Yarn purchases this weekend

While we did go to some yarn stores, all I could afford was some sock yarn. I probably won't start any more socks though until I get something else done.

Felted pumpkins

For my first felted project, I thought I'd try something small. So I found these cute felted pumpkins on the Knitty site. However, if I don't get them finished before fall is over, I may never finish them. As you can see, I've only got one wedge done.

Update on purse

Here's an updated picture of the purse I've been working on from the Berroco site. It's coming along fairly quickly as you can see. The cable work makes it a pretty fun knit. It's made in one long piece and then kinda folded in half. As you can see, I'm more than halfway done!!

Hubby's red cardigan

I started this red cardigan at the request of my husband who wanted a new "winter coat." As you can see, I haven't gotten very far yet - probably because I've had so much fun working on my vest! As you can see, there are some "cakes" of yarn I wound using Melanie's ball winder and swift. I SOOOOO want those winding tools! It would make life so much easier for me. Hmmmm..... Christmas present maybe??

Nederland Vest

Here is my new favorite project! It's my first attempt at colorwork too and I love how it is turning out. It's the Nederland Vest from the Fall 2008 issue of Knitscene. As you can see, it's the project I've been working on the most since it's the most fun to knit, at least I think so. :-) The 1x1 ribbing took forever, but after I got past that bit, it's been zooming along. I'm definitely going to do more projects that have fair isle knitting in them.

Socks

So now that the knitting weekend is almost over, I thought I'd show everyone what I've been working on. First and foremost, I have finished my socks! That I've been working on for a very long time. Here they are!


As I said, I've had them on the needles for months and months, I'm so glad they're finally finished!

It is here!

Yahoooooooo! My yarn has arrived. And, it came a whole 2 days early! I wasn't expecting it until Monday. Just one more reason I love Knitpicks! The burgundy color is for a cardigan I'm making my husband, 100% wool, bulky weight. And the blue is for another sweater for me. Swish superwash worsted weight, it's so soft! I used the same kind for my vest, only in DK weight - which I'm almost finished with. The thing is, can I wait to start my new projects until I see my friend again??? I'll keep you posted!

Wool & Spinning

I'm also working on washing my wool and generally getting it ready for spinning. I learned last weekend at the Fiber Fest that I actually don't need to card it one it's washed and picked, I could just spin it from there. Very excited to learn that and will definitely try dyeing it before I spin my white wool. Here's a picture of some washed, dried, picked wool.


The picture doesn't do it justice, it's so white (very surprising after what it looked like when I got it!) and soft!

And last, but not least, I bought a spindle and some carded black wool to practice spinning. Here is what I've done so far. I'm not very good at it, but am learning and it is getting easier. Like anything I will just have to keep practicing!


Alright, back to my needles and spindle!!

New project - a purse!

Ok, I couldn't take it last night, I had to start a new project since I can't work on my vest anymore until the blocking is finished. So I decided to start a purse I've had my eye on for awhile now. This one in fact from Berroco. I already had the yarn required (in pink!) from a different purse that I tried once, but didn't like how it turned out. So I'm ripping it out while I make the new one. Here's my progress so far.

Honeycomb vest

My vest is getting very near done, Yay!! At knit night on Thursday night I finished the front and did the three needle bind-off for the shoulders. Today, I decided to block it before I seamed the sides and finished the rest. And this is what I saw:


You may not be able to see it, but I have a loose stitch just hanging there!!!! I couldn't believe it, I was very upset. But, instead of ripping out the shoulder, I took that piece of yarn that you see attached there and sewed the stitch in as best as I could. It will pass I guess. I will try to forget it's there, but that will be hard. Anyway, so I blocked it and this is what it looks like currently stretched out on my bed.


The part closest to you is the back, the front having the deep scoop on the other end.

Go Canada!!!!

Yay for the Canadians! It took until day 8 to finally get a medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics, but they did it! Not only did they get a gold medal and bronze medal in wrestling, but also a silver medal in pairs rowing. GO CANADA!!!!! I'm so proud.

Wool

As many of you know, I got given to me a whole lot of raw wool - I mean, just shorn off the sheep, raw wool. It's full of many icky things, things I don't want to mention here. When I agreed to take some of this wool of a woman's hands, I didn't think it was going to be this bad. You live and learn I guess.

I was given the advice to washing it first before I sent it off to a wool processing place to have it made into roving, which I will then spin. But that's another story. So here's a picture of my first batch of wool that I washed.


As you can see, it came out pretty clean - considering. What gets me is that you can still tell where the "scorched" ends were, i.e. the ends that were exposed to the sun. Plus, there is still a lot of "vegetable matter" in it, little bits of straw, grass, twigs, etc. However, I did notice that after I washed it, I tried shaking it and a lot of it has fallen out.

Now all I have to do is wash the other 49 lbs. Ugh!! I'm going to try to get at least 5 lbs. washed to send that away for my first trial run of turning roving into spun yarn!

Here they are!

Here's an update on the 3 projects I've been actively working on over the past few months.

First, my socks. I started these ages ago and finished one relatively quickly and then promptly fell into SSS (Second Sock Syndrome.) I recently got back into finishing the second one from teaching my friend, Robin, how to knit socks. They're also a handy, small project to take along with one to knit night. I've turned the heel and am working down the instep.


This market bag I recently finished with the purpose of making several so that I can make my contribution to "going green." It turned out bigger than I thought it would. I haven't tested it out yet. Oh yeah, it took so long to make (what with all the seed stitch), that I don't know if I'll make any more. :-/

And since I finished that bag, I've been working on my Honeycomb vest from Knitty.com. I also started this months ago and am currently working on it with renewed vigor with the hope that I can finish it and wear it some day soon! This is what I'll be taking to knit night tomorrow night.

Updates coming soon

Just wanted to say that I got my new Dell laptop today. YAY!! I went to take some pictures of my projects to post, but the battery in the camera is dead. So you'll have to wait for another time... Soon.

Friday slump

So, I'm sitting at my desk on this not-so-lovely Friday afternoon and was wishing I could be at home knitting, instead of here trying to figure out this mess someone has put me in. I just needed to get that off my chest and was wondering if anyone else felt the same way?

My projects are going pretty well. I'm up to row 14 on the lace fichu, 2 more rows and then I can start binding off the ties. That will be nice. I still can only do 2 rows a night on it because there are so many stitches and I can't stand the needles I'm using. I really should stop by Joann's on the way home today and see if they got any size 3's in. Sorry I don't have a photo of my progress, but the camera (and the project) are at home. There isn't much to see yet anyway. Once I get to the lacy part, I'll be sure to put an updated picture on.

I hope you all are having a better Friday than I am. Someone please put a comment on to boost my spirits!

The Result of the Knitting Weekend

So my friend, Melanie, and I had a knitting weekend this past weekend and I thought I'd post pictures of what I accomplished. OK, I didn't actually finish anything, but I did start several new projects. For those of you who are knitters, this is a very exciting thing. Here are the new projects I started this weekend:



I started this sweater vest this weekend with yarn from Knitpicks. When I ordered this yarn, I thought it was a slightly lighter color, but I'm liking the color now. Here's the pattern I'm using from knitty.com.








OK, you can't really tell yet what this is, but it will be what's called a fichu. It uses laceweight yarn that I got at the Cultured Purl this weekend. And because of that, it will be hard to see any progress until I actually get to the lacy bit. I got the pattern from my Victorian Lace book so I can't show you the photo of the finished pattern. You'll just have to stay tuned!






This is a sock I started with more yarn from Knitpicks. Of course, you can't tell from the picture, but the yarn is very soft. And I love the self-striping bit.














This is another sock that I started a long time ago. I worked on it for a bit this weekend.












Here is another sweater vest I started awhile ago. This yarn is part of my "Christmas" yarn that hubby bought me this year, also from Knitpicks. I really like the tweed pattern, but that makes it slow-going.







Here is my very first felting project. Once finished, it will be a felted Coffee Press Cozy. I hope it turns out good and that I don't have to agitate it in a big bucket with a plunger. :-)










Here is the last project I will write about. It will be a market bag, made out of the miles of cotton yarn that I have lying around.


So, there's an update on most of my WIP's. Well, at least the ones I actively worked on this past weekend.

Sweater is finished!

Hi all! Sorry I haven't written in ages, but sometimes that happens. I just wanted to show you my finished sweater that I made. So... Here it is:

As you can see, it was early in the morning when this picture was taken, so I wasn't altogether with it. Oh well, here's the back side.


I'll try to get more pics of what I'm currently working on now up in the next couple days. I'm also waiting for some yarn to arrive in the mail to start new projects. YAY!!!

Update on projects

I thought I'd give you a quick update on how my projects are coming along. I really liking the sweater, as you can tell, I've gotten quite a bit done. I wish more, but one has to make a living right? They can't knit all the time -- although that would be nice! I'm just about to start decreasing for the armholes. Once I get that done, I hope the rest of the back will go quickly. One would think it should since there will be less stitches to contend with.







Also, here's an updated pic of the socks that I'm working on. It seems like I'm not making very much progress (and I'm probably not!), but I enjoy working on the sweater more so at home. The socks are just a "take-along" project and basically the only time I get to work on them is break-times at work. I guess I should take into account that I'm using fingering weight yarn and size 1 needles! But they will be great when I finish them.






Have a very Merry Christmas everyone! And if you know how, keep knitting!!! And if you don't know how, gosh darn it, LEARN!! It's so much fun! :-)

Hurray! It's done!

My Christmas project is finished... early! I can't believe it! My husband just framed it today, doesn't it look fantastic?! I love giving handmade gifts, they're so unique. I just wish I had time to make them for everyone. Oh well.





I've also started working on the Starsky sweater I talked about last time. This yarn is fantastic, so soft and easy to work with. Alpaca yarns and blends are becoming my new favorites! And because it's bulky-weight, I hope that means the project will go relatively quickly. There are several 2-stitch cable twists in this pattern. I'm going to try to figure out how to cable these without using a cable needle. Wish me luck!

Merry Christmas to me!

You guessed it. My yarn shipment arrived today! It's like Christmas early. And I opened it already because the gift I ordered for hubby arrived a few days ago and he's been sitting on pins and needles waiting to open his. I wouldn't let him until I got mine. All's fair in love and war!


I didn't get all this in the current shipment, I included some from a previous shipment that I didn't blog about yet. This time I got the 12 hanks of bulky-weight Cadena in Natural. This is what I'm making with that. It looks so warm, which is good for those chilly days at work. They seem to think it's a good thing to freeze us out there. I also got 8 balls of sport weight Telemark in Alpine Frost and 6 balls of Telemark in Icicle. I plan on making this with that yarn. So cute, right?!?! :-)


And what you see from last time is 3 different types of sock yarn: 2 balls of EssentialSolid in Fawn; 2 balls of Felici in Arugula; and 2 balls of Risata in Burgundy. My favorite is the Felici, it's soooo soft! I also got 3 hanks of laceweight yarn called Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor. I plan to make something from this book with that yarn. But that is more of a summer project, so that's put on the back burner for now.

What to start first? Good question... what do you think? I vote for the Starsky sweater.

Ok, the yarn is calling, must get knitting... Food for thought: Can one ever knit too much?? I don't think so :-) HAPPY KNITTING!!