Socks for Mom for Christmas. FINALLY DONE! 

Pattern is Monkey from Knitty.

books and things

I wish I read more, but I just don't. 

I'm half-heartedly reading "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace. It's long as hell and makes no sense so far.

I'm also wanting to read "The Passion" by Jeanette Winterson which was loaned to me.

A beautiful Winterson quote:

"They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?" 

And a quote from Plath:

Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences.

What else could I want?

woah-oh

Wow, I haven't done anything with this silly little blog in ages.

I didn't do much knitting over the summer. The first half of the summer I was too busy partying and sleeping, and the second half trying to do both of those things as well as work full time. 

But now I'm at college and I knit like a fiend. I joined the campus knit/crochet club and I'm learning new interesting things and just enjoying seeing what other people are doing.

Right now I'm in Christmas present making mode. Here are the socks I'm working on, probably for my mom. Pattern is "Monkey" from Knitty.

It's my first time doing top-down and it's going pretty well. I'm almost done with the first sock.

Really I am just blogging to procrastinate on writing an essay for my Honors 199 class about Lee Iacocca. Bo-ring.

octo-hack

This morning, was perusing the internets, and found this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hectic/2321568580/in/set-72157604080763858/

It's a knit octopus. Wearing a little, knit-octopus sized sweater.

And I decided that I must have one in my possession, immediately.

So I knitted one today!

I shall call him Hector, Hector the Hexopus.

Like the flikr example, I used the Oh Balls! pattern from I Like Lemons as a starting point. I decided to make the whole sphere and then pick up stitches and knit the tentacles as i-cords. However, I was just knitting on the fly while visiting with my family, and I didn't plan very well, so he only has six tentacles. Which I suppose makes him a hexopus.

I then started the sweater, basically just a tube wide enough to fit around his body, which i then picked up stitches from and made into smaller tubes as sleeves. I was having issues getting the sleeve width to line up with the tentacle width, so he only has two sleeves. Poor guy, I guess he's missing out on several fronts.

but at least he's cute!

He will probably go to my friends as a housewarming gift.  My next knitting fantasy is a whole slew of sea creatures in sweaters. Fish, turtles, whales, seahorses, plankton, the whole bit. All in little tiny sweaters. :D

Also, I went to prom. It was fun. I danced like a dancin' fool, emphasis on fool.

This is me and my mom antes de prom. Speaking of Mom, 20 minutes ago, it was mother's day. Happy Mother's Day, mothers!

fabric

I bought some fabric on Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24439882

Isn't it cute? I love owls.

I'm going to use it to make a Spring Ruffle Top from SewMamaSew:

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=791

I'll use the owl fabric as the main fabric and find something coordinating in my mom's stash. I'll probably make one as a practice run with some fabric from mom's stash, since my sewing skills aren't fantastic yet and the owl fabric is too cute to mess up.

Olivia dress

I finished the dress for Olivia! It is from the same pattern as Renate's, so now they'll match.

Pattern: Topaz from www.knitty.com

Crafting of any sort has taken a back seat to.... SCHOOL.

Hell week, next week is finals week. Boo hiss.

I am working on a second version of the Knitty topaz dress, though, for my other niece, a miss Olivia Jane.

loom knittin

When I was little I used to spool knit like crazy. 

Now, I want to venture into... LOOM KNITTING!

I'm not really sure how it works, but I've seen several neat patterns. A trip to Stitches and Scones may be in order... though a trip to the yarn store is always in order. However, I can't buy any more yarn. I cannot, and I shall not! Hold me to it!

Things I Want to Make

Sewing: 

Laundry bag (with appropriately sized pouches for detergent bottle and quarters)

Dish cloths and hankerchiefs

Scarf holder

stuffed turtle

A quilt! (someday)

more to come

Renate in her dress!

It fit her really well, and she wore it today until she pooped on the onesie she had on under it. Silly baby.

some dolls and a hat

I was cruising the Purl Bee website (one of my favorite knitting/sewing blogs) and they posted this little gem: 

www.purlbee.com/hand-sewn-felt-dolls

And the site of the woman who makes them:

www.mimikirchner.com/blog

I really want to make some for my nieces!

Some of the dolls border on the creepy, but that's kind of my thing. And I could knit little outfits for them! :D

Speaking of knitting, here is the hat I knitted for my still-in-utero niece, Olivia Jane:

It's just a basic flat-knit baby hat with a seed stitch brim (no pattern) in a really soft acrylic (possibly an acrylic/wool blend?) from my stash. I embroidered her initials (and her nickname, OJ) with a bit of stash wool. 

Next up: A little hat for her that looks like a little orange on her head, to go with her nickname. My other niece, Renate, has an apple hat. I've also thought about doing an olive hat for OJ, but that would be less cute. I suppose I should make one for my nephew, too... what fruit should I make?

Renate's dress

Finally finished, seamed, and blocked Renate's dress!

sorry for the crappy photo quality--sometimes for just one picture, photobooth has to suffice.

The colors are super wonky in this photo-the blue is actually a bright, almost greenish teal, and the purple is a bright royal purple. 

I made it in the 6th month size so it will probably be big for her when she comes home for Easter, but hopefully she can wear it pretty soon.

Pattern is from www.knitty.com/issuespring09/patttopaz.php

The suggested yarn is a really nice, flowing-colored wool (Malabrigo) which I think I will use when I make this dress for my other niece who is due very soon, Olivia Jane.

This may be difficult to believe, but I took something of a knitting hiatus for a few weeks. (I ventured into sewing, however, so my hands were still busy [and getting pricked to bits, I tell you what]).

Anyway, this is my foray back into knitting: Knitty's Topaz baby dress, for my 3 month old niece, Renate! Patt is here: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring09/PATTtopaz.php

This is Renate and I.

This is the back of the dress, unblocked, so I had to use some props to keep it from curling. I have the front done to just past the colorwork section. I'm using cascade 220 in a bright teal and dark purple--this photo doesn't really show the true colors. The pattern suggests malabrigo, a single ply semisolid yarn, and I can see why: it would be really beautiful with flowing colors.

Renate's dress matches Kara's birthday hat! (pattern: Lee Meredith's Vortex from Knitty)

Random shot of my little corner under my loft: knitting baskets, yoga mat, gatorade, camera bag. favorite things!

The view out my dorm room window on a springy day.

enjoy the beautiful weather!

Spring break sewing

So, I fail at blogging again. I guess I just don't know how to get started--how do I get people to read my blog? I guess not posting is not a good way to start.

So, recent crafting:

I made a skirt from a sweatshirt using an XXL ball state sweatshirt and with help from leethal's tutorial: http://leethal.coloredlights.net/zine/?p=106

My mom thinks it looks funny and I shouldn't wear it in public, but I like it. A good lazy day at the dorm skirt.

I went to goodwill and bought (among other things, I'll save that for another post) a set of twin sheets, and loosely followed this tutorial: http://www.lisaclarke.net/2008/04/14/i-like-my-skirts-fast-and-cheap-a-tutorial/ to make a very swingy skirt. Like the url suggests, it was cheap, but for me, not fast: it was really my first garment-sewing experiment, save the snip and stitch skirt above, and I had a mishap with the elastic- it got stuck in the hem casing and I could not get it out, and didn't want to rip out the stitches. Luckily, my mom brought home a pair of forceps from work and I fished it out. Crisis averted.

So, I'm an idiot, and I was using the wrong needle size when making the Mrs. Darcy cardi. I realized this after I finished the back and sides, sewed them up, and discovered it was much, much too small. It still fits on my body, but I would never wear it in public.

I finished it, making it with short sleeves to save time since I knew I won't wear it. I'll give it to someone small, I guess?

I'm going to put the whole thing aside for a while and work on some other projects, then make it again with the correct needle size.

Remember that Koigu sock-- turns out you need two skeins of Koigu to make a pair of socks. So I have 1.75 socks. I got frustrated and also put that away.

So right now I'm working on some simple cabled mittens with my Malabrigo wool. It's really delightful to work with, and the mittens are beautiful. I'll post pics when I finish the second one.  I wish I would've knitted more this break.. but I have caught up on my sleep!

Chrissy