Where to begin... so many goodies

Last Wednesday marks the end of my first trimester at Palmer - boy was I excited to head on home. I certainly remembered to pack my knitting. My yarn collection kind of exploded this past week, with the addition of some more yarn. Will I ever stop collecting? Probably not. For my congratulations, you've made it to the end of first tri, I got two kinds of yarn and this is what I plan on doing with them:

Yarn: Malabrigo Lace (Holly Hock) from Eat.Sleep.Knit.com
Pattern: Featherweight Cardigan

I got the yarn in the mail during finals week and it was a real treat.

I ended up getting the yarn and choosing the pattern for a couple of reasons. I am a listener of Lime and Violet and Lime raves about Malabrigo yarn; so trying it out was on the "to do" list. Secondly I really liked the Whisper Cardigan from the Spring 2009 Interweave Knits Magazine and the Featherweight is similar, but I think the Featherweight just won this toss-up. In addition, not that one has to use the suggested yarns for patterns, but since it was suggested, it was just one more reason. Lastly, I found the pattern off of a blog that I read and ended up liking it. Not that I like copying, but if it looks good, then I can't pass up the opportunity.

Originally I was at Web's website and was going to order yarn from them, but they didn't have any Malabrigo that I liked. On that particular page, there were more yarns listed and I absolutely fell in love with Araucania Ranco #101 Purple. Webs, however didn't have any left, so I ordered it from Hugga Bugga.

Yarn: Araucania Rancho #101 Purple
Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert

Unfortunately, that yarn has not come in the mail yet (no personal pictures, yet), so hopefully when I get back to Davenport I'll have some goodies waiting for me in my mailbox.

Wednesday, I came home to a dog in the driveway that was unknown to me. Aparently, we acquired a 1.5 year old Chesapeake last week, named Reese. I guess originally her name was Reeses, after the candy. If you ask me, naming pets after food is absolutely rediculous and hidious. My mom absolutely detested the name, until I convinced her that Reese is a good name because of Reese Witherspoon. Can't really change a 1.5 year old dog now can we? Her previous owner wasn't the best of sorts (sort of neglected her) and gave her to my dad. She is 15lbs underweight (probably due to heartworm), but is quite graceful and elegant. She is growing on me. She does need to be trained however and not the pet kind of training, but for the hunting kind of training. If she needed to be trained for the "pet" type, then the occasional sit and stay would be okay I guess. She is really smart, certainly smarter than "Smooch" or Baylie, our previous Yellow Lab.

We were at the Credit Union today and I was waiting in the car with Reese. She decided to jump in the driver seat and have a go at her chew toy. The pictures aren't the best since she was moving so much and the resolution of my BlackBerry isn't my DSLR.

I ended up getting the "Knitting Workwhop" DVD from the library and watched them last week. Elizabeth Zimmerman was certainly talented and I learned some tips from her. It was also good to watch the portion on her EPS system on the Seamless Yoke Sweater since that is on my "to do pile" also known as hybernating on ravelry. I have "The Opinionated Knitter" book by Elizabeth Zimmerman, but eventually, I would like to get more of her books.

On Saturday, I took Ali, one of my best buddies, to Lakeside Fibers since she doesn't know how to knit, nor has really been to a good fiber shop, aside from the one in Galena. I ended up teaching her how to knit. We started off really easy - dishcloths. I gave her four patterns to choose from and she decided to start off with the Basic Dishrag. I brought my Malabrigo yarn to show her, in addition with my socks, Tweedy Vest (this will probably be a project that will be ongoing for awhile because I have decided to make it into a sweater and I have to figure out the sleeves), and Irish Hiking Scarf. In addition, I brought some of my leftover Rowan Big Wool that came from my Tank Top. I casted on and we knitted away.

At Lakeside Fibers, I absolutely fell in love with some hand painted sock yarn.

Yarn: htNEVELE designs Sock Yarn (Belle de Louvan)
Pattern: Nine-to-Five Socks

I bought the yarn not known what I was going to knit with it, aside from socks of course. On Ravelry, I come across new exciting patterns, but sometimes I forget that I have "old" exciting patterns too. I decided that I wanted to do a cable type pattern, to try to reduce a self-striping effect. The 9-5 hopefully will work out perfectly. I just think that the yarn is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately it will not be the next sock that I cast on. I plan on casting on my Laburnum Socks from "More Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch. The pattern is for toe up, which is fine, but I don't want to do a short row heel, I would like to do a reinforced row and "Socks From the Toe Up" from Wendy Knits has a heel that I may try to incorporate into the sock.

At Lakeside Fibers, I ended up casting on to make the Banana Republic Knock-off Hat, but later on, I found out that I didn't have enough yarn for the project, so I frogged it. Here are some pictures of the Republic Hat:

Originally, I was doing the seed stitch, but liked the garder stitch better. In the end I guess it didn't really matter becasue I frogged the project anyways. After doing a more of an advanced searched on Ravelry, I decided to do the Aspen Hat from Twinkle's Big City Knits. It turned out nicely:

It looks very similar to the Knock-Off hat, but this one turned out much nicer, especially since I was able to finish my project without running out of yarn.

The pattern calls for US 19 needles. I have them in straight needles, but not DPN.

I ended up using size 17 DPN to finish the hat off. Five rows were knit around before the decrease instead of the normal two (to me a hat has to fit over ones ears, otherwise it’s just a piece of decoration and this hat wasn’t going to be just that). Also instead of the decrease what the pattern gave (the original decreasing looked unpleasing), I did a four part swirl decrease; not sure what the technical name for it is.

Very pleased with the project; it would make quick gifts for people.

Here is Pipie; she was sleeping next to me as I was knitting.

In addition, I saw felted oven mitts at Lakeside Fibers. My oven mitts at school were purchased from the dollar store 7 years ago and they don't really do the job - I have to double up. That inspired me to knit some.

Yarn: Cascasde 220 Wisteria (leftover from my felted slippers)
Pattern:"Out of the Frying Pan" by Amy E. Anderson from the Madison's Knitters Guild

I started this project later last night and found as I was knitting, I somehow added more stitches, so I k2tog to decrease to the correct amount. In addition, I knitted three extra rows, but since it’s being felted and I was tired as I was knitting it, I really don’t care.

Since I’m felting my slippers this week, my goal is to knit as many felting projects as possible for the event.

This morning, I reread the pattern and noticed that I even screwed up after my "correction" last night, so I frogged the project and started over. I believe that I was probably too tired last night to start knitting it.

I am also hoping to knit bulky weight oven mitts and hot pad holders to use up some of my Brown Sheep Bulky from my Fairly Easy Fair Isle Sweater.

I think that's all for now.