This is maze, all finished, Done in roughly two days and in the pre-blocking stage on my dad, it looked very much like a skull cap or an over-sized yarmulka (yes that's spelt correctly, I checked)

This is it blocking on my cos mannequin. She's rather useful, I think, for hats at least. I need to name her. I stretched the hat out so that it would cover more of my head and actually touch my forehead. I have a rather large head, plus alot of very big hair, so not many hats fit me very well, hopefully this one will. I think the color patterning is much more visible now.

I'm very happy with this hat and with the yarn, it's like knitting with very soft package string! It's very lovely to knit with. I'm going to make the reverse version as the longer version though. Without the extra pattern repeat but just plain more background color. I can't wait to wear it, she's drying in front of the fan right now.

YAY!

Look! Look what I got!
(I put up the flash pics because they really represent the colors better)
Oh my gosh, better than christmas people!!! Sooo excited! First of all, I have to say, bravo elann.com! Everything was packaged absolutely perfect and lovely. Everything got a seperate bag and was clean and beautiful! You guys make an excellent first impression. And your Canadian, that makes me love you even more! Thank you!

I'm going to do Maze first, to get it done and free up the needles. The hemp feels so cool! It's really interesting in texture and quite stiff right now. It was all coming unwound because of the stiffness, but thats okay, I'm going to use it right away anyways. The Bryspun needles, for being so nice and cheap, are packaged very nicely. For some reason, the cheap needles are only ever packaged in fours, if you want five you have to buy two sets or buy the more exspensive ones. Not these though, they come in fives, very good. I can't wait to get working with them.

The Baby Silk is so amazingly soft! Oh my gosh! It's like petting whipped cream! (thats a new one, eh? Whipped cream...) They are much smaller than I expected but that doesn't matter really. I'm going to enjoy working with this stuff.

Look what else I did. I dyed the wool that my aunt gave me with kool-aid! I'm really happy with the blue color, not so much with the purpley one, I was going for lavender but I didn't have any blue left to cool the color down. I used it all for the blue.
But I am really really happy with that blue, it's gorgeous. I think it's a little lighter than in the picture though.

Look at her, ain't she cute? She stretched out just as I grabbed the camera. Thats Carmen everyone.

See? Kitties love almost everything about knitting, the needles feel nice on the teeth and at petting tools, they make good toys too. The yarn is the best though, just look at him, flossing his little kitty teeth.


The other night, the water softener/heater was on again and Mitts heard it and it freaked him out a little, he jumped off my bed to goo sit in front of the closet doors and he acted like he was protecting me from the water monster. I think he spooked himself though because every once in a while he'd go hide underneath the book case.To get that picture I put the camera on sepia and covered the flash, it makes it so the kitty is still visible (barely) but doesn't blind the poor guy. I wanted to show how round his eyes were, he was a scared kitty.

Look what happens on regular color mode when I cover the flash!

One more picture, the cats were the closest I've ever seen them last night without Carmen trying to bite Mitts. She did at first, but I held her down to calm her and so she wouldn't run away, they did pretty well, I had to keep petting Carmen to keep her calm. Maybe one day they can be friends? I think part of the reason that she bit him was because he also kind of accidentally rolled on to her when he layed down. The poor guy, you should have heard his squawk when she bit him!
Lastly, I'd like to give a big shout-out to my first (known) outside reader! Yay! Bradyphrenia left me a comment the other day. Thanks for the comment! I'm glad I have a reader. Regular or not, it's nice to know that people other than family read this thing. (not that I'm not glad my family reads it! Hi dad!) If any one else reads this thing, leave me a comment, kay?

Thats all for today guys, buh-bye, gotta go knit!

Kate

A sort-of productive day

Well, I did it, I finally went out and handed out some resumes and filled out an application. I ended up only giving out two resumes, one at the Shoppers Drug Mart (along with my application) and one at the new 24hr Vet Clinic, the lady at the clinic said she wasn't sure if they needed anyone but she'd take my resume just in case.

So my elann.com order should be here this week and I've been shopping for future projects that I want to do, planning a lot. I have five projects from Interweave Knits Spring 06 that I have found yarn subs for on elann.com. I've also been planning at least three felted bags almost since I first started knitting. Two are charts from Dominknitrix, Rosie the Riveter and Bruce Lee, although Bruce Lee might just end up being a rather large, non-felted patch for a friend or a wall hanging or something. I'm also planning a Nine Inch Nails felted bag, double-knit to be reversible and it will have the NIN logo with a facial silhouette of Trent Reznor that I am very proud of, I made the chart for it myself.

One thing that I am really craving right now is bright and beautiful self-striping sock yarn. I shall have to try that dyeing method soon. The Regia, etc. ones are nice, but they tend to be very boring colors. I would really like to get some vesper sock yarn, from kpixie.com, but they seem to sell out of it in a snap. They even have a special mailing list to join so they notify you as soon as they get the new vesper up.

Yesterday, I got a little bored and I had just finished cleaning my room like a mad woman (which never, I mean never, happens) and I was very sweaty and bored. So I pointed the fan to the middle of the room, cranked up my music and did this:
Remember that Chinook knitting wool that I got from my aunt? Well, it closely resembled pencil roving and i wanted to spin something simple. Sooo, I spun it and washed it and dryed it that night and it's rather nice. This is about three-quarters of a wool-bail. The funny thing is, I have another two whole bails of this stuff! I intend to spin it all. I thing that getting spun has improved this yarn because it strengthened it. Before, it broke very easily and there were too many un-spun plies. I'm very pround of it, not sure why, it just looks really nice. I'm not sure what to make out of it either, I think it's too scratchy for clothing, maybe a pillow? Or a rug? Blah, I've got plenty on spinning time to mull that over.



Another thing I did last night:
This is me carrying the Phentex upstairs with a knitting needle to be bagged and value villaged. I didn't want to touch it any more that I had to.

I'm done, off to go fantasize about roller-skating to Jamiroquai and eat my salad.

One, two, buckle my shoe

So I seem to be a little blog obsessed lately? Well, at least this post isn't coming from the middle of the night, it is at (a much more respectable) 6:30 PM.

Yesterday I found this, (seventh comment down by Erin) and promptly laughed till I hurt. The statement wasn't all that outrageously funny either, but I just found it hilarious for some reason. Indeed, "How does one put out a fire on a spinning turntable inside a closed box?" Hmm?

The blog on which I discovered this statement was none other than See Eunny Knit, which I have found to be very enjoyable and extremely informative. Although, what a steek is/does still eludes me. Eunny is a young woman who is seemingly old-fashioned but I find her designs very refreshing and startlingly beautiful. They are simple in shape, but often including some intricate lacework or brocade/damask-like colorwork. Said colorwork is mostly fair-isle which I haven't had the opportunity to try yet, but something tells me it would be a trifle more fun than intarsia. (which I also have never tried) Another suprising little tidbit of info on Eunny is that she allegedly has no yarn stash to speak of! I didn't think it was possible! Kudos for Eunny on having good self-control. So, go check out her blog, she's a fabulous writer, I love to read her entries, they're an art in themselves. She also has a wonderful tutorial on how to dye your very own self-striping sock yarn with kool-aid! Being the only dye I ever use, I intend to try this as soon as I can find some reasonably priced plain sock yarn.

My elann.com order has now officially been shipped and is on it's merry way! I am absolutely quivering with anticipation. I've never ordered yarn before. It's not only yarn, it's nice yarn, really nice yarn. I have never bought yarn from anywhere other than Micheal's, Wal-Mart, and Value Village. The only actual yarn stores I've bought from are Pudding Yarn, Make One and Knit One, Chat Too. Even then, I had hardly any money to spend and I didn't really have any plans for the yarn I bought. These yarns, purchased from elann.com, have a specific, intended project and, for some reason, that makes me even more giddy.

I've got some pictures of even more things that I'm currently knitting. The thing is, I keep finding things that I am still working on, just not steadily. I have countless amounts of projects constantly on the run.

So, number one:
Dad's blue sock, (yes, very singular) is a little slow going, it was my computer sock until my computer stopped working for a bit, I would sit at the loading screens for The Sims and work on it. But The Sims no longer works and I have high-speed internet, so there's not much time to work on it, I guess. I would do it while watching television, not only is nothing good on, but I cannot stand to stay on my main level for more than a few minutes in this weather, it's just too hot. I'd say I've done maybe one round or less on this in the last little while.

Knucks:From the summer issue of Knitty. I would have to agree with GrrLeigh and say, "What the hell? It's summer!!! What are you guys smoking over there?!?!" I, myself am Canadian and this issue of Knitty severely lends itself to the ridiculous notion that everything above the US/Canada border is permafrost. Just slightly infuriating. It's a shame they couldn't decide to bring this stuff out for say, a fall issue? That would seem to be much more reasonable. Most of the things in this issue are quite nice, but completely out of season. I don't care how far north you live, you don't give patterns for toques and gloves in the middle of summer! It's depressing!

I shant proceed to give a Knitty review, it's much too late. But expect to see one for each future issue (if I can manage it), and maybe reviews of future issues Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting.

Razor Cami:
Shown here with two and a half rounds completed, not much yet. Also shown is my new favourite household appliance, my beloved fan! Stationed right beside my computer and it can be angled to hit me while I'm in bed. Perfect.
I have decided to be insanely impatient and start on this before my yarn arrives with some stash busted yarn of that same weight. It is of mohair and it is a faily bright blue, almost guaranteed to be ugly, but I see it as a bit of a practice run, so see how many stitches I need to cast on and how I like the pattern and so forth. By the way, in regards to casting on stitches, I had to cast on 36 more stitches (six inches) for it to fit me! I thought Katie and I were relatively the same size but apparantly she's much tinier than I thought. And no dear, I'm not saying I thought you were "fat" because then, I would have to be calling myslef fat, wouldn't I? I know I'm not fat so there... Just having a little moment of self-validation, I'm fine now, carry-on everybody.

I believe I'm done. Thanks for the ears and eyes.

Kate

Okay, so I realize that this makes almost two posts in a day but it was late for the last one and also for this one so it doesn't count!

So, last week, while waiting for the Devil Wears Prada, my mom bought me this:Woot! I have Stitch 'N Bitch Nation already and I've been wanting this for a long time, I'm already looking for elann.com substitutions for some Brown Sheep sweaters, why? There is only one known Brown Sheep retailer in Alberta and he's nice and all, but he's out in DeWinton. Also, not very far away, but for less money and a little more time, I can have pretty much the same thing or better from my lovely elann.com! You know, there are no yarn stores in the south end of the city! Unless you count Micheals, but I wouldn't. They are all in Bridgeland or on 17th or way the hell out on Sarcee... Exactly on the opposite side of the city from me... boo. And they're outrageously priced too! So the exspensive yarn and the gas money added up together makes it not worth it! Well, unless I really really need to. Piffle.

Anyways, so I have been knitting! Look!Kay, so this isn't technically knitting but I did some fringe removal on a blanket that my auntie gave me a long time ago for christmas because I have a really obsessive right-side-up thing, the fringe had to always be at the bottom, and it was driving me nuts. Also because I'm too tall for the blanket and I need to lay on my stomach and stretch out sometimes to sleep and my feet always got tangled up in them! hahaha.

Now for some actual knitting.

(notice the chunk of Mittens tail in the bottom-left corner?) So this picture pretty much sums this almost-project up. It's a big tangled mess of slighty-gettingonmynerves yarn. I decided it wants to be a blanket, assembled in strips... Going to be a boring stockinette project, but oh well. I plan to re-use the knitting one strip at a time to eventually have a whole blanket idea to later make a nice, NON-NOVELTY, smooth, bulky yarn. In turquoise and brown strips... hmm? Sound good?

So I'm having a major case of ADD-related impatience for my elann.com order, it hasn't been shipped yet and I got an email today saying that the circulars I ordered are out of stock and whether I want them to ship the rest of my order and I can re-order the circs later or if i want to wait until they're available. I had a very lucky moment with this, I checked my circ inventory and it just so happens that I already have a circular in the size I was going to order. Convenient!

By the way, I have rediscovered Jamiroquai! You should too! Look it up. Now!

Anyways, I think I'm actually tired tonight, so i might have a chance of sleeping, yaaay...
Goodnight
Kate

Picturemathingy

I'm bored so I'm posting some pictures and stuff...Awwww, lookit us, ain't we cuuute? That's me and mitsy.
Aaaand, thats Carmen and VuDu and my Phantom program... she was in a weird position....

So anyways... I'm going to try and go look for a job tomorrow... If I can get to sleep sometime in the next century and figure out how the hell to make my hair do something more or less conservative, not sure if it's possible. Anyone got any ideas on how to tame this mane?
I hate having short hair!!!! Really lots! I need it to grow out long enough so that I can put ALL of it up in a ponytail, cus right now I got all these dumb little wispy things and I hate 'em! That and, once it's long enough, I need to get it cut because it's soooo uneven. By the way, isn't that a sexy picture face? Hmm? Hmm?

Gawd, I have nothing else to say! grrrr... Well goodnight then.
Kate

Knitting! Yes Knitting! I Still Knit!

But first! Last night, I was sitting, minding my own business, playing solitaire and a big-ass crawly bug falls from the ceiling onto my keyboard!!!! I think it got out and went somewhere else but I can't help but feel like it's gonna crawl out any minute and eat me! So I'm typing a little harder today, just in case it's still in there. But I freaked out and ran up stairs to drag my mother out of bed to come help me find it and kill it. I know I'm a wimp. My poor kitty is all scared because, of course, I jumped up and started saying "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" and he's all wide-eyed and freaked out too because he doesn't know whats going on. I ended up not being too freaked out to stay in my room last night but it took me a while to fall asleep. And I'm hoping my kitty got a nice juicy bug-snack in the middle of the night. I have the vacuum down here just incase I find the bugger. When I first turned the computer on today I stabbed every button on the keyboard with a fat knitting needle (handy!) and for the first few minutes I was typing with a needle, then it got a little tedious soooo, I'm back to regular finger typing. But, ewwwww, it was really big and it had wayyyy too many legs!!! Mom said it might have been a moth that fell, which is considerably less gross, as long as it doesn't touch my stinkin' yarn. But I don't think moths are shiny and brown and wingless!!!

Anyways, I'm making my skin crawl and I'm sweating while I'm typing cus I'm a little freaked out still (can you tell?) You know, I have no problem with bugs outside, that's their territory. But as soon I find them in my house, they are dead. Except beetles, they're dead no matter what... (they're just creepy, kinda mean, eh?)

Sooo, I'm posting an order on Elann.com today for some elann.com collection Canapone in Café au Lait and Burnt Olive for Maze. It's a much cheaper alternative to allhemp6 but it's still hemp which I've been wanting to try for a very long time. And you get even more for even less!!! I love that. I'm also getting three balls of Peruvian Collection Baby Silk in Aubergine, it's the best color I could find that might look good on me, they don't have a great selection for my skin tone on this one, oh well. That yarn is for the razor cami which I have also been wanting to make for quite some time. This is also a much cheaper alternative to Alpaca & Silk by Blue Sky Alpacas. It might not be as wonderful as I'm sure Alpaca & Silk is but, let's remember people, I'm a poor, jobless (for now) high-school student. I've been saving up allowance (old school) for quite a while for a big order on kpixie (which I love to death) but elann.com is just sooo much more in my price range at the moment. I also ordered some Bryspun needles for these project that are probably pieces of crap but they're the cheapest on the site.


Did I tell you all about how I got bored and I this giant ball of black Phentex sitting on my yarn shelf that needed a project. Thus, VuDu was born! His pattern can be found here. Here he is!
Isn't he cute! (p.s. I went to The Phantom of the Opera, see my program?) He's a little voodoo dolly! I don't intend to use him for voodoo, he's just a cute decoration. Unfortunately, I have a moderate contact allergy to Phentex and other acrylic yarns that I forgot about. The palm of my left hand was all bumpy and the fingerpads are still all peely. Yummy, eh? I have these really itchy bumps on my fingertips so I have to chew on my fingers to scratch the itchies. Heres a little visual helper!
Lovely!

Another thing, not knitting related. Has anyone heard of The Waking Eyes? Go look them up, they're Canadian! Some of their popular songs are On a Train and But I Already Have It. The second one has a video on youtube.com Also, look up Mellisa Auf Der Maur or just Auf Der Maur, she's the former bassist for Courtney Love's band, Hole. I like her. Some of her songs are Real a Lie and Taste You. One more band! Sam Roberts! My favourite of all! Canadian too! His songs are Bridge to Nowhere, Where Have All the Good People Gone, The Gate, Don't Walk Away Eileen, Hard Road and Brother Down. (the ones with no links have no youtube videos)

Baaah like a sheep.

Have I ever mentioned that I play the drums and guitar? Well I do... I've had a drum kit for almost a year that I bought off of a friend who bought it off of someone else who bought it off another someone. So I got it for twenty bucks! Good deal! The only problem, I didn't have a bass pedal, until now! I just bought one a couple of weeks ago off of the same friend who sold me the drums, fifteen bucks! Almost as much as the whole kit, haha! Now I just have to get my mom to clear her crap out of the laundry room so I can unbury the drums from my old-old bedroom turned storage room for more of my moms crap and set it up so I can play!!! YAY! I've even been practicing, just not with actual drums, you know. I even have a hi-hat mascot! His name is jingle-bells, he's a marshmallow that I shoved onto the hi-hat post thingy and he dances when I use the hi-hat! I drew him an evil face with a purple pen, he's pretty rad.

Anyways, I think I'm about done here... I think I'm cured of my keyboard fear. Can't wait to order my elann.com stuff! Yay, so excited... So yeah, I done

Love from Kate


I FORGOT!!!! The reason I wanted to post today! HA! Smart me.

I found my new favourite LiveJournal Community! t shirt surgery is a group blog all about deconstructing and reconstructing t-shirts! I especially love this because yesterday, while my mom and I were hanging out in Chapters while waiting for 7:20 when The Devil Wears Prada started, I found this book called Tease!!! It's all about remodelling t-shirts! Something I really love to do, I've done it alot and I have many XL concert tees to redo. I also discovered OhMyStars.net the rest of Katie from katieknits site. She has some really excellent tutorials on remaking t-shirts into awesome things and on just sewing relly fresh things too! And some very innovative craft ideas that I will be sure to steal as soon as I get the chance! This Katie is not to be confused with me though, she's a tad more talented in the craftal area! Although our blog urls are different by only a letter. Hey, maybe I'll get some accidental blog hits on account of katieknits typos! I swear I didn't even know there was a katieknits when I signed up for kateknits! I thought of putting katieknits but I decided I liked kateknits better, I didn't even see that it was taken. Haha. Funny stuff. Anyways, she's awesome, if you haven't already, go see her. BTW, I love that cloud color chart and I printed it off, sorry, I might just have to steal it for something bag-like! It's adorable.

Anyways, I think I'm definately done now. Kachow. If I remember something else, I'll be back.

Congrats to my daddy for getting 4:24 in his Vancouver marathon!!!! Yay! You did great dad, very proud!

The most recent picture of dad and me that I have on the computer. Stolen from one of his three blogs. Go visit, kay? He's an excellent writer.

I need some more pictures of us dad!

I know I have alot to post about knitting-wise right now, but I don't feel like it.

I just wanted to say that my nephew is my hero and he rocks, even if he is only two years old.

Oh, I guess I do have some knitting news. I got a bazillion knitting books from the library, I finally got my interweave knits trial mag, and I got an elann newsletter with the really nice synthetic samples in it, I especially like the micro-cable. Oh, and also, I started my dads blue socks again, I've got about four/five rows of the ribbed cuff done... I'm writing everything down so that I can do the second the exact same. I've got to learn the two socks on two circs thing, but first I have to find two circs that are small enough.

I've also been looking, when I get the chance, for really short circs for socks, that would be so cool. I think I found some too, at Make One, I think they were twelve inches. Longer than I thought they would need to be but I think now, they'd be ok. I just have to go back with money and buy them...

By the way, I went to Make One yarn studio with my dad, it was awesome! Alot of Lorna's Laces and even sari silk! I haven't seen sari silk anywhere else yet. It's a very nice store, dad fell asleep on their white leather couch in front of the coffee table buffet of yarn, bowls of brightly colored mohair and sock yarn I think. I definately have to go back and get those circs and some nice sock yarn to make my self a pair of socks.

Guess what! I moved into my basement! I just moved my computer down a couple hours ago and I love it down here. It gets a little chilly down here at night but it's perfect in the middle of the day, I also got a bigger (double) bed so now both my cats (and me!) can fit on it, cool huh? I so love having my own space, room for my yarn (a whole bookcase actually) and even space for friends. I have a couch thing and two rocker chairs and the boxes that come out from under my coffee table will have cushions on them for more seats. The only downfalls are the temperature at times and the fact that there's no bathroom down here so, to take a shower, I have to go up two flights. Not so bad if I take my showers at night. (I'll post some pics of the place another time)

So I guess I did feel like typing some stuff... Anyways, I'm uber-tired and I'm zoning out really lots. So good-night/morning...

Sick day = homework and knitting

I'm home sick again today... I just know the parents are rolling their eyes at this but whatever.

So basically, what I do when I'm home sick is knit and catch up on miles overdue homework crap. So I figured I'd make a quick but long post on my blog, seeing and it kind of falls under both categories.

Oh my goodness! I'm so excited! The spring issue of Knitty is out!!! YAYs!!!! Go look!

So I've gotten up to the heel on this sock
I'm making it with this worsted salmony colored yarn that is leftover from a sweater my mom made when she was still knitting. I can't remember my mother ever knitting anything so it must be pretty old. I think its some crummy phentex type stuff, probably won't be very nice feeling on the feet. Oh well, it's going to be my first pair of socks so I guess it doesn't really matter. If your wondering about the bluey tinge, it's my monitor being reflected in the yarn.

Oh, by the by dad, I had to unravel your sock, I realized when I was almost done the leg that I had been doing the whole pattern wrong!!! I was supposed to just knit every other row but I kept doing the pattern, that's probably why the sock was ending up all funny and wonky at the cuff.

I was in Saskatoon for the Easter weekend, visiting my baby nephew. I got his measurments for a sweater that I have now decided not to make. The yarn I had is too expensive so I decided I'm going to make this instead. But instead of it being bright orange, pink and red. It'll be very light pastel yellow and green.

While I was in sask, I was at a Wal-Mart, in the yarn section, and I found this really neat looking discount yarn, factory mill ends. There were six balls per bag. So what did I do? Bought three bags of course... I'm not quite sure what it wants to be yet though... Maybe a pillow? or three...


I also got a big ball of Bernat, something-or-other cotton. I absolutely love the colorway of this yarn!!! It's bright green and yellow and turquoise! I made my aunt a really neat washcloth and I have yet to make my sister two washcloths. If I have enough when I'm done, I'm going to make myself some jaywalkers! Bernat makes another really awesome colorway in this yarn too, it's pink, orange and yellow! Pretty. I'm going to buy a ball of that for socks too.

Speaking of my wonderful aunt... Mom and I stopped at her place on our way back home and she gave me all this really awesome stuff!!!! LOOK!
Hopefully you can see the numbers ok:
1. Bright purple handspun, hand-dyed yarn that she made me a pair of mittens out of when I was a kid.
2. Bright yellow handspun, hand-dyed yarn
3. Very pretty heathery-purple handspun, hand-dyed yarn.
4. Dark heathery-blue handspun, hand-dyed yarn
5. Dark red handspun, hand-dyed wool
6. Dark blue/purple handspun, hand-dyed wool
7. Just old Red Heart acrylic
8. Medium brown handspun, hand-dyed wool
9. Light beige handspun, hand-dyed wool
10. Heathery-magenta handspun, hand-dyed yarn
11. Dark brown handspun, hand-dyed wool
12. Bright purple acrylic
13. Huge flippin' thing of raw wool badly needing to be carded
14. Light grey-blue Chinook carded pure virgin Australian hand knitting wool
15. Black Chinook
16. Same as 14 but in original packaging
17. same as 16
18. White Chinook
19. Same as 15 but in original packaging
20. Really soft grey wool, I think it's been carded... I don't know how to tell...

THANK YOU AUNTIE WENDY!!! And gracie too! (thats her dog, she left little black hairs everywhere!)

Now I really need to get a carder... So that raw wool won't be used for quite some time.

Now, this may seem like a stupid question... but can you re-card wool thats already been spun? Like really really recylcing it?

Another link for today. A new favourite blog of mine, shes very sassy and cool and our kitties are both polydactyls!
GrrLeigh Knits

Anyways, I'm out.

Master of Procrastination and Time Wasting

Okay, I'm at school again so still no pictures on anything.

I am working on a post of a whole bunch of links and comments about websites/blogs I found. That's going to take a while, I have a lot and hopefully I'll be able to finish before my computer totally and completely crashes. I don't have space on my computer to bookmark all that crap.

I've been busy and tired lately, I'm moving myself into another area of the house and my mom and I are buying a whole bunch of new furniture... Heavy furniture. I now have a double mattress, it'll be SO nice to sleep on it. (hopefully my bed will be set up by tonight)

I'm leaving for Saskatoon tomorrow at noon and my sister doesn't have the internet so I'll see if I can finish a couple posts tonight at home, I definitely have to finish the link-full one.

In other news, my mom helped me rip up a big ol' piece of bright green fabric into strips and tie it into knots and wrap it into a ball. I'm knitting it into a make-up bag at the moment, but it has a few design flaws so I think maybe I'll frog it and make something new. Probably another makeup bag.

I'm noticing some trends in my knitting lately.... Green yarn, blue needles... hmm, coincidence?

I got this sample Creative Knitting magazine and I want to make a boucle tunic out of this dark purple boucle stuff I have that I decided not to use for a certain project, I just need to find some fine-weight dark purple cotton for the other parts... I also want to make a kids hoodie that looks really easy and quick. (for my nephew) It made of this bernat baby boucle stuff in a main color (they used lemon) and a trim. (they used white) It's got a pointed hood which I think looks really cute on kids. I just have to buy the yarn, make sure I have the right needles and get his chest measurements when I get out there so I make the right size... He's a big baby... He's not fat but he's really tall... He's growing really fast...

Also, I really need to find my camera... My moms moving shit around so I don't know if I put it somewhere or if it's buried in one of the many boxes in my living room.

Anyways, I'll try my best to get some real posts up when I get home tonight. I was supposed to stay after school for science help but my science teacher went home sick today.

Easter Egged gangsta..

I'm at school right now, so i still have no pictures for the blog, but I'll see if I can't get something on here tonight. I'm on a laptop right now... I really want a laptop...

At my house, right now, there are people putting linoleum down in my laundry room. They're also putting underlay underneath the carpet in the main basement room. I hope soon I can move down there.

Anyways, I should probably start doing some working, we actually have a interesting assignment today.

Bye

Short one (for once)

I'm at my dad's house right now and all of the pictures and projects I want to post are at my mom's so right now it'll just be short and sweet.

So in the past couple days I started a mock-cable scarf from SnBN with my green angora. I also started a shawl/capelet thing from a knitting magazine whose name I can't recall. I forgot the capelet pattern at my mom's so I ended up frogging it because it was knitting up smaller than it was supposed to anyways and it was boring stockingette. With the scarf I ended up getting bored of the stitch pattern so I just turned it into a "therapy scarf" for knitting therapy. I even made the word "therapy" and a knit/purl pattern. I'm pretty proud of it. I'm pretty much just going nuts with easy, relaxing stitch patterns that look really nice and eccentric but don't piss me off too much. So far I have simple garter stich as separators between different blocks of stich patterns, yo/k2tog, seed stich and the mock-cables.

Oh! I also finished spinning up my red/orange/pink silk.. I have never been so proud of anything I've done in my life. I've decided I love spinning and will now officially start yearning for a really nice spinning wheel that I won't be able to afford until I retire.... Depressing, ain't it?

And now I would like to show whoever the hell even reads this thing my two new favourite yarn shop websites.

Jenny Neutron Star
This place has Jenny Neutron Star and Drucilla and they are both awesome! Lots of superchunky yarns with insano-slubs and these really neat beehive thingys. I's really like to try the beehive thingys. And they also have another thing I've never seen before, some of the yarns have little stuffed animals spun right into them! Don't ask me how...

Pluckyfluff
This one is so cooool! She (i'm assuming it's a she... or shes) spins the craziest fibers! Aluminum... Aluminum! And she have yarns with whole silkworm cocoons spun in!

Oh my gosh! These two sites are so inspiring! So awesome! I finally have a rad use for those ass-nasty christmas tinsel garlands! I'm going to go buy some rexlace too... knit that up, saweeet.

KATIE MAD!!!!!!!!

I HATE CIRCULAR NEEDLES! I HATE THE MAGIC LOOP! I HATE ANGORA FINGERING!!!!!!!!!

It BROKE?!?!?! BROKE?!?!! IT BROKE!!!!!!! IT FREAKIN' BROKE!

I quit!

I have started and restarted this project about 20 times! (literally!) I've tried it on corculars with the magic loop, dpns and two circulars! I finally made some really great progress and the flipping yarn broke from a row I had just worked and I couldn't fix it before the whole thing fell apart! grrrrrrrrrrr...

Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone even read this thing? I would hold the yarn doubled but I'm not sure I have enough of it... I think I'll try it anyways. Nothing else is working...

... Ok it's working way better now, yay!
No more freaking out for a while!

Ok holy crap, nevermind... my flat screen monitor all of a sudden fell down! I caught it before it really touched anything though. It's the stupid base, the monitor just clips into it and you can't really tell if it's secure or not.

So I started to dye stuff this weekend, it was really fun! All Kool-Aid goodness. FYI, I'm smart! I am! Really! I made the prettiest olivey-brown color with lemon-lime and cherry! See? Yes, I'm smart! Look!









I couldn't really get a very good picture of the color but it doesn't look anything like the dye did. It's much darker and more brown. I think the third picture gives you a pretty good idea.

That was my tester batch. so i mixed up another batch and put in two big hanks of the yarn.
Just then, I happened to be having a moment of utter blondeness. I seemed to have forgotten that, even though I mixed the dye the same way as I had for the test batch, it would not nessicarily turn out the same. DUH! Same amount of dye + way more wool = lighter yarn and stupid katie. But I don't mind, the color that came out was actually closer to the color I had originally intended to acheive. Much more springy.

I have also discovered a way to dye my silk hankies. Just like the regular wool, of course. I just mixed up the dye and put in a corner of the hankie(s). But you've gotta make sure that the hankies don't touch the burner and burst into flames. So far, on this batch of hankies, I have one corner of strawberry and another of orange. I also intend to dye another corner with cherry and the last corner and the center of the hankies with strawberry-kiwi.

The first picture is when the hankie becomes fully saturated wich only really starts to happen when the dye gets hot. The second picture is the hankies before they're saturated, the color doesn't sink in and it just beads off or pools on top, when the hankies begin to saturate in spots, it will look like holes are forming at first, it will make the hankies very transperent but that means it's working and it will dry back to normal. (3rd picture) I thought that I had melted holes through mine! Scared the crap out of me.

With the left-over orange dye, I over-dyed a skein of my White Buffalo LAMA. I really like the result, it didn't really color the wool so much as it brightened and intensitfied the pre-existing color. Before, the yarn was also very ratty and I think it needed to be washed. Boiling it seemed to bring it back to life and puff it up a bit more, it's alot softer now.

Sooo, I think I'm done here. I love Kool-Aid, blah blah blah...

Love KT

It's wet outside

Hey, remember the angora yarn I was talking about yesterday? Well, I had this idea on the way home today that I could dye it! Duh... I wish I had thought of that before. Pink really isn't my color. So I was thinking I could do a kind of green-like color, (use up my kool-aid) although it might turn out funny because of the light pink being there. I dunno, but I plan on doing this today.

After dyeing it I think I'll make this. It looks relatively easy and it would actually be my first sweater-like object, probably the biggest something I've ever made. I want to dye the yarn to either a dark/olive green or brown, if I can figure out how to mix that, I'll probably have to use food coloring. I will dye a small sample first. (I'm not crazy)

The fuzzy pink yarn has a purpose! Let's get koolin' aid!

Knitting Overload Much?

Ok, so I created this blog a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't actually gotten around to doing a first post until today... lame, I know. That's me, the wondrous Procrastinator! So I'm afraid this entry is going to be quite um... huge. (very photo intensive...) Can I do entry cuts on blogger? You know, like the ones on LJ?

Any ways, I've started and finished many many projects over the past little while.

That was from... oooh, two/three weeks ago? Yeah, first thing you all need to know about me is that I am probably the biggest procrastinator you'll ever hear of.

This first entry is still going to be huge, even more than intended, and very photo intensive, but I will finish it.

Finished Objects

Project ID: Loopless Muff?
Ok, my first knitting project ever was a muff, you know, one of those hand-tubes from the Jackie O era? Yeah, superfun. Kind of boring and I modified it a bit because I couldn't figure out what the hell they were talking about when they said "embroidery loop stitch," I searched it and everything, about a million times over. So I just crocheted some flowers and stuff instead because I wanted to get the damn thing over with. I was very sloppy with this pattern but hey, at least I finished it eh?

Pattern: Spun Magazine: Loopy Muff
Materials; Lion Brand: Jiffy Thick N' Quick Adirondacks
Red Heart; Super Saver in some dark red color
US 7 and US 15 Needles
Time: A week?

Project ID: One-Hour Hat
This was a superfun project! I managed to knit it up in an hour or less!

I really loved the fun yo, k2tog pattern, it makes a really cool design. I saw someone else use it on a scarf with a regular garter stitch border and I think I might use up some of my stash for it too.

I cast-on with some of my leftover Jiffy Thick N' Quick for a cool lookin' brim and, instead of using the crochet flower patterns that the hat pattern suggested, I used the knit flower from the Head Huggers Patterns in Stitch N' Bitch Nation. I think it looks better knit, and I hate crochet.

Pattern: Flower Cap (scroll down to find knit pattern)
Materials: Dark teal chenille yarn (very thin and fragile) held doubled, from unraveled sweater
Lion Brand; Jiffy Thick N' Quick Adirondacks
Red Heart; Super Saver in some dark red color
US 11 needles
Time: About an hour

Project ID: Mmmm Riblets...
The name of the project is because I suddenly crave BBQ sauce smothered ribs... But, instead, I munch on overly salted sesame sticks.

Onwards, Just a simple, knit/purl rib scarf. It's kind of short, and a little stiff, but very warm. I think this scarf used up exactly one skein of Thick N' Quick

Pattern: k2, p2 repeat...
Materials: Lion Brand; Jiffy Thick N' Quick Adirondacks (yeah, I have a lot of this stuff, the muff pattern called for 3 skeins before I chose to nix the loop stitch and I still have one whole skein left)
US 15 needles

Project ID: Pink Flashy
I just could not get a good picture of this thing, it's a camera case, complete with wrist loop and strap closure. I don't know if I'm happy with this, I might have to make another one. I think the strap is too fat looking, I need to invent a different closure method, like a button or something. I used DPNS and this kinda cool boucle type yarn, patons I think.

Materials: Patons Melody Magenta
Fat DPNS

Project ID: Little Pink Bowl
This was my third-ever felted project. A crocheted pink bowl, made of this really lovely, fat wool I got from Knit One, Chat Too.

The only reason that this one is crocheted is because I couldn't figure out how to knit a bowl-shaped something.

Materials: pink, purple and orange 100% wool fat yarn.. zombie find label later.
Time: 15 min

Project ID: NO KITTY! YOUR PI!
This is the ever-popular kitty pi. I experienced a weird sense of project monogamy with this one, so it ended up going quite quickly, which was good. This was my second ever felting project and, so far, neither of my cats really uses it with out me going all pageant mom and coaching them to do so, and this bed was really meant for Mittens (cat in picture) anyway.

Hey, he just jumped into it all by himself! YAY! Good kitty...
Note: The two yarns I used for this project have been long discontinued, I got them from a thrift store (very cheap!)

Pattern: Kitty Pi
Materials: White Buffalo LAMA rusty red [100% Pure New Wool]
Papillon intense blue with orange and green slubs [55% Acrylic, 25% Wool, 10% Mohair, 5% Nylon, 5% Viscose] apparently you can make a whole sweater with just one bag of this (not suprising for 250g of the stuff)
Random fat DPNS and fat circulars
Time: Weekend plus a day or two

In Progress

Project ID: Little Blue Socks
Ok, this is pretty much my first pair of socks ever. I mean, I started another practice pair but they were boring and I wanted to get the real pair out of the way.

The first picture is of my first attempt which I had to frog because I had somehow managed to twist it somewhere, the right hand picture is of my current attempt, obviously foing well.

These are a pair of socks for my dad, he picked out the yarn (he loves bright colors) and I'm doing the knitting. This yarn was pricey for me, but , then again, I'm a high school student with no job, (get a job Katie!) so I guess it wouldn't really be that bad to anyone else. This yarn was also the first that I bought outside of Michaels or Wal-Mart, so it makes sense. I got this stuff from Pudding Yarn and it's really nice and soft and it doesn't split easily, which is a good thing because I tend to split plied yarn and then go nuts. It's very nice to work with and I can't wait to finish them. When I'm done, I plan on going back and getting more of the same yarn in orange and pink and making my self a couple of pairs.

I like the zig-zaggy pattern I'm using for these socks, it's really fun to do and sooo not boring, which is good for me with my super knitting ADD.

Pattern: MagKnits Jaywalker Socks
Materials: Skacel Kokon Bright Turquoise [35%Silk, 35%Cotton, 30%Acrylic]
5 US4 DPNS

Project ID: Freakin Fuzz...
This, my friends, is a great big (HUGE) ball of very light pink angora fingering thant I unwound from a sweater/tee that looked crappy on me. (it accentuated my wide shoulders, something normal t-shirts shouldn't do) I absolutely hated unraveling this thing because it is two ply and soooo thin it broke about a million times.

The reason this is a WIP is because I'm going to make something out of it, I just have no idea what yet... I tried to do this, but I kept screwing up after a few rows and I couldn't fix it without frogging it and starting over. So the idea is that I want to do something lacey and I have alot of this so I think maybe I'll do a shrug or something... We'll see I guess.

BTW my camera takes kick-ass pictures, it just has to have kick-ass lighting.

Other News:

I am now the proud owner of a ball-winder! YAY! My mom took me out to DeWinton (just outside of Calgary) on the weekend, when I was really sick. We went to this place called Shuttleworks Ltd. owned by a really nice man whose name I've forgotten. (sorry!) They have tonnes and tonnes of Brown Sheep stuff which is what I originally intended to buy there. I ended up buy absolutely no wool (I'll be back though) but I got two drop spindles, big and small, a ball winder, and 100 g of natural white cultivated silk hankies. I'm so excited!!!

We also went to Safeway to get some Kool-Aid to dye the silk, but now I'm hearing people say Kool-Aid isn't strong enough for silks. Is this true? Will it work at all or will I just get pastels or stripes? Can I handpaint with Kool-Aid? How?

If anyone actually reads this yet, please help! Leave a comment.

The yarn on the smaller spindle is some cotton wadding from the inside of a new Cold-FX pill bottle. It spun up quite nice. I want more now. (the cotton, not the pills)

I wound all of this yarn the night I bought this winder, and it was fun! This is almost all of my stash except for a few skeins that are in use at the moment.Try and count 'em! It's like the game where you guess the jellybeans in the jar!

Ok! I think I'm finally done! Yay for me!

See ya later,
Katie