Saturday, December 23, 2006

YAY YAY!

YES! I finished mom's shawl and dad's hat--which they've claimed now is a Christmas present. But they've both already taken their gifts, giving me no chance to wrap them up! I haven't photographed them either but I will in the next few days. I haven't finished the present for Rachel yet but that won't take TOO long I hope. Again, pictures will come!... that's what I'm telling myself anyway.

Christmas knitting... nearing the end.

I've finished knitting mom's shawl but haven't blocked it or woven in the ends yet. Likewise, Dad's hat. Basically, I've done the fun and easy parts of my Christmas gifts and need to really focus on how much I love the recipients in order to finish them... ugh. And I've been hit by S.A.D. it seems. Just the past few days. It's unpleasant. Maybe tomorrow I'll try some light therapy.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

one more row... ?

I know I don't post nearly often enough and I'm going to try to fix that (easier now that October's past! Like that was ever a good enough excuse).
Anyway, when kntiting in the round, there's no end of row to stop at. So I've continued knitting long after I SHOULD have gone to bed and I just can't put it down. I think, "Oh, just a bit more." and I've thought that like ten times and you know, there's always more to knit! Urg, frustrating!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

hats and cats

I'm such a terrible person for never updating this thing! Anyway, I joined the Happy Hooker Crochet-along and I've made two hats. This is the "Boy Beanie" but I made it for myself. And I haven't taken care of that last bit of yarn poking out there.
And this is the "Anarchy Irony Hat" that I'm not thrilled with but whatever.



And also I wanna post some kitties because I love them.
Here are Timothy and Banzai having some territory issues over the desk near the computers...

This is Timothy. He likes to hang off the edge, just to show how casual he is.


This is Timothy in one of my favorite poses. He looks like a frog.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

finished things


Here's Rachel wearing the Anarchy Irony hat from The Happy Hooker. I finished the hat part last night, but then had issues with the anarchy sign. I ended up just freehand surface crocheting that part on. I think it's crappy but acceptable. Turns out I'm a very loose hooker. The pattern called for a size J hook, and to match gauge with my Simply Soft yarn, I had to use a size G. I found this hard to believe. I thought I must be wrong in the way I checked gauge, or something. So I read the instructions again, checked again, had to keep going down in hook size... weird. So for the first time in my life I'll have to learn to tighten up rather than hang loose. Damn you, crochet! You've flipped my world inside out!

I also finished my left armwarmer and the stripes don't match up with the right one but that's okay with me. And of course they're finished just in time for me to not need anything even remotely warm for at least half a year.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

I'm updated! Oh boy!

This scarf is meant to be shaped like a fish. In retrospect, I should have continued the shaping more because right now it looks like a giant necktie. I plan to add some fins and eyes to make it look more fishy. It was just gonna be a plain old scarf, knitted garter stitch from some Yarn Bee Italia (100% nylon and 100% so soft!), but after I started the colors reminded me of koi. So it's a plain old garter stitch knitted scarf with some shaping to make it look like a tail and head. A little.

Here's my right armwarmer, which has been finished for a few days now. It's made of Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in Stormy (I think that's the name of the color), #6 DPNs, and the worksheet from the Snowball's chance in Hell armwarmers from the Anticraft.
Its mate is still in progress, but I'm actually working on it. Honest.






I've also been learning to crochet, and my first FO was a square for Warm Up America, which is boring so I'm not posting it and my second is also kinda boring but I consider it a HUGE success:
It was really simple to make, mostly just chaining and slip stitching. The pattern came from JPF Crochet Club, and more specifically, from http://www.jpfun.com/patterns/14misc/spidercattoy.shtml
So anyway, it was successful in that Banzai chased it down the stairs tonight, and we played with him with it in the kitchen and in the living room, and a jolly old time was had by all, then he went and took a rest by the door and Cutie, the Grumpy Old Man cat, who's 17 and a half in human years and like a million in cat years, came and played too! He batted at it and caught it in his paw and bit at it... It made my heart so happy! And for such an old cat, it was a lot of playing. Anyway, I'm happy, so happy. Gonna go now. And I really do intend to update this thing a lot more often... I'm just so bad at it.

Friday, February 24, 2006

bitter

No pictures.
Go cry about it.
I almost cried about it last night when I was happily knitting along on a sweater made of Lion Brand Homespun because darn it, I'm going to use that stuff up. I had my Denise circulars and things were just great till SNAP. Cable broke. Missed Arakawa's skating. I call this "Stitch and sonofabitch". So I had to do stuff to save the sweater and after that I felt pretty completely disheartened. And I don't even care about the olympics, I mostly do it because it's a way to hang out and socialize with mom and dad, so I'm not THAT bummed about having missed a figure skater, except she turned out to be the gold medalist. The fuels my theory that me watching is bad luck.
But that's beside the point.

I hate that yarn reviews, projects, everything everywhere is wool, wool, wool. Okay! FINE! I get that it's BETTER than the stuff I'm not deathly allergic to. I'm gonna cry about that too. Knitting world can kiss my aspartame.

So current knitting projects are:
1) get new cable for Denise Interchangeables.
2) Do that other crap I've been meaning to do.
The problem is I just don't FEEL like it anymore. Why bother? Plus I've noticed myself being too AR about my knitting. That's fine. I'm like that. But the reason I loved it when I started is because I'd make mistakes and that was OKAY. I could accept that I'm not perfect, I'm just a beginner. That's gone now and I don't know why.

It might be because of those overachieving knitters who start knitting one day and the next day they've created a custom sweater and have sold it for big bucks. I hate those people. Because YES, I'm jealous. FINE. Shut UP.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Thursday, January 26, 2006

WAAAAAY overdue (bonus: crappy layout!)

Headline NewsI made the "Headline News" Cabled newsboy cap from Stitch n Bitch Nation (which I got for Christmas) using some pretty and soft-feeling red yarn and lo, when I put it on it was like no time at all before my face got just ALL itchy and turned around the hairline. So I washed it and after that, the same thing happened. Clearly, wool + my face don't mix.
That hat found a home with someone at church, and I re-made it using some Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Red. It's lovely and I wear it all the time. I plan to make another, probably in black.
Eden hat

This is a hat for Rachel made from Moda Dea Eden and using the only knitting pattern that they even HAVE for it on the website.
It isn't done yet; I still need to weave in ends and make the pompoms and the scarf to match, since I had to order more yarn of the "Apple" color for it. But Rachel wanted to wear it anyway. She's super awesome.


The Sweater. I'm determined to use this homespun! I'm doing it as a top-down raglan this time, so there are no seams, HOORAY! I still think it's pretty, if a little MUCH as far as number of colors per inch.








This is half a pair of "Warmer World Wristers" that I made both at the same time using the pattern from the Knitting Pattern-a-day calendar. I'd show both, but I needed one hand to take a picture and it's not like they don't look the same. They're made in Wool-ease. It itches a little. Maybe if I wash them that'll stop, or maybe I'm just that allergic to wool.