January Prize Drawing Winner Announced

I always wonder if Random.org is fair to early numbers.  It seems middle numbers are drawn most often and occasionally later numbers are drawn but the early numbers, 1-5 for example, are not often drawn.

As it turns out, we have an early number winner this time around.. Number One… Deborah Filmore, You Won!!  Please send me an email with your mailing address and I will have your book out to you this week.

The next prize drawing will be announced later this week.  Hint: not a book this time but something fiber related.  Have a great week!

Contest Items Sent

So, I’ve been waiting since before the contest for some items to arrive, to include the prizes.  If you have been listening to the podcast from the beginning, you know mail is very s-l-o-w getting here most times.  I am expecting over 12 packages to arrive, some that were ordered 3 mos ago!  

So, I just couldn’t sit back and wait any longer, I had to order something and now, since I know who the winners are, I can have the items sent directly to them – whew!

 

So, Maevie won a set of stitch markers from AnniePurl’s Etsy Shop, aren’t they purdy?:

Blueberry Bliss by AnniePurls Etsy Shop

 

PattybVT won a skein of Araucania Ranco in Sky Blue from Simply Socks Yarn Co.:

 

Araucania Ranco Sock

 

Again, Congratulations Ladies!  

 

The Spring KAL/CAL for Babies has begun.  I am actively seeking prizes and welcome any prize donations.  Email destiknit AT gmail DOT com  :) Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

Early Release This Week…

… Why?

Because we’re having a PRIZE DRAWING!!!

Maevie has won the door prize and doesn’t even know! hehehe

You can win the next prize – and it’s easy to enter – all you have to do is go to iTunes and leave a comment about the Podcast!  

But hurry - this is a short contest – I will assign each comment a number and then randomly select a winner at Midnight PST (9am Rome) on Sunday Feb 15th. (click here for a time converter)

So, what’s up for grabs?

Winner’s Choice of one of the following Surprise Theme Packages:

• Socks
• Lace
• Spin
• Mitts

So you actually read down this far?  GO!  Leave a comment!   ;)

 

ETA – Due to the ‘distance’ issue and my wanting to get prizes out ASAP, I have decided to go through a third party to send the prizes out – will keep the winners posted ;)

Oops!

In my haste to record and air Episode #12, I forgot to post here as well as on the DTP Notes Page!  :”)

:apologies:

Since I am catching up with you, I must warn you that this post will be quite heavy with the photos…  But you don’t mind, do you? ;)

My Holidays were bustling as each of yours were, I am sure.  Still, I did manage to find a few moments of solitude in the forms of knitting, spinning and dyeing, every now and then.  My only true knitting obligation was a ‘neck warmer’ of sorts to be ‘sent back’ to the wonderful Fibers, who gifted me a Magnificent MYB (see last post).  Fibers’ yarn was a gorgeous merino/silk blend and I must admit, I had a very trying time deciding just what to do with it.  

Ultimately, I chose to knit a mobius cowl, something with a nice amount of drape to play up the silk content of the yarn.  I thought this cowl could be worn not only to keep the neck warm but also the head, by pulling the back up as a hood or worm simply to dress up an outfit.  

 

Mobius Cowl

Mobius Cowl

From there, I went on to dyeing.  I had spun up some Corriedale, labeled as Bobbin No. 5 and it has been sitting here just waiting to become something.  DD had received some yoga gear for Christmas, one of which was a yoga mat.  The yoga mat, we quickly learned, did not come with a carry strap or sack as advertised. :/ Mom to the rescue, well sort of.  I told DD I would knit her a sack but it may take awhile.  In the meantime, we dyed Bobbin No. 5, resulting in this:

 

Bobbin No. 5 Hand Dyed

Not too bad.  Most importantly, she likes it!

After we dyed that skein of yarn, I realized I really wanted to spin.  I pulled out 4 oz of Corriedale and started right away.  The next morning I had 4 oz of this:

 

MY Sock Yarn!

I will admit, I was so pleased with myself.  I had finally managed to spin 4 0z of somewhat consistent yarn, and sock yarn no less!  

I toyed with the idea of just casting on for a pair of socks.  But, I then thought of the dyeing I really wanted to do… mixing and testing new colors and trying lime instead of vinegar to fix the color.  I decided to split the 4 oz into mini skeins and soaked them overnight.  The next morning, after breakfast, after lunch, after playing with the kids, after dinner… OK, it was the next evening ;)  after the kids were in bed and DH was in his office, I started a few dye pots and after an evening of dyeing and a day of drying, I ended up with this:

 

Dye Night Bounty

 

 

First, I wanted to replicate the color I had mistakenly made for the Blue Booties.  I think I came very close, what do you think?

 

Darkest Blue

After pulling the above yarn from the pot, I noticed there was much dye left.  I plunked in another mini skein and the results were surprisingly pleasing:

 

Surprise Blue

Believe it or not, there was still so much dye left in the pot!  I then reserved the dye pot to later dye some top.  

 

Surprise Blue Top

 

 

 

 

From there, I was in search of forest colors.  Green and Brown is what I was after.  Green and a Rusty Brown is what I got:

 

Green

Rusty

While the brown is not the shade I was going for, I am pleased with the resulting color.  I can see this color on my feet ;)

After the green and rust skeins were dyed, each dye pot still had some color left.  I decided to play with my “Exercise Yarn”, resulting in this:

 

Exercise Yarn

I think this will be knit up and felted for some future projects DD has in mind.  No waste! :)

My Holiday ended just after the New Year, this is when I allowed myself to log in at Ravelry.  There I had discovered the BOM KAL in Monthly Adventures Group had begun.  Fibers had selected a Moss Stitch block, my favorite textured stitch.  Since I had been knitting that stitch for the Kenobi, I decided to search for a stitch pattern which incorporated Moss Stitch into it. 

 

Tumbling Blocks

I’ve loved this stitch pattern for baby blankets and thought having a block of my very own would be nice.  

I mentioned in the Podcast, my children and I spent several hours over the Holidays, spinning.  After which, DS1 presented me with this:

 

Q's Lego Spindle!

Yes!  My DS1 fashioned a working spindle out of Lego parts!  You can see the yarn we started, wrapped around the shaft.  

I think that is all for now… see you next week!

First HandSpun Knit!

ETA: 13 Dec 2009: Link to Pattern – PDF 

 

As posted last week, I spun carded Corriedale into a 2 ply fingering weight wool and dyed it a brilliant blue. The small skein has been knitted into darling booties for my DS3:

 

Baby Booties

 

 

The design was an organic manifestation and I am in the process of writing out the pattern, which will be posted here and in Ravelry.

Busy Body

 

 

I have been quite the busy body, more so than usual.  In addition to the care and keeping of home and family, I have been knitting, spinning, dyeing, updating my virtual world and podcasting … mostly spinning, but still.  

Of course, America celebrated our Thanksgiving, which, while we are in Italy, we still celebrated.  We each found it quite comforting as we are all eager to leave Italy and are equally homesick.  We lost our ADSL connection and telephone for FOUR DAYS!  On Day One, it seemed like our lives could not exists without the internet but by Day Four we seemed to ‘reconnect’ without being ‘connected’.  Life’s mysteries. 

Here are DD’s finished mitts:

Mitts

Here are the first Three Bobbins:

 

First Three Bobbins

 

 

 

Then Plied:

 

Plied

 

Merino:

 

Bobbin 4 - Merino

 

Bobbin 5:

 

Bobbin 5

 

Bobbin 5

 

 

 

 

Bobbin 6 – Andean Plied:

 

Bobbin 6 - Andean Plied

 

 

Bobbin 6 Dyed:

 

 

Bobbin 6 - Dyed

 

 

 

 

 

Bobbin 6 - caked

Bobbin 6 is being used to knit a pair of booties for DS3, it is so rewarding to knit with yarn you have spun yourself!

Announcements

• All items sold on the Shop page will be shipped FREE to US and $5 off for International from today until Jan 01, 2009!
• Destiknit the Podcast group is now open in Ravelry!
• New Items in Books’n'More Store!
• Project sacks from Elefanteshoes (my DD!)

Make your Own DPN/WIP Tube!

 

As mentioned in this week’s Podcast, here are the photos of my repurposed Crystal Light container:

 

 

 

DIY DPN/WIP Tube

 

 

Close up of the working end opening.

 

 

WIP and notions inside tube.

 

 

WIP and notions outside of tube.

Did you notice?

Have you noticed, not only am I posting again but, I have started a Podcast?  I love to read my favorite bloggers (kinda goes without saying, right?) but oftentimes I don’t have the time.  However, my favorite Podcasts are easy to catch up on – plus I can knit while I listen!

Realizing I am not the only one who falls into this and that you may not visit me for the very same reasons, -Gosh, Life just sort of gets in the way sometimes, huh?- I created Destiknit™ the Podcast.  I am sort of all over the place on it right now.  That is, I am not steadfast on a format nor am I sure if I want to extend the Blog into the Podcast or let them remain their own entities.  I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this, after all, I created this blog for myself but have been pleasantly surprised at how it has been received by you.  ~Thank you.  As usual, I will read all comments before they are published – so if you do not want your name or comment published, let me know.

So, thank you my knitting friends.  I look forward to your feedback.

Book Review

 

 

 

Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard

Last year, I had gotten wind of a knitting book in the works by Wendy Bernard, the creator of KnitandTonic.

For those of you who do not know of Wendy or her blog, she is a funny and quirky knitter and designer.  Of the many posts I have read on her site, I have LOL many a time – go check her out.

So, I sort of stalked Wendy’s designer’s page on Ravelry – hoping to catch a glimpse of the designs that will be in the book.  I will admit, that as designs were released there was only one design that I was really interested in and one design will not send me running to the bookstore or Amazon.com  to purchase the book.  In fact, our hokey little bookstore would likely not carry the book, I feel like I’m extracting teeth when I ask for a knitting book.  Anyhow, imagine my surprise two weeks ago when I stopped in and saw on the shelf Wendy’s book, Custom Knits.

Surprised that I was, I did not even graze the cover – I had that sneak peek on Ravelry, so I just knew I wasn’t interested.  I left the bookstore empty handed.  Last week, I stopped in again, I am waiting for the Holiday issues of Vogue and Interweave to show up.  Nope, neither of them were there, but Custom Knits was.  I decided to take a gander.

Wow, I hadn’t even opened the book yet and I was surprised at how big this book is.  Now, I don’t mean that it is an oversized book, but it is thick!  What in the name of knitting was between the covers?  Were there more patterns inside that were not spoiled on Ravelry?  I had to find out.  I opened the book and was immediately taken in by the beauty of it.  As I had expected from STC Publishing, it is after all, a beautiful book.  

What I hadn’t anticipated from this book was that it was to be an instructional and reference book more so than a pattern book.  I love reference and instructional anything, almost on any subject, but if it is knitting – I’m buying it!  So, I barely thumbed through Wendy’s book and I quickly walked to the cashier’s counter and purchased the book.  I then went outside of the bookstore, ordered a tea for me and an ice cream for my little guy and I was absorbed in that book.  

Custom Knits is a pattern book but, more importantly, it is a How-To book.  Wendy shows us how to create sweaters mostly from top-down and how to customize them to your own body shape or your own style to ‘Make It Your Own’. She gradually enables the knitter to learn and try new techniques in small ways, such as fair isle and steeks – almost sneaky!  - and encourages us to design our own knitwear.  This book is a great addition to any knitter’s bookshelf, the new knitter who wants to learn to knit from the top-down, and the practiced knitter who wants to design her own sweater but just needs a little nudge to do so.

From now until October 31, Custom Knits is on sale at KnitPicks for $16.50, or every day at Amazon for $18.15.  Go out and yourself a copy, today!

 

 

Holiday Knitting Updates

I have found that by outing myself, that is, by posting my holiday knit list in my Ravelry groups, my KALs and here on the blog, I have found motivation to get my tail in gear.  I’ve finished a cowl for DD and I finally finished that Baby Sweater, now to focus on the other items:

• Kenobi-DH-15%
• Mitts-DD-10%
• Hat-DS1-0%
• Hat-DS2-0%
• Booties-DS3-0%
• Mitts-DH-0%
• Socks-DS3-10%
• Slippers-DS2-15%
• Socks-ME-10%

There are other items that I plan to knit but these are the ‘high priority” items.  The Kenobi is time consuming, simply due to it’s size – it’s a men’s sweater – ’nuff said.  The next three items are daunting for me, as they are all stranded projects and one of them is actually an “off the cuff” design.  I am not so excited  to start any of the stranded projects but I suspect that once I get going, I will enjoy it and it will go quickly – I hope.  In fact, I am praying to the knitting goddesses that will be the case.