Hey Let's Give a Cheer, Carolina is here!

...The Fighting Gamecocks lead the way.

Who gives a care,
If the going gets tough,
And when it is rough,
that's when the 'Cocks get going.

Hail to our colors of garnet and Black,
In Carolina pride have we.

So, Go Gamecocks Go - FIGHT!
Drive for the goal - FIGHT!
USC will win today - GO COCKS!
So, let's give a cheer, Carolina is here.
The Fighting Gamecocks All The Way!

It doesn't take much

Really. It doesn't take much to make me happy. Just a little sweet something. So little and sweet I can hardly stand it.

This is Jack. Isn't he about the sweetest thing you've ever seen?
I swear, this made me happy for the entire week.
I got to hold him, and he made all those wonderful little baby noises too.
**sigh**
Yep. Happy.

And then I get to work on another cupcake hat, because I'm waiting for yarn for longies and all so I need to work on something...
Making good progress... cooking right along.
Kids get up so I put my knitting down and go get snack time started.
forget about the knitting
come back later
find this

notice how someone has so sweetly removed my knitting needles so there are all those live stitches.
How they helpfully put my needles into my ball of yarn.
Hmmmmmm.... yesss...
I don't know which one did it, but I'd wager it was Niall.

Fresh Baked!

These are so much fun to make!

It's official!

I got permission from Bex to use her pattern for the cupcake hat. Woo hoo!
Thanks so much Bex, and I hope you can recover the blog without too much pain.


So cupcake hats are now available. You can have pink or yellow frosting, and sprinkles or plain. The price will be $25.

Now to figure out a good way to photograph some. Hmmm... I should involve my oven somehow.

Now there's enough to see

I'm finally far enough into the rainbow yarn that you can see how it's knitting up. I'm really happy that there's little to no pooling going on. Yay!
I also finished Korrie's longies out of the yarn she sent me. Those took a while, with thin tiny yarn. I need to make sure to either hold it double, or refuse to knit it, if I ever get yarn that thin again. :P
Anyway, this is progress as of about 10ish Friday night.

I've been working on Korrie's green longies, and what feels like miles and miles of stripes. I'm making progress, but with this break in the weather (finally) I just had to take a break. A little celebration. A stop to knit something silly and fun for a dear little friend who will be having her second birthday at the end of the month. This cupcake hat was so much fun to make, even with all the little fiddly nubbles around the edge. Rowan is modeling it here, and you can see that I just had to add sprinkles to it. In the words of my husband, "sprinkles take it over the edge and add a whole new element of just plain silliness. Before it was just a hat that happened to resemble a cupcake. Now it's a cupcake that is a HAT!"
It was a welcome break. I really enjoyed making this. I see more of them in my future.

I did make some changes to the pattern. I knit one row in between the decreases for the top of the hat shaping. I wanted it to be fuller, and maybe she'll be able to wear it longer. Plus, every hat pattern I've ever made has said to knit one row even in between the decreasing rows, so I felt it needed to be done. I'm not sure if this was an omission in the pattern, but just in case you want to make it and yours looks a bit skinnier on top, that might be why.

Rainbow!

This is Andrea's rainbow yarn. It's still wet, so who knows what it will look like when it's dry. But here it is so far!
And no, I didn't wear gloves. My hands are multicolored.

She's beauty and she's grace, she's Miss United States

You probably don't need me to tell you this, but you should never ever ever graft a long join while watching Miss Congeniality. Especially when it's at the end and Shatner is doing his thing. Because you'll do something bad. Way bad. And then have to go back and figure out what it was, and take it down and fix it without the benefit of all your little stitches beautifully lined up on the needle.

Trust me. Put the knitting down until it's over. It's just not worth the pain.

In any case, here's where I am with Katharyn's order. One completely done, 2 soakers that need cuffs, 1 pair of shorts that need legs. Depending on the prevailing mood of the childern, I should finish the knitting tomorrow. But then Niall has been needing to sit on my lap a lot lately, so we'll see. I also want to give the primary color soaker a vinegar bath to help set the red better. The longies I made out of that yarn bled like crazy.

and so it begins...

I've never knit a sock in my life. Sweaters, scarves, hats, mittens, the felted mocs, soakers, shorts, longies, wristlets, blankets.... yes. Socks... no.
But I left my addis in Mississippi, and my normal LYS didn't have the size I needed, so I ventured out of the box to this other yarn store one town over. This place is an old house, with yarn everywhere! Stuffed in bins, spilling out of drawers, in armoires and cabinets and cubes and stacks. OMG. It was yarn paradise. If the a/c had been working better I probably would have been there all day.
And right there at the checkout, they had new hand dyed sock yarn. A small pile. Just enough of each colorway to make one pair of socks.
Sooo.

I got some.
I have the yarn harlot basic sock pattern.
I bought some size 1 dpns.

I don't know when I will be able to do it. I have some orders to finish. But sometime this winter, I will have my very first pair of socks. I'm told it's a slippery slope.

Home from Mississippi

I have one soaker all the way done, one mostly done (needs cuffs) and one on the needles. Pair of shorts to go for Katharyn's order. But I left my addis in Mississippi. That should be a song. If I get to the shorts before I'm done with this soaker, I may have to spring new ones. :P
Aunt Susan should be mailing them.
I couldn't knit all the way home though. Car rides are boring without yarn. I ended up snot-tacular for the return trip though, so just as well. I crashed out and wheezed my way home istead.

Starsky

There's something about Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson together that is so right. Isn't it fitting? that I was watching Starsky and Hutch as I finished this embroidery. I hope Katy is as pleased as I am.

Gotta go. Zoolander is on.

See?

It's like Martin Short is here whispering in my ear, telling me to knit like the wind. But my wrist is a little sore. The one on the left is the original pair. Not large enough for the intended baby. The one on the right is the pair that I started about 3 this afternoon, and worked on as I could between kids, dinner, laundry, and not working on it. **sigh**
I need to dig around in my bin and find my wrist brace. Or maybe it will stop raining.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH

I don't know why it didn't occur to me when I figured out how many stitches to a round for these shorts... that 90sts would just be too easy. The yarn was a little bit bigger, but not that big... that 90 would NOT be big enough to go around a 20.5" hip...
So now I have a lovely pair of red shorts for a baby with a 17.5" hip, which just happens to be the RISE measurement I was going for. So I looked at the wrong measurement.
Do I feel stupid? Yes. Am I going to have to work my tail off to get this pair done in record time so the mama wanting them doesn't have to wait forever because of my stupidity? Yes. Will I do this again in the future? I'll try not to, but probably.

Might have to have a section of ready made stuff for people who don't want to wait. :(

4th O'July

What a wonderful holiday that encourages mass quatities of grilled meats and snack foods, all the while playing with pyrotechnics. Ahh.
Peace Fleece arrived today. Such yummy stuff. I even got a couple balls for myself this time.
I'm nearly to the crotch gusset on Katy's red pair of shorts, and should finish the knitting of them shortly. I need to shave down the motorcycle picture to get rid of the man, and embroider that one on. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to knit on them tomorrow, what with the holidaying and such, but I'll do my best. We're going to a lunchtime concert tomorrow, so maybe I'll take them along and do some knitting in public. That's always good for making new friends. :)

Pretty!

I really like how this is knitting up! I'd talk more, but Niall is starting to ask for his bedtime snack.

It's not a soaker, but it's knitting

I'm enjoying this break from knitting soakers. It's refreshing to knit something that isn't in the round, and isn't just straight knit stitches. These are Rowan's new slippers, before felting. I knitted them last week, but promised him that he could be there for the felting, and between naps and going out of town for the weekend we just didn't get to felting them until today. They are knit with 100purewool in the brique colorway, held doubled so I could make guage without having it so loose it would shrink to nothing. I put a #2 pencil in the picture so you could see the difference in size pre- and post felting.
Rowan was very impressed with his "shrinking slippers" as he called them. I think I will make these in mass quantities over the next few months, and have my Christmas gifts all taken care of. :)

Oh yes, the pattern is the Felted Mocs pattern from Little Turtle Knits if you'd like to make them for yourself.

Stripe me up

These are Melissa's striped shorts for nighttime. I really like the colors she picked. They're so cheery and make me think of the beach somehow.
So that's it. Other than Jasmine, I'm through the waiting list. Summer is slow anyway. I'm not going to do any extra advertising right now and enjoy a short break. I have mittens and mocs to complete, and might even get a chance to sew a bit. I'll probably get bored in a week or so, but a break will do me - and my wrists - a bit of good.
But if you're thinking of ordering, now is the time. There's pretty much no wait. :)

We're outsourcing

No not really, but this was much too cute to keep to myself.


The funny thing is, he kept wiggling the needles back and forth, and didn't drop any stitches at all. :) Maybe it a few years we'll have Knits by Niall available. :D

I'm going to try to be better about blogging

At least that's what I said as I sat down to post this picture... but the put the picture in part isn't working, so I can't make it all prettified with the text to one side and all. I get discouraged. And then I go back to check it and it works. So pretty it is!
Yes the laptop is at best buy again getting "repaired." I am trying to convince John to sell it so we can buy a new Apple. Like the trusty machine I'm on. 7 years old, going mostly strong, and has only needed a repair once in its life.
But anyway....
The above picture is of Niall's shorts, using the "birds" colorway from 100purewool. What strange shorts. They look green and then you get closer and they're all these colors. Very nice. Of course, I haven't put the elastic in the waist or tucked in any ends inside. I tend to procrastinate doing that. But it was only 73ish today, so my motivation for shorts is pretty low. I'll get them done eventually, and then take pictures of them and the fresh blue ones I did (same yarn) and put them in the gallery.

This is where I am on Melissa's order as of about 9 pm.

These are nice and thick, using lamb's pride bulky. On 7s. Overkill? Maybe. But when it's for night I go for bulletproof, and these are nice and stretchy still. 4.5sts to the inch means they're working up quickly too.
I need to get some peace fleece...

in the navy

We can put your mind at ease... What a nut job song. But then The Village People weren't really in to deep lyrics now were they?
These are Katy's navy shorts. They make me think that Niall could use a pair of navy shorts that would go with everything. I just might have to go grab another ball and make him a pair. If they have that dye lot still....

I have the night off since I can't start Melissa's night weight shorts until I get a new ball of yarn. Soo...

I'll finish Niall's shorts in the "birds" colorway. Could I not knit? John's asked me that. I can't just sit on the couch anymore. My hands have to be busy. I guess that's how I can be lazy without feeling like a sloth...