Progress...

One good thing about being stuck in the airport - I had time to knit. I did lots of knitting on my recent trip home. I knitted while visiting with my Grandma, well, everyone really. Then on the flight home I was delayed a few hours so I had even more knitting time. So lots of Clapotis progress. I have to say, I am on the straight rows & am about to poke my eyeballs out. I am bored bored bored with it. Well, all of it except the dropped stitches - that is cool!

I've decided to start the Rowan Beth sweater - link under Projects of Interest - in my Berrocco Vibe yarn. I figure that I need several projects to keep me from being bored. I had startitis, now I'm having issues finishing what I started.

I also bought yarn. Big shocker. In my defense it was cheap yarn. Isn't that always the defense? The Bernat yarn is for yet another pinwheel baby blanket. My boss' wife is preggers & they found out this week that it's a boy, so I have until September to get this one done. Maybe it will be bigger than a stroller blanket & I will know how to crochet a cool border on it by then. I really like the yarn colors but damn all these boys! I want to knit a cutie pink girly blanket. Flash to the pink girl yarn. Walmart had it on ridiculous clearance & my niece Jordyn would totally dig it, so I figured that I'd make her a scarf & a hat for the fall. That's the excuse...I mean plan....anyway.

That's all for now!

Happy Clappy!

Here is the beginning of my Clapotis. (to view what it will look like when I'm done you can click the link under "projects of interest). I figured I had to have a reason that I bought this yarn & it came to me last week - it needs to be my clappy! As a fellow knitter points out, this project surely sounds like an STD but instead it is a pretty shawl / wrap. It was a bear to start (I frogged it probably 15 times? no lie) but now that I've got a handle on the pattern it's fun to knit. I get to bring it with me when I travel on Thursday!



Well, this is the scarf that I made with the Marble yarn that I purchased at the DFW Fiber Fest. I was obsessed with a basket weave pattern & had to knit one for some reason - I have no clue as to why! I bought this yarn specifically for Patrick's mom because she loves fall colors & wears them often. I figured I'd get a jump on her September birthday & be done. Well...I've heard knitters say that yarn didn't want to be what they had planned & I thought it sounded insane. Now I get it. After knitting about 5 inches of this scarf I told Patrick "this is a boy scarf, not a mom scarf". Period. It's a boy scarf! It looks manly & I really really love it, but it's not hers. I'm not sure who the owner will be, but I'm thinking I can make a hat and put a few more inches length with the additional yarn that I have & poof - it becomes a Christmas gift. Now I just have to figure out which of the men in my life would actually USE a scarf / hat combo! I do have to say that this yarn is great - so easy to work with and for acrylic it is surprisingly soft. I awful glad since I have a huge pile of it to make a sweater for myself.

That's it for now. I'm leaving tomorrow to go see my little sister graduate from high school. It's so hard to believe that she is 18 & going off to college. But I'll be happy to get to see everyone. LATER!

Random Pictures & Musings

I finished the Pinwheel Baby Blanket. It was fun and I think I'll make it my new baby gift. Hopefully by next time I'll know how to make a pretty crochet edge, not just a single stitch one - that in all honesty Tatiana did for me! Plus next time I think I'll make it bigger and maybe make the border with a different color yarn. All in all a fun & mostly mindless project.

My attempt at intarsia from the conference. In case you can't tell it's the bottom half of a heart. I took the class Sunday morning and to be honest I don't think it's for me. I'm glad that I know how to do it, the class was good, the teacher was great, I just don't think I have the patience for it. As a matter of fact I told a friend that I put it in the same hate category as socks...but I think that is a bit harsh! Maybe one day I will change my mind and make something with a picture on it, but in the meantime, no go for me.

Next Wednesday at the Plano meetup group we are starting the Vegas scarf. It's basically a game where dice determine what yarn you use & you flip a coin to determine if you knit or purl. It sounds like tons of fun & this is the yarn I'm bringing with me. You use 6 different yarns but as you can see I have way more than that! Shocker, I know. I'll decide how I feel about it when I get there. Stay tuned!

Yarn that I bought at the conference. I am loving this Marble by James C. Brett. It is 100% acrylic but I swear it feels like a soft wool. And CHEAP! It also says it's DK weight but I think it's working up like worsted. I bought tons of that first color (MT6) to make a sweater for myself. I figure worst case I can make another baby blanket out of it! Yarn #2 is Erdal Lazer - also inexpensive wool/acrylic blend. I have no idea what I'm going to make with it but I have about 600 yards of it. The second Marble color is what I'm working on right now but it is going to be a gift so that's all I can say about it. Other than that it is working up really pretty & I do like working with it!

This picture represents the abandonment of my yarn deal with myself. I told myself that I wouldn't buy any more yarn unless I had a specific project in mind for it. Well, evidence to the contrary between this yarn & the yarn above. In my defense, that Moda Dea Ticker Tape (right) is usually like $9 a skein & I got it for $2.40 - same with the Wild (left) although it's not usually that much more expensive. But really - how could I pass that up? But I seriously don't know what I'm making with either. In the back of my mind I thought the Wild might work on my Vegas scarf but now I have no idea why I thought that because it obviously won't work!

This is my new favorite thing ever. I went into the Woolie Ewe one day & saw that Rowan has a yarn that is very close to the Vibe that I have to make the sweater that I'm now frogging. I figured I could use it for a Rowan pattern that uses the similar yarn (Ribbon Twist). I have a friend on a board that I frequent that also knits. I emailed her to be on the lookout for cute sweater patterns in her Rowan books that I might like - she sent me her book! Can you believe it? It's like the sweetest thing I ever heard and the sweaters in this book are to die for - there are at least 3 that I'd like to try over time! So great. So thanks so much Christin!!!

I LOVE DYEING

Yes, DYEING, not dying. I looked up the spelling to make sure I didn't confuse anyone. I figured I'm going to break this conference & my experiences there by project because if not I'll be a babbling idiot and the whole entry would be one long run-on sentence (much like this one)!

I took a food dyeing with food grade dyes class- which in this case included Kool-Aid & easter egg dye. DUDE! It rocked. We only had 4 people in the class so we really got to experiment and enjoy our time there. The pictures above are all of my process, but I put the results from other students below because it was all so gorgeous - much more so than mine for sure!

Here is the short version of the pictures above: #1, laid out the yarn like king cakes & painted it with mixed easter egg dye - I still can't believe I didn't get a picture after is was completely painted #2, I wrapped it in saran wrap completely sealed & put in in the microwave for 8 minutes in 2 minute intervals #3, after rinsing hung to dry #4, balled up #5, finish product knitting in a swatch.

That's it folks. It was so easy & so much fun. I wish I had a better lay out in my kitchen but I'm already plotting more dyeing. I used a very small sample because I had really put my yarn in huge hanks but they were pretty close together & I thought would be hard to dye.

I wasn't as impressed with the Kool Aid outcome but I think it's because I did a single color & I really like the varigated look so much better. I dyed with Black Cherry first, then I tied off about one inch sections & redyed in Ice Blue Raspberry
Lemonade & got this:





Here are results from other students in my class:

My Head Hurts.

I went. I saw. I learned. I don't know where to start.

I took the 6 classes that I told ya'll about at the DFW Fiber Fest. My favorites by far: Intro to Lace & the Dye class - OMG - so fun! I guess I figure it this way - I loved the lace & I'm at a point that I was ready to hear what was being taught. Let me take this opportunity to say that Alissa Barton ROCKED as a teacher. I was in three of her classes and she was so sweet and patient and I LOVED her. I will be taking more classes from her in the future - probably much to her dismay! My head is swimming with knowledge of intarsia, sweater design (which I didn't expect but am intrigued), repairs that I hope I never encounter but know that I will.....new yarn that I bought.....

I'll be back with some recent photos & stories but now I need to go knit!