FO Cover Song

Here is my second go at the Chelsea Market Hat.  This one was done up in US6 and US9 needles using Malabrigo RIOS. SO YUMMY.





I did run in to one tiny little problem. I was so excited to cast on that I didn't block my swatch, so when I finished the hat and it was a lovely fitting beanie, I suddenly became afraid of blocking it. What if it grew too big during blocking?

I did some time lord swatching, blocked it, seemed OK. Just to be safe, I wove some crochet thread around the brim and cinched it as tight as possible during blocking.

The hat turned out perfect! I think the crochet thread was the key to success in this project, I'm very happy with how it turned out, but I'm pretty sure the brim would have stretched too much without the reinforcement!



As always, check out Tami's for more FOs.

WIP a Garden in Time

Hey everyone!

Here is a project that I've been working on since October that hasn't seen a whole lot of blog time. The Something Pretty blanket. It's a crochet blanket, done in squares. My goal is to end up with 50 total. Right now I have 25 flowers, but they still need the square border around them.

I've been working on this pretty much exclusively at work. It's a nice small, portable project, plus it's a cinch to memorize. I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to finish this by the end of December. Which is good, because this is my dissertation project for Nerd Wars.  

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to visit Tami's for more WIPs. 

Spinning FO

Hey blog!

I recently finished spinning 4 oz of 100% organic Polwarth from Gale's Art. It was amazing fiber and I can't wait to get some more!

Here are some pictures :)

400 yards 18 WPI.

As always check out Tami's for more FOs! 

WIP Stars for Xmas

Hello everyone!

Before I start, just like to mention that my most recent video blog went up on Monday. If you have time to listen to a random knitter talk....


Now on to WIPs!  At fist glance this might seem like an FO post because I have already finished two of these stars, but because I plan on making GOBS of them to put on my Christmas Tree, I think they still count as a WIP!

The pattern is called stjarna, and the designer is Karolina Eckerdal. I'm enjoying this pattern, as I get to feel very clever when my worked in the round square shape suddenly develops points and starts to look start like :)

This project is going to be my Nerdology entry for R2 of Nerd Wars. The challenge is to explain how it relates to some other Nerdy thing that you enjoy (Wave your flag high.) For this challenge, I'm going to explain how I was a VERY nerdy anime geek and spent 5 years studying Japanese in college, this project specifically is linked to an anime called CLANNAD, where one of the female characters is obsessed with starfish and thinks that everything star shaped is meant to be that sea creature. It makes me smile thinking of how she would look at my star-studded Christmas Tree and see nothing but starfish! 

For more WIPs, check out Tami's!

Grateful for clean water

Hello blog!

I'd like to start off this post with a little bit of thanksgiving. What am I thankful for? Clean water. My whole life I have been able to drink water straight from the tap, without fear of getting sick. Knowing that our water is safe and clean enough for drinking without filtration. I've taken that blessing for granted, and two weeks ago I got a wake up call. I got horribly sick off of our tap water. It had started to smell GROSS and taste a bit off - but I'm used to having a really over developed sense of smell while on PMS and my husband didn't notice anything, so I continued to drink the water. I kept getting worse and worse and didn't start to improve until I switched to drinking only tea (boiled water) and juice. I found out this weekend from friends that our drinking water was actually contaminated with algae and that there had be news articles about it (here, and here, for instance. ) Yesterday, a nice man dropped by our house and asked us to set up an appointment to have our tap water tested. Hmmm. Guess there is no such thing as coincidences, huh? I also found this article about a Nuclear waste spill not too far from where we live, that contaminated drinking water.  0.0 If I got sick off of nuclear spillage I'd really rather not know. Of course most likely the problem with my water was just a little bit of an algae pandemic, but either way, the point is that I love water and maybe I should start paying a little more attention to where my water is coming from and what is in it. Living in a first would country has no guarantees!


Anyway, back to knitting. Round 2 of Nerd Wars has started!!

So far I've cast on a hat in malabrigo RIOS, the most yummy delicious yarn ever, started spinning my galestart braid, and cast on the first of my knitted star tree ornaments. I'd post pictures but honestly? I just don't have the energy for that.  I will link to a cool video tutorial that I found today on how to use a cable needle to do a provisional cast on instead of waste yarn:

Enjoy!

Destress with spinning

Hello all,

So I missed a week of posting.  I've always known that knitting and spinning are really helpful ways to manage stress, but I think I sort of took it for granted. I took a few weeks off of spinning, because I got a bit of a spinning injury doing that lace. I felt so frazzled and stressed without my spinning! Knitting can be useful for destresing, but only if it's simple. I've been making mistake after mistake in my knitting lately so I've just been taking it easy with some granny squares.  I started missing spinning so much that I pulled out my little supported spindle from Hipstrings and worked on my cotton spinning a bit.

But today I started spinning a braid from galesart on my wheel. ooooooh, Wheel how I missed you!

Galesart is the highlighted artest for this cycles SAL in the Completely Twisted and Arbitrary group on raverlry. SALs are so useful and helpful for learning and for inspiration! I know my spinning has improved exponentially with the two SALs that I've already done, and look forward to learning more from the spinning community :)

Also round 1 of Nerd Wars ended! I successfully Dwarfed The Nebula, which is just a fancy way of saying I completed all five challenges. It is not a requirement, but you get a fancy badge and bragging rights if you do.

 

 

I also got an honorary badge from Team one more page because I mentioned a book (The Belgaraid by David Eddings ) in one of my challenge posts!