I hate school.

It's continually interfering with my crafting time.

State of Creamsicle

APOLOGIES if any of you were wondering what was up with all the untitled/commentary-less photos, stupid Blogger wasn't letting me publish a darn thing and I just remembered about all these poor unexplained photos just now...


Here's where my Creamsicle sweater is at...just starting on sleeve #2, and wondering whether it's going to come out ok...I'm worried about the width of the upper sleeves...I don't want it to cut off circulation below the elbow, but I don't want big poofy 80s prom dress shoulders either. Sigh. We'll see how it goes.

Short N Sweet!

Yarn: Schachenmayr Lipomo in color 12, Nougat, a nice beige with a shiny thread in it.
Hook: G (I was stuck at the house and only had a G hook, so I did some fudging with a swatch and decided to make the size M...we'll see how it goes.)
One of the projects I started this past weekend was the Short n Sweet bolero from The Happy Hooker. I had a little conniption when I was working the back--I couldn't figure out where the rest of it was, then I realized after looking at someone else's blog that the back was left half-done while I did the two front bits, then all joined together to avoid seaming. Yes!
Unfortunately this is an exam week, so who knows when I'll be able to work on it again?

Berroco's Celia

Yarn: Schachenmayr Lipomo in Nougat
Hook: G
Pattern: Berroco's Celia
The project that I intended to work on this weekend at the house was the Celia camisole. Unfortunately when I finished making the cups I realized that for some reason the directions stopped printing out halfway through the second cup. I just made a duplicate of the first cup since I figured it pretty much looks the same. (Seriously. NO ONE is going to ask me why the ridges aren't in the same places on both cups. If they were looking that closely at my chest, I'd smack them upside the head anyway.) I tried it again at home and the same thing happened. Either Berroco has a problem or it's my printer. Considering how often their creations end up on You Knit What?!, I figure I can safely blame it on them.

Crafty Detective Haul!

Another wonderful package I got recently from my secret crafty detective/stalker:
She figured out that I like cherry blossoms and that I love green, crochet, and cats!

The goodies:
-Painted/stenciled shirt with cherry blossoms (a size too small, I'm afraid...but it will go to a good owner!)
-Cherry blossom art for my walls
-A green pouch with my favorite shades of green--that has belt loops for me to use as a hip belt!

-The cutest catnip snack toys! I love love love the little fortune cookie so much I might eat it myself!

-The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller! I've been wanting this one soooo badly and was unable to find it at my bookstore. I've already started making the Knot Ugly Shrug...unfortunately as it turns out I probably didn't get enough of the yarn (Gedifra Aragona, color 3357, lovely pinks and browns...) and I can't get any more of it...le sigh. Anyway, there are so many things I want to make from this book that I suspect my knitting needles are gonna get a little lonely in the next few months!

Secret FOC package Numero Uno!

I've been awfully remiss about blogging not only about my yarn exploits but about my
awesome Craftster swaps too! I'm currently active in the secret Friend of Craftster (FOC) swap, where you pick a partner and make them several packages--but it's all very secretive and one tries to figure out who their partner is. My first package was adorable and strawberry-themed:

An adorable strawberry print apron (I love it! I've been neeeeeeeeding an apron so badly!) and strawberry mirror
A somewhat bad action shot--I need to get a better one but my in-house photographer is never around when it's light out!

Close-up of the cute strawberry mirror. It makes me want to sit in cafes checking my makeup and checking out cute boys, but of course my SO would probably take issue unless he were the cute boy in question.

Return of the MACK!

Without a doubt, I am the luckiest bastard in the whole wide world. I went out to the house first thing this morning and noticed that the stinky wet food I'd left last night had been eaten, and something had urinated in his litter box. That latter fact instilled some hope that Mack was somewhere in the area still. I know, I know...taking heart in cat urine, how much nmore crazy-cat-lady could I get? I headed over to the library and got to work on last week's lectures. I finished my studying at the library around 5:30 and headed out to the new house with a heavy heart--the forecast called for thunderstorms tonight and it was starting to look a little overcast. I wanted to do all my checking up on his food/water/etc. before the skies opened up.
I roll into the driveway with Bjork blasting, and grab a water bottle and a can of stinky tuna cat food out of the backseat of my car before getting out. I hear something--maybe a faint meow, probably my imagination playing tricks on me, but I turn and yell out "mack-mack!" into the woods as I've been doing three times a day for the past few days.
And in return I hear another meow, unmistakeable and plaintive. And then I see my little furball strolling out from behind the shed, looking like all the world like he just woke up from a nap--sleepy eyes and all. I'm almost crying I'm so relieved.
I walk over and he deigns to let me pet him just like he usually does.
He even lets me scoop him up and run him over to his carrier, though he's clearly not overly thrilled at being unceremoniously stuffed into it and rushed straight home.
He wasn't even seemingly that excited to be home--he slurped up his bowl of milk, chewed on his new asian food treats a bit (from my crafty stalker! I'll post about those in a bit...), then flopped down at the foot of the stairs and stared at me.
I'm baking him a cake as we speak...I know baked goods aren't good for kitties but he loves them much more than a nice rotisserie chicken!
I'm so happy and relieved. Thanks to everyone who gave me reassurance in these past few days--you were right, he did come back--but it was so awful to think that I'd never see the little guy again. I wanted to do something nice just to somehow try to thank the powers that be in a karmic sort of way, so for the next 2 weeks I'll donate the price of anything that sells in my store to a no-kill cat shelter in the area. I know, it seems sort of a silly thing to do, but...I'm just so grateful and I can't think of a better outlet for it.
Just look at this face:

Speaking of which, I saw a little flea on there just now...I'll have to schedule a vet appointment to get him all checked out, and maybe give him a dip...

Irresponsible.

We closed on our new house today and went out to our favorite barbecue place to celebrate with a little fatty dinner. Afterwards, we planned to take a bottle of bubbly that had been chilling in our refrigerator, sit on the back deck, and watch the sunset and listen to crickets in our new giant, overgrown back yard.
We had the brilliant idea to bring the kitten along to start getting him used to the new property. He's been seeming really antsy being cooped up in the apartment lately and has been darting outside every chance he gets. I put him on the halter, put his Sherpa carrier (him inside) into the car and away we went.
Long story short, he got off the halter and disappeared into the undergrowth by our new neighbors' house, and we spent the rest of the time yelling, calling him, jingling bells, and generally walking around like crazy people. Of course he did not materialize again, and as it got dark the chances of seeing a black cat got slimmer and slimmer. We did see a little calico kitten surveying our antics, but not my little demon. I can only hope that he's off humping some strange kitties and having the time of his life...
And so here we are, back at the apartment, minus one little black kitty.
I am the world's worst mother for bringing him out there. I keep trying to tell myself that it's fine, that he's got our phone number on his collar and that he NEVER comes when we call him and he's probably just exploring in his little boy-cat way, and when I head out there tomorrow he'll be mewing at me and expecting his morning can-o-chicken, but I can't help worrying about him being scared and vulnerable and hungry and never seeing him again or knowing how he's doing. How could I have been so stupid and irresponsible?!
Of course in a selfish note the biggest exam of the semester is next Monday and I should be focusing on studying, but I start getting all choked up thinking about him. He's just a demonic little black cat, right? Just a cat.
No, but he's not. I can't turn the switch off just like that. He's my baby and I took responsibility for his little furry life and keeping him safe and now I've failed him.

Update

Things here have gotten busy and hectic. I'm feeling stressed and unwilling to study, but the studying is piling up nonetheless in a rather unfortunate manner. I started a gray alpaca scarf for my grandfather, but I'm concerned that it's too thin (it's the dk weight "alpaka" one gets from A.C. Moore), so I purchased another two balls of it so I could try to make a scarf doubled up with it...I've yet to make a decision to rip out the 4" in moss stitch I got done while volunteering at the film festival this past weekend.
I'm really excited about the etsy store still...I think about it daily and while I don't have the time to promote/advertise as heavily as I really would need to to get business booming, the sales I make every so often really boost my morale and keep mack in kitty food. (He heard me typing about him and tried to get back into his favorite spot curled around my laptop, right in front of the fan, but I stopped him in time) It's just really gratifying that people actually like the stuff I craft enough to pay their hard-earned money for it. Amazing.
I'm still plodding along on the Creamsicle sweater--I'm halfway up one of the sleeves after I finally gave in and bought another set of #8 dpns--my first set is still on that version of knitty's Shedir that didn't get done in time for christmas, and I don't have the heart to put it on holders, it would REALLY never get finished then.
Anyway, the picture of the day is this dinner tin that I made a while back and never got around to posting--I was so proud of the gravy!

Pizza Stitch Markers - SOLD!

A while back I'd made this little pizza--pepperoni and sausage--to serve as stitch markers, and listed it in the sty shop. I was all sad because no one else seemed to like them, but joy! They've been sold and are going to find a good home in a neighboring town! Yay! Yay!

Olivine Earrings

I spent the morning making a green glass multi-strand necklace instead of learning about catacholamine drugs. I don't have pictures of the necklace since I'm wearing it right now, but I ended up wanting some earrings to go with it, but were't too big/long. So this is what I came up with:

I think they're pretty. I bought these beads a while back and have been meaning to do something nice with them. I made a victorian-style woven necklace thing with them but it turned out a total disaster after all the time I spent on it...so I had to put them aside for a while to get over the disappointment.

The power of cheese.

Ok, so I love cheese. It's bad for you and it smells funny, but it tastes oh so good by itself, on a cracker, or *drools* melted on anything.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to make mini cheeses. Poor cheese, I'm sorry I took so long to make you. Clockwise from top we have Blue, Swiss, Cheddar, and a delicious smoked Gouda.

And now they're available in necklace form in the Etsy shop.
I know, I know, I keep posting things I put in my shop, but what can I say? The etsy bug has bitten me bigtime and it's a great excuse to spend entire days crafting! (Oh, what was that honey? You ask what I'm going to do with all the stuff I keep making? No worries, I'll just SELL it! What? You say no one's going to buy a pendant shaped like swiss cheese? You may have a point there...)

Crafty Detective Swap

Craftster had a crafty detective swap, where we "stalked" a given partner to figure out their likes/dislikes and send them a package. My partner received last week according to the DC# but hadn't posted/PMed/etc. and I was a little worried, but as it turns out it was just the usual computer problems--here's what I made:
Two necklaces--she'd asked for natural rather than sparkly, so I tried my best, but I think some sparkles may have slipped through:

Necklace with blue glass beads--the pendant is a piece of coral I found on the beach in barbados, wrapped with silver wire and a sea turtle charm I received from one of the craftsters that spoiled me in the unconditional swap.

This necklace has a big swirly glass bead for a pendant and the body of the necklace has a variety of semi-precious stone chips.

An amigurimi bunny named Isadore--my first amigurumi (I'd never have made one for myself, but I thought she came out rather cute, if I may say so myself.) She'd crocheted out of brushed and regular acrylic with a G hook roughly following this pattern--she didn't quite come out like the one pictured, but I think she looks more "adult" in her proportions.

Cabled fingerless gloves, finished on a long car trip (5 hours for each glove, am I a slow knitter/cabler or what?) Knit from brushed green acrylic on #7 DPNs, roughly following this pattern, except I put ribbing at the tops and bottoms for a neater edge and a band of ribbing down the palm for better fit.

Here's the whole package--I also added some blue stitch markers and a vogue knitting magazine to encourage her knitting, a sea turtle t-shirt for her to recon (and some ribbons, trim, and an eyelet kit--I don't sew/recon so I have no idea what comes in useful...) I hope she enjoys it...

Late Stash Flashing

Ack! I've just returned from a wonderful weekend in the mountains and am catching up on e-mails, craftster, etc. and suddenly it occurs to me that I forgot that I was supposed to be flashing my stash! Ack!
I took some pictures of the stash location prior to leaving, but I didn't end up unpacking all my yarn to take nice, well-lit pictures of it. I don't really have anything terribly drool-worthy anyway...though I did pick up some Schachenmayr Lipomo (10 balls of the mocca color) and some more Gedifra Aragona (in a lovely pink/brown colorway) for a song!
Anyway, you get some pictures of my chaotic crafting room/study (shared with the SO--poor guy basically has nowhere to move what with all the crap...)

Here's my hanging Ikea organizer, stuffed full of yarn and A.C. Moore bags. The circular support of the top compartment has actually collapsed in under the weight of the yarn. If only I had more space, I'd put up another organizer (I got three of them) and re-distribute. Alas. A project for when we move into the new house...

The top shelf of my craft closet--the first bin from the left is filled with FOs (some that I wear, some that I don't), the middle bin actually has little yarn, and the bin on the right has a cotton fair-isle yoked sweater that I started taking apart for yarn and then sort of got bored with. Oh, the brown bag on the left is FILLED with lion brand Jamie Baby yarn. I have enough for about 20 years' worth of friends' babies.

Check it out. the 4 giant gray rubbermaid bins on either side of that closet are packed to bursting with yarn, the two plastic drawers on the floor of the closet are filled with yarn, fabric, and notions (dude, I don't even SEW. why do I have a fabric stash?)The middle bins have a variety of packing materials, various WIPs, and the Amazing Stud Setting Machine.

This is truly the heart of my stash, though it doesn't provide much in the way of yarn porn. It's my excel spreadsheet of my collection--I find everything much more quickly with it--I can sort by color, weight, amount, type, fiber content, yardage, etc. etc. ad nauseum, and it gives locations (bins by number, hanging basket, etc.). My SO laughs every time he sees me open it up, but it's really an invaluable tool.
But yes, I am sort of crazy.
Currently I'm at over 200 balls/skeins/cones of yarn, and growing. Yay!