Instant gratification....

Well, almost.

Pattern: Ms Marigold

Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton in color #955 "Ship Shape" aka dark teal; near 4 balls!!

Needles: US #5 and #3 circulars and a size F/5 crochet hook

Mods: Yarn sub. Used a one size smaller crochet hook because that's all I had. Did only 3 crochet rows instead of 5 on the shoulder ruffles. Added 2 waist decreases and 2 waist increases.

Notes: Please excuse the self-portrait style pics and the yarn tail hanging out that I forgot to trim off. I really love this little top...so cute I think! Unfortunately, the yarn estimates was a bit of an issue. The pattern calls for 3 balls of 110 yards dk yarn. First of all, my guage was spot on, second, the yarn sub I used had 123 yards per ball....so why did I have to use nearly 4 balls? You got me. All I know is I've seen that a lot of other people in blogland had this same issue and boy am I glad I got this yarn at my LYS so I could just run in and grab another ball. Anyway, it all turned out good in the end. I'm happy and I love the color and I LOVE Wool Cotton! The crochet was fun too but my wrist isn't used to that kind of action!

Look at this adorable top I saw on What Not to Wear!

I want to make this!! You can't see it in the lovely TV picture here but there are cables running diagonally out from the neck and center (does that make sense?). Surely, this wouldn't be too hard to make? it looks like you could just do a kind of standard top down raglan with a fairly deep raglan and add lots of waist shaping...what do you think? of course, adding cables complicates things a bit but it would look good plain too maybe. I want to make my Phildar Swing Jacket first though.

Lucy in the Sky

As promised.....

Pattern: Lucy in the Sky cardigan

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish in Bordeaux; 8 balls

Needles: US #6

Notes: Boy, it took me a long time to knit this! mainly because I wasn't very excited about it so I only worked on it when I felt like it. Do I love it now that it's finished? well....I like it. I think a lot has to do with the color. That's the thing with ordering before looking at a color card...sometimes the color isn't quite what you expect (color is more accurate in second pic). The Swish is very soft even for me who is very sensitive to the itch factor. I'm not sure I would use this yarn again for a sweater though......it seems to "relax" a lot after it gets wet and feels thinner or weaker or something. I guess you get what you pay for.

This was also my first time knitting a sweater from the bottom down all in one piece....it was really awkward when the sleeves were attached. I think top down is much easier.

Hey, and thanks to your help, I can now graft in seed stitch!! I meant to get a pic of that for y'all. It turned out pretty good!

All in all, I think I will wear this cardigan on a regular basis. I think I ended up making the smallest size and it fits pretty good. Although if I were any bustier, I think there would be issues with gaping at the buttons.

This one's gonna be a nail-biter...

Will I have enough?

At this point, that is two full balls worth of knitting. I have at least 5 inches of the body left, ribbing around the neck, and shoulder ruffles. Supposedly I will only need one more ball. I am doubtful.

Pretty yarn:

Socks that Rock mediumwieght in Pucks Mischief and Lucy.

Louet Gems Pearl in Crabapple Blossom.
Fleece Artist merino sock yarn in Hercules.

Impulsive

You may be wondering at my WIPs in the sidebar....how they've grown just in the past few days. What can I say? I got kinda bored waiting on my Tatami Kimono pattern to arrive (more on that in another post).
So, I started the Monkey socks from the extremely talented Cookie A. I'm finally trying out my Yarn Pirate merino/tencel yarn. It's a little splitty but soft and silky smooth! I don't know what happened on my Fleece Artist socks. I though it would be "fun" to do some plain stockingette stitch socks but apparently not. I got the first sock done really fast but they were just boring me. The stitch pattern is easy but interesting on the Monkey socks!Next, out of nowhere, I got the itch to knit Ms Marigold! So, I cast on for this last night with some Rowan Wool Cotton in a nice teal color. It should be a really quick knit. I promise you though I will have an FO to show you as soon as I finish that grafting. BTW, thank you so much for all your suggestions for seed stitch grafting!! I will be attempting that first thing this weekend (when I am not tired).

soooo close

I'm stuck. I'm so close to being done with Lucy in the Sky; I really thought I was going to finish it up yesterday and have it blocked and ready to show you today. I'm down to just grafting the collar ends together and apparently I don't know how to graft in seed stitch. Below is just kitchner and it looks like crap.

Anyway, moving on to other things. Project Spectrum! I saw everyone else doing this last year and it looked like fun. The colors for February and March are blue, grey, and white.

So, my first contribution is a picture of our totally remodeled spare bedroom (i.e. dejunked, painted and filled with Ikea furniture). I knocked this project out a couple of weekends ago. The picture is kind of lousy but we just haven't had much sunlight lately.

Here's the fun part.....look what it looked like before:

That's what it looked like for 4 years!

Out of the Dark Ages....

Ok, so, I've just discovered Bloglines. Can you believe it?!! I knew what it was I just never knew how it all worked. Well, turns out, it's easy peasy. Now I can't believe I waited this long to check it out.

So, anyway, I've been tagged by Lara for the 5 Secrets About Me meme! I had to think about it for a little while but this one is easier than the 6 Weird things meme because you just have to list things about yourself that you have not previously revealed on your blog.

1. I have recently started collecting original edition Nancy Drew books. I really enjoyed them when I was young and read quite a few of them. I'm not going for "collectors" quality or 1st editions or anything, I just want to get all of the original (before they were "revised" to modern language) edititions. So far I have 6 out of 56.
2. I am the oldest out of 8 children. My parents had me, my sister, and my brother and then adopted 1 brother when I was 8 and then adopted 4 more after I was 16. My family is very diverse which I think is really neat...we have Korean, Equadorian, and Guatamalan.
3. Even though I'm a big homebody, I really like to travel a lot! The only continents I haven't been to are Africa and Antarctica and I don't really have plans on visiting the latter! My favorite place is New Zealand and I've been lucky enough to have been there twice!
4. My husband and I met on a blind date that was set up by a neighbor of mine. I think that's the only blind date I've ever been on! We just hit it off...it was pretty cool!
5. I used to be really big into road cycling when I was in college and didn't work full time. Two years in a row I participated in a famous bicycle ride called the Hotter 'N Hell 100. It's a ride held in North Texas in August and it's 100 miles. People come from all over the country to ride it. It's infamous for the triple digit heat you get to ride in. It's an accomplishment that I'm very proud of and I hope to do it again someday when I don't spend 2 hours a day in my car commuting.

So, that's it! Now, Disentangled, Jen, Alyssa, Emilee, and Maureen you are tagged!!!

BTW, sorry about the "new" posts that are popping up if you have me in your bloglines. I've been going back to old posts and adding labels to them and they get republished.

Joining the Club

I know I read this all the time on other blogs but I do feel like I'm the last person in the world to make these.

Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina

Yarn: Yarntini sock in Blue Hawaiian

Needles: #1 circs

Note's: Good 'ol Jaywalkers....you can't go wrong! except that I started the toe a little too soon on the second sock so it's a little tighter.

Oh, BTW, I've ordered the pattern and yarn for the Tatami Kimono! I decided on Louet Gems Opal in Eggplant. It kind of stinks that the pattern isn't a download....I have a feeling I'll get the yarn long before the pattern.