Jelly Roll Race Quilt!

I broke in my sewing machine!

I've been obsessed with this pin for a few weeks. It seemed easy enough- buy a Jelly Roll (precut quilting pieces measuring 2.5" by 44"), sew ends together to make a long strip, fold strip in half & sew down the long edge, repeat fold/sew a few times & voila! Quilt top!

I headed to Fabric.com in search of a Jelly Roll that would make a good quilt for the soldier. I'm headed up north to visit him in a couple weeks and needed a housewarming present. He's very encouraging of me & my crafty ways. Plus, his mom is a seamstress, so a quick quilt seems like a great idea. I searched and fell in love with Bali Pops Blueberry.

I got it a couple days ago and in the few hours I wasn't at the hospital visiting my aunt, I made this:

Not too shabby! Now I just need to get some batting & backing fabric from Joann's tomorrow. I thought about doing a "frame" kinda thing around it to make it bigger, but it's a pretty decent size so I think it's fine. Not like Queen size, but a good wrap-around-yourself-on-the-couch size. 

Yay! What have you been making lately? Any quilt finishing tips for me?

Yarn Along: Nipple-y Hat

Joining Ginny again!

I just finished reading Rachael Herron's group of essays, A Life in Stitches. I. Loved. It. Rachael is funny, smart, lovely and her stories are inspiring and heartbreaking. I was so into it that as she spoke of different knits she's made, I ran to Ravelry to stalk her project page and see for myself what she made. When she talked about wrapping her arm around her ailing mother I sobbed uncontrollably. It was beautiful.

Now that hat.... It might look done and, yes, technically it is since I've bound off. The yarn is "Orange" by Pierrot Yarns in the Pink/Beige colorway. I didn't actually pick the color. This came in a surprise value pack I bought a couple years ago. I'm really hating the beige in there. 

Plus.... there's this:

The beige with the pink i-cord... am I the only one who thinks that looks a little nipple-y? No likey. So I'm thinking I'm going to try over-dying with Kool-Aid. I've never actually done this, so if anyone has any tips, I'd be very happy!

What are you working on this week?

Yarn Along: Vite Cowl

Yarning Along with Ginny

I fell in love with Vite Cowl but, of course, I'm on a stash down and didn't have any super bulky yarn, so I had to improvise. I'm holding THREE skeins of Knit Picks City Tweed DK together. The yarn is soft but not too fluffy. Holding it three together makes for a nice squishy cowl so I'm really happy. I also felt pretty awesome bringing home size 13 needles. I even found 14 inch ones because the 10 inchers seemed out of proportion and those kind of things bother me. This led to an interesting conversation with my father.

Dad: "What on earth?!"
Me: "They're very large knitting needles."
Dad: "For knitting very large things?"
Me: "Well.... for knitting with very thick yarn. Or... you know... to prepare myself for the zombie apocalypse."
Dad: "Oh. Are they silver?"
Me: "You're thinking of vampires."
Dad: "I thought vampires were a wooden stake through the heart."
Me: "They are... but also silver bullets. I think zombies you just cut off the head or something."
Dad: "Cut off the head? Wouldn't they just be headless zombies chasing you around anyway?"
Me: "Hmmm... maybe."
Dad: "Well maybe they won't chase you because you knitted them a very warm hat with your gigantic vampire killing needles."
Me: "Yes. Of course."

The First Book Of Modern Knitting has nothing to do with the cowl nor zombies. I really love the Azalea Design and plan to make a baby blanket out of it. It's one of those projects I plan to hold on to for my sister's first... or maybe my first... or in this particular case I might also be willing to give it up as a baptism present should anyone pick me to be a godmother. In any case, I keep reading through it, loving all the designs and contemplating my stash to see if there's something I can use to make it now or if I'll treat myself post-stash down to the perfect yarn for it. We shall see.

What's on your needles today?

FO Friday: Another Hippo

Last Wednesday I showed you a WIP. Unlike a few other ones, this one actually got finished!

Behold, The Creepy Hippo Hat of Love

The eyes look a little weird and bugged out, but I'm hoping it looks cute ON the baby. :) I finished it last week but still haven't managed to get to the post office and mail it off. Momma's studying for the BAR, so it's not likely I'll see her to give it in person anytime soon. But maybe the small surprise to warm her little one's head might give her a happy break from torts and... um... sidebars? Sorry... all my lawyering knowledge has been gleaned from How I Met Your Mother and the OJ Simpson murder trial.

It has, of course, been Rav'd.

Yarn Along: Secret Project

Joining Ginny for her Yarn Along

I have a secret project going. It's one of those "Oh my gosh! I didn't think this would be needed so quickly!" kind of gifts. I wish I could say what it was and who it's for and why I'm so excited I could burst, but I can't. 

Thankfully, I had already purchased the yarn in anticipation of one day maybe needing to make this particular gift for someone very special. 

We find out tomorrow if this gift is actually needed. Stay tuned for possibly very exciting news.

FO Friday: Chadwick the Catholic Caterpillar

Last Thrusday Rebecca Danger (of Knitted Monster fame) posted that her newest pattern was available.

Now, I've had The Big Book of Knitted Monsters for a while and haven't made jack squat from it. So why, when I saw this little caterpillar, did I HAVE TO make him in one weekend? I don't know. Something about him called to me. So I grabbed whatever Knit Picks Shine Worsted I could find and I went to town on my dpns.

It hurt. I knit super tight on dpns for some reason (perhaps my intense fear of laddering at the joins) and this did NOT make for happy fingers come Sunday night. But you know what? I cast on sometime Friday and, despite having a very busy weekend, that little caterpillar was stuffed & finished before the Super Bowl.

And I love him.

He's really not so little. Minus his antenae he's over 15 inches tall and about 9 inches around. But he's cute, right? I posed him on a bookshelf, because Rebecca calls him "the Shakespearean Caterpillar" and so I thought he'd be literary. But as it turns out the books behind him are rather Catholic (ok... save a couple Latino Lit and Six Sigma for Managers). Thus, my Chadwick is Catholic. 

I made him with no intended recipient in mind... but one may have come into being. It's all confidential and may not happen... but there is much hope and much prayer.... and much knitting. Hopefully I'll have fun news to share next week.

January 2012 Finished Objects

Well.

Thanks to the OKC Stash Down I have been a busy little knitter this month. Check it:

ELEVEN finished projects in one month! I'm pretty excited about that. Granted, one of them was a UFO from last year and most are small, but they're done and I pretty much love all of them!

Here's the run down:
Top Row:
Winter House Cloth- One of many I plan to make for Christmas gifts this year.
"Pebbles" Hat- The pattern name is actually "Republic Hat" but this was made to go with a Pebbles vest. It matches really well with the band of garter at the bottom & the little buttons. Perfect.
Dizzy Hat- A very sweet girl from the OKC sent me this Debbie Bliss Rialto from her stash. She apparently doesn't know I'm stashing DOWN this year. I felt a huge compulsion to use the yarn as soon as it got to me so it didn't go into my stash! Luckily, the yarn is AWESOME. Very springy, so it's super easy to knit with. I made this little hat for myself. It's tiny but I like the way it looks sitting on the back of my head :)
Insomnia Baby- Also thanks to the Stash Down I have a compulsion to use up every bit of a skein. So this little gnome was meant to take up some left over Malabrigo. I still have some though...

Middle Row:


Grandma's Favorite- An experiment for the Christmas cloths. I'm still not sure how I feel about this pattern but I have a TON of Dishie to use up, so I forsee another go at this one later in the year.
Elise Shawl- This was originally going to be for a swap but I was really unsure of the color for my partner. I like it but I'm not sure it looks good on me. This is sitting in the gift stash until I figure out what exactly to do with it.
Radicowl- I LOVED crocheting this and love wearing it even more. I get tons of compliments on it, too. I can totally see making more of these in the future. It's just SUCH a yarn eater, being crochet and all.

Bottom Row:


Pebble Vest- I've made this vest more than once. It's a great, quick baby knit but it is definitely newborn sized. Made this for a friend-of-a-friend who is always super excited to see me knitting & crocheting.
Zinnia Rialto- This is a baby hat that used up every last inch of the Debbie Bliss Rialto I was gifted. I LOVE the way it turned out. This is staying in my gift stash for a very special baby.
Hat Fit For A Best Friend- I've already blogged this. It served its purpose, keeping Clay nice and warm on his trip. :) I washed it for him to avoid accidental felting & it held up pretty well.
Another Zinnia- I frogged not one but TWO baby knits for my high school BFF's newest arrival. I gave up on cute sweaters as time was getting short and just went with this little hat. I'm pretty pleased with it. I kind of love that it's both knit & crochet. This may become my go-to girl gift.

I'm really loving how productive the Stash Down is encouraging me to be! I should have a LOT more finished projects this year and hopefully have some gifts ready for birthdays and Christmas without having to rush.


What have you worked on this year? Any accomplishments you'd like to share?

FO Friday: Hat Fit For A Best Friend

Clay is one of my best friends. Not just like the title "Oh... he's my BFF". No, like when you talk about things a friend should be- Clay is one of the best.

He's also a little bit of a nerd. He likes rocks and movies about cavemen. He wants to learn to can his own fruits & veggies. His dream vacation for as long as I've known him was Iceland. Iceland. Who desperately wants to go to Iceland? Well- he got his wish last year when his partner booked a trip for them and I was so excited for him.

Another big dream of his was to go to a wilderness survival training. This year I decided that would be his birthday present. I researched several in the area and found one with good reviews that didn't seem to be a secret militia training ground or something. Basically, I printed the brochure and said "this is your birthday present" because there weren't gift certificates or anything and I wanted to be sure he'd want to do it and that he picked a date himself. He's going this weekend and is so excited it's ridiculous. 

But it's going to rain... possibly SNOW... yes... SNOW in Southern California this weekend. 

So, in order to give his (admittedly large) ears some protection, I made him a hat. It's nice, soft wool that will keep him warm even when wet. I made it a little longer than normal so it covers his whole ears instead of just the tops like the pattern calls for. 

Ha! Doesn't he look cute? It's an awesome pattern with some cool decreases. Every other knit ridge disappears about an inch from the center, then the others do until you have just a little star at the top. The variegated yarn makes it a little hard to see put here is Clay graciously letting me photograph the top of his head outside Chipotle.

For info on the yarn & link to the pattern as well as my notes- check out my Ravelry page.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday- The Wall

I've missed a few weeks, but it's Wednesday and time for Ginny's Yarn Along.

So that means I'm supposed to show you what I've been working on, right? Ok. Are you ready?

Are you sorry you asked? 

I've hit something of a wall, people. I wish I could be like The Bloggess & steadily blog through depression, but my weeks of relatively silence suggest otherwise. I have, instead, tried to knit my way through it but my propensity toward crafting ADD has gone into overdrive. What you see above is multiple WIPS, some new, some old and some about to be thrown the eff out. And yes, they are all laying on my tile floor because that's pretty much how I feel about them right now. I may or may not have kicked some of them into place. They may or may not still be laying there as I type.

I'm not reading anything. I'm just getting through my own day. I know that I feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish a project, so I'm hoping I have SOMETHING to show you by this weekend. 

In the meantime, I'm taking a very basic Intro to Sewing class on Saturday with some friends. I'm excited about this as my father gave me a very beautiful sewing machine THREE Christmases ago, which is still in its box! Sewing projects are more "immediate gratification" so I'm hoping that will help me get moving on some FINISHED projects. 

What are you working on? Do you recognize any patterns you've made in my pile o' WIPs?

FO Friday: Hiphop-o-potomus

My friend brought her little 9 month old daughter to my birthday brunch. Baby G is so freaking cute. She was super well behaved & was quite amused with the dozen adults passing her around. Her momma mentioned that they like hippo things for her. I stayed up a few nights and through together a hat & booties for her.

The hat was just off the top of my head as I went along. The hippo applique was fun. I adjusted the sizing by skipping a few rows for the ones on the shoes. 

I followed GoodKnits' pattern for toddler shoes, but again skipped many rows because Baby G has teensy tiny feet that have barely grown since she was born.

For something I threw together in a couple hours, I'm pretty pleased. If I hadn't been making up the hat & trying to figure out how to reduce the hippo pattern on the fly I think it would have taken half the time. I wrote a little card to Baby G thanking her for coming to my party and sent it off in the mail. They were well received and I can't wait to see her in them!

Naturally, the deets have all been Rav'd.

Yarn Along

Ginny at Small Things hosts a "yarn along" every week. She shares a photo of her current knitting/crocheting project with the book she is currently reading.

I'm in the midst of a massive project and a really busy time at work. This quick post idea seems like the perfect way to share the happier, more peaceful moments I manage to grab! :)

I'm using remnants from Jack's hexi-blankie to make these little elephants, which will become a mobile for over his crib. I'm so late finishing but I plan to give it to him & his mommies this weekend. Meanwhile, I'm just starting the 3rd of the Mysterious Benedict Society books. I love this series. It's written for a 4th-6th grade level, I'd guess, but it's really interesting. I'm so happy Prisoner's Dilemma is finally in paperback!

Be sure to check out this week's Yarn Along post to see what others are working on/reading & share your own!

On another note- Please pray for my little friend Abby (2 yr old daughter of one of my NET brothers). She's having a surgery on her bladder/uterus on Wednesday. Thanks!!

Slouchy Hat

I never wear hats. Ever. I have a huge head, for one, so it's hard to find a hat that will A) fit & B) not look comically tiny once on. But the other day I went to the store and my hair looks like a rats nest and I wished I had one of those oh-so-in-style-right-now slouchy hats that I could hide my hair under. Wouldn't you know it? Some girl with curly hair walked by and had one on and she looked awesome. Sigh. Major hat envy.

So last night I decided to make one. The boys brought me some bulky wool yarn from their trip to Iceland. It was a really thoughtful gift but... um... it's BULKY. And it's got little flecks of different colors in it. And it's NOT merino so my slight wool allergy goes crazy feeling it scratch me. So no making anything that's going to touch my skin. Oh... but it'll make a good hat!

So while watching reruns of friends I made a Gumdrop Slouchy Hat. It's a SERIOUSLY easy pattern by Julie from Gleeful Things (cute blog. check it out.). I decided to go with a crochet pattern because I wanted to be able to finish quickly (in case I hated the way it looked) and have more control over the size. I still have a fear of adjusting knitting patterns. That wound up being good because I did make a few small mods to fit my monster head better.

Here's me:

Here's the hat from the back:

Eagle eyes will be able to spot the "seam" pointing about 1o'clock on my head. I don't think it's THAT noticable, but I might make sure to have it run down the bottom in the future. 

Over all I'm really pleased. I think it's a style I can pull off. I might be trying a few fancier designs soon.

Oh, and of course it's been Rav'd. 

Matryoshka Baby Shower Details

So now that I've had a few days to recover, I thought I'd share a little about the big baby shower!

Choosing a non-traditional theme was a challenge. While matryoshkas are popping up all over in jewelry, stationary and such it still wasn't like I could pop into a party supply store and pick up lots of matryoshka paper goods. We also wanted to keep things classy with a simple blue & white pallet. We used several shades of blue, which made things look less matchy-match.

The tables:

The flowers were simple tissue paper with pipe cleaner stems. Jen wrapped the inside of the vases with light blue tissue to conceal the pipe cleaner. We picked up some rubbery doilies at the 99 Cent Store. I have to admit, I was leery of them when we made the purchase, but Jen has a much better eye for those sorts of things. I think having them made a big difference in the look of the table. The confetti is also paper. We got a couple bags at $4 a pop from Party City- a big party supply store in town.

The favor boxes were these printables I purchased from Fantastic Toys on etsy. The pdf came quickly and was beautiful. They were kind of a pain to make, but that's not a design problem... I just don't think they're meant to make 30+ at a time. If I never see these things again it might be too soon. They were a hit though. We used the 3 biggest sizes (the pdf comes with 5 sizes) and filled them with butter mints bought at WinCo in the bulk section.


Other decor:

Jen bought these cardboard 3D letters (and exclamation point!) from Paper Source and covered them in tissue paper. I loved this little addition to to food table. People also grabbed these to use in the photo booth.

We had only a few traditional matryoshkas to scatter about, but they were nice little accents. We had planned to hang blue, aqua, white & a few green paper lanterns from the ceiling but it didn't work out. The white ones looked cute on the food table though.

I used the images from the invitations to spruce up some basic Avery name tags. We asked people to write their name & how they were related to one or both mommies. I chose the classic "friend of mommies". My sister decided to go with a more obscure reference coupled with a really old nickname. :)

Those same invitation dolls came up again as cupcake toppers. (Look, if you pretty much completely redesigned & totally recolored images using just MS Paint, you would reuse the heck out of them too!) The cupcakes were ordered sight-unseen from Bakalicious. I had NO time to make 3 dozen carrot cake cupcakes and no desire to try to figure out how to transport them anyway. I jumped on yelp, saw that this lady had fabulous reviews & that she delivered and just decided to try it. She was a joy! The cupcakes were light and moist, the frosting was just sweet enough but still fluffy and they looked beautiful. At $2 a cupcake she was by far the best buy in the North LA area. I highly, HIGHLY recommend ordering from her if you're in the area. I plan to use her again for an upcoming party.

The activities:
Along with two classic games (Baby Tray Memory- try to remember all the baby items shown to you- and Pregnancy Trivia- answer questions about the mommy-to-be's pregnancy) we tried two newer ideas.

Ice Ice Baby: This was, honestly, a little creepy looking... but everyone had fun. I purchased a matryoshka shaped ice cube tray and froze tiny plastic babies inside. We handed these ice babies out along with plastic bowls to catch the water. Without breaking the ice (it must be melted) and without leaving the room, the first person to get the baby out of the ice wins. My sister & Dr. Steven (an Ob/Gyn) ran to the sink and fought over the hot water while a coworker ran to the iron! Dr. Steven got the baby out first, which made everyone laugh. The whole thing lasted maybe 30 seconds. I would suggest not letting people use anything but natural heat.

Onesie Decorating: This is an increasingly popular activity that takes a lot of prep work & a lot of time at the party, but I think it's worth it. We purchased a bunch of onesies in different sizes on sale. Then we collected fabric paint (flat, not puffy paint), some stencils, fabric markers, iron on letters & some decals. We brought a small table-top ironing board & iron and set up a little table. Throughout the shower people went up and made their onesies. I was really afraid the mommies would end up with 30 hideous things no one would want their baby to wear, but there were actually some cute products! The less-adventurous people used the iron-on decals while the more artistically inclined used the other supplies. We strung up some jute and let people hang their creations up with clothespins to dry/show off.

Handmade Gifts:
I am a firm believer that children need handmade presents. I can't tell you how disappointed I am that I'm almost always the only one bringing something made especially for the baby to most showers now. Come on grandmas! If you can't pull out your needles, hooks & sewing machines for your grandbaby, when will you?

Ok... end rant... here are the special handmade items made or purchased for Jack

I bought this adorable personalized hanger from Floating Owl Designs on etsy. It was really well made, came on time & she was a pleasure to work with. I can totally see buying the grown up versions for future brides. (The little suitcases were purchased from Land of Nod. They were packed with clothes, books, shoes and....)

"Ella Funt" made with KnitPicks Comfy Sport in Planetarium. Colorwork done in Comfy & Shine scraps from a blanket I'll be gifting at the family shower. (Details on Ravelry.) This was a really fun, remarkably fast knit- especially considering I'm a new knitter & this was my first fair isle project.

"Owlet" made with KnitPicks Comfy Bulky in Arbor (now discontinued). As I've said before- I LOVE this pattern. I plan to make a bunch of them for the babies in my family this Christmas. (details on Ravelry)

I totally missed getting a picture of the "car snuggy" that a friend I don't know made. It was a crochet square- maybe 24x24 inches. So a small blanket- meant for the baby to snuggle with in the car. Totally cute, quick present idea.

And finally.... I saved the pregnant mommy's brother's girlfriend's gift for last because it is INCREDIBLE:

This was a needle felted elephant, done entirely free hand. It was just over 12 inches tall! If you've never needled felted you might not understand the incredibleness of this. It's HUGE for this type of project and she didn't use any sort of form underneath. It's just polyfil covered in wool fiber & felted by hand with a needle tool. The girl who made this is an incredible artist. She's made beautiful sculptures for each of the family members but even knowing that, this still blew me away. I think she was glad someone knew what kind of work had to be put into it. :)

Overall, I think the baby shower was a huge success and totally worth all the work & stress that went into pulling it off. Of course, when my other best friend said it looks like he & his partner will be adopting before the end of the year & was I ready for another baby shower I almost socked him. :) But I am... or I will be... just let me take a nap for like a week.


What is YOUR favorite baby shower game/theme. Any suggestions that will make the next party totally awesome?

Tah-Day: Owlet

I finished this a few weeks ago, but forgot to share. I'm pretty thrilled with how the cabled owls came out. My sister picked it up and said "Hey! Are those owls??" so I think I'm going to skip the whole button eye thing and just leave it as-is. I'm worried the baby will eat the buttons anyway.

Close- up of owls

The whole shebang

I'm super excited to give it to the mammas... but the shower is still a couple months away. Le sigh.

If you're interested, you can check out the specs on this baby on Ravelry.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

That's what I've been- busy busy.

My Crochet 101 class went well- except that they stuck us in the back of the school and the classroom door was locked well past the start time. Once we got going it was great though. Such neat ladies. I hope to see them this summer in my fun new classes.

I have be knitting up a storm for my bestie's baby to be. Although I also have another friend and two cousins who are pregnant, Baby J is already my favorite. That's horrible, isn't it? But what can I say? Mommy & I have been super-close friends for more than 10 years. This baby is close to my heart.

I should show you all those baby projects, but next up is going to be a crochet project I promised to review. I'm excited to get going on it. Can't wait to let you in! I just need to finish up that damn second sock (I swear ALL socks will be done 2 at a time from now on!) and the most adorable little sweater you'll ever see.... assuming I can learn colorwork all by myself!

What are you working on?

The Owl Saga

I'm making an Owlet. This is slightly insane because I've only made one other knit sweater (which had horrible mistakes) and I've never done any cabling. But I'm doing it.

I've had minor issues the whole time. The sweater looks huge and will probably have to wait to be worn for an entire year. I had to redo one sleeve when I got ahead of myself. But then this weekend I made the HUGE mistake.

I was watching a Scream marathon with the mommies of the giftee, so I didn't want to show the pattern. I would sneak glimpses of it to make sure I was doing things right. I finished the second sleeve during Scream 1. By Scream 2 I was connecting the sleeves to the body & feeling pretty good about myself. During (the horrendously awful) Scream 3 I started the short rows on the back. Then, as per the pattern, I switched to my smaller needles and.... wait... start the ribbing? That didn't make any sense. Where are the owls??

The instruction "Here come the owls! Follow the chart for 19 rows!" is in bold at the top of a page. But it's the only line above a huge photo, so when I snuck a peek at my pattern and stuffed it back in my bag before the mommies could see I totally looked past it to the decrease rows. When I got home I seriously considered frogging the entire sweater, but it's Comfy & it tends to shed.. so I frogged only back to the main body. Only...

(Click to enlarge)

I ripped back an extra row in the front of the sweater somehow, so I had this long loop of yarn connected to each armpit. Afraid to further screw things up I decided to try to work from here.

You can see here, on the right you have the yarn I'm supposed to be working the next row with, but on the left in the same stitch is the yarn for the row I shouldn't have ripped out! I have no idea if what I did is right, but here was my process:

Knit one with left side yarn

slip stitch back to left needle

knit one with right side yarn

repeat across until I got to the end of the accidentally ripped row

It was fairly easy. I'm not sure it saved me any time, but it felt safer than ripping back another half row when clearly I'd already screwed up.

I'm on to the cables now and it's not too bad. Hopefully I'll have a final product to show before the week is out!

I'm a Knitter Now

I'm definitely NOT saying I'm giving up crochet. Crochet is my first love and still what I turn to when I want to make something quickly and have full confidence that it will work out the first time. However, having finally gotten the hang of knitting, I've gone ahead and made a couple major purchases.

After getting a "try it set" of Knit Picks Interchangables a couple months back I confirmed my original hypothesis that I'd like the Harmony Wood tips the most. Am I sorry I shelled out the $20 for the try it set? No. I would have driven myself crazy thinking I'd made the wrong choice otherwise. Besides, I have a crazed need to switch back and forth between projects, so having more than one set of the most commonly used tips isn't a bad thing.

So... I purchased a full set of Harmony Interchangeable needles, as well as an extra, longer cable (I have visions of knit blankets dancing in my head) and a couple of the smaller sized fixed circulars since the interchangeables only go down to size 4. I also purchased a full set of 6 inch dpns (sized 0-3). Honestly, I think I should have gotten the 5 inch or even maybe the 4s... but oh well. It's done. Along with a few extra little things for my on-the-go knit kit and here's what you have:

And you didn't think I could order from Knit Picks and NOT get any yarn, right? Yes... I continue to fail at the yarn diet just as miserably as I do on any food diet. Behold my shame:

To my credit: none of this is "stash" yarn. It all has a very specific purpose.

4 skeins Comfy Bulky in Arbor: For an Owlet for A&O's bun in the oven. A is one of my oldest friends and she LOVES owls, dark green and anything handmade. This is one of approximately 5 gagillion projects I have in mind for this baby. I've already cast-on for this. :)

3 skeins Wool of the Andes in Winter's Night: For a pair of the ever-so-popular French Pressed Slippers for myself. This is really a test-knit for Christmas. I've never felted anything before. If these go well I hope to make several pair for presents this winter. 3 skeins of WotA makes a large pair. At $1.99 a skein for many colors, this is a super cute uber cheap present!

2 skeins Chroma Worsted in Midwinter and Mix Tape: For a Noro Striped Scarf. Honestly, I researched the way different colorways worked together forEVER and then at the last minute made a completely random choice and now I'm not so sure about it. We'll see how they work out. If it doesn't I love this yarn enough to get two more skeins that work better and make two scarves!

And finally, because you aren't sick of looking at the million ways I spend money yet... here's the whole list o' goodies I purchased:

Have you made any fun fiber purchases lately? Or do you have any recommendations on how I can stop buying every yarn that catches my eye? Seriously... I have a problem!

Pardon My Rant

Have you noticed sort of a sibling riverly between crocheters and knitters? I've seen it a lot on Ravelry but never experienced it in my personal life until last week. I went to a local yarn shop for the first time on Thursday. When I walked in I had my crocodile clutch (which has been my constant companion since I finished it) and as has happened every time I've gone out with it in public- a lady at the shop asked about it. She was a customer working on a knitting project. I could tell she was a relatively new knitter. She asked if it was easy to make. I replied it was actually pretty easy if you knew how to crochet. She asked the shop owner if she had a pattern that was similar and that's when it happened.... The owner replied "No. We're a knitting shop." Um. Ok. She turned around to me and said "Of course, crocheters are welcome, but we just don't sell any crochet patterns.... or supplies.... and we don't teach it." Yeah. Was that supposed to make me feel better about it? I honestly felt like leaving, but I thought that would seem petty or something. I ended up buying a few little odds & ends for a swap I'm in this month and at the last minute asked about the "ongoing free sock class" I had read about on their website. The owner said she had a pattern that used Malabrigo Worsted & size 6 dpns, so it was easier to learn before moving down to sock weight yarn and spaghetti-thin needles. I ended up spending quite a bit there once I paid for the dpns (size 8s for me and my apparently tight knitting), the yarn and the pattern. In the meantime I chatted with the other customer about Ravelry and gave her my email address if she wanted to learn to crochet. I was also kind of miffed about the pattern. The owner admitted it was written as though you were in a class. This probably explains why I got confused on the heel once I was home. It uses short rows, but didn't say that, so I just thought the stitch count was off. So for a not-totally-clear pattern the $6.50 price I paid seemed REALLY high. Maybe I'm spoiled by all the free patterns available, but that seemed really steep. So imagine my annoyance when I logged the pattern into Ravelry & saw that the download is only $4 there! STILL too high, if you ask me, but that's almost 40% less! Are they charging me that much for the 3 pieces of paper and the sheet protector? I didn't need that! What's MORE annoying is that we had been talking about Rav, so she really could have just showed me how to do a circular join & start me on my ribbing and then give me the option to go on Rav to buy the pattern. I had dpns full of worsted weight yarn- what else was I going to do with it? I would HAVE TO download her pattern. Now I'm perplexed. The shop has some great yarns at reasonable prices. They have a weekly knitting night, which I'd LOVE to join. It's relatively close, there's drive-through Starbucks on the way & it's near the cemetary so I can visit mom and kill two birds with one stone. But the anti-crochet attitude and the weird pattern issue really bother me. I can't decide how I feel about the shop. I'm thinking of maybe scoping out some other local shops and seeing if one's a better fit. What would you do?

For the Easter Baby

My friend from church just gave birth to her first (much anticipated) baby. She and her husband are high school sweethearts and I'm so happy for them.

The mommy was also a member of Lambs of God Household at her Catholic college. (Households are kind of like sororities.) So.... Spring baby + Lambs.... I had to make something cute.

It started with the hat:

I used Vanna's choice in pink for the inside of the ears, which reminded me I still had a blanket I used that same yarn in...

So I thought if I just added a set of booties & some little mittens I'd have my favorite gift in the world... a whole baby set!

I'm SO looking forward to dropping it off tomorrow! I hope mommy & daddy love it.

Recent Projects

I've been a bad blogger but a pretty good crafter. Life has been pretty busy, with the NET team coming next week, several baby showers, work being a little crazy & my own stuff going on. I hope to have time to go over all the fun things I've been making in detail soon... but in the meantime, here's a quick run down of the knitted & crocheted items I've completed recently:

Forest Vest

Made for Baby Flores. This is actually the first knit item I've ever cast off! I was pretty pleased to have completed it. There's some MAJOR flaws, but I still really like it. I've been on the hunt for good semi-solid/tonal yarns ever since this project. If you know of any good ones PLEASE let me know!

Granny Love

Made for Baby G. I took some grannies I've had for a while and put them together into a quick blanket. I love the retro feel.

Cuddly Sweater

Also for Baby G. Man... I love me some KnitPicks Comfy. It's so soft and has great stitch definition. This project was SUCH a learning experience. I had to rip back about 6 rows at one point!

Frilly Scarf

I just wanted something to throw on that would add some classy interest to my everyday wear. I've been wearing it pretty often and I love the femininity.

Rainbow Clutch

Remember when I talked about Knit Picks Chroma making me break my "no stash buying" rule? Well... this is what some of the Prism colorway ended up as. It's a pattern test for a gal on Ravelry. I'll go into detail on the project & include a link to the pattern once she's done with it.

What have you been working on?