Distractions

Happy November! Hope everyone had an enjoyable Halloween. We had all of 4 trick-or-treaters. So pathetic. I splurged on a grown-up treat for me and mom though.
That's a Caramel Apple Custard pie from Weber's. So good! Tastes like a giant caramel apple - go figure.
Very tasty. I had intended to get the pumpkin one they have, but it was covered with pecans and dad is highly allergic, so caramel apple it was. Mmmmm!

Enough of the ice cream, on to more important things. Big weekend for my sports teams. Football won 48-21 over Norwayne ( I misspelled it last post, in case anyone was confused). It wasn't as close as it seems either. Their first touchdown was from the 2 yard line after a muffed fair catch. And the next 14 weren't scored until the end of the game when we decided to put in the "second string" and they employed the onside kick that doesn't hit the ground. 20 minutes of arguing over 2 kicks - no joke. 1:11 left on the clock and 10-15 minutes were spent poring over the rule book and arguing over what the call was. I was highly annoyed.

My volleyball team also played on Saturday. I was not present due to the afore mentioned football game. They ended up winning, but it took them all 5 games and the last game was as close as you can get, with a score of 15-13. Would've been having heart palpitations if I had been there. So they move on to State semis on Friday in Dayton. If they win, the finals are on Saturday - same day as my football game. If only I could be in two places at once.

Knitting? Not much to show because it's all been for secret stuff. So I'll distract you with the pretty stuff I have recently acquired. First up is 4 oz of superwash merino from one of my favorite etsy shops, dkKnits.
Colorway is "Rockin' Around", it's one of her new colors for Christmas. So pretty and fun. Makes me think of the Christmas tree all lit up. And she included a bunch of purple sparkly threads - don't think I'll use them, but you never know. It'd be like purple tinsel. Hmmm. Can't wait to get around to spinning this.

Next up is a batt of merino/bamboo/firestar blend from another Etsy shop, ArtemisArtemis, in the colorway "Robes of Autumn". A-MA-ZING. Really. It's so pretty I'm a bit intimidated to spin it. Worried that I'll make it less pretty by spinning it.
I will of course. Eventually. I may just need to keep it around for looking at for a while. The picture really doesn't do it justice. The colors are really much deeper, and you can't see the brown that runs through it all. It also has some copper firestar (sparkly bits).
I did a little spinning the other day. Would have been more, but the single broke in a spot that I couldn't repair, so I set it aside to take off the spindle.
It's about 63 yards so far. More than half of it left to spin. I'm not so in love with this fiber. It doesn't draft well - even though I pre-drafted it. Which is the main reason that I'm dragging my feet on the spinning of it - well that and I've been on a gift knitting tear lately.

Alright, that's about it for me. Don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Too Many Secrets

Not much to report. Football won on Friday, home playoff game this Saturday against a team I've never heard of (Norway if you're wondering). Volleyball plays again tomorrow night in Barberton for the chance to play on Saturday. If they win on Saturday, they go to Dayton the following weekend for States.

There has been knitting. Much of which I cannot show. That'll be the issue for a while, now that I'm fully into gift knitting. But I do have a sock and a half to show.
Need to keep knitting these. Was hopeful that I would get them done in time to wear on Friday for Halloween (Wicked Witch is the colorway, very appropriate, I thought) but now I'm not so sure. I could easily crank it out and not have any problem, except that there is a secret project that is needing immediate attention because it has a real deadline. Hmmm. We'll see. It's a long bus trip to Barberton....

Anyway, speaking of gift knitting, here's some photos of the Scurvier Pirate hat in action.
Note that in the pic above, Charlie is wearing both versions of the hat, one on top of the other. I love that!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

It's back to the knitting. And sports. Let's get the sports out of the way first, that way those not interested in the knitting can leave early. Have to give a big huge shout out to the Tampa Bay Rays for doing what my beloved Indians couldn't a year ago. And I might have a new favorite MLB player - BJ Upton. Why? Because in the post game interview, the second answer he gave started with a big thank you to the training staff for keeping him on the field. I love any athlete that can recognize the importance of the training staff - we are often under-appreciated and overlooked by the general public. So yay BJ Upton!

Moving on, my Steelers won again yesterday (and it was televised!) Notre Dame had a bye week, my football team won 56-13 over Harvey which shut the door on us getting into the play-0ffs. We may even get a home game first round. Oh boy! A freshman girl won the state tennis championships - that was expected, she got an invite to the US Open this year. Volleyball is chugging along in the playoffs, they play today. And sadly, both of my soccer teams are done for the year.

But hockey has started. And basketball is about to. Never a dull moment.

Onto the knitting. I have a finished object! Yay. I finished the Serpentine Mitts.
Love them. Wore them on Saturday at my football game. They work very well. Won't wear them at work much, they'll get too dirty and icky. These will be more for home use - knitting and ravelry-ing when the house gets really chilly (did I say gets? Sorry, I meant to say "now that it's really chilly"). Really great pattern.

Now that I have given Peggy her birthday present, I can show them to you. I finished these ages ago and kept them secret for her birthday which was the 7th. It's the Spiral Eyelet pattern, using the Noro Kureyon sock yarn.
I did finish another Scurvy Pirate hat, but I sent it off to NJ with mom before I could take any photos. It looks just like the last one, only a little bit bigger. Am hoping that mom is bringing home pics of it in use so I can post them here.

I started a sock, using the Wicked Witch yarn from KnitPicks. Love it (I say that about all my knitting don't I?) But seriously, look at them pretty spiraly stripes. I using the Fanny pattern, but modifying it a bunch.
I've also started a secret project. Of my own design. Ack! Scary thought that. We'll see how it works out. No photos until after it's gifted of course. Wish me luck.

I've done a little bit of spinning, not much due to the knitting, but a little. Here's how much of the Alpine I've got done.
And knitting pal Meagan and I recently traded some goods. This is what I got:
A skein of Noro Iro (a bulky wool/silk blend) to be made into mittens to go with my Striped Noro scarf. I'll get around to knitting these sometime after Christmas when all the gift knitting is done.
And a shawl's worth of Glimmer. It's alpaca with a bit of bling added in. It's really really pretty. And once again I'll get around to knitting it eventually. So soft and sparkly!

In other crafty news, I made my Halloween cards last night. Yay me. I'll show you them after they've been sent and received so as not to spoil the surprise. You know how I hate to spoil surprises. Have a good week!

Too Cute

My weekend was full of cuteness. Saturday evening I got to hang out with the Perry nephews.
Didn't take too many photos, but it's quality that counts. Elliott was attempting to play with Maddie who most definitely did not appreciate the small human invading her "I'm invisible to world" space. And Mason just cools out as always, content to watch the doings of his big brother.

Then on Sunday, Peggy and the boys came out with me to meet Bridget and Kaylee at a Pumpkin Festival. And can you get cuter than kids and pumpkins? (if you disagree after looking at my photos, I direct you to my sister's blog for the pics of the Jersey kids).Granted, there wasn't too much to do with pumpkins at this fest, but who cares?
There was bouncing! And to a two year old, I think this is the highlight of their week.
Some history added in for good measure. It was hard to convince Kaylee that she should not, in fact, wrap her fingers around the Civil War era sword, that did not have a dull edge.
And an antique fire engine. Equipped with real life fire dog Dalmatian, blaring dulcimer hammer music.


The petting zoo and pony rides were obviously the best part of the day. Once again, Mason opted to just chill out.
Elliott was unimpressed by the camel attempting to share his pretzel rod.
The caramel apples were excellent. As was the lesson in sharing.

Mason had a good time. As did everyone, he just expressed it best. So like I said, no pumpkins, but lots of fun.

Back with the regularly scheduled knitting content later.

All about the hats

I have been all about the hats lately. You've already seen the Pumpkin Hat - that was made for and delivered to niece Sarah this week. Supposedly it fits - I haven't seen photographic evidence, but I refer you to the comment left on my last post.

After I finished Sarah's hat, I started one for her brother (I'm an equal opportunity knitter/auntie, and it wouldn't have been nice to send one to one child and not the other). Master Charles is currently very into all things pirates. So, I obviously had to make a pirate hat. So now that it's been delivered, I can share... the Scurvy Pirate Hat!
So so so so so cute! I can't even tell you how much I love this hat. It's a heavily modified version of the "We Call Them Pirates" Hat by HelloYarn. May have to make another one. No seriously, I hear that it's not quite long enough to cover his ears, so another one is in order.
So, Sunday rolled around and I was still on my high from finishing the Pirate hat, so I decided that I wanted to make another hat. So I did. I cast on for Thorpe just before dinner, using my Oh Cherry Baby handspun yarn, and by the end of the Steelers game, I had this:
Happy happy happy. Love this hat. Love how the yarn worked up. See those stripes? Yeah, it did that on it's own, no cutting the yarn and switching to a new spot to get a different color on my part. Don't ask me how I managed to get self striping yarn in a 2 ply that was my second ever spinning project, I honestly don't know. And I honestly know that I couldn't get it to do it again if I tried. Makes me love the hat even more.
I have since stopped with the hats, am now working on yet another Christmas present, sadly for someone who reads the blog and therefore you will see no pictures. That's the problem with knitted presents - and the fact that I like surprising people.

How is it Thursday already?

This is posting much later than I had planned. Oh well. Busy busy busy. What's happened in the last week? Hmm, FB game in BFE on Friday night. Early morning JV game followed by soccer on Saturday. Event every night this week. Worked in the Clinic Tuesday and today, staff meeting yesterday morning. Like I said, busy.

There has been spinning and knitting though. First up, I've plied close to half of the Terminus, as seen here on the niddy noddy.
Close up on the extreme thinness of this yarn (so proud of myself).
And skeined up. It's about 160 yards at this point. Jut gotta keep plugging away....
To stick with the spinning, I decided to reward myself for making it through half of the Terminus by letting myself play with some other fiber. I watched the video of how to "ply on the fly" and gave it a whirl with this Mountain Colors 100% Targhee in the colorway Alpine.
I'm going for a DK to worsted weight yarn and I think I'm doing pretty well with it. The technique is a bit fiddle and I feel like all thumbs at times, but practice makes perfect.
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Alright, now we move on to the recent acquisitions. Saturday after work, I swung by KotS and Kate had gotten this in:

OMG! So very amazing and wonderful and pretty. Had to have it. What is it? 8 oz. of BFL from Frabjous Fibers in Redwood Forest. Drool. Yeah, had to move it away from certain knitting/spinning pals on Tuesday night because they were about to felt it with their drooling.

Got this in the mail the other day, it's Merino Wool Top hand painted by ForestFiberWorks on Etsy in Fallen Leaves. I found in on one of the first chilly fall days we had and wanted some spinning project that would fall-ish. It's very nice.
Onto knitting. I cast on for the Serpentine Mitts by Miriam Felton last week to have something easy to knit at SnB. Finished knitting the first one (but for the thumb) on the bus ride out to Conneaut on Friday night. Did the thumb and what not Saturday evening. Love it.
Cast on the second one last night. If you'll recall this yarn is the Sheep Shop Yarn Meagan got my for my birthday. It's fabulous. Need to hurry and finish because it's turned cold here in NE Ohio.

As for other knitting, I started this hat as my easy project for the premier of Amazing Race on Sunday (more about that in a separate post). It's the Kurbis Hat pattern. Very quick and easy, and adorable to boot. Finished it last night.
I had made a leaf to attach from a different pumpkin hat pattern I'd seen, but it ended up being way too big for this hat. Wanna know the best part about this hat? It's the first toddler/child hat I've made that doesn't fit me!! Success at last!

One more acquisition to show, I ordered a bunch of stuff from KnitPicks (they were having an amazing sale on their sock size DPN set, I just couldn't resist) most I won't show because it's boring yarn for presents, but this I will:
It's their new sock yarn "Imagination" all of the colorways are named after fairy tale characters. It's been on back order since they debuted it (I want at least 2 other colorways that won't be in for another month). This is Wicked Witch (oh so appropriate for this time of year). It's amazing. It's a 50% merino, 25% alpaca (mmm alpaca), 25% nylon blend. Love it. And you really can't beat the price. Now if I could just find enough hours in the day to turn it into socks....

I Learned a New Trick

And I feel extremely clever. Yesterday, I got around to spinning more of my Terminus BFL. So much more that I filled up my cute little spindle.
So I wound it off onto my waiting "bobbin" (it's actually the tube that Theraband comes on - I'm finding that my AT supplies are sturdier than TP rolls) and proceeded to watch a video on how to Navajo ply. Navajo plying is a method of making a single ply into a three ply finished yarn. Up until this point, I've only done 2-ply yarn. It was a bit rocky at first - those first few yards won't be knittable, but I go the hang of it. And I LOVE the result.I'll have to work on a getting good pics of the yarn itself when I get some more done. But seriously, I'm so proud of myself. And I love the result so much that I may never go back to 2-ply. The next step is the ply-on-the-fly technique, but baby steps...I had a director for this photo shoot. She's very helpful.I've made some knitting progress in the last week. Finished the fourth chart on the Hidcote Shawl last night. Started the second ball of yarn as well. Will have to switch to a longer needle in the near future.
I also finished the first chart on the Mystery sock. I'm showing it off because I'm not too sure that it will end up being gifted. I might possibly like them too much... Yeah, I'm a selfish knitter like that.
I love the way the leaves are floating along. And the orange is growing on me. Maybe because it's starting to feel like fall, and actually is officially fall today. Thoughts of pumpkins and apples and candy corns starting to dance in my head.

And last up, knitting friend Meagan gave me my birthday present Saturday night when she came over to make Christmas cards. (Yep, Christmas cards, she's much better about being on top of things than I am)
Miss Maddie was very upset that she was not allowed access to the outdoor shoot.