schrodinger knits

Cuteness, and a Thank You

2008-07-06T06:09:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone has been enjoying their weekends - for many of you this is a long weekend, and I hope you're loving that as much as I am. I've been pretty busy since I last posted, almost all of it surrounds the impending arrival of the bean, which I'm pleasantly surprised at how excited I am about it all. First of all, my weekend began wonderfully with an unexpected package in the mail from Oiyi.

How can anyone resist a fabric book on Care Bears? Oiyi, you blow my mind, I'm always inspired by the crafting and cooking that you do, despite the adorable new ~~distraction~~ addition to your family. Thank you so much for finding the time to make this book for the bean, who will adore it.

Next up, the nursery has evolved into an actual *gasp* nursery. We had a lot of difficulty picking the paint colour, well, until we had the curtain fabric picked out that is - then it was a cinch.

That Echino fabric is fabulous isn't it? So cute with the little dragonflies and spiders.

Mr B has been busy drawing some classic Pooh for the walls, all the pictures are great, but my fave is of Pooh climbing the tree.

I've still been knitting, although it's mostly been train knitting recently, but that hasn't mean that there's been zero productivity. First up, I made some cute socks (if they look familiar, that's because they are).

And, last weekend I managed to finish this adorable seamless kimono -deets (as usual) are on ravelry.

Some people have noted that I haven't updated the shop in over a month, I used to find this situation stressful, but I just can't let it get to me anymore - sorry to anyone who's been patiently waiting for some more fabrics. I'm really hoping to make a few more bags before I pop, but I'm going to have to see if I can enlist the help of Mr B, since the cutting of fabric needs to be done on the floor - we have no other surface that is big enough.

Meet Elijah (too)

2008-06-23T15:20:00.001-04:00

Ever since I finished the first Elijah for one of our newest spider mites, Mr B was pretty certain that we needed an Elijah for ~~himself~~ our growing bean. I have to admit that knitting this a second time was not twice the fun, far from it. I didn't really enjoy stuffing as I go since that took away the portability of this adorable project.

Mr B. chose the yarn (Lion-brand cotton-ease) and color from a limited selection of baby friendly yarn in the stash. I think he chose well, and I have to admit that I think he's adorable. More info on this Elijah can be found on ravelry.

Sad thing is that I would love to Sophie, but I'm not sure I have the mojo, I will continue with the sweaters and socks for now.

baby, baby, baby

2008-06-08T15:33:00.000-04:00

If you don't care for baby items, I recommend skipping this post all together, cos that's all I've got for ya! Apparently I'm in the middle of a baby boom and a ton of friends are going forth and multiplying, myself included :) So I've been knitting, a lot of baby stuff, and it's time to share some of that stuff with you.

First up a little hat and pair of socks for Sharon's newest addition:

Next we have the Baby Surprise Jacket for Kaitlyn's little Cassie:

Aren't those colors so cute together? Who can resist a little brown and pink? Here's something else in a similar color scheme. My coworker, also with child, left to live in Chicago for a few years, naturally she needed a cute ribbed baby sweater for her little one due in October - a sign of my appreciation for her putting up with my daily witterings.

With all this knitting for other people's baby's, I certainly haven't forgotten my own! Last weekend I made 8 burp cloths for the bean (well, I guess more for us). I got the fabric for a bargain from Intercourse, PA (tee hee). I really enjoyed making something really quick and simple, the cloths took no more than a couple of hours to put together - pattern is free from a website called "New Conceptions".

And today I finished the February Sweater (which I mistakenly called the BSJ in my last post - yikes! talk about baby brain).

Not only did I have enough yarn (one skein of STR in Amber) to make the sweater, but also enough to make the matching hat! How cute is that?

Best thing is that I think it will fit....

There are approximately 10 weeks to go before chaos reigns over the Schrodinger household (depending on what the bean decides, of course). I have far too many ideas of what I want to knit, but hoping to at least finish the couple of projects I have on the needles - good knitting and cooling vibes will be appreciated :)

Still ticking away

2008-05-24T16:50:00.005-04:00

So it's been a while, with many of lifes distractions keeping me away from the blog. All good stuff though, and the good news is that I get to have a few things to show you. First up, some WIPS.

I started the ~~baby surprise jacket~~ oops, February Baby Sweater [ravelry link] for the bean just before we went away on our babymoon. Yes, it was wonderful, we went to Lancaster, PA - Amish Country, and I strongly recommend the B&B we stayed at for the wonderful hosts and the delicious 3 course breakfasts. Here's a shot of it in progress while away, more is knit now, but I'll save further progress shots until it's finished.

It's being knit with Socks that Rock in Amber - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the one skein will do it...

The sunset blanket is coming along. I have over 20 squares crocheted so far, I've blocked about half of them. The seaming won't be fun, but I can already tell that the end result will be worth it.

I managed to finish some stuff too though, first up is a gift for Amanda and her little one:

These better-than-booties socks [rav again] needed a matching hat, so I made this one up as I went along, I have no idea how I did it, and I'm just hoping that the little thing fits.

The biggest accomplishment this month is the quilt. Yes! I had a goal of making a quilt for the bean, and I DID IT! And I have to admit that I'm really happy with it.

It took some debate, but I finally decided on an orange binding for the edging, with a decorative stitch in yellow, pretty huh?

On the baby front, everything continues to go very well. I feel, surprisingly, healthy and happy - albeit a little tired - and we are told that all is developing well. Mr B and I have been doing some of the usual nesting stuff (decorating, buying and putting together furniture). I have a ton of projects in my head that I want to get done, but I'm being realistic and recognizing my time and energy limitations, one step at a time.

CONTEST!

2008-05-07T07:00:00.004-04:00

No not here! Nothing to see here, go here instead. There's some ~~great~~ fantastic prizes to be won, of course I'm biased since there's something of mine in there, as well as other great creative works, but what are you still doing here reading, go away! Enter Katy's contest she really needs the book recommendations!

Shameless plug

2008-04-16T21:52:00.001-04:00

Last week, Mr B. finished making a stop motion animation video for his band, Bellow. I'm so proud of him, I wanted to share it with you. Of course I'm aware this is a knitting/crafting blog, so I don't expect you to share my enthusiasm, but would be thrilled if you do.

5 Random Things Sunday

2008-04-13T11:44:00.004-04:00

1. QUILT
I went over to Veronique's a couple of weekends ago, she had kindly volunteered to show me some quilting skills. V is an amazing teacher and she gave me the inspiration and confidence needed to start making the quilt I wanted to make for the growing bean. And I think it's going really well...

I actually have the backing and batting together now, it's just the fun of quilting it all, maybe this afternoon.

2. PIN CUSHION
I used the practice square (wasn't quite happy with one of the fabrics in the first one) to make a little pin cushion, something very necessary with those funny little quilting pins.

3. RAV GOODIES
A few weeks ago the Spiders had some visitors, Jess and Casey (AKA Mama and Papa Rav), came along with Maya and the very amusing Steve, it was fun spending a few hours with them, although I was sad not to join them for drinks, Jess and Casey made up for it with these adorable gifts.

How cute is that Bob pin? I believe that the pins, stickers and other good stuff will (most likely) be available in a soon-to-be Ravelry store.

4. GREEN SWIFFER
I'm happy to find different ways to do my bit for the environment. So when I saw this ingenious swiffer cover pattern in Sassy's Rav queue yesterday, I immediately grabbed some dish cotton and knit one up last night while watching junk telly.

It's got to beat those crappy throw-away swiffer cloths, and it's reusable! I can't wait to try it out - well, actually I lie about that part, but I hope it works nearly as well as being on my hands and knees with a sponge.

5. CROCHET
I'm a little into crochet now too. I started a blanket this week. It's the Sunset blanket (ravelry), and I think it's going to be adorable in chocolate brown and rosy pink.

(more) News and Knitting

2008-04-03T21:46:00.002-04:00

The next step with beany baby was to find out whether the predominant color in my knitting (and other stuff) would be:

Pink*

OR

Blue*

Now the rather grumpy technician was quite adamant that we will be focusing on....

Nah, I'll wait until the end of the post before I tell ya (of course it's just a simple matter of scrolling to the bottom to find out).

So in practically one evening I used up the handspun I'd made a little while back, with it I made Ysolda's Urchin [rav link for details].

I haven't worn the hat outside among the "real" people yet, I don't feel I have the guts, and am not sure about me in a beret, but I'm happy with the pattern itself, the simplicity of the short-rows and the loveliness of garter stitch.

Mr B got his wish last week, a Munkee ~~all his own~~ for the bean. As I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn to finish this monkey, I offered to make a shirt. Mr B. requested orange, his fave color, which also happens to be a Mets color.

While my embroidery skills are a little scant, at least you get the idea, and just in time for the opener too. Details about this Munkee are here [more rav].

Oh yeah, and about the sex:

The tech was very sure we are going to have a GIRL!! Exciting stuff.

* Buttons coming to an etsy shop near you soon.

Land of the toys

2008-03-23T17:21:00.001-04:00

Lately I've been on a bit of a toy-making kick recently. Possibly this has something to do with impending motherhood. Mostly I think it's because they're cute, relatively quick to make and perfect for the baby-gifting I needed to do the last couple of weekends. That's not to say there isn't other knitting going on in these parts - it's just not knitting that I can share with you at this time.

Anyway, on to the knitting I can share with you. First up is Elijah [rav link]. This adorable little guy was too much to resist after seeing him on Oiyi's Crafts blog. I actually had to go out right away to find some yarn to knit him with - and I found some no-name acrylic (yeah, there's not a great selection of yarn in Astoria).

I was able to gift him directly to Mum and monkeybaby last weekend at the babywarming - Elijah was greeted with a resounding 'awwwwwww' around the room.

Next up is the toy that Mr B has named Munkee (rav link here). This time I was inspired by Pam's adorable little monkey with attitude. This cute little guy was perfect for me to make up when I didn't really have an awful lot of time but had enough inspiration to teach myself a couple of crochet moves to get him made.

Mr B has been that taken by him that the only way he would let me give Munkee to the child he was intended for was if I promised to make him one for ~~himself~~ the baby. So I'm in the process of making Munkee #2.

I have also started using the handspun I made a little while back to make a selfish knit. I'm just a little concerned that I'm going to run out of yarn, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

An adventure?

2008-03-09T20:41:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I'm neglectful of the blog, but you'll be thanking me if you knew how little there was to share with you. You see, not so much knitting has been happening chez schrodinger, and what little there's been must remain under wraps until they've been gifted. However, I should have shared the wonderful sock that I was lucky enough to receive from the lovely Marie.

Isn't is marvelous? It's the poseidon [pdf] sock (pattern by the talented Elinor). The yarn is Marie's new 3-ply, softspun plus, however, I need Marie to rescue me with the name of the colorway. Look at that heel, impressive!

I want to thank each and every one of you for your sweet comments about my most exciting WIP, I really appreciate it. And I think that your well wishes have gone a long way since I'm feeling considerably better. A little tired maybe, and more than a little fuzzy-brained (quite peculiar and more than a little embarrassing at times), but better, and I like it that way.

More catching up/stuff

2008-02-16T11:22:00.004-05:00

There's a few things that I really need to catch up on.

First of all, both earthchick and aquaknits (and some spiders if you count the collective awards given out) gave me for the "you make my day award". And I was so happy to read that, I love both their blogs and have been reading them both for such a long time, they certainly both make my day (aqua, it's great to see you post again!). I have thought long and hard about which blogs I would nominate, and just. could. not. narrow it down to 10 blogs - how is that possible? So I'm taking the cowards way out and saying that I love all the blogs I read, each and every one of you - I love to see what's going on with little sneaky looks into people's lives. Thank you all of you for making my day!!

Second order of business is that, it occurred to me that this month brings about my 3rd anniversary of the blog!! This is actually more of an honorable mention than anything else, because I don't have it in me to do anything big and celebratory right now. But I did want to say a big thank you to each and every one of you who pops by to say hi, I appreciate each and every comment I get and love reading them, even if I've been a slacker at responding to them recently.

Third, this sock (which has been a royal pain the in my arse) is finally finished. And today it will be going to one of my spider buddies in our little valentine's single sock swap. It's actually a really great idea, where we each get a person to knit for (through this cute site called 'elfster') and knit them just one sock. You then give them this single sock, the pattern and enough yarn to make it's partner, while someone else will give you the sock they knit for you, etc. etc. It gave me a chance to knit a sock that I'm VERY sure I would not want to knit 2 of because of the concentration required.

The pattern is cablenet from knitty. Yarn is Regia silk is this beautiful burgandy/red - perfect for a valentines swap methinks, and all other deets will show up soon enough on ravelry. Not right now though, I have to get to a party at Marie's place.

Hope you're still here because this is where things get really interesting in todays post.

I have to admit to all of you that I've been holding out on you with one particular WIP. It's actually been in progress for about 3 months now.

Yup, the Schrodingers' Baby Bean!

I've gotta say that this particular project has taken more out of me than any other. I have never felt more like crap in my life - you know I'm not well when I don't even want to think about knitting. Good news is that I'm starting to feel much better now, and believe that I will actually be able to do more of the sewing and knitting I want to do. My big plan is to make a quilt for the bambino. Something that I've always wanted to do. However, it is more because I love the look of quilts, so I'm not sure I'm going to like the actual process.... Any advice from quilters out there will be gratefully received.

Now I really have to go, because this is what happens when you try to rush the cooling process of a banana, nut loaf, sigh! I'm off to buy a cake.

Mememeemeee

2008-02-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

Not much so show you, just one finished sock. Knit using 'knitpicks' Felici, it will be one ball for each sock. Toe-up, using figure 8 cast-on, I just knit until I ran out of yarn - doing some increases as I reached the calf.

There are other WIPs going on, but they must remain secret for just a little bit longer. Since I don't have much to share, here's a meme. I was tagged by Jacqueline. This was tough, so tough it took me nearly 2 weeks to complete - yikes!

Here are the rules:

Link to the person that tagged you

Post the rules on your blog.

Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

~~Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.~~ I don't want to tag, it took me 2 weeks to think of 6 things, can't imagine how long it would take to thing of 6 people - if you want to do this meme - go ahead! Enjoy!

~~Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.~~ see above.

1. I tend to get fixated on certain lunches, and will have them at least 2 times a week for weeks on end. During the summer it was organic mixed greens salad, with avocado, mandarin orange, hearts of palm, turkey and walnuts. This week I had the "Italiano" Panini 2 times this week. I get completely thrown when they don't have exactly what I want and will sometimes just skip lunch altogether.

2. I hate going to the hairdresser, I hate having to stare at myself in the mirror for so long, I never really know how to place my hands (even though they are under a cape), I'm crap at small talk and many other things that just make me uncomfortable. I get really worked up when I get there and never fully relax, you'd think I was going to the dentist. I go as rarely as possible. I feel the same way about spa's and nail salons. But at the same time, I want to be someone that can go for a massage once in a while, I guess I need to find a non-spa massage place.

3. I told you about how amused I am when I hear many Americans pronounce "duties" or "Duty". I never mentioned the other one, which is when people have 2 do's run in a sentence, e.g. "It's important when you do do it that way". Dodo's make me giggle like a nine year old in the same way doodies do. And they seem to be much more common in important meetings at work.

4. At times I can appear really efficient and great at getting things done. Honestly though, I have to finish a task, or take care of a message etc, right away, if I don't, I'm going to forget and I'll be the jerk that never calls people back or finishes projects. So what may seem anal retentive to some, is simply self preservation for me.

5. Speaking of forgetting, I'm rely heavily on lists. While this is pretty common for many people, I will always email the lists/reminders to myself, so I will see them on my phone when I need to. I will also do this with hopstop directions and knitting patterns. I think I'd be at a loss without email capacity on my phone.

6. Going to work without watching NY1 would be an incredibly difficult thing for me to do. I like to touch base with the weather outside, and some of the random stuff going on in the city. It's an added bonus when I get to see Pat Kiernan do "In the Papers".

Socks, shells, spinning.

2008-01-21T13:09:00.000-05:00

Well, a week has gone by and I have some more stuff to show you. First up is some pretty yarn that I should have showed you last week, but I selfishly kept it to myself.

I won this on Tiennie's blog, I wasn't trying to win - honest. But it turns out that I was the 5,000 commenter on her blog, can you believe that? 5,000 comments!? Then again, if you've seen her blog, you will probably easily understand, Tiennie takes amazing photos of her beautiful projects. I, for one, am happy to have found her.

I have a couple of FOs for you, I finally finished sock #2 from the beautiful single sock sent to me by Nova. I really loved knitting with the Shibui, and it's a really great color (Pagoda). I did have some pooling issues in the second sock, but the color differences are subtle enough not to bother me. Ravelry Details here.

The other FO is very important to show you. After I publicly shamed myself on my inability to actually finish Sheldon, and probably traumatized at least a few of you. The first thing I did was pick him up and finish him that night...

Here he is. Details here (ravelry)

And the spinning? Yes, I figured out the plying and am trying not to feel too stoopid about not changing the drive band - the one consolation is that my real issue was that the wheel had come loose from the back. After tightening the bolt at the back all was well. I couldn't get a great shot of the yarn for some reason, hopefully this will give you an idea.

An FO. And a call for spinning advice.

2008-01-13T10:40:00.000-05:00

I finished hubby's henry while were were away, which makes it a 2007 FO - maybe. But then I didn't wash and block it (i.e. truly finish it) until we returned home, which would make it a 2008 FO, right? Oh well, either way, it's an FO and he loves it.

I managed to time the finishing perfectly for the warm spell we've had. It looks as though winter will recommence next week, so Mr B will get a chance to wear it without sweating bullets.

On the whole, the scarf is a winner for me, I love how it looks more woven than hand knit, and the fact that the recipient loves it is the most important factor - oh! and it's soooo soft. It was knit with ColourMart Cashmere 2/7NM DK weight, full details here (ravelry link). However, it wouldn't be fair of me if I didn't share the negatives. This scarf was NOT FUN to knit, in fact I do believe that it may have played a part in the disappearance of my knitting mojo.

It also doesn't have the finish I wanted. I tried the tubular bind-off, I must have done it too tight, because when I went to tug the scarf, the bind-off snapped in several places. I won't tell you how much fun it was to unravel that bind off and pick up the 450+ stitches again. There was no way I was going to risk trying it again, so I used EZ's sewn bind off. I think that the edge is so-so. Biggest disappointment for me is the ends, which are kind of... well, for want of a better word... frilly. Mr. B says it's fine, but I'm not the least bit pleased about them, and considering the special yarn and pattern, I guess I expected perfection, or something close. But no amount of tweaking, tugging, squishing or pulling during blocking could fix the 'frill'.

So, with the knitting mojo MIA, I decided to do a little more spinning. I finished 3 bobbins of some roving I bought at Rhinebeck from Little Barn. I couldn't wait to start plying, so I added the jumbo flyer and tried to get started, but this is where I need help from any fellow Lendrum owners, the wheel keeps jamming, I just can't spin it at all. I've tried all sorts of tensions but I just can't wrap my head around what I'm doing wrong. Could it be that I have to use the second belt provided? It seems to be the same diameter as the one already on there, but I could be wrong. Even if I had to change it, I can't quite figure it out, I'm supposed to take the wheel off? Or is there something else entirely different that I'm not doing? Any help/suggestions would be gratefully appreciated. It's figured out, thanks to some advice from Kristi and in the process of looking, I found that the wheel had come loose. So I changed the drive band and tightened the bolt, and have now finished plying my first 3-ply on the Lendrum :)

Since things have halted, I'm thinking that today might actually be the day I finally finish Sheldon, who has been in this sorry state of unfinished for a couple of months, poor thing.

Happy New Year

2008-01-06T11:43:00.000-05:00

Austria is a stunning place - the views are magical. This is what I saw out of the bedroom window the morning after we arrived at my parents (it was pitch black when we arrived the night before).

There are actually too many stunning views than I could shake a stick at, even just the walk into town had views like this:

this:

and this:

you can go to my flickr set for more.

As for other things about the trip, the beer and food were plentiful. And over the holidays the neighbors bring home-made cookies and highly alcoholic orange punch.

I managed to bag myself the cutest slippers ever.

I gave gifts of socks to my parents and a hat to little brother (never got a picture of the hat, sadly).

Childs first Socks for Mum (Lazy ravelry link - sorry)

Dads Earl Grey Socks (another lazy ravelry link)

All were well appreciated.

I even made some mitten ornaments for the parents:

The trip was a lovely and relaxing one, we saw Salzburg and even got a half day in Munich. I had no idea how stressed I'd become before we went away, with work being full on, and all the sewing during my free moments. I'm still on wind down right now, it's great!

I did a bit of knitting while away as well, but that's for another post.

Froche Weihnachten

2007-12-25T08:16:00.000-05:00

From Austria...

It's about time

2007-12-15T13:31:00.001-05:00

I wanted to write something before I go away to visit my parents in Bad Ischl, Austria for the holidays. But I'm not so sure I have that much to write. You see, I've been sewing a lot of bags for the shop (shocking huh?), people have been keeping me busy with this sewing. There are a couple more days left before the shop will, effectively, be closed for the holidays, so I'm trying to keep as big a selection in there as I can. As for my personal favorites, they change pretty frequently, although currently it's the blue version of the mini matryoska's cube and the monkeys cubes- how adorable are they?

Anyway, I promised myself that this blog wouldn't be about the shop, so onto the knitting. Believe it or not, knitting has happened, much of it will need to remain a mystery since the recipients haven't received yet. But I need to show you something, more of a tease than a show and tell.

I'm really excited about our trip, first of all I get to see family that I haven't seen in such a long time, and it will be in beautiful surroundings. I think that we will even get to visit Munich (as that's where we fly in to and out from) as well as Salzburg, which is just an hour away - I'm hoping that there may even be some yarn shopping to be done, but then, I have no clue what's out there, since the last time I was in that neck of the woods all I cared about was spaghetti eis and haribo jelly sweets (esp. the bears and sour chips). If anyone has any 'must see' suggestions while there, I'd happily take them, I don't know what our free time will be like, since we will have some painting and decorating to do...

One of the other essential parts of vacation planning is deciding what knitting to bring. Well, I'm currently knitting Mr B a Henry scarf in a tweedy colourmart cashmere:

I'm really happy with how this looks, I'm hoping this will be finished before we leave - first of all, he gets to wear it in the chilly snow, secondly, this gives me more room for new projects. I have been swatching for a sweater to bring. Of course I will make sure that there will be socks on the needles for travel time (I ambitiously plan on bringing enough for 2 pairs). I've no idea what travel is like to Paris and then to Munich, but I'm hoping that they will be nice and let me knit.

Last weekend was the spider's holiday party, where we friends got to celebrate the upcoming holidays and everything knitty, as well as silly songs, wonderful food, lots to drink, knitting and great company.

We also had a Secret Santa exchange. Sandra was my SS and she did good:

These earrings are some that I had my eye on in her etsy shop for ages, so you can imagine how happy I was to open this box.

Also from my etsy wishlist, was this adorable sheep button:

And, the pièce de résistance... fiber!! I love fiber and it makes me think that, someday soon, I'll be spinning again - stoopid full-time job getting in the way of real life.

4 ozs each of fiber-loveliness. Thanks Sandra!! And big thanks to Jess and Veronique for the wonderful job hosting such a wonderful party.

I have one last thing to show you before I end this longer-than-should-be-post. Yesterday was one of the more stressful days in my life - I don't remember ever being so scared, I'll spare you the details, as it looks as though things will be okay. But before the proverbial hit the fan, I did have one, big, up.

The. best. boots. ever! arrived from zappos, at work. I've heard great things about this shop, but had no idea that overnight delivery would count ordering at 7:30pm the night before!! Going to a snow-filled place for the holidays was the perfect excuse to buy these boots, well, that and the fact that they are adorable.

Okay, I wanted to wish you all very safe, happy and healthy holidays and I will see you in the New Year!!!

I love getting parcels

2007-11-11T19:20:00.000-05:00

I felt like I had a lot to show you this week, then there was the realization that there are people reading this blog who'd have their holiday surprises spoiled (hi family!).

So instead, I'll show you something that I've had absolutely nothing to do with making.

These goodies arrived yesterday. They are from Nova, who made that fabulous project pouch there. I'm so happy with the Green & Blacks chocolate - and am astonished that I still have some left. In case you're wondering why she only sent me one skein of that beautiful Shibui, it's because one skein has already become this:

Nova knit me a Pony Express sock by Audrey Paquin. The sock yarn is Shibui in Pagoda - from which I'll knit its mate. The sock fits perfectly, I love the yarn colour and pattern - I'm a happy bunny. Thanks Nova!!

I hope I'll have some more stuff to show you next time.

Catching up

2007-10-28T22:24:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to re-introduce myself to the blog. I'm so behind with blogging and bloglines, oh well, it's a sure sign of a busy life :) Everything is going well, lots going on, and much to show you. I don't want to bore you with a bunch of writing, so I'll catch you up with some photos.

First up, the dress - which I'm finally getting around to show you:

And the shawl, which I completely forgot to take a picture of actually *with* the dress, sorry for the crapola photo, I really struggled with this one:

Pattern: Muir from knitty
yarn: Yarn Place "Gentle" a cashmere, merino mix.
needles: US #6, denises
adaptations: I did one less repeat on the row pattern, making a narrower shawl, since I only had 690 yds. Worked out well for me.

I've knit a bit, and frogged a lot, so all the knitting I have to show today is this sock:

Pattern: It's the Honeybee socks by Stephanie van der Linden. The sock is available (in English as well as German) from a Yahoo German sock Knitting group. You need to join the group to access the pattern (yes, it's all in German, I used Altavista's Babelfish to help with translation, it's not perfect, but it gave me the gist). Once joined, click "Dateien", then the patterns are in the folder "Monatsmuster".
Needles: Knitpicks 32" circs us #1
Yarn: Opal in some yellow (obvious huh?) color
Thoughts/adaptations: I added some extra stitches in the purl part of the pattern and some extra pattern repeats for a longer foot. I'm very worried it won't fit the recipient (despite this being the 3rd sock pattern attempted for them), but I can't do another sock now, I. just. can't. As for the pattern itself, I've really enjoyed knitting it, but it took some time to figure out.

Other stuff: I went to Rhinebeck last weekend with Sharon, Cindy, Colleen and Nancy, we had a blast! I scored a good amount of fiber, a spindle and enough yarn for a sweater/cardigan, sorry about the bland photo.

(click pic for flickr notes on what I bought)

I had planned on buying a new spinning wheel at Rhinebeck, but the prices were the same as online, so I figured I would wait to get one delivered to my home, so my Lendrum Double Treadle arrived this week, and had some fun playing with some of the fiber bought at Little Barn.

It was fun, and so much smoother and quieter than my other wheel, I love it so much, I'm a very happy bunny now.

Just popping in to say hi

2007-10-11T15:33:00.000-04:00

Some of may have wondered what my total silence over the weekend actually means. Did I make the dress fit? Was the shawl finished and blocked in time? Well, both were a resounding success - despite my "add darts", "change darts", "remove darts", "remove zipper partway at the top - re-sew", "remove zipper partway at the bottom - resew", "completely remove zipper, re-press, re-sew", I ended up with a dress I was pretty much happy with. Although I did have to make an emergency stop at the drugstore on the way to the wedding for safety pins when Mr B kindly pointed out that I revealed a lot more of myself than I would want to, to anyone stood on my left, and I didn't feel like pulling a Janet Jackson in the church.

My ability to wear a cashmere/merino shawl was somewhat hindered by the 85+ degree weather on Saturday. The wedding itself was beautiful and touching, and the celebration afterwards was an incredible amount of fun (it helps that the groom is a bar owner in his real life). Sadly a picture of the dress in action has not been forthcoming - unless you count the picture of me and a bunch of drunken friends in the back of a limo at some ungodly hour, no. I won't be sharing that. Hopefully I will have a photo this weekend, in daylight.

In the meantime, here is a shawl teaser.

More socks!?

2007-09-30T12:25:00.000-04:00

Wedding outfit update: dress is complete, shawl is not. Dress is a little too baggy at the waist/back, it occurred to me to try darts - but maybe I'm crazy, I've already adapted the pattern. I've never followed a pattern before, hell, I've never even sewn a garment before, I'm beginning to realize I'm more and more like my father, who believes that the best way to learn anything is to jump in the deep end first.

However, I do have an FO to show you.

The Esther socks are complete, they are, perhaps, the most beautiful socks I've ever made. However, I don't think I'd do them again, I started them at the end of July, and only just finished them, I could not memorize the chart, and by the time I was finished with them, I was relieved.

On to the stats
Pattern: Esther socks by Stephanie van der Linden. The sock is available (in English as well as German) from a Yahoo German sock Knitting group. You need to join the group to access the pattern (yes, it's all in German, I used Altavista's Babelfish to help with translation, it's not perfect, but it gave me the gist). Once joined, click "Dateien", then the patterns are in the folder "Monatsmuster" - I believe it's the July 2006 pattern.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in 'grapevine'
Needles: knitpicks circs 32" US #1

Right, that's it from me today, the shop is nearly empty, and I have a lot of sewing (AND shawl knitting) to do. Happy Sunday to you all :)

Look what I made

2007-09-23T14:57:00.000-04:00

No, it's not knitting, but I'm so in love with our new curtains, I needed to show them off. When I saw the fabric, I knew I just *had* to have it. It really makes me smile. I'm particularly proud of the top hem...

Good news is, I have enough left for a few cubes. If you want to know when the bags will be available in this, and other exciting new fabrics, you can email me to be added to the newsletter list.

In other sewing news, last weekend I went to purl patchwork and bought this fabric.

I blame the ADD Knitter for my new-found love for the "chocqua" combo (or at least giving me a name for it). The fabric is currently in the process of becoming the dress in the picture, I plan to wear it at a wedding in less than 2 weeks. I learned some new things so far in following the pattern, particularly the language difference - the term 'basting' had me particularly confused, until I found a US-UK sewing glossary.

I figured I would also need a shawl as it's a late afternoon wedding. Fortunately I had this beautiful cashmere/merino lace-weight (won from Red Head Skydiver) in the stash that was perfect.

Look how well they go together. I'm currently making the Muir shawl with it. I now have to keep my fingers crossed that both the dress and shawl will come out okay AND in time. I'm about a third into the shawl, I'd've taken a picture for you, but, as you could guess, it's just a blob.

Hope you're all having a beautiful Sunday.

PS: Hi Mum & Dad!!

Just Stuff

2007-09-14T13:59:00.000-04:00

First of all, a quick shot of the prize from Knitting Philistine, don't worry, I didn't win another prize, I already 'fessed up to this one.

There's some Gentle Lavender Natural Mineral Sea Salt Soak, Herbal Spa Treatments for Bath (also Lavender), Sweet Orange and Clove Soap, and Peppermint Wish Foot Balm. I have to admit to opening the foot balm right away, and I LOVE it, my post-summer feet ate it up, I've tried a lot of foot moisturizers in the past, and this has to be my favorite so far. Normally I feel that my feet are over-greasy. Forget walking on the hardwood floors afterwards! But this was much better than any other I've tried, I felt like it absorbed a lot better, and was much less greasy. I also felt a difference in softness. I've not tried the other things yet, I think we need some cooler weather before I'm taking a bath. But I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Melissa. If you want to get some of your own, you can always check out her store.

Speaking of stores, I wanted to say that I'm blown away at the response to my box bags, the first batch sold out in less than 3 days, I've managed to add more here and there. I hope to do a bigger update sometime over the weekend. Anyway, big THANKS to everyone that's stopped by the store to visit, and those that have bought bags. I'm so relieved that people actually like them.

Every time I start a new project, I have, in the back of my mind, the ~~crazy~~idea, this time it may *the one*. You know, the one that has zero errors, the one without any fudged-up bits. Although I'm pretty sure this will never happen - there is still a part of me, hoping that just maybe....

So, a couple of (slightly) fudged up FO's for you. First of all Spiral Socks. I absolutely adore these socks. I really enjoyed the STR - which is a relief since I have 3 more skeins to use :) it's so... round. As for the socks, I thought I was doing so well with the matching of the socks, opposite swirls and all. However, the swirl came around a lot faster on the second sock than on the first. I could. not. figure it out for ages. Trying them on after finishing last night, I realized what the problem is, I think I actually had less stitches for sock #2!!! Oh well, they still fit (albeit tightly for #2), and I still love them, even though they're not perfectly matched.

Pattern: Swirl Socks by Sulafaye
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight - in January One (btw, how cool to have a colorway named after you?)
Needles: US #2 Pony Pearls
Mods and thoughts: Only the 'oops factor'. I highly recommend the pattern, perfect interest and not too 'fussy' for a variegated yarn.

The second FO began with even higher hopes. Orangina was supposed be knit faster than anyone else has done it (planning to practically finish on vacation - HA!), be perfect, AND make me slimmer. None of these things happened, of course. I'm had moments of losing my place in the pattern at times, creating 'unevenness', and being the lazy knitter that I am, I didn't rip back. Ripping back only happens when it's *really* noticeable, which is rare in my book, my standards are low :) Oh yeah, and I gave myself a face, for a change.

Pattern: Orangina by Glampyre Knits
Yarn: Rowan 4-ply in "Sage"
Needles: Addis Tubos US #3
Mods: again, only the "Schrodinger touch" to certain parts of the pattern, oh! and I made the back slightly longer than the front - not on purpose. I'm undecided about the pattern, like I said, I wanted it to make me thinner. Shockingly - it didn't. Oh well...

And the winners are...

2007-09-05T13:00:00.000-04:00

Contest is over - woo hoo! What follows is a bunch of rambling, followed by the winners names, just scroll to the bottom if you just want to know if you have won a ~~bag~~ cube.

Choice A - autumn flowers
Thank you so much everyone for your overwhelming response. I was fortunate enough to have the week off work last week to have time to look over the comments - 247 all-in-all!! I'm not kidding about overwhelming, I can't believe how many of you knit bloggers out there came by to visit - it's exciting for me to see all these new blogs - even if I haven't had time to personally say hi. I really do appreciate your good wishes and support for the new shop (which is now open btw - check out the nifty little 'mini-shop' on the left).

Choice B - Purple Regal
Also during my week off I was been cutting, pinning and sewing like a woman possessed. I love my bags, I'm proud of them, I think they are excellent quality, and they look freaking adorable, but they take up a lot of time. So, if I haven't commented on your blog recently, please don't think I'm ignoring you, I'm still perusing blogs, but not commenting as much as I'd like.

Choice C - Greyscale Flowers
I have found a little bit of time to knit in the evening. The never-ending Orangina is now complete, just in time for the fall - my timing is perfect, as always. But I'm going to save all that knitting stuff for another post, because all you folks want to know right now (if you've not already skipped past to the names) is if you're a winner. First of all I want to let you know about my method of randomly picking - well I toyed with the idea of hats and scrap - for all of about 5 seconds!! Seriously, once you add all the extra entries for everyone, there would have been 364 pieces of paper to write/print and cut - no, I've got enough cutting going on here. Instead, excel became my friend, cut and paste my savior :) Then, after a bit of googling I found this formula:

=INDEX(A1:A364,ROUNDUP(RAND()*COUNTA(A1:A364),0))

Choice D - Amber Eternity
Apparently it works - well, I know it does, I tested it (on another list) a LOT, it's like magic! Now I'm writing this post before picking the names, so, right at this second, I have no idea who the winner will be (although there are a couple of bloggers out there who sent a huge amount of people over here - either by threatening physical violence, or just being known to post a LOT of contests).

Choice E - Golden Blue
Anyway, I think that it's time to put you, and myself, out of our misery and just do it already!!

So here goes - first name out of the hat is..... Jen W

Number 2....... Sally Villarreal

And the final name is .............. Cass (not surprising with over 30 entries in all), now we know, violence - or at least the threat of it, does pay ;)

Congratulations to you lovely winners. You get to choose one the the bags shown in this post. Just email me (schrodinger212 AT gmail DOT com) with your choice and mailing details. Again, thanks to everyone for your support and the amazing response. And don't forget, if you really, really (really) want a bag, you can find them at my store (sorry, couldn't resist one last push).

Next time .... some actual knitting - AND, shock, horror, at least one FO.

The one where I show you a bunch of half finished projects

2007-09-03T13:18:00.000-04:00

There's some still time left to enter, so if you're looking for the contest ---> click here

Happy Labor Day everyone!

I don't have anything complete to show to you today, but I do have a bunch of WIPs. I'm going through a major amount of startitis - it happens sometimes, esp. when I have so much lovely yarn in my hands that I want to knit - now!! First of all, let me share with you a pic of the beautiful yarn I won from Scout.

It's 100% merino in the colorway "Harlot's Mums" - it's a beaut right?

Now for the WIPS - the clap is really coming along, not much else to tell ya on this one - except the Sea Silk continues to be a dream to knit with.

I started my first STR sock on Friday - it took 3 false starts, and much ripping back before the yarn (in "January One" colorway) was telling it *had* to be this pattern. I'm obsessed with this pattern, I LOVE the asymmetry of the swirls. And you all know I love my swirls/spirals in socks. Look at it! I don't know if you could share the same love I have for this sock, but I just can't stop knitting it.

Which means that my poor Esther sock will remain partnerless for some time yet - but at least one is done for now - a super pretty pattern this is (click here for more info on the pattern - or check it out on ravelry).

That's all for today, I will be drawing the winners of the bags later on this week, in the meantime - I have some more sewing to do...