oh no!

I sort of fell down this week and had a little spell of castonitis...

first - I don't remember how much I had done on this sleeve last week...I think I am halfway done with it but I haven't touched it in days.

then there is the pair of socks I CO. yeah. Pair. Cause I taught myself to knit 2 socks on magic loop toe up.

and then there is the Ravelry Helpers KAL that they forced me into. Tiger Eye Lace Scarf. I love the yarn, I love the colorway, I love the thought of the colorway with the tigers eye - cause it sort of makes me think of a tiger in the grass.

I am not so sure I love the yarn with the pattern though...

Tech Tuesday

Awhile back I mentioned I got the Masters Program for Knitting Level I from TKGA. So, I have finally started it and would like to finish it before April.

In order to keep myself accountable for this, I am working with Erin and will be blogging my progress on Tuesdays. Today I am showing you swatches one through three. YIPEE. I think there are 17 total and also there is a hat and some written info. As I finish things I will keep up AND I will share new things I learn as I go.

Cherry Blossoms

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a skein of Cherry Tree Hill's Cherry Blossom from The Loopy Ewe.

340 yards of Superwash Merino in Supersock DK.

I haven't worked with the DK weight of this yarn, so I am thrilled. I originally wanted it in the sockittome, but I waited too long.

This is beautiful. I love it. I have this thing about cherry blossoms anyway and I have a new tattoo design in my head that incorporates cherry blossoms.

Not sure what this will turn in to, but I can't wait to find out!

Shoulders Arms and toes

Shoulders - I dropped the first stitches on jeanie.

Arms - finished the first sleeve and started the second for butterfly.

Toes - I have half a foot. I would have more, but I ripped out 3" of sock this week.

I got something...just not spinning

I haven't done anything on the spinning front, so I thought I would show you what I THINK I will spin next.

Fleece Artist in the same (unmarked name) colorway in both Kid Sliver (100% Kid Mohair) and Blue Face Leicester. 50g each.

I have to decide if I am going to card this together and spin it or spin each on its own and then ply it together. I did buy these to go together when I was at SAFF. What do you think I should do??

Somehow I managed to not capture the subtle blue in this colorway - I love the mix of the natural, pink and blue and I can't wait to spin this up.


This weekend was action packed. We went to see Gunther Van Hagen's Body Worlds on Sunday. It was super interesting - probably the most interesting part was the human growth section which showed the growth of an embryo from 4 weeks all the way up to the 8 month fetus inside his mother's preserved body. (All of these were taken from science donations of women who donated their bodies to science and were pregnant at the time of their death so please don't email me that I am a terrible person for thinking this was fascinating - I admit the woman and baby was sad). We saw a lot of exposed man parts.

There are no pics cause we weren't allowed, but Cristi, Corey and I went to the dinosaur exhibit and snapped this for you! A special thanks to Corey's husband who came with us.

Hey, Corey, where are your hand knit socks, hon??

And there was a beautiful parrot in the rainforest exhibit.

And a python I caught yawning when I was taking pictures for Cristi - hopefully she put those up because WOW!

So - what fun and exciting things did you do this weekend?

Cold as Ice!

Well, that certainly describes me at the moment. My heat is currently cranking, but I got home from knitting on Wednesday night and my heat had stopped working mysteriously. Now, I waited until well into December to turn my heat on, so I was a little unhappy, but my management company didn't alert my owner-friends appropriately (or get back to me EVER) so I had last night without heat. brrrr. it was like 22 outside. My thermostat needle is buried below 50. Its damn cold.

So, in honor of my peeing ice cubes...I bring to you ICICLE!!!!

400 yards of Merino Tencel fingering weight yarn

December's Yarn Pirate Booty Club haul

Gosh, it is pretty!

Almost makes me like winter!!! Or the color blue! I mean I like blue, but it isn't pink. Or purple. Or green.

*drools*

Elizabeth Bennet Cabled Cardigan

Ta-da!

This yarn cables like a dream!

Great stitch definition despite being all sorts of fuzziness due to the angora content.

Pattern: Elizabeth Bennet Cabled Cardigan by Stefanie Japel
Size: 44" (in theory)
needles: Knit picks options 4 and 6
buttons: 9 of them. vintage pearly ones
yarn: Cascade Cloud 9 - I bought 22 balls as instructed. I have 8.5 left. *grumbles*
modifications: ok - I wanted this a little big for layering and I am a 42" bust. but I didn't need that large of a neck, so I knit 2 down for that and then increased.

Things I love:

The collar and button band in seed stitch and of course the cables.

Things I hate:

IT IS HUGE ON ME! And I have lost 2 buttons. I need to buy slightly bigger buttons anyway, but I love the look of these - so if you have a line on some similar - lemme know!!!

grrr....argh

Bits and pieces

Really, I don't have much to show today. Come back tomorrow and you will see why!

Butterfly has half of sleeve one...


I CO a pair of socks for Tattoo Boyfriend...


and I CO Jeanie...

Games + Gun Powder = HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone had a happy and safe new year celebration. Thank you for a great year here on the blog and with the podcast.

Now that we have that out of the way. We can get on to more exciting things. Like what I did last night. First, I picked up my new glasses. Too bad for you there are no pics of that. Then, Cristi and I headed over to PooterP's sister's house for game night.

beer, good!

We drank and ate pizza.

We played Apples to Apples.

We played Pass the Pigs.

Jean Marie didn't learn when to hold 'em until TOO LATE!

Then we headed to Cherryville for the shooting in of the new year.

With black gunpowder and muskets.

That's Chicken on the wall.

The Cherryville shooters do this every year and the whole town turns out.

ummm...who let Cristi have a gun??

This tradition is said to ward off the evil spirits. Apparently by scaring the crap out of them with loud bangs (although I still feel pretty evil inside - Jean Marie said it is because they weren't shooting AT me).

That is Ronnie - he was shooting and Johnny who was just lovin'!

So a bunch of guys with muskets line up and take turns shooting.

They do this all night.

Yeah, these pics suck, get over it.

No really. they just move from spot to spot all over the town. It was a good time.

This kid had the best seat in town.

Then we crowded back into the car and headed home.

Happy New Year everyone. Hope it is evil spirit free. Other than mine.

Quack! Quack!

This is some sample roving sent to be by A Knitting Duck.
It came out a little over 62 yards for the .88 oz sample of 2 ply. its dkish weight? I am being lazy and I am not going to get my wpi tool and the yarn. sorry.

It spun very nicely and I really love the colors.

Domestic Wool (color SD0026 - I think - its the closest thing to a colorway on the tag!)

By the skin of my teeth...

I have been lazy so this is late. sorry.

This is the last of the birthday yarn gifted to me by the amazing Remi of Charlotte Yarns.

Wagtail Yarns Superfine Kid Mohair 4 ply in Sage

Normally I don't go for greens - I like green but I get distracted by the pink. but oh my!

There are 400 some odd yards here (sorry the yarn is waaaaay over there!) but I think this is destined to be Ice Queen!

Its so soft and yummy that I made Cristi touch it even though she has a little mohair allergy. Yeah, I am mean but it was soooo worth it.