It's Official

I've got another designing gig, this time with The Alpaca Yarn Company. A Fair Isle cardigan. The yarn (I just have a sample so far)is super soft. Sounds good. I love alpaca. Can't wait for the rest to come. Better pick up the pace on the Amerah cardigan, eh?
P.S. I've also sent in my application to join TNNA. Want. to. go. to. tradeshow. See. new. yarns. and. stuff.

Evil Influences Strike Again

Look what I got today (I forget whose blog I saw it on, but it made me order it right away):




Chocolate Covered Cherries superwash sock yarn--looks just like you (K) know (OI) what (GU). Got it from Marie at Brooklyn Handspun and it is so nice. Enough for a whole pair for sure and superwash to boot. I love pink and brown! Ask her to dye some for you too- you know you want it.

It's all Scout's fault

That I want
this.
At least she's aware of it.

Updates!

What I've accomplished this week on the other design for SWTC- it's not stockinette, though it might look that way from a distance. I really like the yarn (Amerah) but it's a bit slow to knit with, even using Turbos. Plus...




Progress on my Jaywalkers-- oh how I love Koigu.

I may have a design in the works for another yarn company- I've been talking back and forth all week, working out details. I'll let you know when (if!) it's a go. I managed to send out two submissions this week (and knit and wrote the pattern for the other SWTC design) and considering I had two days of jury duty (and still didn't get selected) without knitting (I managed to get it past security but was later asked to put it away) and promptly got the flu afterwards (still have it, yuck) I got a fair amount done this week- good thing I didn't have to work! (Of course, the house is not clean and I haven't done much of what I needed to for work- I can knit but can't think with the flu- sorry!)

Project Spectrum is starting early here

I was telling Emma today about Project Spectrum (I intend to work on my Jaywalkers, which are partly pink, and my all-pink Bohus sweater in honor of March's pink/red theme)and she had her own little contribution:




Cute, huh?

Rest easy, the yarn is put away.

All done! I even found a few things I didn't know I had, like a skein of white angora and 3 balls of Fixation. Mostly it's divided by weight, with separate boxes for things I have more of. The first column on the left, from top to bottom is worsted fancy stuff (Hip Knits silk, angora, etc.), plain worsted wool, more plain worsted wool, DK, and bulky. Second column is Koigu, more Koigu, Dale Baby Ull, Shetland jumper wt, Noro, SWTC, and a big pile of Cotton Ease. Third column is Tahki Cotton Classic, misc. silk and cashmere, sock yarn, and fingering. Unfortunately Hubbo came home from volleyball before I was done and actually saw all of it. He was a little startled (he normally avoids the yarn closet-- it's for his own good!)

The Complete Report

Stuff I bought yesterday at Have You Any Wool (now you can see it!) I really like this colorway of the Lorna's Laces- it's called "Mineshaft." The Noro is bright but I like it, and the Manos- well, you know. All the shopping I have been up to necessitates a cleaning out of the yarn closet- a nice project, no?

Finished!

A little peek at the project I just finished for South West Trading out of their "Bamboo Feather"- totally feels like velvet. Emma loves it- too bad she can't keep it! It's shipping out in the morning.

Yet more shopping (yes I can rationalize this too)

Today once I was officially sprung from jury duty (yes, I had to go back for a second day) I decided to soothe myself with deliciousness and a trip to the not-yet-visited-by-me yarn shop Have You Any Wool in Berkley. (Yes, they have, by the way.) It was not as far away as I thought, which was nice, it had nice people working there, which was nice, and they had some good stuff there, which was very nice. I bought some Noro, some Lornas Laces, and some Manos, and I am far too lazy to take a picture right now. Sorry. (Oh--the rationalization is that I rolled change to pay for it, so it doesn't count as spending money. Which is important because I have been to 3 yarn stores in 6 days.)

In other news, I am almost done with the bamboo feather design for SWTC. Emma tried it on and declared it perfect- how handy that the sample is once again in her size. I should be able to finish tonight and type up the pattern tomorrow. I also want to get at least the back of the Amerah design done too this week- even though I still haven't completely done my housework or any of the myriad things I should be doing for work. Oh well!

Done with the foot, more socks, and yarn!

The picture reveals all:



1. I have finished the foot of my first Sockapalooza sock. It seems huge to me. I measured it and it's right, but it still seems big. (I think it's because I've only ever knit socks for my own pitifully small feet, not for anyone else.)
2. The Jaywalkers I started for myself. Yes, more Koigu baby! Every stitch so far has been knit in public, much to the despair of Hubbo, who chatised me more that once, especially in the restaurant. I'm even thinking about smuggling them into jury duty tomorrow.
3. The yarn I bought Saturday at Indigo Rose in Sterling Hts. It was cute in there, and they even had dyes and stuff. After a while Hubbo sent Emma in after me, and they gave her chocolate. Not bad, since she usually gets a dirty look for daring to enter a yarn store, even though she's good.
I also managed to do a couple of submissions, but now I must submit to housework, since it's a sty in here. Knitting will resume when I can see the floor. Until then!

A Secret Pal Valentine plus More Unnecessary Shopping

Look! More surprises from my Secret Pal (not counting the nice card I got on Wednesday.) Malabrigo yarn in a pretty lavender shade, a pink picture frame, and a boatload of sugar free tastiness! (I'm saving that for tomorrow since I'm taking a day off o' South Beach today- brace yourself for fries and ice cream! I have not had fries since August, and man, did they taste good.)



It's Midwinter Break starting this evening, so aside from the jury duty I have on Tuesday (and I hope that is it!) I'm looking at a week off from work. Time to get some serious knitting done- I'd love to finish one of the projects I have going for South West Trading. There's another submission or two I'd like to get done also, plus there's only a ton of housework and stuff for work to do too.

Today we had a teacher work day which ended early, so I treated myself to a little trip to Knitter's Kove which is only about 10 minutes from the school. They moved into a bigger store and I hadn't seen it yet. I bought a little more Koigu (as if I needed it!) and some more size 1.5 dpns. Crystal Palace bamboo- those are pretty nice. Tomorrow we are going to be out on the "east side" and I'm hoping to check out some of the yarn-related action there, since even though I lived in Sterling Hts for a big chunk of my young life, we hardly ever venture east of Woodward these days. I will probably buy more stuff. I'm on vacation, after all.

More Sockapalooza progress and a FO

First, the sock:



Believe it or not, I worked on this every night this week before bed (I have a bookcase headboard and keep one of my knitting bags inside the little cupboard for bedtime knitting.) The reason I am only a few inches farther along than last week is I discovered an error WAY BACK (that what happens when you knit when you're sleepy, I guess) and had to do a lot of ripping. (Weep, sadness.)

And the FO:



It's my little result of actually using bulky Lion Brand yarn. But it's kind of cute, isn't it? Didn't take very long either. This time it's Pinecone that got into the picture instead of Rosalie. The pattern is from Knit It! (on the cover.)

Guess I'm doing okay...

The other day Chrissy posted about what kind of acceptance rate to expect for design submissions. She said her PKDG mentor said to expect about a 10% acceptance rate for newbies like us. It got me thinking (especially since it sort of kills my soul when something gets rejected, and I have to rationalize myself out of being sad every time. I decided to go back through all of my submissions (I only started last spring, mind you) and see what my "rate" was. In case you're interested, here are the stats (I was pleasantly surprised!)
27 total submissions
15 accepted
7 rejected
5 still in The Land of Mystery
It still isn't helping since 4 of those rejections have been in the last two months, but oh well. (I worry "am I starting to suck?")
Knitting wise, I have swatched for the Amerah cardigan for SWTC:


Pretty, yes?

And the winner is...

Melissa! Please email me at frottez at att dot net with your address, okay?

Plus, had to jump in on this one-- too funny!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Frottez!

1. In the kingdom of Bhutan, all citizens officially become frottez on New Year's Day!
2. Three seagulls flying overhead are a warning that frottez is near!
3. Louisa May Alcott, author of 'Little Frottez', hated frottez and only wrote the book at her publisher's request.
4. The difference between frottez and a village is that frottez does not have a church.
5. The smelly fluid secreted by skunks is colloquially known as frottez!
6. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching frottez.
7. If you don't get out of bed on the same side you got in, you will have frottez for the rest of the day!
8. Influenza got its name because people believed the disease was caused by the evil "influence" of frottez.
9. In the Spanish edition of Cluedo, frottez is the victim.
10. Frottez can't sweat!

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Last chance for sushi contest!

Emma's picking the winner tomorrow, so if you want to win the sushi yarn and fancy chopsticks but haven't left a comment this week, please do it before then!

Casting on tomorrow nonetheless

Even though I'm STILL officially a heckler/cheerleader in the Knitting Olympics, I will be casting on tomorrow for a new project- a design I'm doing for SWTC in their new silk yarn Amerah. The yarn arrived the other day (the purpley color is for the sweater, the other balls are samples they threw in for me to play with!)




I'm not sure why Rosalie is always in the yarn p*rn pictures. But he is. (Yes, he's a boy. Emma named him.)

One alert blog reader requested "action shots" of my new Lady B bag. I should be able to get around to that this weekend, but in the meantime, there are some good ones (that sold me on it, actually) in this Knitty article.

Thanks for all the nice comments about everything lately- Hubbo is flattered that you like his cake, and for the record, he says the Steelers side DID taste better.

Superbowl knitting progress

For Scout's contest, I present my official knitting progress of yesterday. As I mentioned already, I started the Falling Leaves socks. Before I started knitting for the day, they looked like this:



And when I went to bed (granted, I did not knit all day):



6" worth. Not too bad for me.

Sockapalooza progress (and Hubbo bakes)

I got started on my Sockapalooza socks today. As I said before, I'm using Koigu. I decided to use the Falling Leaves pattern from Knitty which is my first toe-up experience. I'm liking it.



You can't really see the lace pattern very well yet, but be patient.

In other news, Hubbo decided to BAKE A CAKE ALL BY HIMSELF to take to the Superbowl party at which he is currently. Behold:



I was pretty impressed. While he's watching the game, I'm home with Emma watching DVDs and knitting. (Yes, I realize the game is being played 20 minutes from my house. That still doesn't make me care about football.)

Don't forget to leave a comment if you want to win the sushi contest!

Sushi Contest!

For all of you who have been enjoying my sushi, I've decided to have a little contest. The prize? Yarn to make the whole set- the same ones I used (Jamieson & Smith's Shetland Jumper Wt. and Paton's Grace). I'll even throw in a pair of fancy chopsticks to "eat" them with. Just leave a comment on my blog between now and next Friday (Feb. 10) and Emma will randomly choose the winner. Enjoy!

No self control whatsoever

Look what I bought:



I know, I didn't need another bag. But I really like it. And I managed to justify it by telling myself I DESERVE it for being so good about the diet all this time. It's the Lady B bag from Lexie Barnes (ordered from kpixie, and it is so great. It is totally weatherproof and has tons of pockets inside. It is nice and big, but not too huge. The print reminds me of the crazy old flowered suitcase I used to carry books in high school. It is totally me. It only took 2 days to get here.

As for the Hip Knits Silk, I wanted that too. I don't usually go for the warm colors, but I really liked this colorway.

Luckily I just got a check from Creative Knitting for the second design or my husband would be getting cranky (the Lady B was not exactly cheap!)

I'm almost done with my little Lion Brand affair (big shruggy thing out of Wool Ease Thick and Quick)- it's destined to belong to my mom. So out of character to use acrylicky yarn (or super bulky for that matter!) but I don't want to get too predictable. Now I know why I don't use big needles, though- it hurts!

This weekend I'm going to do some swatching for my new South West Trading designs- the yarn is coming Tuesday- and maybe start my Sockapalooza socks. I've decided I'm using Koigu-- my pal likes it all and I've been dying to knit with it, especially after grappling with the size 15's all week! Now to decide on a pattern...

More good stuff

Thanks for all the nice comments about the sushi. I had woken up in a totally bad mood, only to discover:
1. The sushi was up.
2. I had already been paid for the sushi.
3. That means I could buy more Koigu at Knitting Zone since they take PayPal, which my sushi money was in.
4. I sold two more designs to South West Trading! (One in Amerah and one in Bamboo Feather)
5. I found out who my Sockapalooza pal is! She likes everything, but has much bigger feet than I do (I am the size of a 6th grader. Seriously. Once when I was subbing in middle school about 10 years ago I got mistaken for a student and told to report to the principal's office for cutting class.) More knitting than usual, but when was that a problem?

A good day. And yes, I already ordered the Koigu. When it comes, I will have 13 full skeins plus 7 partial ones. No more than 3 the same color (mostly one of a kind), but I like Koigu to be kind of riotous. That's the point, right?

Sushi, anyone?

The sushi is up! Enjoy!