Christmas Knitting in Review....plus some other stuff

FINALLY I found my friggin' camera cord so I was able to upload some pictures. My grand plan was to post one of those murals of all my 2007 knitting. As I went looking through my old pictures, I realized how haphazardly I've photographed a lot of stuff, how many things I haven't taken anything but baby progress shots of (helloooo...Lady Eleanor? And that's a kickass project, too), and finally, how many things I just haven't bothered to take pictures of at all. It's bad. So, I decided to scrap that project. I now have a new New Year's resolution to treat my projects right and give them the photoshoots they deserve. This is, of course, somewhat dependent on my developing some picture taking skills that don't blow. I'll work on that, too.
Ok, so since I'm not doing a year in review, I can at least cover Christmas.

First:

These technically weren't Christmas gifts, but they were knit right along side all the others and gifted......so I'm just going to throw them in here. This set was knit for Sara's baby. I still have to make another set in pink for my nephews daughter. I made a tiny mistake by mentioning that I was sending a gift and hoped it would get there by Christmas in their card. Oops. I better get that started soon. Here's the info-

Pattern: Suede Bootys and Suede Baby Hat by Candi Jenkins

*available on KnittyGritty site

Needles: US sizes 2 and 3 for boots, 6's for hat

Yarn: Berroco Suede in colorways I'm not sure of and Berroco Plush in Creme

Second:

A cashmere neckwarmer knit for my awful sister. I won't go into why exactly I would knit such a thing for someone like her, but those of you who know me well understand the motives behind such gifts This is not the best picture. I took it super last minute while ppl were gathering downstairs for Christmas Eve.

Yarn: Artyarns Cashmere 5, unknown colorway

Pattern: Neckwarmer from Pretending Sanity

Needles: US 8's

Third:

The super secret super project. This is one the Colinette Ab Fab Throw kits in a colorway that's called Santa Fe something. Needle size 11. Making this makes me want to go buy one for myself REALLY. BAD. Maybe even 2 of them. I already have one that I made about 5 yrs ago but its just the vertical stripes. Not too interesting. I'd like to make this pattern and one with the mitred squares.

Fourth:

This is the scarf and hat set that I knit for one of my other sisters. I have yet to give it to her because she didn't show up for the family party and I really don't see her. I'll have to mail it, I guess. I really like the hat and am eager to make one for myself.

Pattern: Scarf-basic seed stitch, Hat-Monk Hat over at RedThreadsUntangling

Yarn: Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande and Eros Glitz...don't know colors

Needles: Scarf, 15?? Hat, 10

If I did this again, I would have used a larger needle on the hat. I had to do it fast and I the 16" tens were what had sitting near me. It is QUITE dense, but still very nice.

Okay, there it is. Soon, b/c I'm really, really going to work on this, I'll have some pics of what all I'm working on now. Till then......Happy New Year everybody:)

Stash Busting!!!

I did it! I actually broke down and knit something with stash material! Actually, I had to buy another ball of yarn for this, but I consulted some people on this and the consensus is that it can still be considered a stash busting project. Here it is:

And to get a better view of he colors:

Pattern: Artyarns Cashmere Diagonal Scarf by Iris Schreier

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted (black)

Paton's SWS in Natural Plum

Needles: size 8

Modifications: I tried following the directions exactly but the numbers for the foundation section just weren't adding up for me. I ended up skipping the slip stitches and just knitting. I tried to duplicate this on the end section but it got all nasty looking. Something just ended up not right with my stitch count. I tried to fix the little bit of fug that showed up in the last section while I was binding off and it worked, for the most part.

The other big (and perhaps even bigger) news for the day is that my fancy new sock blockers arrived! Even though I don't have too much of a purpose for them, this excited me to no end. Here they are sporting another FO, even though this particular FO is slightly older.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.

Yarn: STR Mediumweight in the Alina colorway

Needles: size 2 circs

Mods: I omitted all the stitches and just knit the whole thing. This made it go a lot faster because I wasn't having to keep track of numbers, but it also left me with much less give. They still fit though and I think these massive blockers will stretch them into shape.

I also got this nifty stitch marker as a bonus.

The Dirtiest Player in the Game

I feel the need to give a quick shout out to the wrestlers of WWE who may be Googling their names today looking for themselves in print. I'd just like to say Randy, Adam, Shane and whomever else that I wish hadn't been mentioned.....Stay off the 'roids guys!!
Okay, now that that's out of the way....am I a great big,dirty ol' cheater? Perhaps.....

It appears that there's a pair of socks on my feet. I use the word "appear" because these socks really don't match at all. I tried (no too successfully, but oh well) to capture their discrepancy in size here.

I believe I mentioned somewhere in a previous post, pre-rampage over the STR on Skrilla's page, that I was put off by the first sock of this final pair and didn't really know what to do. Rather than take the one out and re-knit it, I just knit a second sock with like 10 more stitches cast on and maybe an addition inch of cuff/foot and called it a day. The fact that this may not actually be a fair pair out of my quota of 3 is negligible at this point.........besides, I ordered my STR as soon as that last heel was turned!!! Woooo! Yeah!! And who said I could only order one skein, huh? Those babies are packed up and shipping out! I'll wait until my package arrives to go into details, but it will be a grand day for me. Karma got me good though because if I hadn't been so freakishly gluttonous and impatient with my stalking I would have seen, pre-ordering, that the medium weight yarn that I wanted is anticipated to be restocked the first week of April. I'm not thrilled with the steeper price of the heavy weight and am not exactly secure with the yardage on the light. Hmmm. We soon shall see how they both fare. And I'd be willing to bet that come the first week of April, we'll see how the medium weight works out for my gigantic feet as well.

And I haven't just been busy with the socks!

Okay, so one of these is another pair of socks and I actually plan on casting on for another pair tonight. What can I say? I have a f*cking ton of sock yarn that I have to work thru. That green sock is going to be half a pair of Tweeds from Magknits. I believe I mentioned that endeavor a post or two ago. The scarf is knit in Inca from......someone, and is just a 3x1 rib. It's been quite the popular pattern at the shop. Also, speaking of popular patterns, that purple thing is my short row hat from Interweave. Perhaps that should become the store's project mascot because I know that at least 3 of the 5 of are currently or have recently made one. Mine is special because it's evil. This photo is of the second or third incarnation of it because the bottom line is that the pattern just doesn't fit my wide head. If the circumference is working out, I'd have to be a cone head to accommodate the height. Currently I've sized my needles down to a size 6 and my measurements are still showing too large a gauge. I say screw it all. I'm finishing the damn thing and will shove my head into it regardless of how small/large/misshapen it turns out.

Alright, I've been distracted by the sounds of CSI: Miami floating down from my office. That means I must go, immediately.

New Yarn, New (ish) FO's, and oral surgery

I was informed last night at about 11pm that my mother had rescheduled some dental work that was to be done this coming Thursday and needed me to take her in to the dentist this morning. I ended up having to miss all my classes, which may be good because I have a rather large exam tomorrow that I really need to prepare for. Now though, considering that no one will shut up for long enough for me to read more than 10 words in a row, I decided to take a breather and update.
I've started ordering a lot of yarn from Knitpicks. This ordering yarn over the internet thing may prove very troublesome for my ban account. I don't have photo evidence of my first order but I got this stiff in yesterday or the day before

This is Palette yarn that I had planned to make Endpaper Mitts out of. My plan was to get two balls each of mint (the light green depicted) and two of bark. When I got my package it contained the mint and 2 balls of wood. I apparently filled in the little quantity box above the color I wanted instead of underneath it. In order to remedy the situation I immediately ordered 2 balls of the proper dark brown and 2 balls of a pretty blue to go with the wood in some future, undetermined fair-isle project.

In order to prove that I do more than just buy more and more and more yarn, here are two FO's from January that haven't been shared yet.

This is a hat from Stitch n'Bitch Nation for which I can't presently recall the proper name. The yarn is Noro Kureyon....the exact color I'm not really sure of.

This is me at a very strange angle wearing my rainbow scarf, knit up of 4 balls in various colorways of Kureyon. Why are we sitting around the house wearing various knit objects?? It's cold as a witches "tata" in my house for some reason and these were some quick fixes. It's still mega-cold today but I have yet to resort to wrapping my face up like a little Russian woman. However, the day is still young......