October is for Pumpkins too!

I am such a fall baby and now that fall has arrived, I'm in heaven!!! Fall colors are totally all me! The rich chocolates, rusty reds and oranges. mmmmm! Nothing says me more. As for pumpkins, I adore the way they look, the way they feel, the idea of trucking out into a patch in the cool fall air to pick just the perfect one to take home. And I love the fact that everywhere I look things are pumpkin flavored! I limit my love of pumpkin to the 31 days of October to keep it special and honored during the month. But during those 31 sacred days, I'm all about the pumpkin!

Yesterday a group of friends went out to an Afghanistan place for dinner. They serve some of the best sauteed pumpkin, or kadu. Yummy! There was so much food that I had some for lunch today. What a treat!

But how might I relate pumpkins to knitting, you might ask. Well, I knit up a scarf for my SP12 pal that I called Rusted Pumpkin. I loved it so much that I knit a second one for myself. How was an October baby supposed to live without one of these?

Yarn: Malabrigo worsted, colorway Rhodesian

Pattern: June is for Jag

Needles: size 9 Options

Verdict: Both recipients are in love!!!! (although I may be a little biased towards my own project, but what the hay)

OK... so now off to do a little laundry and then work on some Socktober Socks. Be on the lookout for some book reviews... I've got several waiting in the wings around here!

Playing catch up once again...

First and foremost I must send a huge shout out and thank you to Jane over at GrammieKnits. A while back she hosted a little contest and she sent me this great market bag. I love it and have put it to use many times since it's arrival. And then there's the issue of posting the weekly questions for SP12.

I'm sure most of us have a proudest moment when it comes to knitting. A project or technique that you've tackled and completed beautifully. What is your proudest knitting moment??

I'm not sure what my proudest knitting moment is. Any time a project turns out well, I'm proud of it. I don't know that I've really tackled anything too demanding. But then again it all can be intimidating until you actually give it a go.
And on the flip side? What is the one thing that you can't get right? What is that one project that you've never been able to complete? Or that you did complete but then hid away instantly because it was too embarrassing?

I don't know if I have any of these either... oh wait... there was that recycled silk wrap that I attempted. I never did like any of the patterns and how they were working up so I never got anywhere with it.

And for those of you who are interested in seeing some of the FOs I've gathered lately, take a peak. But I'm sorry that I don't have time at the moment for details. If there is something that you are interested in, leave a comment and I'll be happy to respond.

Dream in Color Shrug in Go Go Grassy

June is for Jag in Malabrigo Rust

Market Shaw in Zitron Trekking Hand Art

Garter Lace Facecloth

And for a pretty WIP:

Anastasia Socks in Noro Silk Garden Sock

And now I must get back to work, lunch is over.

A Daughter's Loving Arms

These past few weeks have been a little slow on the blogging front. Mainly because my aunt was in town visiting for a while and then we both headed home to PA together. My mom's being going through some medical stuff and I thought it would be fun to surprise her by coming home. In preparing for the trip I wondered what I might be able to knit for my mom so that I could leave it behind when it was time to leave. I've never knit anything for her before, just didn't know what she would actually use/wear. But with everything she was going through medically I thought it might be nice to have something she can wrap her shoulders in or snuggle up with when I'm not there and she needed a little daughterly love. It would need to be washable and while I was in a therapy session (of the on-line yarn story variety) I came across a variegated Comfort that I thought was blue. Although Mom's favorite color is yellow she's really attracted to wearing blue. Most of her wardrobe is some sort of blue. So I purchased four skeins of this lovely, soft, washable yarn from Yarn Market (where I also got this picture of the yarn. Click on it to find out how to get some of your own.) But when it arrived it was apparent that "Sachet Mix" was definitely purple not blue. So what to do??? One of my doctors is having a baby and so I thought maybe I could find a quick knit to make her a blankie to wrap her little one in. I found one on Ravelry that I kind of liked but didn't think it would be big enough so I made some adjustments and cast on. There was still the issue of finding a great yarn for Mom's project. I didn't get a chance to visit any of the LYS before we headed up north so I imagined taking Mom out and having her pick her own yarn. The started blankie came along since it was an easy pattern to work on while chatting with family. Much to my surprise, when I mentioned to Mom that the yarn was almost a project for her, her eyes lit up and she raved at how much she loved it. And she was really digging the pattern so far as well. Luckily for Mom, the pattern was working out to be much narrower than I thought it would so the plan changed again to continue on with the pattern but turn it into a wrap/stole/shrug of some sort for Mom. I was kind of hoping to finish it before I left but that Little Man kept stealing my attention. Can you really blame me? But as it grew, Mom continued to rave about how much she loved it. So it traveled back with me to finish, which was probably a good thing anyway since I didn't have any Soak or Eucalan to soak it in and I was worried about how long it would take to block and dry before I could add the final touches. Would I really have time to finish and leave it with Mom? No. So back home it came with me and into the sink with a bit of Lavender Eucalan. Perfect for the color way doing you think? And then out to the yard to dry in the hot sun. Now it was time for the real fun - seaming up the edges a little to give a little bit of a sleeve so that Mom could use it while quilting and it not fall off. I'm in love with the way it turned out! And I'm sure Mom's going to love it too! It's a bit big on me, but Mom is a bit bigger than me too. And she doesn't like things to be tight on her anyway so this should work well for her. Now all that's left is to wrap it up nicely with a sweet little note that is sure to make Mom cry. Call me cruel, but I love it when I'm able to do that, happy tears of course. I'll be heading back up that way in mid-August and maybe I'll get a few modeled shots with the actual recipient. But for now you've only got me. I'm calling this project "A Daughter's Loving Arms."

Green Springing up a Little Late

Spring may have come and gone but these beauties will live on and provide spring like warmth all throughout the coming winter.

Like so many other knitters out there, I have fallen head over heals for the newest free on-line sock pattern, Spring Forward from Knitty.com.

This was my first time using Classic Elite Alpaca Sox yarn and I must say it's a dream to work with. A little fuzzy with the alpaca and all, but that just makes the socks the more yummier! The colorway reminded me of the brilliance of spring greens and yellows springing up once the last frost had hit so I thought they would be perfect for this pattern. The pictures show them as a much brighter, almost hard to look at, green. But I just can't seem to get the lighting I guess. the picture taken without the flash outside is probably the closest but still not right on.

I really enjoyed this pattern as I'm finding that I really like knitting sock patterns with 12 to 16 rows in the repeat pattern. It seems to help in knitting them up faster. These only took me 2 1/2 days to knit up! You'd think I was some sort of speed knitter or something! It took longer to block and completely dry from the soaking!

Waiting for Sarah

While I'm waiting for Sarah to finish up her Spring Forward socks so that I can soak them both together for blocking, I thought I'd cast on for another pair of socks. I wound up a colorful skein of hand painted yarn that I received from a blog content and began casting on for Aquaphobia socks. Part way through the leg I was alarmed at how much yarn I was using and decided to check both the yardage of the yarn as well as the pattern. In the pattern notes, the author mentions using a skein of 395 yards and had plenty left over, however she only has a size 7 foot. I was immediately concerned since I have a size 9 foot. Upon rechecking the yardage of the yarn my concern really grew as it only contained 350 yards. My brain began spinning, thinking of ways that I could continue on with what was working out to be a cool pattern with this yarn without running out on the second foot. I decided to skip out on 5 repeats to make the leg a little shorter. But after completing the leg and the heal flap, I was still concerned. I started to wonder where I might be able to find some black sock yarn to do contrasting heals and toes to save on the colorful yarn. And then I remembered that I had some choral KnitPicks yarn that fell through from another project but should correspond nicely. KnitPicks to the rescue!!! So far, I'm diggin' the way it's coming out. I can't wait to get to the toe to see how it all turns out. I was hesitant at how the yarn was originally working out in the pattern because I didn't think the colors were me. But now I'm sold! I love it! I kind of wish I would have thought about it earlier and have done the cuff with the contrasting color too.

Did you guess correctly?

These beauties are drying nicely and will be ready for Aunt Suz's arrival next week.

Yarn: Socketta, in a light pink, light blue, and purple colorway. (Sorry, can't find the yarn band right now.

Pattern: Twilight from the 2-at a time Socks book

Size: 9 shoe

Modifications: I did them on 5 dpns, one at a time.

Verdict: I think I like the pattern and maybe I'll do it again someday. But really this yarn is just not me. It's too pastel. Although I think it worked out nicely with the pattern. The yarn was a bit abrasive at first with the cotton content, but I got used to that and then it went much better. I just hope that Aunt Suz likes them. That's what really matters.

And this is what grew from that balled yarn:It was AMAZING at how quickly these babies knit up!!! In less than 24 hours an entire sock was done!!! I probably could have finished it in less time if things like sleep, eating, and chatting with good friends didn't get in the way!I'm rockin' baby!!! I love the stitch pattern with this color way. I feel like a preschooler took some finger paint and went like this all over my feet. Oh wait, you can't see what I'm doing with my hands. Just move your hands in opposite circles going inward.

Hopefully the second one will knit up just as fast!

Guessing game???????

Bet you can't guess what's lurking beneath the bubbles?

Hint: They should be blocked and dry before Aunt Suz gets here next week.

Or mabye you can guess what this is dreaming of becoming? It's Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox in color way 1835.

Hint: Something everyone's been springing head over heals over. Ha ha ha ha!

Another pair down

All this goofy weather lately has got my head spinning... headache, no headache, headache, no headache. Sometimes I want to do stuff and sometimes I don't. Motivation has not been constant around here. But I'm finding that working on both socks at once on two different sets of dpns is helping move things along faster. I now have another fun pair of socks to wrap my tootsies in hand knitted loveliness. This are Claudia Handpainted in colorway Purple Earth and I love the colors! Although they totally didn't turn out the way that I thought they would. Using the Charade pattern had the yarn striping in a strange way.I did end up with a little hole in the first row of the gusset, but really with shoes on you can't even tell. (too bad you can tell in this picture.) I must have started at two different ends with the two skeins cuz the colors pulled in a slightly different pattern and places but honestly I love it. I think these will be my artsy-fartsy socks. And last night I broke down and made myself yet another pair of fun sock blockers. Who couldn't use a little flower power right about now?

They are already being put to good use!

Sock updates

Although knitting has been slow lately with everything else that's going on around here, there has been some progress in the sock area. Feast your eyes on the beauties I'm calling 'Claywalkers".....And how beautiful do they look on my new sock blockers? It's like they were made for each other. :) I couldn't be happier with the way these came out. The yarn is Knit Picks Felici sock yarn in colorway Clay. They are TOTALLY me! I decided that I really wanted the stripes to match up so I did two at a time... not on two circs though... have yet to master that one. I just started one sock on one set of size 1 dpns and the other sock on another set of size 1 dpns. I would do five pattern repeats on one and the switch to the other. That seemed to make them go a little faster I think. And look at how great they fit... I had to go up one size in the pattern for them to fit over my high arches, but it was well worth it and I couldn't be happier about the way they turned out. I mean, just look at how beautiful the heals are... Spectacular aren't they?! Best ones yet! I'm so jonesing about how these came out that I've cast on for two more pairs of socks (different patterns though). Here we have the beginnings of Charade socks in Purple Earth by Claudia Handpainted. And here's a pair of Swirly Girl Socks in Tofutsies.

Lifetime Award and Payment for Dinner

It's been a few days since you all have heard from me around here... and for good reason. Maybe I'll go into all that in another post in a little while. Right now I'm just interested in posting a few FOs and then going to lay down for a little while. First up is an over due knit for a dear friend from WW who earned her Lifetime Goal a while ago. I promised I would knit her something but never quite figured out what it would be. I finally decided on a great pair of felted clogs but then took like forever to get the yarn and cast on. But I'm pleased to report that they are now ready to be awarded to a very deserving lady. Here's Chris's Lifetime Award Slippers... These are of course Fiber Trends Felted Clogs done up in some Patons wool in a bright blue (although not as bright as this photo is showing) and a chocolate brown. She's got small feet so I'm going to have her try them on to see if they need to be felted down a little more before adding some skid-free stuff to the bottoms.

Another lovely lady from WW made a sweet deal with me last week and 'traded' me a few home cooked dinners for a knit scarf. Sarah just happened to have some, brace yourself, acrylic yarn in a colorway my friend loved and Sarah was looking to off load. And so I present what I'm calling Ora's 'Salt 'n' Peppa'... I'm linking both of these FOs to their Ravelry reports for further details if you're interested.

In other news Sarah is celebrating her quarter of a century... Happy Birthday Sarah!!! Here's a quick pic of her and a friend who flew in for the special event. Love that smile!!! And as a final note (cause I'm starting to get stiff and the pain is coming back again and I must. lay. down.) a little something I had sent to myself this past week from The Loopy Ewe. Gotta love your dpns something special right???

Another Finished Bag

Maybe Stacey is right.... bags just might be my thing. They seem to be quick and mindless when you really need it. For this one I chose to use JoAnne's Sensations Kashmira. It's spongy and squishy to the touch and was strange but nice to fondle while knitting it up. The colors are bright and summery. So much different from the other wools that I've felted with.

I couldn't help but wonder if it would really felt. It didn't have the normal loose fibers that look like they would easily grab on to it's neighbors. But it turned out better than I could imagine! It's a bit thinner felt than Patons' wool and I really dig it. It's going to be great to tote around this spring and summer!

For those of you on Ravelry, feel free to check out the details there. This also satisfies another check off of my Mission Possible list. That's 4 out of 12. Not so bad for 3 months so far. I guess I'm ahead of the game a bit.