August 30, 2015

My eyes are burning...

Since I'm due in December this year I decided to make a conscious effort to ensure that all my Christmas Knitting was fine WELL ahead of time. Famous last words I'm sure, BUT I'm on schedule so far. I've completed:

A pair of Star Trek Nerd Socks for my brother using all the Pandia's Jewels scraps from the previous 3 pairs and 1.26 skeins of Universal Yarns Pace in Steel.




Next up was a pair of socks for my husband. The poor guy is usually last and then it gets put on the back burner since I'm never done before Christmas ;-) I knit him a pair of Mindless Zombie Socks using a skein of Out Of Step Dyeworks MCN Self-Striping Sock in Zombie Apocalypse. he's a zombie apocalypse lover so this skein seemed fitting :-)




Then I started to knit a couple pairs of socks using some Handmaiden Casbah Sock that I had left in my scraps. I had Eugene, Stardust & Cedar left over. More than enough for 2 pairs of ankle socks :-)




That's 3 people down!! I just have 3 to go! So I went digging through my scraps again and picked out 2 remnants. A ball of Dragonfly Dyewerx Smooshy Sock in Princess 2.0 and a ball of Rocky Mountain Dyeworks Sundance Sock in Red Hot Pink. The Red Hot Pink is EYE SEARING!!!! I am not a pink lover BUT.... I've resigned myself to understand that some people DO love pink. I will never understand it but.... Whatever. So behold the WIP - Red Hot Pink Mindless Socks...




I've decided to knit these in the evenings and when I need mindless stockinette knitting. Blah to pink :-(

I'm also working on a pair of Cinder Block Socks for our hunting buddy Bill. My husband was raving to him about a particular pair of alpaca socks I had knit him so he promised Bill a pair :-) I had a skein of Alpaca With A Twist Socrates in a Charcoal that my husband picked out for Bill, so I started knitting. Bill has size 12 feet so it was going to be a shot in the dark I guess if I would have enough. After I knit the first sock it was apparent that I was NOT going to have enough yarn. So I contacted a few Ravelers on Ravelry to see if they would sell me their scraps, and boy did 2 wonderful ladies come through. We did a few swaps for mini skeins or stitch markers and I had what I needed :-) Once I got their scraps in the mail I had decided that I wanted to re knit the socks with a slightly smaller needle and a different stitch count to get a hard wearing gauge that would wear well for many years of hunting. So I started the second sock and I'm extremely happy with how it's knitting up so I'm continuing with the modifications :-)




The only thing is, is that since it's a charcoal yarn it's primarily day time knitting. Hence the need for the eye searing red hot pink socks for my evening knitting ;-)

Happy Knitting :-)



August 24, 2015

Knitterly Adventures

This weekend was full of new friends and travels of knitterly adventures :-) I recently had become acquainted with Tracey on Ravelry. She was interested in some of my destash yarns and it led to quite a few PM's back and forth ;-) We were able to wrangle up a meet up this weekend which included a field trip for my husband to Cabelas. He was happy that he could visit his favorite store and I was happy that I could visit with a wonderful fiber related friend :-) We had a wonderful visit and time flew by! Tracey gave some destash skeins a wondeful new home and even purchased a skein of PrairieDyeStudio MCN Sock skein in Purple Passion and 2 sets of Snagless Stitch Markers.



Top set is Chrysocolla and the bottom set is White Jade :-)

I was so happy to connect with a fiber friend and meet them in person! So many times we have fiber friends on Ravelry and very seldomly get to meet them in person! Thanks so much Tracey!!

Once I found my husband in Cabelas after my visit I got a good laugh! He had caught our 2.5 yr old putting fishing lures in her Bubble Guppies back pack. So he was massively stressed, embarrassed and had to keep a keen eye on her for a while. Once we explained it to her she seemed to understand that she couldn't do that. I have a sneaking suspicion that she was trying to help her daddy by picking out what fishing lures she liked while he was picking out what he liked BUT... it's a parenting moment. This is still a funny story that I will relentlessly bug my husband about!

On the knitting front I'm making good progress on the second sock from the second pair of Scrappy Casbah Socks I'm knitting for Christmas Gifts this year :-)




I'm hoping to have this castes off in the next 2 days. I'm stretching it a bit time wise but I want to have some time to knit up in my new WIP. That's right, I casted on a NEW WIP!!

As soon as From Way Back popped up on my Ravelry friends feed I've been in love with it! I've been pricing out yarns to knit it up and haven't been able to find anything in my budget since I'm a stay at home mom. After our visit to Cabelas my husband and I stopped at Pam's Woolly Shoppe in Stoney Plain (which is a short drive away) and I stumbled on some Estelle Eco Andean DK Wool. I figured I needed 4 skeins but I bought the last 5 skeins in this color way. I figured I like my sweaters longer and if I happen to run out with 4 skeins I might be pooched to find some more in the same dye lot. This was definitely in my budget. It cost $62 and change for all 5 skeins!

Once I got home I casted on and promptly ripped it out since I **HATE** provisional cast on. I always mess it up and when I pick up the other side to join it always looks super sloppy and baggy, for me anyways. So I changed it to a plain long tail cast on and I'm sure it will be fine :-) I doubt anyone will notice once it's done. I haven't gotten much done but I've been working on it here and there. It's my selfish project and has no estimated completion time :-) Just whenever I feel like knitting on it :-)




Overall it was a lovely weekend full of new friends and travels full of knitterly adventures :-)

Happy Knitting!!

August 14, 2015

Announcement and A Bit of Catch Up :-)

I've been holding back a secret for the past 22 weeks and haven't posted it on the blog but I'm sure you can guess what it is. My little family will be expanding to include another child sometime in mid December. I'm 22 weeks along and was very sick the first 3 months. My appetite has come back but I've been focusing on everything else EXCEPT for the blog for the last couple months. Potty training my 2.5 year old is stagnant and there are days where she uses the potty sporadically, then she's convinced the potty is a toddler eating monster. I don't want to push it as I'm afraid she'll hate it more so I encourage her to use it and reward her when she does. So that's where my pregnant frazzled brain is at :-(

Now today on the other hand today started out to be a fun day ;-) It started out that I slept horribly last night as I'm carrying this baby out front and I've been trying to get comfortable with pillows supporting it at night which is NOT comfortable. So I got very little sleep. So I'm surviving on coffee today.

I had an epic coffee disaster this morning. I went to reheat my coffee in the microwave and on the way back to my couch my butter fingers dumped the whole cup of coffee on my Moonmist Ombré Cardigan. Sigh. So this is where my 4 balls of Moonmist and cardigan are hanging out since I'm not sure if the coffee would stain it.




So this is the first time I've washed wound balls of yarn so I hope it dries. I think I'll squish it gently between a towel and put it in the window still to let it dry once I'm sure the coffee has been washed from it. I blame this incident on not drinking enough coffee to get my mind functioning before I attempted to do anything. Maybe next time I'll put my coffee in a spill proof sippy cup!

I think I'm going to relax a bit today and knit on these Scrappy Casbah Socks which are for my Christmas 2015 stash! I have enough of these colors to knit 2 pairs of socks I think. Right now I'm working on the instep of the second sock on the first pair. So once I finish the second sock I should have more than enough for a second pair of Stripy Scrappy Socks.




I usually don't knit ankle socks but my mom loves ankle socks, so here I am. Although they are quick to knit up :-) I just find they photograph weird ;-)

I'm so blessed to have so many orders shipped out of my Etsy Shop since the Karmic Balancing Gifts on the YarnHarlots blog post :-) So I've been keen on getting as many options of gems and minerals Snagless Stitch Marker sets as I can available. Just recently I've made a couple different options available to my wonderful patrons :-) Now you can choose what size of Snagless Stitch Markers you want in the mineral or gemstone you want for a set! You can choose from Small, Medium or Large and they are made to order and will ship out within a day :-)

The other option is the Create Your Own Stitch Marker Set which allows you to choose the size you want (Small, Medium or Large) and you get to choose what minerals you want to create your own custom set from all the instock mineral or gemstone beads I have :-)

Two great options that will give my customers more selection of what they want for their own personalized Snagless Stitch Marker Set :-) I hope everyone loves these changes :-)

Lastly, I've loaded a few SECONDS sets into the Etsy shop :-)




There are 4 types of SECONDS Snagless Stitch Marker sets to choose from. This time around YOU choose the stitch marker size (Small, Medium or Large). There are 3 Chohua Jasper sets, 1 Picture Jasper set, 1 Orange Calcite set & 2 Green Spot Jasper sets :-) The link for my Etsy Shop is on the right side of my blog if you would like to see what's available. the SECONDS sets usually go fairly quickly so get one while you can :-)

Now I'm off to knit a bit and brew another cup of coffee. When I say brew I mean use that heaven sent device called a Keurig :-) I'll leave you with a photo of my "oh so tired" fur babies :-)




Happy Knitting :-)