Meet Sheldon!

This project made me so happy!

I saw the pattern for Sheldon on Knitty and knew that I absolutely had to make this for dear Knitdds, who is expecting her first child (yippee!) in the spring. So I cast on, and about a week later had this:

I've already told Knitdds that I'm vying for favorite auntie status, and I'm so not below bribing the kid to get it. :)

Overall, I thought this project was a lot of fun. The pattern was SOOO well written and super easy to follow. Working the double points was a bit tough on some of the smaller sections of Sheldon (like the neck and the legs), but luckily those didn't last too long. And the shell is supposed to be removable - which technically this is, but I think getting the shell back on Sheldon would be a bit tough. I happened to have the suggested Knitpicks yarn in my stash (I know, shocking!), and I think I actually have enough to make another (I know, more shocking!). Since my daughter apparently really loves Sheldon (or so she told me), I may be commissioned to do another.

Baby FO

I am planning to visit a friend on Friday who recently had her 4th child (yeah, you read that right - I can sometimes barely manage my 1, let alone being able to think about adding 3 more to the bunch :) Actually, the baby was born in July, so I guess she didn't have the kid all that recently. But with 4 kids, it can be difficult for her to arrange time for a get together, so this is sadly going to be the first time that I even see the new(er) baby girl. So I checked out my stash yesterday, found some leftover yarn from a baby blanket I did a while ago, and made this:

I love making baby hats - this took me all of a couple of hours to finish. I also tried a new technique with this hat - I knit it continental style. It was surprisingly easy and quite speedy, although the Addi Turbos I used to knit the hat may have helped the speediness of the process. I don't know that I'm ready to cross over to the dark side yet - for example, I still can't purl continental. I'll try that someday.

Of course, I have no idea if this hat will fit a 6 month old baby's head. My daughter is almost 3, and I have absolutely no recollection of how big her head was 2-1/2 years ago. I know, I'm an awful mother. But my daughter apparently liked the hat:

She likes anything pink, though, so I don't know how good a critic she is! The scarf she's wearing was one of my first knitting projects. She likes it but has already requested that I make her a new one (all pink, of course). :)

Yarn Pr0n Friday!

Hello all, and Happy Friday! I don't know about you, but this has been a long week. I spent the first half of Wednesday thoroughly convinced that it was actually Thursday. So needless to say, I'm happy that it's finally Friday! And I have pr0n!





Here we have a pile o' Knitpicks Elegance, which is a blend of 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk. The color is Barn Red, although I think the color is much warmer than what I would consider barn red.





The yarn is so scrumptiously soft, and I just can't wait to work with it. The majority of it will become the Cinnabar scarf from Magnits (for me) and the rest will tranform into a hat. I haven't made a final decision on which hat I will knit, but it will most likely be Grumperina's Odessa.

So although I really had every intention to stop my constant yarn-buying fixation, I find that I've placed several orders recently. But I have plans for everything I've gotten - I just got some Lorna's (which will probably be the subject of next week's pr0n) to make a scarf for hubby for his birthday, and my mom recently requested that I make her a hat, and she wanted a specific color, so I had to order some yarn for that. But I really do plan to stop purchasing yarn for a little while - at least until I've finished some of these projects. I need to start showing some more FOs on this blog! Hopefully I'll have some for you very soon.

First FO of 2007

I'm proud to show off my first FO for the new year:



This is actually a scarf I started way back in November at the Dulaan Knit-In hosted by Franklin (of the Panopticon fame). But then when I found out I had until July to actually send in my Dulaan projects, I decided to hold off finishing it until I finished my holiday knitting. Not that I ended up doing much holiday knitting, but that's beside the point. I'd kinda forgotten about the poor little scarf until I recently forced myself to pull out and assess all my UFOs. I used some leftover Lamb's Pride yarn (can't remember the exact colors or anything) and I only had enough to make a small, child's scarf. But from what I understand of the Dulaan project, they're particularly looking for items for children, so it should work out well.

Creepy!

OK, if you look at the comments to my last post, then this post may make sense.

Joe - I second Jessica's comments. Eww! How did you find my blog? And how the hell did you know that it was me? In addition to being frustrated with Discount Yarn Sale, I now think I'm a bit frightened by your tracking methods. I guess the site must be fairly concerned about its image, if you go searching blogs for consumer comments to respond to. That being said, I stand by my post. I see now that the web site has updated its ship to time, but I swear when I ordered, I double-checked and triple-checked, and it gave an approximate 1 week ship time for that yarn. And regarding my previous orders, I was never told that anything was backordered until I contacted Discount Yarn Sale to inquire about status.

Ok, I'm officially creeped out.

Yarn Pr0n 2007

I'm very pleased to kick off yarn pr0n in 2007 with this beauty.



Would you like a closer look?



This is Hill Country Yarns Merino Silk in the Indian Summer colorway. It's a 50% wool/50% silk blend, advertised as comparable to Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb (although never having fondled the latter, I can't attest to that). This yarn is quite yummy, though. I purchased it in order to finally knit the amazingly beautiful Clapotis - I'm so excited! But I have a few other projects in the works that I feel I must finish before I can cast on for the Clap (as I've seen it lovingly referenced). Ah, it's just motivation for me to get some projects finished.

I ordered this yarn through a website called Discount Yarn Sale - anyone else order through this site? If so, what are your experiences? I actually tried ordering yarn from them some time ago, but I found the customer service to be somewhat lacking. Although the site had said 2-3 weeks to ship the yarn I had ordered, 2 months later I had heard nothing. So I e-mailed customer service to find out what was up and was told that the yarn was backordered. They couldn't have told me that when I ordered?!? And 2 months later they still didn't have it? I was so annoyed I just canceled the order. I was wary of ordering from them again, but since this yarn is just for a project for me, I figured it didn't matter if it took a while. That said, the site said 1 week to ship, and it took them over a month to actually ship it to me. Frustrating. I definitely would not order from this site for a project with a deadline.

But let's not end this post with a note of frustration. The yarn is here, and it is lovely, and I'm so looking forward to working with it. I never thought I'd so looking forward to having the clap. :)

Obligatory resolutions for 2007

1. Knit more for myself. I know, awfully selfish, huh? But I have never knit anything for myself. Well, that's not entirely true. My first knit socks were booties I made and kept (because I didn't want to expose anyone to my first attempt at socks). And I was right to keep them - my half-assed attempt at the kitchener stitch didn't hold up, and I didn't have any extra yarn to even try to correct the mistake. So it would've made an awful gift. The bottom line, though - I don't own anything that I've knit. I must rectify this in 2007 - I've one pair of socks started and many others in line, and I plan on ordering some yarn to make a scarf and hat. Oh yeah, and I ordered some beauteous yarn to make myself a Clapotis. Yay!

2. Start Christmas knitting WAAAAAY earlier. To complement my first selfish resolution, I must include a more generous one. I had aspirations to knit gifts for friends and family this year but just did not have the time when it came to the wire. But not so in 2007. I purchased Holiday Knits, which has some lovely patterns in it. I think I'll start my holiday knitting in March.

3. Refrain from the "eyes are bigger than my knitting needles" trap. I have a bad habit of seeing a pattern and thinking, "That's awesome! I could knit that!" Then I proceed to order the yarn and get all excited about starting the project. Then I start the project and realize just how complicated and/or time-consuming the project will be. Then I lose interest. But not so in 2007! I resolve to read patterns through carefully and completely at least 3 times before committing to any project. I will only take on projects that I really and truly believe that I can/will knit. I will not needlessly and recklessly add to my already substantial stash.

4. Complete the tie-cropped cardigan for my sister. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

5. Visit Arcadia Knitting. I know, a travesty that I'm so near it but have never been. For those not in the know, Arcadia is (as I understand it) rather a mecca of the Chicago knitter. So I guess I already know that my resolve will crumble with respect to the last part of #3 above...

6. Make room in life for more than knitting. OK, I'm not as lame as this resolution sounds - I actually do have other things in my life besides knitting. But since beginning to knit just over a year ago now, I've become quite obsessed. I stay up late at night to finish just a few more rows. I carry my knitting around wherever I go, even when I have hardly a hope of having an opportunity to knit. I guess what I've most let go to the wayside since beginning to knit is reading. Don't get me wrong, I still read a fair amount. But the list of books that I want to read continues to grow, and I haven't been very good about checking names off the list. So I gotta work on that. I guess that means the title of this resolution should have been "read more." But I like to keep it all about knitting. :)

7. Get the knitting book club going. Talk about killing 2 birds with one stone (which, really, is a terrible saying. Poor birds.). I had first discussed this with Knitdds, who posted about it and I think had some response from those interested in it. I'll admit I was part of the problem in its not coming to fruition - Sunday is really the best day for a book group meeting, and I refused to give up my Sunday NFL ticket. But football season is almost over, so I'm all about getting the knitting book club in order. Oh, and Go Colts! (I know, I live near Chicago and should be a Bears fan, which I am. But I grew up near Indianapolis, so gotta stay loyal to the home team.)

8. Actually stick to a fitness program. So I couldn't get the word "knitting" into this resolution. And this is such a cliched resolution. But it's an important resolution, nonetheless. I can be so hot and cold about exercising, although I will say that 2006 was a better year than most. I started going to spinning (biking, not roving) classes in 2005 and actually was relatively consistent with it through 2006. But I have a terrible all-or-nothing attitude about exercise - if I'm in the routine, I'm gold. But if I have to skip a workout or 2 for whatever reason, it's very easy for me to skip several weeks of exercising. Then it's tough for me to get motivated to start again. I've allowed myself to slack off over the holidays, but I'm going to be good from here on out!

I hope the first 2 days of 2007 have been all you've dreamed for and more!