I'm starting to think my boatneck shell is going to turn out funny. I was measuring it against the other boatneck I did, since I am adjusting the size a little on this one, and it's shaped differently! This Paper Phil yarn is bulkier and stiffer, so that may have something to do with it, but I cannot see any of the shaping from the decreases! Strangest thing is, I added an EXTRA decrease (and corresponding increase) because the other one was a little big in the waist. Things that make you go, Hmmmmmm.....

It's also ending up really long, I still have 11 rows until I am supposed to do the armholes, but it's almost as long as my other top is to the armholes already! And this is after skipping 6 or 7 rows to shorten it! Well, at least it won't look the same as the other one, eh? It's still enjoyable to knit, and I am sure it will end up wearable, I'm just perplexed as to how it's ending up so different!

Knitting a simple pattern in the round is great for "tv knitting" which is my favorite. You count rows less often, and only do knit stitches, so there isn't nearly as much need to look down at your hands! Case in point: I knit quite a bit on the boatneck shell last night while watching Amelie! (which, I must say, is a wonderful movie! I laughed out loud so much!) The movie was in french with english subtitles, and there was so much going on, so many little details, that I had to read every word. I had no problem, I only had to look down to check off rows as I did them, and when I changed to a second skein. Nifty!

I'm going shopping tonight for tons of makeup and stuff from The Body Shop! I am vegitarian (for health reasons, not ethics) and learned about some of the nasty animal products in my makeup, plus most of it is getting quite old anyways. As part of my birthday present, my husband is buying me a whole whack of animal-friendly makup to replace my crummy old stuff! I'm not ready to go vegan, or replace everything in my home, but this is a step I'm taking so I can feel better about what I put on my face in the mornings. I've been emailing the body shop all week about their ingredients, to find out which are good, and what to avoid, and I'm ready to go shopping now!

I'm loving knitting this shell "in the round"! It's going quite quickly too, which is encouraging. SO FAR, it's been really easy, I just follow the directions as though Marker A to Marker B is the row, then I just do it again for Marker B to Marker A. Why did I think this was so hard?

I planted some beans this morning. I KNOW its late, I should have started this months ago, but my neighbour is growing herbs on her balcony and I was jealous ;) I am going to add some morning glories between the beans tonight, hopefully they will grow up my trellis and shade my balcony in.

Ripping out the boat neck tank was a trying experience. I was within an inch or so of finishing the front, I had to rip out 4 full balls of knitting - ouch! Plus I had to do it carefully because it was a novelty yarn that would tear and stretch if pulled too hard. BUT I did it, and I think ripping will be less painful in the future :)

So I started again on circular needles and I am so happy. I just love working on circular needles. I love how compact they are for packing to work, how they balance the work, how you can just knit and knit, and stop anywhere, not having to work to the end of a "row". I really hope this piece works out, it would give me the confidence to convert more patterns to circular I think!

I also went to the LYS this weekend, and picked out a neat jaquard sock yarn: DGB Confetti 100. I can't remember which colour I got, but it's a mix of blues, might be 237, I just can't remember. I bought som pretty pearly size 2.25 DPNs too. They are so tiny, but that is what the shop ladies reccomended. (actually they said size 2 but I could get away with 2.25) I'm still uncertain how just about any pattern will work with the yarn to make the pattern like they said, but what the heck. They will be a christmas gift for my mother, assuming all goes well!

Well, the boatneck shell I'm working on is not going well. I just this morning realised I don't have enough yarn. I measured it against the last one I made, and it would have been too big anyways! (this yarn has a bit bigger guage I guess). I guess that's a good thing, it means if the yarn will stand up to tinking okay(I'm worried it won't) then I will probably have enough yarn to make a smaller version, since I was only going to be about half a skein shy. I REALLY wanted to make this shell "in-the-round" too because I hate seams and sewing, loved working on circular needles, and the pattern seemed simple enough to be a good candidate for converting. But I was too scared to try. Perhaps this was a sign that I should have gone for it??

Anyways, if I can tink this yarn without destroying it completely (unravelling a few rows yesterday to correct an error was pretty hard on it) then I'm going to start again on circulars! I just have to sit down and rework the pattern. Does anyone know how to figure out how much to decrease to cover for side seams? I need to make it an inch or two smaller around I think, just to fix the size, and an inch shorter, but how much more for the seams? Once I figure it out Im going to rewrite the whole pattern out so that I can check it off as I go, I don't want to lose track. Wish me luck! (and offer me tips if you have any, please!!!!)

And finally, a photo!!! Sadly it is not a photo of my knitting. We don't own a digital camera and it takes me so long to get through a roll of film for developing that you won't see knitting photos for a while. But I did make a star beaded necklace that I can share with you here :)

Star Necklace

Sorry for the grainy photo, I was trying not to make it too huge, and I'm not too skilled with our scanner.

Thanks to mama kate getting me searching some blogs for references to using Flora Trendsetter. Both were using it for scarves though. I'm really not a scarf person. So I did a little digging on my own, found another similar yarn called Cancun, and then found these:
http://www.tahkistacycharles.com/patterns/cancuntanktop.html
http://www.tahkistacycharles.com/patterns/cancuntanktop.html
Two tank top patterns using that type of yarn, I'm very excited! They seem to use one strand along with something else, in one pattern it is cotton, not sure for the other. I could probably make a pretty cool looking top if I used a black or light blue cotton with this bright cobolt-y blue novelty yarn.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Wow, I'm 25 today. That's a whole quarter century! Now I feel old. I've had most of my festivities already, birthday party on saturday, cake at my in-laws, cake and singing and cards at stamp club(one lady even sang happy birthday in dutch - how cool is that??). But this morning hubby got up and made me waffles for breakfast, and I had a gift from a friend to open: lewiscraft gift certificates!

I also scored some amazing yarn at Value Village last night. The labels say Ardilla Romantica but I couldn't search that up on the net anywhere. Its a main strand with little "tufts" on it, here is a link to another brand similar to it: Flora Trendsetter. The yarn I got is a satiny bright blue colour, and I managed to find 5 skeins at $1.99 each! I don't know what I will make with it but it looks so cool and would probably retail for 5 times that much at least. From what I am reading about the similar yarn I linked to, it's a "carry along" yarn, where you use a strand of it along with something else. That makes sense, it would make a very loose, open fabric knitting with this alone. Has anyone used this type of yarn before? Tips? Pattern Suggestions??

Still working on my second boatneck, almost done the front. I haven't had a lot of knitting time lately, so it's no surprise this one is taking a while. Should be quite nice when it's done though!

I have the bestest husband ever!! He planned a surprise birthday party for me at my mom's place saturday night! I knew we were going there for dinner and thought my aunt and cousins might come, but he invited a bunch of our friends, and his parents and brother too! I was so surprised and happy!

Everyone had a wonderful time, and I got lots of great gifts: bike panniers, bike rack, other bike accessories (I started biking recently), a cool lacrosse stick bag full of [lacrosse tape, a ball, shin guards for hockey, and a waterbottle] rubber stamps and handmade paper, a wooden box full of seed beads and cord, and a votive holder with a michael's gift certificate inside! My husband is also getting me a new field hockey stick, but I have to come with him to pick that out. (Wow, looking at that list I feel like quite the athlete now!) What a great birthday! (and the actual date hasn't even come yet, that's tuesday)

Grrr.....blogger ate my post from yesterday!

I worked on the star necklace more last night. ran short on thread and didnt feel like knotting it to add more, so I only did 7 stars, and am just finishing with a strand of beads. It looks pretty neat! I just need to get some jewelry fasteners to finish it off now.

I have a lacrosse game on today, then birthday dinner at mom's place (YAY!), and sunday has a lacrosse practice, grocery shopping, and dinner at the in-laws, though I can take my knitting there. I usually don't get a LOT of knitting done at the in-laws' place, my brother-in-law's big black lab thinks he's a lap dog and has a particular love of yours truly. (and I love the mutt so much I can't bear to discourage him!)

Not a lot of knitting in the last couple days. I've gotten a few more rows on my 2nd boatneck shell, but lots to go yet. I'm wishing I'd been brave enough to try adapting it to knit it in-the-round instead. I just don't like sewing up seams!!

Thanks to a picture and a link at Mama Kate's blog I have pulled out my seed beads to look at making some necklaces again! I used to make the little "daisy" ones, but there are so many other cool things out there to try! I tried the Double Diamond first, but couldn't get the beads to pop into the little diamond shapes, so now I'm working on a pretty star necklace! It takes a little practice but I've got 2 stars so far and they look pretty nifty.

I made the cutest Knit Puppy Hand Puppet for the neighbour's 2 year old daughter this weekend. (thanks Knitting Zen for the link!) The directions confused me a bit so my puppy's nose was a little long, more of a dog than a puppy I guess, but it was quite cute! I used dark brown on the ears and eyes, and pink for the mouth piece. I also used Bernat Softee Chunky instead of the recommended yarns, as I wanted it to be machine washable. (anything given to a 2 year old child HAS to be machine washable!) The pattern is quite cute and has sizes for toddlers, children and adults. A neat christmas gift idea, I think my 4 year old cousin might get one too.

I'm still working away slowly on my second boat-neck shell, about 3 inches so far. I have been busy at work, and at home.....we just bought Diablo 2 and its sucking up a lot of my free time! I hear that we can expect temps in the 28-30 degree range (celcius) early next week though, so I better get in gear making this top so I can wear it! [for those of you who deal in ferenheit, 30C is QUITE hot for Victoria, beach weather for sure]

It's my birthday in just under two weeks, and I don't know what to do about it. I wanted to get a bunch of pals together to play laser tag or something, but several of our friends have kids now, which makes it too complicated. Also, I have to work on my birthday and then have 2 lacrosse games in the evening, so plans on that day are out. Hubby keeps asking me what I want for my birthday and would you beleive I can't think of anything to tell him! The problem with "growing up" is when you need (or REALLY want) something, you just go buy it for yourself! Plus the money isn't 'mine' and 'his' so me telling him to buy me something is really no different than me getting it myself. {sigh} what's a gal to do??

I wore my new boatneck shell on the weekend....and got an awful sunburn!! Oh well, I got some great compliments on it. ("you MADE that??? It's gorgeous!!") so it makes up for the pain of the burn! The evil yarn from heck came out really nicely, and the top looks quite luxurious actually. I wish I had a digital camera so I could share pictures. I have to wait for the film to be developed and hope my crappy camera took ok photos!

The style is so flattering for me, and the size just about perfect, so I'm making another one! Now that I understand the pattern and everything, it should knit up quite fast. This one is in Paper Phil in a pretty light blue. It's an odd yarn, quite like J-cloths, but should make for a nice light summer top. I was hesitant to use it though....I'm really cheap and I worried about "wasting it" on a basic top. Still I paid under $30 for 8 skeins, and I will probably only need 6 for the top. And it is fun knitting with something different than basic acrylics!