Not the holiday I had planned

Well, it's been a little bit of a roller coaster over here.  However, I did finish all the knitting I intended too.  I didn't get to get all the baking in I wanted, nor did I get in the cleaning or organizing or decorating.  We always travel to our families for the holidays, and so I feel like I have more time than I really do.  All of a sudden we'll be leaving for Wisconsin in the morning.  This year was no different.  Well, a little different.  I lost an aunt over the holidays, my mom's side of the family.  It was a bittersweet holiday, she hung on through Christmas (which she loved).

Our plans changed a lot, popping back home (300 miles) for the dentist and to complete everything we had intended to do while on vacation that week, then coming back for funeral activities (300 miles).  Then back home (300 miles).  And on to New Year's activities...  Far too much packed in to a small amount of time.  Going back to work was a vacation from this vacation.

When life was getting away from me I was knitting balls.  BALLS!!! (I also made candies ... all in BALL form ... sorry)  I made a few for a knitting friend who lost her Christmas decor in a flood this summer.  Our knitting group pooled together to start rebuilding her collection.  I also made a few more for me.

I also finished (but not blocked) a Spectra (by Stephen West).  It was made with Dream in Color Starry in Deep Sea Flower and Jawoll Magic, a one ply color changing fingering weight yarn by Lang.  So pretty, stunning really.

The Christmas gifts went over well - the flower headband for my boyfriend's sister got a delightful reaction.  My brother's Packer scarf was great, he even said "It'll match my hat!"  Yup, that was the intent :-D.  Grandma loved her slippers, one of my aunts said I should take orders.  Oh, no these are for Grandma only.

And over Christmas I was knitting with handspun... a RhombusCowl out of Beyounce the llama's fur.  I have loved her so much, my mom bought me a TON of her roving for Christmas - there will be a Beyounce sweater - but not yet.  I think I would like a class on plying first.

A grand Knit-A-Long indeed

So I talked with my mom last night.  We needed to chat over how the merging a 3rd dog into the household was going.  Not good at all, and the dog went back was the answer to that.  However, she asked me what I was up to, and the obvious answer was that I was knitting all the things in the world.  "In the world?"  "Yes, Mom, in the world.  Let me give you a run down of what I've got on the needles/hooks."

I pulled up my rav page and began rattling off all my projects.  Whoa boy - I've got 8 or so and some hibernating.  I'm happy to report grand progress on the knit a longs!

My Dodgson sweater is over 1/2 done!  I've now joined the collar pieces, and moving down the back.  It's a cardigan with a one piece construction starting at the bottom front worked up and over the shoulders then down the back.  I've started down the back, now only using one working yarn and the working the broken rib on the ends of the sleeves.  I have a hunch that once the shaping is done this sweater is going to be very boring to work on....

I did start the Knit Purl Hunter's Progressive Needles KAL.  I have some aqua colored Simplicity Yarn.  The yarn is a mystery to me, it's a Merino Wool, Nylon and Acrylic blend.  It feels like a Merino but I feel like it acts like a cotton.  It isn't very stretchy.  I do love the color though, and it is working well with the pattern.  It is a "simple" triangle shawl with sections of stockinette stitch and sections of texture.  The texture has been stitches that I have never done before.  So far it's been the knit 1 below and the knot stitch.  I can't wait to see what comes next!

I also picked up the October Dream in Color Dream Club stuff.  The yarn is a blend I haven't seen from them before (to my knowledge), a Mohair Merino blend in a very fun color that is exactly what the changing leaves look like.  There was a kick-off of sorts in the store and we all cast on at the same time.  It was interesting to have such a wide variety of skill levels in one group.  Fun though.  This shawl is a triangle shawl worked sideways in garter then we'll come back and pick up along one edge and do some great lace work. SO EXCITED - the garter stitch portion of it is working up quickly but those rows are getting a bit longer now.

The garter stitch portion of the shawl reminds me of Fit to be Tied.  It's a cute free pattern and here's what mine looks like.

On Saturday I cast on a new project - to celebrate I Love Yarn Day - because I love yarn.  I started something that my knit-friends and I have been plotting for months now - Spectra by Stephen West.  Very clever Stephen, very clever.  I picked out a Dream in Color Starry in Deep Sea Flower as my boarder color and a Lang Jawoll Magic in pinks and oranges to go in the "windows."  The contrast is great so far!  Or at least I thought so in the not-so-natural light. What do you think?

So - that's enough of chat - I'm going to run to the grocery & the post office, and then snuggle down for some good Wisconsin sports & the Walking Dead tonight, with my knitting of course.

Awesome News & Stitches Midwest

I must congratulate Lion Brand Yarns & Yarncraft podcast on 100 episodes! And for Ep 99 they gave away a crochet book and a mini loom. I won the mini loom! Hurray. That really brightened my day of training. It was a rough day and this was a highlight!

So August was great for another reason - Stitches Midwest. A friend of mine hosted a weekend up at her cabin for the knitting gang. I did not go, I had volunteered for Halos of Hope & I had paid for events & a class at Stitches. So a handful of knitting friends went up to the cabin, but a good group of them were in Schaumburg IL for Stitches Midwest. I went to the Market Preview on Thursday, which was a nice way to shop. They open the market place a day early for students. Shop in a quieter environment. I would say if you are looking to shop with ease, Thursday or Sunday afternoon is the way to go.

Thursday was good shopping, I did 75% of my shopping then, buying sock yarn in pairs, some Lorna's Laces Solemate, Socks that Rock Lightweight and Holiday Yarns. All different and amazing. :-D I met up with a knitting group friend who had a class and didn't go up to the cabin for dinner. We ate in the hotel and dang - tasty and reasonably prices. We talked about a bunch of stuff & she introduced me to the Knitting Pipeline and Paula was at Stitches! I found a new podcast. I love her voice & she's so nice. Listen to her if you've got room on the mp3 player!

Friday I popped in to drop off my raffle ticket for Fri & see if I could find my knitting gang/Stephen West. BTW - one of them is stalking him. Anyway - It was crowded and parking was bad, so I didn't look - just walked out again & grabbed bite to eat. Then back to work. I came back to the hotel in the evening for the PJ party. I hung out with the Halos of Hope Prez and the gang from Fuzzy Wuzzy and sat with the family of Cascade Yarns! Shannon is so sweet, her mom and grandma were so nice. I had so much fun with the knitting gals. The PJ contest involved animal calls. I should have done better. :-D Next year I'm making some slippers too :)

On Saturday I came in early to meet up with Ms. Knitting Adventures and visit Halos again and shop a little. My shopping technique really was to shop stuff the drew me in. I would not enter every booth and examine every object, but be selective. It worked well, but I do wish I had gotten a drop spindle. I hung out until it was class time and then I went to my Design Your Own Triangle Shawl with Brooke Nico. Brooke is a great, high energy, enthusiastic, make it work kind of teacher. She was great. A few people sitting next to me got up and left, as though designing is easy. It is not. I walked out of the class with tons of ideas and nothing on my needles. I wanted to sit down with my compy immediately and start playing in excel/knitting software. Yup, I got that last year after stitches. I haven't used it much, but I love it. I like excel, as a math nerd, but it has limitations.

I then shopped a little before the Saturday Night Student Banquet & Fashion Show. I sat with Lily Chin & she told me she thought my Stephen West KAL shawl was classy. :-D I was glowing, she's so talented and wonderful. My table was nice and talkative and fun. The fashion show was great, such talent. But I swear the women who won the prizes for the fashion show this year, won them last year too. Big colorful shawls and sweaters seem to win. Maybe Rick's predictable. Totally not my thing, but I loved all the ideas and pride that everyone showed.

My Saturday haul was 2 pairs of free socks and packer sock yarn and a Lucy Neatby Sock DVD. <3 Sunday was my volunteer day at the Halos of Hope Booth. We talked about Shark Hats, gave away free hat patterns and took pictures of the Fuzzy Wuzzy mascot at Stitches events & booths. :-D Then I stuck around for the cash drawing - which I did not win, but a Fuzzy Wuzzy gang member did! Excellent! Then I went to the Ms Babs booth and took a skein home. Yeah :-D She does amazing things with color. My Stitches Haul:

Haven't worked with any of it yet. What would you work with first?

Down the Knitting Hole

Ok - maybe that title isn't so cleaver but more dirty.

Anyway, I've found myself less enamored with my significant other as of late because he is not a sheep or make of wool or dyed in pretty colors. I think it's all about living in Chicago in August.

There's so much fibery goodness happening around here this month!

First there's friends pressuring you to knit the Stephen West Mystery KAL run on Ravelry. My knitting friends got a little Stephen West crazy about 6 months ago when he visited Loopy Yarns in the South Loop downtown Chicago. Great store but I was doing a show that day (I sell pampered chef (www.pamperedchef.biz/abbym)) so I made some yarn money instead of spending it. They came back with books and patterns and a billion ideas and started making his entire collection (exaggeration par for course). I thought they were very nice but kept making my socks and doing my own thing - as I am one to do.

Then I over hear - "Did you see that he's doing a mystery shawl?" And I perked up. I love a good mystery knit, the SKA mystery socks are tons of fun. I love them. I grouped many a collection of 3 yarns for the shawl. Looked at yardage - got a yardage counter for my yarn. And settled on 2 combinations to make 2 small versions of the shawl. I felt that if I didn't like them - I could give them away and it wasn't a complete waste of time. I picked out a black, red and white combo and a pink, green and lavender combo which looked like this:

So every week Stephen put out a clue and I would knit them along on both shawlettes. It was a quick knit and I learned a new way to Make 1 Right and Make 1 Left that greatly improved the look of my shawl. It was very sleek and modern looking. And here's what they turned out like:

Delightful. Stephen got to see my WIP and Lily Chin saw my black white and red shawlette and said it was sleek and classy. Squee! And this was only the beginning of my August Fiber Fun!

Project Pages:
Composition in Black White and Red
Mystery KAL #2