Aug 23, 2007

Finishing

try-ons 1It seems like I've been on a finishing kick for the past few days. I decided to skip the last 3 decreases on Eiffel (hey, I tried it on first), because I was running out of yarn. So I bound off on that Tuesday, then washed and blocked it yesterday. It's still wet, I was hoping putting it in the garage would make it dry faster. That thing is like an oven. When I was dyeing last summer I would hang the skeins in the garage and they'd be dry by that evening. Of course, Eiffel is bigger than a skein. Anyways, here's a picture of me trying Eiffel on, at that point it was still 2 inches from the bind off point. And night, keep that in mind.

moms new top 003You remember Baccarat Player was finally completed. I mailed it off on Monday, and my mom got it yesterday! Now we have pictures of the FO on it's model, I admit that I like it a lot better now that it's on my mom instead of my needles. For something so fiddly to knit, it looks gorgeous. The Fancy Silk Sock has a heel and gusset now, there are pictures but really no reason to post them. It's not much different than the last couple of times I posted pictures. My camera has me all excited. not to mention Ravelry. I'm ALWAYS on there. Updating EVERYTHING. *sigh* Oh, and checking up on you guys. :D Man, I don't know who has more projects in their queue, Lana or Mouse. Every time I turn around Lana has queued a new project (a lot of them make me go Oooo! I want to knit that too!). Eventually I will update my bloglines to reflect my friends on Ravelry, I've got like...30 some friends or something. :)

green bootie 2


Also on the finishing table were the green baby booties. All I really had left was to sew on the buttons. I love the little green buttons, they make me happy. These ones were done in the round. My LYS owner had also done some in the round, and come up with a way to eliminate that little indent from purple project 003the Turkish CO. Mine is still there but it's on the inside. These are also slightly larger than the first two pairs, they fit one of Heather's larger doll babies, but still not any of my actual babies.

Just for fun, I changed my hair again. I've had some purple hair dye in my bathroom since like, May. lol But just got around to bleaching it on Sunday. Tuesday I got it cut and then put the purple in. In case you are curious, it's Raw color, Purple Passion. Fair warning it smells like grape candy. Which, for me, was great! The smell of hair dye doesn't really bother me, but grape candy smells way better. Yummy smelling hair products are always a plus. There aren't any good pictures of the back of my hair after I put the purple in, so you'll have to deal with one of the pre-dyed ones. It was right after I had gotten my hair cut. The girl who did it did really well considering I could only give her a vague description of what I wanted, and that Nolan was on my lap being all cranky.

haircut 2

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Aug 19, 2007

Baccarat Bind-off Bash

Yep, I like alliteration. It's fun! Anyways, Baccarat Player is finished, seamed, Finished Baccarat Playerand even has a crocheted edging. I packaged it up and will mail it out tomorrow. I am so excited! And very proud of my seam job. It's the first time I've ever used the mattress stitch thing...you know, the way you are supposed to seam. I don't even know why it was so hard for me to figure out! Not only was it simple, but every time I cinched the stitches tight, it was like magic! Seriously, I made Mr. Shad pause his video game to watch me do it. lol Oh, if you want to see the picture closer up you'll have to click it. Not sure it will be any clearer though.

There are lots of pictures of this. My new book (Vogue Knitting: Quick Reference), showed me all sorts of tricks and I used it to put a crab stitch (backward crochet) edging on the neck, armhole, and bottom of Mom's top. fancy silk sock 1Not sure exactly how I feel about it, although I really like the way it made my slip stitch edge around the armhole into eyelets.

Of course, all knitters know, the hardest part comes next. What should I knit next? None of us have any lack of projects waiting in the wings, but sometimes it is so hard to choose between deserving patterns and yarns. Goddes has really been calling to me, but I feel like it has been forever since I had a sock on the needles. Recently there has been a lot of other garments I'm cranking out. Summer is good for fast knitting. :) I realize that I enjoy all knitting, but socks are still my true love. So, following Mr. Shad's advice, I cast-on the Fancy Silk Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. Goddess will have to wait fancy silk sock 2until I finish Eiffel.

The pattern is fun and simple. Gorgeous to watch in progress. I'm already halfway through the leg of the first sock. Much further that the pictures here show. Can I just say, I truly love this yarn? It's soft and buttery. Plus, the colors are gorgeous. Ranging in color from raspberry champagne, to merlot, to blackberry wine. (All in Project Spectrum range) Simply delicious. It's a stark contrast to knitting with the hemp.

sleeve joinEiffel is a pretty easy pattern and all. But knitting with the hemp is like...well knitting with twine. lol It doesn't feel good on my hands, which means it's hard for me to really enjoy the process. I did get the sleeves joined, plus an inch. Next I start decreasing for the yoke. Hopefully I will have enough yarn. I think that I will, but there is always that chance. Right? I'm itching to swatch for Goddess now, so I will probably be finished with Eiffel before I know it.

And to leave you all with some more good stuff, I made cookies Friday night. I used the recipe from Sheri's (Loopy Ewe) blog. It uses shortening instead of butter, so they are not so sweet. HOWEVER, they did stay nice and soft for days. Well...for the few days they lasted anyways. Homebaked cookies are the best. Random fact: A guy at the mall asked me to knit him socks. I have no idea if he is seriuos or not. But I was amused.

Loopy Cookies


[EDT Monday, Aug. 20, 2007 2:17EST]
P.S. Mom I know you are stalking me reading this. You better leave a comment! Oh, and I sent this off for you today.

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Aug 17, 2007

Bootie-licious

Cutie Bootie 1

Hey, it was either that or Ms. New Bootie. I figured the latter might induce your gag reflex.

Cutie Bootie 4


So, Eiffel is about an inch away from the sleeve join, and Baccarat Player only needs to be seamed. Both of these would be further along if not for some small distractions. About...3 inches to be exact.

Bootie-licious 2


Is it just me, or are these things RIDICULOUSLY cute? I kept seeing them over on Hello Yarn's blog. So, I found the pattern on Ravelry, and CO. How long can it take to knit a pair of booties anyways? Um, about 6 hours total. Including the finishing Bootie bottomand sewing on buttons. After I made the first pair, I realized that...I didn't have anyone to give them to!!! No problem, I took them to the LYS with me and found someone. Unfortunately, Mr. Shad was paying attention when I mentioned wanting to give them to someone, and asked around at work. His Gunny gladly accepted the offer. Which meant, I had one pair of booties, and two takers. lol That's okay, I just whipped up another pair! Then, I saw that Hello Yarn had knit a pair in the round...hey I can do that. Right? Yep, so I bought some sport weight cotton (aiming for a slightly larger bootie) and using a Turkish CO, started a third pair. Being the genius that I am, I purled all of the stitches (except the first) to create a garter ridge on the bottom. More closely matching the original design. Not sure if it is worth all of the hassle though. Besides I just got the Vogue Knitting Quick Reference. A great technique book with pictures and illustrations.

Um...So yeah. Here are the pictures of Eiffel and the Baccarat Player. Enjoy! I am going to finish that other baby bootie. Then work on Eiffel some more. Oh yeah, sorry about the cruddy pics, it's overcast, and on top of that Mr. Shad has absconded with the camera again.

Picture 8 almost there

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Aug 12, 2007

Hot Hot Heat

First BirthdayDamn it's hot out there. Makes me want to sit in my living room with the air conditioning and a glass of ice water. And knit. So, that's basically what I've been trying to do. Except life keeps interrupting me. This past week was not great. Really, I don't want to think about it. Mostly just a lot of little things. Like the fact that only one couple showed up to Nolan's birthday party yesterday. He still had fun and all, it just hurts to know that I've got lots of fake friends. Mr. Shad is deploying soon and I'm not sure I have many people to count on. Anyways, here are some shots from Nolan's party. Plenty of messy faces.

He ate like three cupcakes, and those things were sugar overload. At about 10:30 or something he woke up on a sugar high, puked, and then played for a bit. It was like watching a little drunk person. lol

Aside from the craziness of life, I've been knitting. While in Maryland last weekend I did finish the Twisted Flowers socks, but forgot to take pictures. I ended up giving them to my brother's girlfriend, she is a little tiny thing and has size 6 Readinig Materialfeet. Seemed to fit her perfectly. Also, I think I gave her a whole new view of knitting when I showed her my Ravelry queue and projects. Once that was finished I wanted to dive into Eiffel, but uh...forgot the needles. lol Instead I just worked on Mom's top for a bit. And read some comic books that Mr. Shad picked up for me. Did I mention I am a huge Stephen King fan? Especially The Dark Tower series. Specifically, Wizard and Glass. Awhile back, Marvel mentioned they were co-oping with Stephen King to create a comic series based on that book! Woot! Mr. Shad saw them at the comic book store he likes to visit while in Maryland, and bought all of them for me. Oh, and my brand new IK arrived the day before we left, so I perused that as well. Eunny's long awaited (for me anyways) Tangled Yoke Cardigan is in it!! My LYS owner got me all hyped to spin my own yarn for this...we'll see how that goes. Maybe use some of that Alpaca I got for Mother's Day?

On my doorstep when we got home were these LOVELY balls of SWTC Bamboo in Electric SWTC Electric Blue 3Blue. Let me tell you, when I saw this on Kpixie, I had to have it. I was afraid at first, because the swatch pictured on SWTC's website was darker than the yarn pictured at Kpixie. Still, I figured it would be worth the risk, besides, if it really was as bright as it was on the Kpixie site then it would be a perfect match for Goddess. Oh, they really are that gorgeous. Castonitis hit me hard when I opened the box to see the bamboo (my fav fiber!) calling to me, and the pattern...just begging to be swatced for. Grrr! No. I had already swatched Eiffel, plus made a deal with myself to knit an inch a day on Mom's top. Still, it calls to me, sitting in my little bag of yarn in my bedroom. Oh yeah, it's next in my queue for sure!

Eiffel IP4


Eiffel is coming along nicely. The lace pattern is very simple and kinda flies by. The yarn...well, I am not so in love with it. The color is awesome, and I love that it can be machine washed. However, it's kinda tough and unforgiving. I don't hate it, but it is certainly not my favorite. Of course, that's why I like to try new and different yarns, it gives me a chance to experience everything. My LYS just got in some nettle, that ought to be interesting! I really only want some because of some movie I used to love as a kid. Baccarat Player is about 4 inchesBaccarat Player away from completion. Then I can weave in ends (which I have been trying to do as I go along for the front), and *gulp* seam. Linda has already been warned that I am bringing it in for her assistance when I finish it. Generally...I suck at seaming, and I want this to be well done, besides, the yarn is so slippery and fiddly! My number of FOs is really growing, and I am very happy about that. The pair of socks a month thing, and the sweater every two months... well that was shot a long time ago. It's okay, because I am still making things, getting things done and all. Ew...Christmas is coming up soon. Alright, I'm going back to my water and needles.

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Kitty's Story


Vintage 008

First, I must confess my name isn't Kitty, or anything even close. It just comes from an affinity for cats. Second, I love to craft, create, and imagine. I can draw a bit, knit a lot, and sew just enough to get by. My world revolves around the loves of my life; my three children. Anything more you want to know about me is on Ravelry or check me out on FB!

Crystal Shadrick

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*Disclaimer!* I'm totally crazy. The patterns I offer are often variations of other patterns, things I have reverse engineered. I don't claim to be wonderful and smart and an all-knowing designer. So enjoy them!.

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The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King


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Skating Sweater
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