Is it Time to Knit Yet?

2007 Review

I've been trying to think of what to say to end the year on this here blog.  I still don't really know what it should be.  I've had a lot of fun knitting and spinning this year, I even made a small dent in my stash - not big enough, but still a dent.  I tried some new things, like a colorwork garment, crochet, and new ways to knit socks.  I've finished quite a few things, 79 pictures are in my Finished Objects of 2007 gallery!  I could make it 80 with some close finishes today, but I'd say 79 is plenty.  I'd like to say that I could pick a favorite object from the year, but I've done so many things that were so satisfying that it would be too hard to pick just one.  Though dyeing and spinning fiber for some of my knitted items make me prouder than others.  I hope to do a lot more this coming year of everything fiber related, especially spinning.  During my Stashing-along, or yarn 'diet', this year I've accumulated quite the fiber stash that I need to start digging into.  There are a lot of exciting things waiting to meet my wheel and I can't wait.

I suppose I'll just steal the idea of sharing how many of what I finished this year, since I can't come up with anything else.  So here it is:

1 finished triangle loom project - my woven Cascade scarf
14 sweaters, including 3 for The Baby
8 scarves
5 shawls
6 pairs of mitts/mittens
1 baby blanket
9 hats
1 potholder
1 pair of felted slippers
1 felted bag
35 pairs of socks

Not too shabby eh?  Well looking at that, it is totally obvious that I have no life right?!  Well I enjoyed (almost) every project and I'm looking forward to more.  I don't know if I can top that list for next year, but I'll give it a shot.  I think I already wished you all a Happy New Year, but one more can't hurt.  Thanks for reading and commenting and sharing in the knitterly love with me - it means a lot to me.

Last FOs of the year

I have finished probably the last two items for the year.  They are both from the book Knitting New Scarves, and they were so fun and I love them!  They are both intarsia which made it really easy to do, and the results are so cool.  They are both supposed to give sort of an illusion, as if one piece were sewn or laid on top of the other.  I think it works, yes?  There are so many great patterns in this book that it is hard to choose just one to make!  I chose these because I needed to get them done fairly quick, and for one I had the specified yarn and the other I knew the gauge would work without me having to mess around with it.  They are both gifts for other people - yes I know Christmas is over!  I love them both so much it will be hard to give them away, but at the same time I am also glad to do it.  I just hope the recipients like them as much as I do.

• Pattern - Striped Illusion Scarf from Knitting New Scarves
• Yarn - Elzabeth Lavold Silky Wool, just under one skein of each
• Needles - US Size 6
• Took me - About a week
• Comments - This is a great, cute, easy-to-make scarf!  I highly recommend it.  Good for almost mindless TV knitting :)

• Pattern - Zigzag Scarf from Knitting New Scarves
• Yarn - Malabrigo worsted, maybe half a skein of each color
• Needles - Knitpicks Size 8
• Took me - 3 days
• Comments - Another great and easy scarf.  Easy to memorize pattern, also good for almost mindless TV knitting.

So I think that's it for this year, I may give a year-end recap like everyone else is doing, but it might not come until the year is actually over.  I have goals and stuff I want to share too, knitting and non-knitting.  I hope everyone else has had a great knitting year!  On to the next with lots of fruitful knitting :)

De-stashing

So in going through my stash, I've decided I really need to clean some house.  Most of what I'd like to get rid of is novelty and cheap wool that I bought when I first started knitting.  I thought I'd put it out here, just in case someone is interested.  I really just want to get rid of it so if you are by chance interested, do make me an offer :) 

If you are on Ravelry you can check out my page here, and I've also put them all into a Flickr set you can see here.  Any questions please ask.  I'm going to leave this up for a few days, probably until the new year.  Thanks for looking!

P.S. You can comment here, on email me - wabbit64 at comcast dot net - if you see anything you like.

Vegas recap

Vegas was great.  Aside from all of the insane driving in extreme weather, it was really fun.  Even though we were rolling into the city at 2:30 in the morning and were exhausted, it was quite the sight seeing all of the city lit up on the horizon.  A big waste, but still pretty amazing!  The photo on the left was our view from the hotel room, not bad eh?  We were right over the fountains at Bellagio so we could see them whenever they did the shows.
We saw Hoover Dam first thing on Friday morning, that was pretty cool too.  From there we just started going to some casinos that we had wanted to check out.  We went to the Stratosphere where we were attacked by timeshare people, but did make it up to the tower for a grand view, and a queasy stomach.  They said the winds were about 60mph that day and I'm pretty sure I could feel it moving - my stomach told me I did anyway. 

There were definitely highlights of the trip.  They were these.  Dinner at Mesa Grill was fantastic.  It was pricey, but really great and we quite enjoyed ourselves!  After drinks, an entree, and dessert, It was definitely the most money we have ever spent on a meal, but totally worth it.  The next highlight would of course be seeing Bill Maher at the Hard Rock.  The Hard Rock was kind of trashy, but the show was really great.  It didn't go on long enough for me, but I still enjoyed it very much.  We even got some blurry pictures of him :)  I think the last highlight was that I actually won some money!  It was only $100, but I actually went to Vegas, gambled a bit of money, and then won some.  It is big, because I never win when I play slot machines, I always lose something but never win.  Luck was on my side I guess. 

So there is the condensed version, though our trip was pretty condensed too being not even two days in the city.  We saw quite a bit but not near as much as we wanted to.  We might go back, who knows?  It would help if it was coordinated when Bill was there again though :)

Merry Christmas!

We did finally make it to Vegas on Thursday night, at about 3:30 am Utah time after driving for 3+ hours in blizzard like weather, and a total drive time of about 9 hours.  For locals that was just after Nephi all the way up to just before St. George.  That was probably the longest 3 hours of my life.  It was me who was driving through most of that crap and honestly I'm amazed that we made it through.  There were times when we couldn't see anything but snow, not knowing if we were even still on the road.  I suppose we should have taken The Baby's sickness as I sign not to go that day!  Anyway we had tons of fun and I'll tell you about it later.  Just wanted to say Merry Christmas! 

Why am I home eating meatloaf?

Needless to say I am  totally disappointed right about now.  I should be in my car on the way to Vegas, but I am sitting at home finishing off some leftover meatloaf.  The Baby has a fever and while my good sister has still agreed to watch her, even with a cold, we both agree that a not-herself-Baby with a fever is too much.  So here we are, waiting for the fever to break and for the kiddo to feel a bit better.  I think she's getting there, but still around 100 degrees.  Poor kid, seems like she's been constantly sick since we started preschool :(  The funny thing is we weren't even going to school since last week, so I don't know how she got sick this time around!  Anyway, I'm hoping maybe we can still head out later today, and if not then tomorrow so we can at least go see Bill Maher. 

If you need a good meat loaf recipe, my sister has a pretty good one over here.  I thought the barbecue sauce would be wierd, but we were pleasantly surprised!  Her thumbprint cookies were also very delicious, but I am a sucker for shortbread type cookies, add walnuts and it's even better.

Viva Las Vegas!

So we had a great time at the family party I hosted on Saturday.  It is always fun to do, my family is a little crazy but in a good way.  As always there was way too many goodies even though I try to tone it down every year, and I forget to take a picture of the spread every year!  Oh well, I guess it is because when everyone starts to arrive I find myself running like mad to finish up things and get everything ready.  I did have loads of fun, and I was a little sad when everyone had to leave.

I haven't been doing much knitting at all since then, so I haven't had much to blog about.  I did finish something though that I'm totally proud of and in love with - the Bird in Hand mittens.  The second mitten was a little more wonky than the first, but I think they blocked out fine.  I had a little trouble with the thumbs, and a  LOT of trouble with the embroidery on the thumb!  I almost got too frustrated and gave up, but I decided to stick it out and I'm happy (enough) with the result.  Did I mention I love them?

• Pattern - Bird in Hand mittens by Kate Gilbert
• Yarn - The red is Cascade 220 and the white is Paton's Classic Merino
• Needles - Knitpicks Size 1, 2.25mm
• Took me  - A week
• Comments - These were so fun to knit, even if I did rip out a whole mitten!

Other than that, I've just been relaxing and getting ready for our trip tomorrow to Vegas.  I'm so excited!  It should be a real treat to see Bill Maher after not being able to enjoy the show for a while now.  I feel like I've really been jonesing!  Anyway, we're off and will be back too soon.  The Baby will be going to her cousin's house and The Puppy is already at the kennel.  Let's just hope I get in some good knitting time on the drive there :)

Holiday Treats

I really wanted to go to SnB last night, and was planning on it, but I stayed at my sister's house way too long.  We were making fun treats and just got all wrapped up in it, and I guess time just went too fast.  We made a couple of batches of marshmallows and filled mold after mold with colored and flavored chocolate, you can see some of the results here.  Wanna know what's even better than fresh marshmallows?  Rice Crispie treats made with the fresh marshmallows!  In the words of Rachel Ray, they are Yumm-O!  The treat making did not end there, I got home just in time for dinner and decided to whip up 3 batches of chocolate chip cookies.  Okay, they were from a box, but there was still some effort involved!  Those cookies are good, by the way.  I still use butter and cow milk, so they are just nut free.  I don't usually do baking out of a box, but I did it for the time factor.  These little baggies are what I ended up with this morning, enough to take to The Baby's school for all of her friends (and family).

There will be a lot more good stuff coming out of my kitchen in the next few days still.  I'm hosting a party for my family on Saturday to celebrate the holidays, and we usually have treats galore.  I try to tone it down every year, but somehow we still end up with tons of sugary stuff, not that anyone complains!  Now if I could only get the house clean to get ready for it.  And maybe we should go get that tree soon....

Pay it Forward *revised*

*Edited to add that since there apparently isn't much interest, I will change the offer to still give 3 gifts with no requirement for you to pay it forward.  I know it isn't quite the same as 'pay it forward' but oh well!  I hope I can get a couple more of you to play along!

Am I the only one who hasn't done this already?  I've been seeing it all over the place, but when I saw that Eva was doing it I figured now I'd better jump in.  So if you haven't heard of it already, here's the deal (copied from her blog):

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within **60 days**, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

I changed it from 365 days to 60 days as I think that should be doable for me - I don't need a whole year do I?!  And if you're local, I'm pretty sure you'll get something in about a month.  So if you are interested, let me know!  It might be something knitting/yarn related and it might not!  You'll just have to see, won't you...

Bird in Hand Take 2

 So the only things I worked on this weekend were the baby top and the Bird in Hand Mittens.  I got about half of the back of the baby top done, but most of the time went to the mittens.  The colorwork is so addicting that I really had a hard time putting it down!  I just finished weaving in the ends and I think it is much better this time around.  The first attempt I was trying to work with one color in each hand, and that was where my tension was getting wonky.  This time I'm throwing both, and it is easier and I'm pretty sure it is a bit quicker too.  There is a lot less puckering on this one and I'm very happy about that.  I guess overall that frogging it was a good thing.  It was kind of big, so I decided to try it on a half size smaller needle and the fit is a lot better.  I suppose I'll be done with the first mitten (sewing the cuff and blocking)today and moving on to the next one, and pretty soon I'll have a pair of really pretty mittens!