I give up.

On Christmas knitting for this year, that is. ;) I managed to finish the stuff for Teresa and Bethany (pictures'll have to wait until after Christmas). I need to put a finishing touch on Treanna's gift, but that's it. I'm not doing any more! It means I have no idea what to give 4 people, but I'm not going to stress myself out over it. There's always next year.

So what am I doing now? I'm learning lace! I wanted to try and make a shawl for myself to wear to when we go see Riverdance in January. However, what I have in mind requires lace knitting, so I figured I'd try and make Liesel, and if that works out, perhaps double it up for a small shawl (the pattern, I mean). I'm making the scarf version out of some pink yarn I had in my stash. So far, so good. We'll see how I fare though, once I get further along. If I can do it right, I'll try (given enough left over time) making the shawl version with some green acrylic/mohair yarn from my stash.
I'm actually looking forward to it. Even if the lace aspect is somewhat intimidating to me.

Once I've done that, I'm going to finish the WIPs I have lying around. I have a lot of knitting to catch up on, and January is the time to do it in, I think. I've gotten my confidence back, and *knock on wood* my body's been playing a little nicer for me, as far as my knitting goes. So I'm hoping to take advantage of that. Be on the look out for plenty of Fo's!

In the meantime though, I wish everyone

Merry Christmas

and I hope you will be able to make it through your merriment in one piece.

I get it now...

I finally get why a lot of people become yarn snobs, and why they do not make clothing items with acrylic yarn. I made the One Skein Wonder for myself with Caron Simply Soft, right? I love it, and I love how soft it is. One thing I don't love about it? It stretches a bit and won't stay on my shoulders properly anymore. And since acrylic has no memory to it, unlike wool.... it won't "bounce back" after washing. *sigh* No fair. And I just (well..."just") bought yarn to make myself and Treanna cardigans with, too. Now I'm not sure I want to use it anymore. I think it may get re-purposed for afghans or something. Means I won't be making cardigans for a good long time, and definitely not for both of us, which peeves me a little. I don't know. I feel deflated now, which sucks. Using nicer yarns means more money spent and I can't afford that for as much as I would like to make (since I intend to do gift knitting next year). Bah. Can't I win the lottery or something? That'd work, right?

Eep! Christmas Is Coming!

Yep. You read that right. Christmas is coming! Can you believe we're only a week away from Thanksgiving? And after that.... *shudder*. I found a countdown banner, as you probably will have noticed. Figured it couldn't hurt to put it up (though Dustin'll call me crazy if he sees it).
I don't know about all of you, but I still have tons to try and finish. Not happening this week, but I'm hoping to get something done lol.
So what about you? How's your Christmas Knitting coming along?

Knitting Badges!

So a friend of mine had these linked in her blog. I figured I'd go check it out for myself lol. You can find these here




The “Proselytize Knitting” Badge - A requirement for all Knitting Scouts, the recipient must do his or her bit to present knitting in a positive light, whilst at the same time avoiding all references to “hipness”, grandmothers, and yoga.
Uhm, I talk about knitting, with muggles and knitters alike, I blog about it, I've attempted to teach basic knitting... counts, right?




The “MacGyver” Badge (Level One) - The recipient must demonstrate clever use of a non-knitting tool in a knitting-related scenario. For instance, recipient has used paper clips as stitch markers, or successfully whittled and then utilized bamboo skewers as dpns.
Uhm, I used a Popsicle stick for a cable needle a few times



The “MacGyver” Badge (Level Two) - The recipient must demonstrate clever use of a knitting tool in a non-knitting-related scenario. For instance, recipient has used a strand of Regia Bamboo to slice cheese, or repaired a small appliance with a metal knitting needle.
I used to use a knitting needle to check if my cakes were done. I've also used the tips of small knitting needles to press tiny buttons (like on watches?)




The “Knitting Whilst Under the Influence” Badge - This applies to both actual knitting under the influence, as well as achieving moments of stunning intellectual clarity about ones knitting under the influence. Presumes talking about knitting whilst under the influence a given.
Yep, guilty of knitting under the influence. Just a glass of wine, or beer, not actually whilst being drunk lol.




The “Knitting Has Forced Me to Seek Medical Attention” Badge (Level One) – In which the recipient has been forced to seek the advice of a medical doctor, nurse, or alternative healthcare professional for injuries sustained as a result of knitting.
My upper back's been adjusted for hunching. I've had "tennis elbow" and carpal tunnel symptoms that required medical attention.




The “Knitting Got Me Through My Divorce” Badge - Better for you than wine, easier to care for than a houseful of cats, knitting probably kept you busy, and definitely kept you sane, while you navigated your way back to single life. You’re better off without him/her, honey.
Going through my parent's divorce counts, right? And though I wasn't married to my first boyfriend, I did knit my way through the post-break up phase.

That's all the badges I've got so far lol.

Oh, a challenge for all you knitters out there! The Yarn Harlot is coming out with a new book soon, and will be hosting a huge book launch to do in New York. Go check out her blog and mark your calenders for March 22nd 2008! If you're able to get there, be there or be square ^_~. I wish I could go, but eh, not in the charts for lil' ol' me. But if you can, do! There'll be lots of things going on, and this will show people just how strong the knitting community actually is ^_~.

More F.O.'s, Ravelry and ranting, too

I'm slowly getting my projects up on Ravelry. I've been cleaning house and finding some laying around where I'd forgotten them. Oops! Also finished a few this past month. So here's two, one of each afore mentioned category ^_~.

First up, Treanna's clapotis, which she'll be getting today for her birthday (which was earlier this week).


The other FO is Trina's clapotis, which will be one of her Christmas presents this year. So shh, no one say anything :P.




I'm enjoying Ravelry a lot. I've been slowly adding stuff to my project list, as I said before. It's interesting to go over all of them again now, see how far I've come. I'm still far from finished with it, but I don't always feel like messing with it lol. So now and again there'll be many updates in a row, and then a long time nothing. Ah well, my prerogative, right?

I'm having issues with several projects at the moment. They're actually really beginning to piss me off, because they're all supposed to be relatively easy things to make. And I just can not figure them out. I hate it.

F.O.!

It's easy to go from 58% finished to 100% finished, when you decide to change what you're making midway ^_~. The granny blanket I was making for myself, ended up being a baby blanket for my niece. Since the majority (given the size difference) was already done, I was able to finish this blanket in a few days. I'm quite pleased with it, even if I did end up having to hunt through town in a futile effort to get more of the rose colored yarn. But, the raspberry colored edge works well, I think. What do you think? Will my newest niece be happy with it? ^_~

It's getting worse!

I just got my new Knitpicks catalogue in. My to-knit list is getting longer! Oh my gosh, there's so much cool stuff in there! Best yet, is that a lot of the patterns I'm interested in are free downloads!!!! Oh, if only there was enough time and money *sigh*.

It's official....

My to-knit list is longer then my life expectancy ^_~. I just spent some time browsing patterns on Ravelry, and I went from a page and a half, to 7 pages of patterns I want to knit. And the scary thing? I'm not done adding yet. Not by a long shot. The most I've added now, has been baby things. This mainly, because my SIL's are intent on continuing to breed ^_~. I figure, I might as well get prepared. Also, I haven't even made anything for the last two additions yet (I know, shame on me!), so I have some catching up to do, as well.

Yaaarn!

So what have I been up to? Well, not a lot of knitting. I'm still stuck, I'm sad to say. So instead, I've been winding the yarn I have around the house. Dustin even helped me out for a while, which was sweet. Next step, sorting it all out and taking pictures. Why yes, this is for my Ravelry page, why do you ask? ^_~ I'm itching to do some knitting though, so I'm hoping to get help this week *crosses fingers*

Contest pointer

No, the contest is not mine. It is Shelly's. She's offering up some lave yarn and a lace knitting book. With option of having her dye the yarn, to boot. Exciting! Go look!

Ravelry!

I just got my invite from Ravelry this morning. My screen name on there is naelany

So what do you do, when....

You can't leave the house because of medication/health issues, but you can still knit? And what do you do, if you need to go to a yarn shop in order to get help with finishing swap-knitting (I'm covering new territory with this stuff) ?

You start working on something else. Well, if you're me, anyway ^_~. I can't tell you what I made for Treanna. It's not likely she's ever going to see this blog, but you never know ^_~.
I managed to finish what I made her, however. It took me a lot longer then it normally would have (groggy minds and painful limbs can only do so much at any given time). But it was relatively mindless knitting, which was helpful to me.

I started knitting a clapotis for myself. Out of acrylic yarn, but oh, do I ever love the colors!!!! Purple and burnt orange and brown and a few shades in between. Not something I'd normally have picked to go together, but boy is it working out wonderfully. Haven't gotten very far yet though. As proof of the whole knitting while on medication, I've had to frog the darned thing twice already -_-. I can't show pictures at the moment, as the batteries for my camera have died out. I found this out when I attempted to take pictures to show off lol. Hopefully once I've got batteries again, I can show off what I've been working on. For myself, as well as for my swap partners.
I still feel really bad about being so delayed with the swapping. But there isn't much I can do about it at this point. I keep trying to make it to the shop, hopefully I can get there really soon (this week, maybe? Please, God?).

I was going to say something else, but I forget what it was now... go figure. Anyway, at least you know I'm still alive and kicking.

Absent

Sorry for the long time no write. Life's been eh, to say the least. I've been trying to craft, and gotten somewhere, but due to physical...challenges, they haven't gotten quite as far as I would have liked.

I did realize one thing though, as I looked over this blog of mine. I need to figure out a way of renaming the "secret" stuff on my progress bar because....well.... I can't remember what they are! lol Terrible, I know.

Anyway, I'll try and get back to posting again. I've got some catching up to with pictures and stuff. So yeah, hang in there a while longer folks. There's still life here.

*laughs* Well folks, Knitty has just provided each and every knitter with the perfect explanation of our stash of yarn. Go read it, it's worth it. And totally right (in my opinion, anyway) ^_~

January Jamboree

I received from M.O. yesterday, so here are some pictures:

This is a picture of Lake Michigan that she took herself.
On each corner of the frame, there's a marble magnet,
made just for me ^_^

She got me some lovely, fuzzy yarn, a pair of circular needles,
and some scrapbooking stuff.
Oh, and some yummy chocolate ^_^

She painted this wooden box for me. Isn't it pretty?

This is a little pocket mirror

Which matches the bag she painted. Check it out,
the face on it looks like one of those
cat-clocks where the eyes go back and forth.

How cool is that, for a swap package ^_^. I'm not done yet with her stuff, but I can only hope she'll like what she's getting, as much as I like what she made.
Thanks, M.O.!

12 Days Of Christmas Swap

Ok, this is the stuff I sent to my swap partner, Sewpixie. Obviously, not everything is handmade, but still ^_^. It counts, right?

I know, I know, I could've put the pictures on here, too, but come on.... that's a lot of pictures! So, please take a gander over to my pictures, and take a look at some of the other stuff I've made ^_^

Trying this out

Ok, so I figured I'd try out Blogspot. I know I have an account on LJ already, but if this ends up suiting me better for my craftblog, then I'm moving it here. I'll be sure to let you know if and when that happens ^_^

ETA: Meh, not sure I can wrap my head around everything for setting this up properly right now, so I'm leaving it as is for the moment.