.post-title { margin:.25em 0; font:bold 130%/1.4em Georgia,Serif; color:#333; } .post-title a, .post-title strong { background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots/bg_post_title.gif") no-repeat 0 .25em; display:block; color:#333; text-decoration:none; padding:0 0 1px 45px; } .post-title a:hover { color:#000; } Knittingupastorm: January 2007
 

Knitting Up A Storm!


Wednesday, January 31, 2007

January has been a very good knitting month. I knit up 16 balls of yarn and gave 3 to good will for a total of 19 balls reduced from the stash! Yippee kai Yeah! I knit 2 scarves for streetknit.ca, 1 scarve for Julianna to give as a birthday gift, 2 pairs of socks, 2 drive thrus and started Wicked.

Man, am I wicked. I am hoping I can knit at least half of what I did this month and try to keep it up for the rest of the year. Okay, okay, I know, I'm pushing it here, but let me live in my little world and think I will be this knitterly good.

Here is a picture of my toe ups, well one anyway. I could not get a decent shot of both (I know this isn't the best either), so to at least post the pic, I hoisted my foot up on the counter. Trust me, there is a 2nd one!:


I used Online sock yarn and because I bought one huge ball, I couldn't make them match. Oh well. It will drive me slightly insane, but I will wear them never the less. This is the first time knitting with this yarn, and it is okay to knit with, and feels so so on my feet. I kind of feel every stitch that I knit - weird. I was going to make a pair for Julianna with the left overs, but I don't think I will now. She won't like the feeling either.

posted by Lisa @ 10:44 a.m. 

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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

I have just converted to the new blogger - let's hope the old saying 'newer is better' is true with this upgrade. If not, I'll have to have my tech support, aka Chris, tinker around with it.

I have finished my toe up socks and hopefully post a picture soon. Toe ups are so much faster than top downs with the heel flap. The only thing I don't love about this method, is the two holes I get once I join the heel to the left and start knitting around. I'm sure there must be a way to not get those holes. Hmmmm.

I wish I had more progress on Wicked, but I don't. I am really tired after the kids go to bed and have no enery to do anything but stare aimlessly at the TV. To squeeze in some knitting time, I will put it in my purse as my carry along project, so I can get cracking on it.

Anyhoo - have a great day.

Labels:

posted by Lisa @ 9:37 a.m. 

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

I am totally into Wicked now - I cast on last night and finished the first four rows. No biggie, I know, but it will be easy to pick up and knit when I feel like it. It appears this will be a very, very easy knit with amazing results! Yeah! Another great thing about this sweater is I will use about 10 balls of yarn, to bring my count down to under 220 of stash yarn. Yeah again!

Not only did I cast on and start Wicked, I also signed up for the Sexy Knitters Club KAL, knit a scarf using two balls of Red Whirly yarn for streetknit.ca and finished the toe up sock- ends darned in and everything. January has been a very productive month so far and we still have 6 more days until February.

Yeah.

Have a good one.

posted by Lisa @ 9:24 a.m. 

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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

As we all know it is nice to knit from the stash if you can, and this time baby I can! I bought the Wicked pattern and will use the purple Alpaca I used and then ripped for the Something Red sweater I made last year.

I love the colour of this yarn, the feel and the look, so I think this is the perfect little sweater for the yarn. This sweater shouldn't be too hard to make, as I made Green Gable, the same designer as Wicked and I have all my notes for GG. Yeah! Don't even have to think about it how many stitches to increase to or where to put the increase/decreases. Woo hoo people. I can't wait to get started.

I also finished my toe up sock, and learned a new cast off technique to boot. The EZ sewn off edge. Not hard at all, but it is nice to have another skill to add to my list.

Have a good day.

posted by Lisa @ 9:26 a.m. 

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Monday, January 22, 2007

The past weekend has got to be one of the best ones yet. I didn't have to clean up that much, therefore most of the time was spent having fun. Not knitting fun because there was no knitting the last few days. But fun none the less.

Julianna invited about 7 girls from her hockey team to skate in the back yard, and skate they did. They all spent 2 hours out there having a great time, while three of the moms and me talked away.

In the evenings, Chris and I have been watching Men in Trees. Chris downloaded the first 13 episodes, which we have watched and now we have to watch the show like the rest of the planet - on it's regular scheduled night, with freaking commericals. I didn't think this show would be that interesting, but let me tell you, it is excellent. I don't like Anne Heche that is why I was relunctant to watch it, but, she is fantastic in this show. If you get a chance, watch it from the beginning - I'm sure you'll love it.

I'm still working on my first toe up sock, but have finished the heel and now only have to knit the leg and cuff. I don't have that much energy at night to knit, so I hope that I can finish this one up soon.

Have a good one.

posted by Lisa @ 3:30 p.m. 

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

How cool is THIS? We received a phone call at 9:30pm last night from Julianna's team mate's mother asking us to turn to page 13 of our local paper to see a picture of Julianna! She is the first one on the right! I couldn't believe it. She played in her first hockey tournament on the weekend and they published a picture of one of the plays.

Wow! This one is getting stored in her memory box. BTW - her team won 2 out of the 3 games they played. Not bad for their first tournament.

Have a good one!

posted by Lisa @ 9:09 a.m. 

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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Come on guys - I can't believe I didn't get one single comment regarding my last post about my newly organized mitts and hats solution. Am I the only one that thinks it is a great idea? It isn't mine, but I thought I'd share. Oh well, I'll enjoy it none the less.

Reading through the blogs I like to read, I find a similar pattern - everyone is trying to reduce the amount of stash they have. All I have to say is GOOD LUCK. I look at mine, organize the list, try to find ways to get the total under 200 balls, then I go and buy more yarn. I know I am not the only one in this boat. So, this year it is going to be different. I will not buy any more yarn until the count is under 199, then all bets are off! I have my eye on some Rowan Baby Soft in a very light baby green at the Naked Sheep.

To reach this goal, I am going to be knitting up scarves, and more scarves, because a lot of the yarn can only be used to knit scarves. Do I need more scarves? Hell, no - but this plan will get me on my way to my goal so I can buy those precious balls of love.

BTW - my toe up sock is coming along quite nicely. The toe shaping is down and I'm working on the foot. I think this is a very quick method, once you get the hang of the short row shaping.

Have a good one.

posted by Lisa @ 12:46 p.m. 

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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

With winter finally arriving in Toronto, (BTW-yeah!) we need to wear mitts, hats and scarves, which is great and everything, however where the hell do you store all of these things? In the past I have used baskets, bins and a deacon's bench, but none of these things work. Everything is all over the place in one big freaking pile and we can't find anything. So, I surfed the web and found an easy solution. See:

It is an over the door plastic shoe holder that doubles as a mitts and hats holder! A close up:


This is one of the best ideas I've come across in awhile. Even my husband and daughters can keep it nice and neat. Easy, out of the way and most importantly - I don't have to look at the big mess of mitts and hats by the front door! Woo hoo.

The organizing doesn't stop there my friends. Today I found the perfect little thing to store my circular needles:
I guess it was designed to store papers, but it stores my needles very nicely. Here is a close up. Blurry, but you get the idea:

Have a good one.

PS - I started a pair of socks using the toe up method.

posted by Lisa @ 9:22 p.m. 

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Monday, January 15, 2007

Is it the year of the Drive Thru sweater? Nope, these will be my last two for awhile - I need a bit of a challenge folks. Here is Julianna's:

A bit hard to photograph due to the colour and poor lighting conditions, but you get the point. I used black shiny toggles for the closures instead of button holes. My girl likes to have things a bit different. The yarn I used is Lion Brand Wool Ease with a bit of Patons Decor for the stripes. She is not my girly girl so of course hers was knit in black with darker colours. She loves it, thankfully!

Here is the 3rd Drive Thru for my nephew:

I used Patons Decor for the main body and Elann Peruvian Highland wool for the stripes. Hope his parents like it enough to have him wear it.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post - a storage idea for mittens and hats!

posted by Lisa @ 12:42 p.m. 

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Friday, January 05, 2007

Another one bites the dust. My new Regia socks:

They match right up to the end of the freaking toe. What the hell went wrong? At least the heels match. Look at them - psychedelic dude:


I made these top down and knit an afterthought heel. I think this is the first pair of socks that fit me perfectly! I bought the yarn from Brenda because she didn't like the yarn. But I LOVE it. Thanks for not liking it Brenda because I now have a fab pair of socks.

Dianna tagged me to write down 6 weird things about me. I can only come up with four, but I think they are really weird, so it kind of makes up for the fact I don't have 6:

1. I hate feet! I hate the way they look and I hate when feet touch me. I don't even like my daughters to touch me with their feet. I scream, like a little girl. They don't do it much let me tell you. If they are going to lie down and put a part of the body on my lap, it has to be their head. If it is feet, they or I have to move. Crazy eh? I also know when Chris feet touch me when I am dead asleep. I will wake up and kick him or yell at him to move his freaking feet from mine.

2. I pick my toe nails. Why get a nice straight edge with a nail cutter when you can rip them off? Even though feet drive me crazy, I can't seem to stop myself from constantly touching my toe nails to see if there are any ragged edges to rip off.

3. I am so paranoid that I have boogers hanging from nose. I constantly check mirrors, knives, windows, spoons to see if anything is there. Funny thing is, I never have. I always have to have kleenex and a small compact mirror in my purse or I go batty without them.

4. When I walk, I count everything. EVERYTHING. It drives me nuts. I can't seem to stop myself and I don't remember a time when I didn't do it. I've never told anyone I do this, until now. I think I do it because I am bored walking from point A to point B.

Feel free to write weird things about yourself, if you feel the need to share!

posted by Lisa @ 10:36 a.m. 

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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Happy New Year everyone - hope your celebrations were fantastic. I believe this year's outing on New Years eve was the best ever! My friends and I had such a great time, I am still smiling about how much fun we had.

The only sad news is, Chris' cousins are heading back to Macedonian today. Boo Hoo. We will certainly miss them. I post pics once we have gone through them all and of course, only post the best ones.

First finished object of 2007? Yes, right here baby: Maddie wearing her drive thru sweater from knitntonic. I used Patons Decor for the main body and Patons Classic Merino for the colour work. This puppy was knit using yarn from my stash. Yeah!

Now I only have two WIPs on the needles. The flower basket shawl which has been sitting there in the knitting basket since November 2005. I believe I have knit about 8 repeats done so far and my goal is to finish it before the end of February, 2007. Prior to picking it back up again, I have to start Julianna's drive thru sweater because we don't want her to feel left out of the knitting love, now do we? Nope!

The other WIP on the needles is the cabled cardi from the fall 2005 Sandra magazine. I love this sweater, but always seem to want to knit other projects before even thinking about this one. I am not going to frog it because I know it will be a great classic in the closet.
Well that is it.

Here is to wishing you and yours a fantastic 2007!

posted by Lisa @ 10:16 a.m. 

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