Ailidh Number Two

Last night when my class New Ventures in the Arts class started I was about four rows into my second Ailidh. I was using this one for the pattern to remember everything I did. I actually purchased this yarn specially for this hat. I like how it shows every twist and cable perfectly. I finished this evening and wanted to show everyone the hat in a different colour. Yes, I knit 2 of the same hats in 2 days. Kind of scary. . .
Here is the picture I took when I left class and it had begun to snow. Yep! More snow! I really love the colour of the yarn.

Here is the finished hat. I tried to take a pic of it on me, but I look really tired, so I said screw it. I put my natural light on it to show the cables better.
The pics are basically because boy has been bothering me all day about this hat. It's named after a char I made for him on World of Warcraft. I have to give him credit, he is willing to step into and try to understand the crazy, obsessive world that is knitting to me. Trying, not completely succeeding, but have to give him brownie points anyways. =P

Pattern: Ailidh
Needles: US 8 16" circular
Yarn: Cascade Tweed 220
Cast on: Jan. 30
Cast off: Jan. 31

This is what happens when you don't do your laundry for a month. Yep, hasn't happened, but will this weekend. I'm also cleaning up my apartment because for some reason a certain canine resident of the apartment seems to be getting into things he shouldn't. This included eating an entire bag of milk chocolates that were for my sock club. So I'm cleaning up so it'll stop. Plus, I haven't cleaned since Steve left because I guess I've been wallowing in my own sadness that my boy is gone. Seriously been sad. Not fun.

Last, but not least, I leave you with snow. Enjoy!

I also turned in a manifesto, which I have no idea what a manifesto really is and I'm glad classes are back in session. Life is kind of getting back to normal, whatever normal is.
Oh and I hope both the Giants and the Patriots suck on Sunday. Thanks!

Meet Ailidh (pronounced A-LEE)

Yesterday around 11am I cast on another hat. I was trying to rework the sheddy hat into a design I really like. Well, I started knitting and just continued to knit the hat all day. I knit in class like I mentioned before and was just randomly knitting a design out while talking about great dead theatre visionaries. I was amazed at how quickly I knit this up. This morning I only had a little bit left to finish, soo I basically finished it up in lecture this morning.
Here is a finished picture of the hat. The pattern will be available as soon as I am able to write it down. Hope you guys like it. =)



Here's a pic before I went to bed last night of the hat in process.


Pattern: Ailidh
Needles: US 8 16" circular
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Cast on: Jan. 29
Cast off: Jan. 30

Also, this morning on my way to lecture I wiped on my moped on a busy street in Iowa City. OW! Must have hit a piece of ice I didn't see. I completely smashed my left mirror, and scraped my left knee and right elbow. I amazingly went to class. Hahaha I'm dedicated. My elbow doesn't hurt much anymore, but there is a stiffness in my left armpit as I type. i hope that goes away soon. =/

Tale of The Sheddy hat

Okay, on with the shedding hat. I'm really liking the design I'm coming up with, it's just the yarn doesn't seem to completely fit the pattern. I love the colour and the yarn is warm, but I tend to have sensitive skin and anything remotely fuzzy annoys me. I'm going to finish this hat as a preliminary of the design and then reknit it, with improvements and hopefully no mistakes in a different yarn. Don't I just look ecstatic in this picture? I am amazed my makeup looks semi-descent. hahahaha Considering I only got about 5 hours of sleep also, not horrible. Mind you, my hair is in a ponytail and is sticking out of the top of the hat, so that maybe why I look a little odd. I dunno.

Here is a blurry detail pic of the hat. It will change I think tp the point where there are more variations between where the mock-cables are. It is amazingly a quick knit, I don't know when I knit half of it. I mainly only remember doing the ribbing. =P

So the search began by going through my two large bins of non-sock yarn in my bedroom closet. mind you, this stash has actually started to go down. Shocking, I know. considering my life revolves around sock knitting. This bin is of yarn for me-projects. Aka, basically the nice yarn that most people wouldn't notice, like omg that's Karabella cashmere or wow, that Cascade yarn is really very beautiful. Great choice for that project. Yeah, the yarn snob bin.

Here is the second bin of "gift" yarns. No, not all of them are crap, a lot of them are actually pretty descent, just not as expensive or destructive as the other bin. Some of these are acrylic or part acrylic, I believe I mentioned in an ealier post that I don't trust most men with wool, this would be the bin with their yarn. Some are cotton and most are wool blends.

I pulled out these yarns below. Two of them are my beloved Malabrigo that I need to use up, Berroco Foliage, the yarn my sister got me in Turkey, and Cascade Tweed. I love the tweed, but I'm not sure the pattern would show up as well on it and I want it to show in my final design pictures. I most likely will go with either the plain beige yarn or the blue/white Malabrigo. Tell me what you think.

Oh yes, classes are in full swing, yay? Actually its kind of nice getting my mind off of pathetic mundane crap and actually feeling worth something. =P
And no, I still haven't finished that "Half Blood Prince" sock. I will one of these days, I promise! Just kind of in a "hat" swing right now.
I knit in class. Not ashamed, I'm ADD as hell and it helps me listen. Being in an "art" based major, more people understand than don't. I sat, listened and participated in my class tonight while working on my hat. I did happen to finish the hat. Amazingly, which I am seriosuly surprised about is that I made the hat the perfect length which is sweet! I am awesome or just lucky as hell. hehehe Here are two pictures of the finished hat below. I'm going to rework it without all of the mistakes and see how it goes.

New Colourways

I thought I would give you guys a glimpse of some of my new colourways that will be put up in my etsy shop soon. I hope you like them.

First we have "Fireball"

Murloc

Totem

Faiye

Pond Scum

Hydra

And Blush

Me being me, I purchased some yummy Malabrigo while I was home in Rockford last month with Steve. I'm thinking the orange will be a Foliage, because I seem to have a love of orange hats or something. The other 2 skeins will most likely be a scarf or mittens or whatever I come up with.

After seeing Anna's new hat, I amazingly cast on one of my own. I really need to use up this yarn. She bought me a couple of skeins for my birthday back in September and I purchased a few more afterwards. I started a hat, but ended up ripping it. Hopefully ths hat will be finished soon. This yarn is very sheddy and kind of itches, but it's beautiful and soft.

And a pair of fetchings for my sister I believe. Let's see if I can finish them this time. Both other times I only knit 1 mit and not the other. . . oops?

To live and love or never love at all. . .

To be honest it had been almost exactly 2 years since I had a boyfriend when Steve and I got together. Yeah 2 years of me being me and accepting the fact that I am void of love and feeling. Okay, not completely true, but I had gotten used to being single. I have always had the habit of pushing people away and not wanting to deal with them, not a good choice, but I do it at times without even knowing. I don't really trust many people either. I guess it's youngest syndrome where everyone is against you. Its kind of weird having a bf again. I have been pushing away, but he's kind of sticking around. . . .funny eh? I owe him a lot and want him to stick around I'm just not used to this frame of mind of having someone outside of my family who actually cares about me. I just need to calm the fuck down and let life be life. It's hard though. I don't know, I'm going to visit him on the 14th, and we're already making plans for him to go to Gencon with us in August. If we're making plans that far ahead, yeah I think he'll still be around then too. He's a genuinely sweet guy. Amazing eh? I really love him and I just want my behavior to change, cause I REALLY value him.

Okay, enough of the boyfriend banter. Onto KNITTING! and spinning. . .
Lately I've been spinning up my fibers and my spinning is actually becoming more consistent. Below are two skeins I spun within the past week. The red, green and blue one I spun up last-night. it is superwash corriedale from Spunky Eclectic's fiber club. I love being part of the club because it gives e the opportunity of spinning with fibers I normally wouldn't spin with. The other one is superwash merino that I dyed a few weeks ago. Both around arounf 160 to 18 yards in light worsted weight.

Here's a close up:

Okay, sooo my brother finally asked me for a pair of socks, this is Alicia's boyfriend. You can see her socks on an older post. I don't trust most men with wool. Sorry, but no. So I went to Crazy Girl Yarn Shop today to pick up some lace needles and saw that they FINALLY got the Cascade Superwash 220 in! OMG, I pounced on it and grabbed 3 skeins of the navy blue for 2 pairs of guys socks. 1 pair for Mike, 1 for Steve. Blue is blue.

I also grabbed some yarn that was in the 50% off bin, funky scarf I would say or hat or something nice and warm to help with the weather here. Yeah, it snowed AGAIN today. . .

Almost done with the second "Half Blood prince" sock, which then means I can start a new pair!!!! Yes, life is good.

Snow, hats, and sock yarn. . .

Okay, so I haven't really posted in a while and I'm sorry. Life has been very interesting since my holiday started. Funny enough my holiday officially ended yesterday. I am kind of glad that classes have started again. it gives me something to put my mind on that isn't a video game. Over the holiday I didn't get tons of knitting done, just basically chilled, watched movies and played World of Warcraft. I did get a hat finished, which I'm happy about. One can never have too many hats. I also love that it's bright orange. I made the pattern up and it's REALLY easy.

Pattern: "Hunter Cables" ( My own)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Burly Spun (1/2 of a skein)
Needles: 16" US 11 circular

Pattern in a nutshell:

Cast on 56 stitches.
Knit 4, P1, K2, P1* repeat this in the round for 4 rounds.
C4B, P1, K2, P1* Repeat until the end of this row and then repeat the first 4 rows.
Continue this until the hat reaches 6" in length, then begin decreases.
Decreases:
K4, P1, K2tog, P1* Repeat till the end of the row
K2tog, K2, P1, K1, P1* repeat till the end of the row
K1, K2tog, P1, K1, P1* repeat
K2tog, P1, K1, P1* repeat
K2tog, K1, P1* repeat
K1, K2tog* Repeat
Then after this row weave the end through the remaining stitches and pull to close opening. Weave in the ends.


Next is my first sock ever knit with a picot heel. I really love how the heel compliments the different colours in the colourway. the colourway I'm knitting this pair of socks out of is "Half Blood Prince." I'm really loving how the yarn is striping around the foot. This is by far my favourite colourway yet. Unfortunately I have decided to discontinue my Harry potter colourways and go more towards semi-solids and some variegated colours.

Yes, I have added to my stash. Sundara Yarn!!!!! yeah, it's pricey, but soft and beautiful. The "Wine" and "Green Tea" are sock weight while the blue is sport weight. Unfortunately I need a second of the blue for anything really. I'll have to keep a look out for another skein. It is sooo beautiful though!

I also gave in and am trying Dream in Colour's "Smooshy Yarn" in "Happy Forest." The pattern I am knitting is a dream in Colour pattern called "Sleepwalker Socks." The pattern is beautiful, but the yarn is dryer than I thought it would be. I don't know what it is, it just feels a little dry in my fingers. That's actually one reason I don't knit with some yarns, they dry out my hands quickly. I'll finish these socks one day, I promise. =)

I also knit a simple pair of fingerless mittens. They are quite nice when it's really cold out and my steering wheel in my car is freezing!! I hate touching it because it makes my fingers hurt. I love the yarn, it is di.Ve Autunno. Very beautiful, soft yarn.

Here is the mate to the first "Half Blood Prince" sock. I'm just about to start the heel. This lot came put extremely vibrant and I'm completely in love.

Also, the sock club yarn is dyed and waiting patiently for the pattern. The goodies included are also almost done. I'm spending Valentine's Day with Steve in New Jersey, so the packages will be sent out before the 14th. Thanks!

BTW the Packers deserved it more than the Giants, The Patriots don't deserve anything!

Below is some of the yarn that will be going up in my shop soon, once I find time this weekend. Yay!

Winners and I am alive!

The winners of the contest are:

AmyLou61

&

Katrinalafferty

Please e-mail your addresses to GButlernet@yahoo.co.uk and I'll get your yarn in the mail for you. Thanks for contributing guys!!

I've been sick and busy and everything. Steve went home on the 3rd, so I'm a little depressed also. I have a little over 1 more week of holiday and I think I may spend it lying around my apartment moping and knitting. =/ Sounds like fun eh?