Butterfly Ramblings

Bwa ha ha

2007-03-09T13:59:00.000-05:00

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!

Yarn and whining

2007-03-08T15:48:00.000-05:00

I picked up the sticks again today. The scarf that I knit for my mom as a Christmas present turned out all wrong, so I frogged the whole thing and re-did it with a looser tension and less stitches per row. Can't show a picture right now because I'm not near the camera, but take my word for it, it's a decided improvement.

I considered going to Hobby Lobby for some yarn, but I doubt I'd have enough time to get there, find something good and get back in time for class in half an hour. Of course, I could just skip this class... it's completely stupid and pointless... but I want an A, so my ass has to show up every week and turn in the bullshit assignments. The problem is that this class is an exact duplicate of a class I had to take my sophomore year. I'm talking same book, same syllabus, same assignments, same activities. The only difference is the teacher- and I'm not sure if it's better or worse than the first time around. Oh, and the course number. One is X220, the other is X420. Both are required. Both are about career planning and placement. Gag me already. I'm so fucking tired of writing resumes and reflection papers and cover letters and self-assessment bullshit. And of course I wasn't smart enough to have saved all of it from the first class, so I'm duplicating work that bored me the first time. This whole academic process has some serious flaws from the student standpoint. Of course, I'm sure that the university loves it- make us pay twice to do the same lame stuff. Yup. And all the yarn I have with me is a partial ball of navy blue acrylic. This is going to be a long-ass night.

Blah blah

2007-03-05T09:54:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I've been slacking lately on the knitting/crocheting/blogging fronts. School has takenmost of my wits, and I have entered a creative drought. I have knit a few scarves and one buddy square, but not much else.

I did a scarf for a friend's son about a month ago, and apparently he adores it so much that he wears it at home just to be wearing it. Yay!

I have a couple of projects that I need to be working on, but none of them are catching my attention. Sigh.

But, for what may be the first time in my college career, midterm is approaching and I'm not behind in any of my classes.

Finished Project

2007-01-01T21:33:00.000-05:00

It's finished! I finished my first stranded knitalong project. Oshu's skull hat. Unfortunately, I didn't leave enough length with the strands, so I ended up having to cut and knot them. Argh. But, nonetheless, I did it.

Yawn. I think I just bored myself to sleep...

2006-12-23T01:48:00.000-05:00

Update on Christmas. Nothing much else to report right now, other than the fact that I've picked my Stranded Knitalong pattern. A skull and crossbones hat for Oshu.

First we have the sock and a smidge of a mate for George for Christmas. It's orange and green. I think I'm having a case of second sock syndrome. Finished, finally! Pictures when he isn't sitting here.
Then there's the hat for Pickle, the niece.
Then theres the Bernat Boa scarf in Cardinal for my Mom.
I also need to make a hat for my brother (Pickle's dad).
And a hat for the strange guy who is living with my dad right now.
And a scarf or something for my brother's girlfriend.
And I need to sew up a quilt for Monkey (a nephew).
And make Monkey a set of felt mittens with an attached cord.
And make Critter (the other nephew) a set of mittens as well.
Oh, and I suppose if I'm making mittens for the nephews I should make a pair for the niece as well.
And if I find time, I have three pairs of socks and a penis warmer (don't ask. really.) to finish.
Oh, and the afghan I've been crocheting for Oshu for a year now. He's been asking when it will be done.
Addition: Sew Christmas stockings for the babies (all three of them). Also did some for my kids while I was at it.

I also realized that I can't take pictures of everything all at once because I'd already wrapped most of it. Oops. Now, as soon as George finishes his snack I'm going to drag out the sewing machine and finish the last of this stuff. Actually, no I'm not. I think I have to go buy something to put in the middle of the quilt. Crap. Wonder if I can just use a few layers of sheeting or something- he tends to cover his face with his blankets, so the thinner the better anyway. Now that I think of it, I'll just go buy a sheet. I think I tossed all of my old sheets last summer, so I can't raid the closet. Sigh. Off to the 'Mart.

Knitting beats blogging

2006-12-19T22:35:00.000-05:00

Knitting beats blogging, and it also beats school. Finals are over and grades are posted. Yay.

I'm down to the girlfriend scarf and George's sock, but both have seen significant progress. All of the hats are done. I still have the sewing to do, but I'm planning on doing that tomorrow.

Ethel got a knitting kit for Christmas from one of her aunts. She's making much better progress this time, since I showed her how to throw the yarn English style so she has less to hold on to. Her scarf is about 6 or 7 inches long already. She is having a blast with it.

When I finish the last two pieces of my Christmas knitting, I'll try to remember to lay it all out in a pile and take a picture of it. Then maybe next year I'll think twice before I decide to do this much for other people. Actually, it all just depends on how much everything gets used. People who use the things I make them are more likely to get more handknit pieces by me. Other people are just going to get rocks.

Christmas update

2006-12-13T11:10:00.000-05:00

Okay. The Christmas list has shrunk. Although, now that I think about it, it hasn't shrunk as much as I would like. Italicized items are finished. Pictures below.

First we have the sock and a smidge of a mate for George for Christmas. It's orange and green. I think I'm having a case of second sock syndrome.
Then there's the hat for Pickle, the niece.
Then theres the Bernat Boa scarf in Cardinal for my Mom.
I also need to make a hat for my brother (Pickle's dad).
And a hat for the strange guy who is living with my dad right now.
And a scarf or something for my brother's girlfriend.
And I need to sew up a quilt for Monkey (a nephew).
And make Monkey a set of felt mittens with an attached cord.
And make Critter (the other nephew) a set of mittens as well.
Oh, and I suppose if I'm making mittens for the nephews I should make a pair for the niece as well.
And if I find time, I have three pairs of socks and a penis warmer (don't ask. really.) to finish.
Oh, and the afghan I've been crocheting for Oshu for a year now. He's been asking when it will be done.
Addition: Sew Christmas stockings for the babies (all three of them).

The sock for George. Plus the second sock.

The scarf for Mom. Also the potholders for Dad, and the hat for Pickle.

The hat for my brother, which I have completed since taking the picture this morning.

Introducing my newest insanity...

2006-12-06T17:32:00.000-05:00

I joined the Stranded Colorwork Challenge knitalong. This should be fun. :)

Not sure just yet what I'm going to knit, but I can tell you that it will probably be ridiculously elaborate, because I just can't seem to do simple. Call it a character flaw. I also have to make myself finish the Christmas list first... unless... what if I did some as part of my brother's hat? Hmmm... wonder what sort of design I could put on it that he would actually wear? Wait- do I care if he wears it? Uh... no, not really. Okay, then, that might just be the ticket. Probably just a single emblem on the front of the hat- wonder if I can find a skull- oh, wait, I know where to look, Knitty had skull wristbands if I remember correctly.

*Happy dance* I get to knit something that will annoy my mother.

Why is it that despite being almost thirty years old I still get a disturbing thrill out of annoying my mom? Was it because I was such a well-behaved child who never got in trouble back then that I feel it utterly necessary to drive her insane now? I wonder.

I think I've just discovered another problem with Blogger. I can't add subject tags to my posts. Does anyone know if there's an option to do that? Oh, who cares... I'm hoping to get my own site after Christmas anyway, and then I can do whatever I want with it. Bwa ha ha!

Procrastination Game

2006-12-06T09:38:00.000-05:00

Since I have finals next week, and lots of homework to do between now and then, I figured I'd... oh, say... write a nice long post about my current knitting projects.

First we have the sock and a smidge of a mate for George for Christmas. It's orange and green. I think I"m having a case of second sock syndrome.
Then there's the hat for Pickle, the niece. So far I have one segment out of seven. A really pretty white with twists of varigated pastels- but this will do no good if it isn't done by Christmas.
Then theres the Bernat Boa scarf in Cardinal- which I have to frog and redo. I originally started it with the boa held with a strand of black SugarNCream, but it's too thick and not floaty enough. (It looked so much cuter when Lishy did it with her pink hat and scarf set. Where did I go wrong?)
I also need to make a hat for my brother (Pickle's dad).
And a hat for the strange guy who is living with my dad right now.
And a scarf or something for my brother's girlfriend.
And I need to sew up a quilt for Monkey (a nephew).
And make Monkey a set of felt mittens with an attached cord.
And make Critter (the other nephew) a set of mittens as well.
Oh, and I suppose if I'm making mittens for the nephews I should make a pair for the niece as well.
And if I find time, I have three pairs of socks and a penis warmer (don't ask. really.) to finish.
Oh, and the afghan I've been crocheting for Oshu for a year now. He's been asking when it will be done.

And that isn't any of the other projects, just the Christmas ones. I think I should go knit now.

Oops

2006-11-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

I think we scared her. My friend Lishy and I invited Amy G over to knit and hang out with us. I'm thinking that we may have traumatized her a little. Sometimes we get a little... loopy. Okay, I'll be honest. I get downright stoopid sometimes, especially when I get to escape without the kids. I hope we didn't scare her too bad, cause hanging out with her was a lot of fun. (Did we scare you, Amy?) Honestly, I would scare myself if I didn't know me better. Sometimes I scare myself anyway.

Anyway... time will tell. For now, though, I'm going to take my knitting (I'm working on George's orange Christmas socks) and go pass out in bed. I woke up this morning with a congested chest, a cough that hurts, and a scratchy throat. I sure hope I didn't contaminate anyone else, cause this freakin sucks.

Dum da da dum

2006-11-14T12:26:00.000-05:00

Drumroll, please... I'm actually posting for once.
I've been making scarves out the wazoo- no pictures though- too much work. Sunday I decided that I absolutely could not handle eyelash yarn for one more minute, so I started a baby afghan. A small one- as in when I run out of yarn I'm stopping since it's from stash and I can't easily buy more. It's for Lishy's friend at work whose wife is expecting a girl in the next few weeks sometime. I started it with a square- ten stitches wide and twenty rows high, and then picked up the stitches along a second side and did the whole mitered thing. On every odd row I add two stitches in the center. It's only about 7 inches square right now, but it's growing- and let me tell you, I'm so enjoying NOT dealing with the boa yarn right now. And it looks a lot more square when its not on the circs.

What I've been doing lately.

2006-10-23T00:22:00.000-04:00

Not much. My best friend wore one of my scarves to work and came home that night with that one sold and orders for six more. So... I've been knitting. A lot. Last night I knit while watching Charmed, today I've knit while watching Monk, and until I started this post I was knitting while listening to the podcasts for my online Management Information Systems class. (Yawn.)

Just for my own amusement, here are pictures of two of the completed scarves, plus closeups of three different colorways.

To the Frog Pond!

2006-09-21T08:56:00.000-04:00

The pink baby socks were annoying me. In my disdain for following directions, I managed to screw up the heel on the first one. I didn't like the way it came out, so I frogged the sucker. It wasn't going to fit my niece anyway- that girl has some chubby legs on her.
Instead I went back to working on the Ember sweater. My Christmas list keeps growing, and growing, and growing... at least I have a few months to work on stuff.

Finished Pink Socks

2006-09-16T23:06:00.000-04:00

The pink socks are finished- and I liked them so much that I started a second pair with a similar pattern. Smaller, though, this time. This pair is for Ethel for Christmas- the second set will be for my niece (not sure if they will fit...).

Here's a picture, a la The Yarn Harlot, of my newest sock at the playground with Ethel, George and an extra kid who is in George's kindergarten class and lives out here. Faces hidden to protect their anonymity and all that jazz.

Not much happening...

2006-09-11T12:58:00.000-04:00

The lacy socks are proceeding quite well. One is done, and the other is just a few rows from the beginning of the heel. Yay! I have made one discovery about lace- it's harder to pick up dropped stitches when there are a bunch of YOs in there. (I discovered this last night when I picked up the sock and all three dpns fell out. Argh.)
Still haven't sewn the buttons onto the sweater yet... procrastination is my middle name. Now- off to class. Yay, rah! (Can you feel the sarcasm?)

Almost finished object, plus the beginning of a new one

2006-09-05T15:09:00.000-04:00

It's all done but finding the perfect buttons.

And this is the newest baby knit: I think it's destined to be a sweater, but we'll see.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2006-09-05T10:53:00.000-04:00

Well, it is at Hobby Lobby, anyway. I've started thinking about Christmas presents to make, and this seems like as good a place as any to keep my list. So, time to tweak the old template. Bwa ha ha!

Oh my gosh!

2006-08-31T12:14:00.000-04:00

I was dropping off George's blanket at kindergarten (it was at the FFY, courtesy of Ethel- don't ask) and the teaching assistant noticed the knitting that was spilling out of my purse. We started chatting- and she's a knitting fiend, too! Not only that, but she has a blog, too! (Too much caffeine + not enough sleep = overuse of exclamation marks.)

Current project: Striped kimono for a baby boy due sometime in December.

Knitting during class

2006-08-29T14:01:00.000-04:00

Yup, that's what I said. I knit during my classes. It seems to help me pay more attention to what the instructor is saying. I figure whatever works is a good thing.

Olivia's dress

2006-08-25T18:34:00.000-04:00

Another finished object. One of several, actually, but I don't have pictures of them all. This dress is made from Caron Simply Soft- it was knitted from leftover stash. The only cost to me was $1.63 for the buttons. It is intended for a new baby who was born last week, and it took me about a week to knit.

These are the buttons- don't they just make the dress?

Huh.

2006-07-26T10:14:00.000-04:00

I just figured out why blogger takes so long to load whenever I make a new post. It puts the posts into the template. For criminy's sake, what a stupid way to do things. Sigh. I'm going to go do my homework now- I no longer feel even the slightest urge to revamp my blog.

Finished object from stash.

2006-07-14T21:46:00.000-04:00

Monkey's cuddle blankie is done. Finished it today while sitting at our yard sale.
Up to row 5 on the Mystery Stole. (This thing is a lot more complicated than I thought it would be- I get distracted too danged easily and lose my place in the chart.)
I think I might see if I can find a magnetic clipboard- some of the ladies in the group were talking about using a clipboard and magnetic strips to make it more obvious which row to knit. Now, off to bed- Stargate and the stole are calling me.

Who's real crazy? Yes I am!

2006-07-12T22:39:00.000-04:00

I joined the Mystery Stole Knitalong. I'm going to attempt to make this stole out of Cherry Red Red Heart Luster Sheen that I bought on clearance at Hobby Lobby for 46 cents a skein (ka-ching!) and then realized I had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

Right now I'm only a few rows into the swatch- yes, I, the knitter who has flatly refused to swatch in the past- actually swatching. Right now, though, Ethel is making me up (she'll do almost anything to keep from going to bed) so I can't really follow a chart. (Yeah, as if typing is sooo much easier.)

I also made my first gif ever- the little knitting one. Yay, me! And yay for free gif-making software (even if it does put that stupid little ad at the top).

Now, back to knitting.

Tormenting my sister...

2006-07-06T20:14:00.000-04:00

such fun. I grabbed a ball of Sugar 'n Cream and a pair of size 9's and took them with me when we went shopping today. During the course of the afternoon I knit about 5 1/2 inches of a 12 inch square 'cuddle blankie' for Monkey (her baby). It was originally intended to be a bib, because she mentioned wanting one that she could tie around his waist (he grabs the bib and pulls it up over his face while she tries to feed him), but about an inch into it she admitted that she'd never use it to feed him 'because you made it'. He likes to cover up part of his face with a blanket or burp cloth to help himself fall asleep, so I figured a little blankie would be perfect.

She made fun of me and my knitting habit a little bit, but when I offered to knit a pair of socks and a hat for her boyfriend's cousin's baby shower (if she paid for the yarn- since I don't have anything in stash that would be appropriate for a boy) she changed her tune pretty quickly. Monkey was tired, so we decided we'd wait until tomorrow to go get the yarn. I figure I'll have the cuddle blankie done by then.

Oh, and I referred to myself as a knitting junkie and a yarn whore to Oshu, and after he finished laughing he said I was also a crochet slut. :) I'm so tempted to change my blog title to something vaguely pornographic now- but I can't think of anything really good.

New project

2006-07-02T00:35:00.000-04:00

Now that the first pair of socks are done, I've started another pair. This sock was started while at my in-laws 4th of July party today. This is how far I've gotten. It goes halfway up my foot. It's made of Sinfonia #8 Sportweight 100% cotton. Anyway, I'm exhausted- just wanted to take a couple pics and post them before I take the sock to bed with me and knit until Stargate puts me to sleep. (Gotta love the Stargate!)