Needles and Wool

I have decided not to have titles anymore. I hate trying to think of them. A lot! So I am wiping my hands of them...makes sense to me...goodbye...see ya...good riddance! There... I feel better already!

I don't normally join knit alongs for a variety of reasons, the biggest one being it feels like a deadline to me. The past week or so though I joined 2 of them. Isn't it fun being unpredictable? The first one is the Winter Knit Along. I thought it would help motivate me to get my holiday knitting done early, for once. Amy is hosting it for procrastinators.... which just so happens to be my middle name so I thought it would be perfect for me! You can start whenever the mood strikes you... you can make whatever you want.... and in the end you just may end up with a few holiday presents made up before crunch time.....my kind of Knit Along!

The second one I have joined is the Gerbera Along which is being hosted by Eklectika. I popped by her site last week and saw this sweater for the first time and just fell in love with it.

Isn't it just gorgeous? I am hoping the fair isle socks I made in January will be enough experience for me to be successful with this sweater. This knitalong doesn't start until Labor Day Weekend so I should be able to plan it so that I don't have a zillion projects already in the works when it starts. I am so excited about this sweater! So, if you hadn't heard about it yet and are interested pop on over there and sign up!

Still no progress on the ribbon top. I am presently obsessed with Charlotte. I even kept thinking about it while I was at work today. It made for a very long day! I am assuming I will need a break from it soon and then will finish my top. I knew I shouldn't have started it until I finished the top, but I couldn't help it. I am so weak sometimes. I am now on row 42....still a long way to go. All that counting, moving the life line and the Russian Join really slows you down. I will post a post a picture soon. I am helping a friend move tomorrow after work, so probably on Thursday.

Happy Knitting!

Monday news

I had really hoped to finish my ribbon top over the weekend. That would have required me to actually work on it though. I did about 3 rows of one sleeve Friday night and haven't picked it up since. Shame on me!

I made 3 swatches with the black Cotton Ease and washed and blocked them and none of them are the right gauge for the top I wanted to make. I am going to make one more and if that doesn't work out then I guess the yarn doesn't want to be that top and I will find another pattern to use it for. At least I will already have the swatching done if I have to find something else. I was hoping to make the chevron ribbed tank from Interweave with it. I think it was a web exclusive pattern but I just went to the site to link to it and I can't find it now.

I did however, start Charlotte, which probably explains why I didn't finish my ribbon top. I have started it over 3 or 4 times but I finally am doing better with it. (knock on wood) It was really confusing me at first. I just started the second colorway and I am at row 30 I think. I am using lots of markers and a life line too. There is no way I am going to keep starting over from the beginning of this shawl! I had a hard time putting it down last night to go to bed and couldn't get up this morning for work to save my life. I do find it hard to keep track of where I am in the chart as the rows get longer though. I am hoping that improves as I get farther into it too or I will be in deep doo-doo.

Have a great week and Happy Knitting!

Hump Day

Well I frogged and reknit part of the ribbon top to actually include the armhole decreases this time. I am now back to where I was before I had to rip back. I had to rip back a lot further than I thought. I am getting excited to be close to finishing this top. I have my weekly SNB tonight but probably won't work on it there. If I pay attention to what I am doing, I won't be able to talk much and if I talk then I will most likely mess it up again. Seeing as I go there to be social, it wouldn't make much sense to sit there and not talk. :)

I will either bring my felted tote I am working on or the hat...or both. I am making slow progress on both. The tote seems like it will be a good size once it is felted. I was too lazy to do a swatch for the tote. I really dislike swatching... I just want to start the project, so if I can get away with not doing one, I certainly will. This is where I am at with the tote. I Spit Joined all the ends so I only have the beginning end to weave in when I am done. Works for me!

And here is where I am with my hat:

I am not sure how well the cables show up in the picture. The black trim is Lambs Pride and the main blue color is Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair. Very nice yarn but a tad pricey. It wouldn't have been bad if the hat only used one skein but I had to buy two for this hat. This is for my son-in-law for Christmas. I am trying to start early this year!

Happy Knitting!

Knitting news

Howdy! I hope everyone had a good weekend and a good holiday if you celebrated it. Doesn't it seem like there is a holiday every other week these days? It does to me for some reason and the 4th is right around the corner too. I think we have too many holidays. Maybe I am just getting old and cranky, which is most likely the case. Of course, you don't hear me complaining when that holiday gets me a day off from work though!

Anyway, I finished the back of the ribbon top.... the second time around if you remember. Here is the front as of Saturday morning.

And here is a close up of it...

I really, really like it and hope it fits!!! The measurements are right, so it should, right? Unless if stretches a ton. The swatch did stretch but not an extreme amount, but a swatch doesn't weigh what a whole sweater does, now does it? I am actually past the armholes on the front as of last night but I seemed to forget to start the armholes and knitted right past them! Duh! So I have some ripping to do tonight....sigh.

Does anyone has any experience sewing up a ribbon piece? Do you use the ribbon to sew it up? If not, what would you use? I am a bit perplexed on this.

I have been pondering my Charlotte for quite a while now because I was unsure of one of the Koigu colors I chose. Two of them were very dark and I didn't think there would be enough contrast. So last week I bought 2 colors from Patternworks off the website after picking them from their catalog. Isn't that brave?!? I know that colors aren't usually accurate in a catalog or on the computer but I figured if they didn't go well then I would just use them for something else. As it turns out, one didn't go well at all and one did. So I have replaced one of the really dark colors with this new one and I am much happier with it. It is the one with the blue in it. Now I just need to make up my mind on how I want to arrange them. I am making myself nuts on changing them around. I am definitely having decision issues with this project. I think I will make myself a pair of socks with the dark color I pulled out. I have always wanted a pair of Koigu socks!

I am also swatching some black Cotton Ease for some unknown as of yet project. I'll spare you a picture of a one inch swatch of black cotton though! Aren't I nice? ;)

Well that's all my kniting news. One day down...four to go until the weekend! Ha!

Happy Knitting!

Guild Auction

I tried to post this yesterday but my computer was acting possessed and I just wasn't in the mood for it so we'll see how this goes today.

Tuesday night was my last monthly guild meeting until September. They have an auction at the end of the year to raise money for the guild for different activities throughout the year. Each member brings something from their stash to donate. There was yarn, books, magazines and even a knitting machine. All the donated items were numbered and a bag with a corresponding number was placed in front of them. Then you could buy tickets at $1 each and put whatever amount of tickets you wanted into anything you were interested in bidding on. They had well over 100 items and some of them were really nice.

I only bought 10 tickets and bid on 3 items. I ended up winning 2 out of my 3 bids, so I was pretty pleased with that. I won 5 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in navy.

I also won 8 skeins of what appeared to be hand spun yarn to me. There are 5 skeins of the natural and 3 of the beige/grey.

I am not sure what I am going to do with either of my wins yet. The auction was a lot of fun though and I was glad that I went. I think I did pretty well for a $10 investment.

When all the winners were picked there were quite a few left over items that no one bid on. They ended up putting everyones tickets back in one big bag and picking names again for them, so I ended up winning a few more... ummmm ... *treasures* than I had anticipated. DH thought it was pretty funny when I came home with more than what I left with.

So here's a peek of things I won that I did not bid on :)

An almost completed pink Lopi sweater. The only thing left to do on it was the button bands. I don't really care for this particular shade of pink and the sweater is very narrow and long so I don't think it would really fit anyone, so most likely I will rip this out and use the wool for felting. Maybe a pair of felted clogs for myself....maybe combined with other Lopi in my stash on another bag... I love Lopi so I will definitely keep the wool.

Some cotton yarns...

Some more cotton yarn in a funky green...

A big ol' bag of leftovers from someone's various projects. I am only showing you some of it here. I will donate all this stuff somewhere.

I also won some dye that I think is meant for fabric and not yarn but I was too tired to read the pamphlet that came with it last night.

All in all it was a fun night. Stash enhancement is always fun though!

Happy Knitting!

Ribbon Back #2

No progress pictures to show. Just look at the picture below and take about 3 inches off and that's where I am right now. I have been reading lots of woes about knitting with ribbon the past few days. Of course I never read about these things before I decided to make this fun and fast project. Ah well, I won't know personally about the issues knitting with ribbon can bring unless I actually do it....so onward I knit.

My weekend was one big blur of housework and yardwork. Not my idea of a fun weekend but it had to be done. I can tell you this though.... I will never ever paint another refrigerator....nosiree. What a PITA!

The ribbon saga continued...

Well I started the ribbon top over but I haven't ripped out the back I almost had finished yet. I am glad I haven't ripped yet because I had some suggestions that I probably should wash and block it before I rip it out as it might stretch quite a bit. I didn't do that with my swatch. Yes I know you are suppose to do that but I was being cheap because this yarn is expensive. After I knit my swatch, I ripped it out and started knitting with it. I didn't want to have to buy another skein because of using some of it up with a swatch. We can all see where being cheap has gotten me. So I am not sure if I should try to wash and block my almost completed back or make another swatch and then wash and block it. Probably the latter if I had to guess. I think tonight though I will work on one of my other projects just for a break from this top which is now giving me headache. Tomorrow I have a refrigerator to paint...now doesn't that sound fun! (NOT)

Happy Knitting!

A little vent....

Here is a picture of the pretty ribbon top before I rip it.

I swear I did a swatch for this project....and it was right on the button. I was showing everyone at the SNB last night ...all happy with how nice it looks and how fast it is progressing.... and just about to add a new skein to it, when it occurs to my obviously dim-witted mind that it is looking a tad small. So I put it away and attempted to work on my flower facecloth but I didn't really accomplish anything all night. I was dreading measuring it but that was the first thing I did when I got home. Sure as $#%& it is too small. UGH!!!!! Now you might be thinking, and understandably so, why would you wait until the whole back is almost done before you measured. Good question! And the answer is....I have no frigging idea. You would think someone who has had gauge issues many times before would probably measure too much ...from pure paranoia, right? Yeah.... you would think. So anyway.... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'll show how great it looks in the "correct" size in a few days I hope.

Did you see the Plymouth Turino Silk they put up on elann yesterday? Nice looking yarn. I wanted to grab some of it in the denim color but waited too long and it was gone with the blink of an eye. It is a good price and I have been toying with getting some in Bamboo....but I hate settling for another color. The bamboo is pretty but I really wanted it in denim. It's just as well....I really need to lay off buying yarn.

Thanks everyone for all the nice words about Shore Thing!
Happy Knitting!

Shore Thing Finished Pictures

Well it's done! You would not believe what I had to do to fix that neck! Want to guess? ..... Wash it. Yep that's it. I even think the bust looks better. I wouldn't have minded it a little looser but it looks better than the first time I tried it on. I made it about 1 inch longer than the pattern and I like the length of it.
Here is a back view:

And here is a side view:

The center of the diamonds poof out a little bit for some reason but I am basically happy with it. I also thought the black line came out after I washed it but now that it is dry I can still faintly see it. DH says he doesn't notice it so maybe it's one of those things you notice because you know it is there. I am hoping it comes out totally with the next wash.

So now I get to cast on for the ribbon top....yipee skipee. I want to swatch for it today if I can find the time between laundry and ironing and other such fun things. Hope your weekend has been awesome!

Happy Knitting!

Shore Thing Update

Ok what I decided to do with Shore Thing is to first of all wash it to get out the remnants from my life line and to see how it fits after being washed. Then I am going to rip out the neck and decrease it more so that it won't open up if you happen to move while wearing it. I'd have a hard time standing perfectly still for a whole day. Then, if that works and I still don't like how it looks in the bust area, I will find someone smaller than myself to give it to. I refuse to get discouraged. I will make a summer top that fits *me* if it kills me :) This will be my next attempt:

It is from the same issue of Vogue magazine as Shore Thing. It is made from Trendsetter Dolcino. I bought a pale blue for mine which is not a color I would normally pick but I keep picking the same neutral and/or earth tone colors and felt like being different this time. I have never used a ribbon yarn before and look forward to starting this one.

It looks grey in the picture but it really is blue. I am not going to start it until I finish up doing whatever I need to do with Shore Thing first. Wish me luck!

Happy Knitting!

Howdy!

I had a great time at my sons graduation. It was so wonderful to see him. He looked good and healthy and happy....the latter being a great relief as he was pretty miserable when he first got there. The army puts on a very nice graduation ceremony. It was very patriotic and emotional (weepy). Eric got to come home for four days and just went back yesterday. He was not ready to go back yet, but not much you can do about that. He also got his orders while I was there. He is going back to Missouri for another 6 week class and then he will be stationed in Georgia until February and then supposedly go to Iraq. But February is a very long way off and a lot could change by then, so I am not going to stress about it until I have to. Right? Right! He did btw seem to like his socks. He looked so handsome and grown up!

Ok, on to knitting.... I finished Shore Thing last night. I haven't washed it yet but I don't think I like it. It makes my chest look huge for some reason. hahaha Now I am not built like Dolly Parton... I am just kind of average...but this top makes me look very busty. I kept turning every which way in the mirror to look at it but my eyes just kept going right to the bust. I just didn't expect it to be as form fitting as it is I guess. Also the neck is big. If you stand there posing it looks fine but when you move a certain way it kind of opens up almost like it isn't snug enough. I didn't realize the neck was almost boatneck style because of the way the picture for the pattern is shot. I am not sure what, if anything, can be done about any of it. If I had made the next size up the chest would probably look better but I would think the neck would be worse. I really don't think washing/blocking will help either seeing as it is not wool, unless you all know something that I don't. For now, I will let it just sit in a heap on the floor as a punishment for not coming out perfect as my first top for me. That'll teach it a lesson!

I did start a felted tote on the plane but haven't made too much progress on it. The first time I started it I decided it was too big so I ripped it out. Then I started over on a smaller scale and got about 1/3 of the way up the side and decided it was too small and so ripped it out again. The 3rd time I made it the size I started the first time which I thought was too big and now think it's just right. Go figure. If it felts nice and my knitting fits in it, I will be happy.

I am also working on a simple cable hat from Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair which is really nice. It is my first Christmas present for the year! (pats self on back) I also started a yellow chenille flower washcloth, the first of a set, which is also a Christmas present. (another pat) I haven't started Charlotte let but hope to soon. I also don't have any pictures, except graduation pictures and I am behind in everything from my trip and the visit. But I will show you Shore Thing in the next couple of days either way. I do believe I am done traveling for the rest of the year and am pretty happy about that. I need life to slow down a bit now so I can catch up.

I am now off to the SNB...I haven't been there in 2 weeks and I miss everyone.

Happy Knitting!