All posts by Peneloping

Slightly obsessed

Yesterday I was introduced to the fact that I am probably more obsessed with yarn and knitting than I had realized.

During the day I took* my roommate to Windsor Button to oggle at the pretty yarns. She wanted some yarn for a sweater project and I needed yarn for Christmas presents and size 6 needles**.

Also this skein of Berocco alpaca looked like it really needed a home and I was too mesmerized to say no. I think it’s going to be Rae #2.

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After we got home, I cast on my first Rae and worked on that for a bit.

Then it was time to head over to the Brookline Booksmith where the Yarn Harlot was doing a book signing for her new book! Oh my lord, that woman is even more hilarious in person. I nearly peed myself twice.

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I also loved that nearly everyone brought a knitting project along and the whole room was knitting along while she read from her book. One woman even had a drop spindle and was making some gorgeous fall-colored yarn!

Afterward as we were leaving, it occurred to me that I had laughed at every joke and could identify with every anecdote she told. I only started knitting ten months ago. Before that it was a totally boring skill that I knew the basics of but could never be bothered to participate in. And now I have a yarn-purchasing compulsion, 284 projects waiting in my Ravelry queue, spend more time on Ravelry than I do on Facebook, and I secretly can’t wait for my friends to start popping out babies so I can knit teeny tiny baby things.

When did this happen??

*Saying “took” makes it sound like it was totally for her. A more accurate description would be that I dragged her along and made her wait for ten minutes while I agonized over two shades of Berroco alpaca.

**Can I just take a moment to express my surprise that I didn’t have this size already in any form of knitting needles??

1 Comment thoughts - -

Breaking the rules

Things I’m supposed to be doing, in no particular order:

-Knitting things with the metric ass-ton of yarn I bought a few weeks ago

-Finishing any of the many projects I’ve already started

-Christmas knitting

-Eating healthy things

-Working on my paper

Things I did yesterday instead:

-Bought pastries

-Didn’t work on paper

-Bought more yarn

-Started new knitting projects
Clearly, I need a time-out.

In my defense, lookit the pretty!! I’m thinking it’s going to be a Rae.

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4 Comments thoughts -

Fun with felting

This is what my bunny slippers looked like seamed but not felted:

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Things I did to my knitted bunny slippers to make them fuzzy and cute and foot-sized:

– Soaked in painfully hot water and dish soap

-Swirled around in painfully hot water

-Rubbed vigorously in painfully hot water for an hour until hands were chafing

-Stirred around in sink filled with painfully hot water with a spoon

– Dumped in pot of boiling water for fifteen minutes and stirred with fork

This is what my bunny slippers looked like after the aforementioned events:

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For future reference, Lanaloft in Cottage White does not felt.

Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool in Natural, however, does.

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(I totally can’t wait for it to dry so I can sew on the ears and face!)

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I pricked my finger about eighty times today.

Today a package arrived from my sister, and when I dumped out the contents it looked like an army of tiny cloth ghosts.

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Back story: we’ve both been drooling over fancy Anthropologie/Urban Outfitters duvet covers that we can’t seem to justify doling out $345 for and recently I came across this lovely DIY tutorial.

She doesn’t have her sewing machine with her at school so she cut out all of the squares, sewed the bunchy thing in the middle, and then mailed them to me to sew together.

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It’s kind of a bitch to do but it’s coming along surprisingly quickly. I’m pretty sure this would be tons easier with some sort of quilting tabletop grid thing (my grandma is cringing to herself while she reads that) but so far pinning 60% of the surface and attacking it with a tape measure after every seam seems to work pretty well.

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The finished duvet cover is going to be six squares by six squares, and each sewn square is 15″ x 15″, totalling 90″ x 90″. So far I’ve sewn two rows of six squares together.

Andd she’s agreed to make me another set of squares so I can make my own duvet cover. Seesterly sweatshopish bonding? Yee!

Somehow I’ve also managed to finish all of the body of Georgia and am currently working on one sleeve. I also cast on the back of Hermione McRainbowpants and am about to start armhole decreases, Stockholm is about 2/3 of the way done, and I’m literally about an hour away from finishing the sapphire Damask. I also cleaned out the car, stored all of my crap that I’m not bringing, and finished packing everything (I’m moving across the country on Saturday) except things like toothbrushes and the clothes I’m currently sporting.

I’m fairly certain that my days have suddenly started lasting 30 hours instead of the standard 24.

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Mooving

I may have mentioned that I was going to be spending this weekend moving. Holy crap, it took ages.

First we had to take my bed apart and move it over to Boyfriend’s grandma’s house, take hers apart and move it out, and move mine in and set it up. Then we moved everything out of my studio and cleaned the whole thing, drove separately down to the Mum’s house half an hour away, and move stuff back in. There may have been a nap squeezed in there somewhere.

Holy crap though, it’s so nice to wake up whenever the hell I want and do nothing all day. I’ve been bonding with my Nook in the sun today and I’m already a few shades darker (YAY no more fog-dweller paleness).

Anyway, the point is, I’m about 75% done with Little Birds but I’ve been neglecting it dreadfully so I don’t really have pictures to post. But! I have time now so pictures will be coming soon. I really want to do a nice fitted cardigan but I can’t decide which. Right now I’m leaning toward the orangey Jane Richmond one that I can’t remember the name of. I also can’t wait for the pattern for the brown Ron sweater to be released. Boyfriend’s totally getting that for Christmas. I think I’m also going to try to finish those cozy booties too although 85 degree weather isn’t doing much to inspire an onpour of knitwear projects..

Fun fact: I’m going to Vegas in a week!