Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Lucky Year!

I won a guessing contest over at The Tangled Arts a couple of weeks ago (seriously...I won something...and more than once this year! I'm really not usually someone who ever wins! ...but on to my yarn!)

Trish knit a beautiful blanket for her daughter (the kind that I've drooled over for a while..so I tried to make a simple dishcloth in a similar type of pattern, but I messed it up...and frogged it...anyways...back to my new yarn)

The contest was to guess how many ends Trish had to weave in when she finished that blanket...and I won! So, here's what she sent me:
See that...it's Lime & Violet Sasquatch sock yarn and the colourway is "Midnight in the garden of loopy". Hehe, and look...the skein is all loopy :-) It makes me giggle....I love that name.
I suck at taking pictures that actually look like the object I'm taking pictures of...but I think this one maybe shows the colour a bit better.....it's probably actually somewhere between the dark and light pictures... I love it I love it!It's really fueling my recently found love for sock yarn, and staring at it, squishing it, spending far too much time on Ravelry deciding what pattern I should knit out of it. Oh, how I love the yarn.

Thank you Trish! You rock!

Oh, and seriously...she just posted her knits of 2008...man...I aspire....to knit even half...heck..who am I kidding, if I finished a quarter of that knitting I'd think I'd done pretty awesome!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Bad blogger...

I am a very spurty blogger aren't I. No posts, no posts, no posts, then 6 posts, then no posts, no posts, no posts.... so inconsistent. I'd make a resolution not to do that...but it would just make me feel bad when I don't keep up...so...it is what it is...I am what I am...a bad..and spurty blogger. Sorry :-)

So, since I'm so spurty I have a few things to show you....I'll move from most recent, and move backwards through time. Here is H in his new very VERY thick hat. His last hat was knit in a cotton blend, because he didn't want it to be too warm. He said his head gets too hot in most hats, but too cold without one. It serves it's purpose for the not so frigid days when he doesn't have to be out for too long, but now since his building moved he has about a 10-15minute walk outside to his office from our parking lot and his head gets tooooo cold. So, I grabbed some lion brand wool ease thick and quick and found a quick pattern on ravelry called Brangelina. He doesn't like the name because he thought it was girlie...but I convinced his it's a perfectly acceptable man hat.I have his full permission to post these pics because he actually likes how he looks in these pictures...which is really very unusual for him...he rarely likes pictures of himself. I glad he likes these ones...I do too :-)

I started this scarf a bit before Christmas on a whim. I think if I eventually finish it I'll give it to H's father. It's a really nice and very simple pattern. I've already recommended it to a couple of newer knitters one who was struggling with a plain ribbed scarf and getting discouraged because she saw no progress....I hear she's liking this pattern much better. I guess I'm not the only one who finds ribbing so tedious I want to poke a needle into my eye.
Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to blog the mitered mitts when they were finished. This is such a great pattern. The more I knit the more I appreciate the ingenuity of Elizabeth Zimmerman. I must admit that when I first saw much of her stuff I thought it was all frumpy and old fashioned (gasp! I know....I said it outloud too!), but now I see much of it as classic, or if not classic, then a lesson in how to make it classic or change it to your own design based on techniques that you learn from following her. These mittens though...I think they are just classic and elegant. I love them...I picture them in black or white and a very fine weight yarn going all the way up your arms with an elegant evening gown (I guess you'd want fingers then though huh?), but these are just normal toasty warm wool mitts.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Merry Christmas

I've not sent out a single Christmas card. Yes, I made a stack of them, but no, they didn't get done and mailed :-( I even have a couple of treats that I was going to have mailed out to a few of you on time for Christmas, but that hasn't happened either...hopefully in January....but I think the actual Christmas cards will wait until next year.
I haven't even mailed my Aunt's socks...although they've been done forever! They've not made it into the mail. Mostly because I have to actually go to the post office to mail them (get them weighed and all that jazz) and I've just been too tired and lazy! I'm positively terrible!
Sooo,

Merry Christmas everybody!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Happy Birthday Jennifer!!!

Go visit this very cool chick and tell her happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Jennifer....I hope you've had a blast!

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Mitered Mitts!

As promised....here's a little glimpse of my mitered mitts!I have the second mitten almost to the point where I stop the increases and just work my way down to the end. I haven't done the thumb yet...and I gotta tell ya, I'm a wee bit nervous about it.These are a gift for my secret sister, and the secret sister reveal party is tomorrow night! EEK!
I hope I get them done.
I really love this pattern, I think I will end up making it again (maybe even for me). I would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy, but almost elegant looking mitten. The girls at work are all quite impressed and "elegant" was their way of describing them. So, hopefully I'm able to do this afterthought thumb and not ruin them :-)

Oh, yes, that is a knitpicks harmony wood interchangeable needle I'm using for magic loop. It's the only one I have. I actually bought the tips and cable to use for Harolds sweater..hehehe...poor chilly Harold.

I LOVE these needles, they feel nice like bamboo, but they're a little bit "faster" because they're so smooth. The points are perfect for me, long and tapered, and sharp...but blunt at the very very tip so I don't end up with a sore finger from pushing the needles (subconscious habit I'm trying to break). Oh, and the price is right, considering each of my bamboo circulars is $13 and I have some in 2 different lengths. I could have the whole set of harmony wood needles for $69 ...US funds...ugggg...which totally sucks right now when buying anything in US funds...the Canadian dollar is soooooooo low, but still they're worth it!

OK I'd better go knit!