The blue yoga bag only lacks making up now. Hopefully I'll actually do that soon. And hopefully it'll be big enough for my mat. Might not need the drawstring. Gauge swatch, girl, GAUGE SWATCH! Yeah yeah, I know I know. :P Well, at least it's stretchy. I think Mom's mat may be smaller than mine and I'm growing more fond of the green than the blue now anyway. Plues she's more antsy to get hers. If it's too small I think I'll just make a panel to expand it. Hopefully I have enough leftover yarn for that. But a different dye lot wouldn't be too noticable behind the strap anyway. Or so I tell myself.
I guess this one should be Mom's since she's actually attending her yoga classes. *hang head in shame* I was doing so well for a few months but then staying in bed with the boy was way more appealing than going to 8am yoga so I started missing it. Then I started missing all my gym visits. *sigh* This and some backsliding on the food has added back up to a few pounds again. Nothing major but it must stop now. We've both gained a bit in the past three months (as of next Saturday... hehe) so it's time for me to get back on it so I can get him off his butt too. I was on a roll having lost about 25lbs between November and March. It'll be hard now with classes though. I start Tuesday, 8am to 10:30am Mon thru Thurs. That also happens to be my exact gym time Mon, Wed ad Fri. :P I don't like the Tues/Thurs yoga lady so I guess I'll have to make every effort to make it to the Friday class. That'll be hard because I'm used to staying at the boy's whenever possible. (Whenever he and his grumpy roommate don't both work in the morning. I don't want to chance a bathroom traffic jam or even interacting with the roommate at 8am at all. :P I try to avoid any interaction as much as possible as it is. Unpleasant, undersexed, unhappy, narcissistic f*cker. No, let me tell you how I really feel. Heh.) I have trouble getting out of the bed as it is and a warm cuddly boy who doesn't have to get up until 8/8:30 or 1:30p (lucky bastard) is not condusive to making it to an 8am class.
Anyway, tangent there. Hehe. I'm notorious for those.

Today Daddy is making ribs, taters, collards, etc and the boy will be over in a bit for that so I need to go clean up a bit. My Red Bull is kickin' in so I should take advantage of that.

Hopefully I'll have a shot of a completed yoga bag soon. I really really need to get crackin' on my Branching Out again too. It's just one of those things I have to pay close attention to in order to avoid having to actually employ my lifelines so often. I love the pattern and it's not overly complicated, it's jsut really easy to end up short a stitch and tinking lace is a pain in the booty and rarely a successful one.

Fuzzy Wuzzy wuz a hat

Well, between the movie (quite good) and a little finishing at home, the hat is done! Yay.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/fluffy_hat_no_head_w.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/fluffy_hat_w.jpg

My brother is convinced I've lost my mind for knitting during the movie.

Just say no to mohair ... AKA Disconnecting the cable

After I finished the hat I was pondering my leftover Lamb's Pride worsted from my SnB Basic Cable. This was my second hat and while I thoroughally enjoyed knitting it, it came out waaaaaay too short and just awkward even if I had altered the pattern to make it fit an adult head. Finally I've gotten over the initial "but I made it" thing and decided, in the words of the Yarn Harlot, "I like yarn more than I like bad hats." So I frogged it.
This was the first real wool I bought, along with the skien of smurfy-good Lamb's Pride bulky. At teh time I had no real idea about fibers (I still know very little firsthand). I ended up liking the bulky but I really dislike the worsted. It was a little funky to knit with and turns out that 15% mohair makes it a pain in the rear to frog. :P
From what little I know of it, I've decided that mohair and I will likely never be close buddies. I'm okay with that. At least now I know.
Here's the offending hat:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/cabled_hat.jpg

Frogging at 3am can lead to oddness...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/disconnecting_cable_w.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/ball_on_head_w.jpg

Finally, it's done!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/disconnected_cable_finalbal.jpg

And now I suppose I will attempt that sleep thing I hear such good things about. :P The boy's roommate has company this weekend so he's staying at the parents' place. That means no snuggles for me which seems to be the only thing that lessens my horrible insomnia. So I play with yarn balls. Perhaps I should avoid mentioning that to people? ;)

I require Opal Rainforest self striping sock yarn

In Tiger and Owl. Maybe Flamingo as well. Not want... require! Hehe... but seriously, now that I've seen it, I need this yarn. I've been itching to try my hand at socks and while I am too impatient and plan to head to my LYS for yarn and DPNs ASAP (hehe acronym overload), I must have tiger striped socks! And I want to try the Brittany Birch 5" DPNs. I doubt they'll have those over on Hilton Head. I'll fins something though I'm sure. They had a lovely needle section and it was so well organized!

I finished the fluffy ribbing on my hat again. Now I'm ready for the movie. :) I really could have cared less about a third X-Men movie coming out but after watching the first two with John this week and his being so excited about it, I'm looking forward to it now. Plus it's my little brother's birthday. We're have reservations at 6:30 to have shrimp burgers on the water. Then ice cream cake at Mom's and the late movie. I'm also excited because I've discovered the joy that is plain stockinette in the round while watching movies. I like to do a little more watching TV because I'm more knitting than watching anyway but I have discovered the ability to knit stockinette my feel and in the dark so now I'm ready to practice in public. Hehe. I'll be crankin' out socks at the movies in no time.

I seem to have misplaced the bulky wool for one of Mom's hats. It's a nice plum/eggplant kinda color. I started a rendition of my first hat twice but once I lost it in my room for a while and finally admitted that I loathed the needles it was on and had no replacements I frogged it again. Now I want to knit it in that simple cable design I used with the alpaca but I can't find it!

Well, I better go get dressed. Mmmm... shrimp burgers!

Here's my lovely knitting bag that goes everywhere with me now...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/knitting_bag-w.jpg

CATASTROPHE!!!!

*sob* Aluminum DPNs must die! I was boppin' along finishing up my fuzzy hat last night and ended up pushing one of the DPNs out and dropping a ton of stitches. I did everything I could to save everyone but it simply wasn't happening. My recovery skillz leave much to be desired.
The hat is no more. It has ceased to be.
I'll probably go restart it in a few. I was too frustrated to do so last night.
Actually, it's not really the end of the world. I was planning to start a second one to use up the rest of the trim yarn and some Lamb's Pride worsted I has left over from another project. I like to keep a simple hat on the needles for mindless knitting moments. I just didn't want to have to knit that exact hat again. :P But I do need something to take with me to the movies tonight. I'd been working on it while rewatching the first two X-Men movies with the boy this week so I guess it's fitting to resurect it during the third movie, right?
I suppose I'll go redo the fluffy ribbing so I won't have to fool with that in the dark.
Poo.

For good measure, here's a picture of the first hat I ever made. Smurftastic version of SnB Hot Head pattern in Lamb's Pride Bulky.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/first_hat.jpg

First Post

Well, while this isn't my first foray into the online journal world in general, it is my first go with Blogger in particular. I've been a Livejournal devotee (read: addict) for a few years now but seeing the number of lovely knitting and general crafting blogs and communities here I've decided I wanna play too. :)
This is also my first knitting blog. I've been posting some photos and such in my personal online journal but I wanted to have a place to share with other knitters without having to expose them to too much of my day to day lunacy. ;)

I guess I should start with a little about myself. Hmm...
I just turned 24 in March. I'm a South Carolina native and recently returned to my roots after a few years in Florida. I've been in freelance graphic design/ digital media for about 6 years now. I've gotten a little burned out on the whole thing as of late so I'm starting accounting classes next Tuesday. Just a little change of pace while I plan my next move.

Moving back to the small town I grew up in was certainly a change of pace from my time in Orlando. Spent the first month or so going completely stir crazy and plotting a quick escape. Then one day I got a whild hair up my ass while wandering around a Michael's and decided to try knitting. Picked up a kit, hit up Barnes & Noble and by midnight Debbie Stoller had me knittin' away. I've been at it ever since.
When The Happy Hooker came out I decided to try my hand at crochet. Mom had taught me to chain many many moons ago but I never got any further than that and she eventually gave it up as well. Despite my best efforts, crochet did not come nearly as easily as knitting had. My strong desire for a Yehaw Lady hat kept me trying for a while but the overwhenming urse to stab myself in the eye with the hook to end the misery eventually drove me to give up for a while. Not a one to be defeated my a little metal hook, I eventually picked up another book to help me and completed my first project.
My next craft to conquer is sewing. I'm not a big fan of hand sewing. I don't even like finishing up my knitting projects. :P But I have a deal with my mom that if I overhaul the dining room at my dad's place she'll buy me a sewing machine. I haven't gotten around to the task yet but it's high on the to-do list.

Now let's get to the fun part... the pictures!
You'll have to excuse the extrordinarily crappy quality of my photos currently. I had a nifty little Nikon digital until a mishap in Florida where I uknowingly left my poor camera in my glove box for a couple months... in the summer. There were no survivors. So now I'm resigned to trying to capture the moment with my crappy phone camera. I do what I can and hopefully there's a new digital camera in my near future. Until then we'll all just have to exercise our imaginations a bit.

I made an attempt to get some pictures of my WIPs today. Here's what I'm working on now:

Here's a close up of the yoga bag I'm making for myself. I finished the body of the bag last week but it still lacks a strap and the making up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/yogabag1_closeup2.jpg



I'm also working on one for my mom. Both bags are good ol' Peaches 'n Cream cotton.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/yogabag2.jpg



I would have finished this hat last night but I was at my boyfriend's house and realized I had neglected to put my DPNs in my bag. :(
The pattern is my own creation, albeit a simple one. It's Wool Ease worsted and the trim is the same double stranded with Modea Chichi. I came across these at Michael's one day and couldn't resist picking them both up because they match so perfectly. You can't tell so much from the pictures but the flecks of color in the Wool Ease are almost identical to the shades in the fluff.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/fuzzytrimhat.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/fuzzytrimhat_closeup.jpg



My favorite project right now is the Branching Out scarf I'm making in the fabulous bamboo yarn I fell in love with on my last LYS expedition. It's so silky, soft and shimmery! The pictures do it absolutely no justice at all.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/branchingout_bamboo.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/branchingout_bamboo2.jpg



I plan to make a second Branching Out from the lovely alpaca I recently got in a swap.

Cameo appearance by the lovely swappers hand. :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/alpaca_swap-w.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/alpaca.jpg



My end of said swap was a shawl's worth of Lion Brand Microfiber. Here's a couple shots of the second shawl I attempted with the Microfiber before admitting to myself that I was never going to finish it. The first rendition was a feather and fan pattern I grew quite bored with. This is the Convertable parrern from Knitty, minus buttonholes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/microspun_shawl3-w.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/microspun_shawl-w.jpg



While I never really wear hats, I love knitting them. Luckily my mom's a hat person so she benefits greatly from this. I did recently make oce for myself though. I picked up a single skien of fabulously soft Plymouth Yarns Baby Alpaca Grande a few months ago and couldn't decide what to do with it until I came across this simple cabled pattern.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/alpaca_cabled_hat-w.jpg



On to the crochet.

My first completed project was potholders for the boy since I was tired of trying to get things out of his oven with a dishtowel without burning the crap out of myself. Well, actually I'm notoriously clumsy so I usually delegated this task to him instead.
I wanted to make them in the colors of his favorite college football team. Seeing as how they happen to be my favorite football team's bitter rivals, this is certainly a labor of love. :P Since Clemson has such horrendous colors, I ended up having to dye the yarn myself. You simply cannot appreciate the bright offensive orange from these photos but I assure you it is hideous, and pretty much dead on.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/dyed_yarn_bathroom-w.jpg

Backs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/both_potholders_backs-w.jpg

Fronts. This is a terrible shot but it's the only clear-ish one I have of the fronts. I charted the C myself so I'm a little proud of myself there since it was my very first project and all.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/both_potholders_table.jpg



Once I got into this project it went super quickly and was pretty fun. This was the week before Mother's Day and it had become quite clear that Mom's yoga bag just wasn't gonna happen on time so I decided to whip out a couple potholders for her as well. I charted her initials for them too. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/moms_potholders_front_inprogress.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/moms_potholders_front-w.jpg

This is my favorite.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/J_potholder-w.jpg


Well, I suppose that's plenty for now. I think I'll drag myself off the computer and go finish up that hat. :)