Im still alive!

I have been so busy with school and the holidays, I just havent taken the time to sit down and update the blog. It seems like the more stressed and busy I am, the more I knit! I made a lot of small gifts this year, I did more kntting for presents this year than I have before, but I kept forgetting to take pictures! Here are some that I remembered.

Little Mary Sunshine Dress

Yarn: KnitPicks Shine Sport -Hydrangea

Needle Size: 5

I made this one for my niece. I saw the one that Purse-Ho made, it was so cute I wanted to make one for Em. I embellished with a little crochet flower and used a size smaller needle to get gauge, other than that I made it per the pattern. I didnt realize until just now that I used almost the same color as Jen's, it wasent intentional, probably some kind of sub-conscious thing when I was online shopping.

Amigurumi Monkey

Yarn: some ackrylic from the stash

Hook : E

This little guy was gifted with the dress, this was my first amigurumi. It was fun, quick and easy. It was a little difficult to sew the head onto the body and get it straight. He was so cute, I almost kept him- Im sure the baby would have understood.

Habitat

Yarn: Patons Classic Wool

Needle Size: US 7 and 8

I made this and the gloves below for my friend Mello. I thought he was moving back to Alaska so I thought he could get some use of them, but now he might not move back, Im sure he will find uses for them here in AZ (HaHa). The hat was a fairly quick knit, I didnt use a cable needle and that always makes cabling go faster. I really liked the pattern, I think I may make one for myself.

Cigar gloves from Knitty

Yarn: Paton Classic Wool

Needle Size: US #5

These were pretty fun to make too, I liked having three less fingers to knit, glove fingers are not my favorite. A few are okay to do, but 10 gets to be a bit much. Ive been riding my bike a lot lately and Im considering making myself a pair because my hands freeze, but by the time I get to them, it will be warm out again Im sure.

Well, thats about it for right now. I havent been knitting as much lately because Im trying to get through some other crafty stuff I have laying around (hemp knotting, beading, cross-stitch, sewing; Ive been feeling very crafty lately).

I hope everyone survived the holidays safe and sound!

I stumbled on a used Ashford Traditional on craigslist, and I had to have it. The price was right and Ive been thinking of getting a wheel with a lower orifice height, my Kromski is just a little too high to be comfortable for spinning marathons.

My Kromski has served me well, but I really like the Ashford. Its the perfect height to just kick back on the couch and spin. My other wheel is currently parading around Ebay looking for a buyer, Ill miss it, but if it makes someone else happy, then Im happy.

Pattern: Fan Bookmark (made to be a scarf)

Needle Size: Hook size I

Yarn: Patons SWS - Natural Earth - 3 skeins

I broke out the crochet hook again! This was a fun project, easy to remember and fast. This pattern is for little bookmarks, but I had seen some people making scarves from it on Ravelry. It works well with the striping in SWS. I made this for my mum, I feel so bad, but this is the first yarny thing Ive made for her! Bad Son!!!

Starghan...Finished

I finished the crochet starghan for my neice! Crochet is fast, but it was still slow going for most of the outer rounds, I think I can still knit faster than crochet. This was a fun blanket to make, the pattern was simple, it was easy to pick it up and put it down whenever I had a few minutes to work on it. Crochet takes a lot of yarn! Probably about halfway through, each color stripe took about two skeins. I tried to crochet it loose to avoid some of the puckering people have warned about.

Also, Ive been on ravelry for awhile, but never really updated my profile. I spent some time getting some of my stash up, and putting in a few projects.

My ID is : pluckypurcell

Send me a message to say Hi, I need some ravelry friends!

My friend TT sent me some pics of the completed pooh blanket I made. This was made from a chart that she created, one of many cute ones that she sells on Etsy.

I think it will be awhile until I do intarsia knitting again. Or if I do, it will be something smaller.

Ive been getting some lace knitting in also. Im on row 100 of 150 of the Niebling "Oak".

Im liking the way its turning out. Im hoping to get at least a row or 2 done each day. Its definetly getting to that "its been 30 minutes and I cant believe Im still on the same row" point, but its enjoyable.

Im also still working on the crochet starghan for my older neice.

These are the only two projects I have on the needles right now. I havent had time to get any spinning done lately so Im hoping to commit an evening to that, Im anxious to get through the fiber from Interlacements and start working some new stuff from Spunky Eclectic.

We had some really great monsoon weather come through last week and weekend, but now we're back to lovely 110degree weather....ugh. Its definetly the mid-summer slog around here. Hope everyone is doing good! Bye!

Ive had a pretty busy week. I did the Fourth of July thing out on the town and family reunion on Saturday. We have a large family reunion every 2 years. We take turns having them back East and in the West so people that cant travel can at least be close to one every four years. This year we had it in Flagstaff, AZ. The nice thing about Arizona is that if you live in Phoenix, you can be in a pretty drastically different climate and environment within about 2 hours in any direction. So 2 hours North gets you to Flagstaff. It was nice and cool...and forest-y and mountain-y. I come from a very large Irish family on my fathers side, so we usually have large gatherings. This year, there wasent a lot of people, but it was nice to see all the old folks, and see how much all the little youngsters have grown.



I havent had time for much knitting or spinning, but I have been working on the Starghan for my niece. I alo got some killer deals on yarn at Michaels today on my lunch break. They had Patons Rumor on clearance for 2.00! I got about 6 skeins, but my friend hit the motherlode. She literally picked up at least 50 skeins in all, in different colors. We wiped out their supply. They also had some really neat pendants and beads by Blue Moon 50% off, so I got a bunch of that stuff too, there should be some jewelery knotwork in my future.


Also, yesterday on my way home from work, I took some side streets to get to a little store I hadnt been to in awhile (which happened to be closed). I decided to stay on the surface streets all the way home and I passed a not so glamourous little neighborhood. I spied a spectacle out of the corner of my eye, I didnt really have time to register it completely before I drove off, and about a block later, I knew I had to turn around to check it out again so I would know I wasent dreaming.

It literally went even furthur around the corner and down the street. (I took a video of it too, but i cant get it to load) I was just in such shock. Buried in the center of it all was a trailer that Im assuming someone actually lives in. I didnt want to pause too long in fear of some wretched junkie running out wanting to know why I was taking pictures....but god....I wonder whats going to happen when it rains?

I know being a pack-rat can be caused by mental illness or severe depression and anxiety. None of these are to be taken lightly. This behavior is also typical of crackheads, in which case, I find very disturbing. Im all for personal expression and this may be some sort of creative outlet for someone, I kind of doubt that though becuase a lot of stuff had price tags on it.

Here's some shots of the fireworks I took in Tempe and the doorstoop of one of my most favorite restaurants, Rula Bula.

Its like youre there , right? Jk.....I hope everyone is having a good week! Bye!

Hooray socks!

Pattern: Basic Sock Pattern via SockCalc

Yarn: JoJoland superwash fingering weight

Needles: Size 1 (US) dpns

Started: about two weeks ago

Finished: 7/1/08

Im so happy with these socks! This isnt the first pair of socks that Ive knit, but they are the best fitting. For some reason, its been difficult for me to knit a pair of socks that really fit me well. Ive tried toe-up, top-down, patterns as written, patterns based on my own specific gauge....they all never really seemed to fit right, but these turned out well. Although I used the same colorway and same dye-lot for each sock, one definitely had more orange and the other had more red coloring. I kind of like the differences, I like handknit socks that are more fraternal twins than identical. The yarn itself it really soft and fluffy, I will be using it again. I love the JoJoland colorways and I like that they offer a superwash wool.

A good friend of mine sent me some prezzies from Denali, Alaska. Some ChiaGoo crochet hooks! Since completing the little starghan for my neice, Im definetly not averse to working some more crochet projects into my routine, and these hooks are perfect. Thanks Mello! I hope Alaska is treating you well! We were at 113 degrees today...ugh.

The move went well this weekend. Im still getting situated and trying to get the place feeling like home. My commute to work went from about 5 minutes to over an hour so that is taking some getting used to, but its only temporary : )

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and a safe Fourth of July for all my US friends!!

that's it for now, Im off to do some more unpacking,

Bye!

Blog post as procrastination enabler...

I should be packing right now. Im moving to a "suburb" of Phoenix on Saturday. I put "suburb" in quotation because the entire metro-Phoenix area is like one giant city, one "city" just leads into another....its kind of like LA, but just not as big. Im moving to Mesa, which is the largest suburb, population-wise, in the US and only second to the largest suburb in North America, which is Mississauga, Ontario.

So that is your geography fact for the day : P

Im really excited about moving, here's why:

1.I'll be moving next door to my best friend! She actually still lives in the same apartment that we shared about 6 years ago. I cant wait to be able to hang out with her everyday, we have some of the best times ever.

2. Im quitting my job of 5 years at corporate banking hell!! From whenceforth shall be named Fells Wargo. I hope to never utter the words "Home Equity" again, unless im talking about my own home. Unfortunately, Im still a cubicle dweller until August.

3. I get to go to school full-time!! with the combination of some savings and hopefully a fun part-time job, I can really focus on school and get it done!!

4. So much more I cant even list it all!!

Since my stash is packed, I left out the Niebling lace project and some sock yarn. I havent really been in the mood for lace, but socks are the perfect thing right now. I just turned the heel on the second sock.

Im using Jojoland fingering weight superwash wool on size 1 dpns. Just a basic boring sock pattern I found on-line. I love the color shifts in the yarn. Sometimes the self-striping yarn I see is just too busy for me, but this I like. The yarn is a 3-ply with each ply being a different color, even as the color shifts, its never all one solid color.

Heres a close-up of the shift from orange-y, to red-y, and then green-y.

Thats about it for right now....I should get back to the grindstone...
Bye!