done, finito, ya!

The cropped cardigan is done.{stop} pictures forthcoming. {stop} It is possible to knit size XL with four skeins of Comfort. {stop}

Recently visited not-so-local-yarn-stores

On Friday, a current work case with a client necessitated a trip to Lakewood, WA. I knew there was a yarn store on Pacific, one that I hadn't been to before and that according to their website, carried Berrocco Comfort yarn (I was still wavering about how much I would need to finish the fronts of my cardigan, in relation to how much I still had left on the skein). I stopped into Lambs Ear Farms which outwardly appears to be a house, but the insides have been miraculously transformed into a yarn store. Yes, they carry Berrocco comfort yarn, but not in the color that I needed. (I will find this yarn, I swear!) The shop owner, Roxi, was in the back unpacking a box of Malabrigo worsted-my timing is amazing, I know-and we struck up a conversation on Peru and knitting and travel. I can wax poetic on Peru for hours, but I am trying to curb this need to convince everyone I meet to travel to South America. The shop has a great selection, smells deceptively like hot apple cider ( I say deceptively because I saw a coffee pot but no cider), and Roxi has knit an absolutely beautiful Baby Suprise Jacket using Zauberball yarn-I am now kicking myself for not taking a picture!
On Saturday, my older sister and I had planned a garage-saleing (sp? how do you say that? garage-sailing?) trip that somehow found us down at the Port Orchard Farmers Market smelling garlic and gouda cheesey bread when the omnipresent clouds opened up and began pouring buckets of rain. We made a dash for the car, turned on the a/c to defog the windows from all the moisture evaporating off of us, and headed the car towards Silverdale, where the clouds were not as dark and menacing. We arrived at Linda's Knit and Stitch, which according to the Berrocco website sells Comfort yarn, wrung out our clothing and headed inside. The last time I was in Linda's they were still selling out of the basement of the church building, but now they have moved to a loftier locale, upstairs in the same building. Strike two, no Comfort yarn in the color that I desperately needed. We perused, squeezed, fingered and smelled yarn for awhile, made small talk about farmers markets in the area versus some down in Oregon (the shop attendent was from Beaverton, I know the Eugene market), and I, true to form, began discussing Peru with the gentlemen in the back office (Linda's husband?). Not just the fibery parts of Peru, but the logistics of Machu Picchu and the downfall of modern construction when faced off with Mother Nature. My sister pointed out that I sound just like our grandfather, talking to everyone about everything. (Here's grandpa discussing yarn with a llama, IN PERU!)
All in all, two more stores visited, not a single skein of Comfort yarn purchased, and I realized once I got home that I probably had about 50 yards left. I wound this into two almost the same size balls, and will finish this sweater today. Wish me luck!

oh, look!!!

Oh look, my hats do fit the babies they were made for!



And, guess what, even though it only looks partially done, I am actually doing the bottom ribbing on the berrocco cardigan.
I can knit, just slowly....

Ooops

I forgot to post for an entire month! well, well, well, I have a new job and have to work Monday through Friday like the majority of Americans, and now I am so far behind on all my projects it is ridiculous. I did finish off an adapted version of Leigh Radford's Baby Bolero (minus sleeves, because I poorly judged the amount of yarn I had!) and also used some of my new grass green and black KnitPicks Risata yarn to make my little brother his birthday hat (this is tradition now, 7 years and counting). This weekend I cast on some Berrocco Comfort yarn to make a short sleeved cardigan for myself (or mom, if it turns out too small), and I finally finished that reversible rib scarf using Fortissima sock yarn knit together with Patons Lacette yarn.
Last week, in the midst of making room for a new dryer that works and cannot be used for clever hidden storage, I realized that I had half done projects spread all over the house. They have all been combined into two picnic baskets that now reside in the living room, right next to the couch-if I am sitting, I am knitting. I still have the flame lace scarf in Malabrigo Lace in the car, and have possibly knit four rows in the last week during traffic......
Tonight I will attend the library knit night, in an effort to socialize my knitting and possibly get a few pattern rows done...I knit faster with competition!

Hats? why so many?

here they are, in all their glory, the four projects I finished this week. The blue and green with flaps counts as a COMPLETED unfinished object-one more pair of size 7 needles available for future projects. The blue and purple baby hat is for little Savannah, whom is sadly allergic to wool and could not have the pink and white baby beret, that was gladly gifted over to little Adrianna whom does not suffer wool allergies. The brown green and blue billed hat is an experiment in billed baby hats, soon to be placed on the as-yet-unborn head of my next nephew, debuting any day now!

Fancy Image Yarn

I need to rave-I just washed my Odessa hat for what may have been the hundreth time, and it still looks fantastic. I haven't had it that long, so you may ask why it gets washed so often. I wear it all the time, because we all secretly love receiving compliments on things we've made, and this particular hat takes the cake. It's the colors. It was the perfect pattern to show off the color changes. It makes my enormous head look smaller (that may be exaggerating). In any case, for everyone that lives in Washington and occasionally ventures on Highway 101, you should stop in Shelton and visit Myra. Chances are, she's in the store. You can actually talk to her! The store is tiny, but the perfect size for showing off all that fantastic yarn. The selection of other yarn brands is small, but there is enough Fancy Image to keep your idea wheels spinning and the colors, beware the colors, you will want one of every skein!
If you are on ravelry, peek at my notebook-there is lots of Fancy Image yarn in there!!!

that new Singer

Okay, heres the scenario: I used my income tax return to buy a new sewing machine. For the last three years, my sister and I have been passing our moms' Brother sewing machine between Olympia, Bremerton, and Port Townsend to match our individual project needs. You know, two weeks here, a month there, what have you. Occasionally the sister and I would get together to sew, but mostly that machine was shuttled 60 miles at a time-not very environmentally friendly....So, I bought myself a Singer Traditional and have been sewing like no ones business. Knitting has come to a complete stop, and I have whipped out a couple of blankets, aprons, and pillow cases. What do you think? This is my niece Olivia with her 1st birthday blanket. No lie, she was asleep five minutes after wrapping herself up in this fuzzy pink reversible. I was going to make both sides pink, but then while waiting for my tires to get rotated I wandered into a quilt shop and found a white cotton printed repeatedly with Olivia-I took that as a sign!

This year I will.......

Hello first day of 2010.
Will this be the year I finish Christmas knitting before December? Will this be the year I don't wrap up balls of yarn and tell my friends that they will have their [hat, socks, turtle} within two weeks of their birthday? Will this be the year, will, this, be, the, year?
My list looks a little something like this
January: Finish all projects. I am prohibited from starting anything new.
February: Start birthday knitting for three nieces, mom, aunt, uncle.
March:Maybe knit projects for the spring fair?
and thats as far as I have gotten.
My nieces have turned in their requests
My mom has hinted at things she likes
My aunt will finally receive a knit gift from me

We'll see. Its only the first of January and my dancing feet are still aching, my Patron soaked head is pounding, and I have to do laundry.

May all your wishes for this year come true :)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

I stole some moments from my work schedule to post this-I am not done with my Christmas knitting. Christmas is in less than four hours, and I have two unfinished mittens on my hands, half a hat, and the worlds shortest scarf. Maybe next year? Maybe fake sick from family festivities tomorrow, and finish projects? I did whip out an impressive couple of hats already, but this hat is schooling me like nobody's business. In any case, now that my fingers have danced on the keyboard for two minutes, they are ready to return to gripping the needles-Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night (of knitting)

Christmas in Port Orchard

on Friday, December 4th my sister and I set up a table full of our knit and crochet projects to sell during their annual holiday bazaar at the Festival of Chimes and Lights . Granted, on a Friday morning there are not many shoppers clamoring to get buy knit mittens, but it was nice to meet so many other crafters and see what they had created....I saw a few things I could probably make myself! Anything that doesn't sell will probably become Christmas gifts....or I could commit myself to photographing and listing on my Etsy page. Tomorrow marks one year as a member, and I have not listed one stinking thing! Sooner or later, someone will pick up on my hints that I need a new digital camera so I can actually photography and download immediately, not photography, develop, copy to cd, dowload to computer, then use. steps, paso a paso!

back on the stateside of things..

Yeah, working on back into a working schedule leaves me little time for much else. While in Peru I cleaned out a central market stall of their Indiecita baby alpaca DK yarn in deep eggplant-y purple, at an amazing price (9 nuevo soles, approximately 3 US dollars) Finished knitting a baby kimono for Fumi's babygirl to be, the rest will be saved for something for me...
Also picked up more laceweight alpaca, without labels but amazing for socks of every size as long as its doubled (this was a ridiculously well priced 100 grams for about 25 soles/8.5 US dollars)
I loved gifting some of the knits I had made for the family, and my grandpa went out on a limb and even purchased himself a hat while hanging out with the animals during one of our daily Cusco hikes.

check out the flickr badge for pictures of the most recent knits....

oh yeah!

wow. totally forgot. I am leaving for Peru in one week. My grandpa and I will go to Machu Picchu, Huanchaco, ChanChan, and every fiber farm we find down there that hasn't been cleaned out by one of the big names (Cascade, ahem)
seriously, one more week, then 17 days of fibery bliss...

The return of the dress

I just got my little baby dress back from Teresa of Diva Yarn, the one that I sent to the Jefferson County Fair and that was later moved onto the Puyallup Fair. Apparently, my dress was good enough for a blue ribbon at Jefferson, and I got back a scorecard of 84% from Puyallup. WHat? Sad. well, now that I have tasted sweet blue ribbon, I will knit earnestly (hardly) until next year, and then knock their socks off. Because I can!
In other knits, I finished Jeremiah's football season hat-red and black for the team colors, and with his name so that no one can steal this one.

Fiber Farm Tour

Thank goodness for good friends-today I happened to have plans to come home to Port Townsend. On the way, I decided to call my bestest best friend Corinne-whom promptly asked where I was between my house and hers-almost to the Hood Canal Bridge, I say, Why?-Stop at the farm on Beaver Valley Road, somewhere near the Egg and I-Whats going on at the farm? I ask-The WSU Jefferson County Farm Tour is going on, and this year they added Fiber Farms to their map!-Yay!, I think to myself and say to Corinne, groan says my wallet.........
Oh, as soon as I have a picture I will show you, but I bought some LUVLY natural white handspun wool at Spring Hill Farms, directly from the darling old spinner-Kudos to the diehards who never let the farmsdie!!!!!

Done with the Noro, onto other older projects.

Okay, the scarf is done, I didn't need it right away but I had to make it so that I could say that it was done. You understand. Now for that heel and foot of one last sock, for that cuff on the second sleeve, for the sewing together on the cardigan-all the small things that get pushed aside. Not that Joey will die without a pair of my handknit socks, but his birthday was last month. Not that the weather has cooled off so much that I need the sweaters, but they have overstayed their welcome in the matching blue project baskets.
And on the other hand, I did just start a hat last night, intending to gift it to the husband today for his birthday, but instead I am writing about it instead of knitting...

procrastaknitter

procrastaknitterhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/24446368@N05/3878610286/

knitting in traffic

I've been doing lots of knitting, but not lots of blogging. You know how it goes. I recently whipped out a coffee cup cozy and a bird, as gifts for co-workers. The overdress(ed) pattern is finally available (see below). The baby dress I knit won first place at the Jefferson County Fair here in Washington, and is now going to be displayed at Puyallup Fair, to a much larger audience. Definately excited about that one!
I have been working on the Noro Striped Scarf from jared floods website, and that is my reigning knitting in traffic project. Two colors, switched every two rows, I can knit and purl my way through every red light and lookie-loo backup on Interstate 5.....
more another day

Two of the most recently finished, a crab and a dress. The dress was made from the leftover cotton I had used to make the fern tee, but because no self-respecting two year old girl would wear taupe, I dyed the entire thing with one box each of black and purple RIT dye, ending with a very deep eggplant. The ribbon is a leftover fuschia velvet that I had used to edge a purse long ago, and there was just enough to go around and still leave 6 inch tails. This picture is showing the back of the dress, where the feather and fan pattern is repeated on the back/shoulders. The front is a plain v-neck stockinette stitch (for modesty), and the whole shebang is a mini version of the overdress(ed) pattern. As soon as I have a picture of Hannah wearing the dress, I will post it! promises.

overdress(ed) pattern!

Realize that this dress was knit for me, but because I love it so much I needed to share it-you can use this pattern as a guide for yourself, and enjoy creating something uniquely you.

overdress(ed)
size 18/20 (with instructions for modifying)
Yarn: Patons Lacette 4 skeins, with about half a skein left over. This yarn is discontinued, but can currently still be found at JoAnns craft stores, Michaels craft stores, and Big Lots clearance stores.
Needles:
US 10½ / 6.5 mm, 29" circular and 1 set double point needles
US 13 / 9.0 mm, 29" circular
Notions:
stitch holders, or spare circular needles, darning needle, and something to wear underneath this lacy little number...

Feather and Fan Stitch in the Round (from Gaby Monson )
Round 1 and 2: Knit around
Round 3: *K2tog 3 times, (yo, k1)6 times, k2tog 3 times. Repeat from * around to beginning marker.
Round 4: Knit around

Gauge: approx 3.5 stitches per 1 inch, but the yarn is stretchy.
Size: finished measurements (lots of stretch, people)
I have a 42 inch chest, a 38 inch waist, and my butt/thighs are probably 48, but my mother put in on and it fit her as well. She is a 36 inch chest, a 36 inch waist, and a 40 inch butt/thighs. Use your imagination, or just modify the number of pattern repeats you cast on in the beginning-remove or add stitches in groups of 18.

Start Here:
With the size 13 needles, cast on 144 stitches LOOSELY (I used the e-wrap/backward loop cast-on)
Knit one row, placing a marker every 18 stitches, then place final marker and JOIN stiches, doing the usual check to make sure nothing is twisted, etc. etc.
Begin Feather and Fan pattern on Round 2, and work six repeats of the 4 round pattern, work will measure approximately 12 inches.
Switch to stockinette stitch (knit every round) and knit until work is approximately 15 inches from high point on bottom scallops, switch to size 10 1/2 needle, and continue until dress is the length you would like up to your chest.
Eyelet Round-*Knit 7, Knit2together, yarnover. Repeat * from until end
Knit 3 Rounds Stockinette stitch, then begin Feather and Fan pattern again
Complete 7 repeats of the 4 round pattern, then knit one round
Get ready for some serious binding off, LOOSELY, and grab those stitch holders.
Bind Off 18 stiches for the Back, K 18 stiches for Left Back Strap and move to holder, Bind Off 18 stiches for the Underarm, K 18 stiches for the Left Front Strap and move to holder, Bind Off 36 stitches for the Front of the dress, K18 stitches for the Right Front Strap and move to holder, Bind off 18 stitches for the Underarm, K18 stiches for the Right Back Strap and turn (we will work the straps individually now)
P2tog 3 times,(p1 yo)6 times, p2tog 3 times
Knit 1 row
P2tog, P14, P2tog
Knit 1 row
P2tog 3 times, (p1 yo) 4 times, p2tog 3 times
Knit 1 row
P2tog, P10, P2tog
Knit 1 row
P2tog 6 times
move these 6 stitches and about 24" of tail yarn to a stitch holder, and rejoin working yarn to the next set of strap stitches with right side facing.
K2tog 3 times, (k1 yo) 6 times, K2tog 3 times
Purl 1 row
K2tog, K14, K2tog
Purl 1 row
K2tog 3 times, (k1 yo) 4 times, K2tog 3 times
Purl 1 row
K2tog, K10, K2tog
Purl 1 row
K2tog 6 times
move these six stitches and about 24" of tail yarn to a stitch holder, and repeat this sequence for remaining two straps.

You will now have four straps with long tails-work 6 stitch i-cord on front straps until strap is long enough to meet the corresponding back 6 stitch strap-join with kitchener stitch. I played with mine, tried the straps straight, decided I liked the look of crossed in the back better-knitters choice!

Now, make a 4 stitch i-cord long enough to go around your midriff, through the eyelet row, and tie in the front (or back).

Wear it over your pajamas as you dance around the house, then find something much sexier to put underneath for the real unveiling!

(over)dressed is on its way!

In case someone actually was following my infrequent blogging posts, I wanted to let the world know that my pattern for (over)dressed is being edited to publish-the sizing will be limited because I just tried to confuse you by making you think there was an editor involved, and not just me trying to make sense of the scrawl in my coffee ringed knitting knotebook.
I figure that if you bring down the needle sizes, you will make be able to make the dress smaller than me-size (18-20). There is lots of stretch to the pattern and the yarn, so sizing could be fairly universal-my mom put it on and it looked just as lovely, she is a 12-14.
okay. just so you know. In case you were waiting, it is coming!