Monday, December 5, 2011

All that has been

OHAI! Remember me? Been a while. The past few months have been nothing short of hell. Maybe one day I'll write about it (while popping xanax like nerdz, do they even still make nerdz? I loved the strawberry) but for now, let's just say that it's done with, and try not to dwell on it.
In case you hadn't noticed, it's December. Which means one only thing, Well, two things. Those soft peppermint canes are now in stores. And it's time for Holiday gift making.
So far, I've managed to make four scarves and a pair of socks. I have yet to make:
1 handspun cowl
1 ishbel shawl (I'm at the lace bits)
1 large daybreak shawl (we're not talking about how far behind I am)
1 knotty but nice hat
1 ice scraper mitt
and about 15 washcloths.
All that have to be done, photographed, and shipped before the 20th.
I am really going to need rum. And cookies.
I hope to blog my progress (or insanity, your choice) every day.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

After the Storm

Over the weekend, Irene came blowing in. I never went thru a hurricane before. I hope to never again. Our damage was small compared to others. Lots of leaves and small limbs all over, a huge 20 footer blocking the driveway, and lines that bring power into the house got knocked over. We still have power, so it's ok.
New England got hit really bad, and my thoughts and prayers are with everyone there.
During the hurricane, I knit this. It's Elizabeth's Cowl from the new book, Wendy knits Lace. It's a great book, lots of great patterns, ranging from just starting to somewhat advanced.
Knit in Chunky Al on size 10 needles. I've had this yarn for ages in my stash, just waiting to be something. I thought a hat, but about an hour before the hurricane started, I grabbed the yarn and cast on for the cowl. I have to block it and get a better photo, but here it is.


Rav link here.
the colour is so lovely. This is a rather fast knit, seeing as how I knit it in one night while watching Sweet land (if you haven't seen it, go watch it NOW. I think it's streaming on netflix) and my two favorite Sense and sensibility movies.
I'd knit this again, i'd love to see how it would look in some handspun.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Keep calm and puffy on

I am sure, by now, you have seen this pattern, the beekeepers quilt. It seems like everyone and they uncle is making one. It's adorable, and kitchy, and SQUISHY!! I've made about 20 so far and here is what I'm doing.
I'm using circs, size 4, as called for.
Using the long tail cast-on, cast on one needle (so you would have two stitches). (ignore the crappy phone pics, I don't have a camera)

Now carefully slide the first stitch off and transfer it to the 2nd needle.




You now have one stitch on each needle! Now, onto the first needle ONLY, which is the needle you cast-on with, cast-on a stitch.



Now, repeat this with the second needle.



Contine to do this till you have the amount called for in the pattern. When knitting the first round, I like to knit the first few stitches with the tail and the yarn.
Now knit your hexipuff.
For the cast off, I do a reverse grafting, So, you want to go as if to knit on the front stitch, then as if to purl on the back stitch.
Now go as if it purl and slip it off, and as if to knit (not slipping) for the second. For the back, you knit and then slip, and then go as if to purl (again, not slipping) It's easy and gets a great edge.
When I'm done, I like to take my end and weave t thru the decreases to pull them together a bit more. I find this gets the edge clearer and I don't have the gaps, which annoy me.


This is the cast-on edge.



This is the cast off edge.


This is the finished hexipuff. Isn't it adorable? I hope this helps you! If you have any questions, you can pm me on rav or email me!


Saturday, August 20, 2011

This is what a Feminist knits like

Have you read this? If not, go read it. I'll wait..... Done? good.
I started writing this on Facebook, but I want to post this here instead.
Because I knit my own clothes, spin yarn for those clothes, make all my own food from scratch, read whatever I want, go to school for "girly" things if I so choose, wear make up and pretty clothes, paint my nails, I'm not a feminist? I do these things because I want to do them. Because, NEWSFLASH, thats what feminism is.
You know what feminism isn't? Telling women how to live their lives. Like this so called "writer" is doing. We now have the CHOICE, as women, to do what we want with out lives. Demeaning what I do? Demeaning what thousands, millions of women do? Is a bad idea. I carry sharp pointy sticks. We all do. We will stab a bitch.
Let's talk about her little jab at Miss Jane Austen. you know why her books are so loved? Because they are wonderful. Simple as that. These books hark back to a slower time, without cell phones, without the constant babble of technology. Some weekends, I'll have a Jane austen movie fest and knit or spin. and BAKE. this does not make me less of a feminist. Also, Mr.Darcy.
The more I think about this article and read it, the more pissed off I get. This "writer" claims that Jezebel is a great feminist blog. Sometimes, yes. But other times? It's very anti-women. Yet she wrote that the Yarn harlot is anti-fem, when, if this women would have read any of her posts, she is not. The yarn harlot is a great example of a strong feminist.
This "writer" is wrong. All those comments (read the comments this one time, pure win) and every single one is against what she is saying.
I knit, I spin. I crochet. I sew. I quilt. I read. I bake. I can also shoot a gun, swear, fix things, tell dirty jokes, and do whatever the hell I want to do. Because I'm a feminist.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Obsession

I have things that have "need to be knit by dates", I have two houses to clean out (my grandfathers house was sold, so now I have less then a month to empty it), I have food to make (SCONES. and cookies. and soup. plus I really want some cake). I even have some things that must be spun soon. Yet all I can do is knit these little hexipuffs from The beekeepers quilt.I'm on my fourth and I just started.
I can't stop. I have a BSJ to finish and send out this week, along with a baby hat to make. I have to take this handspun

and turn it into a daybreak shawl for a Christmas Gift. I have 5 gifts to knit for Christmas, so I'm going to try and knit them all before November. As to avoid the still awake at 4 am on Christmas day trying to finish a fetching glove.
Yet all I can manage is to make more Hexipuffs. Send help.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

CRAFT ALL THE THINGS!

Lately, I really want to do all the crafty things. I want to do some iron on tshirts and tote bags (to further my complete and total obsession with tote bags) with sayings on them. Some of there are
"Judge me all you want. We're all going to die. I intended to deserve it"
"The babe with the power"
"What would Bruce Campbell do?"
" And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."( roald Dohl)
And so many others. And I want paint this table I got in a tea shop thats been waiting to go into my bedroom for ages now. I was having such a hard time deciding what colours to paint it and then i realized i could get paint to match my favorite nail polish colour!

I was thinking of doing a swirl on the top with another colour, maybe a greenish blue?
I want to make a huge crazy quilt and sew my own clothes and make my own curtains. Bath salts and soaps! I have a feeling this is just the start of it.

Monday, April 4, 2011

I'm not dead yet

"well, thats what they always say" Yes, I am a huge nerd, why do you ask?
To sum up the past 2 months in a very short sentence, got sick, hurt my knee, my cat ran away, knee got better, got very sick, landed in the hospital, got out of the hospital, cat came back over two weeks later, slid on steps and hurt my knee. Again. this morning.
In between getting poked and prodded by needles and coughing up my little brains (fyi, artery blood draws hurt. OMG do they ever) I managed to do some knitting and cooking!
Over the weekend, I made these cookies and they are by far the best peanut butter blossom cookies EVER. I changed up the recipe a bit, adding in a bit more vanilla and upped the brown sugar to half a cup. I also baked them a bit longer, about 13 minutes.
And as for the knitting, I made this last year but just got around to uploading it (the gnomes returned the camera, now if only they'd return my cell phone). I just love this photo of Asta and I,

the pattern is quant from knitty,a great intro to entrelac if you're new to it. Raveled about it here.
Around the same time, I also knit up a handspun hat. Handspun hats are my drug, I swear. Raveled here!

this weekend, Cpaag group on rav had an auction for japan. I, being me, knit up and designed a knitted boob washcloth. I'm working on the pattern, and even have a few test knitters for it! If you want to test it, just pm me on rav. I'll publish it here this month, I hope.


I'm very happy with how it turned out, just like what I pictured!
As of right now, I'm stuck sitting and knitting and watching dvds and netflix. Which is just so horrible.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Different verse, same as the first

Concussion is almost gone, I still get waves of WHOOOOOOOOEEEEE every once in a while,but those moments are only moments and are gone rather fast.
but, it has been replaced by Death by Snot cold of 2011 (it is still odd to type 2011) and I have lost my voice. I am now reduced to texting and making motions as to what I want. I'm hoping I'm better by mid-week because I'm really sick of being sick. and I want to bake.
I did finish a pair of socks! YAH! first socks of 2011 (nope, still weird). I need to get photos,but i snapped a quick pic with my crapy phone.

the yarn was flat feet, and it's a basic toe up pattern 60 stitches on a us 2, I think.
In other news, my Grandfather fell out of bed on Friday morning, and broke his hip. We had no idea, no one called us. Friday, late evening, the doctor at the ER called and told us. He had a partial hip replacement and is doing well.
Meanwhile, we're iced in the house. Poor Asta slid on the ice yesterday trying to go out. I know, I know.I love snow. but I do not love ice. At all. bad ice. Bad Bad Bad ice.
I heard we might get another storm this week.I hope it's snow! *ducks and covers*

Friday, January 14, 2011

you fart helium?!

This year started out great. And then, well, not so much. Last Friday, i went to the ER. 6 horrible hours later, I was diagnosed with a concussion, sprained toe, and possibly torn tendons in my knee. What happened was this. My mothers knee hit my head (she claims that my head hit her knee, which is so not true) and then, about half an hour later, I was feeling dizzy and fell, landing all my weight on already bad knee (it had an egg on it already, I was going to see a doctor for it that day) and managed to sprain my toe on my other foot. I really should win a medal or something for the sheer idiocy of that injury.
Meanwhile, I'm stuck sitting on the sofa watching Netflix and dvds. and knitting and reading, of course, when my head will allow it. Currently I'm reading How to Bake a Perfect life, and loving it. It has some great looking recipes, and several bread making tips.
As for knitting, I finished a pair of knucks that should have been done by Christmas (whoopsies) and I'm just about finished on my first 2011 cast on to cast off project. A pair of fuzzy feet! i did run out of yarn doing the last few rounds on the toe, brown sheep in this lovely dark rusty red, so I dug thru my stash, ripped the toes out, and am now doing them in a bright lime green. I can't wait to felt them.
For the next two weeks or so, I'm not allowed to walk much or do anything but sit and knit. Oh, the horror:)
I have cinnamon bread in my breadmaker (made while my tea was steeping), Farscape on netflix hence the title, and my fuzzy feet about to finish and a nice new bottle of painkillers. Maybe this year isn't all that bad.

Monday, January 3, 2011

HAPPY 2006!

New year, new..... wait. What? It's 2011? But.... WHAT? Well, ok. If you say so.
2010 was... in a word, Wretched. Everytime I thought things were getting better, they got worse. So, here's to hoping this new year is so much better in every way.
I didn't bother to count how many projects I made, or books I read (which is way below what I wanted to read, see crappy year), but this year is going to better! She says hopefully.
I have PLANS. Shocked, aren't you? My plans are:
Finally knit and *key word here* finish a sweater for me.
Design and publish a few patterns. More the 3 is the goal. Which should be easy, since I have 2 patterns waiting to be written up.
Read more classics. I got an e tablet (I refuse to call them pads, its gross), so I can read things on guttenberg now! My goal is to read about 30 classics. I hope to read about 100 or more books this year.
Cook anything and everything! Since i make all my own food, my plan is to make anything I want. I wanted calzones the other day. I made calzones. Best damn calzones EVER.
Redo my bedroom. I've very excited about this. I have quite a few ideas of what I want to do.
BLOG MORE! I am going to try and blog at least once a week. even if it's to say how great my nail polish is and how I stop knitting to stare at my nails
I'm sure there are more things. but these are the things I most want to do this year.
It's the third, and I already finished a project! A pair of knucks for Christmas!
So far, this year is pretty neat. How's your year going so far?