Supporting the troops through yarn!

I know, when did I get even remotely patriotic?? Well, I'll tell you....
My brother-in-law is joining the Navy. He leaves for boot camp on January 7th. To show my support, I've abandoned all other WIPs to cast on for the Navy Eagle Dishcloth. I'm giving it to my mother-in-law when he leaves.
Yarn used: Peaches & Cream in colorway 25- light blue.
Needles used: Pattern calls for US 5 but I'm using my Mei-Mei Pro Bamboo Straights in a US6 (4.00 mm).
I'm aiming to have this project done by next week Saturday. It should be a quick knit but we shall see.

On an unrelated note, if you don't have any Mei-Mei Pro needles, might I recommend them?? You can find them on Ebay. If you like the Clover Bamboo needles as I do, you'll LOVE these. They are smoother than Clover and more inexpensive because you buy them in lots on ebay. Since one of the ladies in my MySpace knitting groups introduced me to them, I've bought a set (US 0-15) of the 14" straight needles, the 16" circular, the 24" circular and the 60" circular needles. It's cost me around $100 (US), but it is totally worth it!!

Two in one day! Egad!

Oh yeah, and I forgot that while I was at Herrschner's, another customer expressed interest in the Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle set that I previously blogged about. Well, they had some in stock (not in the breast cancer pink, but the regular blue), so they pulled out a case for us to look at. Um, yeah, I don't really like them. So I informed my mom and she was like "oh good, I was going to buy them for you, so I'm glad we looked at them already. Let me know what you would want instead."
Unfortunately, my dear husband already bought them for me. For Christmas. Whoops. I told him I still wanted them. Hopefully he'll give them to me.
But as for my parents, I think I'll add the KnitPicks Options set to my list....hmmm....

I have been too busy playing with yarn to blog!

Yes folks that is true. Because Christmas is freaking two weeks away and I'm not anywhere near finishing a Christmas present (so much for people getting Christmas dishcloths, sorry if you were looking forward to receiving one!).
I busted out the Wedding Roses afghan last week and now I am proud to say that I have finished the 4th panel (out of 6). Over halfway done!! SWEET!!! I am not sure what I'm going to do with the border yet, there's no way in hell that I'm going to actually make the crocheted roses, yeah that's way too much work in not-nearly-enough time. I brought it to the knitting group this afternoon and one of the girls seconded my other idea of just extending the natural border. It will be much quicker, though not as fancy, and it will still look nice. I like the look of the Simply Soft as opposed to the suggested Red Heart SuperSaver (though Red Heart soft would probably have been a good substitute except that Simply Soft is a- cheaper, b- you get more yarn per skein than Red Heart Soft, and c- much easier to come by).
Yesterday (by yesterday I mean Saturday), I went to Stevens Point and made a quick stop (under an hour!) at Herrschner's Retail Store. I am proud to say that despite the fact that there were a few skeins of yarn I really really wanted, I did come out almost empty-handed. Almost. I bought an Addi-Turbo 10.5, 47" needle for one of my Xmas project. Working on a blanket on an 29" circular was getting to be difficult as it's coming along pretty nicely. This wouldn't have been a necessity had I planned out the blankets better in the first place instead of doing both of the knitted blankets on a 10.5 needle. Live and learn....
Katie's blanket is coming along fairly nicely, it should be done by Xmas without any problems at all, especially with the new Addi Turbo to help it along.
Lastly, the Packer-ghan is not going so well. I am hoping to at least be halfway done by Christmas so I can wrap it while it is still on the needles.
Only 16 days until my knitted gifts must be complete! Agh!

Christmas Presents!

It's about 53 days till Christmas (according to the tracker that's on my MySpace page, lol!)....I've got a few too many projects in the works, I'll be knitting away until Christmas Eve!
Anyway, so I drove all over the general northeastern Wisco looking for a 29" 10.5 Clover Takumi circular needle. I started at Hobby Lobby in A-town yesterday, then went to Hobby Lobby in GB, and then got lost looking for Joann Fabrics and drove around GB for an hour looking for the damn store! I finally found it, bought my circular needle, resisted buying more yarn, and then left to drive back to K-town.
I need a pair of interchangeable knitting needles yesterday. Dear Santa.......

Dear Santa,

I want a set of the Denise Interchangeable Needles in Breast Cancer Pink.
I am now in LOVE with circular needles but I also really don't like crappy circular needles, and I don't really like the Clover Circular needles, the cord is kind of crappy. I am in love with my Addi Natura, and my Addi Turbos (but they are freaking expensive!), and I've read rave reviews of the Denise Set. Plus, $5 goes directly to breast cancer research.
So yeah, Santa, if you're reading this, I want the Denise Interchangeable needles. And maybe another set of Susan Bates crochet hooks.

Halfway done with knitting class!

I am halfway done with my 4 week long knitting class....it meets on Saturday mornings for 2 hours. I did start knitting when I was 18, however, I never really pursued the craft except to make some scarves. I also never learned to purl and my friend Kali cringed when she saw how I cast on when she tried to teach me how to use a circular needle. So I turned away from knitting and focused on crocheting....but now I am getting back into knitting because I want to make a sweater (eventually).
Either way, I am now in love with addi needles. And I can cast on, do the garter stitch AND purl. So I am on my way to great things with knitting! Hooray!
In the crochet world, however, I'm working on an afghan called "Wedding Roses" from the book Great Big Crochet Afghan Book. It calls for worsted weight yarn, the suggested yarn is Red Heart Super Saver in an off-white and a G hook, however, I substituted Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Red and an H hook instead. It also calls for 6 panels of 3, but instead I am going to do 8 or 9 panels because the width is not quite there. Either way, I have until December 24 to finish this!! I will post pictures when I have some of my WIP!

Yarn-ing: Take One

Since I have tried this a couple times since giving up the real blog, I am now bound and determined to actually succeed at another blog. This time I am going to detail my travels through the arts and crafts world of knitting and crocheting! (yep, I'm a dork!)
I have never been successful at actually finishing projects but now I am bound and determined to do so. First step: Christmas presents. Only 2 months and 9 days until Christmas! This gives roughly ten weeks and three days (believe me, I'll be using those three days!) to finish my Christmas presents. So far there are two afghans, a possible felted bag, and a bunch of dishclothes. Here's hoping that success will take hold instead of the usual failure (and yarn-A.D.D!)!!!