Ravelympics results

I'm not sure how the results for the Ravelympics works, and I don't really care either. I had fun and that is all that matters to me. =)

I had been down to the wire on my last project, fingerless mitts for my sister-in-law, and I would have made the dead line for 3 more events if only I hadn't been asked to babysit at the last friggin' minute. Any knitting that I had planned to accomplish pretty much went out the window. I was rather pissed. But here are the projects that I did manage to enter on time. And I got spiffeh little avatars for them too. =3

For Felting Freestyle some awesome French Press Felted Slippers. I love these things. I wear them all the time...even if they were supposed to be a gift. Oh well.





For Sock Hockey and Lace Luge I made the Lily of the Valley socks. That's right, two events, one project. You all already know how well that went. *grumbles* But they're finished and look wonderful.
The picture looks a bit silly because the socks are made for a medium sized foot (mine) and the manikin feet are a size small...hence the little floppy bit by the toe.






And the wonderful Odessa Hat that my friend Pinky ended up getting. =) I really like this pattern and am thinking about making it again soon. God knows I have enough beads for at least 2 more.



Also, last but not least I want to show off my latest love affair, Harvey. My slightly neurotic looking fox pup.

I'm not selfish, just picky

My friend Cierra and I went Swing Dancing on Tuesday. She came over my house so we could car-pool to the ballroom and she spotted my Felted Slippers. "So when am I going to get a pair?" she asked as soon as she put them on her feet, wiggling her toes around and strutting back and forth in my bedroom. "Whenever I get around to it," I replied as I rummaged around for the Odessa hat I had made for her (it was my beaded projects for the ravelympics). When I gave it to her she did a happy little squeal, jammed it over her head and walked around my house petting the hat every few minutes. And that is when I knew that I had found someone (besides my Mom) who would appreciate and actually wear anything knitted that I would present to them.

I have my own little one-time-your-out rule when it comes to knitting. I will knit everyone at least one thing; a hat, a scarf, socks, slippers, something that doesn't take a ton of time or money to make. If I don't see them using it a few times I will not knit for them again. Not because I don't love them, or because I wouldn't enjoy knitting for them, but I don't see the point in spending hours knitting for someone only to see the item sit in some drawer for the rest of forever.

I wouldn't say that I am selfish in my knitting, I'm just picky, very picky.

Ravelympics, part 1

The ravelympics are going on at Ravelry right now. Basically knitters and crocheters try to get as many self picked projects done in the 17 days that the regular Olympics take place. Each project can be tagged under one or more "events" and you can even join teams if you want, or be a lone wolf. This is my first time take part in the ravelympics and I am a proud member of Team S.P.E.W. The first project that I am trying to get done in record time is the Lily of the Valley sock pattern, in a very pretty blue colorway called Mermaid. Here is how that sock is going so far:

Day one: Cast on...wrong number of stitches.
Cast on yet again, take sip of wine, start knitting.
Get to the first part of the billion and two lace instructions (the cuff).
Finish the cuff in record time, get another glass of wine.
Switch back to first page to read up on "Horizontal Braid" instruction.
Get confused, drink wine, complain to mother, attempt to find help on Ravelry, set knitting down with a frustrated huff and go to bed.

Day two: Stretch and pick knitting back up.
Follow Horizontal Braid direction carefully, smacking self in forehead when realizing that the instructions are super simple.
Start on the leg instruction, feeling incredibly optimistic.
Realize that I forgot 2 rows on the cuff instructions.
Tink (unknit) while grumbling to self.
Finish the cuff this time all the way.
Work on leg instructions, again.
Mess up on row 3 of leg, unknit.
Mess up again on row 3, unknit yet again, glaring at yarn the whole time.
Start on row 4, realize I've lost 3 stitches along the way, and frog the whole f-ing thing.
Grab glass of wine, and cast on to the whole thing again on DPN's this time around.

I'm hope that this will make everything easier. Since the pattern, erm, called for DPN's in the first place. But hey, I looked at it figuring that if I just place markers I could pretend I'm working with 5 DPN's instead of one circ and call it a day. After all, how hard could that be?

Imma spinnin' fool

Just before Christmas last year I learned how to spin, I even took a class at my LYS and for Christmas my mother got me two spindles, and some roving (which is sitting in a air tight container because it's too precious to do anything with yet), and I've been spinning like there is no tomorrow.

My Mom and I even spent an hour on etsy looking for more roving after I had run out of the super soft merino super wash I had bought from Alpaca Direct. We found really nice roving from a seller called Fiber Yummy. Every time I spin with it it makes me giggle. Not only is the color very nice, but it separates easily for an even yarn (I'm a new spinner so the concept of a producing an even yarn is new to me). And even spun up it looks really nice, wonderful transition between a strange grayish color, lavender, and green. I can't wait to get done spinning it so I can knit it into something. Too bad there are things like sleep, eating, human interaction, and other that are preventing me from just sitting at home and spin.

In other linky news (since this post is full of links, and I like even numbers) a friend of mine has shown me a very funny online cat comic, The Lumps . The comics don't really follow any sort of time line, so you can jump in whenever. Basically it's about two cats brothers, Ebenezer and Snooch, and the little antics they get into. It's cute. Look at it.

Now I'm going back to working on my spinning. I'm sure I can spin and still carry on a conversation with my Mom over the internet. I mean, how hard can it possibly be?

The Project

Last year for Christmas my mother bought me a 365 knitting stitches a year calender. I love that thing. Every day it shows you a picture of a new knitting stitch with the instructions on the side. Lil' old me thought, "I should make a swatch every day and at the end of the year put it all together for a blanket!" What did I do? I made about 20 little swatches and then gave up.
But not this year!
I'm am determined to make a blanket using this calender and nothing is going to stop me. Well...the last 15 days that I haven't been knitting might, but I'm keeping an optimistic view on all this, and will have a nice blanket to cuddle up with by the end of the year.
Hopefully....

Ugh *headdesk*

That is pretty much the way I feel right now. Just, ugh. I'm so tired from Christmas and shopping, and knitting that all I want to do is sleep for the next 2 weeks.

Christmas was amazingly wonderful though. I got more stuff then I know what to do with. All my goodies from my Mom and sister for instance are still sitting in their giant box by my desk because I have no room for them. My Mother got me a ton of sock yarn from KnitPicks, as well as their cup cozy kit, which now gives me 23 more balls of yarn that I simply can not fit into my stash bin. Even with me sitting on it, it just won't fit. So they are in the box.

She also got me the most amazing drop spindles; one top whorl and one bottom whorl. They are from the Ma & Pa Spindle website. These suckers spin for nearly ever. And it makes such smooth single ply's that I keep grinning at my work in awe and periodically running to family members to shout, "Look at it! It's amazing!" The in-laws don't really understand my excitement.
I've decided that the next logical step is to buy a modest student spinning wheel, and then a sheep.

Stil pretending

I'm still pretending it's not December.

I'm pretty much done with most of my major knitting, including the scarf for the sister, but now I have to make 2 felted slippers, and manage to crank out a pair of socks within the week because the lady I have been making them decided she needed one more pair. *growl* Oh, and make a pair of fingerless gloves for my sister-in-law. But I'm not worried about those. I have a 4 hours pattern that will be a cinch to knit up.

Now if only I could find something to make or buy for the brother-in-law. But I'm still good...it's not December after all.