A Restful Week

We have been having an enjoyable, albeit snowy week here in the midwest. I've been blessed to be able to spend some time with a good friend. Even got to teach her to sew! Yes, that is a chemistry themed apron she is making. Yes, she is making it on a Hello Kitty sewing machine.

Simple pleasures.

One of the cuter moments today: Mr. E fell asleep to the sound of the sewing machine. My gosh, how cute!! It just made my heart melt. I remember doing the same thing when I was a kiddo. Listening to the methodical hum of the machine and drifting to dreamland. So lovely.

I am getting ever-closer to finishing these man-socks. I need to have them done this weekend. They are for my Grandpa and are already an incredibly late Christmas gift. I was so overjoyed when I turned the heels last week. It felt like a mega accomplishment!! Because it kind of was. I guess.

Stay warm friends!! It's cold and snowy all over, it seems!! Stay inside, drink hot cocoa, and craft up a storm.

On the Needles Teaser

Been a while since I've done one of these posts.

A little something simple and lovely.

Hat Month

There comes a season of knitting when drastic decisions need to be made. It's go time. There are only -only- a few months left until Christmas, so it's time to crank out gifts and delightful woolies.

The powers that be (aka me and my dear friend Pyper Jean) decided that September would be hat month. All hats all the time. Only hat related projects were made, and it was glorious. Setting aside an entire month and dedicating it to making one type of thing and one thing only seemed a little crazy to me at first. But let me tell you, it is well worth it.

During hat month, I completed ten hats. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a very in depth look at the hats, because a lot of them (read: all of them except 3) are gifts. The hat above is a gift for my husband. I was so excited to be able to rock out the cables on that one. It's a free Knitty pattern. Knit up with some delicious Alpaca.

My husband is so lucky.

 Like my crock? It's my brown yarn/hat crock. I scored it for $2. Cannot complain. Cannot complain at all.

TARDIS hat, another freebie. This one is for me, so I can show it to you. I'm a bit grumpy about the fact that my colorwork floats are tight and wrinkly. But, it looks fine when I am wearing it. Practice makes perfect?

I can also show you this one: it's a hat for Ernest. Delightful yarn to work with. There's so much more of this yarn in my stash, I cannot wait to use it up. Silk and wool. YUM.

And here's a fun little bonus picture of Ernest and I wearing our hats. Look how cute he is!! Lil babu. I think I'll be making him a million more. I love making the tiny stuff.

So, that was hat month! Next up, socks, headbands, and scarves month. Aka October. Let's rock this beast!! Let me know what you are working on!

Hexipuffs: A Dangerous Addiction

Another thrift score: my $2 blue vase for hexipuffs

My dear friend +Kait Murphy introduced me to Hexipuffs right before we moved out here. I did not have any time to start a new project. After settling in for a couple days and completing another, larger project, I decided it would be fair to give these little puffs a try. Kait and I had agreed to do a puff-for-square trade to help both of us make progress on our respective blankets.

Little did I know when embarking on this adventure, how quickly I'd become obsessed with it.

 The puffs are super cute, super easy, and super instantly gratifying. I know quite a few people are on the hexipuff bandwagon. There are whole Ravelry groups dedicated to these lil pillows. Kait is working towards eventually making a Beekeeper's Quilt with all her puffs. I admire her courage, though I could never rival it. I have far too many unfinished blankets in my UFO pile to start a slightly insane one such as this.

But they are fun to play with. :)

Something a Bit Different: 5KCBWDAY5

Here's something quite different from my normal posting style for you: a video!! I thought it would be just loads of fun to take a video of myself knitting all afternoon and make you poor darlings watch it. But don't worry, I sped the footage up just a wee (1600%) bit. And I added some music. And sound effects. Because they are fun!! And I figured you didn't want to hear the Dr. Who episodes I was watching on Netflix in the background.

Just something different. I must say, getting my camera to cooperate and take the videos was certainly difficult. It's be going all fine, then my camera would be all, "Boop! Imma go to sleep mkay? Bye." No low battery, no lack of memory space...just bored of watching me knit, I guess. Oh well.

These are the"Easiest & Fastest Baby Booties Ever" by A La Sascha on ravelry. It's a free pattern! And as you can see, it is indeed easy and fast. I made a pair in under a minute! ;)

Experimental Photography and Image Handling: 5KCBWDAY3

For today's topic, I challenged myself to take photos that would explain the entire process of bleaching cotton yarn and require as few words of explanation as possible. This is a particularly tricky challenge for me because, a) I love to talk, and b) I love to talk. I spent a lot of time thinking about some of the picture tutorials I have seen on the internet recently: a lot of them require almost no words at all!! Why then, should I not try and challenge myself to make a similar tutorial? No reason at all.

I've made tutorials and patterns in the past, but they all seem to end up a bit wordy. I really had to flip my perspective for this challenge and think about how I as a crafter use tutorials and patterns. Essentially, I use them like a framework. A skeleton of ideas from which I can develop my own techniques and strategies. I know there are plenty of people out there who love to know exactly which stitch goes where, and exactly how long the yarn needs to soak in the beach water, but this is a different sort of tutorial. The sort that says: You decide! You are smart! You are crafty! Get to it! I believe in you! Just make sure you don't try and dilute the bleach with ammonia and you should be fine!!

And let me tell you, it was hard for me to wrap my mind around making a tutorial this way. But that's the joy of Knit and Crochet Blog Week, right? Challenging ourselves to see our favorite craft and blog techniques differently; to give them new light not only to ourselves but to other knitters and crocheters and bloggers. I am loving it so far. Hope you all are too!!!

Happy crafting!!

A Day in the Life of Hedgie : 5KCBWDAY1

"Alone at last!"

"Poor Hedgie..."

"You must be so bored when I leave you here alone!"

Knit your own Hedgehog Pattern: free!!