Monday, November 17, 2008

Love the mailman

The mailman came to my door today with a box with a smile on it. You know what that means.....

I ordered the "Knitted Lace of Estonia" by Nancy Bush and "Hats On" by Chgarlene Schurch. I'm not person to jump onto any new book, I check out the patterns, I find the best prices and see who offers free checking and who offers all I want, so I only have to order once. Well, Amazon had all of the above, so I expanded my small library and I have to say I love them both. I've been eyeing the "Hats On" for a while and Pat was very "helpful" in providing one great project after another. I think this is called enabling? Well, she is very good at it. Thanks a lot.

The lace book is just as great. I think there is only one pattern in there I'm not drooling about and that is it. You'd think the choice, which one to start with, would be hard? Not at all. I just pull out my lace yarn, see how many skeins and yards I have and go from there. Sounds easy, right?

Now let me get back to drooling. I'll talk to you soon.

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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Adjustments

First of all let me tell you, it's been a couple of interesting days here in my house. Since we have that new puppy in our house, I feel like I have to be on my toes all the time and I don't really want to leave the house. Why? Too bad I didn't take a picture of the destruction that greeted us today after being gone for only 3 hours, but you can use your imagination. Papers all over the floor, a chewed book and a nipped game boy charger cable that was salvageable thanks to some electrical tape. I don't think I have to tell you who was to blame for this? Needless to say, she is in the doghouse - literally - today. I thought having one dog in the house was a change from our normal life, but since we had adjusted to that, what harm can a second one be. Wrong! It's just like having a second set of kids. I mean, really. They fight over the same toy, even though there are all the other ones laying around on the floor, they eat each others food, growl at each other for the dumbest things and when they get to playing, nothing is holy anymore. I get knocked over, the furniture gets bumped and so on. That's when I turn into a bouncer and tell them both to take it outside.


Not even my yarn is safe. I noticed that yesterday, when I stepped away for a moment and next thing Laila (that's what we named the new one) tried to drag around my ball of yarn. I guess you don't need a cat when it comes to a pet that wants to play with yarn. No way, Missy. This is my house, my rules and especially my yarn and we don't play with mom's yarn! Not even those famous puppy dog eyes are going to safe your butt there.


Since we made the transition to knitting now, I can show you a teaser picture of what she tried to drag off yesterday. I literally knitted until I had to put it down at night, because my fingers hurt. It was a nasty, rainy, windy day anyway and I didn't even make it out of the house to throw my trash. Perfect for lounging pants, baggy t-shirt and knitting on the couch all day while catching up with my DVR.


That should keep you guessing for a while, but I can't show more, because it's going to be a Christmas present and I know the recipient checks my blog and ravelry.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

New distraction

So I've been knitting and reading and finishing and so on, but somehow I don't seem to have much to show for. I'm almost done with my traveling roses shawl and figured with 16 repeats (and I still have to read the pattern) it's enough. It's really nice and soft, but it's enough. I just don't want to see that pattern anymore in the near future. There are too many other things that need my attention. This one is one of them.



Isn't she worth all the attention? She is a cutie and we brought her home last night. She is a 6 months old lab mix and the mother, so I was told, was a pure bread Pyrenees mountain dog. You know what that means, right? This is her, with her 1/2 year next to my 3 year old retriever mix. Just imagine how big she is going to be next year? Well, we'll wait and see.

This blanket is what I just finished last week. It was a last minute baby blanket I had to make for a new baby in my husbands unit and I knew I needed something in thick yarn with thick needles. I tried to knit this one, but gave up on it really quick like. Instead I did a simple crochet ripple and knit until I ran out of yarn. I got the yarn really cheap too at Walmart where they had the Red Heart Baby Clouds marked down to 1.50 a pack. Now how could I say no to this one, but I tell you what - it was not the most enjoyable thing I ever crochet. That's for sure. The whole time I had to hunt for the hole where to put the next stitch, because I just couldn't see it very good due to the texture of the yarn. But it's done and I hope it'll be well received.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

KP 12 revealed

I found another one of my KP testknits revealed on their website today. It's the Heart Pants from Hannah Fettig's book "Closely Knit". It's available at KP, of course.


So that leaves only one more in the loop. It's the one with the scary sciccor picture. :)
In the meantime I'm keeping myself busy with smaller projects. But you already know that. Here is the one I'm currently working on. It was supposed to be another hat, but turned into these mittens.

These are the White Witch Mitts from IK Spring 2008. I just ran into the right yarn in my stash, but ended up reversing the colors. I'm knitting those in 3mm cables and so far they are moving along quite nicely. Bad thing is, I'm almost done with them, so now I have to hunt for another project. Yes, I know, I still have a couple of WIPs, but there is just something about casting on for something new vs. knitting on the same old same old. I'm sure you know what I mean.

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