Making a dent.

I finally finished the cotton cabled scarf! I am so proud. I actually finished it about a week ago, but I wanted to finish the project at the bottom of this page before posting. I really like it, it is the perfect length, about 5 feet, and cool (as in not hot) and soft. I was making it for my friend Nan, she even picked out the yarn. However, I haven't seen her in over a year, so I guess I will keep it. I could try to get in touch, but I don't know.

I really like it. I need a scarf anyway, and hate making them. Yeah, I think I will keep it. On a less positive note, after I finished this, and before I started my next project, I went through all of my stash and sorted it. I found TWO MORE BALLS of this yarn. Dammit. I don't know if I want to swap it or maybe make some matching fingerless gloves...yeah, that would be a good use. Then I will have matching gloves. :)

I found these pictures while uploading my FOs, I took them when I made sopapillas about a month ago. They were SO GOOD, our friend Cozzie was calling them "crack", and everyone burned through both gallon sized ziplock bags full of them in about a day. Yummy!

To go through some Vanna's Choice I had left over from making my sis a tudora, I decided to make Fetching. It turned out I didn't have quite enough, so the edge of the right hand was finished with some leftover Vanna's Choice Sylvie had from making her grandma an afghan last summer. I like it, Sylvie said it looks indie. I don't care, I am just trying to get rid of yarn. My mom saw me working on the second one and said she likes it. So, the next time I see her they will belong to her. I really liked the pattern, and recommend it.

We kept laughing while taking this picture.

The yarn is pretty bulky, and was knit size 6 dpns with yarn made for 8's or 9's...and I am a tight knitter. Therefore, my hands are kind of swallowed by them. However, they are cute and will be really warm this winter.

Well, next is my Manos de Uruguay. I frogged the rest of the Reverie today, and will maybe start on the Hermione hat tomorrow. Hooray for knitting, especially hooray for stash busting!

So Exciting!

Still not quite done with the scarf; I have about half a ball left. I am going to try and finish that up today. I have just been perusing Ravelry and have found two new projects I want to do!

The first is actually the way to get out of a dilemma. I was making Reverie, a beautiful hat out of the Spring issue of Knitty. Unfortunately, I was using the beautiful Manos de Uruguay Silk Merino blend I bought over a year ago, picture here. The colors were working out beautifully, the Reverie was off to a great start, so pretty, so easy!

So what do I mean by "unfortunately"? Dilemma? What the hell am I talking about?

Well, do you see that tiny tiny ball of yarn that is being used? THATS IT. That's all I bought. I haven't even made it to the decrease on this hat. And I bought it a year ago, so when I went back to Yarn Mart, my lys, they didn't even have that colorway anymore, let alone the same dyelot.

So instead, I will make this. I found it on Ravelry when looking at what some local girls have been making lately. It is a facsimile of a hat that Emma Watson as Hermione Granger was wearing in a movie teaser photo last summer. The designer, Jackie, calls it Hermione's Cable and Eyelet hat. I think its great and hopefully there is enought of the Manos to make it. If not, it looks like I will be cast back into the pit of depression. It just goes to show you, this is what I get for not paying enough attention to the amount of yarn I have and the amount of yarn it takes to make something. Oh well.

The other wonderful thing I found was a sweater...I am finally going to try and make a sweater. I feel that as a knitter I need to make a sweater, sort of as a "thesis" or something. Of course I am pretty weird. I decided on the Cabled Cardigan by Margaret O'Leary, it was in the Fall 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting. I am not going to cast on for this until after this summer, as it will require more yarn and I won't buy anymore until my stash is whittled down. But it is very nice to have something to look forward to. And there are so many great variations on the Ravelry page, I can't wait to make it!

In other news, I watched the new Star Trek movie last night. I have been a fan of TNG since I was 9 or 10, and a fan of TOS for 5 or 6 years. I think that I am mostly a "trekkie". And I can tell you, they did a GREAT job with this movie. The actors they cast were great. The only possible improvements were that Anton Yelchin as Chekov didn't look the same, but his acting was pretty much great. Also, the story line of Spock and Uhura wasn't my favorite, but it's not a big deal. It was awesome, I cannot recommend it enough, for Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike. It was a great action movie either way. After I watched it, I just wanted to sit and watch it again. I told my friend that after watching it I felt like we needed to yell "Alright!" and do a chest-bump. She said she wanted to clap and cheer at the end. And as for the guy playing Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Karl Urban, he must have studied footage of DeForest Kelley for literally hours. He just walks into a room like Kelley, talks like Kelley, moves like Kelley. Awesome.

What are you doing? Go watch Star Trek.

Knitting!

So now, hooray, classes are just about done. I have one more semester, and will graduate in December. Yay! Better yet, I have this summer as a great big break. I have begun to celebrate by knitting!

I told Sylvia yesterday, I want to bust through a good bit of my stash. My stash isn't as big as a lot of the knitters I know, but I am not one for the clutter so I want to cut it down before I buy more. Also, I don't really have the money for buying yarn and it is easier to justify as a *necessity* if I have no yarn to knit up. The yarn I have should keep me busy for a while; I have enough yarn for 4 or 5 sock projects and then lots of random balls of yarn waiting to be something.

I also told Sylvia that if I can shave down my stash pretty well so there is actually space in my "craft cabinet", I will reward myself this fall by buying, you guessed it, MORE YARN. I'm pretty excited about it all.


Right now I am working to finish a scarf that I started in 2006. It's a funky boucle-ish cotton yarn in white with a denim-y blue streak through it. It's already pretty long, about 4 feet, but I like l-o-n-g scarves. Also, I only have about a ball left which will add about a foot to the length. After I post this I am going to work on that. I am not putting up pictures, because frankly it's old news (did you read the "2006" part? this is 2009) and I will post pictures when it is actually finished, which I hope will be a couple of days from now.


As for F.O.'s, I have two to share. The first one is a "Dittoro" that I made based on a Totoro pattern. It is actually a crocheted project, but I do not discriminate. The first link is to the wiki page for the Totoro movie, the second link is to the actual pattern. The only thing I really took from the pattern was the body and the belly, I just made up the ears, arms, and tail. I really like it and everyone thinks it's too cute. Here is a picture of me and Dittoro:



And here is a picture of Ditto the Cat, my inspiration for this project, with her toy-self, the Dittoro:

They totally look alike. Ditto even has a round orange belly. She really didn't care about it, although when I was working on it, she liked to come up to it and attack and try to eat it's whiskers. I haven't seen her do that since I finished it though.

The Dittoro was actually started a couple of months ago, I just never had time to work on it. I have been super super busy with school and all. The socks I posted a few posts ago need to be frogged, somehow they are way too big. I would like to blame this on the stretchiness of the socks, but I am pretty sure it is a gauge mistake that I made. The one I have is nearly to where the heel should be started, so it won't be a tragedy to rip it out. I would just salvage it, but I don't have cankles and I don't want a sock that falls down all the time--I would never wear it and that just defeats the purpose.

The next project was actually finished in about a day or two. I started it after my busiest school day to relieve stress, and will give it to one of my friends tomorrow. She just loved the Dittoro so I made her this:

No, not the cat. I am talking about Mousie. His pattern was about $3, but well worth it I think. I used some yarn Sylvia had in her stash for him. I liked the gray stuff, which I think was some type of wool blend meant for socks, but the pink was a very light pink baby yarn. I think this is actually the remainder of some acrylic I gave her a few years ago. Because it is acrylic it looks a little stiffer and less organic than the gray but I think only a fiber snob will notice, or a knitter with a really discerning eye. I still think it's cute. The pattern was created by a Scottish designer named Ysolda Teague, I have always loved her stuff but it takes a lot for me to want to actually purchase a pattern. There are so many free ones out there! But when a pattern is this much genius, you can't pass it up. The best part of this pattern was that it was all one piece. At the end of the i-cord tail you switch to gray and knit the body. You then pick up stitches and knit for the feet and ears. It's a really awesome pattern.

Mousie fits in the palm of my hand, but you don't have to make him this size. Sylvia and I were discussing the possibilities of making bigger Mousies out of some gray and pink Vanna's Choice.

Speaking of buying patterns online, I have started reading the Yarn Harlot, and she was knitting a sock that captured my heart. The pattern is called Viper Pilots and I love it. I am going to buy it as soon as I am ready to cast on. It's $5, which isn't too shabby. Pearl-McPhee was using some kind of yarn that is blue with silver (yes actual silver as in the metal) to knit them, and they look awesome. The pattern writer, Glenna, used a deep, dark blue that is also very beautiful. I picked up yarn at the lys, Yarn Mart, about two days after I saw this pattern. It is Crystal Palace bamboo in a beautiful white and blue, it was on sale for $4.50 a ball, and thus I could not resist. I will post pictures as soon as I start the project. I am not sure if I will start that after I finish my scarf or if I will do something else. Needless to say, I am excited.

So excited, in fact, that I am going to go and add the pattern to my queue on Ravelry, and also show off Mousie and Dittoro. Its about time, I don't think I have actually posted on Ravelry in months although I still log in at least once a week.