You Can't Deny the Cuteness

The first week of January is nearly over. How's it going for everyone? Mine has been going fairly well. I've nearly got my wedding guest list finished! I've got all the addresses for his side, and most of the ones on my side! It feels good to have accomplished something. Also, Mom and I went wedding dress shopping last weekend! It was so exciting! I found a really gorgeous one that I fell in love with, but of course it was just my first go, so I'm sure that will happen again! I'm going with my sister this Saturday! I love all this wedding stuff! I'm so excited!

School starts up again on the 18th, and I'm going back the Friday before that! Josh and I both got a job at Chick-fil-a, and we start training on the 17th. Hooray for money!

I decided to take a bit of a different route with this pattern search. Whales! I found a really cute headphone-holder thingy that was a really cute whale, so I ran with it!

Moby Dick Cable Controller-This adorable little whale is perfect for your desk to hold your usb cables or headphones! I can't wait to make one! He's so adorable!

Whale Charts-This cute little whale chart is 28 stitches across and 18 stitches high, so it's decently versatile.

Whale Watch Purse-If you're someone who lives near the water, or just someone who LOVES ocean-y things, this cute little purse is perfect for you!

Whale of a Tail Baby Hat-This is a simple, cute little hat for a newborn that looks like the whale's tail is sticking up off baby's head.

Oedipus the Orca-A little stuffed Orca whale! I think it's precious.

Hazel the Humpback Whale-Available as a free Ravelry.com download. You'll need to make a free account (which I totally recommend!). This is a realistic looking little stuffed humpback whale! It's amazing how real it looks.

Moby the Whale-A simple stuffed whale. I think it's cute!

That's all the free ones I could find that were whales and not fish. If you know of any others just comment and I'll add them!

Cuddly Warm for Christmas!

Recently, I knit myself a cowl. I'd never made one before, and honestly I'd always thought they looked kinda funny. Models do that to things I suppose. But my dear friend found a really pretty one that looked really easy, so I decided to give it a go. I fell in love with it. It took me an evening of on-again-off-again-knitting.

Were I to make this again (and I just might!) I would use a non-textured yarn so it shows off the leaf-edging better. I used Lion Brand Homespun and it was really really warm and happy. And I love how it turned out. Since these pictures were taken it has been gifted to my (crazy-skinny) friend Meg who is ALWAYS cold. She put it on and was warmed immediately (just like me) and loved it. I was happy. But because I did (semi-unexpectedly, but not unhappily) give this one away, I looked around for another one to make myself and found a nice cabled one that I have on the needles. I've never done cables before but I haven't had any problems so far.

In the spirit of warm and happy (and because we've had ice and snow here in my hometown) I decided to do a pattern search of warm and happy things like cowls and hats!

Cowls:

Leaving on the Edge-This is the cowl pictured above! You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page. The pattern is second-to-last.

Quick Cabled Cowl-You need a free Ravlery.com account to view this one. This is the one I currently have on my needles. A big cable runs along it and it's fastened with two big buttons!

Simple Loom Cowl-You need a Ravlery account for this one too. Done on a loom, this cowl is very basic and simple.

Slouchy Cowl Collar-A big slouchy cowl that hangs down slightly. I don't know if it's as warm as the closer-fitting ones, but it looks nice. Anyone have big cowl experience?

Doncha Wanna Hug Me? Cowl-This is a big cowl that stays more or less above the shoulders. It looks nice and warm!

Simon Cowl-Besides the humor, this cowl is great because it's simple with a couple of challenging techniques. Great for knitters ready to branch out and try something new, but since it's all in garter stitch, it's not daunting.

Halfway Wrong Way Cowl-A simple cowl in super bulky yarn with buttons to hold it closed, but no buttonhole creating required!

Parliament Hill Cowl-For this cowl you cast on the length (part that fits around your neck) and knit until it's the right length (how high up on your neck it goes), so it's a pretty quick knit. And it looks really happy.

There's a lot more cowls out there and many of them are great, so if you've got one you love, let me know and I'll add it!

Hats:

Of course this is a HUGE category, so I'm not going to list too many, just ones that I think are awesome!

Jayne Cobb Hat-Of course the most cunning and incredible hat ever has to be added first! This is one cunning hat!

Hat With Heart Earflaps-I thought this was precious! Its on lion-brand's website, so I'm not sure if you'll need a subscription to their site or not. If you find that you do, please let me know!

Holiday Hat-You need a Ravelry account for this one. A nice hat with lots of Christmas-y/Winter-y images knit into it.

Tea Cozy Hat-This is needs a Rav account too. A warm hat with an opening for your ponytail! Uses a drawstring to open or close the hat more to accommodate your hairstyle for the day.

Entrelac Hat-In the round entrelac....Sounds scary to me but the hat looks awesome!

Earflap Hat-With sizes for child, adult, and large adult, this hat is really versatile!

Penguin Pal Hat-Child-sized penguin hat! It's so adorable!

Penguin Hat for Adults-I was so excited to find this! I collect penguins! You need a Rav account for this one.

Pi Hat-For the math geek in your life!

Sweet Heart Hat-You need a Rav account. Stranded colorwork hearts along the brim make this an adorable little Valentine hat!

Stay warm and have a wonderful Christmas!

You Can't Take the Sky from Me

I'm sorry it's been so long (again). My main laptop, Xemda, has the Win7 AV virus. It acts like an antivirus software that you download, except when it tells you that you have "THREE BIG SCARY DEADLY VIRUSES!!!!!!111one" that it can only get rid of by updating, you have to pay like $60 or some such nonsense. And it won't leave you alone until you do. It just keeps popping up every three seconds saying "LOOK! LOOK! VIRUSES! PAY ME!" So I just turned poor Xemda off and need to take her to the dormnet peoples to haev them fix it. Since then I've been using my new netbook Wheatley! He's an Acer Aspire one. Purple on the outside with black keys, but purple all around the keyboard! It's shiny and brings me joy.

But in my absence I've been involved in a Firefly swap! It's still going on, so I won't tell you what I've made, but when it's over I will, with pictures! But, in light of that awesome theme, I've of course been searching lots of happy patterns and things that are Firefly related! So I'm sharing them in another pattern list!

Firefly Patterns

Knitting:

Jayne Cobb Hat Tea Cozy-A cute little tea cozy for the fans of Jayne!

Hoban Washburne "Wash" Cloth-Ravelry download. A wash cloth for a wash lover! It's knit with two colors instead of making the design with knitting and purling. The instructions are charted and written out, so whatever's easier for you!

Jayne Hat Brooch-This looks like you could make it in just an hour or so. Worked flat and sewn.

River Tam-Can't have patterns without there being a nice play on words. The River Tam is exactly what it says: a tam based on River Tam! Available as a PDF or Ravelry download.

Simon Tam-Same as above

Firefly Class Serenity-That's right! Serenity herself! The pattern is a bit complicated, but still very doable! PDF

Wash Sweater-The sweater Wash wears in "Out of Gas" and "The Message" was turned into a pattern by the Big Damn Knitters group on Ravelry (which I am a proud member of!)!

Strawberries-Inspired by Kaylee of course! These are the simplest things ever to knit. And they're adorable.

Leafy Fingerless Gloves-Again, Wash inspired. These are a Ravelry download.

Leaves-I'm not sure what to call this, because the pattern calls for only making a string of around 6, and so it's not terribly long. Of course you can add more or less to make it a headband, necklace, or even a really long scarf!

Jayne Hat 1-Jayne's classic hat! I'm just going to list several versions, though they all have the same basic idea.
Jayne Hat 2
Jayne Hat 3-Ravelry Download
Jayne Hat 4-This one includes a crochet version!

Leaf on the Wind Blanket-A really pretty leafy lace blanket. Ravelry download

Serenity Illusion Scarf-The link just leads to a giant chart. This is the link to the Ravelry page for the pattern

Jayne Hat GPS Cozy-Ravelry Download. More Jayne hat stuff, but for a GPS or other squarish electronic thingy!

Browncoat Insignia Illusion Chart-Ravelry Download.

Crochet:

Kaylee Fry-This one's not free but it was too cute to pass up! It's a little crocheted Kaylee in her outfit when she's looking for passenger's in episode 1 "Serenity". Complete with umbrella!

Our Mrs. Reynolds Shawl-Replica of the shawl that YoSaffBridg wears in episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds"!

River Tam Vest-River's white lacy long vest thing. Not sure what episode it's from.

There it is! A list of shiny things to make that are Firefly related, if only in a roundabout way. Enjoy! If you know of any others, let me know!

Stealing a Concept, or Taking a Leaf?

Is there really all that big a difference. Well...I think so. ChemKnits, a wonderful blog I watch written by an awesome biochemistry PhD candidate knitter (those words together are scary). In her blog she will occasionally do pattern searches for specific items (See her search for Felted Brim Hats and Drop Stitch Scarves) and they're very well done and helpful! So I thought I'd try and do that for things that I really want to make. This will help out when I don't have a camera to take pictures of projects or don't have anything fascinating to say. So I'll actually post more often! Hooray!

For my first search for patterns, I've recently gotten an urge to make a big comfy pullover sweater type deal, so I figured it was a good place to start.

Geisha Sweater-Worked flat in pieces. The sizes are in UK measurements, so I don't know what they fit, but the picture looks like it would fit a large maybe? Maybe bigger. If anyone knows UK measurements I'd appreciate the help! (This site keeps bringing up a username and password box, but it doesn't kick me off for not entering one so.....)

DROPS Jumper with Hood-Worked flat in pieces. Sizes S-XXL. This hoodie is adorable and looks pretty simple. And there's a bonus hat pattern!

Harry Potter House Sweater-Another flat-knit sweater modeled after the Harry Potter movies! Fits ladies size 10.

Urban Bat Sweater-Free Ravelry Download. I'm having PDF troubles so I don't have details on this one.

Summer Storm-Another free Ravelry download. Another PDF I can't look at, but the picture looks happy.

Banff-Another one knit in pieces. Oversized sleeves and big size for lots of comfort. Sizes S/M and L/XL

Casual Hooded Pullover-A pattern from the Creative Knitting newsletter. Knit in pieces with some cabling, so it's a little more complicated.

It's a little short, but these are some nice sweaters that are big and comfy looking. If you have any patterns you'd like to submit, just leave me a comment!

Just a Little Update to Make You Jealous

That's right! I made a first try at Intarsia, and this is what happened! A Super Mario villains purse!!!!!!! It took me two days of work, which isn't bad given that I've never done intarsia before, and both of these had three colors each.

Be jealous of the awesomeness that is Blooper the Squid and...Cloud Man! (if you happen to know his name let me know!)

The purse itself was a made up pattern of my own, but the Mario character charts were found here. I love this so so so much!

I lined it with one of my old t-shirts so that my keys wouldn't poke through it since it's just acrylic Red-Heart Super Saver.

I've just been informed that Cloud Man is called Lakitu!

Not All Changes are Bad, but Mots of them still Suck

Summer I has begun, and I already know it won't be any kind of fun. I'm taking Spanish this month, and I really don't want to. I'm not enjoying it, and I won't enjoy it no matter how much the professor tries. There are three of us, and I'm the only girl. I don't enjoy the Spanish language. I don't think it's very pretty. I'm sorry. It's just my opinion. I still may drop, but I'm afraid that if I do I might get kicked out of my room, though that doesn't seem likely. I don't know. I'm just tired I guess.
My new suitmate is really awesome though. I spent about 5 hours just talking and hanging out with her. She's from a town on the opposite side of my state, but a little bitty town too, so we connected well. We talked about everything. It was really really fun.
I'm in the market for a new car! I've always wanted a VW Bug, but I'm open to other cars too. I'm looking at Mustangs, Seabrings, and numerous others. I like a lot of cars, and I'm just basically trying to get a good college car, but within a little budget of 5-8,000. This is a very exciting! My poor little '94 Grand Prix can't really handle the long drive home well anymore. My wonderful boy is going to probably be buying my car, or maybe just taking it, but I really need the money it's worth..so we'll see what happens. When I get a car I'll post pictures!

I'm working on a pair of Namaste socks with the same yarn I made my gloves out of! For those who don't know what those are, here's a link to the free pattern I'm using!
And here's some pictures of my gloves!
I actually took that bottom picture with my knee! These took me about a day each of lazy TV watching work. The pattern is really simple and is a great sock-yarn stash buster! It has awesome instructions for when you have a little or a lot of sock yarn to play with! And it's free here! Enjoy!

My next goal is a pair of Tabi socks. Again, for my non-Japanese educated friends, here's a pattern that explains everything.

If you can't use Ravelry, (firstly I recommend signing up! It's wonderful!) here is a pdf version! I hope you like them!

An interesting start to what seems to be an exhausting "semester".

A Few Shiny Things

For all my Firefly fans: I have made a Jayne hat! I made it for a friend who's been into Firefly much longer than me. (As I've only been watching it for a month or so.)


A couple of WIP pictures. (This hat literally took me about a day altogether.)





And the very happy recipient! She loves it and wears it everywhere! I'm currently working on my own hat now. (As according to a Facebook quiz I'm Jayne....weird....)

Jayne Hat
There's the pattern. I didn't have the right cable length, so I transferred it to size 10 1/2 dpns, dividing them into 16 stitches across 4 needles. My first ever project using a set of 5 dpns rather than 4. It was rather exciting. I used the Red Heart Super Saver yarns, and if you do that too bear in mind that it'll be a bit loose when using the dpns. Especially at the beginning try and knit a little tighter than you normally would.

On another exciting note: I'm playing with cooking! I LOVE it! In perusing Crazy Aunt Purl's blog, I came across this. It's a wonderful salad with blueberries and carrots!! It's so happy!






7. Grate carrots, toast some sunflower seeds, and toss with blueberries, olive oil, lemon juice and plenty of black pepper. Sweet, sour, crunchy, soft.

The salad comes from 101 Simple Salads for the Season.

It's the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. I underestimated the tartness of the lemon. (I used half of an actual lemon, rather than bottled lemon juice. I don't know if it makes a difference, I just happened to have a lemon I'd taken from the school's cafeteria.)
I cut the lemon in half and squeezed all the juice out of it I could, and only added a little bit of olive oil. It made it rather tart, but it was still amazingly amazing. I am utterly in love with this salad. I also didn't use but a tiny bit of pepper because I've never liked pepper in salads. I didn't bother toasting my own sunflower seeds. They come toasted in bags at Wal-Mart. So its really up to you how you do it.

I did all of my grating, cutting, etc. by hand because I don't have a food processor, but one will easily work for the carrots. Just remember not to get the slices too small.

My favorite thing is that this salad is only 4 weight watchers points! (Which I am doing at the moment.) It's very healthy, very delicious, and has no greens so it's different and fun!

Give it a try, let me know how it turns out for you!

Circles and Halloween

I'm starting up a knitting circle/group/club thing at my school! I know of a few people that are coming, and I'm curious to see how many show up juts because of the signs I posted. I'm not 100% on what to do, but I have a few ideas in mind. I'm really excited about this, and I hope it's something that will pick up and gain speed fairly quickly.

For Halloween, I'm trying to use the dreaded dpns! Dun dun duuuuuuuuun! I found an adorable little pumpkin pattern and figured I'd give it a shot. It isn't terribly hard, but dpns. They suck.
http://www.curlypurly.com/pumpkin.html The pattern is located here.

I also started and finished a dishcloth with a bat. It was really really easy to do (especially since I finally know how to knit and purl in the same row. It's amazing how much has opened up now that I know how to do that....) http://www.blackrayne.com/pages/batty.html The pattern for the bat dishcloth is here, except I did mine in black. It looks neat, but I recommend a lighter color (like the purple pictured) so you can see the image easier. I intend to use it as an actual dishcloth, at least this month. Why knit something functional and not use it?

Super Insanely Easy Pillow Pattern

I promised it and here it is (finally)! The insanely easy pattern for the pillow I posted earlier.

Materials: Size 15 needles
I used Lion Brand Homespun in whatever colors you like (amount depends on how big you want your pillow to be. Mine took about half a full skein). I used a dark purple and black, and then a silver/grey and black. This pillow is double-knit (hold two strands of yarn and work them as one).
Tapestry needle/large-eye needle for sewing.

Pattern:

Holding two strands of yarn together, cast on 30 sts.
Work in stockinette/stocking stitch (K one row, P one row) for 13 inches or double the desired length.
Bind off.
Blocking isn't necessary, but if you want to, do it now, BEFORE following the "finishing" instructions.

Finishing:
Cut a long strand of one color and sew up one edge, then repeat for the other edge. DO NOT sew up the top yet! Stuff with polyester fiberfill (or some form of fluffy stuffing) and stuff full. It's okay if sections bulge a bit, you can fluff them out/whack them until they're gone when you're done. Once the pillow is stuffed to your liking, cut another long strand and sew up the top. And voila! You now have a nice fluffy pillow for your back, your seat, or your head!

Well today was sorta back and forth. I decided not to go into work today, and try and get some packing/cleaning done, but when I found a MASSIVE SPIDER hiding under some of my clothes, that plan died miserably. I. don't. like. spiders.

But it's not bad otherwise. Just a day to chill out and watch some Winnie the Pooh on YouTube. Ah nostalgia. I've lived in it for awhile this summer. I found a whole bunch of Rugrats episodes on YouTube too! Yeah, the ones that showed when I was ONE!!!!

Oh! And I found a wonderful pattern for a simple shawl that I intend to eventually make for myself!

http://www.sheeptoshawl.com/charity/archives/2006/12/entry_230.html

This one in fact. I found it through the Knitting Pattern Central website! Man I love that site. It's got a toooooon of patterns! And I'm also in the process of making up a simple blanket/afgan pattern for myself. I just need to get it written down as a go along. I'll post some pictures when I'm a little further in.