Yes, I'm knitting doilies with foil

Things have been very knit filled here the past few days. First of all, I have been kicking BUTT on my clap. I've got the body of it over a third done, and it's soooo pretty. I also started and finished the baby socks from the other day. I broke the yarn for both of them so the stripe pattern would be ok, and I ended up switching the socks and the ends of the ball, and so the stripe pattern is a little wonky, but I don't really care. They're just baby socks, and they're wicked adorable. See?

I also started a dishcloth last night, and finished it today. The dishcloth is a complete mystery. First of all, I used way over half a ball. In the pic, you see how much I have, which was more than I thought I had left, but still less than half a ball. Usually they only take about half a ball. Also, as I was knitting it, I was excited because there would be no pooling, you know, since every row is a different number of stitches (I used the grandmothers favorite pattern since it's so easy) and then, in the middle of the thing, I got serious pooling. It was quite confusing lol!

Next on the agenda, I'll be making something from this for someone I love. :)

Any ideas about what and who? hehe... And if you already know, don't guess *cough*Angie*cough* ok?

Rum goes with everything

Hey guys. I know I haven't been posting much, but I have been getting lots of knitting in. That is, when I haven't been playing final fantasy x. I was a bit obsessed with that game (it's addictive! It's not my fault...) until it started to make me want to die every time I played it (because of my headaches... I NEED new glasses.)

Anyway, I've been knitting like crazy. I made two doilies that both look just like this...

Except that the second one is a little bit nicer and hasn't been blocked yet. I may even reblock the first one, it's a pretty crappy blocking job. Maybe I'll spray block it in the morning. I'm going to give it to my mom tomorrow. :) The second one is for my Angie (Hi Angie!!! *waves*) The pattern is "Flacon" which comes from a web site that offers a lot of tablecloths and stuff. The yarn is knit picks bare lace weight that I dyed myself, a silvery gray color (not purple, though it does look slightly purple in that pic...).

I was also working almost obsessively on my Clapotis and have finished the first ball of yarn. I'm starting to think it'll only take 3 even though people said it took them 4. I'm 2 repeats into the 12 repeat section on the straight knitting part.

The color is just a little bit softer than it is in that picture. Here's a close up.

Then for the last several days I've been ITCHING to cast on something, anything, two at a time, so I cast on this morning a pair of baby socks. I made up the pattern as I went, though you can see what I did (and what I'm doing) on the project page for them on ravelry. The yarn is Patons Kroy, color "Crayon Jacquards" and they're on size 3 circulars.

I also cast on for a baby surprise jacket, but I'll share pics of that when I get farther along.

The blog circle thing in FGF insanity this week is comfort food. I don't really have a comfort food recipe, so I wasn't going to post. But I decided to share my biggest comfort food. Sugary cereal. See, when I was a kid (until I was like, a junior in high school lol) my dad would make me a bowl of cereal every single day. He would always always have it ready right on time, because he'd get up to make it when he heard me brushing my teeth. He would also usually have a glass of OJ, and he'd put on a cartoon or, when I got older, whatever TV show he could find that I would like. I'd only watch like, 15 minutes of it, but he always did it anyway. It was like, our thing, and I seriously miss it sometimes. :)

Oliver didn't want me to share this picture with you, but he was so cute, how could I resist?

Without It You're Just Water

I usually tend to keep the blog for just knitting content but I have to post about something else tonight.  My grandmother, the woman who inspired in me the love for all things yarny, passed away a few days ago.  Her funeral was yesterday.  I wasn't able to be there for her last days or the funeral and that was tearing me up inside.  The past month has just been a trainwreck for me.  My hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows have even been falling out.  I go from being ravenous and eating an entire bar of dark chocolate in one day (did that twice) to not wanting to eat at all.  But I'm feeling a little better now.

Anyway, I wanted to share a little bit about Grama, because she was truly one of my favorite people in the world.  When I was growing up Grama lived right next door, so I was always at her house.  I ran to her when I was sad because she was never too sad or too stressed out or too busy for me.  My first crochet project was a baby blanket for my nephew (he's 13 now holy crap! lol) that I did with her.  She ended up doing most of it but I remember sitting on her couch sewing together the squares.  

Grama always had a knitted or crocheted project going.  Her favorite things to make were baby things or doilies and other lacy things done out of crochet cotton.  I think that's where my love from lace comes from.  :)  She tried several times to teach me how to knit and I never got it until I taught myself, from a book.  But I remember how proud of me when she saw that I'd finally got it.

Grama suffered from a disease that filled her lungs up with scar tissue and fluid, so she and I didn't talk very much because talking on the phone made her cough.  A few days before she passed away my cousin set up a web cam in the room with Grama and I went out and bought one just so she could see me.  I couldn't see her that well because she was too far away from the cam but at least she got to see me.  Grama was a believer in reincarnation and believed that at the moment she died a baby girl would be born and she would be reborn in that body, so happy birthday Grama.  Hope this next trip around the sun is the best life you can possibly have.

It's like I've died and gone to monkey heaven

Ok guys, so I knew already that my cousin, bestest friend, (possible twin separated at birth) and co-blogger loved me but I don't know that I knew she loved me quite this much. She sent me a package with so many gifts! Wanna see?

...

No?

...

Then get out of here, I'm showing off! :)

For those of you that stayed... hi!! Ok, first, she made me not one, but TWO pairs of socks! The first are out of knitpicks bare that I dyed myself a long time ago, but the yarn got tangled and I couldn't get it undone, so I sent it to her and told her if she could untangle it, she could have it. I had NO IDEA she made these from it!

I LOVE them!! They're her own pattern, and you can't see in the pic very good, but they have little tiny cables. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a picture of the cables. My camera hates red so... but they're there, trust me, and they're GORGEOUS. Then she made me these, which I didn't even know about.
She said that she made them on a day when I was working and she missed me, so she went to her lys to buy yarn so she could make them for me! Am I the most special person ever or what?

A long time ago, she made me a Kiri, and she had never been able to send it to me (shipping from Canada to America in a box can get expensive) and I got it too!

It has beads on the bottom that are unphotographable, but they're so pretty. It's so warm. I know cause I'm wearing it.

Also recently, she went on a dishcloth making extravaganza, and I got three dishcloths from that! :)

But wait, there's more! She bought me Rio De La Plata yarn, which is kinda like malabrigo only not quite as soft, but still yummy, in a pretty yellow color, and some yarn I didn't know about, it's called Diamond yarn luxury collection fancy free, and I had never heard of it but I LOVE it, it's fingering weight and it has ALPACA in it. It's the red stuff in this picture.

Also in that picture is a little journal, and a bookmark with a little chocolate lab puppy on it, and if you can't read it, it says "Stop and Smell the roses."

But, I saved possibly my favorite part for last. No, that's not true. I don't have a favorite part of this package. I love it all equally. Anyway, she made me a yellow baby hoodie, and a crocheted yellow baby blanket!!

I don't know what the pattern for the hoodie is, but I think the blanket is the tiramisu pattern. I only remembered that because she kept saying "you know, it's a kind of dessert?" :) Here's a better pic of the blanket.

Angie? You are the BEST. EVER. I love you!!!!!!!!

Yes, most of the time we are half Norweigan

Well, it has been all about the yellow here at my house lately. I mean, you all know how much I love yellow, but it's been a bit obsessive lately. I have two pairs of fgs going, and I just bought the yarn for a clapotis. I got four skeins of "Pollen" Malabrigo from the Cozy Ewe, and I just need to tell you guys, this company is awesome. The service was so fast, and I even got it on sale. I highly reccomend them.

Here's my clapotis that I started.

I love it so much, I can not wait for it to be finished. I'm so excited.

And on the same kind of thought, about the yellow, I needed something that said Spring/Summer, something that was bright and cheery, so I made...

A pineapple upside-down cake! It's my mom's secret recipe, so I can't tell you what it is, or I'd have to kill you. ;)

That's what I'm doing to get rid of the wintery blues. What are you doing to get rid of them?

It doesn't matter how much you make that noise, I'm not barking at you

Snow snow snow!!! I am sick of all the snow. I hate being cold. It is, right now, 7 degrees F and feels like -10. That's freaking cold for Ohio. The dogs, however, love it.

Storm honestly can't get enough, he loves to play in the snow as much as possible, and would all day if I'd let him.

Anyway, the other night I hoped to finish the first of my "Swan Maiden" mitts, but I couldn't do it because I'm not used to working on dpns and they started to hurt my hands after a few HOURS of ribbing. Seriously, I don't know why, but that ribbing killed me. Anyway, here's what I have right now. I'm about halfway done with the thumb gusset.

I LOVE them. The yarn is the Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock yarn in Sunshine that Zortified got me for my secret santa gift. I am so in love, and can't wait to be done. When my hands start hurting from working on them, then I go to either Icarus or my heart socks that I posted about the other day... oh. I guess I didn't? Huh. I really could've sworn I did. Oh well. I'm making these Heart Socks from "New pathways for sock knitters."

There were some issues at first, but that was because I am an idiot. Everything's fine now. :) I love them.

Everyone staying warm out there?

I'm helpless in the face of blueberry pie

Ok, I was so happy today to receive a package from someone in my hello yellow group on ravelry, katknit65. I organized a yellow swap but then I was unable to participate... and she sent me a package anyway!

In the package is: Some lemon and pepper pasta, some little blank kitty cards, some exotic rum coffee (can’t wait to try it!!!), a card, and some little stickers, plus a little (handmade?) paint can that says “Knit your hearts with an unslipping hand.” and has little daisies all over it. It is so cute. Inside of it was…

That dishcloth, which has a little kitty knitted into it. There was also, as you can see, some peaches & cream, and some money chocolate. I am so happy, and if you're reading this, thank you again Kelly!!!! You ROCK!!!

Also today, I did a whole repeat on Icarus. Since each row you add 4 stitches, I'm positive that will never happen again on this shawl, lol. I am so in love with it. It's so gorgeous. See?

Here's a detail shot. The color is right in the first one. Technically, it's right in both lights, the first one if the lights are bright, and this one if it's darker.

I love it. However, I think I'm all laced out for the day, so I'm going to work on some socks or fingerless gloves for the rest of the day. :)

How are you guys doing?

Man, that was worse than roasted garlic in my eye

So, two more finished thing that my month of bloglessness left you unaware of, I think. First of all, I finished recently my By Starlight's that I started... uh... in September. I'm finally finished with them, and I love them. I've worn them several times and I'm just now soaking them. The yarn is Malabrigo worsted in "oceanos" and again... mmm malabrigo. Can't get enough of that yarn. Here's a crappy pic of them because it is REALLY hard to take a picture of both of your hands yourself. Really hard.

The other thing that I finished but never talked about was this little lacey bookmark. I'm pretty proud of it, though I'm not exactly sure why. It's made out of Zephyr and size 1 needles.

Now, a couple of my WIPs. First, I started a two row stripe scarf like the rest of the world, but I'm using Patons SWS because... well... it's cheaper. I'm using SWS in Natural Geranium and natural earth.

Here it is so far. I lost steam on it for a while there because for a while EVERYTHING I was knitting was at a part that was k1 p1 rib and I couldn't handle it anymore lol.

And last for today, I started another Icarus, this one for me. I'm using Jojoland Harmony in this color. I'm in love with it. It's totally going to fly. Assuming I don't find something new and more interesting in the meantime. I'm way too ADD. :) Here's my progress.

Oh and, I finished reading ALL THREE of the books from the other day. If you're into sci-fi stuff at all you should totally check out the fever series. And if you're into romance novels at all you have got to read the highlander series. Just sayin. Go forth and borrow those books from thy library. Then hasten back and tell me what you think. ;)

Muzzy! I'm not insane!!

Hey guys, how's it going? Ugh the weather out here sucks. It's snowy and icy and yucky. The dogs love the snow though. I'll direct your attention to this post last year when we had all the snow. Yeah, they really really love the snow huh?

Anyway, getting caught up on all the stuff I've done lately but haven't told you all about... ok, so on Thanksgiving, my nephew Zach, who's 5, saw me wearing these socks. He said "Aunt Krystal, could I have a pair of knitted socks?" Of course, I couldn't say no to him, he's so sweet. So I asked him what color, and he said "Green... but... could they have white flames on them?" No idea where that came from but...

They ALMOST didn't fit. Well, the one. I didn't leave quite enough standed behind two of the stitches. I just did a normal basic sock, if you want to see the pattern, check it out here. I used the flame chart from these socks. The yarn is Baby Ull in dark green and white. He was so happy to have them, he opened the package and said "I know what this is!! It's my SOCKS!!!!" and then he hugged me before he even saw them all the way. Best reaction ever. Here's he is wearing them.

I had to make something for his older brother too (not that I didn't want to!) so I made him a simple 2 by 2 ribbed pair of fingerless gloves, with a thumb a-la fetching. The pattern is here. The yarn is the leftover sock yarn from the socks Zach saw me wearing. Here they are on me.

They started out tiny, and stretched practically to infinity. Here he is wearing them.

A little before Christmas, I started and finished a Koolhaas in Merino et soie. Here it is on ravelry. I love it, but it's a tiny bit small, meaning I have to keep pulling it down. I also missed a cable cross but... you can't see it unless you look.

One last thing for this post, though I have a lot more to share with you. Remember Emmy's elephant that I started last... uh... May? And lost his head, and then he was headless? (We called him "Stumpy the headless elephant...") Well, I found his head!

Isn't he absolutely adorable? I am sooo in love with him, I almost couldn't give him away. We have to stop calling him a he though, because I think he's pregnant.

Here he is in his scarf I made him out of smooshy sock yarn. I thought he'd need it cause his feet are white, they look like snow.

He's made out of Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted, color is carnation, and his feet are Wool-ease. The pattern is Baby Elephant by Hansi Singh. She has such awesome patterns. I'm thinking about making another one in yellow, cause I like yellow.

In other news... reading this week: Well, the other day I read "Spell of the Highlander" by Karen Marie Moning. I needed a quick, brain candy romance novel. It's a little heavier than your average one, but it's really really good. I love it. I'm now rereading "Bloodfever" by the same author which is book 2 in her "fever" series, because the newest one, "Faefever" just came out and I needed to read it again cause I forgot. :)

What are you all up to?

You Must Pay to Anger the Tortoise

Hey all!  It's Angie, back again.  Hopefully better this time because I've been feeling terrible about starting this blog with Krystal and then not keeping up my end of things.  So I'm going to start trying to blog once a week.  I'm going through some stuff right now, so if it happens less than that then I'm not going to worry about it.  

I didn't do a lot of knitting for Christmas this year, just some dishcloths for Mom, Krystal, and Zana and this adorable dragon handpuppet for Olivia.  Check him out

He's blind in these pictures because I hadn't done his eyes yet. lol

The blue and green yarn is Handicrafter Cotton, the red is some mystery acrylic I had kicking around, and the "flames" are Bernat Boa.  I have a huge bag of that stuff and it haunts me.  Seriously.  I had some kind of plan when I bought it... I don't know what I was going to knit with it.  Clearly I had been smothered in the crazy that day.  Oh, the pattern is Elliott the Dragon by Jil Eaton from the Interweave Knits Holiday edition last year.  DH fell in love with this hand puppet.  He was sad to see it go on Boxing Day!

And I somehow ended up doing a KAL with Krystal and some friends of hers from Ravelry for Icarus.  Here's mine.

This is just before adding another row of eyelets.  I've actually got a lot more done than this.  I've been playing Final Fantasy X (ah, there goes my geek factor, crankin up another notch! lol) and it has these long movie segments that you can't do anything, so I knit while those are going on.  It's zephyr in Basil on my precious addi turbos.

I'm getting ready to start a Seraphim in Mini Alpakka in a pretty orchid color.  My grandmother is very very sick and it's to the point where we know she won't be with us much longer.  So I need a comfort knit.  And then when I'm finished maybe I'll give it to my mother and hope it'll bring her the comfort that it brought me while knitting it.

Yes, chicken nuggets are made out of Satan

Hey guys, just a quick post, I have a ton of projects to show you, but for now, I just want to share this:

Knitting goals for 2009:

1) I want to make a sweater. Possibly this one or this one.

2) Socks, because I love hand knit socks, are going to be big for me, I hope.

3) A shawl for me, probably Icarus since I started that (and frogged it but that's cause the yarn is icky, I ordered better) already. Want to see the yarn I ordered? It's pretty. Clicky here. :)

4) I want to learn a new technique. Possibilities are: steeking, intarsia in the round, and really complicated lace.

5) Finish. Mom's. Tablecloth.

Happy New Year!!