Minisweater WIP

from Glampyre

Yarn: Bernat Breeze in Violet Crush
Needles: Denise #9 Circular
I'd bought this yarn at the Smiley's sale a few months back and I loved the cute purple/indigo color, but I could not for the life of me think of anything to make with it (it's a very fluffy and slubbed) other than a baby blanket. The only baby arriving for a friend is a boy, and I wanted to make something with this for myself, dagnabit.
The yarn is definitely too thick for the pattern, but does knit up to gauge. It's a little "tight" but it still feels nice. You must excuse how it looks in the picture, it's not misshapen in real life, the sleeves are just on two different lengths of cord. I may have stopped the sleeve/body increases a row too soon, but we'll see what happens. I might try to knit the sleeves in the round using the magic loop. And did I mention that I LOOOVE the denise set, particularly with this pattern? It's fantastic how I can just extend the length of the cord when I want to try on the sweater. Love it.

Sick me.

I'm home today because there's something somewhat virulent making its way around the office and it's been wearing me out for the past week, and I'm sick of it. Rather, sick -because- of it. Har har.
On the plus side, I've finished two baby shower gifts (they were close to done before) and am making good progress on two more. And yes, they're all for the same baby. I don't think the mommy-to-be reads my blog but I won't put up pictures until after the shower(s) in any case, because it's more fun that way.
I'm off to drink another gallon of OJ.

Woodland Scarf - Done!

It's a little uneven (that's what I get for paying more attention to the breakdancers on the A train than to my crocheting...) but it's done! Just in time for the snow--it goes several times around my neck and thus is a very practical cold-weather scarf.

Kitty loves the fox.

Arctic Vegan Fox - Done!

from Knitty

This fox was such a fun, quick project--it only took me three short evenings at home and a day's commute. For the body, I used Bernat Boa, Bernat Fur Out, and Lion Fun Fur. For the ears, a mix of Paton Symphony and Boa. Just Symphony for the face, and for the paws, symphony and fun fur. The eyes are little black faceted shank buttons, and the nose is a squareish shank button.
I could not for the life of me figure out what the pattern was telling you to do to fasten the clip/poof the face (she did say it was tricky...) but somehow the clip is staying on and the face is pretty cute.
I finished this last night and wore it to work today--good thing, too, it was FREEZING out!
It's sheer genius and I would have worn it around the office all day except my patients would have looked at me funny. I absolutely love love love this project.

The Secret Kitten Stash

If you have a demon terror (or common garden variety) cat, perhaps you'll understand the phenomenon of MMS (Mysterious Missing Sh--Objects): Any object on any surface is liable to disappear at any time, seemingly never to be found again.
Imagine our delight upon finding Mack's secret hiding place: UNDER THE SOFA.
Among the treasure trove:
-4 chapsticks
-3 dum dums
-1 lip gloss
-3 furry mouse toys
-1 bottle of acetaminophen (child-safe)
and various other candies/wine corks/markers/receipts.

Shell Cardigan - Finished!

Whoo!
Crocheting is awesome. This cardigan took hardly any time to make, the buttons are made of crochet around plastic rings, and finishing really was pretty minimal (I modified the pattern to making the sleeves in the round--the pattern had you make them flat and sew up--what's that all about?!)
I'm going to wear it tomorrow and hopefully will not spill soy sauce on it if/when we go back to the all you can eat sushi place.

Shell Cardigan, Blocking

Mobius Stole - Done!

I love, love, love how this came out, despite the fact that when I drew my SO's attention to the lace flower motif he said "Oh, I thought those were mistakes."
I originally got the pattern from here but made the modifications of casting on 120 stitches to make it more snug and omitted the single crochet cinching because I felt the edge didn't need it. I don't think I want to block it as right now it has a very pleasant poofiness.

Arctic (Vegan) Fox WIP

from Knitty

Yarn: Bernat Fur Out color 60005 "With it White"
Bernat Boa color 81005 "Dove"
Lion Brand Fun Fur color 098 "Ivory"
Needles: #15 (so far)
Like many others, I've wanted to make this pattern since I first laid eyes on it. Of course, it took me a while to get up the inclination to find appropriate yarns to substitute. The big substitution is the "Fur Out" yarn for the Merino Frappe--this yarn is the fakest of fake furs, totally yucky in the skein, but combined with the feather and eyelash yarns it makes a PERFECT arctic fox-fur. Unfortunately I only bought 1 skein of each (I actually bought about 10 skeins of novelty yarns in various foxy colors and by experimentation ended up picking these three to use) so I've run out and can't continue working until I hit the store.


Yarn Close-up (all polyester/viscose!)