Mikknit

I’ve finally got my Coffee Swap partner, so I can get on with it!

1. Whole bean or ground? whole bean
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? Caffeinated, definitely!
3. Regular or flavored? Regular
4. How do you drink your coffee? Strong, with a bit of sugar and half & half
5. Favorite coffee ever? Dark roast Costa Rica
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? Oh boy, am I fussy! I only like Central and South American coffees, dark roasted.
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Pastries, chocolate
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? I love to buy my coffee from small, local roasters. Aside from supporting a local business, the coffee is nice and fresh and delicious
9. Yarn/fiber you love? Natural fibers! I love animal fibers, but plant fibers are great too. I just have more use for wool than cotton here in MN.
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? I don’t care for man-made fibers, though a percentage of them added for strength (like nylon in sock yarn) is certainly fine.
11. What’s on your needles? A shawl, a baby sweater, socks.
12. Favorite colors? Greens, reds, oranges, browns, black. I’m an “Autumn”, what can I say?
13. Allergies? Not an allergy, per se, but I can’t tolerate artificial scents or flavors. They give me nasty headaches, so I try to stay away from them.
14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest? I am in love with lace knitting lately, though it takes way more concentration than I have available much of the time.

The winner of the vacation story contest is Nia, of Knot Knitting! I’ll repost her story here, it was pretty funny!

Last month my husband Jim and I went on vacation to my parents house on Lake Superior in Michigan, my brother, his wife and my friend Michelle all joined us up there. The second purpose of the trip was to buy my grandma’s 1997 Buick and get the license and registration. Once that was done we were cruising in the Buick to Tahquamenon Falls.

At the falls my family said: “I’ve had enough nature. Is it time for beer?” and the phrase “beer:30″ was answered when someone asked the time.
So after nature and beer we are cruising back home in the Buick and my husband finds a cassette tape in the glove box and pops it in the player. He says he will take it out if someone can guess what the horrible music is. We guess a couple of things, then try to forcibly remove it from the player. After a couple minutes of pushing and grabbing and I believe the people in the backseat held him down I got the tape to eject all while still driving. Jim then yells “NO CAPTAIN AND TENNILLE FOR YOU” and throws it out the window. So somewhere up there is Captain and Tennille Sing the Hits if anyone wants to find it.

Thanks for entering, everyone!

Real knitting content to follow tomorrow.

I know, I promised this last week, but I’ve been very busy. The kids’ room has some good progress on it but I still have to finish up the curtains (which are very cute and not all that hard to make, it’s just a pain working with the blackout lining!), get Chris’s desk sold and out of there (any locals need a nice desk?), put shelves and clothes bars in the closet, and find a door for the closet. Yeah, it might be a while. But they’ve been playing so well up there, not so much fighting as they do when confined to the downstairs. Here’s hoping that lasts.

Anyhow, on to the contest. Holly of HollYarns suggested this for my contest theme and I thought it was great, so we’re going with it.

I want to hear your vacation stories - something funny, something terrible, something incredible, whatever memorable vacation you would like to tell me about, I want to hear it. If you have pictures to share instead of or in addition to a story, do that too! I think a link will have to suffice for that, though - I don’t think one can post images in a comment here.

The prize, which I’m sure is the most exciting thing here: Two skeins of Merino Sock from Northwoods Dyeworks* in Sundae (you can see it knit up here).

This stuff is nice and soft! 245 yards/50 grams per skein, 100% merino (superwash!).

I may find something else to tuck in with the yarn, some stitch markers or something, I’m not sure. I will choose one person at random from all submissions on September 1, so you have until midnight Central time on August 31 to get your story in.

I’m eagerly awaiting your stories!

*I can’t recommend these folks enough - they dye pretty yarn, make some awesome tie-dyes, and are just really nice folks. Libby is working on an online shopping cart, but in the meantime you can call or email them to order.

QUESTIONS

1. Whole bean or ground? Whole bean, please
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? MORE CAFFEINE!
3. Regular or flavored? Regular coffee-flavored coffee, please!
4. How do you drink your coffee? Very strong with a little sugar, a little half & half.
5. Favorite coffee ever? Tough call. Probably Costa Rican or Mexican, but I love any Central- or South American coffee
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? See above
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Cookies or other baked goods. Whole grains and chocolate a plus!
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? Hmm…
9. Yarn/fiber you love? Wool, alpaca, mohair, any animal fiber. Cotton is good too, but not the preferred materials
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? Man-made petroleum-based fibers (acrylic, polyester, etc)
11. What’s on your needles? Socks, lace, kid sweaters
12. Favorite colors? To wear: Greens, reds, oranges; To knit with: anything goes
13. Allergies? Artificial and/or strong scents give me headaches. Not really an allergy, but…
14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest? Things from small/independent producers are a favorite of mine. I love to spin, so including fiber instead of yarn would be neat. Sock yarns with some nylon content for strength get used more than 100% wool ones.

I’m really excited for this round of the Knitter’s Coffee Swap!

I’m not doing a ton of Christmas knitting this year, but I have chosen to do a couple things, just because it’s much easier for me to think of something to knit for someone than to think of something to buy for them. Plus, I’ve gotten into the habit of giving my mom and my sister something handmade every year for Christmas, so I guess maybe it’s becoming more of a tradition. Plus, I can’t just make socks for myself all the time - I need to knit for someone else from time to time.

So here is one of my Christmas knitting projects:

Oblique Openwork pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, using Silja in color 393

Silja is one of my favorite sock yarns - I’ve got two pair of socks I knit for myself out of it between 3-5 years ago and both are holding up wonderfully - no pilling, fading, or wearing through. I had to darn one pair, but it was because one ply of the yarn got snagged on a nail and broke. A little duplicate stitch and it’s as good as new.

Also, my package for the Knitters’ Coffee Swap arrived the other day! I am so glad I joined this swap - I not only got an awesome package of yarn & coffee, but I got to have a blast choosing things to send to my swap partner. Here’s what she sent me:

Two skeins of handspun yarn from a local spinner, a skein of handpainted sock yarn from RubySapphire Yarns, a nice big tote bag, some stitch markers that she made, some 100% Guilt-Free chocolate, and of course some delicious locally-roasted coffee (not shown because I’ve already started in on it).

Thank you so much, Sunne! And a big thank you to Knittymama for organizing the swap!

I’ll leave you with some teaser photos of my next Christmas knitting project, which is also my project for the Stranded Colorwork Knitalong. I can’t show the whole thing because I think the recipient may read the blog, but I can show a little bit of it:

As I said in a comment on a recent post of Vicky’s: Stranded knitting - it’s better than crack!

The first anniversary of Mikknit is on Wednesday, December 6. To celebrate, I’m running a contest! The contest will open as soon as this is posted and it’ll end at 5pm on Thursday December 7 - I’ll choose the winners then and post them Friday morning.

I debated what sort of contest I wanted to do, and here’s what I came up with:

I want to hear about your favorite fiber experience - a favorite project, your favorite yarn, favorite yarn shop, how you learned to knit/spin/crochet/weave/etc., a favorite person you’ve met through fibery pursuits, you get the idea. I’m going to choose two of my favorite stories and the winners will receive some yarn (yarn to be determined) this yarn:

Araucania Atacama, 100% alpaca. Color 402

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck in Brights

Leave me a comment on this entry with your story! I’ll post my story tomorrow - I have met so many awesome people through knitting and spinning, it’s going to be difficult to narrow it down to one or two stories to share.

Yeah, I know, I’m a little slow on this.

1. Whole bean or ground? Either or, but I’ve been bringing it home in bean form lately and getting comfortable with the coffee grinder

2. Fully-loaded or decaf? I definitely take the high-test stuff. No decaf for me!

3. Regular or flavored? Only coffee-flavored coffee, thanks!

4. How do you drink your coffee? I add a good shot of sugar and then enough half-and-half to make it nice and smooth

5. Favorite coffee ever? Probably the coffee I drink while knitting and chatting with friends at Borealis Yarns on Tuesday nights.

6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? I’m not *that* fussy, but I do like a nice dark-roast coffee from Central or South America.

7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Chocolate, cookie, or a bagel with cream cheese

8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? Hmm… I guess fair-trade and organic are always good, but not absolutely necessary.

9. Yarn/fiber you love? Wool, especially sock yarn (just about any), Cascade 220, locally-produced stuff. Animal fibers preferred.

10. Yarn/fiber you hate? I cannot stand working with synthetic fibers (other than a small percentage added to natural fibers for strength, like in sock yarns) and I’m not a big fan of cotton.

11. What’s on your needles? A sock (of course), the Peace Shawl from Fiber Trends, and a v-neck pullover for me in Peace Fleece. Plus assorted UFOs, which don’t really count at the moment

12. Favorite colors? Red, orange, green, black

13. Allergies? I can’t have anything with MSG, but otherwise no.

14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest? I can’t deal with coconut, artificial flavors or scents, or styrofoam. My second favorite beverage is water. I love pizza with barbeque sauce, chicken, and pineapple. Umm… Guess that’s it.

Long time no blah blog, I guess. I’ve been busier trying to get the house into some semblance of order (it’s not working), sewing an outfit for the wedding reception we went to (pictures to come once it’s ironed), and traveling to Pittsburgh for said wedding reception. I packed a couple socks to work on on the trip - I finally found sock #1 of my looks-like-Trekking-but-is-really-Socka spiral rib socks and finished up sock #2 in the airport shuttle to go home. Also made some progress on sock #1 of a toe-up pair in Meilenweit (I think) self-striping yarn.

I may have completed the last pattern repeat on the Flower Basket Shawl - I’m taking a break from putting it on waste yarn to check the size. Hopefully it’s big enough and I can get the edging done, block it, and send it off. I’d love to have it warming a wonderful person and helping her fight her illness, rather than sitting uselessly in a basket in my house. Here’s hoping… And it is indeed big enough! Hooray! Hopefully Grace will be asleep shortly and DH and I will find something to watch on tv so I can get my knit on.

I’ve got pictures of the bag I made for my SP8 to share, too, but of course the camera cable is AWOL. I got a new camera, so you think I’d maybe have smartened up and designated a cable-storage place, but noooo. Of course not. Maybe if I got off my duff and cleaned…

I’ll get on looking for that and maybe I’ll have some pictures to share with you in the morning. Just wanted to let you know that I’m still here!

I got my final package from my secret pal today. What did she send?

I’m not sure if it was on my wishlist or if it was a book she just thought I’d like, but whichever it is - I am thrilled! There are so many cool things in this book!

Thank you so much, Lisa! You totally made my day

No, I didn’t get washed away by the spectacular storms yesterday. I just have been busy cleaning, decluttering, and removing $%@&*! wallpaper from my bathroom walls in preparation for a remodeling project. Fun.

But I have been knitting, and sewing a little. KSKS is over and my partner has received her package, so it’s safe to post it now.

Outside view

Under the flap - lots of pockets

Inside, with swag

Details: I used denim for the outside and a fabric from my collection of Japanese prints for the inner. It was fun to have a project to use it on - I’ve been hoarding the fabric for years. I interfaced both the outer and inner with Decor Bond, available from your handy dandy local fabric shop. There’s a zippered pocket inside, plus some pockets similar to the ones shown on the front (under the flap). I used a magnetic snap closure as well. This is my own pattern, if you can call it a pattern - I just figured out the finished dimensions I wanted, did some figuring, and went from there. I only goofed up a few times, heh.

And there’s been knitting, too:

I had to test-knit the pattern I sent to my KSKS pal, after all!

Those are the Japanese Feather Lace socks. I love them! I used Koigu in a vivid lime green and it was absolutely the perfect yarn for this pattern. I’m looking forward to cooler weather so I can wear them!

I had to try them on, of course. They fit like a dream!

I’ve also been working on the Flower Basket Shawl in some sportweight alpaca that’s been waiting around for the perfect pattern. I have an acquaintance who’s going through radiation treatment for lung cancer that’s spread to her liver and brain, it’s so sad. There’s not a lot I can do for her, but I’m knitting all my love and healing thoughts into this shawl. I’m on pattern repeat #13 of 14 or 16, depending on how it looks when I get to 14 and how my yarn supply is. I’m *hoping* to finish it this weekend, but with a trip to the MN State Fair planned for Sunday, I don’t know if I can manage it. We’ll see.

It’s beautiful and so soft. No picture can do it justice. I just hope it helps her to feel better. If anyone’s inclined to pray, light a candle, whatever, her name is Patsy.

I’d better get off the computer and get the kids dressed and out of here before they kill each other.