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.

Funny you should ask that

Have you ever entered your knitting (or anything else) in the fair? Would you ever consider it?

Funny you should ask that because this weekend is the Arlington County Fair. I've never entered anything into a fair or any other competition before, but this year a friend practically hounded me into entering something. She really wanted me to enter a pair of socks. She printed out the list of categories for knitting and kept asking, "Do you have this? Do you have that? Can you make something quickly that fits this category?" So I finally gave in and put up some finished projects that were lying around the house. And low and behold, each one of them earned a ribbon! How cool is that?!

For the scarf/hat category I submitted Branching Out in Wool Bam Boo (Ravelry link).Not the best of pictures, but you can see that red second place ribbon attached to it. Then I decided to submit Jen's Fire engine Fingerless Fetchings (Ravelry link) and now she'll have an award winning knit for a Christmas gift. Does it get any cooler than that?

Then there was the issue of choosing a pair of socks to enter. Mmmmmmmm.... several to choose from. Which was my favorite? I just couldn't decide. So I went with the pair that I get the most comments on, Claywalkers (Ravelry link). And what do you know - they won FIRST PRIZE!!!

I'm so stoked!!! And then after mulling over the list of categories at the last minute I decided to finish off my Isa (Ravelry link) and submit it too. What an incentive to finally finish it! I mean I only started it in April of '07 and it's only needed the picot edging on the sleeves for about a year now. But now I can proudly say it's finished and it got second place to boot!

So I guess you could call me a happy camper this weekend. I'm now already planning what I want to knit for next year's fair. Good luck to all of my knitting friends out there who are entering their craft into their local fairs.

Regaining the Mind Through Knitting

In a meek effort to reset my mindset and focus my attention on regaining 'me', I thought I'd take a little path down the Buddha knitting trail. The book, Mindful Knitting speaks of paralleling Buddhism with knitting. Although I'm not a follower I do believe the religion has some good qualities.

Before I go on to offend everyone and anyone who might be reading this, I should make a few clarifying statements. I was born and raised a Catholic. I fell from the graces of the Catholic church during my whole tumor ordeal. I still claim to be a Catholic, just an nonpracticing Catholic. I'm not interested in having people tell me about what I should and/or should not believe in. I don't try to tell others where their religious beliefs should lye, so don't tell me about mine. What I do believe is that people should be the best that they know how to be, and celebrate life however it is that makes them happy and that they believe they should celebrate it.

I was drawn to read this book because of it's mentioning of meditation. Knitting can be such a meditative state. A place and time to contemplate whatever it is that is ailing you. I've heard that the powers of meditation can do wonders for stress. But I have found that I've never been quite good a the whole 'uuummmm' sort of meditation. I've heard other knitters talk about their knitting as meditative, but I don't always find that. For me it's been something to do with my hands. A beautiful hobby and an outlet for my creativity. When my mind is troubled, knitting doesn't help me to think clearer.

This book talks about how to get to that place with your knitting. How to find a meditative state within the practice of knitting. It compares knitting to the teachings the author grew up with.

And even offers 10 projects to practice your meditation exercises through knitting. Most of the patterns are simple and truly mindless, allowing you to focus on what's going on inside your own head. There was one pattern in there that spoke to me. And hopefully will help my mind to speak to itself as well. With some bamboo I recently acquired, it is making for a very enjoyable project. And lusciously soft to boot. What a project for a wounded soul.

Recalculating Destination

Yesterday after the photo shoot of "Arlington Sunrise" and "Arlington at Dusk" I immediately cast on for the Slip Stitch Delight socks. The pattern originally calls for a medium weight yarn and size 2 needles. Sounds like a dream to me. I like knitting my socks with size 2 because they go faster and I'm usually a tighter knitter anyway. Although lately I'm finding that not so much the case. The pattern also has a CO of 60 sts and claims to have a cuff diameter of 8". Being that I have high arches and need a wider cuff to get over my heal, I resorted to adding 12 stitches to the cast on hoping that would give me the extra room I needed. However, after knitting the first 8 rows of the cuff ribbing, I was saddened to realize the fabric created was a little too loosy-goosy for long wearing socks. So a-frogging I went and re-cast on with size 1 dpns. The X motif was exciting to see emerge but that excitement was quickly squashed as I realized the limited diameter of the cuff. I went on a little further to check out the body of the leg pattern and to see what the give of it was. Again disappointment and then evil flashes of the possibility of 100 stitches on size 1 dpns with a two row repeat pattern that is kind of tight to knit began to make my head spin. My stomach did somersaults. I wiped my brow of the sweat beading up there. Would my beautiful yarn and the perfect pattern for it be tossed aside to never see the light of a knitter's hand for a decade or more?

And then by some miracle of the knitting gods, as I was fondling the piece staring in disbelief, my fingers slid through the completed fabric and the world began to shine again as the yarn and pattern called out it's new destination. "Arlington Sunrise" doesn't want to be a pair of socks to be hidden away beneath a pair of slacks or jeans and stuffed into some sweaty shoes. No, no my friends. "Arlington Sunrise" wants to be adored by all as they are flashed around. They want to be as energetic as a simple pair of socks would be but with more flare, more finesse, more exuberance. And who am I to not give in to the yarn's deepest desires?

And so Slip Stitch Delight fingerless mitts they will be!!!

SP12 week 7

What is(are) your favorite place(s) to knit?

What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?

I generally knit from the couch. Such a couch potato I am! But when the weather is nice I like to sit out on the side porch or in the new chairs some friends dropped off for the back yard. But if it's Tuesday afternoon, I'm all about the knit at St. Elmo's Coffee Shop. No matter where I'm knitting, my laptop is always close at hand for checking emails and reading blogs in between pattern repeats and there's usually some sort of snack and either tea, coffee, or Diet Coke close at hand.

In fact, that's a pretty good picture of my day today. It's too humid to sit outside so I'm on the couch watching tv. The laptop is close at hand (hence this posting). I've got a delightful cuppa tea in a decadent caramel truffle flavor sitting beside me. I've caked up some squishable Smooshie yarn in colorway GoGo Grassy. I routed through the pattern books and found an easy, quick, and stylish pattern. All of this put together gets me something like this: I'm now four pattern repeats into the body of the Dream In Color Shrug. I love the look of the kettle dyed yarn and this is going to be such a fantastic piece to add to my back to school wardrobe. Aurgh....I'm not ready to go back, but I'll have to start my school shopping soon. But that will wait for another day. Back to my knitting.

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.

KCiSDE packages

Yesterday I received a wonderful package from my Keepin' Cool in Summer Dishcloth Exchange pal, Darcy! She was very thorough to include so many things that I would like. When I opened the package, this is what I saw:

Everything was wrapped up in these summery bags (which I've saved for future use!). I had to wait a few moments to open everything because Sarah is so excited about her new camera that she insisted on taking several pictures of everything. (Please go to her blog and rave about what wonderful photos she's now taking. Maybe it'll urge her to blog more often. ha!)

First up is the yarn goodies! I don't think kitchen cotton has ever looked so beautiful than in this picture. Do you? And the multiples of cloths that Darcy knit were perfect! At the moment I'm not using knitted cloths in the kitchen but I said that I would love some for the bath. Darcy made two washcloth sized ones for in the shower and three coordinating smaller face scrubs for the sink. They are adorable!!! And the exfoliating soap smells divine. I wish the blogs came with smell-o-vision!

Then there were other goodies. Tons of stuff for relaxing in the bath. There's Awake body wash from B&B Works and some Coconut lotion from there too. A very Feng Shui candle that is already sitting on the stand next to my bed. Another scrubby for the shower and some bath cubes and a tea that I haven't tried yet. Planning on a little of that tomorrow morning with breakfast! And then there was this adorable bee bag that I'm just SO in love with! Inside was packed with more yummies for the tubby. But I think the bag is my favorite item! I'm totally diggin' it!

There was also three great patterns for more bath items and three recipes for summer refreshments. Thanks Darcy for such an awesome package!

My downstream partner, Alana, also received her package and you can check out her goodies here. While you're there, send Alana some good vibes, I'm sure she'd appreciate them.

On my own knitting front, I've finished the Spring Forward socks but they need some blocking to really bring out the beauty of the pattern so you'll all have to wait for photos and details on them. and tonight I've cast on for the Aquaphobia socks in a wild colorway that I received in a contest package. I'll post progress pics of those too, once there's enough to really see the pattern.

The stitch that never ends...

"This is the knit that never ends...
yes it goes on and on my friend.
Some knitter started knitting it not knowing what it was...
and she'll continuing knitting it forever just because.... "(repeat)

After 35 rows of seed stitch to make up the bottom side walls of the BYOB bag I have to wonder what I was ever thinking taking on that my seed stitch. Who in their right mind would ever do that much seed stitch?! It's just insane!! But the good news is, I'm ready to change the pace a little with the stretchy middle part. Thank goodness, a break from seed stitch!

Tomorrow I'm off to meet up with Iva a.k.a. ScrappyHappy, my secret pal from the SITMT swap. I'm so excited to get the chance to meet her face to face. It's always nice to be able to thank your spoiler in person. I promise to take a few photos and post them.

I also still need to post about the events from last weekend. opps.

I went to DE for my cousin's wedding and then some of the family stayed at the beach for a few days. I got to spend lots of time with the little man!!! YUM!!! How adorable is he getting to be? I could just eat him up like candy! He really enjoyed it when the bridal party came in and everyone was clapping along with the music. Then at the beach house, mom made a little boo-boo and caught the kitchen on fire. Luckily little brother and I caught it pretty quickly and the damage was minimal. New roomie Sarah joined in on all the family fun and had a blast. I think she's become an official member of the family now since she rolled up her sleeves and pitched in to clean up the mess. Over all it was a fun weekend and one that was much needed. If the double fully arched rainbow we saw over the ocean is any indicator to the future, I'd be a happy woman!

Groupie Castoupie

I am an official Loopy Groupie!There you have some squishy Smooshie, Alpaca Peds, Classic, and Chewy Spaghetti yumminess. Along with the other wonderful treats that go along with being a groupie. If you're not a Groupie I would suggest you join the band wagon.

I also appear to be casting on a lot without finishing much of anything. My Ravelry projects are starting to get to be a bit ridiculous with so many cast on projects.
My newest two...Baby Surprise Jacket in Ty-Dy.... LOVE this yarn.... must get more!!!! I only get a few rows done and then I have to stop and squish the yarn and love it all up before knitting on. Sarah thinks I'm crazy while I'm working on this. I think she's beyond rolling her eyes at me and ready for the stern, "just knit it already!" look.

The BYOB from the new Knitty done up in a lovely Sugar N Cream Confectionery. This is going to be another great bag for summer shopping.

I've also got several socks started but not much done one them... still deciding if I'm really digging the patterns or not.

Now I'm off to finish packing. We're heading east for the weekend for a wedding and a few days at the beach. A little R&R would be good about right now.

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.

Spring break round up

This year's spring break was all about resting and relaxing as much as possible. I spent most of the week catching up on some much needed sleep. I'm still not sleeping continually throughout the night but the naps throughout the day are helping with that and I'm feeling much better. My hair is shiny, thicker and healthier from not using any product and only washing it every other day this week. Sarah and I spent a little time on Monday pampering our little tootsies and I've been prancing around in flip flops ever since.

I decided to round out the week with a road trip home to spend a little time with the kin folk and the little man. Sarah tagged along for the fun which made the 4 hour drive a hoot and a half. Together we are tag knitting some hats for chemo patients for a fellow blogger and Sarah finished off two of the hats while on the road (with the help of a camping lantern when the sun went down :) ). Before family came over on Saturday we 'kidnapped' the little man for a little tour of the local's finest - chocolate and yarn! Our first stop was Sarris' Candies where we splurged on chocolate covered pretzels, a peanut butter melt away egg, and some fun BeanBoozled jelly beans to have a little fun with the relatives later that day. The little man was dazed and fascinated by all the bright lights and sights to see there.

Then it was off to check out the local yarn ware. A quick stop in The Knit Shoppe landed Sarah with a great bargain on some Cascade 220. I restrained myself and entertained the little man as he began to get a little cranky with these two strange women.

When we ventured to my new local favorite, Bloomin' Yarns, I could restrain myself no longer. Look what called out to me to find it a new home...

By this point the little man's crankiness was in full bloom so we cut the yarn fondling short and headed home for some home cooked goodness and family fun. Sarah had a blast getting each member to try the BeanBoozles. Dad got Skunk Spray and Booger and Brother Mark got Booger and Vomit!!! What fun!!! The only 'bad' one I got was Black Pepper which wasn't so bad by comparison.

The day also brought with it a visit from my favorite neighbor, Mrs. J. She took pictures of us each year on our first day of school in our new school outfits. Being a knitter and crocheter herself, she always has some little project going on which she shares with everyone she sees. Look what she brought with her on this visit...

They're sink scrubbies made from netting. Mom says they are great for scrubbing pots. Apparently they're also good for exfoliating in the shower.

Before I left I wound some of my favorite Jitterbug in two lovely colorways and finally cast on for the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

It's amazing how the colors are knitting up! I'm so in love that it's taking me forever to knit because I stop every few rows to admire the colors. I can't stop admiring and smiling.

Today is my last day of laying around watching TNT Prime Time in the Day Time. It's back to the grind tomorrow.

Great Friends, Good deeds, and Fun Knits

I'm such a lucky gal. My life might have fallen to pieces around me and I may be still in a state of confusion and looking for direction, but I have some of the most fabulicious women in my life that I just don't know what I would do without them. I must say that when I moved away from my friends and my work to move in with Honey, I kind of let a lot of friendships fall by the wayside. I haven't given the attention and haven't been the best of a friend for so many for a while now. I have felt guilty about it which has added to my poor self image I've been so carefully creating for myself. But these amazing women, all with issues of their own, have stepped up to the plate to allow me to lean on them and to begin to rebuild again. Their strength and love is amazing and I really don't know what I would do without them. It's going to be a long hard road to recovery, but my road crew is strong and appears to know what I need right now more than I do. Every night since Honey left I've been met with outings, phone calls, dinners out, knittings in, Cakelove cupcakes, group hugs, shoulders to cry on, ears to just listen, comforting advice... you name it they've come through.

Some of the best advice I've been given so far was to seek professional help as well as seek out ways that I can be helpful. So this weekend I've drowned myself in good deeds to do. First off, Ruth helped me to deliver a trunk full of scarves, hats, mittens, gloves, and other winter weather goodies that I had my ADK group collect, to a local shelter that was very thankful for the donation. I attempted to donate them at several other locations and was turned down. Bummer that most of them won't take donates of that type due to space restrictions. But this one was great. We even met a man who was very grateful to accept one of the sleeping bags we had on hand. What a great feeling that gave me to make someone else's day when I'm feeling like shit. But the good deeds didn't end there. Sarah has to move out of her DC townhouse so we spent the day loading up the cars and moving like a billion items to a storage unit and to the house she's going to temporarily live in. And to boot, she's going to help me look for a new place and is thinking of moving in with me. Good times with that gal. Through the move, one of the the women she's temporarily moving in with has so graciously given me a car full of office supply stuff and books to take into the schools that I'll work in next week. I know the teachers there will be delighted with the goodies I'll have to offer them. Giving back the love I so desperately need right now feels good, even if it's only a temporary fix in between crying sessions. In the long run, I think it's going to be these good times with these ladies (and others that I haven't mentioned here but are just as important right now) that's going to pull me through this mess.

The time I do have alone at home has been spent drowning my tears in knitting. No FOs just yet, but a few WIP that someone around here might find interesting. Or at least it's a good distraction from the depression I call life right now.

First up is another Booga Bag. The body is all knit up now and I only have the straps to do before felting. I used JoAnn's Sensations wool yarn line and really enjoyed how smooshy it felt as it knit up. I'll admit, a little odd for wool, but also very comforting right now in an odd sort of way. We'll see how it felts up before giving a final verdict.

On our day off on Monday I took my friend Heather (the wonderful woman mentioned above who donated all the stuff for me to take to the schools) to two LYS to make her first "real" yarn purchases. I happened to pick up some interesting looking Cameo, Wool in the Woods in Citrus on sale and began knitting up Wisp last night. I'm in love. (The colors here are dark and dreary... what more can I say about this weather right now. Hopefully better photos will come later.)

I'm calling it Spring Whispers because of it's light spring colors. The drape on it so far is lovely. What a fabulous feel good knit.