Owlie Beanie

Instead of hoarding it for myself - i've decided to post the Owley Beanie pattern  on Ravelry -

OK Blog, I love you now, even though you are a layout catastrophe.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/owlie-beanie

enjoy:)

Pattern management

The original goal today was to make butter tarts however on my way to the grocery store I was seduced by Midoco.

They had a 20% sale on their semi-colon brand of binders and boxes so I took the opportunity to ditch my tart-making intentions and invest in some hardcore pattern management.

A binder and some plastic sleeves later, this mess:



Became this hotness:


Much better!


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Sunday Afternoon

Theres a couple of things that are on my "Want List' - that require quite a bit of time and dedication. The first being a cedar chest, which I think will be a really good way to store my knitwear safely from mites and moths.  I don't have any of the critters lurking around, but I'm always so worried about them, so short of a freezer, I think a cedar chest would be a good idea.

I've also been on an organization kick -I decorated my front wall (which I originally wanted to wallpaper) but I used a shadow box and some hooks instead.  Heres the shadowbox with all the teeny little perfumes and some nice spools of thread.

I also have the hangers pictured here....

The next project is to tackle this big TV cabinet- which is infinitely usefull and just the right size, but it's just so damn ugly!

Yeah... what to do...  I think I'm going to paint it a dove grey colour, and hang a curtain over the bottom 2 shelves (to hide the dvd player and stereo) and I am going to walpaper the outside of the cabinet. I think that might make it less ugly and more useful.

In other events, this little old shoestore in Roncesvalles has been purchased by this artist, and with the store came over 10,000 pairs of vintage shoes!  He's hawking them off for $10 a pair - and there are some total gems to be found!

I got these...  Navy blue pumps in size 7 WIDE!!! :D

And also a tan pair of peeptoes...

A Tuesday Missed

I missed stitch n bitch today in lieu of Pizza and Poker with the work mates (a planned work event, not a spur of the moment thing) but I didn't miss out in doing something crafty -
here's the Amigurumi Mouse that I will be teaching at the Knit cafe this Thursday.

I noticed that during last week's class my students were totally rocking the circles - which makes me really happy and excited about going 3-D with the Amigurumi.

this and the Owl Beanie pattern will be posted shortly on Ravelry. Righto - off to bed now:)

Most Productive Day... Ever.

I took a vacation day from work to get a few things done. Firstly, I needed to go to the bank really badly and had been putting it off for about 4 months now.  I also needed a massage, especially for my shoulders as sitting at a computer 10 hours a day has been reaking havoc on my back muscles.

Besides the practical, I've been up to a lot of my ownsome today - I took a trip up to Knitomatic as I never venture north of Dupont and I thought that it would be good for me to get out a bit.  Bad because I spent some more $, but good because I found a few yarny treats -

Some Ella Rae yarn which I'll admit was a bit steep, but it was so pretty I could make something springy out of it... I also got some dyes...

In moss green and delphinium blue.  I figure you can't go wrong with those colours, even though it's really tricky to tell what your finished project looks like when dying with food colouring.

In addition to my recent purchases, I also modified an extra large Mens Teeshirt that I bought at bluenotes with my friend Robbie a few months ago.  Instead of a manly looking tee it's a servicable tshirt dress and a good enough length to wear with some leggings out and about town.  Going to see a movie later today, so all in all a really great day off!

Things

I finally spent the time to take a few pictures of some things that I am working on. Firstly is this fancy snap purse that I used some of the fabric that I bought at the workroom the other day -

I wasn't that crazy about the snap coin part, as it was really hard to squish down, even using those fancy nylon pliers. Thinking that doing some web research on how to insert these properly will help.  I was also having some fun swith stitching around the edges. All in all really pretty.

Here  is another pic against my hand quilting....

I think I'll make a few of these, as I think they're fun, but maybe as little presents. I could fill them with crafty goodness.

Sick

Feeling sick today so I decided to use my downtime wisely and start a crochet cloche as a sample for my crochet class. Who knew malabrigo would be so lovely to work with? It almost made my headache go away. I'll put up posts soon. I'm sorry blog for neglecting you. Soon I'll have lots more crafty things, just you wait!

I absolutely and utterly need to make these, not because I really like twilight, but because these are the original mittens from the movie and although they're pretty, they look easy to fudge

There's that bellas mittens pattern floating on ravelry, but I know that they are a bit simpler with the details - they're missing the hand shaping and don't have the moss stitch detail and ribbing in the back end.

I need to make these for a little teen friend's birthday - so I hope she'll like them:)

e-out.

Megashaun

He's lookin crazy yo!


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Springtime bandit

Putting this little bandana in my repitoire of knitted goodies. Using noro silk garden sock for this one... So far so good!



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Cuteness

I think that one of the reasons I like Aaron is his ability to make interesting faces at the camera which always turn out strangely photogenic.


Here he is looking strangely French and funny. The scarf he's wearing is his Christmas scarf made from Misti alpaca. It's lovely stuff to knit with. His hat is an oldie but goodie in charcoal brown sheep worsted. All in all he's a good knitwear model:)

Just so he doesn't feel self conscious, here's a dorky pic of me tipsy and looking particularily hipster. Shameless!!!!





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Gary's mittlitts

So I finished Gary's Mittlitts the other day and luckily he likes them a bunch:)

I don't know if he'll like the fact that I call them Mittlitts (which isn't really a manly sounding name) but too bad - I made them so I get to name them

Tell me why I don't like Mondays

I'm heading to band practice and feeling particularily uninspired. The pates de fruit fiasco made it's way encore into my life after I tried resurecting the recipe using lichee fruit and peach. Although I made a valient effort, it again ended in a mushy gooey mess:(. I don't think I'll be cooking fruit again any time soon.

On the other hand, I finished liz's hat ( which is a nicer dupe of the entrelac hat) and am on to making Gary's fingerless mitts. Also a fairly uninspiring project, I'm starting to get antsy for doing something challenging.

I looked up some tesselations online and I think the mitts that I plan on making for myself will be based on some sort of pattern like that.

I also finished Szabo's baby sophisticate... Need to find me some good buttons though. Feeling unproductive... Need to take a day off work for some mental health/ crafty productiveness.



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Enterlac hat

I decided to branch out on my skills and try my hand at enterlac knitting. My first attempt was kind of sloppy ( didn't slip my 1st stitch which made for ridgy edges) but luckily my friend Iwona gave me a quick tutorial. The result: a just right sized enterlac hat. Will post the pattern soon.

Oddfellows

A-man and I decided to mix things up and have dinner at oddfellows. I had heard good thing about the place from my friend Kyle Brown so we decided to go.


The ambiance was really cute and ecclectic. One thing I liked is that they had stock ale on the beer list.


The dinner menu was pretty varried but we decided to go for the game stew.


All in all absolutely delicious. Nice big and melty pieces of lamb in a rich gravy, creamy potatos and tangy red cabbage. Definitly awesome and we have some to take home for later.

The emergency dress

This is the dress (skirt actually...) that I made the other day because I was having a work clothing emergency. Not bad eh?

I like beer...

So after trying to see Avatar and being thwarted several times (TTC was late, our brunch place being closed, a freak power outage etc. Etc.) we decided on drinking some beer and chilling out before the nine o clock show. Thank goodness for beer. Avatar better change my life now.

Fiasco and then some...

To further the Pates De Fruits fiasco, I rejellified the Mango mass with a crap load of gelatine and boiling. Once set the result was a palatable soft soft jelly - almost too soft to be candy:(

The whole thing has made me a little weary of the candymaking, but I haven't given up yet, and will try again when I have some more time.

In the mean time I was having a wardrobe meltdown yesterday because I didn't fit into any of my work clothes (probably because I'm eating too many things like Pates De Fruits) and I have a formalish work function.

I got it set in my head to try and make a black bubble skirt (to stylishly go with a button up shirt?) I pulled out the sheers and ruler, and luckily I had some black twill at home (which I wanted to make sleeves out of... long story) so I went to work. I took the circumference of my favorite dress and measured my waist and got to work. The result: a servicable gathered skirt that resembles a 1950's standard.

I'll be at a work conference for the next 2 1/2 days, which means I won't have any crafty things to do for the next while:(

Oh Woe to the Pates de Fruits!

The pates that we made yesterday for some reason didn't set! Oh the horror. I excitedly woke up this morning to see if our jellies were ready, but found that they were still liquidy - maybe we didn't bring the sugar to the proper boiling point. I was so depressed, I went back to bed.

Here is a picture that has the apple jelly that didn't set. I decided I wasn't quite through yet - I tossed the mango one I made back into the saucepan and boiled the crap out of it. I figured with the addition of powdered gelatin, I'd end up with some sort of gelatinous mass. I've got to update Liz on the situation.

More to follow, but in the mean time, here's a picture of a Pistashio Rosewater Cupcake that Liz and I made recently, just so that I don't feel like such a food failure.

A new year

So in order to give a home to the general creative stuff I do, I decided to put them on a blog. So all the various pictures of foods and deserts I've taken, all the knitted pieces and all the crafty bits of my life now have a home.

The idea of starting a blog is a bit daunting, but I think that documenting my creative output is a good idea, just so that I can be sure that there is something that I am doing with my life that is productive.

That being said today involves:
1) knitting the massive shawl/cape/cowl/thing out of cascade eco-wool (approx. 50% finished - woot!)
2) purchasing a skein of Pearl Ten coloured Malabrigo - this will be fairisle mitts for me
3) attempting the creation of Pates de Fruits (good 'ole fruitpaste for us english speaking folk) which is a kind of fruit jelly candy. My friend Liz and I have been on evening cooking kicks, and it's good to have a partner in crime when trying out new and potentially challenging recipes. My recipe involved Mango Peach flavour while Liz's was the more traditional Apple/Pear combination. Both look delicious and are gently hardening (fingers crossed) in the fridge.

My day also involved a deliciously satisfying dinner of Pork Bone Soup at our local Korean place - Ka-Chi.

Gotta love weekends:)