Presents Galore

There has been a ton of present crafting around here as of late. I am only posting two, because they're the only ones that have been gifted and I have taken pictures of.

Two ladies in the knitting circle had birthdays this weekend.

Christine plays tennis and knits, so I found a cute tennis charm and made some stitch markers.



It's hard to tell, but the beads in the middle have little flowers on them.

Jen is a chemical engineer who loves her coffee, so the Hypercaffeinated Coffee Cozy by Chemknits is pretty much perfect.



I think they both liked their gifts, hopefully they'll be useful. Dinner was fun, except there are now pictures floating around of me trying to stick my tongue in Brenda's ear.

I have to get some decent pictures of the Arrrgyle socks, but Nerdy Husband and I have been so busy, it's hard to get us in the same place while it's daylight, and I really want to get the pictures done right. He has been wearing them though!

1 Up, Version 2

Meanwhile, in other podcast-y news, Jackie from the Kiping It Real podcast recently asked for test knitters for a pattern for a 1 up mushroom from Mario. I immediately volunteered because:

1). Her pink version was incredibly cute.
2). I already have the yarn, leftover from the a previous Mario mushroom.
3). There is always room for more video game decor in our house.

The pattern was deceptively simple and very quick. It is held up on the inside with some plastic canvas (handy stuff). And the results? Well, I think this picture says it better than I could:



This little guy has personality. Looking at my photos, it looks like he has moods, too. Now, he lives in our office, hanging out with a PS2 and our old gaming PC. It's the land of obsolete games. I think he looks happy though.



In the next week: clubs, a trip to stitches, and somehow I'm training for a triathlon.

Mini Post for a Mini Project

A small post for a small project.



I had heard of the mittens worn by the Canadian Olympic team. There are even knitting patterns. Then, I heard about knitting patterns for mini mittens. Even cuter. And realistic to knit before the games. So I thought of Brenda, who is a big fan of the Olympics, and who was hosting our Ravelympics Cast On party, because she is awesome! (All of the ladies in our group are awesome!)

Anyways, I looked at patterns on Ravelry, and finally picked Pink Argyle's Mini Mittens pattern. Then I embroidered the Olympic rings. I skipped the Maple Leaf, because Brenda supports Team USA. Attached with some icord and viola!

The result is a very cute and very versatile little ornament.

It can hang on a purse or knitting bag



or dangle from your rearview mirror.



I then promptly forgot to give them to Brenda at the party. And the next three times we saw each other. She got them just a few days before the Olympics ended.

Ravelympics Success

I have been away from the blog because I have been **gasp** knitting! It was that time, when fiber people the world over show their dedication and skill. The Ravelympics!

And unlike last year, I decided to set a reasonable goal. Then, once I met it, set some outrageous goals.

First, I tackled the Hat Heel Socks, with an entrelac leg based on the Annetrelac Socks. A few of the ladies from our knitting circle were doing the pattern, and you know I'm a sucker for new construction.



The came out great.



And only took 8 days. Project page

So, I started setting out more goals.

First I set out ripping out a sample of some handspun, that's being gifted to a friend.





That was simple enough, done in one afternoon. Here's that project page and stash page.



Then, I set my sights too high.

I decided to tackle the Arrgyle socks that I have been making my husband since January. Of 2008. Most of that time I have been hiding them in a deep dark corner of the craft room and tried to forget about them. It has been a long, hard slog. But I did make a lot of progress. All of the hard stuff is done.



All I have left is the stockinette foot.

So, I am going to say that I am very proud of myself. I got much more knitting done that I normally do. Which is good, because I am getting ready to start really digging in for my next exam.

More Adventures with Bacon - And what I did over Christmas break

Time to take a little trip down memory lane, in order to bring you another bacon story, with some actual crafting content.

Every year, our knitting circle has a Secret Santa swap, and a big Christmas shin dig. Last year, Laura made Pigs in a Pig, and they were a huge hit.

If you haven't had the opportunity to try them, Pigs in a Pig are pigs in a blanket, with bacon instead of biscuit. Wrap a Lil Smokies sausage in bacon, and roll that in brown sugar and spices, and bake. Delicious! If you don't like the sausages, you can use small pieces of chicken instead, and pretend that it's healthy.

Laura has since moved away, but it was decided we needed to still have the Pigs in a Pic, even though they didn't fit with our theme of Taco Night. I volunteered to give it a shot. It gave me a chance to experiment with bacon, and I may or may not have made a test batch for dinner one night.

At the party, there was sooo much good food. Taco night was an awesome idea, so everyone could eat what they wanted.

We had a great time. Charlotte hosted, (thank you!) and we ate and chatted and had our swap.

My swappee was Kelly. She knits socks, and asked for yarn, so she got some yarn from Hanks, and a matching project bag. And chocolate.



The bag was one of my simple project bags. With a twisted cord of cotton yarn, which didn't turn out to be the best closure. I also need to upgrade my pattern to a nicer bag, with boxed corners. But it's functional.



Jodi was my Santa, and she got me some awesome sock yarn, and the cutest Mr. Man buttons. There were some awesome gifts, and I think everyone was very happy with the swap this year, organized by the talented and infamous Bad Jen.

I really love these crazy events with our knitting circle, every so often. It was such a fun time!

Christmas Crafting

Yes, I know it's late. I've been busy recently, to say the least.

I have been pretty productive with crafting though.

Even though I swore I wouldn't I did do some Christmas crafting. Since I had not planned any gifts, they were all really last minute.

This year, Christmas was with the inlaws. Nerdy Husband's mom got a Snappy Hat from Picnic Knits. It was definitely fast, made in less than a week. Corrina is a very talented designer, and a fun person to be around.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the hat, but I used this: Aracunia Azapa, a wool, silk, mohair blend.



During Christmas, I finished three things:



A doily for my grandmother

It is actually a bit big, but I'm sure she'll love it anyways. Haven't had a chance to get it to her yet.





This is a crocheted grocery sack for my mom. My family uses them. The yarn for this was actually given to me by my mom, so this bag has been recycled in more ways than one.

Sorry for the awful picture. Apparently the spinning wheel isn't a very good model.







An Everlasting Bagstopper for Katie (future sister-in-law). Her favorite color is yellow, hence the yellow stripe. She is so sweet, she seemed to really like it, and I think she will really use it (as a tote bag), so she is definitely on the "knit-worthy" list for the future.

That's all for now. Next week (or whenever)- stash toss and I clean my room...

How have I not posted this yet



I got a wheel for my birthday!

It's a Kromski Sonata, that comes with its own backpack



Indy is mistrustful, afraid I'd forsake him for my new toy. He has no need to worry. I've spun less than an ounce on it since I got it in October. Not that I don't want to, but I just haven't had the time, I'm focusing on Christmas knitting.

I did spin this



It's thick and thin like crazy, slubby, and overspun in some parts, and very pretty in its own way. Especially after I dyed it



and knitted it into this



It's part of a pound of plain domestic wool I got from Webs, just to practice. I have a bunch of pretty fiber from plenty of sources, but I feel like I wouldn't do it justice if I spun it now.

I do have some plans though, more spinning to come!

Success at Crafting or Fail at Blogging

Either I've been very productive at crafting, or slacking at blogging. I'll let you guess which. I'll just list them here, more details can be found on my Ravelry page, or you can leave me a note. Here goes:

I failed massively at designing baby booties.



Then I made up for it with some Ruffle Rib Baby Socks (Knitting Daily Pattern), which were gifted to someone at work. The color is very Jaguars.



Crocheted some Fun Fur Flip Flops for Donna, breaking the promise I made to myself never to do that, but she really wanted them.



I knit a few inches on a charity blanket for the Stitch It podcast.



And, only 10 months late, I delivered the last of last year's Christmas gifts. Gloves for my Dad. These are my own design, based off of instructions in a back issue of Interweave Knits.





I made an Umbilical Cord hat (from S n' B, which I got from my bro for my birthday) for the baby girl my cousin is expecting. Indy was then subjected to a long session of modeling it, due to a lack of anything else with a head small enough to model it. It started off okay



but after two whole minutes of trying to get him to look at the camera and sit still at the same time, Indy looked like



Some Monkey socks. How did I get to make something for me?



I've also finished my Lady February, and have another cute little kid hat that needs a little needle felting.

Two Tropical Storms and Ravelympics Wrap Up

I've been a bit busy the past two weeks. After the last post, one might think that I've been off creating. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Life has gotten in the way.

I've weathered a tropical storm and bits of a hurricane. First, Tropical Storm Fay slammed our fair city with buckets of rain and plenty of wind. Two days off of work were spent in my pajamas, mostly sleeping and reading.

Last weekend my family and I headed to the Keys for some snorkeling. Unfortunately, Gustave brushed close enough that the waters weren't clear. Even more unfortunately, we didn't find out how murky the water was till we had taken a boat tour into the ocean, through a squall. It was a rough ride, and a few times out there we caught enough air to scare even the seasoned sea-goers. I am not a big fan of being on the ocean, and I'm still not sure how my family managed to get me to go out on a boat during a hurricane.

Other than that, the trip was a lot of fun. There was a little rain, we've all lived in Florida long enough to not let that bother us. We got to feed the Tarpon at Robbie's, which is great fun even if you're not a fish fan. Beware of the pelicans though, because they're even more aggressive than the ducks in my neighborhood. They will try to take the fish right out of your hand.

In other news, Ravlympics is over. I made a pretty good start on the Curve of Pursuit.



It's probably about 25% done or so, which is how much I could realistically hope to get done. We'll call that a success!

Cat Bordhi + Cast On Podcast + Caffeine = Inspiration

It's been an interesting day.

When I went to work this morning, I had a killer headache, so I took some medicine. Medicine with about as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.

This was a risk, as I am very sensitive to caffeine. If I eat too many m&m's, I will get a caffeine buzz for a little while, then get tired, restless and be unable to relax.

To help me feel better, and since I'm lucky enough to be able to listen to music at work, I turned on the new episode of Cast On. And Cat Bordhi was the guest. If Cat Bordhi is the mad scientist of knitting design, then Brenda Dayne is the Kung Fu master of podcasting.

With this perfect storm of energizing forces and creative genius, I had quite the rush of designing inspiration at work. A few new design ideas came to me, and I had a couple of break throughs in some of the older ideas I've had bouncing in my head.

I couldn't justify sketching at the office, let alone play with yarn. Believe it or not, I was actively working. Frustrating!

And even if I could have sketched, I don't have an organized way to keep track of these ideas. Even more frustrating!

So I'm starting a design journal.

And yes, I'm talking about designing, which isn't something I've ever really talked about here. Recently I've been almost exclusively using other people's patterns, perhaps playing with yarn choices. But I would like to start designing more of my own projects. They may not necessarily be published, but if they are, I have some ideas, especially for online publishing. Think of a sweater pattern in a worksheet, where you input your gauge and desired dimensions, and customized instructions are automatically calculated. No math or spreadsheet prowess necessary. If you can type in a few numbers, and hit print, you have your very own custom pattern.

Also, I've been making progress on the Ravelympics project.



This is how it looks right now. I'm not going to post every day's progress picture, because they all look pretty similar. They can be seen at my Flickr page

This energy has made me overly optimistic about what I can accomplish this evening. My to do list is ridiculous! I just hope I don't crash.

More Ravelypic Progress

It's not yet afghan sized, but it's getting there.

Day 2



Day 3



As you can see, Indy clearly approves.

Starting the Ravlympics

Here are the results of day one of my Ravelympics project.



I didn't take a picture on 8/8/08 because I didn't get home till midnight that night, and I was dead tired. We knitters know how to party.

I've found that, for now, this project is relatively portable. I'm sure once it gets bigger that will change.

Getting Ready for Knitting Olympics

This year for our anniversary, Nerdy Husband and I decided to get ourselves presents. He got a Playstation 3. I got these



I ordered the swift and ball winder online from Hank's in Gainesville, and on the day it arrived, I walked in to find this.



It was wrapped in Christmas-y gift wrap and came with a very funny card. It just got better. When I unwrapped it, I found a note written on the side from the awesome ladies at the yarn store.



A ball winder and swift. Good thing too, because I had to wind all this.



into this




That's 24 different shades of Cascade 220. What am I going to do with it? I'm basically copying Brouhaha's Curve of Pursuit. It's gorgeous, and my afghan is as much inspired by her work as it from the pattern from Wooly Thoughts.

That being said, no, I'm not going to knit an entire afghan in 17 days. My goals are to knit every day (which I normally don't do) and make an average of 1 square a day, or 17 squares total over the course of the games. I also want to take a picture of my progress every day.

Although I think I may be crazy to knit a worsted weight 100% wool afghan in August in Florida.

Catch Up Post: Random Baby Gifts

So, in early spring this year, there was a small baby boom in the people around me. People at work, ladies at the knitting group, and even our neighbors were popping out babies. Must be something in the water.

Of course, these new arrivals mean: baby gifts. I made a few.

First, three different burp cloths. The pattern is the Baby Genius Burp Cloth, from Mason Dixon Knitting. The yarn is various shades of Peaches n Cream. I used size 4 needles to get a really tight fabric. These are very pretty and absorbent.







Next, some booties.

The "Free Baby Mary Jane" pattern by Lucie worked in Lane Cervina Madrid Solid gives these







So cute and interesting construction.

I also used the Jimmy's Baby Bootie Set pattern, and the same yarn, to make these.



Also cute, but in my opinion this yarn has a bit too much definition for the pattern. It looks a little wonky.

And lastly, a Baby Bib o' Love (again from Mason Dixon Knitting, and in Peaches n' Cream).



I paired up these gifts (everyone got two), and got some takeout containers from Micheals.

This set went to Deborah from the knitting group (recipient of Super Secret Project #2) who had a baby around Easter time.



These booties (and the pink burp cloth) went to our neighbor. I don't know what colors they like, so I just went with lots of color.



That table is our dining room table. Can you tell that this was during exam season? I wish I could say it wasn't always covered by study materials and/or my sewing machine.

And, for this last set I had no cute takeout container, but I did have a model help me out.



Don't be too hard on Indy, he was having a bad face day. I only did this because he kept getting into the pictures I was trying to take. clicky

In other news, May 19th was a pretty lucky day for me, I passed my exam! Which is good because that one's done, but bad because I have to start studying for my next one, which is a bitch.