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So as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I am participating in a Futurama-themed swap over on Craftster.org. For those of you not familiar with the show… it’s awesome. It’s a cartoon that takes place in the year 3000 in the city of New New York, and it’s full of clever math and science humor. Hilarious. Anyway, there were an odd number of people in the swap, so I was part of a round-robin with myself, Tygermane, and the organizer, Staar84. I sent my package on Thursday, and here’s what I sent to her:
First: a brain slug, as she requested:
Pattern: My own, made up based on various pictures of knitted and crocheted brain slugs.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed in Waterlily Leaves, left over from my Watermelon Cardigan.
Needles: 4/3.5 mm dpns
Hook (I know, how dare I combine both knitting and crochet!): G?
Cute, right? Super fast to make. The white part of the eye is quilt batting, and the black part is a button. I crocheted the tentacle/wavy bits because it’s easier to create odd shapes on the fly in crochet over knitting. It’s like, a round of single crochet, a round of double crochet, and a round of sc, hdc, 4dc, hdc, sc shells, which seemed to work pretty well. It sits flat and it’s nice and squishy. I finished it like, two weeks before I sent off for this swap and I’ve become kind of attached to it. Maybe I’ll make another one for myself. I have enough yarn left, I believe.
Next, a seven leaf clover necklace:
Pattern: Uh… none.
Yarn: Serendipity Tweed, same as above
Hook: The blue one? G? I don’t actually know about hook sizes.
I like how this came out a lot. : ) That’s really all I have to say about it.
Next: A coffee cozy!
Pattern: None, my own, but I can write up the chart if anyone’s interested.
Yarn: Undyed wool from a thrift store sweater and purple Lion Wool
Needle: US 7/4.5 mm
I loosely based the design for this off of a cozy I spied on staar84’s wists, but can no longer find. I couldn’t decide how I wanted to close it and I didn’t have any coffee shop sized cups to test it on, so I just made it adjustable with the ribbons.
ALSO, in case you were wondering, folded hems look fantastic but they are a PAIN IN THE ASS. The top and bottom do look all nice and neat though.
Lastly, I made a set of notecards:
Now, if you know anything about me, you know that drawing is NOT my forte. So you know that these were SO MUCH WORK and I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF. Seriously. I can’t draw a lick, but I’m pretty decent at looking at a picture and drawing it myself (a skill I probably picked up from my mother, who is also really good at it). I looked for pictures of the characters, studied them, and drew them on white paper. I am so unbelievably pleased with how the professor especially came out cause he ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE THE CHARACTER. Leela is also good, though not as good as the professor. I’ll admit I traced the clover cause I didn’t feel like fiddling with it. I’m not as pleased with that card, but I do like how I sandwiched the clover in clear tape, just like Fry does in the show. : )
All in all, I say a successful crafting venture. It’s always a good sign when you desperately want to keep the crafts you make for someone else in a swap, and I definitely acheived that here. God, I love those notecards. Maybe I’ll make some more for myself. Or maybe I won’t seeing as they took like four hours.
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.
So I claimed for another round of OWS, as I said before. This round, I claimed luckdragon for Domo-Kun fingerless mitts and some amiguruimi, both of which turned out to be for her daughter. So this is what I made:
Pattern: My own, which I based on pictures of mitts on Craftster.
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in brown and some random red wool.
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm
They’re cute. The eyes were a pain to sew on. The teeth are quilt batting since I didn’t have felt. They were also sort of a pain. Also, I tried out a new thumb gusset on these, and I think I’ll be using it from now on since it makes more sense.
And now the amigurumi (which I knitted, mostly):
Pattern: My own, which I made up mostly on the spot.
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: US 4/whatever metric size that is
He’s a little top heavy, but super cute. I started him before the Ravelympics started, then took a break from my sweater on Saturday to finish him up. I like him. His body and head/trunk were knit in one piece, and I crocheted the ears and legs. It was much easier that way than dealing with five dpns to knit four little legs.
Pattern: My own, which I totally just made up.
Yarn: Red Heart Heart and Sole in Watercolor Stripes
Needles: US 1
He’s cute too, with his little button eyes. I took more pictures of him than the other things:
He likes to play the piano!
With his favorite movie!
HE WILL HAUNT YOUR DREAMS.
Or just be cute. Here’s one more:
Pattern: Monster Chunks, sort of. I made it up, but I based in on this pattern.
Yarn: Lily Sugar ‘n’ Cream in Hot Pink and Serendipity Tweed in Water Lily Leaves
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm dpns
I wasn’t going to do the teeth, but I cut them out and they looked so cute, so I left them in. : ) This little guy is my favorite.
So now I’m expecting two OWS packages (plus some various other things I’ve ordered which I’ll probably show you whenever they get there). One of them was sent out today. The other isn’t due for another week (though I haven’t heard from her either, even just about my address). I really dislike getting flaked on, but at least the people I sent to are productive swappers that don’t flake (as far as I know).
(By the way, here’s what the Rav sweater looks like today:)
Body is done up to the armpits. Now need to finish and attach the sleeves, then do the yoke. I am flyin’ through this baby.
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 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.
Ahem. I claimed Claire313 for a slouchy hat + surprise. Here’s what I sent her:
Pattern: Star Crossed Slouchy Beret
Yarn: Grants Knitting Worsted (Vintage wool from a thrift store purchase) in Tangerine
Needles: US 8/5 mm and US 10/6 mm dpns.
And here’s the surprise I send, a little knit Totoro:
Pattern: None, really. I looked at the crochet version and knit from there.
Yarn: Some white Sugar ‘N’ Cream and random sport weight acrylic.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
So I claimed sunspotted for a Calorimetry, some hair things, and some scrapbook paper.
Pattern: the ubiquitous Calorimetry
Yarn: Cascade Eco Wool, Coffee
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm metal straights
Mods: CO 88, fewer short rows, closed up some of the holes.
Here are the hair pins I made:
They’re glued and sewn onto bobby pins and they were kind of a bitch to make, but they’re cute, I think. I had a hard time getting the bobby pins to stay in the glue straight. It was a learning experience, at least.
There were also a couple sheets of scrapbook paper, but you don’t need to see those.
Coming soon: A couple more swap things. Some knitting. And the dino mittens pattern!
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 