Wrists and Butter*

This is what happens when I don't post every time I plan to. I end up with pictures that should be on two separate posts all smushed (that should be a word) into one post. So bear with me, this might get confusing. 

A couple weeks ago, I started these Voodoo wrist warmers from Knitty. Once I started my mom's scarves, I put it in a drawer and ignored it (and never told you guys about it), but I picked it up on Wednesday afternoon and ended up finishing it that night.

Here it is on:

Just for the record, the awkward lump is my watch, not part of my arm (or the wrist warmer). Then yesterday, I started the second one:

which I finished a few hours ago. It was a little harder to get a good picture of this one:

because I'm stupid and I felt like it had to go on the other arm (which is my dominant arm). And here they are together:

Yes, the top one is a lot shorter than the bottom. Yes, it's extremely annoying. No, I'm not really sure how it happened, especially seeing as I measured them both the same way.

*Just a note about the title. I was thinking about how they make my wrists warm, and then I don't actually remember what I was thinking, but I do remember it had something to do with bread and butter. Oh! Maybe it was about making my wrists toasty, and then I thought about toast? I don't know. But I do know that it made sense when I wrote it.

Threepeat

I'm running a bit late today, so this'll have to be a quickie. I just finished the knitting for 15 of 17, and I'll tack down the edges later tonight or tomorrow:

I know this hardly counts as a post, but hopefully tomorrow's will be a little more interesting.

A New Record

I'm posting two days in a row!!! It's a new record! (Not really. March of last year kind of rocked for me.) So check out 14 of 17:

Just like yesterday, I spent way too much time watching Doctor Who this morning (Well, I actually only watch two episodes. It could have been worse.) and my knitting is reaping the benefits. As in now it exists, and before it was a ball of yarn.

So after that, I felt a little guilty, and wanted to do something productive with my day. Being the neat freak I am, my first thought was, "Let's clean something!" I then proceeded to the perfectly logical step of drawing a map of my room:

which I am showing you for no apparent reason whatsoever. I actually measured my room from wall to wall, and all the furniture. And then drew it on graph paper (each square is six square inches, if you care). I really have no idea what the point of all this was.

One last thing before I go. About two months ago, before my, um, absence, I said I was going to start posting book reviews. And then I left. Anyway, my original plan was to post those on Thursdays, because those were my busier evenings, and I could write the posts ahead of time. That doesn't matter anymore, so I have a new plan. Any weekday that I don't have much of anything to post, I'll put up that week's review. And if (by some miracle) I have stuff to post every day, then it'll come on Friday.

That's it! Talk to you tomorrow!

Resistance is Futile

I know I promised this picture for Friday, but after my seriously crapolicious (that's a scientific term there, folks) day, I didn't feel like posting. So now you may enjoy:

3 of 17! (I think. They're all sort of blurring together.) Anyway, I tacked down the edges on Friday night, and because of the aforementioned crapoliciousness, I didn't do anything else productive until Saturday, when I started 4 of 17.

Random note: For the first four ruffle scarves I made (plus 1 of 17), I spent the entire knitting time untwisting the yarn as I went:

Unlike with normal yarn, a specific side has to be on top at ALL TIMES. Seriously. The scarf will start yelling if you don't get that right. So, as I was about to start 2 of 17, I had an idea (go ahead, gasp with shock). Before I started knitting, I took the time to wrap the yarn around my needle gauge (it was the first rectangular thing I found), like so:

Then, as I knit, I just turned the roll, and the yarn came off quite nicely. The first time, it took me about an hour. (Although, I was doing this while watching Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows for the first time. It's sort of distracting.) Since then, I have turned this into somewhat of an art. The second time, I tried it with the ball on the floor, and me standing on the chair. Despite the fact that I almost fell off the chair, it worked a lot better, and it only took about 20 minutes. Yesterday, I did it sitting on a short dresser (a few feet of the ground), which also worked well, and was less dangerous. I didn't time that very well, but it was around 15 minutes. I think it's definitely worth a few minutes to make the actual knitting go faster, and I do recommend doing some version of this if you're going to make a lot of these. 

Speaking of a lot (by the way, kudos to you if you read that whole paragraph), my mom went to Michaels (without me!) and got the rest of the yarn:

Yeah. I internally cried a little when I looked at all the yarn together. However, there is good news! I did finish 4 of 17 yesterday:

Yay! Alright, I know I said I was hoping for two FOs this weekend, but since I didn't post on Friday, I technically did show you two completed scarves today. Technically.

Anyway, I am fully wound and a few inches into 5 of 17. Maybe a FO tomorrow, maybe not. However it turns out, have a wonderful evening!

Tacky

I came very close to having another FO for you today:

I just have to tack down the ends, which I would have done, but something weird happened with the yarn right near the end, so it's going to take a little more precision than normal. I will have that done by tomorrow, though. My goal is to make two more this weekend (including tomorrow), since I know looking at endless pictures of the same scarf is pretty boring!

BOOOOKS

I am getting close to the end of 3 of 17 (and you thought I was going to forget), but there hasn't been any visible progress, so I'm recycling pictures:

because honestly, if that bugs you that much, how have you managed to stay here this longs? So now on to other stuff.....

I know I ended yesterday's post with sort of a cliffhanger, so I'm going to amend that right now. So you know how I said I love reading? I wasn't kidding. I seriously inhale books, and I've been doing it since kindergarten. After seeing my brother (in second grade) read the first few HP books, I wanted to, too. So my mom and I took turns, each reading one chapter aloud, until I decided she read too slow and just went and read it by myself. I haven't exactly slowed down since then, so I've decided to share my addiction with you guys! (Do you feel lucky? Because seriously, you shouldn't.)

Yesterday's description of The Return was the beginning of a new thing I'm going to try. I don't have a name for it, so it doesn't have a tag or anything (did you really think I thought this through?), but it's basically going to be book recommendations. I like to think I have a broad taste in books, but some of you may feel like I'm being really repetitive. I'm probably going to do it on Thursdays, since I'm never home on Thursday afternoons, and most of the time I don't end up posting. I'm not sure if I'll do it tomorrow, since I sort of did one yesterday, but whatever. I'll figure it out.

I hope you enjoy, and if you don't, then just don't come here on Thursdays. There'll be plenty of yarn addiction on other days! :)

3 of 17

Yesterday evening I was thinking, and I decided to incorporate my nerdiness into yet another aspect of my life. Therefore, I will be referring to all of these scarves like Borg. (The non-ruffly one is going to be Hugh. Seriously.) Meet 3 of 17:

Not quite finished, probably about halfway there. I kind of have Borg on the brain, because yesterday I finished The Return by William Shatner. My brother found it while cleaning out his bookshelves (yes, plural, we're a reading family) and gave it to me. (thanks!) It was really good, even though my TOS knowledge is very limited. (I know that he fought a Gorn in one of the episodes, and I've seen 3 of the TOS movies. That's pretty much it.) You do kind of need to be pretty familiar with TNG though, since that's where most of the characters are from. Yeah.

I was going to tell you about my latest completely idiotic brilliant idea, but I took way too long to do the first half of this, and I have to eat now. So something for you to look forward to for tomorrow!

Timewarp

I hope everyone had a nice weekend, and a happy Easter if you celebrate. Mine involved eating two servings of baby food: prunes and peas. (The prunes were easily one of the most disgusting things I've ever had, the peas were actually quite nice by comparison!) I kind of had a crazy weekend in terms of bloggables, starting with a shopping trip on Saturday. My original plan was to get this:

Hmm, that's not the picture I thought it was, but it does show some useful things. I got size 5 DPNs, not realizing I had already done so a few weeks ago, a charm I picked up on a whim, and some safety eyes. I also got that K hook, which will be explained momentarily.

Before you look at the next picture, explanations are in order. Remember how I made four ruffly scarves a while ago? And how I said I didn't want to make any more? Yeah, that's not going to work out:

My mom wants me to make a total of seventeen scarves for the members of a committee she runs. They're all going to be that white and blue ruffle yarn, except that black and white one, and a regular striped one using that blue yarn and white I already have. I totally would have said no, except she offered to pay me, and then I had this really great idea. (Well, I thought it was great....) A few days ago, I found this pattern for an Avatar blanket. And I really wanted to make it. Except the yarn for it would have cost about $40, taking into account I already have a few of the skeins I needed. Can you guess where I'm going with this? I asked my mom to buy the rest of the yarn I needed in exchange for making the scarves:

We had a pretty good coupon, so she agreed! Yay! I'm super excited to start working on it, and even more excited to have the finished product :). Right now, I'm going to focus on getting the scarves done. There was only enough yarn in that color for about half of the scarves, so I'm going to use up what I have right now, then start on my blanket! Speaking of which:

I'm already done with two of them, and I've also done a few inches on the third. 

I also bought a few other things: floss for the next segment of my HP cross stitch, and this frame:

Boy, am I glad to have this done! My aunt's birthday is this weekend, so it was perfect timing. Although the back is sort of ugly (yeah, I don't know why I used shiny duct tape either) I hope she'll like it!

I put one set of safety eyes to good use:

After finishing the head, making a new hair roll, and stitching down the collar and chest piece, all she needs is a crown! (And no, I have no idea how I'm going to pull that off.)

Just one more thing, I promise. I finally finished off the HP charm bracelet I've been collecting for for a while:

After messing around with spacing for a while, I decided not to use all the charms. In the end, I've kept the owl, crystal ball, dragon, "hippogriff," goblet/cup, tiara/diadem, and key. Basically, I left off the ones that take more interpretation. (Hey, they made sense to me!)

I'm pretty sure I warped time to get all this done. Seriously! Anyway, this is probably one of my longest posts, so I'm going to stop here. See you tomorrow!

Watches and Frogs

Hi guys! I hope you had an awesome week and as even better weekend! Sorry for not posting last week; my real life was sort of insane! But I did get some things done this weekend, so let's do this!

First, I need to tell you that I'm sort of obsessive about knowing what time it is. If I don't have an easy way to find out (a watch) I kind of freak out. It's not normal! So when this happened, I was predictably upset:

I honestly have no idea how this happened, but a chunk of it just fell off. I didn't do anything that was rougher than normal, so it's sort of a mystery to me, but I did know I had to do something. Enter weird crafty stuff! First, I cut off most of the strap with all the holes on it, which left me with this:

 Then, I marked and cut a little hole to put a slip ring through:

which was way harder than it should have been. For some reason, the slip ring requires a hole that's much bigger than it is to go through. Then, I took another slip ring, and did a basic friendship bracelet to create a little strap. I used a lobster closure and one of the original holes to have a way to take it on and off.

This definitely isn't a perfect solution, but at least I know what time it is!

I also made knitting happen:

You are looking at almost 16 inches of TTT front. For those of you keeping track, this means I have less than two inches to go until my next round of shaping. I would probably already be there, but I had a little issue yesterday. I think I've mentioned that I split each skein into smaller balls before I started using it, and yesterday I got to the point where I needed to join another ball. I tried it sort of in the middle of the row by knitting a few stitches with both strands of yarn, except somehow I ended up with three, so I had some awkward bunching and loops. By the next row, I had an unidentifiable loops, two hanging strands, and a major headache. I tried just dropping the offending stitches, but I sort of screwed it up, so I ended up frogging to about 1.5 inches back. I was smart about it, though, and I put a sort of lifeline through it before trying to rip. It wasn't perfect, and I went through the wrong stitches a few times, but it was definitely easier than trying to do a whole bunch at once! The whole thing wasted about an hour, but the second time I tried to join the new ball, I just started on with the new yarn and loosely knotted the ends. I'll make it pretty later!

Mini Top Hat Tutorial (Sewing)

Materials:

1. felt
2. needle, thread, etc.
3. sharp scissors

Step 1:

• Cut out a felt rectangle: 

• To get the size, fold it into a tube (hamburger style). It should be about an inch longer than you want it, and a little taller.
• This is the point where you add any kind of embroidery, applique, etc. Trust me, it is a pain to try to do it at the end. (And I'm speaking from personal experience here. Don't laugh!)

Step 2:

• Sew the short ends of the rectangle together with the right sides together:

 Step 3:

• Put the tube on some more felt and trace around it, leaving a lot around the edge:

• It should be bigger than you think it needs to be. If it looks right, it's too small. (Not that I had to pull my first one off and try again or anything.....)
• Don't throw the scraps away; you need them later!

Step 4:

• Sew the circle onto the tube:

• For this hat, I did this while the tube was still inside out. I've done it the other way before, and I think I like it better.

Step 5:

• Using the scrap from step 3 as a stencil, draw another circle onto more felt:

• Then draw another circle around it to make a donut shape:

• Once again, if it looks big enough, it's not. It's easier to trim or take it in than to rip it out and start over.

Step 6:

• Cut out the donut:

• But beware: this is the only time bigger is not better. Cut the inside circle smaller than the line you drew.

Step 7:

• Sew the donut brim onto the center of the hat. (I don't have an in-progress picture of it, but I think you can figure it out.)

Step 8: 

• If you cut the inner circle too big, you're not alone. I totally did that too. Lucky for us, I also have a solution:

• Seriously. Just cut a slit in the brim. I suggest trying to make it line up with the seam of the tube, so you don't end up with this:

• You can now just pick one of the strips to sew on. Once you're about a 1/2 inch from the end of one strip. you can sew them together (making sure the seam allowance points down). 

You're done! There are an infinite number of uses for this: make one of those headbands, use it for doll clothes, or if you're me, slap a dollar sign on it (aforementioned applique) and call it a Civics project.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Happy sewing!

Hot Glue and Sore Fingers

*The first time I typed the title, it came out "Sore Gingers." Not exactly what I was going for, but maybe there are some redheads out there that have been doing a lot of exercise?*

Anyway..... I've had a couple of things lying around that needed an appointment with a doctor:

Or a hot glue gun, that works too. If you can't tell, that's a TNG communicator pin (Halloween costume), a ring (that completely covers my entire finger), and an elephant that's missing part of it's trunk. The ring looks good:

You can't even tell the difference. Not sure I can say the same for this elephant, though:

It looks alright from this angle, but let's zoom in:

Yeah, you can see the glob of glue that's holding it together. Oh well, I doubt anyone's going to be scrutinizing it too closely! Lastly, I got a ton done on the TTT!

This is not the best picture (shocker) but I finished the first 19 inches, and I've done the armhole shaping, too! I'm just a few inches away from starting the neckline shaping!

It's a Box! Again!

Despite my doubts of last week, I did get a bunch done on the TTT:

I'm up to about 10 inches, which means I have about 9 1/2 inches left, I think (then a whole bunch more).

I also had fun with some glue. Do you remember this?

It's okay. I didn't really expect you to. But it's this bookend I made out of a box, then covered it in saran wrap. (Which was really stupid and lame, but after experimenting with clear nail polish I honestly couldn't think of anything else. Which was stupid.)

Finally, I realized the Mod Podge could be used as a sealant, so I tore off that plastic wrap and noticed this:

That wasn't going to fly, so before I glued it, I painted over the tape holes. However, the sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed that the box in those pictures is already shiny. Yeah. After fixing the first set of holes and adding glue, more showed up. Not really sure why, but it doesn't really matter:

I'm much happier with this version!

As I mentioned earlier, I spent time on the TTT earlier. This is because my thoughts on Friday were totally and completely crazy. It literally took me over an hour to graph out a circle, so there is no way I will ever, in any shape or form, be able to do these. Not really sure what I was thinking, but for now I'm just going to go with these and a gift card:

Ciao!