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