Monday, January 29, 2007

Yarn Focus Challenge Secret Pal

1. What type of yarn do you knit with most often? Usually wool or wool blends

2. Is there any type of yarn that you would love to try but haven't yet, such as bamboo, banana fiber. Maybe something with some silk in it. I have never tried cashmere.

3. In your opinion what is a luxury yarn? Anything that is soft to the touch.

4. Is there any type of yarn or fiber content you dislike or would prefer not to receive? I am not a huge fan of cotton.

5. What type of garments do you most often knit? I LOVE to knit mittens, hats and I enjoy lace work too.

6. What types of knitting books do you enjoy? I tend to buy hat and mitten books. I enjoy knitting for charity and it is usually hats and mittens.

7. What is a color you like but rarely or never buy yourself? Red

8. If you were pregnant and had to name your baby a fiber, what would her/his name be? Alpaca

9. Do you spin? Someday I would like to learn

10. If someone in your family or a best friend had to describe you in one word, what would it be? A bookworm

11. Please tell us one odd thing about you. I am anal when it comes to my knitting. I only have one project on the needles at one time. I never suffer from one sock or mitten syndrome. I would go nuts not making the mate.

12. What was your favorite cartoon when you were little. I really don't think I ever had a favorite. Strange ,huh?

13. Do you have animals? If so, please name them and tell us a little about them. I have a gorgeous long haired cat names Peaches. I got her from the local shelter about four years ago. We are crazy about her and she gives us much joy.

14. And last but not least, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? It would be right here in New England. I lived in Pennsylvania for four years. I loved it....but, could not wait to come back to my lake.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Squares and Mittens




I have been meaning to write a post for a week. What do they say about the best of intentions? I have been cold all day today. I just made a nice cup of Irish Breakfast tea ( Don't you just love Amazon? You can link to anything.) I just buy this in my local grocery store. I like my tea strong with a dab of milk, I love the flavor of this one. I would like to try some from other companies. If anyone has suggestions ... let me know. I am home early from work today. I have been trying to not overload my schedule. The shampooing and blow drying just kills my shoulder. I was grateful for a slow day today. I am still going to Physical Therapy and Occupational therapy. The OT is for my fingers. I injured the middle and index finger during my fall. These two fingers are working at less than 50%. So..we are trying some aggressive therapy on them. On the knitting front..... I finished three squares for an comfort afghan. I read about this on Mama Bear's blog about a week ago. They are asking for 7 inch squares in acrylic yarn. I used some Caron's Soft in a country blue. It is such a trick getting the squares the correct size. I always do my gauge swatch. The one that is plain garter stitch is a smidge bigger than seven inches. I hope it is still usable. I need to get those off in the mail tomorrow. Also I have a tale about mittens..... The mittens I posted are for the neighbor boy. He lost the ones I made him for Christmas. These are made from Paton's Merino Wool. I love the variegated color. He has a "camo" colored coat. These should match quite well. But....back to my tale.....I always use Double points for my mittens. I made the first mitten with double points. I started the second one and changed over to Magic Loop. I just felt like switching. Well....... I finished the second mitten, completed the thumb. When I held them together, the second mitten was considerably smaller than the first. I never imagined there would be a difference. Obviously I knit much tighter with magic Loop. So, the second mitten went into the frog pond. I finished the third mitten last night. It was a good lesson for me. Speaking of magic Loop...... I always use a 32 or 40 inch Addi Turbo. The last batch of addis I bought have a problem. The cable is extremely stiff. It feels totally different than all my other Addi's . I have three needles that came with these super stiff cables. I ordered them from an Ebay seller. Has anyone had this problem with their Addi's? I might try to contact Addi directly and see if they will replace them. I am going to cast a Chemo cap on the needles tonight. I like to make them using Berroco's Chinchilla. I have made many of these hats. They are very soft and comfortable with this yarn. The pattern I use calls for one ball of the Chinchilla. I guess that is all the news from "Irishknits". Happy Knitting and stay warm.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Cornflower Mitts







Here is another Fun Fur Hat to send off for

Kate's project. This one was made with a bunch of scraps my mother in law gave me. I would like to knit a few more of them . The other project is some fingerless mitts. These are the Cornflower Mitts from the Holiday Gifts 2006 from Interweaves Knits.There are a few items in that issue I would like to knit. I want to make the Cathedral afghan as well as the Mosaic Mitts. I also have a pair of Lovikka Mittens felting as we speak. I better go check on those......
A couple of more cycles and they will be done. I joined
Rebekah's Yarn Focus Challenge. I had fun with the one she offered last year. Basically, you knit from your stash. Once a month you get one free day to buy yarn. It runs for three months. I plan on dyeing some more of the Bartlett's yarn. I have quite a bit that was given to me a few years ago. The yarn is about ten years old and light heathered colors. I have had success dyeing over it before. I wish the Bartletts felted properly. It does not shrink down enough. I just made an adult mitten that ended up being a potholder. We finally have snow in the forecast. They are saying we could get six to ten inches on Monday. I am ready for a little snow. There is nothing like a snow day to knit.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

A worthy cause




I know I promised picture of "Gettysburg". But, that will wait for another post. My mother in law gave me a bunch of "Fun Fur" scraps before I left Pennsylvania. I am not fond of the yarn. I figured I would work it into some charity mittens. While I was surfing some blogs on Sunday I came across a touching post. Kate was asking people to knit "Fun Fur Chemo Caps" for Children's Hospital Boston. What a wonderful cause. If you have a chance read her post from a few days ago. I used a pattern from the Headhuggers site. I think I used five different scraps on this hat. I have another one started with all kind of crazy colors. It was a fun cap to knit, especially knowing a child would be wearing it. Also, I had a package waiting for me when I came back from vacation. The lovely Maureen over at Batty for Yarn sent me mittens for my Mitten Tree. I believe she used the Gifted Mittens from Kate Gilbert. I may have to make a few pairs of these too. Thanks Maureen. She is always such an inspiration. She knits beautiful items for CIC. I started back to work today. It was really strange after being out of work for four months. I overbooked myself yesterday. My shoulder certainly paid for it last evening. I am going to try to lighten my schedule for awhile. I have physical therapy in the morning followed by a doctor's appointment. We will see what they have to say. I'll close for now....I have a date with some Fun Fur.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I still can't believe it is 2007. We are still on our trip , in Pennsylvania. We are heading back to New Hampshire tomorrow. I did get to spend a couple of hours at The Mannings yesterday. I will post later about that trip. We also spent the afternoon at Gettysburg. The weather was in the high 50's....hard to believe. I got some great photos on top of Little Round Top. My husband grew up about 20 minutes from Gettysburg. It is one of our favorite places to go. We used to get a cup of coffee and drive to Devil's Den on many a Friday evening. We have had a wonderful trip. Both of us are dreading the drive home. But, the forecast looks sunny and warm. I'll post some photos this weekend. I sure did miss reading my favorite blogs. Can't wait to catch up with what everyone is working on.