Monday, July 30, 2007

Um.... RAVELRY!!!!

Got my invite this morning! WOOHOO!!! I'm on there as KnittyKitty. Anyone wanna be my friend? LOL!

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Lazy knitting days here in Barbados

Nothing much going on on this end knitting-wise... I've kinda been on semi pause since completing my DFS. I have picked up LT as promised but seriously considered frogging her. I tell you, if this was available in pdf format, I would probably do it. It's not that LT is a bad thing to knit... it's just the mindless stockinette, coupled with the hardness of the hemp. I like this yarn and cannot wait until I have a finished project so I can wash it and have proof that it softens up and drapes beautifully.

I still haven't started my mother's cardigan. Sigh. I need more yarn to inspire me to get going. My "stash" is very small... made up mostly of left over yarn and incomplete projects. One of my problems is figuring out how much yarn to buy if I don't have a pattern in mind and just want the yarn because it's yummy. For example... I would love to get some Rowan Calmer but I'm not sure if to spend the money on 12 skeins and not have enough or buy the 12 skeins and have more than enough but with extras in one colour. I guess it's better to have more yarn of the same colour than not enough. I have kinda sorta cast on for the cozy tank in And So To Bed for my daughter. She saw me with the colours lined up, trying to choose the colour combination and let me know that she loves the pink. Will she wear it? People, I can only hope.

I have also rediscovered the caston podcast. I downloaded the episodes that I missed onto my partially functioning ipod nano, and took it to work. I am so happy that I had Brenda for company... there's just something about her voice that's soothing and makes you want to listen. She's funny and witty and... well, if you are a knitter you know what I mean. I plan to visit some of the other podcasts that she mentions and to further explore her website.

I've also figured out (like duh) one of the keys to churning out projects like the rest of you... I need to stop being a monogamous knitter! If I have like five projects going at once (now, I don't think I can get that done... not right now at least - unless they are really small projects) and I work on them simultaneously I'll be able to have show and tell on a more regular basis. One slight problem though... I would need to have patterns and yarn for more than one project at once before I embark on such an adventurous journey. We'll see... we'll see.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Ah, sweet Sunday

Blocked DFS!


Birthday cake - YUM-O!


Today has shaped up to be a wonderful day. One main reason being that it is our anniversary (Happy Anniversary Babe!) but I also spent some quality girl time with my soon to be three year old daughter. Yesterday, we had her party early (her birthday is actually on Tuesday) and she and the other kids had a blast! I keep the parties fairly small... I wanted to invite some of her class mates, but the apartment is small and it would have been totally run over with 37 kids and their parents. Her cake was a chocolate ganache cake - so sinful that I purposely and evilly gave away large portions to the guests. Ingenious I know. I still have a rather sizable chunk in the fridge that I've been dancing around for the whole day... sneaking in the fridge with a fork and making it even around the edges. Snicker. I've attached a pic of the naughty cake. As you can see it's of Dora, my daughter's favourite character. Oh, and those decorations on the top (except for the fruit and the candles are all white chocolate - YUM!

Also, you can see that I've finally blocked my DFS shawl. I went in to the garden with my messed up camera and managed a pic of the shawl. I'm so pleased with it, I can hardly wait to wear it somewhere special. I may do another shawl later in the year if the fancy strikes me.

I also received my books (Fitted Knits, No Sheep For You, Last Minute Gifts, Finishing Techniques, and EZ Calendar) and finally had the time to sit down and read and ooh and aah over the patterns. I lounged in bed as lazily thumbed through the books. I'm quite happy with them and my only regret is not getting them sooner. I think one of my next projects will be the Dropped Stitch Tank from Fitted Knits. It's largest size is still way too small for me but the write up says to choose the size that's 6 inches smaller than your actual size. Still too small. I guess this is why I'm going to the gym. My birthday is coming up soon. I want to make a large yarn purchase and the yarn for this project will be in there. Now, if I can find some other projects that tickle my fancy, I'll be able to buy the yarn for those the same time (Cables and O's is still looking like a must knit). Meanwhile, the needles are sorta empty. I still have LT to complete. The stockinette is really what's deterring me a bit from diving right into this like I should. Sigh, it is a lovely shirt and I am being rather unfair to it by not dedicating more time to it. I'll change that tonight.

Happy knitting everyone!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Diamond Fantasy Shawl




So, it's done! I finally finished the DFS today... and it feels great. This is a beautiful shawl, easy, even if I did mess up on a row or two and had to tink back, but easy to knit. It is fresh off the needles so it's unblocked. I do have some pics but I'm fairly crap at taking beautiful artsy pics (I plan to remedy that with getting serious with photoshop - one day soon) so I'll just post a few of what I took tonight. Here are the stats:

Start date: around June 01
Yarn: Seasilk - Lilypond
Needles: Size 5 - Options (great with this yarn!)
End date: July 16 - approximately 6 weeks - sigh.
Synopsis: Fun easy satisfying knit

Post blocking pics to follow.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

So it's the weekend... time to get the things I've put off doing for ages done. But there's something about Saturdays that makes me feel very lazy. The apartment is upside down and yet I was able to sit for a few hours this morning working on my DFS. I've just completed repeat 8 and am nearing the finish line. I'm getting very excited. Along with the excitement is that feeling that I seem to always get when I'm nearing the end of a project... it's relief mixed with a pinch of anxiety mixed with an overwhelming need to buy more yarn... start a new project... but maybe after a week or so of marvelling at the fact that I actually have an FO. How many would that make for the year? Two? Either I need more time, patterns, yarn and the ability to churn out FO's or all of the above. I have taken a step closer to getting even more patterns by purchasing 5 books from knitpicks! They are Fitted Knits, No Sheep for You, The Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques, Last Minute Knitted Gifts and Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac (about time I find out what she's all about). They were 40% off but really they were just a few dollars cheaper than amazon.com. I went with them because amazon.com didn't have the No Sheep For You available so I went with Knitpicks to keep them all together. I want to be able to drool over them all at once! When they are received, I'll choose a pattern or patterns (from the books or otherwise) and then do a large yarn purchase. My birthday is coming up so I should probably spoil myself, right?

By this evening I should have some progress pics of my shawl. I didn't take any other pics as yet simply because the camera's door is coming off the camera (thanks to my darling son...he dropped it a while back and we haven't gotten it fixed yet) and I have to use scotch tape to secure it. The scotch tape however has run it's course and I need to get some as for some reason we're all out (that reason being my son and my daughter... they saw that episode of Dora where they use sticky tape to fix everything. See where I'm going with this?), so until I get some more, stick down the door and then hide the rest, I'll be sans pics for a little while longer.

Meanwhile, I'm contemplating knitting Monica for my daughter for her birthday. Now, my daughter... she's a darling. Loving and caring and shares with everyone. She doesn't like to hurt anyone's feelings (she'll be three by the way) and she's very... um, determined. If she doesn't like something she won't wear it, no matter how many hours, days, weeks you've spent on a item for her. I learned that lesson all too well after I'd completed Katja and she wore it for all of 30 seconds. So I'm a little leery of making this for her. I showed her the pic and she said she liked it but, she's three, she likes Barney and he's big and an awful shade of purple. We'll see. My son wants me to knit him a pants (he's 4) but I may make him a vest to wear to church. Time to dig out And So To Bed (there's a vest in there that would be nice for church even if it's meant for just before going to bed! He nor the vest will know the difference!)

So that's it for now... nothing concrete to work on after the shawl is done... but looking forward to my books and the drool fest that's sure to follow!