Unexpectedly Fine Knitting, part 2

...part II.

While under the influence of these marvy knitters, I got quite a bit of knitting done myself.
My version of the to-be-felted bag from Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living is 6" tall now. I started out with Cascade quattro, double stranded, and then switched to 1 strand quattro, 1 strand Cascade 220 blue. There are some more color shifts planned during the next foot or so I need to knit. Then a strap, then the felting, then I'll be stylin' with me very own bag, hurrah.



but wait! What are those orange dangly things??? Hmmm.....must be Bob's BLO stitch markers! Let's take a closer look at that one on the left....



oooooh. pretty. But, gee, I don't remember seeing that in the BLO inventory...hmmm... must be because I got to play in Bob's bead box and design my very own set of markers, weeeeeee. Thanks, Bob!!!

The marker designing event took place after a very festive evening at Taste of Cincinnati. We did a first walk around for the appetizer/entree/beverage selections. Then, unlike your average Taste attendee, we had the decadent pleasure of getting to head back to the guys' nearby apartment for a knitting break before heading back down for the Dessert round. ...can you say STUFFED? 'Twas great fun, and Bob and Jeff were swell hosts.

---
Last week I stopped by the LYS and found a yarn that I just COULDn't resist. The 'clearance' price was more than I'd normally go for, but it was ...just....tooooo......soft. With dreamy colors. Saturday afternoon I decided to play with it, and 45 minutes later I had a Scarf. hmmmm....not scarf season. I take that back. I had a Belt! I wore it to Taste and even got a compliment on it, woohoo!

The yarn is called Costa Rica, so the postcard Mom/Dad sent me from there landed in the pic. I wish the colors came through in the picture (it's much more oceany pale)...it's a very wonderful colorway of blue/green/cream with a hint of pink. yummy.


pattern: 5 stitch wide drop stitch (3 K rows, *k1,YO* row, *k1, drop YO* row)
yarn: Gedifra Costa Rica color 3808
needles: festive red acrylic US15
dates: 45 minutes of 05.28.05!
---
Also OTN is a shawl that I started with the yarn I picked up at another LYS sale. With 40% off the store's entire inventory, I think the majority of the town's knitters were lured! I'm not using a pattern for the shawl (yeah, we're going there again.) I'm happy with it so far. No pics, alas. It's a burgundy/black/gray/pink shiny ribbon yarn. Very...ummm...flamenco-like. I'll keep ya posted.

---
so, there you have it. An Unexpectedly fine week of knitters and knitting!

Unexpectedly Fine Knitting, part1

There was some fine knitting going on last week.
I'm not just talking about the sticks 'n yarn either.
(Tho, that wasn't too shabby.)
I'm talking about the fantabulous KNITTERS. I went to 3 SnB groups last week (even if they don't call themselves such,) and all 3 were...fantabulous.

Monday was Cincy SnB nite. I felt icky, but knew just being around these folks was medicine. Some good mint tea was the rest of the cure. I cast on the felted bag, and enjoyed hearing the others' tales. Kendall's sweater is gonna rock, I tell ya.

Tuesday I played hooky from my usual group and went to Nancy's gathering. What a hoot....great ladies, great knitting, great time, and, Nancy? great cookies! Nancy is one of those people you get to meet that just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy when she smiles. I was gifted a KnitPicks catalog (since I've signed up twice and STILL not received one...,) and Nancy offered moral support for my first picked up stitches along the base of the bag. Yeah, I think I missed a few, but everyone assures me that's the glory of felting!

Wednesday was the Cincinnati Knitting Group. Nancy dropped off MORE of those divine cookies, and Amy cheered me on as my bag started into its first few rounds. Bob was there for the usual laughs, and we finally got to see Liesl. The whole gang enjoyed the knitting and jabbering, and hopefully some cool felted items will be showing up soon. Afterwards, Starbucks beckoned yet again for some wind-down knittin' and chattin'.

Those 3 nites, and the extra-curricular knitting time with Bob, have just made me feel so blessed and excited about the world of knitting! When I started knitting, I never imagined that it would include this huge wonderful community of people. I really doubt most hobbies give a person access to so much generosity, laughter, education, support and friendship. Do joggers and tennis players and bookclub members have blogrings devoted to RAOK (random acts of kindness)? Do they know there are others out there cheerleading for them? Do they gather to swap stories and presents and guzzle coffee? I've stumbled into this world...lucky me!

This coming week I get to be a part of a NEW group of knitters. I joined SP5. It's a Secret Pal program in the land of knitblogs. For the next 3 months, I'll get to spoil another knitter somewhere in the world (haven't received my giftee yet,) and someone will be spoiling me! I'm so excited about being involved in this! I've read knitblogs constantly over the past 4 months, and I kept stumbling along posts of SP4 folks. They seemed to have such a great time both finding gifts for their pal and having Unexpected packages arrive. Woohoo! let the games begin....

phwew. All that, and I haven't even got to the knitting itself, or the weekend!
This calls for a 2-part post, I'm thinking.

...until then!

giddy!

There was a whole lotta giddy goin' on last nite.

this should be prefaced with the acknowledgement of my reputation of being easily amused.

I already mentioned my new furniture. That caused lots of happy dancin' to start with.

THEN, I took (after my skeptical comments) some knit-buds' advice and stopped by HalfPriceBooks on way home from work (yes, on saturday nite, and I-who-have-no-life volunteered for that shift,) and found my craved needlework book!!! CHEAP! Woohoo!
Insert more happy dancin'. A co-worker had loaned me that book, and I taught myself some crochet from it in 5 seconds. I very reluctantly returned it to her. It has oodles of pics and detailed instructions on every needlecraft (knit, crochet, embroidery, quilting, etc.) Love it. And now it's mine.

THEN, home to my furniture, too much pizza, and purring kitties and my VCR. Can you even imagine a life more fantabulous? (shhhhh....leave me here in giddyland.)
---
Here is the mouse I made for Bob last week. Murray agreed to do a bit of modelling, but didn't agree to be enthusiastic about it.


Thanks, Murr. um....but, wait....we need to give that mouse to Bob's kitties. REALLY, we do. You have the OTHER mouse I made, remember? Please, Murr? Can I have the blue cable mouse back? backs away slowly...



pattern: Catnip mouse WITH CABLE! from WendyKnits (with improvised i-cord tail, ears/nose/eyes)
yarn: cascade 220 color 8887/cascade quattro color 9432
needles: I forget! US7 bamboo?
dates: 05.13.05-05.15.05
---
Still finishing up Jen's slippers. I had a knitter's fantasy-come-true last nite. (this should probably have been included in giddy section.) I got paid to knit. Ok...the pay wasn't for the knitting itself, but I was pretending to be a receptionist and had plenty of downtime to knit. I nearly finished the slipper while I was there.
OH!OH!OH! The cool side to that act of KIP:
one of the guys that came in saw that I was knitting and said
"you do that stuff?"
huh? oh, knit!? yeah, i DO THAT STUFF.
"want some yarn?"
you have some!? this is an older guy that I'd never take to be a knitter...
"yeah. My wife passed away and there's a bunch of that stuff in the closet."
...he also has stored either embroidery or cross-stitch stuff, I'm guessing, from his description. He's going to bring it in for me. I figured at the very least I could use it for some charity knitting or give it to a school/sr center. Hurray for KIP!!!
(see, Jen, the good things your slipper has accomplished already?)
---
I'm hoping to cast on my purse today. (first felting project, first picked-up stitches, first knitting-in-the round. all sorts of glorious newness. Thank goodness for my new book and knowing the great gals of SnB have my back!)

giddiness, I tell you!

sleeeeepy

Olly's on his way back to Mom. Thanks for letting me borrow Baby Bear!!!!
---
Jen knows about her slippers, rascally gal! 1/2way thru the 2nd one, chickpea.
---
I have a new sofa! hiphiphooray! and a lazyboy chair. Think I'll leave my living room in the next millenium? Mom/Dad generously donated their used furniture to me (mine went to St Vincent's,) and my very sweet brother/nephew/dad sacrificed a Saturday for 500 miles of driving to bring it here. THANK YOU!!!! I got up at 5 a.m. to finish cleaning and cook lunch for the guys, thus the post-title.
---
If trends are an indicator (and they are,) my new posts will be on Sundays (for the handful that regularly check to see if anything exciting has sprung from my keyboard.) Yeah, today is saturday, but you're not getting any pics today. The secret project last week was a cat toy mouse for Bob's bday...I'll post pics of it with MY cat tomorrow (unless Bob sends along some of his kitties.) It had a cable. I like cables. :-)
---
I have to work tonite, then it's home to the sofa, knitting project du jour, and five hours of taped Alias ep's! yippee!

see y'all tomorrow.

slip sliding away....

I need more time to knit.
Really.
I do.
I ran off for a little S.E.X. again this weekend (no, dear parents, you don't need to faint. It's a knitblog term. heh. S.E.X.=Stash Enhancement eXpedition) and have SO many projects I'm dying to start. Work and cleaning the apartment are so getting in the way of my knitting. harrumph. Visited a new-to-me LYS. Was very impressed. Alas, it's farther away than I'm willing to go for regular drooling fixes. Will be nice for shopping, tho.

OTN:

• Final seam for Mom's slippers (yeah, I said they were done. the KNITTING is done. I just ohso ohso don't like seaming.)


pattern: pocketbook slipper
yarn: Caron simply soft Country Blue
needles: bamboo US7
dates: 05.07.05-05.10.05 ...except seaming, shaddup

• My first experience with wool!!!!! I can see why folks are giddy over MS&W, etc. now. My days of acrylic/cotton/nylon may be fading. Jen never reads my blog unless I tell her to, so it's safe to say the wool is for some lovely bright red slippers for her (per her request.) Methinks she'll be very surprised/happy.
  but...um...are wool slippers practical for California summers??? hmmmm....


• Just finished a project that I can't post until tomorrow because it's a prezzie for one of the rare folks that reads my blog! again...there's seaming to do. grrrrr. BUT! I did get to practice a new skill that makes me giddy. And used some of the wool from the purse. What purse? The one that I'd be knitting if sleep/eating/work didn't interfere. It will surely be OTN this week.

Projects that MIGHT get started this week...

• my first felted purse. I have the yarn. I have the pattern. I have the needles. I....have the time?


• knit bookmarks. found some cute patterns, know some willing recipients. already have the yarn, hurrah.


• Dad's Dad's-day present. Maybe. Yarn acquired, but still pattern waffling.

I'm ready for warmer weather. This spring has been so chilly! Rather, this spring WEEKENDS have been so chilly/rainy. Again, work just is soooo cutting into my Wants. (not really. Those that know me are aware I'm grateful for my job. Just wish it happened during those hours wasted on sleep!)

enough droning on for one day, eh.

oh, and the title was because the post featured slippers. Does anyone really like coming up with post titles??? I'm very impressed with those that are continually clever.

a true statement in general.

happy knitting!

presenting...

Olly!



pattern: Oliver from The Knitted Teddy Bear
yarn: Royale Silkessence Microfiber lt periwinkle and white
extras: DMC floss, heart buttons, snap, rhinestone eyes
needles: US2 bamboo
dates: 04.29.05-05.07.05

Despite skepticism and questionable comments about its future purpose (the body piece looked frighteningly g-string-like,) I finished Olly in time for Mother's Day! Lotsa knitting on toothpicks, lotsa seaming to do...but, in the end...we have a bear. Or, at least, a bear-like creature. Of indeterminate gender. heh. It is cute, and was fun to make. I wanted to fix the nose/mouth/eyes, but...Mom seems to like Olly 'as is,' so, there ya have it. A bear. Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!!

It was good to visit Mom. After her health scare a few weeks ago, I was excited to see her. She looks great and hopefully will start feeling that way soon as well! Had a nice time with both of the folks, and - as always- the trip was too short.

While I was up there, I started some slippers for her. Got one finished. It's a crazy little pattern, but very easy and fits nicely!



I'll post the details when the pair is finished. Highly recommended for a quick footie! Mom thought the MaryJane strap was a cute touch.

---
Princess wanted to show off her bed. It's not totally done, but on hold for a bit while I catch up on other things. I think she needs to double in size meanwhile....



It protects the chair from cathair at least!
---
I think the knitting is going to have to ease up for a while. I miss reading. I miss having my apartment cleaned up, heehee. Is the withdrawal toooooo painful, folks??
---
A big thanks to Bob for the 'backup' mom's day gifts. I think he doubted my speed and determination. His kindness and generosity continually surprise me.