Hat and Scarf Set

Before I took this picture, I had to apologize to the bear. See, he's a he. And I'm putting a girly hat and scarf on his head. But he's my best model!

The hat is Gretal and the scarf is My So Called Scarf.

The yarn for both is Madeline Tosh Worsted in the Ox Blood colorway. I absolutely LOVE (LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!) the yarn. When I picked it up, I was unable to put it back down. It was soft and squishy. It is definitely something I would knit with again.

I'm doing...

- A sunflower. It's part of my summer wreath series. I have an autumn berry wreath that I hang on my door in the autumn. I'd really like to have a wreath for each season. I'm starting with a summer wreath with lavender and sunflowers. The sunflower will be there soon.
- Ivel - I cast on for the sleeves but it is on hold. Apparently, I have version 1 of the pattern and there are MANY mistakes in it. I'll be receiving a copy of version 2 when she has it ready. It's supposed to be soon...like this week or next.
- Buttony - knitting, knitting along! 55 yards per ball, it is definitely possible to knit a ball a day.
- Hydrangea - I need to get back to it.

Buttony - the beginning

I started on Buttony. It's a good exercise in making your own top down raglan. There is no gauge in the pattern and the directions are really general. So, um, yeah...there's some improvisation going on here. I'm also not sure if I have enough yarn. I'm hoping I have enough to make 3/4 length sleeves. I did find someone on ravelry who has the color I'm using but a slightly different dye lot.

THANK YOU, CAPITALS! *clap*clap*clapclapclap*

Those of us in ravelry's Washington Capitals group have been talking about doing a Sticks n' Stitches event for a couple of years now. The difficult part has been getting any sort of feedback from either the sales office or TNNA to make it an official event like Stitch n' Pitch has been. Others in other cities have been more successful. So I took it upon myself to just get a group together and get tickets. So, this past Sunday afternoon, we met up, we watched a game, we cheered and some knitting was done. I think others may have gotten more knitting done than me. I forgot my camera but lolly did take some pictures. I'm unsure of what my plans are the second half of the year but I think it would be fun to organize a more wide reaching hockey/knitting event early next season. With the Capitals so hot, it's so damn hard to get a large set of group tickets at the end of the season! Good think I already have tickets to the last regular season game!

Why the subject line "THANK YOU, CAPTIALS! *clap*clap*clapclapclap*"? Well, on Sunday, Papa John's began a new promotion with the Caps. It's similar to the Redskins promo. Applying only to Sunday games, on Monday, you can buy a large pizza for $9.99 and for every goal the Caps score, you get one free topping. Double if they win. Well, the final score of the day was 7-4 Caps.

tomato x 2
grilled chicken x 2
banana peppers x 2
mushrooms x 2
onions x 2
sausage x 2
green peppers x 2

Esme

Esme
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

I've completed the hattrick with 2 days to spare. 3 skeins of Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky. I have enough left over of the last skein to begin swatching for Buttony.

Watch a little hockey, knit a little more

It's NHL All Star weekend and I finally remember it ahead of time! This means that I've been parked in front of my tv enjoying the festivities :)

Along the way, I've made some progress on the Hydrangea Scarf. Susan Pandorf is brilliant. There were parts of the instructions that were a little confusing but the result is amazing. I'm using Just Our Yarns Myne. It's cashmere laceweight. It's really on the thin side of lace weight but I think that and the color adds in to create the effect I'm trying to achieve.


The white line is my life line. This is a lace every row type of pattern so there is NO room for mistakes. This is a challenge that I've thrown out to some of the Sweet Life Knitters and the knitters at Bead Obsessions and I'm really glad that people of all knitting levels took me up on it.

In other knitting news, I've been in a bit of a funk. I think it's because I'm knitting Hydrangea but I need some socks and something worsted on the needles. I haven't found a new sock to knit so it's been a week or so since I haven't had a sock on the needles. As for worsted...I'm still in a bit of a funk but I think I'm slowly finding my way. I'm going more towards bulky than worsted though. I'm swatching for Ivel and I'm considering a quick knit in Buttony. When I realized that Buttony wouldn't use as much yarn as I anticipated, I realized that I could use to bulky to make another hat as part of the Puck This! January Hattrick knit along. I had seen a lot of hat patterns but they're mostly using bulky and now I have bulky! So here's the start of the hat. I make the brim first and then pick up stitches to make the actual hat part.

Ponder

Ponder ponder ponder ponder. and reading more from the book of yarn.

The stitch is essentially a play on stockinette stitch. I'm knitting with cashmere. Cashmere is inelastic but will eventually stretch out. Raglan construction. Hmmm...will this combination work? I was really hoping for a seam to help hold its shape.

Ponder ponder ponder. Ponder ponder ponder. Ponder ponder ponder.
ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder

Hmmmmm....

The never ending cashmere

I'm not sure how I feel about the Juno cardigan. I'm not a big fan of a ribbed body which is what Juno is. However, I've been toying around with the idea of making a jacket. This jacket

This is Ivel

Inauguration Day 2009

Some might call it the "Barack Obama Day". I'm sitting comfortably on my couch with heat, indoor plumbing, donuts, and tv in HD in my pajamas. Working from home and nursing my cold. Excellent

New Year, New Glasses, Finished Things

Well, happy new year! It's a little late but hey, I'm also delayed. The holidays are usually a little chaotic and when you throw in a visit from your cousin immediately following the chaos...it leaves you tired with a cold.

I got new glasses:

It definitely changes up the look.

I also finished a couple of things:

As part of the ravelry Puck This group's January Hat Trick knitalong, everyone is attempting to knit 3 hats in January! This one is most likely getting donated to the troops since that style is not quite my style.

I also finished:

Another pair of socks. A little too Christmasy.

They've had a good run

After 5-6 years of residing on my face, my glasses finally broke.

Stashalong 2009

The object of the game is to have a net loss of yarn. My starting point (from ravelry):
67642.2 yards of stuff
121 items in my stash
4 items to trade/sell
10 items in handspun

The idea is that by 1/1/2010, I need to have less yardage and fewer items in stash than this. Handspun is a little iffy because it's a 2 step process, first spin the fiber and then knit up the yarn. With the handspun, I'll be making slower process since I want to sell my Ashford Traveller and buy a Majacraft so...we'll see.

Urg. The cashmere

I've been told that cashmere can be QUITE warm. Well, I wanted to knit Juno but it turns out that it's using a DK weight yarn DOUBLED! Well, my cashmere is about DK weight and I'm going t ohave to double it? It's doing to be damn warm! I think I need to find another pattern that doesn't necessarily require that I double the yarn since I don't want it that warm. Anyone have any suggestions?

2009 already?

The year flew by. Can't say I had all that many good memories of it. Well, whatever, it will be a new year soon and hopefully there will be some changes to come.

I decided that I'm going to spend New Year's Eve counting my yarn. Yup...I kinda see myself as Scrooge McDuck, except I'm not trying to hoard all the yarn in the world, I'm just there counting and counting and counting. I joined a "Stashalong" for 2009 in the hopes of having a net loss of yarn in the house next year and a better wardrobe. Any old projects that I have no interest in is getting ripped. This includes the Great American (Cashmere) Afghan. So, in order to do this, I need to know exactly how much yarn and fibery things I have in my house. It does make me a little nervous to think of it all. I bought another large rubber container tonight in the hopes of gathering it all together.

First project to start off for the year is going to be using the cashmere. I'm thinking of knitting the Juno cardigan from Rowan 40.

Very lucky indeed

Well, no damage to the car. There was just a lot of snow and ice packed under the car that was throwing things off balance when the speed got higher.

As for all the Christmas knitting, Lynn got her pair of mittens and Tina got 1 mitten. I should be finishing up the second mitten today and then I can relax with the knitting! Maybe I will start swatching up something using the piles and piles of cashmere I have from the Hunt Valley Cashmere club.

Two knitting related things I had gotten were the books "Sensational Knitted Socks" and "The Knitter's Book of Yarn". I was excited :)

A time to give thanks

Yeah, normally that's Thanksgiving but I do have something to give thanks for today.

It's been snowing all week and the roads in RI are a bit icy. I was trying to switch lanes and when my car started moving over, I realized I was going too fast and that there was ice on the ground and lost control of the car. The car managed to not hit the car in front of me, turned 270 degrees on 95 and was stopped by the snow packed along the center median. When I let go, it was an interesting moment because there was some sense peace and I had said "Let go and whatever will happen will happen." The car stopped. The cars on the highway behind me were far enough behind and going slow enough that I saw them slow down because they all saw what had happened. I was able to start the car and pull out and keep going. I was about 40 minutes away from Providence and managed to make it here okay. I couldn't see any damage to the body of the car but I know something did hit because the car now shakes when it goes above 50mph. So, very very lucky and much to give thanks for today. I do think that my mom was watching over me because it really could've been a lot worse than it actually was.

The question now is...how am I going to make it back to Virginia. Will the car be fixed in time?

Mmm...jersey....

It was sitting on my door step when I got home tonight. I'm so excited.


My very first game worn Cornell hockey jersey. And now, even though it is labelled Sawada, I need to verify that the name plate matches the actual era of the jersey.

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? - Part 2

And I was home for enough time to pack a new suitcase and I was off to Memphis.

Reshma and I had signed up for the Memphis St. Jude Marathon. I finished in 6 hours and 23 minutes. Not bad considering I hadn't run in about a month. Downtown was empty. It reminded me of St. Louis in how lacking in people it was but it was not as bad as St. Louis. We did go to Graceland. I love Elvis. I really loved Elvis when I was in high school but because of an unfinished school project, we never went. Well, now I get to go. Whee! Pictures are here. While I was there, I did have a peanut butter and banana sandwich - Elvis's favorite.

Scenes from Memphis:


OMG, I look crazed and starving. Reshma did a good job on the picture!

Gold Lame suit!

Chili cheese fries from Dyer's, as featured on "Deep Fried Paradise" on the travel channel. It was truly tasty.

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? - Part 1

Anyone remember that computer game that became a tv show?

Anyways, I've been busy. I went to Hawaii! The pictures are here. A week seemed like it would be a long time before I got there but it all went by so quickly. It's amazing to see the different climates on the various islands. We started on the big island and saw the volcanos, drove through the rain forest side of the island and drove up through the mountains where it was cold, a bone chilling cold. We stayed in Waikola Village at the Hilton. It's a beautiful resort.

After that we were in Maui for a night. The Hana Highway is a trip and you need a lot of energy and concentration to drive it. The beaches and the waves were amazing. We ended in Honolulu at Waikiki. We stayed at a hotel that overlooks the beach - ResortQuest Waikiki Beach. There was a cute bellhop and they did a breakfast by the pool every morning. Each room also got 2 insulated lunch bags so you can take breakfast with you. We caught a surfing competition on the North Shore. Those waves were HUGE! The last day was spent at Pearl Harbor looking at the Bowfin Submarine, the Arizona Memorial, and the USS Missouri. It really makes you appreciate the men and women who serve in our military and the conditions that they live in while on duty.

Leaving you with some scenes from Hawaii:


Saddle rd on the Big Island

Surfers in Maui

Waikiki Beach at night

Yarn Ottoman

Yarn Ottoman
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

Many have heard me talk about the yarn ottoman in my basement. It's a 2 seater ottoman with storage space inside. I had it open yesterday and the camera around. As you can see, it is very much filled up. This is in case you're wondering what it all looked like