CarmelKnits, etc.

I don't know about you but I am NOT a BlackFriday shopper. Let's be honest, once thanksgiving is over I avoid the malls like they have the plague. This is where my Amazon Prime account pays for itself and I crack out an amazing amount of knitting. Are you avoiding the Black Friday shopping too? Need a fun but maybe a little challenging project to work while nibbling cold stuffing, picking on the turkey, and listening to moans of happy over stuffed family? Well today's pattern is just for you. It's the last one in the Preamble before Tuesday 12/1 when the 24 Days of knitting officially starts! One Bourbon by Thea Coleman aka BabyCocktails. Looks great on men or women. Such a fun pattern to knit up! Maybe there are some skiing mountain men in your life that would like one of these for Christmas? Pour yourself some bourbon, get out some worsted weight wool, and hunker down by the fire... I'll be by the pool. http://www.ravelry.com/p...

This pattern is simple. I'm sure at this point on Thanksgiving morning you are either sound asleep (west coasters) or lugging the turkey from the fridge only to discover it's still solid as a rock. Sanity break is here for you... Take a minute, some scrap yarn, some polyfiber filling and knit yourself a few balls. That's right, I said Balls. Why? Because when things get rough, the rough get throwing and what better thing to throw than sweet knit ball. They won't hurt. They have a little bounce. They are soft to the touch. People love balls. You relieve some stress so you can get back to stuffing that frozen turkey, and your friends and family keep a safe distance while still being together. Plus, a lot of people will be amazed at your talent. You knit a ball! Oh, Balls! can be found here  It's a freebie and like I said, only uses a little bit of scraps Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The Preamble to 24+ Days of Knitting starts now. The pattern to kick off your Thanksgiving weekend is sweet, simple, and will make a quick gift to pop under the tree, once you get it up that is... Have family arriving? Descending upon your home for the big turkey day? Need a little something you can pick up and knit and put down to answer the doorbell? Well, I have the perfect thing for you. London Mitts by Thea Coleman aka BabyCocktails Photo by Babycocktails  250 yards worsted weight wool. You have time to run to your LYS I promise. Don't even make up an excuse to leave the house just say you forgot something at the store and you'll be back, no no thank you very much, i'll be faster on my own... and run to the car before anyone can catch you. none of us will hold it against you if you sit in the corner by the cashmere rubbing your cheeks against it thinking hosting Thanksgiving in June sounds way better than hosting it in November the day before. ...

We took a cruise on Lucky yesterday afternoon up past the Old Naples Pier.  As we were leaving the marina suddenly three dolphins were following the boat pretty closely...  It was amazing.  look closely... the dolphin is also in the picture 

I mean the flights, not what I look like after a night of no sleep. I'm off to visit Mom for the Thanksgiving holiday and I leave tonight. I love a red eye flight. Sleep all the way, well part way, this is two flight deal, arrive fresh and ready to start your next day! Every time I'm about to go home, I start singing a little Ozzy Osbourne 'Mama I'm coming Home' over and over and over again. I know some of you have issues with spending Thanksgiving and Christmas in warm places, and I understand. There is something cozy about Thanksgiving with a fire going, roast turkey filling the house... Mine will just have the slight hint of tropical jasmine wafting around with it... Mama, I'm coming home!!! I'll see you tomorrow! Lets go play with the birds on the beach again!

If you follow the news in Western Washington you know that we got walloped by a wind storm yesterday with 40-45 mph winds and gusts up to 60 mph. Well, the road to my house looks like a massive evergreen debris field. As with any storm that involves wind, flooding, and downed trees and branches, we also lost power about 6:40 p.m. last night and it's currently still out at my house. Thank goodness for candles and headlamps. The power went out halfway thru the last two rows off this mitten so the light went on and I got it done.  Otherwise I wouldn't be able to share these awesome photos with you this morning. Oh, and thinking I pulled it all off and had my sh!t together this morning, I showered in the dark, did my hair in the dark, got dressed in the dark.... I was so close Till I got in the elevator and realized that I had put my sweater on inside out... Well I tried. Thank goodness I didn't attempt my make up in the dark...  Happy Wednesday ...

Thanksgiving at the Beach... so so many years ago Thanksgiving is next week... NEXT WEEK PEOPLE. Gobble Gobble Gobble your happy little knitterly hearts to tables full of family & friends. I'll be jetting by night across the country to be delivered to my mom's front door ready to fire up her oven and cook her and G some amazing dinners, including Thanksgiving. Now onto the important stuff. What the heck is everyone going to be knitting on Thanksgiving? If you are like me, and there has to be a few of you. You know there is a lot of down time on Thanksgiving. Some of you eat an early dinner. Some of you a later dinner. Depending on familial obligations some of you eat two dinners... uggh you must sleep like the dead after two turkey dinners. What I'm trying to get at is, maybe in that down time, if you aren't napping, or crying over the appetizer that got torched in the oven, or possibly secretly drinking in the kitchen because Aunt Myrtle is c...

You are amazing. I did a blog post on my first the first sweater I ever knit and for the life of me I couldn't remember the name of the pattern, the booklet, etc. However, thanks to you I was able to drill down to such detail that I was able to find the sweater and the name of the booklet. Rib Yoke Cardigan Published in January of 2008 by Tahki Yarn Designer Irina Poludnenko awesome. Here is the link for anyone who wants to make one now :) http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rib-yoke-cardigan cheers Carmel

I knit this sweater in 2007. Before I joined Ravelry. Before I had a blog. I saw this pattern in a booklet at So Much Yarn and knew I had to make it. However. I don't know the name of the pattern. I don't know the name of the book. I do know I used Cascade 220. I have only worn this one time before. about 8 years ago in Canoe Bay Wisconsin. I was photographed in it. I saw the picture and thought 'heck no' it's been in a drawer ever since. It didn't fit right. I was about to suck it up and give it away when I pulled it out of the drawer yesterday and tried it on. It fit. It fit well. I didn't look like a sloppily dressed linebacker. So I wore it to work today. This was the first sweater I ever knit for myself. Happy Monday! Only Four more sleeps till I get to see my mom!!! As much as I would love to wear this sweater to Thanksgiving and show her it's 85 degrees in her neck of the woods and I really don't want to ...

Woot Woot! Cracked these out between Friday night & Saturday night! 70 Yard Mitts by Hannah Fettig Pattern is on Ravelry! Yarn: Lambs Pride Worsted Needles: Size 3 & 6 These go so fast and make such a great gift for all your friends & family who suffer from cold hands. Especially when they work. They fit great and don't get at buggery when you type on your keyboard or need to write with a pen. Hey friends! Guess what ya'll are getting under the Festivus Pole this year?

I'm off on a knitting adventure today with Mary. My heart though is heavy with the terror attacks on Paris last night. So while I'm knitting with friends today my thoughts and prayers will be in Paris. Praying for the victims, their loved ones, the citizens, the city, and the country of France. May they heal and again find joy and beauty in their lives, and their world. #PrayforParis

the frame on the far right with the rainbow, that's our wedding photo... this is about half of the frames we've collected over the years. It all started 12 years ago. In Waikiki Hawaii. Dale and I got married on 10/6/2003 We accumulated a massive amount of ABC store points. If you've traveled to Hawaii and shopped at the ABC Convenience stores you know what I'm referring too... So at the end of the trip I had to use all those point. So many receipts stacked up. I quick gathered them all and ran down to the ABC store in our hotel. I bought a necklace, a coffee mug, some more post cards and then I bought out wedding frame. The cheesiest looking frame I could find. So it began. After that we would take a picture on our travels and buy a cheesy frame to put it in.  The rules of the frame are simply. 1. Under 20.00, the cheaper the better really. 2. Has to be amazingly cheesy. Our newest edition to the Cheesy Frame Collection. I love it. P...

and by 'to-do' list I mean 'to-knit' list. I'm really really trying to get on track with this list and stay deeply focused. It has helped that I have successfully removed all yarn from the living room and into Mr. Brown's Yarn shop on the second floor. Except for the fact that I went in there the other day with a shopping bag and loaded up. Currently in the sidelines to be finished 1. Ledge Trail Vest 2. Twiggy for me 3. 70 Yard Mitt for my other hand Finished those bad boys last night! this is what happens when you use the 10s burst hands free option on your iphone and you're holding said phone with your chinny chin chin. On the List: 1. Twiggy for a Christmas gift 2. Iris the Gourmet Monster but since it's for a boy I'm calling it Orvil. 3. Great White Shart Shark 4. Bosco - for me 5. Stillhouse Vest - for me 6. Woodsy - for me 7. Three Seahawk themed hats as gifts. 8. Gifts for friends... and on and on and on If you...

Well, all I can say is thank you to the knitterly karma Gods. The bout of f'd up knits has hopefully passed and I can get back to my regularly scheduled insanity I think the turning point was Friday night on our way to the hockey game when we were driving past Great Yarns in Everett and I asked/said they needed to pull over so I could quick run in and buy the size 15 16" circular needle I needed for my Twiggy sleeves. Turning of the tide. I think she is taking inventory. It's really the most thorough inspection of my purse she's ever done... Ran in the store, found the needle, was helped by the wonderful sales person, had a handful of m&m's, signed up for their points program and boom, back in the car on the way to hockey. Made one 70 Yard Mitt for my friend at the game and it came out perfect. 70 yard mitts in Rowan All Season Cotton I knit the second one the next night. So if you need a time lapse on how long it takes to knit a pair ...

I left my knitting accesories at home and just have a sad little ball of yarn that just wants to be a proper size mitten in my bag. so I'm going to leave it there...

You know the feeling. When everything on your needles is coming out crap. can you tell which one was knit on the retreat and which one was knit at work??  I'm there right now. I knit one 70 Yard Mitt by Hannah Fettig on the retreat last weekend and I knit its mate at work on Monday. Guess what? Totally jacked. The mitt I knit at work is way to small. Even though I used the exact same needles, yadda yadda. very frustrating. So I cast on another pair, using a different yarn for a friend. Nope. Not a chance, sucker. You thought you could do. You think you're a good enough knitter to break this run, good luck. Knitting karma shot me a big fat middle finger and said 'Nope, try again m'fer' (I have strong belief that karma drops f'bombs like a boss) So I set that aside and did a Winter Morning Headband for a friend. This wasn't so bad until I looked at it after grafting the ends together... and weaving in the tails I did it inside out...

I know. I know I said I would get a ton of photos taken. I would post a HUGE Finished Object post. but ...   I got a chest/sinus virus and while I wasn't totally down and out for the weekend, I wasn't up to snuff. I took five pictures. Five I did get a lot of stuff done/caught up/started I barely made a dent in the bottle of gin I brought. All that aside, it was a great weekend. I love the ladies that I spend it with. We eat well. We all knit our various projects. Betty taught a class this year that was really well done. I might teach a class next year, just need to talk it out.  First Finished object: 12th Man Eye on You for Prima Bistro. Pattern available thru Yorkshire Yarns in Lakewood Washington Ever knit a fair isle hat in a day? I did. Yarn: Cascade 220 superwash Used two balls for both hats, possibly have enough for one more. Needles: 7 for the corrugated ribbing, 8 for the main hat. Love: I believe that the owners of Prima really ...