The Joys of Wool

Okay, so it's 1:45am Saturday morning. I got home from work a little while ago after driving through a "crazy winter ice storm", or so they say. I say, "Meh". But I had a wonderful knitting epiphany and I wanted to share my joy with you.

Wool is wonderful.

I know some of you know this already, but you must remember when you first realized you loved wool too.

This winter ice/snow storm started last night, practically shutting everything down in the state. By the time I needed to drive to work, there was about 5 inches of snow (plus some ice underneath) on my car. It took me about 20 minutes to sweep it away and chip at the ice, trying to free my wipers and all that jazz.

But that's not the part we are here to talk about. When I was finally done, I got into my car and had my epiphany. You see, I had on my nice, newly-knitted mittens. The pretty red and gray ones. The ones made of wool. You know what I noticed?

My hands weren't cold.

Now, this seems like a simple thing, but after pawing through snow and ice and your gloves being wet, you expect your hands to be cold. But not if they are made of wool. They are just so nicely insulating and just wicked the water away to some mystical place where it wouldn't bother me.

I love wool.

P.S. I rescind my opinion about my mittens, as mittens. They felted and shrunk a tad during this incident and are now marvelous! Just thought you should know.

Actual FOs!!

The business portion of today's blog:

Or....there was going to be stuff....but having technical difficulties.

So we are going to do this the "not as pretty" way.Pattern: Hannah Hat (formerly of MagKnits)
Yarn: Cascade 220 Quattro in #9432 (held double) less than a skein
Needles: US 10
Adjustments: I keep my bun/ponytail down lower, so I moved the hole down and added some stst rows to put it nicely all the way down on my ears. Specifically,
"Rows 16-23: Work in stockinette." *added 4 more rows, started knitting in the round at this point, add 4 more rows of stst.* I also added a super cool pompom on the top. Cause ever hat needs a pompom.

I absolutely LOVE this hat. I always have my hair pulled back and most hats just weren't made for that. I don't have an exact amount of yarn that I used, but it was probably about 1/2 a skein. Super quick to knit and nice and cozy. BTW, this yarn makes the coolest pompoms.

Pattern: Manly Mitts from Knitty
Yarn: Paton's Classic Merino in Dark Gray Mix and Bright Red
Needles: US4 and US6
Size: Medium

Still figuring out if I'm a mitten person, but they sure have been keeping my hands cozy. They are a little long, but I'm too lazy to rip them down. It says to knit to the top of your ring finger before starting decreases, but I would start before that, like maybe knitting to where your fingernail starts on your ring finger. I changed the cuffs to be different....makes like interesting.

KITTEN!!!!

This is Smokey, The Boy's kitten. Yes, I am living with a cat and I haven't exploded. I have always been very allergic to cats, but, Thank God, not this one. We get along nicely, snuggling up with me when I read, and he mostly stays outta my knitting bag....as long as I don't leave it on the couch.

**I think things have changed since I last did this. For some reason, I can't post pictures from my flickr account, at least not the way I used to. Any help on how to post pictures from flickr into the ol' blog would be greatly appreciated.

Really? REALLY? /facepalm

Okay...so now I've only been back into knitting for like a month now and I'm already annoyed. But I have to tell you the funny part of the story first.

While researching my new project some more, I basically kept looking through all the Ivy League Vests on Ravlery. Like everyday. That helped me to decide that's the one I wanted to do. But there were so many color choices and I have never been able to pick colors that go together, so I figured I would find a color scheme I liked and steal it....urm, I mean, build upon it.

I need help deciding and who's opinion is readily available?

Me: I need your opinion on some knitting.
The Boy: Okay...
Me: I'm trying to decide which color I want to go with for this sweater. Which of these two do you like more?
The Boy: *contemplates while we switch back and forth between the two* I like that one more.
Me: Okay....I like that one too...
The Boy: It's more For The Horde....
Me: I'm sorry...*starts giggling*...what was that?
The Boy: Well, one is more Horde colors....the other is Alliance.
Me: *Starts laughing uncontrollably*

'Cause that's how we roll. Sidenote: Yes, we both play WoW. He's Horde and I'm Alliance. Every relationship has it's complications.

I finally get everything together and sit down to order the yarn. The Twig and Fog color of KP Palette are discontinued and the white is unavailable until the end of March, supposedly.

Therefore, I'm putting out a shout-out that if anyone has some of either the Twig or Fog color and can tell me which color they most closely resemble. I will also be bugging the turtlegirl goddess to see if she can tell me.

Edit: Manda makes an excellent point. Being away from the fiber world for so long, I had forgotten how gigantically useful the Rav is......

What to do....what to do....

Since I have gotten back into knitting again (and I find it safe to say I'm officially back in, considering what I knitted this week*), I am now at an impasse at what to knit. I mean we can always do a quickie hat or scarf or mittens, but I am looking for something more substantial....like a sweater.

Yeah, I know.

I've been getting back on ravelry and started looking though my ancient queue, looking at all of those things I liked back then. Guess what....I still like them. So...I have a decision to make and, since I can now only communicate with knitting peeps online, I need some help with what to knit now. And I'm not going to be helpful about it.

Project #1: "Plain" Oatmeal Sweater.
Yeah, that's not helpful, I know, but hear me out. I have some oatmeal-colored wool, already in the stash, that I have wanted to make into a sweater for a long time. I found the sweater I wanted to make in Interweave. It's marked in the magazine. But do I currently have the magazine? No. Still in the moving process, okay? But it's only of those good, simple sweaters.

Pros: Already have the yarn and pattern....theoretically.
Cons: Worried it would be too plain and not keep my interest.

Project #2: Ivy League Vest
I have wanted to make this ever since I saw it in the magazine and even more when I saw turtlegirl's vest. It would definately be an endeavor, but that's kinda what I want. Plus, I just finished some fair-isle mittens and I'm still kinda feeling that. But here's the catch: I would need to buy the yarn. Granted, it would only put me back like $15 (using KP Pallette), but there's is definately something to be said for using something from my VAST stash of yarn.

Pros: Very attention-grabbing....would learn how to steek.
Cons: Would have to but even more yarn....would have to steek.....eek!

I also have another sweaters worth of yarn (a nice wine color) that was going to be another CPH, but I'm thinking of doing one of the other 5 million cardis I have queued up. Something like Mariah, Cabled Cardigan, or Mr. Greenjeans.

Need opinions!!

*I finished a pair of Manly Mitts and a Hannah Hat, but trying to find the cord for the camera. Hopefully, will post soon.

One more time....with feeling...

Ok…so here we go for another attempt. But I’m really going to try and make it stick this time!

Yes, I have been gone for over a year. Yes, I have missed ya’ll. Yes, a lot has happened since we last spoke. If you are here because I popped up on your Bloglines or you’re cycling through your bookmarks, I applaud your confidence that I would return.

My return to the blog will have to be broken into several posts because I just can’t imagine anyone that would want to know that much about my life that they would read page after page. So…we’ll do it in small doses.

First off, I moved to Oklahoma and moved in with my parents for a while. The move got me a promotion and helped me to save a bit of money. However, this past Christmas was my last in retail, but more on that later. For those Chickies who are still watching, I have a surprise for you and it’s more important than any knitting I could show you. Not only did I get a promotion at my new store, I found something much, much better.

I found a boy.

Yes, he’s cute, isn’t he? He worked at the same store I did and we hit it off almost immediately. We’ve been together almost a year at this point and have begun to move in together. He did not run away from the massive amounts of yarn. Always a plus.

But one of the biggest was this conversation. One of the things we did when we first started dating was watch Firefly. I had never seen it, but had always wanted to. We hit the episode of “The Jayne Hat”. Firefly knitters know which ones I mean. Short and sweet, Jayne (played by Adam Baldwin) gets a hat in the mail that his mom made. The others don’t think much of the style, but he likes it and proudly wears it because his mom made it. I then tell Sean about the big popularity of the Jayne Hat in the knitter circle.

Me: Yeah, I have always thought about making me one.

Boy: Is it hard to do? Do you think you could make me one?

Me: If I made you that, you would totally not wear it in public.

Boy: I would totally wear that hat every day if you made it for me.

Yeah, I know. It’s what he got for Christmas and, true to his word, he wears it whenever he goes outside.

On to the knitting…I kinda got into a knitting funk for a while and didn’t knit much, which I think is a big reason I didn’t blog this past year. But I did knit some. I did another (and hopefully last) Christmas stocking. Still trying to find the picture I took of that one. Knit the Jayne hat for The Boy. And I have been working on a pair of mittens for myself. And that’s it. Seriously.

But I now have a new job, working at a casino. I work in the blackjack pit, basically being the pit boss’ lackey. It's easy work for more money, so you can't beat that. Plus, it gives me quite a bit of knitting time.

Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to be here much more often!