It kind of feels like all I’ve been talking about lately and working on is the Hedgerow Coat.  Now that I’m really down to the wire with only eight days to go before Shannon’s birthday, I’m really eating, sleeping and breathing that thing!

Over the weekend I knit a sleeve, finished it and started the second one.  Normally I would do both at the same time so I could make sure they matched up perfectly but I needed to really pay attention to my increases because of the pattern.  I figured doing one at a time would be the best way to go.  I took a few notes though so I think I’ll be able to do the second one identically.

After casting off on the first sleeve I decided to take a break from the cabling and do a quick, couple hour project.  One of my friends from Ravelry designed a really cool dishcloth and I was itching to try it.

You can get the pattern on her livejournal page.  I loved making this!  It’s a little fiddly to work with all those dpns flopping around in the beginning, but it’s construction is so unique and fun!  You work from the small square in the center out.  I’m not really happy with my color choices, because I think there’s too much of a contrast between the varigated and solid yarns, but now that I’ve tried it I can make more in different color combinations.  It was a GREAT way to give myself a break without wasting too much time on “THE COAT” lol.

I think I’ll be a lot calmer after this project is done.  I feel a little bad because I feel like I’m bitching about working on it, but that’s really not it.  I mainly feel like I took on way too large a project with way too little time to really enjoy the process.  What can I say though?  I wanted to do something truly fantastic for my best friend for her birthday.  You only get one a year.

I’m currently on the ribbing for the cuff of the second sleeve.  When this sleeve is finished I have to sew the pieces together and then add the front bands and collar.  I think I can do that in eight days, don’t you? 

Ugh.  Please say yes!

Thirteen Things I love about Ravelry I finally got my invite to Ravelry yesterday, so my mind is swimming with all the great stuff about it! In honor of my new addiction I present 13 things I love about Ravelry! 1. Ravelry is a fantastic new site in it’s Beta stage where knitters and crocheters can gather. 2. You have a “Notebook” where you can catagorize your projects, yarn, books, needles/hooks so you can get really organized! 3. There is a pattern area where you can browse by tags to find new things to make. 4. You can check out the yarn section to find new yarns you haven’t tried or substitutes for ones you don’t like/can’t afford. 5. You can meet new people and friend them. 6. There are forums of all sorts to ask questions and give advice. 7. There are groups up the wazoo and if you don’t find one you’re looking for, you can start your own! 8. You can find just about anything and if you can’t, chances are there’s someone there that can help you find it. 9. It’s new and shiny to me and I can spend hours looking at new things. 10. It feeds my fiber/pattern/knitting/crochet addiction! 11. It’s free! 12. You have to wait for your invite once you sign up since there’s so many people joining, but it’s worth it! 13. It takes so many of the things I love and puts it in one place. It’s handy, dandy and super awesome so anyone that crochets or knits should definitely sign up! Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Yesterday I promised myself a Hedgerow Coat free day.  I didn’t look at it, pick it up, nor did I knit a single stitch on a single row of it.  It was a great break!

Instead, I focused some of my chaotic creativity towards some other projects I’ve been wanting to work on.

First I made a dishcloth.  Yep, still couldn’t drag me away from my knitting!  This is A little lace kitchen cloth, © Carol Bristol Designs  It was quick and just the thing to help me steer my thoughts away from that big ‘ol coat.

Next I started a pair of slippers for the hubbin’, but it was crochet, two strands held together VERY tightly and my wrists hated me for it.  So I put the first one down when it was about 85% finished and decided to work on those very sporradically!

I finally settled in and concentrated on working with my altered book.  I’d had an idea and just ran with it.  This is what I came up with:

I don’t think it’s finished yet.  It needs something else, maybe a design down the right side of the left page.  I’m not sure.  Here’s a close up of the quote:

If you can’t read it, it says “True love does not come by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”  The quote is by Jason Jordan.

One more picture before I run away for dinner!

When I was done painting and cleaning my brushes, I decided to make some pretty paper by balling some plain white paper up and putting it in my rinse water to soak.  I guess Gutter thought that he’d help dry it with the warmth from his body, because this is what I came across last night!

I finally got my ravelry invite and I’m so excited!  I’m chaoticcrafter there (simple, eh?)

I just have to remember not to spend so much time there that I don’t get anything else done!

When I first got high speed internet I spent hours upon hours compulsively watching videos on youtube and listening to music on online stations (and podcasts!)  Hey, after about eight years of dial-up, wouldn’t you?

As the new wore off and I knew that my high speed wasn’t going to magically disappear I stopped searching for so much new stuff to watch, but I noticed a youtube update in my inbox and decided to go browse for a few minutes.  This video popped up when I searched for “knitting”.

It’s a little long, and unless you love the Benny Hill theme song you may want to keep your volume off. However, having never been around a knitting machine in real life, I was completely in awe while watching. I know it’s been sped up, but I read the comments and the woman who posted it says it takes her about 45 minutes to make them and around 30 minutes to sew the seams up. So fast! Personally I prefer NO seams at all on my socks so it’s not really something I’m looking in to trying but I’ve heard wonderous things about making sweaters in a day. How cool is that?!

Eventually there are a lot of little (and not so little) goodies I’d like to get to aid in my complete crafting destruction crafting lifestyle. Such as:

A spinning wheel. I’ve never used one, don’t really know a thing about them, but I want one nonetheless. I like using a drop spindle, but it usually takes me ages to not only spin, but ply, get it off the darn thing and actually DO something with it. The last stuff I spun is still sitting on my spindle and I haven’t touched it in probably a month; mainly because I know I still need to spin enough to ply it, then spin the plies together, etc. etc.

An honest to goodness sewing table. Something large enough to cut fabric on one area of it, while still leaving room for my sewing machine and accessories. I’ve put off really doing anything about this because of room, plus not doing much sewing lately. But if I don’t have room, why would I sew? It’s a catch 22.

Proper storage. I know it’s not a “tool” per se, but it has it’s place. I would love some enclosed shelving to store yarn/fabric/notions in. Living in Arizona, the dust never stays outside. I pulled the carpet up in our dining room when re-decorating and there was SO.MUCH.DUST. That’s just what filtered down through the carpet in the years this place has been around. The stuff just sticks to everything, including the walls. I thought I’d be clever and paint one of our bedroom walls black. Thus far I’m regretting it because you can see every speck of dust that lands on it. Anyway, back on topic, I’d LOVE some proper storage. Something clean and neat that you can see through.

A large area to pin out/block knit items. For now, most of my stuff gets pinned out on towels laid down on the floor. The towels protect the project from any random dog hair that may be on the floor, but not from the dogs walking all over them! We don’t have a lot of doors in our place, it’s a pretty open lay-out, so I use the bedroom when I know whatever I’m blocking will be dry before bed-time. It’s a little tricky.

There’s a ton more stuff, but I think I’ll stop there for now. I mainly wanted to post something (because I felt like writing!) but didn’t feel like updating with a lot more pictures of “THE COAT” unfinished. I am happy to say that I finished the left front and am halfway through the right front since I last posted about it. I’m starting to think I may actually have enough yarn to finish the sweater, and that makes me very very happy! I am thinking about taking a day off to just work on some random things though. I need a break I think.

Congrats to anyone who actually made it through all that babble! You get an e-cookie!

Thirteen banned or challenged books I’ve read There are so many books that have been challenged or banned throughout history for various reasons. If you’re interested in finding out more, please visit The American Library Association. 1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 3. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding 4. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut 5. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence 6. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey 8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 9. Charlotte’s Web by EB White 10. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum 11. A Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 12. The War of the Worlds by HG Wells 13. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

My friend Jenn over at Enjoying the Ride gifted me with this sweet Halloween treat!  I think it’s a really nice sentiment and I’m passing it on per Hootin’ Anni’s request as the originator.  As I don’t have a ton of friends in blog-land yet, and this is more of a random act of kindness than a clique thing I’d like to send it out to a few people whose blog I’ve read but not really gotten to know yet.

Without further ado,

Erin, The Absent Knitter, and Wanna Be Amigo!  If you choose to pick up your gift, just right click and save to your computer, post it to your blog and gift it to a few other bloggers you wish to give a little surprise to!

I usually don’t say this, but after the rotten weekend we’ve had, I am SO glad that it’s Monday!

Let’s see…I got sick with a head cold Friday morning around 1 am.  The piping under the kitchen sink sprung a serious leak and I spent the entire day with the water off trying to fix it.  Dear hubbin’ had it fixed within a half and hour of getting the supplies needed.  On Saturday hubbin’ had his company picnic and since I was sick I stayed home.  I got a call around 11 am from my mother in law that our radiator had blew up and he was stuck in the mountains at the picnic site!  We spent a few hours up there getting it replaced and my participation consisted of staying out of the way and trying not to fall over.  Ugh.

Needless to say, there will not be any yarn purchases or other frivolties for a few weeks since we used our bill/property tax money to take care of the cost of a new radiator.  I can live with this, as long as nothing else happens this month!

Okay, vent over, I’m ready to move on!

I don’t want to say it’s the only good thing to come out of this weekend, but one thing that perked me up was seeing this grasshopper!

I don’t really care for bugs all that much, but I really liked the way this little guy looked and decided to get a shot of him.  He’s hanging out on an old door in my in-laws back yard and he took off as soon as I was finished taking the picture. 

I’ve been plugging away at the Hedgerow Coat for my friend Shannon.  It’s looking okay, but to be honest I don’t care for it much.  I went with the size she was sure would fit and though I think it WILL fit, I also think it’s going to be more like a body hugging cardigan than a roomy, comfortable coat.  If she’s okay with that, I’m okay with that.  I’m also getting a little impatient.  I know that with all the cables and knit/purl pattern it’s not going to be a super-quick knit, but I’ve been working for hours every night on the back and I’m just starting the arm shaping now.  I think I’ve seriously put in about 50 hours worth of work on this since I started and it’s only been about a week.  Eek!  Good thing for late night sniffles that keep me up and TV on DVD, huh?

It does look really nifty with all the textures.  I’m using Caron Simply Soft Heather in Deep Plum.  I use acrylic fairly often and though I know that it’s not the ideal for sweaters, Caron Simply Soft is nice.  I’ve made a couple of sweaters in it and I actually really love it. 

Thirteen Crafts I’ve yet to try1. Macrame. When I was younger I thought it was ugly because all I ever saw were owl wall hangings and gigantic plant hangers. I’ve since learned that there’s a whole slew of cool things that can be made using macrame! 2. Tablet Weaving. I have a few friends in the SCA that do this but I’ve never gotten past making the cards for it and then I got really really confused. 3. Lampworking. Again, I’ve seen friends do it but I’ve never tried and I think it’s amazing! 4. Pottery. I admit that my first thought when I think of using a potters wheel is that oh-so-famous scene in Ghost. I’d like to try my hand at making pottery, sans a spectral dirty dancer. 5. Woodworking, in general. There’s so many cool woodcrafts out there! 6. Dollhouse miniatures. The idea has always intrigued me, but I haven’t really known where to start. I had grand plans of my hubbin’ helping me build a doll house, but they never came to fruition. Maybe I’ll dig the plans out and give it another try! 7. Quilting. Now, this one’s a little fudgy. I’ve quilted, I have made a quilt, but I have never seriously quilted. I’d like to find a pattern I fall in love with and piece and quilt it by hand. 8. Silversmithing. I don’t know that I’ll ever have the opportunity, but I’d like to try it someday. 9. Spinning yarn with a wheel. I’ve used a drop spindle on and off for the past year, but what I REALLY want to try is a spinning wheel. I’ve heard great things about it. 10. Altering books. I dabbled in this when I was making ATC’s regularly, but just last night I sat down and decided to start working on my first altered book. It was a little scary at first to feel like I was “defacing” it, but I’m already having fun and can’t wait to try some new techniques. 11. Soap making. I’ve done the whole melt and pour thing, but what I’d really like to try is some cured soaps. Me and a friend went crazy one summer and bought all the supplies and checked every book we could out of the library but it just never happened. 12. Weaving. Admittedly, I don’t know a whole lot about weaving, but it intrigues me and I’d like to try it someday. 13. Doll Making. It kind of, sort of goes along with the whole doll house thing, but I want to learn how to make dolls eventually. Not just miniatures, but all different sizes. My mom has an old Madame Alexander doll and after helping her re-joint her first baby doll I became intrigued with the process. Maybe someday I’ll tackle all of these crafts, maybe not. Either way it’s good to know that there will probably ALWAYS be a new craft waiting for me to try. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants