This little girl got gage....

...on my Socks That Rock club kit. Using the recommended needle size for tiny feet. This is great news, because maybe it means I am no longer an anally tight knitter. :) I tend to be a tight knitter, especially on socks. I am hoping this will make it easier on my hands and to do the cables the pattern calls for. So this morning I am going to cowboy up and try the provisional cast on for toe up socks.

As I said yesterday, I received the "More Sensational Knitted Socks" book. I have not really gotten to look at it yet, but I promise to this weekend.

I also received my From the Heart Swap box from my Angel. My original swap box was sent from my pal in England back in the beginning of February, but it never arrived. This is horrible, because I know my pal went out of her way to make a nice package for me. I guess there is some customs agent out there with chocolate smeared all over his/her face fondling what was supposed to be my yarn p0rn! Not nice! Shame on you! You do not deserve such nice things!

Anyway, the swap box was great! I received some Cascade 220 wool, two balls of Regia striping, two balls of Regia Cotton, Chibi needles (Bless you! as I was about to buy some more on my own, since some of mine have grown legs), Godiva chocolates with raspberry filling (have you been reading my blog, eh?), tiny tiny sock needles (okay now you have been reading my mind because I have not been able to find 00 or smaller needles! Stop it!), reinforcing yarn (have never tried it, thank you!), and two sock patterns. Thank you! I have never tried Regia, so this will be great! The cotton blend yarn will be handy for summer socks.

Sorry the picture is out of focus, the battery low light was flashing at me, so I had to hurry.

My DH's birthday is coming up soon. He has been having a very stressful time at work, so I am trying to plan a week of surprises for him. I cannot post them here. But if you have suggestions, please let me know. It can be anything from little gifts to little things to do together because I don't want to completely break the bank.

SP10 Contest Post

Please post (on your blog) about your favorite yarn and your least favorite yarn (if you have one!) What have you made with it? Tell us about your experiences! - Robyn

Ooh. Well, I have quite a few favorite yarns. So I will narrow it down to two categories: sock yarn and non-sock yarn.

For sock yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight. I have only made socks with it so far, such as the Cedar Creek in my post below. I am so in love with their sock yarn. You can make mistakes, frog it back 10 times, split it, and it still comes back together and knits up beautifully. And I love merino wool, it is so nice to your hands.

For non-sock yarn: Morehouse Farms Merino wools. Again, my love affair with merino. Knitting with theirs is like knitting with cotton candy. Nice and loosely spun but not splitty. Sooo nice. I don't have any pictures of my finished cardigan, but I will try to remember to do that. And their patterns are clearly written.

More Viewer Mail

I am having too much fun today to really sit here and update my blog to the fullest. Let's just say today has been a great day. It was my first day outside of the house since my skin treatment. I had Starbucks (my first coffee in three days so you can understand how ecstatic I was about that), followed up on the face treatment, got a pedicure (my first of the season), received "More Sensational Knitted Socks" from preorder on Amazon, went to Salsarita's, went to the post office and got my From the Heart Swap Angel box, and went to the gym. And I got to add a new member to the Alaskan Knitters Ring, Bezzie at Random Meanderings. Her blog is quite funny so I hope you all go check her out. She cracks me up and her global nomadishness reminds me of my own. Now I am sitting here blissing out eating my favorite Cheddar Cheese, Tillamook. And I get to go to Aikido tonight. Don't kill my bliss man...I will do a full update tomorrow.

In the meantime, I want to answer some viewer mail.

The dream swatch is from where? It's really cool the diamond holes in it - do tell me how it's done or where I can get the pattern!

You can see the links in earlier entries, but here it is again: Dream Swatch.

Cedar Creek Socks done!

Yay! I *finally* finished my Cedar Creek Socks. I strayed away from these because I really wanted to get started on that Clapotis and other things. And I started to get bored doing the second sock, which does not usually happen to me. I think I am one month behind on my sock a month goal. Oh well. All I can do is push on. One of the socks is a little tighter than the other.....ugh. I am too much of a tight knitter sometimes.
Pattern: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Cedar Creek
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight in "Lucy" Colorway

Source: Blue Moon Fiber Arts

Needle: Size 2 Bamboo DPNs

Hey, that reminds me that Brooks Farm still hasn't written back to me regarding getting more yarn for my Clapotis. That is not cool. If I don't hear from them within a week, I am going to have to start calling.

I am close to finishing the Dream Swatch. I hope to finish later today and post it soon. It is quite pretty. I just hope it looks decent on me! That I do it justice. :)

Fun time with M&Ms

It was good today to catch up with my friend who owns Yarns Forever. She is very busy dying her own handpainted yarns and doing alot of shows.

Now for some fun. Here I am as my M&M character. Not too pretty?

Happy Spring!

Sorry, there were not any spring backgrounds.



I am almost done with my dream swatch and Cedar Creek socks. Being stuck at home has some benefits. :)

I am ready to cry...(again)

I am finally on the third section of my clapotis! But last night I figured out that I am going to run out of yarn before I finish. I know you know how devastating this could be. Who knows if I can even get more yarn. I suspect that it is a nonrepeatable colorway that I purchased from Brooks Farm at SAFF. (Yes, I have already emailed them to ask. But my hopes are not high. I have also tried googling, but have not found anyone else with it.) Who really wants to frog back and reduce the number of middle repeats? (Not you. Not me.) When I bought it, their display said 3 skeins was enough. Since then, I have read that people may need more yardage than what the pattern calls for. (Oh no. I wish I had known that earlier. But I came to the Clapotis bandwagon late.) Oh well, if I really have to, I will frog back.

Meanwhile, I am stuck at home being all "shroomy." That is short for mushroomy. It is a gorgeous weekend in the low 80s, and I am inside watching movies and slathering on facial creams and sunblock. Why? I had to get a skin treatment for my melasma which leaves my skin VERY sensitive to sun exposure. Which will require that I wear tons of sunblock and big floppy hats for two months. I figure I will be well enough in time for Marlyand Sheep and Wool (MSW). I am also trying to figure out how to get started on my vegetable pot garden. I suspect I will be in my garage with the door down prepping all the pots and letting my husband drag them outside for me. Ladies, the lengths we go to in order to be gorgeous. Of course, I would rather be hiking, but DH LOVES LOVES LOVES the fact that I just want to sit around inside and watch movies, his favorite weekend pasttime.

I guess I can finally work on the socks I have been putting off...trying to forget about my clapotis heartbreak. :(

Ooh...an even better idea is to start my dream swatch scarf. I need to look glamorous this summer. :) Under my big floppy hats and sunglasses.

I hope all of my friends are having fun in TN at the "other" Southeastern Fiber Fair.

Well....

You all know I am trying to save money to fund my trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool. But I received a 20% off coupon for Joann.com. So I used this to purchase at OTT Lamp for my bedroom. The additional 20% off coupon paid for the tax and shipping, plus a little bit more of a discount. I justified this purchase by the fact my current Ikea lamp likes to turn itself on and off at whim. And the lamp's cherry wood would match my antique bedroom furniture. Let's all hope that it works and I don't have to return it.

And a friend is ordering from kpixie, so I am finally breaking down and ordering this pattern. Now, I know what you may be thinking, but I already own a store bought sweater that is very similar with long sleeves, and it looks totally awesome on me. And I get tired of boring stockinette sweaters, so this will be a good thing for me to tackle someday. I have not bought the yarn yet...I will leave that to post MSW. Also, I am holding off on buying the SWTC tofutsies yarn that is calling to me....

Don't worry. Meanwhile, I am still stuffing "Mommy's tip jar" (my piggy bank) with all of my spare change and dollars when I break my yuppy food stamps ($20 bills). He's too cute for words. So my eyes are still on my goal of going to MSW. That reminds me, time to get to running my errands and balancing my accounts, etc..

Now for some (obligatory) knitting content....

Just kidding. My posts are almost all knitting related. But in order to fulfill SP10 hostess request, I am now going to write about my favorite knitting accessory...

I am pretty darn low maintenance. I don't use fancy counters or gadgets very often. About the only things I use are crochet hooks, chibi needles, scissors, cable needles, and plain plastic stitch markers. I don't like heavy and very dangly stitch markers. A swap pal (see below) just sent some nice, small, single bead stitch markers for making socks with so that is an exception. I will say about the neatest thing I have bought and am actually using in terms of a knitting accessory is the Knit Picks magnetic chart board. It folds in half and closes on itself to protect your charts while travelling, the magnets ACTUALLY stick to the board (unlike another board I have purchased), and it can be folded in a way that it props itself up. It is a much better buy at $10 than the plain magnetic boards I have seen selling for $6-$7. So I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to follow a chart or carry their knitting patterns around in a protected way.

My "April Fools The Jokes on You" swap pal Cindi in Orlando sent me a kickin' swap package. Ooh, sorry, I forgot to include the mug and candy in the picture. Anyway, it included a Mountain Colors sock pattern and Joslyn's Fiber Farm sock yarn in Mocaw colorway. I was thinking this morning that the sock yarn has orange and blue in it, the UF gator colors, so I will definitely be able to use this sock yarn. In fact, DH will love it as he is the gator. Somehow she knew I was another chocolate and coffee nut. I guess we all can just sense each other.

And the alpaca yarn from my mom has finally made its way down from Alaska. She told me to tell her what to buy more of....since my mom has already claimed the brown for herself, I am thinking that I need more brown for me! Now I just need to go sit down and figure out how much more of each color that I want.

Now I know you all are jealous of my alpaca yarn. Especially the brown and black.

And I purchased some bamboo yarn to make the Dream Swatch. I love the colors in this yarn, much more brilliant than even those in SWTC's bamboo. So, even though it looks a bit splitty, I will throw myself into using this yarn by sacrificing my sanity to the splittiness just to get cool colors! I really wanted the original yarn used in the pattern because I love and wear those colors, but I have no such luck. So I think this is a fairly good compromise!

Pattern (to be used): Dream Swatch

Yarn: Madil Eden Pring Color 039
Source: Rebelle
Needle: TBD

I went to a really cool little yarn shop right off of the UK campus in Lexington called ReBelle. They carried quite a few sock yarns, and quite a bit of alternative yarns (corn, soy, bamboo, etc..) and many colors of malabrigo. I was so jonesin' for the malabrigo, as they had colors that I cannot get locally. But I held off. I really want to save SOME money to go to Maryland Sheep and Wool. Anyway, I knew I was home when the girl behind the counter sat there, quietly working in frustration on her socks! Thank goodness they had late hours on Wednesday, the day we drove in. Because I did not have any other time on this trip to go yarn shopping. Boohoo! So, ReBelle, you were my salvation! :)

I also did not get much knitting done, but I have been driving to the hoop on my goal to finish my Clapotis. I only have one more repeat in the middle section! And then I get to start decreasing! I am so excited. I will post pictures later this week.

More to come....later

Let's just say I am back from a trip. But I really need to get in the shower and head my chunky butt to the gym. I did a whole lot of eating bad food and sitting this trip. Now my skin is breaking out and my knee hurts. So I have to get to the gym to counteract the bad stuff in a weight training class.

I promise I will post pics of Clapotis progress and my new Alaskan alpaca yarn later!

So sorry, but I am making progress

Sorry I have not posted in quite a few days. I said in my last posts that I was going to work hard on my socks. Well...not so much. I decided to take a break on the socks because I felt tired of working on my Cedar Creek ones. Instead, I frogged back on my Clapotis a few rows, and have gotten quite a bit done on it in the last week. I am now halfway through Section 3! Yay!

I plan on getting alot of sock and Clapotis knitting done later this week!

I also wanted to share a tiny picture of my applique, since that has been detracting some from the knitting, but not much. Fortunately, the applique class is over, so now I can do it on my own time schedule.

When I get further along, I can share some ruched flowers and other flowers!