Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Planet Purl Rocks!

I just got an email from Planet Purl stating that I won the Namaste Cali Clutch in their latest drawing! Holy crap! I thought it was spam at first and then I was just about in tears when I realized it was real. I never win anything - seriously - my father is the lucky one in the family.

I sent a reply with my address and my sincere thanks. I love that site and their travel guides save me a ton of time when I'm getting ready for my trips. I haven't explored the other areas of their site as much as I would like but just their yarn shop reviews are valuable to me.

This Cali Clutch is so cool! I can't wait to see which color I get and figure out which project to use it for next. I'm thinking a travel project would make sense based on the size and where I'm getting it from.

Update

I have been steadily knitting along on my projects and haven't felt a need to update my WIPs or FOs on this blog since the same information is captured on my Ravelry Projects page. No need to duplicate work. Instead I'd like to explore future projects and current knitting dilemmas.

Currently I'm working on a ginormous project. My father's vest is in XX-Large with 280 stitches so I'm able to get about 4 rows a night done in the main pattern.


I'd like to finish it up by his birthday in early June but it will take some dedication and serious monogamy. I can do both but I plan to work in a few small projects to break it up a bit.

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Awhile back I received a free bag of yarn, I organized it by weight & color, and then wound them into small yarn cakes for storage. I'd like to use these up and make more room in my yarn cabinet for nicer stash that I still have stored in a large bag. It's all charity yarn but I'd like to use up the older stuff first. My plan is to finish the skein of yarn I'm working periodically on for the soldiers rectangles and then color coordinate my old stash for a couple Project Linus blankets for my local chapter. It should make a great car/road trip project and won't take forever to do. I've got a couple stitch books with patterns I've been wanting to try so I'm hoping to find something that fits and works well with the sizes I need to make. The only problem I see with this is that I'm not very good at coordinating colors so I may have to take a pictures of the yarn available and get my sister-in-law to help with that part.

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Work has been crazy busy and my travel has increased. This means less blog posts but hopefully more money for me in the long run. I'm planning my summer/fall festival now so that the time is blocked out way in advance. I've decided against the Knitting & Crochet Show in Buffalo this August because we think we'll have a wedding to attend that same weekend. But I would LOVE to take that Russian Lace Knitting class that's all day on Friday. That would be worth the trip alone - but with traveling for work it's hard to take a full day away from my family right now.

So far my only definite festivals are the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival and the NYS Sheep & Wool festival in Rhinebeck. The first one can be a family day trip for us with about a hour each way in the car. Rhinebeck will most likely be just me going alone. I can't imagine my husband and son wanting to go to that.

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Very realistic goals for me now that it's April. I'm trying to work in 30 minutes on the treadmill every day and not purchase anymore yarn until the festivals. They're both a challenge for me but I can do it.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Finished Object - Pirate Hat

This was a crash course in Fair Isle. I had never learned this technique before but when my niece's birthday was coming up I felt the urge to knit something fun for her. After sending a few ideas to my sister-in-law the overwhelming response was the Pirate Hat from Hello Yarn. They are very much a Halloween family so it made perfect sense to me.

The problem was picking out the yarn for me. I wanted something light and soft so I didn't have to knit the cotton band but the white in the store didn't look good to me. I went with a blood red instead. Loved it.



She immediately put on the hat and didn't take it off the entire night. I think she liked it. Next time I will do a different ribbing though because without the cotton band lining it did curl more than I liked. Overall - great project.

Details
Pattern: We Call Them Pirates by Adrian Bizilia
Yarn: Bernat Satin Sport Solids, 1 ball each of black and red
Needles: US 2 & 3
Time frame: 3/15/09 to 3/28/09