Holiday Knitting and Tea Parties and a Neice or Nephew on the Way!

Long time, no blog! I've been so busy with the holiday knitting and my new job (I'm not working in an office, as I had hoped, but I rather like my new retail environment - plenty to keep me busy and lots of cool folk to work with) that blogging has been the last thing on my mind - but I'm here now, no pics unfortunately but I hope to upload a ton after Christmas!

1. Holiday Knitting

I have finished two of the minor items, although one still requires having the ends weaved in. I'm 20% through one of the bigger projects, have barely started one of the others, and won't even be able to start the last one because I have no yarn for it. (I know which yarn - bare, 100% Peruvian wool from KnitPicks which I want to dye myself with Kool Aid, and which pattern - time and money have both been a factor, though). So I'm feeling pretty good about what I've managed to get done. I'm going to make a miniature version of the last project in acrylic just to show the recipient what he's getting. I hope he'll be pleased.

2. Tea Parties

Okay, well, just one tea party :) I went to an ornament exchange tea party this weekend. There were twelve of us altogether so we each brought 11 ornaments, and enjoyed Christmas music, a lovely spread of finger foods, and had great fun exchanging decorations. (This is the first year my husband and I have had a tree so it was exciting to have some sweet, hand-picked ornaments to put on it!) It also snowed lightly all afternoon, and cardinals gathered in the tree by the hostess' deck. A picture-perfect sort of outing!

3. My sister informed me earlier last week that she's expecting in March! I'm very excited for her and my brother-in-law, and hope that my nephews and neice are excited to have a new arrival too! I'm also excited that I might be able to do some newborn/infant knitting. I didn't knit when the other three were born so I had nothing hand-crafted to give them (though I've been trying to make hats and things to catch up), so I'm already giving thought to what I can gift the new baby. I also want to make something for the two big brothers and big sister so they're not left out! I have three months to get on it, so if you have any suggestions for a favourite baby/infant project, feel free to leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Well, guess I'd better get some dinner and get on with that knitting! I hope to post again before Christmas, but if I don't, I wish you happy holidays and peace and joy and all that jazz ;)

♥

FO: Knucks, on my hand

FO: Knucks, on my hand
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

Well, "knuck", really, as I've only made one. I wanted to make these for a specific person, but how can I make it if I've never practiced the technique? So this week I finally sat down and got over my fear of learning a new skill (since teaching myself how to knit last year... I've had to do that a lot!). On Wednesday I alternated with another Christmas gift project so I only had the fingers done and put on two needles by bedtime. The next day I started on working the fingers into part of a cohesive whole. By the time I went to bed that night, the thumb was on and the gusset was being shaped. And by dinnertime the next night, I had a glove! It's a bit short for my liking but I can fix that on the next one.

Here's a pattern link. It's a bit tricky at first but it's not as hard as it looks... though I will say that I surprised myself by completing something categorised on Knitty as "piquant"!

Well, best get to more knitting. Only 16 more knitting days until Christmas (AUUUUGHHHH!).

♥

FO: Wrist Warmers (finished at long last!)

FO: Wrist Warmers (finished at long last!)
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

For this one, you might want to recall this entry from all the way back in July. That was one wrist-warmer in that lovely biscuity coloured Vanna White yarn. Last night I finally cast on for the second one! I don't know why I put it off for so long - I think I was convinced I didn't have enough yarn left to start it. I ended up weighing the wrist warmer and then the leftover yarn and found out I would have enough. Got an inch or so done last night before bed, and I finished it while I watched TV tonight. Even wove the ends in! This is unusual for me, it's the one dread job of knitting, the weaving-in-the-ends. Anyway, I've even included a picture as proof! I feel like I've come pretty far - knocking out the second one was a breeze. The first one felt like a major accomplishment akin to climbing a mountain or running a 5K!

They sure are clunky, but they're warm. And since I have to be at work at 6am tomorrow, that's good enough for me!

Colouring My World With Kool-Aid!

WIP Update: I finished Nathan's hat on Saturday night and hope to post a picture soon. I'm actually quite pleased with the way it turned out - it definitely looks handmade but not crappy. I'm paranoid that the things I make look silly and that any gift recipient is really just being super-polite (but thinking inside, "I really hope she doesn't expect me to actually wear that"). The ol' self-esteem well is a little low today, but I think once I put on my pink earflap hat and get some coffee into my system I'll be fine. ;)

WIP Update II: I started on yet another Christmas Knitting Project (which I can't disclose here in case of accidental click-throughs on my family's part!). What I will say is that the yarn is extremely nice - Mission Falls 1824 Wool. Superwash merino! It's so soft! Me + Mission Falls = ♥

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Yesterday I started researching Kool-Aid dyeing. I've been taking a good, hard look at the world of yarn, and realistically, my bank account can't take the hit for some of the yarns and projects I'd ultimately like to try. However, KnitPicks sells some very reasonably priced undyed yarn (an amount of fingering-weight yarn good for a pair of socks comes in at about six bucks!) and I would love to custom-colour some sock yarn (also some Peruvian wool for a slightly ambitious sweater project). Kool-Aid is getting some very rave reviews as a dyeing method, and is quite affordable for my bargain-basement budget, so for my own future reference - and yours too! - here are some very quick links to some Kool-Aid dyeing how-tos:

Dyed In The Wool (knitty.com)
Dyeing Tutorial (free, Knitpicks.com)
Kool-Aid Yarn Dyeing (Quantum Tea blog; it's not a step-by-step but there are some really pretty pictures)

Hopefully I can post more after work. I definitely plan on documenting my first dyeing experience, so stay tuned! ♥

Happy Birthday Babe!

WIP: Nathan's Manos hat
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

This picture is of a hat I'm knitting for my husband. He wanted a hat, and I didn't really have any colours or fibres in my stash that he especially liked, so we went to our LYS, today. They have a birthday discount (half your age as a percentage off), and he picked out some yarn. I've always wanted to knit with Manos del Uruguay, but haven't ever had a project in mind and was too easily intimidated by the quality and price (e.g.: "Yikes, for my budget it's too steep... and I'm not a good enough knitter!")... but today that's what he liked best, so that's what we got! The thick-and-thin nature of the yarn makes knitting with it a bit of an adventure, but it's working out quite nicely so far. I'll post pictures when I'm finished!

I'm still working (or procrastinating on) various other Christmas knitting. I have officially given up the ornament-knitting idea (I'm just going to pick out some nice stuff at Hobby Lobby, I'm too busy), although I did whip up some paper chains for our very first tree! (Yes, we've been married six years and have never managed to put up a tree, other than a desktop model.) I couldn't find my various-colour construction paper but I did find the plain stuff, and I had a box of crayons on hand, so I coloured in whole pages, then cut them into strips and made chains using a stapler. Fun stuff! I have to make some more as it didn't quite make it around the tree, but still.

Well, off to noddyland with me. Happy knitting to you all! More soon!

♥

Knitting: The Weather Buster!

It is officially 25 degrees F right now, which to me is very, very cold! I have been waiting for cold weather to truly hit our neck of the woods. Summer seemed to overstay its welcome and autumn wasn't in a hurry to take its place; the leaves on the trees didn't turn those magnificent jewel colours until just a week or so ago. Now, I realise the kind of winter weather that we see here in the mid-south isn't exactly harsh - we're not having snowstorms or minus-degree temperatures - but I was born and raised in Australia. The winter temperatures there, while chilly, are nothing compared to this, and even after six years I'm still not used to it. Which is why I'm glad I knitted those purple and yellow Happy Socks. I slipped them on over another pair of thinner socks last night, because my toes were a little nippy, and I wore them to bed, and I was toasty all night, and still am now! Plus, looking at them makes me smile.

I didn't get any knitting done yesterday except for a little bit to take the edge off (I cast some crap yarn onto a needle and just knit a couple of rows), because I was mostly working on a new hand-sewing project (I will be attempting to install a zipper... dun dun dun) and procrastinating on my novel, which has stalled somewhere in the neighbourhood of 18,000 words. Yikes. However, I did a little shopping at Hobby Lobby and scored some Yarn Bee Jewelsong for $1.99 a ball (regularly $10.00!) and some Yarn Bee Elf Eyelash for a $1.60. Bargain. (I am loving furry, fluffy, fuzzy, but still easy-to-work-with yarn right now. The brighter the better. Ever since I started my Rockstar Scarf I've been loving the notion of using these fun yarns as a fabulous accent rather than the meat-and-potatoes of a piece.)

Right now I'm looking up how to knit Christmas tree ornaments. I will be going to a tea-party in December where all of the ladies who attend bring ornaments for every one else, and while I would love to go buy some glittery, shiny ornaments, I don't really have the money. However, I do have yarn! So here's some of what I've found. I might even consider knitting some small versions of the knitted cupcake to make into ornaments!

Christmas trees!
Paton's Yarn ornaments (requires membership, which is free)
Teeny hats!
Snowman

I will be scouring the internet for more later, so watch this spot.

I suppose if I wanted to be a real trouble-maker and skip the knitting part, I could always make something from a box of O.B... I mean, those angels are really cute! However, considering the negative reaction to the Litter Box Cake I made two years ago for Halloween, I should be wary of grossing out this particular group of lady-folk. (I'm still bitter about the cake though. "Make something gross! Make something scary!" My cake was awesome, and no-one would touch it because it was too realistic! Bah.)

My New Favourite Toy (November Edition)

With a title like that I suppose you'd expect me to review some kind of knitting gadget - which was not my intent, but I'll throw a bone to Clover and say that I love their row counter, or as I call it, "my clicker". As noted on Yarn Market, it does make a very satisfying sound, and it also helps me keep track of the stripe sequence on my Rockstar Scarf!

No, my actual new favourite toy of November is Pandora Radio, a music genome project which finds music you might like based on existing favourite artists or songs. I discovered it way ages ago, but promptly forgot about it after I started buying songs from iTunes. Well, now I'm broke and I need to reinstall iTunes but I'm too busy sewing and knitting to care, so I'm listening to Pandora every day. I have stations based on Jamiroquai, Cibo Matto, Rob Zombie, Megadeth, Silverchair, and as of today, Cliff Richard. I know it's a bit eclectic, but, eh. That's me.

Anyway, I just felt the need to get that out there. I'm in the middle of sewing another little pink penguin bag, and it turns out that listening to poppy, boppy music helps, so I wanted to give Pandora a plug! Although this one will likely have no closure of any kind since I didn't buy a zip beforehand... though I do have some buttons stashed away somewhere. When I'm done with this, I have a Top Sekrit Knitting Project to work on - I would love to elaborate, but there might be family members reading. If you're on Ravelry, look me up - sammyknits - to get the goods! ;)

♥