Been a while....sorry!

It has been about a week since I lasted blogged. I can't say that I have finished anything in that time but I finally received the Cascade 220 Superwash in the mail (ordered from Webs because of the price). 2 Skeins will be used for my Downton Abbey Swap project from Subway Knits podcast. The other skeins are for The Knit Girllls KGASS 2012, which is a 12 x 12 afghan square swap where you make 4 squares and get 4 squares. Since I have never made an afghan that way I am very excited to participate in this swap. Both of these swaps are due right around my birthday next month so I have plenty of time to do them. I also purchased 2 fixed circular needles to try doing socks from the toe up since I can never seem to complete them when I start at the cuff. So we will see. The only other thing I am working on right now is a dish towel for the bathroom, trying to de-stash some of that cotton I always seem to pick up and we need new dishtowels so it is a win win. I have decided that I can't put myself on a yarn diet because when I do I tend to buy more yarn, bad Tara! I am going to cast on this weekend thou a new shawl which I think I will be making for my mom for her birthday next weekend. I am hoping that it is easy and that I can make another one for my friend Marianne. The shawl I am going to do is the Pipers Journey! Time to go make coffee....have a great day, it is raining here right now.

Since it is Monster March Madness and Malabrigo March I think I will kill two or should I say three stones with one or two monsters! And since I have finally put all of my stash in my Ravelry account, with the exception of what I have bought in the last month (yeah the yarn diet has it's good days and bad days just like the regular diet, LOL!). The Stockinette Zombie podcast put out this cute pattern called Zombie the Podcaster and I just think it is so cute that I will have to make one. That way I will get to dip into the Knitabulls Monster March Madness knit-a-long as well as Malabrigo March. And then when I knit a Chelsea the Chatterbox Monster I can put that in either Knitabulls, Retro Lemon or Malabrigo depending on what I make it out of. I only have until the end of March. But since I have finished the other projects I have been working on and do not have the yarn yet for the Downton Abbey swap on the Subway Knits podcast or the yarn for my afghan swap I can't knit on the things I need to so I am using stash to knit what I want!
Now the Zombie calls for Judy's Magic Cast On, but I have NEVER done this one before so below is a toe up example of the cast on and I am about to go attempt it. Wish me luck..........more to come later.

Ok found a video from Knit Picks.
Then I found this very good Cat Bordhi video which is actually very entertaining as well. WATCH THIS ONE!!!

Monday morning came to early!

Finished my Yvaine last night!!! Yeah even blocked it last night! Will bring / wear it to knit night tonight! It will be my first time going to the Pacfica lindemar knit night at the Starbucks! Marlyn will be so happy that I will be there!

Wednesday morning!!

Made another dish towel last night! Yeah two down and about 10 more skeins available to do more!! Pictures will be posted later! Still working on my Yvaine out of the Haunted Cloudlover!!

Archie's First Sweater!

Seriously, what was I thinking! I put a cable in Archie's First Sweater and totally screwed it up because I was too worried about getting it to fit him. I used the Fabulous Dog Cozy that I found for free on Ravelry.
(Oh yeah if you are reading this and have a Ravelry Account please add me as your friend!).
I know that I posted about this before but I wanted to put a picture of what I have so far and my awful cable. So needless to say this is going to end up being a test knit for Archie. The funny thing is it is hard to find clothes that fit Boston Terriers and I am determined to figure out the perfect fit for Archie! Thanks mom for the Knitters Pride Needles. I am so in love with them can't wait to get a few more sizes!

Here are a few pictures from my adventure so far.......................

Stitches West - Sunday 2/26/12

Last weekend was Stitches West and Sunday morning Mom and I got up bright and early headed to Santa Clara for our first Spinning Class! Low and behold we are taking a class from the original Carolina Homespun owner Merike Saarniit and what a WONDERFUL teacher she is! Can't wait to take another class from her! Her website is liisu.com.

Here are my notes from the day of the class:

• Drafting = making the fibers into the thickness you want
• Carded Roving = straight off the card
• Cone Roving = after card goes thru a cone to make even

Materials we received:

1. Gray - Coopworth (a breed of sheep) Louet Roving
2. Volcano - Merino, Camel Down, Mohair, Domestic Wools - pulled from drum carder batts - Phyllis Hedrick.
3. Multi - Gray/Teal/Mulberry - Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) combed top
4. Yellow/Greens - Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) and sparkle combed top - Juno Fiber Arts
5. Alpaca Coopworth Louet Grey and White Roving
6. Pink & White - Baby Alpaca Top
7. Blue White Stripes - Superwash Merino - Cherry Tree Hill
8. Red/Purples - Merino/Silk - Widder Shin Woolworks
9. White/Cream - Organic Merino/Tussan Silk (Note: Spin from the fold) came from John Arbon Textiles
10. 50/50 Bison/Silk - Village Spin & Weave
11. Brown/Tan - Camel
12. Orange - 100% Silk
    

Spinning Notes:

• After you start tie a knot at the top of the whorl. When putting the yarn on the spindle make sure to wrap at the top making a cone look.
• Angora/Camel/Cotton - Short Fibers - Trick is to spin with a spool of thread and spin the Angora around the thread.
  
• When spinning silk put lemon juice on your hands so the scales do not get caught up on your hands.
  
• Silk Hankie - Put a hole in the middle and pull until you have a large circle and created what looks like pencil roving.
  
• To ply yarn let the spindle do the work.
• When your yarn is balanced you will have a "U"
• If you need to wake up the energy wet it.
  
• Spindles - Heavy Spindle for bulky works great.
  
• Remember to check the balance on your spindle.
  

Wheels to look at:

• Louet Victoria Travel
• Ladybug
• Mogicraft

Saturday Morning

SO happy that it is Saturday and that I have no plans this weekend. That means time to knit and catch up on TV. I can't believe how long it took me to put all my stash in my Ravelry account, which is also under tsknits. I now am trying to go thru my projects and make sure that I have them in there. And then going thru finding more yarn!! UGH. So need to go on a yarn diet because there are some many new projects that I would like to start. I also went thru and frogged a bunch of projects that have just been sitting on the needles and I don't see wanting to start again anytime soon.

On The Needles:

Yvaine - Haunted Cloudlover

Fabulous Dog Cozy - Berrocco Vintage

Then there are the books, trying to go thru the books and magazines and put them in my Ravelry library.

Also trying to join some swaps and clubs to get more involved in the knitting community.

Today is a new day!

So yesterday I thought I was going to get the blog up and running but it didn't happen but today is that day. Since I get to go into work a tad late I thought that I would start up the blog and get it going. Last night I started this really cool new pattern I found on Ravelry called Fabulous Dog Cozy and the reason I picked this one is because I have a Boston Terrier who gets cold and I saw that the pattern was on Boston who looked just slightly smaller than Archie on the pattern picture. I got most of the turtleneck done on it last night. I did cast on 75 vs. the 68 it called for due to the big neck and after a few rows changed that to 74 to even out the 1 by 1 rib. I don't know about you but it is sometimes a challenge to get a turtleneck on a human let alone a dog.