On My Way!

Tomorrow we head off to holiday things. Some time at Andrew's parents for Christmas, then off to Cuba for a week! I can't wait.

I pulled out my yarn last week to tidy up. Isn't it lovely?


I may have acquired more since...

I finally blocked this shawlette for Andrew's Nan, who is totally awesome. It's made with merino/silk laceweight yumminess. I also got her a dpn case because she makes lots of little baby hats and things.

These practical and lovely little neckwarmers are for my parents. They ski a bunch and I know it's a pain to have water drip down your back... so voila, lovely superwash wool neckwarmers with a bit of a dickey attached.

And my present to me... my dress is only half finished but I am very excited. I needed more yarn and it just so happened that there was more at the warehouse! I am just about the luckiest person ever.
I still have a few more presents to finish... I finished legwarmers for my brother's girlfriend today and I'm working on a few more things for my parents. I also have a sweater with just the arms left to do that I'm bringing along to finish (though I must admit I'm not sure about that... I mean, a whole sweater? I can just leave it in the suitcase that's staying behind and I really want to get it done, but still...)
Anyway, I need to get to sleep. We're catching the train out tomorrow. I need to wind some yarn up first, but bed is calling me...

A Blog Award? Pass it on!

So the lovely and talented Omlair from My Grandmotherly Ways gave me a blog award! How cool!

The award goes to a blog you love that has less than 200 followers. When you receive the award, you then give it to 5 people you deem worthy.

Doing this has seriously reminded me that I don't follow enough blogs. I had five, I swear, but somehow I lost one? Here's my list of 4, anyway:

1) Candiware! Besides being my best bud and a totally awesome person, Candice has this blog where she shows off her adorable and stylish mini food jewellery. Have I mentioned that I've loved miniatures since I was a kid? Yeah, I have, and hers are awesome.

2) Off the Hook Astronomy is the blog of a friend of mine who is a totally awesome knitter and crocheter as well as a really smart scientist-type. She's pretty awesome.

3) Target Wounded is the art blog of a good friend who does some seriously cool digital paintings.

4) Alvin's Blog is the art of an old classmate. He does some really polished and lovely digital paintings that I have always admired.

If I remember who number 5 was, I'll add them back... And yeah, if you have any awesome blogs to recommend, let me know!

Christmas Presents and Pretty Yarn

So my stitch night had a party and we did a gift exchange. I got this Noro Retro- I'm so excited! I've never used any Noro before and this seems like a nice one. I mean, it's got angora in it.
I need to find something really special to use it on. Isn't the colour great?



I've really been raiding the discount section at work. This Teddy yarn is super soft. I'm making a cardigan with little ears on it for my adorable little nephew. He's gonna be 1 soon!


These are for various Christmas presents. I only got the two balls of the mulitcolour superwash- I am kicking myself now, because I think they would be awesome and quick to work up socks. The other is a merino blend and it's probably going to be hats. Hats hats hats!

Most likely more of this hat, the Best Guy Hat Ever. It really is. I'm gonna make one in a nice girly colour for me once the holiday is over.
I can't believe I'm not sick of making them yet, but every one is still fun!


Speaking of manly things, I finally wove in the last ends of these mitts awhile ago and just recently handed them over to Andrew as an early christmas present. He's actually been wearing them :D! They look quite nice on him. He says he looks like a hobo, but he likes them.


I also made myself a Boteh scarf out of this Chroma that's been sitting in my stash just waiting for a project. I saw one in a different colourway on the blocking thread over at Rav, and I knew I had to make it. It's finished now and just needs blocking.



This has been put aside for my dress (which fingers crossed I will finish today!) and I think I might need more yarn for it, but I am super excited for it. It's going to be a giant fluffy soft mohair wrap. I'm using Debbie Bliss Angel and Party Angel (basically the sparkly version of the same yarn!) striped in a nice ripple pattern. In hindsight, I probably should have made it less wide to get more length, but I kinda love the ridiculous width. I just don't think I'll have the yarn to make it as long as I want.
Gee darn, more yarn.

An order...

Last week I got a Knitpicks order in the mail. A wonderfully ridiculous order that included 55 balls of yarn and a gift for someone else.

It included yarn for some projects I can't wait to start:

Wool of the Andes for a sweater, as yet undecided. Probably a cardigan. I keep having ideas and then forgetting them on this one!

Telemark for a lovely relaxed cabled sweater- probably the green one from the latest Crochet! (Which, might I add, was surprisingly amazing!)


Some laceweight. The red is for another Dahlia shawl. I love the red version in the magazine and need some more lovely red in my wardrobe. Did you know that red has been proven to make you more attractive? I want to wear more of it- it doesn't hurt that red also looks pretty great on me.
The yellow I've just adored for a long time. The golden colourway is really appealing to me. Although it has more bright green-yellow in it than I expected, I love it and I'm really excited for deciding what pattern I'm going to use.


This is for a plush ARG toy. It's gonna be part of Andrew's christmas present, but I don't really know when I'm gonna get to it. He's already gotten fingerless mitts and a hat, though, so I don't feel too bad.


Then some crayon for a blanket. Not until I finish the other crayon blanket I'm making! That behemoth is gonna haunt me for awhile...
I had to order it, though... they're discontinuing crayon and I LOVE crayon! I'm a little sad- it was what made me make my first KP order.


And this I'm really excited about... Sugarbunny. I am making mitts and a hat and maybe a cowl out of this. Angora. Super soft and lovely and a delightful pink, I can't wait!

I'm not working with any of it yet, though. Right now I'm working with yet more new yarn. I was shelving the new clearance yarn and a bag full of cashmere blend with the help of an enabling coworker ended up coming home with me. I'm making a dress to wear when I go away over New Year's.
I have some more pictures to share- other new yarn and some fun things, but for now I'm gonna get back to the dress. I want to finish it tomorrow and maybe get some other projects a little further along.

Shiny New Things and Presents

So I've gotten a few other new things at work recently. I also bought more yarn than I ought to have last week. I'll share that with you soon. I actually have three days off next week! I can't wait. I'm not traveling, not working, just relaxing. Ok, I have a doctor's appointment and I need to get a flu shot, but still.
Anyway, for now, my new tools!

I got this gorgeous Knitter's Pride Tunisian interchangeable hook set. It's lovely multicoloured birchwood. I love the tips of the hooks and the cables mean I can do long tunisian projects on transit without poking the person next to me. I love love love them.

I also spotted these at work... my coworker and I grabbed them. We're gonna play swapsies with the small and large size. Heart shape pompoms! I love it!

I finished this scarf for my Papa! He claimed to like it, it matched perfectly with his bright red fedora and looked good on him. He said it was nice and warm, but not itchy. Can't beat that.

I don't know if my Nana loved these fingerless mitts, but they fit and looked nice and she was certainly happy with the idea of pretty hand warmers. She thanked me a lot too, and what more can I ask for!

I am deep into my Christmas projects... about halfway done. Need to finish a scarf and cowl set, two neckwarmers, legwarmers and possibly a few more hats and mitt sets. But those are optional projects. So really, 4 projects left to go. Yay!

Shinies!

I was going to do a proper post last Friday- I had the morning off, the only real time off I've had in awhile. Working 7 days a week for a bit.
That didn't happen because before I went to bed on Thursday I found a mouse, so Friday was major mouse hunt day.
I have to run to work soon, but first let me leave you with some gratuitous shininess- I was pricing these for work and I could not resist getting some.

Christmas Gifts and Treats

So a few days ago I officially got my yarn discount at work. I didn't buy anything on day one. I was being good. I have no yarn budget.

But I need stuff for Christmas presents, and that totally doesn't count, right? The grey is a nice workhorse yarn for a hat for my brother. The red and black are for my parents- they'll be ski neckwarmers, the kind with a dickey (heehee) down the back. Nice and fine for those hot days when the snow seems to melt all over you.


It really is beautiful merino- and a great price, too.


I also had to get myself this set of Chibi needles. After all, they're so cute and perfect for my purse. Loose needles in my purse seem to vanish. This set will mean I always have the right needle with me.

And then I caved. I finally bought this yarn. I've been drooling over it for longer than is appropriate. This combination for a crochet featherweight cardigan? Yes! Yes yes yes.
I'll be getting some Christmas money soon, and this actually was pretty reasonable. The rest of the money I'll save, but I'm so glad I got to bring these babies home.

The start of my cardigan. No surprise, it's slow going. I'm gonna do raglan style increases, although super-lazy like. Those stitch markers are at the beginning, and I sorta increase wherever is about closest to them. It seems to be working so far. Hopefully it still looks good further in.
The purple will be a button band and possibly cuffs and collar- I'll see when I get there.

I'm using the crochet stockinette I figured out. Not sure if I have a small enough hook, though.

What do you think, are those holes way too big? Keep in my here the scale of my finger.
I don't know...

A Gift and a FO

Look look, I finished one! Actually, I finished a pair of socks this week too. I had a bunch of days off in a row and really got some good crocheting done. My boyfriend was home this week and he got some great new videogames to play (Batman: Arkham City and Uncharted 3, which is like watching a really great adventure movie) and I sat and worked while he played. The socks are a Christmas present for his Mom... they were supposed to be a birthday present, but shhhh.
Love this cardigan. It's cozy and feels great but I like how it looks, too. I was super way off on gauge, but I (super secretly!) don't care. It ended up longer than planned but I took some rows out of the sleeves so they weren't too wide. I love the super long look of this.
That ribbed edge though, I thought I was gonna go a bit nuts.

I finished this owl set for a friend's birthday. We went out to the pub last night for a steak dinner and I gave her the set. She loved the hat and said the gloves would be perfect for work.

Her phone charm apparently just fell off, too- so this teeny owl toy I whipped up the morning of the party will have a new home. Isn't he sweet? I am having so much fun making little minis.

Some WIPs and things

I'm all about the WIPs lately, huh? I really want to get some of the things on my Rav page done. Yeah, it really is just about making my project page cleaner. I mean, sure, actually having the finished objects would be great, but c'mon. How can I start more projects with such an untidy and full WIP area?I did start this, though. The first part of my wall decoration project. It's an exploded miniature doily. With a bulky weight yarn, a real doily would have been too much. This one was perfect, and quick. Good for my patience.

My Herringbone sweater. I bought the yarn at Lettuce Knit in the spring for a totally different project. Then I saw this pattern and knew I had to start it. Even though I don't have enough yarn and I will probably end up having to get a different dyelot to finish this. Whatever. I'll use it for the sleeves. Yeah, that's it.
The pattern has taken some serious figuring and I swear there are some counting mistakes in it. I'm just fudging it as best I can, but it seems to be doing well!

My Critron. This baby is taking forever. I'm basically finished what the pattern calls for now- well, I'm on the last section and other than the border I would be done. I used a very fine yarn, though, so it's too small for my taste. I'm going to add several more sections. I'm already almost 550 stitches in the ripple section, so yeah. It's going to be awhile.

This is the project I really want to finish because I think it's gonna be great for work. It's a light little cardigan that I'm using totally the wrong yarn for and loving it. It's gonna be too big and totally cozy and perfect for the slightly-more-than-a-t-shirt but not-a-real-sweater that I need at work.

And look, I took some pictures of me wearing my pretty mink cowl! I'm feeling pretty awesome today. It's my day off, so I get to recover from the festival finally. I did my Wii Fit exercises, am down to my lowest weight in a year or so and got past 20 hours on my Wii-piggy-bank thing.
Now to get a bunch more work done on some WIPs! Today is a good day.

New pretties, WIPS

So I spent the weekend at the Creativ Festival. I was working at the store's booth and so I was totally not going to spend any money. But then I saw some yarn, and you know how that works. Besides, my bank account was healthier than expected. So just three little skeins I was going to take home.Isn't it pretty? Party Angel, I love it! I adore light fluffy mohairs, pretty soft pinks and anything that's sparkly. Match made in heaven.
But you can see that there's only two skeins there. Not because they were out, though...

... but because before I got those, I found these. Kidsilk Haze. 50% off. The softest, dreamiest of pinks.
They were so sweet. They had to come home with me!

I don't know yet whether they'll be two small shawls or one big striped one. Thoughts?

And then the booth across from us had this. I had to take something really special and unique home, you know? And this is incredible. It's 70% mink, 20% merino and 10% silk. It is so soft and wonderful, the grey is just amazing and working with it was incredibly fun.
I got it from Knitca.com. They don't have it on the website, yet, though. Not that I can see, anyway. I want more. Ok, I can't buy more. But I want more.

I finally finished my first tunisian mitt. I started these as a way to practice gauge and tension in tunisian before I began my Betty's Tunisian Tee. I think I ripped them out 3 or 4 times, maybe more. I even finished and seamed the main body before I ripped it out the last time because they were too small. Finally, finally I have one finished.
The other one will join it soon- hopefully in less time than it took to do this one.

This is the beginning of another project. I fell in love with some wall art I saw on Ravelry and now I have to make some for my house. Think big, bright flowers and granny squares and motifs. I have a part skein of Chroma left that might go in the mix, too. We'll see.