its quite sad really, I found this sweater while cleaning up and realized all it needed was a button. I knit it ages ago, (2005) for my ex-sil’s baby.

But it didn’t quite make it to her. I couldn’t gift this sweater away, because at the time I finished it I wasn’t quite proud of my garment knitting skills and ended up buying her a store bought gift instead.

Its a little small on Kailey. But I’m going to pretend they’re quarter length sleeves. Maybe I’ll add some ribbon cuffs to add a bit of length.
But now daisy has a button and all’s good.

project stats:
pattern: Daisy by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee published in Knitty, Summer 2003
size: small? 0-3months maybe.
yarn: Reynolds Saucy color 308 (pink) about 1 I think. Purchased from Webs
random cotton used for the flower *ahem* embroidery (yeah, I’m going there. And I’m calling that crap embroidery.)
needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm
time: knit sometime in 2005, button added June 2008
ravled here

click here for more pictures on flickr.

As ya’ll are reading this I’m driving my way to Wilkes barre PA to meet my mom and my niece. So much for not driving a lot this summer.

It’s been absolutely crazy here at Chez Mistress Stash Enhancer, I’m having a hard time believing that its really May. A lot of it has to do with Allysa’s headstart graduation er, stepping up party tomorrow. I think Headstart is a wonderful program and I am super happy that I was able to at least get Allysa into the homebased program this year. I wanted to give back some, and am helping out with the graduation, sorry stepping up party. The teacher, another mother and I loved the idea of a carnival that a neighboring program had for their party. So we are doing an animal themed carnival party. (Everything is better with a theme right?) I saw this awesome picture on flickr after finding the purl frog from purl bee I knew I had to whip one up.

click here to see the inside of the bag and here to see another picture of the froggies and lily pads. I plan on giving the set to her teacher tomorrow. I used a small canvas bag from Jo-anns, felt for the numbers and lily pads. I used Heat and Bond ultra bond to adhere the numbers to the lily pads, and the lily pad to the bag.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know its been 2008 for 2 months now. But remember, I kinda fell off the ball and it ran over me. So I’m going to pretend like I was waiting for the Chinese New Year. Ok? Ok good.
2007 was a busy year, it was a good year. I’m a little sad to see it go, but am energized and excited about what 2008 will hold for us. I was a bit productive in the knitting front last year, which you can see all of my FO’s here (Ok, except for the 2 I haven’t blogged about yet)

13-baby items
13- pairs of socks
1- me sized sweater
4- hats
2- scarves
6- dishcloths (that I bothered to write in my knitting journal)
2- shawls
15- whimsies=

56 FO’s! seeeeee, the yarn stash is justified. Before Kailey was born, I learned a new technique: toe up socks

I love these socks, they are still as vibrant as the day I casted off. I’m sure if I really think about it there was some other new to me knitting technique that I mastered last year. Considering I’ve only been knitting for 4 years.

Here are some FO’s that I feel amazingly brilliant about still:

6 socks from 3 hanks of STR. It makes me very happy.

the colors work beautifully with each other, and its oh, so soft!

I can’t wait for Spring so I can wear this again!

Kailey gets a bunches of complements when she wears this sweater out.

My goal for 2008: I will learn how to knit fair isle. There are so many beautiful fair isle patterns out there, I wanted to learn last year but with a newborn it just wasn’t going to happen. So this year. I.will.learn!

Before I go, my best FO of 2007:

Kailey.

Happy Chinese New Year!

There has been so much love going around knit-blog land these days. There is always love going around, (knitters are a nice bunch of people.) Recently two blogging buddies awarded me with the…..

Lovable blog award! I’m flattered ladies! Many thanks. I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel! I love dropping by your blogs and seeing what creative things you’ve been up to. (And seeing Keana’s beautiful baby boy. Oh, so handsome!)  To pass on the love I’m going to award it to…. drumroll…. da da da dummmm….. in no particular order….

Kelly over at the Gabby knitter

Heather at A.D.D. knitter  and

Vickie at the Virginia Purl.

Pass on the love ladies!

Phew, that was hard picking 3! I have 142 feeds in my bloglines, and its growing (not as bad as my Ravelry queue which is now 6 pages long, thank goodness.)  and I love all the blogs I read. All of you ladies  keep me inspired, enable me to buy more yarn, and keep my brain moving.   I’m off to bed, its after midnight and its been crazy in this house the past week. More on that (hopefully) tomorrow. Night!

I’ve been enjoying these socks for a while now, I’m still trying to catch up with my FO’s. Life keeps getting in the way. The last few nights I’ve just wanted to veg out in front of the boob tube and knit. And I have. And it was great. Now take a look, my maple sugar swirl socks. Remember how they started out? When I bought this yarn I thought it would look beautiful in a lacy pattern, but really this yarn with all the colors it works best in a stockinette based pattern. Wouldn’t you say?

Stats
yarn: Fleece artist basic sock in autumn
purchased from simply socks yarn co.
needles: 2.25mm (US 1)

time: October 10-29 2007
pattern: I CO 64 sts. to fit my 8″ foot circumference. The pattern is based on Craftoholic’s Mata Hari socks. But I think I did it backwards. Your supposed to move the yo to the left, I moved them to the right ,erp! Sometimes my brain finds math challenging. and directions, and spelling and grammar too…
I love this yarn. I started out using Inox dpns and had to switch to Knitpicks dpns for their sharp point. The yarn seemed to stick to the Inox, and it was hard to knit. But once I changed needles it was smooth sailing. The colors are beautiful, reminds me of fall back home in the Berkshires. Mike said it looks like someone took all of Fall’s colors and blended them into the yarn. (Isn’t that sweet? But wait, after he said that he then said. “yeah, it also looks like someone threw-up Fall.” Oyi!)

Even though I kind of snoozed right through Socktober, I still enjoyed knitting these socks!

(I know, this post is a day late. The nap won yesterday!) Happy Birthday Daddy!

Pepe giving Allysa lots of mmm&mmm’s January 2006

(I love this picture of my parents Summer 2006)

Happy Birthday Daddy, I wish I was more awake to write a better post but I am.so.damn tired!  Night. Love you. Happy Birthday!!!!

come in large unmarked white envelopes from England!

Thank you so much Diane! So many fantastic Birthday presents, Thank you! Corra thinks the dishcloths would make perfect doll blankets (Isn’t she cute?) A lovely rose scented candle, a fantastic card, yummy yummy chocolate (sorry the green & black didn’t quite make it for the photo. Blood sugar issues. I’m sure you all understand! *L*) and do you see that in the background?

(click for a close up)

Diane sent me some of her handspun. She sent me some of her handspun (yes, I really did wright that twice!) Isn’t it lovely? Its so my colors, and so darn lovely! I’m thinking socks, with reinforced heels and toes. Right now its on my little table next to me, so I can stare at it. Because its so darn Lovely! Thanks Diane for such a wonderful Birthday present!

oh, I bought new shoes today. While I was at the mall, all by myself!

I found them at Sears (on sale!) , right now they have newspaper stuffed in the toe. They push down on my toes, and I’m hoping to bend the whatevertheheckitis so its not so uncomfortable. Aren’t they cute?

(hahaha You know what my Mailman said to me today, “you sure do get a lot of packages.”)

This is what the livingroom looked liked yesterday afternoon and evening.

yarn explosion from yarn box/coffee table

Originally uploaded by mistress_stash_enhancer

Now… it was either the yarn exploded out of the box, or I got my raverly invite (!) It was a wonderful surprise yesterday afternoon when I opened up my mailbox. That innocent little invite… *sigh* For all those that are still waiting, its worth it. Its going to be great. For those who are on raverly my screen name is AmandaCathleen, let me know yours so I can add you as my friend.  Yesterday I also opened a flickr pro account and have loaded massive amounts of pictures, and am still loading more. I am so glad that Mike had to have a cable modem thingy and this wireless network whohaha.  I’m almost done photographing the stash. Just the sock stash remains. I think.

Okay, now I just need to figure out how to add more than one picture from flicker onto my blog… than I’ll feel really, really smart. *grumble*

PS. Almost done with the cascade footie, I’ve run out of yarn and come to terms with it. I’ll be finishing it up with a pink toe. Saw a mouse in my livingroom, bought a few thousand mouse cubes and hopefully catch the little bugger soon. Got the yarn I ordered from the loopy ewe and once I figure out how to post more than one picture at a time I’ll show you, its breathtakingly lovely. Seriosly, this yarn made me stop and sigh. A lot. When I went to get my mail yesterday I saw a peony by my mailbox, I’ll have to talk to the yard guy and tell him not to weed eat it or I’ll kill him. (He desided to weed eat the hosta’s why, I donno.) Finding the peony was a surprise, I’ve never seen one there before. It also makes me smile and remember my Grandma who had them in one of her gardens. It’s been a good few days. Now, onto figurin out that flickr stuff.

yarn explosion from yarn box/coffee table

Originally uploaded by mistress_stash_enhancer

figuring out flickr please don’t let this bite me in the ass.

bloody hell the washing machine is dead. Dead dead dead. And full of water. Did I mention its dead? bloody hell and hell full of water. So, I need to buy a new washer, and hopefully a new dyer. (because the one we have only kinda dries on high… anyway) Anyone have any recommendations? This is going to be so not fun. *urghph*