Dr Who

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Originally uploaded by mhultmem

I forgot to mention I did finish the scarf and it was just in time for Scuzzy to take it to the DragonCon convention. He said it was a big hit and that he was the only one there with an authentic handknit scarf so in your face con! Nice. I'm really glad I finished it.

Now Kyle wants me to make him a gargantuan scarf. Only he wants me to make it unique. Not some Dr. Who thing but just as long or longer and with really really unique colors.

I talked to someone over at Blue Moon Fiber Arts about it because I want to use their yarns and they said it sounds like a fantastic project.

Whew.

Ok Really need to get to work now.

So it's been a while.....

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Originally uploaded by mhultmem

Since I posted. I feel kinda bad for not updating my blog in so long. I have been super busy with my christmas knitting and not paying much attention to anything else.. Like this for instance. This picture is the yarn that I bought over 2 months ago for a sweater I want to make for myself. And it is all still in the bags that it came in. The needle for it is in the box with it and the book that the pattern is in is in the bottom of the box but that is as far as it has gotten.

On the bright side I managed to finish my mom's birthday present before her birthday (yay me!) And I lasted a really long time in Hat Attack 2, only having very recently kicked the bucket. (Will post pictures of that later)

Sock Wars 3 was a real disappointment because not only did I get socks that didn't fit, I couldn't get the assassin to reknit them because by then the game was over. Oh well. better luck next time I guess.

Halloween was fun but exhausting and I am kinda glad it is only once a year. I am looking forward to the other holidays this season but almost dreading Christmas gifting becuase of my current progress on projects. I think I may have to give my dad his socks for his birthday instead of Christmas and the same may go for my son's sweater.

I am participating in Sock Wars day of the dead and am almost done with the socks that I am making currently. I like the way it is set up right now because that way everyone has a chance to make at least one kill before getting killed themselves. I really like the structure of the teaming up of assassins. I wonder if it would work for a larger group though because this competition only has about 40 participants.

I need to start working on some baby projects for my sister. She is pregnant but doesn't yet know what her baby is going to be (boy or girl) so I am going to start with knitted toys like blocks and stuffed animals. Anyway I'm starting to ramble and I need to get on to work.

More later!

Posting after a busy month

It has been pretty caotic here recently and I haven't been feeling very well for the last few days but I wanted to post something since it's been a while. I have made quite a bit of progress on the endless Who scarf and have finished a few pairs of socks for the 52 pair plunge. I am almost finished with the firs tsock of the pair I am making for becky and am thrilleed with how easy the pattern is. I am going to start a pair for my little brother tomorrow if all goes well and hopefully that will be all that I cast on until I finish those socks.

The house has been yo-yoing quite a bit between being clean and filthy because I have been so exhausted that I can barely lift a finger to make dinner and then I force myself to get up and go sweep or do laundry. There are no clean towels in the linen closet right now. They are all folded on the couch waiting to be put away. There are bags and karate belts piled in the hallway but the dishwasher is running and I just swept in the kitchen. I still need to mop but I have no energy at all. The living room and my son's bedroom are both in a sorry state but I will get him to help me with that. After all he is the one that made that mess so he needs to help clean up. I have been going through a bunch of papers and thowing the trash away so there are piles of paper all over my bed and the kitchen table. The counter in the kitchen is covered with junk and a bunch of bananas that need to be thrown out. I already tossed the moldy bread and strawberries. My husband was going to make some strawberry and banana smoothies with them but obviously that never happened. I hate wasting food and he knows it so why does he do these things?

On a lighter note I have been keeping up with the dishes and the house isn't in a terrible state I just wish it were a little cleaner. Being the only one in the house that cleans I have to balance my day so I am not overwhelmed by the mess. Right now I am going to finish mopping the floor and then clean up the rest of the papers off the bed abd table and throw the bananas away. Then it's a quick dip in the shower before running off to collect the boys (son and hubby) then come back and make dinner and clean some more before bed. Busy day but this is every day for me. I'm off.

Dr. Who Scarf

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Originally uploaded by mhultmem

The scarf is coming along smoothly. This shows the scarf in progress as it looks now. I am really happy with the progress I have made on it to date and I plan on using it for my sanity knitting while waiting for my socks in progress to get here. That's right. It's just a matter of time. Mwahahahaha!

Recent Swaps and other fun things

Ok I know I haven't posted in a while but I have been really busy with things and kinda got distracted by life but this is going to be a fun picture heavy post so here it Goes....

First off what I got from my first round as a guilty pleasures swap

I took a picture of the beautiful package all wrapped up and each of the little presents wrapped inside it. I wonder what it could be....

There are so many nice things in here. A beautiful book that I just love, a long circ in a small size, chocolate, rice candy, beautiful soap, eyelash yarn... but the thing that almost made my heart stop was next....

CASHMERE!!!!!!

OMG!

I totally went all giddy and jumped up and down when I saw what it was. Two skeins of sky blue cashmere.. so so so soft. Sorry but this one is all for me. I'm not sharing.

This was from my Knitters treasure swap. I love this girl! She managed to get it to me only a few days after finding out I was her partner and she got some of the best things ever. That is a bunch of needles. 2 circs, one set of straights, dpns, tapestry needles, and a partridge in a pear tree. No really. That is what I have decided to call the beautiful sock stitch markers she sent me. In addition to this great gift of needles she gave me some really nice lotion and candles, both of which I love. A knitting mag that has some nice patterns I am going to try and yarns.

The one on the left is hand dyed monarch that will make awesome socks. I cant wait to get some needles into that. The purple in the middle is hand dyed and hand spun and super soft and so squishy and.. I really love it. The last one is a dark blue with small amounts of purple Peace Fleece. I love how soft and warm this wool is. I don't yet know what it will be but it might be a sweater for warm woolies or something like that. We'll see.

Oh did you think we were done? No Way. I totally keep going with the swaps. This is a great one actually called swap on a budget although I think my partner kinda went over it. We were supposed to do a swap on just $20. I was able to get mine out with out going over that too much though so it was fun. My partner sent me coffee (love) and chocolate (unfortunately it was melted a bit) cards, stitch markers on a cute little loop to keep them together and I can clip it to my bag. She also sent some plastic needle binders, needles (size 2 crystal palace) and some luxury tweed. The tweed is really soft and not really scratchy.

That is my swaps to date. I love them and I have two swap packages to send out I'm just waiting for a few things to get here first.

OMG I need a life

Ok so here we are end of the month. Wow it's been a really busy month. I have taken up making stitch markers. They turned out so well that I just HAD to open up an etsy shop to sell them in... I have a new recruit that I can't seem to get hold of and another person interested that is being flakey (for the adult products business) and I have no shows booked. Ahhhh! Ok let me just calm down and back up a little.

I want to post some pictures so this post may take a while to make but it will be worth it. Hurray for progress!
The first picture here is my rag bag or grocery bag. I really like it but I may need to reinforce the handles.

It's been fun but hard work making this bag.

The second picture is Joey's sock. I've gotten past the heel and am steadily work toward the toe.

I can't get my other pictures to load so I am going to end this post here and post more later.

Scarf News and Other Projects

I have been working on the Dr. Who scarf and it seems to be going rather well. I'm already on the fifth stripe. I'm waiting until I get farther into the scarf to weave in the ends so it looks a bit like it has some fringe on one side but that will be gone soon. Here are some great pictures of the scarf in progress. It goes purple, light tan, dark brown, gold, red.

I also want to tell you all about a recycling project I'm working on. I recently acquired a bunch of t-shirt pieces through Freecycle and am making them into some grocery bags. Here is a pic of the work in progress.

Beautiful isn't it? I love how vibrantly colorful it is, which was totally unintentional. This is the bottom hem bands of the t-shirt scraps. I can't wait for the first one to be done so I can see how it turns out.

Guilty Pleasures swap and other news

Ok so I am signed up for the Guilty Pleasures swap which is why I am doing these Warm Woolies socks and other charity projects. As part of the swap you have to donate one knitted item to the charity. I have decided to challenge myself to make all 25 items they say will win you something fun or cool from their organization. It's a great motivator.

I finished the first pair of socks but my son loves them so much I'm going to have a hard time getting him to give them up. I will need to find a cool or funky sock yarn that he likes better and make him some socks with them. For now I will allow him to wear the ones I have made becuase very surprisingly they fit him perfectly (!!!) and he grows so fast that they will be too small soon enough. I am starting on a secondary pair of socks for the charity though and I may make them a bit smaller so that my son won't try to steal them. I made the first pair and am making the second pair out of scraps left over from my felted bag. I didn't think there was that much left but this knits up so fast and thick and it seems like it doesn't use much yarn becuase even holding two together for the right thickness I have some of the white left over. I may even get three or four pairs of socks out of just these left overs!

I am working on so many different things right now that my head is practially spinning. I have an adult toy party tonight and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it goes well. I really need the extra money right now for my garden. I'm working on getting a little veggie garden set up and have a limited budget to go on. Hopefully we will see some good results but I don't know.

Anyway I should go get back to work. Busy busy busy.

Ravelry knits and more

Cast on with me oh yeah cast on with me tonight! Watch out knits! I'm hitting my knitting stride here as I cast on project after project. I know I haven't posted any pictures like I promised but I'm having trouble getting Flickr to link to my blog.

I have cast on so many projects I am trying to keep them straight. I just added Bad Penny for the four seasons knit along.

Keep an eye on my progress bars because I will try to update them as often as possible.

Also on friday I had a really good run of Kara going when my internet suddenly went totally dead on me. :O Boooooooooo! So my appologies to my wow buddies out there.

Impatience leads to Too many WIPs and not enough time.

I have been antsy and itching for new projects. I didn't like the way that my Devils pants were going so I ripped them out and then I finished felting the knitting bag (we'll get to that in a minute) and I realized I only had one project on needles. GASP!!! OMG this can't be!! I immediately upon realising this got out the gray/silver yarn for my son's chain mail outfit and cast on. After I got about 4 rows in I put it down and started trying to figure out what I was going to do for my charity knit. I was looking at thier website and they had this big banner that read "25 gets a Prize" so I clicked on it for more information. Ok here is the thing. I have never sucessfully knit a pair of sock in my life. EVER. Every time I get past the heal I freak out and either bind off so that it is a sock with no toe or I rip it out. I have done a single sock that I actually got as far as the kitchner and finished it but it wouldn't fit anyone I know so I just left it as a lone sock with no mate. This charity project to get a prize is to knit 25 items that must be either a sweater, pair of socks or a vest for a child aged about 4 and up. As I was looking at this I thought to myself, I can do that no problem, and put the computer aside and started looking through my yarn stash for some cozy bulky wool.

This charity is called Warm Woolies and requires all of it's knits to be made of wool. It can be a blend but must be at least 80% natural animal fiber. The problem that I am having is that I don't have a ball winder so when I "wind" my balls I use the label from the skien to act as a holding for the first several winds as opposed to a tube or something else. So none of my balls have labels on them. There is no telling what any of the yarns are made of until I get to the center of the ball. More likely than not most of the yarns are acrilic. The thing is there isn't a yarn shop for a good 50-70 miles in any direction. I have been longing to open one but I lack funds in that direction. If I could afford to open one I would do it in an instant and buy up all of the wholesale yarn I could get my hands on. Artyarn, karabella, Brown Sheep, Blue sky alpacas.. any of it. I wouldn't hesitate to open a store here if I had even half of what I would need. But alas I have no means for it. So most of the time when I get the urge to just go splurge on some yarn the only option in reasonable distance is Walmart. The only wool that Walmart carries that I know of is Lion Brand worsted wool solids and prints. Not even Wool Ease. There may be a Bernat or Red Heart that is wool that they carry and I don't realise it but..

So I just grabed a random ball of really thick warm yarn and cast on a random number of stitches that I just pulled out of my ass and said to myself that if it isn't wool it will make a nice baby blanket which the site said it also needed and would accept acrilic yarns since they need so many of them.

So today when I was talking to the people over at kpixie I got the order straightened out and I ordered two extra balls of some aran weight wool for some socks and a set of slightly larger DPNs for my charity knitting. I figure that I can get 2 pairs or maybe more of socks out of those. I just need to work up the guts to finish the socks. Yeah. That's right. Finish the socks.

Who am I kidding.

Warning FOs are in sight

I have completed the knitting bag that I was working so fervently on and it just needs to be felted. Before I felt I would like to take some pictures and say a little prayer but I'm a little bit upset. I realized after I finished the handles that.. it's way too small!! Once it is felted it will be much too small for that scarf to fit in. I need to come up with something else quick. I think it will be ok for the first foot or so but I will only be able to keep the color that I am currently working on in it. I need to get something else put together or use my poor sheep bag for the scarf once it gets kinda long. Drat.

I really hoped it would be big enough but it looks like it's going to be too small for much beyond a sweater. Speaking of which... I have decided that I am going to make a sweater for not only my son and myself but my dad as well. My son's sweater is going to have a transformers insaria on it and I am considering the possibility of making it reversable or even doing two sweaters so that he can have the Autobots and the Decepticons. Apologies to those of you who don't know what I'm talking about. The Autobots are the good guys though and I want to also make it say MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE on the back.

My sweater for myself is going to be tunic length with 3/4 sleeves and split sides up to about hip level. I am always looking for something comfortable to wear to work and I think I'm going to try and make this something that I could get away with wearing at work or at home.

For my dad I think I will make a nice warm raglan style sleeve with a crew neck and garter stitch edging. I am loving this knitters design journal can you tell?

It just takes some careful claculations and knowing your gauge.

As far as projects in the works I am just about ready to cast on my Knight Rider chain mail shirt for Joey and am still waiting for my shipment from Kpixie. The order got lost (!!!!) and so they are going to try and either find it or resend the order. I'm a litle upset becuase I'm trying really hard not to go nuts and cast on a ton of projects but the stuff that is on the needles is running out and I have less to do. That makes me antsy for new projects to get started on. I would probably have already cast on my son's sweater but I'm having a hard time finding a color that I like. Maybe I will get some undyed wool or cotton and dye it myself. Only thing is that it HAS GOT TO BE machine washable since he spills stuff on himself all the time. /sigh

WOW news is lacking since I haven't really had time to play much. My dad got home from the hospital and I went to see him but when I got back my neighbor's dog died and the whole family was devastated by it. I needed to go over there and sit with the kids while they dug her grave and it has just been really rough.

Hopefully things will smooth out soon.

Staying Focused.... Not so much

I'm having a really hard time dealing with my dad being sick and all. I'm too far away to be of any help so tonight I'm going up to C'ville to visit him. I don't know yet if he will be out of the hospital or not and I knida doubt that he will be. I donated my hair today because I really needed a change. I cut about 11 in ches off of my hair and when I'm able to get my picture off of my camera I will post it up here. Also I'm pushing myself to try and finish that felted bag because my yarn will be here soon and I really need to be ready for it but I'm having a really hard time focusing on it. I have finished it up to about half way through the handle. Part of the problem is that I keep changing my mind if I want one handle or two. One I could carry it basket style but two I could do it french market bag style.

I don't know.

Life gets busy and knits get picked

I am working on getting several things finished at once and it's gotten a little crazy. I'm trying to finish up some stuff for work while promoting my two home businesses and figuring out if all of this is really worth it. In the mean time I'm trying to finish some knitting with a broken finger and I missed my raid last night because I was so drunk. I recently made a monkey and a sheep pattern for making my son a sweater. This time I'm going to aim for a size 6 in Boys becuase I want it to actually fit him when I finish it. I'm thinking for christmas. Maybe I will do it with the gift-a- long since I missed out on signing up for it but I am still looking at it every now and then to keep up with the events. I am also thinking about making a sock or handbag for the knitting olympic trials. There aren't any official knitting olympics that I'm aware of for this year but I can still challenge myself to make something in the amount of time alloted.

I don't know we will see I guess.

Also I just got a confirmation email about the yarn I ordered so it should be here really soon.
I will post pics of it when it gets here as a sort of before picture.

Noooooo!

This bites. I shut my hand in the door this morning and broke my finger. It's only a hairline fracture but I can't do anything. No knitting.. no wow... I can barely type anything.

Suck

Wips sticks and pics

Aside from the fact that things are starting to go a little better with work and home here are some pictures and things that are way long overdue.

I must be a wipaholic. I occasionally challenge myself to finish a project in a certain amount of time but lets face it.... some knitters are just not happy unless they have at least 3-7 projects in progress. I'm one of those. Let me start with my current wips I'm actively and progressively working on.

These three are all works in progress that I'm trying to finish and working hard to complete.

The first one is going to be a scarf. Beautiful isn't it? I've been working on it for about a week and I love the yarn. I picked up that yarn at a little shop in Maryland while I was visiting there in December.

The second project there is something I'm probably going to have to frog unfortunately. It was going to be a really cute little hand bag but I changed my mind and now I need that yarn (and those needles that I got in Maryland) for another project that I want to start and I don't think that what I've started so far will work for what I am wanting to make.

That final project on the end there.. you see the misshapen lump of blue and black and white? That beauty is going to be a felted knitting bag when I'm finally done with it. Right now I'm working on the handles and after I finish it I'm going to felt it carefully in the washer. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out but I'm trying to finish it so that I can have it to put the Dr. Who scarf in. By the way I forgot to mention I have ordered all that lovely yarn for the scarf from kpixie.com and it's on its way! I was going to have it be something I was doing as a favor for a friend but I decided that I really wanted to make it a gift so he doesn't know that I've ordered the yarn already and it's going to arrive some time later this month.

As far as completed projects go.. I have a few I want to show off because I'm proud of the way they turned out.



Here we have a scarf and a bag. This used to be a diaper bag but it got repurposed into a knitting bag and I would like to have it back as a small travel bag for my son. This is also the bag I attempted to finish for the knitting olympics the last time and I almost finished it but I was just a little bit off becuase the liner still needed to be sewn in. Oh well. I love it because it was my first attempt at color changes and I thought it came out pretty well. The sheep is a little lumpy but I think the next time I try it I will do better. Maybe make a sheep pillow next time?



Speaking of pillows I have made (some time last year) a pillow that was going to be something else entirely but I got sick of it and just turned it into a pillow. It originally was going to be a baby sweater but after I started it and got the front and back both completed I realized that it would never fit my son becuase he was already too big for it so halfway through the first sleeve I just decided to quit and I didn't know what to do with it until someone suggested that I turn it into a pillow. Brilliant! Even though it is a little lumpy and the edges may be a tad uneven I think it's a great pillow. Again I love the fish even if he is a little odd in color. It's a very tight knit becuase I used a soft baby yarn and it was so thin as to be just sport side of lace weight. The other little critters you see are crocheted amigurumi critters. I have pictured here a flat nosed pig and a snake that I made for my son. I have actually made several other snakes and sold them to classrooms to offset some of my costs of being a knitting loon. I have also made other small critters like these that unfortunately not all of them made it. One unfortunate soul was a dolphin that got sacrificed by my son to the neighbors dog. Oh well. I am thinking about making some small alfalpha filled critters to give my bunny. I would have to use organic cotton though I think. And really not care if I ever saw it again since she would probably chew it up.

I just want to make a small side note here I have not forgotten about WoW, I just haven't played in a while. It's been too time consuming to try and get all of this stuff done and be a full time mom and work three jobs! I'm still trying to come to terms with all of that. I'm working on getting myself back on track with every thing but it's taking time.

Also I have decided to try and make a pattern for the flying monkey from the wizard of oz. I can't find any monkey patterns that I like and certainly none of them are winged monkeys so I will be starting from scratch.

New Beginnings and Old friends

I have made a lot of changes in the last few months. Ok where to start? Oh well lets start with the knits and work over to the WoW.

I was going to try and get into the craft fair that happens here every year but I missed the dead line. I have so many wips and completed projects that I can't even begin to post pics of all of them but I will give you a small sampling on my next post. I'm about to embark on my biggest knitting adventure ever.... The scarf from Dr. Who.

This monster is between 12 and 18 feet.. That's right FEET long. There is a website with pictures and patterns here. I am going to be using some really YUMMY alpaca yarn from Knitpicks. I'm not paying for it because it's a knit gift for a friend of mine. I promised Scuzzy that if he bought me the mats that I would make the scarf for him. He is planning on going to DragonCon with it. I told him that if he is planning on wearing this thing at a convention he has to promise me to get pictures with everyone he sees dressed up in Dr. Who costumes so I can compare my work with that of anyone else who has the scarf. But really.. honestly... how many people do you think could handle that? It will take me at least a few weeks to get even half way through it and with that many color changes......

In any case... I'm also almost finished with a nice big knitting bag that I am going to felt. I figured that if I'm going to be making a huge scarf in addition to these other projects that I'm working on I should have a nice bag to carry it in right? I just need to finish up the handles and I'm ready to felt. I'm actually a little nervous about the felting part of it because I haven't done that before. I guess we will see how it goes.

In other news I have moved my lvl 70 warrior gnome off of Aerie Peak. I promised myself almost a year ago that I wasn't going to do that but I finally got so fed up with that server that I had to move. Besides I really don't like being the only warrior on a sever that doesn't have a raiding group. I'm now on Arygos almost exclusively. I've really cut down on my playing a lot since I've been so busy. I still play on Farstriders sometimes but since not many of my friends play there any more I kinda lost interest. I'm probably going to make a new lowbie character on Aerie Peak again but I probably won't play it much at all. When they had the free character transfers I moved all of my lower level characters off of that server and did a paid transfer on my 70. I am in a guild on Arygos called Axis and I really love those guys. They are great raiding partners and even if they don't have enough on for a raid they are usually willing to help out with quests or instances.

Anyway I need to get back to work. Busy busy busy. Drop me a line sometime!