pokingmyeyesout

Yesterday, the Davis came over for dinner. (sorry, no dinner pic, we were enjoying the fud instead of staging and taking pics) .They rarely come over since Sh is very allergic to fuzzies. He was very brave and got doped up to visit us. This is probably the second time they has ever been over in the 4+(?) years we have known them. It was quite an occasion :)

Anyhoo. GD and I got some crafty conversations in and she was kind enough to adopt my ew-FO of Endpaper mittens. But before she walked out the door with them, one of the thumbs unraveled. (The mittens hate me! ). They are fixed now and ready to go to its new home, where it won't annoy me anymore. Maybe, work willing, tomorrow GD and I will be washing her cherry bonbon and my dumpling at the laundromat.

But before that, today, instead of the usual trapped in the house cleaning and misc, I got to spend time outside doing some fall clean up. It was sunny and warm. Beautiful day. Fuzzies say hi!

Posted by E at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am writing a post, it will be posted later after this prez goes home!

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I just finish the crochet portion of my first beaded thread crochet project. JP Coats crochet thread and sz 11 silver lined glass beads. Pattern is At The Back of My Mind Choker by Marnie MacLean. With J's help and her books, it was a surprising smooth project. There were occasional "huhs" and quite a bit of ripping. I did mod the beads, I prefer 3 beads (odd number, better) vs 2 beads (don't like even numbers). I still need to find ribbon closure.

Posted by E at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

.. but I prefer to live in a world full of shades of black, grey, and white. I thank J :D for show me this color IQ test. I took the test and well .. I don't suck that bad.

Posted by E at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

... yesterday, it took all my will power and Pacific Fabric as an incentive to myself, to leave the house and do a few errands - library, grocery store, etc. I would have preferred to stay home and huddle under a blanket with the fuzzies. (uhoh, the hermit-mode is settling in) I have prez to make and web to surf .. nevermind the gainful employment I should be look for.

So I came home with a potential lining for dumpling and assorted fabric + vinyl for two needle cases - lace needles and dpns. The materials are piling up.

Oh! and J and I are going to Madrona Fiber Festival (in February, so much is going to change between now and then). We are taking a Latvian Mitten class! (I just spent my daily allotment of "!"s). And something about homework will be posted in December ... I hope GD is feeling better and got a chance to register. Otherwise, we do plan on another trip to the Yarn and Fiber Marketplace.

Posted by E at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Another example of me not paying attention. J knitted a mitten with 2 color cast on and 2 color braid . So purty ... anyways, I am making another prez.. I made up some numbers last night and cast on - 96 stitches with Karabella Aurora 8, US 7.

Long tail cast on with 2 colors, knit 1 row alternating colors

First row twist in front

Second row twist in back ..

Moving on to a few rows of plain stockinette .. then pat. Maybe this hat will get a name ....

Posted by E at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The pat specifies pre-felt size of 11"x13". I used Big Wool (in stash!) and mine turned out to be about 14.5"x12.5"... We will see about finish size.

With all the stress (and time) on my hands, knitting has helped me focus and not spiral deep down into worry-mode. :) Last time I was in this state, I took up beading .. I still have all the accessories for beads and thinking about picking it up and combining it with knitting. Keyword here .. thinking!

Until then ..the next quick proj will prob be a hat... prob with a braid and Norwegian eight-point star...

P.S. I was not thinking straight. That size is very wonky. Er. Crap. "It is a feature"

Posted by E at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The sleeve is dried. It is a little small. I thought when DH said the book is the exact size, he meant 'exactly the correct size". So when I tried the sleeve on the book (at the laundromat), I use it as the exact measurement - it hangs over a little. I should have checked myself ;-). That's my lesson for the day.

On ward to my big Dumpling. Posting that next ...

Posted by E at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am a lot OCD lately. This laptop sleeve was suppose to be a weekday proj, with the weekend spent on Hyrna Herborgar. But the DH wanted it for T-day and me being a worrier, wanted to finish it sooner than later. just in case. So I spent today finishing the knitting. While I was finishing (knit faster, Knit Faster, KNIT FASTER!), I gave him a task to find something (prob a book) that we can bring with us to the laundromat for shaping. Lucky (for me :|) he found my Faberge book that is an exact size of his laptop. Er, yeah.

Before fulling was 11"x17" ... it took about 14 minutes (with 3 checks in between!) The middle of the sleeve was a little tight but it shaped ok. The white did felt ok. Woo! it is now drying .. will post "after" pic once it is dried.

* DH's dirty laptop (not mine!)

Posted by E at 7:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

... and I quote J. Why yes I am! I did not consider that Paton yarn will felt differently and did not do a test swatch. "Too Lazy" was my answer. I am about half way through the knitting. The width is ~11.5', which makes it slightly smaller than my original flying-by-seat-of-my-pants calculation. (I had counting issues when I CO) . Crossing fingers .... :D Oh, and in a fit of insomnia, I came across an article that said "... white yarn does not felt .. due to the bleach ... ". er.

Posted by E at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back in July, J and I went on a crafty day and I picked up some fabric at Pacific Fabric. They have been sitting on the bottom of my wip box for .. ahem.. too many.. months. Anyways, after flipping through a patchwork book last night, I found what I need to do to start ... wash and iron. Well.. after spending a bit of time with the colors, I don't think they are quite right ... Need a bit more work. This is absolutely embarrassing that I can't work with colors. :*(

Posted by E at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

.. I said tomAto. Tomato hat for a prez. Yarn and pattern are gifts from J a looooong long time ago. P.S. will link to Ravelry later .. hiding hat from recipient.

Posted by E at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)