Stop talking about Isaac Hanson's sperm when I'm trying to write butter!

I finished my Monkeys!!! Yay!!! I'm so happy. I was seriously unsure that I'd finish them in time. But, it turns out, I did. :) Unfortunately, that is the last singleton I have that I actually like. I may do my "broadripple" sock, (that link takes you to the picture of the first sock, for the pattern go here) but I'm not sure. It's a little too small, and if I finish it, I need to find someone who has smaller feet than I do who likes bright colors... hmm. I know of a certain little girl of Heather's who might like them. Interesting. :) Anyway, here are the monkey stats.

Pattern: Monkey, from Knitty, by Cookie A.
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, in Cool Fire.
Needles: Size 2 double pointed needles.
Mods: The only thing I did differently was I omitted the twisted rib, and opted for a normal ribbing. My thoughts are, I already hate ribbing, I don't need it to be more painful than it already is. I also decreased every round for the toes, because they were going to be too big if I didn't.
Comments: I LOVE love love LOVE this yarn. It's so... well... smooshy. :) Plus it's dyed in such a way that it couldn't pool, and it just looks... well, you can see how awesome it looks. It's a tiny bit darker than it looks in that pic. I haven't washed them yet, because I can't seem to take them off long enough. :) I'll DEFINITELY be buying more of this yarn in the future. I love it.

Now, on to the non-knitting content.

D is for... Dogs!

These are my babies. Mattie in yellow, Storm in Chocolate. I know you've seen them before but I figure there's no better "D" for me. This is us having a nice photo shoot. Well, mostly.

This is my mom and dad's dog, who we dog-sit from time to time. Her name's Sadie. She's Storm's "birth mom," although she didn't ever take care of Storm and his brother, I did.

Here's Mattie, being "The Dog." She got right in my face when I was trying to take that pic...

Storm is so difficult to get a good picture of. Most of the time when I take his pic, it ends up looking like this.

(He was barking at me.) But I finally managed to get one of him.

Thanks for stopping!!!

I try to avoid Shania Twain if at all possible.

Hey look, I'm not dead! And I've been knitting. Not much. I knitted a pair of baby mittens while watching Dexter (I'm on my third trip through seasons one and two). But that's about it. I started a hat. Anyway, I just thought I'd pop in to say that DH and I are still amongst the living. Though if you'd asked me if I wanted to be alive at 6 am this morning? Nah ah. :) I'll be back with pictures and all that when my lungs no longer hate me.

That's why I had to go to Canada

Hey guys, how's it going? Ugh, so I'm supposed to let you all know that Angie has not gone missing (actually, scratch that, I've called her TWICE tonight and she didn't answer or call me back, and it's an unusual time of night for her to be out or in bed, so maybe she is missing...), but she and her husband are both extremely sick (with different things...). Dylan has Bronchitis, and Angie has a severe chest cold and... PINK-EYE. Ugh, poor Angie. In other health news, my dad came home from the hospital today. No rehab for him. He's in a hospital bed at home. I was watching their dog, Sadie, and I took her home today, and she was SO CONFUSED. Like, why is my grandpa laying down in the living room?? It was sweet.

Now, on to what we all know you're really here for. The fiber content. I can't say knitting content, because while there has been some SERIOUS knitting on the monkeys (I'm supposed to be done with them by FRIDAY NIGHT???? AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!), I have nothing useful to show you there. I did, however, finish the crocheted fingerless gloves yesterday. I like them, but they seem a little big. Maybe I should rip out the seam and take out a couple rows. I ran out of yarn before I could do the thumbs, but they're done enough without the thumbs for now.

Look how close I came to running out of yarn.

That was maybe two rows worth of yarn. I was getting worried. Notice how much I love sharing with you the details of my great yarn races? Another shot of the gloves so you can see the (uneven) detail.

That's a lie. You can't see the detail no matter how I take the picture. As you know, pink is a shade of red, and we all know how my camera feels about that.

Hey! As a matter of fact, I do have a picture to show you that SOME knitting has been done. SOME. As in, a little, not much. :)

Looking forward to the weekend! What about you? Ok, now I'm off to do a little more homework. See ya!

I can see us doing the gremlin thing later

Hey guys, how is everyone? I'm sure you're all going to be happy to hear that my dad is fine. He started moving his leg today, and had his IV and everything removed. He may have to go to rehab, but hopefully that will go quickly. He's tough, so I'm sure it will. I got lots done on my monkeys in the hospital, but that's about it. The only other yarny news I have for you is that I started this crocheted wristwarmers, a pattern which I had originally intended to make for my husband, and which I still might make for him later. It's a really easy pattern. I'm using the pink Bernat Natural blend cashmere stuff I got. Here's what it looks like right now.

It's so FAST. I love that about crochet. Quick quick quick. However... there is a problem. When one is just learning a new technique, or craft, such as crochet, one should not work on it when one is very tired and on cold meds. Want the proof?

I rest my case.

You can't yodel with a corset... wha?

Ugh, now I'm sick. How, I ask you, did Krystal manage to transmit her cold over 1,800 miles of phone lines?

Eh, whatever. I did manage to get a lot of knitting done while semi taking care of DH (who is far sicker than I am and is, right now, attempting to cough up a lung). Here's Saturday's work:




And here's after today:




It's so gorgeous. I love it so much. I had thought about giving it to someone but... no. This is mine. All mine. Mwah ha ha ha!

.....

Right... and I haven't even taken any cold meds!

(Uncle Howard (Krystal's dad) went through surgery today for his hip, which was actually broken. Everything went ok but he still needs prayers for a speedy recovery!)

Guard your shiny things closely

Thank you guys for all of your well wishes. You'll be happy to know I'm feeling much better, I just am getting tired really easily. I have been knitting like crazy the past couple of days. I finished the Fingerless gloves for my scavenger hunt buddy. Would you like to see a picture?

Too bad. I forgot. That's all you get. :) I'll be sure to have her take a picture of them when she gets them, and I'll show you then. I also finished the Gryffindor Pants.

Except for the i-cord. Don't you love the way one leg is longer than the other? I used the duplicate stitch tutorial Angie gave me, along with a chart that I made up, and let me tell you. I do NOT like duplicate stitch. Probably because my left hand is to dumb to do part of it, but my right hand is too dumb to do the other part, so I constantly have to switch the needle back and forth. UGH, it's hellish. I had such a headache when I finally finished. But it was SO totally worth it, look how cute! Now he has perfect little Quidditch training pants. In other knitting news, I am on to the gussets of my second monkey.

I love love love this yarn. I can NOT say it enough. I just haven't been up to working with the tiny yarn lately. Because of the cold meds, my hands start to shake. So that got put on the back burner in lieu of other, bigger yarned projects. First, I cast on for another pair of baby pants. (See sidebar for link to pattern.) I'm using my Bernat Camouflage that I got the other day.

It's definitely flashing but that's ok. It's still waaaay cuter than I expected. I'm at the first increase round. And then, because my pinky started hurting from all of the dpns yesterday, I cast on for Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Sweater on two Needles, from here on out refered to as the February Baby Sweater.

This is my first EVER sweater, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Yes, I know, that's a LOT of knitting. No, I don't have a life. Why do you ask? Oh, look! My husband FINALLY had the money to get me Roses for Valentine's Day!

Happy news. I'm going to go get a ribbon to tie around the vase. Have a good weekend!

P.S. My dad fell down outside today, and he's in the hospital with a dislocated hip. So keep us in your thoughts!

I want to be a penguin. Except... sometimes they get eaten

Hey guys, sorry for the no blogging. I'm sick. I have some kind of evil, violent, vicious, soul-sucking.... oh, right. Ahem. Anyway, I have a bad cold. Tuesday I spent nearly the entire day wishing I was dead because I had a fever and I was SO COLD. So... it'll be a short post as I'm not much with the words today. But look, yesterday I got new yarn!

The cashmere blend is the same stuff I used to make the fingerless gloves for my scavenger hunt partner, that are blue. I'm probably going to make fingerless gloves for me with it. :) My husband was like "So, where's the yarn for my fingerless gloves?" And I said "Too sick to understand. Leave a message." :) I did, even in my sickness, finish the baby pants.

Except for the icord. Look how cute the icord and the little seamed hems are.

I'm going to stitch "Potter" across the bum. Anyone know a good tutorial for duplicate stitch?

Off to continue my book (It's a LOT easier to read than knit while this sick.) I'm reading "Beyond the Highland Mist" by Karen Marie Moning, which is a romance novel. I'm not normally into actual Romance novels but I really like this one. It's all Angie's fault. I blame her. :)

It's like playing canasta with a robot!

Hi! Krystal's sick today so she told me I had to blog. And really I needed to anyway.

So in my last post I said I could quit any time I wanted to with the baby pants. Well... I want to now.



Yes, that's three pairs. The green ones on top are completely done I think. The camo ones need a pocket and the icord and the variegated green ones need icord and, I think, some little appliqued leaves. I'm done now. I think it's the turned hems. I love them. Look how cute.




I love that.

Anyway, now that I'm done except for the finishing touches on my baby pants, I'm working on other things. Like socks for DH.




About a year ago I took him into the yarn store and said "Pick out some sock yarn, I'll knit you some socks." He picked out this DGB Confetti 100 (this color doesn't appear to be available anymore) and it went home with us, along with a set of size 1 dpns. And I'm only now knitting the socks. Sorry hubby!

Krystal finished her baby pants except for the finishing touches right as I was sewing down the last hem of my three pairs. So, technically, it was a KAL, even if I did get a little ahead of her. Hopefully tomorrow she won't feel so miserable and she'll be able to blog and tell you guys all about it. Think "Krystal feeling better" thoughts!

Yeah, that's how I like my tofu

Ugh, this whole weekend has been busy busy busy. I've been getting ready for my classes to start, hanging out with Emmy and David, going to the movies, cleaning... pretty much anything you can think of that's not knitting.

First, I cleaned the office. If you know me then you know... I hate to clean. I'm just lazy. I don't know where that comes from. But something hit me and I just really wanted to clean. While cleaning, I came across my cds, and decided to go through them. This is a picture of my burnt cds. Keep in mind this does not include the "active" ones that are in my car, or in the other room, that I regularly listen to. These are just mixed cds that I don't listen to anymore.

I was so shocked by the size of this pile, I thought it deserved to be documented. I have 3 times more burnt cds than the ones that you buy. Crazyness. So I cleaned the whole office, and as proof, I offer you a picture of my desk.

Which is so clean and organized it's scary. I know it could be more organized but I really like the way it is. Everything is within reach. After cleaning, I spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out how to hook this up to my computer.

That would be the headset that I have to have for my "learning strategies" class, which is the first class you have to take at Franklin. I finally figured out a system, involving having the actual speakers plugged into the front of my hard drive instead of the back, but it works.

On Friday I received something very cool in the mail. (Note to self: cut pictures only RIGHT BEFORE pasting them to where you want them so as not to lose them.)

One of my groups on Ravelry, a Harry Potter group (actually, it's a gryffindor group and the link is in ravelry), someone posted a thread saying they were willing to do a swap, so I just ordered some needles for her and she sent me that yarn! Pretty cool. It's very... interesting. I don't know yet what I'll do with it.

But hey, some knitting did get done. I finished the first leg of my baby pants (for like, see sidebar.) I didn't finish the hem yet, but let's not speak of that.

As much as I hate hate hate this yarn, I LOVE the way it looks! So cute! I think if I do this pattern again I'd take out the hem on the leg because I think it makes it too bulky. Plus, it'll hide the cool looking inside of the leg!

I'm also over half way finished with my scavenger hunt partners fingerless glove number 2, and... and I PROMISE I'll work on my socks tomorrow. Yup. I promise. Someone hit me if I don't. :)

Happy President's Day!

Hopefully it's not illegal...

Hello everybody! (Anyone else hear that one doctor from The Simpsons here? lol) Happy Valentines Day! It probably won't be v-day anymore by the time I finish this blog but it doesn't matter to me. Wanna see what I got for Valentine's day?




A dozen roses, a stuffed turtle (hubby affectionately calls me Turtle because I have a habit of "turtle-ing" any time anyone gets close to my neck lol), and a box of really nice truffles. Mmm tasty. Oh yeah, and there's a balloon I didn't take a picture of. It's Pooh and it says "I love you! From your Honey"

Here's a better look at my turtle. Aren't those brown eyes just a killer? I love my hubby, let me tell you. This is the first time in our entire relationship he's bought me a dozen roses




Ok, on to what you're really here for. The knitting. Here is how I managed to totally kick Krystal's butt in the KAL.




Two pairs. I kinda feel bad though. I mean, I wasn't TRYING to blow right past her. I just really enjoyed knitting these pants. In fact, I had a hard time not casting on for a third pair directly after finishing the second. I felt like Stephanie with that one baby sweater pattern

I can stop any time I want to. Really.

It's all thanks to Dylan and his butter...

I am glad to report to you guys that I had a very productive day! And yes, that means todays post will be one of those completely random ones! Yay! We NEVER have those here at the yarn mafia HQs... So, I sat and watched The Bourne Identity and Supremacy today and knitted while I watched. I got almost to the heel on my monkeys but had to stop because my pinky was starting to bother me. Then this evening I finished about half of the heel.

And just for the record, this is the SECOND sock. Look at the size of that ball of yarn! I should be able to get like, a pair of baby socks and then some out of it! I was like "Wow... that's a lot of yarn..." I feel like I'm getting a bonus. I guess you deserve it though, at 20+ dollars a skein, for someone who's broke... that's a lot of money lol. I also worked on my "Spoilers choice" category for my Scavenger hunt swap partner.

It's sooo pretty I love it. I want it. Mine. It's something warm. I'm also going to put some starbucks hot cocoa with it. It's the same cabled fingerless mitts I made before, even with the same pattern adjustments. The yarn is bernat cashmere naturals. They're a little snug but I'm almost positive she's got smaller hands than me and they're supposed to be snug, when they're loose they aren't as comfy. They are SO SOFT and I MUST. BUY. MORE. OF. THIS. YARN. For more fingerless gloves for me. I did that in like 2 and a half hours. I was so amazed at my speed. Now, remember the baby pants?

Yeah I frogged them. I'm going to restart on size 8's which will make them so much more flowy and less stiff. I'm also only going to cast on 64 stitches as I get about 4 spi with those needles. See the capri sun package? No, I'm not that sloppy... ok, I'm pretty messy, but not that much. Emmy wants SOMEONE *hinting at me* to make her a capri sun purse but I am SO not doing that by hand and I don't know anyone who has a tough enough sewing machine to do it. So that's why it's there, I'm saving them. Hopefully I'll get lots of progress on the pants tomorrow as Angie totally kicked my butt with them. :) See ya later!

No one's ever held up a 7-11 in a corset

Ok so I took your advice and put my picture through an editing program (I used paint shop pro) and it turned out pretty well.

Looks a little better but not a lot. At least the color is true. And you can see the stitch definition. So that's good. I normally don't use any editing software because... well... I'm a good photographer I guess. But there it is. I decided to show you all how the other stuff I've been working on is doing. First, I started these baby pants with Angie. That pattern is free but it's not on ravelry exactly because the ones listed on ravelry are different sizes that you have to pay for. I did not, and am just making the newborn size. I like them so far, I guess, but I HATE HATE HATE this yarn. It just feels... yucky. It's also making what I felt was too stiff of a fabric, but Angie tells me it'll soften up a lot in the wash, and have more of a drape or whatever, if I wash and dry it in really really hot temperatures so I'm going to go ahead and try it.

If you can't see in that picture, that is a knitted hem. I'm so proud of myself for being able to do that. Here's a better look at it.

I also finished all of chart three of Juno, mostly while watching the movies "The Number 23" and "Joshua." I reviewed them on my other blog if you're interested. Here's a violently crappy picture of what it looks like so far. I forgot to take pictures while it was daytime... not that it would have mattered. Did you hear about the snowstorm we got? They made it sound like it was going to be the worst snowstorm ever, in the history of the world. So what's the first thing I say upon hearing that we might lose electricity? "Omg, how will I knit??"

And then, today, while I was playing on ravelry, I came to my second sock finishers group (link is in ravelry) and realized something. I hadn't cast on for my second sock yet! Ugh! As much as I love the smooshy and the pattern, and the first sock only took me like, a week, HOW could I let this happen??? So, I cast on today.

And finished the ribbing. :) Yay for watching movies at the computer! Today I watched "Surf's Up" which, I was surprised to find, was a very good movie. I thought I'd hate it but it's really cute. And the animation is incredible. I mean, the water looks so real, they did an excellent job with it.

Lastly, I just want to take this time to let you know that I might not be on the computer QUITE as much anymore, as I got accepted into Franklin University and will be taking online classes starting next Monday. I'm hoping to major in Web Developing. Yay! So I'm going to be a little bit busier. :) But I'll be sure to keep up the blog because you guys are important to me! How is everyone?

Let me know if you see eyes... Oompa Loompa!!

Ok, so I've had a relatively busy weekend, so not much knitting got done. I did work a little on Juno but if I take a picture of it every chart you'll get annoyed... so, instead, I have a couple of pictures of the hearts I made! Yes, I'm completely crochet pattern illiterate. Angie had to make a heart herself just so she could tell me how to do it. After about 10 different attempts I finally got this.

I still haven't woven in my ends, but there it is. Pattern is linked on the previous post. Yarn is patons SWS in the colorway "Natural Pink" and I went through the yarn until I found a pink place to start the heart in. It's kinda big for a coaster, but that's probably what it's going to be. Then, yesterday while I was uploading some pics to my myspace page, I started another one in the leftover yarn from Angie's hubby's Christmas hat I made him last year. It's Lion's wool in scarlet. The problem? You all know the problem. It's scarlet. You know how my camera feels about any red color. So I'm posting my attempts at taking a red picture.

This is attempt number one. Ugh it's like... shiny. So, I thought I'd put it on a dark surface.

The surface that I put it on was dark brown. And that's just... wrong. The whole picture is nowhere close to what it's supposed to look like. Maybe if I put it on a light surface?

Yeah... no. Finally I got one, but it's still not the best.

Anyone else have a similar problem?

My wrists aren't at the bottom of my legs!

In the history of bad knitting days yesterday has got to be right there at the top. Seriously. I cried. It was that bad. Look at this:




See that? Know what that is? That's the circular that my shawl was on. What happened to it? Well, that's a good question. The knitting gods decided to smite me again. Sheer stupidity probably being the reason this time. I didn't weave in a lifeline at the end of chart 2 this time, thinking "I finished the chart this time, I know I did, so I don't need it." Well, apparently I hadn't. Funny that. *sigh* I don't know how to weave a lifeline if the stitches aren't still on the needle so it's probably going to be ripped. Flower basket shawl anyone?

And I had started a stole out of Victorian Lace Today in my new black Merino Oro.... It's not otn now either. I messed it up too. I did manage to do SOMETHING though. Krystal needed help with something so I started this so I could see what the problem was. And then I couldn't stop. Isn't it cute? I don't know what to do with it and it'll probably be ripped because that sock yarn was destined for a pair of toddler jaywalkers, it was just handy at the time.




Pattern is here, if you want to make one.


So today I'm starting all over with all of my knitting projects. I started a branching out scarf with some laceweight earlier, but it's turning out too skinny to be a decent scarf (I like my scarves super wide) and too wide to be a headband, which is what I originally intended it to be. I have some yarn that is supposed to be like cheap Patons SWS sitting here in front of me and a pair of size 8 needles so we'll see what comes out of that. Hopefully I'll have a good day today and get my knitting mojo back. Because honestly, right now, I'm pretty low. I have almost no confidence in myself as a knitter and just two days ago I was perfectly fine. It's crazyness.