Lots of Knitting

At the moment the priorities in my life are God, Nathan, family, friends, music, knitting, other stuff. Knitting has been keeping me sane in the crazy busy-ness of life right now. One advantage to my long commute to school is that the 40 min leg of the trip on BART is prime time for working on knitting projects. I bring a project with me pretty much everywhere I go and I’ve been able to get a lot done. I’ve really surprised myself because I’ve managed to make huge progress on my Holiday gifts. I’ve only got one and a half things left to go!

On top of that, knitting is starting to bring in extra income. I’m working on a custom pair of gloves for a woman who came into K2TOG looking for someone she could hire. My boss referred her to me and she wants two pairs at a price that’s worth it for me. And I’ve had two people request that I make them knit items that they would pay me for.

I’m considering putting some effort into selling my knitting, maybe opening an Etsy store or something. I’m gonna see how things go with the glove thing and maybe put some extra effort into things once Christmas break starts.

Most of my knitting is up on Ravelry, but here are a few highlights of what I’ve been doing:

Easy Flame Lace Scarf – Malabrigo Laceweight (Pattern from Knit & Tonic)

Dashing – Cascade Venezia (Pattern from Knitty.com) For Nathan

(The first one is actually completed, but I don’t have an updated picture yet)

Two-Ball Touch Me Hat – Meunch Touch Me Due

Felted Bowl – Crystal Palace Taos – Christmas Gift

(Before Felting – It’s been felted and is currently drying)

Lastly, I have to gush about Ravelry. I absolutely LOOOOOVE this site! I’ve got all my current in-progress and all my new projects listed. I did an inventory of my needles, and I’ve been keeping track of my knitting books and stash. It’s so helpful for finding patterns and people’s notes and experiences with particular patterns. It’s one of my favorite websites now. Here’s evidence of myRavelry love (and my birthday presents from my family as a little extra).

 

Updating…

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I’m working on simplifying and streamlining my life at the moment. That’s translated to my blog here as well.

I’m most likely going to do a series of posts on my other blog, and since some of my readers here might want to see what’s up on my other blog, I added a feed under “about me” to you can see what’s going on over there. There might be some posts that really could fit in either of my blogs, but the other one needs a little love as you can see haha!

I might eventually just combine my blogs, but for now, this should work.

To finish off this post, I leave you with this:

Yes, I lied. I started another project (the mesh bag pattern on the Sugar & Cream wrapper thingie). But in my defense, it is for my mom for mother’s day. And it worked up REALLY fast. And it’s crocheted, so it could be said I didn’t lie (Ok, that’s another lie). I’m nearly done with the mesh part (one or two more rounds), and then I just have the top edge and the handle to finish. I’ll put a few things in the bag when I give it to her (like chocolate).

Here’s another picture so you can see it in all it’s glory:

It feels good to be working on a crochet project again. My poor neglected crochet hooks. *sigh*

 

WIP Pics…and more pics

(Warning! There are a lot of pictures in this post!)

Ok, I swear I took a picture of the blanket square with both pictures, but I have no clue what happened to it! It’s not on my camera….

I do, however, have pics of my two other VIWIPs (Very Important Work in Progress).

Here is the knit scarf:

I have definitely got the purl stitch down now. I can do them just as fast as my knit stitches (I think). And thanks to multiple mistakes, I am also a pretty decent frogger (took me a while to figure out which way the stitches need to be put back on the needle once you take them out – DUH).

And here is the shawl:

And just for kicks, here are some pictures of what I was doing this past weekend while not knitting or crocheting…

My youngest sister and I at the ILs house for Thanksgiving:

My little brother trying to strangle us:

Payback… (aka the “Pacifier Popper” – named when he was a baby and this action would cause his pacifier to pop out of his mouth….which he found hilarious)

And last night’s events:

We found our First Christmas Tree! (isn’t it cute?)

Nathan pretending to be said Christmas tree:

Isn’t it cute? (and by cute, I mean small enough to fit in our apartment, but big enough to actually look like a Christmas tree – I thought we’d have to find a teeny one to fit on top of the coffee table)

A closeup of the angel figure that I managed to fit on top of the tree

The one personalized ornament on there so far…from our first First Christmas together (last year after we were engaged – the picture is one of our engagement pictures)

 

Two FOs!!

The shawl has found a new purpose….a scarf for my sister.

I was feeling kinda frustrated with it because I was stuck. I couldn’t figure out how to keep it from decreasing without the ends looking weird or decrease it fast enough so it wasn’t ginormous and/or odd-looking.

My husband took one look at it and said it was totally my sister’s style as a scarf. I tried it on to see how it looked. He was right! It would look good as a belt too and I think she’ll like it.

My misshapen star pillow that I sewed when I was a kid is modeling it for you all (all two of you, LOL)

the details:

Remember that funky greenish Red Heart yarn I didn’t know what I’d do with? Well, I found a purpose!

I was browsing through crochet blogs and websites when I found a link to Caps to the Capital, an advocacy campaign to help save newborn babies’ lives in developing countries by keeping their little heads warm. It’s really an awesome idea and it’s giving purpose to some yarn I would probably have never used. The caps don’t take much yarn (3/4 oz sport weight)and I worked it up in just a couple hours.

My first hat I’ve ever made! Isn’t it cute?

I think I’ll be able to make six caps out of the two skeins I have of this color. I think I may use the pattern to make a cap for my friend’s baby too (due in December). They have patterns for knitters or crocheters, with patterns for both sport and worsted weight yarns. And it’ll be easy to make them multi-colored too.

And, as a side effect, making these caps is helping my baby fever a bit. I had a bad bout of it this week (thanks to a dream that I was pregnant…which coincided with when I ovulated of all things), and helping to save babies in need is a good way to expend my resources until I can have one of my own.