Black Sheep Gathering 2008 - The Haul

Here's what followed me home from the Black Sheep Gathering this year. I think I'm going need a bigger coffee table if I keep this up.  I had to go get another storage bin last night to keep all this stuff safe, and it filled the whole thing!

And yes, those are 8 hanks of Socks That Rock, and enough fiber for more than 3 sweaters.  Hey, I never claimed to have self control.  

If you want more details, I talked about the festival on the podcast this week.  I'm also going to be talking about it more in the next few shows.

Now, considering it's before 6:00am on a Sunday, I'm going to go get myself a Caramel Machiato from Starbucks.

Have a great Sunday!!

Well, Well...What Do We Have Here...?

Could it be?  Is it?  Why, yes!  It is a finished pair of Monkey socks!

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. (free on Knitty.com).

Yarn: Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennet in the Awakening Earth colorway.

Needles: 2.5mm 32" Knitpicks circular needle.

Started and finished in less than a week!  I wasn't sure how much yarn I'd have for these, so I opted for only 4 ankle repeats.

More on the podcast this week.  I almost sound normal!

Mr. Greenjeans - Modeled!

We finally got a bit of sunshine today, and I took that to mean that it was meant to be that I get a few pictures of me modeling Mr. Greenjeans. 

This is my favorite sweater ever! It fits perfectly, and the color is really great on me - if I do say so myself!

I think I will definitely be knitting at least one more for me (and maybe one for my mom).
This is the medium size and it took about 3.25ish skeins of Dream In Color Classy in the Blue Lagoon colorway (teal is my fave!).

I had to wear my new Love (1) Ravelry tee, because that is really how I feel about this sweater.

I can't believe how slimming it is.  I guess it nips in at just the right place.

The only alteration I made was knitting plain ribbing on the sleeves, and ending the bottom of the sweater with a bit of plain ribbing.  Other than that, it's knit exactly as written.

PS.  The podcast will be back next Saturday (I've been battling a really bad sinus infection all week and I still don't sound normal).

Well, what are you waiting for?  Go knit your own Mr. Greenjeans!

Apparently I Fell Off The Face of The Earth!

Mr. Greenjeans is finished!  

In the end I opted for 4 buttons.  

The yarn I used was Dream In Color Classy and I just used 3 and a bit skeins.  This yarn is fabulous! 

The colorway is Blue Lagoon.

Sorry to be a bit absent from the blog lately.  Work has been crazy and the podcast has been really time consuming.

I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend relaxing - and doing minimal stuff for work.  I might go and get a new Lexie Barnes bag - you know the one that's just little and rectangular and has a detachable strap?  I think it would make a great summer purse.  For some reason I like that yellow and brown-ish colorway.   I've got to ditch my huge white leather purse.  It's too heavy and definitely needs cleaning.  It's actually a lot more grey and dingy than white.

I hope you're all having a great one!  

PS.  Episode 5 - Do Not Fear The Short Row is ready for download.

More Wool Tourism is Afoot!

I am so totally jazzed! Stu and I decided to drive down to Eugene, Oregon and go to the Black Sheep Gathering in June! Woot!

Does anyone know which vendors are going to be there?

I am officially on a seriously strict yarn diet - but I am going to go nuts when I'm at Black Sheep. Stu already knows this - I told him I was going to take his personal amount too (each person gets to bring a certain amount through customs for free).

I'm making super great progress on Mr. Greenjeans. I'm almost done the body. I'll definitely be finished by tonight - then it's just the sleeves and the ribbing. I'm on track to make my goal of finishing before the weekend.

I'm also hard at work on the 3rd Episode of the Manic Purl Podcast. It'll be up Saturday morning.

By the way - I just had an awesome customer service experience at the Loopy Ewe. Everyone go shop there to support a fabu store!

I hope everyone's having a great week!

I *Heart* Mr. Greenjeans...

This is exactly how far I've gotten working on Mr. Greenjeans ----

Front

I already love it!  Seriously.  I cannot wait to finish it so I can wear it!  

So far it's fitting me perfectly, and the yarn is so soft and squishy.  

Side

I love the Dream In Color Classy in Blue Lagoon.  It is so totally my color.  I actually think that I border on obsession with teal.

Back

I'll keep you posted on my progress.  I'm just about to start the cabling.

By the way -  The Manic Purl - Episode 2: Lace Stole My Heart is up.  It is also searchable on iTunes!  Woot! 

Look What I Did!

ETA: Now on iTunes!  Click here to subscribe!

I made my very own knitting podcast!


I just uploaded the first episode!  Can you tell I'm excited?  

I'm still waiting for approval from iTunes, but I'll let you know as soon as I'm approved.  

For now, you can download The Manic Purl from Libsyn.  Click here to get to my Libsyn page with the link to listen.

My show notes can be found here.  

I hope you guys like it.

Hanami is Officially Finished!

Technically the Hanami Stole was finished yesterday, but officially I didn't finish it until today when I unpinned it from my blocking foam.

Since Hanami is cherry blossom inspired, the first thing I did was go outside and take a picture of it in a cherry tree. My street is lined with them, and I figured it was appropriate.



Today was a perfect first day for this shawl's debut. The weather is very warm (18 degrees celsius), but there is still the spring coolness in the air. I think shawls were made for spring and spring was made for shawls. They complement each other perfectly.  This one will be great dressed up or dressed down.  I wore it today with dark wash jeans and a black tank top, and it did not look one bit out of place.



As usual the magic of blocking has impressed me to no end. I thought the blossom end might look weird, but as soon as I blocked it the eyelets opened up and the falling blossoms were revealed. The basket weave section also opened up nicely, and the few mistakes I made in that section do not show nearly as much as I thought they would.



I am definitely going to have to pick up some blocking wires. I just used a ton of blocking pins, and the fabric comes to a little peak in every spot that I had a pin. It's not all that noticeable, but I'd still prefer to have perfectly crisp straight edges. I've heard something about running cotton string through the stitches on the outside of the shawl and then pinning the string out, but I haven't tried this yet. It seems like blocking wires would be easier.



Here are the details one last time:

Pattern: Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons of Pink Lemon Twist.
Yarn: Fiddlesticks Zephyr Laceweight in Pewter (a lovely silvery gray).
Needles: 3.5mm Addi Turbo lace needles in the 32" length.



Spring feels as if it has now officially sprung here, especially now that my 2008 spring shawl is done. I'm enjoying this Sunday with a Caramel Machiato beside me and I'm blogging from a chair on my deck.

Like the Gwen Stefani inspired "tall" hair? I can't decide whether it looks silly or cool on me. I'm leaning towards cool. Especially when I'm wearing my oversized sunglasses.

Hanami Success!

I did it!  I managed to finish Hanami!  It was touch and go there for a bit.  I am so happy with this!

Pre-Blocking

It's currently blocking, and I'm going to take it outside for some post-blocking pictures tomorrow.  I managed to meet my goal of finishing this knit before the cherry blossoms were gone.  Every tree on my street, is heavy with cherry blossoms, and I now have my own little piece of the season.  

A taste of Hanami blocking

Started:  April 5, 2008

Finished: May 3, 2008

Stats:

Pattern: Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons  

Yarn:  1.5 balls of Fiddlesticks Zephyr 50% merino 50% silk laceweight in the Pewter colorway

Changes made: None

Would I knit it again?  No, but I am absolutely smitten with this one and I'm glad I knit it.  

Etsy Finds of the Day...

I am convinced that I have found the cutest bowl ever. It's meant to be a cat dish, but I bought it to use as a candy dish. The little cat on the side reminds me of Redd.

I just couldn't stop thinking about this bowl, so I had to buy it.  

The seller is Bailey Bowls.  She was super friendly and really nice.  Go check out her shop.


My second find of the day was these little bowls---

They are small bowls for salsa and guacamole!  The maker of these bowls is LaPella Pottery.  These are going to be perfect for chips and salsa on the deck this summer.  

I really let myself splurge on these with my birthday money.  They are all things I really really like, but would not normally buy for myself.  I am so thankful that I was able to order these pieces, and I know that I will have many years of enjoyment from them in the years to come.  They are real birthday keepsakes.