yarntherapy

we do the weird stuff

Well, my previous post ordering all of you to check out Dr. Horrible was made before all this hubbub began, but I clearly need to join in on the fun.

The awesome Joss Whedon, creator of all things Buffy, Firefly, and Dr. Horrible, did an interview with Wired magazine in which the following exchange took place:

    Wired.com: To what do you attribute the far-flung coverage and buzz about Dr. Horrible, considering         there's been little to no press for the series?

    Whedon: Fact is, there's been some buzz, but it hasn't reached the places it would normally. Where's         our write-up in Crocheting Monthly? (I did a very sexy shoot for that one.)

Heh. Well, little did he know..... Kim Werker of CrochetMe.com is on a mission to secure that very interview, and she is enlisting all of us in the crafty blog world to help. We need to get Joss Whedon's attention to make it happen. I know that not too many people read this here blog, but there is the slight possibility that someone who actually knows someone that knows someone who knows somebody involved with Dr. Horrible might stumble across it (show biz is a very small town, my friends!)

Do your part, people! Read, post, cross post, link, network, Facebook, twitter, whatever! Let's make it happen!

two words

Dr. Horrible

(or is that one word and one contraction?)

(actually, it's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, but with all the hyphens and stuff, how many words is it, exactly?)

Anyway. Watch it. Learn it. Love it.

babies babies everywhere

Finally! All my recent projects have been gifts for people that read this thing (Hi Jen! Hi Cristin!) so it's all been super-secret and stuff. But I was finally able to give away my gifts and now I can share them with the world (or at least the three of you that read me!)

For Cristin's new daughter (five weeks old today!), sweet Lila June (best name ever!) -

Blanket and bib - the blanket is the Hoodie Baby Blanket by Nikol Lohr, and the bib pattern is from Chickpea Studio. I embellished the bib with a lotus design from Sublime Stitching, which is my new favorite thing. I kind of want to embroider everything I see.

The blanket yarn is Knitpicks Comfy, which is really great for babies - super soft without feeling artificial and totally machine washable & dryable. The motif on the hood was supposed to be another lotus (using the graph from f. pea's Baby Om sweater) but it looks more like a dragonfly. oh well.

The bib is reversible (and personalized!) -

And for Jen's daughter-to-be, a tiny dress -

 

and a matching bib, too -

 

(freaking typepad - why is there no way to rotate photos?????)

More cute stitch patterns from Sublime Stitching.

Anyway, the dress is Little Sister's Dress by Tora Froseth, the yarn is Tahki Sky, fabulous organic cotton. I was originally going to make Jen a blanket as well but I loved this pattern too much and I wanted a little variety in my knitting.

So, yeah, that's all done. And I'm a little stuck for inspiration. I'm still trying to organize the stash - I have several knitting projects ready to go but nothing that I'm dying to make right now. I have lots (and lots and lots!) of sewing ideas but I'm not sure what I want to do first. I guess I just need to step away and breathe for a minute and everything will sort itself out. I think when I get my stuff organized and weeded out I'll be able to focus. Right now I'm feeling pretty scattered.

um, yikes.....

I knew I had a stash - I just didn't know I had a STASH. Like, stuff I forgot I even had. Stuff I bought when I first started knitting and didn't know what the hell I was doing. Lots of stuff I bought online (damn you, Elann and Webs and your rock-bottom prices!)

Yeah, I decided to tackle the scary craft closet and this is what exploded out (please note that this doesn't include all the fabric and other craft stuff!)

I know it's not as ginormous as some stashes out there, but this was really a surprise to me. Time to get my act together and destash some stuff on Ravelry!

best stuff ever

No craft content today but I just had to plug the best invention since circular needles:

Nic's Sticks by OPI.

They're these totally genius nail polish pens that go on evenly and non-runny and dry in 60 seconds. No joke - I did my nails and was knitting five minutes later.

I started with a pale color (Catch Ya Later!) and like the results so much that I gave a shimmery red a try (Date Night). Awesome. Minor complaints: the color selection isn't great - I usually favor a champagney kind of color and there isn't one here. There is a topcoat for added shine, but you need to be sure that your color is totally dry before you apply it. I did have a couple of chips but since the pen is so portable and easy, it's no biggie to touch up.

Try it. You'll like it.

my new mantra

Not really. It's a little negative for a mantra, don't you think? But considering the month I've had, when I saw this by Cross-stitch ninja on flickr, I knew I needed to make one for myself.

Yeah, remember when this was a knitting blog? And I wrote about knitting and stuff? And then I totally stopped writing? I've been knitting a bunch, it just hasn't been anything I felt like writing about. (and also, some of my current knitting is meant to be gifts for people who read this blog, so.....) I've been craving another creative outlet lately and I glommed on to the sewing and embroidery sites like you wouldn't believe - Subversive Cross-stitch, Sublime Stitching, Feeling Stitchy, Wee Wonderfuls ..... I also got the Alabama Stitch Book and I can't wait to try out the techniques in that book.

So anyway, if any of you are still out there reading (hi all!) you will probably be seeing new and different crafty stuff on this blog. Which is pretty ironic, actually, since the whole reason I leaned how to knit was so that I had a hobby that produced more useful results than yet another cross-stitch on the wall. I wanted to make scarves and sweaters and practical things ...... and now here I am and all I want to do is make another cross-stitch to put on the wall. Hmm.

In my rabid craft blog reading, I came across this cool new site that is going to be a great resource for folks buying used sewing machines - Krista is gathering first-person reviews by people about their machines and their experiences with various models. I'm fortunate enough to own a machine that is highly covetable these days - a Bernina 830 Record, which my grandparents gave me for my high school graduation present. If you want to read my review, and all the other great reviews, click on over to Zigzaggers!

gray sky thoughts

Hmmmm...

just a few random thoughts -

• Jillian's little strapless knit dress from Project Runway's finale episode is the cutest thing EVER. I predict a slew of knock-offs on Ravelry very soon. The gold buttons down the back give a great nod to its Aran-cardigan inspiration.

• Did Brett Favre die while saving kittens from a fire or something? Because really, people .....

• I am doing the Apartment Therapy cure. I am scared.

• Why do toaster ovens have such short electrical cords? Mine is literally two inches too short to reach the nearest outlet.

• I think I want a Roomba.

• I suck at fair isle. (more on that later.)

undecided

so strange - just hours before the primary and I am completely undecided. Also strange - being a Democrat in New York and having your vote actually matter for a change.

I had an interesting talk with my dad about this tonight, which just reminded me how different yet so much the same we are.

Gah. I'd better sleep on it. Maybe I'll post some knitting tomorrow.

Cherie Amour

Cherie Amour
Originally uploaded by laurelann

You know, I'm realizing that the reason I don't post as much as I should is that I love having lots of pictures in my posts and Typepad makes it really annoying to put up photos - it seems to take forever for them to upload and they don't rotate photos that need it, so I find myself just not wanting to deal with it.

(if I'm missing a Typepad trick or two, PLEASE let me know!)

At least I can use the flickr "blog this" function, although this only lets you have one picture in a post. Better than nothing, I guess!

So here is Cherie Amour so far. We had a rough start - the damn swatch took like a year for me to figure out and I had to play with needle size a bunch, and I'm still iffy on the fit. She needs a major, major blocking right now. I think I want to pick up and knit the sleeves from the top down, and I just don't feel like doing the math so we're taking a bit of a break while I tackle my first Fair Isle project. (woohoo - color work!)

I LOVE this yarn - Berocco Jasper - a super soft merino that comes in gorgeous colorways. I just could not resist this green/purple combo. The colors are really consistent and have tended to stripe instead of pool, which I mostly like but am a little afraid that horizontal stripes may not be the best look. We'll see.

The pattern is a little iffy - I think the sizing is really funky and not consistent with the swatch, and the chart problems have been well documented elsewhere. That said, I like the idea and I think when I've done the blocking I'll really like the end result.

hell has frozen...

.... and pigs are flying.

I found a sock pattern that I think I want to make.

Oh dear.