My Other Obsession

 In addition to knitting, my other obsession is dolls.  I have 200+ Barbie dolls, 6 American Girl dolls and 7 Adora dolls.  And these are some of the older pictures.

Family portrait of the Adora dolls.  I still have my doll beds from when I was a kid.  All of the dolls have a place to sit.








See I dont sit and knit ALL of the time.  I do other things.

MSW - what a great show!!

Maryland Sheep and Wool was fantastic!! We got down Friday morning early and got the booth all set up  Being a vendor has its privileges - we got our t-shirts Friday afternoon and even a few from years back.  Saturday I didn't get out of our booth.  I rarely get out to shop on Saturdays.... I always shop on Sunday... can be a bummer as alot of booths sell out of the cool stuff on Saturday.

So anyways ... once i did get out - I got socks that rock - one for me - one for a friend.  Grit likes earthy colours so she got the skein on the right - I got the skein on the left.

This is 100% silk, the colour name is "Ruby" that's my mom's name and I wanted to make something lacy and pretty for her.  

I stopped by Brooks Farm to get some of their Mas Acero in the heavier weight.  Also picked up a cute pattern.

 I had to stop by Spirit Trail... I love their colours!! I got this in lace weight... I got a pattern from Wendy Knits Japanese Garden shawl.  I also picked up a few patterns for some lacy scarves and shawls.  I have to do something with this accumulation of sock yarn.

I had to stop by Kiparoo Farms to get some of their Silk Road yarn.  I love this stufF.  They also had a really nice pattern for it, so I got that also.

So as we packed up I picked up some sock yarn for pattern ideas.  Yes - I work the booth at Maple Creek Farms.... thanks to everyone that stopped by!  It was great to see some familiar faces and meet new people!





I did get the funniest pattern book EVER!! Rachel Danger's Monster Knits.  The cutest knitted monsters!! I had a pattern of hers from a trip to Webs.. but these monsters are the cutest!!

And to round out the weekend - I fell in the parking lot as we were leaving a restaurant.   Being the amazingly graceful person I am, I didn't see the curb transition from concrete to the macadam parking lot.  In my defense, the concrete sidewalk extended out into the parking lot and I couldn't see the actual step down.  So here I am the second year in a row on crutches.  This time however I did not break my foot, only a bad sprain.  And I can still drive!!

Maryland Sheep and Wool

It's still 2 weeks away, but I'm already planning my purchases.  I may treat myself to a pair of Signature needles.  I have enough yarn to open my own yarn store, so unless I see something that I HAVE to have.....  And we know I will.

I try to keep it organized by type of yarn... sock, lace, DK, etc..  Sometimes if I know what it wants to be, I keep it in a project bag.  Or sometimes I actually buy a kit project.

I've been trying to finish the UFOs in my various knitting bags.  I've got one bag with 3 projects.  2 bags with 1 project each.  A bag in my truck with 2 small portable projects.  Like I said ... like I need more yarn.

But since I have no will power .... I'm sure I'll come home from MSW with more wool.

...and more things

The traveling sweater is moving along.   I finished the left back and sleeve.  So time to put that on the side and start the right side.  The one thing I do like about the pattern is that the directions are for the left and right sides.  Not the typical stupid "repeat for the right side reversing shaping".  So I'll have more pics later this week.

The scrappy scarf project is going along well.  I'm on the second scarf and it's turning out really cool.  I'm going to start asking friends for sock yarn scraps/  Also looking forward to Maryland Sheep and Wool, there's always Koigu by weight.  That would be PERFECT for more scraps!

Over the summer, I happened to be working a stand next to Kellie form Lizard Toes.   I dont think I've ever laughed so hard at a show - all weekend!! Her stitch markers are the coolest I have ever seen!! I bought a few stitch markers, then but now she has some really cool new ones.  I just bought last night - http://lizardtoes.bigcartel.com/product/deluxe-stitch-markers-24k.  Every project needs a little sparkle!!

And since I was in a shopping mood - I also got this pattern from Wendy Knits http://wendyknits.net/2011/03/21/pattern-now-available/.  The pattern is only $5.00 and she's donating all proceeds to the Red Cross for relief efforts in Japan.  I thought it was a good deal.  Plus since I have all of her books ..... and I love reading her blog.

All of the furries were sleeping in the sunlight at the front door, I tried to take a pic - but when they heard me they all scattered....

Scrap Projects

I knit socks.  Alot of socks.  I have alot of sock yarn... and also alot of scrap sock yarn.  And there has got to be something to do with all of these little (and some not so little) scraps.  So I fiddled around and came up with this.  I just did mitred squares... alot of them.

But I did finish a sweater this last weekend.  The Manos yarn knit up a dream!! I'n not too happy with the edge ribbing, I may take out and do over.  It pulls in tooo much at the bottom.  But It did turn out cute .. OH - and I did darn in all ends!  A first for me ....







Real easy pattern start and end colours when you run out of yarn.  I tried to only change colours on the edges.  If I have enough yarn, I'd do a square in that yarn.  Some yarns I had enough to do several squares.  Sometimes I'd knit every row, some squares were stockinette at the bottom, and when I changed yarns, changed to knit every row.

Mitred Square Scrappy Scarf
I used sock yarn and a 3mm circular 12 inch needle.
Cast on 43 stitches, Knit one row, purl one row.
1 - Knit 20 stitches, slip1, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over, knit to end
2 - Purl back
3 - Knit 19 stitches, slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over, knit to end
4 - purl back
5 - continue as for row 1 and 3, knit one less stitch before decrease.
When complete, leave last stitch on needle, pick up 21 stitches along edge of completed square.  Using cable cast on, cast on another 21 stitches, 43 total stitches.
Continue as above until scarf is the desired length.  Now .... I have tons of ends to darn in, and I will... I also decided that it needs some kind of edging.  The sides are curling more than I had planned.  I'm going to probably do a crochet edging.  A little picot edging I think would look pretty.

As expected, I have more scraps left... so I started another lacy kind of scarf.  But I haven;t gotten enough of it done to post a pic, plus I'll need to steam it before the lacy looks like lace, right now it doesn't.

Rainy Sunday......

Yuck ... rain rain and more rain.  I'd rather snow. Ah well... spring is on its way and soon it'll be warm and we'll be out on the bike trail.

So I did finish the Manos de Urugua sweater this weekend.  It did turn out cute, although I'm not sure that I like cropped sweaters.  I'll see what it looks like on.  This is definitely a finish-the-UFO year.  I pulled out a sweater  I started last summer out of Lorna's Laces from Jimmy Bean Wool. It the colourway Amber's First Kitchen... pink, brown and green.  Also a vest I started out of yarn from Brooks Farm.  Cant remember the name of the contents, and naturally the label is loooooonnnng gone.  Glanced at a sweater out of alpaca, but I really didn't feel like working on the cables.  Plus I dont like the sleeves of the sweater, so I have to re-design them.

On the plus side, the baby blanket below was used in a photos hoot!!  The parents of the baby it was made for, had taken the blanket to the hospital to bring the baby home.  When they went to have the professional pictures taken, the photographer liked the blanket so much, it was used in all of the pictures!!

I'll have to post pictures of everything later.   I need to charge the camera batteries.  Pictures to be coming soon!

Traveling Sweater

Ok.  Whew.  The largest part of the sweater is done.  Whew.  Here's a pic.... I  put  the ball of yarn in there as perspective, but suffice to say the outside edge is 144 inches.

Now I need to cast on the back / sleeves,  but taking a little time to knit up the Manos design.  





The Vogue pattern is working out nicely.  It's going to be a cropped sweater, possibly with 3/4 length sleeves.  I really like the colours - and the sweater is working up nicely.  And with the crappy winter weather the colours are bright!!