Egg Baby

Egg baby is growing up! He seems to be channeling some Pauly D hair:

Either that or he is riding an imaginary roller coaster hehe

he likes to look outside

I think he needs a haircut soon. Maybe a flat top?

Mileage

Scott's car

This is like the wish of all wishes, if it was a clock. Impressive, to say the least.

Happy Easter!

coffee filter "basket"... but the walls don't hold the eggs very well

This is Scott's sumo egg. Even though the fundoshi didn't turn out, it's still cute!

I do have to say that I hard boiled these eggs perfectly :) I know this because I dyed a really ugly egg and ate it so no one would see it.

nerds

Hope you all have a happy and safe Easter!

Updates

Egg Baby:

"Ga-LORY!"

Round Ripple Afghan:

it's not finished yet because I want it to be huge

Boy, that red sure sticks out doesn't it? This is the first time I've really spread it out. I ran out of red yarn.


Berny:

this is her "mom! stop taking pictures" pose

Someone hijacked my camera

and took pictures of a ridiculously sleepy kitty. It was Scott.

She makes nests in the blankets by herself...perfect little caves

This is what Scott likes to call "circle toes" because she's so curled up her toes touch and make a circle

Streeeetch

In other news...I am in LOVE with this afghan!! I am most definitely going to start on one of my own soon! I think it's genius to crochet the circles together as you go, rather than sew them up at the end because that is horrible to do!


This is my egg baby:

"Hooray for the sun!!"

I received it for Christmas. It's finally warm enough (or so I thought...it snowed off and on all day) for this little guy to start growing. It's supposed to grow some sort of grass, and is kitty-safe to eat.

I just downloaded The 100 Thing Challenge from the public library (onto Cruz reader, yeah!) and am really excited to start reading it. The challenge is to live simply. I do not think I could ever consolidate to just 100 things so I'm interested to see how this guy (Dave is his name) does it. Even so, the idea of not consuming so much is appealing. But a girl does need earrings.

FO: Cat Hat

Cat Hat:

2011 Challenge: 13 Knit, 47 to go!

This is the sort of hat I imagine people who love their cats too much would wear (ahem...). But I designed the entire thing! I am very happy about that =) The motif is two white cats with a heart floating between them, repeated three times around the hat. At first I planned to knit each cat a separate color with stripes and stuff, but realized that would be a lot of freaking Intarsia. As it is, the hearts are Intarsia but everything else is Fair Isle. Fair Isle makes me happy.

All the yarn I used was leftovers from other projects. I'm trying to work through the stash. Mostly I used Patons Classic Wool (Aquamarine, Aran, and Lilac, I think), and some Lion Brand Wool Ease in Gold and Rose, or something like that.

Cat Hat is a bit kitschy, and I'm not sure how often I'll wear it but I watched season one of Glee while knitting and was emboldened by Rachel's animal sweaters. so there.

Hot Damn

I do feel accomplished, despite my small anxiety attack around noon.

Today I:

..finished my graduation application
..made an appointment with an advisor to review application
..cleaned the kitchen and washed tower of dirty dishes (ok...so maybe a dishwasher would be handy)
..(fiiiinally) balanced my checkbook and discovered the missing transactions (relief, really)
..upgraded my Flickr account to Pro (!) (my screen name is oocha)
..finished HP and the Chamber of Secrets and am well into HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban (my fav!)
..pretty darn close to being finished with round ripple afghan

me, knitting Cat Hat & berny, unassuming

I did finish the Cat Hat (I've decided to keep the name simple) a few days ago but haven't taken pictures just yet. I haven't sewed all the ends in either, but seeing as I probably won't be able to wear it until fall I have time.

I am almost finished with the cat hat. I worked on it almost all day yesterday. In fact, I was so engrossed by it (and HP and the Chamber of Secrets) that I forgot I had class... oops. As it is, I'm so behind in class. Instead of knitting and pleasure reading yesterday I should have been reading the class book and writing an abstract. Good news though, I think my graduation application is finally finished (being filled out, that is). I still need some signatures but it's about ready. I only hope they overlook the white out and scribbled out words and give me my damn diploma on time.

this is how i feel

Cat Hat

There's a hat with cats on trying to be knit. Oh yes, it will be knit, but the specific design is still iffy. I want to use up as much yarn as possible because I found that I have a bunch of little bits. I actually found that I have way more yarn than I thought I did, and how on earth did I ever think it was possible for me to knit or crochet it all? This is exactly the reason why I should only buy yarn when I have a project in mind.

I'd really like to rant on Subway and how the head honchos are cheap asses and their reasoning to make us use less vegetables per sandwich isn't purely for capital gain but because "vegetables make people fat." ............There are so many things wrong with that I can only sit in disbelief and think, "WTF!?" So to stick it to those penny-pinching gum wads, please ask for more veggies the next time you eat there (but don't eat the tuna. seriously).

ball winder arrived early...have to wind yarn. brb.

FO: It's So Easy Being Green

Cha chaa!! I'm on a knitting role.

It's So Easy Being Green:
Pattern by Jennifer Lacey :

this reminds me of an eggplant

2011 Knit Challenge: 12 Knit, 48 to go!

Yarns used: Lily Sugar 'n Cream in Hot Green and Hot Purple
This yarn is 100% cotton, which is cool because it's washable.

Circular US 9 for most of the bag, but for the bottom switched to US 8 dpns

The handles are a wee bit small. I even knew they would be too short when I started, but sometimes you just have to go with it. The bag itself is deceiving: it can hold quite a bit. Probably not boxes of cereal though.

the bottom

I am a little scared that the bag will burst since it's knit top down. But I sewed in my twelve inch long tail so it should be good. Right?

I finished this bag while our shower was being fixed (a pipe was leaking in the basement). Thank goodness the men fixed it and didn't seem to be a major problem. I have certainly had my share of leaky pipes, boy.

Hmm...now what?

FO: Ribbed Cowl

Ribbed Cowl:

all snuggled down...I already know I'll be wearing this a lot this winter!

2011 Knit Challenge: 11 Knit, 49 to go!!!!!!

The pattern is by Orange Flower and the free pattern can be found on Ravelry.
I used Cascades 220 Heather in Irelande on US 9 circular. I think I cast on 108 stitches. Oh! This was the first skein I've ever purchased at Joseph's Coat in Missoula! (they have a picture on their wall of two women talking in a yarn store. One woman says to the other: "I just don't know...I love him more than alpaca but less than cashmere." Scott didn't think it was funny... hehehe).

Since the cowl folds over itself, it's SUPER warm!

I started this cowl in MARCH and finally finished it over a month later. This isn't a hard project at all. The difficulty is in the monotonous 5x1 ribbing round and round. BUT... it makes for a good tv watching/ book reading project. I took the cowl to school also, to knit while waiting for class (and sometimes during...). I swear though, it only started growing this past week when I picked it up again.

I'm wearing it right now ^-^ while I watch tv because it is damn cold in the house.

Ball Winder

It's in the mail!!!

Well, almost. I just ordered this from Knit Picks:

via Knit Picks

It's the Royal Ball Winder and I can't wait! I have been reading reviews on different ball winders for months now and I really think this is a good choice. You have no idea how excited I am to wind all my yarn into cute little cakes and make my yarn shelf tidy!!

Obviously, if I had the room and could afford it, this is the one I'd pick in a heartbeat:

via Strauch Fiber Equipment Co

But it's $130 and the base is 15" long --- ok, so I could afford it and I would obviously find room for it, but right now, I don't need something this heavy duty. Someday though, I will own this. I like that the components are simple and there's no plastic involved (which is basically the opposite of what mine will be ha!). All the comments I've read about this winder have been positive. And the great thing is that it can wind jumbo balls of yarn, whereas most other winders can only handle 50 gram balls. For now, I am not too worried about this. Most skeins I buy at the yarn store are 100 grams, so I will just have to wind two smaller balls. 

I opted for Knit Picks free shipping for orders over $50 rather than pay rush delivery. So now all I have to do is wait 5-14 business days.

squeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥

My last post was my 100th and I feel compelled to let everyone know. It is a milestone of sorts, and I hope to reach 200 before I know it. To tell the truth, I get giddy when I see or hear people talking about my blog, because it means that, hopefully, my words mean something to someone (at least enough to read it!).

It's spring break! and it is snowing... what? It's kind of funny, though, because I've been knitting a cowl that I started a few months ago, and I thought I wouldn't be able to wear it until next winter. Haha!! If I finish it tomorrow I could still find a few cold days to wear it. However, my to do list of things during my break is quite long. Among those: finish filling out graduation application, find my Harry Potter books (seriously, I packed them up two years ago and still haven't found them), purchase a ball winder, and hopefully finishing unpacking this house. Really. We still have things in boxes. Most of them are odd things that we will probably give away.

This morning is full of delicious coffee from Black Coffee Roasting Co.  from right here in Missoula (!), laundry (I still can't get over how awesome it is to have your own washer and dryer), How I Met Your Mother, and cowl knitting.

Hope you all have a happy day!

"Summertime and the livin' is easy"

Aaah...Lemon Mint tea from Montana Tea & Spice Trading. The tea-night enjoying days are limited because drinking tea is just not the same during summertime. At least not for me. Tea and hot chocolate go hand in hand for me: best during cold weather. But isn't my new tea infuser darling? I'm a sucker for anything hearts <3

Also, a big Happy Birthday to my Uncle Bob whose birthday is today!