My first blog contest!

A few weeks ago, tapmouse, Irishgirlie, and I met up at Purlescence Yarns to do a little Blue Moon Fiber Arts stash enhancement. Since I wouldn't be in the Bay Area the week of my birthday, I decided to get a bunch of Socks that Rock lightweight as my birthday present to myself. But rather than simply outing my birthday stash buy, I thought it would be more fun to have everyone guess the 10 out the 11 colorways I bought.


No one has to guess the 11'th one in that pile since I'm sharing it now:


This is Heartstone. The Purl Girls asked Tina to bring back one of her older colorways that hadn't been on the website or at fiber events in awhile. Isn't it pretty?


But I didn't only buy the lightweight. I also snagged a skein of Luscious Silk in Jasper. I love Jasper 'cause it looks wonderful in every fiber that Tina uses. I have yet to see an unattractive version of this colorway.

So, the rules:
- Deadline will be December 4, 2008. Why that date? 'Cause I like the number 4, that's all.
- One set of guesses per guesser.
- I repeat, Heartstone does NOT count as a guess.
- You can cheat and try to get tapmouse & Irishgirlie to help out...if they remember all that I bought. ;)
- You can also check Purlescence's picture here or posts in their Rav group for hints, but no calling or e-mailing them for my buying history! And I may call them too to make sure.

The one with the most number of correct guesses will win:
- A skein of, you guessed it, lightweight STR in Iolite


and an extra or few:
- your choice of one of these 3 NARS mini-lip glosses in Gothika, Greek Holiday, or Turkish Delight.


- and maybe something else, but I haven't figured out what yet. Maybe something from Stila. 'Cause I am a Stilaholic NARtian. Get my name now?

Next up, sharing my yarny birthday gifts from my knittery and non-knittery friends.

Zoe

Monkey2's mini-funky monkey is pretty much done. I just need to knit her some clothes and maybe add a set of pink felted lips. Maybe.


Blue Moon Fiber Arts Funky Monkey kit in Typhoon Tina & Harlotty
size 5 KP circs
mods:
-Similar to Edward's construction at Sock Camp, she's got pipe cleaner in her legs and doubled pipe cleaner in her extra long tail. Unlike Edward, I picked up and knit her arms on.
- Because I knit her on needles one size smaller than Edward's, she's shorter, somewhat mirroring Monkey1 and Monkey2's current height difference - well, not quite if you get really math geeky and calculate that whole proportional ratio thing.

(Yes, I forgot that last loose end. I weaved it in after I took the pic.)

While Twilight wasn't even on my radar back when Monkey1 named Edward, I thought I would amuse myself geekily by throwing out all the other character names from the book for Monkey2's, starting with Jacob and going through all the Cullens. In the end, Monkey2 named her monkey after Zoey 101.

Sigh...the drawbacks of not being militant about monitoring both Monkeys tv viewing. I think I was simply surprised that she didn't opt for the more obvious homage to one of her very favorite HSM characters. But to minimize the reference, I took the liberty of not spelling her name the same way as Britney Spear's little sister's character.

Maybe when I knit the full-sized one from the rest of the yarn in the kit, I'll have the fun of naming him/her.

Still with the gift knitting

Lucky 7 hat
Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Raven 1.4 skeins
size 8 KP circs

This is not going to b-day brother 'cause it's a tad too snug to be a small adult hat. I thought I compensated by going up a needle size, but I probably should've gone up 2 more. He opted for my first pair of Noro Maine Morning Mitts instead. Darn that instant gratification!

And since b-day brother gets the first pair of mitts, I cast on for a second pair hoping that I would keep them for me but they're at bit too 80's pink (& black) for me.


Maine Morning Mitts
Noro Silk Garden
size 8 dpns
no mods

The weather's been super nice this weekend (a Nov heat wave!), so I've got my finished gift knits washed and drying out in the shade.

At this point, I should've cast on for a cowl or more fingerless mitts, but I just wasn't feeling inspired at all, even with lots of Ravelry surfing. I only managed a row here & there with my MS4 stole and my Anemone sock since I just wasn't feeling those at all either. So I ended up casting on for Monkey2's mini-monkey. I forgot how quick the body takes. It's the endless i-cording of the tail, arms and legs that took up the bulk of our sock camp monkey knitting, iirc. The body's started with Typhoon Tina and the kit came with Harlotty as the "other" colorway.


I also decided to try my luck with the Ruffled Roses Scarf since tapmouse had been urging me to cast on for a scarf awhile back, before we started on our gift knitting, I think.

Since I'm using the narrower Universal Yarns Tango instead of the OnLine ribbon yarn, it's been a little tough going. Maybe once I start with the lace, then ribbed panels, it won't seem so bad.


There's something ironic about using a designer's free pattern distributed to help lys businesses and the majority of the yarn I'm using came from lys that have closed.

I don't think I'll get too much further on this scarf for awhile since I really should be knitting a cowl here and there. And a few fingerless mitts too.

Still with the hats

Amost done with the holiday hat thing. I am so over the hat knitting but I have one more to go for b-day brother because I'm leaning on selfish side about keeping those Noro mitts for me.


For Squid - to replace the Nottingham Hat I made 'cause Monkey1 stole it
Hermione Cable & Eyelet Hat
Crystal Palace Merino 5 Print - love this yarn, wish it came in 100 g skeins/balls instead
needle size: size 7 KP circs

mods:
- Only 1 repeat of the pattern 'cause my row gauge is significantly longer than the designer's. If I had done the second repeat, I think the hat would've been too long.
- As many other Ravellers have done, I added in the missing crown decrease round between rounds 4 & 5 (k6, p2tog) and changed the k2tog's to ssk's so the decreases would lean the same way as the cables.

Also done are my Rocktober socks. I was a little too tight at the beginning of the second sock so it had started to flash/pool vertically. As soon as I relaxed my death grip, I started to match the "non-pooling" effect of my first sock.


recap:
Crows Feet by Linda Welch
STR lightweight in Rocktober
size 2.50 mm KP dpns
extra rows in Eye of Partridge heel flap

Finally

It took a couple tries, but I now have a hat for Squid's brother:


A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend
Mission Falls 1824 Wool - Charcoal
size 8 KP circs
cast on 90 sts
extra inch before decreasing for crown section

After all that hat gift knitting, I took a break and did some comfort STR sock knitting. I love how the first sock is not striping at all, though the second sock is starting to look like it'll flash vertically.


Crows Feet by Linda Welch
STR lightweight in Rocktober
size 2.50 mm KP dpns
extra rows in Eye of Partridge heel flap

After recharging my knitting batteries with the sock knitting, I managed to crank out a pair of gift mitts.


Maine Morning Mitts
Noro Silk Garden
size 7 bamboo dpns
no mods

However, knitting the Silk Garden reminded me why I have such a love/hate relationship with Noro. Love the colors combos, hate when a knot signifies the arbitrary & capricious change in color sequence. Since I knit this from an orphan skein I bought from The Knitting Basket's closing sale, I didn't have the luxury of mauling another skein to make the mitts match. Am debating if it'll matter or not. Also tempted to keep it for myself 'cause it's...well, Noro.

Being Unoriginal

So Monkey1 is righteously scolding me 'cause I have caught what I thought was their mild cold and it's been kickin' my arse. Well, technically it's more like they've sent some gorilla cousins to sit on my chest all day & night. Ugh. I haven't been in the mood to knit at all, but I'm surprised I've actually accomplished something or another. This time my hat knitting karma was behaving.


Unoriginal Hat
Sheep Shop Company Two in Primavera
size 11 KP circs

No mods made. I'll have to gift this to a friend with a long head since the pattern isn't so much narrow as it is long.


The surprise is that I actually finished Hint #4 of my Mystery Stole 4 KAL. Right now it's 21" long unblocked. I don't think it'll block out significantly longer since my swatch didn't either. But it won't bother me since my SotSii stole was also on the small side.

But what I really wanted to post about is that Cookie A said we could share this about her upcoming book set to release in April 2009. I'm so excited! The pair I sample knit for her is Lindsay.