Should be.

I should be knitting, I know that. The scarves are done and there are several projects awaiting me.
The problem is I am in the middle of a blizzard. I have never been in a real blizzard before. They just don't really have in Virginia, or I should say the part of Virginia I grew up in.

That picture above is of my neighbors steps....you CAN"T SEE THEM ANYMORE!!
I'm a little nervous about this. That was taken around noon, and now there is about 14 inches of snow.

The snow is still falling so I am going to start knitting, in hopes that it will calm my growing nervousness. Fiber will help, fiber wil help, fiber will help, fiber will help.

Charity scarves

Well here they are right to left: First we have Lion Brand Wool Ease in Blue Heather- done in a simple garter stitch, Red Heart Super Saver in ??,- done in Double Cable Scarf from One Skein, unknown mystery yarn in Hunter Green- done in Garter stitch with fringe, Lion Brand Wool Ease in Camel?- done in Basket Weave with Seed stitch border, Lion Brand Jiffy in Heather Blue-done in Garter Stitch.

The only scarf that I used a whole skein for was the Jiffy. The others (not the red one) used a bit less than a skein, as that was all that was left.

Here is number 6: Lion Brand Wool Ease in Grey Heather- using the One Row Handspun Scarf pattern from Yarn Harlot.

I have knit about half way, maybe.









Here is a closer look at the design.

6

I am now on scarf #6. I will post some picture of the ones I have done so far probably tomorrow, when there is better lighting. I hope anyway.

For the #6 scarf I dug through the scarf patterns I already had on my computer. The winner was a pattern from Yarn Harlot. It can be found in her archives with this date: October 12, 2006. Not really sure what the name is, but the blog title is One Row Handspun Scarf. The pattern is the same on both sides and as the title indicates it is a one row pattern. Very easy to remember, and to adjust width. Both important factors for scarf possibility.

I really do hope there is some sunlight tomorrow, or at least the rain stops long enough for me to go outside to get some post worthy pictures.

A lotion with knitters in mind

I was over at Darcys Knotty Knitter blog reading her latest blog. It happens to be about a giveaway she is doing. I like her giveaways.
Anyway the product happens to be a mini lotion sampler bag from Local Gringo.
Her lotion are called happy hands, well here I will let her tell you about them.

How "Happy Hands" Happened

I originally formulated Happy Hands for myself, after I tried -- and failed! -- to find a commercial product that worked for me.

Up here in the high mountain desert, dry hands are a year-round problem. I needed a creamy lotion that would deeply moisturize & soften my hands, but absorb quickly and NOT leave a greasy residue on my hands that would transfer to my knitting. And of course, it had to smell wonderful!

It took me a year to work out this formula: a lotion that is so very thick and creamy so you only need a small dollop, quickly absorbed, nourishing and moisturizing with NO greasy residue; and glossy pure white, because I don't want to add any artificial colors to my products.

Once I got the exact formula & feel that I wanted, I discovered that all my friends wanted Happy Hands, too ... So I've decided to try it out in my Etsy store.


I thought since I have heard quite a few knitters mutter now and then about dry hands, this might be a good thing to post here.

So check out and enter the *Giveaway* . Also check out the esty shop because she has other great things on there too.

Project list time

It is time to list my WorkInProgress. OK it is more like Work(s)InProgress.

• Corkscrew Scarf (for Christmas present)
• Hearts and Flowers Socks (taking a slight snooze)
• Tea top (on hold for charity knitting)
• Charity scarves (trying to finish 10 before December rolls around)
• Market Monteagle Bag (Hibernating)
  

I had two other sock projects that I have frogged. One because the yarn is just not working for me as socks. As for the other one, the "On-Hold" pattern would look better with another yarn I have in my stash.

The Monteagle Bag will not be frogged or forgotten. The yarn is fine, the pattern is not that complicated , everything about it is a "thumbs up" for me. I just have to pay attention to which stitch gets knitted through back and front, and which gets dropped on the next round.

I will do the pattern up to the point where I have to drop stitches, then I count and I am off by a stitch or two, which means something went wonky. So that will have to be knitted when there is no wee one around that needs to be watched, and there is nothing pressing that needs my attention.

The charity scarf assembly line is chugging right along. As I am using stash to make all ten, I have all the yarn for this project lined up already to go. There are two finished at this point, and the third is half done. I am sticking with a simple garter stitch, but slipping the first stitch of every row. Great travel project for me to take along where ever I go.

My daughters Tea top WILL be finished in time for her to wear it next year. I mean all I have to do is knit back and sew the sides together. Plus I even have enough of the yarn to make two tops. It will get done in time. I am not pushing it back to the last minute. It is just on hold until I get the aforementioned scarves done.

Hearts and Flowers socks are taking a snooze until I can determine if I am happy with the pattern turning out smaller with the Malabrigo sock yarn I am using. That may not happen until I take it to the LYS and have some other knitters look at it and give me there opinion on the matter. I have no problem with ripped out every stitch if I find out that the pattern will not open more, no matter what I do.

Now the Corkscrew scarf, well that is just a breeze to do. In fact I had to stop myself from starting another pattern repeat to write this. The actual twist of this scarf is achieved by working on half the stitches doing short row repeats. If you are wary of short rows this scarf is good practice for the Wrap & Turn you have to do.

OK that is all for this project update post. You all have a good week end.

New Contest

I found a new contest and the prizes are....BOOKS!!!
Yeah books, love it.

THE MEGA PALOOZA CONTEST!
Celebrating 200 followers, more than half a year of blogging, and countless tears & blood generated by all the writing, editing, and reading.

20 books---3 winners.

The list of prizes:

- Signed copy of Dreaming Anastasia + Goodies

- Hardback Another Faust

- Hardback Prophecy of the Sisters

- ARC Eyes Like Stars + Backstage Pass Bracelet and some Theater-Theme Swag.

- ARC The Dark Divine

- ARC Hush Hush

- ARC Give Up The Ghost

- ARC Ash

- ARC Behind Every Illusion

- ARC Shiver

- ARC The Demon's Lexicon

- ARC Betraying Season

- ARC Any Given Doomsday

- Dead Until Dark

- Gossip Girl 1st Book

- The Black Tatto + poster

- Vampire Academy

- Frost Bite, a Vampire Academy Novel.

- Shadow Kiss, a Vampire Academy Novel.

- Blood Promise, a Vampire Academy Novel.

Please tell her I referred you if you chose to place an entry.

Lynn's Top

I finished the back!
Now onto the front.

I held it up to my little model, but then she grabbed and ran away. Well I did tell her it was for her. I have to be careful how I say things.
Sigh

Out of my ever lovin mind

OK this Tea Party Top is easy, a piece of cake. Everything in the instructions I have done before hundreds of times. Cast ons, knit , purl, decreases, bind offs, slip sts on to holder, etc.

I CAN'T GET PAST THE 9 INCHES OF STOCKINETTE OF THE BACK FOR SOME UNGODLY REASON!!!!! I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED THE FRONT!!

OK sorry about that, but I feel better. The mistakes have been of the "not paying attention" verity. I have also needed to put it down to keep a particular little girl from doing various things that she should not be doing.

(playing with cords, poking laptop screens, petting the cat to eagerly, putting wipes in mouth, running away with the yarn mommy is knitting with, etc)

You begin with 4 rows of Garter st, well on the last 10 sts of the 4th row I decided to purl. ???? huh???

Rip back, OK got that straightened out, now onto the St st. Good 75 sts, good...

Finished another 2 inches and noticed that a few stitches an inch down don't look like lovely V's with their base open. No their bases are crossed. Damn.

Tink back those sts and fix them so they are proper knit V's.

Count sts, still have 75 sts :)

Got through about an inch, then was forced by my daughter to put it down mid-row to chase her down and pull carpet fuzzies out of her mouth.

(an inch later)

Wait a minute..what is that funny hole??? AHHH!!!

Ripped back to find out that when I picked up my knitting, after fishing around Lynn's mouth, that I never finished the row. I just turned it around and knitted back across the aforementioned unfinished row.

I knitted a few rows last night and so far (searching for wood to knock on) can't see any problems. I even still have 75 sts.

I have measured it and it is just 6 inches, so if I can keep going without any more mistakes for another 3 inches then I can start to shape the yoke.

Fingers crossed :)

Oh I love free things!

I love finding new knitters blogs. Darcy's Knotty Knitter is one that I found from a fellow twitter knitter, and there is a free giveaway going on right now here. There are little sock stitch markers and a "socks rule" gauge keyring. All made from bamboo, just so cute. Maybe I can win them humm. It would be nice.

Projects so far:

• I am getting farther along on the Tea Party Top by Lion Brand. I have had to rip it out a few times too many. Pictures later when I start to do the decreases for the yoke. Thankfully I am making it larger so it will fit my little one next summer.
• Monteagle Bag is not going anywhere until I can get the right size needles. I still like holding the yarn though, is that weird...to bad.
• Have to start the second "plain vanilla" sock before I start my next sock project. It is really hard now not to start more socks since I bought 'Socks from the Toe Up' by Wendy D. Johnson. Pretty lace designs, no must finish second sock first. (I need to learn to do two at once)

• The Barn Raising Quilt is rambling right along.

Well I better get back to knitting.

An Easter gift

The family packed up and headed down to my parents this Easter Sunday. Traffic was good so it didn't take to long, and thankfully Lynn slept almost the whole way.
We stopped at Colonial Williamsburg to see my mother since she was working that day. Lynn got a behind the scene look at a spinning wheel, which she had great fun turning.

Am I trying to get her addicted to fiber crafts at an early age? Not really, but she does tend to think the tools are fun to play with.

We head to my parents house for dinner, which was yummy. My mom gave Reed and I the usual bag of candy. Lynn won't get any until next year, she gets hyper and then really cranky after eating sugar.

My mother and I got to talking and before you know it she was telling me she had some of grandma's needles. Oh and would I like some. I restrained myself from yelling "Hell ya!".
So on top of some yummy chocolate I got needles for Easter.

The green and blue ones are US size 2 (2.75mm)
And these are elusive size US 1 (2.25mm). I have been eyeing needles of this size online for a while now. For some reason I could find plenty of 2.50mm, but not many 2.25mm. Go figure.

So I am jumping for joy. My husband said if he didn't understand the reason behind my excitement he would be telling to "shut up already". I take that to mean that I need to calm down soon because if I carry on much longer he will.

Dpn's length

OK so I have been looking at diffrent dpn's. I think metal would be better when going that small a diameter.

Now what length? I have no idea. I thought 6 or 7 inches would be good for making socks. I do own a set of US 2 that are 4 inches long. I have made a pair of socks with them, my first pair, so I know it can be done. Yes I know I previously posted that I knew what length, but now I am reconsidering.

Anyone have any ideas, that is if anyone is reading this that is a knitter.

UFO's

The haunting question:
I have knitting on the needles, so why am I not knitting?

My husband does not have to ask that question, I am already asking it myself. The only reason I can come up with is the needles I am using are not the size I want to be using. Not the yarn, not the pattern, not the objects their selves, just the needle size.

The projects in question are socks, and I feel they will come out better on size 1 needles. Which mm size 1 needles I haven't figured out yet. The previous knitted socks that have come off my needles are fine, but there is just a nagging feeling that these socks over all would feel a little better if done to a smaller knit. So the urge to rush down to a LYS and by some is strong. I would need dpn's and two circulars. I did after all make goal to get more projects done this year.

Sigh.

I know what lengths, what material they should be. Of course there is a slight brand preference.
What knitter does not have needle preference. Get a group of us together and we can debate, knitting style, needles, yarns, etc, like no body's business. Granted I like this, as long as people don't get to defensive over "their" way, that is after all how I have stumbled up new ways to do things.

So those socks are going to stay on their current needles until I get some time, with out the little one, to go and peruse the yarn shop with the time and enthusiasm that one should. (Besides I haven't gotten that far along on the sock anyway)

Break

Well today I opened the front door to this marvelous sight.

The snow started around 6:30am and continued until sometime after 12:30pm. The weatherman predicted somewhere between 3-5 inches of snow. So I had a little bit of a snow day for myself.

The was Lynn's first real snow day. There was a day back in December when we got some flurries that didn't last, but she was asleep during that 15 minute fall. So around noon I bundled Lynn and myself up for a trip out to the snow.
As you can see from the picture she was not sure what to make of the white things falling from the sky.
Our neighbor let us borrow a sled, and his daughter Charlotte pulled Lynn around on the snow covered sidewalk.
We ended up going in when Lynn's hands started to turn pink, before anybody gets any ideas I did have mitts for my lovely daughter. She, as I found out recently, has outgrown them. I am now digging up a mitt pattern for me to knit up for next time we go out.

Mulit-colored Bamboo Socks Update

THEY ARE DONE!!!!!









About time too. Ok they were actually finished on Jan 8th, but it took me a few days to get pictures and then there was an issue with the internet..well they are done.
I have learned a thing or two from this pair. I should have used size 1 needles, toe first seems to leave boxy toes, when doing picot edging don't do 4 rows of Stockinette Stitch then the picot edging.
(it tends to roll downwards)
For some reason it seems that cuff down seems to go faster than toe up. Granted that is was only my second pair of socks. I am now on to the third pair and the first sock is half way done (cuff down).
OK time to go back to knitting.

Finish line in sight

OK I have only 4 1/2 " left on the second sock then I do the picot edging and I am all done. I have been busting my fingers to get it done ever since my husband mentioned "hey didn't you start the
other one this past summer". He was right, I looked up my start date and I began this pair in June.

There is a joke between us because I promised him the next pair would be his. I will be making them from scratch rather than a pattern per say, because well his feet are longer than mine. I just hope I have enough yarn. My math made sense at the time but I have not double checked it since I bought the yarn. They will be made from KnitPicks Essential Sock Yarn in colorway# 24028 Carbon Twist.
I will be using the Basic Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I don't think that would be technically a pattern. If I am wrong then Stephanie please forgive my knitting impudence. Just don't take away my sock yarn, please just not that.