ink n paper, hooks and needles

I hope everyone's Fall season is off to a great start and that you're finding time to work on some yarn projects. I'm busy working on a scarf for my Mom's birthday - which was last week.  I sent her a snapshot of the ball of yarn as a hint.  She understands.  After all, she's known me my whole life! I've also got another  golf club cover  (the link will take you to the first one) started for her and I'm working on a crocheted  afghan  for my oldest. In the midst of this, my sister told me that she loved the  wrist warmers  I made her for her birthday.  She wants some for Christmas.  She thinks maybe black.  And brown.  And pink.  I guess I'd better get those needles clicking! Speaking of crochet, apparently,  today was National Crochet Day!   I only found out because a yarn store in Salem posted a note on their Facebook page.  Thanks,  Tangled Purls!   If you've never...

I have joined the Pinners on Pinterest.  At first, I wasn't sure if I would ever use it or not but it turns out to be fun and a good source to add to my crafting/knitting/crocheting queue.   (Yeah, because I need a longer list of things I want to do!)  I found a  blog post  that explained how to use Kool Aid cubes to dye yarn.  I thought it looked like something I would enjoy. I had two skeins of bare Windsor Farms Angora Frost that seemed like a good candidate. I was a little nervous about how it would come out though so I only used one skein.  I just realized that the skein is only 200 yards so now I'm sort of bummed that I didn't do both.  I've been searching around though and I think I'll be able to come up with some patterns for 200 yards of fingering weight.  The project options would have been much better if I had done both skeins, though. I didn't follow the blog post instructions exactly because we aren't having hot sunny days...

On October 25, I managed to complete the Mistake Rib socks for my Mom and they fit and she loves them. Yay! This means two things: 1) I don't have to make another pair. 2) I have four skeins of that awesomely soft yarn that I can use for socks for me or some other cuddly item.

I finished one of the socks that has been pushing me over the edge. Another week or so and I'll have a pair! Hooray!!!

A while back, I made a hat with an open leaf pattern on it using James C. Brett Marble Chunky yarn. I loved the way it turned out. I like how it looks on my head even and I do not have a hat face! As an added bonus, the hat is very soft and the skein of yarn is huge so I had quite a bit left over. I adapted the leaf pattern and made a Foliage Scarf that I just pinned down for blocking tonight. (Note: our cute tabby enjoying the towel.) It was pouring down rain today and that really put me in the mood to make some Foliage Wristwarmers . I like how they are turning out so far and this picture is fun because 1) KnitPicks Harmony Wood DPNs are beautiful and 2) The DPNs make the wristwarmer look like a weapon. I am still working on the doggone Mistake Rib socks but I needed a break from them and the wristwarmers will only take a few hours to finish up.

These socks really are my bane! I've never done the heels and toes in a contrasting before but it didn't seem like it would be too difficult.  I had just finished picking up the stitches along each heel flap for the gusset and did four rounds when I realized something was not quite right. I forgot to switch to the main color to knit across the top of the foot so now there's a pink band across the top. Sigh. I am NOT going to fix it! I am going to knit until I'm out of pink or within four inches of the end, whichever comes first, then I'll switch back to blue. I don't expect it to look good but I just want to get these off my needles!!

So, I've named these socks "Soft Mistakes" because they are a pair of Mistake Rib Socks made with really soft yarn. Yeah, I know, I'm not a very clever name-giver. I am now thinking of changing their name to "inknpaper's Bane" because this has been one of the most frustrating projects I've done in a long time. To start this little project, I chose a yarn that I didn't have enough of but I didn't notice until I had finished the heel flaps. I decided to save the project by working the heels and toes in a contrasting color, which meant I had to frog the heel flaps. And order some contrasting yarn. When the new yarn arrived, I switched to it and flew through the heel flaps and ONE heel turn. While working the second heel turn, I got lost and had to rip out a few rows, which, unfortunately, happens to me often and is no big deal. Except, when I was done with the heel turn, I noticed I dropped a stitch on the first row of the heel turn. ...

The Kirsche colorway yarn showed up yesterday.  It's a lot more pink than I expected from the product photo but I like it. I also picked up a color called Papgei to make another pair.  So, I'll post pics when they are done and let my mom choose which pair she wants.

I am was making my Mom a pair of socks using the Mistake Rib Pattern by Barbara Breiter.  I've used the pattern to make myself a pair of socks already.  I like the roomy fit and they're a pretty quick knit. I'm making them using the two-at-a-time on one long circular method and was about to begin the heel turn when I noticed how small the balls of yarn looked.  I jumped on Ravelry and looked on my projects page for the details for the first pair I made.  I used about 345 yards to make a pair of anklets. I checked my stash page to see how much yardage was in each ball of Sapphire Regia Softy Color.  Holy yarn balls, Batman!!  I only have 272 yards of yarn!!  I cannot believe I did this.  I am NOT a new knitter.  There is no excuse for this sort of oversight. So I've frogged out the heel flap and ordered some Regia Softy yarn in a reddish/pink color called Kirsche to work the heels and then I'll work as much of the feet as I can with ...

I started knitting a few years ago and now I am obsessed. So much so that I am starting to put my projects and my yarn stash on a site called Ravelry ( http://www.ravelry.com/ ). I'm inknpaper over there, too - for consistency. I signed up for the site more than a year ago but my obsession had not fully bloomed yet. It's in full bloom now! There are baskets of yarn throughout my house. I've knit almost a dozen pair of slippers for family and finished an afghan last week. I'm thinking about a sweater so much so that I bought the yarn for it!

This card is going to a friend of mine. It's SU! Only Orange and Whisper White paper with a piece of handmade paper I got in a huge pack for a few bucks. All the stamps are CS, Avant Garde. I used Versamark and the pop chalk method for the orange squares. It was fun to make...I don't have enough time to play with my paper these days.

I just got my invitation to join Ravelry.com and it looks like it'll be an awesome resource for my newly found love of knitting. So far, I've made two Blanket Buddy Bunnies for my cousins' babies, six pairs of slippers, two scarves and a hat. The hat is too big but it's mine and I made it myself. :) I'm known as inknpaper there, too.  I tried a few other names but none of them felt like me.

Hi hi, I finally made a few things last night and today. I've been in a creative slump. Just can't seem to get myself going but my daughter needed a card for a friend so I lurched into action. Then, tonight I made a two-page LO. Finally.

I just got an e-mail from one of the lovely folks at Club Scrap (link's in the right sidebar). They have put another of my LOs on their gallery. That is so cool! This particular layout was put together using one of the sketches that comes with the kits. I swear it makes me feel like a rock star when they put my work up on their site. If you want to see it on their Web site, which includes a list of supplies used, click here . Thanks for stopping by my blog!

After piles and piles of laundry, I finally sat down and made this card. It's not very fancy but should mail without extra postage which is a plus. Thanks for stopping by!

Here it is....the ATC binder. It's not very fancy, certainly not my best work but I like it. I wasn't going to put all the pieces together tonight because I was going to add some stamped artwork and ink but then put it together anyway so it's very plain.