basimah knits… and spins… and maybe complains about things a little…

cold hands can officially suck it!  i’ve got handspun handknit superwash merino gloves in pinkbrown, no less… AND they’re finished right in time for winter (holy spaghetti, i’m never that skilled with project timing).

is that how this blog thing is sposed to go?  interesting.

well once again it’s holiday time which means i’ve waited way too long to start too many projects and no one will be getting anything super awesome and handmade (well, almost no one… more to follow).  it also means i’ve gone broke buying things for people who probably won’t really appreciate it and there’s still more people i should shop for.  i know that it’s not about the presents and the money and the commercialism and whatnot, but i feel like an ass when other people give me something really good and i give them something kinda lame, and i don’t so much enjoy feeling like an ass too often.

so, i did finish a few handmade gifts this year, a fancypants paisley fabric crochet hook case for mom and a shawl for my friend wendy’s mom who decided to move to oklahoma before i finished the shawl, so now i have to mail it which means it will probably get sent out some time in march or april because i’m just bad at that sort of thing.  a pic of the shawl…

it’s Kiri knit with knitpicks undyed lace yarn that i dyed with koolaid and food coloring.  i’m not super in love with the color, but i’m not big on green.  wendy told me green is her mom’s favorite, so hopefully she’ll like it.

as i was looking for the picture of the shawl, i was reminded by this picture that i have another finished object…

this is the hemlock ring blanket, and i used leftovers of knitpicks wool of the andes heathers that i was supposed to have used on purses to sell at various craft shows this past season (which would have been a great plan if people would actually spend money at the shows).  ah well, it makes a nice lap blanket and it’s rainbowey and good.

so that’s about it for now…. merry christmas and happy festivus.

pattern: mystery stole 3
yarn: knitpicks bare laceweight
needles: size 4 (i think) plastic circulars

it’s done and blocked and i don’t think i LOVE love it, but i’m glad i made it nonetheless.  the stole itself is really pretty and i learned some new techniques and i kinda liked the mystery of it all.  i’m just not sure if it’s something i’ll really ever wear, and i wish it was a bit longer to better work with my broad shoulders and fluffy arms.  i might gift it or something.  not sure yet.

on a less knit-related note, i threw out TONS of crap from my room and now there’s walking space and a closet and all that stuff that normal people always have access to in their rooms.  there’s still a lot of stuff, but i’m slowly going through that and getting rid of more and organizing and such.  i’m still not sure what to do with all the yarn, but i’m thinking it will get donated to a school or nursing home or shelter or someplace.  it’s unreasonable for me to pretend that i’ll ever actually use it all so it might as well go to someone who will (before anyone asks what kind of yarn, it’s nearly all partial balls of red heart and novelty acrylics).

so yes, i’ve jumped into a knit-along.  the much talked about mystery stole 3.  it’s going well so far, even though i’m a little behind (i wasn’t going to join, but then i realized i had the stuff in my stash, and the pattern was free, so why not).  i’m using knitpicks bare lace and some clear 6/0 seed beads on size 5 needles.  no pics yet, but any sort of searching (especially on ravelry) will give you a billion different pics of other people’s versions.

so here’s the sock i made with the "strawberry muffins" yarn from artsygal. 

the pattern is shimmer from magknits, but i modified it a bit.  instead of the "lift bar between stitches" part, i just used a yarn over which was way easier on my fingers and my needles.  i shall now start another one to match it so i don’t start something else and end up with just one muffinsock to share between both my feet.

so yesterday i had the priviledge to meet up with a new friend named MJ that i met over at the knittyboards.  we went to a yarn store (now called "the good yarn store") and molested some yarns and bored her boyfriend and my mom half to death.  i brought my camera along, but i completely forgot to get a picture of us, so that’ll have to wait until next time she’s in town.  i did,  however get a picture of the stuff i got at the yarn store and the gift she gave me…

clockwise from the top, there’s bluefaced leicester, dark (brown) bluefaced leicester, mystery pretty colors pencil roving, brown sparkley angelina, pink sparkley angelina, the giant ball of mystery blue wool that MJ gave me (along with chocolates that forgot to get in the picture), and the skein of brown/pink "strawberry muffins" sock yarn that was custom made just for me by Jas of Handpaints by Artsygal.

also new this week, some custom made just for me pink/brown stitch markers from Ana (Entrelac over at etsy.com)

she makes the best non-dangly stitch markers ever.

so here’s a pic of the christmas gift scarf i made for my friend (and gave to her today because i’m a ginormous lame-o and lost the scarf in my room for a while, but it wasn’t really lost it was "in a safe place"). 

i spun it myself with merino/tencel i got from a local fiber lady, and the pattern is knitty’s edgar and it’s super easy and i think it showcased the handspun yarn nicely.  my friend loved it and insisted on wearing it even though it was 60 some degrees outside (gotta love her).

so i’m still with the picture issues (because none of my camera stuff works with the new computer and windows xp), but i took a crappy picture of the adorable ladybug wrist pincushion thing i made today.  it’s way adorabler in person than in this pic, but at least you get an idea of what it kinda looks like.

the inspiration came from the episode of uncommon threads that ran today (a diy network show that’s now running on hgtv, along with knitty gritty so that means now i actually get to see them).  on the show, they made a plain little wrist pincushion.  it was cute, but it was certainly not living up to its craftastic potential.  so i got to work and tweaked things a bit and ended up with the ladybug.  i think it needs a bit more tweaking to make it really awesome, but i’m writing down my ideas for a later date.  maybe if i mess with it enough, i can call it my own pattern.

speaking of people and their patterns, i’m putting out a call to all crocheters (or the maybe 2 that actually read this here).  please submit your patterns to the "crochet pattern-a-day" calendar.  there’s one pattern that goes on for over a week, and most are at least two days. not because of super complex patterns, but i think because they were trying to stretch everything out to last a whole year.  i’m rather unimpressed, and i’m sure i’m not the only one.   if i could design things that aren’t based on someone else’s stuff, i’d be all over making submissions.  until i get that far, i’m leaving it up to you, dear readers (please tell your friends).

so we got this fancy new computer because our old one finally crapped out.  like won’t-turn-on-without-nearly-exploding crapped out.  so the new one is all fancy and high tech and junk, but apparently none of the picture-getting technologies we used before will work with this new one (scanner and webcam), which means either i just take no pictures until i can buy a decent camera, or i can bootleg webcam pics by telling the one program that the webcam is actually a scanner, because it won’t believe the webcam is a webcam.  so i took the second route and got a lame-o pic of the doily i made last week.

the pattern is lille rund serviet and i used size 10 crochet cotton.  it’s wee small… like only 7" across, but for a first ever knit doily, i think it’s pretty good.  i’ll try to remember to take a pic once its done blocking, because i’m a super genious and thought it smart to photograph a white doily while its blocking on top of a white paper plate.  yay me!  it’s on the paper plate because i’m bad with circles (like "get that kid some help" bad) so i got frustrated and put the plate under the doily then put the pins in around the edge of the plate.  i did remember to get a pic.  double yay me!

so that’s my creation for the day (er… week… month… whatever)

so no, i’m not dead or kidnapped or missing in action or anything.  i’m just really bad at blogging.  in addition to my lack of blogging skills, my computer has decided to befriend a wee buggin and now won’t work properly (or at least as properly as a 9 yr old pieces-parts computer can work).  so for the time being, that means there won’t be much for pictures or updates that are anything but lame.

the sale in October went pretty well.  i didn’t sell a whole ton of stuff, but i made a little profit above paying back my half of the booth fee.  this year confirmed my theory that people won’t buy what i like and love what i think is fugly.  next year more fugly, i guess.  the exception to my brilliant theory was an awesome chick with an awesome accent who fell in love with the spumoni flowers scarf.  i was kinda sad to see it go, but i’ve got enough yarn to probably make 2 or 3 more, should the inspiration strike.

speaking of yarn and inspiration, i spun up some super soft handpainted merino/tencel in a funky aqua blue/ highlighter grellow colorway and i’m now making an edgar scarf with it for a friend for christmas.

i’m doing another craft show next weekend, but i think this one will be mostly little stuff… baby hats, bookmarks, maybe some ornaments.. that kinda thing.  the booth fee for this one is way cheap, and it’s only a day, so even if it’s really lame and i don’t make anything, i won’t be out too much. 

so hopefully soon i’ll get the computer situation figured out and i’ll be able to spice this place up a bit with a boatload of pictures.