Yarn, yarn, yarn!

I've made a few more yarn purchases this week. I went to the Roxy Yarns site and bought some King Tut for a cosmetics bag pattern, and some ArtYarns Ultramerino in color 142 for some socks.

Then, this morning I went to Mystical Creation Yarn and bought 1/2 lb. sock yarn in Raisin, 1/2 lb. of lace yarn in Reflections, and 1/2 lb. sport silk merino in Cancun . I'm going to use it to make socks, a lace scarf, and Clapotis, respectively.

Oh! I almost forgot, I ALSO went to Hello Yarn and purchased a sock yarn dye kit so I can make my own colorway for socks! Yay!

Non-knitting craft hour

I made another journal this weekend. It turned out pretty well. My main problem with making journals is a lack of patience, so I end up getting glue everywhere and making little mistakes. Must allow glue to dry before trying to glue again...

This is the beautiful paper for the next journal!

Finished object

I started and finished a scarf this weekend. The pictures suck. It's a scarf for my mom with yarn she picked out. It's a boucle, which I normally do not use because it doesn't allow for patterned knitting and looks all jumbled. But it's what my mom wanted, and actually turned out sort of pretty. I knit it lengthwise rather than widthwise so it was at least a little interesting for me.

Newly purchased yarn!

I went to Yarnzilla this weekend and picked up a bunch of yarn for 3 different projects. I got some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride to make the monkey backpack in Stitch n Bitch, some Dale of Norway Hauk (teflon coated!) to make a wool raincoat and hoodie for Marley, and some amazing handpainted silk cashmere DK. I had to post photos because it's so beautiful. It's SOOOO soft!

Most adorable dog ever.

Ick... Continued.

Well, we set traps last night for the mice. We haven't caught any yet. Caught, killed, whatever. I don't consider myself to be a violent person, but when it comes to creatures that try to live in my house and eat my food and possibly give me some terrible disease, I get this weird violent streak. I actually get angry about it. I'm super pissed that some nasty-ass mice decided to make my home and my food theirs. I want them gone. Now. And I don't care how. Except, I do, because I hate glue traps. As much as I hate mice, I hate the idea of them starving to death in my kitchen glued to a plastic tray. I don't like poison either, but only because they'll die in the house and Marley might eat them and poison himself. Now cockroaches? They can be glued and starved. I'm totally fine with that.

Josh and I decided that the best way to sleep knowing there are mice in our house is to have Marley sleep with us and protect us. Okay, I added in that second part--Josh doesn't need Marley as "protection," but I do. He can smell them and wants to get them, so we'll know if there's one in the room with us. I'm guessing Marley wants to eat them (I know, good guess since he already tried to eat a dead one), but we'll try to stop that from happening because who knows what those sick little creatures carry. Eww...

Ewww...

Josh saw a mouse in our kitchen tonight. Ick.

Here it is!

The finished shrug.

Back to the dream swatch!

necessary post

I really want to join Secret Pal 9, but just found out you have to have at least 10 posts on your blog to do so. And while I plan on posting again later this evening after finishing the one skein wonder, I am impatient! I want to sign up now! So here's my 10th post. Prepare for the 11th later this evening.

It's feel sorry for me time!

I went to the allergist Monday. Josh has been hounding me to go for about a year now (ever since I had an anaphylactic reaction for previously unknown reasons). So I finally went. Turns out I'm allergic to tree nuts (especially hazelnuts) and peanuts. pout. I have to get one of those medic alert bracelets now and have to carry an epi-pen around with me where ever I go. My appointment lasted 2 hours and I have to come back next Monday because we didn't get through everything. (!).

Needless to say, I can no longer have ANYTHING that has been anywhere near peanuts or tree nuts. No more peanut butter, no more pecan pie, no more Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, no more anything processed in the same plant as nuts (which is a surprisingly large amount of things). I think we'll have to shop almost exclusively at co-ops now, which is expensive, but at least they're conscious of food allergies.

I think it's strange that I developed this allergy at this point in my life. Apparently the handful of almonds I ate before the anaphylactic reaction is what nearly cut off my ability to breath last year. Sucks. I'm going to go pout some more...

One skein wonder

Josh and I went to my friend Kevin's wedding this last weekend down in St. Louis. I decided to wear a black strapless dress, but wanted to find something for my shoulders. I grabbed a black shawl and figured that was that. Well, after packing I decided, somewhat randomly, to deconstruct a sweater I no longer wear. It's all cotton in a lovely shade of blue. After winding up all the balls, I thought, Hey!, I could make a shrug out of this! It was perfect because it was cotton. So I started looking for patterns and decided to make Glampyre's One Skein Wonder. I chose slightly larger needles than called for because I'm a tight knitter. It worked out great because the cotton became lighter, which would come in handy in St. Louis heat. Well, my goal was to finish it by the wedding, starting Thursday night--the wedding was Saturday. A little ambitious, yes. But I could have finished it in ordinary circumstances! Unfortunately, I brought it with me to a couple bars that night, completely having forgotten that St. Louis allows smoking in bars. I've been spoiled by Minneapolis & Madison (Yay!). Needless to say it was WAY to smelly to actually wear to the wedding. So I put it down.

As soon as I get home tonight, I am going to bind off, sew in loose ends, and it will be finished! So far I love it, but it remains to be seen how/if it will fit. Here it is pre-bind off.

My new favorite pattern

I found this pattern on The Garter Belt. It's the free "Dream Swatch" scarf. I LOVE it. I'm using the sole skein of angora that has been in my stash for about a year now. It has come to my attention again since we got Marley because he is always trying to steal it. He likes bunnies. Yesterday he tried to catch one and my neighbor and I had to drag him away (it took both of us--he was determined!). This only two days after having to pry his mouth open to release the week-old dead mouse he was trying to eat. He seemed to think it was the tastiest snack he'd ever had.

Anyhow, I'm hoping I can keep the scarf away from him. :)

Josh's Sweater

I finally fixed Josh's sweater. I finished it last November, or December, but I had set the sleeves in wrong. Well, really, I had just messed up the sleeves in general, so it was difficult to set them in. Anyhow, I fixed it as well as I could. At least now I won't be embarrassed if he wears the damn thing. Before the sleeves were a little poofy. Here's how it turned out:

Sorry for the shitty photo quality.

Other Crafty Projects

So after the wedding, Josh and I have over a hundred blue and green votive holders. What to do, what to do... So far I've made this X-mas tree dealie that I plan to put small glass ornaments into. I hot-glued progressively smaller circles. They're not attached on top of one another so that I can store it better and be able to put the ornaments in easily.

I've also made two sets of these votive holders. One set of four in blue shades and one set of four in green shades. I hot-glued the bottom of a lighter shade to the bottom of a darker shade. That way I can decide which side I want up or mix and match.

Felted Bags

I thought I'd post photos of all the felted purses/bags I've made that I still actually have in my possession. They're posted in the order in which they were completed. I LOVE felt bags. I was always frustrated, though, by how insanely fuzzy some of them were. But then it dawned on me that I could shave them with clippers since they're natural hair fibers, and dammit, they shave sheep, right? It works amazingly well. The bags below have all be shaved, so they look sharp now. It's definitely renewed my interest in my older bags.

So I'm still working on the Lorna's Laces felted bag. Here's my progress. I love the the colorways. It's called "Lakeview." I wish I actuall saw that many blues when I looked at any lake now. They're mostly green and brown. Bleh.

Current Projects

So I finally finished Marley's sweater! It's adorable. I don't think I'd use that yarn again, though, because it has too much stretch. I wasn't expecting that. But still, it's cute. Too bad Marley's next to imposible to photograph.

Current Projects

So here's my first try at a "real" blog. I figured I'd finally join the masses of knitting bloggers out there, if only as a way of keeping track of my knitting projects. Right now I'm working on at least five--yes, I'm one of those... The projects getting the majority of my attention are another (!) felt purse, a fluffy sweater for my puppy, Marley, and the never-ending stockinette shawl. I'm making the purse with Lorna's Laces Bullfrogs & Butterflies, using a pattern from Simple Knits. I've had the yarn for almost 2 years now and figured I should actually use it for something since It's so damn pretty. The dog sweater is made with some yarn I got for Christmas last year from my brother and sister-in-law. I can't remember who makes it, but it sure is fluffy! And finallly, the shawl is made with a blue alpaca worsted, and has beautiful flecks of green throughout. Now if only I could finish it.


The quality of the pictures isn't that great, but I only had my camera phone. The first and third pictures best represent the color, but the second shows the green flecks best.