Look! A place for an armwarmer!

Yeah, so the whole "blogging more" resolution has kinda gone down the toilet (unlike some of Bezzie's stuff), but finishing the Central Park Hoodie is progressing nicely. I have started on the armholes and I am hoping to finish this part this weekend.

I am really liking knitting this pseudo-in-the-round. It is really nice when doing the armhole decreases. One thing I noticed that could be trouble and I wanted to mention. The back is knit longer in the back than the fronts. This could be a problem when you get going, trying to finish. Now, this would not be a problem if, you know, you read the instructions. But that would just be silly......

I'm hot, I'm cold.......pick one!!

Yeah, so the weather has been playing with me lately....and I am getting a bit annoyed. The weather does change quite a bit in the Fall and Spring in Texas (yes, I have personally seen it snow 18" on day and it be 80 degrees the next....in April). But here in the Lone Star State, I consider it "Winter" on Dec. 26. Usually by that point, the weather has leveled out and stays rather consistent. Boy was I shocked the other day when I woke up to a beautiful 75 degree day. (Apparently, the freakiness went all the way north, cause a lil' birdy told me it was 65 in Indiana....in JANUARY!!) Needless to say, it has dropped 15 degrees since 6:00am, when I got dressed this morning.

But, hey, look.....YARN!This was the final Rockin' Sock Club package and by far, my favorite. Hey, it's blue....what's not to love? This is Socks That Rock Lightweight in Bella Coola. Alright, so here's my take on the sock club. As the year went on, I liked the yarns more and more. The first few I wasn't too hot on, but it got better. The folks at BMFA did a great job, but I don't think I would do it again (even if I could afford it!), but that just my personal choice. I would much rather choose what yarns I was getting, just so I wouldn't get something that I did love.

We won't talk about how not one of these pairs of socks is even remotely done.

Thanks for the comments on my CPH. I have got about 5" left before I spilt off the back and fronts. I really am enjoying the crap out of it and already can't wait to make another. I am a cardi gal....so I figure I will have at least three of them in the end. One of them I would like to be in some Kathmandu Aran. This is a yarn I have been LUSTING after and dying to do something with. Come on, a wool/silk/cashmere blend? Who wouldn't?

FOs (and a WIP) on parade!

Okay, so I know that one of my resolutions was to blog more and it's taken me three days to blog but I have an excuse! Really! I had to hunt down an undocumented FO and get a picture. Yeah, I wanted one, but this has the funniest story!

We had a Secret Santa at work and got the lovely Megan (Interestingly, one of THREE at a store with about 25 employees). She has always appreciated my knitting (as have most of my coworkers) so I decided to knit her a scarf and some Fetchings:Pattern: Fetchings from Knitty.com
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in #142 (Pink)
Needles: US6
Mods: Added extra cable on the knuckle end and subbed regular BO

This was my first venture with this yarn. I am "Meh" about it. I wanted some LB WoolEase, but I couldn't find any in pink, which is her favorite color. The yarn also didn't seem to wear very well. She's had these about a month and they are already very pilly. But the good part is that it means she wears them all the time.....even to Starbucks. Read the linked post....well, scroll down to "Knitspotting) It's hilarious!!!

While I was at it, I knit myself a pair:Pattern: Fetchings from Knitty.com
Yarn: LB WoolEase in Avocado
Needles: US6
Mods: Add cable round at knuckle end and subbed regular BO

When doing these, make sure you do a tight-ish BO. On my other glove, I did a looser BO, like a usually do, but it rolls down the hand a bit. So I did my BO tighter on the other one and liked it much better.

My next resolution was to finish my Central Park Hoodie. It is progressing well and I am not even close to getting tired of knitting it yet!
To eliminate some of the seaming, I am knitting the sweater pseudo-in-the-round and then I will split it off when I get to the armholes. The hardest part is getting the right color of the yarn! It's a bit darker than I have been able to get photographed. Otherwise, I am loving it and MAYBE (fingers crossed) I might finish it before going skiing in February.....but, we'll see.

My favorite tool in this sweater is my row counter bracelet:
Normally, you just push the beads along, counting your rows. But to keep track of what row I was on in the repeat, I put one marker after ten beads (# rows in repeat) so once I got to the marker, I knew to start over again. I added another marker with a claw clasp to snap on in case I needed to stop in the middle of a repeat to keep my place. It works really well....thought I'd share.

Next, we'll have a little yarn pr0n!!

I was a good girl this year!

Well, sort of.....but I apparently fooled Santa!

I had a good holiday - short, but good. I could only get off Christmas Eve and Christmas, so it was a quick 5 hour trip to West Texas. I did half to work the day AFTER Christmas (at 5-freakin'-30AM), but it was surprisingly not very busy. I guess bookstores aren't on the top of everyone's "day-after-Christmas-sale" list. I am happy to report that I did make it through my first Christmas in retail without losing my Christmas spirit or killing/maiming any customers.

So, on to the goodies!!

My lovely grad-school-friend-turned-knitter-friend, Kerry, got me a very colorful set of stuff from Knit PicksThese are the Knit Picks Harmony Socks Set. These are so freakin' pretty and pointy. I can't wait to use them!!! Hmmm....maybe on my Mom's socks....work on that resolution.

Call it selfish, but I also got myself a Christmas present....and a very geeky one at that...but it's pretty!!This is a ring called "Claire's Ring." It is designed after a ring in a book series that I read called "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon. This is one of two series of books that I can read over and over and not get tired of them (the other would be Harry Potter). If you enjoy reading, I highly recommend at least giving it a try. It is a bit adult oriented (i.e. it does have sex in it), but not like super-romance novels. This is the way I see it - in romances, everything in the book leads up to the sex. In these books, the sex is just part of the story, not the POINT of the story. If you do take these on, here's the order: Outlander, Dragonfly in Autumn, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, ....plus more to come! (The next one is called "An Echo in the Bone" and she's hoping to finish it in 2008.) Like I said, geeky but pretty.

As stated before, Santa was very nice to me this year - he brought me everything I asked for. This included a new DVD player (mine has been kaput for over two months), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD, Christmas PJs (a Christmas standard), and, the chief provider for this posting, and many more to come......a new camera!!!!

Mine got solely dependent of being plugged into the wall and that just wouldn't do. SO I let Santa know what I wanted, specs and whatnot, and he did an AWESOME job! The pictures my new camera takes are just awesome. Check it out!Usually the trees around my apartment go from green to brown to ground, but today they were actually Fall-ish looking so I took my new camera out for a spin. If you are interested, it's a Canon PowerShot A570 IS and it is probably the easiest camera I have ever used that gave me such great pictures.

Next time.....a WiP and FO Parade!

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday and I'll see you next year!!

Really?

88%DRUNKARD

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It's almost here!!!

Yep, Christmas is officially a week away and I am excited!!! And I am happy I am still loving Christmas. This is my first Christmas working in retail and I was afraid I would really start to hate Christmas. I am happy to say that this is not the case and I think it has a lot to do with where I work and who I work with. I am sure that if I worked at Wally World, then...well....let's just say there isn't enough tinsel in world to save THAT Christmas spirit.

And if case you need a little "Christmas Cheer", use the following recipe"
1. Make one cup apple cider in you favorite fashion (I am a fan of the Alpine Cider mix)
2. Add 1-2 oz. of Crown Royal.
3. Repeat as necessary

This is also a great cure for the winter chill. Trust me.

Anyhoo, as Christmas comes approaches, so does the new year. Yeah, wrap your brain around that. There was a point last week when I couldn't remember whether it was 2006 or 2007. Seriously. I had to look it up.

With the new year comes the "resolutions". One of my fellow Chickies, Dawn (who also now has a podcast, and I am mentioned a few times, actually), had challenged us to make some knitting resolutions. She's got a nice Mr. Linky, if you care to join. Mine are taken with a small grain of salt. Call it "things I would like to do in 2008".

1. Finish my Central Park Hoodie. Yep, that was the project I casted on for myself after I finished the stocking. It is going along smoothly and is one of the best knits I have been knitting. It is just mindless enough and just complicated enough. It is everything everyone says it is. There is a reason it is so popular. In case you didn't grab the issue of knitscene, they are selling the CPH pattern, with new plus sizing(!) on the Knitting Daily website.

2. Knit my Mom's socks. My poor momma has been neglected. Last Christmas (that would be 2006), my mom picked out her own yarn for some socks (Lorna's in Black Purl). We even got a pattern picked out (Knitty's Clessidra) and I even cast on. Then things got dicey. They might not be Clessidras, but I vow that my momma will have a pair of socks next year.

3. Knit hats. We are taking a family ski trip in February and I am hoping that my parents and I will be going down the slopes in hand-knit hats. My brother already has one, so he has no excuse. In Texas, especially with the VAST amounts of hair I have, hats are usually not an issue. I would really hope that I can get us there in hand-knitted hats. My Dad is probably getting a Koolhaus Hat and I am thinking a Tam-like hat for me and my mom. Can't have hair squish-age.

4. Blog more. Yep, I said it. In case you don't know, I have a HORRIBLE short term memory. I think of 5 million things to blog about every day, but forget them the moment I have time to sit down and blog. Definition of irony, anyone? I am going to try and make a conscious effort to blog more and share more of my "insight".

So, there we go. My knitting goals for the year. You wouldn't think it would be much, but they are my resolutions and I like 'em.

Since I am working until Christmas Eve, then traveling, then working some more, I am going to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy Festivus to all. I hope that everyone travels safely, along with your families. I wish everyone well in their Christmas knitting and I would hope that you would support Leigh in the Knitting Wars.

Happy Holidays! Love to all, Jennifer

Praise the LAWD!!!

Sorry, still very excited about finishing the stocking.....that and the fact that I ACTUALLY have an FO.

Several weeks ago, I got an email from my (now) cousin's mother-in-law. Apparently, all of her nieces and nephews had hand-knitting Christmas stockings, made by a lovely lady where they used to live. Well, there was a new addition to the cousins and this lovely lady has since passed away. Hoping that little Katherine (now almost three months, I think) wouldn't be without a stocking, she asked if I could figure out a pattern from an existing stocking and make her one. Sure, I said. It's just a big sock....shouldn't be too hard. She brought me a sample and it looked relatively simple, with a little intarsia thrown in to break up the monotony.

Ever sense that moment before the Knitting Goddess comes by to smack you upside the head?

Yeah, so I didn't quite think about intarsia...in...the...round. Think about it folks....and there are big blocks of color. The whole slip-stitch-float-in-the-back thing wasn't gonna work. But it had been done...I had the proof in the sample in my hands. So I studied....and studied....and studied. That's when I saw it - a seam! But only on the intarsia panel. When she started the panel, she un-joined the sock and began to knit flat, then joined it back up at the end of the panel, then the panel is seamed up.

So here it is, in all of it's glory - the stocking!


Pattern: My own-ish - I uninvented the pattern from a sample stocking that was provided
Yarns: Red Heart Super Saver in Paddy Green, Brown Sheep NatureSpun Sport (held double) in Aran, Patons Brilliant (held double) in White Twinkle (silver), Moda Dea Dream in Waterlilly (fuzzy pink), plus various bits in my stash
Needles: US8, plus a EmbellishKnit for the I-cord (Hey, I HATE I-CORD)

Now that it's done, I did enjoy the knit. I did greatly celebrate its completion. Course the only way of celebrating one Tuesday night at 10:30 is with a bottle of wine...and blast it to the world, via a blog. It was nice. I am planning on writing the pattern up, if anyone is interested.

It....is......DONE!!!!

Holy crap, ya'll.......I have had a project going that I don't think I have talked about here. My cousin's wife's cousin needed a knitted Christmas stocking (story for a later date) and I started about.....well, a while ago. There was acrylic.....and intarsia......in the round........but IT IS DONE!!!!

I'm off to find a drink......pictures to follow......of the stocking, not me drinking......unless things get out of hand.......we'll see.......

Bring on the pr0n!!!

Yes, it is that time! After Kid-N-Ewe a few weeks ago, have I got something to show you!
This is some YUMMY merino roving that I got from Lynn's Texas Fibers in the colorway Thistle. I walked by this roving several times, petting it each time. I finally decided that if it was there the next time I came by, I would get it. You see what happened.

This is a braid of 100% Superwash merino from Lone Star Arts in the Mixed Berry Cobbler colorway. This stuff is SO SQUISHY!!!! I just want squeeze it....so....squishy...... One of the gals of LSA, Amanda, was the one who had handy dandy Ravelry nametags. Several of us met up and we got to meet in person. Always nice!As pretty as these are, I couldn't quite get the color right on the camera. Just think BRIGHTER!! These are dyed mohair locks from Kai Mohair. She had the coolest set-up. Basically, she had about 20-25 bins with locks dyed different colors. You paid by the ounce and got to mix however many and much you wanted. She called it her "salad bar" of mohair.

I hope you enjoyed your pr0n today. Do I need to pick anyone up off the floor?