Clue #1 Mystery Shawl Complete

Clue #1 of Knitting Like Crazy's Mystery Shawl is complete! I know, I know, it's a little late...but I've been busy! Lots of projects, long days at work, school and homework, all keep me from knitting in a timely manner. I'm trying my best though! The kitties and I are diligently working through our yarn stash and I am proud to say that I haven't bought a single skein of yarn for knitting since summer began! I did buy one ball of white string for another craft project...so it doesn't count. Jen's mystery shawl from her blog is beautiful. I'm using some lace weight baby alpaca (by Cascade Yarns of course. My favorite!) instead of the fingering weight recommended. I knit it very loosely with size 4 needles (I even used my new Signature Needle Arts needles) so the finished product will be very light and airy. This yarn is so soft and such a pretty summer timey green it should make a beautiful shawl. I'm very excited about this project and It's knitting up quickly. When I was just beginning this shawl I think I cast on and ripped out the first few rows 5 or 6 times because I just wasn't getting the right gauge. Finally I settled on what feel is an acceptable gauge and went with it. Jen has a beautiful pattern here. I love it!

 

I came back from the kitchen to find Snookie curled up under my shawl! What a sweety! I just love my babies! I guess she thought the baby alpaca made a nice blanket. She is the expert on comfy things to sleep on so I'll take her word for it.

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.

A-Square-A-Day-In-May

The "Yarnarian" is one of my favorite blogs. She always has something wonderful going on! The yarns she dyes are breathtaking and I long to someday be a blogger of her caliber! Anyways, while I was checking out her blog this morning I stumbled across a group she is supporting called A-Square-A-Day in-May.

The idea is to crochet 1 granny square a day for the entire month of may. It sounds like fun and will give me chance to brush up on my crocheting skills (anybody that has read my earlier posts will know that crocheting and I do not have a good history.)

I have a TON of scrap yarn laying around the house. This will be a good use for it all. I found this mini stash in a box in my closet! These are all leftovers from projects over the years. I will admit that I may have misrepresented the size of this stash in the photo. There was probably 6 times the depicted amount, I was embarrassed to show it all.

 

After digging through my many piles of yarn in search for some good scrap, JB came home. He took one look around and literally forbade me from bringing home anymore of it. "You are forbidden from bringing another piece of yarn into this house until at least some of it is gone". Sadly, this is actually a reasonable request.

So, I am ready for May! Lets get some serious knitting done so I can clear out my yarn stash and buy some more! Do I have a problem?

Simba doesn't think so.

Easter Eggs Belong in Macaroni Salad

Happy Easter Everyone!

I colored eggs the other day to help JB and I get into the Easter spirit. JB apparently is not a fan of egg coloring. He participated long enough to remove the eggs from the stove while I was cleaning the bathroom and then wanted nothing to do with the whole process after that. I bought these "egg" cups from Wal-Mart for the dye, they turned out the be the most genius Easter invention ever. They were $.99 and came with 5 different colored plastic egg shaped containers with lines for water and vinegar. You just filled the cup with water up to the water line, then add vinegar until the liquid reaches the vinegar line. Drop in the dye tablet, dunk the egg and TaaaDaa! Colored eggs, no mess and you can throw out the plastic cups when your done. Clean up was so easy!

This morning while I was prepping for Easter Dinner, these poor eggs met their match. My pretty little eggs were sacrificed to the macaroni salad. At least they went to good use. Yum! JB loves macaroni salad although he will no doubt have something to say about the dyed egg pieces in it.

  All the eggs in a row, right before they became part of the macaroni salad! The green one and the yellow one on the end became deviled eggs.

Since JB and I have had to work all weekend and I've got class tomorrow morning, we couldn't make it out to see family for Easter dinner this year. I decided to make a nice dinner here anyways. I'm making a roasted chicken (its in the oven now! Smells delicious!) with lots of seasonings, covered in a little beer and some apple juice and stuffed with russet potatoes, celery, garlic, and carrots. This is the first whole chicken I have ever made (or even seen in person for that matter). I'm very proud of myself. Also on the menu we have home made mashed potatoes from scratch, green bean casserole, macaroni salad, deviled eggs, corn, a tossed salad with home made Italian dressing, baked dinner rolls, strawberry short cake with "made-from-scratch" whipped cream and a caramel apple pie (I definitely bought that pie). Top that all off with the mimosas we've been sipping all morning and we've got an Easter Celebration for sure! We will certainly have left overs for a few days. Cooking it all was fun though!

While the chicken is cooking and I'm in between baking dishes, I think I will start spinning that gorgeous merino I just bought. I'm still waiting on a second bag of fiber, hopefully it will come soon.
I bought this beautiful roving from Woolamina's Etsy store! I will certainly be shopping there again soon!

 

Aren't the colors just to "dye" for (lol)!? Its just beautiful and I'm so excited to start working with it! I have no idea what to make with the yarn once I spin it. Any suggestions?

It's the last week of classes and then straight into finals. I've been running around like crazy trying to get everything done so forgive me if I am lazy with my posts. Easter was a nice little break from all that work but now I've got to get right back to it! 

Happy Easter and Good Luck on finals to all my collegiate readers.

Easter Sunday Prep & Earth Day!

Its been a long winter and from the looks of it, it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon. In mid April, just two days away from Easter, its snowing here. And not just a little snow, its full on, get-the-snow-tires-out, put-the-winter-coat-on, don't-forget-your-boots snowing.

This picture does no justice to the amount of snow coming down. Mother nature is punishing us on Earth Day for being bad environmentalists. We are going to be burried in snow by Easter Sunday whether we like it or not. The snow hasn't stopped the summer knitting bug. Earlier this week I was compelled to visit my LYS and found some of the cutest yarns of the season!

Ella Rae's Phoenix yarns caught my eye right away. Its a 100% cotton yarn that was sitting, nestled away amongst all the other spring time yarns. The second I laid eyes on it I knew it would be mine and it would make a fabulous shawl. I loved the Light Yellow, it was so springtimey pretty that I knew I'd have to find a light and lacey shawl pattern.

Snookie really likes this yarn, Simba does too but he wouldn't sit still long enough to have his picture taken. I've had to wrestle it out of their paws a few times...they seem to always know which yarns I'm using and they pick that stuff to drag around the house!

I searched my queue and found a pattern that I saved months ago. I've wanted to knit this one for a while but just couldn't find the right yarn. Ella Rae is the perfect match! The Vernal Equinox Shawl Surprise is a half circle lace shawl. Its knit in "Clues", such a cute idea and makes the knitting easy to break up into different nights.

There are a few variations on this shawl. The bottom edge can be rounded, scallopedish like in this pictures or it can be batwinged every other inch. I'm thinking I'll probably just round it off that way the shawl won't be so dramatic in design that I can't wear it with certain things.

I've been so busy with school and work and volunteering for different things that I haven't had much time to knit. I lost a good friend in February. He was fighting in Afghanistan with the Marines. Its been a rough year with a lot going on, and I just haven't been able to knit as much as I would like. I feel a little out of practice, and I can see it a little in my knitting right now. No worries though, it won't take long to bring it back.

I'm just about done with Clue 2. Knitters be warned, make sure you keep an eye on your stitch count. Its very easy to lose track and miss a YO or a PSSO.  I don't know what made me think it was a good idea to knit with out stitch markers. I regret it already.

Don't forget, today is Earth Day! Do something earth friendly! I planted seeds for a vegetable garden, what are you going to do for the earth today?