Photo Post

Things that make me smile....

Blue Sky Alpaca Sport Weight in #'s 50, 522, & 57

I am ony slightly smiling about this bag, it's growing on me. Two or so posts ago is a before felting pic.

World's sweetest buttons. Don't know why but I am so in love with these little darlings!

A gift from Kate. Isn't it adorable?

Magic Loop Fiasco!!

I am still cruising along on my mini cable socks, NO thanks to Rosco!!! I was knitting right along, enjoying my brief little break from homework. It was extra exciting because I was on a cable round... Rosco really wanted to be on my lap. Really! He would try to climb on, I would shoo him away. He would push harder, I would shoo harder, PUSH, SHOO, PUSH, SHOOOOOO! His foot got tangled in the yarn, my heart skipped a beat, I reached for his foot, pulled it out of the yarn, meanwhile his other foot got tangled in the magic loop cord. Then the worst possile thing, he freaked out because I was touching his foot and took off running with his foot stuck in the cord. He managed to pull ALL of the front side stitches off of the cord. My mini cable socks had evolved into mini heart attack socks! I can pick up stitches totally fine, BUT this was really fine yarn on little needles. I usually use a needle one or two sizes smaller to pick those lost stithces up. These are being knit on a size 1. As it turns out, I don't own anything smaller. After locking Rosco in the bathroom I set to work rescuing my stitches! It was super tricky because the the round before the cable round is a combonation of knits, purls & lot of slipped stitches, again usually not a big deal, but under the pressure of working with teeny tiny materials, UGH.

Fiasco # 2... I felted the long awaited malabrigo winter cap, i.e. the elmer fudd hat. It was own my own fault. I knew better that malabrigo felts in a nano second. It sharnk down WAAAYYYY too much. It barely covers the top half of my head. So I need to find a small child to send it off to & get started on another one while it's still cold enough to wear it! GRRRRR

The hat pictured below is another random felted hat. I was playing with the pattern & the end result was a fairly boxy fit that all in all I was not so happy with. But I continue to learn from each mistake!

It's A Sock Thing...

I think that I have a better handle on my time. That is, I think that I can manage school, work, my social life and still blog more than once in a blue moon. I really miss being active in the blogging world.
Rosco is the official House sock knitting snooper-visor.
Do these look at all familiar? They are longer than when you saw them last. Somewhere around a year ago I taught myself the magic loop technique & started these socks. Life happened and i put them aside after about two inches of sock. I had forgotten ALL about them until I stumbled upon them last week. Yes, I have officially become that kind of knitter... I have so many projects that I actually loose track & forget about some.
Sexy Koigu cable socks.
The sock bug has bitten me once again. I have been working on the black Regia socks that I started a year ago, AND now I have started a new magic loop-two-at-once-toe up pair out of some yummy ochre Koigu. The pattern is Badacaul from My Fashionable Life. Dig those mini cables, they really pop in that CA-raz-ee Koigu! I think the sock bug is going to stick hard this time. The sock monkey has moved in onto my back. Well... not THE sock monkey, a sock monkey... nevermind. Also, I am looking for more patterns written for toe up magic loop socks. I know that it's fairly easy to convert any sock pattern to magic loop, it's the toe-up part that I am not so certain how to convert.
Before felting... flopp-a-doodle.
YES, more hats. Are you sick of seeing hats here? This one was a xmas gift for my pal Kate. The yellow (frank ochre) and blue (bobby blue) is malabrigo, the brown is lambs pride in bronze patina.

After Felt

Soooo... this bag- ugh. I wanted to make a bag big enough to haul my school stuff around plus a knitting project. I knit this one up out of lambs pride bulky. I made the pattern up, the shape is great, I am happy enough with that. And I am really happy with the way the handles came out, very sturdy. But the stripes, colors... YUCKO! Don't know what I am going to do with it. I actually liked it better BEFORE I felted it. I will snap a post felt photo to share.

An Elmer Fudd hat for me out of malabrigo in color Pearl Ten. I just need to felt it. It's been so ridiculously cold that the last thing i want to do is touch cold wet wool to shape the darn thing. BUT, it's so damned cold that I really need to finish this hat. Those earflaps are so warm!

AND.... more sock yarn. LOVE these groovy colors!