Just Say NO to Knitting Without Paying Attention!

Another day, another mistake on my Spring Pools Socks.

Yes, I did. I knit from the wrong skein! I blame the television, since I was watching it and knitting.

Also, I'm starting another project... a secret sock project, in this yarn.

All I can say is that I've been wanting to design these socks for a LONG time! They were originally meant for W, but look what I noticed when I read the label on the yarn.

100% Merino wool. That explains why this yarn is SO delicious feeling... but, that's not a W yarn. I love him to pieces, but I don't know if he's ready to take the step to 100%, non-washable, can't-just-throw-in-the-machine socks. He IS a guy, and it's not like I do his laundry all the time. Just some of the time. I'm not going to risk it.

So, maybe these socks will be me socks. Or, maybe I'll give them away to someone ;)

While I was sniffling over my stupid mistakes, I figured I would take some time to photograph Lotus.  While I was cleaning out her cage I snapped some photos of her.

Lotus always brightens my day. Or, at least, punishes me for being gloomy. I like to lie in bed and read while she rummages around the covers, playing cave explorer, I assume. Today she crawled up my pillow and attempted to eat my hair.

It's pretty hard to get good photos of Lotus, because she's happiest in the dark. I use my drafting lamp to give light, but direct it away from her so that she notices it less.

But I love looking at pictures of her :)

Borneo Test Knit - Carla

I absolutely love, love, love Carla's Borneo :)

What do you think? Adorable? YES.

Carla is known as OkamiShoujo on Ravelry, and her project page is here. You should definitely check out Carla's blog, Tiny.Angry.Crafter, which is an awesome read, and her etsy shop, Tiny Angry Crafts! :)

The photos are taken by her, pattern by yours truly!

Oh, about the pattern... It is now up and ready for sale! You can buy it from Ravelry.com for US$2.50! This is my first for-sale pattern, and I'm super, super excited to bring it to you.  I can't wait to see people make my doll :)

If you'd like to buy Borneo, you can click here or follow the link below!

Do you see that!?!

There! Do you see it?

How about now?

 

It's a purl bump! How did that get there...? I mean, in a row a stockinette? Really, purl bump, who are you trying to fool? Who let you in my nice, neat little instep?

Thankfully it's an easy fix! Just rip back that row to the mess-up...

... Then some magic happens...

... Then everything's okay. Basically, I purposefully dropped the stitches, then picked then up with my needles. There's a tutorial that explains this here.

Sometimes knitting is so much like life.  Things happen, but if you know a little trick, you can fix them.  If you don't know a trick, start again. If you can't start again, live with it.  This little triumph over a rogue purl stitch, and an A+ on a lab that I got back today, makes me feel much happier with how my quarter is going!

Oh, how are the socks? They're FABULOUS! I'm pretty confident nothing will keep me from finishing them before Christmas :)

Plus, Hooks and Needles tonight! Boo-yah!

My Random Monday: Fall Week 4

1. Last weekend was crud.  I didn't want to do anything, which is a kind of bad idea, because that means that nothing gets done (except a lot of knitting.)

2. Today is looking up, though.  I have homemade chicken soup (from yesterday) and I love the weather. It's rainy, but a special type of drizzle that I will always associate with school.  *sigh* It's good to be back.

3. Except for all the freaking work!!!!!!

4. Okay, now that that's over with, they're making a movie out of one of my favorite books, It's Kind of a Funny Story.  It's about a 15-year-old kid who becomes suicidal, goes to a psychiatric ward, and discovers wonderful, warm fuzzy life lessons. 

I totally relate to the main character (the over-pressured kid, not the drug-experimenting-eating-disorder-having kid... though those are all coping mechanisms to the over-pressured-ness) and I can't wait until the movie comes out :)

5. I am almost finished with my knit tie, and progress has been made on Borneo test knits! I'm super excited :)

6. When I was in the bookstore, I was looking through the magazines and guess what I found! Hedgehog cross stitch!!

I love all things hedgehog :)

7. Now for something completely random: the chair in W's apartment has a face.  I swear.  Can you see it?

Maybe I AM having a nervous breakdown.

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.