Long Overdue

Oh, my goodness, is Ann actually posting something? Shocking!

I have given in to peer pressure (read: Mom pressure) to post some pictures of my latest crafty venture: dressmaking.

Please ignore the poor quality of the pictures (and the fact that I'm hot and sweaty) and admire the pretty.This is the first dress I made. It's a slightly lighter grey than it appears here. It's also very lightweight, and it's incredibly comfortable. After I was finished, I went back and added pockets. Seam ripper to the rescue! Now it has everything I could want in a dress.


I'm pretty sure this one came next. Love love love this fabric! I also had to go back and add pockets to this one. Unfortunately I had used the leftover fabric from this dress to make a "knocking around the house" super basic skirt, so I had to use a different fabric for the pockets--but it's hardly noticeable.

Then I went to black and white paisley. (This is the fabric I used for the pockets on the red and black one.) This one and the next one have pockets that the pattern included, so I didn't have to go back later! I've learned my lesson, though. I have another mock-wrap top dress cut out, and I went ahead and cut out the pockets so I can just stick them in the first time! For those who read my Facebook posts, this is my "not a one-hour dress."

Most recently I made this light blue number. Same pattern as the last one. Also took more than an hour.

So there you have it! I also recently made some curtains for my living room out of an old bed sheet, and then used the rest of that fabric to make a "knocking around the house" skirt. I felt very thrifty.

I just took a trip to JoAnn to use the birthday gift my parents gave me. I bought a lovely pair of Gingher dressmaker shears, and a decent pair of pinking shears. I also picked up a yard of fabric. And thanks to the cashier's secret 50% off one item coupon, I only paid $8 for the whole shebang! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Craft Explosion

I think I was conditioned when I was young that rainy, dreary days equal Craft Time. Either that, or nasty weather just naturally awakens my urge to create. We've had some dreary days recently. Add to that the fact that I recently discovered the fun that is Craftzine, and you get a Craft Explosion!

For one thing, I've been obsessively crocheting these:


They are Tunisian Short Row Dishcloths. I've made at least 6, and I've got another one going--I can't stop!


Pippin disapproves of my dishcloth obsession.

I also made a tiny terrarium in a pint mason jar, using some pebbles, some dirt, some moss, two tiny plants, and a plastic dinosaur.
I couldn't get a good side-view without ridiculous glare, so you get a top-view.

Eve would dearly love to play with the dinosaur.

Just last night I finished a basket woven from strips of an old street map. I am not very good at this.

I blame Illinois, whose map I used.


George pretends not to notice the lopsided basket to save me embarrassment.

Finally, I learned how to recycle greeting cards into tiny gift baskets.

They're an excellent size for the stitch markers I can't stop making. (Not pictured.)


These two backyard-dwelling snakes wish I had pictures of stitch markers. Or of their 4 friends.

In other news, our garden is planted with carrots, onions, and 3 kinds of beans. The onions are sprouting beautifully (we planted sets), and the carrots are just poking their noses up. No bean action yet, but those just got planted on Saturday. Yay garden!

Bandwagon

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm seriously fascinated by all of the recent mummy-related news. Most of what I know about Egyptology I learned from Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody series, so don't expect anything profound from me! If you want to learn more, I suggest google. If you're lazy, try Shoveling Ferret, an actual archaeologist whose blog I got to from Samurai Knitter's.

So, no revelations here; I just felt moved to spend part of my lunch hour looking up (probably/definitely) historically-inaccurate Egypt/DNA-related patterns. Unfortunately, they're not all free, but they are all fun!

• Egyptian Mummy (Ravelry link) toy. So cute! I have no idea why I like crafting impractical things so much.
• Egyptian collar (Ravelry link). Again, ridiculously impractial (unless you're the type of person who goes around wearing big, archaic articles of clothing on a daily basis), but I love it.
• Baby's First DNA Model. Aw, it's a toy double helix!
• Chromosome Cap. Lets everyone know that you don't care if it's been more than 3000 years, you will find out who the babydaddy is. (Don't judge me. You like Maury, too.)
• Wings of Horus shawl. Wow--seriously pretty. I especially like the pictures of the one that was blocked so the top edge is curved.
• Cleopatra Socks. Nothing says "tribute to a powerful woman" like wrapping some snakes around your feet in applied i-cord!
• Eye of Horus chart. If you pretend she didn't make the chart because of Stargate, you might feel slightly less geeky using it.

No knitting pictures (or cat pictures) today. I've done some work on David's kilt hose, and bus socks are proceeding nicely. Over the weekend I put a pretty sage green lace edging on a white handkerchief, and I've been working on finishing up my Hexaghan. I'm nearly done with color 4 (out of 5), so it looks like I might eventually actually finish it!

Ann Blogs.

So, um, I'm just going to pretend I'm not the world's worst blogger, and jump right in!

I started a February Lady sweater a few weeks ago, and here's what I have so far.

I love the pretty cranberry color I'm using, and I'm looking forward to having a nice handknit cardigan. But the top-down thing is getting to me--the rows keep getting longer and longer! Plus, I need to work on David's kilt hose before I do much on a big project for myself.

I am working on David's kilt hose, but they really don't photograph well. Picture me halfway through a cuff in navy blue yarn.

And since my car... well, let's not speak of my car. Suffice to say I am riding the bus. Socks are excellent bus knitting.


Now I just need to find the second ball of this yarn...


Pippin wanted to help me show off my Swine Flu Scarf (so named because I knit it during my quarantine). I kind of love it.


Here's Eve, looking kind of stoned. Maybe she got into the catnip stash.


And here is George on my suitcase. She freaking loves that thing. It's her new favorite spot!

I Rule at Groceries

This is not a knitting post, sorry to say.

I just have to crow a bit. The other day, Anne and I sat down and made dinner menus. We did two and a half weeks' worth of (reasonably) nutritious, interesting meal-planning. Then we made a shopping list. Last night we went on the Major Food-Buying Excursion, and even with a few impulse buys and a six-dollar drain snake, our total was under $100.00.

A hundred bucks for two and a half weeks of meals for two adults. To be fair, we had previously gotten quite a bit of meat at Aldi, so there wasn't much meat on our list last night--but still! I feel pretty awesome about our shopping trip, and I'm really excited not to have to think about what to cook for a while.

And Mom, thanks for the menu idea!

I'm Not Dead Yet

We're just going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted in 3 months, m'kay?

I have no pictures to share today, but here's an Ann Update.

• I am working on getting over the swine flu. So far, I've gotten rid of the fever and the body aches, but the cough, sniffles, and fatigue are still hanging around. I'm taking this opportunity to eat ice cream with impunity--I'm sick! I need ice cream!
• During my convalescence, I knit an entire skein of yarn into most of a scarf. Of course, the scarf didn't end up as long as wanted it to be, and I was knitting from stash. I had purchased that particular skein of Patons Classic Wool literally months before I started knitting, and I had only gotten one. I went to the Michael's where I had gotten the yarn, and of all the yarn bins in the store, only one was empty--obviously, it was where the yarn I needed should have been. So after work yesterday I puttered over to the other Michael's in town to look for my yarn, but I wasn't very hopeful. As luck would have it, they had exactly two skeins of my yarn! One had a ballband and the other didn't, so just for kicks, I checked the dyelot on the one with a band. It was the same as my months-old, other-store yarn. Score!
• Quarantine is boring.
• I had a plumbing emergency before I got sick that resulted in lots of Drano-infused water overflowing onto my kitchen floor. I currently have two rooms in my house blocked off so the cats don't get in there and get sick (which will end when I rent a carpet cleaner and get the nasty chemicals out of the carpet). The cats aren't thrilled to have their running-around space basically cut in half. Must rent a Rug Doctor.
• I had something compelling to say when I started this entry, and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.
  

Update: Part Two

Anne made me a birthday cake! It was her first cake, and she made a layer cake. I think she did a fabulous job. Very festive, and extremely tasty. Thanks, Anne! (Also, that's a lot of candles. I'm old.)


Next up we have the Tiny Sweater of Enormous Cuteness, otherwise known as a Baby Surprise Jacket. Extremely interesting construction, and fairly cryptic instructions. I wrote the pattern out row by row, because I need to have things to cross out in order to really keep my place. (I don't trust row counters.) It needs to be washed and blocked, and then it can be sent off to its future wearer's soon-to-be mom. It's cotton, so it should be a good weight for a late-summer baby--not too sweltering. Anne guessed that it's probably about a two-month size.


Of course, you don't get a good idea of its real size in that picture. So what's a knitter to do, when she has neither a baby nor an appropriately sized stuffed animal to model the Tiny Sweater of Enormous Cuteness?

Torture a cat, of course! The sweater is officially Pippin-sized. It fit him very comfortably.

He didn't seem upset by the sweater, just a little perplexed--but I still didn't leave it on him for too long. (This is what comes of me being really tired when I finish a baby sweater and happening to have a shaved cat nearby. It was irresistible.) I can't stop laughing at these pictures, but Bakers, I promise not to start clothing your cat on a regular basis.

Only when I need a small model for knitwear.