Thinking, Knitting, Blogging

I've recently been thinking about blogging... specifically, how to make my blog better.  What makes a good knitting blog? Obviously, there's no rubric out there, so how do you judge?

What makes you follow a blog? Any blog - not just knitting - will work, but since I'm trying to blog about my WIPs and designs, knitting-related blogs would be appreciated :)

I have a huge blog roll, and I see a lot of similarities between the blogs I follow.  As I'm getting busier and busier with school, I've noticed that I'm unsubscribing to more blogs than I'm subscribing to! I have reasons, I swear! I think...

My Week So Far

I've been knitting a lot in my spare time (as opposed to cooking...) and I'm very happy with the progress I'm making!

First off, I'm over halfway done with my current WIP, a scarf for the second Knit Princess book! I'm really pumped at this chance to get one of my patterns published, and this scarf is a very easy knit. It's in seed stitch, and after I'm done knitting the body I'm going to embroider pinstripes down it :)

I'm also making progress on my mommy-inspired socks.  I'm almost done and I can't figure out a pattern to use... I want something lacy, of course, but I'm torn between two patterns.

The one on the left is Mermaidia, from Purdy Peas. (Photo from Purdy Peas!)  The one of the right is Spring Pools, a ravelry pattern by the Lovely Linda. (Photo from MomofTwins on Flickr)  Right now, I'm leaning more towards Spring Pools, just because of it's gorgeous but simple look! My mom is not a knitter, so she will have a very small idea of the amount of time that gets put into a pair of socks, so I don't really know if I need to go all-out. 

Oh, also, delicious thing of the week in my kitchen:

I made these cheesy biscuits with the mountain of leftover cheese from a taco night we had.  I also thre in a bunch of leftover thyme and a whole clove of garlic, and, well, they are delicious.  I improvised a recipe that I found online, which is basically a biscuit without bisquick or buttermilk! I made about 20 and all but 3 were gone in twenty minutes.  Success!

Hope you guys on the internet have a not so stressful week... the rest of the week is easy for me, it's practically the weekend already in college-land :)

The Weekend of Buying Lots of Pointless Things

Okay, kids, we're two weeks into school... so why do I feel like we're 8 weeks in!? Really, I'm pooped.  I had a conversation with my dad, and he told me that I shouldn't be doing so much... and I kind of agree.  I guess I've been going a little overboard.

But the past two days I've been good.  I've got all the homework I need to do before Monday done (except one... that one doesn't count.) And I've been sleeping up a storm.  I also have watched a TON of anime on Hulu while zombie-ing out.

Today, I made a weeks supply of chicken nuggets, and then we went to help a friend find a stuffed bird, among other things, for a project.

Well, our search let us to JoAnne's, and I had to buy things. Okay, I spent $20 on yarn, a reusable bag, a chocolate orange, and this wonder:

Here's a close-up of how it's supposed to be used.


I don't know if I'm strange, but if I was a child this would completely terrify me. If I opened my backpack and saw my earaser and glue looking up at me I would FLIP OUT.  I came to this realization after giving some things in my life faces.  Now I'm a little scared.





I hope Lotus isn't freaked out by her cat grass having a face! :O Anyway, I still have a ton of stickers left and nothing to put them on. I'm thinking of maybe placing them in random interesting locations around campus... but if anyone wants them, drop me a line and I'll send them out :)



I also bought something very silly: Pillsbury cookies. They also have faces. And tasted horrible.  Thankfully, they were on sale... if I had paid more than $1.50 for them I would be disappointed. I remember loving these kind of cookies when I was a kid - now, I realize that nothing beats a homemade cookie!

Oh, yarn... oh, knitting! Right.  Here's what I bought.



JoAnne Sensations was on sale, buy one get one 50% off.  That was pretty sweet! The color reminds me of my mom... maybe she'll get some socks for Christmas (snort! Yeah right!)

I also bought them because I would like to have a project to blog about.  I'm not sure about the blogability of my current design venture (as soon as I know, you will, trust me :) ) and the next knit in line is NOT blogable, which will be hard.  So, I'd like to have SOMETHING to talk about.

A Post Full of Hedgehogs

To recap: This is what we added to Lotus's cage a couple of nights ago.

And here are all of the cute pictures of her playing around in it!

I especially like these two. Can you find the hedgie?

I would totally recommend doing this.  It's was relatively cheap, (the plastic fishbowl was only $1.50, the bedding was kind of expensive but we will probably use shredded paper in the future) and Lotus is so happy about it!

Worth the money? I'd like to hear your opinion!

Plus, we have been having some sanitary problems (we don't use a litter box, the cage is just too small) with Lotus ending up sleeping in her own business! Nobody wants that for their hedgehog, and we change the paper in her cage every day, but she just does a lot of  ... business. Now, where she sleeps is completely different from where she goes to the bathroom, so we won't have that problem!

The downside of the whole thing is, if she goes in, we have to wait for her to come out! I guess if we really needed her, we could take the beddign out and "dump" her out... but that would make a rather angry hedgehog.  We're developing a way to lure her out involving meal worms... we'll see.

Lotus's new floor plan

Anyway, this was definitely my crafty thing of the week (though, I admit, it was mostly W's idea.)

My Random Monday - The 17-Hour Monday

1. I feel like I've been up forever.  Really, I've just been up since 7 this morning.

2. I'm starting to feel more at home in my apartment.  The assimilation process has been slow, but there was a huge skip forward with the addition of this:

It's a hutch donated kindly by the lovely Rebecca.  Thaaaankkks :)

3. I did manage to do a lot today.  I went to all of my classes (They all meet on Monday and Wednesday, what an inconvenient coincidence), cooked dinner, met a ferret, baked banana bread, and hung out with Lotus.

4. Apparently this

is like Chuck-E-Cheez for hedgehogs.  W and I have been taking part in "Lotus Recreation Projects" to give Lotus different things to do.  When we were in Petco over the weekend, we saw this bedding.

We snatched it up and a cheap fishbowl and the rest is history.  Lotus loves it, and I have a lot of cute pictures. I know that she can get out of her bedding box... but she doesn't want to.

5. I think I'm going to have to make a separate post of cute Lotus in a box pictures.

6. Knitting? Oh, yeah, this is my current thing:

I was going to start it on Friday, but the skeins totally tangled up on me, and I required the assistance of W to untangle them.  There was much cursing, crying, and gnashing of teeth.  It all ending with me whining "Yarn swift... WHY DON'T I HAVE A YARN SWIFT!?"

The Pitter Patter

So, last week I found out that W's sister is going to be having a little boy or girl! I'm super, super excited for her, but also a little nervous, because I really want to knit something amazing for W's new niece or nephew.

I browsed Ravelry and looked all over for cute things. When I asked W's sis what she wanted she just said "Surprise Me."

I feel like I'm going to be getting into a Knit Princess situation (read the story here if you don't follow the comic) wherein I will end up with a huge box of baby things that will be incredibly ridiculous and embarrass the entire family.

So, I'm going to try and not flip out and make a truckload of baby items. I'm going to make a list. I'm going to come back to the list and make one thing at a time. I'm not going to knit solely baby items for three months. Promise. For real.  Mostly because I have other things to knit for people!

Anyway, here's the list!

Bunny by Jess Hutchinson: I think that this will be super cute, and definitely gender neutral :) Who doesn't want a bunny!

A Log Cabin Baby Blanket: A good idea, but I want to make sure I have a TON of time to make this. It could be very mindless. (I would follow the tutorial here)

Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan: Okay, I admit, I saw this on another blog, (Grumperina) and it's super cute! It's kind of girly, though.

Converse Baby Booties: Defintely gender-neutral :) And totally adorable!

Cleo Kitten Slippers : I showed these to W, and he said that it was too feminine. But I really want to make them! I guess I can always start if I find out it's a girl :)

Also, Down Cloverlaine has some AWESOME Bib Patterns, my favorite though is this one:  (You may remember her for her sweet mod of my kitten mittens.)

When I went to the yarn shop today after lunch with Ash and Rebecca, I couldn't help but look at the yarn and think about baby stuff! I picked out two skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash :) I think that these two colors are very neutral, and they'll make a cute set!

I think maybe the converse baby booties and this cardigan, called Little Coffee Bean.

I can't wait to make these! First, though, I need to finish up my projects that I've promised off to people. *sigh* Oh, knitting!

How to Make Iced Tea- Cheap and Easy!

So I mentioned on Monday my killer iced tea... So I thought that I'd post up a tutorial! More after the jump.