Spot the Leopard Beetle

"This is Spot, the Leopard Beetle. He can often be found on catnip plants, or napping in trees."

June's Month of Softies theme was "June Bug" ~ here is my little guy. Like Phlora, he's made entirely from things I already had around the house. A bit of fabric, embroidery floss, buttons, beads, and oak twigs from my yard.

Bags & Blankets

Bought some items at the vet's this morning and they were put into the World's Cutest Bag:

I know, it's not like plastic bags were just invented or anything, but I thought it was neat. I'm easily amused, I guess.

We were in for nail trimming. I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who can't trim their own dog's toenails? We're working on it, (it's one of my 12 resolutions for '05) but it's taking a long time (months) and meanwhile the nails keep on growing, so we keep having to go in and get them trimmed.

So, now we're home, and I can KNIT. I'm making a k2 p2 ribbed blanket for the kitty-a-long. I tried out the crochet stitch called the Griddle Stitch yesterday. (dc, sc on row 1 / sc, dc on row 2) I was rocketing along, liking the pattern with the white yarn very much, when I noticed a loop on the back. I frogged back patiently, re-did it, and went on. Noticed more loops. Turns out that because of the stitch pattern, any pull on the fabric will produce a loop, it is yarn tugging out of the next stitch. Most unsuitable for a kitty blanket, so I chalked it up as being a Really Big Swatch, and frogged the whole thing. I still want to make some blankets in crochet, because it's so much faster than knitting, but I need to try out some different patterns.

>>^..^<< Kitty Blanket

I finished my first kitty blanket this morning to donate to the local animal shelter! It's stockinette with a garter border, very simple, but a nice project to make while listening to the radio.

Here are some links to look at if you want to help out a kitty near you.... Snuggles and Critter Knitters

I also started a thread on Craftster in the Knitalong section, it's called "Kitty-A-Long". I've got some great company over there, seems like knitters just love kitties.

Kitty Blanket
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

More Buttons! []

I made my very own little blog button in Paint! It was so much fun drawing it and figuring out how to make it into a button. The squirrel is knitting a scarf, in case you were wondering...... lol.

I also stayed up half the night looking at Fanlistings ........ my goodness, there's a Fanlisting for just about everything, isn't there? I joined Knitting, and Hershey's Kisses (chocolate and vanilla creme to be exact) because for me, one's not quite the same without the other.

Stash Management

Yesterday was quite exciting ~ the Great Button Mystery was solved and I joined a ring. It's called Yarnaholics Unanonymous ~ which started with a thread over on Craftster. When I first saw that thread, I thought it would be a good time to call a temporary halt to all the purchases I'd been making lately.

I mean, every knitter needs a good working stash, but when it becomes a storage issue, and maybe even a bit of a guilt issue, too, it's time to step back, stop buying, and take a look at what's already there. Some of it is pretty fabulous.

It is hard, because I enjoy the yarn-selection and the yarn-purchase phases of a project as much as actually knitting it. I love choosing yarn, sending off for yarn, waiting for yarn, and finding a box of yarn on the doorstep. So much so that sometimes I skip the step of actually knitting with yarn before starting the whole process over again.

My best ally in keeping the stash in check has been Fishermen's Wool from Lion Brand, and Koolaid. Dyeing yarn whatever custom color(s) you want and only in the amounts you need is a great way to avoid both new purchases and tons of leftovers. There's a long thread on Koolaid dyeing on Craftster here and a great article on Knitty here.

Beautiful Buttons!

Thank you for helping me with the button code, Yahaira!

Smilies :)

I opened a Photobucket account yesterday, and figured out how to use it to add smilies to a post!
As in:
I finished the Harry Potter Book and enjoyed it tremendously, and will be putting Book II on reserve. If I ever figure out how to put in an email link, I will call it "Send Me An Owl!"
I also figured out how to put the Flickr link on the earlier photos after about 2 hours of fiddling with HTML.

I STILL can't figure out how to add buttons. I have them on Photobucket but can't get them to show up in the sidebar with a link back to where they're supposed to go. I'm not giving up, though.

In Crochet News: voting for Stitch Diva's Flower Competition has begun... there were only 15 entries! I meant to enter this but, er, never got around to it. I wanted to put her pretty flower button in the sidebar... but.... er, you know, see above.... so if you want to view the entries you can follow this plain old link: Stitch Diva Flower Competition

Spinning

Spinning
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

Ya know, somehow I thought because I love sheep I would be able to pick spinning right up in a matter of minutes. I have since learned that like most fiber skills, this one is going to take a fair amount of practice. My little spindle is made from a junk-mail CD, I KNEW I would find a use for those things someday. :) I found the directions on the Interweave site. CD Spindles (scroll down for article)

Book Review

I picked my books up at the library yesterday.

Last Minute Knitted Gifts had pretty photographs, but the print was so incredibly tiny and light that I couldn't read it. I absolutely could not read that book. There were some cute patterns... the toy animals in particular .... but there is no way I would even bother because of the print size issue. I am SO glad I did not shell out cash for this.

On the other hand, Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone is absolutely delightful. I can see why so many were so charmed by this book, I read about a quarter of it yesterday and didn't want to set it down.

Lessons in Blogging

I've figured out some things about the blog:
~ how to post links in the sidebar and in the entries
~ how to make those links open in a separte window
~ how to change/add titles in the sidebar
~ added the lovely moon guide
~ changed the 'blogger' button
~ added pictures
~ how to leave a comment on someone else's blog (was inspired to do that just this morning by a beautiful green scarf on Sandrisuperstar).

I'm still trying to figure out:
~ how to add buttons from other sites
(I uploaded one to my computer, and then to flickr, but then after I pasted it in the template, nothing showed up.)
~ how to get smilies in either the posts or the sidebar
~ get the flickr link to show up on photos I don't blog directly from their site
(I post the html they give me, but it looks different)

I will keep at it. How do other people learn all this stuff? Do they take Blogging 101 somewhere? What little html I've learned came from selling on ebay and an online B&N course. Anyway, it's a start. And I'm having a ball.

Lavendar Sachets

Lavendar Sachets
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

This is another project using the Razor Shell stitch. It's just one repeat of the pattern, two separate pieces stitched together. They are stuffed with dried lavendar flowers from Prairieland Herbs.

Stitch Markers

Here's a picture of the little Altoids tin I decorated to hold my handmade stitch markers. All the flower ones helped with Clapotis ~ she takes a lot of stitch markers! The little sheep ones are made from shrink-plastic and were simply colored with ballpoint pen.

Stitch Markers & Tin
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

I have two books waiting for me at the library this morning:

Last Minute Knitted Gifts and Harry Potter (Book I)

Phlora

Phlora
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

Phlora the EllePhant was made for the Month of Softies May theme of "May Flowers". I'm not too well-versed with my sewing machine, but I dusted it off and managed to make myself an elephant. Phlora was inspired by another project entirely ~ the blanket was originally a swatch I made while trying to figure out what yarn to use for a Razor Shell stitch scarf. (The scarf pattern is here on the Naive Knitting blog ~ she calls it "Lace & Agate.")(There's also a second stunning view of it on her blog: Here)

Here's how my version of the scarf turned out:

Razor Shell Stitch Scarf
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

It's made with two strands of sock-weight yarn held together, and US10 needles. The little glass beads are shaped like leaves.

Knitted Toys

Otto the Highland Bull
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

Here is Otto, so named because while I was knitting him I kept saying "I feel like I'm knitting an ottoman!" He is quite large ~ 21 inches from nose to tail. The pattern is from World of Knitted Toys by Kath Dalmeny. Otto is much bigger than the one in the book, because he is made from worsted weight wool instead of DK. (US 8 needles). Otto slid out like Bambi on ice on my desk. I adore him, he has so much character.

I've also made the shark and sea-turtle from the book ... and am currently working on the zebra.

Not only are there a lot of patterns in WOKT I want to try, I can also think of a million variations you could do with the basic shapes by changing the colors and details.

The Dog

Wow....I've created a blog and a flickr account in the same morning! Thought I'd try out the photo thing with some Cute Dog Pictures. Her name is Rosie. I also have a cat named Lily, the catnip mouse belongs to her. Rosie will bring me anything she finds on the floor, because we have a "swap" system for biscuits, it is really handy.

Dog
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

Dog Finds Cat's Mouse
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

First Post!

Well, OK then, here I am at Post One.
This will be primarily a knitting & crochet blog, but I might throw in some mosaic projects later because that is my other Great Crafting Love.
And I love animals, so that subject will probably come up. A lot.
So, let me have a look around the new place, get acclimated, and we'll see about decorating it up a bit. Maybe add some nice curtains, a bookcase or two. Couple plants.