Knitting in the snow

It snowed again yesterday and it snowed ALL DAY! I woke up to find a gentle dusting and it just kept going and going like the energizer bunny!

Luckily it was a dry snow and easy to shovel! We woke up this morning to find it melting and forming icicles on my bay window.



Just look at that blue sky today!


Hurley, as usual, thinks the entire outside has turned into his own personal snow cone and just eats and walks all around.



Bailey doesn't eat the snow - he actually tries to stay on the shoveled areas!



Since I was snowed in - I decided it was a perfect time to cast on for a new project! I grabbed some Handmaiden Sea Silk and cast on for Kernel from Knitty.



This is the first time I've ever put beads in my knitting and I have to say it's pretty cool! I may have to do this more often :)


This picture of my knitting is the last picure for January in my Project 365. I finished a complete month!!



I'm both excited and surprised that I was able to keep it up. I'm posting pictures on flickr and on this cool site called 365Project.

Garter Yoke Photoshoot

Finished since November! I finally got around to blocking this sweater and having a photoshoot.




Pattern: #22 Garter Yoke Cardigan from Knit 1 Winter 2008
Yarn: my own handspun - top portion is Dragonfly fibers and bottom is from Serendipity Farms.
Needles: Size 9
Alterations: I made the yoke much more rounded than the pattern called for - I cast on fewer stitches and increased evenly around the yoke to create a round neck instead of a square neck.







I had quite a hard time finding the right buttons for this cardigan. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted - or what I thought I wanted. I was looking for a natural wood button. But when I got to Joann's (the only place I know that has a wide variety of buttons!) I was so dissapointed! Most of the buttons I liked only had around 4 available. I needed 9! I kept on looking around and happened on these amazing leather buttons. I held my breath as I counted how many there were - Yes!! There were just enough. I love their deep brown color against the yoke.




I love my first handspun sweater and will hopefully have another one after my Olympic knitting!

A rose by any other name....

I knit a scarf for my friend Tara because she is awesome and gave me 4 skeins of Araucania Limari "just because" she saw it and thought of me :)



Pattern: Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau
Yarn: Araucania Limari
Needles: Size 11
Mods: I only cast on 150 stitches since I'm using a bulkier yarn than called for, I did 14 wraps, and knit half as many plain rows after increase.

I love how you can wear this as you would any scarf OR wrap it around a few more times and it's a lovely neckwarmer.



But perhaps my favorite way to show it off is all curled up like a rose:



I gave it to Tara last night at dinner and she didn't even want to uncurl it! She said she loved her rose! I had to force to her uncurl it and try it on. hehe

I took these pics using my new remote for my camera! I'm so excited that I can take pics of my finished objects now without having to ask anyone for help!

Spinning up a sweater

I've been spinning up worsted weight yarns with an idea in mind... an idea to use them to knit a sweater. I wasn't quite sure what would work together but I just picked things I liked. I spun up about 2 pounds so far! Definitley enough for a sweater - now I just have to pick what kind of sweater. I'm thinking a basic top down raglan V neck.

Here's the yarn:



Click on the picture and go to Flickr for details on each of the yarns.

My favorites are definitely these three:


I recently spun up this Pigeonroof Studios


It was the first time I've ever spun Pigeonroof and I now know why so many people love it! It's a joy to spin and the colors are amazing!

I also had 4 oz of Hello Yarn's Turkey attack stashed away for a rainy day...



You may remember this as the same roving I used to spin and knit mittens last year.


Another fiber artist that I have fallen in love with in the course of this project is Wool Gatherings:
I found her on ebay and bought a braid - this one:




and after spinning it immediately went back online and bought a second one:




The before pics are quite interesting - the BFL fiber she used on these was two toned before she dyed it. It gives such depth to the colors.




I also spun up a bag of mystery fiber I bought at Rhinebeck. I really wish I knew what it was! I got a bag of pencil roving and there was no name or fiber content or anything on it! Of course I forgot to write down the name of the vendor - my bad! But it is beautiful:



I think this will be my Olympic knitting project. I can't wait to start!

Week 2 of Project 365

I am still enjoying Project 365 on Flickr. Here are the last week's shots.



I have a feeling winter was not the best season to try to start this! I am running out of ideas already and the outside is not as inspiring as it usually is in the spring or summer. This is causing me to get creative though! I am taking a ton more than one picture a day and just picking my fav. I hope you like this installment.

More snow!

But this time it's managable and beautiful!

We woke up to this winter wonderful this morning!



The dogs had fun... Hurley thinks the entire outside is a giant ice cube - just for him!



Bailey just likes to root around and sniff - acheiving this lovely white beard :)



I love how my daisy pods looks covered in snow - just like little white hats!



Perfect weather to enjoy my new tea kettle!



I bought myself a new green tea kettle and I love it! I was hoping to get one for Christmas but I didn't - so I treated myself to one yesterday. Gotta love green tea! hehe

Seeing in new ways

Doing Project 365 has been very inspiring to me so far. I am thinking about photography everywhere I go. I carry my little camera with me in my purse at all times (no - not my giant Nikon - my little Nikon Coolpix) just in case something cool appears.

As I wander through my day - I have been taking little snapshots of my surrounds. I ate lunch on Tuesday at this cute little Thai place and it resulted in these:

Yummy spicy soup!




And these cool statues on the wall:



Another day after work - I was leaving the building and looked up to see this amazing sky and light on the flags outside my building - a site I've probably walked by "unseeing" daily for 5 years!



I was eating gummy bears when I thought - hey! these would make a cool picture! So I took one:



And how can I not take a picture of my two best guys when they look so cute!





So - my eyes have been opened in a way to the beauty around me. It's been hard to pick just one photo a day for this project but even my "rejects" give me a smile.

Turkish Delight!

I got wonderful mail today! I ordered a Turkish handwoven bath towel a few months ago and it got lost in the mail once, and then the wonderful vendor resent another one. I got it today! I am in love :)




She even sent a lovely bar of soap. I wish you could smell it throught the picture, it's wonderful!

AND I love the evil eye bead too! Did you know that in the Turkish and Greek culture these evil eyes are meant to ward off bad luck?



It was definitley worth the wait. I want to take another shower now!

If you too want this luxurious linen Peshtemal towel - you can buy it from Turkish Bath etsy shop.

Project 365

With the new year comes reflections of the past and wishes for the future. This new year I have two goals.

1. Get healthy!! I joined a new gym in December that is VERY close to my house. I also signed up for a personal trainer once a week. I have found that when I have an appointment to keep I WILL show up. That means at least once a week I will have a tough workout. I hope to go 3 other times each week. That is my goal at least. I've been sick since my birthday - so I haven't made it that many times but hopefully once I feel better I will!!

2. Take a picture every day. I signed up for Project 365 on flickr. The group pool is here if you are interested in what everyone is up to. This is a group where you post a picture that you took every day for an entire year. I've been wantint to do this for a while, and I figured what better day to start than January 1! I will try to post once a week on this blog and share the pictures I took last week. I only have 4 to show so far - but I will try to keep it going all year. Hopefully this will improve my photography and make me more aware of my surroundings. One major challenge is the fact that I have to go to work and often get home when it's already dark! I may have to get creative with my homemade light booth! ... or gasp! Get up early and take some in the morning.

Here are my first 4 photographs of the year.

Happy new year!

I hope everyone has a happy new year! To celebrate I thought I'd share a video of my crazy dog Hurley freaking out over a wind up robot toy.

Enjoy!

Hurley freak out
Originally uploaded by javajem