« November 2004 | Main | January 2005 »

December 17, 2004

x-mas knitting

I said I wouldn't do this. I had three people to knit for this xmas, but then at the last minute I decided to knit hats for my three grandparents to match the scarves I sent them last year. Ugh! I will be away and not sending these packages until after x-mas, but I still need to get them done.

1. Reverse Bloom cloth for Omar's mommy. must be done by 12/25
2. 2nd fingerless glove for my dad + much finishing on both
3. Hothead hat for paternal grandfather
4. Pink roll-brim hat for maternal grandmother
5. Omar is going to make a hat for my paternal grandmother

I have had absolutely no time to knit, but I finally got a student teaching placement that I like, so that's good.

Posted by Betsy at 10:20 AM | Comments (2)

December 15, 2004

BoB Awards

I just thought I'd alert everyone that the Best of Blog (BoB) awards have a category for knitting/crafting blogs.
No, I'm not fishing for nominations! We have been so busy lately, our blog is not BoBworthy.
I thought hard about it, and I deciced to nominate Marnie Talks. Marnie has a bunch of beautiful free patterns that she generously shares with the knitting community. She is a talented artist and the creator of the ubiquitous "What kind of knitter are you?" quiz, and the cool cafe press swag that goes along with it.

Nominate your own favorite knitting blog here.
Nominations close 12/24.

Some people seem unclear about how this works. They are not collecting votes at the BoB site, they are asking for nominations. So if you see that a blog has already been nominated, nominating it again, while a nice gesture, isn't going to help its chances. So go nominate one of your favorite knitblogs that needs some recognition!

Posted by Betsy at 06:14 AM | Comments (1)

One-hour baby booties: creeper version

booties.jpg

bootiesside.jpg


There comes a time in every young knitter's life when she realizes that her pile of half-finished sweaters means nothing. What she really wants is to knit small, tooth-achingly cute things for small, tooth-achingly cute people. I was pretty much out of luck, since my friends refuse to procreate. Then Omar revealed to me two days ago that his secret santa giftee at the office is a new father. They had a little boy named Milo (!) last week. I sprung into action!

Specs:

I had some trouble with the crocheted strap, it came out way too long and I thought it looked a little weird given the nature of the yarn. While browsing the SNB Forum at Craftster, I noticed that the designer is a regular poster. Did you know that many of the SNB designers frequent the Craftster boards? I've also seen posts from Deb Stoler and the designer of the felted tote from SNB1. I emailed Heidi and she emailed me right back, confirming that my strap was indeed too long. (It's hard to know when you don't have kids. I know babies have chubby feet, but how chubby?) Thanks for the help, Heidi! You should visit her web site, Amobaby, where she sells her great booties and other cuuute things.
This is an excellent, quick and really gratifying pattern. I hope little Milo likes his creepers! Thank heavens for this pattern, or I couldn't have knit anything for him during finals! Not a size 0 in sight :)

Posted by Betsy at 04:28 AM | Comments (3)

December 14, 2004

Shoutout

I just wanted to give a shoutout to my now-revealed Secret Pal 3, Kristi of Designedly Kristi. I received my last package last week. The goods: Opal sock yarn in green with pink and yellow speckles (She has a beautiful pair of socks on her blog knit with this stuff). I had really been wanting to try some Opal yarn so this is perfect! Now I just need time to knit more socks! Also, some gorgeous pink and orange stitch markers in a Starbucks tin, and some yummy fruity orange candles.
Kristi was a wonderful secret pal. She sent me great stuff, left supportive comments about frustrating knitting, and even sent email empathy about my insomnia. Thanks so much!
I swear we will post pictures after finals! Ack!

Posted by Betsy at 01:08 AM | Comments (2)

December 11, 2004

50 Things About Omar

Instead of 100 things about each of us, I've decided we are each going to do 50 things about the other. Yes, I am the boss of this knitblog!


Our subject:
DCP_0213.JPG


1. Omar's first knitting project was a felted Marsupial tote from Stitch N Bitch for his mom done in Cascade 220. Completed 3/04
2. Blue bear, his childhood teddy bear, is sitting on a shelf with our other stuffed toys. I crocheted him a hat.
3. His real name isn't Omar (!) I named him that because I thought his real name was too boring.
4. He went to Oberlin College in OH and graduted in four years with a B.A. in English and minors in computer science and history.
5. He just started a new job a month ago.
6. He really likes spicy food and brought one recipe to the relationship: Indian curry.
7. Prior to knitting, his hobbies included more "boy-like" things like videogames, role-playing games, and painting little metal men.
8. He was born in what was then known as Champaign-Urbana.
9. He has a younger sister and brother.
10. His mother was a weaver. She doesn't weave so much now, but knits novelty yarn scarves. :)
11. He was born on the day his mother was to graduate from her Ph.D program in reproductive physiology. She still graduated. :)
12. He generally has one or two pairs of shoes at a time, almost always Fluevogs.
13. He has a preternatural ability to drive long distances without stopping, by himself. When we lived 1000 miles apart, he drove to see me three times.
14. He lived in Sharon, MA from the time he was half way through kindergarten until he went to college.
15. He never had a pet until he moved in with me and the bunnies.
16. He does our laundry. He did eight loads this week (He told me to tell you)
17. He was the semicolon in his school play in 6th grade.
18. Honestly, look at those eyelashes.
19. He started to loose his hair when he was 18, and finally shaved it all off at 21.
20. In high school, he had a red pompador.
21. He graduated from high school in 1994, the year I started high school.
22. He likes to grill.
23. He snores.
24. He met the love of his life on Livejournal in a community called "artifice: dandies, aristocrats and faux flaneurs".
25. He is a web programmer.
26. He is not quite 6' tall, but close enough.
27. He went to an "alternative" elementary school without grades where he called his teachers by their first names.
28. He published an underground newspaper in high school. (I, on the other hand, was opinion editor of the state champion newspaper. He thinks he's so subversive)
29. He was a Cub Scout, but not a Boy Scout.
30. He went to the Kendall Whaling Museum a lot when he was young.
31. He hates camping.
32. He has three web sites: Design- Dadahero, General- Army of the Dead Fish ersatz web hosting: A Thousand Mooks.
33. He played the drums in band.
34. He drinks Coca-Cola every day.
35. He could eat Tex-Mex food for the rest of his life.
36. His favorite t-shirt is lime green, much the color of Lamb's Pride limeaid. :)
37. He drives a stick, a 1997 teal Tercel.
38. It's always messy.
39. He loves Indian television.
40. He loves Krispy Kreme, so much that when the first one opened, he stood in line on opened day and posed for this photo (...can't find it... :( )
41. He likes monkeys.
42. He wrote The Sock Monkey Manifesto.
43. He has attached earlobes.
44. He loves mocha.
45. Orlando by Virginia Woolf is one of his favorite books.
46. He is interested in sideshows and circus freaks.
47. He switches his livejournal names almost yearly. He's getting ready to switch again.
48. He lived in NJ for two years after college before moving back to MA.
49. He has a special edition Spamburger can of Spam that he campaigned heavily to display in our apartment. He lost.
50. He is going to propose soon. =P

Posted by Betsy at 06:35 PM | Comments (2)

December 10, 2004

Ouch! What did I just sit on? Oh yeah, my laurels

Since there is no real new FOs to share, and a picture of a fingerless glove in charcoal with a ton of ends is not very photogenic, I thought I'd prove that I actually finished both socks:


twosocks.jpg

I had a dream that I knit Clapotis in Silk Garden. There are two problems with taking this as a prophecy. 1.) The last time I dreamed about knitting something, it was Kyoto. And we all know how well that worked out. 2. At least from what I've seen in stores and online, none of the colors of Silk Garden really speak to me at all, at least nowhere near how Kureyon does. I don't know about doing it in Kureyon. There is a Cash Ihora closeout at woolneedlework, but I really love varigated yarn and I think especially for this project.

This is all just speculation, because after the holiday knitting there are three big knitting priorities:

1. Mountain Colors Bearfoot socks for me
2. Trying to salvage Kyoto (and the knitalong, I will put a gallery, I swear!)
3. The feather and fan stole, which I still need a good picture of.

There is also Omar's beautiful Lana D'oro Basketweave sweater to start now that we have a ballwinder and I won't have to wind by hand every 100 yards.

For now, I need to cast on the second fingerless glove (curse Baby Ull for being so SPLITTY!) and do the million hours of finishing work required by the first one. Bleh.

Posted by Betsy at 06:22 PM | Comments (3)

December 07, 2004

Thanks, Secret Pals!

Our secret pals were both cool enough to knit for us! We each received a hat in the mail last month. :) Here were are modeling them, at the end of a long day ;)


secrethats.jpg

My guess for Omar's hat is that it's a Hothead from SNB#1 done in Silk Garden.
My hat is in Rowan Biggie Wool, (I'm not sure of the pattern, perhaps an H20? It was a bit big and so we threw it in with our load of felting. (More on the other felted objects in a future post). The first time I checked it, it wasn't at all felted. The second time, it was this! I was a little nervous because I didn't mean to felt it so much, but it still fits and I love it!

Omar's secret pal delighted him with a super final package. She is none other than Stacey from Sheep in the City. She granted his fondest knitting wish with fingering weight yarn in a variety of colors for finger puppets. She also made him a great booklet of finger puppet patterns she found online. He is so making me a Borg finger puppet! We will post pictures later when there is not urgent Buffy-watching to do.

My secret pal and I decided that she wouldn't reveal herself until she sent her final package. Not that anyone *else* is behind *cough*...Okay, we're both a little late sending our our final pal packages. So if you haven't heard yet, it could be one of us! :)

Posted by Betsy at 10:04 PM | Comments (2)