2014

Here is a quick list of everything I got done in the year of 2014

Crochet: 8
~Blankets:
~~~Double Crochet with knit border
~Hands:
~~~Cabled Fingerless Mitts
~Hats:
~~~Extended Single Crochet (3)
~Head Bands:
~~~Extended Single Crochet (2)
~~~Single Crochet with button

Knit: 20
~Blankets:
~~~(Not so) Twisty Turney Christmas OpArt
~Hands:
~~~Do The Twist Mitts
~~~Owl Mitts
~~~Manly Mitts
 ~Hats:
~~~Baby Cat Hat with Vents
~~~Scallop Lace Hat
~~~Lacey Flower Beret
~~~Envelope Hat
~~~Easy Faux Brioche Hat 
~Head Bands:
~~~Daisy Stitch Buttoned Headband
~~~Lacy Buttoned Headband
~~~Swiss Cheese Headband/Cowl
~Scarves:

~~~Honeycomb Cowl
~~~Bulky Seed Stitch Cowl
~~~Easy Faux Brioche Scarf
~Shawls:

~~~Skywalker
~~~Universal Kite Shawl-ette
~~~Cascading Leaves and Vines

~Sweaters:

~~~Very Versatile Top Down Cardigan
~~~Cropped Baby Surprise Jacket

Sewing/Fabric: 4
~Accessories:
~~~Patriotic Flower (4)

Others Work: 6
~Blanket:
~~~Zig-Zag blanket
~Scarves:
~~~Drop Stitch Scarf with Fringe
~~~Broken 1x1 Rib
~~~Faux Brioche
~~~Double Crochet
~~~Hairpin Lace Scarf/Shawl

Last few things

I had gotten it in my head to make a Christmas colored blanket.  I also got the bright idea to modify OpArt so it looked like it was twisting back and forth instead of spiraling.   I even tried to alternate colors on the bind off, but then I would have run out of green before the last side.

 

I think the effect had a bit more of an impact in the larger stripes, but I think it didn't work out as I had thought it would in my head.  I was picturing more of a noticeable different in the directions. 

I ended-up casting off using two red stitches and one green.  I also twisted the yarns in the front almost like an elongated half of a Latvian braid.  I like the effect.

 

 

My Cascading Leaves and Vines shawl.  It was fun to design and fun to make.  I just need to block it out and get the pattern tested.  I'm trying to decide if I should have the ends of the leaves be points or not.

 

 

This thing!  It finally became a hat like object.  I think my gauge might have been a bit tight since it doesn't seem to have as much drape as the one in the picture.

 

 

Though this part inspired one of the other knitters.  She thought that it would be really cool if socks had a similar pattern where the ribbing kind of ends and begins.  I'm excited to see what she makes.  She normally doesn't like straying from the pattern, but feels like she might be able to make her own pattern to match this design.

 

 

I swear I did block t and it was laying flat at one point.  I'm thinking of making this again with another stitch pattern that might lay a bit flatter.  It would also give it more interesting texture where it goes from the ribbing to what-ever I choose to use.

  

 Last, but not least.  Since I took away Mousey's last bed, Mr. Jag had to find a new one.  How convenient was it that there happened to be a nice little Mousey sided knitted hideaway right on the floor?  This is where Mousey has been sleeping the last few nights.

I keep trying to get video of Mr. Jag and Mousey playing but the second I try and record it he just stops.  I even held the camera on him without pushing the button so he didn't know what I was doing, but the second I pushed the button he dropped the mouse and walked away.  He's way too smart for his own good.

Not sure if I will get anything else done before the end of the year since my co-worker and her hubby are coming over right after we are done at work, but who knows?

...and a Merry Christmas to you too.

The bag says "Santa, I can explain!"

I know this blog is all about giving (and food links) most of the time, but I've decided to be a little greedy and show off some Holiday joy.  These are all the presents I got for people who I was going to see today.  My mom, my dad, the Hubby, my co-worker, and her hubby.

 

 

My dad got a small live tree from his sister so we set that up and piled all the presents under there.  The ones from my co-worker and her hubby were missing, but this was most of them.  We all got some pretty awesome stuff.

 

 

I have to say that this little cushion was my favorite present.  Being a Navy brat we moved around a bunch, but I don't remember most of it.  When I was about 5 was when my parents moved us to the house that I did most of my growing up in.  They are still in it.  Not long after we got into the area my dad was going to sell his old Fiat Spider.  I don't remember too much about the car other than I thought it was the coolest car ever.

I was about 6 when my dad went to go sell it.  Since I knew that adults did what they wanted to, I knew that I wouldn't just be able to tell my dad that he could not sell the car.  I knew that if I hid the keys he would not be able to sell it.  I found keys that did not look like house keys and figured that those must be the car keys.  Turns out that they were not.

My dad hadn't know about this until very recently and he wasn't sure what keys I hid.  The little cushion was made from the leftovers from the inside of the car.  The new owner had the inside redone and had this made for my dad. I found this in a large box and was confused until my dad told me about it.  I know I need to find a special place for this little cushion.

I hope everyone else out there had a wonderful Christmas/X-mas/Thursday!

I wonder if I should be jealous...

Mr. Jag found his Christmas present early, it was the little black mouse he pulled out of that bag mentioned previously.  He is still in love with it.  Since Bill came back from his work trip last night, Mousey could not sleep in the bed with us.  I woke up this morning and found that he had moved Mousey from the floor, where it had been hanging around with us to watch a movie, to the yarn that I had left on the couch.  How sweet is he to make sure Mousey had a nice place to spend the night?  I'm wondering of I should be getting jealous or not.

 Though I mentioned in my last post that I have been slowly getting my house into some direction of order, I have also been keeping my other goal in mind.  Here is the Universal Kite Shawl-ette(Ravelry link) that I started a while ago.  There is both a cat and a penny(left corner of the shawl) in the picture for size reference.  I made it bigger than the pattern called for.  I also could not get the top of mine to be straight across, but I am okay with that.

I'm keeping a lookout for other super fast things to finish, but I think I might be getting to things that require me to sit down and pay attention to them.  Going along these lines, I have no idea why I decided to start a large baby blanket instead of something small.  The best part is that I have another big-ish blanket planned to be started after this.
I also have to get some test knitters to try out my owl mitts pattern so I can get that up on Ravelry for all to enjoy.  I even decided to go back and add some charts for the cables and thumb gussets instead of just having it written out.  Good thing about that was that I had about six mistakes in the right mitt.  They were some silly counting things.

Dates that include counting are fun!

I was looking for some yarn that I was 90% sure I knew where it was.  Turns out I was wrong but I did find the hat pictured above.  All it needed was to be freed from the ball and some ends woven in and it was done.

I started it back before there was a blog.  I used the Vogue® Knitting Stitchionary® Volume Five: Lace Knitting for the center and then added some decreases until the lace part became stockinet and then added ribbing to the bottom.

I know I was talking like I would be finishing crafty items left and right, but I have gotten an odd kick to clean up my house.  As you may or may not remember from my NaNoWriMo ramblings, I was complaining about the state of my house.  Since I don't normally get the urge to tidy up, I have been letting that have a say more than finishing crafting projects.

More like it, another thing done!

I can't even remember off the top of my head if I showed this one in progress or not.  It is a cropped version of a baby surprise jacket.  My mom was talking about really wanting to do one but she was feeling unsure if she could follow the pattern or not.  I was going to make one with her then.  She kept working on other things, so I got impatient and started mine.  I didn't have enough yarn to make it full length, but I like the short body with the poofy yarn.
This thing was interesting to add buttons to.  I checked one time and found three evenly spaced button holes.  I then started adding buttons to it.  I found another button hole and had four.  Before adding the fourth button I found yet another button hole.  I think they were just magically appearing as I was adding the buttons.

I also have a cute Mr. Jag story to share!  When I got him some canned food from the vet near my mom's house I met a super nice lady who works there.  She just kept giving me things.  I got some more canned cat food lids and two small kitty toys.  The mouse and the metallic puff ball had been riding around in my car for a few weeks.  I cleared off that seat because I gave a friend a ride and threw them in a bag with random stuff from my car.  I brought the bag in last night when I got home from work.
Around 5:30am Mr. Jag jumped into bed and started doing that scooting pounce thing around.  He would then jump off the bed and start again.  I was wondering if he found some sort of live critter.  I turned on the light and saw what he was playing with.  It was the little black mouse from the vet's office.  He had gone into the bag and fished it out.
He loves that little thing.  I think it replaced the packaged mint as his favorite toy.  He was picking it up by the tail and swinging it around before chasing it again.  If it fell off the bed he would hop down and get it before starting to play again.

In other news, I think I found my first grey hair!  I think it is kind of neat.

Not something done, but something new.

I had a good idea how to knit this slightly differently.  It isn't showing the increases as much as I thought it would.  I've gotten this far in it because I was hoping it would look more like I was picturing in the larger sections.  My new idea will be to have most of it in stockinette with the color changes in seed stitch.  It will make it so that the blanket has more of a right side and wrong side, but I think the effect will be cool.

 I also went to ZooLights with some friends.  I was thinking of bringing some knitting, but the weather didn't agree.  Though I did plan on wet blocking this at some point, I don't think I want to do that while I am knitting it.  It was dark and knitting would have been hard any way.  

Here is the knitting.  It is the blanket I was talking about above.  I already have yarn picked out for the second try at it.  I will have to do some testing before I start it though.

Here is the gallery of ZooLights!  These are not all the lights, but they are the ones that looked good in pictures.

I'm glad yesterday is gone!

Yesterday was just a train wreck.  First I didn't get to go to bed until about 1:30 in the morning because we didn't get out of work until a bit before midnight.  I had to get some things ready to take to work to eat so I wasn't able to just come home and fall over.
I was up again at 8:23am to get to work on time at 10am.  I thought I had grabbed everything until I got out to the car where I saw I was missing my Zipfizz and since I needed that extra pep I went back in to get it.  I thought I had grabbed all my keys, but it turns out I had left my car keys sitting on the passenger seat.  Well, while I was inside I heard my car beep as it relocked itself.  Usually my car might arm its alarm without me hitting the button if all the doors are closed, but it doesn't lock the driver door.  It helps so that you won't lock your keys in the car.  Turns out if you don't put the key in the ignition then it just locks all the doors all the way.
It took me over half a hour to find my spare key.  It was in an easy to remember place, but I had put it there about four years ago.  Now it is in a better place and two people besides me know where it is.
Work was just work so there isn't much to report about that.
At knit-night I discovered that the red crochet thread I got was smaller than the other crochet yarn I use.  This means that my sample and my finished item are not the same color.  I asked some opinions and got mixed reviews on what people thought of the size differences.
When I got home Bill was asleep on the couch with a movie on the TV.  Turns out poor Mr. Jag didn't get his dinner so I went to go get all that set up.  His last needle had been used so I grabbed the box and headed to my local Walgreens.  They have been out of their own brand of the short needles for a few months but they were able to search and told me another store had some.  The store was a 24 hour one, so that was good news to hear at 10pm.  I drive myself out there with my old box and asked for some.  The guy gave me a funny look and made a big deal on how he is going to need more info than "I need more of these."  My usual one goes to check to see if they have them and then ask all the detail before they ring them up.  This guy was super suspicious and said that I needed a proof of use.  I could bring things like a label off of the insulin or something like that.
It was about a half hour drive and I was kind of done for the day.  I got all weepy in the car because I was tired and I felt like I was letting Mr. Jag down because he just had to keep waiting for his dinner.  I finally called home and had the Hubby give him a late dinner at 11pm while I was still driving back home.
When I got home I found that the gallon milk jug Bill was keeping some stuff in had sprung a leak.  This means that used transmission fluid and other things were spreading out on the garage floor.  I grabbed some paper towels and Bill moved one of his bikes out of the way.  I got a good layer down to help soak things up.  Turns out it costs money to get rid of that stuff so it makes sense to hold onto it until you have a bunch.  Well, Mr. Jag was trying to be ever so helpful, as usual.  This means that he walked right through some of the muck.  Since used car fluids can't be good for anyone it also meant that Mr. Jag got picked up and I wiped off his little paws.  Two things he doesn't like.  He didn't get the correlation, so he even did it a second time.
Trying again this morning I went armed with the things I needed.  Today I was told some tips and tricks on things to have with me.  Mr. Jag's information is also all in the system, though I'm not sure why it wasn't already in there from all the other times I've gotten him insulin and needles.  I would assume that the Walgreen's system would be accessible from all locations and not just my regular one, but I could be wrong.
Though something fun happened when I went to Walgreens today.  There was a guy going in the store before me that was wearing a neon pink camo stretchy body suit.  He was also wearing tennis shoes and socks over, but that was all on him.  He got in line behind me at the pharmacy and told me that he liked my speckled nail polish.  I told him where I got it.  I don't know if he was trying to see if I was going to have a big reaction to him or not.  So I'm not sure if I let him down by not looking shocked at him or anything.

I also gave away the Manly Mitts to the homeless guy who hangs around the library not too far from my house.  He seemed kind of shocked that I was giving him something.  I might try and be stealthy and see if I see him wearing them later.

I'm also still going back and forth on what I want to work on next.  I'm worried that the socks I have planned have too side of a pattern to really work for socks.  I have to see if it will work or not.
I'm also debating if I should knit the blanket like I had planned before or if I should crochet it.  Another option would be to do both.  So many options!  I am going to run off and see which one jumps out at my first.

Off to a good start!

Very reluctantly modeled by a grumpy face.

Hurray they are done!  The ends are woven in and everything.  I think they were the perfect length even though I was guessing.  The color is really yellow in this picture.  It is really a more cool teal color.
I'm thinking of trying some "Oh, I heard it is going to get cold and I figured you could use these" kind of thing when I give them away.
I had gotten 2 skeins of this to make these.  It's kind of funny how much I can't guess at yard needs.  I have almost half of the first one left.

I had done a very small load of laundry earlier in the day and later I noticed there was a puddle of water in front of the mess sink/kitty box.  I mopped it up and gave it a tentative sniff.  It didn't smell like it came out of the cat so I figured I must have spilled some water when I was moving a shirt I had been soaking.
Bill got home and dumped all of this stuff in the washer.  I went into the kitchen to get a snack and heard a dripping noise.  I was afraid that my washing machine was broken and saw what is pictured above.  My mom put that lint trapper thing on our hose and it seems to have gotten filled up when we weren't looking.  One of those streams was just shooting over the edge of the sink.

No gutters here!

I was doing my new usual thing this morning which is to knit and listen/watch The Knit Girllls podcast.  Leslie was talking about one of the swatches she is working on for her Master Knitter thing.  She was complaining about how she gets 'gutters' a bunch when she does reverse stockinette stitch.  A gutter when talking about knitting is where you have a little space between your rows.  It happens when you knit and purl at slightly different tensions.
I was working on my swatch for my Owl Mitts (I know, swatches are usually done before the project) and I turned it over and saw that I had no gutters.  Before someone points out that it looks like I have some gutters going on at the left side, that is where I have the garter stitch.

The Manly Mitts just need a thumb and then some ends woven in.  I know it will only be eight ends, but I am pretty sure they multiply when I'm not looking.

The Hubby also didn't come back in to town yesterday because he was just having too much fun with his family.  This means that I will have lunch time all to myself and I decided I am going to have another Turkey Day.  Well, a Tofurky day.

This is what I have.  I'm not vegan or really a vegetarian all of the time, but I do like some of the stuff made for those dietary choices.  I feel like they are a bit healthier, even if they aren't.  The best part about this little guy is the gravy.  The gravy is kind of magical.  You can buy the gravy separate, but I wanted to go with the whole shebang today. 

I even got a little postcard for the holidays.  So many cute pictures on the front.  The cow nose keeps grabbing my attention when I look at it.  It even took me looking at it a few times to notice the cute orange cat in the bottom right corner licking its little lips.

Well, I tried to give my money away...

I had been going on about Small Business Saturday a bunch yesterday and I tried to put my money where my mouth was, but I was denied.  I wanted to go to the bakery near my house and give them some support.  Seems like they took the day off though.  I'm pretty sure I did this exact same thing last year too.
I like going there because I have known about them from before they were a bakery you could just walk into.  One of the owners had a shop where she was only open to meet with people and she only did custom cake orders.  Well, add in two more people and they decided to try and sell some cupcakes out of her shop and be open to the public for a few hours a few days a week.  This was pretty successful and the people cried out for more store hours.  They did so well that they moved to a bigger shop and are opened almost every day of the week.  I also can't pick a favorite thing from them, but their pop-tarts are pretty awesome.  They don't skimp on the filling.  If you are in the area, make sure to stop by The Boutique Bakeshop and try everything that looks good to you.

I was watching The Knit Girllls podcast and they were talking about getting to meet Wendy Knits.  They talked about flying into Washington DC and it got me curious.  Turns out that she is also local to me!  Another person who lives in Alexandria!  First Tanis and now Wendy.  Do all the cool knitterly people secretly live near me?  Maybe something in this area just helps you to become all the knitter that you can be.

I'm having so many problems picking what I am going to be knitting next.  I want to try knitting the sock design I had thought of, but I also want to start a two color blanket.  I might just start the blanket and carry it with me until it gets too big and then start the socks.
Along the lines of things I want and should be working on.  I wish the Ravelry progress bar widget would allow you to pick and choose what WIPs(work in progress) to show.  Right now it just shows everything in progress, but some of the ones I have listed as an in-progress project is really just there to remind me that it is something I want to make at some point.  I know there is a queue and notes for that, but I had really meant to start them by now.  It would also list things if I was making anything for myself, which isn't really needed on here.

One down, one to go.

The experimental mint crack.

Though I did not have to be at work at 5:45am this morning I still did not have any time to work on anything before I had to be in at 9am.  There is nothing new to show, though I wish there was.  I had brought some stuff along with me to work on my various breaks, but I only got a lunch break.  I spent that eating, so my hands were too busy to knit.

Above is a picture of my experimental crack.  It went over very well from those who tried it and let me know.  The extra chips I had were not chocolate, they were butterscotch.  I didn't want to have too many changed variables in it so this version doesn't have as much chocolate on it as it should. 
I was also informed that even if I didn't work there anymore I would be getting messages telling me I could drop off some crack at any time.  It is nice to be loved.

Happy Turkey Day!

Or for anyone who doesn't celebrate it: Happy Thursday!
For the NaNoWriMoers:  Only four days left!!!!

As you have probably read on here about a million times, I am feeling like my charity stuff has been suffering this month.  I would like to claim that my other blog is suffering too, but it has been suffering for a few months, so that's all me.  I have a new goal for next month and that will be to finally finish some of my projects that have been sitting around waiting for me to add that last step to them.  Some sort of ending the year and ending projects kind of tie in.  Everyone likes a good theme.

I also still plan on trying to do my work 50,000 stitches in one month in January.  I don't want any finishing work on old projects to get in the way of my goal.  It will be also very interesting because I will be working on some stuff for myself during that month in preparation for Katsucon the following month.  It will be happening over the Valentine's Day weekend, so I have something heart themed planned.  Yay for themes!

I still need to weight my owl mitts and get the last two bits of info onto my pattern file so I can get that put up.  I think I will see if I few people from one of my knitting groups wants to test knit for me.  I'm also still thinking of making a chart for the owl section, but I am still not sure about that.

In case anyone was wondering what to get me for *whatever winter holiday you want* this year, here is a hint.  I think it is a pretty awesome idea.  I was even surprised to find that I am not too far away from them. Only a bit more than a three hour drive.  This seems like an awesome idea because you get all the joys of owning your own sheep without all the hassle of having to clean-up after them.
I don't see them now, but I think they used to have pictures of the sheep so you could browse and see when one you might want would be available.  There was one I saw with a spot over one eye and I just loved her.  I wanted her but The Hubby didn't get me her last year.
They also have piglets for take-home-adoption.  I will be the first to admit that I want some very odd pets.  A pet pig is on my list.  Pigs are just so dang smart.  I think it would be fun to own one of them, even if they grow up to be one of those giant piggies.  The closest I can get are Guinea Pigs, which are also awesome pets, but not the same.
I've also wanted a pet cow too.  I love how soft their noses are.  I think I need to move to a small farm.  That way I would be able to own all of the creatures I want.  Most of these I can't own in my house because it isn't rated for agriculture.
Another odd pet I have always wanted was a skunk.  I just love their little waddly walk.  Though according to Skunks as Pets, it seems that is is illegal for me to own a skunk. Boo!

List of adoptable sheep sites: there are probably a lot more but here are the ones I look at.

• Owens Farm
• Woolly Manor
• Quaker Hill Farm
• Shepherd's Way Farm

Since I get so distracted so easily, I have found a few more knitting blogs that look interesting.

• Knitting to Stay Sane has some fun free patterns.
• The Left-Handed Crafter, I found because of this post.  I just love the colors.
• jiki knits has a very calming design.
• Karen's Krafts and Other Krap's name made me laugh so very hard.
• Bubble Gum for the Brain, I was not expecting this to have any knitting on it.  Surprise!

Since I like having pictures in each of my posts, here is a random one.  This little guy started out as three dimensional until he met me.  I put him in my cargo pocket and I figured he would be okay since the last time I did that the snowman stayed dimensional.  Well, I think I sat on this one or something because he is barely past being two dimensional.  Poor little dude.  At least I know he will still be tasty since he was made from Lindt.

They said it was going to be doing this...

As you can see, it did snow.  I'm not sure when it switched from rain to snow, but it was snowing and there was some gathered on roof tops and grass when I woke up this morning.  I love seeing snow fall from the sky.  I did go to the grocery store, but I didn't need anything for eating tomorrow.  I needed to make a list because I wasn't sure what I needed to get to make some dessert to take to work on Friday.  I actually got to go to the store's parking lot twice because I forgot my wallet the first time.
I also got some flickering tea lights to use in an idea I have for some decoration for the front of my house.  If I really like how it looks I might invest in some LED flickering tea lights so I won't have to worry about going out to turn them on or off.

The Hubby headed out of town before I could steal his hand again.  It looks huge on me, but that's because I have tiny hands.  I've decided that if I can get a picture of them on some man hands then that will be great, but if I finish them before he gets home on Saturday I will just try and find their new owner and not worry about a picture.  This way I won't feel bad because I'm waiting to get a picture of them.  If it happens it happens; if not, no big deal.
I tried a suggestion I read about online on the braid on the second braid.  Instead of knitting the stitch off of the body through the back loop before knitting the braid stitch, they suggested to just slip the body stitch.  That did help with the looseness that can happen to the body stitches as you are going around.  However, it made it feel like it was harder to control the tension on the braid stitches and the first row sits behind the first following row you work.  So there are some trade offs to working it either way.

Get all the things done within the next few days!

This persimmon came from a tree in my mom's neighbor's yard.  They now have two persimmon trees growing.  Last year I got one of them and though it was ripe, it did not have much flavor.  This year the two trees went crazy and there were a ton of these little guys.  Since it got cold fast, they had to pick them early.  They tried to give my mom most of them but she only took a few.  I love the things so I would have taken every one they would have given me.
They were very yellow and not orange at all.  It has been a few weeks but they are starting to become ready to eat.  They told my mom not to eat the skin because they think it is too bitter.  I tried it and I think they are fine.  I am so happy with the ones I've had so far.  Nice and sweet and full of flavor.  I want a million more!

It seems The Hubby has the whole week "off" from work.  I say that because he went in to work yesterday and keeps getting calls to fix things today.  This makes it hard for me to steal his hand again so I will just have to wing the length of the thumb on the Manly Mitts.
Mother Nature is getting annoyed with me, I can tell.  It starts to get cold and I freak out that I'm not making enough warm things.  It then gets warmer out but I don't up my production.  Since I'm not working faster it gets cold out again.  This will be about the third time that it has warmed for a few days before getting super cold again.  I was almost too warm in a hoodie yesterday and there is talk of snow on Wednesday.  I'm sorry Mother Nature, I only have so many hands to work with and too many ideas to work with.

No pictures of knitting right now.  I am hoping to get the first mitt done before The Hubby heads out of town for Turkey Day, but at the rate I'm going at, it won't happen.  Don't be all sad for me, I have other plans.  I was also invited to go with him, but we didn't think it would be fun to go from New York and drive for at least five hours to get me back home for work on Black Friday early the next morning.  This means that we will be having some of the stuff he doesn't like when I go to my parents' house.  Hello shrimp cocktail!

One of the guys is back and is painting the front porch thing.  It also seems that who ever did the painting before of the main structure didn't do a good enough job for this guy.  He has his music playing and is painting the whole thing.

Can I borrow your hand?

The Hubby heard that a lot from me last night.  He also heard "Are you using both hands?" a few times.  Since I only have my tiny girl hands to work with, it is hard for me to tell length for big man hands.  Lucky for me, the Hubby has a pair of those.  It seems that on my hand; the very tip of my pinky is around the first joint on the pinky of man hands.
I will also admit that I was very tempted to try and steal the use of one of his hands while he was asleep.  Though knowing my luck he would have rolled over, gotten tangled in the yarn, and I would have had to cut him out of the mess.

So many pictures!

I was working on making my Owl Mitts into a sellable pattern when I noticed something odd I did.  Instead of calling the file "Owl Mitts" I saved it as "Bunny Mitts."  I also called the folder I put all the files I need Bunny Mitts as well.  Think I'm trying to tell myself something?  I think I need to try and design some bunny mitts to go with my owl mitts.
I'm also wondering if I should have some pattern testers try it out first or not.  I think I might put a shout out on Ravelry or something.

Oatmeal Update:  It was pretty perfect now.  I even microwaved it some to heat it up before eating.  Some of the blueberries became too warm and popped opened.  So the whole thing was super good and just the right amount of sweetness for me.

Pint Sized Overnight Oatmeal

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal
1/4 cup plain Greek Yogurt (can use non-dairy)
2 tsp honey powder or sweetener of choice
1/2 cup Almond milk
1 tbsp chia seeds
fruit of choice 
Pint sized mason jars

Directions:

1. Mix together the yogurt, milk, and honey powder.
2. Add to that the chia seeds and oatmeal, stir to combine.
3. Add fruit to the top.  I usually try and fill the rest of the jar, it makes it a bit harder to stir together when ready to eat.
4. Let sit in refrigerator over night to let the oats and chia seeds soften.
5. Oatmeal can be eaten cold, room temperature, or after being warmed in the microwave.

I'm just going to warn you know that the rest of this post is going to be super pic heavy.

I didn't plan on making them so soon.

I got the owls done.  Not that it took very long and I technically got them done yesterday.  I was just on a roll and didn't want to stop.  I also had some Project Runway to watch and didn't want to get up to update the post from yesterday.  I was a bit worried about the fact that these and the Manly Mitts had the same number of stitches, so I had the Hubby try them on and they fit his big man hands.

This is about how far I have gotten.  Here are some of the changes I have done so far for the right mitt:

• added a Vikkel braid like I had planned after 14 rows for the cuff
• I worked on repeat plain before I started increasing for the thumb
• I started the thumb increases on the second knit of the first k2 column of the 2x2 rib
• I didn't increase to the 17 stitches for the thumb because I plan on picking up more stitches

I didn't change too much.  I'm trying to decide if I should add another braid before I go back to the 1x1 ribbing at the top.  I probably will.  The tentative plans I have for the left mitt have the same start but with the 2x2 rib being on the first needle and I was thinking of mirroring the chart so that way they match a bit more.  The thumb increases will probably be on the first knit stitch of the last column of the 2x2 rib.  If any of this confuses you I am thinking of making a more detailed list of the things I changed once I finish the pair.

Things in jars! Also more talk about fingerless mitts.

I thought I had decided what pattern I was going to use for my next mitts, but something I read on another blog has changed my mind.  I have been working on catching up on reading AmpuTeeHee and stumbled upon this post.  That braid is adorable!  I know man-mitts and adorable don't really go together, but I feel out of a manlier color they could add a fun dividing point between pattern bits.  Does this mean I have found a new pattern to make?  Not really.  That was going to be one of my goals for today.  I'm feeling these Manly Mitts, even though it would make it a bit more of a hit or miss if they fit or not.  I could also just do the diamond pattern on the back and the ribbing on the palm side to help with that.

My other plans for today are to weave in my ends on my owl mitts, maybe try formatting the pattern some, and to get started on the man mitts.  I am thinking of selling my owl mitts pattern for a few dollars to help fund the blog.  I know I don't pay for hosting, but if I make enough I might be able to quit my day job and make charity crafting my new day job.  Think of how many more people would get warm things if that happened.  I also wouldn't have to worry about organizing my yarn as much because I could just knit it up.  I would also have more time to spend spoiling the kitty.

Another day of cold...

It turns out I only have about half of what I needed on the skein I had left.  The tiny scale the Hubby got for beer making comes in handy when it comes to knitting.  Lucky for me I picked some more up when I was at work though this means there will be some more pink things.  It might become that scarf I was thinking about.

There is a homeless guy that usually hangs out close to one of the libraries near my house.  I think I might knit him some fingerless mitts too.  Since I don't know what colors he likes or his hand size I feel there will be some ribbed fingerless mitts in the future.  I was feeling this pattern, though I will be working it in the round and will add a thumb or two.  His won't be pink though, even though I have a whole new skein of it.

I made the other half today.  I think I like it even more with the correct ratio of cheese.  None of the cheesy flavor was lost.  I kept the amount of seasoning the same, so it was twice as much as it normally called for.  I think it was a good call.

Something about traction...

I climb into bed sometime after the hubby is already asleep.  As I pull the blankets over he mumbles something about 'gave up.'  I asked what gave up.  He told me that the cat gave up.  Of course I ask him what the cat gave up.  He then told me that the cat gave up traction.  He would not elaborate any further on the matter and just went back to snoring after that.  Of course he doesn't remember any of this in the morning.  I really need to get something to record these conversations to prove they happen.

It also seems that they weren't done with my porch thing.  I was awoken this morning, earlier than I had hoped, but the door bell.  I hear the Hubby downstairs so I tried to go back to sleep.  It went off again so I went down to check it out.

It was one of the guys who had been here before.  I saw a few long poles of the PVC wood they used.  Seems like I am getting those little fringe things around the bottom.  I'm not sure what else I will be getting but time will tell.

By 'time will tell' I seem to mean right now.  Right as I finished typing that sentence I heard my doorbell ring.  He was done with his part and needed his extension cord back.

super cold and windy out there, I do it for you

As you can see from the picture, the fringe are unpainted.  It also looks like regular wood, so it might not be the PVC stuff.  I'm hoping someone will be out to paint them before too long.  Though I learned from me mom that our flag holder had been painted, so it was probably still good to use.  I didn't know this so I didn't take it down or anything before they came out.  For some reason I like being able to keep as much of the house the same as I can.  I have a little bell on the window sill that came with the house that I love.

They might also be waiting until it is a bit warmer to paint.  So far is has only dropped twenty degrees since yesterday, but that still puts it below freezing.  The paint might freeze before it has time to dry.

I was worried that this would interfere with some of my morning plans.  I was going to go over to the Good Will and see if I can find a white sweater to wear to work.  After that was a quick run into the grocery store to get some cheese to make the Double-Stuffed Butternut Squash that I linked before, but caught my eye more than the other recipes I found.  The guy took less than an hour to do what he needed to, so it looks like I didn't need to have worried any.

This is what my butternut squash half looked like after coming out of the oven.  It was actually a lot of fun to make.  One suggestion I have is to use a fork to scrape out the inside, I used a spoon at first and ended up with some bigger chunks than I would like.

Forget cheesy pizza, this is my new favorite cheesy food.  Luckily for me it is fun to make a bit more healthy than pizza.  I did not add the bacon like the recipe suggests since I was trying to keep it a bit lighter.  Though from reexamining the recipe I might not have cut back on the cheese as much as I should have, so I guess I didn't really make it any lighter in the end.  At one point I was going to make one whole squash for part of dinner one night, but then I got impatient.  I had figured how much I needed to add of everything for that.  This morning I decided to make only one half and forgot to divide everything in half again.  The hubby might be more willing to eat it in this state though.

But where did the yarn go?

It has probably been noticed by a least a few people, but I have been using the same pink yarn for the last few projects.  It is the Red Heart with Love yarn and I am a pretty big fan.  It isn't my favorite yarn or anything like that, but I do enjoy working with it.  It is pretty soft to me.  I started using it because it is what I was making the swatch for work out of, so I knew it would work with the hook size I had when I went to make the fingerless mitts.  I just kind of kept using it because it was right there and I also knew it would work with US size 8 knitting needles.  I am also running into a problem.  It would make sense that while using a yarn to make things you would be causing there to be less to use later.  I didn't realize how fast I was using it.  There might not be enough from the skein I have to finish the other mitt.  I have to get this one totally bound off, then I can weigh the two and see if I will be short or not.  Good news is that the yarn isn't badly priced, so if I need to get more it won't break the bank.  The weather is also dropping about thirty degrees tonight, so I want to try and pound out as many quick things as I can.  I think some hats might be in order after I finish up all the fingerless mitts I have planned.

I finally remembered to bring the Zombunny with me to knit night and everyone loved him.  People really liked his little eye that was falling out.  I'm super proud of him and I'm glad everyone loved seeing him.  I might have to make him some family to give away, I think I've become too attached to him.  The plan had been to give him up, but I don't think I can do it now.  I'm just too darn proud of the little guy.  It's a good thing I still have a few skeins of that green yarn I used.

I also got some unexpected free yarn today!  I went to work and one of my co-workers handed me some yarn and told me they thought I would want it.  I asked where it came from and got an interesting story.  The lady who bought the yarn had tried knitting something with ribbing out of it, but did not like the yarn at all.  She pulled her needles out and tried to return it to the store.  Since the band was long gone and it was still partially knitted, she was told she could not bring it back.  It was in no way re-sellable so it would make no sense to take it back.  It seems she disliked this yarn so much that she didn't care if she got her money back at that point and just told my co-worker to take it.  I guess she didn't know anyone else who knitted, or maybe everyone else she knew had a wool allergy?  I'm not totally sure what the yarn is right now, but I will try and look into it more tomorrow.  It does feel like it has wool it in.  It might even be all wool, I'm not good at telling these things by feel.

In case anyone out there is looking for a video podcast about knitting to listen to and watch I suggest TheKnitGirllls.  I found them as one of the random podcasts on knitting I was downloading in college.  My art history teacher would put his lectures on iTunes as a free podcast so we could re-listen to them if we needed to.  It was the first I got into podcasts at all and I wanted to see if there were any other I might want to listen to.  They didn't have all the episodes available, but I downloaded all I could put onto my little iPod Touch.  It took me a while to get through the others and to TheKnitGirllls.  I had also forgotten about them for a few years.  One day before going to work I decided that I was tried of listening to the radio so I thought some knitting podcasts would be fun.  I will not deny that they are really fun to listen to, but it is missing something if you don't get to look at the video.  Most of the time it is fine, but every once and a while they will do a 'look at this' and you will really want to look.  Not advised when driving down the road at high speeds.  Highly advisable for long car rides, long waits in line, and really any time you are on the computer.
A podcast I want to listen to is Never Not Knitting.  I love the name and I also really like some of her patterns.  Those would be a lot easier to listen to when driving in the car.  No video for me to get distracted by.

Titles are made of words.

Sorry for the less than awesome webcam pic, I didn't want to give away too much.

So as I was fearing, the owl is lower on the hand compared to where I was hoping it would be.  Now I know to start the increases when I start on the branch.  So I have another thumb gusset that I'm not totally happy about.  I will need to find my copy of Brave New Knits and check out the one used on Foxgloves.  It is probably an increase that is every other row.  Maybe every third row will work better?  Since I am making them in the round I do not have to worry about the increases happening on a right side row.  There is also the option to increase a lot at first and then tapper back closer to the top.
I am really liking how the 2x2 ribbing is working out though.  It makes it a lot easier to fit a few different sizes hands.  It will be able to fit me and also fit someone with larger hands.  I'm also thinking of doing a 1x1 rib along the thumb.  Hopefully that will pull it in some and give it more versatility than stockinette.  It will also make it more interesting looking.

The more I look at it, the more I want to fix it.  I'm off to go do that now.

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It didn't take me as long as I thought it would be to fix it.  I took it back to the first double increase and started doing an increase row every third row.  Turns out it was pretty perfect.  I am super happy with the thumb gusset now.  It doesn't look like it increases too much.  The owl itself is also in a better position on the hand.
I even have the other mitt all figured out!  I know some people don't worry too much about where the beginning of row is, but I like thinking about that little detail.  It also makes more sense in my head.

The cast on was interesting.  At first it seemed really slow to me and not worth the effort.  I felt like I could have finished casting on with my usual knit cast on by the time I had ten stitches on the needle.  It took me to about half way before I got the hang of it.  It didn't take too long once I got the trick to it.  I just had to adjust the bottom loop out of the way and put my thumb on the yarn over the needle before pulling it tight.  It became easy and proved to be totally worth learning the new skill.  This might just be the new go to cast on when I'm making fingerless mitts.  It has all the stretch you could want without pulling in any like the knitted cast on was doing to me.  Will it replace my beloved knitted cast on for everything?  Probably not since there are some times you want your cast on to have some stability and don't care as much about the elasticity.

Half way done...already?/took long enough!

 

 I told myself that I would get them done, and I did!  I have noticed that the glove and fingerless mitt combination is still really popular, so I decided to make some of my own.  I had a ton of half off coupons from where I work so I bought a bunch of the dollar gloves.  This way I can make the sets a lot faster.  There is no real reason for me to make the glove part, especially since most of it will be covered by the mitts.
 If I do another pair based off of a stitch pattern I think I am not going to increase as much on the thumb gussets.  Maybe every fourth row instead of every other.  Though the stitch pattern is pretty stretchy, so it should be able to fit someone with larger hands than I have.
 I'm thinking a matching scarf would be fun out of this stitch pattern.  I could have the stripes go back and fourth.  The part at the top where I started going straight looked pretty cool.  It would also be reversible, and that is always nice for a scarf.
 I have had an idea for some own mitts for a while but I have been hesitant to start them.  It also gives me a good excuse to try Jeny's Stretchy Slipknot Cast-On.  I've used the bind off before, but I have not tried the cast on.  I'm also doing something a bit different than everyone else when it comes to the cables.

Two things on the house list, done!

Taadaa!  They did not add the little square border around the top, but I think I like it a little more plain.  There are those little edgings all over the rest of the house.  I will need to add a flag holder back again, but I don't think that sound too hard.

I had been hoping to get the fingerless mitts I had started done today.  That was not the case though.  The hubby called on his way home from work and mentioned going to Total Wine and Beverage, or as we call it The Beer Store.  Since I had been wanting to get more of one of the few fall ones I had tried I said that sounded fun.  After spending way too much money we went home and played video games together while we ate dinner.  We have a set of characters in Tera we are leveling together.  I know, we are adorable.  This lead to not a lot of knitting once he got home though.  I did get the first one entirely done, ends woven in and everything, and right now I am a few rows past where I rejoined after the thumb gusset.  It won't be too long before I'm done.

Getting cold again!

This is where they are on my front faux balcony thing.  I am totally impressed.  I was wondering how they were going to do it, but it looks like they take a bit off, put up the new stuff, then take a bit more off.  This definitely sounds easier to deal with than pulling it all down and trying to put a whole new thing up.  The other person I asked about this made it sound like a week job, but I think these guys might be done sooner.

This is the fingerless mitt I thought of making.  It is based on the Do the Twist Socks by Cathy Carron, but with one change.  Where she has you do the knit front and back on the first stitch of the row, I did it on the third.  I also only did a purl two right after.  Since the stitch already looks like a knit and a purl right next to each other, it makes more sense to put it near the end of the first knit three.  It makes it an almost invisible increase since it blends so nicely with the k3, p3 pattern.
I had started this with a 2x2 rib but the pattern did not show-up as nicely.

*knock knock* Oh, you don't want to come in.

My neighbors have been having some stuff redone in their house, so the sounds of construction in the morning aren't too odd.  This morning it sounded oddly close though.  At one point I thought I heard someone knock on my door.
I went to a window and saw someone on a ladder with a guy right near my window.  Before anyone worries about me, he was banging on my front porch awning/balcony/thingy.  I had called and got a few quotes for it to be repaired and last week picked someone.  Turns out they are starting this morning.

 I had meant to get a good 'before' picture of what it looked like.  I totally forgot to do that.  I had thought I was going to get a call before they came out to figure when to start.  Seems I got a text message telling me they were on their way.  Oh well.  This gives you a better idea of how bad it was getting under the layer of paint.  The corner closest to us was just a hole.  At one point a bird had made her nest there.  You can also see the cute little weed growing out of my gutter... they are here to take care of that too.
Now we have not talked about what I want in it's place, but I'm hoping that when I said I just want to replace it that they will just make a new one that is very similar.  My main concern is that they keep the brick work at the bottom, I really like that part.  When I was talking to him before, it made it sound like we are just replacing all the wood bits.  There are some details in there that I like, but if I don't have them after this, it won't break my heart or anything.  At least, I don't think it will, I sometimes get overly attached to things.  Also, it would not match the other white long bits on my house.

It's a good thing it isn't October

If I was really trying for NaBloWriMo I would have failed twice already.  So it's a good thing I'm just sticking with the spirit of the idea.
I also seem to have gone to knitting last night very semi-prepared.  I was going to say that I was not prepared, but I was a little.  I had my latest swatch bunny with me.  I am trying something different with it.  Since you gather the whole back for the body, it doesn't make sense to have those extra corners.  If you are making these to make use of all those swatches then the shape can not be helped, but if you are knitting just for the sake of making bunnies then I think another shape might work.  I worked the first half straight and then started decreasing.  I did a k2tog at the end of each row for two rows, and then I worked two plain rows.

This is the shape I came up with.  I didn't want the decreasing to happen too quickly so that the bunny wouldn't have much of a body, but we shall see what happens.  If it turns out that I decreased too much I could always have four plain rows between the decrease rows.


So a funny thing happened to me earlier today.  I went to go pay my credit card bill and saw there were more pending charges on my card than I was expecting.  I had tried to pay my library fees online, but every time I hit to submit after I put my info in I got a "This Service is Temporarily Unavailable" error message.  This happened a few times over a few days.  I then got myself into an actual library and paid my fees.  When I finished paying off my bill I saw that there were four pending charges on my card to the library website.  I got a little freaked out and called them.  She told me that she was pretty sure that they would just drop off since the website wasn't able to give me a confirmation number or anything.  She told me to check again on Thursday because it is a holiday today.  I was so confused for a second.  I was like "but it's a Tuesday....what holiday is it?"  It took me a second to remember that today is Veteran's Day.  Silly me.  At least I didn't take too long to figure it out and make myself look silly.

I also thought of an odd way to remember 'then' vs 'than' the other night when I was trying to pretend I was tried and go to sleep.  With 'then' the more it happens the closer you get to 'the end.'  Like, if you spread the word apart and add a letter.  Then(d).  Does that make any sense?  I don't remember what I came up with for 'than' other than somehow the T became an I and it all made sense.  I really need to write these down when I think of them.

I went and souped-up the other small pumpkin.  As you can see from the picture, I couldn't even wait to take the picture before I started eating it.  I used 'boiling' onions this time, since I don't know when I will be using more and they were nice and small.  No left over onion is a good thing.  One thing I did that was not so good was I added the Parmesan cheese when it came right out of the oven.  Instead of mixing in and adding that bit of salty flavor that makes it so good, it melted into small chewy clumps.  I suggest letting the soup cool for at least ten minutes before adding the cheese.  Fifteen might be better, but I was not able to wait long enough to find out.
Here are some things I learned from my expenses.  You definitely do not need to get all of the stringy bits out of the middle of the pumpkin when you scoop the seeds out.  They are quite tasty once cooked up.  If you consider your pumpkin to be one serving, or you are just eating right out of the skin there are a few things to remember. The meat is what is holding it up, so eat from the top down. When you cooked it, the bottom becomes really really soft so some liquid might already be escaping when you pull it out of the oven, but you need to be careful when scooping from the bottom that you don't break a hole in it and let all of the broth out.