General Craftage

At the beginning of the summer, Rosa and I vowed to make these dollhead paperweights from this craft book she has. Now that she has about a week left and I have 17 days, we finally got around to it.



First, we decapitated dolls that we bought for $.99 at the thrift store, and used a steak knife to saw off their necks.


Then, we filled the with plaster.


Fake artsy-fartsy picture of the plaster drying, for time elapsing purposes.


We spray painted them black




Sprayed them with water-
And then added a layer of bronze!!


All done!

Sorrry

It has been brought to my attention that I have not blogged all summer.
In my defense, I haven't finished much this summer. I've been working on the same malabrigo sweater since I got home from college.
I am picking up the pieces, I swear. I bought a skein of sock yarn that I am not allowed to knit with until I finish the sweater and Annie's birthday scarf.
GAME ON!

Sweater

Oh, and to prove that I still knit:

I never thought I'd write these words...

...but I am on a diet.
Yes, a YARN diet.
Until July. It's going to be especially difficult because I have a 10% coupon for my favorite yarn store, and my two best friends need to buy their college yarn.
I have way too much yarn, and not enough money. I have car insurance payments to match my new car (which at first seemed charming because the car would take me to yarn) and a brand new speeding ticket that I cannot knit my way out of. The downside of not being at college, there are no people to buy my stuff! Oh and then my engine check light has been on for a few weeks now...
My new job is pretty good, but stressful. It is never NOT busy. In my situation, this is swell because I need all the tips I can get.

I am working on the most wonderful malabrigo sweater, look out for it soon.

Strawbeary bear!

I finally finished my "Strawbeary" from the book "Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute" by Elisabeth A. Doherty. It took me so so long, but it was so so worth it.



I HATED making the soles of the feet. For some odd reason the pattern decided to be really difficult at the very end of the doll. I must have restarted the soles 20 times, no joke.




I don't recommend crocheting fun fur at a small gauge. Hell, I don't even recommend fun fur.

I am very satisfied with how she turned out.
I am very glad I am finished.

Malabrigo cardigan!

I knit this SLIGHTLY based off of Wicked. I used about 3.4 skeins of malabrigo in the blue, and one of each of the green and yellow with some to spare. I used #7's.
I love how it turned out.
Basically, I cast on about as many stitches wicked had and split it down the middle. Instead of a 2x2 cable rib, I opted for a 3x3 rib with improvised bobbles. For the button band, I picked up my slipped stitches with a #8 needle, and casted off with a 13 so it laid flat.


I'm in love with it.






action shot!

If I were to do this over, I wouldn't subtract stitches to account for the button band. It is a tiny bit too small, nothing a bit of blocking won't fix though.

Feel free to email me with questions on how to transform WICKED into a cardigan.

I'm baaack!

I didn't die. I just got really caught up with school work.
Anyways, here are a few things that I've finished since I dropped off of the face of the earth::


A ruffley ascot!
I made it out of ONline Linie 194 Solo, and used 2 skeins. I believe I used 12 stitches? One side is pink, the other is purple. I made it in two pieces and sewed them up.



It's great yarn, but very expensive. I got it 40% off, so it wasn't that bad.

Also, I finished my rusted root. I used 3 skeins of lambs pride cotton flece. it's really light and summery.


Notice how the neckline gets wonky because of the lace pattern? Thats because I am a colossal idiot. I noticed online, everyone had a ribbed neckline. Since the pattern didn't BEGIN with this, i assumed it was some mod that mostly everyone had done.

I thought I was soooo much smarter. "Oooohhhhh.....I'll just cast on and rib for a bit before! What an easier way!!!!"

I got the end, and it told me to pick up stitches for the neckline.

grrr....

Now my neckline is all wonky and everyone who FOLLOWED the directions has a nice scoop neck. It didn't occur to me that sometimes designers have reasons for seemingly silly steps.

Since the picture, I have slip stitched around the neckline and it's a tad bit better, but still wonky. Oh well...

At least this microspun crochet baby hat for my little BROTHER came out cute!



Within the next month, look for:
Strawbeary from Amigurumi! by Beth Dougherty
Daisy baby sweater from knitty
A malabrigo cardigan
...and parts of a knit garden I am helping a friend with.

Cloud Bolero for Annie

I made this for Annie after she presented me with four balls of Lion Cashmere Blend. I'd always wanted to use it, but for $8.99 an 84 yard ball, ONLY 14% cashmere, plus NYON it wasn't ever worth it. Hell, malabrigo is 11 for 216 yards of PURE merino.
The pattern can be found here:
http://yarnforwardmagazine.co.uk/cloudbolero.htm

All in all, an easy knit I suggest using straight needles or the stitch markers tend to leap over the yarn overs and mess up the lace and stitch counts.

I used a size 13 to get the correct gauge.

Self-designed sweater

I finished the thick and quick sweater!

I designed this one after being frustrated with Twinkle Patterns, and their vagueness. It’s a standard top-down raglan with a garter stitch neck and a 1x1 ribbed bottom.

it's made from Lion Brand Thick and Quick on size 15's. It used about 2.5 skeins, so It's a really cheap knit. I bought the yarn on sale, so it only cost 12 dollars for the 3 skeins.

Here is a rough outline of the pattern. my gauge was approximately 2 stitches per inch. My bust size is roughly 36.

Cast on 56, and join for working in the round. Place distinctive marker for beginning of the round. Knit in garter stitch for 4 rows. K10, pm, k8, pm, k20, pm, k8, pm, k10 Increase round: Knit to 1 stitch before markers, kfb, slip marker, kfb all around, EXCEPT THE DISTINCTIVE ONE FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE ROUND. Knit 1 row

continue with plain and increase rows until the front is 34 stitches and the sleeves are 22 stitches.
bind off the 22 sleeve stitches (or put them on holders and make them longer

and from then on, do waist decreases increases at side markers as you like.

If you have questions, email me!

Rant

I know I'm not a political blogger. I don't claim to be. I am a knitting blogger. I blog about yarn. And knitting. Just let me say this.

Everyone in my building is ill-informed. You'd think that in the journalism dorm this wouldn't be so, but then again what do I know. I got to Kent State University along with the rest of these jerks.

Dumb opinion: "I'm an Obama fan, but if Hillary wins I'm voting republican. Hillary has a bigger dick than Bill!"
Me: "Why do you hate Hillary?"
DO: "I just do."

It seems to me, in this case at least that "I just do" is code for "She has a vagina."
Now, don't get me wrong- I'm an Obama supporter. However, I won't write off Hillary's validity

Obama and Clinton aren't THAT different. They have similar viewpoints in many areas, health-care and education aside. Their views on civil unions and stem cell research are very close. Chances are if you're voting for Obama, you're a democrat. And if Hillary does indeed have a bigger dick than her husband, well, let me be the first to suck it off.

This probably isn't that well informed either, but at the very least I have looked at the platforms and made my choice accordingly. Thats more than I can say about the girl I overheard "Hillary sucks, the last thing we need is another republican..."

Day in and day out I hear plagiarized political commentary, and I am sick of it.
Am I dumb because I go to school with these people?

Im so blog lazy

I posted this to ravelry a while ago. Get hip to it.

I've disapeared

Well, sort of. I've been working on a lot of things:




and some more stuff. A real update soon, I promise.