I haven't been spinning very long, but when I saw the 70/30 BFL/Tussah Silk blend in the Bloodletting color way I had to buy it. I was planning to spin this as a Valentine's Day gift for a friend, but it came out so well I might keep it LOL!!!

It's kind of a thick and thin since some parts are worsted weight and a couple are fingering. This is the biggest skein I've spun at roughly 222 yards!

I have to buy some more Cloudlover roving now!!!

( Spinning Photos - Right This Way! )

After 3 prototypes I've released my first pattern on Ravelry today!!! The hat is based on a hat I saw in a Fossil catalog and really loved. I refused to pay what they were asking for it and I didn't like any of the colors it came in! So I came up with a pattern that would produce a hat that looked similar!

The pattern is a free download and the featured pictures on the pattern page include 1 of Malabrigo and 1 of Pear's yarns!!!!

For those wanting to download it:
download now

And here's that little HTML tag that shows how many projects have been created against it:


Pictures of the Latest Tester:

I finished my Cub Cuddler using Rowling on Chunky Galenas. I started this with the intention of making it Alex's Halloween costume, but the hospital visit messed up my knitting plans that week. I finally finished it this week!

Cub Cuddler - Complete


Alex Waving Hi From the Cuddler


Alex Sucking His Fingers


Alex Chilling in The Cuddler

I've been doing a project for Sharon at Three Irish Girls as a secret project. I finished that over the weekend and it should be ready to mail out on Tuesday (as long as it's done blocking). I will post pictures of the item once she's done photographing and sending it back.

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I also finished another project I'm sending with the above project. Again, no pictures of it yet, but I will post some of them once the item comes back from Sharon.

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I just finished my first pair of socks. I knit these 2 at a time (the pattern is not written for 2 at a time knitting, but I improvised so I could knit both socks at once). The yarn is dyed by Three Irish Girls on the Kells base in the Elsbeth colorway. The pattern is Red Dwarf Socks pattern which can be found on Ravelry.

Left Side of Sock On Sock Blocker


Right Side of Sock On Sock Blocker


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On Friday I finished Mark's winter hat. I wrote the pattern to accommodate his head. The first one of these hats I knit was WAY too big. I adjusted the pattern this time and it fits perfectly. The yarn is 100 purewool dyed by Pear of yarny_bits in the Sita colorway. Today's picture of it complete isn't 100% on so I'm also going to post a picture of it as a WIP so you can see the coloring. Mark loves the hat and so do I!!!

Finish Object:


Hat as WIP to see the actual colorway:

It seems these days most of what I do is chase the toddler through the house and knit. I've covered a lot of ground knitting wise in the past 2 months. I thought I'd post the high lights of what I've completed.

I started baby knitting for the new little one on it's way.

First up, is a little girl welcome baby hat. This will be used in the hospital if we have a little girl. I got this yarn from Eat.Sleep.Knit. It's a Yarn Love colorway on Anne Shirley in the Summer Sangria colorway.


Next up, I knit a kimono style sweater for alymonster using Three Irish Girls yarn in the Waterlilies and Irises colorway (with a matching hat).


I moved on to a pair of longies for the new baby. This yarn is from Big Bad Voodoo Mama in the Sgt Pepper's colorway. The yarn base is Aran BFL.


I think frogged a cardigan I had knit for hellosarah's daughter to make this awesome pinafore. The yarn is from Three Irish Girls in the Fiona and Crimson colorways. The base is Carys BFL.


Lastly, I finished a sleep sack that was knit on Three Irish Girls Lindon in the Murphy and Cara colorways.


Today I finished the baby's blanket, but it's blocking. I will post pictures of it tomorrow probably.

I also have about 4 WIPs right now, which is ungodly low for the number of projects I usually have in flight!

I know, I know... from the title it looks like I'm posting pictures of my son. And I soon will, but right now this picture set is of a project I'm working on for our new little one. Expected arrival date: 11/6/2009.

I'm knitting a pinwheel blanket for the new little one on Three Irish Girls Springvale using the Jack colorway. I started knitting the blanket in Puerto Rico (hence the title!)

Here's what the colorway looked like before I started:


And now about 40 rows in:


I'm so excited, because it's a circle the blanket grows really quickly.

This was on one of my pregnancy boards and I really love it!

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on,
pooped on, chewed on,
or peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, the joy,
the love, the heartache,
the wonderment or the satisfaction
of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom .

Well since I started knitting I've been afraid to even try out lace knitting. It looks too dang hard and I'm afraid of needle that little.

After buying some Three Irish Girls sock yarn last month I discovered a pattern on Ravelry called Ishbel

It's a lovely pattern that is knit on size 6 needles... hardly something I'm afraid of. The cool part is that I could showcase this awesome sock yarn on my neck instead of hiding it in my shoes! So I bought the pattern and got to work. I finished it up last night and blocked it. After comparing mine to a bunch of other projects on Ravelry it became apparent that I should have pulled harder on the points when I was blocking it, but other than that I'm really happy with how it came out!!


( Ishbel in Aiden )

hellosarah 's little son arrived last week... with that brought some hurrying to finish up his welcome to the world basket. (I'm not done with the cloth wipes, but I'll finish those before Easter when I go see the little guy!) I've never done anything like this... Everything in the picture below is either knit by me, sewn by me, or dyed by me... :P

All of these items have been in other posts I'm sure, but here they are all together. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself! I've never made so much stuff for someone else!

At the top is a bamboo velour blanket I made after dying the bamboo velour.
From left to right on the row below that is a pair of small longies knit from scraps of single ply purewool I had bought from the LJ yarny bits, newborn sized longies knit from Western Sky Knits Rainbow with Black on Riata BFL (and matching hat), newborn sized soaker sewn by me from wool interlock (I bought from The Covered Caboose) and dyed by me, 2 newborn sized Gerber shirts hand dyed by me using LWI technique. The bottom row is a newborn sized soaker knit in the Muddle colorway also bought from the LJ yarny bits (the waistband is Sita), and a hat with booties knit from the Mosiac Moon colorway Kettle Dyed Rainbow on 3 ply merino.

I've been knitting a few things for Malabrigo March Madness!!! I love Malabrigo with how soft it is... it was easy to be addicted. I also have been knitting a lacey scarf for myself out of Aiden from Three Irish Girls. Once I started this pattern I know I needed to knit one for Aly. I bought some Malabrigo sock yarn from Yarnzilla so I could dye up some yarn for her. I TXT'd messaged her and got some color preferences...

Here is the colorway I created last night for her:

Easter Eggs



Hopefully cast on will take place tonight. I will be updating with WIPs soon!

Yesterday I decided I was going to dye some yarn. I had just gotten my Dharma order in and I was totally excited because my turquoise was here.

I did so many things wrong with this yarn it's not even funny. After I got it into the steamer I almost cried because I thought it was going to come out a muddy mess. When I pulled it out it still looked muddy to me, but I rinsed it and reskeined it....

And now for: PAINTED DAISIES

I named the colorway this because once it was dry it reminded me of those Gerber Daisies you can buy at the store that suck the colored water up the stems and dye the petals. The colors are more vibrant in person. It's a mix of chartreuse, turquoise, and lilac. The lilac got overpowered by the turquoise I think, but that's because of the mixing mess that occurred after I had the dye applied...

I also dyed my hands by accident, a new fun thing I've never done. I came up from the basement with BRIGHT TURQUOISE hands. Mark laughed when he saw me.

Anywho, below is the yarn (The pictures could be better. I might try to take more in the sunlight tomorrow. However, it's snowing like no one's business out there so maybe not!)

( Painted Daisies )

I've been knitting like a crazy person trying to finish up before Sarah's little guy arrives. I've just finished the matching hat to the longies I finished the other day. I also LWI dyed 2 shirts I had laying around. Not sure if they match the pants, but I put them all together for a photo op...

Scrappy longies seem to be the rage right now. I am decided to try my hand at them. I'm kind of dumb though and started using the wrong needle size. Now I'm doomed to knitting A TON of rows to the length just right :)

It has 7 Pear Home Yarns in it. All on Single Ply Purewool. I was going to wait to post pictures til I was done, but I'm too excited about them!!

Additionally, sorry for the poor lighting. Here in the cold north I can only get the sun to come in at certain times of the day and it casts shadows. I can't wait til it warms up here and the snow goes away so I can go back to taking pictures on the back deck.

( Scrappy Longies - In Progress )

I only had 2 people to know Christmas stuff for this year. I happen to work with both of them :)

Since we were out of town for 2 weeks I didn't give them their Christmas gifts until we got back from Michigan.

The Palindrome Hat I did for Norb turned out great! She wanted a hat that would make her noticed when she's walking/running/walking the dog early in the morning so I used Bernat Camo yarn in orange. It's BRIGHT! I want to knit a hat for myself out of that pattern one day, but I will probably use yarn that I dye myself. Below are 2 pictures:

( Norb's Palindrome Running Hat )

Additionally I made my boss LB a pink and black Marsupial Bag. I didn't knit the inner bag because I wasn't sure what she would use it for. The bag was a bag to keep all her knitting stuff in. This was my first felting project and I really like how it came out! I used Lion Brand Solids for this bag. Below are pictures:

( LB's Marsupial Knitting Bag )

A while back (almost a year now) I bought a couple of yards of 100% wool interlock from the coop I belong to. I made a soaker from it, which at the time was WAY too big for Jackson. He finally grew into it and for some reason this week the urge to sew came back so I was looking for the soaker pattern again on Katrina's website when I saw she had a longie pattern out now! WOW! I was so excited!!!!

I downloaded the medium because Jackson is wearing the medium soaker. I went into the basement with the hope that I could turn out 1 in the 3 hours I had available tonight! I had read Katrina's blog where a lady had boasted she had finished a pair in 45 minutes! It took me an hour but I finished a pair tonight.

Now for the part that would be making my mom turn over in her grave! I thought they looked kind of short in the leg... After I had them totally sewn up I brought them up to show Mark. As he made the comment that they were really shorts for Jackson I realized what I did! I had sewn the line that was really the leg lines in as the inseam! DOH!!!!

I am waiting to see how these will fit on him before I make another pair! But I will be making another pair... at least next time I will have some idea what I'm doing...

And of course, for the picture!

I remember the Tigger Song being different, but this is the only one I can find on YouTube!

So I've been a little busy trying to finish up my Halloween knits for Jackson's first Halloween. I'm back to trying to finish up Lizzie's Daisy Cardigan I started for the Three Irish Girls Knit Along I started back in September.

I just finally made it to the end of the main color of the body. I have to attach the crimson from the Fiona colorway I got and knit 2 more inches. Then it's off to the border and sleeves. I'm almost done!!!

Pictures below! (Sorry the lighting isn't too good. The sun goes down way to early to get good shots in. I'm going to have to have Mark make me a light box for the winter here!)

( Daisy Cardigan )

I saw someone a few weeks ago with a Pumpkin hat on their baby. It was so cute I had to knit Jackson a Pumpkin hat!! I finished the hat a week ago, but I hadn't sewn in the ends yet! I finished that tonight.
( Pumpkin Hat )

I also finished up Jackson's Halloween Longies! I knit them from a new pattern I have by Freckle. I like how the pattern is written because you get to knit both legs at once!!
( Candy Corn Longies )

Lastly, this is the whole outfit for Jackson on Friday! I think he might wear this to the pumpkin patch still this week. The shirt is from Old Navy!
( Jackson's Halloween Outfit! )