Happy Star Wars Day!!

Happy Star Wars day to everyone!  I wish I had been working on something more nerdy than my Fragole Lace Shrug test knit.  I did put my Skywalker shawl in the sink to soak, so I guess that counts for something.

One of the events at work we had was to make Star Wars craft items.  One of the items was a drawstring bag.  I think I will make a few bags (not all nerdy, but who knows) to donate.  I think that would be fun.

I also ran across this interesting decrease.  Some knitters don't like how their left leaning decreased don't really look just like mirror images of their right leaning.  They both lean opposite ways, but one tends to look more stretched out and not as smooth.  The Slip-Twist-Turn Decrease has the answer to that problem.
I haven't tried it yet, but it looks really cool.

I was also thinking it might be fun to sign-up for the St. Jude PLAY LIVE event.  I love playing video games, I love doing stuff for charity.  Sounds perfect to me.  My only problem right now is that since I am doing a test knit and trying it get more made for my Etsy shop, I don't feel like I would have time to really dedicate to it.  Also, the game I really want to play right now has a higher age rating than I would be allowed to play.

You got on a what?!

I will start out by saying that I do not like roller coasters.  I only get the scared-scared feeling from them and not the trilling-scared that people who like them get.
Now here is a bunch of pictures and some stories from the trip to the amusement park we took yesterday.

 

Not only were we celebrating Emily's and Mary's birthdays, it was also Kings Dominion's birthday!

 

 

It was also the last day of their Spring Bloom Festival.  I love flowers, both real and fake.

   

I really wanted some of these for my house.  They are just so big and bright and happy.

 

This was a working clock, and it was made with so many flowers.  I couldn't get over how cool this was.

 

 

Mary really wanted a lemur.  The nerdy ones were my favorite.  She won one of those.  I was super excited for her!

 

Here the birthday girls are playing DDR.  I felt all nostalgic and wanted to pull my pads out and practice more.

 

 

They had these outside of most of the rides so you could make sure you fit into the seats.  Bill didn't fit in some of them.  This was the only one that had wheels, so we joked that this was my kind of roller-coaster.

 

 

I did get on an actual roller-coaster that I had some fun on.  It didn't have the huge drop at the beginning.  It wasn't what I was expecting though.  I was expecting it to be more like the ride I went on in Disney World where they had stuff falling at you.  This only had some fire and gun sounds near the end.

I had fun and I know the birthday girls had a ton of fun.  I had brought some stuff with me so I could work on water-bottle holders while I waited for everyone, but we did too many things and the lines weren't as long as I thought they would be.

Knitting in public is fine, but crochet?! Oh my!!

We were talking about somehow knitting outside Uniquities and my mom said it would be an impromptu Knit In Public Day. Then I pointed out that we were knitting in public since we were sitting in the eating area of Wegmans. Then Tammy pointed out that she was crocheting in public. That lead to "Crocheting in public?! Oh my!!"

 

 

Here is a picture of the brim of the hat I am working on and my treat for the afternoon.

I have also volunteered to test out a shrug/bolero pattern.  The Free Pattern Testers forum on Ravelry can be dangerous.  I know I want to try too many of the patterns I see on there.

I have definitly heard of time management.

I have no time management skills or scheduling skills at all.  I really don't.  I will work on blog posts while the sun is out and then wonder why my pictures of other things are super dark later. 

 

 I did finish the play mat though!  I finished it last Sunday night.  I made-up the pattern, but it is quite easy.  If you know how to crochet a granny square, you will be able to make this.  My segments are two single crochets with a single chain between, and two segments with two chains between at the corners.

 

 This shows the color a lot better.  There is also a US nickel for scale, I couldn't find a penny.  Everyone was super impressed by the thing.  It did take seven skeins of yarn to make this.

I also finished the knitted portion of another Skywalker done, but it has been added to the to-be-blocked pile, so no nice pictures.  I made another because the first one, that was made to gauge, felt too small.  I like this new one a lot better.

Today I got to finally teach the crochet jar cozy class.  They are growing on me.  When I made the first sample (shown above) I didn't even like the idea enough to fully read the pattern.  It wasn't supposed to look like this.

 This is the pattern and how it was supposed to look.  This is the one I made during the class.  Though the funny thing is that my student liked the accidental "variation" I did before.  Though since they were so easy and since my student was so excited to make them, I am starting to like them more.

This is the small version.  The pattern came with two sizes with two stitch patterns.  The small one fit the super cute Dairy jars the look like vintage milk bottles.

This is my dedicated student.  She brought a variegated purple yarn to work with.  A lady after my own heart.

This is her large cover.  She started making it the way the pattern said and then wanted to make it the way I had done it on the first sample I had made.  Now I have visions of making this to go over jars and then put LED candles in them for my dining room table. 

Happy Easter, but don't get too close.

Bill has been super nice and shared his germs with me.  I felt myself going downhill last night and woke-up with a super sore throat today.  I'm hopped up on Vitamin C so I'm going to keep it simple this post.
We went over to my parents' house for an Easter lunch and Mary and I went wondering around in the woods I grew up playing in.  She found a few different plants she liked and wanted to take home.  Food was good and so was hanging out.

I have been working on something for someone at the Mon knit-night who had a baby.  I thought I was making a baby blanket, but it turns out I am making a play mat.  Silly yarn wanting to be something different than I thought of.
Another Skywalker shawl is in the works too.  I'm already at the edging.  I remember the pattern taking longer, but I seem to be flying through it.  Changes at the one wavy stitch have still been made, but I made different choices than last time.  Making this has made me want to design another shawl. 
Maybe I will get one of these patterns I keep making testing and out to the public...maybe.

As I was looking for the perfect border for the shawl I have in my head I found a few other things that are pretty awesome.
  This super awesome/adorable dragon is to die for.  I love it and want to snuggle it.
  The design page by Lucy Hague is just filled with such pretty things.
  This Grape Vine Shawl also caught my eye.  There is a link to the pattern right on the page.
  The bottom most picture on this blog post caught my eye.  I was hoping it would give some insight on how to use a straight edging and turn a corner with it.  From what I can tell there is no link to the pattern.  It is really fancy looking though.

I thought I had more to say....but I can't remember it now.  So here is another link to a Back to School Style Blazer Recon by ThreadBanger that I really want to try.

I'm not dead!

I have just been a busy little bee.  I have been to one baby shower, had a birthday, am going to be going to another birthday party, and have one more baby shower to get ready for.  Two down, two to go?

Here are all the goodies for the first baby shower.  I made the dress for the doll, two pairs of baby booties, and one turtle.  I also included a little fleece outfit, some bath things, and two Cat in the Hat books.

This is the view from the table my mom and I were sitting at.  They have recently remodeled the place and it looks super great.  The walls are over 30" thick, it is a bit old.

She had onesie decorating.  This is the one I did.  There were fabric markers and stencils.  It was so much fun and an awesome idea.

 

 While we were in the area we decided to go to a few places they don't have in our area.  As we were driving we spotted this.  While I didn't work for this location, I worked for this company a while ago.  I got fired at one point and put on the Do Not Rehire list, I then got rehired and worked for them until they went out of business.  This was over 6 years ago (or close to it).  How crazy is it that the sign is still up and we happen to drive past it?

I have not had much of a chance to work on charity things.  I have either one or two more things to make for the up coming baby shower, then I can go back to my usual gig.

Baby girl things.

These are for Juliet.  Though the booties were so fast I think I will make quite a few more pairs.

I did alter the pattern some.  Since I am not a big fan of doing a lot of finishing I decided to pick up stitches instead of casting on. I still had to sew a few stitches in the front, but I can handle that.  They are the Chaussons mignons and the website has both French and English instructions.

This pattern I had to wing.  The first time I made it I had put about three too many increases into the body.  I took it out and started mostly over again.  The skirt has two different versions of the butterfly stitch and both are modified.

Most of the time when you work that stitch you leave the floats and then gather them all together in an upward fashion on the last row of the pattern.  I marked my center stitch and laddered down to it so the floats that were caught were more centered.

I'm off to make a few more booties!  I have another idea on how I want to modify the pattern.