January Socks

Yep it is that time of the month, time to post my socks for the Sock A Month. This month is not baby socks!! (that will be next month) Nope this time I have 6 year old socks!

The pattern is Crosshatch from Sensational Socks and the yarn is Lorna Laces in Tickled Pink. Those who know us know whose feet those are.

The yarn striped nicely with no real pooling going on, except at the gusset where it is to be expected.


=)

Maybe I can get one pair for me done this year = P

The last

of the christmas FO's. Sorry I have been a missing. While taking care of everyone I did get sick then I caught the cold that one of my lovely children brought home and have not been able to get rid of it. It was in my head for a week and now it is in my chest which is always a problem. But I was a good girl. I started feeling the tightness this weekend and even had an asthma attack so I kinda knew it was there even though the lovely cough has not started yet. Anyway I went to the Doctor and yep she can hear the fun in my lungs. More meds and I should be ok since it looks like we caught it at the beginning.

Anyway I did finish Hermione for my SIL. I was much further then I thought so I finished one, two, three.



I used yarn from my stash. It is from KnitPicks, Merino in ash. Perfect color I think. If you check the pattern link there is a movie still.



I did change the decreases on the top. I couldn't really "see" where the patterns decrease were going so I used my own.

Nice and swirly =)

There was talk of it running small, which is a good thing in this case since my SIL is on the small side and I didn't want the hat to be big (cause well that can be annoying). So I followed her directions and well it fit my models head fine. A little tight he said. Well my Hubby has a big noggin so hopefully he didn't stretch it out too much



Sorry everyone he s all mine ; )

A day that will be remembered.

I watched the swearing in today. I watched in a high school of almost 2000. I watched in the library with about 200 students. I watched in complete silence.



Into the future we go.

image from BBC

ETA: the rest were watching too in other place

Almost the end!

of recapping Christmas gifts. There is only one left and well it is still on the needles.(That would be my SIL hat, I plan on getting a good chunk of it finish if not finished tonight. We shall see, I am half way done already)



This hat may look familiar. It is "I made a hat in an hour" hat from I think last year. Well my mother in law has always commented on it and commented again when she say Buddah's, which is just a smaller version of mine. Well I had enough left and made her one. The yarn is from Rhinebeck 07. Other then that I do not have much info on it. It is super bulky (I used size 15 needles!) and the skein was over 150 yards. After 3 hats I finally have no more left.

(Oh and if you look to the left, above the hat you can see one of the snowflakes I made (so you can see the scale, it is a medium size snowflake)



These short pair of mitts was made on the day at work when I finished my crosshatch socks. I had just grabbed the yarn cause I knew I was going to finish the socks and would need something to knit. Since I loved the crosshatch pattern I just made my generic fingerless mitt pattern and added the crosshatch lace on top. The skein was only 110 yards so I made them short. They were a little short for me so I gave them to the Woman Who Watches The kids at School. She sits by the door and boy is it drafty. We see her all the time and she has commented on all of my fingerless gloves and I thought she would be perfect for them. Her hands are smaller then mine. She loved them and was very touched.

Oh and we have a first here. All 5 of us are on antibiotics. Yes I know this is not a great milestone but it is the first time it has ever happened. We all have ear infections with a dash of sinus infection and a couple of pinches of strep. Why yes it has been so fun here!!!

(Someone send chocolate!!!!!!)

=)

Let it Snow

Well the weather guys and gals messed up big time. As of late friday night the were predicting up to a foot of snow. What did we get was about an inch of snow and then about another inch of ICE!!!!! I hate ice really it makes everything from walking the dog, to getting mail (live on a busy street and you do not leave your mail in the mailbox or someone may take it, sad I know) even taking the garbage out a real pain in the you know where. I did knit some, even finished something but it has to be blocked. I even got caught up in picture taking of WIPs.

Every year except last year I have made everyone ornaments as part of their Christmas gifts. This year I decided to crochet snowflakes. Oh they were addicting. I just kept churning them out. What is not to love. I had a FO in about 15 minutes or less depending on the size. I managed to go through a whole ball of crochet cotton and probably would have kept going if my stash of crochet cotton was not buried in the bottom tote in my craft closet. Which actually I have to dig out because one has gone missing or was thrown out by mistake and my brother and his family do not have theirs. I found the patterns on Ravelry and can you believe it their is a book out there of 99 crochet snowflakes! I so want it!!!!

Anyway back to my snowflakes. Here are my 18 snowflakes:


I mostly used these patterns. (each one is a different link)

=)

and yes I fell, I was walking Snick and the poor thing was sliding everywhere. She went down and well she took me with her. I am just a little bruised, nothing bad.

Let it Snow

Well the weather guys and gals messed up big time. As of late friday night the were predicting up to a foot of snow. What did we get about an inch of snow then about another inch of ICE!!!!! I hate ice really it makes everything from walking the dog to getting mail (live on a busy street and youdo not leave your mail in the mailbox or someone may take it, sad I know

Well

Abby guessed todays post!! Her last comment was about spinning yarn for my mom and well I did. =)

This:


Spunky's Sangria, 100% BFL 4 oz

was turned into this:

This is the true color. The roving picture was taken with my old camera and sometimes the colors were way off



169 yards of light worsted yarn. 2 ply.

I so loved how this came out. I also have this colorway in Alpaca and really can not wait to spin it. (That is also the only reason on how this yarn made it out of my house. I so wanted to keep it)

=)

Mommy's Mittens

Well since my Mom has gotten back into knitting it is kinda hard to come up with something to make her. This is what I came up with for this year.



Plait Cable Mittens




I used Cascade 22o Superwash in Christmas Heather. Honestly I really could not see the heather part, to me it looked just a really pretty red.

We are going to be hit by a lot of snow (8-12 inches) so I am planning on a little baking and a lot of knitting this weekend. Heck I might just throw in some sewing and spinning too!

For those of you being hit by this storm - stay safe and really stay home. There is not much that is worth going out for. For everyone else have a great weekend!!!

=)

Garmisch

That is the name of the hat pattern I made for my Father in law. (Sorry the link is a Ravelry link)

Here is The Hubby modeling the completed hat. =) He is such a card!!



I used Cascade 220 Superwashed in Black. I am really liking Cascade 220 superwashed. It has a nice feel and hopefully will not pill as badly as Knitpicks Swish



You can kinda see the cable and just in case I took another picture with the flash



Honestly I loved this hat. The decreases are "hidden" in the knit rib that separates each cable and who doesn't love a juicy cable!

=)

Holy Cowl !!!!

Yeah that one has been used a lot but I still like it. I made two cowls for presents. I used Malabrigo Yarn for both in Chestnut.

This one was for my Stepmother. The pattern is Cashmere Neck Warmer and it is basically a feather and fan pattern. Quick and easy and it was finished in a few short hours.



The second one was for my Mother in Law. I used the pattern Spiral Cowl from Keri (Yes the same Keri that I bought a ton of roving from when I first started spinning, Love her stuff) This was also a quick fun knit. It did wind up longer cause well I was watching TV and just kept on going and going.

I think I am a little over half way done with the recaps =) Of course by the time I am done recapping december I will have to recap January =)

onward..

This might take a while to recap everything. I was looking at my flickr pics and was like wow, I still have not taken pictures of everything.. I guess that is what I get for hardly any blogging in December.

This time a little sewing. I found this pattern on Etsy and thought it would be great for my kids and my nephew since well the color all of the time and I thought it would be a great non video game way of passing the time on road trips



The pattern was written out very well. I highly recommend it.



It holds 8 crayons and a 3x5 pad of paper and even has a pocket to put drawings!



I did not take a picture of one with a button sewed on but I did put buttons on and the close to keep everything tidy. Again easy to make and very quick. I cut pieces for all 4 in about 20 minutes and sewed them all the next day in about an hour and this was with my 3 crazy kiddies running around and asking me something every 5 minutes.

I did one other sewing project. It was a quilted square table trivet with a holiday motif. I thought I took a picture by I didn't or the computer ate it. It was a fun little sew.

=)

Yeah

I shocked my Mommy =) Yes Mom I have over 35 miles of yarn which if I laid end to end it might just make it to your house! It is amazing how much you can squeeze into 10 of those large storage tubs isn't it!

Ok onto Christmas recap. This time is my Aunt I's Foliage hat. I loved this hat very much when I tried it on it almost did not make to her. I used Shepherds wool that I bought over 2 years ago from a LYS that went out of business (technically she was kicked out but that is another story) This stuff is amazing, it had a write up in Interweave knits in the column that tells about yarn makers and as I was reading it I was like I have that yarn. This yarn is a little on the hard side to find and I bought it from the going out of business sale at a steal!!

Ok anyway back to the hat. Foliage is from Knitty and has been on my list of what I want to knit since I have seen it in fall 07 issue.
Really great pattern and a little different, it is knitted from the top down. I was done knitting the lace part and I a little shocked that I was done (and yes a little sad)



yes I know totally craptastic picture. I was not feeling too hot when I took it and I was wrapping gifts and basically just snapped a pic. The color is suppose to be plum. The color really reminds me of plums too, that really rich purple. It also reminds me of my Grandfathers plum cake. Mmmmm so good, I could eat the whole thing stomach ache be darned.

=)

What I plan to do in '09

it may look like I posted twice today but the last post was meant for yesterday but I blogged it early this morning, so in my world this is todays post =)

Ok most of us make resolutions this time of year. Mine are not soul changing but it is something to look at as a goal. I know, I know I have that whole 101 in 1001 going on which really I am not going to stress over finishing by November. I am really trying to not get stressed out over stuff. Stress is never good and well the more you can reduce the better overall right?

So back to what I am doing in '09 craft wise. I am going to ........(insert drum roll).......knit from my stash this year. I totally took the idea from Toni who did it last year and is doing it again this year. She does have way more stash then I do but mine is starting to become hard to contain. It still all fits (barely) into my craft closet but for me it is too much. I want it reduced. Now of course there are some rules.

1. Rhinebeck does not count. I buy only what I can get at Rhinebeck and not in a store or on the internet.

2. Gift do not count either. Hubby is taking me yarn shopping as part of my Christmas present. Any other gift of yarn will not be turned down. (Hint mom cause you know my B-day is in march; ) )

3. If yarn is needed to compete a project it can be ordered but only that.


This only really covers yarn but I am going to try to spin up some of my roving without buying more and it would be nice to reduce my fabric too.

I have already organized my stash into a binder and I am in the process of adding it all up. Scary I tell you. I can just tell by looking at my laceweight pages I have miles of yarn. As soon as I have it tallied I will put it up into the side bar (again copying Toni) and hopefully this will give me the motivation to keep going.

=0

Lets start recapping!

This is going to take a while so there just might be recap posts here and there every so often =)

I am going to start with the hats I made my brother and my nephew. The pattern is Nottingham. It is a very cute cabled hat and this hat started the whole Christmas knitting that I was not going to do this year. I made it for my nephew and then got the crazy idea that wouldn't it be cute if I made a matching hat for my brother?!?!? Which did turn out adorable!

Here is the Sr version


Modeled by Hubby



Here is the Jr version.

Same hat same color (one just had more light on it, Jr's is the true color) The yarn I used was Cascade 220 Superwashed. It was the first time using cascade 220 and I am thrilled at it. It was soft and wonderful to knit with it. I hope is stands up better towashing then knitpicks Swish, which I like but man that yarn can pill!!

Oh and speaking of Christmas knitting I did finish everything except 1 hat, which is almost done, and that my darling Sis in law totally understood. I did show her the in process hat and she loved it!

=)

2009

Well everyone here we are the first day of 09. I have lots to show and catch up on and of course I will be doing it slowly since well I did not get to take pictures of everything because we stayed up to greet 09 last night. I recall it use to be a lot easier to stay up late. Now a days I am lucky if I can function at 10.

I was going to recap 08 but really 08 sucked. Not in the craft department but in other ways so I decided to leave 08 in 08. However when I looked at my list of completed stuff I was amazed how much there was and many different items. I did sew more which was something I wanted to do but of course not as much as I wanted. Still working on finding a way to put more hours into the day.

I do have some wee socks to show. These little socks were my last FO of 08. I realized a few days ago that I did not have my december socks for Sock a month and since I have gone over a year without missing a month I just couldn't do it. So I grabbed some leftover cascade 220 in christmas heather and a set of size 5 dpns and with in a few hour I had a pair of cute baby socks.
I know a few people with buns in their ovens so the will get used.


they are the same size even though one does look bigger

Most likely these will go to my best friend. Her favorite color is red and I am sure Little Baby J will look adorable in them.