BAH!

I'm trying really hard to stick to a project from start to finish with this Knit Along thing. But because I had to divert from the pattern, it's getting a little complicated. The needle roll so far has come out way wider than I thought (always a problem because I seem to knit very loose compared to gauge). Normally, this wouldn't bother me because this thing is supposed to be felted anyway, but now I'm starting to run out of yarn and it's not quite as long as I'd hoped. Also, my friend Mee just told me that when you felt, your piece shrinks more in length than width. Doh!!

Anyways, here's what I have so far. I'm too anal retentive to just start tacking on whatever other yarn I have on hand. It has to follow the pattern I have in my head. Since I took the picture, I've run out of the green, so I unravelled and picked out stitches from the bottom and am adding more on that end. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens when I felt. I'm hoping to finish this main part tomorrow night when I have people over for a Knitting Night.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love any excuse to bake something crazy. Lucky for me, today was my turn to host our weekly playgroup for E and her little friends, so I decided to go all out and make some fancy schmancy Valentine cookies. The iced sugar cookies didn't quite turn out as nice as the picture in my head, but considering how rusty I am, I was pretty happy with them. These were more or less the best of the bunch: And the shortbread hearts up top (from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook) were really tasty, even though the dough was really hard to work with. I was so fed up with how crumbly it was that instead of re-rolling the scraps after my first cutting, I just tossed everything. I had enough for about 15 cookies (top and bottom), which I figured was more than enough for 7 moms and babies. And I was right: there's a ton of leftover. I guess I know what T & I are having for dessert tonight. I'm not complaining.

A few more pics. Here are the ones that came closest to what I originally wanted:
And here are the rest of the cookies, including the reject ones that in my typically OCD manner, I deemed unfit to put out.

Another hat

I made this as part of a crafty exchange with a friend. I guess I'm sort of ruining the surprise if she sees this post, but I'm really happy with how this turned out and just couldn't wait to share. I have to give another shoutout to Ravelry, which is where I came across the pattern. It was much much easier to make than it looks. I think I may have to make one for myself, even though it's warmed up quite a bit here, and I probably won't wear it till next year.

I'm all sewed out

I ordered a whole bunch of knee socks last month so that I could make a batch of babylegs to sell. Man, I really did not know what I was getting myself into. I think this may be the first and last time I try to do something like this for money. I've been sewing on and off, working at them sporadically for the past few weeks, but today I finally got a bug in my butt about it so I spent most of the day sewing, and finally have the last pair almost done. The worst part is, I've been waiting to put them up for sale until they're ALL done, so they've been sitting here, cluttering up my table, and just generally in my way and taunting me.

Now onto the selling, which I should note that I'm terrible at. I have a really hard time being all rah-rah, especially about my own stuff, because I'm so incredibly anal retentive that I get all worked up that people are going to notice every tiny little defect. *sigh* I think I should stick to knitting.

My very first Knit-Along!

After the knitting night last week, I decided to take the reins (or be Julie the Cruise Director, as my friend Meighan likes to call it) and organize a knit-along on the mom's board I'm on. I thought I'd post it here too for anyone else who happens to randomly come across this and wants to join in. It's a felted needle roll. The cool thing that I really like about the pattern is that instead of pockets for the needles, there's two bands of cabling. Here is a link to the pattern:
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/kable/kable.html

If you actually do this and finish it, send me a picture, and I'll post it!

Knitting night

Last night I went to what's called a "mom's night in," which is pretty much what it sounds like: a bunch of moms getting together (mostly without their kids) at someone's house. And since it was knitting-themed, we pretty much all just sat around and knitted and chatted. This is actually the second one of these that I've been to, although T insists that this is actually a cover for some sort of crazy girls night out involving tequila and male strippers. Don't I wish!

In any case, as boring as it may sound to many, it was actually quite fun. And I got to make some headway on the latest skull hat I've been working on for E. I ended up completely unraveling the first one I made for her and starting over using a variation of the same pattern I used to make this one for my sister-in-law. As I get really close to finishing though, I worry that I'm going to run into the same problem of it being too deep in the crown. So it looks like I may be starting over again. *sigh*

Just a quickie post

I finished the dishcloth that I was working on. It was actually quite a fun little project to make, and it didn't take very long either once I got the sequence of stitches down. I'm thinking about making a few more for a set. Oh, and despite his initial skepticism, T actually thought it was very cool. In fact, he said he feels bad using something so nice as a dishrag.

In case you're interested, you can find the pattern here.
I added a couple of pattern repeats to make it longer. I also added an i-cord loop to the corner so I could hang it on a hook. (Basically, I cast off all but the last four stitches, switched to a DPN, and then knit an i-cord)