Quilting!

So I mentioned my "big project" on Facebook and forgot to give any details. I asked a few friends if they were interested in starting quilts this year. One is more experienced and has been helping us start ours, and it's proving to be much easier than I thought it would be... Probably because the ironing board is right next to us instead of downstairs, encouraging me to actually iron the fabric!

I choose to go with batiks for my quilt. We're doing a pattern called "Bento Box" that shows you how to make a block that can be arranged into many different patterns. Some don't look like anything to me, and other ones look really cool.

I also am going to start knitting a TON of these Trumpet Flowers for my sisters wedding! They're really pretty, and small. It shouldn't take to long to churn out a bunch, but I've got the time anyways, it seems. I'll need to grab up some needles that size, and matching yarn for the theme, but it shouldn't cost too much except time, which I've got plenty of!

So there's my 2 big projects this year. Yes, a lap sized quilt is a big project for me! I really want it to turn out beautiful. We are zipping through, honestly. I only got most of my fabric today, and I know that I'll end up need more anyways. Especially of the white. When I sew up a few blocks, I'll post a couple of pictures of the blocks so you can see my color scheme. It's mostly batiks, with a couple of tie-dies thrown in that sort of match the batiks.

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Homemade Xmas Gifts

Anyways, so here's some of the things I made for this past xmas. I didn't get a picture of the scarf I made, I liked how it turned out though... Oh well. I knit a lot, and made a few clay things... I wanted to make more clay stuff, but I just ran out of time. 

Here's a headband I made to match a hat that I didn't get a picture of. You can't really see the pattern, but it has rib knit along the edges and in the middle it's broken rib. I think if I make another one, I'll make sure the rib and broken rib don't line up. 

Dice bag! I love the stripes. The white yarn is fuzzy and the green yarn wasn't... But, whatever. We were supposed to fill it with all kinds of dice, but we never got the chance too. 

Back scrubber! This was like knitting a scarf with the smallest needles I've used. Ugh. Took forever. 

This is what took the longest out of the clay projects. I took the box apart in order to stain it all, and I also used sandpaper to make some worn areas. I was planning on adding more clay features, but the clay wouldn't stick to the wood. So, I painted it instead. After I made the dragon! It's the biggest dragon I've made. You can't really see but one eye is open and looking up. I think he turned out adorable! 

This was for my boyfriend's new friend at school. She mentioned how she really liked the unicorns that also had wings (alicorns), so he came home and asked me what they're called so he could tell her their name. Then asked me to make her one for xmas. The last pony I made was butt ugly, so I'm happy this one came out cute! 

Peacock! This is an ornament I made for a friend. I worked really hard to make it more color-accurate, but the beak ended up become much too long and I didn't want to try to make the wings. They'd be really complicated! 

A lizard! This was actually a request, and I had planned on making more desert themed animals but ran out of time. 

Rags. I actually haven't given these to their recipients yet but they know what they are getting anyways. 

Just a hand warmer. I stuffed some jewelry into it as well. 

These were fun! Corset shaped bags! I put hand soap, sewing kits, and jewelry in these. I wanted to put more, but again I ran out of time. 

Here are the sewing kits. Thread, thread cutter, pins, needles, a zipper in one and I think some velcro in the other. They're good to keep in cars for emergencies! 

Star Shaped Dishcloth

Hey, an actual project to show you guys! These will be happening more often as December is just around the corner and I'm make the majority of my xmas gifts. Here is one I threw together today:

This dishcloth still took me a few hours to knit, with the smaller needle size. I think the next one I make I will use a size up. It's a good size, probably will be better when it's wet.

I made a mistake, I thought that the pattern was to make each wedge individually and sew them together, but it's supposed to be knit in one piece and sewed along one edge only. I ended up making one wedge, cutting the yarn, and THEN checking the comments on the ravelry page to see if that was correct. It wasn't. So, I made one half, then took the wedge I made earlier and continued from it and made the other half, then sewed it up nice and neat up the middle. It really isn't noticeable!

Anyways, here is the raverly page for this project. It's free! Otherwise I wouldn't have done it... Haha. Maybe once I get that elusive job!

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Yeast and other craft stuff.

I used my yeast water to make pretzels, and it worked just fine. For those of you who are interested in the yeast, basically I took 2 big spoonfuls (Like the big silverware ones that you eat with, not measuring spoons) of flour and put that in a jar of water. The jar has oz markings on it, so I filled it to about 20 oz of lukewarm water. I mix the flour in, but it will settle and that's fine, you can leave it like that. Leave it in the kitchen windowsill. If you have cheesecloth, you should cover in with that and use a rubber band to secure it, but I didn't, so I just put the metal lid balanced off kilter so it's sorta covered, but still has air coming in. Remember, yeast is a living organism so it needs air. It will have small bubbles when it's ready to use, although they will go away. It will also smell kinda funny.

I think you're supposed to put it in the fridge, so I think I will try that now, since it's ready to use, but I'm not sure if it's going to kill it or anything. Also, you're supposed to be able to just add more lukewarm water to it when you use up some of the water, but I used so much of the water that I just dumped the rest out and started over again. So, I'll try just adding water to it next time.


My "craft block" is still going strong, although I have managed to make myself a purse and a skirt. Honestly I think I just need to make myself a few items at a time before getting back into the swing of making other people stuff. I'm talking about xmas stuff, but I've downgraded the blankets to probably socks, or hats, or pot holders, or rags... I REALLY do like knit rags but my BF used his as a pot holder and it worked really well, so I think I'll make a few friends some of those, since they will be needing them...

My stepmothers mom just ordered me a knit picks interchangable needle set! I'm really super happy about it because I've been wanting them forever and I will have so many needles now!!! She and I also just listened to a friend rave about their prices and quality, which was one reason I hadn't really thought about asking someone for a set yet, but now I can just hope that it'll be awesome! The only thing is knit picks doesn't offer a 16 inch cord, for hats. The smallest is the 24 inch, which I supposed I could make hats on but it'd be a bit tight. I've measured several heads and I've found that male heads are generally 23 inches in diameter where the edge of the hat will hit, and females are 21 inches. Yes, I've measured peoples heads. I'm not a freak, I was just making them fleece hats.

I made a "down syndrome cow" recently, and people absolutely love his retarded face, so I'm thinking I will do several more of those, to give away, not sell... Keep in mind when I call this cow all kinds of slanderous, mentally disabled names, I'm really giving myself a bad time for how he turned out. I DO have a developmentally disabled brother, so, please don't think I make fun of ACTUAL people with mental or physical issues. Here is a picture of the masterpiece:

Down Cow

Isn't he adorable? Can't really see his tail, but it's there. The sad truth of it is, I hate working with white clay because it got so dirty! So, I stopped working on him before I added a snout. I plan on making a down pig, down sheep, and maybe a few others. 

Anyways. Here's to a hopefully more productive week! I've got everything that I need to start making stuff! Although I still do need some other things. I have a bus pass now, so I can go ANYWHERE that the very limited bus system will take me! 

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Crafters block.

For the past 2 days, I haven't been doing anything but getting on the computer, reading, eating, and sleeping. See, what happened was, the blanket that I've spent over 20 hours knitting, has a twist in it. The only way to fix this is to unravel 20 HOURS of work and start over. So, I kind of hate crafting right now...

The twist is there on the right... 

So what I'm going to do, is start over, and knit the blanket from the inside out. The amount of stitches I cast on  wasn't going to be big enough for a fully grown man anyways. This way, I can stop knitting when I can tell it'll be big enough. I can only hope I can do this in one month. Which I bet I can, it will just be a month full of agony and "why did I decide to knit BLANKETS?"

I haven't even been working on clay, which, I REALLY need to for my shop. I also REALLY need to buy some boxes and shipping supplies in order to ship things for cheap. I personally hate shipping things because it usually ends up so expensive! So, I've decided to buy the boxes online, for cheap, and not have to pay for boxes at the UPS store, keeping the cost down for both me and my potential buyers. Because seriously, paying $10 for just a cardboard box and then another $20 for shipping is ridiculous. I need tiny boxes, for tiny things. That is all.

I've also decided to do that whole adsense thing on my blog. So, click those ads, please! It nets me some $$. Which we all need, right?

Anyways. I still have the KAL set up, and I've added a link to a regular pinwheel blanket (as opposed to reverse pinwheel blanket) so those of you who want to knit up an awesome blanket, go ahead and join me here.

Hopefully, I'll start working on some other xmas presents, as well as getting my shop set up better than it is now. I've got some sewing to do, and some clay things to work on for xmas. Maybe I'll be able to do some tutorials! Or at least enough pictures to help one figure it out if they want too.

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Work in Progress

Knitting a blanket is taking me a longer and shorter time than I expected. I'm not sure how to explain myself on that point, but it's the truth.

When I first began, I cast on 450 stitches and it was taking me 40 minutes per round on the garter stitch border. Then I finished the border and started in on the stockinette stitch, I cut that time in half... But it's still taking me 15-20 minutes per round. Which is too be expected!

I think why I feel like it's taking longer is because I haven't been working on it diligently. There's been a couple days where I haven't worked on it at all, and a couple of days like today where I didn't have the time to just sit and work. I haven't even finished one row today!

I started on the 10th, so it's been 9 days. I have until the 28th of August, though!

Here's a progress pic:

About 24 rows in

If you feel like joining my Knit A Long on this blanket, you can here! The pattern is posted there as well. I've got one other person already joining me, it looks like. I have quite a few of these too make, so, it'll be open for a while. Please feel free to post any pictures! I'd love to see your work and variations! 

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Blog Changes

I just looked at my blog a half hour ago and realized that it still reflected my preferred dark background with bright letters. I've heard tell so many times that this is difficult to read for other people, so I took some time and switched up the colors on my blog. I hope the boring white background with black words help! I'd rather my posts be read in enjoyment instead of given up on halfway through because of the way I set it up... Everything else is still colorful and pretty anyways.

I'm hoping later this month I'll be able to get some yarn to start making blankets. My goal is 3 blankets for xmas, possibly 4, since my boyfriend has taken an interest. Then again, maybe I should make him a blanket for his birthday since he wants it for his car for winter.  Leather interior gets hot during the summer, sure, but it also FREEZES during the winter!

I'm sure a lot of people will end up being jealous, but I'm not going to knit blankets for EVERYONE! That's a lot of yarn! Plus, not everyone gives me enough for xmas to warrant a blanket. I'm still a slow knitter! It'll take a while. I'm just hoping my bf's mom won't see his blanket and demand one for xmas. She's already asked for stuff.

See, that's the problem... I have to keep it a secret from almost everyone. Or else they will get all bitchy about what I made them. Then I hate xmas! This is what happens every year. Then I get over it because that is what happens to almost everybody, and we all get over it. Sometimes.

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It's not too early to be thinking about xmas!

Since I am (1) a crafter and (2) saving more and more money every month, I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do for xmas presents. Like NOW. I'm saving a dollar per number of week in the year, i.e. the 1st week I save 1 dollar, second week I save 2 dollars and so on. Well, this month I'm hitting triple digits. I'll have a lot of money by the end of the year, but at the same time this is all money from donating blood plasma. I'm doing this without a JOB.

If you're confused about the part about me being a crafter, I mean that it's going to take time to MAKE gifts, instead of buying them. Especially since I have just decided to KNIT BLANKETS for several people. Yeah. I'm hoping I might get away with buying yarn from a couple of friends of mine who ended up not using their yarn. Aaaaaand looking out for coupons. Plus, sales. So, there's that to look forward too.

Then again, the blanket I've decided on isn't really anything complicated. It's a reverse pinwheel blanket... I was looking for something that is SUPER easy, but looks really good (No stockinette stitch blankets for me, no, it has to at least look pretty) and the pinwheel blanket fits the bill. I love knitting on circulars, plus the pattern I found on ravelry knits from the outer edge of the blanket in (hence the "reverse"). I'd rather finish on DPNs, not start on them.

My favorite one is this one:

Reverse Pinwheel Blanket

But I'm sure everyone I'm going to make one for will prefer something different. Oh well, I plan on making myself one, eventually!

I also found some other striped blanket I'll probably make for my newest nephew... Just because I feel obligated to make him something, since I DID convince my brother to have a kid. 

Other xmas gifts that aren't as important as my decision to start knitting blankets include a fancy scarf(also knit), a market bag(also knit), soap cozies(also knit), clay things, a pretty wooden box, wine coasters, regular coasters, and some corset bags. 

Anyone else starting on xmas early? Because we all know I need to! 

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New Camera Coming Up!

I apologize for not posting very often lately. I really wanted to keep up with this blog, but it's about crafting, and I haven't really had time for that lately. The temporary work I had kicked my ass, and I'm still feeling tired no matter how little or how long I sleep. So imagine the pain I must feel thinking about going BACK...

I've found a camera I want. Mother's day is coming up, so it's on sale for $350. It's usually $480. That's over $100 off. Also because of mother's day, anything over $50 has free 2 day shipping.

I need to get this camera, NOW!

So, I'm going to go back and see if I can get temporary work for a few days at Labor Ready. I'll be splitting the price for the camera with my boyfriend, as well, so I don't need to make all $350. If they actually send me out to do work, I'll definitely make the money. I just don't know if they will want to send me out. I've had experience HELPING my dad work on things like building a shed, and putting down wood flooring. I know how to swing a hammer, work a cordless drill, but we'll see. Hopefully, they'll think I'll be a fast learner.

So, the reason I'm getting the camera is so I can take pictures of things I want to sell on Etsy and/or Artfire. The other reason is because when I make things, I can't always get a good picture of them on my phone, and then I don't want to post those pictures, and then I don't write on my blog because I don't have pictures to show. That's all going to change, now!

If I get work at Labor Ready, I'm going to continue going there for work. Eventually, I'll get enough experience to get a real job. I'm also going to try to get an Ipod Touch so I can use my square, but my boyfriend is going to wait until he can get a free smartphone from his company instead. I don't want to deal with a smartphone, I also don't want to be using my square on something of his, because I've been in situations where someone saw something I had and wanted it like at the grocery store, and he's not always there when I will need it.

But I have the damn square already, I just need something I can use it with!

On another note, I'm almost done with my $5 in paris sweater. I've debated on long sleeves, short sleeves, then just posted it on facebook and everyone says short sleeves. Honestly, the sweater doesn't keep me warm when I put it on anyways, so I was about to decide on short sleeves anyways. Here's a nasty myspace mirror picture of it:

Nasty Myspace Mirror Picture

All I can say is, SQUEE! It's almost done! Plus, it fits! Perfectly! I have never knitted something this large before, or anything wearable at all, actually, so, I feel awesome about this. It actually didn't take that long at all, either, once I got over my knitting break and continued on with it. I could make tons of these! In fact, I just might! Or, I could move on to something a bit more challenging. Or I could stop knitting myself things and work on jewelry to sell.

I DID make a byzantine bracelet, against my better judgement... The rings are a little too big, so it doesn't look as fancy. Here's another really blurry crappy picture: 

Byzantine Weave in too big rings

I want to make myself a nice Byzantine chain necklace, because for some reason I feel like it'd be completely awesome and everyone will want one. I want to make it with much smaller rings, though. These are 5/32, I believe. I think I may order 1/8 rings next. At the same time, I think I should probably order rings with some color on them, instead of just plain ones. We'll see how expensive this gets...

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Busy week!

I apologize for not posting a lot recently, however, I have some very good reasons!

We have started spring cleaning, and suddenly now that's it's warmer it seems a lot easier to be doing house chores. Especially if they're actually yard work! Everyday there's something to be cleaned because even though the dogs both are short haired (they literally have no hair on their bellies) they definitely still shed A LOT. We could probably vacuum every freaking day! Plus, with the three of us here there's always dishes to be done and laundry. The garage is FILLED with tons of my BFs stuff so he has been told to at least organize it. We bought space bags and so far, I am not impressed with the zippers. The plastic part you grab and pull along the top slides straight off!

I had a job fair to go to on Monday at Work Source, where I had a great interview with Starbucks, however I haven't heard back from them and I never found out which Starbucks they even were, Tuesday I had a volunteer orientation at the Humane Society with a friend, then Wednesday I had an "interview" (that's what I thought it was going to be, at least) at Labor Ready. I didn't know what Labor Ready was, but basically you go there, sign a bunch of paper work, list skills that you have and they call you up when companies call for contract workers. You come in and end up working for a day on someones house or something. I'm basically going to be a "Fire Watch", I'll be walking around a building that shuts down for 2 weeks every year making sure no fires are starting. I'm going to be doing training with fire extinguishers soon, and I've already done some other training.

The job is only for 2 weeks, however I'm getting training and experience so I'm hoping this will lead to more jobs! Or at least 1 more permanent one. SO EXCITING.

Then Thursday I had an appointment. Plus hanging out with friends. Then Friday we drove around doing chores... I have to get steel toe boots for the job. I found some awesome ones that we'll probably go back and get, they're actually womens boots too and crazy comfortable.

I have a yard sale I'm going to participate in next weekend and I hope to sell my huge amount of homemade jewelry. I'm also working on knitting some dice bags to use up some yarn. Here are a couple of those:

Small and Big Dice Bags

The smaller one I just made, it was all the yarn I had left in that color. Obviously knit on straight needles, it holds about 15 dice if you kind of cram it. The bigger one I knit on DPNs, and can easily hold 30+ dice. I think I like knitting them on straight needles better... It goes faster. However, I actually knit the gray one on circs and just treated them like straight needles because I only have 2 pairs of straight: size 6 US and size 13 US. 

.... Yeah. Big difference... I like the size 9 and 8 circs and DPNs better. 

So I'm hoping to make a few more of those and sell them. I feel like they might sell better than my jewelry so I will try to make a bunch! I might sell a bunch of books as well. I'll have to look through my room... There's probably a dress or two I could sell as well... I'll have to get stickers for some of this stuff. 

MONEY COMING IN! WEATHER HEATING UP! GOOD TIMES!!!! 

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Dice Bag Prototype

After I FINALLY finished the boxchain choker I made the mistake of deciding to make (It just took SO LONG!) my hands hurt in the exact positions the pliers would rest against so I decided to try knitting a prototype dice bag. I want it to be rather small, although the one I just finished comfortably carries 30 dice and could carry more. I just wanted it smaller than the gargantuan tentacle bag I made from the tutorial here. I'm glad I made it full size, because it's been put to good use; it carries not only dice, but lots and lots of little characters we use in our d&d campaign. The bag is starting to fall apart, though, which makes me sad because it's huge, took forever to make, and I don't have anymore yarn to use for it.

Anyways, here's the bag I made today (Please ignore the color, it was all I could find at my dads):

Ugly pink prototype dice bag

I want the bottom to be more flat, otherwise I'm pretty happy with the shape and size. I just braided some yarn together for the drawstring, but I could pretty that up as well. I'm thinking I might just knit it longer and then pull all the stitches together at the bottom without actually decreasing might look better. Any thoughts on that? I'm pretty bad at decreasing. 

Here's the boxchain I finished today. 

Boxchain Choker

It's adjustable from 15 to 17.25 inches, and took tons of rings. I used a heavy duty lobster clasp to finish it. It's for sale for $30. It doesn't look that long in my hand, but it's hanging down a little bit behind my hand. If only I could get a few more good pictures of it, and then I could put it up on Etsy. Which I plan on doing eventually! 

I applied to volunteer at the Humane Society. It didn't ask for any experience to list, but it asked about allergies, so all they really got was my name and the fact that I'm allergic to Guinea Pigs. I hope they overlook that and contact me, because I took the pre-vet tech class at Tri-Tech and I did an amazing internship last summer. I already know that they deal with Guinea Pigs because the few times I've been there they had some. So, really... I could be conned out of VOLUNTEERING... At which point I may just have to kill myself, because I obviously am a waste of space if I'm not good enough to just volunteer. I'm not serious, but that would just kill me! I have given wild birds intramuscular shots, tubed them, caught and restrained them, cleaned their crap, bottle fed deer (and was consequently beaten nearly to death by their hoofs) and much more. I think I'm qualified to handle some dogs and cats after just the pre-vet tech class. Especially since they will take 14 yr olds as volunteers. All I want is experience by this point! 

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Getting things done.

I find I'm having a hard time thinking up of titles, because all I've been working on is knitting, chainmaille, or both (more on "both" later). It's not like I can title a post "chainmaille" every day, or call it "chainmaille bracelet" because I have more stuff than just a bracelet to show you. So if you think I have unimaginative or random titles in the next few days.. weeks.. for a while, it's because it's just the same category, but different stuff.

I finished the chainmaille dragon today:

He's longer now, in the picture he was 7 inches, and now he's 10 inches. I just added some more body in order to add more scales. He looked a little short to me. I think I will add some Chinese dragon whiskers to his little face. You can't really tell, but his eyes are jewelry brass. I followed someones tutorial on making the head, but I didn't bother finding rings with the right gauges so it turned out a little loose. I just shoved a scale into the middle of his head to take up space, and it's a bit better now. It's also better now that it's attached to the body. 

Here's the knitting AND chainmaille:

I just knitted a small swatch to see if I wanted to put scales on every stitch or every other stitch. I think I should have just looked at other peoples knitted scalemaille, as it's obvious that EVERYONE does it every other stitch. It's more secure that way, anyways. Plus it uses up less scales. I only have 100 of each color. 

I plan on making knit scaly dice bags like this. I tried making a scale maille flower, but it's pretty much impossible with the rings I have, so that will have to wait.. For now it's just dragons and dice bags, at least hopefully. I bet those will sell faster than chainmaille jewelry, anyways. 

I think that I am just going to start buying wire from chainmaille websites so I can make rings in every size, because it costs a lot of money to order rings in every size. Every time I order, I'm always disappointed in my limitations because of the size of the maille. Because of this, I ordered discounted packs of random sizes of aluminum, copper, and jewelry brass a long time ago. I would rather have all the sizes separated instead of spending an hour at a time looking through the piles trying to find the right sizes though. 

So, that's what I've been doing all day. I also made cookies. I can't eat any though because I just ate a giant package of skittles, even though I hate them. I can feel my teeth rotting. Ugh. 

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FINALLY!!!

Yay, so my chainmaille arrived! Can't wait to get down to business with this stuff:

Since I'm home for a little bit (not sure if for a couple of minutes or an hour or two) I think I will get started on going through some baby clothes to see if I can make a quilt. There's some family problems going on at my house so when I got here I pretty much left straight away, and haven't gotten anything done for the 2nd week in a row. Oh well, I've been knitting pretty much the entire time anyways. I tried on my sweater last night, the body is about halfway done. I've finished with the first hank of black yarn and have to wait until I can add the second one. I hope I can finish the sleeves with only the 2 balls of yarn that I have.

Now that I've got my chainmaille, I hope to power through it pretty quickly, but actually sell some pieces off before I need to order more. I might go back to the other website even though it's more expensive, at least they're not shipping from Canada.

Sorry for the small break in between posts, but as I said, family problems, so I went to a friends house who doesn't really have internet. Sometimes she does, but mostly she doesn't. Not entirely sure how that is. But whatever. I knitted and tried to help clean. and traded beads.

I've learned recently that the best way to get a good selection of beads is to trade some off with other people. I'm rather happy with what I've got in return, and happy to get rid of some of the beads that I had a LOT of. It all works out pretty good. Especially when it turns out like this:

"Oh, I really like those beads!"
"Well, I don't really know what to do with those, so you can pretty much have them all. Oo, those are awesome!"
"I don't ever use those, so take what you want of them!"

Yeah. Anyways. CRAFTING TIME!!!

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Woot, gettin' things done.

I knitted up the horns last night for the Viking hat, now to figure out how to do the beard. If I can finish it tonight, I can give it to my friend tomorrow. Let's hope! The picture is a little... bright, or something. I didn't really take the time to position the hat so the horns were even, but they're much more even than the picture looks! 

My sweater is coming along great! I'm much farther than I've ever gotten on any other clothing-type knit I've tried doing in the past... Not that any of those ever got finished. It's the same colors as the hat, obviously. It should be past my boobs now, and I'm working on the decreases for some shapely-ness. If anyone would like to try this pattern, I've started up a Knit Along here on Craftster, where I'm posting in progress pictures and you can too! 

I had a picture of a bracelet, but it didn't turn out too well. The camera I'm using doesn't have a very high quality screen, so I can't tell if the picture is clear or not until it's uploaded onto the computer. Well, the picture of the bracelet didn't turn out clear, sadly. But it's okay. It was just a bunch of random beads anyways. Just different beads than before. I should be more creative anyways! I wanted to show you something finished. Most of my projects right now are taking a while to finish, but at least now I can show you some work! 

On to 52 Weeks of Happiness: 

1. I am almost finished with the Viking Hat! 
2. My sweater is turning out, instead of being another UFO/frogged. 
3. I have a camera to use!
4. I've actually been able to make some crafty things this week!.

Unhappiness: My chainmaille is still in Minnesota. I've been looking up the cities it's been in and it's taking the most ridiculous route EVER. It went from somewhere in Canada close to Washington, to somewhere near the Great Lakes. It hasn't moved since Friday... But Monday is almost over, here, and in Minnesota. It should have at least gone somewhere today. Meh!

W.I.P. Wednesday early Thursday morning!

So I started my sweater! I've only just got done with the ribbing at the top. I decided to go with the $5 in Paris pattern.

It'll be black with red ribbing, and I haven't decided if I'm going to alternate thin red stripes with thick black stripes or if I'll just do the main part in just black. I think it'll look a little too plain, but I'm not sure if there's enough red to do stripes.

I've done the math with my gauge and stuff and I still think it looks too small, but it's on the needles. I know it will be wider than it looks.

I'm super excited to be knitting something for myself finally, but I'm using that red heart super saver yarn and I definitely will have to wear clothes underneath this, as it will be a little scratchy. I haven't done anything this big before though and I'd rather do the first one with cheap yarn first.

After this, I want to do something a little chunky and with a hood, and probably a zipper. I'm not really that big of a fan of pullovers, but this is pretty much off the shoulder so the neck line won't bother me much.

I've started a knit along (KAL) here on Craftster for this sweater, so if anyone would like to join me in knitting $5 in Paris, please do so! Feel free to post pictures here and on Craftster!


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Knitting Inspiration for ME!

I haven't kept anything I've knitted. I've either ripped it all out or gave it away, or it's sitting somewhere completely useless anywhere I could find to shove it away that wasn't at my house. People probably find random knitted items that don't look like anything under their beds and behind their TVs and wonder; "What the hell is this and where did it come from???" Yeah, that was me. Sorry.

Anyways.

I've found 2 things that I want to make for myself, and I might just have enough yarn to do it. The first one is a pair of arm warmers. This picture is from this post here on Craftster, but here's the Ravelry page with the free pattern download.

I'm thinking I'm going to make them in white and red, or black and red. Or black and green. Maybe black and green. I probably won't add the buttons. Or even the thumb. I'm not much of a fans of thumbs on things. 

The second thing I'm going to work on is a sweater. I've been wanting to knit myself a sweater for the looooongest time, but I always try to bite off more than I can chew because I try to make things in different sized needles because I only have a few. Here's the two sweaters I'm trying to decide between: 

This Off the Shoulder Sweater looks easy, but of course I would rather do it on circular needles. I should probably hold off on making this one, because I always mess up when I'm trying to do something with the wrong needles, but I kinda want this one instead of...

$5 in Paris. Even though I have the right needles. Even though it kinda looks more finished at the top there. Not sure why. They are both cute. 

I hope to start soon, and now that I've thought about it I will probably just do $5 in Paris, because there's really no reason why I shouldn't follow the tutorial that I CAN. 

I'm not finished with the Viking Hat yet, and I hope to finish it today, probably not with the horns though. I am realizing that I didn't get nearly as much sleep as I thought I did when I woke up though, and can feel myself slowing down, and also getting a headache! At least I can feel the onset of it though... I can take an ibuprofen before it gets bad. Awesome! 

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52 weeks of happiness and another hat.

So I missed my 52 weeks of happiness day again, but only by 3 hours. I haven't been keeping track of things that make me happy throughout the week, so sometimes I feel like I'm talking about stuff that happened maybe last week. I don't really know. Without school or a job to keep things in perspective for me, I have a hard time thinking of what day stuff happened on. Actually, I had trouble with that during school as well.

Happys:

1. 3 year anniversary!
2. My bf and I managed to have a Residents Evil marathon finally. 
3. I learned a movie is coming out based on a book called "The Host"
4. I finished making my tutu. 

No pictures of the tutu yet, but here is an in progress picture of the hat I'm currently knitting for a friend:

It's going to be a viking hat. It'll have a stripe going all the way up the front and down the back. Not sure how it's going to look when I decrease the rows... Probably stupid. I haven't figured out how to do the horns yet, but here's a quick and dirty tutorial on how to knit a hat on size US 9 circular needles: 

For an adult male, cast on 88 stitches. For a female do 80. You want it to be a multiple of 4. 

Do 2x2 ribbing for 3 inches. 

I haven't done the math for 80 stitches, but for 88 stitches, do the first 10 stitches in the contrasting color (In my case red) then do the next 34 in black. Another 10 in red, then the rest black. Continue that all the way through the hat until it's about 2 inches shorter than you want the finished hat to be. 

Start decreasing, I haven't gotten to this part yet and I probably won't until later today, but I've learned the way to decrease is to start out knitting 5, the knit 2 together, continue all the way across, then knit a row regularly. The next row, knit 4, knit 2 together. Until you have a few stitches left then bind off and finish the hat off. 

For those of you used to reading knitting patterns: 

Size US 9 circular needles

Yarn in main and contrast color.

CO 88

2x2 ribbing in CC for 3 inches

K 10, switch to MC and k 34. Switch to CC and k 10. Back to MC and k 35. Continue until 2 inches from top of hat. 

Row 1 of decrease: k5, k2tog, repeat. 

Row 2 of decrease: k

Row 3 of decrease: k4, k2tog, repeat. 

Row 4 of decrease: k

and so on and so forth until you have only a few stitches left. 

BO and slip the tail through the remaining stitches and pull tight. 

When I figure out the horns, I will try to make the most clearest knitting pattern EVER, because so far I've found patterns that don't make sense. Or are crocheted. My bf keeps trying to convince me that no one ever knits beanies and they are all crocheted, but he just doesn't know how to use Google correctly. There are tons of pretty knit hats out there! 

EDIT: 

Here's another in progress picture, I've got quite a few more inches on it. 

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I hate knitting hats.

Just a short post today because I'm just REALLY frustrated. Basically, I knit a hat for my bf. I haven't knitted in a while so my hands were really hurting after a while, but I finished the damn hat.

After sitting there and measuring the hat on his head constantly, I finished it up and it doesn't even reach his ears. His mom is wearing it and thinks its cute, but, I don't care, it's a failure and my hands really really hurt, the second reason why I'm not doing a longer post. Blah. I was all excited about finishing the hat so quickly.

Knitting Dilemma

So, I am having a really hard time thinking of what to get for my boyfriend. We are currently residing at his mothers house, and she doesn't want him having things, so what am I supposed to do? (She won't let him set up his computer/won't buy him an amazing popcorn machine for xmas because she doesn't want that stuff laying around.)

So instead of getting him a smart deco desk to put his computer on, I found this pattern that I PAID MONEY FOR:

But then he decided to go to a friends house, I decided to go to sleep, and then he started texting me pictures of a Cthulhu balaclava instead (and pretending not to understand the fact that I was yelling at him to stop texting me because I was SLEEPING. (Something that is hard enough as it is for me!)). I think the one he showed me was sort of like this: 

So now, I guess he is just going to have to deal with getting 2 balaclavas. Although seriously... The dragon one is much cooler. Plus I have a pattern to that one. I will just have to improve on this Cthulhu I guess. Even though I've already made him this Cthulhu dice bag!