356: Finished Objects

There are a lot of crocheted and knitted items that I've finished in the past months that I haven't had a chance to share yet. Most of them are up on Ravelry now, so I figure I might as well talk about them here, too. 

The first is a coaster I made out of some crochet thread. I like it and I plan on making some more, but I still haven't woven in the ends yet (shhh...). It has been used, though.

Next is a cabled hat I made for Miriam. I got the yarn at Purl Soho when I was visiting her in New York. I had the patterns picked out to make a hat for her and one for her niece, Virginia.

And here's the "matching" hat I made for Virginia. For a size comparison, the pompoms on both hats are the same size. It's a bit large, but she's a baby, she'll grow into it.

While I was shopping at Purl Soho, I found some lovely Manos that I had to have. I made Miriam a hat a while ago with Manos so I figured I'd make another Thorpe for me. Isn't it pretty? I love the colors. I used some leftover Malabrigo for the edges.

The last project I finished was a cowl using the handspun I won from Meghan from StitchIt!! Podcast. I love the handspun; it's so pretty! I think it was also my first time knitting with handspun. I made the Bound by the Beauty Cowl from the latest knitty. I don't have a picture yet...But I'm so excited, I still have yarn left (about 100 yards) to make something else!

So with all those finished projects, I started something new: an Abalone. I'm making mine out of the Malabrigo (mmm) I got in Jersey from The Stockinette Knitting Cafe. It's a lot of stockinette stitch, but I don't mind so much right now. I also altered the pattern a bit to fit the way I wanted it to.

I'm keeping the project in my new Namaste Jetsetter bag which I got from eBay. I've been wanting a knitting bag for a while and luckily I had the winning bid. Isn't is pretty?

An update on my dad's sweater: I'm so close!! I sewed the shoulder seams, I picked up and knit stitches for the neck, of which I have a few more rows to do, and the sleeves are blocking (and taking forever to dry because it's so cold in my apartment). Once I finish the neck, hopefully the sleeves will be dry and I can sew them on. I think it should be big enough, but if not, I'm sure he'll appreciate it anyway...hopefully.

3: Video Games and Books

esterday, as you know, I went to Barnes and Noble. I think I spent too much money...but that's besides the point. I bought:
 1.  The Christmas Issue (71) of knitting
 2.  January's issue of Creative Knitting
 3.  Crochet Motifs by Edie Eckman
             4.  Delaying the Real World by Colleen Kinder
             5.  Green Jobs by A. Bronwyn Llewellyn et al.


1. I got really excited about the Cross Your Heart Kimono (ravelry link) in this issue. I have to be pretty picky about UK magazines because they're relatively expensive in the States but I love cables and this garment is adorable. They have some other great patterns in here, too. And of course, like every other knitting magazine, they talk about the new book, Reversible Knitting, which I bought not too long ago.

2. The coat on the cover got me for this issue. Also some other cute patterns inside.

3. Normally the granny square patterns I see in bookstores or online don't always look that nice, but the ones in this book are so pretty. The price was okay, but with a B&N membership, I saved 20% =)

4. This book was suggested to me by a friend who, like me, doesn't know exactly what he wants to do after he graduates. I graduate in the Spring and I really don't want to go to grad school for Environmental Engineering. But, I don't know what I want to do instead. I've only started reading this book, but it's filled with some great ideas and inspiration to get you out there doing things you might have never thought of. I'm sure it will be of some help when I decide what I want to do next.

5. Miriam found this book for me and I decided to grab it. It's filled with things I could do related and not so related to Environmental Engineering, and that's really what I need to find something I want to do as a career. I'm excited to read more.

Phew. Those are all the books/magazines I bought yesterday. Now onto something even nerdier: video games. More than a year ago I bought SSB Brawl and shared it on this blog. I am now about to share the video games I have gotten since then:












So many games!

And they're all so much fun! I know. I'm a 21-year old girl that plays video games in her spare time...aren't I so cool!?!

Well, that's all for today. See you tomorrow!

Here we go

I've been meaning to start a(nother) blog for quite a while now. I keep finding myself taking pictures and thinking of what I would write in my blog about it them if I had one. After many instances of this I decided I must start one now.

So here I am. A little about me: I'm studying Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley (go Bears!) as an undergraduate. I grew up in the Bay Area and love it here. And, well, I love to knit and crochet, and really just craft in general. I learned how to crochet first, when I was in middle school (7th grade I think) and then I learned how to knit in high school (I think sophomore year). I'd like to consider myself somewhat artsy/creative; usually I try to incorporate art into whatever I can. Every once and a while I'll paint something or draw something or make something non-fiber-related, but mostly I knit and crochet.

I think that's enough about me for now. Let's see...how about that holiday crafting? Being a college student, I get a few weeks (4) for winter break. That gives me about a week before Christmas to get all my gifts together. This year I decided to make a lot of the gifts...not a good idea when you only have a week. But lucky for my I had other gifts (non-handmade) for my parents and I have pretty understanding friends (i.e. they haven't put together gifts, either), so I have been diligently working away at the list. In fact, this list here:

1. Dad's Ribbed Sweater
2. Mom's Branching Out Scarf
3. Miriam's Hanukkah Glittons
4. Cathy's All Seasons Bag
5. Mary's Leg Warmers

I think that's it? Of course there are other things I want to make for myself...for instance, I really want to start a pair of Fetching before school starts back up. But those will have to wait. My dad's sweater is taking forever...I wished I had worked it in the round instead of in two separate panels but I don't really know how to do that just yet so it wasn't exactly an option. I guess it's technically my first sweater? I was working on one for myself until I put that aside for other things, so this one might be my first finished sweater. A lot of firsts here - well, three. First sweater, first lace project and first gloves/mittons/dpns/knitting in the round project. Exciting!

Okay, so this is going to be an uber long post because remember how I said I took a whole bunch of pictures for my imaginary blog? Yeah, I'm gonna put those here. Let's see...what first...

This magazine is absolutely adorable. My friends and I were at Joann's and were looking through some of the magazines and Miriam found this one. And of course, since I had a 40% coupon (damn those coupons) I had to get the magazine. I've never really done any stamping or embossing besides stuff we did in elementary school but the samples they have in the magazine are so inspirational. I've done a little scrapbooking and I'm a sucker for cute/artsy things so I might give this a go sometime. The magazine comes with free paper so you can make something like the card above. I haven't gotten a chance to give it a good look through but this caught my eye:Look at those colors! I love the black with it, too.

While we were at Joann's, I took a look at some of the fabric, even though I am terrible at sewing. They were having their end of the year sale and the fabric squares were only 99 cents (that's reasonable, right?). So I loaded up on a few to save for little projects that need lining or maybe some fabric boxes (we got a magazine on that, too). Here are some of the prints I got (sorry for the bad lighting...):





























Okay, that only took forever to format. But, yeah, those are my fabrics.

I think that's enough for now. Now I have a blog, yay!

Oh, by the way, I'm on Ravelry as eliannaknits ^.^