I Finished Something!!

Oh look, I found my blog. After several botched attempts, I even managed to sign in.

I finished something today. It feels so very good! When life is difficult, I lose my ability to create. Therefore, I stop sewing, knitting and anything else that might be good for me. Currently, I'm not even running. (there was a strange injury one day...but that's another story).

So, I consider it a triumph that I picked up my fabulous green sweater "Bonnie" from the Twist Collective and sewed it together the other day. The collar was even faster than I thought to knit and VWALAA! It is done.

This is the pattern picture--not mine. Though mine looks shockingly similar. I wish that I had great pictures, but I haven't even blocked it yet. I did wear it all day though. Mission Falls Yarn is gushy and quishy and soft--I love it!!

Manly Man Durrow Sweater

Drum Roll Please......

This is my manly, man in all his glory. And new carharts! I finally finished the Durrow Sweater & this was the first day cold enough for him to wear it. I really like how it turned out. I threw out the pattern almost when I began. I followed the cable charts religiously. I knitted the body in the round up to the armpits. Then I knit the sleeves 2 at a time on a long circular needle, also in the round. Then I followed The Sweater Workship by Jacqueline Fee (sp?) and finished with raglan shaping in the round. I added many shortrows in the sleeves to fit over his extra wide, muscular shoulders. Apparently, only being bone & massive muscles makes them a bit squarer than normal. Then I paniced just before starting the collar and thought the back of the neck would be too low so I tossed in a couple more shortrows across the back. In retrospect, I don't think I needed them, but they didn't hurt. Below is a shot of the sweater back. If you can see the shortrows you are a better knitter than I!


Continuing the cables up and over the shoulders emphasized the raglan shaping, but he can pull that off with his shoulders. Overall, a lovely knit & I am ready to start my own sweater! But first to finish the lace neck warmer and the little girl's dress...

isn't he cute!

Yes, I am still alive.

I am almost embarrassed to post. It has been so long. I realized that I had been avoiding my blog because I was embarrassed that I had totally slacked off. I have retreated from my online life. The real one has been getting in the way. Go figure.

Here is a quick review of my life...

In my fiber life I have been knitting wildly on My Man's Durrow sweater. I have ditched the pattern and am following the ideas of The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee to finish the yoke & collar. I am also continuing the cables up & over the shoulders. Why stop a good thing early?

In my spinning life I have tons of natural camel 3ply ready to dye or skein up & post on Etsy. But, sadly, there it sits. I did have a friend over to spin and that was way cool to spin with someone. I actually didn't spin, I taught my 4yr old fiber wiz-kid to spin. She did a fabulous job seeming how she couldn't treadle & keep the fiber at the right angle to enter the orifice smoothly. My majacraft is set up pretty high and her little body is just too short. I will post pictures when the cows come home. I am thinking about getting another really short band that goes around the wheel so I can adjust the wheel to fit her. She really liked spinning. As her mother it is really fun to watch her balance (or really try hard to) all the different parts of spinning.

My dying life is comatose. Talk to the camel about that.

My sewing life is all about Needle Cases. I just finished my first 5 roll up cases for single & double point needles. They have graduated pocket sizes, labeling strip on the pockets, roll up, hang up & come in lovely colors. You can find them at my LYS The Tangled Skein! Now I have to make more of the hanging ones because all but 2 have sold! I am changing the pocket sizes on the hanging ones to make them more user friendly for the larger needle types. I think I might keep some in the old style for all the sock & other fine knitters out there.

My real life is quite exciting! I went back to school this semester to start learning how to be a computer drafter and actually make a decent wage when my children are all in school. I really like it. It has slowed the fiber life, sadly. That is part of the reason for the lack of posting. The REALLY exciting part is that I had applied for a grant way back in December. I found out about it on the internet. About 5% of applicants are chosen. I thought I had about a snowball's chance in hell.

I am not a Heller for no reason.
(note to readers: Heller is my maiden name.)
I AM THAT SNOWBALL IN HELL!!!
They picked me!!
They are going to give me lots of money to learn how to be the best lil' Computer Drafter out there!!!

yes, I realize that the use of exclamation points has gone a bit over the top. I am REALLY excited though!!!!

I think I will end on that exciting note. Ya know, someone has to get all that money out on the internet! Today, it happens to be me.

Saying Goodbye...

Etsy is fun. I can check it every day and count how many people have looked at my yarn. I can also remake my banner every day and watch it slowly crawl towards something I like. It is still not there, but I have had some busy days and haven't been able to remake it since, like, Sunday.

But there is a really sad and difficult part of Etsy. I have to say good-bye to yarn. Ok, I realize I have only sold 1 skein, but look at it...How do you say good-bye to this?! I LOVED this yarn! Clearly, selling yarn is going to be like raising children. At some point you have to say good-bye and let them make their own way in the world. And it is so hard to say good-bye. Packing Lupine Valley into the package was torturous. I had to SQUISH it flat. It killed me! I felt like I was abusing the skein by sucking all the air from it and sealing it into plastic, sealing that plastic into a bubble wrapper and THEN, THEN I had to drop it into a HUGE mail bin that other packages could smash on top of it. Well, actually, a mail-lady was taking the last bin of the day into the back of the post office and she hand carried my yarn package into the back with her. But, it could have been smashed. And as soon as it got to the back of the post office, it probably was smashed.

Then there is the Azure Mongolian Cashmere. My first hand-painted cashmere. I gifted it. I know that it is in really good hands. But I find myself going back to her blog posts here and here and reading about the yarn over and over again. I fully agree that the first pattern choice didn't suit the yarn. But we have to let our children experience the toils of the world. Sometimes life isn't good to you. We must presevere as did my little azure cashmere. She stuck with her knitter and let those stitches come out and get restarted into something even better. Now she is doing really well in life--starting to look like the beautiful peacock feather I always knew she could be.

Just a glimpse into the crazed mind of a knitter & spinner enthralled with fiber.

Christmas Knitting Results

Christmas came & went in a flurry of knitting. I thought I wouldn't have any last minute knitting because I started so early this year. But, I also didn't work on my knitting projects very often that early because, "I have tons of time..."
The boy LOVES his hockey sweater. He informed me that it was more Edmonton Oilers colors than Mustang Hockey colors (his team) but he still liked it. I told him I had planned that. Actually the yarn was stash yarn...but it did seem to fit his personality. I did not finish the hood & pocket on the front and am working diligently to finish that ASAP. He really wants to wear it! As far as first time knitting him clothing other than hats & socks it was a winner!

The Man's sweater Durrow was a bit trickier. I decided to give him the body for Christmas and the sleeves for his birthday in April. This was mainly for my own sanity. This is way too big of a project to not know if it will fit. The goal is a slightly fitted sexy man sweater. So far I think that this will fit the bill nicely. I found it quite humorous that he had no idea I was working on a sweater for him even though many a night I sat in bed next to him, knitting on his sweater. I never lied about it--when he asked what I was knitting on I said, "Oh, another one of my many projects." And he was quite content. Now that he knows about it, he is concerned the sleeves will be too feminine. Egads!! I told him he doesn't have a vote. The superman tshirt was my present to him also. It was supposed to be tight, I will be washing it in hot very soon. (Can you see the trend? Goal: get rock hard muscle man out of baggy shirts into tight ones.)

I saved my favorite project for last...



Ballet slippersocks for my delightful ballerina niece's birthday. She was born Christmas day, 4yrs ago!! I actually finished them in time to send them across the country on time for Christmas. A First! I wanted to make a pair for my little one as well...that will have to be a birthday present. I love these socks. Just love them. Nuff said.

All in all, a delightful knitting season. If I ignore the socks for my sister that did NOT get done on time and I had started them last May. Arg. I am totally embarrased.

Where Has My Yarn Gone?

I am so excited!! For the first time I have heard back from someone who bought my yarn and showed me a picture of the finished product!! Granite Beanies are fabulous hats that Bri from Juneau whips up. She ordered some of my yarn at the Salmon Jam in Cordova and turned them into cool tuques for the back country. My yarn is definitely seeing some tougher terrain than I am these days. Check out her way cool web site and products at www.granitegoodness.com!

Knitting Dreams

I have a dream...

That one day I will actually get to knit some of the garments that make me drool in the pictures. You see, I have this block when I knit. I never start the big projects that I dream about. I am too much of an ADD knitter. My knitting bag has about 4-6 smaller projects in it at any one time. If I knitted sweaters it would only have room for 1 or 2 projects. And I would have to finish them, yikes! But the sweater patterns that are out there!! Oh, they get me all hot n bothered. I HAVE to knit them. My current favorite is Sylvi by Mari Muinonen. I don't know what the rules are on posting pictures of knitting patterns in blogs. Maybe someone can comment and tell me. I will tell you about it or you can follow the link to see the gorgeous coat. Knee-length, chunky red goodness with a vine of cables traveling up the back and over the hood. Can it get any better? I bought the pattern. Can't start until the Man's Durrow is finished, but someday I WILL knit it. I also said that about Green Gable also by Mari. I searched out the Fall '08 Vogue Knitting mag just so I could own the pattern. But all this early Christmas knitting is delaying my self-indulgent knitting. One day...I will be knittin' for me again.

Christmas Project Revealed

Here is the front piece of the sweater I am knitting for my son. Now, I realize that the color combo is just a titch on the bright, obnoxious side. It is for a 6 yr old boy. And it is knit completely from my stash. I bought the bright blue wool/cotton blend yarn specifically for the boy a couple years ago at Cordova's finest, The Net Loft. Somehow I knew that obnoxious and blue would be perfect for him.

I am using 3 different yarns. The bright blue Schachenmayr Nomatta Habanera is a 70% wool, 30% cotton yarn. I found it in the ultra clearance bin at The Net Loft. I only have 4+ balls of the blue, hence the creative sidepanels. The brown Angora Soft by Knit One, Crochet Two is a WEBS ultra clearance as well. Only 4-5 balls of the brown in a 45% nylon, 40%viscose & 15% Angora. (I am not sure what I was thinking when I ordered the yarn. Nylon & Viscose??? It must have been the $2/ball and Angora that turned my head. Will I never learn?) I will use brown for the hood & pocket if there is enough. The orange is the good ol' standby Galway 100% wool. Strangly, they all come out to a very similar gauge, so far. I did do a gauge sample. Didn't want to many suprises as I am making up the color changes as yarn remains.

So far the sweater is going very fast. On the back I am knitting in his hockey number 77 in the bright orange. The sleeves will be striped depending on how much yarn I have left of each color. Knowing that I would barely have enough yarn for the entire sweater heavily influenced my decision to make stripes everywhere. Hopefully, no one will be able to tell when I run out of one color before the sweater done.

Now, it is back to the reality that Halloween is not until Friday and my children are already hyped up on candy from the school carnival. By the way, why did no one tell me school carnivals are a mother's worst nightmare? Oh yeah, I knew, but I was swayed out of my stoicism by those big, cute, blue eyes owned & used against me by my son. He just consumed a gummy rat. Arg.

I am SO prepared.

For Christmas, that is.

I credit this blog with a major contribution to the Christmas knitting craze that has hit me this week. I have never, in all my life, started on Christmas this early. But I have to have some knit thing to talk about. There are some other reasons as well.

I think there is a little guilt over last year's Christmas fiasco. I was going to make my son a quilt for Christmas...then it turned into a birthday gift...then he only got to see the fabric for his birthday in Feb...and I still have not worked on the poor boy's quilt. Okay, more than a little guilt.

What other factors promotes Christmas activity so early? I have discovered that Lil' P knits only when I sit down and knit. In her 'take no prisoners' approach to most things, she wants to knit a sweater. Lucky for us, I have "The Yarn Girls Guide to Knits for Older Kids". Which is full of really simple easy sweaters (among other things) for kids who might want to be cool. The knits are not really my normal knitting cup a tea, but perfect for Lil'P & I to knit together on. She will knit the rectangle for the hood & the pocket. I will knit the rest. I raided the stash and came up with a bright blue, hot orange and calming brown yarn combo that will be perfect for my boy. I have faith in my choice because we were at our LYS, The Tangled Skein, the other day and I asked what color of yarn I should pick to knit his dad a sweater and he picked out the brightest, most god-awful blue I could imagine. Funny--it was the same color of blue I am knitting for him. Perfect. (even more perfect is that all the yarn was purchased some time ago on CLEARANCE so this will be the cheapest sweater ever)

I am also starting on a Super Top Secret Sweater (STSS) for a secret someone. All I can say is "Durrow". He might read this blog...so I have to be vague.

So, I am off to knit on the Christmas presents...tee hee hee