So, let me see, what's been new in my life since the last time I blogged? Well, my boys are back at school, my husband is back at work and so am I. Half of our summer vacation my husband was gone, compliments of the Army (again), so me and the boys really didn't do too much. Once he got back, right in time for 4th of July, we did some day trips, one of them was to the Louisville Zoo and we even took a longer road trip to Colorado. 18 hours one way. Wow! I had a lot of knitting time on the way, since hubby did most of the driving. We went through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas to end up in Colorado. I have to admit that I have never seen a more boring state than Kansas, so I made quite some progress on my knitting.
I the meantime I'm sure everybody has gotten their email from Knit Picks as well as the catalog in the mail. If you did, I can point out a couple (!) of my projects in there. I'm sure everybody had to drool first over the new Zephyr needles. Hopefully that didn't divert all your attention to all the nice new stuff inside. First I want to direct your attention to the jacket I made out of Shamrock yarn. It's the Jacket with Frog Fasteners from the book
Vintage Knitwear for Modern Knitters.
In the previous catalog I had one project published, that I almost forgot to show off. It's
Grandma's Lace Shawl from Lorna Miser's book Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting.
Next up was the
Calluna Cardigan, a web design special from Knit Picks. This cardi was made with the new City Tweed HW and was a pretty fast knit, thanks to the thicker yarn.
Of course the Felici Socks are still available, at least six of the eight colors, but the big finale, so to speak is on the last page. Mr. Foster's new girl friend (not like he had an old one)
Carmen Banana. She was that super secret project I had to knit for Knit Picks and Kerin, the designer, did a really nice job with the embellishments. I did only the knitting part, they did the rest. Carmen also has great outfits to show for. Besides her stunning evening dress, she can also be seen in her pink poodle skirt with a cream top and matching cardigan. She even has some cute panties! Now I wonder what other outfits people will come up with, once they are done knitting their Carmen. There is also a contest going on at Knit Picks to make
Mr. Foster a Halloween outfit. You might want to drop in an see what it is all about and maybe submit your own crazy design.
I hope you check in every once in a while to see what I'm up to. I know, I'm leaving some of you hanging for a while, but I have not totally given up on blogging, just have a lot of things going on right now. The next yarn from Knit Picks is in a box waiting for me to knit it, two more projects are in the loop for them and I'm working on three lace shawls for friends of mine. So you see, besides that and buying a house, I think I had a good excuse for taking a blogging pause.
Later.
Miralda
See what happens if you put all your stuff on Ravelry? You forget to post it on blogger. Here is my Mirlada Shawl that I forgot to blog about. It was made from fingering weight Jojoland Melody I brought home from RoLynn's. I didn't even touch the 4th ball that I bought for this project. Here are the pics.
Knock Knock
Yes, it's me, I'm still here. I'm surprised anybody still reads my blog after my long times of not showing any sign of life. I guess I have to make it at least a once a month thingy. It's really not that I don't have the projects to do, it's more like the projects I do and can't show yet. Then there is the other thing with the kids being out of school hogging my computer every minute of the day. I feel lucky if I can shoo them away for a couple of minutes to check my emails and my Ravelry page. One falls move, I tell you, and they are stuck to that computer again like flies to the trash. Well, that's a little harsh compairison, but you get the picture, I'm sure.
Anyway, so you all won't forget about me completely, here are some things I want to show off that I've been working on. First of all my latest FO. It's well known to everybody as the Girasole, so I won't have to say anything else about it. I'm sure you know where to find it. The yarn is some good old Wintuk acrylic (hey, don't knock it) which was handed down to me by a friend in exchange for one of my adorable Hedgies. Nine balls of it turned into this beauty. It's already well in use by my kids and even another friends cats got to enjoy it, when I brought it for show and tell in our last knitting group meeting. It's not blocked and I don't know if it ever will be. I don't thinks it going to work for it anyway, but it sure looks pretty. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it took me 10 days from cast on to the last stitch.
Next up are the things I got to knit for RoLynn and Ashley of Enchanted Yarn and Fiber. They asked me to make some things to put into their store, since running a store is seriously cutting into their own knitting time.
The first one is a scarf knit from Noro Silk Garden. This yarn is really soft and knits up really fast. The only thing is that you can't see much of the stitches, since it's kind of bumpy.
The other one is a Boys V-neck vest made from Crofter DK, a nice cotton/acrylic blend. It has a nice drape to it without being too heavy and comes in self striping colors. I was so temped to take some pink home with me to make it into a baby blanket, but don't have one "lined up" with anybody I know.
The last one was a cute little cardigan knit from Linares yarn, a cotton/viscose blend. I has a really nice sheen to it and that cardigan took 5 balls, which means it weighs a good pound!
Next up is the fish hat I just had to knit for my boys. The pattern can be found on
Knitty and knits up really fast. We haven't decided yet if the fish is going to be dead or alive, so for now he is just blind.
Let's see, what else. Hmmm, ah yes, there is this little beaded purse I knitted up in an afternoon. The stringing of the beads took almost more time that the whole knitting part itself. I'm still on the lookout for the perfect bead to close it up with and I need to add a strap. It's really tiny and I don't think that even my cell phone would fit into it.
And this is what I have on the needles right now. It's some kind of bulky black cotton paired up with a shiny thread with fuzzies (I know, very scientific). By themselves either one of those yarns wouldn't have made any impact, but paired together they make for a nice, almost elegant looking, bag. It's going to be a market bag, so we'll see what it's actually getting used for, when it's done.
I already have the yarn for my next KP project in my house, all lined up and ready to cast on. One problem though - I don't have a pattern yet. Hmm, that might be a little bit of a problem, right? Well, why should I be the only one to suffer. I leave you with this picture and see what you would come up with.
Spin me right round
So I got suckered into this, I have to admit this. I was so sure that I was a total screw up, when it comes to the field of spinning. I had the urge about two years ago, so I built a little homemade spindle and got some fiber off of Ebay and off I went. I think I got the hang of it, but once I had a couple of balls of single done I was stuck. Now what? I wasn't to crazy about the whole concept of plying and setting a twist and heck knows what else is involved in the whole spinning action. So my little spindle and the rest of the rowing went into a bag into a box and mostly forgotten. Last weekend members of our local
knitting group got together for a afternoon of spinning. Hey, I tried it, I didn't go crazy over it, but without anything better to do that day, I went to join the ladies (and gent) for the afternoon. As proof of my failure I brought along my stuff just to find out how badly I really suck at this. Well, everybody was amazed on how good I did (including myself) and instead of an afternoon of watching them turn fuzzies into yarn and me knitting, I ended up spinning up the rest of my roving and turning it into nice little skeins.
I still don't know what to do with it, but I ended up with 5 ounces of singles. I guess I could knit a hat out of it? Don't know yet. Worst case scenario I can always felt it, right? Like a good supplier
Luna didn't let us walk out of her place without a little more fuzzy stuff, to keep us hooked. Reminds me of a dealer in some way. First she gives us a taste, so we'll have to come back for more. And she has more, trust me. After all she has her own sheep to supply her with the means to her addiction. The funny thing is, and I kid you not, she has a sheep with the same name as me, even spelled the same way. How odd is that!
Ok, enough said about the way I spent my weekend. I also have a FO to report. This is the boy's V-neck vest made from Crofter DK I was working on for
RoLynn's store. This is the second project I've finished for them. One more to go and I can show my face there again and walk into her place, baring gift :) Makes me feel like I'm one of the three kings.
Now the next picture is what I treated myself with after a long time of arguing with myself. After all, I do need it and there is almost not a day that I don't have those needles in my hand, it's work related, it's a necessity and all of those above reason justified me ordering this set of pretty, pretty KP Harmony needle tips. Hmmm, gotta love them.
Too bad that even as a test knitter, I had to pay the regular price for it, but I think I'm worth it. Don't you? I'll surely enjoy them.
Now off to some more knitting and casting on something else. :) Have a nice and hopefully sunny day of knitting.
New KP Project
I've been lazy blogging again, but at least I do it once a month. Well, today is the day and I have something to show for. If you got the latest
KnitPicks email yesterday, you got their new May Catalog online. Right there on page for is one of my projects. Well, it's actually three, but they were all knit as one project. It's the Circle Baby Blanket, Jacket with Mittens and the Chubby Bunny from the book
Itty Bitty Nursery. Here are the pictures:
They were all made from their new organic
Cotton yarn, which was pretty nice to work with.
It's always nice to see my stuff show up in their catalog or even in the
IK magazine. Makes me feel like I'm a celebrity (which I'm surely not!). Last month felt kind of weird, because in the whole catalog there was nothing in there that I made and that is not normal, for me anyway. Just to let you know, there are three more in the queue to be published and right now I'm working on a super top secret knit for them, and that's all I can say about that. :D Sorry. But this ensures my job security.
I also picked up another knitting job. Go figure, right? So there I was strolling into
RoLynn's and Ashley's
yarn store (again) and ended up walking out of there with a bag full of gorgeous yarn and patterns to knit some samples for their store. Now how much cooler can that get. Now I have an official reason to swing by there and don't need to bribe my husband to swing by there. My kids absolutely love that place too and never want to leave. If it wasn't for my dogs waiting at home for me, I might just pitch a tent there and spend the night :D (just kidding). Do you get the idea that I really like that place. If I ever get a wish from a magic
genie, I'll ask for a store just like theirs. Hey, a girl can dream, right?
Ok, enough chatting, back to knitting. The needles are cooling down, the coffee is kicking in and I feel myself being able to knit 100mph again. Later.
Family Picture
Maybe this is not the picture you are expecting, but they are part of our family. And they are multiplying like rabbits. These are some of the hedgies I've been making to knit down my fun fur and eyelash yarn stash. I still seem to have a ways to go, because a friend sent me a whole box one time and it only takes one ball to make one hedgi.
The two on the left back are not felted and finished yet, but I didn't want to hold that again them. They will be looking like their siblings in no time. Enjoy them.
Now I gotta get back to knitting down at least one ball of my latest KP project. Not that I'm running short on my deadline, but I start feeling guilty about making fuzzy toys. So here is the deal. One ball of yarn on the KP and then one hedgehog. Sounds fair?
Bad Blogger
Yes, I am. I've been very lazy about keeping my friends updated on what I've been knitting. And you all know that I can't life without my needles. There is even a project in my car at all times.
I've been knitting up a storm on hedgehogs and have to take a family picture of them. But that won't happen today, so you'll have to wait for a little bit longer. But I made a good dozen so far in any kind of color variation, some of them more traditional, others plain crazy, but all of them cute. Two already found a new home, one as a thank you for yarn and the other as a birthday present, which was very well received. Anyway, more about that later.
Wait, I just found a picture of the first two I made the left one if for my younger son, the right one found a home.
In the meantime I also knitted down a little bit of my sock yarn odd ball stash. You know, those little itty bitty balls of leftover sock yarn, not enough to do something with, but still to much to throw it out without feeling guilty. Well, I have plenty. So this is what they turned into.
These mini socks that can be used as key chains, chap stick cozy, Christmas tree ornament or whatever else you might want to use them for. They, as well as the hedgehogs, are very colorful. A friend of mine from our local knitting group is taken them to a crafts fair. We'll see how people like them. I experimented with many variations in cuffs, fair isle, stripes, as well as different toes and heels and came up with my own little recipe. I hope you like them. Now back to making another fuzzy friend.
All about dogs
Yes, this post is all about dogs. First, here is what my "puppy" presented me with yesterday after just leaving the room for 5 minutes.
Nice, isn't it? It's what's left of one for Aaron's felted slippers. He couldn't find it the night before. Well, the dog it. She went to town with it and had it chewed up in no time. Luckily I have enough of the yarn left to make him another single slipper. Now I just have to make sure it felts to the same size.
Next is the doggy, I might replace that first one with. It's going to be a doggy pillow. Not a pillow for the dog, but a pillow that looks like a dog. Aaron also picked that one and wanted it to look like our retriever mix.
Staying with the animal theme, here is a little friend that I made quickly for a member of our knitting group. She has a habit of frogging everything at least once, so I thought she might be in good company like that. She loved him. (No, he is not flipping anybody off, I just didn't block his "fingers" out into the right direction :) ). He was fun to do, but is one of those projects you only do once.
I'm done with the pink lacy KnitPicks testknit, way ahead of schedule, which leaves me with some knitting/crochet time for myself. I also finished this Helena cardigan from Knitty. It's really pink, but the picture came out blue. Don't ask me why. I might have to retake it, before it goes to my neighbor, who is pregnant right now. It was supposed to be a 6 month size, but since I din't check the gauge before I started, she won't be able to use it for another year or so. Ooops.
Have a nice and productive weekend.
