Buh??

I've been pondering over this post for over an hour now, and the words just aren't coming to me. No quasi-witty banter tonight. I'll let the stitches speak for themselves.

Progress on the Kimono shawl, thanks to Hubs for snapping the shot while my hands were occupied with tszujing the lace


Progress on the second Hub sock has been made completely away from the house. I never realized how much knitting time I could steal on the road. :) Shot was taken during tonight's episode of Wife Swap, Monday night TV in the summer stinks!

Look for a more content filled post later this week. After a rough, non-sleeping night, my mind's numbed tonight

Quick PSA

Public Service Announcement to Indy area knitters. Mass Avenue Knit Shop has a 30-50% off sale running June 26 - July 2. Convenient timing for my birthday, too :D

New Stuff

This post will be filled with new stuff - new projects, new yarn, and new books with lots of pictures. :)

Friday, after mailing a pile of bills, I treated myself with a trip to Stitches N Scones in Westfield. I spent a good hour or so browsing after getting a new longer set of DPNs for the second Hub sock and a new circular needle. Following some brief internal debate, I nabbed two more skeins of Koigu for a second Clapotis. No plans whether the second will be for me or gifted. :) I stepped up to the counter to pay and realized my debit card was resting peacefully on a mousepad at home. Nooo!!! Much relief was felt when I was able to rattle off my card number from memory and pay for my knitting goodies.

New Koigu for Clappy Numero 2


Koigu up close and personal

Hubs and I went out Friday night. Date nights in our house are pretty odd when there are no movies we want to see in the theaters. We had dinner and went to Barnes and Noble where I picked up The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques and Knit Lit 3. :)


New Books

Friday, I also started my newest big project, a modified Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls. Rather than being a rectangular shawl, this one will be more squarish hopefully. I did the math, so it may wind up being a trapezoid. My goal is to have the Kimono Shawl done in time for Cosmo Knotts' arrival for his baptism. I struggled through a 167 stitch cable cast on. Ugh, lace weight yarn, too tight of a cast on technique, and stubby ended needles were all against me. After toying with modifying the Candle Flame Shawl pattern, I decided to try a bit simpler lace pattern after effectively frying my brain and eyes over a few lunch breaks figuring the changes to be made. I'm only 5 rows into the 20 row garter stitch border currently.


Kimono Shawl looks more like a Kimono shoe string currently


Kimono Shawl bit closer

I started the second Hub Sock Saturday. I will never work with this yarn again after this sock is finished. Yippee!!


Second Hub sock enjoying the sun breaking through the storm clouds tonight

Frakk

Thanks for widening the scope of my cursing vocabulary, Battlestar Galactica! This is the only word for how I'm feeling.

Finished Hub Sock by Arwen's Sword for Scale

The first Hub Sock is completed. Huge grumbles were heard from me last night when he tried it on last night. It's baggy around the top of the foot.

Crap.

I'll try some decreases in the foot of the second sock. It's good length-wise and around the calf, just sucks around the foot. *grumble*

From the Dark Depths of the Unfinished Object Drawer

It’s alive – the Hub sock!

Ginormous Hub Sock Compared to his Feet

Sunday, Hubs and I sat down to watch a few movies we had rented. Being accustomed to knitting during movies, I exasperatedly told Hubs that I had “nothing to knit” as we were settling in for the movies. I quickly received one of those looks as Kris reminded me of the pair of socks I’m making for him that have been languishing for months shoved in the back of a drawer. That has to be a bad sign when even he notices that I’m avoiding a project. Thinking that having some knitting is better than none, I settled in with the Hub sock. I quickly realized why I shoved it in a drawer. Ugh, splitty yarn and too short needles on my most dreaded part of the sock, the gusset. After fishing up many dropped stitches as they popped off the ends of the unused DPNs, I resorted to smooshing all of the needle ends into point protectors and taking them off as needed. A new set of 7 inch long DPNs will be bought before I start the second sock; the point protectors are quite a pain though not as bad as picking up dropped stitches. After much prodding, Hubs did try on the sock in progress last night. I was beginning to worry that the sock was too big, but it fit like a glove :)

Just the Claps!

Saturday night harbored in a new finished object, Clapotis!

Obligatory self portrait in the bathroom mirror

Project Stats
Yarn: Koigu KPPM
Dimensions: 54 inches by 8 1/2 inches (unstretched)
Needles: Crystal Palace US#4 bamboo circulars
Duration: Cast on May 29th, completed June 10th

Need I say it? I loved this pattern and project. It was very easy to get the rhythm of the repeats and soar through rows anticipating the dropped stitches. Oh, the dropped stitches were so much fun! One end was a bit unruly and curly, and the other was stretched into a point. Both were easily remedied with a little light steaming. Which brings me to the yarn, how I loved working with Koigu. It’s wonderfully soft, has beautiful color changes, and not splitty at all. Family, friends, if you like this wrap and want one, let me know, I’m more than willing to knit more! :)


My Stunning Model, Bandit

Can't Blog...Knitting!

Each night this week I've gotten sucked into the Clapotis pattern. I'm hooked and can't put the needles down!

Working on the decrease section

It's just over 3/4 of the way finished. Though, for this project, I'm getting a lot of entertainment from the process of knitting and not focused on the end product. I definitely can forsee that I'll knit this pattern again :)

Clapotis Fever

I spent a good chunk of this weekend working on my Clapotis. Let me tell ya, I can see why this is one of the most popular knitting patterns in blogland. With the dropped stitches, this pattern highlights handpainted yarns beautifully. The stitch pattern is very rhythmic and easy to memorize. Dropping the stitches adds a lot of fun to the mix, too. I find myself racing through the first 7 rows of a pattern repeat to get to the dropped stitch row. Enough talking, now for some pictures!

Over halfway through my Koigu Clapotis!


Close-up of the dropped stitches

Fiber Day!

Saturday, I packed up my backpack and headed to my first fiber festival, Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. As per my usual, I got completely lost trying to find the Johnson County 4-H fairgrounds and wandered around Franklin aimlessly. Eventually, I made a big circle getting back to the exit I first had taken off the interstate. Eventually, I found it and set out.

The weather was gorgeous, clear sunny sky and not too terribly hot. Their were around 60 vendors selling all sorts of fiber related goods from notions to unprocessed fleeces to cute angora bunnies. I learned I could never own sheep as my eyes watered and nose stuffed up when I was within 20 feet of a sheep. :)

I did get some new yarn and such. I didn't want to buy anything that I could find easily in the stores around town. Here's my haul:

Austermann sock yarn - infused with aloe vera and jojoba. Smells and feels lovely :D


Fleece Artist sock yarn, beautiful blues and greens.


Fleece Artist up close and personal


1375 yards of Skacel lace weight merino


Hopefully, this gauge is big enough so I don't lose it. Also, some nice birch cable needles.

Easily Amused

Koigu amuses me to no end. I love the color changes and watching it knit up. It's been keeping me up way beyond my self-imposed bedtime this week. After every row, I stop knitting to admire the Koigu color changes. Hubs seemed to be less than thrilled when I tried to get him to admire the colors while he was mid video gaming session. :)

Koigu Clappy, ahhhhhhh :)

The Clapotis pattern is a really fun, easy knit so far. I have 5 of 7 increase repeats completed. I think this will be the first of many Clapotis that I'll knit.

Done Stamp

As of 2AM this morning, the Prairie Blanket is DONE! *insert thud of me hitting the floor unconscious here*

Completed Prairie Blanet

Final Stats
Finished Size: 39 inches by 39 inches
Needles: Addi Turbos sz US 8, 40 inches
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in off white
Duration: April 14th to May 29th with some play for Mother's Day knitting thrown in. Lots of Firefly, CSI, Lost, and Doctor Who episodes went into this project, too.

Overall, this pattern got a little tedious, particularly around the miles and miles of garter stitch in the middle at the blanket's largest point. Hence, any of the wrong leaning decreases along the edging are considered a design feature. I didn't have the heart nor stamina to tink (un-knit) hundreds of stitches to fix one. Hey, it's a baby blanket; gourd knows what kind of stuff will wind up on it in the end. :) I loved the short row corner turns at the halfway point, very clever and entertaining part to knit. Much rejoicing was heard in our house last night when the right amount of stitches were on the needles after all the decreases for the middle. However, the whole blasted thing was almost thrown out the window a few minutes later after some rather fuzzy ending instructions. Or maybe that was just my level of exhaustion. The last 14 stitches took me around 45 minutes to finish properly. My hands felt dead by the end of it all; they got a nice warm soak after all that work. :) Word from the now wise, if you want to knit this pattern, use at LEAST a 40 inch circular needle. Any smaller size and the middle portion would have been uncomfortably crammed on the needles.


Close up of my favorite part, the short row corners.

No rest for the wicked, or the knitter. I cast on today for a Clapotis for me. Yummy colored Koigu on Crystal Palace bamboo US 4 needles. The Koigu is no where near the size (nor expense!!) of the recommended Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb. It's intented to be a small lightweight wrap for me to toss over my shoulders this summer when the office air conditioning gets a bit too nippy for me.


Start of my Clapotis

Fit of Inspiration

I can only think that my love of fiber has rubbed off onto Bandit. Inspired by my work on the Prairie Blanket, Bandit picked up the only other unattended off white fiber in the house, one of our remaining two placemats (he's all ready eaten holes in two others).

Supporting my little guy, here's his first finished object...

Ummm..guess this should be titled "Canine Object d'Art #789324" while it's "blocking" in slobbers


The arteest and his first recorded major work

*SIGH*

What’s This?

Why, I do believe it’s visible evidence of progress on the Prairie Blanket!

Evidence of knitting besides butt-shaped dents on the couch

I have about 19 by 19 inch triangle of knitting left on the blanket - 180.5 square inches of knitting. Most of the day Sunday was spent with me knitting on the Prairie Blanket and watching about 10 hours of Da Vinci Code schlock on the History Channel. That’s probably more time than I’ve ever spent watching the History Channel total!

Friday, I did some yarn stash enhancing by going to Stitches n Scones after a trip to the spa. An hour long massage was just the ticket I needed to loosen my grip on my purse strings and buy some yarn. My intentions were to go in and buy two additional skeins of Koigu and a pair of size 4 circular needles for a Clapotis.


Koigu prepped, needles ready, just waiting to finish the Prairie Blanket to start Clapotis!


In addition to the Koigu and new Crystal Palace bamboo circs, I also got:


Cascade 220 in a bubblegum pink


Opal Sock Yarn in Tiger- grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

I’m buying up Cascade 220 for Fuzzy Feet like it’s going out of style. Love the yarn, love the pattern, and see myself making several pairs. The Opal yarn was from a new shipment and after hearing that the Rain Forest line is special edition, I had to buy two skeins. I’m such a sucker when I hear the phrase “limited edition”; it calls to my inner collector. I really hope that the Owl yarn I ordered about a month ago is still in stock at the manufacturer’s.

Whoops!

Long time, no post. Sorry about that. Between personal life crapola going on (see my personal blog for details) and covert Mother's Day knitting, I haven't been able to share too much.

Eight days before Mother's Day, I finally got inspiration for gifts. Of all places, inspiration struck while I was driving on the interstate, blabbing to my grandmother on my cell phone. (I know, bad Christina, bad Christina for jawing on my phone while driving.) I decided to knit Mason-Dixon Washcloths for Mother's Day gifts. Within minutes of that decision, I had bought a pound of Peaches & Creme cotton yarn. The next morning, I cast on my first dishcloth. By Monday night, here was my
progress.

Pattern: Mason-Dixon Washcloths from Mason-Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Peaches & Cream cotton
Needles: US8 Bryspun circs and US8 Brittney Birch DPNs

I did get five washcloths knitted for mailing and gifting by Mother's Day weekend and have PLENTY of yarn leftover for some more cute little projects from Mason-Dixon Knitting. The pattern was very easy to learn, even the tricky eyelet round and bobbles. Also, it gave me the chance for more practice on my SSK stitches. Only complaint from me is that cotton isn't my hands' friend. By the end of a full on knitting weekend, my hands were pretty strained and didn't want to open from a
claw-like position.

Since Mother's Day knitting is finished, I picked up the Prairie Blanket project again. My hands are pleased to be working with the ginormous Addi-Turbos again. I've made some progress. No, really, I swear it's gotten bigger and the attached skein is smaller...


Blanket Progress


I must be coming down with knitter's ADD. Another project is brewing in my mind, scarily enough. The AC at work is set at freezy or peep-sicle, and I can't help but think a nice Clapotis from Koigu would be just the ticket I need. Yarn store trip for two more skeins of Koigu and some US5's may be in order. :)

Surprised

What a weekend! I'm shocked that my hands are able to lie flat. The majority of my weekend was spent knitting, no big surprise there :) Friday morning, I wasn't able to leisurely sleep in as I hoped. Bandit was on the early morning warpath. Apparently, my leftover Lorna's Lace sock yarn from my Olympic socks (almost a full skien!!) was in his warpath, too. Imagine my horror waking up to my beautiful sock yarn being strewn all about the living room, kitchen, and front entryway. *sigh* I spent four hours Friday afternoon and Saturday morning unknotting and winding the tangled mass of yarn that Bandit made. Most of it was salvaged though - whew!

New finished project as of Friday afternoon, too. I've finished knitting my first pair of Fuzzy Feet.

Ginormous Fuzzy Feet before shrinking

The Fuzzy Feet still need to be felted and have slipper bottoms sewn on. Sewing is not my friend, but this pattern sure was! I'd highly recommend the Fuzzy Feet pattern for first time sock knitters or for knitter's who want to improve their decreases. I realized on my first Fuzzy Foot that my SSK's were pretty fugly and took this pattern as an opportunity to try to improve my techniques.

Friday night, I had a fit of inspiration or perhaps a touch of madness. After pondering for a few weeks, I finally figured out what to do for Mother's Day gifts. True to my nature, it involves a lot of knitting. With next weekend's deadline looming, I started knitting gifts over the weekend. Many hours of knitting with cotton yarn left my hands pretty tired.

New projects with a narrow deadline require a trip to the local yarn store, right? Saturday after undoing Bandit's yarn mess, I ran to Stitches N Scones in Westfield to pick up some new needles. By chance, some Opal sock yarn in the Fish colorway just hopped into my hands and made me buy it :) Yeah, and the Opal Tiger and Owl sock yarn ordered itself for me, too.


Really, how could I not buy yarn named Fish??

Sunday, I joined a new knit along group, the Mason-Dixon Knit Along. The premise is a group of knitters blogging about projects we've made from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book. I've been very inspired by the designs in that book - log cabin knitting, knitting for the house, and unusual knitting mediums. Any recipients of Mother's Day gifts from me, please refrain from going to that site until after Mother's Day; no peeking at gifts allowed! :D

Busy week ahead for me knitting-wise, wish me luck!

It's Ginormous!

Finished Fuzzy Foot

Finished up my first fuzzy foot slipper a few moments ago. I took a few liberties with the pattern as I knitted it on DPNs instead of circulars. For the gusset and toe decreases, I followed the basic decreases given in Sensational Knitted Socks. Nice quick and easy knit to get my mind off the epic baby blanket and Hub socks. Tomorrow evening, I'll cast on the second fuzzy foot. I won't be felting them until I gift them so they can be felted down to the right fit. :)


Fuzzy foot compared to my mitt - see, it's big!


Fuzzy foot compared to semi-willing model, Bandit

Blackhole

Over the weekend, I opened up some sort of blackhole in the universe. Sorry if all your yarn is suddenly sucked towards Indiana into this insatiable phenomenon. A better description is an off-white hole really known as the Prairie Blanket.

Progress as of April 30th

This weekend I binged on the Firefly Series and Serenity DVDs while knitting on the Prairie Blanket. That's over 13 hours, and not a whole heck of a lot of progress sizewise. I realized I had to set it aside for a few days when I was hazily making errors and passing on fixing them because that would require ripping out eight bajillion stitches. Close approximation, really :) I definitely need work on my fixing flub-ups skill. I am on the decrease section now, yeah!

Instead of pulling out the Hub socks of doom, tonight I started a set of Fuzzy Feet in cheery pink! Since I dislike teeny tiny circular needles, I'm working them on DPNs.


Ahhh...44 stitches on big honking needles :)

After watching so much Firefly this weekend, I have a notion to add an item to my "To Knit" list.


I suddenly "need" a Jayne Cobb hat before GenCon (a big gaming convention in Indy) in August

Yeah, don't ask me why I want a bulky wool hat for an event in the middle of steamy hot August. It can be quite nippy in that convention center, you know? :)

Green Eyed Monster

Uh oh. Miles and miles of grey and off-white projects have me craving some color. On my daily perusal of knitting blogs, I've came across several finished socks from Opal Tiger yarn. I covet my blog neighbors' Opal Rainforest yarn. I must find a LYS that carries it...or find it online. Owl! Tiger! Fish! Too cute! Must Have!

Big Honkin' Heel

2,070. That's how many stitches went into the heel of the first Hub sock. Now I don't feel so bad for taking four hours last night to knit a single heel flap.

2,070 heel stitches and my uber technical row counter, a Post-it.

And I have another heel to knit after this sock is completed!

Lots of Knitting News

Wow, this was a whirlwind of a weekend! I was able to squeeze some knitting time in Friday. Unfortunately, most of that day was spent impatiently bugging the Sofa Express hotline tracking the non-progress on the furniture that was being delivered to my house. What furniture you may ask?? Oh, just the couch and end table to finish up my knitting lounge area of the office and a ginormous coffee table for
the living room. I grudgingly passed on my weekly Friday night D&D session to babysit the house in expectation of the delivery truck. Finally, they arrived after 9pm sending Bandit into a "must protect Mommy" mode from the confines of his crate. I'd like to think that his reaction was reflecting my crabby mood at the overly late
delivery. Everything was finished and set up the way I wanted after 10 pm, and the office refurbishing project is finally completed. Check it out!

New Knitting Nook

And here's my progress on the Prairie Blanket. One skein down!


Week's worth of knitting on the Prairie Blanket and still looks like a cream-colored stingray with ribbing :)

The Prairie Blanket pattern makes for great engrossing TV watching knitting with the miles of garter stitch in the middle. I'm still on the increases section though. I'm not sure how wide I should make it; the pattern calls for 38 inches diagonally, but that took less than a third of the required yarn yardage to get that length for me. My next project for Marcus and Jackie's upcoming little[scratchout markup] big
boy will be quite a bit more challenging for me. I'm going to be knitting him a baptism blanket. Wish me luck on my first intimidating lace project :)

In other knitting activity, I "swatched" for Fuzzy Feet last night. By swatching, I mean I grabbed some leftover Cascade Quattro from my Wavy scarf, grabbed my dpns, cast on 44 stitches as per the pattern, and knit a few inches. I'm using needles that are 2 sizes smaller than the pattern stated, but post-felting my swatch still slipped over my big honkin' ankles. Since my little experiment worked, I hope to
crank out several pairs for Christmas gifts for this year (lookee a head start on Christmas knitting!!). Now the question arises, what can I do with a 4" felted band of wool??


Fuzzy Feet swatch and mauve Cascade 220 Fuzzy Feet To Be

Last but not least, I've made progress on the Hub's socks. No, I didn't forget about it. It's just been in my purse for about a month getting a row done here or there. This morning, I saw that a few stitches had dropped off the needles in my purse. After fixing that, I started working on the heel flap tonight. I should have this nice pair of wool socks completed in time for summer, lol!


Start of Heel Flap on First Hub Sock