Peppermint Patty

In my last post I mentioned all the designing I've been doing. Well, here is a little look at one project I had the amazing opportunity to work on. Jenn at the Woolgirl puts together the most incredible sock kits. This past year she put out a series of kits based on Peanuts, the cartoon with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the gang. One of the kits was Peppermint Patty and the yarn that Miss Babs dyed was this amazing red, brown and white handpainted mix. It was a wonderful experience working with Jenn in designing the pattern to go with the Peppermint Patty kit. The kit was available in both a fingering weight (Ravelry) and sport weight (Ravelry). Here is a picture of what the kit looked like, (minus a couple of the goodies I already ate). And here is a very good description of the kit from I Count Sheep. I've got a few more projects in the works that I hope to share with you soon. Oh can you believe it snowed in New Orleans yesterday!

Subliminal

I've been doing a lot of design work lately which is why the blog has been so slow. But I finally have something I can share! This scarf pattern, Subliminal, is now available as a free Ravelry download. This elegant scarf veils the simplicity of the pattern used to make it by showcasing the beautiful colors of the variegated yarn. It can be worked up very quickly and the results are stunning. Make it in a bamboo yarn, like the one shown here, or even silk for someone in a temperate climate. Or if you’re feeling the chill this winter, try a fingering weight merino or cashmere as a stylish alternative for your sock yarn. Give this scarf as a gift to someone extra special and they’ll get the subliminal message you’re sending.

Where to Start

So much has been going on since my last post I don't even know where to start. I guess with hurricane Gustav. We evacuated and everyone was fine but we did have some minor damage to the house. That's the main reason I haven't been posting. We've been very busy trying to get repairs made and the insurance adjuster still hasn't even been out to look at it. It's been incredibly stressful. On top of that work has been very hectic. Then family came to visit this week, which is wonderful and I've had a great time with them being here. But you know how family coming from out of town can be really crazy at times?

Well, I did at least get some knitting done while I was evacuated. I started and finished this Ice Queen all while evacuated for Gustav. It's knit with Colinette Parisienne in the Marble color. Here is my Ravelry project page for it. I loved making it and the beads are wonderful. I can't wait for it to get cold enough to wear it, which might be one day all winter here in New Orleans but I still love it.

Since coming back from the evacuation I've been working on Jeannie but haven't taken in more progress pics. It just seems to come along very slowly. I've also been working on some design projects that I can't talk about right now but they are coming along nicely. Hopefully it won't be quite so long between posts this time.

Amaterasu

I know a lot of you have been waiting to find out what the secret project was that I have been working on. Well, the wait is finally over. I was designing my very first knitting pattern! It's a sock pattern called Amaterasu after the Japanese Sun Goddess. I couldn't mention it before because I was hoping to get it published but that didn't happen. Thanks to wonderfulness that Ravelry though I'm able to offer it there as a free download to anyone who is interested in trying it out. Let me know what you think! Here is the link to the Ravelry Page or here is a link to the direct download of the pdf in case you're not on Ravelry yet. The yarn used is Crystal Palace Panda Silk Print and the coordinating Panda Silk Solid for the toes and heels. I loved working with the Panda silk, it's so soft and silky. It's a little on the thin side for sock yarn but not nearly as splitty as the Panda Cotton was. I think it would also make a beautiful silky lace scarf. Because of the thinness I worked these socks up on size 0 needles. Hope you enjoy the pattern as much as I did.

I haven't done as much knitting this summer as I would've liked. I think some of it has been the heat and some of it has been other parts of my life taking over my knitting time. Like getting a Wii has definately impacted my knitting time! But the time I have spent knitting has been good quality time and I've enjoyed it. I'm doing some more designing as well and I really like it so keep an eye out for more that coming in the future, maybe even something will eventually get published, we'll see.

For those tracking the progress on my sleeve tattoo I also got some of the background filled in on that yesterday. I think 1 more sitting and we should be done! It's been an adeventure and a journey and a transforming experience. What about you, how have tattoo's impacted your life? Have they always had the effect you anticipated?

A Sleeve in Progress

Well, it's not a knitted sleeve but I've made some progress on my tattoo sleeve! I have 2 more butterflies to go and then background. So far I have 18 hours worth of work into it. Walt at NOLA tattoo is my artist and if you're looking for a tattoo in New Orleans I highly recommend him.

I have finally finished the Baudelaire socks for the Cookie A knit-a-long with CJ. I really slowed down on my knitting there for a while. I think it was the first wave of the heat of summer and just feeling generally really blah about it. But things have been picking up again lately so hopefully I'll have more knitting to show you again soon.

Life in general has been very crazy and hectic. Nothing I can really go into details about either right now so I haven't been posting much. We are going on a little skydiving vacation next week and really looking forward to that, need some time away to ourselves and skydiving always feels good for the soul. Hope everyone else if enjoying their summer.

Secret Project in the Works

So, I have no new knitting to show you because I have been working away on a secret project. I can't tell you about it but I just finished it last night and it turned out great! Hopefully everything will go as planned and you'll be able to see it soon. Don't have any other progress to report on but will hopefully be getting back to the Cookie A sock knit-a-long asap. I've been working, skydiving and riding! Hope everyone is having a great May and enjoying the nice weather.

Monkey See, Monkey Do?

CJ and I are doing a little Cookie A sock knit-a-long. First up is a pair of Monkey's. I did mine in Socks that Rock, lightweight in the Covelite color. These were knit for a friend using size 1 knit picks option needles. They were really fun and quick to make and I see what the attraction to this pattern has been about. I like them and I could see myself making another pair for myself. Up next, Baudelaire's.

In other news, I got a new haircut.

2007 Rockin' Sock Club - Year in Review

December - Salish Sea Socks (Ravelry link)

October - Lenore (Ravelry link)

August - Summer of Love Lace (Ravelry link)

June - Solstice Slip (Ravelry link)

April - Knee High to a Grasshopper (Ravelry link)

February - Inside Out (Ravelry link)

Hmmmm, makes you think

What Christina Means

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

New cars, tattoos and laptops

I've been working a ton of overtime at work lately (one reason for the infrequent posting) and having to work between 3-4 building as well. So, they finally decided to give me a laptop. The laptop came with a big huge ugly case to tote it around in and there was no way I was going to use it. So I started searching Ravelry for a felted laptop sleeve that I could knit and use with a backpack so if I wanted to ride my motorcycle to work I still had a way to transport it and keep some paperwork with it. I found Adam's Super Duper Felted Laptop Tote to be just the ticket. He has great instructions on how to customize a tote to the exact dimensions of your laptop using any yarn and pre/post felting gauge. It worked out pretty good. I even was able to use my swatch as a pocket. The flap turned out a little smaller than I wanted but that's because I ran out of yarn not really because of miscalculations. Then I did my first needle felting to add some decorations and personalizations to my laptop sleeve. Here is my Ravelry project page. I used size 10.5 needles and 2 skeins of cascade 220 and 2 skeins of Crystal Palace kids merino. The yarn was from my very first knitting project, a pair of leg warmers that never got finished. Once I learned to knit and pearl with all that 1x1 ribbing in the round I jumped right into socks and those legwarmers fell by the wayside. When I started looking for yarn for the laptop sleeve I remembered the legwarmers and thought that the cascade 220 would be perfect. I love the purple goodness of it.

I've started on the socks from the December kit from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin Sock Club. It's the Salish Sea Sock pattern from Cat Bordhi that starts with a star toe. According to the measurements I should take a size large so that is what I cast on for but it is turning out way to big. I only have about 2.5 inches done but it was a very fiddly cast on so I'm trying to decide if I can rip back to the increases or if I need to just start over with a smaller size. And if I need to go down one size or two. If you've done this pattern let me know. I think some Ravelry research on this one is in order. So, the knitting has been mostly in time out this weekend although I did work on it a little even though I knew it was turning out too big. I thought about just continuing on and giving them to someone else with bigger feet but this pattern is just so complicated that I think I need the foot to be available for frequent fittings if I expect anyone to be able to wear them.

This past weekend was the first weekend I had off in about a month so I was able to get a little more work done on my butterflies tattoo. I got two new butterflies added. This will eventually go into a full sleeve of butterflies and there will background added as well. You can see how it connects to the previous work I had done on my back.

And on Saturday we went car shopping! Here's my new little baby, a Scion xD! Ain't she purty? And she gets 33 mpg which is good news with the way gas prices are headed! I think I'm in love!

Tag - Your It!

Sarah, at Mom's Knitting... Again, tagged me to play the Power of Seven so here it goes.

1. Link to your tagger and post the rules on your blog. Done.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. (Mine are below).
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. (Hope they want to play too!)
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. Going to go do that right now.

Seven things about me that you might not already know:

1. I don't often talk about my work on this blog so you might not know that I work for Lockheed Martin as a Materials Science Engineer. I work on the External Tank for the Space Shuttle program and was hired on after the Columbia accident.

2. I have a black belt in Taekwondo. Well, I don't know if it still counts since I earned it about 7 years ago. I also had a purple belt in JuJitsu. I trained for about 3.5 years in martial arts and even competed. I've often thought about getting back into it but it is a big commitment.

3. My Dad was in the Army for 20 years. I went to many, many different schools. I lived in Germany for 6 years before I was 10 and even saw the Berlin wall before it came down. I've visited France, Turkey, Korea, Canada and Mexico as well.

4. I've hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back. It was one of the best feelings in the world. I only got to spend one night at the bottom and I've often wanted to go back for a longer stay. But I had to continue onto the rest of my trip that was a 5 day whitewater rafting trip down Cataract Canyon.

5. I skipped my senior year of high school. I attended an early admittance program called Clarkson School which is part of Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY before transferring back to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where I graduated with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering.

6. When I was 18 I worked for a summer on a riverboat called The Twilight on the Mississippi River. It wasn't a gambling boat but did 2 day trips up and down the river. I had to dance the can-can as part of the job.

7. I have 430 skydives. I've done 2 night jumps and I've used my reserve once.

Tag - Your It
1. CJ
2. Leslie
3. LeslieD
4. Emy
5. Nathania
6. Anna
7. Laura

Phileme? - Yes Please!

Work has been keeping me busy lately and when I'm not busy at work I'm busy trying to keep things running at home. Nothing terribly amazing or important going on, just busy. I have managed to fit in a little knitting here and there and have 2 new FO's to show you.

I finished a new hat dear hubby. The pattern is the skull hat I found while browsing around on Ravelry.com available for free on the Knit Two Together blog. I used Rowan Calmer yarn in black and purple and size 8 needles. The only changes I made to the pattern was to eliminate the ear flap that is designed to cover the stranded colorwork on the inside of the hat. I figured down here in New Orleans that it didn't really make sense to make it double thickness even if I was making it in cotton and I also changed the decreases at the top to make it a little more like skull cap as I thought the method of decrease in the pattern made the top of the hat a little squarish looking. I had plenty of yarn left over and I'm thinking of making a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend who saw the hat and loved it with the leftovers, probably not real soon though.

Then I also cast on and finished this wonderful scarf. The yarn is the alpaca yarn that I talked about in this post back in November when I got to visit Tuscancy Valley Alpacas and feed and pet the alpacas. This is the yarn I got while there. It is so very soft and lofty. The pattern is called phileme (free translated download) and is another pattern I found while browsing Ravelry.com. There is a knit along (in French) and ravelry knit along as well. I knit this on size 4 knit picks options needles. I love the combination of this yarn and this pattern. It was very quick to knit and I loved every minute of it. And the finished object is perfect. True I probably won't get a lot of use of it down here in New Orleans, but it is already my favorite scarf and I just finished it last night. I haven't taken it off all day today because it is just so cozy and soft around my neck.

I have also made a little more progress on Jeanie but it's been resting while I worked on on the scarf for the most part. All those cables don't make Jeanie a very portable project so I think I will be casting on for some socks soon as a second project. And it's been so long since I've done a pair of socks I think it's about time!

A Parade of FO's

It's Mardi Gras time here in New Orleans and there are tons of parades this weekend, some which I may even venture out to attend. But here we're going to have a little parade of FO's. See I've been sick, I think it was the flu, and spent a lot of time on the couch knitting this past week and half so I've finished up a few things and started some new things too.

First up is the never ending Chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts that was started way back in June last year. It is made using Mountain Colors Barefoot in the Huckleberry and Crazy Woman colors and was knit on size 5 knit picks option needles. This scarf seemed to drag on and on and on, but now that it is finally done I've been wearing it practically every day! I also have about half of each skein left over and I think I will use that to make a pair of matching fingerless gloves using the same basic stitch and repeat pattern. Not sure when but sometime.

Next up I found a button for Mr. Greenjean's! I love the way the strips in this button mimic the strips in the rib and cable pattern.

Next is two FO's, the Child's Placket Neck Pullover and the Childern's Cotton Hat, both pattern's from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. These are gifts for a friend that is expecting a little boy very soon. Both are knit in Rowan Handknit Cotton on size 6 knit picks option needles. The sweater is the 0-6 month size and the hat was a tighter guage than given the book so it is actually the toodler number of stitches cast on but the measurement is closer to that of the infant size. Both were very quick and easy little knits and make cute little gifts.

I also started working on Jeanie in Dream in Color Smooshy in the Cocoa Kiss color. This yarn was a birthday present from my good friend CJ who knew I was wanting to work on Jeanie and waiting to find just the right yarn. She hit the nail on the head with this selection! I'm loving this pattern and the yarn. I've actually completed another repeat since this picture was taken already!

I also finished a pair of black dashing fingerless gloves as a gift for my tattoo artist that I gave to him last night when I went in for my new tattoo. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the gloves but they were pretty basic and knit in black cascade 220. I did take a picture of the tattoo I got though! The plan is to continue the butterflies onto my shoulder and down the arm and into a full sleeve of butterflies and I'll be going back next month to continue the work on the piece. The tattoo artist is again Walt Clark at www.NOLAtattoo.com who also did my last two tattoos.