Hat Attack starts!

Aaaand, the pattern is out, let the madness begin! :D

Hat Attack starts tomorrow!

Between 9am-10am EST Saturday morning, the pattern for Hat Attack will be released! It's a game based on Sock Wars, which itself was based on the popular Assassin game.

Once the pattern is revealed, hundreds of knitters will start knitting a hat to mail to their assigned targets. You finish the hat and mail it to your target as quickly as you can. Once you kill them, they send you the hat they were working on so you can assassinate their target. On and on it goes until either you get killed by a hat someone knit for you, or you are the last one standing. >:]

They've released the yarn & gauge used for the designed hat. I still need to swatch the yarn I want to use to try to get gauge. Someone had the good idea of casting on at least 60 stitches to avoid that painful first step. Hm, but what if it's knit from the center out? I don't know if hats are usually knit one way or the other as I've never knitted any before. The pattern will have cables, and there's a multi-colored option. I have a nice pink yarn to match the Patons SWS in Natural Crimson, in case I'm feeling adventurous. Then again, cables...are not exactly my forte in terms of speed. Some people can do them without a cable needle, but I feel like my stitches are never stretchy enough for that. Even with a cable needle, it gets pretty tight. I'm pretty sure that if I tried to just leave the stitches loose while cabling, I'll have a mess of dropped stitches.

project hearts

There was a thread on Ravelry about feeling sad when one of the little hearts next to the projects (signifying someone marked your project as a "favorite") disappeared. I was really happy when I got my first heart, and I just checked today to see that I had several more on several different projects! That gives me the warm fuzzies inside, especially seeing that they're all from different people, heeheeeee. :D

Starting over: Socks; Starting anew: Purses

In my first knitting phase, about 2 years ago, I started knitting socks on DPNs. I don't have the label for the ball of yarn I was using but I think it might be Regia. It was a busy pattern, with criss-crossing cables on all sides. I only finished about 4" of the leg and it was left in a bag, unfinished. After making those big bulky socks for my grandpa, and actually knitting a heel & gusset, I felt more confident in tackling the techniques on "real" socks in fingering/sock weight yarn.

Skip now to last weekend, when I went over to my aunt's house. I brought her the cat sweater I finished and she absolutely adored it. We took the cat and attempted to put the sweater on. I actually thought it wasn't going to happen, but the cat didn't really seem to mind too much. The only thing was when she tried to walk, her legs pulled up inside the sleeves and she tripped and rolled over on the ground, hahaha. It was really funny to watch but we took the sweater off of her after seeing that. In being afraid of making the sweater too tight, I ended up making it way too loose in the body, and also too long and loose in the sleeves.

So my aunt had been toying with the idea of learning to knit since the first time we went to visit her LYS. That night, I suggested it again and she said she would totally want to make a purse. She doesn't wear scarves and she finds yarns too scratchy for her skin, but would so totally use a cute purse! I took her on Ravelry and started showing her project photos. She ended up really liking the purses from Noni Design's Spring 2007 collection. Unfortunately the yarn store didn't carry any of the patterns, and we didn't want to wait for the pattern. Instead, we found another purse, the Hawaiian Motif Crochet Handbag found on Nexstitch.com. The next step is now finding the yarn. Each bag needs 5 skeins of Karabella Aurora Bulky, which costs $7.50-$8.50/skein. Plus, it needs a ball each of 3 other colors of Karabella Aurora 8. That adds up to a lot for 2 purses. I asked on Ravelry for a bunch of suggestions, but some of the alternatives cost just as much. Either I go with the original suggested yarn or substitute something from KnitPicks, which will cost half as much.

At the LYS, although we didn't find the pattern we wanted, I ended up buying some sock yarn from Cherry Tree Hill! I've seen that brand on the forums and figured I'd give it a try. I got a skein of fingering weight and a skein of DK weight. I also bought a set of Addi Turbo size 1 circular needles and decided very suddenly to make Cookie A.'s Hedera, found on Knitty.

I've got a cameraaa!

Lawrence got me a Canon PowerShot digital camera for Christmas! :D Yay! I can now take pictures of my projects without having to go to him for his Nikon! I still have a problem...the default memory card that comes with the camera is way too small. It only fits like...8 pictures.

I've ignored my blog for the past month because of the holiday season. It's nice to not be in so much of a rush anymore, and even though so many people say that they learned to not craft Christmas gifts....I guess it takes living through the hell to really learn the lesson. I stayed up (almost) all night and worked all day to finish gifts. Even then, I have some that I haven't completely finished:

• 1 baby duck and a mommy duck (lily's sugar'n cream)
  
• crochet striped scarf (vanna's choice)
  
• bunny slippers (bernat cashmere/moda dea dream)
  
• argyle golf cozy (red heart)
• scarf for philip

I admit I've been putting off some of these. The ducks because I don't like sewing pieces together. The crochet striped scarf because I've actually already finished it (I had to give it away for the Christmas gift exchange and I now need to make a replacement). The bunny slippers because I need more Moda Dea Dream yarn. The golf cozy because I used too many loose pieces of yarn and I'm going to have a hell of a time weaving the ends in. Philip's scarf because it's a scarf and scarves are evil and long and can get really boring.

I also have a bunch of projects that are not gifts, but are still works in progress:

• hemlock ring blanket
• clapotis
• amigurumi elephant
• womb
• lace party scarf
• butterfly wrap

The hemlock ring blanket is getting closer to completion. I am on round 93 (out of 121) and there are 440 stitches per round (600 by the 121st round). The clapotis I'm still not sure how long to make it. I'm not sure if I have enough of the yarn either. I'll get around to it again I'm sure. The amigurumi elephant I've been avoiding because the head & body are already sewn together and I will need to take them apart to get the safety eyes in the head. Or, I could just hot glue them while sticking them in. Even then, I probably have to take apart the legs because I put them in the wrong position. The womb just needs the pipe cleaners and stuffing. The lace party scarf is getting near the ideal length...maybe another 6-12 inches. The butterfly wrap still needs to be blocked and needs the ribbons to be properly tied. I also need to find some occasion to actually wear it.

Lawrence said he wouldn't mind giving me $200 for me to buy yarn. I don't remember the context that caused him to say it and I hope he means he would give me $200 to buy $200-worth of yarn if I wanted to. Actually I'm thinking I should buy a swift & ball winder.

Doh, still no pictures

Lawrence left the camera at work yesterday...tonight I'm going to my parents' place. Bleh. I did finish the bulky socks, so that's pretty cool. I'm going to give them to my grandpa tonight instead of waiting for Christmas. I've started a pair of Dashings for my brother, which I had to frog and re-knit because I did NOT check the gauge (bad!). I started crocheting baby ducky parts for the duck amigurumi. I really don't like working with the pure cotton. The non-stretchiness is tough on my hands and the fiber splits really easily so it's hard on my eyes too.

My list of things to finish:

• puffy slouchy hat (tweedle dee cinnamon twist)
  
• dashings (nashua creative focus) - 25%
  
• 3 baby ducks and a mommy duck (lily's sugar'n cream) - 10%
  
• triforce scarf (vanna's choice) - 40%
  
• crochet striped scarf (vanna's choice)
  
• bunny slippers (bernat cashmere/moda dea dream)
  
• shrug (black shimmer snowflake chunky)
• argyle golf cozy (red heart)
• baby booties (bernat be mine)
• basketball (orange yarn)
• amigurumi/fetching
  

Wow, that's still quite a bit. Most of these aren't difficult...just time consuming.

Procrastinated knitting

Okay, so I didn't get the 2nd sock done, but I did finish the first sock. I didn't get to go to Joann's because Lawrence was being neurotic over this minuscule rattling noise coming from the door of his car. I was working on the Hemlock Ring Blanket, however. I think it's like finals stress....when I have something I should be doing, aka Christmas knitting, I find a million other things to occupy me instead.

I finished putting together the wreath and we hung it on the door last night. It's pretty awesome...but we still need a nail to hang up the other piece above the door (I think it's called swag...). :D I can't wait to get a picture up!! Perhaps tonight...