Ravelympics Update

The Olympics have been going on for a week now, so I figure it's time for an update on my project for the Ravelympics.  I will admit that I am spending most of my knitting time on my Shoshie shawlette.  It is the project I was most nervous about finishing, but I now think I can have it finished today and blocking tomorrow!

 

I broke my crochet hook that I use to put the beads on my loops, and that slowed me down a little bit - so much for steel huh?

I did work on my felted bowl at lunchtime Mon-Wed  I am on the sides (doubling the yarn there since I am making them higher than the original pattern.)  I want to be finished by Monday so that I can felt it when I go do laundry on Monday.  I figure I can finish it up tomorrow while watching the race at Fontana- it's nice and circular so mindless knit stitches. 

 

 

 After I broke my hook, I worked on my second snowflake mitt to get it started until I got a new hook.  I'm not worried about finishing, mitts go fast even when there is colorwork involved!

 

Knitting Updates

In an unusual turn of events, I actually finished 2 projects. ( Ok one still needs blocking)  I can actually show you both because one is for me and the other is a present for my mom, who doesn't know blogs exist much less that I have one.


Beach Glass unblocked, fresh off the needles.


Unblocked edge


Beach Glass blocking.


It's for my mom.  I bought a glass shawl pin when I was at Rhinebeck to go with it.  The yarn is hand dyed by Brook of Twisted Fiber - she does great work doesn't she?  And the best part was I got to go through her totes and pick out the yarn I wanted in August, cause she's really good friends with my friend Min.




This is colonnade.   It's actually for me!  I used Manos on the solid part and Malabrigo on the bottom section.  I will probably block it on Thursday morning.  I just cast on to make matching fingerless mitts with the Malabrigo.

How did I get sucked into shawls??

Ok shawlettes.   I blame Grace.  Yup her fault!

I'm on row 4 of 19 on the last chart of traveling woman ( I call mine beach glass)



And I started Stephen West's Colonnade out of Manos (solid) and Malabrigo ( multicolored) 

Stiches East PART 1

Last weekend I went to Hartford CT for Stitches East. Min and her friend Rachel picked me up on their way from Philly. It was a traffic nightmare! We didn't arrive at our Hotel until 930ish. We should have been there by 8ish. This was after poor Min and Rachel got stuck in NJ traffic and got to my house an hour late!

Since none of us were taking any classes, Vicki who lives in CT and her daughter Renee from RI, picked us up on Sat morning and took us to Webs. Webs, I found out was in Massachusetts. (As those of you who have driven with me in the back seat of a vehicle can guess - I was sort of passing out for awhile, waking up for awhile etc etc) I was kind of disappointed in WEBS. Though it wasn't really their fault. They were a large yarn store, they had a somewhat unorganized warehouse behind the main shop. They had a bunch of salespeople willing to be helpful ( those of you that have shopped with me know I really would rather shop on my own than get help) and were friendly. I did buy a bunch of yarn, some sample size packs of SOAK for swaps, and HIGHLIGHTER TAPE!! YAY! Sounds good right? Why was I kind of let down?? I think it's because my expectations of WEBS was too high. Everywhere you look, in blogs, especially on Ravelry people make WEBS seem like the mecca of yarn stores. That you will be in a yarn coma when you leave - that knitting nirvana can be found through their doors. That you can find any commercial brand yarn represented there.

Well, it was a Large yarn store. It had some great prices. There was a volume discount. There was a warehouse in back with further discounts taken not eligible for the volume discount. There was no Crystal Palace, there was no Manos. There were limited colors of Malabrigo and Aruncania. There were a lot of cones. So it was a bit of a letdown.

We went to a Japanese place for lunch. That's when it registered that I was in MA. It seemed odd that so many people from MA would be in CT AND no one from CT would be there. Lunch was great and from there we went to WEBS bead store. Which, although I gave up on beading some time ago ( doesn't mesh well with longer nails) it was a very cool store. I bought a witches hat, skull, witch on broomstick and something else in pewter as well as a ceramic penguin to use as stitch markers.

We then drove for what seemed like hours in the pouring rain to another yarn store. When we were close it was determined that we did not have time for 2 LYS's so we turned and set sail for Vicki's LYS. It must be a big word of mouth business because it's in a basement and has the littlest sign on the road and is kind of hidden behind trees. ( everything in CT is hidden behind trees - either this or there is nothing in CT and I know people live there!) I DID find the perfect yarn to go with the Malabrigo I had purchased in Tennessee this past summer to make a Colonnade shawl. Of course the pattern needs 414 yds and between the two yarns I now have 624yds... so matching fingerless gloves?

Still pouring rain, we went to Victoria station for coffee/dessert. And yes it was forever away. The town was cute, and apparently had their pumpkin fest or something ( but no pumpkin cannon!) there were a lot of pumkin "people" around the town - kind of like scarecrows with pumpkin heads. Unfortunately I guess the coffee shop had been inundated all day, and it took over 20 minutes for all 5 of us to order and get our food. Min, Rachel and I , got slices of quiche to take back to the hotel for later. Rachel decided she wanted some wine, as this was her first weekend in a long time to relax with no exams in med school coming up. I cook with wine but really don't drink it - I'm going to have to go tasting with Grace and Tom to learn about wine to drink. So I bought a 6 pack of Smithwicks. I thought about a pumpkin ale or octoberfest, but after hours in the car in the rain I wanted something tried and true. I feel for Vicki and Renee, because even though I spent 1/2 the day in a coma, I was exhausted when we got back to our room and they had a 45 minute drive - in the rain - back to Vicki's house. I didn't take a single picture on Saturday, because it was really gray, dismal and raining and figured I'd get shots on Sunday.

Vaction Knitting & Yarn Shopping

As always, I brought way more yarn than I could possibly work on in the car on vacation. But better too much than not have anyting to do right? I didn't get all that much done because I was too busy bs'ing with Curt, checking out Braun's trucks on 81 (sad yes, very sad.... I need help) Actually saw 2 Walmart trucks that were not sleeper cabs (sadder) only saw 1 Estees truck that was a sleeper, seriously wondered what Stevens Transport hauled, they have such nice looking trucks. Trying to decide which trucks looked like they'd be fun to unload. ( I have issues). Curt was laughing at me for most of that.

But I worked on my next afghan for the Victory Junction Afghan Competition.

Also on Carribean Dream - the StormCloud Shawlette, in Malabrigo sock in Caribeno.

I only got halfway through the heel flap on Dragon's bruises.


I finished the caloriekerchief I was almost done with so I could wear it in Nashville.


Curt bought me some MMMalabrigo worsted at Bliss Yarns outside of Nashville. ( I couldn't get a good color shot, the parts that look brown are more of a dark brick red)

I got some Happy Feet sock yarn.



Curt thinks I should make another kerchief with the number 14 knit in it, so he got some Tahiki cotton for me to work with. <3 him!

Wordy Wednesday?

here's the new shirt I got on my little shopping expedition to Montclair last week, such a shame they are closing. I also got 2 hanks of MMMalabrigo Superwash Merino sock yarn in stonechat and velvet grapes:





I did finish my smoke cowl as I mentioned in a previous post. Here's the finished picture- but it still needs the ends woven and it meeds to be blocked.



I also frogged the breeze socks in the Evil Stepmother yarn. The yarn and the pattern did not complement each other at all. I re cast on and am making a basic anklet with a picot edge ( I must be into picots)



I haven't gotten too far on the cozy - here's the update/ Hopefully I'll get done before spring is actually over.



I only have one more square, which is currently halfway done, before I can seam up my lates Victory Junction Gang Camp Afghan. Here's the lates square: I really really want to maybe finish the square on lunch tomorrow and seam it up tomorrow night. I really want it done this week - reasons to be revealed next week ( sorry - only 2 people who may be reading this may have a clue as to why, and if they put it in their comments I'm not going to approve them!)

And finally I'll leave you with a pick of ANgie fooling around with my scarf on Easter - I call this pic - Angijemima!

Saturday

Angie took her SATs this morning in Clifton. We got there seriously early. The doors opened 5 minutes after we got there. While she took her test, I didn't want to go all the way home so Curt and I went to the Tic Toc Diner in Clifton for breakfast.



We then went to Barnes and Noble and I bought a copy of Alan Dart's Irresistible Gifts to Knit. I thought about buying it awhile back, but when I returned to the store it was sold out. I read this week that they re-released it, so when I saw it I bought it. I also saw a copy of THE KNITTER a new intermediate/advanced magazine by the editors of Simply Knitting. It's $12.99!! And I saw 2 patterns I would do so I passed on it (for now if I see it again who knows?)





After putzing around for awhile, we headed to Montclair to go to Modern Yarn (they don't open until 11am) We got there a few minutes before they opened. It is such a cute little section. ( Although I must say people around there must eat out an awful lot) We bought some cookies to bring home from jimmie's cookie bar (they have a cookie lounge too, where you can hang out and eat your cookies) I bought some Sencha green tea from a tea place, some coffee beans and a cup of coffee from "Beans". I went through Modern yarns and although I saw a lot that I wanted, I settled for



Manos Silk Blend ( I was hoping to find a hank of this in purple YAY)

and I just had to have:



Malabrigo Sock superwash merino ( yes Jaqui if you're reading this superwash)

We took Angie to Atlanta bread Company for lunch. I had a wonderful dill and fennel tomato soup with a half a salmon w/ cucumber and dill spread sammie. She had turkey with provolone, lettuce tomatoe and pesto spread and baked potato soup. Curt had french onion soup and some kind of chicken sammie. Yum. When we got home I TOOK A THREE HOUR NAP!!! I was saying i was tired all week, but I didn't realize how tired I was.

I balled a skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino yesterday, but didn't have the right needle size ( I bought addi Natura circs today so I'm casting on later) Curt ( my human swift) is bowling tonite, so I have to wait until tomorrow to ball up the Manos to start working on that.

Yarn Happiness to all!

Rough Week!

Ok, I'm having a rather rough week this week. I finally finished the thumbs on my short fingerless mitts - no pics. I got halfway through Grace's Irish Tea Cozy and realized that I either knit with a deathgrip or she knits so loose I'm surprised her needles don't fall out. ( not insulting you Gracie just amazed we are so off guage wise) So I see that my cozy isn't even close to the size of her cozy, and after trying it on the pot - it may have fit my cup! So I frogged out up to the end of the ribbbing - I decided a tighter ribbing around the bottom was a good thing, since I was knitting a handle openning and spout hole into my cozy ( I don't see why you should take the cozy off everytime you want to pour a cup). I went up to size 9dpn's still kinda tight on the pot after two cable repeats. So I ended up with size 10 dpn's ( her pattern calls for a 16"cable which I don't have in 10's and I could work a longer cable by pulling the excess through but that was too much work. AnywAy, the actual cozy is done working on shamrocks now, but it still is 1/2 the size - srsly, her's would work as a hat I think. mine I don't think will fit an 8 cup pot. I am thinking about makng 2 shamrocks, seaming them together and stuffing them and attaching it instead of the pompom on top of the cozy. Not sure yet. I am also looking through my doodads - I am pretty sure I have a shamrock button somewhere. I may make a little loop and sew a button on to hold the 2 pieces by the handle together. no pics yet.


I haven't touched my socks since Friday and I forget to mark where I was on the pattern- so we'll see if I can figure it out. I want to do ruth's scarf - but I'm still not 100% on which yarn I want to ball up. I was torn between abby and ice queen for my silky merino cowl/smoke ring. After careful consideration and the fact that ice queen is written for lace weight , I think I will be doing the abby.

I missed knitting group today :( my carpet truck's 9am appt didn't START unloading him until 10:30 because they had the only guy with a license to the carpet boom in the office for 2 hours!! And they had 3 deliveries worth of carpet rolls!! He still had 2 mom and pops. he was so late to the next store the guy who unloads him there went to lunch. Sigh. he got to my store over 2 hours late ( which technically is 1/2 an hour early, but kills my day) So I worked 11 1/2 hours! So now I HAVE OVER 5 HOURS OF OVERTIME! So I guess I'll leave early tomorrow, go in late on Friday ... I was really looking forward to knitting too! I wanted to ask Grace about my tea cozy also.

Knitting Updates

So here are the long promised knitting photo's. First, the catbeds I made. Kittyfostermom from Ravelry is going to try to make it to knitting group on Friday afternoon and I am going to give these to her for her cat rescue efforts. She was trying to get enough that the cats could take them to their forever home with them!





they really did hook up quickly. I did one at each of Angies last two fencing meets.

Now my socks. I know this is not the best yarn for this pattern, and the pattern would be better served by a more solid or longer colorway'd yarn. And I probably will make them again in such yarn. But I don't care. I wanted this yarn and this pattern ( so there!!)





I think for my Malabrigo I bought last week I am going to make a pair of fingerless mitts and either Amy , cockle shell or vegas sands ( all cowls that can be found on ravelry) I love ice queen, but am not ready to tackle beads at this time.

Yarn Group Trip

Our knitting group had talked about a yarn shopping trip one day, and since I was off this week, we decided to go on Thursday. (Unfortunately Jacqui wasn't able to make it this week). As none of us had ever been to Why Not KNit in Chester, we were going to go there and then since Chester is one of those quaint town with a great walking downtown, and stop somewhere for lunch. ( would you believe that weird chicken is the first picture to come up when I google images Chester, nj?) Sandy had tried calling the store several times on Wednesday, leaving messages and again on Thursday. Since she was getting no response, and while not far, Chester is a bit distant to go and find the store closed. So neither Grace no I had ever been to Down Cellar in Basking Ridge we decided to go there instead.

The above picture came off their web page, the picture is from their old store. It was very small ( I have yet to be in a large yarn store) packed to the ceiling literally with yarn. They also have addi's circs and a lot of bamboo needles. It was also very, very warm. I found 3 skeins of malabrigo silky merino in vigo. The perfect color in my search for yarns inspired by Tony's new ride. The red and black and thegreys (his nickname is smoke after all) I was going to ask if they had bamboo cable needles, but I thought the one salesperson was kinda snotty to Sandy about her sweater ( which is gorgeous - all knids of colorwork I would never do) and ya'll know how much I despise asking for help in a store anyway. We ended up having a fabulous lunch at a restaurant called "the store" When Sandy first brought it up, both Grace and I thought it was tables in the back of a suoermarket. But it was a really cozy little place. They had cheesesteaks and fries. I had a chicken caesar salad wrap. Grace got lemon merengue pie, that looked wonderful. EVERYTHING WAS DELICIOUS. We then went back to Sandy's place for some more chatter and to pay attention to her cute spaniel.

Updates- sort of

Ok, don't have much to write about today. I can't say I've been very productive on the knitting front this week. min needs some yellow squares for the Victory Junction Gang Camp afghans she is seaming from participants that sent in squares not full out 'ghans. Ok, she actually needed a bunch of different squares, but I have some yellow yarn left over from the bright blocks afghan. That really isn't going that well because as I said the other day when I mailed out my 'ghans I am sooo over afghans right now. I'm going to see how much I can get done this weekend and then mail what I've done on Monday.

I have also gotten about 12 rows done on my lacey anklets. One anklet has been done for months - I'm about halfway done on the second. I'm not calling it second sock syndrome, it just fell victim to my "oh my god I have 3 afghans in a partial state of completion that need to be mailed on Nov 3rd" panic. I want to get those done so I can use the needles to work on my 49er socks. I do not (although I have been extremely tempted) want to buy another set of dpn's to make socks with.

I got my husband to be a human swift on Thursday and rolled one skein of pink yarn into a center pull ball. I want to start on Ruth's mystery sock- although I am kind of shrinking the rib and leg to make anklets, so catching up should not be hard as long as I get started before she starts the heel flap.

I have some more Tweedle Dee yarn that I want to try Jen's unpurled cable hat and another set of hat and cowl. I'm giving them to people who won't appreciate malabrigo yarn for Christmas. Yes those sad people do exist!

I am going to Connecticut for the weekend. I plan on bringing the lacey anklets and the yellow yarn for squares. I have to figure out a crochet project because I can't knit in the car but I can do easy crochet. Maybe I'll make another market bag.

Cowls and socks

I got my yarn orders on Friday. The first one I dove into was Malabrigo chunky in Paris Nights. I got from The Backwards Loop . I am test knitting the unpurled cowl for sunnyspirit23 on Ravelry. I did this one with the optional 3 extra rows to make the taller cowl.



This is the same pattern done the original way the pattern is written, done in Charrua that I got from Eat Sleep Knit .





I got these 2 sock yarn from The Yarnarian during her sale last weekend. She lives in Morristown, and unfortunately everytime we have a gettogether at Mara's she can't make it. i'd love to meet her as she does beautiful work as you can see. The top yarn is iridescent a mix of purples and pinks, as soon as Angie saw it she was asking that yarn is for something for me isn't it? She didn't know what she wanted but she loves the yarn. The bottom one is Hot cha cha - it actually has a lot of orange and yellow which doesn't show up in the photo. That will be socks for me as soon as I'm done with the pair I'm working on and the 49er socks.