Bloggie Thing

A close friend and fellow blogger of mines, Marisol, was kind enough to nominate me for a Blog Award.
Tadaaaa....



This is so cool, and I'm just so thankful that Marisol enjoys my blog enough to nominate me 8) It's been a crazy journey this year with me getting into this fibery world, last year this time I didn't even know what a stitch was let alone knew what knitting needles looked like! Phew!

There are few rules to being nominated, and they are:

1. Please put the award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.
4. Add links to the recipients.
5. Leave a comment so the recipients know they have received an award.

So, these are my faves, in no particular order...

Knitspot
Tapmouseknits2
ChickenKnits
Turtlegirl76

Onto some weekend knitting & crocheting. I worked on some more Traveling Scarf sections from both my groups #25 & #37, plus I casted on for a new pair of "Socktoberfest Mystery KAL" socks. I'm almost done with Clue 1. I used my Wicked Witch of the West yarn from my WWW Woolgirl kit, and also got to use my Teeny Weeny Ones Witch stitch marker.. it's so cute!

From Top to Bottom and from Right to Left it is:

1) Group #37 Noro Knit & Crochet "GrammieKnits" scarf
2) Group #25 Significant Others "Jame's" scarf
3) Socktoberfest Mystery KAL socks



Happy Monday!

Falling for Ewe with Eye Candy

I'll combine 2 posts, first I'll answer my Falling For Ewe Question of the Week #4.. just a tad late 8)

What do you plan on dressing up as for Halloween? If you are not dressing up, what will your kids be?

This year all the family is dressing up, my hubby hasn't decided on what he'll be, but I think he should be dressed up as a Army Drill Sgt., he sure can be commanding.. that's my taunting nickname for him when he's getting under my skin *-). My daughter will be a Hobo, which means she can just dress like any other day (joking), she dresses nice, but you know, she's a teen and in that stage of really defining her style. She looks so pretty when she puts her outfits together. Sadly my son will probably only be wearing some freaky mask, as he currently has braces, and doesn't want to do any "Trick O' Treating" because he can't eat candy. Lastly for me, I'm knitting me something special, which I'll show soon.. for now, it's a secret *-) I usually dress up as a Witch, this year I'll be making a change.

And now for the Eye Candy...just in time for Friday!

I received another one of Woolgirl's fab kits "Woodstock". It's so cool! It has all kinds of nostalgic candy from the 60's era, before I was thought of 8) The Teeny Weeny Woodstock stitch marker, is so damn cute, and the little knitting bag is my fave! I love knitting bags!







I was browsing some Etsy stores, and came across Butterfly Girl Designs, and OMG! She has the most luscious fiber! and Spindles might I add! I'll need to score me some! I couldn't resist the Monarch fiber, I bought 3.3 oz. and it is I tell you, the softest fiber. I'm just totally in love with it. I swear I sat and petted it when I first got the shipment.

There are three layers in these batts: black superwash merino, orange/yellow variegated bamboo and an orange superwash merino

Contents: 67% superwash merino, 33% bamboo

Unplanned Events

When I last posted, which was more than a few days ago, which is not me, I'm usually posting about every other day, however when I last posted, I was just anticipating my Knitter's Retreat with Skein Lane at the Marconi Center in Point Reyes, CA.

Well, things took a turn for the bad late Thursday night, I got a call my a family informing me of my Grandpa who had taken ill in the hospital and things weren't looking good. I ended up staying behind and dealing with this, rather than going to my retreat. By Saturday, things were ok, and it was basically the doctor's saying that there wasn't anything they could do, and hopefully he makes it through the season without catching anything because his immune system and heart aren't strong enough. After that winded down, which was difficult to deal with, I got home too late on Saturday, and realized there was no way for me to salvage my retreat, so I stood home, and just spent time with my family, and did do some knitting and spinning. Geez, I wish I could've gone, but I guess you just never know when emergencies like this happen, not to mention my wasted $$ I spent on the retreat, $$ I won't be able to recoup. Oh well, next time. I did talk with Marisol, who said it was awesome! Just made me all the more sad I didn't go. I am glad that she went and enjoyed herself.

Ok, onto more happier things, to at least make things better 8), I received in the mail today my Woolgirl "Wicked Witch" kit! I signed up for this baby awhile back, and I just love it!

Look at this ensemble



And the list goes: 1 "Where's my Broom" Sock pattern, 1 wicked bookmark, 1 bag of jelly beans in Black & Green, 1 broomstick pen!, 1 wicked witch glow in the dark pez kit, 1 witchy hot chocolate that turns orange!, 1 skein of sock yarn custom dyed from White Oaks Studio in Wicked Witch of the West colorway, 2 Wiz Oz notepads, 1 totally cute wicked witch stitch marker, 1 wicked witch bubble sticker, and 1 cute zip of wicked witch bag.

Can you see this teeny weeny "Wicked Witch of the West" stitch marker! So damn cute!



Here's the socks:



And last, but not least, the lovely sock yarn:





Now I did do some spinning, basically widdling down that monster fiber from Marisol... it may not look like I spinned much but believe me there's alot of spinning on that spindle! I'm really trying to stay uniform in my yarn weight. Do you see how there's just still a ton more fiber left! Whew!





Well, for now, that's all folks! 8)

Mid-Week Plans

So far this week has been an interesting one for me. I started my new job on Monday, this is the one I felt was going to be a great opportunity for me, and it's a permanent one, so even better, benefits, PTO, etc. I'm kind of on the fence at whether it is truly something I like. What I learned through the 3 interviews I went through before getting an offer sounded like a dream job, for now, at least in the last 3 days its kind of, um..not. I know it's very very early for me to really know how this will pan out, but I'm just not liking what I'm seeing this far, however I will give it a chance and do my best to find ways for it to turn into something I'll grow to like and maybe even want. We'll see, so this is why I'm posting this so late in the evening, my normal posting routine is to post in the mornings, but my schedule is a bit thrown.

I've completed one of the Traveling Scarves I had for Herebedragons in my group, I really like the Eyelet stitch from Vogue Knittings Crochet Stitchionary. I can't thank Turtlegirl76 enough for this tip, as she is also getting into crochet. This book has an immense catalog of various stitches & patterns to use for Crochet. It is perfect for these Traveling Scarves groups. I'll also be investing in the other volumes, one for Knitting, one for Cables soon.

Here's a spoiler of the Eyelet Stitch pattern using none other than Noro Silk Garden yarn #279 for this:



My camera was being nice to me 8) I was able to get a decent close-up!



The bottom is the Eyelet Crochet Stitch portion I added, and the top is Herebedragons Seedlet section.

I meant to ship this pretty thing off since Tuesday, just have been behind on getting to the post. I'll definitely ship out tomorrow so it can continue to blossom into a pretty Noro scarf.

In other news, are you wondering what my "Mid-Week Plans" are?? Hmmm...?? Well, a very long time ago, say back in February of this year, I signed up with Marisol & Leslie for the Skein Lane Knitter's Retreat which is being held at the Marconi Center in Point Reyes.

I've never been there, but boy the pictures look beautiful. Just check these out:





This is my first ever knitting retreat, so it's an experience I'm really looking forward too. Last time I was immersed with other knitting maniacs was at Stitches
West 2008, boy was that crazy! Yarn is my crack, and Stitches West didn't help with my addiction! I spent some pretty serious dough there. To make matters more difficult for me, there will be yarn to buy!! I'm purposely leaving my wallet behind, during these harsh times, I need to use the force to resist.

During our retreat will be taking a class taught by Melissa Leapmean.



Who has written knitting books "Cables Untangled" and "Continuous Cables". We'll be making this pretty pillow:



I'm looking forward to sharing this experience with Marisol and enjoying my retreat, I feel bad though because I just wish I had some great thing for my hubby and kids to do while I'm out knitting and relaxing. Hopefully they won't mind too too much! Back to my plans, well it's obviously ramping up for this weekend's retreat, getting all my WIPs in order, all my FO's that I'll be deciding to take, any necessities, goodies, you name it.

To end, I'll send you off with my first installment from the Madeline Tosh Magnolia Society, and it's a good one! Gosh, this color has my name written all over it! It's as if it was made especially for me. I love the rich sheen it has..Uh! It couldn't be anymore luscious!





Happy Wednesday!

KnitSpinPrep_X_3

I enjoyed a 3 day weekend, courtesy of ME 8) I completed my last day of work at my former company on Thursday, and gave myself Friday off. It was sad to go, I'd only been at my last job since July 7 of this year, but when your in an IT support role, you really get to know quickly, almost every employee at your workplace. Well if your good at IT support, you do, and I can confidently say I am good at what I do. I really work hard to make sure my "customers", the employees I support, get their issues or requests resolved quickly. Really, employee's are my customers, and if you treat your customers with respect, attention, and honesty, you'll go far.

My Thursday was pretty busy and I tried to leave my job with all things done, and then shoot on over to go to my daughters High School Open House night. She got a good group of teachers this year, and thankfully! I've had some serious encounters with teachers that have been difficult.

Started my Friday off with some knitting, picking a stitch out for a Traveling Scarves Group 25 SO scarf section belonging to CoffeeKnitGal's on Ravelry. I sent her an email with some yarn and let her pick which one she wanted me to knit with, she choose some of Vanna White's new line at Michael's in orange. I bought this yarn specifically for my Amigurumi projects, but in CoffeeKnitGal's notes, she said she'd like oranges, so obviously she choose the orange 8). I do like how the trinity stitch looks, it kind of has a bobble effect, can you see? You Knit, Purl, Knit into 1 stitch, thereby creating 3 stitches out of one, and you get a bobble.

Can you see the pattern?





I tried really hard to get a good shot, but damn if my camera wasn't being bitchy with me! Trust me, it looks pretty in person. There is definitely 2 sides to the trinity pattern, both look pretty, so I decided to reverse the wrongside to the frontside half way through so you get half of the Rightside in front, and half of the Wrongside in front. If only I had better pictures to show you.

I also spent some of my Friday with my Mother, going over ideas to create my own Stitch Markers line, and we made some pretty good progress. I'm actually testing out one of the stitch markers she made, which is pretty cool. I can't wait until I have a few products for sell in my Etsy store. There's not much in my store right now, but I plan to have some good yarn, stitch markers, WIP bags, and other things to sell soon.

Besides the little knitting I did both Friday and Saturday, I also was really really wanting to spin.
I decided to try out my new spindle given to me by Marisol from our Knitter's Treasure swap, and also decided to spin the "Rise of Phoenix" Crown Farms Pencil Roving she gave me too. I drafted a very good amount, I mean the amount of fiber she gave me was enormous, I swear I didn't even make a dent in it! I drafted about a good 1.5 ounces, and started spinning. I can honestly tell you that I just really do love spinning.

My goal for this wool was to try and spin my fiber in the same weight continuously, I didn't want chunky here, skinny there, you know? I actually succeeded to keep it pretty uniform. Took me about an hour or so to spin, while also watching football. I actually think I like spinning and watching football over knitting and watching football.. hmm... maybe I'll use my football Sunday's as my spinning time???

Here is the fiber drafted



On the left is my spindle I bought when I first learned to spin at Purlescence Yarns and on the right is the pretty spindle given to me by Marisol, in the background is the bottomless pit of yummy fiber 8)



Some close-ups





Besides these fun things, I also spent time getting ready for Day 1 at new job. I'm looking forward to the 15 minute commute **woohoo!!**, and just plain curious on how my first day will be. I'm really hoping I made a good choice and just hope I'll like it there. Because I don't know what's in store for me tomorrow, I'm posting this early.

And to end this post with some fibery goodness,

**SOCKS THAT ROCK SPOILER ALERT**!!!!!
**SOCKS THAT ROCK SPOILER ALERT**!!!!!
**SOCKS THAT ROCK SPOILER ALERT**!!!!!
**SOCKS THAT ROCK SPOILER ALERT**!!!!!
**SOCKS THAT ROCK SPOILER ALERT**!!!!!
**SOCKS THAT ROCK SPOILER ALERT**!!!!!
**SOCKS THAT ROCK SPOILER ALERT**!!!!!


Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Club 2008, September installment in "Tidal Pool"!