Wait a minute...

...aren't there supposed to be two posters to this blog now? Wasn't there even a contest leading up to the big announcement of the new blogger in the family?

Yikes. Sorry about that. Here's the skinny on me: I'm Janet's baby sister, living and grad-schooling in south Florida. It's not what one might consider the ideal knitting climate, not to mention that basically everyone else that knits (and, well, lives) in this state is 65 and over, but I digress. Here's what happened - Janet suggested I join the blog after teaching me to knit and realizing that I had seriously caught the knitting bug. Seemed like a good idea at the time since I was knitting up a storm. Unfortunately all of a sudden things got serious at school and I barely had time to sleep let alone knit! The good news is I've recently picked up the needles again. The bad news is the projects on this end are still a little remedial, and my wit is only so-so. Hang in there, Janet's bound to blog again about her endless one-sock saga. In the meantime, here's what I've been up to.




Ah, yes. My very own Fetching. I absolutely adore this pattern. Mine are made in Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran, color 300102. I started them Friday afternoon and finished up on Sunday. Nothing like instant knitting bliss!

yarn: 6 skeins HTT Carloway Mills Shetland Aran in green

My Formal Boot Bag (From Bag Style), I'm embarrassed to say, I started in January. In fact, I finished the knitting in January! I even felted it practically immediately, which was no small task considering I hand felted. The bottom portion of the bag is knit with two strands, so while the top part felted pretty quickly the bottom took for-EVER. I love this bag, don't get me wrong, but I HATED finishing it. I don't particularly like any finishing, but anything that requires this much sewing is definitely not my thing (Maybe it's the pointy-ness of the needle, you have no idea how many times I poke myself when I don't have the luxury of the blunt yarn needle). Not to mention that my un-felted panel is probably not that straight due to my high-quality sewing. I love the way the tweed looks felted, but it lost a lot of size in the felting process. I went down a needle size on the un-felted portion to compensate, and I'm pretty excited about the finished product.

Now all I have to do is order a strap for it...

You should be very proud of me.

Yes, I'm several inches into my SECOND Madder rib sock. Don't worry -- I'm shocked too.

The real problem that now I never want to knit with any other yarn besides STR. Unfortunately, there is that pesky issue of owning more sock yarn than I care to announce, and nearly all of it is non-STR, so I will have to get over it. I'm sure that one of the gazillion gorgeous colorways in my stash will be calling to me soon.

Speaking of those gazillion colorways: I have finally managed to procure my white elephant yarn! Neighborhood Fiber Co.'s Mount Pleasant colorway. If you're unfamiliar, all of Neighborhood Fiber Co.'s yarns are named after neighborhoods in D.C. For any new-ish readers out there, you may not know that I spent a very tulmultuous two years living in Mt.P. I found out about Neighborhood Fiber Co. about 2 days after I moved to Pittsburgh. I saw the Mt.P. colorway, and fell in love. I've been trying to get my hands on some ever since, to no avail.

For about a million reasons, I will never forget living in Mt.P. This may seem like a weird thing to say, but it's true: despite the fact that nearly all of my darkest moments happened in that neighborhood, I have nothing but the fondest of memories of those times.

Yes, I was horribly depressed. Yes, I made many mistakes. Yes, I came terrifyingly close to ruining my life. All true. But I didn't ruin my life. With a lot of help, I got myself (and my life) straightened out. I'm far from perfect, and there are still moments where I feel decidedly not-okay, but I'm hanging in there.

It kind of feels weird to talk about it --even in very general terms -- on the blog. The point is, that all the emotions I feel when I think of that time in my life, I feel about this yarn too. Boy, that sounds really crazy, doesn't it?

Anyway, I finally got my hands on some thanks to The Loopy Ewe.



Now: Go over to Earthchick knits. She's having an amazing contest, and if you're half as sappy as me, you'll get a little teary when you read why.