Callandra... my birthday socks

Long time no see. I've been knitting I've been participating in the Makin Cookies kal on Rav. April's kal was a Cookie A pattern knitter's choice. I've been wanting to knit Cookie's Flicker socks since last summer. I'm calling these my birthday socks.



pattern: Flicker
yarn: Colinette Jitterbug Velvet Plum
needle: US 1.5 Addi 40"
cast on: April 1, 2009
cast off: April 26, 2009

Yep It's my birthday. I'm 41. Time flies by. This "baby" picture of was taken when I was about 5 years old. This pic signifies the start of the love affair I had with turtleneck tops. I finally stopped wearing them when I was in my 30s lol



My mom wouldn't let me wear makeup until I was 18, but she never stopped me from wearing jewelry. I'm rockin' those huge earrings lol

April Birthday Swap Loot

Look what my wonderful and thoughtful birthday twin (not quite hers is today mine's tomorrow) sent me :D



Death by Sudoku novel..... sudoku is a favorite puzzle of mine
purple darning needles
pretty Tofusies sock yarn..... :D
Wildflower Garden seeds
Butterfly photo clip
seashells...I collect them :)
a flowery birthday card
a wonderful letter
purple and green stitchmarkers which I need because I'm always losing mine

THANK YOU SO MUCH my birthday twin!

Happy St. Patrick's Day/Jade Hederas

So my blog doesn't get pinched:



Man, those socks made my ankles look like cankles. The Jade Hederas were a quick, easy knit and stretchy. I was kind iffy about the long heel flag. It seemed like it was extra long and would not fit my foot. Others on the Makin' Cookie board posted the same doubts. It fits though.

I bought a skein and a half of Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Olive to make the socks. The socks took less than a full skein. I have enough yarn leftover from the full skein to make matching mini sock for my sock blocker key chain.



pattern: Hedera by Cookie A from knitty.com
yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Olive.... a gorgeous, vivid green
needle: US 1.5 Addi 40" circ
Size: 10 wide
start: March 1, 2009
finish: March 12, 2009

Pretties

My newest acquisition from the Loopy Ewe:



Dream in Color Smooshy in the Purple Rain and Romero Blue colorways. My picture doesn't do them justice. I saw that purple and the name and knew I had to buy it. I went to high school in the 80s so I immediately connected the colorway with Prince. I bought the blue sight unseen. Susan didn't have a picture up yet. I connected that name with Lenny Kravitz's stage name. Both the yarn and him are eye candy. The blue is my favorite shade of blue, a cobalt blue. I'll use both yarns to make socks when the Makin' Cookies kal for the Sock Innovations book by my favorite sock designer, Cookie A, starts.

TOL Weeks 5&6

Knitting the second set of trees was easier and quicker this time around. I just needed to pay attention to what I was doing. I'm still on track to finish the afghan by Good Friday.



Besides knitting the afghan, I was able to knit the first sock of a pair of Jade Hederas. I won't even show you a picture of the first sock because I'll be done with the second one by this time next week. Ok instead I linked it.

One last thing, I forgot to tell you about this site in an earlier post on low days. Cake Wrecks! a good site go to if you need a laugh. Take a look around the site and let me know what you think about the plaid cake interpretation. LOL

Where's winter

Its not here. It's so hot in Corpus Christi that birds are playing in water sprinklers to cool off. Those "winter Texans" just cannot take the heat.



I took this picture with my camera phone at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The blue you see in the picture is the Bay of Corpus Christi aka Gulf of Mexico. Sorry for the fuzzy pic.

Puts a smile on my face every time

Grace over at LovinComfortKnits wanted to know what helps me on a low day. I wrote that knitting, phoning/emailing/hanging out with a friend, and going to the beach to watch the sun set helps me. Also listening to dance music. One song that puts me in a good mood is Work That by Mary J. Blige. This song cheers me up, gets me moving and puts a smile on my face every time I hear it.

YAY!!!!! I'm a Winner!!!!

Look what I won in the contest Grace(LovinComfortKnits) had on her blog:



Elann.com's Black Soie Bambou yarn in a cone!

and extra goodies: a cute card, pomegranate tea, berryblossom tea and chocolates!

THANK YOU SO MUCH Grace! I'm thrilled with my prizes.

5th Photo Meme

MissMe, tagged me for this meme.

Here’s how it works:
Find your 5th photo file folder, then the 5th photo in that file folder.
Then pass the meme to 5 people.



I'm not sure how my laptop is compiling and organizing the list of my photo files. I took that picture back in August of 2008. Its a picture of the bonus goodies(cute bag, US 1.5 Addi circ, US 2 metal dpns) I sent to my spoilee in the Purple Rules! swap over on Ravelry. I went back and bought one of those cute bags for myself.

Now I have to tag 5 people. Hopefully they'll play along.
1. Darcy: great pictures and cute models :)
2. Grace: lace knitting is a skillful art and she's a great artist :)
3. AllyB: I love her food pics :)
4. Britknitter: socks socks socks! :)
5. Ponyknits: let's all pray that her 5th photo is of Kenny Chesney :p

TOL Weeks # 3 and 4

I feel accomplished. I've made it through the flower garden pattern, and I'm a third of the way through knitting the TOL. I managed to remember to increase into the first stitch of the flower pattern, but still the section had some pitfalls for me.

1. I misread the instructions on how to make the leaves and grabbed(yanked is more like it) the arms of 6th stitch down to make the leaves.

2. Sometimes, I didn't do the psso of leaf loop and had 1 too many stitches in the next row.

I ended up tinking and reknitting those 2 rows twice then I was satisfied with how they looked. I'm so so glad there's a TOL kal group because I was able to look through the tutorials to see what I was doing wrong with the leaves. Ya'll have a good week and try not to work too hard!

Pink Maelstroms aka Dualla Socks

I LOVE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I'm a BIG fan of Battlestar Galactica, the reimaging series. Its final season is airing on the SciFi channel. I try to watch the episodes on Friday night but its hard to do because I work when its on so I usually rush home on Saturday morning so I can watch the episode on hulu.com. I spend countless hours reading and posting messages on the BSG ravelry group message board. I love the show so much that I bought Seasons 1 thru 4.0 on dvd.

I love the show so much that I knit a pair of Cookie A's Maelstrom Socks for a knitalong being held on the BSG Ravelry group. (That isn't as bad as naming the dog I had years ago Lt. Geordi LaForge, a Star Trek:TNG character, or so I've been told.) We had to choose a pattern whose name was the same as a BSG character or episode title or use a yarn that was inspired by the series. I chose to knit a pair of Maelstrom. Maelstrom is the title of an episode in Season 3 that dealing with Starbuck. I named my Maelstroms after one of my favorite female characters, Lt. Anastacia Dualla, fleet communications officer. She's the one that'll give you good advice you're having doubts.

FO: Pink Maelstroms aka Dualla Socks

This pattern is a quick knit.... very, very easy to memorize.The socks only took me 6 days to knit; technically Feb 6 thru Feb 16, but I only knit them on the days I worked plus one Monday.

pattern: Maelstrom by Cookie A featured in Twist Collective
yarn: Sock That Rock! lightweight in Rosebud
needle: US 1.5 Addi 40" magic loop method
modifications: I used STR lighweight yarn that has a gauge of 7 spi for me instead of the Knittery Merino Chubby Sock that has a gauge of 8spi/the leg has 8 pattern reps instead of 9
Size: US women's 10 wide

***If you're watching the series, please post only spoiler free comments. A buddy who reads my blog has only seen Season 1***

Sock Mosaic

So this was what I was knitting when I took my blogging subbatical. If you want, check out my Ravelry project page for more info.



The highlights:
The brown socks on the top left are my oldest brother's socks. I'm going to write up the pattern after I finish the TOL. I need to knit the socks again in a ladies version. I have permission from Hello Yarn to publish her Irish Hiking Scarf pattern that I modified into a pair of socks. It'll be my first "published" pattern.
The red socks in the center are made with Madeline Tosh's Tosh sock yarn. The picture doesn't do them justice. I had a hard giving them up!
The black socks in the lower right are for nephew#4 and they're little and cute just like he is.

Happy Valentine's Day/Single Awareness Day

Here's one of my favorites:



I had a poster of Andy Gibb on my bedroom wall when I was a teen. I had the biggest crush on him. Have a love filled day everyone!

TOL Week #2 and Purl Increases

I finished week 2 of the TOL last week, but haven't had time to post about until now. I finished the top of the trees and I love how it looks. I think this afghan will be one of the items I'm going to have a hard time parting with.

If you , dear reader, is thinking of knitting the TOL spend the $4 and buy the Lion's Brand pattern. It comes with a chart for the trees that's sooo sooo helpful!

Next up is the dividing pattern section and flower section. I'm going to have to do a purl increase. I looked up purl increases in the net and I found a great video on how to do an invisible one. The video's author and producer is Annie Modesitt aka the Knitting Heretic. One day when I'm a better knitter, I'll knit her Kimono Swing Coat.



The purl increase can lean to the left or right depending on how you do it. I'm not sure which increase I'll use. Both look great.

Tree of Life Week #1 Completed

I've set up a weekly schedule to follow so I don't get behind in my knitting the Tree of Life(TOL). Each week, I knit approximately 30 rows. If I stay on schedule, I'll be done with it by Good Friday in April. That's twelve weeks of knitting which includes knitting the main section in 10 weeks, knitting and sewing the tulip border in 1 week plus an extra week if I get behind.




Week one consisted of me knitting the trunks and some of the branching of the first set of trees. Its not mindless knitting nor is it overly complicated. I just have to pay attention to what I'm doing. The cables are 2/2 and 2/1 ones. I tried knitting it during the Super Bowl(Yay!!! Go Steelers!!)and my increases looked jacked up. I followed the M1 increase instructions provided in the pattern and I had holes wherever there was an increase. I ripped back to row 15 and reknit the increases and beginning branches. This time I used Amy's M1L andM1R nvisible increases and I liked how they looked... plus there were no holes! The yarn is Lion's Brand Wool Ease in the Fisherman(neutral/natural)colorway. This first skein has knots in it and I've gotten good practice at doing the Russian join. Overall, I'm pleased with how the afghan looks so far.

Pleiades Clue #1 Completed

I decided to name my Mystic Star shawl Pleiades. Pleiades is a cluster of hot blue stars in the constellation of Taurus. On a clear night you can see the star cluster around 8pm.



pattern: Mystic Star Shawl by (knit&knag) Anna Dalvi
yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr in Indigo

Knitting Goals 2009

I have some lofty knitting goals for 2009. I want to be a more adventurous knitter and break out of my easy sock pattern and only knit socks mode. I hope do much better than I did in 2008.

1. Knit for myself 7 pairs of socks...one for each day of the week.

2. Be a more adventurous socknitter. I joined the Crafty Bus over on Ravelry and I knitting a pair of Baroque Socks for January. Its going much quicker since I put the cable needle down. The yarn is Louet Gems fingering weight sock yarn in Linen Grey and I really like it!




3. Knit and finish(or complete one already started) two the following lace shawls:
Adamas Shawl I started in February 2008
Angel Shawl I wanted to knit in 2008
Mystic Light Shawl I started in 2008.... in March I think
Mystic Star Shawl that I'll start on Monday... I concide that I'll get behind but I want to finish
it. I seem to be able to finish things knit in the round
Swallowtail Shawl I started in December 2008 when I was briefly tired of knitting socks

4. Knit either the Lily of the Valley Stole or Triinu's Vine and Leaf Shawl for myself.

5. Knit the Tree of Life Afghan for a buddy and Saffron Cables Afghan for my brother and his wife for Christmas. Oh yeah, this is an odd year so I'm only knitting one Christmas present everyone else gets store bought stuff. I start the Tree of Life Afghan(TOL) on Monday too.

Long time No See!!!

I feel like blogging so here it goes. What's been going on with me? Well here's the short version:

1. I moved into a new place... an apartment. I cannot at this time have pets :( but I hoping to talking my landlords into a small adult potty trained dog. Think good thoughts for me.

2. I bought a Blackberry so I'm now hip like the President..... some of you know why... sigh

3. I was sick for 3 weeks in December..... Upper resp. colds are horrible!

4. And I've done some knitting... I'll not hit you with it all at once, but over several posts.

Twelly Socks



Pattern: Garter Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy Black Parade
Needles: US 1.5 Addi Turbo 2 at once method for most of them
Modifications: none
Start: September 16, 2008
Finish: December 5, 2008

I feel like doing a kal so I joined the Mystic Star kal on yahoo. Lets see if I finish this one lol.



I knitted a gauge swatch (good for me!) with my chosen yarn, Jaggerspun Zephyr in Indigo. The dimensions are suppose to be 4.9 x 5.5..... mine's 5 x 6. For once I don't have to go up a needle size.