Christmas Fun!

So, I have no idea where the camera charger is so I haven't been able to take pictures of my knitting stuff. 

What's being knitted?

1. Knit Knack Scarf Exchange Scarf

2. Front/Back Cross Scarf

3. Feather & Fan Baby Blanket for Stacey

4. I'm trying my hand at crochet again! Whoa!

In the meantime- a Christmas fun survey! :)

Welcome to the Christmas Edition of getting to know your friends! Okay, here's what you're supposed to do (and try not to be a SCROOGE!). Copy this email and paste it into a new email (or a blog post!). Change all your answers. Then send. Tis the season to fill out stupid surveys!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? A little of both, depends on the gift.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial- real trees are not kitty friendly (or maybe TOO kitty friendly!)

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually Thanksgiving weekend or the first weekend in December but this year I've failed to put it up yet....

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually later than I should. ;)

5. Do you like eggnog? No!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? When I was 7, I got a really awesome stuffed Garfield. I've still got him! :D

7. Hardest person to buy for? My father in law since he hates everything. :D

8. Easiest person to buy for? Me! Umm....I'm not sure, probably my dad.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Like I have time to send out Christmas cards at all...

11. Worst Christmas gift you received? Um, anything from my crazy great aunt...lol. :)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL!!!

13. When do you start shopping? Later than I should! I haven't started yet! Crap!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? We're doing a White Elephant this year!! Yea!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies! :)

16. Lights on the tree? Yes, my artificial tree comes with them! :)

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

18. Home on Christmas? I'd prefer it that way!

19. There was no 19, so I added one- What is your favorite Christmas TV Special? Tie between 3, of course! Garfield Christmas, Claymation Christmas and Charlie Brown Christmas!!

20. Angel or Star on top of the tree? I don't have a tree topper, but at home we have an angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Mostly Christmas Eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The fact that the stupid radio stations have a playlist of something like 5 songs. Holy crap. There are enough songs out there that they don't have to play the same ones twice!!!!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Um, yeah, we don't really have a theme, more of a hodgepodge. Lots of Snoopy and Garfield ornaments though. A few Scooby Doo ones too.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Wasn't this question already asked? Ohhh, dinner...um, I don't know. Chinese food, lol. :)

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Peace on earth, I'm a closet hippie.

26. Who is most likely to respond? I dunno.

27. Who is least likely to respond? I dunno.

Feel free to post this on your blog if you want! :)

Sorry, that hiatus was not so brief...

Okay so I didn't mean to take this long of a break from blogging. Right now I'm currently unemployed and knitting like mad. Today I went outside to get my mail, and got locked out with no shoes, no cell phone, and no house keys. I walked circles around the house trying to figure out how to get inside again but of course no windows were open. I ended up back at the front door again- where the door still stood open but the screen door was locked. In desperation, I started pressing on the screen itself and voila- the lower corner popped out of place. Haha! I managed to unlock the screen door through the corner of screen. Who the hell locked the screen door??? I didn't even know it COULD lock. And that's been about the most excitement I've had all week.
The hat that I was modeling in the previous post is still not done as I can't find my Stitch N Bitch book that has the pattern in it. It's in a box....somewhere. Hopefully I'll find it soon.
In the meantime I signed up for another Knit Knack exchange- this one's to make a scarf. I found the perfect pattern and pattern kit so I'm busily assembling an order to put on a gift card I got (because with no money it's usually hard to justify buying yarn) so I can get the pattern and yarn. Unlike in the last exchange we're not going to exchange goodies because we're all broke, but I suggested that we make a mix CD for our buddy, and that seemed to be a well received suggestion. I can't wait to get a mix CD from my buddy, I hope it has music on there that I would have never heard of/bought for myself.
And now for the pictures!

13 cloths going to the homeless veterans project!! I have 2 more done too, but not photographed as of today as I haven't woven the ends in yet, and I can't find the camera charger either.
So what's all there? Well first let me say that any of the diagonal cloths are the Grandmother's Favorite pattern. And all of the yarn used is Peaches & Creme Worsted Weight unless specified otherwise.
So....starting in the top left corner:
1. Grandmother's Favorite in Pink Lemonade
2. Grandmother's Favorite in Sea Mist #1
3. Grandmother's Favorite in Sea Mist and White
4. Grandmother's Favorite in Shaded Denim
5. Rice Paddy Cloth in Olive

Middle Row:
6. Grandmother's Favorite in Sea Mist #2
7. Fiesta Rib Cloth in Earth Tones
8. Grandmother's Favorite in Faded Denim
9. Grandmother's Favorite in Black

Bottom Row:
10. Seed Stitch in Double Worsted White
11. Grandmother's Favorite in Lemon Lime
12. DW Cloth in Shaded Denim
13. Grandmother's Favorite in Faded Glory

Woohoo! Yay me!
The two not photographed are also Grandmother's Favorite- one in double worsted white, and one in worsted Yankee Doodle. 15! Yea!

Stack o' cloths!

The finished DW Cloth. It was the death of me. Not a fan of the pattern. Also not a fan of the shaded denim either. I did kinda like the argyle-esque pooling though.

Also, not so recently, but fairly recently, I bought a ball winder. Winding yarn is addicting. And now lots of my yarn is in cute little yarn cakes like this one.
This particular yarn cake is made out of Peaches & Creme Worsted Weight in Lemon Lime. Awww, cute!!!

I got this yarn on Etsy, when I was browsing just for fun (that never ends well now, does it?). What is so special about this yarn, you may ask? Well, the colorway is "Jaye & Eric" which can only mean one thing....WONDERFALLS!!!! Yes, it's Wonderfalls yarn!
In fact, the etsy seller has decided to do a whole color scheme based on Wonderfalls. I hope I find a job soon so I can buy more Wonderfalls yarn.
For those of you who are familiar with the show, the orange-red in the yarn stands for the Wax Lion, and the blue is for Niagara Falls.

I got more Audacity yarn! Yay for BlackBunny Fibers!

Brief Hiatus...

Not from knitting silly! But from knitting-related content.
I will hardly ever mix politics and knitting on this blog, but today, I must explain to you why I am knitting charity items like mad.

This Diary Should Never Be Written from DailyKos (an admittedly very left-leaning blog).
The thing is though, that this shouldn't even be an issue. No matter what side of the fence you're on- conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We got into this war, and our soldiers are fighting it honorably. It's their job. They are putting their lives on the line in service to our country.No matter what your position on the war is, please do not take it out on the soldiers. For them to come home and be poor and homeless, it's a downright embarrassment to our country.
And THAT is why I have gotten so involved in knitting charity items for the homeless veterans.
In fact, I even took on the 25-item challenge. Sadly, it is not going so well....
4 are done!
3 are on the needles!
21 finished items to go (but 3 will be done soon!).

/end political soapbox rant, return to knitting next time!

UFO Sighting!

I have not been knitting much lately because I feel like I've been either a- at work, b- in Milwaukee, c- job-hunting, or d- packing. The bad news is that I took on the 25-Item Challenge for the Knitters for Barack Obama General Charity Knitting!!
So far, I have the four washcloths picture in my previous post, and a washcloth and hat on the needles. 4 down, 2 in progress, only 19 to go! Crap.
Big News! This knitter is relocating at the end of this month!!! Hence the packing, job-hunting, and Milwaukee travels. Not fun.
In other news, I love the KnitPicks Harmony Options. I totally want the interchangeable set.
I have finished (about 95%) cataloging my yarn on Ravelry. I now know that I have too much yarn. I have started planning stash busters- there will probably be a post about that soon!
I want to try the Bernat Cot'n'Corn yarn! Cotton and Corn???
I also got some awesome yarn from a shop in Connecticut thanks to one of my Ravelry friends. I have not cataloged it on a Ravelry yet, but I'll give you guys a quick shot of one of the yummy skeins of yarn (the tags even have pictures of the sheep the yarn came from!!!).....it is being given a cat scan. :)
That's all for now.... but stash busting coming soon!!

In addition to all the washcloths, I'm also working on a hat for the homeless veterans for the Knitters for Barack Obama charity event. Please excuse the silly picture(s). :)
I am using Bernat Softee Chunky yarn (stash buster #1!!!) in Gray Heather, with my new KnitPicks Harmony Fixed Circular needle in size 9 (btw, I LOVE the Harmony Needles!!!). The pattern is loosely based on the Hot Head pattern in the first Stitch N Bitch book. I changed the yarn, changed the needle size, changed the number of cast-on......but still doing the 2x2 ribbing. :)

The beginnings of another washcloth for the Knitters for Obama General Election Charity Project! This one is the Darrell Waltrip knitted cloth, and no, I'm not a fan of Nascar (Darrell who?)...I found the pattern thanks to the wonder that is Ravelry!
This is using Peaches & Creme Worsted in Shaded Denim. Next time I think I want to use a more variegated yarn, but it's not bad for a first attempt!

Finally, another Feather & Fan....this one is made out of Peaches & Creme in Potpourri Ombre. I am not sure if I like this. Eh, it used up some yarn.

Lots of updates!

Well I've got lots of updates: WIP, Yarn, New Totebag, and finished objects!
Currently I've got a market bag on the needles, it's a really nice relatively easy pattern, and it's working up quickly (okay, so the size 13 needles help). I'm planning on making more for Christmas presents this year in an effort to be more "green."
I celebrated my 25th birthday last week and to celebrate I bought some yarn (Audacity!) from Black Bunny Fibers, and some needles from KnitPicks. I bought some of the Harmony fixed circulars in 7, 8, and 9. I have the Options in nickel, but I don't know if I like them. I might look into getting a Harmony interchangeable set in the next year or so. I also got a size 1 needle in both the Option (nickel) and Harmony (wood) to try my luck at Magic Loop with socks (eventually).
I joined Team Obama in the Knitting Olympics on Ravelry- now I just need to pick my project!
Like the preemie hats in the primaries, the Knitters for Obama on Ravelry have started up the charity knitting for the general election. This time around it's for homeless veterans. We're making hats, scarves, wash cloths and lap blankets. I finished 4 cloths with many more planned.
I am trying to get all my yarn, needles and patterns organized for my upcoming move sometime before the end of August, it's been quite the task!
And now, for the WIP, Yarn, Totebag, and FOs!

My latest WIP is a Market Bag. I'm trying to be more "green"....and plastic bags are just awful for the environment.
I'm using the Market and Bottle Bag pattern/kit from Peaches & Creme. I'm using the Gumdrops color scheme. It is not my favorite, but it was my favorite of the colors offered. Just because I knew that I would probably want to make more (and I really do!), I got some more colors of the double worsted: Mocha Swirls, Seabreeze, Blackwatch, and Daisy Ombre. I think I'm going to make market bags for Christmas presents this year.
I started the bag at Stitch N Pitch. Right now I'm getting to be pretty close to being done with the "mesh" part of the bag. It was a pretty quick knit, and the double worsted is a great choice for a market bag. The mesh is very stretchy. This was also my first project knitted in the round. Hooray!

This is the Audacity colorway from Black Bunny Fibers. All the proceeds go to Obama.
This is a wool/nylon blend sock yarn. So now I need to learn how to make socks!! I just bought some KnitPicks needles, so I'm gonna have to learn how to do Magic Loop and learn how to make socks (I hate DPNs!). Maybe for the Knitting Olympics....I'm gonna have to figure out what I'm doing for the Olympics!

Some pictures of my new knitting bag!! In addition to being an awesome bag for Obama, it's a pretty awesome sized bag for toting around my projects and such! Yea!!

This is the Skrap Lace Rice Paddy from the Cloth of the Week group on Yahoo. I liked this pattern too, but it got kinda boring because of the sheer size of this cloth. I did the biggest size on this one. It will be a really nice size cloth, but it got pretty boring! I used the Olive color in a worsted weight cotton, but I like to refer to it as the Army Green color. :)

Close-up of the Lace Rice Paddy.

I kinda made up this pattern. Instead of using the typical worsted weight, I decided to use up some of the Peaches & Creme Double Worsted Weight yarn that I have on hand. It makes for a very thick washcloth!! This particular cloth used US size 10 needles. I think the combination of the thicker double weight yarn and texture of the seed stitch will make for an awesome cloth.

Close-up of the seed stitch. Blech to seed stitch.

I really like this pattern. I used the Southwest Fiesta Rib cloth pattern from Maile Mauch. It was a really easy pattern but seed stitch and I are not friends. The border was sheer torture. It looks cool though. I used Peaches & Creme Earthtone instead of the Fiesta color because the shelters are requesting "male" colors rather than "female" colors, which is totally fine with me. :) It gives me a chance to use up some of the yarns that I have (ie the P&C Earthtone, which is a really nice color scheme, but I don't like it that much for me).

The four cloth- just need to weave the ends in. I'm not a huge fan because I miscalculated the ends again but a cloth is a cloth. It'll work. Plus, I like the colors!

Stitch N Pitch!

Stitch N Pitch is coming up! It's on Wednesday! Hooray!
I don't know what I'm going to work on at Stitch N Pitch. I have a lot of market bags in the works but I am having a devil of a time with the long tail cast on and it's driving me crazy. Sigh.
Number one in my ravelry queue is Knitty's Everlasting Bagstopper. Seriously, it doesn't even look hard. What am I having trouble with? Oh yeah, that's right, the freaking cast on!!!! I love the long-tail cast on, but mine is starting to look like absolute garbage. I have no idea what I am doing wrong and some of the ladies in my knitting group can't figure it out either. So I have had to resort to using the cable cast on for anything that I want to have a decent edge.
I wish I had a picture of what I'm doing wrong but I get too frustrated to keep it around for long enough. Maybe tomorrow I will spend some time working on it, and post pics so hopefully one of the two or so people that read my knitting blog will be able to help out. :)

Up and running!

I have a number of things that are sort-of in the works right now.
On an unrelated note, it really felt like summer today! It was pushing 90 degrees. Yuck. Perfect knitting weather *sarcasm*. :)
Despite the heat, I took my latest knitting project to City Park at the tail end of my lunch break and knitted a little bit. It was fabulous.
What is my latest knitting project?
Well, the Ravelry group Knitters for Obama is at it again- this time for homeless vets. For the general election, our latest project is to knit/crochet hats, scarves, and washcloths. They will be donated to various veterans shelters/agencies in some specific states (namely swing states). I have already finished two washcloths, and I am working on a third.
Currently, I am working on a Skrap Cloth Lace Rice Paddy from the Cloth of the Week Yahoo Group. It's really not very difficult but looks much more difficult than it actually is. I'm making it out of Peaches & Creme Article 930 Worsted Weight in Olive (but I call it Army Green). I have two enormous skeins of Army Green in my stash and I had no idea what to do with it. I also did the Fiesta Rib Cloth from K1P1 Keeping You in Stitches Studio in P&C Worsted "Earth Tone" that I had in my stash, and a regular diagonal dish cloth out of P&C Worsted in Faded Denim.

What else do I have coming up, you may ask? About two months ago (see May 1), I was talking about making the Tempest from the Spring 2008 Knitty out of that Caribbean Teal and White Lavish Alpaca I have in my stash. Well, I read the pattern again and I found out that Tempest calls for a fingering weight yarn, and my Lavish Alpaca is a worsted weight yarn. Well, I don't really want to have to try and figure out dimensions and how they differ because of yarn weight, so I went on the search for the perfect fingering weight yarn for the project. And I found it! I got the yarn from Elann, and I had never ordered from them before, but I have to say I will definitely order from them again! I settled on the Peruvian Baby Silk (80% baby alpaca, 20% silk- aka yarn sent from heaven). I picked Raspberry and Parchment (they are currently out of Parchment on the website), or basically a rich dark red and a slightly off-white. Woohoo! I cannot wait to get started, but I need to finish up some other stuff first.
I also bought the yarn (when paying for shipping from Canada, you make the order worthwhile, haha) for the Mariah sweater from the Winter 2004 Knitty. I actually might be even more excited about this because I love hooded sweaters. For this one I bought the Elann Superwash Wool in Celestial Teal (I must have a thing for teal- refer back a paragraph to "caribbean teal" in the Lavish alpaca). It is even more beautiful than it shows up on the monitor!
I can't decide what to do first. :)

Remember how I posted about doing some beta testing for Lion Brand yarn? Well, as a thank-you for testing their site, they sent me yarn! More yarn! This time it was two skeins of the new Lion Brand Sockease, I got one skein of Toffee and 1 skein of Sour Ball. I now have enough sock yarn for five pairs of socks and I have no idea how to knit socks. I better get cracking on that, because I really want to have another type of "portable" project to tote around besides dishcloths.

Stitch N Pitch with the Milwaukee Brewers is coming up!! July 9th! I'm totally psyched.
That is all for now. Pictures of my washcloths for the veterans, plus my new, totally rockin' Knitters for Obama tote bag.

Ugh.

So, that project I was talking about? The Big Project? Not gonna happen. No time, no motivation. Crap. My work is not in vain though- I'm going to keep it on the needles and make it for the day that Andy & I buy a king-size bed. This could be like, 5 years from now, but that's about how long it'll take me to make the damn thing. Ugh.
In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out the Pinwheel Baby Blanket which will be relatively simple once I figure out how to do the stupid first four rows! OMG, seriously. What a pain in the ass. One of the girls in the Knit Knack Ravelry made a pinwheel out of the Rainbow Boucle in the red (not shown on the website which is a huge pain) and it was gorgeous! I want to make one!! I have the rainbow boucle in blue, and in berry. It's just sitting there, collecting dust in my stash and I want to use it. Then I can justify buying it in red when I ever see the red again. Feh. But I don't get double pointed needles anyway, and I really don't get the beginning of the Pinwheel pattern anyway. I will succeed- eventually, but tonight I spent most of the night cleaning. So much for productivity.
With any luck I can get some knitting done this week or at least over the weekend- when I'm not apartment hunting, that is. Crap, I hate moving!!!

Blargh...

So, The Big Project was halted temporarily. Only due to my incessant stupidity and inability to count stitches or pay attention to them. I had to rip all of it out after I dropped a stitch and then realized that I had completely miscounted everything. So yeah, I'm totally an idiot. :) I re-cast on the project Friday and thanks to the 3.5+ hour UW-Milwaukee graduation on Sunday, I'm more than caught up with what I lost. I am liking it so far but I am getting more and more nervous that I will not finish in time.
I also was in Milwaukee this past week (in case you didn't figure that out by the mention of the UW-Milwaukee graduation, which, surprisingly enough, took place in Milwaukee). I stopped at Loop Yarn Shop on the east side on Saturday and while I found many many tempting yarns/patterns/books, I refrained from buying anything because I rule...err....because I have yarn on the way from Peaches & Creme that I ordered last week. I bought some stuff I really wanted: the Lattice Texture Tablescape Kit in Combination #2 (with light blue as the main color), Baby Texture Plaid Ensemble Kit in the neutral shower kit color combination (once again, not pregnant myself!! but another one of my friends just said she's preggers), the Passion Special because I just love that color combination, as well as a couple single skeins: delft blue, rainbow, and mar-di-gras. As usual, I have too much yarn on the way. :)
Errr, anyway, back to Loop Yarn Shop....awesome shop. I almost bought some yarn and a pattern for a cropped cardigan that I really want to make. Here's the pattern: Cropped Cardigan by Amy O'Neill Houck by Blue Sky Alpaca yarn. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my bank account), Loop was out of the pattern so I opted not to buy it. However, according to the Blue Sky website, both Iris Fine Yarns in Appleton and Yarns by Design in Neenah carry Blue Sky Alpaca yarn and patterns....and yours truly just happens to have a gift certificate to Iris Fine Yarns that may need to be used up relatively soon (I'm gonna keep mum on that one). :)
Tomorrow I have to go to Howards Grove for a rental meeting, so I am hoping that I will get some much-needed knitting done on the way!

The BIG Project hath begun...

The big wedding present has been started.
I would just like to take this time to state that I really dislike working with Red Heart Super Saver. The colors I have picked are beautiful: Windsor Blue (380), Buff (334), and Painted Desert (303). Really though, my finger is already raw from using RH SS. Arguhhhhh. I have been way too spoiled with my Caron yarns- both Simply Soft and One Pounders. I'm not a yarn snob- NO WAY, I'm too cheap to be a yarn snob- but I am not a huge Super Saver fan anymore.
Oh well.
Anyway, on to the specs of the "big project"....
Cast on 524 (Holy Mother of God, did I really cast on 524 stitches) to a US 10.5 60" circular needle....yes'm.
I'm doing a feather and fan pattern on this one, similar to the Feather & Fan dishcloth pattern that I posted pics of in previous blogs. So the pattern is really easy and mindless, so I can knit it while watching my 3 favorite regular shows: Countdown with Keith Olberman, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. In addition to that, I'm going to start re-watching the series M*A*S*H. I finished 5 episodes from Season 1 Disc 1 while casting on/knitting the first few rows of The Big Wedding Present.
This could be a long month or so....:)
I'll post pics of the minute progress soon!

Knitters for Obama!

This knitter tries not to mix politics and knitting outside of on Ravelry - heehee, but Ravelry led me to the Knitters for Obama group. One of the group's ideas is to knit/crochet hats for preemie babies and donate them to local hospitals/shelters. The hats are donated the week of the particular primary- for example, last week I mailed off hats to Indiana so that they could be donated to hospitals in Indiana for this upcoming primary on May 6. These are four of the hats I've completed so far- the two light blue/red/white hats and the red/white/dark blue hat 2nd from the left have been mailed to Indiana. The last hat (first one on the left) is being mailed to West Virginia along with two other hats I haven't photographed yet for next week's primary.
I have been knitting up a storm with these preemie hats- they are super quick to knit and the only pain is seaming them. Must learn magic loop, 'cause DPNs suck.

Lion Brand Website Beta

Well, I have been lucky enough to be considered as a beta tester for the new Lion Brand website. Wahoo!! I use the Lion site to get ideas though I haven't used a ton of their patterns yet. One of my main beefs with the website is the login, it's a real pain if you forget your password because it never seems to get sent to you even if you request it. A lot of times I have to go to bugmenot.com just to get a phony password and login, which isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world, but enough of a pain when I have my own login.
I will keep you all posted on my Lion Brand beta testing!
In the meantime, Knitty posted a spring surprise cardigan that I think will be THE answer to my "What do I do with all the Lavish Alpaca yarn I bought?" A few months ago, I bought 10 skeins of Lavish Alpaca worsted weight in white and Caribbean teal....it's GORGEOUS. So far, it has been sitting in my yarn bin (one of many) while I decide what to do with it. Here's hoping that Knitty has come up with the answer!!!

Dishcloth Mania!

This is what began the dish cloth craze!!
I used the Navy Eagle Dish Cloth pattern because my brother-in-law is in the Navy.
I used Peaches & Creme worsted weight yarn in light blue and size 6 needles. I had a devil of a time working with worsted weight yarn and needles that small, and the pattern called for size 5 needles. If I ever make that pattern again, I will try to see if I can find a sport weight yarn or something.

Standard diagonal dish cloth pattern. I used Peaches & Creme Pink Lilacs yarn and size 8 needles. Boring but fast!
This and next few things in Pink Lilacs are all for Grandma as a belated Easter present.

I used a basic box stitch (knit 3 purl 3) pattern for this. I used Peaches & Creme yarn in Pink Lilacs. The freaking awesome zig zag was not intentional, but how cool is that??
I used size 8 needles, CO on 36 stitches and did a B3 on each side of the pattern. Easy pattern, but kind of boring.

I've become obsessed with the Feather & Fan Dishcloth pattern by Linda Smith. It is so simple, but so cute and looks really complex.
For this dishcloth (I made 2 of them), I used Peaches & Creme Pink Lilacs worsted weight yarn. Peaches & Creme is my favorite cotton yarn, though I do like Sugan N Cream, just not nearly as much as P&C.
Each dishcloth took about 3/4 of a 2 oz skein of yarn.
Really quick easy knit, great pattern!

Here's a dish towel that I was in the progress of working on (it has since been finished). I modified the Feather & Fan dishcloth pattern to be a dish towel. It turned out okay. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. I would probably modify it again if I ever make it again.
For this towel, I used Peaches & Creme worsted weight in the Pink Lilacs ombre. It took about 1.5 two ounce skeins.

Another feather & fan dishcloth. I freaking love this pattern. This particular cloth was made out of Peaches & Creme worsted weight in colorway Flair. The picture doesn't quite do it justice, it's much prettier in person. Either way, a quick knit, only took a couple hours.

FOs, yarn, and the promise of Christmas

So, with Christmas looming in the very distant future, and two Christmas '07 presents lingering unfinished on needles that I really need to be using for something else, I have decided to get a head start on Christmas. Yeah, I know, highly unbelievable. Though, I'll let you in on a secret- I did start my Christmas crafting at about this time last year too. But, the one thing I started got frogged at the end of April because I didn't get a good gauge with the stupid G (4.0 mm Boye hook), so I switched to a 4.5 mm Susan Bates hook, not to mention I put the project in a "place I knew I'd find it" (the top pocket of one of my suitcases) and promptly forgot that it was there, then looked all over for the stupid project, finally just re-started it with another hook (5.0 mm Susan Bates H hook) but not until August. Whoops....
Anyway, so what do I have on the needles currently??
1. Feather and Fan Dishcloth and a Feather and Fan dish towel that I created on my own by modifying the dishcloth pattern. I am making that out of Peaches N Creme cotton, Article 930 Worsted Weight Yarn in the Pink Lilacs colorway. This dishcloth/dish towel set is going to be a belated Easter gift for my grandma.
2. A Diagonal Throw that is a way belated Christmas present for my sister. I am using the recommended yarn, the Lion Brand Homespun, which, while it is not anywhere near my favorite yarn to work with, I LOVE the finished product. The blanket is soooooooo soft and warm. I am using the Colonial colorway, which is a dark blue. So far I've used about 4 skeins, I think I'll probably end up using about 1.5 more skeins. I have no idea what I'll do with the leftover Homespun- any ideas??
3. A boring garter stitch scarf that I am making for me! I am using the Bernat Bamboo Yarn in the Water color. It is beautiful yarn, soft and warm, but the scarf is just getting tedious and boring. It is basically just 20 stitches, all knit stitches and I am using the size 10 needles from my Denise set.
What's on my upcoming agenda?
1. Feather and Fan bedspread/afghan as a gift for one of the upcoming summer weddings! I am using Red Heart Super Saver...DEFINITELY not my favorite yarn by any means, but I love the colors and since the bedspread is going to be rather large, I need to fit it into my budget. I also had some of the colors I picked out in my stash already. I am using the Buff, Windsor Blue and Painted Desert colors. Those colors look lovely together, and I am excited to get started, but I am using size 10.5 needles and my large 10.5 circulars are being used right now. I am madly trying to finish up the Diagonal Throw because I am using my 10.5 47" Addi Turbos on that project right now and would like to have that needle free!
2. More dishcloths!
3. I am waiting on some more Peaches N Creme yarn to get started on a baby-related project (note: NOT FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).
4. Along with the baby-related project (note: STILL NOT FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I ordered a few more single skeins of P&C Worsted Yarn. I am getting at least a head start on my Christmas knitting and so I ordered 1 skein each of the Mistletoe Ombre, Victorian Christmas Ombre, Christmas Ombre, Red and Christmas Green. I am going to do some "test" dishcloths out of those colors and see which color scheme of theirs I like the best when it comes to Christmas colors. I like the Sugar N Cream yarn but I like the variety of colors that Peaches N Creme provides (WAY more than any chain store every carries!). I am excited to see their different color varieties of Christmas colors.

Finally, there will be pictures of FOs coming soon. I already have completely 1 of the feather & fan dishcloths and the feather & fan dish towel- it only needs a button, I also finished a bag out of cotton yarn, and I previously blogged about the Navy Eagle dishcloth, I have a picture of that too...hopefully I will get those soon (I took the pictures on an actual camera with actual film, the leftovers of a disposable camera I bought for my Cedar Point trip back in September!)!

Still sort-of slumping...

Since my last post, I actually finished one of the aforementioned projects! Hooray for me! I finished the hat for my hat swap buddy (the night before I mailed it out, hooray for me!).
Note: I am not modeling the hat, but I think it turned out pretty cute! Not bad for a first attempt at a hat!

I got the pattern out of the first Stitch N Bitch, but I made a fair amount of modifications. Instead of using the recommended Brown Sheep yarn, I substituted Tahki Cotton Classic in green and white, and I double-stranded the yarn. I also used size 11 needles instead of the recommended size because I couldn't get a proper gauge with the recommended needles (10.5, I think), and I cast on 76 stitches. I'm also fairly certain I didn't use the correct number of rows, I just measured as I went along using my basic math skills (math? shudders!). But, it turned out pretty nicely, and I already have another request to make the hat! :)

In the true exchange form, I also came up with some other goodies to send along. I picked out two skeins of KnitPicks' Wool of the Andes Bulky Hand Dye Yarn in the Ireland colorway, two skeins of KnitPick's Felici sock yarn in Arugula, and what kind of a person would I be if I didn't send along some of the areas finest chocolate? Unfortunately, a major time crunch didn't allow me to get to Seroogy's, but I did have time to go to Wilmar's for a chocolate bunny and some other chocolate-y goodness!

Schizknit....what a slump!

There has been very little knitting and way too much playing on Ravelry, the most addicting website known to a yarnie.
What should I be working on?
1. My Knit Knack hat exchange hat.
2. That stupid garter stitch scarf made out of Bernat Bamboo in the Water color way. Literally, I have been working on it since Christmas. It's freaking cold in Wisconsin and I don't have a scarf that I either a- can find or b- like wearing. I'm going to finish that scarf just in time for spring.
3. My sister's Christmas present. Right, it's February.
4. The secret covert operation blanket. I am not going to elaborate now, because I don't know who is reading this. In my defense, however, I am waiting for squares still. Can't assemble a blanket without squares.
4b. Need to finish at least one stupid square of my own for the aforementioned blanket.
5. My husband's Packer-ghan. It is painfully boring. I haven't even finished increasing. Also a Christmas present. I wouldn't have even mentioned it to him if he hadn't caught me working on it one night (er, early morning) before Christmas when I fell asleep knitting it. I was thinking maybe it would be a Christmas 08 present...

What do I want to be working on?
Well, I am going to make a really cute dish towel/dish cloth set for my grandma for Easter using this pattern. I am using the Peaches N Creme worsted weight yarn in the Pink Lilacs colorway. I have way too much fun with cotton yarn, I think it might be becoming a problem. :)