NaKniSweMo and Secret Pal 11 Completed!!

So I did it I finished my CPH today!! I want to add wooden toggles and block it, but that can wait till later. This hoodie is still wearable without a closure. I really love it and will be knitting it again! Next sweater though I'm going to go one size up from the size I choose to knit, I like it with negative ease; however it would be nice to have a bit more room to wear layers under this sweater.

I've finished knitting a Quickie Cowl from f.pea's Free pattern fridays. I knit it in about half a hank of yummy Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton in Tomato. It's warm and really pretty, great for the disgusting and unusual weather we've been having in the Lower Mainland for the past month or so. This is a super fast and wonderful knit and a great pattern to use for those last minute holiday gifts.

Another finished item is my ISE pal's scarf it's in SWTC Pure in a dark navy, the dye ran a bit when I washed it in cold water with my regular no dye, no perfume gentle laundry soap, but it still looks pretty good. I just need to get some extras together and get that out as well as my downstream sp's package and my Ravelry Cup'O'Tea Swap package out then I'm done for swaps for a while. I've meet some great people through swaps, but I'm getting a little warn out. So it's time to take a break for a bit.

I also received my final SP package from Mary. I got some balls of Hempathy, some yummy sencha ginger tea, awesome one cup filters (which I've used a few times now!), tasty dark chocolate and a great pair of folding scissors. Pictures are still on the camera and will be loaded and posted sometime this weekend (I'm really hoping to at least, if not next week.) Thanks so much Mary!!

Hmm, here's a look at what's on my needles now

1. Sheldon from Knitty (holiday present for a friend's little one who is named after His Tallest)
2. Another pair of Monkey Socks in Panda Cotton in the fern colourway for me
3. will be casting on a Gir doll for another holiday gift
4. Cable's and O's cardi (I can go back to this now that I'm done my CPH!)
5. will be swatching for the Back to School vest (from Fitted Knits) for mini-me
   

Still Knitting (and crocheting!)

So I've been missing-in-action lately, due to the general winter blahs, lack of sleep, constant frogging and some knitting/crocheting getting done.

So the progress on the CPH is going slower than it should due to the fact that I've frogged the sleeves way too many times to count due to one thing or another. Mostly I've been forgetting to switch to the larger needles after the ribbing. Sleep dep and thinking clearly don't really go well together. I have now completed both sleeves, so all that is left is the button band, hood and some seaming! I can't wait till this is done; however I'm not sure if I'm going to make the NaKniSweMo deadline There are horrible pics of some of the progress over on my flickr. I'm not going to post any of the pics here due to they are poor cell phone camera quality. His Tallest comes back on Saturday so I'll post some real pictures soon!

As for crocheting, I'm crocheting my ISE 5's scarf and I love the yarn I choose; however this yarn should only be knit or crocheted with a much bigger hook. Once the scarf is off to it's new home I'll post some pics. The yarn I'm using is SWTC Pure in this beautiful dark blue. I'm finding this yarn spility and maybe not the best yarn for lace crochet motifs. I only have 7 more motifs to go and it's done, so it's too late now to change my mind. It will drape nicely, which is a bonus for the pattern I'm using.

In other news, I've collected a lot of new yarn in the past month or so. I also noticed a trend in the colours are shades of reds (mostly dark red and burgundy) and blues! Funny thing when I got my wonderful Knitter's Coffee Swap package from Martha because the yummy yarn in the package matched the colour scheme theme I've been buying lately so well. Click here to see. Once again Martha if you are reading, I apologize for the procrastination of getting your swap box out and it will be sent out today or tomorrow I promise!

Happy Knitting everyone and to all those celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend enjoy!

More NaKniSweMo Progress on the CPH

I just popped over to the Central Park Hoodie KAL v 2.0 and saw that Interweave is no longer selling the Fall 2006 issue of Knitscene! I am so happy that I bought a back issue a few months ago instead of waiting. It is sad that they do not plan to make more copies of this issue and there are still lots of knitters out there who want to knit the CPH and didn't order a back issue yet. The designer Heather Lodinsky has asked that those who want to order either a back issue of the magazine or even a copy of the CPH pattern via PDF to send any requests directly to Interweave due to the fact that they own the copyright. Click here for Interweave Press' contact info.

Here's a shot of my progress a few days ago, due to my camera being in China with His Tallest I don't have any up-to-date progress pictures. I have now completed the back piece, and the front right piece. I just have to finish the front left panel from the beginning of the armhole to shoulder shaping, the sleeves, hood and front ribbing. I'm definitely knit the sleeves in the round using magic loop; however they will be knit one sleeve at a time though. I'm now deciding buttons, wooden toggles or zipper. I am leaning towards the wooden toggles and using crochet or eye cord fastenings instead of making button holes. I love the way that would look. What do you all think? Oh and the cute little monkey is from my Monkey Sock Swap Pal, clicky here to see details of my package. He and the rest of the package came all the way from the U.K.

CPH Progress

So the pictures of my Central Park Hoodie where taken the first day of November and I've progressed a lot since then. I have completed 12 inches so far and that's working the body all in one piece, so I'm almost at the point where I have to knit the front panels and back in separately. I did the math and I'm almost at the target amount of stitches for the sweater, wow. Great progress for being day 3 of NaKniSweMo I just need to keep this pace up and I'll have a sweater in a week or two!

Here's the math:
12' at 23 rows per inch = 12*23
Total amount of rows = 276 rows
276 rows at 178 sts. per row = 276*178
Total amount of sts. knitted so far = 49, 128 sts!!!!


Three days of knitting and I'm doing good. I'm amazed at how fast this sweater is knitting up. It must be that I'm used to knitting on my Cables and Os cardi and it's taken forever on small needles with DK weight yarn. I'm loving my CPH so far and can't wait till it's done.

Sadly my camera is on another international trip without me! I sent His Tallest and my camera off to China for a three week business trip. I'm hoping that he gets time to visit the Forbidden City and take pictures and bring back a terra cotta soldier for me! I've always wanted to visit there and I'm slightly jealous -- ok seriously very jealous that he might get a chance to go if work doesn't work him to death there.

Oh this is another thing that came in the mail. I'm so excited it's my copy of Cat Bordhi's new book! I've promised myself that I have to finished my CPH and my ISE pal's scarf before I can dive into this book. I also got the toe-up book that I talked about in my post about toe-up socks which are also on hold *sigh* It will be a while till I get to knit on those again, I know I said no Holiday knitting for me; however I have a friend who would be a happy recipient of hand knitted socks and completely cherish them. He is a male friend; however he is the opposite body shape and height as His Tallest so no elephant length socks for him! I can't forget I also have to do some shopping to complete my Coffee Swap Pal's package and start on my Ravelry Cup O' Tea swaps package. Then after all my current swaps are done I swear there will be no swaps till the Loopy Ewe Swap, which is in progress as I type but the deadline is in Feb. Okay enought of that. Happy Knitting everyone!

NaKniSweMo Day 1

I've started my Central Park Hoodie in Cascade Pima Tencel in Moss and it's going quickly. I've finished the ribbing and almost the first cable repeat. This is the project I've picked for NaKniSweMo. A whole bunch of us adventurous (some may read this as crazy) have taken the challenge of knitting a sweater with 50,000 or more sts.

Are you ready here's the math. I've knit about 6 inches plus I'm knitting the body in one piece. So that's 178 sts. at gauge 23 rows per inch to a total of approx. 6,141 sts out of 50,000. So to meet the target of 50,000 sts in a month one must knit a total of approx. 1, 666 sts per day; however I'm sure that my choosen pattern in the large is much more than 50, 000. If I keep up this pace I'll be done in no time.

I'm putting all my projects aside for this month to complete my sweater/cardi and can't wait to try on the finished object at the end of the month. The only project I'm not going to put down during this time is my International ScarfExchange Pal's scarf I'm crocheting this for my pal in this beautiful blue SWTC pure (soysilk) that I got at one of my LYS. Yep one of my LYS's has soysilk SQQQUUUEEEEEE. So to go on with it, I don't want to include pictures of the progress nor on Ravelry just in case she finds me. She likes a good mystery to solve like I do and I'm sure she is crafty enough in the sleuthing department to put clues together. So this crochet WIP is on super secret lock-down for now.

My Knitter's Tea Swap Package arrived

Thanks Susan for such a wonderful package!! I appreciate the time you spent researching for things for me and spoiling me rotten! :-D

In my package there was some yummy Black and Green's dark chocolate mint cookies, alas they were butter cookies (I'm allergic to lactose, not your fault Susan I even pick up items that I find out later I can't eat!) and my daughter was the happy recipient of all but one that I ate. I regreted eating it later, but it was worth it so tasty :-D Also there was pear green tea mints, how did you know I've been debating trying them and hadn't given in yet. They just as yummy as I thought the would be I'm hooked! The ginger apple chews were delicious and didn't last long I LOVE ginger. Another item in this package was a box of soft maple sugar in the cutest shapes that I almost don't want to put them in my tea.

Onto the teas! There is a cream earl grey, peony white tea, maple tea, sencha fuji, Russian Caravan Popoff and ginger honey crystals. I can't wait to try all the teas, I've been mostly having the ginger honey crystals though because they are the perfect thing to help with my evil allergy symptoms and yet another cold I'm fighting! Opps I forgot the best part beside tasty tea and ginger, flowering teas! I can't wait to try them I love flowering teas; there is Flower Fairy (Jasmine & Lily) and Scent of Orange Osmanthus (Osmanthus and Lily).


Lastly there's the yarn! It's so pretty and soft! It's Berroco Bonsai in a deep purple, it's so pretty I've been petting it for a while.

Once again thanks Susan my thoughts are with you and I hope you enjoy your package as much as I've enjoyed mine!