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So I’ve gotten a couple of packages in the past couple of days. Yesterday, I received an OWS package from StephanieGravatt:
First: Ravenclaw wall art:
I didn’t want to just tape it in the frame, so I think I’m just going to save the frame for something else, but I do have the cross stitched bits up on the wall (next to Bender).
Next, my favorite thing ever:
Team Tyler’s Van shirt! (I’ll add in an apostrophe with contact paper or something.) For those that don’t know, in the first Twilight movie, Bella (the whiny main character) almost gets run over by Tyler’s van after school, and Edward runs to her rescue and pushes the van away. I hate Twilight and can’t stand Bella, Edward or Jacob (except in a mocking this-is-so-bad-it’s-good sort of way); ergo, I am on Team Tyler’s Van. In addition to LOVING being able to show my support for Tyler’s Van, the tee fits perfectly and is even long enough for my abnormally long torso (it’s true… I’m really short; I just have really short legs).
I also got a package in the mail from YarnOrATale on Etsy. I ordered 6 oz. of Romney roving (which I haven’t tried yet) in her Melon Balls colorway.
There’s a bit of a story to this order, since I was trying to not buy any more fiber (I can only spin so much between all of my knitting projects). I’d been following this thread on Ravelry, looking at all the pretty fibers and yarns and wishing I were better at spinning (it took me most of a month, but I got through all of the nearly 600 pages), and Leah (YarnOrATale) is a member of that group on Ravelry. Her ravatar is a picture of that roving (Romney in Melon Balls) and I COMPLETELY fell in love with it. Every time I saw her ravatar, I wanted it a little more. : ) So I tracked down her shop, messaged her about it, and custom ordered the colorway (she was out of it at the time).
She was totally fantastic about the whole thing, so if you happen to be as in love with the roving as I am, you should totally check out her shop and order some (or something else… she has lots of other lovely colorways, but I’m on a fiber diet). ALSO, she was recently running a promotion for St. Patrick’s Day where if you ordered something with green in it, she’s throw in a bar of handmade soap also:
So, yes, wonderful. Not sure when I’ll get to spinning this up or what I’ll make with it, but whatever I do, it’ll be bright and springy and wonderful. : )
Sooooo I claimed PheonixFireDesigns for hand knit house socks! And they are great.
Pattern: Get-Together Cable Socks
Yarn: Some vintage orange wool I got at the thrift store that I’ve had forever.
Needles: US 6/4 mm Knit Picks Options Circular
Mods: Knit toe-up, left out some of the cables. Basically, I took the k1 rib and the 2×2 cable and threw them into my own socks.
I like how these came out. : ) I absolutely despise the color, but despite that, they’re cute. I worked these two at a time on Magic Loop. I don’t hate the technique, but I don’t think I love it either. I almost certainly wouldn’t bother for fingering weight socks, but these took practically no time at all, so it wasn’t too bad. At the very least, I’m fortunate to have done these on my Knit Picks Options because if I were still working on those cheap Susan Boye circular needles, there’s no way I would have finished these magic loop. I love my bendy Knit Picks cables. : )
Pattern: Basic toe up socks.
Yarn: Ella Rae Solid and some random red wool I probably got at the thrift store.
Needles: US 7/4 mm Knit Picks Options circ
So I love these socks. And if they weren’t size 6.5 and knit specifically for the swap, I’d keep them for myself. As it is, I think I have enough yarn to knit another pair for myself anyway. They remind me of spiderman. : ) I have more of the red than the blue left over, so I think for mine, I’ll do one row of blue and two of red.
Anyway, I hope Phoenix likes her socks. I certainly do. : )
Seeing as this week is my school’s spring break so most of campus is dead (I got permission to stay in my dorm), I was under the impression that the post office on campus was going to be closed as well. I was anticipating needing to stop any packages I’d receive at the Fredericksburg post office and pick them up from there. Well, as it turns out, the campus post office is open this week. And I woke up this morning to THREE package notification:
First, I received my OWS package from ehinder, who claimed me for throw pillows:
Aren’t they cute? I love the little birdies. They are squishy and wonderful and they are sitting on my bed, looking very pretty. Is it weird that part of the reason that I desperately want a place of own is that I want a couch I can adorn with throw pillows? Because it is. I have four I’ve received from various swaps, and I want to display them on a couch.
Anyway, next, I received my OWS package from padfoot, who claimed me for stitch markers and something from my wists:
Pretty! They’re a bit small, but they’ll be perfect for socks and anything under about a US 5 needle.
Bender embroidery from my wist! I love it! I already stuck it up on my wall (with a bit of packing tape–we’ll see how well that holds up). I am also doing a Futurama swap, and I had the embroidery on my wists for that swap. I hope Tygermane, my partner for that swap, didn’t have the same idea, or I’ll have two! Not that that would be a bad thing–it’s a lovely embroidery and I would definitely use a second one for sewing onto something like a bag.
And knitting earrings! She sent me the knitting earrings from my wists! I’m so excited! They’re so cute, and if I were doing anything today besides lounging around my dorm room, I’d totally wear them and show them off to everyone. I guess I’ll just wait until school starts happening again.
The last package that I received was two 4 oz. braids of fiber from Lakehouse Loft on Artfire. They’re very pretty, but there was a snafu with her wool order or something and they ended up taking over a month to get to me from my order to today. Bleh. They are very pretty though:
Corriedale in “Orchid Garden” and merino in “Storm Front Coming”. I can’t wait to start spinning them (though I have from shetland from Spunky Eclectic to spin first. Two-ply lace weight. Yeah. I’ll be a hundred before I get to these.)
Two packages came in the mail for me on Monday and I was thrilled to receive both. One of them was from Heini from the Ongoing Wish Swap. She claimed me for a clutch from my wists, and it is SUPER CUTE. I don’t know when I’ll have the occasion to use a fancy schmancy clutch purse, but it is super cute:
The package was sent from Finland on the 18th, so I was super surprised to find it in my mailbox on Monday the 22nd. Talk about fast shipping!
The other package I received was from one of my favorite enablers, WEBS. I ordered two four oz lots of Ashland Bay Merino in the Cranberry and English Garden colorways:
They’re both super pretty and I can’t wait to start spinning them up. : )
PS: The Ravelympics sweater? …We’re going to have a chat about that on Friday. Let’s just say I’ve run into a snafu.
Okay, not really. But the main crafty portion of the package I sent to spolowitz gave me some hell. I claimed her for a knitting project bag and a learn to spin kit.
First, there was a spindle and some roving, part of the stuff I ordered when I was first starting to spin:
And then there was a lovely little book of spinning instructions, which I drew and wrote by hand. The directions probably aren’t the best as I haven’t been spinning that long myself, but I tried, and I like how it came out, especially my little spindle diagrams:
And then there was this bag.
I tried to make a round-bottom bag with a lining and that turned out… poorly. For the sake of my sanity, we’ll leave it at that, but suffice it to say that it was bad. The finished version is cute though. I especially like the applique:
Yay, swappage.
PS: Here’s the Ravelympics sweater:
(I got bored with the long rounds and started a sleeve. The body is about halfway done (well, halfway to where I join the sleeves, anyway). It’s about 9″ long and I want it to be close to 17″.)
Kudos to the USPS because even though I fucked up with my address on my most recent OWS claim, I got my package today anyway. Like, two days after I called about the zip code thing. They found it and sent it my way almost immediately.
Anyway, cjclark claimed me for a reusable sandwich wrap and snack bags:
She also sent me chocolate (which I’d already started eating), gummies, stamps, and the extra oilcloth. Yay! I’m planning to make another large snack bag out of the extra oilcloth, and I’m super thrilled about the stamps for their inchie-framing possibilities. The snack bags will be lovely for transporting snacks to class and while I don’t believe I have an immediate use for the sandwich wrap, it will be wonderful for transporting sandwiches to work wherever I happen to be working this summer. Yay! I now have a whole eco-friendly and reusable lunch kit! *is excited*.
Girl Friday, by the way, is almost done. I have another row or two of button band, then I need to do button loops (cause I didn’t feel like planning ahead for holes) and block, then find buttons. It’s coming. When I finish the ribbing, I can resume work on the ribbed shrug (which is on break because I needed the needle tips for the ribbing). For my portable project, I started a sock. More on that later.
So I finished spinning the green BFL I got from lapoli in a recent OWS.
(Sorry for the crappy webcam shots… the camera pics DID NOT come out well at all.)
It was lots of fun to spin, though plying seemed to take forever, I only had a very tiny amount of singles left too. Going from hank to ball kind of sucked cause it was sticky and a little fuzzy, but the resulting yarn is great, though I’m not entirely sure what to knit with it yet. I thought cowl, but that wouldn’t use it all, and I kind of what something largish to show off the pretty colors. And the fact that my spinning has gotten much more even.
(Yes, I’m very silly.)
It’s a 2-ply sport weight (though in some spots it goes down to fingering or up to dk). I managed to get about 430 yards, so it’s enough for a substantial project. I’m beginning to think maybe lace tam or smallish shawl. If I use large needles, I can stretch the yardage even more.
I love how this yarn came out. : ) I can’t wait to start knitting it.
In non-crafty news, I am back at school, and I’m totally thrilled about it. Classes start today and while I’ve gotten a specific “NO KNITTING” from one of them (it was written ON THE SYLLABUS), but it’s fine in the other four classes I have(one I went to today and three with professors I had last semester who didn’t mind). So knitting will be happening. Currently, I’m working on some stuff for a friend. Her cousin is having a baby shower next weekend, and she asked me to knit some things for it. So I am. I am more than halfway done (I finished a hat and one sock and have another sock and a bib to knit still), so that should be happening soon. And then there’s that sweater, which needs sleeves, a good stern blocking and a button band/collar. Yay!
So last week I received some OWS stuff from akredhead:
Yes, that is a veritable fuckton (that’s metric unit) of cardstock and scrapbook paper. I suspect many cards will be made. So swap partners, be on the look out. Also, I’ll probably mail them to random friends over the summer.
On Sunday, I’ll have for you a plethora of knits and things, spread out over the next week, including a completed pair of Endpaper Mitts, some handspun yarn, and some socks. Yes, socks. They’re totally right when they say it’s an addiction. Anyway, stay tuned, y’all.
So, I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the graphic novel/movie Watchmen, but it’s a highly awesome gritty social commentary that features probably the coolest villain ever. Anyway, love it, so I was super thrilled to get my OWS package from StephanieGravatt. Check it out:
Watchmen made out of Perler Beads! Here’s a closeup of Rorschach:
What I would like to do is frame them (Just mount them and leave off the glass), but I would have trouble finding a frame large enough to properly display them. I might also just hot glue magnets to the back of them and display them that way. Something.
On Friday, I will have for you an introduction to the new member of my crafting family. Then later, there’s some knits and some swap things. Stay tuned.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 