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 bought some stitch markers recently and they came in the mail this week. They are just about the best thing ever. 

I love, love, love them

The zombie is done. As is a ninja, and a Jesus. So here, for your viewing pleasure are my little felt people: 

   

Brains....

   

The cutest little ninja ever

   

Happy Jesus

 

The ninja's new home

Crafting Emergency: I'm having some trouble with a project I am working on, and figured I would turn to you for help.

  

I have finished sewing the kitty, but he needs to be on a background. This is probably going to end up being either a pillow or some sort of tote bag. I have these two fabrics, and I'm not sure which ones to use.

  

A coworker brought this book into work today: 

These are just about the cutest things ever. This is going to be our new work break time craft project. As my first project, I am adapting one of the people figures to be a zombie. Of course. I loves me some zombies. Then I got to thinking about how I should make a zombie bunny. 'Cause that would be cool. One thing at a time though. Too bad that this book is currently selling on e-bay for $75. =/

I actually signed up for my first sotm_swap and I am very excited about it. I have been kinda inspirationless lately in the crafting department, so it's nice to have something to kick start my brain. I think it worked a little too well though, as now I can't shut my brain off today and concentrate on work. I have so many ideas for things I want to do...but it will all depend on time, and whether or not my skillz actually measure up to the ideas I have in my head.

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.

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to a knitting event featuring Stephanie Pearl-McPhee at Webs. It was awesome. She gave a talk at the Clarion, and then was signing books at the yarn store afterwards. I really wish my carpal tunnel hadn't been acting up, 'cause it would have been fun to be knitting, like practically everyone else. I bought Knitting Rules, and had it signed, which was cool. And I bought about $60 worth of yarn and needles...which I totally needed, so don't go thinking that I was impulsive, or that I have no self control. Read both Knitting Rules and At Knit's End (which I borrowed from J, as I don't have my own copy yet) this week. I liked both of them very much, and I especially enjoyed the quotes from AKE, which I made a game of trying to figure out where they were from...because I am silly like that. Knitting Rules on the other hand has inspired me to dig into my sock yarn stash and try my hand at socks. Again. Because my first two pairs were both uncomfortable and lumpy...and I am convinced it is the yarn. So I'm going to try using some actual sock yarn. Nice, yummy, beautiful merino sock yarn. We'll see how it goes. This brings me to 19 books and 7377 pages.

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 really do mean to keep up with this better. I have no excuse for not writing, except for my own laziness. However, I haven't been entirely lazy. I have been reading a lot, among other things. Garth Nix - Across the Wall 305 p. A story set in the world of the Abhorsen Trilogy, and a Choose Your Own Adventure spoof are just some of the highlights of this clever, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable book. Jennifer Donnelly - A Northern Light 396 p. A charming book set against the backdrop of a real murder in 1906. The main character is quite well done, though some of the other characters are lacking in dimension. An engaging book. Garth Nix - The Ragwitch 391 p. Nix's children are precocious, but not stereotypically so, which makes them much more interesting to read about that many other characters. Like all of Nix's work, I found this book hard to put down. Edith Pattou - East 507 p. I'm a sucker for retellings of fairy tales, but this one is particularly good. Surprising and well-written, and drawing from history and mythology as well as the original fairy tale, to weave a multi-dimensional tale. Libba Bray - A Great and Terrible Beauty 432 p. Picked up on a whim because I liked the title. Reminds me of the gothic novels of which I am very fond. I look forward to reading the sequel. Elliot Perlman - Seven Types of Ambiguity 640 p. Perlman is clearly intelligent, but he seem to need to show off his intelligent, which is both distracting, and sometimes boring. I'm still not sure whether or not I liked this book. Cathy Hapka - Lost: Endangered Species 195 p. Ummm...yeah, okay, this is a silly, silly book...as books made from television shows often are. David Laskin - The Children's Blizzard 295 p. Real life tragedies: murder, flood, hurricane, blizzards, you name it...I want to read about it. This was an excellent exploration of the events which lead up to the blizzard, and the reasons why it turned so deadly. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee - Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter 240 p. Love. Love. Love this book. I laughed out loud. Really. If you knit, you should read this (that is, if you haven't already...in which case, you should read it again). Jasper Fforde - The Well of Lost Plots 416 p. There are parts of this series that I really, really like. Things that are clever, or innovative, or just plain fun. And then, sometimes, it seems to get too wrapped up in the gimmick and kind of loses me. So far this year, I have read 17 books, totalling 6833 pages. Go me!

The 2nd moose sweater is done.

   

Finished sweater for beanie moose (shown with scissors for size comparison).

   

Moose is very happy to have a new sweater, and immediately models it for me.

   

Moose gets back to work. Poor little naked mooses hide in the background.

   

Better watch out, Moose. I think your fellow desk animals may be jealous of your spiffy new sweater.

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 have been decidedly un-crafty lately. I haven't started on my bunny ornaments, and there's only two weeks 'til Easter, so I guess I won't be hanging them up at the office. I have worked on my Clapotis a little bit, but am still only on my third of what will probably be 20 repeats of the straight section of the pattern. And I had this brilliant idea to make a felt Pisanka (Pisanky?) but ran out of steam before it was finished.

Hmmph. I am a bad, bad crafter.

I finally got my bunny ornaments today. I am excited about it, but I think I need to practice my embroidery stitches before I actually start work on them. I don't want my bunnies to look like poo. But maybe I will get to start on them this weekend. Yay!

So, of course, the big excitement in my recent life is that I had my purse and knitting bag stolen out of my car last week. This was a traumatic experience for me. I've never really had anything stolen, at least not since my friend J stole my Pepperidge Farm Goldfish when we were in the 3rd grade. Thankfully, not everyone in the world sucks. Someone found my stuff at a rest stop and returned it to me, minus a few items that weren't worth very much anyway. I still feel violated, but at least I got most of my stuff back. It could be a lot worse. One of the side effects of this incident was that I realized just how truly lucky I am. I have some of the best, most generous, loving, supportive, and wonderful people for my friends. I feel loved.

The snowmen heads had to come down, so I made this little bunny to help decorate for spring. Felt Bunny Camera batteries are dead, so the bunny subjected himself to a scan instead (hence the flattened face). Still, I think he is rather cute.

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.

I managed to have a fairly productive crafting weekend, despite a severe case of apathy. I finished heathertea's fingerless mittens, and should get those in the mail this week. =) I also started on my mystery shawl, though having gotten partway through the second chart, I am not pleased with the way it is coming out, and plan to frog it and start over. Double pointed needles are not my friends. Having met with mixed success with the knitting, I turned to cross stitching, and actually worked on a long overdue project.

 

My knitting olympics project: This is now and forever known as the Big Foot sweater.

   

My first sweater Don't I look proud?

   

Technically, the big foot sweater was finished first, but this one was all done except for the zipper when I started that project, so I am counting it as the first sweater.

I've been too busy knitting to post. =) Seriously, though...I finished my knitting olympics project on Sun night, sewed the zipper in my Mariah sweater this evening, and cast on heathertea's fingerless mittens today. Whew. No pics yet...but I plan on wearing the green sweater to work tomorrow, so I'll get some pics then, so you call all marvel at my handiwork. heh. I'm going to need to take a break from the knitting soon and work on some other neglected projects. I may play with my sewing machine. Heathertea has been posting about sewing lately, and it makes me want to really put this baby to work. 'Course, I have to clean my room up enough to get the damned thing out. Hmmm...guess I know what I am doing next weekend.

Making good progress on my Knitting Olympics challenge. I am documenting my progress here. I should have gotten more knitting done yesterday, since I wasn't at work and all...but I was just too tired.

Well, I haven't been very good about updating here...but then absolutely nothing of interest has happened in my life, so I guess that's okay. I have been making an attempt to keep track of the books I am reading, with the goal of reading at least 50 books this year. So far I have managed: C.S. Lewis - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe 224 p. One of the few occasions when revisiting a love of my childhood has not been disappointing. Lemony Snicket - The Penultimate Peril 368 p. Clever, as usual. I love this series. Curtis Sittenfeld - Prep 417 p. Teenagers are annoying. This book reminds me a little too much of my own experiences in private school. Greg Palmer - Death: The Trip of a Lifetime 294 p. Entertaining and enlightening: a good combination. Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian 642 p. Novels about vampires are inherently silly. This one is no exception. John Irving - A Prayer For Owen Meany 640 p. I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN PEOPLE YELL AT ME. Dennis Lehane - Shutter Island 400 p. Predictable, but a quick and interesting read. Otherwise, my life has been pretty boring. I've been knitting a lot, and spending much more time by myself than I would like. But there has also been dancing, and movies and fun times with friends, so it's not all bad.

What I did with my tax refund: This would be 1 Lady B bag by Lexi Barnes, 8 skeins of Silk Garden, 3 hanks of Malabrigo, 1 hank of Schaefer Anne, and 3 balls of Reynolds Odyssey. Hooray for tax refunds!

ladygwyn's moose needed a sweater. So, I made it one. Of course I did. If you knit a moose a sweater... it will look something like this.

I finished the knitting part of my knitting last night. Hooray! I started weaving in the ends, and don't have that much more to go. My problem is that I know I should really block it before I sew it together...but, I want to wear it now. Will be stopping on way home from work tonight to buy zipper. Still need to swatch for Olympics. Also, went to WEBS yesterday for Super Bowl Party. Used some of my tax refund money to buy yarn. Pretty, pretty yarn. And a very cool knitting bag that I have been drooling over for some time. There will be pictures later. Got to hang out and knit with ladygwyn, lordavon, and j. it was fun.

Boy. I am going crazy with the posting, but I figured I would provide a pictoral update of my sweater-in-progress. About 18 rows into the yoke. I made my first stitch markers!

I took some pictures of the stripey fingerless mittens to show off. Totally tubular! Rock on!

Spent most of this weekend curled up in front of the television, with a stack of movies, and some knitting. It was good. I made another pair of fingerless mittens, from some magic stripes yarn that i had sitting around. they are funky and cool. there will be pictures soon. i tried both magic loop and knitting on two circs, and found the 2 circs to be better for me. i have a bunch more of this yarn around, so i think i will make some more pairs of these. i had originally planned to make socks with them, but having made one, decided that i didn't like the way it felt on my feet. i only took 1 ball of yarn to make both mittens, so i can make several more pairs. perhaps people will get them as christmas gifts next year. =) in other news, i took the plunge and signed myself up for the knitting olympics. i'm gonna try to finish my sweater and swatch before that starts. we'll see how that goes.

Because this is what I say every time I look at it: Eeee!

 

That is all. EDIT: Realized I'd forgotten to put in his little claws, so I've fixed it.

Ive actually been pretty busy with the knitting and crafting and whatnot, but I haven't been taking any pictures, and now most of the stuff has gone on to new homes. However, I have progress to report on My First Sweater ^tm. I am making Mariah. I have the sleeves, front and back done to the point where you join them together, and am about to embark on the yoke. This means I have to go back to paying attention to the complicated cables on the sleeves. But I am excited at the prospect that I may, sometime in the not too distant future, have a completed sweater to show off. Even if it is crappy, it will still be good, because I made it myself. =) In other knitting news, I have been contemplating the thought of participating in the knitting olympic challenge, in which case I would attempt to make the Patons Divine Lacy Cardigan. This was going to be the next project on my list in any case, since I have all the yarn, and the pattern. Completing these two things would clear out a huge space in my yarn stash drawers (which would enable me to put away some of the other yarn I have bought or been given that does not currently have a home). In other crafting news, after a catching a bit of Lilo and Stitch this past weekend while visiting with hippygoth, ladygwyn and M, it occurred to me that I wanted to make a stitch mini mini (this would be a cross stitch pattern on 18 count fabric, which has a finished size of about 2.5" x 2.5". Accordingly, I have charted it out, and began stitching this week, only my original chart had too many quarter stitches, and I stuck the needle into my thumb trying to jam the needle through the fabric. So it's been re-charted, and I am about half done with the stitching now. He is awfully cute. He looks something like this: 

 My Jesus paint by number is still languishing in limbo-land, as I have been doing so much painting for work lately, that I haven't really felt like working on it.

In addition to my busy Christmas gift making schedule, I have also been taking home a lot of painting and stitching work for my job.  

  Eeyore Brights mini mini Just about the cutest thing ever.

   

Tinker Bell mini mini "Does my butt look big in this?"

 I have discovered that I really like Paint By Numbers.

	Kittens on Keys Paint By Number
	Tow Mater Cars Paint By Number - I only did touch ups on this one, which was painted by the lovely ladygwyn
	The Chase Cars Paint By Number
	Lightning McQueen Cars Paint By Number
	Red Cars Paint By Number
	Eeyore Pooh Brights Paint By Number
	Nemo Finding Nemo Paint By Number

I have been a very busy girl this week. So here for your viewing pleasure are some pictures of things I have finished. Card Swap Here are my 10 cards for geekpixie's card swap. Sheep Bag Completed 11/15/05 Stitched with wool on canvas - a very bad idea, by the way. And yes, that is 80 million french knots making up the sheep's body. Entrelac scarf Finally put the fringe on this baby - made with an alpaca/wool blend yarn that I dyed myself. This sucker is very warm and soft. Fuzzy orange scarf This is my cheap Target yarn scarf. It's soft and fuzzy, and barely weighs anything. Feather and Fan Scarf Finished 11/16/05. Made with 2 skeins of Moonlight Mohair. It's purple, fuzzy, and sparkly. Yay!

Went to Webs today for their Knit for Hope event. Made scarves with lordavon, ladygwyn, and jadefu. Was silly and fun. Also, I started my first sweater, Mariah from Knitty. Currently working both sleeves on my new Addi Turbos, which I like very much. I started this on Sept 20 and this is all I have done so far, so we'll see how long this takes.