Warning : Sweater Update ! Okay warning over :)

Alright so I finally made decent progress - I have a couple more rows of the body left, sleeves, and edging.

Good Picture of my progress 

Goofy picture of my sweater :)




Alrighty, update over :) Hoping to finish at least the rest of the body tonight. Sadly, I have a ton of hours at work the next week so knitting and time with Thane will be minimized :( Ah well, money money money.



Keep Rambling Everyone,

~Ashley

The blog is not dead , I repeat the blog is not dead (Okay maybe CPR is needed)

Hellooooooooooo ,


Oh Ramblers I missed you so! There are a couple reasons for this terrible hiatus. One, the major one, is because I have had nothing new to report about. Same old, same old, I'm knitting hats for the store....I'm still knitting hats for the store, hey! I'm knitting hats for the store! And by the way - I really am still knitting hats for the store. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel - I have 3 left and am in no hurry now, which is a huge relief. A giant shout out to Machelle who is the best  person to work with, she hasn't rushed me one single time and is so kind!


Big News : The continuing story

Okay so test knitting right? I finished it! I sent it out to the designer on Friday and she hopefully got it today! Woot woot! It ended up being a different yarn than what I talked about last time because let me tell you : LOFT and I just don't see eye to eye and I will avoid that yarn like the plague. The designer was so kind and so amazing as to let me send the yarn back, PAY ME for the work I did correcting the pattern even though I did not finish, send me new yarn and let me do a different pattern that I adored! An amazing experience and I would wholeheartedly do it again! Also if anyone reading this is a designer and would love a test knitter, let me know and I can give you my references :)


Starteritis - Definition - The disease where you start way more projects than you should...and you start more. 
Cure : Start more projects

Some of you might think that this "disease" is a problem, well let me tell you right now, it's not! It's a wonderful thing that I have and I enjoy it, it's a lot of fun to start something new every other hour haha. Also if you pair it with finishing things every once in a blue moon you suddenly have a lot of things done!


Here's my list of Starteritis projects :


1. Sprig - Beautiful sweater I've talked about a few times, I just finished putting the sleeve stitches on scrap yarn!


2. Vampolka - I have recently decided on yarn for this and will be doing it as part of a KAL. I will be using yarn from Alexandra's Crafts that I bought at STITCHES Midwest (denim blue + white) and then a nice grass green alpaca that I won at STITCHES as well!

3. Clay's gloves - My poor amazing friend has been asking for half fingered gloves forever and  I finally found some grey yarn in my stash to use! I'll be using this pattern but altering it for half fingers.

4. Heliotrope hat -This beautiful cable hat struck me when I was looking through the magazine in the store and was the reason I bought it. Now I did end up deciding I like about 3/4 the patterns in it but still. The hat is so pretty and I'm using Knit Picks Biggo for it in the colorway Haze Heather

Those are all in addition to the hats that I should be doing, the old projects I should be finishing, and of course all the other patterns I should start soon!


I will be doing another post with my pictures of my new projects soon :) 

That's all folks, 
Ashley~

That one post that took a whole month to write

Hello dearest ramblers who are still reading this :)


Have I got a post for you today! So many things have been happening in my life that it has been a whirlwind of craziness so therefore I have not posted for two reasons : one being that I really didn't have much knitting news to speak of and two being that I just didn't have a ton of time. I still don't have time but I figured 5:30 am is as good as time as any to write a blog post!


Knitting news!

I am a test knitter ! For those of you who don't know a test knitter is someone who takes an unpublished pattern and tries it out to see if they can understand the pattern or if something needs to be rewritten. It is an awesome opportunity for me and I get to work with Brooklyn Tweed's Loft yarn! I am so excited for this, I'll be able to start working on it sometime this week!


Also a while back I was contacted by a lady who owns a shop in my town to make hats for her! This is a very big deal for me because she is not doing them on consignment, she is paying me upfront whenever I have the hats ready! It'll be very neat to see hats that I have made and designed the pattern for in a store! Chelle's is an awesome little shop run by a wonderful woman named Machelle. (The facebook page is linked) She is so sweet and the store has so many neat items you wouldn't find at any run of the mill place.

Non knitting news! 

I have a new job!!!! That deserved to be bolded and have a few exclamation marks because I have now been at my new waitressing job for a couple weeks and I'm LOVING it. I feel much better about it and I feel like this is a very good thing for my emotional state and well being. Plus, I'm making better money :)

But seriously people this new job will be a bajillion times better, NO exaggeration :) I should even be able to go visit my friends in Michigan someday WITHOUT asking for days off! Also should be able to go see the boyfriend's family for Christmas! Woohoo! And for family reading that I will be gone Christmas day but be coming back the day after or something like that.

Finally - Big news - I turn 21 in 18 days !!! Yay me!


Sorry for lack of posting and a pretty short post without pretty pictures :(

Keep rambling everyone :)

~Ashley

It's been a while

Well howdy there Ramblers,

I haven't been posting because a. I've been busy b. I haven't really had anything to write about and c. I'm lazy :)

However, I have two awesome announcements that I won't be able to actually post about until ...well a while from now .

1. I finished a scarf in three whole days and I feel very accomplished. It is a Christmas gift and I'm unsure if the person reads this blog so I am not going to post pics yet .

2. I am finally doing the most awesome hat for Thane :) To replace is very terrible first hat that I made him when we first started dating (we'll be dating for 2 years next week!)

3. I have a new job! That means knitting time will be halved....I am going to hold both jobs for about a month and if I like my new job (at applebees) then I will be quitting my other job.

4. Miss Babs yarn is so pretty and awesome and my friend / old co-worker got me some of her awesome yarn  ( thats the colorway I got!)

That's really all I have for this week sorry about being gone and then not even having things to post pictures of! If you realllllllllly need to see pics of the scarf or the finished hat email me :)

Keep on Rambling,

~Ashley

Alana, My Tunic, A Bag OH MY!

Dearest Ramblers,


I know you have missed my ramblings but never fear, my vacation is over, even as I am typing I'm keeping track of the time because, of course, I have to work today...Wah. Ah well, more money for yarn :)
Also a huge thank you to my friend's family for hosting me and the beautiful pictures and video you took for me :)

There were many amazing adventures that I went on during my vacation, the first and, to me, the most exciting : Meeting Alana Dakos!

I got to meet Alana, get my picture taken with her and then sit and talk with her for a while! Awesome lady and she signed my Botanical Knits book too :) My picture is on her blog twice 

Her class really helped me feel confident enough to finally seam my sweater up! Also I might have some amazing knitting opportunities with her in the future!

My tunic!

Top : Me posing with my pretty tunic on!

Above: Close up of the lace pattern 

My Oak Trail Hat : It's so soft and so much better than the first one I made. I used Cephalopod yarn that I bought from STITCHES! 

Also on my vacation my friend's mom taught me a little bit about sewing and I was able to make a knitting bag!

I have now stockpiled some fabric...Don't judge me, I like crafty things

Anyway,  I hope everyone has had a great week and I hope everyone enjoys my post :) I think I'm going to try to post every Monday in order to give me some structure! 

P.S : I'm going to do another post tonight or tomorrow about my fabric and yarn purchases!

Keep on Rambling! 

~Ashley~

You Give Me A Quiet Mind

So I'm not quite sure how that title ties in with anything but that's okay , I've decided I'm going to use song titles I like for my post titles~

Moving on! 

This post will be short and sweet and just letting everyone know I'm heading on vacation for 10 days and I doubt I'll post during that time but when I get back LOOK OUT there will be a yarn posting extravaganza like nobody's business!

*Alert!  Alert!  Completed Project* 

 As my gramma painfully reminded me ...while I start many a projects I do not finish them very fast.

A super bulky hat knit in Malabrigo Rasta! Very Pretty and didn't even use the whole skein :)

 Starting new projects

Oak Trail

Started knitting Oak Trail again in a pretty grey-lilac color that I got at Stitches from Cephalopod. I'm actually just finishing up the brim, you knit the birm flat then pick up an astounding amount of stitches to knit in the round, and it is so pretty and so soft! Just what I need to show my support of Botanical Knits when I meet Alana! Also just as a side note Alana is working on a new book : Botanical Knits 2! Cannot wait for it.

Lacier Cowl

Now mind you, I went into this project with a pattern and yarn and I only walked out with one : the yarn. I used a basic lace scarf as my template but then decided I was going to throw the pattern out the window...and thus my more lacey cowl, since it is lacier than the original pattern, was born! I received this beautiful 100 percent Pima Cotton yarn in the mail from my wonderful friend Amy, she's quite fantastic, and I just had to knit it up right away! 

Grand Army Plaza 

I love Good For Ewe yarns, a lot. Too much maybe? Nah, anyway, when I was in MI for my vacation I went to my home store A Grand Skein and of course I had to buy some. (this was a good month ago)

So I bought some of the lace weight yarn, in hopes of finding some pattern somewhere in the big knitting sea to knit it with! And boy did I find it, this shawl pattern is beautiful and I have recently finished the Skyline Tunic from the same book, no pictures until I sew it together. Which I will be doing after my "Sweater Finishing Class" which Alana Dakos is teaching!

Pictures for all these wonderful things will come later ~ 

Also I am being commissioned to make pot holders ! Yay money and getting rid of yarn I would never use anyway! So yes it has been good knitting lately.

Also bought some of those new fangled square needles and I like them a lot , I am knitting the Oak Trail hat on them at the moment. 

That's really all I have for you folks~

Keep on Rambling

Ashley~

Ashley What's the Stitch(es) Part 2

Hello dearest ramblers,

Welcome back for part two of my STITCHES adventure where I show you the accessory part of my loot!

This awesome lady (pictured above ) was staffing the booth and she made the Stitch saver (pictured lower right) and her friend who was not at the booth made the bag (pictured lower left) Sadly at the moment I cannot find her business card but check back again and I should have the info posted.

This cute bag I picked up had a set of stitch markers with it! Very cute sheep and the stitch markers were plain black beads.

 YarnPop was at STITCHES as well and I resisted buying anything for a couple times but I finally went and got this cute little bag because it was on sale! If anyone doesn't know I also have a tote bag by YarnPop.

Small bag I bought                                                                                Tote bag my awesome friend Andrew bought me.

 .

Awesome news !     

Everyone who is a constant reader should know I am doing the Skyline Tunic and I have been making huge headway! The back has been finished for a while now , the front was finished about a week ago and after only two days working on it , the first sleeve is complete! I'll cast on the second one tonight and hopefully I'll have the tunic all sewn up and blocking by Sunday night! 

That's about it ramblers! I did buy some stitch markers but those are very scattered on different projects and what not so I elected to not take pictures of those. STITCHES was amazing and I made a couple new friends who I hope to see next year as well! And for those of you who didn't know I volunteered at STITCHES which means that next year I get a free class! 

Keep on Rambling, 

Ashley~

Hey Ashley, What's the Stitch(es)?

Oh Ramblers!

I realize it's been about two weeks since I had the amazing experience of going to stitches and that all of you have been waiting for my essay-length post about it! Well here it is!! Okay that's all folks, nothing more to see here.

Fooled you :) Anywho, it has taken me so long because of a combination of being too busy knitting (Finally finished the front of my sweater but more on that later), too busy hanging out with the boy (He starts school up again soon :( , and finally I went to a gaming convention this past weekend!

Enough with the excuses you say? Okay fine, onto the yarn! I met so many amazing designers and dyers and everyone was as nice as can be!

First up   :   Alexandra's Crafts   (click through for her website!)

A picture of the amazing Alexandra and me holding a bundle of yarn I bought from her! She was so kind to me, she sent her assistant out to the van ( a very convoluted walk because of how security was set up) to get me more of the same dye lot just so I could have more variation to look at. Great customer Service! Her home base is in OR, USA so if you live there you should stop by!

Small section of her beautiful yarns!

A much better view of what I bought from her, the pink and grey is what she pulled more of for me. All of it is Diamond Lake, which is a fingering weight 20% Silk and 80% Superwash Merino (more info and so you can buy your own click on the link for her website)

Next Up :  CloudLover (Click through for website)

Such a nice lady and I got to meet her boyfriend as well haha, gotta have help holding down the fort! The skein in my hand is very earthy green tones with a little yellow mixed and it's lace weight so I finally found a yarn for my Photosynthesis Shawl

Also a very neat opportunity : Natalie has suggested that if I do a giveaway she would be happy to collaborate with me on that! If you want that to happen I'd really appreciate it if you would comment your thoughts about it, thanks!

Next up : The Verdant Gryphon  

I wish I would've been smarter and snapped a picture of the lady at the Gryphon's booth, she was all decked out in absolutely gorgeous dresses all 3 days at STITCHES and it was fantastic! But alas I did not think to take a picture. Instead here is a skein of yarn that I bought from there!

Beautiful yarn that is 20 % cashmere! It's a sport weight yarn and if you click above for their website you can order some of your own! The colorway names are hilarious and the colorways themselves are beautiful/

Third on our list is : Knitting Notions

These beautiful skeins were 50% off and wow did they have a lot on their clearance table, a yarnie's favorite thing to hear, am I right? The reddish one on the left is a blend of merino wool and bamboo so it is very light and I'm looking forward to making something for summer/fall with it (yes I bought more but its not in the picture)  The purple one is 100 percent merino wool and is a very pretty variegation from dark purple to light and back again.

Last but not least : Cephalopod  (Click through for their website)

I am a sucker for discontinued yarns or orphans (aka single skeins of yarn that are the last ones and no more will be made) and of course, there was a whole flock of sheep worth of discontinued yarns at Cephalopod. I managed to walk away with just two skeins of Skinny Bugga, a fingering weight 80 percent Superwash Merino and 10 percent Cashmere / 10 percent nylon blend. So soft and the colorway name is Maxima Clam, I adore funny names on yarn. The third skein is a DK weight yarn that I will be using to remake Oak Trail since my last hat was stolen :( 

Alrighty the yarn portion of this is over and to break it up I will be posting about the accessories I bought in a separate post later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Thank you everyone for reading and I hope you have (had) a yarn-tastic day

Keep Rambling, 

Ashley~

Stitches is coming! Stitches is coming!

Fellow Ramblers,

Contrary to my post title, Stitches isn't coming it already came! And I went 3 days, it was a lot of fun and wow there was a lot of yarn! Reminded me of what I want my house to look like. Teehee :)

Also contrary to what that previous paragraph makes you believe, I am not posting all of my awesome stuff I bought or even pictures of Stitches itself. This is simply a post letting you know that when I get a moment I'll be putting together a couple posts full of pictures and links and all those bells and whistles! It'll be great so please make sure you bookmark this blog, follow me, or whatever crafty way you keep viewing my posts!


However, here is a sheep to keep you company

Keep on rambling!
~Ashley

The Tunic!

Dear Ramblers ,

Oh the places I'm going! Right now I'm in Michigan at the end of my vacation with Thane :) We went to A Grand Skein (I'd link to their website but it's down right now) and who would've guessed 50% off yarn sale! Not the whole store mind you but a nice sized cubby. I wasn't too bad, only got a few things!

Ella Rae Lace Merino :) Beautiful grey with black segments! Specifically bought this cute tunic pattern for it

Mirrorball  in the beautiful red colorway Tango! You can't see it in the picture but it has little flecks of silver sparklys in it!  Another amazing yarn from GoodforEwe :) Even already have a pattern picked out! 

And that dear Ramblers is all I bought at the store! And some food but that doesn't quite count :) 

*A Finished Project*

Well...Kind of. I present to you, a completed back of a tunic I am currently knitting!

Skyline Tunic is a pretty basic tunic that has some argyle-esque lace work on the front!

I am currently working on the lace pattern of the front of the tunic!

Other Newsy News

• I am going to Stitches! For those of you who don't know Stitches is a huge knitting and yarn convention and I get to go for two days, I'll also be volunteering there so that next year I'll have credit for classes! 
• If you have been following this blog for a while you might know about my love of Alana Dakos, the podcast NeverNotKnitting and her amazing book Botanical Knits. Well guess who gets to meet her!!!!! This girl right here! I'm going to PA to go see one of my friends from college and she just so happens is doing her very first book signing / class outside of California! I'm going to take her class (which is on finishing a sweater...something I really need to learn haha) and take a ton of pictures!

That ladies and gentlemen is all I have for you in this lovely blog post :) 

Love you all and keep on knitting, 

Ashley ~

The Post where Ashley goes a little yarn crazy

Oh Ramblers it has been a long while,

For those of you across the big puddle or those of you close to me who just never knew, I have been working two jobs : my serving job at Bob Evans and then I took an Americorps Member position. My Americorp term is almost over so I am finally finding time to blog and to knit!

So many things have happened since the last time I gave you a glimpse into my knitting world. A short summary and then I'll dive in.

• Socks!
• Tank top is blocked!
• MADELINE TOSH
• Smooshy
• Goals for the future

Alright so to start I have started my very first sock! Using some yarn that the boyfriend bought me during Rachel's Birthday Sale! Rachel is the amazing owner of  A Grand Skein which is my favorite yarn shop of all time in Grand Rapids Michigan.  For those of you who don't knit or just don't knit socks, you can do socks one of two ways. Starting at the top(cuff) or starting at the bottom (toe) hence the names Cuff down(since you are moving down the sock) or Toe up (since you are moving up the sock) 

Here is a lovely picture of my foot :) I am finally past the heel and I will be "turning it " soon to go down my foot. The yarn is actually an emerald green not blue..

My beautiful tank top made from Sultry Steps by GoodforEwe yarns (Paige is amazing by the way, she's the owner) is finally done! Everything is done, the crochet (done by my amazing boyfriend), the blocking (which means steaming or getting it wet and then putting pins in it so it'll "block" the dimensions that you want)

Beautiful yarn to work with and I also used it to knit the very first Hexipuff I've done to start the Beekeeper's Quilt

Okay! Now to the yarn part of this blog post. For those of you who don't know there are Yarn Brands and just like clothes there are high end "name" brands. Where some of you spend 30 dollars on a T-shirt, I can spend 30 dollars on one skein of yarn . 

Madeline Tosh is one of those "name brands" to me at least. 30 dollars a skein BUT before any of you non-knitters say "What that is just too much" think of how much you'd pay for silk and cashmere, cuz that's what this yarn has in it! And my lovely co-worker at my Americorp site bought me two skeins of this beauty 

Andrew bought me enough to do a really cool shirt that I have been dying to do called Arbor and now I can do it in the fabulous Mad Tosh yarn!

Continuing on the with the yarn love I went to Spinnin' Yarns in Griffith which is a cute little shop that my other co-worker told me about and I went crazy with a new brand I had never heard of : Dream in Color.

Dream has beautiful colorways and what I really liked was Smooshy which is a fingering weight (like for socks) and I bought a lot. Also once I went through my buying spree there was another Smooshy that had : you guessed it Cashmere (a lot of cashmere in this post) so of course it is the softest thing you have ever felt besides maybe a newborn baby. 

Picture time of all my yarn :)  

 Starless Sky

 The only non Smooshy yarn : Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton

 Global Mix (cashmere )

 Giant Peach (totally looks like Sherbet though)

The above picture is my bag of yarn before I got home =]

Okay finally my goals for the future!

Blog on a schedule :  This is something I want your input on, how often do you want me to post? I need accountability people! Please leave a comment after you are done reading with how often you think I should do an update (once a week, twice a month etc) 

Find projects for all my yarn! This one is a long shot haha but I have started by identifying and starting a project using my new Smooshy Giant Peach yarn. 

Meet my very first cardigan : 

It's a bit bigger than that now but not by much. Plus the really cute penguin stitch marker the boyfriend got me a while back.

Anywho that is all I have for the moment, please please take a moment to comment about anything on here plus how often you'd like me to post! 

Keep on Rambling !

~Ashley

An Attempt to Keep Blogging

Dear Readers,

In an attempt to not go silent for a week this post will be fairly short to show what I'm working on! Also just a nice reminder that my boyfriend and I have been dating for a year and half ! Woo :) Anyway onto the knittin!


First off!

Tank Top - Still in progress, I had to rip back a few inches , I believe I mentioned this but perhaps not. and it looks pretty good now but I haven't made much progress...soon I will pick it back up.

Poncho - New project! Yay for starting a new project when I have 20 already started. Anyway the pattern is here and it is beautiful especially with this yarn. Very exciting, I just finished the 12 rows of ribbing and very happy with how it looks (Pictures soon)

Skirt - The skirt is still not started because I haven't gotten the elastic sorted...I finally bought some and now I need to sew the ends together which I have simply been putting off. Tomorrow it's getting done and then perhaps I'll cast on...unsure as of now.

Knick Knacks - I bought some stitch markers that are sheep , and two patterns : Bee Keeper's Quilt and Rock Island .

Bee Keepers : Its a very interesting pattern , you knit little hexagons an then sew them all together to make a blanket! It'll be a long time before this one gets done but that's fine!

Rock Island : I've wanted to do a shawl for a while, got the Photosynthesis shawl...never started it after having issues with my lace weight yarn, then my dear friend Amy sent me yarn! Knit Picks lace yarn! And I haven't used it yet, seeing as it is our 1 1/2 year anniversary my dear boyfriend wanted to buy me a pattern and he settled on this one! So I will be using my grey lace weight yarn to make this!

I do believe that is all I have to report in for the moment!

Keep Rambling,

Ashley

The couple month cowl

Hello fellow ramblers :)

This post is about my forever cowl...It actually only took me a day to knit this cowl but I kept putting off blocking it...I've never formally blocked anything and I finally bought some T-Pins to use but found yet another excuse to wait; I did not have anything to pin the cowl to! Finally I decided to just use cardboard boxes, genius! Okay, so maybe everyone else is saying, "Duh...come on", however I am simple and I love procrastination!


Anywho here is my beloved cowl, please ignore my shininess, the light is very bright in here!

Anywho not much else to report except for the yarn that the beloved boyfriend bought me already came! So I will be starting my skirt ASAP!

Toodles for now Ramblers :)

Ashley

Return of the Knitter

Hello my lovely readers who never abandon me no matter how many times I seem to fall off the earth,

I have returned! This will be a post filled with, you guessed it, RAMBLINGS! But first I have a picture of my darling boyfriend and his new robot that I made from the the pattern LuvBots from MochiMochiland. I was going to make one for him for Valentines day ...but it didn't happen so I made it when he was here for Easter!

He's so photogenic....

Moving on to other things , I have finally moved back home and have started waitressing again! Which is something I do love to do, it's fun and earns quick cash. So I'll be saving up most of my money for a car...which is not exciting in my opinion. I hate driving...anyway! That means I won't be buying much yarn, however as we all know, I have enough as it is. However, I did notice that WEBS is having a sale...so I had to notify my boyfriend of that and see if anything came of that! 

He was nice enough to buy me a skein of very beautiful yarn 

It's a fingering weight yarn and I'm thinking either a lacy shawl or poncho

Yes, I, Ashley Frencl, like ponchos.

He also bought me some very pretty cotton yarn to make this skirt . I will be making a slight change in the length however, I will be making it shorter and I'll only be using the two colors shown here.

 Gunmetal Grey and Victory Garden 

All of these yarns he picked out by himself and I think he chose really well :) 

Current Project Alert!

This is the beginning of a tank top! Using the beautiful skein of Kettle Steps that I got from the amazing Paige of GoodForEwe yarns

Seriously guys this is a beautiful kettle dyed yarn and its so soft!

Also, a few weeks ago my grandma went to Goodwill and found a bag of needles, and usually they are the crappy plastic straight needles that I don't like using anyway, so I said thanks and took it to my room. Then the magic happened, I went through it and found that over half of them were bamboo needles, never opened, still had the Local Yarn Store sticker on them! Very helpful and very nice :) I counted them up and it was probably worth more than 60 dollars, my grandma paid 6 dollars for this bag! Very nice treat for me. 

Huge bag of needles!

A quick and small update on my sweater - pocket,front and back are all done...just need to do the hood, sleeves and then sew it all together! But I need to make adjustments on the sleeves so that is why it is taking so long. 

Happy knitting everyone!

Ashley

The Yarn Sale

Hello Friends,
*Note* I have now changed it so that everyone can comment, you do not need any ID, so comment away!
Yay! Finally a post that isn't about me coming back from hiatus...Anyway! I was blessed enough to go to the yarn store twice, yes twice, this week! And I did pretty well :)

Good For Ewe
The owner of Good For Ewe came to the store today! Paige is just really cool and was okay with me going back and forth, because of my being so indecisive, about what yarn I would buy and such. I eventually decided on three of her yarns. One of the yarns that I chose was actually a preview of a new line called Kettle Steps that I absolutely adore!

These two beauties are GfE : Claddagh and it is a sport weight tweedy yarn. I plan on knitting a slouchy entrelac beret (at least the pattern calls it a beret) with these two!

This! This is the very, super, ultra, pretty yarn that was a preview! The new line is called Kettle Steps because it is kettle dyed (super pretty subtle variegation) The one I chose was this purple that goes from purple to a lighter lavender color. It is a fingering weight so I'll probably made socks from it eventually...or something. Fingering weight is very conducive to any number of projects! So glad I picked this up.

Alright so the original reason for going to the yarn store today was because they were having a sale...bad idea. I only bought two skeins that were on sale. The brown one on the left was on sale, it is a Cascade 128 (bulky yarn) and I already have a project! I am currently in the process of swatching and it looks much better swatched than on the skein.

Okay its a terrible picture...but you get the picture...kind of.

Note to self : buy digital camera

Anyway then I bought that huge spool of yarn on the right. It is 1600 yards! A whole sweater's worth...or for me two sweaters worth. I am going to make this for which I only need 850 yards for! Yay!


Finished Project Alert !


I , Ashley, have finished a project! It's been a while since I've been able to say that... Anyway I did Oak Trail , a pattern in Botanical Knits~ For those of you who know me, THIS is the pattern that I bought the entire book for, although I have since fallen in love with all the patterns.

*Drum Roll*

I still need to finish sewing it and that little tab thing will go away once I do (just noticed it..) And honestly that's all I have for this post!


Paige's...page on Rav 

 Alana's Page on Rav 

Happy Knitting :)

Ashley

Knitting Hiatus

Dear Readers,

Alas, I have yet again had a huge gap in posts. This one was much longer and honestly coming back caused me a bit of anxiety. See once I let something go by the wayside, I tend to not want to start it back up for fear of someone saying, "See I told you , you couldn't do it, you can't keep up with anything" and so I try to let things die quietly. However I believe in this blog and obviously you guys do, otherwise you wouldn't stay here reading this! Also I would like to announce that people are able to find me through google search! To anyone but me I'm sure that is not very exciting...but to me it's a pretty big landmark! That and the fact that I have double digit readers in 3 countries, woohoo! 

Also I have made stunning progress on my sweater, which translates into me finishing the pocket! However, this is a bittersweet victory because I cannot figure out the instructions for joining the pocket, therefore I will be waiting until I go to the local yarn store! A Grand Skein is seriously an awesome yarn store and the people there are super friendly.

In other news I am deciding to scrap my legwarmers that I started and use my super fancy yarn to make something for a baby :) Haven't decided what yet, totally open to suggestions, for a refresher the yarn is called Mad Hatter(click for picture) So please comment if you think something would look great in that yarn!

Not a whole lot else has been worked on simply because I got horribly sick for a week and then just haven't been feeling motivated, but don't worry! Once I figure out this pocket join I'll be in sweater heaven and then maybe I'll feel amazing enough to do some more gloves. First one on the list is Eric's! 

On a side note, I might've blogged about the Photosynthesis Shawl and how the yarn that I had bought is...well in knots, not just one or two...just huge terrible, knitter's nightmares knots. Remember, how my amazing friend Amy sent me a huge box of yarn, well this lovely friend of mine sent me Knit Picks Lace Yarn...more than enough to do this shawl! It is grey, which is my third favorite color and It's beautiful! So perhaps that will be for my shawl, and for the umpteenth time, Thank you Amy!!!! 

That is about all I have to blog about, except for I BOUGHT BOTANICAL KNITS! It has a bunch of beautiful patterns and I'm sure I will start on the hat Oak Trail soon! I just love it and its knit in an interesting way and honestly just go buy it! 

Just go to botanicalknits.com 

You will not regret it :) The book is not out yet but you can order either just the e-book or the ebook and the physical book, which is what I did, and it is just fantastic!

That is truly all I have to say , 

Toodles Knitting World

Ashley 

Long Time No Knit

Dear beloved very ignored readers,

I am terribly sorry for my absence and I'm sure you've all been terrified that I fell off the face of the earth or some very possible thing such as that. Never fear! I took a very long knitting hiatus and have come back, sort of. I worked a while on the front of the sweater, worked more on the glove (still not done...) and I have finally found a project for my skein of Mad Hatter
 Legwarmers! I have never actually worn legwarmers but I would like to give them a chance and apparently a lot of my friends think I'd be cute.  So I tried to find a pattern, but did not find one I was very happy with so much to my chagrin, I decided to design my own. Right now, where ever Thane is at, he is laughing at me because I swore up and down , I will NEVER design my own stuff. It's stupid and hard and blah blah blah. But he won't have the last laugh because legwarmers are well, simple. Super simple even, all I had to do was cast on some even number and then wrap it around my leg to see if it would fit! So I did, and now as I'm writing this I am about halfway up my leg on the first one! It looks amazing in my personally opinion and am very happy with it.

Color is a bit washed out in the picture but it'll do!

So as most of you can imagine, I am burnt out on these gloves, and I will more than likely never do another pair of gloves from a pattern ever again. The point of a pattern for ME is that I don't have to alter it and keep track of things. If I wanted to have to make 20 changes I would've just designed my own pattern for Pete's sake! So I've resolved, again I'm shaking my fist at Thane, that I need to play around with designing a glove pattern! But enough of that. Onward to a happier image!

Yay for cables! This is a beautiful hat and super fast knit! Super Bulky yarn saves my life haha. I'll be giving this amazing hat away today to Janet! At least I am accomplishing things, even if it isn't the gloves that I should've finished a month ago... Alas you cannot dwell on the past!

That is about all I have for today I might post later tonight with my progress on the legwarmers or gloves!

Thanks for reading!

Ashley