Archives for category: Knitting
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*NOT* Rhinebeck

October 21, 2007 //
4

I couldn’t resist the title, because I’m sure in the next day or so, there will be many blog posts title Rhinebeck, aka NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, as many of my fellow knitters had gone to.

Instead, I went to leadership training on Saturday AM, and then right after, David and I drove to my cousin Tracy’s in NJ for a Haunted Luau:


When the racer meets the pirate
The hosts – Tracy and Jason


Me, Tracy, and Paul – this one is for the fam

Of course, what else would I be doing while I’m sitting down in a party:


Knitting! Secret of the Stole!! And watching the Red Sox kicking the crap out of Indians!

And here is the progress of Secret of the Stole:

This stole has two points to start and the direction had asked to start them simultaneously using the same ball of yarn, however, I can just see the disaster. So inspired by Costumchick, I also cast on only the left point, and will be breaking the yarn and make the right side soon. Maybe during tonight’s ALCS Game 7. GO RED SOX!!! Oh yeah… Check out the new addition of the house!!

Like I said, I couldn’t leave the TV home when it was only $1099.99 for this 42″ LG TV!!!

We left Tracy’s after game 6 was over (which was about midnight) and got home around 2am. I took a nap, woke up at 6am, and picked up Karen at 7am and set out to Farmhouse Yarn Sale. If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ve known that I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the yarn I bought from Farmhouse awhile ago. And you would’ve also known that Carol had very promptly emailed me back and give me $50 credit towards new purchases of yarn. So there we were, walking into the front yard at 8:01 am (they open at 8am!!). We were the first one there and none of the bins were opened yet!!!

It was cold to start the day, but it warmed up with the beautiful sunshine:


Casey and Erica, the two very helpful ladies – Carol wasn’t there today

Supposedly this is the last sale Carol is going to have, and everything else goes to the new yarn store, Connecticut Yarn and Wool, about 10 mins away from her house. So she has this deal about fill 1 bag for $159 and fill 2 bags for $189. Now, who in their right mind would just fill 1 bag when you can fill 2 bags for almost half of the price? (not me) We were there so early and didn’t have to fight with others to look at the bins, I was done in record of 90 mins!!! (Karen was way done and waiting for me! I’m a slow shopper) And here is the loot:

The loot!!! And Mick trying to get into the picture on the right!!! :)


The loot: Andy’s Merino (L to R, T to B) in Wine Rose (2 skeins), Turkey Red (3 skeins), Watermelon (2 skeins), Lavender (7 skeins), Cranberry 3-ply (9 skeins) and Sunflower (10 skeins). The top right is Silk Blend in Spiced Pumpkin (5 skeins), on the top step are 9 free doily patterns and 1 ball of cotton crochet thread for my future blocking use.

Yes, I filled the two bags with 38 skeins of yarn. I also had some leftover credits from testing knitting for Carol awhile ago, so the two bags really didn’t cost me anything! AND they didn’t take the giant sweater skein of yarn back, so I might just finish the HRB:

HRB in its the current stage

And I ordered some Denise long cords for this project as well and it came Saturday:

I’m thinking of keeping the pretty giant sweater skein for future center piece, maybe have some needles stick into it to make it a focal point in my future craft room.

I came home from Farmhouse and crashed on the couch, after all the photographs, of course! I have to say that was a lot of activity/traveling in very short amount of time! Well, now that I am re-energized, I’ll be up knitting and cheering for the Red Sox.

GO RED SOX!!!

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Categories Family, Knitting

When you have no intention of buying…

October 19, 2007 //
3

… that’s when you make the purchase!

We went into Sears for this, we found it, but we also came home with this! I mean how can you not with that price!!!!

Well, we didn’t get it from Sears because they ran out, but we went to Circuit City and they price matched it! We didn’t have the truck with us so we are picking it up tomorrow morning :)

We also went costume shopping for my cousin’s party tomorrow. You’ll have to wait and see what I’m gonna be :)

Update on the Hemlock Ring Blanket – I contacted Carol from Farmhouse Yarn last night, and she immediately emailed me back and ask me to return the skein to exchange it. Well, the thing is, my HRB was 60% done so now the half way through HRB will go back to Carol, along with the unused yarn, and I’ll be getting a new sweater skein, or maybe few different regular skeins that results to 50 dollars worth of yarn. ::sigh:: At least I get new yarn, and don’t have to deal with the frustration anymore. I’m sad though because I really like the colorway and how the blanket turns out so far. Maybe she will have something similar in color at her sale.

Well, I guess I should start the Secret of the Stole…

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Categories good finds, Knitting

Frustrated

October 16, 2007 //
1

Argh.

Red Sox lost another game.

The yarn I’m using for Hemlock Ring Blanket is sucking at the moment – it’s not tightly spun so it kept falling apart, aka loosing stitches!!!

Not cool, not cool at all.

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Categories Knitting

Hemlock Ring Blanket

October 10, 2007 //
0

So after much of joining (KALs), I am finally starting the Hemlock Ring Blanket today at SnB. I decided to use the sweater skein in varigated red and pink yarn from Farmhouse Yarns – I got it from my first ever sale event there. It is a very pretty color, but I can’t tell you what it is. Also, I don’t see the sweater skeins on her website so I can’t even tell you which yarn it is. So far it is knitting up beautifully and the yarn is very easy to work with.

I am on row 7, so there really isn’t anything to show yet… Maybe tomorrow…

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Categories Knitting

Dad’s Vest #2

October 8, 2007 //
2

Finally finished! This one took me awhile because I was also busy doing MS3. So without further ado:


Dad’s Vest #2

Pattern – My own with sizing from Petrol, size small
Yarn Used – 6.5 skein of Reynolds Odyssey
Needles – Denise size 7 for ribs, size 8 for body
Gauge – 8 sts per inch
Knit – September 06, 2007 to October 08, 2007
Modifications – None

This is a very easy knit. I was too lazy to calculate all the numbers so I just used Petrol’s sizing. When I knitted Petrol, I used the medium sizing but my gauge is different than called for so it worked out smaller than it says. My dad is a little shorter than my brother so the vest should be okay length-wise.

So now that both FO are finished, I am able to cast on something else now. I think my next project would be the Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood. There is a KAL on this, click here if you are not on Ravelry, if you are, queue it here.

Speaking of KAL, I joined the Mystic Water KAL, thanks to CostumChick!! Yeah, I know, I have problems.

Switch gear to some wedding stuff – on the way to the gym, David stopped into Walgreens for a bottle of water, and he immediately called once he stepped in, “honey, turn the car off and come inside.” Okay… maybe he forgot money… I walked in, there they are, lots of autumn decorations for $0.99 and $1.99… We came home with these:

15 metal leaves candle holders for $1.99 each and 4 ceramic maple leave candle holders for $0.99 each! And some Apple Cider tealights

The reason we only got 4 of the ceramic ones is because they ran out. We went to 3 other Walgreens on and off the way home but no one had it… :( I’m so sad now. So if you see them in your local Walgreens, please let me know!

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Categories Knitting, wedding

An Afternoon of Yarn

October 6, 2007 //
6

Anyone who knows me knows I can’t pass up a sale. So today after my training for Primerica, I went to Yarn Garden and met up with Anphoe there. The funny thing is, following me into the store immediately wasn’t Anphoe, but it was costumchick! Speaking costumchick, she was mean and “made” me join yet another KAL. Go check it out and sign up!!

Anyways, so Yarn Garden had everything 40% off! EVERYTHING! When Denise hold a sale, she has a real sale! Here is what I got from the few hours of shopping:


A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swason, Knitting on the Edge by Nicky Epstein, Noni Lattice Bag pattern and Sustermann Step (mit Aloe Vera und Jojoba Öl – with Aloe Vera and Jojoba Oil)

I also got my friends some sock yarns and Christmas secret pal a pattern and some yarn and accessory, but I don’t want to show it, in case they read my blog (in fact, I know they do). I’ll reveal once the package is sent.

Afterwards, Anphoe and I went to Panera Bread to have some lunch and wind the lace yarn we got awhile ago. I actually bought a digital scale at LnT for pretty cheap for this purpose as well:


All the yarn!!


See the scale?

Anphoe and I had loads of fun! Now only if both of us knew that we were gonna join the Mystic Waters KAL, we would have also gotten some blue lace… Blue lace, anyone? anyone? Com’on costumechick!
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Categories exchange, friends, good finds, Knitting

09.20.08

September 23, 2007 //
1

A year from yesterday would be our big day.

David and I took Friday off (swapped with another holiday) and drove up to 1000 Islands to check out the weather, and also sign some contracts to finalize the wedding – just the big picture, no details yet. We actually drove up Thursday night, stopped and see Grandma Nancy on the way and got there at midnight. We stayed at Sir Robert Peel Motel – it was very clean and inexpensive, although the beds are a little hard. If you ever want to go up there and visit (well worth your time, I promise), this would be a good place to stay. Actually, when you call up for the reservation, you can pick rooms that come with a mini fridge and microwave if you are staying longer. In the back of the motel, there is actually a huge back yard with picnic tables and grills so you can actually have a BBQ.

Friday morning, we got up and met up with Terri from Happily Ever After to finalize some of the contracts. I have to say that I was very biased from the website at the beginning, but after meeting with Terri, all my doubts went away – website isn’t EVERYTHING! We had booked Terri for the flower and chairs/tents rental (she’s a florist by trade) when we went up back in July, so this time, we booked the harpist, DJ, define how many chairs/tents we need, officiant, and photographer. We are using John Wayne Photographix – again, website isn’t everything! We actually turned him down when we first saw his website, but after seeing some of his work in real life at Terri’s, we decided to meet with him and chat – he really fit the style we are looking for and we are very excited to say that we are glad to have him as our photographer. He is actually redoing his website so hopefully he doesn’t lose too much of business base on his website.

We went into town after the appointment and just walked around for a little while, and then we drove to the Wellesley Island State Park to check out the lighting of the ceremony spot – we are quite pleased with the whole thing.

The area we are having the ceremony is actually closed, hence that we would be able to have the ceremony there. We picked the location on where we usually camped so it is more meaningful to both of us.

We left the park went directly to the Joey’s at the Thousand Islands Yacht Club for dinner. We are thinking of having the rehearsal dinner there so we want to try out their food first. On the way there though, we found this:

We bought these to go with the Drive-In for later:

We got to the restaurant just when they opened and was seated immediately. David and I ordered these, and they were delicious!


Salmon with Mustard glaze in Honey Butter sauce


Pork Chop in Honey Butter sauce

We spoke to Rick, the owner, and set up the logistic of things and then left with full stomach. We went directly to the Drive In as it got dark very quickly after the dinner. We went and saw Super Bad, lets just say it is super bad…

Saturday was pretty relaxing. We woke up late and didn’t leave the motel till 11am. We went to the Thousand Islands Winery first and tasted some wines. They are actually a very new winery and have quite a few sweet wines. I came home with two 375ml bottles:


St. Lawrence Red and Seaway Blues

We went into town and walked around some more, including Treasure Islands – where we got my engagement ring, David’s wedding ring, and they are currently making my wedding bands. This time, I actually brought up the pearls my mom gave me to have them make earrings to match. I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

We then went on the Twilight cruise by Uncle Sam’s – the castle was absolutely beautiful under the twilight -

After the cruise, we grabbed some dinner and went to bed early to get ready for the ride the next day.

We woke up pretty early today and left the town around 10am. We decided to stop at Grandma Nancy’s again since we don’t really get to see her all that often. On the way to grandma’s, there is an Indian Casino with gas stations – we stopped and got gas, and decided to live a little and gamble. We took out 80 bucks and told us that would be the only money we play. David started it with Let It Ride, it was a very cool game, but we only won one hand. I then spotted something named Keno – it’s kinda like bingo, but don’t have to be in order. It was pretty cheap to play so both of us played 10 dollars worth of games (5 games). The first couple of games, I got either too many matches or not enough. I wasn’t too happy about it but it was only 4 dollars worth of entertainment so far so there wasn’t much to complaint about. Before the 3rd game started, David said, “Watch, this is the game you are gonna win like 100 bucks!” I laughed and said “Yeah, right, I NEVER win anything!” Lo and behold…

My card

The numbers called

I have 9 numbers matched! I didn’t even realize what it really means, I actually just told David “oh, I got 9″, and David flipped the pamphlet and yelled – You won 150 bucks!!!! WHAT? We counted again, and sure enough, I won $150! I was so excited I could careless for the rest of the games! I won total of $152, and David won $6, along with $10 he won from Let It Ride, we were up 100 bucks!!! We left pretty happy :)

When we got to Grandma’s, uncle Dave and Leslie were there helping grandma changing the cabinets face – they looked really nice! I keep asking when is uncle Dave coming to see us instead :)

We got home around 7:30 and I worked on MS3 on the way home today. Yes, you read it right, I knitted lace stole with beading in a car – I know, not the smartest thing to do, but I only screwed it up once! I am three rows from finishing the whole thing and blocking! I can’t wait. No picture of it just now, hopefully tomorrow :)

So did you have a nice, relaxing weekend?

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Categories Knitting, Travel, wedding

As Seen On TV

September 16, 2007 //
5

Ever seen an infomercial? Ever want to try the product but don’t want to risk your money and the hassle of buying it online or order via the phone? Yeah, me too.

One day few weeks ago, David and I were watching TV and one of the infomercial was on for some slicer thing for vegetables. I was busy knitting so I didn’t pay attention. All of the sudden, David said, “Hun, did you see that?” Of course, we rewound it and I was actually bored with it. I said, “yeah, it looks cool, but does it really work? Plus they have similar stuff from the kitchen stores, we don’t have to buy it from infomercial and it would be easier to return it if we don’t like it.” David then said, “Just keep watching!” hmmm… okay… a minute later – “OH MY GOD, I WANT THAT THING!” And that thing would the the “free gift” for the slicer – Tater Mitts!!! Yeah, it looked SO COOL! But of course, I wasn’t gonna order it just to get the tater mitts, I figure I can probably find it at an ASOT store at the mall, if I remember then I will buy one.

Thursday night, David and I went to Target to find something and there it is, sitting on the shelf, Tater Mitts!!!! Of course, I came home with one:

So needless to say, I tried it out tonight.

The Claim: Peel a potato without getting your hands wet in 8 seconds.

The Start:

30 seconds later:

Apparently, my hands are way too small for the gloves and they are not snuggly fit to them and make it hard to peel. So I have David took over and try it:

The Verdict: The claim of 8 seconds a potato is not true – unless they use a super small potato! Even David took at least a minute to peel it. But it does peel very clean and thin, so the thinly peel part of the claim is true. The water does kinda spell onto your shirt if you are not careful. Overall I give it a 3 and half stars out of 5! It is safer so you don’t get cut by the peeler – alright, maybe not everyone is as clumsy as me, but for me it is safer.

We tried out the fries cutter as well, it works very well but hard to press to begin with. It is very uniformly cut once it does go through. So the free gift gets a 3 and half stars as well.

I think I will keep it for now. We definitely had a good laugh playing with it.

On the knitting front, I am working feverishly on MS3. I am on Clue 6 (chart I) one third of it done. I am really hoping that I can finish it by next week as Secret of the Stole is starting pretty soon. I am way behind on Hanami, and I haven’t started Hemlock Ring Blanket either, or the Autumn Rose… yes, I am very behind. Granted, I don’t have the yarn for the two lace stoles, but I do have the yarn for Hemlock Ring and Autumn Rose, however, I promised myself that I will finish MS3 first, only then, I can cast on a new project.

Now, I am not just behind on knitting, I am even behind on my swapping! For Football-a-long, I joined the swap (it’s not a secret swap) and was assigned a swapee – Robin from The Knittin’ Coop! She’s got an awesome blog and just had two new additions to the family, so go check it out! Anyways, so I emailed Robin and explained to her that I had a late start and she was very understanding of the whole thing. I will be sending her some awesome stuff her way very soon – all football related. Hopefully she’ll like it!

Well, that’s all there is to it. Time to get back to MS3 and football and baseball – Go Patriots and Red Sox! For giggles, I leave you these:

Found you!
  • You signed up on July 27, 2007
  • You are #21089 on the list.
  • 7610 people are ahead of you in line.
  • 12103 people are behind you in line.
  • 40% of the list has been invited so far

David and Vanilla


My two white dogs – all 185 lbs

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Categories Knitting, random

Labor Day Weekend

September 3, 2007 //
4

My labor weekend was lazy and busy at the same time. How? you asked. Well, I guess I felt like I was lazy and didn’t do anything, but when in fact, we did a lot.

David and I went to the mall Friday after work. We haven’t gone for so long and a lot had changed. I actually picked up this book while I was there. Yup! I want to at least learn what’s in my garden and how I can plant some of my favorite flowers.

Saturday morning I went to Primerica training and when I got home, David and I drove to Mom’s to have a BBQ, and met up with our friend Tanya. I of course, forgot my camera and didn’t take any pictures while we were there! We got home around 10pm and I stayed up and finished reading “The Sisterhood of Dropped Stitches” (I got the book via PaperBackSwap, see sidebar). It was a very easy read and it was only slightly knitting related, and there were no patterns of any kind in the book, but it reminds me the Stitch n Bitch group I go to. I remember the first Wednesday meeting – I was a newbe at knitting and I didn’t understand anything people were talking about! Slowly, people clued me in on the yarn, the pattern, the names, the techniques… I think without my “sisters”, I wouldn’t have grown so fond of knitting, and be able plunged into any pattern I want, and of course, have my large yarn stash. I can feel free to express what was in my thoughts when I go there and I can always count on a good laugh. Recently, one of the ladies that attend had some personal trouble, so we moved the meeting to her house. Even though I wasn’t as close to her as the others were (we have a big group), I can feel that she appreciated us being there, and that it was good that we were there. Although I can’t ease her pain, but I know I will be there when she needs me.

Sunday was a late start at 10am. David and I went to the Mark Twain Library book sale first. I went last year on a Saturday, and this year, I went to the half price day. On the way there, we stopped at a nursery that had mums for “5 for $12.95″. I picked up these:

Aren’t they beautiful? They are not full bloom yet and from my handy dandy new book, it says that I shouldn’t plant them now until the Spring, so now they are just sitting in the front lawn waiting for the good weather to be gone and be moved inside.

We headed to the sale after the brief stop and we must spent over 3 hours there. Here is the haul:

All that for grand total of… you ready?… $22.25!!!!!!! You can’t beat the price! Among the books, I came home with these:

Needless to say, we left happy. A lot of the books are replacing my paperbacks and the paperback will be listed on the swap for other books that I want and didn’t find at the book sale.

After the book sale, we stopped at Costco and Trader Joe’s to get some much needed shopping done, and got home with a car full of flowers, books, and food.

And while we were doing all these driving, I had finished Petrol -

Pattern – Petrol by Carol Sulcoski on Knitty.com
Yarn Called For – 5 Skeins Manos del Uruguay in #27 and 1 Skein Manos del Uruguay in #64
Yarn Used – 6 Balls Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK in #26011
Needles – Denise size 7 and 8
Gauge – 4.5 sts per inch
Knit – August 18, 2007 to September 02, 2007
Modifications – added 2×2 ribs for two inches at the waist, use only single color

This was a very quick knit – instead of the purling rib, it has garter rib. It was different enough to keep me awake but not too complicated so I can knit it during a movie. This is one of the vests I am making for my dad. So now, one down, one more to go. The next one will probably be in a regular plain vest since the yarn is heather and dark and wouldn’t show too much of stitch definition.

After we got home, we sat around and be bums for a few hours, until the heat has gone down a little, and we went to our old house and cleaned out the garage, so we can put one of rare car that David is collecting into the garage. So now, we actually have ONE car in one of our garages!!! Well, the race car is also in the garage too. I think I’m just too happy to actually cleaned out the garage from our move – we ONLY moved about 6 months ago… yeah…

When we got home, we grabbed some quick dinner, and I was going through my blog subscription via Google reader (I love that thing! I don’t have to sign up separate account at bloglines or anything! And it integrates into my google homepage, which I can read the posts via google homepage) and saw Brooklyntweed‘s post about his Hemlock Ring Blanket and that there is a KAL started for it. Okay, yes, I joined it. Go ahead, say I am crazy, nuts, or whatever have you. But to my defense, I already had the yarn in mind and printed out the pattern when he first post about it! I would have started the KAL if I didn’t already host the Autumn Rose!

Monday morning I got up early (well, 8am IS early when I don’t have to go to work!) and went to meet up with the Team Lead of CLCC (Collegiate Leadership Coaching Committee) for SWE business. I am part of the team and we had to get the budget set up and figure out what we are doing for the fiscal year. It was a lot of fun meeting up with her, especially we haven’t seen each other for 6 months.

When I got home, I decided that I should continue to be a bum for the rest of the weekend – lots of people relaxed and did nothing during 3 day weekends! So that’s what I did – I watched CSI marathon on SPIKE and knitted MS3 – yes, I am finally going back to it. But with the whole afternoon and evening, besides the one and a half hours of making pizza, I only knitted 36 rows!!!! Well, I think I spent about half an hour just trying to figure what went wrong – missing stitches! Luckily I figured it out after only tinking back one full row (missed a YO and also dropped a stitch – good thing I use merino so it didn’t ladder down). So I am almost finished with chart E – maybe by Wednesday I will have chart E completed.

So now, it is time for this bum to go to bed – even though work has tomorrow off (floating holiday), I decided to work tomorrow so I can take another day off when we go up to 1000 Islands in a few weeks.

What did YOU do for your holiday weekend?

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Categories Family, Knitting, Reading, SWE

I am Such a Joiner Today… Again

August 27, 2007 //
2

So to continue the topic from the last time, here is the status update on Ravelry:

Found you!
  • You signed up on July 27, 2007
  • You are #21089 on the list.
  • 10497 people are ahead of you in line.
  • 8118 people are behind you in line.
  • 35% of the list has been invited so far

3400 people had gotten their invitations since July 27th. Wow.

So this time, I joined Secret of the Stole AND Christmas Around the World Knitter Swap. Well, I’m not sure I’m accepted to the swap yet, but definitely Secret of the Stole. So now I just need my lace weight yarn order… Sunflowerfiary~

I also joined Football-a-long since Friday, however, I missed the Fantasy team sign up :( That’s okay though, I’m sure I have plenty things going on by the time football starts.

On top of all the things I joined, I started Autumn Rose KAL with Sneaksleep, and I still need to knit my Dad the second vest (the first one is almost done), and my wedding stole yet need to be knitted, and MS3 is incomplete, and… you got the idea. As editorgrrl put it, “This is so out of her boundary!!!”

My name is jennsquared and I am a Knit-aholic.

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Categories Knitting
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