Finished: Tea with Jam and Bread

I started Tea with Jam about a week ago.  I had high hopes; I had purchased the yarn months ago on sale and had been dreaming of knitting the sweater for a long while.  I was concerned about the price of the pattern but I threw caution to wind because it comes with two patterns, one for each sex (and children).  A while back I cast one on for Phillip but after realizing I hadn't read the instructions thoroughly, quickly scrapped it.  So last week, I cast on, am moving quickly and dreaming of my new cute sweater.  Fast forward to this weekend when I complete the body and one of the sleeves.  I finally get the idea to try it on.  Beforehand, I checked the gauge again and again just to be sure I wouldn't be heartbroken after all that work.. Well, I still ended up heart broken because it turned out many sizes too large! (Really, my own fault for miscalculating what size I would need.) Some ingenious thinking arose, and next thing I knew Phillip had a new sweater. (Photo is unblocked.)

My yarn buying is still out of control, so not much is new there. I visited a new LYS a few miles away and ended up coming home with more Berroco than my heart could desire.  Many skeins of Vintage, for something unknown, a few skeins of Vintage Chunky (to go with my almost enough skeins that will be another Agnes sweater) and a beautiful skein of Manos Maxima which is begging to be a love and happiness cowl some time in the near future.  

Arriving all the way from Canada was a skein lot of Ultra Alpaca which is begging to be something cuddly and amazing..

And lastly, two new skeins of Madelinetosh which I will be waiting for in the coming days. Happy Knitting!

Progress: Tea with Jam and Bread

I have been terrible about updating this lately.. it is not as if I have not been knitting, but I haven't actually finished anything! I have spent the last week working on Tea with Jam and Bread out of Ella Rae Classic.  I have finished the body as of this morning and only have the remaining sleeves... I am crossing my fingers that I will be able to wear it before the weather flees. I am still toying with the stripes for the sleeves, I basically stopped looking at the pattern once I broke off for the sleeves, so maybe I will play around with the stripe sequence until I find something visually appealing to me. The pattern states to begin the first contrasting color stripe before the break off, and I didn't think a large box across my shoulders would be too nice.  

After finishing Tea, I have too many projects planned to even mention.  I am praying each night for five more sets of hands so I can pack in as much knitting as possible! Beyond my ravelry queue, which is getting out of control, I am drooling to begin Inversion Cardigan, Guernsey Triangle, Danforth Pullover. 

Happy Knitting! 

Finished: Sugared Violets

Last weekend I finished my Sugared Violets shawl by Rose Beck.  I have been into this pattern for a really long time.  The yarn is hand dyed that I picked up last summer at an arts festival.  The combination is light and airy and I am really happy with how it turned out.  I was going to run out of yarn so I cut one of the last repeats out and bound off with k2tbl, which is incredibly stretchy. 

I'd say major kudos to Rose Beck on this one.  Easy to knit, but beautiful enough to impress everyone. 

Stash Update

The birthday weekend extravaganza is almost over.  I can't say I am happy; in fact, I am dreading the return to "real" life.  When can I have three full days off to do nothing but knit and shop for yarn as my heart desires?  Of course, we all know about my splurge on my needles; it didn't really hit me until today after a trip to a yarn store when I picked up a sweaters amount of Malabrigo Rios (in Pearl Ten) for a Driven sweater... say, if my gauge is off that's no big thing, I'll just dig in my little plastic bag and try another!  It is something I won't be able to take for granted.  The yarn is beautiful and I couldn't resist.  I had to cast on for a gauge swatch (yes, seriously).  I seem to remember the pattern being slightly intimidating when I bought it a year and a half ago but I have knit many sweaters since then and when I pulled it out of my binder just a few minutes ago, I read it breezily, thinking, "Oh hell, I can do that!"... I guess so is the progression of a knitters life.  

I also picked up a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock... I couldn't help myself.  As I have mentioned, I have been on a serious blue kick lately.  I found myself drawn to it, but I had my mind made up on getting it before I even walked into the store.  

All of these purchases were made possible by the generous gift certificate my mother in law gave me yesterday.  I feel so incredibly lucky that my family really gets or accepts how obsessed I really am.  Even Phillip mentioned something flippantly to me when discussing what he had told someone to get me for my birthday.  It went something like this: 

Me: "Well, what did you say?" 

Phillip: "I said yarn. It's all you ever want."  

Happy Birthday to Me...

Yesterday was my birthday and I promised myself a little splurge.  I visited my usual LYS and dug around for a while and found a beautiful skein of Sweet Fiber Yarns (in color Fossil) that I had to have.  I milled around for a really long time and nothing was striking my fancy.  I ended up in deep conversation with a few of the ladies who work there and before I knew it they were talking me into buying an interchangeable set.  Here's the thing, I have needed a set for a really long time.  I find myself digging around for needles that don't exist in my collection; even Phillip has been trying to talk me into the splurge.  But for whatever reason I decided to take the plunge yesterday... the set is by Knitters Pride and somehow I wound up feeling quite smug when I realized they were half the price of the Addi's I have been eyeing for years. The ladies also told me that should I have an issue with a needle or a cable I can bring it into the store for a replacement.

In actual knitting news, I cast on a Sugared Violets shawl by Rose Beck yesterday.  I have been fawning over this pattern for a while--it is simple, but the end result strikes me as looking complicated without trying too hard.  I have been moving along on the increase sections and this special hand dyed skein seems to be perfect. 

Also, to top off the birthday knitting extravaganza a wonderful friend sent me the pattern for the Eternity Cardigan by Brooklyn Tweed.  If only I had 1600+ yards just lying around... Off to the drawing board to find the best deal I can for this amazing project. 

Happy Knitting!

Finished: Idlewood

I guess my last post came too soon.  I had no idea that I would embark on a knitting marathon yesterday which included binding off Idlewood.  Now that it is completed and I've had an opportunity to test out the fit (I never did on the needles, not sure why), I am actually quite in love with the color.  The pattern is really great. I can see myself knitting this again and again and again.  I opted not to do sleeves even though I had plenty of yarn left over (including a rogue skein which was hiding in my stash)... 

Speaking of stash, since the purchase of our new platform bed I have been pondering a way to store my yarn without actually having oodles of clutter and drawers around the bedroom. We have never had a bed which allowed us to shove stuff underneath, so after a trip to Home Depot I now have about 1/3 of my yarn hidden out of view which is a big improvement over having skeins in every nook and cranny. 

And even though I came across a slew of things that made me think, "..forgot about that.." I am still dreaming of my birthday splurge... a sweater quantity of Madelinetosh?  Differing skeins of something luscious like Malabrigo Worsted?  A whole lot of work horse yarns like 220?  Ahh, the possibilities are endless.  

Finished: Seaside

I have been meaning to make this post most of the week but the thought escaped me at every turn.  Not too much to report in the way of knitting; don't get me wrong, I have been knitting away but nothing too extravagant this week.

Last weekend, I cast on another ships and seaside by TOK.  I am not sure how much detail I went into on my last seaside excursion but here's the thing: I am terrible at Kitchener. And what am I even worse at? Kitchener in the round... I sat down in a quiet corner with youtube and my project and I flubbed it again... So what did I do, you ask?  I bound off and sent it home with a work friend to mattress it all up for me.  I made the cowl in Rowan Felted Tweed, which is always dreamy.

I also cast on an Idlewood sweater in Berroco Vintage... I've had this yarn in my stash for a very long time--few years?  The gauge is really loose on 10's which is in some ways beautiful and in other ways showing every decrease in all its glory.  I really shouldn't complain. I started it and less than a week later I am almost finished.  I knit a lot at my work desk and hear this and that regarding my projects.. "Oh, pretty color!" etc.  With Idlewood, I heard "..now that is pea green.."  Still trying to decide if it was meant as pea green or pee green... we'll see.

In other news, my birthday is less than a week away and I can't stop dreaming of what splurge is to come!

Happy Knitting!