FO : TTL mystery sock

Another FO, I am very productive these weeks, it must be Christmas coming that makes me knit faster ! :) So my feet are now cozy in a new pair of sock and don't try anything, those are for me, me me !!!

Here are the Spec

Pattern : TTL Mystery Sock by Kirsten Kapur

Needle : Good old 2.5mm DPN

Yarn : Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Fingering in color Twilight that I receive from Ragdoll in Valentine Day swap last february. About 95% of 2 skeins.

Size : 7.5 to fit me !

Cast on : November 21st

Cast off : November 29th

Mod : I did only one repeat for leg of the cable because I was worried about running out of yarn (I really was in target because if I hadn't, I'd to make contrasting color toes). So I had to readjust the cable pattern on the feet as well and I am really pleased about the final result.

The pattern si so clever and FREE, you have to try it for sure ! Any sock knitter that had tried the pattern so far are unanimous : this is a win, never boring, good construction, well written. So what are you waiting for ? Go and knit yourself a pair or two !!! :)

About the yarn : I am in love, even if the yardage is a bit short it's ok if you don't like long sock to make you a pair of regular women sock. The yarn is smoochy and it's a pleasure to knit it at every stitch.

Off to make another FO soon...

FO : Amidon mitten

Yes I finally kick myself over my procrastination on that project and I finish the cuff of the Amidon mittens I was test knitting for Becky Herrick on Ravelry. It was a very fun knit and so easy to try your hands on felting.

Spec :

Pattern : Amidon mittens by Becky Herrick

Yarn : Knit Picks Wool of the Ande in color wine, 2 skeins

Knit Picks Merino Style in color coal, 2 skeins

Needle : DPN 8mm and DPN 5mm

Mod : I made the the cuff with yarn holds only double for the Merino style and simple for WOTA instead of the double as the pattern called for, because I felt I was going to be too big and I wanted to be easy to hide the cuff inside of sleeve in a winter coat. And I reverse color for the cuff too because I was running out of red and I prefer coal anyway !

I wish had made the thumbs smaller, they look ginormous on my hand and I am unhappy with this part. If I do this pattern again, I will cast on only 12 of 14 sts instead of 16 and I'll made it shorter too, but overall the pattern is really good and if you want to try on colorwork/felting for the first time, this is the pattern you need !

About the yarn : it felt very well but be aware that KP WOTA bleed a LOT when you wash it for the first time, my kitchen sink was all red after the first soak in hot water !

My lazy method of felting in front load machine washing...

I begun with a try on hand felting and after 10 minutes I was unable to continue, it's really really hard to do ! So I decide to trow them in my washing machine at the hottest cycle for an hour and then I check after an hour to mesure and I was still too big, I continue the cycle for another 45 minutes, check again with mesurements and it was just perfect !

Hopes this help because I had question by Ravelry about that.

One down...

This is really a quick knit ! I love those socks so far and I can't wait to be done, I hope on time for the end of the KAL on next Saturday, since I knitted the first one so fast I have big hope for this week to finish this one before the deadline !!! :)

Here are the pretty socks

And the beginning of the second one

No time to knit today, I'm going to Montreal Canadian tonight... *crossed finger for victory*

I'll give you some hockey pictures tomorow ! :)

Frog one, knit one !

Sometime we have to admit that a project will never ever work as begin... last July I begun "Tilting cable socks" from Interweave knit.

I totally love the pattern and the look with the yarn and everything BUT with the heavy cable pattern, the fabric is just too stiff and unstrechable. So I can't put these one so now they are back from where they're from : the ball of yarn...

To make me good after admitting this failure in my knitting skills, I begun a new pair of sock : TTL Mystery sock by Kirsten Kapur (Through the Loops!). I will have no problems with fitting this time ! The pattern is very very strechy and with the yarn I choose to use : Claudia Handpainted received from Ragdoll in the Valentine Day swap, it's a perfect combinaison !!! :)

Will be done soon with the first sock, stay tuned for next episode !

Double FO

Yes another, no two new FO I did this week end for my mom. A new hat and neckwarmer set out of the yarn I bought last week end with Shannon at La Dauphine in Sainte-Foy.

The hat is a pattern I found on Ravelry :

Spec.

Pattern : Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Rachel Iufer

Yarn : ONline Linie 204 Damara in color Mexico

Needle : 6mm

Mod: I only made it deaper than the pattern suggested and I made a different decrease for the crown.

I did not remember how fast hat are to make. I took me only a few hours yesterday night while watching movies. I should make more... instant gratification !

The neckwarmer has no pattern I just improvise to match the hat. So it feature some seed stich and st st in the middle.

Look at the pretty buttons !!! :) and the pretty smile !!!

FO : Lady Eleanor

Oh yes I did it ! It took me more time than expected because I kept on getting distracted by everything in order to do the fringe which was waiting for over a week on my couch. I wear it the whole day yesterday after doing the fringe. I LOVE it so much.

Warm, cozy and so trendy ! My mom actually want to herself one too (would be her first project for over 20 years...must have interest her a lot !) We tried for long yesterday night to take a good picture of this beauty, but with the rain pictures are really hard to take these days. So here it is modeled by my mom.

Lying in my living room

Spec of the project

Pattern : Lady Eleanor by Kathleen Power Johnson (in Scarf Style book)

Needle : 6.5 mm Knitpicks Harmony wood circular

Yarn : Noro Silk Garden in color 272 lot A just under 8 skeins with the fringe.

Cast on : October 17th

Cast off : November 9th (November 14th for the fringe)

Mods : I made it a little bit narrower by casting on for one less square than the pattern called for. And I did not really respect any of the cast off suggestions. I made it my own way and it went well so why bother with those complicated stuff. ;) The best advice I can tell about the pattern is weave in ends as you go or you will procrastinate at the end for sure.

About the Noro, I love my experience with the yarn and it worth the price for it. It's a bit itchy, but it already soften with a wash. It has quite a few knots but I still love my knitting for the Lady E.

Don't ask, tonight I'm cuddling in my new stole !

I'm not dead

It's my first time not posting for more than 7 days except when I'm out of country. I feel guilty :P No, just joking, I had a crazy week at jod and last week end I had the chance to meet my swape in Fall season swap 2008 : Shanderson from Ravelry. She was in Quebec city for her job at first and then we hand out together for the week end.

Thanks Shannon I had so much fun with you and now I'm dreaming of going to Calgary one day to meet you again in your own city ! :) It was weird how we seems to have the same taste in many stuff : colors, clothes, shoes, food and good wine !

We did some shopping and she offered me this gorgeous scarf from Simon

And before to go she also gave me my first knitting pouch in a superb turquoise color that we both love.

I hope we could see each other soon enough and have as much fun hanging out together again ! Huggs to you Shannon !

I will post FO pictures of my Lady E. tomorow...

Box is gone

Yes I just sent my last swap box for fall, on "swap on a budget" group. Still waiting for 2 of my own boxes now... and also another little project coming by. I agreed with a designer to test knit her new sock design and send it back to her in exchange with a little something. I will probably get her stuff in the next week or really soon.

Look at the cute little bangle I knit yesterday to complete my spoilee package : the Skulls bangle !

I just hope she will love everything ! :)

About my current test knitting on the Amidon mitten, I felt them yesterday night and I'm waiting for them to be fully dry. I begins with hand felting, but it was exhausting ! So I decided to use my front loader washing machine and it went very well. I'll send picture once they are completed, but for here how they looked just before I begun the felting.

They were HUGE !

So I'm out for now, I have my spoilee of the season swap fall 2008 in town for the week end ! It's so fun to meet her after I spoiled her ! I'll tour her around my city and see if she likes it ! BTW I just realize that all my post is all about red and black... LOL hopefully my swap box is in another color sheme ! :)

Happy bloganniversary to me

Hey it's already a year since I first post on my blog ! Wow this year have past so fast I can't imagine it's already the first round done on the blog...

Here some stats :

Today I'm posting my 90th message on the board.

I have now around 100 visits by week --- Thank you so much to all of you !

I do have visit from over 20 country around the globe (WOW!!)

Since the last few month I post around 3 times a week

knitting stats...

I produce ...(FO)

9 pairs socks - adult only

5 knitted accessories

4 baby related items - 2 pairs of socks, a hat and a pair of booties

3 pairs of fingerless gloves - none for me

2 sweaters

and 1 dishcloth

I have 9 WIP listed on my Ravelry account... but I think I have some non lited somewhere around my appartement. I do have to make a statement about some if I frog of not... I will post about my frogging experience soon since I decided to frog my 103-1 jacket...

I just hope that I can continue to interest all of you in reading my blog for another year !

And a little previex of what I'm doing right now... a pair of felted mitten for a test knitting...

My mom is modeling for me

I have been spoiled !!!!

OMG ! I so love my box from graeschen a in faves thing swap on Ravelry, I am so thrilled by everything that is inside the box, graeschen, you are officially my new best friend in Germany :) LOL

First of all when I opened the box there was a little booklet with a handwriten story about everything in the box for me...awesome... I've learn a lot on her and I plan to try to get to know her better for sure !

You must see all that I got :

Here a picture of everything

First wooly part : a skein of Wollmeise in color "Peppermint prince" and I am so in love with it, my spoiler actually bought herself the same colorway and it would be fun to do a KAL together for sure !

Then she knitted me a womb and I find it so cute and funny and it's related to her job, she's a student midwife and I like it a lot :) She also made me a little book, an insight of her favorite book, I will read it tomorow.

Body goodies

She also send me her favorite hand cream (the orange box), body oil from wild rose (pink box and her favorite lip balm I will use the hand cream right after typing this and I just tryed the lip balm while typing this and it's really good, it's scented. Umm, it may become my fave lip balm too !

Yummy part

The sweet part : candies !!! Chocolate : Marzipan (chocolate with a little bit of rhum inside) and another one from Madagaskar and gummy bear from Germany, I LOVE gummy bears !!! In the upright corner the little box saying "Flower power" it's a mix of sugar-herbs-flowers to go with ice cream, yogourt - anything sweet. I'm looking foward to try it tomorow morning with my yogourt. And a assortement of organic tea + one non organic, but her favorite Chaï (my favorite tea as well).

Look how pretty this is !

At last, she also included a CD with some of her favorites songs (currently listening) and the most thrilling part : an enveloppe saying "Open exactly on 1st of December"

Can't wait to be on 1st of December...

THANK YOU so much graeschen I really appreciate everthing !!!