Yesterday I went to work at 9am...but I wasn't feeling well so a little after 1 (during lunch), my manager sent me home. We weren't that busy anyways. After laying down for a bit, I felt momentarily better so I went out to Joann's and got the Vogue Knitting Accessories book (half off), some Woolease yarn in cranberry, some plastic storage tubs (half off), and some foam stickers (40% off). Then I proceeded to make this hat, from the book with some modifications:



Though I'm not good at fair isle, it still turned out pretty well. The way I was "taught" was to always bring the new yarn up from under the old one to prevent gaps...which works but twists the yarns so much that I have to stop and untwist them every so often, ugh. The hat is for my bro for xmas. I'm now done with making xmas pressies (I still have some to buy for Vance too).

This morning I went back to Joann and got The Ultimate Book of Crochet for Baby (half off) and a coffee cup with grater and cinnamon sticks and coffee set for Vance's dad (half off). I was going to get him these glass photo coasters, but when I took them out of the box they looked poorly made so I passed. Then I sewed the handles to my market squares bag, see:



Now I am back to working on Vance's sweater...with the back done and about 1/3 of the front. I have to work in a bit (noon - close) and am feeling so-so, so we'll see how the day goes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving to all. Except to me. Why? Because it snowed yesterday and so the roads were too bad for the travel I had intended. Oh well...now I get to relax all day. Last night I set up the tree and some other decorations and this am I wrapped several presents while watching the parade. But the parade was too talky so I went back to working on the Market Squares bag, and lookie what I got:



Yup the knitting on it is done, now it's shrinking in the washer and soon I will have my bag, yay! I think now I need to knit a PigtailCurls hat (from fall 2004 knitters) to keep me warm this winter. I'm going to try it out with Lionbrand Landscapes...we'll see how it works!

I got a new view today from my patio...see:



The first snow of the season was today! It snowed really bad in the morning, so much that we were dead at work and people were being sent home. I got to leave almost 2 hours early...and yet it took me quite a bit to get my car brushed off and get home and all. The body of my french market bag is done (I tried to take pics but they came out horrid) so I am on the straps now. It should be done verrrrrrry soon!

I haven't posted in a few days, but I've certainly been busy. Mostly with knitting away on the market squares bag...I am on tier 11 out of 15 and they are so small now they only take a few hours each. I should be done soon...and then I get to see if it felts ok, hehe. I will have a lot of leftover yarn for this...so I can make another little (non market square) bag or so. I also did the first few steps of some more ornaments (in prep to send to some people) and made some more paper for cards. I got all my Xmas stuff out and ready for Thursday, when I will wrap presents and decorate. I also picked up a few new things, hehehe...on sale of course.

I went to Walmart with a girl from work yesterday to help her pick out cheap fabric for curtains (she needed a lot and all the dollar fabric at our store was all horribly ugly). Anyways I found out she has been trying to learn to knit but the girl who was teaching her is left handed (hard for her to learn from a left hander) so I may show her how someday.

Two more days of work and then a day off, yay! Pics soon.

After showing off my ornaments, LoriO asked for a trade for a yarnus snailus ornament. I'm happy to accomodate her, and anyone else who wants to trade. So if anyone's insterested, drop me a line by email (tifffany@gmail.com) or in comments and let me know!

Also, I followed yarngirl's instructions on how to get bloglines to notify me when I get new comments...so we will see if that works. She has a tutorial on it, if anyone is interested and uses bloglines and haloscan.

In crafty news, I finally got to taking a pic of the baby blanket I Crocheted. Here she is:



I used 3 skeins of Bernat Baby Coordinates for this...and pretty much used up all of the yarn. It's just a basic granny square with color changes.

I also bought some new beads yesterday and some stretchy cord, and already made a bracelet. I'm wearing it now to test it out but I probably will give it away for xmas.

Yesterday I was off, so I worked on the Market Squares Bag a bunch. I am now on the 4th tier...closing in on the 5th, yay. But that's not all I did, I also made these:



I had the idea to make these after I made the other ones, but couldn't find suitable artwork for them. So, I had a friend of mine draw some pics for me. The yarny snail with antennas that look suspiciously like knitting needles was all her idea tho. It says "yarnus snailus" around him too. After scanning, flipping, resizing, and printing the images, I then proceeded to roll out the clay, transfer the images, cut the pieces, bake the clay, paint the clay, put copper tape around the piece and then make and add the beaded adornments. I really like how they turned out, too. The top pair is a gift for a friend of mine and the bottom a gift for the friend who did the drawings. The middle set is for me, though.

Maybe tomorrow or Friday I will have some time to take more pictures.

My wool from elann and magazine came yesterday! I immediately finished up what I was working on and cast on for the market squares bag, yippee. I switched out some of the colors I had chosen, and now I have 3 colors left over...so I ordered another 4 balls of one color to go with them and make another, hee! I will be using one color twice in it, so it will be dominantly light with a few bright colors.

Also, yesterday I picked up a few things from HL after work, some beads at half price and a purse (also at half price) that looks like a stuffed giraffe for my cousin's youngest child. Yay one more xmas pressie down.

Now, time for some FO's. First up is a scarf I made with 3 skeins of Sensations Willow yarn in Aqua Willow and some leftover fun fur from one of the scarves in the trio. Here it is:



The material is really spongy, soft, and shimmery...I really like it.

Then I used the leftovers of the black boa I had from the Knitty Oblivion eyemask pattern with some cheapo yarn I got from Walmart to create this slip scarf:



The walmart yarn is "Bright & Lofty" in the color licorice...it actually has a nice feel and promises to be warm. I crocheted this and worked up the design as I went along, making sure to use up every bit of boa.

Finally, a white boa made from Bernat Bouclé, as most of the boas I made are:



Vance said "Wow that is a big boa!" to this. When I said "you mean full?", he said "Yeah, full"...hee!

In other news, Vance is in Chicago for the day taking a test, but should be back tonight in time to watch The Amazing Race series premiere. In his absence, I FINALLY figured out how to get new ringtones for my phone, by downloading midis, downloading a program to trim midis, trimming them, then installing the bluetooth, sending the files to my phone, and finally selecting them as the rings. I now have the Indiana Jones theme ringing when Vance calls, the Back to the Future theme when my stepfather calls, and the Tales from the Crypt theme when my mom calls, yay!

A few more FO to report...I used up most of my gold tinseled xmas yarn to make a couple stockings...and found a few more things languishing in my stash. First I made this stocking:



which is very large and heavy. The picture doesn't show scale, but believe me when I say it is pretty darned big. The jingle bells I had in my stash and I think make it look a little better. Then I made a little one to kind of match:



The shaping is different, but the idea is the same. I put jingle bells on this one too...and only had one left.

I also have a bunch of silver threaded yarn...will probably do the same type of thing but with something other than bells hanging down...beads perhaps? Only my stash will tell!

Here are the misc accessories I found and will throw in to the sale as well:



Some jingle scrunchies, one plain scrunchie, and a star ornament (which I may need to jazz up some). I plan to make some more ornaments too with some scraps...maybe on my days off.

Since then I've finished a white boa and started another scarf with a yarn that's new (to me). Pics of those later.

In new yarn news, my elann order is on its way and I successfully ordered my mag...so both should be here soon! I thought I was being all economical with the yarn, but I almost ordered enough for 2 bags...just 5 skeins shy...sheesh

I love shopping with coupons! After work today I went to the mall. First I headed into Yankee Candles where I had a $10 off of a $25 purchase coupon. So for about $15 I got a large jar candle in the scent peppermint cocoa (mmmm chocolate), and votives in peppermint cranberry, christmas cookie, and buttered rum. Then I headed to bath and body, where I had a coupon for a free holiday body item with purchase. So for $10 I got 4 tubes of hand cream and a big bottle of very merry cranberry bubblebath (which I used tonight, mmm).

Then of course I had to complete the night with a yarn purchase...and purchase I did. Spurred on by Karen, I went to elann and ordered yarn to make a bag like hers. Here are the colors I've chosen:



I also ordered a few other colors (2 greens and 1 blue) that I may switch out with some others in case I don't like the combo later on. And whatever is leftover will go into additional felted bags (for the sale? Probably.) I also had to snap up the last 3 skeins of another yarn they had, not sure of the name but it looked nifty and will make a nice scarf.

I've started on another granny square blanket, this one a baby blanket. That's all for now...progress pics tomorrow or so.

Resurrected

I found this little blue bag in a pile of stuff shoved in one of my craft drawers yesterday, and decided to finish it up. I'm not sure how long ago I made this, but based on the fact that I haven't had that color yarn in awhile I'd say more than 3 years ago. I added some cha cha trim that was leftover from the poncho, a ribbon woven through the eyelets, and some beads on the ends of the ribbon (I love beads on the ends...weighs it down and makes it look so much nicer). And voila...we have this:



Isn't it cute? One more for the sale!

Escape!

So our bedroom doorknob has always been a little finicky. And Vance has been locking the door at night since he saw Dawn of the Dead. Anyone see where I am going with this? This morning I woke up at 8 and tried to get out of the room. I barely got the lock to twist...but the knob wouldn't budge. After trying a few more times, I had to wake Vance up. He tried to open it with no luck either, and finally resorted to busting it off the hinges with some makeshift tools (shaving cream cans, nail files, a metal candleholder). Even once the hinge pins were off, it still wasn't moving...and took some more force to get it off and get us out of there. The maintenance man came by today and fixed it...he was amused that we were locked in the bedroom and had to break out. I wasn't.

In other news...I finished another scarf last night. Here she is:



Do the colors look familiar? No? Oh, right...I forgot to take a picture of my sweater I finished weeks ago. Here she is:



Isn't it pretttttty. It's so soft and fits well...and I love raglans. The sweater is for me, but the scarf is going into the sale. From those 6 skeins of Homespun (2 of each color), I got the sweater, the scarf, part of the poncho I made for Vance's niece, and still have a medium sized ball left of the middle color. Sheesh!

I'm also putting up for sale a couple of afghans I made ages ago and have never used (I have several others I have kept and do use).

Here they are:



I have a few more things almost finished...so more pics a-comin'! That is...if I can get out of my bedroom tomorrow :/

Wooo 2 posts in 2 days...some kind of record for me lately. Just wanted to show off the quickie furry scarves I made yesterday in anticipation of the craft boutique. Here they are:



I had to run out to the store to get some size 19 needles and some blue yarn to go with my Lion Bouclé...but once I got home I whipped those up. I don't really wear this kinda stuff, but I hear it sells. I have no idea how much to price this at tho...I may end up asking Vance's bro in law (he is the one all gung ho about my crafts and the boutique...hehehe)

In other news, I am gonna chug along on some more scarves from my scraps of homespun and Woolease...and then maybe whip up some stockings from the Xmas yarn I have (ignoring the Christmas Star afghan idea...at least for now. I can always buy more yarn in the colors I want when I decide to do it, rather than using the hodgepodge I have now). That's all for today. I will probably have more to show tomorrow since I am off tomorrow. Yay!

I finally have a picture of my FO to post. My excuses for not posting it earlier are rainy days when I was off, and no light or too tired when I wasn't. So here it is:



I just got word that Vance's sis (and bro in law) bought the farm they were wanting, and now they want to have a craft boutique there. Can you guess who their "suppier" will be, at least in part? Guess I'd better get cracking on some quickie scarves. I already have a lot to sell (as evidenced by my for sale page), but it's kind of random stuff with no structure. Hmmmmm....

In other news, I started Vance's sweater again. That bugger is giving me so much trouble...especially the yarn (Lion Microspun) which has a tendency to tangle and split. I decided to forgo patterns since I couldn't find one I liked...and I am now doing a drop shoulder ribbed sweater of my own construction. I think it will turn out ok...

It's my day off! I get to sit back and rest and knit/crochet all day....

Oh wait! I'm dreaming! I need to get ready and trek out to a place where I have no idea where I am going for a 90 minute application session and then come home in time to relax a small bit and then head to work for a meeting! Ugh! And they asked me to work today too...I said NOOOOOOOO WAY. It's too rainy now to take pics...maybe later I will have some fun stuff to share! Hope others out there are being more less productive than I!

Ugh ugh ugh

I was a good distance into the back of the sweater when I realized that somewhere along the way I had lost a stitch. I think I forgot a YO somewhere, but I looked and it seemed I had the right amount of holes. So I sighed and ripped the entire thing...ugh. I WILL make the sweater again, but probably not next. That is still up in the air. I have to go to work in a bit, so I'd better get ready...tho I'm not feeling well at all. Tomorrow I am supposedly off, but they nicely scheduled a late night meeting, so I will have to go in for that (I better get paid for it). Ugh ugh ugh.