Textured Circle Shrug

I've been working on this shrug for months- I got hung up on the step where you have to pick up almost 300 stitches. I finally got back in the game when the Lion Brand blog had a knit-a-long that Stefanie Japel herself led, which inspired me to pick this up again and get going.



I have been wearing this around for about a week and just loving it, so I was really hoping to get some great pictures to show off its awesomeness. Unfortunately, our camera is on the fritz so these are going to have to do.



Pattern: Textured Circle Shrug from Stefanie Japel's Glam Knits
Size: 36-38 bust size (second-to-smallest)
Yarn: 6 skeins of Bernat Soy Natural Blends in Oatmeal



Peacock Chic, a blogger I love, always describes her projects in terms of the good, the bad, and the ugly. I am going to steal that idea to describe this.

The good:
- My friend Kris, who is fantastic in every way, brought me Glam Knits when he came to visit a few months ago. It somehow made it more fun to knit this, because it made me think of him.
- I really like how functional this piece is. I think it's going to be great for the fall; I can see myself wearing it at work all the time.
-I got this yarn on major clearance at Michael's a few years ago so I believe this shrug cost about $12. It's 50% acrylic, but the soy makes it soft and I actually kind of liked it. I decided to use it for this project because it has a nice drape and I wanted the shrug to be drapier and silkier than the one in the book. I think it worked!

The bad:
-The miles and miles of 1X1 ribbing- it was cool at first because I needed some mindless knitting in my life, but after something like 70 rounds of k1p1, with around 300 stitches per row, I was SO ready to have this finished.
-I really don't like the holes that are made by the M1P increases. I would absolutely do these differently next time.

The ugly:
-I am kind of famous for my problems understanding spatial dynamics, so it is no surprise that I wasn't thinking about how the shrug would lie on my body and ended up weaving in all the ends on the collar incorrectly. There were tons of knots in the yarn and therefore tons of ends to weave in, so when I got finished and put the thing on there were 7 different places where you could totally see the messy ends sticking out. I had to take them all out and re-weave them in on the other side of the fabric.
-These pictures are kind of ugly, too, but I went ahead and included them to show how it fits. Please ignore the strange lumps under my tank top and the weirdo look on my face.



All in all, a great project that I'm happy to have finished. I just started Sexy Vesty today and guess what? I am thick in the middle of more 1X1 ribbing!

Monster!

A little late birthday present for my nephew, who turned 1 a couple of weeks ago. One! I can hardly believe it.



Pattern: Little Monster Bear (Rav link)
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted, left over from a Bengals hat I made years ago
Needles: Size 10 1/2 DPNs
Embroidery: Wonky, as usual

It took me one night to knit up all the pieces and another to sew everything together. I had to run it through the washer 3 times and I still don't feel like he felted as much as I would have liked.



As you might suspect from my two month absence from the blog, I've been in a bit of knitting slump lately. I knit this little guy in the attempt to get some mojo back, and I think it worked. I'm knitting the Textured Shrug from Glam knits and now that I've picked up all two hundred stitches, I think I'm on track. Nothing but gloriously monotonous 1X1 rib for days and days...

Baby Hoodie

My oldest friend in the world, who I just realized I've known 25 years now, had her first baby yesterday. I haven't even seen pictures of the little guy yet, but I've been thinking about him a lot over the past couple of weeks. As I knit this sweater, I got more and more excited to meet Michel's baby. I love this kind of knitting- where every stitch just makes you happier and happier.



The pattern is the Super Easy Baby Cardigan. I picked up stitches for the button band instead of just knitting garter stitch on the edges. Instead of knitting into the front and back of every stitch for the raglan, I did matching M1 increases. I also used a provisional cast on at the very beginning so I could use the 3 needle bind off for the hood. I'm glad- it was super easy and I think it looks more polished (because as always, my seaming is eh.)



The yarn is Cotton-Ease- one skein of Stone covered everything but the second sleeve (I had to go buy another skein for that darn thing). I used a bit of a skein of Charcoal for the borders. Buttons are simple wood ones from Joann (50% off- woot!).

Starburst Mirror Sculpture

When we moved into the new house, I had resolved to blog about some of the renovations and other fun stuff we planned to do. Unfortunately, the renovations haven't happened as quickly as we had hoped so I haven't had much to report. But a few weeks ago, some fabulous Miami friends came to visit and I had to spiff the place up a bit so they wouldn't be appalled at my lack of style.

Our house is older and has some neat little features, like these little lamps that are above the fireplace. Unfortunately, we've been living with a big blank space between the little lamps ever since we moved in. I always see these cool looking starburst mirror wall hanging things at Crate and Barrel and other fun places and have always thought they would be perfect for that space. Unfortunately, they are usually kind of expensive (that one at Crate & Barrel is $200!). So when I saw on the CRAFT blog a DIY tutorial, I knew I had the perfect fix.

I did a little further searching on the Internet and used two tutorials for inspiration: one from Apartment Therapy and one from Instructables. I got everything I needed from Michael's, Wal-Mart, & Home Depot:



Glue gun, glue sticks, bamboo skewers, wooden dowels, silver spray paint, silver regular paint, a paintbrush, 2 packs of assorted sized circle mirrors from Michael's (50 total), an auto rearview mirror from Wal-Mart, and 2 circles cut out of carboard.
I forget how much I paid for everything individually, but all together I believe it was under $20.

All of that turned into this:



I'm really happy with the finished product, but I want to tell you about what I did wrong in case you decide to do this. First of all, I bought 4 long wooden dowels from Home Depot, spray painted them silver, and then cut them into smaller 12" sections. That was dumb, because the sawed off part was all raw and ugly and unpainted. So I had to use sandpaper to sand them down until they looked nice and then I had to hand paint silver onto the ends.



Next, I think I bought a slightly too small auto rearview mirror. Originally, the plastic ring around the mirror was black plastic. After I had already assembled the whole mirror I realized that the black plastic didn't look right. But at this point, I already had the starburst hanging on the wall, so I had to get up on a chair and paint the black border by hand with silver paint. I like the look a lot more, but in the future I would paint the center mirror FIRST.



But even with the mishaps, this project was not too time intensive and I really like the results. Now that big blank spot between the retro lamps if filled, and I feel really thrifty and creative every time I look there. Definitely a win!

Goth Socks

Finally I have some knitting to show you! As soon as I saw Cookie A.'s Marlene Socks in Knit.1, I knew I would be making them for myself. I got some Dream in Color Smooshy in Gothic Rose on sale from Sonny and Shear and started these socks right after the holidays. They have taken forever because I've been making mistakes and have frogged at least part of them about 8 times. But it is worth it because these are definitely my favorite socks ever.



Look at this pattern! It is fantastic. All those twisted stitches make these gorgeous lines and the heels and toes flow so perfectly from the foot.



All the ribbing makes them fit really well, too. I love them!



So I need to get started ASAP on a gift for my oldest friend's baby, due in early April. The little one will be living in Philly, so I think I'm going to do a little cotton sweater for spring.

Finally- the mystery present!

Several astute readers have asked me about the picture on my sidebar of Jason's Christmas Present. In lieu of an FO picture, I just had a picture of my brother-in-law. I had to do that because Jason is super sneaky and joined Ravelry over the holidays so he could try to find out what I was knitting him for Christmas.



Jason is super supportive of my knitting habit- he hand picks yarn for my birthdays and finds knitting books that he thinks I will enjoy. He once told me, when watching me knit a pair of socks, "so basically that heel is a series of short rows, right?" Seriously! He's just the type of person to look up how to knit socks because I am knitting them, even though he has no previous interest in knitting.

So that kind of interest warrants a nice pair of handknit socks, right? I searched for a pattern that was not too crazy, but had just a little something to keep it interesting. I found Mr. Pitts socks, which fit the bill nicely. I used some Patons Kroy Sock Yarn that I found on sale the day after Thanksgiving. I think Kroy sock yarn is one of the most underrated sock yarns out there- it's not indie, but it feel great and you can't beat the value.



I looked up Jason's foot size online and made the socks as long as recommended according to some random sock length chart, but it turns out I was totally wrong. The socks were way too long. So after Christmas I took the socks back, frogged the toe and about 15 rows on the foot, and reknit the toe. Now they fit nicely. I think Jason really likes them, and he is a seriously deserving recipient of quality handknits.

I took these pictures tonight after spending the day sewing with my sister. Today we decided to mix sewing and embroidery and make these wacky little monsters. They are made of fleece, with felt for the eyes and mouth. We embroidered the faces, using french knots for the eyes and satin stitch for the teeth.



Aren't these guys fun? I'm going to send my monster (the one on the right) to my oldest friend Michel, who is set to have a baby in early April. Stay tuned- Michel's new baby definitely will have a knitted present, too!

Pillows and Totes

Despite Nico's reckless disregard for my crafty efforts, I decided to try again. I made her a fleece pillow, mostly so she would have an alternative to my couch pillow. I even used the project as an opportunity to get a little embroidery practice. It worked well, but of course she started tearing it about 2.2 seconds after she discovered it was there. It's okay, though- she loves it.



My sister and I spent Saturday making tote bags from the Sew Fast Sew Easy book. It was great- we got the fabric from Joann and recycled a sheet for the lining. We estimate that we made them for about $3 each!



We used fusible interfacing for the first time, so the bags are really sturdy.



They also have this hanging pocket on the inside, which was totally worth the extra effort. I really think I'm going to use this all the time. I mean, look at how much it will hold!