Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

     I caved and picked up some new buttons the last time I was at Wally World.  I was going for both washable and cute since all my items needing buttons are for children.  I then had a little button sewing party on my night off.  In no particular order: I got a whole package of these, flowers are always a good choice for little girls.   I originally got the daisy buttons for just the Solis Entrechat, but the yellow center looked so good with the browns of Piedras, I just couldn't resist. Jordan was nice enough to model this for me.  This is Sassafras   and its reversible! So it can be worn as a slouch or a beanie.  I thought the design was ingenious.  It's a nice easy pattern and very pretty.  Christina had admitted that it does occasionally get cold enough for her to wear a hat and having a matching one wouldn't be too dorky.  I got a second button in anticipation that I could get another skein of the MadTosh DK in Hosta Blue.  I went to the open house at t

     I've got some updates and some more new yarn.  First off, I finally finished Lilac Wish.  I even got it blocked too! It's huge.  I had to use six blocking boards.  (I hurt my neck pinning it all out... I need to clean my craft room.)  The nupps show up much better now. Here is a finished but unblocked closeup of the beads. The Lilac Wish Lace pattern  is excellent.  It's both charted and written.  I thought it was nice and clear and easy to follow.  It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did.  If I hadn't dawdled I probably could've gotten it done in a month.  Now that its December and I'm starting to look forward to 2015, I should admit I didn't knit 12 shawls in 2014.  This is number seven.  I am hoping to at least start number eight before the year is out.        I've also finished the hat Helen requested.  I don't have finished pictures of it though.  Even though its just a hat, I think I'm going to block it, since its an al

     In preparation for knitting White Whiskers  I've purchased some more Cascade 220 Superwash Sport to supplement what I have already.  I've also purchased the pattern, but I've realized I need to get some more needles, I think.  I'll be putting this pattern on the back burner for the time being.  I have several other projects ahead of this hat, even though I really really want to ignore everything else and knit this up.  Here are the three new colors I picked up: I think I'm going to do gray cats with the turquoise back-ground and yellow cats with the dark green back-ground.  I'll have to figure out which other colors to use.  The hat needs four colors not including the little bits of white for the white whiskers.  I really enjoyed using the 220 Superwash Sport the last time I used it for a colorwork hat.  It's soft and durable, decent yardage for the price and its machine washable.  That's why I originally did a search for sport weight stran

     I'm joining Tammy over at Life and Yarn or Yarn and Life for a stitch along.  I've been working on two projects in the last few weeks.  Usually I'm pretty monogamous with my projects at least until I get side tracked or hit a hiccup.  I've been working on a shawl since the middle or so of August.  Its a nice shawl pattern but I think I'm a bit shawled out or something, I've been putting that aside often to work on other things.  I made some good progress, then I ran short on yarn.  I decided to get more as opposed to just binding off where I ran short.  I managed to get another skein in the same color.  Here is my progress so far, I just have a few rows to go on the last chart. It's a crappy picture, but shows the lace decently.  I've put beads in this as well.  The yarn is Holiday Yarns Flock Sock in the color Lavender Buds.  The pattern is Lilac Wish Lace Shawl.   It'll be interesting to see how much this grows when I block it.     

     I partook in some cold sheeping this year for the purposes of conserving my craft space and with the hopes of saving up some funds.  Sadly, the Hubbs and I suck at saving money and well, I really like yarn.  So, for at least a little bit here, I'm off my self proclaimed fiber diet.  When I was perusing my stash the other day I realized I've been remiss in sharing my most recent acquisitions.  Back in April I decided to sign up for Expression Fiber Arts April club.  She gives out the theme or an inspiration photo but the yarn is a surprise when it comes in the mail.  Candi called this one Happiness, it's 100% silk in worsted weight.  I talked about the shearing festival in May and the yarn and fiber I acquired from that.  Also in May, some Malabrigo Rios in the Sunset colorway found its way home with me.  I think they had been buried in the shop for quite a long time. This photo doesn't do this colorway justice.  Its very golden and warm.  They have the old

     As I stated in my last blog, I had done some sewing for a swap and I couldn't show off my new experiments.  Well, my swappee has gotten her package so now I can!  I ended up doing a fair amount of sewing for that swap, which I'm fairly proud of.  So, first up, the now familiar drawstring bag: Well actually its everything because I packed up the box the moment I finished the needle roll and was taking the pictures hastily and at night...  In front of the drawstring bag is a zippered notions pouch.  There are several tutorials on Pinterest so I just picked one and ran with it.  The dimensions I used for my fabrics were 7 1/2 inches by 6 inches.  Basically, you want to be just slightly wider than your zipper and then the depth of the bag is totally up to you.  The method I used doesn't have any fabric tabs on either side of the zipper.  This eliminates the pucker that can happen when that method is used.  I also interfaced the outside fabric, to add stability, and I bo

     So last time I promised pictures of the sewing I've been doing.  Here goes:    This isn't even all of them.  I've made two more since I took pictures.  One of the new bags is for a swap, so pictures will come later, but I really love the fabric I found for that one.  The other bag that's not pictured here is a duplicate of the blue floral one in the middle there.  I had to fudge the dimensions on those two bags since the blue and purple batik I was using was on the small side.  Here is the pattern/tutorial I've been using:  In Color Order; Bag Tutorial .  I've been sharing it every chance I get.  Its' a really great tutorial, its relatively easy and the bags turn out pretty darn nice, if you ask me.  The designer is also local to me.   Here is a shot of the insides of these bags: I've been having far too much fun choosing fabric combinations.  I have found that I prefer to use cotton cord for the drawstrings.  It's easier than making fabr

     The end of July and beginning of August proved to be a bit rough for me, so I apologize for my blogging absence.  On July 26th we made the decision to put Pookie down.  It ultimately was my decision and it was not an easy one.  She had had some ongoing health issues the most significant of which was incontinence.  It seems a bit harsh, but really, I just got sick of cleaning up her bloody s#*%.  Overall she was a pretty miserable cat, but there were those special moments when she endeared herself to both me and my husband so yes, it is a loss.  We had discussed her ultimate end many times before, it was something we knew we would have to do eventually, so we had already discussed "getting a replacement for Pookie".  Even so, I was mopey and really depressed after that Saturday.  I perused the web for adoptable cats that evening, which in turn made me even more depressed.  So the next day, Sunday, hubs took me cat shopping.  The thought of picking out a cat the very next

      Well I sort of dropped off the map there for a bit.  I got busy the week of Knit Crochet Blog week.  I got behind and then never caught up.  I was thinking about doing a book review for the day we're supposed to do something really different.  I have some time at work to read again, so I've been going through all the books I read partway through and then dropped.  It feels really good to be reading again.  More on that later, most likely.      I didn't do much knitting in the month of May.  It was the "in-between time" for Nerd Wars.  I worked on Holden sporadically and didn't actually finish it in May.  There have been some big changes with Nerd Wars, or at least they seemed like they would be big.  Now that we're all back, it's pretty normal already.  Dyeing has been added as an acceptable craft answer for the challenges.  This, of course, makes me super happy.  My first challenge submission this round was some yarn I dyed.  I've been kni