Wednesday, July 06, 2011

hello!

I hadn't realized how long it's been since I posted. I have several finished knitting projects finished and photographed, but I haven't taken the time to upload the pics yet. Somehow that part is always a chore for me. I've been doing "Photo of the Day" forever as well, but then again, uploading them usually doesn't get done in a timely manner!

I've neglected LJ as well, but had to check all the wonderful birthday messages over there. I do check certain journals and communities there, but rarely post.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

News of the Weird, May 22, 2011


WEIRDNUZ.M215 (News of the Weird, May 22, 2011)
by Chuck Shepherd

Copyright 2011 by Chuck Shepherd.  All rights reserved.

Lead Story

* Tonya McDowell, 33, an off-and-on homeless person in
Bridgeport, Conn., was arrested in April by police in nearby
Norwalk and charged with felony theft--of $15,686 worth of
"services" from the city.  McDowell's crime was enrolling her 6-
year-old son in Norwalk's Brookside Elementary School when she
actually "resided" (as much as a mostly "homeless" person can
"reside") in Bridgeport.  McDowell has also "resided" at times in a
Norwalk shelter but was crashing at a friend's apartment in
Bridgeport when she registered her son.  The head of the Norwalk
Board of Education acknowledged that the usual consequence for an
unqualified student is merely dismissal from school. [Stamford
Advocate, 4-16-2011]

The Continuing Crisis

* In March, jurors in New Orleans convicted Isaiah Doyle of a 2005
murder and were listening to evidence in the penalty phase of the
trial when Doyle decided to take the witness stand (as defendants
sometimes do in a desperate attempt to avoid the death penalty).
However, Doyle said to the jurors, "If I had an AK-47, I'd kill every
last one of ya'all with no remorse."  (The jury recommended the
needle.)  [WWL-TV (New Orleans), 3-25-2011]

* The Montana House of Representatives passed a tough drunk-
driving bill in March to combat the state's high DUI rate, but it
came over the objection of Rep. Alan Hale (and later, Sen. Jonathan
Windy Boy).  Hale, who owns a bar in Basin, Mont., complained
that tough DUI laws "are destroying small businesses" and
"destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and
years."  (Until 2005, drinking while driving was common and legal
outside of towns as long as the driver wasn't drunk.)  Furthermore,
Hale said, people need to drive home after they drink.  "[T]hey are
not going to hitchhike."  Sen. Windy Boy said such laws put the
legislature on "the path of criminalizing everyone in Montana."
[Billings Gazette-AP, 4-1-2011]

* Why Unions Are Unpopular:  The police officers' union in
Scranton, Pa., filed a state unfair labor practice complaint in April
against Chief Dan Duffy because he arrested a man whom he caught
violating a warrant and possessing marijuana.  According to the
union contract, only union members can "apprehend and arrest"
lawbreakers, and since the chief is "management," he should have
called an officer to make the arrest.  The union president suggested
that, with layoffs threatened, the chief doesn't need to be taking
work away from officers.  [Times-Tribune (Scranton), 4-19-2011]

* Conventional academic wisdom is that the death penalty is not an
effective deterrent to homicide, but according to accused murderer
Dmitry Smirnov, it deterred him from killing Ms. Jitka Vesel in
Oak Brook, Ill.--until March, that is, when Illinois's death penalty
was repealed.  Prosecutors said Smirnov, from Surrey, British
Columbia, told them he decided to come to Illinois and kill Vesel
(in cold blood, over an online relationship gone bad) only after
learning through Internet research that the state no longer had
capital punishment.  [Chicago Sun-Times, 4-15-2011]

Cavalcade of Rednecks

* (1) Shelly Waddell, 36, was cited by police in February in
Waterville, Maine, after "a couple of" drivers reported seeing two
children riding on the roof of the van she was driving early one
morning.  Waddell told police she was in fact delivering newspapers
to customers but denied that the kids were on the roof.  (2) At the
Niceville, Fla., Christmas parade on December 4th, a municipal
employee was arrested when he stepped up onto a city truck that
was part of the parade and challenged the driver (who apparently
was a colleague).  The employee accused the driver of "taking [my]
overtime" hours for the previous two years and ordered him out of
the truck so he could "whip your ass."  (The employee was charged
with disorderly intoxication.) [WMTW-TV (Portland, Maine)-AP,
2-24-2011] [Northwest Florida Daily News, 12-10-2010]

Bright Ideas

* Louis "Shovelhead" Garrett is an artist, a mannequin collector,
and a quilter in the eastern Missouri town of Louisiana, with a
specialty in sewing quilts from women's panties, according to a
report in the Hannibal Courier-Post.  After showing his latest quilt
at a women's luncheon in Hannibal in March, he told the newspaper
of his high standards:  "No polyester.  I don't want those cheap,
dollar-store, not-sexy, farm-girl panties.  I want classy--silk or
nylon." [Hannibal Courier-Post, 3-24-2011]

Oops!

* Arifinito (he goes by one name), a member of the Indonesian
parliament, resigned in April after a news photographer in the
gallery zoomed in on the tablet computer he was watching to
capture him surfing Internet pornography sites.  Arifinito's
conservative Islamic Prosperous Justice Party campaigned for a
tough anti-pornography law in 2008 (which the photographer's video
shows Arifinito likely violating). [AlJazeera.net, 4-11-2011]

* Wheeee!  (1) In March, in Pierce County, Wash., a sewer worker,
37, came loose from a safety line and slid about 3,000 feet through a
6-foot-diameter sewer pipe at the Chambers Creek Wastewater
Treatment Plant.  He "could have drowned," according to one
rescuer, but he was taken to a hospital with "minor injuries."  (2)
Firefighters in Gilbert, Ariz., rescued Eugene Gimzelberg, 32, in
March after he had climbed down a 40-foot sewer hole--naked.
Gimzelberg said he had smoked PCP and marijuana and consumed
hallucinogenic mushrooms.  He was hospitalized in critical
condition. [Tacoma News-Tribune, 3-21-2011] [Arizona Republic,
3-3-2011]

Chutzpah!

* Jacob Barnett, 12, an Asperger's-syndrome-fueled math genius
who maxed out on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and
is now enrolled at IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University
Indianapolis), told an Indianapolis Star reporter in March that his
next project is about proving the Big Bang theory all wrong.  But if
not the Big Bang, asked the reporter, how do we exist?  Said Jacob,
"I'm still working on it."  "I have an idea, but . . . I'm still working
out the details."  (Hint:  Jacob's major point of skepticism is that the
Big Bang doesn't account neatly for carbon.)  Said his (biological)
mother, Kristine Barnett, 36, "I flunked math.  I know this did not
come from me."  [Indianapolis Star, 3-20-2011]

* Overreaching:  (1) In April, Texas state Rep. John Davis of
Houston proposed a tax break--aimed at buyers of yachts valued at
more than a quarter-million dollars.  Davis promised more yacht
sales and, through a ripple effect, more jobs if Texas capped the
sales tax on yachts at the amount due on a $250,000 vessel--a break
of almost $16,000 on a $500,000 boat.  (2) Adam Yarbrough, 22,
ticketed by a female police officer in Indianapolis in March after he
was observed swerving in and out of traffic on an Interstate
highway, allegedly compounded the problem first by offering the
cop "five dollars" to "get rid of this ticket" and then by "[H]ow
about I give you a kiss?"  Felony bribery charges were filed.  (Bonus
Fact:  Yarbrough was riding a moped.)  [San Antonio Express-
News, 4-24-2011] [Indianapolis Star, 3-14-2011]

Least Competent Criminals

*  Marissa Mark, 28, was indicted in March in Allentown, Pa., for
hiring a hit man in 2006 via the then-active website
HitManForHire.com, agreeing to pay $37,000 to have a California
woman killed (though prosecutors have not revealed the motive).
Mark allegedly made traceable payments through the PayPal service
(which in recent years has righteously refused to process
transactions involving online gambling or the WikiLeaks document
dumps but which in 2006 did in fact handle payments for
HitManForHire.com).  The hit man site was run by an Egyptian
immigrant, who told the Las Vegas Sun in 2008 that he would never
contract for murder but sought to make money by double-crossing
clients and alerting (for a fee) the intended victims. [Allentown
Morning Call, 3-22-2011; Las Vegas Sun, 7-20-2008]

A News of the Weird Classic (October 1992)

* The local board of health closed down the Wing Wah Chinese
restaurant in South Dennis, Mass., briefly in August [1992] for
various violations.  The most serious, said officials, was the
restaurant's practice of draining water from cabbage by putting it in
cloth laundry bags, placing the bags between two pieces of plywood
in the parking lot, and driving over them with a van.  Said Health
Director Ted Dumas, "I've seen everything now." [Brewster Oracle,
8-21-92]

    Thanks This Week to Chris Schulman and Michael
Bellesiles and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial
Advisors.

                 * * * * *
    Are you ready for News of the Weird / Pro Edition?  See it every
Monday at http://NewsoftheWeird.blogspot.com.  Other handy
addresses:  WeirdNews at earthlink dot net,
http://www.NewsoftheWeird.com, and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL
33679.

-

Posted via email from Fab's posterous

Wednesday May 25, 2011: Reference.com On This Day

I'm embarrassed for them, since they obviously have no clue about it being Towel Day.  

What color is yours?  :)


Reference.com On This Day Reference.com On This Day

On This Day:
Wednesday May 25, 2011

This is the 145th day of the year, with 220 days remaining in 2011.

Fact of the Day: redwoods

Redwoods are the tallest living trees; they often exceed 90 m (300 feet) in height, and one has reached 112.1 m (367.8 feet). Their trunks reach typical diameters of 3 to 6 m (10 to 20 feet) or more, measured above the swollen bases. The redwood tree takes 400 to 500 years to reach maturity, and some trees are known to be more than 1,500 years old. The redwood's insect-, fungus-, and fire-resistant bark is reddish brown, fibrous, deeply furrowed, and 30 cm (12 inches) or more thick on an old tree. A coast redwood can grow to be 130 feet tall in just 30 years.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Madeleine Barat, St. Gregory VII, pope, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, St. Urban, St. Zenobius, St. Leo of Mantenay, St. Dionysius of Milan, St. Gennadius of Astorga, and St. Bede.
Argentina: Revolution Day / Veintecinco de Mayo.
Jordan: Independence Day.
Chad, Zambia: African Freedom Day; Zimbabwe: Africa Day (Organization of African Unity formed 1963).
New Mexico: Memorial Day.

Events

1234 - The Mongols took Kaifeng and destroyed the Chin dynasty.
1660 - Charles II, the exiled king of England, landed at Dover, England, to assume the throne and end 11 years of military rule.
1768 - James Cook sailed on his first voyage of discovery, on which he explored the Society Islands and charted the coasts of New Zealand and West Australia.
1787 - The Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia with 55 delegates (a quorum) to compose the Constitution of the United States of America.
1793 - In Baltimore, Maryland, Father Stephen Theodore Badin became the first Catholic priest to be ordained in the United States.
1914 - The British House of Commons passed the Irish Home Rule bill.
1925 - John T. Scopes was indicted in Tennessee for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
1927 - Ford Motor Company announced the end of the Model T and its replacement by the Model A.
1927 - The "Movietone News" was shown for the first time at the Sam Harris Theatre in New York City.
1935 - Babe Ruth hit the 714th and final home run of his career, for the Boston Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1935 - American athlete Jesse Owens set a record six world records in less than one hour in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1946 - Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom.
1968 - The Gateway Arch in St. Louis was dedicated.
1979 - An American Airlines DC-10 crashed during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, killing 275 people.
1992 - Jay Leno made his debut as permanent host of NBC's "Tonight Show," succeeding Johnny Carson.
1997 - Strom Thurmond (R, SC) became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, with 41 years and 10 months in office.
2003 - NĂ©stor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem.

Births

1803 - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher, poet.
1878 - Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, legendary tap dancer.
1886 - Philip Murray, American labor leader, founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
1889 - Igor Sikorsky, American aviation engineer, developed the helicopter.
1892 - Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavian soldier and president.
1898 - Bennett Cerf, American publisher.
1921 - Hal David, American songwriter.
1926 - Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter.
1936 - Tom T. Hall, American country balladeer, songwriter, and country singer.
1963 - Mike Myers, Canadian-born comic actor.
1970 - Jamie Kennedy, (born James Harvey Kennedy), American comedian and actor.

Deaths

1981 - Fredric Warburg, English publisher best known for his association with the British author George Orwell.
1996 - Bradley Nowell, American singer and guitarist for the band Sublime.
2005 - Graham Kennedy, Australian radio, television, and film performer.
2006 - Desmond Dekker (born Desmond Adolphus Dacres), Jamaican ska and reggae singer and songwriter.

Reference.com On This Day
http://www.reference.com/thisday/



Posted via email from Fab's posterous

Friday, March 18, 2011

News of the Weird, March 6, 2011


WEIRDNUZ.M204 (News of the Weird, March 6, 2011)
by Chuck Shepherd

Copyright 2011 by Chuck Shepherd.  All rights reserved.

Lead Story

* Tombstone, Ariz., which was the site of the legendary 1881
"Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (made into a 1957 movie), is about 70
miles from the Tucson shopping center where a U.S.
Congresswoman, a federal judge, and others were shot in January.
A Los Angeles Times dispatch later that month noted that the "Wild
West" of 1881 Tombstone had far stricter gun control than present-
day Arizona.  The historic gunfight occurred when the marshal
(Virgil Earp, brother of Wyatt) tried to enforce the town's no-carry
law against local thugs.  Today, however, with few restrictions and
no licenses required, virtually any Arizonan 18 or older can carry a
handgun openly, and those 21 or older can carry one concealed.
[Los Angeles Times, 1-23-2011]

Leading Economic Indicator

* The government of Romania, attempting both to make amends for
historical persecution of fortune-telling "witches" and to collect
more tax revenue, amended its labor law recently to legalize the
profession.  However, "queen witch" Bratara Buzea, apparently
speaking for many in the soothsaying business, told the Associated
Press in February that official recognition might make witches
legally responsible for future events that are beyond their control.
Already, witches are said to be fighting back against the government
with curses--hurling poisonous mandrake plants into the Danube
River and casting a special spell involving cat dung and a dead dog.
[BBC News 1-6-2011; USA Today-AP, 2-8-2011] [UPDATE:  The
government backed down!  (Agence France-Presse, 3-1-2011)]

Compelling Explanations

* British loyalist Michael Stone still claims it was all a
misunderstanding--that he did not intend to assassinate Irish
Republican Army political leaders in 2006, despite being arrested at
the Northern Ireland legislature carrying knives, an axe, a garotte,
and a bag of explosives that included flammable liquids, gas
canisters, and fuses.  He was later convicted, based on his having
detonated one explosive in the foyer and then carrying the other
devices into the hall to confront the leaders, but he continued to
insist that he was merely engaged in "performance art."  (In January
2011, the Northern Ireland court of appeal rejected his claim.) [The
Guardian (London), 1-6-2011]

* Phyllis Stevens, 59, said she had no idea she had embezzled
nearly $6 million until her employer, Aviva USA, of Des Moines,
Iowa, showed her the evidence.  She said it must have been done by
the "hundreds" of personalities created by her dissociative identity
disorder (including "Robin," who was caught trying to spend
Stevens's remaining money in Las Vegas just hours after the
showdown with Aviva).  Stevens and her spouse had been spending
lavishly, buying properties, and contributing generously to political
causes.  As the "core person," Stevens said she will accept
responsibility but asked a federal judge for leniency.  (The
prosecutor said Stevens is simply a thief.) [Des Moines Register, 1-
21-2011] [UPDATE:  Six years in prison. (WOI-TV (Des Moines),
2-22-2011)]

* Thomas Walkley, a lawyer from Norton, Ohio, was charged in
January with indecent exposure for pulling his pants down in front
of two 19-year-old males, but Walkley said he was merely
"mentoring" at-risk boys.  He said it is a technique he had used with
other troubled youths, especially the most difficult cases, by getting
them "to think differently."  Said Walkley, "Radical times call for
radical measures." [American Bar Association Journal, 1-18-2011]

Ironies

* U.S. News & World Report magazine, and the National Council
on Teacher Quality, announced plans recently to issue grades (A, B,
C, D, and F) on how well each of the U.S.'s 1,000-plus teachers'
colleges develop future educators, but the teachers of teachers
appear to be sharply opposed to the very idea of being issued
"grades."  The project's supporters cited school principals'
complaints about the quality of teachers applying for jobs, but the
teachers' college representatives criticized the project's measurement
criteria as overly simplistic. [New York Times, 2-9-2011]

* Police were out in force in September as schools opened in
Toronto, writing 25 school-zone-speeding tickets in the first two
hours.  One of the 25 was issued to the driver of a school bus,
caught speeding through a school zone trying to avoid being late at
a pickup point further down the road. [CTV News (Toronto), 2-7-
2010]

The Litigious Society

* Paul Mason, 50, an ex-letter-carrier in Ipswich, England, told
reporters in January he would file a lawsuit against Britain's
National Health Service for negligence--because it allowed him to
"grow" in recent years to a weight of nearly 900 pounds.  Mason
said he "begged" for NHS's help in 1996 when he weighed 420 but
was merely told to "ride your bike more."  Last year, he was finally
allowed gastric surgery, which reduced him to his current 518.  At
his heaviest, Mason estimates he was consuming 20,000 calories a
day. [The Sun (London), 1-7-2011]

Update

* Life is improving for some Burmese Kayan women who, fleeing
regular assaults by soldiers of the military government of Myanmar,
become valuable exhibits at tourist attractions in neighboring
Thailand--because of their tribal custom of wearing heavy metal
rings around their necks from an early age.  The metal stacks weigh
11 pounds or more and depress girls' clavicles, giving them the
appearance of elongated necks, which the tribe (and many tourists)
regard as exotic.  While human rights activists heap scorn on these
Thai "human zoos" of ring-necked women, a  Nacogdoches, Tex.,
poultry plant recently began offering some of the women a more
attractive choice--lose the rings and come work in Texas, de-boning
chickens. [Global Post, 1-31-2011] [KTRE-TV (Nacogdoches), 1-
12-2011]

People With Issues

* Although police in Mount Vernon, Ohio, aren't sure of the motive,
they know (according to records made public in February) that the
murderer-kidnaper Matthew Hoffman was arrested in November in
a living room piled three feet high with leaves and a bathroom
containing 110 bags of leaves attached to the walls.  Hoffman, an
unemployed tree-trimmer, later confessed to the kidnap and rape of
a 13-year-old girl (whom he kept in a basement on a pallet of
leaves) and had stuffed the bodies of his three murder victims in a
hollow tree.  An expert on serial killers told ABC News that trees
might have given Hoffman comfort, but police haven't discounted
that the leaves were there merely to help him later torch the house.
[Columbus Dispatch, 2-9-2011]

Least Competent Criminals

* Not Ready For Prime Time:  (1) Jose Demartinez, 35, was
hospitalized in Manchester, N.H., in January.  With police in
pursuit, he had climbed out a hotel window using tied-together bed
sheets, but they came undone, and he fell four stories.  (2) Detected
burglarizing a house in Summerfield, Fla., in January, Laird Butler
fled through a window but not from police.  The homeowner's dog
had frightened Butler, who crashed through the glass, cut himself
badly, and bled to death in a neighbor's yard.  (3) Kevin Funderburk,
25, was charged with sexual assault of a 71-year-old woman in her
Hutchinson, Kan., home in December.  By the time his mug shot
was taken, he was in a neck brace--from the victim's frying-pan-
swinging defense. [WMUR-TV (Manchester), 1-10-2011] [WESH-
TV (Orlando), 1-5-2011] [Hutchinson News, 12-15-2010]

Recurring Themes

* (1) During an early-January freeze, an 8-year-old boy, standing
across the street from Woodward (Okla.) Middle School, apparently
fell for the traditional dare from his brother and licked a metal pole.
He had to wait on his tiptoes for emergency responders to come
unstick him.  (2) In January, John Finch, 44, of Wilmington, Del.,
became the latest alleged burglar to break in (through a window)
and be unable either to climb back out or figure out the automatic
locks on the doors (and thus be forced to call 911 on himself to be
rescued). [Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, N.D.)-AP, 1-12-2011]
[WCAU-TV (Philadelphia), 1-7-2011]

A News of the Weird Classic (July 1996)

* The Wall Street Journal reported in March [1996] that New York
City photographer (and former Electrolux vacuum cleaner
salesman) Eugene Calamari Jr. is a part-time artist who lies on the
floor and lets people vacuum him with an upright cleaner, after
which he asks the vacuumers to please write down their feelings.
According to Calamari, "A lot of people use each other and step on
each other's rights."  The theme he intends to convey, he said, is "I
won't let anyone do this to me." [Wall Street Journal, 3-27-1996]

    Thanks This Week to David Stephenson, Sandy Pearlman,
Paul Evans, Chuck Gardner, Alex Hooke, and Brian Taylor, and to
News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.

                 * * * * *
    Are you ready for News of the Weird / Pro Edition?  See it every
Monday at http://NewsoftheWeird.blogspot.com.  Other handy
addresses:  WeirdNews at earthlink dot net,
http://www.NewsoftheWeird.com, and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL
33679.

Posted via email from Fab's posterous

Monday, February 07, 2011

Interchangeable needles

Can't decide which ones to buy? Here's a "Try it" set from Knitpicks.

https://www.knitpicks.com/needles/TRY_IT_Needle_Set__D90589.html

No, I don't work for them, but I do love "window shopping!" I wonder if it's possible for a wishlist to explode. LOL

some new yarn ideas

Knitpicks has a huge sale on books, so as I'm lusting after books I "need" but can't afford, I noticed the "new yarn" tab. Hoo boy! Purdy stuff! Thank goodness it's free to look!

http://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Chroma_Worsted_Yarn__D5420204.html

I really like the garter stitch square scarf pattern that features this yarn. It looks similar to something else I might have in my pattern file, so this might be my next project.

Destashing, baby!

Free hug day!

Hey, it's free hug day-who needs one? :D

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Dropped stitch cowl pattern

I hate it when someone "claims" a common pattern as something original, but hey, I think I'll do it now! Haha! But only because I couldn't find what I wanted. I'm far from a "pattern designer," but I did go to the trouble (haha!) to write it up. Please let me know if I've skipped or forgotten something, since I just sort of started knitting and hoped for the best. :)

I had some Lana Gatto Aquamarina yarn from Hearthstone that I'd bought for the "Holy Cow(l)" in a previous post. I didn't want to do another just like it, although that was a fun pattern, so I started looking around for something similar. I really like doing the Seafoam/Dropped Stitch pattern, so thought I'd use this stitch pattern for a cowl. Pretty easy, actually, not really a pattern.

Here's the yarn: http://www.diamondyarn.com/d/yarn/52-aquamarina/




Mine ended up about 30-32 inches in the round, so adjust your stitch count accordingly. Gauge isn't crucial for this pattern, so you can use any yarn and any needles that give you the look you want. The gauge for this ended up about 18 st/24 rows per 4" square.

Using a worsted weight yarn, CO 120 (any multiple of 10) stitches on 24" size 8 circular needles. Be careful when you join or you'll end up with a twist. Hmmm...maybe a twist would be kind of fun. :)

Repeat pattern (rounds 1-8) until desired length, ending with round 2 (purl), then bind off knitwise.

Dropped Stitch Pattern

Round 1 Knit
Round 2 Purl
Round 3 (YO, K1, YO 2 times, K1, YO 3 times, K1, YO 2 times, K1, YO, K6) repeat to end of round.
Round 4 Purl, dropping all YOs as you go. You will have 120 stitches on your needles again.
Round 5 Knit
Round 6 Purl
Round 7 (K5, YO, K1, YO 2 times, K1, YO 3 times, K1, YO 2 times, K1, YO, K1) repeat to end of
round.
Round 8 Purl, dropping all YOs as you go. You will have 120 stitches on your needles again.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right? LOL

And looks like you get a double dose of my knitting in this pic. The brown wrap/throw is one I made years ago, using a simple feather and fan stitch and some mohair yarn. Come to think of it, I might have some more of that in a different color in my stash!

Since I can't afford to buy anything new right now, I have taken to shopping in my stash. :)

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Pay it forward coffee cup cozies

Crowned Glory Scarf -KAL

Finished. I'll most likely do another one, adding a few triangles to the first part. I didn't know if the first part took more yardage than the second part, so stopped where the pattern said. I probably would have had enough left in my first skein to add a couple more triangles. Used 2 skeins of Mochi Plus, which is a beautiful yarn. I would definitely use it again in another project.


Monday, January 17, 2011

cup cozy

My friend Monica's birthday is Flag Day, so I'm always on the lookout for something patriotic for her. I had some of that stars and stripes yarn left over from a pair of socks, and since she drinks coffee, I thought I'd make her a takeout cup holder for her. It's my own design (teehee), simply CO 60 on size 2 needles, and do a 2x2 rib until you think it's tall enough. I stopped at about 4 inches, since that seemed to be where the pattern started again.

Holy Cow(l)! :D

This was a really fun pattern to do. It's a freebie from my LYS, Hearthstone Knits, when you buy the yarn. The yarn is Aquamarina by Lana Gatto, in the Carnival colorway, which can be found here: http://www.diamondyarn.com/d/yarn/52-aquamarina/
I modified the pattern just a bit to make it a big bigger around. It's still tall enough! It's very nice and warm, and adds just enough warmth w/o bulk.

I have 2 skeins in the blue colorway to make another one, but I think I'll use a different stitch pattern.

Late Christmas socks

I started these for the DH a few weeks before Christmas. Then the boy informed me he needed boot socks, which are the green ones. Nothing fancy, just the regular sock pattern I normally use, which isn't a pattern, just a "recipe" of sorts. Green ones are Sock-Ease, which is very nice to use. Purple/beige ones are Hobby Lobby's Walk Away brand, which is TERRIBLE! It has an elastic core, which is normally not a problem, but this was splitty, and had several rough spots in the yarn. Nope, not gonna buy that again!