I've been chugging away on Sonnet despite the fact that it's really really boring. I'm a little over halfway done with the body piece. I used up my 1st ball of yarn with just a couple inches to go to the halfway point, so now I am confident that my 4 balls will stretch for the whole sweater. I guess the knit gods are smiling down on me, cause I was fully expecting to buy more yarn. I ordered another yarn to use in the sweater, once I am done with the knitting, to sassify it Tifff-style. That's about all, don't feel really chatty cause I am sore due to the fact that I took a spill down the stairs yesterday morning (I'm such a klutz).

No Time to Knit...

...or do anything else, really. I've been super busy lately getting a homework assignment ready which is due tomorrow. Problem is, it involves a program I don't (didn't) know how to use so I had to wait for someone to show me. I stayed at school til 8 last night working on it...and today I am going in early to get some more work done, and possibly staying late again......agh. Luckily, tomorrow starts my weekend so I can get some rest (and knitting) in! Oh, I've also been working tons on my research. One theorem I was working on for the last two weeks FINALLY bowed down before me yesterday. My 'woop' was heard for miles. hehe. Hope someone out there is knitting, and that I can knit vicariously through them, teehee.

A Snark and a Review

The Snark
I only have one issue of Interweave Knits, but I really love it. So, I decided to surf their site and I found this shoe gallery. Here is an example of what was on it:



Of course, there was lots of other equal atrocious concoctions but this one stood out at me. Why? Has anyone out there seen Creepshow? Well, if you haven't, it is an old movie that is made up of vignettes of horror stories. There is this one, where a meteor falls into a man's yard and then his entire house and body begins to grow plant life, until he is eventually completely covered and killed by it. I think this chick stepped into some meteor debris with these boots, she better take them off before it's too late!

The Review
After Christmas, I used my gift certificates to buy, in part, The Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie Wiseman. This is a precious little gem of a book, and under $18! The name is not quote right tho, it's not just about finishing techniques. It instructs on all the different methods of casting on, seaming, buttonholes, zippers, etc. It should be called "The Knitters Book of Knitting Techniques". I bought this just for the finishing technique portion. Seaming has always been my least favorite part of a project, in part because I am (was) so lousy at it. But I used the book to seam up Accordian and it came out so great...it was worth the book just to not ruin one sweater. Also, there are fantastic pictures that really illustrate the point and a little section of advantages and disadvantages of each method. She also gives little tips about certain methods that one would learn by trial and error...so now you can cut out the error. I strongly recommend anyone who doesn't already know everything about knitting methods to buy this book. Oh yeah, another great part, It is actually spiral bound and then afterwards this is covered. So it looks like a regular book, but it STAYS OPEN! Finally, someone has a brain.

Here is a really terrible pic of Accordian. I will try to get a better one when I get the zipper in and we have some sunshine and I will just have it overwrite this one.

Come and Knit Sonnet with us

I've decided to knit Sonnet for my next project, and I think Janine is going to knit it too. Anyone else wanna join along or already knitting it? It's rated mellow so it will be easy for a first sweater project, for the timid out there. And I think it looks kind of springtime-ish so you have quite a bit of time to complete it. :)

If anyone wants to join in, I made this little button, just clipped from the title on Knitty:

Feel free to download it or make something better and give it to me, hehe. I'll be putting mine up later.

Oh yeah, Accordian IS done except for the zipper, and I said I would post a pic, but I am waiting for the sun to come out. It's a rainy Sunday (which I LOVE) but I would like to take a pic.

Well, I went out and got a new zipper for Accordian last night cause I didn't like the one I had and tried installing it, but it didn't come out well so I ripped and resewed (x2) and then finally ripped again. So right now I have all the pieces to it made, am gonna seam it up, then I am gonna let it soak in water with some fabric softener to hopefully stretch out the ribbing permanently. I am a little worried that once the ribbing stretches it will be pretty short, but we'll see.

Besides that, I've been listing some yarn I decided I don't want and some other craft items on ebay...and so far all but 1 lot of yarn has bids and one item was bought about 10 mins after I listed it (I thought for a second I had messed up and didn't complete the listing, ha!)...so I will be able to clear out my craft closet some and make some $$ in the process to buy new yarn.

I'm still chugging along on Accordian, but I've gotten to that state where I am bored with it and ready to start on something else. That always happens around the sleeves. I am about 1/2 through the first sleeve, then I need to knit the other, do all the seams, and sew in a zipper. Not too bad.

I am thinking about Sonnet for my next project, I have 4 skeins of woolease sport in purple and some buttons in mind that I think would go really well. Of course I need to swatch first and see if I like it. I'm not sure the 4 skeins will be enough but I found a couple places online that sell the color, so if it's not I can get more (for a hefty fee, of course...bleeeeeh). I'm feeling a duty to get rid of some of my stash yarn before buying more...but in the meantime I am sure saving up quite a few bucks.

Accordian

Things are going well on Accordian...I finished the back and 2 fronts and seamed them at the shoulders. I hate seaming so instead of sewing I joined them with a crochet hook by slip stitching. For some reason this comes out much better for me than if I had sewn it. It's a somewhat bulky seam tho so I probably won't use it anywhere else on the sweater. Anyways, I did something smart for once. I was going to block the pieces before I sewed them but the mystery dark blue yarn is of unknown fiber content and has a thread running through it that I was suspicious of. So, I tested a small piece of this yarn with my iron and, yup, the strange thread melted. Which means I DIDN'T make a huge mistake and ruin my sweater...for once...wheeeeeeeee. So I will just not block and hope the ribbing stretches out after wearing it for awhile (hey it works with socks, hehe).

Other than that I've been feeling very blah lately for several reasons and hence not very chatty. I do need to start thinking of my next project tho, hmmmmmmm.

Well, I've been pretty remiss in posting, but for some reason I've just been feeling tired lately. I've been chugging away on the afghans a little bit, but I did do a few other things. First, I experimented with a baby hat:


This came out alright, but I think next time I will do 3 or even 4 points. Also, I whipped up a pair of slipper for my mom. I made her a pair just like this a few years ago and she is STILL wearing them. Needless to say they were looking quite sad over Christmas, so I decided to whip up some new ones while using up some of my scrap yarn. Here they are:



I've also started on accordian, using 2 different yarns held together for the main color and one of them double for the stripe. Fun fun.

I restarted the crocheted afghan thursday night and finished it up Friday night, soooo fast on a Q hook and not in pieces (like I was doing it before). Here is a look:



I had the yarn in my stash and wanted to get rid of it, plus a birthday is coming up, so now I'm about 2.5 pounds lighter (in yarn, that is). Anyways, I've started a new afghan made out of bits and pieces of scraps made by crocheting almost a thousand yo-yo's and then joining them together. I don't expect to work on it very strictly, just something to do with a few minutes and a couple of yards here and there. Also, I plan on working up some more scrap afghans to destash (Gosh I have tons of scrap yarn). Besides that I've been cross-stitching all day (and haven't gotten very far, grrrrr).

What Labyrinth Charater are you most like?

haha

Just a quick note to post pics of MORE scarves I made. First, the multidirectional scarf. I made this just for something to do while I was away, when I had finished my other projects. It's made out of cheapo Red Heart Yarn in the color Coral Reef (I had used this before and knew it would stripe). I used exactly the entire skein, and here it is:



Also, last night I worked up another scarf in about 2 hours on size 35 needles. I used 4 different yarns: Homespun, Chenille Sensations, Bernat Soft Boucle, and some ebay coned thin boucle yarn. I cast on 8 stitches, knit in garter til I ran out of one yarn, then cast off and made tassels. Here it is:



Last night I picked up an old project (a cross-stitch) that I have been working on for years. I think I might actually have the motivation to finish it, or at least make some more progress. When I was in college I cross-stitched a LOT, it was a good craft for there because it was small and didn't require a ton of storage space (like yarn does). So, since I am a hoarder, I now have tons and tons of cross-stitches, some quite expensive (like $50). This is one of those, and is really pretty...so I'll see what progress I can make.

Rambling & Ranting

Ugh, what a tiring and agitating day. It was sprinkling all morning when I woke up, but in the 60's...normally the type of weather I love. I woke up and did all my morning stuff, drove to class, and got to my classroom with about 20 minutes to spare. Luckily I had brought a book to read since I had an hour inbetween class and lab. So I sit there alone, reading, until finally another girl shows up. We sit there for awhile but no other students or profs come in. Where the heck is everyone? Eventually we wandered around but the main office had noone in it. Later after she left, I found a secretary to tell me the class was in a completely different building than my schedule had it listed at, and I had no idea where this place was. I wandered around outside in the now downpour with my umbrella flipping and asking multiple people for directions; I think I even tried to get into a couple of secure buildings as the doors were locked. I found my class with about 10 minutes left, ugh. I talked to the profs after class tho and asked them what was up, showing them my schedule, and there is some error in the system. The class is mainly listed as a Textiles course, but I had signed up as a Chem course, and it was all screwed up that way....figures. Oh well, the good things are that lab is cancelled and I don't have to buy another book, yippee.

Besides that, I went to target after class to use up a gift card I got for Christmas. I bought an entertainment rack. Previously I was using a nice tall one (it was expensive too!) that I got a long time ago for cd's...of course I could only fit about 300 cds in it if I used up ever inch of space and piled them high on top, so I eventually grew out of it. Then I had it filled with movies......it held about 65 vhs tapes, but then I grew out of that too. My new ones holds ALL the movies in my old one, ALL the vsh tapes that were piled on the side of the teevee, ALL the dvds piled on the other side of the teevee, and ALL the music tapes I had upstairs...plus ALL the blank tapes I have, yippee. It's not as pretty, but I will live.

Now, this is the dumb part. I had a $30 gift card, i bought the entertainment rack and some pens...and with tax this came to $29.90 (don't I plan well?). They left the dime on the damn card. What the heck? So now I have a plastic card worth 10 cents at Target, whoopee

Lastly, tonight is the premiere episode of two shows...one new and one a new season. First...the second season of Average Joe! This comes on at 10pm EST and this time it's a brunette...woohoo. Also, a new show airing on A&E and based off a hit British show is Airline. There are 2 episodes on tonight...10-10:30 and 10:30-11 (EST).....so check one (or both) of these out if you're bored!

I made it back from St. Louis yesterday. I actually got back to my place just a little after 3, so I had lots of time. I spent most of it playing with my ballwinder. But before we get into fiber talk....I uploaded pics I took while in Ohio today! All of the Christmas ones were too blurry to even save (my camera doesn't like indoors much)...but here's a few that came out. First, my kitty Napoleon who FINALLY got to play with his mousie. He really loves it too, see:



Next, while I was at my Aunt's on Christmas Eve, this guy kept bugging me, so I took his pic:



And that's all the pics that came out from the trip, booooo. Ok, I did block the lacey green scarf with fur last night, and here it is:



I really like the way its turned out...although the blocking made the fabric less appealing, but it was necessary. Also, last night I felted the Kureyon part of the bag I am making. Hearing Kureyon was difficult to felt, I sat down with plenty of time to run it through several cycles...but in only one cycle (about 20 mins) it was felted perfectly. Go figure. Now I've worked up the other pieces out of Cascade 220 and am felting them, hopefully they will work out well. The multidirectional scarf is also all knitted up, but I need to wash it before I add fringe. OK, time to take out my felted pieces and hope they came out right.