Tranquil Spirit Longies

These pants took what seems like forever to get done. The yarn is Montana Targhee. I love pants made from this, I just don't like actually making them. It's soft yet still really sturdy which is great for pants.



I knit from two balls at once. The yarn was kettle dyed and the two balls were noticeably different. It made for a fantastic finished product though since there were more shades of the colors between the two balls.

Pattern: Itchy Fingers Shorties/Longies Pattern
Yarn: ...a time to dye, Tranquil Spirit on Montana Targhee Wool
Needles: US size 4,7

Now that these are over I have more yarn from the same dyer coming... Eden. I CAN NOT wait! I love so many of her yarns. I am also drawn to some of them because of meaning... like Ruth. I love the story of Redeeming Ruth. So I might have to find a use someday for that yarn...

I am knitting other things, slowly. Life is taking me for a ride lately. It's good. I've spent a lot of the last year here alone, knitting. Knitting is good. But, I need a life! Since we moved I've also been through all kinds of up's and down's with health issues, some mental. That combined with moving to a place where we knew no one equated to a lot of hibernation. But, despite the bears going into their hibernation, I'm coming out of mine. I'll still be here... the obsession doesn't exactly go away! But I might be slowing down a bit. It's a good thing. Very good. :)

They're Baaaack

Seeing as I never found my size 6 foot model, I finally sucked it up and bought some sock blockers. Not just to show you the socks, but also to help while I'm knitting them. The Double Eyelet Rib socks I'm working on are also this size and all this lace... sometimes you need to be able to stretch it to see what's really going on. So, I bought them. And now you get to see the Roza's!

Pattern: Roza's Socks by Grumperina, IK Spring 2007
Needles: 2.0mm
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Daffodil, A gift from MissT
Mod's: None. I knit exactly to the pattern. I am hoping that the 8 inch cuff isn't too long for my little recipient. I guess we'll see.

I want to knit this pattern again. For myself this time. I'd love to do it in LL's periwinkle... or blackberry maybe. It's hard to justify the purchase with so much other yarn rolling around the house. But someday perhaps. If I do it for myself I'll go up a needle size. These are too small for my size 11 foot. So if you have a bigger foot, or a wide foot, perhaps go up to a 2.25mm needle. The brioche portion stretches a lot, but not quite enough for me.

In other news... just a lot of WIP's here. The kids have been sick, I'm sick... not a ton of progress. I did start another pair of pants for Miss E. I think these are my favorite colors and with Miss E's blue eyes... swoon.



Don't pass out. That's right... it's a sock on magic loop. I think I figured out the correlation last night... most toe up knitters are also circular knitters. When I cast on the first of these socks onto DPN's I swore that toe up knitters had something wrong with their brains. I felt like I was trying to wrestle an octopus. I wanted to poke my eyes out. It took me several tries to get it going. Last night... I had some new needles here and decided to give it a try casting on with this. Um, first time. Not exactly a piece o cake, but MUCH better. And, much easier to knit while laying down. (says the sick woman) I don't know what the final verdict will be but I wanted to give this a try. I'm always up for trying something new.

A Sunday Quickie

You love my model don't you?!

Pattern: Giving Pixie from Little Turtle Knits
Yarn: Aran Blue Faced Leister custom dyed by Stitches Under the Sun
*leftovers from these
Needles: US 7

I made this little hat to coax a very overdue little girl on out of the womb. Wouldn't you want to come out and wear this snuggly hat?! Now she can race the postal service. I sure hope she beats them!

Drinking on the Job

Hub got a new mug for work. Somehow it made it's way home. I couldn't help but use it this morning and giggle a bit. I've been pulling a lot of late nights sewing lately, and have definitely been drinking on the job myself. That's a new sock I'm working on for him too. It's Tofutsies. One of my LYS's, Holy Threads, just got it in. I already have a ball that I won for myself so I picked one up for Hub. He was saying he wanted some "raggish" socks so I thought this would work. It's got some seriously funky color pooling. It's hard to see though since the colors in this are so subtly different. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.

Every Saturday morning, Hub takes Miss N on a date. At some point, she'll have to rotate with her sister, but for now, she gets every Saturday. This morning at home, knitting podcasts are tickling our ears. Although I'd love to sit and knit the whole morning, Miss E is home with me, so some actual "work" is in order. She loves the music. The first song on Cast On this morning had her spinning in circles until she fell down several times. We were both laughing and clapping and enjoying ourselves. I suppose one day she'll be old enough to not want to listen to my podcasts on Saturday morning. At that point perhaps she'll need to learn to knit. As will her sister. :)

So, the knitting and blogging slowed a bit the last few weeks. That is because I was buried in my basement late into the night completing this order. Oy. I am now done for a while. No more basement for me! Upstairs and knitting! Yahoo! Not to mention... sleep. My first thought on this newfound freedom was that I haven't painted in WAY too long! So you might see me sneak in some art sessions soon. So good for my soul!

I forgot...

I was going to mention that I have my shorties/longies pattern out with some testers right now. I have been asked about it several times so I decided to go ahead and get it ready!

So... coming soon is the Itchy Fingers pattern!

Kool Aid to the Rescue!

This yarn... I bought a long time ago. The picture I saw online didn't match what arrived in person. I just didn't care for the pastel on this yarn which takes color in a very earthy way. I tried selling it... for months... alas, no one else liked it this way either!

So I got a little Kool Aid and... did this!

And this week I made these.

Pretty cute huh?

They turned out a wee bit big. But that's just fine.
That means in February I won't have to add an inch!

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Briggs and Little, Cascade 220 trim
Needles: US 4, US 7
Ruffles: ala Sarah

Never say never

Last year after I got my 12" circulars for doing the legs on these longies I thought NO WAY will I try Magic Looping again. The sized circulars are SO much faster! Well, that may be true, but I'm finding the small circulars are also really great for making my hands, wrists, and arms all the way to the elbow sore. Towards the beginning of the summer I was really sore. Even when I wasn't knitting. I had to take a few days off here and there because I was SO sore. This is not good for a knitter. But then I knit socks all summer. As soon as I picked up and started knitting this pair of longies, I started to get some of those twinges again. Dagnabit!

So when it came time for the legs I was really not looking forward to going down to the 12" circulars. I really dislike knitting with them. But they make the legs go really fast. So I did a couple rows and then decided to try Magic Looping again. After all I am going to be using up every last bit of this ball of yarn and ML'ing would allow me to do both sides the same without any unfortunate incidents or yarn waste... So I set one leg aside and got the other one started and then put them on the long circular. I worked a couple rows... I still hate having two balls of yarn attached, and all the adjusting... but really, it's so much more COMFORTABLE. So, I'm giving it a go here.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to rip the waistband off and find another color. That one just isn't doing it for me. It looked like it would work when I bought it, and it's ok, but it's not great. And the rest is turning out so great I'd hate to settle for an "ok" match on the trim.

So... the yarn? I dyed it. Oh yeah! It was this ball of yarn that had a lovely picture online, but when I got it in person... ugly. I tried selling it for a looooong time. No buyers. So, I got out some KoolAid and overdyed it. It was in pastel pink, lavender and orange. But this fiber doesn't take dye in a vivid way. So the original colors were just yucky and dirty looking. I adore how my overdye turned out. I knew it looked good in the ball, but I wasn't sure how it would knit up. I couldn't ask for it to look any better! No streaking, striping or pooling AT ALL. Yippee! Love it!

The knitting is slow because I'm spending my evenings sewing. I have a huge order I've been working on and it's taking FOREVER. I won't tell you how many mistakes or times I've run out of fabric or... you know. It's just a cursed order. I can't wait to get it done and out the door! But you can get a lot of knitting done while you wait for a 3YO to finish a meal... a lot.

Psst... do you see... that's RAIN on my window! Yay! We so badly needed some. The air is so much cleaner now. All the dirt is back on the ground where it belongs!