A Little Something for Me

I got another quick project done before the onslaught of school! This one was done over the weekend and was super duper easy. Knitted on sport weight yarn and then size 11 needles, it was done in a flash!

Sunday Market Shawl

This project was a perfect fit for the yarn I hand dyed and had a chunk left over after knitting a Christmas Cowl. I would have liked for it to be longer, but this works fine, too. What do you think, maybe a shawl pin? :)

The Last of the Finished Hats

This is the last of the hats that I was knitting up for Christmas and it'll go out in the mail tomorrow! :)

Sutro Heights Hat

This was such a cool pattern and was super easy to read the chart. I must say, it almost stayed with me! It only took me a day to knit up though and I have enough of the yarn left that I can make one for myself later if I start to miss it. hehe I love how the lace pattern lines up with the ribbing! Hope the recipient will enjoy this one! :)

I have another finished project, this time a simple Sunday Market Shawl to use up the rest of my handdyed yarn that was going to be socks but was a pain in the butt. lol It's blocking now, so I'll show you pictures tomorrow!

School starts tomorrow again. *sigh* I'm so not ready for my week long vacation to be over. How the heck did it go so fast?? I only have two weeks of class left, though... then it's finals and I'm home free! It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks....

Free Yarn for Charity Knitting

EDIT: WOW you guys. I am totally overwhelmed with the amount of response I've received! Thank you so much to everyone who has come to me with very worthy causes and I'm so super excited that I'll get to help out! I've got about 9 emails since this blog post was put up, and I think I've got enough requests that all the yarn will be given away now! Thank you so much to everyone. I'll update this post again if it happens that I still have some left. :)

Sooooo.... I don't know what I did right, but yesterday I picked up MORE FREE YARN. A couple of friends went home for Thanksgiving and somehow the topic of my knitting came up. My friend's mom was super excited that I knit and offered me her stash! Get a load of this:

stash unloaded

and another view:


Yes, that's my dining room table that it's covering!!

Most of it seems to be 100% acrylic and I really don't have anywhere to store all this yarn, so I would like to offer this yarn up to anyone willing to knit for charity. Any charity at all. If you're willing to pay the shipping for the flat rate box then I'll ship as much as I can stuff in to it for ya. You could even pick your colours if you wanted!

Send me a message or leave me a comment with your zip code and whether you want a small or large flat rate box and I'll get you the shipping price. 'Tis the Season, right? :)

Find a Deal Friday... Black Friday Edition!

Ack! Too many sales to features them all! I'm just going to make a huge list I think. LOL

Saffron Dyeworks is offering 15% off everything in the Etsy store, mostly sock weight yarns including ones like this fun holiday colour mix:

440 Yards, fingering weight, Merino/Nylon, regular $23.95, 15% off

Yarn4Socks.com is giving 30% off everything, including yarn, needles, stitch markers, patterns, and Kits, (excluding closeout) through Saturday night.

Handpaints by Artsygirl has a large offering of handpainted yarns and rovings for 15-25% off. I can't find on her site when that one ends... huh... weird.

Eat.Sleep.Knit is doing something way fun. They guarantee that you'll get at least 10% off your order, but during checkout you could get a surprise of up to 100% off your order! Yes, that's free! hehe Worth a try, right? She carries all the big names like Lorna's Lace, Malabrigio, and Unique Sheep.

SunSet Fibers on etsy has everything marked down at least 15%, valid through friday at 10PM. For anyone who spins, her coloured top is amazing looking:

Hand Painted Corrigale top, 4 oz for $10

Julia's Yarn is new to me, but it looks like she's having a huge Black Friday blow out with some prices more than half off of yarn in bags of 10 or individually. Up to 74% off if you're willing to buy wholesale, meaning 140 skeins at once! That's a LOT of knitting! LOL Tons of other good deals too though, available through friday.

The Loopy Ewe is closed at their brick and mortar store, but is offering some good deals online. From their blog, "30% off all Cherry Tree Hill, Creatively Dyed, Indie Dyer, J. Knits, and Opal. You’ll also find 20% off all Earthly Hues, All Things Heather, Sknitches, Sugar Bunny Blvd, Noro and Schaefer. "

The Interweave Knits store is offering 20% off of all patterns purchased this weekend.

And of course, one of my favorite Etsy stores, Yarntopia, has such amazing prices, she belongs in with this Black Friday grouping. Her prices are AMAZING and her yarn is so so so beautiful!

300 Yards of sport weight cotton/linen, handpainted, $7

This Week's Progress

Howdy everyone! I have some exciting finished objects to show you! My Christmas knitting is quickly coming to a close with only small package adornments and stocking stuffers being completed now.

I did take a break from all that to cast on and complete Mr. Pie's long awaited bulky socks. My first completed pair of socks EVER! These were made from the latest recycled sweater and I certainly have enough for a couple more pairs of socks. I love how they turned out, but it's a super bulky wool and I knit them on size 7's so my hands were just aching after doing these for a bit. I think it took me a little longer because of that. They also don't have a lot of stretch in them which made it more like knitting cotton than knitting an acrylic/wool mix. I used up the rest of my Wool of the Andes Bulky for some contrasting toe action, and test dyed some of the cream recycled to see how well it would take colour, then used that swatch as the heel. hehe

Mr. Pie is very happy with them and has been wearing them every evening since they came off the needles. Yay! They were knit from the toe up on two circulars and I have to say, I'm totally and completely in love with this technique. ALL my socks will be knit like this from now on! I'm looking forward to diving in to more sock yarns and patterns now, too.

After those were done I cast on some more dishcloths for stocking stuffers and have these done so far, with only two more to go:


All other gifts for Canadian Family are wrapped and have either a little teddy bear ornament or a stocking ornament attached (sorry for the crappy photo, but it's dark outside this early! hehe) :



Here's a couple others that will go on packages to the other side of the family that aren't wrapped yet:


So I just have a piece of leather to attach to my Brother's gift (need to punch holes in the leather so I can sew it), finish two more dish clothes and then wrap Brother's gift and the package will be in the mail early next week! YAY!

New Yarn!

I can't count or express the number of times I've felt really truly blessed by my new knitting community friends, and when I got this package in the mail, it totally blew me away...


From the same lady, KnitaBit, who gave me my last batch of green fabulous yarn!! She was talking about how amazing this encore acrylic/wool mix is for doing wearable items like sweaters, or useful items like afghans, and she sent me some to let me try it out! Thank you so so so much!! I'm definitely planning on This sweater right here:


I can't wait to get started! I just have a few more christmas odds and ends I have to knit so I can get the package out to my family back home! I've also done a ton of knitting (and not so much homework *ahem!*) the past weekend because school is out for Thanksgiving, so tomorrow I'll show you more with that!

Also, don't forget to visit Blue Mountain Handcrafts and Beth 1818 during the weekend after thanksgiving and enter the code "Sarah's Blog" to receive free shipping on orders over $50! :) Enjoy!

Tomorrow I'll update you more on what I've been completing! :)

Find a Deal Friday!

And just in time for your Black Friday preparations right? Has everyone made their lists and checked them twice?

No? Well maybe I can help with a little FADF lovin'! I am so excited that Blue Mountain Handcrafts has agreed to be featured! Beth makes such beautiful yarns, stitch markers, bags, and needle cases.

Plus! A Student Knitter Exclusive!! Enter the code "Sarah's Blog"
in the message box at checkout during the sale dates of
November 27th,28th, & 29th,
and get free shipping on all orders over $50!!

Here are just a few of my favorites things in her shops:

NASTURTIUMS washable wool handspun and Navajo plyed
51 Yards Bulky, $9.00

Handspun Superwash Merino Yarn
133 yards Worsted, $19.00

MULLED WINE Handspun BFL Yarn
250 Yards Fingering, $35.00

Beautiful needle rolls:

$22.00

And project bags:

$29.00

Stitch markers recycled from broken vintage jewelry:

Set of 7, $6.00

AND THEN... the fun's not over! Beth also keeps an absolutely gorgeous vintage jewelry store on Etsy too called Beth1818 Vintage Costume and Fine Jewelry. She has some amazing pieces right now, and I'm not usually a big jewelry kinda gal, but check these out:

locket, $32.00

Brooch, $12.00

Bracelet, $39.00

She has given us who follow her blog a heads up! On Blackfriday she'll be
having a 25% off sale at her Jewelry store AND at her knitting store she is
having a giveaway for your choice of one of those amazing project bags!
Every purchase over $25 gets your name in for the drawing.

Only a week until I can start decorating my house my Christmas and I'm really excited! Enjoy your shopping everyone!