Turkey!

Enjoy!

Not everyone has Thanksgiving. :)

Concerns

You know you should be worried when you start saying things about your christmas knitting like

"Mens size 15 feet are not THAT much bigger than mine" (womens size 5)

"I could probably make 4 of those"

"SURE! Why not, the first one only took me 3 days!"

Quick Update

Sorry, havent talked at you in a while...school is icky.

Haruni- done, and at home currently blocking. I hope that two days is enough time for the little goober to dry cuz that is ALL ITS GETTING! I left it unattended, and Aims and I went away for the weekend, because I was afraid she'd decide to do an irish step dance on it. And it is white...She's the reason we can't have nice things.

I'm taking a little break from the christmas knitting to work on one of these. Mine is in purple...I've also made a few slight edits to the pattern, which I will share with you later. (if they work) The yarn is smooshy and luscious and the little wooden beads make me giggle like scooby doo.

I had to go out and buy mittens...because I knit slowly turns out. And so The Rainbow mittens are on hold...

How are you all doing?!

BRILLIANT

Do you know how much time this would save me?

YOU KNOW WHAT!

Schools kicking my ass.

Zach has officially moved to Australia (which is sucking the fun right out of things, despite the whole being apart fiasco)

Aimee LOVES THE SNOW, which would be great if it meant i didn't have to stand out there in it for hours while she gallivanted.

My knitting is lagging...

I'm off to nap. I promise something more up beat next time.

Love you all, hope you're enjoying the snow, if you have any, and that you're enjoying the fact that you're running out of time to knit christmas gifts!

SQUEEEE!!!

SMITTENS!!!

At this point I'm a leetel worried about how they'll fit, they seem a tidge tight.

I'm hoping blocking will help loosen them some. Either way they're GOING to fit because i refuse to frog. Just saying,.

Midterms

Midterms make me do bad bad things....

Just ask Aimee.

Or should I say "Mademoiselle le Bee"?

Hehehehehehehehehehehhehehe.

take THAT

oops, deleted the first try. here we go again....

So I was digging through my old WIPs in the attempt to avoid the haruni....and I came across the bead bracelet that has been half finished for around 3 years...woops?

Since I had a ton of studying to do, I sat down and finished the bracelet.

It's bead crochet. What you do is load a ton of beads on some thread, then go to town with the slip stitches until you've decided your rope is long enough. I'm sure, via google, you can find some handy dandy instructions if you're so inclined.





Then, you whip out a teensy tinsy needle and some thread, and sew that baby up. If you only have white, like I did, but you need black, DONT PANIC! It's okay, just color it black with a permanent marker first!

At this point, even if it is midnight, you should wear that little sucker proudly around the house.










Go on, wave it in the dog's face. You know she cares too!

Well okay, maybe not.

Some advice

Don't ever tell a dog smart enough to break into the fridge and eat all your butter than you don't want to go outside and play fetch right now, because its too much work to get up and get a bra.

Especially if they REALLY want to play fetch.

Fluff!

I've finished the Ptarmigan Cowl, out of the lovely lovely Absolou.

It's light as a feather and oh so fluffy. It says in the pattern to block it. My philosophy on that is: if you can already see the lace pattern, why bother? Especially when its going to be all wadded up on my neck most of the time anyways and it'll just undo all that hard pinning work. (Plus, who wants to hurt that lovely squooshy yarns?!)

The pattern called for 175 yards of yarn, and that is EXACTLY what I had. So, to be on the safe side (and also because I am beyond paranoid) I only did 2 garter ridges at each end, instead of 3. I probably would have been fine doing 3, as I ended up with a little extra yarn, but I wasn't stressed about running out the entire time this way. The main reason for this decision is Mr. Flood recommended the long tail cast on, and I always overshoot on that, so I had about 2 yards of dangle left on my cast on that MIGHT be necessary. It was really better this way.

The pattern also suggests a sewn bind off. (AKA tedious beyond reason bind off) This was for stretchy purposes. I'd never done it, so I gave it a shot. It's not much stretcher than if I had cast off normally. If you want something super stretchy I'd google some other methods. Otherwise, this method is fine. ESPECIALLY if you're one of those people who ends up with a funky mc-bunched tight cast off all the time. 

I'm off to work on the Haruni. The plain, boring, white haruni. While my dogwood blossoms sweater kit taunts me....

For those of you who were concerned, it only took 45 minutes but with a little help from my dog we managed to get the alpaca untangled. It's intact, and doesn't seem to have suffered much during its little doggie adventure. 

Fallen

I've fallen, and my credit card has slipped. I think I have a sweater related problem. I blame my comfy new runcorn.

When I fell, I ended up with a kit for one of these:

Purchase your own here.

It will be a while before I get to start because I'm working on a haruni for someone
for christmas.

I'm itching to get starting. What do we think, cardigan version, or pullover?

Line up

I *might* have overindulged a little:












See that? That right there is Absolu. It's a fancy french angora that is from special bred bunnies. That is its NATURAL color. no dye.

It comes in this fancy box, with a certificate of fancy-ness. To certify it's origin, and what not.

I'm going to make myself a little cowl of luciousness. Out of this pattern here.

After a few rows of knitting, I can honestly say you should just go ahead and buy a skein. Even if you just keep it around for petting purposes.

Success!

Runcorn?

Done

I spent the rest the week working on facecloths for mom (as requested by mom).

She picked 2 colors of cotton for herself and 2 for someone else, I worked until I was out of fuzzy yarns. This yielded a *mere* 20 facecloths.

Lets just say I'm a little face-clothed out.
But! If you decide you want some, because they are apparently the bee's knees, heres what I did:

Supplies:
1 skein cotton of your choice (I used blue sky alpaca)
1 skein bernat pipsqueak, or other type chenille
Crochet hook, size Q(19)

Be sure both your skeins are machine washable!
Finished measurements: 8"x8"

make basic Single crochet square, using 2 yarns as 1.

if you don't know how to do this:

make slip knot, chain 12, turn, SC in each chain
*CH1 at end, turn, SC in each st across* repeat until desired size.

After this I did a SC border in the cotton only.

as an aside on the personal life: school is SOH busy. Aimee is a little crazy with the weather changing, and i could really use a time-turner from out of harry potter. If you happen to know where I could pick one of those bad boys up, holler please?

Education

Schools been rough, you'll have to bear with me through the rest of the semester as I probably won't have much time for knitting, or posting, or even sleeping...

If you read Lily, you know that last weekend I whipped up a little scarf for a buddy of ours.

But, what I most wanted to share with you, was this.

unattended Dogs and Alpaca Lace?

They don't play well together See the little white stringy stuff? No? Click to embiggen if you must...

Thats my alpaca lace...I'm off to destress via the detangle.

Whoops!

I've been blogging in my head all week...It just never made it to the publish phase.

I've been ferociously trying to catch up to Lily with the fronts of my Runcorn....I am now only 10 rows behind. Which I totally wouldn't be if I hadn't fallen asleep at 6 last night due to exhaustion of the homework kind. (everything's of a certain kind now, thank you Bessel equations)

I really really really want this to be done yesterday. Not because its bad, I really do love the knit. But because its finally starting to get cold and it's only so much fun to take the dog out if you don't have a selection of fun hand-knit sweaters to pick from.

Which means that I really need to finish up my damn  lovely Christmas knitting so I can get back to knitting myself sweaters.

I've finished some Christmas knitting, but as the person I knit for reads the blarg...well...I can't show you. But I can tell you its delightfully squishy and I'm jealous. I might have to make myself one too. oooo or maybe mittens...hmmmm....

I've also been furiously washing and spinning up some dog hair (EW) and alpaca so I can knit my dad a miniature of our dog for christmas. Let's just say that Aimee reallllly likes the smell of farm animal and leave it at that.

Birthday Wishes

My dearest little brother-


(okay so you aren't very little anymore. as proven by the pair of socks I have knit for your size 15 feet, but you'll always be my little, so just get over it.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I hope you have a marvelous day, welcome to 18. You have lots to look forward to!

I want you to know that I love you very much, even when you're being a total patoot, and I hope you enjoyed playing with miss aimee dog for your birthday. We give to you, on this day of bloggy goodness, this picture:

The next time high school gets you down, just remember, you could be somewhere worse....

And you're almost done!!!

I wish I could still reach your head to give you a noogie. And that you could still vacuum in my cinderella high heels. I know that was the only way you were tall enough to work it right. As someone who is now short, I totally get it.

PS- I'm sorry for all those times I beaded your hair. You're right, you're pretty without beads too. :-p

Le DONE!

My fingers are bleeding, I'm covered in glue and glitter, and I totally want to keep them.....

Mini Cupcake love...I can buy my sister a erm....a book! Yes! that will do!

Just kidding I'm mailing them in the morning, :-p.

Now, on to the next project.

Daily Butt(s)

I promised, and I shall now show you, CUPCAKE BUM!

Well, cupcake bottoms....

As a small, teensy tinsy, eeety bitty, warning to you all:

Before you get sucked in by the cuteness, and the desire to make some of these little boogers, you will be guaranteed to swear, have sore fingers, go cross eyed, want to throw things across the room, and give up more than once only to be right back at it 5 minutes later.

Don't deviate too much "below" recommended gauge.

That being said, in the book it suggests US size 1 needles, I used size 00000 (thats 1 mm)...

and embroidery floss. If you decide to go this route, BE SMART, use a spindle/stick/your fingers/a small child spinning to tighten up the weave on that crap or you will be in splitsville right quick...and it's not a pretty picture if that happens....

Now that you're all turned off (ahahaha, yeah right) of teeny tiny knitting, I give you....


CUPCAKE BOTTOMS (butts)

This is just funny because it looks like a bum when you smoosh them together....

Pencil for scale, in case the ruler didn't help you much.

Annnnd finally, this is how tall they are, without any other little smudging/perspective things.

Now...to work up the nerve to make some cupcake tops.

Keyrings

If you don't know this about me (and a lot of you don't), I'm really terrible at keeping gifts a secret once they are finished. If you want someone to be surprised about their birthday, you probably better just not tell me what you got them. OR, it has to be a scenario where knowing someone is getting you something would ruin the fact that you're getting something, then I can usually keep it under wraps. This is only true of gifts, I can keep other secrets well. Just...I get real excited!

on that note, I told Sam what his birthday present was, so now I can show you all. Observe, MINION!

I think he is totally adorable and I now desperately want one of my own....I just have to decide how worth it losing more skin off my finger is from the evils of a size 10 crochet hook. I would send you the pattern I used but I mostly just searched for "crochet minion" on google, and combined my favorite aspects of each and tweaked as necessary. The little eye is a button, because there is a limit to how much I'm willing to crochet, and if a button can be used for detail I'm going to use it!


On another not the Mini's continue....turns out the cupcakes I'm making are supposed to be about 1" in diameter...mines...maybe half that? I've finished a little cupcake butt (which I am saving for the next daily butt so just hold your horses) and I'm starting on the little cupcake topper. But it needs sprinkles, other than the sewn on variety. So you get to vote, should I knit in beads? or just use some fabric glue and glitter. Note that these are going to be earrings, so I'd like to keep the weight down so my sisters ears don't fall off.

I'm off to resume my quest for blindness! Let me know, beads? or glitter?

Mini's Abound!

I have gone a little mini crazy...mini mini mini. Keyrings, earrings, bracelets, etc etc etc.

I'd show you the newest creation, but it's someone birthday present, so you'll have to be a little patient, i.e. until I've mailed it...or something? for now I leave you with a daily butt:

What?!

My homework assignments are making me screech, and its only day 2 of the semester.

Aimee feels this way about it:

She put it lots of effort trying to help, and threw every toy she owns around the house, and now she's given up with a huge sigh. I wish I could join.


Suffice it to say, not much knitting happening.

Wandery Wander Wander

I don't have a whole lot exciting to say today....so I'll just share some randoms.

I have lots of birthdays coming up in September for which to knit. (both siblings and some friends) I have gotten a leeetel bit obsessed with teensy things, so I went out and bought me a copy of MochiMochi (thats the website, not the book, but you can search for MochiMochi on amazon and it pulls right up) and I'm visualizing a whole herd of tiny cupcakes, zombies, airplanes...etc etc etc. I might be blind soon.

I'm also having a leetel Monster Chunk party, as in I've already got about 800 planned, but I've only whipped up 1 (well, all but the butt of one, but his little googly eyes are drying).

(his feet are elsewhence)














I started a noro stripe scarf in not noro. (lion brand) methinks I might have to make another in more contrasty colors.

I also started my mom's alpaca scarf. It's squishy and lovely and I want to snuggle it...which is probably why I'm not making more progress than I have. It's the Irish Hiking Scarf Pattern, and its actually surprisingly simple to memorize.

I am now off to suffer through some Advanced Advanced Engineering Math homework. And perhaps take some advil for my lovely sprained ankle....

PS- I just found a fortune from a fortune cookie on the floor, guess what it says?
"Mental activity keeps you busy at this time"
How true...

Just a day

Lily has a blarg!

HERE

It has not taken off much yet, but I promise you will not be sorry if you hop over and get to know her.

Also, I've realized I need to get back on Christmas knitting....But I can't decide what to work on, so I'm ignoring it by working on some socks.

No pictures today, le sad. Things get busy when school gets ready to start (TUESDAY, EW!) and you have to clean your house.

Anyone knitting on anything fun? Have you all started your holiday crafting?

AHHH REAL MONSTERS!!

I was in need of some happy cuteness....

what do you think??

Rebecca Danger's MONSTER CHUNKS!

Daily Butt Guests

I'm having a guest blogger, he doesn't even know he's guest blogging!

But rather than give you my version of the daily butt, today you will be (If you dont already read him), perusing Franklin Habit's selection of daily butt's courtesy of his sheep Delores:

Franklin's Daily Butts

Mugs A Palooza

Lily and I were browsing one of the knitting magazines (I honestly can't remember, I think vogue? Interweave? who knows....) and found these little jewels.

YAY KNITTING MUGS! We whipped out our copies of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books and started making our own funny knitting mugs. All you need to make your own are some fun mugs, some ceramic pens, and an oven. (oh and some patience)

And you can get one of these little babies:

It's Aliiiiiiveeee

Sorry for being surprisingly and abruptly absent. It's been getting close to school starting again and I had a little mid-summer crisis involving a serious bout of lazy.

I have been VERY busy, and now that I have located das camera, I can show you all the goodies I've whipped up!

Also, Lily and I made some fabulous knitting mugs, which I will share with you tomorrow.

Observe the line of FO's:

The Blue Mini Mochi Scarf, pattern can be found here.

I used 2 skeins of  the Jenny Lake colorway.

 

The Grand Palais Shawl, observe dog butt, and lovely lace edging. I used Cascade Magnum (which I say in a echoy announcer voice). I would love to tell you how many skeins but I honestly have no clue. It was quick, easy, and fun. Except for the whole having to count your rows thing, which I hate beyond reason, and which is also why I knit most of my socks two at a time.

Speaking of socks....

These are for my brother, Sam, who has GIGANTIC FEET. Size 15's...GIGANTIC. These were done on size 6 needles using Dream in Color Classy. I dont know what color, because the ball band is MIA. But, to give you a size of scale, this is a standard piece of 8.5"x11" printer paper....and this sock has not been blocked/stretched to its full size.

After the little sock fiasco, which I love enough I am making a pair for myself....I whipped up a little cowl out of Lana Gato Camel Hair (LOVES LOVES LOVES) 1.5 skeins. (or 75 grams, whichever you prefer.) It's lovely, and I've been wearing it around the house with my pajamas. Pattern here

Also, Lily and I have been doing a mini KAL, and are making ourselves some super cute Runcorn Sweaters.

I found the sweater in an advertisement in one of the knitting magazines, and the pattern is free (here).

Finding the buttons for this little jewel has been an adventure, which I will share with you at a later date.

For now, I think you have all probably been overwhelmed by the fact that I have actually been doing things, so I'll leave you with that, and a promise to blog (hopefully) more often.

PS- Lily, Zachary, stop hounding me now, I've posted.

Eep!

Busy...

Was all excited to show you the progress on my scarf (what scarf?!) i cant find my camera. I have a ribbed scarf from mini mochi that I pulled out to finish...but alas I cannot share. Nor does it look like I'll be finishing any time soon. Le sad.

Got the yarn for Runcorn in today, itching to start, trying to finish previously mentioned scarf.

Since camera on fritz, I give you DAILY BUTT!

Go 2 minute posts!

ITS DONE

The beast is done...

It's stretched out pretty well there, and ended up being 10x14 ft.

Sorry for all the blog silence, I've been distracted by other things.
I've also finished my Grand Palais shawl and will show you it after I have blocked it out of it's strange oblong like shape.

I've started on some sockies for sam, and also bought the yarn for Stephen West's Daybreak. WOO! I'm excited!!

Circles!!!!!

Life's been a teensy bit hectic lately. Just when you think nothing else should be going wrong another ball drops. woops! This is what happens when you get too busy!

The beast is done, minus ends, and I've not had a chance to go home yet so, no pictures. Sorry, you'll have to be in suspense a little longer.

I have moved on to a new project. Last year, I knit up a sweater out of vogue knitting. I should have known it probably wouldn't go well when I 1)felt like the yarn was too itchy for a sweater, 2) realized that bulky yarn=bulky looking person and that it made even the twiggy-tastic model look a little chunky, 3) etc etc etc. There were lots of reasons it shouldn't work but I went ahead and made the stupid thing anyways.

I finished the whole thing, blocked it, put it on, and one sleeve didn't fit. Like, at all. As in, my left arm (the smaller diameter arm, as I am right handed) WOULD NOT go through the arm hole. WTF?! Which seems...well impossible since I knit them both at the same time and did exactly the same thing and they looked/measured identically when blocked. So I tore it out, edited it, quadruple checked it, measured the arm hole, the sleeve, etc etc etc...and reassembled. Still no beans....

So, since I was getting ready to go on a little diet, I put the sweater away in the closet until I'd lost a few arm-inches and figured I'd move on with my life. Last week I pulled it out, and *mini party* it fit. Except it itched like the dickens. So I blocked it again, conditionerd it, tried it on with a shirt underneath. Turns out you can't hide your neck from itchy wool. Plus it made me look...slightly large-ish is putting it nicely...not like I wanted.

So since it wasn't flattering, and I wasn't loving it, and there is no point in keeping the stupid thing if I'm not going to wear it, I decided it had to go.

But why waste all that yarns?!?!?!

So this (Aimee's helping)

Has been pulled out, completely frogged, and is sitting in lovely little balls of blue-goodness (I have a thing for blue, if you couldn't tell) in the floor, becoming one of these:

Tanis Gray's Grand Palais Shawl, out of the Fall '11 Knit Scene. I think it will be lovely. Especially since I know it will fit. :)

If it's too itchy for me, I may end up putting it in the "Gift Basket" (a basket of things I wanted to make but know I will never wear, that get saved for occasions when I need a gift).

So far it's been a quick knit. You whip up the center, then put a lace border down one side, and applied i-cord down the other. I've finished the center and am on repeat 4 of 23 of the lace border. I'd show you a photo but the camera-gnomes have taken over my house again, and so the camera is M.I.A. (this is becoming standard procedure)

As far as tour-de-fleece goes, I plan to get back on that wagon tomorrow....probably...

I've lost some steam on the spinning train. I think it has something to do with the air-conditioning in my apartment sucking, and mixing 95°F temp. with fluffies and a fan=interesting things. I've gotten the AC fixed and *hopefully* things will be good again for the spinning.

Hope you're all doing well. What sort of things are you working on?!

dead?

the beast...is done...except for the ends.


It weighs 20 lbs. (9.07 kg).

I think enough has been said.

I'd show you a photo, but 1)my fingers are sore, 2) theres no place large enough in my crappartment to display it, and 3) i'd like to weave the ends in first, which will probably be done at my parents house, so I can spread out and see them all.

soh
tired.

maybe I'll go knit some lace...

Mooowhahahahahaha

The beast has grown my dears. It really has. The border? Look over in the little side tab at that progress!

OVER HALFWAY THERE!!! SQUEEEE....

I know, I know, stop taunting you, and freaking show it off already!

Here's a little peek:

Just for you. :)

No spinning today, on account of the evils of apartment living and the lure of the blanket-monster.

I'm going to go see if I cant get a little further on this bad boy before bed.

A break from the yarns

Tour de fleece continues, as does the beast. I am spinning some wonderful lovely goodies, which I will share with you all...tomorrow.

For today, I would like to take some time to say Happy Birthday to my bestest best person, and dedicated reader, Lillian. This is for allll those times I heard "HEY, have you blogged yet?", "Hey dude, it's time for class", "dude wake up, class is over", "do you want me to bring you coffee today?", "what are you knitting on?", and "GAH".

Also, I hope you're a tidgen embarassed, we're still not even after that whole shove me in a snowdrift thing. Just, you know, so you know.

Happy 23. Love you! May this year be more wonderful than the last. (Also, aren't you glad you aren't puking up your guts during field session?)

Also, I hope you got your lace blocking wires. If not, tell Abby I say she sucks, and also let me know, I will find you some. :P

Special for you, a daily butt:

And the rest of you guys thought I'd leave out yarn completely. PSH!

Now I remember...

why I am not an athlete.

Tour de fleece is whupping my butt.  But I have managed, with a modicum of patience remaining, to finish up my *first* 3 ply....

 The first is the best color, the second the best texture, and the third, a pile of lovely sqooshy-ness soaking and waiting to be dried, twisted into lovely skeins, and thrown on the pile of finished goodies.







5.8 oz of lovely electric blue goodness.....mmmm..

I was really squashing it onto the bobbin there at the end so I didn't have to find one that was empty.

I may have blisters.

Vacation? Oh yes, it was lovely, I'm sorry I'm a little focused on the fiber right now. The beast progresseth. For those of you who asked, it's apprioximately 10 feet x 12 feet (3.3 yd x 4 yd). So, big-ish?

The new crochet hook is very much helping.

I would regale you with tales of what I am working on but zach allowed me to cram the car full of beastly blanket and I just worked on it for the entire 12 hour drive. It was lovely. I made very little progress, but every bit helps at this point.

I also went to a lovely yarn store, which I will tell you about tomorrow(ish) evening.

Glad you all enjoyed the bums! They will continue, I promise. :)

Another Edition of!

The Daily Butt:

Tomorrow, we should be back to your regularly scheduled blog.