Procrastinating

Right now, I should be cleaning, baking, writing worksheets, or, well, any of a hundred things on my to-do list. Instead I am playing on the computer.

All right, it's time to get off the computer and get started on today.

Or maybe I should just eat breakfast...

Please tip head sideways...(click to embiggen)

Plus, I drew a comic!

The husband has been working night shift, so this morning he slept in. I decided to pretend to be a productive person. If you did decide to tip your head, you can see that I have switched from hat knitting obsessions to finger puppet making.

Knitting action has still been occurring. I am working on dishcloths and some legwarmers for Christmas gifts.

Not so Bloggy

So I haven't posted much in the last month. I (along with almost everyone else I know) have had a very bad cold. Much whining was heard.

Knitting action was curtailed, although I did manage to knock out one small brown hat with ears and a pair of pink legwarmers. (The pink legwarmers are for a child...although having watched some ballet dancers outside the other day, I can see why grownups might like them).

I am enjoying having the Olympics in town. I didn't get any tickets to events and will probably not do so, but I have wandered around looking at pavilions.

Russia House had a very long line, so we did not go in. There were dancers and singers in what I presume were Russian costumes out front, though.

House of Switzerland was a restaurant. Not too pricey, and mmmm...cheese fondue. It was very good. The line was very long, and while we (husband and I) were waiting, they offered people espresso and chocolates. I ate both of our chocolates, heehee.

Other than that, I have only actually been inside the Coke advertisement (lots of kid friendly activities plus a free bottle of coke), the Panasonic advertisement (meh), and Casa Italia (free cheese!)

My friend and I went downtown a couple of times and basically stood in random lineups. This snagged us free coffee (Starbucks Via), free gum (Excel), free Cheerios and a t-shirt, some pins, and a lip balm (Vitamin Water's vitaminschtick). It was fun to look at things.

I am definitely going to go to more of the pavilions. It's just hard because the lineups are so long...

hmmm...

okay, the fusing part made a kind of stiff plastic. I found that with 8 layers, I ended up with little holes, and decided to solve that by adding more layers. So I ended up with 12 layers and it's too thick.

Off to hunt for more plastic bags. And I guess some breakfast would be good too...maybe a scone?

Trying new things

So I've been sick with a cold for the past week, and have had very little energy for anything. I've been knitting a pair of legwarmers. Legwarmers, while cute and oh so 80s, are incredibly dull knitting.

So I thought I should try some different things around here. I'm kind of in a rut where I knit the same things, bake the same things, etc.

Yesterday was the great scone experiment. I followed this recipe (using cranberries instead of currants)... and the scones came out tasting pretty good, but rather funny looking. My taste tester said they were good, so I guess it's a partial success. (He also made several comments involving Koom Valley, so maybe he was just being nice?)

Today I'm going to try this. I did enter the giveaway, but I'm going to try making my own. I like the idea of making my own material out of plastic bags. I wonder if those vegetable bags you get from the grocery store will work, or if it has to be the thicker kind? I'm going to start with regular bags because experimenting too much might lead to disappointment. I can experiment with different materials once I've tried it a few times.

weaving in ends.

Okay, I really like knitting. I like picking out patterns, I like casting on, and I like the process of knitting. But you know how when you eat a meal, it's best to eat the part you don't like first so that you can end with your favourite foods?

















Why does weaving in have to be at the end?



(this hat is a very quick hat for a student. He asked for green. I don't like how the decreases came out, I have to remember for next time so that I don't make the same mistake again).

(Who am I kidding? I'm definitely going to forget again).

frogged!

I had to frog the brown hat. It wasn't coming out the shape that I wanted, and I think I should add earflaps.

Sigh.

Not much knitting

Housework definitely gets in the way of knitting. (Not that I'm getting a lot of housework done, I'm kind of puttering while watching Kiki's Delivery Service. I think I prefer Spirited Away, but the animation is good).

Here is what I got done yesterday:
I put the ear tufts in this morning. Yeah, my house may be messy, but the hats have tassels.












And then I cast on for a hat. I cast on 70 stitches and knitted in the round for 4 1/2 inches, then started decreases on dpns. I think this is going to be a bear.










And now, off to do housework. Maybe if I actually focus on it instead of thinking about knitting?

Stripes!

So yesterday I mentioned that I'd post pictures of the hat and a half that I knitted in the afternoon:

(The pink yarn is the wool I pilfered).












I still need to add the tufts for ears to the first one and weave in the ends. And now I have an idea for bunny hats that are like the Rabbids. I have sewn Rabbid heads before but I haven't tried knitting them.

Not Obsessed. At All

Okay, so I mentioned that I had cast on for another one. I finished it today. It's already been on a baby's head.


While delivering said hat, I cast on for a hat with a similar shape, but just stripes. I finished that hat, and then had to raid my friend's stash for more yarn so that I could knit at work. (My job involves a lot of talking, which while yes, does involve a lot of hand motion, doesn't actually require it).

(I now owe my friend a ball of pink Patons Merino, in case anyone is wondering)

I'll post pictures of the new hats tomorrow - the sun was gone by the time I thought about pictures for the striped hats.

*I think this picture is better than my previous ones, even with my phone. I should really continue looking for that battery.

Hoot!

Okay, I've now been completely distracted from panda hats. While in a yarn shop the other day, my friend and I saw a hat like this although in different colours.

So I had to try it. Except that I'm on a yarn diet, so I used some Patons Merino wool from my stash.

Yesterday morning I cast on:
I didn't think to take a picture until I was a *few* rows in.

Aren't my new addi turbos great?










Once I had knitted 6 inches, I transferred to my dpns. I do like my dpns, but I think straight needles would have been easier. And I knitted as if I was doing a 3 needle bind off to join the two layers together and start the brown. This might have made more sense if I had thought to take a picture, but here's a picture from when I finished the brown:














Then I duplicate stitched on eyes and laced on a beak. I know the pattern calls for separately made eyes, but I've been practicing my duplicate stitch, and hey, I'm going to use it wherever possible! (Or at least until it is no longer a novelty).

Here's the finished owl, ready to be mailed off for the now 6 week old baby. I'm a bit late. eep.








I really liked making this. I actually cast on for another one before I finished this one (stitching and ear fluff making is not very portable).

If anyone is reading this, sorry about the poor picture quality. I've been taking pictures on my phone as my camera battery has gone on an unannounced vacation. Seriously, who loses a camera battery? And to be honest, even when my camera is back in commission, it's not like I am going to be able to take great pictures. Here's a blog with great pictures

Oh, and here's the link to the owl pattern, if you want to try to make one for a baby or child you know. There are different owls here and here

(also, I have no idea why there are huge gaps. between the pictures and the words. I choose to blame blogger).

Hairbands!

Okay, so this post has nothing to do with the panda hats I am working on, but hey, a cute, quick, craft.

I saw this idea for headbands on http://www.oneprettything.com/ and I thought, hey, I can do this! Even if it isn't knitting!

So then I looked around some more, just because there might be an even easier way to do this, and I found this post which doesn't involve cutting hair elastics. Cutting things can sometimes make me nervous. (I don't cut very often while knitting)

The stuff:
okay, so the picture is blurry. I can't find our camera, sorry.













And here is the finished product:
cute, no? I tried to take a picture of me, using the mirror technique I've seen others use, but, wow, was it blurry! And the bear was convenient.

So it was pretty quick and easy. I wish I had some lace or something to make a fancier one, but I used what I had on hand.