Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

…fa la la, fa la la, LAH DEE DAH!

Hi! I’ve been quiet lately – sorry about that. Tis the season to go crazy, FA LA LA LA LA LAHHHHHHH…ok, ok I’ll shut up now.

Typical of December, I have been a bit manic. I actually did manage to think ahead with Christmas gifts this year, both handmade and store-bought, but it seems I always forget something and then remember at the last minute and have to scramble. Today I actually BRAVED A MALL. Me. The person who HATES malls. Braved it. Yup. I’m hoping I can get through the rest of the year without having to do that again!

So, I knit some gay apparel, and then, I donned it!

A cowl, which I made for myself on my recent trip to Ann Arbor, MI:

Laser cowl, done with Malabrigo Rasta in the Arco Iris colorway. Click on the photo to go to the project page on Ravelry.

and snakes on some damn socks, by golly!  (Please pardon the clean laundry.)

Serpentine Socks by Wendy D. Johnson done in STR LW Crabby McHappypants colorway. Click on photo to see project page on Ravelry.

Love these socks.  LOVE THEM.  If I could wear these socks every day I would, but then they’d get kind of rank and wouldn’t earn me many friends, so I resist. It’s hard, but I manage.

MWAH! to Wendy to designing them (I love your book!), and MWAH! to Tina/BMFA for once again blowing my mind with color and softness and freakin’ perfection. (Did I mention I LOVE THEM????!!!!)

More later when I’m not doing the Crazypants Christmas thing! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season, whatever you celebrate, and have fun no matter what you do!

Can haz Sox nau?

Almost there…

I love the holidays!

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind! After my husband turned 40, and Halloween, I turned 40! I celebrated for over a week, too. (Hey, I don’t half-ass anything, LOL!)

We had a small get-together at home with my in-laws and a few friends, then got in the car and took off for Ann Arbor for a week. My husband had to work there for the week, so I tagged along. Unfortunately he didn’t really get to relax much, but I was fortunate enough to have zero obligations that week, so I relaxed and had a good time. I spent some time going to museums (The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, and parts of the Museum of Art, both of which are on the University of Michigan campus). Otherwise I just wandered around, checking out all the independent shops, coffee houses and restaurants in the area.

My favorites of the restaurants were Amadeus, a German/Polish restaurant, The Jolly Pumpkin, an alehouse, Cupcake Station, a fantastic bakery with mini, regular and giant cupcakes, and Zingerman’s Deli, whose tuna fish is the best I’ve had, I think.

I also discovered a nice, if small, knitting shop right on Main Street, Busy Hands. Their selection of Malabrigo Rasta was unrivaled! The owner was very nice and helpful, too, even going so far as to hand me a bus schedule so I could explore more if I wanted to.

I bought some Rasta and immediately cast on the Laser cowl while sitting in a coffee shop one day. It knits up quick! I did a lot of sitting around in coffee shops, reading and knitting and people-watching, which was so relaxing in between walking miles every day on my wanderings. I even managed to start some Christmas knitting, which I can’t talk about here for obvious reasons. I have a few FOs but no pics till after the recipients get them.

We got home and went back to work for only a couple of days, and then it was Thanksgiving! We hosted a small group of family and friends, and after dinner we Skyped my parents in so they could join us from Oregon. Technology rules!

Now, to finish the Christmas knitting. I’m finding that knitting podcasts and videocasts are helping. Discovered a couple today: Charminglochie, and Knittin’ On The Fly. Both videocasts are really engaging, very charming & fun to watch. You kind of feel like you’re nattering with your mates, except it’s a bit one sided. Still, these gals made me laugh during a little bit of a rough day, and for that I’m grateful. So thank you, ladies, for sharing your lives with us.

That’s about it in my little world. Pretty soon I’ll be registering for the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Show, but I’ll talk about that next time. If you’re in the U.S., I hope you had a very nice holiday weekend, and I hope all readers have a good December, whether you’re gearing up for your holiday of choice or just going to revel in whatever weather you’re getting this month.

Halloween Was Fantastic!

We had a nice and quiet Halloween. Usually, we host a party, but this year we took it easy, due to Halloween being surrounded by both of our 40th birthdays.  We figured having 3 parties in a month was a bit overkill.

The night before Halloween, Fred and I carved our pumpkin. This small but tall pumpkin caught my eye, and he turned out to be perfect to carve our version of Tuck and Roll from the movie A Bug’s Life:

  

Then, at work on Halloween, we had a pumpkin carving party. My friend Jo Ana and I won a prize for best Disney themed with our version of Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. I hear it was our use of mixed media that sealed the deal, LOL! We carved her eyes, built her spout, handle and top with playdoh, and used false eyelashes as well.

We only get a few trick or treaters each year. The little kids were cute. We did get one group of teenagers who just dressed in jeans and hoodies and had the nerve to ring our doorbell and ask for candy anyway. Slackers. At least put a mask on, yeesh!

Of course, there has been knitting.  My October dishcloth swap was fantastic! Here’s what I received from Lisa in Wisonsin:

Lisa sent 2 leaf cloths, a house cloth with homemade bee stitch marker attached, a pie magnet (coz I like pie), chocolate, a post card, and a mini-newspaper about Green Bay's Superbowl win over the Steelers.

And here’s what I sent to her:

jack o'lantern cloth, candy corn cloth, boo! cloth, teas, buttons, homemade stitch marker, post-its.and a Pittsburgh postcard

I’m loving the dishcloth swap every month! Good way for me to still be able to knit dishcloths without necessarily keeping them, and getting something interesting in the mail every month has been fantastic! It’s like having awesome penpals, with bonus knit/crochet items!

I did manage to finish some spinning this month as well. I’m calling this one Jolly Holly, due to the bright red and green nature of the dyes. The pic does not do the colors justice – they’re BRIGHT!  :)

Jolly Holly

Now to get ready for November’s swap, my 40th birthday, a trip to Ann Arbor, and Thanksgiving. Going to be a busy month!

Almost feels like winter is here!

The weather took a drastic turn to the chilly here in Pittsburgh, after a few weeks of temps in the 60s – we got snow yesterday! It’s not even Halloween, yet! Of course, my husband tells me that Pittsburgh often gets a little bit of snow in October, followed by temps in the 70s in November. It’s a weird city for weather, I’ll give him that. The snow didn’t stick, and we didn’t get any measurable amount in the City itself, though outlying areas did get more.

I have, of course, been busy knitting! I’m about 2/3 of the way through a pair of socks from Wendy Johnson’s Socks from the Toe Up book. I love this book – it really unlocked toe-up techniques for me. Wendy wrote it in a way that  I grokked, which previously various YouTube videos and friends showing me what to do couldn’t.  I did my very first pair last year while I was at Rhinebeck, then took a refresher course at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet show in February, and now am humming right along, doing the Serpentine Socks for sport weight yarn.  I’m using Socks That Rock mediumweight, in the Crabby McHappypants colorway, and I love them! Can’t wait for them to be finished! Good thing I’m doing 2 at a time, too, so when I’m done, I’ll be done! I think I’ll do all toe up socks 2 at a time from now on, as it’s just so gratifying to know I’ll be able to wear them that much sooner, and also I know they’ll be exactly the same. Pics will come when they’re done.

I’ve done some dishcloth swaps, and finished my Halloween shawl. I love it and want to thank Knit Purl Gurl for her free pattern and KAL.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I leave you with some of my Halloween decorations this year.

This is where I store tealight & votive candles

I have a collection of vintage masks

Fall is Here!

This is the time of year I love best! Sunny days that are warm in the sunshine but cool in the shadows. Crisp air. Crunching leaves underfoot. Sleeping with the windows open, piled high with quilts to stay warm, just sticking my nose out to breathe but otherwise hunkering down and enjoying the cold night air.

Updates on some of my projects:

The Halloween shawl (KnitPurlGurl’s Rustic Autumn Shawl) is going well! Even though I hate the splitty yarn, I do love the colors. I haven’t taken an updated picture, yet, but I will soon.  I decided to stop the increases at 299 stitches, and started the diagonal rib, which I *love* the look of!

The Springling Shawl is lifelined and off the needles for now. I think I’m going to run out of yarn and I have barely started the lace section! I just emailed Cosy to see about buying another skein of the yarn and just going balls out on a larger size shawl rather than trying to eke out a tiny shawlette out of the thing.  I love the color of this one, and the shape as well, so I am eager to get it back onto the needles and finished.

I did a couple of dishcloths:

August KAL for my dishcloth group. Love the red and purple together!

Oak Leaf Cloth for my swap partner, plus a postcard of Pittsburgh and some autumnal teas.

And the assistant manager of my LYS just did me a huge favor (thanks Yvonne!) by letting me try her personal set of Kollage squares on firm cables (I’ve used softs and want to see the difference) in order to try some magic loop socks, before I special order any. I’m told there was some sort of QC issue with that brand, too, so they’re not currently available to get, but supposedly they’ll be in stock again soon.  I love my kollage dpns and want to branch out into magic looping with them!  I hope to cast on some socks this weekend after finishing the Halloween Shawl.

Hexipuffery Abounds!

So, to further expand on something I touched on in my blog the other day, I was recently reading Knit Purl Gurl’s blog and she mentioned a “hexipuff”, and I wondered “What the heck is a hexipuff when it’s at home?”

Oh. My. God. People! Why did no one tell me such wonderful madness exists? I am completely, utterly in love with these things.  A “hexipuff” is a cute little stuffed hexagon. You make approximately 6 bajillionty of these things, then you attach them into a quilt. Tiny Owl Knits is the dreamer upper of such aweomeissitude, and its official name is the Beekeeper’s Quilt.  Seems like it’ll be a great way to use up sock yarn leftovers and even bits and bobs of sock-yarn-weight-ish handspun that I have no idea what else to do with. I’m doing magic loop instead of dpns, too. Just want the practice magic looping.

The madness has begun. Hold me!

Dishcloth Mania

Ya’ll know I have a bit of a dishcloth problem, right?  I mean, I once wrote  a tl;dr essay about the darn things. My cotton stash rivals any other type of yarn I have, and that includes sock yarn, of which I have plenty, thankyouverymuch.  I joined a dishcloth swap group just to justify making more of them.

So, without further ado, some of the most recent dishcloths. I apologize for the image-heavy post – I’ll select all small images (mouse-over to see what they’re called) so hopefully it won’t kill anyone’s downloads.  No one does dial-up any more, do they?

Ballbands:

Another take on ballbanding: a pear-shaped hotpad:

Beach-themed cloths:

Some Halloween and Autumn themed ones:

Swaps for August and July:

Some randoms:

And two chenille facecloths:

Getting Hitched, and Summer Knitting

So as usual, I’ve been quiet, but I *have* been knitting.  I had a lot going on this summer, like:  GETTING MARRIED!

My husband and I had a quiet ceremony at judge’s chambers 2 blocks from our house.  It was exactly the day we wanted, with flowers purchased at our local grocery about an hour before the wedding, and nails done 1 block away.  I like the idea of observing local while engaging in important life events.

And we observed the Pittsburgh tradition of a cookie table, too, by setting up a tiny TV tray table with a doily and a plate of thumbprint cookies (I’m told these are the luckiest cookie of all).  The judge got a kick out of it and even ate a cookie after the ceremony. We then went to dinner at our favorite restaurant, and chilled out all weekend.  It was REALLY nice!  Here are some shots of the day:

Meanwhile, it seems like a lot of friends and family had babies this summer, so I’ve done a lot of baby knitting, and then I also finally took the plunge into shawls, and haven’t looked back!

For my cousin Melissa’s baby, Taylor: Mason-Dixon baby bib done in Peaches n’ Creme.

For my friend Cosy’s baby, Malachi: Mason-Dixon baby bib done in Peaches n’ Creme.

For my friend Kelly’s baby, Elle: a baby washcloth and burp towel of my own design done in Peaches n’ Creme.

And for my friend Allison’s baby, Molly: Mason-Dixon baby bib done in Peaches n’ Creme.

I also ventured into shawls finally! This is very exciting to me, because lace work always intimidated me.  My first shawl was a free knit-a-long pattern by Wendy Johnson, called Summer Mystery Shawlette.  Mine is done with Socks That Rock – Cozy, Fierce & Dirty Orange, lightweight.

Then I cast on the Springling Shawl by Cosette Cornelius-Bates, using her light fingering snapdragon yarn, which is a joy to work with, and KnitPurlGirl’s Rustic Autumn Shawl, done in Halloween colors by Creatively Dyed.  I have to say for this last one, I hate the yarn (which I should note is not the yarn called for by the pattern, but rather yarn I had in my stash that I wanted to use up). The colors are gorgeous but the yarn is splitty, and that is very disappointing. Both shawls are still on the needles.  I’m done with the increases on the Springling Shawl and am just trying to get through the rest of the garter ridges before I can start the lace edging, and I am still on the increases on the Rustic Autumn Shawl.  I’m not sure exactly when I became a person who has 2 shawls on the needles, but apparently I am!

There have been several dishcloths, but I guess that can wait for another post.  There really are enough for a post of their own, LOL! (I mean, really, is anyone surprised by this?)  And finally, I’ve caught the hexipuff bug.  Clearly “hexipuffing” is a dangerously, infectiously giddy past-time that results in a sock yarn blanket. God help us all.

Hope everyone has a fabulous rest of the summer!

Crafting for Charity – what’s useful, what’s not

I wanted to draw attention to a recent blog post in the Oregonian Live by Mary Mooney, entitled Helping Japan: How Your Knitting Can (and Can’t) Help — and make a few comments.

People are often kind-hearted and want to help as soon as there’s a disaster, such as the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear emergency in Japan, or the earthquake in Haiti last year. This is to be commended. However, there are times when a knit or crocheted item is the answer, and there are times when it is not. I was glad to see this post by Ms. Mooney because it helps delineate what things are useful at times like this.

There have been times when I’ve been confused by well-meaning drives for knit goods.  Sometimes, a knit or crochet good is definitely the answer, as in the case of a local shelter asking for washable blankets (so my office knit and crochet group sallied forth and started crocheting blankets like mad), or the local women’s shelter asking for hand-knit washcloths and toiletries so that women who arrive with literally only the clothes on their backs have a welcome packet containing not only necessary hygiene items, but something comforting and theirs to keep. 

Folks who have lost everything and are struggling to survive unspeakable events don’t need new hand-made blankets or washcloths, though.  They need medical care, food, shelter. 

If you really want to knit or crochet for charity, then I guess selling that hand-made good would be an awesome way to do it!  Use your Etsy or Artfire page to sell the items and donate the proceeds!

Finally, here are some links you can use if you want to help (collated from a number of emails and sites I’ve seen):

American Red Cross You can either donate at the website using the big red button, or use your cellphone to txt  $10 by sending the message REDCROSS to number 90999.

Doctors Without Borders You can donate at the website or by calling 1-888-392-0392.

 Etsy or Artfire (for selling those hand-made items to raise money to donate)

Facebook has a disaster relief page, too that is updated with new information as it comes in.