I've moved!

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Sorry for the disruption

Hey, this is Karen's husband. Just wanted to leave a note that we're working on moving the site. The look has changed a bit here to facilitate some code juggling. In that process, we've lost all the awesome buttons from the site bar. So I'm manually inserting them into this post for anyone who needs them. Sorry for the disruption, but everything should be up and running (and hopefully better than ever) over the next couple of days. Thanks for your patience and without further ado, I give you the buttons:

















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Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the webring links in here. Again, apologies for the inconvenience.

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For anyone having trouble importing from blogger to wordpress, apparently the script on this page can help with that. -Al

Just a quick post

With the new job starting, I haven't had much knitting or spinning time. Instead of taking the train and getting an hour of knitting time in, I'm now driving to work, about 45 minutes in each direction. The offices will be moving sometime soon, and then I'll be able to take public transportation again, so my knitting will pick up. Right now, I have one sock done and the toe started of a pair of st st socks in Lisa Souza Sock! Merino in Mars Quake, about 8 inches of a sweater I started (all black so far, not very interesting for photos), and the shhhh tea shawl started again in the soy yarn that I originally chose for it (I've just started the second of three charts). You've all seen photos of that in different stages, so I won't bore you with more photos.

The big news today is, hubby bought me my own domain name. As soon as I figure out how to get the blog to transfer over to it, you'll all be seeing my blog on cooknknit.com. Woo! Any information or help would be welcome....just email me (link there on the side somewhere toward the bottom).

Pics next time, and thank you all for the comments on the tea shawl!

The shawl!!

I finally did it! The tea shawl is complete and blocking. It wasn't finished without a few mishaps though. I cut out one of the repeats in the second chart (horseshoes). I also skipped a few plain rounds after the last chart. I was rockin' on the edging when I realized that I wasn't going to have enough yarn.

That's 14 points from the end of the edging. I nearly cried. After all I've gone thru with the shawl. I went to the Point to see if maybe they had another hank hidden away in some hidey hole and nothing. While there a group of people suggested finding another yarn, a solid to match one of the colors in the rest of the shawl and just have that one small section different. Tamara and I were headed to the Yarn Tree, where I found a ball of Frog Tree Alpaca in the perfect weight and colorway.

Prior to blocking, measuring approx. 38" across:

The completed shawl, blocking (52" across):

A close up of the different colored section:

And a close up of the chart that gave me such hell.

A wonderful way to finish up my year. How will I be spending my New Year's eve? On the couch, with a whole lot of Knit Picks Merino Style, using a basic raglan sweater pattern from the Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater patterns. I have a hankering for a black sweater with brown/cream/black stripes sleeves.

2006 wrap up

Everyone else in blogland is doing a recap of FO's from the past year. I actually went thru my archives and listed them. I'm almost embarrassed at the amount of knitting I did.

Mittens

Northern Lights

Hermione Mittens

Broad Street Mittens

Fetching

Hats

Handspun hat (2)

Madge

Baby hats (3)

Bags/Whimsies

Roxy Bag (2)

Dinosaur

Nautie (2)

Chakalaka

PSP socks (3)

Wine cozy

Scarves/Shawls

Multidirectional scarf

Trellis

Icarus

Convertible

Entrelac scarf

Socks

Spey Valley (4)

Fuzzy Feet (2)

Jaywalkers (2)

Pomatomus

Over the Knee Socks

Baudelaire

RPM

Karen's Red Socks

Anastasia

Mystery socks

Baby/kid clothing

Baby dress (2)

Baby sweater

Aran sweater (3)

Adult size tops/sweaters

Sizzle

Go With The Flow

Rogue

Picovoli

VK Cardigan

I'm still hoping to add the #$%^#$^ tea shawl to the list of 2006 FO's. I'm a little more than halfway done with the edging.

Mom made me stitch markers out of monkey head buttons she found.....aren't they cute?

I will leave you with the other things I've been doing on my week off.....

If I don't get back to post the shawl before the end of the year, I wish you all a very happy New Year!

Happy humbug

Last week, I cleaned out my desk at work. I got a new job and I start on the 2nd. While going thru 9 1/2 years worth of crap, I found a bag containing a pillow. I must have brought it in to show someone and never brought it back home. See, before I fell into knitting, I was big into cross stitch. This is probably my favorite thing that I made from that hobby.




My current obsession is the #!$#%@ tea shawl. I just couldn't get past that last chart. Well, I perservered, and I made it past it. I'm now on the edging, see?



Proof that I am truly insane? As soon as this one is done, I'm going to cast on again for another one, using that soy yarn that I originally started with. Yes, truly insane.

And lastly, while I don't have much Xmas spirit this year, and my decorations are next to none, there is one small decoration up in my house. Valerie got this for me last year and it's currently hanging from my living room ceiling fan with, what else? Some handspun red yarn.




Happy holidays folks.

Xmas Knitting Part 2

Last week, I joined Tamara and Valerie at Tania's (no blog) house for some spinning. Great fun was had, and there was lots of wine consumed. My secret knitting project was revealed: a wine cozy for the hostess.


Finished brother socks. I tried to make them match. But they didn't turn out that way, and I'm ok with that.


Finished Broad Street mittens for a friend, minus the buttons to secure them.


Last week I decided that I NEEDED to make a coworker a pair of Fuzzy Feet. But as I needed to felt them this past weekend, I needed to get a jump on things. Luckily, they are a quick knit, and into the washer they went with mom's boyfriend's Fuzzy Feet. Here they are drying.


I decided that I would leave mom's handspun hat as is, and spin up the alpaca for mom. Here is is resting on the niddy noddy. First yardage estimate is just shy of 300 yards. After a good washing, I will remeasure the yardage.


And, with that, my holiday knitting/spinning is done. Next up? Finishing that @#$%#$^! tea shawl if it kills me. I'm currently on row 8 of the last chart, but you'll forgive me if I don't talk about it....I'm hoping that if I keep my mouth shut, the knitting will go smoothly.

Knitting and spinning and dyeing, oh my!

The knitting:

Socks that are taking FOREVER, but should be done soon.

The first of the Broad Street mittens, minus the mitten top. Hopefully I can get it done plus the second one by Xmas.

The spinning:

I'm spinning up some red/brown alpaca top, in hopes to have a fingering/sport weight with enough yardage to give to my mom with the handspun hat. This is about 2 1/2 ounces of singles.

Also spun and navajo plied (I'm liking this method more and more), some merino to make mittens for the little guy. There's one more color to add to the mix (a brick red)....the kid has a strange sense of color.

The dyeing:

I've done a bit of dyeing with Kool Aid on yarn. I wanted to venture into dyeing my own fiber. I bought a bunch of colors of Wilton's (I figured I could use the Wilton's for baking if I wasn't thrilled with dyeing) and used 2 ounces of BFL that I got when I bought Lulu. Some pink and brown Wilton's, some time in the oven at 250 and some drying time and this is what I got:

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I was hoping for a deeper brown, but for the first time dyeing, it'll do. I think it is what I'm taking with me for a mini spining get together on Thursday. I can't wait....it'll be fun.

Oh, and for Jo....a pick of the entire sweater. This is the 4T size.

Sweaters

Yay! The sweaters are done. They were actually done on Tuesday, but I'm a lazy girl and didn't get around to posting til today. Pic is a little dark, but I think it's a nice shot. Props to hubby for taking the pic to represent the true color.



Last night, Tamara and I went to the Point for the re-release launch party for Knit 1. There were door prizes. Look what she won:

Guess who won the second copy of the book? Me. I didn't win things before I became a knitblogger.


We hit a the Caliente Cab Co. afterwards for some dinner and some drinks. Yum. No, the similar sweaters were not planned.



Trekking socks for the brother are moving slowly...I'm not quite done with the first one yet. But then again, I picked up another project...it's secret though. I will share that it's being made out of stash yarn! :)

She's got the big guns

Oh, how I love Skid Row. Unlike my coworker who the day after Thanksgiving turned her radio to 24/7 Xmas music on it's highest volume and is trying to make me jump out the window.

Anyways, a finished handspun superfine alpaca hat for mom. It's plain, and I'd like to jazz it up a little bit. Any suggestions? I'd like to use regular stash yarn or handspun stash if possible. If I can't jazz it up, I'm hoping to finish spinning up a good amount of some lovely brown alpaca I have to give to her. Heck, I may do that even if I jazz up the hat.



Also done are Fuzzy Feet. Not felted (obviously). Mom's boyfriend has size 8 1/2 feet, and they look fairly large....I hope that they fit properly once felted. Yarn is Wool of the Andes (2 and a smidge of a third ball), leftovers from my Rogue. Gotta love stash busting.



Progress on the brother's sock...Trekking from stash.



Also started....Broad Street Mittens for a friend...Knit Picks Sock Memories from...where else? Stash!



Any guesses on when the next "finished Xmas object post" will go up? :)

Xmas knitting - part one

The knitting portion of the aran sweaters all done. Seaming remains.

A closer look at the sweater bodies...


And one more item knocked off my Christmas knitting list: socks for the sister. Woo!

For some reason, the entire sock matches stripes, except at the toes. Hmmm...


Next up, a handspun superfine alpaca hat for mom, and the same socks as above, but in a different colorway for the brother. Fuzzy Feet may make an appearance for mom's boyfriend, depending on if I can find something suitable in stash. Poor Lulu is being neglected as I work on all the Xmas projects. Can you hear her crying?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Merino/tencel. It started life like this, became these singles, and now it is a 2 ply yarn:




Approximately 410 yards, 19 WPI and balanced!

Yesterday I met up with Rosi G. I won her blog contest and she gave me my prize, a hank of Lisa Souza Sock! Merino, in Mars Quake. Isn't it yummy? Thanks Rosi!


What do I plan to do this Thanksgiving? I hope to finish a pair of socks for my sister for Christmas. I'm taking a break from the aran sweaters....seaming on two need to be done and the knitting of the last one. I deserve a break, and socks are a good way to go. Here's the start of Spey Valley socks in Trekking for my sis.


Happy Thanksgiving folks! Eat lots of turkey and do lots of knitting.

Spinning

I'm making progress on the aran sweaters. The largest one (size 6) is done, minus seaming the sleeves and sides. The back and front are done of the middle sized one, and the sleeves have been cast on. Since it's the same exact photo as before, and I have nothing else to show, I thought I'd show you a video of "how I spin". Tamara has seen it and asked what technique it was, and I have no clue. It works for me, that's all I can say. In it, I'm spinning up the Sno Cone roving.

Video is here.

Hello and how are you?

Front to the first aran sweater finished. Sleeves, both at once started.


I'm on the last increase row on the tea shawl. 6 more plain rows and I start the last evil pattern chart. Lacevember is for 2 months, yes? I may need both months to get thru that chart.

Valerie presented me with 4 oz of hand dyed (by her!) superwash merino this morning. Yum. I can't wait to spin it up.


Speaking of spinning, there is a merino/tencel blend on Lulu at the moment. I'm quite proud that the singles are 36 wpi. It's the Autumn colorway from The Sheepshed.


Also done is the Sno Cone roving, all plied up (navajo ply). I have approximately 140 yards of it. Now, what to do with it?


Bonus points to whomever can tell me what tv show song the title of this post comes from.....