Hey, what ever happened to that budget you had going on?

Because it has flown out the window...
Good thing I have an employee discount.

I broke down today and bought six more skeins of Cascade 220 for my Mom's Sunrise Circle Jacket. I plan on having it done in time for her birthday at the end of May.
Considering that the arm and its respective front are done at the same time I think it'll go pretty quick. I think the shaping will be the most interesting part. Well, I'm going to knit up my swatch tonight and then the fun will begin!

In my last post I briefly mentioned all the Christmas gifts I still owe people... Well, these are the Go With the Flow socks I decided to make for my aunt. I'm almost to the heel turn!!!

You can see the finished sock behind it (which I finished a couple of weeks ago). These are very cute socks, the pattern is a winner (interweave seemed to think so) but the yarn... There are more pills on this yarn than there are in a junkie's pocket. It's so soft, but very pilly and very splitty (I split a stitch on the first sock while picking up stitches for the gusset...it looked so icky...)

Well, I'm off to play with swatches!

So... what next?

Well, now that the lovely Sofia is off the needles and now residing on her hanger by the pure cotton for the next six months, something has gotta come next! I was thinking for awhile "maybe smaller projects, get christmas presents done (from this past christmas, I'm not smart enough to do stuff for next year already), a few small things" but instead I bought this yesterday:







Five Skeins of Cascade 220 in color numberf 7802. 1100 yards of pink woollen joy. What for you ask? Well, as soon as I can get my act together I'm going to swatch and cast on for the Marseilles Pullover by the lovely and talented Veronik Avery (I really think that The best of interweave knits really should have been called Veronik and Friends. She and Norah Gaughan dominated that book! [but for a good reason!])

I instantly fell in love with that sweater and how they modeled it is exactly how I would wear it. I have the outfit already (except the sweater of course. i 'have it' but it's still in non-knitted up form...)! I think I want to finish up my aunt's socks first and then maybe a few mittens that I owe people... you may see an indecent amount of fair isle pretty soon...

Hey Harlot!

I met the Yarn Harlot!!! The canadian knitting trollop made her way to minnesota again and I got to go to her talk and get my book signed!!! I really enjoyed it and I went with my mom (who laughed, even though she's not a knitter). It was a very fun night. Parking was 'fun'. The weather was 'fun'. Walking in the rain/snow/cold was 'fun'. Once we got their we got tickets (we were on stand by but luckily got tickets anyway) and the yarnery had a little shop set up with a lot of sock yarn and the prettiest color of malabrigo I have ever seen. I walked away (well, not literally, I paid for it) with a skein of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock yarn in a very pretty color way. Pinks and greens and blues and darker colors, just a mix of everything! I expected the auditorium she spoke in to be bigger, but it wasn't (explains why all the tickets were gone so quickly). They had door prizes and the Von Yarnery family singers (very cute). Then Stephanie talked. It was hilarious, interesting, and education all at the same time! After, I waited until 10 p.m. to have my book signed because I didn't realize that the number system was thrown out the window (I had 109 anyway...). I could tell she was tired by them because my book is signed "to becky, stephanie pearlm" and then it is illegible. I got a picture with my camera but didn't have my picture taken so I don't think I'll be featured on the blog (but that's okay, it was late and everybody was tired). I was star struck by her. It's embarrassing to say, but I was so nervous to meet someone that I admire so much. While I waited for her to sign my book, I won a few door prizes! My mom won these knitter's greeting cards from I believe yarn girls (which she gave to me, being a non-knitter) and I won the Shibori felting book and a Habu kit for the silk lunch bag. The yarnery also gave out buttons and back packs but seeing as I work for a rival store I don't think I'm going to get much use out of a the back pack. All in all meeting the harlot was well worth driving in the bad conditions, walking in the cold, and waiting for a very long time. I can't wait for her next book to come out and I hope she comes back to the twin cities on her next tour.

April Showers Bring May Flowers...

...And what do mayflowers bring? Why pilgrims, of course!!!

Well, last week I spent a beautiful seven days in sunny Cozumel, Mexico! It was a great time, lots of sun burns (i applied, reapplied, and still got burned.) I finished up the second sock of my all but forgotten monkeys. I don't know why I didn't just sit down and do them!!! They're done and they turned out great.

Monkeys
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential in Grass (two different dye lots on each of the socks... shhh)
Started: Some time in october...
Finished: March 30th
Thoughts?: Great pattern, I can see why it's so popular. While knitting it the leg of the sock was very square and fun to look at but lies flat nicely when it's blocked. I did the usual 6 repeats of the lace on the leg and 7 repeats on the foot for my size ten feet. There were 13 repeats in all. The first sock I followed the pattern religiously but for the second not so much. I didn't follow her directions on how to pick up the heel sts. and the second sock looks much better than the first because of this. I am glad to have these socks done and maybe I'll do another pair in the future? who knows...

Also, I did some other knitting in mexico that should make its debut here on princess knits soon. I just have to figure out how to do some copy righting and do some designer magic. I <3 designing...

What shall the knitress do next... another pair of socks? mittens? catch up on all those christmas presents that have yet to be knit? more sweaters? We'll see...

ETA: I got the new yarnharlot book! I got it friday night after I arrived home and I have since read it cover to cover! I think this is one of my favorites along with knitting rules!

Oh, Barnes and Noble... I thought you loved me!

So yesterday afternoon I went to barnes and noble and searched high and low for the new yarn harlot book. It was not on the shelves. An over eager sales person asked if they could help me so I inquired about the book. According to their computers the book isn't out for another month!!! Who is telling the truth!!! It has to be out! Well, after pouting that my book wasn't there I looked around and looked at all the other knitting books in search of something else. I did walk away with a purchase, but it was a tough choice. They had knitting without tears and the new reprint of knitting in plain english. I wanted both, so I went with knitting in plain english because it was bigger. I'm only a few chapters in, but I think i should have gone with knitting without tears, but I'll have to give the book a full review once I've finished. I'm still glad I bought it, though.

On the knitting front, sofia is being difficult! The button band directions say to pick up and knit 70 sts., which is proving to be impossible! I'm sure it's not that bad and if i were to just sit down and do it I could be done by now, but so many new yarns are and projects are being tempting. I think I'm going to cast on for monkey number 2 very soon and hopefully have them done very soon! I think it's too late to start anything tonight, but very soon! I also really, really want to work on designing and self publishing some of my own stuff, but I have so many other projects that need to be done! Summer vacation can't come soon enough!!! I think a bunch of small projects in the next few weeks will be a lot of fun because i did do 2 (small) sweaters in about 5 weeks, starting one right after the other. it'll be fun to cast something on, wave my hands around, and have something fun and new in a few hours.

How could I ever forget NatCroMo?

Well, I guess march is Nation Crochet Month, and so yesterday I crocheted a hat! It was a basic crocheted hat, top down, crown increases until the crown measures 6 inches across, work until it hits the eyebrows. I did that but added a little picot edge and I sewed on a flower. I have one just like it in pink!!! I think I'm going to do some more and come up with a knitted pattern for it.

In other news, Sofia is DONE! Well, she needs bands, but the last sleeve was completed yesterday afternoon! Right now she is a vest awaiting bands and sleeves, but YAY! I knit a sweater in 2 weeks, granted it was a cropped sweater. I'm so glad to be done with it because although i really enjoyed knitting it, sofia was something I signed a paper (literaly) saying I'd have it done, or else. Now i'm going to move onto something without a dead line. I think that once the bands are on and the sleeves are sewn on i'm going to pick up the monkeys again. According to the rav I started them all the way back in october. Then christmas knitting started and i picked up other projects and they sort of were forgotten. so I've decided that once sofia is done I'm going to work on all my single socks again, from oldest to newest. First monkeys, then the work socks, and then I'll finish up my aunt's socks. I have one of each already knit up so the pairs will be here in no time!

I've been kind of in a sock knitting mood lately. I've been buying fingering weight yarn like it's going out of style. I only have one complete pair of hand knit socks and they don't fit me well. I did another pair for my grandma and she really likes them. I have all these ideas for designs and inspiration for socks.

Well, I'm going to go think about socks and seam a sweater. I'll be back for more later!

(p.s. yarn harlot's book is out and there's a rumor it's in american bookstores TODAY. any idea where my speedy ford contour is heading soon?)

After a Long Hiatus

Well, I guess I've been gone awhile. I'll try to be a better blogger, but I guess it's just more exciting for me to read all the great blogs out there instead of thinking of things to write myself. I'll try to be a better blogger, but seeing as this is a hobby, if I don't want to do it, I'm not going to. I'll also try to post a couple patterns every once in awhile and maybe a few pictures every now and again, but welcome to sporadic blog central. Also, we recently upgraded our internet BUT we only have high speed on one compter, which just so happens to be my dad's lap top, so alas, no pictures (i'm not much of a picture taker, which probably isn't a good quality in a knitter)

For a complete update of all my projects check out my ravelry page (psst, I'm becky09. friend me!)! I've been up to a lot, I designed something which isn't up there (i might publish it, I'm not sure yet) and My mom got a pair of mittens that will be publishable after some tweaking. Ravelry is kind of why I'm getting back into blogging. I wrote so much about my hexacomb sweater I thought 'why not start a new blog' and well, here I am. I guess I just want to talk about what I'm knitting, how I'm knitting it, and what I know about knitting. That's another recent project, the Hexacomb Cardigan. I saw it in spring interweave knits and I knew that I had to have it! it knit up really quickly but the finishing took forever! I guess this sweater taught me not to be such a wimp when it comes to changing a pattern. I knit a few more sweaters since my failed wheat ear and successful mini. For christmas, my grandparents got sweaters. My grandma got emerald from knitty and my grandpa got the manly sweater from stitch 'n bitch. My grandma's sweater was finished right before thanksgiving and I was able to knit my self a shrug as a treat for finishing (stefanie japel's boob holder) but due to some issues going on in my personal life (which I'm not going to go into detail about at all) my grandpa's sweater was finished in January. I also crocheted an afghan (10X10 pink and grey grannie squares) from almost all yarn I had lying around. It was a major stash busting project and I only had to buy 3 skeins specifically for the project. great fun. Also there were many socks. Many socks, but no pairs. I did finish one pair of toe up worsted weight socks for my aunt for christmas, but so far it's the only pair! I have a plain pair of just top down short row heel and toe socks halfway done, one monkey sock, and one sock for another aunt of mine. I guess I'm a pretend sock knitter! I love buying sock yarn and I have a ton of socks queued up on my ravelry page but I usually only finish one and then I'm off to the next one!!! Also so many mittens, hats and scarves to keep me and everyone else warm in the cold minnesota winter (happy march 17th! i'm looking at snow when yesterday there was grass)

Well, I guess what I have to say is welcome to the great american blog: sporadic, stream of concious writing.

What I'm currently knitting is a lot of fun! I'm knitting Sofia from the debbie bliss pure cotton/stella book. It's knit out of pure cotton in lime 12 (although it is FAR from lime) and so far it has basically fallen off of my needles it's so fast! I started it a week ago and I'm almost done with the second front and all that is left is 2 sleeves! I'm doing it as a store sample that I get to keep in six months, I just half to pay for half the yarn cost. A lot of stores give the samples back to the employees but the store usually gets to keep the sample for a year or more. I'm fine with this arrangement because I'm paying about half of what it would have cost me full price. I also get to show off something that I knit and the store gets a better product because I'm making it for myself, essentially. They gave me 6 weeks to finish it but i think I can do it in 2. (watch me eat my words). Well, as motivation, here's the deal I'm going to make with myself.

If I do indeed finish the sweater by next monday, march 24th, I may start a secret project and not feel guilty about all the christmas presents I still have left to knit.

"finishing" is defined at having all parts KNIT, so un-woven in ends are okay, not having buttons, okay, being in pieces, not okay. So it essentially has to be a sweater a person can put on. there. Can i do it? place your bets!

ETA: I did it! the sweater is done and hanging up in the store right now!!!