Okay, so that didn't go as planned . . .

. . . yeah, tinkering with the layout didn't work the way I wanted it to - all of the Blogger layouts are really narrow, like this one, and my internets skillz aren't quite l33t enough to do it myself. So I've returned with a slew of pictures of my recent knitting obsession - mini Christmas ornaments. Please excuse the blurriness in a lot of these - they are all webcam pictures. :)

Christmas Pickles - don't ask

Tiny Poinsettia

Santa Hat (on Hellboy)

Tiny Mitten

Snowflake



Okay, so I know the last pic doesn't have any knitting content, but that's my puppy Kaylee. Isn't she precious? :) I'm working on the second Tiny Mitten right now, and after that is a cabled ball, and then we'll see! I have a pattern for a tiny socks and a tiny hat and miniature knitting bags, so I might go on to those next. I'm totally enamoured with the miniature knitting - it's challenging enough not to be mindless, and it goes so darn fast you can make 6 ornaments in just a few days. :D I was going to take a picture of the Impatience Cowl but in this light (it is almost midnight) it just looks like a black blob, so that'll have to wait for better light. I also have a picture of the socks I have OTN:



Again, that's the Aquaphobia pattern in CJ Kopec Creations' Pandamonium, colourway Hello Kitty.

Well, that's all for now - back to knitting Tiny Mitten #2!

Blog!

I'm baack! Okay, so waay too much has gone on in the past year for me to sum everything up, so here's the quick version.

1) New apartment. Nicer, but smaller.
2) Same job, but part-time now (selling Avon on the side)
3) Have a dog - Shih Tzu/Toy Poodle cross named Kaylee
4) Have a new computer - Acer Aspire One (netbook) so I can blog more easily
5) Still knitting, which is why I'm back. :D

I'll be posting some WIP and FO pics in the next little while - I'm going to tinker around with the layout here first to try and get them to display properly, but I am currently knitting . . .
-the Impatience Cowl from Simply Socks Yarn Company out of Dream in Color Starry, colourway Black Parade
-the Aquaphobia socks (on Ravelry) out of CJ Kopec Creations' Pandamonium, colourway Hello Kitty
-the Icarus Shawl from the Summer '06 Interweave Knits from Misti Alpaca Laceweight in dark green
-and lastly, the Green Gable Hoodie from the Winter 08 (I think) Vogue Knitting in Phentex Monster Ball (yes, acrylic) in dark green
-various assorted Christmas ornaments

Notice something missing from before? Yes, that's right, about a year ago I FINISHED THE SNAPPING TURTLE SKIRT! *happy dance* So now I have another giant green project on the needles that I am less than enamoured with (the hoodie) - I have been working on it since Christmas of last year, but both sleeves are done and set into the body, and I'm just doing placket shaping now before I hit the hood. So, progress is being made, and I would like to wear it to Christmas this year, as my in-laws bought me the yarn as a gift.

So, yeah. Pics coming as soon as I get the layout right!
----------------
Listening to: Lights - The Last Thing On Your Mind
via FoxyTunes

Oh, hey, that's right! I have a blog, don't I?

Hi everyone! Long time no see, eh? Well, I'm back, and as would be expected after not blogging in so long, I have a LOT of information to share! In no particular order, here's what I've been up to since the end of August:

1) Learning to spin. I've finally managed to gather the courage to try spinning up the roving that my good friend Knitwit got me for my birthday back in July. Not so great at it yet, but even in the little bit I've done I've noticed a marked improvement. I just have to remember that I'm not going to be able to spin sock yarn right away - since I realized that, I've been doing much better. She gave me a few lessons at our weekly Knit Night, and I figured out what I've been doing wrong now. :)

2) For the past month or so, I've been teaching a Beginning Sock Knitting class at Stitch, the yarn store in Grimsby, ON that I mentioned before. I think it's going pretty good - we're following a pattern called "Odd Socks", and it's a fairly basic top-down two-colour stripe sock, and we've done two of three classes so far. The first one was the casting on and the cuff, the second was the heel flap and turn, and the third (next week) is the foot and toe. The pattern itself has a 'star toe', and it isn't Kitchenered together, so that's a lot simpler there as well - and very pretty. :)

3) I have done what feels like a boatload of knitting! I've not been feeling particularly healthy as of late, so I spend a lot of time curled up on my couch, needles in hand. According to my Ravelry projects, since my last post on August 31st, I've finished four pairs of socks (including the pink Jaywalkers from my last post, another pair of Monkeys, Embossed Leaves from the Interweave Favourite Socks book, and a pair of Nine to Five socks), a pair of Bella's Fingerless Gloves (yes, I read Twilight, so sue me), the Calorimetry I mentioned in my last post (and it's HUGE), yet another Anthropologie-inspired Capelet for Sister #2 (she wanted one in black to compliment the blue one I had previously made), and I've frogged two socks, a hat, and a scarf, mostly languishing projects that I have no desire to ever finish. Right now, I'm working on another pair of socks, dubbed the Vanilla Viking socks because they are a) for Viking, b) a vanilla-y brown colour, and c) kinda plain (1x1 garter rib), and STILL my Albatross, the Snapping Turtle Skirt. HOWEVER, I am now only three hexagons away from the END, and I cast on the first of those three last night. After them, I need to buy a zipper for the skirt so I can so the waistband, put in the zipper, and do the bottom edging (if necessary), and then I will be DONE with the darn thing. There is a light at the end of the tunnel! The end is near! Hopefully I'll have enough yarn!

4) I'm packing again - I know, not very yarn-related, but I mention it here to partially explain my recent absence. The people who owned my apartment building (really two apartments over a store) sold it, and the new owners want the apartments of less than liveable quality for themselves, so Viking, the Photographer, and I are all being evicted. Most of the apartments we've been looking at have turned up either unacceptable or already rented, but we have an appointment for tomorrow (Hallowe'en! Woo!) to go see one that's farther away from work, and more money, but much larger, and hopefully somewhere we can stay for a while - we've not even been in the current place a year yet.

5) Working. I'm working 10-hour days in my call center job now, so when I'm not at work (which is rare), I'm either asleep or knitting - which means that I don't have any pictures to compliment this post, as it's still kinda dark when I leave in the morning, and completely dark when I get home at night. There are a few pictures on My Ravelry Project Page, but I haven't finished taking up-to-date pics of my now-completed projects. Hopefully that will come soon, if I am home during daylight hours!

That's what's been going on around here for the past two months - I'm going to be doing National Novel Writer's Month (NaNoWriMo) starting Saturday, so I will be in the writing mode for most of November - expect to hear from me again soon (hopefully with a finished skirt!)

Rumours of my Death have been Greatly Exaggerated

. . . hey guys, miss me? I know, it's been forEVER since I posted - I've got a myriad of excuses, all of them perfectly reasonable, but that's not what this blog is about: ostensibly, you come here for knitting content, so it is knitting content you shall receive!

I've finished a lot of things since I last posted, so I'll get right into it here; first, chronologically, was the Red Monkeys I was making for myself - I am officially a top-down convert, I find it much easier for my attention-span to have the sock broken down into smaller sections (the ribbing, the leg, heel flap & turn, gusset, foot, and toe).



I can't for the life of me remember the exact yarn name - Lana Grossa something - but this red colourway is VERY pretty, lots of purplie bits. I'd originally picked it up for an installment in my Inheritance Sockology, which has not been abandoned, I promise you, just needed a break between making a third pair off of the same pattern. My LYS has another skein in the same colourway, but I'm thinking of trying to find a more dragony red elsewhere.

Once I finished my Red Monkeys, I went right into another pair of the same, with one slight difference:



They're HUGE. I went from my normal 2.5mm-2.75mm needles up to 3.5mm, to make them large enough for the Viking's huge-mungous feet, and they fit just fine. :) A note about the yarn - normally, I avoid self-patterning yarn, heck even self-striping, like the plague, but I bought this for the Viking waaay back when I first wanted to try knitting socks, and I figured it was high time I used it. I found a pair of Monkeys done in self-patterning on Ravelry, and they looked neat, so I thought "why not?" and gave it a try. I think they turned out pretty cool, myself.

Oh, and I also picked up an antique sock blocker for pics - it's in two of the pictures above, but here it is in all it's naked glory:



I've had to sand it down a bit on the edges, but it's definitely serving it's purpose.

Once I finished those, I hunkered down on the Woodland Shawl I'd just started last post. Well, it's finished, blocked, and already given to my Mom (who I think has decided to keep it). Voila:



(Yes, I took the picture from to top of the shawl, so the pattern is upside-down. Whoops. :P)

I ran out of yarn two rows from the end, but in the exchange learned the Yarn Harlot's Crocheted Cast Off (detailed in this post), which is GLORIOUS and requires NO EXTRA YARN. I hate wasting yarn, so I try to knit as close to the end of the skein as possible, and am always running out of yarn for the bind off. This is INSANELY useful - thank you to Patti for pointing me in this direction.

I have also been working on my Albatross, the Snapping Turtle Skirt:



I know it doesn't look like much, but I have finished four hexagons in the last month or so (there's one more, the first in the third row, that hadn't been knitted when I took that picture). I've been knitting this skirt for something silly like two years - however, it's supposed to have four rows of hexagons, and I think it might be long enough with three. I'll have to check that WHEN ELF COMES HOME WHICH IS THIS WEEK I'M NOT EXCITED AT ALL, CAN YOU TELL?! :D

After all of this knitting, I had a short crochet-interlude:



Yes, that is a crocheted Cthulu. It's from the book Creepy Cute Crochet, which is ADORABLE - I made it in a night for Viking's friend Ren (go check out her website and art blog - cool stuff!)

So, what am I working on now? I've cast on for a Calorimetry in Patons SWS Natural Plum - it's very soft and pretty, but really freakin' slippery on metal and wood, so even though I cast it on for mindless knitting, it is not. No pictures of that - my father-in-law borrowed my camera. I also made my first attempt at Magic Loop by starting a pair of Jaywalkers from the now-defunct Magknits (pattern available on Ravelry here) in Patons Stretch Sock, colourway Sugar. It's now transferred onto DPNs, as the needle I was using for the ML was AWFUL. I see some Knitpicks fixed circs in my future!



I'm much farther than this now - only 1/2" away from the toe - but I haven't uploaded the newest pictures to Flickr, and I'm posting from work shhhhhhh.

I really want to knit a sweater, but lack the fundage right now (but I get paid this week, so that may change!). I'm thinking either Terra by Jacquelyn Landry, or the Green Gable hoodie (Rav link) from the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting.

On the knitting-related front, I received 2oz of some VERY pretty roving dyed by Capistrano Fiber Arts and a spindle from my friend KnitWit. I can't wait to try and spin it up (I had a less-than-successful attempt with a homemade spindle and some Clover needle-felting roving a few weeks back), but I need to have a good length of time to sit down and try my hand at it.



Isn't it pretty? Greens and browns and blues - my favourite! In other acquisitions, I went on a sock-yarn-buying-bonanza in the past few weeks. I bought the Patons Stretch Socks, a skein of Cadenza by Estelle in a pretty brown-and-tan colour, and I ordered two skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock, one in Little Bunny Foo Foo (pink, brown, white), and one in Love In Idleness (mostly blues and purples). That broke my yarn diet, which stretched from May 25th to August 13th. I was very proud of myself - and then I fell down. :D The STR should be here this week (it's in Mississauga right now, about an hour and a half away from here, so I have high hopes.

Okay, I've officially been writing this for three hours. I'm pretty sure I've covered everythingI wanted to cover - sorry about the extra-long post, I had to make up for lost time. :D Hopefully I won't leave it so long between posts this time, eh?

Confessions of a Broke-A$$ Faery

Forgive me, knitters, for I have sinned. It has been exactly one month, eleven days since I last bought yarn, and I am DYING. Everywhere I look there are new patterns I want to knit, or new yarn lines (have you SEEN the new Knitpicks sock yarn?!), but I'm trying to save up for big things. Mostly rent and bills - Viking is going to Peru for five weeks in September, which mean he conveniently misses two months of rent, and a month of gas, hydro, cable, internet, and home phone. I'm probably going to buy myself some yarn for my birthday (18 days until I'm 25), but I've gotta be careful because I have to support myself entirely for a month.

To try and quash the desparate need to buy yarn, I've been working on knitting from stash (I know, what a novel idea). I'm working on my Monkey socks still (almost at the heel flap of the second one), and on Friday I cast on for the Woodland Shawl (Ravelry Link). It's designed to be knit out of one skein of sock yarn, and I've got a LOT of those, so I grabbed the colorway that immediately came to mind when I saw the pattern:



That is Mountain Color's Bearfoot in Yellowstone - I used the Olive for the Green Dragon socks, and I bought this one just 'cause I wanted another skein of this AWESOME yarn (sooooo soft). It's totally not my colours - I love autumny colors, don't get me wrong, but I've got a reddish complexion (some would even say ruddy), so I look like a tomato in red. But, my mom and my aunt both really like the colors, so if my mom wants it, she can have it - if not, we're wrapping it up for my aunt for her birthday in November. Here's a detail shot of the leaf pattern:



I'm only done one repeat, but it's already turning out really well. I've had to restart the darn thing FIVE TIMES, just because I didn't check what SK2P meant. I assumed it was Slip 1, Knit 2, Pass Slipped Stitch Over. Nuh-uh. It's actually Slip 1, KNIT 2 TOGETHER, Pass Slipped Stich Over. If I had just read the freakin' instructions first . . . *shakes head*. At least this yarn is very forgiving when it comes to frogging - it's got a little bit of mohair in it, but just enough to give it a halo, not enough to stop it from unraveling easily.

That's really all that's going on in my knitting world - I might be going to the Stitch 'n Pitch at the Rogers Center Skydome with a few knitters from around here, but that's not until mid-August. I'll post pics of the shawl as I get farther in, so you can see the loveliness that is the pattern/yarn combo. Ciao!

Hai U Guyzz!

Hello everyone - remember me? I remember you, I promise! My time has just been eaten up lately by a variety of things.

1) I got a wicked sunburn two weeks ago tomorrow that I am *still* peeling from. Lots of pain. I spent most of my time whining about how much pain I was in.

2) Plurk. It's a micro-blogging site, like Twitter, but it's set up more like a bunch of miniature IM conversations. A lot of the knitting peoples from the LnV Ravelry board are over there now, and there are dancing bananas.

3) Reading Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen series (link is to the first book; I'm on book three, Memories of Ice). Gritty, epic fantasy. Very good - re-reading in anticipation of the 7th(?) book this September.

4) Playing Pokemon Diamond on my DS. I know, it's a sickness, but I *like* it. :D I bought an Action Replay (think: cheating on videogames) expressly for Pokemon. I've caught almost all of the legendaries (missing two, Arceus and Heatran).

5) Work. 'Nuff said.

6) Spending time with my little sisters. They're out of school now, so there will be much quality time (and much swimming, and much Pokemon) :D

Buut, even in light of all of that, I have pictures! I listened to three episodes of Lime and Violet in one sitting (oh how I love work sometimes), and I came away from them with a strange, irrepressible urge to knit a pair of Monkey socks.



As you can see, I've written out the stages of the pattern on index cards, so I can tuck the pattern into my knitting bag and take it places. I've been knitting by the pool (the pic above is on my mother's poolside lounger), knitting at my sister's grad, knitting at the bar . . . you understand. This is where I am now:



I don't like purling back when knitting on DPNs, so the 30 rows of the heel flap are taking me forever, but tomorrow is another day at the pool/my Mom's, and tomorrow night is Knit Night at Fine Grind, so hopefully I'll get the heel turned, and maybe get into the gusset a little.

Oh, by the way, just to let you know, Knit Picks is having a BIG book sale. If I can scrounge up the cash, I'm going to get this, or this, or maybe this. I also want some of their Options fixed circulars, if I'm gonna learn Magic Loop. Must . . . work . . . overtime . . . for . . . yarn money . . .

A few weeks ago I checked a few books out of the local library, most notably Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth Doherty. I haven't crocheted anything out of it yet, but the patterns are ADORABLE. There's a knitted crocheted deer that looks like Deery-Lou that I just HAVE to make, along with some of the crocheted fruit, and one of the crocheted Humanoids for a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless in case they read this blog). It seems like a well-written book, but I'll get back to you once I've actually tried to crochet something from it. My crochet skills are fair-to-middling, so I'm no expert by any means. I also checked out Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. The sock patterns look neat, but I have a hard time following the way things are set-up. The Monkey yarn was originally destined for one of the patterns from that book, but I just couldn't follow the pattern. I think I'm going to give it another try, but write out the pattern on my little cards first so I don't have to worry about getting numbers confused. I also took out Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off, as it was the only Yarn Harlot book I hadn't read, and Wrap Style, because I have 450yds of DK weight merino-silk (Malabrigo Silky Wool) that I want to make a wrap or stole out of, but I found the book less than inspiring. There are maybe three things in the whole book I want to knit: Wandering Aran Fields (Norah Gaughan), Twisty Turns (also Norah Gaughan), and Enchante (Leigh Radford), although I would never wear the last one. Mohair sleeves? *shudder* Itch-city.


OH! I finally finished the @#$%^&* Claw Socks! I asked the Viking to take pictures, but he failed, so when I get my camera back (*grumblegrumblelentouttosomeonegrumble*), I'll get him to model them. The Fair Isle socks are on hiatus - mostly because parts of the leg are STILL TOO TIGHT. *angry sigh* I'll finish the one and use it as a stocking or something.

Okay, this is epic. Time to sign off, and go catch up on my Plurks (9 unread as of now), and work on the heel flap of the Monkey sock. Ciao!

Knitting PicSpam Alert!

I think I owe you guys some pictures - I've been promising them for a while. So, here you go! They all link to Flickr, where I've written little descriptions about them, and they get bigger, too. Oooooh. :D Enjoy!

Knitting Update

Hey everyone, I'm still here. I've just been taking a mini-hiatus from the internets (lots of knitting, gaming, and partying, as we sent Elfie off to Germany in true St. Catharines nerd style). I'm gonna start from my last post before the Knitter's Frolic. Well, the TTC was on strike, so Elfie and I didn't get to go. Boo. :( However, we had a grand adventure driving around the Niagara Peninsula looking for yarn. For those of you who may know the area, we went to St. Catharines, Welland, Fonthill, Beamsville, Grimsby, Port Colbourne, Wainfleet, West Lincoln, Pelham, Fort Erie... Elfie, did I miss any? We tried Rose's Fine Yarns in Fonthill, but they were closed for Webkinz Day, so we hung out there for a bit we're not 5 year olds, I swear, and then we drove around and tried to find a wool farm that ended up being a HUGE disappointment (empty barn, anyone?). Eventually, we made our way to Stitch, a knitting/quilting/embroidery store in Grimsby, the place I reviewed below. I bought Lantern Moon's Ebony Sox Stix, and a skein of Noro's sock yarn (self-striping wool single, so we'll see how it holds up), and some of my fave Clover stitch markers. All in all, it turned into a really fun weekend, even if we didn't get to go to Toronto.

What else? Let's see, I made the pompoms for the ties on Mosey (they look MUCH cuter with them, but it's starting to get too warm to wear them, so hopefully I can get another pic before I have to put them away for the summer), I'm still working on the &$%#*$&%) Claw Socks for Viking, and I'm working on the May Mystery Sock from Sock Knitters Anonymous (Ravelry Link). It's Fair Isle, which I have never done before, so I figured, "why not?" I knit the cuff on the 2.75mm Sox Stix, but because FI has so little give, they were too small, and I had to rip them out. I restarted them this morning on 3.5mm needles, and hopefully these will fit a little better. The FI is too labour-intensive to do on the move, so that's strictly a home-time project, and I bring the Claw Socks to work.

Oh, speaking of bringing knitting to work, I bought two new knitting bags at Michael's last week. One is a larger, purse-like bag, and the other is closer to those Go-Knit pouches, but it is clear vinyl and has a pretty solid base, so it just stands there while I knit from it. I'll take some pictures so you can see them - I would do it now, but work = no camera. This is the big bag in the same pattern I bought. It is HUGELY roomy, like, surprisingly so. This is the little bag, but I got mine in the Sage Green solid. The only problem with this little bag is that the carabiner is WAY too small. It won't even clip onto the strap of the bigger bag. I might go buy a bigger one and swap it out - the big selling points for me were that they matched, and that they were intended to use together. I'll take some pics of them full of stuff so you can see how much they hold.

Other than that, I don't really have a whole lot going on. With Elfie in Germany for the summer, I'm spending a lot more time knitting - which isn't a bad thing, as maybe I'll start finishing things for once. I'll be getting back to the Mystery Sock tonight, at least for a little while (I work nights during the weeks, and days on the weekends, so no late-night knitting tonight). I took a few pictures before I ripped it out. so I'll upload them tonight and hopefully have them up here in the next few days. Ciao!

LYS Review: Stitch

The weekend of the failed trip to the Knitter's Frolic (more about that later), the Elf and I drove out to Grimsby to check out Stitch in Grimsby, Ontario, that bills itself as "A Sanctuary for Knitters, Quilters, & Needle Artists". It has a vine-ball sculpture of yarn and knitting needles out front of the cute little house the store is in. If you're looking for it, be careful - it's at the end of a dead-end street, and easy to miss if you're the one driving (luckily, Eagle-Eyes Faery was navigating).

The store is pretty small - just one little room of yarn - but they focus on the expensive specialty fibers that you can't get many other places. For example, they have the Handmaiden Sea Silk at $37 CDN/skein, and the Noro Sock Yarn at $18.95 CDN/skein. They have all of the luxury lines - Rowan, Debbie Bliss, etc. They also carry notions, including my favourite company, Clover (I just love those green and orange locking stitch markers), lampwork beads, little bags of roving for needle-felting, silk embroidery floss, and quilting material. They've got two cats there (I can't for the life of me remember the names), so if you're allergic, you might want to medicate before you go. I'm not, so I don't really know if the caution is warranted, but better safe than sorry.

Having said that the stock is small, there are two rooms of couches and comfy chairs where people can sit and knit - when Elf and I were there, they were actually doing a class on Prayer Shawls and there was a Massage Therapist doing the rounds as well. It's a very friendly, cosy little place, and the lady who was working there (I forgot to get her name - I believe she's the owner) was one of the nicest ladies I've ever met. They will wind your yarn into balls for you - the ball winder and swift are on opposite sides of a doorway, so it's kind of funny to see people try to get in and out of the room while they're winding two skeins of Sea Silk. All in all, it is a lovely little place that I would love to go back to in the future - maybe even take that Prayer Shawl class (you know I'm in it for the massage, right?).

My haul for the day was the aforementioned stitch markers, a skein of Noro Sock Yarn, and . . . . Lantern Moon Sox Stix! *dies* They are LOVELY - short, at only 5" long, and I made my first Fair Isle attempt on them this past week (more about that in another post). They make sock knitting much, MUCH easier. I have yet to try out the sock yarn, but I'll tell you what it's like when I try it. It's a single (it's not plied with anything else) and the thickness looks a little inconsistent, so I'm not sure how the socks are going to turn out. It's self-striping as well, something I normally avoid like the plague, but a boring stockinette sock every once in a while never hurt anyone.

FO: Mosey

FO: Mosey
Originally uploaded by wenchfaery

See - I have been knitting! Just finished these yesterday, and wore them to work; I've gotta come up with a way to stop them from sliding down as I walk. But they're great - the pattern is from this Spring's Knitty and I didn't change anything - recommended needles, recommended yarn. The only thing that's missing in the pic are the pompoms - I'm going to pick up a pompom maker today at Kismet (corner of Queenston and St. Paul) and hopefully not fail at making them.

In other news, the Elf and I are going to the Knitter's Frolic on Saturday! I'm so excited! *squee* We're going to have an epic public-transit adventure (the two of us have a tendency to get lost) and we're spending the day in TO. I'm hoping to get a drop spindle and some roving, some stitch markers, lots and lots of sock yarns and that's about it, unless I see something that I just HAVE to have. I keep meaning to order a ball-winder from The Knitter.com, as they have free shipping to Canada. Maybe if I see one on Sat, I'll get it there instead.

I've been meaning to start photographing my stash for Ravelry - it's the only part of it I'm not using. I just know it will take FOREVER - I don't have as much yarn as most people, but I'm not so good at the photography yet, so it'll be a lot of trial and error. Well, I have tomorrow of, as as far as I know no plans for the day, so maybe I'll drag out a drawer or two onto the porch and get started. In fact, if I go get ready for work, I can start today . . . okay, I'm off!