Clap On.... Fetch Off!

FO ALERT!!! I finally got my Fetching mitts off the needles yesterday! For those of you non-Ravlers, I used 1 strand each of Zitron Ecco & Heirloom Alpaca held together, which made for a very dense, soft fabric that I'm sure is going to be quite warm! Some pics... first a couple from the second mitt in progress during my snow/ice day last week...


Coffee, Rachael Ray and knitting... what could be better? Now for the finished product...

With Fetching off the needles, I cast on my Clapotis for the Fashionably Late in '08 KAL (have you signed up yet???). Nothing really much to see here just yet, but its a start. You can see the yarn (SWTC Amerah in Vineyard colorway) I chose and my new Peace Fleece needles (I needed some new size 8's and I just love these needles... what better excuse?).

Of course, I didn't need to cast on yet another wip, as I still have plenty, but since I did sign up for the KAL. Speaking of wip's, I picked up my Cabin Fever tank a couple weeks ago for some Wednesday night knitting. I'm still in the never ending ribbing from hell section... not too exciting.

Then there's the Loopy Ewe Celebratory Socks...

There's plenty more of UFO's stashed all around my living room, but that's it for photographic evidence today (I've had a slight case of startitis again). Instead, I'll share with you another FO, just of a different crafty variety. I took a beading class on Saturday and made this gorgeous set...

You like? I'm wearing it today... Not only was it a fun class, it was a great Saturday afternoon spent with wonderful ladies, yummy food, good coffee and beading! Of course I couldn't not pick up a few new things (including those Peace Fleece needles above)... Wanna see something yummy??!! When Joanne had her girls shorn last year, she got their fleece spun into some fantastic yarn that she is now sharing!

On the left is the 80/20 mix of Josie (jacob sheep) and Bonnie & Gracie (angora bunnies) ... and on the right is 100% Harriet (shetland sheep). Aren't her girls gorgeous? She has a limited supply available at the shop and is planning to have more spun later this spring after their next shearing. I already have a fun project in mind for my yarn, but will keep it to myself until I get started... hee hee!

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday... and thank you to everyone who has voted for the dogs in the Spay Day photo contest! Please keep the votes coming (you can vote using as many different email addresses as you have/know)! I just downloaded a bunch of new photos of them, but will share later... in the meantime, Charlie is Home!!! I've been following Operation Bring Charlie Home for some time now and could not be happier for Charlie and Sgt Watson - please read the article (the first link)!

A Sculptor, I am not

I'm still playing a little catch up with blog posts and today its all about the "Going to the Dogs" needle felting class I took at Halcyon Yarn a week & a half ago. I got up at some awful hour earlier than usual (after a night out at the TSO concert mind you!) and drove the 2+ hours North by myself... through sun, clouds and even snow!

Shh... don't tell Matt I took these photos while driving. He may not approve of my unique skill of photoing-while-driving in snow squalls.... mind you, I think its quite a talent! You're probably wondering why I even took photos.. well, it was the first snow I'd seen of the season... around the Portsmouth area and I just felt like documenting the trip (side note: we got our first snow fall of the season here in Southern New Hampshire today, though just a dusting).

I'm not big on bridges, but I always find driving over this one that leads from New Hampshire into Maine interesing.

I actually made it to Halycon early for the class (even after a MickeyD's pit stop!), surprisingly! For anyone who knows me, you know I am so not a morning person and I often have that running-late thing going on. But alas, I made it a bit early and met Lisa there for the class. Our instructor was the wonderful Marianne Dubois, who brought along several of her gorgeous creations for us to oooohhhh & aaahhhh over!

She's been in to dragons lately... this one was my favorite!

We started the class making a basic, fun dog. The object was to make a standing dog of fun colors. Well, I quickly learned that cursing does not help your needling I wasn't cut out to be a sculptor. My doggy came out nearly twice the size he was supposed to be and I had quite the time "sculpting," but in the end I was pretty happy with the cute fella... though he still needs some more needling and finishing touches to be complete.

Here's Lisa and I (click each for additional photo) showing off our first doggies of the day.

You can clearly see her's is much nicer (and more of normal size!) than mine. She's definitely got a talent for needle felting!

The second part of the class was to sculpt a standing dog that was to be more realistic. Damn, the class got difficult! Again, a sculptor I am not... but I gave it a go and I will pick it up again after I finish all this crazy holiday knitting. Marianne was very patient, though it was clear some people (ah-hum... Miss Lisa!) got it more than others. Now I know why I knit.... but again, I will pick it back up soon and work on it. I want to get the Fleece Dog book (hello, Santa... are you out there?) and work with it. Will. Get. The. Hang. Of. This.

At the end of the day, we left with this (and lots of roving to finish at home with). That's my mess creations on the right and Lisa's to the left.

That black blob of a mess is supposed to be the start (inside portion - which is only black because it'll be covered on the outside by black and apparently the usual inside of white shows thru when felting over with black... did you follow all that?) is supposed to be my Lola... or maybe Teutul... as you can see, it can turn in to whichever one at this point.

They didn't have any blonde-ish fleece for us so I couldn't start out with a Zeus...

Marianne also realized this should probably be a 6 hour class next time (ours was a 5 hour class with a lunch break). We were her first class working on the dogs and apparently they take much more time than her usual felted starter animals... go figure! It was a great class and I did learn a lot. It was great to spend the day with Lisa too!

Maine Yarn Crawl!

Sorry for the delay in posting the details ... but alas, I bring you the Maine Yarn Crawl Joanne and I did just over a week ago! The main attraction? A wonderful Double Knitting class at Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine. The extra goodyness? 3 more yarn shops to puruse!

Our day started with iced coffee (you simply just can not start a day or leave home without it, right?) and on-the-go breakfast from McDonald's and then we headed North! First stop was The Knitting Experience Cafe, a great little shop with lots of charm and very friendly staff. The owner wasn't in when we visited, but her lovely sister was.

There were lots of yummy yarns, great patterns and fabulous bags on hand, but alas due to my "budget" I walked away crying held back from most of the purchases I could've made and came away with a cute Anklet Sock pattern and Wick yarn (to make the socks), both from Knit One Crochet Too.

Joanne picked up a beautiful shawl pattern while we were there and we both admired the adorable mini sweaters, dresses, socks & more hanging in the store window. We also thought the big comfy couch was wonderful for sitting and looking thru patterns ... and Joanne vowed to return home to clean off the couch in the front room of her yarn shop to make room for sitting (instead of using it to display baskets of yarn)! Great idea!!

Next stop was the super cool, Purl Diva! Her logo alone was enough for us to say "a must stop," but the selection of yarns, patterns and notions was a pleasant surprise! Wonderful!

Once again, I am proud to say I exhibited much restraint in my purchases. I figured I'd limit myself to only things Matt wouldn't notice as being "new" in the house things I couldn't readily get at one of my LYS or things I absolutely could not live without (again... I'm learning that whole budget thing, not to mention space/storage issues!). Joanne once again walked away with just 1 pattern (the lovely Tulip sweater), while I wound up with just 2 skeins of yarn (after picking up and returning about 20 to their respective bins)...

I feel in love with the softness of Smooshy sock yarn from Dream in Color - omg, this stuff is delicious!!! With no pun intended, I opted for the delicious sounding colorway of Chinatown Apple. I also grabbed a skein of Donegal Tweed in a purple/wine colorway, which will is slated to become a felted clutch from the One Skein book. Joanne and I both thought Purl Diva's logo was wicked awesome ... don't you? They have the infamous hat on display inside... on a water cooler of all things!

Now of course, I couldn't leave without having my Knitting Queen pose with the Purl Diva...

As we were leaving, the lady at Purl Diva asked if we'd made it over to Ewe & Me yet... we hadn't had it on our list, but decided to give up the idea of a sit down lunch in favor of stopping at another yarn shop (and instead unintentionally made our 2nd visit to McDonald's for the day for some more driving food - oh, the sacraficies we make for yarn stores!!!)...

Ewe & Me is a quaint little shop (who shares a buildling with a bank) with a different selection of yarns and patterns - a lot of older stuff. We were promptly greeted by 2 tiny doggies (Japanese Chins I believe) and then realized we recognized the owners from the Knit In at Loon Mountain! We both walked away with only patterns this time - I got "The Heirloom Knitter Presents Heavenly Cotton Face Cloths Vol. 2" and Joanne picked up Vol. 1... it'll be fun to make some fancy-spanchy face cloths!

After that we got our Mickey D's and headed to Halcyon so we wouldn't be late for class! The class... Double Knitting ... wonderful! The only "complaint" would've been that it could've easily been a 4 hour class (it was 3) and/or we had wished we were given the cast on instructions prior to class, so as not to take away from the actual class time. But regardless, we both walked away having learned a lot and were quite pleased! Our instructor was the lovely Ruth...

She brought some wonderful samples of headbands she had knitted and you can sort of see them in front of her in that picture. We worked on a basic headband for the class and she gave us an instruction booklet for some more intricate designs to try later on. It is a very time consuming technique, especially as you're first learning. It was even more so for myself, as instead of holding both yarns in my right hand, I opted to try to learn to hold on in each hand ... so I was essentially trying to learn to knit continental and double knit at the same time. Here's my work in progress during class...

After class, we went downstairs to shop til we dropped ... or rather, shop til we got kicked out by the absolutely rude cashier! She was the only one left at 1 minute til 6 - they closed at 6 and she made it quite clear with comments and eye rolls that she really didn't want to ring us up and just wanted to leave. However, I won't let her poor customer service reflect on the store, as everyone else we encountered during our class & shopping was wonderful, and after an overcharging incident for which the rude woman refused to fix, I left my name & number and received a prompt call at 9am on Monday morning to appologize profusely and let me know they were crediting me the overcharged amount)!

So the goods... I did pick up a few more things here than originally planned, however they armed us with 10% off your entire purchase coupons, so what do you expect??? After all - did you notice the great restraint I had at the 3 previous yarn stores??? My Halcyon haul...

On the left, 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca 100% baby alpaca, hand dyed in the fall-ish colorway IND2 (I tried to link this from Misti Alpaca's site and for some reason this yarn isn't on there - I am unsure if they no longer produce it or what??). This is super soft and is destined for a long scarf... I think. On the right, 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca worsted in peony.... for a pair of fingerless mitts or maybe regular gloves. In the middle, 1 hank of Noro Cash Iroha in color 22 (that was on clearance!) and 1 hank of Malabrigo Col China 100% angora that is to die for... ooooh... so very soft. My plan is to combine these 2 together for something... probably a scarf because I can't think of what else would make sense. Ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Well, there you have it folks... one of the best days ever with a wonderful friend (and knitting queen!), great weather, scenic drive (um, which accidentally included Massachusetts on the way home... however that was a "design modification," right Joanne?), good stash enhancement and a wonderful class! Can't wait to do it again!

Now as I was photoing all the yummy yarns for this post, I spotted this guy on the other side of the porch. Feeling the need to play with the super zoom on the digital camera (and maybe secretly hoping the camera would shoot some death ray at him?!?!), I snapped this...

That is super zoom folks... anyone who knows me knows I do NOT do bees, hornets, spiders or snakes... so super zoom. Pretty cool, huh? I'm impressed with the camera if I do say so myself. I took a few scenic shots that'll I'll share as well...

Spotted this plane "sky writing" while photoing the yarn...

View of the willow tree from the deck out back...

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I wanted to mention that sign ups are beginning Aug. 15th for the next Felted Bag Exchange. This one looks like fun and I'm planning to participate. Also, it looks as though my Mom will get to go home tomorrow and then have a visiting nurse. No official results yet, but they said we'd get them on Tueday.

A Day of Knitting & Stash Enhancement!

Saturday was my first time attending the annual Granite State Knit In and it was a day filled with knitting, fiber and friends -- and some yummy food too! I was elected to drive and headed up to Loon Mountain (a pretty drive, though much more interesting in the fall) with Joanne, Marlene and Marlana at the crack of dawn. We met up with Lisa and a few other familiar faces there... signed in and it was immediately off to classes (after grabbing the must have cup of coffee... did I mention we left at the crack of dawn!!??).

Marlene and I took a 2 hour "Finishing With a Difference" class which was interesting, then I had my "Knitted Beaded Earrings" class. It wasn't really a class per say, but more of buying a kit and following along with the very simple and quick pattern. The instructor was there if you had questions, but that was about it. They were fun and very easy to make though. Here is the pair I made in class...

Cute (despite being difficult to photograph well)? They'll make quick and easy gifts if I can figure out some friends & family that would wear them (hint: if you like them, speak up!)...

After classes, it was time for lunch and I was impressed! Joanne had said the lunch was yummy, but I wasn't expecting things like baked fish, spinach & strawberry salad, perfectly steamed broccoli & carrots and delicious rolls (and more!). It was good! After lunch it was time to SHOP! I was quite impressed with my self control frugal and walked around the vendor area a couple of times before deciding on my purchases, which were very few.

I got a kit to make a 2nd pair of the earrings (this one has the beading needle included which my one from class did not) and also a kit for a knit beaded Christmas ornament.

My only other vendor purchase was a bit of a treat however. I scored a skein of Mountain Colors sock yarn in a gorgeous, deep, dark colorway (which the name is escaping me at the moment) that I had eyed since my first visit to that table.... and the real splurge/treat, an absolutely beautiful skein of Great Adirondack Yarn's Sireno, 675 yards of a super soft 50% silk/50% wool (again I forgot to write down the colorway name). I was going back and forth on this one and which colorway to get, but both Joanne & Lisa though the colors were perfect for me and my plan is a nice fall shawl (for which I am now searching for the perfect pattern - any suggestions are much appreciated!). I also grabbed 2 pairs of Brittany needles in sizes I needed...

I did pretty good with the self control, no? I did purchase one of the huge tote bags that I understand was last year's goody bag/gift - and I'm glad I grabbed mine before lunch because there were only a handful out and I guess that was all that was left because I ran in to about a dozen people after with the "I wish I got one in the morning before they were gone." This bag is big enough to run away from home with bigger than any other knitting or tote bag I own - I actually put the knitting tote I brought inside, along with both of my purchase bags and my goody/gift bag they gave this year ... and still had room! Here's the bag along with the contents of this year's gift bag, which included a GSKI bookmark, a skein of yarn, a nifty needle sizer that looks like a jewler's ring sizer, and more ...

I also spent $5 on raffle tickets... and got 15 free from the 2 hats I donated. This is the carousel hat that I donated and entered in to the hat contest...

After days of trashing all of the button sections of AC Moore, Michael's and Joanne's Fabric searching for carousel horse buttons and coming up empty handed, I used some farm ponies, lambs and cows. Sadly, my hat did not finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd.... part of me wants to complain because it appears they put out the ballot box before all of the hats were on the table to judge (including mine!). I had at least 3 people tell me that they had already voted (1 vote per person) and that my hat was not out at the time they voted. Darn it. I also did not win anything from the wonderful raffle prizes either. Actually, none of us won anything and Joanne was even helping draw the numbers. Some girls won multiple raffle items... one girl must've walked away with 5 or 6! Guess now I know why people were buying miles and miles of those little tickets...

I might not have won anything, but at least I know my hats are going to a good cause and I especially hope the carousel hat brings joy to a needy little one (I forgot to photo my second donation hat, but it was just a simple blue infant hat)! My kids despised were reluctant models Friday night after I finished it up...

That's Lola on the left and Zeus on the right... Teutul was too macho to wear the baby hat (or maybe still embarrased by that bib photo)!

The low point of the day - get this! - I forgot to bring a WIP to the knit in to work on during the speaker/raffle and down time. Oopsie! It would've been nice to have something to work on while Lisa worked her felted grapes, Marlene worked on her baby sweater and ... the woman next to Lisa kept dozing off! I hate to laugh, but it was pretty funny. She was even knitting and would doze off, jump when her head started to fall and then doze again. Talk about entertainment! I also forgot to bring the digital camera, but instead had the dinosaur old fashioned film camera. Which means I'll have photos to post in time for next year's Knit In I can't post pictures until I finish the roll, get it developed, pick up the photos....

I made up for the lost knitting time yesterday by casting on a dishcloth (my first "round" one) for the lovely lady I get to spoil in the Summer Dishcloth Swap and making a new mini sock for my sock blocker keychain (I figured it was time for some springy colors and since my wonderful secret pal spoilee sent me a great mini sock stash, I had to get knitting). Here's the dishcloth in progress, as well as my ankle sock (in Sereknity Triple Scoops) which I worked on just a bit over vacation...

And here's the new mini sock, done in the springy colorway Foofaraw from Blue Moon Fiber (hey, does that mean that my mini sock blocker now rocks??)... and the "out with the old, in with the new pic..."

Question for my fellow mini sock knitters... what do you do with your old socks when you remove them for a new one? I'm trying to think of something more creative than just tossing them all in a basket... ideas?

I also wanted to share my little stash enhancement from just before I left for vacation. Joanne had a great sale over at A Knitter's Garden and I brought home 3 skeins of Wool in The Woods and a beautiful, luxurious hank of baby pink alpaca. I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do with the wool yet, but am thinking about making a lace dog paw print scarf with the alpaca. Isn't it gorgeous ~ if only they had touch-o-vision for blogs!

Joanne also had a fun and brain-jerking word scramble contest as part of her sale and guess what? I won! Yes, I did win something! I got my lovely prize on Saturday... a yummy strawberry shortcake bath set, complete with 2 of the softest hand towels ever. Thanks Joanne!

Footsies, Flowers & FO's --- oh my!

Greetings from a very wet and chilly New England! Our Nor'Easter started out with rain, then turned to snow for a bit and back to rain.... and more rain... and more rain is forecast for pretty much the rest of the week. Hello, Miss Mother Nature... did you miss my last post??? I'll spare you the photos of my wet basement and instead share the view out my window.

So, despite the friggin' stinking, dreadful rain cold and wetness, at least we have power today. I had taken yesterday off with intentions of getting some spring cleaning and other things around the house done... Yea, not so much! I found it a bit difficult to vacuum with no power. Fortunately, we were only out for 8 friggin hours most of the day though... Heather and Joanne didn't get theirs back until this afternoon.

I did manage to get some knitting done yesterday and actually do have 2 FO's to show you! First up, my Cabled Footsies from One Skein in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the beautiful Tuscany colorway. (feel free to ignore the snazzy pj pants!)

After I finished them, I got extra ambitious. I cast on and finished a matching mini sock for my sock blocker key chain (all while the man was still sleeping, mind you!). What do you think?

This was the first (of many to come!) mini socks for me and I have to say, working on size 0 DPN's with worsted weight yarn... not so much fun! Kinda like trying to vacuum with no power. Matt seemed to like the mini sock and even encouraged me to do some for Christmas ornaments ... hhmm, maybe instead of the usual bows & gift tags this year, we'll have sock tags!

So what socks to cast on next? I've already wound up my Sereknity Three Scoops, but now I have 3 skeins of my very own hand dyed yarn to play with too! Decisions, decisions... and back to that hand dyed yarn.... I had a lovely time at the Cherry Tree Hill yarn dying workshop at Yarn & Fiber on Saturday with some fellow ManchVegas knitters, including Heather, Gina, Ericka and Sarah from Pittsfield (whom it was great to finally meet!).

Here's Cheryll from CTH, along with her very helpful daughter!

The class might've been a little big for such an event (a bit over 20), but Cyndi kept the shop together and Cheryl kept things moving along (she started by saying she usually doesn't do classes that are only 3 hours long, which I could see as a longer class may've left those of us who were completely new to dying with a little bit better of an understanding). I do feel like I picked up the basics and had a lot of fun, but as Ericka mentioned over on her blog, I don't think I'm ready just yet to clean and make room to dye in take over the whole kitchen just yet (paging Miss Heather... how about a group dying day?? lol). We got to dye in groups of 7 and here are a few pictures of the action and the patient waiting.

I got to dye 3 skeins - 1 fingering weight and 2 sport weight. Here's how my messes turned out...

The bottom hank (blues, pinks, purples) was my first ever attempt at dying yarn. Cheryll asked us all to name our colorway before we even set foot near the dye table... this is "Jazzy Jewels." The middle hank was my second creation that I'm now calling "Autumn Road" and the top hank was my "mistake" hank (I got 2 wound together and didn't realize it until yellow dye had already been placed on both of them... yikes!), dyed at the very end of the class when the dye was scarce and almost all containers completely empty. I'm calling this one "Madi Gras." So what do you think at my first ever attempts at hand dying?

An interesting tidbit... Cheryl taught us to never throw away the left over water, run off or what one might consider "grime" from dying. What one (or at least I) would think to throw down the drain, she calls "exhaust" and uses to dye her Potluck (one-of-a-kind) skeins, of which she brought along lots for us to browse. Here they are, along with several samples of her work.

I was as reserved as a well trained dog at the White House good and scooped up just one skein. I wasn't even going to get the 1, but it was the one skein I was eyeing while chatting with Gina before class began and it was still there at the end of the day, so...

As you can see, I also picked up 3 skeins of Meditation for what will probably be a scarf and size 4 needles to start my headband (still haven't decided if I will do the Amanda or the Jacqueline but I did wind up my Sereknity "Lilacs In Bloom" yarn last night, so I had better choose one soon). Those purchases don't really count though... you see, the bag really wasn't big enough for Matt to show concern or notice more yarn coming in the house!

Speaking of my honey, look at the burst of color he brought home to me on Friday... I think he was trying to cheer me up from having dropped Dustee (who I got to visit for a bit on Sunday... which made me smile lots!) off to his new forever home the night before. So now I'll share it with my fellow NH knitas, as I'm quite sure you need a burst of color today!

Are you smiling a little bit and trying not to look out the window now? If not, let's try this one... it seems as though whenever I'm trying to photograph for the blog lately, a nose, tail or paw seem to pop up in the pictures... this time I got a little more.

Stay dry... stay warm... and keep this thought in mind... if April Showers Bring May Flowers, just what the heck do April Snow Storms and Nor'Easters bring??