So I finished a baby set(sweater, hat, &booties) today but sadly no picture of the finished set. It was a last minute make-up-your-own bootie-pattern-and-finish-them-at-a-highschool-band-concert deal so I forgot. The concert was pretty good even though there were 1000 people crammed onto one side of gym bleachers. We left after two(!) hours because we were hungry.

I also finished my second pair of slippers and I am just waiting on my brother to get up here so I can felt them.

I dyed my natural tan yarn a lovely shade of turquoise(that was what walmart had in dylon) and kool-aided(new word, YEAH!!) some other yarn orange. I actually swatched the turquoise on size 3s!

Oh yeah, and I got a perm that burned the side of my head. I spent the time before church explaining to people why I won't be suing my hairdresser(my sister*) and that I'm really okay. Now I have to try not to pick at my head!(Torture!!) The perm looks really great so although I lost some skin I gained some good hair.

Not many pics today, no time to load 'em up.

*She is an ACTUAL cosmetologist. I've gotten loads of perms in my life and never once has anything happened like this before. My skin is doing weird things.

The Emily and Adam Book of Opposites*

Lots of knitting going on around here. Some projects have been put by the wayside for now so I can work on the fun ones!
One of M’s slippers are done. The Size13 needles are killing my hands but I love them so far!

In contrast, I just joined Emily’s Wee Tiny sock swap. I haven’t gotten my swap pal yet but I couldn’t resist some instant gratification. The light brown one is a lace pattern and the red and dark brown is a fair isle pattern. I might do a couple of more since I can’t decide which one to give away and I don’t know what my pal might like. We’ll see on Sunday!!! I’m so excited. I’ve been wanting to do a sock swap for a while now this is just the one to get started! Yeah!




Oh, have you seen the new Knitty yet? Isabella is a really neat design. I have just the yarn too. A lady at my church gave me a cone of unknown fiber yarn last fall. Dan and I did the burn test to figure it out but that only told us that its a natural fiber. The only thing is is that the color is yucky beige. I read that you can dye it with Dylon dye but I can’t decide if I want indigo, turquoise, cherry, or terra cotta. I guess I have a little while to think about it. Isabella will be great to knit in the spring/summer!

*This book was part of a set that my Grandma bought for me and my twin brother, Adam when we were little. We always like how this one described "us" Emily is quiet, Adam is loud, etc.

Why I love my brother (and my mom). .. . or look at my great loot!

First off let me tell you about the food from this weekend. Friday night we went to a VERY fancy restaurant near my brother’s house called The Orchards. I wish I had a camera with me. Its not often I go to such a nice restaurant and the presentation was very nice. I had filet mignon and mashed potatoes. I love me a good steak!
We went to KFC for lunch on Saturday. Have you tried their boneless Honey BBQ wings? They are so good!
Now the really great part. There’s this yarn store in Chambersburg called The Yarn Basket. I went there once by myself last time we visited and bought the dreadful Rowanspun 4-ply and some Gedifra Astrakhan.
I could probably spend all day in there. It is packed to the hilt full of yarny goodness. I was having a really hard time deciding what I wanted. They have a lot of Cascade 220 so I thought I’d get the yarn to fix the green sweater. Then I remembered they had great sock yarn. I decided on some Trekking XXL #129(or the Good-n-plenty colorway).I love this yarn I’m already this far and I just started yesterday! It is such a wonderful change from the Magic stripes.
The best part, though, was my brother’s enthusiasm in the store. I found the Fibertrends felted clog pattern and M wanted to know everything about it. Of course he asked if I could make him a pair. THEN he went a picked out yarn! So now I have 3 hanks (can you really call those beasts “hanks”?) of Woolpak 10 ply to make him slippers. OH the best part. . . he paid for the yarn and pattern! I have to get my ball winder back from my sister before I can start but it should be fun! I think M will be a knitter after all. My sister and I decided that we’ll teach him soon. Those great new “men knitting” books will help too!
YEAH!!
Mom saw some yarn she liked by Schaeunemeyer(sp?) that looks like (Lionbrand) Homespun, but she forgets what its called. Any ideas?

I made myself a hat too. FairIsle pattern from this book. My own pattern out of wool-ease(fisherman) and Knitpicks WOA(artic pool heather) that I had in the stash.

I really finished the hat--that's just the only picture I have right now :)

RUT . . or Welcome to the end of February!

I think the word of the month in blogland is rut with a capital R-U-T. This hatefulness hasn’t evaded me this time.
I have no food, no car to get the food. I am tired after cleaning all morning but my house still isn’t clean. I need to get a job but I hate calling for more information.
So here I am. No knitting progress either. I started a hat for myself out of stash yarn but I’m going to frog it. I have a baby hat to make but my gauge is WAY off and I have to frog that. I hate my endpaper mitts, and I’m tired of those stupid Magic stripe socks.
On the plus side, I’m going away with my mom this week to visit my brother in Chambersburg. I’ll get to eat out ( I LOVE TO EAT OUT!!!) and go shopping. Hopefully that’ll help this rut. Not as much as a tropical vacation but I’ll take what I get.

A House of Leftovers and a FO!

Since we’ve been eating leftovers a lot lately(I’ve been roasting a chicken about once a week and then we’ve eaten hot chicken sandwiches after that) I thought I’d celebrate and get rid of some of my leftover Christmas Wool-ease and make Alison’s Leftover Vest. (Incidentally, the colors are also Hogwarts house colors in honor of Alison’s new book and no, I didn’t plan on that) I think I’m getting gauge although Dan thought it looked small. I can’t tell if the colors are the ugliest or the prettiest colors together that I’ve seen but I’m waiting until I get a little farther before I decide if I hate it or love it.(That could be a bad thing) There will be blue and gray added in there too. I've gotten more done since and I think I hate it but I need a second opinion.
I finished Dan’s hat and it’s exactly how he wanted it! YEAH!!! Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of that right now but it is just one color and stockinette so no loss there.
The socks are slow-going so there’s nothing new to show there.
The mitts are on hold as well. I am just really having a hard time with the Rowanspun. It’s the devil!!!!

Progress of the knitting kind

I’ve been doing some knitting but nothing from the LIST.

I finished the socks that were on the list before I even started blogging but by some twist of fate the socks got a large whole in them after the second wash. I had some issues at the point of unraveling while I was decreasing the foot(re: there was a huge factory-made knot in the yarn) which totally spoiled my striping pattern and made me rip roaring mad because I didn’t notice it until I was too far to go back. I thought I could deal with it BUT now that it has gotten a whole the size of Montana in it I’m not too upset to rip back. Oh, and the second sock was too big too. Its only been a year since I started the stupid things.
I had to rip back some of the hat I was knitting for Dan too. It was just a few inches too short. I debated a couple of ways to do it and I think I picked best (just putting a lifeline in and ripping to before the decreases. Should be nice if I do say so myself.
I’m been working on my Stranded KAL mitts too. I really enjoy working on such small needles and these are really turning out. I can’t decide if I want to make them into mittens but that may be too much math for me to figure out. I love the pattern and praise Eunny for her knitting genius. I would have stared at that color work for ages before I would figure out the thumb gusset! I can’t wait to get her Anemoi mittens pattern. I may adapt that to be the flip top mittens for my sis-in-law’s Christmas present.
This last picture is a baby sweater I’m making for a lady at our church who was very disappointed to not find any white baby sweaters at the store. I think this will make her happy.It just needs a light blocking and then I'll be done!

Oh and I frogged that pink sweater and picked out a new pattern. Then I found out I only have about 500 yds of yarn. How could have made a whole sweater from that? That totally blows my mind. I’m afraid to take apart the green sweater because I’m afraid I won’t have enough yarn to make a sweater.I think I'll make this sweater with the green and get a solid for the sleeves.

Superfantastic Day

I found a new yarn store today. There was an article in the newspaper yesterday and my wonderful mom let me know about it today! I was just lamenting that I have to drive so far to find any yarn that's halfway decent. I guess there is Tucker Yarns but as the dust in there makes me sneeze I'll ignore that one. Anyway, The Needle Arts Studio is about 10 minutes away max. They have a nice sampling of Brown Sheep and Elizabeth Lavold. I found some beautiful Wildfoote in their sale bin for 4.50(2 skeins!!) A definite thumbs up!
I have joined the Stranded Colorwork Challenge since I started Eunny's endpaper mitts with my super yarn find. I'm using the Wildfoote and some Rowanspun 4-ply that I had in the stash. I bought that in Chambersburg last October and was going to knit Dan some socks but it kept breaking at every needle join. There was NO WAY I was going to knit Dan's socks out of that! I would be darning them every 2 weeks.Its working nicely for the mitts ,though, as long as I knit the ribbing flat! I definitely don't recommend that yarn but it'll do for now.
I'm working on getting some pictures on here soon. I know its boring just reading about knitting and not seeing anything. Stay Tuned!