Thursday, March 24, 2011

Brief Update

I haven't posted much lately because I'm working a lot of overtime. Despite that, I have finished a pair of baby booties to go with the pink and white blanket (that I forgot to take pics of after it was complete) and am one cuff away from another pair of adult socks being finished; I'll post pics of both soon. And not to worry, I also bought more sock yarns recently so I'm not likely to run out anytime soon, heh.

On the painting side, my hubby bought me a new paint set (the complete set of Reaper Master paints), and I'd tried to repaint that same darn gnome figure but I'm gonna have to scrub her down and start over yet again. Sigh.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Yarnblobs to Be

Or not to be, that is the question: whether 'tis blobbier in the mind to knit from the skein, or to wind the cake and.... Okay, I'm up wayyyy too early. However, I went to my LYS yesterday to donate some yarn and needles to someone teaching impoverished orphans how to knit so they can support themselves, and discovered my LYS was holding a sidewalk sale, so I got this pretty stuff at 75% off:
and yes, it's being guarded by my big sheep:
The sheep I got at the grocery store in an early Easter display. My Hubby has dubbed him Bruce Shee(p). The "p" is mostly silent. I should knit Bruce Shee(p) a little black belt and a gi or something.

PS Happy Ostara!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

FO: Pompom Add-On

My older daughter bought a hat for CosPlay, but it wasn't quite Scottish enough, so I attached the biggest pompom I could make:
Megan says "I am Awesomeness!"

Monday, March 14, 2011

FO: Stripey Socks

Well my plan to ship off the surprise socks to the original intended recipient rather changed when I gave them to a co-worker who's going through some difficult times:

So while trying to decide what to make for the original intended recipient, I made these for myself:
They're made from Berroco Sox color 1474 using my basic toe-up pattern that doesn't require require me to carry the pattern around. Meanwhile, I've chosen the yarn for the original intended recipient, so that's next.

On a side note, I've had to start binding off socks with needles double the circumference of the needles I use to knit the socks because I tend to pull the stitches tight when I'm binding off. For this project, I used these to bind off the cuffs:
Cheerful little guys, aren't they?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

New LYS and Why I'll Never be a Famous Knitter

I visited a new (to me) yarn store yesterday in Arlington called Yarn Heaven. It's a very nice shop, lots of room, loads of sock yarns (my favorite) and a sizable classroom in the back. The ladies there were friendly and helpful, and more than willing to answer questions and demonstrate things.

As a result, here's why I'll never be a famous knitter: I was mentioning that my back-and-forth gauge was different from my circular gauge and that I figured it's because I knit rather differently than I purl, and showed one of the ladies how I purl. Apparently, I'm doing it wrong, though I couldn't quite distinguish the subtle difference between what I'm doing and what she was trying so patiently to show me. She does wrap her yarn under her index finger rather than over like I do, but I just can't grasp doing it that way (no pun intended). I'm told that's often the fate of those who learn to knit from books and the web rather than from a person. I guess I'm just doomed to purling weird. I used to knit weird but I've since fixed that.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Anti-Yarnblob Device

I uploaded this photo some time ago, but it doesn't appear that I ever posted it. This is a clever little device from Clover USA, intended to make it easy to use multiple strands of yarn. I use them even when knitting with a single strand so as not to wear a yarn canal in my left index finger. Coincidentally, they also make good Yarnblob stoppers:
The Yarnblob Stops Here

Thursday, March 3, 2011

2011 Gaming & Yarn Resolution Update

Well we've started March now, so here's where I am on my Resolutions:

Yarn stuff:
• Knit something for someone who isn’t expecting it (Status: Completed! FO is drying and then I can ship it off to the unsuspecting recipient; no pics till the recipient gets it :-P)
• Finish all those baby sets before the babies are in college (it could happen, though, not today)
• Finish that dang green blanket! (Status: Completed!)
• Make my Hubby’s Lab blankie (Status: In progress and about 1/3 done)
• Organize (yes, I used the “O” word!) my yarn stash and library (Status: Ugh. Not. Even. Started.)
• Knit sufficient dice bags for our large dice collection (Status: Ugh.)
• Make myself a sweater (Status: Ugh.)
• Talk more on the forums (Status: Ugh. I keep starting to talk some but then things get in the way and I forget.)
• Blog more regularly (Status: Iffy: chaotic days still keep me from it.)

Gaming/RPG Stuff:
• Try my hand at a character who isn’t a rogue (presuming we start a new campaign or my rogue dies; and, btw, this is a toughie: I’m generally always the rogue). (Status: Still playing same campaign, but she is near death, so who knows.)

Painting Stuff:
• Paint to completion at least 1 mini a month (Status: Ugh.)
• Talk more on the forums (Status: Ugh.)