Adoptuction.

Long time no blog hey? It's getting dark here early now, maybe that can be my excuse. OR the fact that I've had very busy little hands these past couple of days.

Lets begin..

Last Friday I looked one of my fears straight in the eye & went to the bead store. The bead store frightens me - I love that people can make jewelry, I love that they know what to do with all the clasps & loops & pliers & stuff in there, but when I go it's always been to buy ironic unicorn or dolphin charms, never because I needed something of a specific size. Size 6 beads? What are those? Where do I look for those? How do I push through the wall of women who are standing infront of what I think it is I need? Anyhow, I needed beads for my Odessa hat, so I went there & found the perfect thing so then I came home & I knit it:


Size 4 needles
Rowan Cashsoft 4ply
The pattern was fun & easy & knitting with beads is well worth the effort of having to string them onto the yarn. I just wish I had made it a little longer so my ears were better covered. The pattern calls for cashsoft *dk*, but I bought 4ply by mistake. I used size 4 needles & cast on 130 stitches instead of 110 to make up for the difference.

Bum-ba-da-bum-da-dum-bum-budaaaaa!
My Squirrelly Swedish Mittens are done!!! And I LOVE them!




Brown Opal sock yarn as the CC colour & Trekking XXL as the MC. Uh, yes, these mittens *did* cost me almost $50 to make. Whatever, can't take it with you, right? But I love these mittens so much I just may ask to be buried with them.
There's a few obvious mistakes in the colour work in the mitten on the right but it don't stop me loving these things like crazy. I used the fabulous pattern at elliphantom knits & just added some rows here & there. I plan on having these mittens for a super duper long time, but if I did have to knit them again I'd probably use a size 2 needle instead of a 1 to accomodate my clumsy hands.

Friday night I set out to see if I could crochet a little amigurumi christmas tree ornament....


I can! And I can make it extra cute, too! It was pretty easy, I just used the shape making techniques I learned from making the sleepy-eyed cat & went with it. I got especially excited when I remembered I had super fluffy white yarn left over from the baby uggs... I want a whole tree full of these little guys!

And finally, yesterday I tried my hand at making a new wallet:




While I like how it turned out, this is definitely going to be the test pattern. There are some *major* design flaws (like the fact that the pockets for cards is upside down when the wallet is open, and the snaps are too heavy duty for the fabric (which is a cotton lining, and an interfaced tweed outer fabric. Back to the drawing board.

Whew!! Lots! And more to come!