Big News

I have so much to tell everyone! So much in fact that I'm going to do it in small doses. Which means you'll have to come back later to find out what the bigger and biggest news is :)

The big news is that the Month of Love ends tonight! If you haven't posted to the EEROP Ravelry forum about your love themed knitting then do so today so that you can be entered into the drawing for a little post-Valentine's day surprise.

Part of the big news is also that my first festival of 2011 is coming up March 17-19. It's the Smoky Mountain Fiber Festival in Townsend, TN which is located relatively close to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. If you will be attending please stop by and say hello (and let me have a bathroom break as I will probably be working this festival alone and would appreciate the opportunity)!

Sadly I don't have any really big knitting news. I made a swatch of some sock yarn. Trick or Treat colorway as a matter of fact. But I haven't washed and blocked it so it just looks like a little rolled piece of knitting. I have almost finished R. J.'s blanket though!

I'm pretty impressed with how quickly this has gone. A little over a week's work and I'm almost done. It is a small blanket (only about 26" by 26") but I think that's helped keep it from getting too boring. Adding in the color block in the middle also helped keep it interesting. For some reason I'm under the delusion that I could never knit a full sized blanket. But I've already made 2 baby blankets and I didn't get bored or overwhelmed with either of those. Maybe some day I will have the gumption to tackle a bigger one.

Getting it Together

With all this wonderful weather we've been having in the South (sorry Midwestern readers) I've begun to think about festival season. My first fiber festival of 2011 will be next month. Which means I need to start getting ready. More booties to knit! More washcloths to make! More yarn to dye! More swatches to knit!

Hawaiian Hibiscus

First I had/have to finish up some things...

Cross the seed stitch mittens off the list.

I love the puffy way these turned out. I think I might be heading out of mitten territory though. I don't know if I can make any more thumbs and still find enjoyment in them.

I've moved on to something bigger.

A blanket for my cousin R. J. who is due to arrive in late April. Once I finish up with this it's on to more swatching!

Things I Love

I had originally planned to post this on Valentine's Day and then I had planned to post it last night but life kind of got in the way. Instead of moping about how it sucks to be single on Valentine's Day and how Hallmark can bite my butt, I thought I'd share some things I'm in love with right now. Oh, and I really don't hate being single on Valentine's Day (it's an excuse to eat lots of chocolate and watch crappy movies) and I most certainly don't want anyone to bite my butt. Just sayin'.

1. Grad school
Sure it takes hours of time to read all the material and do the postings each week and yes, occasionally the text is super dry and not very exciting but I love it! I love learning about how people think. I love learning how to help people stop thinking incorrectly. I can't wait to be out there helping people for real.

2. My charity
I love seeing the donations as they roll in. I love reading the thank you notes about the children we are helping. I love getting mittens like these (from Marcy):

I love knowing I'm doing some good in the world. It makes me want to go knit something really warm.

3. My company
I love that I get to play with color. I love knitting up swatches and seeing how the colors play together. I love seeing customers happy with their purchases.

4. The weather
It's been about 64 degrees F (18 Celsius) all week. I'm sitting on my porch enjoying the late afternoon sunshine right now. After record setting snowfalls this winter I'm glad to have a little spring.

5. Bing energy drinks
They fuel me.

6. Knitting
Duh. This is a given but I felt bad leaving it off the list.

I hope that you had a lovely Valentine's Day and that you're experiencing a little bit of spring wherever you are too.

What a Way to Start/End My Week

Today was my first day back to work after being gone for a week for grad school. I was in Jacksonville, Florida as part of my residency program. I'll have two more over the next year and half. It was an amazing time! I made some awesome new friends, learned so much about counseling and psychology, and just enjoyed the time away from the regular job. Unfortunately it was back to reality for me today. And it wasn't such a pleasant reality either. My students had been horrible while I was gone, I wasn't really sure if the sub had followed the lesson plans, and I found out the administration was dissolving one of our classes and, because of that change, I would be getting another student. Which means I'm back at 21 students. Oh, and I spent almost 2 hours with 30 kids in my class today due to some of the teachers having to test. On the way home I sat in traffic for over an hour and half (my commute is usually 30 minutes). It was like Monday and Friday rolled into one.

Which is why tonight I will be making more little baby booties.

Easy. Quick. Cute.

Maybe I'll get around to these mittens too.

But, you know, only if it won't stress me out too much.

That's a Big Surprise...

I had to go back and look to see when the last time I blogged was. I didn't realize it's been over a week! I took this yarn from last post:

And turned it into a pair of mittens.

The color is a little off but you can see the cable a bit better. These are the No Swatch, No Gauge Mittens by Jean Gifford that I have fallen in love with. I knit these with a strand of Cascade 220 in a light pink and some DK weight pastel multi-colored held together on US size 6s. It made for some super thick mittens but it was a little difficult to knit on such small needles.

As soon as I finished these mittens I started a new project.

Which is more mittens. I know that surprised all of you.

It's Here!

The weekend is here! Finally! I feel like it's taken forever to get here. On Thursday I thought for a brief moment that it was Friday. But, of course, it wasn't. Now it's here though! And I can relax. Or at least my version of relax. Which involves dyeing yarn and making discussion postings for school. Oh and doing laundry. But you know, it's not the 9-5.

I finished one of the fingerless game knitting mitts.

I even started the second one!

Since these are only about 6 inches long they are quick knitting. But the short rows make it fun. I can't wait to see how blocking loosens these up and relaxes some of the stitches. They are a little tight on my hands but I think that once they are blocked they'll fit nicely.

On a side note: I think I might be terrible at guesstimating mitten/fingerless gloves sizes (like, will these fit a kid or an adult?). I think because my hands are on the small size. I guess I should actually check a chart or something.

Now that I have an almost finished pair of fingerless gloves I'm about to turn these:

into, you guessed it, some mittens! (Mitten Madness total: 4.5 finished, this will be my 6th pair (once finished))

I love the weekends :)

Must. Make. Mittens.

I have been taken by a strange desire to knit mittens and mittens only lately. I'm sure this has nothing to do with Mitten Madness. Or the fact that I can churn out a pair of basic mittens in two evenings. I finished the cabled fingerless mittens two weeks ago while watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for class.

I thought these were going to be too small but they actually fit me quite well.

And they're warm because they're 100% wool. The pattern is the Mock Cable Wristers from 60 Quick Knits.

Saturday I started a pair of plain mittens using the No Swatch, No Gauge Mittens for Kids pattern by Jean Gifford. I finished them up on Sunday, soaked them Sunday night, and they have been drying since earlier this morning.

This is really a pattern I can get on board with. You use whatever yarn you have and whatever needles you need to make a dense fabric. The resulting mittens are great for charity since they are guaranteed to fit someone. The yarn is some Classic Wool in the colorway Bird of Paradise. I will probably use this pattern as a template for designing some patterned mittens or for game knitting.

Since I finished the classic mittens I had to start a new pair of course.

This is some of the left over yarn from the No Swatch mittens. I'm making some more fingerless gloves. This is using a game knitting technique.

When a predetermined action happens in the show you are watching you wrap the next stitch and turn. The whole mitt ends up being made from short rows. I must say that I'm really loving the game knitting ebook that I bought. I would highly recommend it. It's given me lots of ideas for knitting projects and since I watch t.v. while I knit it's a great way to incorporate the two.

I guess that I have done some other knitting besides mittens. I'm still working on my Red Dragon socks. I'm past the heel turn but I don't have a progress picture to show for it. I also finished the pink sweater.

I think it's adorable. This isn't for anyone, it's actually for sale in my shop. I plan on adding a few more baby things and washcloths over the next few weeks. For now though I have mittens to knit...