Oh WoW...

Welcome Everyone to my blog,
Oh WoW indeed, for anyone who doesn't know me, I used to be a gamer. Well, one video game in particular, World of Warcraft aka WoW. I played from December 2007 till about February 2011, this past Tuesday the new expansion Mist of Pandaria was released, one word Pandas. I pretty much played only WoW this past week and had to make an extreme effort to knit. I missed knit night and didn't go to my usual Saturday hang out at the yarn shop.This weekend I did pretty good switching from playing WoW to crafting. I honestly have too many hobbies, but they all make me happy and life is just too short to be miserable and bored all the time, you will never ever hear me say I am bored. Talking about getting bored, that's the reason I have so many hobbies, I tend to get bored very quick and need a lot of variety in my life. Anyway, besides only playing on the computer, Sedona is much better and we got the hang with her medicine.

Finished Objects - FO's
Believe it or not, but I actually do have a FO. However, I can't tell you anything about it, since it's the secret knitting I been working on. I will post about it in 90 days, yes folks Christmas is that close.

Works in Progress - WIP's
First up is the Evenstar by Susan Pandorf, knit out of custom dyed Unique Sheep on their Ling base on size US 3 (3.25mm) Hiya Hiya needles. I have about 11 more rounds of the "easy" part to go and then the 2nd chart gets a little crazy. The 2nd chart was fairly easy to this point, which makes knitting on it much less frustrating. Haha I just noticed the folds make it look like a grouchy face.

Next, I been knitting on my The Total German Hitchhiker by Martina Behm out of mystery yarn I received as a present from my aunt, Heike who lives in Germany, on size US 4 (3.5 mm) needles. I have 22 points and will knit as many as I can get out of that one ball. The first picture is to show the size of it and the second is to show the colors.

Spinning 
I started spinning a Spun Right Round braid, it's Merino wool top in the Playtime colorway. I will spin one half from one end and the other from the opposite end for maximum barber pooling. I absolutely love the colors and it is sooooo soft, I love it. If you are a spinner go check out their store, they have amazing braids and very reasonable prices. The first picture is the braid before I took it apart and the second is what I have spun so far.

Enabling
Boy do I have enabling all right. I won some, earned some, bought some, and was gifted some. Where to start? Two weeks ago I mentioned the Make-a-Wish Fundraiser that I donated to and was entered in a drawing. I received my prize a pair of my choice Signature Needles I chose circulars, size US 6 (4.0 mm), stiletto points, 5 inch needle lenght, and 32 inch cable lenght. I have been able to resist to cast on with them, but as what I can see I will love these. They swivel at the join (only needle I know that do that), the cable has no memory, very smooth join, nice finish on the needle, very light, and sharp points.

Last week I mentioned that I was able to pick my prize yarn from The Loopy Ewe for Camp Loopy that I had earned for completing all three challenges to their specifications. I received my Dream in Color in the Smooshy with cashmere base in the Watering Hole colorway. This is the softest yarn I have ever touched and I just want to keep petting it. I absolutely love everything about it.

Also, I had mentioned that I ordered more yarn. First I ordered enough for the 4th quarter challenge, to knit 400+ yards with the yarn held double, so a total of 800 yards. I thought I knew what I will knit, but changed my mind, so now I am hunting for a pattern. I ordered Cascade 220 in the Heather Tweed base. So happy I received 20% discount for ordering during the discount week for the 4th challenge, also I received $25.00 off my ordered since I ordered all my yarn from them for Camp Loopy I had earned enough bonus points for my credit.

And last but not least I ordered a skein of madelinetosh in the tosh merino light base in the Seawash colorway.

I bought that skein with a specific project in mind. I already own two tosh merino light skeins, one in the graphite colorway and one in the oceana colorway. I will use all three to knit the Color Affection, I get to use my new signatures for that project.Yes, I am finally jumping on the bandwagon. Here are all three colors together, I haven't decided in which order I will start, if you have a suggestion please post a comment, thank you.

My aunt from Germany was once again so gracious too sent me more yarn on her own account. She sent me more of the yarn that is the kind I am using for the hitchhiker and actually when I went to take pictures I noticed a small tag in one of the balls and now know a little bit about the yarn, I haven't had the chance to look into it though. Danke Tante Heike, ich habe mich sehr gefreut.

Last week in enabling I showed the September club fiber from into the whirled. This week on many podcasts they mentioned that the label had a scan able QR code, but no one really knew what information it gave you. It didn't even dawn on me to scan mine, till I watched the podcasts. It took me to their website where it had information regarding the breed of sheep, what to know about spinning the fiber, what to know about knitting with that kind of yarn, and what to know about dyeing that fiber. I thought that all that information was amazing and it makes me love into the whirled even more, if that's possible. 

Next week will be same old working during the day and juggling too many hobbies at night. However, something very exciting is coming up on Saturday. Me and my fiance are going to the Fall and Fiber Festival at Mountpelier, Virginia. I am very excited and can't wait, I have been told by many people it's smaller than Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, but still a very good size. My fiance will look at all the animals, while I go shopping hopefully with my friend Leslie, who will be demonstrating spinning there.

Happy Knitting,
Courtney

I am crazy Knitting Machine, or am I?

Welcome Everyone,
this has been such a stressful week and I am happy it's over and things start to look better. Monday my lovely Sedona (my torti cat) squad down right in front of me and peed on her bed a couple drops. We knew right then and there something was wrong. We were unable to take her to the vet till Friday, for many reasons. However, as the week progressed things got worst, meaning she peed on both her beds, our bed, and the closet. Also towards the end of the week she pretty much only peed blood. The vet confirmed she has a Urinary Tract Infection and crystals in her urine. She now is on (liquid) medication for 3 weeks. The worst part is it totally is our fault, we were trying to safe money and changed their cat food. Well we learned with the vet bill and switched back to their good food. Since the first day of medication she has been much better, which makes me very happy. On a happy note The Loopy Ewe revealed 3 different colorways for the Camp Loopy prize yarn. Of course I didn't just pick my prize yarn and went along my way, but I will show those goodies hopefully next week.

Works in Progress - WIP's
First up is my Evenstar, knit out of custom dyed Unique Sheep on the Ling base, with size US 3 (3.25mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp needles. I am half way done with the 2nd chart, woohoo, still a ways a very long ways to go. I tried getting a good picture, but yea that's not happening. It will look like I have no progress, since the shawl actually only increases after each chart.

 

I been working a lot on a secret holiday knitting project.

Finished Objects - FO's

None :(

Next On the Needles

This is were the title is coming from. The Loopy 4th quarter challenge is to knit something with the yarn held double, I will knit The Cinch.

Then, I have a couple holiday knitting projects coming up. 

Also my sister is 3 months pregnant, as soon as we find out the sex of the baby, baby knitting is getting started. 

Meanwhile I have to finish my wedding shawl and knit my bouquet.

Spinning

I finished the August 2012 into the whirled Fiber club. It's Polwarth, I got about 264 yards (my most yardage yet) a heavy fingering to a light sport weight. The picture is before I soaked it and thwacked it. Actually today I washed that one and my last handspun from into the whirled that I completely forgot to wash. The first picture is the yarn and the second is the itty bitty I had left over on my bobbin, I navo plyed it into a mini skein, I had 2 yards.

Enabling

I received the September into the whirled club shipment. It's Superwash BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) in the Aurora Borealis colorway. It's very pretty, green, aqua, dark purple, and black. First I will show the inspiration picture and second the fiber. 

 

That's it for this week. I hope Sedona will get better this week. Also I should get my Loopy package this week, with lots of goodies. 

Happy Knitting,

Courtney

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Hello and Welcome Everyone,
this past week I just had my usual work week, with my usual Knit Night on Thursday at the LYS (local yarn store). Saturday I hung out with my friend Lesley at the LYS again and once again we had a blast. We both brought our spinning wheels for Spin in Public Day, those wheels sure are conversation starters. Last week, I forgot to mention two things in my blog. First thing, me and my fiance went for the first time to Longhorn Steak House and the food was great. It's a little on the pricey side, but for the amount of food you get it actually is reasonable. The second thing, I have no idea how that slipped my mind. I won a skein of yarn from the Dramatic Knits podcast, thank you Steve and Callie. I will show the yarn in the enabling section. A little while ago a fellow knitter and triathlete, Lynn Zimm, was holding a fundraiser for the Make a Wish foundation. I donated to receive the My Hope shawl pattern by Laura Linneman, also know as Lala from the Knit Girllls and because I believe the Make a Wish is a very important organization. Lynn raised $16k, which is a total of 4 wishes, that's amazing. Yesterday, she released the list of winners for extra prices. I couldn't believe my eyes, I won a pair of my choice signature needles. Yes, signature needles and they are my 1st pair. I was lucky enough to try them out at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival, so I know what length needle tip I want (yes you get to pick the lenght of the needle tips and the cable, crazy) now I just need to decide which size needles to pick out.

Works in Progress - WIP's
I won't have any pictures to show this week.
I made a deal with myself to knit at least 2 rows on my Evenstar and with my math it should be done in a little over 4 months, I have 9 months to finish it. The reason there won't be a picture is there is such minimal difference it really doesn't look much different from last time I showed it.
The next 2 projects I worked on are secret holiday knitting. This is my first Christmas as a full blown knitter and I love gifting knitting, so I can guarantee that there will be a lot of secret knitting coming up. I am sorry, but to my surprise my family does read the blog.

FO's
None :(

Spinning
I did get some spinning done. I finished the first half of my ...into the whirled August club fiber. Big thanks to Leslie, since she told me how to spin Polwarth it's been a dream to spin and so far it's my favorite fiber. I am spinning both halves from separate ends to get the most barber pooling I can get. It looks pretty consistent to me, with a couple thick spots. I am about halfway done with the 2nd half. The first picture is the finished 1st half and the second is the 2nd half that I am still working on.

Enabling
As mentioned at the beginning I won yarn a little bit over a week ago and it arrived last week. I won Dancing Dog Dyeworks Jive sock base in the Blue Planet Colorway. It's so soft and squishy and I absolutely love it.

I have a question to all you knitters out there. What do you knit with single skeins like this one when you don't want to knit socks with it? I tend to knit shawls or cowls with it, but am curious of what other people do.

Charity
This week I want to talk about charity. My local spinning guild is having their second annual Let's Stitch event. They team up with the From the Heart organization and there are a couple different ways you can help (the link will have all the information). One way is to donate yarn, so I went through my stash and I am donating almost 30 balls of yarn, around 20 of them are brand new. I think of myself as a more advanced knitter and thanks to watching podcasts and doing most of my yarn shopping online and at local yarn stores, I kind of became a yarn snob. Here is a picture of my mountain of yarn that will be donated to a home where it will be used.

Next week will just be same old, working and more working. I hope you all have a great week.
Happy Knitting,
Courtney

A Surprise FO

Hi and Welcome to my blog,
luckily this week flew by thanks to being a 4 day week, however unfortunately the weekend is flying by just as fast. During the week I didn't do much except for work and on Thursday I went to my usual weekly knit night at the local yarn shop, Knit2Unwind. Usually on Saturdays I also hang out at the yarn store and this Saturday was no exception. My friend Lesley, who's also the host of the videocast The Knitting Game and other Stuff, stopped by the store. We hung out, knitted, and spun together. This was the first time that I took the spinning wheel to the store and that I spun with someone. It was interesting to watch someone more experienced than me spin, I picked up some hints and tricks and had a lot of fun. Also, I want to wish Lesley a Happy Birthday, which is tomorrow. I hope you have a great day.

Finished Objects - FO's
It "only" took me 3 months, but finally I finished Meine Deutsche Socken (translates to my German socks), also known as the Harvest Dew socks. I used Uschi Universal yarn that was gifted to me by my aunt who lives in Germany. Also, the socks used the German Twisted cast on method, so I thought the yarn was perfect for them and hence the German title for the socks. I loved the pattern it was very easy, it is charted, but I prefer charts over written. The yarn is very soft and I had no problems with it at all. They have not been blocked yet.

Works in Progress - WIP's
I barely worked on my wedding shawl and won't show that this week.
However I casted on something new. I casted on the Total German Hitchhiker, the pattern is called the Hitchhiker. The reason I changed mine is that the yarn I am using was once again gifted to me by my aunt from Germany and this time the designer is German. I don't know what the name of the yarn is or if it even has a name. It came to me already caked up and without a label. To my understanding it's put together by an independent person, who picks different strands to compile the yarn. It is a multi stranded yarn, which makes splitting the yarn very easy and knitting with it a little more difficult, I definitely have to pay attention, usually I can knit without looking down, but with this yarn I have to look down the whole time. Anyway, first picture is the whole thing so you can see the size (sorry lightining sucks) and the 2nd picture is a close up so you can see the color.

I casted on one more project yesterday, but it's a secret.

Spinning
Yes I got  some spinning done. I am almost done spinning the first half (2 ounces) from my August club shipment from ...into the whirled. At first I had a really hard time spinning this, but on Saturday Lesley gave me some hints on how to spin it and it's been fun ever since. I absolutely love into the whirled's fiber. The colors are amazing and the fiber prep is outstanding.

While I was spinning this Sedona was supervising me and making sure I did this right. Please excuse the mess.

Next week will once again consist of working, Thursday and Saturday I will hang out the yarn shop.
Please if you could follow my blog, there is an option on the top left side, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. 
Happy Knitting,
Courtney

Another short one...

Welcome to my blog everyone,
this week flew by and once again all I did was work. Friday, we had friends come over after work for a little while, but that's about it.

Finished Objects - FO's
I finished my Social Climber Cowl out of 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden that I had in my stash. I made it much longer, since I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible. I liked the way it came out and would recommend knitting it with handspun if you have it and don't know what to knit with it.

 

Works in Progress - WIP's
I only worked on my Evenstar this week, besides finishing the cowl. I complete Chart #1 out of 4 and no longer have to knit it using the magic loop method. I definitely liked knitting it using magic loop better than using DPNs (double pointed needles), but I have heard others saying they can't do it using magic loop, so I guess it is a personal preference. Since it is lace it won't look very good and you won't be able to see the pattern until it is blocked.

Spinning
I spun a little bit today using my ...into the whirled August 2012 fiber club, but not enough to even show.

Like I said it would be a short one again. I been trying to mainly focus on the shawl knitting wise. I really want to cast on something new, but I am limited to only using yarn out of my stash. My stash is actually very limited, since I really only have one skein yarns. Well I am off to enjoy my labor day and knit maybe on my socks or triangle shawl.
See you next week and Happy Knitting.