Does that make me a Duck?

I love rain. Especially at the end of winter, it means spring is coming. Anybody remember the kiddy song; Ducks Like Rain?

I know it might be a little presumptuous of me to expect winter to be over now, but the temperature is hovering around 40^oF and, here at least, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow. That, in my mind, means spring is kinda almost hurrying to get here. We always have a pseudo-spring in March. You know, 70 degree weather, sunny, all the good stuff for about two weeks then we’re flung back into winter in all it’s fury until mid april or so…

Spring seems to be a common theme, I’m reading blogs as I write this, it seems like  nearly everybody is blogging about spring in some form or another. Here are just a few:

^{http://knittyblog.com/2013/02/kates-leopard-hat/comment-page-1/#comment-197309}

^{http://crazyknittinglady.wordpress.com/}

I have the perfect knitting for a rainy day, it blends right in.

That’s the Ella Rae I mentioned last time. It’s a hot pad. I’m planning to see how many I can make out of one skein and do each one different. I’m then planing to tie them up in brown paper and burlap twine. Very manly. 😉 I’m enjoying the mindless knitting. I also need to start another fortune cookie. Kyla Requested one for her birthday. I’m not sure if I’m going to make her something else as well… So much to do!

Sping Cleaning

Call it cabin fever but, I’ve been doing a little bit of organizing. I finally got around to organizing my yarn labels in a three-ring binder.

They’re sorted by the majority or their fiber content. So far I have three categories; Mostly Wool, Mostly Synthetic (Polyester, Nylon and Acrylic), and Mostly Plant Fibers (Bamboo and Cotton). I’ve also be organizing my alcove turned studio. I straightened up my binders and containers.

The jewelry box contains cable needles, circular needles, point protectors, snaps, darning needles, sewing needles, safety pins, you  get the idea. The tray inside lifts out.

I reuse the plastic KFC takeout containers as odds ‘n ends holders.

They contain items that I haven’t had a use for yet but they’ve seemed like something I might need in the future.

I bought a skein of Ella Rae Classic Heathers. It’s 1oo% wool yarn. It’s 100g and 219 yards per skein.

Like any good daughter I’m making my father some pot holders for his birthday. The ones he has are looking a little thin… (Insert Pic) On Slouchy Hat I started the second Tinkerbell section today.

I’m  not sure how long the hat will be overall but knitting slouchy hat has given me a great idea for a child’s hat…

Hither and Yon

Just a short post today. I’m typing this as we’re commuting in between errands.I’ll post it once we get to Dunkin Donuts.  I finished my February Design it!  entry today. No pictures until March though. Slouchy Hat is coming along great already. It’s perfect mindless movie knitting.

You can see my Brownie Batter Doughnut- very yummy!

The pattern is two inches of Cuddle Sensations and one inch of Tinkerbell The first strip of Tinkerbell is too long, about a 1/4 inch. But I don’t really care, it isn’t all that noticeable. The brim is a little too wide so I’m going to be sewing in some elastic thread once I’m done. All in all I’m just loving this project. 🙂

I am missing my knitting partner today, she has stayed home.

I Vant To Donate My Blood!!

For the past two years (this makes three) I have been volunteering at the Blood Drives held by the Red Cross. Before I have always been able to work for a half day. This year though, I was able to take off a whole day of work, so I helped out all day. There were three of us who weren’t running the registration or nurses. We escorted the donators from the beds to the “canteen” where they  could have snacks, keep an eye on people to make sure they were feeling ok and help if they did faint (three people did go down, I have rudimentary first-aid skills but… I’m glad the nurses were there), keep the snack tables well stocked (We did make quite a few PB&Js), and generally help out where ever we were needed.

I originally wanted to take my spinning but that would have been too difficult to pick up and put down as frequently as I needed to. I ended up taking a skein of Sensations Cuddle with me  and cast on for a hat.

178 stitches… Oy vey. I like the way it’s coming along though.  Where did you knit in public today?

I was filling the bird feeders a couple of days ago. It was icy, windy, and cold. I think I got more birdseed on the ground that anywhere else. Look what I noticed.

I guess they don’t realize that it’s 26 degrees Farenheit during the day and 14 degrees Farenheit at night.

Paint the Sky

When I was little I thought God painted the sky blue…

Yesterday morning was one of those mornings.

I want yarn in these colors.

 

Warning! Pictures Ahead

Friday I finished  the new Butter Belle. The knitting went rather quickly, the smaller size with a larger gauge will do that. On Saturday I blocked it.

Getting ready to block.

Soaking.

Drying.

By Sunday night it was dry. I sewed the it all together Monday and added the snaps. I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to hide the thread ends on the snaps.

   

Make sure all the ends are next to each other. Then slip a small crochet hook under the snap and hook the threads. Pull them through with the hook (It might take a few tries). Then Cut the excess off. Voila! No loose ends!

I finished sewing on the last snap.  When I held it up to examine my heart stopped. The triumphant yell died on my lips. The sleeves were too long. Nine-inch sleeves made it look like it was for a monkey baby. I pulled the sleeves off and as the Bf tried not to laugh, frogged three inches and bound off. While we watched State of the Union (I loved seeing Katharine Hepburn knit. 😉 ) I got the sleeves all fixed up and ready to sew on. Again. (I’m trying -and failing- not to whine…)

Now as you may not know; I write these posts the night before I plan to publish them. It helps me work out the mechanical kinks and decide if I like what I”ve written. Anyway, I had originally planned to let them sit Tuesday and finish it last night. But as my Dell powered off I realized, I have to finish it tonight, It’ll bug me to much otherwise. Plus, the baby is due any day. So… I sewed those sleeves on quickly and grabbed some photos.

I wrote the part below before. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.

I went a hunting the other day. I bought this yarn.

Total impulse buy. I think it’s but ugly.  (But it’s soooo soft!)I have no idea what on earth I could make out of it. Yarn bomb maybe? I also bought these buttons. They’re all I can show you of my entry for the aforementioned Ravelry contest.

Rip it Rip it Rip it…

I have started my entry for the February Design It! Group contest. Persephone has been helping me get some knitting done. Here are some of her classic poses.

The Raindrop

The Yawn

The Baguette

I’ve been  working on rolling up yarn for a knitting group a few friends and I am trying to start. There are three people who want to learn how to knit so I’m trying to get ready for Wednesday.

I’ve been working on Butter Belle like a maniac, which makes this next part all the worse. Here’s BB after I bound off; the body is done.

It is 15 inches long; an inch longer than planned and 22 inches around; 7 inches wider than planned.

 

I did knit a gauge swatch but when I measured again the stitches had stretched by about 1.5 inches each way. I am going to have to unpick the seams and frog all the way back to the beginning. Hopefully this time it will be quicker because she’s smaller…

This is all that remains of Butter Belle. 😥

Butter Belle

I was knitting along yesterday completely in the zone then- I realized; I needed my second skein. Now, it was still unwound and I’m not saying that it would have been easy to wind, but, it would have been nice if it had been there, for moral support as I spent the rest of the day knit-less.

At any rate, I wound the second ball last night.

It’s going a lot better than it looks.

I knit quit a bit last night and now I’m at 10 inches.

One more inch and then I will be starting the neck decreases. It’ll be a V neck. At two inches I’ll start the arm holes. I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll have enough yarn, because if I don’t then there will only be a little left to knit and I’ll have to buy a whole skein.

Chicken Dip!

Hello all! I am feeling a little more like a fellow homo sapien, rather than something that crawled out of the sewers. Amid all of the Super Bowl hustle and bustle (black Outs, Safeties…)  there was chicken dip (so much chicken dip!) and knitting. I managed to knit the whole time. I had swatched on saturday night and I started in earnest just before kickoff.

That’s 83 sts and 16 rows.

I also have a few more acquisitions from Saturday to share.

This is Anya. I bought her (plus her hands) at a thrift store. Total impulse buy. I saw her and thought of Franklin Habit’s Victorian Doll Dress . I’m planning on maybe making her into an angel for the top of a christmas tree. Here’s another picture, it’s to dark to see the colors well in but I really like it so I’m going to post it anyway.

I also bought a small scale.

I’m planning to use it for measuring when making new dyes. Also, here’s a new skein for the February Design It! contest.

I’m thinking a scarf…

Day Trip

I went on a day trip today and despite being rather sick, I managed to have a good time.

Yellow cotton yarn -Florafil Super Soft Cotton, Yellow Cinquefoil, 3.5 per skein, 97% cotton, 3% nylon, 125 yds per skein, $14.95 per skein.

I’m planning to make a baby sweater for a co-worker who is expecting. The gender is unknown so I picked yellow. I was planning on light green but I couldn’t find any I liked.

I finished the fortune cookie! It even has a message embroidered into the fortune. Not bad if I do say so myself.

You can now find me on instagram. My user name is Cleoknit_itz. I’ll try to keep it updated regularly.

I’ll be back soon with a better, more detailed post. Once I feel like a human being again.