Nuclear Knits: Where knitting is the bomb!

Well my hubby and I moved back into our house (for those that don't know we had a house fire and have been displaced for the past ~100 days). Now that we are back in the house and putting stuff away ... I'm drooling over my stash. I feel the fever to knit. Fever to weave. Fever to spin. FEVER! I only wish I weren't so busy putting crap away and I could play. More of a update later on in the week! I hope you are all enjoying the summer weather and getting through your own stash!

The Back-to-School vest is still on the needles. I'm moving through it slowly I'm really hoping that in the next week or so I can get it off the needles. Possible? I'm just not sure!

Oh that is right ... I am lucky. One of my dear BFFs gave me this package for my birthday. Two type of glorious roving and a wonderful book that contains a handful of patterns that I want to instantly do! Thanks BFF .... I LOVE IT ALL!

I'm making some good progress on the giant granny square blanket (although it is a bit hot to be working on it). I got some great stitch markers from Jill and ordered some more for my self. This Weeones shop has just the cutest stuff! I started spinning up 4oz of some delicious chocolate strawberry roving from Anne . I know it isn't called that ... but is is so great it reminds me of sweets! More on this once I finish!

I've decided to bite off a big chunk of cheese and do a sock club. Socktagon 2010 will be a sock yarn club where you get 4 kits of hand-painted sock yarn, a pattern designed just for that yarn and a clue. The club will start September 1st. If you can solve all four clues you will be rewarded with an extra skein of hand-painted yarn (which is some of the softest most amazing sock yarn on the planet) and another pattern. It is worth the struggle to solve the clues. Each skein of sock yarn will be a wool blend. The puzzles will not be unsolvable. They will be fun and straight-forward enough for even a beginner to solve. We will also have a Ravelry group to chat about the puzzles. COME JOIN THE FUN!

Remember that surprise project? Well it is finished and ready for release. The Surprise Cake Mix socks balls (which I posted about a few days back) are created to go with this pattern (which is currently on my sidebar or on Ravelry ). With this simple pattern you can create one of a kind socks. You can change color whenever you like and you are guaranteed to never see another pair like them!

Remember this is what the roving looked like. It was from Into The Whirled and is her May/June Spin-Along. The colorway is Starcrossed. 4 oz of BFL. Here are the singles. It took me longer than I hoped to spin them ... but I made progress pretty quickly this weekend. Here is the finished item. I love it! I've now started looking at patterns to knit up with it. I believe I have light spinning down (or at least I'm getting better at it). This skein came out to be 742 yards of lace/light fingering weight.

I read a blog post about a giant granny square blanket and just couldn't help myself. I have to make one. The colors, the crochet pattern. It is a blast! I've already realized I wont have enough yarn and have had to order some more. More cotton Peaches & Creme. How to organize the colors though??? Here is my one day progress. This thing is addictive! I might need a four step program just to stop working on this.

A blogger buddy Rosemary In Time tagged me yesterday. She won beautiful blog award (which her blog is) ... so go check her out. My tag is to tell you 10 things about myself that you don't know. 1. I was born on Flag Day. 2. My father wanted to name me George (which is a name I actually think I could pull off). 3. I was born in Montana and grew up in Alaska 4. I like gummy candies better than chocolate 5. I have a green thumb 6. I was in commercials as a child and a game show when I was in high school 7. I love to sing 8. I started dating my husband the Saturday before Easter. We got married the Saturday before Easter. We have no idea what our actual anniversary is :) 9. I love rain more than the sun 10. Something crafted related maybe for my last one? I learned to crochet before I could talk really well. I learned to knit around the same time. I dumped knitting until I was out of college and only crocheted for most of those years. I picked up knitting then and have gone cr...

I love gnomes. Ever since I was a little kid I've just really liked them. They are like a secret or something that is hidden that no one knows about. They embody an element of magic and surprise. There is no real explanation for my love of gnomes other than ... well I just dig them. Being that I'm a bag freak. And in particular a knitting bag freak Jessalu has done it again. She just put up a gnome bucket bag and I can't stop my self. I HAVE TO HAVE IT! Ordered ......

Do you ever need a good bowl to rest your knitting in? Does your cat smack your knitting around? These funky little bowls are perfect for keeping your furry friends from getting too frisky with your projects (and they look cool). Recycling old records has never been so fun and so useful!

I've never felt like a roving took so long. I'm only 2 oz into this 4 oz bag and am amazed at how slow I am. I'm loving the final product ... but can someone put a rocket up my bum to help me spin faster?

What do you do with your leftover sock yarn? I always have a few yards left. Sometimes even more than that. I've created a new product with leftovers - Surprise Cake Mix Yarn. It is hard to tell exactly how many colors you'll get or how quickly the colors will transition. Each cake is ~25 g and at least 200 yards (and of course you get two cakes that match - so that your socks will actually match up). They are all unique and as closely matched gauge-wise as possible. They also come with a pattern designed just for them. Here are some photos of two - although there are many more on artfire . What do you do to go green in your craft projects or home life?

Am I knitting? I sure am melting in the heat - but still trying to get a little knitting done. This is the Back to School vest. I'm doing the darts at the top right now and working the whole top section. My goal will be to finish this in the next week or so. Yep. The first of the secret projects is done. Number 2 is on the needles. Cleopatra is moving along ... well slowly. I only did one repeat for the neck and am now on the transition pattern. I know - I know - it probably doesn't look like I've done much since the last time you saw this project ... but I have. I swear!

I'm trying to work through the first 2 oz of this roving. I'm going with a fine fingering weight yarn (which basically means I'm taking my time). I love the colorway and can't wait to finish up the whole bag!

I've joined a May/June Spin-a-long. This colorway is Starcrossed and I'm just doing the first bit of singles. More to come as I work through it.

Happy hump day. Check out my super secret project I'm working on :) Details to follow once I get further along.