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. :)

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!