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Knitted some then went out and got drunk. Happy New Years Eve!

Just in case you forgot

I hate this scarf. I worked on it for about 2 hours today, before the internet mercifully distracted me. I've finished like 3 inches? It makes me want to cry.

In other news I went out today and got TWO DOLLAR YARN from Michael's. I love sales. Its the most horrible acrylic money can buy, and of a dubious color scheme, but its perfect for yarn bombing. I am excited!!!

Plans

Last night I taught a friend to knit, and, more importantly, that one should never knit entirely sober. Today we put that into practice by knitting together whilst hyped up on lattes. She caught on ridiculously quickly, and seemed easily swayed really into the idea of beautifying our lovely town!

To that end we went out and measured the bike racks and parking meters downtown for our first yarn bombing endeavors, and also made this empty blog to chronicle them! Exciting!

Then I went home and pretended to knit some more of this Damned Scarf. Ugh. Only 1 ball of yarn left!

Yarn bombs and The Return of The Scarf

So, I just picked The Scarf (of death, of doom, etc) back up and I can remember why I hated it so much. So many tiny little seed stitches. Ugh.

Anyways, I got a Yarn Bombing book today and have decided that sprucing up my home town with some lovely knits is going to be one of my resolutions. I in the process of coercing a few friends of mine into helping out, so if you're in the Gainesville, Florida area and want to help out let me know!

YES.

I KNITTED A SCARF IN TWO DAYS. I WIN AT CHRISTMAS!

I would post pictures, but my computer has decided that it hates me so... later.

Office crafts: Paper snowflakes!

 Okay, so not REALLY a project, but this is essentially what I did all day last Wednesday and Thursday. I don't know if you can tell, but I was kind of bored.

I used this pattern and a lot of tape.

Eventually I stopped printing out the pattern and started reproducing it on envelopes. The one sided patterns gave a nice, subtle bit of detail to the final product.  

I really like reusing envelopes as patterned paper.  I work at an office so we get a lot of mail, and the insides of them vary a lot both in color and in pattern. I've used them in collages before and I've got some other project ideas floating around that I hope to use them for.

 

Of course, this tends to mean I look a bit crazy as I leave my office place clutching a bunch of empty envelopes, but at this point I'm beyond shame.

Completed project: Classifieds Bookmark

So in real life I work in the Classified Advertising department for a newspaper. I had to get a present for my boss, and... basically, I'm a big dork.

Scrolls adopted from Subversive Cross Stitch

Striking Hat Picture Update

The pom pom still has to be added, but here is my lovely friend modeling the Striking hat.

So close to being done!!!

Success!

Well, the pictures thing isn't happening until tomorrow. The party was a ridiculous SUCCESS as we had about four times more people over and crafting as any other meeting this year. I tried to work on the hat pompom during it, but gave up as I need to find an exacto knife and some cardboard first. Luckily, I have a couple weeks to finish that.

HOWEVER, I did finish one of my bookmarks tonight! There will be pictures later, but the super fancy "I'm sorry, that's classified" bookmark I made for my boss is finally done! I started making it for her birthday, but I ran out of time (instead she got banana bread). I broke this bad boy out last night and at work today and just managed to finish it! Technically I need to wash it and iron it so the interfacing adhere's, but I'm handing it over tomorrow so I'm not too worried.

And I'm going to start counting cooking as crafting, which means I was extra industrious today as I made macaroons for my fellow office slaves. And as I have to get up for that in about 5.5 hours, I should probably stop typing now.

Tonight, tonight

My weekly sewing/knitting/craft group, the Super-cool Subversive Stitchers, Historical Society, & Finer Things Club, is having a bit of a shindig tonight. At it I hope to work on:

(1) The pom pom (to finish up that hat!)

(2) A bookmark for my boss

(3) Uploading a bunch of craft photos to various websites (including this one), which I have been SLACKING on

VICTORY

I FINISHED THE HAT! Well, mostly. I still have the pompom left to make and attach. I have some lovely photos of my friend modeling the hat, sans pompom, but I'll wait until tomorrow to post them... mostly because its 3AM and I have work in three hours. Then I get to feverishly work on cross stitch! Ta!

I am not dead

Just a little worn out. But finals are over, essays are turned in, and now it is time to get my holiday craft on. Since my last update I have been knitting, beading and making extravagant paper snowflakes, all of which I will post pictures of in due time.

PROJECT STATUS TIME!
-Hat: I am ONE INCH away from victory. I want to get this bad boy done by tomorrow!
-Bracelets: The only reason these have taken so long is that I kept forgetting to go to Walmart. Well, I went on Tuesday and today I made four fabulous friendship bracelets with elastic, letter beads and, of course, loooove. I have to trim the elastic and then come to terms with not being able to make the ends disappear, but thats about it! They are pretty much present ready.
-Everything else: That is what winter break is for

When finals are over, I will be the queen of productivity

Did a wee bit of knitting over coffee with a friend, but other than that mostly did school work. I would have gotten so much more done today if only I could knit at work!

I think if I ever get to the point of selling knitted goods, I'd like to make a little diary for each one about the various places it was knitted, like its own little journal*. Perhaps just using pictures. If I made one for this particular hat it would have been born in a bunch of coffee shops and on friends couches, which sounds like a pretty cool existence to me.



*In case this blog ever gets super famous (haha) copyright me!

A bit of a ramble

For the last two days I managed to finish the ball of yarn I'm on and that's about it. I can't wait until finals are over.

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That last but was quickly written after a nap, when I assumed I would be going straight to bed for the night. Of course, insomnia wins again and I am up, puttering around, making tea, editing blogs.

Wednesday was excellent. As well as the first day of Hanukkah, it was my day off. I spent it with a friend, at first running errands (doctors office, county courthouse, etc) but then mostly wandering around downtown. I love downtown- it epitomizes to me the city of Gainesville. We went to a hipster coffee shop and giggled for a bit (I am fully aware of my many hipster qualities, which may set me apart from most hipsters. You know, like an alcoholic and a recovering alcoholic. At least I acknowledge who I am, even if its a bit shameful.) and I broke out my knitting (it seemed appropriate). I ended up finishing the ball of yarn I was working on- I thought the tail was long enough to give me an extra row but 3/4s of the way through I ran out. Instead of undoing the row I just shoved it into my purse and went off to the farmers market. Our farmers market has gotten much bigger over the past few years- it used to be mostly produce, dairy and canned goods (jam, honey, etc) but now there seem to be many more craftsmen selling their wares. I talked to a man who weaves palm leaves (fairly common in the south) and my friend was overcome with the urge to buy handmade wooden earrings. (I fear going back next week, as it will probably be the death of my bank account.) Then we ran off to her family's candle lighting and I ate entirely too many latkes.

As for the knitting- I undid that row today, and have come to the realization that however I unknit puts the stitches on backwards, making it extremely annoying to knit. It corrects itself in the next row of course, but in that moment I am very irritated with myself for not being able to recognize on sight how stitches should hang. Now I'm on a new ball of yarn and cursing my lack of foresight.

A side note- a few weeks ago I decided I needed a sketchbook, and I think it has been the best decision I have made creatively in a very long time. I don't really draw (though that will change with the coming semester) but it has been an excellent receptacle for my (extremely) lofty ideas and horrid concept sketches. Mostly it has served as a bit of a confidence booster for me- for a while I felt like I did not have many creative ideas, or if I did they were half formed. Having a dedicated space to record them has gone a long way not only to developing these ideas but just to reminding me that I do in fact generate them. Now, whether these ideas are decent or even viable is an entire other matter, but we'll take this one step at a time.

New goal: Sell something I've crafted by a year from now.