deadline knitting accomplished. and early! March 31, 2008

on thursday, i talked to mom and she told me that a friend’s baby shower is next saturday. since she lives in my hometown, i had to take into account shipping time, too. i’m in the middle of a project (that i really want to finish!), but i dropped everything to start a hat for the shower. and… *gasp* i finished it! and with time to spare! : ) yay! now i just have to get it off in the mail.

i think it’s a pretty cute hat, but my very favorite part is the crown decreasing. see how pretty?! i know, i’m silly. but still!

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also, an old project that needs showing:

a fabulous little set of potholders to use when taking things out of the microwave or oven or anywhere else (but most of my food involves the microwave, lol). they aren’t much to speak of, but they work really well. i used this pattern for a couple of sets of potholders a few years back, but now the pattern is gone. it’s a really simple double knitting pattern, though. i like the results and that there is no seaming (seaming and i are not friends!).

baby shower & a new technique March 24, 2008

if you’re looking for a baby shower gift that will get you bunches of compliments, tulip toes are the way to go. i can’t believe how many oohs and aahs i got over them. i will admit that they were pretty fiddly to knit, though. and the ends to weave in… painful.

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i really like the live tulips. : ) the picture was taken in the yard of the baby shower host (last minute finishing, yay!), so i don’t have any pictures of the booties open. sorry!

 

and! and! i knit my very first fair isle/stranded project! ^^

 

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i know that the colors don’t really pop, but i’m pretty proud of this hat anyway. i was surprised at how easy it was to knit. is it a lot more complicated if you are knitting flat? i knit this hat up for a knitting drive that i’m participating in right now.

Sweater Day! March 20, 2008

today (thursday) marks what would have been Fred Rogers’ 80th birthday. the non-profit that he founded (www.fci.org) put together “won’t you be my neighbor?” days in conjunction with pittsburgh’s 250th anniverary. i have nothing to do with pittsburgh (i’ve never even been there!), but i stumbled across the sweater day group on ravelry and thought i’d have a little bit of fun with it. ^^

 

i loooved mr. rogers’ neighborhood when i was a kid. even seeing it now that i am older, i am amazed at how calming and kind he was and to this day i remember the episode where he went to the crayon factory. i can’t even remember most of the other series i watched when i was small, so i think that’s saying something.

 

 

this is the little mini-sweater i knit for the occasion alongside my very favorite sweater. i love this sweater to pieces, as i have from the very first day we bought it. that year, i had three other sweaters fall apart in the first weeks i owned them due to low-quality workmanship (we were able to return them, luckily). i had seen this sweater in the store window and wanted it, but at $40 it was more than we were willing to pay. after the returning fiasco, mom let me get the sweater, anyway, since we were ready to be done with the hassle. it has sleeves that cover my knuckles, with thumbholes built right in! that’s probably my very favorite part.

 

 

the sad thing is that i wore it so much, for so long, that i nearly wore a hole through the left elbow (i’m right-handed, so i was always propping myself up on my left elbow). ever since i noticed how thin it was there, i have been too scared to wear it. i don’t want it to fall apart! *sigh* all good things must come to an end, i suppose.

 

 

here is a close-up of the mini-sweater. i want to make the little hanger in the pattern so the sweater can double as my first Christmas knit of the year. yay for a little head-start. ^^ the pattern for the sweater is here and its ravelry page is here. (and thanks, kelly!)

 

ok, i think i can be done with my silly little tribute now! ^^

one more new thing. and a tree. March 13, 2008

for those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you may have noticed that my recent posts are all new this and new that. new haircut, new car, new pajamas, etc. i have one more thing to add to that stack. see if you can guess from the picture (it’s easy, really).

 

 

yup, it was time to get new glasses. i’m really liking this pair… very sophisticated and trendy. the inside is teal, which is also pretty cool.

 

this week is my spring break away from school… it is almost over already. i’d love to say that my recent time off has been lovely and relaxing, but that isn’t really the case. i’ve spent waaay too much time at the doctor and having tests and junk like that. i’m not going to go into any more detail here on the blog (though i’d tell if you asked), except to say that i am finally diagnosed on the wrist issue and i’m on medication that will hopefully remedy the problem. yay!

 

 

 

 

this is treeling. he is from softies. i changed his face somewhat, which i think makes him quite a bit cuter. i justified making him by giving him away to a friend when he was finished. she liked him, too (i think!). he was my first experience with craft safety eyes and i think i really liked those, too. too bad the smallest ones i could find at the local craft stores were 10mm, which seems too big for most of the projects i do.

 

 

i have some actual knitting content, but i haven’t taken pictures of it yet. be looking for some kool-aid dyed yarn, a set of potholders, tulip toes, and my first trip to a LYS in my next post (whenever that might be). ^^

erm. happy valentine’s day! March 3, 2008

but first. i think all of my friends are trying to fatten me up! look at the totally adorable cupcake hannah sent me for my birthday! it’s so cuuuute and tiny! add that to my piece of cake from last post… too bad i can’t eat them! ^^

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i think this is officially the end of my birthday posts, but you just never know. now we can move on to valentine’s day, HAHA. just ignore the part where valentine’s was over two weeks ago, ok?

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these were my valentine’s presents for my parents. i made a few others for friends, too. i just used random scraps i had leftover and hand-felted them (which was so much fun!). the pattern is here. everybody really seemed to like them.

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these were from the boyfriend. it’s really sad when your posting is so far behind that the flowers are already dead and in the trash before i mention it on the blog. *sigh* but it’s ok! they were really gorgeous. ^^

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my mom is totally into buying me clothes, especially cute pajamas and underwear. aren’t these cute?! they make me smile when i wear them to bed. the last pair she bought me were hello kitty. ^^

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i’ve been working on a sock for almost three weeks now and i’m totally loving the yarn and pattern, but i think it’s going to be too small, even for me. i really don’t want to frog it because i’m over halfway through the first sock, but i don’t want to keep working on something that isn’t going to fit. i need some encouragement to rip it… !