I'm really sorry for the last few blog posts without pictures. Things have gotten busy (don't ask which, I don't want to come up with something), ideas have been floating around, and puppies are in the air! That's right. I somehow convinced the Mr. to come see a puppy with me today. He's a three month old mini Australian shepherd/pomeranian cross. He has one blue eye and one brown and was born on Halloween. He is the perfect dog for us! And I knew that if I could convince the Mr. to come see him, then that was it, the battle was won and we were getting a puppy!

I'm picking him up in an hour and am pretty excited. I just wanted to give you a quick update and not leave you hanging. There will be pictures in my next post and most likely of my new puppy.

P.S. We need a name for him. We want something nerdy and possibly video game related or something nerdy that has to do with his two different coloured eyes. I know it's hard to name so here's a picture the owners took.














It doesn't count as a blog with a picture because I didn't take that picture.
What do you think?

I've been toying with the idea of starting a podcast, but since I don't really have any followers here and it could be a lot of effort,  I'm not sure if that's something that makes sense for me. I think it would be fun, and it might be worth it even if just my mom or other family members watched it, but they just aren't interested in wool like I am.

If I do decided to do a podcast and post it to a website, should it be this website or a sister website? Any comments or ideas would be really appreciated!

I've decided to post my resolutions. This way I'm more accountable and I think this is a good thing. I have made and tried to keep resolutions before but I usually lose motivation a few months in. I'm not sure what that says about me. Am I just an unmotivated person, or do I just set my goals too high? This year, I've tried to keep things reasonable and practical.

I know I'm a little late but I had a number of other New Years Reservations that I needed to make good on first before I could come back and say hi. And don't you get upset that I neglected you over the holidays. You should know by now that you shouldn't poke the knitter between September and December. We're prone to hand cramps, lack of sleep, small stab wounds and the such. And while most of these happened, I'm happy to say (and kind of brag, just a wee bit) that I was actually finished my Christmas knitting early. As in before Christmas. As in before December! Boo-yeah!

This is the weirdest Christmas season so far. And for you who don't understand a knitters Christmas Season, it usually spans from late August right up until December 24th and maybe a bit later if you end up falling short and having to hand out i.o.u.s. This year, I won't be home for Christmas and I won't be visiting my family either. I'll be on a cruise which doesn't sound very Christmassy to me but I still can't wait. I was able to see my dad and step-mom in November so I decided to make that our Christmas. So I knit like a mad woman for a few months and came with with a pair of So Square socks and a My Wish shawl, which I forgot to take pictures of.

I've already finished a pair of socks for my sister and have plans for a cowl for her. I have a bit of spinning to do and then knit that into a cowl for my mom and that's it. Two cowls and I'm already finished my Christmas knitting. It is the beginning of November and I absolutely do not know what to knit for myself. I have a Vivian sweater I could swatch for and cast on, but I swore not to until after Christmas knitting which, technically, isn't finished yet. I've got some socks on the needles from travelling but don't really feel like socks. And I'm working on a scarf for a friend, but that won't last long.

Not having any intensive Christmas knitting is making it feel like I'm finished my Christmas knitting yet I know I'm not and can't justify casting on my sweater. So it looks like I'll have a few unproductive weeks ahead of me until I get the fear of failure in me and start knitting like a mad woman again.


Happy Crafting,

I had been having issues with the old blog format. My pictures weren't posting properly, the fonts were off, the posts looked squished. While it looked cool and was my style, it wasn't totally functional. So ta-da! We have a new design!

I'm still working the kinks, the pictures aren't what I'm looking for, but its up and I can work on it as I go. I'm pretty happy with the design so far.

And now onto the real updates:
I HAVE A SPINNING WHEEL!!

I'm so unbelievable excited about this! My mom got it for me and shipped it here as a early Christmas present. She's a 1997 Wee Peggy. The Wee Peggy's were originally made by Rappard, an Australian company, that was then taken over by Ashford. I believe this is an Ashford Wee Peggy but it's really hard to tell.

The only catch with this gift: I have to spin some fiber and knit her a scarf out of it. I have no problem with that at all! And since I really want to do a good job with it I've been doing a lot of practicing. Learning how to spin was an ugly business. First it was putting in too much twist and not winding onto the bobbin fast enough so I tried switching the drive bands. Then one of the drive bands broke but after I fixed it, set it up to scotch tension and gave it a try, it went a lot smoother.



Here's my first handspun:























It's was some Knit Picks bare superwash merino that I hand dyed with Kool-aid. I then spun it up and navajo plied it. It's pretty thick and thin and I'm not quite sure what the yardage is yet as I'm waiting on my niddy noddy but I think I'm in love. I've called it "A song of Ice and Fire" after the book series. I'm quite happy with it and want to use it for something but I'm not sure what for yet.

I've also finished my Never-ending knee highs for my friend, Sierra. I started them in February and have knit on them a bit here and a bit there ever since. I finally decided to sit down and finish them when I realized that Christmas is coming and that meant that my queue was going to fill up soon.






















It's not the best picture but it's all I have. It's turns out that it's actually quite hard to photograph knee highs when you're also the model. These were the biggest pain in the arse! I had to re-do the red striped about three times on the first sock. Then for the second sock, I realized that it was longer than the first by about 2-3 inches and I liked it better (since it was closer to the knee). So I had to un do the bind off (again) on the first sock, rip out the ribbing, and add an extra two inches or so and then do the ribbing again. I'm pretty happy with them now, but more happy that I've finished them! They've been blocked and just need to be packaged and shipped off to their lovely recipient.

I still have my Clarus shawl on the needles, but haven't had time to work on it since Christmas is only three months away. Instead I cast on... a gift for my dad and have it about 65% finished already. I have a shawl, socks, frog amigurumi and scarf to finish before Christmas. And I swore to myself that I would not cast on Vivian (or even swatch) until I had finished all of my Christmas knitting. So far, it's working as great motivation because I really really want this sweater.

Vivian by Ysolda Teague

I'll leave you with one last pretty. I'm spinning this next!

2oz. BFL 100%

"The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss was the first book I learned to read on my own as a child. Who would have though that could have translated into socks being one of my favourite things to knit. (or did it? who knows if the connection has merit.)

Anywhoo. I've been so busy this past week with school,(wrote three essays and had two exams to study for) with packing for the big move, and with life in general that I haven't had time for my knitting. I currently have two toe up pairs of socks on the go right now. One for my sister's birthday in August (I plan ahead) and one for my friend Sierra. Sadly, I think I messed up. These being my first toe up socks and just following the pattern instead of my gut may have ruined them. I'm knitting them at 60 sts instead of the 64 that I originally thought would work best for my feet. Also, on the knee high socks for Sierra, I think I might have started the gusset increases too soon and that they may be a bit too short in the foot area and a tad too tight. Since I'm half way finished her sock I'm going to grin and bear it and hope that it will loosen up a bit with blocking. If that doesn't work, there's going to be a lot of frogging and sobbing in the new house.

Sadly, these two pair of socks will be my 4th and 5th pairs and I still don't have a pair for my own feet! I know that I promised myself that I wouldn't start another project until I finished Sierra's socks and that I've been too busy to even think about knitting but I don't think these reasons are going to deter me. Just like that promise I made to myself that I would only ever have one pair of socks on the go since I would only ever knit them on circulars and I only had one circular... haha yeah right! I have 2 circulars and have knit a pair on dpns as well. And to top it all off, I just got Alice Yu's Socktopus in the mail and it has 17 pairs of gorgeous socks that I really do want to knit. No seriously, I would be ok knitting any of those 17 pairs. Cookie A's Knit. Sock. Love. is also calling my name. Those monkey socks sound like they are also calling my name.

Never mind that the stash is packed, I know once I'm finished this I'll go up stairs and try to select for myself the yarn that wants to be a pair of socks the most. And then I'll spend some time going through both books attempting to decide which pattern will compliment that yarn the best (Either Monkey or Farmer McGregor) and dig out the dpns and finally get to work on my new years resolution: Knit a pair of socks using only dpns.

Happy Crafting