It's all Dawn's Fault :)

that my stash has increased ever so slightly. When she knit her purple socks, I just had to have some purple yarn myself. Why I didn't have any in my stash by now is beyond me, I have just about every other color. I ordered this from a seller on Etsy. It's called The Yo-Yo String & Fluff. The yarn is called "Not Called Amethyst". It feels very soft but it wasn't quite the purple I was after. Actually in real life it looks more brownish purple. Camera's sure do funny things to yarn, my camera picked up more purple too!

I also went to my old stand by- Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Purple Club. I really liked the purple colorway that Sundara Yarns has but of course they're one of those sellers whose yarn is "not available" a lot of the time since people rush it like a riot. I guess they can't keep up right now. They were going to post more yarn on the 17th and people crashed their server. I'll probably never see that one so these will have to do.

The bottom one is a colorway called Raspberry that I saw on Ebay when I was getting my Purple Club. I was in the mood for more pink and after I got it remembered I had some Raspberry in my stash already!! I was so excited to see that they actually look like two different colorways though. The bottom is more of a bright pink mixture and the top has darker color variations. Way cool. Pink makes me happy-happy.

See, not so bad. A little yarn makes for much happiness. Now if I could just get my kitty to stop chewing up my Knitpicks Circs I'd be a super happy camper.

Knits & Bits

Here are my SIL's socks finally. Actually they've been done for a few days now but I was trying to get a decent picture that showed the colorway better (it's still not a great one but you should see the others!) This is the Charlie Brown Valentine Pattern that Dawn shared with me so we could learn to do Magic Loop together. Thanks again tons Dawn, I really enjoyed learning ML and I'm working on another pair now with my handy long needle!

Yarn: Fleece Artist 2/6: Burgundy
Size 2 Knitpicks 32" needle
Only 6 pattern repeats done w/plain foot (Just my preference-not the pattern).


Then I made one of these: The Binary Hat

This is for my nephew, well since I'm sending my SIL the socks and I already sent my brother that Campus Scarf I decided my nephew deserved something "cool". I love this hat, so does my daughter. It spells "HAT" in binary code.

Yarn used: Caron Simply Soft -Black & Country Blue

Used Less than a skein each. I could probably make 2 more hats!!

Needles: Size 7 & 8 Addi Turbo Circs/clover DPNs

Soooo, I made another one that's in his initials. I kind of like the first one better since it has more black space between the blue lines, but this is so "personal" it's a hoot. I used size 7's on this one (okay, I forgot to switch to size 8's after the ribbing, but I really liked how it was firmer and less mushy.) For a guy, it's perfect. I think he'll like it. My brother is an IT Mgr. so he'll totally get a good laugh from it.
Here are a couple of dishcloths I made for my Auntie's BD next month. I hope she likes them. I'm not crazy about the round one, they sure look pretty, but to me it's just easier to "use" the square ones. I'm just weird, I know. I had put that towel down on my chair to take the picture since the cats are always on them and my aunt's allergic, but it's a big duh moment - they blend in so well! Oh well, I haven't been at the top of my game lately. I need to block that round one still.....

Used: Sugar & Cream: Denim & Sugar & Cream: Blue stripes.

Patterns: Dapper Dab (From Color Splash Dishcloths Booklet)

& Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth

Guess you can tell her favorite color is blue!

Onto other news: The kids are super duper excited -School was cancelled for the next two days due to illness. Apparently it's mainly the teachers that are getting hit really hard. I had my oldest out for two days last week. Luckily we just dealt with head colds and not the other stuff that's going around. The Big Guy's employee's have had their kids get terrible other stuff. They've been in my prayers. ER trips and such are not fun and I feel for anyone who has kids that are so sick it's scary.

I'm putting the girls to work though. Yep, we're going into the crazy black hole that is "The Playroom" to seriously de-clutter and get rid of the "baby-ish" stuff. They're growing up so fast, they just don't play barbies, babies, or house anymore. It's all Pokemon, computers, DS games, ipods and High School Musical (well, for the 9 yr old, NOT the 11 yr old as I've been stoutly corrected so I mercilessly tease her!). We only cleaned out their desk today and we got about 4 bags out of there! We have WAYYYY to much stuff.

I don't know who they get that from (Mrs. 250+stash Mama over here ).

We're expecting lots of rain over the next few days...it'll be good to stay inside and not have to pick them up from school. I do have my knitting meeting tomorrow night though. I can't miss that! I can handle rain, and Friday's really the day we're expecting thunderstorms and stuff. I'm off to try to read some more of that depressing novel (only about 200 pages to go) so I can get it over with and get some sleep. Happy knitting.

Finally some knitting....

These took me a looong time to finish. It's the first time I've used Fleece Artist and while I liked it, I used size 1 needles so it was a "snug" knit. They're firm, while still soft, and will wear well, but weren't as easy for me as the thinner yarns I use (lorna's laces).

I LOVE the colorway Fruit Punch. It reminds me of candy, or roses. It's so hard to get a good picture to respresent the true color, the green is so bright and pretty. The top pic is a tad closer in the pink range than the bottom one, but it's too light - and the next one is too dark! I just couldn't win today.

Below: I saw these on Dawn's Ravelry project page and loved them for my Mother in Law (who loves butterflies!). I made her two for her new kitchen. I hope she enjoys them! **ETA: here's the pattern: Lacy Butterfly Dishcloth. Sorry, I should've done that before!

They came to visit us yesterday so I was finally able to give her her socks as well as Grandpa's hats that I knit for him. (I didn't get pictures of those, they were just basic 1x1 and 2x2 rib hats.) I think I've already posted pics of the ones I DIDN'T give him, the burgundy one in Cleckheaton (I remade one in Plymouth Encore) and the Bernat Denimstyle one (I redid in the round instead of seaming, hubby got the seamed one).

Dawn and I are going to work on a sock pattern using Magic Loop in February. (Which neither of us has done before - but we're FEARLESS!! ). I got my yarn wound for that today. I'm using more Fleece Artist in either Blueberry or Burgundy.

I'm hoping these won't have the problems I ran into with the Fruit Punch skein. It had some spots that looked like it was cut almost all the way thru and was hanging on by a thread. I had to cut and reattach and I hate doing that with socks!! That was disappointing. Especially since it kept happening, has anyone else had that problem?

Busy Busy, games on Saturday, practice pictures tomorrow, Beta Club induction ceremony, cleaning and more cleaning, birthday party shopping, hair appointment (I need it desperately!) and all this while getting very little sleep. I hope it all goes smooth.