Just kidding I was too busy handing out candy and reassuring parents that Winter was a very gentle dog trained to be around children and wasn’t going to eat their little goblins to take any kind of carved pumpkin poll.

We put them on the desk in the front window because Cody was paranoid we’d be the victims of pumpkin smashers. I put them on top of one of my big yarn storage containers so they could be seen over the big juniper bush.

They look pretty cool!

I used a short candle with three wicks since mine needed a little more light inside.

We got six or seven groups of trick or treaters this year and only one of those was a gaggle of obnoxious teenage boys! I hate the teenage boy trick or treaters they always ask for pot or say something equally uncreative or stupid. Teenage boys definitely should be seen doing cool physical acts like skate or snowboarding and not heard.

Another average Halloween. Winter and I watched Dancing with the Stars and I’m knitting another bag to felt for the show. Just one more felted bag, some sock yarn to dye, and then more handspun to make by the 17th!

We carved pumpkins on Sunday night. Then roasted the seeds in a big frying pan with kosher salt and olive oil. I’d never roasted seeds on the stovetop before but that’s what it said in How to Cook Everything and it was good.

Cody made his own design

and I did a freehand version of the Albuquerque Craft Mafia logo. This photo has Phunq kitty in the window in the background.

I couldn’t find my old printcarving tools, which usually work much better for pumpkin carving, but I did find my old clayworking tools did the trick pretty well. We recognize the painful irony that Cody is better at pumpkin carving and graphic design while I have the Art degree and that I’m a better essayist and more prolific writer while he’s the one with the English degree. Oh yes we know.

But we’ll see whose jack o lantern is spookier when the candles are inside! I’m going to make the kids vote before I give them candy tonight. Bet they’ll vote for the one made by the lady holding the candy. Bet they will!

Just busy. Lots of work. And house. Stuff!

It’s cold here! We’ve been putting Winter’s sweater on and a tiny sweatshirt on Phunq. I decided that if they’re not going to make fun sweaters for my big cold shorthaired dog at least I can put them on my cold shorthaired cat. He’s getting used to it. I think he likes it. He’s a weird kitty so it’s kind of hard to tell if he’s happy or grumpy or just feeling talkative. This is the cat that likes being spanked on the butt. When I’m on the phone and he meows people think he’s a real baby crying. He’s weird.

I went to the new Village Wools on Monday and it’s just unbelievably nice. Reminds me of Commuknitty but bigger, with carpet and more shelves. I know! It’s HUGE! My favorite part is seeing all the little collected sheep tchotchkes they’ve collected over the years in fun little corners and on top of shelves. It’s like being in someone’s really organized home. Where I can buy yarn.

I found some really nice Cascade Heather for the Cable shawl for Jocelyn’s grandmother. I’d heard all about Cascade, of course, but had never gotten my hands on it. Have to say it blows lamb’s pride right out of the water in terms of softness. Mohair just drives me nuts though. It’s too scratchy. Cascade is all Peruvian wool and quite soft. The yarn I got for this project is blue with purple heather. Color # 9336. Some people call this Lapis. The Cascade is more worsted than bulky but I’m going to be using size 9 needles so it’ll be fine. The depth of color is really nice and will be very flattering. Now I just need to find the time to get started!

Wow that was dorky. Please excuse me, I woke up to find Cody had left the tv on Children of the Corn, which sort of puts you in an odd mood for the rest of the day. Ok I don’t care I’m moving forward with this anyway.

First I want to praise a wonderful group blog called DeStash - Cash for Your Stash. I’d had some yarn from my stash that I wanted to sell for various reasons. Turns out that angora and I are not friends, which is funny because Melon’s fur is so similar. There was some yarn that I liked but would never ever knit with.

So I gathered it together and put it up for sale in my etsy shop for a while. Aside from the Vesper sock yarn, which went within hours of course, nothing else sold. I had joined the Destash group blog when I first heard about it but hadn’t posted anything because I wanted to get a better feel for the format. You know how that goes with online groups - it’s smart to lurk for a while to see the general etiquette and standard behaviors before jumping right in.

I found myself with some free time and a desire to sell that stash yesterday so I posted the yarn. It was easy. I uploaded the photos to flickr (avoiding the bad “sale” word that will get you banned, using the word “unclaimed” instead), used fds flickr toys to make some composite photos, then used the templates the Destash blog already has set up when you start to create a new entry. I already had the descriptions and details for the yarn on my etsy site.

I don’t know if it was particularly good yarn - some of it was. Or if I’d underpriced myself - which I tend to do. Or the quality of the photos - doubtful. Or using the flickr toy to make a composite photo - I’m voting for this one. All the yarn was sold in less than 12 hours. The only yarn that’s still up there is just waiting for an echeck to paypal to clear and I need to remember to take that down. Woohoo! Money for the cruise!

So I would like to praise the Destash - Cash for your Stash blog.

Now, I need your praise. Not for me (although that’s always welcome!) but for your favorite bulky yarn.

I’m making a cabled shawl with pockets for my friend’s grandmother and can’t decide what yarn to use. The pattern is from Knitpicks so they have some of their yarn recommended but I’m not sure about the colors.

She likes deep jewel tones - wine, blue, not green, maybe purple if it’s not too bright? and I like to use very subtle tweedy or heathered yarn with cables. I think it hightlights the depth. Not variegated unless it’s really subtle and no stripes. This is for a grandmother in Iowa so I want to keep it simple with rich colors. It needs to be really soft but not shed all over the place and not pill. Handwash only is ok.

I’m looking for 3.5 - 4 stitches an inch on US 10 needles. I don’t really want to double up the yarn as I think that would be too complicated to work with on this so I’d like to stick to bulky or thereabouts. A little bigger or smaller is ok though.

I need it soft, colorful, and the ability to get 880 yards of the same dye lot for under 50 bucks. I’d spin the yarn for this but I’ve got way too much going on right now. I’m not adverse to discontinued lots or ebay. I’ll probably end up going with Knitpicks’ recommended yarn but I wanted to see what else is out there.

Hey, since this friend works like a block from Artfibers so I might give her a list of requirements to bring to the shop during lunch so she can pick it out and send it to me to knit! That would be fun! LOL no I don’t think we could get 880 yards of anything from Artfibers for under even 100 bucks I’m just kidding.

So please praise your favorite bulky yarn!

I finally dug the hat out of the pile and finished! Woohoo!

For those who haven’t seen this episode of Knitty Gritty eight thousand times these pieces are knit from a nylon yarn that has a suede texture and a nylon polar fleece with “technofur” yarn that knits up to look and feel a lot like shearling. So I think this is even Vegan? Neat stuff but pretty expensive considering the yardage. Ramona gave me her leftovers from when she made the booties for Isabella which helped a lot (Thanks Mona!) and I found a pretty decent deal on ebay from SuperCrafty. I worried about dye lots but it really wasn’t noticable at all, especially with the plush.

The hat took about three times longer than I thought it would but the booties were pretty easy. The sizing was really off though and I know very little about baby sizes. I made some changes to remedy that though.

The cap is based on this pattern but that one called for it to be knit flat then seamed.

I hate knitting hats this way unless absolutely neccessary (like if I were doing colorwork or a complex construction or something). I did follow the pattern for the body at first but it was way too wide at the bottom and too short for the head.

So I used this pattern for the body of the hat instead, casting on with the plush and knitting a few rows before switching to the suede. I used size nine needles and the size was perfect. I wanted it a little loose because I wanted it flexible enough to be stretchy for the lining.

Then I knit the earflaps on separately, following the original Knitty Gritty Candy Jensen pattern. Rather than knit a three stitch garter with the plush for the ties at the bottom I made 3 stitch i-cords. They’re a lot stronger and more durable which means the little ear flaps can actually be tied together at the top of the hat. Following the original pattern I used a needle and randomly sewed stitches around the edges of the earflaps and sewed them on.

Once the earflaps were sewn on the sides of the hat I picked up the stitches for the front flap using the Plush yarn rather than knit it separately and sew it on so it would fit the hat better. I followed the same decreases as the original pattern though. The top of the front flap was a bit pointy so I curled the top under so it would stick out from the hat a bit then sewed it to the body of the hat.

Then I used Plush to pick up stitches all around the inside brim and knit a smaller version of the hat inside for a liner. Just turned it inside the hat and it was lined!

For the booties I pretty much followed the pattern except I picked up stitches around the inside of the top of the booties with plush and knit small tubes to fit inside as liners.

These booties were really big for baby feet. The liner will make them fit sooner because I don’t think they’re going to be safe or stay on when the baby starts walking. Of course I know very little about these things but I was really worried about it. I know Mona’s solution was to make little i-cord ties and weave them around the body to keep them on and that’s a great idea too! I’d even considered making a corset laceup up the back of the booties to tie them on before I thought of the liner. I’ve heard that putting puff paint from the craft store on the bottom of knit socks will make them non-slip so that’s worth a try too.

So for the booties’ liner I just picked up stitches from the plush around the inside and knit a tube to turn inside. On one I tried to create a sock shape with a heel and everything but it didn’t really make a difference with the elasciticy of the yarn. A plain knit tube works just as well.

I think these are all much, MUCH better with a knit lining, they’ll actually be comfortable, warm, and useful rather than just novelty baby clothing.

So I finally got a chance to take photos yesterday. Busy or lazy? Who can tell?

This is the lovely funky scarf I received from my partner, Casey.

Isn’t it puurty? That’s the “Misty Garden” feather and fan pattern from Scarf Style, which is usually done in fuzzy mohair but it takes on a whole other funky persona with this squishy thick and thin yarn.

It’s nice and soft and wonderfully warm but the COOLEST part about this scarf, aside from it being made just for me, is the YARN. My partner had included the tags from the yarn so I’d know what it was. And I’m so glad she did!

This stuff. Ok. It’s a great thick and thin plied merino yarn called Elaine made by Schaefer Yarns. Schaefer has several series of colors named after notable women in history. I remembered seeing this at some point but it had gotten lost in a sea of random knowledge from the Internet Movie Database. I was so happy to find out which yarn company it is doing this again!

This yarn’s color is from Memorable Women Series VI and named after Eleanor Roosevelt. HOW TOTALLY COOL IS THAT? It totally fits in with my thing for knitting, fun yarn, and women in history!

Thank you so much Casey! And thank you Beverly and Scout for organizing the swap! It was fun to do. It was fun to do these swaps, although these partners are putting me in physical jeopardy by sending stuff to me that are in Scout’s colors like this, she might try to take them you know.

I came across some yarn I’d bought at an estate sale or grabbed at a guild swap (I can’t remember which), either way who knows how old it is. I grabbed it because it’s a great thick and thin with big squiggly overspun thin bits and I liked that. I dyed it last Thanksgiving rather than cooking any actual meal.

I always end up with leftover grape and lime so a lot of my stuff is green and purple. This was towards the end of the dyeing and it wasn’t even totally saturated. I hadn’t really liked how it came out so it had been sitting around in my handspun stuff since last Thanksgiving. It was too crappy a dye job to put up for sale. And the yarn was kind of rough. I had no real plans for it.

With this craft fair coming up I’ve been delving into my stash for feltable yarns to make felted bags to put up for sale. This yarn seemed like a good candidate so I took it out of the bin on Sunday.

I had originally planned on making a felted drawstring bag. There are eyelets above the rolled edge for this purpose. I thought this was too rough for a next-to-the-skin project. But as I knit it my always warm hands melted the lanolin in the yarn and it got softer. My hands got really soft too. .

When I finished it, I put it on top of my head for fun. These things amuse the cats. So does batting around a ballpoint pen but at least I can participate in this. I realized it was really nice and warm! And my hands had softened the yarn so it was really soft!

In the end I had made it a bit wide and short to be a good felted bag but I had a great weird little hat! It’s a little wide on top and still has the eyelets so I plan on maybe putting some ribbon or maybe an icord through the eyelets. I think it’ll look like a big funky circa 1912 hat.

I went to the Saturday knitting group today so now that Erin has received her present I can reveal what I was working on!

This is the pinwheel baby blanket knit using Blue Sky’s Organic Undyed cotton.

I’d already picked out this yarn when someone gave her the baby bolero from One Skein and a little hat using the same yarn! So now she has a matching set!

I used three balls of the “pebble color” (which is bone plied with nut) for the main body and 3/4 of a ball of the solid nut color for the edge.

I did a few rows around in stockinette when I changed to the solid color then did a garter stitch edge. I tried a seed stitch but I really do just suck at that stitch. I’ve tried but it never works out. Then I used what I’ve heard is called a “Russian bind-off“. I first heard about this bind off from Ramona and I’ve used it for most of my projects lately, it’s a very easy and flexible bind off.

This yarn is really lovely and soft but this stuff pills like craaheyheyheyzy. It pilled as I was knitting it. When I finished knitting I washed and gave the blanket a quick turn in the dryer and it’s still pilling. Very soft, organic, happy stuff but geez I felt like I should have given her a sweater stone or de-pilling gadget when I gave it to her!

But she loved it and I’m very proud of it. Baby knitting is one thing but baby knitting for a fellow knitter takes some special work.

The pattern was easy, if a little time-consuming. I was prepared for an awkward cast on but after learning the crazy heels and toes toe-up cast on it was easy as pie to join in the round. But shoot having to remember to do ten yarn overs every other row while knitting in the round wasn’t that bad. I think in the end I had 500 something stitches going? Maybe 600? But the bind-off went surprisingly well. Love that stretchy bind off!

Today I’m going to finish the suede hunter’s cap. I’ve been altering Candy Jensen’s patterns a good bit but I’ll post that stuff when I finish it all up.

Oh! And I got my funky scarf today! It’s really nice and soft! The yarn is really cool! I’ll take photos in the morning!

I’ve just cast off like a bagillion stitches for a project I’ve been working on. I can’t discuss it for a little while though. It’s a secret. Don’t say anything Snbers! Not till I post pics!

I attended a marvelous sit-down with some other members of the Albuquerque Craft Mafia last Sunday and we had a great time! What’s really fun is we all have different craft backgrounds. Even though Beth and I are both knitter/spinner/dyers we both do very different work.

I’m doing my best not to panic that we have two group craft shows coming up, one on Nov. 17th and another on Dec 1st. But now that I have this big project mostly finished (still have to weave in the ends but thankfully I don’t plan on blocking it) I can make all kinds of fun things to sell. I’m thinking of a shibori bag or two? Some stuff with my handspun?

Cody’s been making me practice driving around our neighborhood. I’m not happy about this but he’s been bribing me with coffee. Oh yes I can be bought. If this means I can eventually drive myself to the gym to swim, to get coffee, and go to the knitting groups, well, it’s worth it. But it’s scary and hard for me to do.

I need to go find some lunch now. But I’m so happy about finishing that project I had to blog about it, even though I can’t say exactly what it is.

I have some great scarf photos to post today. One is knit by a client named Kathleen using one of my gypsy scarf kits. She bought the Tall Vanilla Latte one.

She said it was really fun to knit and she gets all kinds of compliments when she wears it. Yay!!

And this is the scarf I knit for the client that ordered a scarf with handspun earth toned beaded yarn.

I knit this one lengthwise too. I’m really in that lengthwise knit scarf mode.

I finally have a name for it: Mom’s Macrame Scarf since Jocelyn said it reminded her of her mom’s macrame projects. It reminded me of my mom’s macrame too. No feathers on this like some stuff my mom made. Maybe next time.

I don’t think I’ve participated in this before but I have some great photos to share this morning.

First, I got a box in the mail yesterday from my knitflix partner!

The Fifth Element ultimate edition (Cody is equally excited about this dvd), green apple candy corn, lots of popcorn, cute little knitting notecards, burt’s bees lipbalm (how did she know?), an adorable little black sheep measuring tape, and some beautiful handdyed purple sock yarn! I believe that’s louet gems pearl? It’s lovely!

The orange monster was actually a gift from Cody but I got him at the same time as I got the box so he’s friends with the other stuff.

Scout’s gonna be all over this handdyed sock yarn these are her colors yo

And I love the little black sheep measuring tape. Especially the “retract” button that is an actual button.

Totally cute. Thank you Gwen!! I’m also really excited that she liked all the goodies in the box I sent her! I had a good time picking it all out.

I had an appointment with mr chiropractor guy early this morning and I knew it was the first day of the Balloon Fiesta and we’d be driving close to the park so I brought my camera with me so I could take photos while Cody drove. It’s really hard to capture the sheer number of balloons floating around at the same time, especially when going 55 mph and facing the sun, but I tried.