It's been a while since I last updated. That's partially because I haven't had as much time lately to do crafty things: work has been demanding and I haven't really started anything new. I've just been working on all the things that I've already mentioned in past entries. I'm almost done with my Cobweb scarf - thanks in part to my husband frequently bugging me to finish it! It's going to be a gift for one of his work acquaintances who helped him move an important project along.
I'm also chugging along on my mom's cashmere scarf. I've only got two skeins left to knit through, but I can safely say I am sick of this project! Will it ever end?? And I'm also bummed to realize that the change of dye lots between the skeins is pretty obvious now that I've knit it up. I couldn't really tell the difference when they were all wound up. (It's all hand-painted yarn from a smaller company, so there are no dye lot numbers printed on the tags). I just didn't realize each skein was so different. Oh well... I guess that's one of the charms of hand-painted yarn.
I've also been teaching myself a new craft - sewing! I figured, I already know how to knit and crochet. Why not add sewing to the mix? At this rate I'll end up a jack of all trades, master of none! I got a sewing machine and realized it's not as easy to operate as I expected. I've been practicing by sewing little clothes for my Blythe dolls. (Um... yes that's plural. I've added two more dolls to my collection since my last post!)
I've been following patterns to make little dresses but most of my attempts have been failures. None of the following dresses fit my dolls properly!
But I kept at it and finally I have made a dress that actually fits! Here it is:
It's still not perfect.... the top stitching on the pockets is kind of sloppy. And I'm too lazy to change the thread in the machine to match embellishments better! I know, I have to get over that.
I also made a pair of pants that turned out pretty well on my first attempt:
Pants are easy compared to dresses. I think I'll be making a bunch more (and yes, I'll even change the thread to match the pockets!)
I've also been knitting for Blythe. I'm working on a little sweater that I can already tell is going to be tooo big, but maybe I can felt it later on.
I also decided to learn to knit proper cables by making this dress:
It's not the most glamorous thing and it looks a little shapeless, but it's fun knitting little clothes. I have such a short attention span for most projects that little things like this are almost-instant gratification!
In other news, my Secret Pal Mellow/Rutabaga swap from the Knitty board has come to an end! I finally figured out who my spoiler was- Licraftgal - a fellow New Yorker, in fact! It actually worked out pretty funny because I was spoiling Knitmommy, she was spoiling Licraftgal, and Licraftgal was spoiling me! And boy, did she ever spoil me!
Licraftgal really outdid herself this time! Check all this out!
She sent me another cool fairy card with a personal note, a sketchbook, a sheepy notepad, and a super cute Hello Kitty tote bag! ^_^ But that's not all!
GUMMIES!! They're almost gone at the time of this writing, haha.
And look at all these accessories! A Wonder-Knitter, mini scissors, a sewing kit (she must be psychic!), size 5 bamboo knitting needles, and the latest book by the Yarn Harlot!
And it's SIGNED!
And then to top it all off, I got this luscious skein of yarn by Mystical Creations. The pictures really do it no justice - the colors are amazing, the varying shades of blue and deep violet - it's like the sky just after sunset. And it's so soft. I can hardly wait to make socks out of this!
So, again Licraftgal, if you are reading this, thank you so so soooo much! Your generosity astounds me. This has been my first Secret Pal swap and it was a blast! Thanks to you I now have a ton of knitting accessories and yummy yarn to play with!
So here's another update with some more projects I'm working on (is it any wonder why I never get anything done??).
But first! My knitty Secret Pal sent me another surprise:
(sorry about the crummy photo)
A "fairy" cool card (sorry, that was a corny pun!) with a nice note, an adorable teeny-tiny crochet hook for picking up dropped stitches, and a neato tape measure!! I am so spoiled - thank you SP!! ^_^ It was especially nice to get something in my mailbox after a long and hectic weekend!
Now, here are some things I'm working on...
First, I finished my most complex thing yet - an arm sock with light cables! (Only one so far, haha). I followed the pattern "Hurry Up Spring Arm Warmers" from Stitch and Bitch Nation. I used this lovely yarn: Noro Kureyon color #88
It's actually kind of rough scratchy wool, but it's not as uncomfortable as it looks. I think it softened a bit while I knit it.
It actually wasn't that hard to do but the whole time I was knitting it, I was convinced I was doing something horribly wrong. I did sort of mess up the thumb gusset... it's not really positioned right, but it's only off by an inch or so.
Here's a pic of me wearing it:
and a close up of my shaky attempt at simple cables:
Now that I've done one I've kind of lost steam and I'm procrastinating on finishing the second one... but it only took me about 3 days to do the first one, so I have no excuse! And I want to be able to wear them before it gets warmer outside!
Next up is my Cobweb scarf! It's based off a character my husband created named Cobweb (duh), which is part of a larger idea called Puri Kura.
There's some exciting news about Puri Kura which I won't reveal yet (I don't want to jinx it!!), but the scarf is sort of a tribute to this good news. It's coming along nicely, but it is kind of boring to knit. I want to make it pretty long and I'm just chugging along, dreading weaving in all those loose ends when I'm done.
Next up is my Jolly Roger Sweater from a patten in Knit 1 magazine (from a few months ago). It was my first attempt at intarsia and I am happy with how it turned out. I only have one sleeve left to knit which shouldn't take long because it's really chunky yarn and big needles. But I'm sort of dreading sewing all the pieces together so... yup, I'm procrastinating again!
Next is a crochet project that was inspired by this site: Counterfeit Crochet
Basically, people take a fancy expensive handbag and crochet a "counterfeit" version of it. I decided to try one based on this bag from Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B line:
I've just started but I can already tell it's going to be a challenge. I've just completed one piece so far:
I'll let you know how it goes...
What else is going on? Oh yes! My husband thinks I'm an absolute geek, but I've joined a guild on World of Warcraft comprised of several of us on the knitty boards. We're called "Purls of the Alliance". I almost couldn't believe there were other knitters out there who love to play WoW - but I think it's great! One of our members even has a popular WoW podcast, World of Warcast! Check out our forums: Purls of the Alliance
And here's my new character, Arachne, a Warlock!
Last but not least, I'm excited to say that I splurged and bought a Blythe doll! Here she is: Blythe - Feel the Sky, a cute flight attendant. (Ironic because I hate flying).
I've named her Birdie. I can't wait to knit little hats and things for her. ^_^
I've been pretty swamped so I haven't managed to update until now. First off, I recently signed up for a Secret Pal thing on the Knitty message boards It's basically a thing where you get to spoil someone with knitting related gifts and you get spoiled in return! I won't reveal what I sent my person, just in case they stumble across this blog and find out who I am, but I will post what I got from my own secret pal (who rocks!)
First, I got some lovely scented candles (Lavender and Spiced Pumpkin - yum!) and a journal with my initial that matches the lavender candle!
Next, I got some handy accessories including a nifty row counter, and a fringe maker - perfect for scarves!
Then, I opened this cute little box to find an assortment of handmade stitch markers!
Here's a close-up. Aren't they great? I love the turtle one!
And last - but certainly not least - two skeins of soft sportweight alpaca yarn from Blue Sky!! These would make great socks, don't you think? When I first saw them I thought they were pale blue, but in certain light, they look lavender. And they smell like lavender too, from being packaged with the candle! So soothing!
Here's a close-up of the lovely yarn.
Thank you sooo much, SP! You're the best! I wonder who you are.....??
Now, for works-in-progress... haha, I have about a million things. I love starting projects... finishing them not so much. Below the cut are a couple pics of projects I have recently completed, and one that is taking me an eternity!
This past Christmas, I made a good friend of mine a scarf from the Plymouth Alpaca yarn I mentioned in a previous post. Pretty basic: 6ft long, 8 inches wide and K2, P2 ribbing. But I was happy with how it turned out and he says it's nice and warm!
I also made a scarf for my dad because he could not find one in a store according to his specifications: 5 inches wide, 6 feet long, and with vertical stripes of varying widths in black, purple, and gray! So I made this for him - I knit it lengthwise on circular needles, in garter stitch. He wears it all the time. ^_^ Here it is:
I also tried making my mom a scarf for Christmas, but alas, it was not completed in time. In fact, despite the fact that I work on it everyday, it's still not even halfway! It's cashmere Mountain Colors in the Ladyslipper colorway and it's very thin yarn (sock yarn, perhaps?)... and the fact that it's K1,P1 ribbing on size 6 needles isn't helping the speed factor. But it will look nice when it's done... probably in time for next winter, ha!
Here's a close-up
I'm also working on a few other things, but I'll post about them later. I did complete one more thing recently - a hat for my husband made of my beloved Plymouth Alpaca yarn:
Unfortunately, while this yarn works great for a scarf, it doesn't do so well as a hat. It's just too saggy and even though I tried making it small, it's still too loose for his head! I tried felting it slightly, but it didn't help too much. And this is my second attempt at a hat and this is the second time it's turned out saggy! Oh, well. Now I know to avoid 100% alpaca for hats...
Here's a pic of it in action:
Well, that's it for now! Next time I'll post about my Cobweb scarf, Skull & Crossbones Sweater, and counterfeit crochet handbag!
So I may be a dork for getting excited over such a minor thing, but I don't care. It's my blog and I can geek out as much as I want. ^_^
I finished my first sock last night and I'm feeling warm and fuzzy inside for having been able to do it. Unfortunately, I chose to knit my first sock in a sort of cheap acrylic yarn so it's not super soft - but the self striping yarn sure looks nifty. (I used Moda Dea Sassy Stripes).
Here it is flat. It looks a little lumpy. ^_^
Here's a close up of the heel:
And here's a couple of it in action:
I also tried making some shrinky dink stitch markers with the Say Llama logo. But, unfortunately, they didn't turn out very well. The instructions say to print the image very faded because they're supposed to darken in the oven. But they didn't darken as much as I expected. Furthermore, the ink never fully dried on the plastic, so it was tough not to touch or smear the shapes by accident as I was cutting them out. But they're so cute and small! I just may try again later on...
I'm currently working on a couple projects so I thought I'd share them here.
First - socks. I've always been intimidated by their complex shape, so I never thought about trying to learn how to knit them. I probably would have put it off even longer but my local yarn store had a sale (because, unfortunately, they are closing down) and I bought some nice wool sock yarn on discount. But I didn't want to have my first sock attempt on nice wool, so I bought some cheap acrylic yarn at Michael's and followed an online tutorial.
Things started out well. I made the cuff/ankle part without any problems and even turned my first heel!
But then, disaster struck as I started the gusset and I noticed some wonky stitches. When I tried to drop and repair them, things only got worse.
I realized I would have to rip out a bunch of my progress and redo part of the sock. I was really nervous about this because I've never unraveled a three dimensional knit piece before and I wasn't sure I'd be able to catch all the stitches... Here's a pic of my sock operation.
Luckily the fix went well and I'm almost done with my first sock. I'll post pics when I'm done!
Second is a project is a winter hat for my husband. I already tried making him another hat that ended disastrously. It basically ended up being way too big and floppy and wound up looking like a toilet seat cover. This time, I'm using my favorite yarn: Plymouth Yarn's 100% Baby Alpaca Grande. It's so wonderfully soft!
I'll post pics when that's done as well.
Third - my Knit-Wits manga. Right now I'm in the middle of polishing the script. Here's the synopsis:
Bernadette is about to start college but she has no idea where she wants to go with her life. Having a powerful lawyer for a mom pressuring her to get into an Ivy league school isn't helping matters, either. When Bernadette discovers and befriends a bizarre group of people in her neighborhood, she soon gets swept up in the joys and pains of the needle. The knitting needle, that is! It turns out there's a local yarn shop with a wacky, weekly knitting club. And it's more zany drama than she ever could have imagined. But what will Bernie's ultra-feminist mom say when she's discovered participating in the dreaded domestic arts?
The synopsis is likely going to be tweaked to reflect the weirder, wackier nature of the story. Originally, I planned the story as a slightly more serious drama about a girl trying to figure out her place in the world and how she deals with pressure from her mother. But I'm always writing stories like that and I wanted to just throw all seriousness out the window and just make a really funny, irreverent comic with the same broad theme, but taking itself less seriously. I may even end up changing the title.
Below is a sample page I did a while back when the comic was more serious. This scene won't even be taking place in the current story - but I thought I'd share it anyway.
And here is one my favorite characters from the story - Sangria. She knits voodoo dolls and uses her knitting needles to inflict punishment!
That's all the updates for now!
Hi everyone! This is my newest blog which will focus on knitting, crochet, amigurumi, and related projects.
Just a fair warning - this blog will likely be image heavy! This is my place to talk about my various projects etc, and I don't want to have to hide or edit the pictures I post.
Some of the things I'm going to talk about on this blog are:
-Say Llama Friends amigurumi. Amigurumi is a Japanese word for cute little stuffed dolls that are usually crocheted. I'm currently working on some original amigurumi designs to fill Say Llama Land, a fictional amigurmi world! ^_^ A separate website will be up eventually at sayllamafriends.com
Below is a pic of one of my designs: Gwen the cat!
-My attempts to learn to knit more than just a scarf Crocheting is fun, but I wanted to learn to knit as well. It's been a good challenge with many disasters along the way. ^_^
-My knitting manga, Knit-Wits! I've been working on this personal project, a doujinshi with a knitting theme. (For those who don't know, doujinshi is just my fancy way of saying comic book). I'm not sure how many pages it will wind up being, but it's going to be zany and ridiculous - just the way I like it! Here's a pic of the main character, Bernadette - a.k.a. the Chosen One! I'm aiming to have this available for the MoCCA Art Fest in June
Lastly, a quick explanation on the name Say Llama. It's sort of a pun. In spanish, se llama (pronounced "Say Yama") means basically his/her/your name. And since my amigurumi will each have their own names and personalities, I thought this was fitting. The other part of the pun is the fact that alpacas, my favorite animal, belong to the llama family of camelids and their wool is often used to create soft yarn for knitting and crochet! As a result, the title is both a hint at the amigurumis' names, yarn fiber, and a silly exclamation.
Phew!
