She's BAAAACK!

Hello Ladies!
I am back and still recovering from the blissful trip to NYC for the Yarn Harlot's book launch of "Stephanie Casts Off" which is an extremely funny book. I at least should share a quick photo with you as a tease.

Actually I started with 5 signed (click on the photo to see Stephanie's signature!) books, and am now down to 2. Out of these 2, one is going to go to the knitter with the most points after the halfway point of the season. How's that for incentive??
Keep up the good work!
=:8

Two hats done - 425 grams of alpaca!

I finished two hats this last week. 15 ounces of alpaca! They are lined/reversible stocking caps with big fold up brims. Going to either Dulaan or Afghans for Afghanistan. Probably afghans since I've got a couple of boxes of Dulaan stuff ready to go except for the washing. And drying. I have to figure out a new way to dry things since I no longer have a bathtub! (I used to stretch the sweater dryers across the tub.) I think the solution will involve a screen or screendoor suspended over benches in the back yard.

15 ounces! that's 425 grams. still losing ground, but I'm trying! (I'm so old school - I didn't hear the end of the race and when I heard BUSH WINS! I thought Kevin.)

What a dumb week but a good race weekend

Guess what, no finished socks this week. I started on the "really big" birthday pair. Smart alack that I am, I did the full leg and then realized that I was off a stitch and the pattern just wasn't correct or even liveable, so it went to the frog pond and I started over again. I knew I probably wouldn't finish them and I didn't - not in time anyway, I will finish them.

As they are sitting on my table now, I am well down the foot of both, but another pattern was calling out to me, so since I have time before I have to get them in the mail, I started those. I'll have at least both pair finished by this coming weekend, maybe more.

I don't know about you, but I got (almost) raced out this weekend. Qualifying was repeated on Fri. and I must admit I fell asleep on the fourth time through. Then Sat there was qualifying and the race with both repeated, plus the Indy race in the evening. Then Sun there was NASCAR. Must admit it did make the weekend more fun. Maybe that is way I didn't get all the knitting done - too busy watching the cars go round and round.

Sue

Finally! A Finished Race!!

This week was a huge destashing week. I cleaned out and organized my craft room, which led to selling some items. I even have a computer monitor with speakers, scanner, and printer that need a home (or homes). That is how cluttered my craft room had gotten.

I even started and finished a teenie project. I had a little bit of some NOT-fun-fur left over from my first sweater that finally spoke to me. My dollies needed a novelty scarf, and that is what they got... One, 8 gram novelty scarf. That is all that I had enough for.

socks and socks

This week's knitting was all socks - one pair for each of my sons.

Both were pretty small, especially the black ones, because my 9-year-old requested ankle socks. Honestly, the total was probably less than even 100g.

I hope everybody enjoyed the race - I know my household is always excited when it's a Bristol week. Congrats to Kyle Busch!

Oh, and Kimberly, it was really cool to hear you on It's a Purl, Man. It sounded like you guys had a great day.

Squeaking in under the wire

Well, if it all counts, that is...

Done this week:

Hats! Have we got hats!! Two in Malabrigo Chunky (I loved it so much that I made one to keep). These were the same weight: 80.05g. The headband was 28.35 (was the only thing I could think of with that tiny bit left over). The blue is Debbie Bliss Merino DK (used double) for 70.87g. The pink is Misti Alpaca (also used double) for 77.8g. The middle bottom is Noro Silk Garden--56.7g.

I gifted my little sister a skein of Noro & the teeny bit left over from the hat. She sewed up a baby sweater for me. (Me + Seaming + PMS = One Incredibly Irritating & Frustrating Experience.) Total gift: 64.17g

See that cute lil' pompom on that pink hat? I bought a pompom maker. Before trying it out on the good stuff, I made some practice ones using leftover Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (from that baby sweater my sister sewed together for me). Here's an ounce (28.35g) of pompoms:

The top one was the first, and it's really rather weedy. I popped these into a ziplock with some catnip and PRESTO! Instant cat toys!

The Husband reminded me that we have 8 cats, and I really wasn't being fair to the others. So, during the pre-race show, I made 3 more (after all, that first one is rather pathetic). I used the even teensier bit of chunky Malabrigo and some acrylic Caron that's floating around. Another 28.35g. (yay for heavier yarn!)

And here are Autumn & Pat, checking out their new toys:

I'm thinking I need to wash the Malabrigo one, though. I don't think they like the vinegar smell. ;)

Total yarn used: 436.34g. Total yarn gifted: 64.17g. Race total: 500.51g. But if y'all say the pompoms don't count, I'll understand!!

Knitting Results for Bristol

This week I finished a pair of socks from Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock yarn. I knit the Yarrow Ribbed sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. This used up 100 grams of yarn (have a bit left over).



I finished the first sock of a pair of ankle socks and started the second using up about 30 grams of yarn:



I also started a scarf, which I don't have a photo of, using up another 20 grams of yarn. So, for this week I have a total of 150 grams knit up. Hopefully next week I'll have some more yarn used up!

What a race today! I always love the races at Bristol. Way to go Kyle Busch for winning!

~ Lindsey
http://mslindz.blogspot.com/

I Did It!

Yes, I have a FO for this week...I think my socks counted for last week. I won't feel like so much of a loser if I find some way of finishing an item a week....yee-aah~right! Someone's gotta tear me away from my spinning wheel!

This is a baby sweater, many of what's going to be a busy baby making season!

Total Grams: 140 (wow...big numbers here)
Yarn used: Bernat Softee Baby 100% (eeewh-Yes, I'm a yarn snob...) Acrylic

Color 910~Baby Denim

Oh...but now I'm on "the perfect button" search....an suggestions?

Keep on Knittin'!

One more thing!!!

I also have some unrelated items for sale on my blog.
http://heather-knits.blogspot.com

Cozy Crochet Kit

$15 + shipping
This item has been opened, but never used.
The crochet hooks, yarn, and cards are untouched!!

Destashing, again!!

If you are interested in any of the following items, please send me an email at bigpikachica att sbcglobal dott net.

HOLDS: I will only hold an item for 24 hours, if I have more than one interested buyer.
Payment is due as soon as we make an agreement and I send you a Paypal invoice. Paypal payments only, please.
Items are sold AS-IS and all sales are final.
If you want more than one item, make me an offer. I will negotiate anything reasonable.

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*VINTAGE* Brother Ribber KR580

~~starting offer $40 + shipping~~
~~ BUY IT NOW: $100 shipped ~~
I found this is my grandmother's attic. From what I can tell, this is a vintage ribber attachment for a Brother knitting machine. I believe that almost everything, if not everything, is there.
CLICK IMAGE FOR BIG PIC.

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Ultimate Sweater Machine (USM) VHS Video
~~$5 + shipping~~
Paypal payments only, please.
I have transferred this to DVD and I no longer need the VHS.

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90% Complete ADULT Sailor Mars Costume (Cosplay)
~~$30 Shipped~~
This costume was started for a former friend that ended up not being able to come to A-Kon with us a couple of years ago.
Items included: Bodysuit (stretchy, new without tags), shoes (sz 9W), shoulder flares (to be sewn on), front and back bows, ribbon for necklace, complete waist band (unsized, needs skirt sewn on), fabric for skirt.

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"Spoiled" Fleece Blanket (4ft x 6ft)
~$5 shipped~

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Fat Quarters / Quarter Flats *NEW*
ALL FOR $20 SHIPPED

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Fat Quarters / Quarter Flats REMNANTS
ALL FOR $10 SHIPPED
Most are just barely used.
All are over fat eighth.

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Larger Solid Remnants
~$20.00 shipped~
About half than a yard, but the rest is more.
A small amount of fleece is also included.

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I will package these with anything else you buy without charging shipping. Otherwise, I will charge shipping.Blue Flower Remnant (1yd) - $1.00
Red 7pc Fat Eighths bundle - $1.00
Red Bias Tape (6ft) - $0.50
Pink Ribbon (3/16in x 6yds) NEW - $0.50
White Ribbon (1/4in x 6yds) NEW - $0.50
Blue Ribbon (1/8in x less than 6yds) - $0.25
Oriental Trading Jingle Bell Frog Kit
(I have 6) - $1.00/all

Not much, but this week but

I at least finished another pair of socks (bet that is a surprise). Only have one more pair to finish for the birthday, but they are a BIG pair, so working on them.

These are the Tidal Wave pattern done in Trekking XXL. They took the full, and I mean full, 100 grams of yarn. Even had to cut the toe a little short to get them both out of the skein as I couldn't see ordering a skein for just a few rows.

Guess I only get 125 points for this week, maybe I'll do better next week.

Sue

Winner of the Fontana Week Is...

Well before I tell you all that bit, I want to repeat that no points will be taken away for buying yarn. If that was being done, I would be SOOOOOOOO negative with all those clearance/business-closing sales!!

Now your winner of the 2 hanks of Classic Elite's Wings in "pretty" pink is:

Mish at The Book Faerie with 3,231 points!! How did she do it? She did a lot of little projects to make tons of FO points, and gave away over 1500 grams. Yow-sa.

Many congrats, Mish!! Please send me your snail addy so I can get these hanks into the mail before I head to NYC for the Yarn Harlot's book kick-off.

My Week 5!! This is a big one!!!

This is a quickie. I have to go meet the Brinks guy so I can install a second keypad.

points!

Two Jimmie Johnson wins in a row - my husband is quite pleased. And smug. And maybe a little annoying.

But anyway . . . I did get a pretty good amount of knitting (for me) done this week, including during the race, although I'm not sure what week that counts for. All my amounts are estimated - I need to get one of those little drug dealer, I mean, kitchen scales.
The tea rose halter from the latest issue of Interweave Knits is finished except for the crochet-chain straps. It used just over two 200g skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, and about half of it was knit this week. I also made a pair of pedicure socks (my first socks!) using about 100g of Wool-ease. And finally, I made a cotton baby tank top using one skein of yarn for which I lost the ball band. I'm guessing it was 100g. Pictures for all these will be on my blog hopefully by tonight.
I did purchase a little bit of yarn: one 200g skein of Rowan Spun Chunky wool. All the local yarn stores keep having clearance sales! And extending them for multiple weeks!
So, to do my estimated math, that's 300g of knitting, minus 200g of yarn-buying. Not even close!
Oh well, have a great week, everybody.

Progress this past week

I have an FO for this week. It's a Panta that's being gifted to someone:



50 g of yarn! Woo!

I also sent a bunch of yarn off to someone. I don't have a photo of what I sent, but I sent 6 skeins of Knit Pick's Crayon (50 g each), 2 skeins of Malabrigo Uruguay (100 g each), and 1 really large skein of sock yarn (150 g), for a total of 650 grams of yarn given away!

Two weeks ago I ordered yarn for a sweater - 20 skeins Rowan RYC Silk Wool DK, 50 g each (1000 g) - and it arrived on Saturday.



In total, I knited and gave away a total of 700 g of yarn :o)

~ Lindsey

Edited to add: I meant to ask: Anyone here going to Knitter's Connection in June?

2 weeks worth of progress...

Hi girls! So sorry I've been a bit MIA. I've had pictures from last Saturday for points last week and then I have pictures for this week. We've had some family illness issues and although I've been knitting, I haven't had a lot of computer time.

For the weeks between California and Las Vegas i was a bit slack in my knitting. I used 176 grams for the mitered squares.

I have also started teaching some 4th and 5th grade male students of mine how to finger knit. I've been using this as an opportunity to stashbust. This is approximately 429 grams of yarn that was donated to the boys.

Total yarn used from California to Las Vegas - 605 grams.

Ok, now this week's progress...


Some of the 5th grade girls at school wanted to get into the finger knitting, so I took this bunch to school and wound it into balls. I weighed it on the meat scale and it was 435 grams.

I added 11 more squares this week = 200 grams
1/2 of a #8 dishcloth = 25 gramsFinished cape for Miss Em - this week: 45 grams used.

I am on Spring Break this week so hopefully I'll be able to get myself together a bit and be more organized!

Knitting Pics

Are up on my blog. :)

Totals (to keep within the rules):

One failed hat/now a bowl: 85g Laines Du Nord
One baby stockinette hat: 56g Trendsetter Yarns Tonalita
Headband (tied): 43g Flutter-By Kisses
Headband (slip on): 33g Flutter-By Kisses
Nesting material holder: 28g Laines Du Nord
Ribbed hat: 113g Plymouth Baby Alpaca/some other baby alpaca (label's floating around here somewhere!)

Total used: 358.3g

Me Gettin' Blown off the Track

You all are doing awesome. I think only gave up 250-350 grams for Fontana, and because I am trying to recover from last weekend's Sock Madness initial round, my right hand HURTS! Since I did not finish the pair until Monday morning, I will have to count them for this past Sunday's race. I do have Daytona's race statistics already tallied, and will upload the file later today. Now, here is the first bit of incentive for getting rid of that stash. I will be awarding this amazingly soft yarn to the person with the most points by this Friday. And no, I am not racin' but I am Grand Marshall. ;)
BBB, LGR!!
=:8

Hats, sort of

I wanted to make a child's hat. I looked/tried several different patterns. Since I'm sending them to the Dulaan Project, I'm knitting 'em double stranded to make them extra warm.

Could NOT get the first one to work right. I thought I'd try a variation on a couple of patterns, knitting in garter, then a modified seed stitch (K1, P1 for a row, K next row, P1, K1 for the row after). Maybe it really does have a name. I don't know. It looked cute. But I don't think it will work as a hat. I thought about frogging (again), but the start of the yarn was starting to fray :(

So now, it's a bowl. Non-felted (it's superwash merino), but I'll use it to hold stuff on my bureau. Oh, it's Laines Du Nord. I don't think I'll buy it again. (I think I know now why they stuck it in the clearance bin!)

I'm much happier with the second. Your basic stockinette roll-brim hat, in Trendsetter Yarns Tonalita. I'd never heard of it, but I really liked it. I'll try to get pics up later this week.

Totals used: bowl--85g; proper hat--56g; grand total 141g

Some Plymouth Baby Alpaca is calling me now.....

No #48 here!!

At least I scored a few points this week!! LoL No one claimed these, so I just donated them.Pretty much the past two weeks have been taken up by getting my new car and driving around in it!! HA HA HA!!! Maybe I will knit a steering wheel cover!! I already have the magnetic numbers on the way!!

This week off the needles

I am sure it took me longer to figure out how to post and post a picture than it took me to knit one of the socks - but I think I have it all under control - at least till next week.

Didn't finish the two pair of socks till late last night - the races were toooo good to miss and since I have to look at what I am knitting, I just had to put the knitting down for the race.

The large socks are for my SIL and they are huge. Made in the Monkey pattern (have since discovered there is another pattern called the Monkey pattern - will have to make those next) using Regia Surprise Color and Phildar. They used 150 grams (close to it anyway with only a few yards left over).

The bright socks (wish I could get a picture that really shows how LOUD they are, are made from Regia Mini Ringel (color has been discontinued, wish I could get lots more of it) and the pattern is Jeanie Townsand's Michigan Cherry pattern. There is also the solid red which is Phildar Preface. They used 100 grams.

This should add 250 grams and 50 points for a finish (300) to my total (at least I think that is correct - boy trying to sign into Google really has me messed up - must be my age, I use to be able to handle things like this when I was younger).

I plan to send the picture to Jeanie as I am sure she never, in her wildest dreams saw her pattern looking like these socks. I love them and just hope I get up the nerve to wear them - in public!!!

Wish Mark Martin had won - maybe next time.

Off to start the next sock - they are SO additive.

Sue

knitting this week

Well, I think my points would be negative this week. I got some knitting done, maybe about 150 - 175g worth, but I also increased my stash. In my defense, there was a clearance sale.

Also in my defense, much of my time was taken up planning . . .

A NASCAR birthday party! That's gotta be worth something, right? :)

Anyway, congrats to all the Jimmie Johnson fans out there. My house is happy this week!

FO Photo Shoot!

I decided to stage a little "fashion shoot" for my FOs:

Back row:

Pooh in the neckwarmer (177g, LionBrand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick)

Gorilla in the hat (same yarn, 128g)

Monkey with the green headband (LionBrand Wool-Ease, 35g)

Front row:

Engagement Bear is sporting a headband (leftover T&Q, 57g)

Piggie gets the blue hat (Debbie Bliss Merino Aran, used double, 113g)

Duckie has the black neckwarmer (Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande, 85g)

Pat the Cat is checking them out.

Total g = 595

This is the destashed yarn (which is on its way to my sister's friend in KC):

510g of the Red Heart Baby Clouds; 906g of Peaches & Creme for a total of 1416g.

Knitting, reading, laundry...knitting, reading, laundry...what to pick... :)

How's Everyone Doing?

This week has been so crazy for me at work, that I haven't even posted on my main blog, let alone get everyone's stats done here. I see lots of fierce competing in getting points, and hope to figure a prettier way of showing them off besides my spreadsheet. If all else fails, I will try to upload the overall points in the Yahoo! Groups database and have the file available for downloading too.

Anyone here in Sock Madness or in Secret Pal 10? Both would be a great way to get some destashing done!

BBB, LGR!
Kimberly
=:8

DeStash for Points!

I am knitting - a tiny baby blanket and a larger afghan, but have nothing to show for points.

HOWEVER! Last Tuesday night at KnitWits I did some early destashing. I shared two XXL ziplock storage bags of yarn, ranging from various acrylics to organic cottons to RioGrande rug wool. In my haste, I did not weigh them before I took them to the meeting, thinking that I'd ask the ladies to write down the grams of each ball they took. Big mistake. Not every skein of yarn was still with its paper; not everyone could find where the weight was on the yarn wrappers. So - we did an estimate of how much yarn was in the two bags (did I mention XXL storage bags?). (All the yarn was taken - leftovers went with Bambi to the prison outreach group.) The informed guesstimates ranged from 5 pounds to 150 pounds. I thought there was about 10 pounds. At any rate, I'll gladly settle for the 5 pound estimate. wow. That's more than 2200 grams. Destashing is infinitely easier than knitting! Be forewarned that I'm making one more giant destash meeting next week, then it's knitting the rest of the way. (I'm moving and don't want to have to move the yarn. again.)

I'm a dingbat

I failed to read the pattern before I bought most of the yarn. I thought I needed the regular Peaches & Creme...not realizing the pattern calls for the double worsted. *sigh*

I've ordered the correct yarn (and in colors I'd prefer). Anyone interested in a couple of cones in ecru? It's not worth the hassle of returning them to Wallyworld (that, and I no longer have the receipt). Let me know, and they can be yours!!

Trying to catch up

I'm knitting furiously (or trying to, anyway) so I can catch up before Sunday's race.

I've managed to finish a neckwarmer (177g) using a skein (and a smidge of another) of the Wool-Ease Thick & Quick and a headband/earwarmer using a leftover partial skein (about an ounce; was 35 g knitted up) of the regular Wool-Ease. Pics are in the middle of this post. I'm working on a hat with the other T&Q skein. I was almost done, when I realized (during decreasing) that I was looking at the wrong pattern!! *sigh*