PLARN

Yesterday I finally cut up bags, made PLARN and crochet up a cute little bag. I really like the project and will use the process again. It is hard on the wrist though, so next time I will only crochet up a little at a time.
First you collect a bunch of plastic shopping bags:

Then you cut them into strips and ball them up:

There is a great Youtube tutorial here on how to do strips and tie them together:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTm2V4ssvY

Nerd Wars and other Knitting News

I've discovered a fun little game called Nerd Wars on Ravelry. I managed to get on my first choice team... I'm a Squint paying homage to crime lab shows such as Bones and NCIS which I just love. Each tournament lasts 3 months... this one is from October 1st until December 31st. Each month players are presented with 6 challenges and we can fulfill as many or as few as we wish. There is also the option of a dissertation project. Totally geeky and tons of fun, right!?

The lovely space invader hat above is part of my dissertation. Pattern is Invading your Earspace by Catherine Paul... I'll be knitting two of these lovely hats and two pairs of space invader socks. Sock pattern is bmp by Aija Goto out of Spring 2007 knitty. These will be Christmas presents for DH and DS.

My first submission was the most fun. I knit a mustache to complete the Nerd Costume challenge and DH modeled it for me.

It was tied to my nerd-dom through the episode of Bones where Booth and Brennan go under cover as Circus folk. Booth is wearing a HUGE mustache.

There is also Christmas knitting going on of course... and I still have a couple of Challenge projects on the needles.  I'm in love with the Mini Mochi Fair Isle Hat and having tons of fun with my own Toxic Socks... plan to have them finished and wear them for Halloween. What are you working on?
WW is going well... down 14.8 pounds now. :)

8 down... many more to go...

So, I started Weight Watchers about 3 weeks ago. So far, its been a huge success for me. As of today I'm down 8 pounds, which may not be much in some eyes, but when you've struggled with your weight at much as I have its quite an accomplishment!
On the knitting front its been a bit slow after plowing through the Stephen West mystery knit... Earth and Sky. I found it a bit of a pain to knit with all the color changes, but now that it's finished I love it!

 

I'm working on a stripe study in lime green and brown and focusing on getting my mystery Halloween project finished for my swap partner. There are also two meandering vines scarves on the needles.... and socks for Dad... and a hitchhiker for me. So as usual there is plenty for me to be working on.
Last night I decided to cast for the beekeeper's quilt. I did finish my first hexipuff and I do think I will like the project. It will be a long term project to use up left over sock yarn like my linen stitch scarf. I think I need another pair of size 4 Addis though as the join on my click set is a bit annoying for this small knit.

Marvin says hi.

A wonderful new start...

I worked on a little baby hat this weekend. Swirl hat pattern by Mandie Harrington. Cute, right? My hairdresser is going to be a first time grandma and asked if maybe I could knit a hat... I plan to knit several. They are fun, fast little knits.

Wednesday afternoon I started Weight Watchers. My first weigh in was this morning and I'm down 3.8 pounds. I'm terribly excited. I have such a struggle with my weight and hope this really works for me. I'm doing it online and am loving the WW app on my phone. It makes shopping for the right groceries and keeping up with points a snap.

Its been a long, hot summer...

... and I've been busy sitting in my air-conditioned sun room knitting away.

 First a little something for Halloween... do you see the skulls? The pattern is Toxic socks by Chamille Chang. Both socks are at the gusset and coming along nicely.

I knit up some Aran Bed Socks for my mother-in-law's Christmas present out of some yummy Dream in Color....and finally knit a Ball-Band dish cloth out of Mason Dixon Knitting. I even finished the Sunshower Clapotis... which was my oldest UFO. I played around with the idea of using it as a gift, but lets face it. It is so mine!

I was excited to find Dragonfly fiber Djinni sock yarn in the color ways of Norbert and Maggie May. My dad's name is Norbert so he is getting Spey Valley socks for Christmas... one is half done. My mom's nick name was Maggie for the longest time so she is getting a Meandering Vines scarf out of the Maggie May for Christmas. It really was fate.

Christmas in July

I've officially started my Christmas knitting. My adorable niece is getting these super colorful socks. I let her raid the stash for her choice of sock yarn. She picked the Knit Picks Rainbow Felici. I decided on some purple Malabrigo for the back drop and designed some color work just for her. I'm rather liking these socks!

Aiden and I went to see Transformers Dark of the Moon this afternoon. I knit a whole leg of my Aunts cotton sock. It was a "super fun" movie to quote Aiden. I was quite entertained myself.... and it was a long movie with a lot of vanilla sock knitting.
I found some cool space invader socks at Knitty.com. The pattern is called bmp. I will be knitting two pairs of these for Christmas... one for Sam and one for Aiden. Neither reads the blog, besides they know I'm planning to knit them, so its not a surprise. I also found a traditional Norwegian sweater with space invader motive. No way that will be knit for this year... but some time for sure. Sam loved it!

Goodbye Facebook Games

I have been wasting entirely too much time with those fun little Facebook games. Instead of knitting or exercising I'm in front of the computer farming or whatever. I decided tonight that the games need to go. Along with the games went any "friends" who I just knew through the games. Now I can focus on the folks I actually know and spend more time being productive doing things I love like knitting ... and things I need to do... like getting off my butt and exercising!

 

Birdies fly the coup... er nest.

June is Birthday month!!

Happy Birthday to lots of my favorite people this month! First of all to my wonderful husband and adorable son...

 To my wonderful sister-in-law...

 And Happy Birthday to my wonderful brother... I can't believe he took a bite out of the cake!

Blue bird eggs and finish-it-up-itis

 

I've been neglecting my pansies last few days and so they needed to be watered pretty badly. Yesterday afternoon I filled up the pitcher I use to water the plants and headed outside. To my surprise I found a pretty little nest in my planter of pansies. I was so tickled! I watered around the nest to make sure I wouldn't disturb it and took a picture of the pretty little blue eggs. Guess I need to be sure to keep the pansies watered to they can hide the nest instead of laying droopy all around it!

Over the past month I have had a serious case of finish-it-up-itis. I've managed to finish a gorgeous pair of socks, a cowl, a Booga bag and am planning to finish my linen stitch scarf today. I've also freed the needles off a couple of projects that just were not going to happen and organized my stash. My EZ green sweater got ripped back as far as it could be ripped since some of the steeks had been cut and was then felted and cut up into squares for coasters. The funny pieces are making great cat toys for Marvin. He loves alpaca!

It's been a week.

It's been a week. It's been a not so good week. My sister and brother are both sick and I think I've had sympathy pain for them. I'm sure my brother will be fine. I'm praying my sister will be. Her situation is tough and I hope she comes to realize how strong she really is and gets through it. I plan to give my sister the gift of knitting. It is good therapy. I hope knitting works for her as well as it does for me. Carpe Lanam.

39

I'm celebrating my 39th Birthday today and being pretty lazy about it. I did get up at 6am, but then went back to bed around 7:30 and slept a bit longer. When I woke up there was breakfast in bed and a morning of knitting in bed. After lunch I was served the most yummy cake made by my man-folk. It was chocolate with strawberry icing and sprinkles. Gorgeous... right?

Disgruntled

I'm disgruntled with my knitting.
Its not the knitting's fault this time. The knitting is being perfectly cooperative.
I've had two days at home to be lazy and do nothing but knit if I want to. Now that my knit marathon is over though I feel disgruntled because I really didn't work on anything I am just in love with. You know how it goes... you get the perfect yarn and and the perfect project together and voila! nothing but fun. Well, I did shop the stash and Ravelry for a new, fun project, but I have finish-up itis and nothing sounded good enough to throw the other projects to the wayside. So I finished a hat. I worked on my vest and on a pair of socks. The hat is finished, but after two days of knitting I thought I'd have more to show for it than a hat. Well, the vest is about 3/4 done and the socks are getting there, one sock is past the heel and the other almost at the heel. But I'm disgruntled anyway, because I'm looking for a new sexy project and it hasn't found me yet.

I'm also disgruntled with FedEx. My phone was supposed to be delivered yesterday, but it is now scheduled for Monday. According to FedEx tracking it went for a ride right by my town and kept going about two hours east. I hope it comes back soon.

Finish-itis

I seem to have caught a case of finish-itis. I'm going to run with the feeling. Tonight a slouchy cottony hot pink hat... tomorrow a sweater vest.... then on to a pair of worsted weight Dream in Color socks. Along with the knitting finish-itis, I'm enjoying some nice time with season one of NCIS. Its going to be a beautiful knitterly birthday weekend.

Swarm alarm

Well, we bought our cute little house last fall... and now we have termites. Yay. We had the termites treated last Friday, but it takes up to 3 months for the little buggers to completely die away. As a result I've been banished from my sun room hideaway because that's where most of the activity is and so now the swarmers are taking over my Mom-cave.