almost a week?! October 29, 2006

i can’t believe that it’s been almost a week since i last posted. let me assure you… it is not for lack of knitting. actually, i’m only posting right this minute because i am procrastinating on tomorrow’s walmart speech #2 on the history of the discount department store and walmart, and the development of walmart’s corporate values. it’s thrilling, really. that’s why i’m so diligently working on it. ^^

probably a second reason for not posting is the complete and utter crappiness of my digital camera. i shouldn’t complain, i mean, at least i have one, but i am hoping for a new camera for my major present this christmas… one that can take pictures bigger than 160kb! one that isn’t ten years old! one that has a zoom! one that doesn’t eat batteries for breakfast! one that… ah, well, i suppose you get the point. anyway, all that to apologize for the particularly awful picture quality in today’s post.

pincushion!
pattern: http://www.craftlog.org/craftlog/archives/001514.html
fabric: leftovers from my cable purse lining
comments: a few weeks ago, i went to sew something and got out the case of embroidery needles and they spilled all over my yarn tub, which is bad. it was then that i decided i needed a pincushion. here we have the hand-sewed solution to my problem. whoo. i do still want a cupcake pincushion and a tofu pincushion. we’ll see, though!

homeless hat
pattern: http://www.knitlist.com/00gift/simple-hat-recipe.htm
yarn: red heart super saver color dark green (or something like that)
needles: size 10.5 16″ circular, 10.5 dpns
size: hat sized ^^
modifications: nothing, really
comments: this is my first hat for my gainesville church’s hats for the homeless drive. nothing too exciting about it, but i’m glad that i’ve gotten one done so far at least.

jayne cobb hat
pattern: http://redshirtknitting.com/?page_id=222
yarn: red heart super saver colors ranch red, carrot, gold
needles: 10.5 16″ circulars, 10.5 dpns
size: again, hat sized ^^
modifications: oy! i had to modify just about everything because i knit fairly tightly and i was using slightly smaller needles. i didn’t change anything about the way the hat looks (since the point is for it too look as much like the show hat as possible) but i modified a lot of the stitch counts.
comments: the BF has been badgering me about this hat ever since i showed it to him (stupidly!) in april. it is from the short-lived tv show firefly (there was also a movie, serenity) that he absolutely ADORED and that i have since seen all the episodes of, of course. this is going to be part of his christmas present, and i can post about it only because i got really really excited upon finishing it and already showed it to him, HAHA. maybe he’ll act excited when i give it to him, anyway. i have a bunch of yarn left over from this project and will probably make another hat, being more careful about the top decreases and adding a bit more ribbing to the bottom. i may try to sell one on ebay or something, we’ll see.

i also knit a wrist rest, two scarves, and two hats for caps to the capital in the last few days, but i haven’t taken pictures of them yet, so i’ll leave them to my next post. i suppose i need to get back to my speech now… BLAAAAH.

haircut! October 23, 2006

so, i’m FINALLY getting around to posting about my thursday haircut. i’m not sure if i was waiting for there to be some knitting for this post, or if i was just being lazy when i was at home. anyway… look! i cut off around eleven inches (to donate to locks of love). i really like it… getting a haircut is always a nice change and the hair is going to a good place, so there’s no remorse, haha.

today was day #1 of my second accounting module. this professor seems nicer than the last, but the courseload is certainly no lighter. i spent all last week doing nothing but knitting and spending time at home, but now it’s back to work! ugh, sometimes i feel like school will never end.

bunny!
pattern: http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/bunny.shtm
yarn: lion brand wool ease color mushroom (double stranded), color white for tail
needles: size 9 straights, size 8 dpns for tail
size: ~6in wide x ~5in tall (with ears)
modifications: none, except the ear/tail modifications listed on the site
comments: another bunny… i love how these are just a knit square all manipulated into a bunny shape. i do hate having to make the ears and tail, though, hahahaha. this was knit up for the dutchicans.

home again, home again, jiggity jig October 18, 2006

there is a bit of a story that goes along with the title of this entry, but it isn’t really exciting, now that i think about it, so i may just refrain from telling it, haha.

it is wednesday and i am home for the weekend. how cool is that? my friday class got cancelled, so i am home free until monday. whoo-hoo! unfortunately, i have to start my second module accounting class on monday. i really liked this hardly-any-class and very-little-work (aka bunches and bunches of knitting and home time) thing. alas, all good things must come to an end, right?

i am getting sick. majorly. again. ugh. O_O

i have fall spirit! in a state where the leaves do not change and shorts are still being worn when other places are getting snow, i still have a love for the pumpkin. pumpkin pie may not be my favorite, i may not have carved a jack-o-lantern in years, and i can’t say i like pumpkin seeds, BUT knitting a small pumpkin still melts my heart. ^^ especially when it fits in the palm of my hand. and doubly especially when i knit it up in under two hours with yarn i already had. *sigh* too bad i promised it to mom!

curly-purly pumpkin
pattern: http://www.curlypurly.com/pumpkin.html
yarn: red heart super saver color carrot and patons classic merino wool color chestnut brown
needles: size 6 dpns
size: ~2.5in tall (including stem) x ~3.5in wide
modifications: none
comments: how cuuuute! *pinches pumpkin’s cheeks* hahaha, i really like this one. i was skeptical and all that, but it turned out quite well. ^^

i. hate. spam. just saying. especially on my school email. because i don’t really give that address out. blaaah.

moving on! i’ve been busy on dutchican toys. i now have three done. i just realized how random my toy selection has been… a snake, a ducky, and a kitty. hahaha. i can’t help i like the weird patterns!

stuffie kitty
pattern: http://ysolda.me.uk/patterns/stuffies.pdf
yarn: caron simply soft color sage and a bit of pink dmc pearl cotton floss
needles: size 8 dpns (yarn was double-stranded)
size: about a foot tall
modifications: i didn’t add eyes. the eyes in the pictures were the xx (dead) eyes. i didn’t want dead eyes on a baby toy… besides… i’m horrible at embroidering two of anything the same. didn’t want to ruin him!
comments: *hugs* this guy is stuffed pretty firmly, but it makes him a bit poseable and i know the stuffing will settle eventually. i really like him. maybe i’ll make another for myself (or for a friend) some time in the future? we’ll see!

snake
pattern: from unusual toys to knit and enjoy by jess hutchinson
yarn: lion brand wool ease colors white and red speckled and a bit of patons classic merino wool color chestnut brown
needles: size 6 dpns
size: maybe 15 inches long?
modifications: i didn’t use a third color for the head and i embroidered eyes on rather than using plastic safety eyes.
comments: my dad says it doesn’t look like any snake he’s ever seen, that it looks like a candy cane or the cat-in-the-hat hat, but he always bursts my bubbles, so i shouldn’t really listen to his opinion on such matters. i think it’s cute… it’s supposed to be a bit “kiddy,” i mean, it’s for a baby. it was really good car knitting, too. nothing too difficult at all. ^^

BIG update! October 16, 2006

it’s been a week since i’ve posted anything really substantial, but i am going to make up for it tonight! i have something like ten pictures to include, too! hopefully blogger won’t be a pain when it comes to inserting them, forcing me to resort to my html skills, hahaha.

i don’t know if i mentioned it on here, but i’ve been looking for a pair of dress shoes for probably over a month now. i FINALLY found a pair over the weekend and really like them. they might hurt my feet a bit, but it’s worth it, haha. originally, i wanted a closed-toed, black, small heeled shoe. it’s not quite what i ended up with, but… heh. i have narrow feet and narrower heels… not the greatest for shoes, especially ones without laces. you can see that these shoes bypass that problem altogether. the heels are something like three inches, though! i hate shoe shopping and i’m glad it’s over for a while!

friday night was halloween bunko with family & friends from church. it was a dress-up affair, so i went as a princess. i got to wear my new shoes and the strapless dress that i posted about last month (i think). it was really fun to get all prettied up! i don’t get to do that very often, so it was even better. ^^ oh, and randy was adorable as a mechanic, hehehe (but he’d be even more unhappy with me if i showed you!).

saturday involved trips to buy yarn for christmas presents. i got WAY too much yarn… you guys need to make sure i keep knitting and get through all this! can i make it back down to one rubbermaid by the time christmas is over?! we shall see, i suppose.

today was another vegetable gardening class. i had to pull up my squash plants because they were looking really sad and one even totally fell over. it’s ok, though, because i realized that i don’t like squash and i had already planted a few more squash plants, so it shouldn’t matter too much. i made zucchini brownies with last week’s zucchini… they were SO yummy! they didn’t even last 24 hours, especially since EVERYONE wanted to taste them. this week, i got a massive cubanelle pepper (the first pepper in the whole class) and a cucumber. whoo.

finally, on to the knitting!

ducky!
pattern: “bird in hand” from family circle easy toys
yarn: lion brand fun fur color white and yellow/black embroidery floss
needles: size 7 straights
size: ~6in tall and ~6in wide
modifications: none, really
comments: i knit one of these a few months back, but i didn’t double-strand the yarn and the ducky didn’t look so fluffy and healthy. this ducky looks much better, but the combination of the double-stranded yarn and double-knitting made this project quite tough on my fingers. oh well! it turned out well! this ducky is for http://dutchicans.blogspot.com/, where i am newly added. ^^

brangelina hat
pattern: http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2006/04/brangelina_1.php
yarn: lion brand thick ‘n quick color charcoal
needles: size 10 circulars; size 10.5 circulars; size 10.5 dpns
size: hat-sized, hahaha
modifications: i used 10.5’s instead of 11’s, but that’s only because it was what i had.
comments: i’m not sure i’m quite happy with how the hat turned out. it is much “denser” than i expected, although i should have known, since the yarn is recommended for size 13s. it looks really cute on, but… i don’t know… maybe it’s just not quite what i had in mind. maybe i’ll knit a different hat, or maybe i’ll just keep and wear this one (or who could i gift it off to? HAHA). we’ll see! it really hurt my fingers, though! blah!

home! October 13, 2006

i’m finally at home for a weekend! i haven’t been home since school started in august. tonight was halloween bunko with lots of church people… it was tons of fun! i have some pictures (i was a princess ^^), but they may be up tomorrow or later or eventually, haha.

i have so much news, but i’m SO ready to go to bed! remind me to talk about bunko, yarn, shopping, and new shoes tomorrow, ok? here’s a little bit i wrote earlier in the day:

on tuesday night, i went to a girls’ devo and the minister’s wife talked about a project that she wanted to start up here. it’s knitting and crocheting hats for the homeless! how exciting because it’s something i know how to do! yay! i just got the circulars for it so i can get started! (just what i need, more projects, hahaha). the lady also tried to teach me to crochet. now, i’ve heard crocheting is easy and it doesn’t look particularly hard. i can make chains and i can single crochet onto knitting, but i have not yet figured out quite how to actually crochet. every time i look at it, it just makes my head hurt. maybe someday! i wonder if part of the problem is that i haven’t put a whole lot of effort in because i always have so much knitting going?

randy sent me this puzzle thing from MENSA and it’s really been killing my brain! it’s the reason i got basically zero knitting done yesterday and less studying than i should have for my stat exam last night (which i still did well on ^^). it had 33 things on it and said if you got over 19 you were a “genius.” apparently i am a genius, whoo! if a MENSA puzzle is something you’d be interested in, i’ll send it your way (it’s an excel file), just let me know, ok?

i do have a finished knitting object done, too, but i’m going to wait until later to post it. it’s the “bird in hand” from family circle easy toys.

zucchini (& ballband miters) October 9, 2006

today was another veggie gardening class, and this week i got to bring back a few zucchini and a little squash. one of my zucchini is mammoth. it is over a foot long! you don’t really want the veggies to be so big, because they have less flavor, but last week it was little and this week it was huge! the second zucchini is a decent size, though. see how i took the picture with a 12″ ruler for sizing? haha. (i see zucchini brownies in my future!)

besides gardening, it was a rather awful day. accounting final exam… terrible. but i’m not going to dwell on it right now, since i won’t know my final grade for about a week and i have other things to worry about. as if that wasn’t enough, a girl i knew in high school tried to tell me i had a baby major! accounting is NOT a sissy major. my master’s degree in four years? tell me how that’s easy. i was my high school valedictorian, i am not trying to take an easy way out. we most certainly can’t all be doctors, now can we? O_O *ahem* i did not let that bother me, heh. moving on!

mitered ballbands
pattern: here (the link is too long to fit on one line without messing up my blogger O_O)
yarn: leftover sugar ‘n cream, various colors
needles: size 7 straights
size: ~4in square
modifications: none, really. i tinkered with the miter line down the center, but can’t decide which way i like it better. if i do it the pattern way, there’s a purl ridge every six rows, but if i do it my way (which knits that purl), the line stretches out funny. (if any of that makes sense?)
comments: i knit the first one up out of sheer curiosity. then, i realized it was really good for using up those little bits of leftover cotton, so i knit up two more. the problem is that i can’t decide exactly what to do with them. they will either be a dishtowel (with a one inch or so border betwen the miters) or coasters. i can’t decide… hahaha. here’s a little (albeit bad) picture of the miter as a coaster. hmm, which idea do you like better? any other suggestions?

tea, anyone? October 6, 2006

hmm, first things first. last night i fried up my squashies (what’s the difference between frying and saute-ing, anyway?) and had some. i don’t think i like squash, haha. i usually don’t try vegetables of any kind, though, so even taking the effort to cook it and then eat it was kind of a big deal. the first few pieces were ok, but then it started tasting not so good. oh well! i’m still excited for the zucchini and linda’s recipe.

this weekend is UF homecoming. i am rather unexcited, but, to illustrate how big a deal this is here in gainesville, classes are cancelled every year the day before homecoming. how cool is that? i got a four-day weekend. ^^ unfortunately, i have a final exam on monday. blaaaah. stupid accounting. O_O

i have, however, been busy knitting (as usual). i have learned that dishcloths are my comfort knit. when i fail at other projects in one way or another, i feel i have to somehow prove my kniting worthiness, and bam, out come the dishcloths. dishcloths also serve as calm, easy knits between other, scarier projects. i have knit 2.5 dishcloths in the last four days (plus the finished object below). i am very lucky that i know many people who like receiving dishcloths. i am also very lucky that dishcloth cotton is cheap and that i have a lot of it. haha. moving on (before i stop and pick up the needles out of sheer dishcloth love).

any guesses as to what this is? this is why i was a bit apprehensive before i felted… they look a bit funny. but i shouldn’t have worried…

they felted and blocked out quite well… i put them through the wash twice (it’s all the money i had left on my vending account) and i can still see the stitch definition. the only other thing i’ve ever really felted came out that way, too. how many times does it usually take to felt completely? mine are a little flimsier than i’d hoped they’d be… maybe this is due to the incomplete felting? but i really do like how they turned out, anyway. this with a starbucks card and one christmas present is done. whoo!

felted teacup and saucer
pattern: http://janevdoviak.blogspot.com/2006/08/felted-pottery.html
yarn: knitpicks palette color green (thanks again, linda!)
needles: size 8 dpns
size: umm… saucer: 1in x 5in; cup 3in x 4in
modifications: just the yarn (and that’s hardly a modification)
comments: see above ^^

that is all i have tonight… it’s been a blah kind of day, but there’s always tomorrow, right?