Here is the Wave Scarf that I am making for my older sister.
I was hoping to have it finished in time for La Befana, but it doesn't look like it. Why, you ask. Well that's a very good question. The reason being that the pattern called for 6 skeins of the yarn. So when my sister picked out this pattern several months ago, I went ahead and bought the yarn for it.
Then a few nights ago, I was looking up this pattern on Ravelry. Oh, I wish I had checked this pattern there first. Turns out that not a single person who knitted this scarf in the recommended yarn used the recommended amount of yarn. They all used anywhere from 8-10 skeins! YIKERS!!
I finished one skein and I measured the length.... 5". The scarf/shawl pattern says the finished length will be 71". Hmmm... I'm in trouble if I only got 5" from one skein! I had already wound the six skeins using the ball winder, so I couldn't mail them back to Knit Picks. So, I ordered 4 more skeins and I'm praying that some small miracle will happen and those 4 skeins will be the same dye lot as the 6 skeins that I ordered a few months ago. *yeah, Fat chance, I know*
OK, so y'all know that I spend New Year's Eve in Cleveland. It was a last minute invite from a friend's girlfriend and since I had no real plans for that night....
ROAD TRIP!!
So, Sunday I left my house and my friend Erika left her house in WV and we both headed north. Sunday night we ended up playing Turbo Cranium. Oh my! We had a blast!! That's Erica doing some of the "Star Performer" cards. Believe it or not.... there was no alcohol involved!
New Year's Eve we went to this place called Howl at the Moon. What an awesome place!! It's a dueling piano bar. They had two grand pianos and a drum set on the stage and three guys that played on a rotating basis. The audience suggested the song with a minimum $2 tip, but these guys were getting $5, beers and shots for song suggestions. At one point in the night someone made a suggestion for "Hang on Snoopy" because apparently that is the OSU fight song. After a few bars, another guy went up to the pianos and requested they kill that song and play the Michigan University fight song.
the piano player "I'm sorry folks, this song has just been interrupted because this guy just paid $20 to stop playing this and play the MU fight song!"
heehee... talk about a guy teasing his audience and trying to get more $$!
This went back and forth till the Michigan guy paid $85 for their song!! I couldn't believe it, THAT's when you know you've had way too many beers *grin*
At one point during the night the piano players called some of the ladies to the stage and played the song Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot.
Oh my God Becky....Look at her butt....It is so big....
Let me tell you, NONE of the girls that went up on to the stage had any junk in their trucks! Not a one! I turned to the group and asked them if they thought any of these girls even UNDERSTOOD what this song is about!
Now, I bet you never thought I would put my butt out there for everyone to see, but
Baby Got Back!
*thank goodness my folks don't read my blog or I'd have to hear all about how "good girls don't do that" - yeah, it took two years of therapy for me to realize is had an inner battle of Good Girl/Bad Girl raging inside me..... Bad Girl tends to win alot *giggle*
We got those bumper stickers from the bar. We also got these buttons too!
The piano players brought one of their bartenders on stage and changed the words from Doe Re Me to Tony, the guy who drinks the beer. Tony had a very special way of drinking a beer. You'll have to excuse to blurry pic as this came from my phone. None of us brought a camera to the bar cause we didn't know what kind of place it was and we didn't want to risk losing our cameras. Now I know for next time, that I can bring my camera!
Here's Tony! Tony, the guy who drinks the beer! Egging the crowd on to chant for him :) See those bulges in his pockets *no, not THAT bulge - you pervs!* He came on stage with a beer bottle in three different pockets and one in his hand.
Tony's special drinking trick.... a bendy straw!! So what does he do you ask... He puts the bendy straw into the bottle then wraps his mouth around the opening leaving the straw outside his mouth to let the air go in by passing the glugg-glugg when chugging a beer and pretty much downed the bottle in 2 seconds. *no, I didn't exactly time him, but it was fact!* And just incase you missed it the first time, he did it three more times this round!
Later on in the night he was called up to the stage a second time, but only did 2 beers this time. The dude next to him, I guess was trying to show off, but his little cup of beer didn't impress us that much. That was also the guy that paid $85 to hear the Michigan fight song.
Now, when you are dealing with a room full of drinking people on New Years Eve, they really should have had a disclaimer before this stunt was performed... like... Kids, Do Not Try This at Home!
Yeah, you guessed it! This drunken fool silly girl just had to try this when we got back home. Of course, the druken fools friends I was with didn't try to stop me. Oh no!! They encourage this crazy act! Even scrounge around their kitchen because they were sure they had bendy straws!
So, what did I learn?
One: Never try this with a beer you have never tasted before, because if the beer tastes nasty *like this shit "Fat Squirrel". Who the hell names a beer Fat Squirrel??* you end up gagging anyway.
Two: Never listen to drunk friends!
Three: I need more practice.
You would think that we would have stopped there.... Oh no. We had bought some liquer earlier that day since we didn't know for sure if we would be able to get into Howl at the Moon or not. I purchased a bottle of Pomagranite liquer that had a recipe on it for Pamatinis. So I bought everything that was on their recipe and made some that night. I don't know where they got their drink recipe from but this shit tasted like lighter fluid! You would think that when one person gags and claims a drink is horrible that your friends would listen to you and not try it.... oh no... I passed the glass to the next person and said "here, try!" and they did!
Hence I repeat thing number two that I learned "Two: Never listen to drunk friends!"
Then we moved on to try this stuff.
Did you read the bottle? "A Sensuous Fusion of Utlra Premium French Vodka & Provence Blood Orange Mingling with Mango & Passion Fruit" Sounds good doesn't it. Well, it sounded like a good idea to all of us too. Now does anyone wanna try and guess as to what this stuff really tasted like?? GRAPEFRUIT! Grapefruit and vodka is what this tasted like! I've had Mangos before and they do not taste like grapefruit!
Again, if someone gags that a drink tastes horrible, would YOU try it after a friend?? Yup, my friends did....
Hence I repeat again what I learned "Two: Never listen to drunk friends!"
All-in-all it was a very fun night. We could have done without the lighter fluid drinks, but live and learn. New Years Day we went to Cracker Barrel for brunch and then I had to drive home in this:
Getting out of Cleveland wasn't too bad. The storm was definitely worse when I drove through upper PA. Of course the whole time I was driving through this storm I kept telling to go to Maryland. I was not ready to do back to school today, but alas, neither Mr. Snow nor Mother Nature was listening to my suggestion.
And that was my last minute New Year's Eve adventure!
Here is my first completed project with the cable stitches! The pattern is the Reversible Cable Scarfoff the Lion Brand website. I used this neat yarn that I found at the LYS called Lana Grossa Bingo. First time I have worked with this yarn and I really like it! Might have to take a trip back and see what other colors they have and find something to make for myself :) The patterns was suprisingly easy to follow and had it memorized after about 2-3 repeats. It was great!
The scarf is going to be a Valentine's Daygift for my BF. Now I just need to wrap it up and ship it off to him so that he will get it in time :) especially with the weather he's been enduring in Chicago!
Here is a scarf I knitted for my Dad for Christmas. Frisco was net very thrilled with being my model. I used Caron Simply Soft Tweed. It is so soft! All the patterns I had for scarves were very femanine, so I came up with a patter. It's basically a modification of the Basket Weave patter, so that the blocks resemble bricks. Unfortunately, due to the color of the scarf I can't get the pattern to really show that well in pictures. If I can get a better picture later I will replace :)
Well, I am finally getting around to posting a few of my finished holiday gift scarves. The 3 pictured below were all crocheted. My favorite out of the three is the purplie-pink one :) It's a stitch that I've never tried before and I really love the way it came out.
I was taught to knit when I was a little girl by my nonna, but that didn't work out too well :) So here I am about 20 some odd years later, trying again :) Doing the simple basic stitches, I found it was pretty easy. Not as easy as I find crocheting, but then again I have been crocheting for about 16 years now. Anyway, I was in JoAnn Fabrics on afternoon and I don't know what possessed me, but before I knew what I was doing I had 3 different sets of knitting needles, a stitch counter, a how to book and, of course, a basket FULL of yarn. I know, this has never happened to any of you *wink* Then I went home and got started, and started again, and again, etc.... *giggle* I must have pulled this scarf apart and started over at least 5 times. The last time I did, I was half way through when my cat jumped on my lap and scared the dickens out of me and I dropped a good number of stitches. Being new to knitting I had NO idea how to fix this, so I did the only thing I knew, pull it apart and start over. I did finally finish it though! Here it is!
I still need to block it (something I had no clue about till just a few days ago - tee hee), but not bad for a first attempt. What do you think? Any pointers for future projects?
Well, I have finally jumped in feet first and started a blog! OK, so I'm a little behind the times, but I'm getting there :)
Anywho, I saw that a whole bunch of people have blogs on their knitting or crocheting, so since I do both, among other crafty things, I figured - Why not?!
As the holiday season approaches and I find myself sitting at home working on some gifts when I figured I would give me fingers and wrists a bit of a rest. OK, so maybe not a rest so much as a change of pace *grin* and thought I would share some of my latest creations.
OK, so this isn't a Christmas gift for anyone, I just love how this blanket turned out. This was my first attempt at Tunisian Crochet (otherwise known as the afghan stitch). It took forever! This was one of those projects that when you finished a section you put it down and moved on to something else for a breather :) But I couldn't be more pleased with the results.
Here is the a scarf I knitted for my sister. She came by my house one afternoon while she was out shopping and handed me 2 skeins of this yarn and asked me to make her a scarf with it. These skeins were only 37 yards each! So of course my smart response was do you wnat it super skinny or super short?? *laugh* So 2 more skeins were purchased and here are the results. She loves it, so I'm glad. But I told her she was never aloud to purchase yarn without consulting me first! Especially if she wants ME to be the person making something with it *giggle*
OK, time for me to catch some snoozes. I guess I will get to posting the actual Christmas gifts another time :)
