sheep in the city

Thanks everyone!

Wow, I am overwhelmed, once again, by the support of my knitting community. Thanks everyone for your prayers and all the words of encouragement. It has helped just knowing that there are people out there praying for my Dad, and my family...so again, I say thank you!

One thing that I have been completely remiss in doing is posting a picture of the Wee Sock that I received. I posted when I knit mine, but then I don't know how I managed to miss posting when I got mine in the mail?! I owe a big apology to Jackie, who did such a great job knitting it! Thank you, thank you Jackie! She knit it with Socks That Rock, lightweight, in the colorway Tlingit. It's part of the new-ish Raven series. I love it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

eta...the computer that you see in the background is my lovely new MacBook that I got last week. It was time for an upgrade and I'm loving this new model.

Lots on my mind...

The last week has been another long one folks. My Dad found out some disappointing news...after a year of chemo treatments...every three weeks for a year...his body has stopped responding and his PSA levels are rising. Today, actually as I write this, he is getting a cat scan of his abdomen and chest to see if anything has spread to the soft tissue or organs. We are praying against that being the case. We'll find out within the next week what that scan shows. Needless to say, I haven't felt like blogging, or at least I haven't really known what to write about. I've been knitting a little, off and on, but have no real progress to show for it.

When I have no knitting to show off, I show off pictures of the nieces and nephew because...boy are they cute!

Alice riding for the first time in her new PINK carseat in Aunt Stacey's car. For 10 bucks more, why wouldn't you get the pink, right? Of course, my sister replied that now she is only going to want to ride with me. Oops!

After lunch on Monday, I ran with Alice over to the yarn shop. It's one of her favorite places to go. (mine too!) She, without our prompting, tried on a few hats. We didn't correct her that she should probably only try on one at a time!

Here we have a super cute picture of all three of my nieces and nephew. That would be Alice, holding Liam, who is in turn holding Amelia. These little ones bring so much joy to my family. Just the other night we were all eating dinner together when Alice leaned over to my Dad and said, "We are special friends Poppy, because we both have sensitive ears." This was just after my Dad had told us that we were all talking a little loudly and could we tone it down. We really do have so much fun together. Please be praying for my Dad in the next week...pray, pray, pray. That's all we can do. Thanks everyone!

I am all about the kids knits!

It must be this nice weather that we've been having for the last few days, but all I've wanted to do is cast on for cute little summery kids stuff. Here are a few of the things that I've got going on.

First, a little lacey knit called Sunshine, from the Queensland Collection Book 8, by Jane Ellison. It's a great little pattern book. If you are in search of cute kids stuff, look no further. This is a great book. The plan is to make 2 of the 0-6 month size for my niece and a friend who just had a baby girl, then one in Alice's size. That way they'll all have little matchy-matchy summer dresses! This yarn is the softest stuff you'll ever feel! I love it! Hopefully, I'm going to get some help knitting these dresses, ahem sister and Mom, ahem, ahem, hint, hint.

Next up, is another sweater from the above mentioned book, this time knit with Queensland Collection, Hyacinth. This little cabled cardigan is knit sideways...so that should keep it interesting.

Last, but not least, is a blanket for Alice. She's the only one of the three nieces and nephew not to have their own handknit afghan. We finally settled on Olive's Afghan from the new book Knitalong. I love this afghan and the way that it's constructed! I'll keep you posted on this one. It's another family/group knitting project. My roommate Genia, my sister and brother-in-law and my mom and Grandma are all helping out.

I'm thrilled that the weather is finally turning warmer. I think that when I was in my car at lunch time, it registered that it was 83 degrees outside! Come on Spring...I'm ready for Summer!

It's a finished Juliet!

Project Details:
Pattern: Juliet from the brilliant girls over at Zephyrstyle
Yarn: Noro Iro in color #57. I used 6 skeins, plus a tiny bit of a 7th. If you cut the length down, you'd only need 6.
Needles: Addi US size 10.5
Modifications: The only thing that I changed was that I made my arms a little bit bigger. I did this by doing a few more increase rounds and only increasing on the arm sections. I think I just made maybe 2 or 4 more increases. I can't remember exactly, but I'm happy with the way that it turned out.

I just finished this sweater up this morning...I even wove all the ends in. I haven't figured out what kind of buttons I want to use for this yet, or if I want to do a few small hook and eye closures. Do any of you have an opinion on the matter? Also, did I take the time to block it before wearing it? NOPE! I'll do that later. Have a great weekend everyone!

Just in case any of you are inspired...this yarn is on sale all month long at Colorful Yarns...for 16 bucks a skein instead of the usual $20. Just sharing the love! :)

The Studio.

So here are the promised pictures of my Mom's newly finished and set up crafting/creating studio. I have to say that they are just shots of the organized stuff. I'll be taking a picture of the room as a whole when everything gets put away...but this will give you a good idea. Believe me...this space is so gorgeous and feminine, I'm totally jealous! I know that I'll be spending lots of time over here this summer. (she has a/c after all, and I don't) Okay, enough chit-chat, here it is.

Picture lavender walls, eggplant colored carpet, and a big girlie chandelier in the ceiling. There is a large rectangular table in the middle of the room, it actually used to be our kitchen table growing up. It's big enough to lay out large painting/quilting/knitting/scrapbooking projects on. It gets better, there is yarn...and lots of it! We both were so glad when we managed to fit the old blue lockers into this room. They will soon house lots of works in progress and crafting supplies inside them. I can't remember where my Mom got these, but she's had them for years. I think that she may have gotten them from a family friend who had them in his garage for years. They are one of my favorite things that my Mom owns. You can kind of see a small yellow chair in the corner. That's my donation to the studio. That chair is mine, but I didn't have a very good spot for it, so it has come to live at my Mom's house!

This cabinet houses what my Mom and I were calling the "luxury" fibers. You know, the Koigu, the Red Rocks Fiber Works, the Cherry Tree Hill, and anything with silk in it. Plus, some of these are just her favorite yarns that she has enough of to make a sweater out of. The blue spinning wheel that you see in the distance was a fun find at a local flea market a few years ago.

More cubes, with more yarn and books. I love how organized my Mom is. It's definitely what I aspire to be. I'm not there yet, but I'm going to keep trying!

Last we have what I was calling the Tower of Green Yarn. My Mom is drawn to all things green, so it makes sense that she would be able to fill a large Lantern Moon tower with all green! This is the first thing that you see when you walk in the room. Love it! I'm sure that I'll be taking more pictures soon as things get finished up. Working with her on this has inspired me to try and get my stash more organized, or at least to try and organize the space that I live in. Thanks Mom for a fun filled day!

What a week I had!

Last week, I ended up doing something every night?! I think I'm still recovering and am a little worn out, but boy was it fun! The 2 highlights of the week were going to see the play My Fair Lady with the girls and meeting the Yarn Harlot on Friday night. Both were equally funny in their own ways.

My roommate, Genia, and I on the train!

We all met up (there were 8 of us)and rode the train downtown, which ended up being an excellant choice, so that we could knit on our way to the play! Then of course, we all had knitting with us at the play. Some of us even knit during the play. Thank goodness for garter stitch, that is about the only one that I can knit in the dark!

Kelly getting her knit on at the play!

If this play is coming to your town...I HIGHLY recommend that you go see it! It was such a fun production, and very true to the original. I've been singing all the songs all weekend long in my head!

Now, Friday night we went to hear the Yarn Harlot speak. Oh my goodness, she is just a laugh and a half! Some of you may remember the huge disappointment that I had last year when she came and I had pink eye. Well, this year more than made up for it! The crowd was very impressive...I think it was around 250 to 300 people. My friends that I went with were numbers 1 through 5 in line...I was 22. We sat in the second to front row and laughed our arses off. That one is for Stephanie! (you can see us in the picture on the Yarn Harlots blog...we are all sitting on the right side) I haven't laughed that much in a long time. I brought back the mittens that she knit and I won for a little visit with her. She saw me come up with them on...and was like, "Hey, I knit those!" So she took a picture of me holding her sock with my mittens on. (it too is over on her blog)

Kelly and Terrie, knitting with me in line!

If Stephanie, aka The Yarn Harlot, is coming to your town (check the list here) I suggest you run out and get a place in line. It was so much fun to meet her. I'm planning on showing you tomorrow what I did with the rest of my weekend. Can you say....organize my Mom's new yarn studio? Oh my! It's gorgeous. I've got the pictures to prove it!

Aarrgh.....it's a pirate!

I got a wild hair last weekend that I needed to knit my nephew Liam a sweater. I picked out yarn and a pattern and found the needles, but then I decided that I didn't need to cast on right away. Well, then our network went down at work on Wednesday at around 10 am. What's a girl to do when all the things that I needed to do were on the network? So I knit a gauge swatch. Then I cast on and knit the ribbing. Then the next day, the network was still giving us issues, so I started knitting the skull. By this time, I'm obsessed with seeing how the whole skull will look, so I keep knitting. The network may have come back on around 1:00ish on Thursday, I can't be sure....I was still knitting. It's amazing just how much you can get done when you knit all day! After lunch on Thursday I had to put the knitting away and actually work, but this project is addicting. I want to have it done for his 2nd birthday at the beginning of July and at this rate it looks like a good possibility.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Pirate Sweater by Zoe Mellor, from the book Adorable Knits for Tots You can see it here on Ravelry and here is the link to my version.
Yarn: Berroco Comfort DK in colors 2741-Bittersweet, 2740-Seedling, and 2700-Chalk. All purchased at Colorful Yarns.
Needles: US 5 and 6

I'm off to hear the Yarn Harlot tonight...and I'm thinking that I need to get there early to get a good place in line. Whoo hoo...more knitting time!