Thursday, August 28, 2008

One quick litle thing...

Hey guys! I'm actually leaving for London today, but I just wanted to show off my last little project. A co-worker of mine from the library is having a baby and although I cannot attend the baby shower, I wanted to give her a little something so I whipped this up. It's a kitty baby bonnet made from this pattern from Hello Yarn.


I made the mistake of not adjusting for my gauge and my yarn so the knitting was a bit tight, especially with this particular mystery yarn. But I think it turned out cute and it will definitely be warm and everything.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do about blogging from the UK, but I will let you guys know when I do if anyone is interested in reading about my adventures. I am considering making a new blog, but I am such a terrible blogger that I know I won't keep up with it as I should. We'll see.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Ahh!

Wow it has been a while. But wasn't I good about consistently posting every week this summer? I am proud of myself. I only haven't been updating lately because I haven't been knitting. Isn't that terrible? I have yet to finish Demi and I leave in two days and unless some absolute magic happens, I am not going to have it finished. Here is my progress on the first sleeve. The front and back are done, but I still have the rest of this and the second sleeve to go.


So instead of actually working on it, I decided to spend all afternoon making a tote bag!

I am in such love. It only took me four hours and I think it looks really nice! The buttons were a pain, but all the sewing went super smoothly. I even made a pocket!

I needed a bag to take with me to England that was book bag sized, not just a purse. I had already made two tote bags whose sizes were completely failures, but this one was perfect.

And check out my pretty backyard! I love sunflowers. When I was a kid, my mom planted sunflowers around this dirt patch and we had this incredible sunflower fort to play in. They grew to be eight feet tall or something ridiculous. And then my brother and his friend hacked them all down in some mock battle of some kind. Ah, little brothers.

So yeah, if you didn't catch that, I am leaving in two days to spend the semester in London. I am terribly excited, but I am pretty sure the time for knitting will be slim. But if anyone has any good yarn store recommendations from across the pond, please let me know!

Finally, I want to plug my friend Joel's Etsy page. He just listed an iPod sleeve that he has sewn. They're really cool, very low key, but still good protection. They would be a great gift for a guy especially. And I'm sure if you had any custom needs, he would be more than willing to comply. He does a lot of custom messenger bags out of his blog.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Flickrrrr


Just to let you guys know, I have finally uploaded a ton of pictures from my Alaskan cruise vacation from last year. So please take a look around. I also have uploaded pictures from the Renaissance Faire and a John Green book signing event, if any of those things interest you. Having a pro account is fun!

Knitting will return shortly, but I must warn that I've kind of hit a road block when it comes to knitting the sleeves of Demi. I just can't bring myself to pick it up, even though I am leaving in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS. Ahhh.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Somebody likes alpaca...

So the rest of my family was gone this weekend, leaving me alone with the animals.

This is my dog, Tessa. Sometimes she looks really sad. Sometimes she is scared of thunderstorms and so she crawls into bed with me at 7:30 in the morning.

And this is my cat Winnie, called Soups for short (long story). After baking another batch of granola this weekend, I climbed the stairs to see her carefully avoiding eye contact. She completely ignored the attention I disposed upon her and soon I would learn why.


Dun dun dun! That is the beginning of my Gretel beret. Usually it lives in a plastic bag in my room, but someone (see image above) decided that my new alpaca would be a nice toy.

The silly cat had dragged it out of its bag, around my dresser, and into the hallway. Stinker.

I don't think I've ever showed pictures of my dresser before. For most of my life, I have been entranced by Europe and I've picked up many books from booksales, mainly on France and England. Well I decided to put all those pictures to good use and I decoupaged them onto my dresser. I really, really loved how it turned out. Someday I'll get some awesome drawer pulls from Anthropologie or something, but for now, I love this thing.


Two bonus shots for you all today:

This is my mom's antique spinning well silhouetted against our front window. It's a really neat piece, it has definitely gone on the "Things I Want Once You're Dead" list, as morbid as that is.

The second shot is of the tshirt that I made for the boy for his birthday. I think I have mentioned that he sews, and he once talked about having a shirt with stitches running all over it, so this was my interpretation. I copied the sewing machine off some image online and embroided it and then used the sewing machine to stitch out the rest of the design. There are a couple mess ups and once place where I forgot to secure the thread, but I think it is cool. I did not spend much time on it so that's as good as it was going to get.

Did I say there'd be progress shots of Demi last time? Well there will be next time! I'm almost done with the front!