Friday, March 23, 2012

bff socks, fo's, stitches west and kniting plans

I have been a busy and insane little knitter these past 6 months.

First, I would like to update everyone on my bff socks. They have been a tremendous learning opportunity and a disaster at the same time. I need not say that they were not completed in time for christmas or his February birthday. I am now on the 3rd re-knit of the socks due to sizing issues. My bff is amazing. He just appreciates that I am hand making him a gift and not about how late he will get them.

FO's list
1). lion brand hometown usa 2x2 rib scarf in neon pink and green
2). red heart rib scarf for the red scarf project
3). tahki bolder infinity cowl
4). Lace mohair cowl
5). crochet bennie
6). madelinetosh merino dk rib scarf
7). BFF socks
8). chuncky blue cowl
9). noro afghan
10). Lori's Easter Bunny Lamb locks cowl
11). lion brand home spun teal scarf
12). Yarn Bombing- yeas you heard this right...
13).numerous wips
Stitches West 2012
Stitches this year was amazing.  I had an amazing time wandering the market floor with thousands of fellow fiber artists. I took a really great class this year where I learned to knit cables. I saw a bunch of my friends from Sacramento Stitch and Bitch, which is my local knitting group. I also got to see one of my oldest friends from home (Eureka) that I have known for 20 years. He and his wife relocated to the south bay area and they own the local lys. I got to go on a personal tour of purlesent yarns with Kevin and his 4 year old daughter Elle, which was really fun. I also got to do a little bit of celebrity knitter stalking (specifically Alana Dakos of never not knitting and coastal knits and the amazing Ysolda).
As far as purchases go, here is the $300 of treasures I Came home with:

-1 skein of chasing rainbow dyeworks 100% bfl wool in lagoon color way 225yrds
-1 skein becoming art agave fingering 70/20/10 merino, cashmere, nylon blend in looking out color way
-sincer sheep diaphanous merino silk lace 1125 yards in the Anja color way
-Madeline tosh merino DK 225 yards in jade
-a verb for keeping warm floating alpaca silk cashmere 400yds fingering weight in shortcake color way
  • never not knitting pattern cream and sugar cowl
  • knitters pride interchangeable needle set

Knitting Plans:
I am currently knitting the sand and sea sawlette from coastal knits.
cambrian cowl from coastal knits
cream and sugar cowl from never not knitting
gnarled oak cardigian
alpaca/cashmere/silk fingerless gloves vkw floating in short cake color
red cable scarf
12 hats in 12 months charity project
knit a summer tee for my self
spin fibers purchased at lambtown
hand knit a shawl out of pink metalic rayon in time for the opening night of wicked


As you can see, I have caught the yarn/knitting bug in a major way.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Crazy?? I must be.

I must be crazy. I went to a local fiber festival, lamb town, earlier this month. I got the most beautiful fingering-sock weight alpaca yarn and decided that I was going to make one of my best friends a pair of knitted socks for his Christmas present. The funny thing is that up until that point I have never actually knit before in my life. I have dyed, spun, weaved and crocheted, but not knit. So I signed up for a beginning knitting class at my favorite local knitting shop Got Your Goat Yarn Studio in Roseville. I learned how to make a very basic rib pattern scarf in just three 1.5 hour sessions. So for my second ever knitting project I started making socks while taking a class this afternoon at the shop. I spent almost the whole class trying to do a long tail cast on (which I never heard of before today) with very tiny yarn onto four very tiny needles. I had to keep starting over (like 4 or 5 times) before I finally got it right. Then I had to figure out how to separate 64 tiny stitches into 4 groups of 16 onto 4 separate needles without dropping or twisting any stitches or splitting the yarn. After about three hours of starting over many times and with lots of help from my teacher Isabella, I finally completed my first round of knit 1/pearl 1 ribbing for the cuff of one sock. Keep in mind that before two weeks ago all I knew about socks was that they are knitted and you wear them on your feet. As I was leaving the shop my teacher told me that she was very impressed that I was making socks because they are an advanced project and that my first round looks really good:-).. have a good evening everyone..

About Me

About Me.. Well my blog title says alot about me. I am a 34 year old pre-school teacher from Humboldt County who currently lives in Sacramento. I am a fairly normal person who loves my family and my friends and I am obscessed with all things fiber. Dyeing, spinning, knitting, crocheting and beautiful yarn in general, whether it be my work or the work of others.