A New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009 has begun and, as always, I never make resolutions. But in a way, an incidental resolution occurred since I was at a local "beauty" store yesterday, taking advantage of their 25% off coupon that expired yesterday. I ended up with a bag full of face products so I resolved that I would do my best to follow my aestheticians recommendations and USE this stuff DAILY, as prescribed!-lol! I'm really feeling my age cuz I have now moved up to serums for "aging skin", whiteners and other such treatments! Suffice to say I spent waaaay more than I intended-but saved a goodly amount! So what I saved in yarn, I spent in face product! But, as we used to say when I sold Mary Kay, 'good looks begin with good skin' ...or something along those lines!

Though my gift knitting continues, I started on the Leyburn STR KAL because I could no longer resist the gorgeous skein of Seal Rock that was calling out to me! If you want in on this, pop over to the Rav Socks That Rawk! group! The thread is stickied to the top, so you can't miss it! The Socks that Rawk group is a great group and I tend to prefer it over the "Rockin' Sock Club" group someone started over at Rav. It may be just cuz Nartian, Irish Girlie and I are all on the Socks that Rawk group more than the other. Or maybe cuz TurtleGirl is such an awesome Mod that we love! Anyways, there is no deadline to join the KAL and what is fun is we are all knitting the pattern using different colorways of STR! (YAY, STR!!!)



OH...and the cowl I started for my bro's gf is done! I named it "Southwestern Flair". I picked this CP yarn called "Kaya" because it looked like a yarn she'd like (she likes red); since it stripes, I thought the texture looked kinda southwestern (and she is from Albequerque), so I went with it! Her style is kinda mod and the reds she tends to go for are more true tomatoe red, so I hope she likes this anyway!-lol!

If anyone cares, I will write up this pattern and post later. Easy peasy but I would have probably made it a bit smaller than it ended up.

I hope that 2009 has started off well for all of you! I think that with the completion of one project yesterday and only starting the Leyburns, I am doing pretty well. And I'll be working on the dark age spots!-lol! ;)

Bless Me, Readers, for I have Sinned!

It has been three months since my last yarn purchase confession. Well, except for the one skein of Wollmeise because what Knitter in their right mind passes up on a Wollmeise opportunity? And the other purchases between weren't purchases, since I used gift certificate; therefore, they were gifts.

So I walk into a local crafting store and walk out with this... I mean, the good thing is none of this is yarn, right? The afghan booklet had quick knit afghans that look like they won't bore me--worked doubled and in clever panels! I promised a friend he'd get an afghan by his 50th birthday--I have a bit less than 4 years to go and thought this would be a good start! The hook? Well...some of my lovely 8/0 beads' holes are a tad bit too small for the size 12 crochet hook. Yeah, I paid more for the new hook than if I bought a new bag at less than $1.50 for around 275 beads! I paid for the two items, then the bead spinner caught my eye...it was at the other register and on sale! Grabbed it up, paid for it, done. Yeah, I'm sick that way...Then I thought about Chicken Knit's resolve not to purchase anything she absolutely did not need for a month...I failed that task!

Final confession? One word: Woolgirl! Yeah, I'll dish when it arrives...

And now for the planned Malabrigo Holiday Knits:

I'm hoping these will be converted to gifts this month! Recognize the upper left colorway? I used it for the Quickie Cowl and hope to make a Tudora for my cousin. The right was used for a Tudora and I haven't decided what it may end up being. It's the Colchina colorway. The two colors at the bottom are the Privada collection colorways that ImagiKnit has had sitting forever on their sale shelf. They didn't look nearly as attractive unwound, but I suspected they were more of a 'wow' once wound. I think I may be correct.

The blue/grey/pink will be a Calorimetry for a cousin and the orange/green/pink will maybe be a cowl for a friend's December b-day.

But wait-that's not all! I started the soles pre-October 1 start date, but the tops I started after the 1st. These are two not-Malabrigo Loafers to be. I'm using whatever worsted wool I have for the soles. The top of the first pair is Weavers Wool Quarters from Mountain Colors. Clever Me to discover I had this in my stash to use!
No completed stole clues yet, but the baby hat has been long-finished. A new Baby Solly hat, though I understand that Little 6 mo. Solly is wearing 12 mos. old clothes! This hat may be too small...

Th-th-th-that's all, Folks!

Carefree Holiday-or not-KAL!!!

Come join the fun! I just joined this KAL where we will be sharing our holiday knitting and entering contests for some fun Crystal Palace Yarn-so go check it out NOW since participation is limited to the first 100 persons to sign up!

http://carefreeholiday-ornot-kal.blogspot.com/

"How to join the KAL
E-mail Laura --- proflaura at firststepinternet dot com --- for an invite to join the blog"

Thought I'd share the love (thanks, Adrienne--yeah, you thought you'd get me moving on knitting up some of my stash, huh?) Hope to see you guys there!

Got me some lace!

Well, not exactly lace, but lace weight yarn! And at NO COST. In fact, I got back $1.78 in change! I made it over to Article Pract and found that they do, indeed, carry Cashwool. And I was able to find a beautiful cranberry red color. In addition, I was able to snag 2 cones of Habu in a gorgeous sage green color!

I loved the color of the Habu, but it is REALLY thin. I mean REALLY. THIN...Nartian suggested I swap out the BMFA Laci for the Habu; use the Habu for the SSiii since DK is using a fairly thin yarn for hers. I agree with that, so long as the Habu swatches up ok. It may drive me nuts to knit with in which case I can always carry it along with some other Habu for a lacey scarf or something if it doesn't work out. But I will swatch and see...

But for now, the results of the ssiii swatching:

Size 2 needles with Colonial Grey-lined crystal beads (I stupidly didn't realize I was supposed to add the beads as I went, so only ended up beading 2 of the 3 beaded rows...):
Then I realized I needed to go up a few sizes on the needles. I went up to a size 5 and tried out the Orchid-Lined crystal 6/0 beads:
I haven't completed this swatch, since I am now starting to swatch the green Habu so I can decide whether I need to switch this yarn out to use on the MS4. If not, I can use the Cashwool for the MS4 or (if I can find my other gift certificate for Article Pract) purchase this other lace yarn I found today--a gorgeous heathered greenish-teal color. It's on hold as I write! Keep your fingers crossed that I find that gift certificate!

Beads! Beads! More Beads! Cake!

I can't believe I FINALLY got the whole 1750 yards of Laci wound into a cake! And without the help of the Jumbo winder, since I had returned it and hadn't gotten around to borrowing it again! Nartian was right-go S L O W... And here it is!


I think alot of the driving force in finally getting this wound is that my beads arrived!

Above, Laci is shown with the three bead choices (left to right): Colonial Gray-lined Crystal, Orchid-lined Crystal, Gilt-lined Peach. Off the bat, I think a NO on the peach. The Silver-lined Rosaline is in the background and I think would be a lovely choice, except they didn't offer it in the 6/0 size. The ones in the background are supposed to be for the MS4 KAL and are size 8/0.

So now I REALLY have to swatch!

When Duty Calls, I Answer!

And that's why I ended up casting on yet another pair of socks! But look how awesome my Socks that Rock Blarney Stone is knitting up?!

This is the Sunshine Socks pattern from SockPixie that a friend of mine had done using a skein of STR in Purple Rain that I had given her as a consolation for the fact she had knit her brand new Shabui (a gorgeous CherryBlossom colorway-pink with flashes of lime green!) into Monkeys that only a small child would fit! And well...she has three boys! Three boys who are not of the petite variety!

Anyways, she knit this Sunshine Socks pattern up and the socks turned out gorgeous! Our other friend decided she would try out the pattern and found herself getting 5 remaining stitches from the original 70 stitch CO! So, being the helpful knitting pal I am, I told her I'd take a look at the pattern.

I looked. I counted. I didn't get it! Not even messing with it on an already in-progress sock! What was I to do? Only what any good Knitter would: I cast on so I could figure it out! And proceeded to get 2 remaining stitches after the first round! HUH??????????

So I even get KnittingGolfer Marcy to look at it, while at the same time getting on the 'hot line' to my Purple Rain knitting bud to review what I obviously must be getting wrong! Well...turns out there was nothing wrong with the pattern or with our interpretation! It was actually something I had kinda suspected from the get-go: we are more used of knitting with patterns whereas Purple Rain Knitter learned by doing under the supervision of her knitting aunt without patterns. Naturally, PRN followed the pattern, no problem, since she was actually FOLLOWING the pattern! We, on the other hand, probably leaped over a K2 or a P1 here and there resulting in the extra stitches at the end!

Long story longer, this is a great pattern! Especially for our lovely hand-dyed yarns. Just be veeerrry careful when running the first row-those K2's after K2tog with P1's scattered throughout can throw some of us more confident, (or shall I say, reckless-?) knitters! But really, once it gets going, it is awesome! and looks great!

And before allowing that to distract me from my housework and other knitting projects, I actually have an FO!

The pic is a bit bleached out, but this is my newly ungrafted, length extended, grafted back, end-woven-in and completed Ruffled Roses scarf! When I saw this scarf at Annie Modesitt's site, I thought it was so clever! She offers it to LYS for free* to encourage knitters to visit their LYS. I immediately contacted Allison at ImagiKnit and asked her to request it. Bought the yarn, did a pretty good job (cuz well, I can often not be very good at focus...) focusing on this project and finished it. Only to find it was a bit too short; well, actually, it was a bit strangling around the neck, to tell you the truth! Could I live with it? As much as I wanted to just 'live with it', I couldn't. Not if I valued my ability to breath! So it sat. And sat. And sat...Because face it-and I think you all know what I'm talking about!-when you feel like 'knitting', you feel like 'knitting' and this was not going to be 'knitting'. At least, not until I got the grafting undone-oh yeah, and did I mention that the ends had also already been woven in? Bottom line: the yardage of the two green skeins of yarn were obviously NOT enough for my fat neck-even having done an extra lace repeat of the reddish/brown color at the base! You could either: a) do as it says, if you have a slender neck or knit tighter, b) decrease the ribbing after the lace portion or c) buy extra yarn! d) utilize the proportions of colored yarns differently to avoid the 4th Misti Alpaca yarn skein purchase...

So there I sat last week with Nartian while we both enjoyed each other's company while performing 'knitting-related' drudgery tasks! She, seaming Monkey 1's fingering weight sweater; me, un-grafting, resetting stitches and lengthening the scarf! We were in hell, but we were together! And now our tasks are complete!

I kept my focus on the Central Air sock and the Mystic Light no-longer-KAL shawl (the one person on the Rav board I thought would be KAL with me had her KALs mixed up and is actually working on her MS3! But that's how I ended up joining MS4!-lol!) We may yet KAL together on the Mystic Light, afterall, I am that slow...yeah...more like CAL (crawl-a-long!)

I am happy to report that I have finished Clue 2 and have started Clue 3. And as much as I knew it was too good to be true and had pictures to lead me to conclude otherwise, I had been thinking there were only THREE clues!-HA! Who was I kidding? There are FIVE, People! FIVE CLUES! So I gues that maybe makes me at least 1/3 through?

When I finish Clue 3, I'll flash a new pic, cuz it isn't looking much different from the last pic at this point. But if you looked at the link above, it shows how the finished shawl is supposed to look. Let's hope I can be as good as Adrienne and finish it!

(*PS-Nartian told me there was some buzz about this pattern on Ravelry-seems some LYS had the nerve to sell this pattern to someone! Don't buy it-it is supposed to be offered for free through your LYS! They may require purchase, but they may not charge for it! Can you believe that?!)

Always falling short! (...or, what the ---- am I thinking?!)

Falling short on time. Falling short of intelligence-I signed up for two more stole/shawl KALs! Which brings me to the third FALLING SHORT: laceweight yarn!

So I'm on spending hiatus, no? YES! I decide it would be soooo fun to join yet another two KALs! The Secret of the Stole III is about to start, and Mystery Stole 4 started taking sign-ups! Am I losing my mind? I signed up for both and am now mentally rummaging through my stash. OK, my Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Laci" that Lara gifted me will be PERFECT for SSSiii! Generous (1750 yards, baby!) yardage! And the right color for SSSiii! But doesn't it figure that MS4 calls for just about 'anything goes' on the color part, states that beads are 'non-optional' and the 4 skeins of Optim I own have 246 yds each to them! Yeah, 246 yards! People-that's 984 yards total-I did the math...I think the second largest amount of laceweight I have (or something close enough for substitutions) would be 800 yards! And the rest would all be around 350-400 yards! OK, I just remembered one other skein--I'm holding out hope-let me revisit my skein from The Knittery and I will return with the verdict. Keep your fingers crossed for me, though I seem to recall that it is around 1046yds (though 1046 is something I may be willng to take a chance on!)

So Nartian and I are both embarking on this two-stole journey! But, as many of you know, she would be the one to place bets on! Join us on this journey if you aren't already signed-up--maybe you can help push me along!!!