at long last

It's been a while, hasn't it? Despite the posting drought, there's been a lot of knitting going on (a lot of other stuff going on, too, which is the reason for the posting drought. Also, Ravelry eats up most of my knit browsing time). But the reason I finally decided to make the effort to post is because I have something that is completely one-of-a-kind.



This is a Fruit Fucker.

The name isn't mine. It's a character from the webcomic Penny Arcade.

My husband is a regular reader; I pop in from time to time but I'm not a gamer so it often goes over my head. My husband asked me to knit him a Fruit Fucker . . . probably two years ago. I turned him down because I don't find knitting toys that interesting, and I don't like making my own patterns. Knitting is a de-stresser for me; I like to just sit down at the end of a long day and let my hands go.

But, dear one that he is, he is extremely persistent, and wore me down.



It was actually really simple to make: a tube, colorwork for the, uh, hole, the mouth, and the band at the eyes, then regular decreases like a hat. Without casting off, I knit an i-cord, then fudged a sphere at the top and shoved a pipe cleaner down the middle of the i-cord to make it stand up. That was the method for the arms and legs; the feet are cardboard rectangles that I knitted around. Then I "embroidered" on the eyes, stuffed the body and knit a circle to close up the bottom. The chute is a rectangle with pipe cleaner running along three sides; I folded over the knit fabric and closed it with a whip stitch. Voila!


Gratuitous kitten picture

So there you go. Do let me know if you've seen one of these somewhere else. I saw a crocheted one, but I haven't seen any other knitted ones. Now to see how long I can hold out before I'm forced to make a totoro.

The Picture Post

I have so many pictures, this is going to be the longest post in the history of posts.

We will start out with Pomotomus by cookie a. I love her sock patterns and this yarn is wonderful. It is sherbet by Lorna's Laces. (the color is almost the same as the picture! maybe just a little brighter becuase of the flash)

Next is the Summertime Tunic from Interweave. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cathay and I got it from London. I knit it at the same time as Molly, I am just lazy and didn't take a picture of it until now.


Here is the Jayne hat I knit for Brendan and will soon knit for Molly with the leftovers. (She is supposed to be knitting me that adorable pink hat too...hint hint molly ; ))

This is a good picture of the vest I knit. I realized the one I have up is a really bad picture but I am a really bad photographer so I guess it is ok.

I love these baby hats and bootees! they are so quick and easy and my cousin loved them for her new baby. He is adorable, btw. The pattern is Saartje's Baby Bootees on Ravelry

This is the shrug I knit for my cousin's wedding. i made it in a day with this amazing cashmere yarn by debbie bliss. I love it! The pattern is Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet, also on ravelry.


And finally, here is queen of cups. the blog says i have been knitting it for quite sometime but i really have no idea how to change that. I finished these a long time ago. Stupidly, I didn't think about how the variegated yarn would look with the lace pattern. Although it has a cool tie dye affect and i love the pattern and the yarn, i would not use them together again.


I am also almost finished with my mom's lace scarf (finally!) but there are already pictures of that up. I will put another up when I finish blocking it and the lace is clearly visible.

I am also almost finished with my brother's dalek (again, finally!). I am just knitting the bottom up. I will put pictures of that up when it is complete as well.

I think my next project is going to be a pair of lace socks with the Claudia's hand painted yarn that Molly gave me last year : ) I think i am going to try magic loop.... any suggestions on some lace socks that would be good for magic loop?

Once more with feeling

This toe-up Jaywalker pattern is slightly ridiculous. The second sock has been going along fine, but I've had to fiddle quite a bit with the first sock. I knit the heel three times, and now I'm on my third try for the cuff. It's probably still not quite as snug as it could be, but I'm a bit past caring, and anyways I need to finish this sock so I can get my second sock off the metal needles (and onto the bamboo/plastic circulars) before I go to the airport Tuesday. Good thing you are beautiful, my dear Jaywalkers. Pictures soon to follow.

Egads!

Well, Eileen beat me to a new post. But I, too, have been fairly busy knit-wise, though not quite as productive as I'd like. I knitted a pair of booties & a beanie for a good friend who is expecting, hauled the Mrs. Darcy Cardigan across the country without doing any of the little add-ons that I've been planning, acquired a yarn swift, finished Pomatomus (finally) and knit a lap blanket for my grandmother. I have also, in recent days, knit a very pink but very cute Aspen Hat.



It was pretty interesting; the hat is very simple to knit, but requires size 17 dpns. As I did not have size 17 dpns, and I did not have $48 to spend on the only set they had at the yarn store, I improvised. This included stitch markers, size 7 straight needles, size 11 circular needles, and regular swearing. As a result, the hat isn't quite as tidy as I'd like it, but I think some of that should go away with a good blocking. Which probably won't happen until the weather warms up : )

I am currently working on the Wheat-Ear Cabled Yoke sweater for my mother, which is a long-overdue Christmas & birthday gift. It's going quickly though, so I hope to have it finished for when I see her in March.



However, I am going to seriously consider KnitPicks next time I make a sweater. Ouch.

Lastly, my roommate just got back from a rickshaw race across India and brought me back some awesome knitted slippers! Not sure where exactly they're from or what they're made of, but they are cute and toasty!





More project photos on Ravelry! I am mollybee; eileen is comeoneileen. The pictures are also better; I don't really like the sizes availabe on Flickr, so I tried to resize them for the blog and, while serviceable, they still look odd. I think that will need some fiddling as well. Bah.

RA's and Armored Transports

my RA made me participate in a hall activity because I don't have a roommate and she doesn't want me to be left out. This is the result:

And a close-up on the tenth doctor, Mr. David Tennant. (Sorry it is blurry).
I don't think i need to say that no one in my hall understand this and now they think I am a complete lunatic and avoid me more than they did before we decorated our faces for diversity month.

And here are some, but not all, of the ridiculously many projects (christmas presents) I have been working on. But mostly procrastinating working on.


This is "Binary" from knitty for my friend Brendan. When I am finished it should say: captain Brendan's full name, (of course those would be names but he doesn't need any stalkers now does he?) Professional Badass!

And this is for my mommy:
And this is a closeup of the scarf for my mommy:
And these are "Hedera," also from knitty, for Ellen for Christmas. I had just realized while drinking coffee out of spermy (the mug) that the yarn I was knitting with matched the ghost/sperm and had to take this picture. I did wash the mug first though, so no worries. Also I am technologically illiterate and can't flip the image so just turn your head to the right or computer to the left. : )
I also made a UFM from Muffin Films for my friend Jenn but I already gave that to her. I plan to make her a whole fleet of muffins of different kinds from those films.

I also made a Star Wars ear flap hat for Klapper. It had "May the force be with you" around the brim and then an ATAT an ATST and the Tie Fighter above that. It rules. I will see if he will let me take a picture.

Socktoberfest?

Eileen is making me look like such a slacker. But that's only because she's on fall break and can knit to her heart's content (so I tell myself). I actually have gotten some knitting done, hurrah!



My first Pomatomus is done except for grafting the toe; my worries about having enough yarn for three pattern repeats on the cuff were completely unfounded. Question: when you have a fair amount of yarn left over from a sock, do you start the second sock with that yarn, or do you use a second ball so you won't have to weave in any ends?

I found knitting Pomatomus kind of tedious; I love how the sock looks on but I guess I'm just not that into pattern repetition. However, I've (necessarily) gotten over my hatred of ktbl, which is good as it's used everywhere, and on like all of Cookie's awesome socks. I did run into a snag while knitting, though:



I had a needle that felt a little off, so I'm guessing it's been cracked awhile. That's the second needle from this set that I've broken (though at least this one wasn't in a stupid way), but I absolutely love the Brittany birch needles so I might just go ahead and buy another set. Since I'm knitting socks anyways, and it's October, I wonder if I should just go ahead and say I'm doing Socktoberfest?

I'm finding that red is, like everyone says, hard to photograph. This is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Red Rover; it's as bright as the second picture but with all the color variations (from plum to rusty orange) in the first picture. I'll try and get a decent photo when they're finished : )

My mom sent me ribbon in her last package, so my Summertime Tunic is officially finished. The knitting has been done for weeks; I was waiting for the ribbon that she said she'd sew for me. So here is a finished shot, dark because it was late afternoon and I am too lazy to brighten it up in Photoshop, because I'm generally too lazy to even post most of the time, so at least it's up.



It seems very large on me. Mostly just too long, but also a big bulky. I think I'll let it hibernate over winter and see how I feel about it & what's fashionable. And maybe in the meantime I'll find a well-lit place to take photographs of objects I'm wearing. This post is also an experiment with Flickr (thanks, blue lace fiesta for explaining the arcane workings to me!), so we'll see how it looks. I really want to be able to put in whatever size pictures I darn well feel like, but I'm using Flickr right now because of Ravely. Ahh, precious, precious Ravelry.

Yarn and Yarnability

To explain my title, I have been watching Blackadder, this older British comedy with Rowen Atkinson, and in Season three, all the episodes are a play off Jane Austen Novels, for example, Nob and Nobility, Dual and Dualability, and so on...

The moment we have all been waiting for! I have found the connector for my camera woohoo! (Though I still don't have pictures of everything).
Here is what I have been doing lately:This is the sock I learned to make at a Sock Club class at Sophie's. It is by Elise, called Mossy Diamond Sock. This is my first attempt at a toe up sock and I freaked out. Thanks to Molly I turned the heel successfully!
This is Queen of Cups from knitty. I am kind of upset that I didn't choose a better yarn for this. The pattern and the yarn are awesome, just not together. I guess I will try it again with a solid.
This is also Mountain Colors. The colorway is Rosehip and I love it! This is what my Mossy Diamond Socks are being knit with. I thought it kind of looked like an apple, which is why I am holding it like this.

My beautiful Mountain Colors! This is Tamarack and it is gorgeous!

This is my Brushed Suri (Lollipop), and with it, I am going to knit this:

This is not me or my work! I just thought that I would say that so I don't get in trouble. This is just the pattern that I am going to use. Isn't it cute!!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the sad results of the first half of my adventures in spinning!! BTW, it is super hard!

The beautiful un-spun wool. I love the colors!

The Drop-spindle with the "yarn" on it. And I say "yarn" because I am not really sure my chunky mess of twisted wool deserves the title yarn just yet.

And this is a closeup of the "yarn." Notice the different widths? I think I have some sock yarn and some super chunky stuff all in the same batch!

More pictures to come, I just left some of my projects at school so I have to wait until I go back to take some more pictures.

Wool Fest? Heck Yes!

So I went to the Kentucky Wool Fest Yesterday with my aunt and her daughters and it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. We walked around this festival with a bunch of hillbillies. We got to see sheep getting sheered and hold baby goats that were teeny tiny!

Then came the best part: the 1000 pound cow-pig as my 4-year-old cousin Caroline calls it. It was really just a huge pig. Just kidding, the best part was really the yarn and wool part of it. There was a lady selling needle felting kits, which is really cool. Other ladies were spinning and combing out wool, it was awesome.

I bought two little sheep, one blue and orange and the other red and blue, made by needle felting. The lady gave them to me for $5! Then I bought a drop spindle and got some wool free and have been working on that for 2 days. It is really fun until your shoulder starts to hurt! I think I will like it more when I am better at making the yarn one thickness...it is kind of chunky. Oh well, first time for everything! The wool is beautiful though. It has pinks and browns and greens in it. and all that for only $15! woot!

I also got some alpaca and silk yarn from Sophie's to knit my mom a beautiful lace scarf for her birthday.

I still don't have a connector cable for my camera but I should get one this weekend because it is fall break. I will finally be able to post pictures of all of my projects!