Ooh, two posts in a single day. I’m trying to be productive, kittens! So we’re almost to the end of 2011’s knits, and you’re going to notice a theme: everything is a toy and a gift. I’ve been in small project “hell” for the last 6-8 weeks. Small projects like toys and gifts are not my favorite things to knit. There are many reasons for this. They are often putzy and low yardage projects. The tension they’re knit at makes them a bit uncomfortable to knit for large amounts of my day, so they take all the longer. I love the end product but often hate the process…if I didn’t, I definitely wouldn’t make them myself. As I’ve been working on some test knits this year, I’ve been finding some aspects about toy knitting that I enjoy, but I’ll save those thoughts for a later post.
Monthly Archives: January 2012
January 2012 Wrap-up
It’s already that time, kittens! The first yardage tally of the new year.
Not a bad start to 2012, if I may say so myself. How about you, kittens? Has 2012 been a crafty year for you so far?
Wordless WIP-ing
WIP-it Wednesday…
The, “What the hell is that doing back on needles?!” edition.
For those of you who have been following me for at least 3 years, I bet it looks familiar. More than a year ago–maybe even two at this point–my mother told me that my brother’s hat had formed a small hole on top and it looked like some of the stitches had wiggled loose. It sounded like the end had come loose and it was slowly unraveling, a fairly easy fix. It didn’t help that he decided to wear it until the hole was large enough that his head was getting cold. When my mother and grandmother came to visit last month, she finally brought it down, and kittens, what I saw baffled me:
The end was still securely held in the last stitch, not woven in anymore, but not loose either. Random intervals of stitches, some 3-4 rounds down, had come undone. I looked at the long floats between loose stitches and couldn’t find broken plies or anything other logical reason why this happened. After pondering the problem for awhile, I chalked it up to black magic. Magic most evil and foul.
Milestones
Ooh, two days in a row of blog posts! I hope this doesn’t set too high of a bar for the rest of the year. 🙂 Anywho, I wanted to ask all of you kittens out there a question about later this year. But first, I’ll set this up for you:
You see, July 2012 is going to be a pretty big year for both this blog and myself. 2O July I am turning 3O. Yes, 3O. A big adult number. Getting older doesn’t bother me per se, but the expectations that come with my aging do. (I’m not sure this blog is quite the place for this, but I have been playing with the idea of making this blog more multi-purpose in the hopes that I’ll update more.) Things about me and my personality that were seen as quirks are going to become less tolerable to those that think I should hurry up and grow up already. Most people are not willing to accept that Adults–especially not MOTHERS *pearl clutch*–can dye their hair mermaid colors, which I’m rather fond of doing.
Please excuse the web cam picture.
Story of my life right there.
How about a few FOs, kittens?
I’ve been taken down with the Cold Plague of DOOM part 3™ and feeling pretty wore down, but I wanted to post up a few FO pictures and keep up with blogging. (Seriously, I’ve been ill since Giftmas or the day after with no breaks in between. Just as I’m recovering from one cold another moves right on in. The first was awful, the second really mild, and now this third one is pretty cruddy again. I’ll eventually be healthy again someday…right?) In 2012 I’d like to get back to a couple of posts a week plus my end of the month and quarter posts. I’d also like to get better about being on top of current FOs rather than blogging them 6+ months later. Health and luck permitting, I should be able to do this.
*knocks on wood*
Halloween was fun again this year. The Girl re-used her Hello Kitty hat with a new dress and tights and was perfectly happy with that as her costume. The Boy had a more specific request: he wanted to be Raccoon Mario for Halloween. Honestly, it would have been more cost effective to just buy a cheap, poorly made costume, but I was having none of it. So I went through the trouble and cost of finding overalls for a non-toddler boy–this is absurdly difficult and rather pricey, FYI, kittens–then I had to find a plain red long sleeve shirt, again, not the easiest thing to do…amazingly Walmart and Target do not carry these things for the over-5T boy. The hat I found from an Ebay store and that was the easiest piece to source. The Mario ‘stache is just some cheap black felt I had lying around and I free form cut it and stuck in on with scotch tape. Classy. Then, I bought some Knit Picks Swish bulky in brown and black and went to work knitting the raccoon components. It’s difficult to see the ears since the hat is a bit too large, and I didn’t think to place anything in them to make them stand up.
But look at that tail! Too cute. The Boy was so excited that during his school costume parade he kept hopping and leaping. He really got into it. I’m sure his teacher didn’t like me too much that day.
This resulted in M-800. While trying to pick out the color for the eyes, we both decided that we liked one of each; it made the monkey look like The Terminator and thus, the name. This guy was a pretty straight forward and drama free knit; but I did run out of yarn for the tail and half of a leg. Thankfully, Jill was able to help me out and sent me a few grams so I could finish. The Husband seems pretty pleased with his monkey, and we even gave the little guy a job this year….
He kept watch over us from our Giftmas tree.
That almost wraps up 2012’s FOs, kittens! It should hopefully be only one more post and I’m mostly up-to-date. I hope you’re all feeling better than I am today. ♥
What is this?
O hai thar, WIP-it Wednesday! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.
I’ve been working on quite a few things this month, but a couple are a test knit so I’m keeping those fairly under wraps at the moment. Before starting on my next installment for that project, I decided to cast on some socks for myself and try to bang them out pretty quickly. I had no desire to finish the rainbow socks yet (this is why I knit 2-at-a-time whenever possible), so I cast on with this insanely pink Bugga I’ve had marinating in my stash for 11 months. Can you believe I bought a sweater quantity’s worth of it?! I’m not sure what I was thinking, so now I’m looking for ways to use it all. I think I may gothify one skein along with some other yarn I have sitting in stash that would improve with some black stripes. I just need to find the motivation to reskein it for dyeing.
Crafting Intentions: 2012
So, I never got around to blogging about intentions/resolutions at New Year’s, did I, kittens? The truth is, I haven’t put as much thought into them this year since I was so side tracked and ill last year, but the ones I made for 2011 were pretty good. I’m still working around some of those health issues, but in general, I’m feeling much better and having more good days than bad ones now. I’m not sure I want to make too many goals, just in case I have a relapse or life decides to mess with my crafting in some other way. (Car accidents, I’m looking at you. Stay. Away.)
December 2011: Wrap-Up
Here it is, kittens. The last yardage tally for 2011. These are some of the only posts I managed to keep up this year.
April: 1083 yds
September: 405 yds
All-in-all, not a bad way to end things. See you all next year! ;D