SP Questionaire 2

1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without?
My crochet hook - unfortunately, I am the queen of drop stitches. I hate to frog anything so sometime I would stay up hours at a time to perform knitting surgery.

2. If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you? If so, how much and what type of project? Absolutely! At least several project since I have knitting ADD. Normally a sweater in the luggage, socks or mittens in the purse and a brand new yarn and pattern in case I’m bored with other 2.

3. Where have you travelled to that you'd consider your favorite spot? I love London, however, I went there before the knitting bug bit me. So I totally missed out doing the London Yarn Crawl.

4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment? Do you own it? Cast Off – Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. The book really doesn’t have any patterns, just her witty observation on the knitting world. I love to pick it up and laugh along with her. I bought it at her book launch so I had it authographed.

5. Do you listen to podcasts? Which is your favorite(s)? No but I’m going to look into it and start downloading it into my Ipod.

6. If you could only knit with 1 color for the rest of your life, what color would that be? I am a total schizo when it comes to color but at the moment, I would have to say “Sage Green”.

7. If you were far into a project and then noticed a mistake near the beginning what would you do? It depends, if I have too many stitched, I’m the “k2tog” kind of girl but if it’s drastic like a mis-crossed cable, I would perform knitting surgery.

8. Where is the most unusual spot you've ever knit? In the bathroom, and that’s only because I need to get away from my kids for 5 min for some peace and quiet!!!!

Oh Debbie, How I love you so!

My LYS had a tent sales yesterday. Do I need to say more? YARN TENT SALE!!!!! How it works is they provide 3 size bags, Small, Medium & Large, each prices at $45, $90 & $150 and you can stuff as much yarn as you can into the bag. I went to the sale with a very low budget of $50 but I can't pass up these great yarns so I went over budget by only about $40 and grabbed the medium bag. Here's the haul:

I went straight for the Debbie Bliss. I got a bag of Alpaca Silk, a bag of cotton silk, 9 balls of Cashmerino Aran, 6 balls of Cathay, 10 balls of Enzio and a bunch of handspuned/hand dyed for my Secret Pals.

In other new, I had received my Ravelry invitation on Monday (User: joyja) and have been taking pictures of my stash since. I'm practically ecstatic about it... it's a really great website.

Also, I have been assigned my secret pals and we have a tons of things in common. I'm going to have a fun time spoiling her. I also met my spoiler! I can't wait to get to know her better.

Here's the latest project that I have been working on:

This is the back of the sweater for Arison. It's out of Debbie Bliss Cotton knits.

Secret Pals Questionaire

Wow! My very first secret pal! Here's the questionaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I love almost anything Rowan and Debbie Bliss. Wools or wool/blends tends to be my fiber of choice. I mainly knit superwash for my kids. I absolultely do NOT like acrylic. Mainly wools with blended acrylic is ok. Even though I started on acrylics, I soon knew the benefit of being a fibre snob! Items just turns out so much better!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I use the knit pick binders for my knit pick needles, and I bought a beautiful handmade circular case off etsy for my addis. I keep my straight needles in a vase.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I learned to knit when I was 8 and it was only the knit stitch. I didn't know how to bind off, purl or pick up dropped stitches, so I would have rows of rows of garter stitch scarf still stuck on the needle with mistakes everywhere. I finally picked it up again when I was pregnant with my 2nd baby and on Mat. Leave. Even though I've only been knitting for almost a year, I had advanced really fast and now considered myself an intermediate knitter.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? hhmm...no, but I should really get one. A great list for hubby to know about!

5. What's your favorite scent? I love powdery smell, ( a newborn's head) Can you tell I have a baby in the house? LOL My favorite parfume is Cashmere by Donna Karan (go figure, I didn't realize that my scent would be my passion a few years later!)

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Not really... but there are days when nothing else will do except a chocolate bar. I love all chocolate with Almonds in it.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?I tried orgami but all I got was just a jar full of cranes, I tried sewing but I'm still figuring out how to wind a bobbin, and I tried cross stitch but figure it's a waste of my time since I can't wear it. I think I'm going to stick to knitting.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) Yes, my computer can play mp3. I like most music (top forties) I know, I know, very un-orginal.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I love green and pink. I don't have any strong dislike for colors in yarns but I normally will not buy black. Not because I don't like the color, it's just depresses me when I knit since I can't see any real stitch definitions.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? I've been happily married for 4 years. We have a 3 years old daughter and 1 year old boy. No, we do not have pets, 2 things that poops and eat is enough, thank you. I wear hats, mittens, scarves and ponchos.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I like to knit sweaters and sweaters for my kids.

13. What are you knitting right now? Lady Eleanor, my son's sweater and a sweater for myself

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? yes

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I am a die hard circular fan. I love my addis and knit pick but I'm dying to try the wooden ones.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? yes, both

17. How old is your oldest UFO? about 8 months

18. What is your favorite holiday? X-mas

19. Is there anything that you collect? I love books and I have extendsive cooking books, chick lits and gardeing books. (one would think that my garden would look nicer and my food would taste better with all those books that I own)

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I would love to try rosewood and/or ebony circular needles and I am looking for the that cute Tulip sweater knit that the harlot been knitting up. I don't have a subscription to anything, which is ironic since I buy everything magazine every season

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? I would love to know how to knit continental

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I've started on a sock, still on the needle though and I have a few socks yarns. My feet is a size 8

23. When is your birthday? October 5, 1975

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID? Not yet, as of tonight, I have only 700 people in front of me.

Ravelry and RAKs

I keep checking my inbox everyday, patiently waiting for my Ravelry invite. My camera is poised, ready to start snapping away at my stash so I can finally start organizing. As of today:

Found you!
You signed up on June 12, 2007
You are #8554 on the list.
1702 people are ahead of you in line.
12016 people are behind you in line.
33% of the list has been invited so far

This is where I am. I guess I should be thankful that I'm not part of the people behind myself. 1700 isn't so bad when you look at the 12016!

While I was surfing around Knitty Coffee Shop, I came across RAK (random acts of kindness) topic. I finally figured out what it is! It's quite brilliant and cute, really. There various knitter posting a bunch of stuff that they would love to have and you can send that to them. In return, you post what you wish for and hopefully someone would send something back to you. I love giving things so this would just be up my valley. So far, I'd picked 3 people and I want to send some stuff out this weekend.

In the meantime, I set aside the Lady E because I'm not sure what I want to do yet, so I'd started on a sweater for Arison. The pattern is out of Debbie Bliss Cotton Knits for All Seasons which I'm knitting out of cabled wool. I should be able to post a pic real soon.

To Dye or Not to Dye

Over the weekend, I got struck with a huge urge to try my hand at dyeing. I had about 2 skeins of bulky Kraemer 100% supersoft wool from the Yarn Crawl that I was dying to try (no pun intended) . I bought a few packets of kool-aid during my last grocery outing, so I was ready to go.

Got the directions off Knitty.com and figured that it was pretty easy enough:

I thought I would try a solid color first and orange seems to be the prettiest color at the time. Here it is soaking, waiting to be put in the microwave.
Maybe I'll wear plastic gloves next time
Hanging out to dry

I thought I try hand-dying

The overall effects

The results? A blotchy and streaky yarn that smell a lot like fruit. I don't think Koigu will be calling me anytime soon!

What NOT to do

1. I will try not to constantly google"Lady Eleanor" and checking out other people's finished project.
2. I will not compare my choice of color to other colorways and wishing I had bought a more neutral, understated color.
3. I will not admire other people's gauge, but will celebrate my own wonky and uneven gauge
4. I will not read about another Lady Eleanor that's made with Noro Silk Garden and wishing that I didn't go cheap, but will be content about the Noro Kureyon that I've chosen.
5. I will refrain the urge to rip back and start the whole thing over on a a neutral color Noro Silk garden with smaller needles.

If step 1-5 is followed, a finished brightly colored, uneven, scratchy stole will be mine. (ok, I guess it won't hurt to buy just ONE skein of silk garden and just do a swatch???)

My latest obsessions

Here's my latest project that has me giddy with joy everytime I pick it up: Lady Eleanor

I'm knitting it in Noro Kureyon 166. I've done some research for the most appropriate yarns before I started this and most people knit it out of Noro Silk Garden. Since I got this yarn 40% off at a closing sale, I would have to be happy with just the Kureyon. It seems that they both knit up to the same gauge but silk garden is softer. I'm hoping after I give this stole a good soak in Eucalan, it would soften up considerably.

I have always been intimidate by entralacs. It looks hard and seems like it would make a knitter slit her own throat with a dull butter knife. However, I found that the pattern is really easy to memorize and knit up. I can't seem to put it down since the color changes just have me totally enthralled.

I've just finished Aliana's pink sweater. I started this sweater about 5 months ago and put it aside. To be completely honest, I don't think I would have ever finished it but something in me refuse to have an unfinished sweater in which my 2 year old would surely grow out of unless I start knitting it. Right now, all it needs is a zipper and it'll be done. For sure, the sweater will continue to sit there, Again.