Mom's Fable Mittens

I knit a pair of fable fingerless mitts a few months ago for my mom- just in time for the weather to warm up, of course. I finally took pictures of them last weekend.



My mom loved them. I knit it in alpaca, which we got from the DFW Fiber Fest. I knit it in the round, and made them a bit longer than the pattern calls for.



Again, I'm still moping. I'm almost done with my Multnomah shawl now, but I've been wrestling it since yesterday because apparently I can't read or count. I'm just ready for it to be done. My friend Jozy keeps telling me I should be knitting bunnies, so we'll see if that's the next project I cast on...

The Weekend of Giraffes...

That was essentially my entire last weekend. I finally decided that no, three were enough considering I don't have a clue what I want to do with them. I'll probably give one of them to my sister, but still.



Along with baking those cupcakes, I knit these while listening to Heat Wave, by Richard Castle. I think I would have enjoyed the book considerably more if I hadn't disliked the narrator so much. I have a feeling the book invoked a lot of silliness that the narrator simply couldn't portray, although he did a great job of making me feel like I was in the middle of an old mystery movie.



This weekend, I pretty much spent the entire time knitting, listening to audiobooks, and watching the Mentalist. I know, I live such a thrilling life. I've been listening to the Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones. I *adored* these books growing up, and I'm onto one I never read as a kid: Conrad's Fate. I'm only a few chapters in, but I think I need to relisten to the last one because I was rather distracted.

Monkey is in New Jersey with two of his sisters, his brother in law, his mom, and his step-dad. I think he get's back to Texas next Monday, which feels like an eternity away. Even then, I don't know if he'll even be able to come up and visit. I hope so. I have grand plans to whisk him away on a date night to get coffee and frozen yogurt. I've been craving both. And I've been thinking a lot about when we went on our first (non)date. I think I'll definitely have to get into that more in another post.

Well, I'm off to listen and knit! I'm on the feather and fan border of my Multnomah shawl, and it's a pain in the butt so far. Hopefully I'll get the knack of it soon enough.

Thanks Blogspot.

I really love it when I type up an entire post, click save now, then click publish post and have the entire thing eaten. That really makes my day. So here's a really terrible rehash of what I tried to say the first time.

I'm being pathetic. Moping, whining to Monkey, and knitting. Last weekend I baked.



Ooh. Yum. Chocolate, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Toasted Marshmallow Cupcakes.

Frosting = scene from I Love Lucy. Very, very messy.



Entirely too rich for my tastes, Monkey likes them though. I'll be using the cookie dough again, but not the rest of the recipe unless I'm trying to go in a diabetic coma.

Really craving brownie edges, anyone want to help a girl out?

(And yes, I know, this is terrible. I'm really ticked off now and after putting this post off for a week, I don't want to write it again, so the terrible writing is going to stay.)

Life in the Zoo

Last weekend may have been my most hermit-like weekend ever. I didn't leave my apartment whatsoever. I didn't talk to anyone in person. I watched TV, cleaned my apartment, and knit. That was essentially it. You'd think that in my very knit-centric weekend, I would have gotten a lot of progress done on my knitting, but unfortunately, I didn't. I finished my Lemon Giraffe



TOO CUTE. It makes me really happy. I knit the majority of it Friday, while watching Bones and Castle season finales with Tyler. I finished it that night, and stayed up way too late to do so. The head and ears confused me, and I wound up cutting the yarn in the wrong place, but once I figured out I could enlarge the picture of it on the pattern, duh, I finished it pretty easily. I love it- it's adorable! I've already started on another one in shades of brown. I'm thinking I'll probably make another one in yellow and give it to my sister- it seems like something she'd like. Maybe I'll even knit a larger one by doubling the stitches. All the possibilities.



Another thing I worked on was a container house for the hamsters. I had saved a special K cereal bars box for this purpose. I pulled off all the extra bits of cardboard and started painting it on Saturday. A billion coats later, and I'm still painting over it. It's super cute, and it'll help make me look less like a five year old with a billion stuffed animals laying around.

I also worked on my clapotis scarf. Um. Yeah. Let's just say despite the fact I worked on it for the majority of the weekend, I didn't manage to make essentially any progress. I had to frog it three times, and now I have a bunch of tangled yarn and I'm just ready to be DONE with it. I'd much rather be knitting toys. They're less frustrating. Normally I save longer projects like scarves for going to class and such, but I haven't managed to memorize the pattern (and I'm low on printing funds...) so it's been living in my apartment. I wanted to have it done by today, but I sincerely doubt that's going to happen.

Summer Stash Down

This summer, I'll be in Norman for eight weeks, sans friends, family, and significant other. What I will have, however, are classes, books, cable, wifi, and best of all, yarn. Lots and lots of yarn.

I have grand plans for this summer in terms of productivity. I have morning classes so I'll be forced to get out of bed at a reasonable hour. After that, I'll skip to the library to do any homework and studying for the class. And after THAT, I'll change and hit the gym for an hour. Once I get those few things done, I'm going to be free as a bird to do whatever I want. I strongly suspect that whatever I want will include lots of knitting.

Obviously, I have high expectations. Given my level of sheer laziness, I'm going to be lucky if I get half as much done as I intend to.

Two (?) weeks ago, I at least managed to finish my Fable Mitts, but I gave them to my mom and forgot to snap a shot before I left. I'll update with more about them when I get a chance for a photo.

However, I'm not entirely without photos! Today I finished a hat and a hamster. Let's start with the hamster.



I'm not sure what his/her name is, I'm waiting for Monkey to get back from campus to name the hamster. What I do know about this hamster is that the yarn is from my SO's mom, who got it from her mom. The yarn is probably older than I am, scratchy as all hell, and generally awful to work with. It's no wonder it was pristine when I got it. But, it made a cute hamster, and I suspect the rest of the ball will be employed in a similar fashion. This little buddy is going to be stowed away in Monkey's things to keep him company when he's so far away.



The other thing I've finished is this hat! It's my Irish Hiking. After my initial attempt at casting on, I realized it was wide enough to fit around my waist and then some. So instead I CO 60 stitches. I used more caron one pound (ugh) and I still have a ridiculous amount left.



And now I'm off to knit more toys and to love on Monkey before he goes home. I think it's proabbly a bit telling that he's watching Planet of the Apes... And he makes fun of me for watching Doctor Who!

Exam Induced Stupidity

I'm not entirely certain as to why, but every time I feel the looming doom of exams, I panic. Now, I don't stay up all night studying, or go into hyper-drive. I don't get a good night sleep, and eat a nutritious breakfast.

Nope, what I do is worse. Much, much worse.

I decide to watch something.

My senior year of high school, it was the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. I managed to watch all three in two nights. I bet you can guess how much studying I got done then.

My freshman year of college, it was 21 Jump Street. Monkey and I settled in the 12th floor TV lounge in my dorm, armed with more Taco Bell than should ever be eaten in a lifetime and watched Johnny Depp into deep into the night. I think my resulting C in Botany should have been a testament as to why that was a bad idea.

Now, it's exam time again and what am I doing? Watching Doctor Who. I've watched two episodes so far in this stupid marathon, but I want more. I don't want to go back to studying. I want to knit and mindlessly watch the television... It is really just too alluring.

Maybe I do this because I'm secretly self-loathing and I want myself to fail. Maybe watching TV shuts down my increasing panic about tests. Maybe I'm just plain boneheaded and should just live in the library until Thursday afternoon.



In any case, at least this bout of insanity has prompted some productivity. I finished my Mara shawl! It's beautiful. I was worried that the ruffle wouldn't be proportionate to the garter stitch section of the shawl, but it was fine. I used Madeline Tosh Merino DK, and to be honest, I'm not overly impressed with this yarn. It's not as soft as I'd expect it to be, but I have yet to block this shawl. I bought the yarn at the DFW Fiber Fest, and the colors in the Madeline Tosh booth were absolutely stunning, and the color of this shawl perfectly matches some of my nail polish. I think it may take some serious willpower for me to not parade around in this shawl tomorrow in the ridiculous heat.

At any rate, I think I'll actually go to bed now. I'm hoping to wake up at a decent hour and just camp out in the library until I feel somewhat prepared for my Tuesday exam. I'm hoping that I can get that done reasonably quickly so I can resume the utterly idiotic plan of finishing the third season of Doctor Who before this semester is over.

Vinterblomster Redux

Whoops! You know that thing? Where I said I was going to blog every other day? Yeah that went to hell in a handbasket recently. I could give excuses, but I'm not even going to get into that right now.

I will say what I've been doing since my last blog post- a fat lot of nothing.

Well, that's not entirely true. I've been making very bad decisions about food, including a disasterous home-made pudding that I should have left well enough alone while it was cooling and instead I have a grainy mess. I haven't been knitting either, to add more shame to this confession. I've so brain dead lately that all I've been wanting to do is go to bed and sleep for the next hundred years. So I don't have much to update, other than I'm slowly trucking away on my Mara shawl, and one other thing.

Do you remember those mittens I've been complaining about for the past, I don't know, four months? Yeah, THOSE mittens. Those gorgeous colorwork flowery cuteness of mittens?



Well I finally finished the first one. I didn't weave in the ends. I didn't do the thumb in pattern. I kind of pretended to block it, mostly to allievate my fears taht all those darn wrinkles would go away. I even managed to cast on the second mitten! Granted, I'm not even at the real cuff yet, but it's more progress than I've made in several months. I'm not even going to dwell on it. Instead, I'm going to continue enjoying my strawberry limeade, knitting on this second godforsaken mitten, and pretend I don't need to go to the library to work on accounting homework that I'm hopelessly behind on.

Maybe I'll even get frisky and put on some Doctor Who. You never know.

Just a Quick Project

A few days ago I knit the Peyote Pincushion. This was such a super quick project it almost merits no comment.


When I first learned to knit, I wasn't nearly as obsessed as I am now. For one thing, it took me about a year to learn how to purl. It took my friend Veronica showing me ravelry before I finally stopped knitting (terrible) garter stitch scarves. Because of that long lull in learning, I knit a lot of garter stitch scarves.

And by a lot, I mean a lot.




The yarn for this project was frogged from one of those scarves. I think it's a Bernat Satin Solid, though don't quote me on that. Other than knowing it came from Michael's and is thinner than worsted weight, I don't really know much about this yarn.

I knit this in the round, rather than seaming because, well, I hate seaming with a passion. For whatever reason, I can't figure out mattress stitch. I'm not sure what I do wrong, but there's always at least one section that, well, isn't pretty. I also only knit on one button because I didn't have another one like this one. I just sewed the button to the bottom of the pincushion.

This turned out quite a bit smaller than I thought it would- it's roughly the size of a clementine. Some of the pins stick through at the bottom if you're not careful. I intend to knit quite a few more, though probably with a larger weight of yarn.

This blog post is brought to you due to the fact that I, the queen of clear thinking, got on the bus at the wrong time this morning and was an hour early to my Friday class. I fully intend to annoy my SO into buying me a Starbucks when he gets out of his class. Nom nom nom.

And Now for Something Different!

First off, the Easter Hamsters are going fabulously. I've finished three so far, and I have two more on the needles. I bet I can get 24 before Monday.

Lest you think my brain is entirely taken over by toys, I finally took a photo of a project I finished a while ago. Not a great photo, but hey. I'll take what I can at this point.



This is Ester Bitran Hand-Dyes Linares yarn that my SO bought me. It was my first yarn that wasn't bought from a big box store and holy goodness I absolutely hate it. The colors are gorgeous, and it was so pretty and shiny in the skein. I had original plans to knit a very drapey, loosely knit vest, but that plan very quickly got abandoned. This yarn is a beast to work with. Not only is it splitty beyond all belief, if it catches on anything, including a rough spot on your hand, it frizzes up and won't return to its original smooth shape.

Plus it smells funny.



When I frogged the project, it was painful. Next I tried to knit Aubrey. While I'm sure the pattern is perfectly fine, it looked like cat vomit in this yarn. This coupled with the fact that I knit the majority of this while watching trashy TV shows with my dear friend Veronica. That was a very bad idea at the time because I was a new knitter and couldn't really read my stitches- so the entire thing was freakishly lopsided. I snapped a photo and threw it the back corner of my room and tried to forget about it for a while.

Finally, while going through some of my scraps, I came across the balls of yarn that weren't eaten up with my Aubrey. Grudgingly, I realized that I really should do something with that yarn, if only so I don't have to look at it anymore and get angry. It was after my recent success with my Baktus, I decided that it was perfect! Nothing could go wrong.

Except the fact that it was hideous. I don't think I even really made a dent in it before I frogged it.

Finally, out of sheer frustration, I found La La's Simple Shawl. I started knitting and was pleasantly surprised. Not only was the yarn not looking like cat barf, but the pattern was really simple. I think it took me all of two seconds to memorize, and I happily dragged this project along with me everywhere. I love autopilot knitting. While complicated knitting is fun, I can only really work on it when I'm alone in my apartment, so it's easier to have autopilot knitting.

This wound up being engaging enough that I wasn't bored, but simple enough that I could listen to lectures or engage in conversations while knitting. And the end result really makes me happy. Although I still hate this yarn.

A New and Fabulous Idea

DISCLAIMER: Sorry about the derailing of the knit and crochet blog week- life has gotten in the way of my taking photos. I do intend to finish out the week, but blogging has been on the back burner in favor of a seriously terrifying accounting exam. To make up for it, here's a post I wrote a week or so ago!

Well, I've done it. I've come up with a spectacularly excellent idea. Today, I had a brief conversation with my mom about a variety of things. Mostly she complimented me on my cooking. She had dental surgery last Friday and has been essentially living off the soup I made for her. (Black Bean Tortilla Soup, my absolute favorite, especially with a dollop of sour cream and shredded cheddar on top, and Spinach Soup which is most excellent with shredded Monterey jack cheese). Anyways. When we were talking, she mentioned how my sister had been sleeping in her own bed.

My sister. Ah. How to explain her.


This is Jenny. She has a duck on her head. Don't ask me why.

Jennifer is approximately ten years younger than I am, and opposite of me in almost every way. I love reading, always have. She hates it and only does it by force. I was shy, quiet, and antisocial (I'm less quiet, but the other two hold pretty steady). Jenny is loud, outgoing, and a social butterfly. I could entertain myself for weeks on end without another person. She needs constant entertainment. I was a pain in the neck to my parents until I was about ten, she was an absolute doll to my parents until recently when she started giving them a run for their money.

Even with these differences, I love her to bits. She can be the sweetest kid in the universe when she wants to be, and I'm so glad that I have her around. As crazy as she drives me, I miss her like crazy when I'm in Oklahoma. I keep trying to convince my parents to let me have her for a weekend, but the whole driving up to meet me deters them.

One of Jenny's most obvious traits is that she loves animals. We have essentially a zoo in our house, and Jennifer loves. As if one dog, three birds, and countless (and named) fish weren't enough, she's adopted the cat across the street and tortures it on it a daily basis with her affection.


Jennifer's attack-bird. She loves this stupid thing more than anything else.

So when I showed Jenny the hamsters I had knit for myself, she immediately begged for some of her own. She only has two at the moment, but I expect that will change soon.

She's been asking for more hamsters for a while now, but the conversation with my mom sealed the deal. Jenny had been sleeping on a dog bed next to my parents' bed for years. I'm not entirely certain as to why, but once I left for OU, she was too scared to sleep in her own room, upstairs. When I came home last week, my parents had a break through. They had finally gotten her to sleep in her own room and it seems to be sticking. My mom let me in on the secret to the success. Every day, Jennifer has been laying the hamsters out on her bed. When it's time for Jenny to go to bed, she moves the hamster to a chair next to her bed, facing her so they can watch her and "protect" her while she sleeps.

I think it's the most adorable thing in the universe.

So I'm knitting her at least a dozen more hamsters for Easter. I'm going to put them each in an Easter egg and give them to my mom to hide for Jennifer. I think that'll be a great surprise for her, since I'm not sure I'll be home to celebrate with her. I'm ridiculously excited about this, and going to start knitting them ASAP.

Finally, because this post isn't long and ramble-y enough, lest you think Jennifer's the only one who loves animals, this is my favorite animal/dinosaur ever.



This is Koo Koo, the most evil, self absorbed, boneheaded animal on the planet. I love her to death. My SO says this is because she's exactly like me- selfish to the point of stupidity but her affections can eventually be bought with her favorite foods. Plus she doesn't know when to shut up.