Needles & hooks

Holiday recap and reflections

Here’s what I had been so frantically working on before X-mas

A couple of different examples of this year’s ornaments:

A couple of baby sweaters:

Those are the Ruby pattern from Bee’s Knees Knits. Solid and self-striping sock yarn make washable sweaters with fun stripes. They were easy to make and the pattern was filled with thoughtful details.

The purple one:

Inset of color on the back:

Front pocket, knit into the body, only sewn on the slanted sides:

Close-up:

The blue one:

Hood piping detail:

Back detail:

Comments: 9 — Posted by amy! under Knitting, Almost Random

Catching up

Now that frantic holiday knitting is out of the way and all the visits are over, I’m trying to catch up on things. Despite the injury I discussed in my last post, I knit like a madwoman and worked on some beaded tree ornaments. The whole time, I was sitting in front of my computer, watching Project Runway Canada on YouTube. A user named MsRoyalT has posted the entire season and I watched it in a 2-day marathon. As they were slaving away long hours in the sewing room, I was doing the same. It was an odd kind of kinship.

When I got back from visiting home, I used my New Years holiday to finally mail off yarn prizes to everyone who donated to my 3-Day fundraising raffle. Everyone who donated during the raffle got a prize, and there are still some left over. I think they’ll become part of a stash sale next year. Or maybe an auction. Anyway, many, many thanks to every who supported me. I raised over $5000.00 with the raffle, the stash sale, bake sales at work, and other donations. It was all greatly appreciated. I also sat down and wrote up my experiences. Here is my recap and photos.

I have more catch up chores to do, and I want to post photos of my holiday pieces, but first, I need to find my camera. So, stay tuned.

Comments: 2 — Posted by amy! under Uncategorized

Knitting-related injury!

I’m in the last throes of frantic holiday present finishing. By my calculation, Saturday noon is the drop dead time ensuring that my package gets to the UPS Store in time to make the “usually 4pm, but during holidays no guarantee” pick up for “Next Day Air” Monday 24th delivery. I’ve got a couple of knitted projects, and a few beaded projects that have to be in that shipment. Jamming through the knitting, over the last week, I was working on a magic-loop project, and pulling tight between needles to avoid ladders. And thus, those first few stitches were hard to work, so I was pushing with my index finger against the left needle. And it was starting to get a little bruised, but okay as I knit late into the night. The next day, I picked up my knitting again and the first push was killer-painful. I looked at my finger to discover an incision. Near as I can figure, the repeated pressure on the finger caused the skin to separate across a fingerprint line. Ouch!!! Fortunately, I had a project I could switch to that didn’t require such tight stitches and I could work around the injury and keep going. But how weird!

Comments: 2 — Posted by amy! under Almost Random

60 miles and yet another move later!

I survived the Breast Cancer 3-Day, walking all 60 miles and getting only 2 blisters. And in between the last time I posted, and going out there, I also moved again. Everything is packed in random places and I still can’t find much. Like my knitting. But I have real internet again! The raffle prizes will be drawn and announced soon (I do know where those are) and I’ll write up and post about my 3-Day experience. But for now, I just want to watch TV (which I also have again! seems it comes with internet, or vice versa) and knit. And I can’t find my knitting!

Comments: 1 — Posted by amy! under Uncategorized, Almost Random

Counting down to the 3-Day

I did another 18-mile walk this past weekend and I’m putting some of the final details on my plans for packing, etc. There’s not much time left.

And there are still a couple of days left to donate to my Walk and enter my yarn raffle. There’s a lot of prizes and an excellent chance of winning something if you enter. Do it now!

Comments: 0 — Posted by amy! under Uncategorized

Prizes that last

Today I offer up some of the largest prizes I have for this raffle. One of these could be yours for a simple $5 donation to my Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk.

Earlier this summer, when I saw the Yarn Harlot at Webs, she talked about her fundraising efforts for Medicins Sans Frontiers. It turns out that knitters are especially generous and others have asked her how to duplicate that success. She said that maybe knitters know that a small action repeated many times can create something huge. I think maybe it’s also the prospect of winning yarn. All you have to do is donate (and publicize!).

Prize #13: 1 bag of 10 balls of Cascade Bollicine, 70% Merino, 30% Acrylic, 50g balls (125m). A lovely variegation from lime to white and back again.

Prize #14: 1 bag of 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Cathay, 50% Cotton, 35% Viscose Microfiber, 15% Silk, 50g balls (100m). A shiney silvery-grey color.

Prize #15: 1 bag of 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK, 80% Baby Alpaca, 20% Silk, 50g balls (105m). This is one of my favorite colors - a bright magenta-purple.

Comments: 7 — Posted by amy! under 3-Day Walk

All about the sock yarn

I’ve been making progress on the sleeves for my Ruby hoodie. Two at once, so even though I’ve been knitting forever, not much to see:

I’ve got about 2.5 inches on each sleeve, aiming for 10.5 inches before shaping the sleeve cap. I’m increasing every 4th row and the width is getting to the point where I’m going through about one color per row. I should get some interesting pooling soon instead of the jacquard pattern.

In other news, if you’re waiting on one of my Hanne spreadsheets, I’m in the middle of processing those requests. I’m caught up with Mermaid (so please re-send your request if you haven’t heard from me). I going to catch up with LaStrada next. And I have some issues to resolve with Ballerina, so that will be next week.

And here’s today’s new Breast Cancer 3-Day Raffle prize(s)…

Prizes #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, and #12 - Lang BeBe Superwash wool sock yarn. Each prize is two 50g balls in a single colorway, enough to make a pair of socks. Each ball comes in a neat little square bag, all ready to center-pull! I was enchanted when I saw these and had to get every color Webs had for prizes:

For those of you stashbusters on yarn diets, remember: you’re not buying yarn, you’re donating to a good cause; if yarn comes to you from it, it was karma. Donate now!

Comments: 0 — Posted by amy! under Knitting, 3-Day Walk

More prizes, more ways to enter!

I’m busy making travel arrangements for my 3-Day Walk. Today I booked the last room at the last host hotel that still had rooms available for the night before the Walk. I could have stayed elsewhere, but the hotel will have a shuttle to take me to the starting point…at 4:30am!!! And then I have to walk 20 miles! Eek!

To help me reach my fundraising goal, here’s a new batch of prizes to tempt you to donate to my Breast Cancer 3-Day Raffle:

Prize #3: Regia Crazy Color sock yarn. 75% wool, 25% polyamid. Machine washable. Makes a crazy pair of socks:

Prize #4: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Olive:

Prize #5: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Rain Forest (greens are in this season!):

Full instructions for donating and entering are here. And to help spread the word, I’m offering a new way to enter the raffle. Make a donation and post a note about my raffle on your blog and I’ll give you a bonus entry. Just e-mail me a link to your post along with your donation receipt.

Comments: 0 — Posted by amy! under 3-Day Walk

Will Walk for Boobs!

I’ve been talking about this for a while now, but it happens in just over a month. November 9-11, I’m going to be walking 60 miles for breast cancer in the San Diego Breast Cancer 3-Day, benefiting Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust.

This year will be my 3rd year participating. In 2005, I walked 60 miles in Tampa, Florida. In 2006, I worked 4 days as a camp volunteer in Boston, Massachusetts. In additional to walking miles and miles in training, and buying shoes and gear, I have a fundraising requirement. In this past, I’ve just met it, but this year, I want to blow it out of the water. So far, with a stash sale, donations from those who have used my Hanne spreadsheets, bake sales at work, and donations from family and friends, I’ve raised over $4000.00. I want to raise $10,000. And so I appeal to all of you.

Because October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, it’s the perfect time for a yarn raffle. I have a pile of prizes, some larger, some smaller. I’ll be showing more as the month progresses, but let’s get going with a little traditional pink!

Prize #1: 2 skeins of pink Malabrigo. Yummy merino, it looks soft, it feels soft!

Prize #2: 1 ball of hot pink Opal sock yarn. Make pink ribbon socks!

You get 1 entry for every $5 you donate to my walk. For every $25 you donate, you get a bonus entry. If your employer does matching donations, you get matching entries!

I’ll draw winners on November 1st and mail out all the prizes. Then I’ll walk 60 miles for breast cancer!

Here’s how you enter:
- Make a tax-deductible, completely secure, totally spam-free donation with your credit card or checking account directly to my Official Breast Cancer 3-Day fundraising page.
- You’ll get e-mail confirmation and forward it to my 3 Day e-mail address: amy3day@gmail.com (so I know to associate your donation with your contact info and raffle entry)
- I enter you in the raffle and send you a raffle confirmation.

You can also make a PayPal donation and I will pay all the PayPal fees, e-mail me for my PayPal address.

The 3-Day site will accept donations from your checking account, but if you prefer to mail me a paper check, please also e-mail me for details.

It’s pretty simple: you like yarn, you have breasts (yes, men too), you knit for people with breasts, you should donate for my 3-Day Walk!

Comments: 0 — Posted by amy! under 3-Day Walk

Proof of knitting

That’s the front and most of the back of the Ruby kangaroo hoodie from Bees Knees Knits for my niece. I finished the back on my flight this morning and did the 3-needle bind-off for the shoulder seams. I should be able to get the sleeves going for my next flight. The yarn is Lang Jawoll because they do a really good job of making coordinating solid colors for their jacquards. The sleeves and hood will be in the jacquard.

Also today, I show you the last few things I bought at ThreadBear last time I was in Michigan.

This is the Colinette kit for the wrap that my Mom lusted after. I can’t remember the name of the pattern right now, nor the colorway. But lots of purples and reds and greens.

And this is a ball of 3 different Jitterbug solids that were twined together fetchingly on the shelf. Cream, olive, and purple (of course). I remember a conversation about striped socks knitting all 3 at the same time, like a group shawl. And there was a name I was supposed to e-mail about for some hints on getting it going. And I wrote it down. And that was back when I still owned a house, so who knows where that paper got to. But, you know me, I figured out the basics in my head and I’ll be making a go of it. I think it’s the purple that makes me do impulsive things like buy sock yarn I don’t need for a pattern that is a whisp of imagination.

Okay, enough with purple, tomorrow I’m going to announce my fundraising raffle, so start thinking pink!

Comments: 1 — Posted by amy! under Knitting