Ms. Create (It's always about the sticks and string...)

Ginevra and Cooper....

So my next project is another pullover.  It's called Ginevra's Pullover from Interweave Knits, Winter 2010.  The construction is intriguing with the lace bit sewed into the neck.  I'm using Lion Brand Wool Ease in the Blush Heather Colorway.  It's top down, so I'm already under the arms and working the waist shaping.  See the big square by the neck?  This is where the lace bit gets sewed in.

fun fun, plus now I get to do some mindless stockinette stitch for awhile until the body and sleeves are done.  The lace bit is even easy.  Just a rectangle of stockinette stitch.  Hey - by the way, has anyone noticed the theme of pink stuff lately?  What's with that???  I swear I have other colors of yarn!

Cooper says Hi, but no time to talk as it's time to lay down with Daddy for nappy time.

(you will notice my new reflective collar that Mommy bought for me).  I'm spoiled.  Just a little.....

Big Tile Pullover

I finished the Big Tile Pullover.

You will note that I chickened out and used a light contrasting yarn on the fair isle.  I really plan on wearing this a lot and I was afraid if I used a dark contrasting yarn, like red, it would bleed into the pink alpaca and it would become a hot mess.  A few changes.  I added those ribbed parts on the sleeves because I didn't like the cap sleeves.  I've got too much meat on my arms for them.  :O)  Also, after finishing the tile part I skipped at least 6 rounds of plain knitting because I knew it would have made it more than the 10.5 inches I needed from the sleeve to the neck (good thing I read the schematics!).  Maybe I'll do another one using some acrylic and go crazy on the contrast - we'll see.

Here's a close-up on the sleeve cap with my ribbed part added on.

Still working on those socks, and hunting down my next project.

Talk to you soon!

Pullover and Sock Progress...

An update.  Still working the Big Tile Pullover and I just finished the beginning of the two sleeves which I will then attach to the body, and start the yoke (the fun part).

I'm still up in the air about which colors to use for the diamonds.  On one hand I'd love to do something dramatic like red, but then I can see it all bleeding when it's washed.  ugh.  So maybe something lighter.  The jury is still out on that decision.

Also, done with one lemon drop sock, and started the second one.

I have to get past the second sock syndrome, so I always need to start the second sock right after I finish the first one!  Works for me!  I fool my brain every time.  lol  Simple Sock Sense and all that.

Hope you are all having a wonderful spring, and finishing those projects!  I love to see all the finished stuff on Ravelry and the internet - so keep up the good work so I can keep it up too.  :)

Finished MLP, socks line-up and its time for some Alpaca!

Happy Easter all!  He Is Risen!!

I promised to show the collar on the Modern Lodge Pullover.  It is the first one I've done like this, and it worked out pretty well.  You had to knit the collar onto the back of the neck, casting on (increasing) at each end as you went.  Here's the collar after I finished:

 neat,huh?  It will eventually get sewn onto the sides and front of the neck opening:

Okay, eventually did already happen, but you knew that right?  I finished this a week or so ago.  But in my defense, I wanted to wait for a nice sunny day so I could show you the true colors of this Amazing in the Mauna Loa colorway.  Even if I did let a few of those "sunny" days go by.  Oops.  I did get it done, though, and that's what matters!  

Loving the finished sweater.  If I had to do it again I would add a bit more to the length for me.  Other than that - fun knit (even with the seaming) and I might use this pattern again.

I also finished those socks I started awhile ago.  This is Sockin Sox from Plymouth, but I can't locate the tag anymore so not sure what the colorway was.  Sorry about that!

and I finished the ball of yarn using leftovers to get another pair of socks.  Waste not, want not or some such thing!

and next up is a skein of Sock Ease in the Lemon Drop colorway:

and a new project.  This time, it's the Big Tile Pullover from Interweave Knits, Winter 2012.  It's a short sleeve bulky turtleneck with some fair isle designing on the yoke.  Time to use some nice pinky alpaca!

until next time, knit-on dudes!  :P

Modern Lodge Pullover Progress and Cooper in TV Land

So I decided that I should blog about my newest sweater project before I finished it.  Remember those days when I blogged about a project in stages?  Good times. 

I'm knitting the Modern Lodge Pullover from Lion Brand's website.  I'm having lots of fun with all the colors of the Amazing yarn.  I'm using the Mauna Loa colorway.  Here's the back, front and two sleeves in pieces.

Next step is to sew the shoulder seams, and then I get to knit the collar.  My first glance at the directions for the collar had me blinking and reading them again.  I thought it would be something like "gather all the stitches around the neck and knit," but not this time.  Apparently I will be knitting the collar onto the back of the neck and increasing stitches as I go along.  Then I will have to sew the collar onto the front piece.  Huh? you say.  Really!  I'll try to blog the collar before I sew it on so you can see the weirdness.  It's okay - I like weirdness, besides the fact that I don't have to pick up a gazillion stitches.  Right??

For those of you who are wondering if Cooper has overcome his neutering and cone of shame time, he is doing good.  16.5 pounds at 8 months the vet says.  What happened to the 5-10 pounds full grown statement???  Anyway, I must admit that we are getting a little ridiculous with the tv watching thing:

Yeah, that's right.  I'm talking about you Cooper!

Cheers!

 

Spring Lambs, Pearl and Weekday Raglan

Well.... the groundhog said Spring was coming early, and I think our sheep heard the call.  Look out - cute lamb pics coming up.

at this rate, we'll be done by Easter, way early.

let that sun shine in!

although, really, it's COLD outside still!  and goodness the hay is getting low!

even Pearl is enjoying some sun on top of her cat-house.

the whole time I was in the barn she couldn't be bothered to see what I was doing.  :)

Also, time for a new project!  Weekday Raglan is finito.  It was lots of mindless knitting so I'm thinking I might actually do another one before getting back to cables, fair isle or lace.  It was almost like knitting one big sock.  lol

I added about four extra inches to the bottom for length, and still had most of one ball of Knit Picks Lemon Curd City Tweed DK left.  Next time I will make that ribbing a little longer as it curls the littlest bit (although it doesn't on the sleeves - go figure??).

What's on your project list for this spring?  Anything fun?

Lemon Curds and Pink Plastic Pigs....

Where'd she go?  Here I am.  Knitting away on my top down boring stockinette stitch sweater.  Yay!  This is from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters.  It's called Weekday Raglan.  I'm using Knit Picks City Tweed DK weight in the Lemon Curd colorway.  Hopefully I won't run out of yarn as I'm about dead-on with the yardage and I usually use a little more than the patterns call for.  I can always make this a 3/4 sleeve sweater if I have to, although, I'd rather not.   

Cooper?  He's still sleeping with his new little buddy.  You will notice that he is on the couch now instead of the floor.  Ahem.....

 

Happy Weekend!

A little fair isle and a lot of Cooper.

I know.  I know.  But, hey, it's a new year, and I'll try to be here more often.  I used to be really good at this BC.  What's "BC" you ask?  Before Cooper (that darling little Toy Fox Terrier who is now 5 months old).  I start and end every sentence with it lately.  I used to have a life Before Cooper.  Before Cooper, I could sit and knit quietly.  Before Cooper . . . fill in the blank.  I'm sure whatever you use will work.  ha ha

It was New Years Eve and I had the whole day to myself.  Paul had to work and I had the day off so I had plans.  You see, I've been adding my knitting and crocheting books and magazines into my Ravelry library.  It's going to be awesome.  All of my patterns at a glance.  I can sort, etc., find what I want to knit and then just go get the book or magazine.  No more stacks of books and magazines to look through all at once.  I even glanced at my yarn and thought how nice that would be to stash it on Ravelry.  Then I realized that would be crazy town.  Maybe I'll just stash the boxes of yarn coming that I bought for Christmas.  I can pretend that's all I have for awhile.  yeah. 

Anyway, I'm going along with my lovely day and it's snowing outside non-stop.  I don't care.  I'm not going anywhere.  Except maybe to put Cooper out who is still being house-trained.  (We won't go there).  Paul put a kennel up in the back yard to put him in.  I just have to be the goalie when it's time to take him out and bring him back in the house.  He likes to play and not come to me when it's time for him to come in.  I open the door..... he runs.... I close the door.... he jumps at the door... repeat repeat. He can't do the stairs yet so I have to carry him inside.  I wasn't too worried about him getting loose because, hell, there was at least 100 feet of snow on the ground.  He's 10 pounds.  No way was he running through the snow anywhere.  Or so I thought.

Here he is in the correct position (inside the kennel):

The little heathen ran right past me and took off for the front yard!!!  In the snow!!!  Like a damn jack rabbit!!  It's funny now.. but at the time I was terrified.  The german shepherd next door (Dexter) is mean and his electric fence isn't working.  Can you say lunch?  I ran (as fast as my pajamas, slippers and orange camo coat could go) through the snow to the front yard screaming the whole way.  There was no way I was catching him.  He had already run to the barn and was having the time of his life.  He started coming back and Dexter came from next door into the driveway.  I swear they were 5 feet apart when I screamed "Dexter, GO HOME" in my most scariest voice ever.  And... he actually went home.  And..  Cooper didn't follow him!  It was a miracle.  Cooper ran into the back yard where we have a fence that will mostly contain him (there are bits and pieces Paul will need to fix before we let him have free reign), but he will still trying to get through the fence to get to Dexter who was now on the other side of the fence growling.  Me?  I have no slippers anymore and snow in places I shouldn't have snow.  I was just figuring out how I could catch him when I look up and - you're not going to believe me, but a HAWK was 10 feet from us coming down.  Cooper must have looked like a nice snack to him as well.  I started screaming again and clapping my hands at the hawk.  He must have figured it was not worth it, because he eventually flew away.  I finally did catch Cooper (about 20 minutes later) with a football tackle.

I went back in the house.  I sat down.  I looked around.  I was done for the day.  LOL  That was all the energy I had.  Before Cooper, I would have had a wonderful crafty day.  After Cooper, just lots of naps.  HA!

There was knitting, but it's already unraveled.  I knit a hat and mittens in fair isle using the Chroma fingering from knit picks.  It was immense fun, but the hat was big enough to fit the Jolly Green Giant and the mittens sucked.  I was even getting the pattern messed up on the second mitten because I wanted to be done.  I used Mini Mochi Fair Isle Hat & Mittens from Crystal Palace Yarns (free on-line pattern).

Cute and fun, huh?  But for $9.99 a skein, if it's not wearable, it's getting unraveled.  Ever unravel fair isle before?  I definitely could have used an extra set of hands!  I did knit one hat that I like and that fits.  I used Pallet scraps (like I do for the socks).  This is Beezy's Traditional Tam Beret (free pattern in Ravelry).

Now I just need to work myself up to knitting some mittens or wristers to go with it.  I'm using the hat right now to nestle my raveled balls of Chroma in.

The fair isle has gone right out of me though.  I have a hankering for a nice easy in the round pullover - top down.  Plus - now is a good time to knit I think.

shhhhhh!

A Project Finished, and ....waiting for inspiration???

I have procrastinated so long on this pullover, that I finally took a picture of it when I wore it last.

I usually like to take the pictures when the project is laid flat on the table (without me in it) lol, but I had no time.  Here's a side view.

(Big Mama Dani as Paul would say).  Why yes, I have managed to gain all the weight back that I lost last year (and had fun doing it).  It fits really good and I like it alot.  It's long enough to almost be called a tunic.  I did add length because I had enough yarn.

I also finished a pair of socks (picture coming) and am knitting a second pair with what is left of that skein and some other scraps.

What else am I doing?  Well....looking through thousands of books, patterns, websites, etc.  I have no idea what I want to knit next.  Every day I think I'm going to start something, and then I change my mind and go back to the socks to think about it.  It's driving me batty.  I had it in my mind to knit a dog bed, then I wanted to knit some fair isle stuff.  I'm still kind of on the fair isle stuff, but nothing is jumping out at me.

Does this happen to you?  Do you have knitting jags when you don't know what to do next?  I want to knit - but don't know what to knit!  I also have lots of patterns marked that I plan to knit, just not now apparently.  In any event, if it keeps up I'll have to start a third pair of socks.  At least I'm still knitting something to take the edge off!

It's probably that puppy driving me insane.  If you only knew the things that wee bugger has been up to.  I'll just say that my house is not my castle, but his!

Happy Thanksgiving all and have a nice nappy after eating all that turkey goodness!  After that I may think about dieting, just a little.

Brought to you by Cooper

Mom can't come to the blog right now.  She's too busy chasing me around.  I am a spoiled puppy for sure.  Here I am laying in my bed.

I'm not usually there though.  I'm too busy chewing on toys, especially my big big bone that I took away from Sasha.  Plus - playing catch with my two ball balls.

And silly Sasha is scared of Mommy's camera, so she won't even stand still for a picture of us so you can see I am so much bigger then her (chortle).

plus, I'll have you know that my ears are going to stand straight up before I am six months old (yeah....right)  lol

Anyway.... Mommy says to tell you that she is still plugging away on her pullover, and has the front, back and one sleeve done.  Only one-quarter of a sleeve left, then she can sew it up.

She is wondering what she will knit next.  Maybe a new bed for me??  Because... well... I don't have enough stuff.  HA!

Happy Weekend!