Friday, March 28, 2008

<3 on all sides

How could my birthday have been any better. Ok, well, besides the obvious having my mom and Wendy here with me. Almost as good....more yarn!!! Yes, more yarn. Never enough yarn. And a very cool story to go with it.

Mom sent me a birthday card. I knew there was going to be $100 in it and I really wanted to try and get more of the Artyarns that B got for me. It was just so beautiful and incredibly perfect. I got home from work on Monday, picked up my card and money, called Harmony and had her set aside the last skein so I could pick it up. On my way to the shop, I called mom and thanked her and told her that I was on my way to pick up the yarn. I got to the shop and talked to the owner for a bit and she showed me some fun stuff before I wandered off into the yarn for some serious shopping. As I was sitting on the shop floor, surrounded by a dozen hanks of yarn, the owner got a call that sounded a little strange from what I heard through my daze. I thought maybe it was B calling to have me pick something up for her and to pay with her credit card over the phone but she didn't say anything to me once she hung up so I just forgot about it. I picked out a yarn for the Better Bucket Hat and another pretty yarn that I wanted to try. I went to check out but I had to wait for her to finish running the credit card she had taken over the phone. She rang me up once I was done and gave me the total. As I was getting my money out she goes "Oh! but you have this $50 gift certificate that your mom just called and bought!!". So awesome. She's the best mom ever.

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I decided to make a mini-clap out of the Artyarns. Well, more like the yarn decided. It's beautiful. The yarn is a dream and the colors are gorgeous knit up. I'm almost done with it, but I have to break into the second hank for the last five rows, of course. I also found a matching wristwarmer pattern that I'm pretty excited about. They won't be warm, but they match. I don't really like the Clapotis hat, so I don't know that I will make a hat to go with the set. I might just see if I can figure out a headband pattern to go with it.

I think I found a pattern to use for the Noro Cash Iroha that Logan picked out for me as well. To top it all off, I found a website to buy Travertino!!! I ordered it on Wednesday and it should be here early next week. I have something to make with all of the new yarn I've gotten and that's really neat. I can't wait to start new projects!

Kitten is loving the Artyarns too...
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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Birthday Bounty!!!!



Ok, I am super tired but I had to show off my new yarn. So this will be short, but very very sweet! I got my Cash Iroha and blue/brown haindpainted colorway that I have been dying for for MONTHS!!!!! (btw, these were both from B and Logan's present) :D I are be happy happy gurl!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Srsly....


Is he not the most adorable thing you've ever seen??? The hat's pretty damn cute too, hehe. I love knitting for him;he gets so excited and he's so appreciative. It really makes you want to knit more when people are so gracious about it. He actually wears them too. I really liked this pattern and I'll probably make more in different colors. I got my Superwash wool from KnitPicks and I started a new BF hat for Garrett. I really like the yarn so far; it's really soft and nice to work with. I'm looking forward to seeing how it holds up to his abuse and washings. I love KnitPicks. Great yarn, even better prices. I'll be able to make him hats to last him years with that yarn, lol.

I've been on a bit of a kick the last couple of weeks. I've finished a couple of hats, my pink and black gloves and a bunch of washcloths. I've been making little fishy washcloths!!! They are so cute; I'm going to make a bunch of them for the X-mas box. I also made a cute lace-panel soap sack. I've got a bunch of cotton and those are great little instant gratification projects. I'm going to look around for other soap sack/washcloth patterns so I have a bunch of them for little stocking stuffers.

Along with Garrett's Superwash yarn, I got some yarn on clearance from KnitPicks. I definitely need to order color cards for the yarns because my monitor is off enough to make a difference. Two of the colors, I don't really like. I might use them for gifts, but I might check out the swap thread on Ravelry and see if I can just trade with someone. I'd rather get something that I like than try to use colors I don't really like. I guess we'll see.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Lessons Learned and Injuries Sustained

Lesson Learned: Don't knit a hat that needs to maintain any sort of actual shape or fit a head after being worn twice out of Simply Soft, or any pure acrylic. Garrett's hats are now more of a beret/rasta hat that fall off of his head when he bends over. I get the feeling that I've blogged about this before but I'm posting from gmail so I can't check. I asked around on Ravelry and my suspisions were confirmed that acrylic was the culprit. Of course, the most obvious answers are the ones you always miss, lol. Superwash wool! Duh!!! He can get it dirty and wash it all he wants and it's cheap enough through KnitPicks to replace somewhat frequently. Or, he can just pay for the yarn, ha! I've got a couple of skeins on order (yay for clearance!!) and I'm excited to try it out. I've never used Superwash so it will be fun to try something new. Garrett really loves the hats I knit for him and that's so much fun. It makes me want to knit for him even more!
 
Injuries Sustained: I attempted to chop off my thumb on Tuesday night. I was not sucecssful but I did come away with a pretty gnarly cut! I've been showing it off to everyone. Well, those that will look at it, that is. B and Logan refused to indulge me this time. It was great; I was cutting very wet potatoes (I know, I'm a genious) and one flew out from underneath the knife and narrowly escaped being butchered by sacrificing my thumb in it's place. I briefly checked it out and it was bleeding a lot and pretty deep but didn't appear to need stitches or any immediate medical intervention so I stuck it under cold water to get it all rinsed out. Nurse B assisted in the procurement of the advanced medical supply located conviently in the kitchen to aide in staunching the blood flow (that's a paper towel, btw). I noticed that it wasn't slowing down after a minute or two so I took a closer look. This is the cool part, but skip it if you're weak of stomach (ahemWendyahem). Turns out that I had cut through my thumbnail, which had then gotten lodged inside of the cut on the fingertip. My first thought; "Damn...I'm going to have to pull that out of there. That sucks.". Suprisingly, it didn't hurt and was relatively easy to get out. That helped the blood slow down so I threw a band aid on and went back to dinner.
 
I haven't tried knitting with my injured thumb yet and I have no idea if it's going to be a problem. I really hope not; I have a lot I want to work on. Can I knit through the pain?? I guess we'll find out soon enough!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

While the boy is away, the mouse will knit....or not...

Yeah, so that whole theory about getting a ton of knitting done with Garrett gone didn't really work out. I got some done, but not nearly as much as I expected. I did finish Logan's scarf. He really likes it and it looks really good on him. Of course, I finished it a week before it warmed up too much to be wearing heavy wool scarves, lol! Oh well; it'll keep until next winter.

I was so happy with the hats that I made Garrett. They look great on him and he really liked them. In fact, he wore them almost constantly. But, there's a big problem. I made them out of Simply Soft and they've stretched out so much that they fall off of his head!! I asked around on ravelry and the consensus is that it's the yarn that's a problem. I am going to try wool and see if that works better. I was using Simply Soft so he wouldn't have to worry about getting them dirty or washing them. I got a good suggestion to try superwash wool. I think that's a really good idea because I don't want him to have to worry about giving it back to me to to wash. I have one halfway done in Patons' Merino so if he wants a white one, I'll give that to him and see how he likes it. Of course, I'm looking at other patterns, but so far this one is still my favorite.

I finally got my second pink and black glove started so that should be done soon. Then I'll just have to put a button on my headband and the set will be finished.

I've got a lot on my list, but I'll get it all done eventually!