Frustration!

I've been doing nothing but crochet lately. I finished my mohair pullover- I am pretty pleased with how it turned out!The fit is nice, it's comfy and it's just the right temperature for spring/fall. I am pretty pleased with my 2$ of thrift store yarn, I gotta say.
The sleeves were a bit short when I finished, so I did the laziest blocking job ever. I just got the sleeves wet and then hung them pulling down to dry. Now they're plenty long enough and I didn't have to redo the blocking on the body!
My desk last week. I bought more buttons. I don't use buttons very often, I have two boxes and now my felted bowl full... but I love them!

So I had to decorate my next felted bowl with them. I'm planning a blue and green bowl with button flowers and clouds and things next.

But yeah, frustrations. Today, like yesterday and the day before, I sat at home and watched TV and crocheted. On one hand, I'm watching 30 Rock and crocheting, so it's awesome, but on the other hand, I want a job. I want to be working! Of course, since my nephew will be here in two weeks and I want to be unemployed then so I can spend as much time as possible with him...

My socks were not helping today, either. I started a new pair with some awesome rainbow yarn last night at yarn night. I got the foot done today and started on the heel.
I hate doing heels. Not because of the heel itself, but because I can't find a heel I like. I redid the heel on this sock 3 times and I'm pulling out for a 4th try now. I finished the sock.. and it looked weird. All my heels are too short so I have to do these annoying back and forth slip stitch rows to make them tall enough. I don't want to have to do that every time- it's my least favorite part of the socks I've made.
I want to try another heel but I'm not sure it will work if it's not sc. I want it to be sl st, because it's more comfy... Hmm, I just had an idea. I want to do the type of heel where you decrease at the end of rows, get to the last 10 stitches and then work back increasing and sl stitching to the ends of rows. What if I did sl st going out and then sc coming back?
The sc would be taller, so the heel would go up higher and that's what I want, and the bottom would be nice flat comfy sl st.

Ok, I have something new to try. Of course, now I have to go and finish pulling back the yarn (and it would be a sticky kind of yarn that's just miserable to pull out. And I would have cut the yarn in three places making the dang heel and ankle).

Mom's Scarf

Today I finally finished the scarf for my Mom's birthday. Ok, I say finally, but I only started it over the weekend. Still, I'll be seeing her in two days.

It looked kinda hilarious right off the hook. A bit small, and you can tell one end was way bigger. The other end was really tight and too small.

I love my blocking wires. It grew a lot after washing and blocking and really started to look nice. I love the pattern.

I set up a fan in front of it, and it dried in just a few hours.

Isn't it pretty? Now I just have to wrap it nicely along with her other gifts, and hope that she likes it!

Adventures in Felting!

Today, I tried felting for the first time.

I made a simple little bowl in 100% wool.

Then I took it to the bathroom sink and scrubbed it together in the hottest water I could stand.

To tell the truth, it was kinda hotter than I could stand.

You can see how red my face is. I was hot.

I occasionally shocked in by running it under cold water from the bathtub.

And now I have my very first felted bowl!

(And quite possibly, felted hands)

A thank you to my Andrew, who stopped playing Portal 2 to take pictures for me. And even commented that he like how hefty it felt.

Finally Back!

Well, we arrived back home last week. It was a great trip and we're both really glad we went! The hotel was nice- nicer than we expected and there was so much to do and see in the city. After a week, it's like we barely scraped the surface.
I got to see some friends I hadn't seen for years. They joined us for a day of sightseeing and it was a blast. They were with us when we saw naked man- the dude who just dropped trou in the middle of an intersection and yelled at a cab for awhile before putting his clothes back on and continuing about his business.
We saw Avenue Q while we were there and loved it. The show was hilarious. We did Central Park, Empire State building, Tribeca/Greenwich/SoHo, Wall Street, Times Square (including the awesome Toys 'R' Us and Disney store!), FAO Schwartz (yes giant piano!), WTC memorial, Museum of Natural History (twice! We loved it!) and yeah, I went to some yarn stores!

We did Habu first, and my boyfriend came with me. It was a rainy miserable morning and we were soaked by the time we got to the address. It took awhile to find because I was kinda expecting a storefront. Instead, it's in a random office building on the 8th floor in the back.
Once we found it, I was in heaven. So many pretties! Of course, they're mainly for weaving so everything was very fine. It was fine by me, though (ha ha) because I've got enough heavier yarns at home. Laceweight is fun!
I came home with some cream/white laceweight (enough for a simple shift dress, I think) as well as some dark turquoise merino, I think (unfortunately not labeled!) and the real treat- a cone of their silk and stainless steel yarn. Yummy. It's got a gorgeous sheen to it. I'm planning on making a shawl out of it and can't wait to see the final product. And my boyfriend was incredibly sweet- when it came time to pay, he insisted. It was a really nice gift! Am I a lucky gal or what?

I also went on my own (while my boyfriend looked around the nearby Museum of Natural History) to Knitty City. It was a great store. Everyone was really friendly and nice and I would love to go back some time.
I ended up with some real treats there too! Some gorgeous blue ShiBui sock yarn, some Madelinetosh Pashmina that I turned into a moebius cowl and my favorite, some Blue Heron Rayon Metallic. It's soft, yummy yarn that is so sparkly. I adore it. I've already made a slouchy beret from it but have enough leftover for a matching project. I'm thinking scarf. It was definitely a one time vacation treat- but I am having serious day dreams about a top made from this.

I'm glad I chose those two as the stores to visit. Habu isn't super customer friendly- they're really nice, but it's a different environment. Their yarns are pretty incredible, though. Knitty City carries a nice variety of general popular yarn, but their atmosphere and friendliness made them stand out.
I am glad to be home, though!

We're Off!

We'll leave for our trip in an hour or so... am I excited? YES!
Is Andrew packed? No!
Time to go get ready!
Habu textiles, here I come!

Some Photos- and a Vacation!

Today I finally got a chance to photograph some of my projects in real actual daylight. My Imitation Hawaiian Diamonds pullover now has nice pictures- it really does look so much better being worn than sitting on it's own!

I also got a photo of the little ruby red shrug I made out of that incredible mulberry merino yarn. It is so hard to photograph the colour red!

I've started a new sweater, too. I went and bought a bunch of cascade 220 and have chained on (is that the crochet equivalent to a cast on?) for a simple raglan pullover with a cable up the front and possibly a sweetheart neckline.

I have been decorating my front table. The cats were wine bottles- the wine was ok, but it was reasonably priced and I got these pretties to keep! The silver candleholders were my grandmothers, and the two bottles are some really kickin' Jones Soda bottles that I had to keep. The christmas candles, which I've been too lazy to put away, maybe because they're so pretty, were from Andrew's family. I also have my two aloe plants I got from my friend Mary and my poinsettia which I thought I'd killed when we went away for christmas, but is fighting back to life!
And come on, you gotta love the little dollar store pink elephant watering can!

The exciting thing that happened to me this week is planning the vacation! Neither of us have been and we're planning on doing all the tourist things, as well as nerdy things. Nintendo store and Toys 'R Us anyone?

I have also plotted out yarn stores in the city... Habu Textiles is walking distance of our hotel! I was looking at knitmaps (the existence of which threw my boyfriend enough!) when we were deciding on hotels and looking at all the yarn shops. My boyfriend said "Yes, we can go to a yarn shop while we're there." Very sweet- but like there was a question! If there's a yarn store, I'm going!

I'm really looking forward to it, though. We've been on trips together before, but this is the first time we've gone on a big trip just the two of us.

I decided I needed a new purse- I've been wanting a dark brown leather messenger style bag for awhile, and my normal purse is huge. It's perfect for bringing my lunch to work and having everything in there, but I want a smaller purse for this trip and for summertime when I don't need to shove a giant scarf and mitts and a hat in it.

I looked all over the Eaton Centre, up to the Winner's at College and back down... then went back to the mall and into some shops I'd missed.
Then I found it- more than I wanted to spend, but perfect. Just exactly what I wanted.

(You can see the sock I'm making in there!)

I've never spent so much on a bag before (after tax it was 100$... ah! But we have a Bentley club card from getting luggage, so I can go back and get a 15% discount, whew). I love it, though, and I intend to make it last a long time.
I think it's going to be difficult adjusting to a much smaller purse, but I think it's about time I did. My old purse was like a duffel bag! Sure, I could keep 3 wips in there no prob, but it did get a little heavy.

We hop on the bus this Saturday- I'm so excited!

Being Busy

Work is kinda crazy right now. For me, it's partly doing the easy stuff I've been doing for awhile now, partly figuring out complex simulation stuff that I just learned to do a couple of weeks ago. For my boyfriend, it's a temporary lay off while contracts get sorted out. And of course, I'm done at the end of the week.
The good news is that we're planning a trip to New York City since we'll both have time off! I'm pretty excited- neither of us has been. We're going to take the bus since it's really pretty cheap. It's an11 hour trip, so I will definitely be bringing along some projects. I just started my Romantic Wrap today- it's gonna take a looong time to finish (I'm working it in even finer gauge than called for) so that will be on the hooks for the trip. I'm also planning on finding some yarns stores- yarn is the perfect souvenir!

No pictures right now- this weekend I was caught between being busy and sick and just didn't have time. I'm still sick and I seem to be getting home late from work so that there isn't much sun left by the time I get in. Once I'm feeling better I can take pictures of all the stuff I've been working on- mostly wips. My shawl, the wrap and a laceweight mohair top I've been working on. All stuff that's gonna take awhile.

But I'm impatient! So I decided tonight that I'd make up something I'd been meaning to make that I could finish really quickly. I am now the proud possessor of a sparkly red beret. I made it using random stitches and doing basically what I felt like- I wanted simple, no pattern, just easy fun crocheting.
I like the results, though I must admit when I get to the decreases in a beret, I always think that the flat part on top is way too huge! It is nice to have a red hat- now that my hair is black, red looks really nice against it. The pink hair was not so much flattering to red hats!