Today is my one year blogiversary. It’s been a very good, very fibery year. I’ve met so many wonderful knitters, knitters I had “known” from reading their blogs forever. I’ve been to two of the best sheep and wool shows ever, and somehow how feel more validated than ever in my knitterly pursuits. I feel like I’m giving something back for all the years I read blogs before I had my own. My stash has also grown by leaps and freakin bounds, it’s really not even funny. I think I’m 5 big storage tubs of yarn strong at this point. Not to mention my spinning stash. Considering my already overflowing stash, I went and bought myself a blogiversary present, less than a week after Rhinebeck, even. I must be drunk. It’s the lanolin, I’m telling you!

Mmm. All those wonderful green skeins up there are 6 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool, color 52. I really didn’t plan on buying any yarn I swear (famous last words, right?). I went to my localist of yarn shops yesterday, I hadn’t been over there in a long time, and still riding a Rhinebeck high, I wanted another fiber fix. I saw this color, and I could not walk away from it. I have a serious thing for green, you know. I can honestly say, I have never impulse bought enough yarn for a whole sweater. Ever. I usually have a plan, or at least a sweater in mind. If I hadn’t bought it yesterday, I would have been right back over there today to get it. Each skein has 242 yards, so 6 skeins is plenty for a Julia sized sweater, even though I would not have a problem if I needed to go buy more!
That orange skein is more Whiskey in a color I didn’t already own. The last time I visited that shop they didn’t carry it yet. So it came home with me, along with 2 skeins of Lorna’s Lace’s Shepard sock in “Vera”. I will totally credit Michelle for the enablement of this purchase, her and her gorgeous Clapotis knit in the Shepards worsted “Vera” that she wore at Rhinebeck. So I have quite a bit of knitting to do.

I came home and immediately knit a swatch with the Nature Wool.

Look at it. Could it be a more lovely shade of green?!

Before I can really get into this yarn though, I need to make some serious progress on my Whiskey sweater. Right now I have a sleeve and and most of a front knit up. I can. not. wait. to get to the fairisle part of the front, I love the blue, but I need to knit with another color. This project is fun, but such a small gauge knit. I want this sweater though, I will not stop. So this has been my main project lately, and probably will be for awhile.

I have only good things to say about this yarn, I really love it.
So yeah, this has been one hellova good year.

Filed by Julia at 3:58 pm under Stash Enhancement
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Gah. So I’m trying to send out an email to everyone on the Vesper Sock Yarn mailing list, because I’m going to have a shop update this evening, and my jackass cart program is not cooperating. I have 445 emails on my list, and I’ve tried to send out an email 3 times, and all 3 times, every single email has bounced back to me. I thought at first it might be my hotmail email, but no, I switched to my knitterly things email, and still we have no go. So, if you’re on my list and have not gotten an email, please dont be upset, I’m trying!
Instead, I’ll make an announcement here,

Thank you, that is all.
Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions on what the hell is going on with the emails, please share! I think maybe I need to move to another program. Double Gah.

ETA: And another thing! My comments are not being forwarded to my email. Thanksyouverymuchwordpress. I may need to go surround myself with my stash to recover….

Filed by Julia at 2:55 pm under General
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Rhinebeck was the best time ever. I loved it. So many Knitters. The lobby of the hotel I stayed at, apparently the place to stay, was jam packed morning and night. The festival was great too, I think Autumn is the perfect time for a Sheep and Wool show. I even think I liked it better than Maryland. I just wish it was a little closer. 7 hours is a long ass drive. Upstate New York is gorgeous in the fall too.

Saturday the weather was absolutely perfect for wearing handknit sweaters. Nice and sunny, warm and a little bit on the crisp side. A bit of fibery goodness followed me home. I bought just enough, I didn’t go crazy at all. I bought more roving from Stefania, I love her roving.

This purpley stuff, and some more pink sparkley fluff followed me home. I also bought two niddy noddies, a wee, 6 inch little guy, and a bigger, 12 inch one I think.

And the best thing ever, the only thing I regret not buying Maryland, The Blue Moon Fiber Arts Eastern Luxury Collection. Five differant amazingly soft luxury fibers. From left to right, Yak, Baby Camel and Silk Top, Mongolian Cashmere Top, Mulberry Silk and Baby Camel Top.

I also finished the first Hello Yarn Sock on Saturday night, during the gigantic knit in in the hotel lobby. I’m really liking it, I did end up ripping it out and working a contrast toe and heel.
I’ll shows photos, mmm, later.

Filed by Julia at 7:58 pm under General
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Thank you everybody for all the wonderful Birthday wishes!! I did have a good birthday. I hung out in Michigan for a minute. Had dinner at Mortons, got spoiled by my Mum. Had some awesome cake. It really was as good as it looked! Mmm….. I almost had to fight my sister to bring the leftover cake home! Not really, but I did split it with her, don’t really want to eat most of a cake myself! So James and I had some awsome cake when I got back on Monday.
I totally splurged and bought myself an awesome Birthday present. You’ve heard of the little blue box? Well, meet the big brown box, with the big pink bow.

I bought these.
Seriously. I even went for the complimentary gift boxing.
Perfect timing too, it’s been crappy rainy here most of the week, whatever did I do before I owned Rain boots? I don’t even know.
You were probably expecting a birthday stash enhancement, Hmm? I’m saving that for Rhinebeck!! I can. not. wait. I’m leaving early tomorrow. It’s about a 7 hour drive to Poughkeepsie. I’m not looking forward to the drive, but I think It’ll be worth it! I did pick up two more skeins of Whiskey in Michigan, colors I didn’t get before, but that’s all.
I also finished my Cashsoft Lush Hoodie!! I love love love it. I wore it all last weekend. The zipper turned out amazing, and very professional looking. I wish I had some FO pictures for you, but I don’t. Weather being all uncooperative and all. I also started my Whiskey Sweater. I was almost thinking I could finish it by Thanksgiving, but that is so not going to happen. But Christmas is probably doable. 7 st/inch on size 4 needles. That’s all I’m sayin.

My next post will be from New York! I can’t wait. If you see a chick in a knitted green zip up hoodie, and blue-ish plaid pants, with curly brown hair, that’d be me. Say Hi!

Filed by Julia at 7:01 pm under General
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Filed by Julia at 11:40 pm under General
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Betcha thought the next FO from this blog would be my green hoodie huh? Nope! It stills need some work. Instead, I show you a pair of socks I finished while watching the Steelers lose on Sunday.

Specs:
Yarn: The sock body is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Colortweed, color# 1004. The Heels and Toes are Brown Sheep WildFoote in Deco Lime, color# SY44.
Needles: Inox US 1′s, 29″ circular. My absolut fav for socks.
Pattern: My own, toe-up with turkish cast on and short row heel. Knit magic loop style.
Notes: I have quite a bit of both yarns left over, enough to possibly knit another similar pair. I bought this yarn in Michigan back in July. I think I started these in mid August, and finished the first one pretty quickly, then kind of let the pair lapse. I feels really good to lighten my WIP list!!

Last night I cast on for another pair, using this beautiful Hello Yarn sock yarn I bought about a week ago.

The color is “Flurry” I was really excited to see how this would knit up cause with varigated yarns, you just never know. This is kind of mini striping, and pooling at the same time. I’m liking it so far, and I’m going to keep going. I like to use differant yarn for the heel and toe alot, and usually really like how that looks, but decided to see how this yarn looks by itself.

Hopefully I’ll have my hoodie done soon, soon, soon. James and I are headed up to Detriot, yet again this weekend. To retrieve my hopefully all better car, and celebrate my Birthday *cough cough October 15th cough cough* with the fam. Just a short trip this time, and I’ll be up there agian for T giving and Xmas. This year I’ve been to Dertoit the most ever since I moved away, once a month since July. Crazy.

Filed by Julia at 5:48 pm under General
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So very close. So far everything’s working out. I seamed and set in one sleeve, and the fit there is good. One more sleeve and a few finishing details left to go. After the sleeve, I need to block the hood, then knit some zipper facings, sew on the zipper, weave in a million ends and Done!

Check out the perfect match on that zipper. That’s a one in a million color match there. I went to a little place down the street, they usually have exactly what I’m looking for in a zipper. I never go to Joanns, cause there selection sucks. But really, considering I dyed the yarn, finding a zipper that’s an exact match is amazing.

I’ve used Zippersource when I can’t find what I’m looking for locally. They do great custom zippers, and ordering is easy. That extra yarn in the first photo is some cashsoft dk I dyed, to knit the zipper facing with and got a pretty good color match on, it’s a little darker than the sweater, but it’ll do. I was reading blogs the other day, and ended up at Becky’s. She details a great way to put a facing on a zipper in this post. It was total irony, cause that same day I was obsessing over how to get a facing on this zipper.

I should have this whole thing wrapped up soon, I’ll be wearing it to Rhinebeck. That’s right. I’m going to Rhinebeck. I was undecided for awhile, but really, how could I not? I have it on good authority it’s better than Maryland. I can’t wait!

Once this is done I can start my whiskey sweater usually I let startitis run rampant, but if I start it now I may never finish my hoodie.

Filed by Julia at 4:18 pm under Knitting
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Last night I finished all the Knitting on my Green Cashsoft Lush Hoodie. Using the yarn I overdyed. I used every last frickin yard of yarn. I was realy cringing toward the end of the hood, even though I successfully eeked out the full 13 inches. I used every partial skein I had, even if I only got 2 rows out of it across the hood. Thus leading to an awful amount of ends to weave in. In such a dire yarn shortage I even had to resort to joining ends in the middle of the fabric. This is something I never, ever, ever do. I usually go out of my way to avoid this. People, desperate times, desperate measures. In the beginning, my optimistic self figured if I had any extra yarn, I would knit on some kangaroo pockets. Right. I still want the pockets though. I think I might see what happens if I try to come close to matching the dye job on two more skeins.

The moral of my story? Even though knitting math tells me I’ll need 10 skeins of the yarn I’m substituting, the yarn I’m planning overdyeing, I should dye 12. Then as long as I’m dyeing 12, I really should dye 14. It’s just safe knitting.

I’ll have some photos tomorrow, I didn’t get it together while the light was still good today. Also, I’ll tell you all about the awesome zipper and the awesome facing on the zipper I’m planning to install.

Filed by Julia at 6:29 pm under Knitting
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This is satisfaction.

Little Pink and Pink Hoodie for my new little cousin.
Pattern: Hooded Striped Top from Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, the first book. I knit the 9-12 month size.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Light Pink, color #340006. Dark Pink, color #340614. This is the first time I’ve knit with this yarn, and I have to say, it’s awesome. It has a really nice hand, and even on such tiny needles, the knitting goes very quickly.
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 2, and US 3.
Mods: None, really, but I did do things a little differantly. I knit the body in the round, which was a good idea. I also made the neck line a little deeper than called for, which actually happened by accident, but I went with it. I figured what with babies having freakishly large heads and all, it was probably a good idea.
They also give funny directions for the hood, involving you to cast on for the back of the hood. Instead, I picked up from the back cast off edge. This was also a good idea.
If I was to knit it agian, I’d do the body in the round, then pick up around the arm hole, and knit the sleeves down.
The pattern calls for 3 skeins of each color, I had exactly enough yarn yarn from the second skeins to finish the hood. Sadly, I had to break into the third skeins just to do the ribbing around the hood and neck. So I have alot of yarn left over.

Which means she’ll get some matching bootees, and probably a hat. As soon as I can stand to knit with pink again.
This sweater looks really great inside out too!

I think It’d be fun to knit it in reverse stockinette, I love the interlocking purl bumps.
The ribbing is knit in a few rows of the main color, than a few rows of the contrast color, which lets me do my favorite knitting tip. If you already know this, bear with-
To avoid the purl bumps on the right side that occur when you change colors in a rib pattern, I always knit the first row of a new color. The knit row gets sucked into the rib, and you can’t even tell, and it looks great.

and on the reverse-

How much fun is that? The whole thing took less than 2 weeks. I’m not sure when I’ll give this to her, probably when I’m in Michigan next. And did I show you the most perfect little pink buttons?

With projects like this, it really is all in the details.

Filed by Julia at 9:58 pm under FO!,Knitting
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