I've been really busy catching up on work after being sick and all so all I have is some progress pics. First, the wine charms I have been working on. These are supposed to look like bunches of grapes. There will also be yellow and green ones, eventually.



Next up, the yarn I am going to use to knit the French Market Bag. I wasn't planning to make this, but my friend at school wants to, so I figured I would knit-along with her so that I can answer any questions she may have about it. The yarn is Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool that I dyed with koolaid. For the lighter color I used LOTS of cherry (about 9 packets) and for the burgundy I first dyed with purple then overdyed with cherry and black cherry and changing cherry and whatever I had left over in my koolaid stash, hehe. I really like the way they turned out.



Last, and probably least, the felted teddy bear I have been working on. I dyed this yarn with koolaid also, and it came out like I wanted. But the teddy bear itself does not look good to me. I have a few options for it:

(a) Take it apart and regroup
(b) Finish it but add some things to make it look better to me
(c) Just finish it and figure a baby won't care

The last option is looking like the most appealing to me, seeing how far along I am with it.



I've also been working on the crocheted hexagons for the afghan (I have 28/58 done!) and making paper. I finally did get my kit, NOT with a coupon because the website said there wouldn't be one and I couldn't wait anymore. So then of course the next day there WAS a coupon so I bought another kit with the coupon and took it back with my old receipt (get it?). Sneaky sneaky...

So I finally ripped out the lemony-lime sweater. I don't know what I was thinking. I still love the color and pattern but it is WAY too bright for me and I finally admitted that I would NEVER wear it. Bleh.

I was supposed to go to school to work today but I had to cancel due to a horrible pain in my side that is causing me all sorts of problems. So I spent most of the day laying down and reading. I did do a little yarn dying recently, to try to get rid of my boring natural wool. I dyed a small skein in pastels which I am going to use for a felted teddy bear, and I dyed some burgundy and vibrant red for a french market bag.

I'm also lusting after Kristina. I dunno why, but I am in the bags and felting mood. I think tonight I will start the teddy bear to make myself feel better...*sniff sniff*...pics later.

Last night after my classes and work were done, I drove north of home to go to the craft store and get papermaking and beading supplies. While they didn't have ANYTHING for papermaking (booooooo), I did get most of the supplies for my wine charms. I just need one more tube of red beads and some more of the rings. Today I've made 6 red ones and they are quite pretty (I think)...I tried to take a pic but the glass beads were TOO reflective and they came out all wonky. I'll try again when I have a full set done. Tomorrow it is back to school for more work and then Sunday I will be going to look for my papermaking stuff again.

While I was at Joann's last night I got a new ball of Magic Stripes sock yarn. Everytime I stop in that store they have some new yarn to show off, it's not good for my bank account! I had all 6 of the shades of Magic Stripes but now there are at least 3 new ones, so I had to get one. And for $5 for a pair of socks; you just can't beat it!

The Back 9...

The observant will notice that, while I posted a pic of 16 shelter blankets, my number has climbed to 25! Well, here is the next batch of 9:



These are all I have planned, at least for now. The bits and pieces I have left of scrap yarn are being crocheted into yo-yo's for the scrapghan I am working on. So far I have about 170 (and I need over 900).

Lately, I've been in sort of a crocheting mood, but I've also been looking into papermaking. I was dying to do this awhile back, and I had instructions and all, but I would have had to make the apparatus myself. I've now found a nifty little kit I wanna use, and if I can find it at a craft store and use a coupon on it, that would be great! And everything in it is reusable too, so it will be a great recycling project and a fun way to make gifts like stationary. Yay.

There's a carnival on my foot (and everyone's invited)!

What does that mean? Well it means that I finished the first sock, of course! And here it is:



Isn't it wild? The color is called Carnival. I really like the way the cotton feels on my foot and the pattern on the sock, but I doubt I will be knitting these again just cause they hurt my hands so darn much.

I also found a fun project I wanna knit for my mom for her birthday. It is a sleeveless turtleneck out of homespun. The catch: I want to use the color everglade (she gushed over it at Christmas) and I have only one skein of it (I need 2). I looked around for it at local stores to no avail, and I don't really want to place another order at Smiley's, since there is a minimum order amount. And herrschners...well.....bleh. Does anyone have a skein they'd like to trade?

Coral Shells...

I've been plugging away on the broadripple socks, and I'm almost to the toe of the first one. However, due to the fact that they make my hands cramp (I think it's the stretchy yarn), I started another project. It's Coral Shells from the newest Knitter's...although I am not working it in coral. What am I working it in? The lemony-lime yarn I showed before, of course. Here is the first ball, all worked up:



Also, I forgot to mention my latest yarn purchase. I bought 10 balls of microspun (8 in lilac, 2 in white) for an unidentified future object (UFO)...hehe. I couldn't resist, at under $2 a ball!

Not much to report on the knitting front. My boyfriend flew in Tuesday afternoon (he left Monday afternoon and got stuck in Chicago overnight and had to sleep in the airport, eeks!) and he hadn't been here since Halloween so we had a lot to do (him especially, lots of little things I needed fixed, hehehe). Also, we ditched Sprint, signed on with T-Mobile, and got new phones! They look like this, but silver.:



And there's a camera on the back too! I don't yet have the doodad to download the pics to my computer, but my boy is looking into that.

Besides that, I am thinking of making some wine charms for gifts next Christmas (hey, it's early, but I start whenever I get a good idea). There are directions in an old Crafting Traditions magazine to make these 4 differently colored bunches of grapes, so cute. I'm ordering some glass leaf beads off ebay and I will get the other stuff next time I go north.

In knitting news, I finished 4 more critter blankets (they're washing now) and have worked a tiny bit on my socks...hopefully I will get some work done on those tonight.

This morning I finished weaving in the ends on the crocheted scrap shell afghan. Here are some pics:



And a closeup of the stitch and colors:



This baby is pretty big, as can be seen on my Queen size bed. I think it will make a nice afghan for my stepfather for next Christmas, even though he has already seen it and I already asked him if he'd like it as a gift (hey, I needed to make sure he didn't hate the colors). I'd keep it, but I have about 4 or 5 afghans I've made that I own...plus my boyfriend has 2 (and 1 more on the way), so that's plenty.

In other news...the Critter Knitters knit-a-thon page is up...check it out (link in my sidebar)!

Currently Obsessing Over: the word persnickety!

I love me some aminals (long time)

Here is the first group of blankets for the knit-a-thon:



Yes, I did say first...meaning I am not quite done with my scrap pile and have a few more to go. Since finishing the large crocheted afghan I have been focusing all my efforts on these babies. I'm hoping to knit up the rest tonight so that I can get back to fun projects. I do feel a sense of liberation having used up the giant bag of scrap yarn in my stash, although I do still have a rubbermaid tub of acrylic...I can use it for larger afghans though. Today is my last day of vacation...and I don't want to go back yet! I have some work I should do but I don't really have complete instructions on it...so I guess that means I must knit...teehee.

I finished the big crocheted afghan last night! Woohoo! Well, the crocheting on it is finished, I have a billion ends to weave in still (1 at each end of each row, ugh). So today I'll be working on animal scrapghans, fun fun.

Ugh, there was a fly buzzing around my apartment, at the window, so I lifted the blinds and they SNAPPED and FELL DOWN! What in the world????? So hopefully the leasing office will be open today and I can go tell them so I can get it fixed...and hopefully they understand that it was totally *not* my fault (blinds are supposed to raise and lower, right?). Ugh ugh ugh...

Today I got the new Knitter's and Interweave Knits at the store...and the new Knit 'N Style in the mail! My list of projects I want to do has grown significantly due to this (of course i picked them with my stash in mind, so it's not too bad). Yesterday I saw 50 first dates (so funny!) and went on a yarn splurge. I got a bunch of Homespun for a crocheted blanket I am planning but I also spotted Paton's Divine, and picked up 9 skeins...8 in floral fantasy and 1 in orangina...these will be waiting for me next fall, mmmm.

Help Me (Rhonda)


I've been eyeing some stash yarn in the above colorway for awhile. It's 100% cotton, worsted weight, and I have upwards of 1500 yards of it.....I think it would be nice for a summery garment. The color is called "Lemon Lime", mmmmmmmm...any suggestions?

Looks like I am going to be having an unexpectedly busy week. It's all good tho...will make me feel like I did something more useful with my break than sit and knit the entire time (although that's useful as well, hehehe). I was destashing some more and I found a skein of yarn, in worsted weight, of the exact same colorway as the baby cardi! (I think I bought that skein for slippers as well...heh) I will have to incorporate this somehow...I have some ideas right now but I won't start until after I get some of these other projects out of the way.

I've got 7 blankets for animals done now...yay. I found a shoebox full of granny squares that I was making for an afghan for my dad. When I did some calculations to see how many squares I needed, I balked at the number and hid them away. (I did make my dad a different afghan a few years after that) So now the squares that I did finish are becoming 2 different blankets, along with a few additional squares I needed to add in. Talk about spring cleaning...and it feels so good! And my yarn I ordered over 2 weeks ago from herrschners finally came in...out with the old and in with the new!

I finished this cute little baby sweater last night:



It's for my cousin who I just found out is pregnant (again). She's not due til August, but I couldn't resist. I don't know yet whether it will be a girl or a boy, but I think the sweater will work either way. I used Red Heart Grandé, which I had originally bought for slippers. It's cheap stuff, but has a much better feel than the normal Red Heart Yarn. I used this pattern, but made slight adjustments since I was using a bulkier yarn and larger (size 11) needles. I just multiplied each number by 2.7 (my number of stitches per inch) / 3.5 (their number of stitches per inch) and rounded off appropriately. And with using the larger needles and that, this only took 2 balls (208 yards) of yarn...which is exactly what I had, wheeeeee.

Also, I've been making scrap blankets for the upcoming drive. I've got 5 finished, and am working on finishing my crocheted afghan before I do more, so that I can see how much yarn I have left of what colors.

Meh...I'd NEVER knit black socks...hehe


What color of sock yarn do you prefer?
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Here's what I've been knitting on:



Usually I don't show WIP photos...only because I don't have much storage space left on my account...but this was just too cute. But I'm only working on that in bits and pieces, because I've undertaken a rather large crafting challenge. What is it? To use up all my scrap acrylic. I went through and picked out all my scraps (not counting whole skeins, scraps that aren't worsted acrylic, or multis), and sorted them into 2 piles: lights and darks. Once I finish the crochet scrap afghan I am working on, I will sort the remainder of that yarn also into these piles. Then I will knit it up on my bond...the darks with black for contrast and the lights with white and off-white. It won't be fun, but afterwards I should get a reward, right? Not sure what the blankets will be for, I'll decide that afterwards.

Ooooooh another finished project. Well the knitting has been done on this for quite awhile but it was on the backburner as to finishing. So here we have....the sigma tank:



I knit this out of Cotton Ease in Sugarplum, and I don't know if it was the cotton yarn, my knitting, or the crocheted edging but I ended up with all these holes in certain areas around the neck. I didn't know what to do with them, so I ended up covering them up with some pearl trim. Here's a closeup of the trim:



I'm not sure how much I like it, but what's done is done. This is a gift for my mom anyways, so what really matters is how much she likes it. I'm worried it may be too small (I always worry that) or too short (she's kinda tall), but only time will tell.

Now I'm off for a fun day of an extra operator theory class, a polymer chemistry midterm, and a research meeting...fun fun.

So I watched the finale of Average Joe: Hawaii last night. Well, I watched part of it anyways. I was on the phone for the hometown date parts, but I did get to see the parts I wanted: who she chose and what her big secret from her past was. Well, she chose Gil. That wasn't as interesting as I'd expected it to be. So they were whisked off to paradise (wait, weren't they already in paradise?) for a few days. On the fourth day it stormed so she told her big secret: she used to date Fabio. Am I alone in saying "What the hell?". First, I never saw that coming. But anyways, why is it such a big deal? Obviously it must be because Gil dumped her over it (or maybe he just needed an excuse, hmmmmm). I was happy to see her alone at the end; I'm a sucker for unhappy endings (altho in this case I might consider that a happy ending). But back to the Fabio thing...can someone please explain this to me???

In other news...I finished the sweater coat from Knit It! Here is a not very good pic of it:



It shows almost the entire thing...the show where the whole sweater got in was super blurry so this is the best I could do on a cloudy day with a crappy camera. It's super long, almost to my ankles. Makes me feel like a queen bee of some knitting hive when I wear it and walk down the stairs and it trails behind me on the stairs like some kind of train, hehehe. It's kinda "old granny"-ish, so I don't know how much actual wear I will get out of it, but it's oversized and soft and feels like a big hug. Also, the sleeves are actually the right length, yay!

I'm working on finishing up the Sigma Tank now...fixing the things I didn't like about it. Hopefully I will like the finished result...pics soon.

Oh, I forgot to mention, there's a new knitting mag in town (pun intended). Check out MagKnits, a new, free, online knitting zine that is published semiannually. I wasn't a fan of any of the projects in this issue, but maybe it will be a future source of patterns.