Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival

So what am I doing posting about OFFF in May when the festival isn't until September? Well, I'll tell you! I am going to have a booth at OFFF this year! Even better than that I am going to share a double booth with Chrissy Gardiner of Gardiner Yarnworks! I couldn't be more excited! So I have been preparing as much as possible, starting with a few knitted samples:


I finished the felted clogs that I started with my class back in March. I think these will be duel purpose clogs. I made these for somebody for Christmas, but I think they will make an awesome display to show off my Worsted Wool yarn. The pattern is the Fibertrends Felted Clog pattern and these clogs took less than one skein of my Worsted Wool yarn in color Bad Girl and less than 2 skeins of Cascade 220 in color #9469 Hot Pink.

I also finished up my Mine, Don't Touch! socks, which I plan on wearing to OFFF. I would use them as displays, but they aren't the best representation of how the yarn looks. Also I think there might be some changes to my basic sock yarn base in the near future. So stay tuned for that!

Lastly I started a lace scarf out of my Alpaca Lace in color Sugarplum Fairy. It is a skein that I have been saving just for me and I think I have now found the perfect pattern for it! The pattern is the Snowdrop Lace Scarf by Donna Arney of Gardiner Yarnworks. It is just like knitting a cloud. I think it will make a perfect display for OFFF. I have some more pictures of it and some of my other projects up on Ravelry. I probably will be knitting all sorts of things with my own yarns for the next few months.

I also have lots of ideas and surprises that I am working on that I hope to share with everybody before September comes. Though if you have any ideas or things that you would like to see make sure to leave a comment. I am open to lots of ideas!

Oh Baby!

I have been knitting for babies like a crazy person. They have both been gifted, so I think that it is safe to share with you guys.

This sweater was gifted just in the knick of time! I gifted it last night and I just heard that the mother was off to the hospital this morning. I hope everything is going well for them!

I do really love this sweater. It took less than a ball of Kraemer's Little Lehigh Pebbles in color It's a Boy! I have another ball of this so I might just have to make this sweater again. I love the little color flecks in the yarn and it really shows off the pattern really well. The pattern is the Fred Textured Sweater from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. I wish I had a picture of the cute buttons, but just take it for granted that they are adorable!

I found the most adorable buttons for the Harvey Kimono as well. They are little wooden buttons with sail boats on them. The only thing that I changed is I put snaps on the inside flap instead of buttons. I felt like snaps would lay flat whereas buttons would stick up and be uncomfortable, not to mention a pain to button and unbutton all the time.

I really love this pattern too. I think I have enough yarn to do another one of these as well. It is knit out of Henry's Attic Inca Cotton and the pattern is the Harvey Kimono from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. There are a lot of good patterns from this book that I can see myself knitting up.

Yarn Harlot

Last night was my 3rd time seeing the Yarn Harlot. Let me just say that she was as incredible as ever!Here is the obligatory sock picture with the Stephanie. I also have one from last year and the year before that! She is such an exceptional speaker, both funny and inspirational. I can't wait to dive into this new book!

My partners in knitting hijinks this year refused to be photographed. I went with Teri, Lynn, and Ellen from the Stevenson knitting group. They were a hoot to travel with! Teri especially refused to be photographed, but allowed me to take a picture of her sock in progress. It is knit out of my superwash sock yarn in Lime. It is one of my new semi-solid colorways. I just love how it is turning out. I really wish that the camera that I took didn't hate indoors quite so badly, but I did get some good photos once I got home:

Here is my loot! I got 2 copies of Stephanie's book so that I can give one to my grandmother. I recently introduced her to Stephanie's books and she loves them. I am sure that the new one will be awesome! The other joy of having Blue Moon host the event is that they had Socks that Rock in a special colorway for the event. This is called Knitters Without Borders and every skein sold they donated $3 to Doctors Without Borders. Also for every book sold they donated the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders. I think the sock yarn will make wonderful socks for my husband!


The project I decided to take along was my very own Mine, Don't Touch! socks. I am almost done with these socks, though I think that I am not a toe-up fan. I had to take the heel out at least 3 times because the socks just kept being a couple rounds too short. I might try it again in the future, but for now I am going to stick with top-down. Also the yarn isn't the best example of the colorway because it is from back when I did 64" skeins instead of 72". I also do slightly different colors. Oh well, at least the finished one is super comfortable when I put it on! I'll just have to pick out another skein of yarn just for me!

Ladybug Baby!

I am finally able to share with you all the awesome sweater that I knit for Destiny's baby!


Isn't it adorable? I think that Destiny might be the only person (besides myself) that I would put this much work into a baby sweater. As a knitter she knows just how much work went into it! First thing she did was turn it inside out and look at all the stranding!


The next thing she did was put it on baby Landon! So very cute! It fits, and I am estimating will probably fit him for another month or so. Of course I completely forgot my camera, but she has promised to post photos on her blog, so I will make sure to mention it here when she does. Currently on her blog you can see some of the other awesome things that people have made for her and the baby. (On the knit blanket I knit the green textured block)

Just to prove that I did actually do my first steek, here is a photo of it! Scary, huh? It was actually very much like doing a button hole. I think next time I will probably use the crochet method. Mainly because my sewing on the machine isn't super straight and I think crocheting would give me better control on such tiny stitches. Still it worked! The pattern also called for little extra flaps knit into the sleeves that fold over and cover the steeks on the inside of the sweater. I thought this was a nice finishing touch to the inside of the sweater.

The pattern is Marihone from Dale of Norway Soft Treasures book, which is currently out of print. The pattern has been reprinted in booklet #152. I used Dale of Norway baby ull, which is a fantastic yarn that I look forward to using again. If you want more info on the pattern, including in progress photos and the exact yarns that I used check out my Ravelry page.

Tale of Two Cities

or the fun adventures of my hubby's birthday!

We start out our grand adventure in Portland! Actually we got up at 6:30am so that we could catch the train in Portland at 8:30.

We took the train all the way up to Seattle! It is a 3 1/2 hour train ride. I decided that we would do this for Blair's birthday because he had never been on a train before and I had never been on a train in the US.

From the train station we walked 1.2 miles to the monorail station. That 1.2 miles just about did us in, because we checked the elevation during the planning stages of the trip and thought that wan't too bad. Well, as we found out, the top of the hill was about 3/4 of the way there, so we ended up walking uphill both ways at a much steeper angle than we had anticipated.

We took the monorail to Seattle Center and went up the Space Needle. Blair had never been up it before so it was kinda neat to go and see the view of the whole city. After the Space Needle we went into the Sci-Fi / Music Museum. We only had enough time to see the Sci-Fi part, which was really awesome. I was just amazed by all the things they had on display. We definitely need to go back and see it again and check out the music part too. It was totally worth it! The only down side is that they don't allow cameras inside, so I will have to leave it to your imagination.

After that we did the whole trip in reverse. We rode the monorail back, walked the 1.2 miles back to the train station and rode the train back to Portland. It was a very awesome trip, though very exhausting. We think next time we will go and spend the night up there or a couple of days and then ride the train up to Vancouver, BC. Riding the train has definitely opened up some options.

Blair's Birthday 08

The train was awesome for knitting and reading and napping and avoiding traffic jams. We did manage to hit Seattle on the weekend that the Dalai Lama was visiting and there was a Mariner's game that evening, so traffic was a bit crazy. Of course I knit all the way up and back, but I can't share the photos here quite yet. Though you can see them in Ravelry. If you would like to see the rest of the photos that were taken by my husband, you can check them out here.

Frogging Right Along!

I have been going over some of my projects on the needles and I felt like there needed to be some changes:
First off is the skull socks, which are the dreaded project on the needles! This project has been ongoing for nearly 2 years! Which is inexcusable in a pair of socks, even if they are man socks! I got them out because I was missing material components to the rest of my projects. I was going to work on the socks and my husband said they looked big. That's right, after all of that they were baggy on his ankle! So he has negotiated for a pair of regular, non-colorwork socks, and a colorwork skull hat instead. This I can do! Though, I couldn't bring myself to actually frog the socks, not with all of that pretty skull colorwork! So I measured it and it was 12" around. Which, just happens to be perfect for a newborn or preemie baby. So I carefully took off the cuff, picked up all of the stitches, and I am going to shape the top and make a baby hat. Then I will frog the bottom to an appropriate length and magically it will be a tiny baby hat! Yay! That's one project reinvented!


Next project on the list I have been meaning to frog for awhile. I figured out part way into the forest canopy shawl that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to actually make a decent sized shawl. I went looking for more yarn, but the new skeins are not the same dyelot and couldn't be compromised into looking like the same dyelot either. So I have decided that I will make the branching out scarf instead! It looks so good as leaves and I think the branching out scarf will be just the thing!


On the actual knitting front I knit this bitty cupcake for a baby shower I went to last weekend. The theme was cupcakes and I thought this would be perfect for it! It was a really fast knit too. It is the cupcake pattern from One Skein and I knit it out of Little Lehigh Pebbles in color #1714 It's A Boy! and in Fizz Stardust in color #4309 cream.


The other project that I have nearly finished is the Harvey Kimono! Isn't it cute? I changed the gauge on it from 5.5 sts/in to 4.5 sts/in to accommodate the heavier organic cotton yarn. The yarn is Henry's Attic Organic Cotton Color Oz. The pattern is the Harvey Kimono from Natural Knits for Baby and Mom. It is a pretty fast knit. It also means a trip to the button store to find the perfect buttons! Yay!

Knitting & Charity

Ok, this week has been a little hectic, to say the least. I wanted to post this post up at the beginning of the week, but here it is already Friday!


Last weekend we went to a friend's birthday party for their 1 year old son. He is such a cutie! You can check out her post about the birthday party here! I decided that I would make the Hooded Sweater from Debbie Bliss Special Knits for him. I started somewhere near the beginning of the month, knowing that his birthday was sometime in March. Luckily this is a pretty fast knit. This is the 1 year size, but like many of Debby's patterns, it is on the larger size. I would say 12-18 months. At least it should fit the little guy for awhile! I knit it out of Nashua Creative Focus Superwash in color #0014 Sky Blue. It took 3 balls, but I had 50 grams of yarn leftover, which should be plenty for a hat or something else later on.

I also wanted to mention that Debby of Knit Seashore posted up the winner of the first drawing for the Charlie Yarn. Congratulations Karen! She also posted up some neat links to patterns for 2 cat's paw scarves (here and here), a cat's paw sock, and a cat's face sock. I also really like Wendy's pattern for cat's paw lace socks. All of the patterns, with maybe a little adjustment to the socks for gauge, should work just fine with the Charlie Yarn.

Speaking of the Charlie Yarn, my husband and I made the first donation to Get Your Guts in Gear this last weekend! Why so early? Well we figured out that Google, where my husband works, would match any funds that we donate to a charity, but it takes them roughly a month to process. So if we donate now, then they should match before the race happens! We are still fundraising for them of course! We just thought that it would be a good way to maximize our donation! Cool, huh? We will send in another donation around Memorial Day, so keep those sales coming!