I'm sorry

I would just like to take the time to apologize to all of you who will be getting your Christmas presents sometime in July.

I found this and...well...I have a hard time sorting out my priorities.

So who is up for celebrating Christmas in July?

Halloween is on its way

For Zach's costume I made a brain slug from Futurama. It is my friend Haley's pattern. It was super quick and easy. He is very usually anti-effort when it comes to Halloween costumes. But he let me make this for him. It is small and it has clips on the bottom so it will stay in his hair.











I have decided to go as the crazy cat lady from the Simpsons. I was going to go as Ms. Swan from MadTV, but I couldn't find fabric for the apron and I couldn't do the accent right. So I went to Goodwill and started grabbing all the clothing in pink that I could. I just have to sew the apron and put an edging on my shirt. I am looking for a bunch of stuffed animal cats. I can't wait. It will be fun.







I submitted the pattern for my crochet socks to http://www.knittingpatternaday.com/whysubmit.htm I am very excited and very nervous. I hope it gets in. Unfortunately, I probably won't know for quite a while if I got in. The nice thing with submitting it to the calendar is that I keep all my rights to it so I can submit it to something else or post it with the rest of my patterns. I might make it free once it is done, then make a snazzier pair and go for a magazine next time. I'm not sure what I would do to snazz it up. Maybe some colorwork or a lacy stitch pattern.

Holy Crap!!! It's finished

I finished my Hey, Teach! sweater. I started the seaming at SnB on Thursday and stayed up late to get it done and get the buttons on it. I am so flippin' excited. I didn't take a close up picture of my seams, but I should have. I learned how to do a mattress seam for the sides and you totally can't tell where the seam is. It is magical. I wore it to work on Friday without blocking it and made Zach take pictures. I know it won't block really since it is made of acrylic yarn (Caron Simply Soft to be exact), but I think it will help even the whole thing out with a little stretching and pulling. Looking at the pictures, I do wish I had made the stockinette section longer. Maybe add a couple inches. It isn't a huge deal to me. After seeing the Yarn Harlot finish her version, I was inspired to just do the three buttons at the top like she did. Of course mine just came from AC Moore, unlike hers which were from London. I am going to hand wash it and then probably wear it on Thursday to show off. And all the drama with the sleeves was worth it, they turned out exactly the right length.

Thank Zach for the lovely pictures. I have a very obliging husband who was woken up to see the finished object (he went to bed before I did) and agreed to take pictures of me in it. These pictures are much better than just a picture of the sweater laid flat.

P.S. for those who haven't seen me in a while, I got new glasses (I don't wear them all the time, just when I want to feel extra nerdy) and I got highlights and cut my hair short.


















I have already started looking for my next sweater. I think I am going to make it out of Malabrigo. And yes Mom, I have finished a sweater for myself, there is now the possiblity that you will one day get your aran cabled cardigan.

Since I am failing miserably at actually keeping you entertained

see more puppies

still not coming up for air

Harvest Moon still has me in its grip. Hence I have no finished objects to show off.

Besides the fact that I had a yarn crisis regarding the sweater. I finished a sleeve. Finally one that was the right size and I had cast on the right number of stitches for it. As I held it up to my sweater, I realized it was the wrong color. I freaked out. I bought a bag from AC Moore that was of factory mill ends of Caron Simply Soft in Dark Country Blue. I made sure before I left the store to match it to the regular skeins of that color so that I wouldn't be surprised when I got it home. It matched. Since I already had 3 skeins at home and Caron Simply Soft is a no dyelot yarn, I felt safe and brought the bag home. Well I discovered the color discretion and ran to AC Moore to get one more skein. I thought maybe I just hadn't checked closely enough. Well I got there and the sweater (made from the older skeins of the same color) didn't match the skeins at the store. So I had no way of even buying more skeins. And since there is no dyelot, I would have a heck of a time getting more that matched what I had. I couldn't even remember the time period I bought them in. So I go home and start digging through the stash hoping maybe I could get away with doing the sleeves and edgings in a complimentary color. Well lo and behold, since this yarn was meant to be 2 other sweaters before it became this one, I had pieces of those crocheted up in my WIP basket. Those suckers were frogged immediately. So thankfully I have enough to finish. And it should be done soon. With all 4 sleeves.

I received my Transfiguration swap package. I knew it was going to be awesome. She had cross stitched the Hogwarts house crest. And even made me a couple pins. It is fantastic. I need to bring it to work to hold my jewelry because I am notorious for wearing earrings or a bracelet to work and then taking it off halfway through the day. I need a nice centralized location to keep them.









I do surveys online, and I earn money. But not real money. Like I can't trade what I've earned in for real cash, but I can trade it in for the stuff they have on their website. One of the prizes is $15 in Borders Bucks. It used to be that it would be split up so you would get $5 per month for the next 3 months. They changed it so you get all of it at once. Zach didn't really need anything so I went and bought a few things for me. I got the new Interweave crochet cause there was a bunch of cute stuff. I was going to get the Spin Off, but I wasn't thrilled with the issue. Instead I got what I thought was the new Yarn Harlot book (It is actually the one before her newest one). It is a really cute book. It has different quotes on each page with a little funny message or story about how the quote relates to knitting. Also some funny "You know you knit too much when..." of which I have qualified for just about every one of them so far.

I'm in trouble

I finally got my birthday present from Zach. It is late through no fault of his. Nintendo kept delaying its release date. Last week I finally got it. It is called Harvest Moon. All you do in the game is farm and try to make friends. It is kind of lame, but it is soooooo addictive. I just can't help myself. It is the reason the last time I updated was in September. That and I have been really faithful to the sweater so I haven't had much to update about it.

But I did get a few things done before it sucked me in

As you know I had been wanting the Interweave Felt magazine so I could get the pattern for the needle felted beagles. Well I did, and this is what I came up with. It turned out pretty well. The eyes are kind of big and give it a "precious moments" kind of look. But Heidi makes that face all the time, so I thought it was appropriate. I used Llama fiber for the brown. That was a bit difficult because the fibers are so long. So the needle felted version is a lot fluffier than the real one.
















I also took part in a swap on my Harry Potter Crafts Yahoo Group. We had to transfigure one of those little mint/candy tins into something else. I made an emergency potions kit. Hopefully I'll have pictures soon of what my partner sent me. I can't wait. I've seen the stuff she has made for previous swaps and I am super excited.

I've been bad

I haven't really worked on my sweater at all. I blame...well...mostly myself, but I've had help. Monday was fiber guild night, so I mostly spun. I considered working on my sweater, but I feel rude when I use yarn I didn't buy in her store. It is one thing if she doesn't carry something suitable, but I'm sure I could have found a worsted weight yarn that I liked there. I just didn't want to put a lot of money into my first sweater. Just in case it sucked hardcore. I am cheap. I admit it. My next sweater will be a thing of amazing luxury. Does Misti alpaca come in worsted weight? If it does, I might be in trouble.

And as I said before, I just got Brisinger. Haven't read much into it because I've been doing other stuff.

I figured out a pattern for the Malabrigo. My so-called scarf. I think it will show off the color of the yarn pretty well, while still getting maximum length from the yardage I have. And remaining smooshy. But I only have like 4 rows of it done.

And I got all the stuff to make the beagle. As a crafter I am appalled that I did not have pipecleaners in my craft stash. I mean really. I don't know if I can even call myself a crafter anymore. But I only got part of the body on that done yesterday.

The real time suck. The thing that has kept me away from craftiness ( haven't even baked the beads I made is how bad I've been) is Lego Batman. I love the Lego videogame series. I was hooked when we got Star Wars. Zach and I play the game together and we work really well together. Although we both got a bit cranky last night, I think we were both too tired. But we did play for about 4 hours straight. The really fun part is after we have cleared the game in story mode and we get to go back and do the free play. We blow each other up a lot and we have more fun cause it isn't so important and we know what we are doing the second time around.

I have SnB tonight and I am on the stockinette portion of my sweater. No complicated stitch patterns to mess up while I am talking so it is a great project for SnB.

P.S. Haley's Cornbread Pie recipe is fantastic. It is the tex-mex version of those homestyle bakes (which are so easy to make with two cans of soup and some bisquick, I refuse to buy the kits)