chirstmas gifts

i've been working on mom's christmas gift and have been knitting so much that my hands hurt... i need to finish both the saartje's booties and the suede booties for my new niece. peyton olivia just came into the world yesterday! These booties and my mom's blanket that she's making will be super-cute chitmas gifts for the new arrival. :) side note: i should get my mom to join ravelry... i'll mention it to her. not sure if she crafts enough for it but she might like it.
while i'm working on these other projects, i think i might bring the basketweave blanket out of hibernation. it had to hibernate during the summer because it was way to hot to work on a blanket with the fluffy symphony yarn!

completed: pinwheel blanket

yay, finally! this project wasn't a gift to anyone but i really wanted to finish it so that i could complete a project and so that i could get my circular cords back... :) now i can focus on gifts and other stuff like that...
photos have been taken, will upload later.

photos, or a lack thereof

i really need to get my computer reassembled. i haven't had it up and running since we had the guys in the house to replace the carpet, and i've been using my parents' laptop to stay semi-connected to everything. my main reason to get reconnected is so i can post photos of my wips and completed projects to put on ravelry. my page is so obviously neglected and it just looks way too bare. i could remedy this by switching to list mode, instead of image mode, in my profile but i would love to share all the beauteous things i have created. ;)
i'm also knitting like crazy on the pinwheel blanket. i'm nearly finished, having decided to knit the moss/seed stitch around the outside. a lovely fellow raveler gave me advice on how to increase on the outside, which helped tremendously, and got me jump-started to just finish it. i have a row-and-a-half to go and then i have a million miles to cast-off. wish me luck!

hmm...

i'm thinking that i might have to learn how to knit cables... yeah. it's just always looked so daunting to me. i love the challenge of learning new knitting techniques though. just like learning how to do algebra and thinking that division was a piece of cake, i've worked with dpns successfully, even when i used to get tangled up about a k2 p2 rib. yeah, i know. :) *sigh* i just love the look of the cables and they add so much depth and visual interest to the pieces that they're on. anyway, this will be my next quest, after christmas gifts are complete!

random thought + progress

on the rainbow pinwheel blanket:
that thing is going to be a pain in the derriere to seam up! ughh...

in happier news:
i basically got paid to knit at work today, due to the computer program outages. i was able to complete the suede parts of the suede booties. now i have to knit the inner lining and sew on details and i'm done! it really made me happy that i had the time to knit the booties in two days. awesomeness. :)

building momentum

today at drc, the computers weren't exactly working too well, so i got a chance to work on the ruffled corset belt. i was at least 60% done with it before today but i was able to finish it besides having to weave in the ends. pretty cool, huh? i was glad i had a purse-sized project to work on. everyone else was looking at me saying, "i wish i had brought something to do!"
photos to follow soon.

ravelry

i recently joined the ravelry community and i'm loving the heck out of it. it's so easy to organize your projects and see who's making the same thing as you, what yarns they're using, etc. it's a bit different than craftster but i like it just as much. plus it's yarn-centered so it's easy to find patterns and the site is just really intuitive when you input what pattern you are knitting/crocheting and what yarn is used.
it's really cool. :)

all wrong

so apparently i've been knitting and purling the wrong way. i didn't notice it too much until i started making a shrug with simply soft in mostly stockinette stitch. my knits looked twisted as a result of how i worked my purls. i did some researching and found out what i had been doing was combination-style purls and continental-style knits. it didn't bug me until this project, mainly because the only other stuff i really do in stockinette is bulky, fuzzy yarn stuff, so it doesn't matter too much.
anyway, i'd like to change this so that i would be working the knits and purls in the same style. after attempting to learn to purl continentally, i think it will be easier for my hands to learn how to knit combinationally (what? lol).
not too interesting of a post but it was eye-opening for me. :)

mission: ufo annihilation

don't worry, little green guys in the sky... i'm speaking of the un-finished objects currently floating around my house. i figure it's high-time to finish something that i start and not have 20 projects at different stages hanging around my room, skewered by knitting needles and staring at me forlornly. :)
ok, i'm not crazy enough to think that my projects are projecting any feelings on me but i do feel extra cluttered when there are so many things that are half-baked around me.
i finished a scarf that was laying around and i finally gave suruchi the scarf and hat i made for her. it's put me in the mood.... next on the list is the striped blanket (almost done! on the last color!) and the other two blankets i've been working on.
yay for decluttering!

i'm the halfway queen, i suppose

lately i've had what i've recently dubbed ADPD: attention deficit project disorder. i enjoy starting all this stuff but i haven't had the concentration to see anything through to the end. i attribute this partly to the fact that i tend to drop a project when it becomes too big to carry around in my purse. :)
i've been pleasantly surprised at how the basketweave blanket and pinwheel blanket have been progressing. it's amazing when a project starts to form into something even more cool than i had originally imagined!
the basketweave blanket will match with a new bedspread/comforter that i'm going to put in my room once i clear out all of the relics and artifacts of my childhood... with the knitting and such, i'm clearly a huge procrastinator.... :) it's made from red heart symphony in earth brown and tlc essentials in surf. the pattern is free at the red heart site, i just substituted the tlc for red heart super saver. it's about 3'x3' right now.


the pinwheel baby blanket is just for fun because i liked the colors. it's pattern is here and it's made from bernat softee baby in candy baby. i'm also in the knitalong on craftster here. i will be the first one to tell you that i had some difficulty getting this one started but i think i'm doing pretty well, taking into consideration that this is my first project with dpns. i'm still on the first skein of yarn. we'll see how big it gets.

like the sock monkey sheets? ;)

finally!

i finally finished the anthropology capelet. it's not that it was a hard project, i just have had an awful attention span as of late and it has just taken me awhile... :)
i used joann's sensations belezza collection in the off-white color. it's has a good deal of natural fibers in it so i should be able to block it to reduce any awkwardness... it's currently stretching weirdly at the bottom, probably because i cast-off too loosely.


one project down... 999,999 to go... :)

stagnant

i worked on a bunch of stuff for christmas but didn't take pictures of any of it. i'm still modifying a bolero for my mom, as you can see in my handy-dandy new status bar thingy. :) it's cute, i just wanted to make it better. i made a few hat-and-scarf sets for a few of my friends as well.
i feel like i'm in stagnant water right now though.... there are so many things that i want to sew but i feel too fat to make it to my current size. there are a bunch of things i'd like to knit and crochet but my room and where my stuff currently is in the basement is so incredibly chaotic that i just choose (or am forced by fatigue) to nap until dinnertime. maybe i'm not just in stagnant water... but i'm drowning in it.
one project i bought yarn for is a giant granny square afghan with the simply soft brites. my thoughts are to do four rows of each brite color and then a row or two of white... i'll see what looks the best when i start doing it... i'm thinking 4 and two would work nicely though. :)