You guys are clever, so I know you know what this is...

And if you don't recall, there were 2 skeins of STR shown earlier on...and here are the two colorways knit together...

And though movement on my Secret of the Stole II came to a screeching halt, I did actually get some knitting done over the long weekend. It seems these baby showers keep sneaking up on me! So I finally knit the 2nd practice bootie from Cat's book and a matching hat! I'm very proud of this hat-not that it is original, nor the idea, but I am just so thrilled that it looks just about the size of a newborn cap with the edge cuffed up. Cuffed down, it stretches to what looks like a size 9 mo. cap! So the baby can wear this for some time! This set was knit wit just about 1 ball of Crystal Palace Merino5 (long story, but it would actually fall short by the last 16 rows of a bootie, so if you want a set out of a ball of this yarn, you need to start decreasing the hat about 4 rows sooner -LOVE this stuff!

The hat is basically a CO of 72 stitches, K2 P1 ribbing, knit about 5 1/2", then started decreasing.

So I am ready for the Baby Shower! Boy, sometimes I amaze myself!

This is for Irish Girlie...

She'll know why! Just finished and grafted the last toe today! And that's about all I have time to post tonight! Oh-except for this!

Lil' Emp is now missing his 2 front teeth! He lost two bottom teeth last year, then...nothing! So they are in a bottle and here, he examines them.

And...well...I caved. I'm going to Stitches West this Friday! WOO-HOO!!!

There is Cheap Yarn, and there is Crap Yarn...

And for those of us who are not 'Yarn Snobs', we must learn to differentiate between the two, for often Cheap Yarn does not equal Crap Yarn, and usually Crap Yarn is a variety of Cheap Yarn...

Take this yarn, for example: a Wool/Acrylic blend yarn-75% Acrylis, 25% Wool, "Wendy Chunky", made in England. Decent hand-feel...For knitting Dashing Mitts-(btw, did I tell you that the finished Dashings in STR "Shadow" were the second attempt...)-portion of "Wendy" Dashings shown below..bad idea!
So in this case, this yarn is Crap Yarn! Though it would maybe be good for a sturdy bag, though you really would not want to knit anything that would be cabled or tightly knit with this. But why am I saying this is "crap"? Well, if you can imagine knitting a pair of Dashings with dpns at a somewhat tighter gauge than recommended and getting this 'squeeking' sensation, that would be one reason. Now imagine coming to the cable portion of said mitts...you cleverly do your cable needle-less cabling, only this stuff is like iron and you need to really tug to make sure those stitches cross on over to the other side. Every stitch was an effort to knit. Seriously.

And now, I present you with some Cheap Yarn. Not the finest, but guess what? It is Red Heart (which people love to hate) and it is labeled 'craft' yarn! It is bulky, it is inexpensive, it is 100% acrylic! And the color is kinda cool for a kid. Especially a kid who has decided wool products that have previously been knit for him are 'too scratchy'. So guess what? I knit him a "smarf" (his term for a single fingerless mitt) and am now making him an Unoriginal Hat from this! It feels decent and has much more give than the Wendy Chunky-and this is even a thicker yarn! No crunchy noise coming from my knitting, either! Cheap Yarn?-yes. Crap Yarn?-NO!


And now, in addition to inspiration in seeing Carrie's Unoriginal Hat, I present to you my Unoriginal Hat (A YarnHarlot-Stephanie Pearl-McPhee- pattern):


I started this last night, finished this afternoon-2 sittings of a couple of hours, at most! 45 or less rows!

So sadly, despite being off from work sick (I got Lil' Emperor's cold!-we all did!), I have not touched my Secret of the Stole II! I completed the above hat (being sick is motivation to add to the head warmer pile) and instead spent my awake time (dare I admit this?!) playing Super Mario Galaxy with Lil' Emp on his Wii. Yes, LE's favorite state of being: too sick to go to school, but not too sick to play Wii! I really mostly was his 'assist' in capturing star bits and freezing enemies that he could then stomp. So when not playing Wii, I was too tired to knit or do much of anything else-amazing how these stupid games can tire you out so much, but they do!

So no blogging until now, and the only other thing to show since the last post?...

Does this look familiar?...


It's the replacement gift purse! So I started this last weekend and am now to the top. Another last-year's Christmas gift still in the works! It went very quickly and if I had worked on it instead of my had, it would certainly be done. But I didn't. And it's not. And that's just the way I get sometimes! OK, maybe tomorrow...and maybe I'll even finish the first Serendipity sock I started! I'll try to post the progress tomorrow!

Is it WIP Wednesday?!

I usually don't acknowledge WIP Wednesday, and wouldn't you know it-I'm posting on a Wednesday and even remember it is WIP Wednesday, but instead, I show you this...


I guess this is technically a "WIP", since the ends aren't woven in yet! Both finished last night: Dashing Mitts, v 2.2 for my bro. I felt so smart because when Purlescence didn't have BMFA Twisted in "Shadow", I realized that-DUH!-I could purchase a skein of Socks that Rock lightweight in "Shadow" and use it doubled! Oh, what a Brain Child am I!-lol!

I modified it to make it a bit larger by casting on an additional 4 stitches and adding a P3 rib (vs. P1 or P2 between K4 P1 K4 ribbing, as per pattern) This was such a great knit and so much better than the crap wool/acrylic yarn I had originally started with! But let me tell you, I used every inch of yardage! The tail on one was a bit long (like maybe 14"), but I shortened the thumbs to 8 vs. 9 rows before BO; worked one thumb, bound off, then (in case there wasn't enough yarn), I worked the other thumb from the other end of the tiny ball of yarn. In the end, I had maybe 3" of yarn running between the 2 thumbs! Needless to say, I will be weaving in ridiculously short (and not recommended) ends into the thumbs. The other tails are long enough and also need to be woven in before I can officially call these finished!

Now, as for all you fellow STR fans: I was over at Cockeyed's blog and lookie what I saw...
Go ahead, click on the pic and blow it up bigger! I DARE you! Yeah, made me salivate...a LOT! Torture, I tell you! All that STR in one place! Better than those "Blue Moon Fiber Arts Order-In!" posts that we live for! If this is an indication of what Stitches West is going to be like, I am soooo in trouble!

So I finally frogged the Secret of the Stole II back to the end of Clue 1 and am now around 10 rows into Clue 2. No picture because it really won't look much different than what I've previously posted!

I'm plugging along on Dashings, v. 3.0 out of KnitPicks "Shamrock" which, BTW, has a wonderfully soft feel to it! I also picked up my lovely Serendipity and worked a bit on that today. Still on the cuff portion. I took today off to chaperone Lil Emp's class on a field trip to the SF Ballet. They will be having ballet classes through the SF Ballet, so there was a ballet lecture/demo and performance for the kids. I knit a bit on the Dashings; the lighting made it a bit difficult to know how many rows I had knit before needing to cable again, so once I got to the point where I thought a cable should go, I stopped and put it away.

So for WIP Wednesday, I gave you an update on some of the WIPs at the forefront of my 'to knit' list! The Secret Project is underway, but no details to share at this time.

Yeah, I get the 'blankie over babies' thing, but what I wasn't getting was-why over their faces?

So I didn't buy any Funky Carolina fibers-probably because they all flew out the door before I could even view them! I think that I cannot ever try and buy any. Ever. The difficulty in getting it would make me want some that much more! So no Funky Carolina and no new yarn purchases! And no knitting-related purchases! And absolutely NOT getting this!

Now to plot out Stitches West: spindle? yarn? both? how much? what should be the limit?...I just found a Christmas check from the parental units...save it for camp where I'll really need it, or portion part of it for SW? Decisions, decisions!

Sometimes I've gotta wonder...

What the heck was going through Lil' Emperor's head when he set this scene up on his bed? Yes, tissues over his four stuffed animals-what's that about?!


And here's something kinda fun to look at...

Two 1/2 skeins of STR medium weight! ... Anyways, these are being knit into something quite secret. What, I cannot reveal. Yet. Yeah, Nartian knows. She knows everything. But it's secret-secret and I cannot share what it is. Rest assured, you will know when the time is right! And no, Nartian, you cannot tell! You are sworn to secrecy! So don't anyone try and bribe her or anything, ya hear?

Evil, I tell you!

Some of you come and visit my blog, while you are 'blog-free'. So instead of posting stuff on your blog to tempt me, you come here and tell me all about places like Crown Mountain Farms (thanks alot, Maria!)...or Wooly Wonka and Funky Carolina (thanks to Terry!)...but guess what?!-I have resisted thusfar! Trust me, I put Atlantis and San Francisco colorways of this fiber from Crown Mountain Farms; happily, it the cart it remains! So far, so good. I am getting the satisfaction of 'pretending' to buy! HA! But don't think that eventually I won't cave! Ya'll are evil!

Another Yarn Wench update!

The Yarn Wench just did another update to her offerings!

And I'm not buying any! And especially not this, this, nor this!

And not even this...

Oooooh, I don't know...I really do like THIS...!

My God, she's even gone through the effort of ripping off Yarn Wench's phot o to post on the blog!

Don't be surprised if this one makes me cave...you may see it ending up on my blog in person! MUST-RESIST...!

OK, lemme go wipe the drool from my lips and relinquish computer rights to Lil' Emperor. That ought to keep me out of trouble for a bit and maybe they'll be gone by the time I think of buying them again!

A lovely picture for you to look at, really hard...

before I rip this puppy back!

I got cocky and wasn't paying attention the second half of the stole. I was just kinda using what was already there as a guide. It looks like the area to the left, about 2/3 up from the bottom got messed up. I'm 2 stitches off and I it seems like it will be too difficult to figure out. So it appears that what progress I made with 'Clue 1' is as far as I am, since my frogging will proably go back to the begining of Clue 2.

So...I'm not quite ready to frog yet, but will do it soon so I don't fall futher behind!

But now to show something fun...look what I got in the mail yesterday!
Stitch markers I ordered at-where else?-Etsy!!! I got this from Knitaholic's shop. I couldn't pass up the crocheted bead stitch markers nor the girlie-motifed markers for my friend KnitBling. It is so her! (Kinda meant to be a surprise, but maybe she won't get to reading this before she gets them!) And yes, that is yarn you see pictured with the markers. Yes, it came in the package. NO, I did NOT buy nor order it! Knitaholic felt bad for forgetting to send the markers out immediately (they still got here pretty quick!), so she included it with my order! THANK YOU KNITAHOLIC!!! Too cool! Awesome handspun, no? Don't be hatin'!

I had a bunch of very ripe bananas and decided to make some banana chocolate chip cake. LE dictated "no chips". I split the recipe and put chips in 1/2 the batter, so now I must be off to find out how many offensive WW points the 1/32 of the recipe will cost me! Either that or rip back a row of the stole and see what it looks like. Or knit a few rows of my Serendipity. Or maybe I should really get to sleep, huh? Knitting lace is a veeerrrry bad idea this late at night and the knitting projects I want to work on right now is exactly that-lace! Uh, yeah...why does such inspiration strike at the most inopportune times!

PS-This, dear readers, is my good college buddy's new little one...I'm in love with this child! She is so absolutely adorable! So of course, some Cat baby socks for her with a matching hat-IF I ever get to them!