Friday, April 29, 2011

The Royal Wedding!! Best Wishes Will and Kate!

Woke up at 5:55 AM this morning and couldn't wait to turn the TV on! Oh my goodness, did Kate look simply stunning or what? Loved every bit of it!!! Soaked up the whole event! I eat this royal stuff up-can't get enough of it. In fact, I'm heading over to my favorite LYS later for a "Royal Sit and Knit"-my daughter and I will be donning fancy hats to celebrate! The LYS owner is hosting the event with an all day sit-n-knit and serving scones and tea all day. She is also giving 15% off to anyone who comes in wearing a fancy hat! Here is what I created for this event:





I knit this in a very stiff yarn-it actually hurt my hands!! Made with rayon and banana fiber that my friend gave me years ago. I knit up a quick flower and then poked in feathers all around it-the more I added, the better it got! I finished it off with a vintage pin from my etsy shop. Perfect!!!

Here is the inspiration for this hat: I purchased this at an antiques shop for $16 in Lafayette, New Jersey. What a steal! The hat is in great condition and I know that somehow, I will work this into a Halloween costume for next year. I do love this hat! The color is terrific!!



Well, here's hoping you all have a rather royal day!! Cheers to William and Katherine!! May they have many years of married bliss!!!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

My Design is going live soon!

Holy smokes!! Don't know if I mentioned it, but I've got a design coming out in www.knitcircus.com! The summer issue is going live on Wednesday, May 4th and my pattern is in it! Knitcircus is also hosting a knitalong on Ravelry in the Knitcircus group and on the Knitcircus facebook page. Here is the sneak peek of my design:


Hope you like it!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

And the winner is...

fowlervilles_Deb!!! I used www.random.org and it picked "12" so you are the winner of this book!! I will send you an email, asking for your mailing address and should have the book out to you tomorrow! Yay! Congratulations!! Thanks to all of you for my birthday wishes and for playin' along!!

Here is a pic of the cake my husband made for me-it really was incredible!!! I had it for BREAKFAST!!! LOL!! We just couldn't wait to eat it!! So good!!!!


As for the knitting stuff, here is a pic of the sweatercoat that flew off my needles in record time. I did make a few modifications, as stated on Ravelry. I've been wearing this sweatercoat since Saturday-it's so cozy!!! It's been a steady rain here in Northwestern NJ (so good for my garden!) so this coat is going to get lots of wear!!


Here is also a pic of the necklace set from my barter with the antiques dealer!-Don't you just love it?? I'm so going back there for more-they have such fun vintage jewelry!


Working on a few yarny things for later posts-and I will be updating my etsy shop with some great new stitchmarker sets! Be sure to check it out in a day or two!

Until then~
Chriss

Monday, April 11, 2011

Birthday Giveaway!

Yep-it's my birthday!! Been celebrating all weekend with dinner out at GREAT italian restaurant (good friends, good food and wine!!), putting up garden fence and putting in plants and today I started off the day perfectly--with cake!! Not just any cake either-my darling husband made the cake of all cakes-get this: Lemon cake, with raspberry/white chocolate/cream cheese filling and butter cream frosting with white chocolate and coconut flakes and fresh raspberries on top-unbelievable....he is my cake boss....

I plan on getting some seeds started with my daughter, having lunch with hubby and her (he's coming home from work just for me-how great, right?) and knitting. Today was supposed to be hot and sunny (80 degrees) but it is cloudy, damp and just plain ugly out. But....perfect cuddling/knitting weather...

I happened to get two copies of Debbie Macomber's new book, "The Knitting Diaries" so I'm giving one away. Simply leave a comment with your email to contact you if you win and on Wednesday, I'll randomly pick a winner.

Later on today I'll post pics of the sweatercoat that I'm wearing everyday (the neighbors are soooo going to start talking about me b/c I've been wearing it since it flew off the needles on Sat!) and of hubby's fabulous birthday cake for me.

Happy Knitting~

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Orders...


So, I went to a new hair salon in my town yesterday for a pre-birthday haircut. I loved the place, my new hairdresser and my haircut, and to top it all, my hairdresser and her staff loved the capelet that I wore there. First, my hairdresser tried it on and then the others did. They requested cotton ones (perfect for spring) and their colors (brown, mossy green and burnt orange). They all ordered one, so now I'm super busy knitting these puppies up!! Hope they like them!!

I also finished my sweatercoat (Stephanie Japel-previous post) so pics to be coming soon. I did a few modifications due to time and my lack of patience!! I finished the coat up in the car (!) on the way to the restaurant and loved wearing it out!!

Dropped off the cowl the the bartering antiques dealer who loved it!! This cowl actually turned into my very first ravelry pattern for sale-it is called the "mia cowl." YOu can also find it on my etsy shop, www.yarngirl.etsy.com named knit-mia cowl. Here is a pic of how it turned out:

I will post a pic of the necklace that I bartered this beauty for. The dealer was so pleased-she may order another one soon! Yay!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Bartering-I love it!

So, guess what?? Today, I took my daughter to dance class and while she was in class, I decided to pop over to this antique shop next door to check things out. The musty smell was familiar to me as all of the antiques and collectibles shops that I've been in all smell the same. The surprise was the sheer amount of vintage jewelry that was there! Good, fun stuff! One of the necklaces looked like it came right out of an Anthropologie catalog-and for $20 bucks, not bad, eh??? So, I poked around and saw some vintage sewing stuff. I caught the shopkeeper's eye and asked, "Do you happen to have any vintage knitting patterns or knitting stuff?" and she said, "Sometimes..." She looked around for something and then told me that she didn't know where it was but if I gave her my phone #, she'd let the dealers know and they'd call me if they came upon something. Then, she asked me if I was a knitter? Am I a KNITTER??? Of course! I told her I was and then she asked me if I sell my stuff-Of course!! She went on to say that she would pay me for a hand-knit cowl and while she explained to me what she wanted, I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of this necklace-it was from the 1950's-very anthro, very spring-y-totally me. It made me smile, just looking about it and so when she saw me looking at it so much, as we were discussing price, she said, "How 'bout we trade-this set (it comes with clip on earrings-but I'll repurpose for something else) for the cowl??" And I said, "YESSSSSS!!!"-of course...




It looks kinda like this set, but my flowers are pink. We are going to trade on Saturday at noon....and I'm going to rock this necklace when I hit the town Sat. night with hubby and friends!!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

What do I do when completely stressed???


I cast on for a toe up sock pattern, that's what I do. Doesn't matter that I have no idea how to do toe-up (my preferred method is cuff down on dpn's), I've got youtube videos!! Yep, I learned Judy Becker's Magic cast on method by watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkyd3nq3Yn8
Then, I found the perfect pattern, "Diagonal Lace Socks" from www.wendyknits.net-free pattern that I learned about while reading the online knitting mag, www.knitcircus.com-great magazine, by the way...more on that in another post, for sure!!-anyway....I'm knitting these socks using yarn bought from Rhinebeck last year. It is Jill Draper's splendor sock yarn-Ozone (435 yds 80% merino 10% cashmere 10% nylon). Perfect color blends of muddy browns, cerulean blues and fresh to forest greens...makes me think of spring!
Pics to come soon...

So, why the stress??? DD just showed signs that MRSA is on its way back into her little body...Darn it. I thought we were in the clear....