Archive for the ‘Swaps’ Category

Alot to share…*spoiler alert!*

I’ve been knitting and busy dealin’ with life’s unexpected events, but I won’t trouble you with that! I have much to share and I’ll have to break it down over a few posts. First, this post has spoilers, so if any of my “spoilee’s” are reading, be prepared to be spoiled before you get your swappy package!

First, I’ll start with a project I started Saturday (yesterday), it is the “Bulky Shrug” from Knitting Pure and Simple. I’ve had this pattern for awhile, I was just waiting for the right “super bulky” yarn to come along. Working at my LYS, I ran into just the perfect yarn, “Spud and Chloe“. I never knew of this yarn until I was arranging the yarn on the shelves and realized how lovely it was. I love the easy labeling Spud & Chloe has, they clearly label their yarns “super bulky” with “outer” and “sweater”, easy peasy! I picked up 4 skeins in Gray enough for my Bulky Shrug. Look at this sqooshy-lovely yarn:

It’s “Outer” Super Bulky, Superwash 65% wool, 35% Organic Cotton, did I mention my LYS is “Green Planet Yarn”? The owner is truly great, and the store is stocked with great organic yarns.

For the few hours I spent working this new Bulky Shrug, this is what I ended up with, it’s turning out great!

I’ll be sporting this baby at work next weekend!

Onto my other endeavors, spoilee endeavors, I purchased 2 skeins of Canopy yarn (sorry no pics), in Acai colorway, a lush red made of 50% baby alpaca, 30% merino, 20% bamboo. I choose to make the “Bella’s Fingerless Gloves” pattern for my spoilee, Svendel, to wear when she goes to see New Moon later this month! I love this, easy knit and fast too!

Another item I made, which is a new love of mine’s, is knitting jewelry. In my 1st Love Bites swap at the beginning of this year, I was given a beautiful knitted bracelet and I fell in love with it. I scoured ravelry for a pattern but nothing. So I improvised my own pattern and voila!

I love these bracelet’s, I have so many ideas for other designs, but this one was easy and fast. Inexpensive and versatile to make, the choices are limitless. This is the bracelet I sent to my spoilee but I have another I made, however I felt that the beads were too large, so I made this one, and I was very happy with the turn out. I’ll post a list of supplies needed to make these as well as the pattern to make later this week.

For now that’s all I’m parting with, there is more but that will come in more posts to come. It’s November, and yes, gift knitting shall start, as well as all other holiday fun! Happy Sunday!

Good Things

I received my Franken Socks kit from Woolgirl last week, and it had all kinds of goodies and sqooshy yarn!

Look at all those goodies, and do you see that Frankenstein stitch marker made by Wee Ones? Totally cute. The yarn colors are cool and perfect for Franken Socks. It’s 1 skein of Mis Babs Superwash Merino 100% wool, hand-painted yarn in colorway “Yummy” with accompanying color for the heel, 133 yds.

Here’s a few more pics of the goodies:

Another package, though it was a surprise, was my “Love Bites 2″ Swap package received from my secret swapper, Mollie Bug on Ravelry.

Mollie Bug on Ravelry by RockyMoreno, on Flickr”>

She included the cutest “Edward” Amigurumi pattern! I gotta make this guy, then I’ll have Edward all to myself *-) She also included local yarn from her area, Virginia, from Indy-dyer David Simpson. It is just gorgeous! 490 yards of 100% Kona Superwash Merino in Fingering weight, colorway “Burress”.

And look at this Bella hat, so pretty! And I love the black tweed color, fits perfect and definitely a knit to wear. I faved this on Ravelry not long ago, and she found my fave to make. I’m still gona make one, but I just love hers.

And, the cutest Twilight stitch markers! Check these out!

Phew, so much good stuff!!! A big thank you to Mollie Bug!

Ok a new venture I’m taking on lately, knitting jewelry. I’m trying recreate a gorgeous bracelet I received from Gherkin on Ravelry. So far, so good, check out my progress:

It doesn’t look like much yet, but when I’m done I’ll form the beads to look sit nice and then add the clasp to close it. See the original, to the right?

I have so much more to share in the coming days, I’m now in high-gear for swaps, KALs, Fall knitting and yes, GIFT knitting

Hope everything is going spooky well!

~Rocky

It’s all about the bag *HSK7 spoiler*

It started out rocky, but turned out okay, yes it’s all about the bag.

For my HSK7 Swap, the last of my active swaps, we had to knit a bag for our spoilee. To be more specific, we would knit what the spoilee picked on their questionnaire when we joined the swap, my spoilee choose a bag.

The original bag I started to knit didn’t turn out at all, I was actually quite annoyed. I decided, after much procrastinating to frog it and start over, but with a new pattern. I went with Drops 109-13 Pleated bag. This was a quick knit, and very easy. I was surprised at how easy, for some reason Drops designs can seem so enigmatic to me?

What did I knit it with? Again, I went with Blue Sky Alpaca 100% Organic Cotton yarn in color 621, which is a rich chocolate brown. Did I mention my spoilee has the same taste in colors as me? I love this color, so I know she’ll love it too. In fact all the yarn I bought her I longed for myself!

Without further ado, here’s the photoshoot!

See the pleats? This was the first time I knitted a pattern with pleats, and it’s nothing difficult, basically cables, but not repetitive. What don’t I like about the pleats??? The holes! Because your twisting a large amount of stitches, you get a nice hole left, no matter how much you try and close it up. I didn’t like it, so I mattress stitched close the holes.

Some more angles:

I was so happy that I was able to finish this in time to send my package. I wrapped it and sent it on it’s way. I can only hope it will be accepted and liked!

It’s amazing how fast things come to an end, my HSK7 swap is all done now, kinda sad, it is, at least for now, the last swap I’ll be in for awhile. I’ve intentionally slowed down my participation in alot of things to make room for my “unknown” project.

On the horizon now, I have my project to focus and research on, and some real true luxury knitting. YES, the BEST kind of knitting there is! I have to see what to make me, I have alot in mind, but I really want to make me some garments to start wearing.

Let’s see what I cast on in the next few days

Gift Knitting

I went to visit my former hometown, Newman, this weekend where my cousin Tura and his family still live. I didn’t get a chance to visit during Easter, so this was a long needed trip. I had bought a cute brown/biege short outfit formy Godson Andrew, which I might get to see him in next weekend! For my little couse Alyssa, I decided to knit her a headband late Friday night, about 10 p.m. I quickly searched Ravelry for a child’s headband pattern, and went with Nora. I found some real pretty “Little Lovely” Malabrigo Chunky in my stash, and it was perfect! I had to adjust my needle size since the pattern isn’t knitted with chunky weight yarn. I went with a US3 needle, and it worked out perfect. I had it finished by the time we got to the house the morning on Saturday.

Here are my pics!

And look at her smile! She loves pink!

Another gift I’m almost done with, here’s some quick pics:

I don’t want to say too much about this because it’s a surprise, but I’m really excited to get to the finishing portion, it will really take shape then.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!
R

It’s the little things that count!

A good friend, Cheryl, from Kavelizard on Etsy, makes the cutest garments and accessories. I met Cheryl in the “Day of the Dead” swap from last year, she was my spoiler. She made me the cutest knitting bag, and perfect for those real meaty knitting projects.

Remember this lovely bag?

I love this bag, she made it just for Lil’O me 8-), in fact she now offers them for sell on her site, she aptly named it “Rocka-ma-bag”! I love the tatoo’ish fabric, and requested a custom item from her Etsy site the other week for a Iphone cell phone case she has for sale, but since I’m a Blackberry girl, I asked for one that fits a Blackberry, in no other than my fave tatoo’ish fabric.

And she made whipped it up in no time and shipped it to me ASAP! I love it! It is now permanently attached to my Bella bag from Jordana. Funny, Bella, it’s also the name of the lead female character in Twilight, kind of odd that name would mean so much to me now when I knew nothing of “Bella” when I purchased my Bella bag at the Stitches West 2008 conference. Isn’t odd how one thing can mean something to you in one way at one point in time and then later on have a totally different meaning? Odd….

Enough digressing, here are some snapshots of my custom BB case.

Now you should know what my title means, it is little but definitely counts! I love it. A BIG thank you to my friend CHERYL!!! You Rock girl!

And onto a new WIP, real new, hot off the needles yesterday. I can’t say the name of the pattern or who it’s for, I can’t ruin the surprise, but I will say it is a handbag and it is my first time working with pleats, but it’s pretty much the same as cables or is cables, but knit somewhat differently. I picked this color because I know my spoilee likes neutrals, as I do, and this dark rich brown is luscious! The yarn is again a constant in my knitting stash, Blue Sky Alpaca 100% Organic Cotton. I’ve knitted with various weights of this yarn and I love it. It’s easy to knit and very soft, and it won’t felt, which is awesome in case it needs a good wash.

Here’s a peek at the handbag, though it’s about 40% done, it doesn’t yet look like much, but I can’t wait to see the final product. I need to go pick me up some 9 16′ cause the 24′’s circs aren’t working out. I should be able to pick some up this weekend and have a spoilee FO to show off Sunday!

See that “Love Bites” stitch marker??? It’s a gift from my spoiler for Love Bites, a heart with a band-aid, too cute!

And see that Golden Retriever stitch marker? So cute, from my other spoiler Minerva Wood a.k.a. Yogaknot. I’ve participated in so many swaps that I’ve been so lucky to have such wonderful spoilers who get me the cutest things.

More soon

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