Category: Blog

I really wish I could say that I have continued to only knit from my stash. Alas, I have not. I have acquired more new yarn lately than I should have. But what can a woman do when it’s so pretty and you can use it right away on a gift for someone (even though you have perfectly good yarn at home to make the project with already)? Many, many people are needing gifts in the near future so I am planning ahead, knitting now. Babies, birthdays, more babies. What is a knitter to do? Knit some more & of course, buy more yarn to knit it with.

Tonight’s knit group was fun, we talked about electrolosis on the nether regions, body hair issues in general, raccoons crawling through houses in spaces that aren’t even meant to have living beings inside of them (walls, attics, ceiling/floor of second story). Lots of interesting topics. None of which were knitting. Although knitting was happening (along with quite a few mistakes due to lack of concentration).

Projects I am working on…..hm….well I would love to share it all but there are those that are recipients of certain items so I cannot share until after they are given. But I can tell you about…no, wait….those are a gift too. Okay, nevermind, you get no knitting information.

I would love to do a yarn acquisition photo but my husband might actually be alarmed if he saw it all in one place. I will do it tomorrow while he is working ;o) I am so evil.

I stopped in at Knit & Pearl today and there are new yarns. Yummy, soft, luxurious, sparkly,  perfect new yarns. And new books, patterns, needles (addi turbo lace needles coming soon). With plenty more to come. Julie can’t order all the yarns I want until you people get your butts in there & start shopping to support my habit! Get movin’ girls (and boys if there are any in the SB area that can show us you knit, or crochet).

I can be totally honest and say that I have never bought so much yarn from a local yarn shop before. Maybe from Craft Essentials but they are not a specialty shop but a regular craft store that happens to carry yarn & take Michaels 40% off coupons.  I am rather proud of myself for going to Julie before I go online to see if she has anything that will work with whatever project I am thinking of. I have to confess, she did order Lambs Pride bulky in aubergine just for me because I wanted to make my mom mukluks but I never did buy the yarn. I do have plans to though!! ;o) Okay, fine I will buy it soon. It would be rather rude of me not to, wouldn’t it?? (this is me begging to be held accountable, follow through on promises made)

Anywho, after all these gifts are knit over the next few weeks I will have more to show by way of pictures instead of lots of wordy words. I know, it’s boring without visual stimulation. I can leave you with this though,

 

A reminder of how the racoon escaped my attic. Enjoy.

I distinctly remember saying in my last post how glad I was to not have the internet so I could get a lot of knitting done. Yeah, nothing has been done since. Okay, some things have been done but not nearly as much as I would like to have done.

I have been working on baby gifts. There are all kinds of babes being/just been born in my circle of peeps.

I also spent the weekend in Disneyland so there is good reason to not have gotten any knitting done. Although I did finish crocheting a new hat for Trevor so he had a hat to wear in the evening. Good thing too because it was chilly. Tracy has most pictures on her magical camera but I do have a couple on my hand me down camera (thanks tracy). Let’s see what I can find…..

Here are George & the kids in the ‘tub’, ‘accuzzi’, ‘shacuzzi’, depending on what kid you talk to, at the Grand Californian Hotel. (Oh Lord how I do love that hotel)

Here is Tracy leading Trevor through Fantasyland, or is it that Trevor is leading Tracy? That is how it went most of the day, we adults were just dragged around by our buddies. Seeing how this trip was the first trip where it was a 1:1, kid:adult ratio we buddied up. Tracy & Trevor, George & Sadie, Tyler & I. It made it pretty simple. This is also the first trip where I am in pictures!!! That is great! Once again, Tracy saved the day.

Now, knitting stuff. I did finish a baby hat & another washcloth. It is the burp rag pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting but I didn’t like how long it was taking so it became a washcloth. I used Aunt Lydia’s cotton, marl tan with Rowan Denim.

Right now I am working on more baby items. I teach my last beginning sweater class tonight then next week I start the 2 socks on 2 circ’s class again. Between now & then I have to type out my pattern, do photos of the cast on & heel process and then print out patterns. Not that fun but very, very important! That reminds me, I should do my swatch so I can have Julie pass it on to the students. I love handing out homework before the class even begins!!

 

There won’t be much talking through this post but lots of pretty pictures to keep your attention. Okay, the pictures might not be pretty but the knit items certainly are!

First off, we have the plum cashmere vest from Vogue knitting.

I am pretty pleased with how it turned out although it shrunk up a bit more than the swatch did. (You can look up previous posts to get the details on this one.) I will just persistently block it. The cashmere I got from Colourmart, or I should say Tracy got me for my birthday from Colourmart. ;o) LOVE IT. Love that store, love cashmere.

Next up, a deep v vest using Soy Wool Stripes yarn from Patons. It’s a pattern of my own design. I eventually may do something with it, offer it up for free or submit it somewhere. Not that it’s all that spectacular really. I should have done a few short rows on the back of the collar to aleviate the pulling on the deep V.

Moving right along.

I started & finished this beauty in 2 days. Using some cone acrylic slub yarn and a pattern from Vogue Fall ’06 this went ridiculously fast. I must say, it is one of my favorite sweaters.

Let’s see, what else. Oh yes, the Filatura di Crosa short sleeved cabled sweater that I used Red Heart Soft Yarn for. I am wearing it right now. I had to strip to take a picture of it. Hope that doesn’t offend anyone out there

It’s a tad more dark than that, more spice colored but you know how finicky reds can be.

On to other items. I knit 2 diagonal mesh bags. One using Euroflax sportweight

And another one using Peaches ‘n Creme cone kitchen cotton in colorway sour green apple

For this one I decided to forgo the 3 needle bind off and make a bag bottom in the round (using magic loop) decreasing down to a few stitches and pulling my yarn tight. It’s a solid knit bottom and much more roomy than the 3 needle bind off method.

Socks have been coming off the needles also. First are my socks that I knit while teaching my first beginning sock class at Knit & Pearl using size 2 needles and Claudia Handpainted yarn in Walk in the Woods colorway. (to be quite honest, I may have already posted a picture of these but forgotten, forgive the repetition)

And socks that I made teaching the 2 socks on 2 circ’s class at K&P also. I used size 2 needles and Hot Foot sockyarn from Village spinning & weaving in Solvang.

Okay, so, whew! That is what I have done while not having the internet. That doesn’t include knitting 90% of Eunny Jang’s entrelac sock from the newest IK and then having to rip it all the way out to the heel because the middle of the leg didn’t fit. sigh. I can’t talk about that one yet. I will take a picture of what is left. I have decided to actually use kpppm like is recommended. I have enough on hand to make rainbow-ish socks. That is exciting to me but I am still rather pissed off at that ripping experience to move on.

I have been working on baby items. My sister in law had my newest nephew about 3 hours ago, Andrew Eldon Eby. Gotta love the name. So he is my focus for the time being.

Here is a bib from Mason Dixon knitting. I used Aunt Lydia’s crochet cotton in a tan/white marl color with a square metal button for closure.

And you may have noticed Mickey in the background. He’s my new duvet cover, I got him for Christmas. Twill embroidered. I love him.

Speaking of Mickey, we are going to visit him this weekend. Staying at the Grand Californian Hotel and playing for the weekend. Too much fun, there will be pictures of course. Keep an eye out on Tracy’s blog, I will make her take pics with the ‘good camera’.

Okay, so for now that is all my brain & hands can handle.

Thanks for stickin’ in there with me over this tumultuous time in my internet/blog/phone history, y’all ROCK!

Well I just got through either browsing, deleting or actually reading 5,473 emails. Yes, that is right, 5,473. That is thanks to all of my yahoo group sites. I do believe I will be switching to daily digests. It’s late. I have not taken pics yet. I have no words to type. But I am here & that is all that is important to me right now

Good night!!

So it’s all fixed. Well, I have the internet again. High Speed Internet. Not just dsl. lame dsl.

It’s late & I feel totally overwhelmed after 6 weeks with no internet so this is all you get for this evening.

I promise pictures & stuff soon. Maybe not tomorrow. I have millions of bloglines to go through to get all caught up on all of your wonderful blogs & news. Thousands of emails. Literally over 4000 in one of my inbox’s alone. It’s gonna be a process. sigh. I can do it!

But Julie from Knit & Pearl is letting me use the computer before the start of teaching my class tonight. ;o) Thanks Julie!

I have done more knitting in the last month not having the internet at my house. I must say, beside the ridiculous inconvenience of not having everything in the world at my fingertips, I have rather enjoyed the solitude. Must be my mood.

Last week Tyler & I shared a horrendous cold, I had to reschedule my class and miss knitting. But I am alive & well this week so it’s all good. I will be there Thursday with bells & whistles on.

Just as a teaser, I have finished 3 sweaters, 2 bags, 2 pair of socks. On the needles, a curtain, socks, and a jumble of sweaters.

I got my new Interweave knits yesterday and HO BOY! Eunny got my number again. I have cast on her entrelac socks and LOVE them.

Gotta go, class starts in a few minutes and I have over 1000 emails to delete ;o)

This is Tracy posting as Chauntel.  Chaun is having, well, major internet issues.  The tech service guy is *supposed* to come out Friday sometime to fix the issue.  So, for now, the internet, the email, and the home phone are disabled.  If you need to get ahold of her, call her on her cell, or call me! 

(Email me at tea@cwnet.com if you need Chaun’s cellie)

Tracy

Ellwood Mesa has the most amazing Monarch butterfly preserve. Just amazing.  There weren’t as many butterflies there this morning as in December or November (from what I have heard about this years migration from other visitors) but it was still amazing to see them all hanging there like clumps of dried up dead leaves.

And, it got my walking for the day done. I would guess at about a mile and a half total with all the circles we did trying to get good viewing of the butterflies.  So that puts my total at 3.9miles/100miles. I swear, I am going to do my best to accomplish that 100. (even if I have to start wearing a pedometer whenever I leave the house)

Knitting last night was fun, I was tired but it was fun. I got rid of a ton of yarn from my stash, thanks to all who took some! It helps my conscience a lot to know I may be contributing to someone elses stash instead of my own ;o) I didn’t get a chance to chat and hang with the other half of the group across the way from me so next week may call for a change in our seating arrangement, I will insert myself somewhere I don’t usually sit just to mix it up.

I havent’ really knit much at all in the last 2 days. Too busy with school, business stuff and general crap to be done. Not even any cleaning, which means my house is in complete disarray! And I haven’t done any more work on inventorying and cataloging my stash. That will come along soon just so I can be done with it.

 

 

I posted a new photo to Photosnotknitting.

I posted a new photo to Photosnotknitting.