FO: Cabled Mitts

Project: One Cable Mitts by Valerie Teppo

Yarn: The Fibre Company Terra

Needles: US8

Aren't they lovely? I heart cables.

I made these for me and I love the pattern and the yarn and the way they turned out. I like how they’re a bit chunky but still fit under a coat and the fit is nice and snug, so no moving around my wrists. I used almost a full skein - I was terrified that I might run out of yarn, but turns out I have a few grams leftover. I can't wait to wear these to keep my hands warm (and still have full use of my fingers!).

p.s. I love how I can make pictures bigger now that I changed the column width! And don't worry, I'll stop talking about the column width...

It's a New Year!

How exciting, 2011. Now it's going to take a whole year for me to get used to writing "11" at the end of my dates. I'm doing okay so far.

I think I may actually have a new year's resolution this year. I know, right? I never have resolutions, or if I do, they are loosely kept. Carin from Round the Twist, a video podcast I follow, called them "guidelines." I love that, because really, "resolutions" just sounds like too much.

So my guideline for this year is inspired by an old episode of Brass Needles (another podcast I follow) where one of Miss Kalendar's guests said her new year's resolution was to make at least one thing from or inspired by each of her many craft books. I happen to have many craft books (take a look at all the fiber-related ones here on Ravelry) that range from knitting and crochet books, to sewing, to stenciling, etc. And I don't think I've made a singe thing out of them. Well, I think I've knit a couple things, but really, some books have only been flipped through. This needs to change. It's great to have these books as eye candy and inspiration, but I really need to make something more of them. Thus, my resolution guideline is to make at least one thing from/inspired by each of my many craft books. We'll see how this goes...

p.s. Did you notice that I made the column width on my blog wider? Now I can make my pictures bigger. Yay!

354: Gingerbread Kits and Friends

This past weekend one of my old old old old (2 years, 2 apartments and 4 roommates ago) roommates came to visit from LA. Michele's been attending med school in the Caribbean (jealous much?) and I haven't seen her in about a year! With her visit I also got to see some other friends I haven't seen in a while, which was really fun. On Friday, Michele and I got House of Curries for lunch. Mmmmm so good. My go-to dish is their Chicken Curry with rice (as much as I love naan, it just tastes so good with rice...). Then we met up with Stephanie and the three of us went shopping in Emeryville. I picked up a couple of magazines (Knitting Today and Knit Simple, I think) while Michele and Steph shopped in H&M (who, by the way, is having an awesome dress sale). We then met up with Alfred and Cathy (hi, Cathy!!! <3) at Google, because Alfred has the best job ever (I so want to work at Google). We ate dinner in their cafeteria. How amazing would it be to work somewhere that provided great food for you? We took pictures by a giant gingerbread house, in front of a Google sign and in front of a giant android (in the rain).

On Saturday I baked cookies. Lots and lots of yummy cookies with the best recipe I've found (I omit the nuts because 1. I don't really care for them and 2. I never have them on hand). Both Jason and Chris love these cookies, and I got to see both of them at lunch. We went to Restaurant Peony in Oakland and had yummy dim sum with Cathy, Michele, Stephanie and her brother. Afterwards we headed to Shooting Star Cafe where they have drinks that go with your zodiac sign. I skipped out on my kumquat and something else drink and ordered some taro ice cream. From there we went to Jason's place and played games and tried on a 50-lb weighted vest and made a gingerbread house from a kit that Michele gave to Cathy. This house was epic failure, but nevertheless, fun to build. We started off pretty well, icing the pieces before we attached them and making the tiny Santa and Christmas tree look decent, but the icing wasn't solidifying so the walls to the house didn't stay up and the roof pieces kept sliding off. We tried adding super glue but that just glued the icing to icing...And then Santa and the Christmas tree got stuck together. Poor Santa. The finished product was supposed to look like this:

From Create-a-Treat

But it, well, I'll post pictures when I get them. Let's just say it wasn't pretty.

On Sunday I decided to tackle the Gingerbread Train kit that Michele gave me. I cheated and just started with glue. My train is definitely not edible but it is somewhat structurally stable. It was supposed to look like this:

From Create-a-Treat

I don't even know where they got those candy cane pieces for the wheels, because they definitely were not in my kit. I think I did an okay job of replicating the train.

I know, I can't be a cake decorator any time soon.

So, that was my weekend. Oh! I also blocked the body of the sweater for my dad. In hindsight, I should have taken a picture to share. The first sleeve is also done and the second one is so close. I should be able to finish it in time for Christmas, and if not that, then for his birthday on the 27th. Yay!

298: Crafty Weekend

I did a lot of crafty things this weekend (by a lot, I mean two three!) and as soon as I take pictures I will post them up here. On Saturday, Garnet and I made magnets, thanks to the tutorial by not martha. It took forever to find the items we needed at Michael's, because our Michael's in Emeryville just has to be different and organized all funny. Once we found the glue (between the kid's and the paint section), the magnets (in the kid's section), and the circle punches (hidden in the scrapbooking area), we were ready to go to Tap Plastics to get our cabochons (best name for a plastic shape ever). We got a whole bunch of 3/4" ones for $0.45 each. Next time, we're going to buy them online in bulk, because they were so easy to make, we want more!

Yesterday I made a laptop case from my Home Ec class. I love it so much. The fabric is so pretty and it fits my laptop like a glove (it's amazing what accurate measurements can do). I can't wait to use it!

Update: I lied, I did three crafty things this weekend. The third thing I did was cast on for a new sweater for my dad. The old one has been a work in progress for at least 3 years, and although I was almost done, the second sleeve was about 2/3 the size of the first. So I decided to start over with a different pattern. We'll see if I can get it done it time for Christmas this year.