Winnings!

Do you remember my entry into the ColourMart Spring/Summer Contest?

Here, grab a reminder, I will wait!

I hadn't mentioned it here until now, it is up on Ravelry and Andrea might have mentioned it on the Summer Swatch Me! Group..but I won!

The rules were you could enter into as many categories as you liked but you could only win in one and that one would be the one with the largest prize. It was a peer voted contest, so every finished object started at zero and each time someone clicked "love" you got a vote. Ravelry is pretty fair, you can only click "love" once per post. Very fair way of making sure that the most people got the chance to win. The end result is that I won in Super Sweaters and the prize was 450 grams of ColourMart yarn, my choice of yarn!

Do you like what I picked?

It is a 18/46 in medium blue, 100% cashmere and I think that even before I knit with it I am in love! I can't wait to see what I make with it. :)

As promised yesterday, a look at two socks!
I am still working with the 11 year old camera, although I know what camera I want, I haven't found it at a price I like yet. Maybe in this weekends sales will be the deep discount I am looking for!

Even in this bad picture you can see how the twisted knit stitches stand out, but one of the coolest parts is the inside! But, you will have to make them yourself to see it.

~M

Busy Busy

You thought my big home improvement projects were finished for a while, didn't you? Well, you would be a little wrong as the new floor and door just begged for something to be done to the walls as well.

The English in me comes out when it comes to decorating. I am a huge fan of wallpaper! This will be either the third or fourth round of paper on these walls (no, I don't go over each time I strip off the old before putting on the new!) and the first batch I tried fought me tooth and nail. Seams that wouldn't lie flat, air bubbles that appeared from no-where overnight while it dried...so I have moved on to take two.

Which is a very long way of saying my knitting time has been shorted the past week or so, again! And I seriously need to finish the home improvements as I have some big projects lined up to take me through the end of summer, and then there will be holiday knits..oh my goodness I need to hurry up with the papering!

But, on to things knitting. :)

Swatch 7 for the Summer Swatch Me Project was posted today, along with it's side project.

There really are two socks, this was taken just before* my camera died and I haven't had a chance to get modeled shots or even ones with decent lighting since. Maybe tomorrow after work TDQ can be convinced to either model or be the photographer. I made the socks to fit me, so they will be a touch large on her. :)

Stats: Reverse Pod Socks from BadCatDesigns, rav link but you have to be part of the Yahoo Group to get the pattern right now. I am sure it will be released for separate purchase later!
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock
Size 1 US needles

It was wonderful to be able to throw open the windows last evening and enjoy some fresher air. I broke down and turned the air back on this afternoon, over 80 degrees while running around doing house work was too much for me!

~M

*I test knit these, so they have been done for a while! :)

Where Did she go?

It is hard to believe that it has been two weeks since I posted and I have so little to show for it!

But, to take stock:

Flooring done : check! The entire upstairs of my house now has a wonderful cherry floor that is much easier to clean than old dingy gray carpet.

Front Door Installed : check! Off with the green creaky monster and on with a bright red door with windows to let some light shine in down the hallway.

Visiting Done: check! An entire week without driving to work that was filled with hiking, icecream, movies and animals. Two boys turned 11 somewhere in there so there were birthday cards and presents too.

Knitting? Well mostly not check. I started some socks, two feet, two heel (unique construction) and one seemingly endless cuff of 2 by 2 ribbing....The construction was more interesting than the socks themselves so they have been relegated to the UFO pile until I want something mindless to do.


Yarn Browsing? Stash Enhancement? Absolutely Check...while I stayed away from my LYS during our hiking expeditions I did a little online browsing and might have enhanced my sock yarn stash by a little bit.
Please excuse the picture there is one other thing that happened in the past two weeks...

Camera dying? Check, whimper, Check.

It is really hard going from a Canon 12.1 Mega Pixel Camera to a Kodak 3.1 that is 11 years old! Notice a similarity between that age and the boys? Yep, it was a birthday present the year they were born.

There is other knitting going on, I will get it blogged about another day, today wasn't one of the best I have had, between feeling like I had been hit by a truck all day to being hit by it! (Not literally.)

As one of the boys put it...So we are back to hardly having you home and not getting to do anything on the weekends? Well, that just sucks.

~M

Sock and Sock type things

Details to follow when I have more time!

~M

Just a few Knitting Pictures :)

Fairisle Socks for this months SKA Sock Challenge....



Just a few charts from the Summer Swatch Me project!

A mitt with the too terribly large beads taken off, so just a partial gilding of the Peacock. :)

What did you do today?

~M

Knitting on Tuesday

First and foremost...If you are not a member of the Summer Swatch Me! Group you had better run right over there and join up. Along with a sampler there are lots and lots of side projects, and I have by no means knit them all, so you end up with a lot of bang for your buck, not to mention a ready made stash of gifts for the holidays if you can bear to part with them once you have finished knitting!

The third side pattern is this wonderful pair of mitts. I knit mine in Adagio and had one heck of a time trying to match the repeats of color before I gave up and called them close enough!

But that isn't all that I got out of the group over the past few weeks...one of the talented knitters, Jeri is turning her sampler into a top down raglan sweater. Not being quite as talented as she is, I couldn't compete with that sampler variation, but blatantly stole the idea to make a new version of Autumn in New York.




A Stroll Down the Hudson
Top Down Raglan Shrug based on AINY by Bad Cat Designs
Jade Sapphire 2 ply Cashmere, Slate
Size 4 and 5 (US) needles.

I should have stuck with the smaller needles, this turned out just a touch large on TDK....but she loves it any way!

~M

End of Teasers

Well Amanda, it looks like you were right and there is lace next to those cables! I, obviously, recycled my Frog Clasp Cable and put it straight up the middle of a tank top. Knit in silk/cashmere lace weight on size 6 needles it drapes wonderfully!


Next up is an incomplete picture of some Vine Mitts from Summer Swatch Me! I am using Adagio from Yarn Place and had a heck of a time trying to match the mitts, which are actually finished just not photo'd. In the end after many tears The Drama Queen agreed that fraternal mitts were just as good as identical ones.

We spent the holiday weekend putting in more flooring, with the exception of two pieces of trim and the stairs we have finished our big summer house-project! My bedroom was the last to be done, and truth be told, the easiest of the lot with only two uncooperative boards to put in. My Dad came over for the more complicated cuts which left me to put down the boards and hammer them into place. I am VERY pleased with the lack of carpet in my house.

Along with knitting and flooring the kids and I made our traditional July 4th doughnuts. This year they had more fun making them than eating them, looks like we will be making doughnut-bread pudding later in the week.

Now to sand down, stain and put mats on the stairs.....not to mention reclaim the garage as a home for a car rather than a home for wood! :)

What do you have planned for the week?

~M