It's My Birthday and.....

I'll buy as much yarn as I want to!

 

Yes I raided Chelsea Yarns today!!!

• 7 skeins of Shibui Cima 70% superbaby alpaca / 30% fine merino wool
• 5 skeins of Shibui Baby Alpaca 100% baby alpaca
• 2 skeins of Juniper Moon Farm Findley 50% merino / 50% silk
• 1 skein Alice 70% baby alpaca / 20% silk / 10% cashmere



Freddy had asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told him money so I can go buy yarn. He said he felt bad that he didn't have anything for me to open on by Birthday so I proudly displayed all my purchase and he was kind of overwhelmed :)

The skein above is Juno Fiber Arts Alice. It has been in Chelsea Yarn and every time I go into the store I have to hold it. It was the last skein of this type of yarn in the store and I couldn't resist buying it. It is 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere. It is heavenly!!!! I don't even know if I am ever going to knit with it. I just want to hold it because it is so soft.

 

My sister Leanne got me a skein of Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk Paints yarn and a fun soap called Tequila Sunrise (my favorite drink) from the Great Pacific Farm Shoppe.  I had opened the gift from my sister and put it back in the bag before Brady saw what I got. He asked me what I got for my present. I told him "Yarn and soap." His response was in shock, "You wanted soap for your Birthday?!" I laughed so hard. But once he smelled the soap he was sold and thought it was a good present.

Rudee and I went for a nice long run at the Reservoir. I love running and it something I rarely get to do. So it was a nice treat to be kid free and be able to run as long as I wanted to. 

 

We really wanted to go see the new Hunger Games movie tonight, but we decided instead of getting a baby-sitter we'd take the boys with us and I wanted to do something fun with them. So we went to Build-a-Bear and they made themselves stuffed animal puppies. They loved it so much! Then we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and I had the best meal of my life. I was very grateful I went for a run earlier!

 

It has been a great day and I'm looking forward to a few glasses of wine and a movie tonight.

 

I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who has purchased my Penny Infinity Scarf pattern. I have been floored with how many sales there have been. It was so much fun to design and I have been overwhelmed with the response. I released the pattern on Tuesday night and on Wednesday my pattern was #9 out of 409,997 patterns on Ravelry!!!! I was so amazed and shocked and excited all at the same time. 

 

I also have to give a huge thank you to everyone that shared, commented, and wrote about my pattern.  I was so overwhelmed with all the support over the past few days! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

 

I had so much fun designing Penny I'm going to design a few more things.  I'm so excited!

 

Okay time to sign off, but first here are a few fun Bloopers from my sister's Christmas photo shoot I took the other day.

 

 

After I gave up on getting a good picture I decided to take a picture of my newly knitted socks.

 

Which reminds me I haven't shared my favorite song lately.

Never Not Knitting Theme Song

"....she's taking pictures of socks...how sad."

 

 

Yarn Along

I have some fun finished items to share on the yarn along this week.

 

But first I have to say congratulations to the Ginny and her family for their newest addition!!!

God Bless your family.

 

Now onto knits. I finished my Coyote Trail.  I was hoping to get better pictures of it, but I had left my tripod in my father's car after the alpaca show and my battery was dead for my remote shutter for my camera. So I had to use my manikin instead.  I love how this turned out and I love the colors of the Fable Fiber Novel Yarn. I used Amelie and Fairy Garden.

 



The pattern says you can do one, two or three repeats of the lace edging. I did two repeats.

 

I was a little worried about the lace edging, but it was such a simple edging. It was so easy to keep the pattern in my head and there were lots of check points so I didn't make any mistakes which was very nice.

 

The pattern calls for the use of like one million stitch markers. Okay maybe more like a hundred or so. I used jump rings.  I usually use jump rings for my stitch markers. I like that they are small and cheap and I can have hundreds of them and they only cost a few dollars for a set of 100.  The designer suggests cutting up straws to use as markers. So that is an option too.

 

I got some finished pictures of my Celes Shawl. I love this knit. I can't wait to get some use out of it.  I used Isager Alpaca 2. It is a blend of 50% alpaca and 50% merino.

 

 

 

 

I also can share pictures of my Antrorse Sweater. I finished this back in September, but the pattern was just released so I can share it here.

 

 

The pattern was designed by Shannon Cook.  She and Jane Richmond just published a book called Journey. I am very excited that as a gift for test knitting I got copies of all the patterns in the book and a copy of the book.  The book is available for pre-order now you can find out more info here.

 

I wanted to get better pictures and hopefully I will soon, but remember my tripod was still missing and I still didn't get a battery for the remote shutter.

 

I wanted to show off the seamless construction of the sweater. I love when I can knit a sweater in the round!

 

I used Cascade Eco Cloud yarn for this sweater. It is soooooo soft. It is a blend of merino and alpaca in natural colors. This sweater is so comfy and I am so glad that the pattern was released so I can enjoy wearing it out and about.

 

 

For my mindless knitting these days. I frogged my Kex scarf and casted on a To Infinity & Beyond Scarf. I just made that name up. I am not following a pattern I am just knitting in around over and over again and occasionally changing colors. I am using the Isager Alapca 2 for this project. I want a big long squishy scarf and I think this will be perfect. I might join the ends together to make an infinity scarf. We'll see. This is truly a mindless knit and it lives in my car and I work on it here and there completely aimlessly.

 

 

I have decided everyone is getting handmade socks from me this year for Christmas.  I have no money, but lots of sock yarn. So let the sock extravaganza begin.  But first I am making myself a pair of Simple Skyp socks. I have made these socks quite a few times before, but never for myself. I am using mystery yarn. I am not totally sure what it is. I think it might be a Miss Bab's yarn, but I'm not 100% sure.

I've also been getting a lot of spinning done. I'm hoping to use the yarn for some socks :)

 

For reading I finished listening to "The Woman in White". I really like it. The audio book was 26 hours long and it got me through the knitting of my Celes.

 

Now I'm listening to "The Dirty Life: a Memoir of Farming, Food & Love". It is the memoirs of a girl who goes from being a city girl to a farmer.

 

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along

 

 **Update**

A pattern I had test knitted was just released so I'm adding it to this post.

 

Temperate Mitts

 

I used Juniper Moon Farm Sabine yarn. It is a combination of cotton, merino and llama.

I love how quick these knitted up. I think they would make a great gift.

BTW it is extra hard to take pics of fingerless mitts without a tripod :)