AHH This Blanket is Nuts!

Good news! The second "L" is done! I had a chance to go down to Texas to visit my sister. We ended up driving there which is both good and bad. It's really bad because it is a very long and (mostly) boring drive from Michigan to Texas and we usually have to split it into two days. The good news is that it gave me a ton of time to work on some more of the double vision blanket. I finished 18 squares total on the trip! With the second "L" done plus one more square, I have 37 squares finished! CRAZY. I still love this blanket so far, although tucking in ends and doing the black edging are both extremely tedious. I'm lucky that the blanket is a complex enough pattern that it keeps me engaged, but is not too complicated to be frustrating. There are times in the pattern I thought "WTF, how do I do that?", but I always seemed to figure it out...so far.

OMG SECOND "L"!


I feel like this blanket is going to be more and more difficult to photograph the bigger it gets. It's supposed to be about 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) square when finished. I already had to stand on a couch to get this picture and if you look at it, you'll realize when I finish the squares, it will be out of this picture. I'll have to figure out something to do. Until then, I'll work on trying to conquer this beast.

I bought some Texas based yarn when I was visiting my sister. It's a Madeline Tosh worsted yarn in a very pretty green. I don't have any pictures of it (or any ideas for it) yet, but soon....very soon I'm sure I'll figure out something.

I also got to go walking with some flamingos at the zoo when I was down there. I'm not going to say what zoo (because it's "behind the scenes"), but those are some of the perks you get when you have a family member as a zookeeper ;).

This is Getting a Little More Serious

Last time I posted about the Double Vision Blanket, I had just started it and was admiring the yarn I ordered. Since then, I've made about 25 squares and finished the first "L". The way the blanket is put together, there are 10 separate "L"s that have to be seamed together near the end of the project. The first one has 19 squares, the second one 17, then 15, 13, etc all the way down to 1. By finishing the first "L", I didn't complete 10% of the blanket, but 19/100 squares (if that makes sense). I also can't say I've finished 19% of it because there's a lot more work such as arranging, seaming, and borders that are going to take a lot more work to complete. Here are some progress pictures of this enjoyable (so far) blanket.

First side "in progress".


First side complete!





First "L" complete!


At this point, I am almost complete with the actual knitting on the first side of the second "L". Then I will need to make a sort-of border in order to start the second side. It might be confusing to some, but it makes sense in my brain ;). I hope I don't get burnt out on it! So far it's going well! Here's the public link to the project!

In the meantime, feel free to check out some of the blogs that I've linked to on my page!

Evan Lysacek and Charity Knitting Go Together Like...Actually, They Don't Go Together...

Oh wow, I haven't updated since Apr 19th! It doesn't seem like that long ago, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it was a while ago and, yes, I have been working on a few projects here and there, haha. One of the main things is that I finished up another package to send to LOWO on Pine Ridge Reservation. This will probably be the last package I send for a while since it kind of takes some time and resources to organize things, look for cheap (but good quality and sendable) items, the right sized box, etc. Not to mention making any knitting or crochet projects. I've been fortunate with both packages that I had many things that I was able to donate from around the house. My family is in the process of cleaning out the basement and getting rid of all of the items we have been unnecessarily hanging on to for years. We donated a bunch of these items to a garage sale to benefit a young man I graduated from high school with and is currently undergoing treatment for cancer. Getting rid of things to help benefit someone whom you went to high school with is a great motivator for that process. That's a whole different topic, but my point is that you don't realize how much "crap" you don't need until you go through it and put it in bags to give away. That and when you have to move from one apartment to another. That's also when you realize how much stuff you have ;).

In the box are: 5 blankets (4 knit/crochet, 1 fleece), 4 scarves, 6 adult hats, 2 sleep sacks (mentioned in an earlier post), 4 toddler hat and mitten sets, 10 pairs of girls socks (sizes 6-8 1/2), 10 pairs of boys socks (9-11), 6 stuffed animals (only 5 pictured), 1 pair of gloves, and 1 baby sweater (also mentioned in another post). Here's some pics of the LOWO box:

Everything at once:



Stuffed animals I bought on Easter clearance along with some I had around the house. I added one more that's not pictured; a clown fish I got for a dollar, so I couldn't resist. I really like clown fish (random, I know. Don't ask me why).



There's also some hats and scarves. Some of the hats are from around the house or ones that I don't use anymore (the MSU one, in particular) and others I got for 50% at the dollar store for winter clearance. All of the scarves are ones my family doesn't use anymore.


The hats I bought from the dollar store. The toddler hat and mitten sets I bought at the dollar store for 90% off!





Also, I included one of those fleece blankets that you cut, then tie the ends together. The main reason I'm specifically pointing this out is how incredibly cute the fabric is. It has baby-looking lions, giraffes, and elephants eating things on it with various words such as "MUNCH" and "CRUNCH". IT'S SO CUTE. If I knew people with babies, I would've given it to them.



Other blankets I made were the alphabet blanket and the crocheted "bubble blanket" I mentioned together in a previous post. In addition to the blankets I made, my mom also added two blankets. One of the blankets she knitted a while ago (who knows when) and never knew what to do with it.



And she specifically crocheted this blanket to donate. It's absolutely beautiful!





So that's the LOWO box. I feel accomplished to be able to send all of that stuff. My hope is that it gets to the people who really need it and that those people will be able to appreciate it and use the items as much as possible. My next project that I want to do for Pine Ridge (for now) will be to make blankets for the elders. That won't be for a while though, so I'll probably make some blanket squares in the meantime.

While I was getting this box ready, I had the opportunity to take a spinning class at a local weaving store. I told my friend I was taking a spinning class and she said, "OH! Like on those exercise bikes!" :). Nope, I mean with spinning wheels and wool. I have never been able to try it, nor have really never wanted to try it until recently. I figured that a class will be a perfect way to know if it's even something I would want to do in the future. I don't own a spinning wheel and I don't have the means to acquire one at this time, but I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow one for the class. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the wheel, the wool, or the "yarn" I made (all 6 inches of it). I did enjoy it and would like to possibly purchase a wheel sometime in the future. By future, I mean NOT the near future. It'll be more of when I am more settled and have a "real job". All in all, I am very happy that I was able to try spinning, even if I was terrible at it, LOL.

Another thing I did was make a few squares for another Pine Ridge group. This one focuses on making and donating items for children in need. A lady in this group volunteered to take afghan squares and seam them together to make blankets and donate them in the fall. Her goal is to make and collect a total of 130 sets that include blankets, hats, scarves, and mittens for children. Here's my contribution (bad photograpy - was rushed to take a picture, sorry!). I used a bunch of yarn I had from my stash, instead of buying all new yarn.



On a completely different note, I have been watching Dancing with the Stars (don't hate). It's not the best show in the world, but it is definitely entertaining with the exception of the very drawn out results show. My mom and I decided to go see Stars on Ice, which Evan Lysacek (the gold medal ice skater and DWTS contestant) is currently on tour with. He spends Sunday-Tuesday in LA for DWTS and then Wednesday-Saturday skating for Stars on Ice. We made an entire day out of it and went shopping. We decided to check out a local yarn store, which was really nice! I didn't intend to buy anything, but ended up purchasing a beautiful skein of worsted weight yarn called Het Schaapje (Dutch for "Little Sheep"). It's spun and dyed by a lady in Delaware and the color is stunning. Unfortunately a picture can't truly capture what it looks like in person, but trust me, it's definitely eye catching. I want to make a scarf or a hat out of it (I haven't decided - any ideas?).



Of course, I have to include a picture of Evan Lysacek. We actually had great seats, the pictures just didn't turn out very well. It was a fun show though! This was during the week he was training before he received his first perfect score on DWTS!



That's all! Go Evan Lysacek! :P

The Beginning of Insanity

After doing some charity knitting, I am now wanting to make something more for myself. The blanket I'm going to make is called the double vision blanket. It's made up of 100 squares using 10 different colored yarns and there's 55 different shades that are created through the combinations. I absolutely love it, and I'm kind of nervous about starting it (hoping I don't mess it up!).

Here's the yarn colors I'm going to use in the order I'm placing them in.



And here's the amount of yarn I'm going to use for the colors.



Tonight I made my first square! Sorry about the bad lighting and weird background (my couch).



1 down, 99 to go! EEK! Wish me luck!

Alphablanket and Other Craft-Like Things

Oh noes! I haven't posted in a while! Also, I didn't realize I was receiving comments. I don't know what's up with that, I'll try to fix that. I've been up to a few craft things, of course. CAUTION: This is a picture-packed post (yay, alliteration?)! One of the big things I made was this ABC crochet blanket.




This took a while to make (almost a month) and I think it turned out well. Some of the letters don't "pop out" too well, but it was fun to make. That being said, it was a lot of work for a charity blanket. Although I enjoy making things for charity, I feel I would use this blanket to give to a friend rather than make to give away. I feel that I could use my time to make things that would be quicker and easier to create than spend a lot of my time on one blanket.

I've also been busy making a few more things to donate to Pine Ridge Reservation. These will all go in my second shipment that I will (hopefully) be able to send soon. These include a crocheted blanket that I made around the same time as the alphabet blanket. I worked on this mostly when I got sick of the ABC's and everything involved with that. Here's the other blanket:



And a close up picture...



I also dyed some more yarn! I feel geeked out about it all, but it's so much fun! I dyed some more Paton's wool with cherry and orange kool aid. Watch out - picture overload coming up!

These first two pictures are of the yarn immediately after I got done dyeing it. The first picture is right out of the microwave with the yarn still in a ziploc bag (yep, I microwave it to help the kool aid not bleed out of it later!).




These next pictures are of the yarn wound up into a ball, then wound into a hank. The hank is a way to help display the colors they way they would blend in a pattern.




BUT OF COURSE, the point of yarn is to make things, so I made this into another "baby bag" for LOWO.



And then, some pictures to compare the first bag to the second one.




So many pictures! Hope I didn't blow up anyone's computer. Also, don't forget to feed my fish over to the left with a mouse click. They're getting hungry ;).

I Lessthanthree Neil Patrick Harris

Recently, I have been on a documentary kick with Netflix. Although I love my docs, I found something completely different yesterday. I had the privilege to discover and watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Neil Patrick Harris is so incredibly adorable and likeable as the sinister Dr. Horrible. I didn't know what to expect, but I saw it on netflix and decided to give it a go. It had been made and posted during the writer's strike a few years ago and is a mix of a superhero plot, some catchy songs thrown in the mix, and a great cast to make a fun miniseries. It was definitely a great find, and supposedly there's a sequel in the works. That would be fabulous and I'll for sure go to see it whether it's posted online or made into an actual movie.



I'll say that sometimes it's hit or miss when it comes to netflix, but every great movie makes up for (most of) the awful ones. Especially when it involves Neil Patrick Harris.

Indoturtle and a Sweater

Recently, my friend Diana left for Indonesia with the Peace Corps on March 15th. She's going to be gone for 27 months. As a going away present, I made her a small little "talisman" that she could take along and take pictures of in random places. The first update a few days ago was that Indoturtle (and Diana, of course) are enjoying their new location and home on the other side of the world. They have a nice picturesque view of the local volcano (eek!) and some beautiful mountains.



He's made with red and white colors because these are the colors of the Indonesian flag (which is red on top and white on the bottom). Hopefully there will be plenty of adventures for Diana and updates from Indoturtle (lol) in the future.

I finally finished a project I had been working on which was a baby sweater made from fingering weight yarn. I won the yarn from a type of contest called the Ravelympics. It was basically an event that took place during the time of the 2010 Winter Olympics where each participant had to challenge themselves in their crafting. I ended up making a buttload of projects in the short time of the Vancouver Olympics (mostly hats, but some other things, too).



Anyway, the sweater is made from super thin fingering weight yarn that takes much longer to work with using much smaller needles. I didn't like the colors at first (made me think of too much rainbow-like colors making it look possibly "clown barf"ish). Fortunately, I was just worrying too much and the finished product turned out really nicely and the pattern (not my project) was even mentioned in the next newsletter of the Threadbear Fiber Arts Studio in Lansing because I shared it with the Threadbear group on Ravelry. I'll donate it to LOWO on behalf of Bundles of Joy since I don't know any babies that I could give it to, haha. Oh well.