I have definitely decided that my long-suffering, single sock of Falling Leaves (Ravelry) needs its mate as soon as I can. Unfortunately, it requires my following a chart, and I’ve not had time for that. And since I’ve been dying to try some of my Malabrigo sock, I found an actually really simple, but not dull project to start – Nutkins! But since I don’t want to waste any of this yummy yarn, I’m doing them toe-up instead. I grabbed a random toe-up pattern from my archives (Errant Socks, actually) and away I went…and BOY does this work up quickly for a sock! Truly a sign of how I’m loving this yarn.

The pattern is amazingly easy to remember and I’m already up to the heel. Just have to choose a heel! I might just toss this onto stitch holders and work up the second sock to this same point.

Now, I certainly have other projects I should be working on *glances to left sidebar at WIPs*, but on Sunday a knitting emergency turned up! To be more specific, my Big Sis from the band sorority I was in at UCONN just became a Dad for the first time (NOTE: for the confused, both the band sorority and band fraternities are co-ed. So, actually, both my big and little sister are guys, my big brother is a girl and I have two little brothers – one guy and one girl. Heh.). And he has been SO excited for the day to come. She was due on the 28th, but decided to come a week early instead! Guess she’s just as impatient as her dad’s been, lol.

SO, I wanted to make something to send him and his wife for the baby. In looking at the stash, I found I had this one ball of light pink, old-school Cotton-Ease. In case it wouldn’t be enough, I knew I had a few balls of the hot pink for trim…

I then found an old Knit-List-based pattern through Ravelry and worked this cardigan up in about 6 hours total! The coolest thing about this pattern is that you work it from the neck down, then after the yoke you work across a front, make a sleeve, crochet it closed, work across the back, do the second sleeve the same way, then across the other front. And the rest is just the fronts and the back until you’re done. NO SEAMING. Sweet!!! I still had about 20g left when I was done so there was no need for the hot pink…but them’s some nice leftovers!

So, I made up some thumbless baby mitts! Didn’t have enough Cotton-Ease left to do both the ties and the connecting cord, though…but then remembered having leftover Sirdar Magic! So I used that for the ties and the cord and voila! Yeah, I got corny with the composition, lol.

But then, I thought…I should use the rest of this Magic also – it certainly matches! I figured I’d use a top-down pattern in case I didn’t have enough, and I ended up using a pattern for chunky yarn and just adding more in-between-increase rows. And STILL had some left. So I put on earflaps with ties (always a good idea for baby hats, anyway). And, guess what? Still some left over. >.> That’s it! POM-POMs. But since they didn’t come out terribly fluffy, I decided to put them together and put them on the top and now? All. Gone.

STASHBUSTING, AWAAAAAAAAAY!

Shaun stepped in to model it for me, too.

Yes, I am a Knit-inja!!!

Remy says: “Uh, yeah. Whatever. Zzzzzzzzzzz.”

Another FO! Finished my Soxx Appeal socks! Yay!

The heel…

I even wrote up a pattern. Want it? You can haz. I can’t guarantee it, as my only test knitting was making the second sock, but it seems to be ok. Let me know if you try it and it fails.

I realized as I was marking the project as finished on Ravelry that I started these socks exactly a year and a day ago. Heh.

Well, as usual for this winter, our weather has defied the predictions of the meteorologists. Last storm we were supposed to be pummeled and it was maybe 2 inches. Today was supposed to be a dusting and we got 7-8″+. *facepalm*

Awful purty, though, ain’t it?

I have a new orchid, given to me as a late holiday gift, and I thought I’d better shoot some pics before it is done blooming. Which reminds me that I should try feeding the other orchid so many it’ll bloom again.

And there was another bloom that inspired a photo in the sunlight…

On Sunday I attempted to ward off the “VD” by celebrating Chinese New Year instead! Handy! Went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant (first time I’d ever gone ON Chinese New Year, which was fun) and had their fabulous Szechuan Chicken and introduced my dinner companion to the awesomeness that is Scallion Pancake. It’s the only Chinese place around that still has it on the menu, so I HAD to get it.

Today, completely by accident when I was looking up a reference for substitutions in pancake recipes I discovered something (after all, it was PANCAKE DAY today – I made Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes. They are perfect for those with cholesterol issues as they are eggless. You can use regular milk instead of the soy.). So, I basically realized that The Joy of Cooking HAS a Scallion Pancake recipe! ARGH! Why did I never notice that??? So, I’m totally going to have to try making that SOON.

And on that tasty note, I will leave you with some kitteh love I captured. Shhh…you’re not supposed to know…

…REMBOT SCANS FOR LIFESIGNS…

And tomorrow comes another Snowpocalypse to the East Coast. Why does it seem that these storms always turn up just as I need to get regular old groceries? Gladly, no one had to be mauled and I got what I needed this evening as planned. Zoe is prepared – my Lizard Ridge, aka her favorite blanket, is on the couch. I love the look on her face here – she’s like, WHAT???? I’m SLEEPIN’ here…

So, for the past month and continuing into this one, I’ve been trying to be more practical about my groceries in that except for stuff that needs “refills” (milk, bread, etc). Basically, I’m trying to base all my meals on what’s in my cupboards. I mean, seriously, I found stuff in there that I forgot I bought – and to let it go bad is wasteful both of food and money! Call it “Frugal February”. *grin*

As it was, I had to throw out some ancient barbecue sauces (circa 2001-2003 – and no longer the color they should be) and OMG there was a seriously disturbing discovery. Found about 5-6 cans of pineapple in the way back of the top shelf…that were BLOATED. o.O

I have never SEEN bloated canned goods. I didn’t realize it could even happen. But the thought of it exploding on the shelf? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK.

Yeah – those went RIGHT in the dumpster. ASAP.

So far, this experiment has been working out very nicely, I’ve been having some perfectly good meals (still low in fat as per the low cholesterol diet) and my grocery bill is lower. At the same time, I’m not buying stuff *just* because it’s on sale. Only if I’m actually *out* of something.

In knitting news, I have two more FOs! One is a bias-knit scarf made from one of my earliest wheel-spun yarns. One strand is alpaca/merino/silk in a multi-red and the other strand is black extrafine merino. I really needed another scarf since the skin on my neck has been especially sensitive of late (so much that even the nice, soft Neckie I made was making me itchy. I plan to try soaking it in Eucalan to see if that fixed it, but this handspun had been a long time coming in being worked up. I’m quite happy with it!

Looks pretty good on Zoe, too!

The pattern is uber-simple and basic and you can find it on the project’s page on Ravelry if you’d like to make one like it.

I also finished my second Citron (for me, this time), which I called Avocado (Ravelry link)! SO nice and soft – lovin’ it.

I am also SO VERY CLOSE to finishing my Appealing Sox. But, I’ve been busy and I wanted to finish Avocado first, so, there it is. Painful, it is. But they’ll be done soon enough.

So, any of you watch Fringe? I LOVE this show on SO many levels and pray that FOX will allow it to run through the entire arc that it deserves. So, they do this cool thing with floaty letters showing what city they’re dealing with for that scene. I had me a little double-take during the winter finale…that led to a giggle. Apparently they need spell-check. Whoops!

In other FAIL news – I wanted to get some actual curtains for my living room rather than just the scarf I had draped along the top. I could actually feel the windows sucking out the heat, so I definitely wanted lined, insulated ones. Found some chocolate brown tafetta-looking curtains at Walmart that seemed like they’d do the job, although they were certainly too long. So, I figured I’d just hem them. While watching the Super Bowl. And feeling impatient. This was not a good plan, as you can see.

A little short. FSCK. And this was the “good” one. The OTHER one? I managed to give it a *curved* hem. EPIC fail. I will be undoing the hems, which I actually did fold over twice, so there might be enough to make it just long enough to hit the sill. If not, I have what I cut off to reattach – I think these need to become Roman shades anyway so I can still let the light in when I want to (they certainly work for light blocking, lol.). In the meantime they’re at least keeping more heat in than no curtains at all.

So, as tomorrow will be snowy and gray, I will leave you with something furry and gray in the sunlight.

Well, Happy New Year, everyone. I enjoyed mine with friends in NY and it was a really great and relaxing couple of days. There were even kittehs to be met for the first time!

Actually, both the cats don’t seem to mind being dressed up — except when there’s headgear involved. As evidenced above, lol.

Also meet this beautiful boy – those gorgeous eyes!:

I did a lot of work on my second Sox Appeal sock over the mini-vaca, getting to and past the heel and a little bit up the cuff. I might actually have a pair soon!

It didn’t get to be the last FO of 2009, but it *did* get to be the first FO of 2010 – Blood Orange (Rav link) aka Citron from the latest Knitty.com!

It was an easy enough knit, though I don’t know what crack I was on for the duration of it because I kept counting wrong and ending up with extra stitches at the end of the increases — but sometimes still getting the right amount of stitches. It was very weird and I thought there must be typos in the pattern, but it still was coming out ok and no one else seemed to post having issues on Ravelry. So, I said, whatever, it looks good and kept on. I decided not to block it in the end since I kind of liked the look of it as/is and figured I’d let the recipient decide for herself. And she likes it as/is also, so it’s all good!

And now I *know* I must have been on crack when I was counting for Blood Orange because I started Avocado (Rav link) and have had nothing off in the counts. *facepalm* Whatever!

Can’t wait to finish it – it’s the same Malabrigo colorway as my Star Crossed Slouchy Beret (Rav link) (Olive) and so close in the dye job that you’d think it was the same lot. So I’ll have a matching set when I’m done! Yay!

(All photos are linked to Ravelry for full information on each project.)

Well, it’s not been as a productive year as in the past, but I’m still kinda surprised at how many items I actually finished. There would be one more in there as well, if I had time to finish the Citron Shawl (heck, I may finish it today before New Year’s anyway…guess I’ll have to amend my post, then! I’m only 7 rows and the bind-off from finishing.)

For New Year’s I’m going up to Saratoga Springs, NY to party with friends and I can’t wait to see everyone. Bringing my Sox Appeal project in case there is sober knitting time. Heh.

So, Happy and Safe New Year’s to all and I will see you all next year!

Well, this month flew by and all I did was collect photos to post. This is even my 501st post. I’d meant to do something special for #500, but I forgot and got busy. Heh. Oh well.

So, since I’m still busy, here’s them pix, and a few words here and there, while I have two seconds.

Been working on my Dad’s sweater…

I finished five out of the five Red Scarf scarves in time and sent ‘em out.

My friend S. came down from upstate NY for an IKEA run and I met up with her for it. And yes, I found a beetle there. It was hanging out on the sheepskin rugs, lol. We particularly loved the chalkboard drawings.

There’s been snow…

I saw a disturbing diet product (I hope that’s not a front view of a waist. Ew.)

I worked on my Sox Appeal sock #2…

…and finished a pair of Artyarns socks. They were made in a class I taught making two socks at a time. I have leftovers, so I may pick up from the cuffs to lengthen them. Or just make them over again toe-up. I think I’m going to change my class to being toe-up. I hate having leftover sock yarn.

Started a new project. I will be gifting this one and making myself one afterwards!

And had a good holiday with friends. And their 18lb House Cougar.

If I have time, I may actually write a serious year-end-type post. Can’t believe it’ll be 2010 in just a few days…

So, the other day a customer came into the store and we got on the topic of the Red Scarf Project. I mentioned how there were posts that they were only counting about half of what their goal is and were worried that they wouldn’t make the goal this year. The customer then asked if The Yarn Barn was a drop-off point for the RSP…so I asked the boss…and she said ok! I’m going to mail them off myself.

And so, here’s the deal. Drop off your Red Scarf Project scarves at The Yarn Barn of Connecticut in Woodbridge by December 11th (so I have time to pack it all up and send it out. Complete guidelines for colors, sizes and pattern ideas are found on the official website.

ALSO, if you buy yarn for the Red Scarf Project at The Yarn Barn between now and December 11th you’ll get 10% off that yarn.

You can, of course, mail it off yourself if you like – they are due by December 15th and you can mail them to:

Orphan Foundation of America
The Red Scarf Project
21351 Gentry Drive
Sterling, VA 20166

Also, you can make a monetary donation by visiting Norma’s Red Scarf Project page.

I have to say, I’ve been loving the extended nice weather this November. It gladly allowed me to do some work on my little deck before the winter comes. I’d meant to strip and repaint it all summer, but either I wasn’t home when the weather was good or I had too much work to do when it was. Unfortunately, the Behr stripper stuff was completely useless. I don’t recommend it. I’m especially annoyed since it required that I buy a $30 NIOSH respirator mask with organic vapor cartridges. It did NOTHING and I followed the directions to the letter. Grrr. And, yes, I’ll be contacting Behr to complain. So, there went my plan to have a semi-transparent, more natural looking stain. Just used the 2-in-1 wood brightener on the exposed wood (which *was* gladly effective) and went with a solid color. Looks pretty ok and it’ll do for now. Hopefully it’ll last at least two out of the five years they claim as an ideal, so I don’t have to deal with it again for awhile!

Did anyone else get a Domo cup/straw from 7-11 while they were available? I’m so glad I got this cup – it makes me smile.

I really wanted the Domo straw where he’s got headphones on and holds a Slurpee, but my local 7-11 either sold out immediately or never got any at all. I did find the one where he’s holding all the candy at another 7-11, but I still covet the first one.

Remy is happy with his own toys.

I’ve been knitting a lot more often lately, which is good since I’ve been generally feeling that wintery bleah, even with the nice weather. First off, I made a pair of Cocoknits’ Prairie Boots (Ravelry) – and I love ‘em!

The buttons came from The Yarn Barn and it was seriously kismet as I’d admired these buttons before and there were exactly 12 buttons in the tube.

The pattern was generally good, although I think that the increases on the soles should also be within a stitch or two like the decreases are – or else the decreases should also be on the edge. One or the other! I had some row gauge issues, so I made the sole for the small rather than the medium to get the right length, but it still works out to the right size in the end.

I also tried out this cute pattern (Ravelry) that I saw worn by a fellow knitter – made mine from one skein of Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande Tweed, held double and it’s perfect!

I also found the best button! It was the last one of this color at the store and is a slice of petrified wood (I think made by Blue Moon Beads). It just perfectly brings out the little tweedy nubs in the yarn!

I’ve also be working on a long-term WIP of mine, Bel Air Cables (Ravelry) and I’m just a few rows away from the armholes now on the back. I’m a little concerned on the size since I was heavier when I started it and cast on for the 40/42. So, I’m not sure whether I should continue that way and just have a slightly oversized sweater or should I make the front smaller and just take the back in a little on the edges when I sew it together. What do you guys think? Is the latter crazy talk? I’d just really rather not rip out the back to start it over. :-/ At least the sleeves seem to be fine.

And speaking of frogging…

Boy, do I fail at blogging lately. It’s been quite a summer – the regular business along with some personal crap = not really feeling like blogging. Also, wasn’t getting a whole lot of knitting done anyway! But, that’s all changing and now I’ve got a big ol’ pic-heavy post for ya’ll…if ya’ll are still out there, lol.

So, for the first time, Stitches East was in Hartford, so the store went and got three booth spaces and I worked on the Saturday. I have been to trade shows before, but wow – as a vendor, this was crazy busy (which was awesome!)! I did get to wander around for the last hour and was really only looking for stuff I couldn’t get at the store (because why would I do that? I like my store!). So, all I got were some Blue Moon Fiber Arts stuff: a skein of lightweight in The Witching Hour, a skein of heavyweight in Spinel and a bag of Sheep to Shoe in Rooky.

Most of my recent knitting has been small projects for friends. A pair of quick mitts for C.P. (failed to get a photo, but it was a simple garter stitch rectangle, sewn up the side with a thumbhole – used one skein of black Berroco Smart Mohair)… a pair of gauntlet fingerless mitts for K.Y. made from Cashmerino Aran…

…and a pair of fingerless gloves for K.K. inspired by the ones worn in a promo shot for BBC’s Being Human by one of the characters.

Then I worked on a store sample that I really wanted to make – a fair isle hat by Crystal Palace Yarns using Mini Mochi. The pattern shows it made up in two of the rainbow-type colorways, but I wanted to see how it would look in one of the fewer-color colorways. I am quite pleased with it!

It turned out to only use one ball’s worth, but it was definitely easier to deal with using two separate balls. If you were to use just one ball, I’d recommend splitting it into two 25g balls, and to make sure that the sequence of colors is going the same way in both.

And then, just this afternoon, I finished the first of the pair of my Prairie Boots (Ravelry link)! I’d hoped I could squeeze the whole pair out of two skeins of Lamb’s Pride, but that didn’t happen and I have to hope there’s one more skein at the store in this color. Worse comes to worse, I’ll redo the sole and use a different color for it since I’m sewing leather soles on them anyway.

Halloween morning, I found this lovely creature on my friend’s doorstep, just hanging out on the pumpkin. I love praying mantises.

The day after Halloween I caught a beautiful sunset when I was leaving the library…

And in the rain one day, I spotted this on my way out the door…

Remy is much happier being all cozy indoors. Even when I haven’t vacuumed. *grin*

*emerges from the ether*

And I’ve even been knitting! It’s been a busy summer between performing at a faire in July, working at NYRF for August and September and now working at CTRF.

Cute little guy – landed on our guestbook quill at NYRF

I did finish the dress for that first faire and it came out great. The belt is made from a curtain swag (yep – her waist is that small, lol) and it was a hit (face blurred to protect the “innocent” – or rather because I hadn’t gotten to ask her if it was ok to show her face, lol).

I altered the pattern so that the sleeves were split on the outside and connected with pearly buttons in three spots. I also made it so it bustled in back so she wouldn’t drag it in the mud or trip on it while swordfighting (she’s in my swordfighting group).

Also, as I previously posted, I made up a bunch of new spindles to be vended at the NJ Sheep & Wool at Zarzuela’s booth. The remainder are on their way back at which time they’ll be posted for sale in my Etsy store. Here’s a sneak preview…

Another special project was a rushed one, but successful (finished it in a week!). Here’s where I started…

…and here’s where it ended up!

The recipient is a friend’s darling little daughter who turned 2 on September 19th along with her mom (yes, they have the same birthday!). The pattern is the Swing Coat, a free pattern from Little Turtle Knits (Ravelry link) and I made the 2-3 yrs size, which ought to fit her for at least the next two winters, if not longer as she’s a wee little thing. And she LOVES the sweater – wore it nearly all day (until it got warmer!). Because it’s a little big on her, her mom is going to run a ribbon through the top of the collar to tie it shut better. When she gets older and fills out the shoulders more, the clasp will be sufficient. I will miss seeing her (and her parents) after getting to see her every weekend for nearly all of August and September.

The yarn was stash yarn, so I was pretty proud of that, but that also led me to reevaluate my Ravelry stash and have added a bunch of new things to my trade/sell page. All are priced with free shipping within the continental US, but I’m willing to send elsewhere for whatever the shipping costs. Please check it out and pass the word – there are many goodies in there!

In the diet realm, I’ve kept my cholesterol down (latest test in July was 186) and since last October, I’ve lost 30 pounds. I can barely believe it, but the clothes sizes do not lie. I gave away all my size 12 & 14 stuff to a friend who has reached that point in her weight loss and I currently have a large pile of size 10 jeans to try and eBay, or else give to Goodwill. This is because now I’m down to 4s and 6s. *grin* Now, to just keep that up – especially with winter / hibernation mode coming. I’ll be starting up the regular Wii Fit sessions again since I won’t have running around faires to keep me active.

An additional awesome thing is that my knitting projects require less yarn and are therefore less expensive! To that end, I treated myself to some new yarn recently. One is Rowan Lima in a wonderful dark green heathery shade. Don’t know what I’ll make yet, but the yarn is SO soft and cozy.

The other is Mochi Plus, a superwash color-changing yarn from Crystal Palace – I couldn’t resist the Autumn Rainbow colorway!!! I just want to make this into a simple turtleneck sweater and let the yarn “do the work.”

I have also been given the go-ahead to make a store sample of Mini Mochi using Crystal Palace’s free pattern for a Fair Isle hat that I thought was REALLY cool. I’m trying a colorway not shown on their site, so we’ll see how that turns out.

I’ve also been working on a pair of fingerless mitts for a friend of mine. She blogged about loving the gloves she saw on Mitchell in a promo for Being Human on BBC, so I decided to make them for her. Found some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Cashmere in the perfect shade (and in the clearance bin!) and I’ll post a pattern as soon as I finish the second one to test my directions (and to finish the pair)

So, have I been busy enough, lol? Aiiiiggghhhhh!