Best day ever!

So I spent my afternoon with a bunch of lovely ladies from the Heart of Texas Spinners & Weavers Guild. I actually spun a little bit of absolute crap yarn, too! Yay me! It was fun, and I will admit to kicking myself at 3 a.m. that I didn't just go ahead and buy a spindle and some roving from BJ. The drafting part confuses me, but the part where I let the spin enter the fiber I drafted, oh, that is like MAGIC and I love it. Maybe I'll e-mail her... I don't know if I can wait till the next guild meeting.

Everyone there was so nice and welcoming. I never felt like an "outsider" at all. I really look forward to getting to know these ladies more. One of the gals, Joanne, brought a beeeeeeautiful lace stole that she had made out of a cashmere and silk blend. I must have some of that now. Damn her. LOL And one of the ladies, Katie, has little girls my kids' ages. I think her oldest is a tad bit older than the twins, but I bet they would have a blast playing together. Maybe even so much so that they would leave us alone and we could play with yarn.

So after a long afternoon of knitting, chatting, coffee drinking and Panera eating (and no kids!) I got home and found my latest Knitpicks order had come. Yippee. I ordered some Andean Silk for a felting project, this adorable baby hat for someone special. Shhh, it's a surprise. I guess I could have used plain wool, but I had unintentionally (grr) felted some of this Andean Silk before, and it came out so, so, so soft. Just perfect for a tiny baby head. And I might have slipped a little Shimmer into my shopping cart, in the color Grape Hyacinth. It's purple AND green! Eat that, Betty! *snicker* So pretty and soft. I can't wait to knit with it.

But that's not the good part. The good part is I got some of the new Knitpicks needles that everyone is all abuzz about. I must have got my order in early, because I hear they're back ordered about two weeks at this point. Nanny nanny boo boo! Impulse buying has its advantages.

So let me tell you about these needles. When you go and look at them on the Knitpicks site, you will say to yourself, "Oh, that's wonderful... oh, my they also... and they... they're the needles of my dreams!" And it's all true. Smooth joins, slicker than greased owl snot nickel plate, incredibly flexible cables and a point so sharp ... uh, a point so sharp that... um. Hmm. I got nothing. But they're sharp.

You really can't beat the price, either. $4.99. That is a steal for this kind of quality. I kind of wonder what Addi will do now. I mean, they kind of had the big market on the nickel plated needles (along with Inox), and now these just blow Addi Turbos (or Blunti Stumpos, as Grumperina calls them) away.

Totally unfabulous

So DH waited until the absolute last minute to wake me up today. As he was about to walk out the door, I said, "HEY WAIT! Take some pictures of me with the shawl real quick." So he found the camera, found it needed new batteries, got that squared away, and as I was getting ready to spread my arms out for THE obligatory shawl pose (seen here, here and here) he snapped the picture. I said, "Well, wait! I want to spread it out so you can see it." He said okay. So I spread my arms and prepared for my glorious shawl (oh... right, my sister's shawl) to be captured in film, and I heard, "Oh, sorry, card's full." "I'll go dump it!" I said. But no, there was no time. So even though I wanted to show you fabulous pictures of my shawl, all I have are unfabulous pics with my hair all ratty from just getting out of bed.

Sigh.

I will have FABULOUS ones soon.

Sock Pron

Mmmmm. Oooooh. Ahhhhh.





That's a Hedera from Knitty, size 1 needles, Socks That Rock in the Lapis colorway. I am an official STR addict.

Mother's Day, a.k.a. Sonia's Birthday

My baby is two years old. I cannot believe it. It seems like it was just last week I was swaddling her in blankets at the hospital and sniffing her sweet smelling baby head.

Then


Now


We had her birthday party at Pizza Hut due to extenuating circumstances (like the freakin' A/C going out AGAIN!(!!!) and the buckets of rain that would have made all our planned outdoor activities really soggy and not much fun.) I forgot the camera. Stupid! Anyway, fun was had by all.

On to Mother's Day. I made this bracelet for my mom. She LOVED it. And the green looked really good on her, too.




And knitting. I finished the Broadripple socks. I'm ashamed to admit how long ago I started them. Second Sock Syndrome bit me in the ass. So here they are on my fat ass feet.





I used Knitpicks Dancing in the Ballet colorway. Not the brightest thing I've ever done. The yarn is great, very soft and stretchy and lightweight and cool. It just doesn't work very well with this pattern. I think a more stripey variegated would have been better. Luckily I have a ton of more stripey variegated sock yarn in my increasing-by-the-day stash, so I can have a go at these again sometime. These are for my grandmother who has enormous bunions (don't worry, Grams doesn't have internet access so she'll never know I'm talking about her freakish feet) so I did a round toe instead of the pattern's toe hoping to give her more room for her weird ass feet.

P.S. Yes, that's the PUPPY in the background. She's not very smart, but if she does one thing well, it's grow. Last weight check she was 70 lbs. She is eight months old.

Ah, what the hell. Here, have a picture of her too.

Some FOs

Did my first lace shawl for my mother. The pattern is Lucy Neatby's Faroese Flower Shawl. It was a very fun knit, and what a great well-written pattern. I would definitely recommend it. The yarn is Blackberry Ridge Fingering in Loden. A very huge THANK YOU goes out to Betty who surprised me with the kit at Christmas. She's awesome. We love Betty.

Also, I have a felted tote bag. The yarn for this bag has been knit up and ripped out so many times, as you can see below. Anyway, it's finally a FO! The pattern is Glampyre's Felted Tote with Skulls and I think mine came out better than the one pictured in the pattern. The yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, and I used a tiny bit of Bernat Frenzy at the top.



I also have a few pairs of socks finished that just haven't made it into pictures yet. One pair is lost in the mountain of laundry somewhere, and the other I can't keep off DH's feet long enough to take a picture of!

Anyway, that's it for now. Currently working on a Kiri with Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud. I'm using size 1 needles instead of the needle size called for in the pattern. I swatched with a bunch of different sizes and they all looked like shit except for the size 1, so itty bitty yarn with little bitty needles it is. I'm guesstimating I'll have to do 16-18 pattern repeats to get it to the size I want. Not too bad.

Also, I'm still plugging away at the Triangles in Triangles shawl. That one's in Knitpicks Shadow, color Oregon Coast. Man, I love this yarn.

Finally I have four (blush) pairs of socks on the needles. What can I say? I love socks! And here in the fifth layer of hell, also known as "Texas anytime but January," it's something I can actually wear. I finally decided to join the rest of knittingblogland in making a pair of Jaywalkers. Those are being done in Knitpicks Sock Garden Pansy. Lovely stuff. I think they're discontinuing it, though, and that makes me a sad panda. Then I have a Broadripple in Knitpicks Dancing Ballet. That's for my 90-year-old grandmother. I hope she likes them. :)

Uh, what else. Oh, then I decided to try the two socks on one circ method, and I'm making a modified Fancy Silk Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks in Knitpicks Sock Memories Easter. I call them my Finding Nemo socks, because that's just what the colors remind me of, plus the little lace pattern looks like bubbles in an aquarium.

And finally a really cool fair isle sock that uses one solid color and one self-striping yarn to achieve a really neat effect. I'll have to get some pics of the WIPs, and I promise to stop neglecting my blog.

Gee, looking at this entry, you'd think I like Knitpicks, huh? I'm all for supporting local economy and all that jazz, but with gas being 3.00 a gallon there's no way I'm driving an hour away to the nearest LYS. LOL I really wish someone would open a LYS here in my town. Actually, I really wish I had the balls, resources and know-how to do it, but naaaaaaah.

Auction goodies

So we're having an auction on Twinshock to benefit the hurricane victims. Here's my offerings. I must say, this bag is SO freakin' cute. Another one is in the works for ME.

First we have a cute little crocheted star baby blanket. This one is going to stay with me. I'll be making a custom one for the winner. This thing was a BITCH to start, but once I got going on it, it was so easy it was boring.





Next, moving right along, we have a dildo cozy. Every woman in America needs one of these. If you have any *ahem* glassware, you know what I'm talking about. It has a convenient drawstring handle. Oh, I guess you could probably use it as a water bottle carrier, too, if you're a prude.



And now, for image overload. My purse. *choir of angels*

This is a ripoff of the ridiculously expensive Margaret Nicole bags. As seen on Sex in the City and in Vogue Magazine. Ooh-la-la.

The front:




A close up of the front because the color's not really true in the others, but it is in this blurry one:




Here's a look at the inside with a well-known object for perspective:



And here's a look at the liner and outside together. I really did find the perfect fabric.



One last look. Loves it!

I've been a verah busy girl

I love Knit Picks' Andean Silk. I want to marry it. Here's what I've been up to. Plus I finished the first panel of my baby blanket. Weeeeeeee! One down, six to go. If someone were to get pregnant right now, I'd have the perfect first birthday present for their baby at the rate I'm going. LOL








That one is the Silk Twist in Prairie. Drool.






Oh, and I finally got out my bead board after months of neglecting it. Knitting is so much more fun than making jewelry, but making jewelry nets faster results. And pretty too!