all about me!

NAME: Elizabeth/eBeth/Beth/Bethie/artemis/artie/Fuzzy-butt depending on who you ask.....

Q:Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
A:Hot Chocolate, bonus points if you slip in a little Bailey's or Godiva chocolate liqour

Q:Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
A:When I was a kid Santa wrapped the stocking stuffers and the 'big' stuff was unwrapped. Now Santa sends all the gifts wrapped since we don't have kids so he doesn't make a special trip

Q:Colored lights on tree/house or white?
A:I prefer white, my husband prefers colored so we'll try those next year

Q:Do you hang mistletoe?
A:I would, if I could find some...

Q:When do you put your decorations up?
A:Normally start the day after Thanksgiving, but this year we did it the Sunday before

Q:What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
A:hrm that's a tough one for me....but my husband's favorite holiday dish is his aunt's breakfast casserole that we eat on Christmas morning!

Q:Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
A:All my childhood memories as a child are great ones, but one of the strongest is putting poinsettias at my grandfather's grave on Christmas Eve one year and Mom not letting me and my brother get out of the car since it was snowing

Q:When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
A:I was entirely too curious as a child and found all the gifts, then asked my parents why they weren't under the tree!

Q:Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
A:We exchange gifts with my (maternal) grandmother's entire family on Christmas Eve, as a kid we'd also get to exchange one gift each once we got home but we got the rest from Santa. Now we open them whenever we feel like it, in between all the other gift exchange activities on Christmas Eve and Day

Q:How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
A:I have one small tree on the screened in patio that is decorated in all owls and pinecones (CHI OMEGA through and through). The big 'family' tree is rapidly becoming filled with ornaments we've picked out together, picked up on vacation, etc that all hold great meaning to us as a couple

Q:Snow! Love it or Dread it?
A:Nice to look at while falling, but if it sticks for more than a day I lose my shit

Q:Can you ice skate?
A:Yes and no....I can stay up on skates (but not go backwards) but the ice makes me break out in a rash if it touches my skin so I haven't been in years

Q:Do you remember your favorite gift?
A:As a kid, my microscope and chemistry set (yes, I was a geek even then)

Q:What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
A:Spending time with family and friends, and catching the classic animated Christmas specials on cable ;)

Q:What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
A:Chocolate...but that's a year round thing

Q:What is your favorite holiday tradition?
A:Listening to Christmas music, driving around looking at the lights, wrapping all the tiny stocking stuffer presents so my husband has to open each single one

Q: What tops your tree?
A:A red/green/gold plaid bow (I made years ago) and a gold wire star (new this year)

Q:Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
A:Giving, though receiving is pretty darned cool too!

Q:What is your favorite Christmas Song?
A:O Holy Night or Carol Of The Bells

Q:Candy Canes...
A:Not a fan (don't like peppermint nor hard candy!)

puppity pup pup-pup

Here's our new little man!





Just over a year old, smooth coat black-and-tan miniature dachshund


ETA: Casey has a new home, the family who took the other doxie decided that they wanted this one as well, and as we were having to keep him crated 10 hours a day we decided he would be better taken care of with the new family. They have kids and a nice yard where he can play with all the other dogs. Yes, I cried :(

I'm not dead!

For those of you who don't read the various forums on the KnittyBoard, a brief update -

I've been busy turning 30, DH is having some health issues, MIL is still in the hospital

There is knitting going on, and there are still Montana photos to be uploaded. DH took my laptop to Atlanta for a week so when I had time to upload them, he had them all!

Thanks for all the hugs, prayers, good thoughts, PMs, and just general togetherness that the KnittyHeads have shown to us this week!

I'm back!

got back in town Saturday night but have been insanely busy trying to unpack, clean, wash clothes, visit the various sickly relatives, etc...

photos are coming soon, but in the meantime here's one we took while driving across the entire state of Wyoming



no, this is not a photochop, it really says population 10. we actually saw two people as we were driving through, so I guess we saw 20% of the town's residents?

heading to the frozen north country

Ok so maybe it's not actually frozen, but in the 30s at night? That's pretty darned close to this Southern Belle!

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to fly to Montana for a week for my baby brother's wedding! We'll actually be spending two nights in Deadwood, SD before heading over to Cooke City, MT.

How geeky/cool is it that my husband and I are going to be watching the show Deadwood, while we're in the actual town of Deadwood? Though I admit the real reason I watch the show is I have a bit of a crush on the actor who plays Sherrif Seth Bullock *grin*

We're also going to be visiting Mount Rushmore while we're in SD, and Cooke City is about 3 miles from Yellowstone so we'll be spending quite a bit of time there as well. I will be taking tons of photos to post to the blog so if there are any special requests for something you'd like to see, let me know!

rave review for an eBay shop

If you haven't already, get yourself over to ColourmartUK on ebay and purchase one of their sample packs -- click here for the sample pack auction listing

for $1 they will ship you a minimum of 10 sample skeins of each of their yarn weights, either all cashmere or a cashmere blend (I got one that was 50/50 cashmere and merino, and 10 that were cashmere).

I don't know if I got lucky (they emailed to apologize that mine took so long to ship, they had a big sale and his assistant was on holiday) or if it's the norm, but in addition to my samples I also got a 250yrd/50g ball of fingering weight cashmere, 3 ply of black, grey, and khaki singles that Stephen of course promptly claimed would make a 'boggan' for him.

I was trying to get the large hank into a more managable skein to get the actual yardage and dropped it, so I now have half of it on my swift and half in a big tangled mess, but this is the softest stuff ever so I don't really mind all the unknotting since I get to fondle it more ;)

I haven't decided if I'm going to knit with it as-is, or ply it back on itself to get a little bit thicker weight to make him a hat with....

pea pod baby set

I finally snagged some sunlight and took a few photos


the entire set


the hat


seed stitch booties


slightly blurry close-up of the lace pattern

I just realized I didn't get a photo of just the sweater, I'll try to get one before I pack these up for the baby shower this weekend

wow

Just a quick update - things have been insanely hectic around our house, my mother-in-law has been in ICU for the last 3 weeks so most of our free time is spent shuttling back and forth to make the visiting hours. (I've posted briefly about it over at my livejournal at http://artemis9976.livejournal.com)

There has been quite a bit of knitting late at night, the baby gift set is complete and should be photographed this weekend when I'm actually outside the office or hospital while the sun is up. I've knocked out a few "warshrags" too, mostly for the baby gift but one Mason-Dixon ballband just for fun

I got some soysilk roving, SWT Bamboo and Berroco Cotton Twist for myself at Knit Nouveau last weekend. The cotton twist is well underway to becoming Wendy B's Dream Swatch (available at http://www.thegarterbelt.com in their complementaries section), the Bamboo is destined to become a mini Clapotis (ala KPixie's modifications), and I'm not sure what weight the soysilk will become, but it's an absolutely gorgeous mix of blues and greens, reminds me of the caribbean ocean and drinks made with blue curacao (delivered by cabana boys even!)

I'm not sure I even have readers these days, so give me a shout out in the comments if you stop by!

my entry for Monkee's contest

Some kids staying in the hotel left us this message right outside our door. We were down on the beach having the ceremony, and when I went back to the room to change for the reception (cause there was NO WAY I was eating shrimp in a floor length white dress!) I had this happy surprise waiting for me. I'll admit it, I got misty, and when we were packing up to head home the following morning I made sure to get a picture of it to remember how sweet they were.

reason # 968765783452895630 why I love my Mr

Today was my very first trip to Knit Nouveau (link over in the side bar) and I have to say I WAS IN HEAVEN!

I browsed to my little heart's content for a while, and left with 8 oz of blue faced leicester roving and a set of Brittany birch cable needles. I could have gotten more, in fact he was encouraging me to get some yarn or another bag of roving, but I didn't want to go hog wild on my first trip, thought I should break him in slowly ;)

He also admired the Louet S51 wheel they had set up, and thought it was pretty darned cool. Seems like my man likes the look of the wheels I tend to favor, so hopefully I'll be getting one for christmas ;)

I showed him Kate Gilbert's Pea Pod baby set (link opens a PDF in a new window) last night, and he helped me pick out some yarn that I ordered today. I'm going to knit that up for my pregnant coworker, and he picked up some baby booties at the store and said I should make her some booties as well, and to go ahead and order enough yarn for the entire set ;)

So I've spun up a little bit of the BFL, and I just got back from Walmart with some Ben & Jerry's and a couple balls of Peaches & Cream to knit up a few washcloths. These little things are addictive! I'll probably be gifting the ladies in my life with some for the holidays, if I can wait that long! I also thought they might be nice for bathing a wee babe, or as a burp/spit cloth so the new mom might get some as well. It's nice having friends and family who admire and appreciate hand knits, no matter how simple or complex!

wha? twice in one day?!

I took some photos, never could get enough sunlight so I just did the best I could indoors against a white background (my oh-so-snuggly down alternative comforter)


Tempting II in all her glory (and no, I have not blocked her, and I wore her all day so she's a little saggy atm)



My 3rd skein of handspun, about 12.5 yards of corriedale



My second skein of handspun, and first attempt at dying! Unknown yardage, silk hankies dyed with fruit punch and lemonade walmart brand 'koolaid'


Now I just need to find a pattern to use for such a small yardage, because that blue stuff is FABULOUS if I do say so myself. Gorgeous color (which I can take no credit for) and much more consistant in the spinning (which I can) ;)

I'm still here!

The Mr is out of town for a traning class, so I've been spending most of my free time on the phone with him rather than updating this blog like a good little fibermonkey

I do have progress to post about, and will try to get photos taken at lunch so I can show off a bit ;)

I finished Tempting II Monday night, and am wearing it to work today. It's pale yellow Cotton-Ease (color name is Banana I believe) with a real mother-of-pearl buckle. I did make a couple minor modifications, I k2 together all the way across the decrease row of the yoke, and attached the neck band on both rows rather than just one as directed in the pattern. I originally knit it according to the pattern specs, but the neck band was SO LOOSE that there was no hope of it ever staying on the shoulders of a linebacker in full gear, much less on me. So after a few minutes googling I found others had the same problem, and went with the bigger decrease and smaller band. I can now wear it to the office with no fear of bra straps showing, and that's always a good thing around this place (we have dress code nazis, I get busted for a bra strap showing through a shirt while other women have cleavage hanging out with nips almost exposed and they don't say anything!)

I also dyed and spun up my silk hankies. I completely forgot to take a photo of the dyed hankies, but I will be posting the resulting mini skein later today

I also spun up the dyed corriedale that came with my spindle kit, it's a lovely shade of blue. It's hanging to dry right now after setting the twist, but I hope it's dry enough for a photo later this afternoon as well

So now I'm without any fiber to spin! Oh noes! I'm starting to search the net to find the best deals, or the best sample kits so I can try my hand at lots of different fibers and see which I like the best before ordering larger quantities. The silk was really the start of the "oh! I get this now!" moment for me, and the dyed corriedale just continued that on. I'd still love to get some hands on training, but I'm not quite as lost as I was on the first batch

I'm still planning to go to my local fiber guild meeting next month (July 8th) and am looking forward to it!

One last thing, this is one of the wedding photos that just cracks me up! It's like 'who tipped off the paparazzi?!'

I'm a Mrs!

Ok so I've been a Mrs for almost 2 months now, but things have been insanely busy so I haven't gotten around to updating this blog yet...

If anyone is interested in seeing wedding photos, you can check out our website at Beth-and-Stephen.com

As far as the fiber world, I'm nearing completion on Tempting II in some Cotton Ease that's been hiding in my stash since LB discontinued it last year. I found a vintage mother-of-pearl button online that I ordered yesterday, and have about an inch more to go before starting the neckband.

I received some garter stitch cotton dishcloths for a wedding gift and loved them so much I've already knocked out two dishcloths of my own. I went from a scarf straight into felted purses and jumpers, so I skipped the dishcloth phase and I missed out! I've knit one with a cabled owl in the middle, and another with a martini glass. They work great, and are nice to use up the Lion Kitchen Cotton that was leftover from the SnBN yoga mat bag I made a while back.

I've also joined the world of the spinners, or am at least knocking on the door. I got a beginners spindle kit a few weeks ago and have made my very own first skein from corriedale. It's nothing fancy, but I like it!



I have an order of silk hankies on the way to me now so I'll be playing with kool-aid dying this weekend, and will be starting to spin them as soon as they're all dyed up.

More updates later!

tikis!

Well I've finally finished moving (though nowhere near finished unpacking) so now I can resume wedding crafting and blogging...

Yesterday my grandmother and I decorated my tiki torches. I'm using these to make an aisle to walk through on the beach (5 on each side) and then later at the reception after the sun goes down we'll probably put the oil lamps back in and light them for that romantic glow


10 tikis lined up like little solidiers down our new hallway


closeup of the raffia, ribbon, seashells and starfish decorations

2 months, 1 day, and counting.....

wow I'm not too good at updating this thing am I? Though to give myself a little bit of credit, I am in the process of moving so my days are generally filled with work and last minute wedding plans, and my nights are filled with packing/moving and sleeping.

I decided to frog the jaywalkers, and they're now neatly reballed and awaiting the desire to start over. I made the boy a celtic cable cap (girl from auntie pattern) which he loves, even if he did doubt that blocking would make it long enough to cover his ears ;) Now we have matching hats since the first one I made him wasn't long enough, so I inherited it and added a few rows and the plain brim to his new one.

The kid mohair/silk finally told me that it definately wanted to be a clapotis so I cast on for it yesterday morning, and am about 5 repeats in to the increase section. It's knitting up quite beautifully, I keep pausing to rub it on my cheek and remark how soft and lovely it is, and the silk content really does give it a nice sheen. I think this will be something that I'll use and love for a long time, and not just as a wedding day shawl.

blech

i have now discovered the aggrivation of getting about 3 inches from the end of a hand knit sock, and finding out you don't have enough yarn. i refuse to go buy another ball of this trash (lion magic stripes) just to finish the toe, so i guess i will be frogging (and enjoying my ball winder yet again) and just making the cuff/leg part a little shorter. and THIS is why toe-up socks seem far superior in my opinion, but as my first pair of socks i wasn't comfortable enough to modify the jaywalker pattern to toe up. though i did find directions on how to do it so perhaps i'll give that a go this next time around....

i finally got my 12" size 7 addi circ and damn if it isn't hard to knit on such a small circumfrence! i started on "i do" and kept dropping stitches. decided to try to knit it flat and got a pattern repeat in, but realized that i need to modify the pattern to include selvege stitches to seam it up nicely *frowns*

i'm starting to think the wedding shawl/shrug/thing won't ever get started. i also cast on for 'cozy' to see if i liked that pattern better, and while it's been an enjoyable knit i really think i'd prefer something more like a shrug, so i don't have to fuss with keeping it draped over my shoulders

anyone know any nice long-sleeve lacey shrugs that would look good in a 80/20 kid mohair/silk blend? that won't drive a lace novice batshit insane in the 2.5 months before her wedding? i've done some lace before, but i don't know if it's the lace pattern or the yarn that's giving me fits. i've tried metal needles, and my denises, and it's making no difference. i have bamboos but only in larger circumfrences, and i really don't want to invest in YET ANOTHER SET for this project

weekends are just too short....

doesn't feel like much knitting was accomplished this weekend, though i am now about a inch through the instep of the first jaywalker so i suppose i finished the leg, did the heel, picked up and started on instep so i guess it's more than i thought

ordered a 12" addi turbo in size 7 for "I Do" because i'm determined that i'm going to make it. the boy was looking in my email inbox for a message from our groomsman and clicked on the ebay auction receipt by mistake and was laughing at me for my needle addiction. i kid you not, he actually said 'i thought that box set meant no more needle buying?' bless his heart, in the last few weeks he's gone with me to buy a few sets of needles, and then i've bought a few sets when he wasn't with me ;)

on the wedding front, it turns out my dress fits perfectly now, i guess the weight gain in the itty bitties was more than i thought. so long as i wear a stick-on bra i fill the dress out just fine on my own, and all the altering i need to do is shorten the straps by about half an inch each. my grandmother marked them for me while i had the dress on, so i will be reattaching the straps this week sometime.

i also started on my veil saturday, and i have a crappy camera phone photo to show off:



all that's left to do is sew the swarovski crystals (in the color jonquil, a light yellow) to the bottom edge to help weigh the blusher down until it's time for the boy to lift it

then last night i was feeling crafty so i decorated our toasting flutes (sorry, i haven't uploaded that image yet, i forgot to send it to myself at work) and assembled the kissing balls, as shown in the photo below:



and a gratuitious (albeit blurry) ring photo for those of you who haven't seen it. it's a 1ct canary oval diamond with a triangular diamond on either side, set in white gold

socks and mohair and interviews, oh my!

the 2nd incarnation of jaywalker is coming along quite well. i'm about 4 inches in to the first sock and will probably start the heel flap soon as i don't like really tall socks (and i'm impatient too, don't let me fool you) ;)

the unidentified wedding shawl/shrug/thing is still in the 'squishy balls of white fluff' stage. i'm being incredibly indecisive about what i want to make with it. i'm going to my grandmothers for a dress fitting tomorrow (we're going to see if we can alter the bodice a bit since my itty bitties aren't filling the top out) so i'll see if i can't remember to take my digicam and get a picture so perhaps someone can help me determine which shawl/shrug/thing will go best with the dress

my sweet baboo is in a job interview right now so for once i've got something other than yarn and tulle on the brain....y'all keep your fingers crossed for him! base salary is more $, the comission percentage is higher, and it's a mon-fri only job so we'll actually have the same days off for a change!

Well my Denise set arrived yesterday so I spent a while playing with it. Put the 7's on there and cast on for I Do again, only to get an interesting problem - the shortest cable in the kit makes you have 17" circs, the pattern calls for 16" circs. Apparently that 1" makes a world of difference because there was absolutely NO way that I was going to get the stitches around to join the first round. After that first round it wouldn't be an issue because of all the YOs but it just wasn't happening. When I cast on last week I was using size 8 16" and had no problems but whatever, it seems that this yarn is insisting that it DOES NOT want to be I Do.

So I suppose I'll cast on for Cozy again tonight, though Clapotis is chiming in that she'd like a shot too and I know that's a fun pattern that won't interrupt my TV watching/wine drinking habits too much ;)

Hey Miss Julia, do you reckon you can help me set this here blog up better? Yeah yeah I know, I'm a web designer so I should be able to do it with no problems but I can't find all the options in the blogger interface and I really like how you customized yours so thought I'd pick your brain for some pointers ;)

well here we go, i'm going to attempt to actually use this thing as my knitting blog

can't promise wedding stuff won't sometimes take over but considering that some of my current knitting is for the wedding, it's bound to happen at least once or twice ;)

i am currently working on the jaywalker socks, i got 3/4 of the way through the first one, realized that it was gonna be too small and ripped it out to start over last night. i'm a few repeats into the zigzag pattern and enjoying the new sock just as much as i did the first attempt so i'm not too disappointed about the frogging. i rather figure i'm getting more knitting pleasure for the money this way ;)

i started the unknown wedding shawl/thing last week, started "I Do" three times, ripped it out three times. started "Cozy" two times, ripped it out two times. i'm not sure if the problem is the yarn (80% kid mohair, 20% silk), the needles (only had aluminum circs in the required sizes, though my Denises should be waiting for me when i get home), or the knitter trying to do lace while watching forensics shows on tv and drinking wine ;)

i've also got some yummy merino all set to knit my sweet bald fiance a 'bogan' but it hasn't moved beyond the balled stage so far. well that's not entirely true, i knit a 'bogan' but he wanted one longer so i kept the first and will make him one to match it, but with a longer brim and perhaps a few repeats of the straight rows to make the body a bit longer. it's the girl from auntie celtic cable cap pattern and was a rather fun knit so i'm looking forward to another one (and then perhaps 2 more as my parents have seen the pattern and quite liked it)

so now i have documented my WIP and soon-to-be WIPs. next time i will take photos of my recently completed FOs for your viewing pleasure, including the before mentioned celtic cable cap for me, the fiance's fibertrends felted clogs (if i can get them off his feet long enough, i swear he's about worn them out already!), and the sirdar perfect pups stuffed dachshund