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Monday, September 21, 2009

Owlings


I made these for my best friend Jessica, it was her birthday last week, and my goal is to make her tons of silly owly things. There's a story.
When we were obnoxious teenagers, we would sleep in her backyard. Yeah, in the middle of the city, when it was cold, whatever, we didn't care. We were the loud jerks at all hours of the night keeping you up by laughing, and just being generally loud and dumb kids.
The first time we did this, for whatever reason, we were convinced that a neighbour's satellite dish was, in fact, an owl. So, even if it were, big deal, right? What's an owl going to do? We were terrified, or at least I remember being terrified of an owl that wasn't really even there. And we continued to be terrified of owls from then on.

Ever since then, we'd buy each other silly owl gifts to scare each other. And I vaguely recall these super creepy giant-eyed super-realistic owl candles that I would scare her with frequently. I had them in my room, and she'd always have to turn them the other way because she didn't like them looking at her. To be fair, they were really creepy.
I never thought owls were a big deal until this happened, or more specifically, the gift-giving owl-scaring happened. You can find weird owl things everywhere and on the strangest things. But instead of buying owl things, I'm going to make owl things until I cannot make anymore. I figure I have a good 10 years left of making owl things before I run out.

Pattern: Owlings (Ravelry Link)
Yarn: Vanna's Choice
Needle Size: 3.75mm
Total time: 2 1/2 hours
Quite frankly, I'm in love with these. I think I'll make some for myself. I love Fetching, which is what they're based on. But come on, how can that owl cable be any cooler? I was thinking of adding eyes (beads) But I think it might make them a bit busy. Maybe just eyes for the ones in the centre.
I also totally almost kept them, my hands were so cold right after I made them and I was knitting along on my Corona and I almost swiped them for me. But then I wrapped them so I wouldn't be tempted. I sense a fingerless mitt binge in my future.
I love fingerless mitts, most of them are so quick, you can easily knock a pair off in an afternoon.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Pretty pretty petals...


Pattern: Pretty Petals Potholder
Yarn: Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet(Size 10)
Hook Size: 3.7mm
I know, I'm a little late for pretty petal springy things, but I just fell in love with this when I saw it and I immediately had to make it. It was so much fun to crochet, I need to make more!
I've also fallen in love with crochet cotton. For some reason I have A LOT of it. I have no idea how I got it, why I got it, or what I'm going to do with it, but I'm glad I found out I like it because I need to use it up. It's taking up quite a bit of space.
Any favourite patterns for crochet cotton thread? I was looking at a few tablecloths...but I don't know if I'm that crazy in love with crochet...yet.
Maybe I'll make a couple more of these, I did give this one away already...

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Finally...my Juno Regina


I finished this at the beginning of the month (I think it was Sept. 2) and then I put it on the dining room table to be blocked and never got around to it...until now. It sat there mocking me. I hate blocking, I love what blocking does to a piece, but I hate it. I think if I had a blocking table, I'd be all over it, but I hate sitting on the floor, and everytime I looked at it I just thought about how annoying it would be to sit on the floor and carefully block it all out.
And it needed some serious blocking because one end was majorly bigger than the other, I think it was because that end was dragging while I was knitting for so long. It's all blocked out now, and even. And I love it, too bad it's gotten surprisingly chilly for a lace shawl. And while I'm very excited for all the wintery shawls I've knit up over the summer, I'm upset that it's too chilly to only wear this one.
It was sitting next to my Corona for quite some time, and I know I'll be wearing those two together. I LOVE red and purple together, and these are the exact perfect shades that I love together so i cannot wait to finish my Corona now.

Pattern: Juno Regina
Yarn: Diamond Luxury Collection Baby Alpaca
Needls Size: 2.75mm
I kind of want to make another one now, it was actually really fun to do, even if the middle section was mindless. But I do enjoy some mindless knitting from time to time. The ends definitely made up for the 42" of the same two rows.
I made mine a total of 7 repeats to make it wider, if I ever make it again, I think I'll just stick to the 4 because it does grow quite a bit while blocking anyway.

Friday, September 18, 2009

I've totally failed...

I don't think I'm going to get all 60 scarves done in 60 days. I blame variegated yarns. Somedays I'll knit and frog the same yarn all day, and sometimes this will go on for multiple days. I'll try knitting, I'll try crocheting, nothing works for some yarns. And everything needs to be visually appealing, it doesn't matter if I'll probably never see it again, I can't give something to a charity and have it look like clown puke, I just can't.
So, I got a little discouraged. And I've decided that when variegated yarns are pissing me off, I'm just going to dive into my oddball stash and made some stripey goodness.
I've managed to make 5 scarves this month, I'm horribly disappointed in myself, and I'm going to try to get 5 more done by the end of the month. But we'll see.
The latest:

Pattern: No pattern, just grabbed a stitch pattern from a stitch dictionary. It's called "Slipstream"
Yarn: I think this was Vanna's Choice, but I can't be sure. Oddball stash yarn.
Hook size: 5mm
Everytime I crochet, I remember how much I love it. And then I remember how much I hated it before I knew how, and how I avoided it at all costs. Silly me.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Corona


The colour are off in the photo, but it seems to be a difficult colour to really capture. It's a deep purple, use your imagination. I'm doing this as a KAL with my stitch n bitch group. Four people, and it was decided that we each have to make a totally different colour. Originally I was going with red, but when I had finally got to a store I could only find firetruck red. Firetruck red + Big Gal = baaaaaad. So I went with my "go-to" dark colour. It's cascade 220, the yarn the pattern calls for which is so rare for me. And now for a plug for a the wonderful shop I bought it at, The Naked Sheep, I had never been before, mostly because I live at the other end of the city, but I've always heard great things about them, so I jumped on the streetcar for an hour. I'm hoping to get out there for a knit night soon, it just seems so far away.
Also, I was the jerk that had 10 skeins wound in one go. And that was why the trip was totally worth it, the winding wasn't an issue at all. I love that.
So, on the way home I was bursting! I wanted to start immediately, and I totally would have if there weren't rules. The KAL is with, like I said earlier, my regular Stitch 'n Bitch group, but only my sister, Maytina, has a blog that I know of, so only one out link for them. I have rules, only I have rules to follow mind you, but I have rules. Originally my rule was to only work on it at the Stitch 'n Bitch, but that wasn't good enough for me. So, I've only allowed myself 2-3 hours between meetings.
I'm at the arms right now, and I can honestly say I might not make it to Saturday. Yeah, that's right, I might cheat. I'll justify it by saying I'm making the largest size, and lengthening the sleeves, but it's cheating. I'll be a cheater. I'm not ashamed.
So far, I'm liking the pattern, the cabling is nice but not daunting so it's actually a perfect KAL project, you can still talk without totally screwing everything up.
It's a liiiittle bit big, so that means I can either eat a bunch and gain weight (my preferred option) OR I could just take in the seams which would totally defeat the purpose of a seamless knit. I'll probably end up wearing something under it too, probably going to be mostly a winter sweater.
I can't wait to work on it more.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

More scarves!

More scarves for the 60 scarves in 60 days challenge, and StreetKnit.
Photos were taken at night, so they're pretty crummy.

Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver (obviously not handspun) [1 in Zebra]
Needle size: 5mm
Total Time: 3 1/2 hours
I liked this pattern, totally mindless and was a pretty quick knit. I cast on 34 stitches instead of the 26 suggested. I loved the way it pooled at the ends, but it got a little ugly in the middle.

Pattern: Drop Stitch Scarf
Yarn: Red Heart
Needle Size: 5mm
Total Time: 5 hours
I cast on for an extra repeat (10 extra stitches) It's quite wide, and I'm not sure if I like the way it pooled. But I enjoyed knitting it. I looooove drop stitch patterns! YOs are so much fun.

Pattern: Instant Gratification Scarf
Yarn: Nobo Anita [1.5 skeins]
Needle Size: 10mm
Total Time: 60 minutes
Seriously instant. This is my go-to pattern for yarns that just won't work with anything. It's glittery, camo, and boucle. This is about the only pattern it'll work for.
So that brings me to 5 days behind on my scarves. Boo!

Friday, September 4, 2009

60 Scarves in 60 Days

This is mys econd year doing the 60 scarves in 60 days challenge, I love it. It's a real challenge, especially when you're also knitting other things, my goal this year is to actually knit a scarf a day. So far, I've failed. I really wanted to finish my Juno Regina (which I did, and I will post about later) before I started anything else because I was just so close to finishing.  So it crept into September a bit, and I'm two days behind.
But on September 3rd, I made a scarf. I've had yarn donated to me from stashes, and I've been collecting yarn throughout the year just for this challenge. So, I hope I'll have enough for 60.
First Scarf:

Pattern: Multidirectional Scarf
Yarn: Sean Sheep Lilydale, one skein of each orange and beige.
Needle Size: 6.5mm
First, I love this pattern and will be making more for sure. It's a nice stashbuster, and I've also seen a ton in nice variegated yarns. It sort of reminds me of pumpkin pie. It was so quick, start to finish it took me 3 hours. Which is a nice gift after my Juno Regina...even though that only took exactly two weeks of not really working on it much, but it seemed like forever.