knitting on the needles

Christmas came and went..and as usual no matter how early in the year I start I still have knitting on the needles that I have to finish up.
I'm sure you remember these socks. At least they are on the last inch and a half to completion. This hat was started quite a while ago and it took a little bit of time figuring out the pattern. Then I put it down and had to figure out where I was... and now I just have to work on it. I haven't even posted a picture of that on my ravelry page. Last but not least are these organic cotton dish cloths that I'm going to give as a gift with some organic soaps. I just have to finish them. :( . I has been that kind of year where I just can't seem to get stuff done. Today is my first day off since Christmas day. Work has been hectic and tiring and all I seem to want to do is rest and get my stuff ready for the next day. Today I just relaxed and knit in between the usual laundry and what not. I'm itching to get these projects finish so I can work on others that I put to the side for Christmas knitting and use my new needles. Yes I got the most wonderful Christmas gift... the Harmony interchangeable needle set. Girl tools..!!

Merry Christmas!!

I know I haven't blogged in so long. It's the picture thing. I still need to figure out what I want to do about picture posting. Anyway.. it's Christmas eve.. all the kiddies are in bed sleeping. I just put the last button on the Monster hoodie I was knitting for Cam. The pattern is Childhood. A very simple hoodie pattern. The yarn I used for this is Cascade pacific. The yarn is very soft and has a lot of drape. I talked to Cam on the phone a few months ago and he said he wanted me to make him a blue monster sweater on my knitting machine for him.. hehe. so cute. Well I did my best Cam. I hope you like it. I still have to wash it and pack it up and mail it out. Here is the link. I hope it works.
There are a few more hand made gifts to pack up and mail out and couple more that need some finishing touches. All will have to wait for tomorrow.
 Working in retail on the holidays can wear you out. I look forward to the day off spending the day with the family and watching the kiddies open gifts.

Wishing you all a wonderful night and Christmas day. (^_^)

It's been very long...

Hello again.. yes it has been very long... I have been working on holiday projects and slowly plugging along on my chunky crochet cowl/scarves for my etsy shop. Unfortunately I now have to link my pictures. This is the first time I do this so this post is kind of like a test. Hope it works ok.
First on the list was a trip to my favorite yarn shop, Four Purls in Winter Haven where I picked up this handsome skein of malabrigo yarn which will be, sometime before Christmas, a mulitdirectional diagonal scarf.
Also in the works is this little hoodie for Cameron. He wanted a blue monster sweater. I'm going to make a little monster face on the back of the hood. This is the project I'm working on today. I have been sick on and off for over a week.. it started as one thing.. I started getting better... came in contact with a very sick shopper and then got something new on top of what I had. Now I am slowly getting better. So projects have been going a bit slow because of my need for rest in between all the regular laundry and house cleaning and Christmas stuff.
For finished projects.. this is what I have finished this week.. the Simple sprinkle #2. This scarf looks different at different angles. I also used a different yarn for this one and it turned out very soft and stretchy. The yarn is Merino Blend dk by King Cole.. and.. it is a superwash. Yay for easy care. I have some on hold at the yarn shop for a third scarf! You can see all of these projects on my ravelry project page too.

Other happenings since I last posted.. Jayden had a birthday and turned 6 and Micah turned 2 six days later. We celebrated Thanksgiving and my son in law cooked a wonderful dinner and pies!!.. This week was my knitting group Christmas party which was really fun... yummy food and games and presents.. what more could  you want. (^_^)

So busy!!

Wow it has been quite awhile since I last blogged. And it seems I have run out of picture storage on google. What to do!. Well I can still blog and post pictures else where and just provide a link. I really do not feel like paying monthly to blog. Anyway I have been working on more chunky scarf/cowls for my etsy shop and all my holiday knitting projects. Lots of family birthdays in November. Jayden turned six today and Micah will be two in 6 days. I survived black Friday. I worked and only went into one shop after work for birthday presents for the kiddies. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My son in law did all the cooking. It was just family and very quite, except of course the little ones running around.
My knitting group Christmas party is coming up, so I'm busy planning some fun games for the evening last minute gifts.
I will try to blog again soon and work out my picture issue. Until then.. the needles will be flying.

Just for Abby

 I finally got back to my Christmas knitting list and spent two days working on this little cardigan.. and... added it to the list of finished projects. Abby had asked for a pink sweater with a blue heart. I had this yarn on hand and it is sort of in the pink family. I hope she likes it. I just have to wash it and block out the cables a little.

 If feels like I haven't worked on my projects for such a long time. I worked on Simple Sprinkle #2 a little also and decided to not use the orange any longer and changed it out for a bright royal blue. I felt the orange next to the dark charcoal would look like I was knitting a halloween scarf. The ladies at my knitting group felt the same. The last time I was at the knitting shop I just happened to see one pretty bright blue ball of yarn and picked it up. My subconsciousness mind was thinking ahead. I like it much better. 

 See!!! I have been working on these socks a little each day and I actually started the heal, but then I saw a little bump in the  short rows and.... in the knit 3tog I had missed one tiny stitch and I have to rip it back. I hope I just have to rip it back to the dropped stitch and not the whole heal. All the wrap stitches can be a bit confusing when trying to put them back on the needles. Wish me luck. The holidays seem to be coming up really fast and for some reason I don't seem to have many items finished yet. Might be time for the super duper knitting machine to come to the rescue!

back to UFO's

 All the baby knitting is finished for now. These quickie baby projects took over a week to complete. The body of the blanket I made on the knitting machine and then hand crocheted the edging using ruffle yarn. Here is my ravelry link with more info.  The little sacque was knit on size 13 needles with Lion Brand homespun yarn and the hat on size 8.. Not my favorite yarn but it is washable and soft for a baby. Did I say that I just finished that today. Anyway it is finished and will be delivered to the expecting parents tomorrow.

 With that out of the way.. it's back to all my UFO's. Working on more scarves for my Etsy shop including one special order and numerous Christmas gifts.
 I worked on the sleeve of the sweater as I was waiting in line to vote yesterday. The line was very long and we were standing in the hot sun. I'm almost to the point where I can add  one full cable pattern repeat on the edge of the sleeve.

Hold everything... I'm knitting for baby!!

 Whats on and off the needles today?.... Some quickie baby items. I whipped up the blanket this morning on the knitting machine and now I have to crochet the edgings. Hopefully that will not take me long.. this all has to be finished by this Saturday. Below is a little baby sacque I'm also trying to get finished. I'll see how much I can get finished tonight after work. Somehow I want to use the mesh yarn as a ruffle edging. I hope it works. The colors are purples and silver and I'm pleased that the blanket came out good. The yarns were two different weights. Yay for Joann fabric coupons. They took four coupons which saved me $13. Got to love that. 

 My wonderful daughter agree with much persuasion to model my scarves for me. You will now find these on my etsy shop.

Ok .. she is like.. how much longer!! Thank you Brit!!

Off the needles!!

 Yay.. Holden Shawlette is off the needles, washed and blocked. I think I should have made the points a little more visible, but I still like how it turned out. I can always reblock it.

Pattern: Holden Shawlette
Yarn: Noro Taiyo sock, Berroco Ultra Alpaca fine.
I plan to wear this with a sweater that hasn't made it on th needles yet. I am now down to five projects on the needles and having to add one more.
 My sort of bf's both children are having babies in the new year and he wants me to knit something for each. Why is it non knitters always think you can knit something over night.. sigh..  I will be nice and try to fit them in. (^_^)

holiday knitting ahoy!!!

 I just ordered these new labels for my etsy shop. I still need to sew them onto my projects and take some pretty pictures before I list the items. I'm excited about that. I just have to find the time and energy. Lately I come home after work and zone out and knit on projects.
This lovely afghan is being knit by one of the wonderful ladies I knit with on Tuesday night. I think it's awesome, vibrant and very autumn.

 What am I knitting? Here are four projects out of seven on the needles right now all in various stages of completion. I'm actually in the process of binding off the Holden shawlette which is taking really long for some reason. Maybe because of the picot bind off. It's not hard just time consuming.

 This is Abby's sweater. The Fabled cardigan from interweave knits. This is working up very fast and I added quite a few inches to it last night at my knitting group. Needles were just flying there last night. She requested a pink sweater with a blue heart. I will probably use the lighter blue for the heart. I love the construction of this sweater, top down, all in one piece, circular sleeves, pretty cables. I would like one in my size!!

 The Holden shawlette... Yay I pasted the half way mark on the picot bind off.

 I have only added a few sections to Simple Sprinkle #2,  but this is a fast knit and I work on it here and there.

 These socks are growing a few rows a day. There is only a little more than an inch to knit before I start the heals. This was a quick update. Back to knitting and hopefully getting some of these finished!

once again...

 I gave this another try on the knitting machine and it did work out except that this has a right and wrong side. As you wear it though, it doesn't seem to show.
What I did:Used my Singer 155 bulky knitting machine. Cast on only 7 stitches using every other loop of the yarn. Manually hung every other loop onto the needles and pushed my needles back and then forward again by hand and repeated this until there was just enough yarn left to bind off. I slid the stitches onto a knitting needle and cast off by hand.

,

 While I was at it I wanted to see if this yarn could be also knit on the machine and it can. Again I am knitting it all manually by pushing all the needles forward picking up every loop, hanging it on the needles and pushing the needles back. I have not used a weight on this but just push the knitting back under the needles and then holding the knitting back as I push the needles back 3 at a time. Even though it is a little tedious it goes a lot faster than the hand knit version. I will post a picture when it is complete.

all my wips...

I know it has been quite awhile. Lots of personal stuff going on in my life and I'm trying to adjust. I have also been working on some designs for my etsy shop and I get very single minded when I do that. I had actually thought I blogged more recently.
Here are all of my wips that I am working on, sort of in a round robin style. Sometimes I will pick one project and work on that for a day or sometimes I will knit a little on each one.  First is my Holden shawlette. I have finished one repeat of the lace edging. The shawl looks nothing like I thought it would. I had pictured all the stripes being dark and not fading into a very light beige which now blends into the border. It looks like a summer shawl and I could never wear a shawl here in the summer haha.
 Next are a pair of socks that are part of my holiday knitting list. I only work a row here and there but they are actually growing,  very slowly. I'm about half way to the heal which isn't bad considering the amount of time I spend on them.

 This scarf was an experiment. I tried knitting this on the knitting machine. I did a couple of mistakes and have frogged it and will try it again. I used every loop on the yarn instead of every other loop as I did when I hand knitted a similar scarf, plus I casted on too many stitches. So I will try this again with less stitches and picking up every other loop and see how that works.

 Here is simple sprinkle #2. This one is on size 8 needles instead of size 9's and a little bit smaller than my first one, but it is very soft and stretchy. For some reason the colors always look better when I pick them out.

 This project is hopefully going to become a beautiful sweater called Yuuret (roots). I loved the pattern the first time I saw it on ravelry, but it is a bit challenging and requires all of my attention. I was really excited to start it and basically that is where I'm at the moment and haven't worked on it since. So far I cast on and knit the cable neck and set up for the front, back, and sleeves. I think I will work on it more when I complete one other project. I love this yarn too.. Berroco Remix.

It is always exciting to meet people in person that you have met  online through ravelry or blogs. This week I was able to meet Jackie who came and  knitted with my knitting group on Tuesday evening. It was a pleasure to meet her and see all of her knitting projects in person.
 Well I'm about to run to Disney in between the rain.. happy knitting until the next time.

Wow! Don't ever blog in a hurry... sorry if you read this yesterday I have looked it over and fixed all the bloopers..  >.< 10/5/12

1 down..

 More goodies from the kitchen. My son in law made some yummy Flan, chocolate custard and Creme Brulee. Yumm

 Yay my Simple Sprinkle is finished and I love it. The yarn I used is Paton's Classic wool merino. I just happened to have this on hand and didn't need to run out to buy yarn to make this. My daughter saw this and liked it, so this might just end up being a gift for her.

 The one mod I did was grafting the ends together instead of the 3 needle bind off. Not sure if I did it right but there is no seam ridge and it is barely visible. One project down and scores to go. This means tonight I cast on another project.

crazy knitting

 MMMM did I tell you this week is bread week at Cordon Bleu culinary institute? I don't know which was better or worse.. last week was pastry week. Need I say more.

 On to projects of the day. I have been knitting like crazy this week on both my shawl and holiday gift projects. I fell in love with this scarf on ravelry and wanted to start on it as soon as the pattern came out... foraged around in my stash and found lots of Patons Classic wool merino in all different colors left over from other projects. The pattern is called Simple Sprinkle found on this blog. Once I cast on I was unable to stop knitting. The pattern has this addictive quality to it. I have also been working on my Holden shawlette and I'm almost to the lace part. I can't wait to start the lace.
Yesterday was Tuesday and once again I headed down to Four Purls knit shop for a fun evening of knitting with like minded ladies. Everyone in the room was  working of such beautiful projects. Again there was wine and good chatter and of course lots of yarn to gaze at while knitting and my little mind was swimming in ideas for another Simple Sprinkle scarf and trying to mentally match projects on my queue with all the yarns stuffed in all the shelves. I found the yarn below on sale in perfect colors for another scarf. It is a little lighter weight then the yarn I'm using now but I think going down one needle size will work. I also splurged and bought Berroco Remix for a cardigan on my queue that I fell in love with. Looking at the instructions, it looks a little daunting, but I'll worry about that when I cast on and work it out.

 Another picture of my favorite project of the day. (^_^)

today..

 Today I have many things planned. Of course the normal house cleaning and laundry. Then I have 2 cowl/scarves that I'm working on that I have to finish today. I will reveal these in a few days. My wip of the week is this shawl. The pattern is the Holden Shawlette. I posted the info on this in my previous post. The yarn I'm using for this is so soft and wonderful.
Time is passing by so fast. Can you believe this is my beautiful granddaughter growing up so fast. She is starting first grade this year.

 Ok... there are no diets in my house right now. My son in law is in culinary school and they are working on pastry. OOOO my is all I have to say. Everyday he is coming home with the most delicious pastries. They look too pretty to eat, but they taste so wonderful you just have to try them. I'll have to cut back on some other carbs so I indulge while they last .. hehe

 Last but not least.. they are finished and as cute as I has hoped for. The little penguin socks. I want to wear these with little booties and right now we are getting in all kinds of cute boots and booties at work. It's so hard to choose. Not sure if I want black or espresso brown. I have my eye on a pair that can be turned down or worn higher on the calf. I hope they are still there in my size tomorrow. (^_^)

the new and the old..

 I unexpectedly had 3 days off in a row this week. At first I was depressed for loosing a shift but then I decided to turn it into a mini vacation. The first day I did all my laundry and cleaned the kitchen. Then later in the day I went to a lovely yarn shop with my knitting friend and sat and knit the evening away with a big group of ladies all working on something beautiful and interesting. This took place at Four Purls Yarn shop in Winter Haven Florida. I love that little shop. Of course I was surrounded by so much yarn!! This rich red cotton yarn by Cascade decided it wanted to go home with me. It's the Ultrapima fine. I'm actually going to make a hat with it.

 Yes another picture of rain. This was the day of tropical storm Issac taken in between the bands of rain. We just got rain and a little wind in this area. 
At the knitting group I started a new project, one of two I started this week. I was going to make another Andrea's Shawl but started to not like working on the edging forever and just happened to see the Holden Shawlette on ravelry and decided to make that instead. Lately I just feel like knitting with out having to worry too much about intricate patterns and so I frogged Andrea's shawl and I'm using the yarn for the Holden Shawlette. This is the shawl that inspired me to change my mind. (Ravelry link) So not much progress yet on this...

 A look at the pile of projects I'm working on today. I need to sew up the seams on my penguin socks and get them finished and finish a crochet scarf (one of 3 that I'm working on) and if I finish all that I will knit a little on the Holden shawlette and...

 work on these socks that I also started from the sock flat. These are actually my take along project.

 I forgot about day two of my mini vacation. I spent the day at Epcot with my daughter and grandson.. he makes an awesome viking.. hehe .. kind of reminds me of skyrim. I did take my socks along with me and knit while waiting in the lines.
And that leaves today.. the third day. I set that aside for working on projects and blogging, which I'm going to do right now. (^_^)