As if I don't have enough hobbies already

I've wanted to spin for a while now, but I really wanted a wheel (and honestly turned up my nose at spindles because wheels are prettier). But the wheels I want (either a Ladybug or a Lendrum DT) are pretty expensive, and I don't have the spare cash laying around. Let's face it-I tend to be very obsessive with new things initially and then drop them out of a lack of interest after a week or so, and a $600 spinning wheel costs too much for me to just lose interest.

The Knitgirllls and Tempted are doing a spinalong on Ravelry, and I wanted to play along. Not having a wheel, I was going to sit out. A few people on Plurk had joined in the SAL, had bought spindles, and then plurked about them. A little voice in the back of my mind kept chattering on about spindles and roving, getting to play along with everyone else, and how pretty Tempted's roving would be. DH still hadn't gotten me a Valentine's Day present, so I asked for a spindle. After getting recommendations on Plurk, I decided to go with a Golding 0.75oz 2" Cherry Tsunami.

Isn't it beautiful? I want to name it. I was having trouble choosing between Jacob and Alice (lmao), and while I'd like to be able to say that I'm having private time with Jacob, I think the spindle wants to be named Alice. So Alice she will be.

I bought some roving at the DFW Fiber Fest in 2009, but I can't find the receipt to figure out what type of wool it is or where I bought it. Whatever it is, it's 1oz of wool.

Now it's yarn!

I don't have a chair with a back on it, so I had to improvise when I skeined it. I'm glad that I bought that tennis racket lol.

I got approximately 25 yards or so. There are quite a few places where I dramatically overtwisted it, but I think the overall product is is decent for a first attempt. I don't think I'll be able to knit anything with it, so it'll likely end up as a decoration. I have some wonderful green roving coming from Fiber Optic, and of course Tempted's roving will be here in time for the SAL in April. I'm going to buy some more roving tomorrow so I have plenty of fiber to practice on.

In other news, I finished my Clapotis on Friday night. It's right purdy. I don't think I'm going to block it.

Finally, GUESS WHAT. Gnome and I are going to the Estes Park Wool Market in Estes Park, CO, on June 9-12. We're going to stay in her aunt's cabin. I'm so freaking excited. I've never been to CO. We're also going to the DFW Fiber Fest in April. This will be my third year there, and I actually met Gnome IRL there for the first time (we'd been e-friends for a while before that though). Yay for fiber fests! One of these days I'll make it to MDSW, Rhinebeck, and the Sock Summit.

On A Roll **SWAP SHAWL SPOILER POST**

It's only halfway through January  February, and I've already done twice as many shawls as I finished in 2010. I am participating the Knitgirllls Small Shawl Swap on Ravelry, and I finished my shawl last night!

The pattern is the Leaf Shawl from the book Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn A. Clarke. When I started asking my friends if anyone had the book, everyone kept telling me that the book is a "design book." I had no idea what that meant, so I stubbornly decided that I was going to do the pattern anyway. Once I got into the book, I finally understood what they meant. The book has 4 or 5 different lace patterns, and you can put them together in various ways to make different shawls. If I wouldn't have been so hell-bent on doing the Leaf Shawl, this would have been a great opportunity to "design" my own shawl.

The yarn is Tempted Good Grrl. I had the pleasure of helping Stacy dye it on my weekend at Tempted Estates in mid-Jan. Stacy did most of the work by dying it green; all I contributed was the light brown spots scattered throughout the yarn.

DH is my post office mule. I sent it and a secret project with him and they were mailed out this morning. I really hope that my swap partner likes it. The partner list has been posted in the spoiler thread on Ravelry, but I don't know if my partner looked at it. I decided that I would just peek at the list to see who got my name and not look at their project. My grand plan failed, but I am THRILLED with the results! Lala of the Knitigirllls is knitting for me! I've seen the shawl on the podcast and I can't wait for it to come.

Happy Valentine's day! DH is buying me yarn and maybe a barnes & noble giftcard on Friday for Vday. I made him a Mexican casserole and looked pretty yesterday for his gift. I'm down to 5 WIPs. I'm trying to knock out the Aragorn socks next since they were intended to be a birthday gift last year. I need to finish the second sock by the end of March, and I'll give her one sock for last year and one sock for this year.

Giant Mansocks of Doom

A friend from church asked me to make him some nice wool socks that he could wear under waders while camping in the winter. Being the nice pushover that I am, I agreed. I've almost given up hope that I'll ever learn to say no. Anywhoo, I wanted the socks to be nice and thick, so I bought some Knitpicks Swish DK in Cobblestone Heather. I had planned to just use that yarn, but I came across the pattern Men's Socks For Giving Away. The pattern has a nice manly set of three stripes at the top in a different color, as well as the heel and toe in the same color. I happened to have some yarn left over from my Blackberry Cabled Cardigan, and it matched the grey well.

I started the socks on Jan 9, but I've gotten sucked into other projects that I'd rather knit on instead. I knit 3/4 of the second sock today, and I'm finally finished!

These socks are freaking huge. Ginormous. My friend Jason wears a size 11. I had DH try the first sock on a few times because I thought it was surely way too big. I had Jason try on the first sock last Saturday and it fit perfectly. Just to give you an idea of the size difference between his socks and my feet, I took a comparison shot:

Ginormous. This makes #4 of my 22 in 2011 goal.

Make It Work!

I was recently given the opportunity to test-knit a shawl pattern for Leslie of The Knitgirllls. I've never test-knit anything before, so I was a bit nervous. I think it turned out well though.

The shawl has quite a bit of stockinette and short rows, which makes it great for knitting while watching TV (Lost in my case) or reading (Harry Potter). While stockinette can sometimes be a boring brain suck, the short rows on this shawl are enough to keep it interesting.

The shawl finishes out with a knit-on edging. I wasn't able to read while knitting the edging, but I still found it addictive. It seemed that the repeats went quite quickly.

2 snow days really helped me out. I was able to finish the shawl in 12 hrs short of a week after starting it.

Ta-daaa! The pattern should be released around 2/10/11. I love the shawl. It's a quick easy knit. Many thanks to Leslie for letting me knit it. Make it work pattern link

Parade of Shame

When I started knitting, I proudly proclaimed that I would only ever work on one project at a time. That lasted about a week. I decided that I need to do a progress update on all of my current WIPs in an effort to shame myself into finishing some of them.

I'll start with the oldest first. I started my Mystic Light shawl in October 2009. It was supposed to be my mom's christmas present that year. Eventually it was to become a mother's day present, then her birthday present, and then I just simply ignored it. I'm not even sure where I'm at or how much more work needs to be done on it.

Next up are my La Digitessa socks. The pattern was my Christmas present to myself in 2009. I'm 3/4 done with the first sock. Unfortunately, I tried to get it out last month and couldn't figure out where I was. My row counter did not jive with what the chart said, so there might be a mistake somewhere. I eventually gave up and finished my CPH instead.

My aragorn socks were supposed to be a birthday present for my friend Sarah. Her birthday is in March. I started them in Jan 2010. Sigh.

Next up is my Clapotis. Oh how I love this yarn (Malabrigo lace). Just getting it out to photograph it made me want to work on it. I started it on March 16, 2010. Hopefully I'll finish it some day.

I had such grand plans for my Geodesic cardigan. I even started a KAL group on Raverly and challenged Gnome to a duel. I am neglecting it because I'm kinda scared to do the tucks. I don't think they're hard to do, but I'm still hiding from it. I started it on June 1, 2010. I'm still ahead of Gnome, so technically I'm winning. :)

Finally, the youngest project. I agreed to knit some socks for the host team leader at church. I like them, and they're super easy, but I am easily distracted. Luckily, I've only had them OTN since Jan. 9, 2011, so I'm doing fairly well. I'm using some of the leftover yarn from my Ravelympics Blackberry cardigan, and I bought some grey swish DK to complement it.

I'm not a total lost cause though. I have an FO to show off! I just finished my Toe-Up Slip-Stitch Heel socks made from Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy. They're fraternal, but I still love them.

What am I going to do next? Cast on the Leaf Shawl, of course. Why change my habits now?

Happy place recap and sometimes I lie.

I spent the past weekend at Tempted Estates. I had a fantastic time! I made some new friends too. Laura and Leslie of The Knitgirllls were there, as well as Tracee (Catraggedy), Jessica (showmeyourknits), and Sara (saradknits). Completing the lineup are Muriel (bffofwendy) and Stacy (Tempted). Bob was there too, of course.  I managed to knit about a sock and a half. I used Wendy's Toe-Up Slip-Stitch Heel socks pattern and Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy yarn to make my first ever pair of vanilla socks. They're definitely fraternal, which bugs me a little bit, but I still love the colors. I've knit about half of the leg now on the second one.

My triumph of the weekend was finishing Muriel's girasole for her. She didn't want to do the edging, so I did it for her. It would have driven me completely insane for her to leave it unfinished or to take the next year to do a super-easy edging. She claimed on the podcast that she did 1/3 of the edging, but I think that's being overly generous. Because I finished it, I claim it as mine. I even made a ravelry project page for it. Here's a pic of the unblocked FO:

And an example of my contribution:

See? It's not that hard. Moving on.

There is a small shawl swap going on on the Knitgirllls group on Ravelry. This is my first swap. Basically, everyone fills out a questionairre and names are drawn. You use your partner's answers to determine your yarn color choice and pattern. As far as I know, it is a round-robin swap, meaning that the girl I am knitting for does not have my name. Everyone has until March 16 to finish and mail their shawl to their partner.

I took advantage of spending the weekend at my favorite yarn dyer's house to dye some yarn for the swap.  I'm making the Leaf Shawl, so I wanted spring green yarn with a little brown in it. Stacy did the green and I added the brown. The brown isn't as dark as I wanted it, but I still adore the yarn. I can only  give it away because I'm going to buy a skein or two in the future when I have more cashflow. Here is the yarn in all of its gorgeous beauty:

In the past few weeks, I have purposefully lied at least twice. Both times it was because I was knitting gifts. Remember this? It was Muriel's birthday present.

This was Stacy's thank-you-for-having-me gift. I even went as far as asking her how to block it properly lol. It looks better blocked, but I can't find the pic right away.

BTW, you should watch the latest episode (and all of them, really) of The Knitgirllls. I think you can watch it on their website (linked above), but I prefer to watch it through iTunes. Finally, I have the last Tempted @ 3am sock club package. I won't post a pic here for a week or so to prevent spoilers, but you can see it in the spoilers thread on the Tempted board on Ravelry.

I have a cowl and I'm headed to my happy place. I dare you to try to stop me.

I decided to make myself a Rivendell Smoke Ring out of my Tempted Lovely Grrl from the last club shipment. It will be FO #1/22 for the year. Here it is blocking away happily:

Sorry for the iphone pic, but taking a picture with my good camera would require me to get up from the couch and I am frankly too tired to move. Thank God that tomorrow is Friday. After work, I will be heading to Tempted Estates for a lovely long weekend with several knitters (including both of the Knitgirllls). I call Tempted's house my happy place, and after the week I've had at work, I may not return.

In other news, I am participating in a small shawl swap (say that 10 times fast) on Ravelry. They drew names last night, but I can't tell who I got. I am going to do the Leaf Shawl. This weekend I'll ask Stacy to dye some nice spring green yarn with brown flecks (very similar to the first project pic on the rav page). I think it'll be beautiful! I wonder who drew my name?

2010 down, 2011 to go.

Holy crap, 2010 is almost over. Overall, it was a pretty good year, despite the whole grad-school-isn't-taking-students thing. My tendency to avoid odd numbers has me a little skeptical about the potential quality of 2011, but we'll see. I graduated college both times in odd years; if I get into grad school this time, I will graduate in 2013. Perhaps that's a sign.

But I digress. I suppose I need to make new knitting resolutions for 2011. I did pretty well on the 2010 set. I finished 4 of 6:

1. Knit a fair isle pattern

2. Design my own pattern

3. Knit something error-free

4. Complete a sweater

5. Finish something entrelac

6. Learn to knit continental style

As for #5, I tried entrelac and hated it. There was never a chance that I'd finish the scarf I started. #6 happened briefly-I started a garter stitch swatch that ended up being about 6" wide by 4" tall, but I was distracted by something shinier coming along.

I have no idea what to do this year. I'm setting a goal of 22 FOs this year, but other than that there isn't really anything that I feel a burning desire to accomplish. I guess I'll just let my FO goal stand as my resolution/goal for the year. Do you have any knitting resolutions?

Done and done and done

Tis the season of FOs. In the past 48 hours (maybe less), I've finished 2 pairs of fingerless mitts and DH's Christmas cowl.

Exhibit A: Sleekit mitts
Yarn: Brooks Farm Acero
Production notes: These are so freaking cute. However, I've learned that I absolutely cannot stand yarn with rayon in it. It makes my hands hot and sweaty. I tried making socks with this once and didn't get very far because of it.
Verdict: I may still give them to my coworker as a late Christmas present (due to completion of exhibit C)

Exhibit B: Ribby Neckwarmer
Yarn: Bernat Alpaca blends (I actually didn't think DH would really like it, so why pull out the good stuff, kwim?)
Production notes: Quick, easy, and mindless, although I should have made it about 10 rows longer.
Verdict: He likes it.

Exhibit C: Endpaper Mitts
Yarn: Yellow=Shibuiknits Sock Canary, Blue=Tempted Goodgrrl Into the Blue
Production notes: Ohemgee I love fair-isle. It is so much easier than I thought it would be. This takes care of #1 on my 2010 Knitting Resolutions list (I guess I'll need to make another one soon).
Verdict: I think I'll definitely keep these.

Merry Christmas!

I think it wants to stay

I don't know what possessed me, but I decided that I want to give one of my nice coworkers a handknit gift. She likes blue, so I grabbed some aran-weight Patons Soy Wool Stripes (you know, yarn that I don't mind parting with easily) and looked for fingerless glove patterns. The smart side of me suggested that aran weight gloves wouldn't take too long to make, and therefore I wouldn't get stressed out by the deadline. All of the cute patterns I found were for sock yarn, but I kept on. And then I found the Sleekit Mitts pattern on Ravelry, and promptly fell in love. I happen to have some blue fingering weight yarn that I don't love (shocking, I know), so I pulled it out.

I ignored the voice in my head that kept gently reminding me that the reason I swore off handknit Christmas gifts forever is the stress that my procrastination combined with deadlines causes. After, I'm a quick knitter, right? If there isn't a complicated pattern or anything, it would practically knit itself, right? Of course it would. So I casted on and merrily knit my little heart out. I continued to ignore the fact that after 5 days I haven't even gotten to the thumb gusset increases. Here's what I have so far:

It's cute, right? While ignoring the whole there's-a-deadline-on-this-and-I'm-clearly-insane thing, I've begun to fall in love with the gloves. I don't know if I can part with it. I don't like the yarn so much because it makes my hands sweaty, but that was in the summer. It doesn't seem to be so bad now. The gloves are blue, and I have an unhealthy obsession with blue.

FOapalooza

I'm not sure if it counts as an -apalooza if I only finished one item, but I think this deserves a little fanfare. I finally (FINALLY!) finished my Central Park Hoodie. I started it in December 2008. For the last year or so, all it has lacked is seaming on the sleeves. I never worked on it because I hate the yarn (Berroco Comfort, if you're curious), and therefore I was determined to hate the sweater. Yesterday, I decided I was sick of seeing it in the sidebar of this blog, and pulled it out to finish it. Finally, almost 2 years after I started it (I blame the yarn choice on the fact that I was a new knitter), here is my CPH:

 

In other news, I finished the first Endpaper mitt. It's right purdy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Colors!

I finally got brave enough to try fair-isle (for any non-knitters, that's a type of colorwork, definition here). At first I was ambitious and wanted to make Edith the hat (rav link). However, I didn't trust my skills enough to keep from messing it up. So I decided to make the Endpaper mitts. I had initially decided to use white and a pale semi-variagated blue yarn, but then I discovered some wonderful Tempted Good Grrl in my stash. After I found that, I remembered that I still had yellow yarn left over from the duck feet booties that I made for Dragon. They were a match made in heaven. I ordered more of the yellow though, just in case.

I did a minimal amount of research on the Stranded board on Ravelry (dominant colors, anyone?) and cast on on Wednesday. OMG. I am in love with colorwork! I can't stop knitting it! I actually got up over an hour early this morning just so I could knit on the first mitten. Here's my progress as of this morning:

Yarn: Shibuiknits Sock in Finch and Tempted Good Grrl in Into the Blue.
Pattern: Endpaper mitts (see link above)
Size: Small

I refuse to knit on my citron shawl any longer.

But that's mostly because I'm done! I like it too. It was a good reading/watching TV knit. I took a picture of it while it's blocking:

I've never blocked anything in my life, so I hope it turns out ok. I guess I'll find out. The pattern is from Knitty (here) and the yarn is Malabrigo Sock in the Rayon Vert colorway.

Now I need to figure out if I'm going to tackle a WIP, UFO, or if I should give into my sometimes dormant case of startitis. I've had my eye on Edith the hat. The only problem with that plan is that I've never done fair-isle. I guess I have to learn somehow, right?

ETA: this fulfills my "knit something correctly" new year's resolution. It only took 11 months to get that one taken care of.

Baby stuff

(no, I'm not having one.)

One of my nice, sane coworkers approached me sometime in July and asked me for booties, a hat, and mittens in OU colors for his impending baby (due in late November). Being the procrastinator that I am, I put it off until about 2 weeks ago. Luckily, I got it done, but the baby was born last Thursday at 35 weeks (he's doing fine). I finished the writing on the second booty last night and delivered the goods today. I love to procrastinate. Now to finish a hat. Or play wii. Or read.

Progress is slow

I received a complaint that I'm not blogging enough (be thankful I didn't post your pic in retaliation Liz! I thought about it, and you know I have good ones), so I'll update you with the microscopic amount of progress I've made since I last blogged.

I picked up my Geodesic Cardigan today for the first time since mid-June or so. I'm still in the waist decreases.

I wanted something to knit that didn't require much brain power so I could read or watch podcasts while knitting, so I cast on the Citron Shawl from Knitty on August 21st. Ta-daa:

I've been trying to find something to do with that yarn (it's Malabrigo sock). I didn't want to use it for socks because it is so pretty (I think it would stripe, and that wouldn't be cute IMO). I really like the way this shawl is turning out.

And, finally, in non-knitting news, I am winning my fantasy football league. That is all.

I finished, and I'm preoccupied

My knitting has seriously slacked off lately. There are a few reasons for it, the main one being that I just bought a Nook. Now, it is very possible to knit and read at the same time, but I've been reading the Outlander series. I find it nearly impossible to turn away from the book long enough to watch what I'm doing when I'm knitting. So, the knitting has suffered. I'm also going to start Choctaw classes on Aug. 24th, so I've been preparing myself by studying a bit.

I did finish the stealth knitting project though! Finally, here is a picture:

They are the Duck feet from one of the issues of Knitty. While wholly adorable, they have been the bane of my existence since May. I can honestly say that I regretted starting them sometimes. However, Dragon loved them, and that is enough to make it worth the effort.

Geodesic cardi, new yarn, and a tease

I'm knitting the Geodesic cardigan (Rav KAL link), and it is very slow going. We started the KAL on June 1, and I just started the waist decreases. (BTW, if you're reading this and want to join the KAL-please do!)

I cannot for the life of me get a decent picture of the yarn. It is a much deeper, more vibrant purple than what the picture shows. Grrr. It's tempted yarn, so you know that it's right purdy.

I won some yarn for my Labyrinth socks from the May 2010 Wendyknits KAL. It is Lisa Souza Handtwist Petite sock yarn. I'll be honest-I'm not in love with the color. However, it was free, and I'll hang on to it for a bit to see if a suitable pattern comes up for it.

I also received my 2nd shipment of the Tempted @ 3am sock club, but I won't post a pic for another week or so. I don't want to ruin anyone's surprise.

I like to post teasers when I knit stuff for friends who read my blog. I'm not sure if she'll be able to read it because she's somewhat distracted by a newborn, but I'll throw the tease out anyway.

If you know what it is, don't tell!

Call me crazy if you must

I don't like wasting my time knitting a pattern if I don't like it. A while back, I decided that I would knit a pair of socks for my childhood best friend (Sarah) for her birthday. She's a big fan of the Lord of the Rings series, so I thought that the Aragorn socks in Tempted Good Grrl in Passion Fruit would be perfect. I quickly finished the first one:

That's when I realized that the sock fit me. It would all be fine and dandy except for the fact that I wear a 6 and she wears an 8.5-9. So, I abandoned the project and started the Skew Socks using Lorna's Laces in Purple Iris.

Before I was too far into the Skew socks, I asked my friend Muriel (aka bffofwendy) to try the Aragorn sock on her foot (the same size as Sarah's). It fit perfectly. I decided to continue on with the Skew socks because I'd already started anyway.

Fast forward to today. I just finished the heel of the first sock. Sarah's birthday was March 26, and I'm behind. Now I have a problem. I don't like the socks.

The pattern is ok; I mean, it's not my favorite but it is an good innovative and cute pattern. I don't like the way the yarn is striping. It just looks really dumb to me, and I don't want to waste my time knitting something that I don't like.

So, I'm going to let them sit in time out for 24 hours and then I'll frog it. In the mean time, I'm going to start on the second Aragorn sock and try to start on the sekret knitting. I've had an awful time trying to do the Turkish CO that the sekret pattern requires.

Now that I've had the Loopy Ewe Lite package for over a week, I'll go ahead and post a picture of the yarn. It is fantastic! It's blue! You know I love blue. Meet my first skein of String Theory Caper Sock in Bye Bye Blues.

I'm in love.

I'm finished!

I'm finished with my Labyrinth Socks!

The Labyrinth sock pattern (rav link) is available in Wendyknits's book "Socks from the Toe-Up." Here are the details:
Size: Small
Yarn: Tempted Luxe Grrl (cashmere!!)
Needles: US2.5 dpns
Started: May 6, 2010
Finished: May 23, 2010

I love them! I haven't taken them off since I photographed them. Next, the sekret knitting will commence.