An FO and a new project.

I finished the Rib and Cable mitts from Interweave Knits Spring 2006. I think that this is the first project I have ever knit from a magazine. I love buying them, but I never get around to knitting the projects from them. These mitts should have been done at least 1-1/2 weeks ago, but I kinda got bored after making the first one. The second one was so much easier and it was flying off the needles, but I left it in the wip basket even though all I had left was the thumb part. I made these a bit shorter, but now I am thinking I could have made them a lot shorter since I have such short fingers. Look at my pinkie! I was not graced with the long slender fingers my mother and sister have. I knit the thumb in 6 rows instead of 10 and I left off one row on the hand part.

The color just doesn't photograph well. It is a heathery lavender with flecks of purple. the yarn is Plymouth Yarn, Encore DK.














Since I got one project done, I started on the Classic Scarf for my sister in the color Peachy. The Fable Handknit Yarn is one of the softest yarns I have ever knit with. There are other patterns available for this yarn and they are free on the website. Look at the Aspen Neck Cowl that Amy knitted with the color Sweet Pink. I was able to buy this yarn through Pure Knits as a test order. Keep your eyes open for the grand opening of Pure Knits. The service and shipping was excellent and super fast.

I am still waiting for my needle order from Knit Picks to start my first pair of socks. It's driving me crazy that I can't start yet. I just keep petting my STR sock yarn every time I walk by it. Yes, I am nuts, but aren't all creative people just a little bit abnormal? My parents has that theory about me because I went to art school.

And here is a pic for you Napoleon fans out there. He was feeling a bit under the weather last night and made us worry, but he is back to his spunky self today.

Show and Tell Friday

Thank you to everyone who has left such kind comments about Napoleon and for encouraging me to knit my first pair of socks. Napoleon sends his love to everyone. The little guy has never met anyone he didn't like. :-)

Have a great weekend everyone! I will leave you with pictures of my recent acquisitions.














Hand dyed self striping sock yarn from Dyelicious Yarns. I found out about her yarn through her blog, Liz Knitz.















Fable Handknit Yarn from a new online yarn store called Pure Knits. It will be opening soon in April. The Fable yarn is 100% pure baby alpaca and is so soft. I could touch it all day. I am making the Classic Scarf for my sister in the color Peachy 05. Andrea is the proprietress of Fable Handknit.















Julie sent me this thank you package for knitting her a scarf in the International Scarf Exchange. She made me origami book marks, a sock needle holder, and bought me the Classic Sock pattern from Yankee Knitter Designs. She read on my blog that I wanted to learn to knit socks. Isn't that so nice of her? I have heard good things about this pattern so I am very excited to knit my first pair of socks with this pattern. Unfortunetly, I can't start any sock knitting until my order of dpn's arrive.

I love getting mail!

Socks That Rock!

Look at what I got in the mail on Monday! It's my first skein of sock yarn from the Rockin' Sock Club. Dh generously bought me a 2 month membership from Blue Moon Fibers. Yes, he spoils me, even though he doesn't understand my obsession with yarn.

I got a sock pattern, a skein of Socks That Rock in colorway "Rainforest Jasper", a bumper sticker, a pin, and a club welcome letter and mini skein of emergency sock yarn keychain in the same colorway. I love the keychain! This colorway is not available to the public yet, only to the members of the sock club.

















Geez, do I sound geeky for getting excited about a sock club membership? I don't even know how to knit socks yet. But you will see some sock knitting soon. My secret pal from the International Secret Scarf Exchange generously sent me a easy sock pattern and other goodies to thank me for knitting her the scarf. I will get around to posting a pic of the goodies soon.

Now, there has been a lot of controversy concerning Socks That Rock yarn. Some find it rough on their hands while knitting with it and it has left some people's fingers raw and itchy. While other's have found it a pleasure to knit with. However, everyone does agree that their colorways are amazing. The skein does feel soft, but I can't give it a honest review until I knit with it.

Here is Napoleon being nosey. He was very fascinated with my photo shoot. He likes to sniff the yarn.

Stash Enhancing Weekend

I have been bitten by the softie/plushie bug. After knitting those 2 bears for The Bay Window, I have begun experimenting and coming up with my own pattern for knitting stuffed animals. I have always admired and coveted the softies that I see on other people's craft blogs, but I don't sew or have a sewing machine. So, knitting stuffed animals will have to do for now, until I save up enough money for a sewing machine. I have no clue about buying a sewing machine, but I want to buy one so I can learn to make quilts and other cool crafty sewn things. I assume a good sewing machine won't come cheap at all (like ones with a zillion stitch functions), so I will keep doing my research and saving $$$.

So, with guilty pleasure, I bought all this yarn this weekend. I normally don't buy such colorful yarn and I definitely don't buy novelty/fun fur yarn (not a fan), but I thought they would be great for animal clothing. Plus, Michael's was having a 50% off sale on all the yarn pictured on the bottom. One could reason that I bought all this yarn in the name of research. Hey, I know it's a bit of a stretch.

Multicolored Dreams

Did you know that Sapphires comes in many other colors? We all think of blue when we think of Sapphires, but Sapphires are multi-colored. I recently had a chance to visit a gem shop in New York's jewelry district and they just got in a big shipment of multi colored sapphires. My friend, who is a gem stone expert, was with me and we spent 3 hours sorting through boxes of Sapphire Stones and we didn't even make a dent. The stones were poured out in little shovels full for us to sort and we would get a new shovel full after we sorted through piles after piles. After 3 hours, I had to stop because my eyes couldn't take it anymore. My eyes were blurry when I left the shop.

I was able to buy an assortment of colors: pink, red, blue and light blue, orange, lavender and purple, green and yellow. I find the red sapphires extremely beautiful because they are brighter and more translucent than Rubies. The shapes that I got were: round, ovals, and pear shapes.

So, what do I plan on making with these beautiful gemstones? Since they are all different colors, sizes and shapes, I am planning on making one of kind pieces to house these beauties. Sometimes, I have customers who want to buy just the stone and then have me design a piece around it. So, I always leave some loose gem stones around for customers who likes to customize their jewelry.

I am saving a red sapphire for my favorite aunt in Hong Kong. I asked her what color she would like and she chose red. I will hopefully be able to visit her in October. She has an infection in her eye (the nerves) that is incurable. She is slowly losing her eyesight. She has good days and bad days. Making something for her is a just a small token of my love for her.

Beary Good News!

I made another bear this weekend. I bought a few skeins of yarn this weekend to make more bears. I gave this bear a pair of pants. I even tried my hand at the duplicate stitch to add a heart to the sweater. I am not sure if you can tell it's a heart. Oh well, I tried my best. I need more practice on my duplicate stitching.

















Look at the size difference between the bears! I made the blue one with size US8 and the second one was made with size US7. Same type of yarn and same pattern, but the second one came out way smaller. Whoops! The pattern called for size 7's, but I didn't have any until I bought a pair this weekend. The blue one is 16 inches tall and the other one is 12 inches tall. I am going to be shipping these bears this week. They will be flying to Jamaica on April 1st with Mary from The Bay Window. I wish them a safe trip to Jamaica and I hope they will bring comfort to those in need.

Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I want to take ya!

Meet Azul the Bear! He is going to be heading to Jamaica in a few weeks along with the other bears from Phyl's Bear Drive. These bears will be going to orphans in Jamaica. The Bay Window in Irvington, VA are collecting the bears and you can send them directly to them. Here is more info.

It's a relatively quick knit aside from the seaming. I taught myself the mattress stitch to seam up the bear. I started it and finished it in 2 days. The sweater for Azul is knit from the yarn I dyed with kool aid!

Here is a pic of Azul without his scarf. Azul doesn't understand why he has to wear a scarf to Jamaica, but I told Azul that the directions said to knit a scarf, so I did. He doesn't really mind since he is super excited to meet and hug his new pal in Jamaica.

Weekend Review

Yes, I started a new project. It's the Rib and Cable Mitts from Interweave Knits Spring 2006. I have been wanting a pair of fingerless mitts for a while now and I shopped high and low, but I couldn't find anything I liked. I have been trying very hard to use yarn from my stash and I found something in my stash that would sub in for the required yarn. I am using Plymouth Yarn, Encore DK. I am using one color for the whole mitt. The color is hard to photogragh. In certain lighting, it looks like a purple/lavender mix. But then in other lighting, it looks almost like a heather gray. This picture makes the mitt look gray

I thought that this was going to be a quick project, but boy was I wrong! Knitting with DK weight yarn and 3.25mm dpn needles was painful. It's so fiddly. I couldn't get comfortable with knitting so small. I do admit that this was a welcomed challenge since the the kitty pi bed was just mindless knitting in the round. I have never knit anything for the hand before and it was fun learning to make a thumb gusset. Yes, I am a dork for getting excited about a thumb gusset. I walked around the house wearing my half finished mitt and would repeatly say, "Look, I made a thumb gusset!" Needless to say, I got weird looks from my husband.

The Puppy Pi Bed was felted this weekend. It is still drying so no pics of Napoleon modeling the bed until it's dry. I put it through the machine twice because only half of it got felted after the first time. I think that I could felt it one more time, but I will wait and see if I like it first. I stuffed it full of towels to form the shape of the bed as it dries.

Look! We found Napoleon's Long Lost Twin Brother!

















His name is Oliver Queen and he lives in Texas. They call him Ollie for short and he is only 5 weeks old. The owner got this puppy from his brother's Chihuahua who gave birth recently. Put Napoleon with Oliver Queen and we have Yin Yang Chihuahuas.

Puppy Pi Bed

Woohoo! I finished knitting the Kitty Pi Bed by Wendy Knits. This is the biggest thing that I have ever knit. It looks like a big knitted sack right now. I could hide Napoleon in it. Hopefully, I will get to throw it in the washing machine to felt it this weekend. I bought a couple of cheap white cotton/poly blend pillow cases with a zipper at Target. They are thin cases that are suppose to protect your pillow and then your decorative pillow case goes over it. I hope those will work. I bought one for my own pillow to protect my awesome Tempur-pedic pillow. As I was zipping it up, I noticed a small hole on the side of the Target pillow case. Like I said, it was cheap.

Note that I did not use any eyelash yarn to finish the trim of the bed. Napoleon has a tendency to nibble and swallow fluffy, fuzzy, furry things, so I didn't want him chewing on the bed and ripping off the trim of the bed. What can you do? He is a silly puppy after all.

Here are some more snap shots of Napoleon in the pre-felted Kitty Pi Bed. Can you tell how much I am in love with him? I know it's sick, but my dh and I have surrendered to his puppy cuteness a long time ago. Have a great crafting weekend.

The Good Time Animal Swap!

The Good Time Animal Swap is being organized by Anna of Twelve22. This swap is for people to show appreciation for each other's animals by sending a little treat in the mail. If you have a animal that would like to receive a special treat, go sign up. Read this for the full information about the GTAS swap.

Napoleon loves to receive gifts and treats, so he is very excited by this.

Progress update

I have separated the sections for the Anthropologie-inspired capelet. I am almost done. I just need a few more inches on the bottom and then I need to add the ribbing to the bottom and the sleeves. It would have been done this weekend, but I started a new project on Thursday. It's the Kitty Pi Bed by Wendy Knits. And I have been consumed by it. Knitting around and around! It actually gets addicting.

Perhaps, I should call it the Puppy Pi Bed since I am making it for Napoleon. His current bed has become quite snug because he has grown so much since we first bought it. His bed is actually a kitty bed from Target since that was the only thing that was small enough at the time. Even then he was so tiny in that bed, but now he is falling over the edge. This is my first knitting project for Napoleon. Amy is the first and only person to hand knit something for Napoleon. She had made him a beautiful scarf.

This will also be my first felting project and I am excited by it. I am going to stop by Target today to see if I can get a pillow case with a zipper. I don't think that I have ever owned a pillow case with a zipper on it. Thanks to Stephanie from Half Baked for letting me know about the pattern.

First Kool Aid Dyed Yarn

I decided to try my hand at Kool Aid Dyeing after being inspired by the crafty people on Craftster. Here is the thread about kool aid dyeing. This is my first attempt at dyeing my own yarn and it was pretty easy. I am not crazy about how the colors turned out, but I am sure my second attempt will be better. I used the following flavors: lemonade, grape and ice blue raspberry lemonade. I mixed the colors to achieve these colors.








I needed to use the grape to make the blue a deeper color. I ended up using the grape because it looked black when I mixed some blue into it. And I didn't have enough of the other 3 colors to dye the whole skein and I didn't want to leave it the natural color. But as you can see in the above pictures, it ended up looking like grape after it dried. The yarn just sucked up the dyed when I dipped the yarn into the cups and left behind a milky white liquid. I will definitely have to use more kool aid next time around.








Do you think that the colors came out ugly? Be honest, I can handle it. My dh thinks that the yarn looks flashy. Maybe I can make some bright flashy baby boy hats out of it. The yarn color is brighter in person.

My First Needle Roll

Look at what my DH bought me. A needle roll made by Thimble. I have been wanting a needle roll for a long time because my needles are all over the place and it's so hard for me to find the right size when I need it. I love the one that Thimble makes.












The silk screened "hands knitting" is really cool.











This is what it looks like unrolled. 2 rows of 14 pockets.

On the knitting front, I finally picked up the Anthropologie-inspired capelet where I left off. Click HERE if you want to see what it looked like in November. Now, I only have a few more raglan increases to knit before I separate the sections.

Secret Pal Scarf on the way....

I finished the scarf for my secret pal last week and I blocked it this weekend. I think that I suck at blocking. The stitches used to be puffy, but now everything is much flatter after being stretched and blocked. I am still happy with how it turned out. I just hope that I picked the right color for my secret pal. The stitch pattern is a broken rib with garter stitches bordering the bottom and sides. The yarn is ArtYarns Supermerino in color #107.

I dropped it off at the post office this morning and it should get there in a few days. My secret pal lives on the east coast, same as me, but different states.




























I am sharing some pics of Napoleon when he got fixed in January. It's so funny that he had to wear a Elizabethan Collar for 10days. I felt bad for him when he kept bumping into things because the collar blocked his sight.

NeckNoosh

Rice and Weetzie makes these cute NeckNooshes. They are knit with 100% Organic Cotton and they are so soft against your neck. I love wearing mine. It's great when you need to keep your neck warm, but you don't want the bulkiness of a scarf. There are 6 yummy colors to choose from. I guess it's no surprise that I bought the purple one. :-)

Sweet Stuff

My DH and I do not celebrate Valentine's Day, but I couldn't help myself from buying these Champagne Wishes Brownies. They are made by Kelli and can be bought at her new online bakery store, Amai Tea & Bake House. February 10th is the last day to order these, be quick! I can't wait to bite into a brownie!














I also ordered these cute cards made by Teresa at Sewing Stars. I am planning to send these to my family and friends.

Almost...

Here is a preview of the scarf I am knitting for my secret pal from the International Secret Scarf Exchange. It's almost done. I am on my 3rd ball of yarn with just 8 more inches to go. The deadline is February 15th. It will be sent on time.













I swear that my next project will not be a scarf. I might be getting sick of knitting scarves. Don't get me wrong, I do love to knit scarves, but I need something more challenging. I bought some hand dyed sock yarn a while ago, so I think that it's about time I learn to knit some socks. And the socks will be for me. I hardly ever knit anything for myself and I think that it's time to be a little bit selfish and knit for myself. Well, after I finish knitting the Anthropologie-inspired capelet for my sister, which she doesn't even know about. I started it at the end of November and it was suppose to be part of her Christmas gifts, but I was swamped with work and dropped the ball on that project. Then there is also Clapotis. I have been dying to knit that for a very long time and I even have the yarn for it, but it does fall under the scarf category. Hmmm...what's a girl to do?

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the year of the dog. Or I should say, year of the puppy.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Sigh, another year older. I have been dreading my birthday since the beginning of the month, but it's actually not that bad now that it's officially here. I got woken up this morning by my mom's phone call wishing me a happy birthday. I am sure she remembered because my sister reminded her yesterday.

Here is a birthday photo from the past. I am not sure exactly how old I am in this photo, but I am pretty sure it was either my 3rd or 4th birthday.















Look at the girly details on my flouncy dress. Little pink ribbons and flowers embroidered on the front!

Secret Scarf Exchange

Look at the scarf my secret pal, Kelli, made for me. Isn't the packaging cute? I was delighted to open this package on Saturday. My birthday is tomorrow, so this was a great early birthday surprise. The yarn is so soft and I love the cable pattern. It's actually reversible. The cable is on both sides. The pattern is called Vintage Velvet from the book, Scarf Style. Kelli used Baby Alapaca Grande and it's 100% baby alapaca. Totally luxurious! I think that her version is better than the one in the book.














I am a bit behind in my knitting. I have recently hit a slump and I have been trying to crawl my way out of it. I have started knitting the scarf for my secret pal, but I don't have progress pics to show. However, I will show you the yarn that I am using. ArtYarns SuperMerino. The colors are hand painted and it is beautiful. I bought it from Knit Happens. I love their speedy delivery service.