Sweet Relief!

So, I'm totally overjoyed at the fact that I've cast off for the Lace Ribbon Scarf! Right now, it's taking up a sizeable chunk of my living room carpet, and blocking to a decent size.

It's just amazing: after Monday and my complaining post, the knit gods must have listened, because the thing just flew off the needles, to employ the cliche.

I'm so excited! Hopefully I can pack it up and give it to my mom on Sunday.

A Scarf Situation

Day 1, Tuesday: While killing time during class, I came across a new knitty. Sadly disappointing, but with one really amazing scarf. I suddenly remembered I needed something for my mother's birthday. Potted plant? She has no space. Cake? Too predictable. Vidi, scarf.

Day 2, Wednesday: The yarn hunt begins. I desperately scour my LYS for "Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox" I look on the website and realize the nearest place to obtain this yarn is Ithaca- 45 minutes away. I despair. I try to beg my father to drive me to Ithaca. No avail. I beg my mother to drive me to Michael's. I get a yes.

But, here's the tricky part. How do I tell her that she can know nothing about the pattern, item, or yarn without arousing suspicion? I act sneaky. We buy 3 skeins of Vanna's Choice.

Day 3, Thursday: I stay home with a cold and knit. After 24 rows of 44 stitches, I frog it all down, deciding it's too much and I'll never finish. After 11 rows of 35 stitches, I come to the same conclusion. I finally cast on 26 stitches. Perfect.

By noon, I have about 4 inches. I despair some more.

Day 4, Friday: I am overjoyed because, by noon, I have knit about a foot. Everything comes extremely easily. I memorize the pattern, and I knit EVERYWHERE.

Day 7, Monday: I went to the cinema with Mehoto, knitting through the movie. I wonder if she is starting to question my sanity. The scarf is only 25 inches! And, I want to finish it by the 27th, so I can block it! On top of that, I think that it looks really, really ugly. Vanna's Choice was DEFINITELY not the right choice.

Knitting gods, help me now!

Happy Easter!

I know I haven't posted much lately, but that doesn't mean I'm not doing things, right? The story is, the power cord on my laptop is SHOT. I mean it, totally. At first, I thought I could fix the problem with some electric tape, but that proved utterly futile. So, we sent off the cord to a friend who had to order the part. TORTURE. Until then, I can't really do much. My life was on that machine.

Anyway, I got some really awesome easter loot from both the Sweetie's family and my mom. I'm really excited-- all this candy is going to last me until Halloween, I'm sure.

As for crafting, I've started a scarf for my mom's birthday. It's supposed to be a total secret, but I think she's on to me. I need to knit it up REALLY quick, because her birthday is the 28th. Such a late start, I know, but I had trouble finding the right yarn. Finally, I had to settle for a crappy ball of Vanna's Choice. It made me so mad, because I really wanted to follow the pattern exactly!

Oh, I also bought some fabric for a skirt, and some nice ribbon! Expect to see the ribbons in the etsy shop. . . when it opens.

How to Knit a Flat Circle

I've had a lot of people on the internet asking for this, and a lot of people saying it's impossible. Silly people. It's perfectly possible. I'll show you.

Step 1: Cast on one stitch onto a Double Pointed Needle.

Step 2: K1, P1, K1 in the same stitch.
Step 3: Turn the needle and Purl across the row
Step 4: Turn the needle again, Kfb all stitches.
Step 5: Turn the needle and Purl across the row.
Step 6: Turn the needle, Kfb all stitches.
At this point, you should have twelve stitches and something like this:

Divide these stitches onto three double pointed needles. Knit all stitches, joining the round.
Step 7: [Kfb, K1] around.
Step 8: K around.
Step 9: Repeat 7 and 8.
Step 10: [Kfb, K2] around.
Step 11: K around.

Repeat this process, increasing by one K stitch per set.
Ex) Next round: *Kfb, K3* Repeat
-K
-*Kfb, K4.* Repeat
-K
Etc, etc.


That's basically it. It's based on the head of Katamari Ichigo and on the teapot bottoms in Interweave's Fiesta Tes Set

Lions or Lambs

Well, March has definitely been coming in like a lion for me. I've been having some issues recently. Ill relatives. Laziness. Getting things ready for Tanglewood's summer camps. School. Squabbles. The usual, right? But I HAVE been doing things. . . Amigurumi, maybe not. Crafting, yes. I just made the little fuzzy creature above for the Spring Themed Swap at the Anticraft forums. Right now I'm wracking my head to see what else I should make. . . I'm not very good at gifting things to total strangers.

My current stuffie is a cute little strawberry that I may or may not add to the etsy shop, whenever it should open. But I've had some drawbacks:
Look at that fluff! Turns out my cheap-o fabric is weeping out the cheap-o batting! Poo. At first I thought that it was just reamnant of my many sheep. But, no, I came home from school today and found that the bits of stringlies I had brushed off last night had RETURNED. Very mysterious. And very annoying. I guess strawberry will just have to have a slight body hair problem. Oh, and I also cleaned my room! Aren't you proud? Yes, that's CLEAN. Surprisingly. Controlled chaos, I guess.