i want your socks!

pattern: Through the Loops Mystery Sock '09
designer: Kirsten Kapur/ Through the Loops
yarn: Madeline Tosh Sock in Sequoia
needles: Addi Turbos #1
modifications: none

For the first time ever, I decided to join in the Mystery Sock knitalong. As Kirsten of Through the Loops posted her clues, I was knitting along at steady clip. I finished my first sock maybe a day or two after she posted her final clue and cast on for the second sock right away. I thought I would have a finished pair in a matter of days. Then, well, I had to play catch up with the softie machine, and the socks, along with just about everything else in my life, fell by the wayside. Once life settled down a bit and I had some quiet time after the holidays, I was finally able to finish them up. And just in time for Matt's birthday!

Here is doing what he called a "manly pose." I have no idea what that means, but it does display the lovely heel. I am a fan of heels that are a continuation of the pattern. Ideally, you want to look good whether you're coming or going, right? Also, I have to say, I love knitting socks for Matt, even if knitting eight or more repeats for the foot makes me a little twitchy towards the end, just because he appreciates them so much. The fact that is wearing them now makes me all warm and fuzzy.

well, fiddle-dee-dee! look at my mittens!

pattern: Fiddlehead Mittens

designer: Adrian Bizilia/ hello yarn
yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca for the main color of the shell, Cascade 220 in black, charcoal, red, orange, and light blue for the contrasting colors, and Still River Mill 2-ply cashmere for the lining
needles: Addi Turbos #2
modifications: none - the pattern is perfection; I used a lace weight yarn for the lining instead of sport weight

It feels great to start off the new year with a finished project, and this is the kind of project that just keeps on giving. I was never one for mittens until we moved to New England. Now, I can't imagine not having several pairs on hand to choose from or to lend to friends. Not to mention how much I love knitting mittens. They're always such a satisfying knit.

Recently, several of my crafty/knitty gurus on Flickr and in real life have been cranking out Fiddlehead Mittens, a pattern I have been meaning to knit since Adrian first published it way back when. First, I saw Chawne's beauties on Flickr. Next I saw Caro knitting away on her first of the pair at knit night. The final straw was seeing Stacie's amazing handspun Fiddlehead. It was love - pure love. Or actually, perhaps the final straw was Matt picking up the Fiddleheads that Stacie test knit for Adrian and asking me to knit a pair for him because he was so smitten with them. Either way, I had been pushed over the edge. I figured since everyone was whipping them out so quickly, maybe I would be able to do the same. What I didn't count on was my gauge being a bit smaller than I expected. As I mentioned before, the mittens were too small for Matt, but they were perfect for me. Lucky me!

Let's talk about the linings one second, because they are really lovely. I used a super-soft and squishy cashmere; to say they are lovely is almost an understatement. They are heavenly. Anyway, I knit the first lining just a bit too long, and it bunches a little at the top of the mitten. The second one is just the right length. I am going to not be an anal retentive freak and rip back to fix it. I am going to just relax and accept the fact that I knit the linings two separate lengths. It's a good thing I can't see the difference in length once they're stuffed inside the mitten shells. because when I think about it, it does my head in a little. I'm going to focus on the warmth and coziness they provide. In fact, I have no idea how I have been knitting mittens without linings for so long. I have seen the light, people!

One last thing - using the Berroco Ultra Alpaca was snap decision. I was going through the stash picking out any DK/light worsted yarn available to me and just grabbed it because I figured the color would make a great base for the others. What I hadn't considered was the fact that it would give the mittens a nice fuzzy halo which I love. There's nothing like a little bit of knitting serendipity!

coming and going

1. kind of an SP, 2. 8::365 - pretty plastic hooks, 3. socks for Matt, 4. Waving Lace Socks - done!, 5. Merino Lace Socks, 6. because he deserves his own special dogger cape, 7. pretty bikes, 8. the potholders - squeee!, 9. the modern vintage potholder, 10. 99::365 - new mieces, 11. Thorpe, 12. bats!, 13. begonias, 14. onion from our garden, 15. 12::365 - Fern Glade - close-up, 16. I love the Kendall, 17. lomo-like photo of kangapuppet, 18. bees hanging out on the allium, 19. 201::365 - happy bench monday, 20. my most favorite commission assignment ever, 21. another view of my favorite bat, 22. the first dahlias, 23. embroideriti?, 24. what happens when I can't sleep, 25. up to 35, 26. 227::365 - jumpity @ Monument Mountain, 27. perhaps I went a tad overboard with the buttons, 28. Ishebel at the hotel, 29. happy halloween!, 30. red monday, 31. o hai! row-arr!, 32. Squirrel Sampler Mittens by HelloYarn, 33. Mali in the Anti-Firework Dog Balaclava, 34. my marlene!, 35. sweet panda for petite purls/sew petite, 36. it's mitten madness!

Ah, 2009. It feels like I hardly knew ye. A new year is upon us, and it would be nice to have a fresh start. However, there is so much that has piled up, especially in the last month or so when my home/studio/life became all softies all the time. Part of that is because, thanks to my friend the fetus, I spent all of September and most of October either puking, feeling like I was going to puke, lying down hoping for the floor to stop tilting and the room to stop spinning so that I wouldn't want to puke, or just sleeping from the exhaustion of dry-heaving until there were tadpole-like spots swimming before my eyes. Thus, I had little time for sewing or knitting even. Every time I got behind the sewing machine, I became nauseous. It was as if the motion of the needle was enough to make me hurl. I just couldn't do it, which meant I was running behind on orders as well as late preparing for the holiday craft fairs. Fortunately, I only definitely committed to do one. I had to bail on the others. When I finally felt better, I had a ton of catching up to do and little time to do it. As I cranked out softies and puppets, all other crafty endeavors were put on hold, and I missed them terribly. On top of wanting to complete them for the sheer joy of having the finished pieces, it's also good to have a little variety.

Now that the holidays are over (and that I'm in the middle of the second trimester and all the puking is behind me) and that I am working on the softie thang at a more reasonable pace, I have some time to get back to some of these projects. Only thing is, I'm thinking of prioritizing all these projects - going through them and determining what gets done first, what gets done in stages, and what gets scrapped. I recently had a conversation with Stacie about making lists to organize projects, and she is all about making lists on what needs to get done and setting up some deadlines for herself. I kinda suck at making lists, or more importantly, I suck at sticking to them. I'm not one for new year's resolutions or any of that either. I do want to establish some order in all this crafty chaos, however. That said, here's my attempt at a list of projects to complete in the new year:

1. Finishing this crib quilt in January.
2. Finishing this "It Takes a Village" type quilt (ahem, that I may have started today) with wee trees and houses. I'm thinking I'll be done in February since this is going to be a little fiddly.
3. Knit mates for all my lonely mittens. This will be ongoing, as I predict there will always be a single mitten or two floating around this place.
4. Knit a pair of Fiddleheads for Matt. Gotta have this done by the middle of January.
5. Quilt & bind my scrappalicious quilt. Hope to have that done in March.
6. Finish my crochet scarf by February.
7. Crochet this type of blanket by March. I just ordered the yarn for it and am super-excited about it.
8. Crochet a couple of toys from the same awesome amigurumi book I used for this turtle.
9. Make a weekly contribution to my letter to Beba. This will be my ongoing 365-type Flickr project. Because I love Beba. And because this has the potential to be a fun photo challenge.
10. Completely organize my work space. Since we're having work done in the apartment, I'd say I'm going to have to do this sooner than later and think that by mid-January I should be mostly done.

That's about it for now. I'm sure the list will grow over the course of 2010. I'm just hoping to have most of what I listed here done in the early part of the year. What are your crafty plans for the new year?

snow + sparklers = joy!

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas! I think we started a new tradition this year or at least reinvented an old one. My father-in-law, who is from New Orleans, was telling us all about how when he was a kid, he and his many siblings would set off fireworks by the lake every Christmas and how it was a part of their holiday tradition. It sounded like a ton of fun. Since firecrackers and roman candles would freak the neighbors out, I suggested we grab a few sparklers and have a go at it, albeit in a less noisy and less explosive fashion. Needless to say, much fun was had. Hilarity ensued. All that good stuff. It was a great way to celebrate the holiday.

(Click on the photos to view larger - they're much better viewed that way. )

merry merry, yo!

Little Guy would like to wish you all very happy holidays! Hope you're all having a wonderful day full of family, joy, love, and laughter.

mad about mittens

The pile of mittens grows, some awaiting partners, others awaiting linings. And I just got my Amazon order for Magnificent Mittens and Mostly Mittens. So excited! It's going to be total mitten madness around here for the next month or two.

I finished the Fiddleheads on the top of the pile last night. They're blocked and smelling fantastic from the shampoo I used to soak them. (I always use shampoo when I soak any project that I think is going to bleed, upon Adrian's awesome advice.) They were originally intended as a last minute-gift for Matt, but my gauge was a little off. So they're too small for him but perfect for me. Heh. Talk about serendipity, huh? I'll line them once I finish the back-up gift I am now working on. More on the Fiddleheads later, though. I'll have the full details once I'm 100% finished with them. Happy holidays, folks!

well looky here!

Have you seen the latest Petite Purls? There are so many fun and fabulous designs in this Winter's edition. I love it! I am already making a list of what I want to knit from it, starting with the Cheery Scrap Cap. The fact that I enjoy it so much only makes what I'm about to announce that much sweeter. I am happy to say that my tutorial for the sweet panda pictured above has been included in their Sew Petite section. Hope you enjoy it! Many thanks again to Brandy and Allegra for including me in this edition.

squirrely fun!

Lately, I haven't had much of a chance to knit. My hands have been extremely busy doing the softie thing for the last month with little room for anything else. However, now that the Bazaar Bizarre is done and over with *huge sigh of relief* and that the shop is fully stocked for the holidays, I can finally get to knitting again. Trust, this is a great thing because there are a ton of things I want to knit, starting with Adrian's delightful Squirrel Sampler Mittens which she will be releasing for sale on her blog and through ravelry some time this week. I'm a little tardy to the party with the testing, but I was able to finish one and hope to have its mate finished by the end of this week. I *love* these mittens so freaking much, it is ridiculous. Check out the pattern on the palm:

Isn't it wonderful? I just love it to bits! Adrian is brilliant. She is totally the mitten-master.

Now for some basic info about these.... I used Harrisville Designs New England Shetland in Peacock and Marigold for the mittens at a gauge of 8 stitches and 10 rows per inch on US size 0s. For the lining, I used Misti Alpaca lace 2-ply in some purple color at a gauge of 8 stitches and 11 rows per inch on US size 0s. Oh, did I mention that they're lined?

Yep. Love, love, love!!! I need to finish the second one stat!

color week - day 7 - pink

And so we wrap up color week (a day late here - as usual, ahem). Thanks to all who played along, and thank you for stopping by and checking it out. My camera and I - we're good again. We just need to play more. As I mentioined in my last post, I may continue with the color theme and explore neutrals over the week. Or I may knit again some day and take pretty pictures of this knitting to share with you all. Ah, a girl can dream....

color week - day 6 - purple

Color week is winding down with just one more day to go. I might keep going just because it's been fun playing with a theme. At least it's reignited my interest in photography, not to mention that it's got me looking at things differently. Walking around today looking for purple things to photograph I was surprised by the lack of purple in my neighborhood. Lots of greens, blues, reds, and yellows on stores' signage and people's homes, but there was definitely a lack of purple and violet (and orange, too, for the record). Purple in nature, on the other hand, was in abundance. Funny how that works.