November Wrap-up - Picture Heavy Post

November has been a whirlwind. First the Election, then a marathon cookfest to celebrate my Mom's birthday, then Marathon cookfest #2 for Thanksgiving, a belly busting knitting potluck, and a delightful show to top it all off. I am so sorry that I have not blogged in over a month, but please forgive me. I have been a little busy... with good stuff of course!!

Well, I will give you what you have all been waiting for first!! The knitting extravaganza.

I started Juliet on Halloween, and finished on November 21st. I used Briar Rose Fibers Sonoma that I bought last year at Rhinebeck. I started out casting on for the medium size, because my gauge was slightly smaller than the pattern called for, and I used size 10 needles. I increased for the sleeves until I felt comfortable. It turns out I was about 3 stitches away from the large size, so I just added 3 more stitches and went ahead with my fingers crossed. I ran out of yarn halfway into the last repeat, but luckily, I has a second skein that was dyed similarly. With Briar Rose, it is impossible to get the same dye lot. But, the slight color variation didn't bother me at all. I bought some gold buttons from Save-A-Thon, and boy did I save a lot. The buttons were less than $2. Yippee! The best part is, that they match my boots perfectly. I know, there I go being all matchy-matchy again. Here are my pictures.

I also completed my Cabled Beret from the Premiere Issue of the Debbie Bliss Magazine. I love this hat. I started it on Nov. 19th and completed it on the 24th. The original hat looks very droopy, and I thought that it would swallow my head, especially since my hair is a lot shorter now. So, I went down to a size 4 needle for the ribbing, and a size 7 needle for the rest of the hat. The result is perfect. I used 3.5 skeins of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran as specified in the pattern, in the Berry Colorway. This hat is super warm, and just glides over my hair. Because of the silk content, I don't have to worry about it sucking the moisture out of my hair like wool does.

So, now that the hat is complete, the challenge was to find a comparable sock yarn so that I can make Druid Mittens to match. Debbie Bliss does not make the Berry color in fingering weight. Booooo!!! :-( I took a chance and ordered Socks that Rock in "Jasper". I felt like a big dummy holding the hat up to the computer screen to see if it would match. Well, nobody is perfect... but I am happy that the colorway is really close.
I am excited to get started on these.

I have one more thing to complete this set. I started making the Crofter's Cowl with the Debbie Bliss Silk Alpaca. On the second half, I ran out of yarn with about 9 stitches left to knit. So, now that I have leftover yarn from my hat, I can finally complete it. Here is a picture of half of it, sadly.
I also started another sweater. On the day after Thanksgiving, Rosi G. invited the girls over for a feast and some knitting company. My contribution was a lovely Sweet Potato Casserole. My first attempt was on Thanksgiving day, and I truly believe that the knitting crew got the sweeter deal the second time around.
When I wasn't stuffing my face, I was busy knitting. Here is the bottom portion of the back of my Victoria Sweater from Twist Collective.

Here is another shot of some Thanksgiving gooey goodness. Mmmm.. Lattice-Top Peach Pie. It was gone in about 2 minutes. LOL!! Greedy family!! I have also been doing a little crochet. I promised my friend Deborah a long time ago that I would finish her hat and scarf set. Ummmm.... let's just say that I love her more than I love to crochet. And, since I love to see a smile on her face..... I made some progress this past week. 15 inches whew!! I have about 30 more inches to go before I add ruffles.
Here is a picture of me with my mom on her birthday. We are still trying to work on getting her to fall in love with yarn, but for now she can just smile on the knitting blog.
Last but not least, I went to see the Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall. The Rockettes were amazing!!! Here is a picture of the whole cast.
I sat in the First Mezzanine, in the last row. Dang!! I love the zoom on this camera!!

A change has come!

I am so excited that Barack Obama is now the President-Elect. I could not sleep last night due to the excitement. So, instead I came up with this idea.


Here is a closer look.

These earrings are made with Sterling Silver earpieces, Swarovski Crystals, and plastic. The logo is covered with an acrylic semi-gloss so that it will not fade.

I went to my knitting group, and as soon as I walked in I heard "Oooh, I LOVE those earrings. Where did you get them?" My reply "I made them this morning". Response - "Are you selling them?"

Answer - YES WE CAN!!!! Please check out the ETSY site if you are interested. If they become temporarily unavailable, I will be happy to make more. Just send me a message on ETSY! The Obama Campaign is still taking donations, so like my stitch markers, I will be donating 50% of the proceeds to the campaign.

Knitting News

I am making good progress on Juliet. I also checked out simplysockyarn.com. They have MMMMMMMMalabrigo Sock Yarn!!! I conservatively bought 2 skeins. So, there will be a yarn eye-candy update within the next week. I need some Mmmmmmalabrigo to wear inside my new boots!!

One more day!!!

I want to thank everyone who made a purchase of Obama Stitch Markers from my ETSY shop. I made a donation yesterday with proceeds from the October sales.

We have one more day to make a decision. I saw a commercial on TV that stated that last election year, 35,000 women did not vote. So, I am asking you to get out there and vote. Tell your family, tell your friends. Regardless of who you decide to vote for, you have a right to choose, so please exercise that right.

Now on to the knitting....

Aside from November being the month for elections, it is also National Knit a Sweater Month. I started this baby on Halloween, and it is flying off the needles quickly. Although it technically wasn't started in November, I can still attempt to finish it before the month is over.

This is Juliet, made with Briar Rose fibers "Sonoma" that I bought from Rhinebeck last year. I am getting a gauge of 16 sts/4 inches, so I decided to make the Medium size. I also did an extra increase row, so my stitch count was off from the Large size by about 3 stitches. So, I decided to add 3 stitches to the pattern, and make the lace section in the large. So far, I like what I am seeing. I completed about 1 and 1/2 repeats already.

Here is the lace in more detail.
The inspiration for this sweater came from these red suede boots at Aerosoles. They had a good sale in the stores on Friday, and I snagged them for less that $80. Woohoo!!

So, now I am off to find some buttons. Wish me luck!!!

And the winner is......

I want to thank everyone for participating in the contest. There were 16 entries in total. 1 person had two entries, so her name was added to the list below all of the single-entry individuals. I found a random number generator online, and here are the results.

The 14th comment was posted by Nancy of Knitarooooo! Congratulations. Please send me the picture that you would like me to put on your stitch markers. I will take care of the cropping and other formatting. I am so happy to send you this gift.

And, since we are on the topic of contests...Sophanne is having a contest that I would like to participate it. She asked that we post a picture of our favorite halloween costume. I never really go all out for Halloween, but last year I got invited to a Halloween party by my friend saying "You better come, and be in a costume". At the last minute, I picked out this costume from Ricky's. It was within my budget, and I really digged it because it had pink hair.

Me as Pebbles from the Flintstones.

Hehe!! Oh, am my caveman friend... I met him at the party that night, and it was totally unplanned. However we did manage to snag the prize for "Best Couple Costume", even though we weren't really a "couple". Haha!! It was a lot of fun. Thanks J!!

So, I have knitting group tomorrow, and the weather is really cold. I am making something to keep me warm, and here is the first half of it. Hopefully I can finish it before my neck freezes. Yes, it's another Crofter's Cowl. I am in love with this pattern. I am making it using 2 skeins of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran. This yarn is really soft. I casted on 80 stitches as the pattern specified, for a cowl that fit close to the neck. I have enough yarn to add an extra pattern repeat, and still have enough of a yarn tail to kitchener it to together. I am going Cowl Crazy. I plan on making at least 2 more in the near future.

Rhinebeck - When it's nice, do it twice!!

Last weekend I went to Rhinebeck for the second time, and it was such a blast.

So, I was told by the lovely weather people that it would be 56 degrees out. I remember that I wore my Central Park Hoodie the year before, and although I had a sweater to wear already, I was set on trying to finish my second CPH just in time for the festivities.

Here is a picture of it in pieces, laid out on my hotel bed. My buddy Deborah told me I was crazy, and that I surely was.

I pulled an all-nighter to seam the shoulders, finish the hood, and create the buttonband. I got halfway through the buttonband, but had no time to seam the sleeves. I also did a 3-needle bindoff for the hood, as I was in a rush. Now that I look back at it, I don't like the seam in the middle of the hood, so I will rip it out, and kitchener the hood. No matter how many times we hear this saying, we seem to never learn this lesson "Haste makes waste". Enough said.

So, as bleary-eyed as I was, I still managed to wear my Wicked sweater. Here is a picture of me wearing it, accompanied by Tawana in her Juliet sweater. The photo is a little slanted, but I think it looks cool. This photo was taken at the ravelry party. It was a lot of fun, but the weather was sooooo cold. I spent most of the time in the heated tent, except for when they were calling out raffle prizes. But, I didn't win :-(.

I spent some time with Deborah, who I barely get to see as much. We used to have knitting lunches all the time, and then I had to change my hours at work, so that doesn't happen anymore. But we got to spend an awesome weekend together, and kept saying "Let's not talk about work". Here is her getting some affection from a llama.


And here petting some yarn. She plans to make this a future purchase, once she finds the right pattern. It was super expensive, but super worth it. There was enough to make a sweater entirely on one skein. Anything that minimizes weaving in ends is a winner in my book. Yet, it is only truly worth it if you had the right pattern already chosen and ready to be swatched. And based on the fact that we are planning future yarn purchases, this sign couldn't be any more appropriate.

Here are some new friends I made, along with Deb and Kim. We had a blast gushing over yarn, and tasting all that wine and cheese.
Ravelry Name Rollcall - Angelny29, Boringknitter, Smush, YarnyOldKim, Craftivore.



And a good friend that I hadn't seen in a really long time. Sahara!!

And best of all, here are all of the goodies!!! Yarn, dessert wine, natural soap, maple sugar cotton candy, maple peanut brittle, honey roasted almonds, and more yarn.

Closeups of goodies.

MMMMMMMalabrigo Silky Merino in Dill. Last spring I bought a pair of slacks for work, and haven't worn them yet because I didn't have the perfect sweater to wear with it. This is the exact color of a pinstripe in those slacks. I bought a sweater's woth, with plans to make Victoria from Twist Collective. I know I sound super anal about being matchy matchy with my yarn and wardrobe, but hey, I got this for about $9.95 a skein, so I had to make sure it was well worth it. (Bargain Alert!!!!) I have to thank Tawana for pointing out the shop that sold it. I had blindly walked past it on day 1, and made sure I didn't miss it on day 2.

I also picked up the color Amoroso to make a nice cowl for myself.

And some in the Viena colorway to make a Crofter's Cowl for mommy.

Another booth that was not-to-be-missed was The Fold, where there ws a plethora of Socks That Rock.

I picked out Mossy to make some socks for my mom. Hmmmm.. maybe she will appreciate knitting more after she slips into some cozy socks. Hopefully we will be able to convert her in a few months.....or years.....it's taking a while. aarrgghh!!!

I also got this Rare Gems color. It looks like a Raven Color that went wrong. I don't care. It is still gorgeous. I can't wait to see how it knits up.

Here is a Raven Color that went right. LENORE. I love the bit of purple that peeks through. I am thinking of Pomatomus, but I am not sure yet.

Also, there were some discounted mill ends, that were for sale "as is". I found my favorite color combo, pink and gray. Yay!! I already have a pair of Air Max '95's from eons ago that they will match. I know, there I go being matchy-matchy again. I can't help it.

And, last but not least, I got 3 skeins of this gorgeous Decadent Fibers Creme Brulee. Silk and Merino. MMMmmmMMmmmmm. I plan to make Wisteria out of this. This too, is from the Twist Collective magazine.

Don't miss the last few days of my contest. There is stills some time to make a comment for entry.!!!

100th Post...Creative Fun!

I was having some creative fun yesterday, so I made these!! We have a very short time left to make a decision. And with these, I don't even have to say who I am voting for, because you already know. I encourage you to VOTE FOR CHANGE!!!

Wanna get your hands on some? I just made an update to my ETSY store! 50% of every sale will go towards the campaign.

So who is the proud owner of these sets? They were given to Jen, as part of the Sit N' Knit Neckwarmer Exchange. I think she likes 'em!!Here is a closer look at her Crofter's Cowl. The yarn I chose for this cowl is Malabrigo Silky Merino in the "Ankara" colorway. I used size 6 needles. The pattern calls for 2 pattern repeats, but I did 3 repeats, just to make it longer. I had just enough yarn, as you can see from the picture in my previous post. The cowl is created by making 2 pieces, and then grafting it together. I had to rely heavily on that book, my personal knitting bible, in order to get through the kitchener stitch/grafting technique.

I will definately be making a second one for myself. When I can give a gift that I would like to have for myself, I am overjoyed because I know the recipient is getting something that touches my heart. This cowl is super soft, and very cute. I also have a teal leather jacket that will match it perfectly. Yay!!

Speaking of matching perfectly, I received this beautiful cabled, button-up cowl from Limonene.

Here is a close-up shot. She also got me some Raspberry Ghirardelli chocolate treatsas well, and I am going to savor every single bite of it. The cowl matches the bag that Chicagopurl bought me for my birthday. I mean it is a perfect match. I have been trying to break away from all of the pink, and add some more colors to my wardrobe. This cowl is perfect. It is supersoft, and I love it. Thank you once again, Limonene!!!

Since the weather was a bit chilly today, I decided to wear my Central Park Hoodie. My very first sweater. My labor of love. I looked down at my arm and saw this horror of all horrors.

Here is a closer look at the damage. I don't even know how this happened. I am suspecting that the yarn just wasn't properly spun in that area, and it just popped. It doesn't look like a moth had a feast. And, since I am Meka the Mothslayer, that wouldn't happen anyway.

So, I became a sweater surgeon today. Although it may not be perfect, at least the hole is closed and I don't look like I am wearing a bummy sweater.

So, the lesson of the day is... always keep a few yards of sweater yarn, because you never know.

Oh, you want some knitting content? Wicked sleeve #1 is almost finished, but there isn't a picture yet. Rhinebeck is in 13 days, I gotta finish this baby soon. I am not missing another deadline!!!

I also am celebrating a milestone today. This is my 100th post. Since I am feeling generous, I think I want to do my first contest. The prize will be a set of 10 stitch markers in the size of your choice (worsted, chunky or bulky) made with a picture of your choice, and matching swarovski crystal accents. Here are the rules.

1. Comment for your first entry.
2. Mention the contest and link to this post on your blog for a second entry.
3. The drawing will be on October 28th. 1 week before the Presidential Election. Good Luck!!