Wow

I'm having such a good evening and it has nothing to do with elections.

My first official skein of yarn sold at the shop, ready for it's new home.
I'm knitting a sweater vest with some hand dyed Fisherman's wool and it is so soft and this project has been easy and relaxing the whole time.
I got this on Monday from my secret pal at school. Can we say over the top?
They are amazing. I love the cauldron shaped coffee mug and the wonderful teas. I might try some tonight when I deplete the candy stash further :)

Also, I got my LLC! That makes me official with the government! Very exciting night.

Thank you to everyone for all the kind words and encouragement. God has truly blessed me.

A Whole New Whack of Trouble

I had originally planned to make a much different post today. One that caught up on what I'd been doing as far as knitting and showing some better pictures of the yarn I dyed. That will all have to wait though. For I made a most fortunate discovery today.

What could be in these bags?
If you guessed a whole whack of yarn, you would be right.
I went to Joann's craft store today to buy some white yarn for dyeing. I often stop by on Sunday because they start their new sales then and I like to paw around. Well, I picked up some white Paton's and was wandering around when I spotted some bulky weight 100% wool Bernat felting yarn in a sale bin on an end display. It was kind of hidden in the back of the store and there wasn't any sign telling how much the yarn cost. Well, I for Warm Woolies they ask that you only use 100% wool yarn in a bulky weight. I liked the Bernat colors so much that I picked up 6 skeins that I liked and figured I could justify this unplanned purchase because I was knitting for charity. Besides, I wanted to try a much larger sweater than I had done before and wanted to make sure I had enough yarn. Totally justified it.

Well, I get to the checkout and the lady rings me up and says, "$15.71." I was a little surprised that the price was so low because I know that Paton's is normally almost $6 a skein and even on sale that was still really cheap for 8 skeins of yarn. I mention this to her just casually making conversation. "Well, these were on sale for $.97," she informs me as she picks up a skein of the Bernat yarn. My heart does a little flutter. $.97? Less than a dollar? I take my bag out to the car immediately turn around, come back in, and buy the rest of their stock. You never find a deal that good, on a yarn you need, and walk away from it.

I got 3 skeins of the English Rose colorway.
5 of the Storm Cloud colorway.
5 of the Early Spring colorway (which is in the running for favorite color).
2 skeins of Meadow (also very pretty).
And 4 skeins of Gardenia (I think this is my favorite color).
19 skeins in all. Plus 2 white Paton's skeins, which were also on sale coincidentally.
I effectively doubled my stash in a matter of minutes this afternoon. And to think I was just getting concerned because it was starting to dwindle...

What can I say?

This week has been madness. On top of teaching lessons and shipping for Tweet Tees I've been packing and getting ready to go to Moldova to do missions work for two weeks. I leave on Saturday so I've been rushing around doing all the last minute things that need doing for a trip of this size. The hardest part is that I'm going by myself so there's no one to call and ask, "Did you remember toothpaste?" "Have you got an extra set of batteries I can use?" "Would you like me to bring the laundry detergent?" I have to do it all. And for the first part of the week I kept thinking of things that I might need. But today I picked up (hopefully) the last few items. Everything seems to be in order. I'm even getting a cell phone that I can use for the 2 weeks that I'll be gone.

However, my poor little apartment is seriously suffering from this craziness. Right now on one side of my room I have all the boxes full of tee shirts for Tweet Tees.

And on the other side I have all the stuff that I have to take with me to Moldova.
All those things laying about in bags have to be packed into my little black backpack (barely visible in the bottom left corner) or in the big blue hiking backpack. There is also stuff on the dresser that you can't see that has to be packed as well. And the giant yellow and white box in the top right corner is going as well. That's an infant car seat that I'm taking to a friend who lives over there. He and his wife are expecting a baby in about a month. It's also stuffed with various goodies so it's quite large and bulky.

I also picked up one of the most important items for the trip today.
Yeah, you better believe I was taking some yarn with me! Granted, I'm not taking it all. My original plan for travel knitting was to take some Artyarns sock yarn that I bought back in January and knit some Jaywalkers. However, to find a pair of knitting needles in the size I wanted I was going to have to drive all the way across town. I have done so much driving in the past 3 days that I don't want to see the inside of a car for a long while. So, I decided to go down the street to the local Joanne's and pick up some bamboo needles and yarn for Warm Woolies sock knitting. I thought I might only find bamboo circs but I found some bamboo DPNs in size 10 1/2 which is exactly what I needed. Of course I really like Paton's Classic Wool so I picked up some. The multicolored skeins will go for the socks and the orange skeins will be used for when I get back to make a sweater. Which reminds me, some of the ladies on Ravelry asked me to write up my pattern for the last sweater I knit for Warm Woolies because I had made it in the round. I want to get on that before I leave or else they may have to wait awhile.

Also on the Warm Woolies note... My serial knitting habits have paid off big time with the Arctic blanket.

I'm using leftover scraps of Bernat Softee Chunky yarn for a baby blanket for Warm Woolies (sensing a charity knitting trend here?). I only cast on 69 stitches so there are 8 repeats of the pattern as opposed to the 17 in the original. I really like this project. Since it uses large needles (size 13) it goes really quickly and the lace pattern in easy to memorize. I could see myself doing a full size version of this as an heirloom piece one day. I just randomly interspersed the changes in yarn and I love how it is turning out. I've just got a very little bit of each of the yarns left so I'm hoping to wrap this up before I leave on Saturday.

I Must Be Doing Something Right

I know there aren't many things I'm good at. I'm a good conductor but until Robert Spano or Donald Runnicles keels over I don't think I have a shot at that career. One day I think I'll be a pretty kickin' mom seeing as how I've been preparing to look after children since the day I was born. I also feel I'll be a pretty good wife. But seeing as how I'm missing a few important steps to having those things I have to find something else to be good at. In which case, I think I'm a pretty good knitter. When I'm knitting everything just feels right. Even when I'm having to rip or fix or, heaven forbid, invest in some heavy duty thinking I feel like I'm doing something good. I think some of it stems from rarely knitting anything for myself. But even then, I just feel like knitting is a step in the right direction. Now if I could just find a way to make money off this I would be set (and believe me, I'm investigating it). In the meantime, some knitting...

Remember the zig zag scarf? Notice I've only done 2 repeats of the pattern...yawn...

Welcome to the frog pond zig zag scarf!
It was reincarnated as a T-Strap Baby Bootie. There will be another one soon.
I love this pattern. It took me about an hour and half to knit the whole thing. I like to work with that Bernat Chunky yarn (colorway: Nature's Way) and it turned out too cute for words. In the future I think I'll make them using a smaller needle to get closer to the actual suggested size. However, being an anti-swatcher I don't mind at all that they are more a size 10 months than 3 like I had planned. You can see all this...and more!...on my Ravelry site.

Also, I received my new yarn from WEBS. Thus, I bring you...yarn porn ;)

More Jaeger Roma yarn in Leaf so I can make the Presto Chango baby sweater. The best thing...this is the same dye lot as my other Jaeger Roma so I have more than enough for my project.

Some Rowan Biggy Print for a ear flap hat for myself from this book.

And finally some Susan Bates needles for various knitting projects.

Tonight I felt like dinner was overrated so I opted instead for this:
A Glamour mag and Ben and Jerry's Phish Food ice cream. Delicious :)

Ta-Da!

Tonight, The Boyfriend has a hat.
And I have 2 yarn holders. Thank you Boyfriend :)
W00T!

Very proud of the hat. It looks good, it fits, and it was my first time knitting anything with DPNs. The pattern can be found here. I adjusted the pattern a little and used DPNs the entire time instead of circulars. I also only knit for 17 cms until I started to decrease and I probably could have started a few cms earlier and been ok. Make sure you measure or else you might end up with some wonky lengths. I used Bernat Softee Chunky yarn in a navy and heather grey color. Very thick and warm.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

As you may recall from my last post, I was trying to finish the Hat from Hell (HFH). I was working to finish it quickly so that I could use the circular needles to make The Boyfriend a hat (that was the "secret present" I'm using the navy and grey Bernat yarn for). I worked like a fiend for about 3 nights to finish the HFH (and believe me, it wasn't easy). When I finished I checked the size of the needles the Boyfriend Hat called for and the size needles I had (you know, just to be sure). Lo and behold, the HFH needles are 3 sizes larger than the Boyfriend Hat calls for. The moral of the story? Check needle sizes twice, cast on once.

So, no big deal, I'll pick up the right sized needles later. For now I give you

The Hat From Hell in all it's glory (posed here on the Christmas tree to display it's size and bulk).

It's not a bad hat really. Very thick and warm. Here is yours truly trying to model the HFH while not messing up my super styled hair or looking like an idiot (neither really working out for me).

At least I have a hat for New York now. However, there was over 1/2 a pound of both the yarns I used for the HFH left over. And I never want to see them again. I'm thinking about shoving them in the back of the closet and forgetting about them. If you want the pattern go here (Just a side note: When you get down to 30 stitches I would switch to DPNs to finish. Using circulars the whole time is rather difficult but do-able. I used circulars throughout but found the last rows hard to manage.) The Autumn Scarf is almost done.

A newly shaved Persian cat covered in the scarf and the yarn I have left to finish it. I'm like a demon with the needles. I have the energy of 12 knitters. I can see the end of the project and it beacons me. I'm knitting with a new fury. I'm a knitter who isn't going to have time to bake mac and cheese and an appetizer for Christmas Eve dinner tonight if she doesn't get off her bum and go to the store, pronto. Oops.

My next post may be a few days in coming. I received a new digital camera for Christmas (The Boyfriend is in so much trouble) so I need to set that up. Plus the holiday dinners and presents. And then I'll be in New York. Look for me by the end of the weekend.

I wish you all safe travels and a very Merry Christmas!

Why I'm No Longer Allowed in Any Store That Sells Yarn

After I had a massage this morning I went to Wal-Mart for the first time in months (this should tell you something about the local Wal-Mart that I have to be completely and totally relaxed before I even think about entering there). I went to pick up this:

A birthday present for my aunt. What I came out with is this:

So I might have new thing for Bernat chunky yarn.


I have explanations for most of these purchases. The navy and grey are going to be used for a secret present. The size 6 needles, I am convinced, will bring me the utmost happiness and joy when I knit these bad boys

into a fuzzy, lace type scarf. The other Bernat yarn? I have no excuse for it except to say that I loved the color, they were both from the same dye lot, they were the last 2 skeins, and they were less than $2 each. I think they will knit up into a fab scarf.

Work on the preemie-baby-sweater-that-may-never-end continues. Here it hangs out in the specially designated "blocking sink" (isn't it nice that even though I have a tiny apartment I have 2 bathroom sinks so I can devote one solely to soaking my knit projects?!?!).

I started blocking the back and one of the front panels and then I ran out of t-pins (should have picked up that second box today at Wal-Mart).
You can see how the blocking changes the front panel's size. On the left is the right panel and the on the right is the unblocked left panel.

Finally, I owe the faggot stitch scarf, which I've renamed the autumn scarf due to the pretty burnt color, an apology. A few nights ago I cursed at it. I said not nice things to it. And it was all my fault. I was reading blogs while trying to knit. I wasn't paying attention. I may have missed one of the billion K2togs that happens in this scarf. And I lost it. It had nothing, I assure you, to do with the fact that it was almost midnight (ok, it had everything to do with that). After yelling and much sighing I began the process of ripping back to a row where I could actually see where the stitches were all the while praying that I wouldn't have to frog the whole thing (since that has already happened 3 times).

I find a row where I'm able to pick up all the stitches and then feel compelled to knit all the rows I had to pull out (somewhere between 5 and 10). As I start to knit I realize that the yarn overs are twisted in the wrong direction and the other stitches probably are too. But I press on fixing as I go. I do not end up knitting all the rows that I pulled out before shear exhaustion took over. I was a little upset that I could not finish one project perfectly, but then look at this:

Can you find the wonky row? Neither can I. And I've looked closely. Thank you autumn scarf for being so forgiving and hiding all my mistakes deep within your super soft rows. Never again will I be angry with you.