half of an f.o.

I checked out the new Knitty a couple days ago... some cute patterns, the twinkletoes pattern in particular. I cast on one two days ago (first time with the provisional cast-on and a short row toe/heel) and finished the first one last night. I knit it as written, except I made a yarn substitution: knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Cranberry. (And one slipper took about 3/4 of the skein... again probably due to the loose gauge of my knitting. )The fit is a bit big with bare feet, but I suppose I had some gauge issues. Ah, well. It is, as they say, close enough for jazz... and I'm a sucker for red shoes, especially quick knit red shoes. I think I'll take the designer's suggestion and find some leather bottoms to put on.

I'll definitely try these again (and post pics of these once I finish the second one), and maybe try a 5 needle. See if that gets me any different results. I know my Mom would love a pair, and probably Miz Izzy, but she doesn't like the "scratchy" of the wool, so I may have to do with cotton or fuzzy acrylic.

In other F.O. news, I finished a thing for my secret pal. I'll post that picture after I mail her Christmas box, which I had better get done sooner rather than later.

In stash enhancement news, I bought some Jagger silk/wool from Sarah's Yarns so I can make the Simple knitted Bodice from Stitch Diva one of these days. It's a beautiful pattern in beautiful yarn from a not-so beautiful yarn company. Hence the yarn sub. FYI, Sarah's Yarns is a great company to order from. Not only did I get my yarn at a great price, but she stuffed the box with color cards from the other yarn lines that she carries. I have to admit that I've never touched cashmere yarn before, but I practically pet the samples she sent until they disintegrated. Again with the funny looks from the Husband, but it's worth it. So totally worth it.

Added to my wish list:
The Kromski Masurka spinning wheel. It's a castle-style wheel and it's gorgeous and it's relatively affordable and if purchased from paradise fibers, you get a $40 fiber credit. That's a lot of roving, no? And with the as-yet unshorn 3 year old Rambrouillet sheep and 2 llamas out at my parent's farm, I'll be totally set for a while. If I could only convince my Husband that the $375 price tag is worth it.

Actually, I made him a deal. If he gets his Shmintendo Wii (or Wee-wee, as I call it in my head), I can have the wheel. The money will be there come the end of the year... work called me in to do inventory, since no one's taken the time to figure out how to do it after I left. And they said that I could name my price. Twenty-five bucks an hour, here I come. I just hope that he makes good on his deal.

Hi Secret Pal!

I received emails from both my assigned secret pal and the name of the secret pal that I'm assigned to... is there terminology for this? Pal-or? Pal-ee? ANYway, OneSkeinWonder... welcome!

This is such a fun project... how do you spoil someone you hardly know? Fortunately, this is just the kind of challenge that I love to have.

There has been some knitting accomplished, believe it or not. Baby manages to sleep for a couple hours at a time when she decides to sleep, and I've managed to finish both hers and Miz Izzy's sweaters. Now that I've figured out this picture posting thing (so much easier than Livejournal), I'll show them off when the light is better. Our changeable Nebraska weather has seen fit to grace us with a bit of a cold snap complete with cloudy skies and the incessant wind that goes along with it. Needless to say I've been baking. Cinnamon rolls were the order of the day yesterday, brownies will be this afternoon's project along with decorating the house for Fall/Halloween.

Now that the girls' sweaters are done, I've really got to get crackin' on the christmas gifties. I have one of Clayton's glittens done except for the flap and I have the cuff started on the second. I think he, Jackson, MacZilla and SisterSarah will be the only ones getting hand-knit stuff this year. I'd like to do something for Daddy and KingZach, but since Dad's in Arizona and knitwear is not really needed there and Zach is Hagrid-sized and therefore impossible to fit (and suprise)... alas.

Since Miz Izzy's climbing on my lap, asking for breakfast, I'd better get going on my day... much as I'd like to keep sitting here and typing and reading about knitting stuff.

By the way... another F.O.

Miz Izzy's sockies are done! Hooray!

57 things left on the project list... *sigh*

Felting is Fun!

Ok, so the felting thing was totally rad! I managed to finish and felt the bag this weekend. I dip-dyed the bottom half of it (pre-felting) in dark brown rit dye, and it did this most amazing streaking thing... it looks like a ceramic mug that my brother made in HS. It's going to SisterSarah in a box this week, I think.

Now that I know that yarn felts well, I went ahead and dyed the rest of the blue NZ yarn (1/2 baby blue, the other 1/2 dark dark brown) and am starting another bag. This one, I'm constructing similar to the first one, but adjusted more to the color repeats so I get some interesting flashing/pooling. I don't think I'll make it as deep as the first one, so it'll be a more of a baguette shape, but I love the twisted I-cord handles.

My poor Husband walked in on me while I was dyeing/felting the bag on Saturday. He just looked at me and the mess, smiled and shook his head and went on down to his office. He changed his tune when he saw the finished bag, though. He's getting more and more interested in what I'm doing the more I'm doing it and showing him that I can attempt to keep up with the house/job/kids and spend time with him AND knit too. He even admitted that the felting thing is like magic. I'll have him brainwashed soon enough. :)

Avoiding work is fun!

I'd really rather be at home than at work, surrounded by my knitting instead of boxes of stuff to be put away.

Update: MacZilla's sockies are done.
I started new ones for Miz Izzy (sockotta wool/cotton blend, some strange pink/orange/yellow/purple colorway - straight stockinette... boring but effective), because she was getting jealous and was stealing her brother's socks. I finished the Latvian Lace socks for Mom. She really likes them - I hope she'll get some use out of them when the weather cools off.

So much for the FO's, now for the UFO's.

Icarus is still sitting there. I got a couple rows in, but I just can't sit down and make myself work on it. Maybe when #3 gets here.

The alpaca scarf/stole/thing got frogged last night in a fit of pique. I don't like my addition of the stockinette "sashing" between the lace repeats, and it was making the scarf all wavy, and not in a good way. I'm thinking of repurposing the yarn for a feather and fan cardigan or something for Miz Izzy or #3. I swatched it and the F&F looks really pretty. We'll see.

That's the UFO's, now on to the new stuff (cause I have project ADD/monogamy issues)

I started a cabled sweater from Inspired Cable Knits in a yummy chocolate brown worsted from knitpicks. It's going to be beautiful, if a bit warm.

The above mentioned stripy sockotta sockies for Miz I.

The also above-mentioned alpaca maybe cardigan for Miz I or #3. We'll see if I can figure out how to adjust the lace pattern to accomodate the sleeve increases.

I'm starting my Christmas projects: some Broad Street Mittens (with a twist) for ClayTron, in a really beautiful navy blue fingering weight (thank you KnitPicks). If they go quickly, I may make a pair for my BIL, Robert, who I tried to teach to knit while in Colorado.

I've gotten bitten by the felted/fulled knit bag thing, thank you very much "Wendy Knits".
I'm trying a bag from a pattern I found on Magknits and I impulsively (very impulsively) purchased Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers last night for the embellishment on Amazon.
I have this really beautiful sky blue New Zealand wool (enough for a sweater) I bought from Ebay oh, about a year ago. Beautiful online, scratchy as hell in real life. I'm going to try and felt it and see what happens. It's 100% wool, and I'm pretty sure it's not superwash, so we'll see how it goes. So far I have the bottom and about an inch and a half done up the sides... I really should do a swatch and see if it actually felts like I'm hoping it will. I'll probably do that tonight. If the bag works out it's going to SisterSarah after I dip dye it when it's done. I'm thinking brown... to get that vareigated, ombred brown to blue thing. Might be pretty cool. Here's hoping. I went on to knitpicks last night also and bought some black, grey and red for a purse thing for me. I know their stuff will felt, and it's for me, so no real hurry.

Trip report

... I really need to get used to doing more frequent entries... and adding pictures... and being more interesting in general, or I'm never going to get any traffic. (Not that it matters, really, since I don't have wonderful things to contribute to the knitting world yet, like Eunny or the Yarn Harlot or any of the other wonderful women (and men) whose knitblogs I frequent frequently whilst procrastinating actual work.)

I finished the knitPicks plain socks a couple weekends ago, finally, and am almost done with Mom's Latvian Lace Socks... turned the heel and am doing the gusset decreases on Sock #2. The second sock is not as nice-looking as the first, as I have done much of the knitting on it without the pattern in front of me... just relying on my memory of the lace pattern and getting the left- and right-facing decreases confused and not realizing it until it's Too Late and I Don't Want to Fix It or I'll Never Get Done. I will say this, the "Improved SSK" from the Zimmerman camp is a marvel and a wonder. Wish I had learned of this when I was doing the first sock.

Vacation Report: Estes Park was beautiful, and wet, and cool... which is a wonderful thing to this very pregnant, very prone to overheating, knitting person.
I worked on the Icarus Shawl from this summer's IK, it's really going to be fabulous, though the first 75% of it is going to be soul-crunchingly repetitive, but I'm just a lace amateur and can't really work on it without my trusty little notecards. Right now I have about a 5" x 5" piece. Maybe I'll finish it in a year or two... we'll see. (By the way... I bought the new KnitPicks self-named line of circular needles, size 3 for this lace project... awesome! The cables are really flexible, the join isn't terrible and the points are sharp sharp! I may have to start saving my pennies for the interchangeables set. I'm becoming a circular needle advocate.)
I also worked on the Lace sock a bit and wowed my in-laws at spinning silk hankies. My Father-in-Law just sat there and watched me for at least an hour. It was fun, but difficult as the chairs were too hard (hurt my bum) and the couch was too squishy (couldn't breathe) to sit in for long.

I got to have my very first visit to a Yarn Store (that isn't Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby) while on this trip. The yarn store in question was The Stitchin' Den, on Virginia Street, just off Elkhorn Dr. (the main drag in Estes) in a very charming shopping center-thing. After three futile attempts (first day it was closed when we got to the shopping, second day we got rained out, third day I got to wave to it as we walked by Virginia Street... I was shopping with non-knitters, obviously) and a pregnancy hormone-induced pity party that no-one was supposed to see, but I got caught, I (thanks to my husband) got to finagle an hour in the store while my SIL had to go to the grocery store and pick up the pictures from the river rafting trip that I wasn't allowed to go on, due to the basketball I'm smuggling under my shirt. It was lovely, though very strange. I got to take MacZilla with me, who was very well-behaved and was rewarded with a skein of Brown Sheep Co. Wildfoote sock yarn in the Blue Boy colorway (yes, it's Electric Blue... his favorite color) for a pair of sockies just for him and two visits to the trout pond. The very nice lady in the store was extremely helpful and we talked of my newly blooming love of Alpaca and my Mom's soon to be foray into Llamaculture and when MacZilla was getting a little bored she kindly distracted him with this behemoth purple scarf that was made of at least thirty some odd kinds of yarn... acrylic, wool, camel, angora, funfur... if it was purple, it was in this scarf. It was a wonderful teaching tool, something I may need to copy someday if our knit retreat/teaching the good people of North Platte about the "New Knitting" thing ever happens.

The really neat-o thing about being in a live yarn shop is the chance to touch stuff before you buy it. Those of you who have actual access to real-time yarn probably take that for granted. For me, the closest yarn store is 2.5 hours east in Hastings, NE, 3 hours (plus a time change) west to Denver, CO, or 3.5 hours North to Brown Sheep Co. itself in Mitchell, NE. I am truly in a natural fiber yarn black hole.
This is what I learned in that short time I spent in the Stitchin' Den
1. Llama is not as soft as Alpaca, but it is still softer than regular (not merino) wool.
2. People in the Intermountain West/western Midwest are still nuts for novelty yarn... to a tragic fault... to the exclusion of prettier, softer, cooler natural fibers.
3. I got to see what all the fuss about the Tahki Cotton yarn is... it is really really beautiful, and the colors are so saturated. I'll never look at embroidery floss or Peaches and Creme cotton the same way again.
4. Dale Baby Ull is as soft as it looks.
5. I have no willpower when it comes to yarn purchases and kind storekeepers.

I will post the pictures and half-done project (MacZilla's very blue socks... he was so sweet and he loves his homemade sockies I couldn't resist starting them) when I get home. I hope. Until then... (I need to find some kind of sign off... I can't resist the Cheese factor when Blogging.)