Yarn, Yarn Everywhere...

Hello one and all,

As you may remember from the last post, yesterday was the start of the sale at the The Knit Cafe and the continuation of the sale at Romni Wools, both on Queen West in Toronto.  This brought me and my yarn buddy downtown by about 10:30 am yesterday morning just to make sure that we caught all the deals...and deals there certainly were!

We began at the Knit Cafe partly because it's a bit more manageable first thing in the morning, partly because I knew the regulars would be up and at 'em before I even had my foot out the door, and partly because I love the friendliness that greets me every time I'm there. 

Well, we were not disappointed.  The first find?  A beautiful Fleece Artist sweater kit complete with 800g of merino-alpaca blend yarn on sale for half price, meaning that I could buy it without the usual guilt-instilling price tag.  Plus it is in my favourite colours and it will be so scrummy once I can snuggle into it.  I can't wait to make this up.  There is one dilemma...I realized upon getting it home that I will need 1000g of yarn since I am apparently a size L in this pattern.  Of course I can't hope to be able to get more yarn in this colourway/dyelot, so what's a girl to do?  My idea so far is to shorten the pattern in the length of the body and the length of the arms, since I'm after all only 5'-0", and then this may afford me the extra yarn for around my bosom.  Any other suggestions would be welcome. 

 

The Imogen Sweater






 

The almost kilogram of yarn!!

 My next find was this little cutie - Kooly the Koala Kritter Craft Case from Clover.  Now I should specify that upon first inspection I thought he was a frog.  On second inspection I realized he wasn't, but decided that since he is green-ish, and was reduced to only $1 sale price (crazy!!) I would consider him froggy enough for me.  I do like him and can't wait to stick all my odds and ends into his zippered mouth for safe keeping.  No more losing darning needles (which I also bought).  And lastly, I bought my first bottle of Eucalan.  Now that I have all this delicious fiber, I know I'm going to have to take good care of it. 


From there, off we went merrily to Romni where all yarns were 20% off!!  I bought my four skeins of Cotton Fleece from Brown Sheep in the colour Pink-a-Boo. 


This is going towards the making of the next baby blanket.  It will basically be a replicate of the first pink one with the brown ribbon.  Hopefully it goes faster this time. 

I also bought two skeins of self-striping sock yarn (one for me and one for the Mister).   Mr. Frogged got a very manly blue colourway - 4739, and I got 4352 which is nice and warm and will probably match my sweater kit well. 

The last thing I bought was a big cake of red wool.  It is 100% wool and spun into quite thin yarns.  I'll need to hold it two strands at a time when I use it for my planned project, which is a cabled tam, but I think I can manage that. 

Now I realize that it sounds like I spent a small fortune on all of this, but since a couple of projects are requests, I will be repaid for the yarn required on those guys.  So for myself, I thnk I only spent about $75, which is less than you'd usually spend on the sweater kit.  After all that, I was on a yarn related high for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow will have to be the first day of my yarn diet. 

Until next time, friends...happy crafting!

A Rose by Any Other Name...

Hello to one and all this bright and beautiful morning. This is just the briefest of posts merely to let you know that I have changed my Ravelry screen name to...CompletelyFrogged. C'mon now, you must have seen that coming...

In any case that's where you can find me just to keep things simple.

Happy crafting!


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Home Stretch

Hello one and all,
Welcome back if you're a repeat visitor or welcome altogether if you're new.

This weekend I've spent many glorious hours AT HOME! It seems that Mr. Frogged and I are constantly out and about on the weekends, so even though this weekend involved entertaining on two separate occasions it seemed to me to be heaven itself since only one (delicious) social commitment outside my home existed.

I thought I had better fill you in on my week.

On Tuesday I worked from home because my office had a blackout. I'm telling you this because I will now be working summer hours and doing my half days at home every Friday! I'm hoping this will prompt a regular blog post when I finish work each week but we shall see how that goes.

In just under two weeks I'll be hopping onto a plane for England to meet my cousin's new little baby (who's expected next Friday) and introduce my fairly recently minted hubby to my extended family. This means that the blankie I'm working on needs to be finished within a week to leave time for washing and blocking. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can... Here are some progress shots for you. What do you think?








That cameo is our little Tonka who is a crazy one year old Maltese. He's ready for his close up:




One of my guests was the mom who received the previously posted pink blanket (Tiramisu). She's buying me yarn (yay!) to make her another for a friend of hers and she's asked me to make yet another blanket for winter for her gorgeous baby girl. I can't wait to begin them! On a side note I made homemade scones and served them with fresh lemon curd from my local farmers market and my goodness was it ever good! (If I do say so myself)

Also I've just this morning begun a group on Ravelry called Completely Frogged in Vaughan. Please come check it out and join! The more the merrier...I mean, it's certainly no fun to be in a group alone!

And lastly for any locals to Toronto, a little plug for my favourite LYS's. Romni Wools and the Knit Cafe are both having sales. Romni for the entire month of July and the Knit Cafe beginning next Saturday. I'll be visiting next week for sure and will post about all my finds...I think I'll get some sock yarn. :)

Until then, happy crafting.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I'm in LOVE!

Hello there and thank you for reading!  Thank you to any friends and family who visited the site.  Especially those who posted comments which helps it to look like someone actually reads this. 

Today I'm going to talk a bit about my current project, a bit about my upcoming project, and a bit about some luscious yarn I bought - I hope you enjoy.

So first - about that white crocheted baby blanket I've been working on.  I should mention that if you like the pattern so far, it is the Ruffled Snapdragon Baby Blanket on Ravelry.  It turns out that although it is pretty tedious to do the same stitch over and over along such a ginormous piece, it is a PERFECT travelling piece.  It is beginning to get a bit on the big side for purse storage, but I'll keep it in my purse anyways.  It is good mindless stuff that I can work on at all kinds of functions which sounds a little anti-social, but the long and the short of it is this: 1) I eat less at parties when I have a project in my hands for the obvious reason that I can't eat and crochet at once (what a pity), 2) I can talk and crochet at once, and 3) this project needs to be done in two weeks time in order to give me enough time to wash it and block it before taking it merrily with me to meet its new tiny little owner all the way over in England.  It's getting closer and closer to completion every day currently measuring a whopping 21" x 36", but I must say I'm beginning to panic just a little. 


Now onto my upcoming project...
First let me make mention that the recipient of the Strawberry Tiramisu baby blanket was so tickled by it that she requested I make another!  We will be picking the pattern for it this weekend and I will be sure to let you know what it is as soon as I do.  Now this is all very exciting, but it also means one more crocheted baby blanket which, if I don't become a crafting bigamist, will actually cause complete insanity.  So, here is the perfect solution!  I am going to begin my Superstar Knit challenge.  If you haven't flipped through Debbie Stroller's Stitch n Bitch Superstar Knitting  I can't recommend it highly enough.  I'm reading through the intro and instructions right now just for fun and it is amazing.  As usual, she has paired fashion relevent patterns with unique knitting techniques for newly minted advanced knitters which I cannot wait to try out.  So without further ado, I introduce my first frolic into her pattern book (and my first lace pattern to boot):   The Frilly Filly Scarf!  I do have some alterations in mind for this pattern already though, and mainly that is to turn it into a beautiful beaded cowl.  Think, Knitty's Ice Queen meets this pretty, beginner lace pattern. 

And now for the piece de resistance, and my love of the moment - the yarn!  Oh the, yarn!  I bought it with a gift certificate from my friend and it is DELICIOUS.  It is Debbie Bliss Angel and is the most beautiful coral colour.  I can't stop talking about it - even my personal trainer has heard about this yarn.  It's soft, and delicate, and quite possibly the prettiest thing I have ever knit with!  I'll let you know how it performs once the cowl is started, but in the meantime just know that it will be in my carry-on on the way to England eagerly awaiting it's cast-on. 

I hope it's ok, but I haven't included any pictures in this post, mainly because I tried to link back to things wherever possible.  I'm sure I've gone on too long, so here's where I'll bid you farewell...until next time Happy Knitting.