Ahh... im finally regular

Last night I joined some of the SnBers at the Point. I was working on the "sock that never ends" aka my 2 pairs of commissioned socks from my coworker. Jewell and I chatted and drank lovely caffeinated drinks.



I've also been working on some shawl pins for the fair. Here are some of the non fabric ones.



The photos aren't all that great since I've been taking pics with my phone. Over the weekend, I will retake with a better camera.

Turkey and Wool

Thanksgiving weekend passed in a flash. I watched the Macy's parade.


Then I went to Allen's uncle's house for a Chinese dinner. There was noodles, roast pork, and all sorts of Asian delights. After our bellies were filled, the turkey came out of the oven... uhhh. As you can guess, that family had a lot of turkey sandwiches the week after.

I came off the elevators this morning at work to be greeted by this:


That's right boys and girls! It's craft fair time! Very exciting moment. I've become a knitting machine at home and on the train. Knits, purls, k2togs, ssks - all blending in a flurry of yarn and needles.

BTW, my friend Oli lent me "Middlesex" last week. It is a very good read. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for an above par book.

More updates soon, I promise.

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz....

Boy oh boy. I bore myself with my slow rate of updates here. I apologize. I've been buried in knitting, holidays, and work. I am promising myself that I will post a blog with lovely photos soon. But for now - I must knit on for the fair!

Bev the busy bee

Well, it's offical. I'm a copywriter. A scary but pleasurable concept. I'm enjoying my time at work and in such have completely neglected my blog. Ack!

I missed Rhineback (Sheep & Wool Festival for all you non wool lovers). I regret not going but just couldnt afford going mad on fiber. I promised that I would not disappoint myself next fall. This does not mean that I have forgotten my needles! I have been working on a bunch of stuff. Here is just some of my many projects.


This is my plan for thrummed mittens (not exactly the pair I'm making but you get the gist) I am excited to get started but not until I finish all the goodies for my company's craft fair!

You heard right, I am going to sell my knitted and handmade yummies at a craft fair. Very excited and started knitting right away.


Lovely merino/wool hat. (w/optional hat pin yet to be created)


Some beaded stitch markers. I haven't decided if I want to sell these yet. They might just be too cute to give up.

You all must be wondering about my trip (and if you're not just pretend you are to placate me). It was fabulous. Lots of sun, shopping and solace. Here are some photos if anyone is interested. Cruise Photos

And now I'm off to bed.

So what do you do when your dreams come true?

BIG NEWS!!

I just accepted a copywriting job at a top 5 worldwide ad agency!! Im so stoked to start. I gave my two week notice. After the two weeks is up, I'm going on my trip and then I start the day after I come back. Crazy isn't it?!

For the past 24 hours, I've been pinching myself just incase im still asleep.

On the wooly front, I went to the Point's Gold Club Member (Gold Club = I spend wayyyy too much money there) breakfast. I had a great time. Of course I couln't get myself up at the asscrack of dawn so I was about 45 mins late. But I did win a door prize. (Mine is the same print as the photo in the middle of the page with the bag open from top view.) I chatted with Karen and ate some yummy apicot scones.

I had Bday dinner with Eric/baba this weekend! It was so much fun to see Charlie and Oli again. We went here. The food was very good. I'll post photos when I get a chance to get them off my camera.

Anyhoo, thats all for now. I'm trying to get in some knit time!

Adventures of The Queen

I decided to try my hand at dying my own sock yarn. I LOVE IT! I've only done one colorway but I do think I'm hooked. Here is a photo story of the process:


Here is 4 hanks of self striping yarn ready to be dyed.


Here they are drying after being washed.


Here is the yarn driving me bonkers as I try to do a "reverse hank" on the winder.

May I present to you...The Queen colorway01!!

It's black, dark grey, and dark cherry red. The black and grey are very close in color but definately different.



When I finish winding the rest of them, I will be selling 2 hanks (enough for 1 pair of socks). If you're interested, let me know. These are self striping hanks. The next couple of hanks I dye will most likely be varigated, so if you like self striping; pick em up now!


SUBAR (Socked Up Beyond All Recognition)
The Queen colorway01_SS
Merino/Acrylic blend
~185 yards per hank
~50 grams
2 available
$10 each plus $4 S&H

Ok. Off to bed. Rest in peace for all the 9/11 victims.

This(be)... a tale of alluring beauty

May I present to you, the first born lovely of the kingdom of Knittini ... Thisbe.



This bi-color yumminess is named after Greece's Juliet. A hit of romance and undeniably touchable. The lace and deep V neck show glimpses of unknown as did the crack in the wall for Thisbe.

I've created this garment out of Misti Alpaca for the ribbing and Reynolds Rapture for the lace and the bust/back. I'm about half way there and will keep you updated when I have progressed some more.

In less than 30 days, I will be on a ship to the Carribean! There will be two formal nights aboard the ship and since I am as casual as they come, I haven't got a thing to wear! This is, until this weekend - I found the cutest dress Saturday at Macy's and found the perfect matching shoes at DSW today!



To make things even more perfect, my clappy will give the outfit its finishing touch! More photos when I return from my trip.



Unfortunately, my camera ran out of juice before I could capture a non fuzzy close up of it. So this will have to do. The color is pretty close but it does have a little more glitz in person.

DSW was having a HUGE clearance sale. (30% off of 20 - 50% off of already reduced prices!!!!!!!!) I thought I was going to be in that store forever. Thank god I had Allen there to tell me what not to buy. So I made out with only two pairs, the one above and these.



Very cute and can definitely be worn in the fall with a cute pair of socks or some stockings.

Well, I'm off to continue working on Thisbe. TaTa!

Why Fall ROCKS!!

I only have one thing to say and the rest I'll leave to photos...OMG!!!















I think I might have to put my yarn diet on hold. *swoons*

FOs...not to be mistaken for UFOs

Ahhh... a moment to myself.

Well in the recent days I've accomplished a miracle number of FO's (Finished Objects to you non knitters).

There was the Clapotis, a drop stitch wrap of sorts. I made mine out of Blue Heron Rayon Metallic. It a really pretty shade of light blue, sage, and sand with a sprinkle of gold metallic. I'll post a close up next time.



Then in lighting speed (3 days), I finished a knitted cable bag. I remade this bag.. It's all the rage this fall, or so I've seen in fashion magazines.




Here is how the lining looks. I even added a pocket!



And the last but most amazing miracle, I finished the second sock to my Interweave Knit's Embossed Leaves sock!




I conquered second sock syndrome! And just so I dont ever get it again - I've started my next pair together on one very long circular needle. I'm making the Unst from this book.



I got this luscious yarn at School Products for only 4 bucks a hank!

Notice the grass?

YUP! Allen and I went to Central Park yesterday. It was nice. I wish it hadn't been so crowded but we had fun none the less. To make the day even better - Allen recieved a buy one get on free chocolate milkshake coupon in the mail the day before!!







I bought some yummies to hold us down on the grass.



As we were leaving, we headed into Barnes & Noble and I saw this:



It just made me laugh and think of my Hope when she is waiting for food.

All right - off to knit some more. See yall next month!

I dream of Yarnie

Brief blog about my complete and utter obsession over yarn. Suss Designs is closing their store in NY. I'm going to miss that place. It was different from every other yarn store in NY. It was big and roomy. It had lots of natural light. It was very natural. It felt like walking into a organic spa... except with yarn.





Now for the obsessive part. They are having a 50 - 70% off sale on EVERYTHING in the store. Right down to the baskets that hold the yarn!



I made out like a bandit.



Most of that is for intended projects. I had no choice but to shop with purpose. It was the only way to keep my purchases down to a respectable level. I did by some strays but I managed to keep them to a minimum.





Beautiful green combed cotton





Alpaca tweed in beige and taupe





Acrylic wool in pinks and greens





Extrafine merino in antique orange





Cream wool



And I couldnt resist these that I have been eyeing since they came into the store a few weeks ago!



I believe that I could regurgitate yarn now. Excuse me while I fondle my new fibers...

Pride, Pincushions, Pups, Pouches, and Pyrotechnics....

Oh joy, a free day to blog! It's going to be another photo heavy blog so bear with me. First off... PRIDE!!! I finally got to see everyone again, especially Charlie. I missed him so much , I was sobbing when I saw him.



That's him in the pink with Eric.

We watched the parade on the street.



That's me standing on a tree stump to see over other people's heads.

Then we move up to a rooftop, where we had beers and fucked around.



That's the view of the parade from the roof.

It was kinda raining that day and the sky was gray but rainbows were flying everywhere and that is what made the day!

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Rebecca made this cute little pincushion and I thought I'd try it out. I decided to make mine a kitty.



I gifted it to my mom. She said she has a million pincushions but she loved mine anyways.

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My little baby Hope was at the dog run a few days ago and here she is wet from the pool and waiting for Allen to throw the ball.




She is just the cutest thing ever!

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When I was at the Renegade Craft fair, I picked up some fabric. Then I went to P&S and got some felt and zippers and made this:




It was fairly easy to make but I did make some mistakes. You can do this all by hand if you want but it will go a lot faster by machine. Here's how I did it:

Materials:
1/4 yard of any 2 cotton or cotton blend fabrics
1/4 yard of batting (usually any scraps you have around should do the trick)
contrast thread (poly/cotton is best)
1 separating zipper (usually 6 or 8 inches is best unless you want a very large pouch)
2 different colors of contrasting felt (colors that will stand out from your outer fabric)
pins, scissors or rotary cutter


Start by measuring your zipper. You want to cut your outer, inner fabrics, and your batting about an inch longer than your zipper on both sides for seam allowance. That will be your width. For your height, decide how tall you want your pouch, times that number by 2, and add 2 inches for seam allowance.

Ex. Your zipper is 8 inches and you want a 5 inch height.
You will cut your materials at 10 inches (8 + 1 + 1) across and 12 inches (5 x 2 + 2) down.

You want to cut everything at a right angle or else you wont have a even pouch.

When you are done with that, put it aside and take out your felt. I put in a lolly pop but you can use anything you want. You want to choose something that would be easy to cut out and easy to sew down. Ex. Hearts, Stars, Poka Dots, etc. Make sure you cut out the felt to the size of your finished pouch or else you could end up having to sew or fold over your design.

First sew the felt pieces onto the outer fabric. If your designs are small, it might be easier to hand sew them on. After that, it's time to sew your fabrics together. Pin outer and inner fabrics wrong sides together with the batting in the middle. Now sew down heightwise every 1/2 an inch. When you get to the part where your felt is, Its up to you whether you want to sew over the design or stop and start after the felt.

Cut any loose thread hanging off and you're half way there! Fold over top of the piece and pin one side of the zipper on. (Usually it's easier if you unzip it and only pin on side) Now sew the zipper on. You want to start with the side that the zipper head isn't on or you might get stuck. When you do get to the head of the zipper, you might have to manually turn the machine's gears to sew up the rest.

Now fold it in half down the center horizontally. Mark off where your zipper starts and stops on the side without the zipper. Fold over the edge and pin the othe side of the zipper on in the right spots. You want to make sure you pinned it with the ends of the zipper matching or you could end up with a pouch you cant zip up. Sew like before.

Fold pouch in half right side in and sew up the sides with an inch seam allowance. MAKE SURE YOU UNZIP THE POUCH FIRST OR YOU WONT BE ABLE TO FLIP IT RIGHT SIDE OUT!! Now inverse the pouch and admire your work!

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I went to Allen's for July 4th. He lives in a tall building and you can see all the fireworks from his windows.



The Macy's Fireworks



The South Street Seaport Fireworks

They were really pretty and to see it that clearly was amazing.

Well that's all folks. See ya on the flipside!