In other news...

I'm blaming this on a certain someone who shall remain nameless (however...I'm sure you know who YOU are as I type this - evil foul temptress of spindling), but well, I did a crazy thing. I decided to take some of that fiber that I bought years and years and years ago at the only MDS&W I ever had the good fortune of attending (a super soft, scrummy braid of BFL) and actually attempt to spin it.

Well...it's not pretty. In fact, it barely looks like yarn - and actually, now that I think about it, I'm not entirely certain I'm even remotely doing this properly. But here it is. My first, yarnish type thingie...



Ta-Da!!!! Erm...I know. Hardly impressive right? First off, allow me to critique myself here, but this "yarn" is incredibly thick and thin. Oh yeah. Goes from a thickness that vaguely resembles sewing thread to an outright bulky. There are slubs, despite the fact I did pause (spindle clamped between my knees) and attempt to draft out the super thick parts of already pre-drafted wool. Actually, there are lots of slubs...and I'm not sure the twist will even stay really, but it kinda, sorta, almost does look like yarn, right? RIGHT?! Just agree with me and humor me people. :D Oh well, at least the colors are pretty and if I've wrecked this beautiful BFL roving beyond all reason, at least it was already pretty well wrecked from my prior attempt at spindling it a couple of years ago...so it's okay if I wreck it even further. To think I'd daydreamed myself into believing that I could get a lovely, even fingering weight single my first try...talk about ambitious.

On the home front, DW is doing well. Recently she partook in the physical aspect of testing for SRT (Sheriff's Response Team), and managed to pass it on her first try - much to her apparent astonishment (not so much mine - I knew she could do it), and is just waiting for an interview before she finds out whether or not she actually made it onto the team. DW is acting uncertain about her place in it - but she's not fooling me. I'm pretty sure she's a shoe-in.

I have a few more FO pictures to show you, too as I kind of held some back from my last post so...without any further ado, here they are!



Pattern: Baby Rollin' Beret by Woolly Wormhead
Yarn: Lane Cervinia Madrid Multi in colorway #2011
Amount Used: About three quarters of a skein.

This pattern was a very fast and very pleasant knit, and I think it could make just about any baby's head look adorable. A big bonus for me was that it took on a very Strawberry Shortcake kind of feel when it was done, because if you're as old as I am you actually remember when Strawberry Shortcake wore a beret-hat instead of the floppy brimmed monstrosity she wears now. I'm not entirely sure what Ms. (or Mr.) Wormhead meant by a "dinky knot"...but the little knot on top really is a cute addition. I think the knotted top is actually what drew it to my attention! :D



Pattern: Striped Baby Halter Top by Shelly Hattan
Yarn: Lane Cervinia Madrid Multi and Solid in colorways #2011 and #2003 respectively
Amounts: About 3/4 of the skein of solid, and about 1/2 of the skein of multi

This halter is easily the cutest little baby item I've knit. I don't know why, but I love it and I really think that it complements the little beret above. However, I suspect this project has cured me of my love of ruffles for a while. No need to be knitting and binding off that many stitches any time soon. However, the cuteness of the beret and the sweetness of this little top/sundress left me kind of at a loss for what kind of little shoes to make. I had intended on knitting yet another pair of Mary Jane Booties But for some reason (though I knit this with the same needles I knit the last pair in) when the first bootie was finished it was fully twice the size of the first pair I'd made! Sooo...that was a no go. I did however, finally manage to find a nice, simple pair of little footies that did just nicely.



Pattern: Organic Cotton Knit Booties by Bernat Design Studio
Yarn: Lane Cervinia Madrid Multi #2011
Amounts: Two walnut sized balls of leftovers from previous projects. :D

Aren't these just so sweet and cute in their simplicity. I think after all the ruffles and decreases and increases and picking up stitches I just wanted something kind of plain...something that would keep baby's foot warm without taking away from the ornateness of the little halter. I think they fit the bill, and on top of that were an incredibly fast knit - one that I can easily repeat over and over again (which is good as I plan on knitting a rainbow of them for my own hypothetical future child - hypothetical mind you because we have yet to find a suitable clinic with a suitable donor as of yet).

All the pink stuff above is intended as a belated baby shower gift to a friend of mine, along with two sweet little crocheted sets that my best friend's mother in law made out of the goodness of her heart for little Aurora Jane. Now if only we can agree on a time and day to meet so I can give them to her...well, we'll be in like flynn!

The last thing is the first part of a gift that DW requested that I knit last minute for her friend at work who is also having a baby (well, now we know exactly how most people entertain themselves during winter, right - dangit, where's that evil grin plurky face when I need it the most!)- this one a boy.



Pattern: Caterpillar by Kimberly Chapman
Yarn: TLC Cotton Plus - not sure who makes it - blueish green color and white.
Amounts: Uhm...scraps really. I used the rest of the skein of blueish green for a hat and booties (which I'll be showing in a later post due to the fact that the current pictures I have of them both really really suck)

This was an easy, fun toy to knit, though I wish that a) I'd had brighter, more crayola inspired colors to work with (next time - oh yes, there will be others to follow!) and b) I'd had noise making implements like bells, rattly things or squeaky things to put in the different sections. It would have made it way more of an interesting toy for a baby - but even though this toy will most likely be relegated to a shelf somewhere, it'll at least be one of the cutest toys on that shelf. Even if the antennae didn't quite do what I wanted them to do and flopped over...and my sewing of the legs kind of stinks, and my embroidery is awful! :D

I have a couple of other things on (and off) the needles, but once again, later posts. I can't just give you all my goodies right away. It's just not lady-like. Besides, I have a mouth full of BFL and my eyes are closing as I'm typing. It's looking like it's just about time for me to hit the hay for a bit of a kip. DW will likely be forced into OT tomorrow, or take, so after my kip, I'll spend my morning baking whoopie pies as kind of a last hurrah, if you will. A so-long to those cold wintery nights. And a delicious one at that! :D

KAL and other things...

So, at random on plurk, my friend KnitChick and I were chattering away about True Blood Season 3 - and needless to say we're both super psyched and pretty much impatiently waiting for it to just start already! And of course, being as we're both obsessive knitters, the topic gradually turned to just that - and then moved on (quite rationally I'd say) to the idea of having a Knit-a-long (KAL) for Season 3.

Okay, so I know that this idea is not a new one, and that people have been having KAL's forever, and that there's been one for each season of the show (which I hadn't had the fortune to jump in on), but I can't seem to locate one for this season so we thought we'd try and get the ball rolling.

The tough part was finding an appropriate pattern (as the other appropriate patterns for such a tv show had already been used in previous KAL's - or were *gasp* Twilight related), so I plugged the word "vampire" into the little pattern search bar on Ravelry and went rifling through - and managed to discover this little gem : Calais Shawl . It's beautiful, the lace pattern isn't overwhelmingly complicated and looks to be repetitive and thus easily memorized - and it looks great in red, black or just about any color you'd want to knit it in! And after a few moments of discussion with Miss Chickie, we decided that it was just perfect for what we were looking for (plus as an added bonus, it ties into the 10 shawls in 2010 KAL that we're participating in as well).

So here's the info for the KAL

WHAT: Calais Shawl by Judy Marples
WHEN:Sunday JUNE 13th (edited thanks to a kindly reader) :)
CAST ON: 9 pm SHARP
CAST OFF: 10 pm SHARP on the day of the Season's last episode (or at least, that's our goal :) )

And believe me when I say that we'd really, really love to get as many people in on this as possible, so feel free to join in. And yes, we want to see pics of your FO!

Speaking further of knitting, I've been knitting up a storm lately! So much so that I actually need to take a break tonight so I can let my forearms rest. I don't know why, but they're killing me today! But...I do have plenty of FO pics to show for the aches and pains!



First up, we finally have here a complete, FO picture of the Bubbles Wrap I mentioned eons ago. The yarn again, is Acero by Brooks Farm yarns , and let me tell you it is some of the prettiest yarn I've worked with. Slips right through your fingers and is a dream to knit with. The model would be the woman that I actually wound up gifting it to - my Aunt Sharon - and let me just tell you she loves it. She wears it with everything and says that it even looks good with everything. It even looks nice with that bright, floral dress she's wearing! I'm just glad it went to someone who will actually get use out of it. Although, I fear I've turned her into a handknits addict. She's already looking through the magazines I have at patterns and plotting out when to take me yarn shopping her next hand knit piece. And my mom's super jealous because I've never knit her a stole like that (because I thought she wouldn't wear it)...so now I absolutely have to knit her a sweater. Hehehe. Soon I'll have projects coming out of my ears.



Up next is my Citron. I know this is meant to be a winter type shawlette, but around here, it still gets cooler at night occasionally so I thought it'd be nice to wear out in the evening - and the color is bright enough that it'll still be noticed. This I knit up in Mmmmmalabrigo lace. It was my first time ever working with this yarn, but I have to admit that I now see what all the hullaballoo is about. This is hands down the softest, skwooshiest, prettiest lace yarn I've had the pleasure of petting,and it almost seemed like a waste to remove it from it's oh so squeezable skein to wind it into a ball. The color I chose, was Tiger Lily. I'm a pink person by nature - and as such I tend to gravitate towards just that pink. Sooo...with this I took myself out of my color comfort zone and I have to say that I really, really love the result. I think I'll have to do this sorta thing more often!





The above is some baby stuff I knit up for my cousin's baby shower. They were a last minute, quickie gift, but still came out beautiful. I used yarn from my stash for this - as I was able to locate about 9 skeins of Madrid (6 of the multi and 3 solid pale pink). The hat, sweater and booties took me a combined four days to knit, and let me just say that they were a HUGE success. The patterns (in no particular order) are: Mary Jane Booties by Lucie Sinkler, Ruffled Baby Hat by MaryAnn Hwee, and Confection Baby Shrug by Tonya Wagner. I matched them with this cute little ruffled denim dress bought at Wal Mart and the result was adorable. I knit a blanket buddy for her too, but I can't seem to locate the pictures!

Now on the ruffled hat - I know my "flower" doesn't even look remotely like the ones in the pattern - and that's because I can't crochet for crap. So, if you like it, all I did was knit about 3 1/2" of a 3 stitch I-cord and then sewed it into a spiral and then proceeded to sew some beads into the center for sparkle. My cousin loved the result. So easy and yet so little work. <3

I have a few more FO's to post pictures of, but I think those will have to wait for another post as I'm kind of drifting off to sleep here...and I still need to get my butt in gear to do some cooking for tomorrow's family BBQ. But I absolutely have to leave you with this:



DW! Freshly showered, scrubbed, smelling oh so nummy and looking oh so sexilicious! Is it any wonder I love this woman? She's HAWT!