Just left of normal

Ladies and gents i am so excited about this book i can barely contain myself. You better believe that if it's in hardcover i am borrowing it from work (yeah we can "borrow" or in essence check-out hardcover books from work for a couple weeks - to read - then return). I was surfing for new knit books and the cover of this one drew me in from a mile away. On amazon it was one of those tiny little thumbnails next to the "others who bought this item also bought..." It was screaming to be clicked.
Like a good girl i did so, love at first site with the hat on the cover. I love the retro flapper style. Not to mention take a look at this little number (below) *lo-haha-ve*. Ok this is my next conquest. Boutique Knits is going to be the next addition to my knitting collection.. eventually anyways haha.
It usually pops up on the amazon list over here on the right, if it isn't you can go to my aStore it will be the very first listing.

I am notorious for having way more projects going at once than i can actually finish. This my secret project, i am sort of free handing. This one should take me a good while because of the size of the finished product (intended size anyway). Once i am farther along i will share more, to be honest it's still in birthing phase.

I feel like i post way less often than maybe i should. It seems to me that the feed numbers jump around like crazy. I've been thinking about making a craft blog of mostly just tutorials and walk through's of really cool projects. What sort of really cool projects you ask? Well... cool ones, lol and of course eco-friendly. Tell me what you all think.

Speaking of i actually have an idea for something i want to try today, i'll update later.

I almost forgot to add the bit about the Baby Clapotis. When i first started my clapotis i was way excited and got as far as starting the body and after the first drop i was disappointed. I didn't like the look of two strands in the drop (i had been knitting it with 2 strands help together). But i didn't want to waste all that work and frog the whole thing. So i went ahead and bound it off (yes adding the drops). I thought i could add icording to the two long ends and let my baby wear it. Set it on the back and criss cross the front over the tummy, allow the cording to continue around and tie in the back (which is a plus cause it will also be hidden). However the increase rows in the pattern aren't going to be enough for a child over say 15 to 18 months. i suggest continuing the increase rows an addition 6 times. Also you could measure your child, with their arms out wrist to wrist and continue until it's approximately that long.

I am so excited i just thought i'd throw in this little blurb, i talked sammy into buying me some roving off etsy (after a little coercion and bargaining)it's a lovely mix of pastels called Party Mints which it does look exactly like. I pray that it will be beautiful to work with - at least more so than the first. Here is a picture of my humble little spindle.

I had dad drill the whole in the center of the wood which actually worked pretty well. I've had to glue the whorl 3 times though because my dad would see it on the table and fiddle with it. He'd ask if it was working out or what it was for while he'd just pop the whorl loose like it wasn't even glued and slide it up to the hook or down the other end. Then he'd try to spin the whorl on the dowel and make a comment about it not spinning very well, then i'd tell him the whole thing spins at once not just the whorl. Then he'd say "oh, well it slides around an awful lot for that" *smacks forehead* The other two times i wasn't present when he moved the whorl but i know he did because aside from it being loose it was in a different spot than i put it in.

Alright i am off to work on my Ridged Lace Cowel (a pattern from Elinor Brown found here) - which is actually the real reason i came up here to the computer because the pattern was just not coming out like the picture and i had to find out what was going on. I found the exact issue on her ravelry page "Pattern was corrected 6/3/08 to remove a stray YO. New stitch pattern repeat should read ”yo, k1, yo, k2, sl1, k2tog, psso, k2”" I was ending up with all these extra stitches and not enough pattern repeat and then it just looked really wonky. Now it should be better.

P.S. If you have any comments on my drop spindle, maybe i should make the whorl smaller or something... let me know please and thank you :D

I am so excited about a design I've been working on today... well a couple. I have done a fair amount of brainstorming throughout and trying to draw out whats in my head as well as work out the logistics of putting it together. I've nearly finished my first prototype and i've actually learned a lot about how i want to work the next one differently. But i like it's finished look it just needs tweaking. I also need to perfect the order it is put together and write it out or i may forget something. For the sake of surprise i can't show you a full pic but i will show you this teaser.

The other small yet sort of big news is that i decided to go ahead change the yarn of the clapotis i was working on which was a little disappointing since i had already finished the increase rows and moved into the body. It may not sound like to much to some of you, but to be honest i've never knit anything larger than a hat or scarf. So it was a bit of an accomplishment for me that i had gotten that far. But i am not going to give up i really want to finish this one. I changed over to a dusty blue worsted weight. Hopefully it will go a little faster this time haha.

This is the second post for today, i just didn't think it would be good to add this onto the end of the last post (if you read it you know why). As you may know I've been working on my first clapotis and i realized that the last row i did i was distracted by the baby and my dad. When i went to do the next row today i noticed that there was a large part of the row in the middle with purls instead of knits (i was on a wrong side row in which you work purl all the way through). This is something that happens to me sometimes when i feel to comfortable in purl and let myself get distracted.

Pulling it off the needles and frogging down a row would be out of the question because i would totally loose track of where my stitch markers go. After a bit of "hmm-ing" and "hah-ing" over it I decided the best thing to do would be to slip over to the stitches (i am already working on cables so i didn't need to bring in reinforcements), drop them individually and use a crochet hook to fix them... one by one. There were roughly 47 stitches to fix. Took me a little while but it was a success. Right now i'm on the last set of increase stitches, which i am greatful for. I really want to get started on the body of it and see some of the drops so it feels like i am actually making progress.

Since the clapotis took the knitting world by storm a few years back i've been infected with a curiosity as to what all the rage about. I mean there are entire blogs and knitting groups devoted to this single work. So i decided to make one...

I was nearly impressed with myself for being so diligent and sticking with it so far and was impressed by the size it was, then i remembered looking at the schematic chart and realized i had actually only completed about a fifth of it. So in order to not feel overwhelmed or discouraged i desided that i wouldn't read beyond the section of the pattern i was working on. Though i did happen to see the next section (which is the middle and bulk of the work) is repeated 12 times. *sigh* i won't give up haha.

Every now and then i get to buy something for myself and be totally excited about it. Since i've been knitting more i've become more aware of different tools and aids that i wasn't previously sure of. Being a fan of Clover brand knitting products i snapped this right up. (Click the picture for more info) You all may see the return of the Etsy shop at this rate. So i'll keep you updated on the progress of both.