68 is great!

remember way back in december when i said i had hit the mother lode at the blue moon fiber arts sale? well, whatever!
this is project #1 from my haul. it is an unspecified amount of blue moon fiber arts leticia in a no name color (my guess is something in the raven clan). it is a warm and cozy cowl that was sooooooooooooo easy!
and, ta da, here's how i did it:

68 is great!

needles: 10.5 us
yarn: bmf leticia

CO 68 stitches. join to knit in round. place marker to establish beginning of round.
row 1: k1, p1, repeat to end of row.
row 2: p1, k1, repeat to end of row. (in other words: purl the knits and knit the purls - a simple seed stitch.)
continue knitting these two rows until you have just enough yarn left to cast off. (how did i determine this amount? all i can say is: dumb luck!! i am sure that there is some mathematical wizardry that would allow one to determine this but math has never been my forte so i just punted and everything seemed to work! at this point, i must have pretty good karma!)
BO in pattern.
weave in ends and wear!

my cowl turned out to be 6 inches tall and about 20 inches in circumference and took about two hours to knit. not bad for a morning's work! it's a keeper in my book! and the yarn was only six bucks! can't beat that with a stick!! yippee!

i'm in love!

i have succumbed to the luscious worsted yarn by malibrigo! yum! yum! yum! there is no other way to describe it! it is wonderful to work with and wonderful to wear - light yet oh, so toasty! really one of life's little pleasures!

i knit both of these cowls in the wink of an eye - the pattern is from ravelry and is called 'wave cowl' (go figure!). i had plans of passing one of these gems on but at this time i'm going to be a greedy-gut and keep both of them for myself! i have one more skein of this saliva inducing wonder in my stash - do i envision another wave in my future? no doubt!

let's hear it for the wonderful women of uruguay who spin and kettle dye this amazing stuff!

yum, yum, yum!!!

oh, happy day!

a village in texas has their idiot back!

i am so happy for them!

back in the saddle again!

it's been a bummer of a week here in knitville!  i just couldn't do anything right as far as knitting was and is concerned! however, as of hump day things have been looking up! and that is a very good thing as i was having my moments and it wasn't pretty!

i started a small shawl in the broken arrow pattern with some new knit picks yarn called imagination. not a terribly large skein, about 215 yards, so i thought i had the perfect pattern (one i had been anxious to knit for quite some time) and the right amount of yarn. so....cast on and knit i did and then, just as i can see the light at the end of the tunnel, i discovered a mistake way up at the beginning of the pattern - argh! after anguishing over whether or not i could live with the error (after all, no one is perfect except God), i finally succumbed to froggin' the effort!! really big bummer but, as is always the case, i will learn from this error (or that's what i'm telling myself)!!

so, instead of hopping right back up on the horse, i decided to start another cowl out of kidsilk mohair and with beads. that little number progressed quite rapidly and after an evening of knitting i had completed about 4 inches. the next morning, glancing at my work (and preparing to pat myself on the back) what was the first thing i noticed? a slipped stitch about one inch from the provisional cast on! argh again!! 

let me just say this....froggin' mohair in any way, shape or form is NOT fun but with 300 beads attached, it is especially unfun!!

did i jump right back on the horse again? well, no, i once again took an alternative route and spent several hours cooling off while i wound yarn - not only is the ball winder an essential tool for all knitters but i find that it also has therapeutic properties that come in handy when one is not having the best of days. there's something about the trance created by the spinning yarn that helps put everything into perspective! it also didn't hurt that i found another cowl pattern that i was able to successfully complete without error! pictures will follow soon, i promise!

so, indeed, i'm back in the knittin' saddle once again! progress is being made and my knittin' karma appears to be back in its groove - sooooo ride 'em cowboy!

let's hear it for the boys!

my neighbors to the south have three delightful young boys (well, i guess they are not so young anymore since one is a sophomore in high school and the other two are not too terribly far behind!). i have watched them grow over the years and i've enjoyed their hi jinks and adventures throughout the neighborhood, however the motor bike phase hasn't been the most pleasant of experiences!

anyhoo, for years i have been giving them secret santa gifts, mostly treat bags with holiday candies and little trinkets, but this year i decided to broaden my horizons and i knit them hats as they are avid skiers and outdoorsmen.

the pattern i used was by jared flood, aka brooklyn tweed, and is called turn a square. it is available for free at ravelry.com. check it out if you are interested in a quick knit that takes advantage of small amounts of leftover yarn! a fabulous stash buster! i used some leftover noro silver thaw for the stripes and leftover brown wool for the background. i altered the pattern by casting on 88 stitches instead of the 96 as the pattern stated. since i'm a loosey-goosey knitter i knit the total hat on size 6 needles. perfecto!!

speaking of stash busting - after hours of pondering, i've decided that 2009 will be the year of the knit down!! my new year's resolution will be to work on bustin' my stash by using the yarn i have acquired on previous shopping sprees and to stay away from all of my favorite lys's! yeah right, we'll see how long that will last! :-) personally, i give it about a week at the most!

knit on! and yes, i will be knitting through the inauguration! go obama, go!!

2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

i'm working on some resolutions but haven't totally formulated my plan of attack so i'll have to give you the rap on another day!

but, i will say, go trojans!! beat penn st. make it 5 out of 5 for the pac 10!!!

and, how about those beavers!! go beaver nation!!! 

it truly is a happy new year!! above are the single socks that have now met their match!!!

at least i'll be starting off the new year with no single socks hangin' around!!

now that is something to cheer about! yippee!! good bye 2008!