Day: March 16, 2007

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.

Thuy’s post about Shelly from Northern Exposure has inspired me to share a little insight into my overly tv-addicted life.

1- X-Files

2- Deadwood

3- General Hospital (so housewife-y of me isn’t it?)

4- Northern Exposure

5- Arrested Development

There are some others that I do love but just don’t make it into the all time I-can-watch-them-over-and-over-again category so here they are.

6- Law & Order any & all of them

7- CSI any & all of them

8- Project Runway it’s a very seasonal, trendy watching experience for me

9- 24

10-  I just sat here for a couple of minutes and nothing popped into my head. There are plenty of shows I do & have watched but I guess they are fleeting to me.

I do love TV.

I thought I would explain why my tulip sock looks SO different than the original knitpicks sock pattern.

Side by side you can see that mine is nowhere close in color scheme. I used what palette yarns I had on hand. By the time I got to the foot of the sock I figured out that although I like how the fair isle tulips look it was unrealistic to think that in santa barbara I would ever be cold enough to wear them on a regular basis. And I have cold feet a lot! I have been known to wear socks in the summer here. I chalk it up to having bad circulation.  I thought to go along with the theme that 4 row stripes would work nicely for the foot. I do love how they turned out. I did a little dot row on the toe so it looks a bit like a seam & it ties in the stripes on the foot to the fair isle on the leg. I also don’t like the toe they used so I used my normal decrease & grafting toe.

I have decided that I will make the second sock but then no more socks with this fair isle chart. It’s too bulky for me. But I do believe that it would make the cutest mittens ever! So that may be christmas for some family members that live where it’s cold enough to actually wear mittens!

Finally the sun is out here!! I am going to go spin in the sunshine & absorb all the wonderful light while I can! If only it were warm enough for a skirt, ah well! My day has brightened!

I am considering selling all, I do mean all, my scrapbooking supplies. I have a lot of papers, patterned in fun colors for kids scrapbook pages. Ebay is where I would sell them unless I can find someone that wants to buy them here in town. I don’t have a lot of fun tools & gadgets but I do have paper coming out my ears! Some 8.5″x11″ but mostly 12″x12″ packs. All Close to my Heart. If you, or anyone you know, might be interested email me chauntel@verizon.net and I will get pics or descriptions sent out to you.

I sold a few stamps on ebay not too long ago, that is how I was able to get the roving that I am chomping at the bit waiting to arrive in the mail.  Being broke is no fun!

This weather is something else that is no fun. The lack of sunshine is having a serious effect on my brain, Vitamin D defficiency is not a good thing. We haven’t seen sunshine out here for almost 2 weeks. It did peek out two Sundays ago for a few hours & there was one clear night last week but that doesn’t count at all! At least those of you in Santa Barbara are getting little peeks at the sunshine, it’s not clearing out here on the little peninsula of Winchester Canyon in Goleta at all! What a downer.

I spent yesterday cleaning up, moving things around to not feel so cluttered in the living room so I didn’t get any knitting or spinning done at all. I thought a trip to Ross with Tracy would boost my spirits but we couldn’t even joke about the ridiculous shoes & items we normally laugh & scoff at. sigh. That is just sad that Ross didn’t even lift the spirits. So today I am going to try to think positive, not focus on cancer, mania or any of the other crap & just live in the moment. A moment of sunshine would be nice but I won’t let the clouds get me down any further, damnit!

I don’t normally post when I feel this way but I am feeling the need to spread the misery I guess, sorry ’bout that! If you see the sunshine today, think of me please!

I thought I would actually post about knitting progress! Novel idea, isn’t it?

I did finish the Starsky yesterday! It’s had a bath and now just doing the last bit of drying. I am really hoping to wear it to knitting tonight.

I love the pattern & the yahoo group Starskyknitalong is fantastic! It’s monitored by the author of the pattern Jordana Paige.  They recommended using Knitpicks Sierra, a bulky weight wool blend, but I used some Lamb’s Pride worsted that I had on hand. I love everything about it! I do think this is a pattern that I would happily knit again! It took me approx. 36 hours to make, not bad for a sweater that size. It helped being a bulky weight yarn. I haven’t done belt loops yet because I ran out of yarn. Tracy has some more for me to finish with.

I know the pics aren’t the best but with the lighting I had to deal with last night it was the best I could do!

I am about done with the back of the Ballet wrap cardigan from the Winter 2005 Interweave knits. I am using some pure merino bulky wool six ply from hpy in a color they no longer have. It’s a greenish teal. Gorgeous!

I found a pattern today that I think will be pretty easy to mimic. I love felted hats, they are so versatile! You can wear them in the rain, sun, beach (in the winter), anywhere really. So this is the hat I want to make next using up some of my wool scraps.

I got my sisters blanket to her the other day & she loved it, thank goodness! I, of course, forgot to take a picture of it beforehand so I will have her take a picture of it in her living room when they get home.

Now my goal is to find a profession sewing dress model (mannequin) for under $100. Good luck to me!! Ebay is my best bet I am thinkin’!

Over on the hello yarn blog I have found the inspiration to make my first sweater from the Norsk Strikkedesign book.

 She had a link to some of the sweaters made from the book and I found this

I do think that the colors are a bit more what I want. I love the modern black and cream but the brown & cream really scream out to me. My goal is to have the ribbings all a bit more fitted than in the picture above. I ordered Knitpicks merino style in these colors

 Main color

 Second main color

All of the highlight colors

I do think it will come out the way I have envisioned.

First I need to finish Brocade,

 then I can cast on for the norsk sweater! My progress on brocade is nill since I first cast on & knit about 5 inches on the back. Today is the day it comes out of hiding & gets some new life put into it!