Birthday Recap

So, I had a birthday a week and a half ago, and it was quite good. So good, in fact, that I thought that it deserved a blog recap.

I came into work the Friday before my birthday and found a decorated cube:

You'll notice that there are other cubes decorated as well. You see, I work mostly with boys who don't think to take down their birthday streamers. The one guy has had his streamers up since February. :)

On Saturday, my mom took me to the Coach outlet, and let me pick out a purse.

I've never had a purse that didn't come from a big box chain store that cost more that maybe $25-30. It was so so so nice of my parents to buy me one for my birthday!

Alex got me a case for my ukulele:

I feel like I am almost to the point where I would want to take my ukulele out of the house. Like maybe over to my friend Dan's house to jam while he plays his African hand drum. I still am not great at playing my uke, but I am getting better.

On Tuesday, when I went to knitting, I was greeted with more birthday gifts (I am one lucky lady!). Jenni got me a kit to knit a beaded bracelet and a mustache iPhone cover!

Then the other Jenny got me a mustache bag:

She got it here (warning, you may want to buy everything). It matches my project bag from Slipped Stitch Studios perfectly!

My actual birthday was filled with food and fun with Alex and my family. Couldn't have asked for a better day!

Road Trip Socks

Over the three day weekend, the husband and I ventured to Ohio for his family's annual picnic. That left me with several hours of good knitting time this weekend. While I have lots of good projects on the needles, I decided what I really wanted was to knit up that beautiful Felici yarn.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already saw these, but I thought I would share them here for the Twitterless.

Here is my sock somewhere between our house and the Indiana border (i.e. still in Illinois):

By the time we were in the middle of Indiana, my sock looked like this:

When the sock entered Ohio, the waste yarn had been placed for the afterthought heel and I was still happily knitting along.

Over the couple of days that we were in Ohio, the sock barely got any love. Just a row here and there in the morning at the hotel. So on the way home I knit like the wind and eventually was ready to try an afterthought heel for the very first time:

Success!

I completely love this sock. I started on its mate last night after we got home. Took a little bit to get the second one started. I had to wind and cut some of the yarn so I could start it in the same place as the first. For (I think) the first time ever, I am attempting to have perfectly matching stripey socks.

How was your weekend? Do anything fun?

Felici Envy

It seems that everyone in my knitting group is buying and knitting socks out of the Knit Picks Felici. They all have beautiful stripey socks that are making me jealous.

So, while I was placing a Knit Picks order last week (more about what I bought and why later), this just landed in my cart. Partly because of the aforementioned Felici envy, partly to get my order to $50 for the free shipping. :)

Once I finish up my sripey Christmas socks, this yarn is getting knit up. It will not be staying in the stash for long.

FO Friday: Winchester Mitts

I have been running a KAL over at Fuzzy Wuzzy Yarns in Arlington Heights, IL for my Winchester Mitts. I am happy to report that my pair is now complete.

I made one error while knitting. I didn't work the two repeats after the thumb gusset. Oops. I realized this while knitting the second mitt, so I just made them match. :)

Want to join the fun? We are doing the KAL virtually in the Fuzzy Wuzzy Ravelry group. You can check it out in this thread here.

Happy knitting!

WiP Wednesday: Christmas Socks

Lately, I have been working on a lot of design projects. Very exciting stuff, but stuff that can hurt one's brain. To counteract the knitting that makes my brain hurt, I am attempting to have at least one or two (mostly) mindless knitting projects to turn to when design projects start to be a little much. Enter the Christmas socks:

I bought this yarn at Michael's awhile ago. I love me some Christmas-themed socks, so it's appropriate that I knit myself a pair. I am using Red Heart Heart & Sole yarn in color 3973 Christmas.

I am enjoying this sock quite a bit. It doesn't get much love from me, but I am happy it is waiting for me when I need it. :)

WiP Wednesday: Scalene

The two-color shawls seem to be everywhere. You can't escape them these days. And you know how I get with the knitting sometimes. Everyone else is doing something and then I jump right on the bandwagon and start knitting like a crazy woman.

I am blaming the blog/Ravelry peer pressure for turning this....

Into this.....

Into this....

It's Scalene. This pattern sold me over all the other two-color shawls out there due to it's awesome keyhole goodness. I think this one is going to be fun to knit and fun to wear.

I am knitting mine out of one skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Sock and one skein of String Theory Caper Sock. Yum and yum!

Have you knit any of these two-color shawls lately? If so, which ones? If not, are there any that catch your eye?

Happy knitting!

New Ebook Pattern: Abelia Socks

Happy May! It's time for another pattern in my e-book, Head, Shoulders, Wrists & Toes!

$20.00

It's the Abelia Socks:

I love to buy some wild and crazy yarns. I get lured in by the color combinations and color transitions where two colors meet and form a color I swear I have never seen before. These yarns often end up sitting in the stash, because I can never seem to find the right pattern to show off their variegated goodness.

Enter the Abelia socks. Using slipped stitches and some easy cables, these socks are ready to show off even the craziest sock yarn in your stash.

 

This is the fourth pattern in the e-book. Four more to go!! For now, this pattern is available exclusively in the ebook. It will be available for individual download in July.

Head, Shoulders, Wrists & Toes: An E-book

$20.00