Here come the holidays.

I've decided that this year I am not going to participate in the mass consumerism that comes with celebrating holidays. Instead I am going to make all of my gifts using almost all stash yarn. I am going to make both my brother and sister a blanket. I've wanted to do this for a while but just hadn't found the time but since I have two full weeks of no school and nothing else to do before Christmas I've decided to try and get that done. I also want to make them each a stuffed animal but I'll have to seee how quickly I'm able to finish the blankets. I already started my sisters blanket a few days ago using some Bernat Cotton Twist yarn that I had in my stash from when Joanns had it on sale.I am using a free pattern from Ravelry called Lyn's Round Ripple Baby Afghan. I haven't decided what blanket I want to make for my brother but I like Mille's Fish Blanket, which is also a free Ravelry pattern. I am reluctant to make this because there is ALOT of seaming and I am worried that I will lose my motivation and not finish it on time.

As for the stuffed animals I haven't made a decision about that at all. Here are a few pictures of stuffed animals that I am considering making.

Jess Hutchisons Kate

Susan B. Andersons Elefante

Rachel Borellos Marisol

Erika Hughes Love Bunnies

Emily Stonekings Hamsterbeans

I'm Back...

and with lots to talk about.

I'm going to start with showing you my latest FO, the Springtime Bandit Shawl.

I loved knitting this, it only took me about two weeks start to finish. I had a little trouble understanding the pattern in the beginning. I read the instructions wrong and wasn't doing the middle portion of the shawl correctly which was causing it to not have the correct amount of increases. I was about halfway done before I realized this, silly me.

As for modifications, I used a fingering weight yarn and size 5 needles and I did double the amount of repeats for the main portion of the shawl. I wanted it to be a really large shawl, and it is, lol.

The yarn I used is from KnitPicks and it is there kettle dyed fingering weight yarn in the colorway Bordeaux.

I made this for my mom with the intention of giving it to her for her birthday at the end of November but I am very impatient when it comes to giving people gifts, especially when its something that I've made myself. I am actually the type of person that gets more pleasure out of giving gifts than I do receiving them. Hopefully she'll get a lot of use out of this, I think it will come in handy at work because she works in an office building and the air conditioning in those places is always unnecessarily high.

Now lets talk about those damn mittens, you know the ones I'm talking about. I am still not finished with the Twilight mittens. I finished the entire first mitten except for the thumb and I am almost halfway done with the second. I am determines to wear these mittens when I go to see New Moon so I think I'm going to buckle down and finish them this weekend.

I am also still working on the Rising Fog Shawl, well, actually, I haven't worked on it in a few weeks. I think the fact that I know I won't be able to even use it for several months is causing me to not be very motivated to finish it.

I am also proud to announce that I am also working on a sweater. I am using some really soft tweed yarn and I know this is going to be a super cozy sweater.

I also got another tattoo, and it's a knitting tattoo! I have to get it touched up because there are a few things I'm not really happy with but overall I really like them.

Well, that's it folks. Hopefully it won't be weeks before you hear from me again.

Halloween Costume Giveaway

I am posting today for a very selfish reason. I want to win one of these costumes
http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/10/queen-of-hearts-and-alice-in-wonderland.html
I doubt I'll win but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Twilight Mittens in Progress

I am STILL working on my Twilight inspired mittens, I was really hoping that this would be a quick knit. I guess I'm really not in the mood for knitting mittens right now.
I am ,however, in the mood for knitting shawls! I am still working on the rising fog shawl but I have also cast on for another shawl by the name of Springtime Bandit. I'm sure many of you who follow my blog are members of Ravelry, so you probably already know all about this pattern. I am making this for someone but I can't say anymore about it because it's going to be a surprise.

Why yes, as a matter of fact it is...

another shawl. This time I am making the Rising Fog Shawl. The pattern is written by Bonnie Sennott and I found this pattern via the wonderous, Ravelry. I'm knitting this using some Knit Picks yarn called "Imagination" in the colorway "Pixie Dust". Now doesn't that just sound magical? I had originally cast on the amount of stitches that the pattern instructions tell you too, but the yarn was pooling in a really ugly way. All of the pink was on one side and all the brown on the other with the blues and greens all in the middle, so I decided to cast on 10 stitches fewer. The pattern is a 10 stitch repeat so that's why I chose to do it that way. I also switched to a smaller needle, which reminds me. I am using a fingering weight yarn instead of a lace weight yarn so instead of casting on using size 3's I cast on using size 5's, but now because of going down a needle size I am using size 4's. I am still not loving the way the colors are looking but my mom said she likes it so I think I'm going to keep going.

My Finished Mara

I LOVE this shawl. I changed the pattern a little. In the directions it tells you to do a k2, p2 rib, but if you look at the close up shots you can see that it is actually a k3, p2 rib so I did the k3, p2 rib. I used up all the fisherman's wool in my stash, by the time I reached the ribbing it felt like it was taking a half hour to knit each row. I was like, "I am in knitting hell". I'm glad I stuck it out and made my shawl as big as I did, it's so cozy and warm. I can't wait to wear this tomorrow.

Busy Weekend

Well, I have had a very busy weekend. I painted my bedroom on Friday and Saturday, I did each wall a different color. I unfortunately had to paint one wall twice because I realized after I painted it that the color didn't look right, it was way darker than the swatch I picked out. So I went and found my swatch and realized that the guy who mixed my paint had scanned the back of the wrong card, so I had to send my mom back to Lowe's to get the right paint and when she got there they gave her a hard time and didn't want to give her the correct paint. Apparently you have to check and make sure they mix the right color because once you leave the store, your stuck with it. Lucky I had called and talked to someone from the paint department before sending my mom up there and they had said that they would exchange it, so basically they had to do it because they had already agreed to do it. I'll post some pics in a few days once I get everything hung on the walls.

I have also been doing some more knitting. First up, I am knitting Mara by Madelinetosh. I am using some Lion Brand Fisherman's wool from my stash.

I have lot's of this yarn so my shawl is going to be pretty big. I have been wearing both the shawls that I made almost everyday that I have class but soon I think it will be too cold for them, this shawl will be very warm and perfect for cold weather.

I am also working on some mittens that are based off the Bella mitten's from the movie Twilight. Here is a link to the pattern.

I actually am not using the pattern because its meant to be knit using the magic loop and I have no idea how to do that so I am knitting mine using DPN's. I am also substituting the k1, p1 ribbing for twisted rib because I think it makes them look a bit more feminine. I am knitting these using some pink wool-ease that I have had in my stash from when I made the Lace Panel Raglan.

Finished Clementine Shawl

That's right another finished project! I am on a roll, I just cast on for a hat last night, using some more of my stash yarn. I am also starting another project for the book today, you won't be surprised to know that I've decided to make a shawl pattern. I am so hooked on shawls right now, they are the perfect project. Once you get the stitch pattern memorized you can take it along with you anywhere, and since shawls are usually made using a light weight yarn, they don't take up much space in you're bag.

The only thing that I'm unhappy with is the seam from where I connected the two pieces. I had originally tried grafting the pieces together, that's how the pattern tells you to do it, but it didn't look good that way either. I'm going to try to get it to lay flat with my iron. Either way I really like this shawl and recommend the pattern.

Silly Mistake on a Simple Shawl

In an effort to continue decreasing my stash I decided to make the Clementine Shawlette from Spring 2007 Interweave Knits. I was almost completely finished with the first half when I realized that mine didn't look like the one in the picture. I read through the chart more carefully and realized that I was knitting ALL of the wrong side rows when you are clearly not supposed to do that. I was tempted to just make the other half of the shawl the wrong way too, but I knew I wouldn't be as happy with it as I would with the real shawl, so now I have started to knit it the correct way. I only have one ball of this fingering weight yarn and I'm really hoping that I have enough to make it the same size as the pattern. I dyed this yarn myself using purple kool-aid, the yarn is some un-dyed sock yarn that I bought from Knit Picks. I was originally planning to make my mom something with this yarn because her favorite color is purple but she never uses anything I make her, she just neatly stores them away.

Over the next few weeks you're going to see alot more projects being posted here on my blog and there are two reasons for that: one being that I really need to decrease my stash, and two, I get dropped off at school almost two hours before my first class because my mom has to go to work, so I spend most of that extra time knitting. I have so many projects saved on my computer and I can't wait to make them. I think I'm going to save some of the finished projects to give as Christmas gifts.

Not One But Two Pittsburgh Hats

You may remember me mentioning a few posts back that I was making a black and gold hat for a friend of mine, and not only did I finish the hat, but I had enough yarn left over to make him a second hat! I am so happy with the way these turned out and he had better like them, lol. The first one I made mostly black with gold stripes and its slightly smaller than the second. I didn't use a pattern for it because it's really simple but I did learn a new technique in order to create jog less stripes. For the second one I did use a pattern, one that I found on Ravelry of course. Here's a link http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-boy-hat I chose this pattern because I really liked the pattern on the top of the hat and I thought it was manly, although I think I might possibly make one of these hats for myself in the future. I used knit picks superwash wool so they can both be machine washed. They are sooo soft you would never even think they were made of wool.