February is for finishing… February 8, 2010

Recently, I took the time to look through my stash of current projects. The majority of them are less than half finished and have been on the needles for 6 months or more. In the past I would probably rip out half the projects after deciding I don’t like them, cast on one new project and finish 3 others.

This time things will be different. This time I am going to finish them all (minus the sock blankets – they don’t count). Just to give you an idea, here’s a list with most of the projects:

-Noro Kuryon Sweater – sleeves, seaming and collar left
-Noro Silk Garden Sweater – sleeves/top of sweater, seaming
-Noro Silk Garden Shrug – 2/3 finished
-Socks: January, February, 2 pairs for my mom, 1 for my brother, 1 for WSM, 3 color work pairs, 1 pair for Kathleen
-Sarcelle scarf
-Noro Silk Garden throw

My goal is to get as many of these projects finished by the end of the month as possible. No new projects until March – or a last minute present. I’ll have pictures as I finish them. Wish me luck!

Vote Busy Hands!!! November 16, 2009

So, this week a bunch of businesses around Main Street in Ann Arbor are having a window display competition to kick off the holiday shopping season, and where I work is participating! I designed the display, and now we need everyone to vote for us so we can win! I assure you, it’s an awesome window display! Follow this link to Vote and enter Busy Hands as the business you want to vote for. And if you’re in the area, come on down and see it! There are flying fairies, Christmas trees and yarn! I’ll post a picture soon, but get your votes in quick because the voting endsDecember 4th, and we’ve got a lot of competition (though our window is the best).

 

Happy knitting, and remember, VOTE BUSY HANDS!!!

Cooking! September 15, 2009

So, I love cooking. I don’t cook very often, but I do love it. Sometimes I follow recipes, but not as much any more. Today, I made a delicious Mexican/Italian type dish. I didn’t take notes on what I did, but here’s what I remember:

Ingredients:
-2 tomatoes
-1 onion
-3 cloves garlic
-1 green bell pepper\
-pinto beans
-chicken
-1 bay leaf
-salt, pepper, red pepper, poultry seasoning, olive oil
-rice

Recipe-ish:
Rice: Bring to a boil 1 part rice/2 parts water. Cover and summer for 15-18 mins.
Dish: Chop onion and garlic. Saute in large skillet with olive oil. Add Tomatoes and cook down for a few minutes. Add Bell peppers, and let simmer. Add Pinto beans from a can (includes sauce). Let simmer for 5 minutes. Add seasonings (pinch red pepper, salt and pepper to taste, 1 bay leaf, pinch poultry seasoning). Simmer a few more minutes then add chicken. Let Chicken simmer for 5-10 minutes, then turn chicken. Let simmer for another 10 minutes, then shred chicken in sauce.

That’s as close as I can get to what I did. I have pictures, but for now I’m going back to get food. Yummy yummy!

For Mouse… September 15, 2009

… So she’ll stop harasing my to post pictures of my spinning cause it’s not at her house. haha.

Pretty isn’t it? This is merino roving that I bought at Spinners Flock with Mouse over the weekend. I love it. It’s so nice to spin and the colors are pretty, too. I think it’ll all fit on one bobbin, or at least I hope so. Time to get back to spinning!

p.s.

Happy Mouse?

The shawl that never ends… September 9, 2009

I’ve been terrible about posting knitting pictures lately. I have them! Lots of them, but I’ve been lazy. But I’ve finally remembered to post some of them while sitting at my computer. yay! So here are some finished shawls.

That’s the Aestlight Shawl in Malabrigo Sock Yarn. I really enjoyed working with this pattern and am thinking about making a couple more for holiday gifts. There’s a smaller size that only takes one skein, but I knit the larger size fot this one. It needs to be blocked, which I’ll get to one of these days.

This is the Seraphim Shawl, also knit from Malabrigo Sock Yarn (in Archangel – I thought the patterns and color names matched). Again, this shawl need to be blocked, but I love this shawl. The pattern is simple but elegant, and the yarn is beautiful. The picture doesn’t do the color justice – in the right lighint it looks like stained glass. This one is for me, though who knows if I’ll ever wear it (I tend to knit shawls and then put them in a box when I’m done. I really should wear them).

This is the Mystery Stole  started almost 2 years ago.

Yet another shawl that needs to be blocked, but I love it. I used one skein of the Alpace with a Twist Fino in a pretty seafoam green color. The shawl has beading throughout and it’s beautiful. I liked how the patten was broken up into 7 or 8 charts and I was able to cross off each row as I worked – it was pretty satisfying.

And now for the shawl I’m almost done with:

This is the Wing o’ the Moth Shawl that I’ve been working on since I was in London (two years ago). I don’t know why I put it aside for so long, but I finally started working on it this summer in my mission to finish the several huge shawl projects I had. I’ve used the Malabrigo Lace Yarn for this in the Pearl colorway. I’m using this yarn in a few other projects at the moment, and love it. It’s so light and soft that it’s perfect for shawls. I have 5 rows left of the last chart for this project, but it feels like it’s taking forever! I want to have this done by the weekend, but we’ll see.

Well, that’s some of my knitting progress. There’s more, but I’ll save that for another post. Happy knitting!

Spinning! September 2, 2009

The Brit Knits spinning wheel has finally been used! I bought some pretty brown roving on a trip to Lansing today. It’s so fun. I really need a nice place to spin. Talk about motivation for cleaning my room…

so behind on knitting documentation… September 1, 2009

I need to take pictures of all my projects for Ravelry. I want to test knit, so I should probably have a legitimate way of keeping track of my knitting projects.

Chuppa plans in progress. Possibly designing my own pattern.

Another shawl done! August 17, 2009

MS3 is finally done! After starting the shawl in January 2008, it has finally been finished, beads and all (aside from weaving in ends and blocking, but the knitting is finished which is how I define my projects as “done”). It’s very pretty and I’ll have pictures soon. Now off to the Sarcelle scarf. I’ve also started a few Christmas presents. Happy knitting!

opperation bead acquisition… August 13, 2009

Yesterday I set out to buy the beads I need to finish my shawl. I arrived at the bead store (where I bought the beads 2 years ago), but they were out of any beads that could work. Today I’m off to the other bead store in town to see if they have what I need. Hopefully I can finish my shawl this week. Then have lots of pictures!

finishing like whoa August 11, 2009

So writing here has kind of been an epic fail since graduation. It’s not really due to anything other than not having a desk and set schedule. I’ve been working and knitting and reading and watching TV and movies and looking for a job, etc. Life is kind of crazy in its own way. However, I am hoping to get back in the habit of blogging about the ridiculous amount of stuff I’m knitting. On that note…

I’m in the mood to finish projects, and stick to one project at a time (or at least very close to the idea). I’ve finished two shawls over the last couple weeks and I’m working on shawl #3 to finish. I hadn’t worked on lace in a while and I was getting sick of socks, so I’ve decided to go back and finish a bunch of old projects (I have shawls that I haven’t worked on in two years. Crazy). I’m working on the Swan Lake Shawl/MS3. I’m about 3/4 of the way through the shawl and will hopefully finish it this week so I can work on my Wing-o-the moth shawl (also hasn’t really been worked on these last two years).

I’ll take pictures of the shawls and other knitting projects over the last few months. Happy knitting!