knitting in the park, polymer clay

We had BobaKnit in the park on Sunday so I took pictures. (I know that might not follow but work with me here.) Kids and dogs like knitting time better when it's in the park. Willis really did want to chase that squirrel though. Really.

I got it into my head that I wanted to make a polymer clay sheep. Don't ask me why, I just did. So I did. While Stefan napped Niels and I had clay time. He said he wanted to make a cat (the clay came in an animals kit with pictures of what you could make) but then I showed him how to twist two colors together and we tried to make marbled beads. I think we had a bit of success with the marbling, perhaps not with the roundness. Niels was very disappointed that his weren't "round like [mine]." Maybe next time I'll help him with that part of it.

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cape progress, no sheep swap

We arrived back home tonight from our week long vacation to Southern California. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of driving involved and Erik did all but about two hours of it. Yay for Erik. That means I got quite a bit of uninterrupted knitting time and a lot of Niels' cape done.

I used the weaving in without weaving in trick again adn I think it may have convinced me that intarsia is not so bad. I am very pleased with how this has turned out, even on the back.

A nice surprise was waiting for me when we came back: my No Sheep Swap package came!

swap stuff

I am in love with those penguin paper clip thingies! How cute is that? The funny thing about this package is that my secret pal apologized for choosing a color of Calmer that wasn't one I had listed as my favorite but it is the color of Calmer I was most recently fondling in the yarn store. I almost bought a couple balls of it but I put it back because I wasn't sure what to do it with it. Now I have the chance to figure out what to do with two balls of Calmer!

Thanks, Secret Pal!

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lightning bolt man and the yarn that followed me home

It occured to me a couple of days ago that Niels' birthday is swiftly approaching, so I cast on for the Greatest American Hero superhero cape from New Knits on the Block. I'm calling it Lightning Bolt Man because that is what Niels calls the Flash. (I know the Flash doesn't have a cape, I'm hoping Niels doesn't point that out when I give it to him, but he probably will.)

lightning bolt man

I gave in and went back to Purlescence for another ball of Panda Cotton in Baby Blues. I'm going to make those footies even though they take more than 1 ball of yarn. I'll have to try again with another ball to come up with a more yarn conservation minded pattern another time. While I was there, this hank of Sock Candy jumped into my hands. I had seen this lone hank sitting there when I was there a few days ago and I had been thinking about it ever since. It turns out that it wasn't lonely, there were three of them but you need two for a pair of full sized socks so I thought that this one needed rescue. Am I the only one who has thoughts like this? I suspect not. Anyway, I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. Something not sock related, I think, since my previous pair of Sock Candy socks haven't held up well to washing. (Has anyone else had that problem or am I doing something wrong in my washing process?)

sock candy

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another post of many topics

I'll start with the finished baby blanket. I finished it several days ago, it's just waiting for me to take it to the post office. I think it turned out to be very cute and I ended up with only a tiny bit of the white yarn left, so It was definitely just the right size. I hope my friend and her baby like it.

Next up is Anouk, for another friends baby. I bought a bunch of CottonEase to make another log cabin blanket and then I remembered Anouk. I've been waiting for a little girl to knit it for! So far, so good. I finally read sock pr0n's post on how to weave in ends while knitting so I tried it on this project. You can see in the picture on the right that it makes for a very neat stripe! I particularly like the edge of the knitted fabric with this method. I might never use any other method for joining a new yarn!

Last up is my footie project. They suck. Okay, the footie I have knit is cute, I haven't bothered to do the sewn bind-off because I only have 20 gms of yarn left from a 50gm ball, so I know I can't make another one. I do have another ball of this yarn, but it has another home in mind. I might have to change that plan because I really want footies from Panda Cotton and it's looking like Janice was right (isn't she always?) that I wouldn't be able to get two footie socks from one tiny ball of Panda Cotton for my giant feet. Ah well, baby socks for the rest of it, I guess.

the footie that drove me nuts

The thing is, I was hoping to write up this pattern but I don't want to write up a pattern that requires 1.2 balls of yarn. That's just annoying.

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grrr!

I must make Grr from the new Knitty. Maybe twice, actually, one for each boy. Too cute.

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tenorikuma!

the perfect cup of coffee

I went to the Sanrio store today to get birthday presents for two girls in Niels' class and found the cutest little notebook ever. I had to get it. They also had a travel mug with these guys on it which was very tempting. I think this notebook is destined to become my knitting notebook. 

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on kombucha and worms

big kombucha mother

I know I posted a while back about my Kombucha culture. Since then it has just beensitting and growing. And growing and growing. Today I decided it was time to start a new batch. I had sacrificed the previous batch to just growing the culture. If I took the towel off of the jar I could smell how sour it was. This time I'm going to use black tea (just because) and refined cane sugar (because the Rapadura didn't cut it). We'll see how it goes.

I am also hatching a plot to start a worm bin. I have had a copy of Worms Eat My Garbage for a while but didn't know what to do with the castings. This past weekend there was a fair of sorts at the Elephant Pharm and there was a representative of the county's master composter program there. The county has classes on how to compost, including with a worm bin. What really convinced me was the worm bin they had. It was a small rubbermaid tote with a few inches of dirt and worms and then a few inches of shredded newspaper bedding on top. So simple! It turns out that Anabel has worms to spare so I need to designate a tote and get to it! I'm sure we make enough garbage to keep some worms fat and happy.

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a post of many topics

First up, big ass skeins of Sugar 'n Cream. I got two of them at Michael's today. They're 12 oz each, 608 yards. I'm not actually sure why I bought them since I could make a dozen dishcloths from each, I think and somehow that seems unlikely. Maybe I'll use one of them to knit a sweater for Stefan.  I also got four colors of CottonEase which I plan to use to make a baby blanket for a dear friend who is due next month. (I better get on that!) I'm still finishing up the blanket for my other dear friend whose baby was born 10 days ago. I finally finished the first of the four big mitered squares. I expect the rest to go much more quickly because I started this one several times trying to figure out how many stitches to start with. (I decided that with the giant yarn just knitting was easier than swatching.)

quinn’s blankie

I've also been working on designing a footie sock. I was going to make it sort of ped shaped to save yarn but Kristi sent me a link to someone else's peds which I thought were super cute, so I went back and changed them. I'm using a diamond rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. I knit too far before starting the gusset, though, so I'm going to have to go back a bit and fix that.

Last, but not least, I ordered the free 10 pack of Moo mini cards and they arrived today. I got two each of five different cards. They are very cute, of course. I love these Moo cards. If I can ever figure out a reason to justify it, I'll order a pack of 100. Or maybe I'll just keep getting 10 free here and there.

moooo

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yarn FYI

I thought I'd post this for anyone else who is as gripped by dishcloth mania as me. Michael's in my area currently has 12 oz balls of Sugar 'N' Cream on sale for $5, marked down from $7.99. That's a whole lotta dishcloths!

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how cute is this?

I know it's crochet and not knit, but this little cofffee cup is too cute for words.

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