SomerKnits

More fun stuff. With approximate prices, should you want anything. $7/set of 5 $6/set of 5 $5/set of 5 for similar. These middle two sets were actually gifts for friends for christmas. $5/set of 5 $5/set of 5 The green pearls don't show that well in photos, but they are really pretty in person.

We'll get to the obligatory Christmas post soon, but first I want to post about my latest obsession, which is totally all Sarah and the rest of the Tulsa Knitters Group's fault. I've been making stitch markers! And its sooo much easier and faster and more fun than I thought it would be. I've been having a good time putting together different bead combinations and making sets that match mostly, but not entirely (I don't seem to do very well at making 4 just alike and 1 different as seems to so often be the norm) So these were the fruits of my first day playing with my new toys. I made a set from some pretty round shell beads and pearls and such. I'm thinking about selling some. I'm not going to do any hard marketing right now, or even set up and Etsy just yet, but if you want some I will sell the kind like this for $5 per set of 5. These pretties I would sell for $6 a set. I am keeping a set of these for sure. Because blue is the best color in the entir...

Well, it was quite the adventure this past month trying to just 'whip up' a couple of toddler hats. I had my doubts about sizing of the various patterns I tried, but apparently toddlers have bigger heads than you think. But I think the ones I ended up with turned out to be pretty cute. Our model here is 3 but the hats were going to 2 year olds, so hopefully they fit them too. The braids hat is the one I was most skeptical about because it looked huge when I was knitting it. And the braids were much simpler to attach than I had anticipated. All in all, some cuteness was accomplished. I do still have a couple more on the needles, one was an adult hat that turned out toddler sized by accident and the other was another toddler hat option, so I guess I will finish those and hold them in reserve until I need them.

Go, look, maybe win some yarn: http://www.lostcityknits.blogspot.com/

That anti-motion sickness stuff is amazing. I got a lot done on the plane to Charlottesville and sitting around there, but I got the most done on the car ride back home. Usually I stick to stockinette or garter stitch projects in the car so that I don' risk the nausea that comes along with trying to read a pattern or look too closely at my stitches. This trip though I cabled my little heart away. There were a few times I took a break and knit easy stitches in circles, but for the most part I was able to follow the pattern and not lose track of the stitches. So I got some excellent things done that I think are going to be christmas presents. I'm really looking forward to christmas. We got the tree up yesterday and it looks great. I also hung the stockings I knit last year over the fire place. The dogs will have to share one stocking this year though because I don't think I have time to whip out a second one. Its Ripley's first christmas with us and we are hopin...

Here are some works in progress. First, I have made it 1 2/3 times through the cable repeats on the everyway wrap. Looking good and super soft so far. The yarn may be a little fuzzy to really show the cable pattern well, that would be the 20% alpaca in it. But I like the feel and I am pretty satisfied with the look. Here's a close-up for the stitch pattern from the right side. Its a pretty cable pattern and clever how the back side comes out the same. :-) Here is side one of the Pfeifer Falls hooded scarf. Its soooooo pretty and squooshy. :-) I am in love with the Royal Llama yarn. I totally want more in every color! Although I love this pretty and decadent feeling off white. :-) There is something luxurious feeling to me about cremes and whites. Perhaps it is because I am just clumsy and messy enough that I fear white just a little bit. But it makes such a lovely compliment to dark or bright colors that I often want to wear it, I just don't often actually do it...

The yarn came in the mail last week and I had to sit around pining over it as, instead of casting on, I studied for the test I had to take last thursday night. (Which I passed, so we're good there) The first thing I did after it was over though was start this knit-along with some of the members of the Tulsa Knitters Rav group. The yarn I am using is from Elann. Its Sierra Aran. I think its 80% wool and 20% alpaca. Anyway, the color is chestnut and neither picture on here does it justice. Its a lovely brown with lots of red twisted in. As you can see, I did swatch. But then I ended up completely ignoring my swatch results. Sure, I did the math to make sure I'd be happy with the finished product, so I guess that useful, but I didn't try and match gauge. I got 3.75 stitches to the inch on size 9 needles in the moss stitch and a few too many rows per inch. All of my size 8s are occupied, so I decided to stick with the size 9s, especially since I like the drape of the ...

I have been plugging away recently on a couple of scarves and a lace weight cowl thats been in the works for a few years now. And even though the Chastain Park Shawl I am making for myself goes pretty quickly, the giant cones are cumbersome and not easily portable. So the other day on Ravelry, poking around through the patterns, I was exploring my new found love of things that keep the neck warm. I came across the pattern Marian durning some of this poking and decided that I HAD to find size 19 circular needles like nowish. I had this skein of Misti Alpaca Bulky that had been just sitting in my stash forever. I received it in an exchange a while back and although I loved to squeeze it and pet it I hadn't really put a whole lot of thought into what one could do with just one skein on bulky squishy alpaca. I am sure that between my three One Skein Wonders books they had a few good ideas, but I needed this cowl IMMEDIATELY. Unfortunately it took me a couple days to track down s...

Ok, so I went to look at all the soft and luscious things at the cashmere sale at Loops today. I was really going to just browse, only buy if it was one hell of a deal and then head home to start cleaning since I am having company tonight. But then I found a really pretty silvery colored Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, so I had to buy enough to make a sweater. I had to, I couldn't help it. And I got some really awesome yarn for a gift, but I can't really post about it now because then it wouldn't be much of a surprise. The sale was a really good deal though and the damage came out really, really low compared to what it could have been. The cashmerino aran is usually a pretty good deal anyway and with 30% off, that really helped. So I think I am going to use it for the wheat-ear cabled yoke sweater. I've been wanting to make it forever. Really forever. I think its been in my queue since I got the magazine it was in. The Pfiefer Falls hooded scarf is going well. ...

There are 2 skeins of malabrigo being given away on this blog:http://salihan.com/2009/malabrigo-giveaway/ Go check it out and enter. I love malabrigo yarn!

I'm working on the Pfeifer Falls Hooded Scarf from a past issue of Interweave Knits. Ever since I first saw it in the magazine, I've know I just had to make it. I bought a bag of Royal Llama Silk at an estate sale over the summer and it turned out to be just the right guage and just the right yardage. At first I thought that it was going to be slow going because I rarely work from charts, but the cable repeat was really easy to memorize. The giant cable draws the already really soft yarn together just enough to make it super squishy feeling. I love how the pocket doesn't have to be sewn on because you cast on twice as much as you need to start and then separate the stitches onto two needles or a put one set on a stitch holder. Haha, I didn't realize this one was upside down, oh well. When I took this picture I was just past the back of the first pocket. Now I am much farther up the scarf itself. :-) I can't wait to have this done so I can wear it. I don'...

A couple weeks ago I whipped out this quick little neck kerchief pattern. Its the Chastain Park Shawl. It went so quickly, even though I went to 100 stitches across instead of stopping at 77, that I sent it to my sister for her birthday. I picked out the colors with her in mind, but since I am not giving myself deadlines this year, I didn't decide it was definitely a birthday present until it was done. And how, I used 3 lace weight yarns held together. They were all mystery yarns from that estate sale in the summer. It really was a super fast and fun pattern. And its really cozy wrapped around the neck, which was, after all, my goal. So i went ahead and started one for myself in cream, brown, and white. I think it will be great for wearing to the office, warding off the morning chill. I've helped one person in my monday group start one and I think a couple more people are planning to try the pattern. The picture above was pre-blocking, btw. The lace smoothes out a lot ...

I wanted to make something my partner would really like and could use, but I didn't have weeks and weeks to dedicate to it. I decided to make another Calorimetry. I keep saying I am going to make one for myself, but it still hasn't happened. It seems a little wide, or it did when I put it on to model for the photo, but lengthwise it buttoned in place perfectly. I just happened to have a burgundy button that exactly matched the yarn, very fortuitous. I've really been enjoying the flat rate box swaps. You are required to stuff a medium flat rate box with goodies, at least one of which must be handmade. See the pretty copper colored yarn? Bridget dyed that and its a bamboo yarn. So soft and really pretty! So I am still determined to make a calorimetry for myself. I was looking this morning and some single skeins I had received in various swaps and I think that might be a perfect project for one of those. I am also thinking that I might need to go down to size 6 needles ...

I needed a good instant gratification project, so I took a couple of days and whipped out a hat for Ben's brother for his birthday. I didn't want it to be completely boring in a solid color and Ben suggested earth tones, so I did a section of single row stripes with the blue and the brown. Its a very squooshy alpaca, so it should be nice and warm for the upcoming winter. No other exciting updates, really. Although I have started a really cool cabled hooded pocket scarf for myself out of a lovely llama and silk yarn that I got at that estate sale a while back, so I got a great price on it. The only good thing about it getting cold right now is that I get to wear my Vacation Clap. :-) I did get my things back from the fair also, so I suppose I can wear my Indian Summer hat now as well.

Go here and enter this nice blogger's giveaway! http://www.annettesacre.com/stitchblog/?p=199

I got two second place ribbons at the fair. One for my hat and one for my baby blanket. Its odd how they displayed the beret so that it looks pointy, but oh well. And you only get to see half the baby blanket because its folded over a bar, but I do think they displayed a lot of the prettiest part. Congrats to everyone else who one a ribbon! The entries were awesome and I'm glad competition is strong, it makes the recognition that much nicer. I do hope they do a separate lace category next year, I really think we need it. There were so many beautiful lace pieces this year. Congrats to Rori and Kellie and Sarah and Kat and everyone else who won!!!!!

Not that we weren't planning on it. In fact, I think we're going tomorrow. But some very reliable sources have said I won some ribbons so now I am totally impatient to go! And I didn't expect to win anything at all, so I am super excited. I'll have to take pictures and post them. I finished up a surprise for my exchange partner this morning, but missed the postman, so I will have to mail that out first thing monday morning and I really hope she likes it! More about all that after she opens the package, I don't want to spoil the surprise. I am working on a couple of projects right now of the longer scarf-y variety and then I think I might start the Every Way Wrap. Its in my queue and now a number of people in the Tulsa Knitters Ravelry group are talking about doing a KAL and starting November 1st. It would be a very loose KAL, so I think it would be fun to start mine when everyone else does, even if it takes me a while to get it done. Its turned cold here, s...

Kellie and I have turned our far stuff in. Now its all in the hands of the judges and i can go knit something else. I am starting a couple of things that I hope will be quick knits. I'll post pictures of the baby afghan I entered in the fair soon. K1D2 tonight! So awesome.

Bound off. Must tuck in all the ends tomorrow. Ug. Finishing it definitely took longer than I thought it would / wanted it to. I think I will go for a small instant gratification project next.

So I did go ahead and enter the fair, sent the application in back in August. Figured that was plenty of time to finish up the baby afghan. After all, its not like a full sized afghan, right? But life gets in the way and you get busy and then all of a sudden I have a deadline smack in the middle of my year of no deadline knitting. Arg. So I hope to finish the afghan tonight and then I hope to tuck in the ends tomorrow and block it. So here is a picture of it from 2 weeks ago, the weekend Ben and I went to Kansas City. And then this past weekend we went to St. Louis for a Cardinals game. If I could manage to not fall asleep in the car I could get a lot more knitting done. But the weather was nice and the game was fun. Both trips were excellent and its been a great couple of weeks and by the way, Ben and I are ENGAGED! :-) He's really, really wonderful and I'm really happy. Soooooo, I better get to the actual knitting if I want to get it done.

Now that these are all finally mailed out I can post about them! YAY! Its really my fault for being slow. In June and July I knit scrubbies like a fiend. :-P The scrubbie frenzy started out because they are easy to take to the ballpark or just carry around, as long as your 2 skeins are semi-small. Then I thought of all of these people I needed to send little gifts too and they are useful little gifts. They are fun to make and the endless color combos keep me from getting bored, but often they stay in the state of 2 of the ones below for longer than they should. I tend to put off finishing work. And the finishing work on these is so ridiculously easy that I shouldn't, but I do. So that is part of the reason it took me so long to get out my thank you gift boxes and so long to post about them. See the pile below? I think there were some that got left out of that picture. Like a purple one I sent out on another exchange. Why do I need all these scrubbies? Well, 2 were f...

We had a great turn out last night at Comso's for K1D2. It was so good to see everyone and i got a lot done on the project I was working on. There was much discussion of the fair and I was encouraged to enter my Vacation Clap and the Sampler Style Baby Blanket that I am currently working on. That blanket seems to be going fast enough that I really wouldn't have to push it to get it done, as long as I don't get distracted. I'm going to be a little sad when Cosmo's moves to brookside. We had a good thing going there. And they even have a weight watchers menu. Last night i had a delicious turkey wrap with hummus and peanut sauce. It really was wonderful. And i noticed they have 2 point desserts and how cool is that? Hopefully when we pick a new location it will offer some healthy things too. We shall see. I'm all stuffy this morning so I think I will take a couple of lazy hours to knit and watch TV and wait for the allergy drugs to kick in. I should be...

I have spent a lot of time recently trying to decide whether or not I want to enter anything in the fair. If I enter something I am working on right now, I effectively give myself a deadline, which doesn't work very well with my year of no deadline knitting. I could enter my Vacation Clapotis, which is already done, blocked and wearable, but does that really qualify as fair worthy? Since I haven't finished either pair of socks I have been working on this year, I can't enter those. I would have entered socks, fair worthy or not, just to support the new category and make sure they have it again next year. I know a bunch of people are excited they added a sock category. I am working on a sampler style baby blanket that looks like it will be done in time. But will setting a deadline on it cause me to no longer want to work on it? Phooey. There are things I really want to make, that if I got around to them I could enter, but the entry deadline is this next weekend (but t...

I saw this pattern on Ravelry and fell in love. It was free, so I immediately downloaded and printed it and then fretted over yarn for a while. The estate sale yarn was still supposed to be in quarantine at that point, but I couldn't help but want to use it, you know how it is with new things. SoI dug out the blue and the brown and began this Indian Summer. I started out thinking I was going to gift it, but I think I will keep this one for me. It was a fairly easy pattern, so I was able to do most of it while watching TV. And I happened to have a brown button around that worked well with this yarn, so I was able to finish it without setting it aside in a basket of things intended to be finished at a later date. Go me. So it took me about a week, start to finish, or tv knitting in the evenings and such. The only thing I would do differently next time is that, despite getting guage, my ribbing is too loosey-goosey. Or maybe its that i don't have much hair. But anyway, I ...

This one is for lots of luscious yarn. :-) go check it out. Knitting in the Wild - Life on Clear Creek: And yet another gifting!

Go here and enter this contest! http://thingsmomslike.com/2009/07/30/knitpicks-zephyr-knitting-needle-set-giveaway-821/ Someone is going to get very lucky. Those needles look awesome!

I'm weaving! YAY! Thank you, Lena! So, warping the loom took hours. Maybe I shouldn't have started with a thread-like yarn using the loom to its full capacity for my very firstest ever project. Ok, I guess its not my very firstest ever, because when I was really little I had one of those fisher price red plastic looms that you could make scarves on and a vaguely remember using that. But at such a young age, how did I have the patience for warping? Dunno. Anyway, this picture is the very beginning of my shawl. Last night I took it with me babysitting, its only a 16" loom, and worked on it after the kids went to bed. I have put in some darker horizontal stripes now and I think its looking really nice. There is no specific pattern, I was random when I warped the loom and not I am just randomly inserting lines of darker as I weave, mainly sticking with the two light neutral shades. Its very exciting. It seems slow going, but I know its much faster than knitting l...

Garage freezers can be very important assets. Especially when you buy a ton of estate sale yarn at a fiber festival. Look at those many delightfully pretty cones. Riley investigates my door prize winnings. And I learned to spin while I was there, something many people know I had been avoiding for years for fear I would get hooked and then want all those soft and pretty fibers. And I did, hence the black and turquoise merino hiding in my home disguised as a flower arrangement. And, in totally awesome finds, I got an older 16 inch loom for not too much money and then I had to wait a whole week for Lena to teach me how to use it. Pictures of that will follow soon.

So much to talk about, but soooooo sleepy. So for now I will just say: I learned to weave today! Goodnight.

Was awesome. I had a great time! I took a drop spindle spinning class because my exchange partner on the flat rate box swap local swap sent me a drop spindle and alpaca fiber and I needed to learn what to do with it. Its a lot of fun, although I have avoided getting into spinning for years now because I knew I would start wanting those beautifully dyed pretty braids of fiber you find hanging all over the place a fiber festivals. And they are so touchably soft. I was totally right, btw. I ended up bringing home some turquoise merino and black merino, which I will probably spin separately and then ply together and then I also brought home a pretty braid of blue and brown lovely softness. I've made a bit of progress on the alpaca fiber. I practiced more in the evening while Kellie and I sat around on the couch, stuffed full of sushi. I also came home with a loom! Just a little 16" one. The box looks straight out of the 70's but it seems to be good quality, all woo...

is TOMORROW!!!! For me, anyway. I know it starts today, but I work all day today. Tomorrow I plan to enjoy a nice relaxing day of knitting and fiber folk. Maybe I can get someone to show me how the drop spindle my exchange buddy sent me works and then I could spin the alpaca fiber she sent. :-) Well, better get dressed to go load-in American Idols Live. woo-hoo.

I took the time this morning to pin out the Vacation Clap. Its not the best blocking job ever, I really wish I had some blocking wires. Oh well, I think it looks great. I can't wait to be able to wear it. Thank you sooooo much to Mountain Colors for helping me to be able to finish it. I will definitely be using Mountain Goat again, the yarn was so wonderful to work with. And I will probably make the clapotis pattern again. Once you memorize the repeats, its a fairly simple but elegant looking pattern. :-)

With the help of a lovely lady at Mountain Colors I was able to get the rest of the yarn I needed and finish my vacation clap! (the yarn came monday and I finished it yesterday). I am so happy with it. Its beautiful and soft and wonderful. I finished it while sitting behind the light board during focus for the load-in of Wicked, they all said it was pretty. And my partner in crime at the light board, Sarah, ended up having to use it to wrap up in because of how freezing the dang booth was, so she appreciated it as well. There will be more pictures as soon s it gets blocked. I am soooooo happy with it!

I started a market bag yesterday using a pattern I got in a recent exchange and one of those giant balls of cotton that I have had laying around forever. Not that I really need another market bag. I have probably about a dozen of those reusable grocery bags and my mom recently gave me this really cool "green" set that has a grocery bag and an insulated bag and a big market bag and stuff and they all match and it pretty cool. But I've always wanted to make one of those stretchy cotton market bags, so I'm doing it anyway. I got over halfway done during last night's driller game, so the project doesn't seem like it will be a lengthy commitment. Who knows, maybe I can add this to my repertoire of quick gifts. This particular pattern has a doubled bottom that is open on one side so the whole bag can fold in on itself and button closed to make it easier to carry in a purse or in your car or whatever. Pictures soon. :-) Maybe I can finish it during meal br...

This is a lovely view of some state or another and the pretty scrubbies I was knitting as we were driving through it. It was one of the less scenic days with pretty much only major interstates. BTW - can you tell which colleges the scrubbies are for? I had to have some method of picking colors, so that was the method of choice this time. Ben and I at his friend Collin's wedding. I love my hat! It was the first opportunity I had to wear it since I bought it. :-) Outdoor afternoon weddings are perfect for hats. We need to bring hats back, people. Quick picture on our 20 minute stop in Niagara. Seriously, we were there 20 minutes. But once you look at the falls and take some pics, what are you supposed to do? But I'm glad we swung by there because it was nice to see the falls and now I can say I've been. :-) It really was a wonderful trip. We both had a great time and everyplace we went was fun and interesting. Back to the knitting, a wonderful lady at Mountain ...