Friday, May 27, 2011

Storm-zilla

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Yesterday afternoon, a huge hailstorm flew through the neighborhood.  It destroyed most of my seedlings and cut off the phone, Internet, and cable! The yard was littered with hailstones, almost as if someone had decided to dump a metric ton of ice across it.

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I'm pretty young, and I've only seen hail once - that's right, once.  That hail was about the size of small peas.  This was MUCH bigger.  It was pretty cool to see the wet growth and dry growth of the hailstones - it was like seeing sixth grade weather science in action!

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Then, power got cut off after a massive storm that lasted from 8 PM until around 9:30.  The lightning was beautiful, branching across the sky, and it was very eerie watching the clouds roll in. My parents are blessed that they chose to live in a naturally disaster-free area - the rolling hills prevent tornadoes from forming, there are measures in place to prevent flooding, and there are naturally no earthquakes or hurricanes, so we may not see a storm like this for another ten years.

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It's too bad about my seedlings, though! I managed to save my big tray of veggies, but my cosmos took a beating an my alyssum plants are nothing but a puddle - hopefully some the seeds survived to grow where they washed away too!

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I also started a new sock - back to toe-up, of course.  This pattern is my own design :) It's just an alternating row of mock-cables, and it's really easy to memorize and knit up.  When I put the socks on, the cables remind me of little pink lemons!

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Like the mug? It was under the sink when my mom moved in - I may have to steal it!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Socks Afire!


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I finally had a spare moment to dig out my yarn needle and finish up these socks! I was ready to stitch the toes shut after riding shotgun to NH and back this weekend to look at apartments.

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Jazz!

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Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.
Yarn: On Your Toes Sock Yarn
Pattern Modifications: Did only two pattern repeats before the heel flap to make the leg shorter - I think they make my feet seem kinda stubby, but they are SOO comfy!

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I love these socks so much more than the Jaywalker socks I finished before.  I may be converted to the top-down sock camp - I didn't have to worry about a too-tight cuff cutting off the circulation to a perfectly good sock.  While I still wear the Jaywalkers once and awhile, I will wear these WAY more! And, I love the pattern.  I want to make a sweater for myself in this pattern! :B  Of maybe a stole? So many possibilities.

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Monday, May 23, 2011

Mood Boards for the First Round of DAL

 
Click on each photo for a larger image!

Thanks so everyone who participated and gave a photo to add! For those of you who are new to this thing I've been posting about, the idea is that you design an item based on this mood board.   If you post up your sketch on your blog (and email me that you do) or on the Ravelry Group AND have a completely finished design for sale or free by August 25th, 2011.  Each design will be entered into a drawing, and there will be prizes - I should have that all figured out by August 1st.  

Thanks again to everyone that put up a picture! (In no particular order):
Rebecca from The Sculpted Stitch
Linda from Tiny Knit
Rachael from Rachael's Knits
Annette from Knotrune
Jordan from In It To Knit It
Toby from Gizmometer
Sherry from A Written Life

And everyone else who I couldn't stalk find the blog address of!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

DAL Mood Board submissions are done tomorrow!

Hey guys! Just a head's up if you want to contribute to Design Along, the mood board submissions are due tomorrow.  You can submit a photo on the thread in the Rav group or by emailing me.  I'm going to post the mood boards up late tonight/early Monday morning, and then the floor is open to submit designs! The design can be for free, for sale, or for submission - the only requirements are that you post up a photo/scan of the sketch, a photo of the FO, and a link to the pattern on Ravelry.  Once you do, you're entered into a prize and I'll put a roundup of all the designs and posts up here :)

To entice you, here are some pictures that have gone up on the group that I find inspiring! 




P.S. - If you post up your design ideas in your blog, leave a comment saying so here and I'll follow you - just make sure to tag your posts "DAL" - in case I get behind :P

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The World Needs More Knitted Hedghogs

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This post is brought to you by the Hampton Inn, where I'm staying while traveling for work.  I'm really tired but I thought I'd finally blog about this, because I've been keeping him in my bag to give me a smile every now and then!

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I took these pictures last week, when it was sunny and nice out - can you tell?  Can we get back to that, please! It seems like the whole Northeast is covered with a cloud.

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Anyway, I was thinking of making a few of these in different colors and selling them on Artfire.  Or just keeping them as my hoarde of hedgehogs! (I'm just kidding - a group of hedgehogs is called an array.)

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I have the notes for him written up, but I'm thinking of having it tested and selling the pattern - but there are so many free hedgehog patterns out there that do really well, so there's a lot of competition! Maybe free for now?

Sunday, May 15, 2011

A Little Color In Rochester

First off, the theme for the Design Along is Garden! So, get on down to this thread and post a photo for the mood board by next Sunday if you want to contribute - it should be a lot of fun.

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And speaking of fun (and gardens) - the Lilac festival is in full bloom (excuse the pun) and yesterday W and I braved the rain to go on a triple date and see some of the gorgeous flowers.  Last year, the festival was kind of a downer because warm weather had brought the flowers weeks before, so all we got to view were the remnants of flowers! But this year, some of the blooms had only just begun to open.  If we can overcome this gloomy, rainy weather then things will be gorgeous - of course, I will have moved out by then :(

But here are some photos anyway :)

Friday, May 13, 2011

Design-a-long!

A while back I had this super cool idea - to have something like a knit-a-long (KAL) but based around design! I started a thread in the Budding Designers Group on Ravelry, and the DAL - Design-A-Long was born!

Here's the premise:  Four times a year, I'll post a theme up here and on Ravelry.  If you want to participate, you sign up here or on Ravelry, and post a picture that is related to the theme that inspires you.  After one week, the pictures are compiled and I'll post up a mood board - from that mood board, participants each design and knit an original piece.

The ultimate goal of this is to give new designers a body of work and get used to the design process, and to flex the creativity of established designers.  Unlike other challenges out there, the timeline is a longer one, which means that your work can be as big as you want.

Anyway, if you're interested, drop me a line and check out the group on Ravelry! I'm trying to figure out how to make a button do-hickey thing... and writing the rules.

Also, you can vote for the upcoming theme in this thread.

I'm going to compile a list of participants and try to figure out prizes, graphics, etc.  If anyone wants to donate prizes let me know!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

My latest FO! Yay?

I finished my psuedo-mystery project last night, but I'm not very happy with him.  In fact, I'm kind of creeped out.

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Is that the point, you may ask?  Uh, well, I guess.  It's supposed to be Pedobear.  I'm thinking of burning him - it's better than having him stare at me all day.  W has offered to take him (like he takes all of my misfit toys.)

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Just goes to show what bad embroidery can do, I guess.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

May TUSAL

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Whoops.  I forgot to post April's post! No prizes for me - oh well.  Maybe extenuating circumstances will allow me to not count that new moon, since I was pretty sick.

I expect my jar to grow quite a bit this month, since I want to finish a few projects but I'm also cleaning out my apartment before the move, and will doubtless find lots of little ORTs to plop in the jar.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Clock is Winding Down...

I'm a little freaked out that I have a little more than two weeks before I'm outta here, and trying to find an apartment in my new temporary home.  It's very crazy, and I've got a lot of things on my checklist before I move out... besides the regular, school stuff I'm trying to finish up all the food we have in the pantry, and of course, knitting goals.

Number one is the moose puppet for W.  I have a sinking feeling if this isn't done... it will never get done! It will be hard to work together when we're so far apart!

Second is to write up and compile my notes for the Cat Bus.  I barely have them all in one place, and I feel like they're another project that won't survive the move - something will get shuffled around, or misplaced, or accidentally thrown out.

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In the spirit of all that makes sense, I've simultaneously cast on two new projects.  One is a doll that's lying in pieces on my counter - It'll be a free pattern, and I'm a little nervous about releasing it.  Well, you'll see.

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And the other is an Estonian lace shawl... ette? I haven't decided yet.  I saw a gorgeous pattern on the internet, and decided I wanted half of one.  So this project was conceived... not sure how well it will go, especially considering there's a crochet edging *gulp*.  I'm sure I can design it out.

Anyway, that's what I'm up to... how about you?

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Now THIS is Weather!


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Today was balmy, warm, and gorgeous.  I spent my break between classes sitting on a comfy couch and eating crummy Mexican food, then I finished this...

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... and started this. 

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Does anyone else hate that time in between socks? I always try to cast on for the next sock when I finish the first... if I'm not doing two-at-a-time to avoid this madness all together.

Oh, and what's that? Can you see it!?!

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Flowers! Horray!

This nice weather lasted for the day... right now, it's pouring and we have a tornado watch.  Yesterday? Rain.  Tomorrow? Rain. I love listening to the sound of rain come through the open window, while I snuggle in a quilt and drink cocoa :)

Monday, April 25, 2011

Hope You Had a Great Easter!

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And, if you don't do that sort of thing, a good weekend in general.

W and I spent most of Easter hunting for our eggs on his sister's property this year - thankfully, it was only about an hour and 45 minutes in the cold rain and mud.  Who started this tradition, anyway!?

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We also got to meet Booker T, the cutest puppy ever.  I never thought I could like a dog, but I love Pugs.

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Speaking of cute, we got to see our nephew! He's the recipient of the sweater I made a while back, though it's still a little small.

On a knitting note, I decided that my punishment for going a month without releasing a design was that I had to submit to a call on Ravelry.  So, today I did! I hope it gets accepted, but if not, the pattern is pretty much written - all I need is yarn support, so I could easily submit it somewhere else, or, spend the thirty bucks on yarn and self publish it.

Monday, April 18, 2011

New Free Pattern: Blueberry Chocolate Wrist Warmers

This weekend, I just felt like making something easy! So, I took a few minutes and whipped up this.

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I used some leftover yarn from different projects, and I only ended up using about 75 yards total - and that's a conservative estimate.  They're very snug fitting, and can be easily modified by adding stitches two at a time!

I'm going to try to find someone to wear them, because my curse set in with this - the cuff is too tight, and the whole thing stretches just enough to irritate my perfectionism.  Who has wrists smaller than me?

Anyway, I think I may be on a roll again! 11 Designs in 2011? I might be able to do that.

As always, this is a free download from Ravelry, but please don't pass of my work as your own, and don't sell my work as if it's your own!

Just click the link below to download it!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Keep breathing - HA!

It's kind of surreal: in about five weeks, I'm going to be living 6 hours away. Not that I have time to pack, I'm inundated with schoolwork, paid work, and sleeping. 

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I frogged back my interlocking leaves socks and started on a Pomatomus socks - I love the pattern, but I've been struck by an unforeseen hitch in my work.

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My needle snapped.  I tried to tape it, but it's bamboo, and it just won't stick together.  *dramatic sigh*

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Work on my moose has been halted for a while, now.  W wants to fill the frame out with foam, which annoys me a little. It would be so much easier to have the frame first, and then knit to that shape - and, after I leave for New Hampshire, how am I going to finish this?  I can't.

Plus, I'd like to have the needles back to do other toys!

Anyway, knitting progress has gone very slow, and I haven't really done any cooking or crafting that is otherwise impressive. I haven't even planted any seeds - I figure it would be cruel bringing them into the world when I don't know if they'll have a balcony or windowsill to rest on.  My mint hasn't come up, either.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Urgh.

Things have not been going my way.  I have been stressed out, sleepless, sick, and I just found out that I owe the government $2,500 because my father claimed me as a dependent.

So, yeah, things are a bit down at camp Alyssa.  I went through the pantry today to figure out how long we can go without buying food (you know you have it bad when...).

Friday, April 1, 2011

2CKBWDAY5 - And now for something completely different


(Sorry I was gone yesterday - I started antibiotics on Weds. and it really hit me hard.  I'm feeling much better now, though.)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

2KCBWDAY3 - Stash Organization

 How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Living in a small space, I don't have the luxury of the awesome crafting studios and cupboards I've seen today from other bloggers.  Nope.  My stash is in a tupperware in my closet.

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There are a few skeins around the house, but unless it's on the needles, it's probably in this box.  I like to keep things neat.  A few years ago, I heard horror stories about moths, and a girl at club had a bedbug infestation and we lost all of our charity yarn - so, now, I keep all my "nice" yarn sealed up in ziploc bags.  Yarn for specific projects is tied up in plastic bags. Cheap charity yarn/acrylic goes in a shopping bag all in a jumble.

To organize projects, I mostly use Ravelry and this blog to keep things sane.  I don't normally work on more than two or three projects at a time, so that kind of stuff isn't that hard.  I really love the queue and the stash organizer on Rav - I use them obsessively to plan out projects, see if I have enough yarn, etc. 

Oh, and another thing.  I have a secret stash of yarn.

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Hehe.  Don't tell W!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

2KCBWDAY2 - Gettin' Skillz

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?
I have been knitting half my life.  Yes, that's totally strange to me! I haven't done anything as much as I've knit - except maybe eat, sleep, breathe, or read.  I'm at the point where I'm really happy with my skills, but there are a few milestones that I see that I've met looking back last year.
  • My first published, for-sale pattern
  • My first lace shawl
  • My first FO for myself!
That third one is the best one! As far as knitting skills, there's nothing I really want to master - I've done pretty much everything.  Entrelac? Socks? Lace? I feel like I'm on a high mountain of knitting mastery.  And the things I haven't mastered like spinning and crochet, I don't really want to learn!

For the next year, I think I'll try to fit in a lace shawlette with cobweb lace, and maybe some dyeing - but no hurry.  I just want to enjoy the ride and knit what I feel like.  If I need to learn a new technique, by George, I'll just do it.
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