Good afternoon and morning to all! And happy long weekend if you're in the UK and getting tomorrow off :) Today I'm already feeling quite accomplished since I put a 5 mile training run in the books (my other other hobby), and I'm keen to get into knitting for the rest of the day!
As a reward for my running, I often use yarn (unsurprisingly) and since LottieKnits just had a shop update yesterday with some deadly speckles, I had a little moment over there and picked up two gorgeous skeins. The dreaded cartjacking prevented me from snagging a discounted skein (it had a break), but I managed to get the last regular-priced one. I've actually never been cartjacked before, and if you've never heard of this, it's when you put something into your cart on Etsy and someone else checks out the same item before you can, so when you go to pay, it's gone. I see it A LOT on Tanis Fibre Arts shop updates, probably unsurprisingly because her yarn is ridiculously gorgeous and everyone wants in on that action!
Anywho, in addition to that, I've been loving up grey and speckles lately, and when someone in a Ravelry thread posted a picture of some scrumptious skeins, I had to find out who made them. Turns out, it's The Lemonade Shop, a place out of Colorado that, when I clicked through to their Etsy shop, BLEW MY MIND with their gorgeous colourways!! Guys. It's nutso. Get over there and ogle. Plus, their logo is adorable.
And now for some sort of lunch, and diving back into my current WIP (one of what, eight, now? Whatever, I love choice), a gift project using Lion Brand Homespun. A bit of a tricky one, but so squishy and very care-friendly! Enjoy your Sunday :)
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Monday, April 24, 2017
Rock'n Road Trip
Well, I got to live my best life this past weekend! I traveled down to Sioux Falls, SD to see a triple bill of bands: Tesla, Poison, and Def Leppard, three of my very favourite bands!
Cruising down to see these guys meant about 7 hours of driving each way...perfect time to work on my poncho project that feels like it will literally never end!
Here it is, on the road somewhere in South Dakota. Sad to say that my slip stitch ribbing days are still not behind me, even after all those hours in the car. But the collar is now finished and so is about a quarter of the side ribbing. Soon this sucker will be done and I can blog about something new!
And since it's Monday, and I got such an eyeful this weekend, why not throw in a man crush! Kaeleigh knows I have been agonizing over who to choose for this edition for quite some time. I thought I had the right one selected, but then I decided it was best to hold off until she and I go on a trip to see this same concert lineup in June, since he is a mutual man crush!
And so today's man crush selection is Rikki Rockett of Poison! I've been a fan of Poison for many a year now, and I do admit that initially Bret Michaels held my affections. Rikki has over the years won me over though! When he's not playing music, he's an animal rights advocate, builds custom drum kits, oh, and he recently beat Stage 4 tongue cancer! Since he is the drummer, I couldn't get a decent shot of him at the show 😞. You can check out a cool Instagram photo that he posted from Sioux Falls, SD here though 😍
Needless to say Mr. Rockett is happy to be cancer free and back on the road with Poison. He's documenting this road trip by riding his motorcycle from venue to venue and taking photos along the way. It's really neat! You can check out his journey here.
Prior to this year, Poison hadn't toured together for five years or so, and I missed them on that tour, so it had been a long time since I last got to enjoy this old favourite of mine. I gotta say, they really delivered an exciting and fun filled show! And what's more, prior to their show, they played a video encouraging concert-goers to donate to support the immunotherapy trial that Rikki participated in. This treatment is why he's back on the road and back to full health! A great cause for sure, I'm so glad Rikki is giving back to this program.
SO, after all that, I better just wrap up and say all three bands were AWESOME. I unfortunately missed part of Tesla...the venue recently upped their security and it took a full HOUR for us to get past the security scanners and to our seats. Here's hoping you get your act together soon, Denny Sanford Premier Center! Luckily I have seen Tesla many a time, otherwise I would be full of eternal bitterness about that, haha. Oh, and knowing I'll see them again in June with Kaeleigh helps, too.
Oh, I suppose I should post a couple of pics from the show, eh? Here ya go 😊
Hope all your weekends were just as good, whatever you were all up to!
Cruising down to see these guys meant about 7 hours of driving each way...perfect time to work on my poncho project that feels like it will literally never end!
Here it is, on the road somewhere in South Dakota. Sad to say that my slip stitch ribbing days are still not behind me, even after all those hours in the car. But the collar is now finished and so is about a quarter of the side ribbing. Soon this sucker will be done and I can blog about something new!
And since it's Monday, and I got such an eyeful this weekend, why not throw in a man crush! Kaeleigh knows I have been agonizing over who to choose for this edition for quite some time. I thought I had the right one selected, but then I decided it was best to hold off until she and I go on a trip to see this same concert lineup in June, since he is a mutual man crush!
And so today's man crush selection is Rikki Rockett of Poison! I've been a fan of Poison for many a year now, and I do admit that initially Bret Michaels held my affections. Rikki has over the years won me over though! When he's not playing music, he's an animal rights advocate, builds custom drum kits, oh, and he recently beat Stage 4 tongue cancer! Since he is the drummer, I couldn't get a decent shot of him at the show 😞. You can check out a cool Instagram photo that he posted from Sioux Falls, SD here though 😍
Needless to say Mr. Rockett is happy to be cancer free and back on the road with Poison. He's documenting this road trip by riding his motorcycle from venue to venue and taking photos along the way. It's really neat! You can check out his journey here.
Prior to this year, Poison hadn't toured together for five years or so, and I missed them on that tour, so it had been a long time since I last got to enjoy this old favourite of mine. I gotta say, they really delivered an exciting and fun filled show! And what's more, prior to their show, they played a video encouraging concert-goers to donate to support the immunotherapy trial that Rikki participated in. This treatment is why he's back on the road and back to full health! A great cause for sure, I'm so glad Rikki is giving back to this program.
SO, after all that, I better just wrap up and say all three bands were AWESOME. I unfortunately missed part of Tesla...the venue recently upped their security and it took a full HOUR for us to get past the security scanners and to our seats. Here's hoping you get your act together soon, Denny Sanford Premier Center! Luckily I have seen Tesla many a time, otherwise I would be full of eternal bitterness about that, haha. Oh, and knowing I'll see them again in June with Kaeleigh helps, too.
Oh, I suppose I should post a couple of pics from the show, eh? Here ya go 😊
Hope all your weekends were just as good, whatever you were all up to!
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
WIP Wednesday!
Bernice: Who doesn't like to break up the week with a peek at what's on our hooks and needles? I hope you all got to enjoy as much crafty time over the long weekend as I did.
As you can see, I'm back to work on Poncho #2. Despite this little cutie's best efforts to distract me, I did manage to get a lot of crocheting done, and am now back into the never ending slip stitch ribbing portion of this project. Rest assured, once Poncho #2 is complete, I will never use this pattern again! Too much ribbing!!!
Kaeleigh: As usual, I can't settle on just one thing! And I sure did get a lot of crafting done during this long weekend - it was my birthday as well so I got some INSANELY gorgeous SweetGeorgia Cashluxe Fine: FOUR skeins!! Spoiled rotten, as usual ;)
I've got another Heart On My Sleeve sweater on the go; after my lovely Hearthstone turned out so well, I thought I'd go for a Crazyheart in SweetGeorgia Superwash DK and I'm about five rows away from being done the sleeves. I'm doing them two at a time, so it's even faster...in theory, anyway!
On Tuesday I cast on the Aperture Shawl by Ambah O'Brien, which I've been eyeing up for weeks (a little happy birthday to myself!) with some club yarn from Tanis Fibre Arts, a lovely skein of Purple Label which is a combo of cashmere, merino, and nylon. The pattern is going well so far, though I've made a few errors and had to backtrack a few times as well; not quite as easy to memorize as the Lilli Pilli but I love it just the same!
Kaeleigh: As usual, I can't settle on just one thing! And I sure did get a lot of crafting done during this long weekend - it was my birthday as well so I got some INSANELY gorgeous SweetGeorgia Cashluxe Fine: FOUR skeins!! Spoiled rotten, as usual ;)
I've got another Heart On My Sleeve sweater on the go; after my lovely Hearthstone turned out so well, I thought I'd go for a Crazyheart in SweetGeorgia Superwash DK and I'm about five rows away from being done the sleeves. I'm doing them two at a time, so it's even faster...in theory, anyway!
On Tuesday I cast on the Aperture Shawl by Ambah O'Brien, which I've been eyeing up for weeks (a little happy birthday to myself!) with some club yarn from Tanis Fibre Arts, a lovely skein of Purple Label which is a combo of cashmere, merino, and nylon. The pattern is going well so far, though I've made a few errors and had to backtrack a few times as well; not quite as easy to memorize as the Lilli Pilli but I love it just the same!
Monday, April 10, 2017
A man crush and some FOs
Today's lovely featured gentleman is one of my very favourites, Alice Cooper.
I missed a lot of years not listening to Alice but when Bernice asked me to go to Motley Crue and Alice Cooper in 2015, I said yes as fast as I could, and then started on my musical homework. What an excellent choice! He's got a lot of great standards, some definite personal faves, and so much range in the catalogue that there's probably Alice for every mood ever. My mom listened to Alice Cooper (back when Billion Dollar Babies came out...though when I offered her my copy, she politely declined - she's a little less hard rock these days!), so he can pretty cover off multigenerational groups too. And if you've ever seen Wayne's World, or you have the good fortune of tuning into his radio show, you know exactly how dry and sharp his wit is. We're not worthy!
***
In knit news, I've been burning through projects at a wild rate! I finished off my glorious Marian shawl, complete with little kitty pawprints, and in the last week I've also FINALLY used my fantastic SweetGeorgia Cashluxe Fine for another sweet design of my own; this one is called Mediterranean (gorgeous blues for the front and back), a cowl neck tank with lace back. The lace is inspired/based on the Ambah O'Brien Lilli Pilli shawl; I've been loving that pattern ever since I saw it and I've made it twice (with increasing proficiency, haha) and still adore the look of the lace! So awesome. I don't have good shots of my FOs - to be honest I should've shot them this weekend but it was so sunny I just had to sit and enjoy it! - so they'll be in a roundup soon, but in the meantime, I'm casting on another Heart On My Sleeve sweater (Crazyheart, I think!) with some more SweetGeorgia - Superwash DK in Coral, Hush, and Salt Air - and maybe I'll even do the sleeves two at a time because I'm crazy like that, haha. Party on, Wayne!
Monday, April 3, 2017
Crafty Weekend Getaway
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Some notes on the poncho as I am close to finishing it up:
- The pattern suggests crocheting the collar and side ribbing pieces separately from the poncho and then sewing them on when you have the correct length. I personally am anti-sewing, so instead, I started the ribbing by joining to the work with a slip stitch and then attached each row of ribbing with a single crochet to the project as I progressed. I found it easier and the look is more seamless as well, in my opinion. Plus, I want to crochet, not sew!
- I read some of the comments on this design on Ravelry. One user mentioned instead of crocheting the ribbing pieces, she knitted them, and it went much faster for her. If you are prolific in both knit and crochet, I'd say this would DEFINITELY be the way to go. The crochet ribbing is made of slip stitches in the back loop, which is slow, tedious work. You also REALLY have to watch your gauge, otherwise it gets too tight really quickly. It's definitely slow going with the crochet method.
- The pattern also suggests that you sew the side buttons through both sides of the poncho, and that the buttons are for looks only. I thought that working buttons would make putting this poncho on a child easier! So I improvised and crocheted 3 button holes on each side. I crocheted 17 rows of ribbing up the side from the bottom, then the next row, I did 2 slip stitches, then chained 3, then 2 more slip stitches. I spaced 3 button holes like this 15 ribbing rows apart. Now, I'll have to find some buttons that work with this project!
I'm so glad that I've nearly completed this poncho...the crochet ribbing is really getting so tiring to work on. Unfortunately, I do need to make another poncho in pink! I may have to do a small project in between as a palate cleanser before I start the next one though!
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