Keeping Myself in Stitches!

Baby, it's cold outside!

At least it's getting there!  In honor of December... I've busted out the winter coat and my newly knitted "matchy matchy" headband and mittens set :)

  The headband is "Calorimetry"... free on knitty.com.  I really like it :) COOOOOOZY!

The mittens are a great top-down "recipe" that I found on Ravelry.

I got the yarns at the Common Ground Fair in September.  It was my main goal at the fair... to get mitten yarn :)  And I did!  These are amazingly soft... the brown is a yummy alpaca and the stripes are an angora/merino blend... like wearing little soft bunnies on your hands :)

ok winter... bring it! :)
 
 
 

No knitting since August???

Yeah right :) haha... I don't think I've posted any of my projects since August... been a little "light in the blog" lately...

So quick look at everything I've completed since August 21 :)

 
 Some successes... some I'm not pleased with that will be taken apart... some I LOVE :) haha

Ok... now I feel caught up and that I can start posting new stuff!  Finished a pair of mittens tonight, but want to felt them a bit so I'll do before/after pictures tomorrow.
 
 
 
 
 

If looks could kill

Kitties got baths tonight...

Kitties were NOT impressed.

Good news is I only have one set of scratches and no bloodshed! (Ralphie was slightly less impressed than Kitty... she actually did pretty well after her initial shock.... Ralphie... you would have thought I was killing him... poor thing)
 
 

Another Pleasant Mountain Sunday!

My apologies to the Monkees :)

It 's been a long time without blogging... been very busy, but I took yesterday to go on my very first solo hike on Pleasant Mountain in Demark, ME.

I was so excited to go that I was awake bright and early... on the road by 7:$5 am :)  I knew it was going to be a great day when I saw this pulling out of Hannaford:

I took off up 302 and headed toward my first destination... Lynchville, ME... what's in Lynchville you ask...

It's the most famous sign in Maine.  For 32 years (give or take) I've seen this sign on postcards everywhere... but I had never seen it myself.  So yes, I drove 45 minutes out of my way to take a picture of a sign and check it off my "Being a Tourist in my own State" checklist... check.  FYI, it's at the corner of routes 35 and 5 in Lynchville.

Then, off to Denmark I drove.  I chose to climb Pleasant Mountain via the Southwest Ridge Trail as recommended by my AMC guide.  I was the first one in the parking lot and excited to start my hike on this beautiful day.  I started up at 10am.

 

This first half mile was a bit of a bugger... fairly steep and right off the bat.  I started to wonder if I'd made the best choice, but when you get gorgeous view within half an hour of starting a hike... it's worth it.

 

I made it to the summit in about 2.5 hours and was so happy with the views...

 

Although I could see rain in the distance, the weather cooperated on the mountain and I was able to enjoy the entire hike... 5.8 miles round trip... I got back down to the base in 1.75 hours.

Mother nature is a wonderful and amazing woman... you can see the rest of my pictures here.
 
 
 
 

I HEART WEEKEND

Always nice to have a nice sunny day on the weekend.

Today I started off my morning down at the gazebo off the Eastern Prom...

 

It was beautiful.  I took a walk around and met some very... let's say "interesting"... people at the beach area.  Suffice it to say the man in the group (older... heavier) had stripped down to his underwear and had no problem sitting there chatting with me in his skivvies...

 

The bees were out in full force, both honey and bumble :) 

On my way back to the car I stopped to read the monument for the Arctic Campaign that is near the gazebo.  Check this out:

 

"Hugh seas"????  How about "high seas" folks!  I feel the need to point this out to someone, but am not sure who I should contact.  No monument in memory of thousands of people should contain a typo :(

After my lovely morning at the Portland shore, I took off to go work on my master's paper.  That is still hard to get motivated for, but I'm slowly but surely gaining momentum.

I left the office and then headed to the Audubon Society in Falmouth to read for a bit and relax.  I got to see some cool weather from a distance:

 

It's raining way over there... luckily it stayed way over there.

Right before I pulled out to leave, I found this motley crew running around...

 

They're four of eleven turkeys I got to see today.  These guys were the biggest.  They were pretty cool :)

Time to start another week.  Have a good one!

Laborless Day :)

Yay for a day off... while part of me didn't need it, I decided to make the most of it.  This whole weekend was rather lovely, but today was full of "me time" and I think I really needed that.

Started off the day by heading down to the Eastern Prom with coffee, breakfast and knitting.  This is usually a Sunday event for me, so going on a Monday was a treat :)

I then drove to Mackworth Island to go for a walk... but they were full :(  But I'm sort of glad they were... because it prompted a trip into the unknown for me and I found some great spots!  I decided to take a drive up Route 88 through Freeport, Cumberland and into Yarmouth.  Lovely drive with many beautiful homes to look upon lustfully ;)

My trip down 88 ended at a nice spot in Yarmouth... Grist Mill Park.

 

  

 

I had fun taken the camera out and getting shots of the falls, trees, and berries in the area.

Then I hopped back in the car and headed up Route 1.  I wanted to avoid downtown Freeport and vaguely recalled a state park... so I ended up at Wolfe's Neck State Park and walked around for a bit:

 

 

I then headed off to knit for the afternoon... with some small trips to other scenic venues for eating :)

All in all... a great day off!

Wow... the months are just FLYING by :)

April's done!!

 

It's a beret-like hat... I made it a bit floppier than the pattern pictures:

 

but I really like it... it'll be cozy in the winter (right now it's just sticky... omg humid!!!)

Ok... one more "non-sock" project before doing another pair of socks so I've decided to do my "Green Day" vest... I'm going to connect the bottom band though :)  Here's the yarn I'm using:

 

I figure it's too hot to work on my Concetta tonight... so off to wind yarn and swatch!

1. Ziggy (hat) in a purple Spunky Super Nova

2. Green Day (vest) in a blue/green Brunswick Impressions (next one to be started!!)

3. SImple Toe-up Socks in Four Sizes in colorwork pattern using a purple and a blue Lamb's Pride Superwash

4. Jaywalker (socks) in a brown/blue Lion Brand Magic Stripes

5. Kitty Pi (cat bed) in Spumoni Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky

6. A bag of my own design in a navy Lamb's Pride Bulky and a brown Lopi

7. Urchin (hat) in a cream Bernat Alpaca

8. A scarf using the cable pattern from Star Crossed Slouchy Beret in a teal Kilcarra Tweed

9. Huggable Hedgehog (toy) in brown Jojoland wool and Cello fun fur

10. Diana's Knee Highs (socks) in a blue/white striping Lane Cervinia Forever Jaquard (on hold)

11. Celtic Latticework (socks) in a plum baby alpaca from the Fryeburg Fair

12. Snowflake Socks in a cream and plum Rowan RYC Cashsoft

"April" Stash Roulette

So for my fourth "Stash Roulette" project I decided to do "Urchin", a hat using the leftover yarn from my opera gloves from a couple Christmases ago... ironically, both designs are from the same designer :)

The hat is knitting up really quickly:

 

Which is good because it may be too big (using much bigger needles than called for in pattern to get gauge... but we'll see how it goes)  Will bring to work to knit at lunch, but will have to knit outside... those size 15 aluminum needles make some NOISE!

I think I can finish this hat early next week and already move on to "May" :)

1. Ziggy (hat) in a purple Spunky Super Nova

2. Green Day (vest) in a blue/green Brunswick Impressions

3. SImple Toe-up Socks in Four Sizes in colorwork pattern using a purple and a blue Lamb's Pride Superwash

4. Jaywalker (socks) in a brown/blue Lion Brand Magic Stripes

5. Kitty Pi (cat bed) in Spumoni Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky

6. A bag of my own design in a navy Lamb's Pride Bulky and a brown Lopi

7. Urchin (hat) in a cream Bernat Alpaca (in progress!)

8. A scarf using the cable pattern from Star Crossed Slouchy Beret in a teal Kilcarra Tweed

9. Huggable Hedgehog (toy) in brown Jojoland wool and Cello fun fur

10. Diana's Knee Highs (socks) in a blue/white striping Lane Cervinia Forever Jaquard (on hold)

11. Celtic Latticework (socks) in a plum baby alpaca from the Fryeburg Fair

12. Snowflake Socks in a cream and plum Rowan RYC Cashsoft

March project... fini!!!

 

My "March" socks from Stash Roulette are done! haha... get distracted much???

As I've mentioned... I'm determined to keep trying to catch up and finish all 12 projects before 2010 :)  I need a break from socks for a bit though... so tonight I will cast on for a hat... not 100% sure which one yet, but I'll post when I know :)

My Concetta needs to be ripped back a bit... sleeves are not coming out at the correct gauge :-/  I will begin to fix that tomorrow.

End of Summer Knit-Along... Concetta!

My friends at TKE decided to have a "fall's a-comin'" KAL with the awesome Concetta Cardigan (by Maine designer Elizabeth Smith and available on Ravelry).

In 12 days I've taken this:

 

And now have this:

 

Just need to finish the sleeves and do some ribbing around the edge.  Although it's hard to believe in this heat wave and humidity... fall is indeed a-comin'... and I'm going to have a great new sweater with which to greet it :)

If you are on Ravelry... Elizabeth has a bunch of other great patterns available too (many free)!!  I'm going to knit her "Mud Season" soon!