2011: The Year of Socks

My knitting goal this year is to make at least 12 pairs of socks. I've discovered that I love wearing handknit socks in the winter. They are far warmer than regular socks. So warm, in fact, that I've ditched my slippers several times this winter while wearing them. And that is saying something. I always wear slippers.

I'm working on my first official pair of 2011:

Pattern: Tidelines by Anne Hanson 

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino in Kate

The thing I love about handknit socks is that I can use crazy colors I wouldn't wear as anything else!

I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first sock and I'm sure they'll be done by the end of the month. :) 

On the spinning front, I'm working on a custom spin that is just flying along. This fiber is to.die.for. It's 50% Merino, 25% Cashmere, and 25% Silk. 

How about we take a little look:

Isn't see a beaut?! And she's softer than any yarn I've ever spun! 

And now....a few pics of the pup. I bought a new lens for my camera to take sharper and more accurate yarn pictures for my etsy shop. It arrived yesterday, and I spent some time out in the back yard snapping pics of Sailor :) 

Sleepy Pup

Sailor trying to take flight!

Catching flying treats.

In other knitting news, I have finished the front and back of the sweater for Seth's dad and just have the sleeves and seaming left. The end is finally in sight!! 

Hugs!

Love,

Liz :)

Hydrangea Neckwarmer

I received the book Brave New Knits from my parents for Christmas and needed a project to keep me from getting too bored with the sweater for Seth's Dad. Anne Hanson has a pattern for a pretty little neckwarmer in there, and thought it would be a perfect small project. Except for the fact that it was kind of addicting and I didn't want to work on anything else. Oops. :)

Pattern: Hydrangea Neckwarmer by Anne Hanson (from Brave New Knits)

Yarn: Cosmic Fibers Yarn Cassiopeia (MCN) in colorway Amethyst in Shadows (this is one of the skeins I bought at the Holiday Inn during Rhinebeck)

Modifications: Instead of sportweight yarn, I used fingering weight. I still used the recommended needle size, but followed the directions for the larger size in order to achieve the smaller size. I realized after doing almost 3 pattern repeats that something wasn't quite right. When I went back to the Ravelry pattern page, I realized there were pattern corrections online. So, I ripped out what I had done and restarted. I probably could have kept going, but the lace pattern didn't look quite right. 

The Merino/Cashmere/Nylon was a dream to knit with.  

It'll be great under a coat when I don't want to wear a bulky scarf.

There's enough yarn leftover to make something else, too. The neckwarmer barely put a dent in the skein. Probably socks. But, who knows. 

I finished another skein of handspun yesterday for the shop. It still needs to be washed, reskeined and measured, but I took a few pics today right before the rain started back up. 

Rambouillet dyed by Two if by Hand in colorway "Train Tracks like Stitches" 

It's amazingly squishy and soft.  

Yumm. 

Tomorrow I'm going to start another custom spin with some Merino/Cashmere/Silk. It. Is. Amazing. It came in the mail and I promptly went on ravelry and bought myself a braid in a different color. 

Well, I think that's it for now!

Love,

liz :)

1160 Yards of Handspun

That, my dear, is what I've been working on for the last week basically non-stop! A customer asked me to do some custom spinning for her...12 ounces of BFL and spun fairly thin for maximum yardage so she can hopefully knit a sweater with it. I finished it on Wednesday and ended up with 1160 yards of light sport weight yarn. It was dry this morning and I reskeined, labeled, and mailed it. But, I snapped a few photos first :)

Spun from Funky Carolina BFL Combed Top.  

Colorway Lily...beautiful greys, silvers and blues. 

It's going to make a really beautiful sweater! 

I don't have much to show on the knitting front. I'm still working on the sweater for Seth's Dad...but making quite a bit of progress. I did finish a Hydrangea Neckwarmer the other day, but it's still drying on the blocking board. I'll try and get pictures of that this weekend! 

I've done a wee bit of sewing, and am plotting and scheming about some bigger tote bag projects. I got a fat quarter pack of all the Heather Ross Far, Far Away 2 fabrics for Christmas:

I. LOVE. THEM. All the fabric is a cotton/linen blend so it's much sturdier than regular quilting cotton. 

I've been itching to cut into them, but also spending hours online looking through other people's projects to decide what to do with them! I also received an Amy Butler pattern book, which as TONS of cute bag patterns in it. 

For my first project, I thought I'd do something small and simple. 

Origami Bag. Isn't it adorable?!

Close up of the owl and cat. 

This particular pattern has directions for 5 or so different sizes, and I'm going to give some of the larger ones a try once I get some bigger zippers. The directions were really clear and easy to follow, which makes me hopeful for some of the more complicated looking bags in the book! 

Your sweater is looking great, by the way! And F's house looks awesome! Nice work! 

Oh...and one more exciting thing (or, at least I thought it was exciting). A pair of mittens I knit ended up on the Three Irish Girls blog!!! I did a little happy dance when I saw that :) 

Alright...off to do some spinning for the shop!

Love,

Liz :)

Happy New Year!

Hey Liz!!

Happy New Year!  It's been a busy one so far!  Let's see- first- we rang in the new year at F's friends' house (second year in a row, really nice folks) with a group of ten.  Lots of laughing, eating and drinking of wine :)  I've been conned into another half marathon with Sarah, one of the new friends.  This one is in May up in Shelburne.  There's also another race that we are talking about.....there are no words how cool yet terrifying this would be.  I'm putting serious thought into it.  You seriously need to check out this video.  Live wires.... Maybe Seth would want to join in??  Haha.

We had a great week off between Christmas and New Years- doing projects around the house, cooking, spending time with family.  I asked F if we could finish the knocked out wall project before the new year (sweet lord, this has been a visual thorn in my side!) and we did!  I'm so proud of how it turned out, considering I had no idea what the heck I was doing.

So this is with the mud and tape up... pre-sanding and pre priming....

This is post priming.  Not bad, eh?

And the big reveal!   (sorry for the phone pics!)

So as soon as we finished this- literally putting the final coat of paint on the trim, I launched into project two... The hallway....  F painted the hallway dark red when he first moved in... A classic, "Im a new homeowner and here is my way to make this place all mine!"  He finished it and hated it (for obvious reasons... a hallway with no windows that has four doors in a dark color, yikes!)  So unfortunately (or fortunately, really) there's no before... but there's an almost after!  (Trim is still not painted completely.... that's what I'm doing tomorrow while he watches football (seriously, the superbowl can't get here fast enough!)

It's a peachy color that works really well with the generic beige (that I actually like for the most part!) that is in the rest of the living area....  Oh and I got you a close up of the red that was on the wall- can you see it in the photo below!?  So dark!!!

And finally, I've been finding some time to knit too!  I had to frog the majority of my sweater that I started before Christmas from the briar rose I got at Rhinebeck... So we were back to square one... but now... taa daa!  

So this is the body so far.... and below I give you... an arm :)  I'm working on the second one and then we start the joining process, yikes! 

So I'll keep you posted on how it goes!!  Miss you!!

Duckies

And not the kind that say "quack, quack".

I've been itching to make a pair of socks for months. But with all the gift knitting, I wouldn't let myself cast on for them until after all the Christmas knits were in the mail and on their way.

I finished them yesterday and immediately put them on and wore them all day!

Pattern: Duckies by Samantha Hayes

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino in colorway Sedona (this was part of my November yarn club shipment)

Modifications: The pattern calls for 10 pattern repeats on the leg before starting the heel. I prefer my socks to be a little bit shorter, so I did 7 pattern repeats instead. This was my first time knitting with Kells Sport, and there will definitely be more Kells in my future. It's sport weight, so a bit heavier, but still thin enough to fit comfortably in my Danskos. 

I love the combination of purples and browns. 

The lace pattern was really easily memorized and I barely needed the pattern at all for the second sock. 

One of my knitting goals for 2011 is to knit one pair of socks per month. I'm going to cheat and count these as January's socks since it will probably take me all month to finish the sweater for Seth's Dad.

I also have one more skein of handspun yarn for the shop update tomorrow (11am Pacific Time)

Touch of Gold Merino/Silk (80/20) spun from Two if by Hand roving (Stringtown Grocery colorway)

The merino/silk spins up beautifully and has a gorgeous shine to it that was really hard to capture on the camera.

I started a fairly big custom spinning job (12 ounces) last night, and I can't wait to see what it looks like all plied up. The roving is gorgeous light blue, white, and grey. The color changes are really subtle, but absolutely beautiful. 

Well...the goal today is to make some headway on the sweater for Seth's dad, so I better get to it!

Love,

liz

Secret Knitting REVEALED!

Merry Christmas to you, too!! Hope you guys had a wonderful day with lots of time with family and good food :) Little Charlotte is looking so grown up all of a sudden! I love the hat you made her...adorable! Also love the naughty/nice pictures of the vest. hehe.

Are you ready for the Christmas Knits to be revealed?? Make sure you are sitting...there are a bunch.

Let's start with the slippers:

Knit For: Joe

Pattern: Felted Loafer Slipper by Lorilee Beltman

Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky

Modifications: None. These are knit in chunky yarn held double and then felted. It was definitely challenging trying to figure out how big they needed to be without having the right size feet here!

I ordered leather slipper bottoms to hopefully prolong the life of the slippers.

Knit for: Desi

Pattern: Felted Clogs by Fiber Trends

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Ravelry Red

Modifications: None. Yarn held double throughout the slippers. 

These ones also have leather bottoms.

Next Up: The Mittens

Knit for: Kaitlin

Pattern: Eugenia's Mittens by Mollie Woodworth

Yarn: MadelineTosh Vintage in Isadora

Modifications: None. This is a fabulous free pattern on Ravelry. Mollie made these mittens and a bunch of us expressed interest in the pattern, so she kindly wrote it up and posted it on rav.

Knit for: Jacky (my BIL's fiance)

Pattern: All the Water by Kristen Kapur

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Springvale Super Merino in Slight of Hand

Modifications: None. I made the medium/large size and followed the pattern exactly. 

Knit for: Seth's Mom

Pattern: Portland Mittens by Carrie Bostick Hoge in "New England Knits"

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Springvale Super Merino in "Slight of Hand", "Illusion", and "Smoke and Mirrors"

Modifications: I had a lot of trouble getting gauge on these mittens. I ended up going down several needle sizes and did the cuff on size 3s and the mittens on size 5s. According to the pattern the thumb should have been the lighter teal color, but I thought it looked better as matching the main color. I'm definitely going to be making another pair of these...they fit awesome and they were a super easy knit once I figured out what needle size to use.

Now...there should be one more pair of mittens on here. Except I apparently forgot to take a picture of them! I made a pair of felted mittens for my Dad and will post a picture here once I get one. Oops.

And, last but not least...The Hats:

Knit for: Jonathon 

Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood

Yarn: Madelinetosh Vintage in Jade

Modifications: None. Love, love love this. Seth will be getting his very own Koolhaas probably sometime next week. Poor husband got neglected in the knitting department for Christmas.

I love the way the top decreases look on this.

Knit for: Matt

Pattern: Family of Ribbed Hats by Joelle Hoverson from "More Last Mintue Knitted Gifts"

Yarn: Madelinetosh Vintage in Terrarium 

Modifications: None. This was super easy and super duper fast. And...the beauty is that it fits pretty much any head because it's so stretchy. 

I do have the sweater for Seth's dad to finish...the goal is to have it done by the first week in February when we go back for Jonathon's wedding. I have about 1/3 of it done, so I should be able to finish...I just need to really concentrate on only knitting that for a while. 

We had a really lovely Christmas, and I'll post more about that later :)

Love,

liz :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Liz!  
This is, per usual, a very overdue post!  I've had bunches to tell you but was pretty busy with all of the pre-holiday planning, knitting and babysitting!  First- updates on knitting... Remember the vest I made Drew?  Well here are some photos he sent me (with much prompting from my friend Jenna...).  They are equal parts terrifying and entertaining:

The Nice One:

The Naughty Ones!

I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself!  That night I got a message requesting a knitted pair of socks.  Ut oh...  Much still to catch up on though, including this vest for dad and maren's other glove... which I'm actively working on...  

I also did a little knitting for the tree- a ball for each tree in our family (Em & Tym, Maren, my parents and Franklin's mom.  Still need to make one for Franklin and I... but again, I'm still not finished with a bit of holiday knitting!!)  They came from Interweave Knits a while back- it was a multi pack of patterns for the holiday.  I liked this one the best and to be honest, they were really easy.  

I also got a photo from Patricia, our camp nurse, with a few photos of her little man wearing a sweater I made him!  I put them up on Ravelry, take a peek when you can!  In addition to the balls, I made Charlittle some special gifts :)  A tutu, which I found in a Family Fun magazine (such great crafting projects!)  which she hasn't warmed to in the slightest... She kind of cried when we put it on her, but hopefully it will grow on her!  These are some "in progress" shots...

I also made her a wee hat to go with her very Canadian snowsuit :)  Hopefully I'll get the full ensemble on film soon :)  but for now, here is the hat and little Miss in her Christmas outfit!  

More to update later, including some yummy food to share, but for now, I will wish you and Sheffy a Merry Christmas!!  

Love,

Charlotte