Calling Issac Newton ...

I started and finished this lil hat so fast, I didn't even get a chance to add it to my "on the needles" list!

The Apple of Our Eye hat was made for my newest niece, Izzabella Josephine, born in January. Sadly, I won't have a chance to actually meet her until November but until then she can be touched by something made with love from Auntie. Her dark beautiful hair will so cute peeking from under it!

Congratulations!

A very happy sparkly pixie dust congratulations to the lovely and talented crochet/knitting maven, Vickie Howell! She and her hubby have just welcomed into the world, a beautiful new little girl ... Clover Sophia.

Visit her twitter to follow her updates, or check out her craft.rock.blog to become more inspired (and even more fearless!)

Congrats, Vickie!
xoxo

look out ... another new knitter casts on!

I'm working on row after row of garter stitch for an apple hat for my newest niece so it's perfect, "mindless", knitting. Molly can bug me about anything in the world as I work on this hat and I cant futz it up! Anyway, she absolutely loves the knitting song so many new knitters learn to remind themselves how to do a knit or purl stitch. We sang it over and over yesterday, and then she finally decided she was just gonna take over the project!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Wee Tiny Sock Club!

... and you can win a membership! How fun is that?!

Visit Darcy's Knotty Knitter blog for details on the uber easy way you can enter and win this super sweet give away brought to you by Meg of Blogless No More and Darcy from Darcy's Knotty Knitter.

From Meg: "As a member of the Summer 2009 Wee Tiny Sock Club, you will receive a package in the mail each month this Summer, June, July and August. Each package will be based around a different summer theme ..."

Check out either Darcy or Meg's blog for further details about the membership and give away! You have until June 7th at midnight!

Happy knitting!

Five for Friday

Five things that have made my day, or week in this case!

#1 - a strawberry with legs

#2 - upon arriving @ Monday night knitting, for no reason other than pure kindness out of another knitter's heart, I received 2 hanks of Vintage Purls sock yarn and a small skein to make a tiny sock! He said it was a "congratulations" for completing my first sock! SMOOCH!
#3 - in my mail today, the green stone pendant I won in the Phat Fiber/Ambrosia and Bliss give away, arrived!
#4 - I'm so happy! I am loving my shrug! Just about halfway done!
#5 - On her way from NY to CA, Remy our "best man" and DD's "god father" enjoyed a layover at our place. Yep, she always sleeps with that dang penguin (and her Blackberry too!)

what did I do this weekend?

We picked strawberries from our yard
worked my in progress shrug every chance I got ...
we have a shoulder!
Had my very first mammogram.
No excuses, ladies. This was the easiest thing I have ever done!
Finished my very first sock!!!

and most importantly ...
IT FITS!

And made a super cool wristy for my 23 month old

She'll only be 2 in June but, I began teaching her the knitting song as I was going along a knit row ...

under the fence
around the barn
catch the sheep
and off we leap!

She loved it, and I cant wait till she is my knitting buddy!

Now, go hug your veteran or enlisted soldier. Hooah! Go Army!

Phat Fiber ... enabling and lurve!

I am looking at my blog, and I cant believe I didn't blog this give away! But I'm certain I tweeted it! :)

On the 20th, Phat Fiber (my favorite enabler) featured an Ambrosia and Bliss give away of a green stone pendant. If you haven't dropped by the Etsy store yet, why on earth would you deny yourself any longer?!

hand created pearl and filigree treasure

Onto my story ... I'm the one who won the green stone pendant give away! Check the link to see if you also might have been a winner in one of their fabulous give aways for the week! Phat Fiber lists a new give away nearly every day featuring talented and unique artists!

I don't know whether to take a big juicy bite, or cast on!

"faking it" lace scarf in the finished column

I call it "faking it" because I used lace weight rayon boucle, but didn't use a "lace" pattern. I simply used size 8 needles and garter stitched the whole way. Boring? Well, yeah. But it was a non intimidating way for me to use an extremely light weight yarn for the very first time.

After binding off, I hand washed it and planned on blocking it to open up the pattern and give it a breezy look. Breezy and soft it is but, the yarn wants to stay skinny and wouldn't take a typical blocking. It's been suggested that I "kill it" and see if that works. If anyone has ever done that successfully with rayon boucle, let me know!

the great sock saga ... saved!

My very first sock, that I thought I might lose just this time last week has redeemed itself! In other words, I got my knit shit together and made it work! ;) With the help of an experienced knitter, the 3 dropped and laddered stitches at one side have been rescued. I'm tellin ya, newer knitters ... dont be afraid to ask (or holler, or cry, even if you have to!)



I am well on my way to finishing this baby up for show off @ Monday night's Panera meet up!

WWYK?

Where would you knit on World Wide Knit In Public day?

Grab your knit buddies and go make a few more. SEE as the crowd walking by gawks at you! Be astounded at the strange looks and gasps you will no doubt encounter! It's not as if you're standing over an air grate with a skirt on sans panties ... but from the odd looks, you might think you were ;)

WWKIP day is "officially" June 13th. But because of The United States' National Needle Arts Association's bi-annual conference taking place at the same time, a lot of very enthusiastic knitters won't be able to participate. To spread the love, World Wide Knit in Public Day has become a two weekend event. Tune in and cast on June 13th & 14th, and June 20th & 21st.

Level of skill is no matter! If you've knit in groups before you know better than other folks who think "knitting is for grannies". We're the crowd your mother warned you about ;)

(never) idle hands

During my sock hiatus, my hands were almost screaming to knit something! As a gift from our Knitting in Alexandria "bunny swap" last month, I had received a hank of some delicious Fannie's Fingering Weight yarn in colorway "Chocolate Covered Cherries". (you remember this one ... I originally CO a Clapotis using it, but then frogged it) Well, I love pink and this yarn feels divine - 80% merino, 20% nylon - it would make luxurious socks!

This generous gift is turning into my latest wip ... what I call my "Cherry Cupcake Summer Shrug".

Here she is, basking in the sun

Close up of the pattern. Simple Lace Shrug by Lisa Sisk @ This Is Knit

And sometimes the unexpected happens when you're not looking.

Yep I'm uncertain what exactly happened on Saturday evening. I had been KIP on the Metro, gaining progress and happy to be representin'. I picked it back up at home when I had time to myself, completed a few more rows, and stood back to view my handy work and .... bam!, a ladder unraveled right in front of my eyes! I let loose the movie epic "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" and did what I would to save a few loops on a safety pin. So, it's not "perfect", but it's mine.

Being me, I refused to frog back and rework it. With some thread and after blocking, I have hopes I can make it seem like not a single thing went awry.

The lesson? Yeah it's just yarn. But it's my yarn ;)

you drive me crazy!

Back when I was happy! :) A day or two before I turned the heel ...

goin' good! last night

partially fragged ... fallen & disappearing stitches and all

What happened, you ask? Well everything was going fine (that's when you should begin to worry, by the way) I had turned the heel, picked up my stitches and began my decrease rows to hit my magic number again. I reached 32 on needle #1, and then decided to continue to decrease work on needle #2 ... not thinking that doing so would move my working yarn away from needle #1. About 10 rows later, it hit me!

To try and remedy the problem, because I hadn't done a "life line" of any sort, I took a free needle and tried to pick up stitches back where I should have continued knitting my rows together. That's all well and good but, being partially distracted, trying to entertain my 22 month old, hungry and anxious because I love my first sock, is not a good combination for trying to fix a boo boo when you're not very good at fixing boo boos.

In the process I lost stitches, some ended up falling off the end of the needle, hiding away. Oh yay, the beauty of sock yarn! (groan)After bedtime for the little one, I took at it again with a sewing needle and dental floss to be sure I didn't split anymore already upset frogged yarn, and straighten out as much as I could on needle #2. i was pretty sure my stitch count should be around 52 for #2, and ended up with 49 ... close enough for government work!

I've got a few rows redone. it's not as perty as it was before this fiasco but I'm happy my first sock is still intact. And ... I still have one sock to go LOL That one will be the "perfect" one, right? Maybe I should just name sock one, "the ugly sister". :)

so much good stuff! Phat Fiber give away!

For regularity, get yer daily fiber! Phat Fiber is featuring another faboo yarn give away and this time it's (try to control your drooling) 4oz of Greenwood Fiberworks "Watercolors" merino roving! Greenwood has roving, as well as hand spun yarn that arrives ready-to-rock on your needles for your chosen project.

Visit Phat Fiber Sampler Box and enter! Good luck!

What things do moms like? Why, give aways, of course!

If you're a yarn ho ... and you know you could very easily become one given the right amount of zeros in your checking account ... you're probably a big fan of Knit Picks. If the zeros haven't increased along with your passion for yarn and knitting accessories, here's a chance to get some Knit Picks booty for free!

Things Moms Like is featuring a Knit Picks give away! It's uber easy to enter, and even more easy to increase your chances! Go to the KnitPicks Gorgeous Yarn & Needle Set Giveaway page at Things Moms Like and work it! Then again, if you don't ... my chances of winning are increased. Are you really gonna let that happen?! :)

*!(&%$Holy hand knits, Batman!*&%^*(!

At first, when I read about a comic book with heroes that knitted, I thought it was kind of, well, odd. But the longer I think about it - hey, why the heck not? It's ok to believe some dude had a liquid metal injected into him (and he lived!) and now he has retractable knives in his hands? Or some dude flips around shooting webs ... that's sort of a knit type thing. Or ... well you get where I'm going with this. So why not, hero characters who happen to knit?

When I first mentioned it to my hubby and his friend, the friend asked, "what are they going to do? Bore the bad guys to death? grumble Anyway... if you're seeking something different from the same ol knit books, mags, or ideas about knitting, check out "Hand Knit Heroes".

Along with a story line, you'll find a pattern (yay!!) There's also a hero mask contest going on so what are you waitin' for? To the invisable airplane to save the world!

caution: violent knitter!

I've futzed with worsted yarn and DPNs plenty of times, and never seemed to have much issue. Now that I am on the mission to create socks however, I may have enough pokes in the tips of my fingers to help curb the shortage of O neg at the local blood bank.

Enter ... knitting with circular needles to save the day! (If you have a small child, like me, you may have the Wonder Pets theme in your head now and for that, I'm sorry)



With the help of Addi metal (and slightly slippery) circular needles, I'm already having an easier time. Aside the fact that I have a headache that would knock over a rhino, this sock knitting thing is going pretty well tonight.

Apologies for the lack of proper lighting for my yarn pics. I recently rearranged the lamps in the living room and as I have figured out, it's nice for not having light shine in your face - not so great for pics with no flash.

Red/black variegated yarn = Claudia's Hand Painted Yarn in Chocolate Cherry
Red/green/bluey self patterning yarn = Patons Kroy Socks in Moss Jacquard

For my first socks, I am using The Yarn Harlot's generic formula from the book "Knitting Rules!". The only difference in pattern being is instead of going straight into knit/purl ribbing, I knitted 3 rounds to get my bearings. We'll see where it takes me, and I hope the darn thing is wearable!

I'll keep you posted ;) Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Cat Bordhi .... udderly fabulous

Cat Bordhi shows how she knits with two circulars. It's an udderly fantastic vid ... especially for sock knitters who get a bit "violent" with DPNs ;)