2009

Every time I sit down to write a recap of 2009 I just get tired. But here we go. There were some projects that I didn't note on the sidebar that I do note here because they were on my Ravelry page (any links here are to the Ravelry Project).

1. Lucky 7 Snowboarding Hat
2. Hemlock Ring Blanket
3. Huron Jaywalkers A rare pair that fits each foot!
4. Veronique from French Girl Knits (Amazon link)
5. EZ's Bog Jacket
6. Indigo Ripples Skirt It's just a little too short. :(
7. Heather Betty Friedan Primavera Socks Another pair of happy socks that fit both feet!
8. Halvsies I've put the pattern for this up for free on Ravelry.
9. Boy Petal Bib for a co-worker
10. Morocco from Sublime booklet #623 Ended up way too big, so I gave it to my Mom. Lesson learned: wash your swatch!
11. Unisex Petal Bib for another co-worker
12. Vogue Tank #25 from Spring/Summer Issue Knit out of Handmaiden Sea Silk, this is one of my favorite projects of 2009!
13. A Couple of Hooters
14. Side Slip Cloche from Boutique Knits
15. Graded Diagonal Lace Scarf for Kristina for Christmas
16. Dr. Monkey Renner for Dr. Renner for Cristmas.
17. Dashing for Kristina's Mom - finished seconds before the ball dropped on New Years Eve!

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So, I responded to the Yarn Harlot's Knit-Signal today. A little too much actually. I didn't see the confirmation page before I accidentally navigated away from it, so I ended up donating twice! I'm going to file paperwork so my company will match my donation, which will, I think, be fairly helpful to Doctor's without Borders in the end. :) I'm sure my tax lady will be upset with me because it's not in 2009, but that's ok. She'll be happy next year when she sees it. :)

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Oh, but what am I working on? Well, I'm working up a pair of Bergen St. Mitts that are much shorter in the arm, but a bit longer in the fingers than the original pattern. I totally don't have any photos.

I just finished knitting a feather and fan cowl out of the same yarn I used for the bog jacket and the Side Slip Cloche. The idea was that it would match the Side Slip Cloche. I, however, am utterly brilliant, and left the Side Slip Cloche in the cab I took home from the Rodeo on Friday night. This is kinda a bummer, but I'm trying to look at it as an opportunity to knit a new hat. It'll probably end up being a Better Bucket Hat, and since I still have almost 2 skeins of that Malabrigo worsted in Pearl Ten, I'll probably knit it out of that. I'm not really upset with myself for forgetting the hat in the cab. It's ok, it's just an object. I'm kinda ticked with myself that I have to take the time to knit a new hat now. Especially since winter will (cross your fingers) be over sometime soon. Stupid. I'm just going to want a new one in December.

in the meantime, if anyone sees a nifty button that will show up against a deep brown that will match a purple coat (extra points if it'll match an orange coat too!), drop me a line with a link. I think I'm looking for something that's like 1-2" in diameter.

Alright, I'm going back to knitting and watching Conan. Poor Conan. Dude just wants to do his last few shows and folks keep taking up his time talking about what he's going to do next. I'm glad I can carpe diem undisturbed.

Travelling Yarn Gifts

There's not much to post here. I'm still working on a Christmas gift. It's taking a while, but it's a lot of fun to knit, so there's that. I'll chat about it after it's been gifted.

To prepare for life without Christmas knitting, I feel like I'm bringing an overabundance of yarn with me to Rhode Island for the holiday. Granted, I'll be there for a good week and a half with not much else to do but knit, I still feel like I'm bringing too much. Here's the list:

• I've got yarn to knit another cowl out of (the light blue one is awesome, but it doesn't match my hat!).
• Yarn for a pair of fingerless mitts for me (my hands keep getting cold!)
• Yarn to finish the Christmas project

Once I get to Rhody, I'm going to have to pick up an aran weight yarn to knit a pair of fingerless mitts for my brother's fiancee's mother. She's cool and will actually wear them. You know, looking at that list, I'm not actually sure I did pack too much yarn. Maybe it's the christmas gifts in my backpack that are taking up all the space. I totally should have mailed them instead of bringing them. Maybe I'll mail them once I get to work.

I should send out a public huge thank you to blogless NanLam. She gave me the coolest bit of yarn:


It's Dream in Color Knitosophy in the Superhero color way. It's a really great blend of colors. Kalajoki (RavLink) popped up when I did a search and I knew that the two were meant to be together. I'm stuck now though. Because this yarn would be perfect to tout around Comic Con and use for Yarn365. While I want to cast on RIGHT NOW for those socks, I should wait. I'll have to come up with something else in the meantime.

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Today's Yarn365 shot is of a centerpiece of knitting needles. In order to get this shot, I pulled a bunch of knitting needles out of the tin I keep all of my needles in. I seem to have a ton of needles I'll never actually use ever again. I think 2010 for me is the year of getting rid of clutter for me - liquidating material things that don't need to be around etc. I'll post a list of the needle type, size etc. once I get back from Rhode Island and y'all can see if there's anything you need. I figure I should just donate them somewhere to charity after that. Anyone know of any charities that accept knitting needles?

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I want to post about my visit to La Casita Yarn Shop yesterday, but I've REALLY got to get this damn gift finished!

Christmas Gift #1 and Gotham Fine Yarn

Christmas gift #1 is finished! I've got 2 1/2 to go! The half a project is a pair of mitts I told my brother's fiancee's mother I'd make for her. I don't really think it needs to be done by Christmas, but if I can finish them before Christmas and have them count, I think that'd be nifty.


I held 3 strands of Lacey Lamb together and had a tough time with that. They kept getting tangled and the insides of the balls liked to get knotted. It wasn't really a fun project, but I think the recipient will like it.

I finished weaving the ends in while visiting Gotham Fine Yarn in the lower east side. I kinda fell in love with this store. She had some really great yarns. Quite a bit of Louisa Harding, which is interesting and different, I think, for the city. She's got Noro and Lamb's Pride and Malabrigo (for a really great price!) and Madelinetosh (which i completely fell in love with!). She has a knit and wine night every other Friday, which I think I'll have to take part in more often. The knitters there were super friendly and working on some pretty interesting projects (including a Tea Leaf cardigan that's on my queue!). I can't wait to go back to that shop! Click here to get a look at what her shelves look like from Yarn365. I took quite a few photos there, so you'll end up seeing some more of her store on the Yarn365 blog soon. But anyway, just go there, it's so much better in person!

Oh, ad I'll leave you with a photo of the pretty Madelinetosh I picked up there. The colorway is called Logwood.

Glass Needles!

OMG. I LOVE the glass needles I bought at Yarn Diva & More a couple of weeks ago. They're not only beautiful, but also they're quite pointy and slippery and, to me, the perfect needles. The Yarn Diva gets her needles from Michael & Sheila Ernst. But look what happened:


My needle broke! I was on the couch lying on my back talking to Stan on the phone and went to roll over to grab something from the coffee table and I heard it snap! :( They were my favoritest needles!

But not to worry, I emailed with Michael and Sheila Ernst. They have a warranty on their needles and will fix them for just the shipping costs! I'm so excited, I can't wait to get them in the mail on Monday!

Travels

The past couple of weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind.


It started with a work trip to London last week. I was there for the better part of a week, but I did get a bit of time to go wandering. I walked from my company's offices on The Strand (practically on the River Thames) to Liberty. I was totally blown away by the exterior of the store:


And the interior was just as amazing. There were gorgeous scarves, beautiful wood architecture, some amazing Christmas displays, soft Rowan yarns and beautifully printed fabrics. I managed to score 2 meters of these fabrics:


I gave the one with the stars to Illanna.

After I spent too much money in Liberty, I wandered on over to I Knit London for their Thursday night Knit night. They were all so friendly there and the yarns at the store were all so beautiful! There were even a couple of people there that were good enough to tell me if a yarn I was looking at wasn't available in the states! It was the kind of knitting group that I wished I could knit with all the time actually.

As soon as I got back to the states, I headed on over to Illanna's place. We had organized a weekend of sewing together. I passed out super early on Friday, but ended up waking up rather early on Sunday. We sewed the pajama pants from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing. After breakfast we traced the pattern pieces out and then traced them onto the fabric. We took a break and wandered over to Yarn Diva & More.

Now, if you've never been to Yarn Diva, let me describe it to you (because I'm too shy to ask to take photos of a yarn store from the inside): it's pink with floor to ceiling yarns. They've got EVERY yarn imaginable from Patons to Berocco to Malabrigo, Handmaiden and Blue Heron. Amazing colors and notions and it's kinda the bee's knees. I ended up getting a new tape measure there (my old one is starting to rip actually!), an amazing button, and a pair of amazing glass needles that I absolutely love knitting with:


The stitches just fly off the needles and I can't wait to find another excuse to knit on size 5 needles!

We came back from the yarn store, cut the fabric out, and started sewing. We even managed to finish relatively early that evening (maybe around 8?)! I'm still so shocked I haven't managed to snap a photo of the pj pants yet. I love wearing them, they're super comfortable, but next time I think I'm going to put a draw string into them as well. The elastic is great, but it's too loose around my waist. However, if it were tighter it wouldn't fit over my hips and would make getting them on rather a pain.

The next day, we wandered over to south jersey to WoodsEdge Wools Farm. They have over 300 Alpacas and Llamas. Someone from the farm was nice enough to explain the differences between the Alpacas and the Llamas to us. The Alpacas, she told us are more like cats in that they're not really that friendly to people they don't know, and they won't really come when you call them. I still think they're really cute. A Suri Llama named Firefly (I think that was the name anyway) was super friendly and adorable:


It was a great weekend filled with fun, awesome food and wonderful friends! I did end up buying more yarn, and as I take photos for Yarn 365 I'll be posting them. I might actually round them all up together. In the meantime, you can check out more photos of London, llamas and alpacas on my flickr stream.