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.