Blog has moved

I have just moved the blog to wordpress and just wanted to let everybody know that I wouldn't be posting on this page anymore. The blog will now be located here. It will be all the same stuff just at a differant web address. I had been looking into moving the blog because I dont' neccesarilly like blogger that much and have decided to use wordpress from now on. You will still be able to comment the only difference is that if you have 2 or more links in a comment it will have to be approved before it is posted on the site.

Friday Favorites

Well I am going to start sharing one of my favorites from Etsy every Friday. I will show a picture of a single item from my favorites (with permission from the shop owner to use the photograph as I don't want to be stealing photos) and I will talk a little bit about the shop that it is from. This will be the first week of it so let me know how you like it also if any of you have etsy shops that you would like me to take a look at for possible options for Friday Favorites you can convo me on Etsy where my ID is knittingpanda87 (I may or may not get to showing everyones shops that convos me as I have lots of other favorites already and will probably only be doing one favorite a week).

So for this week I am showing the a bag/purse from thirdfloor.

This bag is called the Annie in Salmon and Pink and I just love it. I would use it as a knitting bag probably as you can never have enough of those and it is the perfect size for one. I love the colors and the dots on it are so cute. The shop also has a number of other styles of bags as well as the same bag but in black. The shop also sells wraps, jewelry, and some clothing. Go check it out.

Knitting Progress

Well I have a little bit of knitting progress to post but not a whole lot. First off I have some progress on my second Monkey sock. I just turned the heel and am about to do the gusset.

I have kind of been putting off finishing this pair of socks because I didn't have any more sock yarn to start new socks and can't afford to buy any at the moment. This problem however was fixed by winning yet another contest the other day where I won some sock yarn and a sock bag from the Baa Baa Blacksheep blog. She has a great blog which you should go check out. She also has a awesome Etsy shop where she sells handdyed yarn and knitting bags (the link over the word Etsy is to her shop). I hope you will all check it out because both her yarn and bags are beautiful.

I also have pictures of my slowly progressing Honeybee Stole which is made out of the lace yarn from the last contest that I won. I have finished one 20 row repeat in the first section and I am loving how it is turning out. I can't wait to see it as a FO but that is a long way off seeing as how long it is taking me to knit just one repeat of the pattern.

I also wanted to run a idea by all my readers. I am thinking about posting about different books that I have read or am reading once a week on the blog and just wanted to know how you all feel about that. I have been trying to come up with some ideas for weekly blog posts for a couple days a week so if any of you have any ideas it would me much appreciated. One other thing that I have though about doing weekly is posting each week about an Etsy shop I have found. Most of them I probably won't have bought anything from as I am fairly new to Etsy but I thought that would be kind of fun to do so that my readers could see some of the other things I am interested in other than knitting and yarn.

Ravelry

Well I have nothing as far as knitting progress goes to post about so I am going to discuss my love for Ravelry. I just love searching for patterns on Ravelry. A lot of the time when I find myself looking for something to do and don't feel like knitting I go on to Ravelry and just look at patterns. This however has turned into a slight problem because I had so many things in my queue that I had to move all but a few of them into favorites a while ago and the ones in my favorites are just basically patterns that I like and may possibly make one day. I have over 400 there at the moment because whenever I like something I just add it to my favorites and then end up looking at all the other patterns by that designer and then end up adding a bunch of those to my favorites. I will probably never get to most of these but I just find it fun and relaxing to look at patterns when my mind just isn't up for knitting. I almost like doing this more than posting and reading the forums. I am at the point where I am thinking about going through my favorites and thinking about which ones I may actually make in the future and which ones I won't so that I delete the ones I don't think that I will make. This is something that I am somewhat dreading doing and may not end up doing at all because I love them all and really probably won't know whether I will knit them until I decide to knit them. I have a fear that I will delete them and then decide I want to knit them later and won't be able to find them because I won't remember the name or the designer's name. I know that sounds crazy but I just like to keep my options open and like to know where I can find them if I want them. Anyways I would love to hear what you guys all love about Ravelry and whether anyone else does the same thing. Hopefully I will have some knitting to post later this week we will see.

A New Book

Well I went to the bookstore to pick up my copy of More Big Girl Knits that I ordered this evening and was looking through it to see if I wanted to buy it and didn't end up buying it. I just really wasn't as impressed with it as I was with the original one. I liked less than half of the patterns whereas I liked almost every single pattern in the first one. I might buy it later when money isn't so tight but there were a couple other books that I like most of the patterns in and felt like buying one of them was a better investment at this point than that book. So I ended up buying Knitting Nature: 39 Designs Inspired by Patterns in Nature (ravelry link). All of the patterns in it are written by Norah Gaughan and all of them are amazing, there are only a few in the entire book that I wouldn't consider knitting. A couple of my favorites are the Hex Coat, the Ram's Horn Jacket, and the Turbulence U-Neck Pullover (all Ravelry links). I can't wait to knit these but right now I have so much on the needles that I need to finish some of it before starting anything new.

go check this out

Well I have entered another contest. All you have to do is go to this post on the Modest Purls blog and leave a comment telling her your favorite color combination and you will be entered to win a $25 Gift Certificate to The Loopy Ewe.

Lace Yarn and FO's

Well the lace yarn that I won arrived last week and I just got around to photographing it. I already started making the Honeybee Stole with it and I have pictures of the start of that as well.

Here is the Misty Blue Lace weight Alpaca. It is from EnchantedFibers on Etsy. It is beautiful and soft and I just love it.

This is the start of the project I am doing with it. I am making the Honeybee Stole (ravelry link). This was my first time doing a provisional cast on and it took a little getting used to. I love this pattern however and it is very well written. I haven't had any trouble so far and am just enjoying knitting it. I definitely think that I have caught the lace knitting bug.

Here is my finished Calorimetry which was a really quick knit. I finished all the knitting in about one day but I kept putting off sewing the button on which just got done last night. I can't wait till it is cold enough to wear this again because it is just the cutest winter accessory I have ever seen.

Here is the finished Cable Eyelet Scarf. I know I promised pictures of me wearing these two items but my husband has just been running around like crazy and hasn't had the time to take photos of me wearing them so that will have to wait.

7 Deadly Sins of Knitting

This is from a contest on the blog Handmade by Jennifer for her 777th post. If you head on over there you can read her 7 Deadly Sins of Knitting and enter as well.

1.)Pride: When I was knitting my first project from a pattern and was about half way through the pattern and hadn't made a mistake so far and I was so proud of myself that I started to rely on memory alone for the pattern even though I sort of knew that I didn't have it completely memorized and so I ended up moving the entire stitch pattern over by a like 3 stitches and I didn't know how to fix it.
2.)Envy: I am always in envy of people who can afford to have a stash full of yarn and people who can afford to knit with luxury yarns like cashmere.
3.)Gluttony: I bought enough yarn to make an afghan started the afghan and am not even halfway through and am already bored with it. I knew I would be bored with it way before finishing it but wanted the yarn and homemade afghan so bad that I just bought it.
4.)Lust:I won a gift certificate to a yarn shop on Etsy and I saw this beautiful lace weight yarn and had to have it so I picked out a pattern for it and used the gift certificate on the yarn. I haven't started the project yet but I have a feeling that it is going to be to hard. It is not an easy project but I absolutely love it so I will try and probably fail.
5.)Anger: My sisters Sterling Cloche really made me angry because I just hated the yarn. It had all these little loops all over it that kept catching on my needles when I was knitting and to top it all off I had to double the yarn up which made it even worse.
6.)Greed: I love to buy knitting books. I have like 20 of them and have only knit things out of like two of them.
7.)Sloth: I started a scarf in January 2008 and it was almost finished by the end of that month I only had like 6 rows to go but I was so bored with it that I put it down and didn't finish it until the end of March 2008.
Those are my 7 Deadly Knitting Sins. Let Jennifer know what yours are so that you can be entered to win the contest as well.

Calorimetry and contest

I am almost finished with the Calorimetry I just have to find a button to sew onto it to finish it off and I will have pictures as soon as that is done. I will also have pictures of me wearing the scarf as well when I post them.
On another note I have entered yet another contest and would like to send you all that way. It is on the Baa Baa Blacksheep blog and the post can be found here http://bea-blacksheep.blogspot.com/2008/03/313-and-contest.html . If any of you go over and enter be sure to let her know that I sent you so that I can get an extra entry.

Finshed Scarf

Well I finished my scarf finally. I ended up leaving half a ball of the yarn so that I can make Calorimetry which you can find on in Knitty Winter 2006. I am about to cast it on now and hopefully will have pictures of the scarf being worn soon.

Yet another contest!!!

Well I have yet another contest for everybody. It is over at The Bag Lady and The Pro blog. The link to the blog is http://yarnfamily.com/ and it is the March 23rd post. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment with a link to a blog that you love and let her know why you love it. Good luck everybody.

Easter!!!

Well Easter kind of snuck up on me and I didn't realize that it was today until Friday night when my grandmother came over for dinner. Anyways I went to church for the first time in years today. Since I have been gone from my church they have gotten a new pastor which is a great thing. One of the reasons that I stopped going to church is that the pastor that was there had long drawn out sermons in a monotone voice that he just didn't seem that passionate about. So I went today and loved the new pastor. She had so much passion about her sermon and she really has a good connection with the church. So I have decided to start going to church every Sunday again which I am extremely happy about. I rely on my faith to get me through a lot in my life but just wasn't getting anything from the old pastor at my church so I am very excited to be going back to church. Anyways I spent the day with my family and we had a very casual Easter dinner of homemade mac and cheese that my sister made (which was amazing but definitely awful for you). We rented the movie August Rush which was a great movie and I would recommend it to anyone. I got a little bit of knitting done on my second Monkey sock while we watched the movie. I hope everyone had as great an Easter as I did.

Contests and Podcasts

I have gone kind of contest crazy I guess because here is yet another contest that I have entered. Or maybe it is just that a lot of people are having contests right now but I will link you to this contest as well (I think that this may be the case because I haven't read about this many conests on the blogs that I read ever. It is a blogaversary contest and the prize has not been announced yet but it is bound to be good. So here is the link.
http://chanknits.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/happy-bloggiversary-to-me/#comment-3272

On another note I am way behind on listening to my podcasts. I fell behind when I went to Florida for vacation and then had so much stuff to do when I got back that I forgot to listen to them and now I am way backed up and trying to catch up on things. I have listened to a few but I am still way behind and I have just discovered some new podcasts to listen to so I am even farther behind than I was. I am will probably end up listening to a lot of them as I do my massive spring cleanup over the next couple weeks. There will probably not be too many photos of new knitting and I might even be posting about some things other than my knitting.

The Scarf

I am so excited I worked on my scarf a little bit earlier tonight and it is looking like it could be done soon. I am hoping that it is so that I can be done with it. I think that I started it in January and have just been so bored with it that I haven't done a lot of work at a time on it like I have with other projects. I already made one of the same scarf in a differant colorway for my sister for Christmas and I just can't wait to be done with this one so that I can take FO pictures of me wearing it. Hopefully I will have those by the middle of next week.

Another blog contest

I actually entered this contest the other day and forgot to link you guys to it. I also think that I might have one other contest to post but I have to try and figure out which blog it was to so that is for later.
http://ponyknit.blogspot.com/
If you decide to enter make sure you let her know that I sent you.

Knitting Goals Contest

My knitting goals for this spring are:
1.)Finish Knitting my scarf that I started in January.
2.)Get to a halfway point or more on the afghan I am making (25+ squares)
3.)Start and finish the Honeybee Stole (my first major lace project)
4.)Finish the Monkey Socks
5.)Make one pair of plain ribbed socks out of the Knit Picks sock yarn.

Long Awaited Photos

Well I am finally here with my photos. First off I will show you a picture of the Monkey Socks.

The first picture is the second Monkey sock which has about 2 repeats of the lace pattern until I get to the heel. Then we have the first Monkey sock which is finished except for weaving in ends. The cast on in the ankle is a little hard to get over my foot because I used the wrong cast on. Once I get it on it is comfortable but it is a little bit of a struggle to get there but other than that it fits great. So I used a long tail cast on on the second sock instead of a knitted cast on since I have heard that it is a little bit stretchier.


Next we have pictures of my afghan squares that I have done. The afghan I am making is from the book: 100 More Afghan Squares to Knit
Pattern: Big and Cozy
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Superwash
Colorway: Lemongrass Heather
These pictures are an awful representation of the actual color of the yarn because I couldn't get a good shot of the detail in them with a good shot of the color of them.


This first picture is of the square called Zig Zag and I have made 2 out of 12 of this particular square. This is by far the worst picture out of all the afghan pictures regarding the true color the other ones are bad but not this bad.


The photo above is of the square called Big and Cozy and I have 1 out of 12 of this one done. This was my first attempt at cables and it took a little bit to get it figured out completely but I think that it came out pretty well.


The last photo I have of the afghan is of the square called Chunky Textured Stripe and I have done 2 out of 12 of this square.
So I have 5 squares out of a total of 50 squares done and have 3 square patterns that I haven't even done one of yet. This project could take a while cause I get bored with knitting squares after I have made one or two and then get distracted by another project.





I also have bought some new project bags that I just love and have to show you. I bought them both at Target for I think $10 each.

The yellow Giraffe one is holding my Monkey socks at the moment and the Brown one with the leaves is holding my Malabrigo scarf that I haven't done any work on since before I went to Florida.

I did decide what to buy with my store credit that I won and I will be sure to show you it when it comes in the mail. I bought some beautiful hand-dyed lace weight alpaca yarn in a beautiful blue color. She is winding it into cakes to me before she sells it but if you want to see it in the skein I will link the picture on her Etsy shop from here. I will be making the Honeybee Stole from http://www.knitspot.com/knitting_pattern/ (here is the Ravelry link as well http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/honeybee-stole). I can't wait to knit it up. I almost forgot here is the link to the yarn that I got with my store credit http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=7886549 .

Anyways goodbye for now and I hope you love all the pictures.

Another contest for you guys to enter

Well I entered another contest today at the Happy Handwork blog and will link you to the contest post. If you do enter please let her know that I sent you.
Here is the link:http://cinnamongirl93.blogspot.com/2008/03/celebrate-spring-contest.html
As far as pictures I am about to take a bunch to post for you all and will have them on a little bit later today I hope.

Haven't posted in a while

Well life is starting to slow down. I won second prize in the Enchanted Yarn and Fiber Contest winning me a $25 credit to their etsy shop which I think that I will use to buy some lace weight yarn or sock yarn to start a new project with. I am super excited about this. I will post some pictures of my knitting soon which I know I said I would do at the end of February but life got crazy.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while I have been super busy with other stuff but I just wanted to mention a contest going on at this persons blog http://http://enchantedyarnandfiber.blogspot.com/ she is giving away yarn and if you mention that I sent you I will get entered twice.

home from vacation

Well I got home from vacation on Monday and things have been a little crazy and I haven't had time to blog. While I was on vacation I started my afghan that I am making out of Knit Picks Swish Superwash Worsted Weight. I got two sqaures of it done and will have pictures tomorrow. We came home from vacation to a small plumbing problem that has been fixed and all of the plumbing is back in working condition again. I basically finished the first monkey sock before we left other than grafting the toe together which couldn't happen because all of my darning needles and other wonderful knitting notions were packed in my suitcase to be checked so that I would have them if I needed them on vacation so I will also have pictures of that coming tomorrow hopefully as long as the grafting gets done later today which may or may not happen seeing as I have a pretty bad cold and am not really feeling up to par. Well that is all for today hopefully I will have pictures tomorrow if not then they will definatly be in my next entry.

Going on Vacation

Well I am leaving on Friday for Florida for 10 days. My husband and I are going to Disney World with his mother, his stepfather, and his 2 step siblings. I will be bringing some yarn for my afghan along with me and starting that while in Florida during the couple of days when we won't be in Disney and for when we get back to our hotel room at night and are just relaxing. I am almost finished with the first Monkey sock and will have pictures when it is done. I will probably finish it before I go to Florida but won't post until I get back to to time restraints. I will be back on Monday the 25th and will be back to posting then since I don't have a laptop to continue posting while I am there.

New FO

Well first off sorry for no recent posts I somehow got signed out of blogger and couldn't remember my password and my screenname wasn't working and I finally got it figured out today and here I am. Lots of stuff has happened since m last post. I finished my first pair of socks. They came out a little to big but that is entirely my fault because I think I needed to make them one size smaller and didn't realize it until it was to late.

I also have pictures of the Faux Cable Eyelet Scarf that I designed using a stitch pattern book. I think I mentioned this project before but am not positive. It is getting close to being done. When it is done I will add fringe to the ends.

I also have cast on and started a pair of monkey socks (ravelry link). They are being done in Fearless Fibers 100% Superwash Merino Fingering Weight in the colorway Saltillo. They are coming out awesome and much progress has been made since these pictures the first sock is actually about 75% done at this point I just don't feel like taking pictures at the moment I will take more pictures when the first sock is done however I won't be blocking them until I have the second one done because I will be buying sock blockers and more sock yarn from The Loopy Ewe when they are almost finished.

I also bought a whole bunch of stuff from Knit Picks since I last posted. I ordered 62 balls of Swish Superwash Worsted Weight in the colorway Lemongrass Heather to make an afghan which I will start once my scarf is finished. It going to be the Big and Cozy Afghan (ravelry link) which actually calls for bulky yarn so I will be doubleing up the worsted weight which is why I need such a crazy amount. I saved forever to get this yarn and can't wait to make my afghan. Here is a picture of a couple balls of this yarn.

I also bought 3 balls of Felici in the colorway Arugula. So that I can make a basic pair of socks with the self striping yarn. Here is a picture of some of it.

I also bought some of the Harmony Wood Fixed Circulars for making the afghan and the Harmony Wood Sock DPN set, plus some DPN holders, some DPN work in progress holders, and a set of the Harmony Wood Cable Needles. I had never used the Harmony Wood before I had always used bamboo needles and I just love the Harmony wood DPN's and I know I will love the circulars. I don't like how slippery metal needles are (I always tend to drop stitches) and I was having trouble with the small sized bamboo needles breaking these needles fixed both those problems. They are sturdy enough that they don't bend and break like the bamboo ones but they are not nearly as slippery as the metal ones. Anyways thats all for now I will have more pictures up when I finish the first monkey sock and the scarf.

I will have pictures soon I promise!

Well I have been away from my computer for a good portion of the week and just haven't had the time to photograph my work. At the rate I am knitting my scarf it will be done before I get a chance to photograph it. I am a good ways into my scarf and I have just finished the cuff on the second sock. I promise I will have pictures sometime this week. Also I started a hat with the pink malabrigo that was going to be mitts and I have now realized that I will not have enough yarn to finish it so I am waiting till I have a chance to go get another ball of the yarn at the yarn store and hoping that it will match even though it is from a differant dye lot because it seems as though no one has another ball from the same dye lot.

started the scarf and 2nd sock

Well I started the scarf made out of the Worsted Malabrigo but do not have pictures yet. I also started my second sock which is dragging along slowly as I am bored with the plain and simple sock pattern. The first sock turned out well for my first sock I would have to say. It fits well and the small mistakes I made are fairly unoticable. I am enjoying making the Mock Cable Eyelet Scarf in the Malabrigo though. It is the same scarf that I made for my sister with the Dusty Rose Malabrigo that I am making the Train Tam with now. I made up the pattern using a stitch pattern book and I love it. I will put mock cable eyelets all down it with ribbing inbetween and then put fringe on the ends and it will be gloriously cozy and beautiful as well. I will post pictures next time as I am not in the mood to take photos now. The scarf is coming along quickly and will be finished in no time.

new yarn and borrowed US2 DPNs

Well I got some new yarn that I ordered a while ago and was back ordered. It is Malabrigo Merino Worsted in the colorway Autumn Forest. I have 2 skeins of it and will be using it to make a scarf for myself.

I also bought one skein of Fearless Fibers 100% Superwash Wool in Fingerering weight in the colorway Saltillo from a person on ravelry who was destashing it. I plan to make myself a pair of socks with it.

I also borrowed a set of size 2 DPNs from my mother while I was over her house yesterday so that I can continue working on my socks even though I can't make it to AC Moore to get myself a pair of new DPNs at the moment. So it is back to making the socks. Plus I ripped out the Dusty Rose Malabrigo for the second time to start a new pattern since I didnt' like the pattern I was working on again. I am not making the Train Tam off of Cosy Makes blog and am just hoping a praying that I have enough yarn to finish it since I love this hat.

new fingerless mitts

Well I was having trouble with the pattern for the fingerless mitts that I was making so those were frogged. The pattern was not very well written and I couldn't find the abbreviation for one of the things in the pattern in any of my books so those are gone. I started a new pair of fingerless mitts and will post a picture once more is done on them. The new ones are Charmed Fingerless Mitts which is a free pattern from Classic Elite Yarns that I found on Ravelry. I am using the same yarn that I was using for the other fingerless mitts that I started.

Broke my size 2 DPN

Well yesterday was a bad day in the sock knitting department. It started off ok with some work on the foot of my sock in the morning. Then last night I went to start knitting some more and realized that I had lost the 4th needle that I was working with, luckily it was a set of 5 and I had only been using 4 so I just got out the 5th one and kept working. Then just as I was putting it away I was putting my little needle ends on that keep my work from falling off the needle and I snapped one of my oh so skinny size 2 DPNs in half. So now I can't work on my sock until I get a chance to go to AC Moore which won't be for a while because I don't drive and my husband has a broken ankle so I have to wait till we go out to the mall with his buddy next week once he has his removable boot on. I am so angry luckily I still have those fingerless mitts to work on while I am waiting to get new needles.

heel and gusset done

Well I am finished with the heel and the gusset on my first sock. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be thanks to this site here: http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/ . This site is an amazing help for anyone who is learning how to make socks and is fairly new to knitting. It has beautiful and clear pictures of every step and clear and easily understood written directions that new knitters can understand. I am extremely happy with how my heel came out and can't wait to finish the foot and toe so that I can try it on and make the second sock so that I can wear them. Here are some pictures of the sock.

easy mitts to ease the pain of turning heels

Well I am a little nervous about turning the heel of my sock so I started an easy project with some leftover Malabrigo Worsted Merino a minute ago. I am making Plain 'Ole Fingerless Mitts which you can find the pattern for free here http://www.hartandsole.net/knit_me/Fingerless%20mitts.pdf. I found the pattern of Ravelry while looking for something to use my leftover Malabrigo from the scarf I made for my sister for Christmas. I am just hoping that I have enough to make them with. Here is a picture of what I have gotten done so far. Its not much but at least I will have something to work on if I get frustrated with turning the heel in my socks.

Well things have been kind of crazy this week. On New Year Day my husband shattered his ankle and had to have 3 screws and a plate put in to stabilize it so I won't be buying anymore yarn to knit with for a while since he won't be working. However I had a job interview on Wednesday night and hopefully will get that job so that we will have some money coming in other than what we had when this happened. Anyways the socks are coming along I am just about to turn the heel.

I am a little nervous about turning the heel but even more nervous about the gusset since I am horrible at picking up stitches and the such and am thinking that picking up the slipped stitches might be hard for me.