Only 13 Days Left...

It seems like I have had no time for blogging lately…

Finally I had a somewhat normal weekend. I worked all day Saturday but the hubby and I were home on Sunday, together. It felt weird after all this time of us not being home at the same time. So to use the valuable time we had together, I met up with Angie. No, I’m not that mean, he came too :-) We both needed to get out for a while. It was nice to sit and chat for a while. I stopped by AC Moore too and got some craft stuff for my little sister and I on Thursday. Sunday night the hubby and I made it out to Merritt Island for a show called “The Living Christmas Tree.” They had a floor to ceiling fiber optic tree on the wall with people in each level singing Christmas carols and other songs. There was even a 7-year-old girl that sang the anthem. Wow could she sing…it was great.

Sunday before we left for the show I finally got the hubby to finish my new swift. Now I don’t have to use my feet to unwind yarn anymore. :-) I got the pattern for the swift here. It cost a whole lot less to make it than I would have spent if I bought one from a craft store. The wood for 2 of them was only a little over $10. Nice huh? Now all I need is a ball winder. For now I am perfectly content winding by hand.

I am almost finished woth the second Striped Sock.I have one more repeat to go then I start the toe. I have decided that the next sock will be Slippery Socks. Can you believe that the designer is a teenager?? She is so talented. I also decided to frog the Purple Eater Sock. I don’t know why but they were twisted at the toe. I have not touched it in months because it has been bugging me. So they are getting frogged and are becoming Sippery Socks.

I got started on the Baby Hat for my cousin and I really like how its turning out. It is slow going though since it is in fingering weight yarn. I am using Louet Gems Fingering in Crabapple Blossom. It’s the same yarn as the bootie but I don’t know if I will be making another bootie. I hope to have this hat finished by Christmas but it’s ok if it’s not. She is not due until March.

So it’s back to work in the mall tonight for me. At least I work across the way from barnies so I can grab coffee. They have a great Pumpkin Spice Latte.

-Michele-

Winter Is Here, Kind Of

**As I read the last post I realized that I sounded like a jerk. It’s not that I don’t like knitting for other people, I just don’t like being asked to knit for money. I love to knit gifts, almost all the things I knit get given away. Just wanted to clear that up…**

It’s finally starting to feel like the holidays around here. Even though its still 80 in December, we had the Christmas music playing all week. It’s actually starting to feel a bit cooler today. We even got to take Diana to see Santa in the mall. When I heard that there was a “Bring your dog to see Santa day” we had to go get her. She was so happy to be around all the other dogs and people. I am using the picture to make our Christmas cards. We still haven't put up any Christmas lights on the house. I have the feeling that we won't get them up since we are both working all the time now. It's ok, I have my tree up.

I am feeling so blah today. I am really tired and achy. I hope I’m not getting sick. I haven’t touched my knitting in days because I have been working on getting a mailout done for work. I was addressing, stamping and stuffing 900 letters. Not fun…I will be working tonight so I should get some knitting in.

The only thing that I managed to finish in the last couple days was the first bootie. I don’t like it. It seems small. I decided to knit a hat out of the rest of the yarn and if I have enough I will knit the bigger size booties. If the yarn is close I will frog the first bootie too.

I felt like such a fraud last night. I was shopping at the mall and found a gorgeous hand knit sweater. It wasn’t too thick to wear in our 80 winter (is will get cooler soon) and it was on sale. I bought it, what a shame. It’s even made of acrylic. I know…but it would have taken me forever to knit that, not to mention that I have never knit a sweater before. It was cheaper than if I had bought all the yarn to make it and was a beautiful color so I caved. And I call myself a knitter…

BTW, Did you see they the new Knitty and MagKnits are up??

-Michele-

What Are Your Handknits Worth?

Well I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would. It was surprisingly really busy at the store this weekend. I am starting to not like working there. I knew that I wouldn’t see the hubby a whole lot but now it’s starting to get to me. I will be better when I am done dog sitting and am back home. So I didn’t finish the baby booties but I did get to work on the Striped Sock.


I am done with the gusset decreases and am working to finish this soon. I got another offer on the Sock. Seems handknit socks are hard to come by. A friends wants to buy them but I didn’t giver her an answer. After all this time I am kinda attached to them. Besides what price would I sell them for? How much is my time really worth? Probably more than she’s willing to pay for a pair of socks. I have had multiple offers to knit things for other people too. I never know just how to answer the usual “Ooh can you knit (blank) for me? I’ll pay you and buy the yarn!” I don’t want to commit my time since I get bored easily and don’t finish things. What if I took too long? Somehow I think I would get bored if it turned into “work”. Yea, I’m not ready to capitalize on the hobby yet.

I got another amazing package from my now revealed secret Pal. Her name is Melissa. I am so happy that she got me as a Pal, she was too good to me! This package had some beautiful roving from Smoky Mountain Fibers (so soft!!), a handknit ornament for my tree, the River Ripple Socks pattern from her LYS, some yummy chocolate, soap, candles and sticky notes. She really does know me pretty well. All 3 of the packages were much appreciated. I can’t wait to start spinning that fiber. Thanks Melissa!! It has been fun!

I really have to get going. I have to find the last few things to throw in my SP Package. I was so busy that it’s going out a few days late. I hope she won’t mind!

-Michele-

No Time To Post!

Well this is definitely going to be a quickie post. I have just a few minutes before I head over to my friends house for her Cookie Lee party. Pretty stuff!! It will be a lot of fun.

I have a few progress pictures to show you:


I have finished the heel and am now on the gusset decreases. I love this part of the sock because the rest is all down hill. I should have this finished up in no time. I haven’t put too much thought into what sock I will knit after this so I guess I better get down to it.


I also casted on for the Saartje’s Booties at work last night. It was so low that I almost got the whole thing done. I hope to have both done by the end of the weekend. These are going to be for my cousin Renee’s baby that is due in March. I am using Lout Gems Fingering in Crabapple Blossom. I love this color!!

So that’s all for now. I have been oogling this for my next big project, after Ballet Cami is done. I won a skein of Merino Oro in a contest a while back.

-Michele-

And We're Back

PS. Make sure to drop by Alyson’s blog for her destah to save Bitty sale. She needs the funds to help her poor little dog who had surgery. She has some great stuff and awesome prices.

Wow, I thought that after 4 days off I could get back to work as usual. Not the way it happened. I was trying to post yesterday but it was crazy. I am staying at my boss’s house again to watch the dogs since they are out of town so I have been running back and forth from my house to theirs. We live a little farther now that we moved. I don’t really sleep all that well at their house either (their dog is old and LOUD) so I haven’t been feeling great. Despite all that and the extra job I managed to cast on for Ballet Cami.

I just finished the ribbing and am about to start the body. I think I will knit a few rows before I start the decreasing to give it a little longer length. The last thing I need is a top that shows a little skin :-) I have been knitting like crazy lately and it has a lot to do with the new job. Aside from the day after Thanksgiving it has been dead! That’s good for me I guess. The last time I worked I knit the heel flap for the second striped sock and read a bunch in my book. It’s nice to have all that time to knit and read but the time does pass really slowly. It’s ok, I keep telling myself it’s just till Christmas.

So about the Striped Sock…I figured out that it’s pretty hard to take a picture of a sock when I have not knit the gusset. Can you believe that both the sock and cami pictures were on the same table? The light does weird things sometimes. So it’s back to work tonight so I should get pretty far with the knitting. We’ll see how busy it gets.

-Michele-

Happy Turkey Day!

Well this will just be a quickie post to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. We will be heading to a friends house for the afternoon. Mostly all of our family is in California so we will not get to see them this year. It’s ok because we have plenty of new family here :-)

I remembered to get a picture of the second Striped sock this time. I hope to be at least to the heel by Monday. I won’t be posting on Friday since I will be working. The hubby and I know someone who sets up a store in the mall from now until Christmas and she needed some more workers so we jumped to help. We will be working evenings and weekends. The hours kinda suck but its ok, it’s only until Christmas and it will bring some extra cash. So I will be stuck at the mall the day after Thanksgiving…

So bye until Monday! Have a good weekend!

-Michele-

New Yarn!

So Angie and I made it to the Orlando Needleworks Show on Saturday. Even though both of us haven’t been feeling 100% lately we had a blast. I was not going to miss it just because I couldn’t breathe the night before. My sister has lived with severe asthma her whole life but I was told that I had slight asthma. But that was a long time ago and I haven’t used an inhaler in like 5 years. So there I was, the night before the Needleworks Show gasping for breath, well it wasn’t that bad but I was definitely not comfortable. I ended up being fine but I really was not going to let that stop me from going. The Show was pretty good (compared to the last one we went to…) and it had quite a few booths. We oogled and squeed over yarn. I swear we were separated at birth or something. Every time I grabbed a skein she was looking at the same one. We did buy a bunch considering we’re almost always broke. I got a skein of Pagewood Farms Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in Bird of Paradise and some pretty fall looking Roving from…(dang I don’t have the name with me, but I’ll get it!) we even made it over to Sip N Knit to sop some more. I got a skein of Araucania Ranco Multi Sock Yarn in the blue-purple color. Both of the yarns are gorgeous!!! I can’t wait to spin up the roving too. I thought I lost my drop spindle but I found it after tearing apart my knitting areas. We did not make it to IKEA but we did drive by the exit. That whole area was packed! There was no way we were making it in there.

I finished the Striped Sock on Friday but didn’t get to post about it yet. The toe came out great. This was the first time I grafted a toe in fingering weight yarn. I started the 2^nd sock right away but I haven’t got very far into it.

I finally finished Fetching over the weekend. I don’t know why it took me so long. I knit the first one back in February and never thought twice about the 2nd one. Since it is getting cooler here I had the urge to just finish them. I was surprised that it only took me a day to knit it. The first one took me a couple of days. Maybe I am just getting better at this?

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

Needles: 4.5mm Bamboo Dpn’s

Pattern: Fetching (Knitty Summer 2006)

Pattern Designer: Cheryl Niamath

Date Finished: 11/18/2007

Now that I have been finishing things up around here I can cast on for Ballet Cami. Maybe this week? We’ll see…

-Michele-