I finished the last homespun sweater. Here it is, with a matching hat:

I was pretty far on my stepfather's scarf and ripped it out AGAIN! There was nothing wrong with it, except that there wouldn't have been enough yarn for sufficient length and i was NOT going to order more...cause then I would have to order from Smiley's. So this morning I went out and got some Woolease Thick & Quick (3 skeins) which I am going to use. This had better be enough. Maybe I can use some of the fancy stitches here. It should be quick tho.....

I've also started on another (and last for Christmas) baby sweater. This one has a really really neat design on it, which I am not going to divulge right now. I watched an Indiana Jones movie (young adventures) last night and by the end I was nearing the armholes...yeah. It is going kind of slow because it is cotton, and I don't want to mess up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone who celebrates it has a nice, relaxing day filled with good food and fun. If you're like me, and far away from your families for the holiday, then I send extra cheer to you! :)

Awhile ago I broke down and ordered a grab bag of Cascade 220 from One Fine Yarn, since it was on sale and I don't have much 100% wool. I know, I know, I said I wouldn't...but I had been looking at the bag for awhile and I was ordering a Christmas stocking pattern so I figured why pay $4 to ship a $3 item, right? Anyways, I just wanted to say how great it was dealing with this company, super fast delivery (3 days!), cheap shipping (less than the actual price to ship, even), and just really fantastic all around. I was worried the grab bag would be all ugly colors, but it's so not...green, red, white (hrm, is this because I ordered a Christmas pattern?), light brown, and turquoise. Beautiful! And there was a cute little mini bag with a business card and some candies. I would definitely recommend this place to any yarn-a-holic. :)

This isn't really new, the Booga Bag was knit and delted early last week. But I had ordered grommets and now they're installed so I finally have a FO with pictures.First, the obligatory before and after show to show shrinkage:
The pillowcase really gives an idea of how much this baby shrunk, and in just one wash cycle.

I didn't like how bulky the knot was (including how much of the handles were used) with just tying both pieces in an overhand knot at the sides. That was not going to happen. So Instead I came up with a compromise. I tied one piece into an overhand knot and sort of shoved the end of the other piece through the loop. Voila, must smaller...and tying it really tight I think will hold it just fine. On the other side I of course used the other (now longer) strap to tie the knot and shoved the other (shorter) strap through the loop. I might put a few stitches in the knot just to reinforce it.

Here's a second shot:

The lighting wasn't good for pics today, for some reason, even tho it's sunny outside. I did my best with the editing tools tho. Besides that I haven't been knitting at all since a little bit Saturday morning. With this week being shortened, and next week being dead week (week before finals), my professors are having everything due by Wednesday. It's been hell on me but the bright side is that I shouldn't have that much work to do over break, I'll just continue on with my research really. Actually, I shouldn't even be writing this as I have homework this am that I need to do some more work on...so more knitting progress and updates once the vacation has begun. Knit on!

Na na na na...na na na na...hey hey hey...goodbye?

I've been having problems with my ISP for several months. Every few minutes it will disconnect me, and sometimes I can't get back on at all. Last weekend the guy came out, fiddled, said it should be working fine, and set me up with a new modem. It's not working fine. I am going to be cancelling my service with this company, as soon as my boyfriend comes down with a DSL modem. That said, I don't know what will happen with my site. I currently host it through my ISP so it definitely won't stay here, not sure if I will have space with my new isp, and if I will have the time to move everything over. *sigh* Not to mention I've spent SO much money on service I don't get. Have I ever said that I hate everything about this damn city?

Have you been to elann lately? No? Why the heck not? This morning I stopped by to see the new stock (as I usually do) and was shocked to see their website completely redesigned. It must be a trend, first Herrschners, now elann! I must say, elann's improvements are much more drastic (I had no problems with Herrschners before), my favorite being the fact that you can now right click and open target in new window, instead of having to keep going back and forward...yeah! Plus they put available colors and featured design all on the main page......and little index pics.......I'm super loving it. No longer will I have to keep clicking on the same ugly yarns because I forgot what they looked like.

The weekend is upon us! I had better go buy some turkey today before it is all gone, hehehehehe. No, really, I am just buying a breast and they are harder to find than whole turkeys, I only saw 2 or 3 at my grocery store the other day.

No knitting news...just did a few rows on the homespun kiddy sweater this morning. I am finding I get more work done when I knit less, tho my mental state suffers *sigh*. My advisor was really happy with the theorems I did. He was especially impressed at the one where I had to use this strange tool I had never used before...and then in his office I was able to do another.....maybe I am actually learning something here, hehe.

Just a mini-update, since it's been a few days since I posted. Monday I finished knitting the Booga Bag...here is a picture of it prefelted:

Obviously, I didn't use Kureyon, but opted for some yarn I got off e-bay at an exceptional price. It is sockweight, so I double stranded it. It felted really wonderfully, in one cycle it felted to the size I wanted (perhaps even a tiny bit smaller), and it was really soft to work with while knitting, much softer than the noro. I may have to buy some more yarn from this guy, I know I said I wouldn't, but it might end up as a last minute gift and it takes 2 weeks for the yarn to arrive...hmmmmm. Also I wouldn't mind making a bigger version for myself. Anyways no pictures of the finished bag yet as I am waiting on some grommets to install for the handles. I had previously bought eyelets (what was I thinking? Well they kind of look like grommets) and I am guessing that is because I couldn't find any grommets. I went looking last night still to no avail, so I am getting them off ebay. No biggie. So it will be several days before you see the finished pic.

No other knitting going on, just lots of work. I worked on my research last night and proved 2 (related) theorems! Yay! I hope my advisor is happy/proud/content. He mentioned last time that I really need to get something presentable, even tho I had a proof that time as well, and this one I hope is.

It's another FO kinda day. Last night I finished the green scarf I was working on:

I'm realllllly loving it...so soft and drapey...I might be keeping it for myself. The lightest green is TLC Amore double stranded, the sort of multicolor green is Lion Woolspun, and the other is Lion Kool Wool. I used one skein of each on size 10.5 needles.....25 stitches with a garter border went really fast. I had a little bit of yarn left over of each color and attempted a matching hat, but after false starting it many many times I gave up...the different textures and gauges of the yarn was not cooperating nearly as well as they did on the scarf. Oh well. I got my last yarn order yesterday....mmmmm.......wool........and am winding it up in preparation for a Booga Bag! I think I will work on that today, between actualy work.

I finished the sweater last night! Here it is:

It's for one of my boyfriend's nieces, I hope she likes and wears it!

BTW if anyone tried to go to the link for the soap I had in a previous post, it was linked to the wrong place. It's fixed now tho....or you can go to their main page here for other bath crafts and much more.

Whew! I am finally able to see over my piles of work...the stacks are worn down considerably. Today was a good yarn day, TWO packages. I raced home from school trying to get home before the leasing office closed in case UPS dropped off my yarn today and left it with the office. When I got home the office was closed, but there was no notice on my door anyways. I did get an ebay win in the mail tho. Sockweight yarn from germany, made of schurrewoole and lurex....if anyone knows what the former is I would be interested to know (I'm sure I spelled it wrong, too lazy to look at the wrapper). While I called Charter to complain about my perpetually interrupted internet service, UPS came by and dropped off my Smiley's order. Yay! A whole big box of yarn just for me! I got my other skein of Homespun Calypso, a skein of Homespun Evergreen (to go with 3 skeins I had, to make a sweater and hat combo for a little girl), 2 skeins of gazebo for a sweater, a skein of woolease sport in sparkly white to go with another color for a sweater, 4 skeins of paton's kroy...2 in moss and 2 in purple heather...socks yay, and 4 skeins of lion alpaka in natural, for a scarf! Mmmmmm. The only downside is I had given up on it coming and started a new scarf, hehehe. It is fun and easy to knit tho...25 stitches on 10.5 needles works up pretty quick. I'm using 3 different yarns in 3 different shades of greens, and I am loving it! Pics eventually.

I've been really busy lately, but not too busy to knit! That's not completely true...I had a lot of work to do but it was the type of work that required me to use the internet, and of course my internet wasn't working. So rather than sit and make no progress I gave up for that time and knit these instead:

The bath mitt pattern came off a sugar and cream label. If I made this again I would adapt it to be knit in the round since seams are way too noticeable with variagated yarn. Then I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the (3 oz) skein so I fashioned a matching washcloth...with lots of texture for good scrubbing. I got the stitch pattern out of my Knitting dictionary....useful already!!! The little packets at the bottom are patties of oatmeal soap, which I made according to the recipe here. They came out alright, I ended up switching to a styrofoam cup as a mold cause I was worried I wouldn't be able to get the soap out of my ceramic coffee mug. It made a big mess, but a very clean mess since it's soap. It would be a lot more sensible to make lots of these than to set up shop just for 1 bar, as I did. Also next time I def will have to use scent, I forgot how much I hate the smell of just soap, ack! Besides that, I have tons of work to do as I wait for my yarn order to come in so I can finish the sweater.

Fuzzy Feet-o-Rama

Since I didn't trust my knitting, I worked on un-"screw up"-able projects. That is, some fuzzy feet slippers. The blue and green pair I had made awhile ago, the dark red and the light green/yellow pairs I just worked up this weekend. I dyed these 2 with koolaid after they were knitted. Here they are:

What a nightmare. The old cliché "when it rains it pours" certainly came true today. After class I drove all around looking for the yarn I needed. I didn't really expect to find it, but I had hoped. I went to my local Michael's...have I said how much I hate this store? They didn't have the yarn OR an acceptable size 4 circular needle OR anything else that was at all interesting. I had driven all the way there and had a coupon so I was going to find something to buy, dammit. I settled on a stitch dictionary, which I figure will come in handy. I also looked at Walmart for the yarn, to no avail. So I settled on ordering it from Smiley's, along with a bunch of other yarn to meet the $30 minimum.

Now for the really crappy part...I completely ruined both the Browns and Vikings hats. How? By washing them. The soaking overrelaxed the fibers and both hats grew to such an enormous size. I tried rewashing them with just detergent but this just made them huge and scratchy. I think they are junked. *sigh* I don't have time to reknit xmas gifts and I don't need the added stress. I think I should just not touch any knitting for awhile, lest it turn to crap. I worked a bit on the felted slippers, I figure perhaps maybe even I can't screw that up.

To add to the dismalness of my day and perhaps cause some laughs, another evil incident that happened involved bananas. No I didn't slip and fall on peels or anything. I had 4 bananas in a bag that started turning brown to early to eat, so I decided to save them and make banana bread. I thought they should have been brown and ready by now, but they really weren't. So I figured maybe the bag was slowing down the process, and decided to remove them. No sooner did I grab them by the top and take them out of the bag than all the peels broke apart and all the bananas fell to the ground. And since they WERE in fact mush (the peels just didn't brown) they landed with a nice splat and made a huge mess. Ugh!

My fears were realized last night as I RAN OUT OF YARN on the sweater I am knitting. So today after class I will be scavaging the stores for a skein of lion homespun in calypso. How did this happen? I believed the pattern when it called for 2 skeins. Without the hood that might have worked, but only a few inches into the sleeves I ran out, grrrrr. I'm worried that this might be a summer color and so I won't be able to find it. In that case, I guess I will have to order from Smiley's since they have it. Only problem there is that they require a $30 minimum order. *sigh* Oh well, we shall see.

I thought I would be getting some yarn in the mail today, but no such luck, boooo. Oh well. I have finished the front and back of the homespun sweater, joined at the shoulders, and started on the hood. I am quite worried that I am going to run out of yarn. The pattern calls for 2 skeins, and I am working to gauge, but I think I will have only a little over half a skein to knit both sleeves, ackk. The Viking hat is done btw and is marinating in the washer with the Browns hat and my jeans...pics when I decide the soaking is done.....altho I had hoped to finish the homespun sweater and throw it in with them, we will see.

I am working on getting my xmas stocking fix in. I am looking for a nice 2 color fair isle design that I can work in the round. I haven't found anything else but am still looking. All the kits I've seen are either ugly or super expensive ($60 for a wall ornament, come on! I don't need super nice wool for this, I'm not even felting it). My plans were to use cheap acrylic yarn I'd already purchased for durability. If I don't find something soon, I may have to try my hand at designing it myself, eek.

I've been working in little bits on the Vikings hat and am about to start the decreases for the top. Should finish that tomorrow morning then finish sewing in the letters tomorrow evening. Then I will throw both hats and some jeans that need broken in into the washing machine with some fabric softener for a coupla days.

Besides that, I am thinking of ordering some Accu-pressure tire gauges. Does anyone have any (educated) input on these? I'd be interested to know...

I finally got back to some knitting Saturday. I finished up the back of the kids homespun sweater (meaning I decided it was done and tossed it into my knitting bag, still attached to the skein and all) and worked about 1/3 of the front. Then I decided I was sick of fighting the homespun and started on the football hats my dad requested. I finished the Browns one yesterday and am still on the ribbing on the Vikings one. Here's a look:

It's a quick project (despite the ribbing) on size 7 needles with worsted weight. I made it a generous 100 stitches around (large size) cause I figured better big than tight. Besides, the 30 rows of ribbing should keep it snug. I am using various scraps from the Acrylic Bag O Doom....random partial skeins I balled up. It's nice that I am getting rid of some of this AND doing something nice with it. My dad stated he didn't care about the yarn so why go out and buy new stuff, right? I got to try out some new techniques on this, fair isle (at the top for the zig zag look...I stranded over a max. of 5 stitches and it worked out GREAT) and duplicate stitching (which came out nice although it was tedious). Viking hat shouldn't be too long, depending on my school workload, which should lighten a bit after Wednesday afternoon.

I haven't picked up my knitting needles since Tuesday! Why? Because my boyfriend flew in late Tuesday night (midnight) and stayed until this morning, so no knitting has been done. I will, however, leave you with a picture of an old project. I made this about 2 years ago or so on my USM. Last year I gave my boyfriend's dad a similar knit afghan (but with only 3 colors), and my boy has been asking for one since. Because it's a pain to make, I dug this one out of the closet and gave it to him instead. Don't mind the corner you can't see and the silhouette (that's my boy) we didn't have time for a great pic before packing it.