Wanna See Something Cute?

Hehehe, we caught this little guy and my son just thinks he's hilarious! We did release him (a long way away) after taking this video.

One Christmas Present - Done! - Updated!

My husband's niece has become a princess, apparently; so I had to get crafty and make sure she has the proper equipment!

(My son is modelling. He likes it too, and she's just a year older than him AND she's petite, so I think it will be a good fit).







The crown pattern used to be one of the free patterns listed on Interweave Knits, but I can't find it to link to it now. Sorry! If it makes you feel any better, the pattern only covered the actual knitting. I worked out the bead and ribbon embellishments.

**Update** Apparently the website for this pattern was only temporarily unavailable and when I looked today I found it. Although the link was broken and I had to cobble the correct link together by comparing it to a working link for a different pattern. http://www.interweaveknits.com/freepatterns/pdf/sum_06/Make_Believe_Crowns.pdf

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Good luck with all your Christmas projects everyone!!

Mushroom Hat

I made a hat out of some heavy handspun (straight off a washed fleece). I was trying to follow a pattern but it was apparent within the first few lines that the pattern was really really wrong and would definitely not yield the pictured hat. So I kind of winged it from there.

It is hard to get pictures of cables in black yarn when you can't use flash. Sorry!

My Favorite Design For Longies

My favorite longies pattern that I've come up with so far. Behold, army/harem pants. I guess these are army pants, since he's a boy and the pants look kind of camouflaged.
;^)







I made them super roomy in the butt and leg length, but decreased stitches and used ribbing to keep the legs from dragging on the floor when he walks. When he's standing up the fold on the legs just barely misses touching the floor.

And apparently I have taught him my dependence on yarn. He can't get to sleep without it. ;^)

Barbie's New Dress

....and new attitude.






It's quite a change, huh?


I got this idea while taking the luxury bath (husbando took the baby so I could bathe without hearing screaming or having to hurry because el husbando was late for work, etc). I wanted to punk/goth out the barbie. I really wanted to paint her so it would be permanent, but now I'm thinking that makeup really is the better idea because I am awful at getting the black where I want it to go! And I can change it out later.

But I do feel really brilliant for coming up with the jewelry. I kinda wish I had made her hoops even bigger (they're molded around US #10's).

Also, that's not my desk, it is the man's desk. My desk is relatively clean, as far as horizontal surfaces go in this household. I left Barbie there to greet husbando when he returned from his warhammer game (where he used my dicebag! Ha!).

Dicebag

Well, the title pretty much says it all. This one passed the inspection.
;^)













I love this yarn, it was so much fun to work with and I used big needles (for the yarn, not big in and of themselves) so the bag has lots of drape.

I made the cord and tassels and I can give a tutorial if anyone wants to know how to make neat and quick tassels. They look better when they're tied with contrasting yarn but I had already made them before I remembered that.

Before & After Felted Bag

I finally did it. I made a felted bag. Initially I pretended I was making the dicebag my husband asked for, but we both realized that was a joke once I finished felting it.

He was telling me that it was going to be too big all along.

Outside


Inside



So then I felted it. It didn't get small enough on the warm cycle. I switched to hot. That really did the trick. I sewed up the bottom corners, and....







Voila!!



A bag that my son thinks is a hat.

Socktober Socks (Finally)

They're pretty, warm and I love to wear them all the time. And I took way too many pictures. :^)

I really did finish on November 1st. I think it still counts.

I Sold Them!!

Woo-hooooooooo!
I sold all the stitch markers to my LYS. I took the owner's advice for making more variety and for packaging them, and she agreed to buy them all!

This picture has my first packaging attempts, but I made some more sets and improved the packaging. Of course I completely forgot to take any more pictures. >}^P



If you live in the local area, go ask for some beaded stitch markers at Shuttles, Needles, & Hooks in Cary, NC. Please? <8^D

I've been making stuff. And I finished the socks. I've just been too lazy to clean up the pics and post.

Soon, I promise. (I know, famous last words).

Happy Halloween!

Since we went to a party on Saturday, I can give you lots of pictures! And if you're on dial-up.... uh, you might want to go get a coffee or something.

Plus, A Contest! To be explained after the pics.

Also, I have not quite finished the socks. But they're really close.


On to the pics!

Happy Family


Hey, weren't you expecting a package?


Hiya!


Where's the candy!?







Ha, the real party is upstairs with the snakes. Later losers!


Yo snakes, what's up?




I miss the snakes.


It really was a party, but there's too many pics to show here. Plus it was Rocky Horror themed for a lot of the people and I wasn't sure if they would want that many pics on my blog. You know, since they were pretty much naked.


Columbia is quite nice in person. ;^)


Is it just me or does he look really happy?


Did I mention we played Twister?


I'm not all that good at it.


I'm leaving.


CONTEST
Do you know who I was? First person to guess correctly in a comment will get something from me. Probably some yarn. Maybe handspun. ;^)

Socks and Answers

I know that there are some questions associated with Socktoberfest, but I've only really made a few pairs of socks and all really recently. So, I'm going to post my quest for the best way to make socks.

My first pair of socks were the Bigfoot socks (pattern in the sidebar) for my husband, but since they're just house socks I don't really consider them quite the same. I used double points and did one sock at a time. They were top-down with a flap-style heel. First Socks.

My next pair, in the same manner and for socks not quite as thick but still thick enough that they skirted some of the fiddliness of "real" socks, was Thuja (from Knitty) for my mother. Same as before, I used double points and did them one at a time, also top-down and flap-style heel. Mama's Socks.

I made some yoga socks (link to pattern in sidebar) and did these also one at a time. This felt a little more like real socks, with sock yarn on small needles but since they had neither toe nor heel it still wasn't the same. My Yoga Socks.

Then I made some socks on US#1's, using some knitpicks sock yarn and the two socks on two circulars. These were toe-up with a short-row heel with Elann's Pattern (I used Japanese short rows because I like them a lot). It felt like it took forever. My crappy and short circulars didn't help any, I'm sure, but it felt like I was forcing myself to knit on this project.... My Socks.

I bought the set of sock dpn's at A.C. Moore. And I pulled out my Trekking that I splurged on (14$ for anything less than 100 grams of yarn is definitely splurging for me!) And I set out to try nifty double-knit style of knitting socks that was in the Knitty article, using the same toe-up pattern from elann.

I went for about 3/4 of a row (and I didn't screw it up!). It was neat, but even slower than 2 circulars. I couldn't do it mindlessly, and for all the stockinette that a pair of socks requires... well I needed to be able to do it without thinking too hard or doing finger gymnastics. I separated out the socks and observed to myself that I have 9 US#1 dpn's. Enough for two socks and one needle to work them. I work off one needle on one sock, then switch to the other sock.

It is wonderful. I have definitely found my sock style.
I feel like I am really celebrating Socktoberfest while I'm making these.





P.S.- Those aren't my initials. My nice SIL made this for me, but since she wasn't able to come to my wedding and it has never come up in conversation...well, she thinks I took on my husband's last name. I like the bag way too much to care about the typo.

The Last UFO

The last UFO, that I finally finished a week or so ago and forgot to post, is my wrap. I did the knitting well enough but my design could have been a smidge nicer.

In short, I wish it were narrower and longer but I still love it just the way it is.


Ta-da!



Close-up of the fern pattern:


Okay, I feel better now. :^)

Count Me In This Time!

Socktoberfest! My dry (UFO-less) period is over at last. I cast on for a pair of socks yesterday and then thought, "Hey, it's October! I can do Socktoberfest!"

The button will take you to LollyGirl's blog, and she has the info for Socktoberfest underneath its button in the sidebar.

I Made A Chair! (Edited to add More Cuteness)!

I finally finished sewing the chair for my boy. He lounged on it as soon as I brought it out for his approval. :^)

You've gotta see it.









******ETA 10/07/2006 - More Cuteness! ******

This one also has a shot of the towel I knitted. It's not very absorbent (thanks, stupid acrylic!) but it makes a very serviceable blankie.


Yes my friends, I tried to get him to play Gauntlet with me once. It didn't work very well for obvious reasons, but he did manage to do a little and he now grabs his controller every single time we charge up the machine. In this picture all I did was put a music cd in the dvd player...hehehe. He isn't allowed to get the wavebirds (cordless controllers) out of the drawer, but he knows the corded one is kept out just for him. Even if it's not plugged into anything.


************End of Edit**************


It continues to slump around (an effect of the pattern and not my fault for once)..... but that could be due in part to the fact that adults can't seem to help themselves from wallowing in the chair too.

Think you can save money making a fancy chair instead of buying one? The fabric was a remnant (half off) and I still ended up spending about 70 smackers. It was nearly 20 bucks just to buy enough stuffing for the thing.

I'm in love with the fabric though. The whole time I was thinking, "I could make clothes for me out of this." But I couldn't have justified (even the half off) price of this cloth for merely covering my nakedness. That kid better take the chair to college with him.

P.S.: Cut-to-order zippers and the hardware to work with them suck. Next time I'll just buy two or three zippers that actually zip when you pull the toggle.