Moving Right Along

I am trucking right on my Tomten Jacket. I love this design. Another thumbs up for Elizabeth. I should be starting the hood today. Isaac's birthday isn't until the end of April, so I am good on time. This jacket is so cute I will definitely go the the library so I can upload a photo when it's done.

~Oh. And our March choices for the yarn club are in. To die for. I am trying to decide how much I want (I already figured out which color I want).

Celebrities on Ravelry

I haven't posted in a while. This touch screen keyboard is not as comforting to type on as a real keyboard. I love the click-clickety sound of the keys as I speed along able to type as fast as I can think. With this thing it's all thumbs and auto-correct and, well, it doesn't encourage me to blog. But because I love all of you soooo (auto correct there turned my soooo into Solo then sloop, wtf?) much and love reading your blogs, here I am.

Oh. Was I supposed to actually discuss my title?

Yes. Celebrities on Ravelry. I have been meaning to posy about this. Warning, I am using all caps here because it's just that exciting and cool.

MEG SWANSON TALKED TO ME ON RAVELRY. WHEN I FRIENDED HER SHE FRIENDED ME BACK. I AM FRIENDS WITH MEG SWANSON! REALLY! MEG SWANSON TALKED TO ME IN A FORUM ON RAVELRY! I KNOW, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT EITHER!

Ok. Seriously though, it was soo cool I almost peed my pants. I am sure I embarrassed her because I couldn't help but shout out to her about how great it is to see real knitting legends interacting with us regular folk and the fact the she really is just nice regular folk too. (If you are a knitter and you don't know who Meg Swanson is.....well.....I just can't help you.)

I keep thinking one year I'd like to go to Knitting Camp. I can't link to it but you can find details on the Schoolhouse Press website. It is actually geographically not a difficult place for me to get to. And I'd get TO MEET MEG SWANSON FOR REALZ. Sorry, giddy excitement got the best of me again. I hear at Knitting Camp they have actual garments that EZ and Meg have knit out for you to see, touch, and feel - no armored guards around or anything, right out in the open. Wow.

Yes. I am a geek. I am ok with this.

So that is my little bit of knitting celebrity stuff.

In other knitting news: the Tomten Jacket was knitting up too loose and too large. After completing appx. half of it, I frogged the whole thing and started over. I changed from size US 5 (3.75mm, I think) to US 3 (3.25mm). Much better. Yes, I am a very relaxed knitter.

I also never posted about getting my February yarn shipment, or at least never posted pictures. I can't do pictures now, but the yarn is nice. I thought it would be more of a worsted weight, but it is definitely heavier, aran weight for sure (just like Mandie (yarn pusher) said it was, duh). It is a beautiful deep saturated purple color with a little magenta called "Grapes of Wrath" on a base called "Fleckity" which is 1 strand of superwash plied with 2 strands of non-superwash. Very interesting. (If I already blogged about this, I apologize for the redundancy.) I actually had to buy some needles in order to knit with it. The size 6 needles were giving me a far too dense fabric (and those are HUGE for me to knit with, I am used to smaller gauge needles and worsted weight yarn, my standard needle is a 5) and the size 8 needles are far too flimsy fabric. So I stopped by JoAnns after grocery shopping and ran in for some 7s, a size I was sure I would never need to own. They only had straights (bleh) or double points in 7s, so I bought the double points. I really wanted a 16 inch circular but I must have seen those at Michael's. The plan is to knit a gnomey hat and pullover for Rose.

I will get the hang of this phone and hopefully post more.

Onward knitting.

WIP Wednesday

And what of knitting? A lot, if I do say so myself. I am currently knitting a Tomten Jacket, by Elizabeth Zimmermann, from Knitting Without Tears and The Opinionated Knitter (apparently it is also in numerous other Schoolhouse Press publications). The jacket has slightly different directions in each book. The jacket is a 2T-ish sized, modular jacket as written. But, of course, if you know EZ, you know there is always the possibility to change the size either by gauge, needle size, or both.

I am knitting this for my Godson, Isaac, whose birthday is in April. I imagine I'll have it done before then, but I wanted to start early just to be sure.

I have tried some of EZ's garter-stitch baby patterns before, like the BSJ, and they have not been my favorite. However, I am Loving This Pattern. Maybe it's also that I love the yarn. It is Cascade 220 Superwash Paints, in color 9862 (varigated) and 9949 (semi-solid blue). The colors are very, very hard to photograph. The varigated is a neon-yellow/blue/teal/blue-violet and the blue is a warm, soft, lovely blue. The gauge seems to be a little different that Cascade 220 (non-superwash) so it is knitting up slightly looser than I had planned. A quick web search shows that the manufacturer recently changed the recommended gauge, so there you go. I am not ripping back now.

I think this first picture captures the blue perfectly.

My knitting buddy, who I visited this last weekend, has knit a couple of these little gems. We have decided a few important things about this little jacket. Comparing it to the BSJ, it seems that it is infinitely a better investment of time for the amount of wear one can get from it. The BSJ is not very proportional (although extremely an ingenious design) and fits about 6 months - 18 months (with very, very short sleeves at 18 months). The Tometen can fit at 6 months very long in the body with the sleeves heavily cuffed, but it's true size is about 1-3 years (and small 4 year olds like my daughter will still fit in it). I also personally think it is cuter.

I would like to knit a Baby Bog Jacket in the future.

The Tomten takes 3 skeins of worsted weight wool. I have two skeins of the blue and one of the varigated. Normally it takes 1 skein for the body, one for the hood, and one for the sleeves. I am incorporating stripes of the varigated throughout in order to use it up evenly.

I went and stole this picture from Webs to try and show off the beautifulness of this varigated yarn. Somehow, it just doesn't do it justice. I love this colorway and will be knitting something more out of it in the future.

The yellow is really YELLOW and the darker blue in the picture is really VIOLET.

Anywho, I am almost done knitting the body on this sweater and I can not wait to get it done. It is a true pleasure of knitting right now, just the right amount of stripes and short rows to keep my interest and just enough softness and loftiness in the yarn for me to love it.

(If I disappear for a while: the port on my phone is broken/breaking. I need to get it fixed. And it is my gateway to the internet on the laptop. FYI.)

Temporary Un-Slump!!

I have new yarn!! Even though it is not the most exciting yarn ever, it is still new and needs to be knit NOW.

I got my three skeins of Cascade 220 in the mail today. See? (look down)

Here is some interesting fact: My family is from Pittsburgh, PA (they are very, very excited, HI Aunt San!). I have lived in WI for 18 years. I was born in Dallas, TX.

Could this be a cooler Superbowl?? I think not!

I must make at least 1 Steeler Hat for my husband (he just really loves Pittsburgh (the city) and thinks the AFC has this one!), and 1 Green Bay hat for my brother (big-time Packer fan, cause ya know, we live ehre). I may make an itty-bitty Steeler hat from the left-overs for my newly pregnant cousin and an itty-bitty Green Bay hat for my little nephew in Utah. Maybe. We'll see how "hatted-out" I am after the big-boy hats!
Also, my dear, dear friend had a BABY GIRL last night and needs some knitted goodness. I think a mini-tiny sweater is in order since she had a little-bitty 5 lb baby!! :)

Slump on hold for now......!!!

On a lighter note.....

Since I got not a single comment on my last post, I am thinking maybe many of you saw it in "bad taste" or whatever and I am going to lighten it up a bit. :) Please do understand, that here at "Today Again", you get real me - not glossed over me, not "I am super pious" me, not perfect-mom me, or no-sinning-going-on-in-this-head me. Nope. Just REAL me. The post about the (awesome) dream was just a glimpse into me. I hope it at least made you laugh a little.

We are first lightening up a bit with some yarny news....

I got the shipment of yarn for the Malabrigo Scrappy Swap in the mail today!! And I have picutures!! Except, silly me, I forgot to load them here before I started typing. Let me tell you, if I try to load them now, it will erase all of my previous typing and links. Being that the typing with the nursing baby on my lap takes a lot of time and patience, not to mention the added linkage and "boldface" type.....I am just going to link you to the Ravelry pictures instead. Or, you can follow the forum posts here, where there are also pictures.

And, from the depths of my 4 year old's awesome phrases:

ME (talking to baby Rose, 4 months): Hello Pumpkin! Aren't you a cutie pumpkin pie??

FLOWER (in all seriousness): Mama, she is not a pumpkin!

Happy Saturday!!

First FO of 2011

I finished this hat sometime in the first few days of 2011. I have a couple pictures of it on (it is very nice) but they are blurry. So, this is all you get.

The pattern is "Hermione Hearts Ron". It is taken from the hat Hermione wears in the movie "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". It calls for fingering-type weight yarn. I used worsted and changed the numbers accordingly. The original hat has 12 repeats of the 11 stitch chart....I only did 9. This also means I had to fudge the crown decreases. I ended up frogging the crown twice. The third time I knit it, it was good. (Now what *did* I do??)

Oh - yes. I decreased the purls first by p3, p2tog. Once those were gone, I decreased the knits NOT by k2tog, but on the same line as where the purls were going away, by ssk. So the crown swirls one way and then the other. It looks nice with the cables.

I have also decided that I like cables, but not big blocks of purl inbetween. I'll keep that in mind for future projects.

The yarn I used for this was Dream in Color Classy, a superwash worsted-weight wool. I love it! I have used their Smooshy yarn before (sock yarn) and I was underimpressed. But this stuff is great. I loved the feel, the fabric, and the colors (this colorway was "Lunar Zazzle"). I would knit with it again in a heartbeat. I am actually resisting the urge to purchase enough to make a sweater.....since I have plently of sweater yarn right now.

Yarn Club Yarn

I was reading back through a few posts and realized I promised pictures but never gave them.

This is my shipment from the Speshul Snowflakes Yarn Club for December:

Up first is "Mulled Wine" on the yarn base Big Feet, which is a superwash DK.

It is destined to become the Effortless Cardigan.

It is delightful, and deep, and saturated, and squooshy!

This is "Blue Steel" in the base All Your Base, which is a superwash fingering.

It will become Zora. I *heart* this color.

I have already purchased 2 new circs and knit 3 swatches for this sweater. Alas, none of them work. It seems I am destined to order more needles (again) and I will probably be knitting the entire thing on size US 1 (2.25mm) needles. Unless anyone has a US 1 metal circular needle at least 24 inches lng (or longer) they won't need for 6 months??? (or want to sell)

But the yarn is *lovely*. I can't wait for next months choices. (Just ONE skien for me next month. One is what's already paid for.)

Malabrigo Swap anyone?

This post is just aimed at knitters. Sorry to everyone else.

Do you love Malabrigo?

Do you like making scrappy projects?

Do you want to get some Malabrigo scraps without having to purchase 10 different skeins yourself?

I am hosting a Malabrigo Swap over on Ravelry in the "Soakers and Longies" group. I am just gauging interest right now - sign-ups haven't started yet. If you are a member of Ravelry, and interested.....go check it out.

:)

WIP Wednesday....er Tuesday(?)

This is Wobber's sweater. The sun was still hiding the day I took this, so squint to see the pocket covering the front. This is the Wonderful Wallaby, which I have knit before. It's a nice pattern. His sweater is now about 1/2 way done! I am very happy about this. Both sleeves are also done and waiting to be added to the sweater.

Yesterday, I went thrifting with my mom. My mom is awesome when we go to the second hand store because she graciously pays for everything (thanks Ma!!). The kids got a bunch of new long sleeve shirts for winter and Wobbers got a new suit jacket for Mass.

I picked up a yarn bag. Well, I am sure it is meant for something else, but I am using it for yarn. I have been carrying my projects around in a bright red bag I got from the Veteran's Association in the mail as a "gift" for my donation a few years ago. The bag is not a very good yarn bag, but it's been what I have. No pockets. No closure. Nada.

This pretty black and white bag was $1.69. It has a zipper closure and a velcro closure, an outside pocket on each side (big enough to hold a pattern, or a notebook)(one velcro, one zippered), and two inside zippered pockets. And it's *pretty*.

I was going to buy some velcro strips at the store to put over the scratchy velcro side of the velcro (velcro + yarn = not good) - but the velcro was easily removed with my seam ripper. Now I have a very useful bag and it didn't cost me a thing!

And not only is this a WIP post, it's a "the sun came out and I got a better picture of the color of the most recent longies" post.

The Whales Road colorway is sooooo beautiful! I know I keep saying this, and you're probably tired of hearing it, but whatever. It's just that awesome. In my knitting geekiness I want everyone to know. (Or maybe I should be keeping it to myself so it doesn't sell out everywhere?)

I also got a sunshine picture of the Little Lovely longies. My girl is wearing them all the time. They are warm and pretty and soft. I sit around and pet them. Not really. Ok, maybe sometimes.

LYS Haul

A few months back, my mom picked up some gift certificates to three LYS on the television PBS auction. She loves that auction. I got $20 to spend at each store. This isn't enough for much, but I finally made the very, very long drive (over 2 hours) to the LYS on the other side of the big city. At least all 3 were within 1/2 hour of each other.

I got a skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Lupis. It's really a very beautiful purpley blue color. This particular purchase was one where I had to chip in $8 on top of the gift cert. Totally worth it.

I picked up these two skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash Paints at another store......

.......where I also got this skein of Cascade 220 Superwash Paints. This picture is awful (blame the sun). The yarn is blue, purpley-blue, turquoise, green, and yellow. Very Boy. My mom (thanks Ma!) kicked in the extra $$ for this purchase.

This yarn is from a kit I bought at the last store, which is also a wool mill. It was hard not to leave with an armload of wool from this place. There were piles and piles of yarn everywhere in all different colors, widths, and textures.

I settled on the kit as it gave a wonderful variety of colors for a reasonable price. (I have $2 left to spend there after buying the kit.) It is intended to make a scarf....but I bet it ends up as a little person's sweater. In the picture above there is a skein of purple yarn (second from the right) that refuses to look purple and is masquerading as another skein of blue. Bad yarn. I think each of the mini-skeins is about 20 grams.

Oh. And I'm 30 today! Cool.

New Yarn, New Toys

My aunt asked me exactly what a "yarn swift" was. I'll show you. First up: a ball winder. The ball winder looks like this in action (and the order of these picutres is the random way blogger loaded them, sorry if it doesn't make sense). This contraption takes your skeins and makes them into pretty "cakes" that pull from the center for knitting.

In the past, I've had to ask/beg for one of the boys (Wobbers or The Man) to hold the skein while I wind it. No more!! I now have a swift:

See Wobbers doing the "thumbs up"? He thinks the swift is much, much better than him holding the yarn. As you wind it onto the ball winder, the swift spins. Magic!

This is the "Whales Road" Malabrigo yarn (in skein form). Pretty and soft. Blues, purples, and a little teal.

This is the "Velvet Grapes" Malabrigo. Sooooo pretty. Very purple, reminds me of the womb from a baby's perspective.

I wish I had better pictures for you - but again, the sun is not cooperating.

This is a sideways picture of all the Malabrigo I got last month in "cakes" (also know as "center pull balls"). I love this yarn.

Up next.....my LYS trip with gift certificates.....

New Toys

I got me a yarn swift! It is awesome. The best thing since sliced bread, imo. I can't believe I waited so long to get this.

Now I can wind yarn, by meself, whenever I want. It is sooooooo nice to be able to knit without having to wait (and beg) for someone to help me wind my skeins up.

This is a present to myself for my (BIG) birthday this month. I am hitting one of those "milestone" birthdays. It is a weird age to be. I feel like I have been well into my 40's for about the last 20 years...............and now I am turning 30.

It seems very young to me. I am sure that seems very young to some of you. I feel old.

Crap.....baby is crying. I gotta run. More on this later....and pics of my swift in action!

Tidepool

The yarn is dry and skeined up. Wonderful sunlight today!!

Inside with the flash....looks a little different. But still nice.

And another beautiful sunshine picture. You can see more on my stash page in Ravelry.

More Gratuitous Dye Pictures

Because Blogger limits you to 5 per post......

Yarn in the oven, baking in the dye goodness. (180 degrees for about 30 minutes or so, not an exact science.)

Yarn outside after bath.

Yarn again, looking very pretty I might add.

A Time to Dye

Today, my fingers ended up looking like this. Why? Well, lemme tell you.

It started with these characters. Green, Blue, Red, and Orange.

The Red (Blastin' Berry Cherry) and the Orange (Mandarina Tangarina) mix to make a "true red". I then mixed a little of that with blue to get a purple....it was more navy/grey than purple, but whatever.

I mixed a little green with some blue to get a turquoise-y color. And I mixed a few drops of the red with the blue to get a "true blue" color.

My original color idea was a purple/blue/turquoise skein.

I ended up with something a little different but still pretty. Here is is taking a nice bath after it came out of the oven.

Here is the finished product (minus drying and reskeining). I ended up using not only the blue, "purple" (I use that term loosely here), and turquoise/blue-green I made, but also the straight-up-from-the-packet blue (Berry-Blue) and the straight-from-the-packet green (Lemon-Lime).

I am calling it Tidepool. I really like it. Can't wait for it to dry so I can reskein it. And then cake it!! And then knit with it!!!!! (Probably some longies or shorties).

What fun did you have today?