Hand-knits Wash Day

It was time. They have endured a long winter.

Confessions of a Knitter

Those of you who have knit with me know that I'm not so much into crochet. I have always thought that is has its place, but I never was excited about it.

I learned to crochet when I was approximately 7 years old. My grandma taught me - her kitchen scrubbies are well known in central Illinois. I didn't really do much with crochet, my cousin and I made chains long enough to go around the outside of the farmhouse and attempted a couple double crochet blankets. But.... I have been inspired.

This potholder on the right is by helloyarn. This is totally her photo, but there wasn't a post on her blog to the project and you all just HAD to see the beauty. This is the project page for this lovely potholder (and she has made others) and here is helloyarn's profile.

So yes, this inspired me, and my inspiration was a prefaced a bit by the fact that I have been subscribing to emma lamb's blog. She makes very cute crocheted things and this renewed my faith in the cuteness of some crocheted things. Although you'd think with this blanket on my couch I'd be inspired anyhow.

Thus began my latest endeavor, a hexagon potholder (the photo on the left - for those not on Rav). I have pulled out my old crochet knowledge and watched a couple videos to learn some new things and viola!

They aren't exactly right, but I'm learning and I'm happy with how they are turning out. I'll do my best to post a completed potholder when I have one.

At the end of the day I am still just a knitter, but now I am a knitter who can crochet. Have a great weekend!

Olympic Project Finished

Tah dah! I finished with a week to spare, but I decided against starting another project - I figure there is no need for knitting stress.

I finished binding-off on Sunday morning and got it blocking before heading off to church. I put a fan on it so I could wear it out in the evening.

I'm quite happy with how the colors came out, you never know what you'll get with self transitioning yarn. I'm not quite as happy with the size. It is definitely bigger than I anticipated. I think once I get used to it, I'll be a bigger fan. My husband said it looked good till I started striping it, ha!

Please excuse the poor photo quality. I seem to have no patience for getting a great photo these days. Anyhow, I think I prefer to wear it more like the photo on the right. When wearing it like the photo above I TOTALLY felt like I was wearing a bib.

So over all, a thumbs up, but it will take some getting used to and figuring out. I did make a few notes here on my project page if you decide to make this project too.

For now I continue with spinning a bobbin of angora (to go with some awesome alpaca) and knitting my side project socks and my stressful thrummed mittens.

David's Photography and an Update

Some if you may remember way back this fall when I did a give away for my Blogaversary. Since then David has expanded his Etsy shop quite a bit (I find it quite impressive, but I have a bit of bias), and today only is being featured on Wozofoto (with the photo above).

This is a website that chooses an indie photographer and sells one of their photos at a discount for 24 hours. Following that 24hours they make the photograph available in their archive at regular price.

So please, check out Wozofoto and also have a look around David's shop - there are quite a few new photos.

Olympic Update: I'm done. Hahaha. Yup, yesterday I finished, blocked, and wore my Olympic Dawn. I have a few things to say and some photos to share. All that just to build some anticipation for my next post - soon to come!

Finally in the Mail

After being completed for a month dear LuLu has been sitting staring at me. Probably thinking, "When on earth will this lady send me off to the awesome baby that is going to be my mama?!?!". Okay, well, I suppose if knit dolls could think then that would be what she was thinking. So last night she was packaged and today she is on the move.

I just absolutely love knit toys. They are just so snugly and homey. I hope that LuLu is well loved and drug through all the messes of childhood.

Speaking of knit toys, I am not usually one to plug a knitting book. In fact, I own two knitting books, both of which were gifts so listen closely. Itty Bitty Toys is such a great book! It is a book I actually plan to invest in at some point and has a ridiculous amount of cute projects! So check it out!

Olympic Update: Photo to come this weekend. I am on stripe number 13 of the 16 (I think). There are many many more stitches then when I began, so these stripes take quite awhile to complete. More to come.

Happy weekend to all!

President's Day

Crazy! Three posts in four days, unbelievable. Well, I thought I should keep these updates rolling and may as well update on what has been going on around here. This weekend a couple good friends came to town for the weekend and we spent Saturday out at about. In the evening we have a handful of friends over for some Trivia Pursuit (I'm a fan of this new version - ignore the "fast track") and pizza.

Sunday, I my cold took full force. I spent the entire day on the couch. I have no idea how many movies I watched - some included A Letter to Three Wives, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Masterpiece Theather's Emma. Then off to bed at 9:30pm.

So, as you might imagine, with that much movie watching there has been some serious knitting. My progress is slowing down as with each row I gain at least 2 stitches and some rows 6, but it is coming together lovely.

Today I do have the day off, which I was super excited about on Friday, but really I would have had to take a sick day anyhow - which kills the excitement a bit.

I'll be knitting more this evening, but right now I'm off to the supermarket for some soup and bananas (and probably another box of tissues).

Weekend Update

Here is the progress I have made thus far. I haven't had a lot of knitting time just yet, but today and tomorrow I plan to make myself a pot of tea and get knitting.

I am really liking the way the colors flow.

The Ravelympics

I just had to get my blog up and running again because tomorrow the Ravelympics begin. For me, these are about as equally exciting as the actual Olympics (which I suppose isn't overwhelming excitement, but still fun!). For those of you who are not on Ravelry (therefore cannot click on the above link) let me share with you a brief explanation of Ravelympics.

What will happen is tomorrow night when the torch is lit my ravelympic team (my local knitting group) and I will cast on (start) our knitting projects. These projects cannot be cast on before the torch is lit and the goal is to complete them before the torch is put out at the closing ceremonies. Everyone sets their own personal goal of what would be challenging for them to complete in 17 days - and really in the end the only reward from the Ravelympics is personal victory.

BUT our team is going to give out a few prizes within our group. We will award fiber related prizes for:
--Most Yardage
--Epic Fail/You Tried!
--Most Ambitious Project
--Biggest Come Back
--Best Use of Color/Cables

Now, you must be curious what I have decided to knit. I have decided to knit Stephen West's Daybreak Shawl. I know, I know, some of you are thinking, "a SHAWL? really? why? you'll never wear a shawl!". I used to think this too until I started seeing all these cute photos of small and medium sized shawls being worn as scarves. Now, scarves are something I wear almost ever single day, all day. So, I think I will use this.

My main inspiration came from another project on Raverly by huckcity. She used the same yarn that I will be using (the two skeins photoed above) and it turned out super cute. I'm sorry if you don't have rav account but I don't feel comfortable posting her face on my blog since it isn't mine to be posting. Instead of posting hers here on the left is a model shot of the Daybreak.

So I plan to be posting photos of my progress throughout the olympics and maybe some thoughts on the actual Vancouver events too! What are you planning to knit during the Olympics?

testing

don't worry folks i'm still here a month later... new post to come this evening!