Happiness is...

...a plan for fair isle that is working.
My Warm Woolies, self designed sweater. A weeks work on it and it's looking pretty good! Can I finish it before the end of the month? We'll see.

...a Saturday morning thunderstorm.
Maybe I'm the only person who likes cloudy, cool, rainy days but I have been strangely productive this morning because of it.

...a box of fluffy yarn, begging to be knit.
You've seen this before but I still haven't photographed the individual skeins yet. I've taken to pulling out a skein or two each time I pass by and just giving them a good squeeze.

...bulky, undyed yarn ready for the pot and all for me!
Ok, so there's some roving and sock yarn in there for the shop too but most of it will be mine. I already have plans for it: another self designed, maybe one day for sale, sweater.

...a new catnip lobster.
I bought this for Penelope when I went to Boston (yes, I bought my cat a souvenir) and just remembered to give it to her last night. She went crazy rolling and licking it. I noticed it already had a piercing hole on its back this morning. I think she likes it.
Hope your Saturday is as lovely, relaxing, and productive as mine!

Jazzed

Today was a surprisingly good day for a Tuesday. Maybe because I knew this was coming:
A bunch of yarn from WEBS! All Cascade, all in bulky weight. There's Eco + and 128. I'm going to use it for charity knits. Once I get all of it out and squish it around for awhile I'll take individual pictures (maybe even put them on Ravelry!).

Yesterday night I started a new sweater while having a mini knit night with my friend BK. I'm designing a sweater with a simple fair isle pattern on the chest. I've gotten about 8 inches done on the body in just two days!
I've got serious knitting mojo! Of course this is only a child's size 10 and I'm using bulky weight yarn on size U.S. 10.5 needles but I digress...serious mojo nonetheless.

When I'm not getting behind on blogging I'm getting behind on reading other people's blogs. I just checked my friend Lynn's blog and she has bestowed on me my very first blog award!
I'm supposed to choose 5 people for the award. Then they choose 5 people and the blog love continues. My five people are:

Kate
LISMI
Knit Purl Girl
The Tsock Tsarina
Velma

All these ladies have wonderful blogs and they either leave great comments here or when I leave a comment for them they send me a lovely email in return. Happy blogging ladies!

Finished

I finished my Mystery Sweater for Warm Woolies today.
I'm super pleased with how it turned out. The yarn was nice to work with, the pattern was fun and easy, and the resulting sweater turned out soft and comfy. I modeled to show that it really does fit an adult sized human being (and I had room to spare in it).
Pattern: Mystery Sweater by Christiane Burkhard
Size: adult small
Needles: U.S. size 9 circulars
Yarn: less than 2 skeins of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in Oatmeal
Comments: My only wish is that I knew how to pick up stitches better. Not that they are terrible, just needs some work. Something to work on for next time.

Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out

Good riddance to bad yarn. The calla lily will be gone in a few days folks, just a few more days. I finally found the yarn needed to finish this monstrosity online and finished it up on Wednesday night when I finally grew so tired of looking at the little package of doom sitting there that I finished it up in about 20 minutes (this is excluding the 10 minutes it took to find the stupid pattern that had managed to wander off). So here it is in all its spread eagle glory:
And rolled up like (I assume) it will appear when final construction has commenced:
Rolled up it doesn't look too bad but that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. I really hated knitting this. It wasn't the pattern (which was well written) or the color (which was ok) it was a combo of bad yarn, a vague plan, and not a whole lot of interest in the project to begin with. But you'll be able to find it at Stitches South on some table display I have no doubt. I'll be the one trying to climb the stalk and beat the flower to the ground.

In case you were wondering the yarn I needed was Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick. Every yarn store in a 50 mile radius of my home had sold out of it so I finally had to break down and order it online. I paid $7 plus shipping and handling for one stupid skein and then I knit about 15 rows with it. This is what I have left:
I never plan to use this stuff again. In fact, I'll pay someone to take it off my hands. My friend BK, who has been knitting for about 5 months, came over last night and even she agreed with me that this yarn would be terrible to knit with. And she hasn't fully been exposed to the wonders of luscious yarn yet! We are planning a small bonfire in the parking lot of my apartment building next week to burn bits of this project in sacrifice to the knitting muses in the hopes that no one ever have to suffer like I have.

My traveling knitting has been going well though. I have my Space Monkey that I have turned the heel on but not done a whole lot else. Since this requires a chart and I can only sometimes remember what I'm doing I choose to knit on this sporadically.
I have added another, easier traveling project to my bag. It will be the mate to this fingerless glove that I designed myself.
I finished this glove a few months ago but hadn't really been motivated to start the second. However I did cast on (three times) for the second one yesterday.
I plan to use these when I visit Seattle next month. That's right, I'm going to Seattle!!! Can you tell I'm excited beyond belief? I can't wait to be there. I'm hoping I will love it as much as I think I will. I've never been but I've read my Frommer's and looked on Knit Map so I'm planning my course. It should be warm enough there to wear short sleeves with a light jacket but when I'm out walking around I tend to get too hot in a jacket. I hope these gloves will be the perfect alternative; just enough coverage to keep me warm without making me break a sweat.

My Mystery Sweater for Warm Woolies is almost done.
I finished the first sleeve and started the second last night during my Friday night knit night. I just have the second sleeve and the collar to do. I'm so close that I'll probably spend a lot of today working on it. I love how the hem of the sleeves matches the hem on the body.
I'm off to knit more on the sweater and then it will be time for a friend's birthday party and maybe more knitting and dinner with a friend from Wednesday's knitting group.

P.S. If you live in Massachusetts and are able, you should visit the Peabody Institute Library next Saturday for a charity knitting event. Read about it here.

Erin Go Bragh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I'm really wishing I was somewhere where the party has been going for hours already with really good Irish beer and authentic Celtic music. Alas, it's not to be this year. Maybe some day though.

I spent the weekend with part of my family in Boston. My brother was looking at graduate school at Harvard or MIT (guess we know who the smart one in the family is) and so my mom, my aunt, my brother's girlfriend and her mom, plus me all tagged along. Poor guy. All those women. He handled it well though.

Our hotel, the Liberty Hotel, was uber swanky. Probably the nicest I've ever stayed in.
The room before my brother and I destroyed it.

At the end of every bed were these super nice knitted blankets. If of course insured requests for 2 hand made ones.
Friday we toured Harvard and the surrounding area of Cambridge.
The entry gates at Harvard.

I saw this really cool "graffi". I think it was done by Shepherd Fairey who did the Obama political posters. Definitely his style anyways.
We got to see Frank Gehry's building for MIT.
Visited MIT.
Listened to the Boston Symphony (or at least part of it) and the Cantata singers.
Walked the Freedom Trail from start to finish.
I took lots of pictures of the cemetaries I saw. It's a little morbid by they looked so surreal to me.
My brother and his girlfriend rode the ducks. This is an installment based off the book Make Way for Ducklings.
Walked outside of Cheers.
Watched the T rolling across the water.

And then headed home. Thanks to a lot of rain in Atlanta we were delayed a bit at the airport but arrived home early Monday morning safe and sound. Yesterday, after work, I slept off the last little bit of tiredness I had from running around all weekend so that I could hit the ground running today.

Tonight I'll be at book study instead of the pub but hopefully I can celebrate a little this weekend. Maybe I'll even dye some Irish themed yarn (as an afterthought).

P.S. It should noted that today is also the birthday of my favorite lead singer Billy Corgan, thus making this one of the best days of the year.

Panic in 3...2...1...

Why is it that the week that you have a major, cannot be changed, deadline that is the one week where you have to accomplish everything in the world? The fact that I'm also out of toilet paper and cat food is not lost on me. My deadline? Boarding a plane to Boston for a quick weekend get-away tomorrow night. Please note the luggage below:
On the left you will see my "normal" suitcase. This is good for holding enough clothing for a 2 week vacation to anywhere in the world. The "suitcase" (if you can even call something that small a suitcase) on the right is what I will be taking with me to Boston. I'm currently working on the schematic for making 2 sweaters, 2 pairs of pants and a bag of toiletries fit inside. This way I won't have to check any luggage and I will be, hopefully, less inhibited. Don't ask how less luggage makes you uninhibited but it does. My O Crap meter started going off at about 10:00 this evening when I realized I had to clean my purse, fill out my tax sheets, do 2 loads of laundry, and finish packing before I could even think about going to bed tonight. Never fear though, I have completed most of the laundry, finished with the purse and the taxes (as best as I could, I'm terrible with maths), and I've had a large mug of fully caffeinated and sugar filled hot tea to keep me going until the rest is done. I will prevail! Or suffer from a massive sugar crash in about 30 minutes. We'll see.

I'll leave you with a picture of my Space Monkey socks. I'm actually past the heel now but you can enjoy the paste-y whiteness of my legs and the yummy colors in this super luscious sock yarn.
P.S. I'm still looking for yarn shops to visit in the Boston area. If you know of any send me a direct message on Twitter at theknftyknttr. Kthnxbai!

The Word of the Day is...

I found this on Paula's blog and really liked what my word was:

Your Word is "Peace"

You see life as precious, and you wish everyone was safe, happy, and taken care of. Social justice, human rights, and peace for all nations are all important to you. While you can't stop war, you try to be as calm and compassionate as possible in your everyday life. You promote harmony and cooperation. You're always willing to meet someone a little more than halfway.

What's Your Word?

I hope other people think it's fitting of me as well.

The Spaceship Has Landed

And look! It's brought Space Monkeys!
Ok, it's actually a sock. But it's the Monkey pattern by Cookie A in Socks that Rock Heavyweight colorway Space Dust. So it's a Space Monkey! Cat included in picture just because she was there. And curious.
But she soon tired of that.
I tried to get her to wear it like a hat but she would have none of that either.
These pictures do not do the color in this yarn justice. Of course taking pictures in a dimly lit apartment at 9:45 at night never really did anyone or anything justice. I also realized I have shown you exactly zero pictures of my progress on my Mystery Sweater KAL for Warm Woolies.
This is the second part, the front yoke.
And this a pretty lousy, crumpled up picture of parts 1 and 2. I'll try and take some better, more detailed pictures this weekend when I will actually be home while the sun is up.

I realize that I am terribly behind in updating on all my knitting goings on. There was a very important arrival a few weeks ago that should have facilitated some knitting (but hasn't yet, go figure) and there is a secret project I'll be shipping out by next week that I need to take pictures for the blog. I have been so crazy busy lately when I come home from work it's not even funny. My weekends up until this point have been jam packed and things don't seem to be slowing down but I'm trying to get out of this "post once a week" funk. Next week I'm going on an impromptu trip with part of the fam to Boston! I've never been so if you have any "must sees" or good places to eat (P.S. I love seafood) please let me know about them. Also, if you know of a good yarn shop right off the subway that would be golden :)

Snow, Sweaters, and Shop

1. For the first (and possibly only) time this year, it is snowing.

This was just as I pulled into my parking spot coming home from church. I didn't think this would really be anything to worry about since snow rarely sticks around here in Georgia for long.
But after only a few hours you can see it's already sticking to the pavement.
Unlike our northern or mid western neighbors, the South is not equipped for snow. We have a few salt trucks for when there are ice storms (more common than snow storms) but they will only do major highways around Atlanta. The bigger threat though is the snow melting and re-freezing. Black ice is crazy bad to deal with.

2. Yesterday I finished knitting on the Turino Bulky Pullover I was making for Warm Woolies.
I'm counting this as finished in a month even though I have to block, weave in ends, and seam under the arms. However, the major part of the project, the knitting, is finished.

3. I did a shop update yesterday. Here are the new colorways:

Bleeding Hearts
Lilac
Firebird
Spring Blossoms
As always each color is available in sock or bulky weight yarn or 4 oz. of roving.

I've opened the blinds so I can watch the snow fall and will more than likely spend the afternoon resting, knitting, and watching my favorite T.V. show, Legend of the Seeker. Stay warm!