I’m telling you, frogging those UFO’s got my ass in gear to knit. Thank you all so much for your words of encouragement and support. I’m glad to have gotten the ball rolling for some of you. Ha. Pretty punny. I finished the scarf on New Year’s Eve and realized I had way too much leftover Silk Garden to not do something with it. I found this great hat designed by mimoknits. I weighed what I had leftover and I had 76 grams which was just enough for the hat. I’m totally in love with both of these knitted items. What a great way to ring in the New Year. I’ve read on a number of blogs that what you do on New Year’s day is a sign for what’s to come for the rest of the year. That’s good news for me since I knit most of the day. Maybe this year I can actually pull it all together and maintain a good balance between work and knitting. We shall see. I’m pretty happy with how I’m doing so far.

I ended up going with almost 83″ on the scarf and you can see here how long it is on my after wrapping it almost two times around my neck. Click the pictures to see them up close. The hat has some really cool lacework in it. YES! Lacework. Shhhhh! Don’t tell Lauren I did some lace. I don’t think this really counts does it? Remember I’ve vowed to never knit lace?

The scarf pattern is the Child’s Rainbow Scarf out of Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It’s just a basic mistake rib. I used about 1.5 skeins each of two different Noro Silk Garden colorways. The leftovers went into the hat and I still have a teeny bit left but not much. The scarf is a super easy pattern but knitting an 83″ scarf takes forever. The hat was fairly easy but I also have made a million so I’m not a very good judge.I’m not one for resolutions but I have joined up Rachael and a bunch of other people to run 100 miles before April 1st. I’m going to get one of the cool Nike Tracker thingamajiggies too that people keep raving about. I love me some fun gadgets. Go over to Rachael’s blog to see what it’s all about. I run more than this already but it should be fun to do it with a whole bunch of other people. Here’s the button I made. It makes me laugh. Come on. Wanna join us? Come on over to the blog I set up. Register here. (And you can walk/bike/swim too!)

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Stomach ache again. It’s not stress related. I think it’s because my back is sore which then makes me guard and then yeah, stomach hurts. It’s already feeling better. It had better because I don’t have the time for this.

Anyway, here is my eye candy for today.

My scarf is coming along and I love it more and more. The real eye candy in this picture is the shawl/scarf pin by Romi. I am very tempted to keep this one for myself. But for now, it’s still in the shop. Gone, gone, gone. I need to order some more of these huh? Romi’s wicked talented.

And look at this eye candy. Many people have wanted to see the inside of the Namaste Jetsetter bag. As you wish my friends. There’s nothing like a well constructed bag with lots of pockets. This even has a huge zippered pocket in the middle that also divides the bag into two separate compartments. Then on each side are 3 pockets of different sizes. It has an adjustable magnetic snap as the closure. Carole has this Raspberry Jetsetter. She loves it. The Socks that Rock really make it pure eye candy too doesn’t it?

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Did you know that’s one of the fun knit-alongs that Kathy is doing this month? I decided to finally pick out some of the gorgeous Silk Garden with which to knit the Children’s Rainbow Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I’ve been coveting this scarf since the book came out. I love the mistake rib and how the stripes come together. I cast on last night and could not put it down. There is something about knitting with self-striping yarns that hypnotizes you and keeps you knitting more and more just to see what the next color will be. You know?

I’m using color #226 & #225. I went with the Silk Garden because I knew that the Kureyon would itch around my neck. I’m pretty sensitive to wool. Oh I can’t wait to wear this. It’s already so pretty.

Also, look what Scout’s Swag will be carrying soon.

Hardcover needlecases! Splityarn makes some really cool needlecases and we are going to team up so I can sell them I will be the first store to ever carry them and do they rock! I should have them up in the shop next week and they will retail for $32.00. Click this link to see some of the other ones she has made. Cool swag fo sho!

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I’ve been looking around to see what swaps were currently going on and I couldn’t find anything I wanted to join. If you don’t know me by now you know that can only mean one thing…..create a new swap! I have only actually knit one thing this year for a swap so I’m ready to do one again. I know many of you are swapped out but I’m ready for another one that involves knitting. Since Bev and I work so well together I asked her to help me do this one too. Knowing how close we are to Fall weather I thought a scarf swap could be fun. Inspired by Leigh Radford’s new pattern I thought it’d be cool to make it a FUNKY scarf swap. And not funky as in smells bad…. funky as in hip!

To make things way easier on the FSS Hostesses, we are not breaking this swap into groups. We are going to try out an online swap program and for this swap it’s going to just be one big, happy, flexible group where everyone plays nicely and no one complains. It is not for beginners unless you truly feel you’re up to the challege and if you have major animal allergies you should probably pass too. Please understand that it takes so much work when people need to be broken down into allergies/knitting levels/shipping preferences etc. and for this one we just don’t have the time to do that. We are not trying to exclude people at all, just trying to keep the little bit of sanity we have. Hope you can understand. Remember you can ask your pal if they DO have allergies and then go from there. Also, we’ll do questionnaires so you can learn about your pal!

Rules? Schmools. Ok, just a few.

Funky Scarf Swap 2006!

1. Sign up by August 12th by 8:00pm MST
2. Knit/crochet the funkiest scarf you can imagine in colors and a fiber that your swap pal will love.
3. You must have fun.
4. Mail your scarf the week of October 9th. Please do NOT mail it before then so everyone received their scarves at the same time. You must mail it out by Ocotber 14th.

So let’s see what skillz you’ve learned in knitting/crochet school. There are no limits on what you can do with this scarf as long as it’s totally rocking, funky, hip, cool, etc. Get it? Got it? Good!

You in? You know you want to. Then get your heiny over and sign up! (the password is fss2006 to sign up)

Just remember that this is like all swaps; if you think you will flake then please do not sign up. There’s nothing worse than having to track down a bunch of flakers! I will ask for angels at some point just to make sure everyone get’s hooked up with a funky scarf.

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Once you’ve signed up slap this puppy up on your website.

Steal the image not my bandwidth!

The Blog is over here.

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**I’m going to keep these 4 in stock in my shop for just a few days because the response has already been bigger than I thought I’m going to run out of yarn! So really, if you want them, please go get them while I keep them in stock online! Off to order more yarn….**

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Here are the colorways all ready to be shipped to Christy.

I’m totally in love with Storm Surge. Here is another picture of it.

 

There are different shades of blue for the ocean and then shades of gray for the clouds and waves hitting the shore. Click to see up close.

I think the way I’m going to work it with these skeins is that I will simply keep them in stock online at the shop and if anyone wants them, they can buy them and then I will dye them. It’s basically like a custom order without the extra charge. It’s what I discussed with Christy and I think it’s the best way for me to be able to just dye on demand for this swap. Also, anyone can buy them. You do not have to be in Christy’s swap to purchase these colorways. I will go to the shop and put 1 of each in stock. That way there will always be stock of those. So if you want them, get them!

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Let me preface this post by saying I’m tired and cranky. Tonight you will get to see the other side of me. Welcome to Snarky Scout! Earlier today I saw that a new Summer Stash-Along has started. Now, even before I started selling my yarn I would never have joined one of these. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a huge stash but I just want to be able to buy yarn if I want to! Yah know? I just don’t really get it. Maybe I have no self control? Especially now that I’m selling my yarn I really don’t like those stash-alongs. How am I going to feed my family? Okay it’s not really like that but I guess it just directly affects me (and all of the other indie peeps) now when a bunch of people decide for three months not to buy yarn. I’m not mad at anyone in particular but I just thought I’d create my own along.

It probably should say the anti-stash-along-along. Feel free to save the button to your server and show support to the anti-stash-alongers. Sing it loud! Sing it PROUD! I WANNA BUY YARN WHENEVER I FEEL LIKE IT! I DON’T CARE HOW BIG MY STASH IS! YARN IS LOVE PEOPLE! Doesn’t that feel good?

OKay, I’ll stop being obnoxious. My kids just went to bed and I think I’m going right now too. It’s all good. I still love you even if you aren’t going to buy yarn from me. I guess…..oops. That was still obnoxious. Done. Peace out.

Oh! WAIT! Good point Kat makes. If you are joining a stash-along to save money to then buy my yarn? That’s allowed. I’ll see you back here the day after Labor Day.

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Over a week after it was mailed from Boston, look what the Pony Express finally delivered to me. Clicky to see exactly what it is.

Am I a lucky girl or what? I got my own, handmade, beautiful, DPN case from Cabin Cove Dave! Thank you so much Dave. I love it and needed one! I can’t wait to sit and organize my needles. Wow, what a hot thing to do on a Saturday night. I need to slow down a bit, I know. Actually, I’m going to knit and watch The Corpse Bride with the Scoutlets.

I worked all day today at the shop and it was pretty busy. Almost the whole gang from Stitch ‘n’ Bitch came in and every single one of them bought the yarn to make the Shadow Shawl with me. Bev even bought a second one. I think we have 7 or 8 of us at this point who are all going to cast-on May 2nd.

I’ll leave you with this one from last night. It caught my eye when I went out on my back porch. I love the color of the sky and how the sun hits the houses late in the evening.  It really does take my breath away every day.

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THIS SWAP IS ALREADY IN PROGRESS! SIGN UPS ARE OVER!

GO CHECK OUT THE DYE-O-RAMA BLOG FOR MORE INFO!!

Love to dye yarn? Always wanted to give dyeing a try? Join Cookie, Monica, Noelle & Scout in the first hand-dyed yarn swap - DYE-O-RAMA!

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Who wants to play??
Sign-up will be before May 1st
You will get your assignments shortly after and will have 6 weeks to dye your magic yarn
This round will be sock yarn - at least 440yds
You can use Kool Aid or acid dyes, your choice
You can do variegated, self-striping, etc, your choice
You do not need a blog as we’ll have one where you can post your pictures if you’d like
***Edited to add - We will do international swaps!***

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If you’re interested please leave us a comment so we can figure out how many people want to play. Sign up will be next week. We really think it will be a fun swap! More details soon….pass it on okay? The more the merrier!

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Remember these colors I picked out for my IK Wobbly Tote for March Project Spectrum?

Well now that it’s April I decided to trade in those colors for the new colors.

How much fun will that be? Hello Spring! I usually don’t like any of these colors but they are really speaking to me and I think will look super cute all felted up together. One of the things that Project Spectrum forces us all to do is go outside our normal colors. I think it’s a good thing. Otherwise? What Project Spectrum month is purple? I can always trade them in each month until the purple month. Ha!

I have another new project up my sleeve today. Hey Dave? Lookie what I’m borrowing from one of the owners of the store. Wanna come play?

I’m thinking there will be some dye flying over here this afternoon. Cookie was so kind and sent me some dyes and I thought I’d do some Project Spectrum colors. Stay tuned.

Oh! I found out last night I got picked to be a test knitter for some cool, new, yarn from Jacey of Insubordiknit. I can’t wait to see what it is. If you have never seen her swag go check it out. She is super talented and as you can see, has so much fun with every single thing she makes!

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I finished my first Supergirl sock with Mama-E’s hand-dyed yarn. I absolutely love it. It also fits her perfectly. I’ve already cast on the second sock and hope to whip it right out so I can start on my next project.

At this point I think most of the recipients of the Sock Club have gotten their packages so I’m not putting this behind a cut. Don’t scroll down any further if you don’t want to see what we got in our first kit.

The yarn is called Rainforest Jasper. It’s soooooo pretty. I really think that my T. needs a pair of socks out of this. Even though he said not to knit him anything I think I’m going to. Tough. It will be available to the public in 3 months if you want it.  I also made new banner and button to go with our Sock Club Blog’s new name. We held a contest to name the blog and it was a total coincidence that the name that won was almost identical to the bumper sticker that got sent to us!

     Time for a run! Ciao!

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