Cursed

Well... Purity has gone right out the window...

You may recall that way back in December I cast on for this beautiful shawl:

I got a hell of a lot of work done on it while at a New Year's Eve party. (much to the fascination of the guests who were astounded by the fact that not only do people under 30 knit, they also drink scotch and smoke Cuban cigars)

Unfortunately, when I got home, I realized that (despite the fact I'd already knit the shawl once and should know better) I hadn't read the pattern right, and was increasing wrong. To the frog pond it went.

About a month later I cast on again. This time it seemed to take forever, even though I was increasing properly (and twice as often).

It got set aside for a while until I finally decide to pick it up the other day. I've been knittng with a bamboo circular, but it's not pointy enough, so I decided to swtich to a metal one.

I went to look at what size needle I was using (the pattern calls for 5.5, but I dont have that, so I used what I had, but I couldn't rember if it was a 5 or a 6 mm) only to discover I was using a 4.25mm!

Now, I'm not a perfectionist... and it is only a shawl... but there is no way it would work out right with a 4.25 mm. So, it's back in the frog pond and I'm too discouraged to cast on again... for a while anyway.

Instead I've cast on for Icarus.

I've loved this shawl since I first saw it. I still consider myself a beginning lace knitter, but I think this is a good shawl for me. The majority of it is pretty basic, and so far it's going swimmingly.

I'm almost done the first chart (Yes mom... I'm actually following a chart).

I'm using the silk that I hand-painted myself. (A colourway I've called Bloodstone)

The painting of this yarn was kind of a happy accident. I got a lovely mottled green shade, and as I was moving bottles around I accidently dripped red on it. So... I just dripped red all over the rest of it and the result was beautiful. I was pleasantly surprised.

In other news... Dave is busy with his car and a student's concert today, so I got a Saturday to myself. (Which doesn't happen very often) So, the kids and I slept in until noon (well, I got up at 7:30 and put food in their dishes so they'd let me sleep in until noon.)

We got all our bead photography done and you can now help me destash at Wandering Cat Beads (see my sidebar). More beads will be added daily.

We've also been working on another project I can't wait to finish. Remember Frankenghan? (No it's not quite finished, but one day I will finish it.)

I've wanted to do the spiral afghan properly for a while... but I'm not really fond of Noro. Well, a few weeks ago I went to Lens and treated myself to some Patons SWS in an absolutely gorgeous colourway - Natural Rose.

It's going to look terrific with my quilt (when I get that done...). Unfortunately, I'm going to have to share it. Every time I set it down, I turn around to find a different cat on it.

Rocky also likes to wander off the the balls.

Back to our regularily scheduled knitting....

As promised, here are the pics of my socks

First up....

I like the colours, (which pop a lot more in real life) but, I think I need to go down a needle size or two. I did these on 2.75, but they are uber-wide.

Next up.... Dave's Christmas socks....I did most of this work waiting around for my car to be fixed Monday morning. I'm using SWTC's Tofutsies. It's nicer than the Opal cotton, but still a little too "cottony" to give really nice tension. I really like the colours though. I bought it on Ebay, and I thought it was just black, grey and white, but as I started knitting it up, depending n the light, there is also lovely shades of soft aqua, and tiny flecks of green.

This is my own pattern (there are cables but they are hard to see) and I will publish it when it's done.

The socks are mostly travel projects, so this weekend I'm going to focus on getting some real progress done on Purity (and maybe even finish it!)

I lied... sorta

Okay.. so no knitting pictures as promised. I did bring the camera home but I'm too lazy to dig out my knitting and photograph it tonight. (I started a new regimen where I actually get out of bed more than 15 minutes than before I have to leave for work.. I'm exercising, eating breakfast and I even have time to check my email in the morning.. but now it's 9:30 p.m. and I'm pooped!)

I did however have enough energy to do some beading tonight, and I have some pictures of that to share.. (yes I was too lazy to photograph knitting but not to lazy to photograph beading... yes I am aware of the sacrilege of that statement, but I don't care... no knitting for you!)

As I said in a previous post I did a HUGE bead order recently and one of the new things I got were some pewter charms.... mostly fantasy stuff (and some motorcycle themed charms for the newest store to carry my work).

I saw these witches and I knew I had to get them. They are just soooo cute, and I have a lot of wiccan customers who will be clamouring for them. Mermaids on dolphins.... what more could you want (and with a genuine pearl to boot!)These pewter stars are very whimsical but I had to get really creative with how to use them. The holes in them are HUGE, so the head pin just slides right through, but because of the hole placement and shape of the star only certain sizes and shapes of beads would work. I'm pleased with how these turned out. They are amethyst, but I also did a pair with garnet and a pair with labradorite.

I did much, much more but as usual it's waaaaay too much to photograph. Keep your eye on my Etsy site though. New things will be going up soon. And as always, if you see something you like here give me a shout at wanderingcatstudio@hotmail.com. (These earrings are all $9 -which includes shipping to anywhere in the world.)

Pleased

Well, I've had a great response to my Mary Jane pattern and I couldn't be happier. It seems there are quite a few people out there who are also disappointed with the lack of CPK knitting patterns. I should have another pattern up by the end of the week and there are several rolling around in my head!


I finished one of my Christmas socks (one sock, not one pair) but it is waaaay huge... I think I'm going to have to go down a needle size or two.


I also started Dave's Christmas socks, but I can't show you pictures of either because I left the camera at work... but soon.


Instead I'll leave you with some Wandering Cat silliness...

That's his idea of "helping" me make the bed.

Stepping out

Well, Miss Cabbage Patch has some Mary Janes!

I have the pattern in PDF form, and it is up on Ravelry for free, but you can't download it yet (waiting for my store).... so if you'd like a copy, just email me at wanderingcatstudio@hotmail.com

All sewn up

Well, the fabric muse took hold of me today and while Dave was trying to figure out how to make the computer run faster, I spent most of the afternoon at my sewing machine. The result was this:

Three complete outfits (including a pair of bloomers!!!) from scratch... no patterns. I'm quite pleased with myself, and I'm now working on some knitted items.

In the Cabbage Patch

It's funny how you can head out with the goal of getting one thing, and end up with something completely different. On Valentine's Day, Dave took me out (well, actually made me drive) to get parts for my dryer. It was squealing like a banshee and he couldn't stand the noise. While on the hunt for an idler pully and a new belt (funny, I think I had those parts replaced in my car a little while ago), he decided he wanted to stop at every buy and sell place we saw (he's looking for guitar stuff). In the course of the day we ended up in Value Village, where a I came across a naked Cabbage Patch Kid in remarkably good condition.

When visiting Gramma, my niece is always playing with Laurie Augusta, my Cabbage Patch Kid who I just don't have the heart to part with. She can stay at Gramma's but she can't go anywhere else.

Anyway, this one was only $4, so I bought her and I'm going to surprise my niece this Easter with her, and a trousseau of clothes. When I was a kid, mom made Laurie Augusta lots of clothes. I had crochet dresses, corderoy overalls, a knitted skirt, jammies - tonnes of stuff. Unfortunately, most of her wardrobe has gone missing over the years, she's down to only a few pieces. But I'd like Paisley's doll to have nice wadrobe just like mine did.

A few months ago, I stole Mom's box of quilting leftovers for another project. After finally mending a pair of Dave's jeans today, I didn't want to put the sewing machine away just yet. So I got out the box of fabric and went to work

As you can see, Rocky decided he needed to supervise, as usual. But despite his interference, and a few mechanical problems, I did manage to get a few things done, Including this dress:It's made from my head, based loosely on the dresses I used to make my Barbies. It lookes like I'll be designing some knitted stuff as well, as there doesn't seem to be much out there for Cabbage Patch Kids anymore. If anyone has any patterns (knitted or sewn, but not crochet... I hate crochet and it hates me back) please let me know... I'm particularily looking for a puffy bloomer pattern.

(Oh, we did end up getting our dryer parts, and now the dryer is running smoothly adn quietly,.. though I kind of mis my banshee)

Got Beads....?

...I do! I do!

The bead order came yesterday! And I picked it up at the post office on the way to work this morning... it was really hard to concentrate on writing about car dealerships when I knew I had a box of beads in my car.... really hard...

So when 4 p.m. hit.. I raced home (well actually I left at 3:52.... but shhhh!) to dive into the box! It was a huge one this time. It took about an hour just to go through and make sure I received everything I ordered.

I wish I could show you everything I got, but I don't have hours to photograph it all and then upload it... and you probably don't have hours to sit and look at it all... but trust me it's pretty.

I can show you a couple of unique items I picked up:

This is a really neat way to make a pendant out of a gemstone donut (this one is Unakite) It's up on the Etsy site if you're interested.

I also picked up some ridiculously cute lady bug beads to make some stitch markers

The ones I got are just red (I couldn't be bothered to take my own picture so I snagged one from the internet). Normally I don't buy glass beads, but these were just so cute I couldn't resist... they make me giggle every time I look at them... and trust me, when you're giggling at home by yourself, you look pretty silly... even the cats think so.

I spent several hours tonight reorganizing the old beads and putting away the new ones. I discovered that I have a lot of beads that I'm not using and I'm probably not going to. So over the next week or so I am going to photograph them and open a second Etsy store. If you're interested in beading it will be a great place to pick up gemstone beads and other findings at really low prices. I'm not interested in making a huge profit off them - I just want to do a little destashing to make some space. There's sure to be some good deals.... I'll announce it here the minute it's open.

Well back to the studio!

TaaDaa!

Well despite the lack of blogness... I have been rather productive this week.

I got the baby hoodie done:

Of course once I got working on the hood, I decided I didn't want to make a hood and changed it to a collar. But I think it looks nice just the same - and it gives mom a second option to add to her pattern when she finally publishes it.

Since casting off the hoodie, I cast on for Purity once again. It's going much better this time, and in just the few short hours tonight while watching Passchendaele, I'm already half way done the centre.

I've also cast on for a baby blanket of my own design - but more on that later when I have something to show you (it's worked in the round and since I can't stretch it out right now it just looks like a great lump of stocknit stitch, a few K2togs, and some Kfbfs.)

I've also been beading. Since I cleaned up the room I've been able to get in there and work more. And since I have a gianormous bead order coming, I figured I'd better get some things organized. I decided to get some stock ready to go so that when the order arrives with my display cards, I can put them all on and get them out to the store straight away.

Of course when I'm beading, someone feels the need to come in and supervise.

Mostly he just gets in the way and spills beads all over the place... like any other manager eh?

Under your skin

Here's the coloured picture:
I sent if off to her today, and I can't wait to see it in the flesh... literally.


This isn't the first tattoo I've designed. A friend of mine in college wanted the Cancer symbol, but didn't like anything in the tattoo parlour so she came to me. She just said she wanted the crab and some stars (stars are her favourite shape)

I don't have a picture of my original drawing, but it didn't have all the wicked shading that the tattoo artist added to it... he did an amazing job....

My friend did curse me for drawing all those stars that had to be outlined (apparently outlining is the most painful part) but she loved it anyway.

I love the fact that my art work is permanently plastered on someone's body and the fact that they like my art enough to do so... I don't think there is any greater compliment.

Back to the drawing board

Well, I'm still working away on my shrug, so I still haven't gotten any further on the baby hoody. I did, however, go up to Mom's to raid the button jars. I came home with several buttons, so it's just a matter of deciding which ones to use, but I'll wait until it's done.

I also cast on for the first pair of Christmas socks, so I have a travel project:
I'm just doing a simple feather and fan pattern and it works very nicely with the colours I think.

I also took some time out this afternoon to clean up the studio. Since Christmas, I've just been more or less throwing things in and shutting the door - it needed a major cleaning!

There are still a few things I need to do (invest in a paper shredder to get rid of some old documents is one) but I can at least get in there and move around now. I've got some more jewellry ideas I want to get working on, a whole pile of mending, and the quilt, as well as some other sewing to do, so now that the studio is clean I can take some time this week to tackle at least some of it.

One of the other things I've been meaning to do is design a tattoo for my cousin. She asked if I would, way back on Thanksgiving, but then my back went, then Christmas, and I never got around to it. With the studio clean, I was able to dig out my pencil box (a full size tool box, believe it or not) and get out a rough sketch for her:Drawing has always been my first love, and I've really been neglecting it over the past year or so (damn addictive knitting). It was nice to pick up my pencils again, and I can't wait to give this one some colour. But I'm going to wait until she's seen it and decide if she wants to make any changes.

But I've got a bit of a bug now, so.. it's back to the couch to work on a few other pictures I've been wanting to do for a while.

EDIT:

It's been an extremely productive night... I managed to finish two other pictures. One I won't show you until the recipient has seen it first, and the other is:

(Please forgive the water mark. I am thinking of making this a print, and some people tend to think everything on the internet is free)

This is the Fibre Faerie... I started it sometime last year or the yeah before and never finished it.... and I'm not sure why....