Phew!

After many problems with my blogger account -- weird language settings and cookie issues -- I've finally figured it out! What a pain. I'm glad to have access to my blog again, though, since there are a number of things I've been meaning to post.

I'm still searching for the perfect grocery tote pattern. This one was okay, but I made it a little smaller than I should have, I think. It went to Sara, the manager of Glad Rags, for her birthday. She shares a birthday with one of my clients, who also works at Glad Rags. The hat was for him, in Blazers colors since he's quite the fan. The teeny little hat in the picture was sent to my cousin Jessie, whose baby Hailey was born in February. I had originally made two pairs of booties to go with, but the cats stole one of each pair and I was too lazy/busy to make new sets!

I'm particularly proud of this little fella. He was made for the One Tiny Thing Swap (round 11!) on Craftster. I used the SWAT Team Kitties pattern and gave him a gold earring, sailor shirt, and eye-patch to piratize him. If the pattern had legs, I would have given him a pegleg, too!

Next term is going to be a busy one for me, but I'm hoping that my lecture classes/bus rides will allow me plenty of knitting time. I'm also taking Ceramics, which I'm quite excited about, and a spinning class at a local yarn shop. Finally I'll conquer my wheel!

Knit pirate panda for fizzledimpulse
being attacked by Rusty:

For the past two months I've been trying to stick to a budget I created after reading about financial responsibility in my Personal Finance textbook and felt horribly guilty. I'm pretty sure I've gone over my crafting budget for the month already, but there were SALES, people, SALES! The yarn store was celebrating its second year in business while the bead store had lost its lease and is going out of business, which is sad but also makes for some great deals. Some other time I'll post pictures of all the (totally un-needed but fun nonetheless) earrings I've made.

Above is the knit nautilus I made for trifarina (I sent her a nautie eyepatch too but didn't get a good photo of it in action) along with the valentines I made for the party we're having at work on Wednesday. The whale stamp is my new favorite thing.

I've been aching to post pictures of what I've been working on lately, but since most of it is for swaps, it'll have to wait for another week or two until my partners receive.

Surprisingly, there are a few things I've made lately that weren't for swaps. First, a basket/bowl I made with Crystal Palace Taos yarn and felted in the washing machine.

I'm using to hold some yarn at the moment, although I'm not sure if its purpose will change in the future. I checked out Cat Bordhi's Treasuries of Magical Knitting from the library and I really want to make one of her moebius baskets, but that will have to wait for some suitable yarn.

This afternoon I made a few cards, in keeping with my goal of sending every member of my extended family a birthday card. Devilninny sent me a number of birthday cards for the previous round of the Invite Your Partner swap on Craftster, but I've almost run out already! I made these four today, and one is already in an envelope and ready to send to my aunt Karen. While making these cards, I've come to the following conclusions:
1) Glue sticks are magic.
2) Rub-on letters are magic.
3) I need a craft table (specifically, I need a craft table other than our dining room table!)
My mom and I have vague plans for a craft day of churning out tons and tons of birthday cards, which I'm wholeheartedly looking forward to -- especially because she keeps calling me to tell me about all of the hidden craft supplies she's stumbled across at her house!

This hat was sent for the Fairytale Swap. I'm assuming my parter has received, but she hasn't been on Craftster in over a month. I hope everything's okay and that she's enjoying the hat! If you can't tell, it's meant to look like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. It was knit in about one and a half days of classes last term.


Lastly, I would like to present you with Exhibit A in the case of "Why Tracy Really, Really, Really Needs a Craft Room":

A very serious situation, indeed!

On the 12th day of Christmas...

Oh, how I love having crafty family members! My wonderful aunt Ruth just sent me an enormous box full of goodies: knitting needle cozies, knitting patterns and magazines (with patterns for knit birds and pears!), beautiful roving, a wire candle decoration, a kit for a felted coin purse, and a "dinkel sheep."* And probably more that I'm forgetting, but the point is: she's fabulous and I am spoiled!

I also want to post a picture of a nestlace I made for Craftster millik for a personal swap, because I think it turned out really nicely. The "eggs" are red with black speckles, and the clasp is a leaf toggle.



In return she sent me a tote bag featuring both Ramona Quimby AND straps long enough to fit over my shoulder when I'm wearing my wool coat -- perfect for winter!

I set up my Christmas tree last week and have yet to get a decent photograph of it due to the camera's batteries being dead and my inability to locate the battery charger. So, there may not be any photographic evidence of its awesomeness/Charlie Brownness before it completely dries out. You'll just have to trust me that it is the Best Tree Ever.

Now I just have to figure out when exactly I'm going to finish everyone's Christmas gifts, considering that I'm working or visiting family every day until Christmas Eve! Time to get to work...

* Dinkel refers to a certain family in Alaska whose sheep's wool was found in my aunt's attic. The dinkel sheep referred to in this post is a little ceramic votive-holder sheep whose votive-holding spot now holds a felted ball of dinkel wool. Make sense? ;)

Oh, ginger snaps!

I'm missing out on knitting group today due to an upset stomach and a weird case of light - headedness. Instead, I'm staying home and knitting while watching Christmas shows on television. Not as cool as knitting group, but not entirely bad either.

At knitting group #1, I started working on some knit sushi for an ongoing swap on Craftster. Now that Dulcinea has received from me, I can post a picture! I think it's pretty funny that I can't stomach sushi, but I love the way it looks.

I've been working like crazy making Christmas decorations for my house and my (soon!) tree, so expect a picture-laden post of total festivity in the next week or so. I'm almost done with my Christmas cards, too. If only I could say the same for Christmas gifts!

On the subject of decorations, this is the first year I'm going to have my own Christmas tree, and I hardly have any ornaments at this point. My "theme" is going to be birds, fruit, and snowflakes. So far I have some cheapo gold snowflakes I bought at Target, a painted snowflake ornament and four pears found at Goodwill and dusted with shimmery gold powder, and a beaded garland. I'm looking for patterns (preferably free) for knit/felted birds, so if anyone knows of any, please let me know! I've only been able to find crochet patterns thus far, which doesn't help much. I may end up just making some out of craft felt and embellishing them with embroidery, but I'd really love to knit some for my tree.

Back to working on a TOP SECRET project while I watch bizarre new Christmas specials and cuddle with Rusty!

Blogging is for Lovers

So it's probably totally nerdy to post twice in one day, but the knitting group was a success! Victoria's apartment is totally cute, and on my way I ran into Liz on the bus, so I had someone to talk with during the ride. It was fun, and I'm hoping it'll happen again. I knit a really cute little sushi roll while I was there and started on another. Next I'm knitting some Blythe clothes for Chloeiscrazy for a Craftster swap.

Here's a picture of three of the five cuffs I knit for the Band Cuff knitalong. There's a button on the sidebar if you want the pattern. These went to Igobylorib for the Ongoing Wish Swap 15.


Now I'm off to knit sushi and possibly many other things! Hopefully there'll be something good on TV to entertain me.

I'd rather be knitting...

I'm at work right now wishing I was at home finishing up cupcake number two. Needless to say, it looks MUCH better than the first, and it's taken about the half the time. This bodes well for the fingerless gloves I'm planning on (re)starting this weekend.

I have so much crafty stuff to catch up on this weekend! I still need to finish my swap package for the Use What You Have Swap I'm organizing on craftster, and a few things for devilninny, and get started on a project for a personal swap. Plus I'm trying to get a head start on Christmas gifts and cards. I'm hoping I can get most of my school stuff out of the way this afternoon so I can devote the entire weekend to crafting.

Also exciting is the big sale at Joann's this weekend. I have tons of coupons and I just got my brand-new Joann's credit card in the mail yesterday. Honestly, I only applied for it because you get $5 off any purchase the first time you use it. And because it has a pretty picture of thread on it. Hopefully I can control myself.

Alright, back to work. Only 30 more minutes!

Craft Woes

I pretty much destroyed my hole-punch by trying to punch something that was way too thick (and still sort of glue-y) and then broke off a chunk of my scissors trying to pry it back open. Fortunately, the thing I was working on made it out safely.

Later, a GIANT spider practically jumped out of a pile of tissue paper at me. Horrifying, I tell you. Today has not been my day.

On the bright side, I finished up my "Use what you have" swap package for serialcrafter and stuffed some crockpot-dyed yarn into an envelope for my sister. I'm trying to get as much done as possible before I head to the post office on Monday.

Off to craft -- wish me luck!