Unfinished Business

This is the second-to-last post I plan on before the big trip. (The last post is for when I finish the Rowan Plaid cardigan tomorrow.)

First off, Rowan Plaid short-sleeved cardigan for myself. This has been a quick knit. You'll see what it really looks like when it's done.



Next up is the baby blanket I started for my nephew a while ago. All that's there so far is the border and the beginning of the background. I have great plans, but I'm not sure when I'll get to them...



Lastly we have the unfelted baby booties. Why is the one on the right so much larger than the one on the left? They were knit with the same needles.... We'll see what happens after felting. What's left is felting, threading those crocheted strings through the eyelets and making pom poms to attatch to the ends of them (and attaching said pom poms). I have until it gets cold to complete and mail them.

Yarn from Anika, Cookie/Kristi

This is the yarn my sister Anika sent me for my birthday (granted I didn't get it until May, I think). First we have TONS of Lion Brand Wool-Ease for me to knit her Basset Hound Charlie a sweater. He gets cold in the winter. He is HUGE (granted my newphew is still pretty small)! This will be a major undertaking. I think there might be enough leftover yarn for me to knit my nephew a matching sweater... hee hee hee!



She also sent me some Patons Pooch yarn, which I might make a scarf or a pillow or something out of.
She also sent a ball of Kidsilk Haze in black which she thought of using as a necklace to display a pendant, but which didn't work out for her. I'm going to bring it on the honeymoon since it's so small. Perhaps I will knit something with it.

Lastly we have 3 balls of luxurious cashmere lace weight that Coookie and Kristi gave me for my bridal shower, along with the Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting. A photocopied pattern from that book is coming on the honeymoon for this yarn.

Dye-o-Rama and KSKS!

I already showed you the yarn I sent to my dye-o-rama pal. The yarn I received is awesome! I'm going to bring it on the honeymoon! I can't believe how well my dye-o-rama buddy Lyme matched my "perfect colorway," which I named "Blue Lagoon" after a photo of Palau, where I will soon be! How fitting that I should knit socks from this yarn while basking in the glory of the islands themselves. Thank airlines for airline miles.


In other news, I received my KSKS kit earlier this week from Cathy and it's awesome too! She went with a beach theme and did a great job! She sewed me a reversible bag in blue and green, which I'm totally taking with me (my regular knitting bag is too large and warm to carry around -- it's felted). She sent along Wendy Knits with a toe-up sock pattern. She got me Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, yay! I've never knit with Cherry Tree Hill but it looks and feels great, so I'm excited. There were some yummy sweet-tarts as well (Lyme got me some of those too), and Cathy (I think) made me stitch markers with sea shells and beach colors! So cute. Everything except for the book is coming with me on the honeymoon.









Lastly for this post, I finished up my KSKS kit last night to send off to my buddy. I totally made up the pattern for the bag as I was going along, but I love it! Something I didn't realize until I was done is that you can fit needles in the side of the bag between the straps! I had contemplated sewing the ribbon together so it would just have one strap, but I ended up not doing it and I love the "secret pocket" result!

Spinning!!!

Time for more marathon blogging before I go...

So, when Alyssa and I were at Stitches in February, we picked up some very simple drop spindles and tried to learn how to spin. Here is a picture of the "lovely" yarn I spun with my CD and dowel spindle.










On Monday, I went over to Kristi's and tried spinning on her wheel! While it was a bit frustrating, and I definitely need more practice, I really think I want to get a spinning wheel!!! My husband (it's going to take a while for me to get used to calling him that) said I could use some of the wedding gift money to buy a spinning wheel in the fall, once I learn how to spin a bit better so I can make an informed decision about which kind of wheel to buy. Here's the roving I bought at Stitches... just waiting to become yarn!! I dyed the roving that in this picture looks white (check it out) and if you look closer in the second picture, the already-dyed roving is really gorgeous. It's going to be a while before I spin that.

Knit Picks!!!!

Knit Picks is having a huge sale right now (most of the stuff has sold out already) so I bought a few things, some of which I'm going to take with me on my honeymoon.



First, what I'm not taking -- Main Line in dusty lavendar and ink, to make 2 sweaters (most likely for myself) in the fall. Main Line is 70% cotton, 30% merino, so it's lightweight but soft. Should be perfect for California.

Next I got some Cotton Candy Twist, which is a cotton-viscose-acrylic-nylon blend. This is going to be the other sleeveless sweater project I take with me.

Lastly, this is some of the lace weight yarn I'm bringing on the trip, Gossamer merino in Sunrise. It's going to be a lovely shawl. The other 2 lace projects are a doily out of my leftover shawl yarn and another shawl out of some wonderful cashmere I'll post a picture of tomorrow.

Planned Sweaters, Poncho, Shawl

Oh My! Even more planned projects! I took all these photos a long time ago and I want to catch up on blogging before I take off an knit all kinds of fun stuff on my honeymoon.

This first batch of yarn, Filatura Di Crosa Mirto, a cotton, linen, viscose blend, is for a striped sweater from the original Stitch n' Bitch. I bought this yarn at the Knitting Arts sale last year with the other stuff I just posted about.


I previously posted my progress on Randall's sweater, but I never showed all the yarn for it. It's Lana Grossa Numero Uno -- I bought it at Uncommon Threads on my birthday this year (in January).


I also bought gray-blue and red Lana Grossa Due Print (blue-gren) and Chine (red) yarn, which I plan on knitting into two sweaters for myself. I've already desined the red sweater and I'm very excited about it. I look forward to starting it in September when I return.










This is Patons Katrina in black and Allure in a burgundy color. I stated making my mom a ponch out of this last year but the Katrina is ridiculously springy and elasticy and it ended up very uneven, so after I was about halfway done I ripped it all out. I'll try it again sometime. The pattern is in Knit Ponchos, Wraps, & Scarves.




I was considering making a quick shawl out of this Crystal Palace Party for the wedding before I realized I wanted something more traditional and elegant. I think I will still make a shawl out of this yarn eventually...

Planned Socks & Xmas Wreath

Xmas in July?

My mom made me this crazy yarn wreath last year, which I hung in my window for a while. She told me I could dismantle it and use the yarn, but my stash is sufficiently large and I don't have any projects in mind for the yarn so I think I might keep the yarn wreath around for at least another year, perhaps longer...





This Knit Picks Dancing is definitely coming with me on the honeymoon. I'm not sure yet what pattern I will use but it's one of the 9 pairs of socks I'm bringing along...




I was going to make a fair-isle pair of socks with this Knit Picks Palette yarn, but I never got around to designing it, so I'm going to give the 2 purple balls to my KSKS pal in her kit. She said she likes bright colors, including purple, so I think she'll like it. It should work well in the pattern I'm sending in the kit, Cookie's latest Baudelaire socks.
Since I now believe I'm only going to need 2 skeins of Sock Memories to make my mom's socks, I'm going to use the black Palette and the 3rd skein of Sock Memories in Gladiolus to make another pair of socks on the honeymoon, one of the mosaic patterns from Sensational Knitted Socks.

Planned Sleeveless Sweaters

I bought the yarn for these last September at Knitting Arts' Anniversary Sale... (I think it was all 40% off)




The red and green are Crystal Palace Mikado Ribbon. I'm taking the green on the honeymoon to see what I can come up with, most likely based on Picovoli.










The light blue is Crystal Palace Shimmer. It has some sparkles in it.










The darker blue and medium blue railroad-tie type yarn is Crystal Palace Choo Choo










The purpley stuff is Crystal Palace Merino Frappe. I plan on making a lacey tank out of this from Knitter's Stash.

Here's a close-up so you can see the cool colors.

Stash - Part 3!

1) Furry Yarn. The two light blue and red and black balls on the top of the image are Mustachio. The black and white ball just below to the right is Crystal Palace Squiggle, which I used as trim on Anika's purse. Along the right side in white, red/black, orange, and blue is Bernat Boa. On the left is Bernat Disco in black and blue with sparkles. Everything else is Lion Brand Fun Fur. I'm not sure what to do with all this. I might use some of it for trim on felted bags in the future. I also was thinking of knitting some very furry stuffed animals...

2) Fizzy Yarn. Most of what we have here is Crystal Palace Fizz and Fizz Stardust (with sparkles). There is some white Patons Cha Cha at the bottom and some Trendsetter Binario blue railroad-tie yarn to the right of that, left over from mom's fuzzy scarf. Going counter-clockwise from there is Plymouth Flirt in red, Crystal Palace Splash in red (some of the softest yarn ever), Crystal Palace Whisper in a light blue and orange (even softer). To the left of that is some ribbon left over from mom's fuzzy scarf and below that is Moda Dea Wild! in blue-green colors, which is also unbelievably soft. Top Center is Paton's Allure in teal. To the left of that are 2 midnight blue balls and 1 red ball of Berroco Crystal FX, which is super sparkly. I used some of the red on the first felted purse I ever made. I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the fizz...

3) (Mostly) Super Yummy Yarns. Ok, on the top left is some white Patons Divine, which has mohair in it and is actually quite itchy, which I know from the sweater I knit with it. The sweater is also super warm so I've only warn it once while on a skiing trip. Go figure. I live in California. At the top is some cool yarn my sister gave me for my birthday, Cascade Bollicine Revolution, 90% merino, 10% polyamid, which I used for my Palm Pilot Cover. There's plenty left for a scarf (maybe corkscrew?). Clockwise from that is some orangey Moda Dea Wild! (again super soft) which I was thinking of making a scarf out of. Clockwise from that is some white Moda Dea Tutu, also very soft, with some sparkles (another scarf project). The other 4 balls are seriously the softest yarn I own -- Moda Dea Aerie. I think the light blue will be a scarf for me and the white will be a gift scarf.

Stash! Part 2

I took these pictures a long time ago, but never got around to posting them...
Wool!! (and alpaca)
1) Bulky Wool! I was thinking of making a felted purse with the variegated blue yarn in the front (Crystal Palace Iceland). The 4 balls in the middle (one navy blue is very small) are left over from my fair-isle cardigan, all Crystal Palace Iceland. The red and dark blue on the left are Crystal Palace Merino Frappe, very fuzzy furry yarns. The red at top right (Rowan Big Wool) is left over from a hat Randall made me and Randall's hat. The striped blue next to it (also Rowan Big Wool) is left over from Randall's mom's mittens. The purple and blue are Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky left over from Viviane and Stefan's monster slippers, respectively.
2) DK weight wool and sportweight alpaca, and sock weight superwash wool. At the top left you can see the leftover yarn from my socks. I also knit my nephew socks from this yarn, but I still have more! Below that are Rowan yorkshire tweed in blue and Rowanspun dk in white (both wool). The rest (2 green, 2 red, 1 blue) are Frog Tree sport weight alpaca. The blue and green are what I used for my nephew's baby booties.

3) Cascade 220: worsted weight feltable wool. So many colors. I have made felted purses, a hat, and a tea cozy out of this yarn. What next?
4) Dale of Norway worsted weight light blue: I really like light blue. I bought this yarn around the same time I bought the light blue Karabella Aurora 8 light blue I'm going to use in a sweater. I thought about using this as a stripe in a sweater too, but there must be other options... I could combine it with Cascade 220 in a colorful sweater, or I could felt it...
5) Karabella Aurora 8 leftovers (worsted weight): This rich blue and purple are left over from dad's striped hat. I learned to love this yarn making that hat and bought more later to design myself a sweater. What shall I do with these scraps?

Palm Pilot Cover

I got a palm pilot about a month ago and quickly knit up this cover for it. I knit a rectangular strip and then sewed the seams together with an attached i-cord.

Super Old News

Here are some pictures of a collaborative baby blanket Pauline (far left), Kandice (far right), and I (center left) knit for our coworker Melissa's (center right) baby Riley last December. I knit the cabled part in the middle of the blanket. Pauline knit the pastel lace on the left, and Kandice knit the blue garter stitch panel on the right, her very first knitting project! Pauline put them all together with a border.










And here are some pictures of Kandice's daughter Kacelyn with the turtle I knit for her 1st birthday last year. She'll be 2 next week.


In the last photo you can see her pointing out his eye.