Another Year...

Well, another year has come and gone. I can't quite figure out where it went to. I've been at this blogging thing now for two full years, and I'm another year older.

Last year I promised myself I would make an effort to do more knitting for me. I did make some things for myself, more than I ever have before... but I learned something about myself along the way. Yes, I enjoy having things I made for myself. I take great pride in looking at these things I use every day that I've made. I have discovered, however, that I like making things for other people. I derive much more pleasure from seeing other people wearing and enjoying the things I've made for them. I smile every time I see the kids in the sweaters I knit them. I love the fact that they will wear them, when they won't wear any other sweaters. I love the looks on people's faces when I give them something I've made. I like making other people happy. It makes me happy.

Having said that... wanna see what I'm working on now? Of course you do, why else would you be reading my knitting blog? It's something for me. Yup. This pattern just screamed my name, and I've been looking for the yarn for months. When I found some eco-cashmere at a boxing week sale, I knew exactly what it had to become.

Check it out! Aren't these going to be georgous when they're done!?! My very first stranded mitts, and I love them!


100% organic, undyed cashmere. Yup, yarn from a brown goat, and a white goat, cool, eh? I can't wait to wear them. Here's hopeing I get the second one made before Monday, I hear it's going to get very cold again.

The Finding of Dimasore

About a year and a half ago, I knit a dinosaur for the Little Man. He loved it. He carried that thing everywhere. At the time, he was just over 2, and couldn't quite pronounce dinosaur, and thus named it Dimasore. It's been almost a year since Dimasore disappeared. We turned the house upside down looking for that thing. The Little Man went deep into mourning for his lost toy. He was known to bring up my Ravelry page so that he could stare at pictures of his lost Dimasore.
Finally, having given up on ever finding Dimasore again, I decided to knit him a new one. Now, nothing could ever replace Dimasore, I knew this. I made the choice to use different colours this time, thus honouring Dimasore, without actively trying to replace him.... and so, Red Dragon came into being.


Red Dragon was met with a less than warm welcome. The Little Man didn't even look up from the shiny new remote control car his grandparents had given him. Somehow though, late the next day, Red Dragon began to worm his way into The Little Man's heart. Suddenly, the two became inseparable. Still though, he continued to mourn the loss of Dimasore.
Then, last night, out of the blue, Mr. No Sheep looked at me and said "I think I know where it is!" I was confused.
"Where what is?" I replied.
"Dimasore." he said.
He explained to me, that he suddenly realized that Dimasore simply must be under the Little Man's bed. Now, you have to understand at this point that the bed frame has false drawers in which we store all the bedding that's not currently in use. We bought the bed almost exactly a year ago. Sure enough, when the kids and I dug through the bedding in those false drawers, there was Dimasore, buried under old pillows, shoved way at the back. I musn't have seen him back there when I stuffed in the bedding. I don't know why it never crossed my mind that he could be back there.
Little Man is thrilled to have him back. After a brief panic at bed time, during which Red Dragon could not be found, I put him to bed tonight hugging tightly to both of them.
Welcome back Dimasore, we have missed you.

Winter

Winter hit this week. Hard, fast, and out of nowhere. A week ago my mother was picking broccoli out of her garden, and we had green grass in the yard. Today, we have over a foot of snow.


I've always though of myself as a summer knitter. Being an allergic knitter, winter knitting can be difficult. I have a lot of options when it comes to summer knitting, there's cotton, bamboo, hemp, and so on. For winter, I can either shell out my eye-tooth for qiviut, cashmere, or silk, or, I can knit in squeaky, scratchy acrylic. Given those options, I'll take summer knitting any day.

Strangely though, this summer I had a hard time convincing myself to knit. One would think that having fractured both my legs, and not being able to run would have encouraged more knitting time, but no, I did next to no knitting this past summer. Fall came, and I started the new adventure of home schooling my daughter. Knitting, again, got placed on the back burner. Then something strange happened. Snow came. Suddenly I'm knitting again.

Maybe I am a winter knitter after all. Who knew?

A Celebration

I have the sweetest friends. When my knitting mama friends came over this afternoon, Lesley brought a bottle of bubbly along to toast my first published pattern. It's kind of nice to know that my friends are as excited about it as I am. We had a lovely afternoon, knitting. The sun even came out to celebrate with us after a week of rain. Thanks guys!

The AntiCraft

The new issue of The AntiCraft is up, and I've got a pattern in it. I'm really very excited about it! Thanks Zabet and crew for the amazing job on this issue, and thanks Lesley for the photography. Molly looks awsome!
I'm going to try to put together the specific directions for the linning I made for it. When I get that done, I'll post it here.

Wow, where did the time go?

I have been knitting, honest... just not as much as I would like. There have even been a few FOs, for example, this cute little sweater I made for one of the many many baby boys I know who arrived this May.


I've done a fair bit of sewing too. Several little dresses have been made, but somehow, I don't seem to have any pictures of them.

WWKIP day happened a while ago, and we had a wonderful local event organized by Lesley and Cali. It was a great time, Sweet Girl even came along and did some knitting. I picked up some lovely things at the swap.

I managed to snag some roving that I'm not allergic to! I believe that it's a blend of angora and mohair. I'm very excited about this, as it gives me the opportunity to try spinning without having to shell out a fortune for roving. Lesley has been kind enough to lend me her drop spindle, making this attempt at a new craft a free to me endeavour. Gotta like that. I tried spinning, and while my first attempt was so bad that I undid it all immediately, I did discover that I rather enjoy the process, and I will definitely try it again.

I also got some beautiful pink Egyptian Cotton at the swap. I plan on turning it into a shrug for My Sweet Girl.

We recently took a trip to Seattle to visit my oldest brother and his family. I finally got to meet my niece, who is almost a year and a half now. She's adorable, and is learning to speak in 3 languages. I really wish that I could do that for my children.

While there I found the most delightful LYS. The staff was super helpful, and the selection was amazing. I found some sock yarn that I'm very excited about, I've been desperate to try Maizy, so I got enough to make two pair of socks, one for me, and I'm going to give knitting for Mr. No Sheep one more try. I bet you'll never guess which colour is for me.


I also found some Panda Cotton, which I have recently been informed is now available locally... so if I like it, I can get more, YAY!

I also found the coolest book at Barnes and Noble. I can't wait to try to make some stuff from it. Best of all, it's all simple enough that Sweet Girl and I can work on the projects together. I'm very excited about it.

The title is quite accurate, there's some very cute stuff in there!

Also on the list of projects to do with My Sweet Girl, beading. She discovered a while ago that she really enjoys it, and has been making bracelets for almost everyone she knows. We just had to pick up some special Seattle beads, so we found the cutest little bead shop in Pike's Market, and picked up these.

Last, but certainly not least... I tagged along on Lesley's Knitpicks order, and got a new pattern book, some needles, and some yarn.

Wow, if I'm going to get through all that new stuff, I've got a lot of crafting ahead of me. What am I doing blogging when I should be knitting?

Oh, and keep an eye out for the next issue of The Anti-Craft, should be out any time now. There's going to be a very cool project in this one that I'm quite excited about...

Dilemma

I'm madly in love with my new yarn. It is the nicest yarn I have ever knit with, without a doubt. I am equally in love with the Gossamer Stars Scarf pattern. The two together... divine! So what's the problem? I don't have enough yarn. It's very very sad. Heartbreaking, in fact.

I have thought about this long and hard, and this is what I have come up with. I could:
1. Rip it out, and start over on smaller needles.
2. Rip it out, and start over with fewer repeats, width wise.
or
3. Leave it, and do two less repeats, length wise.

I'm strongly leaning toward option number 3. Not because I have any fear of ripping it out. That would mean I get to knit with this yarn again, I don't mind that at all. No, I'm considering this option because, at it's current width of 12 inches, unblocked, it could become a narrow shawl. I've figured out that dropping two repeats (I have enough yarn to do this), I'd end up with a length of approximately 40 inches, unblocked. Now, this could conceivably stretch out to a respectable shawl, but would be much too short for a scarf. How much is Artyarns Regal Silk likely to stretch upon blocking? Does anyone know what I can expect? Thoughts anyone?

Purple

I've always had a thing for purple. I don't know why, but I love the colour. Lately, I've been going for a lighter, lilac shade of purple. It feels like that's all I knit with anymore. I think this feeling is perhaps exaggerated a bit by having just completed a shirt made out of lilac coloured Rowan 4-ply cotton. It's about the same weight as sock yarn. Here it is..... oh, and just for Lesley, you can see the new hair-do in this shot.

Yup, it's something for ME. I'm definitely keeping this one! I love it. Very me. The fear I felt making my last largish project for me didn't happen at all with this one. Maybe it's the purple.

I visited Tangled Skeins the other day. I couldn't be left out of all the sale fun. Going in, I honestly didn't think I'd buy anything, but I couldn't resist going for a look, especially since I was able to find someone to watch the Little Man for me. Child free yarn shopping is wonderfully de-stressing.

This is what I came out with. Art Yarns Regal Silk. Yup, more purple. It's silk, it was %50 off. I just couldn't resist. I know it's more purple, but what can I say... sometimes I'm horribly predictable. I've got 3 skeins of it, and I think I'm going to turn it into the Gossamer Stars Scarf from the Summer 2008 Interweave Knits. It's a little less than what's called for, but I'm going to drop down a needle size, hopefully that will be enough to make the yarn stretch, so to speak.