Two for Tuesday

I'm going to start a new goal, have 2 items to show off each Tuesday. I won't aim for it being FO's, but I'll aim for it being extreme progress on a project or new fun ones!

So here we go!

First off, is "My Tux" from Custom Knits, knit using Sundara Sock Yarn, Spiced. I love this color, it is so beautiful!

Here it is, almost done, needs finishing...



But wait, I have a big boo-boo I made, when I prepping for the pattern, knitting my swatch, and also measuring what size, I must of been tired cause I had cast on for a size too small 8( So, it fits, but doesn't go around my boobies. My boobies have always been an issue for clothes, everything else is small, but the boobs aren't. A good thing on one hand, but an annoyance when shopping for clothes or in this case knitting clothes. So I'm at a dilemma, do I frog? Seriously?!? I'm pratically done! I don't know, I think I might take the frog plunge, but I'm hesitant. Will see, I wish I could wear it now 8( But it is lovely!

Ok onto my 2nd, this is my Elm Row knit with Scout's Peach Pit, I love this color! I just fell in love with it at last year's Scout's Dye class.





I'll take a photo shoot this weekend to honor it properly! I also have some new changes coming to my blog, I'm going to revamp the site soon, so stay tuned, and I have some new patterns I've written that I'd love to share!

Catch you all on hump day 8)

~Rocky

Back to normal

My site is now back to normal, Halloween is officially over 8( As much as I love this time of year, it makes me sad sometimes because it goes by so fast. At least Thanksgiving comes late this year, so it gives us more time!

I have updates on my Traveling Scarve's groups.

First up, Group 37 Noro Knit & Crochet combo, I decided to just knit this time, as opposed to crocheting. The stitch pattern I went with is "Mock Cable" pattern. You can't really tell that much from the pictures, but it looks like cables but is really a combo Knits & Purls. The color transitioning is just beautiful, but too bad the pattern doesn't show up much.



This is going in the mail, either today or tomorrow at the latest. The scarf's owner is "Trustcrazyideas" on Ravelry.

Here's a full view of the scarf so far:



It's coming out very pretty! My contribution is on the far right end.

Onto the Traveling Scarves Group 25 Significant Others, this piece is knitted, only knitting allowed in this group. I went with the "Broken Rib" stitch, which doesn't pull like regular ribbing. I strung balls of Koigu together to get the right weight. The scarf's owner is "Lizabee" and her SO obviously likes greens, one of my fave colors. I was going to wind one of my greenie yarns, but I remembered I had 2 balls of Koigu from a previous project and thought, why not string together? Worked out perfect! I love the various tones of green? Don't you??? This too will go to the post no later than tomorrow!



Here's a full view:



That's my contribution on the end of the far right. I really love this scarf!

I still have 2 more separate scarf's to make, and then I'll be "scarf less" for a bit, at least until the next section comes.

For some updates, I've been searching around for some reasonably priced tweed yarn to buy for my Central Park Hoodie I want to make, and have been unsuccessful. Is it too much to ask for a reasonably priced luscious soft green or brown tweed yarn??? Is it? For now I'm still searching and its upsetting me because I really want to get this one started. Hopefully by next week I'll have found what I need. Soon I'll have some snapshots of a seedling CPH!

A goodie for you, I received my latest shipment from my Scout's Swag Sock Club, I give you "De Young":







Happy Wednesday!

A Good Weekend Part DOS

Onto my other adventures from last weekend. I've been doing alot of reading and thinking about really getting into the dyeing arena, and I finally got the nerve up to dye one skein. *Baby Steps*
I kept lamenting over what color combination's to use, so I ended up choosing 2 colors that are very close in color but the color tone is different and one real vibrant color.

Here's how the skein came out (It's self-striping):


I really love the rich vibrant blue, as I was putting the dye on, I just knew it was going to be a real pretty blue. The darker brown I was totally satisfied with, it has a nice deep tone to it. Now the other shade of brown, I was somewhat nervous about. I wasn't sure how it would look once the dye was done setting in, but I'm just so happy with how it turned out.





Look at these colors, I just love them, it gives me the energy and excitement to forge ahead more with dyeing. Not sure if I should give it a name, guess "Blueberry Cake"???? In fact I have a good amount of BFL & Merino just waiting to be dyed.

Some other GREAT presents that showed up at my doorstep this past weekend was my "Hello Kitty" kit from Woolgirl.

Look at all these goodies!



I love these colors, so pretty & vibrant.





A Hello Kitty Stitch Marker! & WIP bag!



Plus I got the latest installment from Scout's Swag Club, it is POSA!





And for Sundara's Season's Yarn Club. Both are lace, and OMG gorgeous! I'm in love with Mahogany Over Marmalade.





Honey Over Hibiscus




Last but not least, I ordered the Custom Knits book. Don't you just love that green vest on the bottom left?


Photo courtesy of Scout

Look at this, isn't is pretty? I would really love to make this, perfect for the upcoming Winter season.



Have a good weekend everyone 8)

A Good Weekend...Part UNO 8)

I hope everyone enjoyed this past Labor Day weekend. It was a very nice one for me, and very productive I might say! I have so much to share and can't fit it in just 1 Lil'O post, so I'll be splitting this baby into 2, the 2nd to follow shortly...

My weekend started with a BANG! I got off at a little before 4 p.m. on Friday, all day all I could think of was... "Is it 4 yet? I wonder if I'll enjoy the game? I wonder if my kids will?"

What game you ask? Well, the last pre-season game for the San Francisco 49ers vs the San Diego Chargers. Woohoo! My husband and I bought 4 tickets a few weeks ago to take the kids and let them experience a real NFL game. We left San Jose about 5 p.m. and headed North towards San Francisco. We were all geared up, I had on my white 49ers tank top with lace trim, and I was wearing this lovely "Moss Ribbed Scarf" in Scout's custom dyed "49ers" colorway...




I'm thinking I might add another 10 inches to it, cause it fits more like a cowl than a scarf, but boy did it come in handy.

Now us (me'family and I) being San Jose natives, left the hot San Jose weather wearing our normal summer clothes to go to San Francisco. You would think that we would know what to wear to S.F., considering we go there all the time, but no sir'ee'bob. I was the only one who brought any kind of warm gear, my scarf a.k.a faux cowl *) and my beige sweater jacket, but nobody else brought anything warm to wear?

So we had nose bleed seats (which I love!) and up there at night in Candlestick, it can get windy & chilly, and it didn't fail to deliver this last Friday as we watched the game. My hubby & kids were all rattling their jaws, curling up, and trying to enjoy themselves. We ended up buying a S.F. blanket for a whopping $55.00 bucks! We've learned our lesson, and we'll gear up next time, but the blanket will come in handy this winter, so I guess it's a positive.

There was also this "49er Elvis", so cute! You gotta see this pic....



You see him striking the signature "Elvis" pose? Look at the back of his shirt.. I love it! "Viva Las Niners"!!!



I always thought "nose bleed" seats were the worst, but now that I know how the view looks, I'm going to pick these seats more often. Check out this view:



Another cool thing, which I swear was a wish granted to me, cause as I was attentively watching the game, still cold under my sweater, I wished silently "If only they had a stand vendor who could serve you hot chocolate right at your seat"... I totally swear I wished this, and then next thing you know... BAM....



I couldn't believe my eyes! I quickly bought a $4.00 cup of hot chocolate..I was just in ahh of it. If only I had wished for $$$, wonder if that would've come true??? Oh yah as soon as I got the hot choco, I took a big gulp and I burned my lips. Guess all that ooh & ahh just took the common sense right out of me 8) Friday's done PERIOD

Begin Saturday... I started off with cleaning, I'm a good knitter, I clean my house before I knit so as not to feel guilty. I can't stand to have guilty thoughts and I really hate the voices in my head sometimes, I'm just totally neurotic, I'm always thinking about something or everything. Thinking of dinner, what to knit next, knitting patterns to devise, colors to dye yarn with, meals to write down, job stuff (I really hate when job stuff creeps in), bills (ahh!), upcoming appt.'s, on and on I go in my head. Is everyone neurotic or is it just me? Are you? I have the hardest time going to sleep, I just can't get my mind blank.

After my cleaning I was just pooped. I decided to finally catch up with my Secret of the Stole III KAL, which I'm so behind because I kept debating over what beads to use, and decided to go and buy some to match my lovely lace yarn. After some lazying around, I just didn't feel like driving down to the bead store. I had some beads I bought from the Knitting Arts going out of business, and decided to go with those. There green, and the lace I have has shades of green in it. I was a little skeptical as I started my SofSIII Hint 1, but I'm really liking how it turned out. I think the beads turned out pretty darn good, in fact I think they give the yarn that special *something*. This is the completed SofSIII Hint 1 portion:



Yarn is Schaefer Yarn Company Andrea lace weight, it is so so soft and silky. I remember when I bought it from GPY, I was just in love with it the moment I saw it and felt the silkyness.

Besides my SofSIII I continued knitting on my Elm Row scarf, this is one of the newer patterns published by the marvelous Ann Hanson from Knitspot, this pattern is so pretty, but I have to say, you do need attention to detail for it. The stitches are your basic increases, decreases & such, but I'm finding I need to pay attention as I'm knitting because the pattern consists of a 10 row repeat, each row has a different combination of stitches. For me, I tend to make mistakes because I have this type of built in memorization I do. I played the Memory game alot when I was a kid, maybe that's where I get it from? You know the game Memory? It's where you have a bunch of cards, each has 1 pair of identical pictures, and you mix them all up, face down, and slowly try to match up the pairs by memorizing where you saw the previous picture cards position? I played this so much as a kid, and it has helped in my adult life, I memorize everything, from numbers, to phrases, etc. For knitting this is good because I can remember entire patterns I knit, and because I memorize stitch sequences, I'll start knitting ahead knowing the next sequence, but with the Elm Row the pattern changes so frequently that I find myself knitting a sequence that is not next in order, so I TINK TINK TINK away!
Anywho, I'm making good headway on my scarf, and I just can't wait to finish it and block it. My little yarn cake is diminishing rapidly. The yarn is the beautiful "Peach Pit" from Scout, one of her debut colorways back in late July 2008. I'm going to custom order more of this color, I love this colorway.





To end this post, I did also get another "TO DO" done, I knitted up a Square from the "Barn Raising Quilt" pattern in the "Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together" book. Stacey from "Sheep in the City" (great blog!) posted awhile back regarding volunteers to knit a square for Father. I love my Father, and from one kind thoughtful knitter to another, I was more than happy to volunteer my knitting time. I knitted up this square using the softest yarn, I don't have the label on me right now to give you the yarn specs, but I can tell you it is soft, velvety, rich and vibrant. I just love how this *star* pattern evolves as you knit the square. This went out in the mail to Stacey this morning 8)





Okie Dokie folks, I'll post Part DOS later, stay tuned 8)!

The Red Scarf Project

As most knitters might know, there is "The Red Scarf Project", which is a project of the Orphan Foundation of America. The Red Scarf Project has been mentioned and promoted in many different blogs, I found out personally from the great Scout.

I did some research into the project, and it is project I wholeheartedly stand behind.

Some teenie'bit of info about ~we O me~, my Father who raised me, raised me from whence I was just months old, I think 1 month (not too sure) with my Mother. My real Father, did a *houdini*, and poof, that was it. I was so fortunate to have had my Father be there, and raise me. I know him as the only Father I've ever had, and he is my blood, regardless of the who actually created me. My hubby also had a Father who did the *houdini* act as well, but he wasn't fortunate enough like me to have a great man step in. We've raised our two children to also know the importance of family as well.

We know how important it is to have family, whether you have 1 parent, 2 parents, or just a close loving family that cares.

They need to know there are people who care, and one way to help, if at least a little is to knit a Red scarf for this cause. The OFA will be accepting donations between September 1, 2008 to October 31, 2008, which is more than enough time to knit a red colored scarf to donate.

Won't you please find it in your heart give a knitted treat that has more meaning behind it than the average knitted goodie? For more information on the project and to find out info about the OFA click here.