Saturday, February 26, 2011

Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE snow??

Just had to mention that because we were up to our butts in it this week!
It totally shuts down the world here and no one knows what to do.
Haven't been out of the house for 3 days because of the snow and then major ice.











What's amazing is the hummingbirds. I've been refilling their feeders every morning because they were frozen solid. The minute the sun comes up, there's birds out there, and, man, do I get scolded when I take that feeder down. They're fascinating, though. Check out the background in this pic. Snow. 18 degrees. and hummingbirds.













I did get some knitting done.....
looopy ewe feb club scarf. It was a fun knit, and I love the colors.











I've also been working on a wedding shawl for one of my clients, no pics yet, but it's coming along.


Yogi was not quite sure what to do with himself........
















but ozzie had the right idea.....sleep unitl it's over!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

I couldn't help myself.......

I know I said I wasn't going to do the loopy ewe club this year, but when I saw these awesome colors.......(the pic doesn't do it justice). This is a cute little scarf and a fun knit, pretty much my only progress last week, except a bit on the endless, being knit backwards slip stitch.














The mailman was also good to me. Cute little doggie knits book, although I could SWEAR when I first saw it, it included a boxer. The book comes, no boxer. I wouldn't have bought it otherwise, so something happened there. Good thing it was only $8. I think I can modify a couple of the patterns to make a boxer. In my spare time.











Yesterday, we went to Madrona, a fun local knittting conference. Beware! Rant coming.
2 actually......
Rant #1
There was one booth there that was completely empty. Not a thing to sell, with people sitting there saying they were "sold out". I totally understand the fine line between too much and not enough, but these folks sold out on thursday, the first day of a 4 day conference. Frustrating. I MIGHT have bought something, but........
They operate here locally and possibly could have re-stocked, or saved one of each skein to show folks and take orders. It was a waste of space.

Rant #2
I saw this cute little vest pattern. When I asked about it, I was told that I could only "buy the kit". $120 for a vest....A little steep. Gee, they weren't selling too many.
There's only one person on rav who's actually done this pattern, wonder why.
Shame on you trendsetter yarns. I get the whole "we need to sell OUR yarn", but, if you'd sold me the pattern, I might have bought the yarn later. It's OK. There's about 800 cabled vest patterns on rav. I'll find another. In both cases, you snooze, you lose.

Rant over.....

Let's leave on a positive note! (check out who he's using for his pillow)

Sunday, February 13, 2011

It was yarn score saturday!

Saturday was a great yarn score day here......
A knitpicks order including the yarn to make the blue sipalu bag, some white alpaca lace for a wedding shawl, and some needles to replace the ones that had a "cough" Puppy accident......













Included here is also the newest interweave knits, and the feb. loopy ewe kit. I know, I said I wasn't going to join the club, and I didn't, but when I saw the beautiful green and white, just my colors, I HAD to have it. I deserve it, right?
So when the individual kits went up, I went and snagged one. Suppose I can resist the march and april ones?











The moonstruck sweater is finally done and it matches pretty well. It could have been bigger, it's a bit tight in the armpits, but I'm loving it and I can't imagine....it would have taken yet another skein. Something wrong there. Now it just needs some buttons. I know it's not a good pic, but look at that cute (knitting needle-eating) puppy. (in his defense, Ozzie started it)











The colorwork scarf has entered the land of mindless knitting. Tons and tons of mindless knitting. There's 10" of this slip stitch to make the hood and it's taking forever. This will probably be my 10 minute mindless project for quite a while. I'm moving on to that beautiful loopy ewe kit, and making the scarf.












Next week, the first installment of Janel Laidman's pattern club and Madrona!

Sunday, February 06, 2011

well, now, that was better.......

This week actually brought on some knitting progress.......
My orchid thief shawl. The pattern is "the riddle of the orchid thief" by ysolda, from the book "brave new knits". In the book, it says it's advanced. Honestly, the only thing advanced about it is trying to figure out what the author had in mind. It has limited directions, and charts, neither of which bothered me, but, it assumes that the knitter will also make the SAME assumptions....confused? so was I. Thanks to the lovely knitters at Rav. that have gone before me, I was able to make it past the dreaded row 86 after only 3 tries. The yarn is "nightfall" by fibro fibers. I love how it slowly turns to black.














I got my new fixed skein of Gaea for my moonstruck sweater. It's still a bit light, even after sending a sample, but it'll work. I finished the other front last night while watching movies and it's off to be blocked today. I'll be working on the luanaria scarf while that dries.


We also went to the grand opening of a new LYS yesterday. It was about a 30 minute drive, but worth it. Yellow House Yarns in puyallup is going to be a really fun place. I love the old house, the selection of yarns was good, and I think once they get up and running, they'll probably have some fun classes too.
Ozzie and the troublepuss are admiring the cascade heritage I bought there. Had to support them, right? I am thinking colorwork socks, this being the year of colorwork and all.













Speaking of classes. Our little obedience school dropout graduated yesterday. Don't get too excited. His graduation cap should have been a dunce cap. He starts again monday night for another round of basic. How can you resist that cute face???