Stuff to Share

Well I hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend! It's obviously winding down now, and the new week will be once again.
For those of you who didn't get your fireworks fix, I recorded the ones my family & I watched on Friday, only about 30-40 seconds worth. My husband made a boo-boo and used a curse word, so just warning you, guess that makes this a PG-13. See below for the fireworks.
Well, I said on Twitter that I got a shipment from Scout, and it was my new book, "New Sock Pathways for Sock Knitters" signed by Cat Bordhi. This is an awesome book, and I will need to order Book #2 soon. I also go the "mini-crochet" keychain hook for knitters on the go who have a dropped stitch emergency 8-) It's so cute & tiny!

Here's my new book

Here's a shot of the signature


Here's the Stitch Saver

4th of July 2008 Fireworks in San Jose, CA


Originally uploaded by RockyMoreno

Here's the Fireworks, please caution, my husband used a curse word at the end, so sorry! 8-)

4th of July Fireworks in San Jose, CA Grand Finale


Originally uploaded by RockyMoreno

Here is the Grande Finale.

Cool stuff

knit_tagging


Originally uploaded by RockyMoreno

Did everyone get to see the Knitty Gritty Knitsters show on DIY Network the other day hosted by Vickie Howell? I read about the show on Vickie's blog, and quickly set my TIVO to record it for me. It was an hour special on Knitting, Community, and the diversity Knitting has. One of the cool things was "The Knittas", which is a really cool gang out of Houston, Texas. Their mission is to cover odds/ends around the town with knitting material. Once they've covered their target, it's officially a "Knit Tag". They've knit tagged everything from basketball poles, shoes hanging on power wires, tree trunks, door handles, all done quick & fast. It is pretty cool to see. One of the knitters, "Mascuknitity", actually knit tagged a brick from the Great Wall of China! After seeing this special, I remembered my weekend at Knit One One in Berkeley, CA where I took a Dye Class with Scout, and there was a Tree with a branch that was "knit tagged"! I remember telling Marisol to please take a picture cause I thought it was so cool! My camera was on the fritz, so she was kind and emailed me the picture. I took a few, but none came out good. I don't know if this tree was tagged by the Knitta gang from Texas, but it's a pretty good specimen. It almost compels me to "knit tag" my tree in front of my house...hmm....should I?



Another cool thing was a contest held where one women, Lisa Gentry, won by knitting 209 stitches per minute! Amazing! She also won the Crochet contest as well, crocheting 100 stitches per minute! I can't even imagine how she got that fast! It looks crazy watching her knit & crochet.



The special was an hour, and really enjoyable. Vickie is a great host for the special. Her primary goal was to collect knitted squares to donate to Warm Up America for afghan blankets. After seeing this special, I'm now inspired to contribute my own squares to the organization.



Check out the special, it will air a few more times, the remaining airings are:



All at 12:30 p.m. EA

7/8/08, 7/16/08, 7/31/08

Adding to my Arsenal

Well folks, I'm adding to my arsenal, 2 NECESSITIES for any yarnaholic, like myself *-) I've been wanting to make these purchases for quite sometime now, and what drove me to actually making the buy? Well the last straw came this weekend when I bought Scout's newest Swag in Peach Pit, and of course it came in a beautiful braid/skein, and I loved the color so much that I started to knit the Elm Row pattern I just purchased from Knitspot.
Anyways, since I don't have a winder, I decided to manually wind the yarn into a ball, I wrapped the skein around a chair, and started winding. I was ok for a minute (I've done this before with no issues), and suddenly started running into all sorts of problems. Well several pain staking hours later, there I was caught in tangle after tangle after tangle, ruining my new precious Peach Pit yarn. I was able to carefully get rid of a majority of the tangled mess without ruining the yarn, and by the time I was ready for my next class, I was down to a small amount of tangles. By this time I was tired of dealing with it, and made the decisive decision to cut the thread, although reluctantly.

So, after this disaster, I've made the purchase, and will be getting these 2 new treasures to add to my arsenal in my "Mini-Fiber Studio" I'm putting together.

I'll be getting in about 5-10 days, this large Umbrella Swift


And also this Plastic Ball Winder


I can't wait for these to arrive! I'll be ready for any skein that comes my way! When I think of all the yarn cakes I can make with these 2 tools, ahh.. I'm in heaven! I did do some searching on pricing, and found that VillageSpinWeave had the best deal, offering the Umbrella Swift & Plastic Ball Winder as a bundle, great pricing!

I know I sound crazy, but if you've ever had precious yarn in a tangled mess, you feel my pain.

Elm Row pattern knitted with Scout's Swag Peach Pit

Elm Row pattern knitted with Scout's Swage Peach Pit


Originally uploaded by RockyMoreno

Since I scored some of Scout's latest Swag colorway, I decided to knit the Elm Row pattern from Knitspot using the Peach Pit skein. I like this colorway because it's mellow, and has speckles of color in it. The yarn is soft and lightweight, perfect for a summer knit. I can't wait to wear it.



Here is what the pattern photo looks like finished:

More Dye Class to share...

Well, there was so much to Scout's Dye Class that I couldn't fit in just one post. I've put together a collage of photos from class. I unfortunately didn't get any pics from the first day because *just my luck*, my camera's batteries clunked out..but I was well armed for the 2nd day. What your seeing are pics of Scout giving us instructions and method tips on how to dye a skein of yarn. She talked about bleeding, segmenting colors, thinking about color combos, and what we all should know from childhood, what happens when you mix 1 color with another. Sometimes you get a pretty color or sometimes you get a color you didn't want. Although the dyeing process is relatively easy, at least this method, the hard part is creating your own personal style with colorways. This is where Scout's magic comes into play. She has a great eye for colors and combos, really why she is great.