ravelympics

I should have put the baby booties and my monkeys in the sockput and my poncho in the cabled steeplechase.

I worked some on that latter thing. It will be a miracle if I medal in that!

How about the American men's swimming today???? Grinning from ear to ear. When I was a young swimmer I idolized Spitz. Had a poster of him hanging in my room with his 7 gold medals around his neck. He was a tad more handsome than Phelps is though, imho.

I'm working on these cute little booties but in the wrong yarn and hence, the wrong needle so my gauge is abominable.. I spent more time doing math than knitting. The one that's done is cute though!

School tmrw.. and I believe I'll start to paint as well. Takin' everything in at least! and I will take my monkeys with me, so I can knit while learning! can't waste a minute...

yay! the olympics have begun

picture by Clive Rose, Getty Images
found at Kodak's Olympic Picture of the Day site



which means TONS of knitting for me :-)
I cast on in the morning of the 8th. And here's what I have accomplished since then (in reverse order):

pattern: Iceland Printed wool Baby hat
Knit 2008 pattern a day calendar Feb 16/17 by Cathy Campbell
yarn: Patons shetland chunky tweed
color: medium blue
needle: US 10.5 dpn
recipient: DH’s cousin’s baby to be (September)


pattern: Angora baby booties from Last Minute Gifts by Joelle Haverson
yarn: Brunswick Eleganza 80 Acrylic/20 Kid Mohair
color: white
needle: US 5 dpns
recipient: friend's baby to be (September)
these start at the toe and the foot is double knit then separated for the heel and joined in the round for the cuff. Clever pattern. Took me way longer than the hour the book suggests. Of course had I read the pattern through before starting gangbusters in, I could have saved myself some time (and frogging.mohair.not.fun.)



pattern: Bright Tweed booties for Baby
Knit 2008 pattern a day calendar June 2 & 3 by Wooly Fatty Knitters
yarn: Paton's Shetland Chunky Tweed
colors: ice blue and biscuit
needle: US7
recipient: yet another friend's baby to be (September)

are you noticing something.... I have too many people that are due in September.. and this isn't all!

I did the knit in the stitch below incorrectly in the hat that follows, and thought I better do it wrong in these booties that the hat was planned after. I eventually WILL learn to do it correctly though ;-)



pattern: umbilical cord hat from stitch 'n bitch book
yarn: Paton's Shetland Chunky tweed
colors: biscuit and ice blue (yes to complement above booties)
needle: US7
recipient: same friend as the booties above

I changed up the pattern to include the knit in the stitch below as a band so it would have some similarity to the booties

YIKES! I've also worked some on the wips but nothing worth pictures.



So far, I've received this

and I'm sure there will be more to come


We've been enjoying Olympia, the new camera, and DH has signed us up for the beginning DSLR class for the Olympus Evolt 510 at our nearby camera shop Dan's Camera City

I found this interesting fungus growing on the tree in the front of our house. Looks like a scone with jam, doesn't it?


I have class on Monday and Wednesday this week at school. Wednesday's is a book discussion (actually 2 books) and I don't have the books yet! Love my school district! In the afternoon after class, I plan on painting my classroom. My dear friend P gave me 4 gallons of paint (yes all the same color - yellow) so there should be more than enough. I'm so psyched!

My buddies came to visit me this past Wednesday. We went to lunch at Jumbars which is within walking distance of my house. It was so much fun for me. And the food was so yummo! What more can you ask for, good food and good company. :-)

Thursday evening P and D and I went to the Lehigh Valley knitter's guild meeting at the Whitehall public library. What a nice bunch of ladies there. The topic of the evening was sock knitting... so I was prepared.


Other than that, it was a quiet week, the beginning of which totally slipped by me. The summer is rushing by with a speed that is frighteningly fast. I'm so not ready to go back to school!

catchin' up

Lest anyone think I've been up to nothing (or no good) I thought I'd post some pics of WIPs


The recent Lizard Ridge block in color 148 lot A

I was up in the air about what scarf to make my pop for Chrismtas this year. At first I thought something with a cable to match the hat I made him last year, but I don't have enough of that particular colorway so I opted for something that would compliment instead. It came down to a choice between Grumperina's Shifting Sands scarf and the My So Called Scarf. The latter won out (it fits wiith the 100purewool that I wanted to use better) I really love this pattern, it's a brainless knit. I was going to use chocolate fantasia, but opted for aquisgran instead. This stitch pattern really uses the varigation to it's advantage. I think it would make a great dishcloth pattern too :-) At any rate, I wanted something cozy and soft for him. He's so sensitive to wool. (If you don't recall, I lined knitty's coronet with fleece for him last Christmas)

i did some spinning last night as well. I'd like to finish the Targhee, but the entire fleece isn't ready (still flicking and carding to go) I have 2 or 3 more fleeces to wash (let's not talk about how many need to be carded. And I just 'won' 1 pound of white BFL top off ebay. I'm going to start dyeing the top that I have before I spin it to see if I can make a more interesting yarn. I've been loving what jared has been spinning with roving (check out 8.24.07 entry) from spunky eclectic.

In yarn acquisition show offs Both of these are from ebay:
4 skeins of malabrigo in an olive green color. I see some manly gifts from this... maybe has, mittens and a scarf?

And 3 skeins of Noro, one of which I'll use for Lizard Ridge and the other two????

Slowly but surely, the stash is being put up on ravelry.. it's almost sinful... OK it is sinful. I've started to queue projects, my books are up and my FOs are getting there. Hopefully before too long I'll be caught up so I can play (and knit) more!

socks 2

Well I finished the second pair of socks Saturday evening.

Pattern: Yarn Harlot's Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules
Yarn: Plymouth Sockotta
Color: 6669 Fair Isle
Needles: US2 DPNS

Note to self: when using self patterning fair isle yarn, DO NOT do ribbing... it loses all the effect. At least the toe and the bottom of the foot look good! At least they're comfy and I do like the colors.

I've been putting my stuff into ravelry and looking at other people's which has been sucking up computer time like crazy. That site is completely amazing though. I really do *heart* ravelry

I have a picture of my poncho that I took for ravelry. It's nowhere near finished, but almost halfway. It will eventually be a long rectangle that I'll sew the one end to the opposite side. Clear as mud? Then hopefully pick up stitches around the neck to make a mock turtle. That's my plan at least. Remember, I'm making this one up as I go.

DD and I were home sick today... fever and aches... nothing serious, but enough to put a damper on work. I kept DS2 home from daycare as well. I got a burst of energy at about 12:30 and made banana muffins and dyed up some laceweight wool....then I petered out. Thankfully DH went to collect DS1 from school.

Oh and the mailman has been very good to me of late :-) My love2knit dishcloth exchange package came today. Opening day is the 15th so you'll see it then. Also got some yummy wool that I bought from ebay.

I'll post pics of the wool and muffins tmrw. I'm packing lunches, cleaning up the kitchen and going to bed.

happy crafting

Ravelry, I love you

and spend far too much time there. I haven't gotten all my stuff up yet, but I've been perusing as much as I can. This is such a fabulous place for we fiber freaks. My id is craftycarole there so give me a holler if you're on!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow

cuz I think my ravelry invitation will be here then:

You signed up on June 29, 2007
You are #11554 on the list.
86 people are ahead of you in line.
20134 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far


crossing my fingers... not like I have any time before the weekend to do anything about it though....

diet? who said diet??

OK... there's lots of yarn p0rn pictures to post.

Noro from littleknits(came Thursday):


5 skeins Classic Elite Renaissance (a couldn't pass up purchase from ebay (came Friday):


And the piéce de resistance, my S.E.X. from Kraemer's Yarns in Nazareth, who was having a 50% sale off EVERYTHING but their own name yarn, starting today. Unfortunately for me, (but good for my wallet) I got there in the afternoon instead of when the doors opened as I wished.
21 Plymouth Fantasy (I should have bought them out):










3 Butterfly (which is supposedly made along with Tahki Cotton Classic but off name and a bigger 125g skein):



7 Elsebeth Lavold's Hempathy:



2 Paton's Classic Merino and 1 Paton's Soy Wool Stripes:



2 Bernat Camoflauge in Outback:
This yarn is for my brothers Christmas gift. He wants glittens for hunting. I saw this and knew it would be perfect. And it's washable which is good cuz I'm sure he'll get them dirty!



Sock Yarn 1 Plymouth Sockotta and 4 Regia Stretch:
For DH (solids) and me!


Jeanie by Kraemer Yarn. This yarn is 80% Superwash Merino Wool / 20% Nylon, Super Fine 3.5 oz./ 100 Grams approximately 480 Yards for U.S. Needle #1 - 3 with a gauge of 6.75 - 8 stitches = 1" This is regularly priced at $9.45/skein but I got it for$4.65/skein cuz the coloring isn't perfect. I'm gonna dye it anyway, so it was a brainless deal. Shoulda bought more!!!!!!!!
This will make mom's present with about half of the quantity leftover. If you're reading this mom, any specific color you'd prefer?


My sum total was much less than I expected.
I saw their Sterling yarn which has 63% superwashmerino/20% silk/15% nylon/2% silver. Yes, you read that right, real silver. Has a beautiful sheen. I coveted that baby... someday I will own some. They had 2 cones that were dyed in this gorgeous blue/purple blend... YUM

What I didn't find because I was too late was Cherry Tree Hill Sock Yarn or other higher end sock yarns Maybe you got it all Mrs. B?

What have I been working on? Well... not enough. I am all but finished the knitted food for the Love2Knit Dishcloth Exchange and today I decided that I may try to design my own cloth pattern to go along with it. If I can't do it, I have one that I've knitted and have in my exchange stash that would work fine as well. I started sock 2, but am not far along.

I'm expecting that I'll be getting my ravelry invite in less than a week. I've been watching and it seems they invite about 150 people a day, so....
You signed up on June 29, 2007
You are #11554 on the list.
639 people are ahead of you in line.
18502 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far
If the math is right that's about 4.2 days! I can't wait!

I had off from work on Friday. Of course at about 10:15 DD's school nurse called and said she had been there twice with a headache DH answered and offered to pick her up. I would have suggested acetaminophen, but... I went and got her, brought her home and then took the 'baby' out shopping with me to get the older 2 more clothes for school. I also picked up some things for my classroom (those tubes you swing around and they whistle, the faster you swing, the higher the pitch - I use them for something different though) and got DH some stuff he needed for his women's chorus.

Thank goodness we have off Monday. Maybe I'll get some knitting done!

Happy Crafting!

one down, one to go

socks, that is.... note to self, when using self patterning yarn that patterns fair isle, don't use rib stitch for sock... looks better in stockinette (check out the toe as opposed to the rest of it) The bottom is in stockinette, but who sees the bottom??? Oh well..

One down, 179 to go. Days of school that is. Today was the WORST first day in my 22 years (OK, I've not had 22 first days cuz of sabbaticals, but.. well you get the picture) Not the kids, they were fine. Machines. As Mr. Slinger from Lily and the Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes says, tomorrow will be a better day (I'm taking my own electronics!)


The good news is I've moved up on the ravelry chain:
You signed up on June 29, 2007
You are #11554 on the list.
1214 people are ahead of you in line.
17438 people are behind you in line.
35% of the list has been invited so far

Another couple weeks and I should be in. Hope I have all the stash labeled in Flickr by then, so I can just upload and play. Of course I'll have no spare time to play, but... that's life

Happy crafting everyone