Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! I am home after a long drive yesterday back to my home town. It feels good to be home and I've been soaking up the relaxation time. This morning, I drank chamomile tea in my new tea cup and I worked on Kayla's Christmas scarf that I started yesterday. Did I mention that I painted this cup myself? It's Cinderella themed, hence the broom. I'll get a better close up later so you can see all of it. (Don't tell anybody but I'm making a set of four of these cups in fairy tale themed). And just a few minutes ago, I finished the first half of the tassles on the scarf! It's really long, double stranded, just some plain garter stitch in a soft, fuzzy yarn that I've had FOR EVER! It's nice to get rid of some of this yarn, although I have enough to make another :)

I'm thankful for the usual gambot of family, friends, food, a roof over my head, etc. so I think I'll be original...

I'm thankful for my creativity and my craftiness, curved tests, the mute button, hot cocoa, knee high socks, soap that smells like apple pie, benadryl, and q tips... What are you thankful for?

FO Show!

For lack of a better reason, I am going to blame my absence on poor lighting for not blogging. Bellingham has been seriously hit by a wind storm over the past week and there seems to be little sign of it ending. As some strange coincidence, the wind is worst at night when all the little college children are snug in their beds, except me who works :( I was actually stuck walking home in probably the worst of it last night and I heard a tree falling down. I'm not sure if you heard me... a tree... FALLING DOWN! It was a terrifying experience but I'm safe and sound at home. We did have a power outage and because of all the grayness, I haven't had a good chance to capture my knitting, and there is plenty of it.
First, I'll start with what is most recent. After our recent chilly weather (and by chilly I mean blistering cold teeth chattering weather), I decided to make a BIG warm scarf. All I have on hand right now is this white sport (?) weight yarn. I know they still sell it so if by any chance I run out of it, I'll just run my happy self down to get some more. White is extremely difficult to photograph on a gray day because I had to use flash so don't take the blurriness for bad work. It's actually really pretty and I'm looking forward to wearing it in ten years when I manage to finish it.

This is how bad the lighting is. It's the middle of the day, I had all the lights on in my apartment, and I still can't manage to shed some light on the lacy leaf pattern I'm using. Next up is an FO! I have fallen in love with how simple these bed socks are. I have been reading Wicked lately (actually I just finished Wicked and am reading the sequel Son of a Witch) and thought that a pair of shiny socks would be good. I had some left over yarn from the gloves I made last post so I decided to make some socks. I like how the socks turned out way better than the gloves, so if I ever need a quick knitting fix, I'm going to tear them back and make some cute socks out of them. Isn't it weird how you can buy yarn for a specific project and use it for something completely different? I initially bought this yarn intending to make a pair of opera gloves of my own design. I have been too busy with school to even consider my own design work, so socks it is!

Last time I made these socks, I couldn't get the join right for the tips of the socks, so this time I sewed them shut like you would a hat and it worked way better.

Another WIP I've been meaning to share is this fair isle scarf I started on for a while but I'm slightly embarrassed about it. After seeing Elinor's beautiful set of fair isle pieces, I decided that I would try and design my own scarf with the same idea. Yes, I know it's a total rip off of her idea, but I'm not selling the pattern or anything, I just wanted to get some more practice with fair isle. I think I bit off a little more than I could chew because I started with some of the hardest peeries available in the book I bought specifically for this project and I have set it aside in frustration. I can't seem to achieve even tension no matter what methods I try, and I don't want to make something that I spent so much money on that will just turn into crap. I've read that blocking will help fix most tension problems, so I am going to block what I have and see how it fares. If it's any good, I'll continue. If not, I've got some ripping to do. Maybe there's another technique out there that can fix my problems but not at the moment.

You can see from the picture the book I bought for the project. It's a small, spiral bound book without any instructions or patterns of fair isle projects. It is simply a library of different stitch peeries. It's a great reference tool for anyone looking for more advanced fair isle, but since I've only ever attempted fair isle once (and was successful leading to the silly thought that I was actually good at it :P), I might need to make something smaller first.

Last but not least is one of my favorite FO's so far this winter. I found a hat by rosedale9 on Ravelry (sorry for those of you who don't have it. It's not posted anywhere else). Last year I made a purple beret that was my first attempt at a pattern hat. It didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to because of the pattern. I didn't have the heart to let go of the hat because I love the yarn so it ended up sitting in the bottom of my sock drawer for the longest time. Then, about a week ago, I found the hat on Ravelry and decided to make a second attempt at a cute hat. I still need to add some cute buttons or beads on the side, but so far I've already worn it more times than the purple beret. Yeah for recycling!

It's a simple rolled brim hat made from a skinny purple yarn wrapped with a sparkly white strand. Double stranded, this hat used up three donut skeins of this yarn, the name of which is escaping me. Just for fun, I added a poof ball like the original hat. I really like how slouchy and loose the hat looks and feels. The bigger needles made the softness of the yarn come out better and I used up all the yarn, including what was left over from the beret during my last attempt.

This is me wishing that the weather was better so I could be outside. Oh well ;)

Hopefully your knitting is going more fluidly than mine right about now! Ta!

Sparkly things!

In order to make up for my failure as a blogger, I have decided to distract you with some shiny things! I made this pattern up for myself. I'm sure other people have made them before but I am going to write it up eventually. They are warm, slightly itchy because of the sparkles, but I'm sure will soften up in no time! My hands will finally be warm! On a bit of a side note, one of my professors asked me a few days ago if I was a hat person. I was puzzled by his question, which clearly showed on my face. He said since I hadn't taken off my hood (it had been raining outside but inside I had neglected to remove my hood) and he had seen me previous days wearing several different knitted hats. I said that I hadn't really thought about it, and that I was only wearing my hood because I hadn't taken it off yet. I pulled the hood off and he laughed at me. I realized that underneath my brown hood, I was wearing a white hat. I am officially a hat person :)

Bling Bling

Dear Blog,
I am a horrible blogger. I have been putting you off, neglecting you, and making you feel unwanted. So, here's some eye candy to get your pallette (?) salivating... something like that.
I've started knitting some charity washcloths with left over cotton yarn from stash enhancement adventures. I ran out of melon, so I had to do stripes at the top. I have ten in various colors, mostly creams.

And, I got my nose pierced! I've been wanting to for a while and today I actually did it. The grossest part was the first cleaning, but I won't scare you away with the gory details (if you really want to know, shoot me an email and I'll fill you in).

I love it but am not looking forward to my first night with a hole in my face... besides the ones that should be there :) Ta!

PS... How did I let my 50th blog post slip by without any recognition? I think the one year anniversary will have to have some sort of giveaway...

Fresh Start

Well, dear blog, after a rough night, I am ready for the sunshine! With that, because I have been a bad blogger lately, I have a special surprise. Because I am working on my art portfolio right now, I thought I would share some of my life outside of yarn... although this barely stretches past knitting. Recently, my grandma asked me if I could make her a reusable bag. Not just any old bag, my grandma gave me some recycled plastic bag yarn she had made from her forages into the bins at grocery stores. Cut into tubes and threaded together, several bags makes one large bag when crocheted. Killing two birds with one stone, I have been working on this madly because 1) it's mindless single crochet and 2) is part of my portfolio and once I finish it I can work on the other eleven pieces and 3) because it is a gift for my grandma. I'm up to the third stripe and plan to add a flower on the corner. I have stalled with my work with my sweaters because classes have just started and increasing for the bust sounds much less appealing than doing homework so I don't flunk out of college :) Anyway, I can't spend all day inside today because it is gorgeous. I will leave you with the reason why I love Washington... not too hot, not too cold!

Have a great day! And enjoy the sunshine or the sunshine police will kidnap you out of your house and force some much needed vitamin D down into your pores...

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,
I have been neglectful. I have made you wait and wait and wait without word of me. I'm sure you were worried sick. I'm okay, but I'm going to be out for a while. I know... I know I just got back but I am going to be very busy with school and I don't need to explain myself. You are going to have to be patient, blog, because mommy has some stuff to do. Before I go again, I will leave you with some hints as to what I've been doing.

Scrap blanket behind the dolphin pillow was inspired by a blanket by http://kgirlknits.blogspot.com/ Check it out. Also, I've cast on for my Apres Surf hoodie. Yes, sweet blog, I am making my first sweater (or at least my first sweater that might actually turn out). It's orange and delicious and I love it. I'm also making another sweater but I haven't got any photos to show you. This is my new apartment (or at least my desk in my new apartment). I have finally moved to Bellingham again, dearest blog. I know you will miss the old house, and it is so much colder here, but it will become your home as well.

And finally, my first home cooked meal inside my brand spankin' new apartment. I'm sorry you couldn't be there to share, dear blog, but it was delicious and the left overs are going to be amazing. Until next time, bloggie, I am going to have to bid you adieu!

New Stuff!

I can't really describe why I have been avoiding blogging, probably because I don't want to admit failure, but I will finally crawl back out of the whole I have dug myself into. First, here's my first attempt at grafting. The sock on the right is the first sock I did... AMAZING right? Left sock... horrid.

But, as the first blue item I have made in probably over a year (which is weird because I wear blue and consider it one of my favorite colors). Next on the list, the ever popular Robin's Egg hat in grey. I LOVE this hat and am wearing it at the moment (don't ask me why I wear hats so late at night.. let's just say I'm weird and leave it at that). This picture is what ten minutes before bed time looks like.

I even found a button from my stash to dress it up. I've probably had this button for a couple of years and finally found a good use for it *squeal*

Sorry about the bad pictures, this tends to happen when I am frustrated about previous knitting projects.

Which leads me to this grey abomination. I love cables and I really like this yarn but the hat was really non-fun to knit because I made the mistake of knitting it too tight and twisting the stitches.

I decided to knit for charity a few weeks ago and since this doesn't fit me, I am going to give it to someone in need (and with a wee head!)

That's all the knitting news for now. I also wanted to let you know that I am applying for the education program at my school so I am going to be getting busier. I am going to try not to neglect the blog, but I can't say what the future will bring. Wish me luck yall!

PS. I will set up the links and such later but right now I am too tired. Good night and sweet dreams!