Pictures soooon

Ok so I've knit 4 hats and made a ton of bracelets. I'm actually quite proud of the bracelets. I still can't show you until they make it to their recipients.

Things have been going really well for me. I have been getting out to the barn as much as possible. I guess that's the main reason it has been so quiet here on the blog. All I really have to talk about is my horse. It's actually kind of funny, I have always loved horses, but I had no idea that I would become quite so obsessed. I had only known one person in my life that owned a horse, so I wasn't quite prepared for the obsession. DC and I have been doing a lot of bonding. He comes to me when he hears me call at the gate. I guess he has finally figured it out that we belong to each other :)

In other news, I turn 33 on Thursday, and I decided to go nuts with my hair! Does that make me a cliche? I have been on this whole beautification kick for a while. I started losing weight and getting in better shape. I have lost 19lbs so far! Then got on this awesome skin care system prescribed by my dermatologist. I really feel better, and I think I'm starting to look better too. Here are some pictures Rob took of me :D It was fun goofing off and taking fun pics of my fun new hair!

Swatchin'

Bias Fair Isle Pullover
by Teva Durham
From Loop-d-loop
Yarns suggested Dale of Norway/Dalegarn Free Style
Yarn weight Aran / Worsted
Gauge 20 stitches and 22 rows = 4 inches in Stockinette stitch Fair Isle pattern
Needle size US 7 / 4.5 mm
Yardage 1548 - 2752 yards

Notes:
I am subbing with Cotton Ease

Upclose on Lace Leaf and a New Hat

I love pairing teal with this green. It's a nice color combo. Pink would also be a good color under this. I love this sweater and would probably wear it every day! Also, I bought way too much yarn for the project, so I knit up a hat.



Project info

Pattern: Natty by Wendy Bernard
Needle: US 9 / 5.5 mm US 11 / 8.0 mm
Yarn: Patons Shetland Chunky
How much? 0.75 skeins = 111.0 yards (101.5m)
Colorway: Leaf

Notes: This hat only took a couple of hours to knit. You gotta love bulky yarn.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some of my notes for this project on Ravelry...

Lace Leaf Pullover
by Teva Durham
from Loop-d-loop
Needle: US 13 / 9.0 mm
Yarn: Patons Shetland Chunky
How much? 4.5 skeins = 544.5 yards (497.9m)
Colorway: Leaf Green

Notes

I would have finished this a lot sooner, but I put it on a time out after a disaster when I tried to graft the two body pieces together the first time. I had debated on not knitting the sleeve that had the yo's and just make both sleeves the same, but decided against it. I did not make any modifications other than substituting the yarn, which I am very happy with. I bought the button about 3 years ago. I am not usually a button collector, but I fell in love with this one and had to have it. I think I just have a thing for trees. I'm so glad that I finally found the perfect sweater for it.

10/28/07- casted on 11/23/07-finished

Cats love sweaters...

Have you seen this? How cute! I'm not sure how my cats would feel about wearing a sweater though. I dressed Kayne up one time, and she just fell over. I'd set her back up straight, and plop she fell right over again and just laid there. It was quite amusing, for us not her. She didn't seem very amused. Here is a picture of all three of my kittehs when they are super amused. They love their entertainment center.

Origami Cardi

Final Stretch!!

I'm almost done with the knitting of the Origami cardi! I have both sleeves and the back completed. I decided to knit both of the fronts at the same time. I have about a 1/2 inch more of the cable to knit and then I will start the St st which will flyyyyy!!

In other good news, I have lost 10 lbs!! Here's hoping that 10 lbs will be enough to make me feel confident enough to model my own cardi for the blog!

Could it be?

I have more knitting to show! It isn't much but I think it is pretty cute.





In my opinion, it is a perfect project for an introduction to cables, and you can find the free pattern here.
I am almost to the decreases on the second sleeve of the Origami Cardi! Maybe I'll actually finish a sweater!

Proof I Still Know How To Knit...

This is the finished sleeve for the Origami Cardi from Summer 2007 Interweave Knits. I changed the edging to from the Berry-in-a-Box pattern to the Woven Cable Stitch found on July 10 in the 365 Knitting Stitches A Year Perpetual Calendar. You can see the stitch up close here.

So much going on...

I have so much going on that I have very little time to blog. I cast on for the Origami Cardi from IK. I am using a different stitch pattern for the edgings. I've been working,playing with horsies, taking care of my zoo, working out almost every night, helping a friend with a website, and on and on and on. Marco was just diagnosed with asthma, so I've been dealing with that, poor baby :( My knitting classes have picked back up again, so that's one less free night a week. It's no wonder that I'm up at 3am blogging. When else do I have time?? I'm just going to stop sleeping. Who needs it! For now here is a slide show with some random pictures. I hope to get back soon with a better entry. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Go to ImageShack® to Create your own Slideshow

Janet Martin Square

Susan Rainey Square

**Update** I'm sorry I didn't explain this one better. This is a square from The Great American Aran Afghan. This individual square was designed by Susan Rainey and won first prize.

Knitting and Ravelry

While Ravelry is an amazing idea and website, it can also get you in a lot of trouble, and by you I mean me, and by trouble I mean 20 balls of Plymouth Encore and the pattern book for The Great American Aran Afghan.

My Room and More

I'm so happy that you all liked my room. I looooove it. I would probably live in there if the futon were a little more comfy. The coolest thing about my room, in my opinion anyways, is the fact that very little money went into it. Everything in the room was recycled, re purposed, gifted, bought for a pittance on eBay, Craigslist or a yard sale, or handed down over the years. Even the 1941 Life magazine was a yard sale find. If you look close you will see a pair of red white and blue knitting needles attached to the frame. You can read about them here. They were found along with a matching stitch holder and dpn's at a yard sale in a big box of knitting notions that Grandmommy bought for next to nothing. The desk belonged to my father and was handed down to me when I was a kid, all the sheep pictures and sheep doodads (3 bags full) were $15 from another yard sale, the cool knitting/spinning plaques were only 10 bucks on eBay, and my cool hubby made the yarn shelves. I made the wreath :) Maybe we can get a job with Design on a Dime :D

This is one side of the Adrienne Vittadini Diagonal Stitch top that I am knitting. I had to rip the armholes six times to get it the way I wanted it. AV patterns tend to say, "Keep in pattern and decrease and oh yeah do the neckline too, but I'm not going to tell you where to start/stop your yo's so that it looks nice and uniform on both sides. You are a genius. You figure that one out"

I am very pleased with the way it is turning out so far. I just hope I remember what I did when I get to that part on the other side, 'cause you know I didn't write that down. That, my friend, would just be way too easy, and we can't have that now can we.

Pictures!

Ok this is one of those posts where I'm not really sure what to say but I do have some pictures to show you. This predicament usually creates major blogging procrastination. I decided to just upload the pictures and just start typing. Let's see how that goes.

I was lucky enough to marry a guy that came from a super crafty family. Rob's a great artist, does amazing work with ceramic tile floors, and is a pretty darn good "Builder of Stuff" if you ask me. We are also a very recycle friendly couple, and Rob often builds things from recycled materials. Remember my yarn shelves? After a trip to the pet store, Rob decided that he could "totally build one of those cat thingies". Let me just tell you, when Rob gets something in his head you better watch out. First thing he does is go to carpet stores to get some free scraps and then made a trip to the homedepotlowessomethingorother store to get what we didn't have around the house. He showed me all the materials he had acquired for the project and I basically came up with a design. He called me the Executive Creative Producer hahaha. Anyways, he did most of the work and I did the "here hold this and grab that over there and hey could you please bring me this..." A day and a half and a bunch of sweat later, and our kitties have this...

Is that not the coolest Cat Thingy you have ever seen!? I have seen towers half this size for $164, and the only thing we paid for was the rope, staples, and a cardboard tube. The rest of the materials were all recycled/re purposed. I think the post used to be in our flower bed before Rob replaced it with rock he got out of the river. The cats absolutely love it, especially this guy...






Wow he's getting so big isn't he. I realized that I have never posted a picture of Kayne. This is mostly because she is in a constant state of motion when she is awake. After about 20 blurred pictures, I successfully captured this one.



She is such a pretty cat. She really ought to stand still more often. Of course I could take a picture of her sleeping, but then you would not be able to see those beautiful eyes!

I haven't been doing much knitting lately. I lost my freakin pattern for the shawl I was working on, and I got bored with the 3 sweaters. I will definitely finish them (they are awesome sweaters), but I am taking a bit of a break from them.

I got the urge to crochet, and started on a Carnival Throw. Technically the pattern is for a shawl, but I thought it would be more useful as a throw. Here is a picture of two motifs seamed together using an invisible seam.



After seeing other people's motifs, I realized I made a mistake on mine. Luckily the mistake I made is just on the last row, and crochet is so easy to add to. The yarn I am using is TLC Cotton Plus in Kiwi which is a cotton/acrylic blend.

Well that's enough pictures for one entry. I'll be back with more! I hope everyone has a great weekend! Mine has been awesome so far. I went to a spa on Friday courtesy of the best bosses ever, and got a Swedish massage and a body polish. Can you say, HEAVEN! Today I helped out with my very first horse show! I got to ride (not in the show just for fun) two of the most beautiful horses I have ever seen!! One was a jet black Tennessee Walker stallion, and the other was a black and white Paint. The stallion was hands down the most powerful and amazing horse that I have ever had the pleasure of riding. The most amazing thing is how gentle and well behaved he was, because a horse like that could really be a handful. Tomorrow will probably be quite uneventful, but after those two days I am fine with that!

Thank You!!

Thank you for all the happy anniversaries :) You are all too sweet!! We had a wonderful weekend together. Hey girls my hubby made me breakfast in bed. Heaven!

So I have been quite the Slacker Blogger lately haven't I? I hate to say this, but I guess I simply haven't felt like blogging. I had stuff to blog about, but just didn't get motivated enough to get out the camera, take pictures, upload the pictures, edit the pictures, try to type something half way interesting... I used to feel bad about not blogging often, but now I am of the attitude that if you don't feel like it, don't force it. I think that once you start having to force yourself to blog, you start resenting the blog. It becomes a chore, and what good does that do? It takes all of the fun out of it, and wasn't that why you started the darn thing in the first place?? I toyed with the idea several times to give up blogging all together, but could never bring myself to do it. Despite the decline in the frequency of my entries, I would honestly miss blogging. I would miss reading your comments and visiting your blogs in kind. Yes even though I'm slow to answer, I truly look forward to reading your comments after I post an entry. So I'm going to keep blogging for as long as it is fun, but I'm not going to feel guilty anymore when I don't post. I don't feel guilty when I don't watch a movie, go shopping, and any other fun things like that. Ya know?

Ok so let's see. Here are some things I do have pictures of. I finished one of my Baubles....

I really, really, really love this bracelet. I wore it out tonight and got lots of compliments. This was a very easy project. Once you get all that stringing done the knitting part is done in a flash. I have an idea for a necklace to go with it. I'm going to start stringing that tomorrow.




That up there is the turquoise and sterling silver bracelet I made Mom for her birthday, and here are the gold threader earrings I made to match a bracelet I made for her once upon a time ago.



I hope you all have a great weekend!! I'm gonna go play with my rescue horsies on Sunday. I'll see you Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday...

What a week!

Last week was very busy, but honestly I think I am happier that way. I got more hours at work which is always good, and I have been quite busy outside of work as well. My friend Nancy and I have been going on 2-3 mile superduper power walks ever day, and then when it gets darker I take another 1-2 mile doggy walk. I spend my Sunday afternoons volunteering at the stables and my spare time in the evenings helping organize the patterns on Ravelry. I have managed to do a little knitting and beading in between it all. Here is the progress I have made on Debbi's sweater...

Honestly, I could be done with this sweater, as bulky as the yarn is, if I were able to knit more. At least she'll have it by next winter. Bulky yarn knitting in the summer. Now that's love people.



I am pretty much done stringing the beads for Bauble. I just haven't had the energy to unwind it from my lipgloss tube and measure. Tangles at 2am happen and are not pretty. And just because I couldn't wait until my beads arrived, I started stringing another Bauble...



I have some pictures of jewelry that I made, but I can't post them here until my mom gets them. Don't hold your breath, we're waiting on the USPS.

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It's About Time

After a year of living in Tennessee, I am finally getting out of the house and meeting people. One of my many obsessions on the Internets is Craigslist.org, and knowing how much of a sucker I am, I always avoid the Pets section. For some reason, I decided to visit the forbidden section and saw an ad asking for help with rescued Arabian horses. I could not believe my eyes!! I have been a horse fanatic since I knew what one was. I read every single horse book in the school library and would spend hours drawing from them. I would draw on just about anything I came across, including my school desk. While my teacher did admire my artwork, she was not too pleased with the chosen medium. Arabians have always been my favorite horse by far, and I would dream of having one of my own. Working with these horses is like a dream come true for me. I have spent the last two weekends giving them baths and nursing wounds from neglect. I can't wait to go out there tomorrow and see how far they have come in a week. Volunteering is such a rewarding experience, and I have always tried to be involved with some sort of animal rescue group. Never in a million years did I think that I would have the opportunity to work with the horses of my dreams!! I didn't want to bring my camera out so I took some pictures with my cell phone. The first three mares are the rescues. They already look so much better than they do in these pictures. I can't wait until I can show them completely recovered.

Get Your Own!

Rob and I have also been doing some landscaping. Check out the new entertainment center for the cats. They sit at the window watching the birds all day. And you know I just had to buy the birdfeeder with the faery!























I have been knitting. I am nearly finished with a sweater for my friend Debbi. I will get you a picture really soon I promise. I am also in the process of stringing the beads to make Bauble. Unfortunately, I ran out of beads and have to wait until they come in the mail to finish stringing the 3.5 yards of beads. I haven't worked on my shawl lately because I have been a bit distracted and I do not want to screw it up. Ariann and Deli are snoozin' in a basket at the moment. I have Oragina screaming for a swatch, and I just bought more beads for another Bauble. I am making myself tired just thinking about all this stuff. I'm goin to bed!

Rona Lace Shawl

I had 3 sweaters on needles, and my fingers started itching for something a little lighter and more challenging. I have wanted to knit a shawl for quite some time, so I checked the stash. I decided to knit the Rona Lace Shawl from KnitPicks.com. I chose Alpaca Cloud in Iris Heather which is 100% Baby Alpaca. Let me just tell ya, I love me some Baby Alpaca! If you have not knit with it, you are missing out. Go get some! Hurry! Now this shawl is knit in the round, so getting a good detailed picture while it's all bunched up is a little difficult, but here's Rona 44 rows later.

Here is Rona posing with a gorgeous bag that Michelle made for me. It matches and everything! The bag is the perfect size for this project. It's not so big that the shawl and yarn tumbles around inside of it, and it's not so small that I have to squish it inside. Thank you Michelle!! I love it!



Something I should mention is that so far I have found an error on line 43 of the pattern. It reads *yo, k2tog, yo, (KB,p1) 6 times, KB, yo, SKP, yo, K2P. It should read *yo, k2tog, yo, (KB,p1) 6 times, KB, yo, SKP, yo, SK2P. I'll let you know if I find anything else.

Obsession for Knitters

One of my many obsessions as a knitter is collecting knitting books and magazines, and I especially love the older ones.It is so much fun to see how styles change throughout the years, and how some remain timeless. A couple of years ago, Monica sent me some very cool vintage magazines and patterns. I got the biggest kick out of the advertisements that were in the magazines. Girdle anyone? Hair tonic?

Just the other day, I got an email from her asking if I would like her old Vogue Knitting magazines. Yes my friends, Monica rocks! They arrived today, and I spent the evening flipping through the pages and putting them in order. Yay!! Fun fact about me: My entire house could be wrecked, but you can bet I have my books in alphabetical order, magazines in chronological order, and my yarn organized by color. It's a whole lot more fun that dusting! Thank you Monica for making my evening so much fun and adding to my collection!