WIP Wednesday: Triple Crown Topper

 Posted by on October 17, 2012 at 2:30 pm
Oct 172012
 

I’ve been patiently slogging through my cardigan and the Sgt’s socks I’ve been itching to do something a little faster. The opportunity came along to test Odessa’s Triple hat so I jumped on it!

I’ve got the yarn all wound up and will be casting on later today:

The blue-ish yarn is Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Purple Mystery. It’s hard to capture its true color but it’s blue and purple. Ravelry says it’s an Aran weight but it’s more of a worsted. It is so incredibly soft. I wound both balls by hand and it was so smooth and soft. Now I see why people obsess over it.

The white yarn is Oasis Yarn Aussie Worsted. While it’s a great economy wool yarn (I paid about $6 for 200 yards) it just doesn’t compare to the softness of Malabrigo.

I’ll be knitting the body of the hat with Malabrigo and the color work section in Oasis. I think the white against blue will make a nice high contrast. Plus I want to feel most of the Malabrigo (that’s 4 times I’ve written that) against my head. It would have been a good soft and smooth yarn to use for my chemo hats. Next time someone asks for one, I’ll be using it!

For more WIPs, check out Tami’s blog.

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I Love Yarn Day is HERE!

 Posted by on October 12, 2012 at 3:59 pm
Oct 122012
 

I Love Yarn Day

Yes folks, today is I Love Yarn Day! And there are few things I love more than yarn. (Note to my family: fight amongst yourselves to figure out who it is.)

One of the things I do love are my wonderful yarny friends, both online and in real life. Amber from Last Yesterday is lucky enough to be both an on and offline friend. A few weeks ago, I received a wonderful belated birthday present from her.

Oh yes, that’s a skein of Wollmeise! It’s from their “We’re Different” batch and it’s called Looks Like Moses. Amber has spoiled me rotten with her gifts. She’s also spoiled me rotten with her wonderful friendship.

I shall be spending today at my local Panera Bread happily knitting in public. I’ll also be meeting up with Twitter friend, Michelle from Ugly Little Thing. If you’re in the Nashville/Hermitage area, stop by and say hello.

Are you doing anything special for I Love Yarn Day?

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I Love Yarn Day is Coming!

 Posted by on September 13, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Sep 132012
 

I Love Yarn Day

 

Are you ready? It’s about a month away!

My (tentative) plan for I Love Yarn Day is to park my butt at the local coffee house and knitting my heart out. Well, I’d save some of my heart. Can’t walk around heartless, you know.

Do you have any yarny plans? Perhaps you would like to host a yarn party!

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WIP Wednesday: Gearing up for the Ravellenic Games

 Posted by on July 25, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Jul 252012
 

After last month’s debacle with the USOC, the powers that be on Ravelry (add me!) the Ravelympics shall now be called the Ravellenic Games as a nod to the Panhellenic Games of yore. The mass cast on begins on Friday (See here for more details) but we can start to organize. And organize I shall!

I’m digging up my Lace Diamond scarf out of hibernation and entering that into the WIP Wrestling category. Hopefully then I’ll finally finish the darn thing!

I am going to cast on something new for the games! I’ve decided to pair up this yarn:

which I purchased at the Fiber in the Boro festival back in October from the Knaughty Knitter, to make the Swallowtail Shawl that’s on my Year of Projects list! Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish it during the games but if not, that’s OK.

Yesterday I blogged about ways to deal with scan anxiety. Well, it turns out that I didn’t have a scan today after all. It was just a regular check up with my oncologist. He says that I’m looking good (hurray for weight loss and working out!) and that I seem a bit more cheerful. Always great things to hear from the doctor.

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More Surprise Stash Enhancements

 Posted by on May 21, 2012 at 2:55 pm
May 212012
 

Bear with me while I piggy back on yesterday’s blog post. Warning: yarn porn ahead!

My latest social media obsession is Fitocracy. If you follow me on Twitter, you might have notice that I’ve tweeted the number of points I’ve earned. On Fitocracy, you log your work outs which are then given points. Get enough points and you level up. There are also achievement badges to earn for doing certain work outs (going for a swim, hiking, and lifting weights) and there are quests you can go on. An example of a quest would be to do 20 jumping jacks, 100 dips, and 30 push ups. The community over there is super positive and it’s given me that extra boost to get off my butt.

The best part? There are a ton of crafters that I’ve met. One of whom is the most amazing Kate. She is crazy motivating (she did 5000 push ups in a month!), is a video game geek like me and…dyes her own yarn over at A Hundred Ravens. Some time ago, she sent me a gift of yarn after commiserating with her about being a girl who wants to lift big.* How amazing is this sock yarn? (FULL DISCLOSURE: She sent this yarn as a gift, I’m blogging about it because it’s just that awesome.)

Click to view Ravelry info

It’s a bright Barbie-ish pink with flecks of a deeper pink. It’s incredibly soft and sproingy and I can’t wait to use it. Thank you again, Kate!

*Yes, as a female you can lift a crazy amount of weight and not turn into She-Hulk unless you want to. Check out the women’s Olympic weight lifting team. They’re slender but strong looking gals. Also, doing weight bearing work outs are good for your bones!

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Day 9: Deep Purple

 Posted by on May 20, 2012 at 4:52 pm
May 202012
 

Last day of packages! I’m kinda sad that this, like all good things, has come to an end. Today’s package is called Deep Purple and I was right in my guess that it’s yarn! But not just any yarn….

Dream in Color Smooshy!

It’s a skein of Dream in Color yarn! It’s their Smooshy sock yarn line and the color is Pansy Golightly. I’ve been meaning to try DiC for ages now, especially since it seems to be a popular brand. The color is the right shade of purple for my tastes as well. I need to find a good pattern for it so I can use the left overs on hexipuffs.

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Knitter’s Review: Stitches South!

 Posted by on April 30, 2012 at 5:16 pm
Apr 302012
 

I can’t believe that Stitches South was a week ago. I had a blast! I met the wonderful Tricky Knits who, as it turns out, also lives in Nashville!

It was really nice to be able to say “howdy, neighbor!” The SGT fell in love with her stuff (big yarn + big needles = quick baby gifts) and picked up a copy of her book, Welcoming Home Baby the Handcrafted Way which she was kind enough to sign for us both. My niece Katie will be getting a something knitted from that book, but since she’s a regular reader (Hi!) I won’t be blogging about it for a while. ;)

I stopped by the Malabrigo booth and what did I see but a hat knitted by blog friend Odessa!

The colors are a bit deeper than the photo (the lighting there gave everything a weird yellow color to my photos) but man, was it so soft! Odessa, you have some serious skills.

I did do some stash enhancement, but not a whole lot. I’m actually really proud that I only purchased things that I needed (like blocking wires!) rather than buying everything that piqued my interested. Click on the photos to be taken to their Ravelry page for more info. And yes, this is all the yarn I bought. Just three skeins (well two and a half) of yarn and they’ve all been used up.

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Knit and Crochet Blog Week Day One: Blue

 Posted by on April 23, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Apr 232012
 

3KCBWDAY1 – Color Lovers

My name is Vanessa and I’m a blue-aholic. According to my Ravelry stash, out of the 48 skeins of yarn I own, 32 skeins are some shade of blue. That’s a crazy percentage of my stash dominated by a single color.

Those are the different shades of blue that I tend to buy. What surprises me is that I tend to wear a lot more red than blue! I’m trying my hardest to break away from my blue fetish since I do love the color red and I like bright greens. There’s just something so darn calming about blue to me. I do love color! I love bright colors, mostly because I (and the SGT) look best in spring and summer-y colors. I’m also lucky in that white does not wash me out.

See, even that banner is blue! I’ll be participating again in Knit and Crochet blog week. This is my second year which means I’ve been blogging for a whole year! Yay! Click on the banner to learn more.

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Lion Brand Yarn Souvenirs!

 Posted by on March 26, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Mar 262012
 

While I’ve been trying to be good about working down my stash, sometimes yarn just falls into my lap. Or shopping cart. ;)

Remember my trip to the Lion Brand Outlet? While there I met the very friendly Jack Blumenthal. He was leading a knitting group around the Outlet and graciously included my sister and me. We learned a lot about the history of Lion Brand Yarn (did you know it’s a family run business?) and how Vanna White was their first spokesperson. While listening to his cool anecdotes, I found myself with some yarn in my hands.

Vanna's Glamour

Vanna White's Glamour Yarn

LB Collection Superwash Merino

LB Collection Superwash Merino

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vanna White yarn was a freebie (thanks again, Jack!) so I think I might make a bunch of glamorous hexipuffs. Or something else, I’m not sure.

The LB Collection is ear marked to make the Sketchbook Cardigan. I’m considering making it striped but I’m not sure yet. I need to finish the Featherweight Cardigan first.

In more exciting news, I will be attending Stitches South! Please let me know if you’ll be in attendance. I’d love to have a mini meet up.

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