THEY CAME!

My new needles came! I'm so excited! I love them! Size 4 (3.5), 5inch needles with stiletto tips. I have been thinking about getting them for like a year now and I finally decided to just do it! Aren't they pretty? The size 4s come in this gorgeous deep purple color. They arrived just in time too! As I was working on the Knitting Like Crazy Mystery Shawl my other circulars broke!

If you ever need some seriously cheap needles quickly, knittingneedles.com can totally hook you up. However...the circs don't last very long and the plastic tubing used in the circulars breaks easily. A full set of all sizes is very cheap and would make a great gift for a knitting newbie, but for more advanced knitters a higher quality product is invaluable. Hence my Signature Needle Arts needles! These things are made out of aircraft grade aluminum! Can you say heavy duty (at least I think air planes are heavy duty)?

 I've made some progress on my Vernal Equinox Surprise Shawl. I'm in the middle of clue 5 right now. The project is temporarily paused while I search the house for more stitch markers. I know I have a whole pile of them somewhere! I'm just not sure where.

This pattern is just gorgeous and I am really enjoying it. Each row is a little different and each clue is a whole different pattern. It keeps you on your toes. I am slowly but surely working through my yarn stash! I'm sure you noticed the quilters mat in the first couple pictures. JB's mom bought it for me for my birthday along with a rotary cutter. I've been playing around with some quilting techniques for the past few days. This time I'm using my sewing machine for all the piecing and it's turning out to be harder that I expected.

I had this great idea for a pretty quilt, but I honestly think I may have been a little too ambitious. Getting all those seams lined up right is actually very difficult! A while back when I was doing some hand quilting, the piecing was the easy part! All the decorative stitching was the hardest thing about it! It looks like it may be just the opposite with machine stitching!

You can see a few of the difficulties I have been having matching up the seams. My sewing machine doesn't have a quilting foot (I've been looking for one) so piecing may be even harder than usual...however...I am determined to master this!

It looks yummy!

As you know May has been dedicated to crocheting! I am on a journey to learn to crochet and add it to my crafting repertoire. I found this great blanket pattern that I've had in my queue for at least a year but never got to it because it was a crochet pattern. I just wasn't confident enough to attempt a blanket with such shaky crochet skills. Well after a few of these squares I'm feeling good, feeling a little ambitious and I found some perfect colors in my stash.  I'm jumping into this project (along with all the other stuff I'm diving into) feet first and starting this blanket! Its a simple pattern and its coming together quickly!

Lion Brand - LB Collection

Cotton Bamboo

52% Cotton 48% Bamboo

245 Yds ( 224 Meters)

Colors: #102 Cherry Blossom (Dye Lot 64587),

 #098 Magnolia (Dye Lot 63990),

 #126 Chocolate Dahlia (Dye Lot 63990)

The pattern I'm using is by Lion Brand, but it's a very simple design that I'm sure can be found in many other places. I saw a blanket crocheted in this pattern while I was at the Lion Brand Studio in Manhattan last year and just fell in love. I bought these cute colors not really knowing what to do with them and only now managed to put the two together. I only bought 1 skein of each color so I'm not sure how big this project can be. Maybe if I run out I'll see about looking for more of this yarn online. I really love this yarn. It feels really nice in your hands and is easy to work with. The only qualm I have is that it splits easily, but thats sort of expected from cotton and bamboo.

Here are the beginnings of my crocheted blanket! This morning's work yielded some excellent results! The colors are super cute. In fact I'd even go so far as to say they are "delicous". It looks like something you could eat. Maybe like saltwater taffy or something? I'm excited to continue working on it, but I have to get caught up on those squares!

To Do List:

• 7 Squares for Square-A-Day-in-May
• Finish next clue of the Vernal Equinox Surprise Shawl
• Crocheted blanket
• Knitting Like Crazy's Mystery Shawl KAL
• Secret Project!
• Prep for the Tour De Fleece!

This year I've got lots of great roving for the TDF. I'm still waiting on a few packages. When they come in I'll take pictures.

Lots of stuff is planned for this summer. The secret project is pretty big and as the summer progresses and the project comes together I'll let you all in on it. I vow to get through at least HALF of my yarn stash this summer. It really needs to be trimmed down and JB won't let me buy anymore until I use up some of the stuff I have. I'm excited to buy some great new stuff for fall so I gotta get through all these summer and spring colors first. Happy summer everyone!

Birthday! Hooray!

Happy birthday to me! Yesterday was my 21st birthday. I had lots of fun with my parents and JB and my aunt. We all went out for drinks (I did not last very long). I bought myself the new white iphone as a present. Coolest thing ever. I just don't know how people lived before technology. Anyways, we'll get back to the important stuff. The squares! Last week was crazy and I'll admit I'm way behind on my Square-A-Day-in-May project. I'm working on the 3rd square now, Maggie's square, and I'm having a really tough time. My crochet skills have made serious progress and my technique is improving but I still struggling with some of the more complex stitches. The Xdc in Maggie's square is driving me crazy. It just won't work like it's supposed to!

This is the Amethyst square, the first square of may. I think I made 4 attempts before this one. I'm still not totally happy with it, but I have learned a lot.Wanna know a secret? Don't tell anyone. I forgot the last row on one side. I tied off too soon. >< Maybe I will come back to this one later.

Square 2, "Kata". I found this square to be much easier! By this pattern I was comfortable with the hdc and was establishing some good tension habits. The picture came out a little fuzzy but it was taken while dodging cats. They loved this yarn and can't get enough of this fabric.

2 down, 7 to go. I plan on playing some serious catch up this week.