Part III: All Good Stuff

I know it's not 'right' but I sure do love decaf chai tea. I just like drinking it all the time and gosh darn it- sometimes I want it right before bedtime. Better decaf chai than, you know, nutella cookies. Which, by the way, are awesome. Unless you eat four of them right out of the oven. Then you get quite a stomach ache. Anyhoo.

This is what Spike does when I sew.
I made booties for a friend's baby and I know understand the fuss about this pattern. It's great. The finishing gets a little finicky and I'm upset I didn't take a good picture of the wicked button loops I crocheted but still. Great pattern (rav link).
I'm knitting like crazy on the beeb blanket. Beeb is due in three days. Just three! We did all expect an August beeb but September is fine as well.

Kitten for size. It's entrelac knit on 5 mm needles using Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton. It's soooo soft.
And you will not believe it but I finished my socks! THE SOCKS!!! The socks I started... maybe five years ago? That I knit about ten rows a year on for the past three years? I finished them tonight. They will be part of the next knit blog entry. Cannot believe I finished these.
OMZG I got these floating shelf book thingies from Chapters today (along with The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo- it's the top book on the bottom shelf). I love them. When my bedroom is presentable I'll take a better photo. I really want to put in a fake headboard on my bed so maybe then. I love them. Just love them.
Sunday we went to Granville Island for free dancing in the park- this week put on by Centro Flamenco and it was just perfect. Perfect weather, atmosphere, music, singing, dancing. It was like being part of an awesome jam where everyone is just super talented. It was rehearsed and put together and all, but it just felt like home. Like being in someone's kitchen. It was wonderful.
My view when I looked up. Ahhhh.

This is a nice picture to end the photo rant.

Okay, so I have this crazy ass goal. Are you ready? I want to finish every single thing I am knitting to the point where I have NOTHING on the needles. Crazy right?!?!? I know! Yeah. But here's the thing. I want to get everything organized. Everything I've knit, everything I've cast on, all my yarn, all my scarves and shawls, just everything, I want to know where, what, why, and what to do with it. There will be frogging. I know it. And yarn that I may do away with. These are the times my friend, the radical radical times.

I got this idea because recently I finished three key projects. One was the socks I showed earlier, one was this awful synthetic yarn scarf a friend asked me to knit for her, and one was a pair of soul crushing slippers a friend asked me to knit for her. Noticed how two of those projects were requests? Yeah. No more requests. Anyhoo, I'm down to one cardigan that is nearly done, a hippo, secret xmas present, baby blanket, my dad's cowichan inspired cardigan, poorly neglected crochet mittens (why can't I crochet?) and a market bag. That's it! However! I have a shawl edging that I started ages ago and a mohair cardigan that I cast on and knit the back for. I also have a shawl that still needs to be blocked (I have my doubts about it's overall usefulness) and a lot of my 'finished' projects still need buttons, or lining, or ends woven in. Small things, things I need to get to you know?

So yeah, I'm hoping to photograph and organize what needs to be done and start a finishing. Now, I am allowed to start new projects, which sounds counterproductive, but frankly, I think I know me a little at this point, and if I tell myself I cannot start something, I'll start eight things just to show myself up. That's right! Can't tell me what to do! Ha hah! But as long as I keep on finishing things at a greater rate than I start them, it's all good. It may take me awhile, but this way the goal is actually attainable. My hope is that I will be only working on two or three projects by the end of September and maybe by the end of October... nothing on the needles! If that happens I'd like to create a poll for what I should cast on next. Crazy I know. But goals are fun. I'm excited.

Part II: Marking Stuff AKA Crafty McCrafterton

Hi again.

My knitting hasn't been that prolific. I hurt my wrist through cross stitch so for the last part of July I took it very easy with the knitting and stopped cross-stitch altogether. Which, of course, meant more time for quilting. Ah.

Where to start... well- it's pretty late at night and I'm kinda tired (I stayed up so late playing plants vs zombies and had to get up at NINE in the morning for coffee) (sheesh) so it might be a photo heavy text-light kinda post. Or it'll be a I'm-so-tired-rambling kinda post. Let's see.

This guy here, Lochlan Nessie Scott, was knit with my class this year. We voted on the types of creatures we wanted and for his/her name, and each student got to knit on him/her about three times at least. I had some really natural knitters in the class and recommended a few to take up knitting classes over the summer (which, because of the awesome community, are readily available).
I knit a cardigan and hat for the soon-to-be Beeb. I don't have a good photo of the cardigan but I'll take one with the Beeb in it soon enough! This hat has this awesomely cute kitten ears on it.

I knit a linen-stitch scarf with scrap yarn. Takes a very long time but the result is fabulous.
I knit the Faraway So Close shawl for my Grandmother for Christmas so that was great. It was a super quick and easy knit. The edges aren't suppose to be scalloped but I couldn't find my blocking wires and after sticking about fifty pins to make the long edge line up straight I was kinda done. I think the edges are neat!

A top secret Christmas present that is now 30% done!
A blanket for previously mentioned Beeb. This now has an orange row and I'm about to start the blue. The entrelac blocks are huge but it's suppose to be a knockoff of argyle so I wanted them large. The yarn is blue sky alpaca 100% cotton. So soft. So very very soft.
And the quilting! I have THREE more quilts to show you. I finally finished my nephew's quilt for his second birthday (yes- he's three now, so what?) and have two more on the go (both wee) so that's another post. This is The Hungry Caterpillar quilt. The butterfly and the big caterpillar were panels, then I had a quarter of the red, green, the food fabric, and the mini caterpillar fabric. Because my panels didn't line up perfectly I didn't want to sew in the ditch to bind the finished quilt so I did a crosshatch along the edges.

I used a lot of tape.
Oh, and even though I HATE the starvation/judgement bullshit that goes on in pinterest, I did see something neat there the other day. Someone melted crayons on a canvas. It was neat, but my budget is so tight, and frankly, it was fun- but I wasn't going to go out of my way to get the materials. Anyhoo, my roommate is at superstore and she phones me and says

'Do you need any crayons? They are super cheap!'

So she brought me home three boxes of crayons for 2 dollars. I stole some watercolour paper from my bil, and set to work.

First I sorted one box of crayons into a pattern I liked and then I just added the other ones to it.

Then I glued them to the heavy paper (I know it looks like an advertisement for crayola but it's part of my childhood memories and besides, they are really good crayons yo).
And then I went outside with some newspaper, tape, and my hairdryer. Which, as I already knew, gets freaky hot.
Super fun fantastico!
And now my friends, I bid you- good night.