Etsy!

I'm full speed ahead working at developing an Etsy business. My shop name is ourhumblecastle (surprise surprise... )

I'll be doing weekly updates to my shop on Mondays, so keep checking back for new products! Right now I am focusing on hand dyed yarns and hand stamped or up-cycled cards.

I just finished an update, so head on over to

www.etsy.ourhumblecastle.com to check out the goodness! Just a fair warning, some of the yarns I listed today are already spoken for.

Group photo of some of my yarns

Of course, I must leave you with a picture of little DJ- he came outside with me on one of the photo shoots-

DJ, enjoying the warm fall weather.

Update

Since you last heard from me, I've:

Gotten DJ's owl sweater finished
Got a lot of Christmas knitting done
Started working on Christmas cards for Etsy
Went on the shop hop (I'll explain a little later) with a good friend of mine.
Decided to participate in the Project 333 (again, more later)
Went to a fiber festival with another friend, and bought some fiber and a drop spindle to learn how to spin!

The Shop hop is an event put on by the Capitol area Yarn Shop Coopertive. Participatants purchased a "passport" for twenty dollars, and then visited each of the four yarn stores. Holding a passpot entitled the bearer to special deals at each store, as well as a free pattern designed by that store when you bought something there (anything- even just a 50 cent trinket) and... at the second store, you got an extra free pattern from a well know designer ( special just for the shop hop.) And... one more extra pattern when you visited all four shops. You've got a weekend (Thursday through Sunday) to get to all the shops.

DJ got his first cold the Wednesday before Shop hop. Mommy came down with it shortly afterwards too, and though we both got over it about a week later, now mommy has a throat that feels like a sea urchin is stuck in it- swallowing is no fun! I doubt it'll become more than just a sore throat though... I've got lots of tricks up my sleeve to fight it off!

I find it very hard to get things done when I'm sick. I really just want to snuggle under blankets, drink tea & knit. I did try to get work done- I decided that I'd do a one task per day sort of list- which ended up being more like one task the whole week... my poor hubby had to fend for himself most of the days while me & baby were sick.

Project 333:
In short: you chose 33 fashion items (so not underwear, PJs, wedding rings or workout clothes, but everything else is included) such as tops, pants, jackets, earings, shoes, purses, accessories, etc. and those are the only 33 items you wear for 3 months, from October 1-Decmber 31. I'll proably dedicate a post to this at some point, showing you what 33 items I have in my closet. :) For now, there is more info here.

I suppose now that I've mentioned Etsy I ought to explain a litte more about that as well. I opened an etsy shop, under my blog domain name (I.e. Our Humble Castle) I haven't gotten very far on it yet, it's one of those things that I am working on in my spare time (What spare time you ask? Ya, I wonder that too... :P ) Anyway, the web page is:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ourhumblecastle
Expect more cards & dyed yarn to come!

So... do you feel updated? ;)

A wise old owl

DJ has been referred to by a friend of mine as "the professor". He does have very mature features, and this particular nick-name for him got me thinking about wisdom, and what could be wiser than an owl? (jk) He needed a sweater that fit him (all the ones he has now he drowns in, including the BSJ I made for him) I decided to pick up some of my favorite silky wool yarn (Ravelry details) and find an easy free pattern to use. A lady at SSK has been making these cute owl sweaters from a pattern she bought for $7.00 that I really wanted to make, but me, being the sneaky me I am, decided to combine two free patterns into one sweater. I love how it is turning out so far:



DJ modeling the sweater so far



Close up of the owls

 

Detail of one owl cable



I liked this artistic shot.

Socks

Yes, I know I can buy socks at Walmart. But since I've started knitting my own, I don't think I want to anymore. If you've never worn a pair of hand-knit socks, you are missing out. The truth is that unless you can knit you probably can't afford a pair. Just the cost of yarn for a pair of socks can easily cost 15 dollars or more.  My first pair used $18 dollars worth of yarn, and I think I spent close to 40 hours on it so... at $7 an hour that's about $280 dollars... you've got yourself a pair of $300.00 socks.  I'm sure some people could afford that, and hey, if you're one of them who wants to spend $300.00 on the nicest feeling pair of socks you've ever worn, drop me a line, and we might be able to work a deal. ;)

But enough talk about the value of socks.This is a history of the socks I've made, so far. I'd love it if some day, I only owned hand-knit socks, and no more Walmart ones.

The first pair I made were for my dad for his birthday.

Gray Panda Silk sock for Dad

Dad proudly wearing his socks

One of DH's socks

I made my next two pairs by kniting the first sock of each before going back and making the second sock for each pair. One for DH, and one for me. DH's pair was finished first.

My "Happy Spring Socks"

One of the local yarn shops (Rae's Yarn Boutique) has started doing a "sock of the month" club. I bought the July kit, mostly because I know the designer, (Lynn H) and I've always wanted to have one of her patterns. What better pattern than a sock pattern?

Summer Squiggle Sock

 I just finished up the first sock tonight, and, as you would have it, I'm doing it again: I've got a sock for DH started that I'll finish before I go back and do second socks. But we'll see what happens once I start working on Christmas presents. Just a little "preview" of the sock- mind you, he picked the yarn, and he picked the pattern.

DH's sock in Extravayarnza's Wonderflonium yarn

Sweaters and snow

I woke up earlier than I would have liked this morning and drove D to his exam through several inches of slippery, slushy snow. No such thing as a snow day for a medical student!


Part of the blame for this morning being earlier than I wanted it to be was the fact that I didn't get to bed until much later than I had intended. The reason for that is best shown, not explained. See:

I finally got the body of my sweater done! Mind you, it was 12:30 AM when I finished it. I intended to go to bed closer to, oh, maybe 11:30, and when 11:30 came I decided that I would knit until midnight and then stop, but when midnight came and I was only a very short section away from being completely done with it, well...
I finished.


All that I have left to do now is knit two sleeves, block the pieces, seam them together, and finish it off with a brown i-cord edging and I'm done! The body is going to get soaked and put on my nifty blocking pads from Sam's club (Heavy-duty interlocking safety mats... :D ) today. I'm going to give a sleeve my best shot today as well, and hopefully I can get one done. Personally, I'd like to be wearing this on Thursday when I go to SSK (South-side knitters- a little group of us that meet at a coffee shop Thursday mornings). But... that might just be wishful thinking.


Last Thursday at SSK I was just starting to pick up stitches off of the cable braid across the bottom of the sweater. I needed help from some of my expert knitting friends to finish my calculations about where to make the decreases on the sides. ( I love the cable on this pattern, but I wasn't too excited about wearing a rectangle...) In the hour and a half or so that I worked on it that morning, I picked up my stitches and did about 2 rows beyond that. Not much at all. And yet my goal is to have it finished a week later at our next meeting? A knitter can dream, can't she?


A little note about the decreases I did- I made the braid according to the directions for a L sized sweater, picked up the # of stitches for a L size sweater, (216) and proceeded to make decreases on either side of where the M sized back would be, (center 96 stitches) until I had reached the # of stitches for the M size. (192) I did the decreases fairly evenly spread over the 74 rows it took me to get 15" of fabric. Then I proceeded to work the arm shaping according to the instructions for a M sized sweater. It seems to have worked quite nicely! I will be making two M sized sleeves to match the arm-hole shaping.


Enough taking about it! I must get to work! The time is slipping away from me, and I have plenty of hours to put in, both on the knitting, and a few other things around the house that need to be done. I leave you with a quote that seems fitting in light of my lofty sweater project goals: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you will land among the stars"

First two WIPs finished!!!

Keeping everyone up-to-date on my Ravelympics projects:


I have finished the BSJ, and I absolutely love the finished product. The colors worked out beautifully. I ended up switching out some of the brighter colorway for one that was a little more earthy. (I would have ended up with too much purple and blue on the front of the sweater, and they are definitely not my favorite colors-- as it is, I love the colors that ended up on the front from the other colorway!) I have about a skein of left over yarn that I'm going to use for a super-secret project. (something small and simple that I can have on hand for birthday and other special occasion gifts...)


Here is the finished sweater:


Buttons will be added once the baby is born, since we are not finding out the gender! :)










The second project on the list also got finished up tonight. It only took me about two hours or less to add the ribbing on the arms, and do the collar, and of course, weave in all the ends. :D


I present: The Mini-Mangyle:

This is for a little guy, (he's almost two I think... I 'd have to check on that!) but it might already be too small on him. Luckly, he now has an infant brother who can grow into it if it doesn't fit him at all, I'll just have to make him a special sweater for his next birthday...


I did start working on my next project, and I hope to have it done by Tuesday night at the latest. I'd be super happy if it were done tomorrow night, (there is a chance I'll be able to swing it) but I'm not going to count on it. If I finish by Tuesday, that will leave me with 12 days for my last two projects: the colorwork mittens, and my Samus sweater... which I will be making in a size L instead of the M size I had planned... so it fits over my baby bump! :P


Goodnight world!

For the next two weeks this is a knitting blog...

Consider yourself warned.
Ravelympics is off to a good start for me. Last night we took an average of two clocks (one said 9:01 and the other said 8:59) and we started on our projects. A friend of mine cast on her very first lace shawl, and I got out my BSJ WIP project, figured out where I was ( I don't know why I didn't get that done earlier) and let the needles fly!


Time seemed to fly as well, because before I knew it, it was 11:30, and I still had a couple more rows to do to reach my goal for the night. At about 12:05 (right around three hours of knitting) I had finished 20 rows. I hope to have this sweater finished by Sunday night so I can work on the next project in line. Of course I had to average my "time per row", figure out how many rows I had left, add in extra time because each row is getting longer, and then calculate how long the rest of the project should take me. (all of this at midnight with a very tired brain!) Now I know I should be able to complete this in about 10 more hours of work, and that I probably will have put at least 25 hours into knitting this sweater for my little one-to-be.


Oh yes, the reason I wanted to make this post this morning:

Before I started last night:

Picture taken this morning to show how far I've come. Note that I was starting at the red stripe located near the "armpit" of the sleeve last night. I'm quite happy with how far I've come, and I can't wait to see where it will be tonight!

Ravelympics preview

I knit and crochet, and have discovered that Ravelry.com is a very handy website for such crafters. This website issued a challenge to its members: Over the Olympics (17 days) challenge yourself to start and finish a project (no matter how big or small) or finish up projects that have been siting around unfinished (WIP=work in progress) You are allowed to start working on the projects during the opening ceremonies (but not before) and they must be finished by the end of the Olympics for it to get a "medal"


I wanted to do a quick photo preview of the projects that I have planned for the next 17 days. I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but they said to challenge yourself right?


First up:


Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ)

 This is a sweater I started for Baby Goo (the nickname for our baby, due in July). It is a WIP, and the first project that I will work on. I'm hoping to have it finished over the weekend... we'll see how long it will actually take me.


Mini-Mangyle

This is a sweater-vest that is (still) a Christmas gift (09) for a friend's toddler. (those are doublepoint needles on it) I obviously don't have much to do... just weaving in ends and ribbing the shoulders and adding a neckline... shouldn't be too bad... less then a day's work I hope.


Entrelac Gloves



Once again, not too hard of a job, just the fingers on the left hand to finish up. Hoping for not much longer than a day or two for this one...






Samus sweater

I have only just started this sweater for myself. It will be this beautiful brown for the bottom of the sweater, and for the bottoms of the cuffs, and then the gorgeous red for the body of the sweater. This will be my biggest challenge, and will probably take most of the 17 days.


Rainbow Delphine Gloves

This will be my only non-WIP project. I'm looking forward to doing the color work on this pattern... I don't have much to say about this I guess, until I start working on them a little more. :)


























That's all I have for now! I'm just waiting for 9:00 tonight when I can get out my BSJ and start working on it! :D I am so excited! :D