my latest obsession....

SEWING! drug out the trusty old Kenmore last month and have been enjoying every minute of it, though she's in need of service now (straight stitching works fine, but the zigzag part is stuck)

My darling husband surprised me by ordering me a new machine last week, and she's due to arrive on Tuesday. He got me the Brother CS-6000i so I'll be quite busy learning all the new features and stitches

Here's a few things I've made so far...


Quilted Potholder from Amy Butler's In Stitches



Toyko bag from S.E.W. Sew Everything Workshop



Unforgettable Elephant from S.E.W. Sew Everything Workshop

Up next in the queue - ordered 3 colors of linen from Fabric.com last week (also due to arrive Tuesday) and am planning some linen pants and skirts form S.E.W. Sew Everything Workshop. Bought that book with my Barnes & Noble christmas giftcard and have really learned a lot.

On the knitting front, the Print O' The Wave stole is still on the needles...I've just lost the motivation to finish it, though I have knocked out a couple pattern repeats while watching tv in the last couple of weeks. I cast on for the Cloud Bolero with some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk that's been lounging in the stash for the last year but made a mistake on the back and rather than try to fix it I ripped it all out to start over.

Otherwise I've just been enjoying the bread machine I got for Christmas, and in general loving owning our first home and having a nice big kitchen to play in!

Sabrina's Christmas Stocking

whipped this up this week while my Husband has been out of town

pattern was a freebie from Bernat, but I cast on more stitches to make it larger (to hold more treats!)



embroidered her name and duplicate stitched some paw-prints on after it was complete




now this pretty little girl is all ready for Santa!

an actual FO!

it's been a while since I had one of these....



the infamous shallowtail, in zephyr wool/silk

I have no idea when I started this, other than I was still living in Birmingham.....I know I bought the yarn at Knit Nouveau, sometime after they moved to their Homewood location

HOUSTON!!!

Posting has been pretty much non-existant around here recently, sorry about that! The biggest piece of news is that we relocated to Houston earlier this month so every spare minute has been spent unpacking or looking for houses.

I currently work in that unual shaped building on the far right (the Continental building, it's designed to look different from each side and offers SPECTACULAR views from that sharp angled side) but sometime in the next week or two I will be moving to that mirrored building that is right smack in the center (Texaco Heritage Plaza, where I will have an actual office w/ door as opposed to a cubicle)

I know there are tons of knitties in the area and I plan to join y'all for SnB night sometime soon!

Random Act of Kindness

Yesterday I received a little bit of sunshine in the form of a knittyboard RAK:

Inside was Cuisine at Home magazine, 3 of her favorite recipes, a bar of swiss dark chocolate w/ cinnamon, Trader Joe's decaf Earl Grey tea, two Hershey's special dark w/ almonds nuggets in their own knit cozy, a ball of SWTC Bamboo, and a lovely card with such a sweet note inside.

THANK YOU Aruni!

socks part deux

at the request of some lovely knitties, a couple modeled photos so you can better see the cuff length (I wear a US womens size 8 shoe)





it's rather difficult to get good shots of one's own feet without making it look as though I have cankles, and please pardon the Paul Frank monkey jammies

Happy New Year!

I completed the first of my first pair of socks on NY Day, and immediately cast on for the second. I finished just this morning, with a whopping 6 inches or so of yarn to spare after weaving in ends on the second. You can see what tiny amount of yarn was left in the photo.




The pattern is "Go With The Flow Socks" by Evelyn A. Clark and featured in the Summer 2005 Interweave Knits. I used a single skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Country Christmas, and size 1 needles. I only did 10 repeats of the lace pattern on the cuff rather than the full 20 the pattern called for, and I cast on holding 2 needles together to give me a nice loose cast on edge.

Who says you need two skeins to make a pair of socks? I have another single skein in Black Purl and think I will try a toe-up pattern this time.


I neglected to get photos of all my knit/sewn christmas gifts but I did find a photo of the stockings I made. The pattern was from Lion Brand, knit in Wool-Ease and I duplicate stitched our names on once they were completed but not yet seamed. This pattern is knit on 2 needles and seemed up the back and was my first attempt at 2-handed colorwork (for the top ribbing). The first stocking was awkward but I rather had the hang of it by the second.

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!