swak

Hello everybody!  I am once again very tardy in posting to the blog but I do have a few wonderful new colorways to share so maybe that will make up for it.

First off is "Aurora" it is an incredibly vibrant colorway.  Purples, blues and greens.  Each color gradually fades into the next.  This one was inspired and dyed on a very wonderfully sunny spring day. 

I haven't come up with a name for this one yet but obviously this is a Spring colorway.  Looks like a little girls Easter dress to me or maybe just Spring flowers.  I enjoyed blending the colors together and watching them change into the next color.

Now to introduce "Deviant Behavior"!  Little Sister and I are both fans of the movie "Empire Records", Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger and Robin Tunney. In fact one of the first movies I ever saw any of them in.  Well this yarn is from a rough quote from Renee Zellweger's character "Shock me, Shock me, Shock me with that Deviant Behavior".  A little Black and little Red a little blue .... Deviant for sure!  I think we will be watching Empire Records this coming weekend.  I will be visiting OKC for a Trunk show at SWAK in the City Friday and Saturday.  All of these colors and many more will be available there, hope to see some of you there!

Busy, Busy, Busy, I finally received the Glam Grrl base yarn and have been working on getting them dyed for The Loopy Ewe and the Trunk Show at SWAK in the City on October 23 and 24.  This picture is a small sampling of what I have been dyeing.  I have really tried to make sure that there is a lot of diversity.  I will be getting this off to UPS and The Loopy Ewe tomorrow. 

I am really looking forward to the Trunk Show at SWAK later this month and of course seeing Wendy again.  She will be teaching several classes at SWAK and I am so happy that I will be able to spend some time with her again.  I highly recommend classes with Wendy, she is an excellent teacher and a very talented designer. 

Speaking of Wendy, she and I are in the process of collaborating on a project.  To be honest I approached her a few weeks ago and asked if she would be interested in putting a kit together including one of her shawl designs and some of my hand dyed yarns, specifically the Luxe cashmere base yarn.  Today she posted pictures of her finished "Stacy Shawl", I complained about the name but she said she likes it, at least she doesn't know my real name. LOL  I am amazed at her creative design abilities.  Seriously, I contacted her and before I could dye the yarn she already knew what she was going to do.  This is really a very exciting project and I am looking forward to knitting my own "Stacy Shawl".  I am hoping to get the kits together and ready to post by next weekend.  Like Wendy said, I agree that this will be a wonderful quick gift idea.  I hope you all will enjoy it.  I will be dyeing many different colors for this project, feel free to let me know what colors you would like to see it in.

I have been working away at Emily's "Order to Chaos" and it is coming along very well.  It is going to be HUGE,I am estimating that it is at least 5 feet in diameter so far and I still have half of chart D, all of chart E and the edging to go. 

If you notice the first picture in this post all those skeins are laying on the shawl and will give you some idea of how large this is going to be.

Ok, so I have yet another obsession that has now taken over to go along with the knitting and photos of Ivie!  Stitch Markers!!!  I bought a beautiful set of hand-made stitch markers from SWAK about a month ago.  Kary (aka knitwitchick on Ravelry) made them and they are absolutely adorable!  I loved them so much and I used to dabble in jewelry making so I thought I'd get out some of my old beads and such and try my hand at it.  At the same time, Courtney was looking for more stitch markers and came upon the same idea, so we've been enabling each other for the last few days.  Here are a few of the markers that I've done so far.

I've also made a set for Stacy and Wendy along with some for Laura (aka sprout and Biomaj5), Mary (yobeach) and Courtney (Yarntramp).  I'm hoping to get the markers to my local girls very soon.  Of course Laura already has hers since she'll actually brave the long drive to Guthrie to come see me. LOL Just sayin'!

Ivie decided to help me yesterday and lets just say that I spent the better part of an hour rehabilitating my beads.  You know it's my fault though.  It's not like you can expect a 2 year old to be neat and tidy all the time, right?  Plus she's so darn cute that I could never could stay mad at her.  Especially when she's saying, "I'll be a good girl, Momma" and "I'm sorry!"  But as you can see, she was pretty proud of herself.

I had to trash most of my tiny little seed beads but I was able to save and re-organize the bulk of the rest.  I'm really having a great time playing with them though and even got a few more sets done last night when insomnia crept in to keep me from my beloved sleep.  Time well spent though, I assure you.

The progress on my girasole is going pretty slow because I mostly only knit on it when I'm with more experienced knitters so as to "try" not to make any serious mistakes.  The progress on hubby's sweater is coming along nicely though.  I'm not too far away from shaping for the arms on the back side.  I'm really enjoying watching those cables appear!

All in all, I have to say thanks to all of you.  You've managed to pull me in and make me a happy knitter along with the rest of you!

Lots going on around here I will start with what is and has happened and then let you know what is going to be happening.

The Fall Knitting Mags have hit the stands and like knitters around the world I had to grab a few.  Although I have to say I didn't like all the hats in the Fall Vogue, I did like the cover hat, the Vine and Leaf Beret.  I knit up this hat in about 4-5 days, I only get to knit in the evening before bed so it was really a pretty quick knit.  I knit it out of the new Luxe Grrl yarn, this yarn has wonderful feel and shows the stitch definition beautifully.  I keep describing it like Chocolate in yarn, it is so so yummy to work with.  It will be available next week at The Loopy Ewe and very shortly at SWAK. 

Like a lot of knitters Fall is my favorite time of the year, it just feels right to knit and get to wear a lot of the handknits we put up in the spring.  I realize that it is still Summer and in OK it could be 100 degrees on and off into October.  But with school starting and a cooler day here and there I know Fall will be here soon and that makes me want to knit a new sweater, and apparently I am not the only one. 

I had been looking at Cardigan patterns and had purchased the Twist pattern last Fall and the yarn for it this past Spring. I was mentally preparing to cast on when Keri, of 3AM Enchantments, called and asked if I was interested in doing a little KAL together and she thought she wanted to knit Twist, I had one of those OMG moments "I am just about to cast that same pattern on".  Well that quickly got out of hand and now over on the 3AM ravelry board we started a much larger KAL. 

The "if it has cables and covers your chest KAL!"

Rules: 
1 - We’re looking for adult sized sweaters (yes, something for your 12yo would count, but not something sized for a 12 month old). 
2 - Cables! You gotta have at least one cable in there. A cabled cast on doesn’t count. 
3 - If you have already started “the perfect cabled sweater”, but are less than … 10% done? You can join in. I’d say 10% is about half of the back of an adult sized sweater, but use your best judgement - the knitting police are not going to show up at your door. Honor system! 
4 - In order to qualify for prizes, done means actually finished and ready to wear in public. The only exception to this rule is if you are still hunting for that most elusive prey - the perfect buttons. You do need to have your ends wove in though!

Prizes: 
1 - Everyone who finishes by the deadline (photos required) will be entered into a drawing for a bag & yarn combo set from Keri and I. 
2 - If Keri finishes her sweater by the deadline (please note - she loves the look of cables, loaths knitting of them), we will draw for an additional bag & yarn combo from the finisher pool. 
3 - Have fun. Chat it up. Come kick Keri in the butt every so often to keep her knitting. Our personal prizes will be a finished, cabled sweaters!

Deadline is the Monday after US Thanksgiving 11-30-09

I have even offered to do some custom dye work contact me if you are interested, could custom dye the Luxe for a sweater (sport wt).

My progress so far:                                                                                                               

 Now a little bit of a tease. I am very very excited about the Fall Knitty!!!  I always am but I am really really excited about this one!!!  Between that and Wendy Johnson coming back to see me.... oh Ok she is really coming to SWAK I am going to have a very happy fall.

Well since Stacy took most of the photos available to me from Logan and Cody's going away party at SWAK, I'll have to come up with something else to talk about.  Although, that's what I had in mind to talk about. *Sticking out my tongue at Big Sis*  Anyway, I thought since Stacy has been talking about me on her site off and on for last couple of years, I would let everyone know about me from my own point of view.

If I ever get the opportunity to talk to you, and trust me I do talk A LOT, the one thing I will never forget to mention is my little Ivie Bear.  She is about 2 1/2 years old now and is by far the most exciting part of my life.  She is funny, smart, beautiful and an absolute joy to be around.  Now of course I am a bit bias where she is concerned.  Don't think that I don't see the fact that she's still a kid and she can mess up from time to time though.  Trust me, she knows how to push Mommy and Daddy's buttons very well!  My husband's name is Steve and he is a wonderful man.  I won't post his picture because I value harmony in my marriage.  (He's not very fond of me posting his pic, if you can't tell)  He is a VERY hand guy to have around.  The only part of our home remodel that he didn't do himself was put in the granite countertops in the kitchen and lay the new carpet.  He loves to learn new trades and is a true adrenaline junkie, aka. former bullrider, Marine, etc.

Now I have to say that I'm a country girl.  Yes, I adapt to most situations regardless of the venue, but I feel most at home on an acreage with lots of room to play and not have to worry about city codes and ordinances.  I love the fact that we live on 8 1/2 acres and our neighbors are far enough away that I can walk around the house in a towel and not worry about someone seeing me through the window!  Otherwise, trust me, I wouldn't do it!

We've recently acquired a new member to our family which already included 2 dogs (Great Pyrenees) and a 50 gallon fish tank holding 4 fish.  His name is Okie and Ivie absolutely Loves him!  Sometimes she loves him too much and he runs away to her chagrin.  He does really enjoy her as well, just not necessarily when she's awake.  Okie is a lot of fun and plays well but I have to say he just might be the loudest cat I've ever had.  You never have to wonder where he's at or if he's out of food that's for sure.

Okay, so on to the knitting aspect of things.  I know that's really the part that everyone is most interested in.  I've completed a few projects since I started knitting just a few months ago.  A few scarves, 2 Ipod cozies (one for Emily's 12th birthday) and a neck warmer for Steve's hunting trip.  I'm currently working on a baby blanket for a co-worker and yes, I've taken the girasole challenge from Stacy.  I'm about 75% done with the blanket and have only barely begun the girasole.  Although I have to say I wouldn't be that far along on the girasole if it weren't for Sherry at SWAK.  She is a wonderful teacher and much more patient with me than what Stacy is *lol*.  I really have a lot of respect for Sherry and she is a joy to just sit and talk with while you're knitting.  I hope to have the blanket done within the next couple of days and I know that Stacy will have projects lined up for me for all of eternity so I'm not real worried about what to start next.  She'll have Knit-A-Longs and sister's ideas galore now that I'm sharing in her fiber obsession.  I have to say that I really am enjoying it though and I actually go to sleep thinking about what to do with the yarn I already have and what yarn to purchase for the patterns I have, not to mention all the patterns I search for on online.  Yes Wendy, I am following along in your footsteps, although I don't possess your talent, just the unstoppable thoughts of yarn and everything knitting.