knitting and a puppy!

November 27, 2016 by 2 Comments

Zero finally has a little brother and I’m super excited!

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They look like they could actually be related, don’t they?  But he’s actually a half beagle, half pit mix that we found at a no-kill shelter thanks to my boss, who brought in a girl from the litter to work on Monday and told me that there were still boys left.  He’s 12 weeks now, and his name is Roll (keeping with the Megaman theme Chris started with Zero).  It’s hard to get a picture of him awake because he’s in constant motion, but here’s my best shot:

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Only thing is, he’s not housebroken yet, so that’s been frustrating.  He’s starting to figure it out though & he makes up for it with cuteness and cuddles.  He even helps me with knitting (although he’s already mangled one of my wooden cable needles that I foolishly had just sitting on the daybed beside me):

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As seen in the photo, I finally got started on the bulky weight version of the cowl I’m writing up a pattern for.  Really I just have to finish this one, block it, & take photos for the downloadable version that will be available… well… whenever I get it done.

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The yarn is The Meri Wool from We Are Knitters and it is SO soft.  Can’t wait to wear it!  And I didn’t know how much yarn I’d need for the cowl so I’m going to have a fair amount of leftovers for other toasty items!  Maybe I’ll make a set — I don’t usually do that.

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I’m loving all the colors, and I don’t think it takes away from the texture at all.  The colorway is called Sprinkle Fantasy, I believe.  Mmmm… makes me want ice cream with sprinkles.  Only it’s too cold for that right now.  Boo.  But I’m actually happy that I’m finally getting to wear some of the new items I’ve made since last winter.  My fave to wear so far is my Arlequin Shawl — the yarn just makes it.

OK, I’m done for the night, gotta get back to knitting!  Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

 

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done with the move!

October 23, 2013 by 10 Comments

Well, mostly.  A couple of boxes are left to unpack, but all in all I’m very satisfied with our new house.  Zero loves it too!  Here she is sitting on the daybed with my CAL blanket:

zero2That’s her “what are you doing?” face.

zero1She loves the yard so much!  I’m so glad she’s finally happy.  We threw away a LOT of stuff so it’s nice and uncluttered and very roomy inside, as well!

Today is the first day I could post because today is our first day having Internet.  I know I’m spoiled because it was very difficult going without it!  I know I must have used a ton of data on my phone…

I was busy knitting and crocheting, too!  I started crocheting a shawl:

frogged(Yep, no sheets on the daybed at the point that was taken, and yep, I love to sit cross-legged/Indian style.)  As you can see I’m unraveling it to knit a scarf — the pattern was so hard for me to follow!  It’s cheche a la sauce and it was originally in French, so perhaps that was part of the problem.  The beginnings and ends of the rows don’t match up!  I must have been missing something but I could not figure it out, and after hours of re-working and re-working it, trying to get the edges correct, I gave up.  I think I’m giving up on that scarf, too, in favor of something that will take up all 3 balls of yarn I got for that project.

My knitting has much more to show for the effort.  I finished the Bajada scarf for my friend.  It took approximately 18 hours total of very focused knitting to complete, and because of that I don’t think I’ll be making another one (after all, I can whip up a crocheted scarf in an hour and a half).  I also had to write out the pattern row by row to keep track of everything and squinting at the small print in the booklet got old real quick.  It was worth it though:

bajada3It totals at 69 inches (175cm) long and 11.5 inches (29cm) tall at its widest point.

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bajada6As you can see, I need to purchase some blocking wires.  They’re just so expensive for little wires (at least on KnitPicks, where I got everything else for relatively cheap), and I keep meaning to just go to a hardware store and get some wires cut for me.  It just hasn’t happened yet.

bajada5I can’t wait for it to dry so that I can mail it to my friend!  I’ll be back up there in a couple of weeks for the yearly Renaissance Fair but I don’t want her to have to wait that long.  I hope she likes it!

The Northern Loop cowl has been my other knitting project.  I’ve been using KnitPicks’ Billow bulky yarn and it is so wonderful to work with!  So very soft, and what gorgeous colors they have available!  I’ll definitely be repurchasing this.  This could be dangerous…  Here’s a bit of my cowl:

northernloop2I’m loving it!  The only thing that was kinda iffy about the pattern was the provisional cast on, but I looked up a tutorial on YouTube and did it easily with a length of crochet chain:

northernloop1Not as bad as I thought it would be!  Grafting it together at the end might be difficult, but I’ll just look up another tutorial for that later.

Well, that’s all the catch-up I have that I can think of right now.  I’m still editing the site so if you see anything that looks crazy (like the site title overlapping with the menu bar or something), please let me know.  I’m unsure how it will look on tablets or really large screens, but I’m trying to learn to use rem spacing instead of pixels in my CSS coding, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.

Let me know what ya’ll have been up to while I’ve been away!  I’m trying to catch up with everyone’s news!  Thanks for stopping by!

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back to the yarn!

October 4, 2013 by 11 Comments

It’s been weird post CAL not having to work to a deadline.  Also weird because I haven’t been crafting much.  The only think I’m working on actively is the bajada shawl/scarf for my friend — she bought the yarn so I want to get it to her ASAP so she can enjoy it.  It’s slow going though; after 3 weeks here’s what I’ve got:

bajada2It will certainly need some blocking before I give it to her, but that’s OK.

As far as crochet goes, I’ve been meaning to get going on a new ripple afghan — baby sized — out of my leftover CAL yarn:

photo 1Yep, I only used half of what I ordered in the CAL.  That’s the great thing about Stylecraft Special DK — I’m always pleasantly surprised that I have so much of it leftover!  Well, as great as it is, I still haven’t started the blanket.  Hopefully soon.  I need the stress relief of crochet.

The stress partially comes from the upcoming move — all the large furniture is being transferred on the 13th, so before that I want to have taken a good number of things already (the wonderful, amazing, fantastic landlord gave us the key waaaaay early).  Before that, though, the new house has to be thoroughly cleaned.  The landlord “cleaned,” but as one of my favorite books says, “no man can clean anything.”  My parents are going to help me clean this Sunday while Chris hacks through the patio jungle here at the apartment with his old chef knife.  On her first trip to the new house, Zero finally discovered that she can smell things outside through the air vents in my car:

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She doesn’t like sticking her head out the window — she’s a scaredy cat — so she stood like this, nose glued to the vent, for a very long time.

Looking at lovely yarns I’d like to try using calms me down a bit (so does looking on Pinterest for beautiful and clever decorating ideas).  Check these out.  The first one I’d like to try is called Vinni’s Colours (Nikkim) and was introduced to me via crochetime, and the second one is from Camellia Fiber Company and was introduced to me via one sheepish girl (she’s currently hosting a giveaway for a skein of the stuff, so sign up soon).  I added these beautiful yarns to my ever growing list of things I need to try!  Have you tried them?  What do you think?

Well that’s all for one night — I may try and read some to de-stress, or perhaps I’ll start on that crochet ripple blanket.  Or perhaps I’ll spend my time sitting around wondering what to do until it’s way past time to go to bed, so that I’m nice and exhausted tomorrow for work.  Can you tell I’m a worrier?  I get it from my mom, who got it from her mom.  At least I’ve got a very understanding ear — calling my mom always makes me feel better.  Anyway, thanks for stopping by!  Hope to see you back soon!

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I’ve been busy!

December 12, 2011 by 4 Comments

So the semester is coming to a close, and I have one more paper to finish up before I’m done with my second semester of grad school!  I’m so excited for Christmas break, during which I plan to both knit and crochet like mad.  Hopefully that means more posts coming your way!

I’m hoping it actually gets cold here — today it was around 45 but I’d like it to be colder so that I can model more of my creations in public!  I love showing off what I’ve made not because they’re exceptionally good (because they’re really not), but because I made them and they make me happy.  I’ve already given a bunch of simple crocheted hats to my school friends for Christmas — it’s really gratifying to see others wearing things I made!

I’ve actually got some new things to share today.  First off, my sweet baby pitbull, Zero, models her scarf/bow and her granny square sweater.  The sweater was a spur-of-the-moment creation, and it’s meant more to keep her warm than to be stylish, but I figured I’d share anyway.

I was making her sweater instead of doing the homework on the floor beside her:

And finally, I’ve been working on knitting the HBP Hermione hat (pattern available in the ‘knitting corner’ section), so this is where I am, with the real pic to compare:

 

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