new project!

November 30, 2014 by 5 Comments

Finally, I’m diligently working on something:

It’s the beginnings of the Gothic Lace Cowl and I’m making it for my fiance’s younger sister, who is also going to be the maid of honor in the wedding.  She asked for a scarf in a burnt orange color (it’s one of her school colors), and this particular one is cool because you can wear it as a short scarf or as a cowl — it has buttons so you can change it up.  I’m going to try to get it done by Christmas, but with the two times I’ve already had to frog and go back a ways, I’ll have to be working at a decent rate.  We shall see.

The yarn is Berroco Vintage, a machine washable worsted weight yarn composed of 52% acrylic, 40% wool, and 8% nylon.  It’s one of my favorites for gifts and blankets because it is warm, pretty soft, and commonly retails for about $8.50 per skein, which is 100g and 200m.  The color is slightly heather-y:

By the way, the cute stitch markers pictured were purchased from Ruth, who runs the blog Ruth Plus Two, on her Etsy shop, where she also has hand-dyed yarns for sale.

While I’m giving shoutouts I have to mention Nicky, who runs the blog D’NALI, because she was so kind as to send me her extra copy of a Vogue Knitting book, as well as a sweet card:

Thank you so much Nicky, the book has already helped me figure out a couple of knitting techniques that were baffling me!  It was very kind of you to send it and I greatly appreciate it!

And lastly, I want to let everyone know how delicious these are:

I bought these from Target and they are incredible!  I’ve been gobbling them up while knitting and marathoning the Harry Potter movies.  Kind of obsessed with those.

Well, that’s all for today.  Hopefully I’ll be able to post the finish scarf/cowl soon!  Thanks for stopping by!

Filed Under: knitting Tagged With: , , ,

black friday yarn

November 29, 2014 by 5 Comments

Some yarn buying happened yesterday, but not in a store. In fact, I don’t think there is a LYS at all in my city. KnitPicks, however, was having a sale (and still is), and it was impossible to resist.

I decided to try a new yarn, hoping for some motivation and inspiration, and the Hawthorne line caught my eye. The Hawthorne yarn is a fingering/sock weight yarn and is composed of 80% superwash fine highland wool and 20% nylon, and every colorway is gorgeous! I hope it’s soft, too, because I got 6 skeins.

Here are pictures of the colorways I purchased:

IMG_3001-0.JPG

IMG_3002.JPG

IMG_2999-0.JPG

IMG_3003-0.JPG

IMG_3004.JPG

IMG_3005.JPG

Aren’t they lovely? I can’t wait to receive them and get to work on some projects!

Have you ever tried this line of KnitPicks yarn? If so, what did you think?

That’s all for today, I think. Thank you for stopping by!

Filed Under: crochet, knitting Tagged With: , , , , , ,

picky knitting

October 3, 2014 by 5 Comments

Firstly, I have a problem:

IMG_0511.JPG
What’s up with those holes? That’s my Paulie cardi, which is coming along nicely — I finished the body and have cast on the arms, and what you’re seeing in the picture is the armpit part. How do I fix that? That’s been my first problem so far.

Problem two is actually that I hate using circular needles for the arm part. I thought it would be fine but I think it would really be a lot faster and less troublesome if I switched to DPNs. Problem three: I don’t have DPNs in the required size. Argh! I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks before I can get them, so that just puts off finishing my sweater even farther into winter. Boo.

Well, instead, I’ll work on my garter stitch blanket. That’ll be a nice change of pace from tiny sock-weight yarn.

Aaaaand I know I haven’t had much crochet stuff going on lately, but I am pleased to announce that I’ve got some supplies coming in the mail for a new crochet project! I plan on making quite a few of these items in different colors, etc., and I can’t wait to share with you! And there was a surprise with the pattern I’ll be using: it calls for a hook size that I DON’T HAVE. I couldn’t believe it — after 9-ish years of crochet, there’s a hook size I haven’t acquired. Well, that has been rectified, but unfortunately the only kind I could get was Boye, and I much prefer Susan Bates. The hook size is between a US B and a US C. I have a hook that was .05mm too big, but I want to be exact so I don’t run out of yarn.

Well, there’s been lots of complaining in this post, so I’ll just wait to post anything else until I’m in a better mood. All the lovely rain is cheering me up, but it’s still so hot outside. I’m such a negative Nancy sometimes.

I hope ya’ll are having a good week. And of course, as always, thanks for stopping by! We’ll have updates very soon, I hope!

Filed Under: knitting Tagged With: , , ,

Giftie Slouchie Beanie #4

September 24, 2014 by 11 Comments

With a number 4, you can probably guess that this is a great knit hat to make. And with a name like Giftie Slouchie Beanie it’s pretty easy to infer that this particular hat is great for gifts.

IMG_0507.JPG
It’s great for gifts for a few reasons: it uses chunky yarn and bigger needles so you can make it quickly; it looks difficult even though it’s not that hard; it’s very stretchy so it can fit almost any adult head. In fact, all of my versions of this have been gifted to men I know for these reasons!

IMG_0509.JPG
This one in particular is going to my uncle. He’s starting chemo this week (in fact it could have already started by now), and he’ll be in the hospital for a few weeks at least. I’m worried about him of course, but he’s got such a great positive attitude and I know that that can make all the difference in the world! The doctors said he’d almost certainly lose his hair, though, and since hospitals are often very cold anyway and it’ll be late October-ish when he gets out, I figured a hat would be a nice gift that says that I care and am thinking about him. The great thing is, he doesn’t even know that I knit and crochet, so it’ll be a surprise! I’ll try to mail it within the next couple of days so that he’ll get it ASAP and can start using it! Hopefully he’ll like it!

Here’s a close-up of the stitches:

IMG_0508.JPG
For some reason it was hard to get the color of the hat right in the photos — it’s a slightly dark teal (and I almost forgot to mention it’s Berroco Vintage Chunky — a soft wool blend).

Well, that’s it for today. I’d paused on the Paulie cardi and the garter stitch blanket to work on this but updates on either one of those should be coming in the near future. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Filed Under: knitting Tagged With: , , ,

Paulie the hibernating cardigan

September 19, 2014 by 8 Comments

I haven’t touched my Paulie cardigan in over a year. Here’s where I was in early 2013:

IMG_0499.JPG
The going was slow, as anyone who has tried to make a larger object with thin yarn knows, and a bit monotonous — knit a row, purl a row, knit a row, purl a row, etc. — but my desire for a sweater that I have knitted myself is still there, especially as we’re beginning to get into slightly cooler weather. So the Paulie cardigan was again picked up, and in just a couple of weeks I’ve gotten a good bit farther:

IMG_0497.JPG
The edges are curly but it should fit once it’s straightened out and the button band is added. I feel like once the body of the sweater is done, the rest will be a breeze; the sleeves should progress a lot faster since the rows will be so much shorter. Exciting!

In other news, I’ve been doing a bit of wedding planning. While overwhelming with all of the things I need to do, I have lots of support from both of our families. We’re working on securing the dates and locations for everything and have already got ideas for everything else.

Also, our dog Zero has been doing really well except for the night last week when we had a very loud and long thunderstorm (we usually get gentle rain that doesn’t last very long). She would not leave my lap and was shaking, poor thing.

IMG_0498.JPG
She’s back to her normal healthy and happy self and loves cuddles:

IMG_0495.JPG

Work has been going pretty well — I’ve made a good friend and am getting my work done on time. There’s a bit of burnout due to how busy we are, but I make sure to take a day off every once in a while to recharge.

That’s really about it for now — thanks for stopping by! I’ll try to continue diligently working on both the Paulie cardigan and also my garter stitch striped blanket. I’ve been looking for some things to crochet, too! Well, see you later!

Filed Under: knitting Tagged With: , , , ,
«Previous Page
Next Page»