Hat Sunday, Ravelry and Ebay

Alas, hat Sunday proves to be fruitful again. Behold the hats that I knit in the name of stash busting!

And, in case you were wondering what kind of stash the MiL and I are trying to bust, I thought I'd also include a picture of the Bernat Softee Baby stash.

Um.... yeah. We can basically choose from every color combo available!! For the most part, this is leftovers from various blankets the MiL has knit, (she too has the unfortunate luck of knitting 90 zillion blankets a year), and I continue you to hold her to the "you better knit from my stash too" rule.

That is... if my stash ever arrives. I suppose it's not like I'm really using the current stash I brought with me, but now the moving company is telling us our stuff won't arrive until around Aug 9-22... I'm trying to pretend that this fact isn't depressing me. I MISS MY STASH!

In other news, I've spent the better part of the last three days completely "ravelry-ed". OH MY GOD is that site ever wonderful. I love that just by clicking a button, I'm connected to a tonne of options and ideas to knit. Like a pattern? Click on it and see the hundreds of the same item someone else has knit in various sizes and colors. Not only that it connects you to equally obsessed knitters instantly. I haven't gone on a "friending binge" yet, only because I'm trying to get myself adequately represented on there first. I can look at yarn pictures, finished objects and even a place where they have a hall of shame type FO's. It's glorious. I love Ravelry. If you knit, you should be on there. Go now to the homepage and sign up for a beta tester. The wait is a bit much, but it's TOTALLY worth it!

In fact Ravelry has already forced me to spend some money. I found a cardigan pattern that I absolutely MUST have. The pattern was found in a back issue of "Rebecca Magazine" and a quick ebay search, and a bid later, I was the winner. That won't most likely arrive until the end of the month, which is good, because I'm still trying to make good on the yarn diet's manifest decreeing that I cannot buy yarn until September.

So, yes, it's been a busy weekend... with all kinds of things in the fire for this week.

I Never Thought This Day Would Come

I've be Ravelry-ed!

Much discussion on this topic to follow once I get up and running over there.

SO. HAPPY.

Hat Sunday!

Okay, so remember how I agonized how much stash to bring to last me 1 whole month without my stash and eventually settled on this?


Apparently I shouldn't have spent so much misery on it, because I have discovered something much more interesting and self gratifying... knitting from someone ELSE'S stash. That's right, it's bad enough that I have entire box of neglected yarn (with KOIGU no less), waiting for me, my MiL got me hooked on knitting from HER stash. She's been knitting baby hats for Rockyview hospital. They're simple, they're quick and addicting and most importantly, they eat left over yarn.


That's 2 afternoons of just casual, "I'll just knit a few rows" . THREE. STINKIN' HATS. I've had to put a hat ban on myself already, because otherwise nothing I intended to work on will get done. Since I kind of like that it's charity knitting and I like that it eats stash, I've declared Sunday as "Hat Sunday". It will be the only day devoted to baby hat knitting. Sunday, and only Sunday, I can knit little baby hats to my little heart's content. Also, I'll be keeping a running tab, with a goal of knitting at least one baby hat per week.

I think the hats were so addicting because the Spiral Socks were wrongly named. They should have been named "THE INSANITY SOCKS". I don't know what it is, or I'm just not engaged, (because I'm not), but I have made mistake, after mistake, after mistake, AFTER MISTAKE on this stupid pattern. With every 4 or 5 rows I knit, I will envitably have to go 2 or 3 rows back to fix an error. (I'm of the "OCD" knit set... meaning I can't seem to just let invisible errors go.) Progress has been slow, and painful, and motivation is at an all time low to finish.


That's not to say I'm not making ANY progress. My goal is to focus on this annoying sock this week and never look at the pattern again. Ever. (And I don't really think it's the pattern maker's fault... {although the toe is not that great}, its clearly the knitter with the problem.) Thankfully the leg is beginning to form and I'm making some headway.

Parlez Vous Francaise?

This past Christmas my MiL (from now on Mother-in-Law will be known as MiL on here) and I checked out the Boxing Day Sale at Make 1 Yarn Studio in Calgary. Our intention was only to go and see what the store was like, but three and a half hours later, high on yarn fumes, we left with several purchases attributed to our credit card. Yarn was procured at awesome discounts and we were practically giddy going from shelf to shelf, fondling the merino wools and enjoying the reduced prices.

One could argue that we may have not been thinking entirely clearly, so taken with happy yarn feelings, when looking at the book we purchased. MiL and I both purchased a cute baby pattern book from Phildar... entirely in french. Yes. We knew it was in french when we bought it. The book was $2 and the patterns were so cute that we convinced ourselves that a little time on the internet could help us procure an English translation to the pattern.

It wasn't until this summer, when I brought the book home with the intention of translating the pattern and knitting it did we realize that we may have bitten a little more off than we can chew. An email was sent to Phildar, and they sadly let us know that, no, there was not an English version of this particular book available. And so... feeling brave, we hit the internet to look for french-english knitting translations.

We did actually find a pretty good resource, (Chez Plum- a goddess if there ever was...) and have been slowly making progress on the pattern. Slow being the operative word here. I'm sure there will be more developments in a few days, and hopefully a back knit up soon... but I must say it's been interesting so far. The French seem to make a pattern more complicated than it is, (my humble opinion only), especially since instead of specifying a knit or purl, they say to knit on the wrong side (presumably purl) or the right side (presumably knit). I'm glad I didn't think to attempt this before being WELL familiar with English knitting patterns as this could have been even more difficult.

Will keep you posted on pattern translation!

Craving Pudding on my Yarn Diet

So the husband and I have been spending some time aquainting ourselves with our new neighborhood (as of Aug 3) and checking out all the great little stores and restaurants around our condo. At some point a while back someone told me that there was a yarn shop close to my house. After a quick little text to Google (I love the Googl text), I found out that close was an understatement. The yarn shop is, prepare yourself, A BLOCK AWAY. A block! Do you know how broke I'm going to be?

The husband, being rather indulgent to my yarn affair, suggested we take a quick peek inside to see what the store was like. Not only was it cute, and fairly priced, (very relieved, it's about the same as American prices), I spied a familiar label out of my eye. KOIGU. They just got KOIGU in TODAY... AND, they're getting more. As far as I know they are the only shop in Calgary to carry KOIGU... my first and only love... A BLOCK. AWAY. FROM. MY. HOUSE! (And here I thought that hoarding was going to be completely necessary while in the US.)

Pudding Yarn... I have a little crush on you right now.

The Summer of Socks

Yup! More socks!! It kind of dawned on me the other day that I've been "hardcore" with the sock knitting lately. It's probably because socks are light and travel well, and right now, in the heat of summer, they seem to be the best little project for me. I suppose I'll go with it for now, and just enjoy the steady stream of "quick finish" projects... before the perpetual wave of baby blankets come crashing down on me. (It's only a matter of time...)

It seems the more socks I make, the faster I'm able to churn them out, the most recent socks the best examples of the lightening speed pace.

Lightening Quick Knit Sock #1:


Pattern: Monkey Socks (By the infamous Cookie A)
Yarn: Regia Stretch Color #87 (I actually bought this at WEBS... but they don't seem to have it in stock anymore!)
Needle Size: US #2
Sock Model: Those are the feet of my lovely sister, who is also the proud, (hopefully), new owner

This is an addicting, easy little pattern that looks so good when you're done. The stitch pattern is awesome because it looks way more complex than it actually was. I was nervous starting these, as my last forray into knitting socks designed by Cookie didn't turn out so well. (They are so ugly {my bad knitting, not the designer's pattern} I pretend they didn't happen, so will not enlighten you with details.) But, my fears were quickly put to ease, as this turned out exactly like the picture told me it should. I would note for those who are interested in doing this pattern for themselves that you want to use a fairly subtle varigation so that you don't lose the pattern definition.

I knit these babies very quickly, one in some spare time during our move and the other over two days on our very long car trip back to Canada (that consisted of four days of driving). I'm hoping that the flying fingers and speed knitting I did will help work off the copious amounts of bad/fatty/fried food I was forced to eat thanks to the American Interstate system, that apparently doesn't believe that it's users would like a healthy dining option now and again.

Lightening Quick Knit Sock #2:


Pattern: Mine/Cookie's (I used the stitch pattern from the Monkey socks above, but came up with the anklet pattern from my own little head.)
Yarn: Koigu and Clauadia's Hand Painted left over from the Candy Necklace Socks
Needles: US Size #2

I suppose, technically these aren't complete socks... but close enough. These are little pedicure ankle socks I came up with for my mom, who is notorious for ruining the paint job on her pedicure, moments after it's been applied. I'd been wanting to use the left over Koigu (*slobber*) and other yarn from my Candy Necklace Socks, and this seemed like the perfect amount of yarn to make the pedicure sock anklets. I literally have 2 inches left of the Claudia's Hand Painted and very little of the Koigu (solid pink). No one can accuse me of not using every last inch of my leftovers!

I knit these puppies really fast- the pair of them in two days (8 hours each) 0f car tripping. I think even the husband was shocked to see how quickly I churned these out.

With those done, I turn to the temporary stash, (I've been in Calgary for two days and I already miss the rest of my stash), and am finally getting around to my Lorna's Laces I bought over Christmas. I'm doing the Spiral Eyelet Socks, and already have made progress from this picture that I took!


I have a feeling those might be done as soon as the end of this week- they too are also a very quick knit! I'm also turning my eyes to a more complicated sock pattern for some very fun looking pink varigated Koigu... if anyone wants to make suggestions for a pattern, I'd be greatful!
The next little picture is a little bragging I'm doing on behalf of my mother-in-law, who is "SB" or "sadly blogless". While I've been knitting socks like a fiend, she's become addicted to hats. The woman has been a machine churning out hats for newborns and has a huge stack of them ready to donate to the hospital. Behold the cute little hats in all their glory!

Some of us knit socks... some of us knit hats... all of us stay warm. Stay tuned as the Summer of Socks continues!

Moving On Up... to the West Side

It's amazing how moving forces you to get organized- and OH MAN, I've been getting organized. Yesterday I took on the serious task of organizing all of my knitting stuff, getting ready for the packers. I had to take into consideration what I needed right away, and what I could wait for a month, as my movers aren't coming until August.

First I had to decide what books were going to stay with me on the drive up and what was going to get packed. Going through the books meant dealing with the 9,000 stray papers I had jammed in them and organizing them. Look what I did....

Yes, those are individualized, clear pockets for each pattern/chart and other thing I have written or printed off in the span of my knitting career. I can't stop flipping though the book and marvelling at how much more organized my stuff is!

Once paper shuffling/tossing/organizing was done, I had to move on to choosing what I was going to live without for a month and what I couldn't live without. Essentially I can liken this dilemma to deciding which child you love more. Do I love the pink Koigu or the purple Koigu more? If I take four socks worth of yarn is that enough? What if I get sick of knitting socks? Do I need other distracting projects? After deliberating for hours, and assuring each skein of yarn that we would be together soon, I decided upon the following "can't live without" items that should hold me until early/mid August.Oh yes... I'm bringing the swift and winder... I can't imagine having all those hanks and have to (gasp!), wind them by HAND. You wouldn't deny me the joy of swifting and ball winding would you?! I think not! What we're looking at here is yarn enough for four pairs of sock, as well as yarn for 1 pair of anklets. I'm also bringing all my needles, (because they pack so nicely, and whenever I don't have them with me, I need them), and the yarn for the baby sweater I want to make and of course, the yarn for the Nennie Sweater.

Speaking of the Nennie Sweater.... remember when it looked like this?Now it looks like this.Yes.... I frogged- and there was a lot more on those needles... enough for almost an entire back! Since I wasn't going to make it back to my class in order to learn how to design the rest, I bought a pattern and re-purposed the yarn to make the pattern instead. It's the one the Harlot made recently- and while I hate the garter stitch border... I'm pretty sure I can come up with something different since the rest of the pattern is really quite cute.

And so... once I organized the papers, picked the "chosen yarn" and repurposed the other stuff, the only thing left to do was horde...Yes... that's new Koigu, purchased on sale today at 10% off. This stuff goes strictly to the stash in waiting box- so I don't get my grubby little paws on it right away. I need to make the Koigu last... so hopefully this will tide me over until I'm back to the "Land of Koigu", er, the United States.

This also marks the official beginning of my heavy yarn diet. You know how people like to declare that they'd like to lose 5-10 pounds? My goal is lose one box. I've got 3 boxes, and I need to work it down a little. I'm officially declaring this the summer of "De-Stash" and my goal is to only knit with what I have, and refrain from anything until September. Can I do it? Will I crack? Only time will tell. (And blog posts where I openly discuss my pain and suffering.)

And last, but certainly not least... the monkey socks, which I've designated as my "drive home knitting". (Did I mention the drive was literally, FOUR WHOLE DAYS...)I'll probably finish up the first sock before we leave on Saturday, and never fear, if I finish the second sock in transit, the ankle sock yarn is in the wings waiting just in case. (I'm like the girl scout of knitting- always be prepared!)

Now that I've got the knitting organized, I only need to worry about the rest of the house. *sigh* I hate moving!

**A note... since moving and driving limit time for internet access, there probably won't be much action on this blog until mid July.... I swear to GOD though... I'm coming back!**

You WILL Assimilate

*Shout out to my fellow Star Trek geeks in the title!* Crystal... that means you!

There are sometimes when I'm not always sure my husband gets thes whole "knitting obsession" thing I've got going on. But despite not understanding the craze, he is quite supportive, even offering honest critiques and thoughtful praise on my finished items.

For example, once he honestly told me that the socks I made would have looked better if I'd used a simpler yarn. And, for that matter, he was right. He also was very proud of me for finishing the "Bit off more than I could chew" baby blanket and totally agreed that I should keep it for myself instead of giving it away. And, he loves doing a good old fashioned "sock photo shoot" for me when I ask. It's these honest feelings that I appreciate greatly, especially when I know he could say "that's nice" for every thing I finish and not really look or care about what I'm showing him.

There are also times when I KNOW that he's learning a lot more of about the whole knitting then than he lets on. For example, the other day we were in J Crew and they had some really cute bags there. Before I knew it, husband was behind me and suggesting I buy one, saying "that is the perfect knitting bag". And again, he was totally right. It was the perfect knitting bag, and despite the higher price tag, which would have deterred me, he pushed me to buy it. So I did! What I love is, HE suggested it would make a great knitting bag, without me even saying anything to him at all. MAYBE HE DOES GET IT!


Viola! My cute new knitting bag- that will hold most of my projects and will make me look cute and stylish in the process. With this bag, I'll always remember that I "done good" when husband picking.

Also while shopping at Michaels, (alone- he's good, he's not a saint people), what caught my eye in the dollar bin was this cute little notebook with a sheep on it. I immediately thought to myself "that is perfect to store my knitting notes in" and so, without any guilt at all- (it's $1!!!), I bought one. (Phyllis do you want one? I can go back!)


The little notebook is being modelling here with my first two miters that I made the other day to celebrate being done the baby blanket. Cute huh?

Even cuter?


The miters lined up! The only change I'm planning to make to the pattern, (and remember this is an ongoing- no pressure project, I could finish this is 20 years for all I know), is that the very end color, the tiniest part, I'm not going to change the color. It's too much of a hassle and will probably make lining up things later a nightmare, so instead I'll just have a bigger color chunk in the middle of each "bigger square".

And... lastly, in this "little bit of everything" post- progress on the monkey socks is going swimmingly. I'm loving the new pattern and can see myself making MULTIPLE socks with it. Very, very good!

Free at Last!

Look at it... isn't it beautiful!? A brilliant work of excellence- and an ode to persevernce! The baby blanket is done.

Pattern: Leisure Arts Sweet Baby Afgans Book (Baby Blocks) also known as the Mason Dixon Ball Band pattern
Yarn: Pink- Bernat Baby Soft and Green- TLC Baby- both acrylic, (try not to gag)
Needles: Denise set, US size 7
Measurements: 30" wide and 39" long

I've actually knit this pattern before, and I must suffer from memory loss, because I forgot how bored I got with it. The first 15 inches or so, knit up pretty fast, especially since I was pretty excited by the color combo, but then I just got bored, and distracted by the 'Mindless socks'. I went from bored to completely unmotivated to finish, with this bad boy pretty quickly. What kills me about this pattern is it just looks so good when it's all finished, and it makes the boredom almost worth it. (And lets face it, I'm a sucker for punishment, I'll probably be posting a picture of this next year too...)

Here's a shot of the blanket in all of it's stretched out, 39" glory...

And here's an excellent shot of the stitch pattern close up- (I LOVE this color combo... it reminds me of watermelon bubble gum)


If finally finishing this blanket wasn't enough excitment, I also finished up the mindless socks. I've already spoken here about how much I enjoy and get excited by self striping sock yarn, (I'm such a fiber geek), but these socks were just an awesome distraction and a lot of fun to knit up.They look lovely don't they? And look how good I made the stripes match up?! I actually cut the yarns at the end of the heel and joined in new yarn so the heel wouldn't mess up the pattern. (Yes- I AM that awesome.)
Pattern: The Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Pattern
Yarn: Online- Garne, Supersocke 100 (Summer color)
Needles: US Size 2

It's funny really, that this pattern, just straight knitting, around and around around and around, was more exciting to me than the baby blanket with a unique stitch pattern- but I was really motivated by these. (I blame the self-striping 'high'.) Anyways, I'm really pleased with how they turned out... too bad I have to wait until winter to wear them. (It's too hot right now!)

It feels good to have these puppies up and out and new projects in the hopper. This should hopefully be the last baby blanket I have to knit until August. (I have to go knock on wood now because, by just saying it, I've probably induced 14 baby announcements this week...)

I Love Golf

It's hard to imagine what golf and knitting have in common, but for me they seem to mean one thing- getting things done. Major golf championships seem to be my time to get things done.

In April it was the Masters, where I finished a blanket and dad's socks... and now during the US Open, I've taken down another baby blanket and another pair of socks. I'm like the TIGER WOODS of knitting.

I never used to enjoy watching golf on television, but there is something to say about plunking yourself down on the couch for seven hours with some calming banter in the background and just grinding out projects. Golf makes for great knitting. If something really great happens and your head is down, not to worry, you'll catch the replay. As the players work to make birdies and eagles, I'm knocking rows down, inch by inch... "gettin' 'er done".

As for "the Nennie Sweater"- which has sat at very slow progress, I think I'm going to have accept partial defeat. It is looking less and less likely that I'm going to make it back to my class to get further instruction on how to design my sweater. And, even if I do make it back, I still won't have enough class time to get enough instruction to actually finish. However, not to worry too much- thanks to a timely post by the Harlot, the sweater that she's just finished is VERY similar to the one I was designing. (Click that link to see it) There are a few adjustments I'd like to make, and that garter border has GOT to go, but I think I can repurpose the yarn and make it work for the sweater. Just hope I have enough!

Also, in case you were giving a little cheer about me being done baby blankets for awhile- I just found out I've got another to be made for a baby due in January. I'm still planning my baby blanket hiatus for a bit, but may have to move up the hiatus finish date. I was initially pretty bummed about the thought about another baby blanket to be made, (and yes, I know, I don't HAVE to- but I like that it's become the gift I give to my friends babies), but now I'm already making plans for a possible pattern. Plus- I do have a bit of time to work on it, so maybe I can make it a continuing work in progress.

AND- if the announcement of finished items and impending projects wasn't enough- I've also started a little stash busting project that is just for a break in the monotony-- MITERS. Damn you Mason Dixon Ladies for making me interested. I'm just going to knit those little squares with stash that I have and see what happens, but there is NO PRESSURE for a completion date or anything-- for now it's just a fun little distraction.

But for now, back to the US OPEN....