Book time!

It may have taken me 5 weeks but I finally finished “Wee Free Men” by Terry Pratchett. What’s embarrassing is that it isn’t even that long of a book and I wasn’t able to really get started on it ’til after I had it checked out for 2 weeks! It may be a ‘young adult’ book but it had the same kind of wit that the adult Discworld books do. Also, sorry in advance for some misquotes. I’m trying to write some of the specifics without the actual book nearby!

Tiffany Aching is the grandchild of the much respected and now deceased Granny Aching. Granny Aching held a kind of authority over the community that even the Baron didn’t have. She was a tough old broad who went out chasing the dumb sheep who got itself lost in the middle of a blizzard or dealt out justice to the man who beat his donkey for not going fast enough. Unlike others in her community, Tiffany is incredibly curious and always asking questions. She’s read the entire dictionary, paid for all the lessons she could afford with the traveling teachers and severely questioned the logistics behind fairy tales. How exactly was one positively sure that one was a witch if you took away the wart on the nose and the fact that she was old and lived alone? Or how did one base the good looks of the prince if there were none other to compare him to?

It is the strange appearance of a fairy tale creature Jenny that prompts Tiffany to seek out more knowledge. The science teacher cannot tell her much more than she already knows and so she studies her options before coming across a plain and humble tent. Here she meets Miss Tick and cryptically learns a bit about what makes a witch a witch and how she can learn to become one. As vague as their conversation is, Miss Tick is annoyed and impressed with how Tiffany is able to work things out using her knowledge and natural curiosity which is later attributed to a witch’s ability to have Second Thoughts.

That evening Tiffany witnesses the Nac Mac Feegle in their natural state of mischief. They try hiding in her dollhouse, run out into the fields were they carry off a sheep backwards and leave a trail of ‘Crivens!’ hanging in the air. The next day Tiffany actually meets the Nac Mac Feegle face to face and they strike up an unlikely alliance. That same day Tiffany’s younger brother Wentworth is abducted and she takes it upon herself to go and find him.

The rest of the book entertains your imagination with its twist on fairy tales and a world beyond our own. Terry Pratchett blurs the line between our reality and the interpretation of dreams/nightmares in a fantasy world that Tiffany must navigate in order to save her brother.

I loved the Nac Mac Feegle (aka the Wee Free Men). They reminded me of fantasy dwarves and were just silly. They had Scottish accents and that was fun to read aloud for Kara even though I didn’t do them justice at all. This book gets a huge A+ from me even if it is a ‘teen’ read. I will now have to go and hunt down the next one after I finish “Reaper Man”.

Chunk Hat

I finished Jax’s hat a few days ago but haven’t gotten a chance to photograph it…or at least the photos I did have also included a half naked toddler. This morning I was finally able to get a few decent snapshots in and uploaded them! Yay!

I’m thinking of adding earflaps to the hat but he has been wearing it all over the house since I finished it! He picked out Lion Brand super chunky yarn and it requires size 13 needles and yes, if I am ever going to use this yarn again I will need to invest in big ass needles. Knitting a hat with this yarn on size 8 needles was a pain (literally; I wound up with tiny slivers in my thumb) and I do not recommend it. However it got the job done and I’m just glad I wasn’t trying to do any cabling!

Kara’s pants are coming along. I started on the leg the other day and have about 1.5″ knit. When I first started the pants I thought that maybe 1 skein of yarn was going to be enough simply because of how things were going. Thank goodness I did buy 2 because that will be just enough with maybe a little leftover. I used 1 entire skein on just the top half (measuring 7″ total) and so another skein will be just enough to knit two legs at 6″ each. This also means that I will have to use a different yarn to make the cord that will go through the waistband, but that’s okay.

I am feeling annoyed and impatient that my Qiviut hasn’t come yet. Sure mailing across international lines takes awhile, even if it is only from Canada to North Dakota (I totally could have just driven there and come back with the yarn!). But still, it’s been a smidge over 2 weeks and I’m anxious to get started on this hat so I don’t have to rush it days before Thanksgiving. I’ve even e-mailed their customer service and heard NOTHING back; so that makes me even more annoyed. Grrr.

Pants, needles and things

Kara’s pants are coming along quite nicely! I decided to do the waist in just stockinette and created 2 holes so I can draw a string through instead of having to deal with elastic. I’ll either knit an I-cord out of leftover purple yarn or do something wild like pink just so it’s nicely contrasted. The body of the pants are turning out lovely in seed stitch. It didn’t take long for me to reach 5″ of knitting; the total length of the pants I’m aiming for is 10 since I want them to fit to up to 3 months or longer. Today I think I will be working on the legs but that might be put off for tomorrow (might take a nap instead!). I’m still torn on whether I’ll do flared legs (which didn’t turn out so hot last time I attempted it) or just baggy which always looks cute on little babies.

Jax keeps asking me about his hat. I’m knitting a hat for him to use as my model for anyone interested in knit hats. I was going to wait ’til finishing up Kara’s pants to do that but maybe I’ll start it this afternoon since it won’t be anything crazy. He picked out the yarn and everything so he’s super excited.

Yesterday my needles arrived and I discovered that I ordered my DPN’s in the 4″ variety (the length I use for socks) instead of the 6″. Whups. I’m thinking that as long as I use all 5 instead of just 4 it won’t be that big of a deal for when I first start on the top of the hat. Now I’m just waiting on the yarn! Come soon yarn, come!

Why is the mail so slow?

I suppose it really is a good thing I bought yarn over the weekend. At first it was mostly just on a whim because really, we’re never in town often enough for me to get an overabundance of yarn! Now I’m glad that I did because it’s been a week and no yarn and no needles have shown up at my doorstep and I’ve already made something new and pretty from my recently acquired Alpaca (yarn, not the animal )

I know that it takes up to 2 weeks for packages to arrive from Canada and I’m glad I’m only knitting a hat from the Qiviut and not something crazy. If it were something crazy I’d have a heck of a time getting it done before Thanksgiving! Although I suppose on a 6+ hour drive I’d probably have time to wait ’til the last minute…What I am slightly annoyed at is the fact that the needles I ordered aren’t here and the tracking number doesn’t link to anything useful. Hopefully they’ll simply all arrive together and then I can get started right away instead of having the yarn but no needles or vice versa.

I’m tempted to start on Kara’s pants because I have a great idea for them. The waist band will be the normal 2×2 or 4×4 ribbing but then the rest of the pant (minus the cuff) will be knitted in seed stitch. I want to do it this way because the yarn is kind of tweedy looking and I think the seed stitch will bring that out and look tres sophisticate. But I should really finish Jax’s monster because all I have left are the arms and then to do up the face (along with hair). Every day when he sees me knitting he asks if I’m done with his monster and I feel bad for replying with “No, your mom has knitting ADD and is working on something else. But I promise he’ll be done soon…” At least the Murloc is done and he’s happy playing with him for the time being!

Since Christmas is coming up I’m thinking of the things I’d like to knit in the holiday spirit. Mostly Christmasy decorations. I’ve always wanted to knit up personalized Christmas stockings because the ones you find at Wal-Mart/K-Mart are just so….cheap and generic. Plus I won’t get second sock syndrome because we each just need one and they’re huge! That idea has slightly been put on the backburner though as I realized our tree skirt is no more, so I should really knit one of those first. But if I’m going to knit a tree skirt I’d want to do a fancy one and that might take awhile. Nevermind any actual gifts I may want to cook up and send out before December 25 rolls around. *sigh*

An excuse for hats

After spending all summer slowly cropping my hair to a pixie cut, I’ve decided to grow it out a bit again. There’s no better time for me to do this than during winter when it’s cold and I have one of the best reasons to knit up hats! My recent creation is something I improvised.

“The Over-Understated Hat” I used Blue Sky Alpaca Yarn which was a dream to work with!

Here’s the finished Murloc

Kara’s Li’l Leggings

More of a written post later!

Fish Chain Gang

The one bad thing about saving patterns on my computer is that I never have a reason to print them out and so I don’t. Then when my husband decides to use the laptop for whatever reason, I don’t have access to whatever it is I’m working on and so I end up fiddling around on something completely different. Sure I could have printed it off but I honestly was just too lazy. Instead I spent 2 hours knitting a pacifier chain.

I used some leftover sock yarn and improved the fish. After the first fish I thought it’d be cute to have at least 2 more fishes get progressively smaller but after fish 2 I thought that adding another fish might make the chain too long. Now that it’s done I have to find a clip bit so that I can attach it to fish 1’s tail and then onto whomever doesn’t want to lose it.

It’s a head!

After many many many many attempts and then some, I finally figured out how to get crocheting in the round. Or at least my version of it because I know it isn’t 100% correct; but I don’t care because I now have a completed monster head for Wild Thing. I still maintain that I prefer knitting because I kept getting confused on where exactly my round started and by the time I found a stitch marker that would work my numbers were wonky. Instead of crocheting the face I have some extra felt that I’m going to sew on instead. Today I hope to get going on his body and maybe finish the whole thing by the end of the weekend!

I’ve been waiting for my husband to sit down with me for a few minutes so we can finish up the Murloc. I know that if I knit up the remaining fins without him here they’ll get lost somewhere or one of our cats will ingest it. Plus then he can sew on the Murloc’s face to his liking

The other day I ordered US 3 circular needle and new DPN’s so I can work on my uncle’s hat once the yarn comes in! I ordered a Qiviut/merino wool blend since the interwebs told me that a mix would help keep the shape of a hat better. Cottage Craft Angora is where I ordered the yarn from and I also picked up a skein of Angora sock yarn for myself in a blue/cream mix. Hopefully everything will be here by next week so I can get started! My plans for the hat are to knit up the Dew Drop Cable (find it at Vogue Knitting) starting at the bottom of each earflap and working its way up to the top and the rest in plain stockinette stitch. Then depending on how much yarn I have leftover I will make an I-cord or braid connected to each earflap to tie together in the middle! I can’t wait to see how this stuff knits up!

FO’s, WIP’s and almost there…

I finally finished my Pomatomus socks! Whee! And there were no casualties on sock #2 which made me extremely happy.

As a short in between project and to use up some yarn I started on the Woodins from Knitty. I only had enough yarn to make one little Woodin so the rest of his buddies and tree home will have to wait ’til I have more random leftovers or actually buy more yarn for the project. But for the time being here’s one lonely guy…

And because my husband has been asking me for one I started a knit Murloc. He isn’t quite finished yet. A few more spines need to be knit a long with extra fluff for his tail fin and then we decided to buy some felt and make him a face. Even so I can’t resist posting a so far picture

What’s next on the agenda? Well my uncle has commissioned me to knit him a winter hat out of Qiviut! I’m super excited to order the yarn and get started. I’ll either order the yarn from:

Anchorage Museum
Cottage Crafts
Folknits

Jax also wants me to knit him a monster from “Where the Wild Things” are. There’s a free crochet pattern via Ravelry but I might make it work for me as knitting instead, but we’ll see how ambitious I’m feeling.

On the fly

I unwound this ugly terrible hat I attempted to knit last year to salvage as much of the yarn. It’s the same yarn that Andy brought home from Seattle last October and I knit Zephyr (I think that was the pattern…). My idea was to whip up some pants for Kara.

I give myself an A for effort and B in execution. Pants construction always gets me in the butt…literally. The leggings/pants fit Kara everywhere except entirely over her butt. But the good thing about knitting is that you can always add/decrease where need be. So even though I slipped them on her anyway (she’s wrapped up in a blanket 90% of the time anyway! ) tonight I plan on adding a few extra inches in the back so they slip over her butt/diaper instead of under it.

Last night I swung by Wal-Mart with some baby cash and picked up 2 skeins of yarn so I could knit up a few more variations on pants since my little girl is itty bitty! You can be sure that I’ll make sure to account for butt roundness in these!

Making Progress

I’ve finally gotten to the heel on my socks! It’s still too early to tell how much yarn I’ll have leftover, but even if it’s just a tiny amt that won’t be a problem as Kara is tiny tiny tiny!