Don't worry--I won't let the fame go to my head. . . .

So, today I came home from work, came to the computer, checked iTunes and saw that the latest Socks & the City Podcast was downloading. While I am always happy when there is a new podcast by Carrie, today I was particularly excited because I knew she would be mentioning my Etsy site. WooHoo! A very big thanks to Carrie for that plug and I hope you enjoy the yarn!

Ok, now onto a little etsy shop plug of my own. I had been seeing some of Ruth's yarn out there in some various groups on Ravelry, and I finally gave in and got some of her yarn:

It's called Canyon Sunrise. Seriously, people, I wish I could dye this well. I got the yarn and immediately wound it up and started a-knitting:
Look at that sock! There is no pooling. There is no striping. Just a bunch of pretty colors perfectly blending together. Seriously, I think I want to marry this yarn. She has lots of pretty yarn on her Etsy site: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5114631

And then there is the free yarn:

One of the guys I work with has an obssession with alpacas. Like obssessed he wants to move to Bolivia and raise alpacas. This past week he went to some kind of alpaca show and was so nice to buy me some yarn because he knows I love the knitting. It is so soft. I am thinking I am going to knit this. Ok, I may be sitting here with the pattern, the yarn, and the needles waiting to stop blogging. :)

Well, as evidenced by this post I am definitely casting on more than I am finishing these days. The knitting bug has got me again. I am telling myself I can cast one this one more project but then I have to start finishing things. My WIP list is getting way to big. I like to keep it at two to three and I am currently at 7. That's way too many for me. Oh well.

Happy knitting!

Merry Christmas knitting to me!

Well, I became obsessed with my ruffle-y scarf, and so I kept knitting on it until it was done:The Specs:
The Yarn: Universal Yarn Tango purchased at Strands of Heaven. I used two balls.
The Pattern: I made it up. I cast on five stitches, knit four rows, gave yarn half a twist, knit four more rows, gave yarn half twist, and so on, and so on, until I was out of yarn.
The Needles: Size 7.
The Result: I like the skinny scarf. I like that it is boa-like. It's a good scarf. I will be wearing it often.

Then, I accidently started this on Saturday:

The yarn is Claudia Handpainted in Peppermint Mocha purchased from The Loopy Ewe. I accidently bought it while window shopping for yarn. Yeah, like that ever works. Anyway, as soon as the yarn came in the mail, I had to cast it on. I am knitting this sock toe-up and I am using a mock cable rib pattern (like the one for the scarf in SNB Nation). I like what it is doing to the varigated yarn. Makes it a little more interesting.

Hmm, well, that is really it for today. This weekend we had the 3rd Annual Halloween Party. It went pretty well. I was a beer wench. I spent much of the evening getting people beer. It was fun! :) Today I had the day off of work just for the fun of it. I have been playing Guitar Hero 3 and knitting a little bit. Tonight I am making some home-made soup. Yum!

This week there is going to be some nice knitting time, I think. Tomorrow I am going to try going to a knitting group in Elk Grove Village I just found out about. Hopefully, it will be fun. In general, I am not good with meeting new people, but meeting knitting people is easy. You have so much to talk about! I also have some yarn to dye for some people and to do some research on some new yarns to try and dye. And, I am hoping to pick up the Morning Glory Shawl again.

Happy knitting!

The longest story ever told.

Alright, so I have been a little absent from my blog. I heart my blog and have missed it. So, now I will give my blog some serious lovin' with a good long update!

And, here we go. . .

So a couple of weeks ago I was looking at yarn on the internet, as I like to do, and found some Yarn Love on The Loopy Ewe, and I just had to have it:

It's in the colorway Shipwreck. It just screams me so I really had no choice to buy it. And the fact that I knew in my head that if I placed said order I would become a Loopy Groupie definitely made the decision to buy the yarn so much easier. So, not only did I get some awesome Yarn Love, but I also got my Loopy Groupie package:

Um, there was additional yarn in there. It was the greatest day ever! And, as if all that Loopy Goodness was not good enough, there was also this in my mail on the same day:
What!? Roving!?!? Um, so yeah, I want to learn to spin. I have no idea who to do it, but now I have a drop spindle, the book Spin to Knit and some roving. The roving came from Froggy Fibers. She has good stuff. Go, look, buy! Anyway, I made a couple tries at the spinning thing, and it resulted in much cursing and shaking of fists. Alex reminded me that it took me three weeks to learn how to do the purl stitch, and that maybe it is just going to take some time. He is right. Currently, I am far too busy to pick it back up, but hopefully soon.

Busy with what, you say? Oh this:

A giant pyramid of Knitting Like Crazy yarn! This was my order for Strands of Heaven. It's an exclusive colorway called December Nights. You want some, don't you? :) It was a very exciting day to take it there and see some of my other yarn in their shop in the cute little baskets. I highly recommend taking your business there if you are in the area and looking for yarn. It's one of the cutest LYSs I have seen and they are so so nice. Good stuff.

In addition to all the yarn dyeing there has also been some knitting. How I had time to knit this, I have no clue: It's the Baby Pinwheel Blanket! I had seen Lisa knit one awhile ago, and I wanted to knit one too. It's for my college roommate, who is pregnant with her first child.

The specs:
Pattern: Baby Pinwheel Blanket (it's free!)
The yarn: Lily's Sugar'n Cream and Lion Brand Cotton (mostly from the stash, I had to go and get two more balls to finish it)
The needle: Size 8 Circular
The result: Um, if all my friends could get pregnant so I could knit more of these it would be fine with me. :)

Then yesterday, while at Strands, Becky and Lisa were playing around with some new yarn, and I don't know what happened, suddenly the wallet was out and before I knew it I was knitting this:This yarn is called Tango and it's from Universal Yarn. You just knit into the edge of it and it makes these cool ruffles. I mean, I know a lot of people are over novelty yarn, but this is no fun fur. This stuff is too cool. I am making a very skinny scarf with it. It's more for accessorizing than to keep warm. And, obviously, I am going to look very awesome wearing it. :)

Ok, so now onto the Knitting Like Crazy goodness. First, I just put some new yarn up on my etsy site:It's called Caribbean Honeymoon. You can see more pictures here.

And now for the big Knitting Like Crazy announcement:

Oh, yeah, I am hopping on the sock yarn club bandwagon and starting one too! The club is for four month and will ship in January, March, May, and July 2008. The cost (including shipping) is $135. You can read more details here.

Alright, that's all I have for now (my goodness, what else could be left!?). This week is going to be another busy one. My brother, Mike, is visiting from Iowa so I am going to see him and there will be the preparing for the 3rd Annual Halloween Party in my apartment. The costumes have been purchased, the lists are being made, now we just need some decorations and food and drinks and what not. Maybe I will be able to crank out a small amount of knitting in between all the craziness.

Well, if you are still reading, I am quite impressed! :) Happy knitting!

I am still alive, I swear.

I swear, everytime I try to work up a nice little post about all this knitting I have been doing, something gets in the way. Soon, yes soon there will be an update with pictures of FOs and yarn and a Knitting Like Crazy announcement. Today, unfortunately, is not the day for said things. I am getting ready to go to Plainfield to Strands of Heaven to deliver a crap ton of yarn (crap ton being in an exact number, of course). Anyway, that's all, hope everyone had a good weekend!

Happy knitting! :)

Uh oh, you can call me an enabler, it's ok. . . .

I dyed up a small amount of yarn the other day in an effort to put more on my Etsy site. Here is one for your enjoyment:
It's called Ice Cream Parlor! You can see more pictures here. Um, I don't want to brag, but this might be some of my best work yet. Slowly I am getting better at this dyeing thing. :)

That's all I have for now. There is another FO around here somewhere and somehow I managed to start yet another sock. The sock is kind of hilarious to me, but I will have to save that for another time. Oh, and there may be blog-worthy purchases arriving in the mail today. I hope, anyway.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy knitting!

Alert the media! She is finishing projects!

Thanks for all the happy blogiversary comments! Very nice people, all of you are. :)

And, now, a quick post about the latest FO in the land o' Jen's knitting: Mike's hat!! I decided to not use the Lion Brand, but instead used some Paton's Classic Wool I had around.

Here are some specs:
Pattern: My own. I referred to the Kim's Hats patterns in Last Minute Knitted Gifts for some reference on number of stitches, etc. Yeah, like I would actually knit a gauge swatch to figure that out. :)
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool
Needles: Size 7 straights. While I love knitting socks for their dpn/in the round goodness, I hate knitting hats in the round. So I knit it flat and seamed up the back.
The result: Another Christmas gift can be crossed off the list. Hooray!

The other thing that I have to say about this hat is while some people might not like the swirly decreases, I happen to like them-nay, love them.

Next on the Christmas list o' knitting is to finish the socks I started for unnamed male friend. A heel has been turned on sock number two and we are on the way to the cuff!

Finally, in the yarn factory o' me there is some yarn a-drying currently. I have no picture right now. (Sorry, it looks good too). Today I started thinking about having some sort of sock yarn club. I think I would keep it small (like 10-12 openings) and send yarn out, like, Feb, April, June, and August of next year. Does that sound like something anyone would be interested in? I don't know how much I would charge, probably somewhere around $120-150 including the shipping. Oh, and there would be goodies too, I think. Goodies are what make it good. Like I said, it's not a definite thing, just putting some feelers out there. . . .

Ok, I probably should get back to work now. (Shh, I won't tell your boss that you read my blog at work if you don't tell my boss I posted to my blog while at work.) :)

Happy knitting!

Hey! It's a Blogiversary!

Happy Blogiversary to me
Happy Blogiversary to me
Happy Blogiversary dear me
Happy Blogiversary to me!

Well, I started this little blog a year ago today. I have knit many things in this year. I have gone from buying all my yarn at box craft stores to having a STR sock yarn obsession that just won't quit. I have a sock yarn obsession so bad that I dye sock yarn in order to make extra money to buy more sock yarn. It's been a good year!

Thanks for reading my blog!

The list! It keeps growing!

This weekend was a good one, I have to say. Saturday I went to the corn maze, which is my favorite fall-time activity. Today there was much sleeping and sitting around. I know I should have gone outside to enjoy the warm weather, but seriously, it's October, I want it to be 58 degrees outside, not 89! Alex and I watched Walk The Line. We have had the movie for over a year (yes, I said over a year) from Blockbuster Online and never watched it. Now that I decided to cancel this service, as clearly we are not using it, we had to watch it before it has to be back on October 31. The verdict on the movie--it's good, and I wish we would have watched it sooner! :)

All that sitting around today gave me time to finish these:
You may be thinking, but Jen, I never saw these socks on your blog before. Where did they come from? I will tell you. My coworker, Tim, asked me to knit a pair of socks for his wife for Christmas. He even wanted some original Knitting Like Crazy hand-dyed yarn. So, he picked out some in the Fruit Punch colorway and I got a-knittin'. It's just a basic sock pattern, 56 stitches on size 2 needles. I have to admit, I am super impressed with myself that I dyed yarn that managed to somehow stripe. I have no idea how that happened....seriously.

So I took the Christmas socks for my coworker and the Coupling socks that I made for my mom and made them some labels:

Hector, my sleeping companion, is excited to be making his blog debut! Anyway, I am glad that the Christmas knitting is coming along nicely. The next Christmas knitting project is a hat for my brother, Mike. I am thinking a black hat out of some Lion Brand Wool-Ease that is in the stash. I want to make Mike a nice hat, but I also know how he loses these things in bars and things so I am not going to make a huge investment on the first hat. If he can prove to me that he won't lose it, then maybe he will get a new one next year. :) I thought that would be it for the family knitting for Christmas, until my other brother, Matt, informed me today that he wants this. I told him it may take awhile and not to expect it for Christmas. Also, Matt now is working at Michael's again, so I am thinking he may be getting a Lion Brand Wool Ease scarf as well. I mean, the boy gets me a 30% discount if I go there while he is working!

Hmm, so now, a list.

Christmas knitting that I would like to accomplish this year:

• Hat for Mike
• Finish socks for male friend who shall not be named, but I can tell you it is not Alex as he has informed me he has no interest in hand knit socks.
• Nintendo scarf for Matt--maybe
• Coworker Tim also wants leg warmers for wife
• 1-2 more knitted baby items for Karen (that's not really Christmas knitting, but the baby is due mid-January, so I would like to have it done before Christmas, just in case).

Really, I think this might be manageable Christmas knitting. I know I will end up adding a thing or two to the list, and I would like to get the Chevron Scarf and Morning Glory done. Perhaps some mittens. Crap, now I am adding things, and that's a lot of knitting.

Well, this week should bring a few interesting projects around here that don't involve much knitting. I have some yarn to dye (tomorrow, I think) and I also have a different coworker who has asked me to fix the holes in his hand-knit 100% alpaca sweater that he got on Bolivia years ago. I am hoping to take care of that project while at work tomorrow. I will try to get a picture of the sweater because it is quite awesome.

Ok, enough talking for now. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Happy knitting!

Is it bad that I sleep in a bed o' yarn?

Well, hmm. I am in a weird mood today. I still have not been knitting. I have to change that soon because otherwise all the WIPs will start to become angry and revolt against me. Plus, I started making the Christmas shopping/knitting list this morning and I need to get a-crackin'!

Anyway, look what I got in the mail yesterday:I am quite excited about this yarn. Why, you ask? I won it from Wendy of Wendy Knits!! I was one of the many winners in the "Guess How Many Pairs of Socks Wendy Will Knit in the Summer of Socks?" The right answer was 19 and that's what I guessed. Hooray for free bloggity goodness yarn! It's Lisa Souza Sock Yarn in Peacock. This stuff is so so soft. The label says its about 510 yards (that's a lot!) so I might save this for some kind of shawl/lace project. I love using sock yarn for stuff like that. I am thinking about the Spring Things Shawl. The envelope from Wendy also had the pattern for the Lacy Rib Toe-Up Socks that she designed while knitting many a-sock during the Summer of Socks. Thank so much, Wendy!

And since I have no new knitting to show you, I will show you this:

Batch one for Strands of Heaven. 12 skeins of matching yarn. Well, as matching as I could get it. You know, I think it's funny that I am an analytical chemist by day and that involves some pretty good measuring and attention to detail. The yarn dyeing, hmm, I call that more creative. A 'glug or two' of vinegar and some dye until 'that looks about right.' For this little project, however, there was measuring and note taking. And dye lots. I am hoping I can get the rest dyed on or before Sunday so this project will be finished. I am excited to see what Bridget, the LYS owner, thinks of it. I think it is what she wanted.

Anyway, that's all for now. I have to go catch up on my Dancing with the Stars.

Oh, and if you have the time, please stop over to Amanda's blog and send her some lovin'. I think she could use it. :) Oh, and she is now running a contest. You could get free stuff!

Happy knitting!