Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Fall Flare

The Fall Flare slippers are finished and picked up. Someone picked out Classic Wool in pumpkin, deep olive, and yellow and wanted slippers made out of it, so it was up to me to decide how to do them. Started October 23, finished the 24th, the ever faithful Fiber Trends pattern. Ravelry details here.


Now I just have two more pairs to make, and the six-slipper order is finished. I have the yarn to do one of the pairs, but I have to wait for our yarn order to arrive before I can do the other pair. I also have another pair to make for someone for his wife for Christmas. Tis slipper season!

One of our yarn reps came to the store yesterday. Remember the yarn I got as part of an on-line order with Heddy? (The Cascade Heritage stuff.) We'll her company sells it, so we're going to be carrying it.

Happy knitting!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sparklies

So I have been knitting even though the posts have been sparse lately. It has been really windy, so it was hard to get outside to take pictures of the finally finished scarf knit with Soft Payette in the fire opal colorway. I like the pattern, but the yarn was a bit of a pain, the sequins could be a pain at times. I doubt I'll use the yarn again. Possibly, but not likely. This was started on September 7 and finished October 17. Ravelry details here.




So a couple of weeks ago Heddy was doing up a yarn order from an on-line store, so she put the call out if anyone else in our knitting group wanted anything. I ordered two items:
Cascade Yarns Heritage Solids in a nice warm yellow. This yarn is oh, so soft, and will definitely be socks for me. I'll peruse Nova Knitter's projects as she's a big solid/semi-solid sock yarn lover and does such wonderful patterns.
The second item was a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock. Pretty colors, Noro can be a pain to knit with, but hey - it's Noro. I did make a pair of socks out of the Kureyon Sock, but everything I've read most people say the Silk Garden Sock is a lot better to work with. This will become socks for me, too. I'll probably take a peek around Ravelry and see what other people made out of it.
So I'm still plunking away on the felted slippers order. She actually called and added a sixth pair. I will have them all done this week except for the pair she just added - it's a man's pair in the same colors as the other man's pair only reversed. We don't have the yarn in stock, but I ordered it, so it probably will be here til next week. I also got a request for another pair from someone else, so I finished those today and felted them. I'll take pictures in the morning for the next post. They're drying in the rec room in front of a fan right now.

Happy knitting!

PS That 70's Cat Bed is still a hit. Pumba uses it a lot more than Nala, but pretty much 90% of the time someone is in it!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Alas! I May Have to Make Another One...

...cat bed, that is. I've caught the Cranky-Faced Princess in That 70's Cat Bed twice now.



She fits in to it a lot better than His Royal Portliness. (Even though I must say that in her old age she's put on a couple of pounds.) Pumba must have been jealous, last night he was laying on her rear end when she was in the bed! I'm surprised she didn't lay a smackdown on him, she's crabby that way. If he would have touched her back, that would have been a different story. He walked over her yesterday, touching her back in the process, and I thought she was going to rip his head off. (She has a back problem.)


I finished up the toddler socks that are part of the felted slipper order. Very fast knit, they are size 2-4, knit with Patons Kroy FX in cascade colors. Ravelry details here.

So now I'm working on the slippers, started the only mens pair last night. Hope to get that pair finished today and maybe start another pair. Got some leaves to rake today, though, so I can get the lawn mowed again. There are too many leaves out front and in the big driveway to mow through or I'd just mulch them up.

Happy knitting!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Lotus Slippers

It's slipper time again, I guess. T called me from work the other day to bring down a pair of my old slippers to show a customer who was interested in them. (She had already purchased one of my felted bags and a pair of vanilla socks I'd knit, as well as a pair of vanilla socks that the Boss Lady knit.) So I grabbed the Littlest One's old pair since they didn't get a lot of wear. Yesterday she arrived at the store with a couple of her daughters and order five pairs as well as a pair of toddler socks. So I'll be busy for the next bit. I had quickly whipped these up so I'd have a finished pair ready to show them what a new pair looks like. These ones are the ever-so faithful pattern from Fiber Trends, knit with Patons Classic Wool in lotus with yellow for the cuff. These ones are a ladies medium, started October 6, finished the 8th. Ravelry details here.


The slipper on the left was not defuzzed, the slipper on the right is defuzzed. Sometimes Classic Wool doesn't fuzz up too much, other times it does. This time it fuzzed a lot, hard to tell in the picture just how much, though.

So I think tonight I'll start the toddler socks. I don't think I'll get very far, we went to the fire prevention week dance last night, then to the bar afterwards, then a stop to one of the pizza places for a donair, so bedtime didn't come til 3am, so I'm super tired. Plus it's Thanksgiving Weekend here in Canada, and Hubs has to leave for work in a little bit, so I had to cook our turkey today. He wasn't supposed to leave til the morning, but they called today with a load delivering at 8am tomorrow morning, so he's going to leave tonight. So while I was cooking turkey dinner I also had to cook up all the other stuff I had for him to take instead of having this evening to work on it. Then tomorrow the kids and I will head to my parents' place for more turkey dinner, lol.

Happy knitting!

PS Pumba is still loving the cat bed, Nala hasn't touched it that I've seen, lol.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

That 70's Cat Bed

I finished up the cat bed that I thought maybe Nala would use. So far she hasn't touched it except for the three or four times I put her in it (and she wouldn't stay in it). Pumba seems to like it, though, even if he is a little portly for it. At least someone likes it.



He's been laying in it a lot, so needless to say it's a little bit on the squished side now. If her Royal Highness decides that she wants it then I'll make another one for Pumba, and I'll add a chevron repeat to make it more roomy for him. The pattern is Chaton Minet Felted Cat Basket, and I used Patons Classic Wool in lotus, aran, yellow, and burnt orange. Used up 100% of the skein of aran, and I had probably 1/4 of skeins of yellow and burnt orange left. The lotus was in a mystery yarn bag, but I'd say I used an entire skein at least of that, if not a tad more. The colors remind me of crocheted afghans from the 70's, thus the name That 70's Cat Bed. I'm thinking when I was little there was an afghan or pillows or something somewhere along the way in these colors, not sure if at our house or the grandparents or where. (Ravelry details on this project are here - I did modify the bottom, details on the project page.)

Anyhoo, I've been avoiding cleaning the Littlest One's room so far this morning, but I think I can't put it off any longer. I did the Oldest One's room last week. I can't do it when they're home, all I hear is, "You can't get rid of that. We need that. Why are you throwing that out?" What they don't see going they don't miss. I promised myself I'd do it this morning, it was supposed to be rainy, but the rain has stopped, and the sun is out. I usually reserve room cleaning to rainy days. But I'll go now and get it over with. The process is a pain, but the end result is worth it.

Happy knitting!