Sock Wars V !!! Its Almost Time..... MWhahahahah

Get ready everybody time to sign up for Sock Wars V is almost over. Its the deadliest knitting competition in the world!

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

No matter what your religion, or the holiday you celebrate its the time for giving. Whether you are knitting up a pair of socks for Uncle Joe or crocheting up an afghan for Little Sue everyone is frantically getting their gifts finished. I know that I haven't blogged in quite a while but I have had many evening activities and have been knitting as well as crocheting my many Christmas gifts. This past Thursday was our Little Christmas party at my LYS and it was a blast. Christmas is definitely going to be white this year as the snow storm that hit Wisconsin has pretty much covered the entire nation with a thick blanket of the white stuff. But rest assured it just means to look forward to a nice green and fresh start to the upcoming year. Speaking of the New Year stay tuned to see many more projects as well as maybe a possible Christmas/ New Year giveaway!

All of my Christmas baking and candy making is finally complete. As a matter of fact i just finished today. I made a batch of delicious and moist Stollen and some spicy yet sweet gingerbread tasting Lebkuchen. To German recipes that are now added to my collection to stay for good.

As the New Year comes around I will be much more active eon my blog than in the past few months so stay tuned for some great things!

Hope everyone's holidays are merry and bright! Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, God Bless !

The Biggest Contest Yet!

I was talking to a friend while doing some community service. We were cooking at the salvation army and together came up with this great idea.

Here is the contest:

Since it is beginning to get kind of frosty outside people are going to be wearing mittens,hats, scarves, and what not, right? Well the contest is......

Knit or crochet as many mittens as you can in all sizes( larger ones for adults and teenagers are better but child and infant sizes are also needed, since winter is right around the corner and send full pairs to my address. The person that will be chosen to win is the one who makes the most mittens and sends them before November 17th! The prize will be a hand dyed hank of worsted and sock weight yarn, a set of handmade stitch markers, a pair of dpns, and a sense of knowing that you helped a lot of less fortunate people out this season.

The fine print...... All entries must be postmarked by November 17th to be in the contest. When sending entries be sure to include your name and address in with the mittens to help me keep track of your count and if you win to send you your prize. All entries will be handed out at my local salvation army center to those in need. All sizes are acceptable but there are more older people in the salvation center usually than younger ones. And have fun making them!


I hope you will enjoy this contest and good luck!

Funny E-Mail

I thought I would share this cause I thought it was just darn right funny!

The title of this e-mail is called:

ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE

Yesterday I had a flat tire on the interstate. So I eased my car over to the shoulder of the road, carefully got out of the car and opened the trunk. I took out 2 cardboard men, unfolded them and stood them at the rear of my car facing oncoming traffic. They look so life like you wouldn't believe it! They are in trench coats exposing their nude bodies to the approaching drivers. To my surprise, cars start slowing down looking at my lifelike men which made it safer for me to work at the side of the road. And of course, traffic starts backing up. Everybody is tooting their horns and waving like crazy. It wasn't long before a state trooper pulls up behind me. He gets out of his car and starts walking towards me. I could tell he was not a happy camper! 'What's going on here? ' 'My car has a flat tire', I said calmly. 'Well, what are those obscene cardboard men doing here by the road? ' I couldn't believe that he didn't know. So I told him, 'Helloooo, those are my emergency flashers! '

White Witch Mitts

I am currently working on these bad boys! Mine are in a cream and chocolate brown. I will be posting pictures soon!

Links to the ebooks are fixed

Sorry about that. The link is now fixed for both underlined.

5 Free Craft ebooks

Thanks to my sister Wisconsin Coupon Mommy for this great find!


Here is the link for her blog where you can find the 5 Free Craft E-books:o)

Fall is Approaching

You know that fall is slowly approaching when the Hostas begging to bloom, the apples are falling from their massive trees, and the days and nights beginning to be cooler each day. The smell of Autumn in the air tells us knitters and crocheters that our busiest time of the year has arrived! Fall is when we begin frantically knitting and crocheting hats, mittens, scarves, socks, and any other thing we can manage to whip up for gifts before Christmas. I certainly know that being back at school now means less time to knit and crochet but I will be always finding time to do either one.



Speaking of fall, let's talk about fall fashion. Everyone leans towards earthy, some jewel, and fall tones maybe even bold reds and oranges that make a statement. Whatever you knit or crochet cables are in the big, the bold, and the beautiful ones, even tiny cables. Also whats in is color work and simple designs. It seems that now days less it more meaning that if you knit a cardigan in a nice deep rust with simple textures like a few large cables sitting in a field of purl and knit stitches can look amazing even though its simplicity. It's really simplicity that counts!



In our hurting economy in America it seems to be a growing trend especially this year that we tend to knit or crochet gifts that are simple yet lovely for those we love. I highly recommend knitting and crocheting gifts this year for the ones that you love, but always remember that you shouldn't spend days on a knit or crocheted gift for someone that won't appreciate it. Don't waste your time on people that won't care. Also you can find wonderful yarns that are inexpensive. Take a look at knitpicks or WEBS or maybe even host a swap at your LYS and who knows you might end up with someones trash that is now your treasure! I recommend that you go searching for yarns that are less expensive first before you spend your life savings on really expensive yarns you never know what you might find. Give it a try!Whatever you do just remember to knit or crochet from the heart and love what you have made. Don't go through life pointing out your mistakes but pointing out your accomplishments and creations!

Right now I am currently working on knit socks, a knit tam, a crocheted granny square afghan, a crocheted lace sweater. I am also dyeing more yarn each day and will soon have pictures of everything as soon as I can:o)

My Sister is Due....

My sister Heather is going to have a baby and she is due sometime next week! I feel so ashamed because I haven't made the baby anything yet. Would anyone be willing to help me with a project?

Quick Question?....

If I were to come out with my own yarn line and sell it would you buy it? Also what weight of yarn would you want me to dye the most of. I planned on dyeing mostly sock yarn and other weight yarns too. Thanks!

Long time no post......

Sorry everyone my computer got a really big virus and I haven't been able to go online for quite some time. I will soon be posting pictures of my most recent dye jobs and the hank of yarn that I gave away.

And THE WINNER IS.......

This is the time you all have been waiting for. The winner will have to send me their mailing address on Ravelry and the prize will be shipped within a few days.

I would just like to thank everyone for entering and would just like to say there will be more contests and giveaways in the future! I think this one went pretty well considering this was my first contest/ giveaway.

Well I suppose I should tell you the winner. The winner chosen by Random.org is ( Drum roll please......)

Kathleen!

Congrats Kathleen! Your prize will be shipped soon and Good Luck to everyone else who entered on my next contest/ giveaway!

The Contest!

Alright everyone the time is here!

Here are the rules for the contest.......
1. To enter you must tell me your best knitting and crocheting secrets to win the yarn and maybe other materials included.
2. All entries must be recieved by July 17th at 11:30 am.
3. A winner will be chosen at random on July 19th and the winner will be announced later that day.
4. You must claim your prize within 5 Days of contest end date!
GOOD LUCK!

There will be pictures of the yarn to be won soon and yes I hand dyed it myself. It is purple, red,and pink. The color changes aren't very drastic and it looks very nice. The colors are pretty bold but the fade in areas. I will find out more about the yarn because it was gifted to me so I don't quite know all of its details.

More dyeing to come

Thanks on the comments everyone! I dyed some more yarn over the weekend and will be posting pictures soon:o) My blog contest will be starting sometime next week so get ready! I will be giving away some yarn that I dyed so get excited cause I think I am getting better and am thinking of opening my own online yarn store which is going to be probably mostly about sock yarn and stuff but there will be other things!The yarn I am going to sell is going to be affordable too ;o)

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Fourth of July!

I coulnd't help myself....so I DYED Again!!!

So a few hours ago I finished my second hank that I wanted to dye this one is the self patterning one:o)

I think that I am going to start a yarn line once I come up wiht more colorways and stuff like that: )

Today I DYED!

I have always wanted to dye my own yarn especially sock yarn and last night I finally did it! I only dyed one 100gm hank of sock yarn just to try it since it was my first time dyeing and I think it turned out very well. It is mainly orange but has lots of different shades of orange in it too and a little dark gold. I have yet to name it but will find something soon. This hopefully is going to be a start of a new line of yarn!

I will also be dyeing a nice hunk of yarn for my giveaway and will soon be posting rules and how to enter the giveaway/ contest:o)

Magpie's Cottage

My LYS is a wonderful place to be. It is probably the nicest LYS around for miles and miles. I stopped in Thursday and Kim and Karla the owners told me that they are getting a whole bunch of new yarn and gadgets. They were at the huge yarn market a while ago and will be having their anniversary sale durring July 15th- July 18th. Durring those days they will be having drawings and huge discounts and clearences plus they will be unvailing their new massive shipment!!!!: ).Magpie's Gottage has also extended thier hours as of June 23rd their new hours will be......

Monday: Closed

Tuesday: 12-7

Wednesday: 9-5

Thursday: 9-7

Friday: 9-5

Saturday: 10-3

Sunday: Closed

It is going to be soo much fun the next few weeks as Iwill be yarn shopping, dyeing my own yarn for my giveaway, and starting on my christmas gifts. Yes I know it seems a lillte early to start thinking about Christmas but if I don't start of my gifts now than I'll be swamped when it comes to November.

Magpie's will soon have a Ravelry Store! When they do I will post all of hte information here. But until then take a look at their website! : )

Giveaway?

I was thinking of having a blog giveaway. Should I do it? If so I was going to giveaway some now secret items but they will be revealed later if I pursue the giveaway. : )

Great Grannies

Right now I am working on a crocheted Granny square Afghan out of leftover balls of yarn from other projects. It is coming along nicely and my sister is going to configure a pattern for me out of the squares. There are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, and pink squares. Each square has three tones of that color in it going from the lightest tone in the center to a darker tone the next round and so on. The colors are looking really nice together and I hope to be finished with this around sometime later this week.

Ravelry

Its a community for knitters, crocheters, designers, and spinners! I love this site and so should you so go ahead and click the link below to check out Ravelry!!!!! I highly recommend it : )

MY RAVELRY IS : CraftyCaleb

Ravelry link

http://www.ravelry.com

Attention Readers

Please follow my blog. If you are a follower when I sell my patterns and yarn then you will recieve a discount. But anyways please follow my blog it is kind of depressing when you only have one follower.

Long time no blog

I'm sorry that I haven't kept up to my promise of blogging more. I have just been so busy lately. I have been knitting for sock wars and crocheting among the loads of school work as the year comes to an end next Wednesday.

I am designing patterns and testing them out before taking them to my LYS to see what they think of them because they'll sell my patterns if they like them: ) Right now I am working on a thick and soft luxurious cabled hat but need to perfect the pattern. My patterns will be for sale soon.

I am going to be hand dyeing sock yarn and if all goes well than I might possibly sell a line of that too depending on everyone's comments whether they like the colorways or not.

Sock Wars IV

Sock Wars IV

The largest, bloodiest, extreme knitting tournament in the world.

Sign-up, and you will receive a top-secret file containing your target's information. To "kill" your target, you must follow the pattern to make a weapon (a pair of socks) for your event, and mail it to your target. Your target is "dead" when they receive your weapon. Your target then sends their incomplete weapon to you, along with their target's information, and you complete their weapon to kill their target. At the same time you are trying to kill your target, your assassin is trying to kill you. Join us and find out how exciting a trip to the mailbox can be as you open it each day to find out if you have killed, or whether you have been killed.
Deadline to register for Sock Wars IV is May 1, 2009

Dossiers are emailed May 9 and May 10, 2009

Killing starts May 15, 2009
To sign-up, click on the Sign-Up link below

http://www.sockwars.org/register.html

Knitting vs Crochet

Any fiber crafter worth his/her yarn stash can tell the difference between knit and crocheted items. And, oh how we delight ourselves in our superiority when we see one mistaken for the other. Fashion magazines often display " knitted lace tops" when in fact they are really crocheted; catalogs show us " crocheted sweaters" that are actually knit. We gleefully piont out these mistakes to who ever will listen. People who participate in neither of these crafts are woefully unable to distinguish between the construction of these fabrics, but we stitch mavens find it practically blasphemous to refer to one as the other.

Yet there is but one mistake that I have frequently witnessed, both crocheters and knitters make, and that is to believe that crochet ing and knitting are interchangeable. I've even seen books promising that you'll be able to make sometihing using knitting the same when crocheted. The fact of hte matter is, is it just can't happen! Knitting and crocheting are NOT two ways of achieving the same outcome!!!

Crocheting is definitly easier than knitting but both are equally talanted and masters of their trade. It is NOT a bad thing to learn them both! The feud has to END!

New Pictures

Don't Forget To Check Out The New Pictures for the Posts!!!!!!!!!!

Super Swamped

Sorry I have not been able to post in a while. I've been very busy lately working on some projects and doing lots of schoolwork! My Birthday is tomorrow and I'll be getting high speed for my Birthday!! So pretty soon I'll be able to post every day! Then the blog will be so totally awesome!

Wal-mart Yarn Sale!

Wal-mart is haveing a $2.00 yarn sale instead of it's usual $2.48 or something like that. So quick, Hurry in so you don't miss the deal and stock up on some yarn!

Perfect for Easter Pin

This cute little pin is a breeze to make and is sure to put a smile on someone's face. You can make it and color bunny you like and it would still look good. Pattern Comming SOON!

Wave Afghan

No, it's not exactly a Ripple pattern but it sure looks a lot like one. I actually made this design by mistake! I misunderstood a friend who was telling me the pattern and didn't realize it until I was half way through making the Afghan! I sometimes joke around and say, " It's a ripple rip-off'. :) All in all it turned out really nice and it looks fantastic for my first Afghan. I gaveit to my mother for Mother's Day this year because she liked it so much and she just loves it. It tok me about a month and a half to finish because my mind kept wandering and plus its for a king sized bed! But it will probably only take you a couple of weeks to finish.I used plain old Redheart, worsted weight yarn. But you can most certainly use whatever yarn you like!I hope you enjoy this project! For pattern just ask. I also made crocheted pillows that I designed to go along with the Afghan. For their pattern just ask to!