Author: Mary

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My latest WIP

So I’ve been a bit busy lately. I’m still knitting when I can but school, work, and my latest WIP (which is rather large) has been taking up most of my time. Ready for this?

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Meet Arcane! He’s a five year old Thoroughbred gelding out of my favorite racemare EVER. And thanks to his awesome former owner, Turning for Home, and Maui Meadow Farm, he’s all mine! Now I haven’t owned a horse in a long time and it’s been a few years since I’ve ridden but I’ve missed being around horses. I never realized how much how until I was grooming Arcane just a few hours after he arrived. He’s incredibly sweet and very laid back. It’s been amazing getting to know him and learning all his little quirks. I introduced Mike to him the first night and Mike, not being a horse guy at all, instantly fell in love with him. Every night when we get off work we’ve been heading over to visit and groom Arcane. It’ll be a little while before we see how he is under saddle for various reasons but I’m enjoying the time now bonding with him and letting him be a horse.

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Iknitarod..fail

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Well, between life and the fact that a lot of mushers dropped out I did not finish this year. I still haven’t finished and I moved on to finishing my 5th and 6th pairs of socks for the year. The weather started to get nice and I figured I wouldn’t wear the sweater for awhile anyway. It’ll get done just not now. I’m also sans internet right now while we wait for Windstream to set up service tomorrow so iPhone photos will have to do.

The top pair of socks are made from Knitpicks Stroll in two different tweeds (have to check on the exact names). I love how these came out. I missed the Stroll tweeds when they were discontinued a few years ago and immediately ordered these two balls when I saw it back in stock. I switched colors every two rows and they just make me so happy. I used the Fish Lips Kiss heel and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The second pair is a plain vanilla sock with a FKL heel out of Must Stash Yarns Perfect Sock in You Had Me @ Rainbow. This was my first time using this yarn and I really enjoyed it. So much so that I’m halfway
through another pair in Chocolate Bunny Cake. Hopefully those will be done by Easter. I finished another pair in between in Desert Vista Dyeworks that are blocking as I type and I’ll show those in my next entry.

Seven pairs so far this year and by the end of the month it should be nine! Either way I’ve been keeping busy. I’m hoping I have some good news to share soon about a new edition (no, not pregnant!). Until then happy knitting!

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In Over My Head: aka Iknitarod 2014

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Last year I knit the wonderful pattern Color Affection as a challenge for the Iknitarod 2014 KAL on Ravelry. I finished easily enough before the last musher crossed the finish line, but this year is an entirely different story. In my defense, I did pick a bigger challenge. Much bigger. Not to mention I didn’t realize the race started until about four days before the start and didn’t have a pattern until the morning of the race.

I chose the Tinder cardigan by Jared Flood. I had six skeins of Cascade 220 that I purchased from a closeout on Alapca Direct about a month ago and they’ve been burning a home in my knitting basket. All I could think about lately is which pattern these beautiful blue skeins wanted to be. Since I managed to knit an entire sweater last summer for Camp Loopy, I was hoping to repeat some of that magic during past two weeks. Although the Iditarod isn’t over yet, I doubt I’ll be making it in this year. I’ve got the back and most of one front done, with a long ways to go. I blame it on lots of school and work. I’ve tried to knit on it here and there, and I’ve made some great progress, but I doubt it’ll even be done to wear before Spring comes along.

I will say this – it’s amazing what you can get done when you focus on working on only one project. With the exception of a couple of rounds of a sock on the bus this morning, I’ve barely glanced at my other projects during the past week and a half. I have a sock that’s at the bind off row sitting in my knitting basket that’s been ignored. This year might have started off as the year of the sock (4 pairs!!!) but I think it’s going to become the year of the sweater.

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Lollipop Socks

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This year I made Mike a pair of socks out of the elusive Lollipop Yarn. I stalked the website only once and managed to get both skeins I was after. This one called Moondance was intended for him as soon as I saw the preview.

I used the stitch pattern from Harris Tweed and knit them toe-up with an afterthought heel (instructions from Loop). I really like how they turned out and Mike says they’re comfortable to wear.  I started them back in October and was hoping to have them done by Halloween but they fell of my radar when I messed up the first few inches of the second sock in a bar a few nights before Halloween, so they got put in time out for awhile. I finished them up in time for Christmas and gave them to Mike that day. I’ve still got another ball stashed away for myself for later. As for the yarn itself, it knit up lovely and the colors are so vibrant. I don’t know if I’ll be stalking the site again for it but we’ll see.

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Merry Christmas

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After spending about two hours on Christmas Eve, most of us were sent home because of the lack of well… work. It happens around the holidays and even more so with my new position. Mike and I took full advantage of the time I was home before he had to go to work and ran out to Costco for some last minute shopping and a quick stop at Starbucks before I had to drop him off. Unfortunately both of us are scheduled to work on Christmas and we have very different schedules so it’s going to be difficult but it’s only one year and we’re going to make the best of it. I work early this morning so we did Christmas extra early so we wouldn’t need to rush

Mike’s mother handmade the cutest ornaments for our tree and shipped them to us from Canada. A couple of them broke but we took the rest and strung them with ribbon and hung them from the tree a few nights ago. They really helped fill out our bare tree and are just beautiful. After the disaster of last year’s painful and messy tree we decided to go with a fake tree from Target. When we have kids we’ll let them experience a real tree but for now this works for us and it’s a beautiful tree and it’s supposed to be an Alberta Spruce (for Mike).

I managed to get a bit of knitting done for Christmas but nowhere near what I had originally planned. More photos of those later since none have been given quite yet. I did manage to squeak out a stocking for Mike that needs blocking but is going up anyway. This Christmas seemed to sneak up on us and with both our work/school schedules, it just made it even more crazy. A lot of other stuff has been happening that really killed the Christmas spirit for us and now I’m trying desperately to salvage what I can.

Next year we’re planning a big family Christmas, which I think both of us need. It’s been just us for the past three years and as wonderful as it is it would be nice to see our families and all be together. This commercial has just made me miss it so much.

Merry Christmas!

 

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m so thankful this year for my family and friends. I’m thankful for having a good job (and for Mike having one!). I’m thankful for having a roof over my head and my yarn stash to keep me going when inspiration strikes late at night.

Thank you.

 

 

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Finished

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I managed to finish all three months of Camp Loopy this year. Wow. It was tight at the end with classes starting but I got it done and bound off just under the wire. Next year, I’m going with smaller projects! This picture is a rough look at my unblocked February Lady Sweater. A couple of long ends are showing that will be trimmed once it gets blocked.

Now for classes and fall excitement. I’ve got a couple of things I’m working on in between school and work (which is going to be insanely busy in the next few months). I took a yarn dyeing class last weekend at A Tangled Yarn in Nicholasville. It was so much fun and I want to reskein the yarn before I take photos of it. I did quite a bit of fiber and five skeins of yarn and probably would have done more fiber if it wasn’t for the 90 degree weather. Next time!

I’m finally off on Saturdays and Mike and I have been trying to enjoy them as much as possible, since we haven’t had a day off together in months. We saw The Butler on Saturday. I think it’s the first non-action movie we’ve seen in a long long time. It was a wonderful movie and invoked a lot of emotions. It’s well worth it if you’re looking for something to see.

Have a great short week!

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Some Spinning

I’ve been breezing along on my February Lady Sweater. Going down the body now and hopefully I can start the sleeves by the end of the week. Check out these great buttons from The Loopy Ewe.

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When I haven’t been working on my sweater, I’ve been doing some spinning!

This came off the wheel last week. I started spinning it for Tour de Fleece but didn’t ply it until a few weeks after. It’s from SpunRightRound and it came out to about 200 yards of DK. I don’t have any plans for it yet, so into the stash it goes. Maybe some colorful mittens?

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I decided the wash the fleece I bought at the Kentucky Fiber Fest. This was my first time washing a fleece and I really didn’t want to ruin it. I gave it four 30-minute soaks in Unicorn Fiber wash per instructions from the Joy of Handspinning’s site. It’s been drying since Saturday night and now comes the fun part – carding!

Lastly, I’ve been promising Mike I would make him some gloves for quite awhile. A few months ago I came across the Masse Mitts by Ann Budd and knew he would love a pair of these. I decided last week that I’d put it off long enough and he’s going to keep them once the weather gets colder since he has a good bit of walking in his commute. I couldn’t find a yarn I liked for them so I’ve decided to spin it myself. I found some gorgeous Romneydale/CVM on Etsy in a chocolate brown that matches his jacket and I’m going to start on it as soon as my sweater is off the needles. I got 8ozs so I can make him a matching hat too. Next will be a scarf out of pure alpaca.

Happy Knitting!

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Camp Loopy Project Three

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Happy August! The summer has just flown by. My summer semester final was this morning and now I have nearly a month until the fall semester starts. I’m going to cram as much knitting and spinning in as I can between work. I’m going to need to with the project I decided to do for August.

The requirement is at least 800 yards and since I didn’t want to do another lace project for this month, I chose the February Lady Sweater. I’m using Cascade 220 in Lilac Heather. I was all set to do Girl Friday, however the idea of a one piece sweater instead of seaming pieces really appealed to me since time is going to be a factor. I cast on this morning after my final and I haven’t gotten too far yet but I’m really liking it so far. I haven’t gotten a picture of it yet so above is my Candy shawl from earlier this week. Happy Knitting!

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Camp Loopy Project Two Update

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Well, I finished this project on Friday and blocked it over the weekend. I could not resist wearing it to work on Monday. I love it so much. I whined throughout the whole process of knitting the edging but wow, it really was well worth it. I carried it around for a few days before I found the perfect place to take pictures of it in downtown Frankfort earlier this afternoon. I’m so in love with this shawl and got so many compliments on it at work Monday.

Details:

Yarn: Madtosh Prairie
Pattern: Rock Island by Jared Flood
Cast On: July 1, 2013
Bind Off: July 27, 2013

I’ll talk about my next project for the final month of Camp Loopy tomorrow. I’ve got my yarn and needles ready but I’ve now changed my mind on the pattern.