making stuffs

It's been a month since my last post, partly because of laziness to post, another part due to guests at the house and the last part of me making stuff. I surprise myself of how many things I've finished in the past couple months. Here's the what I've been up to.

M's bag turn into scarf


Started off life as a wedding bag, but I made too many mistakes to finish in time. So instead I turn it into a drop stitch scarf http://christine.typepad.com/knitting/easy-drop-stitch-scarf-pa.html. It's made out of mulberry silk, it has the perfect amount of sheen to make it an elegant scarf.

Pink Scaruffle


Someone gave me a lot of this pink mohair stuff (too fuzzy and pink for me). I finally decide to make make something out of it. The first thing I made was a gathered scarf that I gave a to friend who sister loves pink (picture to come). But I still had 1 more skein left and that when the scaruffle from The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes was born. Not sure who will get it--I have a few pinkys that may love it.

Flower power



I found several flower patterns that I wanted to try. I making pins out them for gift this holiday season. Flower patterns from: Top Left: Tahiti-Style Photo Frames, Knit 2 Together by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark; Top Left: Top Left: Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller; bottom: http://littlegreen.typepad.com/romansock/2009/04/mollie-flowers-the-tutorial.html

Baby Ribby's blanket



Sorry for the bad picture. This will be my vacation project. Momma Ribby asked me to make her baby blanket in her colors. I love the look of the mitered square blanket in Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne and always wanted to make it. I got to okay on the pattern, found some yarn with the colors and off I go. I goal is to finish up the square by the end of my vacation and start stitch up the blanket in Jan. Wish me luck.

I think I'll stop here. I have more stuff to show.

My walking path

Been back to longish walks the past 2 weeks. The weather has been cooperating, in fact, it's been a bit warm for my taste. 10 miles the first week and 8 miles last week, hope I can keep it up for a while.

Here's some pics of the path that we walk on. It's D&R canal path. It's great, there are so many birds to see. I think I saw a blue heron on the way back from my 10 mile. Anyway, I thought I'd share the beautiful day we had. The light was beautiful.



walking to Bound Brook




walking back to Piscataway

Some Recent Baby Gifts

I haven't really been a slug these past few months. I've been . . . crazy busy at work, having too many visitors at home (cleaning and washing), dealing with my skinny old cat (cleaning and washing) and making gifts (the only fun thing). Yes, I've started on my holiday gifts. I guess I should complain that Starbucks are already using the holiday cups.


Anyway, here are some baby gifts I've made. Not the best pics, from my phone, kind of last minute. Right before I wrap the gift. I need to get my own camera or work on setting up better shots.

Teal pom-pom hat for Anders. I love pom-poms, make anything fun.





Round Baby blanket in green, white and blue colorway with picot edging. I know really crazy point of view. I was trying to get the whole thing in.




Close-up of center of blanket




Picot edging in dark blue colorway

Flea Market Pattern book

I got this knitting pattern book at the beginning of the summer ($1) and just got around to scanning the pages. Then they sat around in my transfer folder for a couple of weeks as I forgot I that I did it.

Anyway, wanted to show off my find and it has all these great cardigans to make. Don't know when I'll end up making them but I hope I can get at least on made for spring. They are so great.


Here's the book:



a cute 2-tone sweater



a dolman sleeve--this is the one I'm thinking of making



this ribbed shrug looks so great but will it make me look fat?

It's been a while . . .

I guess I got busy, no really, I was just lazy to post something new. I burnt myself out editing the vacation pictures (this is why I want my own camera). I just took a bunch of really crappy pictures (from my cell phone) of some baby gifts I just made that I need to put up on flickr and ravelry, I have to still edit my arches pictures to post the link and M/T wedding pictures. Oh well. . . . I guess I have something to do tomorrow.

I need to get inspired somehow. This change of life crap is really getting the best of me. Feeling old and tired (really tired), my only inspiration is how I can get more sleep. My new idea is to get one of those mini trampolines to work out on; Not so expensive ($200), hopefully doesn't take too much space (along with my dressform, computer and small tv) and I will (hoping, so I can cancel my stupid gym membership) enjoy it to use it at least 3x a week.

There is something that I'm looking forward to: making a baby blanket for someone at work. Once we buy the yarn, I can start knitting. I think I'm going to make the Mitered Square Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I love the look of the blanket and this give me a goal to make it. If it comes out great, maybe I'll make one for myself (my list is getting so long).

Well off to post those crappy pictures. I just wanted some proof that I haven't been a totally slug these past few months. Oh I forgot to mention, I did drive 1000 miles in 3 day with my mom as the navigator and dad sleeping in the back. Just visualize that and you will understand.

Miss Hot Flash's fan

So I finally got a fan for my side of the bed. It's the tower type, that's pretty quiet. CnP was not happy about. Why? I don't know. She has been alway skiddish, so I guess it's scary. Tough! I'm hot and tired of sleep on the floor with a sleeping bag mat. It's fan on for me!

Arches

As I promised here's my link for my Grand Teton pictures.

Back to my vacation preview, next to Arches National Park in South East Utah.

Day 5
A driving day, I'm secretly hoping that we reach Arches before the visitors center closes. I want to get on the Fiery Furnace Hike for Friday (our last day). No pressure, I don't want to us drive like a crazy people to get there and it's all booked up.

We kind of drove in a diagonal line through Utah. The drive was quite beautiful, saw some fun looking state parks. No time to stop. It was pretty much small town all the way until we hit this town called Bear Lake. Actually, I really didn't know it was called, I had to look it up on the map as I was writing this. It had enormous mansions everywhere you looked, with multiple car garages and recreation vechicles (giant speed boats everywhere. It was such a surprise to see. We stop at the rest stop at the edge of town and I asked the person there about the town. It was a resort town, a lot of folks from Salt Lake. If this is any sign, people in Salt Lake must loaded.

Then off we go. We kind of make a decision not to stop for lunch. We had a bag of goodies in the car and we ate what we had. We end up stopping in Helper and Green--caffeine and bathroom break. Not bad for all day drive. We got to the visitor center at 5:30 and hour to spare and got the last 2 tickets for the fiery furnace hike on Friday. Here's a picture of me at the visitor center.




I wasn't finished but I must have pressed the "publish post" button. Day 6 to be continued later.