My First Shawl

Writing my first shawl makes me think of a Family guy aside. You see the Beetles, Paul, George and John tuning their instruments in a room. Ringo walks in holding up a paper and says, “Hey guys I wrote a song!” Paul takes the paper and says in a patronizing voice, “Oh good! We’ll put it up here on the fridge so we all can see it.” George and John go “Awwwwww” in unison.

I feel like this shawl is equal to Ringo’s song writing abilities, though frog points out that Octopuses garden is a fine piece of music. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed knitting the shawl; it was just so darn easy. So easy and fast I feel almost guilty about it, must be some misplaced Puritan work ethic. Be gone guilt, knitting is supposed to be fun. (Guilt says “Fine, but I’ll be back when you eat that third brownie. We both know you’ll be shoving it in you mouth by the end of this post.”)

This is a straight up copy of Brooklyn Tweed’s Shetland triangle knit in Sundara Aran Silky Merino. Some time during the summer I impulse bought the yarn for this project, but threw it in the stash for later. In the aftermath of Christmas it seemed like a good idea to buy a size 9 needle and

get a copy of Wrap Style from the library. So like I said very easy pattern, knits up quick and the yarn is buttery soft. What was interesting was that all the non-knitters loved the texture of the unblocked shawl. When I told them about the blocking process they were very disappointed that the shawl was going to be stretched flat. It got blocked anyway because I need the extra width. Not sure if anything bigger than this can be blocked in our tiny apartment though. Some how I don't think my husband would appreciate me pinning a shawl to his side of the bed and telling him to sleep on the futon.

Now excuse me I have to go shove a brownie in my mouth.

Snow Finally

The knitting muses heard my requests and finally gave me enough snow to take nice outside pictures. Believe me snow is the only thing that can make my backyard presentable. I've also started straying into corners of other peoples yards early in the morning, socks and camera in hand. It probably helps that I look extremely non-threatening with my goofy red hat.

This morning I took the rouge photo taking to a new level. There is this jeep in the neighborhood with a crazy custom paint jobs that looks like trees. It must be for hunting because the bumpers are painted the florescent orange of safety jackets. It seemed like the perfect background for my spruce socks. No one questioned me as I lurked around the driverside door trying to prop my foot up high enough and not fall over into a snow drift. As you can see the picture would me better if that tree was behind more of the sock. Where is photoshop when you need it? (Do you like the little red bird?)


This sock is the third shipment from the Woolgirl.com sock club which came in December. Due to all the Christmas knitting I didn't get around to it until this month.

Pattern - Spruce Sprigs

Yarn - The unique sheep Leili sock yarn which is a blend of superwash merino and mohair. A very fine fingering weight so I knit the pattern on 1 1/2 needles. (Some of my remaining sanity must be kept intact)


Most of the second sock was knit during our bathroom renovation vacation. Never have I been more glad that I taught myself to knit. Multiple long car rides, no problem I can get a couple repeats done. Get into a small town at 5pm and everything is closed so you spend the evening watching cable in your hotel room. You get a heel done and get to watch the Colbert Repore. Your husband would like to visit the Maryland Science Center which you've been too multiple times as a child, put yarn in your bag and walk around knitting a sock all day. The science center also gets a big thumbs up for having benches or chairs on the edges of almost every room. It's almost like the place was designed for knitters! Only one person asked me about my knitting, a Science center employee who was also a knitter. She recognized that I was knitting a sock almost immediately and asked if I was also wearing hand knit socks. I unzipped my boot and showed her the ones I had on. (ShibuiKnits swap socks) So nice to find a fellow knitter during your travels.

Beware the sock yarn stash

Beware, because the stash knows what you’re thinking!

My theory is the little virtual stash on Ravelry tells the real stash what Ravelry topics you’ve been posting to. Stash has to keep together you know. But anyway it got back to the stash that I signed up for the March challenge "knit down the sock stash". The stash couldn't let this happen so it promptly gave me the largest case of sock yarn lust I’ve had in a long time. Probably since that fall night when my husband mistakenly left me alone in the house, slightly depressed and with full internet access. (It wasn’t his fault, he had a work meeting and I would have bought yarn anyway)

It all started out so innocently, I was just checking to see what colors of Hazel knits were in stock on her etsy shop and on Woolgirl. Hazel knits is a sock necessity and I only buy a skein at a time, it’s completely under control. (I’m sure crack addicts say the same thing) I strayed around each site a bit and all of a sudden there were dozens of pretty little skeins parading in front of me saying, “Take me home, you’ll regret it if you don’t.” Woolgirl even had a color way called Froggy feet which I wanted desperately just for the name. But my lovely Woolgirl gift certificate was at home and I was at work where my 15 mins of internet time where quickly expiring. I flipped over to SunnysideEllen's Etsy store since I have no credit there and was sorely tempted. But the last skein bought from her store is still sitting in the stash and I love it so. Shouldn't it be knit up first?

Yarn was purchased, the April kit from Yarn4socks because there was much drooling over the pattern/yarn on the Knitspot blog. Somehow this did not quell the sock yarn lust since someone might have rationalized it as a birthday gift. (Isn’t a girl allowed to give herself something nice for her April 30^th birthday? I know you'll say yes.)

Speaking of nice patterns/yarns this was a combination that was a very enjoyable knit.

Pattern: Belvedere

Yarn: Collinette Jitterbug in Fire
Used a skein and part of a half skein. Loopy ewe will let you buy half skeins as well as whole ones.

Knit on bamboo 1-1/2 DPNS

Knit up for Jessica my Loopy swap partner who likes pretty colors.

This is just the perfect color to knit during the dark winter months. I’ve heard via podcasts that people have expressed displeasure about Collinette Jitterbug. I had nothing but a good experience with this yarn, the hand is velvety, there were no knots and the colors, oh the colors! Divine. I agree that their yardage is a tad scant, but that could be said about some other brands. Sheri offers half skeins of Jitterbug, which came in handy. I didn’t want to be restricted in my pattern choice, or find out that a miscalculation meant a sock and half had to be ripped out. It was a good call, the second sock needed that extra yardage to finish the foot. The lace pattern is a 32 line repeat that was impossible to totally memorize but it was still easy enough to be fun to knit. I put the chart in the back of my clear zipper pouch and propped it up on my knees for train knitting. Best train knitting ever!

(These were washed and blocked for my partner before mailing. My husband was very concerned about foot cooties)

Swappy Fun

I haven't talked about it in detail on the blog, but I participated in The Loopy Ewe swap that was put together by awesome women over on Ravelry. The only rules were that yarn from The Loopy Ewe must be used and something that reminded you of home had to be included. Everything else was open to creativity and how much fun money is in your budget. LOL

The box from my swap partner, Ellen, arrived on Valentines day. I was hoping this would happen since the DH and I will be away for a week starting today. The mail man cleverly hid it behind the screen door for maximum suspense.

Please excuse my half assed pictures, the camera and the light were both dying.
First of all the knitted goodie was a lovely pair of socks knit in Shibui. They are more of a green than teal then this photo indicates. When we first started the swap Ellen asked me a lot of question about what yarns I like, what I haven't used but was interested in. She made a great choice with the Shibui, it feels really smooth and the color is beautiful. The pattern is Teosinte by knitspot. You can see a better picture of the pattern over on Anne's site than I was able to take. The cool thing about the stitch pattern is off the foot it looks a lot like little leaves. Then when worn the leaves create decreases that are cable like. I looked down and saw cables and was completely surprised. See my foot pic, fits nice no? What a cool pattern to choose for the swap Ellen!

Now being a generous knitter Ellen also made sure I had plenty of goodies, both food and fun stuff.
That deceptively small looking plastic container is full of homemade peanut butter brownies and I assure you that it is not small in real life. My tastebuds say they would like to eat some more. If I get tired of brownies (snort,as if) there is a peppermint pig in that bright red box. I've been sniffing him through the wrapper. I wonder if that's what crazy people do. :)
Moving on, its not a knitting swap without sheep gifties. (I know because I did the same with my downstream partner) You can see the cute little white fluffy sheep and there is a silver sheep pin that is blending into the needles. Speaking of the needles Ellen got me a pack of blunt and a pack of cable holders both in bamboo. I'll be using these babies before you know it. Last but not least, a little horse shoe for good luck (I need that!) and a postcard from Saratoga. Now it might seem obvious to some people to send postcards in the swap boxes but it never crossed my mind once. I was entirely charmed when I opened my box and found Ellen had written me a note on the back of a postcard.

Thanks Ellen for making my first swap a great experience!

Sock of the moment

One of the goals for February is to catch up on my Woolgirl sock club knitting, so that I can enter the final contest. The first two socks, Waterfall and Irish dreams are all done, next are Spruce Sprigs in Unique Sheep Superwash Merino-Mohair blend. The next sock club shipment will be here this week so I'm knitting as fast as I can.

Frog demonstrates he can look like he is knitting, but having paws means he will leave the finishing to me.

This is the first time I've knit with any mohair and the texture is nice, but it rips the heck out of my cuticles. It also likes to jump off the needles while in my knitting bag. Sneaky. Buttt it's so pretty, pretty and getting along with 1-1/2 DPN's so we'll stay friends.

Frog says buy more green yarn.

More Socks, now with new backgrounds!

Twinkle, Twinkle little socks, taking pictures of you in front of rocks. The girlieist sock I've ever knit, you make a pretty picture from where I sit. (My husband has to deal with silly songs like this all the time. He often sighs heavily.)

The second Twinkleberry sock was an inch from being done Sunday night so I figured what the heck I'll pack the camera and see if pictures can be taken during lunch. The sun came out at 12:30 and I ran outside to discover that there were many suitable sock backgrounds.

This pattern was found trolling around on Ravelry and I decided to knit it because 1-1/2 needles were suggested. (A size I enjoy using). It turned out to be a really easy pattern with beautiful results. The repeat is only 6 rows, half of them a straight knit and only one cable twist. The leg was knit knit 10 repeats long which makes about a 5-1/2 inch sock. The pattern has directions for both a short row heel and toe. I decided to learn something new and knit the short row heel, but skipped the short row toe. The yarn again is Hazel knits Artisan sock in Twinkleberry. The color is a shade more purple than in my photographs, a very springy color. I've already gushed about Hazel knits sock yarn on the blog, but I can't say enough good things. It's my favorite and now I'm out of it and must have more. Maybe I'll put that woolgirl gift certificate to good use.

Trixie Sockages

Trixie Sockagesssss, trying to steal the precious.... or something like that. These trixie sock are the second woolgirl sock club pattern, "Irish Dreams". They faked me out by striping very nicely on the leg of the first sock. Then they proceeded to pool for the rest of the knitting, even on the leg of the second sock. Trixie Trixie I tell you!

So I'm outside taking pictures of my socks because the light is so much better. I knew the next door neighbor was out doing some sort of construction, but I thought he was out front leaving me alone. As I'm clicking away I suddenly realize that he's up on the roof and can see me clearly. Embarrassing! I go inside to tell my husband the neighbors probably think I'm some sort of nut job. My husband says, "No, they probably think you're part of some foot fetish website." LOL I'm not sure that's better.

Pushing my luck

Psssss, don't tell my neck but I've been knitting on socks. My feet are cold and they cry out for wooly coverings. With two partcially completed second socks I just can't say no. Besides working on things that are almost done kind of takes my mind off the fact that I can't shower for another day.

Our bathroom is being worked on and the last shower was Wednesday morning. Let me tell you that a sponge bath in the middle of your ice cold kitchen is not a fun thing. I need to thank my sister for wrapping some of Christmas presents in wash cloths. They came in very handy this week.

Good things about this are the fresh new caulk around the tub instead of the stuff I could never get clean even with straight bleach.
We will get a to take a vacation when the landlord replaces the floor because he's got to remove everything for 5 days. How much knitting can I get done then!
Finally when all this is done we will have a tile floor instead of a vinyl one.

Another good thing is that it's almost time for the loopy ewe swap. I can't wait to post pictures of what I made for my partner.

A little stash knitting

I have been knitting, just a little slower than usual. The upside is that I read several enjoyable books (about one a day, too bad I can't knit as fast as I read) and visited other libraries in the area. A lot of tasty baking has also been going on. That might not be good for my waistline but I enjoy doing it, especially on a cold Saturday.

There is one little finished object to share, finished just last week.
Vintage Car Coat by Sublime Knit in Cashmerino DK, color Cloud.

Used number 6 Addi Turbos on the body. The collar and button band knit on number 3 Addi Turbos .

This took about 2 and 1/2 balls of yarn and I have plenty left over for a matching hat.

Gray buttons were picked out of my grandma's stash sometime this year. The original price tag says 15 cents for the card of 10 buttons. They are plastic but still you couldn't get 10 matching buttons for anywhere near that price today!

The pattern is simple until you get to the end with that button band. The designer wants you to sew the back and fronts together then pick up the stitches on the bottom of the fronts and start knitting garter stitch. The front bands aren't attached, you just keep on knitting until it looks right. You can not cut the yarn because you need to use it to knit the collar, but first you have to knit the other button band. I was able to fish the other end of my yarn out and do it that way. According it the instructions you're supposed to knit the collar on before the button band is seamed to the rest of the sweater. No way I was doing this. Before I started using the other end of the yarn ball to knit the second band, some yarn was cut off and those bands were seamed before the collar was knit. Still this was complicated and I had to clear off the kitchen table and pay attention to nothing else for a couple of hours. I'm kind of surprised I pulled it off.

There is no baby boy for this little sweater yet. For now it will go in the gift closet until people stop having girls. :)