Famous Knitting

Here's another blog post by my hubby about one of my dice bags. This one was knitted in a white multi-textured yarn that made it look somewhat vaguely like a small dragon pelt, if dragons at any stage of their lives have a bit of fuzz. This one actually does have a liner, though it was added some time after the dice bag was originally made. Given that the yarn is thin and fine, I used crochet thread for the liner. As he points out, I make better drawstrings these days: this one was just a length of the yarn tied at the ends; generally, I use two crocheted strands these days, which makes them a bit sturdier. I believe we bought the yarn on one of our very earliest trips to the Woolie Ewe. Unfortunately, I have no idea what kind of yarn it was, so I can't post it here. If I figure it out, I'll update with the name, etc.

Barbie Sweater

I finally finished my Barbie sweater (pp. 80-81 of Nicky Epstein's Knits for Barbie Doll) It's the pattern pictured on the cover:

Here's my version, using leftover sock yarn:

She looks a bit puffy thanks to the dress underneath, which is a 2-piece number I knitted quite some time ago without a pattern:

So now Barbie, or in this case Summer, just needs some sort of foot coverings.

Halloween Cookies - Late

So we're a week into November and I finally got the Halloween cookies made:

 

 

All the kids were at their grandmothers' so I managed to get the cookies iced before they were all eaten. Well, except the other two cauldron cookies - someone has to do quality testing, after all.

Meanwhile, it was beautiful outside this morning, despite the cloud cover, so I got these two pictures of my front yard:

 

Normally I'm not big into the color orange, but it was really pretty, and I was quite pleased to have captured this year's fall colors before they disappeared. The time when the trees are colorful is very short: they go almost directly from full and green to brown and bare. It makes one wonder how I managed the autumn leaf cookies earlier this year:

 

A friend told me I done pretty good for a southern gal. Oh well, now that the cookies are made (and, no doubt, soon to be eaten), back to the dragon dice bag. If it comes out right, I may have to knit CrapCat a new hat.

Continued Adventures of CrapCat

CrapCat is still perched atop my computer monitor, overlooking the stuff on my desk (CrapDesk, if you will).  Currently, he sports what was supposed to be a dragon-skin dicebag, complete with tail.  Said dicebag is not turning out quite as planned so I put it on the cat:

Here is that which he oversees:

Messy, huh? Objects you see include a d20 approximately 3" in diameter; foam shuriken (next to the d20); the remains of the brown yarn from which CrapCat was made; a flashlight, generally used to locate dpn's that have rolled under my desk; a pen/pencil cup; a pretty box hiding many miscellaneous (mostly useless) objects; a toy rolling pin; my sharpies and some software. Oh, and a sheep, who from this angle appears to end in a small cloud. I'll leave that a mystery.

I post the picture of my desk because I have recently seen (in other people's blogs) pictures of desks well-organized and neat, desks organized with interesting and useful things, desks that invite one to sit and create. Unfortunately, my desk does not fit into that category. And yet, it is the very process of creating things, repairing things, etc., that repeatedly brings my desk into its current state. Funny, my desk at work does not look like this: at work, I am very organized. Apparently I leave my organizational skills in my desk drawer at work when I come home. Fortunately, I can still locate poo-brown yarn and needles so I can make a CrapCat on demand.

CrapCat

Well, the stackable cat is cute, but perhaps knitting him in brown wasn't the best idea. He had the unfortunate effect of reminding my children of poop: you've heard the expression, poop a brick; well apparently I've knitted a poop brick. He's still cute, but my older daughter has dubbed him CrapCat. Here he is, atop our Halloween candle tree, which is surrounded at the base by small rubber mice. My Hubby found it amusing to think a cat had been run up a tree by mice.

Now that Halloween is over, he sits atop my computer monitor, where he balances oddly well, despite listing slightly to port.

Stackable Cats

Currently, I'm working on this adorable pattern, which my Hubby was kind enough to purchase for me after alerting me to its very cute existence.

This little kitty knitted up very easily. I didn't even do a test swatch or read the needle sizes, and simply grabbled needles appropriate to the yarn I used, which is a dark brown worsted-weight, possibly wool yarn from the Yarn Booty. The yarn label is uncharacteristically missing, but I think it's from Patton's.

The instructions are pretty easy and mostly clear, though there are a couple of spots that might give a beginner some trouble. The pattern does contain a link to a tutorial on their website for the stitched used to sew the kitty together, which is handy, and any other trouble spots are easily figured out: certainly none should be a deal-killer: this cutie is well worth the $5.00 for the pattern. Personally, I'm thinking of knitting 3 of the small ones for my office so I can juggle them when someone walks in without a smile....

Wedding Dice

A few years ago, when my Hubby was planning his proposal, he had learned from my best friend that I am very difficult to surprise, but I can be distracted. I already knew he'd been looking for a ring, and I knew it had arrived, but didn't know when he was planning to pop the question, nor under what circumstances. A couple of good chances had come and gone without the question being asked, so I was beginning to wonder. Meanwhile, he ordered a set of these dice for me in a slightly darker green than shown from Q-Workshop in Poland:

So the day we were moving in together, I didn't know the dice had come in. It was late, and we'd brought basically the last load over, and he mentioned something about rocks (we both have rocks - long story), and then said "speaking of rocks..." and went to get something. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't the ring, but instead was the package containing the green Celtic dice, which I do very much like. I proceeded to show them around to the folks that had come to help us move (best friend, her hubby and her sister), and about the time I got back to the table, now properly distracted, my now-hubby gets down on one knee and hands me the ring and proposes in a very romantic fashion. Naturally, I said yes. After all, if a man can propose when he's just moved an apartment full of stuff and everyone is all dirty and sweaty, he must really mean it, right? Not that I had any doubt.

Naturally, these very special dice required a very special dice bag, though I am not certain I'd ever knitted a dice bag before at the time. Nevertheless, I found some lovely ribbon yarn and made this to keep them in:

I don't actually use these dice for playing: they're rather hard to read and I worry about damaging them. I keep them in this little bag with my other dice as a kind of visual scrapbook, so every time I go looking for a set of dice, I remember how sweet he was (and still is) :-)