FO's for fogiveness?

Will you forgive me for not blogging like I should be if I give you some FO's? :D I've completely lost track of my yardage and mileage, but my FO's are up to 16 now! I'll work on trying to recalculate the others...in my spare time. LOL

Anyway, I'll start with the most recent FO. I just finished it last night!

It's a mini North Roe Shawl (Rav link) that I did as part of Village Hopelessly Overcommitted's ongoing Lace Shawlette Study. We're learning lace without the committment of a fullsized shawl. This one will be a present for my DD's 3rd birthday next month. It's made from less than 1 ball of J&P Coats Royale Classic Crochet Thread (Size 10) in a vareigated pink.

And I must say, I now have yet another addiction...lace! It's so amazing the difference blocking makes and it's like Christmas seeing what you get! :D This is what it looked like right off the needles...

Amazing difference, huh?

I also finished 3 elephant themed projects as gifts for my friend Lykkefanten and her son, but unfortunately, got so excited about sending them, I forgot to take pictures. LOL And I still need to take pictures of the loveliness that she sent me too! I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with it all yet, but DD has claimed the pink yarn for herself! LOL

I also made a mini Chauncey (Rav link),

and crocheted sock bookmark

for my Magic Yarn Ball swap partner MePlz. It was only my second ever swap and I'd not heard of a MYB prior, but it was so much fun putting it together! The sock bookmark is based on the idea of some knitted sock bookmarks I saw on Ravelry. I used this pattern (Rav link), made two socks then connected them with a ch 100.

And Jen (MePlz) sent me the most amazing box too!

That beautiful green ball is my first Malabrigo Worsted!!!! :D I cannot wait to knit it up! It's going to be a lovely Faberge Neck Warmer (yep, Rav link). And the adorable Egyptian sheep card (which if you know me, is sooooo perfect!) and the beautiful painted shale are displayed behind me right now! I just love them! Thanks again Jen!!!! :D

I also finished my Dragonscale Socks from the Crochet Liberation Front First Ever Book...you know, that one I'm in. ;-) I accidentally put my own little mark on them by putting in one of the heels inside out. LOL But I still love them! :D I used almost all of 2 balls of Knit Picks Palette in Tidepool Heather.

I also finished my first project using my own handspun yarn, but I don't have an FO pic yet cause I don't have a coffee mug that fits it. So I'm looking for a new one...just for my mug cozy! LOL

And to get completely caught up, I also finished a reusable shopping bag made from plarn recycled from leftover Scouting for Food bags. But alas, I don't have pictures of it yet either.

Sounds like I need to get busy taking pictures to get everything completely updated! LOL I have other news to share soon too, but not just yet...you'll have to stay tuned for that. ;-)

Happy Crafting!

2009 Fiber Resolutions and an FO!

OK, I'm normally not so good with sticking to New Year's resolutions, but maybe, just maybe, I can stick to some fibery ones. :D

So here's my list:

• I’d like to get my WIPs under some sort of control.
• Make a least one sweater/cardigan thingy for Me ME MEEEEE!!!! And crochet/knit for me more in general! LOL
• Learn knitted fair isle/stranding or at least attempt learning it.
• Start Christmas gifts NOW!
• Write and offer at least 3 new patterns.
• Spin more!

Seems totally doable...right? :D

I'm even off to a good start! I've already published one pattern for this year! YAY! And, I've recently completed my first official FO for the year...my first pair of adult sized socks (and they're for ME!).

The pattern is Garter Rib from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. I used 1.45 skeins of Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in the Crush colorway and 3.25mm (US 3) DPNs and made these socks 2-in-1. I wasn't even trying to match stripes, but I got pretty close! :D They're a little big (apparently I have odd sized feet) but I still LOVE them! They are really comfy!

I've also been working on the Daisy Sweater for Thing 1 (my 2 yo DD). It just lacks one sleeve (they are knitted on) and taking care of some ends. The sweater for Thing 2 (my 2 yo DS) also lacks one sleeve...but it also needs to be blocked before I can assemble it. Hopefully, I'll make LOTS of progress on these and maybe even have at least one more FO to show next time! :D

As always...Happy Crafting! :D

Hopelessly Overcommitted and Loving It!

Thanks to the Ravelympics, I have made many new friends. We all came together for the games as Team Hopelessly Overcommitted. Sounds perfect for me, right?!? Well, it was! I never knew there were so many other like-minded people hopelessly overcommitting everyday, not just to their fiber passions, but in life in general. It was great fun! We encouraged each other in competing for the games and, of course, committing to even more things! LOL We had sooo much fun that we just couldn't stop after the games were over. So a new group on Ravelry was born...Village Hopelessly Overcommitted! (All links in this post are Ravelry links. If you're not a member yet and knit or crochet, you should be!)

Thanks to these amazingly talented ladies, I've pushed myself and am learning new things and overcommitting to even more! LOL It's this group, that has encouraged me to give cabling a more serious try. Karen (Lykkefanten on Ravelry) designed this gorgeous cabled bag called Viking Bag as a cable test for her Viking Socks. As you may have already guessed, she is also a member of Team HO (which is just another fun thing about our team name!). She, and others in the village, helped me get through reading a chart, successfully, for the first time! And that lead me to do this....

In my typical fashion, it's about 90% complete. All I have left to do is seam it and add some sort of handles. But I LOVE this pattern! And I can't believe how easy it was to create such complicated looking cables! I am now totally addicted to cables!!! I plan to make more of these bags and try some other cabling projects too!

The same group, in fact the same people, also encouraged me to try something I never imagined could even be done...knitting two socks at the same time (no big deal right?)...one inside the other! GASP! Yes, it's true, it can be done! It's a double knitting technique and it works like a magic trick. There you are knitting on DPNs looking like you're making just one sock. When you finish, you magically pull one sock out from the inside of the other and Voila you have two completed socks. Magic I tell you.

Well, I have yet to complete my first pair of adult sized socks. So I wasn't sure that I was ready for attempting such a feat. I searched patterns and found something in my queue I thought could work. Not itty bitty socks that are the same color (for a matching pair) so as to totally confuse me, but Christmas Stockings. Yep, stockings, made on BIG needles with contrasting yarns so I can easily see what I'm doing and really get the technique down. Yes! This is it! And off I went and here they are...
It's the coolest thing ever!!!

I've also started on a Crocheted Circle Scarf for myself in a deliciously soft bamboo yarn, Babyboo from Knit One Crochet Too. I LOVE this yarn! In fact, I love this yarn so much, that it doesn't bother me that I have to frog it and start again because it was coming out too wide. Just means I get to pet the yarn more. :D Here's the progress I had made on it before frogging...

I have wanted to do this pattern for a long time and I'm glad I'm finally getting around to it.

Remember those finger puppets from the Death Star Buddy Bag? Well, they were my design. And my son has asked for even more of the characters to be made into finger puppets. So I am working on writing up patterns for the 3 I've done (Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia) and creating new ones as well. One of my goals for this fall is to write them up and make them available. I might not be able to get all of the characters he wants figured out by then, but I for sure have a few more I can do. They're really fun! So keep an eye out for more posts about them. I promise to let you know when they're ready! :D

And as soon as I figure out how to add .pdf downloads here, I have a pattern, or recipe really, ready for the Beaded Wire Crochet Tiara!

Happy Crafting!

Catching Up Post Ravelympics

Wow! Has it really been that long since I've posted???? I guess between vacation and the Ravelympics I got totally carried away! :D Well, the Ravelympics are over now :( and I had soooo much fun! Guess this will be a picture heavy post just to get updated! LOL

For the Ravelympics, I entered 36 projects total. I completed 24 of those during the games and of the ones I didn’t complete, 4 were alternates anyway and the rest are at least farther along than they would have been otherwise. There were only 2 new projects that I didn’t get to at all. And I earned a medal for all 6 of the events I entered. I'm quite pleased with how I did. :D

And just before vacation (right at the start of the games), I received the yarn I won from Knit It Up's Name the Skein contest. Thanks to my wonderful husband, who came up with the winning name "Taffy", I received this...
I think the knitting Gods must really want me to make socks cause this is the second skein of sock yarn I've won in the last month! LOL So I'm working on it. I cast on Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Basic Sock just before the games (pre-game warmup) and I'm now working on them in the car after school while waiting to pick up my son. I'm just about an inch away from turning the heel now. So far so good, I think...

And just to catch up completely, here are the projects I completed during the Ravelympics and just before:

Kid's Nap Sacks (checked off the Summer goals list!!!):

Fairy Tale Finger Puppets; My second pair of socks...this pair is for my daughter to coordinate with her twin brother who recieved the first pair; My Nutcracker Scarf:

Hostile Bunni and his Evil Minions for my oldest; a Doughboy for my Hubby as a joke (I got a little carried away and stuffed his hat too...I shouldn't have.); Mintley, the Cafe au Lait Miniature Thread Bear. (I over-dyed the ecru thread with coffee.):

The kids Buddy Bags (working on writing up a pattern for the Star Wars Finger Puppets...more on that later):





My In Bloom Bag (photo of the outside of bag is pre-seaming); and the Draft Stopper for my oldest:

The other 10 were Fantasy Knits and were only done in my head. LOL

That catches us up a bit. I'll talk more about the Death Star Buddy Bag and the wonderful friends I made during the games next time. And about some other GREAT news regarding the CLF Patch! :D

Until next time...Happy Crafting!

I Won! I Won! I Won!

I've entered soooo many blog contests this year, I guess it was bound to happen. I was having a rather frustrating week. Then I logged into Ravelry and got a really great surprise. Waiting in my inbox was a message from Cinders of Cinders Knits and a subject line of You Won! I got soooo excited and was jumping up and down screaming for a while. The prize was a skein of BFL machine washable sock yarn custom dyed to your choice.

I won yarn!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! (OK, I still jump up and down everytime I think about it.) Now, the hard part was deciding what to ask for. I've never made adult sized socks or used actual sock yarn....yet. I know I rambled for awhile in my reply to her. But she helped me sort it out and it will be something similar (not exact as it's hand dyed) to this...

The second I saw this photo she sent me (and gave me permission to use here), I knew this was it! I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this! So, of course, now I'm even more excited! Thank You Thank You Thank You Ruth!!!! :D You should check out her Etsy shop and she's got more great pics of yarn she's doing on her blog too.

Now I need your help! As I said, I've yet to make adult sized socks. Don't worry, I'm still planning on making the socks from the poll earlier, but they will have to wait until after the Ravelympics. Although, it's realllly hard not to cast on for those right now! Anyway, what I need is help deciding what pattern to use this realllly gorgeous yarn on. I haven't got a clue! So either leave me a comment here or find me on Ravelry and let me know what you think I should make with this.

And, OK, I did win a pattern naming contest earlier this year. Fiona Kelly had a pattern for a felted lion that needed a name, and the second I saw it, the name just came to me...Marlion. It's a cross between lion (cause it's a lion) and Bob Marley. The colors in the mane just made me think of it. I don't know why. But it seemed perfect. And Fiona liked it too! So he was named Marlion and I won a copy of the pattern. Yay! You can see or buy it here or through Ravelry. Thanks again Fiona! :D

Oh, and did I mention you should check out Cinders Knits. ;)

Happy Crafting!

Finished Socks and Ravelypmics

Yay! I finished my first pair of socks! And it only took me 3 to make a pair! :D Here they are...

The one I took on his feet came out really fuzzy. For some reason, 2 year olds just don't want to sit still! ;) I'm really happy with them. Thanks to all the great people on Ravelry and those of you that commented on my blog, I was able to make huge improvements. The holes are gone and the toe is round! YAY!!! I don't know if the sock bug has bitten, but it's a least nibbling. I'm going to go for a pair for his twin sister as part of the Gift Knit Pentathalon for the First Ravelympics!

That's right...Ravelympics! If you haven't checked it out yet, you should as registration ends Aug. 6th! I will be competing for Team Crochet and Team Hopelessly Overcommitted in WIPs Wrestling, Amigurumi-n-Toys Toss and the Gift Knit Pentathalon. Overall, I'm planning on 14 projects for the 17 day event. Screams overcommitted doesn't it? Perfect team for me! LOL

Anyway, for WIPs Wrestling, I will be attempting to complete the Daisy Afghan for my baby girl that was started while I was pregnant with her (she's now 2); the Monkey for my oldest DS that was supposed to be for Christmas last year; my first lace project - the Nutcracker Scarf that I finished most of in I think a week, but never quite finished; the Draft Stopper that was supposed to be for my oldest DS's room last winter; my very first ever knited project - a purse that needs a lining; my In Bloom Bag from Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker book; the Annimeko Cat I started a few months ago but put on hold cause I couldn't find pellets (well I have now!); and the thing that was supposed to be my first ever miniature thread bear. I also have 5 or so projects waiting in the wings in case, by some miracle, I finish all those and still have time to kill.

For the Amigurmi Toss, I'm planning a gag gift for my DH for Christmas (who I just found out doesn't read the blog, but now he might); Fairy Tale Finger Puppets for all the kiddos; at least one brand new miniature thread bear; a Hostile Bunni for my oldest DS cause he loved the blog story about him; and of course what's a Hostile Bunni without Evil Minions? So I'm going to try to make at least 2 of those (another blog story we loved).

A lot of the Amigurumi's are cross competing for the Gift Knits Pentathlon. In fact, all of them except the thread bears will. In addition, I'll be trying to do those socks for my baby girl.

It's official now...I'm crazy! I have to be to try to do all of this in 17 days while also going on vacation and getting ready for school to start again. What was I thinking???? I don't know how much of all of that I'll actually be able to get done, but I'm certainly going to give it a good try. It'll be fun no matter what.

Oh, and if that's not enough, I'm also trying to get 3 to 4 Buddy Bags done in the next 2 weeks as well as 2 napsacks. I've almost finished the first Napsack (no new pics yet) and I'm about halfway done with the first Buddy Bag.

Of course, I've really messed up that Summer Goals list now. But by the end of it, I will have finished about half of all of those goals and then some. I'll just consider the rest to be rearranged for the Fall. Yeah! :D

And I know I haven't done all the links to the projects. If you're on Ravelry, you can check my profile (share32006) to see it all in my projects/queue or just plug the names into the pattern finder. I've got to go run and get dinner on and feed everybody so that maybe they'll go to bed at a decent hour tonight. And maybe I can get some knitting done! :D

Happy Crafting!

First Sock!!!

Woo Hoo! I finished my first ever sock!!! I know I said I was going to do the first sock for me, but I decided to start slower and make a sock for the little ones first. You know me and mini things, so it seemed to make sense to try a small one and finish faster. :D

The pattern is Lion Brand's Knit Child's Solid Socks using Caron Simply Soft Shadows Soft Merino colorway on US Size 5 DPNs. I made the 2-3 year size. And I'm happy to say that I had perfect gauge on this! So anyway, here it is...

Not too bad for a very first ever sock, I think! But there are a few problems:

Captions are kind of small, so I'll talk about them in more detail. I think you seasoned sock knitters will see the problems right away anyway.

Problem 1: There is a very small hole in the cast on edge. I think it's not a big deal. I used the backward loop cast on and it made a very stretchy cast on. Considering that I have been told I cast on tightly, I'm actually pretty pleased with this. But, it's not perfect and there is room for improvement.

Problem 2: I don't really know the technical terms, after all, this is my first sock. There are holes right at the point that you go from shaping the heel to working on the foot (is this the gusset?). Now this one bothers me! They are not exactly small holes, as you'll soon see. And I'm not entirely sure I even did the slip and wrap thing correctly either. I don't like holey socks, so I would dearly like to fix this!

Problem 3: Grafting. Need I say more? Well, OK, maybe I do. Again, new technique to me and don't know if I did it right, but I certainly tried (about 6 times!). My toe did not end up nice and rounded as in the pattern picture. Instead, I got a pointy toe that only an elf could appreciate.

Now onto the other side of the sock:

Problem 4: Why yes, that is a strange thing protruding from the side of the heel. It's some kind of strange bump that sticks out when the sock is flat and when on a foot, it kind of turns into a squared edge. Really weird!

Overall though, I think it doesn't look too bad, laying on the table, for a first sock. It does look enormous for a 2 year old! But then I had to try it on the squirmy one...

Don't know how many of you have tried it, but it's very hard to get a 2 year old to hold still while you take a picture of his foot while also trying to keep his twin sister from jumping in the shot cause she's jealous of the attention and wants a sock too! Oh, and then the 6 yo big brother gets upset cause you messed up the pattern he created with the mats and tries to fix it while you're taking the shot. Needless to say, it took several attempts to get a shot this good (albeit not very good). :D

Anyway, here you can see the problems more clearly...pointy toe, big holes, strange protusion. And one more problem. See on the table the sock looks huge! On his foot, the huge part is from the heel up. The length from the toe to the funky heel protrusion is not quite long enough. Of course, maybe this would be fixed if he had that extra room being taken up by the point in the toe. Did I mention I had perfect gauge on this?

So, all you experienced sock knitters out there, please help me! :D What can I do to improve my sock skills? How can I fix these problems? What did I do wrong????

Happy Crafting!

Help me decide which sock!

OK, I still don't have any new finished items to show you. I'm still working on everything, it's just slow going right now. And as if I need something else to start......

I wanna try knitting socks! It seems like such a big thing in the knitting world! I haven't really gotten into it or understood what the big thing is about making socks when you can go buy them. But there must be something to it since sooooo many people are really into it. So, I'm gonna give it a try and see if I can figure out what the big deal is. :D

The question is where to start? I found some "basic" sock patterns in Ravelry that I thought might be good, but even in "basic" patterns, there are lots of patterns! So help me choose! Please! :D

The yarn I've chosen to use is Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in Crush colorway. I didn't want to make a huge investment in sock yarn until I know whether or not I'm gonna like making socks. I've heard so much about Second Sock Syndrome that I didn't want to spend the money if I was only going to make one sock. :D If all goes well and I enjoy it and decide to make more, I'll get the really good stuff then. I've already got my eye on some ShiBui Sock colorways that I will have to make something else out of if I don't enjoy socks! :D

And how do you decide on toe-up or tow-down????? Is there a big difference?

Anyway, to the patterns...... All these patterns are links in Ravelry (since most of you I know from there):

Knit Socks - LM0131 by Grace Alexander
Basic Sock Recipe by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Magic Stripe Basic Socks by Lion Brand Yarn
Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock by Wendy Johnson
Sock-u-lator Sock Pattern Generator by Lucia Liljegren

And by all means, if you know of some other really good free pattern (again, not ready to invest much in this yet) for a first sock attempt, let me know! Leave me a comment or vote in the poll. Whichever pattern gets the most votes will be the one I give a go!

And to my crochet friends, you know I've got to try a crochet version too, but the pattern I really want to try for crocheted socks isn't out yet! So I'm eagerly awaiting the first CLF Book release! :D

Happy Crafting!