the sheep-free knitter

In the midst of caring for a chicken poxy child (the younger) I knit up a pair of birthday gifts for my friend's Tucker and Jennifer who share a birthday which also happens to have been my grandfather's birthday. He would have 101 this year! Anyway, I knit up mitts for Tucker (Rav link) and bike ear warmers for Jennifer (Rav link). I'm thinking of kntiting a pair of those for myself. They look like they'd be good at keeping the cold breezes out.

In honor of finishing two things and in spite of my Hempstream pullover still not being done I started a Pucker (Rav link). The pattern is written for a worsted weight yarn (5 sts to the inch) and I don't have any sweater quantities of worsted weight yarn that would work so I'm using DK weight yarn (5.5 sts to the inch).  I picked a larger size than I would knit for myself normally based on the change in measurements from using a thinner yarn. The size I picked calls for 1100 yards of the recommended yarn and I have 1370 of my thinner yarn. I'm feeling anxious that it's not enough. This half a ball of stockinette has resulted in about an inch of sweater.

beginnig of pucker

We won't even talk about how much time that inch of sweater took either. After four inches I get to start decrasing, but not all that much. We'll see how far I get before I decide this isn't such a great plan.

Susanne's babies like these so much she asked me to make two more to have one in case one needs to be washed or such. You know I'm a sucker for bunnies, so I was happy to oblige.

blanket buddies

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It was nice to see the bunnies after they'd be used and loved and washed for a while. The yarn really bloomed up in a lovely way. The ones in the front are the new ones.

twin blanket buddies

I just registered for Sock Summit! I'll be taking Socks without Wool with Amy Singer on Saturday and attending the luminary panel on Sunday. I plan to be there on Friday to check out the marketplace as well. Since we're driving, we'll see how that plan goes.

See you in Portland, Sock Summiteers!

So, I've been wanting to weave. I think it started when I heard Brenda Dayne talking about the Ashford Knitter's Loom on Cast On. Then Faith got a Schacht Cricket Loom. This post in particular intrigued me. (Scroll past her very impressive pregnant belly there.) I then found out that the Textiles class at Niels' school owns a loom. I thought it was a big floor loom model and had decided I would figure it out over the summer, having never actually seen it. I took a close look at my friend Victoria's floor loom (which I think is a Schacht Baby Wolf) and panicked. I happened to be in Purlescence last week (funny how you know even now that this sentence ends wth me buying something, don't you?) and looked again at the Cricket looms and, as you guessed, brought one home. Yesterday, I assembled it.

my new cricket

Assembling turned out to be easier (for me) than warping which challenged me. I ended up warping it incorrectly the first time.

warping the loom

I'm not sure how I'm going to warp it longer than my kitchen table in the future.

60" warp

I had missed bringing the wap over the beams when I set it up the first time. It wasn't too hard to fix, though.

ready-ish to weave

Once I fixed the warping I got off and running...

the first few inches

And tonight I have my first finished woven object!

all done!

So it isn't very long (about 30 inches) and the edges aren't great but it's my first project and it was done so fast I'm astonished. I have ideas about what my next project might be. Kristi gave me some cone cotton yarn when she moved that I'm thinking might make nice placemats, or a handtowel or something like that. The possibilities are endless! Well, 10" wide but as long as I can stand warping!

I got out my copy of Creepy Cute Crochet to look for instructions on how to make the general body shape I wanted for the Mystery Animal. Stefan had other ideas, though. Stefan said he wanted "the green guy", otherwise known as Cthulhu. Luckily, he's a lot more friendly looking in a small crochet version.

stefan and cthulhu

cthulhu's wings

Obviously, he needs eyes. I didn't have the right sized safety eyes so I figured I'd find something after he was finished. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble embroidering them on. I might take a page from Janice's book and get some felt.

The part that amuses me about all of this is that Cthulu (yes, without the second H) was Erik's screen name on the MUD where we met so I feel connected to that name. Stefan still calls this "that green guy" though, which is super cute. Also, he doesn't seem at all bothered by That Green Guy's lack of eyes.

Stefan, Niels and I were at Books Inc today and they had a couple of baskets by the register filled with giant microbes. They were picking them up and admiring them and pointing out that the chicken pox one is kind of cute, and looks a bit like a chicken. Then Niels picks up one and says, "what's this? It says 'her-ups'?" That's herpes, folks. They also had HIV and The Clap. There was also staph and strep and stomachache and others but somehow, we kept ending up with the, ahem, social diseases. In fact, I practically had to pry the clap out of Stefan's hands so he would leave it there. I actually said, "Put that back, we are not bringing the Clap home." I crack myself up.

clap

Anyway, you can see why he liked it. It's kind of cute. It also bears a resemblance to the way the mystery animal on Zoboomafoo often appears. He had decided it was the mystery animal, and that's why he wanted it. So, I'm thinking that I could reproduce a mystery animal. All I need to do is crochet a body and head piece without adding arms and legs, right? I just need some safety eyes and cuddely, fuzzy yarn.

zoboo mystery animal

I made another bag with that same fabric. This time I made a reversible tote bag with pockets.

I sewed a little drawstring bag for one of Niels' friends for her birthday. We put her Pokemon book in it instead of wrapping it up. I altered the bag so that the ties come out both sides but I forgot that when you do that you actually need two full length ties, not just knots on each end. Oops. I have fabric cut out to make one for myself. I think it would make a cute project bag.

drawstring bag

This morning I went and helped to set up the Textiles portion of the kids' art show at City Hall. We hung two of the quilts from the banister and I think it looks really cool.

The other two hung on the panels with the other various projects that we did. That worked out well, I think, because the two on the panels are the ones with more quilting on them, which would be hard to see if they were up high.

I love the way we hang up the dyed silk circles. It's like stained glass.

silk dyeing

This afternoon I went over to Purlescence to get something and I must have had sewing on the brain because I came home with a sewing book.

Sew What! Bags: 18 Pattern-Free Projects You Can Customize to Fit Your Needs

Lexie Barnes

Then I made this:

I made a bag

Which Stefan liked.

Stefan claimed it

Sorry I've been so quiet. I've been busy with the arts class at Niels school. Our art show gets set up tomorrow so all of the quilts had to be finished. Mom bound the two from the first session and I bound the two from the second (after spending a lot of time a couple of weeks ago putting them together). I think they look good.

The kids from the first session were into the piecing (we have two 12-square quilts with enough for a pillow from one of them!) and the kids from the second session were more into the quilting. I only put 9 squares in each one, and a lot of the squares weren't all put together but they quilted like crazy. It's funny to see the difference.

As far as knitting goes, I have been pretty monogamously knitting on my Slipstream. The back and both sleeves are done and pictured below. The front is up to the straight section of the waist, so I'm getting pretty close!

sweater in progress