New Travel Project

I like to have a small lace project when I travel. It may sound strange but I love not having a bulky yarn to carry with my when I'm packing for a trip. I had just one version left to try from the Elizabeth I pattern and since I was pretty familiar with the designs and chart I decided to give it a try. This is my progress from my last trip to Chicago:


The Dainty Bess variation is very straight forward and easy to follow. I think this will end up much wider than the other two so I may have to knit more pattern repeats overall to get a length I like. No worries though since this is a no rush project I'll probably end up taking a year to complete it. The Yarn Harlot has her traveling socks while I have my traveling lace . . .

The yarn is Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Stream Heather. I do love working with this yarn. I just saw the latest advertisement for their Lace Samplers and I want to buy every one! It's taking a tremendous amount of restraint to not order. I've never had such an urge to purchase yarn before without having a specific project in mind. It's horrible! I keep trying to justify it by finding projects but I already have plenty of lace weight yarn in my stash. How many lace scarves can one person knit anyway? I like the suggestion to knit with two strands for fingering weight socks but I don't want to do that until I've learned how to knit with two circular needles. This temptation is just unbearable!

Finished Object - Will's V-Neck Hoodie

This project amazed me. If you had told me that I could knit a v-neck hoodie for my son a year ago I would have just laughed. It just further supports the fact that I love Knitting Pure & Simple patterns and I feel that I can make anything if a pattern is written out nicely. Here's a shot of my son trying really hard to stand still and model for me:


I made the 2-4 size since he's in 3T clothes. I like the length of the body but the sleeves are a little long. We'll just roll them up until he grows into it. At this rate it won't be long!


On the way to daycare/school and I got a decent picture of the hood. My kid happens to descend from a long like of big headed men on his Daddy's side so the hood will only be used on really windy days since it's a touch tight. Still wearable but not as loose as his sweatshirts with hoods.

I did make a couple notes for the next time I make something for him. According to Ravelry, this took me 22 days to knit up and the pullover was only 20 days. I can use that to measure him more accurately now that I know how long a project like this takes to knit. Here's the FO picture:


I hope that he'll be able to wear this as a light coat all summer and possibly this fall!

Pattern: Children's Tunic #232
Yarn: Dark Horse Fantasy yarn in cobalt
Needles: US sizes 6 & 8 in circular & DPNs
Notions: stitch markers, scrap yarn
Time frame: 4/12/08 to 5/3/08 (I did have 4 days of travel where I couldn't work on this - probably could get this done in 2 weeks in the future)

Happy Birthday!

Will turned 2 today. It's crazy to even think about it. In my mind I'm still pregnant (oh wait that's just the left over baby weight) or he's still about 3 months old. He has his own mind, his own personality and he's grown into a great little boy.

We had cake and then took him to ride a carousel for the first time. He loved it!



Today is his actual birthday but he still had to go to school. I picked up some mini cupcakes for him to share with his friends to make the day special. I also let him wear his v-neck hoodie that I just barely finished on Saturday. Here he is on the way to school wearing it:


I'll post more pictures on the sweater tomorrow but today is just for the big guy. Tonight we plan to open more presents and cards from family and friends that came in the mail today and just have fun together as a family. The weather is nice enough so far that we might be able to play outside!

You Can Never Have Too Many Knitting Bags!

I had the misfortune of working all day when my husband and my parents got to take an entire day to go shopping at the outlet mall near us. They were outside in the sunshine while I toiled away in my home office. I was so touched when my husband brought me some gourmet chocolate (oh yeah - he loves me) and my parents brought me this:


It may look like just a purse but I was told it was a knitting bag. They searched each store for something special for me. It had to zip on the top and have room for patterns and yarn. Plus room for a wallet and a cell phone. I think they did very well - especially since it only cost $19!


The coolest thing about this bag is that everything you see on the inside can be removed. That way I could use it as a purse with just one project or I could put one big project with all of the yarn in it. Very thoughtful!

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Today I went back to AC Moore to pick up the rest of the yarn needed to make a knitted rug for my in-laws. They didn't have enough so I had to head over to Michael's. As I was leaving a quilted bag caught my eye. I've seen so many of these before but never one that was perfect for what I wanted. This was the perfect color, perfect design and only cost $6.99!


Great deal for a great bag. It has already been designated as my knitting bag for the knit rug using the Sugar'n Cream yarn that was on sale 99 cents each at AC Moore.


I can't wait to get started on this. I found a full skein of the yarn as well at Michael's and used my 40% off coupon for it. I'd like to throw in a couple hand towels to match. It works so nicely! I may have to just make this my summer purse and take my knitting everywhere!

No Packages

I was ready to take pictures of the 2 charity packages I was expecting to get in the mail today but neither showed up. Blech! That means I should have the entire weekend to work on the v-neck hoodie for Will. Not bad.

I cleaned up my yarn again and re-thought my next couple projects. By doing that I had to update The List. I get overwhelmed if I'm not organized and The List helps me stay in a good place mentally whenever I start thinking about all of the yarn I own. Here's The List in it's current state:


The left column above the dotted line is everything that I have yarn for. This doesn't include my left overs or random balls of yarn that I get from swaps. This is stuff that I purchased for a specific reason. I'm noticing a trend for scarves . . . I have a feeling that this time next year I'll have a similar list for sweaters.

Below the dotted line on the left hand side is stuff that I have been either asked to knit or want to knit for someone else AND the yarn isn't purchased yet. This helps me when I hear of a sale or have a really good coupon to use. I may see if I already have yarn that will work for the two scarves requested.

The right hand column are the charity projects that will be coming my way in the next month or so. So far I've got six listed with 2 that should have arrived today. These take 1-2 nights each to work on so it's a great break from a main project.

As I organized the cats slept in my office cuddled together. . .



And Samson snored, I wish I could get that on film sometime . . .

I tried to get a close up of Gracie's face but she perked up as I got closer . . .



Can I be a cat now? I think it's time for my nap too!

V-Neck Hoodie Progress

Have I mentioned lately that I just love patterns from Knitting Pure and Simple?

The last pullover I did was a breeze. This one is still fun and simple but there are a few things added that are keeping my attention. The v-neck is so cool looking, I'm approaching the section for the side slits and I can't wait to see how the hood is made.


It's so relaxing to just knit in the round. I've got about an inch to go before I have to start thinking again.

The color is very rich but I think the first skein of yarn that I'm using might have been sitting at the LYS for a while. There are long sections of normal yarn and then I run into a patch of thin bunched up yarn that feels like it could break easily. The LYS was closing so there's nothing I can do about it now. I'm just hoping that everything will fluff up once it's washed.
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I'm next in line to get a few charity projects from my Knitting Help charity groups. I'm looking forward to getting those in the mail this week and adding my sections. It helps break up my knitting time and gives me a chance to work with different types of yarn that I'm not normally using.

08 Resolutions?

I got thinking about what my knitting resolutions were for 2008 and I think I'm off track.

1. Learn how to knit using two circular needles
2. Knit a project using color work techniques (more than one color in a row)
3. Finish the Great American Aran Afghan

Let's just be honest. I will not finish that afghan this year. If I did, it would be the only project I worked on for the rest of the year. I would be miserable. I'm going to modify that to completing half of the squares needed to finish GAAA by the end of this year. If I happen to do more, that's cool.

That feels better.
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For the knitting on two circular needles goal I'm going to need to buy another set of interchangeable needles. Do I buy another older set on eBay like the one that I have now or do I splurge and get the Knit Picks Options? If I do that, what's it going to be like working with two different types of needles?

I definitely want to knit myself some funky socks. I've gotten bit by the sock knitting bug and it's really, really bad. I'm shopping online and finding socks that will end up being around $22 a pair because the yarn is so lovely. I'm too cheap for that right now.
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A project with multiple colors is actually possible this year. It could be a small hat that I just play around with until I feel comfortable. I was reading up on the TKGA guidelines for what Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced are and I think adding color work to my techniques would make me a solid Intermediate knitter.
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For next year I think I'd like to look at taking some of the TKGA classes and possibly signing up for their Masters program. To do that though I'd have to make sure that 2007 has lots of stash busting projects because I have no room for more yarn.

Overall I think I made some good goals for this year. It helped me look at my knitting skills and assess where I'm at along with where I want to go. It's a long road but I'm definitely enjoying the ride!