Archive for the ‘Magnolia Society’ Category

Swallowtail

My finished Swallowtail, knit in “Black Madera Fig” from the Madeline Tosh Society.

1st, what’s wrong with this picture?

I had finished the Swallowtail months ago, but had yet to block it, but thanks to Cheryl, I now was able to block it. Being that it had been a long time, I forgot how my Swallowtail was supposed to look, and blocked the right/left edges wrong. But I referred to the pattern and voila!

Everything at once

Over the weekend we went to my little cousin’s 7th bday party, Alyssa. She is so cute and the sweetest girl. Her parents surprised her and had her birthday party at Boomer’s in Modesto, CA. They have everything there, from go karts, to water boats, mini-golf, rock climbing, batting cages, lazer tag, arcade games, you name it.

The kids had such a great time, and really enjoyed the rock climbing. My son climbed the rock wall over 4 times and did each turn in record time. We said he looked like Spiderman up there, he navigated that wall like it was nothing.

My daughter tried too, but had a wee bit harder of a time.

It was such a great time, but very tiring. The long 2 hour drive to the party gave me plenty of time to finish knitting my Holiday Stocking. I made one for my Death By Socks Christmas Stocking Swap Pal, Yarnwhisperer. I have to apologize to her, I had over a month to get this done, but fell behind on so many projects and ended up casting on this past Friday 11/21/08.

I didn’t know what to do for a stocking, so I decided to wing it and let the project happen as I knitted it.

I started off with a provisional chain cast on and knitted in red for about 9 inches, then turned the heel, onto the toe, which was about 2 1/2 inches. I used a plain stockinette because I felt it would look nice.

I then swiss stitched in a snowflake design, plus Yarnwhisperer’s initials “A T”. After closing up the toe, I removed my crochet chain and picked up the live stitches, then with white yarn, knitted for 2 rows, then reversed knitted the opposite direction to make the right side the wrong side. I was pretty skeptical at first, but it worked out better than I thought. The 2 knitted right side rows allowed the reverse knitted (purls on right side) to puff out, so it really looks like a stocking.

For the yarn, I used Vanna White’s Red Yarn, very soft, and economical, and this yarn from Stacy Charles that is white with laced tinsel sparklins through it. I thought it would be perfect and it is!

For added flair, I weaved in some red beads for the snowflake. I’ll put together the notes from my pattern and share for free again! I plan on making another one, but for my daughter, I might switch up the design though.

That’s my Bear in the picture, he had to share the spotlight.

Can you see those beads? I love how they turned out.

Besides my stocking gift, I also got a few gifts of my own, a lovely Starbucks & Yarn Package came from Shoegirl on Ravelry.

I got some really pretty Lorna Laces sock yarn, 217yds!, a cute mug cozy, in my fave colors, neutrals, a Starbucks gift card, Giada’s Tuscan Spice from Crate & Barrel (I love this!), Giada’s little menu, and some hand cream (which I love cause I’m always washing my hands).
Thank you Shoegirl!

Another goodie came Saturday, it is “Autumn Haze” from Socks that Rock 2008. This is the final installment and I’m in love with it. My absolute #1 fave of the entire 2008 club. I need more of this colorway, so I can make something absolutly pretty with it.

Aren’t those colors beautiful!

Ok one more goodie for yah, today I received the latest Madeline Tosh Society shipment, “Tourmaline”, and is to die for! It’s 1000 yards of luscious silky soft Tuscan silk! This is definitely an early Christmas present for me.

Oh, before I leave yah, if you want to enter a fun contest, please check out the Nautical Knitter’s blog, she is giving away the cutest Snowman stitch markers!

I’ll post again before Turkey Day!

A spooktacular day

Welcome to my haunted site….I’m your blogger, Skullella’. In honor of this 31st day, celebrating the fun holiday “Halloween”, I’ve temporarily transformed my website.

I have some goodies to share with all you ghouls!

These freaky pumpkins were hand carved by little goblins last night, and YES, they made it finally to the Pumpkin Patch! My Mother was able to rush them to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday so we could enjoy a night of knives, cutting, stabbing, carving, and spilling the guts of the poor pumpkins.

Now ghoulies for my secret Halloween FO. I had been wanting to knit something special for Halloween, and like I always do, time got away from me and before I knew it, Halloween was just a week away. My original plan was to knit a black scarf with skulls in white yarn, but given that I only had a week to Halloween, I knew there was no way I was going to knit it by today. So I had to create my own pattern. I decided to make a cowl, a “Skull” cowl. I used black Malabrigo yarn with white “glow in the dark” yarn. I invested in 2 balls of the “glow in the dark” yarn about a month ago just for Halloween. I wanted the skulls to stand out as I’m Trick ‘O Treating tonight.

This is my evil creation, which will be available for free on Ravelry within the next few days, it is my 1st official “Rocky Moreno Design”.

I tried so many times to get a good shot, but the evils that be just didn’t give in.

Here is the Skull Cowl being blocked late last night

And look at this frightening “Skullella” woman with skulls around her neck. (This is pre-blocking, so it’s not as flat or straight as I wanted.)

Ahh! I yell when I see myself! I will frighten you with more pictures later tonight when we get all gored up.

I hope all you ghouls have a creepishly safe and fun night! Watch out for those goblins and vampires out there.

Skullella will return again tonight!

But wait, I have one more morsel to share with you ghouls, it is yes, “EYE CANDY”, the latest installment from the “Madelin Tosh Society”. 200 yards of luscious yarn. I was rushing this morning so I didn’t get the yarn specs 8(.

Good-bye my ghoulies! Have a Devilish time

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 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!