Monkey see, monkey do

Ok, I've seen this on enough knitting blogs that I've decided it's my turn.


I've used Bold for stuff I've done, italics for stuff I want to do one day, normal for stuff I'm not planning on doing, and red for stuff I've never even heard of.

Afghan/Blanket
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater well, I'm doing one right now... does that count?
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan making one for mom for xmas this year
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
American/English knitting
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dyeing with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dyeing yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting - ??
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves one, and one alone... and never again
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

On the road again

I finished the last of the Hedra socks on Friday and promptly passed them to my friend to take home with her. They turned out really good and fit her well. Enjoy, Miss AnnaK!

I went on the bus up to Parksville this weekend and made A LOT of progress on my sweater (Wheat-ear cable). I now have the front, back and one sleeve done... although the sleeve was done twice since I cast on 44 instead of 48 the first time around, doh! The weekend was good, visiting family, going to the local farm markets and such.

I'm only here until Thursday this week, then I'm hitting the road again on another road trip. This time, however, my husband is coming with me - yay! This is a rare occurance, my husband is in sales, so he rarely takes any time off. Where are we going? To the rockies and back, I say! I'm very excited to see the ice fields and glacial lakes. It should be a very pretty trip, with lots of nature to see. We'll be camping the whole way and I have to admit, I'm a little sketchy about the tenting in Grizzly central. It should be okay though, I'm just being silly I suppose.

Knitting-wise, I think I'll bring the sweater to finish... I imagine I will have the second sleeve finished on the ferry the first night... then I can join it all toghether the next day. After that... I think the Jaywalkers to finish. they don't require much pattern reading and I want to have my eyes mostly on the scenery. We'll see how much actually gets done :)

Enjoy your week, and have a great long weekend as well! (I'll be too busy to post again)

The promised stash - warning, picture heavy

And so begins the evaluation of the stash. Do I have enough to keep me going for a full year? Maybe. Will I buy more anyways? More is already on it's way :)


Both of these are Lorna's Laces sock yarn. The purpley one will be a pair of Monkeys for myself. The pinstripe black and gray will be a pair of socks for my husband. Am I excited to start these? Kinda, they are socks... socks make good bus knitting so I know I will get to these in time.


New Silky Wool picked up in Seattle with this pattern.


Laceweight in a chocolate brown I couldn't resist. Folk Shawls Fir Cone Shawl. See Eunny's as an example.

From left to right. 1- $2 total for all 6 balls of that white stuff... Help me out here people. It's acrylic (meh, it was cheap) and fingering weight - what to make? 2- multi-colour sock yarn that came in a pack with the teal stuff there as well. Not sure which socks, but since it's sock yarn I know it will be used. 3 - Teal sock yarn. Pomatomus, already started... hmm that's another wip - oops! 4 - Yellow/Gold Lionbrand. What to do, what to do?

mmm fleece artist, yummy. This will be a stole from Victorian Lace today for my Grama.

Eek! Are those needles? another wip? NO WAY!? hahah burgunday lace weight, meant for a kimono shawl and it looks as though I cast on... and walked away.

Ah, yes. Inca Gold Baby Alpaca. I may have purchased this simply to pet. No I probably had a shawl in mind... yes probably. Now to remember which one.

This is going to be hmmm... actually a present for someone who reads my blog. crap, can't tell you much about this one.

oooohhh, see this? this has the potential to be a Flower Basket Shawl. drool.

This is three hats. Can't you see them? I can. Two Odessas, and one Shedir.

Snowflake Socks from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 edition.

This is a lacey scarf called Spring Rain. I got it at the Knit Out a couple months ago... and forgot about it. It's pretty, maybe that will become a birthday present.

This one for me.

This one for my step-mom.

These two... well they are a bit of a mystery. I believe the first was bought on impulse in a clearance bin soley based on the fact that it reminded me of Cookie Monster. And the red stuff... yeah, it's red. What should I do with these folks?

There is also the ever growing basket of leftovers. What does everyone do with their leftovers?

And this, this is the best for last (even though I think the finished product is quite hideous). My mother in law approached me about knitting something for her. I says, well sure what is it? I am promptly invited for tea. hmmm, odd. So I go over and she brings out this big box. She then goes on to explain the following:

During her mother's last days she lived with my mother in law and the whole family in their huge home. She had fallen ill and was quite dependant on them. She had ordered this kit, a knitting kit to make herself a jacket. It arrived a week before she passed.

So she asked me to finish it for her. Sob. I said yes, of course. And now all I can manage is to stare at the box in awe that I was asked to finish something so precious to my mother in law. I will finish it, but I will make sure it's at a time that I can give it the undivided attention it deserves.

And that about sums up my stash... hahahah lots hey? Anyways let me know what you think I should do with some of the stuff, the order I should tackle this all in, etc. I'd love some feedback.

WIP Evaluation

It’s amazing what you find when you go through the stash. First you find WIPs, some you knew about, some you were knowingly neglecting, and some poor lonely forgotten ones:


Jaywalkers for my Secret Pal. Although I love the pattern and am excited to complete these, I really don't like the bamboo dpns... Perhaps they are just cheap needles, but I constantly feel like I'm going to break them and therefore it's slow going and frustrating to knit... I see new metal DPNs in my near future. In fact, these may go on hold until I aquire those needles.




The second Hedra, almost done. These were fun to knit, but I prefer monkeys. This last sock will be finished this week, promise.











Mystery Stole 3, this is the neglected one. I have all the clues to finish this one now... and really should finish it up... yup... I really should... Maybe in September, yes, I'll tackle it again in September.








The very long forgotten, I started Mariah a few months ago. In fact this was one of the patterns that made me want to knit... so you'd really think I'd have finished it by now... I wonder why I got side tracked, perhaps summer came and the thought of knitting a jacket just didn't seem appealing in the heat. I will take another look at this one as soon as I finish the Wheat-ear cable yoke.




And of course the most recent is my Wheat-ear cable yoke, coming along swimmingly. I'm hoping to get most of this done during my weekend away, this weekend.







Second you find much more yarn in your stash than you remember ever buying. But more to come on that tomorrow.

Rainy days and shopping

Rainy days always make me want to either go shopping or hunker down with some good movies and knitting. So I did both!

Yesterday I put together the first package for my secret pal, made the sewing box for her second package and went for lunch with mom. Yay, shopping! It was a good day :) This sewing kit was so much fun to make, and relatively easy, albeit time consuming. I would definitely make this again.

Closed:

Open:

While shopping we happened upon a sale, and who can resist a sale I mean really?! X-Files was the best show of it's time, I watched it almost religiously with my dad every Sunday night. We'd each have our own 2Litre of pop and large bag of chips, and we'd take over the living room staring at the tube while Scully and Moulder searched for the truth :) Geeky, I know. Anyways, normally these DVDs are like $50 each - ouch! And we found them on sale for $20 each, well you can guess we bought the whole set... yes the whole NINE seasons. Yes that's about 165 hours of tv on dvd, and I don't expect to come up for air until I'm done! Oh and just think of the knitting that can happen in 165 hours!

And speaking of knitting - here is the current progress on the Wheat-ear cable yoke. I'm excited to have this done in time for the rainy season... which seems to have started early... as in today. Well, what can you expect, I suppose it's just part of living on the West(read Wet) Coast.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

SP 11 Conest!

1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without?
Measuring tape, without it my garments would be quite ridonkulous looking I'm sure.

2. If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you? Ifso, how much and what type of project?
Of course :) It all depends on the length and type of trip, but socks are always a good bet as they are very portable. However if it's something like a long flight, I might take something bigger like a sweater.

3. Where have you travelled to that you'd consider your favorite spot?
Hands down, Japan. I loved it there, mostly in Kyoto and the smaller cities, but Tokyo was very busy with things to do... so really all of Japan.

4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment? Do you own it?
Victorian Lace Today: Books: Jane Sowerby. Yes I own it, I couldn't resist.

5. Do you listen to podcasts? Which is your favorite(s)?
no... what exactly is a podcast anyways?

Cast On

I received my secret pal and I've already emailed and commented on her blog to say hello. I'm very excited to get started and have already cast on a pair of Jaywalkers for her, in yarn I bought in Portland. It turns out her birthstone is Emerald, and wouldn't you know it, that green sock yarn I bought is called Emerald. I decided it was fate and cast on immediately. I hope they fit...

I also cast on for the Wheat-ear cable sweater in from the summer issue of Interweave Knits and so far so good. I'm using Cascade 220 colour Dune Heather. So there is a lot of green knitting going on right now. I'm also still working on the second Hedra sock during bus time and at lunch. Plenty of knitting to suite any mood I'm in :)

Crafty Saturday

Not much knitting today, but lots of knitting related crafts :) I went down to Bead World in Market Square today and found a great selection of glossy beads that I thought would make perfect stitch markers. Voila!

After completing these I was putting the spare bits into my crafts closet and my sewing machine

stared up at me crying 'Use Me!' so I did. It the material and pattern I picked up on vacation. I love it!

Now onto more new things... have I ever mentioned that I am the queen of lists? Well I have lists for everything (really, everything 'to do' is my favorite word combination), so I'm off to tackle the list of movies to watch in conjunction with the list of knitting to complete. I haven't decided what to cast on yet, but I am itching to start something new so we'll just have to wait and see what hits the needles next :)

Road Trip Yarn

Our trip was amazing! I'm glad to be home though. Some pics of the recent purchases while on the road:

Pattern and matterial to make knitting needle cases. I have been looking for something like this for a while now and the material in the US is SOOOO much cheaper than Canada so I simply had to pick this up.



Of course, more sock yarn mmmmmm... sock yarn. All from Portland's friendly Knit Purl


And a new project from Seattle's So Much Yarn, which is by far one of the nicest yarn stores I have ever visited.


And of course I knit while I was away, Hedras

The second one was started in Vancouver and I got about half way down the leg on the ferry trip home. I'll finish it up on the bus this week probably. Now... do I resist the urge to cast on numberous projects right now with this new yarn... OR, do I pick up MS3 which has been staring at me ever since I got home?

SP11 Questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I like Lornas Laces, Baby Alpaca, and really anything soft. I don't like Acrylic or the eyelash/funky fibres.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Currently an old plastic bucket, but I just returned from vacation with a pattern for a lovely needle case, including a circulars holder! I'm so excited!

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I was taught to knit and crochet when I was really young, but didn't persue it. I picked up crocheting again about 6 years ago, and am now bored with it. Knitting was always in the background, but really picked up again for me in March of this year. I would consider myself an advanced beginner, who is willing to try anything new.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
No... but if I was to have one... it would include sock yarn, fingering weight shawl yarn, mohair, ooh - and a teach yourself to spin book, drop spindle and some fiber!

5. What's your favorite scent?
Hands down - coconut. I'm a coconut freak.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Do I ever! hmmm favorite candy... do I really have to narrow it down? I think it's easier to say I don't like white or bitter dark chocolate, but anything else goes. Nuts with milk chocolate are a favorite right now, but so is the little penny candies, swedish berries, licorice(red or black) and salty things are lovely too.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I really want to learn how to spin and also weave... I also cross stitch occasionally, but find it's only good in small doses, and Scrapbooking does take up the majority of our spare room closet.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
MP3s are wonderful, I like all modern rock. I cannot express how much I love this local radio station http://thezone.fm/

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Favorite colors would have to be grey and purple. I can't stand anything bright, like bright orange or yellow, although a subtle yellow or a rusty orange are pretty close to the top of my list. I guess I like what you would consider Fall/Autumn colours.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Happily married for 1.5 years, and Chearfully Childfree by choice. We have 2 cats and they rule the house. They are spoiled, beyond laughing... Dena was our little princess kitten who is also a manx so she has no tail and one hell of a personality. Sylus was adopted from the local SPCA, he chose us immediately, and is a real lap cat... he is sitting in my lap even now. They both just turned 4, and yes, we had little kitty birthday tuna cakes.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I want to wear a poncho at the office cause our AC is outta wack so it's freezing, but have yet to make one. I wear some scarves, but am pretty picky. Hats are fun, and mittens are a must.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Socks are fast and easy so I love knitting those, but I always have an additional project going on as well. Currently my fascination is with shawls, pretty, lace, delicate, soft, shawls.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Hedra socks and MS3... and looking to cast on a new scarf pattern I got while on vacation this week.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
I love hand made gifts, LOVE.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Circulars, Knit Picks nickle plated DPNs, Addi Lace Turbos. I like bamboo, but only if it's really good quality.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I have a yarn winder, but no swift.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
I beleive that would be the MS3, so not long...6 weeks.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!

19. Is there anything that you collect?
African style masks. I love the animal ones (zebras, elephants, giraffes)

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I subscribe to Interweave Knits.
Books: Fitted Knits, Knitting Vintage Socks, Stitch n Bitch the knitters handbook
Yarn: Hand Maiden Sea Silk, Hand Maiden Camelspin, and of course more Lornas Laces(you can never have enough)
Needles: Knit Picks Circulars, I currently only have their DPNS, but really want to try out their circulars. I was thinking about getting them in 2.5mm and trying out knitting socks on two circulars although I have no idea how.
Patterns: Flower Basket Shawl by Fibertrends

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
socks - on two circulars, and toe up... not necessarily at the same time
Mobius - there is a pattern for cat beds using this method...

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I heart sock knitting. It is the best way to pass the bus commuting time.
Circumfrence: 8.5 inches
Foot Length: 9.5 inches
Heel Flap length: 2.5 inches (I put this in because in most patterns I've knit, the heel always ends up too long. Do I have small heels? Maybe.)

23. When is your birthday?
December 15th, which makes it very hard to book a dinner out for 8 or more (Christmas parties)

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?
Not yet.

Ready, set, go!

I have completed all of my goals.. well all except the losing weight part (such an uphill battle!). Anyways I have pics!


Check out those diamonds! I'm so proud :) Plus the Monkeys are done! mmm purple-ific!



So I will leave you with this FO's for a week. Have a good one, and I'll see you all back here on August 12 or so...