Oops... Happy Blogiversary!

Happy 2nd Blogiversary to me!!!!!!!!!!


Wow I almost forgot! Well I guess almost a month late is better than never ;-)

Thanks to anyone who actually reads my blog, and thanks to anyone who has ever left a comment!!!! You all make me feel special in the vast vastness of cyberspace!

Happy New Year everyone!

Yarn yarn yarn yarn

So the best Christmas present of all was the opening of a LYS in Fort Wayne... we had been without one for many many months after the closing of Cass Street Depot. But So far, "Knitting off Broadway" seems to be a hit!!!!

I bought some Cashsoft for fetching or other gifts:


And some of this "Burly Spun" from the Brown sheep company, hopefully to make one of the Yarn Harlot's unoriginal hats:


Woot!!!! It is so nice to be able to get fancy yarn and not have to pay shipping again!

I also got a skein of Dream in Color Classy (colorway "Spring Tickle") through Designated Knitter so we can knit gifts for our coworker who bought us lunch:


I am making fetching gloves obviously... its just such an easy & pretty pattern, I guess you can tell I like it! (How many have I made now???) So pretty.... I <3 Dream in Color!

I also got some yarn using a Christmas giftcard I got for Michaels. I got some Bernat bamboo naturals in a light green:


(Sorry it's hard to see the color!)

and also some more Patons SWS because who doesnt love it!!!! This colorway is "Natural Earth":


WHEW!!! So much yarn lately. Well its a good thing that my fiance HAND BUILT me my very own...


YARN CABINET THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whoooooooo!!!!

He is so sweet, and the handiest of handymen for sure. Isn't it beautiful??? Better than anything I could ever buy in a store. :-) He bought all the cool little storage boxes for it too. (Of course I added all my yarn soon after he unveiled it lol)

What a good Christmas!!!!!!!! Hope everyone else had a happy one too!
From, Me and the Penguin

Where my STITCHES at????

YAY!!!!!!!!!! My Ravelry Tshirt FINALLY came!!!!!


Woot!!!! I like it a lot. Although I did order a large, and was worried to find it so SNUG... even with my recent weight loss! lol. Oh well, it fits alright as long as I dont gain anything ;-) I do like the design though. It will be perfect under other shirts too!

Otherwise still knitting on my IHS.. I just started the second ball. So that means I got 34" out of one skein. Not too shabby!

Designated Knitter and I are in cahoots to knit our coworker a scarf & gloves, since she graciously bought us lunch today as an xmas present! Our idea involves DREAM IN COLOR yarn... so I am SUPER pumped about that. Ever since I knit my Rocketry (Ravelry link here) I have been dying to use it again!!!!!

Hope everyone has a fun weekend, I have several family Christmas parties... several with my future in-laws and fam (but they are all super awesome and I am excited)!!!!

Hiking Scarf #2

This last weekend I started an Irish Hiking Scarf for myself! I have been meaning to make another one, since I enjoyed making the first one for my dad so much...

At a knitting party the other weekend, I got FREE YARN (woot), which was Plymouth Encore Bulky. Well I cast on with it, and after some pattern adjusting I came up with this:


I modified the pattern to only use 2 cables and also have less rows between the cable rows. Looks pretty decent, eh?

If I can any leftover, Designated Knitter has convinced me to make a matching Irish Hiking Headband. I hope there will be enough! :-)

In other news (I almost typed "knews" there... LOL must have knitting on the brain) I completed an adorable "toasty topper" (from knitty.com) for my nephew for xmas:


Thanks to my teddy bear for modeling! haha. I hope the recipient actually wears it (instead of ripping it off like he does with most hats!)

Also I finished a secret xmas project which will be disclosed after xmas. If you want to see it, you may check on my ravelry.com (where it is safe LOL)

OK good luck with the last days before xmas everyone!

P.S. In other news I have been back on weight watchers for 3 weeks and have lost 6.2 pounds!!!!! Wedding dress, here I come! lol

December

Winter Knitty has some totally cute things!!!! I am planning on making a few things from it already! I have a skein of Patons SWS that I might turn into Quant.

Oh and I had a really delicious/beautiful pear the other day, so I thought I'd share:



Pretty eh??? It's a "Bartlett" pear, and they are amazing.

Umm well I am knitting a xmas project I can't share on here... I have one xmas present knitted AND wrapped already, woot!!!! Way to be on top. Luckily I didn't try and give myself any ambitious projects to try and get done. I've spent a lot of time making sure Cynthia doesn't get herself in over her head too. PUT DOWN THE LACEWEIGHT!!!!! Lol.

Also tonight finally wrapped majority of the xmas projects I have bought... yay! Now if I can only send out my xmas cards....



:) TGIF!

ANOTHER post?!?

Look what I got on sale!!!!


Mmm... wooden needles.

ALSO: another picture of a baby wearing a hat I made!!!!!!!!!!! I used Lamb's Pride Bulky, and did a little fair isle I just made up:


Isn't she adorable???? She's my future nephew's little girlfriend ;-)

Hope everyone is getting ready for thanksgiving... I am... I bought a gravy boat LOL!

No babies were harmed in the making of this post

LOOK!!!!!!!!


An actual picture of a baby wearing a hat I made for him! LOL.

I am so excited because I rarely get to view my knitted objects being worn... plus what a cute little guy, eh????

Hope you all had a great weekend, I am looking forward to Turkey day!

Catching up

Eek... I haven't posted in a long while! I am a horrible knitblogger :-)

Well lets see what I have been working on...

I made this cute hat for a coworker's baby:

I just finished this ribby hat for a friend's 5 month old boy:

My baby blanket "half" is getting HUGE and as of right now I am on the LAST BALL!!!! WOOO!!!

This thing is a monster of stockinette stitch... lol

AND I started my dream in color Rocketry cardigan, but I can't post pics because it is going to be a surprise...

Branching Out scarf & hourglass sweater are on hold and probably will until AFTER xmas... eek xmas knitting!

I have next week off work... I am looking forward to getting lots done (knitting and non knitting)!!!!

And tomorrow is FRIDAY! YAY!

Oh yeah...

Guess what is finally where it belongs????



Perfect :-)

What???

My blog is rated G??????? I guess I am not trying hard enough! LOL

OK for those of you who want more details... the engagement was a COMPLETE and UTTER surprise to me! haha! I guess that is the way it is supposed to be ;-)

He planned everything out to the smallest detail and chose/designed the ring all by himself (I love it!) Close up here:



We went to lunch on monday for my birthday. Then (since we both had taken the afternoon off) he wanted to swing by the park to see the flowers (in the 95 degree heat? and I am in a long sleeve sweater? well fine, whatever lol...)

And then after he did the whole proposal (and of course I accepted) his sister and her family lept from the bushes! She had sneakily been photographing the whole thing!



What a great birthday :)

I had an exciting birthday....

I am engaged!!!!!!!!! :D

Almost forgot....

Here is the mini penguin scarf that I made the other week, on a whim.

You see, I had this 3 foot tall plastic penguin that looked chilly... and some extra red heart lying around, and well....


penguin scarf. LoL. (foot shown for scale)


It was fun to make, just garter stitch :) Now "Tux" is ready for winter!

Baby hat done!

Yay!!! FO's are always a good thing. I like how this baby hat turned out! Pics of both sides:


I only needed one ball. Pattern: CO 72 sts, since I used US6 dpns the whole way I divided 18 sts per needle. Knit until 6 inches, begin decreases, voila!!!

I especially am liking the top. It formed a neat looking spiral all on its own:

Sorry about the super-bright colors, I had to use the flash. They aren't nearly that "neon"!

Cute!!!! I think I would defintely make another baby hat from a ball of kitchen cotton.

Also just for fun I am making a mini garter stitch scarf... for this big plastic penguin i have. LOL. Pics to come when its done... :D

cotton baby hat

Surprise! yesterday I started this baby hat. I have had this ball of kitchen cotton, a gift from M (thank you!) for awhile and love the colors.... I was trying to think of something to make with it. Cast on for a dishcloth, didnt like it. Ripped out. Ah ha! A cute cotton baby hat. Perfect for my friend A who just had her baby I am hoping she could use a little hat to keep her baby's head warm in the cool (but not cold) fall season. :D I used another cotton hat pattern to find a number to cast on (72). It said it was for a 0-6 month baby, so I hope mine fits OK. But I am also knitting this on size 6's... because that is the biggest size double points I had. OK fine, I have size 7's but they are METAL and I HATE THEM. lol. Large size metal double points are NOT my friend, lesson learned the hard way on my first socks.

I love how it is pooling... with the dark color on one side and the light on the other, and the cool stripey in-bewteen. I know, wierd, right? I mean, who in their right mind likes pooling? Oh well I don't care, I think its cool... haha.

Have a good monday everyone!

Blanket progress

Today I made a lot of progress on my baby blanket! I am almost done with the third skein, woot. It is looking really good and feels soft.



No other progress knitting wise... I did buy Itty Bitty Hats finally, after coveting it for awhile... I love almost all of the hats and plan on making some of them soon, there are a lot of new babies lately. Must be something in the water, as Cynthia has said ;-)

The weather is cooling off... YAY! I love sweatshirt and jeans season. I will probably be wearing nothing but that for awhile lol. I hope the mosquitos die off soon though, they have been crazy bad lately. I went over to my parents the other day, and my dad wanted to show me this cool mushroom that was growing in the grass, and he said "OK, we have to run". I thought he was kidding but the mosquitos really were so bad that we had to jog out to see it and then jog back. Crazy!

Whew

Hey all! Sorry I haven't posted... it's been crazy busy.

I have to finish a pair of fetching by this weekend, but I am 70 percent done, so that shouldn't be a problem. Havent worked on much else though... eek! One of my coworkers just had her baby, so now that I know that it's a boy I can start knitting blue things! :D

Labor day weekend was very fun, I got to go up to a friend's lake on saturday, and got to lay around and be a bum, and get ice cream, and do many fun things! I just wish I had a "real" job so I wouldn't have to worry about making up the lost hours this week... bleh.

Let's see, what else is going on? Well partially why I haven't knitted much is I have been playing computer games again... I had a 10 day free trial for WoW: burning crusade (If you dont know what that is, then congrats: you're not a nerd), so I decided to go ahead and activate it this last weekend... so gotta get my playing in while it's still free! lol.

So now that you all know how much of a huge dork I am, I better get back to work. LOL.

Have a good week!

Whoops

Sorry guys! I have been neglecting my blog lately. I updated ravelry but I forgot to update this!

Here's my completed fetching inspired baby hat:


So cute! Cynthia made a white one and we gave them as a set to our coworker who is having twin girls. They loved them!!!

Also making some progress on the baby blanket... on the second ball and it's almost done!


Branching out scarf has been languishing... the hourglass sweater has been totally neglected, eek! Maybe I should join the slogalong for that baby.

In other news, my car had to get a new front left outer tie rod. Who knew? I just wanted an estimate on my air conditioning... how nice of them to find other problems, lol. Oh well, it wasn't that expensive and now my car is safe once again. It just sucks not having my car for a few days!!!

And tomorrow is friday, woot! Hope everyone makes it to the weekend...

So many babies...

OK well the 2007 baby knitting is just beginning... I hope I can get everything I want done before all the babies being born this fall/winter are born!

Here is a Fetching inspired hat that I modified to use Rowan Cashsoft on size 6 dpns:


I love the yarn, obviously I just started but so far so good. I need to have it done by next Thursday. I have plenty of time!

Then I get to decide what I am knitting next... perhaps something from my new book! :D

book and blankie

Lookie what came in the mail yesterday!!!


Woo hoo baby knitting! There are several cute sweaters in this book that I want to make... I better get busy!

Steady progress on the baby blanket, I made it through one skein already!

Back to "knitting at lunch"

Harry Potter was GOOD! Thats all I will say, I don't want to spoil it for anyone not finished with the book. HURRY UP! Just kidding :)

Here's a shot of Cynthia and I knitting in the conference room...


Desperately trying to squeeze in a few more stitches before our hour is up!

Cynthia is working on her baby surprise sweater, which now just needs buttons... you can check it out on her blog. She also put up a wierd picture of me... lol.. I dunno i look odd... oh well! I am working on my baby blanket that M and I are making.

And I get to go to M's Stitch n Bitch this weekend, it will be my first "real" one! I am excited to meet all her knitting friends... after all, I am the one who got her knitting!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Knitting Hiatus

I am not knitting currently... because all of my free moment are being devoted to this:


Woo!!! I am halfway through and its great already... I can barely put it down!

Ok, almost lunch... and almost time to read... :D

I've been tagged!

Cynthia tagged me with this quiz...


Personal Style Quiz

Rules: You have to choose one of the two. You cannot answer "neither" or "both." You can indicate that you like both or neither, but you must state a preference.


Animal fiber or plant? Animal (both really.. cotton is good)

Natural or synthetic? Natural

Ornate or simple? Simple

Color or Neutral? Color (Although neutrals have their place too. I don't dislike them)

Pastel or Vibrant? Pastel... although it depends!

Blue/Green or Red/Orange? Blue/green

White Gold or Yellow Gold? White Gold

Gems or texture? texture... sometimes gems can be pretty in small quanities lol

Watch or no watch? No watch... I used to wear one all the time.

Comfort or fashion? Comfort. I am very not fashionable.(as hard as I try)

Trendy or classic? Classic

Cables or lace? Cables, although I am enjoying my first lace project right now!

Heels or flats? Flats, or short heels. I hate to be much taller than I am now.

Flip-flops or sandals? Flippies! I wear them all summer long.

Skirts or pants? Pants... skirts very occasionally.

Geometric or floral? Geometric

V-neck or turtleneck? V-neck because turtlenecks tend to bug me after awhile.

Skulls or butterflies? Skulls!!!!!!!!!!! Like my skull scarf, woo hoo.

Loose or snug? Loose I guess, but I really prefer "fitted" (shaping is a good thing)

Long hair or short? Long!

Headbands or barrettes? Ugh... I guess, barrettes. (neither really)

Shoulder bag or handbag? Shoulder bag, but not the long kind... the kind up under your arm.


OK there ya go! I tag.... Jessica.

Fetchingly FO

Finished my latest Fetching!

Turned out pretty nicely...


Still need to block them so the ends don't curl so much.



Woo hoo! Now.. what's next... baby blanket perhaps?

Friday the 13th

Oooooooooooo spooky! Friday the 13th! It is so bright and sunny and beautiful out, it doesn't feel like a scary day at all. :-)

I took this picture this morning of my swatch for the baby blanket M and I soon will be making out of the Knit Picks yarn I got in the mail the other day....


Such a nice picture with the morning sunlight shining on it! The yarn is awesome too... so soft and pleasant to knit with. Can't wait to start working on the blanket!

Ravelry is amazing. I have already uploaded most of my stash and a lot of my projects. Anyone who is still waiting, be patient, because it is totally worth it (and plus, the longer you wait the better the website will be when you finally get in!)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ravelry!!!

Finally! I got my Ravelry invite!!!! I could not be more excited. I signed up May 22... so I have waited patiently. It was so worth it

For those of you who have an account too, here's my info page:
http://www.ravelry.com/people/stitchholder

Add me as your friend!

If you don't have ravelry yet, here is a screenshot of my projects page:


Sooooo awesome!!!!!

Tonight I will probably be on for several hours playing around... it's so cool!

Yarn candies and more yarn MMM!

So much yarn!!!!!!

First off, the Dream in Color baby sweater kits (the ones that the Yarn Harlot made so popular) that Cynthia and I ordered came in, so I got into work to find this waiting on my desk:


woo hoo! What a cute pattern!


The yarn is so pretty and in small little balls... they look like candies... almost good enough to eat?


Lol I am a big strange, yes.

Then today when I went home for lunch I found this waiting for me on my doorstep:


More yarn! Hooray! Its a box o' Knit Picks Swish Superwash, and it is going to be a blanket for a cute little boy I know!

In other news.... my car is OLD:


I guess it had to happen eventually! (It's a '98)

Have a good rest of your week everyone!