Ch-ch-ch-changes

I haven't blogged in a while, or really knit for that matter, because we have been having some big changes in our humble abode recently. We got a puppy! It was a long ordeal, but our landlord agreed to let us have a dog and we adopted the cutest border collie/hound mix. His name is Miles, and he's the sweetest.

Meet Miles. He is about 14-15 weeks old. He already knows how to sit, lay down, shake (not pictured), and let us know that he needs to use the bathroom (most of the time).

He is also a health nut. Notice the Superfood that he is enjoying. (No, he did not drink it. He did however steal the bottle from Mark, the intern, and decided that it was his new favorite toy.)

He also likes the snow. Craig and I are convinced that he has not known anything but snow (he is only 15 weeks old), and got visibly sad when it was 50 degrees out last week and most of the snow had melted. He would run from snow patch to snow patch trying to play with the last of it. It was super cute.

And look at those paws! The paws say he is going to be huge! However, all of the information on the internet says that you can double your dog's weight around 3-4 months and that will be his final weigt. Miles is 25 lbs exactly right now, so that puts him around 50-60 lbs when all said and done. This is not the huge that his paws and ears say he will be. Maybe the professionals will be wrong, maybe he will be pretty big. Who knows, it will be an adventure.

Basically, he has been the reason that I have not been able to knit recently. The second he sees any yarn, he goes after it. One day he found my stash and decided that some pink Lions Brand Wool Ease would be a fun toy. Luckly, I found him pretty quickly, and no damage was done. But right now I am working on my white version of the Stardust sweater, which I am affecctinoately calling the Snowdust sweater. Last night we had Craig's long-lost hiking buddy, Guiness (trail name, not real name) over and I got to knit while she distracted him by being "new and exciting." I actually got a majority of the back done and finished shaping the arm holes. Now I just need to knit some more and then shape the neck hole. I like the fact that I have knit this sweater before, because I can adjust certain things for my body. For example, being so tall, in my first Stardust the ties came to the center of my bust, which was not that attractive. So I have added an extra Stardust row before shaping the arm holes. Hopefully this will be enough to place the ties below my chest in a more appealing place. So far, the crude measurements I have taken point to having done this correctly.

On the Science of Sleep sweaterdress front, all knitting has stopped. I had begun to cast on for the dress and realized that my drawings were not as accurate as I needed them to be and the movie had been removed from On Demand for free. I have been searching for images of the dress on the internet and copies of the movie around town for cheap, but with no luck. So, until the Science of Sleep is in the 4 for $20 bin at Hollywood Video, I will have put it to sleep.

Also on the knitting front, a co-worker (possibly the coolest, funniest teacher in my school) has commissioned me to finish a shawl for her out of a suede yarn. She had begun the shawl, but health problems had caused her to stop and not be able to finish. I have all of the materials in my classroom, but she forgot to give me the pattern (which makes it difficult to finish for her). Luckly, this doesn't seem to be a difficult pattern, and the yarn is pretty cool, so I am excited to finish it for her. She even offered to pay me for it. Even better. Pictures of the shawl will come once I bring it home.

Stardust FO and the beginnings of a dress

I finished my Stardust Sweater! I think I made it a size too small, but it is still wearable. Today I wore it to my Language Arts Professional Development and got a few compliments. I can't wait to wear it with a short sleeve tshirt or tank top once the weather gets warmer. I made a few mistakes, but luckily nothing too obvious. Most of the mistakes in the stardust pattern were made near the arm holes.

Pattern: Stardust Sweater

Yarn: 3 skeins of Karabella Gossamer in light blue/silver

Outcome: I'm happy, but it is a little small. I also think that the ties are too thick. I plan on making this sweater again in white for a wedding this fall, maybe I will make it a size larger, but with ties that are half as thick. I shall see when I get to that project.

Onto another project....

For those of you who have seen the Science of Sleep, I plan on making the sweater dress that Stephanie wears during Stephane's party to celebrate his calendar. I have drawn out plans and made a swatch, but no other progress has been made. But I do need help, the dress in the movie has these vertical stripes of some stitch that I can't tell from pausing the movie on Comcast On-Demand on my non-HD TV. So, what do you like the best? The choice is between the Double Moss (aka the Double Seed) stitch and the Daisy stitch. So far, I have two for Daisy.

News News News!

Lots of things have been happening recently. First, I won 3rd place in the Instructables Homemade Holidays contest with my Venezia Napkin Rings. Somehow, they added it to their front page, then added it to a newsletter (which got me a patch and a bunch of stickers), so lots of people looked at my instructable. I think it's pretty funny that I won a prize for a pattern I didn't make up (and didn't pretend to make up since I had a link to the pattern in the instructible). Anyway, I look forward to the presents!

Also, I am almost done with the Stardust sweater. I even got an e-mail from the author of the pattern and she was excited about mine because it reminded her of the one she made. Being unoriginal, I used exactly the same yarn and she noticed on Ravelry. I look forward to finishing it today or tomorrow. I even bought more yarn to make it again in a pretty white color for a future wedding.

Also, I may be getting a puppy! News on that as it unfolds. Just hope my landlord allows it!

Stardust Sweater

I finally got around to taking pictures of my progress on the Stardust Sweater. Surprisingly, it's coming along really quickly. I began on Tuesday, took a few days break, and took it up again yesterday. Already, I have 12 inches of the back. I was afraid that the stardust lace pattern would be difficult, but it's quite easy. I did mess up on the first part of it, but the few that I made mistakes on are near the arm holes so they won't be noticeable (hopefully) when I am actually wearing it.

I have to say I love this yarn. It is super soft and light and the little bits of glitter are great. I thought this sweater would take forever because I am using small needles and the yarn is very thin, too. Instead, it's super quick! I may even finish this sweater by the end of my weekend (albeit, it is a 4 day weekend, thank you "Human Rights Day" - aka MLK Jr. Day and a comp day).

I was disappointed by the color of this yarn. I was hoping it was more of a steely blue than a baby blue. Ah well, luckily my LYS is having their 2nd anniversary and therefore a 20% off every yarn sale. Maybe they have more of this yarn, or something similar that I can make another from. This would be a great sweater present for someone. I just have to figure out who....

FO Men's Scarf

I finished Craig's scarf! I only used a little more than 4 skeins (seriously, I added on the last little bit while casting off....). Craig loves the scarf, especially how long it is. I had cast on 400 sts, but if you don't want it that long, 300 would do just fine. I'm just glad it's done.

On the bright side, the varigation of the yarn is pretty cool, but on the whole it was a pain to work with. The plys kept falling apart and I caught myself quite a few times missing one or two while knitting. Anyway, it's finished!

Now that my #5 kneedles are empty, I can start on Stardust. I have already gotten 3 or so inches of the ribbing. Pictures to come soon.

Editor's Pick!

I have been very inspired by Liz recently. First, I joined Ravelry, then I joined Instructables to try to win some prizes. I put up my Venezia Napkin Rings this weekend and quickly got many positive responses! (4 or 5 thus far) And this afternoon I checked my e-mail and found out that the editors picked my pattern as one of their favorites. Notice my napkin rings are second on the Featured list! Woot woot!

On to further knitting news, I attended my local Stitch and Bitch last week. It was their eigth annual meeting so a ton of people were there and they did a knitting swap. It was cute, but I felt so out of place. Maybe I'll give it another try, but I felt super awkward.

I am also knitting up a storm on this darn scarf for Craig. It's super slow going, but this will be my last skein (thank goodness). This weekend I also got Craig and my friend/neighbor Ashley into knitting. Pictures probably won't come soon of Craig because he's a tad bit ashamed. But both he and Ashley finished a whole skein of yarn and made scarves. Ashley and I also went to a fabric store and she got "lost" in the yarn aisle and picked up a bunch more yarn. Yay for passing on the addiction!

Happy New Years!

In the New Year tradition, I have made a few resolutions. The first is to update this blog more frequently, as I finish and work on projects. First, however, I have to update many projects that I have finished or worked on in the past month since my last blog post. I have also joined Ravelry and have spent much of my vacation adding all of the projects I've been working on or finished this past year. So pardon any links to ravelry if you do not have an account.

First, I finished the Saartje's Baby Booties. They were super easy and adorable! Thanks Liz for the pattern.


I also have pictures of the Men's Scarf that I have been making for Craig. First, I hate this yarn. It is beautiful (the dark brown picture better shows the true colors) and soft, but the yarn's plys (plies?) come apart easily and you have to watch what you are knitting (my least favorite thing to do while knitting) or else the yarn will split. I also think that I cast on way too many stitches and this scarf will be way too long. Therefore, this scarf will take forever to knit (or atleast it feels like it will take forever). This wouldn't be a huge problem if I didn't need these needles to begin the Stardust sweater that I so desperately want to begin.

Finally, in my classroom I decorate my door for every season/holiday/etc. I have been having a great deal of trouble knowing what to do for January. A Christmas wreath wouldn't work, and what else could embody winter? So I decided that I would have to make a snowflake to hang on the door. After a successful Michaels trip, I bought dowels, white chennile wires, and Lion Brand Wool-Ease Worsted Weight in White/Multi. This yarn is white with glitter throughout it. Finally, after many wire scratches and burns from a hot glue gun (I'm impaitient, what can I say?), it's done! I really like it. Hopefully it will last all year so I can use it in the future. Now I just have to plan for the spring months (any suggestions? I already have a glittery heart for February).