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 For those of you who don't know a test knitter is someone who takes an unpublished pattern and tries it out to see if they can understand the pattern or if something needs to be rewritten.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.

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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