Busy Busy

Last week was quite eventful. The 18th was Zach and my 4th anniversary. It feels like we have been married forever. Not in that "Dear Bob this is dragging on forever" kind of way. More the "I don't really remember what it was like not being married to him" kind of way. We spent a lovely day together (even if I did sneak away for a bit of SnB). We got Kirby's Epic Yarn to play together and the Scott Pilgrim movie. And we went to CJ Maggies for lunch. mmmmm... So many calories.

the 21st was my Ravelversary. Or my anniversary of joining Ravelry. I'm not sure how I knit and crocheted without it. I love it so.

But we tick ever closer to Christmas, which means I should be working on Christmas knitting. But I keep getting distracted. Well this project only took a few minutes and it is Christmas related. It is on my Christmas tree at work. Green and White for Marshall. Yay! It is a free pattern from Planet June. Took me a matter of minutes to make. Very easy.

This project on the other hand, not done quite as fast. I'm sure I've been working on it for well over a year at this point. It will only make sense to a very special group of people on Ravelry. It is a group I am in. We make fun of people. Each of the phrases or images has an interesting meaning. I could explain them, but I don't know if it would be quite as funny. Although we do have a Wiki. But yeah, I will just say it is special.

This was made because I keep misplacing my tape measures. Hobby Lobby sells them on the cheap. But I like to make them cute using my friend Haley's method. I was apparently feeling witty when I made this one.

So apparently I have used up all of my Karma points in the past few weeks. It is a bit of a shame and I hope I don't need some soon. You may remember the Goth Sock I talked about winning in a previous post. Well, I won two more skeins of yarn, found a sale and used a gift certificate for some very cheap yarn, and helped a Friend's Friend destash.

For this lovely bit of Zephyr Laceweight in Peacock, I donated to Turtlegirls Step Out fundraiser. Diabetes is a disease that hits very close to home. And maybe even closer if I'm not careful. Several family members on both sides have been dealing with it and I couldn't think of a better cause. But yum... Love the color.
This yarn. For this, I was just lucky as hell. I entered a giveaway at Sherri's blog and won. Wollmeise. Lace. Granted it isn't a full skein, but it still has a lot of yardage. Again with the Wollmeise not photographing well. It is much less orangy in real life. The picture on the blog is much better.
For the next 4 balls of yarn, I finally used my gift certificate to Paradise Fibers that I won during the fiber guild's Winter Olympics. Jojoland Melody was on sale for 4.15 a ball, plus a $15 gift card= I pretty much only paid for shipping. Yay. One set is for me and the other is for a very knitworthy person. Yay for socks that can be washed in the washing machine. I picked up 5 skeins of this yarn from a destash at Fiber Guild last night. I have no idea what I am going to do with 655 yards of bulky yarn. But I had to. The yarn was free with a donation to the destasher's Christmas to Nicaragua trip for mission/charity work. It was a good cause.

Christmas knitting is actually going well. I have gotten a few more things out of the way. I might have to print out one of these for next year. It will be difficult to pick out only 12.

Crossing my Fingers

Chronicle Books, publisher of many fine crafty books that I love, is doing a giveaway. Bloggers must publish a list of Chronicle Books published books up to $500 dollars and can enter to win that list of books. The cool part is, someone who comments on that list has to chance to win there own giant pile of the same books. So here is my list.


Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Wooly Embroidery $14.95 I have their needle felting book and it is adorable.
Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Lacy Crochet $14.95 beautiful patterns
Pattern Magic $24.95 Because I would love to know how to make my own patterns
Craft Inc. $16.95 Something Practical
Sublime Stitching Craft Pad $12.95 I do love Sublime Stitching
Embroidered Effects $24.95 more Sublime Stitching
Baby Bib Embroidery Kit $19.95 And More Sublime Stitching
Stitchable Stationery $14.95 And more
Sublime Stitching Journal $9.95 And more
Sublime Stitching $19.95 and one more
Subversive Cross Stitch $14.95 More stitching I love.
World of Geekcrafts $19.95 Because this is something I'm sure my future children will love. Who am I kidding, I would love it too.
Kitchen Garden Box $18.95 Because I like to pretend I can garden
5 spices, 50 dishes $19.95 I love Indian food.
Quick and Easy Thai $18.95 I heart Thai food. (I had it for lunch)
Quick and Easy Vietnamese $19.95 mmmm
Flour $35.00 Because the pictures made me drool on the computer
Tartine Bread $40.00 because I could convince Zach to make me things out of this.
Field Guide to Candy $15.95 I like to make candy
Wookie Cookies $18.99 Does this need an explanation?
Whoopie Pies $16.95 nom nom nom
The Splenda World of Sweetness $19.95 Because I really shouldn't be eating so much sugar.
Obsessed with Star Wars $24.95
Between the Bridge and a River $24.95 Craig Ferguson is hilarious
Office Yoga $9.95 I could use this a lot

I think that is pretty close to $500. I did have to wander out of the craft section, but I found some good stuff. So cross your fingers for me and for you if you post.

All Better

So who knew that the method for getting rid of the knitting blahs is to stop working on something you hate and that you know is going to turn out bad. Oddly enough once I started working on the adorable version of someones Christmas present, it flew off the needles. So fast in fact that the hat and mittens were started and finished in two days. I even painted two mannequin heads over the weekend as well.

Did you see that? Where I mentioned getting a Christmas present finished. I know, I'm a little shocked too. I can hold you for a bit if you need me too. Will a picture of yarn make you feel better?

Yeah it does for me too. That is a lovely Skein of Goth Socks (Laudanum base, i.e. cashmere) from Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs called Imma Bitch. I won it from a drawing on the Sweet Libertine site. P.S. I love their makeup. Wearing their eyeshadow today in fact. They were having a drawing from people who donated money to a lovely family that had tragedy strike. I donated and at the time they only had a few prizes, so it was essentially donating to donate because I knew a lot of people would too. When I was notified I won, the number of prizes had gone up significantly. There was Wollmeise donated. Lovely people. Did I mention I lurve their eyeshadow. And they have colors inspired by yarn. Yes I am obsessed.

But the dreaded Christmas knitting is upon me. Unfortunately for you, this means a lot less pictures coming up. I will be working mostly on Christmas stuff and I would hate to ruin surprises. But I can do the Christmas list again. Why don't I go ahead? I have it written in my notebook already.

1. Felted Item 30% complete

2. Cookies

3. Stethescope Covers

4. Slippers

5. Slippers

6. Dishcloths

7. Hat

8. Ornaments X 4

9. Hat and Mittens-100% complete

10. Rubbernecker Swap- 90% complete I have tasty things to make.

Surprisingly this is the complete list. Well of things I have to make. I might need one or two more things. But this should hopefully be a short and easy Christmas. We shall see.

Blah

Kinda sums up since I last posted. Haven't gotten much crafting done beyond what I was working on for the craft fair. I'm feeling like I'm in a funk and don't want to work on what I am working on. I think the fact that it is Christmas knitting and I NEED to work on it makes me not want to do it. I think I might try switching things up and doing some work on stuff for the Etsy store and a few commissioned projects. I am very grateful that the people who want to commission things from me understand the "I have a crap ton of things to make, so it might not be any time soon" timeline I keep.

So if people get their Christmas presents in February... I'm sorry. Maybe you all will get stuck with store bought things this year. I can hear my mom gasping in terror right now. I just need to shake myself out of this mood and I will be good to go. I think it will involve some cleaning out of the craft room and corner. In fact, just saying that makes me feel better. It also doesn't help that I've been sick since last Friday. I still sound crappy and I am a bit congested, but my back has been hurting. I must say that working out made me feel better yesterday. Maybe I'll include unburying the stationary bike in the basement in my cleaning sweep.

I have also decided today to do something a little risky. I have been "working" on a pattern and I happened to see a post about pattern submissions today. We shall see how it goes. Right now, they just want ideas and sketches. Could be exciting.