i'll knit if i want to...or not

So this use to be my knitting blog, now its a purging place for all of my ramblings...whether it be craft, cooking, or just the craziness of my everyday life!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Things that make you go...eh

So late on Monday afternoon JFC and I headed to the Peanut Barrel with 2 friends to play the Settlers of Catans (the funnest game ever of discovery, settlement and trade). Being that it was only about 4 or 5, it was pretty empty and we sat down at a big table, ordered a couple of beers and were quietly enjoying our game. There were 2 college students sitting behind us, one of which was a young lady who was getting steadily more tipsy as the minutes passed. Her male friend she was sitting with gets up to go to the bathroom and she decides to turn to our table and have a little chitty-chat.

Mid sentence she decides (and verbalizes rather loudly) that JFC's friend was really quite good looking. I informed her unfortunately that he was married. This is when the little hussy turns to JFC and declares "he isn't so bad either" as she tenderly tucks his hair behind his ear.

eh.

I was a little stunned and gently mentioned that actually...he belonged to me. She turned back to her table and as soon as her male friend returned from the bathroom she began attempting to canoodle with him. Talk about a girl on the prowl.

On to the knitting my friends...

It has been pretty slow going on this Novella Socks from Knit 2 Together. The pattern is quite intricate and was taking me ages for every single row. After doing the first set of the 16 row repeat of the stitch pattern though I am finally going a bit quicker. I also started using the needle-less cable method which has made a huge difference. I am still enjoying watching all of the colors change in my kool-aid yarn as well.
Even though this project is now moving along more quickly, I think I am still itching to start another project on the side...a sweater with some nice boring stockinette maybe....

Yesterday as I was looking for face paint at Michael's for my boss (don't ask) I happened upon this 100% wool from Lion Brand that was on sale. I am thinking Knee socks, with maybe some fair isle (think: squirrels) around the top band. heh heh


I also got the new Interweave. And I l.o.v.e. this sweater:


So I bought this yarn to make it. It is from my favorite LYS Woven Art where the owner totally helped me find everything I needed. That dark gray yarn is superfine alpaca, and being wrapped up in a fluffy cloud it is so soft.


Remember in my last post how we went to our friends farm? Well he gave me an entire yard bag full of alpaca and llama fibre. The gray and white is the llama and that gorgeous chocolate brown is the alpaca. One of the women at Woven Art told me about a place in Frankenmuth that will card and clean it for me so i can take it back to NZ.


And because I seem to have an addiction to Knitting books and I just can't help myself...I picked up this little diddy about a week a go....Greetings from the Knit Cafe.


And this is probably my favorite pattern out of the book:


And now this post is so incredibly long that it must end.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Merrily-We-Go-Round Jr.


Yesterday JFC and I spent a wonderful afternoon at our friend Wade's place. This place was an animal wonderland if you ask me. I'm talking llamas, an alpaca, goats, sheep, rabbits, geese, ducks, chickens, 2 roosters and even some birds from africa that I can't remember the name of.
This particular llama was named Lance. And he was quite the greedy guts when it came to the seeds we were feeding him. We tried to feed the lady llamas as well but they started getting snippy with each other and spitting so we decided to go back and play with the goats again. I would love to own land some day and have some animals (namely sheep for my own selfish reason..heh heh)

Anyways...on to the knitting!!

I finished this little diddy last week, but the pictures turned out bad and I was just lazy so you aren't seeing it til' now. I finally decided I didn't care that the pictures weren't the best...if I end up with a better one I will post it. heh heh

This is essentially the same pattern that I used for JFC's Merrily we go round hat. I just thinned out the lines in the spiral a bit and made it a touch smaller.

I really like the looser fit so I have the option to tuck my hair inside of it when hiking and what not. I wish you could see the spiralling effect a bit better in these pictures...but what can you do? I did finally write out the pattern for it, so if anyone is interested I will post it on here. It is a very quick and easy knit that looks more complicated than it is. It only took me about 2 or 3 hours to finish it.

I am still working steadily on the leg warmers from Knit2Together...so I willl take a progress shot soon!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

A Year in Waiting



I cast on for this sweater last October. After realizing I had made the entire body much much too big...it was put into a basket never to see the light of day again. Until a week or so ago. I have been promising poor JFC a sweater for so long. And finally, finally I sat down with that oversized sweater in my lap, frogged it, and recast on for a more appropriate size.



And now just about a week later it is done and dusted. Thank goodness. And it looks great on him! I was worried it would be too small this time, but he prefers it tighter with such a bulky yarn. The pattern is the Berkshire Pullover from Weekend Knits. I used Lions Brand bulky yarn in a dark gray and it only took about 3 and 1/2 - 4 balls. I made the smallest size, and added ribbing to the bottom and cuffs instead of the roll bottoms the book had.



JFC waited very patiently. And I have to say, seeing him wear it (yes, he even wore it in public!) was the best reward. So many worries and doubts come into your mind when knitting a bigger project, i.e. a sweater, and when it is for someone else it is doubled. So I am just tickled pink that it turned out so well!

In other good news, I have gotten back to my knitting machine self, and already have another FO to share...but that my friends will have to wait until tomorrow as I am pooped.

Monday, November 06, 2006

It's a good thing

So my plan was to post this FO the day after I finished them...Halloween. I felt like a deconstructed pumpkin wearing them.


Unfortunately life happened and I just never had a chance to write a post. So here they are now!


I have never been one for matching so I don't mind that they are completely different. I loved playing around with the colors, and plan to continue focusing on that more.



I am really happy with how the orange one turned out. The mohair is very subtle, but it definitely brightens them up a bit, and not to mention makes them even softer than they would have been with just the worsted yarn alone. And I still have some of that mohair left. I can't believe how far that tiny little bundle stretched.



I also got a little treat this weekend. This beautiful yarn (pictured very crappily here...sorry..heh heh) is from Woven Art. I l.o.v.e. the colors. Greens, browns, and blues. I have so many things I want to make out of it I am just wondering how far I can stretch these 560 yards of goodness. I first plan to make a Merrily-We-Go-Round hat, like the one I made for JFC. Then I was also thinking some kneesocks? Or maybe another Tubular Camisole. Oh the possibilities....