*puts on best italian accent*
The purse, she is fini!

I actually finished it about a week ago, but hadn't had a chance to take pictures yet. After using it for a couple of days, I've decided that adding a lining and a closure would be best. Without the lining, it tends to get stretched out by whatever's in it, and since it has a tendency to flop over when set down, it might be good to have a way to keep stuff from falling out. Otherwise, I love it-- just the right size to hold what I need, but not so big I stuff everything but the kitchen sink into it.

Even after knitting with two balls at once, things still came out a bit more solidly striped that I had planned. I'm thinking maybe next time the best bet would be to start one ball from the outer end and one from the inside. Maybe that will help?

I also finished Carly's mittens. They're green and stripey thanks to the Noro Kureyon I used. Now to mail them to her!

Next up is the Straightjacket Sweater from Naughty Needles, minus the whole buckling-in-the-back thing. I'm replacing the original thick-and-thin yarn called for with a similar one I found at Joann. Typically I've been fairly standoffish towards most of their yarns. I'm trying to avoid the term "yarn snobbery", but that's pretty much what it is. However! I found one that feels nice, looks good, has the same fiber content and has so far been getting the right gauge. And all for over $4.00 less a skein! PLUS, it's on sale for an extra $2.00 off right now. Does it get much better? I think not.

No time for a real post, but since I only just wanted to post the photos that accompany my last couple of posts, I don't feel too bad.

E modelling the Tube Sock Scarf

Very blurry (it moves fast) and very big ball of roving!

The fruits of my labor-- my handspuns so far. The one on the left was done when I had been spinning for about three days and was trying to ply for the first time. I think things have gotten a lot more consistent since then. The bottom hank is from the Purple Haze ball.

The newest project, a purse. I started on it last night during Whiskey Night with Mike and Jen. It's almost but not completely in the round, since I didn't have a circular short enough. I decided to just make it with one seam up the side. I'm not entirely sure how it's going to play out yet, since I'm just kind of making it up as I go along, but it will atleast be an interesting project!

Now where the heck do I put it all?

So when I say I went to town with the whole stash-building thing, I meant it---



Click on picture to see details about what the heck all those yarns are.

Two of this, three of that. Oh, you only have one left? Don't worry, I'll take it!


Bells had it right that I'm a yarn store owner's dream. While everyone else is busting their stash, I'm buying up oddballs like it's going out of style! So now I've got a ton of yarn for a bunch of little things. On the upside, I didn't really have much of a stash too begin with, so now I can atleast relate a little to those gals with yarn closets (or even, dare I say, yarn rooms!)



As mentioned, I also finished the slightly-short-kinda-stripey-cable-keyhole scarf, with the exception of blocking and weaving in ends. I don't know that it really needs to be blocked, but frankly I could use the practice and I think that cable pattern could benefit from it.

Full-size photo when it's all finished. As for now, the goal is to take a shower and go out, with the hopes of procuring lavender, more roving, and something to make for dinner tonight. I'm thinking I might do spinach lasagna....

Spinning, spinning, spinning.

As soon as I put new batteries in the camer, I want to take a picture of my first spun yarn, knitted up into a swatch. It looks like crap, but it also looks like it started to even out a little as my day went on. I've worked on some more tonight and it seems to be coming out better.





We rang in the new year comfortably, having drinks with our friends at their house. E and I had contemplated going to a bar, but we looked at the calender and saw that absolutely nothing was happening, so instead we all decided to have a small pajama party, complete with fuzzy slippers. I finally got to give my friend Elena the armwarmers I made for her, which are just like mine only in a different colorway. She's been subtly and not-so-subtly hinting for the last couple of months that she would really like these, so I made them for Christmas. I was glad she finally got to open them.

I really wish I could find a decent spinning FAQ, I've got a couple of questions that I simply can't find answers to online. I'm thinking that I may take the beginning spinning class at my LYS. For now, I'm just going to sit and be inspired by these girls. They spin and dye some of the most beautiful yarn I have ever seen and, lucky me, have their studio two blocks away!

I might need a get-out-of-jail-free card soon.

Here's a couple of the things I've been working on lately, or atleast major close-ups of them. The only two I'm not worried about spilling the beans on are my mom's scarf and (well, duh) my Christmas tree. Yes, there has been and underlying theme of greens and blues this season, but that's because the favorite color of a lot of the recipients happens to be blue and/or green. The other theme-- Noro yarns. I might even attribute the fact that I've been working with Noro to me being ahead of schedule. The beautiful color changes make me want to keep knitting so I can see what happens next!

I finished Mom's scarf today, save for weaving in one or two ends. Now it's onto the tea cozy.

In other news, I've been really good about being a wardrobe refashionista-- since August 1 (or really a couple of weeks before), I have bought only one item of clothing that wasn't for work, and I've been making things like crazy. Having said that, I'm really itching to do some shopping. I saw a dress that would look fabulous on me at Target, along with all kinds of fun gaudy jewelry. And I can always find super cute stuff on the sale racks at Old Navy. I'm slowly talking myself into the notion that, since I've been so good the last four months (not bad since I only signed up for two!), it just might be time to add a couple new things to the wardrobe. Plus, so many things have now become work clothes, what with being covered in paint and all. Maybe I can justify a tiny fall off the wagon?

'Tis the season....

I think I'm going to forgo any of my current for me projects to try the over-ambitious task of getting some Christmas presents done. Until then, I will just drool over the projects in Greetings from Knit Cafe , and look longingly at my fuzzy sweater.

(Truthfully, I will probably still work on the fuzzy sweater. Merry Christmas to me.)

I've got some ideas for Christmas presents for folks, but getting them done in time may be the hard part. Damn me and my superior procrastination skills!

Scarf action

I finished the I'm-taking-a-break-from-tricky-things scarf, just in time to wear out on Saturday night. I still have a spare skein and am debating about adding fringe, but I think it might be a bit too much. I mean it's already got seed stitch, color variations, and a little shimmer within the yarn--- what more do I really need to add to this?

Yes I know, it looks SO fashionable when paired with my too-big Bumbershoot sweatshirt from '04. :)

The rain has been pouring off and on since Saturday afternoon. Here and there I see a flash of lightning or hear a distant thundercloud. I think this is definetely going to be a stay inside day. In fact, I should probably get moving since I still have a little running around to do. I planned to stop off at my LYS, run by the bank, and lastly, pay those stupid parking tickets.

That's one thing that I'm ashamed to admit I get a sense of pleasure out of--- the fact that the meter maids get to spend their workday in the pouring rain. Now if only it were about 20 degrees colder....

We're in the process of having our kitchen re-drywalled, so I think I may take laundry and knitting over to my mom's so I can stay out of the way. It's really strange to see the walls in our kitchen... well, flat. They've always been slightly warped since I moved into this place a year and a half ago, but building construction last spring caused giant cracks to spread all over the place. We're talking big, gaping cracks, some as much 1 1/2" wide. While I won't miss that, I will miss the big flower that was painted there.

I started it on a whim one day to give my kitchen some fun color. It was giant-- about four feet tall, give or take. I had to sit on top of my fridge to paint the top petal and at the time chuckled at how I must have looked to anyone walking by. It was probably funny looking to begin with, but got even funnier when I almost toppled off the fridge. I had planned to add a few more and paint the part of the wall below the chair rail pink, but once things started getting all crack-y that went out the window. Ah well, the one big flower was fun while it lasted, back to boring off-white. For now it just looks like the bottom picture-- bare grey drywall.

Okay, I've sat here long enough. Time to get moving!

Now that I've finally given it to her, I can write about the bracelet I made for my friend. I had already made a similar one for myself, but changed hers up a bit. I was starting to run a litttle low on the red and orange beads, so I added some yellow/gold ones in to compensate. It definetely adds to the fall feel I was going for with the first one. I also found a small Buddha charm at the Bead Bazaar and definetly wanted to incorporate that for my newly buddhist buddy. I had to change the placement a couple of times to get it where I wanted it, but ultimately I like the end result and, most importantly, so did she.

Next up is a pair of star earrings for me! The same day I found Buddha, I also picked up some super cool star beads-- two big ones in (I think) mother-of pearl, and about a half dozen each of small white and hematite (shiny black) stars. I found a design in a beading book I picked up that used a bunch of headpins threaded through eachother that looks pretty nifty so I might try that.

It's a good thing it's been rainy and cold, cause I now have about 9 projects that make me not want to leave the house!

Kool Aid dyes are rad!

The kitchen smells fruity, like those markers we used to have as kids-- they never really smelled like any real kind fruit, just fruity. Except for grape, fake grape always smells the same.

Yesterday was my first experiment into Kool Aid dying. I've been collecting Kool Aid packets whenever I happen to be in the grocery store and thinking about it with plans to eventually dye white recycled yarn for some gifts. But before I ruined the yarn intended for other people's projects, I figured I'd try it out on my sock yarn. Way I see it, if I can actually manage to knit myself some socks, I doubt I'll much care if they're some wierd color. Plus, nobody sees them when you wear shoes (which is why my socks rarely ever match.)

The cool thing about Kool Aid dyeing is that there are a ton of tutorials to be found! Knitty's article proved super helpful, and I even found a color chart! Armed with a little bit of knowledge, some leftover keg cups, and an big eyedropper I borrowed from Eric's airbrushing supplies, I set to work.







It turned out that completely covering my surface in saran wrap was a good plan-- I wound up spilling the grape cup while cleaning up, but the plastic wrap caught nearly all of it! Plus, it made cleaning everything up a matter of scooping up the plastic with everything in it and tossing it!


I did a little test hank by wrapping about ten loops from hand to elbow and cutting it off, then dyed that first to see how I wanted the colors placed. It seemed to come out fairly nice, so I dove into the first hank. The colors seemed to come out alright, until I started noticing that some of the yarn underneath wasn't getting fully color saturated. Adding more color helped, but it also added more water to my already brimming plate. I think I may need to use less water next time, and possibly measure out how much for a more uniform (and easily duplicated) dye job.


After a couple of minutes in the microwave, the water on the plate was clear and it looked like all the color had been sucked up, so I rinsed my yarn off and cleaned it with a little bit of shampoo. Then both the first hank and, eventually, the second one I did were left on hooks to dry in my kitchen.

I kind of cheated-- I didn't wait until my test hank was fully dry before knitting a swatch of it. I just couldn't wait to see how my colors came out! The pink lemonade color I used really wasn't as vibrant as I had hoped, and I managed to leave some pretty substantial white spots on the full hanks despite my best efforts, but all in all I think it turned out okay. The nice thing is having a photo record of the pattern I used-- I don't think those two little balls of yarn are going to be enough to make some socks, so it's nice to have a blueprint for dyeing more.

I think I may try dip dyeing next time, only using two or at most three colors instead. I can probably get some better saturation that way. For now though, it's onto socks! My feet can't wait!

So I think I've started this as my craft blog, but I don't know how much it's going to get used. In fact, the only thing I have worth putting in here right now is a cross-post from Wardrobe Refashion.....enjoy!

I finally have something to post in here! How exciting!While I have been busy crafting, a lot of what I was making was coming from my stash and therefore not really a refashion, but this one definetely is! I found an old sweater at a thrift store that was ugly, but had a ton of useful yarn and at $3.00 was too good to pass up. So I bought it and set to work taking it apart.I managed to get most of this sweater knit in a short time, but had to put it on hold for months because I didn't have enough of the color I wanted for the sleeves. One of the drawbacks of reknitted sweaters is that you can't just go to the LYS to pick more up if you run out. So after a lot of searching, I found a yarn that, while not being exact, was pretty darn close to what I've been using. And now it's finally done, just in time for fall!

I was too tired the other day to take a decent picture wearing it, and now my camera's just a little bit dead, so eventually I'll have a better one!Now I think I'm going to start a hoodie, just as soon as I decide whether it's going to be pink with black sleeves/hood or black with pink sleeves. Decisions, decisions.....