Spooky SP Strikes Again!

Hubs greeted me yesterday morning with a package from my Spooky Secret Pal. Wow, what a haul, too!

Most of the Haul Plus...


New Halloween-Themed Knitting Bag

Spooky SP sent me a set of fall-themed gel window clings, a multi-colored pen with a black cat on it, a cute skully Pez dispenser, blocking pins, skully stitch markers, M&Ms, Twizzlers, and another fab card.

There were also FOUR beautiful hanks of Knitpicks lace weight yarn in my package. Two skeins of Shadow in Jewels colorway, a skein of Shimmer in Morning Mist colorway, and a skein of Alpaca Cloud in Horizon. The Alpaca Cloud is sooooo soft and pettable :) *swoon*



Two skeins of heathery Shadow


Zoomed in view of the Shadow


Close-up of the skein of Shimmer


Close-up of the delicate blue colors in the skein of Alpaca Cloud


Skull stitch markers, I can't wait to use these!!


Gorgeous card from my Spooky SP

Ok, consider me dense if I didn't get any hints at your identity, but who are you Spooky SP? :) Thank you VERY VERY much for your spoilage of me these past few weeks; you're a fab SP!

Crud

Yeah, I was hoping to post my PA trip recap post tonight. My gallbladder had other plans and decided to act up an hour before I came home. :-/ Hopefully, I'll get to write up that post this weekend and not spend all my time in bed sleeping wanting to feel better.

Holy SP, Batman! And Some FOs, Too!

Tonight, I was met by two packages from online secret pal exchanges. Do I feel spoiled or what tonight! It was so exciting to see a mailbox stuffed with packages and not with bills or junk mail :)

First off, I received my package from the Knitted Thing Swap from Celtic Coyote. She knitted me a fabulous Booga Bag from Noro.

Beautiful Booga Bag, but what's inside you ask?


Packets of hot chocolate and unscented Heal'em Balm for my hands

Thanks, Celtic Coyote!!

The second package was from my Spooky Secret Pal. I have to say that I am in awe of her card making skills; both I've received are clever and beautifully made. Spooky, I aspire to be half as good of an upstream SP as you've been!!


The Haul: Beautiful Card, blocking pins, Magic Stripes Sock Yarn, fall-themed Post-its, Hershey's chocolate marshmellow pumpkin, and a new Dick Francis book!!


Close up of the vampire themed card



Close up of the book mark which has a quote from William Butler Yates "When you are old and grey and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read".

On to some finished objects!

About a month ago, I finished a pair of Bluebell Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks for the Knitted Thing secret pal swap. They had a long journey from Indiana to northwest Canada to Midnight Farm, during which I though the postal service may have pocketed the socks! They arrived safely this week, so I can post a FO picture now :)


Bluebell Rib socks

These were made using two skeins of Knitpicks Gloss (merino and silk blend) in burgundy. I absolutely LOVED working with this yarn. Very soft, smooth, and non-splitty.

Finished item number two is the recently salvaged Clapotis. I used four skeins of Koigu KPPM, and it's a Christmas present for my see-ster :)


Obligatory finished Clapotis with poochie-pie picture

I am so glad that I was able to save her Clapotis. :)

Knitting Dunce

That's how I've felt for the past few days. I didn't follow directions, so I've placed the proverbial pointy hat on my head and sent myself in the corner. As identified by my grade school teachers long ago, I haphazardly breeze through driections unless a task challenges me. My second go around with the Clapotis pattern is a textbook example of my stubbornness regarding my skimming of directions. For reference....

See the glaring mistake in the almost finished Clappy?


That solid section that the arrow's pointing to is supposed to have dropped stitches like the rest of the pattern. Crap!!

After scrutinizing the pattern for hours Sunday night trying to work out how the dropped stitches were supposed to miraculously appear, I finally carefully read the decrease section directions. There it calls for 2 dropped stitches per repeat and not the 1 per repeat that I did. Heartsick with the realization that I'd royally screwed it up, I had very fitful sleep.

My two choices to fic it are to rip out the whole blasted thing and start over from scratch or...cut the dropped stitches after it's finished being knitted. I hope I have the mental and physical fortitude to cut my knitting again after my last disasterous attempt.

In other news, Kris and I went shopping last night. Our intentions were to get Kris a new game with a gift card. Instead, we walked out of Best Buy with two video games for Kris and a new cell phone for me. Mine's been dying a slow death for the past 6 months or so as it decided to not charge normally. Charging a cell phone shouldn't include a heavy KitchenAid mixer and my purse as a counter balance. I was completely sold on the model on its branding along, and it was a really good deal, too. Now, it wasn't the cute pink color, I fell for the brand name, Katana.


Meet Rose the Katana (as in Rose Tyler from Dr Who!)

Happy Birthday and Such

Today is Hub's 28th birthday. Not too much celebrating was had since we're still a bit groggy following the looooong road trip yesterday and due to the fact that I have no patience for keeping presents from him. He's had his birthday iPod since the second or third week of September, and he received an FM transmitter for it today. :) We also met up with my dad and stepmom for hers and Kris' birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yummeh!

When I asked for a birthday photo-op, all I received in reply was "You have plenty of pictures of me all ready." So I snapped a pic of the back of his head doing some beta testing this evening.

Back of birthday boy's head

This afternoon, we finally were able to pick Bandit up from the kennel. After giving the kennel owner Bandit's name, we were waiting for someone to bring him out to us. After a minute or so, we heard a loud THUD on a door and said "That's gotta be Bandit". Is it odd that we can recognize the slamming noise of our poochie-pie jumping up on a door?


Bandit was as receptive as his father to the camera tonight *sigh*

He was due some spoilage, so I just had to buy him a little devil head squeaky toy in addition to the cookies from Day's Bakery that we brought from Honesdale.


"The devil made me to it, Mom"


Bandit giving the devil hell

Trip pics and wrap-up will be forthcoming later on in the week. I'm trying to Photoshop a few pics and use Flickr, but they both keep barfing tonight. Fiber related content is coming soon, too!

Tales from the Road

We're back home again in Indiana. (Yes, too little sleep makes me quote corny songs!) Quick highlights tonight from the road, more tales later after mucho sleep.

Best Bumper Sticker Sighting: "I'm only speeding because I really have to poop." Potty humor gets my vote every time :)

Most Annoying Road Hazard: A convoy of 5 charter bus, 6 Indiana State trooper cars, and 2 sedans going under the speed limit in the fast lane for a huge stretch of highway around Dayton, Ohio today. As we finally passed them, we found what ranks such a high security patrol, the IU football team. :-/

Best Breakfast Stop: JP's Family Restaurant in Waymart, PA. We stop there every year for breakfast on the trip home.

Scariest Driving Moment: Going through the tunnels under mountains on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I felt like I was playing Gran Turismo. Then, I remembered how the electronic car I drove in that game always pinged off the sides of tunnels rapidly.

Iron Buttcheeks Award: Given to the license plates I saw from the furthest states. All these were spotted while in Pennsylvania - Oregon, New Mexico, and California. I will not complain about a ~700 mile drive ever again.

Road Trippin'

Hubs and I are headed out Saturday morning for our annual trek to see my grandparents in Pennsylvania. Wooo for vacation! I'm really excited to have some time off, but it's been hectic and stressful getting arrangements and last minute things done.

I'm cooking up a huge pile of knitting projects for me to take along for the trip. My grandma also mentioned that she has a half finished afghan that she'd like me to take a look at. She's had it for years and wants to find out what can be done to finish it.

My hopes are to have a few more posts up here before Friday night. So much to say but so little time!

Spookified!

I've been spooked by my Spooky Secret Pal from the Knitty boards :D Perfect timing to get something fun in the mail.

The Haul

There's a CD of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "The Raven" - I'm a big Edgar Allan Poe fan :) A wonderful personalized card complete with spooky theme with mummy stamps! SP, I'm in awe of your card creativity. Pumchy pumpkin guy who I played with until the end of my thumb got sore after work :) A rat that gets ginormous in water. Yeah, I thought of all sorts of evil April Fool's Day pranks I can pull with that. The non-pictured Twizzlers were quickly gobbled by Hubs and I over a round of Magic.


Leaf Stitch Markers

Last but certainly not least, a set of byoo-tee-full fall themed stitch markers.

Thanks SP!!

Wooo for Weekend Knitting!

This past weekend held quite a few hours of knitting for me. Even if they weren't exactly normal circumstances to knit under. Clapotis 2.0 came with me to take care of my college roomie, Mary, after she had her wisdom teeth removed. It also saw some happier less painful knitting hours at a barbecue on Saturday.

Over half-way through Clapotis 2.0!


Close-up of dropped stitches

Sunday, Kris was off playing paintball with his SCA house all day. Granted, most of my day was spent with laundry, cleaning my hut-mobile for our road trip this weekend, and various housework. All work, no knit makes Christina a dull blogger though. In the afternoon, I set Joseph Arthur's CD, Nuclear Daydream, on repeat and dug out the Saffron Cables afghan. I only got through 7 rows of the cable charts, but definitely visible progress!


Up to row 11 on Saffron Cables charts


Zoomed in a bit, pay no attention to the doghouse roof background :)

On a seperate note, I announced this evening on my personal blog, Knotts Burrow, that I won't be updating it any longer. Too many time constraints to keep up with multiple blogs. So, be prepared for occasional jaunts into the non-knitting topics on this blog :)

Fishers Yarn Faire

Ok, technically, it wasn't a yarn fair. This past weekend was the Fishers Renaissance Faire. But, within three booths of entering, I spotted handspun for sale!

Purple Handspun Wool


Unfortunately, a bit sun bleached :(

I see yarn, I buy yarn. No questions asked. :) I bought 94 yards of worsted to bulky weight handspun. No idea what it will become.

A few booths later, I spotted Ursula's Alcove. Chok full of yarn (including tons of Zephyr!), textile books, patterns, and the like. But tucked away far in the back of the tent was something exquisite. Handspun camel yarn. Granted, one huge skein was around $200, but very pettable.

I spent a decent chunk of time at the renaissance textile demonstration area. Saw some beautifully naturally dyed yarns, more handspun, netting, and bobbin lace. I tried my hand at a wee bit of bobbin lace, but that required that I knew my left from my right. I was rather the class dunce.

As we were ending the day, we stopped back at Ursula's Alcove with the camel yarn whispering my name. I gave a small skein a new home :)


Extreme Close-up


Whole enchilada

It's 100 grams of handspun, non-dyed camel yarn from Mongolia. Again, no clue what I'll make with it. For the mean time, I shall love it, and pet it, and call it George.

I <3 Knit Fix

Gotta say that my new copy of Knit Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters is frakkin' AWESOME! Stupidly, I sat down an hour ago after a rather brain frying work day to start the cables of Saffron Cables. First row seemingly went ok. That is, until I was 3 stitches off on one of the charts which I found AFTER I started the second row. Sat down with my trusty new book, and it walked me through unpicking and reknitting cables without having to rip out hundreds of stitches. Where was this book when I started knitting again last year, and how did I go so long without it?

One Measly Row

That's all I knitted last night. One measly row of the Saffron Cables afghan. Took me an hour to finish, too. Granted, it was the increase row to setup the cable section so I don't feel like I did so bad while watching an episode of Nip/Tuck. After being accustomed to charts and straight forward sock instructions, the written directions were a bit challenging for me to follow. Though, I can't really say I've ever been one to follow written directions... I did get the setup row finished correctly the first time, so I should start on some chart work tonight!

Seedy Knitting

Seed stitch knitting that is. A decent chunk of the weekend was spent knee deep k1 p1 working on the border for the Saffron Cables afghan. Many hours and almose a full skein of yarn went into this 2.5" of seed stitch. I wonder if I'll have enough yarn as the pattern states that it should be 48 inches across, but mine is in the ballpark of 64 inches. Big warm blankie!!

Up close and personal with the Saffron Cables progress



To paraphrase the Cookie Monster, "B is for blanket and that's good enough for me!"

Saturday night, I finished up my covert knitting project. I'm really pleased with the results and took some pictures which I'll share after it's sent to its recipient. I want to order much more Gloss yarn from Knitpicks and work up some Christmas knitting projects :)

Covert Knitting

Sorry for the radio silence. My main project on the needles is for a secret online knitted item exchange. I can show you this much...



The color came out all wrong in the picture; it's really a deep burgundy color. I'm really pleased with how its turning out. I'll post better pics after I sent the surprise

I cast on the Saffron Cables afghan this week, too. 227 stitches crammed onto 60 inch circulars. This is going to be one massive, warm blanket :D

Finished!

YEAH!

Just kitchenered the second Hub Sock, whew! I learned quite a lot with these. One, don't change the brand of needles from one sock to the next. The change from Crystal Palace US1's to Clover US1's was the difference of about an inch in circumference. So, he has one sock that fits and another that's a bit baggy. I told Hubs that his next pair will fit much better :) Second lesson learned, plain stockinette feet take much fewer stitches than ribbed stitch ones. Hence, the horrible bagginess on the first sock. Third lesson, when making socks for size 13 feet, use long needles to keep stitches from falling off.

Project Stats
Pattern: Slipped Rib Stitch from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential, used 2 and a half skeins
Needles: Crystal Palace and Clover bamboo DPNs


Hubs posing his new socks, never mind the dog fur tumbleweeds in the background :)

From the Depths of the UFO Pile

I give you...

Hub Sock 2.0!

Over the holiday weekend, I dug Hub's second sock out of the long forgotten project pile and continued knitting it. I managed to finish the cuff, heel, and heel turn. The heel saw some KIP action Saturday night at Symphony on the Prairie. We arrived roughly an hour before the River City Band took the stage - primo knitting time! The weather was gorgeous, so I knitted on into the performance until it got too dark to see the grey stitches.

Last night, I started swatching the Knitpick's Gloss yarn for a project I'm cooking up for an online swap. It's wonderful - nice stitch definition, beautiful silky sheen, buttery soft, and not in the least bit splitty.

Whew

It's done. Finito. Completed. Stick a fork in it.

Completed Kimono Shawl/Baptism Blanket

Today was blocking day. I was surprised that it took four rinses to get all the gunk and dirt out of the finished item. I always knitted it with freshly washed hands, just goes to show you how easily white yarn picks up stuff.


Blocking in Progress

Blocking made this much, much larger than I anticipated. It's now 51 inches in height and 42 inches in width. I had to move furniture to make room in the spare bedroom for blocking.


Close-up on Bedspread



Close-up on Couch

Project Details
Pattern: Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle, 15 pattern repeats across
Needles: US 6 Crystal Palace Bamboo Circulars
Yarn: Skacel Merino Laceweight
Project Duration: June 16, 2006 - September 4, 2006 (only project going!!)
Blocked Size: 42" by 51"



On Bed Angle

Project Thoughts
Oy! Really, it was easy sailing on this project up until I screwed up its first bind-off. What better way to learn to bind lace off l-o-o-s-e-l-y than have to fix your first attempt for a week? This was my first lace project using lace weight yarn. Another lesson learned being that Crystal Palace circulars are just not a good fit for lace weight yarn. The stitches kept catching on the joins which drove me bonkers! Oh, another lesson learned, I need to buy a blocking board. I was scrunched down on my hands and knees blocking this for quite awhile.


Wide Expanse of Lace

Patience of a Saint

Oh, not me - I definitely don't have that much patience. Hubs does for putting up with me this past week madly attempting to salvage two months of lace knitting. As much as Kris has been patient with me, it now doesn't hold a candle to Bandit's patience level with me.

"Mommy, I am NOT a knitwear model!"

Behold, Bandit swaddled in the salvaged and finished Kimono Shawl/Baptism Blanket/My Bane of the Last week. As of late last night, I finally had all 167 stitches back on the needles after picking up insane amounts of dropped stitches. I did the last of the stitch fixes tonight, and bound off. The trick to binding off lace loosely enough is to use a broomhandle sized knitting needle for the bind off - this project used a US 6 and I used a US10.5 for binding off. It isn't a trapezoid this time!! *insert a little happy dance here*

Blocking tomorrow, so I'll post better pics and a project synopsis then!


Bandit better be glad I'm not having him model sweaters...yet :)

It's (almost) Alive!

Status as of quitting time tonight is just over half the stitches are back on the needle for the baptism blankie. Maybe another night or two and they'll all be back on the needles.

As of this evening, I have all the notions for the Saffron Cables afghan. I ordered a 60 inch pair of Knitpicks Option needles. The needles are just a few inches shy of being my height. Since secret pal exchanges, birthdays, and Christmas are looming around the corner, I also got some supplies for making some presents, too. ;) No details here though, except to say that the new Gloss wool and silk sock yarn from Knitpicks feels and looks fab!

Welcome to my Nightmare

Urgh. Here's the photographic evidence of the mess I caused tonight.

Finished trapezoidal blanket, not the look I was going for.

The left (bind off) side of the shawl was a good 6-8 inches longer than the right (cast on) side. Note the ruffling occuring on the left side edge. Why did I not notice that last night as I was binding off??

After attacking the bind off knotted stitch, I cut too deeply and wound up trimming off four rows of the garter stitch edging. Damn... I tried to pick up the remaining stitches, but they kept dropping quicker than I could cram them back onto the needles.

Eventually, I did have the sense to run a lifeline through the live stitches. That would have been smart before I started hacking into the bind off row. >.< I'm painstakingly picking up all the dropped stitches now and slowly getting the project back on the needles. I'm really hating this yarn now, it sticks to itself when I want it to be smooth yet is smooth enough to drop ridiculous amounts of stitches.

You may want to avert your eyes from the "in progress" picture below. You have been warned.


Employing new tools of the trade - blocking pins to keep tension on the laddered rows, backside of a mousepad to cram said blocking pins into, trusty lifeline, and latch hook thingy tool. Thank goodness I saw on the Yarn Harlot's blog how to use blocking pins to keep tension!

27 out of 167 stiches are back on the needles. Maybe sometime this week I'll cram all these stitches back onto the needle.

Oh yeah, my yarn for the Saffron Cables afghan arrived tonight. After tonight's fiasco, I'm positively giddy with the idea of a project using bulky weight yarn instead of little teensy tiny can't-see-dropped-stitches-easily lace weight. :D

I'm Gonna be Sick

Yargh! Last night, I finished the Kimono Shawl. I hurried home from work this evening to start blocking and recording the big event for the blog. Carefully, I laid out the shawl for its pre-blocked picture when I noticed that I had knitted a trapezoid. My cast off edge was WAAAAAAAAAY too tight. Disheartened, I tried to zhuzh it into a square, but it didn't agree with me. Shit!

Next came the scissors.

And lots of cursing.

Tons of dropped stitches.

It's all safely on a lifeline now so no more damage can be done. Only rows of the garter stitch edge were harmed, easy enough to fix.

Damn, it really sucks to see over two months work literally unraveling before your eyes!

*squee!*

The Saffron Cable afghan will be mine! Well, after the yarn arrives and I spend loads of time knitting. Allow me to back up a bit.

In a welcome moment of serendipity, yesterday I received $100 job-well-done reward. That happened on the very next day after falling in love with the Saffron Cable afghan pattern which needs around $100 worth of yarn and supplies to make. I called my mom yesterday evening and told her about the happy circumstance. She brought up that using that reward to get the supplies would make the afghan a reminder of a job well done for me. Oh, how I love it when folks justify my spending :) I ordered the yarn specified in the pattern - 19 skeins of Berkshire Valley Yarn and a 60 inch Options needle from Knitpicks for the project tonight. Hope I don't freak out the UPS guy by watching the front door for the next week impatiently awaiting my packages' arrivals!

After my big growth spurt on the Kimono Shawl this past weekend, my progress has been very sporadic this week. I didn't pick up the needles at all last night since I was NOT in a good frame of mind after waiting for the neighborhood water supply to be turned back on. Tonight, I got in a whole row of progress before falling asleep in my knitting chair. Hopefully, I can crank out the last 24 lace patterned rows this coming weekend.

What's This?

Why I do believe that's proof that I still knit! *gasp* This weekend was the first time in over a week that I have been able to pick up the needles. Over watching a few episodes of the new Doctor Who, Doctor Who Confidential, Kingdom of Heaven, Serenity, Benchwarmers, and the Whole 10 Yards, I was able to crank out over six inches of lace! Wooo!


In Window Progress Shot

It's now just over 28 inches in length and is finally longer than its width. I think I'll knit another 24-row section or two and call this baby done!

Which I suppose that's just in time as I received my fall issue of Interweave Knits and have fallen completely for the Saffron Cables afghan. In another color of course, I'm not much of an orange person as it looks sickly on me :)

No Progress

No knitting progress to report. Check out my personal blog Knotts Burrow to see what Hubs and I have been up to.

Slow Poke

Faced with only a few inches of new lace to show after a weekend full of knitting. I'm resorting to desperate measures to find new ways to photograph the same project over and over. I don't think I've shown Bandit with the Kimono Shawl yet....

It's now around 25 inches in length, only 5 inches short of being a square!

I signed up this weekend for Blockbuster Online thinking that having more DVDs to watch as I knit will help me along on this project. It's been very hard finding motivation to knit even in laceweight merino when the weather has been in the 90s recently.


Awwwwww...isn't he cute? :)