Occasionally I do knit

Fall is here. Obviously. We like the park. Cold and park do not normally go together well though. The oldest wee one has been wanting to go and swing for days now but the parent in me tends to kick in and say no, you're hands will freeze. So I got on Ravelry last night and tracked down a mitten pattern. It happened pretty fast and the knitting happened even faster! I love these. I'll be making more.

Pattern: These .... Kidlett Mittens. Done flat and in garter stitch. I did these in an unknown wool yarn (gift from a friend) on size 6's. Perfecct fit for my 3 year old.

Since it's colder here and the youngest wee one needs longies I've been working on some. I ended up frogging a pair because...well...they sucked. :) These former shorties still fit so why not make them longies!? I undid the cuff and picked up my stitches and went to work. They aren't my favorite and I need to figure out how to make the legs "fit in" better with the body. One problem is the body yarn is substantially more faded than the legs. I knew that would happen but I was hoping it wouldn't be as noticable. I am trying to come up with something to embroider on the upper body in an attempt to bring the darker bolder colors up and make the faded colors less obvious. I'm not sure it will work but who knows? I'm not in too big a hurry. They work, they look cute on, and they are done. That's all I was going for really. :)

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

I know...it's not knitting but DAMN! I have to enter. I have to. I must.

Something to get excited about!

(Fiber bag avalable over at my etsy store..filled here with 4 ounces of fiber...also good for knitting projects)

Not too long ago I joined the etsy mama's tribe on mothering. I posted a quickie to mark my spot so I could find it easy and then forgot about it. It popped up on new posts today wihch reminded me to go check on the store. It had been a couple days so I headed over and was surprised to see two conversations (basically emails hosted there on the site). I open them up and was even more surprised to see they were from the same person! Apparently they really wanted to talk to me. The person trying to get a hold of me was Jessie from PhatFiber ( http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6302008 ). Going to her site you won't find much yet. Her store though will be sampler boxes (her blog about it is here: http://www.phatfiber.blogspot.com/ ).

So the point of her getting a hold of me was to see if I would be a contributor to her debut box(s) in Jan.!! I'll be working on getting my samples worked up. There is a theme (Wintery Mix) so there will be some dyeing and some sewing and maybe some spinning. We shall see on that last one. I am so excited! What a nice little way to promote my stuff you know? I need to work up some business/promo cards to also include. I am so excited!

Nothing in my store has sold yet but I have hope. Woo hoo!

Feb. Lady Sweater...

"to fit a grown ass woman".

More like piss off a grown ass woman.

It does not matter how well I count or how many stupid little stitch markers I use or how slowly and deliberately I go by the end of row 1 (ONE!) of the lace pattern my count is off. I have avoided knitting on this damn thing for awhile because of it (and I'm still not happy with the arms). I finally pick it up since I actually have time and the mood to knit on it and what do you know, my count is off. It's getting extremely irritating. I'm on the verge of frogging the damn thing. I know in the end this will be one of those projects that was worth it but good grief! There may not be a "in the end" at the rate I'm going. I will finish this thing if it kills me though. And it may.

I am needing to write out a goals list. I have a lot of things on my plate that need to be knitted and be done with. I also need to finish the stupid q&a for the master's program but I'm avoiding it. Once my question gets answered over on MDC I'm putting a self-imposed knitting ban on myself. I just need to get this finished already! There isn't that much left to it and I'm dragging my feet. It's the easy stuff now too. I will finish that too!

Sheesh. How's this for a somewhat cantankerous post. :)

Are you ready?

Because within this post you will behold something so utterly fantastic it will cause you to wet yourself. Don't say I haven't warned you.

So the other day I called my mom up to see if I could borrow those combs. I had decided to participate in a monthly spinning challenge on Ravelry and the fiber I was working with would be best combed. She said sure and did I want her to send those two lovely Ashford spindles as well? Sure! And what about some fiber? Absolutely! And I have a question...would you like to try my wheel!!?? Ummmm....YES!!!So there it is. Sitting in my house. All for me. A lovely Ashford Traditional. I do need to run and get a maintence kit to replace some things but once I do that I will be good to go! That basket next to it has a ton of wool and a bit of llaama in it. Yesterday she sent me even more...a 13 gallon bag of wool (cleaned by her...it was a raw fleece), a 12x8x8 box with store bought corridale (undyed! and in roving form), and a box that fit 12 32 oz. bottles in it full of gorgeous chocolate brown llama. I am so excited at the amount of fiber I have somehow fallen into in the last couple months..and all different kinds! Breaking away from the merino baby!

I need more dye. I have way too much white stuff. :)

Ahhh...leafy

My first go round with embroidery. Oh how I love these pants! The tree could be a bit better but hey! I never said I could embroider. :)






Stats:Pattern: Picky PantsSize: Medium! This is the first pair of mediums I have had to make for us.Pattern specs: Short rows, over a 9 inch inseam, elastic waistband, garter crotchYarn: Paton's Merino: Deep Olive (main body and in between stripes and cuff)Wool of the Andes: Avocado (first and third stripes) and Fern (middle stripe)

I love how the leaves came out. They are actually embroidered on whereas the tree is just a crochet chain that I stitched on. Every where I read says not to use merino on soakers/covers/longies since it has crap memory and losses it shape pretty fast. I've used it here and there but not on a project this large before. I believe them now. :) I can't tell if it's all because of the merino or if a lot of it is the fact that she's still mostly crawling so she's got that downward pull on the legs all day long. Either way is fine by me. These will definitely last the fall and winter. I'm in the process of making another pair but minus the embroidery. :)

Oh and I have got an utterly fantasticly awesome post for tomorrow. It includes fiber and fiber tools. I know. Hold on to your seats. The anticipation is bound to get you. :)