal on.

Away we go with test knitting!  This has been really fun for me.  Seriously.  I like working a pattern and the idea of having an impact on the final outcome.  :)

Christmas Knitting

On the left is the sock I made for my sil - the one I took to her mother's house for Thanksgiving and the one I announced was for someone else.  :)  The sock on the right is my brother's sock.  Both socks were done in Lorna's Laces (Georgetown and Safari) on 1US 12" circulars.  See how different the yarn pattern came out? 

I had a little more trouble with my stepdad's socks.  I was working with guesstimates for length and someone else's measurements.  They're a tad big.  The orange one had been washed and air dried.  The green one I finished Christmas Eve.  I'm going to try washing both in the machine and drying to see if that won't help shrink them.  (These socks aren't supposed to match... he'll get the matching socks in January for two pairs.)  I used Cascade 220 Superwash on 3US 12" circulars in Orange and Green.

This is the hat that I was working on as a surprise.  Again, working with guesstimates because I didn't want to ruin the surprise by measuring his head.  Unfortunately, by the time we exchanged gifts, the hat was still drying.  He tried it on anyway and of course it was too big because it stretched from its dampness.  It's dry now and before I rework the hat (to his now recorded measurements) I want to see if it shrank at all.  I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in Gray Green, Black and Cream on 7US 16" circulars.

Overall, I'd say everyone was pleased with their knitted items.  Maybe they were just being nice though?

You wouldn't think making 4 socks and a hat would take me so long to make but it did.  Between ordering sock yarn online and waiting for said sock yarn to arrive, it was months before completion. And I'm not even done!  I still have 4 more socks to do!  I'd say 4 pairs equals roughly 250,000 stitches.  Seriously.  125,000 down, 125,000 to go.

My poor hands.

Better late than never

This is a year late Christmas present to my mom.  Yah, I promised it to her last year and just finished it today.  It really didn't take that long.... I'm just a procrastinator. 














This the knitting needle rollup pattern from Stitch n Bitch.  I used decorator fabrics from my local Hancock Fabric store over a year ago.  Sad, I know.  But it actually came out really well.  I was still in my tropical phase (Hawaiian wedding, honeymoon, blah blah blah) so I think my next one (for me!) will utilize much different fabrics (do wine-infused fabrics exist??)

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Yep, I said it MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  And Happy New Year!! 

Have a safe and wonderful holiday.  Cherish your loved ones and hug them tight this Christmas!

I've got a secret!

A meme from Grumperina: Who knows about your knitting and your knitting blog, and what are your reasons for revealing (or not) its existence to these folks?

Almost everyone knows I knit: my friends, my family, my coworkers, people sitting next to me at jury duty, people standing in front or back of me in line, people sitting in their cars at a long stop light....  It's not a big secret.  It's my most favorite hobby.  And it's a left-brained activity... did you know that?  I didn't.  Me? Left-brained capable?  huh.

Very few people that I know in life know of my blog, including my close friends and one relative who shall remain nameless (N!) because he showed it to my mother (who, unfortunately, read. it. the whole thing.)  I probably would've have shared it with her eventually but as of late, I have a terrible habit of venting and swearing and saying not-so-nice things on here.  I can see her eyebrows rising every time I inch close to a vent now.  Which was my reason in the 1st place for not giving her the address.

I'd rather my coworkers not know about this blog.  The less they know about me the better.  I don't care to be terribly personal with them.

Pass it on!  Answer this meme on your own blog.  :)

Do you see what I see?

I just discovered her here last night.... she's been sleeping in my flower pot!  Poor thing.  I made her a temporary bed out of a cardboard box and beach towel.  (It's too sad to take a pic of tho.)  I need to find something else to make a proper bed for her.  She seemed to like the box tho.  She got in it and was still there this morning, purring away! 

Lolo submitted "Holly" and "Noel" (which I could shorten to "NoNo" in honor of Lolo) since she arrived around Christmastime.  :)

"Name That Cat" Contest - UPDATE!

I am seeing some really fun names!  I love the ones that are knitterly related or have back story.  My friend J sent me "Gypsy" and I love it just as much as all the others I've seen.

I'm going to continue the contest past Christmas and possibly past New Year's.  It's the holidays.  We're all busy and quite frankly I won't make it the PO to mail out a surprise package until after the New Year anyway.  :) 

Goodbye Old Friend

Goodbye.

My dream of recapturing the feel and smell of the ocean life by buying you was never fully realized.  I only rode you three times in the 5 years I owned you.  Three. Times.  Why?  I blame the city.  No decent sidewalks, bike-riding unfriendliness and speedracers.  But I did enjoy the ride through old fig despite the massive spill I took near the underpass.  And even though the original jackass laughed at my inability to remember how to ride a bike, I still loved you.  It wasn't your fault you were built with one speed and back brakes.  That was part of the charm of You, the reason I bought you.  Nostaglia forced me into that bike shop and steered me toward you, with your naked rear.  Tire that is.  I found the perfect basket to cover your immodesty and away we went.  Three times.  The little rubber nubs are still on your tires, more than a 1/4". 

You're going to a good home.  Miss J will love you so much.  Not as much as me but she'll exercise you more.  And she might even give you a proper name.  Who knows?  You may even be bestowed with a bell.

Goodbye old friend.  And old memories of what should have been. 

Off Track

I've been away for a few days... just now trying to get myself back together.

Who knew knitting could be so stressful????  I only have 4 days to finish a Christmas project, block 5 projects, wrap ALL presents (bought and made) and somehow remember to bring dinner rolls to Christmas dinner.  I warned my mother that I probably won't make Christmas Eve dinner.  Too much blocking to do!!!

I'm hoping to have some really cool pics to post AFTER Christmas, with all recipients wearing their gifts.  :)

In the meantime, here's a pic of the cat that adopted me:

She needs a name.  She's been coming back for dinner for days now.  She's even here in the mornings.  Not sure what she does during the day.

Any name suggestions??  How 'bout a surprise package to the winner of the "Name That Cat Contest"?  :D

Coming home from the funeral last week, there was an accident on the highway.  We were stopped for 20 minutes.  So, thankfully!, I had my knitting bag in the backseat and not in the trunk.  I happily knitted on my Hip Hop Jacket from IK.  **Just so you know, I'm not completely unsympathetic to the accident...  by the time I got up to where it happened, everything was cleared out.  I don't know if anyone was hurt... I hope not.  I didn't find anything in the papers about it either.

My running schedule has been completely derailed.  I'm posting here rather than my running blog because my derailment involves life issues, not strictly training issues.  Well, that's kind of a lie because I'm the worst procrastinator when it comes to exercising.  I will use any excuse possible to not exercise... "what do you mean pigs DON'T fly?  well, the gym is right out then...   how can I possibly go running when I have a pile of laundry to do and Christmas knitting to finish???....  I can't go to the gym, my socks don't fit"  It really doesn't take much.  Sudden family emergencies and the rush of the holidays don't help either.  But that's neither here nor there.  I made a committment and fortunately, that committment doesn't officially start until January.  11 days more to wallow on my couch and only think about running...