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D, J & I spent a cloudy Sunday watching P&P, knitting and eating. 6 hours.

KP&S Bolero is on hold. Bobbie selected the colors for KnittaPalooza 2008 from The Purled Llama and I'm working on a new pattern in sock weight yarn. "Trony". A shawl/scarf. Named after an aunt. I do love the color. It will be revealed next month.

I do apologize for not getting back to moderating my comments. Thank you ladies for the well wishes on my blogaversary. I do have the moderate comments turned on. You wouldn't want to read some of the spam I received. Let's just say they're not knitting related.

What have I been doing?

Opening boxes, entering new yarn data, printing labels, putting labels on new yarns and then trying to figure out where we're going to put it at
Ewe Knit Kits. Rowan, Plymouth, Berroco, Filatura Di Crosa and a few more. And new patterns and books.

We now have the store almost seperated into animal and vegtable. On your left (as you enter) are corn, cotton, bamboo, soy. Quite a few "green" yarns. On your right, sheep, alpaca, llama, goat. We haven't moved the sock yarn or the acrylic...yet. And I guess the milk that should be here soon will go with the animal?

I'm knitting like mad to get Shrek finished before Thursday. Here he (are sweaters he or she's?) this morning with the color waaay off.

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Basic pattern from KP&S #9725 with the cables from Knitty's Mr. Greenjeans. I added cables to the cuffs, bottom, and collar. The button bands will be in 4x2 ribbing. The yarn is Takhi's Donegal Tweed and was so nice to work with. Now if you don't like "itchy" wools this is not for you, but it doesn't bother me.

Why finish by Thursday? I'll be teaching a class cleverly titled, I might add, "A Sweater Before Spring" Thursday night, 6:00-8:00. We'll be using the KP&S neckdown patterns. I'll be knitting the Woman's Bolero with Rowan's Summer Tweed color 525 a periwinkle. I can't find it in the list, it's a new color for this season. So if you're in the area for the next 4 weeks, join us.

It's my blog-aversary!

January 29, 2003......Happy 5th Anniversary to my blog! And thank you, kind readers, for sticking around through the lean blogging times.



I have not planned a contest, or yarn give away.



So celebrate with me and spend 5 hours knitting today. No interuptions. No getting up. 5 hours of knitting.

Or if 5 hours is not an option...how about 30 minutes? What ever the knitting time, enjoy!



Bailey says: Knit all you want, just give me a few carrots before you sit down because I can stand in front of the fridge all day.

April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008

Start-itis & Continu-itis

I had a major need to start new projects in the past few weeks.

A neckdown Cardigan from Knitting Pure & Simple. I'm using Tahki-StCharles Donegal Tweed. I named it Shrek the Irish Cardi. I began this cardi right before Bobbie returned from TNNA with the news that Diane Soucy of KP&S had released the Woman's version of the Child's Bolero. You can see both on the KP&S site. We're expecting the pattern this week. I promised myself I wouldn't cast on for it until Shrek was completed. And I'm trying not to pre-shop for yarn. It's hard though.

Right before Bobbie left, I heard about a new sock yarn concept by Paradise Fibers called "Flat Feet". And being a sock knitter Bobbie scouted out and found them at TNNA. We'll be receiving our shipment soon.

The yarn is pre-knit into a "blanket" (my description) or a "scarf" (Maureen's description after I said "it would make a nice scarf too" Maureen said "it's already a scarf"). You pull out a holding thread and the sock yarn unravels as you knit. It does not unravel on it's own, you do have to give it a gentle tug.



The result is a crinkled yarn (because after all you are frogging). And of course I had to cast-on. I swatched on US3's and it was much too lose for socks, but a nice fabric. Pulled out my 7" US1's & the extra 5" from my other 2 socks (see below) and cast on. The crinkled yarn seems to make this still a loose knit on 1's. I'll knit a few more inches and then block, as the directions indicate, to see what happens. So far the only downside I've found is that when I frogged I didn't have a ball to wind the yarn around until it was reknit.

So to get myself through the need to shop for yarn, I decided to join the Quant KAL held at Ewe Knits and lead by Donna yesterday. I used Crystal Palace Taos so pictures would look just like Knitty. Just imagine only 2 rows knit.

Now prior to casting on for Shrek, I had the need to knit lace and the Flared Lace Smoke Ring from HeartStrings called out from my stack of patterns. It also helped that someone pulled it out of the binders at Ewe Knits and left it on the table. So, armed with natural colored sock yarn, I cast on. It's a fun knit. A little tricky there at first, so many markers were utilized. But now I'm at the repeating of the final chart of 8 rows until it's as long as you want, so it's a nice tv project.

Speaking of TV, heard last night that Big Brother is starting in February! My favorite reality tv show! I could so be on it! Of course, I'd add to my contract that I'd have to bring my knitting.

There are other items on the needle and I have actually pulled them out and started to knit on them again.

Toe up socks. They were on Magic Loop but I just wasn't feeling it. So, off to double points. There's another sock at the same point. So just look at this twice.

And My Favorite Shawl in Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool .

So you're caught up. Of course this will change as the new yarns and patterns start to come into Ewe Knits. Did I tell you Bobbie has ordered all of the Elizabeth Zimmerman DVD's and books from Schoolhouse Press including the reprint Barbara Abbey's Lace book. I'm soooo in trouble.

Mr Greenjeans...aka Dec07

On Dec 3rd I frogged this and cast for Mr Greenjeans. With a few modifications (narrowed the sleeves, knit body cables on US8 and added a few rows to the button band) it was soon time for a bath and a dry and was worn on Dec 27th!

No pictures of acutal wearage yet.

For me, Mr. Greenjeans as written, is a bit to deep of a V. It teneded to slip off my shoulders when I reached and moved around. It fits well in the body. Would a smaller size have been better on me? Perhaps I'll marry it with the Knitting Pure & Simple "Summer Cardigan"

more this and that

=

1 tablespoon of popcorn kernels + 1 brown paper lunch sized bag + 2 1/2 min on high in a microwave = 1 cup of popped kernels

This is important when you can have 1 cup as a "free" food on NutriSystem. And when you add a squirt of liquid ICBINB you've got a tasty treat. Okay, I haven't tried the ICBINB but I read it's tasty.


of course, Christmas Gingerbread mini muffins cancel the effort





Bought myself a couple of Christmas gifts.....



and Knitting New Scaves by Lynn Barr. I can't wait to try her new-to-me techniques. And a Pilates mat with the 25% off coupon from B&N.

And on my New Year's gift to myself list are: Cover Up, Knitting America and Kristin Knits.