Tuesday, April 12, 2011

.....and the winner is

Just used the random number generator at random.org and the winner is.....Lunia Titus!


Congratulations!

Please e-mail me so I can get your yarn in the mail ASAP!


Thank you everyone for participating in my yarn give-away. Check out my blog every once and a while because another yarn give-away will be coming soon!

Monday, April 11, 2011

I Have New Socks!

I am SOOO excited! My first sock pattern, April Showers Bring May Flowers, is now available on Ravelry as a free pattern download!

The Spring Weather here in the Atlanta area was definitely the inspiration for these socks. Lots of rain brings out all of the beautiful flowers...the cherrytrees, followed by the dogwoods, magnolias, wisteria and azaelas! People start planting their annual summer flower gardens right about the first of May here. Lots of impatiens and begonias! Such a pretty time of year!




I used Knit Picks Palette Yarn which is a fingering weight yarn and 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. I used less than 2 skeins of Celestial as the main color, and way less than 1 skein each of fushcia and sky for the flowers and raindrops.

Since I've tried some colorwork techniques this past winter with Selbu Mittens and Fair Isle Mittens , I thought I would like to knit some socks with colorwork. As you all already know, I have been quite busy knitting socks these past few weeks. Definitely portable as I drive the kiddos here and there (there's baseball season for my son and lots of rehearsals and dance classes for my daughter's Spring Performance and Recitals). But being in an It's Spring frame of mind, I wanted to knit socks that reminded my of Springtime.



 A little bit about this pattern...it's more or less just a basic stockinette stitch sock with some colorwork added to the leg. There are only 31 rows of colorwork, of which 14 rows are solid colors. And you never work with more than 2 colors at once.  Not too difficult, right? It was a lot of fun to design and playing with the Knit Visualizer software was really a lot of fun!  You can find the the pattern on Raverly. It's free!

Happy Spring!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

So...I told you mine....Yarn-Give-Away

Yep, you know all about mine, told you all about it in my last blogpost...Time to Knit.  So, share with me... when do you knit or crochet? Tell me all about your favorite crafting time, where you are etc.   And...I'm having another Yarn-Give-A-Way. Two Skeins of  Shibui Sock Yarn in this oh-so-spring-y pink.. Each skein is approximately 190 yards. And, it's machine washable! Can't beat that when you want to get back to knitting or crocheting!  Here's a pic!




How do you enter? Just a leave a comment below under this blogpost and tell me when you spend time knitting or crocheting. Leave as many different comments as you like. I will use a random number generator to decide the winner. All entries must be submitted by April 11th at 11:59 pm.  (Atlanta, GA timezone).  I'll announce the winner on April 12th!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Time to Knit

Topic for Day seven: 3rd April. Your knitting and crochet time...Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to knit – alone or in more social environments?


When do I like to knit?  Whenever I can at the moment.  After I get done with work, in the carpool line, waiting at my daughter's dance studio.  Sometimes, first thing in the morning, if I get up early enough.  (But that has to be pretty mindless knitting since there is generally only a few minutes available).  In the evening, after everyone is home, watching TV, staying up much later than I should.  And, the, I'll start all over again the next day!




Knitting is a very relaxing pasttime for me.  It's also is a very good creative outlet whether I'm knitting someone else's pattern or improvising something on my own.

Well, all this blogging was a lot of fun.  Nice to journalize my knitting habits and adventures.  And nice to learn about all of  yours.

Stay tuned as I am planning a yarn give-away sometime next week.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Something to Aspire To


Today's Topic:  Day six: 2nd April. Something to aspire to.  Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make bu can admire the result of those that have.

I would love to knit all of these:

Brooklyn Tweed's Hemlock Ring Blanket


Brooklyn Tweed's Girasole Blanket


Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl
I have yarn right now for both the Hemlock Ring Blanket and Girasole.  If you look at  my Ravelry queue, you will notice that (a) all of these lovely patterns are behind a lot of sock and hat patterns and (b) I queued them a while ago.

So what's holding me back?  Anticipation of how long they will take.  They look so big.  And that is very intimidating.  Socks and hats can take two weeks or less to make.  More or less instantly gratifying.  Easy to take in the car when I'm driving the kids around.  And they look so complicated.  Not good when you are knitting in 20-30 minute intervals here and there throughout the day.

But they are so beautiful.  And I will knit them.  Someday.  



Friday, April 1, 2011

I loves a good song with an accordian

Topic Day Five: 1st April. And now for something completely different. This is an experimental blogging day.  There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.


I love a good song with an accordian. And it is about a holiday!  And it's one of my favorite songs eveh!







RIP Danny Federici ( January 23, 1950 - April 17, 2008)