Moving

The blogging thing has not been working for me lately. I think ravelry combined with my lack of love for blogger has stolen my mojo. So, I'm moving to a new site that my freinds Leslie and Lish are also on. Between the three of us, I think we can come up with some interesting blog posts. The new site is www.theknitgirllls.com It has three Ls because the three of us have three L's. BTW my name over there is Laura which is my "real name." I hope y'all enjoy the new blog!

Blogging

I'm horribly behind on my blogging. I have projects to put up and the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling still to blog about. It seems there is never enough time in the day. Now that God has become one of my minions on Ravelry, I'll get him to add more time into my day
:)

Another Reason Why No Knitting is Being Done

Tomorrow I promise more spinning pics (my first plied skein!!!!!) and some actual knitting content

One Reason Why No Knitting is Being Done

So I got a giant trampoline. I figure its good exercise and there's always an reason to invite knitters over that way.

Yummy Numma Numma

I came home to find my Birthday present to myself on the doorstep this afternoon.

I ordered three Toasty Treat skeins from Numma Numma. The cool thing about ordering from the etsy shop is that you get a free short skein after you buy three regular skeins. So really, I got 4.

I love this yarn so much. I just want to roll in it.

Sunburned

I got sunburned yesterday helping out with Super Mustang Weekend at Nikki's school. I did manage to get a great photo of her in the dunking booth.

And I managed to get a little knitting done. More on that later...

Why I've Been Gone So Long

My mom totaled her car a few weeks ago the Monday after the knitting retreat. She's fine but we've been having to share a car for a few weeks and that seems to suck up a lot of time.

Leslie and I went camping (that's a picture of me knitting and freezing my butt off above). And I also had my 27th birthday party which was tons of fun. I'll update tomorrow with some pics of what I've been working on.

A set

Before I leave on the Mississippi Knitters Retreat, I have to share some finished objects with you. I'm vending at the retreat (sooooo nervous) so most of this weeks been about dyeing. I also found some time to knit this:

The pattern is the Unoriginal Hat by the Yarn Harlot. Love the pattern! I finished the hat in around 2 hours. The yarn is Schaeffer Esperanza that I bought when I heard her speak at Stash.
And mittens of the same yarn for Nikki (now that its 70s and sunny, she'll really get a lot of use out of them).
Pattern is from the Knitters Book of Yarn (fabulous book). It is the Chunky Winter Set by Amy King.

Lucy Neatby is coming to Memphis

and I get to take 2 classes from her. The Saturday one is multi-directional knitting and the Sunday one is socks. I just can't wait! It's 2 weeks after I get to meet Cookie and Wendy. Wow! My Spring is going to rock!

Finished Objects

I finally figured out a sneaky way to get around all the photo posting issues that I've been having with Blogger. I just upload my pics to my flickr (something I do anyhow) and copy the HTML from there. Here's some of the projects that I've finished in my February is for Finishing month:

A baby shrug. This was supposed to be a shrug for me (the pattern is the One Skein Wonder from Glampyre Knits), but due to my inability to read, I made a newborn size instead. I think its pretty darn cute.

I also created this hat which I am calling Baby Bling. It was improvised at my Magic Loop class and done using some leftover Dream in Color Classy in the Lunar Dazzle colorway. It should also fit a newborn.


Then we have my camo baby socks for Robert's grandson. I was just happy to get these done. The yarn is Lorna's Laces and they are just my standard baby sock pattern.


Last but not least, we have Betsy. This was a Fleece Artist kit that I picked up while in Jackson. Here's an after felting shot:

It always amazes me what a little friction and hot water can do.

Best Day Ever

I truly had a fabulous day yesterday. I went into work yesterday morning knowing that snow was in the forecast. I've been disappointed by Mississippi weather before, so I was trying not to get my hopes up. We got out at 11 due to the threat of snow. I was excited to get out because that meant my Spring Break (which was to start at the end of the day and last until school resumed on St. Patrick's day) started a wee bit early. Then this started:

I can not explain the excitement I get from snow. There was jumping up and down, but at that point in time (the picture was taken much later) it was just a few flakes, no real accumulation, so Lee and I decided to go see Jumper. Got out of the movie to see snow still flying, but not a lot of sticking. Dropped Lee off at his car, started an impromptu snow ball fight, got my arse kicked in said snow ball fight, and went home.
Nikki called to see if we wanted to do girl movie night, she came over and them we looked outside. It now looked like this:

We played in the snow. Made snow angels. Got REAL cold. Came inside and I decided to knit a pair of mittens. Watched more movies and ate some pizza and fell asleep watching another movie.
In my book; no work, snow, great friends, movies, knitting, and pizza pretty much make for a perfect day.

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You are Merino Wool.You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes.
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Turning 1

My godson turned 1 today. I can't believe how quickly a year can go by.

Best idea ever

New Pattern!

Girly-Girl Wristers are now available as a free pattern. Look at the link on my sidebar. They are also in ravelry!

Loot

Look at all the great loot I got from my Loopy Swap partner, Jennifer. I wore the socks to school and my students loved them. I loved the great package which included the awesome Duets socks, hershey kisses (could you get more Loopy than that?), some great soap, and Loopy Groupy yarn, plus some SOAK wash. I love everything (perhaps the kisses a bit too much). Thank you Jennifer!

I'm Posting!

You know it's bad when you go to the list of blogs/knitalongs that you are a member of and your own is at the bottom because it is the least updated. I guess the number of secret projects I've been doing makes for a lack of real blogging, but I get to finally show you two!

I finished both of these in February and had started them earlier, so they count towards my goal of finishing projects in February.
First, the Evangeline Mitts. These were made out of Dream in Color Classy in Lunar Dazzle. I followed the short version of the pattern found here. They were an easy and quick knit that I could handle while watching a movie with 30 6th graders.

The second is the Koolhaus Hat from the Holiday issue of Interweave Knits 2007. You can also purchase a downloadable version of the pattern here. This one is not so good with the sixth graders, although I did get to try out cabeling without a cable needle. I loved both these patterns, although I would make the mitts 3 repeats longer next time. I'm planning on posting tomorrow so that I can show you all the goodies I got in my Loopy Swap package.

Catching Up

The last few weeks have been kinda hectic over here at Chez LaLa. We had some out of town visitors last week and while they were here we went to the Memphis Zoo. This is one of my favorite pics from the zoo. It was kinda cold, but that just meant that the animals were more active. One of the big draws of the Memphis Zoo are the two pandas we have. They like to hang out and eat bamboo. It seems like they do very little else.

That same week, we had HD Direct TV installed for Wheezy. While I had to hang around the house, I dyed some yarn. Most of them sold the night that I took it up to the yarn shop. I guess that means that I need to dye more :)


I was faithful to the no purchasing sock yarn during Lent while I was in Jackson yesterday. Instead I got all these goodies. Enough yarn to make the White Witch Mitts (free pattern from Knitting Daily/Interweave Knits) and a skein of Lornas Laces for the Cabled Footies from One Skein.

Jackson

Lisha and I went down to Jackson today and had a fun time knitting with the ladies down there. I got lots of work done on wicked, so I'm hopeful that it will be done in the next two weeks or so. I also picked up a new knitting bad (Della Q). I'll try to post some pics tomorrow. Happy knitting!

What's New and Lent

I got my hair cut today. You can always tell it's going to be bad the more mouse and junk they add. You know it's really bad when they do a comb over. I got the comb over. She got to fix it. This is the "fixed" cut. At one point the left side was 2 inches longer than the right and she let me leave the shop like that. I went back and all is better (or as good as it can be).

On a knitting note: I've given up buying sock yarn for Lent. I'm also going to try to knit/finish a pair of socks a week during Lent. During the month of February, I will try to complete all the half finished pairs that are lurking around my room (see how that counts? I'm being quasi smart today). On a less smart note: I signed up for sock Madness again. How that happened, I will never know.

Ben

How could you resist him?

February is for Finishing

I've been quiet lately on the blogging front. I've had so many projects that I've been knitting and no time to take pics, so it seemed as if I never have anything to blog about. I'm planning on making February my "finishing" month, so that I can get some of the stuff off needles and to various new homes. Here's what's on the needles right now.
1. Wicked
2. 9 pairs of socks
3. Koolhaus hat
4. Fingerless mitts
5. A hat made out of Seawool doubled (don't ask)
6. Baby Surprise
7. 2 pairs of baby socks
8. Orchid mitts
9. Secret of the Stole 2

I'm sure I'm forgetting something. If I could finish 4 of those projects this month, I would be happy. Let's see how I do :)

We've Been to Jackson

The test knit is done and sent off to its new home! I feel as if I have time to breathe before the Loopy Swap deadline (Febuary 16th is the final mailing date) so I think that I might start on one of the Fleece Artist kits I got in Jackson. You didn't know that I had been to Jackson? Well, Eloise and I drove down there last Saturday and played with some of the knitters from the Mississippi Knitters group on Ravelry.

We met up at a very cool new shop. Some of this might have come home with me.

I also got to meet Chanda, my co-mod. She is very cool. Here's a pic of us taking pics of each other.

We had a great time! It was so much fun to meet all these people that you feel as if are already your friends. It was great and I can't wait to go back.

Rip Back

I just had the most heart stopping experience of my knitting career. I'm currently knitting my first "real" test knit for someone. I want it to be perfect. Well, I found a glaring mistake a few rows down and had to fix it. I contemplated dropping down the errant stitches, but there was too big of a mess so I took out the needles (size 0 circs) and began to knit back. As I grabbed the second circular, the whole needle came undone. The cord had come unattached from the needle. I usually have a plethora of extra circulars in all sizes. The exception to this seems to be size 0. I shoved the cord back into the needle and will attempt to super glue it later. For now, I can use it to pick up the 66 stitches needed back unto a needle. The yarn is also a little on the splitty side, so that will made it all the more fun.
On the plus side, I've really enjoyed knitting this pattern. The construction is very interesting, and I can't wait for the book to come out to try some of the other patterns.

Have I mentioned I love pirates?

Look at the cute stuff that Kathy made yesterday. The pirate one is for me. I feel so fortunate to have a friend like her.

Just In Case 1 Picture of Babies Wasn't Enough

Babies at Sock Class

Dora brought her babies to my sock class last night. Look at how cute they are! The class went well. I always have fun with my sock classes. I've taught it so many times (Is it 6 or 7?) that I know what's going on and what people will have problems with and where we should be. It's extra fun when I get to hold babies.
On my own personal knitting, I should finish the Clap tonight and block it. Then I have a secret project that I'm starting and hope to have done by Sunday. After that, another secret project (this blog might be boring for a while). I should be dying more yarn this weekend and will have fiber guild on Saturday, so I still will have stuff going on to blog about.

Yarn

In case you thought I did nothing yesterday...
I dyed 5 skeins of sock yarn (all are spoken for) and learned how to "kettle" dye silk. All in a days work....

Sock Stash Pics

When Becky was here, we decided to organize my sock yarn by type. This was the first movement in the getting the sock yarn stash ready to be photoed (I know its not a real word, but I'm working on making it one). We dumped all skeins of sock yarn into a large pile upstairs and then began to separate them out by dyer. It was lots of fun to see some of the stuff that I got over a year ago. It was also a fun sister knitter thing to do. I can't wait until I have the flickr space to get the rest of the sock yarn into Ravelry.
On the knitting front, not much is getting done. I've started the first of my 30 projects for 2008, the Clapotis. I'm making it out of some alpaca that's been in my stash for over 5 years. This is good. 5 less skeins to photo. I also ran a contest on one of my ravelry groups, Mississippi Knitters. That sent 5 other skeins of yarn to a new home. On a side note, if you knit, spin, crochet, weave or dye yarn/fiber, you should join Ravelry. The waiting list isn't that long and its well worth it.

It's Official

I have too much sock yarn. If you look at my flickr account you can see some of the 35 colorways of sock yarn I photographed and added to my Ravelry stash yesterday (notice how I didn't say skeins?). I have 5 more boxes to go. I'm scared...