Weathering the storm

Loyal readers know that there was a tornado that hit our house a little over a year ago.  I have to say that it was the single most terrifying event of my life.  I still can't stand to be in a thunderstorm.  I understand Pearl's desire to hide under the coffee table all scrunched up and hope it ends soon.

We had a bad storm last night.  And I was terrified, sick at my stomach and could hardly sit still and get anything done.

To make matters worse there were tornadoes associated with this event and since that was the case and since the safety of some of the viewers was more important than their coping strategies of distraction or denial, they muted the Olympics, put the visual in the upper right part of the screen and talked us through the entire 3 hours of this storm event.

I was home alone.

And really I just wanted to cry.  I kept thinking "if we get hit, I'm not going to go through the trauma of fixing this house again."  I'm not sure what I could have done about it but I would not have fixed it.  That ordeal may have been worse than the tornado.

Not really, but it WAS pretty bad.

In case you're wondering this is how Zora spent the storm.  It should have made me feel somewhat relieved to know she wasn't cowering under the furniture, but when the tornado hit last year, she was just happy that the other two cats had abandoned their food bowl so that she could eat them all.  I think she looked up once, the dork.

At any rate, I made some progress on my sock and I found something out:

Knitting monsters really does hurt my hands.  I don't know why.  It doesn't feel any different than, say, knitting a sock, while I'm doing it, but there's something about it and my right hand is really sore today.  I was working on double point needles with a fuzzy yarn (IF I can manage to finish this one it's going to be hilariously cute)...but ouchy on my hands today.  I'll have to leave off working on it until my hand feels better, which means, of course, that I likely won't be able to get through all of them before the end of the term.  We shall see.  It kind of makes me sad.

I think I made a decision

I'm not entirely sure, but I think I've made a decision...about the knitted gifts for my kids.  I could still change my mind--obviously I'm still me and always keep that option open) but maybe I won't.

I'm going to knit some tiny monsters for those kids using yarn scraps and bits of my time.  I worked on this adorable critter last night:

She took about an hour and a half to make.  David said she looks like an owl, but she has whiskers and owls don't have whiskers, so I don't know what he's talking about.  And a tail...owls don't have tails long enough to wrap around their plump little bodies.  Anyway, She's pink with turquoise eyes and she's cute as a button.

I think I'll make a bunch of little critters.  I found 3 other patterns as well and will make several of each and give them little stories and then we'll have a white elephant during our appreciation lunch/party and the students can pick for themselves which monster buddy they want.  I think it should be fun, and hopefully I can manage it...I'll be sure to keep you updated.

-------

Pearl helped me exercise last night.  It was the most fun I've had on the elliptical ever.

3rd Finished Thing, and a few others from 2013

I know I'm probably cheating a little, AND I almost forgot to post about her, but Rosie, the knitted elephant, is my 3rd finished project of the year (technically 2nd, but I posted the slippers first and don't want to confuse).

I'm finishing off the leftover bits of yarn from the Noro blanket by making first my mitts,

 and then the Jackalope.

I'm making a "slug" next...too cute with eyes popping off the top of his head.  But these little critters require patience on my part...the kind of patience I have in very limited supply.  The kind that requires me to hold back from knitting on them non-stop for hours until they're finished.  And I'm doing that because I don't like pain.

After I make the slug, I don't know what will be next.  We'll see how much yarn I have left...I think I should get at least 2 more critters, but we shall see!

The tipping point

...there's a pun in that title...let's see if you can figure it out.

I reached a tipping point in my knitting last night.  A critical spot at which I have to stop and say "either you finish up some projects or rip them out...or steal needles from them...because you can't buy more needles"...

Yep, I started ANOTHER new project last night. It's Blish which is a free pattern from Berroco.  I saw it and I loved it and knew that it was THE thing I needed to make for my new body.  I've been wanting a poncho and I think that this one is super cute.  Tailored and comfy looking. And won't pay much attention to whether I lose another 30 or so pounds...

I'm using some Malabrigo Rios yarn which is so gorgeous and soft.  I had originally started to knit a sweater out of the yarn but ripped it out when I started losing weight.

I also figured out that I'd been using the wrong set of needles for the hat that I'm making.  I found this out because the tips that I needed for the poncho were not in the hat like they should have been...they were in the bag.  I'm going to have to take the live stitches and put them on waste yarn and try on what's completed of the hat so far to determine if I'm going to have to rip that back or not...

(Trouble, I tell you...I have trouble...and I can't tell if the mistake I made is because I'm tired at night and not paying close attention or if I made the mistake because I can't see well and thought the size 4 needles was actually a size 5...Now, I HAVE glasses, but I hate wearing them.  Oh, the woes.)

Today I want to share a pic of Harold in his new home.  Yep, that's the shelf labeled "food" in David's office.  He looks pretty happy to be among books about food.  I think he'll probably spend a lot of time reading those books when David isn't around.

2 finished, 3 started

When David came home from his work-trip on Sunday morning he asked the ridiculous question, "how many projects do you have going anyway?"

I mean really?  Why ask that question. I  have a basket full of project bags sitting beside my place on the couch.  There are 2 shelves of project bags in my studio and a work table full of grouped yarns just waiting to be cast on (most of the time they're waiting on needles, but I'm not going to go there because that might inspire me to buy more needles, and I am NOT buying more needles just so I can start more projects!)

So, today, in the spirit of bragging, I will show you the two projects that I finished.  The first is a buttoned cowl.  It was intended to be a scarf, but I really didn't enjoy working on it.  As I was looking at the project bag on the shelf, I thought, "I just need to see how long it is and see if I can finish it off into a cowl," and guess what!  It's perfect!  See (and please ignore the messy hair...It was Saturday morning, early...and I was home alone...

I like the buttons...I think they are perfect with all the bright color right there at the ends.

As I was looking at the skein and a half that I had left, I thought "what could I make with that besides another cowl or a monster?" and it dawned on me that a matching hat would be just the thing, so I pulled out my book "Weekend Hats" and looked through for a worsted weight pattern, found one that I think will look good with all the long-color stripes and cast on.  (I needed 5 sets of needles for this thing and I'm happy to report that I did NOT have to steal ANY of them from another project).  The hat is pretty far along, and I'll post a picture of it when I'm finished.

-------

Then I looked at Harold who has been sitting next to me on the couch for 2 weeks while I worked feverishly on the Noro blanket...with only one arm...and I told him I'd go ahead an finish that arm...and approximately 45 minutes later, Harold was finished.  Wow...2 finished projects and it wasn't even 10am!  woohoo!  Here is Harold sitting with Zora.  She isn't pleased.

In fact, she avoided sitting on that chair until Harold got taken away from it.  David has taken Harold to be his office monster.  I'll have a picture of him in his new home soon.

So, of course it was time to cast on for another monster.  I totally ignored the fact that I'm only supposed to work on monsters 30 minutes per day to preserve my thumb joint.  This was a different monster in different sized needles...and  I've been dying to knit a P monster to go with my Z monster (this one will be Pearl).  I'd bought 2 different yarns trying to decide which was best, and I went with the Blue Moon Fiber Arts' BFL Sport--mostly for the size of the yarn, but also because it had enough orange in it, and bright orange at that, to be more like Pearl.  As usual with these little critters, it's all I can do to limit my knitting on them.  She'll be absolutely adorable, but I don't have a picture yet because all she is so far is a tube.  Soon, though, personality will come through.

-------

And finally, on Saturday afternoon, I decided to pay attention to that little bit of my brain that has been thinking about the Color Affection Shawl and picked out the yarn for it.  I don't know how it all happened, but the Satakieli yarn that I attempted to make mittens from (remember this) told me that it would make a really pretty Color Affection, or two, and that I needed to go ahead and buy the pattern and get it started because it would be a great travel project and it would be gorgeous and all that other stuff that yarn does to convince you that it needs to be cast on right at this very moment.  So, I cast on the blue as my main color and picked out the two oranges to be the contrasting colors and cast on.  I made it through the first section and started the first striping last night.  It's going to be gorgeous and cozy and all kinds of wonderful.

I can't tell you how much I like this yarn better than when I was working on the mitts.  This yarn is so squishy and soft and I can tell that once it's washed it's going to bloom and become all kinds of gorgeous and even softer.  It knits up very easily and quickly and the color is very true and rich.

So, now that I have bitten the Color Affection bug, I have already decided that the other two skeins of this yarn are going to make another CA...and maybe I could get three or four of them depending on how much of the yarn I have left when I'm finished with this one.  I thought about combining it with others of the sock yarn that I have in my stash.  This has started to get a little out of control, but I understand that's what happens with a CA...I'll keep you posted on where things go with it.

Making Monsters, Wool Experiment and a Football Weekend

I thoroughly enjoyed our football weekend.  The Aggies played very well, and from all the news reports I'm seeing, the Aggie fans were their typical nice, hospitable and welcoming selves.    "Hard to hate you" said some Alabama fans.

Good.  I'm glad we can show class on and off the field.  For me, that's what being an Aggie has always been about.  Leadership through example and hard work.  Very good indeed.

-------

I knitted during the game, of course.  I knit almost all day on Saturday.  This game I decided I needed something I didn't need to think about so I worked on the Noro stained glass afghan.  I'm on block 18 and almost finished it during the game.  It's really quite lovely...and I'm getting so close to finishing all the blocks that I'm about to get "obsessed" about working on it again.  I think I've made terrific progress for only starting it on July 4th.  We'll see how I feel once I'm knitting black sashing strips...

----------

I'm almost finished with Harold, my red monster.  He's absolutely adorable and coming to life quite nicely.  See his picture below--he doesn't have arms or legs yet, but still you can see his personality.

The pattern called for a 3 needle bind-off at the top of his head, but I decided that I didn't want that.  I wanted him to have hair, so as I was drifting in that space between sleep and awake, I had a great idea.  Why not knit the front and back together like I would in the 3-needle bind off, but instead of binding off, continue up with a ribbed tuft of hair.  It would be more appropriate for Harold than the i-cord tendrils I've done in the past.

So, I combed through my monster yarn stash and found this lovely variegated blue, teal and purple yarn and make Harold some hair.  He's quite special.  I then dug through my buttons to find some blue eyes and belly buttons.  His mouth is a purple jagged line (made by doing a zig-zag embroidery stitch).

I've made both of Harold's legs and feet and one of his arms.  He has one green toe, which when I saw him sitting on my couch this morning, I decided made him just about perfect.

My thoughts on knitting monsters.  I find it quite addictive.  I want to knit and knit and knit and end up making my hands hurt.  Both of my hands are very sore this morning, so I'm clearly going to have to pull back on my enthusiasm for making monsters...I'm hoping I can keep up to the 30 minutes per day like I like to do...but I don't know.  Anyway, Harold is sweet and a total charmer.  I can't wait for you to meet all of him.

---------

TGWE #8 is underway.  After seeing the very first photo of the project, my mom said, "I want those" so I won't be showing any more photos of this project.  I'll talk about it a little, though, as learning about the different types of yarn has been a big part of why I'm doing this experiment in the first place.

I really love the Louet Gems that I chose for this project.  It's truly a springy yarn (4 ply but almost looks like 2).  It's a nice round yarn with just a hint of fuzz (not sure what that's from).  The color is very muted, but rich (an unusual combination).

I find that in looking at all my hand-knit socks, I haven't made many that are solid, but I love the ones that I've made.  I think this pair will be special too...and too bad you won't be able to see a picture of them until Christmas!

Zee Monster and a Hat

I did a lot of knitting this weekend.  It was so nice to put on pjs on Friday afternoon and keep them on (changing of course each day) until this morning.  I think having pjs on really helps in the whole stress-reduction resting part of the weekend.

It was nice watching football on Saturday too.  I love football.  I really enjoy watching the Aggies, of course, but I do enjoy watching other games.  I like seeing the athletic prowess and amazing things the guys can do.  Plus it's really fun when teams you don't like lose.

Because I don't have any major deadlines coming up (except Christmas, but I'm planning ahead now and I really don't consider that a deadline as much as a suggestion), I've been flitting between projects trying to find the one that interests me.  I'm still plugging away on the Noro blanket.  I'm getting at least one "log" completed per day.  TGWE #7 is also going well.  I love the Koigu KPPPM yarn I'm using.  It's very soft and springy.  The colors are gorgeous.  It wasn't the best choice for this pattern as I figured out too late (wasn't going to buy MORE since it was experiencing new yarn that was the purpose behind this particular experience), but they are really pretty anyway.  I find I really like the pattern.  I'm in the gusset decrease section and should have the second sock finished by this weekend.  Very excited.

I finished this hat:

It's knitted out of handspun yarn that has, in addition to all the fun daisies throughout, bits of lace and fabric as well.  It slightly variegates from bright aqua to white.  The pattern is a "super simple hat pattern" which is really just a ribbed brim and a stockinette body.  Nothing fancy for this fancy yarn.  I am totally ready for the first cold snap.

I also finished Zee Monster.

She's "Gabby" from Rebecca Danger's "Big Book of Knitted Monsters" and she's about as precious as she can be.  If you've been following me for a couple of years, you may recognize this yarn as the yarn I used to make my very first knitted project.  That was a super-simple hat pattern as well...and ended up being too big, so I frogged it and made this little calico monster.  She's sitting on the credenza above my desk right now and will greet my visitors when they come in.  I love Zee...She has lots of personality from the tuft at the top of her head to her pink eyes and blue belly button.  Fun fun.

So, in the spirit of "doing what I want to" this weekend, I started another monster.  I have no plans for this one.  It'll be about 6" high in the body so if someone wants a medium sized monster, holler.  It can be yours (it's made out of red yarn...if you want it for a little critter, tell me soon so I can avoid the button eyes and belly button).

Spontaneity

Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl.  They met in a class and flirted with each other, fell in love and got married.  They would wake up one morning and say "hey, let's go do something fun," and head out to do whatever that fun thing was.

Then they had babies, then they went to grad school and got very busy, then they got jobs and got even busier.

They'd still wake up in the morning and say "hey, let's go do something fun," but kids, work or other responsibilities always got in the way.

Then the babies grew up and went off to college and became self sufficient.  The boy and girl had learned that anything they did had to be planned, so there weren't very many spontaneous moments...they planned their fun.  While it was still fun, there wasn't that spark of excitement to it.  It was all planned and well-thought out and, well, orchestrated.

Yesterday, however, the girls spied a Sheep and Fiber Festival in Lexington, KY, where this couple used to live.  She said to the boy "I'm tempted," and he said, "let's do it," so a frenzy of hotel reservations and cancellations ensued and now that's what they're doing.

San Antonio and visiting parents has been tossed aside in lieu of spontaneity and fun.  And the girl is very excited about it.  Very.

The boy and girl are going to Lexington for 2 days and then driving up to Holmes County, OH, where they used to go when they lived up in those parts.  Relaxation, fun, and crafty-pleasures await.

The boy and girl feel somewhat like they may be getting their spark back.

---------

Today's picture is of a finished Frankie.  Frankie is the sweetest monster I've made so far.  She has on a light and dark pink striped shirt that lets her adorable green arms and legs show through.  Her ears match the dark pink in her shirt.  Her great big green eyes yearn for a hug and to send encouragement to you.  I think Addie, the little girl she will belong to when she gets to Texas, will be thrilled to have her princess monster.  Today she's sitting on my desk making me smile every now and again.

Monster in Progress

I'm making another monster.  This one is bigger than the others because she's made from worsted weight yarn rather than sock weight yarn.  Thicker yarn=bigger monster.

And she's adorable.

I'm making her for the little girl that mom babysits.  She will be a "princess" monster, and as you can see she sports pink and purple as her main colors, but like Fiona in Shrek, her green arms and legs are, well, rather green.  (I decided to use the green for the arms and legs as an homage to the "green jeans" that my daddy used to wear.)

All she needs is some ears, a mouth and a belly button.

I have so much fun making these monsters.  They really come to life for me as I work on them.  Frankie, as this one is called, is really sweet and wants people to love her.  I hope that you do.

Retreat

I'm on retreat this weekend.  A much needed retreat.  In fact, I'd stay this way for an entire week if I could but work beckons and it's the wrong time of the semester to call in sick. There's a lot moving and shaking at work and I could find myself in quite different circumstances in the coming months...or I could find myself just exactly where I am.

I'm ok with that.

But back to the retreat.  My plans for this weekend are to knit and weave and relax.  I'm going to watch travel shows and dream about where I will travel and what I'll do there once I lose my weight.  I'm eating healthy this weekend (thank you so much David for cooking me food for when you're gone...steaming or baking veggies is definitely something I can manage on my own).

I was so excited about my retreat that I actually woke up early this morning.  I did this during spring break too.  Cracks me up.

I currently have 8 knitting projects on the needles and would have started a 9th without question except I'm out of size 7 needles (though I do know I have tips in there, so may change my mind if I can find the right size circular cord) and am definitely starting another mystery knitalong.  Those are so fun.  I even watched the premier episode of Game of Thrones this morning to be part of the spirit behind the KAL (not sure it's going to be my kind of show, but I'll watch it with David when he gets home and hide my face during the violent parts).

I designed the next scarf I'll weave with a lovely "splurge" yarn (thanks to David for my Easter "basket").  It's a cashmere sock yarn and goofy me didn't pay attention to the fact that it's only 50g which isn't enough to knit a pair of socks, so I'll have to weave it into a gorgeous scarf with some bamboo and tencel yarn. It'll be scrumptious.  I have another scarf waiting to be woven that I'm calling "4 shades of grey"...for obvious reasons.  Art Box #1 is still on the loom, but I've made very good progress on it today and won't be surprised if I finish it off if not today, then tomorrow morning.

So, my goal is to be creative, relax, watch tv, knit, weave, and not disarm the alarm on my door until the girls come over on Sunday evening!  Heaven.

Today's picture is of Frankie.  It's a little knitted monster I'm making for my mom to give the little girl she babysits.  The head and body are complete.

It's a Monster Mash!

Before I get to the monster mash, I have to indulge in a little selfish prattling.

Last night I was just about done for.  The stress of the past 6 weeks, the seeming never ending string of bad news, the overwhelming frustration I'm feeling at work, and what came across as a negative meeting with my weight-loss coach drove me to want to just sit and cry.  Not in the healthy "getting over it" kind of way, but in the "I feel sorry for myself" kind of way.

And, as I was laying down to go to sleep, I was thinking that for the 7th day in a row now, I've had a difficult time thinking about my gratitude.  I was feeling sorry for myself and thinking that not one good thing had happened that day (not true) and that darnit I might just have to go to sleep without being grateful.  And then I had the urge to check my e-mail one more time and I got a wonderful message from Aunt Betty, that seriously made my life better.

It reminded me that despite everything, I can manage to reach out and touch people with my craft.  That, in doing so, I can put a grin on their face and make them genuinely happy--and that the only way I can do things like that is if I make myself get happy.

Thank you Betty.  You scooped me up just when I needed it and you didn't even know I needed it just that very moment!

Then, this morning, I opened my e-mail to find pictures galore of the Monster Mash...and oh, how I smiled and grinned and was so happy that I almost knitted my thumb off!  What a return on my time!  That a few yards of string could be turned into such joy is truly alchemy!

You remember the monsters, right?  I never divulged who they were for, and now you know.  Aunt Betty asked me to make them for her friends the Middle Creek 6 and she gave them to them last night at her "Monster Mash."  Each person opened her monster, read the description of it and laughed and giggled.  They all look so proud in the group photo, but the one that struck me the most out of all of the photos is the photo below--the one of the monsters looking a little...well...like they drank more of the Dos Equis than they should have.  It's adorable and I honestly believe they had as much fun as their namesakes.

Completion

On Saturday, I finished 2 projects.  2!  Can you believe it?  Neither could I.

At this crazy time in my life having ANYthing completed was pretty amazing.  And it felt so darn good that I felt a huge amount of stress just vanish in the ether...just like that.  For no reason other than I completed something.

The first was a set of 5 towels that I made for David.  I'll put a picture of them up in a later post.  They are gorgeous, though, and pulling them out of our kitchen towel basket on Saturday night to dry my hands made me giggle a little.

The second is Courtney's monster, Mad Hatter, though I call her Mathilda the Hun.  MH (for both!) is a rather impish little lady who would NOT sit still waiting to be finished.  She got very upset with me when I stopped at just one arm, and she almost danced a jig when I put both of her legs on.  Her tail is her best feature, she thinks, though personally I think it's her orange wings.  That just somehow made her perfect in every way.  Complete. Whole. Intact.

I hope you love her.  I had to wait a few days to send her to Courtney because I'm going to miss her.  Never has a creation of mine come to life quite the way MH has...it's been magical and fun. (I have to tell you MH is a little scared of traveling alone.  I don't know what else to do about it though!).

Mad Hatter

My sister-in-law, Courtney, asked me to make her a monster.  She has a very vivid description of her, and I picked out the yarn and the pattern well before the tornado hit...but I also had issues with my thumb (remember that) and had to take a break from monster making for a few weeks (or at least a project).  Then I had to order some safety eyes in green and wait for them to come in...and they came in the day before the tornado hit.

And you know what happened then.  A frenzy of packing everything up, taking it to our third floor apartment, dumping it all out and going back to the house for more boxes of stuff.  I finally found all the pieces to the monster, but that took a couple of days as I mentioned in my blog entry last week.  And finally, on Saturday, I got to sit down and knit and knit and knit.  I'm having so much fun working on this little critter.  She has quite the personality and as I'm doing each little part of her, different things come out.  For instance, she did NOT like sitting still to get her hair done last night.  The end result is well worth it but I had the hardest time knitting up those little bits of hair.  And I just love how the three green eyes pop out and look at you with a completely guileless expression.  You know she's up to something, but what you could never tell.

I think we're settling into the apartment ok.  Getting into a routine and enjoying the quiet of the place.

Today's picture is of me knitting her.  I kind of hate how her body blends in with my pajamas, but then that allows my working hands to show a little better.  I've never seen pics of my hands knitting and think it's kind of neat to look at.

Settling

Well, it's Friday and there's a weekend ahead of us to get settled in to the apartment and to finish up the cleaning out of the house.  I'm very much looking forward to sleeping, getting a sense of closure at the house and hanging pictures on the walls.

This week has been good.  A good adjustment back into reality.  It's been a slow week at work without too much stress and anxiety, so I'm hoping that soon, I'll feel normal again.  I'm getting used to sleeping at the new place, and adjusting to the new sounds and placement of things.  It'll definitely be nice to clear pathways, though. :)

I have to say that I'm battling with a little PTSD.  They are tearing down the building outside of my office and every time things crash, I cringe. It's less awful today but I think that's because they are working on the far side of the building and the noise isn't as loud.  When I hear the crashing noise, though, I remember that that's what I heard during the tornado.  It's quite frightening.  I'll be glad when they're done tearing that building down.  I haven't noticed anything else, but we shall see how I deal with storms this weekend and early next week.  I doubt I'll be the only person panicking at the sound of thunder!

Today's picture is of the "body parts" of the next monster I'm going to start.  It's for my sister-in-law Courtney.  She sent me a detailed description of her monster, and I finally found all the parts (in different boxes, but all there at least) and will start knitting it this weekend.  She is called "Mad Hatter" and has pink tufts of hair, pink tummy, orange fuzzy wings, green freckles, green eyes and an all-over purple body.  I remember that there's a long tail involved, but I don't remember off-hand what color it is.  I think pink.  This will be entirely too much fun!

And the grand finale

The monsters are finished!  I saved the best for last, of course.  She's the queen of the group with pretty red shoes.

Now, off to "rest" my hands with some sock knitting.

Monster #5

She's almost finished, but not quite yet.  I've made the important part so will post it today...If it doesn't make you smile then you're heartless...that's all I have to say.

Yep, that's a big-old-wide mouthed grin.  And I knitted it on my very first try.  I have to say it was THE thing that made my day yesterday.

I have had two awful days in a row at work, this was after a fairly stressful week last week.  Luckily I also got some awesome news (that unfortunately I can't share for a little while at least) and had a good day today because I had the ability to work in Hattiesburg AND take half the day off.

So, all-in-all this week has been a roller coaster and has left me gassed and exhausted and slightly nauseous about it all.  I'm hoping that a weekend of restfulness clears my head and helps me deal with what promises to be another challenging week next week.  I'll certainly be knitting myself silly until then!

Thumb report:  It's much better. I hardly feel a twinge, but know it's from all these wonderful monsters I'm knitting.  I'm going to have to do them more slowly from this point forward.  Fingers crossed it was just sore and not the harbinger of awful things to come.

Monster #4

This monster?  She's plum crazy.  There ain't no better way to describe what happened here.  Part of it was planned, most of it was not, but the final effect is probably the most adorable creation I've made so far.

I'd tell you her name but that might give something away, so I'll just let you know that her name is X-Pants and in putting her together I knew she had to have the red yarn on her like pants...at first I thought full length pants, but then I decided that that would be too much of the red, then I decided I'd do a little more than half of her leg in red and that she could be wearing capris.

Well, after getting her all sewn together, I realized she was wearing short-shorts...Hopefully it was a look she favored back in the 70s and early 80s, and hopefully when she did, she mismatched her stockings and shoes and put on some crazy shirt that didn't quite match anything at all...

Or maybe she just entertained her kids by playing in the paints too much and was all colors all over.

Whatever happened in her past, this little monster turned out adorable.

Monster #3

I finished another little monster yesterday...well, the knitting of it. I'm waiting to do faces and other embellishments all at the same time.

When looking at the picture of the lady whose monster this is, I saw a gorgeous smile, so wanted the red portion to be a mouth.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

News on the thumb:  Still sore, but I'm trying to break up my activity some to do other things.  I'm fairly confident that the thumb issue is the result of the little bitty knitting I'm doing making the monsters, so I'm going to have to watch it and be careful not to do too much.  I'm feeling so creatively inspired by this group of monsters, that I'm going to finish them, but today I'm taking a break to work on my Downton gauntlets.  Pics of that tomorrow.

You can see a close-up of the #3 monster's mouth.

Monster #2

A red flower adorns this bright and lovable monster.  I finished knitting her last night, and pieced her together this morning.  I had to share because I think the flower is quite the perfect touch.

In case you didn't notice there's a red theme going on here :)

In "uh-oh" news...I feel my thumb on my right hand being grouchy.  I think I'm probably knitting too much.  Will have to work on stretching it better to keep it healthy.  I enjoy this too much to have a gimpy thumb!

Monsters and more Monsters!

Have I mentioned that I'm really having fun making knitted monsters?  Who knew I had it in me.  At my crafting group last night (we call ourselves the Crafty Vixens after this lovely wine we used to drink.  Apparently you can't get it in the states anymore which is very sad indeed), I was finishing up the first in the set that has been ordered.

The first one is made for a "red head" so I gave her red hair in the form of i-cord sticking out of the top of her head.  How cute and fun was that.  It sealed up the top just as snugly as any bind-off would and it's adorable.  No seaming either.  I just transferred 4 stitches at at time to a double point needle and made a short i-cord that I bound off.

By the way, this is the first i-cord I've ever made and I have to say that not only was it deceptively easy, it looks pretty cool, and like turning the heel of a sock, is a bit of magic.  I want to toy around with the process and see if I can get it to curl a little...

I'm not going to show the entire monster finished until I have the set, the person who has ordered it has given them to her friends, and she has given me permission...but I don't think little bits and pieces of the monsters will give away too much.  So, here is the first monster body with her bright red hair!

I think I love her, btw!