No, I haven't been carried off by the Skeeters

Obviously the weather/environment has some seriously issues with the midwest! The skeeters are ridiculous this year after the super wet Spring we had! I live for this time of year, it is so beautiful because of the aforementioned wet Spring. Flowers are out of control, the lilacs were so lush and thick and my hostas are going to take over my entire bed! But now because of the mosquitoes I honestly can't go outside. I am allergic to mosquitoes and my bites blow up like a balloon. A single bite can get the size of the circumference of a soda can. And they itch like a son of a bitch! I usually end up with scabs and ...well ANYWAY, I'm inside and not to happy about it. :)

I've been doing two projects, the Berlin Muster pattern for the SKP2008 group and some crochet amigurumi.

The Berlin Muster is beautiful. A really challenging lace pattern where the number in the repeats shifts constantly so it requires watching and pretty much can't be memorized.


I'm using Louet Gems for the first time and love it. The Price? A total bonus! It's very reasonable. It's springy and tightly spun. I've finally figured out that's exactly what I like in a sock yarn.

The pair is supposed to be done by July 1st..and well that just ain't happening. I enjoyed it for awhile, but then realized it was becoming a job hanging over my head. Knitting is for fun and enjoyment, darn it, so I've put it aside to rest. I will return to finish the second, but just don't have a desire to work on it anymore.

Seriously, how CUTE are they??

The Amigurumi are very fun and addictive. I bought the Amigurmi World: Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli If you are interested in trying out Amigurumi or are an old hand at it, take a look at this book. The designs are simple and quick, good stuff!

Unfortunately I made it into work, silly me. My youngest daughter had a birthday party to go to and I figured I could just whip out a handful of things for a present. Um, nope. Didn't work, we ended up at the store the day of the party.

Again, I don't do well with 'HAVE TO' associated with my knitting. There are enough things in life I 'HAVE TO' do that I don't enjoy, why lump knitting into that pile!

I've now cast on a pair of Monkeys (my third pair) with some lovely Shi Bui in fuscia and lime green called Orchid. I've been fighting with this yarn for the last year. I bought it last summer at Stitches Midwest and have put it through the beginning of at least 4 different socks. The color repeats are very short and nothing really looked good, so I fell back on a favorite. It's spiraling but it's still nice. I'm on the foot of the first sock.

The Shibui sock yarn is great. It's tightly spun and has great resilience. I, as mentioned, have frogged it more times than I can count and it's stood up to it all. It's, again!, tightly wound and very springy. They have some absolutely amazing colorways! If you see some of it, definitely try it out.

Now I have something else spinning in my head. I want a light sweater. I have a pile of Elspeth Silky Tweed that was going to be one of the patterns out one of Elspeth Lavold's books. I'm starting to doubt just how much I would wear it and I've fallen in love with the Drawstring Raglan out of the summer 08 Interweave Knits.


I found two that were knit using the Silky Tweed on Ravelry and they look lovely. It is a discontinued yarn, so I'm trying to scrounge up a few more colors since I only have one. Gotta love the Trade/Sell stash pages!

Ravelry? Seriously it's a knitter's god send!

Sorry for no picts of the Monkeys but I had an itch to blog so figured I'd hop to it!

Thank you so much for all the well wishes and comments on my surgery. I'm pretty much recovered and feel amazing. I stand straighter and my back doesn't hurt like it used to. If you or anyone you know is debating whether or not to have a reduction, seriously go for it. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about it!!

Pictures!

See? I've been knitting, obsessive knitting actually. I have so many dishrags it's getting a tad embarrassing.

I was tired of sitting around doing the typical increase on the edge pattern. Surfing the web and Ravelry was so fun! There is such a variety of patterns out there. I chose two that really intrigued me.

This is the Vortex Pattern. It's my first whack at this pattern and I'm sure my next will be much better. It takes a once through to get the concept of the design. It is so cool. It is knit in two different colorways. Ravelry link , Regular Link
It's really fun!

Vortex Washrag

Another fun pattern I found was Garterlac Dishcloth. I'd never done Enterlac before and this is perfect beginner pattern and because it's all garter stitch, that's one less thing to have to worry about. You can really wrap your mind around the concept. Ravelry link, Regular Link
and a wonderful picture tutorial out on Flickr.

Gartlerlac Dishrag

It appears I am FINALLY over my knitterly block with the brown bag exchange yarn. It is Jawoll Color in rainbow. I hate this yarn. It's become affectionately know as 'that piece of shit yarn' around my house. For those of you that enjoy this yarn, all the power to you, but when /I/ use it, it squeaks and makes my skin crawl!!

I first chose to do a pair of mitts.

It was tedious, unpleasant and became a 'job' so of course it stayed on the bottom of the work bag. As the days went by, it grew heavier and heavier on my mind. I finally frogged the mitt, it was a tad bit longer than shown. I looked around and thought I'd make various Christmas ornaments with it; mini raglan sweaters, mini socks, stars/hearts from EZ. But when I cast on, I just couldn't get the mojo going, it still felt like work. NOT FUN. Back it went to the bottom of the work basket.

I called one of my best friends, Woman Who Says Knita and asked her how would she feel if she'd put yarn into an exchange and then got back her yarns plus ...say five dishrags? I was beaten by this blasted yarn! She said nicely she'd be upset. Not the answer I wanted, but the one I knew was RIGHT. C suggested I use it as a carry along yarn. Hmm! There was a whole new direction I hadn't thought of! Hats or mittens ideas were bandy about and I settled on doing a generic Yarn Harlot hat while carrying the Jawoll along with some Simply Satin in black. It was ok, but I was running out of options and time so I plugged along.

One night when I set it down I realized it look a bit like a purse. Hmm. And wham bang shazam my knitting mojo came back. Yay! I had inspiration and was off like a shot.


I know how to crochet even though I prefer knitting. It is a skill that comes in handy at times. I chose to crochet up some small roses and will sew them on around the bag. I have 5 different solid colors, so I'm thinking it will be pretty cute.

It's amazing how true it is that if you love what you do, it's not work to you. I can't wait to finish this just to see how it's going to turn out. I've had so much fun working on it since it became a 'purse'. I'm just glad C. helped me figured out what this yarn was destined to be!!!

I'll be sure to post an FO layout when it's done!

Hope all is good for you. :)

Oh on the surgery front, things are healing well but I'm still sore as the dickens. Things are settling and all the bruising is coming out, but I'll survive. :)

Save Knitty Gritty

Did you know that HGTV is no longer going to produce more shows of Knitty Gritty? Isn't that horrible! One of the few shows that I feel represents the online knitting bloggers, it would be such a shame for it to be gone.

Please sign the online petition to HGTV to try and keep it in production.

http://www.petitiononline.com/1234lulu/petition-sign.html?

I was the 3740th signer, here's to hoping we can grow that number.

Hellooooo....hellooo...

*tap tap*
Is this thing on?
I'm going to pretend it is. Boy life has been interesting. I'm not a huge poster of all things personal, for a couple of reasons. No one really cares what my little girl ate for dinner..now if she shoves a carrot up her nose, I'll be sure to get a blog worthy photo and share THAT. And this is mainly my knitting life and it's odd to shoot too much information out there on the net. Once it's out there, it's out there.. And on that note, here's my TMI for the year ;)

I had a breast reduction last Wednesday. It was uncomfortable but I'm so glad I went through with it. Buxom women run in my family and my mother regrets never having it done. I nursed my 2 daughters and if gravity doesn't wreck things, nursing sure will. I'm currently overweight, but being so fluffy on top makes working out a challenge..hell fitting into a sports bra is an extreme challenge. I usually wear two layers. I've was a D my senior year in HS when I was a mere 130 lbs (I'm 5'7") I've battled with this issue for many years.

I've been stressed about it, really who doesn't stress somewhat about surgery? Tomorrow I go get the bandages off and will finally get to see the results, though I do know my surgeon removed a little over 4 lbs total.

As a result of the stress involved, I've kept churning out dish rags. I found some really interesting patterns out on the net. I thought I had pictures but they are still on the camera and it IS 2:30 am, so I'll post them soon.

But I want to keep you entertained a bit, so here are 2 pictures I took recently.

This is our hamster Fluffy. She is adorable and very good with my girls.

These are the grape hyacinths I had in my garden this spring. They have such vibrant color..oh and everyone needs a garden gnome.. :)