wanna see?

I finally finished! But if you want to hear about it, why don't you come over to my new blog? pretty please?!

new feed:

New Host!

and a bit of a new look.

I finally got the site* back up earlier this morning, weird that it happened today no?

Happy Easter! I'm going to rest up and, who knows, maybe work on my poor sockpal's sock.


*some of you may need to update your links

15000

You guys are amazing and insane! Thank you soooo much for the support, the response has been incredible. I can't believe it. This is the first time that I can finally get on here and post, I'll try to answer each and every one of you later today.

In 24 hours I had over 15 thousand hits. Not what I expected at all. And not something I was able to test. I had to put the store down for maintenance so I can get it to work faster and better (there have been some bugs reported). During the downtime I'll change up some things, like even bigger pictures! You can click on the thumbnails now to make them bigger but somepeople haven't realized it. I'm also going to rewrite a few things so you guys know that you have a coupon in your mailbox. If you have any suggestions let me know now so I can implement them, I want to make this the best site I can for you.

I hope you guys don't hate me! I should be back up in a day or two....and I heard some amazing new products are already on their way.

I'm still baffled and amazed...now back to packing!

little secrets

I'm not quite sure how to start this post, do I come out with it short and sweet and go back into hiding? or write a long story on how things worked themselves out?

funny enough, today is my blogiversary. I can't believe it's been one year since I decided to start blogging. what a weird thing to just decide and do, let me knit stuff, write about it, and maybe discuss it with other knitters. do we realize how random that sounds? but I'm glad I did! I've learned so much about knitting and have made some amazing friends. who else would understand my yarn addiction or my need to constantly be knitting 20 dollar socks? it's gone beyond that though, to where I know more about my knitting friends' lives, the ones I've yet to meet, than the friends I've made in high school or college. I'll stop myself before I get really sappy here.

anyway, what do I have planned? what's my little secret? no, it's not any sort of contest, I'm not quick enough to think of that (though I was tempted to do one about my name, for Sandra's sake). instead I'll come out with the biggest knitting project I've undertaken....and there were no needles involved. for the last i-don't-know-how-long months, I've been designing a yarn store. let me rephrase that, I've been designing my own yarn store. I started to get the idea last fall when I was tired of not finding what I wanted at other people's yarn stores. why not start my own and carry what I want, harder to find yarns created my smaller companies? simple enough idea, though I had no clue how long it would take. it was pure kismet when purly and I came clean to each other, I finally had someone to be in cahoots with (one of the best people to be scheming with) and the impetus to get going on it.

after months of coding, designing, and waiting for yarn orders to arrive the day is finally here! pureknits is my little baby. I hope you like it. the selection is a little small now, but there's a ton more coming. (if you want to keep updated on this, subscribe to the store blog's feed)

I really couldn't have done it without purly, knowing that one of my good friends was going through the exact same thing as me was comforting. thanks for being there for me when I would send you all those crazy emails! Amy kicked my ass through all of this too, in the totally encouraging, sisterly sort of way of course. she handled my, 'woe is me' emails like a champ.! she'll always be known as customer #1. now Amy, finish that sweater! Stef's been another little partner in crime, who's been there to figure out all this 'business' stuff with me. I can't wait to finally meet up with her at TNNA! and let's not forget the boyfriend, the poor guy has lost a ton of closet real estate for this little venture and was totally ok when I woke up one morning and said "I'm going to open a yarn store".

ok, so.... let me know what you guys think. and if you have yarn/products suggestions, let me know

Things I do when the boyfriend is gone...again

1. eat at odd hours, if I eat
2. bake 4 dozen cookies in the middle of the night
3. play with the bf's computer and look through all the fun files he has
4. eat cookies for dinner and lunch
5. knit a hat:

Pattern: Cabled (pdf)
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino in Sealing Wax
Needles: Addi Turbos 4.5mm

I could have finished this last night if it wasn't for number 2 and 3 in the list. I needed a quick knit before I dive back into 'sockpal: the sequel'. Seems I knit this at the right time, today has been a cloudy and cold day. Apparently it's going to be like this the whole week. I'll gladly wear this hat every day, it's super soft and fits me perfectly.

I didn't mean to make any mods, but maybe my bad mojo got into this knit. In the increase round I made a new stitch between every stitch, resulting in 7 pattern repeats instead of the stated 6. I'm not sure if I did that wrong or not. I also omitted the pompom out of sheer laziness.

6. watch an episode or two of "our shows" without him
7. get mad when he mentions seeing meredith knit while he changes the channels at hotel (I haven't seen this episode yet, so everyone just stop talking about it or add a spoiler alert!)
8. watch 'good night and good luck' and wonder if I liked it or not. still not sure
9. actually do the dishes and keep the apartment reasonably clean (this will all change once he's back)
10. listen to all the new podcasts and develop a mild crush on Ricky Gervais

The L Word

L for looooser. As used in: "I've been a knitting looooser this week."

You wouldn't believe me from my lack of posting, but I've been knitting A LOT this week. Really. I have. I've been knitting, but I haven't knitted anything. Big difference. I think I might have angered the knitting gods this week, they stripped me of any good luck I had in me. Why would they do this to me? Maybe because instead of diligently working on my sockpal socks and casting on for the second one, I tried and tried to get some selfish knitting in. I have no idea why all of a sudden I just needed to cast on for something, ANYTHING, else. Sometimes I would pass the time by staring at my stash, as if somehow enlightenment would strike me. It didn't.

I did finish the first sock in the sockpal marathon:

This week has been a haze, but I think I finished it on Thursday, maybe Wednesday. I knit till I had an 8 " leg, I could have kept going since I still have half an ounce of yarn left from the first skein but my soul couldn't take it. I promised myself, after all the bad knitting mojo, that I would cast on for the second one tomorrow. I'll admit that the sock knits up pretty quickly, it's my lack of attention that's been slowing it down. The easy pattern makes it the perfect "on the go knit", or in my case the perfect "sitting on my ass in front of the computer while bloated Photoshop takes a year to load". Hopefully I'll see some significant progress this week, something like casting on would be good.

For your enjoyment, here are some of my knitting failures and one success (for now):

I swatched for Diamonique last weekend and was so excited when I got gauge right away. In all my glory I forgot to check how much yarn is in the stash. I'm about 200 yards short and I don't have any other yarns in the stash that are the right weight. Thwarted!

Undetered to start something new, I decided to cast on for bpt with no gauge swatch or anything. I had swatched this yarn before, what was I worried about? Do I even need to tell you what happened? Yep, I had swatched for it AND I got the same gauge while knitting this, BUT it's not the same as the pattern gauge. For some reason I had remembered this yarn knitting at 5 spi, though I'm not sure where I got that number from (I could guess where) because this knits at 4 spi. Sure, I could swatch again on bigger needles. I could. The only thing stopping me is that increase row. I nearly died trying to figure out what the pattern wanted me to do. I need to rip this out and come up with my own pattern. I'm thinking a zippered jacket with a high collar. When will that happen? Don't know.

I started to think that maybe what I needed was a palette cleanser. Kerrie had sent me a partial skein of her cashmere sock yarn, in pink no less. The yarn is sooo soft, I constantly stop to pet it. I would be further along if it wasn't for the gripping fear that I won't have enough yarn to knit two ankle socks (with having two feet and all) and the mindnumbingness of straight stockinette. Do I keep going? Or do I knit something else with this yarn? Like what? I think I have just a little over 200 yards and I'm knitting with 2 mm's.

The one winner, which was so close to being a looooser. This is Sauniell's cabled hat pattern. (pdf). I orignially started it on Saturday afternoon, but the first time I twisted the caston, the second time I fell asleep while knitting (I was really tired yesterday) and the third time is what you see. Finally! I love everything about this hat so far. I'm using a lone skein of Malabrigo (sealing wax) that I had in my stash, it works as my first April knit for project spectrum (it's orangey I swear), and I get my cable fix in a quick knit. I'll try to post a detail shot tomorrow because I love the cables. With my luck though I may have to find a kid to give it to.

A Belated FO and the Start of Something New

Look what we have here! A finished sweater! I've been meaning to blog about this one, but I just haven't had a chance.

Yarn: Hipknits silk in "barbie pink" (not really, it was custom)
Pattern: Angelica Tunic
Needles: Addi Turbos 5mm, 24" and 4mm, 24" circs
Date Started: 2.18.06
Date Stated to Ignore: 2.27.06 (a new stat I'm starting)
Date Finished: 3.18.06

Soooo this would have been a fast knit really. The last time I even mentioned it all I needed were the sleeves and maybe to redo the bindoff. Easy enough right? Except for some reason I just couldn't get myself to do it. Actually, that's a lie, I know exactly why I didn't touch it. I wanted to knit the sleeves in the round, BUT I didn't have circs long enough to do it. I never made it to the yarn store to get some AND I didn't have any dpn's in the right size either. So there Angelica sat, next to my bed every night mocking and taunting me. Finally she reminded me that I had a wedding shower to go to and nothing to wear. I really didn't feel like shopping, so I had to knit. The wedding shower was on the 18th, I decided on this brilliant idea on the 15th at ohhh 11 at night.

That night I ripped the bindoff and kept going till just before the hip increases. The next day (the 16th) I started knitting the body again and added a few more increases and also about an inch (maybe 1.5") in length. I was finally ready to meet my nemesis, the sleeves. What did I do? I went and finished the neck trim. I picked up all the stitches that night and finished the knitting on the 17th, when all was left to do were the sleeves. I still didn't have any new needles, so I forced myself to use what I already had. I found some 29" Clovers in the right size. OH. MY. GOD! I hate those damn needles. The join makes it impossible to knit in magic loop with ease. I spent most of my time trying to push the stitches up from the cord onto the actual needles. I never want to see those needles again (if you want them, then let me know). Once I decreased enough stitches I switched to my beloved addis and flew through the rest of the sleeve. By dinner time I was done and ready to start on the second sleeve. I ended up going out to dinner, then watching a movie, and maybe knitting a little just before I went to sleep. Not good! I woke up on Saturday morning extra early to get the sleeve done. I still had to weave in all the ends and seam that little bit in the underarm. The wedding shower was at 5 and we still had to get ready and drive an hour and a half to get there. With three shots of espresso in me I worked on the sleeves till a little past noon. I still had the purl ridges to go! We left the house at 1:30 and in the car I finished the sleeve and just started weaving in ends like crazy. At around 3, we got to our family's house and I seamed the underarms and finished weaving anything in. I forgot something important though, the button. At that point I didn't care, it didn't even faze me. I just looked through my boyfriend's house for a pin and used the best one I could find. Needless to say, there's been no blocking of any sort on this sweater.

After all that, what do I think? I think this was a great knit, an easy piece with some really pretty details. I didn't stray from the pattern at all other than adding some length to the body. I love the fit, I went for zero ease totally ignoring this conversation. The hipknits silk is super soft and easy to knit with. It did fuzz on my skirt a little, but I love the drape and feel of it so I forgive it. This was my first time knitting with a 100% silk and I definitely see myself doing it again. I think I will knit this sweater again, but next time in some cotton (totally ripping Illanna off) and without the neck detail. I hate to admit it, but I really liked the way the sweater looked with a more opened neckline (like Katie's). I really don't mind if it draws more attention to my chest (like I can somehow draw attention away from it, hah!), does that make me a slut or something?

Moving on....

Inspired by Leah, I decided to go around my kitchen and find some pinks and red for you. Of course, I had to throw some yarn in the mix. Can't fault me for that!

I'm sure there's more around here, but I tried to keep it to one room. What you really care about is that yarn, isn't it? I forgot to mention that in my selfless act of ordering some yarn for my sockpal, well, I also helped myself to some luscious colors with no patterns in mind.

Sundara sock yarn in Cherry Blossoms

Sundara sock yarn in cirque

And what became of that gorgeous yarn I showed you the other day?

I think I've frogged this sock maybe three or more times. The first time I had the wrong number of stitches and the rest were just because I couldn't decide on a pattern. I really want my pal to be happy with his socks, but at the same time I want to make sure I finish these in time. I finally decided on a simple mock cable stitch, basically a k3 p2 rib but with a little decreasin-increasin action thrown in. I'm already six inches into the foot, but I'm still having second thoughts. What do you think of this pattern?