Tidewater is my life....

So I homeschool my son, not in knitting yet, and there is so much to do around the house in any given day. Am I doing any of it? Well schooling is still happening, but the laundry, not so much. I did take some time out today to put in the rest of the flowers for my back flower bed. Now I need to work on the front flower bed and making the raised bed for my veggies.

The thing is all I want to do is knit on the Tidewater. I'm a bit itchy to start the Cable Down Raglan as well but I want to get a bit farther on the Tidewater first. See I can even put off the itchy of a new fabulous project because of this one. (Ha! That makes it sound like I have tons of projects on the needles at once, I don't cause you know socks don't count)

That's how far I am, not very, but I'm very happy with it. Think I can have it done in time to wear to the Washington Coast for our summer vacation? It's cool on the coast in June right? I can wear it and not die of a heat stroke right? Eh I'm taking it anyway.

Yarn Crawl

A friend asked if I was going to buy yarn at every yarn store we stopped at. The answer was yes apparently I was. Well with the exception of one store. It was very, very small and the owner/employee was very interested in her own project and not helping me with mine. There was a lovely French pastry shop next door though and we did get something there. :D


Wanna see the lovely yarn I bought? Well your going to anyway...





Bought this at the first shop, Posh, A Yarn Boutique, it is a lovely shop with a wonderful selection. Unfortunately I was being picky about the yarn I wanted for the Tidewater Wrap (a Ravelry link) She had a fabulous merino/cashmere blend that would Divine. It was also not in colors I wanted to put together. The Tidewater calls for 6 colors and I really wanted them to be mostly in the same family. So I had to walk away without it, but I did find that lovely yarn. It was like foreshadowing or something.

We then made our way to the Lamb Shoppe I think this was my favorite shop. (Well each was my favorite as we were there.) The great thing about the Lamb Shoppe is it has a HUGE selection of yarn, and better yet, it has a coffee bar right there in the shop. So very nice. I had moved on to looking for yarn for the Cable Down Raglan(Ravelry link). I was not happy with what I was finding for the Tidewater. I looked at Brown Sheep Lambs Pride but started thinking that would really limit when I could wear the sweater. It just does not get that cold here most of the time in winter. So I looked at the their Cotton Fleece talked with one of the wonderful women there and decided that would be what I would get.



The color is called peridot and it is a bit greener than the picture, but fairly close. Very happy with it.

Then because the theme had become I get sock yarn everywhere because it doesn't count, I picked this up. I'm not sure when I changed to blues from greens but the color of the day seemed to be blue.

I'm not naming the next shop since I don't have anything nice to say and I didn't even buy sock yarn there.

Finally we drove out to Shower of Flowers which is actually a favorite shop of mine. I love going there, friendly, knowledgeable staff and a ginormous selection of yarn. I finally found the yarn for the Tidewater. We sat on the floor of the shop and looked at all the colors available and decided what to get.

Isn't it pretty. I'm so happy with it. The pattern calls for purple but the purple they had were decidedly blue in hue and I wanted something that would pop. I think the salmon is it. I also bought Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements a US size 1 40inch circ needles, and the coolest button to go with the wrap ever. That picture will have to be for another day though.

All in all a wonderful day of yarn fun.

It's been 2 months so time for an update.

I have been knitting, and gardening, and teaching and well lots of stuff I just haven't been recording it here or really anywhere.

So let's talk about the knitting and then maybe some of the other things. I finished a hat for a friend and she loved it. I used the Harvard Square Cap (ravelry link) pattern from the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits. I added to i-cord strings to the ears and a sc crochet loop to the top of the hat so she could tie it on as a night cap or tie them up inside the hat to wear during the day. She loved it so I'm happy with what I did.

Also finished the Thorn & Thistle (ravelry again) twinset from Interweave Knits Spring 2006. Well except it wasn't the whole twinset only the tank. I didn't buy enough yarn to knit both. Kind of regret that now, but didn't have the money to buy yarn for both and figured I'd get more wear out the tank than the cardigan. Still true actually. I think I need to knit this again in another color so I have more than one. Thing is I knit it in worsted weight yarn and the pattern calls for DK weight and I'm not sure what to do for the second one I knit. Stick with the same yarn and just pick a different color (used Knit Picks Shine Worsted) or if I should try to find a dk weight yarn and knit it in the 'correct' size for me.

Need to find a new project. I'm going on a yarn crawl for my birthday next Saturday. Very excited, figure I can definately find a new project then. I really need to go through all the yarn in the garage, we have had a mouse infestation this winter/spring and I need to see what is still usable and what needs to be thrown far away for fear of mouse pee. *shudder*

The business of knitting or something like that...

So I really am going to set up a Etsy shop and I'm looking for the logo. Some of you have seen some of these before, (well if you came over here when I asked you to) but I want to explain a bit more.

What I'm really asking is which of the sheep you like the most. The plan is to have earthami knits coming off whichever sheep wins the beauty contest. (Yes Heather, the plan is to have it in green, you are absolutely right about that)

The poll is off to the right.

I have no other instructions, although if you have more to say please post in the comments or email me directly.

ETA: The final choice will be re-painted so the fine details will be better and it is good to know if you liked the face on one and the body of another. (thanks Sis)

Sheep 1














Sheep 2

Sheep 3

A Wordle for my blog

title="Wordle: Earthamiknits"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/339058/Earthamiknits"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

Sweaters, and Socks...

I've started on E's new Griffyndor sweater. It is going to drive me crazy and I don't like the yarn, but I'm trying to get over myself and just knit it. I'm using some of the acrylic yarn I recived from our friends grandma. Yuck to acrylic, but I'm reminding myself that this is for a 6 year old boy who will wear it for one winter and out grow it. Plus doesn't really need it to last that long. I'm trying very hard to make it large enough it can go over another shirt, since last years model was too tight in the arms to be anything but a primary layer. Sigh. I'm still learning this shit though.

It is burgandy and gold, as are the movie colors rather than scarlet and gold, simply because I didn't have any scarlet yarn, well not any I was willing to use, the reds she had were more like Ronald McDonald hair red, than anything I would put in a sweater for my son to wear. (See I'm still picky)

The fabric is really dense because the yarn is a heavy worsted and I'm using size 7 needles, and I do not knit loosely ;) 4.5 sts/inch. I figure that will work since it is going to be an outer sweater to help keep him warm, and it isn't wool which has real insulating properties. (yes I'm still confllicted about knitting this in acrylic why do you ask?) Eh, we'll see, it shouldn't take too long to knit up and then we'll see what we see. He wanted it to be the exact same colors as last year but when i told him I would have to buy the yarn he looked sternly at me and told me, yet again, that I am not allowed to buy yarn while I still have a garage full of yarn. ;) (he takes after his father in many ways)

Socks, what am I doing wrong? I don't think hand knit socks are all that cofortable. I think it is partly because I'm getting the fit all wrong. the last pair I knit E are really too tight to pull on his feet. How to you make the heel so you have extra room to get them over your heel/arch? He has skinny legs so to keep them up they need to be pretty small at the top but then they are a bit too tight to get over his heel. Also I think I'm running into problems because I tend to knit tight and so they don't have much stretch. Hmmm maybe if I knit them in a k1p1 all over pattern (well except for the sole) they would give enough stretch? Anyone have an idea?

No really I am still knitting.

This is not going to be a post about the baby sweaters or the craft show I didn't go to. Instead this is going to be a post about a really fun quick knit I just did. My son E has a love of cephalopods, yeah I have no idea where it comes from but there it is. I knit him a cuttlefish earlier this year. He loves it. At the time I got that pattern I also bought a squid, octopus, and dumbo octopus pattern. He wanted the squid next and I had him pick out the yarn and I've been promising to make it for months now. Well on Thursday morning I decided this was the day and I started on the arms. I finished all 8 arms and both tentacles by that night. Yesterday I started on the rest and by 6 last night it was done. So I present to you Squid Squid and Cuttie...


As you can see they have become fast friends and both enjoy sleeping with a 6 year old boy. Who knew that nearly alien sea creatures could be so darn cuddly?