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Rainforest Knits

SP 10 Reveal Package finally revealed!

I got my last secret pal 10 package probably last week or so, but I've been a naughty SP and haven't posted about it yet. Sorry Amy! Here's what was in the package:a beautiful cake of black silk with beads, two balls of Gedifra Beauty Cotton and tasty mint soap. Also a reveal letter. Thanks Amy :-D Visit my great SP here and say hi. I've enjoyed being spoiled by you, once again thank you and when I have time I really want to make a lovely lace scarf out of the gorgeous silk you sent!


Here's the Panda Cotton I purchased from The Loopy Ewe
It's soft and pretty, but be careful it can split easily. The two balls on the right side are faded jeans the colour is a little off. The lone ball up top is strawberries and limes (making a monkey sock from my sockapalooza pal with it, the other ball is being knit up). Lastly the balls on the left are blueberries - grapes

More stash enhancement is the Handmaiden Seasilk I bought from Pickup Sticks. They are beautiful colourways: Burgundy and Mineral.


There is more to add to the Stash Enhancment but you can look for yourself on my flickr account. I got some rowan calmer in oynx hopefully enough for a carti or sweater, two balls of wick, and some balls of cascade fixation

Virtual Vacation Questionaire

1. If you could visit any state in the US, which would it be and why? Hawaii I'd love relax on the beach, hike up a volcano and snorkel. It's a place that my daughter and I have said we would visit together and are planning to go in the next year or so. To plan a trip to Hawaii with a guide dog takes A LOT of planning to avoid her being quarantined, so I need to start planning first by getting her AVID microchip put in.

2. If you could visit any country in the world, other than your own, which would it be and why? I've always been enthralled by the beautiful island of Crete. I am a huge Greek mythology buff. Besides that I've always wanted to visit Ireland, being 1/4 Irish I've always wanted experience for myself the green wet land of the isles. I know we are asked if we could visit any country in the world and I have more than one, but hey I could list way too many; however I will only list one more and that is Japan. The Japanese culture has always been intriguing to me. I've met many people who have travelled there and their experiences have perked my interest even more. I'd love to go and travel throughout Japan and not just in the tourist areas.

3. Have you ever driven across several states/providence/countries? Yes I've driven from BC to AB, all over my province BC, I've taken road trips to WA, OR, CA, NV and when I was in ON, we drove down to MI as well as drove from Windsor, ON to Guelph, ON.

4. Have you ever visited someplace you consider exotic? Where was it? Nope.

5. What was your favorite "travel" vacation? Why? I love going to the Gulf Islands here in BC. It's so nice to relax on the cabin on Galiano Island that my partner's parents own. There's gorgeous beaches, greenery and usually peace and quiet on the point that their cabin is located. It's nice to sit and crochet or knit, or curl up and read a book or explore the beaches.

6. Have you ever played tourist in your own home city/state (if international, country)? Explain. Yes, as a child my family would go camping all the time. I go for trips to Victoria for some sightseeing and other cities all over my province. As for playing tourist in my own city, there are so many places to play tourist in the Lower Mainland, go visit Lynn Valley suspension bridge, drive up to Cypress Mountain to enjoy the view and go hiking, I love going to museums with my daughter or go beach combing. There is so much to see here that sometimes we will go and explore parts of the city and the surrounding cities that we don't know well just for fun.

7. Are you a museum visitor, beach comer or an amusement seeker? All of the above, depends on my mood.

8. What's your favorite type of yarn? I love soft silks, cotton blends with either silk, model and/or tencel and soy silk!

9. What's your least favorite type of yarn? coarse acrylics especially if it makes that horrible squeaking noises while you are knitting/crocheting with it. The sound of cheap synthetic fibers rubbing against each other is like nails on a chalkboard for me, even when I was really little.

10. What items do you like to knit/crochet? scarfs, shawls, dishcloths, socks!!!, bags, hats and I really want to knit my first sweater. I'm mostly addicted to lace and socks right now at the moment

11. What do you pack, knit/crochet wise when you go on vacation? small projects like socks, something simple like a stockinette sock or a easy scarf and then a few projects that I need to think for when I want to concentrate and de-stress by getting lost in the pattern and yarn

12. What other crafts do you do/would like to do other than Knit/Crochet? I'd love to learn to draw and paint, spin

13. Are you allergic to anything? (Yarn wise or treat wise) Lol, what am I not allergic to! I CAN NOT use animal fibers even the slightest amount in a yarn. I'm allergic to them all alpaca, wool even extra soft superwash merino, cashmere etc... I'm allergic to lemongrass and/or citronella and more really floral smells in lotions, food or scents. When it comes to lipbalms any lipbalm with glycerin in it actually makes my lips chapped, regardless if they fix chapped lips or not. No milk chocolate, I'm allergic to lactose, I'm so happy I can eat certain cheeses though!

14. What is your favorite color? Least Favorite? favourite colours are blues/greens/reds and least favourite orange/yellows/neons

15. Sweet or Savory (Treat not personality)? Sweet!

16. Anything else we are forgetting to ask that you think your partner desperately needs to know? Another fun allergy I'm allergic to cats, so if you have a cat please avoid allowing it to fondle the yarn.

Pictures!

Well I finally got my issue of IK and I'll go through that later. Another important thing is I have found my USB cord for my camera, so this post is going to be picture heavy, ok not that heavy *big grin*

Here's a picture of my guide dog, "Maylee" showing off my package from my secret pal.

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I received a lovely hank of beaded silk, a bag of yummy cherry sours, 3 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine in colourway #18 Linden, one ball of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine in colouway #15 Misty, a really cute sheep card that I'm allergic to *sniff* and sheep tissue.

Here is my Jaywalker WIP. I am using BMFA Sock Candy 96% Cotton and 4% Elite using US #1 bamboo needles I started it around approx. June 1. This yarn is only slightly stretchy, definately not like Casade Fixation, but it will make a nice warm thicker cotton sock.

This is my lacy diamond scarf WIP. I am using Tilli Tomas' Discolights in Olive. I can't recall the needle size, but I'm using my KnitPicks Options needles.

Yarn addiction

So I had set a limit on how much new yarn I was going to buy and I was going to hold off buying more yarn after my vacation yarn spree. Well I didn't make it even a week of being home before I made two yarn purchases online. I purchased some Panda Cotton from The Loopy Ewe and Cacade Fixation in various colourways, as well as 11 balls of Rowan Calmer for a sweater or cartigan from WEBS. Bad me! However I have some new yarn coming in the mail soon. My birthday is in 13 days from now, so I could look at it as a early birthday present from myself! Lol, it could work really *big grin*

I have misplaced my camera USB cord so once I find it then I'll post pics of my stash enhancements from Dharma in San Rafael plus cute pics of my package from my secret pal. BTW she is very awesome I loved the beaded yarn; however if you are reading this do you know how many yards that lovely hank is?? Thank you secret pal, lots of hugs from me and some licks and wiggles from "Miss Maylee"

Again waiting

I'm still waiting on my summer IK magazine. I'm hoping that it will speed up getting here because I did just renew for two more years! If not I might just cancel my subscription because I can buy the magazine in stores weeks before my copy comes in the mail. I wonder what the point of even having them send it to me is lately!

Still not able to log in using Firefox and I refuse to switch back to the lower versions. It's a pain using IE and I hate it dearly.

As for my knitting projects, I haven't kitchnered the toe yet on my Horcrux sock; however I did start a new sock. Jaywalkers with the awesome BMFA's Sock Candy in Kabuki that Connie from Pickup Sticks sent me. I am working on my silk lace diamond scarf that I may gift to my great grandmother for her birthday that is coming along pretty well. Pictures to come in the future since I'm still trying to get settled at home here.

Firefox is a bad drug for Blogger

It really sucks but seems like Firefox and Blogger are not getting along right now! I had to use the evil IE to update this blog :-( I swear I had more posts this month, but it seems like they didn't actually work out.

I got my package from my secret pal; however I have to load the pictures from my camera before I post them. I'll wait till then to brag about what I got. Miss Maylee modeled the secret pal package for me so look out in the next few days for super cute pictures.

In knitting news, I have sorta finished a project when I was a GDB training with my guide dog. My second Horcrux sock is done, all I need to do is Kitchner the toe! Yay me! I ended up frogging my Branching Out scarf that I used Tilli Thomas' Disco Lights because it was too hard of a pattern for the yarn -- it has sequins, which are getting stuck and ruining the silk itself. So I decided to use a simpler lace pattern that I found in The Odd Ball Knitting book. Now that I'm home I'll be able to knit more and will have some more FO's in the near future. Also I'll clean up my FO list.

First of all I wanted to say I swear I posted here this month!! I guess that I closed the window before actually hitting the post button thinking I had already finished posting it. Shows you how much sleep we get here at GDB's San Rafael campus! Lol, I'm lucky if I manage five hours sleep :-(

In knitting news, I was able to hit a yarn shop here called Dharma and I'll probably update with mystash enhancements a few days after I get home. Also, I am almost finished the second Horcrux sock all I need to do is kitchener stitch the toe. I have been doing more frogging than knitting but that's alright it's the process and the finished object is a bonus! Well I hear the dinner bell being played so I need to run. I'm still alive and being keep really busy at guide dog school. After dinner it's yoga and then some packing before bed. Take care everyone!

Wish there was more time in the day...

So I'm here in San Rafael working really hard in Guide Dog School. I arrived on the 22nd and I got my beautiful Maylee on the 25th. It was here birthday yesterday, she is now 2 and showing me that she is an adolescent! It's only Friday and I can't believe how far we have come!! There have been ups and downs already and there will many more to come during our training here, but we will pull through. Her saliva is giving me hives, so I am conditioning her not to lick me. Trust me this training hurts both of us a little because I love her licking me and she absolutely enjoys doing so.

In knitting news, I haven't had time to knit since the airplane. My second Horcrux sock is calling me but I really haven't had time to get to it. I'm hoping soon I'll be able to pull it out and work on a few stitches. I wonder if they won't mind if I knitted in lectures...

Anyhoo, I am on a time limit because I want to get to bed early. I just want everyone to know that I am alive and we are both doing great If you want to see a pic of my guide dog, Maylee and I, check out my guide dog school lj (here) I try to update it at least every few days; however things great really crazy busy here and sometimes there isn't time to get everything that you need to get down in the time that you have. If anyone has a time winder like Hermione in HP does, please get ahold of me because I really, really need one desperately.

Leaving on a jet plane

So I'm getting ready for my flight tomorrow because I'm off to guide dog handler school! I have packed some little projects with me and most of them are socks!! Right now I'm working on the second worsted weight Horcrux sock as well as a fingerweight one in Panda Cotton. I love how soft the Panda Cotton is, but don't use metal dpns or metal circs with it because the yarn does like to split. I haven't tried using Pony Pearls with them yet but I'm finding my crystal place bamboo dpns are handling with yarn well.

So I have some FO to share it's been finished for a while and I haven't blocked it yet but I've finished my modified mini clapotis. It took less than 1 1/2 balls of SWTC Phoenix in Napa Valley. At first I used Kpixie's free pattern for the mini clapotis pattern, but I ended up visiting the lovely frog pond because it was way too small. I wrote the mods I did down, but I don't have access to them at the moment so if you are interested let me know and I'll post them when I get back from guide dog school.

Scaring away valuable customers and why I love online yarn stores for certain stash enhancements

So I'm on the slow road to recovery from this cold. It's hit me hard, but at least I don't have to feel guilty of not getting anything done around my house because I'm knitting like a coder on a major deadline. I am orking on my modification on the mini clapotis pattern that can be found a kpixie. I have made it a bit wider and will be making it much longer, so it will be the perfect small wrap/scarf for windy San Fransisco. Due to my other projects involving either small needles/hooks or complicated patterns I have put them on hold till I have fully recovered from this cold of dOOm.

I didn't make it to the spring cleaning de-stash swap yesterday, so I'll have to find another way to destash the yarn that I can't use or wait till the next yarn swap. *sigh*

I ended up checking out a yarn store last weekend with a friend. It has been under new ownership since she had been there and due to the location of it I hadn't been there myself. I will NEVER shop there again and I had such a bad experience there that I'll blog about it, but I will leave the name of the shop out. Most locals here will probably know it by my description; however I don't want to discourage people from at least giving it a chance because everyone is looking for something different.

It's a small shop in a very trendy area of Vancouver and it has a nice display in the window, I'll give them that. We walked in and immediately we both felt like we were intruding on the shop lady's time and that we were unwanted in the store.

Almost all the yarn is behind glass and on shelves that you can't touch, if you want to see/touch something you must ask the shop lady. So we looked in the glass to see what they have and I was happy to see that they had SWTC Bamboo and SWTC Oasis. I asked the shop lady if they had any SWTC Phoenix because I like the worsted weight soy silk and wanted to buy more now that I am able to see the colourways in person.

She gave me a look of disgust or was she giving my poor white cane the look I'm not quite sure, but she looked like she had a mouthful of lemon drops that were very sour when I asked her this.

She curtly replied "NO" and I asked if they wil be getting any in anytime soon, again the look of disgust washes over her face "definitely not" and that was that. After her replies I wasn't going to bother her asking if they would order some for me.

Good thing it didn't get to that because I found out the price of the SWTC Bamboo $22.50 CDN before tax!!! I purchase it online from an American shop even with taxes and duty it's cheaper. I pay $13.00 US (approx. $15.00 CDN) per ball, so I expected a brick and mortar shop to charge a bit more I was thinking $17/18 CDN before tax and that's a $4/5 CDN difference from my guessitmate and a over $7 CDN between them before taxes and duty and even with the taxes and duty it's still much cheaper online. Then add the friendly customer service I get online to the horrible in-person experience I'm going to continue to get my SWTC stash online till one of my favourite stores here finally get some in.

I think I might go to Three Bags Full and see if they would be will to order some for me directly.

Anyway, enough complaining about the lack of customer service and the lack on not being able to fondle the yarn I'm not going back there ever again. I did purchase one ball of SWTC Bamboo in the parrot colourway and hank of baby alpaca that I know I could have supported someone I liked for a much lower price, but I hate leaving a yarn store with empty hands and we didn't have time to visit anymore that day. I sucked it up and paid for them knowing that that store won't get another penny out of me even if they had Rowan Calmer in Slosh and Garnet that I said I'll pay an arm and a leg for it I got enough to make knee highs with.

No seriously!

I am still sick from the evil illness of dOOm, sigh.  Tomorrow's the destash extraganza for the knitting meetup that I need to get out and go to more.  I'm hoping that by all miracles I'll be okay enough to venture out tomorrow night and give away the wool, wool/acrylic and cotton angora yarns that I need to destash.  I have a sweaters worth of debbie bliss cotton angora that I need to find a new home for and this will be the perfect time to do so.  You'd think for someone who is allergic to such fibers she won't have them in her stash but I also have some awesome superwash merino sock yarn that I don't want to part with but I really, really should because even yummy superwash merino makes my throat sore and tighten up as well as start the other allergy symptoms.  So this yarn all needs new homes.  

Also a very large thanks to my SP, who sent me the wonderful Amy R. Singer's No Sheep For You book.  SQUEE!  Despite being hoarse due to a swollen sore throat I did a happy dance and squee
when it came in the mail today.  To think I was about to go out and by this either before my trip to San Rafael or during guide dog handler training there.  I can't wait to cast on the Cheeky Ribbed socks, Cables and Os (cardi) and Tucany (shawl).  Another really cool thing in this book is Me-friendly (read Amy-friendly and/or wool allergy friendly as well) knitted trummed mitts!!!  How cool is that huh?!  They are made from cotton and silk roving in lieu of wool and wool roving, I might make myself a pair of these in the fall even though I don't really wear mittens these I'll make an exception for.  So thank you to my Secret Pal you made my day today.

As for the progress of my mini clapotis in SWTC Phoenix it was completed then frogged due to being way too small, so I'm going to mod the mod!  Lol, yep I'm a geek and proud 8-)

If it's not broken, don't fix it!

So the title of this post is directed to Interweave Knits. I finally got my spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits in the mail (why does it take so long to mail to Canada come on OMFG it was sent on March 22 it was on newstands here last month I hope the rest of my subscription doesn't take this long!) and now I see what the whole fuss is about. I hate the new layout! I'm open to new ideas but I found the new layout very frustrating trying to find patterns especially mainly because some of the background colours that showcase the finished objects do not contrast well with the chosen font colour of the pattern name and page number. This issue does have a few patterns that I really want to knit like the green tea raglan, roza's socks, dollar and a half cartigan, petunia's tote and last but not least cable-down raglan. That's a lot of knitting but hey I probably won't get to them for a long time. Anyhoo that's my 2 cents on the new interweave knits spring 2007 issue. I'm happy to hear Eunny Jang is the new editor of interweave knits, please Eunny bring back the old format we miss it!

I casted a new problem onto the needles yesterday a mini clapotis with SWTC Phoenix in the Napa Valley colourway and it's looking very purdy. I'll take a picture when I'm feeling a bit better. I'm recovering from a cold right now. Oh and Andrea is you are reading this I am using the stitch markers I bought from your etsy site and I love them!

Here comes the sun

So I'm back from a week in California and after many, many months of rain here in the lower mainland it's sunny outside!! Many of us have been extremely grumpy due to lack of sunshine this winter and I recovered by insisting on a trip to California for some much needed sun therapy. It was beautiful and the fog wasn't too bad where we were staying. I didn't get much knitting done, however I did frog the sock I was knitting out of Cascade Fixation again! I did get some yarn from S's aunt who we were staying with. I picked out some pretty ribbon yarn, a few balls of Lily's Sugar and Cream cotton and some pretty ack yarn which I started the Ariel scarf with but didn't get too far yet.

As for secret pal contests I won the first one!! Yay me. The next contest Robyn wants us to blog about our favourite knitting accessory and I'm finding it hard to pick just one! So I've decided to choose two.

First, my knitpicks option needle set. I love this interchangable needle set, the needles and cable joins are nice and smooth and the bonus is the needles are sharp enough to be great for knitting lace. I'm working on my first Branching Out scarf with my Knitpick Options. Another great thing about this set is when you are travelling you have most of the needles you will need at your disposal and I'm will be definately bringing these to guide dog school with me next month!

My other favourite knitting accessory is my go knit pouch see them here I love that you can attach it to your loop on your jeans so you can knit in public without having to take out your yarn or worry about dropping your knitting. I did have two of these; however I did lose one on public transit and now never travel without it being attached to something. It carries small projects really well and you still have room for your other accessories like a crochet hook, stitch markers, extra dpns etc.. I have a camouflage one and hope in the future to be a owner of a burgundy one. I attach my pooh bear dangles to them because I tend to use these as stitch markers sometimes and it also helps me find my bag :-D

Hello, Goodbye I'm late I'm late I'm late

So I finally found my cord for my camera!! Here is a really late pics of my last package from my awesome LJSP3 pal, Smacked Knitless (LJ name: strange_muse) I apologize for the lateness of my acknowledging your fantastic last package to me. Inside is 3 balls of cascade pima tencel (50% pima cotton and 50% tencel) is a beautiful colour and super soft. I almost want to keep it for petting yarn but I think that these balls are going to become a pair of Fetching. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's book Yarn Harlot The Secret Life of a Knitter (I love this book and read it right away and will read it again and again), M shaped-sticky notes, cute dog card and a large bag of the yummiest loose leaf peppermint tea! I loved being spoiled by strange_muse and every package was
special with stuff that showed she really took the time to get to know me and my allergies, lol! I'm happy to say the pictures of the yummy yarn are very close to the colour in person.

In other news, I will be M.I.A. here and on LJ for over a week or so because we are taking a road trip to California. Since we have had very little sun this winter, I am craving to feel it's warmth and the sand between my feet, so off we go to visit relatives in the San Fran. area for spring break! So no no-sheep yarn prOn till I get back, but I also will have pictures of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I'm excited about visiting the aquarium because it will be my first trip to it. Giant jellyfish here I come!

Camera USB cord MIA

Since my camera's USB cord has been missing-in-action I noticed I haven't really posted here at all. I have received some awesome sock yarn in the mail last week. I got my order of Panda Cotton from The Loopy Ewe and some Zen Garden sock yarn (as well as sock blockers and some Pony Pearl DPNs) from Pick Up Sticks. Sheri from Pick Up Sticks was so sweet and sent me some of BMFA's Sock Candy in the colourway Kabuki! Go buy some yarn from her there is a link on my side bar, awesome customer service, free shipping to Canada and US for orders over $60 CDN. How can you go wrong it's free shipping!!

I still have Knitty's Branching Out on my needles and a plain old stockinette sock with a ribbed cuff. I am thinking of making the Sock Candy yarn into Jaywalkers, so I have the first skein on the ball winder then it's swatch time!!

People suck!

Well I checked the lost property office for our public transit today and now I'm really frustrated, mad and sad all at once. Why my you ask?? I lost my brand new knitting bag (from Pick up Sticks, Sock of the Month club), my second legwarmer (almost completed), 12-inch denise cord with the 5mm (size 8) tips and one of my new stitch markers!! Some git decided instead of doing the kind and decent thing they kept it for themselves!! Damn it at least hand the knitting in, I don't care about the bag really it's another $20 or so, but it's the hard work, the hours of knitting up that legwarmer in time for my sis-in-law's trip back home from Europe and the needles & cord that belong to a set! Well I guess I have to replace the cord and needle because as much as I love my Knitpick Options they don't have any cords smaller than 24 inches. The other option I have is to buy another set of Options and knit small things in a round on two circs because I really, really luuurrrvvveee these needles!!

What's new, I have my bejeweled scarf out of soysilk off the needles. I do need to block it because it is much shorter than I wanted it to be and block it will definitely fit this issue. I'm on my third repeat of the lace pattern on my Branching Out Scarf and it's coming slowly but I don't mind I'm taking my time on this one. Also I have my first socks on dpns. I did frog it because somehow I messed up slightly after the cuff and wasn't sure how I messed up, so it's back to the cuff again. I have to go to the yarn store sometime this week to get some Cascade 220 to re-make those leg warmers! Yep, I'm allergic to wool and I'm going to knit with it, again! The legwarmers are a very easy pattern after the two coloured cuff, all it is is stockinette purgatory till you are done the length. It's loads of anti-histamines & inhaler for me and days with a very, very sore throat and itching hands because that's what wool does to me. I'll be taking breaks from it and knitting up the Branching Out scarf in yummy silk to make me feel better though.

I have so much more to tell but I'm sick and despite taking a 4 hr. nap I'm still beat so it's off to bed with me. I'll save the rest for another day.

Head over heels in love

I finally decided to skip the class sock and head straight into sock knitting and I'm in love. I have finally mastered those evil dpns. All it took was learning in my sleep. Yep, I learned how to use dpns in my sleep. I was dreaming that I was knitting socks in my dream, enough to be able to visualize how to do it in my mind when I wasn't dreaming. So I put those thoughts into action and feel head of heels in love with sock knitting! I have to thank Connie the owner at Pickup Sticks and her Sock Club because the Pony Pearls that she sends with your first month of the sock club are magic!

I just ordered sock blockers from Pickup Sticks and some more sock yarn. I love Zen Garden's cotton/lycra -- pretty colours and I'm not allergic to it! Oh also have more of those magic dpns coming to me. Yay!! Connie was also awesome enough to send me over to The Loopy Ewe because they have Crystal Place's Panda Cotton and see it knit up as a sock on Sheri's blog. It is said to be soft and yummy, so I ordered a few (ok enough for 4 or 5 pairs) skeins. I can't wait till they get here as well. I'm sure every knitter's mailman must think that we are doing something illegal with the amount of packages we get in the mail! I'm on a secret yarn stash diet -- opps I'm outed it's not secret anymore, but sock yarn doesn't count as stash! Mr. Pixel looks at me very strangely when I say this like I'm some crazed addict or something that needs help, *rolls eyes muggles* you knitters out there can back me it I'm not crazy sock yarn doesn't count.

Books!! I just got a swack load of new knitting books . I've decided that I am not going to outgrow this knitting lifestyle (yes it is no longer a hobby, it's a lifestyle), so like the good bibliophile I am starting my knitting book collection and it has expanded to over 20 books so far. Here's the list. I still want to get some Elizabeth Zimmerman books as well as some of Nancy Bush's books and add about 50 or so more but those are the ones I really think are a staples and those come first. Can anyone of you out there in blogland add some more books that you think are staples in a knitter's library? Feel free to add them in a comment I'd love to compile a list of books I will be on the look out for.

Wind it up baby

So my new ball winder came in the mail with loads of other stuff from Knitpicks yesterday, yay!! Even though I had thousands of other things to do I ended up winding up many balls of yarn to test out my new ball winder. The test went well and I'm in love!! The only thing that gave me troubles was the Euroflax Linen that I picked up to knit the Forest Canopy Shawl pattern, which I want to start soon since I have received my Knitpicks Options Interchangables (more luuurrrvvvee, *wipes drool*) I would have posted lovely pictures to go along with this post but my camera is with Mr. Pixel on a business trip in India and China, lucky camera!

I'm still working on the bejeweled scarf which was frogged due to dropping a stitch of the eyelet part. It was a good reason to switch needles and now I"m using my Knitpicks Interchangeables instead of my bamboo straights. Boy is the scarf working up fast with these smooth nickel-plated metal needles, so I'm not too upset that I had to frog it. I keep on forgetting to put a life line in my lace work *note to self use a lifeline or prepare to frog* I haven't worked much on my Branching Out scarf because I really need to take my time for the lacework and I should enlarge the chart or make my own because the chart I printed is tiny (well for me, you people with good vision probably have no troubles!) and I've been using the wording, which is very long and tedious that it's easy to forget where you are. I have casted on, knitted the ribbing and am about halfway down on the second rollergirl leg warmers from the S&B Nation Book. Since she comes from Europe like TOMORROW I thought that I'd work on it like a mad woman and finished it tonight or tomorrow, go me! So far I have succeeded n this task after weeks of the "second sock syndrome" slowing my progress. I'm thinking of felting them a little to shrink them because she's got skinny legs and these puppies fit me, maybe I'll have her try them on first.

Well that's it for me today, BTW there is a new Lime & Violet episode out go and listen! Till next time happy knitting/crocheting.

So the universe has been telling me that I shouldn't knit up my lovely cabled toque, but I should be casting on the second leg warmer for my sis-in-law who happens to arrive sometime next week from Europe. I have casted on that hat over 4x's only to get to the part when I start to decrease only to have to rip it out due to my lovely family distracting me at the worst possible times. *sigh* I should listen to the universe methinks.

I have also casted on my first branching out scarf disco lights in olive. I can't wait till I get enough courage to start on my Simple Knitted Bodice because tilla tomas's silk is just so yummy! I also am trying out my new Knitpick's Options for my branching out WIP. I Luuuurrrrvvveeee these interchangables!!!! They are pointy and slick, with a smooth transition between the cable and the needles. I just wish that there was a 16 inch cable *sigh*. I have received the Lana Knits Hemp For Knitting AllHemp6 #102 sprout hanks that I ordered to make the Homegrown Bag in Jennifer Stafford's Domiknitrix Book and once I get a chance I want to start on that project. I should finish some of the projects I have on needles before start new ones, lol!!! I'm almost finished my second bejeweled scarf that I'm making in SWTC's Oasis soysilk in the chocolate colourway, very tasty indeed.

I have some more yarn on order and have purchased some more books, but I'll leave that for another day. Have a great weekend and happy knitting!!

Frogging Frusteration

I love my family I do but due to them pestering me I have had to frog the hat I started making on Friday 3x's!! The universe don't want me to have a wonderful knitted cabled toque to keep my little head warm. I'm thinking of going to the LYS close to my chiropractor's office (have an appointment which I should be getting ready for right now!) but I hate going in there because the lady who works there when the owner isn't there is so rude and acts if I'll steal something or whatever even though I spend around $60-100 every time I step in there. *sigh* She was ever ruder to me when I only crocheted; however the owner is awesome and it's really close to me so I'l end up going. Maybe I'll find something that inspires me to make a sweater! Oh look it the time I'll have to blog more later.

Secret Pal 10 Questionaire Answers that proves I should live in a bubble

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Let's start with the DO NOT like's , most of them are due to allergies *sniff* wool (any type and any percentage, I've tried them all and I'm still allergic!), angora, cashmere, alpaca, fun fur and most novelty yarns (I'm okay with ribbon and recycled sari). Now you're probably thinking what the heck does this girl use with her pointy sticks!! I prefer yarns of the vegetable family: bamboo, soysilk, hemp, cotton, linen, tencel, modal and all in this list blended in various ways together. I love silk! I'm not too fond of mineral yarns, but I can handle really soft acrylics and if there are blended with the magic list of vegetable family and silk love!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I store my straights in a wonderful cloth needle holder my m-in-law helped me make, circs in their respected cases ( i am now the proud owner of knitpick's interchange options circ set and denise set!) rest of the normal circs go in yarn storage container and my hooks (yep, I'm bicraftual) are in a small plastic storage tub that I keep all my knit and crochet paraphernalia stuff in.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I've been knitted since....oh November 2006. I'm between beginner and intermediate, more leaning towards intermediate. I learn from the awesome Christa Giles in her beginner's knitting class at Urban Yarns. My mom tried to teach me for years but no success till I finally took a knitting class because I wanted to be knit and combine crochet and knit. I have been crocheting on and off since I was four or so and my skill level for crochet is definitely a rusty (been in a knitting frenzy) advanced.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

I have a amazon wish list that is knit and crochet books and the other one is just plain ole' books. It's a good way to remember which books I really want to buy next.

5. What's your favorite scent?

mmm mint, grapefruit, vanilla, green tea and mint! Due to allergies, I have to avoid any citrusy smell that has lemongrass and/or citronella but I love oranges, grapefruit and lemon scents.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

CANDY!!!! I have a bit of a sweet tooth :-D I love gummy worms (especially the orange and green ones), cinnamon hearts, coke bottles, big feet, swedish berries, hot lips and sours. Oh and dark chocolate, can't do milk products so milk chocolate is out.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I'm a very simple crafter it's crochet, knitting and the occasional beading. I like to do do-it-yourself stuff, but never really get around to doing it. I don't spin but maybe one day I'll try once I get my hands on some soysilk roving and a drop spindle!!

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I love music and my taste varies drastically, the only music I don't like is most country, gangsta rap and a lot of the pop top 40 stuff. Here's a small list of favourites:

• tori amos
• delirum
• fiona apple
• enya
• lily allen
• muse
• radiohead
• david usher
• moist
• sarah mclachlan
• loreena mckennitt
• portishead
• billie holiday
• ella fitzgerald
• big bad voodoo daddies
• ani difranco
• coldplay
• evanescence
• jewel
• vanessa carlton
• great big sea
• wierd al and this list could go on forever and ever....

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

My favourite colours are blues, greens, reds, purples, blacks, greys, and browns. I'm not fond of orange, yellows, most pinks (I don't mind a tad bit of pink here and there) and neons.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I live with my partner, Mr. S and my daughter who is known mostly as mini-me who is 12 years old. I'm applying for a guide dog and hoping that I will be getting one in the next year or so and we have 50 fish.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

I wear hats, scarves and mitts (I prefer gloves, white canes and mitts don't really go well together). I tried ponchos but I don't find them faltering for my body type.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I love knitting lace, it's one of my new skills. I also like making hats, washclothes, bags and I love the idea of making sweaters, which I will be tackling soon. Currently I'm learning how to knit socks with 2 circs because dpns and I don't get along at this point in time.

13. What are you knitting right now?

A few things, a soysilk bejeweled scarf, legwarmers for my sis-in-law, fat-bottom bag and a cabled hat in DK weight soysilk)

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes please!!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I prefer bamboo for straights and metal for circs. I might have to try Addi naturals one of these days I may never want to knit with metal again, but then I could be wrong. I don't prefer circs over straights or visa versa because I find that it depends on the project and yarn which is better.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

I just purchased a yarn winder!! Go me. Now my goal is to either make or own a swift to go with it.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

Eep. I just did a clean out of my yarn storage bins and I find a UFO that was from Jan/Feb 2006 and it's because the pattern confuse me it's a crocheted shrug made out of these cute granny squares for mini-me I'll have wing the construction because the instructions make sense till I have the project in my hand then I lose what I thought made perfect sense. Oh well.

18. What is your favorite holiday(s)?

I love Samhain (Halloween), Winter Solstice and Beltaine

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Books!! I'm a huge bibliophile, I mostly read sci-fi and fantasy but I dabble in a bit of everything if it interests me. I also collect crystals.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

My magazine subs are Interweave Knits, Knit 1 and Crochet (I only got this one because I was ordering mags through my daughter for her school fundraising, I'm not really liking it much I prefer Interweave Crochet and Crochet Today!)

I have been oogling Amy Singer's No Sheep for You. but it's not out yet and I've been drooling over Rogue and Eris. I worried that both the girl from auntie patterns are a bit too hard for me and haven't purchased them till I'm ready to rise to the challenge. I'm a sucker for celtic knots and cabling so easier patterns like them are a must to practice. As for yarns, that I haven't worked with but I want to try is Suss Love or any other suss yarn in the magical list of vegetable fibers!

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I'm learning how to make socks on two circs and working on cables. Other things I want to learn is intarsia and fair isle.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I'm hoping to become a sock knitter. Foot measurements darn I lost my measuring tape!! More bright coloured measuring tapes might be a good thing for me!! My feet are woman's size 7 and my feet are a little bit chubby.

23. When is your birthday?

June 13th!!! Yep you got it I'm a twin. I love being dual-natured, you get a few different types of friends for the price of one :-D I agree that Gemini's will hospitalized more due to boredom than overload.

Here's my project spectrum skinny scarf. I used the yarn I got from my LJ secret pal and crocheted up this pretty scarf. It's the perfect colours for project spectrum's colours, which is blue, white and grey. This yarn is a mixture of blues, greens. little bit of white and silvery-blue grey. I defiantely will be looking for this yarn here, it's Plymouth Yarn's Royal Bamboo in colourway #20. It reminds me of the calming colours of a tropical water, mmm paradise.




Here is some beautiful yarn prOn. It's Zen Garden's handpainted cotton lycra fingering weight, yummy sock yarn for those with wool allergies! Once I figure out sock knitting and DPN's I'm going to make myself some lovely pairs of socks with these yarns.

I finally gave up and purchased a ball winder and my mailman should be bringing that to me as well as my knitpicks options in the next few weeks. I also have some sage green hemp yarn coming in so I can knit up the wicked hemp bag inDominknitrix's book Whip Your Knittig into Shape. I can't wait to start on the bag!

Socks flying of my needles

I just typed up a nice long post only to lose it,  Argg I hate blogger sometimes there really needs to 
be an auto-save *sigh*  So since it's late I don't have to retype everything that I had wanted to post about so 
here the short version.  I started knitting socks!  Yay me, I'm at the gusset of the class sock in 
Sensational Knitted Socks book by Charlene Schurch  Soon I will be able to knit up the yummy
Zen Garden sock yarn I just got from Pickup Sticks.  

Other WIPs/FO news, I started and finished a skinny scarf in the beautiful bamboo yarn that I
talked about in my previous post.  It's perfect for project spectrum and will be posting pics soon as I find some time.  Also I finished one of the legwarmers and will be casting on the second one sometime this week or next.

Arrggg, i haven't been able to post as much as I wanted to because our main computer has issues and we had to back-up data onto our network then re-install the evil MS Windows.  I really want a Mac, but DH is too cheap to purchase one for me even though I wanted a i-book instead of the laptop I have.  Oh well, at least I'm not on a yarn diet!!  Darn it's late and I'm getting yelled at to get into bed, I'll do a proper post with picture when I get some more time!

Today's post is brought to you by wonderful Smacked Knitless and a really big sugar high, whheee!!

I got my 2nd LJ secret pal (third if you count the christmas present package, but since Smacked Knitless doesn't think that this package was good enough, btw I think it was frackin' fantastic!) Soooo, I got this wonderful pet worthy Plymouth Yarn Royal Bamboo (100% bamboo) in colourway #20, which is a wonderful mix of blues and greens. It's so soft and pretty, the colours remind me of the colours that you would find in the ocean water of some tropical paradise. I also got a Grow Your Own Dog!!! She is soooo cute and I hope that it will bring me luck on my up and coming interview for a guide dog (I'm legally blind and use a white cane, and frankly got sick of people ignoring it, tripping over it as well as leaning on it and breaking them. I'm a huge dog lover, my partner is a cat lover (I love cats but I'm allergic to them) by nature but he'll learn to love dogs soon I hope! Last but surely not least I got the Dec06-Jan07 issue of crochet today, I've been on a knitting frenzy and can't wait to put down th pattern in it because I love knitting but it takes soooo long compared to crochet, or is it just me?e pointy sticks for my hook to work up some of the Silly me I forgot a big bag of gummy bears that I enjoyed when I was flipping with the magazine, I think I ate a few too many though *rubs belly*.

So the mailman brought me so yummy new yarn, it's the KPixie order of SWTC's TOFUtsies and my DPN's which may be one size too big *sigh* I ended up getting 2.75mm/size 2 US and after reading the universal toe-up sock pattern on Knitty I should have gotten size 1's. So it's off to the yarn store tomorrow after I got to the postoffice to pick up some smaller DPNs! I might have to try two circs or one circ knitting because I played with the DPN and they are really ackward, well I guess I need to practice before I venture into knitting socks. The TOFUtsies made me sneeze and my eyes water really badly so I'm going to have to take loads of anti-histimines when I knit with it, but for those who don't have allergies to merino wool I really like how soft this yarn is with the soysilk giving it a nice sheen.

So I have another Bejeweled scarf on my pointy sticks, this time it's SWTC Oasis (100% soysilk) in the colourway Chocolate and I'm using 3.5 mm bamboo needles to make the lace more dense because like silk, soysilk should stretch out a bit. I really enjoy knitting lace, so I've been thinking I should start looking for a blocking board or something that will work well as a blocking board I recall seeing someone use one of those big puzzle pieces as one somewhere in blogland. Well time for me to go veg out it's been a long day today.

Just couldn't resist

So I had received a e-mail from Connie of Pick Up Sticks saying that there are a some openings in the Pick Up Sticks Sock Club and I couldn't say no. I had purchased some Zen sockyarn from her site and can't wait till I get that as well.

I was pointed to the direction of this fantastic Canadian yarn site by the Lime & Violet podcast, *drool* and after a while for said drooling I decided to purchase some yummy sock yarn that I'm not allergic to. I not sure what made me sign up for the sock club considering that I'm allergic to probably all the yarn I will be getting, but I don't care!! I do cheat and where my merino socks over cotton socks, so I'll just take lots of anti-histmines and allergy reaction killers to knit up the lovely yarn that I will be getting every month :-D Great prices and yummy yarn, go and drool then buy some here. Sorry all those on a yarn diet, I promise I've done enough stash enhancement to cover what you haven't.

I also bought myself the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl from Susan of I'm Knitting As Fast as I Can. I really enjoy reading her blog and love her patterns. For all of you who follow Knitty.com, she is the awesome designer of Branching Out, which is also on my to-knit list!

Well that's enough for me because the boys should be home soon with sushi and my beer should be cold by now. Mmmm beer and sushi and I promise no drunk knitting and frogging :-D I leave you with the yarn prOn I promised

YAY For FO"s!!

I feel really productive today because I have two --yep that's right two-- FO's. A long while back I started a lovely scarf/wrap for one of my LJ friends Slut Bunwalls and I'm finally finished! I can't believe it took me this long because it is plain ole' garter stitch, then again that also could be the reason why LOL. Here's a picture of the scarf to show of the pretty colours in the yarn, it's Red Heart's Light & Lofty in Spice and it took 2 skiens on size 10 mm (size 15 US) needles. I really love this scarf/wrap and probably will make one for myself, maybe in a different colourway though.

Another FO is the Bejewled Scarf yay!! knit this up for Lolly's Informal Knitalong, click here for info as well as for myself :-D Yarn: Laines Du Nord Mulberry Silk in Black 100% handwash lie flat 50g 125m recommended size 3.5-4 mm needles, for this pattern it is worked up in size 5 mm bamboo straight needles. I put the sharpie there to show scale. I also took a close-up picture of the lace pattern for anyone who wants to see what it looks like. This is my first lace project and I started knitting in November 2006, so please ignore the mistakes *grins*

Things that Rock

So like many other people out there on nets' I listen to podcasts. There are a few that I love that are knitting based of course Brenda Dayne's Cast On, which is one of my absolute favourites and it's great to hear her voice again after a hiatus due to illness. Another podcast that makes me so happy to see a new episode each week is Lime & Violet These women rock, not only do they make me laugh so hard, but they are at fault for my most recent knit book buys. Miss Violet is having some woman problems with boob rocks, sorry doll I can feel your pain. Her medical insurance sucks so badly and is in need of funds to cover these very expensive torture appointments, so Lisa Souza has been awesome to offer the Violet's Pink Ribbon colourway where the monies collected will go to Miss Violet. All the monies that are not used for her medical costs once all this is done will be donated to some really good cause that I can't recall right now. If you are on a yarn diet or allergic to wool like me you can donate to this cause via the Lime & Violet button on their blog. A new podcast that I want to mention I just discovered today! My first knitting instructor is fantastically awesome and I can't thank her enough to helping learn to knit at Urban Yarns beginner class and now she has a podcast out! Please check out the wonderfully talented Christa Giles' podcast here on her site. She is quirky, enthusatic and talented knitter/instructor who has a great voice and I look forward to listening to more of her podcasts, go and check her out!!

Nothing like new stuff

So the mailman brought me some new yarn, I'm trying out SWTC's soysilk and also have some more yummy Tilli Tomas silk with sequins called disco lights in colourways Amercian Beauty ( beautiful red) and Olive. I also picked up two knit books, One-Skein Wonders Edited by Judith Durant, Cables Untangled: An Exploration of Cable Knitting by Melissa Leapman and Interweave Knits Winter 2006 edition. So many projects so little time!! When I charge my battery for my digital cam I'll post some yarn porn pics.

Oooo another really excited stash enhancement is coming my way via USPS! I ordered SWTC's TOFUtsies sock yarn from Kpixie and some size 2 dpns. I may not be able to wear them and knitting them up might iritate my allergies but I couldn't resist! I got the colourways: 720 Sweep You Off Your Feet, 719 Best Foot Forward and 736 Under Foot. TOFUtsie is 50% superwash wool, 25% soysilk, 22.5% Cotton/2.5% Chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells and has antibacterial properties)

Trying to make sure WIP's don't become UFO's

So I have frogged the Bejeweled scarf yet again, while I was knitting it over at a friends house between taking turns playing on his new Wii I make some stupid unfixable mistakes. It's an easy pattern but since I'm knitting it up in black I have to make sure to not knit it up when there are a lot of distractions. The fat bottom bag has been sitting there since I put it down, I am going to try really hard to finish it off next week. I'm also working on a few other projects and have to finish Slut Bunwalla's scarf. It's so hard not to start new projects because the postman brought me some more yarn!

New WIP - Fat Botton Bag and the on-going adventures in knitting

Since I've had to frog my bejeweled scarf a little bit more than I'd like to due to mistakes of a new knitter, I decided to ease my soul with some easy-to-fix crocheting. I'm working on The S&B Crochet The Happy Hooker's Fat Bottom Bag in Lion Brand's turquoise cotton. I am 1/2 done the bag and before I work the flap and graft them to the bag and handles I need to line the bag, then I'm done. I picked this because it was a great project to work with some of the yarn in my stash and not start another new project that I have to learn something new, so I can let it work up with almost no thought in my hands as I listen to an audio book and relax.

I plan to start on Coronet soon because I just learned how to do a provisional cast-on and I learned how to cable a while ago in my first knitting class. I had mentioned to the awesome knitting instructor that I wanted to tack fair isle, cables and intarsia (not nessessarily in that order), then socks once I learned how to knit and purl :-D I'm adventurous! Now a lot of knitter's I knew hated cables saying they are the devil, so I asked my instructor why many knitter's seem to have a distaste for cables, are they really hard? I love cables, I find them beautiful and they make a simplitic pattern come to life thus I was determined to learn how to knit them. My instructor said they aren't as bad as many say they are, it's mostly due to most people not knowing what they are doing and being afraid of trying new stuff with their knitting. So she decided right there and then to show me how to cable, lol I had just started getting the hang of casting off and I knew how to knit and purl so she handed me her huge needles, some light wool (accchoooo, yep I'm allergic even to 25% wool and 75% acrylic blend, but I was determined to take full advantage of learning cabling) and she proceeded to tell me how to cable and had me try it without making it complicated. As I was putting stitches on the cable needle, dealing with other stitches then working the stitches on the cable needle, she was telling me the most important thing is to pay attention to the pattern you are working from because the needle will need to be held in front of your work or in back and the pattern will tell you which. As thought, this is simple you just need to remember not to drop the stitches on your needle and a cable needle with a bend in the middle helps, while you are working the other stitches and follow your pattern very carefully, easy peasy!! I was amazed that I learned to cable within a few minutes and my instructor did not that I learn fast as well because I caught on right away. So in the next week or so once I finish my scarf and bag I'll be happily working on the cabling of the cabled ban of Knitty's Coronet.

Stash Enhancement for the Allergy-impaired

Being allergic to animal hair yarns takes away a lot of the nice luxury yarns, especially the nicely priced baby alpaca that I've been drooling over at Elann. I'm not really found of acrylics because the plasticy sound it makes when rubbing against itself makes me cringe. There are some lovely acrylic and synthetics out there, for example Lang Yarn's Cora is so buttery soft and I really like Red Heart's Soft Touch acrylic yarn. So that leaves me with fewer yarn options, I have found some "natural" yarns that I can use.

One of my favourites is silk, it can get expensive though; however it is a fantastic luxury yarn for those with allergies. My bejeweled scarf is being made from mulberry silk. I also have a beautiful ball of Como Seta from Ram Yarns that was giving to me by my awesome LJ secret pal, Smacked Knitless. Since I've been oogling Stephanie Jepel's Simple Knitted Bodice before I could knit, which isn't that long but hey I couldn't crochet it so I learned to knit I decided that since I have some money to spend I'd give it a go! I purchased Kpixie.com's kit in Olive and it's Tilla Thomas silk yarns so I can actually knit it and use it. This makes me very happy! I think since I'm still a very new knitter I'm going to work on a few easy sweater projects before I tackle this because the yarn is very pricey.

There are some others that I've been wanting to try like soysilk and bamboo yarns. I have some that will be coming soon to my stash once my postman brings them to me are SWTC's Oasis in Chocolate and Harvest Green and Phoenix in Perplexed, which are their soysilk yarns in sportweight and worsted weight. I want to try out their 100% bamboo yarn as well; however due to the mass amounts of stash enhancing I have done in the last week I'll have to wait!

Frogged Bejeweled or a Bejeweled Frog, you pick!

Well it was bound to happen especially after I posted a pic of my newest work in progress. I frogged all my progress with the Bejeweled scarf late last night. *sigh* I was interrupted too many times by a hyper mini-me that I made a few mistakes that being a new knitter I couldn't fix. I'm not to sad about it though because the whole time I was knitting it up I was somewhat choosing a more open lace with 6mm and now I have changed it to my 5mm bamboo straights. I'm very happy with the progress

WIP - Bejeweled Scarf

So I started my first lace project, the Bejeweled Scarf yesterday. I haven't had time to work on it that much but I'm about 6 rows past the row that you stop increasing at. Here's the info on the yarn I'm using:

Yarn: Laines Du Nord Mulberry Silk in Black 100% handwash lie flat 50g 125m recommended size 3.5-4 mm needles, for this pattern it is worked up in size 6mm bamboo straight needles

Here's a picture of my progress so far.