Taking on the Heritage Festival!

For some reason we keep forgetting things, and keep coming home every weekend.  I'm not mad, because it gives me peace and quiet to do my homework and once in a while cool stuff like this happens - the Heritage Festival!  It was way better than it looked from outside of the park - we almost didn't go in because you had to pay $4 and we "just wanted food."  Well, definitely well worth $4! I met a ton of really cool people from around W's hometown that do all sort of crafts.   Here's a snippet:

This guy used to sell lanterns, then decided to collect them.  He had the same lantern that my brother got me as a birthday present when we were small. 

One woman quilted Civil-War Era replica quilts, and had an amazing tent full of those. Another did bobbin lace - completely fascinating, but even more of a time suck than knitting.

Walking through the festival, I seriously had to tell myself. "You don't want to be a serial crafter.  You don't want to get a serial crafter. RESIST!"  No stall tested my moxy more than this one:

Dyeing! The yarn in the stall were all naturally dyed, hand-spun wool.  The woman even led me over to the garden of the replica house and showed me the plants she used! "This is indigo," etc!  She had a whole range of materials, and suggested if I wanted to try to check out the books she had on display.

I also got my shopping on (well, I made W buy things) and bought these bone earrings for $4! The guys collects bones from a local butcher that dresses meats for hunters and farms in the area.  Kind of gruesome, but if you think about it, he's basically taking trash (the butcher gives him the bones) and making something cool out of it. 

There was also a knitting lady that I chatted with, who was happy to find someone who appreciated her work! Her stitches were so neat, perfectly done on every sweater.  She told me "If you like something, just steal it with your eyes.  You seem smart enough to figure it out!" As we walked away, W and I fantasized about selling things at craft sales.  Of course, what would I sell!?

Also, do you see that yellow sweater on the bottom right?  I have some yarn in that same color - and I figured out what to do with it! A sweater for W's mom! :)

Anyway, I also bought a Christmas ornament made with a craft called quilling! It seems too delicate to put on a tree, so I think I'm going to have it framed.  Maybe one day I'll make some snowflakes to match it and have a set for Christmas time!

All in all, I'm happy I took two hours from my homework to go!

Goal Setting

Above is my Blackbird Shawl.  I want to work on it.  I don't know why, but it seems like the timeline for this shawl has been slightly screwy from the get-go.  Let me demonstrate:

Week 1:  1 inch of progress
Weeks 2-3: Another inch of progress, finished two charts and started stockinette stitch section

Weeks 4-7: Half inch of stockinette stitch knit.

This seems like the exact OPPOSITE of what's supposed to happen, since the shawl is worked from the bottom up, so there are less stitches each row.  According to my calculations, after the last row there will be zero stitches and I won't work on the project ever again - wait, that's supposed to happen.

All jokes aside, I don't think I will ever finish this shawl unless I set a goal, so here it goes:

This shawl will be finished before Rhinebeck.

That's a little over a month.  Fingers crossed!

Fall 2010 Mood Boards!

Whoo hoo! Despite the horrible rain cloud that's been hanging over my head since last weekend, I've got the mood boards up for this round of Design Along!  I tried something new this time, and had people vote on images - last round, I had to do a TON of cropping, rotating, and resizing to get each image to fit into the three pages.  This round, I took the images with the most votes and plugged them into the boards with minimal formatting - I just stopped when I ran out of room.  The result is less images in (pretty much any images with less than 5 votes didn't get in) - I'm not sure how much I like them, but it was SO. MUCH. EASIER!

Anyway, the theme for the round was Fairytale.

Click on the images for larger ones - they are quite big :)

 

And now I want to say thanks to everyone that contributed!
sosoclever

yarn about yarn

Tinyknit

Rachael's Knits

The Sculpted Stitch

By Hand, With Heart

Melissa J. Leavitt Designs

soxnshawls

Bakuhatsu no Subarashii

DaneMum

wayfaring knitter

And everyone else who doesn't have a blog that I can stalk ;) If I forgot someone, let me know and I'll add you!

So, hope this inspires you - I can't wait to see the designs that come out of this round!  If you'd like to participate, check out the Design Along group on Ravelry - it's a TON of fun, and the community is really great.

Free Pattern - Sunflower

Originally, this pattern was supposed to be a whole scarf - tons of tiny sunflowers sewn together to make a stole.  But, I gave up on that - other projects got in the way.  I still want to make that stole, some day, maybe... eventually...

Anyway, these flowers would make a cute summer garland, or maybe a headband, or just knit up individually as coasters, brooches... whatever! The uses for knit flowers are seriously limitless.  I know.  I've made around a dozen of these puppies.  For amazing results, pair one with two knit leaves!

Anyway! Hope you enjoy this little pattern - it's more a set of notes than an actual 'pattern' - and if you make something totally inspired, let me know and I'll feature you! :)

New Pattern for Sale: Pink Lemonade Socks!

I finally got a nice day to photograph my socks, and a good hour to load up the pattern, crop the pictures... etc, etc.

I LOVE these socks! What's great is they're one of those patterns that you can make without really thinking! The repeat is only four rows long, and you don't need a cable needle at all.

That's right, those aren't actually cables. 

I tried to keep the pattern simple, but there are some little details - like the transition from pattern to cuff.

And the heel flap - the pattern carries up it. Don't worry! It's charted as well as written.

Pattern Name: Pink Lemonade Socks

Yarn: Kertzer On Your Toes, 4-ply sock yarn

This pattern is available for download for $2.50 - You don't need a Ravelry account to check out, or even a paypal account - you can check out with a credit card :)

You can click the button below to get yours today! Or click any of the images in this post to go to the pattern page.

Call to Contribute: Fall 2011 DAL Mood Board!

I'm so excited that the Fall 2011 DAL theme has been decided! This round's theme is Fairytale, and the mood board already has a ton of fairytale-themed pictures up on it - I'm hosting mine up on this blog post :)

So, "Why do I care," you ask? If you're a Ravelry member, go to the DAL group and do either of two things:

1. Contribute a photo or image (if you so choose) to the mood board thread.
2. Go to the mood board thread and click "love" underneath the images that you like.

Even if you don't want to participate by designing in the DAL, you can still do either of these two things.  This helps make the group funner for the people that DO participate, so please consider if you have any free time :)

And if you don't care, can you guess which fairytales I'm thinking of?  No checking the thread! :P

Oh - one more really important thing! Submissions for the mood board close August 28th.  So, if you want to contribute or vote, that's when that ends.

My Random Tuesday

1. Yesterday I slept more than I was awake, though I did manage to work and visit with W.  But no blog, so I guess I'll post my updates today! :P

2. My WIPs are all coming along steadily.  I'm 95% done with my bead-along mitts, cast my second lifeline for my shawl (which I haven't shared yet :X) and ... well, I'm working on the socks. 

3.  The weather has been REALLY crummy every time W has come to visit, and I can't get anyone else to photograph my feet, so no nice photos of the socks yet.  I want to release the pattern on Friday, so fingers crossed that that will get done - but chances are I may have to wait until Monday.

4. I have fairytales on my brain... that's the current DAL theme! I'm going to do a post on it sometime this week, too! So many posts to write, so little time XD

5. You may notice the photos for this post are especially random.  Above is a cool embroidery I saw at the fair, and then at the top is a rainbow that graced our little street over the weekend.

My plans are as skewed as these socks!

First off, can tell you a little more about how much I LOVE this sock pattern?  This past week, I've been up late into the night knitting.  That makes me feel very, very bizarre.  I feel like a kid, hiding under the covers with a flashlight at night, but instead of a horror novel I've got... a sock.  I've never felt this way about a pattern - waiting to see what happens next!

But I realized something as I finished the heel of the sock.  Look at this.  This is, most definitely, not an ankle sock. It's not even a half-ankle sock.  W doesn't like long socks - he won't wear these. 

So, there are two foreseeable options.

1.) I make the sock according to the instructions, and hope one day W will wear them when I'm around to make me feel happy

2.) I figure out how to modify the pattern to make the sock work.  That involves frogging back to before the heel, and probably just knitting over and over until it works.

I'm leaning towards the second option, though I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage it...

(I just thought of something, I /could/ steal the socks, but I feel like this would be cheating.  Also, I would have to frog back to the toe so that it wouldn't be baggy. So just as much work, really.)

Essential Tools

Yesterday W and I went on an adventure to Rochester.  We travelled up Route 14 through the gorgeous Finger Lakes Area, and then, on the way back, WE STOPPED AT A YARN STORE.

Notice the box? It's a ball winder!

I also bought yarn for future projects, but the ball winder was especially useful today because the Skew sock is not cooperating - at least, the skein wasn't.

So I set up the winder in the only surface on the ranch that I could - the front porch.  It was quite romantic, winding yarn on the porch at sunset.  And at the end, I got my perfect ball!

Hopefully the yarn will cooperate from now on!

Bead Along Update - Oh, We're Halfway There

I finished the first glove for the Bead Along over the weekend between cars, trains, and subways.  I'm not really happy with how it turned out... I like it, but it's not wearable for me.  The first reason is the knuckles - it doesn't cover mine!

A few other irks and grumbles I have about this pattern.

1.  It doesn't cover my knuckles!! I don't know why, but this bugs me so much!

2.  It's a bit confusing after the thumb.  I assumed that it wants you to start the ribbing, but I could be wrong.  I just did what the pattern said so I could blame someone else when I didn't like how it turned out.

3.  The yardage is off.  Never, never, in a hundred million years will this pattern use 200 yards of yarn.  I haven't measured, but I'm willing to bet money on this. That's just a pet peeve of mine.

I keep finding reasons to grumble about this pattern, but honestly, I'm just mad at myself for spending $4.99 on this. $4.99 for Fingerless mitts? I thought surely I would be getting some sort of amazing, quality pattern that would change the way I feel about making fingerless gloves. That was not the case at all - I've learned my lesson, that's for sure.   Eventually, I'll get over it - eventually!

And to top it all off, I found a ladder.

There you have it, honest to goodness proof that I am not perfect.  I've never had a ladder happen when knitting before! After using DPN's for ... almost 5 years, now that I think about it.  I'm wondering if I can fix it by tightening every little stitch by hand?

Anyway, at some point this week I'll find the rest of my beads and get ready for the second round of this pattern.  They really are pretty - but, I think I'm going to pawn this pair off on someone as a present and make my own pair, making a few mods to make it more "me."

Anyway, if you're interested consider joining the Summer 2011 Bead Along! I was nervous about beading at first, but it really is easier than it looks. Check out other Bead Along Posts here!

Beading Along

Time flies when you're purged, so I meant to post these up a while ago... but just got around to it today.  May I introduce you to my Summer Bead-Along Project!

The pattern is Garnet Mitts by Sarah Marsden, and I REALLY like the combination red beads + yellow Frog Tree Alpaca Fingering Yarn.  When I look at this project, I think of the scene from the animated Hobbit movie, where the red dragon is lying on piles of gold coins and rubies (along with other treasure, I'm sure).  I'm happily working on these, along with my other project that I should blog about soon.

This is my first time knitting with beads, and I'm confused why I was so scared! The beads on this patten are pre-strung, so whenever you want to place a bead you just pop it in place - really easy! I would definitely recommend this pattern, though there is no sizing advice or detailed photos, so I'm a little miffed about paying $5.50 for it.  I thought I would have some good advice for a beginning beader, but it really doesn't :P

Anyway, I'm psyched to be part of the Summer Bead Along, hosted by Revelations of a Delusional Knitter.  If you're interested, check out her post here! There's still time to enter, and there are some super cool prizes at the end :)

Setbacks, Sidetracks!

Well, it's been a tough week in the room (which is my new nickname for my apartment here in NH :])

1. I lost my debit card, meaning I didn't get to buy my shiny nice things that I talked about in my last post.
2.  W left!
3.  I just found out that I made a simple mistake on my Pink Lemonade Socks and had to frog back the whole gusset!

But, on the bright side:
1. I got a new debit card, and the person who lifted it never got a chance to spend any of my money
2. I get to go on a me spree! I hope the bank isn't suspicious of me.
3.  W was here at all - I really had a great weekend, it's just watching him go that put me in a funk
4. While W was here, he inspired me and helped me overcome  problem I've been having on my DAL design!
5.  I got a Wii Fit, which has helped raise my serotonin levels and, let's face it, it's impossible not to smile when you're pretending to hula hoop and a fluffy rabbit is running around you in circles.
6.  I got a super nice blog award from Jordan of In It To Knit It :)

So, there, two nice things for every sad thing that's gotten me down!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Well, today is my 21st birthday.  As of this moment, my plans are:

1. Get my free Grand Slam at Denny's for breakfast
2. Get my free burger from Ruby Tuesday's for lunch (I'm in the birthday club :) )
3. After work, buy some booze and sit at home with Lilac, watching Hulu.  
4. Maybe make birthday cupcakes if I have energy.

It's tough, having your first birthday far from home.  My dad and brother came out, bringing all the stuff I left home, so that was a gift in itself! Extra clothes, towels, and now I can boil water, gee whizz!  My mom also sent up my entire yarn stash, and a some succulents for my dark apartment.

She also sent a nice little pot for Lilac, which was happily devoured - she's now working on a basket. I'm thinking of buying some cat grass for her to munch on, but I don't know if she'll like it.  I guess if she doesn't I can just put it out on my porch.

Anyway, like I said, it's kind of a bummer spending such a major birthday alone with no friends or family.  So here's some pictures of Lilac.

"What's this, Slave?"

I call this one "SOON."

This one is just scary!

Tuckered out after a hyperactive bun run.

I got some nice presents, but mostly cards or money that I'm going to use to buy stuff I need.  I have a short list of stuff I want, and I'm putting up here so I can remember... though I probably will never buy these things XD

(From top to bottom, left to right)

• Garnet Mitts for the Summer Bead Along - I already have the yarn and beads! (Yes, I totally gave up on my bed design- that was SO doomed from the start!
• A new battery charger for my camera... =__=
• Marlene Socks.  I HAD the issue of Knit.1 that these were in, but I lost it somehow.  That was the most AMAZING issue of a magazine I'd every bought, with a ton of great patterns.
• Blackbird Shawl.  I just love it. I don't know what to say when I look at it.
• Chameleon by Hansi Singh, to make for Stephanie, who lost her chameleon to kidney problems...
• Crafty Detour's CSI Most wanted... honestly, I've been waiting to buy this!
• A 65 pack of felt squares from Lupin Handmade - a great blog, and they sell rainbows!
• This bag from Rue 21. It's the bag I've been looking for! 
• This shawl - though, the more I look at it, the more I think I could rig something up that was similar.

Restriction Lifted! Kind of...

I'm finally allowed to knit again, albeit much, much less.  Not being able to knit has been tough, but having an injured wrist at work has been waaay harder! Plus, when I'm home and Lilac is allowed to run, I'm too busy watching her.

Watching her sit on my pillow and lick it

Watching her chew on the novel I've been reading. 

(I pick my battles.  I own the novel it was ten cents.  I do not own, say, the carpet or the tempting veneer on the cabinetry.)

I've managed to get kind of far on V.2 of the Pink Lemonade Socks.  And, I ordered the yarn for my DAL project - I need to start VERY soon if I want to finish, considering it's going to be pretty expansive and if I don't improve, it's going to be slow knitting!

(P.S. - Sorry for the phone photos.  W is coming up for the 4th and he's going to give me a spare cord.)