February's desktop

It's the year of the Tiger so I thought this screenshot would be appropriate for Feb/March desktop.

Mittens

I want a pair of red mittens but didn't like the acrylic store bought ones. So I made my own. It was also to keep me from casting on the Cedar Leaf Shawlette. The mittens only took a couple of days to knit. While these mittens are not the Red Olympic Mitten pattern, they're close (I mean, mittens are mittens) so I made a donation.

Want to see something incredible? Knitters have raised over $1,000,000 for Doctors Without Borders.

And if you're interested in knitting your own mittens, Swatchless has the Red Olympic mitten pattern. The proceeds are going to Penguins Can Fly.

I will now have to find something else to knit for the next two weeks.

Ravelry's Knitting Olympics 2010

It's countdown time to the 2010 Winter Olympics. I have mixed feelings about this Olympics. Normally, I'm all over it, especially with this one being in our own backyard...literally. Working at one of the venues can be really exciting but it has been so stressful. Every time I think or hear about the Olympics, I get heart palpitations. I wasn't sure if I was going to do the knitting Olympics this year. But then, I thought...how often does this comes around? It might be just the thing to de-stress things a bit.

So, I joined Team Canada Ravelry group and picked my project and yarn.

Cedar Leaf Shawlette. Something nice and uncomplicated that won't make me want to poke my eyes out with my needles. The yarn is the Blue Face Leicester that I spun up last summer. Fibre is from Sweet Georgia's fibre club...Foundation colourway. I've been trying to think of something special to use this yarn for and when I saw the pattern, I knew it was right.



I'm all set to go. I've been knitting like a crazy person to finish up my Almost-Cassidy cardigan just so I could get that done and out of the way so I wouldn't break my resolution of finishing things before starting new projects. The main pieces of the cardie just came off the needles tonight. This weekend, I will sew them together, knit the band and I will be done just in time to start the shawlette for Feb 12th.

Things I'm thankful for:
1. A cool bunch of friends at work.
2. New knitting projects
3. Books

2010 New Year Resolution (despite my objections to making resolutions)

Normally, I'm not big on New Year Resolutions. For me to make resolutions is pretty much condemming me to failure. I start things and I never finish things. I have lots of ideas for projects and things to do but once I get started on them, if it takes more than 10 minutes, my interest has moved on to the next shiny thing. Very easily distracted.


I would like to change that. I'm going to start small. Give myself a few things to finish so I wouldn't get discouraged.

1. Finish the grey cable cardigan. Yes, that cardigan is still not finished. It's all knitted but still need to be sewn together. I promise I will do that this year. I think giving myself a year is good except I'm also a procrastinator. I will most likely wait until December and think maybe no one will remember that I put that on my blog to finish. It's getting silly...I finished knitting the sweater in December 2007.

2. Finish the hair on my Waldorf doll. She still only have half a head of hair. And she still needs clothes. Maybe I should list the half-finished sweater that I'm knitting for her here too.

3. Finish my cashfern scarf. Honestly! I only have 1 repeat left to do! It's sititng in a margarine tub somewhere in my wool room.

4. Finish the finglerless gloves I promised my niece. I promise to have them finished by next winter. You will get them eventually.

Happiness is...

...yarn sale at your local yarn shop and coming home with a sweater's worth of Rowan Lima.

Yum!

We have cake!

A few weeks ago, we discovered a mouse living in the back of our laundry room. No real damage but a box of instant mash potato powder was chewed into. We completely forgotten that box was there. The real casualty was an electronic rice cooker that was a present from my mom a few Christmases ago. There were a few droppings along the top of the cooker and inside the vent. Even if I could clean it up, I would never ever feel comfortable using it...so it went in the garbage.

We have several rice cookers and the one we use daily is in the kitchen. It's nice small one that makes enough for the three of us. The one the mouse contaminated was a bigger one that makes congee (mushy rice). We don't use it often but it's so handy to have. I can cook congee on the stove top but it's so handy with the cooker. You throw in the ingredients, press a button, and go away until it's done. I was bemoaning about how I would miss that cooker. One of the boxes under our tree this year was a replacement rice cooker from hubby. The box said it cooks white rice, brown rice, sushi rice, sticky rice, congee, soup, and cake. Yes, cake.

I was intrigued by the cake function and had to try it out.



The instruction booklet suggested using a boxed cake mix but I used a simple cake recipe I found online. The recipe made more than what was recommended so I had to hit the cake setting twice in order for it to bake properly. The result was a tasty cake, a little on the dense side - that's my fault...I should have separated the batter into two batches.

So, yes, you can bake a cake in a rice cooker. Who knew.

Christmas is coming!

It's Monday morning and I'm home. I have two days off. Normally, this would make me very happy but this is the first year that I am not taking time off between Christmas and New Year. To coin a phrase from a coworker...it's cuckoo banana heads at work right now. I'm not denying that I'm not excited with all the Olympic stuff happening around me but it just doesn't feel like Christmas is 4 days away. Presents are ready & waiting to be wrapped, tree is up and decorated. A new Christmas puzzle sitting in the box. Same as every other year but this time it feels different. The 2010 Olympics have overshadowed Christmas for me. :(

In order to get that Christmas-y feeling back, we made a trip to Granville Island on Saturday afternoon before heading over to the Festival of Lights at Vandusen Gardens later. I love that place! They did a fantastic job on the lights. Despite the large crowds, it was still a lot of fun!


A dark and ugly picture but unless you're planning on bringing a tripod & such, pictures will turn out dark and ugly. These were the most amazing lights! They're the plastic top part of water bottles cut into flower and star shapes! There must have been bazillion of these all over the garden. In the dark, with the lights, they look like coloured ice flowers!

And here's another picture that turned out without a lot of effort.

Happy Christmas to all!

It's cold outside

Last summer, during that long heat wave, I said I wasn't going to complain when it got cold in the winter. But that was before I knew how cold it was going to get! It's FREAKIN' COLD here!!!

The up side is that I got to wear all my hand knitted hats, scarves, mittens. I just didn't expect to have to wear everything all at the same time.

It's in the forecast to snow tomorrow and all through the weekend. I have mixed feelings about wanting a white Christmas. This is the first year in a long time that we're not shutting down for the holidays.

Mini Santa

The perfect accessory for any computer desk. I'm going to bring this in to work for my desk...on Wednesday.

ETA: Did I mentioned I have two days off? Wheeee!!!

A very productive weekend...

It took me the whole weekend but I made a picture.



It's not much but I can proudly say "I did this myself" I've been playing around with the Adobe Illustrator and there is so much to play with! Every step was a challenge, right down to trying to figure out how to save this as a jpeg to post here.

Just because I can.

Things that makes me happy:
1. Playing with new toys.
2. Making things - even if it is just a picture on the computer.
3. Christmas music.

I got nothin'

Well, I've been knitting and doing a bit of spinning. Not much excitment here. Started a pair of fingerless mitts today. Got a new camera but it's been too rainy and cold to go outside to try it out. Not really feeling motivated to do much this weekend. It's been a long busy couple of months at work and I feel I need some decompression time.

I've been playing around with Illustrator on the computer making calendars. I found a place that sells mini jewel CD cases. The difference between the regular CD ones and the calendar ones is that the calendar case cover flips back. I ordered 200. Husband asked what am I going to do with 200 calendar cases. I dunno...I guess I'll make 200 calendars. I don't think I even know 200 people to give calendars to.

My knitted Waldorf doll is still waiting for the rest of her hair. She still needs clothes.

Things that makes me happy:
1. Christmas music.
2. Wool socks FTW!!
3. More Christmas music!

Peanut Butter Cookies

I made peanut butter cookies today. It's the easiest recipe in the world.

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg.

Mix, bake for 10 mins at 350 deg.

That's it. It's a really small batch so I usually x4 to get enough cookies to last more than an hour. It's best to use peanut butter that's smooth and not separated. It's impossible to stir the oil back in and makes lumpy cookies. Family doesn't mind anyway and it gives the cookies pockets of peanut butter. Still tasty but hard on the wrists.

Knitting news

Still working on the Pinwheel sweater. Just knitting up the i-cord border now and then have to start the sleeves. It knits up fast but all that plain knitting in the round is really boring. I was getting to that point where I want to poke my eyes out with my lace needles.

Doll Pattern

I've had several people email me asking about the pattern. I don't mind sharing it but I need to re-write my doll pattern. I was making notes as I went along on my ipod touch when I accidentally lost the app (bad sync on my part) and lost all the info. It's easy enough to re-write but just have to find the time to do that.

Things that makes me happy:

1. A picture of my nephew in his transformer costume. He won first place!
2. Birds in the garden. I love watching the birds in my backyard.
3. Rainy weekends - guilt-free days of sitting on the couch, knitting, and watching old movies.

WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC AND SHOCKING PHOTOS...

...for knitters.


In the spirit of Halloween that was yesterday, here's something to put fear in the hearts of all the fibre people out there.



I love this cardigan. It's just a plain sweater with a picot edge around it and mother-of-pearl buttons. Somehow I had snagged and broke a thread on the back of this cardigan. I knew that and had meant to fix it before I washed it. Completely forgot and washed it last night. Yup. This was the biggest fright I ever got on Halloween.

The good news is that it's fixable.

Other stuff

Ever since Black Sheep Yarns opened up last year in Port Moody, I've been doing a lot more spontaneous knitting. Before, it was a planned trip to the yarn store. I usually take transit to work so I would have to plan in advance to drive in to Vancouver, find time either at lunch time or end of the day to hit all the stores. And if I forget something, it's a pain to go back. Now, I just drive 5 mins and Black Sheep is there. Although I try to go for specific things, I'm more likely to pick up a new yarn just to try. If I like it, it's easy enough to go back and pick up enough for a larger project. The down side is that my yarn stash has grown way too much this past year.

Yesterday's yarn haul yeilded 2 balls of Noro for a scarf, a skein of Koigu sock yarn, and the Rowan Lima Collection pattern book. There was a couple of samples of the Lima knitted up at the store. That yarn is really amazingly soft, not surprising with 80-something % Alpaca. Considering that it will use 5.5mm needles, the yarn is very light and the sample sweater had a lot of drape to it. The yarn itself is actually a chain of thinner yarn. My guess is that it will trap air inside itself to give it bulk and warmth without the weight. I'm tempted to go back today and pick up a ball to try out. But I know that would mean going back and getting enough for something larger...something that I wouldn't have time to knit up right now.

Maybe buying the pattern book wasn't such a good idea.

Things that makes me happy:

1. BC Lions lost last night.
2. Hell week at work is over.
3. Sushi for dinner last night.

Weekend Warrior

I actually made up a list of things to do this weekend. I will not post the whole entire list but I will share what I've accomplished...

1. Finally finished sewing the last seam in my felted tweed cardigan. I love this stuff! It's so soft and squooshy!

2. Blocking the above cardigan. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will dry before the end of the day. I don't trust the dog to not sleep on it. That's an annoyed dog butt sticking out.



3. Started knitted the Pinwheel sweater with the Cascade Heather. I think this might be it...the yarn seems to be happy being the Pinwheel sweater. The February sweater is now back in the queue. One day I will find the perfect yarn for it and it will be wonderful.

4. Knitted the stem & leaves for my pumpkin and finsiehd the second pumpkin. I'm going to make a couple more before I felt everything as one batch.

5. Finished the last 1 & half inches of a sock. The yardage for the Noro sock yarn is really incredible! I don't know why I thought I would need two skeins for pair of socks.

6. I have over one and half skeins of the Noro sock yarn left that I started the New York Plaid scarf. So far, I have nearly 6" done.

7. Fixed the problem of my apps not showing up on the new computer for my ipod. It was as simple as manually transferring the files over from the old computer to the new. I spent a lot of time on the phone and emailing the folks at Apple. No one suggested this and they couldn't figure out why the apps weren't showing up. I posted the problem on Ravelry (a knitting forum) and someone suggested this.

7. Finished some work-related stuff.

Who am I kidding?

I had to go to the yarn shop to buy some green wool. For my pumpkins, I said. But before I left, I did some quick calculations on how much Rowan Felted Tweed I would need if I were to make a sweater with it. Now, why would I do that if I had no intentions of buying more wool? I can't say it was all my fault. I had this ball of the soft grey sitting on my computer table for a couple of weeks now. It was supposed to be a bunny rabbit but it will now be part of a soft grey sweater.


Rowan Felted Tweed is my new favourite yarn. I'm fickle that way.

Thankful for:
1. Rain.
2. Halloween chocolate. Every year we buy more and more candy but have been getting fewer and fewer kids. I know where all the extra chocolates are going.
3. Good dental coverage - need a crown...maybe it wasn't good idea about the extra chocolates.

Garter stitch ranting

I hear a lot of people say stockinette stitches are the most boring thing to knit. Not true...garter stitch is the most boring thing to knit. At least with stockinette, you get to purl on the wrong side to break up the tedium of plain knitting. Garter stitches makes me want to poke my eyes out with my needles.

The Cassidy cardigan is now on hold. It looked ok but it wasn't want the yarn wanted to be. It wanted to be the February Lady Sweater. That's what it's going to be. The only problem is the huge amounts of garter stitch to be done. It looks great so far but so very boring! Fourteen more rows to the end of this section and then on to the fun stuff!

I broke up the monotony of garter stitch knitting with a side project of knitting a pumpkin.



The pumpkin itself turned out well but can't say much for the leaves & stem. After the leaves & stem were knitted & had gone through the felting process, I noticed (as you can see in the picture) that they didn't felt at all. Took another look at the ball band and it said "superwash". D'oh!

I'll have to dig around some more for green wool tomorrow. It hasn't been a good knitting day.

I also made some little clay rabbits who looked more psychotic than cute. Not a good craft day either.

Thanksgiving

1. I know I've said many times how thankful I am for my friends and family but it bears repeating...over and over again. I didn't want to say the same thing every post but I really am thankful for them. I'm really lucky to have them. There's no rule that says I have to come up with something different everyday.

2. The use of my hands that I could make stuff on a whim.

3. Coffee - did you know coffee is good for you?

Towashi! Towashi! Towashi!

The crochet class was fun. Dotty at Black Sheep is a very patient teacher. I'm well on my way crocheting this scarf. But like any lace project, it looks like something the cat threw up until it's done and blocked. I'm using something Malibrigo that I had in the stash. Good for me! Stash busting!

BUT! At the end of the class, Dotty showed us a crochet scrubbie...a Japanese towashi. The concept is simple enough - you increase at one end and at the same time you decrease on the other end. Sew together and you get a spiral shaped scrubbie. My crochet version was really really bad and asked myself how hard would it be to knit them? Apparently, not hard at all.



Instead of working on my scarf, I've been making towashies. I've been experimenting with different size needles and different numbers of stitches. While they are supposed to be used as dish washing scrubbies, the larger ones can be used as a body scrubbie. They're knitted out of cotton so they are quite soft.

Thankful for:
1. Drop Bears - a group of people I play WoW with and they have been very kind to a noob like me.
2. 2010 Winter Olympics - Whatever one's opinion on such events, I really do believe that it's the reason the economy in my little part of the world is not as bad as others.
3. Family members who are sane and rational. They keep me grounded and relatively normal.

Oh look! Shiny!

I have a LOT of yarn and fibre and I went to the yarn sale at Black Sheep anyway last weekend. Of course I bought more yarn. What else do you do at a yarn sale?

Last Sunday was the first Beginner's Crochet class. I kinda know how to crochet but I always wondered if I was doing it wrong. It never looked right. Anyway, Dotty at Black Sheep was more than patient with us. I learned so much in that first class. I never knew how to count my stitches properly...one reason why I sucked at crochet. Nothing worked because my count was always off. She went over everything - how to hold the yarn. different ways of holding the hook, and a few of the basic stitches. I came home and practice a bit and jumped right into something that she recommended NOT to do....crochet with mohair. I made a little crochet cap to make the wig for my doll. It looked great until I took a closer look in daylight. Yuck. I'm going to have to add more hair.

The second class is tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. We get to start our scarf!

My problem is not the lack of ideas of what to make but the opposite. I have too many things I want to do RIGHT NOW. I have so many projects going and will jump from one to another whenever anything new and shiny catches my attention.

The latest "new and shiny" is the Gail (aka Nightsongs) shawl. I don't remember where I first saw it. Probably Ravelry. I blame Ravelry. So last night I got home around 8pm. Ate dinner, watched a bit of TV with the Hubby, played a bit of Warcraft, and thought...hmmm....the yarn I spun from Sweet Georgia's fibre club would be perfect for this shawl. Next thing I knew, it's 2am and I'm knitting a shawl. Not the wisest thing to do because it was frogged out this morning and restarted with larger needles, same yarn, and minus the errors. It's thicker than most lace things I make but I'm happy with the look so far.

Erick's Knitted Sock Monkey Pattern

Here's the pattern for the sock monkey. I hope I didn't miss anything. The monkey is knitted in the round with no seaming involved.

ERICK’S KNITTED SOCK MONKEY PATTERN
Yarn: Cascade 220 – 2 skeins grey, 1 skein white*, 1 skein red*
*You don’t need a full skein of the white & red.
2 small black buttons for eyes.
Black yarn – just a bit to embroider the face.
Stuffing
Needles – 3.5mm double pointed needles.
Stitch holders or spare yarn.
4” doll maker’s needle or long darning needle.
Stitch markers – optional.

Legs:
Using Emily Ocker cast on method and white, cast on 8 sts & divide over 4 needles.
Knit 1 round.
Knit 1, M1 to end = 16 stitches.
Knit 16 rounds.
Join red yarn and knit 2 rounds. Break off and knit another 3 rounds in white. Break off white and join grey.
Knit 52 rows in grey (or until leg is long enough).
Put the live stitches on a holder and make second leg.

Monkey Butt:
Knit front stitches of first leg, knit front stitches of 2nd leg, knit back stitches of 2nd leg, knit back stitches of first leg.
Knit 2 rounds in grey.
Attach white. The side facing you will now be the back of the monkey. Short row until 8 sts remaining and back to full sts.
Short Row Butt:
Knit 15, wrap & turn.
Slip 1, purl 12, wrap & turn.
Slip 1, knit 10, wrap & turn.
Slip 1, purl 8, wrap & turn.
Slip 1, knit to first wrap, pick up wrap & knit together with the stitch, turn.
Slip1, purl to first wrap, pick up wrap & purl together with the stitch, turn.
Repeat until all the stitches with wraps are picked up & knitted. You should be back where the grey yarn is still attached.
Break off white and join grey. Knit body – 50 rounds in grey. After a few rounds, stitch up the hole between the legs. Easier to do it now than later.

Head:
Break off grey and join white. Knit 1 round. For front head shaping, short row 2 sets of white, join red and short row until 8 sts remaining. Return to full sts following the same colour changes.
Knit 3 rows plain knit in white.
Dec for top head shaping. Dec 1 on each side of front & back (total 4 sts dec) every second round until 12 sts remain. Don’t close up the head yet. Put the remaining stitches on some spare yarn to hold. This would make stuffing the monkey easier.

Finishing:
Stuff body, working from feet up. Stuff in small amounts at a time and don’t roll up the stuffing. Keep it nice and loose. It will pack better than large wads. I used wool fleece to stuff mine but if you’re making it for a child, you can buy hypoallergenic stuffing.
When you finished stuffing the head, graft the top close. Pull the yarn tail into the monkey and bury the end.
Optional - You can make a little cloth bag of lavender to stuff in the body but if the monkey will be a toy for a child, I would not recommend this as the monkey may need to be washed occasionally. Also optional is that you can make a little bag of stuffing beads to give the monkey a bit of weight.

Arms:
Using the Emily Ocker method, cast on 6 using white. K1, M1 to end. 12 sts. Knit 16 rounds, join red, knit 2 rounds, knit 2 rounds in white. Break off and join grey. Knit 45 rounds. Cast off.
Make second arm.
Stuff and sew opening close. Join to body.

Tail:
It’s a 5 stitch icord.
Using white, cast on 5 stitches on one double pointed needle. Slide stitches to other end of the needle and knit. Repeat for 14 rounds. After a few rounds, pull the yarn tail to tighten up the stitches.
Join red and knit 2 rounds, break off red and switch back to white for 2 more rounds. Break off and join grey for another 50 round or until tail is long enough.
Cast off and sew firmly to monkey butt.

Ears:
Using grey, cast on 16 stitches and join.
Rnd 1 and all odd rounds - Knit
Rnd 2 - (Knit 1, inc 1, knit 6, inc 1, knit 1) x2 to 20 stitches.
*Increase 1 stitch at each end of the ear for front and back of ear until you have a total of 32 sts.
Rnds 9 - 15 rounds – Knit
Dec 1 at each end of the ear for front and back of ear. You are decreasing a total of 4 stitches each round until 12 stitches remaining. Graft to close and make second ear.

Edited to add:  some people mentioned the ears are a bit big - yeah, I know...that was the way my son wanted it to be.  I had done several versions of the ears and these were the ones.  If you want to make the ears smaller,
Using grey, cast on 10 stitches,
Rnd 1 and all odd rounds - Knit.
Rnd 2 - work your increases to 16.
*Then work your subsequent increases to 24 stitches total.
Rounds 9-12 - Knit.
Dec 1 at each end of the ear for front and back of ear. You are decreasing a total of 4 stitches each round until 12 stitches remaining. Graft to close and make second ear.

Face:
Use pins to mark eye placement.
Pin ears to the sides of the head & sew.
Use small black buttons for eyes and pin to the head. If this is a toy for a child, embroider the eyes on with black wool.
If using button, use a strong buttonhole thread and long doll needle, enter the body through the back of the neck and pull through to the first eye placement. Attach first eye and put needle back in the head and out through the next eye placement. Attach the second eye and put needle back in the head and out through the first eye. Pull a bit to indent the eyes but not too tight. When you’re happy with the look, put the needle through the first button, back in the head to the second button. Put the needle through the second button & back in head, exiting at the base of the back of the head. Knot firmly but be careful not to catch any of the wool fibres. Pull the needle through the doll to bury the thread end.
Using black wool, embroider the nose and mouth.
Using some white wool on a needle, run the wool around the neck line a few times. Pull carefully to give the neck a bit of shaping. Tie off and bury the ends in the doll.

I'm such a goof!

It would help if I gave you my email. I thought it was in my profile somewhere.

thymeformom AT hotmail DOT com (without the spaces)