Two Posts in One

So, I haven't been posting, and unlike most times, it is not because I've ceased crafting. It is because I'm a lazy jerk who values reading crappy books and playing silly videogames over blogging at times. I know! I suck. Also, Facebook (FRIEND ME!) and Flickr. They kill me by sucking up time.

Anyway, as I've said, I've been crafting. Helen has been knitting and favoriting fingerless mitts on Ravelry, and finally we decided to do a KAL on two different mitts. The first was Sophy's pattern, the Friendship Fingerless Mitts (ravel it). I finished those very quickly and will have pictures of it in Ravelry and on my blog soon! I will gush over them appropriately in their own post. We plan to do the Endpaper Mitts next, but I need to get the yarn, as does Helen. (This will be my first foray into colorwork!)

As I mentioned in a previous post, Helen is the fastest knitter in the world, and she is once again tempting me to try my hand at Continental knitting. Is it that much faster or is she just a very quick knitter? She's made a bevy of adorable hats, and if she does Thorpe, I might ask for a KAL on that too since my brother-in-law wants that.

I also did a burp cloth or two for my sewing. They are cute, but nothing spectacular, so no pics, and no love for them. (I will note that one is an adorable flannel one with penguins sledding. I love the fabric's whimsy.)

Now, as to Podcasts -- some updates first. Knitting at Night has gone by the wayside of my podcasts, and I deleted it from my subscriptions last night. It was a fine podcast, but the podcaster never managed to get organized. I liked her conversational style, but others such as Never Not Knitting do it better and more smoothly. As I have a limited amount of time and a numerous amount of podcasts, I dropped it. I'm thinking of dropping Knit Pick's Podcast. I still like it, but Kelley seems to only do interviews any more, and I don't even super care for her essays lately. Her voice is very stilted and slow during those sections, while being so much more spontaneous during her "What I'm Knitting Now" sections. I've been sticking with it, though, because I still like the odd show enough to keep with it.

I've tried Sticks and Strings, and I liked the latest episodes well enough to go back and listen to some of the early ones. The same is true of DestiKnit. I will give an in-depth review of both soon. I've only listened to three of DestiKnit, and six of Sticks and Strings, so I want to listen to a bit more of each before giving a more final word on them.

So, posts I want to do in the future: highlighting other people's finished projects, comment answers, and Friendship Fingerless Mitts finished project page!

2009 Crafting Resolutions

I know that I owe some other posts to you guys (and that's how you know I'm from Philly, 'you guys'!), but I need to get my resolutions out before this year passes, you dig?

So, without further ado, here are some of my crafting resolutions. These are the resolutions I've thought of in the last two minutes or so.

1. I will make more cupcakes. I've been wanting to improve my cake decorating skills, but solely in the field of cupcakes. What am I waiting for? How will I ever make the best cupcakes in the world if I don't start improving my skillz?

2. I'd like to make some holiday pillowcases using my sewing skills. ANY HOLIDAY will work at this point, and I'm counting birthdays as a holiday. These pillowcases would be for my bed pillows.

3. I'd like to make Paula (and myself) some Halloween table napkins, much like my Thanksgiving napkins. In fact, I'd just like to make some more table napkins since I feel fancy when I use them, and they're now out of season.

4. Knit with Malabrigo yarn.

5. Use up some of my stash.

6. Knit several pairs of socks, but try Shaeffer Anne, Dream in Color Smooshy, and Duet Sock Yarn for some of those socks.

7. Sew a skirt.

8. Learn the skills to make my favorite dress pattern ever. I don't need to make the dress this year, but I need to get more skills.

9. Blog at least once a week.

10. Knit a sweater.

11. Lose some damned weight. (Only crafting related because it means I can buy less yarn/fabric to make clothing items!)

Finished Projects 2008

Two thousand and eight was a good year for my crafting, believe it or not. I did quite a bit of knitting, pre-Nathan, and even a bit more after he was born. I got a sewing machine and learned some basics of sewing.



I am pretty proud of everything I did minus the bibs and the Ballband Dishcloth. I'm especially proud of the Cotton Booties and the Spiral Boot Socks. I wish I had some of the items here that I finished but didn't get pictures of, such as my mom's Apron (sewing) and Isaac's Baby Blanket (knitting).

My favorite finished object of 2008?

Nathaniel

Ahem, Ahem -- Is This Thing On?

It's been about eight billion years, friends! I had so many blog posts I could have made too, but Paul took two weeks off, and I spent the majority of those two weeks chilling, relaxing, and maxing, or whatnot. I didn't knit a lot, but I did sew some. I don't have ANY pictures of my knitting or sewing too.

My first post now that I'm back is one that it is long overdue. A while back, Helen told me of a person she knew that had a knitting blog and who was a new mother. Since I had earlier this year met Sophy by blog, I was feeling positive about blogging friends, so I checked out the blog, which is called little feet, big sky.

I ended up liking the blog quite a bit, so I wrote to the blog author via Ravelry, where she is known as 'ecofriendlybaby'. She was extremely friendly and willing to message me about being a mother -- and that's my favorite topic nowadays. (Besides how much I love Pushing Daisies and how people suck for not watching it. It's just as well Pushing Daisies is dying. I'm sure people were tired of hearing me bitch and moan about Veronica Mars dying. I have a new show to bitch about now, folks!)

Anyway, where was I? Yes! So, this year, ECB sent me a lovely lovely package. It was a sock bag from The Tipsy Knitter. Well, I've been thinking about getting a sock knitting bag for awhile, so I was thrilled as all get out to receive this. Look how pretty it is too!



She did not know it, but I'm a sucker for Neapolitan coloured items too. Pink, brown, and white is one of my favorite color combinations. (I also like pink and green, blue and cream and brown, mint and brown, orange and blue, red and green, and apparently every color with every other color.) Do you see my Pomatomus socks peeking out of the bag? I've gotten next to nothing done on them!

Inside the bag, at the time of the gifting, there was some Knit Picks Bare sock yarn.



I'm thinking it is time for some Kool-Aid dying, no? Only, I'm having problems picking which shade I want to dye with.

This was a terrific gift! Thank you so much!

(Upcoming posts, knitting/sewing round-up 2008, knitting/sewing resolutions 2009, why Helen is the fastest knitter in the world, answers to comments on my blog posts, podcast reviews, highlighting other blogger's finished projects, and more!)