Thursday, July 31, 2008

A Swell Yarn Shop "Opps" Duet Sock Yarn

I have the lucky privilege to belong to a knitting group started by an awesome hand-dyer, Angela of A Swell Yarn Shop. I recently joined her Lucky Lurkers Club, a monthly yarn club featuring her famous and (soon-to-be-more famous) Duet Sock Yarn. My welcome package comes in August and that is followed by 3 months of yarn goodness. Can't wait.

The great thing about Angi's yarn is that she provides one skein for the main part of a sock along with another smaller skein for the heels and toes. They are always great color combinations.

Last night she brought another batch of her "Opps" yarn. I put it in quotes because her "Opps" yarns seem anything but. I have several skeins in my stash already but I was able to add two more sets of Duets with these:

Original Duet Sock Yarn, Chocolate Fantasy:

 


Original Duet Sock Yarn, Panjandrum:

 


I'm thinking of making a small bag with one set and some flip-top mittens with the other. For now, I'll just be admiring them while I work on other projects.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Chicken Stir-Fry

Thanks to my friend, Carolyn, I actually cooked tonight for the first time in FOREVER! I've been eating tv dinners and take out for awhile now. When I told Carolyn this, well, I think she was shocked and a little bit sorry for me. So she went to the grocery store with me on Saturday and kept me company while I picked out the fixings for stir fry.

I made Quick Chicken Stir-Fry. It wasn't as fast as cooking a tv dinner, but it was much tastier and I'm sure much healthier!

First, I stir fried the chicken and set it aside. I then stir fried the vegetables. Don't they look lovely:

 


I added the chicken back to the vegetables and poured on the soy sauce sauce.

 


And then it was dinner!

 


Yum! And there is enough left overs for 2 more meals too!

Susie Hoodie Swatch

 

I'm waiting to start my Ravelmpics project until next week, so I thought I do some swatches for the Susie Hoodie from Big Girl Knits to check gauge and practice the cable braid. It took me 6 tries before I actually figured out how to read the chart to get it right.

Reading charts still stump me. It seems that there should be some kind of standard. Row 1 should always be the RS if you ask me. And it should be read from right to left. And Row 2 should always be the WS and be read from left to right. But not this pattern and it took me all those tries to figure it out. Ugh!

But I hung in there and I finally got the swatch knit correctly! Yipee! The picture is two repeats. The braid is the band along the opening of the cardigan and goes up and around the hoodie. I've seen lovely, lovely, lovely FOs of it on Ravelry. I want my own!

I plan on casting on today or tomorrow. This will be an at-home project since I need to concentrate on getting the braid right, especially since each row has over 200 stitches. That is a lot to frog especially if you don't realize your mistake for several rows!

Here's what I aspire to knit:



Wish me luck, cause me and cables have a history... a not so good one, right Silver Belle?

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Elliot Bay Water Taxi

Today I took the Elliot Bay Water Taxi from West Seattle to Seattle so that I could go to Pike Place Market.

 


Here are some pictures from the boat:

 

 

 


 


And here is the lovely bouquet of flowers I bought:

 


I also bought some cherries, raspberries, and blueberries. Yum!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Ravelympics 2008 - Gauge Swatch

Here's my gauge swatch for the project I'm going to be working on for Ravelympics 2008 being hosted on Ravelry. The idea is to pick a challenging project, cast on during opening ceremonies on August 8th, and finish the project by closing ceremonies.

 


I'm entered in the Cable Steeple Chase for Team Japanese. I'm going to knit one, maybe two, cable cushion covers from a Japanese knitting book I have, Favorite Aran Knits.



I've had a couple of false starts with cable patterns and I'm hoping since this is a smaller project and one I have to worry less about fitting me, that I'll have success. Plus I'd like to use my knitting-cables-without-a-cable-needle skills that I picked up in April from Annie Modesitt before I forget.

I'm using Berroco Ultra Alpaca in White. It is like knitting with buttah! It is so soft. Part of me is wondering if I should save this yarn for some type of knitted garment but it has been languishing in my stash for a while now, so I might as well use it. I have two skeins and I think this will be enough for two pillows.

The pattern is for a 14 X 14 inch cushion. I'd also like to make a larger, say 16 X 16, pillow cover in another color with a slightly different knitting chart that is also in the book. But I don't want to put too much pressure on myself during Ravelympics so if I get two done that will be great.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Fiber Fantasic

Last night at my Renton Knitters group we had all kinds of fiber related activities. We always have people knitting. But last night we also had crochet, loom knitting, spinning, and drum carding.

Here is Charity with her new spinning wheel. She has already made some really lovely yarn. Can anyone say birthday present please? ;)

 


Angi showed Joann's daughter how to knit. She picked it up really quickly. And she is such a cutie.

 


Joann brought her drum carder and carded several batts from fiber she had also brought.

 


Charity was the lucky receipent of this batt.

 


Angi also did some spinning with a drop spindle.



Don't show this picture to Angi's in-laws! They may get the wrong idea! This lovely baby has been gracing our presence for about a month now since her mother started attending our group.



I also scored some free yarn last night from Erica. She has a friend who took up knitting and, gasp, decided she didn't like it after spending several hundred dollars on yarn. Erica brought what she didn't want to the group. I got a total of 3 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. This one is called Douglas Fir.



These two are called Tahoe and seem to coordinate with the Douglas Fir.



Now I have to figure out what I'm going to knit with them. Of course, I have other yarn in my stash waiting to be knit, so it might be awhile before I get to these beauties!

Monday, July 07, 2008

Clapotis FO

 

 

I finally gave into the "peer" pressure to do a Clapotis. I mean everyone but me has knitted one. I'm not sure when or if I'll ever use it. I'm not a shawl person, but I love the yarn too much to think about giving it away. :)

Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Blue Heron Rayon Metallic, Raspberry
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm
Started: June 28, 2008
Finished: July 7, 2008
Modifications: I did only 8 repeats of Section 3

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Cherries!

 

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk and while looking out my window I noticed that one of my trees had red "things" on them. I walked out to investigate and discovered I had a tree full of cherries!

I filled a large bowl with the ones I could reach. They taste great! Now I have to figure out what to do with them that doesn't involve sugar. Ideas?
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