Happy New Year

It must be an amazing omen when you come home from a wonderful evening at the Grove on New Years Eve



to find 12 dozen, count them 12 dozen long stem roses. (there where two more of those packs. 6 in all with 2 dozen in each pack)


On your back porch. I am pretty sure they are from a Certain Flower Guru that is in charge of flowers on one of the Roseparade floats. But my oh my. I had to raid the umbrella bucket!



Note: I woke up to two more packs!! This may be the only time in my life that I have 20 dozen roses sitting on my fireplace!!

Happy New Year!!

10 Years Today

Today is my tenth wedding anniversary. Marvel Man and I were talking last night about how time seems to move so fast and slow at the same time. It seems like a lifetime that we have been together and at the same time just yesterday that we met! (there are more wedding pics on the flicker badge on the right side)

I had the most beautiful intimate wedding on Christmas Eve. My parents had sold their stunning Tudor house, moved out so it was empty but not closing escrow until after the 1st of the year.



The living room had a wonderful high vulted beamed celing that looked like a church. There were only about 35 family and friends.



My two boys played recorder with my neighbor on guitar, my dad played flute with the guitar and our dear friends married us.





Then what most of you don't know is that 2 years ago I retired from 25 years of being the director of handbells at my church. After dinner all the guest joined together to sing and ring christmas carols with the bells.We all had so much fun. It was magic form beginning to end and set us on this amazing journey together.



So Happy Anniversary my Marvel Man. I am looking forward to the next 10 years and beyond. I am so lucky to have someone that gets me better then I get myself and supports not only this crazy knitting thing but all the other crazy things I get myself into.



I Love You! Happy Anniversary!

I have Fallen

The ten little elves at my house want a break. I have been knitting and knitting and knitting. So I brought them over to the computer to type for a change of pace. I will but up more picks of all the holiday goodness when it is all finished.

But I have Fallen for Webs and thier pre order of Kauni (cow-nee) yarn.






























I am in love with so many of the projects that are up on Ravelry using this amazing yarn. This Tote is probably my favorite. Makes my felting heart go pitter patter and we have those handles at the store!



Then there are all of the Lace Shawls. For these color changes I would tackle lace!




Color work on the sweaters that looks much harder then it really is















So I have several skeins of several colors on pre-order. Do I have company in my weakened state?

FO Wednesday on Tuesday

I have been a busy christmas elf the last couple of weeks. I am going for fast, fun and easy projects this year and actually knitting for more people then I ever have before. I have made lots of presents for everyone over the years and I have been picky aboout who gets my knitting. But I have to say that I am having a blast knitting small things, even more multiples of the same thing, and being done in a few hours. Can you say "instant gratification" !

Here is what I have so far. I am about half done and still have a few weeks to go. Yeah!!

I have made 4 pairs of fetching.



All of the fetchings are being paired up with either the Dream Swatch Head Warp from knit and tonic,




or the Calorimetry from knitty.



I still have three pairs of Dashings and I am half way done with my second Montego Bay Scarf. I really love this colorway. I am not sure this one will make it out of thes house.



This is the one I have already finished. Both are done out of seasilk from handmaiden.



Merry Ho Ho Ho!!

I Must Be Psychic or Just Psyched

I must have felt the vibes of this book, on it's way to me in the mail yesterday when I was talking about color. Today I got my copy of "Kristin Knits" from Kristin herself, before any of the bookstores have it! The only person that could possibly have it before me would be L. Some how she has the earliest inside scoop to all books and patterns.

I am so excited about the book. It is Nothing but Wonderful Color!!

Over the top, lot's of work involved,
many colors all in one piece kind of color.
It just makes me happy looking at it.

I know this is over the top for some of you out there and will not be your cup of tea. But I have to own up to the fact that I love color and I have to have more of it in my life right now. Even the walls of my house may not be safe!

This book has so many great pictrues, ideas and inspirations it will be awhile before I can make a decision of what to do first. Thank goodness I have the fingerless gloves I talked about yesterday to give me some focus.

Oh no, wait........there are thoughts about designing my own fair isle patterns...................Just playing with swatches and swatches of color!!

No Bunny Killa is gunna stop me now!

I Feel the Need....

I Feel the Need For Color. Not just the easy kind where the yarn does all the work for you. I have had enough of that lately (see the BSJ below).
Not the kind where you just switch between two yarns every two rows, ie: chevron scarf,


mistake ribs scarves,

self fridging shawls .

No I am in the need of real color done by switching the yarn stitch by stitch......yes that is right, I am going to the "Fair Island" of Fairisle knitting and I am going to tackel the "Composed Mitts" in the current Fall 2007 IK magazine. I have been itching to do fairisle for a while now and so there is no time like the present.



I am going to be using Berroco Ultra Alpaca light in 5 colors. Not sure I will stick with these colors but I will start with them.



On the finishing front, Here is BSJ #4. I think this is the wild and crazy one.


No, but wait, I still have a BSJ on my needles all in white.
Someone save me from myself. Or I know who can help.......
just send Bunny Killa after me?

Color on my terms, here I come!!

Star Sighting

I got to be a Beverly Hills tourist today. S and I went to do some mundain dermotology stuff, Booooring, right?
But, since she used to work in the heart of Beverly Hills that is where she still goes, some 10 years later.
So after making ourselves not so beautiful so we can be beauriful, we went shopping in some of the posh stores and for the first time in **&&^%&^% years I actually walked down Rodeo Dr.
Pretty boring actually, just a whole lot of very over priced things that I would never wear if you gave it to me. All boring except for the jewlery stores, I could so some seriouse damage in a few of them.

On the way back home from 90210, going out S's secret back way through the "hood" I see this woman, walking down the street, looking throug mail, black hat and long black coat and I think, " wow, that is a weird mailperson" . We get right up to her and realize that is was Diane Keaton!! I am not one to really get into these things. But, she is one of my Favs and so seeing her was actually exciting!



(this is a stock pic)



On the knitting side I am working on a cheveron scarf sample for the store out of wikiki from Crystal Palace (sort of a thin slubby yarn) and Karabella Lace Merino.



Two very different yarns, different weights and it is turning out really nice.



So don't be afraid to experiament with this pattern and different yarns.

Baby Surprise

I have been working hard knitting samples for the store and for classes. I am going to be teaching Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket at Unraveled this month and next.
So of course it is a good idea to actually knit the thing a few times so that I can make most of the mistakes first, I mean, isn't that why we take a class? So we don't have to figure out the mistakes ourselves?

Here are two of them. The largest size would fit about a 1-2 yrs was done in Berroco Comfort which I loved. It is so soft and squishy.




and the small one, new born size, in Lang Jawoll Jacard sock yarn. The colors and the stripping are so wonderful.







Then I had to make these little botties. You can find the free pattern here.





I have a few more things to knit for the store and then I need to find something that I want to knit for me.

I wonder what it will be?? Not that I don't have a cue full of things to knit over at ravelry. But now I will have to choose something.

Friends Make Anything Beareable

Today at the store I spent part of the day taking out the "green jacket". It was a frustratingly slow process and if I had been at home by myself alcohol would have been involved! But since there were others there to keep me company in my misery it all went rather well. Thank you L, L, & H.

I came home, knitted a few rows with the yarn I had frogged and then decided to put it into the frog pond where it belonged.


Now I will hang it out to dry in the shower for the entire night.


Tomorrow will be a new day and The "Green Jacket" and I will have a fresh start.

New Blogs and Other Things

There are two new blogs in blog-land. I know that there are probably several blogs that start and end every day. But these are two "knit-sibs" that I know and love. Already they are much better bloggers then I am.
They post often!
Imagine that!

They are really great, passionate, obsessed knitters. Lisa, aka mom, knows everything there is to know about yarn, including color names, and could probably open her own shop. She is very talented and has a great color sense (a lot like mine so of course it is great).

Hannah is not only a great innovative knitter, that brings her young, fun, indivual style to everything she does. Did I metion that she is also a great writer.
Put all this together and their blogs promise to be worth reading and subscribing to.

I have started Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. It is pretty simple but for some reason my stitch count kept getting off and I had to basically restart it 3 times. That seems to be my way with new patterns, begin, rip out, begin, rip out and finally begin and then I have it. I look at it as getting the most enjoyment for my yarn dollars!

I finished the Toddler Coat that I am knitting for someone and had it almost sewn up when I realized that I had miss-shaped the two front pieces. I had done arm-hole shaping on both sides!! Why oh why could I have not noticed that while they where still on the needles? Or before I had sewn everything up.

I have timed it out for a day or two and then I have to take out seams and rip-out the two fronts and pretty much start all over again. Alcohol may be needed to get through this one.

I am noticing that I am knitting a lot of baby stuff these days. I wonder if that is one way of mourning that my two grown babies are not coming home for the summer? Hmmmmm

Classes

I have spent a lot of time over the last week getting a new class up and running, "Hairpin Lace Connecting Up".
It is the next class after you learn to make hairpin strips. I did a lot of research on different ways to put together the strips. After making all the samples I spent Friday night writing all the instructions up. This is my favorite join so far.





I had a lot of people in this class and they were all very excited about doing hairpin lace and moving on to bigger projects. We are talking about doing the Stitch Diva Hairpin skirt as a KAL, we'll see.

One of the students found these encredible antique hairpin laces using the thinest thread and real hairpins to make the strips on.







Can you imagine actually doing this? I sure cann't.
But what a treasure, and she gave them to me so I can show them when I teach this class. Thanks Camille!!

Almost done with the cheveron scarf.

I love this thing. I think it is one of my most favorite items that I have made in a while. It just makes me happy to knit with this yarn (koigu) and these colors.

The simple joys are the best, don't you think?

What to Knit

I have been knitting a lot for the store and class samples over the last few months. I am trying to figure out what I really want to be knitting now. I am looking at a sweater for my mom for christmas. It will be fun since I am starting it so early and there is no pressure. But it is more obligation knitting.

I am not even sure what I really want to be knitting.

But while I am trying to figure that out here are some of my FO's.




Flower Hat Pattern in Itty-Bitty Hat book
yarn- rowan hand knit cotton for the hat and Tahki cotton classic for the flowers.

I followed the pattern straight out of the book. I did stitch the flower together on the sides once I had them sewn onto the hat. It seemed to help them lay better. I also did not go all the way around the back for the smallest hat. I felt that the babies would not like laying on the flowers. For the toddler size I would do the flowers all the way around.

Crochet Hat
I used RYC cashsoft which is just wonderful to work with.

This is a felted stash bag I put together with a lot of leftover yarns. Super simple and fun. I lined the bags and put a cardboard bottom on it so it is really sturdy. I used leather handles from Trendsetter that just clip on the bag. I love the handles, there is no sewing and they are really sturdy.



This is a great little crochet bag. I made it with Rowan Tapastry yarn. I don't like the handle too much. I will change it next time.





Last but not least I finished a pair of socks for myself!!
Pattern: From Sensational Socks the slip-stitch rib pattern
Yarn: Socks that Rock Fairground color
Needles: 2 circulars #2
Modifications: None.

So what is next??