Sorry, blog surfing today, so I'm kind of... random. I found another great contest, if you love beads: Denise Yezbak Moore, owner of Rusty Roxx Jewelry, is giving away a massive amount of beads. Seven and a half pounds of beads in one contest. Help her decide if she should give them all to one person, or split them six ways. I had a hard time deciding, but it's been 2 years since I've done any beading at all... so I said six ways. Can you imagine getting all of those beads at once? Bead overload! Anyway.. hop on over to the contest page, and see if you can win!

Progress has been made on Brian's sweater. I finally found a pattern I liked, that would work with the yarn I had. The sweater is called "The Fog Sweater", based on a sweater the designer saw in the movie "The Fog". It's a simple drop-sleeve sweater with a LOT of ribbing; the body of the sweater is all 1x1 rib. It's not too bad now that I've done about an inch of it, but I can see that it will probably drive me crazy before I'm finished. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="The Fog Sweater by Tiennie"] [/caption] So far, I've done all the bottom ribbing and about an inch or so into the main body of the sweater. I haven't been able to do it as fast as I like, because all that ribbing hurts my hands. So, maybe I'll have it done by Christmas. I'm using KnitPicks "Wool of the Andes" worsted in Coal (which is about as black as you can get yarn). If I could buy the yarn again, I would choose a lighter color, because knitting black yarn in anything but bright sunlight is a pain in the butt. Oh well, live and learn, I suppose. I really like how it's coming out, though. It's a nice fabric, not too heavy, and not too scratchy. He'll probably be able to wear it without a shirt underneath if he wants to. We shall see. [caption id="attachment_480" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The Fog Sweater bottom ribbing"] [/caption] It'll be fun, right?

As you can tell by my last post, I was playing with my "Bucket o' Beads" yesterday. I have an assortment of beads, most of which don't match, so pulling out enough matching beads to make sets was a bit of a challenge. I put two more sets together (in addition to the one I already posted), and I think they turned out ok. The first set was easy... just used some crystals, assorted brown/gold beads, a few silver beads, and a cute little star that was sitting there lonely in the mix.

I think these look prettier than they do in the picture... my lighting wasn't very good for either of these shots. The second set was a little odder. I had five of these brown and cream flat discs, and some flat amber beads. I combined them with some round balls to make a wider, flatter stitch marker. Not quite sure if I like these, but I like the colors.

They're definitely unique. I need to get some more beads and make more, I think. Maybe I can sell some down at my LYS.

I've been playing with my beads today, and I made a set of stitch markers that match the yarn I'm giving away in the contest. I figured they'd be a great addition to the sock yarn, so I'll be sending them to the person who wins the haiku contest.

I hope everyone likes these, it's my first attempt at making a "set" of stitch markers. Go enter the Sock Yarn Haiku Contest, and have a chance to win!

Is knitting a religion? Could be... and judging from the Ravelry forums, there are thousands of denominations! I found this lovely post over at The Lumpy Knitter's blog - The Sacraments of Knitting: A Simple Tract. Go take a look, I think you'll enjoy it. It definitely made me smile. I wonder if I could hand a few of those out to friends?