Project 365

As a fore note, who stole 2008? I'd like to have some of it back for a do-over please.

I'd like to do a Project 365 of something. I don't know what though. Maybe I could do a picture a day with knitting in it. On the bus, in a car, at work, and so on. Not necessarily a project a day, but just some WIP that I'm working on. Hmmmmm, that sounds like a good idea.

That will be my New Years Resolution, to blog with my Project 365 each day. I'll still have to do updates on knitting progress and photos of finished objects, but each day will have a picture with a work in progress in it. I just now need a cool name. Leave a comment with a name suggestion.

ETA: I'd love to have themes for each month too. Like January could be snow, May could be flowers, etc. Leave comments for those too!

Well that's all for now, it is nearly 3am afterall.

-Cheers and have a safe New Years Eve!

Well Frak Me!

I'm a geek. I know it. I'm sure you all have figured it out by now, but if you haven't this will set your mind straight.

I crocheted a couple characters from Battlestar Galactica. (Do you watch Battlestar Galactica? No? Well then you're an idiot.) I used the basic head and body pattern from Christen Haden's book "Creepy Cute Crochet", and then pretty much just added modifications to make the characters who they really are.
Saul is my favorite little guy. He's not my favorite character, but he turned out so well. I think if I were to do another I would get felt for the eye patch instead of embroidering it on, I also would play up the insignia on his chest a bit more.

Lee didn't turn out so great. I know he's Lee, and when I tell someone that's who it is, or they know that he's a Battlestar character, they know, but otherwise he just looks like some dude.

I think next will be Admiral Adama. I will also be making a 6, Kara, Chief, Rosslin, Baltar, and Boomer. Maybe a Helo, but I haven't decided yet. I hope to have most of them done (they've only been taking me like two hours to complete!) in time for the new season to start, but who know's if that will actually happen or not. Time will tell.

-Cheers and What do ya hear?

WTFrak? Finished Object?

Oh yes, you had better believe it, A finished object. It took about a day to finish which I thought was just awesome. I would make more, but I don't know if anyone else would wear one.

It's Thorpe by Kristen Kapur. I used the Cascade 109 Tweed LE that I had left from my first sweater attempt in Charcoal and Fuchsia. I already love the thing even though I have yet to wear it outside my bedroom. The stranding of the yarns totally makes it warmer, and it's wool, and it's made out of bulky yarn.

Now all it needs to do is snow and I will be very very happy.

I got a few magazines for Christmas, knitting magazines (go figure eh? It's not like I'm into knitting or anything :P). There's one pattern that has struck me as awesome and I really want to make them all.
(Image from the Knit.1 website)
I want to make all of those little guys, the only thing is, I have no idea what I would do with them all. Not so much a functionality question, it's more of the "I have no room for anything else in my room" kind of question. Dad and I added another shelf to my wall a couple months ago, but still I have no room for anything else unless I add yet another shelf. Oh well, maybe I'll just make them and then figure out what to do with them later.

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season.

-Cheers and happy knitting!

Day 7 - Greed

Well, I did it. I actually was able to blog each day about one of the seven deadly sins. I think to celebrate I will got make myself an extra strong drink, sip it slowly, and drift off to sleep to wake up early tomorrow (have been getting up around noon or later recently) to open presents, have Christmas Breakfast, then go up to my Nanny and Grampy's to watch them open theirs.

Today's sin:Greed (Latin - avaritia)

It's officially Christmas day right now, and in true Nova Scotian fashion, it's raining. Is it too much to ask for snow? Even Vancouver has the white stuff! *sigh* I guess I shouldn't be greedy. We had dinner with the family at Nanny and Grampy's tonight. I don't think I was very greedy at the meal, although my brother did accuse me of being wasteful when I took a glass of wine and didn't finish it (Nanny finished it though, so no waste). I can say right now though, seeing all those presents made me want to open all of mine right then and there. We played crib after dinner, myself and mom were on one team, brother and Nanny were on the other team. We won the first game, they won the next two. I must clarify that they only ever won by a maximum of 5 pegs, all the games were really close.

I guess I should have put greed on another day, because truthfully I was not greedy today. It is a time of giving, and I think I have given quite well this year. I'm pretty sure that I will do a recap of the year on the 31st. A Year in Review, if you will. That's it for tonight, I might stay up a bit later to see if the mister comes online so I can wish him a Merry Christmas, but tonight will not be a late night, too much excitement tomorrow.

Today gets a 4/10 for Greed. I guess I'm just not a greedy person.

-Cheers and have a Merry Holiday.

Actual knitting.

I don't know where all my knitting time has been going. Well, actually I do, and then it goes to the Frog Pond.

I cast on a WollyWormhead Meret out of some sort of scratchy wool I got from my aunt and uncle last year for Christmas, but it just wasn't screaming "Finish me!" So I frogged it.

I cast on for a Thorpe, more specifically, the one with the color work. I was using Cascade 220 (pink and black), and 3.75mm needles instead of 5.5mm, so I added a pattern repeat. I finished all the increases and it was still going to be too small, so I frogged. I cast on again, this time with two extra repeats. I got to the end of the increases and it looked like it was still going to be too small, so I added to the pattern to increase each pattern repeat by 4 additional stitches. I then worked a few rounds of the straight pattern. I didn't like how the top was flat, no bowl, just a bucket. so I frogged it. I haven't cast on again yet, and I haven't decided whether I will double the 220, or use the 109 tweed that I have.

I think I'll frog my Viheevara. I haven't worked on it in a while and I know I don't have enough yarn for it. It kinda makes me sad, but the progress on my other huge project lifts my heart.


Oh heck yes, you better believe that I've been working on the infamous Boob Blanket. I've got 5 blocks done and I don't know how many more I want to do. It's becoming a fairly good size already, but I want it bigger. I'm also not sure which layout to use.

And I know..... Block before seaming. But I got impatient! I will take out the seams to block and find a really good layout for the blocks, but for now, I like having a quarter (or so) of a blanket. What would my blog be without a random artsy-ish photo? I want a good camera. I can't seem to get mine to focus well. It could also be the light. Damn sleep patterns letting me sleep in till 1 and stay awake till 5.


-Cheers and happy knitting!

Day 6 - Lust

Today I had a job. An actual paying gig in my industry. It was awesome.

Today's sin: Lust (Latin, Luxuria)

I might have stayed up much too late last night, and I might have only gotten 3 hours sleep. It might have been a mistake, but it was worth it. Lust.

I got up early and tried to drop off the key that I accidentally took home from work on Sunday, but the complex still didn't have any power, so I didn't even bother walking down to the store. I instead went to McDonalds and got two #2's: Sausage and egg McMuffins. I went back home with the intention of showering before going off to my gig, but the guy who was picking me up called me and said he was running early, so he'd be there real soon. Needless to say, once again there is another day that I was rushed and unable to get completely ready before I went off for the day. I rushed around the house, and ate ONE hashbrown. I lusted after the hot, steamy Sausage McMuffins sitting in their bag on my kitchen table. I then ran out the door for one of the most interesting gigs I have ever done.

It was at a warehouse in Burnside, and they were playing in the warehouse. Not in a lunchroom or a seminar room, but in the Factory Warehouse with all of the huge computerized equipment as a backdrop (which I lusted after, omg big machines). We loaded in though the loading bay that was meant for an 18 wheeler, after which one of the workers told us to pile our gear onto palettes and they would use the fork lift to carry the gear to the "stage".The "stage" was three stacks of about 15 sheets of 8' X 12' pressboard. It was a sight to be seen. The "desk" that I sat up the console on was actually about 5 palettes stacked on one another, with a piece of pressboard (cut to size) screwed to the top. Like I said, it was interesting.

The guys brought me a plate of food during their break which was very nice seeing as I was getting hungry. I got paid in cash. I got home at 5. It was an awesome day. I was home for about 5 minutes before dad got in and we were off again! We went over to the Williams Street crew for supper. I had thought we were ordering Chinese food, so I was all geared up for it and lusting after lemon chicken, beef and broccoli, sweet and sour chicken balls, meat egg rolls, and chicken/beef/Chinese fried rice. We got there, and my Uncle was cooking Lasagna. It was still really good, but I had been all geared up for Chinese, so it was kind of a let down. On the way home I'm pretty sure that I fell asleep in the back seat. It might have been the glass of wine, or the (lack there of) amount of sleep I got last night.

Of course though, it's nearly midnight as I write this and although I could go to sleep now, I don't want to. I'll stay up later so see if the reason that I was up so late last night comes online. Talk about lust much?

Today gets a 9.5/10 for Lust. It only looses a point because of the sleep depravity.

-Cheers from this lusty babe ;)

Day 5 - Envy

Today was better than yesterday, but just about anything could have happened to me today and it would have been better than yesterday. By the way, my boss isn't upset that I accidentally took a key home, I just need to drop it off tomorrow before I go to my gig.

Today's Sin: Envy (Latin - invidia)

So Wentworth open up tomorrow, and I really want to go skiing. There wont be much open, just the main trail I think, which gets very boring after a while, but that one trail is better than the entire Martock hill. I've got a friend who's family has a cabin up in the Wentworth Valley, he and his brothers are leaving tonight (they're most likely on the road now) to go up skiing for the first day that the hill is open. I really want to go skiing, and considering how bad my back can be, it's a good thing that I don't actually get to go as often as I would like. If I did I would be flat on my back for weeks up to months, and that just doesn't fit into my schedule.

I give today a 7/10 for Envy.

-Cheers and Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Okay, that's enough of that.

Day 4 - Wrath

Today was not a good day.

Today's Sin: Wrath (Latin - Ira)

So let's start right from the begging. I was woken up at 10:00am by an old teacher of mine offering me a gig (that big was really good), but because I was up early, I slept in later than I had hoped. 12:30 to be precise, and here's the really bad bit: I worked at 1. I didn't even get to shower, I just got up, washed really quickly, threw my hair up in a pony, and ran off to work. I got there about 3 minutes before my shift started at which time my manager gave me a hard time for not being there ten minutes before my shift started. First off, I have NEVER been there ten minutes before my shift started, secondly, this is the first time I have come anywhere near to being late. So lady, BACK OFF.

My shift was relatively uneventful. It seemed very stupid that the same three people who closed yesterday were also the ones who closed today. I had a few customers who I could have kicked in the arse, but I also had a few really amazing women who truly were appreciative of the amazing customer service I give. I went to Atlantic Fabrics on my break to try and find a shorter 3.75mm circular needle, but all they had were crappy Boye or Susan Bates needles, and the shortest they had were 75cm. Needless to say, that excursion was a bust.

I came home, mom made french toast for the two of us. It wasn't enough for supper for me, so I made a plate of Nachos, still not enough, so I had an English Muffin. I was going to make Cherry Balls, but we don't have enough coconut, or any graham crackers. BUST. I tried to make peanut butter balls, the balls are made, and I tried to do the coating (I didn't have any milk chocolate, so I was going to use white which I figured I would have enough of), but after I got two balls done, I realized I had burnt the chocolate. I think that was the last straw, if I don't get a double broiler for Christmas, I'm buying one. I love making chocolates, but I hate the way I have to McGuyver a pot of water and the chocolate pot. And the best thing, I came upstairs to put on pyjama pants and realized that I had accidentially taken a key home from work, so even if I don't have to work tomorrow (can I just mention now how much I HATE on-call shifts), I have to go in fairly early to drop the key off.

Oh by the way, did I forget to mention that today was the Open House/ Family get together at the B&B my godmother runs in Windsor that I look forward to every year, that I didn't get to go to? Yea, NOT HAPPY.

Today gets a 10/10 for Wrath. Way to go for pissing me off life.

-cheers and pour me another, I need to drown my anger in something.

Day 3 - Sloth

I know, I know. It's technically not day 3, but is it my fault that someone gave me Black Books seasons 1-3 (which I finished in three days), and then I watched two Doctor Who episodes and worked on a toque that is going to be super warm and pretty much the best thing ever? I think it is not my fault. Which is the same stand I take when I say that I was a sloth today, and it was not my fault.

Day 3 - Sloth (Lain - Acedia)

So I stayed up late last night, perhaps a bit too late, and that is the reason that today was pretty much a write off, even though I'm completely wired right now, but that might have a bit to do with having a drink in my hands. I was up until nearly 7am last night.... I swear one moment I looked at my clock and it said 4am, which I thought was late and that I should go to bed, but I had only been talking to DWB for two hours, and I wanted more, and the conversation never came to a lull, so we kept going. It was a good thing that if I had had to work early, it would only have been at 2:30, so even that wouldn't have been too bad. Thankfully I didn't have to work early (as I found out when I woke up at 1:30 and called work). I spent the next half hour just lying in bed wondering if I actually had gotten up at 9am to give mom the hairdryer that was in my room (I had), and contemplating the thought of it all beaing a dream last night (it wasn't).

I went downstairs to discover that mom and dad were decorating the Christmas tree, so in true youngest child fashion, I proceeded to go to my chocolate christmas countdown calendar, ate today's chocolate, and then (while still in my pyjamas) I decorated the Christmas tree with a cocofany of handmade ornaments (remind me to tell you about the Bell Filled with Tears), ornaments that are older than myself (some that my mother had made in elementary school that her grandmother kept and my mother was given after she passed away), and cut outs from many of the various places that mother and father dearest have visited.

I ate breakfast (at 3pm), watched some House and knit for a while. Then I got ready for work, went to work (where it was d-e-a-d, dead. Made me sort of angry), then sat in the car as brother picked me up and then ran a few errands before returning home. I ate left over lasagna from Thursday, watched Black Books and Doctor Who and cast on a hat (twice) that I am changing from the pattern because I'm knitting it in worsted on 3.75mm instead of in chunky on 5.5mm. I'm working on Thorpe by the way, doing the patterened version to add warmth. The main color will be black, with a contrast of neon pink, it's looking awesome so far.

This day gets a 7/10 for Sloth.

-cheers and don't be too much of a sloth!

Day 2 - Pride

6 days till Giftmas, and I am (nearly) done my shopping. I only have two things left to pick up, both of which I can get tomorrow before I go in to work.

Today's Sin: Pride (Latin, Superbia)

I woke up at 8am this morning and was going to get into the shower to get ready for work when the phone rang. It was work calling me telling me that they had to cancel my shift. Some people get angry when that happens, but seeing as I don't need the hours, I was happy. It meant I could sleep in. So when I got up at 1 I was happy, rested, and ready to face the mall to finish my last little bit of shopping. I got up to Mic Mac about 2:30, and I was out of there at 3:15. Done. Everything is now done except two little things I have to pick up, one of them is at work, so I'll get that tomorrow, and the other is at Atlantic Fabrics which is right next to my work. I'm very happy to be done, and even more excited that I'm practically done with all the wrapping. I'm re-using some old shipping boxes for those oddly shapped items. Go Green this season! I think I'll wrap the kid's presents in the comics from the Saturday paper to go even greener.

I give this day a 9/10 for Pride.

- Cheers and be Proud!

Day 1 - Gluttony

Seeing as there are 7 days till the biggest commercially corupt non-denominational gift giving day of the year (read: Christmas), I decided to do a post every day along the lines of the Seven Deadly Sins. You can chalk this up to my being bored, and listening to far too much Flogging Molly.

Today's sin: Gluttony (Latin, gula).

We had our department's Christmas lunch today. Two hours of decent food with not so great service, followed by highly overpriced desert ($7 for a slice of cheesecake!). I are a fair bit of the nachos we had to start, then ate most of my caesar and only some of the lasagna I had. To top it off, I got the traditional cheesecake with caramel drizzle. The nachos were a tad over-cooked for my liking, the caesar was a bit dry, the lasagna was too spicy for my liking, but the cheesecake was sooooo rice and wonderful. The best part was that I didn't pay for it. Also, it was an extra hour on my lunch break that I'm not getting paid for. I spent the afternoon feeling overstuffed and wanting to just go to bed. All in all it was a good lunch with people I like.

I give the day an 8/10 for Gluttony.

-Cheers and happy Gluttoning!

Because the cat's out of the bag.

The Super Duper Secret Project was gifted tonight, so it deserves and is able to be blogged about now. Say hello, to Ten.



I used Snuffykin's Tenth Doctor Pattern, and actually stayed on the pattern, mostly.I didn't change anything, but I did add a collar by Ch20, skip 2, DC in next chain, HDC in next, SC 16, HDC in next, DC in next. I then sewed that to the neck join area, which helped clean it up a bit I found. The suit and hair are Patons Canadiana in brown, shirt, shoes, head and hands are Cascade 220 in various colours, and the eyes are Safety eyes I found at Atlantic Fabrics a while ago.



He worked up really quickly, or it might have been that I was a little obsessed too. The hair is totally awesome, and really looks (and even kinda feels) more like real hair than just a crochet cap.



I want to see if I can make some BSG dolls from the same type of pattern, We're doing a BSG party when the new season starts, so I think it would be awesome to have my own little Lee, Kara, and some of the others too.

Well that's all from me. I'm going to go get some food, left over stir fry is calling me. :)

-cheers and happy knitting!

I did it, your turn now.

That's right Michael, the gauntlet has been thrown down. It's your turn to blog now. I apologize in advance for the pictures that aren't up to my usual semi nice standards, but I just needed something to show that I have actually been working on stuff.

So, my mojo has partially returned, not fully yet, but I'm definitely drafting a heck of a lot more than I had been for a while there. I finished a case for my Crochet hooks and short DPNs. I'm not sure if I had mentioned it before, but I'm actually quite proud of it.
It took me a bit to figure out the best way to put the zipper on, but I finally did figure it out, and it doesn't look half bad if I say so myself.
There are 12 spaces for hooks/needles. A few of them are larger for my bigger hooks and my short but large sized DPNs, and some are smaller to help hold in the DPNs, even though I don't have to worry about them falling out because of the zipper on the top. I know that there doesn't look like there's a zipper on the bottom, and that would be because there isn't a zipper on the bottom. The only one I had here at home was only 16" long, and I wanted instant gratification. Still, the needles/hooks wont fall out because the zipper is on the top and there isn't enough room for them to come out of their little pockets.

My sad attempt at an artsy picture, I don't know why, but I can't seem to get my camera to focus very well. I think at some point in time in the new year I might go and get a real nice camera instead of a pretty nice camera. Not SLR (which I would loooooove), but something with a manual focus would be nice. Auto-anything doesn't work for me all the time.

The main bit of my crafting time has been spent working on my Super Duper Secret Project, so I can't post pictures but it's about 98% done, just a few tiny finishing things and it's done! Too bad it wont get to the recipient in time for Christmas seeing as he leave on Tuesday and I wont see him again before then. *tear*

*Returning 10 minutes later.* Okay, so Michael'ss tactic of sending me to this site to try to make my blogging time even longer kind of worked, and OMG I want everything.

Back to actual knitting stuffs now. I've also started another Lizard Ridge block. I really like this color combo, not sure what color number it is though because I mistakenly threw away the ball bands. I did a recalculation of all the Noro Kureyon that I have, and I have enough for two more blocks after this one, I'll need two more balls to make one more block (I'm doing 8 blocks, a 4X2 blanket seeing as my blocks are fairly large). This is my 5th block and so far, I'm loving the pattern (it flies off my needles), the colors are wonderful, and it's really warm. I think I might do a backing in flanel maybe, just to make it so that theres a little more to it, and so the (IMHO) ugly purl/wrong side is hidden. I haven't decided yet, and I still need to block each piece.


I started these a while ago, and they're still on the needles. I think the thumb is a touch tight, so I wasn't happy with them, and as with everything that I'm not totally happy with, it sits in the wicker basket by my bed and cries tears of loneliness. I really like the palm, I might just frog back the thumb and then pick up more stitches at the base. I haven't decided yet.

Want a blast from your (or maybe it's just mine) childhood? Plastic Canvas. I bought some on a whim seeing as each piece it under 50 cents, I think I'm going to make a TARDIS pen holder for my cube at work. This is a piece I did, but there's an error, so I'm going to make all new ones for the actual one for work. (I'll be the coolest cat around, eh?)


Did I mention the neckwarmer that I finished out of the Malabrigo I bought from TLE? if I did, wewt, if not, here's a picture. The color isn't great, but it's really hard to get an accurate color of it. It's Lettuce Green by the way for anyoone who was wondering.

I frogged a few things too recently. The One Row Handspun scarf I was working on out of some single ply Aurelia Top Knot just wasn't looking as good as I wanted it to, so I frogged it. And the Two monkeys out of Bamboo blend were frogged. I might make another pair of firestarters out of the yarn. I really like the ones out of STR that I have, either that or if I can find another pattern that I love. Not decided yet, but it's not like I'm going anywhere.

Well, I have to go get ready for work (I really do NOT want to work tonight), but I think the best thing might be the fact that I'll have something waiting for me when I do get home. Three words: Rainbow Chocolate Chips.

-Cheers and happy crafting!