Author: Chauntel Ensey

So after posting this morning I went inside and promptly cast on the rag rug for the kitchen.

It measures about 14″ across there, maybe a bit more. I am writing the pattern as I go so it will be on hand.

And of course I found the most perfect, amazing Naughty Monkey heels at Ross yesterday. Um…can you say $88 shoes for $20.99???

ooooh, I will be watching for more of this brand. damn it is hard to get a picture of your foot.

I made some fun sock stitch markers the other night. I found copper rings and stems to go with multi colored freshwater pearls I had. They will fit up to a size 3 needle (they are on a 1 in the picture).

I love copper, it’s my favorite metal but hard to find for jewelry and crafts. Now if only I knew how to use the sauldering gun I got from Tracy’s mom I could saulder the rings shut. Not sure I feel confident enough to try it at the present time.

 

Once you start, you cannot stop. No matter how hard you try, the colors, the texture, the speed of the granny square is addicting.

The colors are not exact in the photo but I did the best i could in my dark living room. I hate not having good natural light.

Anyways, I have 21 squares done and only 159 more to go. Yes, that is right! I am going to make this picnic blanket a truly large size that will actually be able to seat all of us in the family. So 15 x 12 squares it is. Now, we’ll see when I get to 14 x 12 squares if I want to do an extra row or if I call it good.

On another note, I decided that I want to do a rag/cotton rug for the kitchen. I ordered the wrong color of double worsted weight peaches & cream for the kids bath so together with some flannel sheet rag yarn it will become a spiral rug for the kitchen.

I finished teaching my 2 socks on 2 circs class last night so I have no more classes until spring break is done. Nice break with no real deadlines to meet. Dad’s dress socks are next up to be done by April 15th. No prob!

Now if I could only tear myself away from the granny squares long enough to accomplish something!

this is by no means the actual order in which they will be assembled. I just willy-nilly threw them out on the floor.

I love my ups man & I don’t love my usps woman but she is forgiven only for today.

Peaches & Creme solids for a picnic granny square blanket. The green is more sage than that & the blue is periwinkle not royal and the orange is not so bright. Cameras, sheesh.

deep breath….sigh….so much pretty sock yarn. 500 yards each superwash wool from Over the Rainbow Yarns on Ebay. The colors are Leaflitter, Pale Parrot and Freaky Purple.
Obvi, for socks. I am considering knee highs out of the freaky purple for Sadie, toe up & stockinette. So great to go with her Chuck’s.

And some yarn that wasn’t delivered to my house, I got it at Michaels

Red Heart Soft in purple. I know, some of you just shuddered but until you have knit something with it & worn it a dozen times you have NO RIGHT TO JUDGE IT. oops, got a little opinionated there ;o)

 

Saturday it was like a lightbulb went off in my head. All the new yarn, new books, etc had to be put together or organized in some new way. hmmm….a list…..not enough…..inventory them….not enough….put both ideas together & what do you get? The perfect plan. Bag the yarns & patterns/books together and keep them all in one place, inventoried so that when I want to start something new I have a place to go, a living yarn catalog!

There are 22 projects in there; sweaters, shawls, socks, bags, blankets, you name it, it’s in there. A couple are already on needles but I have no love for them right now, they can be lumped together with upcoming projects.

I bought the new Rebecca 33 over the weekend with yarn for 3 projects since CE had their yarn all on 30% off. Great time to buy GGH, on sale. I finished the pieces for one (a bikini top, shocking!) yesterday and will sew them together as soon as I have the legs of the socks for the sock class I am teaching at the correct length. I bought fabric for lining it too. We’ll see if it needs to be lined or if I can get away with wearing it without my feeders poking through.

So basically my goal of finishing the cabled sweater was totally missed. But, come tomorrow I will back to working solely on that.

and what should appear in my mailbox today???

hipknits hand dyed silk

and

the Cotton Fine in teal for the Isabella sweater

Yippee!! More motivation for finishing some projects!

I do have a few exciting things to tell you but not yet. For now you may have a few  teaser pictures.

mmmm….socks…..

I have been faithfully working on the sleeves of the cream cabled sweater. They are coming right along. Slow going with 2 at once though. I left them sitting on my chair last night when I left for knitting though so I swatched the noro Silk Garden I splurged on. As well as fondling the Debbie Bliss Merino Aran. My hope is that I will be able to finish the sweater this weekend. It’s a tall order but I want.it.done.

I bought a new entryway bench the other day, love it.

It was on sale and I have been waiting for it, so I bought it. It’s nice to have an income again ;o)

I am sure there is plenty more yarn that will come in the mail. I have 5 hanks of sock yarn, 1 hank of hipknits silk worsted, the Brown Sheep Cotton fine for the Isabella and cone cotton for a granny square summer blanket that I really really want.

 

Okay so after my binge spending last week I have decided it’s time to get my crap together and finish some things. So Friday I finished the Great Absorba Bathmat for my tiny bath.

I could list all I have coming but then I would possibly die of a heartattack. Lots of it (ok all of it) was either on clearance or just such a good deal that I had to have it. For now my goal is to finish the cream cabled sweater from Rebecca 32. Here are my 2 pieces, front & back, that are finished. I have the sleeves cast on & a couple of rows done. Knitting them at the same time will take about as long as the front took me but I am not going to work on anything else. 2, maybe 3 days I am hoping. Then assembly and the cowl collar, 218 sts in 2×2 rib for 18cm. That’ll be a fun way to top it off

I love woolease. It has all the feel of wool and the flexibility of acrylic while still being soft and lovely (and don’t forget inexpensive).

 After all of our Charlie the bunny/dog talk last night I thought I would share my fave photo

I love the Isabella so much I had to find a suitable yarn to substitute for the Rowan 4 ply cotton. Not sure why I wanted a substitute yarn but I did. Actually, I remembered that the Brown Sheep Cotton Fine is the same gauge and I have wanted to try it for ages so there you have it.

Of course, I bought it from my favorite place to get Brown Sheep wools (other than Lambs Pride through K&P), Oregon Trail Yarn & Books.

Oh so pretty, New Age Teal

I started  a new project this evening with some of my new yarn. Tracy & I ordered a whole crapload of Peaches ‘n Creme cotton cones for various things.

 One thing that I need badly is the Mason Dixon Amazing Absorba bathmat. Chocolate brown for my bathroom & charcoal grey for the kids bathroom. One thing I have never understood when ordering from Elmore-pisgah is that they send free sweatshirt inserts, this time a camel~ looky here

You are supposed to cut a regular sweatshirt (not sweater) and sew it in as a panel.
Honestly, who is going to use that? And if you would, please leave a comment & let me know what you would use it for. I am so interested!

I have 4 of the 9 log cabin blocks done. I think I will go as far as I can with the 2 cones or I will make a second mat for the sink if I have enough left on the cones after the first. I am using 2 strands on size 13’s instead of 3 strands on size 15’s. I knew my left hand couldn’t stand up to that kind of strongman knitting. I already have used arthritis cream & have my handy thera-gloves on (inside out cuz the damn seams cut into my skin). I sound like I’m 80, don’t I?? haha And switched from continental to english (or american) style to give my left hand a break. It’s not as fast but less pain so it’s worth the trade off.

Something else I haven’t shown you is the sweater I finished for Knit & Pearl using Manos Del Uruguay cotton.

That was a hard red to get a good picture of.  Overall I am pleased although I will say that yarn is not my favorite to work with. There were multiple knots in each hank. It had a nice hand though and was very soft.

Okay, off to knit until dawn…not really….

 

I just spent way more time reading the new issue of Knitty than I should have. Here are the 2 patterns that WILL be made by me at some point in the not too distant future:

Isabella by Jordana Paige
I love her patterns, she wrote Starsky among other things.

Clessidra socks

Now, that sock pattern reminds me of another sock pattern that I have yet to tell you about. Well I did mention it but never the full story. The lovely, gorgeous Entrelac socks by Eunny Jang in the IK spring ’07. I cast them on the night I got the mag in the mail. I used some sock yarn I had on hand from Over the Rainbow Yarns (linked on the sidebar). Perfect colors, gorgeous pattern, matched gauge- or at least I thought so. Obvi my gauge changed from stockinette to doing entrelac. Because, I got the entire leg up to where I would start the cuff (that is all the way to my knee folks) and decided I should try it on.

Now, before you think ‘ why did she wait so long before trying it on?’, I did try it on after turning the heel and doing two tiers. It fit fine, a tad snug but I have other socks that are much more tight & they are more than functional.

So, I pull it on, oh shit. I pull some more. Not going on. No way, no how. Unfortunately my skinny ankles are not skinny enough apparently, for the lack of leg shaping above the ankles for 6″. I should have increased at about 4″ and then again at 6″. But I didn’t know that. So, I ripped out the entire sock to the heel turn. Yes, 5 full days of knitting only that sock & I ripped it out in less than 5 minutes. My husband kept apologizing to me while watching to make sure I didn’t have a brain aneurism from anger. Anger at myself, Eunny for the perfectly beautiful sock that was almost mine. So here it is, ripped out & waiting to be re-knit.

 (I am not giving it the satisfaction of a great picture)

Honestly I am not sure I will ever be able to bring myself to knit them again. I loved doing it the first time, it wasn’t a chore. I have a feeling the second time is going to be more than a chore. I have plans, ideas for the second time around. My own short row heel pattern, knit them both at once either magic loop or on 2 circs so they can easily be tried on after every set of tiers (not tears, I will say it is a damn good thing I was not pms’ing when it happened or I may have just burned them in the fireplace outside).

Deep breath.

Until now I couldn’t even talk about it without getting angry. But that is life when you knit other peoples patterns.