A Purple Sheldon

Look who I found outside playing by our pond!



It's Sheldon, finished at last! I had no clue it took baby turtles so long to hatch.

Pattern: Sheldon by Ruth Homrighaus, published in Knitty.
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in Violet (darker purple) and Hydrangea (lighter purple)
Needles: US 2 DPNS, and US 3 KP circular
Mods: None

Sheldon is finished just in time to give to my friend Jana for her birthday. She'll love him. I can't wait to give him to her when I have dinner with her a little over a week from now! I have plans for cute packaging including making a little "birth certificate" tag to give important information about care instructions.

Round and Round

They are finally finished, and just in time for a cold snap!



Pattern: RPM by Aija Goto, published in Knitty.
Yarn:: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, 2 skeins, Lake View colorway
Needles: clover bamboo US1 dpns
Gauge:
New Techniques: None
Mods: I knit these on dpns instead of 2 circs. I cast on 72 stitches instead of the 54 or 63 suggested. I did extra repeats of the spiral pattern on the leg to make it longer. I modified the stitch count on the heel flap to match my cast on number. During the gusset decreases I decreased until I had 66 stitches. I followed the directions for the large pointed toe, the only directions I had to change was the first line where I decreased two stitches to reach the 64 stitch count called for.


I really enjoyed knitting these socks because the pattern was interesting enough that I didn’t get bored, but simple enough that I could relax with it. The pointed toe is the perfect end to this sock.

The best part yet is that these fit perfectly!

It is here!

Guess what I received in the mail today! It's my package from my favorite color secret pal! She wrapped everything nicely. See?



She also included a nice hand written note - on purple paper no less. Her name is Jaymi. She doesn't have a blog, but you can find her on ravelry here.

I know us knitters don't like to be kept waiting, so here it is all unwrapped!



Here are some close ups.



A keychain sock blocker! I've really wanted one of these for awhile, they are just so cute!



Two sets of pretty stitch markers. They are little and perfectly sized for socks or other small gauge knitting!



Yarn! Two skeins of SWS in a dark blue purple color, and two skeins of cotton. I'm not sure what I'm going to do use the SWS for yet (hat? mittens?), but I think I'll use the cotton to make a ball band dishcloth. I've wanted to try that pattern out for awhile!



Two very nicely knitted dish cloths. The color on the one to the left is really interesting. Close up you can see bits of green, pink, and purple, but far away it looks sort of metallic.



To top it all off there was also a cute blank book, and a lovely magnetic note pad to put on the refrigerator. The note pad even came with matching magnets!


After some careful inspection Mario determined that the box was the perfect size.

Thank you so much Jaymi! It is all perfect! <3

Earthly Delights and Contest Winners

First thing first, in the past month I completed six projects. There were two people who guessed that I would finish 6 projects, and Jo of WildPeculiarJoy won the coin toss! Joy – I’ll message you on ravelry.

Now, on to project spectrum. The end of the fire months has passed and the earth months have begun! For fire I only finished two projects. At first I felt like that wasn’t enough, but I don’t think it is so bad. The point of project spectrum isn’t to limit me to just certain colors for two months, but to open up some new horizons.


Picture from nature.desktopnexus.com


I think it is fitting that we begin the earth months just as spring is starting to peak out of the ground. Spring is a time of renewal, when the old is pushed aside to make room for the new. In the spirit of this I have some spring cleaning to do with my projects. Despite my finishing spree I still have four projects left over from 2007, and one project from earlier this year.

My knitting goal: Finish or frog all current WIPs, and make a pair of socks out of my green or brown koigu.

Things outside of knitting might include a bit of gardening, baking, and taking pictures.

The official colors for project spectrum earth are greens, browns and metallics. I personally would love to see bits of pink and yellow peaking out in some projects. It is spring time after all!

Also remember that Earth Day is on April 22

Puppet Master Gloves

Pattern: Gloves from the Knitters Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, black, 2 skeins
Needles: US size 3 dpns
Guage: 7 stitches per an inch
Mods: I made the cuff way shorter than suggested, because that’s what he wanted.
New Techniques: I learned how to "make 1 right" and "make 1 left".

These are finally done! I was getting a little bored with the black yarn and weaving in all those ends was tedious. My roommates suggested I not weave the ends in at all, because they got amusement from yelling "puppet master!" whenever Danny would try on the glove with all the finger ends dangling. I'm glad my knitting amuses someone. :)

Daniel loves his gloves. He even wore the first glove in his car one chilly morning while the second one was still on the needles. He told me that he only wore it in the car because he was fairly certain he'd look silly with only one glove one. When both gloves were done and our gaming group was over he proudly showed them to everyone. All this from a guy who originally didn't want knitted stuff. Now he is saying "I'd maybe wear a hat, and some socks!"

FO count: 6, which leaves us with two contestants. :)