I'm baaaaaackkkkk.....

Okay, not sure if any of my original readers are still out there, but we're going to give this puppy another whirl.

I think it will be easier for me to connect with other knitters if I keep a separate blog. This way if ever am fortunate enough to meet any of you IRL, you won't feel all weird about knowing all the personal business I spew out on my other blog.

Lots has happened since my last post here - my son is now almost two. And well, I still haven't knitted him anything bigger than a hat.

And I've found Ravelry, which I totally love. Find me here.

Right now I am frantically trying to knit baby gifts, there are 5 babies that need my hand crafted goodness and another two on the way. People, can you please stop procreating long enough for me to finish a small sweater, I beg of you.

So far this year, I've made a pair of socks:

Pattern: Azure from Knitty
Yarn: Risata sock yarn from Knitpicks
Method: Toe up, two at a time using magic loop
Comments: These were my first toe ups and I really liked it. First time doing two a time too - because I'm crazy like that. Although I had to do the heels one at a time, but in the end not having SSS was a major plus! The yarn was just eh. The pattern is totally awesome and I can't wait to make them again in better yarn for myself.

I've also made three hats for my friend and fellow adoptive mom Sig, who unfortunately has been going through chemo.

Pattern: A basic crocheted hat I modified from a fellow raveler
Yarn: Peaches N Cream in Strawberry Creme - one ball
Hook: I forget - F or G I think
Comments: Alternating the single crochet in front loop and then in back loop made a pretty ribbed pattern.

Pattern: Basically the Gulf Shores Hat

Yarn: Red Heart Carefree Cotton in lilac - one skein

Hook: F or G again...

Comments: I made more single crochet rounds before starting the shells.

Pattern: Koolhaas

Yarn: Red Heart Carefree Cotton in Black - one skein

Needles: 6? Whatever the pattern says, I forget now.

Comments: LOVE this pattern. I didn't do as many ribbing rounds to start, but I should have because it's a tad short. Easy and well written pattern and knitted up quicker than I thought it would.

Now excuse me while I go slog away at another baby wrap.

Yarning Over

Over to my main blog that is.

I won't be posting here anymore - all knitting stuff will now be incorporated into my other blog Hell & High Water.

Come see - there has been fiber related activity!

Yarn Swap!

Hello! Sheesh it's been a while. Life sure gets in the way sometimes..what with having a new baby and a new job, my old hobby is feeling the neglect. So I decided to force the issue by starting my own new swap! Lord knows if anyone will participate, but I'm going to give it a shot.

It's the "Dyeing to Dye Socks" swap on Swap-Bot. Go check it out. And if you've never dyed yarn before, this is the perfect swap for you!

I've always wanted to participate in a dyed yarn swap, but was never confident enough in my dyeing skills to do it. So this swap is for those of you who have either NEVER dyed yarn before, or have done it only on occaison.

You will dye 100g of sock yarn, using whatever dyes and methods you'd like. KoolAid, Wilton cake dyes, acid dyes, whatever...there's tons of tutorials out there to help. Color choice is up to you, although I'm asking that if you are adamant about receiving (or not receiving) certain colors, you post your preference on your own blog or in the swap-bot comments if you don't have a blog. Knitpicks is just one source of dye your own yarn - you can also purchase light colored sock yarn and overdye.

The idea is to be flexible here, because first time (or relatively inexperienced) dyers know that what you wanted is not always what you get! If I get a good response I'll set up a flickr album to display all the yarny goodness.

And speaking of swaps!

For Favorite Color Swap 2, I was paired with Ruth once again! I felt bad that I couldn't communicate too much with her this time, I know she felt like she got a lame partner, but I couldn't give anything away. She seems to have liked everything I picked for her. Can't wait to see her make something fabulous with the quilting fabric.

Also, I have been most remiss in thanking the partner who gifted to me. I have met another new cyberknitter friend - Mark...(yes, a man!) who did an awesome job of picking out fab yarn and other treats. You can see here (I stole Mark's pic until I can get mine up ) he did great job of obtaining yarn in my three favorite colors: Raspberry pink, aqua and periwinkle. I really drove him crazy with those very specific color requests, sorry Mark! Along with the yarn I got some delish minty chocolate and a GREAT CD! I was so excited to get that..I just love music and am always interested in hearing new stuff. I hadn't heard any of the songs before, so it was a real treat listening to each one. All of it got immediately loaded to the old ipod to add to the collection.
Please check out his blog - he has become quite the knitter, and is a hell of a movie reviewer too (I agree with him on just about everything that I've seen). Hope you had fun on your first swap Mark. Now howz about dyeing some sock yarn??

Favorite Color Swap 2

I have recently joined the second round of the Favorite Color Swap. This swap was a great success last time, and I had the opportunity to meet my new friend Ruth...someone I still keep in contact with today. Below is the questionnaire:


1. What are your top three favorite colors?
Raspberry pink
Aqua/ Teal
Periwinkle

2. What crafts do you really enjoy?
Knitting/Crocheting
Decorative painting (on decorative wood items, and wall murals)

3. What products do you really covet?
Yarn (anything very soft or interesting non wool fibers; colorful sock yarn)
Knitting/crochet patterns (particularly for socks or kids)

4. What other activities do you enjoy besides your favorite crafty things?
My husband and I are warm weather outdoors people, so hanging out at the beach, nature walks, etc. I enjoy cooking and baking (mostly baking) using new and interesting recipes, going to good restaurants (especially Indian), drinking wine with friends. Playing with our son.

5. Is there anything you collect?
I tend to collect nautical things for our home…decorative items with shells, crabs, starfish, etc.. The whole entire house is kind of Pottery Barn meets Coastal Living (at least that’s what I aspire to).

6. What is your zodiac sign and/or Chinese zodiac symbol?
Cancer

7.What are your favorite
……scents/smells?
Caramelly sweet smells.

…types of music and/or bands?
Adult Alternative (favorite band: Counting Crows)
My favorite Satellite radio station is XM Café (45)

…authors?
Stephen King
Diana Gabaldon (obsessed with the 0utlander series)

…animals?
Crabs!…

places to shop?
Despite the fact that I can afford to shop at much higher end stores, I still prefer good old Target & Walmart for almost everything besides work clothes!

…season?
SUMMER

…yarn/fabric/paper/other craft supplies?
See “What products do you really covet?”

…candies or goodies?
Any and ALL! Though I am partial to mint chocolate and raspberry chocolate flavors.

8. Do you have any wish lists?
Nope

9. Are you allergic to anything?
Nope

10. Do you have any pets? What are they?
Two tonkinese cats

11. Please include anything else you would like your secret pal to know about you- anything that would be helpful in finding you little gifts that you will really enjoy.

As most of my readers know, I just adopted a baby boy from Colombia. My adoption blog has all the details you never wanted to know about it, along with some other tidbits about me you may or may not find interesting. See my sidebar for the link ------ > I am trying to get my butt in gear to do some scrapbooking for him, so boy themed stuff might encourage me to get started.

Getting back into the groove

Well, I'm back from all the big adventures. Believe it or not, with three weeks waiting around in Colombia, I hardly did any knitting. Who can knit when you have this adorable little thing to play with:

Now that we are back home, I am starting to think about all the little things I want to knit him. We like to dress him in real little boy clothes, not baby stuff. I didn't think I'd be so picky about his clothes, but I am! This has really made me rethink the stuff I knit for gifts. I don't think I'll be doing any more powder blue babyish stuff anymore. Take his hat...it's the first thing I have made for him since he's been home. He has a green and gray hoodie sweater from his aunt, so I made this to match. Ain't it just the cutest? Here's the details:



Pattern: Max's first hat
Source: The yarn girls' guide to kid knits

Yarn: Bernat chunky in gray (less than 1 skein) with a little green and blue

Mods: This is not the right yarn for the pattern, so I cast on 22 stitches with size 10.5 needles (8's for the ribbing), which fits his head perfectly.
Comments: Great, easy, quick pattern. Someday I'll learn to step away from the acrylic and go with natural fibers. This would be even better with a nice cotton/wool blend.


Also, see the cute little fuzzy black cat the boy is holding? That adorable little toy was knit by the amazing Del. We had this wonderful little package waiting for us when we got home. Thank you Del, it is really great. Thank you so much for thinking of us, it is truly appreciated. And the boy thinks it's pretty good tasty too.

Now I am crocheting a new christening blanket. The one I had done previously (and almost finished too) was too lacy and stretched out of shape too much. I have a smaller, more dense pattern in the works.

Thank you to all of my knitting friends who have followed my adoption story. It has been great sharing the experience with all of you! I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping up with your blogs as much as I should have. I promise to get caught up and to start commenting regularly again!

The baby knitting will now commence....

I HAVE A SON.

Forgive me blogger...

...for I have sinned. It's been over a month (!) since my last post. Well I did finish my Bubble Wrap sock in October, I swear. I didn't knit it's mate yet, and well, I'm going to argue the technicality that it was Socktober, and not Sockstober. The fit is pretty darn good, and I do plan to do the other one sometime soon eventually.

I have been knitting other stuff as well. The Lace Wrap continues to grow, but I still have a ways to go. I think it will be done in time for Colombia which now appears to be in the Jan-March timeframe (boo). I also did what typical knitters do, in that, I stopped all projects on my list and started completely different projects. These included a scarf for my mom's birthday:
Pattern: Dreamswatch scarf (adapted from this pattern).
Yarn: Lion Suede in Teal; 2 skeins
Needles: I don't remember now....6's? 8's?
Comments: This yarn, like any chenille is tough on the hands (no sproing factor) but it is really soft and cozy. It's hard to get any great pattern to show with chenille, so this did the trick nicely I think. The color is my mom's favorite so she loved it. And it's short, because she's short.

I also made a scarf for myself, because one day it was cold and I thought I needed to hurry up and make one before my neck froze. Little did I know it would be over 60 degrees every day since then. But I'm all set for when winter really does set in:

Pattern: Winged it garter stitch scarf. CO 135 stitches and knit for about 30 rows.

Yarn: Catalina Chunky (in claret) & Moda Dea Prima (in burgundy) - one strand of each held together throughout.

Needles: Circular 17's

Comments: First time knitting with Alpaca and it is DIVINE. The Prima yarn is just enough to make it interesting without being overbearing. I LOVE the color of this and now want to find similar colored yarn to make some fingerless mitts. Thanks again to Kerry who gifted me the fabulous Catalina. Here's a closer pic, but the picture is way too pinky, it's more of a rich, well, claret is really the best word! I think I need to block this sucker better.

Lastly, I did start the crocheted white baby blanket as planned, in fact I'm almost done. Here it sits in it's usual resting place, waiting for me to work on it while I watch tv. Next post should have a finished pic.

Well, if you read my other blog, you know that's all thats going on in my life right now...hence the lack of posting. Now I have to do some Christmas knitting. I want to do two lace rectangular wraps, oh and I got a bright idea to knit a table cloth out of cotton for my MIL. I'll let you know how that idea pans out. Yes, I know there isn't much time left before Christmas, don't remind me!!