Random Picture Sunday

Is that a Canadian in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

Beware the Sweet Georgia yarn at the shop.  Lars tried to steal some of it!

My Little Mets Fan

I had to share...  My aunt took this picture sometime yesterday...

All of these pictures are stolen from my family's Facebook pages :o)

Mommy, Daddy and Baby

After delivery

Yes, we are this Italian.  This is how my mom and Aunt (now the grandmother) amused themselves while waiting for the delivery.  Thank goodness for Facebook and Skype!

FO Friday: Vinny's Mets Blanket

This was on Feb 17th...so big!  (Stolen from her facebook page)

My cousin Alyssa had a baby!  As in yesterday :o)  I, of course, procrastinated sending her baby blanket for little Vinny because I had to take a finished picture still.  But here it is:

I have to say, I really didn't like this project.  I love my design, but I do NOT like working with cotton yarn. The yarn had no hold for the intarsia.  I had to go back through almost every individual stitch and tighten it all up.  Ugh.  Cotton.  Unfortunately, they requested cotton since they live in Florida.  Next time, they're getting wool anyway hehe.

Another problem:  the blue bled into the white during blocking.  I don't know if the color bled from the knit work or from the ends that were still dangling in the back.

I thought about bleaching just those sections but that seemed a bit dangerous.  I thought about getting a Clorox bleach pen, but couldn't easily find one.  So I left it. Kyle said it looked like a shadow (my response: There is no shadow in the Mets logo!) and other said they didn't see it unless I pointed it out.  We'll see if my cousin notices on her own.

I have to make another (um, for myself this time) but with a better yarn choice.  The hardest thing is finding the right colors though for a sports team.  If anyone has suggestions I'm definitely listening :o)

Pattern:  My own
Project Page:  Mets Blanket
Needle:  US size 7
Yarn:  Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece

I can't leave you without some scrumptious baby pictures of course:

40 minutes old...thank you Skype!

And after seeing that belly, one must be wondering how big he was.  Only 6 lbs 11 oz!  But he is loooong.  He's going to be a tall tall boy :o)

Book Review: What Would Madame Defarge Knit?

I came home from Vogue Knitting Live with so many books, I feel they each needed their own post.

First up is What Would Madame Defarge Knit?

Ok this book needs a back story.  If you listen to CraftLit, you can skip this.  If not, you should be listening to it.  Go subscribe on iTunes and I'll wait for you to return.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[insert annoying elevator music here]
.
.
.
.
Back?  Ok!  Throughout the time CraftLit has been going, Heather Ordover has been talking about and then eventually collecting patterns for a literature-inspired pattern book.  Viola!  We wound up with WWMDfK. Now I'm still far behind being current in the podcast (working my way from beginning to now), but I knew I wanted to support Heather and the other designers.

This book is a little different than your typical pattern book- there are no pictures.  There are some simple hand drawings, but with the proliferation of the internet (ahem, Ravelry), Heather and the publishers desided that photos are not a necessity.  All of the patterns are on Ravelry with pictures.  It was done, I'm assuming, to keep production cost down and therefore consumer cost down.  I have to say though, this is a downside for me.  I enjoy looking through my pattern books for inspiration.  Yes, I use Ravelry too, but there's nothing like flipping through a real book.  This of course did not stop me from buying though :o)

WWMDfK contains 21 patterns, each inspired by a classical work of literature and accompanied by an essay written by the designer on their inspiration.  I love these little essays :o)  The patterns range from super simple to seemingly very complex to just plain silly.  I want to make most of them (and the other few solely because I don't see myself making much use of).  As of writing this, I'm very drawn to the Princess Langwidere cowl.

© Gretchen Funk

The other patterns I really am itching to make:

Hyde's Hooded Sweater 
© Gretchen Funk     

Jane's Ubiquitous Shawl
© Erica Hernandez

Lysistrata's Chiton
© Brenda Dayne

Isolde Socks
© Meg

That's just my favorite.  I really do want to make almost everything in there.  I've already added almost the whole book to my queue.

If you want to purchase the book, you can find links on the CraftLit sidebar (about halfway down the page). There's options for digital, print and e-book versions (or a combination!).

Groovin' Along

Earlier this month, the Fibre Company started a KAL in their Ravelry Forum for the Groove shawl in Knitty.  On the kickoff day they hosted a chat in the forum with none other than Stephen West.

It's a pretty fast knit, and before I knew it I was picking out buttons!

I chose the plainer ones on the left.  I only used 5 buttons, when the pattern called for 7.

I really enjoyed this shawl.  It was a pretty mindless knit.  I love the kushiness of the yarn

I technically finished my shawl yesterday, but haven't been able to take pictures yet.  No time today though since I'll be busy working at the shop.*  Soon though!


*Um, I have to teach 4 10-year old girls how to knit today.  Wish me luck!

New Needles

My other new favorite thing?  Knitter's Pride Dreamz Interchangeable needle tips.  We recently started carrying them at the shop and I had to buy some.  I love that the tips are color coordinated.  I actually debated buying the set but I really don't need all those tips.  I already have the Knit Picks Harmony wood set.  But the best part?  The same international company manufactures both KP brands (was that abbreviation coincidental?  I'm going to always wonder that...).  So the needles, for the most part, are interchangeable between both brands.

These are my Knitter's Pride size 4 needles.  I was using them for a brief portion of my Welly Warmers (I typed that right the first time for your information).  But the cable I'm using is from my Knit Picks set.  Confused yet?  I'm sorry if you are :o)

I wanted to get a second set of tips for the sizes I break use the most.  I have 3 individual tips in each of sizes 4, 5, and 6 needles.  Because I've broken at least one of each in the past couple years of having the set.  What I really wanted was all those sizes in the Cubics, but those tips only go down to a sze 6 as of now.  So I bought the 6s and 8s.  But I still needed tips for 4 and 5.


Now I love my Knit Picks set.  Yes, they do sometimes have problems.  No, I haven't had a big enough problem to complain about.  But I like that by buying the Knitter's Pride tips I'm supporting my LYS.  And I don't have to wait for shipping or do a minimum $50 order.

Not a huge selling point for me, but I know this makes quite the difference for some people.  The size of the needle is stamped on both the wood and metal portions of the needle.  It will eventually wear off the wood part, but the company says the metal stamp will last.  I assume that if you use the needles often enough to wear the stamp off, you'll remember that blue is a size 4 needle.

I do have to report a problem with my Cubics though.  I used my size 8 tips for my Cherry Legume in January.  But when I went to use the size 6 tips, one of the tips wouldn't screw onto my Knit Picks cable.  Luckily, I had that extra lonely Knit Picks tip and was able to work on my project still.  I took my tip back to the shop and tried it on the Knitter's Pride cable, just to be sure.  It wouldn't screw onto there either.  So I had to give them back to be exchanged :o(.  Otherwise though, no problems!

Welly Warmers

I feel like I can't keep up with all the new patterns we've been getting into the store lately.  We've got some new Knitbot, Never Not Knitting, and so many others.  

One of our popular patterns is these new Quilted Lattice Welly Warmers by Pam Powers.  Now, that is quite a mouthful and we've taken to just calling them Welly Warmers.  Only I tend to slip up and call them Willy Warmers :o/  Beware!

These are my hot pink Welly Warmers to go with my non-Welly rainboots. 

I bought 1 skein of Berroco Vintage to start with and figured I've got plenty of that and other worsted weight yarns to do the rest of the warmer.  I mean, no one's going to see the inside so it really doesn't matter that it's not going to be the same color.

I probably should have made the quilted lattice part a little longer, but I'm already running low on yarn.  If my yellow buckles show a bit, I'm ok with that.  I'm just happy to keep my legs a little warmer when I'm wearing these babies.

Speaking of, they haven't gotten much loving this winter.  Though they're rainboots, I also wear them as snow boots (as in, getting to and from my car in the winter or when I'm shoveling).  They're great at keeping my feet dry but they do nothing for the cold.  But I haven't had to worry about that much since it's only snowed twice this winter.  And today it's in the 40s.  In February.  So not typical.

Yeah Baby!

NY Football Champs Project Bag by crookedknits on Etsy:

'via Blog this'