I finished a hat!!! Also, one fingerless mitt...

I finished Michael's hat (Part Deux). I think he looks good in it. It is not itchy as well, which is good.
I also knit one fingerless glove. It doesn't do me a whole lot of good right now, being one fingerless glove.
It's Spirogyra in Malabrigo Silky Merino in Plum Blossom (the short version). Here is a link to the pattern.

HAPPY KNITTING AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I finished the Cowl-Hoodie.

It turned out so well!!!!!!!!


I am as happy with this project as I have been with any in a long time. It serves its purpose admirably. It is long enough in the back to cover my neck and tuck into my coat and clings to my face to keep the wind out. I wore it out yesterday into the weather we have been having here in New England this weekend. It needs to stop snowing already.

Look, it's a tube!!!
I hope everyone is having a Happy Chanukah!!! We didn't manage to get potatoes today due to the aforementioned weather-it is gross out there.

I did some knitting on another small project-I started another hat for Michael because the other one was too scratchy.

We spent a fair bit of time grouting the rest of the tile today.

Here is the result of that darn snow.

We used to have stairs now we have a slide!!!

Happy Knitting!

I've been busy knitting!

I've been so busy knitting. I have done a lot of work on the Chuppah.

First, I picked the new stitch pattern for the top lace pattern. It's the Lighted Torches pattern. It's again, picked for symbolic reasons and because it is so pretty.Here is the "money shot." It's grown quite large. Soon it shall take over the entire house and we shall be swallowed up in white yarn. Garrr, I am the Chuppah coming to eat you!
Here is the new stitch pattern at the top, then the middle candle tree pattern, then the bottom stitch.
Here is a close up of the first repeat of the new stitch pattern.

I finally washed and am blocking Michael's socks. They are drying as we speak!

I am about 80% done with the Hoodie-Cowl. It is so warm and soft and this yarn is luscious. I am going to knit a pair of fingerless gloves/mittens when I am done with this. My top choices are marked as favorites on my ravelry page-under KnittingDefender.
Happy Knitting (and Holidays!!!)

Rip and Restart!

Isn't it funny how the word Rip-which in my case this past week meant to rip out my Cowl Hood is also spelled with the letters Rest In Peace initials. I did not let this yarn just rest in peace. I restarted the project.

I've now got five inches done of this 1X1 ribbing. It's pretty soothing and mindless to work on and is pretty nice feeling. I knit it onto a larger needle than the 24 inch one I am using so that I could try it on and it is a good size. I knit it back onto the 24 inch needle after trying it on. Here you see it propped up on our wine cooler.
Here it is laying flat. The color here is really washed out, sorry!The reason for the restart? I didn't like the way the stockinette edge was curling up. Happy Knitting!

BEHOLD THE POWER OF RIBBING!!!

Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for lots of things. I have a new house this year and a fiance that loves me (I cannot figure out how to get the correct accent above the e with blogger). I have a wonderful kitty and good friends and a job that satisfies and challenges me. I have a good and strong family who will celebrate with me in the coming year and I have a really cute niece.

I am thankful for easy hat knitting. I might start another one of these to give away to charity. It was so quick and Michael really likes it.It looks small, doesn't it? Below we shall BEHOLD THE POWER OF RIBBING.
It stretches!!!


I did start a project for me! It's a Cowl/Hood that I am basing off of this pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pashmina-cowl but instead of stockinette in between the top and bottom 6 rows, I am doing 1X1 ribbing because I think it will be more useful that way and keep the cold out better that way. It's a modification taken from this version: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/purls-cashmere-cowl. It's a combo of the two because mine is partly stockinette and partly ribbing.
The top picture is much better for color. It's the Malabrigo Silky Merino in Plum Blossom. This is not normally my color palette, but Heather (Hi Heather, if you are reading this) convinced me recently on our trip to Rhinebeck to step outside my normal color palette. This is out there for me. It's a trip back to grade school when I wore all pink. Now I don't have any pink. ANY. This will be the first thing. Hopefully it turns out well.Happy Knitting Turkey Day!!

I finished the baby blanket, right on time!

Two projects down! I am down to some finishing on a pesky baby sweater I didn't finish and needs some re-working on a sleeve and the Chuppah. That means it is time to start Michael's long overdue hat project.

Sorry for the less than ideal pictures, I forgot to get pictures before bringing it to work to give to my co-worker on her last day before maternity leave (she is due the 24th!) and my co-worker and his trusty iPhone helped me get some pictures of the Finished Object. I didn't have time to get ideal lighting or display conditions.

Happy Knitting! I am off to find a hat pattern!

I knit a pair of socks...

One project down!!!!

That leaves the baby blanket to finish. I have made the executive decision due to time constraints and absolute boredom with this project to stop at five rows of hearts and squares. It will be 5 across and five up that way. I think it will be plenty big and hopefully ready to give to Sarah on her last day before maternity leave, which is Friday. I am going to have a fair amount of this yarn left over and it is not my favorite, but it is good enough to knit a gently cycle baby sweater with for my niece.

Happy Knitting!

I voted, did you?

I know there are some of you out there who did not vote today (almost all of the world), but for us here in the United States that have been depressed and worried and angry about the direction our country has taken over the last 8 years, today is big. Today is so big, I have been anxious and nervous and shaky for the last few months and especially the last week.

I voted this morning, showing up right at 7 and ran into one of my fiance's ex-colleagues. I didn't just run into him, I asked him where to park, then stood in line and we figured out we had a connection through M and chatted throughout the long!!! line. It was long in number of people, but not time, thanks to the very prepared people at Andover High School. It was quick voting too, maybe ten races and three ballot questions. I hope the way I voted carried the day. This country needs change. Oh yeah, F-you to the person who took my political magnet. You suck. It was my car, my $10, and my freedom of expression you interfered with and this country would be better off without you.

I hope you voted, and I NEED SOME RESULTS NOW!!

Patience is not my strong point right now.

Happy Knitting!

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween has come and gone and we did not get a single trick or treater. It didn't help that we were only home for about an hour on Halloween night. It was just enough time to have some dinner and get into our costumes.


Then we went to a party. We went as Sally and Jack Skellington from a Nightmare Before Christmas. I think it turned out pretty well.The political costumes were definitely the top picks this year.

Here we had McCain and Palin at the party.
We had a Joe-Six Pack and another Sarah Palin.
Two Sarah Palin's in the same room-that's too much. One Sarah Palin is too much IMHO.
There was a very Macho Man.
Two friends from law school were there as well.
There was Bob Ross and a happy little tree. I was really impressed by this costume.
There was a Marlboro Man, complete with emphysema, I really liked this costume.

Next is my birthday loot:

The best thing was a hand drawn card from my little sister, she has quite a talent.
Michael got me this limited edition Namaste bag and the matching clutch. It's an awesome knitting bag.
My parents got me a new toy-the iTouch. Yay!

Now, what you actually come to this blog for....that's knitting, right?

I turned the heel on the second (third) sock...I'm happy to be in the home stretch. I like toe-up socks, but I do not like the wrap and turn, is there any way to do a toe-up heel without short rows or short rows toe-up without it?
I finished the middle motif on the chuppah, it's hugenormous now.....and will be twice as big by the time I am done.
Here is the Candle Tree motif in the middle, which for me is symbolozing the Tree of Life. It was my first time cableing.....I am glad it turned out ok....
I joined a new cone (number 3!!!!!) at the end of this Motif...
I am re-addressing the decision for the next motif. I am therefore swatching with some cheap acrylic type yarn and trying to decide what to use. The problem is that all of these motifs (the candle ones I am trying) have parts where the motif starts that are the top half of the motif at the bottom and the bottom half of the motif at the top of the motif repeat. I don't want that. I think I can re-engineer some of these patterns to fix that by knitting stockinette during those parts, I just have to figure out which stitches to switch to knits/purls from the pattern stitches. I will probably swatch the pattern as written and the pattern as I can figure it out and then write that down and knit from that.
The kitty has finally been using his house and looks like a possessed kitty in there, just in time for a Happy Halloween to all of you!
HAPPY KNITTING!!!!!

Rhinebeck!

I am sure that all of you knitters out there have seen posts about Rhinebeck before today.

This is what I did at Rhinebeck. I'll keep it to mostly pictures to spare all of you a super long post!


Amazing fiber tapestries:

Wheels! Whee!


Soft and large angora bunnies: they sold very quickly.
I saw lots of fiber animals.

I saw cashmere goats: they aren't as soft as one would think.

I saw animals made out of fiber.
I saw lots of animals made out of fiber. I thought these were really amazing. Such craftsmanship.
I really love these pumpkins made out of roving.

Teeny tiny little sock earrings. Awesome.

Specialty molded soap. Cool, no?

Little fiber gnomes! I swear they sneak into my house and bring me yarn.
I looked over on Sunday and who was standing next to me squeezing the same yarn? It was the Yarn Harlot! I said something, super embarrasing and stalkerish, like "I love your books" and then didn't get a picture with her. D'oh! Then I kinneared her which made her friends laugh. I can't be the first to do it to her?

These guys were interesting-not fiber related, but look at those shirts!
I tried my hand at weaving and liked it. I think I might want a loom!
I watched the fleece to shawl competition. There was an amazing group led by a 13 year old! They had a really beautiful woven shawl with lots of detail. It's below. I hope she won. I didn't get to see-we had to leave.
There were these blankets for sale-really amazing.
This kangaroo has a baby in its pouch. Can you make yarn from kangaroo fur?
I ate some deep fried artichoke hearts-super delicious.
This was the finished shawl from that 13 year old. Jeez. Talk about talented.


This sweater was just a masterpiece.

I saw a leaping llamas competition-there were alpacas too but it was totally not fair. They did not have height classes and they need to.
Here are some more llamas/alpacas in the competition.

We saw some beautiful colors. I can't get these pictures to come up the right way. Dang.
Heather and I fed the goats!
This is some yarn I bought. It doens't show the color well-it's a deep blue.

It's more like this.

This is a mohair/angora blend and is really soft.


Socks that Rock. Enough said. This my first STR and I picked up two regular price skeins and one mill end. The booth was crazy. Barely civil, but just.
I picked ups ome Brooks Farm. All of this will be going on my ravelry stash page and details will be there. This is a wool-silk blend.
I found this random skein of mohair. It's 180 yards and so shiny I thought it was silk. It feels like silk. I have no idea how they got it this way.
I bought a lot of sock yarn, can you tell?
More sock yarn!I did some work on my chuppah last night. I am over halfway done with the cable portion. I cannot wait to be done with the last cable rows. It should speed along after these last six rows where I have to cable-after that it is just yarnovers and such for this middle section. Part of the reason why a single row takes me almost an hour right now is following the pattern, another reason is that the increases in this pattern have it up from 35 stitches a repeat (10 repeats per row) to 51 stitches a repeat, so 510 stitches per row.


I am also at the point of turning the heel on Michael's second (third) sock. Pictures next post!

Happy Knitting!!