O Xmas Tree!

After seeing pictures of Lorna's Christmas decorations, I decided that I wanted to show mine off too. I thought some of you knitters out there might like some of my Christmas decor!

First we have the tree: It's a small tree, but living in an apartment there is not a lot of room. About three years ago I started a tradition of having a Christmas village, just like my mom:
I buy one new house each year. My town is growing. I hope one day it will have a yarn shop! So that's what's under the tree. On the tree we have these:
Knitted/yarn related ornaments made by me. The two "balls of yarn" I made by glueing some yarn onto a styrofoam ball and then winding away. I think I saw it on the Michael's website. I also made that red bell (it's one of the first things I ever knit) and the snow man. Usually they are not all bunched up on the tree like that, but I moved them--for show.

Finally, Alex's mom got us these:

Can we please talk for a minute about my knitting Christmas lady!?!?! She said she got it somewhere in the Pigeon Forge, TN area. She saw it and had to get it for me and got the Santa to match for Alex. I love all my decorations, but this new addition is obviously the best one!

I have some other stuff too that I didn't take pictures of. I made a couple of Snowman pillows with some fleece and I have a collection of snowmen all over the place.

That's it. That is Christmas in my apartment!

No knitting has taken place in the last three days. I must do something to fix that soon. Tonight might be the night for knitting we will see. If I can get the printer to work there may be yarn labeling tonight as well.

Happy knitting!

P.S. Sarah--I saw that you tagged me, but I was having a very hard time coming up with answers to the questions. I may take a stab at that again in a couple days. :)

No knitting, but I am buried in yarn over here!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I would say mine was pretty good. I ate way too much but that's cool. It's Thanksgiving!

I have been knitting a little bit here and there over the last few days, but today I wanted to show you what I did in between all the eating:The yarn factory has been in full swing! And it's going to be open again in about ten minutes. I am excited about all the yarn I have been dyeing for Strands over the last few days, but I am even more excited about this:Bears yarn!?!?! Yes, please! There are a few skeins of this on my Etsy site. Perfect for all the Chicago Bears fans in your life! :)

That's really all I have to show for you now.

I taught Mel how to knit on Friday. She learned so so quick and she has the most even tension for a new knitter that I have ever seen. It was seriously remarkable. I can't wait to see her garter stitch scarf!!

Happy knitting everyone! Hopefully I will have some knitting to show off later this week. :)

Socks and Sock Yarn. . . .

Well, quite a lot has happened in the last few days. Last Tuesday I went to a new knit night at the Panera in Elk Grove Village. I had such a wonderful time. It was my first time meeting these ladies, and they were all so nice. All of them are so funny and good knitters. A good time was had by all. I am definitely going to be frequenting their knitting events a lot more in the future. Perhaps even tomorrow. Hooray! Also on Tuesday, I made a trip to the post office to try to track down a yarn package that was MIA. What, oh what could it be?

Raven Series Yarn!!


I thought I was going to be good when this new yarn came up on the website. I thought I would just take a look, hope I got a BFMA gift certificate for Christmas and buy some then. Oops. Next thing I know I was hitting the order button. I just got this one skein of lightweight in the Grock colorway. I am not sure yet if it will become socks, or perhaps another Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. It's going to marinate in the stash while I think about it.

Then, on Wednesday, I got to meet Sheila and her son Kieran. We met at Harry's in Arlington Heights, had some dinner and chatted about knitting. We had a great time and I think that there may be some beer drinking/knitting in our future soon. Sheila and I live, like, a mile or two away from each other and we have been blog stalking each other for awhile. It was really great to finally meet!

Thursday night I had to skip my ballroom dancing class (we are learning to Hustle, it's awesome), to go spend the weekend in Western Springs babysitting three little kids. I, of course, brought all this knitting, but didn't get much done. How SAHMs can get any knitting done, I do not understand. I did get a whole pair of socks knit, but it was with some thick yarn, so it's not that impressive:
The Specs:

The Pattern: Twinkle Toes by Cookie A. as seen on Knitty Gritty (it's free!)
The Yarn: STR Heavyweight in Rose Quartz colorway
The Needles: Size 3 DPNs
The Modifications: The pattern call for size 4, but my socks were going to be way to big, so I used size 3s. Also, I didn't quite understand the directions for the heel part, so I did my own thing, and all worked out in the end.
The Results: I think that these are the best fitting socks I have ever knit. Cookie A. does know how to write some good patterns! And, with only 48 stitches they are very fast to knit!

When I got home last night, there was an envelope waiting for me that had this in it:
Sock yarn from Perfect Day Yarns! The colorway is called Nevermore. Sarah and I became Ravelry pals, and she just opened her own online yarn shop with her hand-dyed yarn and I just had to get some on her opening day. It's so beautiful and I can't wait to see how it looks knitted up!

And, finally, this morning while dyeing some yarn I finished weaving in the ends on these:

My Candy Cane socks! Here are some specs:

The Pattern: My own. Well, kind of. I used a mock-cable rib like the one for the scarf in Stitch N Bitch Nation. They are knit toe-up and I kept the mock cable going when I started the all around ribbing on the top. I think it was a nice touch.
The Yarn: Claudia Handpainted Fingering Weight in Peppermint Mocha colorway. I think this colorway might be a Loopy Ewe exclusive.
The Needles: Size 2 DPNs
The Results: Great. I think I might start knitting my socks exclusively toe up. I am liking it so much better. These socks are going to look great when I wear them for my Christmas Eve events, which includes hanging out at Alex's parents house drinking and being merry.

Well, that's all I have for now. This week is going to be a CRAZY one. A giant box o' yarn just arrived to dye for Strands, there is Thanksgiving Eve at the Last Chance Saloon in Grayslake, and I have to work three out of the four days of Thanksgiving weekend (I have Thursday off though...hooray!) Friday I am teaching my friend Mel to knit, so I am super excited about that! I can't wait for her blog to turn into a knitting blog. :)

Happy Knitting and Happy Thanksgiving!

The FO goodness of wonderfulness. . . .

Well, here at Knitting Like Crazy many things have been happening. Let's see. Today I opened the Clearance Section of my Etsy shop. I have a ton more yarn to dye and I don't have lots of room to store it. So, what is a girl to do but slash a couple bucks off some of her yarn and put it on her Etsy site!? I will be updating that section often, so check back soon. Also in Etsy shop news, there is only a couple more weeks to sign up for the Knitting Like Crazy Sock Club.

Ok, enough of that. And onto the knitting. . . .

I mentioned earlier that I turned my Penny Rose socks into anklets so that I could try to squeeze a second pair out of the yarn at a later date. Here is anklet pair number one:Aren't they pretty! I highly recommend this yarn. Non-pooly goodness of wonderfulness, how I love this yarn! I am back to working on the Peppermint Mocha socks. I am sock number two.

But enough about the socks. I finished something else in recent days:
A Chevron Scarf!!

Here are a couple pictures of the back. First we have the yarn being carried up the side:

And now the back side in all it's purly goodness:
I love love love this scarf. It's loud and bright and happy and doesn't match anything I own, but I don't care. I am going to be wearing this baby proudly.

The Chevron Scarf Specs:

The Pattern: Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts

The Yarn: One skein STR mediumweight in Chapman Springs (a Christmas gift!) and one skein STR mediumweight in Sherbert (won in a contest on Knitspot!)

The needles: Size 5

The result: Awesome!

After all those FOs what is a girl to do but to start wildly casting on yet more projects? This time though I was able to finish them about as quickly as I started. Last night I managed to knit two Calorimetry headbands.

Calorimetry, The First:

Calorimetry, The Second:
The first one I followed the pattern exactly except for using a size 6 needle instead of the recommended size 8. It looks pretty good, but I did not want such a gigantic headband (although it will keep my head warm). For the second one, I used the same needle, but went to 100 stitches instead of the 120 in the pattern. And I did fewer short rows. I like the second one better.

There may be a Calorimetry, The Third, in my knitting bag right now. I don't know, it's one of those patterns I just want to knit a million times. At this rate I will be able to gift the greater Chicagoland area with headwear for Christmas!

Anyway, that's all for now. Tonight I am going to try a new knitting group in the Elk Grove Village area. I am excited, but honestly, I am more excited for tomorrow, when I get to meet Sheila!

Happy knitting! :)

Some Wednesday reading for you.

Another week has gone by, and I continue to neglect the blog. Why, oh why!? Well, I have been busy...well, not really. Work has been a little crazy and stressful, and the apartment has been a mess, and all I can seem to do is sit on the couch and watch Bridezillas and Platinum Weddings on WE. Oh well. Sometimes sitting on the couch being lazy is fun. And, I have been knitting a little here and a wee bit there.

I knit these booties up to match the umbilical cord hat that I knit awhile back for my college roommate, Karen: I knit them flat then (poorly) seamed them up. I think they look pretty cute. Not bad for an hour or less worth of work!

I started the Branching Out Scarf too:
This is with that alpaca yarn that I got from a coworker. I am really loving this project. I am interested to see how this is going to block out. Normally I knit these kinds of lacy things with wool, so I am not sure how well it will work. I do like a good experiement!

My Canyon Sunrise socks are coming right along. I have no pic today because I might be at work right now and I don't have one to show you. I decided to go with a short ankle sock. Really, it's just so I will have leftover yarn so I can try to squeeze a second pair out of. I want a million pairs of socks out of that yarn!

Hopefully some of these UFOs will become FOs soon, so I can start new projects soon. I mean, there may be some Raven Series yarn on its way to me soon, and I know I am going to have to immediately knit with it!

Happy knitting! :)

P.S. I am very angry with Sarah right now. She had a link to the llama song on her blog, and I listened to it and now it has been in my head for two days. Sarah, seriously, I am shaking my fist at you! ;)