by Kat | Dec 22, 2017 | General
Yesterday, I began my new stitching project and I am so excited about it, I had to share my humble beginnings with you all! I am happy to report that couching with hand spun yarn is the way to go!! And, I am maintaining my entirely “free stitching” and I used no tracing or no marking.
And, so Welcome to Winter! I have 88 more days to stitch and I am excited for each and every one of them!
Are any of you going to start a stitching project (or any project, really… I have semi-seriously been pondering this cowl) AND, there are some who talked about starting a Woman Must Make Her Own Arrows in January too! I thought it might be nice to have a little support group to cheer each other on. If you want to start a Year of Stitching and you don’t know how to begin, email me (kachrist37 (at) gmail (dot) com) and I would be happy to help you get started! If you are interested in a little group support for a year long project, leave a comment here and I will start an email thread of where to do that easily.
Now, how about some links?
Gentle Morning
I love the story behind this hat
A Lacy Boxy with heart
More good cause knitting, Girlfriendscardigan Anke
That is all I have for the Friday before Christmas. Go out and make some merry today! Have a great weekend! I am debating about a post on Monday but, I want to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!
by Kat | Dec 15, 2017 | General
I have been doing some super-secret knitting during the day which I can’t tell you all about or show you just yet, but I am making some good progress. This has been assisted greatly by audiobooks (I am almost done with Bonfire) and Season 2 of The Crown on Netflix, which I finished yesterday.
I am anticipating this super-secret knitting to be completed today, which will allow me to BREATHE a deep sigh of relief!
I am also anticipating the 2018 Read Harder Challenge, which I am going to participate in next year. I have also been contemplating my Goodreads book challenge this year – do I play it safe or really push myself this year? Perhaps with the Net Neutrality debacle, reading might be more important next year as streaming Netflix might be limited. I am leaning towards pushing myself.
AND, as you can see, I am really ready for some Christmas Break Reading. The Library is being SUPER good to me right now and has somehow moved me up on my “hold list” almost to the GAH point! I checked out the above books on Tuesday night, and last night Killers of the Flower Moon was downloaded to my iPad. With these additions, it almost feels like I can make that 85-books-read mark!
But, how about some links:
First up, staying with the reading theme:
I laughed at this Hogwarts House Quiz (I got Slytherins and loved that I have read most of the books on the House Slytherin list)
I also loved the 100 Must-Read Books with One-Word Titles. I added quite a few to my read list!
Are you a mystery series lover? 25 Of The Absolute Best Cozy Mystery Series
Also, FYI: You can now follow hashtags on IG…
And, finally the knitting links:
Playtime
Sankta Lucia Socks
Little Knots Cardigan… LOVE!
Is 2018 you Year of Knitting? Big Sky Weather Scarf This could be an excellent stash buster as well!
Pine Burr I am not sure if it’s the color (which is divine!) or the stitch pattern but, I love this cowl!
Bittersweet Oh, my. I love the texture. Will 2018 be the year I finally tackle texture?
And, Kate Atherley’s Rosetta Tharpe is FREE until midnight December 17th in honor of the induction of Ms. Tharpe to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
That is all I have for this week! Have a great weekend and I will see you back here on Monday!
by Kat | Dec 8, 2017 | General
The knitting marches on, albeit slowly. However, today I am going to share a bit of a preview about my 2018 Stitching Project, which will begin on December 21 and I am taking a bit of license from Vivaldi and borrowing his Four Seasons. There will be four much larger stitching projects; Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. And, while they will still be free-hand stitching – no drawing out of my design, the season of stitches will all be the same motif, but will change color as the season does.
I have also been wondering how handspun yarn would work to use for stitching, so I have been playing with some fiber to create some “crayons” to stitch with. I will test this out before hand to see how I like it. I am not the best at spinning super fine yarns, so I am not sure that this will work as I am envisioning it. But, I am going to do some experimenting swatching and see what it looks like over the weekend and I will share my results back here on Monday.
Now, how about some links???
That is all I have for this week, have a great weekend – stay warm! I will see you back here on Monday!
by Kat | Nov 24, 2017 | General
I have to say, I really love long weekends that begin on Wednesday night and are filled with good food and even better company! This is that sort of weekend and while we will head out to participate in the rush of shopping, it won’t be the focus of the day.
Here is your reality check for the weekend though… there are only 30 days until Christmas so if you have any gift knitting to do that you have not started yet…stop reading this and go cast on! There might be a project or two in the links that will work in the time you have left, just sayin’…
There are some awesome sales going on in the fiber world, though.
Perhaps a couple of grab bags from Amy at Spunky Eclectic… she has one with yarn like this grab bag for instance, or she has some awesome grab bags for hand spinners like this, or this, or even this! And, her sale does not end there! She has spinning wheels on sale, and weaving looms like this awesome Schacht Flip rigid heddle or this Wolf Pup.
Also, don’t forget that Beth Smith has a giveaway going on for a free kit for her Spin & Weave Along!
Now, how about some links (or perhaps more links is more correct!)
Mary pointed Humulus out to me on Instagram the other day… Yeah, I love it!
I don’t know about you, but stranded knitting just seems to go faster than “regular” knitting. So, perhaps you can get these mittens done in time for Christmas and maybe these mitts too!
I have yet to jump on the Brioche bandwagon, but this hat might be the thing that makes me jump!
Duo Chrome… a sweater for Big people and Little people! And, you could knit this with the helical striping technique!
This sweater, love it!
Noux… so many good sweaters!
And, finally, I will do the tiniest bit of self-promotion, so please forgive me but I have a bit of a Black Friday Sale going on in my Lipsburgh Facebook Group. I have the product in stock and I’d be happy to help you pick the perfect LipSense™ color. I would love you to join me there!
Have a great weekend… AND, this is the last weekend of NaBloPoMo, so I will see you back here tomorrow!
by Kat | Nov 17, 2017 | General
Okay, seriously…not everyone in my house is happy it is Friday. I should probably be more sedate in my enthusiasm for the week’s end since Steve was selected to serve on jury today of all days. Now, if you live in Pittsburgh you already know what the problem is, for those that don’t its Light Up Night here. Which is apparently utter chaos if you work (or serve on a jury) downtown.
However, I am so freaking glad it is Friday especially that while my to-do list still has things on it, most of the big things are not!
First up, as I previously shared, I went to the Pittsburgh Indie Knit and Spin last weekend. While there were so many lovely vendors, most of the things offered were all “the same” (as in the same fiber, just dyed slightly differently) however, I did find one vendor who is doing some really amazing fiber blends. I would have fallen hard off my fiber diet, but I had the voice of reason with me. He is really good at saying no to things. LOL But, I wanted to share Hipstrings with you all today. Even if you are not a spinner, she has an amazing mill spun yarn that is really incredible. The dark brown fiber is Coal, which is a blend of Finn, Shetland, Black Welsh, and Tussah Silk. The feel of this fiber is just incredible, and I can’t wait to spin it! The other fiber is Wild Geese, a Shetland, BFL, Manx Loaghtan, and Flax. I know! Crazy! Anyways, a little bird told me that she has open studio hours monthly, so I see a trip to visit in my future!
AND!!! I finished Rusty yesterday while catching up with Outlander. All it needs are the final ends woven in and a nice soak and blocking. FYI, Steve thinks the sleeves are too short, and he may be right, but I will see what a bit of blocking does. But, even unblocked – I seriously love this sweater! And here are my mods: I knit the sweater as written until I got to the colorwork. I then added 3 stitches to make the colorwork pattern work out evenly. I did crochet steeks and then picked up stitches and knit on button bands rather than the crochet ones the pattern called for. I knit 6 repeats of the ribbing pattern and then bound off. After a conversation with Mary, I did YO K2tog button holes (I did 10 of them which worked best for me). Now all I need to do is find some buttons, but I think I am going to use my Nana’s button collection. I might be able to find 10 matching buttons, but if not, I know there are for sure 10 white buttons. Full beauty shots next week!
Oh, and the links this week were plentiful and sooo good!
This hat…but really, if you have never knit with Elsa’s yarn, this is the project you must do! Really!! I promise it is so divine and your head will thank you!
Svetlana has been busy again… this time a hat and a scarf!
Or perhaps the Ricochet mitts and hat are more your style!
Brooklyn Tweed’s Holiday Collection! OOOOO!
Peace Knitting… yes, please.
Just no!!
This collection, especially this. (And, this little peek into photography with Gale is not bad either!)
Did you see that Amy King has some lovely shawl pins and these mugs?
And, finally, Beth Smith has some very interesting things brewing and then this too!
That is all I have for this week! Have an awesome Friday and I will see you back here tomorrow!
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