Weekly Dose of Crafts: Yarncation

No actual projects this week but I had something special I wanted to talk about! Two weekend ago I traveled to Hood River, Oregon for the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival. My friend Tami of Candy Skein and Tami's Amis had a booth there selling her hand dyed yarn. So I used the opportunity to take a vacation or rather a yarncation (I realized I hadn't really had one in a year) and meet up with Tami and a few of her friends from her knitting group who were very very nice and welcoming! 

I was good for the first few days but the last few days I went a little crazy and this is what I came home with:

One of the booths I fell in love at the festival was one called Alpha B, I just loved the saturated brightly colored yarn. First I bought the teal colored one and then the last day of the show I went back for the rest, realizing I would regret it if they didn't come home with me!

Another booth I visited was Abstract Fibers, after hearing about their Silk Hankies I had to investigate. After learning how to work with them I bought enough to make myself a cowl. I love things that are just slightly out of the ordinary and these definitely qualify!

And obviously I had to go home with some of Tami's Candy Skein yarn. I just have to say how excited and proud I am for Tami and her business. It was so fun to see it all in person finally! Go Tami!!! I plotted in my head and eventually started looking into my raverly queue to find some projects to pick yarn for. This is what I ended up with, a rainbow of color! Weee!

I had to point out one of my favorites that I bought from Candy Skein. Tami does a Sock Club of the month where she makes a new colorway that is only around for that month and this month's is called Butter Mints, look how pretty it is! So tasty!

The morning before I left we also went to a few yarn stores including one called Twisted, everyone at the festival said we must go there, and I bought a few things (you can see them pictured in that first image)! So that's a quick recap of my yarn-cation (ha!), have you gotten any beautiful or special yarn lately? What's new?

Weekly Dose of Crafts

I decided to make a cowl this weekend. In one of my many browse sessions on Raverly I saw someone knit up this cowl in this exact yarn and knew I had to do it.

It's a very simple pattern, ribbing on the top and bottom and that's that. Not a ton to say about this.

Pattern: Lyndhurt Cowl

Yarn: Bernat Mosaic in Ninja

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly and Pinterest as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts

And the posting about crafts continues! Last Friday I found myself buying a kit to learn to glitter stamp, I have no idea how that happened but it made me very excited. I ended up learning a bit about the world of glitter and investigating other ways to use glitter. I somehow decided I also wanted to make some ornaments and when I found this tutorial both of these interests collided!

So far I've made 13 ornaments, Monday night I made 12 in about an hour and a half and that was with multiple breaks to admire the ornaments! Do you have any fun ideas for ways to use glitter? If so I'm all ears! I have a few other ideas but would love to hear more!

Last week I placed a KnitPicks order to make myself some new winter accessories including this set, and this and this and this. We'll see how many of these I actually end up making! I also ordered a few books!

Of my chosen winter accessories I decided to start with the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret because I had read it doesn't take very long! Below is my progress for two nights. I would have gotten further but I needed to get a needle!

Yarn used:

KnitPicks Sugarbunny in Lavender

Are you on Pinterest? I've been really enjoying it recently! You can find me on there as Mint910!

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts

I might not have posted anything crafty since July (err that was a long time ago) but I've still been making things. So let me share a few things!

My current favorite WIP is something a little new for me, I'm not totally following a pattern, well I am but I'm not at the same time. Back in September Target released a new designer line, Missoni by Target. People were in there buying up everything the day it released. I happened to go the same day to buy some food and luckily happened across these Missoni by Target shoes (I wasn't even on the hunt for them) and couldn't leave them there. I liked the pattern so much I decided I must make a blanket that mimicked them!

Mine look just a little different from this

 First I decided I wanted to knit the blanket since I've never knit a blanket and then I decided I'd probably never finish it so I moved to crochet. I thought about yarn for a few days, I knew I wanted something soft and fluffy but still on the cheap side (my first crochet blanket ended up weighing too much and is a little uncomfortable to use). I settled on Bernat Roving when I realized its colors were very close to that of my shoes. I searched a few stores and ended up buying a few colors online. As you can see below one of the colors didn't pass the test.

Yarn Pyramid!

I started the blanket a little over a week ago using this stitch pattern but making up the stripes based exactly on my shoes and I'd say I'm almost close to half done! I've even been using it as its gotten a little cold here and it's very very warm so far but also not heavy at all! Hooray! I'm only getting about 7 and a half rows from each skein of yarn but its well worth it!

I really don't think I could be any happier with how this is turning out!

 Yarn used:

Bernat Roving

Flint

Rice Paper

Lotus

Magenta

Orchid

Plum

Have you seen the new Caron yarn by Vickie Howell? Sheep(ish) from her new line Stitch. Rock. Love.? I've been eying it at Joann the last few months!

Just so happens that Vickie Howell was the cover girl on the Knit Simple Holiday Issue sporting her Cover Cowl full of giant cables! The cover claimed you could knit it during the day and wear it that night! Not having tried cables for a LONG time and really wanting to try Sheep(ish) I jumped at the chance to knit this cowl up!

 I'm happy to report that the claims of a quick knit were true! I started it one late afternoon during the weekend and finished the following afternoon, I really think that's got to be some kind of record for me! This has renewed my fascination with cables and I have some plans for some upcoming cabled accessories!

Still needs buttons!

Yarn used:

Sheep(ish) Magenta 

I just have to note this is not actually Magenta, it's really purple!! 

Isn't Sheep(ish) pretty! This pile of yarn leads me to my next WIP.

While exploring Vickie Howell's blog I came across her Color Card Scarf, click the link to see how pretty it is! I gasped when I saw it! The catch was to make it that beautiful would involve using all 21 colors of Sheep(ish) and being the yarn hoarder I am I went for it instead of just trying to find something I already had. I think all but one color I got for at least 40% off over a few weeks.

I was working on this the week before my Missoni blanket when I got stopped by a color I didn't have at the time.

Rainbowy!

Yarn Used:

Sheep(ish) all colors

I really have a thing for novelty yarn so here are two scarves I made from two of the new Red Heart Boutique yarn lines. I made the first in maybe 2 or so weeks and the second in about 2 days!

The first is the Lengthwise Knit Scarf in Boutique Magical.

Yarn used:

Red Heart Boutique Magical Open Sesame

I also just had to try the new Boutique ribbon yarn Sashay in this pattern! 

Yarn used:

Red Heart Boutique Sashay Jive

So that's what I've been up to recently, how about you?

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts

Tami told me a few weeks ago about the Year of Projects and I thought it was a really neat idea! While I'm not really joining I started to make a list of things I would like to accomplish with my yarn crafts over the next year. This is my list:

Finish some WIPS (I have 23 right now) and specifically:
Finish 1 of my 3 WIP blankets
Finish 1 of 2 pairs of WIP socks
Make a pair of socks from Knit Picks Felici
Make a garment
Learn a new technique (like Entrelac or Brioche)
Utilize my books, magazines and booklets to make something (I have a lot)

Speaking of Tami, did you guys know she started a Raverly Group? And in that Raverly group we are going to do a Knit Along! I'm really excited!

Can I also say how happy I am that I am back to crafting!!! Onto a few WIPS, I'm working on a bunch of my existing WIPS but here are the highlights.

What's this purple thing you may ask? Well last weekend in a newsletter from a local craft shop that I love I noticed an upcoming class for a Knitted Tank Top. I've really been wanting to make a garment but wanted my hand to be held a little so this turned out to be the perfect opportunity. My first class was last Wednesday!

Yarn used:

Blue Sky Alpaca Worsted Cotton in Hycinth

 I received my stack of Berroco booklets a few weeks ago and 3 skeins of Boboli for this pattern. I started on it right away! I know it's going to take me forever and a day to finish but it's so pretty!

Yarn Used:

Berroco Boboli Bon Bon

A side note, last weekend I worked an entire color sequence on my Ripple blanket so I thought it was fitting to use it as a background here! I love how that pattern sucks up yarn!

I've been getting some new crafty magazines and such lately so I wanted to share a picture of some of that as well. Does anyone else adore Knitscene? I think it's my favorite Knitting magazine! Also last weekend I found out about this Mollie Makes magazine out of the UK and literally rushed out of the house a few minutes later to purchase a copy at Joann's. I'm sad I missed the first issue but I'm glad that Joann's will be carrying the magazine! 

I've been contemplating getting the KnitPicks Nickel set of interchangables, and luckily enough the store that I'm taking my garment class at carries some of their needles and notions and I couldn't wait any any longer and picked up a set!

One final thing, someone at work is having a baby very soon and we are having a baby shower for her so I thought it might be fun to make some bibs for her baby as part of my present. I'm not sure how many I will have a chance to make but here is the first one!

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts

Not much to see today but I wanted to tell you that I finished my shawl from last week! It ate up yarn like crazy and during the bind off I finally ran out of yarn. I had to do some cringe worthy things to finish including using tails and eventually when those ran out I found a swatch of the same yarn and started to unravel it, the shawl was getting done and I wasn't going to go buy a new ball just for the bind off lol!

Sunday I ordered 2 seasons worth of the Berroco booklets and actually the yarn to start the scarf I linked to last week. When my package arrives later this week I think I will definitely be starting my scarf. But in the meantime I've been doing a little bit of work on two of my wips from long ago. They look like blobs here but eventually they will both be scarves/shawls!

 A Little Ruffle

Melody's Shawl

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure when but sometime last week I got going again on this shawl I had started in the Spring! And I've been knitting daily on it ever since! I've recaught the knitting bug!

It is this pattern and the yarn I am using is Bernat Mosaic in Ambrosia, I've used this yarn before for a few projects I think, luckily they have come out with some new colors that I'm hoping to try sometime soon!

Also, any Berroco lovers out there? They recently came out with their new Fall/Winter yarns and booklets, I'm so excited! This is my favorite yarn and pattern!

Weekly Dose of Crafts

Two weeks in a row, can you believe it!? Anyhow, I was set on not posting this week since I didn't have anything and then Monday night I found this Stitch Sampler Shawl pattern and last night decided I just had to cast on and knit the first 5 rows! So it doesn't look like much now but I'm excited about it!

Yarn used: 

Bernat Mosaic Ambrosa

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts

I actually did a decent amount of knitting this weekend so I'm back!!! But let's start with something really fun... I made my first purchase during the yarn diet and the occasion was the release of the new KnitPicks Felici colors! I might have gone a little crazy. More pictures further down in the post!

This weekend I worked on two of my scarves. I'm now halfway done with my gray scarf because I've started my second hank finally! That also means that I've finally used up two skeins since the yarn diet started, that's actually a lot less than I was hoping to use up in this time but oh well.

I also did some work on my Chroma scarf. Not sure that I will get this done before its too warm to wear but you never know!

Now back to the fun part, my new yarn! Here is the KP Felici Fingering weight, I actually ordered two more skeins of Rainbow but they got left out of my box (I can't blame them, this is so much yarn it came inside what amounted to a garbage back inside of a box) so those 2 are coming now. When I called Customer Service the woman that helped me said she thought I would have enough projects to work on until the 2 skeins showed up, LOL!!!

Here is the KP Felici Sport weight, I went a little extra crazy and got the 2010 colorways that were still in stock and on sale!

I also got some Aloft which is the new Mohair/Silk Knit Picks yarn and also some KP Shimmer because I don't have a lot of lace weight yarn!

And finally, on Raverly in the Knitpicks Lovers forum a lot of people volunteer to run what they call Co-ops where we pay a little bit of money to get small samples of different lines are yarn. In this case I got samples of all the Palette colors! A few months ago I participated in one for Wool of the Andes worsted Co-op and have also signed up for one for Aloft and Swish in all weights. It seems like so so much work for the people that so nicely offer to organize these, so thank you to them!

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts

Ahhhh Real Monsters! 

Ok sorry I'm a dork lol! But thanks to Tami I'm finally working on something other than my gray scarf! She suggested we both knit something from The Big Book of Knitted Monsters since we had it so I pulled out and book and picked Toothy Joe the Mailbox Monster because he seemed pretty easy. At first I had no idea what yarn to use and then it came to me. my TLC Essentials in Coraline! I had bought it to make some mittens and then decided against and never could think of anything to do with it, until now!

He doesn't look like much but hopefully by next Wednesday he'll look a little more monstery instead of blobby. To get the line of his mouth I had to bind off half of the stitches and now I'm trying to pick them back up again, but it is tight in there, ack!

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts!

Ok this is getting depressing, I'm still working on this scarf and it still looks the same. I should put it down for something more colorful but I can't seem to. I will say this mindless knitting in the round is great for when I get home and I don't feel like doing much. Next time I need to pick a color with some variation in it though!

Weekly Dose of Crafts!

How sad, I only have 1 thing to share this week, remember when I had tons and tons, well no more. :( I only worked on my lace scarf but I worked on it a lot over the weekend actually and during the entire airing of the Golden Globes on Sunday, I couldn't stop! But since it is lace it really didn't get very big ha! Hopefully you got more crafting done than I did!

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.

Weekly Dose of Crafts!

So sadly my crafting rampage is coming to an end, but for a good reason! I got a full time job! So I'll still be crafting but not to the extreme I once was.

The last week was all about scarves for me. I worked on three different ones, hopefully I will finish one soon so I can wear it to my new job!

I did a little more work on the Chroma scarf, I know for a fact the other colorways look great in this scarf because several other people on raverly had the same idea as me and are doing this scarf!

When my ball winder and swift came I had to start in on some projects that involved hanks of yarn, I had to get my wind on! This strange triangle shaped thing is actually the pattern A Little Ruffle.

Yarn used:

Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light 4284

I also started my first project in lace weight yarn. After a false start of another project I decided to make Melody's shawl. 

Yarn used:

Knit Picks Gloss Lace Yarn in Sterling

For more crafty goodness be sure to stop over at WIP Wednesday! And find me on Raverly as mint910.