Drumroll please....

We have a contest winner! Thanks to the random number generator, the eigthth person to leave me a comment on the entry post won! Congrats to Rositta! The angora is yours!

Scored!

If you're looking for the blog contest, look here!

This past week has been wrought with new purchases!

First up we have the Stitch-It Kit from Sublime Stitching. Have you seen any of the embroidery based off of Jenny's patterns? They're so cute. I'm envisioning cute tea towels and pillowcases as gifts sometime in the near future!



I also scored two Superhero Cross-Stitch books, via Ebay, to get a start on a V-day gift for Joe. He's a huge comic book fan and action figure fan, and since he's also a huge fan of receiving hand made gifts from me, I figured this would be perfect.




And since Batman is his favorite, I couldn't pass up this awesome vintage Batman Flannel. I'm thinking a comfy pair of pajama pants!


Speaking of Batman and comic books... Joe and I will be sneaking away for a weekend get away the weekend of February 23rd. We'll be headed up to NYC. We'll spend Saturday at the NY Comic Con, and then Sunday, we'll be headed over to the Museum of Arts & Design to check out the Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting Exhibition. I'm stoked!

Blueberries & Lace

If you're looking for the blog contest, look here!

A few weeks ago, my best friend Kristen took me to a yarn store by her house, Fiber Arts Studio, located in Northfield, New Jersey. The staff was amazingly friendly, the yarn selection ranged from novelty to classic yarns, and the pattern selection was overwhelming.

It's a store I would definitely visit again, however, my personal LYS, Woolbearers, will always be first in my heart. Maybe it's because Woolbearers was the first real yarn store I ventured into, or because the owners, Suzie & Myra are amazingly sweet women who offer personalized service, or because they dye their own yarns, which I just love. [By the way, you can now buy Woolbearer's hand dyed yarns here. And if you're ever in the Mount Holly area, be sure to stop in and say hello!]

I rarely walk into a yarn store without a game plan. I learned early on how dangerous that is for me. If I don't have an idea of what projects I'm looking for that perfect yarn for, if I just blindly give in to impulse buys, I almost always regret them. Because the yarn ends up sitting around for months, making me feel guilty. As it is, the majority of the time I purchase a yarn for something specific, it gets used for something else entirely!

However, I walked into Fiber Arts Studio without any ideas. I wasn't even sure I would walk out with yarn, as this was during that period of time where I was still sick and didn't have the energy to even look at my knitting.

Luckily, the women who worked there were so friendly, so full of ideas, and so excited to be surrounded by yarn, I quickly remembered why I loved knitting and how much I loved yarn.

I walked out with the Lace Leaf Shawl Pattern by Fibertrends, and enough Berroco Softwist to knit a large shawl. My yarn purchase surprised me, I rarely go for anything that isn't a natural fiber, and the Softwist, well, it's 59% rayon.

While the one woman who worked there wound my yarn into balls for me, (a process that in itself took longer than any of us anticipated due to the final hank being so knotted up), Kristen and I grabbed our knitting and settled in for a bit. It was a lovely afternoon, and my first time knitting in a yarn store. [I've knit in public before, just never in a yarn store.]

When I got home, I didn't even look at the pattern, after all there were many other projects, both knitting and cross stitching that were intended gifts, ahead of anything for myself in the queue. Days later, when I pulled the pattern out, I realized it was incomplete. I was worried, as this was the last copy they had in the store, however when I called them to let them know, they quickly jumped into action. They called their sister store in Cape May, got a copy and mailed it down to me.

After eyeing up the pattern and the yarn, I finally gave in a few days ago. I cast on to swatch. The yarn, well I doubt I be purchasing it again anytime soon, it's splitty, doesn't feel too soft on my hands while knitting it, and it's slippery as hell on the needles. But in the end, I think it'll make a nice shawl, and I'm looking forward to being able to wrap myself up in this one soon.

[Picture of my swatch, visiting me at work. Click to enlarge.]

For those wanting more specifics on the Softwist, it's a 59% Rayon/41 % Wool Blend. 100 yds per hank. Worsted Weight.

On the cross stitching front, I do have a project in the works. Joe's father remarried over the weekend, and after expressing my sometimes insane need to craft gifts rather than buy them, Joe and I decided on a custom made cross stitch. His father owns a blueberry farm, so I'm cross stitching a sign to hang in the office. It's a little nerve wracking as I'm kind of just winging it as I go along, but so far it looks good.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but there's a lot of really cool shading. What looks black isn't all black, it varies from black to a dark royal blue. I'll take a better picture when it's all finished, but in the mean time, this will have to do. As always, click to enlarge!

Blog contest!

As a kid, I had a million and one allergies. I was allergic to anything and everything, including grass and dust. Needless to say, being a kid allergic to grass was not easy, however, over the years I seemed to have grown out of most of my allergies.

Unfortunetly, one of the allergies I haven't grown out of is my allergy to rabbits. Which really makes knitting angora wristwarmers really hard for me.

But, my loss could potentially be your gain, because I decided to use this oppertunity to hold a blog contest.

The prize?

One hank of Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit in the Straw colorway. The yarn has been balled by hand by me.

Fiber Content: 70% angora, 20% nylon, 10% wool

Yardage: 270 yards per 50 gram hank

Gauge: 5.5 stitches to an inch on US size 6 needles

All you have to do to have a chance at this seriously beautiful yarn is leave a comment. Any comment. Anyone can enter. Contest closes Saturday, February 27th at 10:00 AM EST. Winner will be choosen at random! Good luck!

Warning: Picture Heavy Post Ahead

As I mentioned last post, that I had picked up a new hobby. I stumbled across Subversive Cross Stitch a while ago and thought that the snarky sayings in a needlepoint medium were just too cute. After toying around with what exactly I wanted to order, I finally settled on the Get Lost Kit. The kit included all the floss I would need, the cotton material to cross stitch on, two needles and a hoop. I swapped out the original border color that came with the kit, for one that I thought would look better, and after just two nights, I finally had a finished product. [As always, click images to enlarge.]


It's now hanging proudly in the stairwell leading up to Joe's apartment.

After my first cross stitch attempt, I learned that Julie from Subversive Cross Stitch came out with a book, chocked full of quirky little patterns. I snatched up the only copy at my local Borders.

Some of my favorite's include:




I've officially finished up another pattern from the book. Please don't mind the creases or the masking tape around the edges, I'll be ironing it and framing it this weekend.



On the knitting front, Lady E has been pushed aside for the time being, however since I haven't posted any pics since I've restarted her, I snapped a few tonight. She's being knit with Noro Silk Garden, Color #88. I absolutely love it, much better than the one I had originally started.


A close up:


And a close up of the wrong side:



And finally, as promised two pics of the Log Cabin Afghan. It's starting to get big!

100%

I'm happy to report that all of the health issues I was dealing with from December on, are now officially over. I am 100% back to my normal self.

I'm just so glad it's all over. It wasn't so much all the health issues that had me so down, they were all things that could be dealt with, it was all the medications I had pumping through my veins. My god, it was horrible. The side effects all together made me feel so lousy, and I was so depressed. I didn't feel like myself anymore. But luckily as of yesterday morning, everything is finished. No more side effects, no more issues, everything has run it's course and is out of my system!

Needless to say, that now that I'm feeling better, I'll be back to blogging again on a regular basis. Or as regular as tax season will allow! I can't believe it's here already. Where did the last year go?

On the knitting front...

Remember this?


It's grown quite a bit. I've been knitting on it exclusively and am hoping to get it finished up in the next month or so. Everytime I pick it up, Joe remarks that it's so beautiful. He appreciates handmade items, and uses the afghan his grandmother crocheted on a daily basis, and keeps mentioning that he's been hoping his sister will make him another afghan, so I'm contemplating gifting it to him when it's all finished up. While the colors are starting to grow on me, I don't love them and wouldn't really use them in something for myself.

This afghan was originally started as a gift, and for a while there, I wasn't sure who would be the lucky recipient. I think the combination of knitting something I didn't truly love and not having someone imparticular to knit it for was the reason I couldn't really get into it. Now that I know someone who would truly love and appreciate all the time I put into it, I really enjoy knitting this again.

Stay tuned for a newer progress picture, probably next week sometime. I've also picked up a new hobby and will be posting pics of that as well!