I can’t stop casting on…

So what’s on the needles now?

Well right now we have a delightful sweater called Sausalito by Kim Dolce.  I started this sweater last year and I was working on it at the Knitting in Public Day, and this year I want to be WEARING it on Knit in Public Day!  It’s a very soft pink and more details are on my Ravelry.

Next up… I picked up a skein of Boo Fly at The Yarn Corner in Aberdeen last week, or was it the week before?  Yes, it was the week before.  Anyway, I am making a pair of No Purl Monkey socks for my mom. 

 

These are to be a birthday present and her B-Day is Friday the 14th!  I’m knitting them both at the same time and I’m just starting the heels.  I’m trying a Strong Heel.  This is new to me and I think it will really show off the pattern nicely on the heel.  I found this pattern and idea for the heel on Ravelry.  (R is another weakness of mine.  You see if I’m always on R then I’m not knitting!)

What else are we working on currently… Oh, I started this very cute Panel Jacket by Carol Lapin in a beautiful Sable colorway.  It’s Lamb’s Pride worsted. 

 

The whole sweater is knit in garter stitch.  I was listen to Casey’s podcast (Knitting at Night) the other day at work and she was talking about the wonderful patterns that Elizabeth Zimmerman had using this wonderful stitch that creates such a nice fabric.  And at first I thought, oh sure I guess it’s nice, but it doesn’t seem very creative… maybe just clever.  Well, I have changed my tune now.  I love the fabric this yarn is making and yes, it is almost all knit.  Each row begins with a slip stitch and ends with a purl stitch, so it is almost 99% knit.  I’m really looking forward to the 3-needle BO to join all the panels together.  Right now it feels like I am knitting a bunch of narrow scarfs.

I just purchased the Norwegian Woods Shawl pattern by Sivia Harding.  I want so badly to start on this and yet, no… I will finish my pink sweater and socks for mom first.

And let us not forget that I have another beautiful shawl begging to be knit too… the Diamond Fantasy! 

Tonight was Knit Night.  I love knit night because I get to see so many wonderful things that people have made.  Tonight it just made me want to cast on for the LU!  Good thing Sherri didn’t have this kit there!!  🙂  Aw, but what did I do?  I bought this new sock yarn called Yummy!  I’d tell you more about it, but I can’t remember what the label said, and I didn’t even bring it in the house because I knew I would want to cast on!!!  I can tell you that it’s red, and it shall remain in the car until I can control myself, or finish my mom’s socks!

OK, it’s very late now.  Pictures will follow later this week… now I must sleep!

still knitting?

Yes I’m still knitting… and camping… and geocaching… and working… and not sleeping much.

I’ll back track just a little here to catch myself up…

…last month we went to the Stitch and Pitch in Seattle and had a grand time. 

Bought a little yarn for Christmas presents (sock yarn – STR in Mariners colors, and yarn that I can’t even remember what it’s called in bright pink and lime greens). 

…Saturday, July 28th Rick and I went in search of a pop up camper.  Bought one from Baydo’s in Fife and went back on the 31st (Rick’s Birthday) to pick it up!

…each day I am still knitting at breaks and at lunch.  It used to be my routine to knit on my MS3 stole each day at lunch… now my stole is being punished for not having the correct number of stitches.

…finished my very cute little Peapod Sweater.

…making a couple of the Heatbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono’s from my Mason Dixon Knitting book.  I’m using the self striping Sugar n Cream.  I have yarn enough to make 4 of them!  The blue one is just over half done, ran out of yarn and started a pink one.  The pink one is now just over half done.  Now that I have more blue yarn I will hurry and finish the pink one.  I’m making each one just a little bit different.

…new favorite knitting project is the beautiful Diamond Fantasy shawl.  This is what I’m working on at lunch time these days. (while the stole is being punished).

…and my pink Sausilto sweater has been waiting in my cute pink knitting purse.

… and yes there are many socks on all my needles!

So I guess I am up to date now, knid of. 

I also have another blog that I’m keeping as a journal of our camping/geocaching adventures. I just got it started so I can keep track of where we have been with family and friends.  I’ll try not to let my knitting over flow into this blog!  It’s at: http://geocacheandcamping.wordpress.com/

That’s it for now. 

Red, White and Blue Knitting…

OK, maybe not white.  It was pink, I finished the back of my Sausilto sweater! 

Blue Knitting…     Instead of casting on to begin the front sides of my pink sweater I started something new!  I am finally getting started on the Peapod Baby Set.  I picked up the yarn on Tuesday.  It’s Sirdar Snuggly DK in a denim blue color.  This yarn is so soft.   At first I wasn’t really sure about the pattern.  I mean it seemed like maybe I wasn’t doing something right.  But I decided to just trust the pattern, and guess what?  It looks great!  I love new projects, and this one seems to be cooking right along.  I’m going to work on it at lunch and break today at work.  We have 2 babies coming in our families, one in September (not sure if it’s a girl or boy) and a boy in October.    I’m not sure who will get this sweater and hat. 

Red Knitting…         I mentioned that I started the MS3 project in a beautiful dark red.  Well on Sunday when we were dropping off the boys I talked my sweet husband into stopping at Shipwreak Beads.  I picked up beads for the indigo blue and the red yarn!  I had already started knitting it without beads with the red yarn while I waited for my indigo yarn to come in.  Now I want to see what beads will look like, so I frogged the whole thing.  Well now I get an email from the yarn people that I ordered the indigo from that it may be another week or longer, so I just changed the color to Suede and it will be shipped today.  I’m sure I will find something to do with the beads I got for the indigo.  Now I’ll have to check out Tsunami Beads in Ocean Shores as soon as I get the suede colored yarn.   When I started knitting with the red I used size 3 needles.  The yarn is so fine.  I think it looks good, and not to tight at all.  I can tell the difference between the different stitches.   So now I was ready to test drive those beads…  Then the issue became the crochet hook… I searched high and low and found the one that I thought would work and it turned out to be a size 10.  Too big!  While I was picking up my lunch on Tuesday at Thriftway in Montesano (of all places) I found a #13 crochet hook!  So now I’m at last ready to try knitting it with beads.  To be honest I’m a little worried about the theme of this mystery knit.  I’m really hoping it’s not monkeys!  Have you read some of the guesses?  Scarey!  So I think I’ll wait and see what happens after clue #2.  So far I love the pictures I’ve seen posted.  And Sheri’s is beautiful too.  Maybe I’ll just practice with the red until I get the other yarn, and then again maybe I’ll love the red so much that I use the Suede yarn for something else.  Maybe MS4!!!

Well the other events that took place on 4th of July in my world…  We went out Geocaching again.  This time we placed our 1st cache!  We went up to the beach we got married at last year.  It was such a beautiful day to be beach bumming and there are not so many people at Roosevelt Beach, not like in Ocean Shores.  Wow… I can’t believe how many people were in town.  It’s best to just stay home when it gets like this.  When we got home we fired up the old (actually new) BBQ.  We had a great relaxing evening, grilling, eating and me knitting!

Pictures…  I took a few and I’ll post them later tonight to go with this blog.

got yarn?

I do! 

I stopped in at The Yarn Corner to pick up more green shawl yarn and I’m happy to say I’m doing the bind off now.  This is a much longer process than I had imagined.  You knit two then slip them back to the left needle and knit them together.  Then knit one, and slip the two back over to the left needle and knit them together, and so on until you are done.  I haven’t ever done this type of a bind off.  I love learning new things, don’t you? 🙂  Well  I believe I have a total of 337 stitches to do.  At first I think I might have been binding off too loosely.  I’m not sure what it’s going to look like when I get done blocking so I started being careful to try to knit them tighter together.  I really am just winging it and hoping for the best.  I’ll post pictures later this week.

We are soooo close now…

Only 2 more days until the W.W.K.I.P.D. 

Other knitting things going on right now… 

I only have one more repeat to compete on my shawl before I start the edge!!!  I’m very excited about this.  I have really enjoyed (and am continuing to enjoy) working on this shawl and I’m looking forward to another one.

Yesterday I picked up my Limited Edition Tofutsie yarn.  I love the colors and can’t wait to start them.  However, I must finish up a couple of other projects first. 

With that said, I started working on my new sweater last night.  I was only going to work on a guage swatch and suddenly I was casting on for the back of the sweater!  Then I reminded myself that I should finish my shawl first.  And then I reasoned with myself that the sweater is an easy pattern and I could work on it during breaks at work, and work on the shawl at lunch time.  I know I have a few pairs of socks that are still uncompleted and they will just have to be understanding and wait a little longer. 

About my sweater… I decided on the lovely pink!  I have completed a whole 2 inches on the back bottom of the sweater and it is like BUTTER!!!  I love this yarn soooooooo much.  The only draw back is that I have to be careful not to stab the yarn as it does split quickly.  But it is so soft and feels like just the right weight that I was looking for.  I will take pictures tonight to post. 

I know you will find this hard to believe, but I picked up another cute pattern too!  I just couldn’t help myself.  It’s a tank top style knit in the round.  I will hold off on this one for as long as I can, or until I need another “new project” high!

Here is the what I copied from the web about my new pattern…

Ginger

Euroflax Linen  Athens or Geneva
Tank-Top
Knitted in the Round
 

This simple, lacy tank top has very wide straps, almost “caplets” and a delightful hem in a generous length. You’ll love the delicate lace effect that is easy to knit. Wear Ginger with a camisole for a very feminine accent piece that is great alone or under a cardigan or jacket for the office.
Our special Ginger pattern comes from Louet Design Team. Ginger promises to delight knitters with beautiful texture and interesting stitch combinations, while maintaining the allure of tradition.

Test Drive… Arcadia

Arcadia / Cascade Yarns
154 yards per ball
80% Pima Cotton & 20% Angora
Test Drive color: 4203 (lime green – shown in the picture)
Gauge per yarn label: 6 sts per inch on size 5 needles
(I got exactly this! and 8 rows per inch in height).
This yarn is also available in a DK weight.
116 yards per ball and 5.5 st per inch on size 6 needle.
Hand wash and lay flat are the care instructions.

Now how it knits up… You know that favorite Tee that you have that is sooooo soft, the one you should probably throw out, but you love the way it feels on your skin.  Or the cotton sweater that you have washed so many times you can’t remember what color it was originally, but you don’t care because it feels so good on… well that’s what this yarn feels like when it is knit up.  The yarn did tend to split a little, so drive slowly and with care.  Enjoy the yarn, and the experience.

I can’t wait to order this yarn for my sweater.  Now the hard part… what color.   Arcadia comes in 12 colors and I love red, but I’m leaning toward my test drive color number 4203 or number 4209, a very nice pink (shown in the picture).  Coming in third would be the number 4211 a purple-blue color.

This concludes my yarn test drive.  I hope it was of some help if you are thinking about knitting with this yarn.  I will definitely be ordering the DK weight, so I’ll let you know later how it goes.

Well I’ll decide on a color tomorrow, until then good night, and happy knitting.