Swap Hat = Done! (But shhhhh)

Once again, if you are my swap partner, do not click the "read more" link :)

Also, how cool am I for figuring out this whole "jump break" stuff in Blogger?  I think I'm pretty cool.

In other, not-so-secretive crafty news, projects abound at our apartment (oh, how I wish I could say house already!).  I'm afraid I won't finish my knitted feather & fan afghan before the end of March, which was the HPKCHC deadline.  I've been bringing it to work with me to knit during lunch instead of the headbands and hats I usually make.  It's going soooooo slowly.  Remind me to never knit an afghan again.  It's painful.  I wish I had chosen to do a crocheted one!

I also started one of the assignments for February classes over at HPKCHC.  We have to turn something scary into something not-so-scary.  I wanted to do this really easily, so I'm just making one of my cute Whitney Headbands with pirate skulls fair-asile-d on it in pink and green.  Because pirates are scary, right?  And the pink and green combo is pretty hysterical (I love pink and green together, but not with death skulls, so it's pretty entertaining).

I'll probably just end up selling it in my shop because it's actually turning out pretty cute.

Speaking of headbands, don't forget to enter my contest and possibly win a custom-made Whitney Headband for yourself!

FO: Knitted Spiral Hat

I give you my finished "Dizzy", by Berroco Design Team:

I had added this hat to my Ravelry queue back in late November or early December in an attempt to make a bunch of hats for Christmas gifts.  Lo and behold, Life kicked into gear and got in the way of accomplishing my goal; however, I still really wanted to make this hat because you have to admit it's pretty unique.

The yarn is Moda Dea Vision, which may turn into one of my favorite yarns to work with due to the color patterning.  I have another skein in pink, and I know exactly what I'm going to do with it, so that left me to use this purple-y skein I had sitting around.  Both skeins were purchased years ago to go with a free purse pattern I picked up in an aisle of ACMoore.  We all know how that goes, so both have been sitting in my closet ever since.  It was time I used them up!

Though the hat came out niceley, I made one or two mistakes because the pattern was a little difficult for me to read.  The first part is fine, where the pattern is written out for 5.5" (you do the same repeat during that amount of time).  But then the instructions turn into just that - instructions.  The last quarter of the hat is reading a paragraph with some knitting language embedded within it, which really threw me for a loop.  I figured it out, and it wasn't difficult, but I really had to pay attention.  If you know me, you know that's not something I like to do when I'm making something for fun, so it was a bit frustrating.  It looked so neat, though, that I had to finish :)

Of course, I still haven't learned that I need to make my main hat section larger than 5.5".  It's a bit short, but still adorable.

Overall, I consider this one a success.  And since posting it on Flickr, it was already requested to be added to a group - how cool?!

View this project's details on Ravelry.

FO: Bella's Mittens

Whelp, there they are - my first pair of knitted mittens (rav link). I'm so glad to have them done. Not because they were terrible to work on (because they weren't), but because I was so excited to see the final product.

The thinner yarn I chose actually worked out really well because they fit nice and snug. I'm sure a thicker yarn would have been fine, but my wrists are so tiny that I'm afraid they would have been too big. These are perfect for winter driving, and I can also be somewhat mobile with them, which is something I can't do with my store-bought mittens that are cute, but huge and clumsy.



They're warm enough, though I'm not sure I'd clean snow/scrape ice off my car with them. For that, I should probably knit some gloves with a lining inside. I had found a cute pattern awhile back and added it to my Ravelry favorites, but now I can't find it. Guess that gives me more incentive to organize my queue for the HPKCHC challenge. Which, by the way, these mittens are also my first finished project for that, so yay me!

They say people get really addicted to socks - I think gloves are my calling. Last night, I started another pair of gloves (well, fingerless mitts) just because I've recently found a use for them. I keep meeting people who say they look hokey, tacky, like something a homeless person would wear, etc. But whatever. When it's cold in one room of you apartment, but sweltering in another, just put on a pair of these and you're golden to go about your activities.

In other news, I've created a gallery on my Facebook Fan Page. I have so many more photos to upload, but didn't have the energy this weekend to crop them all and make them look nice, so these are what I already had done. I'll be posting updates on the most recent FO's this week, too.

Sigh... I should really make some more inventory for my shop, considering I have nothing. But I'm taking a short break and concentrating on stuff I've really wanted to make for awhile. Plus, I'm participating in a swap right now that I'm really excited about. We have to make stuff pertaining to our spoilee's favorite holiday, and my spoilee's favorite is Halloween (yay!). It's always fun to make some different things for a change, and I love how these groups I'm in have been challenging me and getting my mind off looking for houses, applying to grad school, and all that other junk. Apparently repetitious counting keeps me sane.

FO: Foliage Hat

So this hat has a bit of history for me, and I'm sure a couple of you might laugh at it. I know I do now, though in the past, my issues with it have caused an occasional eye twitch.

I'm just really, horrifically bad with lace patterns, it seems. Well, I'm not bad - if - I put stitch markers between every pattern repeat and religiously count off numbers. Why yes, Nick does give me strange looks whenever I sit on our couch going "One... two... SKP2... one... two..."

Anyway, I actually started this hat last year. A friend of mine wanted me to make a hat for his girlfriend has a Christmas (2008) gift. I had found this pattern and knew that pretty much everyone and their cousins had knitted this hat, and most of the reviews made it sound so easy. My knitting skills were getting much better, and I thought it would be a great intermediate project for me.

Well, it wasn't. I couldn't count. Somehow, after switching from my DPN's to my circulars (this hat is knit top-down) and would begin the next row, the YO's would be off, and my leaves would start migrating to the right, and I'd just get so fed up I'd throw my yarn in a pile and not look at it again for days. Rinse, repeat, and you pretty much have my whole late-October of 2008.

This year, I decided to try my hand at this one again. I had tons of cream-colored yarn left over from a commission, so I thought this might be a fun way to use it up (and for the record, I got like three hats out of one skein with my knitting - sometimes, it's just so much more cost-efficient than crochet!).

I only had to frog it once, which made me very proud! Eventually, I figured out that after switching to circulars, I should place a marker every 8 stitches, and that really helped me keep on track with the pattern, and see where I was messing up (for example, if I forgot to PSSO during the SK2P's or something like that, which was often the problem), or if I had forgotten to YO the row before.

Lo and behold, the pattern is actually easy, and I no longer refer to it as the devil's hat. And the result is actually quite pretty! A little big, I think, so next time I might use smaller needles, and I didn't switch to smaller needles for the ribbing as the directions said, so that's totally my fault. But it still looks nice, and super comfortable!

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Pre-wedding knitting-for-my-sanity

Wow, what a long time without an update! You can tell I got a little overwhelmed this summer with activities. So many weekend adventures, wedding planning, and all that good stuff took its toll, and I unfortunately didn't get to be as yarnily creative as I'd have liked.

I have, however, taken up more knitting in the past couple weeks as we approach the 2.5 week mark until the wedding. With almost everything done, and just waiting on RSVP's, I have no choice but to sit here, brood, and give myself migraines over the excitement and nerves I've been feeling. So I'm back to loving yarn again, though all my crochet stuff is still on hold while I try my hand at a whole slough of knitting patterns.

In recently finished projects, we have the below cabled hat (ravelry link):


And one of my Whitney Headbands, requested through Alchemy in my etsy shop (ravelry link):

Apologies for the junky photo of that headband. My good camera decided to die on me, so I had to resort to an older one whose quality isn't that great. But I did get a good review on it in my etsy shop, so I'm glad she loves it!

In other crafty news, I am almost done making one of these. Also, I ventured out in West Chester this weekend for a pre-bachelorette shindig with my Matron of Honor and future SIL, and I demanded a trip to a yarn boutique, haha. I entered the store not really knowing what my motivation was... until I stumbled upon a huge display of sock yarn. So guess what I'm making now?!

Yes, I purchased some yarn to make my first pair of socks EVER! I ended up speaking to another woman in the store who warned me that they are addicting. Right now, I'm almost done creating the heel flap on my first sock, and I'm nervously awaiting my attempt at turning the heel, and I can see how they can be addicting! I'm using a very basic pattern that allows me to just mindlessly knit miles of stockinette, which made for great TV watching yesterday while Nick was at his bachelor's weekend in Nashville (I bonded with some BuffyTVS, Vampire Diaries, and Vanity Fair). I'm still a bit slow working the smaller needles, but they are very fun and the yarn is beautiful. I will have to take a photo for my next entry, and I really wish I remembered the name. I can't wait to see if I can do this!

They were supposed to be a honeymoon plane ride project, but I just couldn't resist. Oh, well. I can always purchase more yarn and make Nick a pair, too. He asked if I would, and I told him to hold on a minute and see if I can make it through one sock, first :)

Anyway, wish me luck in these next few weeks before the wedding! I never understood just how stressful a wedding could be until I started planning my own. Who knew that there was so much involved in planning for something that's started and over in 12 hours? Seems like a pain to me! We have the marriage license sitting at home, and it was ready to go on Saturday. It's so tempting to just go and have it over with :P