Win a year of patterns from The McCall Pattern Company

Please give this loom a home!

I need a home!

Nilus Leclerc Loom

Tour de Fleece 2012

I am greatly enjoying spinning for Tour de Fleece 2012.  I have been working rather diligently on my Xchelbunny Camel bunny silk.  I had bought 3 braids back during the last Tour (don't we tend to buy more fiber during the Tour than at any other time?) and I didn't feel "experienced" enough to spin something so exotic to me at that time.  It was a silly notion because having spun it now I can say that this stuff is really well suited to the beginner because it is so easy to spin.
Here is a recent progress shot, my last braid getting added to the second bobbin.  The first one is filled up with approximately 75 grams of gorgeousness.

Can't Help Starting

I thought if I stayed off Ravelry's pattern pages I could keep myself from starting new projects and whittle away at some of the old ones. So how did this happen? 
BTW, the pic is of the awesome Kate Davis version, but my is queued and started!

I thought if I couldn't buy the yarn locally, I wouldn't buy new yarn.  So how did this happen ?

OK, I give up.  New sweater, cast on with yarn I mail ordered from Ireland.  Sure Donna, that's you all over.

But I am really enjoying it.

Also, spinning is going strong, which has been helped by watching podcasts like Diane's and Steven and Callie's.  I am spinning away on my Franklin Fiber in the Polworth Silk:

 

And and  I got my spindles out (literally had to dust them off) to work on some Spunky Fiber.

And on another note, I'm so glad Phillip won American Idol.

I think someone needs to make a "Hey Girl" with him soon...

 

More Words That Make You Think Of Words

c/o http://subliminal.lunanina.com

1. Message ::  


2. Underground :: 


3. Hurting ::  


4. Glasses ::  


5. Wholesome ::  


6. Garden ::  


7. Plants ::  


8. Windows ::  


9. Beard :: 


10. Encryption ::  

Win an Awesome Flat Iron

Go here and enter this giveaway.  I hope I win!

Manners Much?

My mother always taught me, when you don't have something nice to say about something, don't say anything.  More people need to meet my mother.

Here's my Sharktooth. I like it.  Others, not so much...

Happy Birthday!
Today you are 15 - good luck at the Voice!
Here you are at 5, how time flies...

KONY 2012

How about some Unconscious Mutterings to stir me from my blogless existence...

1. Knees ::  joints
   
2. Law :: order
   
3. Goodbye ::  hello
   
4. Regrets ::  never
   
5. Dedicated ::  fan
   
6. Sushi ::   orange
   
7. Australia ::  continent
   
8. Renovation ::  victorian
   
9. Honk :: hello
   
10. Beg ::  mourn
    

BTW, Pinning on Pinterest... donnacutler

"Good things happen when sand gets into an oyster's eye. Every once in a while you get a pearl." Henry Rollins, SIRIUS XM interview

A spring gathering

A spring gathering
Originally uploaded by IrenaS.

Be nice everyone...

I'm Back at Blogging, for Now

I knew something would grab me and throw me back into blogging. This giveaway...

Gretel

I finally finished Gretel. It actually didn't take too many knitting hours, but I could not seem to knit on it for more than an hour at a time because the yarn, Reynolds Candide, was very dense and hard to cable with. I suppose it might be a heavy worsted weight, and the pattern would benefit more from a light to medium worsted. Wrestling the cables became finger pilates. And, as is often the case with my finished hats, the brim is not tight enough. But it is very pretty, and I learned how to do a long tail tubular cast-on for a 2x2 rib and I figure any project that teaches you something new is a good project!

Bounce Fell Flat

I love the pattern. I love the yarn. Pattern and yarn together, not so much. I didn't take any frogging pics but I will tell you that Bounce is no more. The yarn was much too lofty to find the stitches when knitting in the row below, combined with the almost black color, left my eyes seeing double. So for the first time since Finish or Frog It began, I present this:

I've Been a Bit Distracted

By the Human Tetris.

There's this. But then there's this and this. I have no words.

Finishing, and Starting

Since I finished Ishbel last week I've worn it over and over. The pattern, plus the color is so perfect for me. I also finished My Anthro-Inspired Scarflet. Here - have a look.
This is what it looked like when I first started...


And now -



It was loads of fun. I will definitely make more. But since it is right up next to your skin, I recommend some cashmere. The Brown Sheep worsted is a little itchy.

I also picked up a new yarn this week.
Meet Tanis.
It is the Green Label Aran Weight, Midnight Colourway, from Tanis Fiber Arts. It was originally slated to be another Porom, but I'm now leaning toward Through The Loops Katie Beret. I'm a big fan of the designer, Kristin Kapur. I've already completed her Dr. G.'s Memory Vest (pics soon, I promise!) and have queued Sunkist Cardi and Rickenbacker Scarf.
So, another
comes and goes. My previous Friday night looked like this, from our hotel room in Montauk.

Six families, all sharing good times together for a whole weekend. This is when Life really is Good.

Ishbel - in a Flash

So this thing just flew off the needles -
I cast on January 21, and bound off January 29. And I wasn't faithful - I never am, at least with knitting...
Take that, Finish or Frog It!
Now if only February Lady Sweater, Muir, and Juno Regina could go so fast.
So I'm putting on the scarf, and heading out to Montauk for a weekend with friends. I've packed a few bottles of wine, some stinky cheese, and lots of other snick-snacks.

Warning: Gratuitous blocking shots...

Another quick pic to entertain. My friend from church destashed some old knitting needles and while I passed on all of them, there was one set I snatched up immediately.



Check the price, and the commitment that they tell you that you'll have happy knitting! The color is my favorite. They went to a place of honor with my miniature childrens' sewing machines and old wooden thread spools. I am the keeper of the old.











By the way, it's been snowing pretty often here lately. So far the kids haven't had school closed, but Lola is having a hard time finding a place to squat in the yard, if you get my drift. This is how she comes into the house lately:

Finally Granny is here

I always wanted to make a granny square. I decided back in 2007 that it would be a goal. I was intimidated by crochet, never having done really well at it before, blaming it on being a lefty taught by righties. Now that I was knitting intricate lace I decided I could no longer find lame excuses as to why I hadn't yet conquered this form of needle arts which had been growing by leaps and bounds all around me. I was so inspired by CaftyObsessions version of a Cath Kidston Granny Square quilt that I saw on their web page which cost oodles of dollars. This was the push I needed to finally teach myself to make grannies. I ran to my LYS and picked an array of brightly colored Cascade 220 skeins. I went for the superwash to make it a bit more easy to wash. With various patterns in hand and YouTube streaming, I sat down to create the first of which would be 60 of these happy, bright granny squares which I decided would look great in my youngest daughters room. I started this back in the summer of 2007. It came off the hook about a year later in July of 2008. I sewed all the blocks together with a mattress stitch and buried all the ends. Then I washed it in cold water and THE RED RAN MAD CRAZY!. I removed the Soak solution and added vinegar. Too late, all the whites were pink, the light greens were muted, the yellow, were, well, not too yellow anymore. Gone was my happy colored quilt. But I perservered. Really, what else could I do at this point but move forward? So gently, very gently, I lifted this 60 square wool behemoth out of the basin and POP! grannies were popping all over the place. Some from the centers, some from the mattress stitch borders, some from more than one place. I laid this mutant piece of wool waste down and gently tried to square it to a sheet that I had placed in a secure drying spot. It was no use. I looked like strings of colorful cheese melted over my sheet. So calmly, I got my scissors out and began to free the squares from their mattress stitches. I had to cut into the outside borders to do this, since their was no way to tell what was a mattress stitch and what was a double crochet. I made a pile - Good, Bad, Ugly. The Good just needed new red borders, the bad needed advice on how to fix them. (Thank you crocheters on Ravelry) and the ugly, well, let's just say they went away - far away. When all was said and done, 35 grannies remained. I soaked them again to try and get more of the red out, and was starting to like the muted look the read had given everything, even if I did miss the white hot white. The blocks got a "time out" for a few months until I could bring myself to give them all new borders and reattach them I finally did, and here is my finished product:

No, I'm not going to get a beauty shot, with terrific outdoor lighting, laid out all flat and perfect. It is done. It is being used and gently loved. I am requested to place it over her every night after the good tuck I give the comforter underneath. I can tag this


What went wrong? I think it was a combination of errors. First, I used a hook that was too large for the gauge of yarn. Cascade is a light worsted, almost dk weight. I used a J hook, and later a G when I realized my error, but it made the squares too drapey, which when wet had no body to hold itself together. Then I blame my lack of experience in burying ends in crochet. I thought if I just crocheted over the tails it would be enough, but I think now that I needed to bury them more deligently. Then, I blame the yarn choice. While Cascade 220 superwash is a dream to work with, In my opinion it might be best served on smaller items, like sweaters and such. Certainly not 60 12" square grannies. But anyway, it's all good now and it is really all about the learning.

Kiri In Silk

I thought I'd show you what came off the needles last November. Here is Kiri, done in Claudia's Handpaints 100% silk.

It took less than a skein and size 3 Addi turbo Lace circs.
The pattern was so easy to memorize that I could do it anywhere, even in the car, which is a nice thing because usually my lace projects have to be done at home. The silk was enjoyable, but I had to get used to it because I knit mostly with wool.

I highly recommend the pattern to any of you who feel less than adequate at lace knitting, or for anyone who needs a break from the chart intensive or more complex lace patterns out there.