Chocolate Covered Cherries

I finished spinning up the Chocolate covered cherries BFL roving from Spunky Eclectic. I've been working on this stuff on my Golding Spindle for quite some time, at least 6 months. It's a heavy worsted to a bulky weight. Each skein is about 42 yards for a total of 84 yards and is 4 oz. I didn't split the roving to try and get regular repeats or anything I just jumped right in and started spinning. It's not the prettiest hand spun but I like it.

So, that means it was time to start a new spinning project. I want to work on drafting and spinning a little(ok, a lot) thinner. A friend got me 1 oz of silk hankies and I've really been wanting to try it. It's in the lagoon colorway. It's spinning up much thinner and is so much fun to spin!

I have also made more progress on the Maltese shawl. I have now finished 7 repeats. The pattern calls for 88 repeats but I think I'm going to cut that back to 68 or 78 because I'm so short and because I have read that the pattern may use a little more yarn than what is called for. I love this yarn, it is so soft and easy to work with. But I'm afraid it is going to take me forever to finish.

I think I must be one of the last ones who still hasn't gotten April's STR club shipment. I have seen pics on other blogs though and I can't wait to get started on those! Instead CJ sent me a beautiful gift of STR lightweight in the peacock colorway. It is gorgeous and perfect "me" colors! I think I'm going to dig out all of the STR that is in my stash and take some pics. I'm not sure how many skeins I even have!

I also shaved DH's head yesterday. That was a lot of fun for the both of us I think! I haven't snapped a pic of him bald yet but be on the lookout.

A first time for everything

I started working on a pair of knucks last August but then I had a knitting related injury. The way I was holding my dpns was putting a strain on my shoulder and I ended up in physical therapy for almost a month! So, the knucks have been sitting patiently and waiting for me to remember them. Well, I finally decided to make them to give to someone else so I had to finish. This is my first pair of knucks but I can see myself making more.

Michael's had a great sale on their t-shirts this past weekend and I picked up about 6 of them. One was a plain XL purple. I decided to try out my very first t-shirt recon with it. This is what I came up with. What do you think?

On the Weight Watchers front. I have now lost 21 pounds! Only about 70 more to go but I can start to see a difference now. Here is a pic to remind you of where I was before I started. Can you see a difference?

I also want to say a big thanks to Leslie. I was Leslie's pal for Secret Pal 8 way back last year. She sent me a thank you package with these adorable bags, one a drawstring and one a zippered pouch out of some amazingly cute fabric. I for some reason neglected to upload the picture to photobucket before leaving for work but I will add the picture for you all to be jealous over very soon. (Pic has been added.)

My Inside Outs are Rockin'

I finally finished my Febuary installment from the Rockin' Sock Club. These are the Inside Out pattern knit in STR Monsoon colorway. I knit the toe, foot and heel on size 0's which seemed to take forever because it hurt my hands but then when I switched to size 2 for the legs it went much quicker. This pattern was pretty easy to adapt to using magic loop. I did the legs a little on the short side because they were starting to get tough to get on over my heel. It was my first time doing toe up socks and first time doing short row toes and heels. I really enjoyed the process of knitting toe up but I don't see myself doing it that way all the time. The heel seems to fit a little funny to me. Maybe I should have used the size 1's on the heel instead of the 0's and then it would fit better. They are nice and thick and warm.

I also crocheted a fat bottom bag over the weekend to send off in swap. I haven't made much progress on the Maltese shawl, only two pattern repeats. But hopefully things will go quicker now that I finished the socks, at least until the next sock kit comes. I'm also thinking about pulling out a project that was started last year for summer and never got finished. We'll see how that goes!

The electricity issue is still ongoing but at least we got back our tax refund!

Camping is Fun

We went camping this past weekend at Lake Fausse. It was our first time to this park but it turned out to be a lot of fun. We called ahead to make sure they had a spot and they told us they had primitive spots available. We thought that would be great because we were going with a tent and didn't need electric or running water to get by. When we got there we found out that primitive actually meant backpacking or only accessible by canoe. We picked out the site with the shortest hike, about 0.5 mile. Then we set off with our wheeled suitcase and cooler through the woods. It was a pain in the you know what but well worth it. We have done backpacking before and could have been set up for it, we just didn't know. Oh well, next time I think we might try one of the canoe sights!

We got there on Thursday at about 6pm. Just enough time to set up camp and get dinner cooking. Once it got dark we heard this huge rustling across the river. Not too worry, it was on the other side of the river, no matter how large it sounded. Of course the town we went through to get to the park was having a bear festival that weekend so you can imagine what we were thinking. Then the rustling showed up on the other side of us. Ok, remain calm. We have the fire going, nothing will bother us. But now I'm getting sleepy and the fire will go out. Just have to risk it. I climb in the tent and start putting on something more comfie to sleep in when the rustling starts charging straight at the tent! Oh my, it's heading straight for us. DH is outside with the lattern, peering through the darkness trying to make out what is coming to eat us, "Oh my, what the, a pack of armadillos?"

A hat!

Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments about my scarf and for the ideas on what shawl I should knit next. Since it was suggested twice I've decided to go with the Maltese shawl. For the winner of the contest I used all comments, whether there was a shawl idea or not, and a random number generator. The winner is Schrodinger Knits! Congratulations! Please email me your mailing address so I can get the yarn in the mail.

I cast on for the Maltese shawl and have gotten 1 repeat done. I tried it first on size 7's but thought it looked better on 6's. It's really hard to get the color variations in the picture to show up. The pattern isn't too hard yet but every row is pattern so it takes a lot of concentration.

I finished up my crochet hat this week too. It's my own pattern. If you would like the pattern it is available here, Heat Stroke. I finished it in just a couple of hours. Let me know what you think or if you try it out.

On the electricity we are still working with Joe to get ready for the inspections. It looks like the previous owners are refusing to help out with any of the expense.