Hemlock Ring Blanket

In its full blocked glory.

I've decided - I don't like blocking... It takes way too long!

Hemlock Ring, and More

First up, Hemlock Ring Blanket, in its unblocked glory:

Pattern - Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood
Yarn Called For - 600 yards of heavy worsted weight yarn, Cascade Ecological Wool used, Latte (8063)
Yarn Used - 1/2 skein of Farmhouse Yarn Sweater Skein in Wine Rose
Needles - Denise size 10
Gauge - N/A
Knit - October 10, 2007 to November 04, 2007
Modifications - None

Despite the yarn breaking and giving me a hard time, This is a very quick knit, although it can get kinda boring at the end. I ended it where Jared ended his and since it isn't blocked, I don't have the exact measurement. But I do love the color. I have some leftover yarn, I might make one for myself in the future. If I get a chance to block it before my mom goes home, I'll post another picture.

So any of you out there watch the Patriots game? What a game! Glad that they had a good come back! Speaking of football, I was very impressed with NBC network. All the NBC family network is having the "turn the lights off" initiatives to raise the awareness of being Green, and to educate their watchers the importance of environmental issues we are facing. At the half time game of Cowboys vs. Eagle, they turn off the lights and light the candles, and the anchormen talked about the upcoming segments from Arctic, Antarctica, and Equator - How much have changed from the past 10 years. It is great that a major television network is doing such initiatives.

Well, 25 hours a day sure is great, but it doesn't last. Night all.

Almost Complete

Hemlock Ring that is. I have 14 rows left, but it is taking forever because each row contains a huge amount of stitches that I don't want to count.

But I need to hurry as I need to start the model knitting for Schaefer Yarn... Do you think I can get some more time in a day than 24 hours?

Home

I can't believe it has been a whole week! As much as I like to travel, there is definitely no place like home. Puppies are very happy to see me. Here is the proof:

I was going through my bag on the floor and Mick put his head on my leg and wouldn't move! I think he thinks that he is still only 10 lbs, instead of 100 lbs.

Also, some packages arrived while I was away:

Zephyr order

Color cards and some samples to try from Sarah's Yarn


Schaefer Yarn and pattern

The Schaefer yarn Judith and the Diamond Spires Shawl pattern are for model knitting for Schaefer Yarn. Archiknist does design for them and when she ran into Laura at Rhinebeck, Laura had asked Archiknist to see if anyone from SnB would like to do model knitting. And here I am, with the beautiful alpaca yarn.

And I just want to say right here, Sarah's Yarn has the BEST customer service, EVER! I had some questions prior to my order so I emailed my question via online form submission. In merely an hour, I got a reply back from Sarah herself! She was so patient (I must emailed her three or four times with different questions) and timely, it is hard not to do a plug for her on my blog. Also, the shipping is superb! Maybe it is located in Brooklyn so it is fairly close, but shipping is 1 day ground via UPS. It is not as much as I thought it would and super fast!

Oh, and here is the HRB progress:

It is a little hard to see since it is so much bigger now and I can't stretch it out on my needles. I have to finish it soon so I can give it to my mom - although she doesn't know it yet :) My parents are in the States and will be coming to visit on Tuesday. YAY! :)

Ok, the game is on. GO RED SOX!

*NOT* Rhinebeck

I couldn't resist the title, because I'm sure in the next day or so, there will be many blog posts title Rhinebeck, aka NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, as many of my fellow knitters had gone to.

Instead, I went to leadership training on Saturday AM, and then right after, David and I drove to my cousin Tracy's in NJ for a Haunted Luau:

When the racer meets the pirate


The hosts - Tracy and Jason


Me, Tracy, and Paul - this one is for the fam

Of course, what else would I be doing while I'm sitting down in a party:

Knitting! Secret of the Stole!! And watching the Red Sox kicking the crap out of Indians!

And here is the progress of Secret of the Stole:

This stole has two points to start and the direction had asked to start them simultaneously using the same ball of yarn, however, I can just see the disaster. So inspired by Costumchick, I also cast on only the left point, and will be breaking the yarn and make the right side soon. Maybe during tonight's ALCS Game 7. GO RED SOX!!! Oh yeah... Check out the new addition of the house!!

Like I said, I couldn't leave the TV home when it was only $1099.99 for this 42" LG TV!!!

We left Tracy's after game 6 was over (which was about midnight) and got home around 2am. I took a nap, woke up at 6am, and picked up Karen at 7am and set out to Farmhouse Yarn Sale. If you've read my previous posts, you've known that I've been having a lot of trouble with the yarn I bought from Farmhouse awhile ago. And you would've also known that Carol had very promptly emailed me back and give me $50 credit towards new purchases of yarn. So there we were, walking into the front yard at 8:01 am (they open at 8am!!). We were the first one there and none of the bins were opened yet!!!

It was cold to start the day, but it warmed up with the beautiful sunshine:

Casey and Erica, the two very helpful ladies - Carol wasn't there today

Supposedly this is the last sale Carol is going to have, and everything else goes to the new yarn store, Connecticut Yarn and Wool, about 10 mins away from her house. So she has this deal about fill 1 bag for $159 and fill 2 bags for $189. Now, who in their right mind would just fill 1 bag when you can fill 2 bags for almost half of the price? (not me) We were there so early and didn't have to fight with others to look at the bins, I was done in record of 90 mins!!! (Karen was way done and waiting for me! I'm a slow shopper) And here is the loot:

The loot!!! And Mick trying to get into the picture on the right!!! :)

The loot: Andy's Merino (L to R, T to B) in Wine Rose (2 skeins), Turkey Red (3 skeins), Watermelon (2 skeins), Lavender (7 skeins), Cranberry 3-ply (9 skeins) and Sunflower (10 skeins). The top right is Silk Blend in Spiced Pumpkin (5 skeins), on the top step are 9 free doily patterns and 1 ball of cotton crochet thread for my future blocking use.

Yes, I filled the two bags with 38 skeins of yarn. I also had some leftover credits from testing knitting for Carol awhile ago, so the two bags really didn't cost me anything! AND they didn't take the giant sweater skein of yarn back, so I might just finish the HRB:

HRB in its the current stage

And I ordered some Denise long cords for this project as well and it came Saturday:

I'm thinking of keeping the pretty giant sweater skein for future center piece, maybe have some needles stick into it to make it a focal point in my future craft room.

I came home from Farmhouse and crashed on the couch, after all the photographs, of course! I have to say that was a lot of activity/traveling in very short amount of time! Well, now that I am re-energized, I'll be up knitting and cheering for the Red Sox.

GO RED SOX!!!

When you have no intention of buying...

... that's when you make the purchase!

We went into Sears for this, we found it, but we also came home with this! I mean how can you not with that price!!!!

Well, we didn't get it from Sears because they ran out, but we went to Circuit City and they price matched it! We didn't have the truck with us so we are picking it up tomorrow morning :)

We also went costume shopping for my cousin's party tomorrow. You'll have to wait and see what I'm gonna be :)

Update on the Hemlock Ring Blanket - I contacted Carol from Farmhouse Yarn last night, and she immediately emailed me back and ask me to return the skein to exchange it. Well, the thing is, my HRB was 60% done so now the half way through HRB will go back to Carol, along with the unused yarn, and I'll be getting a new sweater skein, or maybe few different regular skeins that results to 50 dollars worth of yarn. ::sigh:: At least I get new yarn, and don't have to deal with the frustration anymore. I'm sad though because I really like the colorway and how the blanket turns out so far. Maybe she will have something similar in color at her sale.

Well, I guess I should start the Secret of the Stole...

More Breakage

Yeah... I'm pulling my hair out for this one. I went to SnB tonight and the girls were all stunned by what happened to my yarn. We have made a group decision that I'll email Carol and see what she says. My Hemlock Ring Blanket is never gonna be finished!!! (and I was thinking that it would be done by now...)

Photographer: Knelley

Oh, and for those of you who missed Thursday SnB, just so you know, we got free bread :)

Frustrated

Argh.

Red Sox lost another game.

The yarn I'm using for Hemlock Ring Blanket is sucking at the moment - it's not tightly spun so it kept falling apart, aka loosing stitches!!!

Not cool, not cool at all.

Progress

I made progress in two ways today in knitting:

1. I knitted total of 20 rows for Hemlock Ring.

2. My beads arrived for Secret of the Stole.

Only the crystals are for the stole. The leave pendent is MAYBE for my wedding, and I got two charms to make stitch markers for my Christmas Swap.

Yeah... Hint 2 is arriving in midnight tonight... ::sigh:: I'm just never gonna catch up for any KAL I joined.

And before I leave you tonight, I just want to give a shout out to my Secret Santa - We've never met and we lived 8 hours flight times away, but I feel like I already know her, even though I don't really since I don't know her name yet. She is really cool and I know this is gonna be a fun swap. I can't wait to find out her name, and maybe meet her in person in 2009, when we go on our honeymoon in Europe :).

Hemlock Ring Blanket

So after much of joining (KALs), I am finally starting the Hemlock Ring Blanket today at SnB. I decided to use the sweater skein in varigated red and pink yarn from Farmhouse Yarns - I got it from my first ever sale event there. It is a very pretty color, but I can't tell you what it is. Also, I don't see the sweater skeins on her website so I can't even tell you which yarn it is. So far it is knitting up beautifully and the yarn is very easy to work with.

I am on row 7, so there really isn't anything to show yet... Maybe tomorrow...

Labor Day Weekend

My labor weekend was lazy and busy at the same time. How? you asked. Well, I guess I felt like I was lazy and didn't do anything, but when in fact, we did a lot.

David and I went to the mall Friday after work. We haven't gone for so long and a lot had changed. I actually picked up this book while I was there. Yup! I want to at least learn what's in my garden and how I can plant some of my favorite flowers.

Saturday morning I went to Primerica training and when I got home, David and I drove to Mom's to have a BBQ, and met up with our friend Tanya. I of course, forgot my camera and didn't take any pictures while we were there! We got home around 10pm and I stayed up and finished reading "The Sisterhood of Dropped Stitches" (I got the book via PaperBackSwap, see sidebar). It was a very easy read and it was only slightly knitting related, and there were no patterns of any kind in the book, but it reminds me the Stitch n Bitch group I go to. I remember the first Wednesday meeting - I was a newbe at knitting and I didn't understand anything people were talking about! Slowly, people clued me in on the yarn, the pattern, the names, the techniques... I think without my "sisters", I wouldn't have grown so fond of knitting, and be able plunged into any pattern I want, and of course, have my large yarn stash. I can feel free to express what was in my thoughts when I go there and I can always count on a good laugh. Recently, one of the ladies that attend had some personal trouble, so we moved the meeting to her house. Even though I wasn't as close to her as the others were (we have a big group), I can feel that she appreciated us being there, and that it was good that we were there. Although I can't ease her pain, but I know I will be there when she needs me.

Sunday was a late start at 10am. David and I went to the Mark Twain Library book sale first. I went last year on a Saturday, and this year, I went to the half price day. On the way there, we stopped at a nursery that had mums for "5 for $12.95". I picked up these:

Aren't they beautiful? They are not full bloom yet and from my handy dandy new book, it says that I shouldn't plant them now until the Spring, so now they are just sitting in the front lawn waiting for the good weather to be gone and be moved inside.

We headed to the sale after the brief stop and we must spent over 3 hours there. Here is the haul:

All that for grand total of... you ready?... $22.25!!!!!!! You can't beat the price! Among the books, I came home with these:

Needless to say, we left happy. A lot of the books are replacing my paperbacks and the paperback will be listed on the swap for other books that I want and didn't find at the book sale.

After the book sale, we stopped at Costco and Trader Joe's to get some much needed shopping done, and got home with a car full of flowers, books, and food.

And while we were doing all these driving, I had finished Petrol -

Pattern - Petrol by Carol Sulcoski on Knitty.com
Yarn Called For - 5 Skeins Manos del Uruguay in #27 and 1 Skein Manos del Uruguay in #64
Yarn Used - 6 Balls Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK in #26011
Needles - Denise size 7 and 8
Gauge - 4.5 sts per inch
Knit - August 18, 2007 to September 02, 2007
Modifications - added 2x2 ribs for two inches at the waist, use only single color

This was a very quick knit - instead of the purling rib, it has garter rib. It was different enough to keep me awake but not too complicated so I can knit it during a movie. This is one of the vests I am making for my dad. So now, one down, one more to go. The next one will probably be in a regular plain vest since the yarn is heather and dark and wouldn't show too much of stitch definition.

After we got home, we sat around and be bums for a few hours, until the heat has gone down a little, and we went to our old house and cleaned out the garage, so we can put one of rare car that David is collecting into the garage. So now, we actually have ONE car in one of our garages!!! Well, the race car is also in the garage too. I think I'm just too happy to actually cleaned out the garage from our move - we ONLY moved about 6 months ago... yeah...

When we got home, we grabbed some quick dinner, and I was going through my blog subscription via Google reader (I love that thing! I don't have to sign up separate account at bloglines or anything! And it integrates into my google homepage, which I can read the posts via google homepage) and saw Brooklyntweed's post about his Hemlock Ring Blanket and that there is a KAL started for it. Okay, yes, I joined it. Go ahead, say I am crazy, nuts, or whatever have you. But to my defense, I already had the yarn in mind and printed out the pattern when he first post about it! I would have started the KAL if I didn't already host the Autumn Rose!

Monday morning I got up early (well, 8am IS early when I don't have to go to work!) and went to meet up with the Team Lead of CLCC (Collegiate Leadership Coaching Committee) for SWE business. I am part of the team and we had to get the budget set up and figure out what we are doing for the fiscal year. It was a lot of fun meeting up with her, especially we haven't seen each other for 6 months.

When I got home, I decided that I should continue to be a bum for the rest of the weekend - lots of people relaxed and did nothing during 3 day weekends! So that's what I did - I watched CSI marathon on SPIKE and knitted MS3 - yes, I am finally going back to it. But with the whole afternoon and evening, besides the one and a half hours of making pizza, I only knitted 36 rows!!!! Well, I think I spent about half an hour just trying to figure what went wrong - missing stitches! Luckily I figured it out after only tinking back one full row (missed a YO and also dropped a stitch - good thing I use merino so it didn't ladder down). So I am almost finished with chart E - maybe by Wednesday I will have chart E completed.

So now, it is time for this bum to go to bed - even though work has tomorrow off (floating holiday), I decided to work tomorrow so I can take another day off when we go up to 1000 Islands in a few weeks.

What did YOU do for your holiday weekend?