We Can't All Be Mad Hatters

I finished Michael's Beanie last night. It was kinda out of the blue but I remembered last post that I still had to make that, and it was the perfect size project to take to school, so I brought it for classes yesterday. It started the day like this:

 After my Astronomy lecture, the two hours of breaks between classes because of poor scheduling, and an extra hour because my statistics lab was cancelled, it looked like this.

At home, I only had to add maybe an inch (which flew by on my size 7 needles) before I began increases, and it was finished before I knew it:

Sadly, though, that was the last Christmas project I could fit in my backpack and take to school.

The Hufflepuff bag is flying by, and I'm studiously ignoring the very obvious tension problems, mostly because I think they're due to a difference if yarn weight and nothing I can do short or tearing the whole thing apart, buying more yarn and starting over will help. I don't think my sister will mind, so there's that. And you can clearly see the badger, and that's the most important part.

I also worked a little on DM's afghan, and I'm excited to get back into that once my sister's bag is done. I'd forgotten how much fun the pattern was. And it goes so quick, I should be done in no time. Then maybe I can start on something for myself. I'm thinking of making myself a pair of wristwarmers like Renee's, or a bolero like Erin's, or maybe the Julianna cardigan on ravelry. Plus, I still have a skein of footprints sock yarn from my stay in Georgia that I think I'll take to school for something to knit while I'm there, since I can't bring an afghan or a stranded bag (the bag isn't that big, but the pattern isn't simple enough to work on during the Astronomy lecture, and my biggest goal for school knitting is to stave off the boredom during that class).

Also, Howl's Moving Castle on audiobook finally came in and I've been listening to it for the last few days. It's been super awesome. I think having watched the movie made it easier to understand the setting (since this author is notorious for lack of context). Anyway, I've got nothing but praise.

Promised

Pictures as promised:

 This is really overdue, but this is the best FO photo I have for Erin's Owl Socks. I think the color, combined with the fierce Florida sun made it insanely difficult to get a good picture of the stupid things.

 Obviously the last four are of the same object. That's DM's afghan, and the paperclips indicate the number of pattern repeats, which at most recent count numbered 5 and 1/4.

This is my FO of the day. Crochet hat for Stevie. Finally, a finished Christmas present! Born of the spark of inspiration created by my last post, this will go directly into the Christmas box. When I find a good place to store said box of course. There isn't room at NS's and the rain keeps making its way into my car and destroying or moldering my possessions. And that's enough about my personal life for one post.

Listed

Here's a quick list of the things I've got in the making:

Katniss socks for Renee, whose birthday is in July:

DM's afghan, which still pretty much looks like this:

Tardis socks, which also have not gained any yardage lately:

Today, I created a scarf for DM's childhood zebra toy, because that's what she asked for as a birthday present. I knit it in k2 p2 ribbing long enough to circle his neck, then picked up stitches at the cast on edge and worked a 3 needle bind off to avoid sewing, since I hate sewing knitted work. Here's some photos of that:

I frogged DS's hat again because I hated it. The decreases weren't working right, and knitting it was becoming a chore, so I crocheted her a hat instead:

 The colors are actually much prettier than that, but I only have a phone camera so I can't really depict them well. It's a bright blue, a dark green, a royal purple and a dark almost black purple. K and I had crochet group on our own last night, and since we went to the Panera closer to her house, we were near her favorite Big Lots which she swears has the best yarn. She got me a whole bag full of cool yarn there. It's all acrylic, but super fun colors and really soft so I was excited to get the yarn for this hat. It's 70 grams and only cost $3. K bought the yarn for me because I gave her a bag full of all the leftover yarn from the Hello Kitty Afghan, plus a lot of other odds and ends that I won't use but she might, so she said it was fair trade for her to buy my yarn. I also got the yarn for Zebra's scarf there, plus 100 grams worsted weight in a bright orange, and 50 grams worsted weight in a Noro-esque colorway: bright pink, orange, and gray.

I still have another pair of socks to do for my other friend with a July birthday, but DM's birthday present is out of the way, and so is DS's. I might even have time to work on NS's afghan, or DM's Christmas afghan, or maybe even my Tardis socks! I can't wait til all the obligatory birthday knitting is over and I can work on a project I enjoy again.

Since I started this week out with the exciting realization that our well (like for water) has run dry, and DS's caused a whole lot of family drama throughout this week, I feel like the simple joy in being able to choose my next crafting project is totally and completely deserved. Plus I got paid today and it was my largest paycheck yet!

I don't have any specific quote of the day, but today NS and I had fun scaring the kids with an elephant beetle. Most of the boys screamed like little girls, but the girls wanted to hold it and play with it. The whole experience was seriously funny. NS decided she wanted to keep it, so we were trying to find a name for a comic book hero/villain with horns and it took us waaaaaay too long to think of Loki, considering the fact that we're both comic book nerds and have recently watched both Thor and the Avengers.

Suffered

Since I've blogged a week and a half ago, not much has happened. And by not much, I mean my knitting is suffering (silently of course since I've never encountered yarn or needles that could talk). Last post, I talked about DM's Mother's Day socks, and teaching NB to knit. Since then, DM has received her socks, which she happily squealed over, and I've neglected to take modeled photos of them. Be assured, they look great, if a little short. I did finish that circle scarf for NS's mom, and gifted it to her on Mother's Day. It was 3 strands worsted weight (2 aqua and one a light blue like the one in this) and straight double crochet in the round with a size Q hook. It turned out great, but since it was such a quick project, I neglected to take pictures.

I haven't touched my Tardis socks at all, mostly because the deadline for DS's birthday is looming (May 25th) and her present is an unmitigated disaster. I first cast on a hat with one 50 g skein of Mochi Plus, which looked to be not enough from a very early point. Then when I finished the pattern with half left and tried the hat on, I knew there was something wrong. I decided never to use a pattern that doesn't include gauge information again. The next attempt found me running out of yarn so I headed to the nearer LYS (which is actually a pretty crappy shop for being so expensive, and they never have what I want) and SURPRISE, they didn't have any Mochi Plus. They had some chunky weight in their bargain bin, but nothing even remotely close to what I was working with. So I finally settled on a 100g ball of something else, which I reasoned was twice as much as what I had before, and would definitely suffice, though it meant I had a skein of Mochi and nothing to do with it. I quickly churned out this adorable crochet hat:

I've worn it twice and I love it to death. I did have to redo the last few rows to tighten up the crochet "ribbing" but that didn't take too long at all. I don't enjoy the join line that's so clearly visible, but I wasn't sure if I could do it in spirals instead. After some experimenting with other yarn, I know I can, so one day soon when there aren't so many birthdays coming up, I'll take it apart and redo it.

I'm just at the decreases for the crown on DS's new hat, but they aren't working out in the perfect spiral effect I wanted and I messed up a little so I've had to tink back like 3 rounds. This is what it looks like so far:

The colors are weird, but definitely her. She will love it, but the pattern is a modified version of the hat she got for Christmas, so I really don't think she'll appreciate the time and effort that went into it.
I addition to DS's birthday, two very close family friends have birthdays in July, and I have to make socks for them, and DM's birthday is at the end of June. We discussed what she wants because the only handknits she's ever actually liked were the 2 pairs of socks I've made her, and the 2 afghans: here and here that I've made her over the years. I told her that there was no way I could crank out an afghan in that time (which isn't true: Hello Kitty only took me a month, but that was working on it every second I could so I didn't want to set myself up for another project like that), but she could have socks if she wanted. She said that she didn't really care as long as I acknowledge her birthday, which sounds like a yes to me, so I guess I have to cast on 3 pairs of socks this month.

I had planned to make a pair of Owlie socks for one of those family friends for her birthday, but I cast on and had to double up the yarn (Cascade 220 fingering weight) in order to get gauge, and then the charting proved to be a little too complicated for me, and the pattern itself was obnoxiously over-complicated. I mean seriously, who puts cables in the cuff of a sock? Ribbing isn't good enough any more? So I have 100g of a wooly yellow yarn that I'm gonna use to make a pair of plain stockinette socks. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping I have enough yarn since it needs to be doubled up, so I really only have half of that.

I think the other girl's socks will be made of the same yarn I used for my Owl Sweater because her favorite color is green, and I have some leftover yarn I can use. I have yet to decide what yarn I should use for DM 's: I still have some pink variegated yarn leftover from the sock yarn binge my DS encouraged, and some more yarn in the same color as her Mother's Day socks, but I don't think I want to use that because she'd confuse the two pairs. I might get some Patons Kroy for her, but what I really want to do is get a vegan sock blank and dye it rainbow for her. I'm having a hard time finding yarn that meets my requirements though.

Quote of the Day:
Me: Floyd head-butted me in my womb
And along the same lines

Kid: Babies come from hoohas.

Seconded

This will be another short post, but I wanted to put up some pictures of my recent projects.
First, my finished owl cable hat:

It'll be really nice to give this one away. I really disliked the yarn and I had to start the stupid hat over I think 3 times at final count. It's a couple of months overdue as well, so I hope the recipient will be happy with it.
I also wanted to post a progress picture of my crochet ripple afghan:

I'm using about 20 different colors of stash yarn for this blanket, which will be a bit small, but I think I'll just keep it on the couch as a lap blanket. It might end up having a new home anyway, because I make these afghans with the intention of keeping them, but they always seem to end up going to someone else. My mom really likes to steal them and I give them away as baby blankets sometimes. The main point of the project was to reduce my stash to about 4-5 balls of yarn to make moving super simple. I should tell you though that my stash is rather pitiful. I have one milk-crate of yarn plus the yarn needed for 2 or 3 projects in progress. I'm not one of those yarncrafters who keeps a room full of stash yarn, but considering that I'm using my crappy Saturn hatchback to move, rather than a moving truck, every little bit of space counts. Until the situation with the house is resolved, I don't know exactly when I'm moving. In the meantime, the daycare where I applied for a job last week hasn't called, but a friend has asked that I babysit her extremely boring 4 month old baby pretty regularly. Probably every Thursday and Friday in the mornings if I'm available, in her words. That should be something to occupy me for a while. The baby isn't fussy at all, he sleeps about 50% of the time that I'm there, and he sits quietly watching television the rest of the time. He doesn't even do that whole smiley baby thing they usually do when you talk to them. It's quite dull watching him, but the mother paid me $20 so that's cool. Plus, I had some time to work on the owl hat and the ripple afghan.
 I'm considering frogging the toe up eyelet sock I showed you at the bottom of this post because it leans to the left and is sort of starting to spin like those macrame bracelets we used to make as kids. DS took an interest in them and tried the one on. It fits, so I told her I could make them for her because I wasn't feeling them, but now I'm thinking they've been more trouble than they're worth. I've started over twice and tinked back more often than I can even begin to admit for a pattern so simple. I guess I'll have to ask her to pick a different pattern for her socks. DM and I talked and she also requested a pair, which means a trip to the LYS and more yarn to add to my stash, a direct contradiction to my earlier resolutions. Anyway, gotta pick up the DS at school.

Abreviated

This is just gonna be a short post, but I'd like to show you two things.
First, a few projects I've started since I last posted.

An in-progress and two finished photos of a hat I made for NB's birthday

Two photos of a beautiful hat out of  my own hand dyed yarn that I had to frog because I found out I didn't have enough yarn

Two in-progress photos of  a hat I've frogged 3 times now. It's for a friend and she has an immense noggin so I've had to resize multiple times. Right now, it's about 90 % done.

I'm also working on a blanket that will follow this pattern, with a different color scheme:

I haven't  had an opportunity to take pictures of it yet, but it's only 2 or 3 rows in now. I frogged it about 6 inches in because it was too wide, then I started over.

Remember at the beginning of this post I said it would be short? That's because pictures take about 10 seconds for me to upload. Anyway, I also said I wanted to show you two things. The first was a stack of projects. The second is this:

This adorable nonsense occurred a couple of weeks ago while I was babysitting for one of my good friends' baby. Isn't he just the sweetest little thing (while he's asleep at least)?

Moved...

Or so I thought.
So Tuesday was moving day. I had everything packed in the car from the previous day's moving fiasco, and I set up an appointment with the cable company for next Monday to set up the Internet, and I also set up an appointment at the Genius Bar to have them look at my iPod. Then I packed up my cat and off we went. (Side note: apparently my insanely huge station wagon cannot fit my bed in it. I had to pack an inflatable mattress instead).
His Highness complained the entire 3 1/2 hour journey. I learned that my car seriously does not enjoy highway driving. Then we took the exit and got off the interstate. The directions were seriously whacked out, but luckily I remembered how to get there on my own because I was moving back to a house that I'd lived in when I was twelve. I drove straight past it once I got on my street though. It just looked so different, so much smaller and sadder. I located the key and went to unlock the door, cat in tow. When I opened the door, a shower of German cockroaches fell onto my arm. Strike one, I thought. Then I walked in. Not only were there roaches on the door, but they were on the floor everywhere and scampering along the walls and windowsills. There must have been hundreds, not exaggerating. There was also a rotting stench like you wouldn't believe, and trash littered the yard. I left the cat there, put out a litter box for him and texted my mom. Not five minutes later, she called to ask how bad it was. I told her, and she sent me off to the nearest store for roach bates. She told me to return home after I'd set those out.
I went to the store for the roach bates and I had to stand in line with a whole basket of them, feeling like the most disgusting person in the world, even though I know I didn't cause the roaches, the tenants did. I have absolutely no idea how they were living like that.
 I returned, laid out the roach bates, grabbed the cat carrier and left. Jasper was so frightened after the drive and something in the house must have scared him as well because he didn't leave the box the entire time we were there. I set him in the seat next to me for the drive back and he slept most of it. I worried from time to time that maybe I'd forgotten him, he was so quiet.
So on the plus side, I didn't get lost. I managed to make it to the house with crappy directions and  I even managed to make it to the nearest dollar store and back without directions. On the downside, I spent 7 hours driving for almost no reason, and I detest driving. And my sister's pissed at me because she doesn't get a room to herself like she expected.
Monday the cable guy is coming, so I have to drive back then, plus I'm trying to find an exterminator who will come out the same day. In the mean time, my friend N recommended me for a job here. If they actually hire me, I might end up staying after all. N called yesterday to say there was a position open and that she'd been recommending me since her first day on the job, so I should apply. I talked to DM and she very crossly said I should apply, while grumbling about having gotten the utilities turned on for the house I should have been moving into. So that's today's adventure. I'm hoping I can get the job, because I definitely need it, but on the other hand, I do have to move sometime soon. This semester I can live anywhere because my classes are online, but next semester I have to take classes at university, which means living close to university.
So, for your viewing pleasure, I have a couple of pictures of a knitting project I started yesterday because my sweater was getting on my nerves:

This last picture was about 5 rows from the point where I discovered that I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish and I had to frog the whole thing. Luckily, I hadn't really spent much time working on it. Besides, I promised N that I would knit her an owl cable hat, and I've frogged that project twice since I made the promise. It's been like 3 months and I had to start over at the halfway point because it was too small. Then I cast on and had the owl cable brim finished before I realized I'd cast on the exact same number of stitches as the first time, so I had to start over again. The cast on stitches are sitting on my needles waiting to be counted and recounted so I can start this project for the third time,  and I'm really hoping I get it right this time. It's another N's (let's call her NB) birthday in a couple of days and I have to come up with a gift for her as well, which means a trip to the yarn store and some furious knitting in the works. I've had to put my socks and my shawl in hibernation for the time being so I can get all of that done.
On my sweater, I discovered that I would have to pick up and knit a neckline edging, and I was trying to come up with a pattern that would work for that but still match the rest of the sweater and the only thing I could come up with was to do another set of owl cables. The downside to that is that it's an 11 stitch repeat so I'd have to pick up a very exact number of stitches, plus the beads for the owl eyes will probably get caught in my hair. But if I did a simple ribbing it wouldn't match the rest of the sweater. I guess that's probably a question for one of my knitterly friends.

Wow, it's been a while

So since I last blogged, I have completed a number of projects, with pictures to follow. I had a whole semester of college and a new semester just began last week. I'm taking a whole load of stupid classes, but they're all gen ed or required for my major. Mostly I chose the stupid ones because I had to take my classes online (long story) and the only ones available are ridiculous. I'm taking Communications, Theatre Survey, American Government and Intro to Tech for Teachers. Though they are all classes that would require very little effort at college, online they require about 8 times more work, albeit busy work. Aside from all of that, I am on my way to a Rise Against/ A Day to Remember concert tomorrow with a friend and I'm really excited for that, though I have to brush up on my ADTR because I only know a few of their songs. I had a pretty uneventful Christmas, and my birthday was around the same time, also uneventfully.

I started watching Dr. Who with a friend and have been getting very involved in it. I've only gotten about midway through the 4th season and I've been avoiding spoilers like the plague. I absolutely adore it though. In addition, my other friend was jealous that I was watching Dr. Who with someone else, so she decided we would watch the spin-off series, Torchwood, together, and we've been doing that off and on. I think the next episode we'll watch is the first episode of season 2. Really, the way it works with these two is that whenever we have time we hang out, so I generally end up watching maybe one or two episodes a week.

In books, I've been listening to the new Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince, on audiobook. I love the character of Jem. I'm also trying to reread Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld because he just put out a new one in that series and I don't remember what happens. I'm rediscovering though that it's a little bit childishly written. I read the new Inheritance book by Christopher Paolini and I hated the ending. I won't spoik it any more than that. I gave up on Atlas Shrugged because it got really boring. I finished the first of three parts, and it seemed like the book could pretty much end there. I listened to the Charlie Fletcher Stoneheart series on audiobook. That was also a little juvenile but with a good plot. I'm eagerly awaiting Crossed by Allie Condie. I requested it at the library over a month ago, but I'm still on the waiting list. I'm also excited for the Hunger Games movie, though the ending of the last book did sort of make me want to die a little.

On to yarn crafting. I created a whole series of berets with leftover yarn for myself. They're all in bright colors. I also made I think 2 scarves for myself. I also recently completed a pair of my very own socks. For Christmas gifts I gave a bright green beanie, a dark green scarf, a black scarf, a red beanie, a blue beanie, a beautiful red cable scarf, a bright orange beanie with purl heart, a multicolored lace eyelet beret, a yellow and black steelers beret and a knitted sock monkey which took forever and made me want to stab its eyes out. Right now I'm working on a gray beanie with cabled owls at the brim for my friend and a light green sweater with cabled owls at the hems for myself. I've never made a sweater so it's kind of an adventure for me. I've made nearly anything else one could think of so finding a new project is rare for me. I've also just gotten a hank of laceweight yarn to make a lace shawl. I'm still working on my harry potter scarf, but I only pick it up every once in a while. I'll post pictures in a few days I think. As soon as I figure out my sister's camera and I get her to let me borrow it.

Edit: I forgot to add a few other projects. I did the Knitty Fish Hat a couple of months ago, in pinks and purples. I also bought some gold crochet thread to do the lace shawl in another color with bigger needles. As promised, here are the pictures of all this:

Afterthought Heel socks from Kathleen Taylor's book, The Big Book of Socks

Self- designed berets. There were the only three I could find today, but there's also a bright blue and bright green and maybe one more.

These two are self-designed scarves. The first is just a double crochet pattern with a Q hook. The second is a design based on a granny square, only it is done in rows, rather than rounds

These two are the Knitty Fish Hat by Thelma Egberts.

These next two are the same shawl done in two different yarn weights and needle sizes. The first is gold crochet thread and size 6 needles and the second is an alpaca blend laceweight yarn that A from the library traded me (I gave her some leftover sock yarn for it). It's done with size 2 circular needles.

This is the multicolored eyelet beret I made for my DS for Christmas.

These are all parts of the sweater I'm working on. A close-up of the owl cables on the torso, the full torso, the full sleeve and a close-up of the owl cables on the sleeve. The last picture is a close-up of the original swatch I made before I started the sweater.

This is my Harry Potter scarf, done in a K2, P2 pattern with size 3 needles and worsted weight yarn, which makes it super thick. The other picture is the Gryffindor patch that will be ironed on to the scarf at the end. I think that's about it for now. All of the other projects I mentioned were given as Christmas gifts, so I don't have any pictures of them. Sorry about the fish background to the pictures- that was about the best lighting in the house, and the most plain background I could find.