Award!

Monika from Smokin Hot needles nominated me for this award. I feel all gooey inside now! She, who unlike me, was able to collect some trophies for skiing. Although, I found skiing to be REALLY fun, was never able to win any trophies for it. I did however learn how to do cartwheels. Believe me..the bunny hills dangers are quite deceiving!

My 5 nominees for this award are going to

Val

Kirsten

Batty

Jacque

Hattie

On another note, I've got a great opportunity to work with another designer for Plymouth yarns. I'm excited to be working with Mary Beth Temple. Some of you may know her from the designs she's done in Vogue and Knit Simple. She's also written a book titled The Secret Language of Knitters that you might be interested in. I'm excited and nervous to be working with her. Excited because this is a great knitting opportunity for me...nervous because I'm going to be so aware of my knits, purls and yarn overs since I'm working with an expert. :D Anyways..off to the drawing board!

New Scarf

Not sure what to call this one. I can come up with ideas for patterns galore! Names can be tricky. ( Yeah it looks crooked..don't worry, I adjusted the comforter. Pinning with kids jumping around you can be a challenge.


It's double knitted with Buckingham from Plymouth in black.


Finally a clear photo! Here's a swatch. One done in single knit and the other doubled. Yes..this is my craft area. This is what I look at every morning that I wake up. You'd think that the cluttered wall of swatches and ideas would spark my creative juices. Actually it just makes me wish I had more time to work.

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm not sure if I told you this or not...but I am a HUGE Jim Henson fan! My favorite character of course is Kermit the Frog..I also like Gonzo. But, when I was little I would be plastered in front of the T.V. watching Fraggle Rock. I like the ol' superstitious Boober the most, but you HAVE to have Mookie the artist for some inspiration.

Eye candy Friday!!!

Ok, yeah...I spoil my daughter. :D She's been wanting a puppy and well...so have I. I've looked and looked and couldn't find one that felt right, was the right size and well..was in my price range. (I don't know about you but I can't afford $1200 for a yorkie...no matter how cute they are.)Then I found this little guy. He's a pure bred rat terrier. Don't worry I'm not going to start walking him in a hip pouch right next to my water bottle, or even a dorky baby carrier...but I will be knitting him an adorable sweater. Maybe that's why I really wanted a dog?

Isn't he adorable! His name is London. In honor of my husbands' Grandma who was from England. She'd say in the most adorable of English accents.." I'm NOT a Limey...I'm a Londoner!"

Now for some winter knitting

I guess the heat of summer finally got into me. I need a change! I can't stand the heat, but I love the fall and winter. I start wearing gloves, hats and scarves as soon as there's a chill in the air. I never used to, I used to be the kid at the bus stop furiously stuffing the stocking cap in my backpack because it messed up my "cool". Now I've turned into the worrisome mother plastering caps on my kids and constantly fretting over my husbands exposed ears.

I'm also tired of socks. It seems to be the thing to knit right when the heat waves of summer hit. People knit scarves right up until they can no longer take it. Well..why not knit a pair of mittens?! They're small, they're portable, and gosh darn it..people like them.


I'm not sure if you can see it here, but the mittens I'm knitting are actually three colors. Green, white and a rose color. Knitting the rose is going to be interesting. In the instructions she says NOT to join a new color, but cut an 8" piece of yarn and knit each section separately. How this works without carrying the yarn I can only guess. I'm assuming you just knit the section of rose and then twist it with the color following the rose stitches and then leave it and bring it back up on the next row. Like I said..I'm only guessing.
I love the green in it. It's Verdant Heather from knitpicks. The pattern calls for one ounce green and three ounces white. So far it's been pretty accurate to the pattern.

And here's the pattern book. It's from 1948. I don't even remember where I got it. I think I got it from my aunt. The pages are laminated so they're a little bit durable yet. (Oh..see those black and red ones up there in the corner?...those are my next project.)

And a nice blurry pic of the other side. :D

I'm not even sure if this book is still in print. It's so old and when I did a search for the author, nothing turned up accept on eBay. I'd love to get a newer copy of this book, but I think that's going to be a little difficult.

One hit wonders

Well, recently I went through my stash collection and found all of these U.F.O.s stash discreetly around my craft supplies. I mean, I pulled them out of the oddest of places. An old shoe box in the corner of my closet. A box of craft supplies on my shelf. All of these are without mates. Sad and alone. I guess I needed something quick and easy to knit that ended up looking like something in order to get the creative juices flowing.

A jester bootie from interweave knits free pattern Old World Booties. I got so disgusted with the icord strings getting tangled that I just sat it aside and didn't finish it's mate. Yeah, I should have worked through it, but what can I say. By the time I got the courage again, my sons feet grew to be the size of a miniature elephant's. Although, I have to say, it was an easy knit and worked up so fast.



This is a hand warmer from interweave knits Fall 2005. I had made a pair of these before this one, but when I finished this one, I realized I didn't have enough yarn to even finish it.


Ah yes, and a mitten. Can't forget that. This is where the yarn went from the wrist warmer above. So instead of knitting a wrist warmer, I should have knit another mitten.


A Hedera Sock. The pattern was simple, easy and very pleasurable, but the yarn? Holy Cow!!! Ok, I had gotten this sweater from good will in order to take it apart for yarn. I wanted to try recycling yarn to see how it worked out. The sweater was somewhat felted and was extremely itchy. What made me think that this would make good sock yarn?! It's itchy, too warm, and all around uncomfortable. Why I knit it, I'll never know. But, I DO know that semi felted yarn from sweaters is terrible sock yarn. :D


Although...it is very pretty. :D


Finally...a glove. I wasn't too thrilled about making a glove. Maybe it was the fingers that drove me nuts. Constantly cutting and joining yarn to make phalanges got to be too tedious. Or it could be the fact that when I knit this thing it was the end of June last year while stuck in a traffic jam for an hour while pregnant and every time I pick up it's mate I instinctively think of it.


So...I figured I'm going to do something productive with one hit wonders. I'm going to do this!


It's a subscription offer from interweave knits. I kept this from a while ago and pinned it to my cork board in the kitchen to remind me to make it. I love it! I can make as many different mitten as I want and sew/glue them to the wreath to make a decoration for my door. The package, I can just use an empty box, wrap it in a brown paper bag and tie rafia around it. Now, to come up with an idea for the above. :)

I was also tagged by Val for this awesome blog button! It kinda reminds me of Gem and the Holograms.