Summer Bead Along... Design!?

My internet friend over at Revelations of a Delusional Knitter is hosting a Summer Bead-Along! I'm excited to participate, because I've never tried beading, so I signed up!

Then I started to look on ravelry for beaded knit patterns - easy stuff, that I could start out on.  I found some, but they just didn't appeal to me.  So, I started thinking, and doodling. I came up with this:

Haha, I know, nothing.  When I doodle out designs in my notebook, I think at the same time.  So, sometimes the result doesn't make any sense unless you're me. Of course, if I ended up not making any solid decisions, but if I did, I would have recorded them more dutifully.  At first I thought I'd design some sort of lace shawl, but I couldn't think of what to do.  Then I thought that I needed beads that were larger, both because of my eyes and because my hands will benefit from larger needles.

So, I decided to make a "beaded argyle bag"  There will only be two colors, and the lines of the argyle will be beads :)  I went out to the store to get supplies after work, and I found the perfect beads to match the yarn that my friend Kate gave me!

I'm slightly tempted to go off restriction a few hours early, since I really want to start this! Anyway, if you're interested, the along goes all summer, but you need to find a pattern by tomorrow! Click the picture below for more information! :)

Oh, also, my friend Kate gave me this doodad.

I think it's used to string beads onto work, but that's just because I have beads on the brain... am I channeling the Little Mermaid, or does this have some other use that I'm totally missing?

Reporting in From Planet Earth!

The view from my patio

 I haven't blogged much because of my move, but I have to say I feel pretty well settled in.  Since I hurt my wrist last week spray painting patio furniture, I've been on knitting restriction until this Friday, which has been a real bummer until today, when the router arrived!

Lilac is also adjusting.  She's on restriction, too, because she loves to bite plastic and my blinds are plastic.  I'm also nervous she'll start marking - although she's still a baby.  So, I watch her while she's outside her pen.

Exploring the mess.

There are a few key things that my Mom is supposed to bring up this or next weekend (I'm not sure.)  The first is all my cooking supplies - pots, pans, etc.  The second is my stash (I miss the yarn already!).  I'm also hoping that in some of the boxes is my camera cord, because I've lost mine.  Thus the shoddy photos you're getting.

This is pretty much my apartment. Well, the furniture in it anyway.

Just know that wherever you go, and whatever you do, somewhere out there a bunny disapproves of it!

There are days... and then there are DAYS.

Sometimes, you feel like nothing is going right.  You wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you stub your toe on the way to the shower, maybe nothing goes horrendously wrong but the sum of the parts doesn't exactly make a beautiful, sunshiney day.

Then, there are the days where everything goes right.  You make new friends, you nap in the sun, you play in the pool.  You spend most of your day knitting a sock.

And then, just as you're about to start the ribbing for the top of the leg, you go to try it on to show your grandmother how good it looks on your foot.

And it just doesn't fit.

And that is the moment, at a memorial day picnic, as you struggle to get the skinny sock leg over your bony little heel, when you realize that that whole good day was fate/God/someone upstairs softening the blow that this sock is not working for you. 

And later, when the party is over, you frog back the sock all the way (even though you could have stopped at the toe, you just weren't paying attention.)

And the next morning, you cast on for it again, because it's only the right thing to do.

Free Pattern - The Pinwheel Square

I'm in a group on Ravelry called KAL weekly square, and I'm the designer for the second square!  Whoo hoo! After some trial and error, I made this baby! I'm pretty proud of it :)  The goal of the group is to have a finished blanket by the end of the summer by making a different square each week.  Designers can make an original square, or squares can be nominated that are already around.  Anyway, this square can also be used as a dishcloth, potholder, plant coaster, etc.  It's very fun and calming to make, and it's reversible - a must for my blanket!

It measures 10''x10'', and full instructions are after the jump.

Storm-zilla

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

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

Socks Afire!

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.

Jazz!

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!

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.

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

Melissa from Melissa J Leavitt Designs

Ryan from Joe d'Arc Crochet

Rachael from Rachael's Knits

Meg from Fuzz to Finish

Mary from By Hand, With Heart

Angela from Revelations of A Delusional Knitter

Annette from Knotrune

Jordan from In It To Knit It

Toby from Gizmometer

Sherry from A Written Life

Sarah from Apply Blossom & More

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