Conflicting yardage issue- Help!

So, my yarn baby:

It’s lying to me, so now I don’t feel so bad for wanting to eat it. Or if it’s not lying to me then someone else is lying to me and either way by the end of this- someone or thing is going to get eaten. Mark my words.

You see, the tag says:

60% merino, 40% bamboo approx. 600 yds/548 mts

Okay, sure. However, the manufacturers website and ravlery both say 1200 yds. Now, last time I checked approx. meant give or take a few yards, not give or take half the size. So what in the crap is going on? How do I know how much yarn I have and what I can even make with it? I’m appealing to you innernets- HELP!

My slow descent…

Into all things cute!

A sector of our knitting group took a trip the the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster.

Sweet wonderful Wooster, which as we all know is home to… The College of Wooster. Ouch wikipedia.

All of my pictures are on my Flickr, so feel free to browse around.

I wanted to do a post that’s just as cute as Mollyloohoo’s but you can’t beat wanting to take a possum in, you just can’t. However that did make me think of this:

Still, not to be outdone, I have a cute story of my own. You see, yesterday I was making twice baked potatoes:

As I was putting them in the oven I looked out the window:

Which led to:

Yeah, sometimes life is pretty awesome.

shhhh! It’s a secret…

I want to sit down and have an honest heart to heart with you right now…

It has been very hard to not document every second of making this next project. You guys know me, you know that I like to give you almost up to the second progress shots of what I’m up to. I’m not a secret keeper but I kept that last post a secret (mostly because I was afraid that I wouldn’t get it done/mess it up horribly/set it one fire out of frustration) and I kept this post a secret.

It has been espeically hard because I want us to be honest with each other. Of course, hopefully you’ll only be honest in a totally positive and up beat sort of way and not a “Jesus, you sure are looking fatter in your pictures” sort of way. However I can’t control that and that’s cool! So, I just want you guys to know, it is nearly impossible for me to keep anything from you.

Okay, so what am I talking about already?

Bam! Total sock domination.

Although, if I were only waiting to post a sock, I would have done this two weeks ago, because I swear the first sock flew off the needles… it was that lousy second sock that tripped me up.

Still, I murdered that second sock:

I’m thinking that the first sock flew off the needles because I knit it starting out with bigger needles than I probably should have… which is also why the one on the right is all slouchy. Er, whoops. I think some elastic thread should clear that up nicely though.

This was all part of a Secret Sock group that meets at my LYS once a month… apparently. This was my first time going and I’d say it was pretty successful. What do you think?

Most people who know me have already heard my story about the meeting and I can’t really tell it over the interwebs, however, the clientèle at this particular LYS happen to be a very specific brand of swanky. The woman who designed these socks named them the Double Diamond socks, after a ski trail or something.

My first thought when she told us the name was of that Outkast song ‘The Mighty O’:

Maybe I should throw a double diamond party in the North Pole
Invite all the writers and journalists, even biters will tournament to see
Who can be me better than me?

I shared that with some of the ladies the other day and I’m pretty sure tabula rasa couldn’t be blanker than the stares I got. Ehn, it’s just a lesson to pick and choose your audiences… I think?

Oh! Hey! Remember these?

Yeah, I forgot about them too. I want so hard to take credit for these, but as you can see, I only finished the one. Then got so fricken mad at them that I shipped the suckers off to Granma, who was a nice gracious lady that finished them for me. She also added super cute buttons.

Also, because you love me, I’m sure you’ll tolerate a picture of my cat hamming it up for the camera:

Last night, when the pizza man came, she ran out the door. She seriously made a break for it. You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to catch a cat with a gimpy leg but dang she can run fast when she wants to! So, our solution to this problem (after I caught her and gave her a lecture like she could actually understand English) was to buy her a leash. I’m hoping the embarrassment and shame will make her never want to run away again.

Also, if you don’t hear from me for a while it’s because I’ve hit another road block. It’s so bad that when I think about what I want to knit next, that crappy song from Evita pops into my head; “where do we go from here…?” Should I be proud or ashamed that I saw that movie in the theatre?

I made that!

I’m so pumped guys.

I saw something in my head that I wanted to make and I went for it. I ripped out the same couple yards of yarn a few hundred times, realized the silk doesn’t rip so well and did it in acrylic- but I learned and feel like I’m a slightly better person for it. So without much more ra ra ra, I give you the Face Punch Relaxation Mask:

Someone please pretend they’re proud of me.

I’ve been coveting some Debbie Bliss Pure Silk for months. However I had no idea what to make with it. I wanted to make a body suit but that would put us in some horrific debt. So I got a skein and what follows is the pattern.

Face Punch Relaxation Mask

CO 48 sts. (I used size 6 DPNs, gauge isn’t super important.) Divide evenly onto 3 needles. (16 sts on each needle.) Join in the round being careful not to twist. Place marker if that’s your thing (it’s my thing too).

Row 1: [p1, k1] 4 times, k16, [k1, p1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 2: [k1, p1] 4 times, k16, [p1, k1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 3: [p1, k1] 4 times, k16, [k1, p1] 4 times, p4, C4B, C4F, p4

Row 4: [k1, p1] 4 times, k16, [p1, k1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 5: [p1, k1] 4 times, k16, [k1, p1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 6: [k1, p1] 4 times, k16, [p1, k1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 7: [p1, k1] 4 times, k16, [k1, p1] 4 times, p4, C4B, C4F, p4

Row 8: [k1, p1] 4 times, k16, [p1, k1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 9: [p1, k1] 4 times, k16, [k1, p1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 10: [k1, p1] 4 times, k16, [p1, k1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 11: [p1, k1] 4 times, k16, [k1, p1] 4 times, p4, C4F, C4B, p4

Row 12: [k1, p1] 4 times, k16, [p1, k1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 13: p1, k1] 4 times, k16, [k1, p1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 14: [k1, p1] 4 times, k16, [p1, k1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Row 15: p1, k1] 4 times, k16, [k1, p1] 4 times, p4, C4F, C4B, p4

Row 16: [k1, p1] 4 times, k16, [p1, k1] 4 times, p4, k8, p4

Repeat all 16 rows three more times (so you do the pattern four times total).

Sew the first edges (where you cast on) together. Then take a stocking (I cut out the foot of some pantyhose) and fill it with flax seed and lavendar flowers… or anything that you like the smell of! The flax seed gives it some weight and makes it so you can warm it up in the microwave, for warmth. Or throw it in the freezer for a few mintues, for cool(th). Tie off the stocking or sew it up, stuff it into the pouch and either kitchener the last stitches or bind off and sew those together… I kitchener’d mine.

This is the type of project to justify buying one skein of luxury yarn and the cables are super easy, even for a person who has never done cables before.

C4F means: slide two stitches onto a needle and hold to the front, then knit the following two stitches then knit the stitches on the front needle.

C4B means: slide two stitches onto a needle and hold to the back, then knit the following two stitches then knit the stitches on the back needle.

Boys like it too!

Be warned though, depending on how much you stuff it full of flax seed, this thing can pack a serious punch:

However, what’s more relaxing than a nice punch in the face?

Let me know what you think… if there’s anything I can do to make the pattern better, let me know!

P.S. My favorite number is 8.

Mini nanner

Hope you guys aren’t tired of fruit yet! (If you are, that last line was a warning then to maybe not read this post.) Since I have no idea of what’s appropriate ever, I showed one of the bosses at my work my crazy wack blog and she humored me by saying it was cute. Then she asked me if I could make a banana for a baby kit.

Well what’s better for babies than a baby banana? I think George would agree.

This was my first attempt at crocheting on my own and I think it came out pretty stellar (let’s just ignore the nubbin on the top) so there. :p Nyaaaaa.

John and I agreed that Curious George has gotten way cuter than what we remembered. Or maybe being ugly kids, we just imagined everything else to be ugly…? I mean, I don’t know about him but I was definitely queen of skinned knees. Speaking of John, his facial hair lately has been a constant source of amusement to me:

I don’t know if the picture is doing the redness justice or not. I love it. I want to call him Big Red but even just typing that I’m afraid that I might need to sleep with one eye open tonight.

As far as blogging goes, I feel I’ve been pretty lame lately… especially since I never know when to use then or than. Also, I haven’t been knitting too much lately. I haven’t been reading too much lately. Or sleeping. I have absolutely no idea what I’ve been doing to be honest. I just hope whoever is abducting me isn’t using probes.

Kitty pictures!

Pattern: Baby Banana

See, it’s stuff like this that makes me thankful for Ravelry.