swift stitch on swift st

What a cute name! This knitting shop, the Swift Stitch, was in an adorable little boutique-y mall area. Interestingly enough, though, it was located on Swift Street. Pun intended? I'm not sure. But I love it. Next door was a chic bakery and a closet of a comic book store.

I've only had this yarn for like a day and a half, and already I've been quickly making a pair of socks! It's a disease, I tell you!

I knitted socks from this pattern nonstop during my freshman year in college since I had lots of bus rides between campuses (they put me in the opposite campus from where all my classes were :P). So after knitting like 4 pairs of these amazing socks (pattern by my knitting mentor, the one and only Caryn Lantz of Fuzzy Noodle Knits--google her. She's a huge deal) I memorized the pattern, and it's been stuck in my head ever since. Whenever I don't have a specific pattern or project I want to do, I just 
make socks... I love the pattern because it's simple, it's made for circular needles, and I can make any size sock from it by just tweaking the numbers a little. :) Perfection! 

Anyway, enjoy these pics of my gorgeous new yarn!

Note: I forgot to say, I bought this stuff when I was on vacation in Santa Cruz.

when stress isn't as pertinent in my life...

... i tend to not knit as much. It's as if knitting is my reaction to stress, or something. Anyway, I'm sure once school fires up again I'll be madly knitting away. I have a few works in progress, but they've seen little attention. One, another toque, much like the one I gave away for Christmas. This one will be white with one brown stripe and one blue stripe. I haven't decided for sure yet, but this hat will probably end up being mine. It depends on how much I can bear life without it. The other project is that pair of purple and black norwegian mittens, which I am absolutely in love with and could not imagine giving them away. Those, of course, will be mine. I have a feeling they'll be finished sometime next year... Oh well. :)

In the meantime, I've been spending a lot of time with my nose in a series of manga called Death Note. I am absolutely... completely... addicted. I began with watching the show. I must say, the manga is a piece of art. And my favorite character, thus far anyway, is Ryuk, the bored shinigami. 

Another book that has been in my reading pile on my desk is the Hunger Games. I'm not too far into it yet, but hopefully I'll be further into it real soon-like. 

My goal? Finish at least 3 more Death Note books, The Hunger Games, and at least half of the toque before school starts next Tuesday.

chrysanthemum cuffs

 I think I'm addicted to Norwegian style mittens. 


Had I known before how easy they are to make, I wouldn't have wasted my time with any such nonsense as socks and baby bootees... These are my true calling. These, and voyageur's toques. I'll have a picture of that blue toque posted soon, I just haven't had the chance to take one yet. It turned out amazingly, and I already have 4 orders for more... They'll just have to wait til after my chrysanthemum mittens are finished. 


The pattern is Chrysanthemums from Knitty.com The colors in these mittens were hand picked by my baby brother, and I think he did a darn good job. It's a sock weight yarn. The MC is a silvery purple heather (wool & bamboo blend from JoAnn), and the CC is black (pretty sure it's either superwash merino wool from Knit Picks, or acrylic from Gruber's Quilt Shoppe in St Cloud). I'm knitting these mittens using two Addi Turbo circs, US size 1. Bet you're surprised to see me using metal needles, huh! Usually I do prefer using bamboo, but Addi's are sooooooo slick. If I were rich I'd own all of the Addi's in the world... But alas, I am poor. College does that to a kid. Bah. 


More pics later!

finals are over, the mad rush for finishing christmas presents has begun

 So this is a hat that my boyfriend's brother wanted me to make for him for Christmas. So far I'm very VERY happy with how it's coming along, and the color is gorgeous. I'm using #6 bamboo circulars (2 of them) and DK weight merino wool yarn. I love this hat. Here's a pic of what it'll look like VERY soon (I say very because, well, I'm supposed to give it to him on Saturday).

I've been working on other things too, but mostly this hat has been taking up my time (and by that I mean, since after my last exam yesterday).


Just look at that color! Brilliant! 

After I took pictures of the beautiful hat, I was bored so I started taking pictures of other random things in my room... 

  Like these ornaments...

or this santa....

And my favorite, this owl that lives on my wrapping paper. So cute! I've been having fun wrapping things with this paper... For my aunts' gifts I wrapped them first in owls, then I tied three strands of different shades of green yarn around like a ribbon, and then I tied a green bauble ornament on the middle of the bow. I wish I had taken a photo of it, because it was absolutely adorable.

pure excitement

I finally received my knitpicks order!!! 

Here are some of the things I got today in the mail...

I can't wait to make pretty things out of them!!! I fricken love buying yarn...

norwegian-ness :)

 I started this mitten in like February, and I never got around to finishing it til now... Overall I'm happy about how it turned out, but I think for future mittens from this pattern I'd probably use larger needles. Definitely. It's just a good thing I have baby-size hands, because otherwise I'd be SOL.

The yarn is merino worsted weight from Knitpicks. I used size 3 bamboo circs. 

Starting this project up again made me really interested in colorwork, and I had so many people asking me if it was fair isle that I had to research what exactly fair isle is... It turns out that NO: this was not knitted using fair isle technique. Fair isle is where it has the same pattern on both sides of the work, but opposite colors. 


I started looking for more Norwegian mitten patterns, and I found one with a chrysanthemum pattern on the back from Knitty.com. I think that will be my next pair of mittens... Most definitely. I could use some of that fricken sweet yarn that I'm STILL waiting to come in the mail... Thanks, apartment that I lived in last year, for the excellent customer service :P ... I say that because if they had told me that they had my package when I went and asked them if they had my package last week, then I would have it by now. Since they did not, the package got sent BACK to the post office, and now I'm waiting for it to come back AGAIN. Hoping for Tuesday (*crosses fingers*). 

still waiting on packages... but in the meantime

 I've been working on these bootees whenever I can, which is like, almost never. It's sad because this week I have zero time to work on my knitting projects! Probably for the best though, because I'm still waiting for my package of yarn to come in the mail (it's been a trying time...). 


With school and planning a winter break trip to Cali and sorority activities and life, I've been absolutely booked. I barely have time to chill for a half hour and read my new favorite book before bed (The second volume of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes--I definitely recommend it).

Along with knitting these sweet little things when I can, I've been attending Christmas parties and Chirstmas parties (spelling intended...) galore. Last night my favorite farming fraternity had their holiday party, and I made two cute little origami gift boxes! I'm pretty sure I know what I'm gonna put in them...


So, needless to say, I'm looking forward to the end of this semester so I can finally get working on some fuzzy articles of clothing for Christmas gifts! It's necessary for my sanity and general well-being...