Shamrock Knits

I have WIPs!

I've had a  stressful couple of weeks, but I have been knitting. I haven't been happy with my camera lately either. So, for an update on my projects. Yeah, that's plural. I have multiple projects going on. I feel like a grown-up knitter.

Reversible Cable Throw

I finally received the yarn from discountyarnsale this past Monday. I haven't taken it out of the bag yet, but the color looks close. I should be able to start working on this throw again. I'm going to alternate the skeins of yarn in case there's a noticeable difference in the color. But even if there is, it's just a throw and it's not a gift.

Crochet Star Afghan

I still had a ton of red, white, blue, and red/white/blue variegated acrylic yarn in my stash. I've been thinking about crochet ripple afghans and decided it would be a good use to dwindle the stash down. I came across this star shaped crochet pattern from Yarn Diva and fell in love with it. I started this pattern last week and worked on it alot last Saturday.

Felted Poinsetta Wreath

I've knitted and felted all the pieces. I didn't follow the felting instructions because I don't want to mess around with the floral wire like the pattern states. The kit comes with 2 different sized wire. The thicker wire is supposed to be fed through the green stem and up through 3 layers of petals. Then the top  layer of petals is sewn on and has the yellow french knots or beads. I decided that I'm going to sew the petal layers together and onto the wreath frame so they won't come off. I'm not a french knot person, so I think I'm going to go the beaded route. I haven't taken a picture of the felted petals, but here's one of the before flowers. There are a total of 8 flowers all together.

I went to Minneapolis Monday and Tuesday for work and stopped at the Yarnery during lunch. I saw these snowmen last year when I went to the shop, but now they've knit some up with the glittery yarn. Very cute. Of course, I bought the pattern for the accessories as well as a pumpkin pattern.

I also picked up a skein of Malabrigo lace and a crocheted lace scarf they had knit up in the store. It was really nice in person. The scarf pattern looks like a crocheted chevron ripple. I've passed up this lace a couple of times and couldn't resist any more. The blue is not as bright and the lighter color has green in it that doesn't come across in the picture. Very yummy.

My very last bit of news is that I'm finally on Ravelry! Woo Hoo!!! I was just sent notice yesterday. I've started keying in my stash. It has an export function to Excel which would be a great feature if I didn't already key my inventory in Excel a few months ago. Oh well, great minds and all.  I don't have a flicker account yet, so I'll have to do that and take pics of my yarn. Shamrockknits was already taken, so my ID is 'shamrockknitsil'. I didn't have much time to look around the site, but it seems VERY cool. I love that I can see all the projects people have made with a certain yarn.  A lot of my stash was bought because I liked the yarn and I didn't really have a pattern in mind. I think that search function is going to help tremendously. I'll be doing alot of surfing on the site this weekend.

Mega Update

I'm glad I sent an email to Discount Yarn Sale asking about my yarn order. They sent me a response back the next day telling me that my order had accidentally shipped to the wrong customer. As soon as it's returned, they'll ship it to me. I was surprised, but glad, for the honesty. Unless the yarn is not in good condition, I'll order from them again. Everyone makes mistakes. At least they responded quickly and told me what was going on. Refreshing.

Cruisin'

This past Sunday, Robin and I went on a knitting cruise along the Fox River sponsored by Wool and Company. We ran into alot of chicagoland knitters and had a great time. It was a beautiful day.

This was the only picture that was in focus. My camera has really been bugging me lately. I think I'm going to look around for another one. There much cheaper than when I bought mine, much lighter, and probably better quality. Since the holidays are around the corner, that might be a good Christmas gift idea.

I've been working on a felted poinsetta wreath kit that my mother bought and asked me to knit for her. Each flower has 4 sets of 3 petals, and there are 7 flowers to make. I've finished 4 full flowers so far, but haven't felted them. I'll take some before and after pictures later.

I still haven't received the Mega yarn I ordered for the reversible cable throw. I ordered it through Discount Yarn Sale. It says it takes 2-3 weeks for shipping and they don't charge until they ship. They still haven't shipped yet. It was a great deal, because when I ordered, it was in the bargain bin section. I don't know if I'll use them again. They didn't have a tracking system or anything. We'll see how the yarn is when it eventually gets here. Has anyone else used this site?

Techinical Difficulties

I was getting ready to post last night and I saw that I had some comments. For some reason, my email was filtering out anything from typepad so I didn't get any of them. I think I have the problem fixed now.

New Look

How do you like the new look? Through my blog reading, I stumbled across Karen's site. I think she did a great job at designing my banner for me. I have a button too that I still have to figure out how to get up. Karen and I discussed a few design elements and went through several versions. She was very patient with me and my changes. Thank you Karen!