Craptastic

Stop right here. If you came to this post looking for fabulous colorwork, turn right around and leave. It ain't here. If you're interesting in other things, please continue to read. I hope that everyone who celebrates, had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was nice and quiet. The tameness of it was brought on by my lovely children giving me the stomach flu. This had me on the couch for all of Saturday and part of Sunday. Good thing I had had all the baking and wrapping done already. Santa brought me lots of knitterly goodness this year. What I didn't get that I really wanted has been purchased with money from the parents. What is is that makes a hard to find book, have to be bought now? Not sure, but I got four of 'em. Can't wait till they get here. I do have a little something to show knitting wise: Pattern: Friday Harbor from Knitting on the Road Yarn: Spunky Sport in "Meadow" from Spunky Eclectic No, you're eyes do not deceive you, one IS taller than the other. The second sock was knit a bit looser since these babies are tight. Well, only the cuff is, the rest is a bit loose. Should I ever make these again, I'll do the cuffs on a larger needle and then switch. And yes, the color completely obscures the pattern, but I'm not ripping it out. How's that for some pooling??? Don't get me wrong, I love the yarn, love the colors; I'm just too lazy to do something else with it. So it stays. So, about that colorwork... Anemoi has been started and frogged a good ten or eleven times. I can't seem to make the cast on look like hers for the life of me. After four days of messing with it, I've put everything away until I'm not annoyed anymore. Then, I'll probably do another whole different cast on. The Greek Mittens were started and frogged as well. They're knit from the point to the cuff and my increase were a mess. While I was at it I figured that maybe I should measure the man's hand. That will have to wait at least a month more. Oh, and the raglan I was working on? Stuffed into a bag and waiting it's turn at the ball winder. I hated it. The fit, the neckline, the way the color was knitting up. Maybe I'll pull Arwen out and fix the sleeve. Maybe not. Guess y'all will have to wait and see!

Christmas In Tallinn

Pattern: Christmas In Tallinn, Knitting on the Road Yarn: Elann Highland Wool in Tuscany Green and Oxblood, Knitpicks WotA in Cloud Although this has been finished and blocked by a few days, I just finally put the braid on this morning. This was a fun project to knit and I'm already envisioning another one for next year. Also, it was great practice for some upcoming projects. Before blocking I was quite concerned about how it was going to turn out. There were spots were the tension was obviously off, but overall it was quite lumpy and bumpy. For the most part, everything evened out. These are what I've been working on right now. Yep, another sock and a top down raglan sweater. I needed something relatively mindless to work on to clear my head. Also, I haven't had the time to really work on anything that makes me concentrate. Coming soon to a blog near you, one of these: Frankly, I should start on the Greek Mittens, but the Anemoi are really tempting. Decisions, decisions.... Sorry, I'm really not all that chatty today. Reilly and Connor have been sick with stomach bug and I'm just plain worn out from everything. I'm going to spend the rest of the week making cookies, checking the mail for straggling Xmas packages and relaxing. Well, trying to relax!

Twenty Four

Add one more pair to the finished list for the year. Yarn: Regia Sierra Color, 5538 Pattern: Plain Vanilla Sock on 56 stitches with band heel This pair brought me up to a total of 24 pairs for the year. Whew! That's alot of socks! Really, it's an obscene amount of socks. Some were gifts and some for the family, but most were for me. Does next year hold the same? I have no idea. I'd like to think that I've got enough for myself yet my stash indicates I need to knit more. Based on the past two years average, I still have enough yarn to knit for three years without buying anymore. Scary.

Itch

A couple weeks ago I signed up for the Stranded: The Colorwork Challenge. At first, I wasn't going to do it, since I've got a few other knitalongs going on and didn't want to overcommit myself. I tried to turn my attention to the other projects on the needles but my mind kept going back to it. So, I caved in and went looking at my books to find a good project. As I was searching, I found the Greek Mittens from Folk Mittens that I had promised to make for Royd last winter. Heck, I've had the yarn since then. As the pattern is written, it calls for an 11 spi on worsted weight for a womans hand. I figure that a spi between 9.5 and 10 will make them perfect. Swatching revealed that it just wasn't possible. I got down to an 8.5 on 2.0 mm needles and found it unbearable to knit. So, I quickly placed an order for some Nature Spun Sport which should be here by next week. Then, I saw the wonderful new pattern over at Eunny's. By noon of that day I had the pattern and some yarn in hand. Dang gauge strikes again! This time too small. Yet another order goes in, this time for some Gems Pearl. I felt kinda deflated since I really, really, really wanted to do some colorwork. After putting Arwen in the corner for a time out that I don't really want to talk about (whole sleeve being reknit for the second time), I dug the books back out. I wasn't exactly searching for stranded patterns, but for a sock pattern and ended up getting both. My latest project: Christmas in Tallinn I'm not making it for anyone in particular. I figure it's good to have an extra stocking in the house, should we ever have guests. This is my warmup for the mittens. It's been awhile since the last time and I needed the practice with tension. So far, I'm loving it and am having a hard time putting it down. The best part of it all? I'm using leftovers!

No Rest For the Weary

I cannot wait until this week is over! It's my busiest week for the holiday season. All those presents I have to mail back to the States must be sent by tomorrow. That's according to Post Office's deadline. I waited until the last minute to block, so we'll see if everything dries in time. I'd had a request for a pair of mittens, so I did these over the weekend. Pattern: Cabled Gloves from One Skein, modified to a mitten Yarn: Patons Classic Merino in Natural Mix Yarn: Online Highland Color Pattern: Plain Vanilla Socks on 64 stitches I also finished these up a few days ago. Nothing too exciting. Notice they're lounging on a not decorated tree. There's a story here. Last year Royd and I decided to purchase a artificial tree for when the kids are small. There's no water to worry about them getting into, no finding a truck to borrow to transport the live tree in and no sawing. Granted, I don't like nearly as much as a real one but for a few years, I can deal with it. Anyway... when we went to go buy one, Royd really wanted the pre-light kind. So, that's what we got. On Monday I dragged the thing upstairs and got it up. I figured that I wouldn't decorate it yet to give the little ones a few days to get used to it before pretty shiny things started grabbing their attention. Tuesday, I go to plug the tree in and half the lights aren't working. After about a half an hour of playing with the fuses and bulbs I discover there's a faulty cord. Well, shoot. Okay, easiest solution is to just replace that particular cord, right? Yeah, but that's only temporary. Instead I'm taking every single light off the tree. Each individual light is ATTACHED to the tree. 500 of 'em. Only 300 to go. No one ever said I do things the easy way. Going back earlier in the week, on Sunday the boys and I headed downtown to the Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). I hadn't been planning to go until this coming weekend, but it was nice outside and decided to seize the perfect moment. Our town is small and the market is just as small, but I picked up lots of great stuff. Most of it was decorations that I will show another day, once they're put out. For now they're safely tucked away from little hands. I did find a stall selling sock yarn!!! But what I really liked was my new knitting basket. Okay, so it's not the best picture of the basket, but you get the idea. The balls of yarn in front are Regia's new lines: Sierra Color, Country Color and Royal Color. None of it's for me. Reilly picked out two for himself and one for his daddy. The other stuff in the back, wasn't from here, but Spunky Eclectic. Yum. Now it's back to those dang lights.

Blueberry Hill

Thank you for all the healthy wishes. I feel much better today! As promised, I finished up another pair of socks. I kitchenered the toes and wove in the ends just this morning. Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Blueberry Hill Pattern: Plain Vanilla Socks on 64 stitches I'd casted on for them while I was contemplating the substitute for the ill fated Latvian Lace. Although I had decided that they weren't what I was looking for, I didn't rip them out. All last week I kept turning to them and knitting a few rounds here and there. Before I knew it, they were finished. Words cannot express my love for these socks. Supersock is awesome! Soft, squishy and tightly twisted. I foresee more purchases in the future. Speaking of purchases... Way back late this summer I had placed an order for two different colorways of merino/tencel from Chameleon Colorworks. I'd gotten one right away along with a note saying that the other would be sent shortly. About a month ago I'd realized that I'd never received the rest of the order. I sent an email off inquiring about it. We came to the conclusion that the mail had ate it and she would send a replacement immediately. Since the original colorway wasn't available, I opted to choose a different one so that she didn't have to dye up more just for me. Well, I got the package today. Imagine my surprise when I got not just some gorgeous fiber, but some free stuff too! Janel so kindly gave me some Optim as a thank you. Wow, I can't wait to try this stuff out! Beautiful colors, no? Gee, I guess I need to hurry up and finish spinning the superwash merino that's hanging out right now. Then again, I have no idea what I'll do with either. I'm thinking one should be done laceweight. This is the Heatwave colorway from Crown Mountain Farms. I'm trying to spin ever so slightly thicker than the last batch. So far, so good. That's about from here. I'm hoping to get some cleaning done today and tomorrow so that we can set up the Christmas tree and all the decorations early next week. I'll leave with you just one more picture. Look who learned to stand this week!