Find Your Fade

I'm obsessed with knitting the Find Your Fade shawl. I can't wait to wear it. It's going to be like a wearable blanket.

I have swapped out my color choices about 5 times, and resorted to hand dyeing some yarn when I couldn't find anything that was exactly what I was looking for. But after all that, I think I may have finally "found" my fade.

I am continuing to "stash" my yarn in Ravelry, which has been a really interesting exercise. And I am now up to 147 yarns/gradient sets. I also started a thread to keep track of yarn combos that I might want to use in a project.

From the folder of good ideas

For some reason I decided to knit an afghan. I honestly don't know what I was thinking.  6 down, 94 to go.

Spinning BFL / mulberry silk

Some more singles that I finished recently.   This fiber was hand-dyed by me and is probably one of my favorite blends to spin. It's so soft and shiny.

A work in progress - Spectra

Originally saw a sample of the Spectra pattern while shopping at The Woolpack a few months ago and fell in love. I knew immediately that I wanted to do a rainbow colored self striping yarn with black contrast yarn, so when I found myself at Webs a short time after that I picked up the perfect yarn. By the way, this may be one of the only times I have ever bought yarn with a pattern already in mind. :)

After a few tests of the pattern, I decided to go with more of a capelet style, rather than a scarf, and this is what I have so far:



As I started to see how the striping pattern was working up, I thought it would pretty for the color changes to be mirrored on each side, but now I am thinking that I am going to run out of black yarn before I get back to the color I started with. Not sure yet whether I will buy more yarn, or just leave it mismatched. I guess I will see how it looks as I get closer to the end.

Entrelac shawl

Started a shawl to match my entrelac hat. The beginning is a little wonky, but I am hoping it will block out ok.

Monongahela Shawl

I am thinking about making the Monongahela Shawl for my sheep to shawl challenge. The 46 pages of instructions are a bit intimidating.

Citron in progress

Halfway through section 3 and I realize my gauge is off.  May need to do an extra repeat of the pattern to make it a wearable size. Hopefully I won't run out of yarn.

Kitty in the Patch - update

All the pieces have been arranged and heat set to the backing fabric. I started doing some of the edging this morning. I have to admit I was a little scared to start edging the individual applique pieces. It's not something I have done before and I was sure I was going to totally mess up my project. But it turns out to be not so bad. So far I have all the kitties done and have started on the pumpkins. Then I had to go to work. Stupid work.

Kitty in the Patch

Here is what my first quilting project is supposed to look like when I am done:



And this is what I have done so far:


You will, perhaps, notice that I put the kitty on backwards. 'Cause I am awesome that way. The lesson to learn here is, of course: Don't attempt new crafts at 5:00 am.

Help, please. So, I am making this tote:

  

 I made the stencil based on a screen shot from the movie Kiki's Delivery Service. Here's the problem. The freezer paper did not adhere as well to the tote bag fabric as I would have liked, so there are lots of splootchy bits where the paint went outside the lines. Am debating whether I should handpaint the outlines to cover the mistakes, using regular paint, or dimensional fabric paint, or some other medium, leave it the way it is, or scrap it and start over. Thoughts?

So, I have a lull in my swapping activity...so of course, I agreed to do a personal swap with someone, and am making them a Bub doll. They are making me...something. I don't really know. Something zombie related though, so that should be good. Am also putting something together for a September Birthday person (I will admit that I have been using the unconditional and Birthday swaps as a chance to get some of my unused crafting supplies the heck out of my house - I'm not sending anything that doesn't have it's original packaging or is in bad shape...just stuff that has been sitting around unused for too long). But I may make another embroidered tote bag type thing, 'cause that was fun, and I was very pleased with the result. This evening, I worked on Bub v 2.0, but had to set all the parts aside to dry, and then worked on making a little felt bunny. It's black and white and cute cute cute. But not done. Should be able to wrap him up tomorrow and post pictures.

Saturday, I paid a visit to Claytopia. Haven't been there in about a year, and everything is different. They layout of the space is different, and they now have puffy paint for use on the pottery. ladygwyn had mentioned that they had gotten skulls in for the Halloween season, so I went there specifically with the intention of painting one. The puffy paint was very tempting, as the model on display looked very cool, but I thought that it would look too much like the last skull I had painted, so I opted to do something very different.

 

 You can't really tell here, but the background should be a very dark blue, with the suns in bright yellow, the moons in pale yellow, and the stars in white. I can't wait to pick it up on Tuesday, and see how it came out.

I am having a ton of fun with my latest craft swap. It has a zombie theme. Zombies are fun. In preparation for crafting, I made the roomie watch Day of the Dead with me last weekend. I am planning to make a little felt Bub doll, holding a gun, and saluting, if I can get his arm to do that. I am in the process of making a Book of the Dead, to represent my swap partner's love of the Evil Dead movies. It's starting to look pretty creepy, though it definitely needs more work. And last, but definitely not least, I am making a zombie coming out of her grave out of a Runts tin (I didn't have any Altoids at home). It's completely silly and I love it. I plan to put magnets inside, or something like that. It's a good thing we have all of these supplies hanging around my workplace to help me in my crafting when I am on breaks and whatnot. =) I am also signed up for a Stuffies swap, and plan to make my swap partner a big squishy elephant (in the same style as the squishy sheep I did recently). I haven't decided whether to make him in elephant colors, or to go wild and make him purple or something. But that should be fun. Pictures to come, as soon as some of this stuff is finished.

Leave it to me to sign up to make someone a pair of fingerless mittens during a heatwave. Go me! Anyway, here are some art shots of the yarn I am using, 'cause it's pretty. God it's hot, and the last thing on earth that I want to do right now is knit with wool. Blah.

I finished my first sock! Woo! and also Hoo! Pretty spiffy, eh? Now I just have to see if I remember how to do the toe part, so I can start on its mate.

I have been doing a lot of crafting lately, but not really getting anything done. However, I finally have some finished objects to share with you, my loyal readers. =) This is my finished bag for the sotm_swap. I got lazy and just attached the design to the front of a finished bag...though it turns out to have taken much longer than it probably would have to have made the bag myself. If I hadn't been lazy, I could have attached the imaged to the front of the bag with a sewing machine, and then used a sewing machine to put the thing together. Instead it seemed like a really good idea to stitch the design to the front of the bag by hand. Duh. Still. I am pleased with it. More stuff I made for the swap: a magnet, a journal, and a little stuffed kitty (which was supposed to have horns and be a devil kitty, but the horns kept tearing or falling off. It was not meant to be, I guess. Actually, I repeatedly tried to make devil kitty things for this swap, because my person has a cat named Satan, but none of them worked. I think I was out of practice, as far as the crafting goes. So maybe I will do better next time. I also included some cat toys for her kitty, a bar of soap with a kitty head in it, and a Hello Kitty keychain thingie When I had a recent visit to geekpixie, she showed me how to start a toe-up sock with a short row toe. I have the foot and heel done now and have started on the cuff...then I just have to make another one. I love this yarn. Love Love Love. That is all.

 This has nothing to do with my crafting, but my co-worker often comes in to work with her nails painted in crazy colors, and she showed up yesterday with this, and kept flipping people off, which I found amusing (though I suppose some might be offended). Also, I did some more work on the mystery shawl 3 (and yes, I know that the 4th one already started). I hope to finish # 3 this week and then, maybe, start on #4 and try to keep up with the group...but we'll see how that goes. I'm not posting a picture of the shawl at this time, because it just looks like a large, grey blob. But I am convinced that once it is done, it will be pretty. And in any case, I have enjoyed making it.

I finished Clue 3 of the Mystery Shawl last night. I'd post pictures, except that I now have something like 250 stitches on a 24" circ needle, and it doesn't look like anything. I think I flubbed up the pattern in a couple of places, but I won't really know if any of it looks wonky until I block it. Which I still haven't figured out how I am going to do. Even though I am doing a triangle instead of a square, it's still going to be HUGE.

Attack of the Yarn! I spent some time last night cleaning out the yarn storage unit. Again. This is part of my attempt to make my bedroom look less like something exploded in there. 

Car Yarn: This pile is all yarn that, for one reason or another, has been driving around in my car with me for God only knows how long.

 

Knitpicks order: This is my most recent order from Knitpicks, which arrived in the mail yesterday, long after I had forgotten I had ordered it.

 Webs yarn: This is the yarn that I have bought on my two most recent trips to Webs. A strong argument that I should not be allowed to go there anymore. This would be 3 hanks of Malabrigo, 3 Hanks of Schaefer Anne, 3 balls Reynolds Odyssey, 5 hanks of Classic Elite Premiere, and 8 skeins of Silk Garden (which is funny, 'cause I could have sworn I bought 10). 

 All the yarn: This is just to give you an idea of how much yarn there is. It made a two foot high pile the length of my bed. And this doesn't include the bag of scraps and acrylic yarns I put aside for toys and other small projects, or the bag of yarn that I am giving away. What can I say? I am a sick woman. I think the solution is that I need to learn to knit faster. Either that, or quit my job.

 Clapotis I am about halfway through the straight section (as indicated by the pattern), but I am using a fingering weight yarn, and I don't think it's going to be long enough unless I had another 6-10 repeats...so I have a long way to go, yet. But it's striping up real pretty. 

 Gwydion investigates

 Gywdion helps out In the way that he always does....by laying down directly on top of whatever it is I am trying to look at, work on, read, or otherwise engage myself with.

I got suckered into making another moose sweater. I didn't have any more yarn to make one like the stripey one I did for ladygwyn's moose, so I let my co-worker pick from a couple of different balls of crappy acrylic yarn in colors I don't like that I got for free and was never going to use for anything...with the result that I am now making a tiny variegate pink, baby blue, and lilac sweater. For a beanie moose. Should be done by the end of this week, and then I will post pics. In the meantime you can imagine my joy at knitting something in baby pink.

I started my Clapotis this week. I have pretty, fingering weight, self-striping yarn, in greens and blues and purples. I am very happy with the yarn choice, but thus far am not happy with my progress. My tension is all wonky, especially the stitches to either side of the markers. I am probably going to frog it tomorrow and start over, using some tips from the knit-a-along group. *sigh* Stupid knitting. Progress on the mystery shawl, is that it is currently also waiting to be taken apart and restarted on smaller needles. I think the last clue comes out next week. I probably will still be working on the first one. It may be that my real problem is that I am knitted out at the moment. In other news, I ordered these bunny ornaments last week, and am waiting for them to come in. Yes. I am a dork. If you put a bunny on it, I will buy it. =) But I think they are sweet, and I've been wanting to do some more embroidery. I haven't done crewel work in years, but I think the techniques are so pretty. I've been thinking about picking it up again, mostly because at work, we have a couple of new crewel embroidery designs coming through, and I find a couple of them strangely appealing. There's one with all these flowers on it, and they're crazy colors, and not at all the sort of thing I should like (or at least, not the sort of thing I should admit to liking), and yet, I do. Very much. I am weirdly attracted to color these days. Go figure.