Mar 16, 2009

It Sneaks By

Zombie Laurie 2Time, that is. I know that one day I will look around and realize my children are all grown. But for now I cradle them close. I also enjoy anniversaries and birthdays. These days are meant to celebrate another year with someone you love, that's how I look at it anyways. Today I celebrate another year with something I love. Yarn. Yep, that's right, another knitversary!

Understand that I use "celebrate" loosely. So loose that it's almost as if I'm not celebrating at all. Because, well, I'm not. That Baby is sicker than a dog, he had an appointment with a doctor today, who can only tell me that it's not the flu. She prescribed three medications for him. *sigh* There has been tons of knitting lately though. At least in comparison to the last few months. When I first started I was a knitting powerhouse, turning out project after project. So far stacey loI've logged 127 projects into Ravelry. This actually is excluding several projects, as there are a few I don't have photos of...or just don't remember making honestly. It also includes my WIPs, my UFOs, and items I've frogged. Either way, that's about a project a week. Lately I've noticed my crafting energy has died out a bit. Maybe I hit the gas too hard and too fast? Or maybe it's due to the stressful environment Chez Shad recently. First we were moving to California, now we're not. Oh, what, I didn't mention that? No, of course not. That's because part of me knew what happened would. Actually, I don't much feel like talking about it now. It's rather upsetting.

How about some knitting? The BSJ is complete! Blocked and buttons and all! I wanted to trim it up with some crocheted edges in a contrasting color...but that didn't work out very well. So, I made some booties. Now I'm thinking I might make a hat Jayden Booties 2too. There is still some yarn left after all, why not? Apparently I haven't done a real update in over a month. Whoops. Originally I wanted to start updating every (other) week on my day off. That just didn't work though. On my day off I usually just want to sit around and do nothing. At any rate, I've made another MCCS Corporate Zombie (and finished the first one). The hair is done with some wool or another from Ashford, the color is Marigold though. I know that. Also, I just started another hoodie for Nolan. You all remember the first one, don't you? God, I love that sweater so much. Yes, present tense. It is still in great condition, although it needs washing. Unfortunately it is too small. This one should size up to be about a 4T when I'm done, at least that's the intent. I'm too cheap to buy the same pattern in a different size. If you already have the basics, all you need to do is crunch a few numbers. That's my philosophy anyway. The yarn I'm using is Plymouth Yarn Encore that I got in Wilmington for my birthday. Which I just realized I never posted about. :-/ There was a lot going on then.

Blue Hoodie

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Sep 27, 2007

Up To?

Sorry. I'm here. I've been knitting. Babies are all sickies. And I am sooo tired because I have to be up with them when they wake up in the middle of the night crying.

This is a short post with lots of pics cuz my head hurts.

FO: Moss Stitch Beret

moss stitch beret 004

moss stitch beret 001

FO: Twin Booties

twin booties fin


beaten 003Spun:
This is Serendipity Fibers in Beaten. I donated it to the PRGE for pal prizes and stuffs. Navajo-plied, I got two skeins at about 110 yds each, with approximately 10wpi. Being handspun though, it's not perfect. And the second skein is a bit finer in places than the first. Actually, I was pretty proud of it, and almost tempted to keep it for myself. It should stripe pretty nicely, maybe make a cute felted bowl, or some gauntlets.



Day in the life of a bored girl with knitting needles and make-up:

knotty girl 003 knotty girl 002 knotty girl 001

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Sep 21, 2007

What's a Girl To Do?

When everything is hectic, and your life feels like it is falling apart....it's time for retail and craft therapy! Yes, even though my finances are ridiculous (oh, we're not even going there), I have been indulging a bit.

magnum 005Actually, before I really knew how bad the situation was, I purchased some Cascade Magnum from a fellow Raveler (who seems to have no blog but is cool nonetheless). My eyes were on the Skating Sweater from Big City Knits, and she had exactly the number of skeins I would need in exactly the color I love. It was meant to be. That, and she was offering it for an incredible price. Trust me, I priced many alternatives from different sources and this was the best one. Especially considering it is marked as $26 on the tag! But I won't tell you what I stole bought it for. Don't you love how honkin huge this thing is?! When I got it I was pleased and amused. Those are some serious skeins...no wonder they call it Magnum. :D

The catalyst to my discovery that we are broke was a birthday present. A friend of mine's twins will be one tomorrow. She invited me to the birthday pary, and I had no gift. Any good crafty chick will immediately consider what she can make! Of course more chuckssome Converse booties would be great. But that is just not enough. (Even though my mom said I didn't have to give them anything, heck they didn't even come to Nolan's birthday.) So off I went to Michael's, we had enough money in the account to spare 5-10 bucks. Or so I thought. Turns out we didn't. Still, I had money in my personal account and purchased the neccessities, including another skein of Bernat Alpaca to finish a hat that I started. Yes, that's right, I'm procrastinating. Big surprise. Looks like you won't see Goddess until October. Right about the time when it gets too cold to wear something without sleeves. Where was I? Right, presents. So, I picked up some fabric paint, these rockin (literally) stencils, and dug around in the boys' closet. I found some old onesies that looked clean (or never worn, that seems to happen) and set to work. Really, it was only about $5, probably less because I already had some fabric paints from the time I painted my jeans. What do you all think?

romeo shirts 1


It was horribly overcast all day yesterday. Sorry about the pictures. The blue is actually more of a teal. I want to make one for Nolan too, but with a different stencil (it was a 4-pack). But what cool thing can I put on there for his name? His nickname is Bird...and I think Mr. Shad might kill me if I put that on there. lol But what about Bird of Prey or something? That might be cool? Geez, how is a girl supposed to double check her craftiness without a husband there to tell her that it's a bad idea?

Whatever. Look at my dinner. Yum it was so good. My mom is coming to visit for the weekend. So I can have a bit of a break. I am really looking forward to it.

thursday 003

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Sep 14, 2007

The Long Goodbye

This, my friends, is going to be a long post. So long in fact, that I am going to post all of the non-knitting related stuff elsewhere. Mr. Shad leaves tomorrow. :( And I am going to miss him, but that is all I will say here. If you really want to you can go read the other post.

colorweave 4In knitting news, I did start Mad Color Weave with Amazonas. Actually, I started them later that evening. There were several "false starts", I couldn't decide which size to do, then I couldn't wrap my head around the pattern. It's funny because it's such a simple pattern. Could have something to do with using 3 needles instead of 4, ya think? All that is left now is the toe, then I can start the second sock. They are a little snug, but that can actually be a good thing. Thelonious has a tendency to sag a bit, and I hate that.

Even though we are still in full on summer swing (weather-wise) down here, my mind has already started to turn to sweaters, Christmas gifts, and other fall knits. Mr. Shad helped me choose between knitting the Luna Dress or the Somewhat Cowl. He said that the Luna Dress was too frumpy. :/ Whatever. Anyways, I'm okay with the Somewhat Cowl, actually the more I look at it the more I like it. I even ordered yarn for it, which Mr. Shad also picked out. He would pick olive drab. lol The color is called Fern, but it's actually much nicer in person than it looked online. I was having second thoughts at first. The original appears to be green as well, for some reason I kept thinking it was brown. Then again, certain shades of green and brown look almost the same. If you don't believe me, come over some time and I will show you my living room walls.

ultra alpaca light 2


Okay, I must admit to something, I hate knitting those stupid Converse Booties. I chucks 2started another pair for a friend's baby, and nearly threw the yarn across the room. Why on earth did I make the toe so complicated and ridiculous?! Oh yeah, because it looks good. >.< Anyways, I ended up modifying the pattern so it could be done in the round. When I am through with all of my posting I will go add those alterations to the little pattern so that it can be done either way. Still a lot of ends to weave in, but at least there is no seaming. Finishing the second booty is part of my goal for today. Which includes: finishing the booties, finishing the first Amazonas sock, swatching for the Somewhat Cowl, and knitting at least 1 rep of the pattern on Goddess.

Oh yeah, that. That's right, I haven't posted about Goddess in forever have I? Eh. Everything is pretty much done except the 5.5" of pattern at the end. Let me tell goddess 002you how much I loathe it. It is only 4 rows, and I'm lucky if I get half a rep done. I'm trying to do at least one a day, I should need about 13 total. Right now there are about 4 of them...so only 9 to go! If you don't see a FO post about Goddess in two weeks, start complaining. Apparently when I put things into hibernating they go in there for several months. Currently in hibernation (thanks for reminding me constantly Ravlery), I have the Uber-crop Raglan, Butterfly Headwrap, Harley Quinn, and the Martha/Nermal socks. I guess 4 out of 57 isn't bad, right? That leaves 47 things I have finished (4 in progress, and 2 frogged), including mom's top. If I can finish that I can finish anything. Once the cold starts to hit, I'll probably pull Harley Quinn back out, they are actually almost finished. Just gotta do the entrelac cuff on the second sock. Okay, now I am just rambling!

Last up on the dockett today (I think), Flint Knits swapped me her copy of big city knits 1Twinkle's Big City Knits for a skein of CTH Supersock in Yellow. I think I got the better end of that deal. :) This is why I love knitters though, we were just pondering sweaters together and I mention thinking about buying the book. She says, "Ah, I have that and can't use it! Would you like to swap?" Would I ever?! Oh, but what do I have to offer? A quick look over the stash tempted her gave her an idea of what she wanted. I would have given her my leftover Wollmeise Poison Nr. 5, but feel kind of badly about it only being half the skein (literally, it's 76g). Probably should have sent both. :D The Skating Sweater (see above links) is really calling to me. So much so that I have been looking into yarn for it, and actually agreed to buy some Cascade Magnum off of a fellow Raveler.

In other news, this kind of upsets me. It's cool they mention knitting...but I don't want them encouraging others to fake it. :/ Okay, I am just ridiuclous.

ugh 2 ugh 1

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Aug 23, 2007

Finishing

try-ons 1It seems like I've been on a finishing kick for the past few days. I decided to skip the last 3 decreases on Eiffel (hey, I tried it on first), because I was running out of yarn. So I bound off on that Tuesday, then washed and blocked it yesterday. It's still wet, I was hoping putting it in the garage would make it dry faster. That thing is like an oven. When I was dyeing last summer I would hang the skeins in the garage and they'd be dry by that evening. Of course, Eiffel is bigger than a skein. Anyways, here's a picture of me trying Eiffel on, at that point it was still 2 inches from the bind off point. And night, keep that in mind.

moms new top 003You remember Baccarat Player was finally completed. I mailed it off on Monday, and my mom got it yesterday! Now we have pictures of the FO on it's model, I admit that I like it a lot better now that it's on my mom instead of my needles. For something so fiddly to knit, it looks gorgeous. The Fancy Silk Sock has a heel and gusset now, there are pictures but really no reason to post them. It's not much different than the last couple of times I posted pictures. My camera has me all excited. not to mention Ravelry. I'm ALWAYS on there. Updating EVERYTHING. *sigh* Oh, and checking up on you guys. :D Man, I don't know who has more projects in their queue, Lana or Mouse. Every time I turn around Lana has queued a new project (a lot of them make me go Oooo! I want to knit that too!). Eventually I will update my bloglines to reflect my friends on Ravelry, I've got like...30 some friends or something. :)

green bootie 2


Also on the finishing table were the green baby booties. All I really had left was to sew on the buttons. I love the little green buttons, they make me happy. These ones were done in the round. My LYS owner had also done some in the round, and come up with a way to eliminate that little indent from purple project 003the Turkish CO. Mine is still there but it's on the inside. These are also slightly larger than the first two pairs, they fit one of Heather's larger doll babies, but still not any of my actual babies.

Just for fun, I changed my hair again. I've had some purple hair dye in my bathroom since like, May. lol But just got around to bleaching it on Sunday. Tuesday I got it cut and then put the purple in. In case you are curious, it's Raw color, Purple Passion. Fair warning it smells like grape candy. Which, for me, was great! The smell of hair dye doesn't really bother me, but grape candy smells way better. Yummy smelling hair products are always a plus. There aren't any good pictures of the back of my hair after I put the purple in, so you'll have to deal with one of the pre-dyed ones. It was right after I had gotten my hair cut. The girl who did it did really well considering I could only give her a vague description of what I wanted, and that Nolan was on my lap being all cranky.

haircut 2

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Aug 17, 2007

Bootie-licious

Cutie Bootie 1

Hey, it was either that or Ms. New Bootie. I figured the latter might induce your gag reflex.

Cutie Bootie 4


So, Eiffel is about an inch away from the sleeve join, and Baccarat Player only needs to be seamed. Both of these would be further along if not for some small distractions. About...3 inches to be exact.

Bootie-licious 2


Is it just me, or are these things RIDICULOUSLY cute? I kept seeing them over on Hello Yarn's blog. So, I found the pattern on Ravelry, and CO. How long can it take to knit a pair of booties anyways? Um, about 6 hours total. Including the finishing Bootie bottomand sewing on buttons. After I made the first pair, I realized that...I didn't have anyone to give them to!!! No problem, I took them to the LYS with me and found someone. Unfortunately, Mr. Shad was paying attention when I mentioned wanting to give them to someone, and asked around at work. His Gunny gladly accepted the offer. Which meant, I had one pair of booties, and two takers. lol That's okay, I just whipped up another pair! Then, I saw that Hello Yarn had knit a pair in the round...hey I can do that. Right? Yep, so I bought some sport weight cotton (aiming for a slightly larger bootie) and using a Turkish CO, started a third pair. Being the genius that I am, I purled all of the stitches (except the first) to create a garter ridge on the bottom. More closely matching the original design. Not sure if it is worth all of the hassle though. Besides I just got the Vogue Knitting Quick Reference. A great technique book with pictures and illustrations.

Um...So yeah. Here are the pictures of Eiffel and the Baccarat Player. Enjoy! I am going to finish that other baby bootie. Then work on Eiffel some more. Oh yeah, sorry about the cruddy pics, it's overcast, and on top of that Mr. Shad has absconded with the camera again.

Picture 8 almost there

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Kitty's Story


Vintage 008

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

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*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!.

LINK ME!
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Skating Sweater
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