My recent knitting adventures...

Lately, and wonderfully, I have been obsessed and addicted to everything knitting. 

I have also found myself an 'unfortunate' victim of the WIP bug.

Here is my desk, covered with my current knitting/crocheting handiwork:

A mess...right?

Starting on the left there is a mass of green.  That mass actually contains to crocheted pieces made for me by my wonderful mother.  I have just blocked both of them and they look fabulous (of course!).  One is a shawl called the Oasis Wrap (Mom's Ravelry Project Page). Here it is being blocked (no photo shoot yet).

The stitches are realllly shown off now and I can't wait to start wearing it! 

The other part of the green mass was a tank mom made for me as well (Project Page!).  I blocked it so that the bust was a bit taller (I was rather nervous about falling out-haha). Pictures of that to come soon too I hope!

The next thing on my desk that you can see is my new manual yarn ball winder.  I. Love. It.  I currently have it out because I helped mother wind all, ALL, of her stash! Behind the winder is a green ball of yarn.  This is a recent addition (salvaged from mother who almost threw it out!) to make a beanie (toque) for daddy! 

Underneath my yarn ball winder is my project notebook for my Stash Buster Blanket. I have quite a bit of yarn...to say the least.  So I decided to make a quilt-like blanket made with swatches from different yarns in different stitches.  No two swatches will be the same.  One side will be knit and the other side will be crochet.  Then, I will weave it all together and ta-da!  A few posts ago I put up a picture of a sneak peak of what I am up to. It was actually my first square for my Stash Buster Blanket in garter stitch: 

This will be a slow but fun process trying new stitches from my vogue stictionary volume 1 and challenging myself to be more creative.

Continuing on, to the right of my yarn ball winder is lovely, lovely new yarn! Vlady and I went to Cactus Yarns and looked around at the product.  Vlad tends to like very colorful things so I showed him some Noro yarn, and he fell in love with this color-way.  So we got it and this lump of yarn will be a knitted toque (for him, beanie for me!) for this winter. Here is a picture of this yarn colorway knitted up by vegasdealer78: Here!  This is my first time using Noro because I am more a fan of showing of textures with plain colors rather than knitting up yarns of mulitcolors. 

Of course, people's tastes change and I have recently started knitting up some Toast's to get some stash yarn used up and I fell in love with the casual look and comfort of it.  I think I like the Toast style more the the Toasty's! I have one done and am slooowly making progress on the second one. My project page for these Toasts. Here is a picture:

To the right of my Toast's I have my Lelah top, finally blocked with (finally) fitting straps!  I am wearing it tomorrow to the farmers market and hope to take lots of pictures!

A little to the left and about of that I have a verrry long WIP (to the point of hibernation) that I just recently picked up again. My Medano Beach Bag.  This is a rather tedious project for me but just the past couple days I did four inches of it! Progress of this sort gives me hope and my goal is to finish it in August and I am confident I can do it!

To the right of that and on top of the box I have an interesting project in the works.  It is my first foray into Tunisian Crochet.  The pattern is Tunisian Scarf from Inside Crochet Magazine, Issue 5. I am really liking how easy this is coming along (though slowly).  I am particularly interested in seeing how this scarf will look after blocked. I'm still not sure how I feel about Tunisian crochet but I'm sure by the end of this scarf I will have an opinion on it (knowing me!-haha)  Here is a picture of it so far and here is my project page!

Now...the big news of my newest WIP and knitting adventures is in a magazine buried deep underneath that mess (somewhere under the Lelah Top, I think). I have started my first ever knit cardigan.  I am soooo excited.  It is from the Debbie Bliss summer magazine, here is a picture:

This cardigan means perfect spring/winter/fall/and summer(indoor) wear. I think that the colors allow it to work for fall and spring and I am sooo excited for this. I am currently reallly, very, extreeeeemely slow at purling so this is taking me some time but I am getting there.  Here is a picture of my progress a couple of days ago:

I have switches colors quite a few times since then and am lovingg how it is looking.  Here is a link to my project page  where you can see pictures of all my yarn color choices.  If you have any tips about making sweaters or cardigans I would love to hear them! I am very nervous for this project and want it to be perfect.  I hope to have it ready for this winter!!!

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Well, if you made it this far the wow, I applaud you!!! and thanks for reading!

Love, LeeAnn

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p.s. Aug. 3rd I am definitely getting the next Interweave Knits magazine!! Have you seen the preview?  I can't wait!!!