Busy Week

We had another Ravelry meet up at East Tenampa on Thursday. Good fun was had by all. I have a picture, thankfully, from Aimee because I totally left my camera at work and did the same thing this weekend. Thank goodness there was nothing I needed to take pics of. Well, except for yesterday when I woke up. I came downstairs and saw Heidi and Ashes sharing the same couch cushion. Shocking!!! Of course neither of them stayed still long enough for me to even think of looking for my camera. According to Zach, they do that all the time. **looks sceptical**

My Swap partner got her package so I can post some pictures. She has more pictures up on her blog. Yay. She liked it. Very excited. I think it will be the last swap I do for a bit. I am going to be super busy at work until mid-May at which point I hope to escape work for some fun in the Florida sun.

This week especially is going to be so hectic.

Hmmm...I've been debating about posting about this all day pretty much. Well I'll provide a warning. It is about feminine hygiene products. If you aren't interested, I won't make you read it. But if you are, If you highlight the text between the little stars, you'll be able to read what I wrote. I know some people are squeamish about this sort of thing or just really don't want to know that much about me.

** So I've been thinking for a while about switching to cloth pads. I had seen a few things on Craftster. Actually I was quite disturbed by the crocheted tampon. I think that put me off the idea for a while. I'm not sure why it popped back into my head. Well, it could have been because I started that time of the month. So I went a searching and I found this. This company actually makes and sells cloth pads. 6 of them for $40.00. **blink blink** That is yarn money people. Luckily these nice people also have a pattern on their website. So I run down to the basement to see what I have wasting away in my fabric stash. Oh yes, I have one of those too. And a scrapbook stash. I digress. I have cotten flannel, oh and look at that, I even have cotton batting too. So I dragged out the sewing machine and whipped myself up a couple. And I have to say I am hooked. They are very comfy. Even without wings or sticky stuff, they stayed in place very very well. Fabric against fabric=no movement. They were softer, less diaper like than their plastic cousins. I somehow missed the note that I should soak them in cold water to prevent staining. Oh well. The only problems I had were a bit of leakage around the sides. The ones I made turned out much shorter than I meant to and I didn't put wings on them since I didn't have any fasteners. I think I am going to make another set that are longer and see about adding wings. But I am very impressed. And they seem to have made it through a regular wash cycle. "But Nadine, what if you have to change them in public?" I bought myself a little black vinyl zippered pouch to keep a clean one in and to put the used one in when I change. These suckers are very absorbant and was able to go all day without a change without having that "wet diaper" feel. So even on my heaviest days, I don't see there being a need to change more than once. And I'm helping to reduce trash. Although I think I kinda freaked out Zach when I started making them. **

HSKS4 Swap. OMG!!! It's here!!!

An owl stopped by my house yesterday. It was bringing me my Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap 4 package from Henrietta Sweeting, known to the rest of you muggles as MelzyKnits.


I opened up my package and found an adorable bag. It is so cute and perfect and lovely Ravenclaw (movie) colors. It is the perfect vessel for a sock project. It is felted, so very sturdy and oh, so stylish.




I opened it up to see what wonderful things had been left inside. Some lovely stitch markers in a bag and two that came from the same place as the yarn. Lovely blue crackle beads and one with a smiling sun. And what is this? My first set of KnitPicks needles!!! Size ones. Very tempted to rip the ones I am using on my Viking sock out so I can switch them to these. But I am restraining. Otherwise, what would I use to knit up this amazing yarn?


Ta da. Unfortunately my mad picture taking skillz and lack of sunlight this morning did not allow me to take a picture where the flash wasn't reflected back to the camera in the tag. So I had to cut it out of the picture, but I wanted everyone to be able to see the color of the yarn. Isn't it georgous. It was dyed by Crazy4Dyeing. A 4-ply Socrates Merino Wool. So soft and squishy.

Some new friends and a sock

As promised, the pictures of Gigi and her new friend. Her name isn't coming to me as quickly as Gigi's did. You'll also notice Gigi has a bit of a makeup makeover. I went with more of an icy, silver, blue theme with her. On Brigitte (ooo I think I like that one. pronounced brig-eat) I went with a more natural, green, brown, gold look. I think Gigi has recovered well.

















Sock number one of my Broadripple socks done. I very much like it. Except for the pooling of colors around the heel. The varigated yarn managed to turn itself into a striping yarn but went bananas in the gusset. And the blue looks way more green than it should, but it has been crappy raining all day today and can't get a good picture with some natural lighting.



Speaking of some mad sock skillz, I think I'm gonna have to try this. I do have that skein of magic stripes that I separated to try the two on one circular. Or I can use the Ultra Alpaca I just bought. Decisions, decisions.

And you'll see below that I posted a few new patterns. I was a bit nervous after reading a post on Ravelry where someone complained that just because it is a free pattern doesn't mean it has to suck and have bad formatting and be wrong. She freaked me out. But I put them up, and I got them up on Ravelry too. I shouldn't have worried. I have had about 5 people message me about how awesome the Imaginary Hat is. I want to hug you all. But what I have posted are all the patterns I have written up. I have 5 that I need to write up and they are the complicated ones: Bubbles, Doozer, Wendel, Jayne Cobb hat, Handspun Hat. Someday...someday.

New addiction

Travian

People seem to like to attack me. Especially when I have all my resources saved up over the weekend. But I am building my palisade and rallying point. Hopefully I'll soon have soldiers to defend my city while I am gone.

Or if you feel bad about just wasting time. Try Free Rice. Improve your vocabulary and help end hunger.

In other news, Gigi has had an accident. It appears that the sealant I got to make sure her paint doesn't chip, does not like styrofoam. It melted it a bit. My attempt at repainting and then sealing with ModPodge just made her look...well...to be honest, sort of like a burn victim. It was bumpy and shiny, very similar to burn scars. I didn't take pictures and am attempting to salvage her. In the mean time, I bought another head (I really didn't think Gigi was going to make it). So now I have two and hope to have pictures tomorrow. Once all the paint and Matte ModPodge has dried. If Gigi survives maybe one of them will find a new home. I don't make hats often enough to have two head models.


And so I don't have a completely picture-less post. Here is my MIL's birthday present. It is supposed to be Grommit. I'm not sure how I feel about it. The head just didn't shape up right. Here is the pattern.

Mystery Crochet Project voting

My entry into Knits and Knots Mystery Crochet Project is up for the people's favorite vote. Head on over and give me a nod. My entry is "when it rains, it pours"

Chocolate and yarn and friends...Oh My!!!

Have you ever had Holl's Chocolate? If you haven't, you are missing out. My mouth is watering just thinking about the darn things. So creamy and decadent and they have a type to suit just about everyone. Dark, white, milk, filled with caramel, truffle, liquor, nuts. **wipes drool of keyboard** Well, their first store was in Parkersburg (I think) and since I lived there it was commonly frequented. Hell, they had a stand in the mall. And they are generous with the free samples. My mom used to send me college care packages and I would ration those suckers to last, well, to be honest, only about a week. They are too good. Well, someone needed to go to the airport in Charleston today. And we thought it would be an excellent opportunity to check out the Kanawha City Yarn Company. Since Aimee mentioned she very much enjoyed that store, we invited her along. When we picked her up and started driving off she asked if I had heard of Holl's Chocolate. Well, I nearly wrecked the car whilst going "Why? Do you have some with you?!?" I was prepared to start digging through her bags. Seriously it was scary. She said no but that there was a store in Charleston. Well of course we had to stop. So the bag is sitting near my knitting spot. I've already had a Hazelnut Guianda (sp?) and think I can hear a Kahluha Caramel calling to me.
Oh yeah, I got some yarn too. Sock yarn. Not a lot, but we'll say the budget was tested. But I got my first Cherry Tree Hill. Supersock in regular and DK weight and some Ultra Alpaca. The picture colors are pretty close. So yummy. I already have two socks on needles right now. But awesome incentive to finish them up quick. Speaking of socks, I sent out my HSKS4 swap package. Like two weeks before the deadline. Rock it out. Now to wait patiently for mine.

Oh and remember that post earlier about knitting graffiti in Charleston? I got to see some in person outside the yarn shop. How cool? And I found Minnipurl's Flickr group if you would like to see more pictures of her graffiti. It really makes me want to do some around here. So I need a cool knitting graffiti-est moniker. Here is the original group. The Crew's names are hilarious, so I need something equally as awesome. Talk amongst yourselves.

I finished the scarf, why isn't it 90 degrees

I mean really. I finally get Teresa's scarf done and my expectation was that nature would mock my futile attempt to keep a friend warm and would snap the weather to 90 degrees with 100% humidity. I mean come on. Well at least it is pretty and she actually gets a chance to use it. Blizzard Big Cable scarf was the pattern with an extra set of the seed stitch on each side.







OMG!!! Dana finished her socks. Awww, I feel like a proud mama with Mandy as the grandma. Soon everyone's feet will be clad in warm lovely handmade socks. So much love. Unfortunately I am selfish and unless they don't fit, people won't be getting them from me. Unless I change my mind.





A bit of dying fun. Wal-mart had black fabric dye and I thought I would see how that works on the roving (it said it works on wool). Well the black turned out more grey-charcoaly. The pink worked very well. But the blue didn't pick up at all and turned one hank of roving into an awful purple greyish ugliness. So I picked up some Berry Blue Kool-aid and overdyed it. Much much better. Bright blue with some heathering to it.

Unfortunately I tried to dye some roving purple by mixing blue and pink. Well since the blue didn't take, I now have two hanks that are pink and charcoal instead of one of those and a purple and charcoal. At least they are different fibers.

K.A.Y.E. Time

For those of my readers who get an annual cooter rootin' a little bit of an incentive.

Kootchie Awareness Yarn Extravaganza

or K.A.Y.E.

All you have to do is have your annual Pap smear, let Bezzie know and you get entered to win yarn. Once during your month and then in the big one at the end of the year. And don't worry if you've already missed the monthly drawing for when you had yours. She takes late entries. But wait until April, I'd hate to compete against friends for yarn.

Sock Blockers and Disembodied Heads

So since I seem to have actually committed to maintaining this blog and taking better pictures of stuff I make, I figured I would use a couple tools to help me out. First, a sock blocker. Well, I have determined that not many actually block socks unless they are gifts, and I am so not to that point yet. I just want to take nice pictures. I didn't feel like spending 15-20 dollars on something I would be using to take pictures of my socks. So I turned to the internet to find free/cheap alternatives. Of course I found a couple. I personally went with the bent wire hanger. 98% because I had one sitting in the living room when I decided to do this and 2% I could hang it on the wall beside my looms. Another option here.

See how much better this sock looks on a blocker. You can actually see the cabling in it. This is from Isela Phelps Learn to Knit Cables on Looms booklet, which I reviewed earlier in this blog.

Oh and ignore the cat. I am trying to use more natural light and she was in my normal picture taking spot by the porch door. She wouldn't move and I was running late for work. So the obligatory "cat in knitting blog" picture. I think I have to maintain a certain number of those to be able to say this is a knitting blog.

Everyone, say hello to Gigi. She looks like a Gigi doesn't she. So I've been wanting a styrofoam head for a while because I can't take pictures of hats on myself. The pictures look like crap because I'm either in the bathroom in crappy lighting but I can use the mirror to line up the shot, or I am in the living room in better light but you can't see half the hat because I can't aim. Oh and God forbid there is some cool detail on the back that I have to show you, cause you wouldn't get to see it. Or you would but it would be lying shapeless in a puddle as I took the picture of it. But who wants to pay $10 shipping on a $5 head. So I've never gotten one. Well, after reading Lesley's blog she went to the wig store. The one at the mall, 5 MINUTES from my house. **blank stare** I am special. In fact at the meetup they say Sally's Beauty supply might have them. Well holy crap that is about 3 minutes from my house and right next to AC Moore. A place to which Dana and I were going right after the meetup. So I got Gigi. Well, not really. I got a styrofoam head that freaked out Dana. So I decided she needed a little style help. I think she looks lovely.

Oh yeah, she is working that hat.

WV Fiber Artist Meetup

One of the Ravelry groups I am in, the West Virginia Fiber Artists, had a meetup today at East Tenampa Resturant in Milton. There were six of us. Those in attendance were: Aimee (wvknitter); Crystal (savagerabbit); Terri Lynn (TerriLynn); Me (CSIcrafter); Dana (MinChick); and Lesley (LesleyAnn). We met up at about 2 p.m. and three hours later someone finally noticed we had been there for three hours. At which point we slowly made our way out. We were having such a good time talking, that I didn't realize I had forgotten to take pictures until Terri had left. It was good fun and awesome to be able to put names with avatars/screen names. I think there is another meetup planned for the 27th. I might have to go to that one too. Got some work done on my newest sock. And Lesley pointed out another one, which may kill me before I finish it, but my goodness it is beautiful.






From left to right: Lesley, Crystal, Aimee, Dana

Happy Birthday Zach!!!

Look at that stunning work of confectionery art. Dude, I cannot write in cursive. And this icing is too soft to actually pipe any sort of shell/star thing border on it. So I went kindergarten art class on it. P.S. his favorite colors are purple and green. The cake was chocolate with peppermint flavored chocolate bits mixed in with buttercream frosting




And here is my husband tormenting our dog with his new hand puppet. And he yells at me not to tease Heidi with stuff I don't want her to think is a toy and here he is doing it. I promise no harm came to the three-headed dragon...or the husband.

I made Socks!!!

I made Socks!!! I made Socks, Hey Hey Hey Hey!!! I have a matching pair. Not that I could take a good picture of them to save my life. This has just served to reaffirm that I need a pair of sock blockers, and more sock yarn, and a ball winder (cause most sock yarn comes in a hank that needs wound), and did I mention more sock yarn. I have the Viking socks I'm working on. Actually I had a good inch or so of cabling and frogged them back to the beginning. The cuff was too long for me, but wasn't enough reason on its own to start over. But even with the ribbing, the cableing was making the sock smaller than what I assume would fit over my feet, so I decided to start over with more stitches. If they still don't fit, I will just assume that I have giant feet and give them to someone. Now if you are reading this and suddenly wished them to not fit me, Bad! Bad Blog reader! But I can't blame you cause I would have thought the same thing.

And in shocking news, I am only currently in one swap. HSKS4 and all I am waiting for (because I got motivated to get out the sewing machine) is her needles. Everything else is done. **pauses for the applause** Although the bag I made, maybe I should have looked at the finished measurements, cause it is big, but it has tons of pockets. And considering I haven't had the sewing machine out in a while, I did pretty good. We won't talk about all the ripping of seams I had to do or pockets I forgot to sew on in the right order or the changes I just had to make to the pattern that worked in my head but well, yeah.

Anyway, I think I remember posting about the Harry Potter ATC swap I did and showed the cards I sent out. But I actually took a picture of the cards I got. And I managed not to lose the list of who each of these are from.

Top Row: Rita, Julia, Kath the pupeteer

Middle Row: Woozelmom/Linda, Suzy, KatNorris, Dragonsinger/Mary

Bottom Row: Margaret Anne, Margaret Anne, Brenda, Scarlett

These are so much fun. I would love to do a swap like this again. It would be perfect for Christmas. I got so many different styles.

Learn to Knit Cables on Looms

Hello and welcome to my blog. I have been given the opportunity to review a booklet called Learn to Knit Cables on Looms by Isela Phelps.

Now just to get it out of the way, I loved this book. So this review will be a bit predisposed towards that view of the book. :) No drama to be found here.

Why did I love this book? Glad you asked. There are several reasons.
-Starts with super basic easy instructions. Not just for cables. Someone could pick up this book and learn all the basics of loom knitting. An excellent reference for those of us who are beyond the basics. It covers every technique referenced in a pattern. No looking stuff up on the internet for me.
-For those familiar with Isela and her books, you'll know that her husband runs Decor Accents inc. A maker of fine quality knitting looms. But did she use this book as an opportunity to hawk their wares? No she made this book and these patterns accessible even to those who are not fortunate enough to own a DA loom. She used all Knifty Knitter looms. Which I would say most loom knitters have in their collection as at least their starting point. These looms (at least in my area) are available at all my craft stores and at Wal-mart for a decent price. And I appreciate this fact.
-Also ditto for the yarn. All yarn I can get at my local craft store. Too often, knitting books have expensive speciality yarn that I can't afford so I have to substitute yarn and it ends up not looking quite right. For once, I was able to use the exact yarn called for in a pattern.
- Now although she does use these readily available tools and yarn, she explains the techniques and patterns so well, that I could see myself adapting them to my DA looms and different yarn. I could see making a pair of socks on my Wonderloom and throwing a cable down the side, because I now know how.
-speaking of patterns. The ones in this book are great. A nice variety. Small to big, different uses.
-Oh and she stuck a copy of the Errata in the booklet so I didn't have to go looking for it or actually no know there was one and completely screw the pattern up.

Problems with the booklet...well, I couldn't think of any reasonable ones. They all involved some sort of variation on the "I'm a greedy/lazy git and I want more" patterns. Whether it was having patterns with different yarns, or different looms or just more patterns in general.

Because I made one of the patterns. The Adestan slipper socks (I haven't finished the last 3 repeats and toe of the second one). Oh and I should have used a lighter yarn so you could see the cables, but I already had this in my stash. Yes you heard right I made something from my stash. That is the sort of thing this book has inspired. Crazy stash-busting socks.

And Miss Isela even took the time to answer several of my questions. I'd like to share those with you now. I'll pause so you can grab your knitting and some tea. Go on...There we go.
What was your first cabled project?
My first cabled project was a needle knit bag. I took a class at my local yarn shop and my good friend Miriam (from MimKnits) was the teacher. She taught the class different types of cables and she incorporated them into a cute bag.

If your first cabled project wasn't loomed, what was your first loomed cable project?
My first loomed cable project was a bag too. At the time, I was huge into bag making (now they are all downstairs in a closet!).
I have a tote down in the basement with all mine. I understand.

What is your writing style/process?
I usually start all my projects on a sketch notepad (I have many of them around the house). I sit down and try to draw out what I have in my head. Once it is drawn out, I think of the different elements such as stitches, shaping that the item should take. Next in the process comes the knitting. I sit down and start knitting, as I knit, I write the *important steps that I do along the way. My notebook has arrows and drawings all over the place. If there is math involved, I drag my calculator out along with my quadrille notebook and I sketch out the idea on that notebook. After the entire project is knitted, I sit down and type out what I wrote on my notebook. Usually, the typed information gets re-written a few times before I achieve something concise and to the point. I try to write out my patterns in the same style as needle knit patterns are written out.

What is your favorite pattern from the book?
My favorite item is the shawl. It brings back many memories about my Grandma. She always wears a shawl and cables are one of her favorite stitch patterns to use on her knits too.

What would be your best piece of advice for someone who is interested in designing?
Go for it! We are all designers in one way or another. Every time you deviate from a pattern to try to make it “fit” your needs, you are delving into the designing arena. Take it slow, don’t rush the process, and enjoy every part of it. When writing things out, less is sometimes better, be concise and to the point. Find a pattern that you have worked on and see how that designer wrote out the instructions and try to follow that style.

If you were a yarn, what would you be and what colorway?
I would be sock yarn and I would like to be a “dye your own” and be given to ScoutJ from ScoutJ.com to color me into something artistic and wonderful.
Oh yes, I use her computer backgrounds all the time. She takes amazing photographs and has awe-inspiring colorways.

I would like to thank Isela Phelps for this opportunity and tell everyone that looms that is interested in cables to get this book. Even if you don't like the patterns, the instructions on how to do cables on looms is worth it.

What have I been up to

I made an amigurumi kitty for Taha. I found the pattern here. It didn't really turn out like that one. I changed the legs, and the tail and I did the ears all wrong. Oh well, she liked it.










See, I told you I was hooked on socks. Already started my second pair. Even though my first isn't finished. I got some Wool in the Woods yarn on sale and Yarn and More during the guild meeting. It isn't quite that blue in person. It sort of changes through shades of green. Not enough to be varigated, but really subtle. I thought a green that lovely was deserving of a lovely celtic cabled sock pattern. I found something close. Viking Socks. Working two different cables at the same time should be...interesting. This is another "can't do somewhere I can't sit down with the pattern and two rulers" kind of pattern. Like my lace shawl. Too much counting and keeping track of where I need to be is involved.

Oh, here is that dyed alpaca roving all spun up. Zach and Dana both commented on how much more even this yarn is compared to my last. Hooray!!! I am improving. Alpaca=easy as pie to spin. It drafted sooooo easily. I am in love. And I should actually be able to make something from it that I can wear against my skin. I need to measure it tonight to find out how much I have. And now I know why Niddy-Noddys are important in spinning. They can measure out lengths as you wrap them.

To Dye For

My first Kumihimo braid. It is very interesting. I found out about it at Loom Knitting blog Cause I totally need another craft/hobby. But it turned out much cooler than say an I-cord. So it might become an alternative to an I-cord. I am actually working a design that makes a flatter cord with a heart pattern. I am doing it in silver and green for my HSKS4 swap partner. Which reminds me that I really need to order the needles for that. And finish the bag, cause I have one month. Begin mild panic sequence now. It seemed like such a good idea when I signed up. Little did I think that the due date would be smack dab in the middle of the two busiest months of my year.

Once May 11th hits, I am going to be a very happy person.

To relax, I had a little dying party (hence the title of the blog entry). Anyway, pretty yarn and roving time. I was working with Kool-aid and food coloring so I didn't get a lot of dark colors and most of it turned out very bright/easter looking. I am thinking if I want to keep doing this, I need to invest in some nicer dyes.
All our roving hanging on the back of a chair










Some of my yarn I dyed.





















My Roving. Corridale wool on the left in yellow, purple and green. It looks like Easter eggs threw up on it.

Alpaca done in a purpley magenta. I can't wait to try to spin this up. Something new to play with.