A quick lil' note. . . .

Well, this weekend, alas, involved hardly any knitting. It was a good weekend, though! On Friday there was some dinner at On The Border and some consumption of wine. No knitting can be done near the wine. Not only is drunk knitting bad, I spill red wine on occasion. Wouldn't want to ruin that Chevron Scarf! :) Last night we went to Dan and Colleen's housewarming/birthday party. It was a very good time. Especially when the police showed up! Leave it to Dan to break in his new house with a noise complaint. Today there was some sleeping, and some dyeing of yarn. I am currently working on my first batch for Strands of Heaven. All 20 skeins are going to be the same, but my tiny apartment kitchen cannot stand that load, so I have to do it in shifts. It's looking good so far!

Finally, I have put some information up on my new website: http://knittinglikecrazy.com/. I am still going to be selling my yarn on etsy, but the new site is just so people can find out more about my yarn if they want. Right now it's super basic, because web site design is not one of my skills, but I think it looks pretty ok. I have made a website or two in the past, but this one I want to actually look good!

Oh, and I do have a new skein of yarn up on Etsy: Merry Christmas!

I have one skein of this available.

Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully I will get some knitting in this week. The Chevron Scarf is calling my name. . . . .

Happy knitting!

I had to detox from the sock knitting. It was so bad!

Well, last week I was all crazy with the sock knitting. This week? Um, not so much. I have been knitting with some sock yarn though. . . . We have some STR in Sherbet (top) and STR in Chapman Springs (bottom). Hmm, what could this turn into?
Oh, it's a Chevron Scarf. The pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I have to admit, I have had the book awhile and never thought of knitting this scarf. It was so one of those things where I started to see a lot of them out in blogland/Ravelry/etc. and had to have one for myself. My sister called my scarf loud, but I don't care. It's awesome. I have become so totally obsessed with knitting this thing I have knitted little else over the last dew days. :)

The Morning Glory Wrap has been sitting quietly and sadly while I knit the scarf.

Someday it will have its turn. Perhaps when the scarf is done.

And, now onto some sock yarn.

First off, I am very excited to say that Knitting Like Crazy hand-dyed yarn will soon be in a LYS near you (well, it will be in Plainfield, IL, so if that is near to you then it will be in an LYS near you. If you don't live close to Plainfield, IL, then I am sorry for getting you all excited)!! I have been talking to the owner of Strands of Heaven, and I will be dyeing up some yarn for them in a colorway to be sold exclusively at the store. This is very exciting yet totally scary for me at the same time. But mostly exciting! Anyway, I will keep you posted about that little endeavor as it develops.

And, second, here is some yummy sock yarn on my Etsy site: It's Starburst. It's been up on the site for four months. On etsy, your listing expires after that, but I, of course, am going to repost it to my site to try to sell it. It's had to believe that it's already been four months in the whole "I want to dye yarn and sell it" thing. I don't think I will be slowing down anytime soon. I love it too much! :) Anyway, if you want to see more pictures of this can you can do so here.

Well, that's all the knitting/sock yarn goodness I have for today. Tonight there will be ditching of ballroom dancing class so Alex and I can watch The Office and play our BRAND NEW NINTENDO WII!!! (Sorry for the yelling, but I am excited about the Wii. I had been calling Gamestop for weeks and yesterday when I called and they said they had one I bolted out of work so fast I don't think my boss hardly noticed I was gone). :) This weekend should be pretty low key with some decent knitting time planned.

Happy knitting!

My name is Jen and I have a sock knitting problem. . . .

Ah, it's been a week, my friends, and much sock knitting has taken place. First, I have this:
It's the Coupling socks! These are for my mom for Christmas. She bought me the yarn, so I thought I would be nice to knit her some socks with it.

Here are the specs:
The pattern: Coupling from Knitty
The yarn: Creatively Dyed Yarn (purchased by my mom for me at the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Festival)
The needles: Size 2
The modifications: The pattern is for toe-up but I didn't feel like doing that so I knit them from the top down instead. Actually, I am calling these my upside down coupling socks.
The results: Great! I really love the lacy socks so these were just perfect. I think my mom will like them.

Then I have this sock:

This once was my lacy socks that I was knitting. Then I decided I didn't feel like knitting that pattern again. So, I riiiipppped back to the ribbing and started again with just a plain ol' sock. The yarn is some fine Knitting Like Crazy hand dyed yarn. :)

Then, yesterday, after finishing the Coupling socks, I decided that I wanted to start another sock: This one is (obviously) a fine toe up sock that I am knitting for a friend, I think. I think he will like them. He is the kind of guy that could proudly wear socks like this. We will see. The yarn is Steinbach Wolle Strapaz Cotton Effekt (that's what Ravelry tells me anyway). My brother got me this yarn for my birthday and can I just say, he did an awesome job at picking it out. I mean, this stuff is great. I may try to acquire some more soon.

I did also start the Morning Glory Wrap from Knitspot, but I haven't gotten very far. Hopefully this weekend I will have some time to knit on it and then I can get a good WIP picture. This weekend should be full of lots of knitty goodness, including a trip to Plainfield on Sunday to Strands of Heaven!

Finally, I will leave you with a yarn picture: It's some sock yarn name Girl Scout Cookies! Yum! You can see more pictures here.

Happy Knitting!

Stop it. You're making me hungry!

Well, I should start by saying thanks for all the wonderful comments about Soleil! I like it when people think I did good n' stuff.

Hmm, I did get my sock mojo back a little bit last night. I went to Knit Night at Fringe and once again had a super time. Coupling sock #1 is done and I have started #2. That pair of socks might actually be done sometime next week. Hooray!

Anyway, I have some new yarn posted on my Etsy site, and I thought I would share it with you, my dear wonderful faithful readers. Here we have Mars Attacks!:This yarn is quite loud, but, you know, sometimes you need a nice loud pair of socks. I have one skein available. You can see more pictures here.

And, then, back by popular demand (well, no one really demanded it, people just seemed like they really liked it, and who can blame them because it is super awesome, but I digress) is Cherry Garcia:It didn't quite come out the same as the last time, but that is the joy of hand dyed yarn. I still really really like it. And, I still think it looks like Cherry Garcia ice cream! I have two skeins of this stuff. You can see more pictures here.

That Cherry Garcia is making me want ice cream for dinner. Is that bad? :)

And, finally, because I was tagged by Carrie Penny I have this:

The Name Tag

You have to list some things about yourself using each letter of your middle name.

L - Loyola is where I attended college.

Y - Yarn sniffer should be my middle name. :)

N - Never been out of the country (although there is a trip to Canada being planned for next year....yeah!)

N - Not going to quit knitting anytime soon.

Hmm, well I know I should tag some people, but Carrie Penny stole like half my list! :) So, if the mood strikes you, then I tag you! Yeah, you can call me lazy, it's ok!

Happy knitting!!

Hey Look! It's Soleil!

Ah, yes, here it is. The moment everyone has been waiting for....FO pics of Soleil!

The specs:

The Pattern: Soleil (free from Knitty)
The Yarn: Elann Sonata

The Needle: Size 5 (which is what I needed to get gauge)
The Cost: $0!!! The yarn was from my SP10, Shelley, and the needles I had from a previous project.
The Verdict: Pretty good. I wish I would have knit it about two inches longer before starting the v-neck. I like my shirts pretty long, and should have considered that while knitting. Oh well. I think it still looks grand!

It feels good to be done with a big project. I have nothing big on the needles right now, so I am going to need to be making some decisions about that soon. In the meantime, in the last day and a half I accomplished this:

More Baby Bibs O' Love from Mason Dixon Knitting. I just love them. They are so so easy, but yet just so adorable. I highly recommend if you have a baby to knit for that you knit some of these. I finished one in just a few hours yesterday, so the time commitment is minimal, but the results are huge! I made these out of more Sugar'N Cream that I had in the stash. The buttons once again came from Joann's.

I feel like I have lots of little odds and ends to share.

This weekend involved some yarn dyeing once again. Slowly I am getting better at it. I think I am starting to pick better color combinations and making much less of a mess from when I first started a couple months ago. So that's good.

The other day I was looking through the Herschnerr's Catalog that came to my house and I saw this:

Some of you may be thinking- what an ugly afghan!? I say, "Holy shit. There it is--the afghan that my aunt made for my parents thirty years ago as a wedding gift!" My parents still have it too. And, yes, while it is ugly and the pattern is for crochet, I feel like I have to get the pattern and yarn for it. That blanket was a staple in my childhood and I just have to make one, no matter how ugly. So, anyway, that was kind of crazy.

Well, I guess that is all for now. There has been minimal sock knitting and it's not looking good for this week either. I just want to knit more baby bibs.

Happy Knitting!

Bad day? Just knit a sock. . . .

It's true. Today was a bad day of work. No, I did not spill raw sewage on myself. No chemicals in the eye either. Just your run of the mill, craptastic day. I plan to counteract the bad day with this: A new sock! I am still working on Coupling (well, more looking at the Coupling sock) but I wanted to start a new sock. This sock is a slight modification of my lacy socks I made awhile back. I want to write up the pattern to share but I wanted to knit them once more to see how I feel about them. I still love them! Oh, and the yarn is my very own Knitting Like Crazy yarn. :) Dyed just for me, by me. I love it too! Anyway, I made a deal with myself that if I finished Soleil, I could start a new sock. So, I know what you are thinking, where are the FO pictures of Soleil? Well, I have to block her tonight and then you can see. Hopefully Thursday. Besides, I don't want to wear Soleil right now, I just want to wear this:
I saw this t-shirt on Cafe Press a couple months ago and begged and pleaded with Alex until he finally broke down and bought it for me (nothing like forcing boys to buy you cool presents). I am sure you all want one too, the link is here. I wore it out yesterday. I think some people may have been looking at me funny, but I don't care. :)

Hmm, what else? I reorganized the Knitting Like Crazy yarn this weekend:

And then I made some new labels for my yarn:
And then I put some more yarn on etsy:
This one is called Midnight Garden. I think it is more purple than blue and I just love it. A very nice yarn. Good stuff. Yes, yes, I am trying to tempt you with my yarns.* Is it working? ;)

Tonight the plan is to block Soleil, knit a sock, and perhaps drink one Miller Lite. Sounds like good plan when trying to turn a bad day around.

Happy Knitting!

*I am shipping to Canada now, so, you know, if you are in Canada and want some yarn, I can give you the sweet hook up. :) Just check out my etsy site for details.