Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! If you haven't read today's post by the Yarn Harlot you should. There are a million reasons to give. And hopefully there will be one million dollars of generosity to celebrate in 2009. I gave, please give even if it's a dollar, everything helps (click banner below to help).

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Holidazed Indeed!

I finished these a few days ago, but with the stormy weather we've been having I didn't have enough sun light to take a decent picture. However this morning there was some sun so I took a picture of my new socks Holidazed by Anne Hanson. It was the last installment of the 2008 Rockin' Sock Club (and the first on the club I have knit) the colorway is called Muddy Autumn Rainbow (I love it!).

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And I also signed up for the 2009 club, the designers for next year's club sealed the deal for me.

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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Christmas Come Early

While my friend JD was here on a visit we went up to Cedros Avenue Design District in The City of Solana Beach. It was a great time, there was all the shopping, all the galleries and there was even a farmer's market. We got some really fresh fruit and a great loaf of bread, roasted garlic and goat cheese, from Bread and Cie. Of course we had to shop at Leaping Lotus and I found these, Janice was nice enough to get them for me as part of my Christmas present. Needless to say there is no finer pair of slippers for a knitter that loves wool. Thanks JD you rock!

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

I Won the (Wollmeise) Lottery!!!

If I don't write about this now I may never get to it and since it's half way over I thought I better get to it. I'm a very proud member of the very first Wollmeise sock club. There was a lottery and I signed up thinking that I wouldn't get in (don't do very well with lottery style things) but I was very excited to receive my invoice for the sock club. The details are these, there are four shipments each with it's own theme, in each shipment there are two different skeins of yarn, one pattern, and a few goodies. The yarn and the pattern will be available to the general public in a year (just like STR).

The first shipment came in September the theme was home land (Bavaria for Wollmeise) the colors and pattern was perfect for me. There is something about purple and green that I love more than words can express. The first skein of yarn is called Hollerstaud'n, which is elderberry bush.

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The second skein of yarn is called Buxkranzl (box wreath), very green with it slight hint of brown. I think that I might have to make a forest canopy shawl with this yarn. It reminds me of the forests of New England.

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The pattern that came with the yarn is called I Mog Di it was created by the wonderful Bockstark Knits (if you don't read her blog you should). I love the pattern and love the colorway too. I can't wait to cast on.

The "little extra in our first shipment was not little at all, it was a pair of sock needles from Holz & Stein. Words cannot begin to describe how lovely these needles are. They are made from wood that is used to make cellos I think the ones that I got were made of kingwood. An amazing present for sure. There was also a piece of candy marzipan coated in dark chocolate, not surprising there is no picture of it.

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The second shipment just hit my door about 3 hours ago. This shipment's theme is childhood's dreams. The first skein is called Jultomte which I think might be Swedish version of Santa Claus.

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The second skein is called Saami, it is called this because of the Sámi people (formerly known as the Lapps) are the indigenous people of northern Europe.
If I'm not mistaken the colors of the skein are a reflection of the colors and hues of the clothing of the Sámi people.

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The pattern for this shipment is wonderful, it is called lille bror (little brother) and was created by Yarnissima (I love her patterns and kits). It's great and and I can't wait to make the Saami in this pattern.

In this shipment the little surprise was a small ball of worsted weight yarn with a tiny glass stitch marker I think that it's a pine tree with a red star. There was also I tiny metal cookie cutter (mine was a Christmas tree). It was great to unwind and find something lovely and now a have a little bit of worsted weight to make mini-mittens for my Christmas Tree. There was also a tiny package of Haribo gummie Christmas packages very cute indeed.

So I think that is it, we are half way through the club year and I wish it could go on forever! Thank you Wollmeise I love each and every package, skein, surprise and colorway.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

With a Little Help From My Friend

There has been a whole lot of crafting going on in the last few weeks. First of all I finished my Hemlock Ring Blanket (made famous by Brooklyn Tweed). This pattern was originally a pattern for a doily but made on 10 1/2 needles and with Cascade Ecological Wool (which I HIGHLY recommend, 478 yards for 15 bucks, in many lovely natural shades of wool). I choose the colorway Latte (used 2.5 skeins), and I love the way it turned out. Here is a picture of the blanket on a queen size air bed. IMG_3689

And here is a close up of the center and one of the feather and fan sections. IMG_3694
A big thank you to ItShe for letting me block this at her house on the extra bed (we don't have the room to block it at my house and we don't have an extra bed either). The wonderful things that knitting friends will do for you. She even set of multiple fans in the room to help circulate the air. Thanks ItShe you rock!

Then three friends decided to have babies in the last 3 months (must have been a cold winter in Boston last year). So in order to celebrate their arrivals I made initial painted fabric silhouettes and ones-ies. The instructions for the silhouettes are here, from Martha Stewart of course. I have made over a dozen of these and have loved them all. Here are the basic steps, you get a canvas, get fabric staple to frame, paint it with decoupage glue, then let dry and then paint on it. Here is an example of one I made last week: IMG_3687

Another Martha Stewart craft that I made was the appliqued onesies found here these are also really cute. here is a picture of one of the 8 I made: IMG_3675

My good friend JD who I met in college came to town to soak up some sunshine and take a break from law school. Not only did she learn how to knit, but was so good at knitting she started (and half way finished) a wonderful scarf made out of Rio de la Plata in a nice celery green kettle dyed (half off might I add). She took to it immediately, a natural knitter I tell ya. She was also looking for a really nice winter hat while she was here (in San Diego) needless to say she couldn't find one so I made her one, here is a picture of the hat IMG_3655
I have one last thing, I actually cast-on my first pair of socks from the Socks that Rock sock club fro the year. Very exciting, love the color and the pattern. Pictures later.