Knitters Christmas List 2010

Well it's getting to be that time of year again, time to pick out presents for your favorite knitter! Or for yourself, =D.

In no particular order here's a list of my top 10 things for knitters:

1. Blackthorne double pointed knitting needles, they're made of carbon fiber. Which makes them light, smooth and incredibly strong. If you've ever snapped a dpn while knitting a sock, you'll love this little guys.

2. Nameste's Buddy case, it's a great place to stash all your little knitting knick knacks. It's well made, comes in great colors and best of all, the back panel is magnetic so you won't loose your darning needles anymore!

3. Sterling silver stitch markers from Spindle Cat Studios. These little stitch markers are unique, beautiful and feel like jewelry for your knitting!

4. Ceramic Yarn Bowl from The Mud Place - What a beautiful way to keep your yarn balls under control. 

5.Limited edition Knitkit - Knitkits are like swiss army knives for knitters! There's a row counter, a storage compartment that houses a darning needle, scissors and little rubber stitch markers. There's also a handy dandy retractable measuring tape. 

6.Knitpicks Try It Needle Set - Every wanted to try out one of Knitpick's signature interchangeable needles? Afraid to buy a set because of the slightly high initial cost? Check this out! You can get 3 sets of tips and a set of 24" cables. The Zephyrs come in US size 6, the Harmony's US size 5 and the Nickel plated in size 4.

7.Yarn Stash Knitter's Rule - A cute and funky bamboo needle/stitch gauge. A perfect stocking stuffer. 

8.At Knit's End: Meditations For Women Who Knit too Much - By Stephanie Pearl McPhee AKA the Yarn Harlot. I love this book my dear friend Fickle Knitter gave my copy years ago when I was going though a tough spot in my life. Whenever things get tough I take it out and read it again. It always makes me feel better. 

9.Needle Roll from Slipped Stitch Studios- This spiffy little needle roll keeps your needles nice and safe, and to top it off it's damn cute!

10. A subscription to a knitting magazine, my current fave is Creative Knitting. The magazine is filled with cute projects, great ides for gifts and pretty pictures of yarn. 

         

Monkey Time!

I love sock monkeys. I'd love to decorate my house with them. In fact I found the most adorable sock monkey stocking at Big Lots a few weeks ago. It's sings Christmas carols! If I didn't already have eleventy stockings of my own I would have brought the sock monkey one home with me. Here's a little video so you can see the cuteness. (Sorry about it being sideways, my droid is a dork.)

At the Taos Wool Festival a few months months ago (I'll have to tell you about it again I lost this post when I killed the blog yesterday), Levi saw a booth that had the sweetest sock monkey hats. He fell in love but the price on the hats was a bit high so I promised I would make him one.

I used the free pattern from Knitty with the modifications from Llcooper on Ravelry.

So, what do you think? =D

I broke the blog

Ooops. I was trying to get my widgets to line up correctly and I killed the blog. *sigh* This is why I never kept tamagochi pets (remember those?) I always forgot to feed them, lol.

Well I imported a few older posts from the old blog to fill up a little space. I lost some of the newer posts, but it's ok. I'll just have to post more to make up for it!! Lately I've been feeling chatty so I don't think it'll be a problem.

My kindle died!

RIP little buddy. I called Amazon customer service and after a few failed attempts at Kindle CPR, they shipped out a new one next day air, for free!

I don't know what I'd do with out my little digital book. I'm so glad I'll have it back soon! Yay!

Fall 2010

Fall, is my most favorite time of the year. It's the season that brings back so many happy memories from my childhood.

I've been busy this fall! So far I've gone to the Taos Wool Festival, the pumpkin patch, celebrated the opening of a new yarn show and I've adopted two kittens!

I've been gone from the blog for a while (again) but I hope to be back for good. I've missed blogging and I'm going to make a concentrated effort to blog at least once a week. Should be attainable, right?

My life here has been going through some big changes. The most notable is, I went back to school this fall! I'm going for my associates degree in Diagnostic Medical Sonography. I'm currently working on mid terms right now and I'm doing pretty ok!

I've been knitting here and there and I've finished a few projects. Currently I'm working on a baby hat and a baby sweater. Both are just about done, maybe a week or so left. My next project is going to be a family set of sock monkey hats.

I plan to write a few more posts this week about what I've been up to, but for now I'm going to post a few pics and head off to bed.

What have you and yours been up to? =D

Squee!! I have mobile internet!!

My H just got me the mobile hotspot from Sprint! I can't tell you how cool it is to post/surf/read blogs on my computer, in my car! (I'm not driving of course!) I can usually get to most websites from my phone but it's a pain to read stuff on the tiny little screen. And forget reading a pattern or looking up my project queue, lol!

I just need to figure out how to upload pics on to the mini pc. It has a usb port, a jump drive should work right?

Paca, Paca, Paca!!

My son is 3 and still has a little trouble with certain words. He can't quite say "alpaca" so it comes out "paca".

And that's the word we heard all trip long! LOL. We went for our annual trip to Victory Ranch. It's a wonderful place where they sell and raise aplacas. There's so much fibery goodness there it's all I can do not to ask them to adopt me.

We left yesterday afternoon and took the high road to Taos. On the way there we stopped in Penasco for a little picnic. The drive is so pretty and the mountain air was blessedly cool.

Usually I never see any neat wild animals on these drives. But this time was different. First we saw a sweet little doe and I was pretty excited. Then my SIL says "Holy crap there's a bear!" And dude, there was a freaking bear about 100 yards from us! I've never been so "close" to a wild bear before. I shot a couple of pictures and we left. I'm a dork but I felt pretty special getting a to see that guy.

We stopped a few miles down the road and had our picnic. I took a ton of pictures, but no worries I'll only post....a few.


My H and I. The only pics we ever seem to have of ourselves are the goofy self portrait kind. Huh. Guess that really does show our personalities.

My daughter Bella sniffing a daisy.

Mathis getting a kiss from the 'pacas!!!

Souvenir yarn from Los Vigiles Fiber Studio in Chimayo, NM.

Royal Spinnery yarn that I bought from Victory Ranch.

12 Projects in 12 months

My good friend Telma of KnittyorNice.com is doing a wonderful project. 12 socks in 12 months. It looks like a fun way to challenge one's knitting abilities and come out with some spiffy socks in the end! I'd like nothing more then to join her. But after starting socks in every imaginable fashion (dpn's, magic loop and even 8 inch circs!) I've discovered that socks hate my face. This is astonishing to me as I've never done anything to socks so I'm quite miffed that they're so hostile. In fact I'm never going to bother with socks again! (Really I just can't handle the rejection.)

I still want to do 12 somethings in 12 months. I've picked 12 projects that I feel are generally within my knitting abilities, each one has to cost $40 or less and away I go.

I think this'll help with my random knitting habits and I'll actually get more projects done. We'll see eh?

With that I'm going to organize my Ravlery queue and I'll leave you with a gratuitous "baby in the yarn room in a cute hat and jammies" pic.

P.S. I'm Pyrokittie on Raverly if you'd like to be friends!

A lime green hat and a FO!

My niece Marilynn is knitting her first hat! I taught her what to do and she's doing the decreases now. I'm so proud I could bust! (that's my hand dyed yarn by the way, =D)

I'm just about done with the prayer shawl I was working on. Sadly all I have is a dorky self portrait with it. Sorry my batteries died and I'm waiting for them to charge. It's ok though we all know I'm a goof ball.

I'm going to wash and block it now and I'll have better pics for ya'll tomorrow. 

With that I'm going to eat the yummy homemade red chile enchiladas my H cooked. 

My knit ink...

Here it is! Finally my own knitting tattoo. I'm so in love with it. The colors, the content, the placement, perfect! Let me know what you think. =D

Super Secret Knitting

Kinda sounds like a bad spy novel huh? Eh, I'd read it!

So I'm working a test knit for a pattern a friend of mine, it's not really super secret but I felt way cooler saying that!

 Michelle is  a fantastic knitter and an even better pattern writer. The pattern is great, very easy and well written. Even my dorky self is doing well with it. You can see Michelle's knitting blog at Fickle Knitter. My knitting actually looks like it's supposed to! As soon as I can I'll post a pic, until then, at least I can show you the yarn I'm using.

Berroco Sox Metallic in Kiwi. (I have like 10 balls of this stuff!)

I finally started the Accidentally on Purpose Drop Stitch tank......and I don't like it. The yarn that's recc'd is funky and I think my gauge is waaay off. (Confession: I never check my gauge.) This knit is just annoying me so I frogged it and I'm on the hunt for something that's fun to knit. Any suggestions? =D

The never ending scarf

I've been working on this scarf for 2 years. It was supposed to be a scarf for my husband. It was the very first thing I ever knitted..er started knitting. To this day it bores me to tears. I wonder if it'll ever be done? Maybe in another 2 years. 

I'm still plugging away on the sweaters. I think I'm going to put them away for a while. They really are fall/winter knits. I'm really itching to start a pretty tank top. I found the Accidentally on Purpose Drop Stitch Tank from Stitch and Bitch Nation. I have some pretty red yarn that would work or I could do Astealerofheart's Heart tank?

 

Or last but not least Tomis. Decisions, decisions!!

A birthday present

My dear Dad is turning 50 in a few days and I've started a cute birthday scarf for him. I'm really hoping he'll like the colors I chose. I used Paton's Classic Wool in Harvest. The wool is a little harder to work with because it's so stretchy but I'm doing ok so far. What do you think?

I'd post a pic of the sweaters but they all look pretty much the same just a few inches longer,s o let's do some Q&A. My friend Telma from KnittyorNice tagged me on her blog today with this:

1- What’s your staple meal (ie. what meal do you cook most often when you 

can't be bothered to be adventurous? I don't really cook. I leave that business up to my husband. My family is very grateful for that!

2- What do you want to be when you grow up?

A sonographer. =)

3- What book are you reading at the moment (if any)? KnitLit and Twenties Girl

4- How do you relax? I hide in my office and knit, weave or catch a few zzzz's. 

5- What color are the interior walls of your home? Builders beige. I've been lazy about painting our new house. We're working on that though. Starting with the garage. 

6- What is your guiltiest pleasure? Yarn shopping..without the kids. Oh how I love the colors, the smells the textures. But it's a pain for me to get to the yarn store with my kiddos (they really don't behave, LOL). My H tries to give me a few hours a month but it's hard with his job. 

7- What time is bedtime and getting up time? Around 11 or 12 for bedtime. I wake usually as my H is headed out for work...so 7:30 ish.

8- How long do you spend reading blogs (per day or per week)? About an hour or so per day so 7 or 8 hours a week. I love reading blogs and making comments on them =). 

Weaving, waving, woving,

Sounds like a Dr. Seuss story huh? LOL. It's what keeps going through my head as I'm weaving my table runner.

I've had my Cricket loom for about 6 months now and I haven't even tried to use it once. I saw the Yarn Harlot's blog a few days ago and I decided to dust it off and see what I could do. What can I say? I'm a follower. =)

I've had a few snags, I didn't warp the loom correctly in two different areas (easy enough fixes thankfully) and I've missed a few of the warp strings with the weft strings. But I'm having fun learning and I hope to make weaving a staple in my fiber obsession. Just what I need, another reason to buy yarn!!

I'm a yarn pig

Or at least I have one. Meet Purl, my own sweet piggy bank. She keeps all the household change which I use as my yarn fund.

She's such a lovely companion, a good listener and she never complains when I ask her for a loan. Lmao.

Thanks to my sweet H for such a cute and useful office buddy.

I got bored last night and decided to try out the kool aid dying everyone's been talking about. I used some bulky white wool and the only kool aid I had on hand, lemon lime. Not too shabby. 

Peacock Feather

Now that's a pretty name for a colorway of yarn. I just got a great deal on some of Stitch Nation's Alpaca Love and I'm excited! 6 skeins is a sweaters worth of yarn, now all I have to do is find the perfect pattern. Raverly Pattern Search, here I come!

Maybe this will become the famed February Lady sweater. I think this color would look good on that knit.

I've been plugging along on my Deconstructed Jacket. I just finished the first arm hole. Sorry for the cruddy cell phone pic. I lost my camera in my office somewhere. My office is always a damn mess but I think I like it that way. Organized chaos and all that.

I really am enjoying this knit even if it is a bit slow going.

The color is still one of my favorites, a deep sapphire blue.

I've also been knitting on my Wren sweater here and there.

About 3 1/2 inches so far. It's curling up like crazy so I had to use a leatherman and a bottle of Soak to hold down the edges for the picture.

I really love this color too! It's a new introduction to my wardrobe. I've been trying very hard to use brighter colors, mostly jewel tones.

I think I mentioned this yarn before, it's Full o'Sheep from Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller, in Thyme. I think it's more of a peridot color but that could be because I like colors named after gemstones.

I don't think I posted about it but I finished my daughter's summer tank top a few weeks ago. She's been enjoying wearing it at least once a week and it's holding up well. I can't tell you how happy I am that something I made is being used, the way it's supposed to be. It's not being handled gently and my little Isabella is giving it a run for it's money. She looks adorable in it too! But she doesn't hold still long enough for me to take a picture.

Last but not least a little bit of yarn pron....

Cascade 220 Heathers in 2425 (ooh fancy name!) and some plan old Brown Sheep in...Storm. I would have called that one Root Beer.

Blueberry Yum-Yum

I never liked that song but I can't help but have the name run through my head when I look at my sweater. It's the Deconstructed Jacket from Lion Brand.

So far the pattern has been really easy to follow and I like the results.

I'm a little bored with all the stockinette stitch. So I think I'm going to start another project. Nothing huge but something to keep me entertained. I'll keep working on the DJ but maybe not as often.

I'm going to start Lady Kina in Stitch Nations' Full o'Sheep in the Thyme colorway.

I'll let you know how it goes.

All the pretty yarns...

They're mine all mine!

I got my shipments from Knitpicks and Amazon, boy am I excited! I also went to my two favorite LYS (Looking Glass Yarns and Lavender Lamb) and picked up some yumminess there.

Here's my haul. From the left, green linen from Lavender Lamb, Red Ultra Alpaca from Looking Glass and from the grey wool on is Knitpicks. The book is French Girl Knits and I bought it from Amazon, used. I don't know where I'm going to store it all, LOL the extra storage shelf I just added is already full, guess I'd better knit it up, huh?

I started my Lion Brand Jacket Deconstructed and so far I have about 5 inches. It's going pretty quickly. but that's because it's on such large needles, I think.

I'm loving the color and I can't wait until it's done. 

My house eats things...

Well I did have a couple of pictures of my lovely knitting group and my current WIP. But my house was hungry and decided to eat my camera cord. I've ordered a new one but it won't be here for a few days. It least it was crazy cheap!


So instead I'm going to post pictures of the projects I just bought yarn for.  I have 6 projects that are on my Ravelry queue. Most of them are things for colder weather, which is when I want to actually wear them, not just knit them. So with me being the slow, easily distracted knitter I am,  I started a wee bit early. 

I recently bought the book Pints and Purls: Portable Projects for the Social Knitter from my LYS. I'm in LOVE! Everything in it is so cute and I love the experience level ratings. They use beer bottles to rate the difficulty of each pattern. The hardest is 1 beer and the easiest is 4 beers. 

I loved this book so much that 3 out of 6 of my new projects are from it. What could be better then knitting and beer? 

First is the Raspberry Wheat Ale Messenger Bag from Pints and Purls. I'm using Cascade 220 in 9404 Ruby. The pictures on the website don't really do this color justice. It really is a brighter red, closer to rose red. 

The Absinthe Sweater really caught my eye, it's a pretty, simple little 
   sweater. It looks like something I'd wear and it's the first sweater I've ever knitted for myself. I'm using Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Sapphire Heather. I don't have a lot of clothes in that shade of blue and I hope that it'll be complimentary. 

The last project form P&P's is the Two Fisted Tank in Wool of the Andes, Forest Heather. I'm really drawn to the heather colors, I think they have  more depth and color to them then the solid colors. I think that makes them more fun to work with.

Next is the Pretty Thing Cowl from the Yarn Harlot. I'm using a funky little yarn from Ironstone called Herb. It's a bright, funky pink and it's really soft, I think it has mohair in it. It seems to be discontinued and I've lost the tag so I don't have a lot of info on it. I did find this bit of info on Ravelry! 

I'm really excited about this knit, Wrenna: Leather-laced Cardigan from French Girl Knits. I love how chunky it is and I'm knitting it out of wool so it'll be warm. I got the yarn from Knitpicks, so it was really inexpensive and the color is pretty close to the original. Wool of the Andes Bulky in Pewter.

Last but not least is the Peacock Lace Scarf . I bought a pretty dress this weekend in a bright green and it has peacock feather cut outs on the hem. I thought I could pair this scarf with it and some tights and it would be a perfect fall outfit. Again the yarn is from Knitpicks (gotta get that free shipping!), Palette in Edamame. 

All in all, I think I have my fall knitting picked out and ready to go. I'm more likely then not throw in a couple of side projects here and there but let's see how this knitting from my queue thing goes!!

I like my martini knitted not stirred

I love quick knits! Making something fun and useful in a small amount of time really appeals to my inner instant gratification knitter. I was bored and decided to write a simple quick knit. It’s not perfect but it’s cute, a small dish cloth with a martini on it. It took me about an hour to knit but I’m slow knitter. 

I figure if you make a few of these they could make a cute housewarming gift, or just something neat to make on a lazy afternoon

I'm a wannabe..

Spinner that is and before you go and get your mind in the gutter I'm talking about spinning yarn. I got a brand new Ladybug spinning wheel for Christmas and I've yet to spin anything on it. I've been trying and I'm becoming seriously discouraged. I know it's going to be like knitting and sooner or later I'm going to get my lightbulb moment and figure it out. But this period of inability is annoying me to no end.

On to happier things! I've decided that my next tattoo is going to be knitting related. So far this is what I've come up with. I still can't decide on what colors to use so until that's done I'm going to wait to go see an artist.

It's a little blurry here but you get the idea. I'm so in love with this design! I just want to make sure it's perfect so I guess that's why I can't choose a color.