No Harlot For You. . . .

Well, tonight was supposed to be Yarn Harlot night. Sadly, it was not. Stephanie got stuck in Canada, and there was much raining in Chicago and it was just a bad scene. Anyway, there was much knitting and fun had, even without the Yarn Harlot. It all started when I was the first one to the venue, and I decided to Kinnear myself: I realize I look kind of crabby in the above picture, but I was trying to catch exactly what I would look like had I been Kinneared by someone else. Obviously, sitting there alone knitting didn't make me look weird enough. I had to bust out the camera and take pictures of myself knitting by myself. I swear, you should be in my head sometimes.

Anyway, I did knit quite a lot of sock:
This is my own yarn in the Sunset (I think) colorway. I dyed this awhile ago and put one in my shop, kept one for myself. I am so glad that I kept it for myself. It's lovely.

Well, that's it. Tonight I will spend the rest of my evening knitting above sock while watching lots of Friends reruns. A pretty good end to a pretty good night.

Happy Knitting!

Back with a fiber-y vengeance. . . .

And, I'm back! Thanks for all the lovely comments about the cat. I love all my online knitting buds. You guys rock.

So, as you may or may not know, I sort of accidentally took up spinning recently. I am using a drop spindle right now (due to it's cheap price tag) but I am seriously trying to decide if that economic stimulus check is going to stimulate my savings account or stimulate the purchase of a spinning wheel. I seriously am so torn right now on that one. Anywho, for the time being, me and my drop spindle, are getting along just fine:
I am still working on being more even while spinning; it's still a little "thick and thin" but slowly I am becoming more consistent. I keep telling myself I learned to knit out of a book, and that took awhile to get the hang of, and I am trying to learn to spin the same way so it's just going to take some time.

That roving up there is from Whimzy Pimzy and the colorway is Sunset Beach. I should warn you for non-spinners out there--there is some lovely yarn in her shop too. :)

And then the knitting. . . .

I had dyed some self-striping yarn the other week, and I decided to keep one skein for myself to test it out. Um, can we just say it's freakin' awesome:

I don't think self-striping is something I would do all the time, due to the time factor that goes into making that happen, but once in awhile, it's a nice change. And I do love those perfect little stripes.:) I think the above socks different on purpose. I like that they are almost the same, just striping almost exactly opposite (I say almost because the turquoise stripe is slightly bigger than the brown one). And, I do have one more of these in the shop right now, just sayin'. :)

I decided to give these socks to my friend Mel. Mel had a hell of a week last week and while some people would knit a prayer shawl, I decided to go with prayer socks. Mel is not the shawl-wearing kind of gal. Anyway, I know most of you don't know Mel, but (and I have said this before) she is an extremely good egg. If you have a minute, please visit her blog and send her and her friends some good thoughts.

That's it for now. Tonight there will be much yarn dyeing and yarn craziness up in here. Hope everyone has a good week.

Happy knitting!

So long, good buddy. . . . .

Well, I just got off the phone with my mom a little bit ago, and found out that Buster, the nearly 18-year-old cat, has passed away.

He was a good cat, even if he would sleep in my dresser drawer on occassion:
When I was at my parent's house last weekend, I gave him a hug, told him I loved him and not to die. Apparently, he had other plans. He lived a good life though, and that makes me happy.

So long, good buddy. I hope wherever you are now if full of cans of tuna, comfy green ottomans, and lots of sunny concrete to sun yourself on.

Um, So this one time, I didn't buy yarn. Oh, wait. . . .

Hello once again. Man, I swear you would think I made it my spring resolution to blog more. :)

Well, see, I am dyeing a bunch of yarn right now (including an experiment in real self-striping) and while it's cooking away on the stove I thought I would blog quickly about my yarn shop adventure yesterday.

Since my brother that is usually in Iowa was home for a couple days, I decided to go to my parents house in Grayslake yesterday to pay him a visit. I mean, sure, I wanted to see my brother, but I also knew that there was a new yarn shop in Grayslake. So, I stop by to check it out. It's called Prairie Arts & Fibers. It's a cute little shop in the new shop area of Prairie Crossing. Conveniently right on my way between my home and my parents place. Oh the joy! Of course, I couldn't fully appreciate the shop without buying a little yarn:
It's Claudia Handpainted in the Oops! colorway.

So, the verdict on the yarn shop? I really liked it. They are super new, and had a good selection of yarn. Denise, who was working there, was really really nice. And, really really nice people are important to me when going into an LYS. So, if you are G-town and need some yarn, I highly recommend stopping by.

Happy Knitting!

P.S. I am starting to cook up a contest for my Etsy-versary, so stay tuned for that!

Socks of many sizes. . . .

Ah, a rare two posts in one week. What is this? Well, as there has been a whole sh*t ton of sock knitting, it must be done.

First of all, if you are in the BMFA Rockin Sock Club and DO NOT want to see pictures of the March socks, please move right along. There is definitely pictures of my March sock in this post.

Anyway. . . .

First off, here are the Mommy-To-Be socks for my friend Gina:
Gina was interested in some handknit socks for her hospital stay when it's baby time in a few weeks, and who am I to deny a pregnant lady handknit socks? :) I finished these a couple days ago, and I am hoping to get them to her this week. She is not due until later this month, but I don't know. I mean, I know often first babies go late, but I don't think this one is. Things are dialating.

Sock Specs:
The Yarn: Yarn Love Scarlett O'Hara (a lovely bamboo/wool/nylon blend) in the Shipwreck colorway purchased from The Loopy Ewe.
The Pattern: Generic cuff down pattern and is in my head. I used 1x1 twisted rib on the cuff and mimicked that on the heel flap
The Needles: Size 2, of course
Time to knit: Ravelry is telling me it took me about three weeks to knit these, not too bad.

So another pair of socks finished. WooHoo! Yesterday, I went with my knitting group to Fishbed in Dundee for our monthly Yarn Hop (once a month we go to a different yarn shop and knit. Oh and shop, we definitely shop). While there, I did shop (more on that in a minute) but I managed to finish the first of my Rockin Sock Club sock for March:
The colorway is called Lucky, and I really like it. I am not one to pick green yarn a lot, but it's gorgeous. The pattern uses different sock construction than I am used to for heels and things, but I got through it. I was not jumping up and down about it, and am not sure I would use it on a sock again, but I am happy I am trying it. I think it's hard to explain, but I will try. The sock is knit cuff down, but the way you do the heel is kind of like you would do the gusset increases and heel flap on a tow-up sock. Its almost like you did the steps upside down than you might normally do for a cuff down sock. It is definitely interesting. The thing I didn't like about it, is I felt like it took forever to get through that part of the sock. Maybe with some practice it would go faster. We will see what happens with sock number 2. I will say I love love love the leafy pattern on the sock. That is definitely rockin my socks!

And, now onto the shopping. Oh the shopping. Of course, I bought yarn to knit socks:
This is Hacho from Mirasol Yarn Hacho. I had never seen it before, but holy crap is it nice. The twist on the yarn is similar to that of STR, and that is what I love. Nice and tight. There has been much petting of the yarn over the last two days. Then, I also got this:
It's Louet Gems in Worsted Weight. The colorway is Peony. Mary is knitting her first pair of socks (that's right, I so got my knitting group knitting socks now, it's awesome) and she was using this same yarn . I do not normally knit socks in worsted weight, but this stuff was just too nice to pass up. And, hey it's super fast:I started that sock yesterday at about 3pm. Several hours of watching Flip That House/various home improvement shows on TLC will really help with the sock knitting. I plan to knit this sock until I run out of yarn. They will make me very warm next winter when I am out working in the snow and cold.

And finally, I received one Wee Tiny Sock in the mail yesterday:It came from Theresa in CA. It's knit with STR in the Flower Power colorway. I love my new Wee Tiny Sock! Thanks Theresa! And thanks to Emily from YarnMiracle for hosting another fine Wee Tiny Sock Swap.

Well, that's it for now. I am now going to Half-Priced Books to unload more CDs and books on them. This whole getting rid of the crap you don't really need is feeling pretty good.

Happy knitting!

There has been some sock mojo. . . .

Ah, hello my ones of readers! I am back with some sock mojo news: I got it back! Well, I think I did. Now that I have been working on my March Rockin' Sock Club sock, I am not so sure. This sock is kicking my butt. But, alas, I will keep working at it.

Anywho, what got my sock mojo back were these:

Oh, it's STR, in the Fire on the Mountain colorway. I love these socks. I want to marry these socks. I love them so much that I gave them to a good home--to Mel! I think she loves them too (as a picture of them are now on her Facebook page). I may have to use my 10% off coupon from BMFA to get some more of this yarn for myself.

I also finished my friend Gina's baby delivery socks. I don't have a picture (they aren't even on Ravelry yet--very hot off the needles, you know how it goes). Those turned out great too!

After all that sock knitting, I decided to knit something other than a sock:It's an iPod Nano cozy for Alex's new iPod Nano. I made the pattern up, and I even wrote it down. You can find it right here on my website.

And speaking of website--

I have been doing a pretty major update to my website, http://knittinglikecrazy.com. I have added more information about my yarn and even a gallery of the colorways I am willing to reproduce. And, my sock pattern and now the iPod Cozy pattern are there. So far, I am pleased with the site. I updated it myself (with only a few technical questions for Alex). So, take a look--hope you like it!

That's about all for now. Hope everyone is having a good week. Happy Knitting!