Oops! I Did It Again

I made a third stocking ornament. But that is the last one. Ha!

I think I pretty much have this pattern memorized by now. This third stocking went so much quicker. I did this one in about 5 minutes. (Okay, not 5 minutes. But pretty quickly, still.)



T came home about the time I was finishing this one up. I had it all seamed, but hadn't put the hanging loop on it yet. He looked at this little baby sock, then looked at me, and said "Something you want to tell me?"

What? Like another baby? Oh, no, Sweetie. Not without a court order I don't.

As If It Couldn't Get Worse

I am leaving my house so early these days. The traffic is in-sane. Seriously. People are standing in line at the Super Bowl Village Indy Zipline at 5 am. (or so says the news.) And I can tell you from experience that the pedestrian traffic crossing some pretty major downtown streets either a)thinks everybody can see them when the sun isn't even up yet OR b)thinks everybody will be able to stop on a dime when they come darting out from between cars in the dark OR c)is already drunk and isn't really thinking.

And getting to work is not even the hardest part. Today it took 45 minutes to get out of the downtown area. And I had to go about 5 miles out of the way to do it.


But, on the bright side, the big (sticker? poster?) artwork on the JW Marriott is finished and looks so cool. I'm so obsessing about this thing.

I want them to do one for GenCon, too. But I think it would probably freak out the norms.

Patwoman's Good Sportsmanship Tips

I've decided not to write Patwoman's Job Hunting Tips this month. Listen, I've been doing Patwoman's Job Hunting Tips for a couple of years now. If there are people out there who are still answering their cell phones during job interviews, still telling the HR Recruiter they'd better get the job, still showing up to the interview in t-shirts and flip flops, well then maybe they have bigger fish to fry.

What I'd like to talk about this month is Good Sportsmanship. As you know, T & I are pretty hardcore gamers. We actually own a game store, that's how much we are into games. So trust when I say being a good player is more important than playing well.

Like so many other things people learn (or should have learned) in childhood, good sportsmanship is a trait that carries over into the business world. The rules are pretty similar.

For example, Play Fair. In the game world, it means don't cheat, follow the rules, don't steal from your friends, etc. It means the same in the business world. Whether you are a manager or an entry level drone, if you take credit for someone else's work, you're gonna get found out. If you break your promises, you will lose your credibility. And if you screw someone over, it will get ugly.

I read so much these days about how the business world is cutthroat and cruel, so you'd better put your big girl panties on and get them before they get you. And maybe that's true. Mabye you do need to lie, cheat, and steal to be a raging business success. Maybe you do need to step on your friends to advance.

But I don't think so.

Didn't we all learn, as children, that cheating is wrong? And that winning that way is just not the same as really winning? And that nobody wants to play with a cheater anyway?

When I look at gamers of all ages, having a good time whether they are playing casually or competitively, I'm always very proud of the good sportsmanship and fair play I see.

And I wonder... Why don't we see the same behaviors in the business world?

Ornament - Second Blood!

I decided to do another stocking ornament right away. If I'm going to create a Christmas ornament collection for R & Sharon's first Christmas, I'd probably better start right away. Likewise, I think M might enjoy the heirloom factor involved in these ornaments. I think I'll make a set for her, too.

Although, M likes her tree ornaments to all match--designer-style. But she loves Christmas and decorates the whole house. So even if she doesn't put them on the tree, I know she will enjoy them.



I, myself, like a lot of variety in my Christmas ornaments. As you can see, my tree is filled with ornaments I bought, was given, made myself, or that R & M made. (Those are my favorites.)

And yes. That's a real cat in the tree. Achilles is such a brat sometimes.

Friday UFO - Disappointing Lack Of Progress

I am a little disappointed this Friday. I just didn't get a lot of knitting time this week. So, this afghan has progressed very little.As you can see, there are maybe 4" here. But, it's a good 4". Soft. Even stitches. All that.

I need to bust a move on this, though. When I said 2012 would be The Year Of The Afghan, I really didn't mean that in the singular. It's almost February and I have three more to do after this one!

Ornament Swap - First Blood!

I've finished my ornament for January! (Remember, I've promised to make one ornament a month in order to participate in an ornament swap on Ravelry.)

This is a mini-stocking pattern I found on Ravelry. It's pretty quick and simple (if you don't do the charts and just knit it plain) and it's knitted flat. Flat is the way to go with something so small. Goes very fast.

This is some of the Christmas Sparkle I had leftover from Sharon's Stocking. And a little bit of white something or another. I used #4s so this is about as big as the palm of my hand.

I like this a lot. I'm thinking I may have to knit some more of these. For the swap. And for my tree. And I think it would be really nice to have a bunch of little ornaments to give to R and Sharon this Christmas, since they will be getting married in November.

Not Knitting - Pearl-ing

Sometimes I just crack myself up.

Anyway, I had some of these pearls left over from another project. They are kind of apricot-tinted pearls, so they didn't match any of the smaller pearls that I might have put with them. And they didn't really go with any of the black beads I have. I thought about putting them with these giant tiger eye (kind of) glass beads, but I didn't like the look of that either. I really wanted to do something with them, but I didn't have a lot of them, to begin with.




So I decided to try something new. I made a little pearl chain. Of course, that wasn't nearly even long enough to be a bracelet. So I added some length on the ends with some champagne colored seed beeds.

That worked out really well, since the seed beads add a lot of interest if they're visible, but they are also easily hidden by my hair.

These are the same pearls, by the way, that I made the pearl earrings out of at the beginning of the month.

MASH

'Member this game?

Apparently, I live in an apartment with William Shakespeare (his ghost?) because I am pregnant with his 1 child. We had a Mordor-themed wedding, which was attended by William Shatner. We served BBQ Chicken to our guests and our favorite wedding gift was a 1980 Encyclopedia Brittanica.

And then we went on our honeymoon--a day trip to Amish Country.

Super Bowl Traffic Sucks

Indianapolis has been preparing for the Super Bowl for a couple of years now, so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. But really. It's 2 weeks away and the traffic this morning was like this.

Don't worry about my safety in taking a picture on the road. See all those brake lights? Yeah. We were stopped for quite a while. What you can't see in this picture is the long line of RVs, busses, and semi-trailers that were blocking the whole section of West Street by Lucas Oil Stadium.

I've got to find a different way to go tomorrow.

I didn't take this picture to show you the traffic though. (Well, not only to show you the traffic.) I wanted you to see this picture thing they are putting on the side of the Marriott. Look in the background. It's not quite finished, but as you can see, it's beautiful!

I want the Marriott to advertise everything on its side, just like in Blade Runner. Seriously... Can you imagine what they could do with GenCon?

Afghan Square - Celtic Braid

This is an afghan square I made a few years back. I had this idea that I would make a 12 inch square in whatever half skein of yarn I had left over and then stitch them all together when I got a bunch of them. I'd recently finished a couple such an afghans, one in various shades of blue and one in various aran stitches, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
But, you know how that goes. After a couple of squares, you get interested in something else. And then you put these squares away and don't even think about them until one day, you're looking for some leftover Christmas Sparkle yarn in a drawer and--hey, what's this?

I believe all the squares I did this time around were from Sarah Bradbury's website. I'm gonna have to dig all those out and see how many I have. Stay tuned.

I Felt Like It - Green Cabled Sweater Version

I bought this sweater a while back at Goodwill. It was only a dollar and it's 100% wool. Nice green color, too. I'd thought to frog it out and knit with the yarn. But I just really liked the cables on the front.

So I threw it in the washer on hot to felt it up. (Not feel it up. That's something else.)

First, let me say that if you ever try felting, get yourself a good lingerie bag to do it in. Not the piece of crap bag I had. That bag came open midway through the wash and left about half a sweater's worth of fuzz on the inside of my washer.

Anyway, this felted perfectly. You can see the stitches still, and the cables are beautiful. But this sweater is about half the size it was before the wash. (Except in the arms, which are still the same length, but half as wide...WTF?)

Gonna let this dry. And pick off all the random fuzz. And then it will be time to practice my sewing skills. I'm thinking... purse, mittens, and ...?

Friday UFO - Just Started

Whoo-hoo! Gettin' started with the Christmas Knitting early! This is the first of the afghans. And, sly minx that I am, I'm not going to tell you who it's for or what pattern it is!

I will tell you that this is a pattern I've admired for a while now. And just before Christmas, its intended recipient pointed it out and said "I want that!" So, it is a sort of knitting synchronicity.

I will also only be able to work on this when that person is not around, so I will be working on multiple projects at the same time. Hm. I will also have to find a way to track my progress secretly so as not to spoil the surprise.

Whatever. I'm just excited to be started on a Christmas project in January! I deserve some sort of prize for that.

Maybe some new yarn?

Frederick's Of Hollywood

I'm always amazed by the postal mail. Not that I get much postal mail any more. But I enjoy the occasional sales flier or catalog. I don't enjoy all those horrible political ads. (For one thing, 99.9% of the time they're from the other party. And, 100% of the time they're saying things I find horribly offensive.)

Sometimes the mail will bring surprises. Like the invitation to tour a cryogenics facility (and, of course, purchase my own... uh?... plot?) or the sample of Rachel Ray dog food (I didn't know there even was such a thing, but that stuff is yummo!) or today, when I got a Frederick's of Hollywood catalog.

Frederick's of Hollywood? Me? Really? Isn't that like buying skim milk for Paula Deen's kitchen? Ha!

Anyway, it was a surprise because I didn't sign up for the catalog. I didn't even know Frederick's was still around. I honestly had not even seen a magazine ad for them since the late 80's. Not that I read many paper magazines any more.

Yes, I took a look at it. But my thought process ran more along the lines of "Yeowch. That looks uncomfortable." and "Well, that would never cover my belly flab." and "Sweet God! I certainly don't want to call attention to that part of my body!"

Not Knitting - Scrabble Tile Jewelry

Lookit! I've been wanting to try Scrabble tile jewelry for a while now. Okay, I did try it once before, but the results of my previous effort were not so great. Never let it be said, however, that I can't learn anything.

I learned:

1) Printing the graphics on photo paper was probably not the best way to do it. Photo paper was too thick, did not trim very well with the tools I had, and ended up shrinking, even after it was sealed.

2) Seal the pictures completely. They will bleed if you don't. They will sometimes bleed as you are trying to seal them. It's tricky. I may not do anything red ever again, just because red tends to bleed. (Not ironically.)

3)Patience is key. Everything has to dry before you move on. Everything has to dry before you move on. (I said it twice, because there were a couple of occasions when I jumped the gun.)

So, here is my new experiment:

Drinking Cat for me. Achilles for M. Sunflower for Sharon.

Outside of the 3 things listed above, it's a very easy process: Scrabble tile + small printed image + Mod Podge + Dimensional Magic = Brilliant!

Spirally Goodness

Last week I showed you what too many 2880 stitches on a circular needle look like. And, while I would love to save this for Friday's FO, I want to show you what those stitches look like off the needle.

Here's my Spiral Scarf. Or ruffle scarf. Or potato chip scarf. Or whatever you've heard them called. Seems like every knitter in the world has knit something like this scarf. Now I have one too.

I'm not sure what happened to Lola's left arm, btw. I didn't even notice it was missing until after I took the picture. I must have dropped it when I moved her to the dining room for this pic. Sorry, Lola.

This is done in Patons Glittallic in Black Tinsel. I used about 2 1/2 skeins of it. It's a furry novelty yarn, with a strand of silver ribbon and some bits of black glittery ribbon running through it. So it's fun.

My stance on novelty yarn like this is, either use it as an accent only--a bit of fun at the edge of a scarf or a purse--or go big all the way. I mean, seriously. This scarf is ruffly and spirally. You really do need to use a novelty yarn.

I am keeping this one.

Swaptacular

I've never done a swap. I don't know why. They seem like fun. I've just never done one. But I've committed to doing a Christmas ornament swap with the Christmas Knitting group on Ravelry!

Yay!

The first step to any project, as you know, is to talk about it. Talk, and delay the start of any actual knitting. So much talking gives you the time to think about what you might knit, once you stop talking and start actually knitting.

My goal is to do maybe one ornament a month. I think I can commit to that. Ornaments are small and relatively quick to do, right? That sounds good for me. I'm having some project ADHD right now, which may or may not be caused by my decision to make 2012 The Year Of The Afghan.

Sigh. Speaking of... I probably should get on that. Or a January ornament. Stay tuned.

A Letter From AW

My Dearest Patwoman,

As January breathes its cold winter breath across the Northern Hemisphere, I cannot help but remember an earlier, colder winter and long for the smoldering heat of your eyes.

That's right, my love. I have not forgotten Helsinki. And how could I? Your glistening skin as you lithely dodged the laser motion sensors, your shapely calves as you skillfully vaulted the rooftops, and your electrifying smile as you so nearly escaped my capture.

Oh yes. I never shared that with you, my crafty minx. You nearly evaded me. But, luckily for both of us, you didn't see that smelt-on-a-stick vendor until it was too late. To this day, I can't eat any sort of fishsicle without becoming incredibly aroused.

Oh, Patwoman! Such adventures we had. And could have again. Just say that you will, my darling.

Until then, I am forever your...

AW

***

My Dear Adam,

I had nearly forgotten the smelt-on-a-stick vendor! And his silly hat with all the bells! I can see his expression--at once fearful and excited--as we slid, head to toe, beneath his cart.

And all of that yelling! It was years before I realized he wasn't actually cheering!

But alas! Ours is a fire that burns too hot, Adam. A fire that cooks fish and melts ice in the winter and makes passers-by cover the eyes of their small children, even as they, themselves, are staring and calling out things like "Hey, how did you get your tights off so quickly?" and "For God's sake, you animals! Not on the fish!"

That kind of fire, my love, can't last forever. But it can feed our memories, dear. Feed us like those fish...

Mmm... fish.

Adam, call me.

Patwoman

Thrifty Is The New Black

I hadn't been to Goodwill in a while, so I wanted to go raid the racks for 100% wool sweaters. Sadly, there wasn't a lot to choose from. Maybe because I got there late in the day.

But I did get this sweater. It was not half off, like the sweaters with the yellow barbs on them were. But it was still cheap, especially when you consider how much yarn is here. And what a gorgeous color this is.
I estimate this to be a heavy worsted, not quite bulky, yarn.

UFO Friday - All Of Them

This is going to be the Year of Finished Objects, I promise you. No more UFOs sitting around the house until I forget what the heck they were supposed to be, or until the person it was made for outgrows it before it's done.

Yeah. There are still a couple of those around here. And I'm gonna either finish them or frog them. But they're not going to just sit around.

I can tell you right now I have at least 3 projects that I don't even want to tell you what they are supposed to be, because I'm too embarassed by the way they don't look anything like that.

And I have at least 2 things that have been outgrown before they were finished. And at least 2 things that I really want to finish.

Argh. So really, this is going to be the Year Of The Frog.

Is This Wrong?

Last night I dreamed I went to the hospital to visit a sick friend or relative. They were very, very sick. Like, coma sick. So basically I was just sitting there next to the bed.

But then, I decided to go to the lounge and get some sleep for a few hours. So, I'm laying on the cot in the lounge and two people come in and start making out right next to me.

I'm like, Um... Should I leave? It was extremely awkward.

So then I woke up, feeling as if my own privacy had been invaded. What the heck does that mean?

First of all, no one I know is sick. Secondly, I have been sleeping maybe 5 out of every 48 hours (and not all at once). So is it normal to dream of sleeping? But thirdly--and maybe this is the key point--who dreams about other people making out? I mean, that can't be normal!

Not Knitting - MTG Keychains

I love Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. It's so much fun. It's easy to do, but I think I'm even getting better at it with practice.





Here are some Magic: The Gathering-themed keychains I made to give to the speakers who will be presenting at our Midwest Judge Conference this coming weekend:I made all the Planeswalkers, and I think they all came out really nicely done. I even made myself a Lilliana to wear as a pendant.

What's Patwoman Up To Now?

Now that the sweatshop season Christmas knitting is over, I'm feeling a little itchy to do some smallish things. Especially since everyone has already mentioned that they would like 2012 to be The Year Of The Afghan.

So I thought... why don't I do one of those spirally ruffly scarves? I see those everywhere. Like, every muthuhknittah has cranked out one of those, you know? So, seriously... How hard could it be?

Yeah.

Let's think this through. You know what makes that great spirally ruffle? Increasing the stitches every other row. Yeah. So, you may start out with 180 stitches. But by Row 8, you've got 2880 stitches on your needle and it looks like this:

Marvelous Ms. Foxy!

This is M in her Marvelous Ms. Fox hat. I knitted this for Christmas. It's really the Fantastic Mr. Fox pattern by Faye. But the Marvelous Ms. M deserves a marvelous hat, am I right?

I followed the pattern as written. (I know, right? You're thinking "Who are you and what have you done with Patwoman?") But I did sub out the yarn. I couldn't find LB Homespun in Saffron anywhere. I guess I could have ordered it, but I wanted to get started on this right away. I briefly considered LB Homespun in Wildfire, but that also had a green thread in it. (And nobody wants a zombie fox.) So I subbed LB Thick & Quick in Spice.

Good sub, too. T&Q gave the right gauge. It also gave the hat a smoother look than the Homespun, but that's okay. I rather liked it.

I also subbed LB Homespun Deco for the inner ear, since I had some of that leftover from a previous project. Oh, and I subbed LB Wool-Ease for the dark brown bits and the tassels.

So, yeah. Well, I guess I didn't do this one quite as written at all.

Wiseman: When you removed the book from the cradle, did you speak the words?
Ash: Yeah, basically.
Wiseman: Did you speak the exact words?
Ash: Look, maybe I didn't say every single little tiny syllable, no. But basically I said them, yeah.

It's a fun hat. A fun knit. Really, the only fiddly bit is getting the ears on straight.

Magic Is Just An Illusion

More Christmas Knitting. This is T's Magic Scarf. It depicts the 5 mana symbols from Magic the Gathering along the length of the scarf. But... and here's the really magical part... it's an illusion!

Illusion knitting is so super clever. Basically, the pattern is done on a contrasting color, like always. But some stitches are raised and some are flat. In between your contrasting color rows, you have main color garter ridges. So when you are looking at the scarf straight on, you see a garter ridged striped scarf.

But when you look at it from the side... wow! Hidden pictures! I am like a little kid when I look at it, tilting it back and forth, back and forth. Here's the picture, now it's gone. Now it's back. Now it's gone.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the pattern to go away when I took the picture. I tried flash, no flash, overhead light, indirect light, natural light, and every angle possible, but the camera just kept picking up the hidden picture. I guess it's true what they say: the camera doesn't lie. I promise you, the illusion is there.

This was the one Christmas gift that was really hard for me to keep secret. I really wanted to talk about this every step of the way--first, because I really spent a lot of time creating the graphs for this; then, I started it and frogged a couple of times to get it right; and then, when I finished I was so excited!

As you know, T and I own Gamerz, Indiapolis' largest game store, so this is a particularly fitting scarf. T had a lot of fun showing this off to everyone. It garnered a lot of awe, a lot of ah, and several "name your price" offers.

I'm very pleased with it.

Continuous Learning: Christmas Knitting

I used to think that, when the zombiepocalypse happens, I will make sure I stick with R. He has been preparing that particular crisis for years--food and water, shelter, tools, books. The man is an expert in zombie preparedness.

Then, I played attempted to play Left For Dead with him. What was that like? Well, let's put it this way... It's not mistitled when you're playing with R. If you're lucky, he will just leave you to fend for yourself against a horde of zombies. He has been known to shoot teammates in order to use them as a zombie shield.

Anyway, I knew R's Christmas scarf would have to be zombie-themed. And I really wanted it to be special, so I double knitted it.

This is a relatively new technique for me. I've done it before, but not on such a scale. And not with such a complex chart. So it really was a skill-sharpening project.

Basically, when you double knit, you are knitting both sides of the fabric at once by alternating colors and knit/purl stitches. Sounds easy, right?

Well, not really easy... It's not necessarily hard to do, either, but it's definitely something you have to pay attention to. Still, I did get faster at it as I went.


Really, the most difficult part of the process is finding a way to hold the yarn. It may be easier to do if you can knit continental style. Actually, I'm pretty sure it would be easier. Too bad I can't continental.

My zombies are lovingly graphed by T, and based on a couple of Googled zombie silhouettes. Made from Caron Simply Soft in Forest and Black.

Black zombies on green.


Green zombies on black.


Grr. Argh.

Friday UFO: Tasseled Hood

Indiana winters are usually really cold, at least part of the time. And there's usually a good deal of snow. I say usually, because it's been unusually warm this winter. Today was 60 degrees. In freaking January.

WTF?

If this were a normal January, this hood would be extremely useful. Keep your neck warm. Keep you ears warm. Cover your head so it doesn't get wet from snow (or so that you won't lose 90% of your body heat, like your mom always says you will)without flattening your hair and giving you hat head.


This is the Tasseled Hood from the Lion Brand website. Works up very quickly with 2 skeins Wool-Ease Thick & Quick and big needles. (I used size 11.)The color is Pumpkin, a nice...uh, pumpkiny...shade of orange that Meg picked out a while back and said "Make me something from this."


It's not quite finished yet. All the knitting is done, but the hood needs to be attached to the scarf portion. And, of course, it wouldn't be a tasseled hood without tassels, right?

Stay tuned.

Remember The Color Block Scarf?

The one I started January 2010? Hey, don't bash me on it. It was supposed to be knit from leftover yarn. It took me a while to get that much leftover yarn.

No pattern. Just cast on some stitches on #8s. Knit in garter stitch. Changed yarn when I ran out or just felt like it. This went super fast and then I put it down for a long time... and kind of forgot about it.

Then, Sharon and I were talking about the 4th Doctor scarf and how it was made (the story about the woman who just took all the skeins of yarn and knitted until she ran out). And she said she really liked that scarf. So tonight, when I pulled this UFO out of the pile and started another color, she remarked on how much it kind of looked like a 4th Doctor scarf.

Not really. But she's not really a Whovian, so I let it slide. We'll get her watching the Doctor and then we'll correct her later.


Here it is, finished. This looked pretty good, as it was, all color blocked and all. But it needed a little something... But what? A fringe? Maybe.

A braided fringe? Achilles, that's genius!

Not Knitting: Earrings

I came across this the other day, The Beading Daily Bead-A-Long Challenge. Basically, the goal is to make a pair of earrings a day, every day in January.

Now you know even your old friend Patwoman can't swear that much. So I won't be doing a pair every day. But I think this is kind of a cool challenge. So I'm going to try and do a pair of earrings each week, on my Not Knitting Wednesdays.


This is the pair I did tonight. Nothing fancy, just plain pearls on plain wires. I like them, though. And you can always use another pair of pearl earrings. They go with everything.

I like the idea of making earrings, though. They're pretty quick to do, and would be a great way to use some of the oddball beads that are left over from other projects.

I should do something like that with the knitting... some sort of oddball pattern. Hm.

Shopping Trip

I'm a little disappointed in the after-Christmas sales this season. I mean, here it is, January, already. The sales should be much better. Those light-up candy canes should be 75% off, not 50% off. New York & Co. should have something in the store to exchange for the the blouse I got that doesn't fit. And JoAnn and Michael's should be putting some of that surplus yarn on sale instead of just letting sit in those cardboard box bins in the aisles.

Ah well. I don't actually have to buy yarn every time I leave the house, you know. Sometimes I can just look.

And look at this! It's Red Heart's Boutique Sashay . It's a mesh yarn, similar to a couple of others I've seen around. I'm going to try working with a yarn like that, soon. I find it a very interesting technique.
You know the technique, right? You stick your needle into the mesh at intervals, gathering the mesh and creating a ruffle every time you draw a loop up.



A little of this goes a long way, though. Like this bag with a bit of ruffle is pretty much perfect usage. But, I have to admit, I really like this completely ruffled scarf. (Both from the Red Heart website.)