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.