My Sister's Knitter

Inspired to knit?

If I am to be perfectly honest, it doesn't require too much inspiration for me to pick up the needles.

It could be something like a the perfect pattern and yarn combination.

At times I can be found staring at my beautiful yarn, trying to decide what it wants to be. Where is the yarn whisperer when you need one?

A good old mystery show makes my needles click with happiness. Especially if the star is knitting.

(source Flickr-here)

Blogland! Inspiration in abundance.

• The beautiful Lori and her images around NY with her fantastic cowl.
• Christina's lovely cushions.
• I want to make this hat so much after seeing Kate's.
• Even the tons of ends is not squashing my want to hook this blanket.
• Socks get me everytime, especially Bethany's.

...and great videos.

The woolly-walk-along from Michael Cannon Miller on Vimeo.

 

What inspires you to knit or crochet? Inquiring minds want to know.

Have a lovely Sunday!

XO

Andi 

Talking about socks and favorites...

It will come as no surprise to any of you that I love to knit socks. Past posts may have defined me as a crazy sock lady.

Why do I knit socks? Living in a state that only has "winter" weather 2 months out of the year, doesn't offer any explanation. Maybe it was because it was the first thing I learned to knit. Sort of like your first love.

In my heart I know it falls more along the lines of what Jared Flood says on his Ravelry profile, "I have secret fantasies about a perpetual winter that would facilitate year-round wool wearing."

Looking around at all the blogs, it seems socks are a hot knit right now. As with any type of knitting project, it runs in cycles. Kind of how the 80's fashions come into our lives every 5 years. :)

 

• Evelyn at Project Stash blog has proclaimed she has the sock bug. I love her approach of trying many different techniques.
• Finding herself reaching for a sock for comfort knitting, Janet knit up some beauties.
• Knitting from sock hanks is something I would love to try. Jody's socks are going to be fab!

 

The never ending beautiful sock yarn selections  that call out to me are endless. Leaving me with no choice to cast on all socks. Here are some of my favorites.

• Butterfly Bush Yarns. Ruth's beautiful hand-dyed sock yarns occupy a large amount of my sock stash.
• Spinning Fates. Laurel has amazing sock yarn selections, self-striping included.
• Blue Moon Fiber Fiber Arts. Variety is a big attraction when it comes to their STR. I love how great they knit up and last.
• Felecia from Sweet Georgia serves up some real loves.

My obese sock yarn stash was never acquired with a set pattern in mind. I envy those of you who only purchase yarn with a pattern in mind.  My next sock(s) cast on is usually decided on a whim. There are those patterns that I gravitate towards knitting again and again.

• Hermoine's Everyday Socks
• Breaking Hearts
• Monkeys

Whew...lots of sock talk right? I am off to knit some...you know. Enjoy a song and have a wonderful rest of your Sunday!

 

 

 

XO

Andi

 

P.S- For those of you who received SPAM from my email address, my apologies. Hopefully the problem has been rectified. I hate getting SPAM and even worse sending it out unintentionally! 

On Progress and Inspiration...

Happy Sunday! I can't believe I didn't let this Sunday go without a post, as this week seemed to get away from me. How about if we start off with an FO. I know it surprised me too.

Sock stats:

Pattern: Vanilla Latte Socks

Yarn: Biscotte & Cie Felix sock yarn in the color Loopy Elves

Needle: Size 1.5

Maybe it helped that I stopped casting things on? Who would have thought that would work? heh! As I mentioned last week to help me get things off the needles, I tried to work on finishing one project at a time. Since one of the five socks has been finished, work on this Hitchhiker has begun again.

Once the grey started, I was uber happy. Grey yarn just has that affect on me. So there you go a short progress report, but still progress.

In other news I received a sweet and unexpected gift on Love day. BTW, I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day and felt the love. Okay back to me...hehe!

My dear friend Jody sent me some lovely yarn and the best card. Way to perk up your week! Is there anything better than the gift of yarn? Okay maybe a load of cash, but still yarn is still right up there.

Okay..now back to you. How was your week? Anything special, exciting, inspiring happen? Basic goodness happens here all the time, therefore this week was no different. I have been craving a casserole. Not sure what kind, just a good comforting casserole. Any recipe recommendations?

I am going to head out, and will leave you with yet another inspiring video. I just love the art of creating and those who create. Have a lovely week!

 

 

XO

Andi

Open to Change...

Remember when I told you it has took me a while to settle on the colors for my Leaves of Grass? Well, my mind has changed again. Thank you all for the wonderful compliments of the original colors I chose from my KnitPicks Palete stash, but the stress of trying to find the perfect time to switch colors was just too much for me.

That means, I had to go deep stash diving again and caught me a winner.

 

I found some Dream In Color Baby in Fuschia, that is working out quite nicely. Yeah!

Since it is pink, you know I am in my knitting comfort zone now. :)

In the name of pink, check out this wonderful sock yarn the sister got me for Christmas. 

 

 

Speaking of my colors, check this beautiful yarn I received from my sister for Christmas. Does she know me or what? Love!

Showing off the yarn my sister got me, reminded me that I had not shareed with you all the incredible Christmas package I got from my bestie,  Ruth. An amazing shawl, she knit out of her handspun. Three skein of her gorgeous hand-dyed yarn! A skein of Malabrigo lace yarn and another one of her perfect project bags. Seriously I was overwelmed with the magnitude of this wonderful lot!

In addition to these wonderful gifts, I have also received many great patterns from friends on Ravelry. I plan on knitting ever one of them this year. Next week I will share my plans,  as well as bring you up to date on loves that I have found in blogland.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend and that things are back on schedule after the holidays.

Enjoy a song and have a brilliant day!

 

XO

Andi

Let's celebrate!

I have never been one to shy away from letting the world know when's it my birthday! This one is the big 40. Guess what? I am okay with 40...because I have earned it. Don't I look oh so serious in this pic? It is because I am seriously pumped that it is my birthday. heh!

 

With every line and every gray hair, I look forward to many more wonderful birthdays! My birthday weekend will be spent with friends and family, which to me is perfect. I was reading Jane's post about her birthday and understood the desire for a nice calm birthday. (BTW Jane if you read this, Happy Birthday you beautiful woman!)   It can and has been said that I have no qualms with celebrating myself, so I thought why not celebrate you too?

So you know what that means.......a birthday giveaway!

There is an unintentional theme going on here, but it works.

We have three skeins of Lush Berroco Vintage DK in the color Ruby.

Then we have some goodies from Tangerine Designs.

If you would like to be entered in the drawing for these goodies, all you have to do is answer a question. What is your favorite birthday memory?

The drawing will be open till September 30th  at midnight (PST), which is the official end of my birthday month. Yes, I do celebrate all month long! I will enter your comments into the random generator on October 1st.

Good luck and happy knitting,

XO

Andi 

***PS..I will mail international if the winner is outside the states***

 

Mo yarn and some new projects.

Mo...referring to Mo Farah's wonderful win in the 10000 meter race, which I just had to mention. Let me show you some new stash I acquired. Yes, Mo yarn! Just because I love to enable you and tempt you. Here you go, first up Tempted Yarns.

Colors : Bricktown, Guerilla Grrl, and Flora. Yes more pink, because you know my stash is severely lacking pink. heh. You can get Tempted Yarns at Loopy Ewe, but I purchased these at the Tempted online store. Can I just say that Stacy from Tempted has excellent customer service? Bonus, my order came with some lovely BeaGin stitch markers .

I decided to pay another visit to Camilla (Twist&Twine), because I adore her and her yarn.

Love how some dyers have their own signature packaging. I always know Twist&Twine by the lovely purple tissue paper wrapped in red and white twine. :) I know more pink. Now that I have added more pink to my stash, the next order may include other colors.

Alright the enabling is out of the way. How about some new items that I like to say, "jumped on the needles".  Since I had no socks on the needles, I remedied that very quickly.

Some nice Simple Textured Socks. I dug deep in the stash for this lovely shade of pink because I needed something mild after those bright socks I just finished. The yarn is Pagewood Farms Yukon in the color Cotton Candy. The yarn is incredible and knits up very much like Cotton Candy.

Here is a color and yarn that has me absolutely giddy. When I say this yarn knits up like butter, I am not kidding. The color has me in love. This shawl is Lyrica Euterpe by Romi Hill. The yarn is Skein Top Drawer Sock in the color Little Red. Here is the kicker, I have never knit a shawl with out having an extra 100 yards to play with. This pattern calls for 430 yards and I have 437, which is cutting it extremely close. I am warning you now that if I run out of yarn before this shawl is finished, you will hear a primal scream all across the lands (tad dramatic-but true)!

That in a nutshell has been my week and weekend. Tomorrow will be taking the sister out to The Urban Tea Loft for her birthday lunch. How about you, how is your weekend going? Hope it is filled with yarn.

Leaving you with this lovely Etsy video. Enjoy!

 

Happy weekend everyone!

XO

Andi

 

Addicted to the stripes...

Seems to be no cure. There is nothing I can do about the fact that I am addicted to knitting up striped socks.

Who can resist bright fun stripes? Obviously not me.

I just cast on the typical 64 stitches, used a short row heel, then finished her off with a classic round toe. What more is there to say about the yarn that I haven't already gushed on about. It really is beautifully soft and squishy yarn. Bonus it stripes up beautifully.

The next pair I have cast on are not stripey, if you can believe that. Yet that did not stop me from picking up some more self-striping yarn from a new to me shop.

Color-Grunge

Color-Summer Berries

Color-Melon Medley

Whew that was a whole lot of talks of stripes. I plan on taking a break from purchasing any more self-striping yarn for a bit. There is enough in my stash to have at least ten more pairs. :)

Have a lovely Sunday everyone. I am off to bake this bread, wishing I were making a vat of this instead.

XO

Andi

 

A friend across the water...

I have a friend that knows I love the U.K. She uses this knowledge to send me treats.

This friend asked me if I would like her to send me tea...and this is what she sends.

I know, right? She is like my own personal Santa Claus. I think me and my tea are going to be very happy in the coming weeks.

My generous friend also sent me these beautiful yarns a couple of weeks ago. She picked them up from the Wonderwool event in Whales.

Some beautiful sock yarn!

I am seeing a very wonderfully soft shawl in my future with this lace yarn.

All of this was perfect timing because I just happen to be working on a new shawl that I am knitting with some gorgeous yarn that I purchased from her shop. Just a sneak peak. I will share more this weekend.

Is she an artist or what? I do think I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such a talented and amazing friend.

I will be back this weekend to share with you some new projects on the needles. Have a great rest of your week!

XO

Andi

 *** African Honeybush, Mandarin & Orange tea, is like something out of this world! ***

How about some eye candy?

 

Told you I would be back Monday to show you some new eye candy. I even surprised myself. So here we go with some lovely new yarn, projects, and just things that caught my attention.

First up yarn!

Those lounging lovelies are from Twist & Twine. I purchased these from the main store page, but you can also find more of Camilla's yarns at her Etsy store. Check out her blog for yarn updates as well as her wonderful projects. Not sure what I am going to knit with these, till then I will probaby just cuddle them to death.

I know if you saw this in a yarn store, you would think..Andi! Yeah so did I. This pinky yarn comes from Creature Comfort Creations. Bonus the seller and creater Sarah could not have been nicer.

Okay, enough cutsy yarn, let's get dark.

That's what I'm talkin' bout. Dragonfly fibers Dragonsock in the color Heroine.

This fiberpfile sqooshy sock yarn may or may not have been purchased because of it's color name, Nightwalker. Okay it was, but will you take a look at it? Both yarns were purchased from The Loopy Ewe because I needed some new sock needles. :)

Okay go purchase some yarn then come back, because I have some other fun things to share with you.

Projects:

• C's blanket. Fantastic!
• More wonderful socks from Dona.
• From Ivy, this beautiful sweater. And really Ivy do you need to be so cute?

Etsy:

• I bought my mom an assortment of jams from here. The verdict is that they are delish. Now I need to get some for myself. Wait, she has fudge?
• A cute bag from this store, or maybe some stitchmarkers would cheer anyone up.

Knitting Videocasts:

• A fun new one from Snappy Stitches. love love love.
• The title got me, the content made me stay. Adventures of a traveling sock knitter.

Had your fill? Then I will leave you to it. Enjoy a song that I have been screeching (singing) around the house today.

 

XO

Andi

 

The pink post...

Be prepared. If you are not a fan of the color pink, look away now. This will indeed be a pink post.

Some fantastically pink socks have come off the needles. 

For me, these are happy makers. As you may know I adore this color. Everything about it screams girl to me. I have had this yarn in my stash for a while. It was one of those skeins of yarn that you don't want to use because once you do, it is gone forever. So glad I didn't listen to myself.

Since this is a pink post, I found some more lovely pink items for you on Flickr.

 

1)Bethany's new yarn 2) Raindrop in Pink  3) Jesse's socks 4) Lakeshore shawl

This year I have been exploring new colors and learning to appreciate them, but my heart will always find love with the color pink.

 

"Almost all words do have color and nothing is more pleasant than to utter a pink word and see

someone's eyes light up and know it is a pink word for him or her too."- Gladys Tabor

 

Wishing you happiness with your favorite color this weekend!

XO

Andi