Did I ever mention how I wanted to knit the Calligraphy Cardigan with my Miss Babs Whatta Skein I got at Stitches West? Like, ages ago? Like, around the time Susan B. Anderson started hers?
Yeeeeeeahhh....
So I never did that.
But that's why time keeps on keeping on! So we can do those things we meant to do. Right?
Once I block this sucker I can start doing my gauge calculations- Since it's knit flat I'm using a size 5 AND a size 3, to account for my loose purls. It's still a tiny bit uneven but I'm hoping with a bit of water it will turn out nicely. Actually, though, I'm afraid even with 5's and 3's my gauge will be too loose. And 3's are the smallest needles I have in this particular interchangeable set. So I might just do magic maths with whatever gauge I DO get....
In other news, my son's adorable woolen sweater with the felt dinosaur? Shrunk when it was washed and dried. This wouldn't have surprised you or I, but it did shock my mom, who immediately bought me more yarn to make him another one. So that's on the needles, too. It's just plain grey this time around- I really wanted to do some cute fair isle on it, but he insisted to have a dinosaur on this one too. Oh well.
Some other stuff I'm just going to put out there randomly because I'm still waiting for the video to upload and perhaps you are still waiting for the video to download:
1) I watched Life of Pi and it made me cry from the very beginning because I already knew what was going to happen. And it was in 3D which always hurts my head but it was still totally awesome.
2) My shoes are absolutely falling apart but I'm afraid to go shop for new ones because it's December and my brain assumes that all stores are absolutely teeming with crazy people wanting sales. Even though they probably aren't.
3) I'm grateful for my job because I realize a lot of people really need and want one, but I hate it so much that I have started a brand new journal dedicated solely to complaints about my job, the rude things people say, and contemplative reflection on how I am basically a robot. I had to do this because it was starting to be all I would talk about and my family was getting sick of it. So now I have a journal.
4) Christmas still depresses me, just like every year previous.
5) I don't think I ever mentioned it on The Blog, but I'm going to "come out" and tell you all that I am an alcoholic. I haven't had a drink in 2 and a half years, I don't go to meetings or anything anymore, and I haven't had any thoughts about drinking at all but I just thought I'd mention it for the sake of truth. Just so you know me a little better.
6) Which reminds me that I never told you about the very first sweater I knitted, and what happened to it. One day I will, I promise.
7) A story:
One Friday at work I was hauling boxes around, pricing freight and putting away merchandise when this young Asian guy came up to me. He was talking on his phone but told his friend, "Hold on a second, I'm going to ask." I was crouched down putting away some printing screens, but I straightened up as I heard him come near. "How can I help you?"
He replies, "I wonder if you have a jacket that will fit this." And he puts a little object in the palm of my hand. I stare at it for a minute. "Is that Jesus?" To his friend, the guy says, "She's asking if it's Jesus." To me, "How did you know?"
It's obviously a baby Jesus from a nativity set, but I tell him what tipped me off was the modest cloth wrapping him. He goes, "Yeah, I know. He's cold. I need a jacket for him."
He was serious, so I took him to the dollhouse stuff where we didn't find anything suitable. I asked to see the Jesus again (he made a point to tell his friend on the phone that I was asking to see the Jesus again.) and considered telling the guy that I could totally TOTALLY knit this baby Jesus a jacket but I ended up just handing it back and telling him I was sorry I couldn't help out. Jackets for Jesus: it sounds like a charity.
8) One more story:
We sell stamp collecting stuff where I work, and you'd be absolutely shocked at the amount of LED lit magnifying glasses that get stolen. That and exact-o knives are like the most stolen item in my department. Apparently magnifying glasses are really popular; We get a lot of guys coming in looking for them. One day this middle-aged gentleman came in and asked where our magnifying glasses were located. I walked him over to them and showed him our selection. "I need something STRONGER," he claimed. Well, we also have a ton of magnifying glasses over with all the embroidery stuff and so I thought I'd be a nice employee and walk him over there instead of just point him in the general direction. On the way I tried to make some small talk, and asked what he was working on that was so intricate. He stopped, turned to face me, leaned in towards me and went, "It's for my plants. My Cannibas plants! You know, MARIJUANA!" He then gave me this weird expression like, "Hah! What are you going to say now!?" And I nodded and went "Oh I see," And he proceeded to tell me about the crystals that grow on the plants and how he wants to count them. So then I showed him the magnifying glasses which weren't strong enough, either. I ended up telling him he could probably find some specialty product online, but the guy sure was memorable. Maybe that's where all those stolen magnifiers are going...
As I'm sure you guessed, my mystery item was a hat. I mean, if it fit in a tub of water that small it had to be either a hat or cowl, right?
So I don't think I ever mentioned it but last week I finally acquired the book Weekend Hats by Cecily Glowik Macdonald and Melissa Labarre. I usually don't buy books that only have patterns inside, (I like technique and design books better) but since hats are quick and easy and there's a certain holiday coming up, I thought I might make an exception.
I couldn't resist the urge to cast on a new hat and, since I had just
finished my son's sweater, I picked out my tippy top favorite and headed
to the stash bin. And... well, Ok I admit it I found NO YARN AT ALL (in
spite of the fact that I had to look through 4 bins of yarn in order to
determine this) and ended up heading out to buy a skein. I had wanted a
bright color but ended up with some (you guessed it) Paton's Classic
Wool in "Plum Heather."
220 yards and I sat down, cast on and.... knit a freaking hat. Or, rather, I purled a freaking hat- not a whole ton of actual knitting in this pattern. Serious. I sat down and worked on it and worked on it and ignored everything else for several hours. I got up only to use the restroom, get some stitch markers and a post-it when I got to the cable, and to get my dpns when it was time to start shaping. 0_o
I think I was suffering knitting withdrawals.
I'm planning on knitting the Wanderer Cap next. ;)
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (Less than 2 skeins for a size 4T sweater)
Needles: Size 4
Pattern: Bottom-up Raglan, using Elizabeth's Percentage System
After knitting, I went to the store and bought a sheet each of about 9
colors of felt. When I got home with them, I asked him to pick out which
one he wanted his T-rex to be.
I was expecting him to pick red, but the understated olive green is actually a much better choice. A button for the eye adds just a bit of dimension.
Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a little boy's sweater when he's busy trying to play in the backyard in his new sweater?
It's pretty hard.
But at least you can tell this little sweater's going to get a lot of wear.
I blame the dinosaur.
Linking up with Tamis Amis this week. Have fun checking out more FO's!
You know how when you're soooo close to completion on a project, you just can't put it down? No matter how late it gets, you just have to finish it? That was the case with my son's sweater last night. That's something I love about bottom-up raglan sweaters: once you join the sleeves and body it truly does "progress like a house on fire," as EZ states in Knitting Without Tears. Doubly so when you're knitting for a 2-year-old.
Instead of knitting a nice ribbed neckline to match the rest of the sweater, I cast off purl-wise in the contrasting color. Why? Because my son is vehemently against choky, itchy necklines and I would like him to actually wear this sweater.
After binding off, I set it for a nice soak and put it down to dry.
I still have to graft the underarms, and then the final touch will be a cute little felt dinosaur sewn on to the front.
Unless I decide to cut it down the middle.
You never know.
Oh, and the title of the post is what Vyvyan exclaimed this morning when he awoke to see it drying on the bed.
:)
Hello everyone!
Today I wanted to share a non-fiber project. Ever since I've been working at a big box craft store I've had a few overpowering feelings:
1) An urge in the artistic direction (I work primarily in the art department, after all)
2) An overwhelming desire to get away from mass-production
3) A secret underlying hatred of the human race.
I guess number 3 is unrelated to this post...but it's still true.
So in addition to arts and crafts supplies, my store also sells home decor. There are these seriously adorable little 12x12 prints for sale. They're cartooney little pictures made for a child's room- a tiger hiding behind bushes, a rocket going out into space, etc and every time I walk by them I think, "dang those are so cute! I want one for my son's room!" And then I think about how NOT unique that would be. How much more would those pictures mean to me if they were made with my son specifically in mind? What if I made one myself?
In fact, I decided on something even better: My son and I each got a 12x12 canvas, and I drew a line on each with my charcoal pencil. I instructed him, "Paint below the line with green." Of course, he's 2 so I ONLY PUT OUT GREEN. I put out a few different shades of green, but left it at that. Once we were finished with the bottom (he strayed a bit, of course.) I cleaned all the brushes, set out new paint and said, "Paint above the line with blue!" Off we went.
Then, I went online for simple outline drawings of our favorite dinosaurs. I printed them out, enlarged at 150% and then we waited for our backgrounds to dry. In the meantime we painted some little wooden letters to spell out our dino names and then ... Well then I gave him a bath because he needed it. And also because he put SO much paint on his canvas that it was seriously refusing to dry.
I glued on the letters while he played with a puzzle nearby, and then I added the dinosaurs. Now, I can't draw. This is a fact, and is why I went with a printout. I used black to trace the outline of the dinos, as fast as possible. I used a LOT of black, laying it on thickly and quickly. Then, simply flipped the paper over and pressed it down on the canvas being careful not to smudge. Voila! Dinosaur outline!
Then Vyvyan came back over and he "painted" his dino. (I held his hand steady and basically painted it for him) We set them out to dry, and now we have 2 cute paintings to put in his room. And the best part is that we did it ourselves so they will be much more special and unique.
And here they are!
The T-Rex is still not dry, which is why it looks kind of blurry in the picture. Once he dries, I will draw on his sharp teeth with a black permanent marker.
So now you know my favorite dinosaur. Except, Stegosaurus isn't really my favorite dinosaur. Except, it is. See, my favorite favorite is the Dimetrodon but it turns out dimetrodon wasn't technically a dinosaur at all. (Betcha didn't know that.) Stegosaurus is a close second.
So,
What's YOUR favorite dinosaur?
I used random.org to pick out a number (the max is 65 instead of 71 because there were a few replies to comments that I didn't want to count as double entries) and the winner is commenter #57.
Congratulations to Susan, fellow blogger of SusanD1408CrochetAddict! I'll be sending out this little parcel as soon as possible.
Thank you to everyone who entered; I love doing giveaways and will have to host another quite soon.
You know how some projects you just speed through? You buy the yarn and before you even have a chance to input it into your Ravelry stash it's all used up and you have a new hat or scarf? I love those projects. However, I seem to have a lot of the other type going on right now: The ones that languish in a bag somewhere, wondering when you are ever going to sew the pieces together. The ones that are large, comprised of boring stitch patterns, and often involve lots of finishing work.
The project I'm sharing today was first started on July 1, 2012. It has been in a state of near-completion since September and I finally got around to sewing all of the pieces together. It's still not done, however, because I have to sew on the buttons and... well it has sat around my room for so long that 2 of them are missing!
So yeah: I'll be honest with you guys. Since I last posted about this Pea Wee Coat all that's changed is I sewed on the collar and 2 pockets.
But isn't my son modeling his cousin's new coat adorable???? He spent a good deal of time looking for the missing buttons with me, because he wants me to start on his sweater. ;)
2 years ago today my brother, sister in law and myself were sitting around the living room talking when somehow the subject came around to blogs. We had each had one in the past, mostly of the self-brooding MySpace variety and started wondering what we would blog about now that we were grown. It didn't take me long to decide I would start a knitting blog, and after my brother suggested the title, "Don't Drool on the Wool," I kind of just up and ran with it. As my first post suggested, I didn't really have any idea whether it would stick, but I'm glad it did!
For a long time Don't Drool on the Wool was really just a knitting diary that happened to be on the internet- I had no followers for nearly a year, but after blogging steadily and starting to link up with Tamis Amis as well as getting active by reading and commenting on others' blogs I managed to find myself smack in the middle of this awesome knitting/blogging community!
You know what I love about blogiversaries? They're the perfect opportunity for a giveaway!
First, the rules:
1) This giveaway is open to Earth residents only: I can pay shipping around the world but not to Mars, please.
2) You do not have to be a follower of my blog to enter: just leave a comment!
Now for the prizes!
I don't know about you but I look forward eagerly to each publication of Interweave's Knitscene. I picked up an extra copy of the Winter 2012 edition for one of you lucky readers!
Also snuggled in your parcel will be a skein of yummy Plymouth Yarn's Worsted Merino Superwash. This squishy worsted, in a color hand-chosen for you by my 2 year old son, rolls in at 218 yards: perfect for a hat or cowl this gift-giving season.
Speaking of giving gifts! I think it is very important to label your hand-knit presents with washing instructions or fiber content, and what better way to do it than these super cute foil gift tags?
Aren't they adorable? I can't get over the owl, seriously.
So there you have it. Just leave a comment on this post and you'll be entered into my 2 year blogiversary. I'll leave the comments open until November 12th and pull a name and announce it on Tuesday November 13th.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a way for me to contact you in your comment. Ravelry ID is perfect if you don't want to leave your email out in the open. If you are the winner and I don't hear back from you by the following week (November 20th, Tuesday) I will have to pick a runner up.
As always, Happy Knitting, and thank you thank you thank you for reading, commenting, and being an omnipresent force that occasionally deters me from casting on 6,000 new projects at once.
COMMENTS NOW CLOSED! Thanks to everyone who entered & good luck!
My hat is finally complete. It seemed to go on and on and on, probably because it is like the longest hat ever. And it was made out of fingering weight yarn.
I think if I attempted this knit again, I wouldn't knit straight to the full 13". This particular hat is meant to be slouchy, and the decrease rows lend to that effect, but I do think I'd like a nice fingering weight hat without the excess at the top.
It makes me feel a bit like Dobby, but it's a hat made out of bright green zombie yarn so that's to be expected.
Here it is without the brim rolled up:
I'm soooo sorry my pictures suck by the way. I was trying to take advantage of the lighting in the morning but only had my cell phone camera. Weird... tilted pictures... Sorry.
Anyways this particular hat will be making it's trip to my friend quite soon. She is healing quite well from her surgery, and the last time I went to visit we walked around to the park with my son and she was almost just like new. Except, you know, she's a zombie now.
Duplicate stitch was a disaster. Trying to combine stranding with intarsia was a hot mess, and I finally hit the happy medium.
Good ol' intarsia.
I'm just using small lengths of yarn and spit-slicing as needed: I did this all in one sitting! It's going by so fast, and I can't wait to finish the pair. I was seriously about to give this project up! I was so bummed out, too, because I bought the pattern and yarn together and I hate having to re-purpose yarn when I got it specifically for one thing. Especially when the pattern is so dang cute! I'm glad I tried plain intarsia- and because it's 100% wool I'm sure all the uneven stitches will block out revealing the cutest badgers ever!
Happy November! I plan on doing a monthly review for October (ahem, and also September...) this Sunday when I have a day off and so today will just be a quick update. In case you're wondering I did finish something this month and I'm just waiting to get some pictures.
Speaking of pictures, I'll use this as a lame segue to show ya'll me and my bf's Halloween costumes:
We had a gay ol' time taking the goblin trick or treating, and then stealing all of his candy.
Well, Halloween has come and gone... every day brings us closer to that certain gift-giving season, and my knitting is far, far behind.
I did, however, start working on my Woodsy Association mitts. I chose the badger to knit first, and decided to work it all in duplicate stitch after knitting a solid square. Let me just tell you up front that this was the stupidest decision ever on my part.
1) I don't really enjoy duplicate stitch because it feels too much like sewing and not enough like knitting.
2) Duplicate stitch is fine for small areas and blocks of color that line up nicely: not so much for patches of color unless you plan on cutting and weaving in all the ends in which case you might as well just do the dang thing in intarsia.
3) I freaking hate plain stockinette stitch when working flat.
4) It feels absolutely useless to finish knitting a little square and then realize you still have to sew on a badger/wolf/owl/raccoon/stag.
So basically, I got about this far before realizing that doing it this way was a quick way to crazytown.
And yeah. I'm just going to leave it like that. There's no going back on all that duplicate stitch. But at least I know that cast on number is good for me, and as long as I do the stranded intarsia VERY loosely, I should have some cute badger mitts to show off soon!
You know what else I hate about duplicate stitch? I can't show you my work in progress and have it be at all interesting. Why? Cuz it's a square of brown stockinette stitch. YAWN!
Oooh! Ooh! Ooooh! And my anniversary is coming up! Year 2! I'll be announcing my giveaway prizes soon so keep an eye out.
It occurred to me after my last post that I never actually mentioned the hat I was knitting for my best friend. I bought the Fishknits Opulence in colorway Zombie Stomper at Lambtown earlier in the month with the intention of knitting her some comfortable socks as a get well present. I realized at the last moment, however, that the Opulence is 10% cashmere and it would probably be better to knit something that gets less wear and tear. So I decided to knit Sock Head instead.
Zombie green yarn to nestle my best buddy's brains. I mean... head.
I don't think I've ever made a hat out of sock yarn before, and the never ending knit knit knit is making me reconsider every time I have ever thought about knitting a sweater in fingering weight. Seriously, it's a pretty lengthy project considering how small it is. I'm about 9" along so I've got another 4" or so before I can start the decreases.
It may look incredibly long and skinny but I tried it on and it fits nicely. Not to mention the brim will be rolled up and it's meant to be a bit slouchy at the top.
It's a great project to keep with me in my bag- a few rows here and there on my lunch breaks- but it's really no fun at all when sitting around watching the ball game. Just a whole lotta stockinette stitch.
Still got a ways to go, but I'm trying to work on it exclusively for now to make me feel better about casting on something new. We'll see how that goes ;)
Yesterday when I got home from work I logged onto Facebook and saw an update from Tiny Owl Knits. She's released a new (adorable!) pattern called The Woodsy Association. And, yes, I immediately went to Knit Picks and bought the pattern as well as a cartload of yarn to go with it...
And I realized that since I rarely update anymore it probably looks like I don't ever knit anything. But, even though I'm not talking about it, I could be churning out tons and tons of knitwear over here. In fact I could have finished all those projects I ever mentioned, and they could in fact NOT be sitting in WIP bags all over my bedroom. And if that were true then the fact that I've cast on for yet another sweater wouldn't be at all disheartening.
And the shawl, the totoro, the ugly sweater, my scarf, my niece's cardigan, my mom's socks, my brother's socks, my socks, my dad's socks, and my best friend's hat are all tucked away elsewhere while I convince myself thoroughly that in the time it takes for my new Knit Picks yarn to arrive I will totally finish my sweater in spite of the fact that I work 40 hours a week and have basically no time to knit at all.
...
I bought yarn, too, and I realize you probably care about that more but it is right before work and so I have no lighting. Next time, knittens. (P.S. Some of it may have been acquired for Blogiversary purposes!)
I don't know about where you guys live, but around here? Some kind of
icky cold is going around, and I've caught it. So I feel really sickly
and gross, and like all I'd like to do is lay on the couch with a
blanket and watch bad Dracula movies.
I whipped up the hat to this set the night I got back from Lambtown. I decided to do a ruched top, worked the entire thing and weaved in the ends before realizing I hate ruched tops and going back and having a redo. Then I woke up the next morning and decided I hated the ribbed brim, snipped a stitch and worked downward for a rolled stockinettte brim.
The mitts were done the next day while I watched really bad Piranha movies. (Ps. In case you are wondering, Mega Piranha is SO MUCH WORSE than Piranha.) They're convertible mitts with a peasant thumb. For the top I did something different than I usually do: instead of integrating them with the mitt I worked them afterwards like a sock toe and then sewed them on. I did this out of laziness and getting-sickiveness and I-wanna-do-this-without-thinking-ness. It worked, technically, but I'm not the biggest fan of the result and might have a redo on the mittens after the scarf is done.
The scarf, I started the same day as the mittens, worked 38" while watching Dracula Dead and Loving It and Castaway on the Moon. Then I couldn't knit any longer and went to bed. The next day I ran out of the first ball of yarn. I had thought a bit about the fact that they were hand-dyed and had done a bit of the every other row transition, so without thinking I continued with the new ball while I watched Aah! Zombies!! and Albatross (Aah! Zombies!! being the better of the two.) Every once in a while I'd head to the mirror and look at the scarf and see how long I needed to make it. I knit 20" before someone turned on a light. So, yeah, the new ball of yarn was like burgundy red and the old ball of yarn was like reddish pink and I almost decided to cut the red ball and continue knitting with the third ball of yarn and pretend it was deliberate until.... I realized that the second ball of yarn was... ITCHY. It had an entirely different consistency than the other two balls (Dur! Could it be that the one ball had 5% less silk in it???) It wouldn't have mattered except that those 20" were probably the ones that would cozy around my neck the most. So, long story short? Frogged the 20" and now we're up to date.
But now I'm sick and don't feel like knitting. Boo.
Linking up with Tamis Amis because I love to.
Happy knitting!
Today was the day I've been awaiting with fervor: Lambtown in Dixon, CA. It took a little over an hour to drive there, but it was well worth it for the food, the music, the animals and especially the yarn! The only thing I regret is that I went by myself as my only knitting friends were either busy or too far out of town.
First off, I had a lovely chat with Colleen (and her daughter Carla) of Fiber Confections. I learned a little bit about CVM sheep. Their farm had 2 sets of twin lambs born in March. The first set? Thelma & Louise. The second set? Lucy & Ethyl. I couldn't resist and bought a skein of each. (That's 2 skeins of yarn, because the twins' fleece was mixed) Because it was the lambs' first shearing, the yarn is sooooo soft.
The top two skeins are from Fiber Confections. Thelma & Louise on the right, with Lucy & Ethyl the darker of the two. I'll get to the alpaca at the bottom later.
Right next door to Fiber Confections was the Fishknits booth- a family business type operation in which all family members seemed to have a pair of socks on the go (2 at a time, no less). I was in awe of all of their yarn but resisted the temptation... until I saw their "Zombiefyed yarn." It seemed providential, because my best friend is having oral surgery that involves inserting a bit of jaw from a cadaver into her own mouth. We've all been joking around that she's going to be zombiefied, but I know it's a scary thought for her to be going into surgery at all and have been planning a care package for a while now. What would make it better than if I knit her a pair of cashmere blend socks in zombie colors? I managed to talk myself out of buying the yarn, thanked the family for their business card and walked back out into the sun. And turned right back around and bought a skein.
It was just meant to be.
Anyways perhaps you remember that what I've been wanting was some soft, chunky, red wool yarn. And I've been saving money and waiting for Lambtown hoping I would find JUST what I was looking for. Well it turns out that most of the vendors at Lambtown seemed to be banking on the fact that sock yarn is a quick, easy impulse buy and there was little to no chunky yarn to be had. And definitely none in red.
I decided instead to turn my attention to exceptionally squishy and soft white yarn
because I can always dye it red. This combined with a sale led to the
purchase of the three skeins of white alpaca shown previously. I have no
idea what it's going to be because I ended up finding something
suitable for my mitten/hat/scarf set afterwards.
I actually bought three skeins (a total of about 21 oz) but the first one had already been balled up and so it was impossible to photograph. Ok ok if you want to laugh I'll show you what it looked like.
Hee hee. I love big balls of yarn.
Anyways this stuff came from Nebo Rock Textiles located in Covelo, CA. It's decently soft and chunky, and the color (hand dyed by Janet Heppler) is wonderful. It's not red, exactly, and the three skeins are not actually the same dye lot- in fact one of them has a slightly different fiber content- but by blending the skeins I think the set will come out wonderfully. Fiber content is 20% silk, 80% merino, except the one that has only 15% silk. I can't wait to cast on!
But before I go and do just that, I'll share a few more pictures of the festival.
Sheep Shearing Contest
Shetland
Good Ol' Suffolk
Cutie little Corriedale
Rainbow sheep
"Mobility" The coolest band ever because they're all decked out in their Air Force uniforms as they walk like Egyptians. All 80's, in black sunglasses.
Eating the fence!
This sheep was the nicest one at the whole event. He rubbed up on me like a kitty and everyone gave him a nice big head rub.
Well that's it, you guys. I went to Lambtown and had a blast. I'm sure I'll go again next year, too. Now that red yarn is calling to me...
and this was one of them. Lately as I've been arriving at work early in the morning it has been cold enough that I've been thinking about a hat and mitten set.
Not this one, though, this one is going to make a nice Christmas present for someone on my list... I want a red hat and mitten set, and the whole time I was knitting these mittens I was quite woeful about the fact that they are not, indeed, red. (Lesson learned: purple is not red, and knitting purple mittens will not make that "must knit red mittens" feeling go away.)
I also want an incredibly soft next-to-the-skin wool to use with it. I'm thinking about Malabrigo Worsted but am not opposed to picking a chunkier weight to make them quicker. I might add a scarf to the set as well and speed would be of essence with a scarf... Preferably so that I never realize I am knitting a scarf. (I think scarves are the most boring knit ever.)
Anyway, that's coming up: a bright red scarf/hat/mitten set to cheerfully peak out of my black coat while I sit in front of Hobby Lobby inwardly begging that Dirk would leave the damn coffee alone for once and let us in on time. The reason I haven't gone shopping for this yet is because LAMBTOWN is coming up. (All caps because I'm so excited!)
If I don't find something good at Lambtown (for the mittens; I'm sure I'll find something good.) then I'll pop in to Knitique at Elk Grove, or perhaps Anna's Yarn Shoppe which recently changed location. If that fails me I know good ol' Rumpelstilkskin has lots of Malabrigo for sale.
Oh by the way the mittens are my go-to pattern, Warmest Mittens and the set was knit with plain Paton's Classic Wool as I've acquired quite a stash of it. I'm thinking of knitting a whole ton of mittens in all different colors and selling them at a craft fair. They really only take a few movie's worth of time and I've memorized the pattern already. I bet once they've been worn a good amount they will felt wonderfully.
Anyways, sorry to neglect you dear blog and dear knitting.
I've been so busy with work, and then since I'm working in the art
department I've been trying to paint and draw on my free time as well.
Seriously? It's hilarious. This one's going in my son's room:
The best picture is probably the one I did of my hands. I drew my left hand first and then decided to label the jobs all my fingers do while I knit and realized my right hand is a lot more interesting. However, in order to draw my right hand I needed to use my Left hand. (I realized afterward I could totally have taken a picture instead.) And so the first hand looks moderately deformed and the second one looks like a freakin' werewolf! It's both disgusting and hilarious at the same time.
Pattern: Pea Wee Coat by Vickie Howell
Yarn: Washable Ewe by Stitch Nation
Hook: H
Modifications: None, because I'm a freaking beginner at this. Well, okay I may have inadvertently made one sleeve far longer than the other but that was less of a modification and more of an accident with gauge. Oddly, it's the sleeve that looks short in the above picture that is actually the long one.
Other than the sleeves, the crocheting actually went quite well. Then, of course I reached that point where I was done creating the pieces and was just kind of staring at them like "hmm... now what?"
I learned quite a bit in the last year about how to seam knit pieces properly and it was like I was starting all over again with crochet. Luckily I had bought that Craftsy course "Beyond Rectangles," and I logged on and watched the bit about seaming. You know what she suggested? Whipstitch.
The whole time I was seaming (and it took almost an hour to do this wee sweater) I was sitting there like, "Whipstitch? Seriously!? Whipstitch." but it worked. The seams are a little bulky but the blend in surprisingly well with the single crochet and it hasn't even been steamed yet! I still have to sew the collar on, though, and the pockets because a girl can only seam for an hour before starting to go completely insane. After that, though it's just about done once I find the right buttons for it.
I was so bummed because I thought I had the perfect buttons in my stash.
And it turns out they're only ALMOST perfect: They're too small and go right through the buttonholes. :(
So tomorrow I'll have to start hunting for some slightly larger skull & bone buttons. Le Sigh.
So that's where I'm at. And while I'm here talking about crochet garments let me just say that I am most likely never crocheting a sweater for myself. I'll stick with the knit goods and leave crochet for little stuffed animals and granny squares.
P.S> Hey! It's wednesday! Guess I'm linking up with Tamis Amis ;)
.jpg)
