I LOVE my Namaste!

If you've been on Ravelry for any length of time, you may have heard of Namaste knitting bags. Actually, they are so stylish that many people (including me) just use them as purses (though I have a sock project in mine as well.) They come in great colors and are made of an animal friendly material, but look and feel very much like leather. J. leigh will be giving a Monroe bag away. Just go to her blog, follow her instructions and you may win yourself one!

Happy New Year!

I'm making two resolutions for the new year....I hope I will be able to stick to them and they will be beneficial to me.

I'm still trying to work out the details of the second one, but the first one is to challenge myself in my knitting. I'm going to try different techniques that I have, so far, stayed away from. I'm going to learn intarsia this year. I really want to do thing like the Nordic mittens and hats that I lust over on Ravelry. I'm also going to learn better finishing techniques that keep me from knitting more sweaters. I've only made 2 complete sweaters because I really hate sewing all the pieces up.

My second resolution will be more difficult, because I need to figure out ways to carry it out. I want to be more environmentally conscious. I've done a few things around the house this past year that made me feel good about my green footprint as well as saving money. And I'd like to do more.

One thing that I did all year, was to make and use my own laundry soap. It's so much cheaper (I spent about $14 on the ingredients to make the soap in 2009) and no nasty phosphates dirtying out water. I also stopped buying papertowels and napkins and now we just use towels, dishcloths, and fabric napkins in the kitchen. This was mostly because we've been short on cash this year, but I realized how much less trash we are creating by doing this. So one thing I can do is knit some more dishcloths this year:)

Anyway, I'm going to reseach the environmental aspect of my new years resolutions and make some changes around the house for 2010.

Passing on a fellow knitters contest

Melissa, crazycatladymel, just started a contest a few weeks ago. The prize is a skein of her new hand dyed yarn, Urban Legends, and a project bag. To enter her contest, she asks that you donate some yarn and/or knitting notions to Interim House, a rehab facility that has added knitting/crochet to their curriculum.
Here's the link...

Contest Winner:)

Teopea, of Redqueensrace, is the sole entrant and, therefore, the winner! It's ok by me...I just wanted to gift some yarn on someone who would use it. Since Teopea is also in the Booty Club, I know she likes Georgia's yarn, and will have fun knitting with it.

Not much else of consequence is going on...I'm almost finished with Diane's Dragonflies, a pair of socks that I'm making for a friend/coworker.

She likes purple and pretty things, we have fun shopping and finding cute things together. Last month, we went to Yule Love it Lavender Farm for a girl's day out. We also keep an eye out for any chick flick's we want to see. Since she's such a kindred spirit and same foot size, I decided to make her some pretty socks.

I'm also itching to work on knitting sweaters, in preparation for fall or maybe just because I'm feeling more up to the task of knitting them. I've been nearly done with Amused for some time now, when I finish that I have a whole list of sweaters to knit next.

Contest!!!

This may be a bit premature....as I don't have any regular readers. But, I'm having a contest!

I just saw the latest Harry Potter movie, and I'm rereading the book; Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I'd love to hear anyone's favorite HP moments/or characters. Please post in the comments your favs and I will choose, at random, a winner to receive a skein of Yarn Pirate yarn.

Of course, I'd love to share my favorite characters in the series. I sincerly love Fred and George Weasley. I adore that they never take anything seriously...probably because I take everything seriously:) My favorite Fred and George moment was when they went all wild as they left Hogwarts. They set off several magical fireworks and created a moat in the main hall of the school. Naturally, the professors could have cleaned up the mess quickly, but since Umbridge alienated everyone, the other professors claimed they could do nothing and left the mess up to her to deal with. It was a just punishment for that woman, in my opinion!

I'd love to hear your favorites.... I will choose a winner, at random, by July 30th.

Group Knitting

Until this year, so far in my knitting career, I haven't knitted in a group. I think at first I was kind of shy about knitting in public (oh my, what would people think?!?) Then when I knew knitting was more than just a passing fancy for me, I really couldn't find a knitting group that was convienent in time/place.

Luckily for me, that has changed! My soon-to-be sister-in-law, Melissa, is a knitter as well. So we had our own Girls Knit Night Out last month. We met up at Barnes and Noble, sat in the coffee shop and talked (bitched), knitted and drank foofy coffees all evening. We even had other people stop by our table to see what we were doing (I was knitting socks, and Melly was making a purse on a loom.) It was such a successful evening, we are going to do it once a month.

I also have recently gotten reconnected with a good high school friend, Corrine. She's a librarian at a local library and one of the things she does is organize/run their monthly knitting group. So far I have been to two of their meetings. The first time I was a little shy because I usually am in any new situation and because I hadn't seen Corrine in over 20 yrs. But last week, I had a lot of fun...I helped a girl learn how to knit on circs, I talked to a lot more people, and I totally messed up my sock because I was so much more interested in other peoples work and conversations:)

Anyway, my point is...knitting in a group is a lot more fun and socially acceptable than I thought. I might even check out my LYS's and see what their drop-in knitting groups are like.

Oops, I did it again:(

I bought yarn! I was trying not too, I was/am working on taming the stash. On Ravelry, I joined the Stash Sock Club group. In an effort to economize, I wanted to only knit from my stash. Today I broke down and went to one of my favorite LYS. Heritage Spinning and Weaving, over in Lake Orion, has a yarn sale going on and I had a coupon for an extra 10% off! Mercy! I had the Hubby drive over with me today (since we both got off work early) and he sat in the car enjoying the weather and listening to Sports Radio, while I got to shop the sale section and the sock section at Heritage to my hearts content.
The top three skeins, Tofutsies and Panda Soy, were not on sale. However....the bottom four, Cozy Cotton and Regia, were 40% off!!! Of course, I like the full price stuff better (and so does Ickkle, who you can see to the top right. She kept touching the Panda Soy.) So I'll just put this spill off the yarn wagon down to shopping local and helping out my favorite LYS in these hard economic times. Oh hell....I just wanted to buy more pretty yarn, I couldn't help myself.

One of the socks I'm working on is some Yarn Pirate Booty Club yarn from last year. Neptune was such a pretty colorway, I wasn't sure what pattern would look great with it. I finally picked Artichoke because I saw another Raveler, woolleyone, use Neptune for that sock pattern. And I really like them! Since they will be done a couple weeks before Mother's Day, I think I will gift them on my Mum. Sorry for the blurry pic...I'll have to take another better one when they are finished.