40 ROCKS!

So, for my 40th birdday I got some money-and of COURSE I wanted to spend some on YARN!  I've been wanting to make this sweater for the longest time, and decided the time has come.

I don't like necks that touch my neck though-I'm very very particular about that-I get a feeling of being strangled...so of course I was stressing over how to modify the pattern to avoid that entirely.  Many awesome Ravelers came to my aid and offered up some advice and I'm going to be implementing some short rows in the back between the colorworked sections...

Whilst waiting for my yarn to arrive I played with different color combinations-using photoshop to help my eyes get their thirst for a visual quenched...I'm happy with the combo I have picked and now for the fun stuff!  THE KNITTING!


My poor postman must think I'm insane.  He is so sweet to run all the way down my driveway to bring me packages-he actually waits for me to answer (not like that stinky UPS guy who just chcuks stuff at the door and all I see of him as I open the door is his backside jumping back into the truck).  I saw that box and just about lost it yesterday!  I do believe I even jumped up and down...may have screamed a bit too!

The next day:  I finished up the ribbing, colorwork and a bit more-I stressed about my gauge a little-I thought I was spot on at first but then realized it was getting 16 stitches instead of 18 for every 10cm...but I'm not going to sweat it.  I wanted this sweater to be a little roomy and I chose a small-I normally like a medium when I want roomy-so I'm going with it.  It looks lovely!  The yarn is scratchy-but not nearly as scratchy as I thought it would be!

12-22-15:  Merry almost Christmas!! In between making oodles of Christmas cookies, finishing some last minute gifts, wrapping all the presents (haven't yet broken my vow to always wrap as soon as I bring the gift home), a few little trips to the post office, I have managed to make a good deal of progress on my sweater. I have taken a few hours of the last few days to watch a movie each day with my daughter (The Hobbit movies-we always do a LOTR marathon on New Year's Eve, so we wanted to get ready) so I pounded out quite a bit watching the hobbits and dwarfs hunting down Smaug...Now I'm wondering why the plural of dwarf is dwarfs and not dwarves?

My modifications to this pattern are below...Please refer to the actual Afmaeli pattern, as I am only posting my notes on how I modified it slightly to accommodate for my neck issues... Please note that the ds refers to a double stitch as for German Short Rows-you can easily wrap and turn instead if you prefer. 

I use a 3.5 needle throughout-I tend to knit looser and it wound up working well for me that way...

During the yoke portion I used some short rows in this manner:

for round 1:  K80 (I made an adult small-you will have a different count on a different size-I think I was about five stitches from the center) PM, turn, ds, p 224 PM, turn, ds, k to beginning.

then I skipped row 4 and continued with round 5, kept going until round 15...
round 15, k to 3 stitches before SM, turn, ds, p to 3 stitches before SM, turn, ds, k to beginning and then go to round 18...

keep going until you reach round 31-k to 8 stitches before SM, turn, ds, p to 8 stitches before SM, turn, ds, k to end and start with round 33.

Row 42: k to 11 stitches before SM,turn, ds, p to 11 stitches before SM, turn, ds, k to end and then start with round 44.

for the neckband I omitted all of the decreases that it tells you to do.  I only did 3 cm of ribbing.  Also, I switched up the coloring-I wanted to see more of that lovely blue so I made sure I chose blue for the larger portion of the color chart-I also added one round of all black to give it a finished look before starting on the ribbed portion-SO happy with it!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

I made this Rooster Hat Pattern a while back and never got around to actually making a hat for myself.  I wound up donating the last one I had after all the testing was over (it wound up getting $90 in a silent auction-which is CRAZY to me-but I was thrilled to hear that).

I had dreamed of having chickens ever since we moved to our new home.  My hubby really wasn't into the whole chicken thing, so it really took 4 years of convincing and foot dragging (on hubby's part) with the construction of the coop being in a state of construction for about a year and a half.

I am officially in love with my girls now, we've had them since the day before Easter and I haven't had to purchase eggs since July!  Very exciting!  I belong to a few chicken groups on facebook and I offered up a chicken hat to the winner of a little contest we have every month...Well, I got all excited about making one and decided to make one for an administrator who does so much for the group and one more for MYSELF!  EEEHAWWWW!!!

I love my chicken hat-although not half as much as I love my chickens!  :)  Next spring I plan on adding to my flock...I want to have a total of 12-20 hens and one rooster...I plan on buying a straight run so I have to plan for 50% being roosters...but then I have crappy luck, and you have to consider some may not hatch....so I should take that into account as well...so I will most likely be getting 50ish fertilized eggs.. CHICKEN MATH!!!  I plan on being able to raise my own chicks from my flock and butchering them for eating when I have more chicks than I need...I won't name those of course.

Easy Brioche Panel

I fell in love instantly when I saw the Stockholm Scarf (free pattern by KnittedblissJC)..I knew instantly that I had to make it-but then I also knew that I didn't have enough of any one color.  Plus, I really like to mess around with things...can't just do things the easy way, ya know?

So....I fiddle farted around a bit and wound up with this fun little infinity scarf!

I followed the first panel (the dark grey) as written...

Instead of making another panel the same way, this is where I started getting a little creative.

For each of the tan and pink panel I used a cast on of 37  (multiples of 5 plus 2) and then followed the pattern for the same amount of repeats as I used for the long panel.

For the brioche portion, I warn you-I am a brioche novice-I've never written up a brioche pattern and I just sort of fudged what I was doing...If you look at my panels there are a few strategically placed decreases and increases-those are not included in this little pattern as I just snuck them in here and there as I felt I wanted them...But here is the brioche panel for straight lines (it is up to you to add decreases and increases if you feel you need them also).

In my version of this brioche panel, please note that I switched my CC to a different color about halfway through...just cuz I felt like it (and I was running out of pink).

CO an even number.

SETUP:
1.  With MC, p1, *slyo, p1, repeat from * to the last stitch, sl-SLIDE work to the other end of the needle
2.  With CC:  sl, *brk, sly; repeat from * across-TURN work.

Body
1a.  With MC, sl, brk, *slyo, brk; repeat from * across until the last two stitches, slyo, k-SLIDE work to the other end of the needle.
1b.  With CC, P, slyo, *brp, sly; repeat from * across until the last 2 stitches, brp, sl-TURN work.

2a.  With MC, p1, *slyo, brp; repeat from * across until the last stitch, sl-SLIDE work tot he other end of the needl.
2b.  With CC, sl, *brk, slyo; repeat from * across until the last stitch, k-TURN

repeat 1-2 until the piece measures the desired height and then BO loosely.