Booga J

Please see me at my new home: http://boogaj.typepad.com/knitting/

I just love knitting in the round. No side seams to worry about, less purling, quick quick, quick! Fuchsia is flying along despite the smaller needles (US 5) and the ribbing. I actually like doing ribbing (this sweater is k3 p1), but I do think it is a bit slower than plain old knitting. And did I mention how much I like this yarn, even though it is 50% cotton?

Yesterday I took a knitting break to make some pillows for the couch. Not little throw pillows, but great big pillows! Kohl's was having a 50% off sale on their pillows, so I got 4 for $20. I used some extra fabric I had around the house to make the pillow covers, so these two pillows together cost only $10 + about an hour of sewing time. Since these were scraps of fabric from another project, I ran out. The other two pillows will have to wait until find more fabric.

Any rubber stampers out there? I'm selling off part of my stash on eBay. There are Christmas and Holiday stamps here and a bunch of other stamps here. Thanks for looking!

Knitting news: I'm making good progress on Fuchsia. I just love knitting in the round!

I have absolutely no affiliation with KnitPicks, but I have ordered from them several times in the past and I think they are great. So, when I saw that Tahki New Tweed is one of their new special offers, I had to share. I bought 12 balls of this in a light blue color (at Knitter's Niche in Chicago) to make Blue Cardie and I just love the yarn. It is 70% merino wool, 15% silk, 11% cotton, 4% viscose. Very soft and so easy to knit with.

On another note, Fuchsia is coming along nicely. I am finally down to 200 stitches (you start by casting on 500!!) and I'm knitting in the round. Pictures when I have more to show.

Wednesday I came down with Startitis. Despite my previous bad experience with felting Kureyon, I decided to try again. This time things went right. It's okay to make mistakes, but it's really great when you learn from them. I love my new bag and it is happily carrying my current sock in progress.

Startitis struck again on Saturday:

Here is Fuchsia from the 2001 Dale of Norway Svale book. I'm verry happy that this is knit in the round up to the arms. The flouncy part on the bottom has been a challenge though. You have to cast on 500 stitches to start. Ugh. That is a lot of stitches to have crammed on one circular needle. So, while it might not look like much, I am almost through my first skein of yarn (and this only takes 10 skeins!)

Here's what it will look like when I'm all done:

Maude

Finished Maude yesterday and she fits like a glove. I'll model it later in the week perhaps. Now I am anticipating my next project -- but what should it be? Decisions, decisions. *Beer note* Bottled our beer last night. Not as difficult as I feared, but quite a bit of beer apparently got on my tennis shoes. I noticed this while sitting at the Joliet Public Library's storytime for toddlers. Maybe not such a good idea to smell like a brewery while bringing in your child for for "Toddler Time" -- ugh!

Froggin', Finishin' & Spinnin'

I know, the picture has nothing to do with the title, but it's been so cloudy here that I couldn't get a decent picture. Froggin' -- Laurel Hill is no more. I got out the swift and spun away all my hard work. So what will the 20 skeins of dark olive green Jo Sharp wool become? Probably not another Jo Sharp design. I recently purchased A Season's Tale by Kim Hargreaves and there are some gorgeous sweaters that I have my eye on. Since Jo Sharp wool is DK weight, I should be able to substitute easily. Finishin' -- I have been making a little progress on the blue cardie, but the second sleeve apathy has kicked in. Ho hum. However Maude is near completion. If only cotton weren't such a pain in the a**, I mean hand. Spinnin' -- Okay, I have a picture for this one. At this rate I might have enough yarn for a scarf in three months! It is pretty though, isn't it?

Did you know that there is a new blog tool coming? It's called TypePad and it's from the makers of Movable Type. I have been chosen as a beta tester for this new service and you can see the TypePad version of my blog here. Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment on my new blog!

It was a very busy weekend! I finally felt like doing some spring cleaning and I found this box that I got at IKEA a while ago and decided to decoupage it. I just took some decoupage medium that I had sitting around and a bunch of origami paper and went to work. I'm pretty happy with the results and it was very easy to do. Here's what the box looked like before:

Last weekend was the huge IKEA shopping trip (pretty much an annual thing with us) and the furniture arrives tomorrow. This little box will go on top of my new computer center and my printer will sit on top of it -- yipee!

What's that about beer? Well, Pete and I decided to visit the Home Brew Shop in St. Charles, IL this weekend. We came home with a beer making kit and the ingredients for some Brown Ale. Yesterday we cooked everything up and started processing our brew! The above picture was taken yesterday before the addition of the yeast and . . .

this picture was taken this morning after the brewer's yeast started doing it's thing. This stuff is ACTIVE! More updates as the process progresses.

Finally got around to getting the Knitting Blogger's Reading Group button uploaded. The first book is going to be The Life of Pi by Yann Martal which I read a while back. That's okay because now I will be free to re-read East of Eden by John Steinbeck for the third (I think?) time. I re-read The Grapes of Wrath last year, so I was due to re-read East of Eden even if Oprah didn't decide that she liked it.

Speaking of reading, I just finished The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood yesterday. While it was a very good book, it was too long. I would still recommend it though. The novel within a novel idea was interesting.

Knitting? Well, I picked Maude back up and finished several more rows, but business has been booming, so there hasn't been much time. Oh well, more money for yarn, right?

I'm so proud! I actually started a project and worked on it until I completed it without a)starting another project b)working on another project or c)buying more yarn for another project! The WIP list remains stable. I really want to get back to working with some wool, but Maude is calling my name. Hopefully another FO in the near future?!?

Oh yeah -- the socks. They are for Maddie and I used leftover Cascade Fixation to make them. Believe it or not, I still have more left over! Pretty good value, even if it is cotton.

Just wanted to say Thanks to Anna at Anna Knits for her nifty blog stuff! You can see that I added the scrolling buttons at the left. How cool is that?

Well, I got a little bit of the Lorna's spun up and here it is! What is that thing it's on, you ask? That's an old weaving loom bobbin/shuttle thingy that I got at the Sandwich Antique Fair last month for a couple of bucks. Yesterday we went to the antique fair again and I got this:

A cute little Frankoma pitcher in Prairie Green. I bargained the seller down to $20, so I was happy! Isn't it cute?

But I digress. Here is a close up of the yarn which shows the color a little better. Some of you spinners can probably tell that I am using a Navajo plying technique to make a 3 ply. Here is a little video demo that will explain it better than I can. Why am I using this method? Because I wanted a smooth transition from color to color. If I made a 2-ply, the color would probably be kind of muddy, with the carmel color taking over. I may make a little 2 ply sample to see what it looks like.

The Lorna's roving is just wonderful to spin and feels very soft. I think it will be pretty wearable for handspun wool. I highly recommend it!

I've decided that in order to decrease my pile of WIP's, I need to finish 2 projects of every 1 that I start. So, here is the second completed item of the week -- Cascade Fixation short socks. I just took a regular sock pattern and instead of making a regular length cuff, I did K2P2 ribbing for about an inch. I think I have enough yarn left over to make a pair for my 2 1/2 yr old.

So, what should I start next? I'm thinking that I might need to swatch my Dale Svale top. Or should I start the socks for Maddie? Or maybe the Broadripple socks. So many choices!

And this came in the mail!! This is the Lorna's Laces roving in Gold Hills that I got from ThreadBear! Isn't it pretty? I haven't had a chance to start spinning it yet, but I'm hoping that will happen later today.

Happy news first. I finished the Mountain Colors Treasure Pouch and it was a lot of fun to make. I highly recommend it as one of those instant gratification projects.

And now for the sad new. It all started innocently enough. Pete and I have been wanting a LitterMaid Litter Box for quite a while. So we splurged and bought one last week. It arrived, I set it up and all three cats used it happily enough. Apparently the next morning the kitten (Fancy -- she's the one in the above picture) saw the thing activate and FREAKED OUT! She was so disturbed that she ran into the bedroom and peed on our bed. I was totally distraught (still am). So, I washed all the bedding twice with bleach and used the enzyme stuff on the bed. Soaking up any extra with a box full of baking soda (I researched all this on the web). When Pete got home it was dry and didn't smell, so we flipped the mattress over and made up the bed. The kitten ran in the room and peed on the bed again within minutes. At this point I was in tears. At midnight we were dragging the mattress out into the garage. Luckily we had an extra queen mattress, but I'm sick about throwing out all that bedding and that mattress. And I loved sleeping with our kitties. No more of that now. And I still haven't seen the kitten use the new box -- or the old box that was in the laundry room the whole time. She was locked up in the bathroom all night with a litter box and she used it then.

Cat owners/lovers please give me advice. I have been on cat patrol since this happened and I need some peace. I can't watch the kitten all the time. How do I re-train her?

I did a little dyeing last week, with yarn this time instead of roving. I used some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in Frost White and lanaset dyes. This was made using the cold pour method. (I couldn't find a good link for this. Next time I'll document and create a "dyeing instructions" page.) I really like it! But what will it become?

Speaking of hand dyed yarn, take a look at Rob's Blog to see the yarn that Matt dyed. Very pretty! You can also check out the Koigu version of the Broadripple socks. I got my Fixation in the mail yesterday, but more on that later.

I also got to work on the Mountain Colors Treasure Pouch and all it needs is a handle. Hopefully I will finish that up today. Maybe pics tomorrow -- it is cute, fast and fun. This was one impulse purchase I was gald to make!

I've been in yarn acquisition mode lately and I have run out of room! I would love for this yarn to go to a good home -- make me an offer! It is Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn from Brown Sheep. And you don't have to take all 12 -- if you only want 2 or 4 or whatever, that's fine. The colors in the picture are pretty good, I think. Email Me!

It's been four wonderful years! Here we are at the big event -- our wedding was incredible! People are still talking about it. We had the reception at an old theater and we had a swing band (more like an orchestra -- 17 people I think?) A good time was had by all! It's a very important memory for me not only because I married the greatest guy EVER, but also because my dad was there. He passed away less than 2 months later and I'm so thankful that he was there to walk me down the aisle.

And to top it all off, our honeymoon was in Alaska! This was the greatest vacation I have ever been on! We went to Denali Backcountry Lodge and the Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge which were both incredible. and we also stayed in Seward and Anchorage. I would go back there in a minute!

And as I'm sitting here writing this, the delivery man came with a dozen roses! Here they are:

Aren't they pretty? (I'm not fond of red roses, so Pete always finds pretty non-red roses to give to me. Isn't that sweet?)

I'm back from Milwaukee and Theresa & I had a great time checking out some yarn stores. As you can see I did get some goodies! Let me tell you how important store models are. . . I bought all that Svale and the pattern from Dalegarn to make the sweater on the cover because I saw and touched the store model that was hanging by the yarn.

On the right is some Blue Sky Alpaca and a pattern for a plain guy hat. Pete approved when he saw it, so I think I did pretty good. This brings up the topic of yarn obsessions. I apparently have an obsession with alpaca. I did not know this until I read the label of each yarn I was drawn to and saw that they all seemed to contain a good percentage of alpaca! Yummy.

But of course that's not all -- here is another store model purchase. The little bag in the upper right corner of the picture was made up and hanging in the store. That did it! It was so cute that I had to walk out of there with the pattern and that lovely Mountain Colors yarn. The color of the yarn is "Lost Trail" and it is just gorgeous in person.

Oh yeah, and on the right is a boring skein of Brown Sheep in white. Soon to be un-boring (I feel like an IKEA commercial) though -- it will be dyed in the near future. I've been dyeing rovings lately, but I need to try the lanaset dyes on some yarn.

On an unrelated note -- the new Knitty is out and Rob has a great sock pattern in this issue. I already ordered my Cascade Fixation from ThreadBear. Have you?

Here's the reason that I wanted to design a raglan cardie. It's all because I wanted a cable up the sleeve that went all the way to the neck edge. Sheesh! What a lot of work for a little detail. Did I mention that this is the first sweater I have ever knit. And here I am designing it myself. I hope it actually fits when I'm all done!

And now Theresa and I are off to the north for the weekend. How exciting! We are going to visit Ruhama's and any other knitting stores we can find on the way there or back. I'm sure I will have some lovely pictures of huge piles of yarn when I return!

My Rowan Newsletter came today and there was an article on cushion kits from Debbie Abrahams. So, I checked out her website and she also has some really cute bag kits. I already have her book, 100 Afghan Squares to Knit, so I think I might try to convert some of the squares into bags and pillows!

Well, I did get quite a bit done on the cardie this weekend. I finished one half of the front and I have a good portion of one arm completed. It's more fun to knit when you are designing it yourself!

What is it about eBay? I mean, this is over $100 worth of yarn and I got it for $25 -- pretty good deal, right? But what am I going to do with it?!? I'm thinking washcloths. I'll make some handmade soaps and pair each one with a washcloth -- cute gift, no? I just hope this stuff washes well. It says dry clean only -- ugh. (Oh -- it's Berroco Flax btw.)

Just finished the back of the blue cardie that I am designing. I think it turned out pretty well. It's just a simple raglan cardigan with a seed stitch border at the bottom and a little bit of side shaping.

In other news, I think I'm going to have to rip out Laurel Hill. After losing 50lbs, I think it's just going to be too large. Better to cut my losses than to finish it and never wear it. Speaking of my WIP's, I really need to update that page. I'm happy with my gallery, but not my wip page.

Finished one skein. I really need to think about getting a spinning wheel!

On a bloggy note. . . Pete found a nifty little graphical browser thingy from Google. It basically shows all the links from one page to another in a graph form. Kind of fun to play around with!

I have been on a reading kick (so not too much knitting is getting done.) I finished 2 books in the last week and both were very good. First was Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. It is basically about a murder trial, but there is a lot of exploration of the Japanese-American issues before, during and right after WW2.

The next was Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I have to say that I could NOT put this book down. It's over 300 pages and I think I read it in two days. This book is about survival -- I don't know what else to say besides that.

Now I'm starting The Lovely Bones: A Novel by Alice Sebold (generously sent to my by Kerstin) and I'm really enjoying it so far. What luck! I haven't found a book that I was really interested in for months and now three great ones in a row! What's your favorite book? I'm looking to put together my summer reading list!

Last week was cool in the greater Chicagoland area so I did a lot of dyeing. Hopefully I will have some skiens of this made up later in the week.

And a big thank you to Kerstin for sending me "The Lovely Bones" which I have been wanting to read for months. Stop by her blog to check out all the Tank-y goodness. She just started "Smooch" -- very nice! (Must finish Maude, must finish Maude. . .)

I'm also designing my first sweater -- yikes! I'll post pics when I'm farther along.

Fancy is enjoying the little mousie that I made! This was made with Wendy's pattern and was made as part of the Mouse Along. This project was super quick and fun! And as you can see, Fancy is enjoying the end result:
I highly recommend making one for your kitties!

Finished the back of Maude and got through a couple of inches on the front. I even wove in all the ends and it wasn't too bad. This one is flying along and I'm already contemplating my next project. I'm going to design a raglan cardie -- yikes! I never designed anything before! Today feels like a dyeing day. Now if only Maddie (see my cutie above) would fall asleep!

I had a wonderful Mother's day! I finished the mohair wrap and started the Maude tank from the new Mission Falls book. Look at all those ends I will have to weave in -- UGH! But I like the stripes which make the plain stockinette stitch more bearable. I'm knitting this tank with these:

And here they are open:

Yep -- Denise interchangeable Knitting Needles which were my Mother's Day gift! My husband bought them from KnitPicks -- gotta love that free shipping! This is the second order we have placed with them and I have to say that I have been very pleased. I was on the fence about getting these needles until I read the review in Knitter's Review. They are very easy to use and I have had no problem with them coming unlocked. I also love the VERY flexible tubing. The resin needles were also much needed for the Mission Falls 1824 cotton which was really sticking to the bamboo needles I first tried. So, I would have to say that the Denise needles get a 4.5/5 rating from me.

Never say never! I always looked at mohair with loathing -- why? I have no idea. I just didn't like it -- too fuzzy, too stringy? I don't know. So about a week ago I walked in to Knitters Niche in Chicago with Theresa and her mom and I picked up some hand-dyed mohair and a mohair/wool carry along yarn. Only one week later I have a beautiful completed shawl! I just could not put this project down! So, now mohair is my friend and it will no longer be getting the dirty looks I used to throw its way.

First a picture of the 2-ply that I made with the bfl that I dyed a couple weeks ago. This is from the rovings that I dyed using the hot and cold pour methods. I took one ply of each and put them together to get this. I thought it was pretty nifty! What a week with the Knitting Blogs web ring! There were SO many new blogs added this week. As of today we are up to 250 sites in the ring! Go check them out!

Take the new poll at the Knitting Blogs Home Page!

Theresa and I had a lovely time shopping for yarn on Saturday with her mom. You can read more about it on her blog, but I wanted to post my purchases for all to see! On the left is a lovely 70% kid mohair/30% wool yarn from Bouton d'Or which is being knit with the gorgeous mohair from Wool in the Woods that is next to it. And here is the wrap/shawl thing that I am making with them:

And a close up:

I'm not using a pattern. I just cast on 60 stitches knit three rows then did a whole row of yarn overs. On the next row you just knit into every other stitch (so as not to increase) for a total of 60 stitches. Then knit four more rows. I continued on knitting one row of yarn overs and 5 rows of knitting. And I will continue until I run out of yarn.

The yarn on the right in the top picture is New Tweed from Tahki. It's a blend of 70% Merino, 15% Silk, 11% Cotton and 4% Viscose. Really nice stuff! I got 12 balls and I'm planning to make a cardigan. It's a plain old worsted weight, so I have lots of patterns to choose from, but I just might create a pattern of my own. We shall see.

I also started a pair of socks in Cascade Fixation. (A sock is a sock, so I will wait until they are finished to take pictures.) And I picked up the needles I need for my Mission Falls tank. May have to swatch that one tonight. That brings me to my question -- why the startitis? I have noticed a lot of it going around on the ring. Is it the spring air? All I know is that I have WAY more WIP's than I'm willing to admit right now, but I just can't stop -- well -- starting!

Needed a quick interim project since I don't have the needles for my next project (Can't wait for the shopping trip with Theresa this weekend!) So, I decided to knit up these little cuties. They will be going to Pete's best man and his wife who just had a little boy! They are made with Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in color 202. And the pattern is from the Baby Cashmerino book. Quick, easy and cute!

Felted Daypack before and. . .

after.

This was a fun quick project and I love the finished bag. I used it today and it worked perfectly. Sometimes these "sling" bags can be a nuisance -- always slipping off your shoulder or getting twisted around, but not this one. It behaved beautifully! I followed the "Two Old Bags" pattern closely, but I changed the straps. I like my straps flatter, so I used the double i-cord technique from the "City Shoulder" pattern. It is actually based on a belt in Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitting Without Tears."
Of course I got everything to make it from the great guys over at ThreadBear. Speaking of the guys at ThreadBear -- if you like this daypack, you should check out Rob's Blog. He has a gorgeous daypack made from Kureyon on his site!

Can you believe that I used the same colors to dye these two rovings? So, what was the difference? The one on the left was dyed using the "hot pour" method and the one on the right was dyed using the "cold pour" method. Here's a full length picture which shows off the colors a bit better:

In the hot pour method you put everything in a pot and simmer it. The colors tend to blend a lot more. In the cold pour method, you put dye on the wet wool and spray it down with vinegar. Then you wrap it up in plastic wrap and steam it! Very quick and easy. This is now my preferred method of dyeing.

And since I have been feeling a little down lately, I decided to make myself a new toy! Here is my distaff. And I found the directions to make it here. I used handspun bfl that was plied using the navajo-ply method. This yarn was also dyed by me! It worked really well when I was spinning last night, so I am really happy with it!