Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

     I'm going to dive right in with this one.  I got the third and final installment in the Mad Geek Tour; Where No Color Has Gone Before.   This month it was four mini skeins of Doolally in Command Gold, Science Blue, Expendable, I mean, Engineering/Security Red and good old black.  All the renditions of the uniforms had black somewhere, boots, trousers or basically the whole uniform into the later seasons...  Which coincidently are my favorite of all the uniforms.  Alrighty... off topic.  This bundle is called To Go Boldy.  Since they came as a bundle I think I need to do something fair isle with them, maybe a hat...  Since this was the end of the tour I also received the Jessalu bag.  It is awesome, as I expected it to be. It of course follows the Trek theme.  I love the caricature nature of the little people.  I immediately turned it all over looking at them and figuring out who...

     So I've been at my new job for a little over a month.  Its going well.  Moving to a smaller city and working at a smaller hospital was all part of our master plan.  I'm training in Blood Bank right now, the next department will be chemistry in another week or two.  I'm looking forward to working on the Vistas again.  Its been about a year now since I've done chemistry so I'm really looking forward to it.  Alright back to more exciting things like knitting and yarn!      Back around Christmas time, before I knew I'd be moving, I joined the Mad Geek Tour for January, February and March with the theme being "Where No Color Has Gone Before".  I've gotten two of the three installments:  This is Doomsday Machine on Doolally.  I love the blues and purples.  That was January. This is Resistance is Futile on Stalwart.  The grays with the pop of green is absolutely perfect.  I've had a...

     So, I've been a bit quiet here.  It's because hubs and I moved.  We are now residing in Watertown, NY.  We have both gotten new jobs and found ourselves a nice quiet apartment just a few miles off the beaten path.  Packing up all of our things and moving them up here has taken up all my time for the last two weeks.  Upstate asked me to stay as long as I could feasibly.  So last week I commuted back and forth to Syracuse.  I like to drive, I don't mind being in a car for lengthy amounts of time.  However, two hours a day is not fun.  My last day was yesterday and we had one doozy of a storm system come in fast at night.  I made it back to Watertown okay, but wowee it was a bit rough in a couple places.  I'm really glad the commute is over.  Hubs has been wonderful and gotten our new apartment all unpacked and in order.  He made it a home in just a few days!  We're still working out all the...

     Before I get into looking back at 2014 and my knitoultions from last year; it's time to catch up on my last two projects.  I finished and blocked the hat I made from the Bamtastic yarn.  The pattern is Caramel Slouch.   It's a Tincanknits pattern.  They put out some amazing hat patterns.  The recommended yarn is wool based which makes the pattern hold its shape better.  The Bamtastic is 60% bamboo which makes it extremely drapey and loose.  I probably should have knit it at a slightly tighter gauge.  I have not delivered this to the customer yet, so I'm a bit worried she wont like it.  It's quite a bit more open than my usual stockinette.  I would like to knit up the pattern again with a high wool content yarn just to see the difference in fabric.       I also finished the second, adult sized, Sassafras for Christina.  I used MadTosh DK in the Chickory color...

     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 o...

     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 finishe...

     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 originall...