One of these things is not like the other...

(Taps playing in the background) You served me well for two pairs of socks and numerous sock starts. Little did we know that there was a weak spot in your middle that would snap at the most inopportune time. Thank you for holding yourself together just long enough for me to knit the stitches, the ones that clung perilously close to death, off and onto another needle. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten. You will be remember each time the Razor Shell Socks are worn. Farewell, my friend, my US2 Bryspun DPNs.

Edited to add that I might have raided the stash that I was planning on sending off to a friend and...well...took a set of bamboo US2 DPNs. It was a for a good cause though, I mean, come on! It's the Razor Shell Socks. That's quite a lovely reason to become a needle thief. Yeah, knitting has really increased my rationalization skills.

Update Post

WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY POST FOLLOWS!

Thanks, Gracie! It was such a joy to receive this package today. I was home sick all day and when the mail carrier knocked on the door and my husband brought this to me in bed...well...let's just say it was very welcome! It's gorgeous and I love the card. Thank you, thank you, thank you!


Pattern: Rib Tips Socks
Yarn: Cascade Fixation in Black
Needles: US 3 Bryspun DPNs

Mike is pretty happy to have these and is even gracious enough to ignore the honking ladder going down the side of his foot. I think I pulled too tightly at the join of the DPNs and stretched the Fixation out too much. Lesson learned. Pattern: Cozy
Yarn: Joseph Galler's Peruvian Tweed bought at Yarns and Fabrications the newest LYS in my area. If you live slightly north of Cincinnati or slightly south of Dayton you have to check out Yarns and Fabrications. It's small right now, but I'm sure they're going to grow. My SIL and I spent a couple of hours in there agonizing over yarn purchases and Lori, one of the owners, is just the nicest, sweetest yarn store owner I've ever met. And if you get a chance to meet her kids they are darling!
Pattern: Razor Shell Socks written by Miriam L. Felton
Yarn: Knit Picks Sock Garden in Zinnia
I'm in love with this pattern. It's just absolutely fabulous.

The yarn is a little brighter than I anticipated when I bought it for a scarf and so it became destined for socks and I think they're going to be perfect for Autumn.




And finally...the children relaxing. This is generally the view that I have while knitting. Aren't they just adorable?

I finally finished my SIL's scarf. This is a the Finnish Lace pattern from Vogue knitting in Berroco Softwist.

A close-up of the stitch pattern. I really enjoyed this lace pattern and was pretty excited that I could go to the book, pick a pattern that I liked, add a garter stitch border, and create a scarf. It was such a thrill!

This yarn, while gorgeous and soft to touch, is a pain to work with. I think that if I had been using bamboo to knit with the duller points would have worked better, but my Denise needles just split this yarn like mad which, in turn, drove me mad quite a few times. This is the 4th reincarnation of this scarf. Each time with a different pattern.

In non-knitting news, Mike renewed his reserves contract last weekend. It was a moment of great importance for him as the Vice Admiral in charge of the Navy Reserves did his reenlistment. Here's a pic of my sailor in his dress whites. He's sharing a few words after reenlisting for another 6 years. I'm so proud of him.

You are Merino Wool.You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to
keep you close because you are so softhearted.
You love to be comfortable and warm from your
head to your toes.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Some Updates

Multidirectional Scarf

Classic Elite Fame

The yarn that you see on the left-hand side of my scarf is what was left after I cast off the last stitch. It was a little tense there for a moment. I wasn't sure I was going to have enough yarn so I did not attempt the optional ending posted with the pattern.

My So Called Scarf in handpaintedyarn.com Magnolia colorway. Ready to ship to my Secret Scarf Exchange recipient.

The children chillin' on the newly slipcovered couch. (Trouble on the left and Fuzzy on the right) I think they like each other now. :)

Late is better than never...

For a long time my dream has been to get my degree. I went straight from High School to College and then got slightly derailed by a really freaky religious group that I stayed in for a little over six years. So...back to the real world with only a year of college under my belt. Finally time to start making my dreams reality.

Now, I have some health problems that I may or may not have mentioned here before. One of my issues, in particular, has made it difficult for me to go to school full-time in the past. Being out of above-mentioned religious group (affectionately known as "the crazy cult") has lowered my stress level immensely. I'm an ambitious kind of girl (have you seen my list of things to knit lately?) so I decided to try going to school full-time, albeit online. In February of this year I graduated with my Associates Degree in Business Administration. This spring I return to a brick and mortar school to continue my education and complete my Bachelors in English/Secondary Ed. So...while this is all fresh in my mind...a graduation picture (yes, I had one. It was a virtual graduation, all done through the internet) :)

Scarf Exchange Take Two + Kepler Along + a little Kiri

I was having some issues with the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It wasn't the pattern...I really like it. It was the combination of the yarn and the pattern that was worrying me.

Enter My-So-Called scarf. If you think this looks familiar, you're right. I knit this scarf for myself in this pattern last winter. I love this pattern and the yarn (Handpaintedyarn.com's worsted weight merino in the magnolia colorway) I was saving the last skein that I had for the matching hat pattern, but before I printed off the pattern had been sold to a magazine. Now...I'm super excited for the girl who wrote the pattern, but a little bummed that I didn't print it when I first saw it. No matter though, the yarn came in handy. I don't need another My So Called Scarf, but I do love knitting it so it was the perfect replacement for the Chevron Scarf for the Secret Scarf Exchange. I really hope my recipient likes it. I'm planning on mailing it the second weekend of September if not earlier.

In other knitting news...I've joined the Kepler Knitalong that Amy is hosting. Emily has created a masterpiece and is graciously sharing the pattern for Kepler with the rest of the knitting world. I swatched for Kepler with Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride worsted in dark charcoal the other day. I'm not happy with the cable definition in this yarn. It's wonderful yarn and I love working with it, but it's not working for this pattern. The yarn has been reassigned to another project (Dad's felted clogs for Christmas) and I have purchased what I hope to be a sufficient amount of Cascade's Eco Wool in Mocha. I'll be casting on to swatch for that as soon as it arrives.


I've also joined the Kiri KAL. This is my first true experience with lace. I'm in love with this pattern. I think it's an excellent beginners pattern since it is charted and written affording the beginner the opportunity to "cheat" while trying to get the hang of reading the chart. I've completed Chart 1 and 2 repeats of Chart 2. I'm using KnitPicks Shadow in Oregon Coast. This yarn is so amazing. So soft and the colors are fantastic. This picture doesn't do the colors justice. From across the room it looks tan, but up close there are all these colors incorporated in it. It absolutely reminds me of a sandy beach.

Another Exchange Update

After spending more time reading my recipient's blog and working on the Chevron Scarf in the sock yarn I've decided it's not really what I was going for so I've switched patterns and yarn and am about 1/2 done with the scarf. Pictures soon...

Scarf Exchange Update

After reading my recipient's blog and looking through all my patterns I decided on the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Now, since I'm a KnitPicks devotee off I went to pick out some sock yarn (the pattern calls for KPPPM). I was looking for something a bit darker and the colors are pretty bright, but it's growing on me. It's Sock Garden Zinnia for anyone who is curious. I'm really liking this pattern. I started it on 5s and then ripped it out and started again on 6s and it seems to be working much better now. On the 5s the chevron pattern was causing it to bunch a bit too much.

I'm still working on Branching Out, but haven't taken any pictures of it lately. There's not much of a change. When I decided that it wasn't going to be my exchange scarf it got put on hold.

I'm also still working on a pair of black socks out of Cascade Fixation and a sweater for Mike. Those are kind of slow going right now, but I'm about 2 inches from the toe decreases on the first sock.

No pictures....please

Fuzzy says, "Aww, ma, no more pictures, huh?"













Finally, a picture of the newest addition to our family. This is Trouble. He is one of the three kittens that we rescued from behind our dumpster a couple weeks ago. We couldn't keep all three off them due to finances and allergies, but Mike fell in love with Trouble so he got to stay. He and Fuzzy are starting to get along. They're sleeping on the couch right now.






And in knitting news, I completed a pair of baby socks for a friend. They went so quickly and turned out okay. It really helped me to learn more about the mechanics of socks in a small project that didn't take forever to do the cuff alone.

Roving to yarn and back again

Mike has been really busy lately. He's working two jobs to help make ends meet. He was actually home on Saturday night and wanted to do something fun together so...he made me a drop spindle and then we dyed roving with Kool-Aid. (Pictures to come in the next day or so) The roving is a bit difficult to draft though. I tried to spin some of it yesterday and it's pretty wonky and then after setting the twist it's looking pretty much like roving again. Sigh...I'm going to learn to do this!

On the knitting scene I've been working on Mike's socks in black Fixation to go under his cargo boots. We're simply waiting on the letter that says when he deploys. It could be in the next couple of months or it could be sometime next year, but it's a pretty sure thing that he goes eventually. So he needs socks to wear under those boots with his camoflage uniform. I'm also working on a lace scarf for my SIL, still working on Branching Out, and the Anniversary sweater from Knitty.com for Mike.

I joined the scarf exchange that Celia is hosting and I'm so excited. It's my first exchange and it's been so fun looking at patterns and colors and yarns that I normally wouldn't knit, but that my exchange recipient might like.

Hmm...I need to post pictures of progress, but there hasn't been much on any one thing since I've been working on so many things at once. Pictures when there's progress then.

Our Prayers Are With You London

I was working 10 minutes from the Pentagon when the plane hit it on 9/11. The shock and hurt was just so immense. Friends were missing, friends of friends killed...it was traumatic and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Now...knitting friends in London are experiencing the same and the feeling of helplessness is almost overwhelming. You are in my thoughts and in my prayers.

Happy 4th of July!

Pattern: Shapely Tank by White Lies Designs
Yarn: Cotton Ribbon from Mysticl Creation Yarns
Started: June 14, 2005
Completed: July 1, 2005
Skills Learned: Shaping an armhole and working with two balls of yarn at the same time to complete the straps. Also, first time successfully completing a 3-needle bind off.
Changes I would make: I think I need to leave out a set of increases after the waist shaping to get rid of the slight pucker right below my chest. There was a little extra room up there.

I wore my Shapely Tank to my family's 4th of July celebration yesterday and it was a big hit.

I've already purchased the yarn for my second one. A solid color this time.

I'm Branching Out...

What's that? you say. It's this. I only have a few repeats of Branching Out done, but it's been the hardest few repeats of my short knitting life.

Branching Out, why do you mock me so?

It's such a gorgeous pattern, yet...I just could not get the hang of it. Okay...so I started it at midnight last night. I'm not a good knitter late at night, but I felt pretty confident that I could do this. Was I ever mistaken! Now that I've taken the time to sit down and figure out what I was doing I can sit and watch TV and knit BO.

I'm in love with lace knitting! I'm going to frog the scarf I am still working on for my SIL and start a lace pattern from my Vogue reference book. Then I'm going to start some sort of lace shawl for my grandmother. I have no clue which shawl is the best to pick, but I'm definitely going to start looking.

Okay, off to bed for me. Nighty-night!

After frogging 5 times...I think I have it.

Busy weekend finally over

Mike finally persuaded me to go fishing with him on Friday night. I left work at 5:30, rushed home, changed, and off we went. My family owns a farm in the middle of nowhere Indiana and it has a pond and it's our favorite fishing hole. Mike and my dad go at least once a month during nice weather times. I haven't fished since meeting Mike though so he's been not so patiently waiting to get me out there. My dad didn't help though. See, when I was young I had a habit of taking a book with me to read while fishing. I don't know if it was the patience that I had since I was otherwise occupied or what but I would normally catch about twice what every one else caught (with the exception of my father who is a great angler). Dad's been telling Mike these stories since they first met and Mike wanted to know if it was true.

So we got to the farm and made our way to the pond through the weeds and grass and started fishing. The fish weren't biting much until it was almost too dark to see the bobber go under. Can't really fish like that. We brought home 8 fish and....I caught 6 of them. Mike believes my dad now and he still wants to go fishing again. All in all, it was a good night.

Saturday we ventured out to the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival in Osgood, Indiana. It was a blast! Mike and I both learned to use a drop spindle and then promptly bought roving. We're going to dye the roving with KA and then knit each other hats (if we have enough). Mike's learning to knit!!! He's totally bitten by the bug. He's always wanted a house with some land so he could have horses, but now he also wants sheep and angora rabbits so we can spin yarn. Have I told y'all how much I love my husband??? He's really quite amazing.

Sunday we spent the day with my parents and my younger brother for Father's Day. We had a great time and them came home, fell into bed, and promptly doozed off.

It was definitely a busy weekend, but it was so amazing!

Mike and I drove out past where he works the other day and arrived at a sea of beauty. Aisle after aisle of hanging baskets of petunias of all sorts. It was amazing. We had the hardest time picking a basket and the compromise was to get one that had all the colors in it. This basket is so huge that it barely fit through our sliding glass door to our deck. I'm in love!

Shapely Tank as of last night. It's coming along. I'm doing the neck shaping at the moment and am coming up on the straps which requires a second ball of yarn. I have no clue how to do that so I'm going to research and/or hope someone at knitting tonight knows how to do this.

Shapely Tank, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...Mystical Creation Yarns Cotton Ribbon is a joy to work with. Definitely rougher on the hands than wool, but not as bad as I thought it would be. The colors are gorgeous, a little pooling, but it's not so bad. I love the short row shaping at the bottom. I went through some intense calculations for the right size, cast on, and had about 20 stitches too many so I frogged back and cast on again for my actual bust size. It's perfect now. This picture is after day one.

Answers for Gaby

Gaby,

Thank you for your comment! You didn't leave an email addy for me to respond to so I'm going to respond here.

For the variegated scarf (My-So-Called scarf) I used handpaintedyarn.com's merino in the worsted weight in a color way called Magnolia. It was amazing to work with and the first time I had ever even touched merino. If you can find some (try Ebay) it's awesome to work with.

The red cabled scarf was done in Lion Brand Wool-Ease using the Irish Hiking Scarf pattern. If you like the pattern it's a good way to start cabling. Google it and it'll come up along with the knit-along.

The tan scarf was done in a wool/acrylic blend that I got in bulk from Ebay.

The bulky black and red cabled scarf was done in the Irish Hiking Scarf pattern with Lion Brand Wool Ease Chunky.

Whoo...I think that's it. Oh, wait! The purple one. I have no clue. It was for my friend and she picked out the yarn, but it was bought at Wal-Mart and they still have it.

On Memorial Day Mike and I decided to tackle dyeing some cream colored Cascade 220. We picked the above colors as these are the colors Mike most loves to see me wear! This picture shows our preparations. I had so much fun working on this and the Sophie Bag that I knit with the yarn (see post below) is so pretty. I think I'm addicted...wait...I know I am!

Dyed and waiting to be zapped in the microwave.

Kool-Aid Dyed yarn for Sophie after drying for a day.

Sophie, pre-felting, in Kool-Aid Dyed Cascade 220. So far I'm thrilled with the way this has turned out. Felted to take place later today.

And in non-knitting related news, this past weekend Mike and I finished our container garden. The large one on the right is our rosebush, next to it and on the ground are lillies surrounded by portulaca, and in the front with the cage are our grape tomatoes. There are also three hanging baskets, but those didn't fit in the picture that I took while trying to lean as far backwards off the deck as I could!

And here she is in the socks.

This is my mom. I knit her ankle socks out of Cascade Fixation. Her face when she opened them was absolutely priceless. I cannot keep a secret from my mother and I managed to knit these and give them to her without spilling the beans. Okay...so I had her open them before anyone else got there for Mother's Day, but come on...I kept them from her for over two weeks! :)

Booga Bag in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. I loved knitting this and when I was done I lined it with some funky quilting fabric and then used a braided ribbon of sorts for the handles.

Waiting for deliveries

I'm so impatient! I'm waiting for numerous deliveries right now. Not all of them are yarn related but some of them are. I'm waiting for my cotton ribbon from the previous post. I ordered a bunch of Kureyon for some other people from woolneedlework.com and I'm waiting on an ebay win for some Kureyon that comes with a wine bag patter so that my SIL and I can make some wine bags.

I'm currently working on Anniversary from Knitty and a purse similar to the Booga Bag that I'm going to line with some really cool fabric that I picked up from Jo-Ann's this weekend.

I'm supposedly sewing a skirt for an upcoming wedding, but after my trial run from this weekend I'm not so sure any more. The purse I'm knitting and the lining were picked specifically to match the fabric that I already have. It's all super gorgeous, but I'm a sewing disaster. Although, on a happier note, my husband bought me my very own sewing maching this weekend. I'm in love with the maching, but having some severe user error issues. I'm trying to sew from a pattern that was designed to fit me which means there are minimal instructions. The waist is too big and I can't figure out how to finish it and the zipper was basically a disaster. I'm going to rip the zipper out, finish the seam to the top and put elastic in the top to finish this skirt. I'm happy with the skirt itself though and I'll probably wear it often. I just need a really easy skirt pattern to start with instead of trying to wing it with no sewing experience.

As soon as the yarn arrives I'll drop everything though and cast on for a tank top although which one is still to be determined.

Oh, what have I done? I went and bought some yarn from Mystical Creation Yarns. I couldn't resist! This is Cotton Ribbon in the Lauren colorway. I ordered 950 yards which should be enough for whichever tank top pattern I pick to use it for. Right now ChicKnits Boatneck Shell and Ribby Shell are my choices, but I'm sure there are others out there.

Drooling over yarn

Oh my! So, I was innocently over at Knitty's Forum reading posts when I happened upon a post about this website:

Mystical Creation Yarns

The colors are so amazing and the yarns are just too yummy looking. I'm not sure I'll be able to resist.

And here's my ever so willing model. My poor husband...he gets roped into everything. 

Clapotis knit in a hemp/wool blend from www.angoracottage.com I loved working with this yarn and fell in love with the variations in color. 

Close-up of finished Booga Bag. Eventually this will get a bright blue lining to help it hold its shape a bit more. I had a blast knitting this and it was quite quick. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. 

Completed Booga Bag 

Booga bag in Kureyon 52 blocking on VHS tapes 

Close up of the handles 

Sophie in Cascade 220 doubled. Beaded handles made from bead stash. Anyone know how I can get it to stop sagging in the middle? 

My So Called Scarf in Worsted Merino Magnolia Colorway from Handpaintedyarn.com