Knit on

Hey,
Just had to share this. Isn't it hysterical?

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

And of course these!



Specs:
Pattern:
Embossed Leaves - Mona Schmidt in Favorite Socks from Interweave
Yarn: Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Jade
Needles: size 2
Started: March 10, 2008
Finished: March 26, 2008


Woohoo! That's two pairs of socks in March. Yay for me. :) Cuz well they are both FOR me. ;)

I have another FO to share.

Specs:
Pattern:
Fiber Trends Felted Clogs
Yarn: Cascade 220 in a Raspberry and a Raspberry Twist. I've no color the color ID
Needles: size 13
Started: March 27, 2008
Finished: March 31, 2008

Well it's an almost FO. I still need to felt them, but I've been doing laundry all day so the washer was actually in use!


Here's a picture to show pre-felt size. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get them felted. :) Sorry about the crappy rainy day light. I have a size 9 women's foot. These are the Women's medium sized. And don't fall over, but these are Christmas knits babeeee! Yep, they are for the MIL. Check off one gift! :D


And yep those are my Embossed leaves. They are THE most comfortable socks I've ever knit. I adore them. Now I'm on to knitting a ballband washrag from Mason Dixon just to fill some time. I don't want to start another pair of socks yet..since I'll be doing at least one next month (May) for the Pentathlon.

Whew, it's been an incredibly great knitting month...oh! And I have another FO. I finished the woven scarf I started. It's gorgeous, so soft. I'm letting my 4 year old wear it, but I can steal it back next winter and wear it more as a collar. Hmm must get pictures of it! So a total of 4? FOs. yay! :)

Hope you've been as productive. I think it has do to with me avoiding looking out the windows at the crap weather!

Tons of Stuff!

This is a packed entry..packed mainly full of photos! I've been busy so I'm a bit behind.

I've been recognized by two of my fellow bloggers!

Peggy who Chases Bunny all over
I Love Peg, I feel like she and I could plunk down in a starbucks somewhere and knit along happily. Her blog keeps me entertained and teaches me new things as well.

and Nora who thinks she's Knot Much of Knitter
but I'm not convinced! She makes me laugh quite a bit and almost always makes me think.

Thank you ladies!

Of course there are strings attached - I now get to nominate 10 bloggers who make my day, so they can pass on the fun. Of course some people will be nominated more than once, so try to be a good sport if you’re a popular one! Here’s my list:

1.The Woman Who Says " Knit "

2. The Knitting Moose -

3. More Than One Way to Knit A Hat

4. Minestrone Soup

5. Knits with a silent K

6. Kerry Knits

7. Just A Knit Wit

8. Flatlander

9.dogged.

10. Crimson Purl

Now onto the promised pictures of various crafting!

I finished J and am working on O.

I've actually grown to enjoy the linen. It softens as you work with it and isn't as harsh as Aida cloth.

I reorganized my stash and felt a need to work some of it. I'd always wanted to make a felted bowl and I had 2 balls of Noro Kureyon just sitting there!

Here it is pre-felted.

And after a toss in the wash. Noro takes quite a bit of washing to get it to felt all the way. I like it when you completely lose stitch definition.

For all of it's vegetable matter, Noro is still a wonder to knit with.

Specs:
Pattern:
Large Shallow Bowl - Deborah Does Navel-Gazing
Yarn: 2 skeins Noro Kureyon - held double
Needles: size 13
Started: January 20 2008
Finished: January 23 2008

While stash diving, I found the yarn I'd purchased to make a stuffed owl. It was for a Harry Potter KAL for book 7..and well I was so busy reading I didn't knit! It's made with Bernat Boa, a very odd yarn. It's similar to Fun Fur, but actually easier to knit with. The pattern is from the Family Circle book of Easy Toys.


I still need to make his wings, tail, feet and attach his eyes. It's a cute pattern. I'll let you see what it's like finished when I'm done.


A liked V's Spiral Hat so much she wanted one for her. A's 7 and has 'outgrown' pink then purple and now she's an orange girl. ORANGE! I swear this Trekking colorway reminds me of all the 70's kitchen colors thrownup on yarn. But she likes it...so I'll make it for her! Unfortunately the above had to be completely frogged because it was too big. The yarn is resting in a time out and I'll start again in a few days.

My friends C and J drug (kicking and screaming no less) me to one of our LYS. And this jumped into my arms.

Malabrigo Lace Weight. Oh My. It's so light! It's so squishy! I am not normally a lace person. It's futzy and I can't imagine wearing a shawl so I've stayed away from it in the past. But this? This is Malabrigo, so I'll make an exception! These colors screamed spring to me.


I found two very pretty lace scarf patterns online. One is the Easy Flame Scarf by Wendy of Knit and Tonic. The other is a free Ravelry download. Leaf Lace Scarf by Janet D. Russell.

Finally I had an Oh shit moment.
These are the first pair of STR I knit, Sauvie Island
I swear this physically hurt me. *sniff* It must have been picked on something. Luckily the hole is just in the toe color and I have the left overs. I need to pick out the toe and reknit it, so it could have been worse!
I know socks are knit to be worn and all will eventually wear out, but it really sucks!

Currently we are holed up in our house waiting out the Winter Storm from Hell (tm). We are projected to get 14 inches when all is said and done...whenever THAT is. (June?)

FO and a Monkey!

The felted bag for the Guild yarn swap is officially an FO. I'm 95% happy with it. I couldn't find a cord I loved, but this one will do. I also wish the strap was more substantial, but I'll remember that for next time!
I want to make myself one this size. I have a smaller one, but you can NEVER have too many bags, right?
I do like the little touch I did with the blue glass beads. There's one one each side of the bag.


Now that I've finished that, I've been able to spend some time on my 'Monkey's. This is an amazing pattern, easy enough you don't get lost, difficult enough to keep your attention and darn right adorable when done!


I'm really digging the way the colors are coming out. I'll need to block it softly with a bit of steam, but the pattern shows up well when you have it on.
Off to do a heel flap!

Holiday Haul

I have to say my friends and family are great in helping me support my addiction, I mean habit, no wait HOBBY, yes that's the socially accepted term.

A dear friend gave me a gift cert to the LYS, another gave me a copy of Knit Lit Too (can't wait to delve into that), my SIL gave me Stitch n Bitch Nation, my MIL gave me a pattern and yarn she scored at a Rummage (good yarn and a cute baby jacket pattern) plus Kids' Knits by Lesley Anne Price. It's an adorable book but unfortunately out of print, so I can't share a link. Lots of very cute fair isle items in it. And then the best gift of all from my Mom, cash to fund my Socks that Rock Club! Bought and paid for, can't wait till Feb to get my first package!! Lucky C is doing it along with me, so it should be entertaining at least. :)

I've been moving along on the Bucket Bag. I think I've decided to do random stripes in Fibonacci numbers. Here is it now.


The colors seem to go together really well.

New Year!

Well the holidays are over, the tree is down and the presents all unwrapped. Whoo. It was fun but it was hectic as usual. I had houseguests and wasn't able to knit much, but as of tomorrow everyone is back to their usual place (school, work, etc) and hopefully I'll be able to knit again.

For Christmas I knit one scarf instead of 13 like I did last year. This one FELT like it was 13, since it was the Harry Potter Gryffindor House Scarf. It was SO much ST ST! But the hubby was the very happy recipient. I still have to do 1/2 the fringe, but since the temps are hovering around 40 degrees, there doesn't seem to be a huge rush!


The current project is another Felted Bucket Bag. My local Knitting Guild is doing a Brown Bag swap. Very cool. Everyone brings in one skein, they are swapped anonymously, the recipient knits anything with the skein and returns it to the owner at a specified date. Feb in this case. The person I'm knitting for had put in a GORGEOUS skein of Mountain Colors 4/8's wool. The colorway is :FLATHEAD CHERRY Deep Reds, Rose, Purples with a splash of Teal Green.

It is so lovely. I'm terrified they won't like what I knit, but what the heck. I'm using 2 colors of complimentary Cascade to make it stretch into a good sized bag. (One of the options - add yarn if you'd like to the single skein)

Anyway here it is in progress! This is the bottom of the bag. I'll use the remainder of the Mountain Colors yarn to edge the top. It will be like my previous Felted Bucket Bag, only with 3 total colors.

Here's a shot from the top.

I've seen lots of folks doing lists etc for the upcoming year. I really only have one thought. Be healthy. Mentally, physically and emotionally. Gee, that's all. Heh. I figure it's enough!

I love the thought of knitting only from your stash from Wendy. But the thought terrifies me. Maybe next year???

I'm signing up for the Socks That Rock Club (thanks C!) and can't wait for it to start. I adore my previous pair and am afraid I'm going to wear them out. They fit perfectly. I've made a handful of socks before, but they never seemed to fit just right. The heel was too long, or the body of the sock too saggy. This pair is PERFECT. Now I just need to make 15 more. ;)

Knitting?

So I was browsing blogs, and then glanced at my own. Not much knitting content lately! Shame on me. Granted my camera was AWOL for a bit and then I've been flat out lazy. So onto an FO and work in progress!

Kitty Pi
What a fun, easy knit! The increases are easy and I used the Stripe Generator that Flatlander mentioned. Pretty cool toy. I doubled Cascade 220 and used size 11 needles.
Here it is in the beginning.


Finished, pre-felting.


Loki giving it a test drive.


I have this great insert for my dryer. You can lay things on it and it is exposed to the heat but doesn't tumble. Awesome for felting!

The finished product! Loki has slept in it all day and it's still a tad damp. Think I might put it back in the dryer again to warm it up.



Now that the bed's an FO, I moved onto my sweater. It's the 'Perfect Sweater' from Mason-Dixon.
You use a crochet provisional cast on, which is always interesting. The red is the cast on. This is the hem of the back.


Here is the completed two color picot edging. The yarn is Cascade 220, The Heathers. One is a denim color and the other lovely sagey kinda thing. The green is the main color.

And now onto the boring SS forEVER. But darn it, I want this sweater. I might throw a stripe into it, just to insure I don't go comatose!!

Finally I have a photo of the odd squirrel in my front yard. I've observed him 'tipping over' for about a week now. He seems fine otherwise, he just well...tilts. His fur is great, he is pleasantly plump being one of the largest squirrels in the area. I gave him some peanuts today and snapped this shot.


I promise you from the bottom of my heart, this squirrel is not dead. :) He layed there on his side gnawing on the peanut. Eventually he got up and scampered up the tree. I called the Humane Society and they don't believe it's rabies or distemper, more likely he fell and bonked his head and has a concussion. He is showing improvement and if he starts to decline I can get a live trap from them and take him in. But for now he's just..well tottering.
I hate to admit it, but it's pretty damn entertaining.

To Knit or Frog?

I know! I'll do both!

As per previous post, I frogged my sock that rocks. It was too tight and for me, so that just isn't going to fly. So rip it rip it. All gone.

And I cast on again. Let me tell you, I'm getting darn quick at those bobbles! Anyway, this is where I'm at so far.
I decided I didn't like the heart chart, so I changed which I chose. It's so fun to do colorwork!

While browsing blogs the other day, I saw Flatlander was doing a Kitty Pi. And since I have so many pictures of THIS,
I thought it might be nice to make something for Loki that he could lay on without getting shooed away. I chose to go with Wendi's suggestion of Noro Big Kureyon (bulky weight wool, 176 yards/skein) but I couldn't find it at my LYS, so I grabbed a few skeins of normal Kureyon and figured I'd give it a shot.
It was gorgeous and figured since it will be sitting in my Living Room it might as well be nice...and Loki deserves it. :) On I knit. Really digging the increase and banging it out quickly. When I transferred to circs I realized, um this is just worsted weight. It is NOT going to felt with the body I want and you really can't double strand Noro, that would muddle the beautiful color transitions. (And Noro's too expensive to just 'give it a shot' when you know that the odds aren't in your favor.)

Rip it Rip it. Slip the Noro into the stash to become a hat and scarve for the hubby at a later date. Head back to the LYS and choose some cascade.

I plan on double stranding so it will felt up nice and thick to keep the kitty warm. Poor guy was born in Panama City, Panama and is now experiencing Wisconsin winters.
Hopefully I'm done with frogging. I do enjoy knitting, but it's awfully nice to actually finish something and have a product!!!