Knitting Content

Hemlock Ring Throw

The Cascsade Eco Wool yarn that I ordered from a Washington knitting shop was backordered so I ordered some from JimmyBeansWool. I want the throw to be finished and blocked by December 18th. I immediately casted on with a J/1o crochet hook. I magic looped the first 9 rounds then switched to 2 circs. I had to sleep on it to understand how to knit and purl 9 stitches into a double yarn over. Instead of using BrooklynTweed's pattern in which the blocked diameter of the throw is about 4 feet, I'm using the Hemolock Ring KAL pattern that's on yahoo. I want my throw's diameter to be about 5 feet.

Harmony Needles

I'm using US 10.5 Harmony interchangable needles. I bought 2 sets of the 10.5 needles, 40 inch and 47 inch cables to try out. I'm going to have 600 plus stitches on the circs and I didn't want them to be crowded. When I knit lace, I have to constantly count stitches. I didn't want to miscount stitches because they're crowded.

Secret Pal Socks

These are the Apple Harvest Socks I knitted for my downstream secret pal. I used White Willow Market's superwash socks in the SnapDragon colorway. I hope she likes them. I hope they fit too. I used the foot circumference times my sock yrn gauge to get the right number of cast on stitches. The Apple Harvest socks made me see that a heel flap can be knitted in k1p1 with a continuation of the leg pattern. I'm understanding more about sock designing. I particularly like this photo because the hot pink in the yarn looks hot pink instead of orange. I've learned from reading Adrienne's interview of BrooklynTweed that the best light for taking photos is natural light. You'll be seeing better pictures from me.

First Toe Up Socks
For my next sock project, I'm making the Lace Rib socks from SNS. The sock yarn is Madeleine Tosh's Superwash in the Vermillion colorway. The socks are for a pal's who's birthday was in November. (Yeah I late again.) I wanted to try something new and try again to do short row heels. I'm going to use Kathleen Taylor's NoWrap Short Row Heel.

I casted on using Judy Becker's Magic cast on for toe up socks that I read about at knitty.com. I'm a visual learner so I looked at the Cat Bordhi videos on youtube to see how to do the magic cast on and the left and right increases. I casted on 40 stitches, half the total number of stitches I need.

You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. You're totally weird and very proud of it. Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way. Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

What American City Are You?

I'm "totally weird, artistic, freaky." LMAO

An Embarssment of Riches, Part One: SP11 LOOT!!!!!!!

I'm speechless. I'm in shock. I'm stupefied, astonished, amazed......



I have received my last package from my wonderful SP 11 secret pal who's knitwear and accessories designer, KT! In a previous package, KT sent me the beautiful Sari Silk bag. She told me that the pattern was featured in the Summer 2007 edition of Black Purl Magazine. What she didn't tell me was that she was THE DESIGNER!!! I feel sooo special. :-)

In this package Celestial Waters lotion bar(that I'm lovin' ), Addi turbo US 1 lace circ, cute retractable tape measure, 2 skeins of Regia sock yarn and.....

A scarf for my roommate. My roomie is recovering from uterine cancer surgery and KT was nice enough to make her this scarf using her Mistaken Rumour Scarf pattern. The teal in scarf I'm going to use the pattern to make my lil brother the scarf he's been wanting me to make him.



KT said this pretty purple scarf "just screams me." She's right and I love wearing it. It's soo soft.

Thank you so much KT. I love handmade gifts.

SP11 Favorites

A list of my favorites:

Actor - Denzel Washington

Actress - Julia Roberts

Animal - Golden retriever dog

Band - No Doubt

Book - The Color Purple

Bubble Bath - Any of the Bath&Body Works body washes

Candy - Chocolate anything

Color - Purple

Flower - Daisies and pansies

Food - Spaghetti with meat sauce

Lip Balm - Pucker Ups MediLip

Lotion -Victoria Secret Love's Spell Body Butter

Movie - Fargo

Song - there's so many.... at the moment it's Bubbly by Colbie Caillat and Jill Scott's new album

TV Show - House

Vacation Spot - Austin, Tx

My Fugly 1st Scarf

Christine, my SP11 hostess, wants to know about the worst item I have ever knit/crochet. What was it? Who was it for? What went wrong? Did I give it to the intended recipient, hide it away never again to see the light of day, frog it, or just throw it in the trash?

Yarn: Feza Iplik Hawaii in red

It took me 2 days but I found it. I hid it in a box full of old books. This drop stitch scarf is the very 1st scarf I ever knitted. It was my second knit project. I picked out the yarn intending to make a beautiful scarf that I would proudly wear.

The combination of the fun fur and 100% straight nylon yarn and my inexperience made an uneven tensioned scarf. I had a hard time with the drop stitches. Not only did I have drop stitching in the straight yarn, the pattern called for me to do drop stitches in the fur fur sections. I would get lost and rip back to a garter stitch row alot. I got so frustrated with this scarf that I went back to the yarn store, complained, and bought a skein of Elsebeth Lavold and knit me a simple garter stitch scarf. I was determined to finish the drop stitch scarf which I did. You can tell that I never intended to wear the scarf because I didn't weave the ends in.


Now, I'm not saying that fun fur is ugly and should never be used. I went on to make a few scarves with it and they came out lovely. In fact the scarf, I knitted for my cousin, T, is one of the most beautiful things that I've knitted. (I didn't take pictures of it.) I was even thinking of keeping that scarf for myself because I liked it so much.














I went to the Feza Iplik website to show you a picture of another knitted scarf using the Hawaii yarn but the picture has been taken down. It's like Feza Iplik doesn't want claim any involvement with the yarn either. lol

Now, I offer these picture to those who have read this post and don't want the pictures of my scarf burned into their retinas. Look at the pretties......

I'm being spoiled in the BEST way

I received my first package from my GREAT SP11 spoiler.



She gave me very pretty notecards. How did she know that I really like pansies? She also gave me a ball of the Sugar n Cream Stripes self patterning cotton yarn. There's a placemat pattern on the inside. I'm going to call Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's to see if the carry the yarn so I can make myself some placemats.



She sent me a beautiful tote made from sari silk. I LOVE HANDMADE GIFTS! :-) I'm going to use it as a purse. I'm taking it when I have lunch with my friend, N this week. She's a handbag collector. She changes purses almost every day. N will like that I switched purses. N bought me a purse for a few months ago because she was tired of looking at the one I was using. N is soo girly. Anyway, the sari silk tote is a nice texture and is soft. My spoiler also sent me 2 balls of the sari silk. Is it bad swapper etiquette to start making something with the yarn in your package before you take pictures of it? I saw the yarn and immediately thought I could make a crocheted cosmetic bag with it. The pattern is in my Getting Started Crochet book.

Speaking of books, my spoiler sent me Ann Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks!!! YAY!!!!! (I'm grinning ear to ear). I've learned one tip on how to fix the holes at the gusset in my socks. I'll post more about what I learned reading the book.



Thank you very much my Secret Pal. I appreciate you taking the time to make me the tote. You're a very good knitter. Let me know where I can find the pattern for it. And I'm praying for rain in your part of the country. We've had a wet summer this year. I'm glad that it hasn't been too hot, but I'm tires of all this rain.