Merry Late Christmas

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are continuing to enjoy the weekend. David and I have safely made it north central Illinois as we sit and freeze in my parents' 65 degree house (yeah they keep it that cold on purpose).

So we made it through Kansas and Missouri on Christmas Eve. We spent the last couple days with my in-laws in south central Illinois - enjoying wonderful food and lovely company. Today we also stopped in at my grandma's on our way up to my folks through the snow.

I had a pretty photo of ornaments to share with you today, but yeah, forgot to upload it before leaving home - sorry.

The rest of the plan this weekend is pretty simple - tomorrow Roeschley family Christmas, then Monday chill with my folks till we catch the train home in the afternoon.

Be safe and enjoy your weekend!

Christmas Party!

Last night my local knitting groups had a most wonderful Christmas party! We had a lot of fun and a TON of yummy food. I took a new dip that I am now adding to my recipe box, Chipotle Spinach Artichoke Dip. I think my only changes were to double the artichokes (because I love them) and use canned artichokes (because I couldn't find frozen).

We did a gift exchange, yarn/knitting based of course. I am excited that I came home with this Zauberball (photoed on the left)!

I also have one in the Burnt Almonds colorway so I am considering making Daybreak by Stephen West. I haven't decided which Zauberball I might use, but I do have some chocolate brown Malabrigo Sock yarn that would go wonderful with either of them. Or I could do what alobsiger on Ravelry did and use both Zauberballs I have.

So what is you vote? Or do you have an even better pattern for the yarn?

Just keep knitting, just keep knitting... what do we do we knit

Just trying to keep up with Christmas commitments, ah! 1.5 legwarms to go plus 75% of a color-work mitten and possibly a reading pillow. But I really want to make caramels this weekend so we'll see what happens.

Above is a reading pillow that my friend is giving in a Christmas exchange (we exchanged: my sewing for her yarn). And to the left are a pair of custom mitts I made for my Etsy.

Hope all your creative gifts are coming together!

Boot Liners

I generally don't talk much about shopping but these I had to share.....

Target has some very cool galoshes for women and I was lucky enough to find a returned pair at the Target in Fort Wayne, Indiana two years ago for $8!! Needless to say I snatched them right up.

When we lived in the valley, being the desert that it is, I didn't wear them very often but I did where them when I could. Now that we are farther north and into a little more precipitation I have been wearing them much more.

I don't own winter boots. I own my galoshes and hiking boots. And although there are some super cute winter boots out there, I am cheap. My hiking boots work for snow shoeing, which is my only extended time in the snow (other than skiing which has its own boots). Because of that I just wear my galoshes to and from the bus etc. because they keep the snow out though they aren't that warm. Until now!

Browsing Target I came across these (photo above) boot liners for galoshes! How perfect. You are probably saying, "But Emmy, you are a knitter and you know people who are really good at felting, why not just make some?" Point taken, and I had considered it last fall, but I was always afraid they would be too thick and make my boots not fit - plus I didn't find the project to be very motivating when I could be making sweaters.

So for now I have picked up an ivory pair of these fleece boot liners for $10 and am perfectly happy.... maybe in a few years I'll tackle making some awesome knitted ones, but for now my toes are warm on the way to the gym.

Slippers, with much love

We are just gonna pretend that I have been away for awhile making all kinds of secret Christmas things. :)

I have a new knit that I am in love with, these slippers. I wear them ALL the time. They are so warm and so gosh-darn-cute! The pattern is called French Press Felted Slippers and it has been all over Ravelry! They are called "French Press" because that is the name of Melynda Bernardi's Etsy shop.

They slippers are super quick to knit up on size 15 needles and even the felting went pretty quick, but the seaming slowed me down a little. I know, I know, it is hardly ANY seaming, but even so. And I should clarify, that even though I say "slowed me down" they were still done in two days, so yeah, not that daunting.

So if you are looking to treat yourself or for some awesome Christmas gifts - this is your pattern!

Something to Try Out this Weekend

Bread without a timetable. I would say it was good. It was on the dense and heavy side, but that is usually fine for toast (my main habit). But it did mold quicker than most of my breads, could have been the bag it was in though. Anyhow, check it out.

Approved!

David's second chance hat has been approved!

Some of you may remember this hat which I knit for him in February. Well, that hat wasn't "warm enough","tight enough", or "thick enough". So that hat become this hat, which I love.

So that left David without a hat and left me with a challenge. I debated about what fiber to use.

Since he wanted it to be warmer I considered using either angora or alpaca, but I decided alpaca had more drape than I wanted and angora was just WAY too warm. Despite his claims for more warmth I also know that he is rarely super cold. So I chose to go with good old fashion wool. Targhee to be specific.

For the tightness I went with a smaller needle size - US 3, 3.25mm - and of course, casted on few stitches then I generally would have - total 110 stitches. I was using my own hand-spun/hand-dyed that was a worsted weight yarn (9 wraps per inch).

To make the hat thicker I decided to do a double layer. I looked at some patterns on Ravelry and sorta went by what they said for the initial couple increases, but in the end didn't really follow their pattern. What looks like a giant tampon over on the left is what the final product looked like. It measured 22 inches... if I had the patience I probably should have made it 23 inches, but I'll blame it on my calculations.

So those were my adventures in designing David's new hat. I am so glad he likes as much as I do - though he is quite as excited as I am, but that is how things generally go, ha ha.

Tomorrow my Etsy shop will be closed in the evening as I am taking everything to a local home show. If you are in the area and have handmade Christmas shopping to do please come by for wine, appetizers and shopping!

This show is in Broomfield, Colorado at 1646 Redwing Lane (near 136th and Sheridan) from 6pm- 9pm, tomorrow November 18th!

If you have any questions leave me a comment with your email address, thanks!

Tah-Dah!

I had to try so hard not to post this until my friend received it, but then I dropped the ball and didn't post it at all! So here it is, may I present the wedding barn raising quilt!

The top photo has more correct color balance (the snow was reflecting a LOT of light into the living room). I am thrilled with how the blanket turned out. I did block it after seaming and it made all the difference in the world. Prior to blocking I was afraid it was going to be too small to be a good couch blanket, since I wasn't aiming for a lap blanket, but in the end I think it worked out well.

One fun thing about this blanket it includes some milestone yarns. The yarn from the recipients first pair of socks, yarn from a thrift store trip we took together to Taos, yarn from her lost water bottle cozy, some of my first hand-spun, and a square of yarn from the town she plans to move to next year. I think it is fun to have those squares with memories.

Stay warm ya all ~ we have some fresh wet snow on the ground!

Casting On

These mittens will be for my sister-in-law for Christmas. No worries she knows they are coming. I decided to let her choose the pattern and colors because why just guess what someone would like.

The pattern is Citrus from Kris Patay of Kris Knits. It isn't a pattern I would have chosen for myself, but I think it will be fun to knit.

This orange, in real life, is actually much less red, but you get the idea, it's pretty.

The yarn is Digit - the orange was maize heathered (I dyed it) and the natural is their ecru solid. I inherited this yarn in a crafty swap and so far I am really enjoying knitting with it.

My only hesitation with this project is that I cast onto US 0 for this project. Yes, that is correct size 0 or metric 2 - I love how the knitting looks, the fabric look so fine and neat, but I hope I have the endurance. Honestly, this is probably good training for socks on my zeros because that is what I am really excited to knit on these beautiful rosewood zeros (thanks again Claire!).

I had better get back to work...

FO: Brainless Socks

I was looking through my blog yesterday doing a little eval of topics I've posted about recently and there defiantly aren't enough Finshed Objects (FOs). So, I am going to try to remedy this, starting today.

These are my new brainless socks. I knitted them using the magic loop technique on size one needles. I have had this project on the needles since August. Originally I cast these on as a knitting distraction from my two larger wedding projects - wraps and blanket - and they did help a little bit.

The amazing yarn is hand dyed from the land down under. Hyena Petticoats is the artist, she has a blog and an online store. The color in the shot does not do justice to the awesome mustardy color so check out her websites.

As I mentioned the pattern is called "Brainless" and that is is in general. I had a knitting block when I got to turning the heel, but is because it had been awhile since I had knit toe up socks. The pattern can be found on Ravelry, for free, and the publisher is yarnissima.

I have yet to weave in the cuff ends, but I have already worn them a lot, just tucking in the ends - so LAZY! Okay, more to come on Christmas presents! Have a lovely Tuesday.

New Pattern - Convertible Fingerless Mitts

Those of you who have known we awhile are probably thinking, "what? this isn't a new pattern, I thought you published this a long time ago." Uh, well, I'm a procrastinator so the pattern has been done, just not edited, since probably August, maybe earlier, who can remember. But the important thing is now it is up for sale.

This makes a total of four published patterns and they all can be found here in my Ravelry Shop. The three for sale can also be found in my Etsy shop - the free one you can find on the right column of this blog.

Happy knitting everyone!

The Shelf

I purchased this plain off white shelf from Craigslist for $15 and spent some time trying to figure out what to do with it. My initial reason for the purchase was to use it in the kitchen for tea and such, but it was so deep it blocked my light above the sink.

When Claire was visiting we did some brainstorming. Tried it in both bathrooms and the dining room. The dining room won and we chose the paint colors - chocolate brown and type of robins egg/teal.

David and I happened to be near Home Depot one weekend so we stopped in and got the paint we needed. They now have those nifty sample sizes which are perfect for projects like this. The very unhappy paint mixing lady got us all set up and we were off to begin our project.

You may note this became "our" project. This is because David really likes to paint. Not only does he like to paint, he prefers tedious or detailed painting. This is yet another reason he completes me. I prefer a large flat surface to slather paint all over, no edging for me.

It took me a little while to figure out what to put on the shelf, but eventually I found a few things that I think come together nicely.
Sorry the above and some of the following photos are blurry and ill composed. It was late and I was being impatient with the camera.

The coffee pot on the top shelf is a Jebena from Ethiopia, it survived the journey home with David, surprisingly. The clay cup next to is one I picked up in Swaziland. The yellow basket is a very old sewing basket passed down to me from David's grandma Helmuth.

On the shelf are some books on dyeing yarn and tying climbing knots. The pipes on top of the book are also both from Africa. The hand blown glass sand timer is a gift from my mom ages ago. Then there are a couple of vintage cards and a photos of my brother and I from back in the 80's.

Oh and the pretty orchids on the table a generous gift from my boss, and so far I haven't killed them, hooray!

My Weekend

This is what my weekend looked like. Lots of tea, knitting, and the dvd player remote. Most of my time was spent all snuggled in by a nice warm fire watching the snow fall and Agatha Christie mysteries (by the way, I am LOVING our wood burning stove).

I am determined to get Julia's sweater finished in the next 48 hours and I am definitely gaining ground. I have 2/3 of a sleeve and the collar to go. I do have buttons, but I'm not too keen on them so I plan to look for something better when I get the chance. And, actually, our knitting group it taking a jaunt down to Fancy Tiger tomorrow so maybe I will find something super cool down there.

What did you do this weekend?

The Winners!!!

Now announcing the winners for the Blogaversary prizes! David randomly drew numbers and our winners are......Corvus, winning my hand-spun yarn, and scottishbunny2003, snagging David's sweet photo.

Thanks so much for joining in on this Blogaversary celebration. I have so enjoyed reading all of your comments, thank you so very much and keep them coming.

Don't forget to give David a little love over at his Etsy shop. And stay tuned, I'll be back next week with some knitting updates, Christmas present plans, and new recipes.

Up and Running

Alright ya all, your chance to enter the drawing ends tonight at midnight mountain standard time. I shall announce the winner tomorrow (cause hopefully I won't be up that late tonight).

Here's an exciting tid-bit of news, David's shop is up and running! Hoorah! Head on over there and show him some support - dhelmuth.etsy.com

A last look at the two loverly prizes....

Thursday Chance

I'm a schmo and didn't get a chance to post yesterday so technically this is your Thursday opportunity to enter the drawing. On the bright side I made huge progress on a project, but it is a secret for now.

This Seasons New Hat

This is my new slouch hat that I just love. David says it looks frumpy (shout out to Sammie ;) ), but I like it anyhow.

The pattern is Felicity and can be found on Ravelry as well. I followed the pattern , just adjusted my needle size. This yarn is my own hand spun, hand dyed. You may recognize it from this post and this post.

If you haven't checked out the give-aways for this week look at my blogaversary post!

Gray hat for a Grey Day

Two years blogging also means two years of having an Etsy shop. As I have said before, I hope to one day make Etsy my full time job, but for now I will enjoy the shop as it is.

I have been slow to add new items this fall - ya know, new job, new apartment, and custom orders have been keeping me occupied. But, for this week of Blogaverary celebration I wanted to be sure to add some new items to the shop.

Today started off sunny and warm, but has turned wintry, gray and cloudy - so, I thought I'd add a new Gray Wool Hat to my shop in light of the turn the day has taken. This hat is great because it is one of the few things in my shop that is truly a unisex gift. It can be so hard to buy the menfolk sometimes, but I like finding items like these cause then if the hubby doesn't like it I can wear it! ha.

If you haven't seen this week's give-aways be sure to click on the blogaverary link above.

Blogaversary!

What a busy day. Lots of work at work, grocery shopping after work, and then I felt the need to be a foodie till my about 9:30pm. I made myself a pork chop with roasted asparagus and honey balsamic glazed carrots (yum). Following that I canned six jars of strawberry jam and made olive and sun-dried tomato tapenade. But believe it or not today's post isn't about food.... it is my blogaversary!

It has been two whole years of blogging, unbelievable. In honor of my two years typing I decided to have a sweet give away for all you faithful readers (and the newbies too).

Fun thing number 1 to Give Away:
Hand Spun, Hand Dyed Yarn

This lovey skein over here on the right is 320 yards of my personal spindle spun super wash wool. It is called Sapphire Rising.

Fun thing number 2 to Give Away:
The HDR Photo Above

In honor of my two years I'm gonna give my hubby a little boost as he prepares to open his Etsy shop this week (since there isn't anything there just yet have a look at his Flickr)! Some lucky winner will receive an 8x12 photo of the gorgeous fence and sunset shown above.

How do you win these exciting items you ask? Well, let me tell you.

Leave a comment with "Yarn!" or "Photo!" or both! The two winners will be posted on Friday.

I plan to post each day this week and with each additional post you can make another comment that will be entered in the drawing. So, that means you could have your name entered up to five times!

What are you waiting for my friend, post your comment and share the fun with your friends.

Breakfast Apple Granola Crisp

Made this last night - it is perfect with plain yogurt! My only changes were to use pecans instead of almonds and I left the peel on my apples (mainly out of laziness), enjoy!

Weekend Update

Ah, it is the end of another work day. And this one included a chimichanga at lunch so there are no complaints here.

My weekend had a long "to-do" list attached to it and I'd say I feel pretty good about my accomplishments. Although, I will admit that I added more projects to my list than I finished.

My Saturday morning was spent tidying the house (check that off the list), balancing our budget (check), and hanging pictures and such (check). These cuties photoed are in our bathroom, what do you think? David really doesn't like them. But they are so functional!

In the afternoon a friend and I head down to Denver. Our only real goal was to visit Fancy Tiger. Goal accomplished, as well as a couple hours of coffee house knitting. Fancy Tiger is a great craft boutique. Their fabric had me fondling and wide eyed. Not to mention the books, yarn, fiber, and needle point. It is a modest sized store, but there is a very lovely selection.

Sunday I worked on some more projects. Recipes to try this week (check), grocery list (check), paint mirror frame (more to come on this project - check), cut fabric from Christmas presents (check), and relax with hubby.

All in all a wonderful weekend. Oh and did I mention it snowed this weekend. Yup, the first snow of the season. It wasn't inches or anything, but it has stuck around. And it looks pretty lovely with the autumn colors.

Stay warm!

The Wedding

No not my wedding that was four years ago - yeah FOUR, crazy! Actually we celebrated last week, our anniversary was October 2nd. But, the wedding I'm about to post was my dear cousin's in Virginia. I was her matron o' honor and David did some photography for the big day. Oh and did I mention I knit the wraps for the bridesmaids? - just thought I should throw that in. Anyhow, hope you enjoy the photos.

Yarn Crawl

The last Saturday in September a car full of ladies from my new knitting group and myself headed north for a yarn crawl. If you haven't heard of a yarn crawl let me explain (if you have, you can skip to the next paragraph). A yarn crawl is a progressive shopping trip centered around yarn. Generally these trips are taken in groups and often they are to new or somewhat distant locations (meaning not just your local yarn shop).

Our trip was Fort Collins based, about an hour drive. The first stop was Lambspun. This shop had many varieties of yarn as well as a small, but quality, fiber selection. I didn't make any purchases at this shop, but I did enjoy looking around.

Next up on our stops was My Sister Knits. This shop also had a lot to offer. First, the setting of the shop is just beautiful! It in an old carriage house behind a gorgeous walk through garden area. The shop had many yarns that I use and look at often such as Cascade and Manos del Uruguay. At this shop I found a deal in their sale section. Four skeins of Harrisville Designs New England Shetland. These colors will make some wonderful mittens!

Our last traveling stop was at a shop in Loveland, CO, which is between Fort Collins and Louisville. The shop is called Woolen Treasures. If you ever get the chance to stop by this shop I highly recommend it. She has a great button selection and at the moment a lot of wonderful varieties of alpaca yarns. I picked up this beautiful ball of Schoppel-Wolle called Zauberball - it is going to make some pretty amazing socks.

Those are all of my latest finds. Following our yarn crawl I did manage to find some yarn perfect for my next sweater, more to come on that later.

Bloggers

So yesterday David happened to notice that there was a book signing in Denver that he had been interested in and since one of our reasons for moving closer to a city was to actually attend events like this we decided to go.

The signing was at the Tattered Cover Bookstore. I had heard about this bookstore from reading The Yarn Harlot's blog (that is where she had her book signing) and it sounded like a cool place, and it definitely was. We had a nice time and some good laughs.

Anyhow, the book being signed was Cake Wrecks:When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong. The book originated from the Cake Wrecks blog. If you haven't seen the blog before you should check it out, there are some pretty funny mistakes out there.

I got quite a bit of sock knitting done at the book signing last night, that was a nice change. I am closing in on the Barn Raising Quilt! I have two squares left to knit and I have 1/4 of the seaming done! It looks pretty cool if I do say so myself - and I realized from looking at back at my blog posts I started this in February! It is no wonder I am antsy to finish it up. Photos to come!

Frogging

I this summer I did some evaluating of projects which led to some ripping out.

First was the hat I had made for David our of my lovely hand dyed, hand spun merino. The photo on the left is of the yarn after frogging the hat, and the hat is pictured to the left.



He really liked the yarn and the look of the hat, but decided he would prefer something tighter knit and thicker. So my plan this winter is to make a double knit alpaca hat on smaller needles. I realized that hat was the only thing I had ever knit for him, and now it is frogged, ha.

My new plan for this yarn is to make the Felicity hat for myself. I hope I get to start on it soon, Wednesday's high was 45, but Monday's is 80 so we'll see.
Next we have my Razor Tank. It was frogged because each time I put it on this past summer I took it off right away. So no wearing means time to use the yarn for other things. I don't have anything specific in mind for this yarn. I have roughly 400 yards. At this point I'm leaning towards a scarf for my Etsy shop, but let me know if any of you have other bright ideas.

No worries, I haven't gone ripping out any of my sweaters just yet. Although, I haven't really been wearing my caplet or bolero. I think I might start wearing the caplet again with long sleeves. If I take apart the bolero I just don't know what I would do with that amount of hand spun cotton . But I'm open to discussing it. Thoughts?

Spinning Spinning

It has been awhile since I have shared the fruits of my spinning. I don't believe I have formally introduced you all to my new Lendrum wheel, but I still don't have pictures so instead you get to see the first fruits.

I purchased her in July when I got my current job. And I am so glad I did. I have very much enjoyed my two months spinning and look forward to many more skeins.

(click any of the photos to make huge)

The photo on the top left is of some hand dyed merino I purchased at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins when I bought my wheel. I have not yet decided what to do with this smooshy yarn, but I'm leaning towards a hat and mitten set for the shop.

These brown and natural skeins on the right were spindle spun and then wheel plied. This means that I made two single strands by spinning on my spindle and then spun them together on the wheel. The fiber is Colorado fiber from the Taos Wool Festival last October (oh my gosh, that was almost a year ago! - the fest not the spinning).

Next is a single skein of 100% silk that I spun on the wheel I borrowed for a year, and then plied it on my new wheel. I spun the silk before I dyed it which got a bit boring, but I LOVE the end results.

Lastly, my most recent finished spinning project is this amazing silk and merino mix. I cannot describe how snuggly it is. The color is a mysterious lavender, silver, and blue. Again, I am uncertain what these two skeins may become, but I'm thinking something for the Etsy.
Well, I hope you enjoyed catching up on what I have been spinning. Please leave a lil' comment with which skein is your favorite, I'm always curious to know what other folks like.