And the winner is...

Close up!

 Oh wow it seems like I fell off the face of the earth. I am so sorry I said I would post the winner of the Stitch Nation booklet on the 9th but I totally flaked out. I have been spending the last few months waffling between anxiety and hysteria about Nate getting ready for college but enough about that I am sure we will all hear much more about that in the coming months. Let’s get to the good stuff. The winner of the booklet is Mercy or midwifemom on Ravelry she was the 8 poster. Enjoy the booklet I think you will.

Nate has been accepted into and has accepted the offer he got from Arcadia University. It seems like such a good fit. It is close to home but far enough away for him. It has a great English and Film Studies program and it is a gorgeous campus. We went to visit for a family day on Saturday and everyone liked it. Jazzy was stoked about the possibility of living in a castle. I am just happy that he is going to have a great college experience. He will be living in the dorms, staying on campus and traveling abroad. I already decided I wanted to knit him a sweater for school!

One done with no thumb.

On the knitting front I have been in a slight funk. I have a backlog of smallish projects to talk about but haven’t had the mojo to get started on a big project. I did start a short sleeved top down raglan for the summer months. I also am planning on doing Citron for my conference knitting. I am off to a library conference on Saturday I get to spend a week in Chicago so that should be pretty cool.

These mittens were knit way back in January using all the wool yarn scraps I had on hand. I made them for Nate well because he asked and I was anxious about the college applications. The pattern is from one of my favorite knitting books Andean Folk Knits by Marcia Lewandowski. They are the Mitones Ivenos pattern. I think they turned out pretty nice and he seems to like them. He needed them with all the snow we had this winter. The gray is Wool Ease and the other colors are a mix of Cascade 220 and the new Stitch Nation yarn I had around. I always take it as a good sign when his friends say they want a pair too. Of course Nate will not let me make them for them since he wants to be the only one with them.

I have been reading like crazy. I finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Native Son by Richard Wright, and Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. Right now I am working on Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellows, A Passage to India by E. M. Forster and Kim by Rudyard Kipling. The last two are both about England and India so they complement each other in a weird way. So far I have 47 out of 100 books read. Boy I have been busy.

Luna is doing great she is fitting right in and has stolen the boss’ heart away. They are so cute together snuggling on the floor watching the Phillies. That man is a soft touch but don’t let him hear that! We also have a new cat cousin in the family. My sister has a new cat named Freddy who was adopted from the shelter two weeks ago. Welcome to the family Freddy. He is too sexy for his collar for sure!

All done just in time for the snow.

Wish me luck at the conference last year we went to CA and they had an earthquake! The boss tells me it is not tornado season.

Mittens from Ivo (rav link)

Citron (rav link) from Knitty

Top down Raglan from Lion Brand

Yarn on the run

Today I started a pretty crazy knitting in public event on my regular morning bus. I was knitting along on a hat on the bus when this woman that I see everyday starts yelling and laughing hysterically. I turn off my mp3 player and try to figure out why she is gesturing frantically to me. Apparently my small golf ball sized ball of yarn that I thought was in my bag had popped out and rolled to the front of the bus. It had gotten tangled all over the place and was twisted around a sleeping mans leg! She was trying to catch the yarn ball but the yarn was so slippery and the bus was moving. A couple of people helped me chase down the ball and wind it back up we all laughed. I told the woman I would give her the hat when I finished it! I guess a lot of people will be hearing a story about a crazy lady on the bus lost her ball of yarn!

January was NaKniMitMo10 or National Knit Mittens Month 2010 since I love to knit mittens I decided I would participate again. Last year I busted out four pairs of mittens for the event. This year I did two. I did the Latvian Inspired Mittens and the flip tops for Jazzy that I wrote about earlier. I decided that I wanted to make my sister a pair of color work mittens for her birthday which is in late January. She tries to make me give her my Lapland mittens and I always say no. So I found this great pattern on free Ravelry and dug out some RHSS from the stash in some girl colors. I wanted to make sure the mittens were machine washable and didn’t itch! The pattern is pretty straight forward and it looks beautiful. I chose purples and gray for the mittens. So I went like gang busters on the first and then was easily distracted on the second. I let it languish until the very end of the month. I knit like crazy wove in all the ends and left the thumbs until the last Saturday of the month. I had to measure my sister’s thumbs. In the past my mittens had thumbs that were too small and it really hinders movement. Well long story short she loves the mittens. She wears them when she drives which is weird but she hates cold hands. They washed up nice and soft and haven’t fallen apart I guess that is a win - win in my book!

In other news I am still working through my Modern Library 100 Best Book list. Since last check in I finished I, Claudius by Robert Graves, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, and the Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett. I am working on Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. I have to say the To the Lighthouse was wonderful and Mrs. Ramsay is a knitter. In the story she spends a summer at the seashore working on a brown sock. Much of the story develops around the act of her knitting. It was fascinating to see how knitting was used to convey the mood of Mrs. Ramsay and how her husband sees her. I would love to find an audio book of this title to listen to while I knit.

At last count I have six projects that I have yet to blog about. I will get to those in the coming weeks. Right now I am working on a hat from the new Stitch Nation Booklet and thinking about an afghan for Nate to take away to college. Oh wait if he ever finds out which college he is going to. You rush and rush to get everything ready and then you wait! I bought two new color work books. The New Stranded Colorwork by Mary Scot Huff and Color by Kristen by Kristen Nicholsas both of which are drool worthy. I want to make the Southwest-Style Sleeved Wrap from Kristen Knits and the Being Koi vest from Huff’s book. Maybe when I am the empty nester my sister keeps telling me I will be soon!

My mother finished an amazing crocheted fisherman inspired afghan for a fundraiser. It is amazing. I am awed by how fast she can crochet. She mixes and matches the stitches in panels so each blanket is unique and she always does them in the creamy aran color. I have to jump on the band wagon and say I did the fringing. She hates fringe but people love it. She sold raffles for the blanket and made over 150.00 for her charity. Mom, please make me an afghan and don’t tell me to bid on the next one or make my own!

Links:

Latvian Insprired Mittens by Jennifer Little (rav link) Free pattern

Color by Kristen by Kristen Nicholas

The New Stranded Colorwork by Mary Scott Huff

Flip it!

 So I was working on Amelia’s fingerless mitts a few Saturdays past at my moms. Saturday is laundry day. I take my laundry over to moms and spend the day with my sister, her two kids, my parents and Nate. Jazzy was trying on Amelia’s mitts and she said she wanted a pair. My sister said she was too young to have fingerless mitts outside; Amelia was older and wanted the mitts for fashion. I told Jazzy I would make her some mitts when she was older. During lunch we were looking through the 101 Designer One Skein Wonders book I was using and Jazzy said she found something she wanted me to knit her and her mom would like it too. She wanted a pair of convertible mittens that way she could have the fingerless mitts and the mittens she needed to wear during recess. Since it is Naknmimo and I was competing I decided I would make her the mittens.

I used Bernat’s Softee Baby in a pastel variegated. I had a skein left over from when I did the Girlfriend shrug a few years ago. The yarn is a DK weight acrylic you get 333 yards per skein which can make two pairs of mittens easily. It is pretty soft and machine washable which is good for things that you knit for littler kids. They knit up pretty dense on a size three but not too bulky. The pattern is pretty fussy when you get to the point where you start to add the flip top. It seemed to work better when I held the stitches on yarn and instead of a stitch holder. I liked the fact that the flap is knit on not sewn on it makes it sturdier and warmer. The fingers are one opening with a full thumb which makes it easy for kids to put on themselves. I used some flexible rubber type buttons that had penguins on them. The penguin was wearing a hat, scarf and mittens which was endlessly funny to Jazzy. The flexibleness makes them easy for little fingers to manipulate. She is able to flip and button them herself while on. I think if I make them again I would consider using magnetic snaps that would be the easiest and you wouldn’t have a look on the top when the mitten is closed. If you have a mitten sucker like Nate was it could get pretty gross!

Overall a quick knit that resulted in a pair of mittens that made a little girl feel more like a big girl without resulting in cold fingers!

In other news I finished Under the Volcano By Malcom Lowry. It was 11 on the list. I started I, Claudius by Robert Graves this weekend and am enjoying it so far. Under the Volcano was tense and emotionally draining it is very dramatic but worth the read.

Links

Flip top mittens (rav link)

Spliting necks and calling it dichotomy

Oh boy things have been crazy at work. Let us just say that the economic downturn has been just as bad for non-profits. This is not a how crappy is work blog so enough of that. I have plenty of things to be grateful. I am totally in love with Los Campesinos hence the title of this post and have found Craftsanity podcast.

I finished my Lapland Mittens. I actually washed and blocked them and they look awesome. Can I just say that Cascade 220 is such a nice reliable yarn. It is easy to knit and blocks so nicely and it lasts forever!

I also got some wonderful handspun yarn in the mail this week. I won two awesome skeins of yarn from the NaKniMitMo group on Ravelry. I am so stoked. This is my first handspun. The color is an muted varigated plum and pink. I got two skeins of worsted weight about 220 yards, enough for something great. Right now I just fondle it.

Shetland Triangle are you the new Big Ivy? I did six repeats and got hopelessly messed up. I tried to frog back and got so twisted I had to scrap and redo. On sunday I restarted and have done 4 repeats so far. I need to realize that I need to pay attention to lace!

A woodpecker and a single mit

I have been on a mitten kick. I finished most of a pair of Lapland Mittens from Folk Mittens. Things have been very stressful at work so I have been knitting like crazy. I had two days off from work last week so I blasted through one mitten and picked up the Leftover Vest as well. I have the left front and the armhole and neck edging to finished. Oh yeah and about six hundred ends to weave it. Stripes oh what a great idea in theory.

I also went through my stash and pulled out all the project worthy yarns I have and assigned them to projects. Now I feel like I have a plan to work with and won't go and buy random yarns or use my good yarns on crappy projects. I have less yarn than I thought but enough to do a few good projects. I have enough to do a Hey Teach, a Shetland Triangle and a three quarter length cropped cardi and a pair of mittens so I am in good shape for a few months. I have also been thinking about doing a ribbed striped scarf using up my RHSS scraps. I think N8 would like something like that. I also have 900 yards of merino laceweight and two balls of Lornas Laces that I am currently hording.

Today the boss saw a red headed woodpecker in the tree and was able to get a snap of it. Pretty good photo from so far away.

Ta Da!

It is a wonder what a cold can do for your knitting time! I have been nursing a really yucky head cold. I was totally laid up yesterday and called out from work today. However it did give me the laying around time I needed to finish my Anatolian mittens from Folk Mittens. I must be sick and bored if I can finish a knitting project, photograph it, photoshop and flickr it in the same day!

For my next project I am hoping to work on the Lapland Mittens from the same book. I am thinking of starting a sweater in February. I have been thinking about the Origami Cardi from IK. I knit it a few years ago and it turned out to be too big for me. I think I have the right yarn, the right needles and a more realistic view of my sizing.

Work continues on the sewing front. I finished two tote bags but had a mini hissy fit over my lunch bags. In my defense I wasn't feeling well and the thread kept sticking on the little cutout on the top of the spool and breaking.

naknimitmo 2009 and a sassy leftover

I love mittens and I cannot lie. I joined naknimitmo on Ravelry. Everyone has committed to knit at least one pair of something that goes on your hands. Great for a cold January. I decided I wanted to knit Ashley a pair of mittens for her birthday and this seemed like a logical tie in. I decided to do the Give a Hoot Mittens by Jocelyn Tunney. The pattern has a cable that looks like an owl. She had buttons for eyes but I used some green wooden beads I repurposed from the Nudge's bracelet making kit. I love the look of the eyes. The first pair was a little tiny so I uped the needle size to 7 and whipped out the second pair on the bus this week. They are so sweet and cute I just love them.

I also gifted Amelia's hat and scarf so I can share this last remaining FO from 2008. She wanted a hat that looked like an acorn and had a stem. So I decided to make her the Sunflower Tam from Knitting Nature. She wanted turquoise so I busted out some of the old reliable RHSS from the Walmart. This is a good choice for Amelia she is both a sloppy pre-teen and a swimmer who doesn't dry her hair. She loves it so mission accomplished.

Check out Morsbags.com if you like to sew, use recycled totes or care about marine mammals. I started a pod called Eco-friendly Bensalem, join me and help marine mammals.

Mittens first than Tam. Enjoy!

Bus transfers indicate adultness

When people talk about their children they always say I can tell they are growing up so fast. How can they tell? Recently I realized (I may have been the last to notice) that my boy is growing up. No it wasn't the shaving or the first job or even the fact that he is getting his driving permit it was his bus transfer. When he was little and we would take the bus into town he was so afraid of losing his tranfer he wanted me to hold it. Last week he came into town to go to the comic book store and to meet me for lunch. So he come in town on the bus and el alone, comes to work gets called mister by a temp receptionist, decides he wants sushi for lunch and disappears until closing time. When he comes back to commute home together he gets his transfer and puts it in his pocket. I have my hand out and he says oh come on I'm like sixteen. Fine remember that when you win the pulitzer and I tell everyone how you refused to get dressed unless you had your spiderman undies on.

Photo is some christmas knitting I am getting a jump on. All three items from Kristen Knits. For the ladies.

Your pretty in places.

AHHHH! Metrosexual sweater vest I kicked your ass!

(that is what we say in my family when we do something better than half assed!)

N8's sweater vest is done. I finished blocking it on Sunday. I started on Saturday but it was wet and damp in Philadelphia that day. Man does wool smell nasty when it is wet. It looks so very sweet. I am so thrilled by how good it looks. I tried a new way of picking up stitches and they look flawless I must say. Overall the knit was fun and I learned how to do a v neck. Check out some photos.

On the mitten front I finished my first pair of adult sized mittens. They were huge but as we all know blocking is magic. The turned out pretty cool. I gave them to my Lolly who from what I heard from his mom was wearing them around the house on Sunday. Oh Lolly you are such a freak. Photos for the next post I promise.

I have started the Marsan Watchcap for my beloved. He nagged and nagged so now he will be forced to be the owner of my first misshappened hat. Enjoy! Seriously the hat is nice and I am sure it will look fine. *That's what my boys the Fratellis say!

I just got a flickr account but I have some trouble wrapping my head around it so more photos will have to wait. Until then peep the blogger supplied photos.

I'm crafty

This halloween I was charged with the most important of all duties. To create a purple fairy princess costume. No sexy fairies here commanded the bossy mother so here she is. Heavy on the eye makeup and sparkles! The skirt is made from over 8 yards of purple tulle. the overskirt is made from three layers of (very hard to sew) sparkle fabric. The top is a leotard with lace, ribbon, flowers and of course sequins glued to it. We also made a matching hair bow and decorated the ballet slippers. Wings were supplied by Aunt Kathy from the Ren. Faire. We swapped out the ties for something more purple.

Princess J. demanded makeup. She wanted a lot of eye makeup and then looked at us and said is it enough? Her mother said oh yeah I think it is. Me-mom called us the pagent moms for putting makeup on a three year old.

Oh peep the mittens! First pair ever!

Ravelry

Oh Ravelry I like you so much I hope you like me too! I just got my invite and signed up poste haste. I need a huge chunk of time to get to know the place. I am of course cphouse. Let's make some yarn friends.

On a similarly exciting note J and I went to Mitten Class at Rosies Yarn Cellar on Sunday and this malformation is my first mitten. How cool is that? Totally loving dpn's. I made three purple mittens this week alone. I am so sure I am one inch away from multi colored Norwegian mittens. Right after I finish N8s vest.