finishing--i can still do it!

believe it or not, i can still finish my yarn craft projects. it take a lot to get me going, but when i just bite the bullet, accomplishments abound!

these are a pair of bunny slippers that i have wanted to make ever since i bought the pattern in September of 2006. i scoped out the yarn at the shop in March of 2008 when started working there, and i started them in April 2009 because we finally put that yarn on clearance and i had to buy it before it was gone. the crocheting took about 3 days. obviously the sewing up took a bit longer. ahem.

but they are done! next!

i finished this baby blanket yesterday. no baby to give it to right now, but i am sure the perfect one will present itself to the world and demand to be kept warm. this is a small one--about the size of a receiving blanket. i have doubts that i could have made it much bigger because it was worked in mostly fingering weight yarns with a little sport and dk thrown in here or there.

i love all the colors. for some reason i just cannot exactly capture them in a picture. ah, well!

garden...

Day Sixteen
monday. the sun doth shineth.

finally. sun. my plants are happy because their soil is drying out nicely. everyone is looking a little perkier.

today i cut the bottoms off of some 2L bottles i emptied. after removing the labels, i placed them around my two pickiest plants--cantaloupe and honeydew. they were probably not hardened enough when i put them out and the intense force of the rain has been tearing their leaves. my hope is that the bottles will limit insects and keep out "angry rain".

Day Seventeen.
tuesday. i am tired all day.

at 6am a huge crack of thunder simultaneously woke up 90% of the DC metro area's population. we were all grumpy for the rest of this wet wet day.

i checked my plants briefly. if they could have given a planty finger, thy would have. at least i put those bottles over the two melons. they were not damaged by the storm. the 2nd round of pepper blossoms has fallen off, however. peppers are picky, and they are not getting their way.

good news: one pumpkin blossom has pulled ahead in the race and is bigger than all of its siblings.


Day Eighteen
wednesday. mixed bag.

when i trotted out to see the garden this morning, i was greeted but a pumpkin blossom that is getting orange! and bigger! i think it may open this weekend. speaking of blossoms, they are opening on the cherry tomato plant.

also, my Early Girl is rallying for the cause and the new growth has doubled in height since i took the last photo on sunday.

right now as i sit here typing this, thunder is rumbling outside. sigh!!!!

indoor gardening
allsorts.

all of rW's herbs have sprouted. mint is very tiny, but basil is forming a second tier if leaves and cilantro wants to be very tall. i think he is getting a little impatient for finished herb products, however.

i transplanted arugula over the weekend to thin it.... i think i did more harm than good. lots of sprouts around transplant sites are dying off, but the other guys are forming a second set of leaves. time will tell.

a welcome creature!

i went out to my garden today and made a new friend. well, i wanted to be friends, but he was not as interested.... a box turtle! isn't he cute? (his head is in the upper part of the picture... you can only see the ti of his nose.) i wanted to pet him but i settled for scratching his back with a stick. he was only tolerating this and moved on after i let him be for a while.

still!
a fun backyard discovery!

now! in garden news!

Day Fifteen
sunday. discovery day.

lookie! my Early Girl tomato is regrowing leaves after the deer devastation. lots of little new shoots are growing in the joints of the remaining old leaves. it is very exciting. my hope is once again renewed that this plant will make it.

Mr. Stripey is rolling along with very little change. we'll see if we get some progress this week now that the rain has tapered off and the sun is peaking into the picture.

in fact, today the the soil on the top of my containers is finally drying out. turning the soil with the cultivator was a good move.

finally, we have the cherry tomato that is growing well. in fact, there are future blossoms! (they re the little green things in the middle of the picture.) they are not open yet, but they are forming. i hope they make to the blossom and fruit stage.

yum. yum.

tomato growth and turtle friends, this is the kind of gardening day i like.

three ohio things

this is my new friend. i met him outside my favourite yarn shop where my mum shops. isn't he cute? when i walked to the fence, he came right up to me and said hello while the other alpacas and llamas continued to frolick. i think he believed i was bringing him food, but i will just go on pretending we are pals.



these guys were also outside the yarn shop. they were chasing around a white rooster until i came up to them. i am sure they thought i had corn or some other yumminess.



Marblehead Lighthouse is about 15-20 minutes form my parents house and about 5 minutes from my fav yarn shop. i cruised by but i didn't take the tour because i was on a schedule. i have never been up inside the tower--someday.

shower craft

saturday i attended my cousin's baby shower. for the forthcoming bambino, i made a few crafty gifts. not all of them were yarn craft, but there was some of that as well (as always!). first, something we have seen before.

bambino is a little boy, and he will have the cashmere bootees i knit a few months ago. i added a blue ribbon to each to make it a little more "boy" and to help prevent him from kicking them of his little feets.

at the shower we had to pass the bootees around because everyone wanted to touch the cashmere.

in addition to warming his piggies, i made something to adorn the bambino's nursery walls. jess liked the winnie the pooh gang a lot when we were little, so i decided to make some pooh themed wall hangings. these four little guys are about 2 inches tall in their frames.

very cute and super fun to make.
each one took about 2-3 hours to stitch and frame. i have not done a lot of cross stitch since 2000, so this was a big change of pace for me. i enjoyed it a lot once i got the hang of the technique again.

finally, i created a "least common denominator" craft--iron-on transfer. i was at jo-ann's a few weeks back and saw these iron-on transfers and could not resist. super cute on blue onesies. they were a pretty big hit

there may be more shower and/or ohio pictures to come.... BUT! i am entering tech this weekend, so updates will become sparse soon.

blargh!

there is something seriously screwed about the pattern from which i am knitting my father's sweater. it was smooth sailing until i hit the final 25% of the knitting. then the pattern numbers stopped matching up in the book, and all sorts of chaos ensued.

the collar was in the wrong place, and then the backs of my sleeves and the back of the body suddenly became too long well before they should have been "done". i think i need a break from oddly constructed sweaters that are made all in one piece.

when you have to rip back, you have to rip back a lot.

let's look at a few things that were not headache.

froggy
designed by Lion Brand

crocheted in Berroco Touche (3/4 of a skein of green tea and scraps of bleach, 50% cotton, 50% rayon) with a tahki cotton classic embellishments with a size H hook.

started and finished: august 4, 2008.

this guy is super goofy. he takes very little skill to create, and he is a very fast way to get the crochet fix. he has other friends from the same set on the lion website, and i plan to give him some company. i may gift the frog and his future friends as a whole menagerie or parse them out to people over time. we shall see, but i am pretty sure he will not be mine forever.


piggy
designed by Lion Brand

crocheted in Mission Falls 1824 cotton (3/4 of a skein of #408 Foxglove 100% cotton)and mystery pink stash cotton and tahki cotton classic embellishments with a size H hook.

started and finished: august 5, 2008.

the pig was designed as a buddy to the frog, but i did a lot of modifications to the pattern to make him cuter (in my opinion). he has a real snout and a tail in my version. he also looks more like pig and less like a ball.... his body instructions are actually identical to the frog.

now you can see how much i modified him.

whew.
i feel better now. i think i may have it in me to put the stitches back on the needle and then... suck it up and deal.

lizard ridge #3

my third lizard ridge block is finished. this means that i have used up all the yarn that santa brought me for this project. but a little bird told me that cupid may be nice to me. that would be swell. who needs a "better" half? or even chocolate? there is always knitting.

(i will say, however, that i have alwasy had a soft sot for flowers. perhaps because i don't get many.)

in an unrelated but annoying note, the squirrels have invaded my attic again. have to see if the landlord gets back to me about it in a timely fashion this time.

lookie!

i almost stepped on this little guy when i came home tonight! isn't he cool! i think he is out because it is unseasonably warm here.

funny how something like a tiny creature can bring simple happiness to life. i moved him off the steps and into the flower bed so he would not get smashed. way too neat to be flat!

long time no knit

i have been a busy girl, but even though i have been busy, i have had my trusty knitting with me for those spare moments when i can sneak some rows. here are the things i finished in the last two weeks while teching and dress rehearsing my latest show.

first up....

Bambina
designed by the fine folks at Colinette.
pattern free with yarn purchase.

knit in Colinette Tagliatelli (remenants from 3 skeins #139 "Neptune", #48 "Florentina", and #100 "Gauguin" 90% merino wool, 10% nylon) from my stash on size US 10.5 crystal palace bamboo needles.

started: november 30, 2007
finished: december 6, 2007

this was a fun little baby sweater that knit up in no time at all. i finished it in 2 or 3 days and was lazy about sewing up the seams until thursday. i was dreading it because i was worried the yarn would not mattress stitch well, but once i started, i disciovered that this is an incredibly forgiving yarn to seam. it turned out very well.

to answer the most frequent question on everyone's lips.... there is no intended recipient. yet. i just knit it to knit it. that is the thing with baby items. you can knit them and they won't go out of style and they fit as long as you give them at the right time.

i also don't know if i have friends who are funky enough for this yarn that intend to have a baby any time soon. handpainted merino ribbon yarn is pretty... out there.

there is still some yarn left, and i plan to knit a little hat to go with the sweater. nice not to have a deadline!

second project is a beret that i have been eyeing since the fall issue of knitty.com came out.

Urchin
by Ysolda Teague
published on knitty.com

size large knit in Colinette Zanziba (1 skein #72 "Tapis" 51% wool, 48% viscose, 1% nylon) purchased at K+S=B on size US 10.5 crystal palace bamboo needles.

started: december 7, 2007
finished: december 8, 2007

i wanted to knit this since i saw it, but i wasn't sold until i found the right yarn. i really love the grey and pinks of this hand painted blend, and when we put it on sale at work, i couldn't say 'no'.

the viscose gives the yarn a slight sheen, and after i blocked it, it became nice and drapey. i was a little worried about this when i finished.

i knit the size large because i wanted the top to be fuller, not really because my head is all that large. i just knew from looking at the pictures of other versions on ravelry that i didn't want the top of the hat too look anemic. it needed to really look like a beret to work.

when i finished it was a little stiff and springy at the same time... and not very beret-like on my head. i crossed my fingers and wet blocked the hat over a dinner plate. ta-da! it really seemed to work.

i like it. i'm sure you'll get a long haul report in the spring. we'll see how it holds up.

finally we have a new pasha the penguin. he is 99% finished. i just can't find my buttons for the eyes. i put them away in the spring, and i did a great job at that. yes. i put them away so well that i can't find them again.

i'll pick some up tomorrow when i am out and about for work.

ps- show is open. go see Antigone. great cast! i am especially fond of Antigone herself.
pps- my peguin is in line with the story of antigone's family. he doesn't have eyes! wheeee!

ennui bunny gets a friend

several months ago a little friend came to live with me, and his big floppy pink ears and glassy little eyes have been making me smile ever since. i was thinking he looked a little sadder as the months passed--like he may be suffering from bunny ennui.

we had a little chat.
i offered him a pal, but there is a condition... we have to let the pal go make someone else happy after he perked us up a bit. bunny agreed.


at first he was skeptical, wondering if i meant to keep my word and where on earth i would find him a friend.


but then.... !!!!!


oh, hi! you looking for me?


hurry off you two, the holidays are almost here and your new friend has an important date!


the new bunny is for my nephew, and the photo series is for hannah. she is having a contest, and while i don't expect to win, i hope the bunnies make her smile because she is a genius when it comes to making little crocheted friends!

so i won't do a full project run down on the green bunny.
he is exactly the same as ennui bunny with two minor exceptions. he is made entirely out of Berroco Touche (the pink yarn was Tahki Cotton Classic) and because he is going to live with my nephew soon, he has embroidered eyes instead of boot button eyes. i love how little details entirely change the personality of a stuffed friend.

one gift to go....

hardcore happiness

i couldn't get to sleep last night. usually i stay up late on fridays with thehairyape, and with him out of state, i settled for crocheting and watching the second half of Cocktail on TBS. a pretty typical friday, but he wouldn't be caught dead watching TBS.

look who i made! he is a hardcore bluebird of happiness, and he was inspired by the Birds of a Feather over at Bittersweet. hers are a little sweeter, but the hardcoreness of my little bluebird of happiness was more his choice than mine.

i was merrily making him according to the Bittersweet pattern when i began to run short on azure yarn. (i'm used leftovers of SweaterKits CottonLicious from Dane's birthday sweater) so i subtracted a even few rounds (7 instead of 10) to make him a little shorter and finished the last round with the ocean blue. the ocean inspired me to give him a birdie mohawk.

the yarn and the mohawk made me decide to give him to Dane with the sweater (i have a photo of Dane with his "Sid Viscous" hair) so i had to modify the facial features so they would be safer for the little guy. the crocheted beak was a happy accident and the embroidered eyes give him an even more hardcore look.

my last mod was to do one less round in the wings to make them more in scale with his shorter body. clearly i cannot leave well enough alone. i plan to make some more of these little guys according to the written pattern with some of my bigger scraps of yarn.

go check out the other little friends and whimsies available on Bittersweet. they are great!

concept rabbit

this is my first crocheted friend. isn't he sweet?

yesterday at work BossLady was saying she wanted to make a store model so cute it would make customers die. some of us pointed out this would be a bad strategy for business and too many of our customers are getting old and dying anyway. well, i think the bunny is almost that cute.

please don't die from reading my blog.

here are the pattern details...

Best Bunny
designed by the Evil Empire: Lion Brand and published on their website--free!

crocheted in scrap amounts (less than half a skein) of Tahki Cotton Classic (100% mercerized cotton) in magenta and Berrocco Touche (50% cotton, 50% modal rayon) in 7917 "peeps" on a size "H" US crochet hook.

the supplies for this darling came from the scraps left from the penguin and my pink and black cotton skirt. he is supposed to be made of a wool blend, but i think cotton is more fun to snuggle than wool--at least on your cheek. and we all know the cheek test is the most important. i suppose i could have made him out of angora and then he would have been a bunny made out of bunny. ha.

i only made one tiny change to the pattern. i embroidered more nose on him than they indicated. my big decision was about the tail.

i have scrap white yarn left from the penguin, but thehairyape suggested that he should have a pink tail because a white tail is too traditional for a yellow bunny with magenta ears. hence, the title of "concept rabbit". well, as the picture shows, the concept rabbit got his pink tail. he will have to meet thehairyape when he returns from his business trip.

that's right; he is gone, and for three whole weeks! (that is not an excitement exclamation mark) i guess that means i should post some fair progress on my projects for the next few weeks.

creature comforts

lately i have been interested in making little friends. little yarn-errific friends. they are fast a fun!

i decided to make the penguin to practice short row shaping, which is a technique i will need to use in a sweater i plan to knit for myself. next up is a crocheted bunny made from scraps from the penguin and a cotton skirt.

the details....

Pasha the Penguin
designed by Alexandra Virgiel
published on www.Knitty.com (winter 2004 issue)

knit in Berrocco Touche (50% cotton, 50% Modal Rayon. 1 partial skein each of 7900 "Bleach", 7999 "Jet", and 7917 "Peeps") on size 5 US needles.

this penguin is not named Pasha. i don't know what his name is yet, but it is certainly not Pasha. he is just not that Chekovian. but he is fat! rotund even.

i really enjoyed this project, and it went nice and fast. i'm really looking forward to making more friends. i am considering a turtle on the knitty website as my next knit friend. crocheted bunny coming soon!