Idle Hands Are The Devil's Plaything

So, I have basically gone on knitting hiatus for the week. I am back at my parents' home in Baltimore and since I didn't really have a project going, I didn't bring any knitting home with me. I never realized how much I rely on it to keep me from going crazy. I love knitting and watching television. Oh well. Maybe I'll get something at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival that will keep me busy next week when I'm in Binghamton visiting my boyfriend.

Also, I'm really excited because I'm participating in my first swap! Swaps are pretty cool because they're like doing Secret Santa so not only do you give gifts, you also get gifts! Seriously, who doesn't love presents? Anyway the Stitch-n-Kvetch group on Ravelry is doing a swap for the High Holidays. Here are the rules so you get the idea of what it's about.

• Each person signing up agrees to send their designated secret swap pal the following items:


• One fabulous handmade item that you knit especially for your pal
  


• Some kind of fiber goodie: one or two skeins of yarn or a few ounces of roving. New yarn only - but feel free to raid your stash. If the yarn is UNUSED (ie not a frogged project) and you still have the ball band, wound yarn is OK. 2) Send at least enough for a small project – most socks or hats need 100g/4oz.
  


• 2 or 3 small knitting related goodies: (either hand-made or store-bought) such as stitch markers, knitting needles or crochet hook, felting tools, tape measure, coil-less safety pins, buttons or other embellishments notions or project bag, etc.
  


• Something to nosh on: coffee, tea, candy, etc. If your giftee specifies they keep kosher, PLEASE respect this, and only send certified kosher products. If you are in doubt, pm me or post a question in the thread, and someone will be able to clarify for you if a product can be sent or not.
  


• Something special for your giftee to enjoy over the holidays – hand cream, bubble bath, etc.
  


• At least one item in the package must be related to the High Holidays. (can be one of the above, or a separate addition). There are lots of ways this can be applied: apples and/or honey treats, favorite recipe for the holiday, embellishments on the project, etc.
  


• The total price range for this swap will be $25 (min)-$40 (max) US dollars not including shipping. Use your imagination, and be aware that items you take for granted as “everyday” may be special and wonderful to someone in another part of the world!

So this gives me about four months once I get my person to make and ship stuff. I'll try and post as much as I can here so you guys can see the progress but it probably wont be too much since I don't want to spoil the surprise, just in case my recipient actually reads my blog (yeah right!).

Pardon Me, That's My Yogurt

Some entertaining knitting related videos for your viewing pleasure.

We're Done Professionally

So here I am, first post of life after Introduction to Information Technology. I finished the pink hat that I was working on. In the words of Christian Bale, this pattern and I are "f*&$ing done professionally." I cant get it to work for me. It's too big. I think I need to stick with set patterns, I feel like these somewhat open ended patterns are a little too free form for me. Dang it. Oh well, at least I didn't use fancy expensive yarn on this. Also, I gave it to my roommate. My roommate and I get along *ok* but she's seen me make things for friends all year, I figured I should give her one thing I've made. Anyway, here's some pics of her wearing the hat.

The secret crochet project needs the final finishing touches before it gets sent out to the person it was intended for, when I ship it then I'll post pictures. I know you're all waiting on baited breath to see what it is.

Finally, I'm back in Baltimore for a little bit while I'm on break from school. Mom, The Wench and I are planning to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival next week. Stay tuned for pictures!

Practice Makes Perfect, Right?

The gigantic green beret has been frogged. The yarn is now post-soaking and is hanging in my closet so that all the kinks will get straightened out. I started the pattern again in attempt to actually get it right. I was smarter this time though because I'm using the uber-cheap acrylic I have stashed away so I won't feel so bad if it doesn't turn out.

Also, I finished the secret crochet project but I'm not posting final pictures until I hear from The Cowboy about the final touches that he wants on it.

Happy Passover!

I finished the slouchy beret last week. It's HUGE. It's SO HUGE. It's sad. it makes me want to cry. It's going to the frog pond. *Sob*
Also, This lady has some awesome patterns for Passover themed items including a Seder plate, Matzah and all ten Plagues.





A little Passover-ey humor for you all :)

Clearly I Am Very Bad At Prioritizing My Time

Quick update: Here's how far I've gotten on the hat. I'm a little afraid that it's going to end up huge and more like a snood than a hat. I've also finished about half of the crochet project but I'm going to wait to show you it until it's finished. I'm not sure how I've gotten so far on the hat since I have homework and Passover cleaning to do. Um....yeah. We're just not going to think about it.

Whoa! Stuff!

Oh boy guys I have SO much to blog about tonight. I didn't realize how much I did during this week I'm almost tempted to make two blog posts out of it all but since I'm pretty close to the required number of posts for class and I plan to continue this blog past this semester (even though I expect my meager readership to drop off soon) I'm just going tell y'alls everything in one post. Don't worry, I gots lotsa pictures :)

Firstly, on Sunday I started, and finished the fuzzy scarf for the teacher. I used huge size 19 needles and it's 15 stitches wide, it knitted up really quickly. It's also really stretchy.

I also finished spinning all of the wool that I had from the spinning adventure. It's single-ply and really pretty and it's going into stash until I figure out a worthy project for it. I have a crochet project going, but I'm not going to show you the whole thing yet. But here's a sneak preview. Here's what I have posted for the front picture for this project on Ravelry.Finally, since I feel like I cant really take my current crochet project out in public I started a slouchy hat in the Kashmira yarn like I wanted to. I like the pattern I'm using because it's knit top-down so you can use any yarn and needles for it and just sort of adjust it as you make it. I had some issues starting it because of so few stitches on the needles and increasing too much but I don't think it's really affected it much. I'm totally going to make this again in some of the nicer acrylics I have leftover from other projects.