WIP Wednesday - Happy New Year Belated Edition

I wasn't inspired to blog while on vacation, but now it's back to the grind and maybe back to a semi-regular blogging schedule.

A couple of these belong on a FO Friday post, but I don't know if that'll happen, so here's some WIPs and project updates.

I finished my Kawaii Winter Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I also purchased the trim and cloth to make it into a pillow. That will happen sometime before next Christmas. Right now, it resides all together in a bag in the closet along with my Christmas socks - cause I just can't get into Christmas projects in January.

The finished (but not ironed) piece:

The cloth and trim:

Been doing a couple rows here and there on my Eilonwy cardigan, but nothing to write home about.

So - I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions, but I wrote a little list of craft-related things I would like to do.

1. Try to stitch one square of The Frosted Pumpkin Woodland Sampler a month. I started the border on January this week - no pictures, cause it's just a brown half-box.
2. Try to stitch one square of The Frosted Pumpkin Once Upon A Time a month. January will be tough for this one, because the pattern is released one square at a time starting on January 10th. The first month also contains the pattern for the entire border, AND one of the flosses I ordered is on backorder, so it hasn't shipped yet :((( Oh well - I'll just do what I can do.
3. Try to finish up at least one hibernating project. I have a few - (links are to Ravelry pages - you have to set up an account to see): 
1. My Skew socks will hibernate until late next yea, because they're super Christmas-y and see above on Christmas stuff. 
2. I have another pair of socks, but they're real autumn-y (and also kind of a pain in the ass). If I don't get those done this Fall, I'm frogging them.
3. I have very little done on a purple Torch Lily Tee made out of Shibui Knits Heichi that I hope to pull out and bang out some rows on soon.
4. I started a vest for Bill like a million years ago. It's not an un-fun knit, so I'm not sure where the love went on that one.
5. Last AND least, I have this long-suffering bag that hurts my hands, and the yarn blows. I do hope to finish it one day, but ugh. Thinking about it makes me cringe a bit.
4. Try to knit a pair of colorwork socks and make another pair of selfish socks too. On this front, I have been making awesome progress. I *suck* at colorwork and have done VERY little of it. Well, I pondered for days on patterns (I fell into a Rav-hole) until finally settling upon First Footing. I then went about shopping in my stash for the perfect red and cream colored yarns, and ... here is what I have so far!! I am so excited. They are fitting snugly, because I decided on small instead of medium. My size is between those sizes, and I usually knit socks with 2.25mm needles, and these are knit with 2.75 needles. I think it will work out. (also included in pic - an awesome yarn bowl Bill got me for Christmas)
   
   
    5. Try to make Christmas gifts. I am not good at this one. I have a few ideas - legwarmers for my aunt [by request]. Gloves for my sister [by request - I've never made gloves before]. Socks for my nephew [by request]. Vest for Bill [see hibernating projects above]. Embroidery pillowcases for Mom.
   
   
   Ok - that's the list. I also have a couple of finished objects I will come back and post about on Friday =DD Woot woot - Happy New Year, y'all.
   
   
   Oh - and just for giggles - here's a pic of some yarn I bought. I buy very little yarn these days. This is Numma Numma Toasty in the Georgia Peach colorway. This is a Georgia-based dyer. Yarn purchased from Eat.Sleep.Knit. (BEST YARN STORE EVAH). My picture sucks - see the ESK website for super top quality photos.
   
   Be sure to check out the other WIP Wednesday posts at Tami's Amis (although she hasn't posted one today yet)!
   
   
   

WIP Wednesday - Countdown to Christmas!

There is no way I'm finishing my Christmas socks before Christmas, but I've made some scant progress. I am not good at working on holiday projects after said holiday, so these might end up in hibernation soon. But for now, here's about half of a Skew sock in the 'Mery Mery' (yes, that is how it is spelled on the label) color way of Wisdom Yarns Marathon Socks North Pole. Looks like all the colors in this line have been discontinued, and it says "Merry Merry" as the colorway on the site, but that sho ain't what it says on my ball band.. Kinda skritchy because of the metallic filament, but cute colors. This pattern is super strange, and the sock looks super long on the foot part, and I have short feet, but it seems to fit ok so far.

Next up, the project I've been spending all my free time on, and I have a slight possibility of getting this finished by Christmas. It's kind of turning into a true advent calendar with me trying to stitch one square per day. So with today being December 18th, I will be working on the 18th square. Kinda neat. I think I will eventually make it into a pillow with a Christmasy calico cloth as the backing. This is last year's Kawaii Winter Sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. If anyone cares for details, I am using DMC flosses and cashel linen in natural.

Yay for a little progress and Happy Wednesday to all.

Sharing on Tami's Amis - head on over and check out other crafters' progress!

Failure to load

So I failed on WIP Wednesday. I've been making progress on my sock and my cross stitched winter sampler, but like super slow snail progress that isn't fun to watch creep along. Hope to have some better progress by next week.

I did make it past the heel on my Skew sock so at least it doesn't look like a willy warmer anymore :)

WIP Wednesday December!

You know - there are hazards in my crafty work environment. One of the most pervasive hazards is dog farts. The dogs all plop down on the couch next to me when I am knitting or stitching and good lord do they let some gas fly!

Pee-yew! And they just snooze on through like nothing happened. Meanwhile, I am gagging and fanning and trying not to vomit. OSHA would be appalled!

At any rate, I have gotten a bit done on both of my WIPs from last week - my skew sock is coming along slowly. Yesterday, I was working on it while waiting for a doctor's appointment, and it hit me all of the sudden that my sock looks exactly like a wiener warmer! :-o

Hopefully no one thinks I am knitting a shiny, Christmas-y penis pocket.

Here it is:

Next up, my cross stitching project. I was off of work last week and finished up several more panels. This week is back to the grind, so progress has slowed...

I think it looks super cool though:

For those of you interested in the criminal element, here are a couple of the poot perpetrators looking guilty!!

(My niece Beth took this pic - check out her blog at The Pow Wow Factory)

Head on over to Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday posts!

 

WIP Wednesday Thanksgiving Edition

Took the week off work, so I'm getting more done on my new cross stitching project than I would otherwise. I am finished with 6 out of 25 panels - woot!

I screwed up the border on 7 about 3 times tonight. So after pulling out all the stitches in one corner for the severaleth (just made that one up) time, I decided to send it to bed early and give it a rest.

Amber and Derek won on DWTS which is cool - whoever thought at the beginning if the season that the big girl would win it all?? Pretty sweet. Also Derek is cute :)

Made a little progress on my Skew sock as well - I would say I'm working heel/gusset, but this pattern is wonky, so I don't exactly know what section I'm working. Apparently I am increasing stitches for the ankle area.

Haven't done any work on the cardi I was working on last week. Maybe soon I will pull out all my hibernating projects and assess where I am with them.

Happy WIP Wednesday and Happy Thanksgivukkah. Shalom :)

Have some crafty projects you're working on and would like to share? Head on over to Tami's Amis and share your crafty blog: http://feedly.com/k/1cuIwAs

I found my inspiration in an old milk crate

So... I haven't posted on here in approximately forever.


I am all the time reading other people's blogs, and I'm doing shit over here, it just doesn't usually seem very blog worthy. At any rate, I feel compelled today to do a WIP Wednesday post. A lot of crafters post their works in progress (WIPs) on Wednesday and share them around.


My efforts from one week to the next usually don't seem like a whole hell of a lot nor anything to write home about, and also, I am kind of a crappy photographer. ALSO - no one reads this blog, but you know what? Whatevs - I feel like posting, so I'm gonna.


I have a couple of projects in hibernation right now, and I'm not going to post photos of them cause they'll probably still look the same in several months as they do right now. I don't keep things in hibernation unless I intend to actually finish them someday - otherwise I just rip the whole thing out. So, they'll get done ... eventually.


So - WIPs - first up, a wool sweater I started about a month ago. I'm not good on finishing large projects, but this one's coming along ok. The yarn is mega soft Yarn Love Anne Shirley in Belgian Chocolat and Sweet Tangerine colorways. The pattern is Eilonwy by Carol Feller. I read Carol's blog here: linky


FYI - I plan to try harder on photos in the future :-o





Next up - Skew socks in a pretty obnoxious Christmas pattern. I am a bit obnoxious about holidays - I love cheesy Christmas socks and sweaters and the whole nine. This yarn is self-striping (which I hardly ever purchase), and I wanted to make the most of the yarn without just doing a plain sock (which I know I would NEVER FINISH). I've had my eye on Skew for a long time, but the lack of sizing scared me. Oh well - I just decided to jump in. I made some FANTASTIC Christmas socks for myself in 2011 out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight
in the comfort and joy colorway. The yarn and pattern were part of a Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club kit (the pattern was called Joy). Anyway - long story longer - my dogs ATE. MY. SOCKS.


So the Christmas-y Skew socks are for me to try and replace my chewed up Christmas socks. Anyone with some self-striping yarn sitting around in the "I don't know what the hell to do with this, but it was super cute" pile, check out this blog entry - I read this blog regularly (and use Feedly if anyone is looking for a blog reader) - Self-striping sock patterns.


Here's the first sock in progress (the yarn is a little rough, but it's because it has a metallic strand running through it) - I like them so far :)





Last but NOT least, I have not done cross stitch in forever - probably not since 1990-ish? I recently saw a WIP Wednesday post that BLEW ME AWAY. To the max. Here it is: Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday post that started it all.


I think my brain exploded a little, and then when I followed the link to the pattern and website the sampler same from, my brain exploded a lot, and I think my wallet exploded a little too...


Here is the magical fairy land called Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. So, now fast forward to about 16 days later, and I'm working on one of their samplers. I decided to go with a Christmas sampler, because a) I LOVE HOLIDAYS and b) Halloween is over. I ordered my supplies, but later found out that the fabric will take a while (maybe 3 weeks), so in the interim (because I am super patient n' stuff), I ordered last year's Winter Sampler and all the supplies, and I started on it over the weekend! My first panel SUCKED big time, so I cut it out and started again. It's my first time cross stitching on linen, and I so much appreciate all of the tutorials and photos out there that people posted to help me along my way. Here are some of my faves:


Rosy Little Things (a blog I found during this process and now LOVE)
Mochimochi Land (I have made a few of this designer's knitting patterns and also read her blog)
Mary Beale School of Needlework


And here's my first panel (little warped looking cause it's still on the hoop):





And just because I feel like it, here are a couple of my project bags - the Christmas one was part of a Woolgirl club kit. I'm not sure what crafty person made the bags, but they're pretty awesome! Skew is riding around in this bag.





And my Eilonwy sweater is riding around in a large drawstring kitty cat bag that I bought at Cast-On Cottage. Again, I'm not sure who made it, but it is a fantastic bag. Large, durable, and cute. The inside fabric has all kinds of names of different cat breeds. It looks lumpy cause it has a sweater in it, and, not surprisingly, is also totally covered in cat hair:





OK - that's it for me. Hope I can make another post before 5 years go by.

And in a whole "circle of life" type of thing, I am linking back to the blog that inspired me to cross stitch and blog, and I'm posting my WIP Wednesday post there, too ;)

Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday

Ahoy. I just finished a pair of socks. For some reason I've been way more into buying shit that knitting lately. Oh well.

Here's a pic of my recently finished sockies:

This is my second pair of pink socks. The first ones were solid pink, though, and these are handpainted, so they have several different colors peeking through. The pattern is called "Flabella," and is part of a sock club I'm in. OK - so I'm in 4 sock clubs. Sue me. But this is the first one I got in the mail. I haven't messed with the other 2 I've gotten, although I did wind one handspun hank into a ball last night, and I'm contemplating patterns. It's hard to find the perfect pattern. Snazzy handpainted or handspun yarns call for a sort of bland pattern, because the crazy yarn can obscure the crazy pattern. Crazy patterns call for a solid or semisolid color yarn.

Ok enough of that.

I also finished my little red cowl and made a not-so-impressive but comfortable hat.

The cowl looks cooler when it's not on me which is kind of lame. Oh well. It's pretty. And it's warm.

I wish we would have a hugeass thunderstorm right now. That would be nifty.

I also made progress on my first ever Fair Isle or stranded or whatever you want to call it project. It's stalled right now because of the aforementioned socks I just finished. And I'm kind of more in the mood to knit something new than to pick up something older right now. I also started a shawl at the beginning of February, but I effed up on one of the lace repeats, and I haven't been in the mood to fix it. Bleh on that. Here's the stranded mitt:

I think it looks PDG (pretty damn good, of course) for my first stranded project. Yep. Didn't take as long as I thought either once I knuckled down and just started working on it.

Ok that is all.