Kindred Spirits

It's so great when you happen upon someone just as wacky as you are. Stacey Rebecca of finger puppet fame over on etsy so needs to be an honorary sister. I know my real sister will back me up on this.
A new puppet arrived in the mail today and there was a little message on the back of the envelope.


Ohh secret message! Hee hee hee fun..


Oh my god can't stop laughing!


It's the Devil and it's Fun!!

Thanks Stacey, you too are super awesome.....so would you be interested in pictures of stuffed frogs?

We have no sweaters today

Poor sweaters, they haven't even been touched in days. They are a bit to big for train knitting unless I'm feeling really serious. But there is a new sock...

Retro Rib Socks in some long stashed yarn Sunshine yarn's soft sock. Nice color, nice hand, but soooo thin that it takes ages for someone like me to knit up. I'll probably like wearing them though.

And we have brownies, yum....


And a pretty new purse via my favorite site Etsy..

It totally fits my loopy ewe zipper pouch, love it!

January so Far

(Calendar from Modern Printed Matter)

The first Sunday is for Sewing didn’t go all that well. Do you ever have that sense that all your precious free time is running through your fingers like sand and there is nothing to show for it? That’s how last Sunday felt. First the large roll of trace paper went AWOL and after trashing most of the apartment it turned out to be in the location I first checked. Argh! Next, thinking to save time I browsed through all my Burda Style magazines looking for a pre-made pencil skirt pattern. Only after tracing off all the pieces to the pattern did I notice the instructions said “for stretch fabric only.” Oh lack of reading, why do you repeatedly bite me in the ass? Hmmmm don’t answer that. So knowing trying to make a stretch pattern in woven fabric wasn’t going to end well, I put it away and retreated back to my knitting.


It turns out that retreating to knitting that day was the right decision. On Tuesday a little trip to the book store produced this month’s Burda Style. Inside were not one but two pencil skirt patterns, both worked in a woven fabric and shaped with princess seams. Basically the stars aligned and gave me exactly what I was looking for. I’d show you the modeled shot but the girl’s jacket completely obscures any skirt details.

Thank god for technical drawings which show you the cute little button detail on the waistband. Next step sewing up a muslin to check for fit because Burda Style’s 42 inch hip size doesn’t always cover a 42 inch hip.

Over on the less stressful knitting side, pieces of the CPH are getting finished at a semi-decent rate. I was a bit worried that the fronts were looking too narrow so they were blocked early this week. Fortunately the blocked dimensions did end up matching the pattern with a little light stretching. This totally reinforces my impression that wool is the best fiber to knit or sew with. It forgives me when I use flexible math.

A couple of delightful things found me this week. Things that are not new, just new to me.
First was the Creative Mom podcast – Check out her latest podcast episode titled Awakening. It’s extremely moving and inspirational in some way that I can not put my finger on.
Second is the Iloveobento shop gallery. Scroll down to see some fantastic and funny bento box food. My personal favorite is sliced tomato that looks like a lobster. If you like that you might enjoy a site that is an old favorite Vegan lunchbox. Little Smoo often gets school lunches that make me giggle and then want to eat.

Plans for 2009

1. Knit more sweaters
Knitting sweaters is the most rewarding type of project for me. So much so I'd like to devote most of my knitting time in 2009 to fill up my sweater drawer. Joining the NaKniSewMoDo over on Ravelry seemed like a great way to have a pseudo goal of knitting 12 sweaters and doing it with a bit of company. Part of the plan is to use some of the really nice stashed yarn to knit some of those sweaters. To "put my money where my mouth is" I cast on a CPH with the Mountain Mohair purchased at last years Maryland sheep and wool. It's going well.


2. Take a card from spinners and set a day aside for sewing
I'm going to make Sundays for Sewing for a bit to see if some of the stashed material can be converted into clothing. The thought that it would be super cool to have half of my wardrobe made by hand has been rattling around in my brain for awhile. It seems though that knitting always trumps sewing because no tables need to cleared or machine carried around and set up. Maybe scheduling some time will help me get my ass in gear. Here is some wool from the grandmother stash that might make a nice pencil skirt..... if there's enough yardage.


3. Knit some more socks for my husband
Now that Christmas is over my husband is in possession of his hand knit socks and deemed them excellent. Then he said, "I might want some more." Woolgirl then had an end of the year sale so I picked up some Hazel knits in Weekend Warrior and two manly sock patterns from Knitspot Pave Sock and Spectator Sock. Pave is the one catching my eye right now, so the spectators might get saved for another yarn.

Gifts from Friends….and a few from myself

A few days before Christmas my former loopy ewe swap partner Christine emailed me to say she was sending a package my way. What a fun unexpected surprise! The email made me feel like a little kid straining my brain to try and figure out what might be in the box. What could Christine be sending me out of the goodness of her heart? My imagination totally failed me so there was much festive excitement when the package arrived. Frog helped me tear into it and the contents made both of us very happy. Christine sent us a cute decorative box which had knitting goodies nestled inside. A beautiful skein of Socks that Rock lightweight in the color Jade and a froggy tape measure. Heehee frog! Thank You Christine, your package was the highlight of my holiday.

My family got me several knitting books on my wish list, Cables Untangled, Color Style, and The Knitters book of yarn. Thank you for supplying me with many great patterns for this coming year. My sweet husband got me my own digital camera, jokingly saying that it was a gift for both of us since it will keep me from using his camera. Smart of him since it’s only a matter of time until I drop a camera due to my poor balance and butter fingers.

So it was a book heavy, yarn light Christmas which is the excuse I’m using for the following purchases. (Is making up excuses a sign of addiction?) I’ve been very impressed with how my Maelstrom socks, made from Spirit Trail Fiberworks Helen, are wearing. The yarn is a little courser feeling during knitting than Hazel Knits or Smooshy but softness nicely with wear. The yarn is a very thick fingering making knitting go fast and the colors are wonderful. Sheri at the Loopy Ewe put up more Helen in the last sneak up and I had to snag a skein.



And the final yarn purchase of the year was 2 skeins of JoJo Land Cashmere from my Local LYS the Slip Knot. It was on sale so how could anyone say no. 400 yards should be enough to make a nice black beret to go with both of my coats.

Merry Christmas to You

Hooray work is over and it's holiday time for certain! Here's wishing a merry Christmas to everyone. May you be surrounded by loving family and find a bit of yarn in your stocking.





















(Photo courtesy of my sister and her frog. It was too cute not to post.)

Sock club Hazel knits, Hazel Knits sock club

Warning, froggiegirl is about to wax poetical about Hazel Knits sock yarn yet again. If you find her devotion to this sock yarn creepily cult like please come back another day. Thank you.

OK now that all that is out of the way would you like to see the precious? An exclusive Woolgirl sock club colorway of the perfect sock yarn? Yes, Yes come closer. It's subtle but you'll like it.

Oooooo see, it's called Whispering Pine which brings to mind pine trees covered in a crisp coat of snow. Ahhhhh so very romantic to this knitter who romanticizes winter.

This yarn would be the most satisfying end to the 2nd round of Woolgirl sock club. A Hazel Knits addict such as myself would have been happy with just the yarn... but there was plenty more. See for yourself.

The accompanying sock pattern was designed by none other than Anne Hanson and is called Pine Cone (No ravelry link yet) Next we have knit gift tags which came in very handy this weekend when wrapping presents. Then a beautiful stitch marker from Spindle cat studio, plus a 2009 Desk Calendar where sheep appear to be behaving badly. Finally a sweet finish of tasty caramel Hersey kisses which are quickly becoming my favorite kiss favor.
Boy and am I glad now to have gone for the extra December shipment, unexpected Hazel Knits totally made my day. Thank you Jen for your continued great sock club packages!

Sooooo if you can't get enough of Hazel Knit's showing up in sock club boxes what do you do? You sign up for the Hazel knits sock club that's what! Oh yes, forget about all the "knitting down the sock yarn stash." That's so last year. This year's motto is convert half of the stash to Hazel knits and do the dance of joy. If you'd also like to add gratuitous amounts of this sock yarn to your stash, head over to Wendee's blog and check out the details. Then we can do the dance of joy together. Cha cha cha!