Just want to wish y'all a

HAPPY HALLOWEEN... Happy Samhain...

This is my favorite holiday of the year... the sights, the smells, the crisp air. I hope yours is fantastic!

I went to upload my Hobbitland pictures only to discover that my camera battery was dead. I grabbed an old battery that had just enough juice to upload the pictures, but I haven't resized them for the blog yet. They'll be up someday, I promise!

In other news, it is officially reached "effing cold" temperature here in Maine... in other words, I had to scrape frost from my windshield. I mentioned before that my body temperature is on some other scale- I'll let y'all in on a secret: I run my spaceheater here at work all summer long. I am almost always cold... at night you'll find me bundled up under 4 quilts. However, I am also wicked stubborn and will wear sandals as long as I can in the year. I love knitting socks and wearing them at home, but hate having them on all day long. I feel constricted.

But it is now officially "effing cold" and that means the socks are on. These socks:





The Specs: Hedera pattern by Cookie A, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (don't remember which colorway), size 2 needles.

I am one of those weird sock people that likes pooling in the colors... I think it makes them really neat looking when next to each other. The pattern is really easy- the pattern repeat is memorized quickly. It just took me so long to finish them because of everything else I had on the needles.

And speaking of, here is another finished project... one that I haven't even blogged about. This is my first sweater that needed real seaming (I love you raglan!), and although the knitting is super easy, I admit that I still hate seaming as much as I did when I started. I'd rather Kitchener all day long than seam. Anyway...



The Specs: The Garter Stitch Wee Pocketed Cardi pattern from Lionbrand, Caron Simpy Soft in dark blue, size 9 and 10 needles, cute buttons with a dog in a wagon on them!

I really do love this sweater- the cute little pockets are great! And the buttons!

And finally for today... my current project. A little ways back I got some of Dave's Cabin Cove sock yarn and knew immediately what one of the colors was going to be. Jaywalkers. But not just your everyday Jaywalkers, these were going to be 80s Retro Jaywalkers. This colorway has hot pink, blue, yellow and green, and it totally reminds me of the bright colors I used to wear when I was growing up. I cannot begin to express how much I love these socks and they aren't even done.





Most of the people that have seen them comment on how the socks are "too bright" and "my eyes are burning!" and other such nonsense. All a bunch of haters, I'm telling you. I can't wait to wear them!

So no excuses... I've just been blog-lazy. But I do have quite a bit to show, and some more to follow shortly since I have pictures from my weekend that I still need to upload. Inspired by the awesome pictures of Hobbitland posted here, Seth, boy, and my brother and I decided to walk some of the trails. Pictures will hopefully be up tonight.

In knitting news, I've finished quite a bit. First up, I started and finished Amy Boogie's Chunky Cardi. I cannot say enough about how much I seriously love this yarn and this pattern.



The Specs:
Spunky Eclectic Chunky Big Ball sweater yarn in Pink Elephant, size 10 needles. The only seaming is a little Kitchener under the arms... everything else is all done together. It took me two weeks to do the whole sweater.

I've gotten a gazillion compliments on it- including a ton at the Commonground Fair from the fiber artists there. I'm trying to convince Amy that she should sell there next year.


Next up, I've also finally finished Danica. Truth be told, this pattern is really easy... I've just had too much startitus to sit and finish it.


The Specs:
Woolease worsted weight in grey, charcoal and heathered pink. Size 8 needles.

It's not as long as I had intended it, but if I had kept going on it it would have languished another 6 months on the needles. I really like the color combo and I was suprised at how nice the Woolease looks.

I've started work on Tempting... it's a super easy knit, but so much plain ribbing is enough to make me want to gouge my eyes out if I work on it too long. However, since it is getting freaking cold outside anyway, it won't be a big deal if it sits for a few months while I work on other things.

Notice the cute Loopy Ewe stitch marker?

On Thursday night Beth and I went to Knitting Night and I decided to start a new project (yes, I know, stop laughing...). I browsed the yarns a bit and then decided on some Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a light blue. And cast on for...

Odessa!

I wanted to do a no-bead version, and this pattern is wonderful. Super fast, super easy. It was a great beer drinking pattern, too... easy to memorize so I could keep working on it while I was watching the Red Sox win (Woot!!) and drinking Sam Adams Octoberfests. I was done by Saturday at noon, and I've already decided I am going to make another for a Christmas gift (*waves* hi Julie!).




The Specs:
Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (only 1 ball!). Size 4 and size 6 needles.

I especially like that this hat is designed to fit a wide range of head sizes so even if your head is unusually shaped, this hat will still fit. The only mod I made to the pattern was to knit to 6" instead of 5.5" before starting the decreases because I wanted to make sure it covered my ears. I'm protesting the cold right now by refusing to turn on my furnace at home (damn oil prices) and wore the hat all day yesterday. And no, before I get hate email or comments, my kids are not cold. For some reason or another, they and Seth run at a totally different temperature than I do and kept saying how nice the temperature was while I sat and shivered. I think if I was to gain any kind of superpower, I would be destined to be "Block of Ice Girl" or something equally as useless.

I'm only a few rows from finishing Hedera... I plan on casting on some toe up Jaywalkers with some gorgeous Cabin Cove yarn. I'll post pictures of those later, too.

Happy October, folks!