Arabelle

First I saw this. Which led me to this. And that led me to this. So, of course I had to buy this.

Then, I made this!



I can't tell you how much I love this bug. It was so fun to make and I think it came out so well! I may need to knit more of them, in different colors. It hardly took me any time at all to whip this up. The felting was a little tedious, but somehow also rewarding when it came out so well.

I made a few changes to the pattern after reading Grace's blog post about her ant. The pattern calls for the head of the ant to be huge. But I liked how Grace's looked better, so I swapped the butt and the head. I also put bent paperclips into the legs to make them a little sturdier. I made the antennae a little longer than the pattern called for. One of them also seems a little thicker than the other. So I may have cast on one too many stitches for one of them!

The eyes are needle felted on, using a bit of fiber from one of the needle felting kits I purchased at MDS&W. The needle felting tool actually turned out to be quite handy. After I hand felted the knitted pieces, there were a few little holes here and there. I used scraps of yarn and the needle felting tool to fill them in. It worked perfectly.



I suppose I should mention that the yarn was some leftover Cascade 220 that I had in my stash.

I'm not quite sure why I'm obsessed with making knitted toys, but I am! I think I may need to make the bee next. I am also loving the lobster. I may have to get that pattern too!

My latest baby sweater is almost done. Many thanks to Jolene, who very kindly sewed all the seams for me last night at knitting group! She's the best! I finished the button bands and the collar this evening at work, but there is still a few ends to be sewn in and I need to find buttons for it. I shall reserve pictures of it until it is finished. Besides, I want to gripe about the pattern in a full post!

Ta Da!


Knitting is DONE! Holy crap people, I knit a sweater! Yep, that's Arwen, knitting complete and blocking away. Now I just have to sew this baby together - it will be a challenge, I'm sure! Blocking wasn't easy. I grafted the hood together before I blocked it, so it is one really long piece. Trying to find a place to big enough to spread this out was a chore. (I couldn't even get the whole thing in one picture!) But I managed. I measured, I pinned, I finagled. Now I keep hovering over it checking to see if it's dry yet!

I am so excited! I knit a sweater! I guess I should temper my excitement until I get it sewed together. It could be a nightmare. But I'm hoping for the best.

I had to reknit the left sleeve yesterday. I am not sure where my mistake was, but it turned out much smaller than the right sleeve. So I ripped back and added some rows. I had to cheat a bit to make it work. (I didn't want to have to rip out the hood and front panel just to fix the sleeve.)

Hopefully, by Wednesday or so... I will have a completed sweater to show you!

I've been looking around on the internet to find a button. The pattern doesn't call for one, but I think I want one toggle button on it. Sadly, I have something specific in my mind, and I can't find anything close.

In other news... I have a new toy!


My mom gave me her old sewing machine. Something else for me to obsess about! I've been kind of playing with it a bit, but I'm still new. I haven't really used a sewing machine since I was a kid, so I quite rusty. But I'm happy to have it, and hopefully I'll eventually learn how to use it properly.

I'm getting very excited for Sheep and Wool! It's only a few days away! HURRAY!

Here are a few cute pictures for you...

Poodle in motion!

Impossible to get her to sit still for a picture!

Thirsty kitty

That's one of my sister's cats - Cookie. She's having a little drink. And the goldfish is having a little heart attack!

Wee Distractions



Sometimes, you just need to take a break from miles and miles of stockinette and make yourself a cow!




This is Pepe and I love him. Jody came into knitknite on Monday with a copy of Simply Knitting magazine. It's a British magazine and I had never seen it before. After I saw the "Farmyard Frolics" patterns, I immediately went to Border's and bought my own copy. In this month's issue, there are patterns for cows, sheep and horses. In the April issue, there will be patterns for pigs, chickens and geese. SO CUTE! I may need to make one of each animal. The cow was super easy and fast to make. He is made out of some Nature Spun I had in my stash.

Arwen continues. I am pleased to say that I am finished with the back.

I know it looks like a comforter for a queen sized bed, but it's just my gigantic sweater back. It's not nearly that orange in real life.


I cast on for the left front last night, but the cable panel is vexing me completely. I'm not sure what the problem was, but it has been ripped and restarted. I haven't gotten to the cable panel again yet, but hopefully it will go better the second time around.

I took another pause from Arwen earlier this week to make this:


I seem to have a lot of leftover sock yarn, so I thought baby socks would be a good way to use some of it up. This came out a little, um, round but I think it will stretch comfortably over a baby's foot. I am almost to the heel on the second one. This will be a gift for a co-worker's baby boy who will be arriving in June (I think... maybe July...) My co-worker asked if I could make a string on the socks that goes through the baby's pants, (like you would put on a pair of mittens) because his other son lost so many socks when he was a baby. Interesting concept.... anyone else ever heard of such a thing?

And one last FO to show you...


It is the finally finished Baby Kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting.
The lovely and talented Jolene was kind enough to do the finishing on this for me. Despite Pepe's good looks, I am not so good with the sewing!

Came out pretty cute, huh? This is a gift for the baby of one of the trumpet players in the orchestra at the theatre. He hasn't been around in awhile, so the baby may have already arrived. Hopefully, he'll turn up soon so I can give this to him!

Babies everywhere! Boy boy boy boy!


And finally... a little hint of spring....

Monkey Heaven


After my post yesterday about my plethora of UFO's, I decided to hunker down and finish my Monkey Socks. I worked on it during my show last night and was ready to graft the toe by the time I got home.

Monkey Socks
Yarn: Briar Rose Sweet Freedom - a fabulous gift from Carolyn (with help from Maryse!)
Needles: well..... I started them magic loop, two at the same time on a size 2 circular, but I changed to size 1 DPNS for the heel through the toe. It was a good decision to switch needle size. They would have been too big in the foot if I had stayed on the size 2's.
Monkeyfications: I did an extra pattern repeat for a longer leg.



I like them and I'm happy to have them done!

So, what the hell with the crazy weather yesterday??? The 70° spring weather on Thursday, gave way to this:



The Poodle loved it, but as much as I LOVE snow, I could have done without this mess! Driving to work last night was completely horrendous. I passed four cars that had slid off the road. When I got to the theatre, I found out that one of the cars I passed was one of the actors. Fortunately, he and his car were both fine, but it was scary. He said he just completely lost control and went sliding into a ditch.

The roads are much clearer today, but it is still cold and windy out. Maybe spring will come back again next week!

Rainy Yucky Day

I don't think it could possibly be any more miserable outside today. It's COLD and rainy. Very rainy. I should mention that yesterday morning, the temperature was 7o°. Today, it is currently 35°. There are ice pebbles on my car. The stream in the back yard is a raging white water river. We're in a flood watch. Miserable. Spring came in and then apparently decided to reconsider.

On top of the miserable weather, I'm not feeling great either. I think I have a little spring cold. Coughing, runny nose, icky.

Fortunately, I don't have to be anywhere until my show tonight. So I spent the day watching movies and knitting. Always a good combination.

My knitting ADD is rearing it's ugly head again. I have way too many projects on the needles.


Second Monkey Sock

So close to finishing. And yet, I'm stalled.



Second Anemoi Mitten

Gotta say, the rediculously warm spring weather we had been having made me less inclined to work on mittens. But I do love them and want to finish them!


Picovoli

I have become disenchanted with this. I just don't like it. I'm not sure if I'll rip it or what, so for now it just languishes on the needles.


The above is a baby hat for Jolene's collection. I hate it and will rip it and start over.

So, with all these projects going.... What is this???



That my friends, is the back of the Cardigan for Arwen.

I've been thinking about this pattern for a long time so I finally decided to cast on. I started it on Wednesday, March 14. (Actually, I really started it on Monday, March 12 - but there was a horrible accident involving me being completely stupid, so I had to rip and start over.) I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far, though the endless stockinette is fairly mind numbing. I'm looking forward to starting the front so there will be cables to keep me interested. I really really want to finish this. I hope I can stay focused and interested. Begone knitting ADD!

I know I am a little late with this, but I wanted to give big congratulations to our pal Eunny. I am so excited for her and for all of us knitters who will benefit from this amazing news!
Hooray for you friend!

Knit One, Zoo Too

I have started this post about 4 times now, but for some reason, I keep tripping over my words. I don't think my brain is functioning today. It is managing the basic needs, like breathing, but trying to form actual thoughts is a challenge!

It has been a slow week around here. I am currently between kid shows at the theatre, so I have had way too much time on my hands. I have managed to be productive though. I have been on a spring cleaning rage. I have finally cleaned out the "junk room" in an effort to maybe some day have a craft room. There have been many many trips to the Salvation Army and I think the garbage men probably hate me, but I am pleased to say that there is actually a floor in there now! There is still a great deal I want to accomplish in there, but I'm really pleased with the progress so far. There is something mentally cleansing about getting rid of clutter. I thought about taking before and after pictures, but really, the before picture would have been embarassing!

On Wednesday, we had a freak snow "storm" here in Maryland. It was rediculous - they canceled schools. It was barely a dusting! And both of my main stage shows got canceled. Faced with the prospect of yet another day at home, I called S. and begged him to get me out of the house. We decided that a trip to the zoo in the snow might be fun. Actually, I decided and somehow managed to convince S.

The last time I was at the zoo, back in warmer days, I got in a conversation with a volunteer at the panda pavillion. She told me that the best time to come see the pandas was when it was snowing. She said they were at there most active during a snow storm, rolling down the hill, playing in the snow and having a good time. I used this information in my efforts to persuade S.



Active? Playing in the snow? How about... Panda with a hangover?


Don't bother Mommy, she has a headache.

I guess we missed the "playing in the snow" part. This panda was in a coma! The other two pandas weren't much better. They were both awake, but indoors and stuffing their faces with bamboo.

Despite the dead pandas, we had a good time. We pretty much had to the zoo to ourselves. There weren't a lot of animals out in the snow. But we wandered around and saw the animals that were hiding inside.

I had grand plans of taking a picture of my monkey sock in front of the monkeys, but we couldn't find any monkeys! We found the gorillas and they had macaques but we couldn't find any chimps or just plain old monkeys. Perhaps they were hiding somewhere to stay out of the snow, but we didn't even find empty cages.

So, the monkey sock had a photo shoot a few days later, minus an actual monkey and you will notice, minus the snow. (It's already gone.)




I was doing these magic loop- two at the same time, but I ended up switching to dpns. The stitches had to be rearranged for doing the heel so as to center the pattern and I just never put it back on the circulars. So, one sock is finished and the other needs a heel, foot and toe.



I also switched needle sizes when I started the heel. I started the socks on US2 circs and switched to US1 dpns. The leg of the sock was seeming a little too big. Switching down a size was definitely a good idea. It fits great.

So, here's a question.... I got myself a subscription to Vogue Knitting back in January. When I ordered it, I requested that they start the subscription with the spring issue, since I already owned the winter issue. And of course, two days ago, I got the winter issue in the mail. Has anyone had this happen to them and had any luck complaining about it? I'm not even sure who I should contact. If anyone wants a copy of the Winter VK, just let me know... I have two now!

Getting Better All the Time

Wow! Thank you all so much for all the supportive and kind words! It really was a sucky week, and I'm really glad it is over! My show opened on Thursday and all the lights worked despite the munchy mousies! Management called in an exterminator who had this unpleasant solution:



Now every night when I go into the light booth, I am completely terrified of what I might find. um... EW! I have had many kind offers from people offering to loan me their cats. Personally, I would MUCH rather have a fluffy kitty hanging out in the booth waiting to bite the heads off the dread mousies than to have to worry about these peanut butter laden spring traps. Yucky.

My windshield wipers are still non-functioning which is most inconvenient. First the mechanic said the part would bein on Tuesday, then it was Wednesday, then it was Friday and then it was next week. At which point I asked for money back. (They made me pay for the parts up front.) I was also completely irritated about the complete lack of customer service. The guy NEVER called when he said he would. I can appreciate that it isn't really their fault if the part doesn't come in on time, but really, they could take two seconds to call and tell me that. If you tell me you will call me Wednesday morning, and I don't hear from you by 3 p.m. I will call and yell at you. Asses.

So, hopefully Monday morning, I will start calling around to see if I can find someone else to fix it. For much less money. I hate car trouble.

My lack of functioning windshield wipers was especially problematic today due to this:

But I am not complaining! I LOVE snow! This was a good snow too. Really fluffy and fun. And slightly unexpected. They were predicting sleet and ice. I wish I could say "instead, we got fluffy snow" but really it's more like "first, we got fluffy snow." The freezing rain and sleet are falling on top of the snow and I'm sure it's going to be another big icy mess.

I had to do a matinee this morning, but fortunately they finally caved in and canceled our evening performance. So I came home and took a much needed nap. (I was OUT! ) Now I am watching Harry Potter and the Oscars (flipping channels) and there will be knitting.

I'm still working on Anemoi of course.


This is a mitten in need of some serious blocking! And I have made several mistakes. There's a purl where there should be a knit in the cuff, light green where there should be dark green and as I was taking this picture, I noticed a dropped stitch.

Really, a person should pay attention while she is knitting charts!

I've been kinda of wishing that I had not reversed the colors when I did this. (Eunny's original has the light and dark reversed.) So, now I'm contemplating doing the second mitten with the colors the other way. Who says mittens have to match exactly?

Also, in a moment of boredom, I cast on for Knitty's Monkey.

That's the Briar Rose I got from Carolyn last week. I cast on and ripped out this yarn about 7 times before it finally decided it wanted to be Monkey socks. My picture doesn't really show the stitch pattern, but I kinda like it. And the yarn is just so darn pretty!

There are soooo many things I want to be knitting right now. If I could only figure out how to grow that extra pair of hands....

And this doesn't really help me settle on just one project at a time!



There are so many great patterns in here that I can't wait to knit. I need to start at the beginning of the book and just start knitting! I don't need to do all 25 designs, but there are plenty in here that I covet. I even kinda want to make the Embossed Leaves again.

(PS... this book is cheaper at Overstock.com than at Amazon....)

I'm off to do the snow dance and hope my kid shows get canceled in the morning!