~ [Shadkitty Knitty] ~

Nov 19, 2006

You can't spell Knit without INK

Take KIP to the extreme. When we got the bonus in, one of Justin's presents for me was a new tat! And I certainly impressed Nik, my tattoo artist, by knitting the whole time! He actually even said that he should take up knitting. Apparently, that was a new experience for him, I told him I was trying to start a new trend.

Knitting helps to distract from the pain, as well as the boredom. I must have been sitting there for an hour and a half to two hours. Nothing to do but sit...and wait. So knitting kept me entertained. Nik even had Kaylah take a picture, he was really that excited by it! The best part is I got to the point on my bamboo socks where I'm ready to turn the heel. And he's going to put the picture in his album at Bombs Away.

As soon as I get that pic I will post here. Until then, just picture it in your head.

Labels: funny, knitting, socks

22:52 | |

Nov 18, 2006

Hi, my name is Crystal

...and I'm a fiber addict. I'm here to say that wool is a gateway yarn. For me, it all started less that a year ago with a single ball of wool yarn. Since then I've sampled all sorts of fibers. Alpaca, mohair, bamboo, cotton, silk, and angora are some. Recently, I tried to give up the habit. Sadly, I could only go a week without a yarn purchase. And I'm sure that sooner or later my local dealer will have me spinning!

My yarn diet crashed and burned. I just can't lay off the stuff! It's my own fault

for deciding yarn purchases would be okay, since it was to make Christmas presents. Except, I have only bought yarn for myself. First, Rachel linked me to a seller on ebay. About 10 dollars for 440 yards of gorgeous hand-dyed sock yarn? Who can refuse?! Well, not me, that's for sure. I also won a bid on a Black Amethyst bowl for my MIL. Which gives me more time to complete my other projects. (I promise to get pictures of my own soon)

Remember this? Yep, that's right, my eternal WIP is now a FO! Can you believe it? After we got our bonus money in, I went to the shop and picked up that last skein of Fiesta Yarns Zia. Then I ran over to Michael's and picked up a ball of Lion Bran Jiffy. I had to use it to substitute a bit, since there is less yardage in the Zia than required. The Jiffy isn't too horrible, I'd like to pick up some more to make a balck and white striped version of the cleaves, with slimmer ribbled sleeves and a buttonhole thumb opening (and a matching kitty hat!).

For now I'm trying to just, tone down my purchases. It's not like I don't have enough yarn and projects to keep me busy for awhile.

I think I'm going to frog this. The yarn seems to be too heavy.

Labels: funny

13:37 | |

Nov 15, 2006

Take A Stab

Quick! Ask me hhow I stabbed myself with a screw!

Too late.

File this one under "Stupid Crafting Accidents". Even worse, I wasn't really using the screws, at least not the way they are normally used. Which is probably why I ended up stabbing myself. I'll start at the beginning and try not to confuse you.

See that? Those are the pieces for Mancala Mia all fulled and being blocked. Now, the woman who wrote the pattern must have actually had the time to check her pieces every 5-10 minutes. The first run produced pieces that looked far too big, with too much stitch definition. On the second run through the wash I totally got sidetracked and now they are a bit small.

That's right! blocking with shot glasses (and a baby bottle). Oh yeah! I was using screws to weight the glasses and help flatten the bottom. Well, since only six of our shot glasses seemed to fit the same measurenebts I did only half the bowls at a time. While switching the glasses over to the next set of bowls to be blocked...well a screw slipped and gouged my palm! Ouch. Anyway, the Mancala board is complete, on the next project!

Labels: accidents, knitting

23:37 | |

Nov 13, 2006

Be Patient

Okay, so I may not be updating much in the next couple of weeks. Matty is leaving tomorrow and my* computer goes with him!

Helios still has our camera, so no pictures today either. Bummer, isn't it? At least without a computer I will have less distraction and more time to knit. Which is great for progress, especially with a million presents OTN. *sigh*

* Okay, so it's not really my computer. It's his. Mine is still broken and we won't have the money to fix it until Wednesday.

18:06 | |

Nov 12, 2006

I Rule

Really, I do. But I'd rule more if I finished things. lol Right now, I'm going to say,

If I owe you anything, knitted or otherwise, please be patient with me!! I promise I'm working on it. In reality I'm working on quite a few things. I didn't forget about you, just got distracted, and I'm sorry!

With that said, I'm about 75% of the way through my dad's Mancala board. There are pictures of the little bowls, but we lent our camera out. Silly us. The kids did a million cute things last night too. Anyways, I've gotten all twelve little bowls finished, there are only two more to do applied i-cord to. All that's left are the two big bowls, and the base. I'm probably lying to myself about the percentage of this project I have done, sue me. The goal is to have it done by the time we go to my parent's for Thanksgiving, so my dad doesn't see me working on it.

Matty's knucks are finished. Just need to get a shot of them. He'll have to embellish them at home. Since he's leaving on Tuesday! This makes me so happy, you have no idea. We can get our carpet cleaned, I can mop the kitchen floor, and I can watch whatever I want on tv!

Now I just need to convince myself to finish mom's top.

13:18 | |

Nov 8, 2006

All the Rules

...are broken. lol I said no more yarn, but I have to buy some for my MIL's Bamboozelle. What's this you say? Didn't I already have yarn for said project? Yes...so what if I did? Upon swatching the gorgeous, yummy yarn, I realized I needed to keep it. It's mine and you can't have any! Errrr....

At any rate, I now need to purchase more bamboo for the project. Oh well. Such is life. I also think that the Classic Elite Bamboo that I used would work better for this project. Gotta love the reasoning, right?

Right now I should be folding and putting away clothes, right now I just don't feel like it. I was folding, cleaning, scrubbing...and so on earlier. Nothing really gets cleaned though. Justin will just come home and throw his dirty clothes on the floor, the kids will throw food all over the kitchen. Oh, not to mention that Matty left dinner on the stove. Didn't bother to put it away, or even put the dishes in the sink. Whatever.

Right now I'm trying to think about what I want to do with that one skein of bamboo that I'm NOT using for my MIL's basket. lol I want to make a shawl with it but I'm afraid I just don't have enough. After looking through patterns, it looks like you really need quite a bit. I could make another one of those drop stitch shrugs, except that wouldn't use enough of the yarn to make me happy. *sigh* Any suggestions? I've got approximately 200yds and it's DK weight.

Oh just for fun, check this hat out! Then...laugh at this:

Labels: funny, life

13:11 | |

Nov 6, 2006

Bad Bad Luck

I HAVE BEEN HAVING A BAD DAY.

And I say this well aware of the fact that it's only 9:30am. It could get worse. But I don't really see how yet. It really started last night, Justin lost his wallet. We looked all over, called the places we had been, no luck. Oh well, just call and report it missing. A real pain in the ass, but still better than nothing. When he called to report his license missing, he found out it was suspended! Now, needless to say I was angry. I had told him about the possible suspension when we received the notice in the mail, reminded him several times, he told me it was "taken care of". Obviously not. To avoid yelling at him over the phone, something he didn't need, I took Heather to school while Justin's mom (still there from babysitting the kids) watched the boys and talked to Justin.

Well, I was so distracted by him and the funny way the car was acting that I forgot to get diapers on the way home! Back out again to pick up the diapers. At the register I learn our account is over limit...we just got paid 5 days ago! Near tears, I hop back in my car and drive back home to grab some cash my MIL had given me for Justin. As I turn the wheel to steer into the driveway, my car DIES! Right there...in the middle of the street. Good thing we're at the end of the road. It's still out there. My FIL takes me to the store to pick up the diapers, and my MIL tells me not to tell my husband. What, so I'm supposed to be the one who has to deal with all of this crap? By myself? As if. It's not like he won't find out sooner or later.

Maybe when Matty gets home I'll have him help me try to push the car somewhere more out of the way. For now I'm going to cast on for Bamboozelle and hope the smooth yarn and soothing motions calm me down. Hopefully there isn't a huge argument brewing for tonight, all i want is to sit down and have a serious talk about procrastinating. lol

Labels: life

09:27 | |

Nov 3, 2006

Busy Knitten

I have so much on my mind. My holiday gifts, the ball tomorrow, the babies, making a DPN case, making a sock bag with a twist, my in-laws are here, getting my computer back, paying bills, and so on. Details first.

I fulled the socks a second time, they are at 10 inches now. I'll have to watch them closely on the next go round. It makes me happy to know that I'm essentially done. Yes that's right, all that remains is one last trip in the washer, and sewing them all up!! That makes me happy. My next project will be Bamboozelle, and I'd start it now, but my MIL is here and I don't want her to see it.

She's here to watch the kids while we go to the ball tomorrow. Which will be sooo much fun! Dancing, dinner, and friends. No kids. Plus, as a bonus, Justin hasn't seen the dress, so I have my first opportunity (in a loooong time) to wow him. We'll see how that goes. Don't worry, there will be pictures.

I wish I had some time to sew, I could have made my own dress again. It was really gorgeous last year, you should have seen it. Besides, I want to make a case for my DPNs and sock circs. So, it's like a sock needle case. I've only got two circs, but several sets of DPNs. Plenty of cow print fabric to go along with my theme. lol And just today I got a cute idea for a sock bag. You know, like the sock bug, but more fun. Just waiting for some free time. So there might not be any progress on that until after Christmas.

One of Matty's knucks is nearly finished. I should be a pro at these by the time I'm done. This is my third set and I still have two more! One will be for me, although I plan on making two for me. As a matter of fact, there is some purple yarn in the Tail Spinner just waiting for me to buy it. The yarn I have already is brown. I also want to make some for Kyran and Heather. Heather will probably fit into the child sized gloves, but Ky will have to have specially made ones.

Do you know how hard it is to NOT buy yarn? It's hard...really hard. I've NOT bought yarn three times already today. And I think I might break the rule and buy some more yarn to dye. Oh, speaking of, I have to re-dye the brown on my Fall Foliage yarn. There are yarns I want to buy for the Arrrgyle socks. My plans are...complicated? Yes. Well, I want to knit the foot with my Lorna's Laces, then turn the sock inside out (that's right, inside out) and knit the cuff with Arrrgyle pattern. That way it folds over. Um, don't ask. We'll see how this works out. Anyways, I want to buy some KnitPicks Essentials (or maybe Palette) in black, white, grey and purple. Then, some more in Burgundy for the Södera socks. To match my plaid skirt.

Labels: knitting, socks

17:46 | |

Nov 2, 2006

The Gimmes

I love Christmas. I'm disappointed we "skip" Thanksgiving though. I love it too. Food, family, friends. It's happiness. Christmas is awesome, I love to buy things for people, and even more to make things for them! The people I love deserve lovely gifts. In this light I've made two lists (checking them once?) that I will share with you all! One is my Thank You list, the other is my I Want list. The wants list isn't really about things I want, so much as patterns I want to do. Although there are some random items on there. We'll do the thanks list first. I decided to link them over to another journal I have, because I don't wanna take up a ton of space on this page.

Thankful

Gimme!

Alright...off to finish some more i-cord and re-full the slippers. I think I'll work on Bamboozelle next, even though Mancala Mia is next on my list. lol

Labels: lists/surveys

14:05 | |

Kitty's Story

First, I must confess my name isn't Kitty, or anything even close. It just comes from an affinity for cats. Second, I love to craft, create, and imagine. I can draw a bit, knit a lot, and sew just enough to get by. My world revolves around the loves of my life; my three children. Anything more you want to know about me is on Ravelry or check me out on FB!

Crystal Shadrick

Create Your Badge

*Disclaimer!* I'm totally crazy. The patterns I offer are often variations of other patterns, things I have reverse engineered. I don't claim to be wonderful and smart and an all-knowing designer. So enjoy them!.

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