Clogs and Cell Cozy

The finished clogs on the feet of their very happy recipients, who declined to have their faces in a photo. My Grandmas love them, and say that they are very warm and cozy, as well as comfortable. Of course, the fun of felting those led to the things below.




Look, 3 finished objects in one day! The third one isn't portrayed because it's an inital failed attempt at an iPod nano cozy. It is now a very nice coaster. But the one on the left is a little cell phone cozy for me, and on the right is the nano cozy for my sister. I wrote down the pattern, if anyone is interested, although I will construct it differently next time.

Igloos

The igloo in progress. That's Dad and Uncle Dimitri lifting a block to put it on top of the others. I suppose igloo is really a misnomer, since it ends up looking more like a beehive. However, we love to do it and Grandpa likes how nice it looks outside their house.



The rather monstrous snow rabbit I made out of three left-over snowballs from the igloo-making. He's kinda scary looking, so he's now become the rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. ("What's it going to do, nibble our bums?")



The finished igloo, with a red floodlight inside, along with the snowman and snow rabbit.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Well folks, that's all she wrote (not literally, of course). I finished all my gifts, and they're all wrapped, albeit not under the tree at the moment. I can't find the handmade labels I made for my Grandmas. Oh well. Tomorrow I find out why Uncle Dimitri was always trying to talk to Sean, since they were "contacts" for my Christmas present. I'm very curious to find out what it is! Or even who it's from! My entire family seems to know.

Pictures of ALL the gifts tomorrow, hopefully on their recipients, also hopefully pictures of the traditional igloo-building (we always build an igloo, every year for the last 16 (!) years). Hopefully it doesn't melt and fall down though, like it did a couple years ago when it was above zero C and RAINED on Boxing Day! It's supposed to be 1C today, but hopefully it'll survive. If it stays a little warm then gets cold again it will be super solid, since it'll freeze to itself.

Happy Christmas!

A post

Hello everyone! I hope your Christmas knitting/planning is going well, mine is going VERY pretty well (trying not to anger the knitting gods). Right now I'm blocking a pair of felted clogs, and am in the process of felting the others. That means that all I have left is to sew up the waistband of the jammies, and finish the hat (another 5" of 4x4 rib, plus decreases) and I'm DONE!

Life has been good since coming home, yesterday Sean left for Winnipeg and he's getting immunizations today (Ew!) but I only have some sympathy for him, since I got dental work done yesterday. You see....

When I was about 2, I fell coming down some cast-iron stairs, and completely drove my front left tooth up into the gum. That not only killed the baby tooth (which did come back down), but it permanently damaged the adult tooth, so it looked weird and white and yellow. My Dad fixed it awhile ago with a porcelain cap, but after bleaching my teeth the cap looked funny, so I had it fixed with newer material in a lighter colour. However, the freezing went a little funny, and it's still lingering in my upper lip. This means I'm smiling slightly crooked on the left side. Hopefully it gets completely better!

I also got my hair cut today, and boy does it look better than it did. The old cut had too many layers and too much length for my baby-fine hair, and this one just looks so pretty! Plus it's much easier to do.

Hopefully I can put up some pictures tonight of my clogs and possibly of my sister and I dressed up, since she's going out to the Snowball dance at the High School tonight and wants me to get dressed up for pictures with her. Good thing I got my hair and teeth done!

Hey, just a post to let you know I won't be posting as much for awhile, as I'm back in Dryden. I have LOTS of knitting to do, but I finished one slipper, it's not felted yet. I should be able to finish the other two in time. I hope so!

Winter Storm Imminent

Well, my exam may get cancelled. We are in the middle of a HUGE winter storm, and I'll tell you it's freezing in here since our windows don't have weatherstripping. I think the last time anything was done to our windows was 1908. At any rate, I'm a little frustrated about this - if it gets postponed, according to the calendar I'm going to have to stay here until like Monday or Tuesday to write it. I think. The Lakehead Calendar is crappy and obscure, I guess that gives them more loophole room. Yes, I'm cranky.

Still haven't gotten any more knitting done yet, although I cast on the the second hat of three. I sincerely hope that knitted clogs go faster.

"Money money money..."

All right, my friend Robin and I have an idea for a very small business venture for me. I need extra money, but it's too difficult to find/hold a job during the school year. However, I sew very well and was thinking about making custom pyjama bottoms that come with a matching pillow or softie (like a stuffed animal), and for extra time matching felted clogs. Also for extra, you could get a matching t-shirt with a design printed on. Would you, or anyone you know buy something like that? I wouldn't charge too much, mostly material and postage with a little bit for labour.

Please, let me know what you think! I have tried posting on ebay before, but ebay is just so huge now that you need to be a big seller with a store to make much headway in something that's "ordinary". I'm trying mostly word-of-mouth right now, to see if I can generate any interest. If there's enough, I might try posting on ebay, or getting an etsy.com store. I can also post pictures of my "work" as well. I am an experienced sewer now, as a worked as a seamstress all last summer!

Christmas presents are coming along, the pyjamas are being sewn, although I almost tossed them across the room yesterday when I messed up the interfacing. Twice. And I've been knitting on Mrs. Beeton (which I ALSO messed up a bunch of times, I think it was the before-sudafed headache and the after-sudafed medicine-head), instead of my hats *blush*. Oh well, I think if I work hard I can get it all done.

Hello all!

Yay for only ONE exam left, plus my last two went very well so that makes me happy. I actually finished both of them in about 40-45 minutes, meaning I had to sit in the examination room for 20 minutes until I could leave. I can now vouch for you that it takes the letters from at least 8 of the advertising signs in Lakehead's gym to complete the alphabet. Special thanks to "Sylvan Learning Center" and "Moxies". I don't know why they have that rule, it drives me crazy. Plus, they only enforce it in the gym, not when you write in a classroom or lecture hall.

I have now cast on for Mrs. Beeton, although threading my 11/0 beads onto the fingering weight yarn was an exercise in patience and the limits of my sanity. The biggest problem is that the fuzz from the merino was gumming up the works. I ended up switching to beads with slightly larger holes, then trimming the end of the yarn to within an inch (more like .1 mm) of it's structural integrity, then coating the end in varnish to make a needle. An HOUR later, and the beads for the first warmer were strung on. Sheesh.

Last night, I noticed that I had an angry red spot on top of my left second toe that really hurt, and that I took to be a blister. However, this morning it is angrier looking, and I now have a matching one below it, and one on my knee. Suggestions? They look kinda like chicken pox, but I already had that, and plus I only have 3 so far. *shrugs* my body does STRANGE things sometimes.

So I gave in and knitted one thing from the new knitty, a little pocket creature. Pictures will follow, once I stop studying.....

I hate studying, and this exam is particularly hard to study for because although the subject material is not that difficult, I really don't know what to expect from this exam. It is, thankfully, only a 30% exam, a midterm actually. I just don't know if I've studied enough or not. The class has an insane amount of reading, and yet it's really just a repetition of what we learn in lecture. At worst, if I do really bad on this exam, I can still do well in the class, because I know I won't get 0 on it, lol.

Cross your fingers!

Good and Bad

The good news: The new Knitty is out.

The bad news: I want to knit these things:

Kate
*Pocket Creatures
Tempting II
*Festive
Tubey
Chaos
Pomatomus
Thuja
*Mrs. Beeton

Do we see a problem? These are at odds with my Christmas presents. I did finish another one last night, but as it wasn't on the list to begin with, it doesn't count. However I did buy some gifts yesterday, so that's a few more off my list. I still have go out and get some more stuff to finish things off. I can't knit on the PJ's in particular until I get more red thread, because I'm all out from sewing Sean's Quidditch robe. It took a LOT of thread.

I think I might cast on Mrs. Beeton. Just a present to me, you know? OK? OK.

FO'S!!!!

I have items crossed off the Christmas List! Isn't that exciting? If you want to see them you can click their links (the crossed-off items in the sidebar) BUT be warned: you may be receiving these very items! Don't click if you don't want to see!

Linz! Here's the answers to your questions:

1) Still feeling nasty, although this cold/flu/whatever is like riding a roller coaster. One moment (like right now) I'll be feeling OKish, then in half an hour I feel very, very bad again, with fever and chills and such. I may be taking advil or dayquil to get through my exam tomorrow morning.

2) My concert - I ended up not singing *cries*. I was very VERY sick on Thursday night, and my teacher sent me home. I wasn't even nervous, I was that sick. Well, I was nervous I'd pass out on stage...but that's a different thing. And you're doing the Messiah recits? That's wicked! I LOVE them, they're probably my favourite piece of music I've ever learned. Next semester I'm learning the "Rejoice" aria.

3) Sean's knitting is sadly stalled. Partly because we have exams and final projects and such due, and partly because he's considering frogging his progress and restarting it as a 1x1 rib scarf to be more correct. Keep clamouring for his knits though, and he'll get guilted into knitting more! I know you can do it!

And to everyone who loved MY scarf, thanks, I love it too! It turned out so very nice. It's nice and warm, now that it's proper winter weather and -20C.

Well, my computer blew up again. And I mean it died. IT DIED. It so completely died that I need a whole new hard drive for it. This seriously cut into Friday night and yesterday morning as we tried to fix it, to no avail. However, today is a day of studying since I have Anthropology tomorrow morning at 9AM. Then Classical Mythology at 1PM on Thursday. Not too bad, but lots of memorization for the latter. I also have Canadian Literature, but that's not until Dec 15.

In knitting, not much has been done because I was taken down hardcore by a virus. I'm getting back into it, and yet another project should be done fairly soon. I've finished one thing on my list so far, but 3 others are near completion. That leaves me with (lets see, multiply by the days, carry the 4...) about 3 items left. I think I can do it.