{Tons of Randomness}

I'm so glad that Blog-land has come back to life after the holidays. I missed you guys! I've sorta been going crazy without any school or work and all your guys' posts have been keeping me occupied. I check my blogger dashboard like 5 times a day. hehe! So thanks everyone!

Today's post is going to be extremely random because I have all these blog posts rolling around in my head and I figured I'd just mush 'em all in to one big long soliloquy. So here goes!

Knit Picks Harmony Needles: Review

There was a comment on my Christmas post that wanted me to review my new needles because she was thinking of buying some for herself. These needles are really fantastic and I totally love them! So far they haven't come apart at the join at all (once I use the key provided for tightening). They are super smooth wood, but not as smooth as metal, and they are SUPER pretty! The colours in the wood make me happy as I'm knitting miles of stockinette. hehe The cord is also really flexible, which I'm thinking will be a big help once I start knitting gloves and such using the Magic Loop method. Another thing that's great is that they are the pointiest needles I've ever knit with and it makes a huge difference. I'm very very happy with them!



All White Again:

Being that hubby and I have had our head in the sand for the last 5 days while he's been on break we hadn't looked at a weather report at all, so these 2 inches came as a huge surprise. hehe When I looked this morning, Weather people are calling for snow every night this week and negative temperatures in Fahrenheit!! It's gonna get cold here, people.

Another Christmas Gift:

I fell in love with this little clutch the moment I saw it, but couldn't justify buying it for myself. That's how it ended up on my Christmas list! It's from the etsy shop Ponder and Stitch. It's so perfect and girly! At first I was going to use it for a makeup bag, but couldn't stand the thought of getting makeup all over this beautiful vintage fabric and lace.


Instead it's holding some knitting notions! A small tape measure, my knitting gauge thingy, some stitch markers. Perfect! Now I carry it with me in my knitting bag! :D

How cute is that coordinating fabric inside??? Thanks Amy for being so awesome!!

Project My First Sweater Update:

I finished the back of the sweater last night and I'm pretty proud of myself. Three days I think it took me? It's the first time I've felt really comfortable doing the shaping around the waist of a piece like this. Before I sorta... made it up as I went. lol

See all the strings at the top? I'm pretty sure I messed up the neck shaping something terrible. It says to do neck shaping and arm hole shaping "At the same time" so I guess I was thinking you have to do them on the same row... but when you bind off the LAST five stitches in a row you end up with one lonely stitch on the end by itself. So.... am I binding off wrong? Or do I just do the neck shaping at the beginning of one row, finish that row, and do the arm hold shaping at the beginning of the next row? Because it doesn't SAY to do that, but I'm guessing it's one of those unwritten rules. lol

As soon as I'm finished writing this post I'll be casting on the front which means I'll be getting in to this! Very excited!


Alright, I'll end this one here and give you guys more randomness tomorrow including new projects that I'm thinking about starting and some MAJOR yarn I got from my Sister in Law!

{Big New Cast-Ons}

Climbing Vines Pullover

Yesterday I casted on for the Climbing Vines Pullover and I am so excited! It's assembled back, front and sleeves so I'll get my first lessons in seaming once the pieces are knit. It's going pretty fast so far, I have about 6 inches and have begun the decreases for the hips in the back - so far so good I think. I'm nervous about the size that I'm knitting though and I hope it's going to be okay! I'm knitting a 38 because when I measured the bust on a sweater I like it was 17" flat, meaning 34 bust all the way around, right? lol I know this one won't be as stretchy, so I hope it's going to be fine ... but I'm nervous!

I'm knitting it in this yarn that was gifted to me last month from my friend Hope:


It's Plymouth Encore yarn and so far I'm really enjoying it! I know most people wouldn't knit a sweater in something 75% Acrylic, but it's my first real sweater (not counting that previous disaster *shutter*) so I don't think I would trust some expensive wool or anything just yet!

Wish me luck!

{These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things}

I got so SO much cool stuff for Christmas, but the overall theme was definitely"knitting!"

There were:

three awesome knitting books: Stith 'n Bitch, The Knitter's Handy book of Patterns, and Knitting Without Tears from friends and Mr. Pie (I'll review any or all of these later if anyone is interested, or maybe even if you aren't. :P )


some really cool buttons made out of antlers from my mom:


Knit Picks knitting chart keeper:


Knit Picks blocking mats:


and... (drum roll please) Knit Picks Harmony Interchangeables!! YAY!!


I am one contented knitter!! :D I pretty much can't think of any other tools I'll need in my knitting career that I don't have now!

{My First Year as a Knitter}

In summary of all the cool stuff I've learned to do this year, here is a collage of some of the projects I'm most proud of, all completed in 2009 (with maybe a few more to be added in the next week. hehe).

I'm becoming obsessed with Collages in Picasa

As you can see, I sorta had a thing for hats this year. hehe I did my first lace scarf, and my first shawl, my first hat, my first fair isle, my first socks, and so so much more! 2009 will forever be known as my first real year as a knitter! I'm so proud of myself!

{Christmas Eve Crafting}

Has anyone else noticed how the whole design blogosphere has gone wild for burlap? It's everywhere! Just this morning I've seen it as pillows, chairs, bags, drapes, and valences to name a few! I'm on the hunt for good ways I can begin to use up the yards and yards of burlap I have left over from the wedding. Here was it's original purpose:


So consequently I have about 8 total yards of natural burlap cut in to 18" wide strips that I had the presence of mind to keep (unlike so many of my other crafting leftovers. GAH!)

I was inspired to make some valences for my front room, but I'll need curtain rods before I can do that. I had the itch this morning and needed to do some crafting that only required materials I had on hand!

Then I came across these simple napkin rings at maya*made and it got me to thinkin'. So I scrounged around to see what I had that could substitute for some of her materials. Here's some shots of my process:

Dang, burlap is really messy!

I'll do a tutorial if anyone is interested, but I think it's a pretty straight forward project.

Tools needed: glue gun, scissors, needle with a large eye
The materials I used: burlap, toilet paper roll, green ribbon, brown ribbon (for covering the seam), a small bead

Here's the finished look:


They add a pretty little detail to the dining room, for sure. It's not my favorite project of all time, but it kept me occupied for an hour or so. hehe :) If anyone has any awesome ideas for using burlap, I'm all ears! :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Eve with their families. I miss my family dearly this year and wish more than anything that Mr. Pie and I could be home this Christmas with them . It'll only be a couple more years until I move back to the west coast where they are, but that doesn't seem fast enough! I think this is my 9th Christmas in a row away from family... sigh... I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams. :)

{My First Shawl(ette)}

YAY! It's done and blocked and I love it - even though there are a million tiny little mistakes. I don't even care right now! I'm just so proud of it! :)



Finally, something for me! hehe I have bunch of stuff in the queue I think, but for tonight I'm probably just going to relax. Hope everyone is having a good Christmas Eve Eve. hehe

{My Home}

A ton of people out in the blogosphere have been giving tours of their homes all decorated for the Holidays. I'm particularly pleased with how our little rental looks this year, our 5th Christmas together and in this house.


It really did start out as just a house and I don't think either of us ever thought we'd be seeing our 5th Christmas here. Even though it's a rental, we have really made it our home.

It's not a very large house. In fact, you see straight from the front to the back! In the first photo you see the hallway, the living room and the dining room through the doors! Thank you to everyone else who shared images of their home for the inspiration to share mine! :)