Yuck

Not much new to report today on the knitting front. I went to stitch group last night, but stopped knitting on LL after I made a mistake. Allergies are a major roadblock right now. We've had a lot of rain last weekend, and now I feel like crap. Puffy, watery eyes, pressure on my eardrums and in my face, drainage down my throat.... General yuck from the shoulders up, and I have a feeling the hairy mohair is aggravating it. I just want to crawl in bed and sleep all day, and would have stayed home, but BHE was hosting his company's quarterly management meeting at our house this morning. No big deal, only about six people, I'd rather be miserable at work, getting stuff done, than miserable at home around my husband's co-workers, not really able to relax while they were there. You know? Maybe I'll go home at lunch.... I never had a bit of allergy problems until I was prego with Monkeyboy.

LL Update, New KAL

As of 12:30 a.m. last night / this morning, Lacy Lattice was 77.67% complete. I'm halfway through the 2nd Woven Lattice Chart and anticipate finishing it tonight, and maybe starting the edging (fingers crossed).

Stay tuned in the next week or so for information about a new KAL to start in about a month. Anyone interested in Fair Isle?

Furiously Knitting Lacy Lattice....

This was hiding under this. Don't ask, because I'm not telling.

Amazing Lace update

Just a quick, pictureless post - I have been cranking out the rows on the Lacy Lattice stole since I finished Tempting II last week. Last night I finished the 18th repeat of the Cables Chart. BIG milestone there! Yes, I was up past midnight, but I knew I couldn't sleep unless I got to that point. Now I'm ready for the pattern division section, then will start the Lattice Chart (67 rows total). Then another pattern division section, THEN I can do the edging! Where is the stole on the percentage complete scale? 69.73% Complete - Big change from the 39.78% from last week. (I already warned you I was a nerd.) Can I finish by Labor Day? One possible stumbling block - the final ball of Baby Kid Mohair is buried in a plastic box beneath / behind big piles 'o crap in my sewing room.... updates will follow.

Photo Shoot

Thanks to some photography tips from Tahlia, I did a photo shoot yesterday morning on my front porch. We had nice weather, a good change from the 100+ degree days we've suffered through the last few weeks. I wasn't happy with the photos I've been taking lately. Some of them were fine, but others had an orange tint to them, when there wasn't a bit of orange in the subject matter at all! So, I've updated nearly all the photos in my Etsy Shop, so check it out to see if anything appeals to you!

Finished Objects!

Yes, that is an "s" on the end of that title! I actually finished this shrug a while ago, but just today took the time to take a picture of it. I used Brown's Cotton Fleece yarn in Twilight Green and used a little less than one skein. This went really fast, and was a lot of fun. I'd like to do it again in a wool or cashmere. Ooooh, or maybe something in a deep wine to wear with a little black dress? (Note to self: must lose more weight as to fit into little black dress.)


Pattern: One Skein Wonder by Stefanie Japel
Yarn: Brown's Cotton Fleece in Twilight Green
Needles: Denise Size 8

I finished Tempting II Thursday night, and have never been so glad to finish a project! Faithful readers will recall I frogged the entire sweater when I was eleven inches into it. I then reknit it, two sizes smaller. The neckband took me three tries before I was happy with it. I ended up knitting the final two rows on size 5 needles, and the last row was K2tog all the way around. Then I knit the band on the size 5 needles as well, and decreased one stitch from the body on the only the right size of the band, except for the back where I also decreased the body on the wrong side of the band every other time. Feel free to comment or email me if you need clarification on what I did. I think anyone knitting this pattern will understand what I did. The neckband seemed to cause problems for several knitters over at the Sexy Knitters Club.

Pattern: Tempting II by Jenna Adorno

Yarn: TLC Cotton Plus in Thistle

Needles: Denise Size 5 and 8, Susan Bates size 8 dpns

Project Spectrum

This post is a little late, but the package went out on time! This is not the yarn or bag that I sent to my August Project Spectrum swap partner, but it is a pretty close replica! I like both so much, I dyed another skein of yarn for myself, and made a second Leetle Bag. Tahlia was my swap partner, and here is my post of what I received from her. She was a fantastic partner!

KSKS Received!

I got my KSKS kit today! My kittee was Emily in Tacoma Washington, and she is totally awesome! (I don't think I've used those words together since the late 80's.) The Fleece Artist yarn is the perfect, perfect color, and I'm taking it to work with me tomorrow so I can stare at it and pet it all day long :) I love the bag she made for me too - everything about it! I love the size, the shape, the color, and especially the dragonflies on it! She sent lots of other dragonfly goodies as well (I didn't remember mentioning I collected dragonfly stuff, but sure 'nuff, I did). Oh, she also sent the Pomatomus pattern in a heavy duty sleeve! I've been drooling over this pattern for a long time, and now that I have the perfect yarn for it, I have no excuse not to start! Seriously, I really wanted to start as soon as I saw the yarn, but am forcing myself to finish a couple of things first. (Not pictured is a cute little butterfly tape measure that my 3 year old absconded with - measuring everything in sight - not to worry, as I type this entry, it is safely back in my kit.) Thanks, Emily!!!! You Rock!

Package In, Package Out

Friday when I got home, I had a package waiting for me from my August Project Spectrum swap partner, Tahlia. I was shocked by her generosity! She sent some sock yarn in wonderful shades of black and gray, some knitting themed notecards, a tapemeasure, stitchmarkers she made herself, a ruler, a cool leather bag to keep the small items in, a mini lunchbox of Boston Baked Beans, Animal Crackers, and some Fogwash Soap, made from lanolin! I love every bit of it Tahlia! Thank you so much, and I hope you're recuperating well from your knee surgery!

I also mailed out my sock knitting kit to my KSKS partner. I won't reveal her name just yet, so I won't spoil the surprise, but I sent two skeins of fingering weight yarn (dyed myself), Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles, Knit Picks circular needles, a Chibi, three bags of coffee from a local company, chocolate covered expresso beans, a postcard of my city, and a custom made bag! The bag has a mock croc bottom and shoulder strap, is very well interfaced so it won't be floppy, and has two pockets inside. I made the pattern up as I went along. I hope she likes it!

Where does the time go?

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post! I also can't believe it's almost fall either.

I've been bus, crafty wise :) I finished charts 5 and 6 of the Mystery Stole 2, and am partway through the edging. I had to rip the edging back once already because I did the knitted-on cast on wrong, but have since made up for all I ripped out. I am also finishing up on Tempting II. I started the neckband, but it looks like its going to be too floppy, so I need to rip it back and am considering doing the last couple of rows before the neckband on smaller needles along with the neckband.

Nothing new on Lacy Lattice - I'm trying to power through Tempting II and the Mystery Stole 2, and then will focus all my knitting attention on the Amazing Lace.

I've been making Leetle Bags. They make great gifts, and I've found that if you fudge on the size you cut a little bit, you can get two bags out of two fat quarters! I made one out of leopard print fabric and shipped it off with some yarn I dyed to somewhat match to Tahlia, who is my Project Spectrum yarn swap buddy for August. Everyone send her good wishes - she had knee surgery yesterday. Get well soon Tahlia, and happy sock knitting while you're off your feet! I liked the bag I made for Tahlia so much, I made another for myself, and liked the yarn so much, I dyed two more skeins a few nights later (pictures soon, I promise). One skein is for myself, and I think I might send the other off as a surprise thank you to a certain knitting blogger who inspired my to start my blog!

I am also finishing up the bag for my KSKS pal (last minute, I know, but I work very well under pressure ;) ).

Can anyone give me some photography tips? I usually take my pictures in the kitchen where our brightest lights are, but lately my photos have sort of a yellow tint to them, especially the yarn in my Etsy shop. The last two skeins don't have any orange / peach in them at all, yet there it is in the photo!

Bad Blogger!

Have I abandoned this blog? No, time just got away from me, what with Sweetpea's birthday and all. There has been knitting action going on - Remember Tempting II that I totally frogged a little over two weeks ago? It's now ready for the neckline decreases and neckband. I haven't decided yet what modifications I'm doing for that yet, so it's on hold for a few days now. I've also been knitting on the Fair Isle sock, a few rows at a time. And, tonight, I knit 35 rows of Chart Five for the Mystery Stole 2! Nothing to report on Lacy Lattice. Sadly, I'm having camera issues, so there are no pictures to show.

I'm feeling stretched a little thin right now. All of the above projects with the exception of the sock have deadlines. I also have to finish and ship my KSKS kit. All that's left is the bag... I also need to dye my Project Spectrum yarn and ship by next Tuesday. I'm hoping to dye it tomorrow night after the kids are in bed. I want to get my sewing room totally organized (which requires a lot of getting rid of stuff before the October quilt shop hop (12 shops in 2 days). After the shop hop, I'm throwing myself full force back into the CPA exam. Why do I do this to myself?

Happy Birthday

Today my Sweetpea is one year old! The last year has gone by so fast - much faster than it did with her brother. Here a picture of her playing peek-a-boo, and another of her watching Monkeyboy do it :)

Oh, and aren't toes yummy?

Quilt Tour pictures

As reported, I went on a bus trip to two quilt shops in Kansas with three friends from my stitch group. We spent the night at Reta's house Friday, since we would have to be on the road at 6 am. We made quesadilla and hot fudge sundaes - yum! Then we all knitted until midnight or so.

Up at six, drove to Stillwater, and attempted to find the rendevouz for the bus, using Mapquest's directions. It had us going along back roads, turn right, turn left, turn left again, etc. Turns out if we had stayed on the main road and made one right onto another main road, we would have been there in 10 minutes, instead of the 30+ minutes it took is to actually find it. I used to have a boyfriend in Stillwater, but that was um, 17 years ago (yikes).

Got on the bus with 43 other women and one lone male, the bus driver. All through the day we got all kinds of freebees on the bus. A roll of fat quarters, a tote bag, patterns, notions. (I'd show you a fabulous picture, but the batteries in the camera ran out just after I took the two below. ) It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Hutchison, Kansas to Cottonwood Quilts. This is what I bought there: A kit for a poinsettia wallhanging, some nifty quilt tags so you can ID your quilt blocks before you sew them together, and a set of 12 quilt block kits on clearance. They are in Christmas colors :)













From Hutch, we drove to Newton, Kansas, and ate at the Bread Basket - yummy! I had some kind of pepper soup, a mini-chicken salad sandwich, and chocolate cream pie (all included in the trip). Oh, and homemade bread too. From there we drove down the street to Charlotte's Sew Natural, where I bought more:
Three kits for pillowcases, some fat quarters that coordinate with a block of the month I'm doing, and the brown, lime, and turquoise fabric to make a top out of for me.

Then back to Stillwater - on the way back we watched most of You've Got Mail. "Most of" because the movie was a few minutes longer than the trip back. I've seen it before but it's been a long time. From there back to Tulsa. I think it was about 8:45 when I got home. Long day, but FUN!

MIA?

I am here, I promise. There has been way too much going on in the last week to blogged... well, I could have blogged, but they would have been pictureless, as this post is. And isn't a blog with pictures much more fun? Well, I will do pictures soon, I promise.

What's been going on? Well, I did the Magic School Bus Tour on Saturday, and I was exhausted! Lots of quilty purchases, lots of knitting on the bus and on the car ride to Stillwater and back, as well as the night before. Since then, we've been doing a major cleanup of the house in preparation for Sweetpea's two first birthday parties this coming weekend. One for family and one for friends. Way too many people for one big party. Also, we borrowed a DVD burner from some friends who are on vacation this week, and are making copies of some stuff on our faux TiVo. Most of my stuff is quilty, while BHE has a lot of car related shows. We have to pretty much be in the room while it is copying so we can edit out the commercials, etc. Also, I mostly cleaned out our guest room in case a friend who is about to file for divorce needs a place to stay. On a related note, my sewing room is now T-R-A-S-H-E-D.

Knitting progress?

• As of Monday night, Tempting II was ready to cast on for the sleeves. Can it be just last week I frogged the entire thing and started over?
• I knit a couple of rows on the second Fair Isle sock yesterday.
• I've worked all but the last six rows of Chart four for the Mystery Stole II - that's one side only. I've decided to wait until all six charts are complete on one side before doing the second side.
• Lacy Lattice - Ten pattern repeats completed of the second chart! (Eight more to go.)
• KSKS - I have the yarn, technique book with patterns, needles, and accessories ready. I still need to do the bag, and get some chocolate goodies.

Stitch group tonight, so if I have time I'll go home first and get the camera :)