Mmm one too many projects

So after Rogers today I quickly went to Michael's to find yarn for the Lillian Tank that I could afford after my not-so-good trip to Romni Wools last week. They didn't have TLC Cotton Plus but they had the just-as-good Lion Brand Cotton Ease in a few colours. It was also on sale! Eee. So I bought 3 skeins for a total of $15 but I'll only use up 1/2 of the 3rd skein meaning that the top will cost under $15 when done. Which is about how much I pay in store. Reasonable? I think so. I stood for awhile staring at the colours putting it against my skin trying to see which one went best. I didn't want white or black and I didn't want pink. That left me with a lovely buttery yellow, a terracotta that was extremely bold, a soft shade of blue, a bright lime and a really dark purple-y colour. I ended up choosing the "misty water blue".

Now you see, I still have to finish Vanessa's legwarmers. In fact, because I keep getting side-tracked by random things, I'm still on legwarmer #1. How is this possible? lol I'm going to dye and hopefully knit Vidya's camera case today and mail that out to her and then I'm giving myself until... hmm... Saturday to finish Vanessa's legwarmers. Which then gives me three and a half weeks to knit the Lillian Tank. (I want it done in time for Florida.) Hoy. If I manage to knit that quickly then I shall start my sock-ness.

Oh crap, it just occurred to me that I have that magazine article to start that's due Friday. Hum.

It also just occured to me that this Cotton Ease is a worsted weight. And I was looking for white worsted weight cotton to do this shrug in so I can wear all my silly tanks. But all I found was acrylic or wool. Me so silly. Oh well, I suppose if I manage to fly through the Lillian Tank I can get to that...

Baby Appropriate Yarn

So yesterday after walking with Yvonne and Sarah I dyed some yarn for a case for my phone. This time instead of dying the yarn one colour, I tried to get a variegated look. I intended on stronger colours than what I ended up with but I was too lazy to get some more KoolAid from upstairs. I think the yarn looks better knitted up but that may have to do with my sketchy ball-winding skills. Oh and you may be wondering, how knitting this case incorporated a new skill (as my goal is for every thing I knit right now to be a sort of learning process.) Well, I actually knit it with double pointed needles rather than straight needles and sewing up the sides. So no seams! How brilliant. So neat. And yeah, I've done this before but it's fun to be done and not have seams to worry about. And then I grafted the bottom ... yesss for seams that look like stitches. lol I must say that I don't like doing ribbing on double pointed needles for some reason. Enh. Ah well. Pastel-y case for my camera it is.

I didn't have syringes or anything so doing this was mildly amusing. It looked soo messy.

So last night while on MSN I only got the ribbing done. MSN is not conducive for knitting. Anyhow, knit away before I went to Rogers.

Left me with that. It would have looked better with the phone in it but I needed the phone to take the picture. And yeah, this time I dyed more yarn that I needed. Not sure what I will do with it just as yet. Might experiment with felting? Or it might be used in some cheesy heart-like colourwork. (shrugs) I think in person it looks more pinky/purpley.

Scrappity Scrap Scrap

So for some reason after all the cleaning I did today I felt more in a scrapbooking mood than a knitting mood. I quickly did a page for last year's semi formal and the SAC BBQ but they're quite simple. I figured I can always add more embellishments later but for now I'm just wanting to get this thing done/up to speed. I just put a whole bunch of photos (151 to be precise) taken over the past year of friends (and there are still more I need to get off of people) into a folder to be printed to be scrapbooked. Aiyaaaa. And I've still got to finish high school stuff! Eeee... Simple it is!

Add-on: I finished two prom pages after this. Fly fly flyyy.

Fun with Kool-Aid

At the moment I'm dying some yarn with Kool-Aid to knit Rachel's camera case. I don't think I put enough Kool-Aid so it's going to come out a light blue rather than a rich blue. But that's okay... I think? Maybe I'll re-do it when I'm done if the blue isn't satisfactory. I think it's going okay for a first-attempt. Mom doubts that the yarn will take the dye. Hehe can't wait to prove her wrong.

Enough yarn for her camera case and some Kool-Aid. I didn't even use a full pack of a blue and only a pinch of purple was added. Though I realize now that it was useless because I just added more blue when I thought it was too dark.

After soaking in the mixture and some heat and yadayada.

Update: So the yarn is drying in my backyard. I'm hoping it dries soon. I think it will because squeezing out the excess water really worked. It's a bit brighter than a baby-blue and I think I'm going to leave it that way. I wish I knew what size my other cousin's camera was so I could dye an appropriate amount of yarn for her... Ah well. I suppose I'll have to leave that for another day. I had the size written on another piece of paper but I can't find it. Hmph. Oh and I think some of the yarn felted a bit because the water from the tap surprised me with cold water right after and before a hot bath... but I got it out in time and I don't particularly care. :) Oh, and before you think I'm weird, that dark blue yarn is used to make sure the skein doesn't get tangled. I had that happen to me with the sari silk and I don't want a replay.

Drying outside.


Wound into a ball.


My strange, strange seam.

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Done! ... Okay, I have to stitch on the button. Also, it doesn't fit the random camera I stuffed in here for the purpose of this photo. One in Rachel's camera will come... eventually.

Training

So today I met up with Robyn, Josephine and Carmen and Robyn and I taught Josephine and Carmen how to knit. It was quiteee exciting and hilarious. I have a bit of a problem, however.

I went to Romni Wools hoping that I could find cheap yarn for the Lillian Tank but me being the idiot I am didn't bring the pattern with me and only wrote down the yarn that was used in the original (affordable TLC Cotton Plus). Which was fine, I guess. I was shown some substitutes for the yarn and while it was lovely, lovely, yarn, it was most definitely not in my price range. I mean the cheapest I think it might have worked out to was roughly $30 for the yarn. Eugh. I'm pretty sure I'd have a substantial amount leftover but I wouldn't want leftovers. Why couldn't they have the cheap TLC Cotton Plus? Booooo. I found it online and thought finding an alternative wouldn't hurt my wallet. I mean, I want to try these things out on yarn that won't cost me much so I won't feel so bad. Plus, it has to be less than what I pay for my clothes in real life. This is not the stores fault... merely my own. I'm hoping I find a cheap sub soon cause I'd realllly liked to knit it.*

In any case, I bought some white/cream sock yarn to knit Jaywalkers after I knit my first pair of socks with the self-striping yarn I have. (Getting ahead of myself, am I???) Anyhow, white/cream you ask? WELLLL, I'm going to try my hand at dying with Kool-Aid! Following the lovely Eunny's tutorial on how to dye self-striping sock yarn which will go really well with the Jaywalkers pattern. I also bought some white/cream Patons worsted weight yarn to knit miscellaneous items - i.e. Rachel's camera case, Vidya's camera case, etc. etc. I figured I'd buy one skein in white and then I could dye little bits needed for each project with Kool-Aid so specific colours are achieved. Sounds like a wise plan to me! lol

Anyhow, despite my frustration over the tank-yarn I think it might be for the best because it means that I will finally get the legwarmers and the cases done and my socks. OHhhh, I forgot to add that I bought two different sets of double pointed needles. Exciting? Yes. Costly day? Yes. That too. I figured I might subtract the $7 spent on the Patons from my budget considering that that will all mainly go towards mini-gifts and then the thing with the needles is that I will forever use these considering I seem to be heading in the sock-direction. Despite never knitting socks before.

The Knit Cafe was cool but I do wish they'd had more popsicles and slushie-like drinks for boiling hot days like today. They sold this strawberry-rhubarb kind but I was a bit afraid to try it out so instead I opted for cola... but this was no ordinary cola! It was BlueSky from Mexico. Very cool. lol Kinda like blue sky alpaca, no? Ooo there was also this bamboo yarn at The Knit Cafe and it had the most wonderfulllllll drape and sheen... god it was gorgeous. And it also came in the smallest skeins EVER. Like whaaat! Very sad.

Josephine and Carmen caught on fairly fast on the whole knitting thing considering my first attempts, I think. I don't know what happened but I completely spaced out on how to make a slip-knot. It was the strangest thing considering I've been doing it naturally lately. Odd. I wish I had helped them choose their yarn as I realized the yarn they chose really splits a lot and I don't think it will make a very long scarf... but I suppose we shall see :S. I think we should have opted for Wal-mart as sad as it sounds because they coulda gotten more yarn for their dollars there even though it would have been acrylic. Though I have to say, the Bernat Satin feels so much softer than the yarn they bought. And the Satin is acrylic! Go figure. Ah well. It'll be a good learning experience none-the-less. I hope. Hahah...

Anyhow, that was a long ramble on my knitting-related day. That is all for now.

*Note to self: If I ever want to buy the Cotton Fleece, it's a few dollars cheaper at The Knit Cafe. Though you do get a bit of a discount from Romni with your student card. (shrugs) Either or I guess.

Whining

How did I manage to miss the annual TTC knitalong this past Saturday? Booooo. Okay, sure, I couldn't have gone because of the bridal shower and the like but still! It would have been coooool.

Anyhow, a trip to Romni Wools and The Knit Cafe (and Americo?) with Carmen, Josephine and Robyn before class... where I will fail miserably. :)

Harry Potter

I knit a giant bookmark glasses case. Well I still have to seam it up so it looks like one. And add my initials. Thank-you Yvonne for helping me come to that decision. Goodness knows how many ideas we went through.

Note: It is curled because it's in stockinette stitch.Originally (and I think I still am) I was going to sew up the sides so that it was a double-sided but it's going to be thick. (shrugs)

Poxy

So while on the chicken pox I have this crazy desire to knit and yet I haven't really been knitting much on Vanessa's legwarmers despite them being an easy knit. I really want to start those socks with the yarn I bought but I don't have needles for them yet.

Here's what I have been up to...

I wanted to use up some eugh blue acrylic so I double stranded it on huge needles and made a garter stitch scarf. I kind of want to embroider a design on it now.

Progress shot on Vanessa's legwarmers.


The front of my phone cozy. Aran braid cable from Vogue Knitting.


The back of my phone cozy. Beaded rib from Vogue Knitting. As you can see, I need to add a button.

Add-on: Since this post, my mom has claimed this case for her phone because it fits it. Actually I think it fits it even better than it fits mine. Wtf m8. lol looks like I've got to make another one. Different, obviously. Probably the same yarn since I really want to use it up and I currently don't have access to a yarn shop. I've also started knitting a Gryffindor bookmark since then but I think it shall be far too thick to go between the pages of a book comfortably. Oh well, it'll be for show I guess. Or a nifty pin. Or when I get a bulletin board I can stick it up and be all proud. We shall see.
Add-on2: Since I wrote that last note, I've realized that this bookmark is huge. I mean, I've only done two repeats of the golden yellow stripes and it's already about as big as the book. Oops. Should have stuck to those smaller needles. For some reason I'm far too lazy to go back. I'll just have one giant-sized bookmark. And one miniature-sized scarf. (shrugs)

WIP: Legwarmers

So back when I started Van's legwarmers I kept getting frustrated because apparently "yo" or "yarn over" means two different things in the British and American systems. Needless to say it wasn't working too well. Last night I re-started it and I finally got through the (simple) lace part but I've to say, it looks rather wonky. Hahah. Like seriously.

A part of me hopes that the second pair comes out perfect but I think it'll look funny if one side is kinda wavy and one is all straight and even. I guess I'll have to figure out a way to block them when it's done so that it looks relatively similar. It definitely will need the ribbon to make it look better. I also decided that I really should have "splurged" and bought the merino wool rather than the wool blend I'm using right now because the merino would have been all smooth and shiny and pretty and neat but this blend is your typical fuzzyish wool. Sigh. I think it's good for late autumn/winter, though.

Me and my lack of job. I really would have bought the beautiful yarn had I been able to afford it that day lol. If I see some affordable merino that can work well when I go to Romni next week I might have to consider picking it up.

I'm rather excited for the Romni/Knit Cafe expedition with Carmen, Josephine and hopefully Robyn. Mmm yarn.


Add-on: Maybe when I'm done Van and I can decide whether or not we should attempt to shave it.


Oh and here I was just randomly wonder what double stranding looks like (knitting with two strands of yarn together) but