Yarn Diet Give Away

I can't find my camera right now, so pictures of FOs will have to wait for a while.

I need to go on another yarn diet. Mostly a sock yarn diet (scary thought). I could knit about 75 pairs of socks without buying more sock yarn. I blame etsy. I love all the pretty, hand dyed yarns made in small batches by independent crafters and artist.

It isn't just sock yarn either. I have more than enough yarn to knit myself 20 sweaters. Considering what a big girl I am, that is a lot of yarn!

And don't get me started on the knitting books!

I am running out of places to put my stash. So, it is time for another yarn diet. What is your opinion, how many pairs of socks and how many sweaters should I knit before I am allowed to buy more yarn? Leave me a comment with your suggestions. Be honest. I'll dig up a few things to share with those who make suggestions (books and yarn).

Happy knitting!

No time to post photos!

Harry Potter day!!!!

Tonight, at midnight, I will have the final Harry Potter book in my hot little hands. I can't wait.

Unfortunately, Grimace won't be done in time for fair. He is nearly done, and I did try it on last night (just before starting the neck shaping). It fits PERFECTLY! I am happy. Look for the finished photos soon.

Happy Knitting!

Grimace, belated birthday, and BANG BANG BANG

Let me start with the progress I have made on Grimace. I have the body done up until the underarm join, one sleeve, and a good start on the second sleeve. Actually, this photo was taken yesterday before I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I have about three inches to go on the second sleeve now.

The green ball of yarn is Manos De Uruguay for the yolk. I had spent several days trying to design a yolk pattern. However, I started thinking about the possibility of frogging, and the tremendous amount of weaving in ends. Since I want enter this sweater in the LaPorte County Fair (1 week and 2 days away), I thought a simpler yolk with a dressier yarn would have impact, but simplify the knitting process. Also, I had a reason to buy two hanks of a lovely yarn that I normally can't afford.

The gift card from my wonderful Stitch n Bitch pals came in handy when buying the yarn. It is more green than blue, and some of the blue bits are actually a lilac color. I think this yarn will have a huge impact in the finish sweater. Do you see those nicely wound center pull balls? I did them myself.

My birthday gift from Sly and the kids FINALLY came. This lovely swift and ball winder were on back order for a while, but they are safe with me now. I think this present is as nice as my clothesline. Jealous? :)

My roof has been covered with sweaty men for the past two days. Today, it wasn't even safe for me to leave my house. I am getting a new roof. It has been interesting because the 120 year old shake roof was under the two top layers. It actually seems to be in better shape than the newer layers. The workers are great, the get here about 7:30 am and leave around 7:00 pm. While I am happy with their work, the NOISE is starting to drive me a bit nutty. We have two more days to deal with. It is starting to rain now (no kidding), and I only have half a roof!

Hope your home is quieter than mine.

Happy knitting!

St. Joesph Michigan

Sly and I took a little drive today, for no particular reason. This time we visited St. Joesph Michigan. Besides all the stunning views of Lake Michigan, there was a totally cute downtown area too.


I just loved this woman in the fountain. I like how the water drips around her and she has this look of contentment or sadness. I can't figure out which.


There were no LYS in St. Joe, but I did find this totally adorable quilt shop on the way. Behind the fence was the cutest garden.


Sly like the fireman's memorial. He took a crappy picture of it. Mine is so much nicer.


I also found Dumbledore. Can't wait for book 7 to come out. At least I have a movie to see this week.

I have been working away on Grimace (the purple Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater for fair). Other than lots and lots of purple wool, I have no other knitting to show off. I should get the second sleeve done tomorrow. I'll post a progress report this week.

Happy Knitting!

What else would Molly do while waiting for book 7?

Pattern: House Hats Wide Stripe Version from Charmed Knits
Yarn: Wool-ease in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw colors
Needles: size 7 16 inch crics and DPNs

I finally got around to knitting a couple of house hats. They are cute and fun to make. In addition, I was distracted from Grimace for a while.

Happy knitting!

Suz made me do it!

I got tagged by Suz, so now I am doing this meme.

The Rules:
Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (only the month and day). Find three events, two births, and one holiday that occurred on your birthday. Then tag five friends.

My birthday, as some of you will remember, is June 16.

Three events:
1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses.
1903 - Ford Motor Company incorporates.
1960 - Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho opens in New York.

Two births
1938 - Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist (I always rather liked sharing my birthday with her)
1971 - Tupac Shakur, American Rapper (that is just funny to me)

Holiday
There was really only one I WOULD choose (there are two for the day),
Bloomsday, in honour of Leopold Bloom, the hero of James Joyce's Ulysses set on 16 June, 1904.
The only other cool thing about my birthday is that it is the day in Ulysses. One of these days, I will actually manage to finish reading this book.

I won't tag anyone. Have fun with it if you want.

I am going back to my pile of knitting ADD. I have been doing lots of stuff, but I haven't spent enough time with any one project to actually COMPLETE anything.

Happy knitting!

I want to live on this street!

Gentle reader, don't you all wish you lived on PURL street? I couldn't believe my eyes when I drove by this afternoon. I MADE Sly turn the truck around so that I could get picture to share with my dear readers.

For no real reason, this morning I thought it would be a fine idea to drive to Goshen, Indiana. It is a little over an hour away. I had been to many towns around Goshen, but never TO Goshen. It is a part of Indiana's Amish country (yes, we did see Amish, but I am a bit used to that). I did take issue with Goshen calling itself the "Maple City." I happen to live in "The Maple City" and I am darn proud of it! I don't know why I thought this would be a fun drive, but I am glad I went.

I had no idea what a cute, and vital, downtown I would find. There were upscale shops and coffehouses. We found park benches and pot brimming with flowers. We found this knitting store.

Eve-Nigue Knits is a cute little shop just off the main square. I loved that it was bright and sunny and nestled into a vintage store front. The store didn't have the largest selection (I am a bit spoiled by my regular LYS), but I think that it is well on its way to becoming a super LYS.

I bought souvenir sock yarn and a handmade polymer clay stitch marker. If you can't tell, that is a flamingo.

Just so you all don't think that I made Sly run around and do knitting things all day, we found this second hand book store. He spent a lot of time rummaging around in boxes of comic books. He was in geek heaven. While I was in the knit shop, Sly was across the street at the nut shop buying a lovely snack of chocolate covered raisins.

So, I had a lovely day. I hope your day was as nice as mine. And thank you for all the birthday wishes!

Happy knitting!

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my ? birthday. However, since I don't want to talk about how many birthdays I have had, here is a photo of me at 5. My mother always made me angel food cake with strawberries for my birthday.

Happy knitting!

Erin's photo contest

Dorky Erin is having a contest. Here is my entry (so far).

A knitter (other than yourself) knitting in public

a sock (handknit or not)

a library card

a ball of green yarn

a street sign

a flower

a public work of art

My reflection in an unexpected place

someone in a catalog pose

a funny billboard or sign

Stitch n Bitch

I went to Stitch n Bitch last night with Erin and Jen. We all a good time knitting, chatting, and freezing our butts off! Seriously, the Valp Barnes and Noble needs to turn down the AC. I had to go out to the truck and get a blanket to keep warm.


I need everybody to go to Jen's blog and leave her an encouraging comment for learning how to do a short row toe/heel. I suggest saying "Eye of the tiger Jen!"


I took a couple of WIPs with me. I really wanted to finish my afterthought heel sock, but I wasn't paying attention. Just look at that GINORMOUS hole!


This is the start of my EZ yolk sweater. I am calling it Grimace. I really want to enter this in the LaPorte County Fair this year. Wish me luck.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I am not sure how to feel about turning 22 for the 17th time. I'll let you know.

Happy knitting!

The Clothesline

I love my clothesline. Sly built if for me a few years back for my birthday. While it may sound silly to some, I think of it as the best birthday gift he ever gave me. He built it with his own two hands, it saves money and energy, and it leaves my clothes smelling fresh and clean.

I honestly believe that anyone who wants to save money should invest in a clothesline. While these figures are a bit out of date, they do illustrate the cost associated with clothes dryers, "it cost 44 cents per hour to operate [your clothes dryer] based on 9 cents per KWH" (kilo watt hour). See The Complete Tightwad Gazette. In addition to saving money on electric and gas (I have a gas dryer), air drying your clothes will help your clothes to last longer, thus saving money on the NEED for new clothes (a clothesline does little for the desire for new clothes). Where do you think all that fuzz in your lint trap comes from? It is the damaged fibers of your clothes.

People who are concerned about their carbon footprint should invest in a clothesline as well. The clothesline is the purest example of solar and wind energy there is! The use of the clothesline is totally free in terms of cost and environmental impact.

Lastly, the clothesline makes your clothes smell wonderful, fresh, and clean. It is pleasant to be outside on a nice sunny day hanging clothes. I hear birds singing, see children playing, and feel the grass between my toes (I almost never wear shoes in the summer). It is a wonderfully relaxing, mindless activity with positive, practical results (like knitting).

I know, it is a silly thing to get all mushy over, but I just love using my clothesline. Also, all I have are boring WIPs and no FOs at the moment, so a knitterly post seemed lame.

Happy Knitting!

More computer woes

Due to excessive snow days this year, I am still working well into June. I am looking forward to the summer off. My yard is overgrown, my house needs good cleaning, and there are WIPs in my knitting basket.

I know you are sick of hearing about the failings of my antique computer. It is, sadly, down once more. The darn old thing keeps finding new ways to break down. For a computer, it is very old at 8. It won't actually turn on any more.

This fact leaves me using my son's very new, and Vista equipped, computer. My camera won't talk to Vista, so I am unable to share the promised WIP photos with you all.

Here is the boring to look at list of what I am doing now.

1. Charmed Knits hats (one in each of the Hogwarts house colors)
2. EZ yolk sweater (EZ Elizabeth Zimmermann)
3. Boobalicious from Big Girl Knits
4. Cotton Tots sweater for my niece
5. Socks

I hope that the boring "no photo" post will not last long! I really don't like my son's computer. BTW, Vista sucks (cancel or allow) ALLOW.

Happy Knitting (and Happy Computing)

What I have been up to

Things have been a bit nutty around here. We lost out Internet connection 2 weeks ago. We have a new antenna (facing a new direction), new card, cables and whatever else we need new (not a a new computer). The Internet works now, but every now and then, it doesn't work (no one seems to know why).

For the holiday weekend, Sly and I took our first camping trip of the season. We have a tradition of camping on Memorial Day Weekend. This tradition goes back about 12 years with us. We started back when we were tent campers, but a few years ago, we bought an RV.

I may not be the Harlot, but I can have a traveling sock too! I actually worked on a couple of things during this trip, but mostly I worked on the sock.

Buddy loves to camp. He gets so excited when we start going in and out of the RV. He always makes sure to let us know that he wants to go camping too. In fact, when we bought a new truck to pull the RV, one of our main requirements was a bench in the cab for the dog!

He really enjoyed this trip. We stopped in Nappanee Indiana for dinner. Since the RV is very large, we normally stop in the parking lot of someplace like Walmart and sit in the camper an eat. Well, the grocery store that we stopped at is one that all the Amish frequent. Buddy is not used to horses and having so many around was a little overstimulating to poor Bud. He was a good dog and didn't bark, but he sure wanted to run after them!

I thought I would post this because I almost never post pictures of myself (there are a few in the archives).

I have lots of WIPs to show, so look for that post in a day or two.

Happy Knitting!

My Internet is back on

I was without Internet for over a week. It is back on now, but I am leaving for a holiday camping trip. I'll post more Monday!

Free free free!

I feel so free and light without a care in the world now. It is nice to not worry about boring books to read, papers to write, or test to take. I was very uninspired by my class this semester. I really don't care much for linguistics. It is dry and tedious, so I am very glad it is over.

Pattern: various roll brim and double knit hat patterns that I made up as I went along
Yarn: bits from many, many projects
Needles: different sizes, but all 16 inch circs

Here is a pile of finished Dulaan hats. I think there are 20 something or other. There were a few wool/acrylic blends, so those are going to an Indian Reservation. All the 100% wool are going to Mongolia. I am officially done with hats for at least a month.

Pattern: you all know I don't use a pattern to knit socks
Yarn: Lion Wool bought for $3 at Walmart
Needles: size 7 DPNs

I made these as a graduation gift for a classmate who has earned her Master's degree. She use to give me chocolate in class, so I thought the gift of warm, woolly socks would be a good idea.

I have plans for lots of warm weather knitting. I have ordered several pounds of cotton and cotton blends. I hope to get several warm weather sweaters done this summer. All of the patterns I have picked out are from Big Girl Knits. I'll keep you all posted.

I also got my copy of Charmed Knits today. I am totally enchanted! I will certainly be working on Mrs. Weasley's sweater and knitting bag!

I have one or two WIPs to get off the needles before my summer knitting yarn arrives. So, I'll go work on those now.

Happy Knitting!

Not much of a post

Finals are coming, finals are coming! I am so not ready to take my final, but I am TOTALLY ready for the end of the semester. When I was substitute teaching, I could just take a day off and work on homework or rest. The new job requires me to be at work, and to be there everyday. I am seriously behind on homework.

There is little to no knitting to report. I have finished loads of Dulaan hats, and my EZ seamless yolk sweater is growing loads. I also have my Sockpalooza information. I have some lovely fingering weight alpaca I want to use. Should be wonderful.

I just wanted to post and let you all know what I am up to.

Happy Knitting!

Knitting MEME

I saw this little meme on Punkin's blog, so I thought I would give it a go! I have done a lot of kniterly things.

Mark with bold the things you have ever knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

Afghan (I have crocheted several, but I never finished the knit one I started)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl (Homespun shawl HELL!!!!! I made one for my mother and all my aunts one year)
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat (Dulaan post coming!)
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting (never have done this ON PURPOSE)
Participating in a KAL
Sweater (still seeming one, and I have started a seemless EZ sweater)
Drop stitch patterns (I have lost count of the drop stitch scarves I have made)
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn Very Very Soon!!!!
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning (oh, I just got an antique sock darner!)
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair (Buddy does offer the ridiculous quantities of hair to do this, but I think not!)
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Razor's Edge

Pattern: Razor's Edge from Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky
Needles: big honkin' size 17 24 inch Addi's (with the surgical tubing)

I have a finished object! Can you all believe it? I can't either. When making this pattern, check the ERRATA because the pattern in the book is wrongity WRONG!

There was supposed to be a hole in the middle, like a poncho, but I thought it would look like a lobster bib on me. I skipped it. It is an easy lace pattern. I love the oddity of working lace in a bulky yarn.

While it is as hot as an oven now, I was able to get a little use out of it last week. It is a wonderful wrap. It will keep you warm on those chilly days when a coat would be too heavy.

I have started an EZ seamless sweater for me. I have made a couple of these for children, but never for myself. My green sweater is sitting beside me now, only half seemed up (seeming such a dark item SUCKS!), and I haven't touch Cozy in months (I really should work on that soon). Naturally, I have socks on needles.

I finally ordered a set of KnitPicks Options needles, LOVE THEM! They are every bit as good as Addi Turbos, but so much cheaper. The EZ sweater was cast on just so I could play with my new needles. I know they seem expensive, but they are worth every penny.

Well, wish me luck on my finals next week. Happy knitting!

Copying from Suz

What Your Favorite Color Purple Says About You:

Intuitive --- Seeking --- Creative Kind --- Self-Sacrificing --- Growth Oriented Strong --- Very Wise --- Rare

What Does Your Favorite Color Say About You?

What a night!

Believe me, when you are coming home from a light night class, this is so NOT what you want to find on your doorstep!

While the picture is a bit dark, the careful observer may be able to see the police car sitting in the middle of the intersection in front of my house. The bright lights off in the distance in the middle of the shot are the FIRETRUCKS. Yes, dear reader, I came home from class to find my neighborhood full of smoke, police cars and fire trucks in my yard, and a fire hose snaking around the block. Needless to say, I was in a bit of a panic until I realized the whole mess was for the ceramics workshop three doors down! Since no one lives in the building, no one was hurt.

There is nothing like walking the dog while the gentle mist of the fire hose brushes across exposed skin on a frigid night. The rattle and rumble of heavy equipment is an unexpectedly sweet lullaby. The primal glow of the burning building was the communal fire, drawing neighbors and gawkers alike to stand on my lawn.

The Red Cross Hummer was cool. It parked in MY parking space! I guess the Red Cross Hummer can park any where it damn well pleases!

My house smells like smoke, and there is still a lot of commotion going on out there. I think I'll go knit now to sooth my nearves!

Happy Knitting!