Felted Pumpkins

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I was up late wildly knitting pumpkin wedges for Knitty's Felted Pumpkin!

Have a great holiday!
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Rosie

"Hey, Mom, do you see what I see?"

This is the look of a dog who has just noticed there are rats on the office desk. (I put the cage up there for a few minutes to take some pictures, it's usually in another room.) I have started another blog for the rats so as not to take up every post here with Cute Rat Photos, but I just HAD to post this Cute Dog Photo.

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On second thought...... maybe just ONE cute rat photo:

A Pair of Wearable Socks

Here they are! Not just one, but TWO raspberry socks. They fit (I had no idea how hard it is to get a picture of your own feet, so here they are on the desk, but trust me, they fit.) I think they are pretty cute for first socks, and I was so excited about it all I ordered sock yarn. Not just any sock yarn, either, but special sock yarn. I haven't bought yarn since August 2, which I think is a pretty long stretch, so it was a lot of fun.

The Raspberry Sock

The Raspberry Sock is finished. It fits my foot. I can WEAR the sock. Tomorrow I cast on for the second one so I can wear a PAIR of socks. I made the cuff short so it's like an ankle sock deal. (It never quite shows up on the web camera, but the colors are lovely berry shades.) You know, this is not only the first time I've made a handknitted sock, it's the first time I've worn a handknitted sock. It's warm. It's pretty. I want to make more. :)

Sock Continued

The heel is turned on The Raspberry Sock!

Started a Real Sock

The humble beginnings of The Raspberry Sock.

I Can Knit Socks!

Woo-hoo! It's a sock! Well, it's Knitty's Training Sock. It's a sock-like object.Point is, it has A CUFF. And A TURNED HEEL. And a TOE. It has gussets, people.
I started this this morning during hurricane Wilma. Decided it would be good to have something to focus on. Next thing I know I'm knitting a cute little sock.

We are fine. The power stayed on, despite a fair bit of flickering, although the TV and internet were off much of the day. There is also a huge tree mostly down in the backyard, I am sad it has fallen. The squirrels loved it. I'm hoping it will grow back. Funny thing ~ Sunday it was summer, Monday a hurricane went through, and now it is winter. It's going to be in the 40's tonight!

Decisions Decisions

I have a whole craftin' Saturday afternoon available to me, what to do? Finish the seal? Felt the pumpkin? Embellish the octopus? Advance to Clue 2 on the Mystery Shawl? Or shall I toss the whole basket of WIP's to the side and start making one of these nifty crocheted balls ~

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=59352.0

The symetry of the pattern is intriguing to me, and besides, they're just ... well ... neat!

I also want make some hammocks for the new rats (who, by the way, are seriously adorable) so I might bring out the sewing machine and some fabric and see if I can make something ratworthy.

I also need to go to the library soon and pick up the two knitting books that came in. (You know, so I can start more projects!) The books are Simple Knits with a Twist (for the retro poodle, of course, I'm thinking something in a light turquoise with a collar made of vintage jewelry....) and Knitting on the Edge.

Man, it's one o'clock already and I'm on the computer?? See ya later.......

The Girls Are Home!

I am now the delighted owner of two beautiful hairless rats.
Welcome home Lavender & Florabelle!

Craft Store & Pet Shop

I have been unbelievably tired lately, but still managed to get to a class this morning and then go get stuffing at the craft store! Hurray! I've got WIPs everywhere that just need stuffing and finishing, so hopefully I will have lots of FO pics soon. After the craft store I went next door to the pet store ~ I'm still trying to find some moss rocks for Mango and Sunny. The guy in the fish dept. assured me (again) that they will special order some for me and that it won't be much longer now. I've been hearing this for several weeks, but this time he actually wrote something in an order book, so.... maybe soon. Mango and Sunny are so cute, and have such different personalities. Sunny is mellow, Mango is fiesty. And they are so small! Fisher almost seems like a carp compared to them. :) lol. Fisher is also a calm sort of fish. All three of them are quite sociable and come over to visit when I talk to them. (The tanks are placed so they can't see each other, so they don't get riled up.)

Every time I go to a pet store these days, I go by and visit the rodents. I've been yearning to have rodents in my life again for quite awhile now. Today I saw the most adorable hairless rats, they were a lovely light color.... lavender, almost. So very sweet. I can't stop thinking about them. All my dear little rats have been of the furred variety, I wonder what it is like to pet a hairless one? They look so soft. I've been doing some reading tonight on the net about their special needs and requirements. A lot to consider. Gosh, they were just so cute.

Kaleidoscope Redesign

OK, I frogged back the last row of the motif from yesterday, and after a couple of tries, found another design I like much better as a border. It's simply a row of single crochet, but I crocheted under both top loops. This made a nice-looking seam between the black yarn and the multicolored. When I got to the corners I crocheted into the loops with 5 sets of (sc, ch 1).

Kaleidoscope Motif #1

This is a motif from the Kaleidoscope shawl, from the Patons booklet 'HeatWave' that I mentioned buying the other day. I love how it turned out, although those first two rounds were lulus as far as direction deciphering! I might make a small modification and scale back on the last black row, it's overpowering the center part a bit. I might also make a scarf out of these instead of a whole shawl, I don't know yet.

I'm trying out Blogger's Picture Hosting with this picture! It's really convenient!

Mysteries Revealed!

OK, here is the Mystery Shawl Clue #1 and my first attempt at Blog MouseOver Magic.
Here is the ball of yarn (that's the one I re-dyed with Rit) ~



Mouse Over to see the shawl itself. And you can't see it because it's against the needle, but YES there is a lifeline!

Editing to add: IT WORKS! HOW COOL! A big big Thank You! to Nona Knits where I found the instructions for how to do this.

WIP's Progressing

It took me so long to do that 100 things list ~ I started it in Word about 4 months ago and just added things here and there as I thought of them. I always like reading these lists on people's blogs, and it's interesting how some people say that they were able to write it out really quickly and others say it took them a long time or they couldn't come up with them all. It's a long list!

I finished crocheting the octopus! But I still have to go to the craft store for stuffing. Meanwhile, since this is going to be a heavily embellished octopus, I still have a lot of sewing-on of objects to do.

I also finished Clue #1 on the Mystery Shawl last night! So good to be making some progress on this stack of WIP's, I tell ya. I'm going to try to do that bit of blog-magic where you take a picture, and then hover over it with the mouse and get another picture. First I have to find the directions, and then take some photos.

The '100 Things' Meme (updated)

1. I love animals.
2. My favorite hobbies are knitting, crocheting, mosaic, and paper crafts.
3. The first sweater I ever knitted was Knitty's Sonnet.
4. I enjoy shopping on Etsy and by mail-order.
5. I like stamps. Every month when I send out the billing I try to make sure everyone gets an interesting stamp.
6. I have a great sense of time, but not direction.
7. I'm good with names, but not faces.
8. I remember the names of people's pets.
9. I am partially blind in one eye due to macular degeneration, which happened when I was thirty-five.
10. I had laser surgery in that eye for the condition, they gave me a drug that meant I couldn't get sunlight on myself for five days. I went out every night and visited my garden by moonlight.
11. I enjoyed the first 3 seasons of BTVS. Oz and Willow were my favorite characters.
12. I write fiction.
13. I hate the mall, and shopping for clothes.

14. I enjoy the dog park.
15. I don't wear much makeup. I use the money I save on yarn and tiles.
16. I dream a lot, sometimes in animation.
17. I've been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years, except that I do eat fish. I won't use leather or fur or silk or feathers, but I do use wool.
18. The most wonderful place I ever visited where I instantly felt at home was a big petting zoo at a county fair. They had gigantic horses, and all different kinds of goats and sheep.
19. I read Harry Potter Volumes 1 through 5 in the summer of 2005, all for the first time.
20. The house is pretty well organized, but sometimes cluttered, because I am a crafter, and a sentimental saver.
21. I've been to Curacao, TN and GA, but not anywhere recently. I'm a homebody.
22. I now reside in the same Florida county where I was born.
23. I’d like to see Normandy, France, and Monet’s Gardens at Givernchy.
24. I'm an introvert.
25. I've never been to a concert.
26. I have no tattoos, but if I did, it would be a small curvy green lizard on the back of my right shoulder.
27. I like to draw, so I would design my own.
28. I’d kind of like to have pierced ears, but not enough to actually go do it. (update: did this a couple years ago for my 40th birthday.)
29. I can't remember phone number sequences without writing them down even if I am two steps from the phone. Otherwise I have a great memory.
30. I try to pay attention to spelling and grammar, and be careful about using 'their' 'they're' and 'there', or 'its' and 'it's'. I'm really liberal about punctuation, though.
31. I can never remember whether 'nonplussed' means calm or freaked out. (It means freaked out.) (I think.)
32. I'm a bit OCD about germs and wash my hands frequently.
33. I find cooking stressful.
34. I like to watch for vintage decor and fashions when I watch old TV shows. Like when you see green paper towels in a kitchen. When was the last time you saw a green paper towel?
35. I can usually get pretty close with guessing the year of origin in music and movies.
36. My favorite cuisines are Mexican, Italian, Greek, and Chinese.
37. My favorite genre of books is Fantasy.
38. I have been a passenger on a motorcycle.
39. I know a little Latin, and would love to know more.
40. I think Gaelic is interesting, too, but I can only remember a couple words.
41. 4 things I have seen on TV that made me laugh until I literally cried: the scene in Fawlty Towers where Basil beats his car with a branch, the scene in Fawlty Towers at the end of the episode about the rat, when Basil has finally fainted and Manuel is dragging him through the dining room, the scene in the movie The Burbs where Tom Hanks gets off a gurney, flings it in the back of an ambulance, throws himself on it and rolls to the back, and a real life video clip from America's Funniest Animals where a woman was trying to get a calm but utterly uncooperative cat into a cat carrier, turning him every which way including upside down - all of which he accepts gracefully, and yet, inexplicably, still manages not to go in the carrier.
42. I always wear skirts. I do not own a pair of jeans.
43. I usually have very long hair, and it's usually in a ponytail.
44. I donated a ponytail to Locks of Love.
45. One of my favorite picture books as a child was Peaky Beaky.
46. I'm afraid of spiders but don't harm them.
47. I'm not afraid of snakes. Which is a good thing, because an Indigo snake slid over my head once when I was lying on the porch. Indigo snakes are very beautiful.
48. When I was a child, Christmas tree lights were my favorite decoration. Actually, they still are.
49. I’m an organic gardener.
50. I always wanted to raise earthworms. (update: tried this... let's just say it wasn't a long project)
51. My favorite flowers are marigolds, zinnias, impatiens, and roses.
52. I love the smell of wet, brushed, marigold leaves on the old-fashioned species.
53. Squirrels are welcome at my birdfeeders.
54. I miss finding giant Lubber grasshoppers in the garden; they were beautiful and friendly. Haven’t seen one in years.
55. I love finding frogs and toads in the garden.
56. One of my favorite memories of when I was young was a canoe trip down the Econolahatchee river.
57. I don’t drink soda.
58. I avoid anything with corn syrup in it.
59. I do well on standardized tests.
60. I’ve seen a Roseate Spoonbill in the wild.
61. We used to live in a place that witnessed the annual mass migration of blue crabs. We’d find them everywhere in the yard.
62. Green is my favorite color.
63. I sleep with the bathroom light on.
64. I'm an extreme channel surfer. I'm often watching two or three shows at once.
65. I will not listen to radio commercials or DJ's.
66. I hate coffee. (editing 4/11/06: I USED to hate coffee, but I've acquired a taste for it, now. Sort of. )
67. I must have a CD playing when I drive.
68. One of my favorite possessions is my cow creamer, because I secretly wanted one for years, and then one day I just went out and bought myself one.
69. I use the mouse with my left hand even though I'm right-handed.
70. I get migraines.
71. My favorite flavor of ice cream is a mixture of one quarter chocolate and three quarters vanilla. I also like mint chocolate chip, and cookie dough.
72. My favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry’s was Bovinity Divinity. (BRING IT BACK!)
73. I like milling around the hardware store looking for craft ideas and gardening supplies.
74. I use a timer shaped like a lemon for my laundry, otherwise I forget and leave it in the machine.
75. My kitchen timer is shaped like a pear. I have another one shaped like a cow that moos instead of dings, but it needs batteries.
76. I’m trying to learn to use a drop spindle, but it’s taking longer than I thought.
77. Favorite books are Lord of the Rings, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Harry Potter. I’ve read a lot of other fantastic fantasy books in my life but right now I can’t think of the names.
78. I loved the original three Star Wars movies, but hated the newer ones.
79. My favorite character was Han Solo.
80. My favorite candy in the Hershey Miniatures bag is the Krackle bars.
81. I’m a vegetarian and allergic to smoke, so you can see why the popularity of the BBQ eludes me.
82. I like crosswords, but not if they’re too hard or too easy. They have to be just right. (update: can't do crosswords any more! too small!)
83. I collected vintage swan planters until I had just the right number, and then I stopped.
84. I like to knit while listening to music.
85. My ideal kitchen would have all-white appliances and cupboards, lime green walls, and a fruit & veggie theme.
86. I have a poster of eggplants in the kitchen from 10 Speed Press.
87. My favorite yarn is Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool because it smells softly sheepy, and you can dye it any color you want with Koolaid.
88. I always wanted to be a shepherdess.
89. The art of dyeing with plant materials fascinates me, but I haven't tried it yet.
90. Favorite pizza toppings are black olives, green bell peppers, and onion.
91. I hold doors for people and appreciate the same.
92. My ‘specialty dish’ is key lime pie.
93. I like making cupcakes more than I like making sheet cakes.
94. My favorite perfume is Tea Rose by Perfumers Workshop, but I never wear perfume.
95. I love Coldplay.
96. When I was a kid I collected animal figurines.
97. My idea of a great dinner would be fried fish, french fries, and iced tea.
98. I hold a fondness for 80’s pop culture.
99. I’ve had cats, dogs, rats, mice, hamsters, rabbits, fish, cockatiels, turtles, hermit crabs, and newts for pets. (currently have a little fox terrier mix, delight of my life!)
100. My animals are my children.

TGIF

Mystery Shawl Clue #3 is up! I'm still on Clue #1! This is the first day in a couple of days I've actually felt well enough to knit, so I may spend some time this evening catching up on that.

I want to finish this octopus too, but admit I may have underestimated the tentacle committment required. I mean, I knew I was going to have to make 8 legs, but geez. Well, onward.

I finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday, and I'm happy that I'm now caught up with the rest of the HP fandom on events. Since I arrived a bit late to this particular party, I fully intend to participate in whatever fanfare that may go on when the last book comes out. I will purchase it immediately, and read it as quickly as possible, and maybe knit myself one of those cute little scarf bookmarks a week in advance.

More Miscellany

Please tell me I'm not the only person who's celebrated a weight loss goal by baking cupcakes?? I'm 20 lbs. lighter than I once was, whoo-hoo, and the cupcakes are chocolate with white icing.

I went to the library today and got Harry Potter 6. I was going to wait until closer to 7's arrival, so I could just seque on smoothly from one to the other, but I can't seem to avoid mentions of plot developments. They're everywhere, and in the most unexpected of places, so that they're completely unavoidable. So I thought I'd better just go get the book before I found out any more (like who the half-blood prince is.) The book was actually listed as ON SHELF at the CLOSEST library, so I was able to go straight over and get it. Matter of fact, it was still on the rolling cart at the librarian's desk. Large print edition, even. I'm up to Page 116.

The octopus is rolling right along. >>>>O I keep forgetting to go buy stuffing, though.

Oh, and I won the auction for the book with the alligator pattern in it this morning. Hurray! >"^^^^_____

Hello Blog!

I'm so happy to have my blog back! It disappeared for a while there, but I contacted Blogger and they fixed it very quickly and I am grateful. I've grown quite fond of my little blog.

I have so many things going on in the yarn basket~

I bought some black Rit dye and dyed some yarn black for tiger stripes... it came out a deep charcoal greyish black instead of jet black, because I got impatient about waiting for the dye to soak in, but I like it. I think my tiger will be quite unique. At the moment I'm thinking of making him 2D and felted, rather than 3D and unfelted. Or I might be making 2 tigers.

I started a crocheted octopus.

I'm making a tesselated fish blanket for my cat.

I'm thisclose to buying yet another crochet booklet..... this one has an alligator in it I really like. I'm in Florida, I need a stuffed alligator.

I want to make the crochet frog and the hippo from HERE. I need the frog because I'm a knitter, and the hippo because....... well, who doesn't need a hippo?

I want to make the VEGETABLES from Magknits.

Have a scarf project planned and stash yarn picked out for when my crochet booklet comes.

Still need to finish the rabbit.

AND my beautiful computer is now downloading PDF's so I can catch up on the Mystery Shawl Along 2!!! I cast on with the blue and purple laceweight this afternoon and am up to about Row 10.

I got so excited about being able to get PDF's again that I also dashed off to the Interweave Press site to get these exquisite little HEART SACHETS that I've been eyeing for months.

Kaleidoscope

I just bought a used copy of this crochet booklet: Patons ~ for the express purpose of making the Kaleidoscope Shawl. I like how it's constructed of triangles, and how the triangles have a little floral shape in the center. (I'd leave off the tassels, though.) I also like the little flowers on the hem of the pink halter, those might be cute embellishments on other projects. I won't be making any of the little halters, of course, but you can always use the stitch patterns for other things, and the shawl has enough potential that if I just use it for that it will be worth it.

Mango

I bought another betta on Saturday! Welcome Mango! This makes 3 fish and 3 tanks, so I guess this officially makes me a hobbyist.

Tigery Goodness

I rolled up some of my koolaid dyed yarn with some black yarn and it made a very cute ball of yarn!

Went to the store this morning and discovered that ground cloves are up over $6.50 an ounce. AN OUNCE! So the pumpkin cupcakes I'm making this week will be made with cinnamon and nutmeg only for the spices. Must remember to pick up ginger for pies.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 box of Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic White Cake mix
1/16 teaspoon of ground nutmeg (just use your 1/8 spoon and estimate half)
1/16 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon
1 15-oz can of pumpkin
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine the cake mix and spices in a bowl. Combine everything else in another bowl. Combine the two bowls and beat for two minutes. Pour into cupcake tins with cupcake liners, and bake for 20 minutes or so until done. Frost with cream cheese frosting (I used the store-bought kind in the tub) and store in refrigerator. (these are goooooood served warm!)

Homemade Tiger Yarn

How's this for a potential tiger? Here are the results of various combinations of koolaid.... mango, pina pineapple, and a splash of cherry, and some orange Easter egg dye. I like it!