Drat and Damnation!

The needle I was using for my huge shawl broke two nights ago! It's a large circular (I only knit with circulars, even if it's flat knitting) and the plastic tubing where it joins the bamboo needle cracked and then eventually broke off entirely!

Harumph!

Oh well, I went to Kinky Knitting last night and transferred the shawl to another pair of needles and I'm back on track! I just didn't want to use those needles because they're my FAVORITE Crystal Palace needles and if they're being taken up by the shawl, I can't use them on anything else :P

*grumbles about evil breaking needle o'doom*

Fraggle's got a brand new (knitting) bag!

I saw this large orange many-pocketed bag at Long's Drugs over a week ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I finally went over there last night and bought the darned thing!

It's amazing!

It's orange and baby blue (predominantly orange) and it has short-ish handles that just fit over your shoulder. And it's HUGE. And it has 10...count 'em...TEN....pockets. 6 on the outside and 4 on the inside, besides the large main compartment :D

It holds ALL my knitting projects, my book, my patterns, my lotion, my medicines, all my pending bills and misc. paperwork, candy, dental picks, playing cards, nail file, bottle of water and I still have 2 unused pockets and most of the huge interior space open and waiting.

I think I want to marry this bag :D


(insert crappy camera phone picture disclaimer here)

To give you a sense of scope, that little white bit on the inside right is the top of a water bottle :)

Swap whore

I just mailed off my No Skeep for You Swap package!

I love swaps soooo much :) I just love the opportunity to give a total stranger something (hopefully) cool and exciting and that brightens their day. I love the secretive nature of swaps. I love creating the package and putting the label on and decorating the box.

I just love it all :)

I ESPECIALLY love when my downstream pal has a birthday during the swap :D

My no sheep pal's birthday is on Tuesday and I *koff* went a bit above and beyond, lol. I got her a knitting book, about 6-7 skeins of yarn, stitch markers, a cool funky cup, tons of candy, a notepad and glittery pen, lotion...oh, all kinds of goodies :) Some of it she may not like, so I'm a bit nervous about that, but I think she will like it all....but I just love going the extra bit and giving someone a great birthday surprise box of goodies, budget be damned :D

Swaps bring me happiness :)

Secret Pal 10 goodies pictures

Howdy folks :)

My Secret Pal 10 pal is anxiously awaiting pictures of the goodies she sent me. I've been OVERWHELMED with life right now, but I snapped a few quick pictures late late late last night, so I hope this will do to let you all know how amazing she was to me :)


Here is everything I got in my last two final big packages, as well as everything I could find quickly that she's sent me along the way. Missing are some items she sewed for me, because they're in my room and a bevy of electronic patterns...some knitting earrings as well...oh, I'm sure other things too. I was SPOILED!

Here's some close-up pictures of the stuff I thought I should take close up pictures of really really really late last night when I was super tired and barely thinking, lol.


AWESOME scrabble earrings using my initial :)


Matching scrabble ring, some beaded stitch markers I think my pal made, a rubbery "M" stitch marker, a corner of the scrapbooking goodies she sent :)


Scrapbooking stuff! I think it's for a birthday theme...all I know is it's COOL! :) I've never scrapbooked before, but now I'll have to start...with a page for my son's recent birthday!


A really cool sheep broach she sent me early in the swap, some stitch markers where the beads spell out my name, some appliques you really can't see back there, a pattern, a cool sock knit-along on CD (which I havne't had time to listen to yet :( ) and some of the fun candy she sent me :D


Okay, let's see...so many goodies! Candy, stitch markers, Scrabble ring and buttons on the bottom there. Adorable knitting note cards! Some cream wool and silk yarn with what I believe is a russian label. Some paton's grace mercinized cotton yarn in a cool orange color. Some patriotic Sugar & Cream yarn (made me giggle because she's from Canada :P) There's some tea in there and more candy in the back. She sent a California postcard and sock shaped needle protectors and three sets of circular needles!


More of the yummy candy :) Some dark chocolate brown wool sock yarn that will become socks once I learn how to make them :) more point protectors. What I believe to be headbands (bottom right corner), but what I thought at first were weird thin purse handles, lol. And the big dissapointment, Plymouth Mohair yarn.

Why is it a dissapointment, you ask? Well, it was wild and crazy and fun in the big bag she sent it to me in...and then, I opened the bag and touched the stuff and well. I learned I am HUGELY MASSIVELY allergic to mohair yarn. Which surprised me, because I have one skein of yarn that is 55% mohair and it doesn't bother me. But this! Oy! Even if my skin brushes lightly against it, it feels like burning itchy pin pricks all over my skin that doesn't go away for at least half an hour. Imagine what my hands felt like when I grabbed the skeins and held them the first time! Oy!

I just LOVE the stuff, though, and my pal had no way of knowing I was allergic because, well, I didn't know it myself :) I look forward to passing the love of the skeins along to a future pal who will love and cherish them the way they ought to be loved and cherished :)

Thank you SO MUCH, my secret Pal :D You have REALLY outdone yourself with this swap! I can't believe I have one more package coming from you!!!! You've already done so much!

Thank you to the moon and back again :)

Knitty Gritty

With the upgrade of cable I got over the weekend, I now get DIY network! And that, of course, means that Knitty Gritty was one of the first things I set my TiVo up to record!

I saw my first ever episode last night and I am just EXCITED! While I wasn't that thrilled with the subject being knit (men and dogs, lol), I was just so happy to be able to sit and relax in my living room and watch someone knit! Seeing the yarn, the new techniques, seeing how people do particular stitches...just brilliant :) I never knew long-tail cast-on was as easy as it appeared when they were doing it. I loved sitting on my couch, watching squishy, softy, beautifully colored yarn on my screen!

Yay for knitting TV shows!!!

WOW!!!!!

I just got my final package from my Secret Pal 10 Pal!!!

It's just JAMMED FULL of stuff! I don't even know where to start!

Yarn! Candy! Stitch markers! Yarn-themed Playing cards! knitting notecards! buttons! Things I think are headbands!! AND!!!! A CD I've been wanting forever and a day - Amy Winehouse!!!

YAY!

YAY!

*dancin' about in excitement!

Okay, I'll stop now. (yay!)

My so-called life with yarn

Craftiness is a slow but sure process in my house. I just have minimal time to knit, spin, make jewelry, sew, etc. MAYBE one hour a day. Many days not at all.

But I'm making slow-but sure process on my shawl...yay! It's just so very pretty, I don't know if I'll be able to give it up to my mom when the time comes. Yesterday, I sat out by the fountains at lunch and just knit on it and was at peace *happy content sigh*

I also finished my rat for my sweetie's kitties' housewarming present! Of course, it looks nasty, so I ripped out the tail and the eyes and I'm re-doing it again today at lunch so I can give it to them tonight. I know they're cats and it doesn't really matter...but ya know...just cause they're kitties doesn't mean they should have low standards! :P

I finished my brown blob o' doom as well...just need to weave in ends on the last half and it will be useable! yay!

I worked on my Ravelry site quite a bit yesterday and I have all my projects I've ever made in my project section, complete with pictures and blog links and everything...woohoo! I'm sure no one else cares, but I feel accomplished. I also think my knitting sucks, LOL...seeing it all there on one page...ug. I guess I tend to go for the quick little projects, rather than sweaters and big things since...as I said before, I get MAYBE 5 hours a week of ALL craft time in each week.

I do, however, want to start a sweater! Yay! The Everyday Tweed pattern my Secret Pal 10 pal got me...I just need to peruse yarn and decide what I should make it out of and then...cast on, woman!

Speaking of my Secret Pal 10 pal....I got one of two of my last packages from her on Monday. WOW!!!!! I got some great mercinized cotton yarn, a faaaaabulous "M" scrabble ring to go with my "M" scrabble earrings, several stitch markers, point protectors...maybe something else too, I can't remember off the top of my head. I loved the little card she sent...handmade with a flower on it :) She just has treated me sooooooooo good! I feel ultimately spoiled and pampered and just..wow.

When I get the second package, I'll take a picture and post all the goodness at once!

Did anyone else catch the amazing knitting book sale on Amazon? I got 6 awesome knitting books for $30!!!! I'm gonna use them as Swap gifts :P Me, cheap? Nah...just thrifty :D :D :D

I've been wanting to make something faaabulous out of big, soft yarn lately. I have no idea what, but I am a little tired of the thin mercinized cotton for the shawl. I want something that goes fast and is fabulous and fun and exciting! Maybe some wrist warmers? Maybe a scarf? I have three skeins of Plymouth Baby Alpaca Granda just BEGGING to be knit up.

I love yarn :D

Flash me, baby ;)

My Secret Pal 10 moderator is running another contest. This time, we have to flash our stash :)

Enjoy!

This is where my yarn is stored, for the most part. It's my "Fiber Arts Center" in my living room and these bottom three drawers hold most of my yarn. The top shelf in the picture there holds a wooden silverware holder. In each compartment are things like stitch markers, cable needles, crochet hooks, straight needles, row counters, gauge meters, etc. To the left of the drawers, between the Fiber Arts Center and my bookshelf, are all my photocopied or printed patterns. I have QUITE a few :P


The bottom shelf of my bookcase houses these three baskets, which hold the yarn overflow, as well as another document holder full of printed/copied patterns.


This is sort of the misc. dregs of my yarn stash, in the two baskets on the left. Random stuff mostly given to me by my Aunt. The cones are leftovers from my college weaving and textiles classes, oh....14 years ago :) The bag of skeins on the left is my stash of Dark Horse Fantasy yarn...AMAZING stuff...50% acrylic and 50% nylon, but softer than most of the alpaca I have :) I'm using one skein to make some ankle socks and the rest I'm saving for a shrug or shawl or something like that :) Something warm and soft and cozy to wrap up in on cold evenings.


Next is the stuff I got at Stitches West that hasn't found a new home yet. From left to right, 2 skeins luscious Malabrigio, a 280 yard skein of worsted weight 50% tussah silk and 50% merino wool, Joseph Geller Peruvian tweed alpaca 600 yard skein of delight and 5 skeins of purple and green woven ribbon yarn. I think the ribbon yarn is going to become something for my sister. The tweed is destined for a small shawl and the other two are just pets at the moment :D


Here we have a mish-mash from the top drawer in my Fiber Arts Center. Many of the cakes on the right are my handspun. The skein top middle is handspun from my spin to knit pal. The pink and brown skein in the middle is a recent handspun of mine, kinda fun but doubtful I'll ever do anything with it :) Bottom middle-right is a cake of DELICIOUS Manos de Uruguay that I'm saving for just the right project. Misc. other stuff :)



This is some recent cotton purchases from the top drawer. Two skeins of Patagonia cotton on the left, delicious and soft, destined to become some arm warmers. On the right is my stash of elann yarn that Is in the works for a shawl I'm making. 2 skeins used, only 7 more to go : It's this wonderful mercinized cotton :) Bottom is two cakes of random other cotton...leftover peaches and cream and some TLC.


Second drawer and we get into the world of alpaca and wool a little more. Top left is several skeins of Knit Picks in various combinations of wool, alpaca and silk. They were all originally purchased for fingerless gloves and/or socks. Top middle-right is my stash of Indiecita alpaca. Sinfully delicious stuff. I'm hoping for a shawl or tank top out of it one of these days. To the right of that is some sock yarn I got in a recent swap. Bottom center is two skeins of Plymouth Grande Alpaca wound into cakes. I keep meaning to make them into a purse. Bottom left is some green denim tweed, some dark brown alpaca and silk laceweight (recent swap goodie) and some delicious green alpaca.


Middle drawer part one...4 skeins of some merino 2000 I got from my LYS intending to make two-toned fingerless gloves. On the top right is three skeins of sock yarn called "Dancing" in the colorway "Two-Step," which is cotton, wool, nylon and elastic...once I figure out how to make socks finally, I'll have some awesome self-striping socks with that stuff :) Below all that is my misc. cotton...sugar and cream, peaches and cream, King Tut, and CottonTots.


Rest of delicious drawer two: Top left is two skeins of delicious Patons Rumor, which is an alpaca and acrylic yarn. Next to that is another skein of wool sock yarn a recent pal sent me. Next to that is some rust colored silky wool. Two cones from college days follow that. Next row is a cream colored skein of Plymouth Alpaca grande, a delicious skein of Inca Cotton in colorway Oz, most of a skein of Rowan Plaid, which is a wool, alpaca and acrylic yarn. Bottom right is some Plymouth Baby alpaca brush. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but it was alpaca and on a killer sale, so I bought it :)


Here we have the dregs of the bottom shelf :) Caron's Simply Soft in two different colors of blue, indended as either pants or a sweater for my son. Below that is some delicious alpaca from a recent swap and below that is this really soft fun stuff from No Boundaries (Wal Mart brand yarn) that I am almost out of. Super soft...maybe a airy scarf one of these days for a gift....


Next to my Fiber Arts Center is my coat closet. Inside the door is a shoe holder, where I keep my growing collection of circular needles :D One pocket per size, with the Knit Picks cables and some antique metal circulars in the top larger pockets :D


That about does it for the yarn stash, but I also have a spinning stash...which eventually BECOMES yarn, so I thought I should include it as well :D When the coat closet door is closed, my spinning wheel lives there :) On the tall shelf above my knitting stuff, you can see many of my spindles, my wheel bobbins and lazy kate and my wheel oil. Above that begins the fiber stash :D


Top shelf is wool. The orange and the blue on the left is "fancy" prepared wool from Carolina Homespun. The two on the right are natural wool I got for free and processed myself. Ug! What a pain! Next shelf down is dark brown alpaca, grey alpaca, cream suri alpaca and my flicker and combs. Bottom shelf is dark brown wool and dark brown alpaca and some more bobbins. Under the bobbins is a flat envelope full of silk hankies :)


On top of the bookcase is my large bags and bags of about 5 lbs of wool I recently sent away for processing after I got it all for free about a year ago on Craigslist :D I'm spinning the buttery light grey wool on the right plastic bag right now. On top of my Fiber Arts Center is my ball winder and PVC niddy noddy :D


And there you have it....my stash! After seeing everyone else's I just think I need more yarn :P