Halloween and Stitch Markers

Greetings one's of readers! I know at least one person reads this blog. So let's just jump back in shall we? Behold The Boy Who Lived Weasley Sweater I knitted for Henry LAST YEAR. Ok. Knitting children's sweaters a bit large is not a BAD idea, it's a GOOD idea. Kids grow.

The sweater, along with some Channel eye liner for a lightening shaped forehead scar, were quite the hit for Henry's Harry Potter Halloween costume this year. Pretty much EVERYONE recognized H's costume.

We raided the dress up, clothes we already have, dollar store for our costumes this year. Evelyn wore her green fairy/princess skirt and bolero Grandma Sue made her for Christmas a few years back. We augmented it with some Bright Green dollar store fairy accessories, some black clothing she already had and finished it off with a pair of lovely Noro leggings inspired by Lyra's leggings in The Golden Compass. So we had a Handknit Halloween!

I've been itching to knit lace. I've been wearing my Swallowtail and Kiri shawls recently. Oh how I love them. They add a little warmth, a splash of color and texture. I love them. This is Gail (Nightsongs) in Knit Picks Gossamer in Sweat Pea.

I crashed and burned during my first attempt on the Nightsongs shawl. I used all locking stitch markers and missed the very important center marker. I decided to toss my stitch marker stash.

Top row from left to right we have a section of drinking straw, yes I have resorted to drinking straw bits in the past. Knit Picks split ring markers, Knit Picks locking stitch marker, I don't like either of the Knit Pick's stitch markers, they are stiff, break easily and the pointy part of the open one is too pointy. The one of the end is a Grandma Janette stash old school plastic O ring. I think they were intended for hanging curtains somehow. I love them.

Middle row from left to right. Surprise stitch markers included in my Crazy 4 Dying yarn, I love these. One of my set of "Boob" markers from Just A Knit Wit's Etsy store. One of two markers I received from Laura from Crazy Miss Finch a few years ago. One of my favorites. It's metal wire and beads. I really like this construction. She has a tutorial, scroll down to find the stitch markers.

Bottom Row thank you markers from Cyrano's Creature Comforts Drive.

The continuous metal wire and bead markers are my favorite. They are the least likely to come apart and get caught on the project in my experience.

I'm here and I knitting. I have more projects to share but many are Holiday gifts so I'll wait to post pics.

No I'm Not Watching The Super Bowl

Finished the obligatory square on the blanket today, a rectangle. It's a bright and happy blanket.

Spent some quality time over at Ravelry tonight. Did not realize I'm at 100 projects! I have more I could put in BR, that's Before Ravelry. It's hard to remember BR. Kind of like remember BK Before Kids. It's a different life, a different world.

So I pulled out a two boxes filled with older FO's and the rest of my needle stash from the basement tonight. I decided to catalog some more needles. I have some funky old school straights from Grandma J. I have a pair of bright green plastic size 19's that are screaming at me to use, but for what project I don't know. These needles have attitude. I also have a smaller plastic pair that are bright orange with 12's embossed on them. They are not 12 metric the might 12 US sized, but that's not listed on Ravelry so I can't log them. They are cool regardless.

I still have a vase of straights to catalog eventually, for now they are decorative. It is interesting to see what I have.

For example crochet hooks. No clue I had 4 H's, 3 J's, and 3 K's. What's up with all of the H's. I had a few smaller ones that did not fit or were too small for my sizing card. Interesting to see the sizes I have. The big mess of hooks looked like there would be more sizes turns out there were multiples.

So now I'm deciding what to knit next. Do I pound through the remaining eight FSM's? Move on to another pair of socks? I've been playing with my Ravelry Queue organizing and planning for Holiday 09. Yes Holiday 09. Courses and Wales in her supreme state of organization has her Holiday 09 projects all lined up and her yarn in her Rav stash. That just rocks. I'm not quite that prepared but I have some preliminary ideas at play.

Speaking of Holiday gift ideas I found the Betz White flickr pool for her book Warm Fuzzies: 30 Sweet Felted Projects. She does sweater felting. The mitten/cowl project and jumper projects look fun. Found that a few days ago. We shall see.

I have a sizable bag of feltable red yarn that is calling to be made into something. I'm thinking of revisiting felted bowls, or maybe something a bit bigger and more basket sized. The Cat Bordhi mobius bowls are intriguing. We shall see.

Baskets, Dr, Horrible and the Ravelympics

I have two awesome knitting baskets. Did a little digging online today turns out they are Bolga baskets from Ghana. Dad found them a few years ago. They were a bit out of shape so I wet them down and reblocked them. They've been hardworking knitting baskets ever since. I love these baskets.

Dr Horrible is back on Hulu for free and on Whedontube. E is going out of her skull asking to watch Dr Horrible so she can sing along. Here's an interview with NF at Comicon.








I'm so excited about the upcoming Ravelympics. Yes I decided to participate. Casey has been doing some sweet code fu for the Ravelympics. I"m entered in the Sock Put event with four teams, Team Ohio, Team Obama, Team Mine and the so far largest team, Team Tardis. I'm knitting a pair of Monkeys with my Crazy4Dying sock yarn. Woot!

The Call of The Yarn Cake

The call of the Yarn Cake is almost as powerful as the Call of the Ravelry. E and I wound up a few more cakes tonight. It's so fun. The happy little cakes just call out to be knitted.


E and H are both fascinated by the new equipment. E is getting quite proficient at winding, with a bit of help.



I'm revisiting the Recycled Sari Silk bag. It was too shallow to actually use. So I have seamed up the v's a few inches on each side making the bag much deeper. I want to give the handle a bit more stability, it's really stretchy. The plan is to do applied i-cord around both outer edges. Now it's a matter of finalizing my latest Knit Picks order to get a coordinating yarn for the i-cord.

Not sure why but I felt the need to knit a cotton dishcloth. It's out of my system now. I'm thinking this could be interesting done up in a variated wool then felted.

Torchwood Season 1 and knitting call.

Yarn Cake?

Unlike the cake in Portal, which is all a LIE, we had not one but two kinds of cake today.

Huzzah I have a Swift and Ball Winder! (Karen does swift and ball winder happy dance.) I've been wanting a set for ages. Dad gave me a bit of $ for Christmas so I went ahead and ordered a set.

It's so fun to wind yarn cakes. E wound two today and H was fascinated, kept holding his hand up near the ball winder.

Alas I've been fighting a monster headache all day today. Ick. Grumpy. Only 6 yarn cakes were wound today. I keep thinking about what to wind next. Suddenly my stash is a no longer just a stash but a stash of potential yarn cakes.

The desire to wind burns.

No major knitting to report. Must get to bed early to help fight this headache.