Purling Sprite

Back to our regular bloggin days...

Back from the little holiday break. The Christmas celebration went greeeeat! I thought Bryant was going to wake up early to see if Santa had arrived, but nope, he was still in bed by 9am. He was so unaware of the day that he even climbed in bed with me! I had to urge him to go see if Santa had come to our house. Maybe next year will be a bit different as both him and Nyah will be a little older and he will have a clearer sense of time and days.

We were able to take a few shots of surprised little faces. Silly me forgot to get them stockings for their little things, so I improvised with some paper bags which I filled with some chocolate...the perfect breakfast for the day!

In loom knitting news, I have been designing the scarf that my wonderful little model Nyah is wearing. The little model doesn't stay still so I have to run around trying to chase her to take the pictures. Tell ya what, good help is hard to find these days! The pattern will be available soon at my website.

In knitting news, I have been looking through my stash to see what will be my New Year's project. I would love to start a sweater, maybe the Ribby Cardi, but what yarn to use. I can't wear anything itchy, maybe Aurora 8, I have 10 skeins of it. Or maybe I can make The Essential Stripe by Wendy.

My Socks arrived!!

I was watching the mail every day as I knew that my sock pal had send them out. I stalked the mail lady every day, but nothing. Yesterday the mail came and no socks :(, then I went to work and I knew that it probably wouldn't come until today. The mail arrived today and no socks :(, but then UPS showed up and guess what, he brought me socks!! He probably thougtht I was crazy when I said, oh my socks! Or, he thought I was in a sad mental state if I thought that socks was a great Christmas present--of course, I proceeded to tell him that these were special socks, they were handmade! Then he seem to understand my excitement. 

The kids gathered around me as I opened the box. Bryant of course had to get his hands on something, so he snatched the box of chocolates right away--thankfully, it is childproof ;) and they are still safe from his little hands--and tummy!

Look, look at these cute little stitch markers! Aren't they just the best looking little Christmas ornaments. I love them. Thank you secret sock pal!! If you are reading this, pleeeeeease take me out of my misery and tell me who you are...I have looked and looked but cannot seem to find you.

Oh! and the socks, well, they fit perfectly!! My favorite color and the perfect fit!

Happy holidays everyone :)

**Edit** I have found my very secret Sock Pal. I have this tendency to check things from last to the 1st and guess what? Yep, her blog is the very 1st one!! So I checked the entire list in the Holiday Exchange! I guess that will teach me to start at the beginning!!

It's a Boy!!!

My friend Tracey has proof, it is a boy!! Go and congratulate her! I love this blogging, she lives in the same state as I do, but if it wasn't for blogging, I never would have met her. Now, we are planning a meeting! Ohhh, I just thought of something, she is having a boy, I have a girl, hmmmm, maybe we'll do a match :).

Knitting Without Needles

K-Tel Knitter Success Story

As soon as I opened the box, Bryant jumped to the couch and grabbed the box from me, informing me that it was his knitting.

He sat down an hour ago to knit, and he still sitting on the couch, knitting a baby sweater for Nyah.

He informed me the yarn that came with the package is terrible and smelly, and he wants some nice pink yarn from the yarn store (pink for Nyah's sweater), so I should pick some up for him on my knitting day, hehehehe.

Amazingly though, he is still sitting there knitting away. He has taken up my spot on my rocking couch and he is busily making loops with the K-tel Knitter. He has probably knitted 1 stitch all the time, but I am amazed at how happy he is with this new gadget.

The knitting hook/needle came with an instruction booklet, which he has positioned right next to him. It is opened to the baby sweater pattern. He checks it methodically every few minutes and happily says "Mom, it is growing, I am making a sweater for Nyah to wear"

I don't know how long this is going to last, but so far, I have had 1 hour of complete peace :).

A collector of sorts...

Some people collect stamps, others collect baby dolls, others enjoy collecting leaves, I have decided that I like to collect sock yarn!

Seeing the different colors and feeling the different yarns is just superb! Seeing the lavender fusing with the brown and then becoming lavender again is mesmerizing to my eyes. Seeing all the different tones of greens in one single skein of yarn is like seeing a tree change from the beginning of spring to the dead of winter.

The end of the year is approaching and to this day, I have been oficially knitting with needles for 8 months. I had a great teacher whom showed me the basics and opened the door to a whole new addiction world. 

After finishing my first project, I immediately wanted to try sock knitting, cables, lace, felting, and anything under the moon. Although I wanted to take a class to learn how to make socks, my inpatience won and I had to try them on my own. A long trip  down to Mesa Verde and I came back with my very first pair of socks! I became addicted right away. The stash has grown considerably in the sock yarn department, although not as rich as some other blogger's stash. I was very impressed to see all my sock yarn in one single place. I am trying to inventory what I have and where to stash them for awhile. One thing for sure, 2006 will see some sock knitting from this little place in the world. I am figuring that I can knit at least 22 pairs of socks with all this stash, unless the Koigu becomes a Leaf Lace Shawl, in which case I can still make 20 pairs of socks...ooohhh dear, I guess I better join a sock-along so I can get some of the stash reduced!

Some of my ultimate favorites from the stash:

• Vesper Sock Yarn
• Socks that Rock
• Sunshine Yarns
• No No Kitty--whom is closing its doors, so I had to order a lonely skein of gorgeous pinks.
• Lorna's Laces
• Koigu
• Cherry Tree Hill
• And last, my own hand-dyed yarn

Are you a yarn collector too?

Bloggy working...testing, testing?

Tap, tap, is it working now? It seems that we were out of commission for day or so, some of my pictures are completely gone...probably going to do some last minute Christmas shoppin'

The needles have been clicking away, no, not at making presents for others but for me! I know, I am selfish, while most of you out there are knitting away for loved ones, I took a whole day just to knit a hat from S & B the Nation. My friend Renee, brought me her books on Thursday and I was looking through them and I couldn't pass up the cables hat. You all know how much I love cables, so I picked up some Prairie Silks in Royal Blue and had to give the pattern a try. I changed it a bit to fit me--I have a small head, about 19" around, so instead of using size 8 needles, I went down to a size 7. I also knitted a whole cable repeat more so the hat fit a little lower thus covering the ears a bit. After I finished it, both of my kids wanted to wear it! Bryant requested one for him in his favorite color--black, hahaha, he thinks blue is black. If you are wondering about the little black spot above the lip on the right side--it is not a fly, promise!! It is a beauty mark--it is real, it is there all the time, had it since I was born.

Playing on the looms with some yarn I picked up on Thursday at the LYS. It is pretty neat. Sam asked me if I was making a little animal--so an idea came. I shall make a long scarf with a face, I will add some buttons for eyes, and a little tongue, I will make the scarf long, and it will end as a thin I-cord at the end of the I-cord it will have a small spikey tail that resembles a small leaf. Another idea in the back of my mind, making it straight on one side and wavy on the other, one of the sides with self-fringing...ideas are flying right now.

In some awesome, super duper news, I have to tell you all this because well, I am a proud wife....my darling hubby got a 4.0 on his last semester in school! Wooohooo!!

Holiday Knits

Woohoo! I finished the socks for my pal in the Holiday Knits Exchange. The pattern came from my *new* number one sock book, Sensational Knitted Socks. I have always had a different knit gauge than the pattern calls for and that brought headaches, well this book has an answer to my problems, all I need is the knit gauge and then I just browse through the different patterns and find one that I like, then I simply find the number I need in the tables provided. Very simple, no more banging my head against the wall, and it even has lists with the different measurements for all sizes! Pretty nifty. Anyways, I hope my pal likes the socks...I know she likes greens, but I think this yarn has more lavender than greens.

Once upon a time, we had a little Christmas tree, we took it out 2 days ago to put it up. The kids were very excited, I was excited too. Dad found the little tree which we carefully put away last year. Opened the box and everything was there, nice pretty little tree, only one thing missing...the base!! Idiot me packed it some place else and we couldn't find it. Little ones were sad, one of them almost on the verge of tears.  So, we set out, we searched in two different stores and one of them was completely void of trees, the 2nd one only had gigantic ones that would need the whole square footage of our aparment. After looking for hours, we came home with our new, not so little Christmas Tree. As you may be able to see, it is top heavy, the decorations are mostly in the top section to keep it away from wandering little ones whom like to tickle them and make them move.

*Edit to add* Can you see the little Santa below the tree, well there is no Santa anymore. A little one got to it and it is gone now :(.

A few years ago Sam and I picked up a couple of small crochetted decorations. I got them because they reminded me of my Grandma whom was always knitting or crocheting.

When I saw them, I couldn't leave them behind, at the time, we only had the little tree so I only picked 3 of them. Each time I see them, they remind me of my Grandma and her love for the fiber arts, a love that has been passed onto me, and I hope to pass onto my children.

A memory

A box full of goodies arrived for the entire family from Aunt Lori and Aunt Becky. Aunt Lori was knitting away for the little ones. I once told her how beautiful her hats were and that one of them would look just lovely on my little Ny-Ny. So, unbeknown to me, she knitted away at a little hat for the little munchkin--the pattern her own, a modification of some bigger hat. The color choices--perfect for her little but ever growing wardrobe.

Of course, an auntie never forgets any of her little people, so she made baby Bryant a fire fighter's hat from the very popular book New Knits on the Block.

The hats were both huge hits with the kids and the grown-ups around where super impressed with the firefighter hat!

You know how I know that I definitely knit too much--when my kid sees me grab the biggest bowl in the house and the first thing he asks is not "Mum, are you baking a cake?" but instead, he asks "Mum, are you going to dye more yarn to knit?" And when I respond, no sweety I am going to block the scarf and he excitedly says, "Mum, can I help, pleeeaazze" all the while jumping up and down. Then he runs to my knitting bag to find the blocking pins while I get the towel. As he hands me the pins and I pin the scarf down to the floor and I turn over to see his gleeful face I realize that no matter how much he may tick me off during the day, those little precious moments will stay with me forever. One pin at a time, one blocked scarf at a time, him and I are building memories together.

(By the way, the scarf above was a test knit for SWTC. The scarf was knitted with gorgeous Karaoke yarn-silky soft. If you haven't had a chance to try the yarn, you must. It is very soft to the touch)

Time out..

I am in time out...I need some time away from the kiddos. I am afraid I am feeding the bad monster right now and I need to get away for a bit in order to get back to the "good" monster. Not much to tell you, except that I am working on the socks and I am currently trying to finish writing a pattern for the looms.

You may have noticed a change in the bloggy looks and I have to say that I fell in love with Kim's new blog look and I wanted to make mine look as neat as hers....she even has an MP3 that you can play on the side bar, now that is super! If I could get mine to do the same, I would have Ricky Martin's I Don't Care, or La Tortura. That gives me something to play with, maybe I can figure it out in the next few days.

Oh, I found my elf name, and it is not Twinkle Toes! 

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

The Baguette Pattern and a new baby

The Baguette Pattern

An everyday felted handbag completed in a round Knifty Knitter knitting loom.

Size
Pre-felted:
Height: 12”
Depth: 6”
Wide: 11”

Felted:
Height: 9”
Depth: 4.5”
Width: 10”

Materials:

12 ounces of Bulky weight wool. Lamb’s Pride Bulky was used in sample.

Yarn for Striped Version:
6 ounces of Color A
2 ounces of Color B
2 ounces of Color C

Yellow Knifty Knitter

Knitting tool

Darning needle

Crochet hook

Skills set:

Purl Stitch

Decrease

Increase

Flat Panel knitting

I-cord knitting (handle)

Pattern given for 2 different versions: Solid color and Striped version.

$4.99

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No, I am not preggies....but if everything went well last night, in 9 months...just kiddin' :).

A picture of our new baby....oh, he is a dream come true. He has been a part of the family for about 2 weeks now and Sam & Bryant love it to pieces.