Winter knitting part 2

So the hat is coming along very slow. I started with the ribbing and made it two rows into the cable before I messed up. I put the hat down for a week then when I picked it up I forgot where I was so I just ripped right back down to the ribbing. I worked on it some more yesterday, while I was visiting with my Nana, and learned that I should really focus more on my knitting than. I started the first cable row and had to rip it back half way twice because both times I forgot to add the left side of the cable for a couple of the repeats. It was very frustrating but I finally finished the row and the hat is really looking great now. Plus I had a good laugh with my Nana about it all. I will have to work on it though when I have more time to focus on it.

Winter Knitting

The cold weather is approaching fast and with it comes a feeling of nesting, what better way to beat that feeling then to drown it in some warm comforts like soup and chili and some warm winter knitting.

Every winter since the time I began knitting I always kick out the warm bulky yarns and large knitting needles and tell myself this winter I am going to make myself something to wear, and well I never do. I would love to have the time to make myself a pair of socks, a hat, and some double knit mittens, as well as another blanket. I have a small knit throw I made a while back that was really just a knitting experiment but it is amazingly warm and I would love to make another one that is wider and longer to fit my whole bed. I guess I just need to take one project at a time. Therefore, I am starting with the hat and mittens. I will need them the most once it gets really cold (mind you, our nights are getting down to 30f and they are already predicting snow).

I have already started the hat. I am making the new owl torque designed by Barbara Prime (fuzzymitten) surprise surprise. When am I not knitting one of her patterns? It is really cute. I am making it with Bernats natural alpaca. It should be super warm and squishy when I finish. The pattern is written for newborns up to 1 year olds so I had to add extra stitches. After making a swatch and roughly measuring my head my calculations said I would 99 stitches so I went cast on 90. I figured this way it would fit snug and with the give of the knitting should fit nice. I think I may have cast on too many though. It is looking a bit large. I just have the ribbing done and instead of the k1, p1 ribbing I did K2, p2 ribbing. I hope that once I move up to the cable and seed stitch it will get a bit tighter. I guess if it does not fit me, I can give it to my younger sister. Her head is a bit bigger than mine is and then I would have another excuse to make another.

As for mittens, I am not sure what pair I am going to make. I would like a double knitted pair but I would also like to incorporate the owl cable. Maybe I will just double knit a plain pair, knit the cable separate, and then sew it on the top of the mitten. That might be the easiest way to go about it. We will see.

On a non-knitting/crafting front, I bought a new car this past week and I love it. It is a 2001 Nissan Maxima and it is excellent. All my cars prior to this have been older cars that I have bought for under $1000. The difference between has this new one runs is amazing!

Quick Update

So I am going to try and update my blog every Sunday for now on,even if it is just a quick update letting you know how my week was going. I feel like I have been neglecting my blog since I started working. I also want to try and have a few more features and who knows maybe a giveaway someday.

HandSpun and Thank you Features

Last weekend I went to an Organic Fair in Unity Maine with a friend. It was so much fun and it really inspired me to get my butt back in gear and finish the fiber I had going on my spinning wheel. So the next morning I took out my wheel oiled it, and tightened a few screws and went to town spinning. I had about 2 oz out of 4 already spun up so I got to work on the other 2 oz. Once that was spun up I made my self a Lazy Kate using a box I had laying around from an old jewelry shipment, and three 18 inch size 9 knitting needles that I no longer use. Then I got busy plying my singles together with a not so helpful hand from Ozzie the new kitten. He just loves my wheel. He sits there trying to to spin the wheel part faster and stretches up to "help" the singles onto the bobbin. He really is a cutie, just not so helpful at times. I finished my first handspun and love it. I used some amazing cooriedale fiber I bought from Sunset Fibers on Etsy. It was a pleasure to spin and made a beautiful 2 ply. I managed to get about 227 yards out of the fiber with some left over. I would guess the yarn weight is similar to a fingering or dk yarn. Its not really thick but it does get really thin in some parts. I am planing on knitting it up into a feather and fan patterned scarf in hopes the changes in thickness won't be so noticeable. My fingers are itching to get to spinning something else. Part of me wants to stick to spinning more cooriedale since its what i am farmilar with but the adventorus part of me wants to try something new on the wheel. I have a lovely 2oz batt that's a blend of BFL, firestar, silk, and some bamboo called Baby Dreams that I purchased from Ilashdesigns on Etsy, which I think I am going to try next. Its really soft and should be a quick spin.

I also wanted to send a quick Thank You out to my friend Shar (aka: theknittycat/knittycat) for the lovely package she made me. I just loved it. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Shar's work you should go check it out. She makes the cutest knit amigurumi which she calls Peeps. They are perfect little gifts and great for anyone of all ages. You can find some of her Peep patterns over at her website. She has also made some really amazing character Peeps such as Elmo, Cookie monster,Kermit, Eeyore, The Incredible Hulk, The Thing, and Taz. All her finished projects are created without patterns and are usually made all in one piece! Her craftsmanship is just amazing and some of the techniques she uses just blows my mind! I am so lucky enough to have her as mentor, she has really helped me out and inspired my knitting. She also included one of her Peeps in hte package for me! She sent me Little Bonnie the Bunny and she is just adorable! Right now she is mingling with all her new softie friends and has become best friends with my Lil Bunny girl Hazel.Shar was also kind enough to send me a toy for the kitties and I have to say the baby loves it!!

I also wanted to Thank Barbara Prime for Callum. She was having a giveaway on her blog and I was so lucky to win Callum. I was so excited I have had my eye on him for a really long time. He was up for sale in her Etsy store for some time before the giveaway and every time I went in I had to check to see if he was still there looking for a home. I just never had the spare money to take him home with me. At the thought of someone winning him in the giveaway my stomach just sank. I never thought i would win him, but I did and now he is home with me mingling with Bonnie bunny, Hazel bunny and his fellow Fuzzymittens friends that found a home with me during swaps. Here is a picture of Callum enjoying his new home. He seems to like my spinning wheel as well.

Knitted elephant and New kitten

So its been a while since my last post but I finally have something to share with you. I started knitting again after a rather long knitting funk and love the result. I made an Elijah the elephant. He will be finding his way to a new home on Monday. I made him for a co worker who has helped me catch up on my paper work immensely over the past couple months. He will be a little thank you gift as well as a baby gift as she is expecting. I wanted a short stumby elephant so i made his body a little shorter leaving out one of the repeats and add a few more row between one oft he bottom decreases. I also added a little tail.

I also got a new kitten. We havent names him yet. we're still trying to come up with a name everyone likes but he is a cutie! he is all striped on his back then when you flip him over to his belly it is covered in spots. He is 8 weks old and it looks like he is going to be a very long lanky cat.

Meet Hazel

Here is my new bunny Hazel. I made her using Barbara Prime's FuzzyMitten "Bunny with a Dress" pattern and Knitpicks Swish dk in Truffle. I am in love with how she came out. She is the first toy of mine who's head is actually sewn on straight. I usally use large sewing pins to postition the pieces as I sew them (which never works out well for me) but today I couldn't find my pins so I decided to improvise and grabed some bobby pins from my hair supplies and they worked out fantastic! I will never be using sewing pins again! My bobby pins are now sitting in with me knitting supplies. Since the head worked out so great I used them on the limbs as well. I placed the bobby pins in so that the straight side was stuck into the toy with out coming out through it and the crimp side was on the outside of the toy holding it together. It gripped the fabric excellently and really stablized the limbs so that I didn't have to wrestle with them.

In my last post I mentioned how I was in a knitting funk majorly. I'm starting to come out of it. I didn't knit Hazel recently, in fact I started her in October 08 and finished her within the month but I never got around to putting her together . So today I woke up rather refreshed feeling and in the mood to do something crafty so I pulled out the little bunny pieces I had hidden away in a draw so I wouldnt have to look at them and feel super guilty all these months. I think finishing Hazel was just what I needed. Now i just need to find another pattern to get started on. I'm thinking Debbie Birkins Pocket Hippo. I know i have some grey wool laying around.

Busy Busy Busy

Yep my title about explains it all. I have been very busy lately. I decided to take on a second job selling jewlry. Basically I booked home parties were i sell the jewlry. Its alot of fun but it has also been alot of work. One of the requirements to start selling jewlry was that you had to book 5 parties within the first 3 weeks of your training class. which i did but i managed to squeeze them all in in the the first 2 weeks. Thats alot of parties and alot of paper work lol. I'm glad i had the parties though they were alot of fun which as just what i needed since the last week at work has been complete hell. I'm starting to doubt my ability and thinking maybe this is not the right job for me. I am so behind in paper work and everytime i turn around i feel like im doing something else wrong or that im not meeting everyones expectations.

The 13th was my birthday, I went out with my boyfriend and had a nice time. However one of my cats went missing. We noticed he hadnt come home Tuesday. Since we live by the woods and have a huge fisher cat and coyote population that he got himself into so trouble and wasnt coming home. Wednesday night my sister went out looking for him ,calling his name and well he must have heard her because Wednesday night he was hit by a car crossing a street heading towards home. We found out thursday morning. Since then we have had him cremated and we burried him out in our yard by the bird feeder.


i havent done much knitting infact at this very moment i have nothing on my needles. My friend came over this week and was in complete shock when she heard this. Since we learned to knit together i have never not had a project on my needles. Right now I don't have any desire to knit. I'm definatly going through a funk. I'm not sure whats up but i just can't seem to get inspired. I don't know what to knit and there is nothing in my stash calling to me to be made into something. None of my patterns even look appealing to me. I have however been doing a little more spinning. not to much as once again I've been very short on time. I was spinning up some Blue and black fiber but eventually got tired of it and decided to switch to some gorgeous fiber i got from Sunset Fibers. Im wasnt a huge fan of Cooriedale until i started spinning this batch, it is absolutly stunning! The fiber feels great in my hands and the color itself if spinning up wonderfully. I've come to the conclusion that I'm a hige fan of Sunset Fibers, i have always been impressed by their colorways and have never been disipointed by the texture of their fibers in fact i am always surprised at how soft they truely are.
Here is a picture of what i have spun up. It extremly thin...not sure if im a fan of the thinness but thats seems to be wat my fingers want so im just going with the flow.

thats pretty much all ive been up to. I've been a bit boring lol.