Yarn Crawl

Glampyre Knits Easy Raglan V Neck- Body's Done!

I finished the body of the Glampyre Knits Easy Raglan V Neck sweater so thought I'd show the pics from trying it on. I ended up knitting about another 1/2 inch but now am working on the sleeves. I started the ribbing higher than they said to in the pattern and did it for longer, and I'm going to do that with the sleeves too. I think it looks cute!

Here's one full on shot (try not to be scared by the makeup-less pic - eek - I am such a slacker lately about putting on makeup for pictures!)

and a goofy side pic.

Turkey Wool

Oh boy....I went to Peggy's Strands of Heaven in Plainfield for their "Fiber Fest 2006 10 Hour Sale" yesterday and bought a LOT of wool (and cotton, etc.) Three sweaters worth plus probably about eight more hats, summer tops, gloves, purses, fingerless gloves worth, PLUS probably three or four singleton skeins for swatching. I am way out of control - I need a knitting intervention as "Pearl" would say!

Here's my score...(yeah, on this post you will be able to tell that I definitely had "help" from my accomplice/husband Jim - and also this is the way I look at 7:30 a.m. after waking up and going directly to the wool shop to get the 40% off from 7-9). Ridiculous!!!

weekend progress on Christmas gifts

Peggy - skip this post!!! Over the weekend, I started and finished all the pieces of McKenna's Big Wool Fusion coat - it is from Rowan Babies and is called "Fame". It's even a stash-busting project for the most part - just had to buy two more balls of Big Wool Fusion to make it, and was able to cash in my filled up frequent buyer card at Kool Knits to do so. Yay!

Next up, I knitted both clogs for one of my mother in law Peggy's Christmas gifts - OBVIOUSLY need to be felted as they look like clown shoes right now and she only takes a size 6 1/2 shoe!! Here's one...pre-felting/shrinking!

Thanks, Secret Pal!

Got this great package from my Secret Pal last night - I especially love the ArtYarns Ultramerino 4! I have to find a really great pattern for it - I think I will make fingerless gloves with it instead of socks. Or, maybe I could buy more and use it for a really delicate sweater. I have to think about it - suggestions are appreciated though!

The other items were totally appreciated as well and were two books from my wish list and some yummy Reese's Peanut Butter cups, which will definitely NOT go to waste. It had been a while since I looked at Luxury Knits, and when I read through it last night, I found a number of things I want to make in there. Thanks again Secret Pal! You're the best!

Try this "Language Arts" quiz - I thought this was fun. Although I may purposely ignore punctuation on this blog (too many commas, run-on or fragmented sentences) I really hate the type of grammatical errors that this quiz points out. Not to sound like a snob or anything, but I think there's a good number of people out there who truly don't know or never learned this stuff (or maybe it just doesn't bother them!)

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

Progress!

Just finished the 2nd sleeve of Ariann and connected the pieces - this is going to be a LONG a&& row to work on! I didn't even dare to count how many stitches it is across. But it's connected - I know that CeCe didn't take that long to finish once I got this far, so I'm encouraged. Edited to add: BTW, as a number of people have asked me which yarn I'm using for Ariann, I thought I'd mention that I'm using Brooks Farm Riata. I bought it at Stitches Midwest in August, and they don't have the color I bought on their web site but I've attached the link. They truly are a great group of people with fabulous yarns. This concludes my commercial announcement of the day. Also bought the Rowan Country book and a ball of it for swatching the other day - I like it! May make one of the designs in this book eventually...just add that to my huge to-do list!

BACK!!!!

After being in a marketing-induced daze for the last four weeks, I am BACK! I made a lot of progress on Ariann, finishing the body and one sleeve, as well as starting the second one.

Also, went for this impulse buy at JoAnn's when signing up for yet another sewing class. Yeah, I'm thinking this is "another Perfect Pancake" as Jim would say (if you haven't heard of this, it is one of those gadgets that yes, I did buy from late night TV. Apparently, there's one born every minute.) It (the knitting machine, not The Perfect Pancake LOL) makes this very weird faux-stockinette stitch and the tension is not easy to figure out. I'm going to give it another go, but I'm thinking it's probably another $65 down the drain!

You can see I had some "issues" with the tension in the first picture - the blue yarn is the swatch that comes with it to "prove" that it works. No comment....

Back to the sewing class - in this one we get to use the Viking Platinum 715 (one of the models I am considering buying) so I'm kind of excited. And I verified that this class truly is going to use a pattern - they thought it would be pajama bottoms, which I can always use. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Baltimore Yarn Crawl

Hi everyone! Lisa and I did our Stitches East/Baltimore Yarn Crawl on Saturday and had a fabulous time! We found the crowd to be really different at the Stitches East as compared to Stitches Midwest - definitely younger. Also the convention facility was very nice and compared favorably to the Rosemont Convention Center here. It was so easy to get there - we got right on the light rail/MTA there at BWI and were at the convention center about 50 minutes later - not the fastest way to travel, but definitely the least aggravating!

So of course I couldn't take any pics inside the market - but here's what I scored!

Brooks Farm mohair

Tess Designer Yarn "Silk and Ivory" yarn - this is SO SOFT - also saw the original "Tess", the owner's 19 year old daughter who was there working at the booth with her boyfriend and was very cute and knowledgeable about the family business.

Some Tess 100% silk undyed yarn - about 650 yards - should make a cute summer top

Lana Knits Hemp for Knitting - and tons of patterns not shown here - this hemp yarn is for a BEAUTIFUL pattern that is coming out in Knitty in the next issue according to the owner

Also bought some more knitting greeting cards and a 2007 wall calendar from Pearl's KnitWits - the great mom and daughter team that I met at Stitches Midwest. Also three more pairs of Lantern Moon circulars in the ebony (sizes 4, 5, and 6 - they really need to make ones that are even smaller!)

After shopping til we dropped (about 3 hours straight), we went across the street for some Maryland crab cakes and beer. We had a crab and cheese pretzel roll, these "crab balls" and split a crab cake sandwich. Tasted great with the Blue Moon Belgian ale...

And then another at BWI...are you seeing the theme here???

It was a really fun day and Lisa and I are actually considering skipping Stitches Midwest next year and just traveling to Stitches East as we had such a great time!

Today's Sweater

Today's sweater is Zara in Big Wool, from Rowan's Bigger Picture book. They show it in a cream color and I made it in "Pistachio" Big Wool. I really like the color, and it is really really warm. Is it the most flattering sweater ever knit? Probably not. But it looks better IRL than in this picture, which was taken with my cell phone's camera.