Another Option

I've recently thought of a third option of what my next project should be. My best friend Rachel is getting married in October and her shower is going to be in August. I bought some white JaggerSpun Zephyr not too long after she got engaged with the intention of making her a shawl. But I have not yet decided on a pattern. Currently I'm thinking of either the Autumn Vines shawl from Living in Stitches or the Hanging Vines Stole from Heartstring Fiber Arts.

Here are the designers pictures for anyone not on Ravelry, Autumn Vines on the left and Hanging Vines on the right. The right one is a blanket size version, so obviously the shawl I make would be significantly smaller.

















I feel like starting Rachel's shawl would be the best project to start since it has a deadline. I am incredibly bad about meeting deadlines (still working on Robert's socks, but I am about to start the toe decreases) so the earlier I start the better. So votes or other suggestions?

Random Sheepy Video

This is not directly related to knitting but it does involve sheep and herders doing some pretty cool stuff.  Its pretty impressive.

Extreme Sheep LED Art

To My Robbie...

Happy Birthday & Anniversary!!!

Today is Robert's birthday and tomorrow marks our one year anniversary.  Robert often likes to tease me that he had to work harder to get me than any other girl in the past because it took me awhile to realize that I liked him.  But this marks the time when I finally came around and succomed to the charms of the man.  (Yesterday he asked to be called the man rather than the boy, I figure I should humor him at least for today)

Sadly his socks are not yet ready for either of these occassions and I already gave him his other present, which was a replacement for his favorite hat that was found on the sameday that the new one arrived.  But I do have another surprise in mind for him for later.  

Tomorrow is also my sister's birthday, so Happy Birthday Karen!!

btw: the top picture is of us from a camping trip at Mongaup Pond in New York last fall.  It's very pretty up there and we're going back for Memorial Day this year :).

All I Wanna do is Play With Yarn

It's spring break right now and what I really should do is start some outlines for class and go to my externship this afternoon.  But its just so tempting to sit around, knit, and relax.  Earlier this week the boy and I spent a few days in Vermont.  We visited some of his friends in Burlington and then drove to Okemo for a few days of skiing.  Which was awesome because it snowed Monday and the mountain was virtually empty.

On Sunday, we lesiruely made our way down to Okemo via Route 7.  Its a pretty drive and I highly recommend it to anyone in the area and with some extra time.  Along the way Robert basically made it his mission to find an open yarn store for me to visit.  We eventually found Vermont Beads and Fiber in Middlebury.  A very cute little store where I got this pretty skien of sock yarn.  

The socks for my boy are coming along nicely.  I will soon be starting the heel of the second sock so its possible that I may actually be able to give him the socks on his birthday or our anniversary.  

Since I'm so close to finishing the socks I've started to contmeplate what my next project should be.  I'm a little socked out right now so my new pink yarn will have to wait.  I'm considering the Eyelet Cardigan from Blue Skys Alpaca.  I already have the yarn for this and it would make a cute little spring cardigan.  I could also make Icarus out of some pretty light blue Malabrigo lace weight yarn I have in my stasth.  There are other options too but these two are the most appealing to me right now.  Any thoughts or suggestions for making this choice? Or maybe even another option entirely?

On Snow Days and Self Protraits

Wow did it snow yesterday! As a result of this late season storm I didn't have work in the morning or class in the afternoon.  I did decidate a little bit of this newly found free time to studying but I also managed to finish my handspun mohair scarf.  It turned out cute and is of course super soft and warm.  I'm not used to handspun yarn so this was a little hard for me to work with, but I am pleased with the result.

This is not the most inspring photo ever I know.  I spent a few minutes trying to take a photo of me wearing it but I ran into a problem I imagine many a knitter has: trying to take a decent picture of your self.  I love my little camera but since I can't see the screen and take the photo at the same time I usually have a wierd look on my face or something.  Here are some photos that could have been good but just didn't come out quiet right...

The first one is too dark to actually see the scraf.  In the second I have more hair than face which makes me look like a Cousin It wannabe, and the last one is blurry and washed out.  I really should just make the boy my photographer but he's at work right now.

Speaking of pretty yarn from small producers, the Twist Collective has an article written by a yarn farmer in their new issue, which I found to be very interesting.  

FO: Blueberry Socks

Next to my family's house in Georgia there was a blueberry bush that seperate our yard from the neighbors.  I always liked to pick the blueberries during the summer.  They were a beautiful deep blue and it fasniated me that the juice was purple.  My mom would often make muffins using what I picked.

The entire time that I was making these socks the color reminded of blueberries.  The yarn just has the prettist variation between deep blues and purples like the berries I picked when I was a kid.  I am quite pleased with them, they're simple, warm, and cozy.  I thought about using some sort of pretty pattern but I started these just after finals so I wanted something simple to work on. 

Next up, I know I should start Robert's socks but I'm feeling a little tired of tiny needles.  Instead I'm going to make something using this handspun yarn that his mom gave me for Christmas, possibly Glampyre's new Reclamation Scraf.  

The yarn it from a family friend who owns alpacas and spins and sells her own yarn under the label Cold Spring Alpaca. This is a woman that I definately would like to meet sometime (I'd also love to meet the alpacas) but for now I'm just happy to have some of her beautiful yarn.   

In Need of a Good Home

So that hat I mentioned recently is now complete! Yay! That's one project off my incomplete list.  It's a modified turn a square.  I cast on fewer stitiches and did not increases after the ribbing. But I currently have no idea what to do with it.  I perfer things that are more girly and the boy's head is a little too big for it so the poor little hat is just going to have to hang out until I either remember to give it to its original intended recipient or think of someone else.

Next up are my blue socks, which only need to graft together to make them complete. I always forgot how to do it though so I need to look up kitchener stitch again before I do it.  (I really like the tutorial they have of it on knitty if anyone else has this problem.)

Recently, I did something that was not in keeping with my goal of reducing the amount of yarn I have, but was necessary for another purpose.  I bought yarn,

The boy's birthday is in March and I really want to make him a pair of socks.  He loves toe socks so I may try to make those for him, but I am a little concerned about that prospect.  I want these to be finished on time and I'm afaird that knitting toes may be a stumbling block.  So I may knit him a pair of daigonal cross rib socks from Favorite Socks instead.