SomerKnits

There is a giveaway going on right now of a cowl pattern and 2 skeins of Malabrigo. Go here and check it out!

It's a little late, but I wanted to show off my goodies from the flat rate box swap #7. My swap partner spoiled me rotten. Starting in the upper left and going clockwise-ish, first we have a whole pile of wedding scrapbook stickers, which will definitely come in handy when I get organized enough to begin scrapbooking the wedding. There was also a stick of Martha Stewart craft glue and a LOVE picture frame, which already has a picture in it and is at my office. Next we have a shiny blue pencil case that will definitely used for hauling knitting paraphernalia, a little mug with a bride and groom on it, 2 rope bones for my puppies, a skein of cotton ease, 2 balls of bamboo and 3 skeins of Cot-lin. (love it all) Then there is the adorable knit bag, the lavender candle, the crocheted washcloth, green tea, soak wool wash, funky paper clips and buttons!!!! She really managed to stuff a ton in there. Thank you so much, crazyhappyknitter!!!! Next, I spent some more time making stitc...

So I have officially chosen my entries. Perhaps others are being more secretive about it, I don't know. But in any case, I have decided to enter my: Honeymoon Shawl (I need to get a picture actually wearing the shawl or draping it over something) and Sara's Starghan I thought hard about all of the things I have knit this year and these two stand out in my mind. Of course, 2 other bigs projects I considered were my Pink for Piper blanket from February and Derek's Woven Blankie that I worked on all year but just gave to him in July. Sara is generous enough to loan me the Starghan long enough to enter it in the fair. Hopefully miss Emagene won't mind too much. I hate having to ask people to borrow back stuff, but hopefully when I give it back to her again I can do so saying, "you have a prize winning blankie, Emagene!" Speaking of prize winning, I gave the blanket I got a ribbon for last year to my cousin's baby boy. I wonder how little Matthew likes ...

This time is organic! Go and check out this giveaway: http://icelandicgardener.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-sponsor-o-wool.html I picked the Lapis colorway. :-)

I always take my camera to k1d2, but I usually forget to take pictures. Such was the case again Saturday night. I guess it's just that we have such a great time that I totally forget about the camera in my bag. We had a good size group this weekend and even some new peeps. I finished another pinch hat while we were there and worked some on my Jesse's Hat, which is a PITA pattern that I now have a mental block against even though I am past the icky part and on to just ribbing. I should just finish it and get it off the needles. I'd feel so much better if I did. But instead of doing so, yesterday I cast on and began a semi-felted cloche pattern called Vintage Girl Cloche. This one might be staying with me. It depends on how it comes out. It's a super easy pattern, so maybe I will just have to make more than one. I spent quite a bit of time Saturday making new stitch markers. Over the last couple of weeks I had mostly been making my medium size sets (fits up to...

As I have mentioned many times before, the fabulous and talented Bridgette hand dyes beautiful yarn. Her company is Farm Girl Fiber and she's finally got a facebook fan page up and running. You can "like" her here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Farm-Girl-Fiber/ (Big bag of Farm Girl Fiber, mostly bulky weight lusciousness) Or you can check out her etsy, which I am assured she is in the process of updating and adding to here: http://www.farmgirlfiber.etsy.com (Bright Sock yarn) You can also see my projects on her Facebook page. :-) (Yummy tropical looking colorway on my swift) And other big news: soon Farm Girl Fiber might be carrying SomerKnits stitch markers! So stay tuned and check in on her shop regularly. And make sure to message me if you see something on my blog you are interested in.

You should go here and check this out: http://icelandicgardener.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-sponsor-yarntini.htmlutm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IcelandicGardeningKnittingGradstudentMom+%28Icelandic+Gardening%2C+Knitting%2C+Gradstudent%2C+Mom%29 Yarntini is what is being given away. You can check yarntini out on etsy. I like the DON colorway.

Its time to decide what to enter in the fair this year. Entries are due soon, so I need to make some decisions. I looked back over all of my projects from last November to now. I think that the 2 best things I have made (for fair purposes) are Sara's Starghan and My Honeymoon Shawl. Sara is generous enough that she says I can borrow it to enter in the fair, so I am leaning heavily towards doing that. It sucks that the fair happens just as its getting cool usually and right when I might want to start wearing my shawls is when they could be locked up in a display case. Oh well, I guess the trade off is not knowing if it could have gotten a ribbon. Is there anything else I have knit in the last year that I should enter? If you look back through the past blog posts, that should give you a pretty good idea of most everything I have done this year. Is there something you see that maybe I didn't?

Determined to see how many hats I can knit. I've done quite a few this past week. There was the brown pinch hat that I finished last monday, shown here again because of further decorative experimentation. I think this brooch needs to go on a pinch hat, just probably not this pinch hat. Now if that flower was a rust color, then it would be perfect. This is pinch hat number 2. It's a little smaller and lighter weight than the first one with a semi-shiny satiny yarn that is almost a light gold color and some light blue stripes. I'm thinking this button for tis particular hat. It has just enough contrast, but also covers up the join where the stripes meet up. I have a third pinch hat on the needles already, but its such an easy pattern that I decided to leave it in the car as my emergency knitting. This next is the 'Shroom hat from knitty. I had some really pretty turquoise yarn leftover from forever-ago and it was perfect for this project. It was also a quick proj...

From the very first time I saw this hat, I knew I had to make it. Its fast, easy and adorable. Its knit flat and then seamed down the side pulling the seem tight to create the pinch. I can't imagine who this hat wouldn't look good on. Even all by itself the pinch is cute, but the endless embellishment options make it even better. I haven't decided for sure what to put on this one. I messed around a little with some buttons I have in a jar. It looks pretty good with the one large button. But its also kind of adorable with the two colors of smaller buttons. I didn't have any brooches the right color for this hat to try. Since taking these pictures on sunday I have actually finished another of these hats, I added some striping to that one, and have started a third. I seem to have endless ideas of yarn combos and colors for this pattern. I might end up making a zillion of them. And its a ridiculously easy pattern to throw in your purse or car and just knit on in...

There is a $40 loops gift card up for grabs. Go check it out: http://icelandicgardener.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-sponsor-loops.html

Remember that curled up cowl? Well, I finally got off my lazy butt and blocked it. Once again the blocking wires made this sooooo much easier and gave me nicer cleaner edges. It took a bit of space to stretch it all out, but the pattern showed so much better after that. Now instead of just looking curled up on itself, I have a pretty lacy cowl. Totally ready to throw in a drawer because we have another week or more of 100+ degree weather here. But I know when it does finally cool off, I am going to love having this. See? Cute!

A great meeting last night with the make:Tulsa folks left me really inspired. I always think about selling some of the things I make, but I never actually do anything about it. So after talking to a friend, I have decided to make some stitch markers, hats and cowls and see how that goes and maybe move on from there. Today I have been busily beefing up my stitch marker inventory. I think I have settled on carrying 4 sizes: Small, Medium, Large and Jumbo. The sizes correspond to the size of ring, not stones. There are so few options out there for stitch markers that fit needles larger than a 13 or 15. My larges will fit up to a size 19 needle and my jumbos will fit up to size 50 needles, otherwise known as speed stix. I haven't worked out pricing yet, but I will. Anyway, here are a few sets I made today. I may also make some stand alone ones where people could pick out their own set or buy as singles. The first set is a small set. Small fits up to a size 10.5 needle. All of my s...

I started this lovely cowl at Fiber Christmas using some of Bridgette's hand dyed yarn. The yarn has just a bit of shimmer or sparkle to it that doesn't really show up in the pictures, but its cool. Subtle enough for me but just enough there to be fun. The pattern is a 4 row repeat, so it was easy to memorize and be able to pick up and put down as things happened throughout the day. Since I had only had short cable size 9s with me, I went and bought a pair for $5 thinking that wouldn't be bad for needles even in a size I already had at home. These needles became the bane of my existence. Look first at the cable on the needles. Its not a normal cable, its a tube. And this tube, while uber flexible, was not super slick, so my not entirely smooth either yarn did NOT slide willingly on the cable. Secondly look at the join. Even after forcing the yarn to slide over the cable, additional forcing was necessary to get it onto the needle. No wonder I ended up buying a new dr...

I forgot to mention in my other Fiber Christmas ramblings that my friend Kelli won the felted bag my mother donated as a door prize. It's totally awesome that she won it because it will make a perfect diaper bag for her baby girl! :-) Also, I don't get to see Kelli very often, so it was wonderful to spend most of a day and all evening with her and Bridgette and all the other wonderful yarn addicts. I really should be heading to work, but I only have 2 rows left on the cowl I started at Fiber Christmas from the yarn Bridgette gave me. It was either for my birthday or my bridal shower, I forget, but it's a really pretty blue and purple and green and white colorway with just a hint of shimmer to it. I'm making the fifth avenue infinity cowl with it. Well, I guess the thought of finishing it will just give me something to look forward to all day. Of course, in the current 100+ degree weather all I will be able to do is admire it and hang it up for later.

With all the Fiber Christmas posting, I didn't get a chance to mention that I finished my Honeymoon Shawl thursday evening. And Shelley, those blocking wires helped immensely when it came to stretching that sucker out. Not to mention how awesome the blocking mats are. :-) The pattern is the Anne Lacy Shawl pattern from Shaffer yarns. I had it from the Pattern-a-day calendar. I was looking for something I could easily memorize so I could stare at the ocean in paradise not have my nose in the pattern the whole time. I used one skein of Bridgette's hand dyed sock yarn, which doesn't contain as much yardage as the pattern calls for, and I used it to the last little drop, but the shawl reaches from fingertip to fingertip on me. I'm sure its helpful that I am short and don't have a gigantic wingspan. I'm considering entering it in the fair. We shall see. I know others have knit far more complicated shawls this year. I just have to decide if I am willing to p...

Check out the door prize I won: Every year there are dozens upon dozens of door prizes, so there are many chances to win. All the vendors donate things and every prize is awesome. This yarn is soooo squishable! And I love the colorway. I don't think I did it justice here, but its fantastic. This is what I got in the dirty santa swap. Maybe I deserved it because last year I got such awesomeness in the swap. No idea what I am going to do with all this acrylic. And embroidered toilet paper, seriously? Ug. This pretty roving is super soft. I bought a new drop spindle from Dawn of Dawning Dreams and got started on it last night. I am going to use this super soft stuff that was on sale to practice spinning very fine yarn. Hopefully my spinning will get less "arty" over time. And when I get good, on either a drop spindle or some day a wheel, I will spin up this luscious merino and bamboo. Its black with a nice silvery blue bit running through it. I could swim in a ...

If you weren't there, you should have been. A great time was had by all! I practiced a lot of restraint this year, but not enough that I can get the pictures all in one post, so there will definitely be a follow-up. Despite the fact that I don't spin that often, I stuck to mainly roving this year for the bang-for-your-buck factor. And I have LOTS of yarn, but not that much roving. I got the blue above and the grey bamboo below from Weavery at Indian Meridian. Very luscious feeling. The pretty colors above were dyed by Angora Jane. And the natural roving above is from Lowder Colours. Very awesome. And another set of pretty colors by Angora Jane. I had a great time yesterday and the day before with everyone at Fiber Christmas. Kate, Bridgette, Rori, Kelli, Megan, and everyone else. I can't wait to play with all my new things. And next year will be just as awesome! See the next post for the rest of my haul.