Happy Chanukah Y'all!

Oh good grief, I'm sorry to anyone who actually follows this blog because I just realized that I havent blogged a single thing in two months. Part of it I blame on big projects taking a long time and part of it I blame on my new job. That's right, I'm currently employed. Not quite in a library like I wanted to, but in a children's museum. I'm really enjoying the work. BUT since you dont read this for my inane life I'll just get straight to all the yarn-ey goodness. Firstly, I finished the I-cord scarf ages ago and it was given to The Cowboy on Friday night which was the first night of Chanukah. He really likes it and apparently got lots of compliments on it. Also, he was nice enough to send me some pictures of him modeling it (not quite shirtless, A&F style like he should :-P, but I still think they're fabulous). Mmm... he just makes that scarf look sooo good, right?

I also started an entrelac scarf for my sister. It's really tedious so it's currently hibernating. I think I might need to get a different set of needles to continue on it. The combination of the bamboo/acrylic yarn and the bamboo needles just makes for really sticky knitting. Here's how it looks so far. I was also working on a crocheted shawl for my mom. However (as you can see from the picture) it has started becoming decidedly angular in it's shape (it's supposed to be a rectangle). While I know I'm not the best knitter/crocheter out there, I know I'm good enough to not want to give my mom a nice shawl with wonky sides. So it's going to get frogged tonight. I think when I restart it I'm going to start on a slightly bigger crochet hook. Lastly, in the spirit of the holiday season, the Stitch-n-Kvetch group on Ravelry did a Chanukah swap. Here's the package I sent to my swappee and the package I received. I really like swaps. I get the warm fuzzy feeling of giving AND the joy of getting stuff. I love stuff.

Peas And Carrots

This is my first pair of Toe-Up socks :) I did them in the Deborah Norville Serenity Yarn. They're cute, short little ankle socks because I really wanted to get a pair out of the one skein. I sorta bungled through the short row heel on the first sock because I didn't realize (since I didn't read the instructions well) that when you pick up the wraps from the wrap and turn on the purl side you're supposed to pick them up from the OUTSIDE so that it's not weird and bumpy on the outside. Oh well, now I know for next time. Additionally, I used a sewn bind-off which, while not so stretchy, is wide enough that i could actually fit my foot into the sock. Nevertheless, I like them and will probably do a pair similar with a different skein of the same yarn that I have.

As for the I-cord scarf, one I-cord is finished and the second one has significant progress made on it. On the upside of knitting all this I-cord, I can do it pretty mindlessly, which is nice.

Hugging Hats

Well since I last blogged I gathered my Jo-Ann Fabric's coupons and went and bought all sorts of yarns for all my projects.

This is for The Cowboy's Manly I-Cord (which has been started).

I was going to use this for socks for The Nurse but it's worsted and I wasn't too thrilled with the color. I cant decide if it's nice or butt-ugly. I think this might turn into a crocheted afghan (a small one) at some point.

This was for the hat and booties The Sparkly One asked me to make for her cousin's baby.

This is a really light acrylic/bamboo blend that is going to be a scarf for The Younger Sister. Since she's living in Arizona she doesn't need anything too heavy.

This is the yarn that I actually used for The Nurse's socks. If you recall my first pair of socks was made with Jo-Ann's Sensations Kashmira in green. This yarn is the same thing but in pink and purple and I LOVE the way it looks.

So here are the finished products as of late. The baby hat and baby booties and the socks. I'm really pleased with how everything turned out AND how quickly it took to make them all.

If My Head Wasnt Attatched...

I'm sure I'd forget it altogether. I totally forgot to mention two things in yesterday's post that I really wanted to mention. The first is that The Cowboy got the fiber phallus in the mail both he and the actual recipient loved it and he said I was an artist. I love praise :-)

Additionally, I was interviewed for the Insider section of the Baltimore Jewish Times about social networking. They were really interested in the fact that I was on Ravelry and so they took pictures of me knitting! (The photographer was really cute) You can read the article here.

So, the holiday season is coming up and I really need to figure out what I'm making for who, so I figured I'll put it on the blog along with as many links to the patterns or sources of patterns as I can.

The Nurse- Socks

The Sparkly One- Umbilical Cord Baby Hat and Sockabooties for her friend

The Cowboy- Manly I-Cord Scarf

The Younger Sister- Entrelac Scarf

The Youngest Sister- Ear flap Hat

Mom- Elegant Shawl

Abba (Dad)- Ear flap Hat

Spud (The Wench's Baby)- ...ummm, I haven't settled on a pattern yet

Wow, I should stop liking my friends. Seriously, I keep wanting to make stuff for them. Stay tuned for updates on all this stuff!

Baby That Blog-Bl-Blog-Blog-Blog

Yes, I was listening to the "Thong Song" last night. I was hanging out with Alphabet-Girl, The Wench and her husband and their parents since I went with The Wench and her husband to Rochester for Rosh Hashanah. It was a really great time. But anyway, on to the yarn-y goodness type stuff. The Wench got my swap package and although she figured out that it was me who sent it she still loved everything that I stuck in there which included two headbands, a french-press cozy, a bundle of pink roving, bumblebee stitch markers, bride magazines and onion rings.

The Boyfriend also received his birthday hat, which he loves. (Yes, he looks a little like a hobo, but he's cute, right?)

AWESOME also got his hat and said that it's "really nice" and that his girlfriend The Nurse (and my former, most wonderful-est roommate ever) was jealous. So of course, now I want to make something for her. Her birthday is coming up anyway and I know she gets cold often so I think I will make a pair of socks for her. I think I'm going to try and get a sport-weight self-striping wool so that they'll be a little thicker and warmer than your average fingering-weight socks. Which, speaking of socks, I have been working on a pair. I'm trying these toe-up and am not making them very long because I'm hoping to get one pair out of the 230 yards of Serenity Sock weight yarn. But, I must say, they look pretty nice so far.

Also, I brought Alphabet-Girl's hat with me to Rochester to give to her. She likes it AND it doesn't look weird on her. Yay me!

I'm such a procrastinator, I meant to put up this picture of the yarn I dyed over a week ago and I didn't yet, so here it is.

I think it's time to move past Kool-Aid though. Possibly to food coloring so I can do a little more and have less neon colors. Finally, last but not least, I got my High Holiday swap package! The woman who gave to me actually dropped it off at my house! Unfortunately, I was already on the road to Rochester with The Wench and her husband and didn't get to meet my swapper. Either way, she gave me an amazing collection of stuff.

There's a lovely cowl, a giant wad of Sierra alpaca yarn, two bundles of Spunky Electric fiber in great colors, a sock-blocker key chain, a small project bag, a box of tea and a bar of tasty chocolate. I feel so spoiled! I cant wait for the next swap :-)

If I Knit Fast Enough, Does It Count As Aerobics?

Oh dear, lets see, what's been going on? Well, I have everything I need for my swap-ee. I'm really excited to send it out. Of course, I'm also really excited to see what I get when my package arrives. I also have AWESOME's hat, the boyfriend's hat, my WW buddy's mittens and the fiber phallus all packaged up as well. Going to be lots of fun paying for all of this stuff to get sent. But, since you all are so wonderful I'll give you one last sneak peek at the last knitted thing for my swap-ee. Nice, right?

I want to rant for a moment about the plight of the slouchy hat. I found this pattern and showed it to Alphabet-Girl who really liked it. So, me being the type of person who likes to make stuff for friends I started knitting it out of some grey Lion-Brand Wool-Ease that I had. First I did it on size 7 needles and it was huge, like "I'm a Rastafarian that's been wearing dreadlocks for the past 20 years" type of huge. So I frogged it. Then I did it on size 5 needles. Finished it, but I still felt it was too big, so in the vain hope that I could get it to shrink I threw it in the wash (on uber hot) and the dryer (have I mentioned how much I like having a free washer and dryer now? Moving home isn't all bad) and do you know what happened? It stretched out. This is what it looks like.

So then I cast on AGAIN with the size 5 needles but instead of the recommended 101 stitches I did 79. I'm really hoping that this time it will turn out the way I want it. I want it to be a nice, cute slouchy hat, not a giant snood. You cant blame me though, the pattern isn't really written that well. It's not like it says anything about what kind of yarn to use or anything. AND to top it all off when I was making the flower petals I made the first two wrong. I saved that though, I sewed them together and stuffed them with catnip. Now they're a cute cat toy.

Lets see, what else? Oh yes, my mom got Craftcycle from the library and in it they have a garlic dryer made of raffia. If you don't know what raffia is, (I certainly didn't) it's a ribbon looking thing that comes from the raffia palm tree. Anyway, mom bought some raffia and had me make a little basket for her out of it. This way the garlic in our house will be in one spot instead of floating around on the counters.

By way of yarn-ey goodness I just bought two skeins of Serenity Sock Yarn

and three skeins of Vanna's Choice Glamour.

I have to say, thank goodness for celebrities and their yarn lines, I was seriously afraid I was I was going to have to shell out serious moolah (that I don't have) for black yarn with a bit of shiny in it for a shawl for my mom for Chanukah. Now I don't! Don't judge me, I'm poor and acrylic is soft. Maybe when I can afford to, I'll be a yarn snob, until then, Bring On the Plastic!

Oh, and I dyed another skein of Patons wool today. Pictures will be up later this week. :-)

Hello Old Friend, It's Been Awhile

Well hello blog-world! It's been a while. How are you all? I'm doing well. A lot has been going on since I last posted. The three weeks started right after my last post so since I wasn't really supposed to knit a whole lot I didn't blog. I did knit however, just nothing substantial, and I didn't do finishing on the items. I also moved from Pittsburgh, now that I've finished school, back into my parents' house in Baltimore. Once I moved back at the beginning of August we had visitors in the form of family friends with 4 kids so I couldn't really unpack. In fact, I slept at The Teacher's apartment for that week. Then I went to NYC to see the boyfriend and a bunch of other friends including The Evil Knit Genius who took the boyfriend and me to a really nice yarn shop in the city. I also saw Alphabet-Girl, my high school roommate and a friend from seminary. All in all, I still hate NYC but I love many people who reside there.

Since I've been back to Baltimore I've mostly been unpacking but I've picked my knitting needles up again. I've been working on stuff for the swap. But soon I think I'll try my hand at baby items. That's right, baby items. The Wench (and her husband) is expecting! I'm so excited, she's the first of my very close friends to have a baby. I think the first thing I'll make is a pair

of sockabooties.

So here's the lovely knitting pictures to share. I finished the mittens for my WW buddy.

I didnt get to see her before I left Pittsburgh though :-( but they will get shipped to her soon.

I made this shawl over the three weeks, mostly because I needed something to do with my hands.

It's made with a breast cancer fun-fur kit. I'm not sure why I made it a shawl, I realized I wouldn't ever wear it. I gave it to a family that lives down the street from us since they have three little girls who could use it for dress-up.

This is a hat that I am making for a college friend, I shall call him AWESOME (as per his request).

It was an interesting conversation with him that made this hat come about. I asked "AWESOME, if I made a hat for you, would you wear it?" and he responded with "No pink or purple!!" I said, "AWESOME, it wouldn't be pink or purple, I wouldn't even think of making those colors for you" to which he responded with, "I don't have a hat, I guess I would wear it"

Coming up are a few sneak peeks of things I'm working on that I don't want everyone to see. The first is the birthday hat I made for my boyfriend. The second two are parts of my swap stuff.

The end of the swap is coming up really soon, I'm really looking forward to putting my whole package together AND to getting a package! That's all for now folks ;-) hope to update more from now on. Thanks for reading!

And When You're Drunk Shake That A$$ Like You Know How To Dance

It's been a bit since I've blogged, Hi all! It's after my birthday so I can share all my fun birthday loot and projects and stuff. Knitting-wise I got some fun stuff for my birthday. My aunt (my dad's twin sister) gave me Teach Yourself Visually: Sock Knitting. I'm really excited about this book because it gives instructions with lots of pictures for all kinds of socks including toe-up and ones with an afterthought heel. And considering I feel like I've mastered the top-down sock I'm looking forward to trying other things. That being said though, after finishing the JaywalkersI'm a bit burnt out on socks for now. Especially because I was working on the socks in size 1 needles. I was SO afraid they were going to snap. Now I'm working on a pair of mittens for my Weight Watcher's Buddy. She was so nice to schlep me to and from Weight Watchers every week since I crashed Ned (my Nissan) in January, so these mittens are going to be a thank you/goodbye gift.

Ooh, I think I just went on a tangent there. Anyway other birthday fun included going out for drinks with several of my classmates. I have to tell you, semi-drunken soon-to-be children's librarians are a hella lot of fun. This is me, Katie, and Lauren waiting for the bus after we were done with our several rounds and many amusing stories :-) The Teacher visited me for the weekend (4th of July/my birthday) and she brought these two skeins of Deborah Norville Sock Yarn from my mom. The Teacher also gave me Crobots for my birthday so eventually I'll have to start making a few amigurumi robots. Anyway, The Teacher and I had a great weekend together. We saw The Proposal and I have to say, it was cute but either they needed to expand the plot or they needed to abandon the plot all together and just let Ryan Reynolds walk around mostly nekkid (yum!). We also went to the Heinz History Center where The Teacher got to pose with Daniel Striped Tiger and on Sunday we rode the Duquesne Incline. Helloooo Pittsburgh!All in all, a most excellent birthday week.

Talking About Yarn Stuff For Class Again

Once again I had to do a presentation for my "Library's Role in Teaching and Learning." This time it had to be a five minute instructional presentation. I did mine on dyeing yarn with kool-aid. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

More Toasty Toes

That would be me, at my parents' house working on my socks. Thanks mom for snapping that candid.

I started knitting Grumperina's Jaywalkers. I'm using Patons Kroy sock yarn and size 1 knitting needles. Just for those who don't know, a size 1 needle is 2.25 millimeters in diameter. That's TEENY. I feel like I'm knitting with toothpicks. Also, I had an issue properly reading the directions for the zig-zag pattern for the first round, I don't think affected it too much though. I also happen to really like this yarn. It's wool/nylon blend and it's very soft and knits up such nice stripes. ^_^

I also started crocheting this hat, mostly because I saw this pattern and thought I'd try to make something like it.

And last in the picture department is this lovely bookmark/knit gauge which came from my boyfriend along with a very cute birthday card. Very sweet and thoughtful of him. :-)That's all for now folks! Toodles!