I'm a looter...

I'm officially looting the Fabric Place as it closes. I feel bad but money is tight and 40% off is a good deal. I went for more Berocco Pure merino but that was gone. I ended up getting some really nice Classic Elite Duchess for these neckwarmers. It's a lovely cashmere and angora blends that I hope will work well. I'm going to try tonight, I need a short break from my Minimalist Cardigan. I hope the buttons I picked up work, they didn't have any larger ones left. Hopefully I'll have an FO to show soon!

Ravelry!!!

Yeay I got my invite today!!! I am known as katiekakes and am already putting stuff up. So excited!!! I have to drag myself away from the computer to actually do some knitting tonight. I have two sleeves left on the minimalist cardigan and have been making good progress on a gift for my Dad. Hopefully I won't spend all my time stashing projects online and not actually knitting :)

Progress Shots

My knitting companion helps display the progress shots of my minimalist cardigan. The back, right front and about half of the left front are done. I hope to make even more progress during Heroes tonight. And a better but puppy less shot:The three-needle bind off went well but made knitting the collar a bit annoying. Overall this is fun to make and I'm not sure I'll be able to give it away...

Thoughts on my new needles

I have to say overall I am very pleased with my Denise set. The cords are thick and the do keep a kink when taken out of the pack but it didn't interfere with my knitting at all. Today was quite warn and we had a lot of sun coming in through our living room window. My needles were sitting on the coffee table and when I picked up my knitting the warmth of the sun had softened them up and removed the kink. So I don't count that as a down side. I was concerned the plasticy feel might be a turn off but the needles are slick and actually feel quite nice, much less harsh feeling than metal needles. I've also not experience any snagging at the joints with any of the yarns I've tried out. I'm sure the knitpicks set is great but being able to use these needles to make hats and having more length options make this a great fit for my needs. I would highly recommend them to anyone. The donation to fight breast cancer is also terrific.

While dealing with the lady bug infestation (we caught 30 Friday night alone, no joke), and having family over today I did manage some knitting but no pictures yet. My hands were getting a bit tired so I decided to hop on the Internet and give them a rest, I'm flying through the minimalist cardigan. I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow.

I leave you with shots of Penny's favorite part of the weekend, our Saturday trip to the beach. I love the off season, no crowds and dogs are allowed.

Damn that was fast

Ordered on Friday night here by Monday. What a great surprise when I got home. I'm going to try them out tonight after I finish my homemade mac and cheese. mmmmmmmmmm cheeeeeese.

Finished Piece

I managed to finish up the back of my minimalist cardigan. I'm trying a three needle bind off for the shoulders so hopefully it works out right. One piece took about 2 weeks which isn't too bad. Penny seems to like this one.I like knitting this, very good for TV knitting. Since I didn't get an interchangeable needle set for my Birthday I used some amazon credit to order a Denise set. I'm really hoping I like it so I can save my Bday money for bills and put off getting the knitpicks options set. Hopefully it will arrive this week. I think I am going to knit exclusively off circulars, it's easier on my hands as sweaters can get pretty heavy. I tend to knit on the couch and the long straights aren't great for that. I'm off to enjoy the rest of this fabulous fall weekend.

Happy Birthday to me

I am fortunate to have people who love me enough to spoil me on my birthday. My knitting related gifts:

I'll let you guess which one was from my husband. The others were from my fantabulous sister.
Unfortunately I had to work today and the atmosphere isn't too great there these days. I plan on making up for my poor day with some leftover lasagna my mom made yesterday (she is the best cook EVER) and some knitting on my print o'the wave stole during Heroes. I figure on your birthday you are allowed to put aside the gift knitting and work on something for yourself :-)

The lasagna awaits...

Sick day

So I feel pretty icky today and decided to stay home. My husband was kind enough to give me the cold he picked up last week. But sick days are great for knitting, I cast on for the minimalist cardigan and joined the knit-a-long. I think I got a good amount accomplished.

I think this will be a fairly quick knit, I'm enjoying it so far. The ultra alpaca is a nice yarn to work with.

I've finished up a pair of fetchings, sorry for the crappy pic but Penny has no thumbs and can't help me take a picture.

These were knit in Berroco pure merino on size 6 dpns, a little over 2 balls. Should make a nice gift. Now back to the cardigan or another gift...?

I've been really bad...

My latest acquisitions from the Fabric Place store closing sale. To be fair they are for gifts and were 25% off. Stuff is pretty picked over there, all but the giant size addis are gone so I think this may have been my last stop there. Perhaps in a few weeks I may see if stuff is 50% off but I doubt there will be anything left. I have 4 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (love that stuff) and two black Berroco pure merino. The red is beautifully deeper than this picture and will be for the Minimalist Cardigan from the fall interweave knits. If it is done in time and I can bear to part with it the sweater will be a Christmas gift.

I had bought one skein of the black merino in a previous visit and thought it would make lovely fetchings. I was right but check out what happened when I weighed the yarn to see if I had enough for the second glove.

That's 27 grams without the thumb. I decided to soldier on and have an excuse to go back to the Fabric Place and get more. This is how far I am so far. I should finish tonight.

Just the top cable and thumbs to go. Good thing I went back today, I bought the last two skeins of black. The extra will go towards a hat I hope to design. Should be neat if it works. I just now realized I may not have enough ultra alpaca. Damn! I'm always one skein short. We'll see how it goes, I can always shorten the sleeves a bit. I wonder how much others have left over. I'll have to check the blogs and my gauge, maybe the knitting gods will smile down on me this once.