I smell like a wet sheep

My first felting project is done! I have pictures, too, and I will post them once I get off the treadmill tonight. Other completed projects of note include Branching Out and a scarf for Pippa (a matching hat is on the needles right now).

I got a little farther on the Boobholder, but I'm going to rip out the body stitches because my increases look funky (I am so happy I left in the lifeline!). I'll finish that this week. Promise.

Too cold for a short-sleeved shrug

I haven't made any more progress on the Boobholder because I've been noodling around with winter accessories- the weather has taken a chillward turn in the last few days. The melon-holders that were too big for Nicole were replaced with an actual gift hat. I wish I had a picture, but I put it together in two hours and immediately took it over to her for her birthday. I used the Hot Head pattern from Stitch n Bitch in some spare hot pink Homespun (I think it was called Coral Gables) but it was too floppy on size 10.5 needles, so I switched out to size 8 and tried again. I did 25 rows instead of 29 because I thought I was running out of yarn (I wasn't), so it was a tad short for my personal tastes. To add a touch of length, I crocheted a lace edge with some black Super Saver, picking up and sc for each bound-off stitch, and then sc and ch 4, skipping every other sc from the previous round. It made a loopy lace that looked great in contrast to the ribbing. The hat was super stretchy and would fit all different head sizes. The fabric was really plush and dense, too. I'm definitely going to make myself one, a little longer and maybe in a different color (and I'll bet I would get at least two hats or a hat/scarf from one skein).

I've also started Branching Out from Knitty. I had to learn 4 new decreases and how to yarn over to do this, and it's coming out great on some light teal TLC on size 9 needles. I sew a lifeline in every repeat because I already had to start over once (and I hate starting over) but I think lace knitting is going to be my favorite varitey of knitting! Pictures as soon as there's light tomorrow.

I've forgotten it before

I don't want this to slip my mind again, but I really, really must make a case for my digital camera. Something fuzzy and protective out of a yarn that won't scratch the screen.

That is all.

Photos at last

Here's a little something I like to call "No Boobs, All Shoulders":


As you can see, the left sleeve is done, the right sleeve is almost there, but I have yet to join the body. Who knows what this is going to look like, though. I've never worn poofy sleeves.

In the meantime, I finally finished this:


Dan insisted that it reach past his knees, and damnit, it does.

Then there's this melon holder, which is too big for me (and thus the intended recipient) but it seems to fit Dan:


I just wrapped up another one in black with a cuff, and it seems to fit better. I don't know if Nicole will like it, but here's to hoping.

No pictures yet but a flurry of activity and bullet points

My camera makes me mad. I need to get it to communicate with my new desktop, but it's not working. Yet. I have been knitting, I swear! I put the Boobholder on hold for a moment to work on some other stuff:

• a ribbed scarf for Dan made of crappy Red Heart acrylic (which will take a tumble with some fabric softener) which was the first project I cast on and got tossed aside when I decided I more urgently needed a crappy knit bikini (the top fits great, but I lost the bottoms while swimming to the amusement of my friends)
• a series of hats for Nicole's birthday- the first one, made of Woolease worsted according to the devil hat pattern in Stitch n Bitch, was waaaay to big, so I cast on 7 fewer stitches and tried again with some black Red Heart (still too big I think but it's not off the needles yet)

I also need to form some kind of queue to organize the growing pile of intended projects like:

• Lelah in Bernat Cottontots
• the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers from Stitch n Bitch Nation, despite my severe allergy to wool
• the Mobile Monsters, too- one for my phone and one for my mp3 player (for this and the armwarmers, I bought the recommended yarn!)
• the Loopy Velez cowl from Stitch n Bitch in Takhi tweed in an olive color (I have five of those and 1 skein of a wine color)
  
• and eventually one of each from Knitty

I want to make a bunch of Christmas gifts, but every time I knit or crochet something, I want to keep it for myself. I think I should start making things in pairs.

I think I've hit the halfway point

My boobholder may not have any room for boobs yet, but it's almost ready to separate into sleeves and body. I will have an update picture in the next day or so. It's taking shape very nicely, and I think that I will never knit a sweater that isn't in the round and in one piece. I love it!

I will probably have some knitting time tomorrow because, unfortunately, Dan's Uncle Andy died over the weekend and we're heading to Mt. Pleasant tomorrow for the funeral (two and a half hours in the car, although I'll be doing a fair bit of the driving, I suspect). He was not in good health but it's still a bit of a shock. Dan wasn't particularly close to him, and I only met him once, but he was Dan's father's brother, and I think that losing a link to his father could affect Dan more than he realizes, especially after he acted when his grandmother died in July. I worked on the afghan at her memorial service, and everyone told me how much she loved to knit and crochet, but that she wasn't able to do it anymore. I have resolved to learn how to knit with broomsticks in the dark so that I'll still be able to knit when I'm blind and arthritic. And why the hell not?

Now that it's over, I've got more knitting time

I promised myself that for good or ill, I would not talk about my GRE scores with anyone but my parents and Dan. I. would. not.

And I won't... but I will say that when I came out of the testing room, the proctor looked at me and said, "Huh. I haven't seen a score like that, and I've been here almost seven years."

He also made fun of me when I came in because I a.) insisted on wearing my (newly knitted) scarf into the testing room despite the... tropical climate and b.) asked where the bathroom was when I was facing the sign and standing not six inches from it. And I signed in where I was supposed to sign out. Twice.

Mind was elsewhere, I guess.

Scores went to Michigan State, Northwestern, UC Berkeley, and Stanford.

Something old, something new

Since I began this blog, I've actually managed to finish a small project in order to make way for more complicated things. Behold the Parteee scarf, made with $5 worth of novelty yarn from the dollar bins at Target:


It's fuzzy and stretchy and posed on my new-to-me treadmill that will surely be used for running and not just displaying new knits. The scarf is two yarns held together and knit in garter stitch (20 sts cast on size 13 needles) until I ran out of the fur.

Now that I have my fun scarf, I can start on something I've been wanting to do for such a long time with this beautiful, discontinued (nooo!) Plymouth Turino silk:


These beautiful teal balls are well on their way to becoming the gorgeous Boobholder from glampyre.com. Here's a progress shot, on Dan's Go board:


Dan taught me how to play Go yesterday, and although I'm not so hot at it right now, I think it will be more interesting in the long run than the damn XBox. In exchange, I taught him how to cast on and knit (at his behest):


It's full of holes, but his tension is getting more and more even. We're gonna be a knittin' family!

Woohoo!

I think I've almost got the formatting right- how exciting! Livejournal was getting me down and I needed a fresh start. Tada- knitting journal!