"Defeat the Winter Doldrums" Dishcloth Swap Questionnaire

1. Do you knit, crochet, or do both? both

2. What types of needles do you enjoy using for making dishcloths? wooden, mostly bamboo but I can't wait till my interchangable Harmony needles arrive!

3. What types of cotton do you enjoy using for making dishcloths? Is there any that you've been wanting to try? my favourite cotton is blue sky alpacas organic and dyed cotton (but it's a little pilly and a bit expensive for dishclothes!), so bernat kitchen cotton and lion brand cotton. I'd love to get my hands on some more sugar'n'cream and/or peaches'n'creme I'm having problems finding either around here!

4. What color(s) are your kitchen and bath decorated in (if any)? the bathroom is an ugly peachy colour and the kitchen is off-white, I really need to re-decorate!

5. What are your favorite colors for yarns? Least favorite? red, blue, green, purple etc.. Least favourite colours are sickly pastels and orange. However in dishclothes, almost any colour goes usually though I prefer not pastels.

6. Do you like Winter, or do you count the days until it ends? count the days till warmth!!

7. What's your favorite way to brighten your day when you're down in the dumps? dark chocolate or vegan/lactose friendly baked goodies, good book, tea and nice hot bath.

8. What is your favorite treat to indulge in and when your down in the dumps? ginger molasses cookies and using my good china. Oh there is also the habit of book buying. Here's my book wish list on amazon and shelfari if you are interested.

9. Do you drink coffee? Tea? Cocoa? coffee and tea, I make cocoa due to most contain lactose

10. If you could take a vacation starting tomorrow and go anywhere for one week and money were no object, where would you go and what would you do? trip all around Europe, but first I'd go somewhere warm before I start which would be somewhere in the Caribbean. Yummy rum and sun!

11. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should be aware of? oh boy there are a few bit of allergies, sorry... where to start all animal fibers of any percentage, lactose(milk and milk products - usually okay in baked goods in really small doses), lemongrass. a lot of perfumes (most smelling like flowers this includes soak and other laundry detergents I use non-perfume, non-dye soaps to make life easier), cats, dogs (saliva only, yes I know I have a dog; however she is a working dog plus I've grown an immunity to her), cigarette smoke (sensitivity), Petroleum jelly, almost all lip balms don't have issues with burt's bees only one that I haven't gotten chapped and annoyed lips from (funny it's got lanolin but seems fine), products with high glycerol/glycine content cause issues as well, feathers, dust, mold, pollens, beef ( have to be careful because beef lard is in some cookies!, vegetable shortening is my friend!) and there is more to the list but that's all you need to know really. Since this swap includes soaps I don't have any problems with olive oil, shea butter, and soy based soaps (glycine if low on the ingredients is usually fine) really strong smells especially flowers can be an issue, but mint, almond, lavender*, vanilla*, jasmine*, mango, coffee, hazelnut, eucalyptus, rosemary and a bit more. *if not overly strong or perfumey. I haven't had a chance to order from Sharon yet, but she makes soaps I'm not allergic to here's a link to her store.

A mild case of Startistis

Before I go into what's on my needles and such, I wanted to share with you a story that happened over the holidays. Well His Tallest knew that a swift was all I wanted for my Holiday gift and he didn't want to pay a lot of money for something that he could make and make it better (darn engineer.) He looked over plans on the net and all different types of swifts and then drove me bat shit with questions and mostly the same questions over and over (because he didn't "like" my answers!) Anyway on Christmas Eve he took mini-me with him to do some last minute shopping ( I had took mini-me to the yarn store about a month ago to show her where it was and what I wanted). I found out later this meant he decided not to make the swift after hours of droving me crazy not letting me get anything that I need to do done, and they were on a mission to get me a swift. Well mini-me couldn't remember where the yarn store was and they didn't want to ask me nor look on my blog or do a search on google -- that would be way too easy! Poor His Tallest and Mini-me ended up in Michael's of all places and the only knitter in the store had left an 1/2 hr before they had gotten there! So no-one in the store could tell them what a swift was nor where to buy one. I have taken both of them to the yarn store (three bags full) who sell the wooden swift I want, yet neither of them could remember where it was let alone the name. They did remember Michael's because I tend to get kitchen cotton there as well as beads and accessories. Sigh, so a long sorry short I didn't get my swift and I will be either purchasing it online myself or heading down to Three Bags Full hoping that they have one when I get there. Now if it would only stop raining and snowing for one day so I can get my butt there. His Tallest did redeem himself slightly though, he got me this. I love this book because there are so many tasty recipes that I can make and eat! Being allergic to lactose can cut out a lot of foods and sometimes you just don't want to take the chance substituting soy cheese or such. Yummy, yummy recipes and great info on what to stock in your pantry. Vegan, vegetarian or the occasional meat eater alike will love this cookbook. I've made a few recipes in here and I made a person who hates vegan food love the scalloped potatoes! Yay me and His Tallest for a great holiday gift even if it's not a swift. Meh.


So I have started my Loop Ewe Swap pal's socks! I'm knitting the Master Sky Pattern from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book; however I might frog them and knit some pretty ankle socks because my partner's feet are much, much bigger than mine and I think I might be over my head in the knitting large socks department because I get so bored easily knitting for my feet which aren't that big! I've also on the foot of my Maizy plain stockinette socks and man is it boring! The colour is pretty though. Pictures to come really! Oh that lovely garterlac dishcloth, frogged! I love the pattern, it's easy yet you have to pay attention, well at least I do because I seem to drop a stitch and it's so hard to fix! I'll try again when I have a big cup of coffee in front of me and I'm not so tired. (PS I finished mini-me's back-to-school U-neck vest I'll post about it sometime this week or next)

Due to suffering from a mild case of Startistis, I also cast on for the Koolhaas hat (by Brooklyn Tweed) from Interweaves Holiday Gifts 2007 edition

Silly me, I signed up for the Secret of the Stole ii and this time I'm going to make it. I've started my swatch in SWTC Infinity using KP Harmony 32" 2.50 mm (us 1 1/2) and it's going well I have had to frog it a few times though. I need to remember it's just a swatch as well as once I'm knitting the real thing I'll be using life lines! Come join in on the fun, sign ups are till January 17th.

Another swap I joined it the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap and sign up are closing...what tomorrow hurry fast people before you miss out the fun. Oh course I got sorted into my proper house, can you guess?? That's all I'm going to say considering we have secret character blogs and I don't want to give any more away! More swap news, The "Defeat the Winter Doldrums" Dishcloth Swap opens for sign ups tomorrow, and the questionnaire is up for you to fill out and post to be all ready for tomorrow!

I have Harmony needles and Barbara Walker's Treasury - the complete collection - being shipping to me sometime soon! I'm excited I've been trying to find the Barbara Walker Treasury books for ages now in used books stores and decided after all that I want them new to avoid old dust (yep allergens yuck!) and such, so I splurged by ordering them from Schoolhouse Press. I had ordered some Harmony circs to knit socks with and to try out the circs and I'm in love, so I ended up ordering the set for myself. I will still use the nickel-plated ones, but for things like silk, bamboo and such the wood circs are a dream! Hey Monica you can get a set or a few in the UK, check it out.

Well I'm going to go work on that questionnaire and do some more knitting. I'm still working on the extra secret surprise and I hope that it goes smoothly... Happy Knitting everyone!

Putting the new in new year

Yeah I couldn't think of a better fitting title, sorry about the cheese. I decided after finished the last eye cord strap for an everlasting bagstopper that I'd try something new. Now I have been thinking of trying entrelac for a while now because I have been drooling over the Entrelac socks that Eunny Jang designed a few issues back in Interweave Knits (spring 2007). I recalled that Julia (bloggless but she is on Ravelry Juliabca ) was knitting an entrelac garter stitch washcloth at a meetup for a holiday gift. It that looked great and she said it was easy to do. So using my google-fu because I forgot that it's easy to just use Ravelry I found Jimmy Crickets' Garterlac Dishcloth. So I casted on with the remainder of my Butterfly 10 in Midnight from the bagstopper and yes Julia you are right it's easy :-D

New Year Knitting Resolutions

So it being the first day of 2007, I thought I'd look forward to 2008 by setting some New Year knitting resolutions. Here we go

1. Cut down my stash by using stash yarn and I'm only aloud to by new yarn if I finish a project with stash yarn and only buy half or less of what I used from my stash. I may look into this further and decide rules etc..
2. Knit a more complicated lace project
3. Finish a pair of toe up socks!
4. Get out to more meetups
   
5. All the yarn in my stash that is already reserved for things like my yarn for the Simple Knitted Bodice (tilli tomas pure & simple and rockstar in olive) must be knitted into this year into the chosen project instead of sitting in the stash.
6. Knit more socks for me!!
7. Finish all projects on the needles
   

I'm sure I can think of more, but this is more than enough for the new year for me.

What do I have my needles. Well I'm finishing up on my daughter's Back-to-School U-neck vest from Fitted Knits, I started a plain vanilla sock with some beautiful CP Maizy in Sailor Blue, I still working on the first sock on my upteenth pair of monkeys in CP panda cotton and I have to finish up on my second Sheldon the turtle. So much to do and so little time.

I know I haven't been posting much but I've been working on a secret project that involves knitting sorta. You'll see once I'm all done ;-)

Holiday Knitting Picture Post

I'm a little too busy for words, but here's what I've been up to in the land of holiday knitting. Sorry the pictures aren't formatted here all pretty; however I am meeting my mom at the mall for some Starbucks and a little last minute holiday shopping trip. Happy Holidays everyone! Enjoy yourself and take some time to knit something for yourself. Like the winter cowl and those monkey socks are all mine!

I was Tagged!

I haven't really done a meme in a long time, especially since I haven't really been reading or posting on good ol' LJ. I've lost interest in LJ, I've had approx. 3 journals there, one private with some public posts, another friend's only and my recent being a mixture of private, public and friend's only. I like Blogger better, but I'm thinking I might jump ship to Wordpress. I've noticed a lot of knit bloggers doing so. Don't worry I'll post here if I do :-). Since I've cut down on the LJ posting I'm also debating making this journal to include non-knitting posts because it's so much easier to update one blog. Well that's a few things I've been pondering lately. Onto the meme....

I was tagged by Monica and I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to play along because it's fun feel free to do so!

RULES:
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. NO CHEATING!
4. Tag 5 people.
5. Optional: Give your own comments on how it (the song title) relates to the question.

Opening Credits:
Jackie's Strength - Tori Amos

Waking Up:
Such a Rush - Coldplay

First Day At School:
Stupid - Sarah McLachlan

Falling In Love:
New Year - Death Cab For Cutie

Losing Virginity:
Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos

Fight Song:
Everybody Hurts - REM

Break up:
Idioteque - Radiohead

Prom:
Soma - The Strokes

Life:
Soldiering - David Usher

Mental Breakdown:
Golden - Fall Out Boy

Driving:
The Old Apartment

Flashback:
Criminal - Fiona Apple

Getting Back Together:
Please Call Me Baby - Tom Waits

Wedding:
Understanding - Evanescence

Birth of Child:
One of Those Days - Weird Al

Final Battle:
All My Love - Led Zeppelin

Death Scene:
This is Halloween - The Citizens of Halloween Town (Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack)

Credits:
My Michelle - Guns N' Roses (lol, funny how this come up!)

Sequel Teaser:

Brand New Colony - The Postal Service

Now with my favourites playlist For these I'd thought I'd link to place you can find lyrics. I made sure that any of the sites linked here will allow you to view the page without setting cookies if you don't want them to. I use Firefox and have it set to ask me each time that a site wants to set a cookie and usually deny or just use just for this session. Enjoy!!

Opening Credits:
Smells Like Nirvana - Weird Al

Waking Up:
The Cold Back Key - Azam Ali (from "Where's Neil When You Need Him?")

First Day At School:
Professional Widow (Remix) - Tori Amos

Falling In Love:
Poncho's Lament - Tom Waits (lol you gotta check out the words if you don't know them)

Losing Virginity:
Will He Be Waiting For Me - Sarah Harmer

Fight Song:
Everybody Hurts - REM- ain't that the truth I didn't cheat either and this song showed up for both!! Curious, very curious

Break up:
Emotional Weather Report - Tom Waits

Prom:
Another Postcard (acoustic) - Barenaked Ladies

Life:
Radio - Smashmouth

Mental Breakdown:
In My Place - Coldplay

Driving:
Sinkin' Soon - Norah Jones

Flashback:
Nicotine - Ani DiFranco quite appropriate, me being an ex-smoker

Getting Back Together:
All I Want - Dido

Wedding:
Liberation - Moist

Birth of Child:
Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb Strange but somewhat fitting considering that shot of demerol that they had given me during labour!

Death Scene:
The Crawl - Smashmouth

Credits:
Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple

Sequel Teaser:

Zero - Smashing Pumpkins

I survived NaKniSweMo and all I got was this..

frackin' beautiful cozy sweater!!!!!!!!1
Here's some pics of my CPH all finished (minus the wooden toogles for enclosures)

Central Park Hoodie - From Knitscene Fall 2006

Designer - Heather Lodinsky
Started November 1, 2007
Finished November 29, 2007
Knitted for myself as part of NaKniSweMo
yarn Cascade Pima Tencel in Moss
Yarn used approx. 10.5 skeins = 1260.0 yards (1152.1m)
Needles used size 3.7US 5) and 4.5 mm (US 7)
Thoughts :
My next CPH (yes, I'm planning to knit another one. I luuurrvveee this sweater) I want use Tatamy Tweed WW, just need to chose the colour and buy the yarn! Also the sleeves a litte tighter because I knit tighter in the round but after a little wear it seems fine