So Long, Metropolis

For those of you who recall my Scurvy Yarn Project, I posted the Lion Brand Metropolis yarn to my Ravelry page as yarn I'd sell/trade (there's not a spot for "yarn I'd rather send off the plank than ever knit with again"). At last, someone took me up on it, and I shipped all 8 skeins of it off yesterday. Yes, I realize it was a Sunday and today is a holiday so it actually won't go anywhere until tomorrow, but at least it's out of my Yarn Booty. Boo-yah.

After I sent it out, a variant on a song from The Wizard of Oz started going through my head: "Hey-ho the yarn is gone, the yarn is gone, the yarn is gone, hey-ho the scurvy yarn is gone....."

Pleased with my victory and humming my new theme song, I got home from the post office and immediately started moving the yarn from the Cauldron O'Yarn in my living room to the box that formerly contained the Metropolis yarn. Ironically, I found this in the cauldron waiting for me like Sheppard Book's hair:

Oh well; I should know better than to store scurvy yarn in a symbol of renewed life.

Rare Albino Sea Yarnblob

Its rounded loopy forearms allow it to easily traverse the sandy ocean floor...

Yarnablo

This is an original piece of work by my older daughter, for a series of anime critters she's creating called Napukun:

(c)2010 Megan Martin

It's called Yarnablo (like Diablo, but with yarn), just for me, heheh. Yes, it's a yarnball with horns and eyes, but it makes a knitting parent right proud.

WIP Progress: Whole Lotta Froggin' Goin' On

I finished the main part of my best friend's short-fingered gloves about a week ago:

I've been working on them almost daily ever since and yet they look exactly the same as they did a week ago. That's because I keep having to frog out the convertible finger flap. So far, we're up to three attempts. Having discovered the yarn is a bit too dark to try to start this phase away from home, I started a "travel" project. I grabbed one of many skeins of sock yarn in my Yarn Booty and started knitting. So far, I'm up to my third attempt on this project as well, but have now gotten this far:

On my first attempt, I realized the size 00 needles were really too small for the yarn and the thing was going to be more like a cast than a sock. My second undo was when I realized I'd added too many stitches and needed to remove some so I wouldn't end up giving the socks to my Hubby. Now it's good and going along as it should, and I'm about an inch or so further than I'd gotten on my first try.

Cookie Rolling Board

Sometime after we bought our house a couple of years ago, I started making rolled cookies instead of drop cookies, with loads of instruction from "Cookie Craft" by Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer:

This is a really good book. However, I realized pretty quickly that I was going to need to fashion something stable to help me roll the dough to the instructed 1/4 inch or to any other standardized thickness. My Hubby and I headed to the local hardware superstore (can't remember which one) and picked out some tiles and Gorilla Glue. The end result:

The tiles on the sides are 1/4" thick and far enough apart to allow a good bit of dough to be rolled out, yet close enough together to keep the rolling pin from sliding off and squishing the dough. While the Gorilla Glue is waterproof, I put the dough between two sheets of parchment paper. That keeps the board and the rolling pin clean, and the sheets can then be used to bake the cookies. More tips I got from the book.

Sometimes, though, we just want cookies and I don't have the time or energy to get all fancy, so I still make drop cookies. My ranger cookies, for example, while not very pretty are a family and work favorite. But that's a blog post for another day.

Cookies

I finally made cookies this weekend. I've been wanting to make some for awhile but haven't really had time. At long last, I had an excusereason: Friday was Pacman's 30th birthday! Plus I have some new cookie cutters I wanted to use, and some stackable cooling racks that make finding space to work much easier:

Here are closeups of some of my favorites:

I knew you'd have been disappointed if there wasn't a pirate-related cookie ;-)

Edible Yarnblob

And you thought I forgot this week's yarnblob post, didn't you? Well I didn't, though this one may take a bit of explaining. The blackish thing in the middle of the cookie is supposed to be a cat, and the brownish thing next to the cat is supposed to be a ball of yarn unwinding (e.g. because the cat has played with it). But, since I have a great deal of trouble drawing, and even more trouble drawing with icing, my ball of yarn came out like an edible yarnblob. Can't really blame the cat for that, but who's counting? ;-)

More Mini Cuteness

More new minis coming out from Reaper Minis in June (entire set sculpted by Gene Van Horne and Bobby Jackson):

I'm partial to rogues and monks, but these are so dang cute, even if they're available individually, we'll probably get the whole set.

Fair Warning: Chibi-Level Cuteness Ahead (lots of pics)

New minis coming out from Reaper Minis in June (entire set sculpted by Gene Van Horne and Bobby Jackson, painted by Anne Foerster):

So. Dang. Cute. More tomorrow.

New Constellation: Yarnblob

A ring constellation, one can see the connecting dust and nebulae.

Finished at Last - Green-Yellow Baby Set

Cocoa Bear looks duly embarrassed at wearing this very frilly hat. Of course, were he a wolf, he could pretend he was waiting for Little Red Riding Hood...

Multi-Generational Yarnblob

Because grandmothers are mothers too.

Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day

Thought I'd pass along the Mother's Day Post from my Hubby's blog:

He's the only man I know who would locate and post a Normal Rockwell-type photo of a Beholder. Just one of many reasons I married him, heheh.

Baby Set Progress

Well I finally made one of the baby booties for the green and yellow baby set (which still looks green and white in the photos):

It's hard to see, but the top of the foot has a bit of the same 4x4 basketweave that's on the blanket edge, but only in one color. Below is a detail of the blanket edging:

I decided not to try the two-color basketweave thing since booties are quite small in the first place. Next, I need to do the other bootie and the hat. I'm thinking since it's pretty much summer I might try something with a lacy look and maybe a floppy sun-blocking brim. Apparently I'm feeling ambitious.

Knitted Doll and Incognito Girl

I knitted this a few years ago for my older daughter, who then made the dress from a bandanna (not a bad job, either). Being a few years older, she didn't want the photo of her younger self posted, so *poof* Incognito Girl!

Knitting Doldrums

I didn't realize I'd gone almost all of last week without blogging. I admit to being in a sort of yarn limbo: aside from the Sharks getting my kimono, I hit another snag in the Paladin dice bag I'm trying to design. Fortunately, I made a mock-up in cheap yarn so the stuff I actually intended to use didn't get destroyed.

Instead of a dice bag, however, I ended up with a yarn Rorschach (Yarnschach?) test. Could be a jellyfish:

could be a hat:

could be a Dune sandworm (the spice is the worm; the worm is the spice):

None of those, however, is what it was supposed to be. As for my other projects, I think I'm a bit burned out on making baby items because I still haven't done the hat and booties for the yellow and green set. I'm also crawling along on my friend's gloves.

I have, however, built a database for the firm I work for and populated a lot of the data for it, installed 2 showerheads in our bathroom here at home, and helped my Hubby set up a small patio set we got. I also got a set of stacking cookie sheets, which will make that hobby a bit easier, since one of the things I lack is lateral space to let them cool and dry. At the same store, I got a lazy susan that I hope will help keep the yarn bobbins straight when I get back on the kimono track.

So, not to worry: I'll get the wind back in my sails soon.

Aspiring Dr. Seuss Tree Yarnblob

Not exactly Renoir, but hope spins eternal.