Yarn cravings

This yarn diet is starving me. I need to get a job, because when I get a job I will be able to justify more yarn. But in the meantime, I have so much crappy acrylic yarn and nothing to do with it. So I make black and purple acrylic armwarmers. And I think I've got enough Red Heart Baby Pompadour to make a couple baby sweaters. I think I might enter the Olympics. I think I can make Trellis, but it would definitely be a challenge (eep, cables!). I would also have to double the yarn, and check and see if I've got enough.

Knitting morsels

In an effort to blast through stash yarn, I'm making some armwarmers in fun pirate stripes out of (egad!) Super Saver:

I'll be wearing these at the bar, and so I don't care if they're 100% afghan. I can wash the smoke out of them, and that's really what's important.

And yes, the bar, in my case, is one of those dimly lit, dirty, goth affairs, and the whole point of the knitted pirate stripes is to make me look more, um, d.i.y. 3dgy. I'm never growing up.

And here's a peek at Super Secret Project #2, which I am building up to be the Project That Will Change the Very Face of Knitting As We Know It, rather than the Project That Isn't That Impressive Unless You Consider That I Am a New Knitter and Made It UpMyself:

Victory dance

I just did it.

I finished Super Secret project #2. It's not much, but I did it. And I did the hell out of it, too.

I'm so proud of me.

Quickie pink snow scarf

This was a quick something to pass the time as we watched Batman Begins last night, and to use up a bunch of pink Dazzle yarn. Still have a bunch of yarn (d'oh!... maybe a hat?). It's being modeled by my pal, Angel.

Pattern: Quickie pink snow scarf (my own)
Yarn: Pink Dazzle (2 strands) and white Bernat Baby Coordinates (1 strand)
Needles: size 17 straight
Gauge: Does it matter? about 1.25 st/inch
Notes: Cast on 10 sts and work in 1x1 rib until the thing almost hits the floor when you're wearing it (your mileage may vary). Fringe liberally.

Yarn porn and secret projects

So. I promised myself that I would not buy any yarn until I got a job, because it just isn't justified on our one-income plan. But since I am a damn cheater, even on the rules I set for myself, I went to a yarn swap yesterday. For shame! (Fear not, I have already forgiven myself.) We all had a lot of acrylic and a little bit of treasure. I let some things go, but I managed to get more yarn in return (damn you Holly!). I thought I had a lot of acrylic yarn lying around, until I saw this:

Actually, a lot of it is really funky vintage colors, but I couldn't bring myself to take any yarn that didn't come with inspiration. This is my haul:


The vintage acrylics on the left are going to be either a striped hat or a crocheted spiral cushion (if and when I can figure that out). The little balls on the bottom are Lion Microspun, which I have never used. I wanted to noodle around with it, and see if I still like it after all the splittiness. The Dazzle is for the sake of pink, I'm afraid (I don't know what it's going to be, and in taking it I broke my own rule... but it's sparkly!). And the awesome bunch of black Lamb's Pride is going to turn itself into Super Secret Project #1 for Dan, of my own design. We'll see.

Here's Super Secret Project #2:


This should be a quick knit if I can sit down and crank it out, but I get nervous working without a pattern and I tend to drag my feet. But I already have the buttons for it, so there is no turning back now!

The armwarmers are finished

It's been really overcast in Michigan lately. Overcast in the sky means overcast in my outlook. I hvae been very, very slowly knitting a pair of armwarmers. Here's a progress shot from last week that I never posted:

The yarn is beautiful and not as scratchy as I originally thought (or at least I'm getting used to scratchy yarn). Here they are in their mismatched, hobo-esque glory:

I love them and wear them all the time. They're beautiful.

Pattern: Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation
Yarn: Noro Kureyon color 128 (2 half-balls)
Needles: size 7 dpns (next time, I'll go down a size so they fit my tiny arms better)
Notes: I did 6 rows of ribbing at the bottom and 4 at the top. I increased an extra set of stitches in the thumb gusset and increased another stitch at the end of the first thumb round to get an even amount for ribbing.

Last of the old, first of the new

Well, I'll call it the last knitting of the old year, but I actually finished this tiny camera case after the bell tolled and all the champagne was consumed (but before that champagne was... revisited, but thankfully not by me). The case , once seamed up, proved a little long, and I decided against the cutesy Mobile Monster head in lieu of buttons (yet to be purchased) to hold the top shut. Here's the progress shot:

Berocco Plush is awesome. I want to knit underpants out of it because it's so soft. And the case is holding up in my purse (although if it doesn't, I've got 1.75 skeins to go of this color).

So, I've been itching to start something new, but I have been reluctant to pull out the Noro and make the Hurry Up Spring armwarmers because I'm afraid I'll be allergic, and besides, it looks nice in the skein... I'm so lame. But screw it, it was sunny for the first time this year today, I've been carrying around this yarn in my bag for weeks, and I'm feeling brave. Today is The Day.

Stitch 'n' Bitch books? Check. Yarn and needles? Check. Peppermint tea? Check. Hot pink vinyl notions/dpn case I got for a quarter! at Value Word? Check. Okay. I think I'm ready. Baby steps:

Isn't it cute! The only thing that bugs me is that the skeins are not started in the same place in the color sequence, so they're not going to be identical without some fudging. Or maybe I should accept that they're going to be loud, and they might as well have... character.

Character like this:

She might be a crazy old lady, but she takes a cute picture.

New year, new me, new camera

So, I got a fabulous Sony DSC-200 for Christmas from my awesome parents, but as of yet I have not hooked it to the desktop. I played around with some photos on the laptop- which will soon have a wireless card in it to allow for portable blogging (I imagine me and Mikey face to face, laptop to laptop at some swank coffee shop in B-Ham). But not yet. I've already made a cute case for my camera out of Berocco Plush (it needs buttons), and I'm good to go.

On to the resolutions. I've decided to give real blogging a try. I've cleaned out my craft room (a little) and this year I'm going to recycle all those sweaters I bought in 2005 with good intentions; so far I've managed to unravel one bought in 2006 (sigh). And I'm going to knit a bunch of goodies for myself. More later.