Monday, October 31, 2005

Circular Goodness

Well, it's finally done! The Craftster Circular shrug is a Finished Object! And I finished it just in time to wear to church, thanks to Daylight Savings! I woke up *late*, or so I thought on Sunday morning, but I had forgotten to turn my clock back so I was actually doing great, so I finished two rows of 2x2 rib and seamed it all up and, Voila! I was good to go! Check it out.





Ok, so it's a little shorter in the chest area than I planned, but it at least can be buttoned! I like how it looks open too. I'm planning on doing another one since it's so great, this time in a smaller gauge with a nice deep red or orange yarn. I'll probably add more of the 2x2 ribbing, maybe about 7 or 8 inches for an extra wide collar.

Here are the specifics of the changes I made:
Yarn: Red Heart Grande in Black
Needles: US 15
Rib: 5.5" of 2x2 ribbing
Body: 18" of 1x1 ribbing (not mock rib)

I added a button to it and even without a buttone hole it works!

Halloween party pictures and updates will be on their way tomorrow. For now I'll say it was a great sucess! Lots of people, all the food got eaten and we partied until about 1am! Kind of hectic trying to get ready for it, but it was worth it becuase it turned out to be a blast!

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

"Book 'em Dano, I'm 5-0!"

Heh, 50th post, just couldn't resist a little SNL humor there...

I've been busily crafting away this weekend. And so far there's no end in sight! Well, until next week. My sewing machine decided to die on me Friday night right in the middle of the pirate skirt. See, I had a method to the sewing for Halloween. I decided to work from the bottom up, and the easiest to the most difficult, to kind of get the machine (and me) warmed up. So I started with the underdress, with the ruffle. Easy enough, a few seams and some elastic. Unfortunately I forgot that my machine (which was given to me by my mom for *free* - so I'm very thankful for it, except for the fact that it's very, very, old and hates me) doesn't like to have the tension changed. At all. Because it will never go back to how it was after paying $40 dollars to have it fixed and cleaned up last time. No matter what you do. So I eventually had to give up for a bit, until I got down to my sisters to borrow her machine. Which is heaven itself, and of course I never ever want to give it back to her. So on Sunday the sewing commenced again, this time at a ripping pace. My sister has a Baby Lock and let me tell you, I can't get enough of it. It's computerized, makes inserting a bobbin a dream and has so many features and stitches it's a tragedy that I'm not doing more with it while I have it. This week is *crazy* though, so I'll have to just keep borrowing it from her... or something like that. So the pirate costume is almost complete. Just a little tweaking to do with the vest and maybe a bit with the skirt (hem needs to come up) and I'm good to go!

I also made progress on the Crafster Circular Shrug, and since I was babysitting last night for the cousins, am almost done! Just a couple more inches of 2x2 ribbing to go. I'm hoping I didn't fall prey to the "this-doesn't-really-need -*20*-inches-for-the-body-so-I'll-end-here" thinking that many people have run into and then not been too happy with how short their shrug was, but, hey, I'm sick of it and want to wear it already, so I'm ending, alright? We'll see how that turns out. And if it's not so good, I'll just do another one, in a smaller gauge, and a pretty red color. I'm also thinking it's going to need a lot of ironing or something of the sort to flatten it out. It's pretty stretchy right now.

The Halloween party is coming along! That's why this week is so crazy, I have a million things to do to get ready and I still need to finalize what food I'm going to do. I remembered that my mom always used to make us chili on fritos for the night of Halloween which was yummy, so I thought about maybe doing that and having the small bags of fritos that you just add your chili to and eat right out of! Takes care of the paper bowl thing too! Along with some other little "finger food" (no pun intended) and some dessert I think I'll be good to go. I think we're going to have some games going on in the kitchen like "donut on a string" and bobbing for apples. Then in the front room will be scary movies playing (more old than scary) and downstairs some Halloween dance jams going on. I'll be sure to take pictures. The house is looking spook already with cobwebs, blackened wreath, scary pictures, candles, red and black lights and hopefully some tombstones out front by tonight. Still haven't found time to carve a pumpkin! But will have to since roasted pumpkin seeds are a must!

I'm also preparing for church "Enrichment Night", which is this Thursday also at my house. I'm giving the lesson on "Emergency Preparedness" and might even be teaching the demo on jam making. So it's going to be a fun week!

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The "I need" Bandwagon

I'm Jumping on. Here goes...

Carly needs:
to get a grip on herself and stop acting like a maniac with everyone else.
to quit screwing up her life.
to be locked up and the key thrown away!
a new man.
to be with a goody two shoes like Molly is.
a gal pal like Lucy had.
to look like she could hold her own.
a place to stay.
your help!
a friend.

So apparently there is some Soap Character with my name! How fun. To join the fun, google "(your name) needs" and see all the crazy stuff that comes up.

In knitting/crafting news, made a little progress on the circular shrug and my neckwarmer while babysitting for my cousins. I'm still feeling sick, and will probably need to go to the doctor tonight to get some meds or my lymph nodes are never going to return to their normal size. Tonight, will be making spooky tombstones out of foam for the halloween party. The rest of this week will be devoted to getting my pirate costume finished, carving pumpkins, and cleaning the house. So knitting might be on hold for just a bit. At least until Halloween stuff gets taken care of. Oh, and Julsey and I are going to start working on the Green Phildar Sweater toghether! I can't wait! My first *real* sweater!

Thursday, October 13, 2005

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Mohair
You are Mohair.
You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with
others, doing your share without being too
weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely
refuse to change your position once it is set,
but that's okay since you are good at covering
up your mistakes.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Updates

Ok! Finally as promised, pictures!

First here is the progress on my circular shrug:


Now for the cabled wrist warmers (with an action shot)!


And here's the fabric I'm using for my pirate costume:

I guess it's more of a plum color than purple.

I started cutting it out last night, but then started feeling feverish and had to quit for the night. The glands in my neck have now swollen to golf-ball sized proportions. Fun, fun!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Call me Dirty Mary Read!

Arrrgh! Ahoy me mateys! In honor of my Halloween costume I took this quiz and determined what my pirate name is.



My pirate name is:


Dirty Mary Read


You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Even through many pirates have a reputation for not being the brightest souls on earth, you defy the sterotypes. You've got taste and education. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.


Here are some more fun pirate links:
Talk like a pirate day
Pirate Images

Monday, October 10, 2005

New and Improved?

Well, I've officially changed the name of my blog. I wanted something a little more "crafty" and the gals over on Glitter helped me decide. Knit, Lola, Knit is the new name for my blog! Hooray!

I'm halfway through the Craftster Circular Shrug , have started these slippers and have a million other projects going on too. Hopefully this week I'll also get my Halloween costume cut out and started! Oh and I'm planning the big Halloween party we're having. Here are some links to ideas I'm using:

Spider theme
Black Pumpkins
Black Wreath
Pumpkin Cake
Ladies' Fingers
Pumpkin Seeds
Butterbeer - my own secret recipe
More carved Pumpkins (like Victor and Emily from the Corpse Bride)

And check out the awesome candy container my Mom gave me!



It's going to be a Spooktacular Halloween!

Thursday, October 06, 2005

What's in a name?

Welp, I haven't felt in a very bloggy mood lately, so it's not been done in a while. For this I apologize, but in my own defense I've been too busy reading other people's blogs (must update side bar soon with ones I love). Well, that and getting my website up. It's official I've settled on a name! Bella Book Arts is my business' new name. I've stared my website up too, so check out www.bellabookarts.com and tell me what you think. What can I do better? It's still under construction so comments are welcome, but please be nice. I'm learning about html in the process and it's actually pretty interesting! For now, it's just a jumping off point.

Knitting update:
I'm frogging the "Blackberry", it's just too much of a pain, is it the gauge? the cables? I don't know, but it's getting annoying so I'm stopping. In the mean time I'm going to do a circular shrug like this, and I'm still working on the Phildar sweater, my own pattern of course. Haven't cast on yet, but maybe I'll get some time this weekend? I'm also making this hat for my Sister-in-law and have plans to try my hand at these felted purses. So I'll have to post some pictures of the wrist warmers I made last week, they've been really helpful the last few days.

I'm also thinking of re-naming this blog. It started out as just a collection of random thoughts, but lately has been turning into a knitting blog. I'm thinking I might use the Bella Book Arts blog to post book-ish things and this one as my weekly life/knitting updates. But I can't think of a good "crafting" or "knitting" name... Something will come to me soon, so just be aware!