A few pictures

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make fingerless mitts. I've posted about it, but never got around to showing off the finished product. I'm still in need of a better pattern, though. I have oddly skinny hands, and the pattern as written was just not right for me. I am wearing these all the time, even though they are too short to keep my wrists warm. I tried to take pictures of me wearing them, but I have yet to master the art of photographing my own hands.


Then I started making a Mr. Dangly monkey for my daughter. The pattern calls for it to be knitted flat, then seamed, but I hate seaming. And I am bad at it. So I broke out the teeny DPN's and some Caron Simply Soft yarn, and went to town. I wanted it to be washable, thus the acrylic yarn. This stuff splits like there's no tomorrow. It is soft, but NOT enjoyable to work with. So Mr. Dangly remains a one-armed, legless deaf monkey. Poor little guy.

While avoiding the aforementioned critter, my friend Becky showed me the current object of her affection, the Lady Eleanor stole. Of course I got all obsessed over it as well. With the leftover yarn from the mitts project, I decided to try my hand at entrelac. It is seriously addictive. I love things that are easy, but look impressive. Yes, my life (and hobbies) are all smoke and mirrors.

I've managed a few rows of the entrelac, so I think I'm ready to tackle a real project. I'll probably go with something a little smaller (and something that doesn't sing out for such expensive yarn-- I'm cheap like that). I'm leaning towards the Danica scarf from Knitty. We'll see what happens.

That's all for now. Forthcoming is the story of the Great Homebrewing Debacle of '07. Let's just say that Duct Tape really can fix anything.

Hey look-- I'm spamming on my blog!

1920's Coats O.N.T. Designs crochet pattern books for sale. These are great books that my mother bought at an estate auction. They are so cool that I am loathe to get rid of them. But I cannot crochet, so they have no purpose here. Except to make me tense that my kids will decide to color them. or tear them page from beautiful antique page. eek!

I am sending a portion of all of these sales to Doctors Without Borders, as part of my commitment to Knitters Without Borders. Unfortunately, I have to manually donate the sales of most of these books, due to ebay/missionfish minimums. Y'all will have to trust me that at least 20% of everything fiber-arts related will be sent off to charity.

In addition, I have a bunch of old embroidery transfers that I need to sell, and my mother informs me that she has a collection of tatting books, also destined for ebay. Those will also benefit Doctors Without Borders, too.

I think I'm ready to start a new house project.

After several months and the holidays, I'm finally ready to start on a new house project. I don't know which one yet, but I have lots from which to choose. I'd really like to do the living room next, but it's a ginormous job, including skim-coating the current plaster, then wallpapering or painting. Floor also needs to be redone. Previous owners decided to glue down construction-grade plywood, paint it to look something like red linoleum, and call it a floor. I guess it is a floor, as I can walk on it, and it keeps the furniture out of the crawlspace below. But it is very very not pretty.

Or I can work on my office. The walls are currently white, formerly covered in dark blue wallpaper. The walls and trim need to be painted. I bought paint for this room (oops paint, of course) over a year ago, and it is sitting in the basement, waiting patiently.

I have the stairs to do as well. I ripped out the hideous carpet, but they look heinous now. They need the remaining finish stripped off, then re-painted and shellacked. As much as I would love to tackle that next, it's a open-window-season sort of dealio. Shellac is seriously stinky until it dries. If I want to be loopy, I'll drink heavily. Inhaling denatured alcohol fumes just isn't my bag.

The upstairs bathroom is also on the list, but no one sees it but me, so it's low-priority. It's a really small room, though, so it might not take too much to finish. The kitchen is a project still too large for me fathom. So it waits until summer at least.

So that's it for now. Just wanted to update y'all on my thought process. I hope to update soon with new progress pics.

I've been busy.

In the last weeks, I've managed to make a bunch more dishcloths (I really needed some. My drawer was looking pretty bare), a roll-brim hat that makes me look bald (although it is really cute on my daughter) and started on a pair of fingerless mitts. I'm participating in a rather informal KAL on Sewingmamas.com. I started them on New Year's eve, but after knitting up about half of the first one, it was obviously way too big for my puny wrists and hands. So I frogged it and started over with sz 5 needles. I think they will fit this time. I really love the yarn I'm using. I'm not a fan of variegated yarns as a rule, but Paton's Merino in "majesty" is really pretty. I tried taking a picture today, but with three needles, two markers and a stitch holder in there, it just looked like a blob of yarn. I hope to get a good picture of a finished mitt in the next few days.