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There is nothing cohesive about this post.

I think I’m becoming addicted to my stats.  Ever since NaBloPoMo started–heck, even before that!–I’ve had no zero-hit days.  That’s kinda nice, knowing that someone out there is reading my ramblings.  (And also sobering–more pressure not to say something stupid!)

I finished purse #4 yesterday–the knitting, that is, not the seaming or felting. It’s super-cute, with a white base yarn and a pink confetti-ish novelty carryalong that makes the whole thing look like a soft fuzzy pink. Makes me wish I’d saved it for a kid-sized purse, but fortunately I have another ball and a half to play with! I grabbed a ziploc of turquoise and purple to start a Little Coco at lunch, but didn’t have time today, so that’ll be tonight.  I still need to divy up yesterday’s yarn haul into project bags.

Tomorrow I’ll try to post a pic of a scarf I knit over a year ago–maybe even as long as two years?–that I finally got around to blocking this weekend.  It’s orange and red cotton in a feather and fan lace pattern, and holy moses, I can’t believe the difference the blocking made!  It’s a whole new scarf! I totally shouldn’t have waited so long.  Sadly, I don’t think it’s soft enough to be worthy of gifting, but at least it’s much more attractive now in its proper shape. 🙂

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Knitting and Crochet

Sparkly blues, autumn-y reds and browns, festive reds and whites!

Last night I finished knitting the first balloon bag (the sparkly blue one). Woot! I still need to stitch the strap to the bag, and of course do the felting part, but woot! It’s a great start to my belated holiday knitting!

Now it’s Sunday afternoon, and I started the second bag–this one in brick red and tan (Cascade 220) with a tag novelty yarn to carry along–while watching the Patriots game. (Three minutes left in the third, and it’s not going so well for my boys.)  I’m so glad I organized everything on Friday. On my way out the door this morning, I didn’t have to make any decisions, I just grabbed a pre-packaged ziploc, complete with all three yarns, the pattern, needles and stitch markers. Hopefully I’ll zip through them all just as quickly.

I’d post a picture of the shiny blue bag, but since it’s a Christmas present for an as-yet undetermined recipient, I’m afraid pics will have to wait. Instead, here’s a shot of a Little Coco I made last year with Cascade 220 that I’ve only just gotten around to photographing:

Little Coco

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Knitting and Crochet

Ravelry, granny squares, and a little ghost

I’m becoming a bit obsessed with Ravelry.  This weekend I spent hours photographing yarn and entering their stats into my stash database–and still didn’t get to all of it! There’s so much yarn I forgot I had, or forgot the colors, or how much of it there was (30 balls of angora that I totally forgot about!).  I love how easy it is to see what projects others have done with the yarn that I have, and I’m inspired to do so much…so much that it’s actually kind of paralyzing, with the too!many!choices! aspect. Despite the paralysis, however, I got a lot accomplished this weekend, in addition to the photographing of yarn.

Boo!For instance, I started and completed my first ever project done completely with the evil double pointed needles–the ghost from September’s Creative Knitting Magazine. I was watching Saturday night’s game (woo!Sox!) and felt like doing something Halloween-y, so I picked up the nearest magazine–CKM–and voila! There was a ghost pattern right there on page 40! I spent half the game (plus an extra hour after the game) wrestling with the dpns until the ghost was finished (except for the finishing stuff–the closing and stuffing of his head, weaving of ends, and embroidering–ugh–of his face), and I came away being a little less scared of dpns.  They’re still not so easy when you get down to four stitches per needle, but when you’re dealing with 15 stitches each, it’s not so bad. The ghost (and leaving it in Gracie’s crib yesterday) was probably the highlight of my weekend.

Also, after browsing the Granny Squares group on Ravelry, I became inspired to try granny squares, and have so far made….I think eight (they are at home, and I am not) out of Plymouth Encore, with the intention of stitching them together for a granny square scarf.  They’re fun and easy to make, but I’m really not looking forward to weaving in all those ends!  Three colors each square makes for a lot of ends. Blech. I have no pictures yet, but will hopefully post some soon.

ION, I still haven’t given the silk/alpaca gift to my friend, so still no photos of that, but I haven’t forgotten.  Also, there’s a nifty sale going on at my favorite LYS, Handmade, A Needlework Studio–I am broke this month, still, so no sale for me, but if you’re in the general vicinity of Burbank, CA, you might want to take a peek inside.

Red Sox! And hats.

I’m watching the Red Sox game–bottom of the 8th, the Sox are up by three, but it’s not over yet, and anything can happen.  I’m very tense at the moment.  I’ve got my candles lit (some Catholic habits die hard, even for the non-believers), my Varitek game shirt on, and my heart is hovering somewhere around my stomach.  Gah!

While watching the game earlier, I was working on a hat from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Crocheted Hats, which I purchased yesterday at Barnes and Noble (along with Amigurumi! Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth A. Doherty).  The had did not end well, since I don’t know anyone with a head the size of, say, Hagrid’s.  Sad, really, as the colors (the orange/pink/yellow/red Red Heart I mentioned in an earlier post) work up so brilliantly beautiful.  It was supposed to be the Aviator Helmet from page 75, but it looks more like an unfelted Market Basket from Knitty.com.  (I might link all these things later, but I’m too distracted right now.) (Go Varitek!)

I’m very much into crocheted hats right now.  They work up fast, and require no dpns or seaming, like knitted hats. I did two hats last week, completely off the cuff with no pattern, and they turned out fine–one’s a little on the bigger side, but not half-giant big.  This meshy pattern from the book?  Ugh.  In my inexperienced (crochet-wise) opinion, it’s got errors (I couldn’t find an errata sheet on it anywhere), and I think my attempt to figure out the errors might’ve led to the supersizing.  Ah well, at least now I have something to wash so I can decide if the yarn is even worth frogging for another use.

(Ouch.  I hate it when the other team makes me feel sorry for them.)

I need pictures of these crocheted wonders, I know.

(Wow, they’re walking a rookie just to load the bases.  Desperate.)

Hold on, lemme see what I can do about those pictures…

(Woooo! Pedroia!)

 Pictures are downloading.

(Yooooooouuuuuuuk!)

Ok, now the pics are uploading to Flickr.  Whew.  Did you see that inning?  Scary.  In a good way, if you’re a Red Sox fan.  Not so much for the Indians fans.

Oh, I also bought the magazine Knitting, from the UK.  In my opinion, so not worth the nine bucks.  If it were a book, I’d return it. It was a disappointment, as I love knitting magazines and always look forward to them, but they’ve gotten so expensive I have to be picky about what I buy–I won’t be buying that one again.

Wooooooooooooooooooooo! Red Sox! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Aw, the poor Indians.  I hate when they show all the devastated players.

Pictures.  Must focus. Ok, here we go.
Hat the First:
Hat the first
A little big, but not too bad.

Hat the Second:
IMG_3972
The crown is a little bigger than the first hat but the brim is snugger, so it fits better. Yes, it’s the same yarn, and the same general “pattern”–I was on a plane, and just made another when I finished the first.

Scary Aviation cap:
Saddest hat ever
Tragic, really–I adore the colors so much! I didn’t even bother to finish it up with the braiding and the flap-ties.  What’s the point?

Ok, that’s all I got for today.  Now I need to do a celebratory “Yay! Pennant!” dance in my living room. 😀

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

Monday Monday

I know it’s cliche to apologize for not updating, but so what–I’m so sorry for the long delay between posts.  I have lots of excuses–excessive heat, craziness at work, travel (I’m in Boston right now), but really, iffen I had time to update my LJ, I had time to update this blog, so, my apologies.

Paula/Polgara, Stephanie and NancySadly,  I’m not working on anything all that fabulous, just a diagonal nubbly red scarf for the Red Scarf Project.  With the excessive heat we had over Labor Day (I lost power for 16 very hot hours!), I was not motivated to plan anything elaborate, so I just picked up a ziploc already loaded with pre-wound red yarn, and started a scarf.*  And no, it’s still not finished.  My time lately has been spent on stressful work stuff, visiting my friend’s daughter at the hospital, and preparing for this trip I’m currently on–a mix of business and pleasure, starting with a wedding on Cape Cod (see pic–me, the bride, and my sister the bridesmaid), followed by two days of vegging (i.e. today and tomorrow), then a Flash conference in Boston, followed by more personal stuff over the weekend.  Busy busy busy!

I do, however, have some FPO-ish pictures.  First, the shell shawl:

crochet: shell shawl

I realize this picture actually sucks–I need to take some on an actual person, preferably in daylight–but it’ll do for now (plus the other two in the flick group–click on the image to open the flickr window).

Next, remember the log cabin blanket I did for Grace that I forgot to photograph in a finished state before delivering it to the mom?  Well, here it is in action, protecting Miss Grace from the chills of the PICU:

Grace

You can only see half the blanket, but you get the idea. I’m particularly fond of the green sc border, which matches the green used in her brother’s blanket.

And finally, a link–today’s Two Lumps is adorable and on-topic (I had no idea Ebenezer and Snooch’s mom was a knitter!).

*And now that I’ve read yesterday’s blog entry for the Red Scarf Project, I suspect this scarf may not be “special” enough to match the criteria.  Oh well, I can always find someone who needs a scarf.