Presents!

I got presents in the mail. Its almost like its my birthday or something! (tee hee it almost is my birthday actually.) There was yarn and bath mitts and lotion and bath salts and yarn oh my! The body products are from Etsy and smell yummy. They are on my nightstand right now and I can smell them before I go to bed, and when I first wake up.

The yarn is delicious, it is Berrocco Ultra Alpaca. I am pretty sure that my secret pal is psychic (or a stalker) cause I have this yarn on my wish list at my LYS. And guess what my LYS also has: more yarn in the same dye lot! I am not sure how this happens cross country, but I was amazed. I bought more yarn and now I am making Something Red from Knit and Tonic. I hope my pal doesn't mind that I bought more of the yarn. I am soo excited that I got yarn on my wish list. Yay.

Also, while I was watching the Sox (YAY) sweep and win the world series I cast off my Tahki Vest. I will make a special post for it when it is properly photographed and blocked. I also was a bad kid and bought some lace weight Zephyr to make Muir from the fall Knitty. It will be my first foray into lace. At least lace that is lace sized, does a chunky weight afghan count? I made a gauge swatch and it turned out beautiful, but it took a lot of concentration. I think I will wait to cast on until I have my Christmas presents finished and have time to concentrate and knit at the same time. Ick, knitting I actually have to pay attention to. At least it will be something different.

I am a lemming.

I joined the rest of the knitting world. And i was quite a bit late, too. This weekend on my tour of the Yarn Market, I bought some Fiesta Ballet in the Morocco colourway. It is for my new Clapotis. I think i am the last person to start this project. I am making with the ballet yarn on size 5 turbos. Obviously that is a smaller yarn than the pattern calls for. The gauge is a bit loose but it makes a nice drapey fabric. It will be a nice shawl. I think it will be a Christmas gift for my grandma, she will like the colours. The yarn is an Alpca/Tencel blend and is quite slippery. I read that you cant use too fuzzy of a yarn cause the stitches wont drop, but my yarn is almost too slippery.


The project is going well. I have gotten to the second section and am having fun dropping stitches. Officially it is back on hold until I finish some other projects that are further along.

In other news...

I got in to Ravelry! (this seems like i am the last knitter on earth again!) I have started my notebook and stash and queue. If anyone would like to come visit me my user name is Stanzi.

hrmm.

Lately i have had a little bloggers block. The frustration i felt 2 weeks ago is somewhat cured. The new (replacement) sweater is going well. I have the back done and am a couple inches into the front sides. I also have some secret projects going on, so i cant post about a lot of what i am doing. I locked myself in all weekend and knitted for 2 days straight! (i am very very behind on one of my secret projects) It was a little hermit-like but by the time i figured i would leave my apartment on saturday freakish storms hit and i didn't want to go out. The power kept going out to, so i would rather be in my apartment with no power than the grocery store. Also why would i want to leave the house when i was marathon-ing the office. I have never watched this show, and when i decided i wanted to, i couldn't start until i had seen all the previous seasons. that is how i am with tv shows. Netflix let me stream seasons 1 and 2 and than i bought 3 from itunes. 3 seasons in 5 days. yes, i am a loser. thats what i do when i get into a tv show. The same thing happened in February with a tv show which shall remain nameless. At least this was only 3 seasons of 30 minute episodes, versus 6 seasons of 1 hour episodes.

I was supposed to clean all weekend, because i am hosting a small bachelorette party on saturday, but that of course didn't happen. i am such a mess. i have soo much to do and soo little time. I guess there wont be much more knitting this week, i have party supplies to buy and cleaning to do. i am not even sure if i can make it to knitting club this week. Gawr! Hopefully i can post some pictures of the non secret projects soon. I have awful natural light in my apartment and it rained all weekend.

Speaking of knitting club, i found a new one. It is hosted in the home of one of the ladies at my regular knitting club. It only meets once a month which is sad cause they are a fun group. These are my people. I had a ton of fun.

Well i am going back to work. Pictures of non secret projects to come soon.

P.S. a knitting hint for you out there. one of the secret projects is a popular project using Cascade Eco wool. See if you can guess what it is. :)

Updates

I finally found my digital camera charger so i can post some pictures. Yay. I desperately needed it before the party this weekend too. I am one more skein into my glee sweater. it doesn't look like much yet, and its hard to tell the fit until i start knitting in the round. It looks close enough though.


I also took some of my knitting books to kinkos for rebinding. Now not only do they lay all the way flat, i can flip the cover all the way around without cracking the spine. Quite exciting. I have decided i am going to take the rest of my books to have this done. And, the next time i am using rick Steves books i am going to have this done to them too. I am so tired of chapters falling out from over use. However, the kinkos girl estimated wrong, and my vintage knits got a little cut off. I think the patterns are still readable though. Still, i wasn't too pleased. The kinkos girl did refund all of my money for all the books though.

Well i am off for the weekend. The schedule is packed tight. Tomorrow is the black t-shirt party at the lake, and then Shannon's shower is on Sunday. Eve is going with me, it is not quite her scene (or mine for that matter), so it will be funny to see how she takes it. I didn't think about it until now but I have the complete and total opposite social groups in one weekend. Black t-shirt car junkies vs. Lily Pulitzer Dublin moms. If only they were all together and I just could watch. Oh well, I will leave that up to my imagination. Stories and pics to come when I return.

byee

Knitting on the Dock of the Bay

Knitting on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm just knitting on the dock of the bay
Wasting time

I finished a project this weekend! I will post the pictures as soon as i find my digital camera charger. It could be a while... It was a tiny one, so its not the biggest accomplishment. I finished a pair of twinkletoes that i modified to be mary janes instead of ballet slippers. Tres cute.

I cast on a new project this weekend to commemorate the completion of Twinkletoes II The pattern is Glee from Zephyr Style and I am using the bottle green "vintage" merino from my mom. Can yarn be vintage???? I am not sure, it is 30 years old so I am counting it as vintage. And it is from France; from a yarn shop in the town of Versailles (the town outside the palace).

It was a long hard weekend...

Soo the weekend is over and I am back to another work week. This one with 7am mornings. yippee.

This weekend was one of the most excellent weekends ever. Both Hashi and Ponti came to visit me at the lake. It rained most of the weekend, but we got a couple of boat rides in and even a trip to the cranberry. Yay for cute bartenders.

Even with the rain, I didn't get any projects done. I started and ripped out the toe for another pair of twinkletoes, but at the end of the weekend it still wasn't on the needles. However, Monday I came home and whipped one out. One more to go. I am having trouble with the size and this time I even checked my gauge. I ended up making the child size again, just modifying them to be longer. Oh well, they are still cute and hopefully will fit.

Christmas at Casa de Rose

Except i don't get any presents in return. Boo hoo. they look pretty in the corner of my apartment though. these are all for only 2 weddings and i still have one to finish and 2 to buy. i guess there aren't that many gifts, they just are big boxes.

So, on my projects i am making lots of progress, but it justs look like they are never going to end. I finished the left front for my basket weave sweater, but i have delayed casting on the right front. im sure i will start tonight at knitting club.

I have officially decided to rip out my Tyrolia Sweater but the Rowan book i bought uses at least 11 skeins for all the patterns and i only have 10. bummer. I think i am going to make Glee from Zephyr Style. i think it will turn out well and it actually takes less yarn than what i have. yay!

armed with pointy sticks

I like to knit. i am very bad about finishing projects though. Right now i am being very good and only have 3 projects on needles. that is not to say that i haven't bought yarn for many more projects, and bought patterns for even more. I hadn't been knitting in almost 2 years, but while we were on vacation (uk rocks) i impulse purchased a pattern and yarn for a sweater. it is going quite well and i am almost done with the back. in the meantime, i have started 5 other projects. But, i have managed to finish 2 of them! Yay. (and one got ripped out)

I am not the most advanced knitter out there. i am actually not very good. i impress my friends, but that is not saying much. I can usually figure out most patterns that you throw at me but i also make mistakes. Does that make sense? I am also not a big 2-colour knitter. I haven't figured out how not to get the skeins tangled.

Currently i am working on a basket-weave shawl sweater, the mystery project, and the cabled turtleneck capelet from WrapStyle. The basket weave sweater is made out of a wool blend that i bought in York, but it feels quite nice and it is machine washable. I am making it out of a khaki-esque colour. The capelet is made out of berocco peruvia yarn in caliente. You cant tell on the website but the coulour has threads of blue in it giving it a purpleish sheen. I love it.