A Look Back: Day Five

This week I am reposting some old posts from the blog as a fun way to see where the blog was to where it is going. Hope you enjoy! :)

I have been posting a blog post from each year that the blog has been around. This year, 2010, was probably the best year of my whole life. My full time job has gone from unbearable to at least somewhat tolerable (which is a dramatic improvement), my sister and brother-in-law made me the cutest niece in the world, things with my fiber/knitting endeavors are going great, and Alex and I made a plan to be married this coming October. And, even though it's not knitting related, it's probably my favorite post of all time on the knitting blog, so I am going to post it again.

This post was originally posted on May 18, 2010, the day after Alex and I got engaged:

Well, some of you who are already Facebook friends with me or follow me on Twitter know this, but I just had to share with all my bloggy friends too. . . .

Alex and I got engaged last night!!!

I don't think I could possibly be more excited. We had shopped for a ring way back in December, the monthly statements started coming for it in late January, and I patiently waited (well, maybe not that patiently, I did ask Alex several times if he was taking me anywhere romantic and also told him once or twice that the ring finger on my left hand was feeling extra light and maybe he could help me weigh it down a little, but I digress).

Anyway, last night after we ate some super delicious dinner (seriously, everyone needs to make this lasagna, it's the best), Alex suggested that we look at the "Alex & Jen Scrapbook." Scrapbooking is my other crafty hobby and I had started this scrapbook after we started dating. So, we are looking at it and we get to the last page and he turns it and there is a scrapbook layout that my dear Alex made!

He said it took him five hours to make and he had to go on the internet to figure out how to make it and he had to steal my scrapbooking supplies! I don't think I have ever loved a page in any of my scrapbooks more. It was so perfect. Crafty and super cute!

There we are looking at the scrapbook page, and he gets down on one knee and says all those things you wait your whole life to hear and pulls the ring out of his pocket! Even though I knew that an engagement was looming I was super surprised. It could not have been better.

So, now all the big decisions start to come into play. Like how much of my wedding do I knit?? :)

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Well, I hope you enjoyed this look back on the blog. Back next week with brand new blog posts. Happy New Year!

A Look Back: Day Four

This week I am reposting some old posts from the blog as a fun way to see where the blog was to where it is going. Hope you enjoy! :)

This post was originally posted on August 11, 2009. It is a recap of Sock Summit. This has to be my fav event I have ever attended. And, the fact that Jenni and I plan to return to again in 2011 (this time with more of our knitting friends) makes me quite happy!

Last night, I returned from Portland and the wonderful land that was Sock Summit.

There was way to much going on to talk about it in only one post, so here is the overview. There was a lot of sock knitting:
And there was class taking (um, hello! That is Meg freakin' Swansen!):And stalking of some of my favorite knitting celebrities:There was meeting of some of my favorite bloggers (here's Deb from Knitting Pharm):And my favorite favorite sock designers:There was some beer drinking:And meeting the Ravelry folks:And there was more sock knitting:I had such a wonderful time and it was so fun to meet a bunch of people I had only ever known online. I took some wonderful classes, bought some amazing sock yarn, and just had a blast.

A Look Back: Day Three

This week I am reposting some old posts from the blog as a fun way to see where the blog was to where it is going. Hope you enjoy! :)

This post was originally posted on March 15, 2008. This is my favorite baby bib I have knit to date, and I just have to share it again!

Today I am going to a baby shower for my dear friend, Gina. Her and her husband are expecting a wee one next month. Usually, I have more knitted gifts for baby, but things have really been cutting into my knitting time. There is more coming down the line for Gina and baby, but here is what I have to bring to the shower today: Another Baby Bib O' Love from Mason Dixon Knitting. It really is one of my favorite items to knit. It goes so fast and is so cute and you can fancy them up with cheap buttons on clearance at Joann's. I love it!

The only thing I did differently to this bib then the other ones I have done is I made this one in seed stitch. Because seed stitch makes me super happy these days.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, this is NOT the secret knitting project I mentioned awhile back. That is done, but I certainly cannot show it to you yet. In time, my friends, in due time.

Happy knitting!

A Look Back: Day Two

This week I am reposting some old posts from the blog as a fun way to see where the blog was to where it is going. Hope you enjoy! :)

This post was originally posted on November 19, 2007. It features some socks from when I was really in the height of my sock obsession. I also mention my knitting group for the first time. I never would have guessed what a world that knitting group would open for me!

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. :)

A Look Back: Day One

So, I have been thinking about this for awhile now. As my blog has grown and changed over the last 4+ years, I thought it might be fun to take a look back at a few of the earlier posts.

For this week only, I will be reposting one of my older posts for you to enjoy. I hope you like reading them!

This post was originally posted on October 10, 2006. It was my first blog post with pictures and everything. It's funny to me to read this because it was before I really knew about yarn stores and it was pre-Ravelry. OMG pre-Ravelry! :)

Well, here are the coasters that I knit on Sunday. I quite enjoy them. I saw them on an episode of Knitty Gritty on DIY a couple of weeks ago and thought "Hey, I think I can knit that." Some leftover yarn and a couple hours later I had my set of four coasters. I think my friend Claire will enjoy them...they will match her kitchen. I used yarn I already had, which is always a good thing because a) I use up yarn I am tired of looking at and 2) I will soon have room for more yarn, which really is the key factor in this equation. You can find the pattern for these coasters here. I used some cheap 100% acrylic yarn that I had in my stash (I used TLC Essentials, Worsted Weight yarn in two different colors: 2672 Lt Thyme and 2916 Island). I am quite pleased with the result. I definitely will be knitting up some more of these for Christmas gifts. Ah, the Christmas knitting. Will it ever end?

I also knit a couple of wine cozy as part of my let's use up some yarn and get some Christmas knitting done at the same time plan. I found this pattern on Knitty.com. You can find the pattern for this wine cozy here. I really really like the way it turned out. I more than like it, I love it. I know that I am going to have no choice but to knit one for myself!

Hmm, in other news, my sister, Melissa, thinks my knitting blog is out of control (and not in a good way). I think she is off her rocker. I think it's smart. I knit a lot of stuff and then give it away, and I think it's nice to remember what I have knit. Just wait, in a year she will have her own knitting blog and then she will want to be my knitting blog friend!

And with that, it is back to knitting. I am working on some American Girl doll clothes for a little girl who is going to be getting one of these dolls for Christmas this year. I find patterns for these dolls to be few and far between in the land of free patterns on the internet, but I like what I have and I think everything will turn out nicely. We will see. . . .

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to pop in and say that I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. And, if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Uh, by the way, I have fallen in love with fake moustaches!

Have a very Merry Christmas! Stay tuned next week for a look back on some of my favorite bloggy moments. :)

Yesterday morning was one of those mornings where you are at work trying to figure out why the heck you got out of bed to go there.

Things dramatically improved when a coworker left a little something for me on my desk: I love when woolly things show up on my desk! And those caramels didn't hurt either. :)

End of Year Sale!

Who doesn't love a good end of the year sale. I know I do! From now through 12/31 all patterns are 20% in my Ravelry Pattern Shop!

No coupon code needed. The discount will be applied at checkout.

Thanks everyone for being so supportive and wonderful to me this year! Enjoy! :)

New Look!

For the last few weeks, I have been working with my coworker's daughter, who recently graduated with a degree in graphic design, on a logo and a new banner for my website. I think she did a fantastic job!
I am looking forward to updating my patterns and business cards to include the new logo. I think it's just mega awesome.

If you are looking for a banner for your blog or a logo, you really should contact Clare. She was so easy to work with and she worked very hard to get everything just perfect. She is a good egg. You can visit her website, http://www.clare-edmonds.com/ and you can find her contact info there. I found her prices to very reasonable and, again, she is a pleasure to work with. So, check her out if you need a logo! :)

Hope everyone is cranking along well with the Christmas knitting. I basically decided to do no Christmas knitting. I have a poncho I am working on, and I have already told the recipient it is unlikely to be done. But, who knows? Maybe I'll crank it out in the next day!

WiP Wednesday

Thought I would use this WiP Wednesday to share a quick in progress pic of my Russian lace shawl:
I am actually a lot further a long than what I have here in the pic. I took this pic awhile ago.

I am really loving knitting on this thing. I find it challenging and probably one of the trickier things I have knit in awhile. I think once it's blocked it's going to look absolutely beautiful.

Stay tuned for that! :)

It's Christmas Time. . .

In the past, I have posted some things about decorating for Christmas, and I decided that I wanted to do it again this year. :) I have some more knitting related Christmas things in the collection now.

Well, first up is something not at all related to knitting, but I just had to share. It's our first ever gingerbread house:I can't believe I have never made one before. It was so so fun! Our friend, Mary, made the pieces from scratch. We had such a great time decorating them.

Now onto knit-related things. :) When we first moved into this house, I had no idea what do put on these shelves. Well, I still don't know what to put on them, but they are nice at Christmas:

And, on that top shelf if the newest addition to my snowman collection. It's a yarn ball snowman!My mom actually found that at the dollar store!

I have a couple new ornaments too. There is the alpaca made out of alpaca yarn that Alex and I picked up at Alpaca Days last year:
And, recently, I was out shopping and I could not resist this Hallmark ornament:

Anyway, those are the latest additions to the collection. I am sure it will grow in the years to come.

Did you decorate with any knitty things this holiday season? :)

Family Knits

It feels so good to be finally getting all caught up with all the things I have been wanting to blog about!

Over Thanksgiving, my aunt and uncle came down from WI, which is the annual tradition at my parent's house. They were meeting my niece for the first time too. I was super excited to find out that my aunt had knit Caitlyn a teddy bear:I oohed and aahed over it for a long time. I just can't knit stuffed animals. So. much. seaming. Unfortunately, I have no idea what pattern it is, but I will try to find out.

I was also excited because my aunt showed me the scarf she had knit out of a skein of my yarn:
My cousin had bought it for her last Christmas. It was super awesome to see it all knitted up! It's a mistake rib scarf (lots of patterns out there on Ravelry to make one of your own).

I love when random knitting pops up, don't you? :)

The Geneva Socks

I had mentioned awhile back that I had a design coming out with Kollage Yarns. Well, I am so pleased to announce that the pattern became available last week!

Here are the photos of my socks at their official photoshoot:

Photo courtesy of Kollage Yarns.

Photo courtesy of Kollage Yarns.

I am so excited for the socks to finally be out. They are just the kind of lacey socks I like to knit (and hopefully you do too)!

You can see the pattern details on the Ravelry page, and you can purchase the pattern through Patternfish. The link to the pattern is here. It is available for download for $7.25.

They take one skein of Sock-a-licious for the medium size, and you would likely need a second skein for the large size (my test knitter did do the large size out of one skein but only had 1 yard leftover...so you probably want the second skein just to be safe!)

I have to thank Jenni and Melissa for their test knitting (and for test knitting so so quickly). And, to all of my knitting and bloggy friends who have encouraged me through the process. Definitely feeling the love.

So, hope you enjoy the new pattern and stay tuned. There just may be more Kollage patterns on the way. . . .

Note: Photos were used with permission from Kollage Yarns.

On the way home. . .

So yesterday, I talked about the Reclamation Scarf I knit on the way to Ohio. So, what did I knit on the way home?Why, another Reclamation Scarf, of course!
The pattern is so easy that you don't really need the pattern in front of you after the first few rows. This is good so you can prevent any car sick-yuckiness while in transit.

This one I knit out of a skein of Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Pebble Beach colorway. This skein had been marinating in the stash for some time. I had tried a couple other things with it, but they always turned out bad. I really love how the colors came out with this scarf.

Want your own Reclamation? You can get the pattern on Ravelry, or on Stefanie Japel's website here.

Happy knitting. :)

A Road Trip FO

The weekend after Thanksgiving, I made a quick road trip with Alex and his family to Ohio to visit his relatives. I was kind of excited about making this trip for several reasons:

1. I like Alex's family and always have fun hanging out with them.
2. I knew that a trip to Greenville, Ohio, means I get to eat a Maid Rite, which is mega awesome.
3. That's about six hours each way in the car for knitting!

On the way there, I knit a Reclamation Scarf: I had a request for a green one.
And I had the perfect skein of yarn for it. It was meant to be.
I knit it with just one skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Mill End I had picked up on one the tours I went to there.

It is a smaller scarf, but that's ok, it will be perfect for the 8 year old that asked for it!

This pattern is perfect if you are trying to whip up some quick Christmas gifts. It's a Stefanie Japel pattern and it's only $2! You can get yours here. It's also available on Ravelry here.

So, that takes care of the care ride there. But what about the car ride home? Check back tomorrow for that.

Happy knitting. :)

A donation grab bag

Just wanted to pop in to say that Rainloverknits is hosting a little grab bag over on her blog to raise money to be able to walk in her upcoming college graduation.

She is a good egg, I enjoy her blog, and she has done some wonderful test knitting for me lately. So, if you have an extra $5 and want to win some yarny prizes, check out her blog post here.

I know how expensive college can be (the day I pay off my student loans from college I plan to celebrate with a large present of yarn to myself!) and if one knitter can help another knitter with completing that process, well, I'm all for it.

Tomorrow, there are actual FOs to show off! :)

Happy knitting.

Some Winners!

Wow! I don't know where the last week or so has gone. It's been super busy!

Anyway, I had a couple giveaways going on the blog, so I thought it was about time I announced some winners!

First up, is the giveaway for the Sweet Baby Crochet book I reviewed the other week. The Random Number Generator tells me that InJuneau has won!! Congrats! Please check your Rav mailbox!

Next up, was a copy of my new pattern plus a skein of yarn to knit it with.

Again, I went with the random number generator. For this giveaway the winner is. . . .

busymom on Rav! Congrats! Please check your Rav mailbox for details.

Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by the blog. Whether you popped in for the giveaway or you read my blog all the time, I really appreciate all of you. Makes the blogging totally worth it.

Sad you didn't win? Well, from now until Monday, Dec. 6th, the Moor Shawl Pattern is only $4.00 in my Ravelry shop. That's right! A whole $2 off!

Moor Shawl

Just enter the coupon code "knittinglikecrazy" while checking out to apply the discount!

Thanks again and enjoy!

A Giveaway! Moor Shawl!

I think it's time I bust out a yarn giveaway on the blog, don't ya think? :)

Here's what's up for grabs: one skein of Knitting Like Crazy Insanity Sock Yarn (the winner can choose either something currently on the etsy site, or I can custom dye a skein for you) and a copy of my new Moor Shawl Pattern!So what do you have to do to be entered into the giveaway?
It's easy: just leave a comment on this blog post! All comments posted between now and 11/26 at 5pm will be entered into a random drawing.
When leaving a comment, please make sure to leave a link to your blog or your Ravelry name or some way for me to figure out who you are should you win.

Thanks so much for the continued support in my yarny endeavors and good luck! :)

New Pattern: Moor Shawl

Back at the beginning of the year, I took a design your own shawl class with Stefanie Japel. And, even though I had designed a couple shawls since then, I hadn't finished the pattern for that original shawl design!But now, after months of it sitting off to the side, I finally took the time to get the pattern all written up and pretty and ready for all of you lace knitters out there.
The shawl in this pictures is knit out of a skein of Knitting Like Crazy Insanity Sock yarn. Malabrigo Sock would also do the trick (I know because I have one of these shawls knit out of that yarn too!). :)
The pattern has both written instructions and charts. And, really, while she shawl might look tricky, it's only a 10 stitch repeat and all the wrong side rows are just purling back. Nothing too terribly hard.
The pattern is now available on Ravelry! I am so excited about this latest addition to my pattern shop!
The pattern is available for $6.00 and can be purchased through Ravelry or by clicking the "Buy Now" button below.

Happy knitting! :)