baby sweater! times two!

I started this first sweater about a month ago and even though the pattern is a little tricky around the placket on the neck.. I fudged it and made it up as I went and what do you know.. it worked.    Mr. Knitpho’s cousin is having twins.. boys.  GASP.     So, instead of a trip to babies r us.. why not do what I do best and give her something from the heart.     Instead of making two matchy matchy.. one is brown with blue and the other blue with brown.  TOOT CUTE.

Instead of buttons.. I put in those little sew in snaps and will send them on their merry little way.

I hope the mother to be enjoys these little sweaters as much as I enjoyed knitting them for her new baby boys.

in a slump.

Ever since I decided to jump off the hooking bridge, it has consumed me.   Let me tell you something.. it is A LOT harder than knitting.   My right is constantly looking for the something in my left hand to work with, and it’s not the yarn!!!   I don’t know what stitches are what and it’s all very frustrating not being able to whip copious amount of potholders overnight is just killing me dead.
All that has been put aside for the moment.  Since princess M has decided to get super sick, first with strep and then I guess she figured that wasn’t good enough and upped it to walking pneumonia.    The kicker is ..she seems fine.  But, the minute she gets up and starts moving around – she’s down for the count.   She has missed 7 days of school and God willing and with the help of albuterol and zithromax we’ll send her back tomorrow.     The upside of this is that the albuterol dose gives her a little buzz and Mr Knitpho and I find this hysterical.

Half Marathon training has “officially begun.  I met up with others who are training to run their first half and I still can’t get the voices out of my head telling me I’m crazy and to give up.    But, it looks like I’m down with the chest wheezing and throat issues that my little one has, so running right now today.. just is not in my plan.   Perhaps a trip to the doctor and some tea though.

My yarn and hook are staring at me.   I guess I will give it a whirl and see what I can come up with that resembles crochet.

killing time.

RavOlympics is right around the corner!!!

Have you decided what you’ll be doing for your event this go around? You are competing right?  I hemmed and I hawed, but I finally decided on the Mitten Mogul. I will competing in this event 4 times. I decided that it would be a fine time to cast for the knucks and make a pair for each one of us in our family!!! I’ve wanted some for myself for a long time, but I knew that my kids would love them and maybe even Mr. Knitpho would want his own pair once he sees how  badass they truly are!

In the meantime, I’ve casted on a Chevron Scarf with hand dyed yarn from one of our own. One is called pumpkin pie & the other is molten. Now, I LOVE purple and I LOVE orange.

So when Dan sat down and this yarn just gravitated toward me and I knew these two together would make the Chevron. I casted on last night, and I’m already in love. A nice little palette cleanser before knuck O rama starts!

Thu Thu Thu Thrummin'

Today, I thought I’d share with you, for those of you haven’t seen them … the thrummed mittens I made for my BFF, Holly for her birthday which was Jan19.  She lives in Denver and you never know about the weather there.  It can be 70 one day, and blizzard the next.   That’s what happens when you live in a city with mountains on one side and plains on the other.

I wanted to do something different for Holly, something I had knit yet.   She has scarves.  Dishcloths.  Fetchings.   But, I knew the weather had been cold in Denver, so I thought this girl needs a pair of thrums.   Then that would be a for sure for the weather to change and warm up so she’d never need to wear them.

Field trip to The Yarn Store in Uxbridge and picked me up some Berroco Vintage in a soft buttery yellow.   Now, for thrums you need roving.   fiber.   unspun yarn.   Hmmmm.  Did I know where I could get some of this?   (laugh track here)  Did I know anyone who could hook me up?   (laugh track again)    Yes, indeedy.   You see, more than half of us in our knitting crew are spinners, they all have wheels and spindles and delicious fibery goodness.    I have yet to jump on this bandwagon.     So, I beg borrowed and stole some fiber goodness from mah friend Steph and started thrumming.  I first watched this tutorial and then I started making my thrums.  I made a whole bowl full and casted on.

For me they went super quick and I was always so excited to get to the next round.   I finished them within a week and sent them to the birthday girl.   She loved them.  I loved making them for her.   Can you feel the love?

outside and the inside

So, now I’m finishing up a bigger project that I’ll have to wait to show you, and RavOlympics is right around the corner!!!  Do you have your event picked out?

The Great Mitten Swap of 2009

In July of 2009, Heather had a brilliant idea.    She thought it would be fun for us girls in our awesome little knitting group to knit up a pair of mittens and do a secret exchange for our Christmas party!  We would have 6months to decide on a pattern and we could knit it up right away, work on them here & there through out the months, or wait to the very last minute like most of us did.    Working best under pressure is how we roll.

Heather top secretly gave everyone a fantabulous little homemade project bag, and inside was an envelope that with the name of the knitter we’d be knitting  for.   We had all traced our hands at a bar over pitchers of Margaritas on my birthday (which is July 5, btw) and the excitement started to build.      We all started to tag patterns we loved in Rav and our knitter could knit us something we REALLY wanted or what they REALLY wanted to knit.     Now,  our group consists of all sorts of levels of knitting goodness, but whatever your level – it wasn’t about how great you could make them, or how fast, it was about that we all just really care for each other, and wanted to knit for that person.     Not because we HAD to, because we WANTED to.

I give to you , the finish products of the First Annual Mittenswap 2009.

We decided that it was so much fun and we all just loved it so much, we’re doing it again.   So, over margaritas in the middle of summer – we’ll choose our this years swap partner and do it all again!

Here we all are.. yes, most of us are in our jammies.   We’re CRAZY I tell you!  CRAZY!

New Diggs!

It’s a new year, hell it’s a new decade! I figured it was time update the old knitpho homestead and liven things up a bit. Maybe I’ll even like it enough to share my world with you via le blog again, instead of relying on status updates and tweets.

I have a lot of photos to share, knitting, stories about those kids of mine, that husband that can’t live without me, my KRAZY friends and of course last but not least – the pots I love stir.

up to 90

Wow.. when Kathryn and I started this little photo O day project, who know that #1. it would be hard to find something to actually take a photo worth sharing every day #2 that it would fly by SO fast and #3 that even today, at day 91 …we’re still excited about it!

So, here are my days 60-90 all clumped together..and today I hope to take advantage of the blue skies and see what strikes my fancy through the lense.

Thanks for coming along for the ride with us over at SoSnapHappy!

she's been dropped

Toy Society Drop…… Frances, originally uploaded by MrsKnitpho.

Earlier in December I came across The Toy Society and knew that we had to participate. My knitting crew were knitting up some of these monsters of their own and thought that Frances here would be the perfect little monster who would make someone very happy. We bundled up and headed out to the library and tucked her behind a book on a shelf and away we went.

I hope that the person who finds her send a note to The Toy Society, so I know that she has found a loving home … I think we’ll do this again. The M’s loved dropping her, even though they both want a monster of their own, they knew that Frances was knit for the soul purpose of being set free.

If you’d like to participate.. check out their blog. They have the pics of other drops and the peeps who find the toys!

you want to see what I knittedededd?

Just to hold you over until I get all the secret mitten projects together and photo’d and placed properly. You think since we’re together so much as a group, this would be an easy task .. but it’s not. So, patience grasshopper.

In the meantime, I knitted this … It’s the Autumn Day Scarf in Berroco Ultra Alpaca. So so soft and well, I knit it for little Miss M’s Kindergarten teacher and when it came off the needles, it was hard to give up.

Here’s a hohum photo, but it shows the pattern much better

Scarves.. they are a gorgeous accessory but hell to knit. They never freaking end.. the same rows over and over and over. Not my favorite thing to knit – but well worth it in the end. As Mia’s teacher told me yesterday, she wore it over all of break and got oodles of compliments. She says “I would tell everyone, would you believe a parent of one of my students made this for me!?” You might call it brown nosing the teacher, I call it showing appreciation for a job well done.

Then I finally made a Foliage.

This is made out of Lambs Pride Wool/Mohair. Bulky. This was made for Mia’s assistant teacher, which was well received also.. they are both awesome teachers!

Then, last but not least. Frances.

She is a fun fun little monster. Who enjoys reading and doing yoga. The kids and I are going to package her up and Frances will become part of the Toy Society Toy drop. I’ll post about that when we get that done, we have the spot all picked out – now we just have to get there! But, isn’t she just the best?!

So, on to more knitting in this new year. New challenges, new projects, more yarn love!

Second Set of 30!

30/60/365, originally uploaded by MrsKnitpho.

Here is my second set of 30 days in a row of photos. 60 days total so far, of a shot a day with my friend Kathryn. see www.sosnaphappy.wordpress.com to see our collaboration! Some days are hard to find some inspiring to shoot, some days you have too many to choose from and you just have to pick one, which I guess what makes it so fun and a little challenging. I try not to use my kids as my subjects but I loved the one shot of them and had to use it. A lot of ‘indoor’ shots, are on gray rainy days, and there is no light whatsoever to get anything good .. but all in all, I’m quite pleased with all my photos and I’m already excited about what these next 30days will bring.