A Christmas Post

My Christmas has had some ups and downs, it has been mostly good. So let's review my list of what to do for Christmas

1. Captain America's Shield (Pattern modified with a star pattern from a previous post)
2. Scarf for cousin (not going to say what pattern just in case she looks at this)
3. Secret project for an Amazing Person (current pattern no long found online)
4. project based on #3 for a different person
5. Sock Monkey Puppets (if I can get to it) for nieces or nephews
6. UFO for someone (This might take too much time, but it will get finished)

#1 and #2 are done, My Husband loves his Captain America's Shield. I have yet to see the reaction from 32 on the list and I almost have #3 done. #4-6 have been scratched off the list for lack of time.

Now for my other list

1. Icy Snowflake Throw
2. Kaleidoscope Throw    I've been working on this one, I've got 22 parts completed through row 5, and several more have the first two rows
3. Stone Mountain Throw
4. Adult's Royal Crown
5. Minion Top hat made with help from Halloween Top Hat pattern and measurements
6. That UFO(Unfinished Object) from my top list, Yay isn't that wonderful?

Has your Christmas been a good one, or has it been despicable?
What projects do you plan on doing in the New Year?

Six Projects for Christmas

I have a list of things for people in my life that I have the goal of getting done for Christmas, which I realize is only 3 weeks away. I also have an additional week and a half for when some of these need to be done by for a Family Christmas Gathering.

My list so far is looking like this:

1. Captain America's Shield (Pattern modified with a star pattern from a previous post)
2. Scarf for cousin (not going to say what pattern just in case she looks at this)
3. Secret project for an Amazing Person (current pattern no long found online)
4. project based on #3 for a different person
5. Sock Monkey Puppets (if I can get to it) for nieces or nephews
6. UFO for someone (This might take too much time, but it will get finished)

As for other projects that I want to do I should make sure that I share that list too:

1. Icy Snowflake Throw
2. Kaleidoscope Throw
3. Stone Mountain Throw
4. Adult's Royal Crown
5. Minion Top hat made with help from Halloween Top Hat pattern and measurements

And if all that isn't enough I think I need to not be distracted by any other patterns, and my Husband said that he thinks I should just do a lot of Minion Hats for everyone and call it good, since he obviously hasn't seen this list. It might shock him that I do think that just doing Minion Hats would be easier, but I want to do something else for a while, and not just taunt myself by having all the yarn I should need for the other projects #1&2 and maybe #3 too. Oh let's just be honest, On my non Christmas list I should have the yarn for all of it unless I run out of yellow yarn for #5.

How is your Christmas to-Do list looking? Is it anywhere as bad as mine?

Five little projects or a few more

Life has been a bit crazy and I have missed a few months, but in that time I have done a few projects, so in no particular order I shall cover them with pictures, and patterns if I can remember where I got them from.

Minion Hat, pattern by Jennifer Dougherty
(formerly available from Craftsy.com)

 

 

Romantic Lacy Shawl from RedHeart.com
I didn't have enough yarn to do more with it, so I ended it and added a length to tie it to the other side when being worn.

Chromium Star Pattern from A Whole Load of Craft

 This is the finished product from the pattern that I mentioned in post one. I was happy to finish this, and the pictures might not do it justice.

 I have also worked on a few others...
 

Poinsettia by  June Gilbank from Planet June
I liked the design for a leaf for a hair clip that I wanted to make.

 

Roll-Up Pencil Case from RedHeart

 

 

One-Ball-of-Yarn Flower Headband by Fatima Lasay

I liked the base but not the actual "flower so I grabbed a flower form another pattern.
I used Flower Accent by Mimi Alelis for my flower and a nice button to attach it in place.
 

 

 

In conclusion I actually can do quite a bit of small projects, I still need to finish my dragon, but I've been making sure that I can get everything I need to get done by Christmas done. I hope you enjoyed my show and tell.

 

 

 

 

four patterns churning

Okay, so it's been a little while, I meant to have some witty blog that might have started something like this:

 Monday

Almost done with row 17 when I find that I missed a stitch on row 16, I only did half a stitch set. It is sad when you need to frog two rows, but lucky me, I at least got to keep the first popcorn stitch on row 16.

 

 

Periodicals of the week

Entertainment weekly (2013 s1)

American journal of health-system pharmacy (2012)(2011)

Charisma & Christian life (2012/13)

Modern language quarterly (2013 s1)

Nature

Publishers Weekly (2013 q2)

 But instead last week I had some fun, and some not so fun stuff. I took out some stuff a few times because I messed up, and then on Tuesday night this week, I finished my first skein and tied on my second. I'm not sure if 3 skeins will be enough, but with some of the stuff going on I was looking at other patterns, and so I saw this cute one where it had cats, but the problem is that I started working on it in green, Who has a green cat? so I've been toying with turning it into a dragon, and so this is how far I've gotten.

 How does my weird green cat/dragon look? should I abandon the idea of wings?

and for other afghans I have done, I thought that I would get pictures of them, so here are a few

This was my first ripple afghan, which I made for my mother who already had the yarn.



this is the second and third afghan color choices

this is the size for a queen bed, which makes it really hard to give you an idea of how big it is, this is it folded in 16ths

 

third time's a repeat

A lot has happened in the past week, a death, a funeral, and quite a bit of stitching. in the pattern after row 6 you repeat rows 3-6 again until you get the desired length. I've repeated my sets of rows twice and it looks like the picture, of course it is a bit hard to see everything since mine is about 57 inches wide.

 

A closer look at the cable panel:

 

A closer look at the Lattice Panel:

At the end of the week the lessons that are learned are never fight with sibling at the funeral of a parent, some things are best learned by proxy, and that sometimes it's good to challenge yourself to do a new set of stitches, even if it means you spend time working on something smaller for those few stitches, but it's good to learn how to make something pretty.

 

Are you working on something that might be fun?

Row two

As I work with this pattern I have to learn a few new stitches and so I'm working on a practice of the cable panel, and for my second row I've already taken it out to the start because I realized that I didn't get the stitches right, mainly because of my understanding or lack of reading the second part.

(bpdc in next 2 sts, FC2FT over next two sts, bpdc in next st, PC{popcorn!} in next dc,
bpdc in next stitch, FC2FT over next two sts, bpdc in next 2  sts, FC6FT over next 6 stiches, bpdc in next 2 sts, FC2FT over next two sts, bpdc in next stitch, PC{popcorn!} in next dc, bpdc in next stitch, FC2FT over next two sts, bpdc in next 2 sts)

For something I found out about recently, check out this, I rate it PG for the implied violence at the end.

I have also worked a bit on the lattice panel, which I'm also wondering occasionally if I'm in over my head. I got into row four during lunch today on my practice piece.

I might get an image of what I have worked up of the real thing when I'm finished with the second row from end to end, Which is always a challenge to get it correct from end to end.

chain one

A while ago I got the challenge to blog daily, I more of blog weakly, but then I was reminded of it yesterday, and while at work I was thinking about things, and how my days and weeks are pretty much the same. My fancy job title is Microfilm Technician, what do I really do? I sit mainly at a camera and film, page by page different periodicals, such as Federal Register, Congressional Record, Readers digest, popular photography, and several other titles that I can't remember.

My thought today was that I should try and use the blog to help me stay motivated on learning how to do something other then yet another Ripple Afghan. I'm on my... (Christmas yarn afghan for mom, double bed size that went to my mother-in-law, the queen size that I still have, the one to share at church, the one I did for my niece) oh dear, I'm on my 6th ripple afghan.

So when on Friday I saw a pattern that looked interesting, and knowing that for the ripple afghan that I couldn't manage to read the patterns back then I thought that this might be a good challenge. For anyone who might like to follow along with me, or tell me I'm doing it all wrong, you can find the pattern here. I'm using my favorite yarn to work with because I only buy it on sale, and when I do buy it I stock up, So I'm not sure yet if this will just be purple or purple and blue. I'll let people give me feedback when I get far enough along to need another skein.

Well, this is the end of my first post. Yay! I'll add pictures to the next one.